(Minghui.org) My mother is 73 years old and has been practicing Falun Dafa, also called Falun Gong, since the spring of 1997. Witnessing my mother’s happiness and great health, I feel very gratified and fortunate. On the other hand, she has been persecuted again and again during the past 20 years.
I clearly understood the evil nature of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). At first I only knew that Dafa is good. But my mother’s firm belief in Dafa and her experiences in validating the Fa helped me to get to know Dafa on a more rational level. Dafa is not just helping people to return to health, but it has a greater meaning, which is to bring life back to its origin.
From as far back as I can remember, my father was working in the military in a remote area. My mother had to take care of me and my sister while working a full-time job. It was very tiring for her and as a result she ended up with all kinds of health issues. She had severe back and leg pains so bad that she couldn’t get out of bed at times. She had tried treatments of both Western and Chinese medicine, but there was little progress. I still remember my mother was very ill when I was in third grade. All my classmates played outside after class, but I was crying inside the classroom imagining that I would buy her a wheelchair when I grow up.
I was just graduating and beginning to work in another city when my mother started to practice Dafa in the spring of 1997. I came home and saw that my mother had recovered her good health, and she was so energetic. Every day she got up at three a.m. to join the group exercises, and then she biked to villages that were dozens of miles away to help spread Dafa. I witnessed the power of Dafa and understood that I no longer needed to worry about my mother. Life felt so great and hopeful.
Facing the Persecution
However, things quickly changed. In July 1999, the communist regime launched the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners. My mother was arrested and her home ransacked. I was lost and perplexed. Why would the government suppress a practice that can vastly improve people’s health and morality?
One day, the director of the bureau where my mother worked was instructed by his manager to come to our home and convince my mother to give up Dafa. He was a good person. He pointed at the watermelon on the table and said, “The inside of a watermelon is red, but they insist that we must say it’s black. What can you do? Just follow them. There is no benefit to go against them.”
At the time I thought what he said made sense. Under the communist regime, even these government leaders were helpless facing the situation. What could we do?
At the end of the year my mother came to my home to help babysit my child. This way she could study the Fa and do the exercises at home and I felt a little more reassured about her. My mother was still doing all the Dafa related things. The next year in the winter, without telling us, she went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Dafa. Afterward she told us that she was very concerned about my dad, me, and my child, and was also afraid that we wouldn't let her go. But luckily she came back safely.
Soon it was close to the Chinese New Year. I knew that my mother wanted to go to Beijing again. I was so afraid that she would get arrested that I lost my mind completely. I cried very hard and stood at the door to stop her from leaving. She said, “Someone else bought the ticket. Even if I don’t go, I should at least give them the money, right?”
I believed her. Then I waited for a long time, but she didn’t come back. I went to the home of the fellow practitioner who bought the tickets and was told that they went to the train station together. I went crazy and rushed to the train station to look for them in vain. I was very angry and felt that I was deceived. At the time the persecution was so severe nationwide. The TV and radio slandered Dafa every day and it was very scary. My dad was so worried that he couldn’t sleep at night. I couldn’t work normally because no one could take care of my child. I was so burned out and even resented my mother for what she did.
A little over two weeks later, a manager from my mother’s previous workplace notified my dad to go to Beijing to pick her up. After several twists and turns, they finally made it home. I was still angry at her, “You don’t want to take care of my dad anymore? You don’t care about my child anymore? You don’t want this family anymore?”
She just calmly said, “I know you were worried. Sorry.” For some reason I got even angrier. But, she just kept apologizing while explaining why she went to Beijing.
She said, “We must be grateful for our blessings. Dafa has given me great health and taught me the principles of how to act like a good person. When Dafa is being slandered, how can I just stay home and not go out to clarify the truth of Dafa? There is an ancient saying, ‘A teacher for a day is a father for a lifetime.’” I gradually started to understand her little by little.
Later on I found out that the police beat my mother to the ground and kicked and stomped on her when she was holding the banner “Falun Dafa is good” in Tiananmen Square. She was injured all over and could not walk by herself. That night she was locked up somewhere in the suburbs. Because she refused to say where she came from, the police grabbed her by her hair and threw her onto the cold concrete floor. They deprived her of sleep for an entire night. They ate watermelon and held a knife above her head and said, “We will kill you if you don’t tell us.”
The next morning, the police on the next shift finally pulled her up from the ground. Her entire body felt very stiff. She could barely curl her fingers, and her hair was all over the floor. She was then escorted by the local police from our city to their temporary location in Beijing. Every day she sat in the narrow space between the beds with both her hands and feet locked. She was still deprived of sleep and given very little food.
My mother suffered so much for her faith but had no regrets or resentment. I witnessed the evil nature of those who persecuted her, and I witnessed her strong will as a practitioner. My mother was not wrong, instead what she did was extremely amazing. I felt really sorry and I really regretted not understanding her and for those harsh words I said to her.
Supporting Mother Despite Arrest and Detention
In the spring of 2001, my parents went back to their home with my two-year-old child. My mother was arrested by the local 610 Office and taken to a brainwashing center. My child grew up with my mother, got very scared when she was not with her, and ended up with a bad fever. During the day my dad took care of her and during the night she slept with my mother.
By that time I had learned to independently think through things as I had become more rational. I understood that faith is even more important than one’s health. I saw the hardships my mother had to face in her cultivation. So this time I didn’t complain. Even though I was so worried about both my child and my mother, I was able to face it with a calm mind. I had grown and became mentally stronger.
My mother was again arrested in the city where I lived in 2012. The domestic security captain and seven or eight other police officers came to my home and ransacked it for an entire morning. They confiscated all the things that my mother used to make truth-clarification materials. They also confiscated my child’s computer.
When I found this out, I supported my mother wholeheartedly. In the 10 years leading to 2012, even though I had not formally become a practitioner, my mother had given me the main book of Dafa, Zhuan Falun, and also had me read Master Li’s new lectures. I also read the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, which helped me learn all the facts.
My mother was put into a detention center after the arrest. So every day I went to the police station and the domestic security division to ask for her release. I was threatened many times by them but I was not scared. Because I knew that my mother did not do anything wrong and there was nothing wrong with practicing Falun Gong.
Once my entire family was notified to go visit my mother in the detention center. When we got there, there was a banner and other decorations at the door. It turned out they wanted us to take pictures for propaganda purposes to show how great they were. Once we found out we turned around and left immediately.
Several days later I went to visit my mother and in the reception room I asked the director to turn off all the recording devices. My mother said, “I did not do anything wrong by practicing Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. They are illegally detaining me and they are violating existing law. Keep your head up. You can tell your manager at work about what is happening so that he has the opportunity to learn about Dafa. He will understand that this is a temporary situation so it doesn’t affect your job.”
I did what she told me and indeed my manager was very understanding. I worked while frequently going to the police station to ask for my mother’s release. After a short while she was released.
Grandchild Practices Dafa
Under my mother’s influence my child started to study the Fa very early on while helping with things for validating Dafa. I also supported her. When she was in the first grade, all the students were required to join the Young Pioneers, a youth affiliation of the CCP.
My mother talked to my daughter’s headteacher and clarified the facts to her about why my child did not wish to join. The teacher agreed but said she needed the approval from the principal. Two days later the teacher told us that the principal also agreed. At first we were a little concerned that this would affect the child’s schoolwork, but it turned out it didn’t affect it at all. She always ranked very high in the class and was one of her teacher's favorite students.
Suing Jiang Zemin
When the movement to sue former CCP leader Jiang Zemin began in 2015, my mother submitted a criminal complaint against Jiang. I also submitted one for what I suffered during my mother's many arrests. Soon I was arrested by the police. From then on, every year on the so-called sensitive days, the police would call me and come to my home to harass me.
Last year before the Qingdao Summit Conference, people from the 610 Office from my parents’ workplace before they retired, as well as people from police departments and judicial branches, came to take pictures of me several times. Every time I calmly told them, “Before they retired, my parents were known for being good managers and good people by their co-workers. For the past 20 years, they have not needed any medicine. As their children, it really made things easier for us. They did not need us to take care of them. Now, although they are in their 70s, they still walk with their backs straight, like young people. When my mother went back to visit her workplace, her co-workers said that she looked just like when she retired 20 years ago and she didn’t appear to have aged at all. People from more than 100 countries are practicing Falun Gong and I really hope you will understand it and act righteously. This way you will have a bright future.”
All these people frequently nodded as I talked to them and all apologized to me.
Finally Joining Falun Dafa
After witnessing my mother’s cultivation for all these years, in 2017, I finally picked up Zhuan Falun and began to eagerly study it. In the evenings I went to my parents’ home to study the Fa, and in the mornings I went to do the exercises. I was able to gradually put down the attachment to fame and gain and understood what Master told us, “One should return to one’s original, true self; this is the real purpose of being human.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)
I systematically studied all of Master’s new lectures and I also read a lot of sharing articles on the Minghui website. I then realized that as a disciple who started late, memorizing the Fa would be very crucial for me. So I used all the time I could find to memorize the Fa. Sometimes I would suddenly understand a Fa principle and I truly experienced the beauty and benefits of memorizing the Fa.
On June 30, 2018, when Minghui published the “What All Dafa Disciples Must Know”, even though these tools were frequently used at work and school, I did not hesitate at all and immediately deleted Wechat and QQ. A friend of mine who was a government official asked me why I no longer used Wechat, I told him that I wanted to set a good example for my child.
He said, “You are doing the right thing. I fully support you! Really a traditional phone is all we need.”
I knew that it was Master encouraging me through an ordinary person’s words.
Master said, “... today you are the luckiest being in the cosmos. You are a Dafa student, and even gods in the heavens envy you.” (Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference in Australia)
Indeed, I’m so lucky! Thank you, Master, for putting me in such a great family. Now my entire family is studying the Fa and doing the exercises together. We are so fortunate!
