(Clearwisdom.net)

My mother turned 79 years old this year. She traveled from China to Australia by herself just before the New Year. Even though she was fatigued from traveling, she earnestly asked me for the book Zhuan Falun [the main text of Falun Dafa] the day after she arrived here. I brought out the large print version of Zhuan Falun that I had expressly prepared for her to read. She started to read it very eagerly. I scarcely interrupted her as she sat at the table reading it so attentively with her reading glasses from morning until night. I only offered to help her if she came across any Chinese characters that she did not understand.

Several days later, I found that she had started to read the book a second time. I was very surprised since I had never explained to her that Zhuan Falun was meant to be read over and over. I asked her if she could understand it. She answered calmly that the book was written in modern Chinese, so of course she was able to understand; and when I asked her if she could read all of the characters, she said that she could. My mother had no formal education; she took care of her family her entire life. I had never seen her read a book before. She only recognized a few common words. I never expected that she could actually have finished reading the entire book within a week. I couldn't believe that she actually was able to read the entire book, so I asked her if she would like to study the book with me, reading aloud. She agreed. We began to study the Fa [law and principles written in Zhuan Falun] together regularly for some time. There were only a few characters that she could not recognize. Her reading speed was slower than mine and sometimes her pronunciation differed because of the Chinese dialect that she spoke, but after we read together for some time I became confident that she could read and understand the book well.

Within a period of five weeks, she had read Zhuan Falun four times. Since she read very slowly, to keep this pace, she had to start reading almost right after she opened her eyes in the morning until nighttime. During this time she rarely asked me to show her around the neighborhood. Sometimes we would go to libraries to read newspapers. She would only look at a few pages and then she would not want to read anymore as she felt it was better go home to read the Dafa books. Mother would say that she was old and that her memory wasn't so good anymore, so she had to be very diligent in studying. She would read aloud Hong Yin, the book of poems written by Teacher Li Hongzhi, many times in a single day and to reinforce her memory, she would even copy the poems down by hand.

While I felt very happy for her when I saw her studiously reading and transcribing and diligently cultivating, I also felt ashamed of myself. My own mother was doing better than me in cultivation. One morning at 5am, I got up and asked her if she would like to get out of bed. Since it was still quite early, she said she would not so I went back to sleep. But later, I suddenly woke up to find my mother quietly reading aloud; it was then 7am. I asked her why she did not remind me to get up to practice the exercises, since it was already a bit late. My mother put her book down immediately and started to walk out of the door. I felt very ashamed as I watched her walk out the door. Mother had been studying for nearly two hours. She must have been very thirsty, but she went straight outside to practice the exercises without drinking a bit of water to soothe her throat, yet here I was already critcizing her. When I had woke up earlier and did not see her get up, I went back to sleep again. In the meantime, Mother was studying the Fa while she was waiting for me to get up. I was falling far behind her in terms of being diligent.

I did not expect my mother to start out being so diligent in studying the Fa, for her path in obtaining the Fa was rocky. A few years ago when I first began practicing Falun Dafa, Mother was not against it; but after the persecution started, Mother began to worry about me. She became most fearful after Jiang's regime fabricated the "Tiananmen Self-immolation Incident" to defame Falun Gong. During that time, whenever I phoned home, she would always persuade me to give up practicing Falun Gong, telling me that the crackdown in China was terrible and that those self-immolators were horrible. She believed the rhetoric and lies that Jiang's regime of scoundrels put out and was afraid that I would be like those people. Being completely deceived by the propaganda, she even dared to ask me if I would ever kill her and my father.

When I tried to clarify the truth about Falun Gong to her, she would refuse to listen. Once when I was on a long-distance call with her, I suddenly heard some static noises in the phone line. Only after a long while did I hear my mother say that she could not hear me. I immediately realized that our phone conversations were being monitored by Jiang's regime. I hung up right away. Even over the phone, I could sense that my family was being enveloped by this huge net of terror. At that time, my father was sick in bed. Mother did not tell me about his condition even when he was near death, for fear that I would be arrested if I went back home. It was painful for me to deal with these memories a long time afterwards.

Since Mother was so afraid of and opposed to Falun Gong, I no longer mentioned anything about it. But later on, it was one of my relatives who changed her perception. I had clarified the truth to this relative of mine who understood immediately and relayed her understanding to my mother. My mother was willing to listen to this relative. Gradually, she changed her attitude towards Falun Gong. Later on, this relative started to read Zhuan Falun and was also willing to try the exercises. Through the relative's positive influence, Mother finally started to read Zhuan Falun. But under such terrible persecution, they could not openly practice Falun Gong. Mother told me over the phone that if she was reading it and if someone noticed and ask her why she would read such a book, she would tell them that she was trying to learn the Chinese characters. She did not even dare tell her own relatives that she was reading Zhuan Falun. So you can see the atomosphere of terror that was created by the Jiang regime's persecution of Falun Gong.

After she was issued a visa to go to Australia, I suggested that she come as soon as possible so that she could openly practice Falun Gong. When she arrived, she told me that before she left, a family member had a big quarrel with her. Looking back at it now, she understands that it was just interference. It is not easy to obtain the Fa. After she finished reading Zhuan Falun for the fourth time, I prepared all of Teacher's other lectures for her to read. She was able to comprehend when Teacher talked about the structure of the cosmos and other scientific topics. I told her that every day she should read Zhuan Falun, along with all of Teacher's other lectures taught around the world. Soon, she started to read one lecture of Zhuan Falun a day and complete one book of Teacher's other lectures.

As she studied the Fa more and more, her enlightenment quality gradually improved. Right in the very beginning when she started to study the Fa, she experienced interference. As soon as she started to read, she would get tired and sleepy. At first, she felt that it was strange, because when she was in China, she never got drowsy. She realized quickly that this was interference stopping her from studying the Fa so she took the initiative to find ways to overcome it such as by reading while standing instead of sitting or doing some daily chores and then coming back to continue reading.

Mother told me that prior to her departure, she stayed with some relatives. She suffered from diarrhea all day long. The relatives were so scared that they were going to call the airline to cancel the trip, but Mother insisted on not making any change to her itinerary. She said that it was really peculiar that although her diarrhea was severe, as soon as she got on the plane, everything was fine. Sometimes when we talked about family conflicts, she would demonstrate a high level of xinxing [mind nature, moral character]

Mother's enlightenment quality was also manifested in her diligence in practicing the exercises. When she first arrived here, I only let her read the books so that she could learn about Dafa in depth as soon as possible. I only taught her how to do the exercises a little bit at a time. She has just started to regularly practice the exercises about two weeks ago. Her movements were not that accurate, but she is making rapid progress. Every morning at 5:30am, we would go to a small park to practice the exercises using the two-hour tape. On the first two days, she could only do the sitting meditation for 40 to 50 minutes, but on the third day, she was able to sit for the entire hour. She told me once that before she does the meditation, she resolves that she would sit until the music stops. From then on, she always sat for the whole hour. She did not have the long transition period that I had. I was so touched when I saw her trembling from the excruciating pain in her legs, which she endured all the way to the end. More recently she has said that she feels itchy all over just as if ants were crawling on her skin. I told her that it was the elimination of karma that it came out like ants crawling. She was able to endure it all the way to the end. For someone her age, this is not something easy to accomplish right in the beginning.

Once, right after the sitting meditation, she told me that she felt hot as she unbuttoned her overcoat. It was windy that morning and I was feeling cold even with my overcoat on. I asked her how she got hot and she told me that it started when she conjoined her hands. Hot currents frequently ran through her whole body. She was even sweating. I told her that I believed it was Teacher doing guanding (pouring energy from the top of the head) for her. I would hear her saying similar things later on.

Another time when I was talking with her, I noticed that she was beginning to close her eyes. I asked her if she felt sleepy, but she said she wasn't. She explained that she wanted to try to see if she could see some scenes while not sitting in meditation. I asked her about what kind of scenes she saw. She told me that as soon as she closed her eyes, she would see some flowers that looked like apricots, blooming slowly. I said that her celestial eye was opening. She said every time she closed her eyes, she would see red or yellow colors. I asked her if she had seen these things before, but she told me that she had not paid attention to such things before. Later, when I would ask her again what she had seen, she would say less and less.

Not too long after Mother came here, I started to teach her how to send forth righteous thoughts. She could not memorize the formulas, so I would recite them once first. In the beginning, she did not understand what this was all about, but later, she started to comprehend and was very diligent about it. Whenever it was about time to send righteous thoughts, she would stop what she was doing and start to get ready. Once it was right before the hour and I was still on the computer doing work. Mother was reluctant to interrupt me and she just waited uneasily for me. Finally, she could not wait any longer and told me that it was time. I curiously asked her what the matter was and she gestured with her hand that it was time to send righteous thoughts. Although I tried to send righteous thought on time, sometimes my mind was too noisy to calm down so I would let her do it alone by herself. She would then quietly sit there sending forth righteous thoughts. Under her positive influence, I eventually also took the initiative to send forth righteous thoughts on time.

Teacher said that Fa-rectification disciples should do the three things well. Mother was doing two things very well: studying the Fa and sending righteous thoughts. As to clarifying the truth about Falun Gong to the public, she is just starting. We would go to Chinatown and to community centers to hongfa [introduce Falun Dafa] and she has been very happy to give out truth-clarifying materials. There were still family members in China who were against Dafa. When Mother called home, she would validate Dafa using her own personal perspective. Mother is diligently reading all of Teacher's books in sequential order and is almost done. When she fully understands the significance of a "Fa-rectification disciple", I believe that she will do even better in clarifying truth and helping save people.

This is my mother's story -- a story of a nearly 80-year-old woman who obtained the Fa. Under her positive influence, I, being a not-so-diligent veteran practitioner, have also started to study the Fa, do the exercises and send righteous thoughts more diligently than before. I write this to share with everyone and I hope it will be helpful to my fellow practitioners so that we can diligently strive forward and make progress together as a whole.