Cherish the Opportunities Master Arranges for Us to Save People

(Minghui.org) I began to practice Falun Dafa in 2013. Since then, I’ve often experienced Master’s compassionate guidance. Not only have I sensed his painstaking efforts to help me in my personal cultivation but, even more profoundly, I have felt Master’s boundless compassion in offering salvation to all sentient beings.

I cultivate without being able to see other dimensions, and many aspects of Communist Party (CCP) culture have blocked my way. To express how difficult and extraordinary it is for Master to save people, I would like to tell how my father was saved. I hope we all can truly follow Master’s teachings to cultivate ourselves well and save more people.

My Father Was Deeply Poisoned by the CCP

In May 2023, my 78-year-old father went to the hospital because his complexion had turned yellow. He was diagnosed with late-stage cancer of the pancreas. The doctors said surgery was not an option and recommended a conservative treatment. After a minimally invasive procedure to drain his bile duct, he was discharged in a few days. Surprisingly, he felt no discomfort—no pain, no itching—something even the doctors found puzzling. He was like this for more than six months.

As practitioners, we know nothing happens without a reason. Master said, “When one person obtains the Fa, the whole family benefits.” (“Teaching the Fa and Answering Questions in Jinan,” Explaining the Teachings of Zhuan Falun.) My father benefited because he had a daughter who cultivated Dafa.

My father once served as a CCP secretary and was deeply indoctrinated by CCP ideology. Even after he retired, he still insisted on attending every CCP activity, despite my strong opposition. I don’t know how many times I clarified the truth to him, but he simply would not listen. He clung to the ideas the CCP implanted in him. He often argued, “The CCP pays my salary. You’ll lose your job for opposing it. Don’t try to make people quit the CCP.”

I tried to explain that the CCP’s money comes from taxpayers, that the CCP itself doesn’t do any work or make any money. I also said, “We’re not trying to overthrow it. We are cultivators who are being persecuted by it. We only want the persecution to stop, to have freedom of belief, and to have a lawful environment to practice. The Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident was fabricated to make people turn against Dafa and lose their chance to be saved.”

No matter how I tried to explain these things to him, he continued to argue with me, sometimes even saying disrespectful things about Master. I felt powerless. Every time I tried to explain the facts, it ended unpleasantly. He once even said, “If you bring this up again, don’t come back. You’ll just make me angry.”

He also loved to fish, and when I told him that fishing is killing, he didn’t believe me. I truly didn’t know how such a person could ever be saved. However, I once dreamed that my father had quit the CCP. I knew it was Master giving me a hint to save him, but I was unable to do it.

While I was making truth-clarification materials at home, he once came over and wanted to smash my printer. He also broke my phone and music players and even threatened to report me to the police. He even hit me on the head, but I didn’t feel any pain. I knew Master had endured it for me.

But I failed to maintain my xinxing and shouted, “Is there anything wrong with cultivating to be a better person? Go ahead, report me!” Enraged, he tried to tear up the materials I made, but somehow he cut his hand—perhaps this was retribution for his actions. The materials were only crumpled but not torn.

My mother tried to get him to leave my home, but he refused. I once pushed him out and closed the door. When I went back inside, tears streamed down my face. Just then, I began to hear the Dafa music Pudu playing in my ears. I had been cultivating for three years and only half-believed I was hearing it. I also failed to fully grasp Master’s compassion. In looking back, I realize how poor my enlightenment quality was.

I again dreamed that my father had quit the CCP, but I still failed to do as Master had hoped. Although I knew this was a precious opportunity to clarify the truth more in depth to him, my attachments to saving face, competitiveness, and resentment got in the way. I thought, “You hit me—why should I talk nicely to you?” And so I remained distant from him for a long time. If I had seized that opportunity and sincerely approached him, my father would have listened, as he was already showing a bit of remorse. But I didn’t look inward at my part, wasted the chance to improve, and missed the opportunity to offer him salvation.

I Finally Make a Breakthrough

More than six months after his bile duct was drained, his condition worsened and he began to be in pain. He sought treatment from traditional Chinese medicine doctors and from people promoting “miracle cures” online. He took various tonics and herbal concoctions, but his condition didn’t improve. His weight fell from 165 pounds to 88 pounds. He became very thin and was even too weak to move his pillow at night.

Two things happened during that time: One day, he suddenly felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar; he was so cold that even multiple quilts couldn’t warm him. I felt it was Master helping him purge dark energy, but I didn’t say anything. Another time, he felt perfectly fine one night—no pain at all—which I understood as Master bearing the suffering for him, although I again said nothing.

Both times I thought to myself, “He’s so ill, yet he still refuses to quit the CCP. His old karma hasn’t been paid off, yet he’s still fishing and making new karma. Perhaps he can’t be saved. I doubt he will listen, even if I tried to clarify the truth to him.” These negative thoughts were due to my human notions and lack of firm faith in Master and Dafa. Although I had entered the path of cultivation, I hadn’t dug out the CCP’s influence in my own mind. I thus missed these two precious opportunities to help my father. I failed to follow Master’s compassionate arrangement, and he had to bear even more.

During the long Mid-Autumn holiday in 2023, over a dozen relatives came to visit him. Before the meal, they asked him to say a few words. He said cheerfully, “I’m so happy that everyone came to see me; it shows you all care about me. I’ll do my best to defeat this illness.” He looked genuinely happy that day. After lunch, when our relatives were about to leave, I clarified the truth to them, and all those who had not already quit the CCP agreed to quit.

When my parents and I returned home, my mother said, “Look, there’s a magpie.” I saw it, too. It was on the corner of the building. I took it as a good omen and decided to talk to my father once again.

I said, “Everyone came to see you because they respect you. You and Mom have good hearts, you are friendly to everyone, and you always try to help out. You’ve accumulated virtue, and everyone cares about you. But think about the CCP. It’s an atheist organization that tells people not to believe in cause and effect. You even swore an oath to dedicate your life to it. You really need to withdraw from it so you can have a good future. Look at yourself—you’re so thin now. Remember the last time we came home, you made that fried tofu dish? My sister couldn’t stop raving about it. When will you be able to make it again?”

As I spoke, my eyes welled with tears. My father was moved and wiped his own eyes. I said, “Please just quit the CCP, will you? Will you?” He said, “I will.” 

I continued, “And you should also apologize to Master for what you said before. Tell him you’re sorry and you were wrong. Say it!” He said, “Master, I’m sorry. I was wrong.” He wiped his eyes again.

“Falun Dafa saves people. Try doing the Dafa exercises tomorrow. If over a hundred million people can do it and gain great health, why can’t you? I’m available now, we can study the Fa and practice together. Let’s see if your health can improve.” He agreed, but said he still needed to take medicine. I said, “That’s fine. We’ll take it step by step.”

When I next visited him, he told me he had a dream that the police came to arrest him and asked, “Who helped you quit the CCP? Get back into it!” He was so terrified that he couldn’t sleep. I said, “Who would dare to touch you? Whoever does will be responsible if something happens. Look at your condition right now, who would dare?” But he insisted, “No, I can’t practice it!”

I said nothing more. In looking back, my righteous thoughts were not strong enough. If I had sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil elements interfering with him, things might have been different. I also lacked compassion and didn’t take responsibility for saving sentient beings. I thought that having him quit the CCP would be enough. As a non-practitioner, he did not understand the factors behind his dream, but as a Dafa disciple, I did. Why didn’t I take responsibility and eliminate those factors so he could truly accept the Fa? Thinking about this now, I feel ashamed and remorseful.

After that, his health deteriorated rapidly. He could no longer bear the pain one day and went to the hospital. Lying in bed, he shook my mom’s arm, and said faintly, “Say it! Say it!” I knew he wanted us to recite, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” But my mom and other family members wouldn’t, because they were worried that the other patients in the room would hear it. I ignored them and said to my father, “Let’s recite it. What matters most is you.” I recited the phrases while gently rubbing his chest. He then pulled me into his arms.

Since I was young, my relationship with my father had never been close. As a child, I often wondered if I was his biological daughter. When I was about 14, he once slapped me hard for forgetting to sweep the yard and knocked out one of my front teeth. I couldn’t remember him ever hugging me. But in that instant, I felt that our debts to each other were settled, and he had chosen his own future.

Looking back, I realize my thinking was too shallow. My will was not firm, and my faith in Master and Dafa was not steadfast enough. I thought that someone like him, who was so burdened with karma, could not possibly recover. I felt it was my own limited heart that contributed to his passing.

Eight days after my father’s death, amid the northern winter snow in November, a white butterfly appeared by our dining room window. It was quite large. Everyone was astonished: how could there be a butterfly in winter? Yet there it was, right where my father used to sit and eat. I offered it pieces of orange, and it even landed on the peel a few times.

The neighbors came to see it, and they were amazed. One said, “There are two explanations: either your father has ascended to the heavens and this is his messenger, or he is here himself to tell you this that he is satisfied and wants you to know he’s well. Either way, it’s a good thing!”

Friends who used to play mahjong with my parents also visited. The butterfly was on the orange peel I set out. I tried to move it onto an orange segment, and it crawled onto my index finger instead. I held my hand up and brought it close to my chest. When a friend called my father’s name, the butterfly began rubbing its face with its tiny front legs. Everyone smiled. I thought, “We’re witnessing a miracle that shows reincarnation exists. Whether they believe it or not, it happened right in front of them.”

Through all these experiences with my father, I deeply feel that Master is always by our side, caring tirelessly for our cultivation paths and for the salvation of all sentient beings.

I wrote about my cultivation journey and my father’s story to remind fellow practitioners who have family members suffering from illness karma: We should treasure every opportunity Master arranges, completely deny the old forces’ arrangements, solidly cultivate ourselves with every single thought we have, try to understand how to treat sentient beings with compassion, and guide them to remove their notions so they can be saved. Within the vast expanse of Master’s infinite grace, let us share the beauty of Dafa with more people so that they, too, may feel this sacred benevolence and be saved.