By a young Dafa practitioner in Hebei Province

(Clearwisdom.net) Greetings, revered Master. Greetings, fellow practitioners.

It's been 13 years since I first began to practice Falun Dafa. Time has passed quickly. I am recalling the time when I attained the Fa; I was six years old.

It was around the winter of 1996 when I heard about Dafa from my mother. My whole family began practicing at the same time. There were five of us in my family. I was the youngest, and I had two older sisters. Other practitioners envied my family because we all practiced. Before learning Dafa, my mother said that her life was unlivable. She had huge debts. Our family store lost money every day. Because the money she borrowed was a high-interest loan, the store didn't earn enough profit to pay it off. It was well known in the neighborhood that my mother was very competent at her work. She was afraid of losing face and being gossiped about, so the store remained open. At that time, my mother's health deteriorated. She and my father often quarreled.

Later, my mother's friend suggested to her that she go to a park in the morning to practice qigong. Just like that, my mother and father went to the park in the morning. Back then, my mother practiced another qigong, and my father practiced Falun Gong. Later, father brought the book Zhuan Falun home. My mother took a look at the book and wanted to read more and more. She cried as she read it; she felt like she finally found the universal truth. My mother was kind in nature and was often taken advantage of. She endured a lot of unfairness. She felt that she was treated unfairly in the past, but after reading Zhuan Falun, she couldn't put the book down. The next day, Master began cleansing her body. Then she encouraged my two sisters to practice. My whole family stepped onto the path of returning to our true home.

After my family attained the Fa, we experienced some joyful times as a family. Every morning, we got up early and went to a practice site to do the exercises. I remember that we all tried to memorize the same article each day. At night, after group Fa-study, we rotated to recite the article and competed to see who had memorized it the best. I was six or seven years old. I remember reciting the Fa with my sisters. I didn't know the characters, so my sister helped me to read. Then I recited. The article that I memorized the best was "True Cultivation." I remember reciting this article standing at the podium during an experience sharing conference one year.

My mother bought me a bicycle and I rode it every day to go to a Fa-study group. On my way to Fa-study, I competed with my sisters to see who would get to our uncle's place first. (The Fa-study group met at our uncle's.) It was so much fun. I was very mischievous. When the adults began studying the Fa, I would visit the bathroom frequently. In fact, I was making excuses to walk around a little. When we watched Master's lecture video, I often fell asleep on my mother's lap before we had seen half of the video. When Fa-study was over, my dad would carry me home on his back.

Learning to sit in the lotus position was the most unforgettable experience. In the beginning my legs wouldn't cross at all--my leg stuck out high. Then one day my feet were accidentally burned by boiling water. The next day big blisters grew on my feet. When my feet completely healed, I was miraculously able to cross both my legs. Also, the blister from the burn didn't leave any scar. I remembered that I competed with my mother on crossing our legs to see who could keep the position longer. I could last for two hours.

On weekends, my family helped to let others know about Dafa. We went to the park on Saturday and Sunday to spread the Fa. I stood in the first line to do the exercises. When my classmates saw me, I felt very proud. My two sisters distributed materials alongside. Once I didn't do the exercises well when promoting Dafa. I suffered interference, which was also caused by my mischievousness, but I remembered Master's Fa principles.

After practicing Falun Gong, my parents stopped doing business. My father began delivering gas tanks. We didn't lose money like we used to. No one in my family had any illnesses anymore. My mother said, "Since our family has attained the Fa, we have saved a lot on medical bills. We must cultivate well to do right by Master's compassionate salvation." Laughter filled our home. Our neighbors envied us. Actually, they didn't know that our happiness was derived from our bathing in the Buddha's light!

In 1999, I was eight. One afternoon my mother told me that she and I would go to Beijing. That was the April 25th event. I was happy to hear it. I hadn't been to a big city like that. When we arrived in Beijing, it was past 4:30 a.m. We reached Tiananmen Square. At dawn I followed Mother and we got to a place with a lot of people around. Mother said that they were all Dafa practitioners. I didn't ask much, but I ran around a lot. She told me not to run, fearing that I might get lost. I saw a lady suddenly hold up a yellow sign in the crowd. The sign read "Maintain Your Xinxing." I didn't ask Mother about that. In the afternoon, we saw a Falun appear in the sky. People all applauded as if by prior agreement. I did, too. At night we left along with the crowd. When we got home, it was noon the next day.

I was young back then and didn't know what was going on. I only knew that I went to Beijing once. Who would have guessed that the persecution would later become so severe?

On the afternoon of July 20, 1999, a group of policemen came to my home. They took away Master's photo, books, audiotapes, videotapes, exercise clothes, and even the yellow cloth stapled on the wall. On October 4, 2000, they ransacked our home again and they took Dad away. The same night, Mother was taken, too. They detained my parents for three months. I don't know how I lived for those three months. Our living expenses were very limited. My big sister cooked for us. I cried every night and thought about Mother under my comforter in bed.

My parents have been confined and released, confined and released over and over again. When it was a sensitive day, the police would take them away. In then end, my parents were forced to become homeless. In 2003, after the Dragon Boat Festival, I was 13. When my parents left, I missed my mother. My big sister had been taking care of us. The three of us depended on each other to endure that difficult time. Later, my big sister didn't go to school anymore. We finally had money. We also got in touch with my parents. I would go to their place on weekends. At that time, I was very open-minded about this. I just pretended that I was in a boarding school and went home once a week. The storm was big, but Master was there; the Fa was there. My heart was filled with sunlight, so eventually I didn't feel pain anymore.

Not forgetting my duty in danger and difficulty, in order to help me catch up, Mom and Dad, who were still homeless, have always urged me to study Master's later lectures. As I grew up, I realized that we had the responsibility to save sentient beings. Therefore, I often clarified the truth to classmates at school, using my own experiences. I brought many of them to my home, and my sisters and I would clarify the truth to them together. My classmates eventually learned the truth and they gave me many blessings.

When I started junior high, I didn't go to school in our city. In order to be with my mother, I went to a school in a village. It was a boarding school. On my days off during the week, I went to Mother's place. One day I saw a small printer at her place. I asked her what it was. She told me that it was used to make materials for people to read. Eventually my family set up a material production site. We had a computer and other machines, but who knew how to operate them? At school, my computer skills were limited to drawing graphs, and I didn't learn anything basic. Then, a "big brother" came to our place every week to teach me the basics of a computer. Later, I learned that the "big brother" was a college professor. I learned the skills eventually. Master opened up my intelligence. I knew how to do typing, typesetting, printing, scanning, burning discs, installing operating systems, using ghosts to recover the system, and downloading. I even figured out how to use Photoshop. That big brother taught me all those skills. It is a pity that he was persecuted and is now confined in a forced labor camp. Then I taught my dad what I learned. He learned how and then he taught more people. This is how many materials sites were set up, like flowers blossoming everywhere.

It is all good now. Both my second oldest sister and I have jobs. My big sister got married. My father works as well. We thank our revered Master for looking after us.

We will do the three things even better, we will not lose Master's great trust, and we will complete our mission. Let the rest of the path become more glorious.

Posting date: 11/30/2008
Original article date: 11/29/2008
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/11/11/189030.html

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