A practitioner in Gansu Province

December 1999

I'm a 52-year-old farmer. At the end of 1995, a relative of mine told me that he had started to practice Falun Dafa and that he had Falun Dafa books. He went on to ask whether I'd be interested in practicing cultivation. Without hesitation I said "yes." I started to read China Falun Gong (Revised Edition). Before long, symptoms of many of my old illnesses began to appear. I knew it was the Teacher who was systematically cleansing my body. I knew very well that what I had obtained is the righteous way, and "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance" is the supreme quality of the universe. Teacher Li is here to offer salvation to people. I try to treat myself as a Falun Dafa practitioner all the time. I also hope to let more people know about Falun Dafa. I carry Falun Dafa books around, either to read them myself or to introduce the teachings in them to others.

I began my cultivation practice by becoming a good person. Our village is located at the top of a yellow-earth hill, bordered by three villages. The roads were narrow and slippery. During the season when there was not much work in the field, a few of us Falun Dafa practitioners volunteered to repair the roads and ditches. During the breaks, we would sit down and read Falun Dafa books together. We worked like this for 16 days.

On October 1 of last year, our county had a temple gathering. Various kinds of people were there talking about various kinds of things. I took the opportunity to introduce Falun Dafa to people. In the evening, I would read Zhuan Falun (the main text of Falun Dafa) - lecture one, two, etc., until daytime. Among those 20 to 30 people who listened to my reading were Buddhists and Taoists.

Human beings are all in a maze, deeply attached to fame and gain. Being a good person is not easy. In 1998, the local government decided to build a dock in our village. For some reason, however, they changed their mind and decided to build it in another village. This led to a series of fights among several villages. The head of the county brought some local government officials over to settle the arguments. I felt it was a good opportunity to spread Falun Dafa. At a meeting, I read two of Teacher Li's articles.

Another time, for some unknown reasons, fire broke out everyday in our village for seven days and no one cared. A few villagers and I went to appeal to the local government. But the officials took us to the county's detention center. There I began to read Essentials for Further Advances (a collection of short articles of Teacher Li). The next day, the guards demanded that we read the rules of the detention center. A detention center supervisor asked me what's good and what's bad. I said we'd use "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance" as the standard. For this reason, however, the county decided last November to detain me for one month.

Upon entering the detention center, one person asked, "Are you the person who read articles during the temple gathering?" I said "yes." Then he came over immediately and gave me a slap on my face. Meanwhile, another person kicked me twice on my legs. Yet another person said: "I want to see how tough the King of the Law is!" I tried to correct him, "I'm not King of the Law; I'm a Falun Dafa practitioner." He then used his electric shock stick to poke my chin from below. I could hear the cracking sound like the firing of a machine gun for about 30-40 times. I was very calm, however, standing on my legs. I felt a little bit of pain in the beginning but no feeling at all afterwards. Yet the young man who was holding the electric shock stick began to feel bad. He lifted his arm and said: "oh, the electric shock stick has broken down and my arm is numb!" Then they demanded that I stand still with my two arms stretching to the front. I was ordered to keep this position for a long time. My sweat dropped like beans and I could hardly hold this position.

One day during my detention, we went to buy coal. A cellmate took a few extra pieces of coal - more than he paid for. I saw that and made up the extra payment. Even the guard said that it's not worth much and we should forget it. I said that Falun Dafa is a pure land and I, as a practitioner, should not pollute it. People were all moved. Later two policemen said to me that they also wanted to learn Falun Dafa. I said, "Falun Dafa is cultivation rather than an ordinary Qigong practice. If you want to learn Falun Dafa, you should read the books first and cultivate your Xinxing (moral character)."

After the government banned Falun Dafa on July 22nd, 1999, the Public Security officer once again came to my house to search for Falun Dafa books and wanted to take me away. I said that I was not afraid of that. But my wife was upset. Although she is not practicing Falun Dafa, she is very supportive of me. She said to the officer: "Why are you always finding fault with good people? They are cultivators. They never do wrong deeds. They helped repair the roads and ditches." The Public Security officer waved his hand, saying: "Let's forget it," and left. Later on I realized that I might have passed the trial.

[This article was read in an experience-sharing conference that practitioners managed to hold in Lanzhou City of Gansu Province in December 1999.]