(Clearwisdom.net) If my father were alive, he would be 91 years old this year. However, he was persecuted to death at age 58 by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Dad was diligent, kind, and upright. However, the CCP labeled him as a "tyrant land owner." The local people called him "the dumb bookworm," as he was quiet and seldom talked to anyone, for fear of being criticized of "spreading capitalist toxin." In the minds of his children, however, he was hardly dumb, but instead a good person with a talent for calligraphy. In order to earn a living, my father usually wrote Spring Festival scrolls, which were sold during the Chinese New Year period. The CCP would frequently confiscate his scrolls, blaming him of going down the path of capitalism.
When Japan invaded China in the 1930's, my father was attending a college in Shanghai. Concerned about his safety, grandma told him to drop out of school, and to come home to the village to become a traditional private teacher.
Before 1949, when the CCP came to power, my grandpa worked for a friend collecting rent from farmers. During the CCP's land reform movement, to safeguard his friend, grandpa refused to turn in the accounting details, and thus was classified as a landlord himself. The CCP then confiscated all of his personal property, as well as my mom's dowry. All of us, including the grandparents were kicked out of our family home, and moved to a thatched cottage that was used to house pigs. When it rained hard outside, inside the cottage water would drip as well. So that the eight of us, old and young, could survive, Mom had to go to Shanghai to work as a nanny. My elder sister, aged 18, had to go to another county as a public school teacher, and she took the younger sister away with her for schooling. I stayed at home, and despite the problems, enjoyed more time together with my dad.
Father had a book of prophesies called The Cloth-Bag Sutra, and he frequently shared its contents with me. Once, he said, "One should be a good person. Bad people will be taken away by Heaven. Later, Mile Master will come to the human world to save us. He has already been born in North China."
When I was young I could comprehend little of what Dad told me. Then, one day in 1997, I read the book Zhuan Falun, and I suddenly realized the following: To "be saved" is to constantly improve our shortcomings and to elevate our moral standards, so that we can eventually reach the spiritual status of non-selfishness and of placing others before ourselves, to be able to return to our innate qualities and so successfully reach consummation.
After reading Zhuan Falun, I was excited to discover that Master Li was the savior mentioned in the prophesy book. Thus, I started practicing Falun Dafa on September 1, 1997.
The Cloth-Bag Sutra, foretold the coming of the master as follows:
Buddha teaches the sutra about Mile's saving,
Easy isn't the word to describe Mile's coming.
With treasures in the bag but not to a temple,
To teach the Three Sacred Principles to people,
In China's Three-Star-Site, He's landing.
Dad once handwrote a copy of the prophesy book and gave it to a friend. During the Cultural Revolution, boys and girls of the so-called "Red-Army Guards" broke into people's homes searching for things. Out of fear, my father's friend tried to hide the book under the roof shingle, but was seen and reported to the CCP. The book copy was found, and eventually traced to my father. In those crazy days in 1968, under the brutal rule of the CCP, my innocent father was persecuted to death for possessing a traditional prophesy book.
Although Dad passed away so long ago, the prophesies that he told us about and the Master mentioned in the book have remained very clear in my mind.
The Cloth-Bag Sutra said the following about the Great Famine:
The hungry ones can't walk and so weak as to tumble,
All in the family separated and each to their own with trouble.
Regarding the Cultural Revolution, the prophesy said:
Gods and temples are wiped out with spit,
Gentlemen's heads droop as not in need,
Wild cats are stronger than tigers indeed.
It describes abnormal phenomena in society with the following words:
Gold is yellow and silver is white,
Seeing it, people's eyes are red and hearts becomes black,
There should be Heaven above but they already forget.
The Cloth-Bag Sutra talks about karmic retribution:
These are true predictions not for doubting,
Once understood, big calamities are coming.
Mountains, rivers, basins all burning,
Out of ten, seven will die and three are hurting.
Good people may stay and bad ones eliminated, this rule determines selection.
With respect to those entering the New Epoch:
People don't need to live in houses
or eat any food
but enjoy favorable weather and a happy life.
After July 20, 1999, the CCP started to persecute Falun Gong in a nonsensical way. I later shared with fellow practitioners at our Falun Gong practice site about the Cloth-Bag Prophesy. This helped many to firm up their righteous thoughts, to become more determined than ever to continue with cultivation practice until completion. Now, I am writing it out again, and hope that more fellow practitioners can cherish our once-in-a-thousand-years encounter with Dafa, not missing the opportunity of the real cultivation practice.
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Category: Perspectives
