(Minghui.org) My father can be very stubborn about his views. He is retired now. He supports my mother practicing Falun Gong because it helped to get rid of her illnesses. However, if my mother and I try to talk to him about the truth of Falun Gong, he doesn't want to listen. Oftentimes, he ends up red in the face from arguing with us. As a result, we feel it is very difficult to approach him.
On one occasion, a fellow practitioner offered to install a satellite dish so that we could receive New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) programs. My mother and I talked to my father about it, but he didn't approve of the idea. Later we asked the practitioner to install it while my father was out. When my father came home, he got upset and said that he wouldn't watch it. We sent forth righteous thoughts in order to eliminate the evil factors behind him, which we believed were causing interference and causing him to incur a karmic debt from speaking against Falun Gong.
Sometime later, while my mother and I were studying the Fa, we started wondering about the fundamental reasons for him disagreeing with us so much. We realized that we weren't treating him with compassion. We were just taking it for granted that he should listen to us because we were his family. Even still, we thought it was important for us to get him to watch NTDTV somehow. My father gets up early every morning and usually turns the television on. I decided to set everything up so that when he turned it on, it would start on NTD. As it happened, this was just after the incident with Bo Xilai and Wang Lijun. All eyes were on China. The host of NTD gave a thought-provoking analysis of the situation, using humor to soften such a tense situation. Difficult concepts were explained in plain words, making everything easier to understand. Most importantly, NTD broadcasts information that most citizens would not otherwise see. As a result, my father is now addicted to NTDTV, and he watches it every morning. He no longer repeats the lies that were instilled into everyone by the Chinese Communist Party.
Unfortunately, other practitioners have had their satellite dishes removed due to pressure from family members, since they are fear being fined. In these situations, as practitioners we should look inward:
“Should you have fear,
it will seize upon you
If thoughts are righteous,
evil will collapse”
(“What’s to Fear?” in Hong Yin II)
A practitioner should have firm righteous thoughts in whatever he does. When I told my father that the evil Party does not want people to see NTDTV, he said, “If they dare to take my dish down, I will fight them. It's none of their business what I like to watch!” My mother and I are very happy to see him expressing his sense of justice and fairness.
My father often tells his friends about the things he learns from NTDTV. But everyday people’s heads are filled with evil Party lies, and my father isn't able to break through their conditioning. One day after he came home he asked us, “Do other people watch NTDTV?” I said, “Most people cannot.” He asked, “Can they install satellite dishes to receive it?” “Yes!” I replied. I've seen my father become more caring about other people as a result, and he wishes his friends could all watch NTDTV so that they too would no longer be poisoned by the Party. My mother and I are very happy and told him that installation is free so that he could promote NTDTV to his friends.
Once, my father saw several yuan bills with truth clarification messages written on them just sitting around at home. Without saying anything, he took several hundred yuan and went to his friends to exchange money with them so that they too could hear the truth. He often takes truth clarification flyers to his friends. In this way, he is saving sentient beings just like us. From these experiences, I have realized that NTDTV is a very powerful method to save sentient beings. I hope all practitioners in China can make a big effort to promote NTDTV among everyday people.
