Falun Dafa Saved My Entire Family

I'm a resident of Huili County in Sichuan Province, China. I work in Panzhihua City. I first learnt Falun Dafa in June of 2003 and since then my entire family has benefited tremendously from the practice. We can't put into words how grateful we are to the founder of Falun Dafa, Teacher Li for bringing forth such a great cultivation practice.

An elderly lady and her daughter Ningning, who live next door to my rented home, are both practitioners. Before obtaining the Fa¹ I constantly took medicine because I was always sick. The elderly lady said, "Little Ma [Author's last name], come and practise our Falun Gong. It is really very good." I didn't think she would deceive me, but I thought to myself, "Falun Gong! That's so horrible. I dare not learn it at all. Just look at the stories about it on CCTV!"

A few days later, I had a problem disciplining my son and I cruelly spanked his bottom. After calming down, I was really upset with myself: how disciplined can a three-year old be? I thought that I indeed needed to learn something to change my temper. Because I had had a bad temper all along, this kind of child-spanking incident happened again. I again thought about learning something so that I could change myself.

Now I understand Teacher's words: "When a person's Buddha-nature comes out it shakes the Ten-Directional World." ( Zhuan Falun). Because I had a kind thought, Teacher helped me through Ningning. One day when I was sitting there doing nothing, Ningning gave me the book Zhuan Falun and said, "Little Ma, take this and read it." I thought to myself, "I'll read some." I took the book and started to read. After I finished reading I then realised that it was such a good book, and it was exactly the opposite of what the TV had portrayed. Teacher says: "Some people blow up even when they're disciplining their kids..." (Zhuan Falun). Now I understand how to treat my child with patience and how to cultivate myself.

After starting to practise Falun Gong, I understood the real situation. I hastily went back to my hometown to clarify the truth to my mother, brother and sister-in-law about the persecution. My sister-in-law said that people were not allowed to learn Falun Gong. That night I showed them the VCD I'd brought with me. After watching the VCD, my sister-in-law said, "Goodness! How could the leader of our country be so bad!" They understood more of the facts and my sister-in-law now supports my practising Falun Dafa. My sister also understands that Falun Dafa is good, and she even reads the book.

But my father knew nothing about this. I didn't tell him at the time because he drank a lot and always caused trouble.

On my father's birthday this year I went to visit him and found out that he was frequently ill, and when he was ill he could not drink. But he was the kind of person that couldn't live without drinking. All the same, being ill was pretty common for him in the past, so I didn't pay much attention to it. I returned home after his birthday celebration. Usually, I would call home to check on my family once every week or two. After my father's birthday I phoned home several times and my mother always said that my father was not yet well. When I called them the last time my mother even cried. I hung up the phone and couldn't stop tears from flowing down my face. I finally made up my mind to bring my father to stay with me. I thought, "I didn't even clarify the truth to him yet. If he died I would owe him something."

I immediately called my mother and asked her to bring my father over. He didn't want to come. He was afraid to die while out and feared that he wouldn't be able to return home. The next day they came to my home. My father's face was dark brown and his lips were black. My neighbours were surprised to see him like that and said, "He won't die tonight, right?" Afterwards, someone said to me, "Little Ma, you had the nerve to do that. Your father was already like that and you still dared have him over."

After my father sat down for a while, I started to tell him the truth about the persecution imposed on Falun Gong. My father immediately came to understand it as soon as I told him. I also let him listen to Teacher's lecture tapes. In the night I said, "Dad, let's practise Falun Gong." At the time while teaching him the first exercise "Buddha Showing a Thousand Hands," I moved his hands and noticed that his fingers had all turned white and the back of his hands black, and his palms were so pale that there was no colour left at all. I could not stop my tears from flowing down.

The second day I gave him the book Zhuan Falun and showed him Teacher's picture. I said, "This is our Teacher." He took just one look and said, "Wow, this is a holy book. I have to wash my hands before reading it." That night he began to smile. I told my mother that my father finally started to smile after being here for two days. She said that's true.

As my father studied the Fa day by day, he gradually got better. Of course, a person who was as ill as that has to go through some tribulations, eliminating his karma and detoxifying. He suffered a lot.

Now my father is healthy. He has gotten rid of those things that had accompanied half of his life: smoking, drinking and pills, and in particular, the drinking. My whole family used to be hurt so deeply by his addiction to alcohol. Now it's so great because he quit drinking. We can't put into words how grateful we are to Falun Dafa. My mother used to get mad easily. If you asked her to endure, she could not endure. Later when she saw the change in my father, she also wanted to start to practise.

My father is now healthy. This case alone urged me to tell all my relatives, friends and kindhearted people about this miracle of Falun Dafa! But we were afraid to let the bad people know that we practise Falun Gong, and we were afraid to be persecuted, so we didn't let my father tell others about this. But in reality, how much I wanted to shout on the street, "Falun Dafa is an upright teaching! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good! Restore my Teacher's reputation!" I often cried over people's being so ignorantly disrespectful to Teacher despite His being so compassionate toward people. I felt sad for not clarifying the truth more.

Through what happened to my father I realised that Teacher's words are not far-fetched at all. If I had not clarified the truth to my father, wouldn't he have lost the opportunity to enter the future?"

The above is my family's experience, and the words are from the bottom of my heart.

On behalf of my family I would like to thank Teacher and Falun Dafa for saving us. I also thank practitioners who still now risk their lives to let people learn the truth about Falun Dafa and the persecution. Without their selfless devotion, my whole family wouldn't have happiness. From now on I will follow Teacher's requirements to do the three things well, clarify the truth to people who I come into contact with, and save sentient beings.

Note:

1. Fa - Law or Principle, the teachings in the Buddha School, in this case referring to the teachings in Falun Gong.