(Minghui.org)
Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
With Master’s help, I have practiced Falun Dafa for the past 20 years. Master told us, “I can't leave behind any of the Dafa disciples. Every person is family to me...” (“Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. VI). Master’s family is my family, so I’d like to share about treating practitioners as family.
I. Practitioners’ Concerns Are Just Like My Own
When Jiang Zemin, former head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), first launched the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, the red terror was so severe that some practitioners were afraid to talk to each other. Even though I also had the attachment of fear, I felt I had benefited so much from Falun Dafa–both physically and mentally–that I had to let others know of Falun Dafa’s goodness, expose the lies fabricated by the CCP, and find those who were once fellow practitioners to help them to get back on track.
I started to visit practitioners I knew. If I met them outside, I would invite them to my home and show them documentaries like False Fire, which debunked the self-immolation hoax on Tiananmen Square that the CCP used to incite hatred against Dafa. Gradually, several people returned to practicing Falun Dafa. Another practitioner and I both gathered 5,000 yuan and formed a small materials production site to tell other people about Dafa and the persecution.
During this time, Master made ingenious arrangements for me to meet fellow practitioners on buses, and we were able to form one body.
Once, I was talking to an elderly lady on the bus. She asked my age, and I told her I was almost 70. She was surprised because I looked much younger. “I used to have many illnesses,” I said. “During the worst of it, my husband had to carry me up and down the stairs. But in the past 20 years, I have not taken a single ounce of medicine.” She was shocked. I told her that it was because I practiced Dafa.
A gentleman on the other side of the bus walked to me and whispered, “Sister, I’d like to ask for some help. I want to borrow something from you.” I felt that he must be a practitioner. He told me that he had moved here from another place and could not watch Master’s lectures. He was very excited that I could provide them to him. I soon began delivering Dafa materials to him and his wife, and I have continued to do so for several years.
One day in the winter of 2015, as the bus was getting close to my stop, I stood up and walked to the door. But for some reason, I changed my mind and walked back to my seat. Another lady around my age had already sat down there, so I stood next to her.
She was standing up to give the seat back to me, and I said, “No problem. It's almost my stop.” She was a bit embarrassed and told me that she had a herniated disc and her back hurt a lot. I told her that I was once like that. She asked how I got over the pain. I told her that I got well after practicing Falun Dafa. When I began telling her more about the persecution, she whispered to me, “I practiced before, too.”
“Master has not given up on you,” I told her. “He is still taking care of you. This is all Master’s careful arrangement that I met you today!” I didn’t get off at my stop, and instead, I accompanied her. We talked at length.
I found out that she had practiced for three years and then gave it up once the persecution started. She mentioned other practitioners who were at her practice site, and I knew all of them. I went to her home, and she immediately asked me to help her relearn the exercises.
Later on, I bought her an MP3 player for her to listen to Master’s lectures. I also periodically delivered Master’s new lectures and Minghui Weekly to her. She told me that she no longer took medicine and that her back was healthy again. Her father was over 90 years old and also began to listen to Master’s lectures.
And I’ve stayed diligent in helping out practitioners who’ve needed the help. Ten years ago, a fellow practitioner was arrested, and his family needed money to hire a lawyer. Even though I didn’t have much money, I immediately brought them 30,000 yuan. I felt that the affairs of other practitioners are just like my own. When the practitioner returned home and heard what I had done, he was very touched. Several years later, he returned the money to me.
For many years, whenever any practitioners had sickness karma and wanted to come to my home, I had always received them happily. A practitioner’s daughter called me one day and said, “My mom is having blood pressure problems but won't take any medicine. Can she stay with you for a couple of days?” I immediately agreed. I was happy for her choice because she didn’t force her mother into the hospital. The other practitioner and I studied the Fa together, shared our insights, reminded each other to look within, and went to clarify the facts as a team. With Master’s help, she got well in just one week.
II. Helping Fellow Practitioners Is Cultivating Ourselves
During the holidays, I would buy some fruit, food, and clothes and bring them to families of practitioners in prison. I wanted their families to know that we were all family and that even though we are living in such an evil society, we are all thinking of each other.
Right before this past Chinese New Year, I went to visit a practitioner’s home. He had been in prison for many years. His mother passed away more than ten years ago, and his 82-year-old father was home all alone. His wife, who was also a practitioner, was away from home and working hard to make money.
His elderly father used to be a college professor, but when I saw him, he looked very absentminded. He was wearing very old cotton pajamas, and the front was torn into pieces. His home was a mess, nothing like the neat and beautiful place that I remembered.
He told me that he had been deceived when buying health care products and now could not even afford to buy fruit. He had not eaten yet, and I wanted to cook something for him. I opened the fridge, and it was very smelly. It had not been cleaned for several years. I cooked a simple meal for him and then began to clean the fridge. He felt very bad and thanked me again and again. I had tears in my eyes and said to him, “I came too late. I’m so sorry.”
I spent two hours cleaning and then went to the store to buy some clothes for him. Even though my helping him seemed simple, many of my human notions surfaced during the process. When I was going to take the clothes to him, I thought, “What if his relatives found out about this and had negative thoughts about it?” So I went to another practitioner’s home nearby and asked her to bring over the clothes, as she knew the man very well, but she wouldn’t do it.
On my way home, I felt a little upset. I began to look inside my heart. I realized that my first thought was very pure, but later on there were many human notions. Over the dozens of years in ordinary society, I have formed ways of thinking that are like those of everyday people. One of them is that when doing a good thing, I’m afraid of others thinking badly of me. On the surface, it was the attachment of fear. But deeper inside I also found attachments to lust, doing things, competitiveness, jealousy, and the feeling of being above others. Once these bad substances were disintegrated, I felt much more relaxed. I decided to bring over the clothes myself with a pure heart. When my mind met the Fa’s standard, it all came more easily.
The elderly man was very touched when he put on the new clothes. He cried and thanked me again and again. I said to him, “This is what I should do. It’s what Master has taught us to do.”
I met the man’s daughter-in-law and arranged a day to clean the home together with her. Even though I was very busy and was going to travel to see my ill sister, we still did it. Looking at the clean rooms, I felt very satisfied.
After many years of cultivation, I realized that every practitioner is a coordinator. No one will be told what to do. We can only study the Fa to gain the proper insight.
Traveling far and wide to help other practitioners, I’ve felt only joy in my heart and gratitude for Master. Whenever fellow practitioners thank me, I tell them that it is something I am supposed to do, and I ask them not to thank me. I am really just walking on my own cultivation path.
I’ll treasure the time that Master has extended for me to validate the Fa and save people. I will only be more diligent on my cultivation path!
