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My Father Changed

Nov. 30, 2011 |   By a practitioner from China

(Clearwisdom.net) Master said:

“Yet a Dafa disciple’s responsibilities are enormous, and so we must not only save the world’s people but also those close to us.” (Fa Teaching Given at the 2010 New York Fa Conference)

Recently, my father started to learn Falun Dafa. Seeing the changes in him, I became very relieved. In the past, I was blocked by my notions and thought that my father was hopeless. It was probably because of my human notions that my family could not be saved. The changes in my father were made possible by Master's compassionate salvation and there were lots of difficulties during the process. I would now like to share the path of how my father, who was deeply deceived by the evil CCP, turned to positively recognize Dafa, and started on the path of cultivation. I hope this will be helpful to those practitioners who have similar family experiences.

My father used to work for the military and he had a bad temper. When the evil CCP started the crackdown on Falun Gong, my father, who was very experienced with political movements, was deceived by the lies and lost his rationality, especially during the first several years after the crackdown. When I clarified the facts about Falun Dafa to my father, it was like facing a sealed iron bucket. Not only did he refuse to listen, he even blamed and cursed me. He constantly threatened me and forced me to give up my cultivation. He slandered Dafa and even tore up Dafa books. My father is the head of the family. Therefore his stand also determined the attitude of my mother and siblings towards me. My status at home was the worst, sometimes they even criticized me in group at home.

I started to practice Falun Dafa in 1999. Falun Dafa was already deeply rooted in my heart. No matter how hard it was at home, my belief towards Dafa was never shaken. Although I grew up with my father beating me all the time, and I was still afraid of him, I was determined to change them so that they would recognize how positive Falun Dafa is.

Ever since I was very little, I was constantly beaten and yelled at by my father. Until I grew up, the fear was like a shadow that I could never get rid of. After constant Fa study and strong righteous thoughts I was able to gradually break through the fear. Master helped to remove lots of the fear. Gradually I felt that I was behaving in an upright manner. I successfully resisted the pressure of my family and went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. Later, when my father came to to visit me at school, I calmly told him my true thoughts. Originally I thought that my father would beat me up right on campus. However, my father listened quietly and finally emotionally said: “How did my son become so good at talking?” Then he laughed.

In the past, I was short with words and not good at talking. Now I can talk to my father calmly about the persecution of Falun Dafa. My father was touched by the changes. At the same time, I realized that as long as a cultivator is righteous, ordinary people will change. At that moment, I remembered what Master said:

“If you can actually do it, you will indeed find: “After passing the shady willow trees, there will be bright flowers and another village ahead!” (Zhuan Falun)

When I was detained, my father came to see me several times. One time the police asked my father to speak as a representative of the families. Looking at the Falun Gong practitioners being monitored by drug addicts, including his own son, my father became quite upset. Then he said: 'Those who practice Falun Gong are all good people. They do not steal anything ...” Finally he said something that fit the description of the CCP before he finished his speech. Later, I asked my father: ”Look, I am just a student practicing Falun Gong for better health and improvement of my morality. The CCP persecutes innocent people like this. What do you think?” My father said: “Since the day they arrested you, your mother and I have been totally disappointed with the party.”

In the past my father dedicated his life to work for the evil CCP as an official. He never thought carefully about the true nature of the party and how evil it is. Now my father has experienced the persecution of the CCP toward Falun Dafa cultivators and he has seen the reality in the detention centers.

My father was in poor health. He had hypertension, a cerebral infarction and varicose veins on his thighs. To cure his diseases, he visited many doctors and tried different alternative approaches. Then he started to practice Tai Chi. I took this opportunity to tell my father about the miraculous effects that Falun Dafa had on physical health. My father said: “You told me that Falun Gong is good, however thinking about the days that you were detained, your mother and I felt frustrated.” Then tears ran down his face. Later on I tried to tell him several times but there was little progress. Although my father practiced Tai Chi, he still had to take lots of medicine. It did not cure his diseases and instead, it cost a lot of money. So I told him: “Practicing Tai Chi one hundred times is not as good as practicing Falun Gong once.” My father was furious after hearing this. He said that he did not believe it and would not practice Falun Gong.

I realized that cultivators must always remain calm. We cannot say anything we want when non-practitioners can't accept it. Otherwise they would only argue with us.

I kept looking for opportunities to clarify the truth of Falun Dafa to my father. His response became better. He then said: “If you think it is good, you can practice by yourself.” which meant to me: “I am not against it.” This gave me hope that at least my father started to have a positive attitude about practicing Falun Dafa.

Master said:

“If you can help your family members to start cultivating, that’s best of course. But if they can’t cultivate, then you have to ensure that they are beings who can be saved, and at a minimum, be good people so that they may enjoy good rewards one day. “ (Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan)

To save sentient beings, either let him recognize Falun Dafa or let him see the true nature of the evil CCP and quit the CCP and then let him recognize Falun Dafa. After the publishing of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, I brought home the DVD of it. My father stopped after watching a little of it. He said it was “anti-revolutionary.” I knew that my father had been poisoned by the CCP for several decades and it made him irrational. I sent forth righteous thoughts, but there were no obvious effects. My father said: “Everyone in society thinks you are stupid. Only you say that Falun Gong is good and the CCP is not good. If you say bad words about the CCP to me again, I'll be really angry!”

Thinking carefully, I found that among my neighbors and my father's friends and colleagues, none of them practiced Falun Dafa. Except for me, no one else clarified the facts about Falun Gong to him. His friends know that his son practices Falun Dafa and some of them purposely bothered my father and made him feel bad. Thus, I copied my father's phone book and called his friends one by one to clarify the truth about Falun Dafa to them. Some of them listened to me and some of them listened very little. No matter what, next time they meet, I knew they would talk about the facts that I clarified to them.

I work in another city. Since I practice Dafa, I am hard-working, honest and reliable. My supervisors like me, and I have a good relationship with my colleagues. Since I graduated from college, my salary doubled every so often. I bought a house, paid off my loans and bought a car. When my wife married me, she said that I did not tell her that I had been detained before and she thought that I cheated on her. However she also realized that as a cultivator, I am responsible and reliable. Eventually she did not want to divorce and was determined to be together with me. Later she also started to practice Falun Dafa. I realized a cultivator must stay righteous to rectify our environment and at the same time show the positive image of cultivators, which will help more non-practitioners understand us so that we can save them. My father also realized that I was not a fool like he had thought, as I put family and work in order. He was just worried that I would be persecuted. I did not know how to comfort him. I think that as long as a cultivator assimilates with Dafa, and does the three things well, things will work out.

My mother proposed to come to my home to help watch my child. During this period of time, I smoothly helped her to quit the CCP. Later, my father also came and I also told him about quitting the CCP. He was willing to listen to me, but he still did not want to quit. He said: “Although I dislike the Communist Party, I do not believe that quitting the party will help.” Then my mother told him:”Our son already quit the CCP for me.” And I followed up her words with: “Quitting the CCP can help clean up the evil CCP poison in your body.” My father trembled once and said: “Then you can do it for me!” To confirm that my father indeed promised to quit the party, I repeated the question again: “Then I will quit the party for you.” He laughed and said: “I was just joking.” However, I clearly heard from him just a moment ago that he would quit the party. Later I shared this with fellow practitioners, some of whom said it meant that he already promised to quit, some felt that he still needed more work.

Master said:

“And mankind’s state is changing as well. People’s perception of Dafa is changing too, almost as if people’s minds are gradually clearing up.” (Fa Teaching Given at the 2010 New York Fa Conference)

With the progress of Fa-rectification, most of the evil factors that suppressed peoples understanding the truth were already destroyed. Our LCD TV at home supports a USB drive. I downloaded truth-clarification programs from the website of New Tang Dynasty TV, copied them to flash drives, then broadcast them on TV. It was just like watching programs from cable TV. While my father was bored by ordinary TV programs, I switched the channel to the New Tang Dynasty Television programs. I was afraid that my father would not accept it at the beginning, so I broadcast “Forbidden China News” and “Click Today” first. My father watched them and got addicted to them, since he had never seen this kind of program in China before. And the program uses true voices and comments. My father liked the comments from the commentators and felt that they were inspiring. Then I switched to the program “Whispers of life”. The first program I selected had a special interview with Mr. Li Youfu. After watching it for a while, my father said: “This guy is telling the truth.” I told him: “See, he is the same age as you, but he looks so young!” After seeing that Mr. Li gave up all his past martial arts practices and determined to focus on the cultivation of Falun Dafa, my father did not quite understand. He sighed saying: “What a pity!” I did not explain to my father immediately. I was afraid that he could not understand if my explanation was too high, and he may have negative thoughts. Then I switched to the program “Mainland China News”. Thus my father watched the news and listened to the commentaries. Later he also watched several episodes of “Whispers of Life” regarding several people who recovered from cancer after practicing Falun Dafa. Gradually he gained positive views towards New Tang Dynasty TV programs. He was deeply attracted to the programs of New Tang Dynasty Television. I was very relieved while watching his changes, at the same time I told myself not to have zealotry.

I have shown the Shen Yun shows to my mother before. Out of excitement, I told my mother that most of the performers were Falun Gong practitioners. My mother was interested at the beginning, but after hearing this, she developed notions and did not want to watch the show any more. I showed my father several video clips of Shen Yun commercials (via flash drive). My father said: “So many people say that Shen Yun is so great, how can I use the remote control to see it?” I took out a DVD of the Shen Yun shows and explained to my father that: “This cannot be done via flash drive, it has to be shown on a DVD player.” Thus, my father watched all the Shen Yun shows from 2008 to 2011. The genuine Chinese culture, the outstanding performance and the inner beauty of traditional Chinese culture deeply moved my father, who had been soaked in the evil Communist Culture for a long time. He appreciated Shen Yun from the bottom of his heart.

One day, my father called me and told me briefly:”Can you find a copy of Zhuan Falun for me? I want to read it.” Then he quickly hung up. I could not believe it. Although I have clarified a lot of truth to my father, because of the blockages of the old forces, it is quite difficult for new practitioners to come in. But when thinking about it again, it is reasonable that my father should start the cultivation practice after learning the truth. I brought Dafa books to my father and he took them back to his home like a treasure, and started reading them right after shutting the door. Now my father has already learned all the five sets of exercises. He stopped practicing Tai Chi and is focused on practicing Falun Dafa.

Thinking about the process of my father starting his cultivation practice, I realized that as long as we continuously clarify the truth and talk to people from different perspectives, according to their level of awareness, none of our efforts will be wasted.

Master said:

“Your journey is one where if you can take correct, right steps, the doors before you that were once shut will open and the road will become wide. ” (Fa Teaching Given at the Epoch Times Meeting)

“More people need to be involved in the variety of projects that aim to snuff out the evil’s persecution. In this light, then, a great deal of strength is lost when there is one less person, and a great deal of strength is gained when there is one more set of hands. So I don’t wish to leave a single person behind, nor do I want to lose them or let them depart too soon.” (Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan)

Let's remember this paragraph of Fa taught by Master, save more people who have predestined relationship, and let's not leave our family members alone. With one more practitioner, we have one more shares of strength, which also creates our own cultivation environment.

Please compassionately correct me if there is anything inappropriate in my article.