The Cultivation Stories of Ten People in My Family

A Toronto practitioner

Greetings, Master Li,

Greetings, fellow practitioners,

Today I am sharing the cultivation stories of my family. I was brought up in a very large family. Among the seven children, I am the youngest. I have four brothers and two sisters. The cultivation stories of my family began with my 2^nd elder brother David who is living in Hong Kong.

David suffered from hepatitis B for over a decade. He was forever tired and had a very poor immune system. Hepatitis B, as known by the Western medical profession, has no cure. Patients can only depend on continuous medication to keep the disease under control. As an alternative, David turned to Chinese medicines. But that did not help, either. David could feel the constant pain in his liver and was legitimately fearful that he would develop cirrhosis, or worse, liver cancer. In his desperation, he turned to Qigong and Taichi. But neither helped much. David was distressed.

In April 1997, he encountered Falun Dafa "by chance." One day, he saw some people doing Falun Dafa exercises in the park. He was told that it was good and that instruction was free. He thought to himself "what can I to lose to try?" He then bought a copy of Zhuan Falun and read it on his way to work. As he started reading, he was totally fascinated by the book. David read broadly but he had never read anything like Zhuan Falun. From it, he got all the life answers that he had sought since he could remember. He was also extremely impressed with the way Zhuan Falun presents cultivation: what is it, why is it, and how is it.

After practicing for three months, David's physical as well as mental health underwent amazing changes. He was like a different person. He did not need medication anymore.

David has been committed to cultivation right from the beginning. To him, fame and gain were relatively easy attachments that he got rid of quite quickly. However, the tribulation lay in the family. His wife is a very straightforward person and shows her emotions quite easily. They had their fights like many other couples do. David found the tribulation challenging. But with the progress of his cultivation, he gradually overcame it. Generally speaking, he was much more patient than before. David's wife Amy once complained to me that she was "bored" by the fights since David was not involved at all. It was not "fun" that she yelled and did not get shouted at back. David would keep stressing to her how precious De (virtue) is and that she should not give De to him so freely.

The Zhangnanhai Incident [on April 25^th, 1999] had a major negative impact on Amy, who is a non-practitioner. While she thinks the exercises do David a lot of good, she does not want David to be involved in any external activities relating to clarifying the truth and exposing the evil. She is fearful that David 's job with the Hong Kong government will be jeopardized. She also strongly opposes David's spending time on Hong Fa (Fa promoting) activities, which she perceives as something that competes for David's time with the family. It is not easy for David as he is obviously torn between his cultivation and his family.

However, David is steadfast in Dafa and has a righteous mind. On the one hand, he persists in his cultivation and his work with Dafa, and on the other hand, he supports Amy and the two children in a way he has never done before. He understands that his non-practicing family members suffer because of the suppression in China. Amy faces the pressures from her own family and friends who have negative views of Dafa due to the propaganda. Amy worries that if David loses his job, the livelihood of the family will be seriously affected. David understands that practitioners have the Fa in their hearts so they can take these things lightly, but non-practitioners have no mechanism to address their sense of insecurity and fear, and therefore suffer tremendously. David also takes Amy's frustration and criticism as a reflection of his own inadequacy in cultivating Dafa. He knows that his attachments have probably helped aggravate the situation. Amy is actually bearing the brunt of his karma. To resolve the conflicts, instead of denial or putting the blame on Amy, David always turns internally to search for solutions and self-improvement. His relationship with Amy is gradually improving.

I admire David's inner strength which he, of course, obtains from the Fa. Despite the misunderstandings and turmoil at home, he persists in his cultivation and his work to help rectify Dafa. At the same time, he harmonizes Fa and his family by showing compassion for Amy and his two children. I always think to myself, if I were David, I probably would not have passed the tribulation so easily. While fulfilling my responsibilities as a particle in Dafa and engaging myself in all kind of activities, I might not have had the patience, understanding and kindness needed to deal with the opposition from my family. I trust that with David's persistence in being truthful to his cultivation and his compassion and forbearance for non-practitioners around him, especially his family, he will eventually help Amy understand Dafa better and change her attitude.

In September 1997, I came to Canada to visit my eldest brother Gordon and his wife Maisie. At that time, I was a visitor to the country and had not applied to land here as a resident. David asked me to bring Zhuan Falun and other books of Dafa to Gordon. Gordon finished all the books in just a few days. He had very good pre-destined quality and right away accepted Dafa as something precious. He called an assistance center in Toronto and began practicing almost immediately.

However, Maisie had a very different reaction. Actually, she became Gordon's major tribulation. She had never heard of Falun Dafa and was very suspicious of it. She strongly opposed Gordon's involvement in Dafa for reasons she could not clearly explain. This lasted about half a year. The struggles between them had escalated to a crisis. Maisie demanded that Gordon choose between her and Dafa.

Maisie recalls how she was bothered by how much time Gordon spent on Dafa, which she knew nothing about and was then too proud to try to understand. When she confronted Gordon, she was shocked to find that Gordon took Dafa extremely seriously, so seriously that he made it crystal clear that nobody was going to make him change his faith in Dafa. At the same time, she also detected that Gordon was much more patient and even more loving than before. Maisie was quite confused by all these changes in Gordon. What touched her most was not what Gordon said, but how he acted. Maisie actually thought Gordon had become a much more reasonable person and a much better husband. That made Maisie really think. Before her, she had two options. The first option was a divorce, since it was very clear that Gordon would choose Dafa over anything in the world including her, and that the conflict was not going to go away. The second option was to accept Gordon for who he was, including his faith. But how could Maisie divorce Gordon when he had become such a good husband and good person?

Things took a very interesting turn. Nine months after Gordon became a practitioner, Maisie read Zhuan Falun for the first time and finished it in just one day. The rest is history. Maisie is now a committed practitioner. The relationship in their family has never been as harmonious and peaceful as it is now. Their daughter Iris fully endorses her parents' cultivation and admits that she no longer has to endure the fights between her parents as before.

Since Maisie started cultivating, her relationship with my Mom and my sisters has changed. For various reasons, Maisie had stopped communicating with my family for many years. That changed only three months after she cultivated. Now, Maisie and my Mom enjoy each other and have a great time together. My sisters are also very impressed with Maisie's positive changes. Gordon never thought that the efforts he had made in harmonizing his small family would have such ripple effects on the relationship between his wife and his Mom, and impact positively on how his sisters view Dafa.

A few months after Maisie began cultivation, her brother Louis and sister-in-law Annie became practitioners as well. Louis used to like drinking and fishing. But he quit both only one month after he started practicing. Louis's brothers and sisters were nicely surprised and amazed by such a change. They could not have thought that this was possible.

Following Gordon, I became a practitioner not long after. It began with a nasty client in the bank I worked at. He was not happy with the fee structure and took it out on me. He came to my office one day and used very harsh and demeaning language on me. He said he had wanted to do that to me before but withheld because of the winter solstice. Now that the solstice had passed, he could say what he wanted. I was so undermined and battered that I could not eat for the entire day. But at the same time I wondered why I would allow myself to be so bothered by his behavior. I thought to myself that there must be a better way of dealing with situations like this. At that moment, I remembered David's recommendation of Zhuan Falun, which he said was a book of cultivating one's heart and mind nature. I told myself I might as well give it a try. Then I started reading. Now when I think about it, I really have to thank my client, as Master Li said.

Because of Gordon, and myself, my husband On has begun practicing as well.

I recalled when David first started cultivation, he was acting pretty awkward with my Mom and sisters. During family gatherings, he would sit quietly, keeping to himself most of the time. He was not interested in the family chatting anymore. My sisters were not very pleased with his changes. They did not understand why he had to separate himself from his family members, and they did not know what was on his mind most of the time. David later became aware that he should not alienate himself from them, but should rather relate to them in a way that could validate Dafa.

I kept using David's example to remind myself of the importance of properly relating myself to people around me. When I began cultivation, my relationship with my sisters remained pretty much the same, if not better. We had our gatherings as usual. We chatted and laughed like before. But although the form was the same, the substance was different. I started sharing the bits and pieces of my cultivation experiences with them; how I had passed or not passed my tribulations; how I had changed my view of certain things because of Dafa. Cultivation had become the most important part of my life, and as a sister, I felt obliged to share my new self with them. Sometimes, they had very different thoughts about Dafa and my cultivation. I listened although I did not agree. As usual, they sometimes complained how tough their lives were. I again listened, and tried to help them see their issues from a practitioner's point of view. In doing so, I found that my understanding of my sisters as everyday people and their problems was so much more profound than before, and my compassion for them grew. My relationship with my sisters was so natural and so effortless. A few months after I practiced, both of my sisters started learning the exercises and reading the books.

Both David and myself are really thrilled to see this happen. Now my family has a common language. When we have our family gatherings again, we talk non-stop, all about Dafa and cultivation. We feel that we are such a happy family!

In April 1998, my other brother Han in France called David to warn him of a mishap that, according to Han's wife, might happen to him soon. Han's wife, a French woman, knows quite a bit about Western fortune telling and predicted something about David. To Han's surprise, David was not disturbed at all by the telling, but rather calmly told Han that whatever happened happened. David then told Han about Dafa and our cultivation. He sent Han Zhuan Falun and other books. Han read the book and has been a practitioner ever since. Han and his family live in a suburb far from Paris where there are no practice sites. However, during the past two years, Han has participated in many Hong Fa and truth clarification activities.

In our families, there are still family members who have not become practitioners yet. However, they all support Dafa at different levels. Some have signed petitions, some take care of our children when we go to Hong Fa, and some keep updating us about news they hear about Falun Gong. Lately, Maisie has received a knapsack from her sister. When asked why she was given the gift, Maisie's sister said that she wanted to make sure Maisie has a proper bag for carrying flyers of Dafa. All these are very touching stories.

Family has a special place in our cultivation. The tribulations from our family members can be more challenging than any other tribulations. Whether we have a righteous mind, and whether we can validate Dafa through acting like real practitioners do make a lot of difference on how our family members see and react to Dafa. My experience with my family members clearly tells me that we need to be truthful to and steadfast in our cultivation, but at the same time, show genuine compassion and forbearance for non-practitioner family members. It is very important that we validate Fa through our behavior. It does not matter what big words we use, unless we are profoundly changed, they are not going to be convinced. After all, they are our family. They know us well enough to tell whether there are real changes in us.

The practitioners in my family are scattered in three different continents. During the past two years, we have our struggles in righteously validating Dafa, exposing the evils and helping to save everyday people. Some of us have better understanding of the Fa than others, and are therefore progressing faster. But most of us are involved in assisting rectifying Dafa to different degrees. We have not always met the requirements of Dafa and there is plenty of room for improvement. The good thing about us is, despite the geographical distance, we communicate and share experiences with one another very often. We hope that as we go along, we will continue to support one another and do better in terms of using reason, wisdom, and compassion in rectifying Dafa, as Master taught us.

Thank you.

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