A Contemporary Tale of Faith and No Regret

This story, from Shen Yun’s 2011 No Regret, is based not on the tale of a particular mother and son. Rather, it represents the true stories, both tragic and heroic, of millions of families in China today.

***

In twenty-first century China, in a countryside village, a mother and her teenage son are lovingly enjoying each other’s company. The mother has just finished sewing him a shirt and asks him to try it on. It fits perfectly. It’s a beautiful sunny day, and the two sit down together to read a book.

This is no ordinary book—it is Zhuan Falun, the book of spiritual teachings of the meditation discipline Falun Dafa. The shirt the mother sewed for her son bears three Chinese words on the front: “Truth-Compassion-Tolerance,” the principles of Falun Dafa.

Since 1999, tens of millions of Falun Dafa practitioners in China have been persecuted for their faith at the hands of the atheist Chinese Communist Party. This small family is no exception.

Communist Party goons suddenly storm into the village, tear the book from the son’s hands and start beating him. The son grabs the book back and tries to escape, but the thugs are relentless. They close in on him and shower him with blows until he falls, dead in his mother’s arms.

Her heart torn apart, in this moment of her darkest grief and despair, she looks up to the sky and a heavenly scene suddenly appears. Divine beings, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, manifest right before her eyes. They bring the son back to life and give him back his book. He, in turn, gives it to his mother, before joining the deities, flying away with them up to the heavens.