Growing Up in a Falun Dafa Environment and Overcoming My Internet Addiction

(Minghui.org) I was born into a family of Falun Dafa practitioners. My parents helped me to study the Fa and do the exercises from a young age. But I did not cultivate diligently, so I did not really understand the meaning of cultivation. In addition, the internet attracted me. I soon sank into the online world and became a bona fide internet-addicted girl.

I spent almost all of my free time on the internet. My father was very strict about my upbringing and did not allow me to browse online, so I learned how to tell lies so that I could continue to surf the net. After feeling some guilt initially, I entered a numb state, and I sank deeper and deeper into the online world. I was not fit to be called a “Dafa practitioner.” Sometimes, when my sight left my mobile phone, I would gaze blankly at the sky and feel a sense of emptiness. I could not imagine what my life would be like without my mobile phone. A melancholy thought crossed my mind, “If there is no going back, so be it.”

After the high school entrance exam, I was admitted to a prestigious high school. Everyone praised me but no one knew how much I struggled there. I could not keep up with my studies and did not get along with my roommates. When I returned home, I would seek solace in video games, but going back to school meant facing a fresh cycle of emptiness and torment.

Benevolent Master did not give up on me, this disappointing disciple.

In 2020, when I was attending online classes at home, I was engrossed in my games when my parents dragged me off to study the Fa with them. I was very angry and read the Fa very quickly. After I was reprimanded, I read very slowly, as if out of spite. As I read, I gradually calmed down. I later understood that Dafa had removed the bad things that had controlled me to play with my mobile phone and that had stopped me from studying the Fa. I started to study the Fa with my parents every night after that.

Before returning to school, I was under tremendous stress. I asked my mother to give me a hand-copied Hong Yin so that I could read the Fa when I felt bad. Although I was doing it with an impure heart of making use of the Fa to seek solace, Master still displayed the vast Fa principles to me. During my next school break, when I once again lied to my parents to go online, I felt so uncomfortable that I cried and had to be frank with my parents about lying to them all these years just to go online. I then sought their help to monitor me as I got rid of my addiction. My mother was very alarmed but did not reprimand me.

I thus got rid of my addiction to the internet. During the process, Master also helped me to get rid of a lot of bad material substances, so I did not feel any hardship. My mind became clear and it felt as though I had been completely transformed into a new person. When I picked up Zhuan Falun again, I thought that I could finally let myself totally assimilate to Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance (because in the past, as long as I went online, I would tell lies, although I really wanted to meet the requirements of Dafa, I doubted that I could get rid of my addiction to the internet). Since then, I truly embarked on my path of cultivation.

Every time I recall this experience, my eyes brim with tears.

Master taught us,

“...I treasure you more than you treasure yourselves!” (“Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s),” The Essentials of Diligent Progress II)

When I was hopelessly mired in lust, fame, fortune, and desire, Master kept enlightening me benevolently. When I was enduring hardship, Master kept watching over me. When I lost confidence in my cultivation, Master did not give up on me. Instead, he plucked me from this murky world, cleansed me, and led me on a path back home. I can only repay Master by cultivating diligently.

Not long after this, my mother and I experienced a big test. My dad suddenly passed away. I was very sad but I understood from the Fa that everything has its predestined relationship. My mother and I encouraged one another to remain steadfast in our Dafa cultivation. When I recalled the times I had had with my dad and felt like crying, I would tell myself that emotion was trying to control me, so I could not follow along and think in that way.

Although I could not see my dad anymore, I knew he would definitely go to the best of places. An aunt came to visit me and was surprised by how well I was handling my father’s passing. She said that she did not expect me to have such a healthy mindset after going through such a big ordeal. I told her that the reason I was able to overcome this disaster was because I cultivate Falun Dafa.

When I was in high school, although my studies were very demanding, I made time to study the Fa at night. Everything in the human world is secondary. Studying the Fa and cultivating is the most important thing. Gradually, although my grades were not very good, I was no longer so anxious and I no longer complained that my roommates treated me in an unfair way. Instead, I reflected on myself and discovered that the conflict happened due to my selfishness. When I changed my way of thinking and treated others with kindness, the surrounding environment gradually changed too.

After the college entrance exam, I was accepted by a local university. The university environment was much more complicated than that of high school. In the dorm, a certain student was ostracized by others because of the tone and manner in which she spoke. I thought that since I am a Dafa practitioner, I should not follow suit. I tried my best to understand her behavior and often took the initiative to talk to her.

Once, a classmate hinted at me, “Everyone in our dorm no longer hangs out with her; you are the only one who is still doing that.” I did not reply. People also called me a pushover, but I remained unmoved. I thought that since I am a cultivator, I do not need acknowledgment from others. I only need Master’s acknowledgment. Abiding by the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance is not wrong.

Under the guidance of Dafa, I got along increasingly well with this student. She enjoyed interacting with me and was opening up to me too. The dorm environment was quietly changing too. Everyone gradually seemed to stop ostracizing her so much. During one of our conversations, I introduced Falun Dafa to her and helped her quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated youth organizations.

With respect to personal gain and benefits, there were some incidents that helped me improve my xinxing. My roommates often asked me to help them purchase things and would forget to pay me back sometimes. When that happened, I would feel that it was unfair that they made me go out and buy things for them and that I had to pay for them.

I later realized that this was an attachment to personal gain. Everything has its predestined relationship and I may have owed them in the past. But whenever I saw my bill on my mobile phone, my heart would be in turmoil, and I would try hard to tolerate it instead of asking them for the money.

I did not hold myself back once, and felt a lot of regret. If the money was truly mine, it would be given to me sooner or later. Why did I not believe that? After a few days, this roommate asked me to help her get laundry detergent and forgot to pay me again. I was a little amused, thinking that this incident was trying to make me be attached to personal gain again. This time the toilet paper even cost an extra yuan. She then asked me to bring back some toilet paper again without paying me back, but my heart was very calm this time. I thought that I do not want this attachment and I must get rid of it.

After a very long time, she recalled that she owed me and returned the money for both the detergent and toilet paper, and it was exactly the amount that I had paid. I was amused, thinking that there would not be one cent less or more for whatever I owed others. When someone else later asked me to bring them things and forgot to pay me back, I just accepted it happily and was no longer calculating about it.

During university, my grades were acceptable because I studied relatively hard, and so my classmates would often ask me questions. I was quite slow in my studies. Sometimes, they would have already studied the content two to three times when I was still on my first round.

At such times, I would feel very unwilling to help them with those questions, feeling that they did not consider my feelings at all. I later realized that this was a strong attachment to jealousy. I was jealous that they were scoring better than me and were still taking up my study time. I was also unwilling to tell others about what I had learned.

One night, after watching Master’s video lecture “Fa-Teaching Given to the Australian Practitioners,” I was very moved. I am a cultivator and all of my capabilities are given by Master. Master gave me capabilities not to let me pursue fame and gain, but to let me cultivate. In that case, I should use these abilities to help others.

When others make achievements, they are able to obtain that because they have that virtue. In that case, what is there to be jealous about? After that, when someone asked me questions, I would take the time to solve it and tell them all that I knew, even if I was running short of time. I no longer thought about the difference in our grades.

I spent most of my time in school with no fellow practitioners around me. Sometimes, I felt very lonely. I was daydreaming in the classroom once and felt very lost. I flipped open a Dafa book and it immediately touched on the problem that I was troubled by. Tears flowed down my cheeks. What is there to feel lonely about when Master’s Fashen is always by my side? I am so lucky to have become a Dafa practitioner in this lifetime, so I should make good use of the remaining time to do the three things well and cultivate in a diligent manner.

Although I have stumbled along the way over the years and there are also many areas where I have not done well, Master has always been benevolently watching over and enlightening me. In the remaining time that Master has prolonged by bearing tremendous suffering, I must cultivate in a diligent manner, make good use of the remaining time, do the three things well, listen to Master’s teachings, and follow Master home.