(Clearwisdom.net)
Ever since Dafa was brought to the public, countless kindhearted people have taken up the cultivation practice. Especially in this great historical period of Fa-Rectification, even when the Dafa practitioners are under suppression and persecution, they have continued to practice and promote Falun Dafa. With continuous efforts, the practitioners have persevered in clarifying the truth and eliminating the evil. In the process, many convicted criminals have come to recognize the greatness of Zhen-Shan-Ren (Truth, Compassion, Forbearance), in Dafa's teachings. These prisoners have sincerely repented of their sins. They are now following a good path, at the same time standing up to the injustices done to the Dafa practitioners. Many of the prisoners are righteously defending Dafa and upholding the truth under enormous pressures.
- A female prisoner was convicted on a count of murder. While in prison, every night she was consistently disturbed by nightmares, which caused her to scream and cry. Haunted by the trauma, she attempted to take her own life many times, but was unsuccessful. Seeing that the prisoner was in absolute despair, a Dafa practitioner in the same cell explained to her the Dafa principles, and taught her to recite poems from the book "Hong Yin"(a collection of Teacher's poems). From the day the prisoner started reciting the poems, her nightmares disappeared. On the very night she decided to take up Dafa practice seriously, a Taoist priest appeared in her dream. The priest tried to entice her to take him as her teacher, but she refused. "I am practicing Falun Gong and my teacher is Li Hongzhi. I will not follow anyone else." Immediately after she replied, the sham Taoist priest disappeared in a wisp of smoke. Through studying the Fa, she has now helped to pass on Teacher's articles to other practitioners and has clarified the truth to other prisoners as well. She is now actively rectifying the Fa.
- After listening to the principles of Dafa and many other mysterious, heroic and moving experiences of practitioners in the Fa-rectification period, one convict, a notorious drug smuggler, showed great respect for the nobility of Dafa. This prisoner had been suffering from insomnia because of disturbances by horrifying spirits in her nightmares. So, from memory, I wrote down the poem "When the Law is Right" for her to read. While reading one night, she fell asleep with the poem in her hand. The next morning, she told us with delight that she had slept well, and had a dream in which she was taken up to the heavens where she saw some of the most beautiful fireworks. I was really happy for her and encouraged her to persist with Dafa practice.
- In order to keep Dafa practitioners on surveillance round-the-clock in the cells, guards have encouraged convicts to take up the duty by using an incentive system based on merit points. However, through our ongoing persistence, relating the principles of Dafa and reciting Teacher's articles to the convicts in the prison, more and more of them have been gathering around to listen. Sometimes they stay up late into the night and do not want to sleep. Noticing the problem, the prison commander rearranged to have different prisoners watch over the practitioners, but this was rejected by the prisoners themselves. Some of them have said, "If I accept the task of watching Falun Gong practitioners, I will be a sinner. I won't do it." To no avail, the guard said, "I have to submit reports to my superior. Would you just pretend that you have done it, just as a formality?"
- Through Fa promotion efforts, more and more of the prisoners have joined the practice. To carry out the work, Dafa practitioners never stop using their ingenuity and he resources available. For example, some Dafa practitioners would constantly remind the other prisoners that "Falun Dafa is good," while strolling around in the camp. Some have written their personal experiences on paper and passed them around. Some use a storytelling approach while others constantly recite scripts from Teacher's books to every prisoner they meet. As a result, the prisoners who have been enlightened to the Fa are now seen gathering around everyday, in groups of twos and threes, exchanging their understanding of the Fa with each other. They are also helping Dafa practitioners to deliver and pass Teacher's articles around.
- While being held at the detention center, one prisoner who had been convicted for organized prostitution, became enlightened to the Fa and she managed to obtain a copy of Zhuan Falun as well. Because someone reported her to the authorities, a guard took away the book. To protest, this prisoner went on a hunger strike for eight days, not giving in to threats or punishment from the guards. Her persistence must have had an effect for they returned the book to her afterwards. When she was admitted into the prison, she had managed to bring in the book unnoticed by using "righteous-thoughts." This book has enlightened many other people in the prison to the Fa as well.
- One prisoner was both deaf and dumb. She was convicted for drug smuggling. However, she seemed to have a liking for Dafa practitioners, for every time a new practitioner was admitted, she would raise her thumb as a sign of welcome. During the process of promoting Dafa to her, we made an attempt to teach her to speak as well. To our surprise, the first three words she managed to utter were "Zhen Shan Ren." From this experience we can see the Teacher's compassion manifesting itself once again.
- The prison guards established an award system, whereby they tried to entice a few of the "big brothers" at the prison to convert Dafa practitioners. To their surprise, the prisoners replied, "We feel that the Dafa practitioners are good and kind hearted people. If all us criminals learned from them, nobody would commit crimes anymore." The award system did not work out.
