Helping the Family Members of Practitioners Being Persecuted to Have Upright Thoughts

One summer morning I tried, as usual, to call a fellow Falun Gong practitioner at her work. Her colleague told me that she did not come to work. On the same day every week I either went to her home to deliver or she came to my home to pick up a copy of "Minghui Weekly" - a weekly publication by the Chinese version of the Falun Gong website, Clearwisdom.net. This had never been interrupted. Thus, on this day I felt that something was wrong. I called a fellow practitioner and learnt that she had been arrested.

I had a difficult time, but I kept sending forth righteous thoughts the whole day. Her home and my home are very close and we often went out together to distribute Falun Gong related materials. When I go out or come back home I pass by her workplace, and many people in her workplace know of our relationship. Then I thought, what should I do? Furthermore, I could not tell my family about the situation because it would disturb them and bring many unnecessary troubles. Should I continue to carry my Falun Gong materials in my bag during the time she was gone? If not, would it give the evil opportunities to persecute us for the things we should do, but have stopped doing because a fellow practitioner was arrested? Even though the situation was critical, I believed I should keep doing what I knew I should do. I thought that if more people learnt the truth the evil would be diminished, and that would reduce the pressure on fellow practitioners. I kept seriously sending forth righteous thoughts in the morning and in the evening. When I recited the Fa-rectification verses, I truly felt that my body was enormous and that the evil entities were all under my feet.

I heard that the arrested practitioner's husband was having a very difficult time since her arrest. He blamed her and was resentful towards the fellow practitioners who contacted her. Her husband did not know of me. Looking at the entire situation, I knew that the practitioner in custody worried the most. To help her family correctly comprehend Falun Dafa and her fellow practitioners was very important. I also wanted to see if her children needed any care or help from me.

I bought a box of beverages and some fruit and went to this practitioner's home. Her husband and her mother were there. After I sat down and explained who I was, the atmosphere changed right away and they almost started to verbally abuse me. My mind was heavy. I recalled a phrase in the article, "Rationality" by Master Li, which is published in every issue of "Minghui Weekly:" "Validate the Fa with rationality, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa and save people with mercy." (Also published in Essentials for Further Advancement II.)

After a pause I said, "I know she must be worried about you. I also understand that you are all going through extreme hardship in this situation, especially the children. How can I help you?" Her husband told me that he almost had a mental breakdown after she was arrested. He also said that all the neighbours knew about the arrest, and he wondered, "How could she continue to teach children because now she is a mother who has been arrested?"

As a Falun Dafa practitioner I felt that my responsibility was very heavy; that many things needed to be put in order. At that moment, he stood up and walked towards the door. Her mother was in panic. She thought that he was going to ask me to leave. She tried to stop him by saying, "No. Don't." He came back with a cup of water for me. Her mother was surprised and relieved, she smiled; feeling more at ease, she then stood up and went to another room.

Starting with my own experience of practising Falun Gong, I talked about the atmosphere in my home before the persecution. Then I talked about the stressful atmosphere in my home that resulted from the persecution, as well as the hardships that the persecution forced upon my family members. I talked about my reasons for going out to explain the truth to people, the opportunities brought to people by telling them the truth, the pure righteousness of Falun Gong and the intentions of practitioners. I talked about the fallacy of the persecution and the calamity the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) brings about by fabricating lies. I explained to him that practitioners' cultivation is a process whereby they keep elevating and continue to pursue perfection. I told him about the newly filed lawsuit against Jiang Zemin. I told, one after another, about my personal experiences. We talked naturally, and I felt that, one by one, the knots in his mind were eased or resolved.

He said, "Elder sister, your talk is different from the talk of others; it feels like you are a close friend." Finally, he told me, again and again, "Elder sister, you must be careful, regardless. It would be terrible if something happened." I sincerely told him, "Thank you very much. Please visit her when you have time." He said, "Don't worry, I will." He told me that after his wife was arrested, those evil people tried to force her to report on other fellow practitioners. I said, "Look, when your wife is in danger she still protects other practitioners. Don't you feel that she is respectful?" (When a person has his mind open to you, he will listen to you.) I also told him that his wife once told me, with joy, about him reading the Falun Gong book, again. I was inspiring him and helping him to understand the concern that fellow practitioners have for him and how precious it is for a person to be able to practise Falun Gong. We talked for about two hours. Before I left I offered to leave him my cell phone number so that he could contact me if he needed help. He thanked me, but did not take my phone number. I saw that he is a good person and considerate of others.

Several months later the fellow practitioner was released. I purposely went to her home at the time that her husband would be home. To avoid bringing trouble to her family, I took the elevator to the 8th floor and then walked up several floors to her home. Her husband had not yet come home from work when I arrived there. I told the practitioner that the situation was somewhat tense and that it was something which could not have been gotten rid of easily, but we must be able to control our minds. She felt that she did not do well, and she felt very bad about it. I told her about Master Li's expectations for practitioners who had once fallen. We both had tears in our eyes.

In a short while her husband came back home. He greeted me when he saw me, and then he anxiously told me that, since she was just released, the residential committee and the street police station were monitoring them closely; that sometimes they would come as soon as she arrived home. He advised me to go home quickly to avoid any trouble. I understood him. While I was walking out, the fellow practitioner tried to see me off, but her husband stopped her. I knew that he was concerned about me, because he once told me that the street police had forced the neighbours to watch their home. I looked at his fearful appearance, and I fully understood him. I stepped out the door with tears in my eyes, and I happened to see that a woman was looking out her door and into the fellow practitioner's door.

Recently, I ran into this practitioner's husband. It is said by some that we ran into each other by chance; but in the days of validating Falun Dafa, every practitioner probably knows our responsibilities are embedded within. In a hurry he simply said, "Elder sister, I have something urgent, please come to my home to visit!" My thought was, "Yes, I will go to visit them."

When I write this at this point of my story, I do so because I feel that there are many urgent things that Falun Gong practitioners need to do. Fellow practitioners, please do things with your heart, place Falun Dafa as the first priority and treat everybody with benevolence.