(Minghui.org) The year 2020 was extraordinary—it was the year I began practicing Falun Dafa. Before I retired, I ran a courier services store for seven years. In 2020 alone, the store brought me a quite lucrative income of over 150,000 yuan (about USD$25,000) during the epidemic. However, due to family issues and the grudge I held against my son and husband, I was downhearted and sold the store at a good price of 500,000 yuan.
I decided to leave this sad place and go elsewhere to heal my broken heart. I went to a city hundreds of miles away where my younger brother and an old friend lived.
My brother began practicing Falun Dafa in 2015. He learned I was coming and rented a place for me. My friend also invited me to visit.
When I arrived, I quickly settled into the rental place and went to visit my friend the next day. Ten days later, on August 25, 2020, I returned to my rental place. That day was the turning point in my life.
I prepared dinner and waited for my brother to get off work. While we ate, my brother played a video for me. It was the section of “Witness the Miracle of Falun Dafa” in the “Moments in Life” program on New Tang Dynasty TV. The program was about people regaining their health after practicing Falun Dafa. I thought, “Is it really this magical?”
Since my brother is a practitioner, I didn’t think badly of Falun Dafa. I began to gradually understand things.
When I saw so many people were persecuted by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) for practicing Falun Dafa, I always thought, “You could simply stop practicing. Isn’t it dangerous to go against the CCP? No matter how good Dafa is, is it worth your life?!”
My brother played different videos for me every day, including movies such as “Coming For You,” “The Way Home,” videos about the spread of Dafa, etc. I watched them because I didn’t want my brother to watch them alone.
A few days later, my brother showed me the book Zhuan Falun. I thought, “Alright, I’ll read it.” I was also curious to see how amazing Falun Dafa really is, and why so many people were willing to risk their lives rather than give it up.
I read Zhuan Falun during the day and watched a portion of Master’s video lectures at night. I also watched the videos of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and The Ultimate Goal of Communism. After that, I watched the video of Teachings at the Conference in Australia a few times. My worldview changed drastically.
I didn’t believe in the divine, and my mind had been deeply indoctrinated by the Communist Party’s lies. I always thought, “How could there be any gods?”
My mother is a Christian; my older brother is a spiritual person; my younger brother is a Falun Dafa practitioner, and I was the only atheist. I witnessed many supernatural things happen to my family, but I just refused to believe them. I denied them over and over again.
That was how stubborn and rigid my mind was. It was not until I read Zhuan Falun that I came to realize that Buddhas, Taos and gods do exist. Humans’ lives are predestined, and Master Li came to save sentient beings.
I continued studying the Fa during the day and watching videos of Master’s lectures at night. Although I didn’t understand much, I knew I wanted to be a good person. I felt Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance was easier said than done.
My brother has been visiting his fellow practitioners every weekend. On this particular weekend, he brought me along so I could get to know them. He knew that even though I had accepted Dafa, it was still difficult to get me to truly practice.
The first stop was a practitioner whose name was Er Ge (Second Oldest Brother). My brother told me Er Ge’s eyes use to have problems. I imagined Er Ge to be an old man with gray hair, wrinkles, and a little hunchback.
But when I met him, I was surprised: he was a middle-aged man with black hair and a glowing face, wearing a blue T-shirt. I could not tell anything was wrong with his eyes at all. He looked about 50 years old (in fact, he was over 60 years old).
Er Ge told me kindly, “Chang Hui (my brother) is my brother, and this is his home.” I was very moved and felt relieved that my brother befriended such a nice person. Then he told me how wonderful Falun Dafa is.
That night, he showed me my room which had Master’s portrait in it. I said, “I am afraid.” He said, “It’s not you who’s afraid, it’s what’s in you that’s afraid. It’s okay, you have Master’s law body to protect you.”
At first, I was very nervous, but at some point I fell asleep. I dreamed of monks wearing kasayas, and we were in the middle of the vast sky. That night, I slept very well. I usually got up to use the bathroom every two hours, but I didn’t get up once that night. In the morning, I told Er Ge about my dream. He said it was Master’s hint to encourage me to cultivate and succeed in cultivation in the future.
After breakfast, fellow practitioners began to arrive. They sent forth righteous thoughts first, and then read Zhuan Falun. Each practitioner read one paragraph, and when it was my turn, Er Ge said, “Go ahead and read.” I was very nervous because I was very shy to read in front of people, worrying about making mistakes. But to my surprise, I read the entire paragraph without making a single mistake. I was no longer nervous or afraid. In fact, my reading improved.
The practitioners told me about their cultivation experiences. Each of them had touching stories. Many of them were persecuted by the CCP, but none gave up Falun Dafa.
I admired them very much and witnessed the miracle of Falun Dafa manifesting in them: each of them is now in their 60s or 70s, but they look younger than their age, and some of them look about only 50 years old. For over twenty years they have not taken a single pill or been to the hospital.
Each of their stories touched me deeply and brought me one step closer to Falun Dafa.
In the afternoon, my brother brought me to another practitioner’s house in a village. As soon as I entered the village, I was disappointed. The roads were unpaved and the air smelled like cow and pig manure. The thought of spending the night in a bungalow with no toilet or shower made me want to leave.
The first person we visited was Aunt Wang who was in her 60s. She owns several green houses and makes a living by selling vegetables. The practitioners in that village were all older and didn’t know how to use a computer. My brother helped them learn how to use computers and help with repairs. Aunt Wang cared for my brother as if he were her own son.
I asked Aunt Wang for the Wi-Fi password and connected to it, but couldn’t get a signal, so I couldn’t download the TV shows I wanted to watch. I forgot to turn off mobile data on my phone when I left Aunt Wang’s house, and it cost me a hundred yuan in only two hours. I thought, “This is a hint from Master telling me I’m too obsessed with watching fictional stories.”
The next practitioner we visited was Aunt Zhang, who lived next door to Aunt Wang. Aunt Zhang was a very warmhearted person. She was in her 60s and dressed like a typical countrywoman. Several practitioners were reading the teachings at her house when we arrived. They greeted us very warmly and invited us to sit on the kang.
The room was very tidy and clean, not at all like what I had imagined. I felt relieved.
Seeing Aunt Zhang’s enthusiasm and warmth, and treating my brother as if he were her own son, a warm current spread through my body. Nowadays, there are too few people like this. People no longer care for each other, and only want to use others to get ahead. Falun Dafa is so good that it has tied people so closely and purely.
I sat on the kang. Aunt Zhang recommended songs composed by Falun Dafa practitioners, so I said, “Please play one!” Aunt Zhang tried to play me the song she had in mind, but it wouldn’t play. My brother tried to help but it didn’t work, so he played a random song.
When I heard the first line, I felt sad; when I heard the second line, I couldn’t stop my tears; when I heard the fifth line, I said to my brother, “I want to practice cultivation.” I finished listening to the song, weeping.
I don’t know what the lyrics were about, but the melody shook me and awakened my true self that had been asleep. I later learned that the song was called “Awakening from the Maze,” and the lyrics were, “Don’t make any mistakes in this life, cherish the opportunity of returning home. Save all beings, compassion is everywhere.”
With this one song, Master broke through the fog around me and mercifully saved me so that I could have the precious opportunity to practice Falun Dafa and return home.
My true self was awakened, and I deeply understood what Master had given His disciples. Manifested at the human level, I was sad and weeping. At that moment, I genuinely wanted to practice Falun Dafa. I shook off atheism, and I had a feeling of dawning enlightenment.
Later, we studied Zhuan Falun together. The practitioners were surprised at how well I could read, and I said, “Master taught me.” I stayed at Aunt Zhang’s house overnight. I didn’t feel a bit uncomfortable and slept very well.
The next day, we went to a third practitioner’s house. My brother was originally planning to help practitioner Amei (alias to protect the practitioner’s identity) with something, but since Amei didn’t have the Internet at home, my brother asked her to come meet him at the third practitioner’s house.
Amei arrived and shared with me some stories about the persecution she had suffered. I admired her bravery and wisdom. Ordinary people would be scared to death if they were sent to that kind of place for persecution, but she was not afraid at all. She said, “With Master protection, I am afraid of nothing.”
The day went by very quickly and we returned home. After dinner, my brother and I watched another video of Master’s lectures. In the days that followed, I met more practitioners and listened to their cultivation stories, which made me realize the wonders of Falun Dafa and Master’s compassion.
This was how I became a Dafa practitioner. I began walking the path of assisting Master to do Fa-rectification diligently. Master opened my third eye, and I know Master has been watching over me all the time.
Thank you, Master, for your merciful salvation! Thank you, fellow practitioners, for your selfless help!
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