Cultivating Myself While Working to Rescue My Mom, Imprisoned in China

(Minghui.org) I’m a young Chinese Falun Dafa practitioner who lives in Canada. The following is my cultivation experience of working to rescue my mom from unlawful imprisonment in China. 

About one week after I arrived in Toronto, my attachment of sentimentality was hit upon. Growing up as an independent child, I wasn’t actually very homesick. However, for no apparent reason, every night I kept having the same dream about the day before I left China. In my dream, I was packing while my mom watched me quietly, leaning against the door frame. She didn’t say a word, but her sad eyes spoke her reluctance to part with me. Though I didn’t feel homesick during the day, the same dream haunted me every single night. I started to think that I would probably never be able to go back home again. Tears welled in my eyes. 

My attachment probably brought a physical tribulation. My gums got swollen all of a sudden, and it got worse and worse. It hurt badly when I ate or talked. It was so painful that the blood vessels on my chin began to throb. I was seriously worried that my teeth would fall out. I knew that as a new, international student, I couldn’t afford dental treatments in Canada. 

Fortunately, I rented an apartment from a practitioner. Another practitioner who lived next door invited me to copy the Fa with her. I picked up from where I stopped when I left China. It happened to be the following paragraph: 

“Our way of practice is one where the Law refines the person, and in practices where the Law refines the person, certain states will arise from his gong and Law, so in the course of practicing, different cultivation states come about at different levels. So one day, or after I finish the class today, some people will experience this state: they can’t eat meat, and it smells bad to them, and if they eat it they’ll want to throw up. It’s not that you’re forced by somebody not to eat meat or that you hold back from eating it, it comes from within. When you reach that level your gong will take effect in a way that makes you unable to eat meat. You’ll throw up if you actually swallow it.” (The Seventh Talk, Zhuan Falun)

I felt that every word was spoken directly to me. The principle about eating meat applied to my attachment to sentimentality. Master gave me a hint to help eliminate my attachment to sentimentality. It was indeed time for me to let go of my sentimentality to my family.

After I let it go, the ulcer vanished the next day. The test was over quickly. Thinking back, I was thankful that Master had made the arrangement for me to eliminate sentimentality. 

A couple of weeks later, my mom was taken away by the police. If I hadn’t eliminated my sentimentality, I wouldn’t have had the courage and know how to get to work to rescue her.

I was in the middle of class when my dad called to tell me that my mom had been arrested. Both my mom and dad had been imprisoned for practicing Falun Gong for three and four years, respectively; that occurred when I was preparing for the college entrance exam. How could they arrest my mom again so shortly after she was released?! Instead of feeling sad, my first thought was to take responsibility as her daughter. I immediately called a practitioner who had a similar experience to find out what I should do. I started collecting the phone numbers of the police departments and stations involved as well as other related information.

The first time I called the police, I was so nervous that my voice quivered, my mind felt dumfounded, and I sweat all over. The police hung up on me after a few minutes. To better communicate with them, I wrote scripts between my classes during the day and made phone calls in the evening. I felt tremendous pressure the first few days, which made me want to give up. 

However, every time I opened the book Hong Yin, I felt encouraged and enlightened by Master’s poems; warm energy circulated all over my body when I recited the poems. I gained strength, which helped me continue making phone calls. Other practitioners made phone calls with me. I can’t remember how long it took, but my mom’s case took a turn for the worse and was submitted to the Procuratorate. I finally decided to step forward and hold a press conference in front of the local Chinese Consulate. I knew that was what I should do, but the details of every step were challenging to me. Thinking back, I must have had high blood pressure during that period of time. I had a feeling that my mom was also having high blood pressure while being detained.

The tremendous pressure made it hard for me to breathe. I woke up with my heart pounding every morning, panicking about what to do next. 

My second challenge was balancing my time well. My major, computer animation, has a heavy workload. Only 11 or 12 students are admitted each year. Everyone must put in 100% effort.

Thirdly, I had to break through blocks in my mind; I was an introverted and oftentimes anti-social person. I had developed a strong fear when my parents were imprisoned during my college years, and struggled with confusion and depression even when they weren’t imprisoned. I had a habit of withdrawing myself from any trouble and putting things off. However, I needed to step forward after I decided to rescue my mom publicly. Everything I needed to do was contrary to my old personality. 

Before long, many of my attachments gradually diminished during the process. As a matter of fact, I didn’t worry about as many things as I had expected. My fellow practitioners understood my busy schedule and helped me with most of the things. I would like to thank them for their compassionate help!

I felt disappointed and powerless when I heard that my mom’s case had been submitted to the court. The time I spent making phone calls didn’t seem to bring about any change. When a practitioner suggested we hold a press conference in front of the Chinese Consulate, I had many concerns: my heavy school work load had already taken away any time to relax; it would take time to write a good speech, and I was too shy to ask fellow practitioners for help yet again.

I was overwhelmed with anxiety while writing my speech. I knew that it wouldn’t work if I continued to write in such a state. I stopped and reflected upon the meaning of my efforts to rescue my mom. I had told myself at the beginning that the most important thing was to clarify the truth regardless of the result, but I couldn’t help but pay attention to the result. After making calls to where she was detained, I found out that some of my mom’s persecutors were even younger than me. They have ignorantly darkened their future by carrying out the persecution. The purpose of my speech is to awaken these people and others in the world.

After I shifted my thinking from a selfish to an altruistic perspective, I wrote my speech smoothly and even finished it faster than I had expected. 

I had a vivid dream that night. My parents and I gave a young woman in uniform a ride. Something told me that the woman would be the judge presiding over my mom’s case. My parents used to do truth-clarification while I sent forth righteous thoughts in the back row. However, I was in the driver seat this time. Ideas kept popping into my mind. I clarified the truth to the woman in simple but touching language, as if she was an old friend I hadn’t seen for years. Every word I said was sincere and from the bottom of my heart. The woman judge didn’t understand Falun Dafa at the beginning, but did over time. 

She got out of the car at her workplace, an art studio. It was in a dark and damp basement with greenish lighting. Several men in black clothes sat there motionless, as if they were dead. She looked nervous upon arriving. I helped her spread out a piece of canvas and handed her a brush with paint. The moment before she started painting, she suddenly asked me a question, “What on earth is cibei (compassion)?” I was a little shocked, because I had always wondered why the characters “ci” and “bei” compose the word “compassion.” After thinking for a little while, I explained to her, “Ci is great compassion to sentient beings, and bei is best illustrated with Sakyamuni’s willingness to feed a tiger with his body, and with Jesus’ tears of sadness for those who committed the sin of crucifying him.”

My consciousness left the dream before I could finish the sentence. Before I completely woke up, Master’s words came to mind,

“Let me endow you with two sentences: “Without ‘nothing,’ it is a human feeling. If it is a human feeling, then it’s not bei (compassion).”” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2004 Western U.S. Fa Conference,” Collected Teachings Given Around the World Volume V)

Master’s words echoed in my heart. My whole body was filled with energy. For the first time, I was enlightened to the meaning of cibei. I had always been engulfed in my anti-social personality and felt that I was far from the standard of Compassion; that’s why I couldn’t understand Master’s teaching about Compassion. I was anxious because of my selfishness. Where is there Compassion? It wasn’t until I corrected my perspective that I got rid of my anxiety and became compassionate. I believe that’s why I wrote my speech from the bottom of my heart so smoothly. 

I gave my speech in front of the Chinese Consulate the next day with a peaceful and pure mind, filled with courage; I felt the effect was excellent.

As for my personal development, I used to follow my parents’ lead in cultivation and slacked off when I got busy. When I heard adult practitioners talk about establishing mighty virtue, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to. After my mom was imprisoned, I realized that I must pass this tribulation well for my whole family, and it was an opportunity for every one of us to improve. As a matter of fact, I made more progress in cultivation during the rescue work than all my improvement in the past. Compared to the depression I had when my parents were imprisoned for the first time, I felt much less burdened in my heart, because I continued to eliminate the attachment to my self this time, while I had shielded myself by feeding my selfishness the first time.

The above is my understanding based on my level of cultivation. Please feel free to point out anything not aligned with the Fa. 

I had heard about overseas practitioners’ great job working on truth clarification when I was in China, but I didn’t truly experience how people support Falun Dafa until I came to Canada. The following are two examples. 

Soon after I heard about mom being detained, I had to talk to my professor about it, but I was so nervous that I cried. Before I could explain what Falun Gong was, my professor said unabashedly, “The Communist Party is so wicked! Falun Gong people are the best!” He expressed his sympathy for those who had been deprived of freedom of belief from the bottom of his heart and suggested I mobilize more people to contact the Chinese police and to tell them the whole world was watching what they were doing. This professor has volunteered to write letters to Iran, Afghanistan, and other places where human rights are violated. I didn’t have to say much, but received his great moral support and offers of help. 

Later on, I talked to two other professors. Both of them showed a great sense of justice. They not only signed the letter of support for my rescue work, but also helped me with my letter to members of Canadian Parliament. Officers of our student association also showed great sympathy and wrote a letter to the Canadian Prime Minister on behalf of the association.

I’m also impressed with Canadian officials’ great support and respect for Falun Dafa. The first time I met a Canadian official was at a flag raising ceremony in North Bay on the 30^th anniversary of Falun Dafa’s public introduction. The mayor was happy to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day in his city. He gave a congratulatory speech and raised the Falun Dafa Day flag with me. The mayor showed deep sympathy for my mom. He took us to visit his office on the lake shore, let me put on the city’s necklace which symbolized power, and took a group picture with us.

I’m happy to see the great sense of justice and righteous actions of the Canadian people. It was the result of overseas practitioners’ tenacious truth-clarification over the past 20+ years. Thank you, fellow practitioners!