Cultivating Myself While Awakening a Former Practitioner

(Minghui.org) I’m 75 years old, and I started practicing Falun Dafa in 1997. Mei, who is now 76, began practicing Falun Dafa in 1996. She participated in group Fa study and doing exercises and took part in activities to tell people about Falun Dafa.

I obtained a copy of Zhuan Falun in 1997, but I did not start cultivating right away. I wanted to read the book and then decide if this practice was suitable for me. Mei encouraged me. Whenever she went to Fa study, did the exercises with other practitioners, or participated in other Dafa activities, she always invited me to come with her. My congenital heart problems that I’d suffered with for years disappeared simply because joined her. I soon started truly practicing Falun Dafa.

Mei Stopped Practicing

I visited Mei after I retired and learned that she, like many others, had stopped practicing Falun Dafa after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting the practice on July 20, 1999. She developed heart problems and had a pacemaker installed. I felt very sad.

I talked to her and asked her to resume practicing. She agreed, and we started to study the Fa together. We met a fellow practitioner who knew about computers. He was homeless at the time because he was trying to avoid being persecuted. He helped us set up a material production site, and we learned how to access the Minghui website. We were thrilled! We also learned how to make materials to tell people about Falun Dafa and advise them to quit the CCP and its youth organizations.

In 2013, the police picked me up for distributing truth-clarification materials and detained me for 10 days. After I was released, my family moved to avoid further harassment from the police and the neighborhood committee.

I met Mei’s husband, told him I had been detained, and asked him to tell her I couldn’t visit her for the time being because I was concerned about her safety. I later read in an article published in Minghui Weekly that the practitioner who helped us with computers was sentenced to three years in prison for trying to rescue fellow practitioners.

I met a coworker in 2022 who told me that Mei had been calling many of our coworkers trying to find me. I asked her if Mei needed anything. She replied, “Mei has Alzheimer’s and doesn’t speak properly.” I called Mei that evening. Her husband answered the phone and told me that Mei had Alzheimer’s.

I visited Mei the next day. She was overjoyed to see me and said, “I’m so glad you’re here. I can’t access Minghui now. What should I do?” I told her she should read the Fa more.

To my surprise, Mei said her child had downloaded episodes of Drum Ballads for her, and she wanted me to listen to them with her. I replied “They’re for ordinary people.” She turned on her computer and started listening to Drum Ballads. I had to say goodbye. As her husband walked me to the door, he whispered, “She often loses her temper and throws things.”

I thought, “How did she get like this? I must help her resume practicing Falun Dafa so she can fulfill her vow.

Cultivating Myself and Helping Mei

Master published “How Humankind Came To Be” on January 20, 2023. I felt that, since this was the first time Master had ever taught the Fa to all the people of the world, we should share it with the police. The police were monitoring me at the time. I went to the police, talked to them, and recited “How Humankind Came To Be.”

My mind was filled with compassion while I talked to these officers and I had no fear. I wanted to help them understand the truth about Falun Dafa and stop participating in the persecution. I hoped they would choose a bright future for themselves. But afterwards, they raided my home and took me to the police station. I kept telling them about Falun Dafa and reciting “How Humankind Came To Be.” They listened. I also sent righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil factors behind them, and I asked Master for help. With Master’s protection, the police released me that evening and notified my family to take me home.

After that, whenever I left home, police officers and neighborhood committee members followed me. The neighborhood also installed surveillance cameras to monitor my home, and the police harassed me on all the CCP’s sensitive dates. All this put intense pressure on me and made me feel anxious. I kept studying the Fa and knew clearly that only by reading the Fa diligently could I maintain my firm faith in Master and the Fa. As long as I conducted myself according to the teachings, I would be able to walk on my cultivation path.

The next time I visited Mei, she was laying in bed. She told me she’d broken her leg and told me how it happened.

I told her, “Master published a new article, ‘How Humankind Came To Be.’ How about I help you load it onto your computer.” Her eyes lit up when she heard that Master had published a new article but dimmed soon after.

She said pessimistically, “I stopped practicing.”

When I asked her why, she responded, “When you were detained, I took all my Falun Dafa books and some materials to a relative’s house. Ten years passed. When I went to get them back, they were all gone. My relative had disposed of them. I couldn’t accept how they treated my precious books. When I got home, I packed up six boxes of their belongings and asked them to take them away. I didn’t want to keep their things at my place, either.”

I asked her if that was the reason she stopped cultivating. She nodded and said, “I didn’t cultivate well. I’ll start cultivating again later when there’s another opportunity.”

I recited Master’s Fa,

“Your life came to this earth all for this. How could you not be diligent, and grow lax? This is your moment of destiny, the chance you have waited all eternity for! For however long it has been, you were all along preparing for this, suffering and shedding karma. Yet now, after all the hardship and pain, when you have made it to this day, somehow you have become not diligent. Isn’t that a shame?! Yet this juncture is critical, and if you are not diligent now, you’re done for. Was it not exactly for this moment that your life came here?” (“Fa Teaching on World Falun Dafa Day”)

I said, “Master introducing Falun Dafa to the human world is the last time that a righteous Fa will be introduced to present-day humankind. Furthermore, the universe has reached the very end of the destruction process within the universe’s laws of formation, stasis, degeneration, and destruction. There won’t be another opportunity. If we are trapped in worldly affairs and attachments, we won’t be able to fulfill our mission to assist Master in saving lives or to follow him to Heaven. Isn’t that a pity? Let’s read Master’s new article ‘How Humankind Came To Be.’”

We took turns and each read a paragraph. When we finished, she looked animated, so I asked her if she still wanted to cultivate. She said, “I want to, but I did not cultivate well.”

I replied, “Nothing that happens to a Dafa practitioner is accidental. Look inward to see what’s stopping you and correct yourself. Practitioners cultivate and achieve awakening in the righteous Fa and eliminate attachments.”

She thought for a moment and said, “When they told me they’d disposed of my precious books, I was upset. Those books were more valuable than my life. I got upset with them and refused to have their things in my house. My competitive mentality got the better of me, didn’t it?”

“You had a competitive mentality,” I replied. “Also, you kept these precious books in another person’s house for 10 years. Those books are to guide our cultivation. Did you read them regularly? Also, Dafa practitioners must respect Master and the Fa. Cultivation is serious. It seems like it was easy for you to say you’d stop practicing.”

“I didn’t think about it that much,” she said. “From what you’ve said, I’ve realized my drawbacks. I need to seriously think about my problems.”

I said, “If you want to resume cultivation, you need to write a statement using your real name and send it to the Minghui website.” She said she would and wanted me to help her send it.

Her mental state had completely changed from when I first arrived. She could hear well, her voice had returned to normal, and she could see clearly. Her complexion glowed. She was determined to resume practicing. When I later asked her husband if she still had Alzheimer’s, he smiled and replied, “Not at all.”

When “How Humankind Came To Be” was published, I memorized it to help explain the truth about Falun Dafa to people. Sometimes I tried to memorize a sentence by reading it many times before I could come to an understanding of the sentence and then I memorized it.

After that I started memorizing all of Master’s new articles. I recited Master’s new teachings whenever I had time, whether I was at home, on the road, or on the bus. I re-recited these articles every day. I understood that only by being absorbed in the Fa could I cultivate and conduct myself following the Fa at all times. I’ve practiced Dafa for 28 years. Every step of my improvement was due to Master’s compassionate guidance and protection.