(Minghui.org) One of the most important missions undertaken by Falun Dafa practitioners during the pandemic is assisting Master Li to save sentient beings.
Before the 2020 Chinese New Year, COVID-19 cases began to increase, and it did not take long for the authorities to lock down our entire city. More than 200,000 people were tested, and many were quarantined.
The roads were closed, the residential communities were closed, and all the apartment buildings were closed. Everyone went into panic mode.
My home is where fellow practitioners get their Dafa truth-clarification materials to distribute. The day before the lockdown, a practitioner came by very early in the morning to deliver materials to my apartment. During the day, many other practitioners came to pick up all kinds of materials. Some also asked me to help them with technical issues with their laptops. I was busy the entire day, and it wasn’t until 5 p.m. that my little granddaughter and I finally had our second meal.
As usual, my granddaughter did not interrupt me at all that day and didn’t tell me she was hungry. But I didn’t worry as I knew that Master was taking care of her. It has been like this for 11 years.
When she was just a few years old, I sometimes got so busy that I would forget to give her dinner. The next morning, her bowl would still be sitting in the kitchen. She would rub her eyes and tell me, “Grandma, I didn’t eat last night.” “Oh!” I replied. “I’m so sorry! Are you hungry?” “I am now!” she would declare. Master was always taking care of this lucky child.
She and my daughter both studied the Fa in the past, and they support my saving sentient beings. They greatly benefited from Dafa, as my daughter recovered from her long-time chronic appendicitis, and my granddaughter has always been at the top of her class. In last year’s final exam, she scored the highest in the entire grade in both mathematics and Chinese and was praised by her teacher.
There were still 40 copies of Wishing You Safety and Minghui Weekly that weren’t packaged yet. As I was doing this, I thanked our compassionate Master for arranging everything so that fellow practitioners would have materials to awaken people’s conscience and fulfill their missions.
Everyone knew that the city and community would be closed, so they all rushed to the stores and markets to buy food. Prices were soaring. A Chinese cabbage cost four or five yuan per pound, compared to one-and-a-half yuan before the pandemic started. In fact, I rarely go out to shop so fellow practitioners can find me at home to deliver or pick up materials.
It was Master who gave me a hint just a couple of days before the lockdown. I had to go to another practitioner’s home and thought that I should have something in my hands on my way home. So I bought some food and vegetables that could be stored for a long time, such as radishes, Chinese cabbage, onions, carrots, etc. The lockdown lasted for over a month and, at the end of it, I still had food to spare. During this time, I shared some of my food with my neighbors, and they were all very thankful. They know that I am a Dafa practitioner.
A fellow practitioner’s daughter once sent a message that her neighbor, a practitioner, was arrested that morning, and many items at her home were confiscated.
I knew that this practitioner had an unencrypted USB flash drive that might have the passwords to her email account, as well as our shared email account. Her laptop also had the passwords saved for both accounts. For security reasons, I immediately deleted some messages from the shared email account.
At the same time, I asked our local technical practitioners for suggestions on whether I should change the password or not. They advised me that, for security reasons, we should establish a new email account. So I did that and sent out encrypted messages to notify each practitioner of the password for the new email account. I also asked for practitioners' feedback about my decision.
Some of them wrote back saying that they agreed with what I did, as security was a priority. But a coordinator, a practitioner I was very close to, emailed me and said, “Are you addicted to creating new email accounts or something? You change it every time a practitioner is arrested. Don’t you get tired of it? You think you are responsible for all the practitioners. Can you really assume that responsibility? The practitioners in other areas don’t change emails for years. The pandemic situation is so severe in our area. Don’t you have other responsibilities?”
I was stunned when I saw that message. I thought, “How could she say something like that? We all know that this pandemic was arranged by divine beings. Why would I be responsible for others? Maybe it is because I’m not doing enough to save people. To save time to do that, I don’t even buy or eat food that takes extra time to prepare. I rarely attend gatherings with classmates and relatives because I have already clarified the truth to all of them.”
Eventually, I calmed down and looked within. I thought about each practitioner I knew and whether I spoke to them in such a tone. I then realized there was a practitioner who was originally from the same place as I was. We got along very well, and we always considered each other's needs first. I criticized her many times and thought I was right at the time. But I often regretted it later: “What am I doing? Why am I behaving like an ordinary person?” I apologized to her many times, but then I couldn’t control myself again when issues came up. This exposed many of my shortcomings, including having ordinary sentimentality towards practitioners, the desire to validate myself, and the desire to look down on others. I suddenly felt so sorry for what I’d done to her. Wasn't I acting the same as the practitioner who criticized me?
I never realized how difficult I made it for my friend. She was in her 70s and had never used a computer before, but I asked her to do many things, all of which I had learned over many years. But I gave them to her to do all at once. How could I expect her to master all those skills in a short time?
To cooperate with everyone in distributing materials and saving more people, she worked tirelessly every day. I once went to her home, and since I had a key, I walked straight in. I saw that she was working in front of the printer, with an unfinished bowl of rice on the floor beside her. I felt so ashamed at the time. Why didn’t I see her shining side in the past? Because I had always only focused on her shortcomings, and while doing that, I had also lost the opportunity to cultivate myself. I regretted it so much. I immediately wrote her an email to apologize. She wrote back and said, “I cried when I read your letter. I’m feeling so much more relaxed now.” Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!
I then calmly sent a reply to the coordinator, telling her that if she wanted to use the previous email account, then I would not delete the new one; I just wanted to create a relatively safe and secure communication platform for everyone. She later replied and shared some of her own shortcomings that she realized after watching Master’s video of Fa-Teaching Given to the Australian Practitioners and apologized to me.
After our community was closed, no one was allowed to go out. The community officials informed everyone to line up outside the next day and wait to be tested. Overnight, I quickly delivered the remaining 40 copies of Wishing You Safety and Minghui Weekly to the homes in the community. I also took pendants made from CDs that had the two auspicious phrases “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” on them and hung them from the trees at different intersections.
When I threw one of the pendants onto a tree branch, it was upside down and I couldn’t reach it to fix it. I begged Master in my heart to help me. The next morning, I went to look and it was fixed! I immediately put my hands together and thanked Master.
It was a very cold day with a biting wind. Everyone waiting outside was shivering. The CD pendants with the two phrases were fluttering in plain view, as if telling everyone, “Don’t be nervous! I’m here to save you! If you believe in me, you’ll escape the catastrophes!” I wished that whoever saw them would have kind thoughts in their hearts and be saved.
On Chinese New Year’s Eve, people were allowed to leave the community to buy things with a permit. I quickly printed stickers that read, “Remember That Reciting 'Falun Dafa Is Good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance Is Good' Will Save You From Catastrophes” and posted them on the main entrance of every building. There was just one thought on my mind: “I must let the sentient beings (who all have predestined relationships with me) see how they can be saved; I must live up to their expectations of me.” It took me more than two hours to post the stickers on more than 80 doors in my area, after which I felt much better.
After the 2021 Chinese New Year, there were still very few people that could go out and it was a great time to distribute materials to save people. So I went to do it, but my legs were hurting, and I couldn’t walk upstairs normally. I had to face backward, grab the railing with one hand, press the wall with the other, and jump up the stairs one step at a time. When a fellow practitioner saw me, he suggested that I should take fewer materials. But I felt that there was no time to waste. I strengthened myself by studying and memorizing the Fa, sending forth righteous thoughts, and doing the exercises more. I tried to follow the standard of the Fa strictly and was not moved by false appearances. I wanted to let the people in my area know, as soon as possible, that facing the pandemic is possible if they sincerely recited “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” I wanted to let everyone have a chance to be saved.
More than a month later, the communities began to open up, and people went back to work. I said to Master in my heart, “Now, more people are going out, and I will often encounter them when I am delivering materials. They may not understand it if they see me jumping up the stairs like this. Master, please help me.” Soon, I didn’t have to jump up the stairs like that anymore. I then distributed the materials to nearly 2,000 households in the area where I lived. Although there were people who were infected and quarantined with the virus, but, given the power of Dafa, none died from it.
Health Is More Important Than Power
On my way home after distributing materials one day, I walked up to a senior citizen and wished him good health. He thanked me. I thought he seemed like he was an official, so I said, “Health is the most important thing. Even if someone has power but doesn’t have great health, it would be terrible. Don’t you think so?” He agreed. I went on, “I had cancer 26 years ago and was waiting to die. But then I practiced Falun Dafa, and I recovered. For these past 26 years, I haven’t taken a single pill or injection.”
He said, “You are fortunate. How old are you now?” When I told him I would soon be 70, he commented that I looked much younger. I then asked if he’d ever joined the CCP (Chinese Communist Party). He said he had, so I explained why he should withdraw from it and talked about the pandemic and some basic facts about Falun Dafa. “Has anyone told you about this before? Have you quit the CCP?” I asked. He said, “I live somewhere else and someone there did talk to me about it, but I didn’t quit.” I said, “It is fate that we have met today. Let me help you withdraw. It will be a really good thing for you! I hope that you will escape catastrophes and be safe and happy!” He agreed to quit and thanked me.
Sometimes my legs hurt, and I really don’t want to go out. But Master has extended the time for us and that time is to be used to save people. Master is bearing a lot for it, and all the sentient beings are waiting! Once I think this, I know I have to go out, and, immediately, my notion of “I can’t go out because my legs hurt” disappears.
After finishing my area, I started to distribute pamphlets in the surrounding areas. I thought that there was less of a chance for people in high-rise buildings to get our materials, so I also went to do those. There were surveillance cameras in the elevators, so for security reasons, I took the stairs up and down. I was not worried even if I had to climb 10 or 20 floors.
There was one building that had six main entrances and each led to 15 floors. I had successfully completed five of the six units, but I could not get into the last one after going there many times. One morning after sending forth righteous thoughts, I knelt on the floor in front of Master’s portrait and sincerely begged him to help me open the door of that unit. As I walked there, I continued to send forth righteous thoughts to completely eliminate all the evil factors interfering with saving sentient beings so that the people there would have a chance to see the materials.
When I got to the door of the building, I didn’t think about anything and just pulled the handle. It didn’t open, so I pulled again, and the door then opened. As I walked in, I put my hands together and kept saying in my heart, “Thank you, Master!” I started from the bottom and quickly finished all 15 floors. When I walked downstairs, my legs felt so light, it was if I was floating on air!
I just had a wish, and Master helped me accomplish it. In the end, the issues with my legs also went away. With Master’s help and protection, I was able to open many doors that I was not able to open before, thereby giving those sentient beings a chance to be saved.