(Clearwisdom.net) I began practicing Falun Dafa on January 25, 1999. Many people around me also began to practice Falun Dafa one after another, including my parents and my sisters. My father, who had been drinking alcohol for several decades, quit drinking. He became healthy and started to look younger. My mother's illnesses were cured and her relationship with my father improved. My family benefited from Dafa and we were extremely grateful to Teacher.
On July 22, 1999, the persecution of Dafa arranged by the old forces began. Under the order of the Jiang regime, the persecution of Dafa practitioners struck in an overwhelming manner.
On July 22, 1999, I was kidnapped and held in a detention center for going to Beijing to appeal. I was released after more than one month and kept under illegal surveillance. From then on, I became the target of surveillance and harassment by the district neighborhood committee and the police department. On the so-called "sensitive days," the police would come to my home and force me to write a "guarantee statement," [Note: these are documents coerced under extreme pressure, torture and brainwashing, designed by the Chinese authorities to ensure that detained Falun Gong practitioners have been appropriately brainwashed. The statements consist of a letter of repentance, a guarantee to never again practice Falun Gong, and a list containing names and addresses of all family, friends and acquaintances of the detainee who practices Falun Gong] and I would use the opportunity to promote the Fa to them. They are the most pitiable people, for the evil old forces have arranged for them to be eliminated just as they arranged them to persecute Dafa. My former work unit annulled my contract, fearing that my promoting Dafa would harm their private interests. The persecution never slowed down my Fa-rectification work and cultivation. On the contrary, it made me realize even more the preciousness of Dafa cultivation and the urgency of offering salvation to people. One day in March this year, the vicious police officers banged on my door at midnight but I didn't open the door, and found a way to escape. I have been homeless ever since.
In China under Jiang's brutal dictatorship, practicing Falun Gong does not only mean that one will lose the most basic human rights, but also that the practitioner's family members will be implicated. Whether government officials at various levels will be able to keep their post depends on whether Dafa practitioners within their precinct give up their faith. Under this unprecedented campaign of political terror, countless people have been deprived of the chance to clearly learn about Dafa, and some people have developed enmity towards Dafa after being poisoned by the lies.
The evil persecution also interfered with people who didn't study the Fa well. Some of them even gave up cultivation. The slanderous propaganda on T.V. and in newspapers deeply poisoned my father's mind and they strengthened his remaining attachments and thought karma. Every time I returned home, he would tell me what the T.V. propaganda had said, and he would ask me to watch out and practice at home instead of validating Dafa outside. I showed him Master's new articles and told him what a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple is, and I tried to eliminate the damage done to him by the slanderous propaganda. However, my father deviated further and further from the requirements of a cultivator. He could have still understood part of Dafa that he did not understand earlier through gradual cultivation, but due to the evil interference he completely gave up cultivation. Later, my father started to drink alcohol again and sometimes he would even say disrespectful things about Dafa, like the people on T.V. when he was under the influence of alcohol and interfered with by thought karma. He would feel regretful after becoming sober, and I felt bad for him. My attachment to a quick change in my father was taken advantage of by the evil, and sometimes we would engage in heated arguments, which at times ended in discord.
From then on, I avoided talking to him about Dafa. I thought, "He has read Dafa books, so it's up to him to decide what he wants to do." I came to understand how hard it is for Teacher to save people. Teacher has given the best to all beings for free, yet some people were so easily interfered with and they gave up Dafa cultivation so readily. They have been deceived by false news reports so many times during the many political movements in China, and yet they still believe in them.
I heard that my father drank heavily and ate little, and the vicious police went to my mother's place to find out my whereabouts. In order to avoid being persecuted by the evil, I haven't visited my parents for a while. Several days ago, I suddenly heard that my father had suffered stroke after drinking. When I rushed home, he was unconscious. Although he had brain surgery almost two weeks earlier, he was still in highly dangerous condition. Without the evil's interference, maybe father would not have given up cultivation and he wouldn't have had the stroke. I silently recited the Fa-rectification verses in my heart to eliminate the old evil forces' arrangements. My father has obtained the Fa and is a life Teacher wants to save, yet the evil's slanderous propaganda had made my father, who obtained the Fa for only a short time, give up cultivation due to the interference of fear and thought karma. I sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate all the evils interfering with Dafa in his dimension, so that he would become awakened as soon as possible and re-position himself when his main consciousness became clear. The so-called test arranged by the old evil forces has destroyed countless people like my father. A being is fortunate enough to obtain Dafa, yet he gives up cultivation. How pathetic!
It was a miracle that my father survived the surgery, for he had lost all consciousness when he was sent into the emergency room. I know benevolent Teacher is still giving him a chance.
I heard my sister say that the police from our precinct went to my mother's home the day before and they learned about my father's illness from our neighbor. Without any consideration for my mother's feelings, they repeatedly asked her for my whereabouts and asked where the hospital was. They claimed they would make me write a "guarantee statement" or they'd send me to a brainwashing class. My family didn't tell them about my whereabouts or the name of the hospital. My sister told me to visit father less often for the thugs were capable of doing anything.
After failing to find out my whereabouts from my mother, the vicious police went to my husband's work unit and demanded my husband report my whereabouts to them every day. They said they were afraid that I would go to Beijing to appeal during the Party's Sixteenth National Congress, but my husband refused to yield to their unreasonable demands. Since the evil couldn't find me, they harassed and terrorized him.
My husband gave up cultivation when faced with tremendous pressure after July 20th, 1999. He knows that Dafa is good and he has tried his best to protect me and resist the evil in his own way. His superiors from his work unit talked to him one by one, and they learned that I'm not the only person in my family who still practices Falun Gong. They suspected that my husband would also go to Beijing to appeal. When he explicitly said that he wouldn't, his superior said he would help him get promotions, etc., and told him not to affect his own future because of this issue, although it was no big deal if he himself could not continue to be the bureau head. I could never have imagined that the Jiang regime would hurt so many people just to persecute me, a good person who believes in Truth, Compassion, Tolerance, including my husband's direct supervisor, whom I had never even met before.
In the emergency room, I witnessed some patients surrounded by family members in the morning who passed away in the afternoon, and their beds became empty. Human life is as fragile as a leaf in the autumn wind; it can be blown away at any time. However, life is precious! At the time of Fa-rectification of the cosmos, where would people go if they pass away with bad thoughts about Dafa?
A few days ago, the hospital could not get a check from my father's work unit as it was Sunday, so the hospital immediately stopped giving medication to my father, even though his life was still in danger . This caused his condition to worsen. At present, almost all hospitals follow the so-called "medication by computer," which means medication will be cut off immediately if it is not already paid for, no matter how serious the patient's condition. We have indeed come to a time when money and computers are controlling people. I know that a person's fate is not determined by medication; however, from this incident, I felt the coldness of our society towards a human life, and how it no longer considers a life as important. Dafa practitioners cherish the lives of all beings, because Teacher has given Dafa practitioners the benevolence in their hearts, and Dafa cultivation has endowed common lives with glorious meaning. Only by cultivating strictly according to Dafa's requirements can we not let down Teacher's arduous efforts and the fact that Teacher has given us such a magnificent Fa in such a chaotic world.
Everything I experienced during the rescue effort of my father made me realize the urgency of saving people. In the emergency room, when I promoted the Fa to a patient's family member, he said, "It would have been good if he (this person's family member) could obtain the Fa. Too bad he has stopped breathing and is now relying on the oxygen machine for his heart to work. It won't be long for him now." However, he said that after the funeral, he would study Falun Gong and he would like to read Dafa books.
During the time when I took care of my father, I grasped the opportunity to clarify the truth. People who came to visit my father usually asked about his condition, and I told them about how my father quit drinking after cultivation and how he began to drink again after he gave up cultivation due to the pressure, which resulted in his stroke. I promoted the Fa to people who visited my father and to other patients, and many people learned the truth.
Right now, my father is still lying in the emergency room with tubes inserted all over his body. My family members take turns taking care of him 24 hours a day. My mother, who is in her 70s, is staying at home alone. She is worried about father's illness, and she is also afraid that the thugs will kidnap me. If mother didn't cultivate, it would have been very hard for her to bear such psychological pressure.
My experience is very common to what many Dafa practitioners in China experience. Many Dafa practitioners and their family members around me are enduring even more vicious persecution. However, almost every fellow practitioner is firmly walking the path of assisting Teacher to rectify the Fa. They are validating the Fa and Teacher's immense benevolence, and are experiencing firsthand the crimes of Jiang's villainous political group that is being manipulated by the evil.
I think if I had been more patient when I talked to my father about Dafa, and if I had been more compassionate in my efforts to untie the knots that were obstructing him from cultivating instead of arguing with him, maybe he would have learned more of the truth, and that would have been truly good for him. If every Dafa practitioner can be more patient while clarifying the truth to their family, truly answering their questions instead of being interfered with and controlled by sentimentality, then maybe more people would be saved. This is where I need to improve through cultivation and it is a serious lesson. I wrote it down as a reminder to us all.
Above are only my understandings at my current level. Please point out anything inappropriate with kindness.
November 21, 2002