[International Online Fahui] Becoming Falun Dafa Practitioners During the Pandemic

(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!

My husband and I started practicing Falun Dafa around July 2020, while we were under lockdown due to the pandemic.

Family in Distress after Immigrating to Australia

We came to Australia in November 2018. I met a woman outside a grocery store who handed me a piece of paper and asked if I had withdrawn from the Chinese Communist Party’s Youth League. I didn’t answer her and just took the paper. When I got into the car, I saw the words Falun Gong (another name for Falun Dafa) on the paper. I threw it away without reading it carefully. That’s because when I was in elementary school in China, we were taught about the Tiananmen self-immolation and were brainwashed repeatedly, so I had no desire to have anything to do with Falun Gong at that time.

When I was in college, my teacher recommended that I join the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). But I knew it wouldn’t be easy if I wanted to withdraw from the CCP later, because I wanted to leave China and go overseas. My husband told me then, “There is no other organization in the world that one can only get into but not out of.” So I dragged my feet and did not join the CCP.

The fact is that I was a loyal supporter of the CCP when I was in China. A friend whose home was demolished for development once told me, “You have not experienced the CCP. You don’t know how evil it is!” After that incident outside the grocery store, I felt a little change in my heart.

When the “CCP virus” broke out in Wuhan, we began to see the true colors of the CCP. When we were in China, we did know the truth about the “Three-Year-Famine,” or the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or the forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners. I later concluded that, whatever the CCP says, the opposite must be true–if it says something is good, it must be bad, and if it says something is bad, it must be good.

My husband had health issues for a long time. He practiced qigong, taught himself Chinese medicine, and tried different exercises. But nothing seemed to help. Over time, he became more and more bad-tempered. After our family immigrated to Australia, everything was new and everything was a mess in our home. When the kids did not behave, my husband would get upset and blame me for not teaching them better when they were young. When we got angry and disciplined the children, they would behave under duress but do the same thing again the next day. It was a vicious cycle.

We have three sons. They fought, argued, and competed with each other every day. To handle the stress my husband started to play video games. I had to deal with everything at home, and I worried about his health. When he didn’t get a good night’s sleep, he would have a dark face the next day. I dared not talk to him when he was like that. The boys often did not pay attention and still wrangled. One time, our whole family went to see a Chinese doctor. My husband was in a bad mood and he drove so fast that I thought to myself, “If something happens, we will all die together.” It was a desperate situation for our family.

Searching for Falun Dafa During the Pandemic

One day, I walked into our room and saw him reading off his cellphone. He looked up at me and smiled. I had not seen him smile for so long! His smile was warm and calm. I felt as if he was a different person. He did not seem his usual resentful and stubborn self. He told me he was reading Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Dafa.

He told me that he had watched a 30-second video clip of Shen Yun online many times. Every time he watched it, he cried. He had finally learned the truth about Falun Gong and started to read Zhuan Falun. He said he’s found answers to all his questions and problems after all these years. So he had decided to practice Falun Gong.

Seeing the sudden changes in him, I tried to read Zhuan Falun as well and wondered how it would turn out. We practiced the five exercises together. We tried to talk about our experiences, but that did not work because neither of us had very deep understandings.

We found an exercise site in Melbourne on the internet. As soon as the stay-at-home order was lifted, all five of us visited it one morning at 4 a.m. But we didn’t see anyone there. We thought maybe people were still not gathering due to the pandemic.

We called the number listed on the website and finally got hold of a Western practitioner who told us the group exercises were held on Saturday mornings at 9 a.m. We looked forward to the next Saturday with anticipation. When the day came, we went to the park again.

“When we passed the hill and saw the ‘Falun Dafa’ sign, I felt I had finally found it,” my husband said afterwards.

We started going to the exercise site every Saturday. The first practitioner we met was a middle-aged woman. She is very kind and patient. She carefully corrected our movements and showed us how to do all five exercises. When I told her about the tragic story of my neighbor, she had tears in her eyes. I thought to myself, “Falun Gong practitioners are really compassionate!” I’d only felt indignant and sorry when I heard about my neighbor, but she was moved to tears. I had never known anyone who was this kind and true in China. This practitioner introduced us to a Fa-study group where we met more practitioners.

Cultivate Oneself and Help Others to Learn the Facts

Neither my husband nor I were working at the time. We spent our time at home studying the Fa, doing the exercises, and sharing our understandings. This brought big changes to our home. When we changed ourselves based on the Fa, our children also changed. They stopped arguing and fighting. Our home became harmonious.

At the same time, we also recognized our attachment to comfort. How could cultivation be this simple and easy? Little did I know, Master had arranged everything for us. The media company run by local practitioners had just started a new project and was in need of manpower. We were asked to help. Just like that, we started a new phase in our cultivation. Our home group Fa-study also moved to the bigger Fa-study group at the media company.

One time after Fa-study, a young practitioner shared about his attachment to jealousy. It left a deep impression on me. Even now I try to use the same method to dig out my attachments and talk about it with other practitioners. I realized that once I identified the attachment and started to reject it, I was able to get rid of it. When we have discussions, everyone talks about his or her own experience. I really like that because I can always learn from others.

After we started working at the media company, I got very busy. For a period of time, I didn’t study the Fa as much. Many human notions surfaced, such as resentment and feeling sorry for myself. I thought about having only my husband work and me stay at home to take care of the housework. My husband reminded me, “Why did you go to work in the first place? Wasn’t it to get rid of the attachment to comfort, to have another environment to cultivate better?”

My children also helped me to get rid of many attachments. When I have a conflict with one of my sons, I always look within. I’ve been able to get rid of many attachments that way. We learned from a family of practitioners in China. Every night, we each examine ourselves to see what we didn’t do well that day and what others did well. The children also became more peaceful. They learned to see their own shortcomings and see other people’s good points. I often play Minghui radio programs for us as a family.

One day, one of our sons asked, “Mom, is there any bad person that changed into a good person after practicing Falun Dafa?” Before I could answer, another son answered, “Yes. You see, Dad had a bad temper before and he has changed!” The children have witnessed our changes.

In the past, we got up at 6 in the morning to practice the sitting meditation, followed by Fa-study. Afterwards, I started to prepare breakfast and lunch. When the children are on summer break, a fellow practitioner invited us to join her every morning to study the Fa at 5:30 a.m. After a few days, I realized that I didn’t have time to practice the sitting meditation. I remembered that she once told me that she would sleep less when she doesn’t have enough time. So I decided to get up at 4:30 a.m. and start Fa-study at 5:30 a.m. after doing the sitting meditation. After one week, I felt that my heart was always very calm every day. I did not get disturbed by my children’s discords or extra housework or work. I felt I was with the Fa—a very comfortable feeling that is hard to describe.

One day, one of my sons had a tantrum, and I was able to handle it very well. My husband said to me, “I have never seen you like this.” In the past, when a child threw a tantrum, I was at loss for what to do. It always ended with me compromising and letting him have his way. Now I am able to speak to my kids with righteous thoughts. Every word I said was in line with the Fa. The energy of the Fa brings my boys to reason.

I have a neighbor who suffers from depression. I often visit her and chat with her. Oftentimes she starts to cry. My husband and I introduced her to Falun Dafa. But because she had to go back to China and was afraid of being persecuted, she never took up the practice. Her husband told us that he had a colleague who was a Falun Dafa practitioner in China. After the persecution started, this practitioner resigned because he didn’t want his employer to be implicated. Before he left, he finished all his tasks and handed over his work in order. Even his desk was cleaned up. My neighbor and her husband both withdrew from the CCP. They saw the changes in us and recognized the wonders of Dafa.

I often talk to my mother in China. I mentioned Falun Dafa to her after I started to practice it. She immediately told me to not have anything to do with it. So I started to explain the principles of Falun Dafa in a way that everyday people could understand, such as looking within, virtue, reincarnation, etc. My mother always agrees with me when she hears that. When there was an opportunity for her to get a share from the sale of a house, she turned it down. She tells me, “That money isn’t mine and I can’t take it.”

In fact, I understand that many people have been deceived by the CCP. They never had a chance to know Falun Dafa, so they automatically reject it when they hear it. Now I use the words that ordinary people can understand to explain the principles of Dafa, so that they could understand the beauty of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance.

I wrote an article about something that happened at home and how I looked within. It was published on our media, and we sent copies of the article to our friends. Some replied, “Well done! It makes sense!” We also signed up for training on how to clarify the truth online.

I used to feel that my main conscientiousness was surrounded by many barriers and I couldn’t break free from it. I think those barriers are my attachments and thought karma. In a documentary The Legend of the Future, Master told his disciples before he left China, “Cultivate well!” I feel like he was speaking to me across time.

Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!