(Minghui.org) When I first read the Chinese book of prophecy Tui Bei Tu from the 7th-century Tang Dynasty, the prediction that struck me the most was that “a big mistake will be made in the year nineteen-ninety-nine,” however, “...there won't be anyone, you or me, city or country. Governing becomes easy because the world will become one.”
Now, more clearly than ever, I believe that was an accurate prediction. The beginning of the campaign of persecution against Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, in 1999 was the “big mistake.” But due to this mistake, Dafa is now practiced in more than 80 countries around the world.
Its main text, Zhuan Falun, has been translated into 40 languages, and the practice has received more than 3,000 awards and letters of support from different countries and governments.
Master Li saves all people, regardless of age, gender, education level, or ethnicity. There is no difference between “you or me, city or country.” Dafa brings people from all walks of life together like one big family.
I would like to share the story of my family, in which four generations have cultivated Falun Dafa and benefited tremendously from it for the past 20 years.
My grandmother is 96 years old. She is sharp and full of energy. She has a forceful voice and insists on living by herself. This has saved her children and grandchildren a lot of trouble, which makes her happy.
I remember she had dentures made when she was in her 70s but never liked wearing them. She has been eating with no teeth for the past 20 years. When I asked her if she could eat chicken, she said, “Sweetie, my teeth are bad, but my digestive system works just fine. I can eat anything I want.”
When I visited her before the 2016 Chinese New Year, she was hand-sewing a duvet cover for her comforter. She told me that my aunt had just hand washed the comforter and a cover would make it go longer between washes.
She explained that my aunt is busy—she babysits her grandson and cooks for everybody in her big family. With a cover, my aunt wouldn't need to wash her comforter again so soon. I was impressed that Grandma was so considerate and even more impressed that, at age 93, she was able to thread a needle without glasses.
My sister-in-law's grandmother is Catholic and, before she passed away, she often visited my grandmother and tried to convert her. Grandma always kindly told her that she didn’t want to be converted because she believed in Falun Dafa.
Grandma knows that Master has extended her life. She tells the story that after a stormy night a few years ago, she walked my aunt out to the main road outside the village. On her way back, she stopped a few times to visit neighbors and friends.
When she got home, she was shocked by what she saw—the beam of her home had fallen down and smashed everything underneath. Glass was all over the floor. The old dirt house had collapsed from the downpour the night before.
We built her a new brick house that's strong and airy. She was happy and thankful to Master, as she knew Master had protected her. Without Master looking after her, she could have been home when the beam fell and would have gotten hurt or even killed.
One winter, Grandma felt sick every morning and had to go outside for fresh air. My uncle visited her and found a leak in the smokestack of her stove. He realized that Grandma was being poisoned by the gas and replaced the smokestack. If Master didn't protect her, worse things could have happened.
Grandma took a bucket to the well in November five years ago. She didn’t notice the thin layer of ice around the well and slipped and fell. Her head hit the ground and the bucket went flying. The neighbors called my uncles, who took her to the hospital for a CT scan. She had no fractures or internal bleeding.
When I visited her in the hospital, she was already up and walking with the help of a cane. She told me, “It must have been Master who saved me, otherwise an old person like me would for sure have broken a bone. If I couldn't move, your aunt would have to take care of me and I would have to suffer.”
When my uncle renovated his kitchen, he stored bags of sand at Grandma's. Grandma told him to move them outside so they weren't in her way, but he argued that someone might take them if they were left outside.
Grandma couldn't move the heavy bags herself and was upset. That night, little red bumps appeared on her chest and they hurt pretty badly. She thought she'd go to the village clinic in the morning but couldn't fall asleep because of the pain. She recited, “Falun Dafa is good. Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” As she continued to recite, the pain eased up and the bumps went away.
Grandma realized right away, “Master, it is my fault. I shouldn't have gotten upset with my son. I need to endure. Master, please forgive me. My enlightenment quality is poor and I have caused you worries.” When she placed her complete faith in Master, Master got rid of the resentment and she recovered from her illnesses.
Grandma told me that my father used to have a tumor on his neck that worried her, and she feared the worst. Luckily, after he took up Falun Dafa, the tumor disappeared.
My father is 77. He suffered many ailments in his 50s, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, chest pain, heart problems, and a herniated lumbar disc. He got light-headed trying to stand up and spent many of his days lying in bed.
Before the age of 60, he had to retire. He felt life had cheated him and always complained. It was finally his time to enjoy life after raising all his children, but he couldn't because of his ailments.
Soon after he started practicing Falun Dafa, however, all his health problems and pain disappeared. He started to smile again, and laughter returned to our family. He hand-copied four books of Master's lectures and poems and used them as guides in his daily life. He tries to live up to the standard of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
The persecution of Falun Dafa started in July 1999. My father had lived through many of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) movements, including the Great Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The government's ban of Falun Dafa reminded him of some of the most horrible things he had experienced and made him fear the worst.
However, Dad's faith in Dafa did not waver. He knew that Dafa and Master are good and that practitioners didn't do anything wrong. He told us, “I have to prove to people that Dafa is good by telling my own personal story.”
He studies the Fa teachings and does the exercises diligently. He distributes Dafa fliers and tells people about the goodness of the practice, despite the risk of being arrested.
My father found a cellphone on the ground near a bank. It was a high-end, very expensive iPhone. He knew the owner must be looking for it but didn't know how to find him. Just then, the phone rang. It was the owner's friend calling in an attempt to locate the phone. My father told her to have the owner meet him in front of the bank at 7 p.m. that night.
My father arrived at the bank first. It was a cold winter night and it was already dark. Few people or cars were on the street. A car pulled over in front of the bank. A man rolled down the window and told my father, “Thank you, sir. Here is a 200-yuan reward.”
Father said, “My son-in-law told me this cellphone is worth more than 5,000 yuan. If I were after money, I wouldn't give it back. I practice Falun Dafa and follow the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, so I do what is right. Why don't you recite ‘Falun Dafa is good. Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.’ with me?” The man complied.
My father got hit by a car while taking a walk with my mother. The driver backed her car onto the sidewalk, knocking my father down. My mother also fell.
The driver, a young mother, got out of the car holding her baby and looked as if she was going to cry, “I am so sorry, sir. I was trying to calm the baby, didn't pay attention, and hit you.” She’d accidentally put the car into “reverse” instead of drive.”
My father later told me that he’d been hit quite hard. As he struggled to get up, he told the young mother, “I’m okay. You can go.” People who had gathered to watch couldn't believe their eyes: “Why doesn't this old man go to the hospital?”
The young mother and her husband visited later and tried to convince my parents to go get a check-up at the hospital. She told my father, “Sir, I have 500,000 yuan liability insurance and it will cover all your expenses. I just want to make sure that you are okay. Please at least have a check-up.”
My father smiled, “I am a Falun Dafa practitioner and I am okay. It is not necessary to go to the hospital. I know how busy life must be for you and your husband with a one-year-old. Why not save a trip? Just repeat ‘Falun Dafa is good. Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good’ often.” The husband thanked my father and said, “I will say it every day.”
The car didn't touch my mother and she fell slowly so she was fine. My father got hit pretty hard on his chest and leg. His leg started to swell the afternoon after the accident and was badly bruised. He couldn't double-cross his legs to meditate. Crossing only one leg hurt like it did when he first started practicing.
He counted in his head to distract himself from the pain. As soon as he got better, he double-crossed his legs and tied them together with a rope. At first he could only meditate for 20 minutes, then 30 minutes, then 40 minutes. He fully recovered within a month.
When I told my co-workers about the accident, they all agreed that the young mother was lucky to have run into my parents. She would have been in big trouble if she’d hit someone who didn't practice Falun Gong.
Though my father suffered quite a bit, he knew full well that, without Master's protection, a man over 70 like himself could get seriously injured and would not recover so quickly.
My father looks young for his age. Someone once asked him, “Are you in your 60s?” My father said, “I was born in the Year of the Goat. How about you?” The other person said, “I was born in the Year of the Horse, so I’m a year older than you.” My father smiled, “I was born in the Year of the Goat in the previous zodiac cycle. I am 11 years older than you—almost 80.”
Father regularly distributes Dafa fliers at the entrance of the supermarket. He carefully puts the fliers or booklets in each shopping cart with people walking right by him. I get nervous even distributing fliers in residential areas where there are only a few people. His calm reflects his cultivation state.
A person who believed in the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) lie that Falun Gong practitioners get paid to distribute fliers once challenged him, “Where do you get your retirement pension and how can you afford the clothes on your back?”
Father said, “I worked hard in a factory my entire life and earned my retirement pension. I am living on my hard-earned money, and it has nothing to do with what I do for Dafa. My wife is a farmer. No matter how many fliers she distributes, she doesn't get paid a penny.” The other person was speechless.
Father went on, “Many people with doctorate degrees practice Falun Dafa. They are educated and intelligent people. Foreigners in many other countries also practice Falun Dafa. Why? Because whoever practices benefits. If old people like us wait until the persecution is over to start practicing, then it will be too late.”
My younger brother is very smart and is my father's favorite. For many years, my father wished my brother would practice Falun Dafa.
The year my brother repeated 12th grade to prepare for the college entrance exam, he was under a lot of pressure. He could hardly eat or sleep and was physically weak. My parents put him on a treatment of Chinese medicine.
During the winter break, a practitioner friend visited and learned about my brother's condition. She said, “You can get better without the medication. Just use your time off during the break to read Zhuan Falun.”
My brother had just finished a treatment and decided to not refill his prescriptions. Instead, he read Zhuan Falun from cover to cover. He noticed changes right away—he was getting better sleep, had a bigger appetite, and his grades improved. He did exceptionally well on the national college entrance exam and was accepted by a prestigious university.
After college, he wanted to move back home to be closer to family. He asked my parents for help to come up with 100,000 yuan to buy his way into a big firm in town. However, things didn't go as he planned. After trying for a month, the money he’d given as a “gift” was returned with no word about a job. He slumped into a chair and didn’t know what to do next.
After a while, he took out his cellphone and contacted another big firm. To his surprise, the hiring manager at this company responded right away and asked him to send a copy of his resume.
This is a big firm located in a major city. Many people pay hundreds of thousands of yuan just to buy a spot on the waiting list to become a registered resident there. None of us, including my brother, expected anything to come of it. However, the hiring process moved forward quickly and soon my brother went for an interview. He called the next morning with big news—he had been offered a job. He said it was a surprise from Master.
One day, his company director asked my brother to accompany him to a dinner party with the director's college professor. As they talked, they discovered that this professor had taught my brother as well. This connection drew the director and my brother closer.
The director later subsidized my brother to get his graduate degree and promoted him soon after. My brother, alone in this city with no connections, was so lucky to have met someone who helped him along in his career. He also met a bright young lady from a wealthy family whom he later married. His in-laws are really fond of him and bought the young couple an apartment and a car.
My sister-in-law told me she once bought a new mop but was surprised to see my brother walking in the door with the old one when he got home from work. He had picked up the old one lying next to the trash bin and told his wife that they could still get some use out of it.
Whenever he comes home to visit, he only gets two pieces of flatbread for lunch but often donates money to print Dafa fliers. My father always saves fliers for my brother to distribute when he visits.
While visiting one time, my brother mentioned that his foot was hurting. I casually told him it'd be better after he distributed the fliers. Though he had just arrived after a seven-hour trip, he grabbed the bag full of fliers and set out. He is young and quick and has distributed countless fliers in recent years.
Once, Father jokingly mentioned to him that his earlobes had grown bigger (Chinese people believe that big earlobes are a sign of good fortune) and asked if it was because he cultivates in Dafa. He got serious and told my father it was because Master is always looking after him.
My daughter used to have a weak stomach. She vomited milk after each feeding when she was a baby, and when she was older she sometimes had a hard time keeping food down. She got nauseated easily and suffered quite a bit. After she started reciting, “Falun Dafa is good. Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good,” she never had stomach problems again.
My daughter regularly volunteered to buy breakfast for her classmates in middle school. Others thought she didn't want to stay in class, but she was trying to use bills with Dafa messages on them as a way of letting people know that Dafa is good.
By the end of middle school, she chose to skip the intense high school entrance exam and go to a visual arts high school. With a heavy workload, she could only listen to Master's lectures while drawing and didn't have time to do the exercises when she was in high school.
After failing the college entrance exam on her first try, my husband and I spent 10,000 yuan to send our daughter to a private boarding school in a different city to repeat 12th grade so she'd be better prepared for the exam the following year. However, she failed again by one point.
I suggested that she move back home, study the Fa, and do the exercises with me. My husband reluctantly agreed. We quickly got into a routine where we studied the Fa in the mornings before going to work and school. During our lunch break, we do one or two of the standing exercises and meditate at night. Fa study calmed her mind and the exercises increased her wisdom.
Failing the college entrance exam twice put a lot of pressure on my daughter and us as well. But one day, I found a cluster of Udumbara flowers outside her window—Master was encouraging her. With confirmation from Master, we as a family felt more confident about her going to college.
Without taking extra classes outside of school, my daughter passed the college entrance exam the third time around and got accepted by a great college.
In college, she copied the entire book Zhuan Falun by hand and used this copy to study the Fa. She uses a cotton mosquito net over her bed so she can meditate inside without others seeing. She sends righteous thoughts before getting lunch at the cafeteria and says it helps to avoid the crowd.
She gets whatever dishes are left in the cafeteria and doesn't spend a lot of money. Once she only bought one yuan worth of food so the manager told her she didn't have to pay. She said to him, “No. Please take my money. I am a practitioner of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.” The manager nodded, “I know that Falun Gong practitioners are all good people.”
My daughter's professor once mentioned in class that excellent teachers from the school were imprisoned because they practiced Falun Gong and commented that it was not worth it. That made my daughter feel sad and she went to her professor after class to talk about the imprisoned teachers.
She told her professor more about Dafa. Maybe because the professor was tired after a day's work, she put her head down on her forearms and looked at my daughter sideways with a smile on her face. In the end, the professor said, “I understand now. Please be careful.” My daughter is not good with words, but she knew that Master had strengthened her.
My daughter and I often put up Dafa posters together. When I walk by places where we put posters recently, I always check to see if they are still there. I often find that the ones I posted have been torn down while the ones she posted are still there. I think it has something to do with her having purer thoughts when she puts them up.
When my daughter was small, she used to ride on the back of my bicycle when we went out to put up posters. I sometimes picked her up to hang the posters higher on a telephone pole. Times flies and now she is a young lady even taller than me.
Four generations in my family cultivate in Dafa and benefit from it—thanks to our compassionate Master.