(Clearwisdom.net) My entire family was persecuted for practicing Falun Gong. The most painful thing about this is that my father and brother were deceived by those with crooked understandings and deviated from a righteous cultivation path. How could I help them walk away from this confusion to correct their views and cultivate by following the path arranged by Master? My understanding about them being deceived is that they did not study the Fa well. To help them, I needed to help them study the Fa and learn the Fa systematically. Master taught us,
"Amidst tribulations, it is very difficult for a student to see the cause of a matter; but it's not that it is impossible. When he calms his mind and evaluates things with Dafa, he will be able to see the nature of the matter. " ("Rationality" from Essentials For Further Advancement II)
I live in a different area far away from my hometown. My father and brother urged me to return home in an attempt to make me deviate from this righteous cultivation path. Fellow practitioners in my hometown were very concerned about my family members and they also asked me to go home to help my father and brother return to the path of cultivation. This was the time for me to return home. I finally arrived in my hometown on the 29th of December by the Lunar calendar. At the time, it was very difficult to obtain a train ticket. After I returned home, I found that the situation was much worse than I had thought. Both my father and brother were passing around fake teachings, spreading rumors and passing around materials downloaded from those evil websites, and they did not recognize the official lectures published by Master. They were doing totally opposite things, which they tried to force me to read. Because I did not agree with them, my father wanted me to leave on the eve of the Chinese New Year.
Confronted with all this, I felt that the state of my mind had fallen to the bottom and I was not able to sleep through the entire night. What should I do? I discussed the entire situation with fellow practitioners. They asked me to be patient and to frequently send forth righteous thought, and that they were also going to send forth righteous thought to help. Witnessing so many of my fellow practitioners who were concerned about my father and brother and how much suffering they had gone through, I could not let them continue being deceived by the lies or continue on an evil path of destruction. I must not give up on them. My father's situation was very bad and he gave others no chance to talk, so I decided to start with my brother. Influenced by my father, my brother did not want to read the Fa. I played Master's Fa lecture videos and asked my brother to watch them with me, but he did not even finish watching one lecture. I also experienced enormous interferences when I was studying the Fa and doing the exercises at home. It was very difficult.
During the period of the Chinese New Year, many fellow practitioners came to my home and they talked to my brother with compassion. An auntie, a fellow practitioner, came to visit me many times and each time she could not control her tears when she saw my brother. My brother was deeply moved and he agreed to return to cultivation. However, since he was completely deceived by the lies, he had many questions. Although he had talked to many fellow practitioners, he still did not get all the answers. This was a great obstacle for him. What should I do?
The most important thing was to have him sincerely study the Fa with a calm mind. At the time, it was impossible for him to study the Fa with a calm mind at home. Because of my father, many of those with crooked understandings took my home as their gathering place. Finally, with fellow practitioners' selfless help, we rented a room as our Fa study site. A fellow practitioner who lived nearby came to study the Fa with me and my brother every day. We studied the Fa, sent forth righteous thought and adjusted the state of our minds together.
At the beginning, when my brother started studying the Fa, he experienced significant interference. He always felt sleepy and could not continue. He could not even read through three lectures in one day. Those aunties, although in their senior years, can read fast and fluently, and they were completely absorbed when reading with all of them sitting in the lotus position. One of them can sit for four to five hours and they sent forth righteous thought every hour on the hour. Witnessing all of this, it encouraged and moved my brother greatly.
We read Master's 39 Fa lecture books in chronological order, from book to book. With the progress of our studying, my brother's situation greatly improved and the questions that puzzled him were all answered from the lectures. He progressed from being sleepy in the beginning to being able to read two books in one day and in less than a month, we read through all the Dafa books, overcoming all difficulties and interference. My brother truly returned to cultivating Dafa. It is only studying the Fa that can truly change a person.
After one month of reading the Fa with a calm mind, my brother returned to the cultivation path of Dafa and no lies can deceive him anymore. My father's desperation also disappeared and he stopped arguing with us about Dafa and cultivation, adopting the attitude that "you go your way and I will go mine." Although my father's conduct deviates from Dafa, I know that it is not his original self and it is not arranged by Master--it is the old force's persecution. I came to understand that as long as we follow Master's teaching, do not acknowledge the old forces' persecution and their existence, possessing benevolence that melts steel, we will be able to bring back more people who used to be fellow practitioners and save more people.