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Compassion Dissolved My Family’s Decades-Long Grudge

Oct. 24, 2024 |   By a Falun Dafa practitioner in Northeast China

(Minghui.org) In 1981, I received a letter from my younger brother in Hebei Province. He wrote: “Our father passed away. He was very angry with the people from our grandma’s family [mother’s side], and died from the stress. It was because the 20 yuan my second uncle [mother’s brother] wanted to give Grandma was lost. They said you handled the matter and mailed the money to Grandma. Grandma thought you sent the money to our family. So she came to our home and demanded our father give her the money. He denied it, saying there was no such thing.

“But Grandma caused a huge scene, shouting and cursing in the courtyard. Our father was already in poor health. He was a quiet and honest man, unable to speak up for himself, and he cared about his dignity. He was afraid of being ridiculed. After brooding for a few days, he succumbed to depression and died. Younger uncle [on our mother’s side] came to cause trouble, and then the eldest uncle and the eldest aunt’s families [my mother’s relatives] also came to make trouble. Our mother got so upset that she became ill.”

After reading the letter, I was so angry and upset that I couldn’t breathe. My second uncle lived far away, in Urumqi, Xinjiang Autonomous Region, and I lived in Kashgar, Xinjiang, 1,500 kilometers away. How could the money my second uncle wanted to give Grandma have anything to do with me? I just couldn’t understand it. I stayed up all night and wrote a letter to my second uncle, asking him to clarify the situation with the family. This was before the days of mobile phones and landlines.

I also wrote a letter to my youngest uncle, since Grandma was staying at his home. I said that I didn’t have anything to do with this and hoped they would stop causing trouble. Months passed, but the issue remained unresolved. My younger brother said that Grandma stopped coming, but our youngest uncle kept coming to ask my mother for the money. Both my eldest uncle and aunt thought we took advantage of the situation, and they were very angry. My younger brother asked me, “What should we do?”

What could I do? I had no idea. I couldn’t explain it clearly, nor could I make them understand. Since my second uncle didn’t say anything, no one could do anything. The only option was to ignore them. After all, we hadn’t done anything wrong, so we had nothing to fear. And so, the cold war in our family continued for many years. My mother also cut off all contact with them.

Compassion Dissolves the Grudge

In 2017, my younger brother called and said our mother was critically ill and asked me to come home immediately. My children hurriedly booked me a ticket. As I packed my bag I reminded myself: I am a Falun Dafa practitioner. It’s my mission to save people. All beings came here for the Fa, and decades have passed. I can’t let personal grudges prevent them from having the opportunity to hear the truth about Falun Dafa.

After I arrived, the first thing I did was to talk with my brother about going to Grandma’s home to pick up my youngest uncle (Grandma, the eldest uncle, second uncle, and eldest aunt had all passed away). The youngest uncle came, and our mother was able to see him for the last time. After we ate I told him about Falun Dafa and the persecution and helped him quit the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) organizations.

Although I met with him, the resentment from decades ago still churned within me. My father’s death, my mother’s suffering, the unjust blame I carried, and the insults they hurled at me—these all came rushing back. In that moment, I remembered what Master said: “If a debt is owed, it must be paid.” (Lecture Three, Zhuan Falun) This is the principle of cause and effect. Whatever you owe, you must repay, and it’s not up to humans to decide. I thought to myself, perhaps the unjust blame my second uncle placed on me was something I owed him from a past life. Perhaps Grandma and my youngest uncle’s relentless demand for repayment from my parents was also something we owed them. The answer became clearer.

These days, 20 yuan isn’t a lot of money, but back then, farmers were impoverished and oppressed. They weren’t even allowed to raise chickens or ducks. They worked all year round, but could only earn points—they never saw a single cent. For them, 20 yuan was an astronomical amount. No wonder they were ruthless, abandoning all family ties and desperately demanding the money. When I understood, I no longer hated them.

My mother passed away three days later. Inspired by my younger uncle, the members of Grandma’s family all came. One by one, I told them about Falun Dafa and helped them quit the CCP’s organizations. As we sat together, everyone smiled. The decades-long grievances were finally resolved.

Master requires us to have compassion for everyone. I know I still haven’t done enough, but I will strive to fulfill Master’s requirements and walk the cultivation path he arranged for me until I reach perfection and return home with Master.