(Clearwisdom.net) My parents and I started practicing Falun Dafa in 1994. I was only 6 years old at that time. I went to one of Teacher's lectures. Before practicing Dafa my father was a Buddhist, but he didn't know how to cultivate Xinxing (character) so his temper wasn't great. Since gaining Dafa he has changed, and his temper has improved. He always told my sister and me to learn the Fa well and live according to "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance." We have to be good people and then become greater people. We have to achieve a higher level.
When we first began practicing Falun Dafa, there weren't any practice sites around our house, and there was no one practicing outside. The four members of my family plus my aunt started a practice site. The number of people practicing increased to 100! We always studied the Fa and practiced together. We lived our lives according to "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance." We strived to be good and virtuous. The number of people studying the Fa in our 180 square-foot house increased from a few people to about 40 or 50. Most of them were college students and professors. The Fa-studying and practicing location was very calm and peaceful. We saw a lot of Faluns there!
But everything changed on July 20, 1999, when the persecution started. What should we do as practitioners facing such life and death tests? My family discussed this, and we thought that there was nothing wrong with practicing Falun Dafa and "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance." The great Teacher asked us to be good people and made us became virtuous. We had benefited mentally and physically. We had to do something when wicked people defamed our Teacher and detained fellow practitioners. My family and my aunt went to the city hall to appeal and to clarify the truth. I saw with my own eyes how the police violently beat many practitioners in broad daylight. They beat my parents until they were covered with bruises. We were scattered, and I couldn't find my parents or my sister. Later a practitioner that I knew helped me find my parents.
At the time Teacher was encouraging us. All of the several thousand practitioners that went to appeal in the city hall saw Faluns (Law Wheels) landing on practitioners. Some saw Teacher's fashen overseeing us from the sky. It's impossible to describe such scenes. It was simply too magnificent and grand. Thousands of practitioners all applauded on the spot.
We remained in the city hall for three days. They didn't release us. When the persecution increased in severity, my parents and other practitioners went to Beijing to appeal. My sister and I decided to go with a few young practitioners. We would walk to a nearby city and take the boat to Beijing. (The trains were guarded at that time, and they didn't let practitioners board.) My sister said that walking about 31 miles overnight would be extremely difficult and tried to persuade me not to go. I said, "I am a practitioner. Teacher and Dafa are being defamed. I have to go." So with a few young practitioners we walked to the harbor at night. There were many police along the way and they had sealed the harbor as well, so we couldn't make it to Beijing.
By the end of 1999, Jiang's evil regime's persecution against Falun Gong was increasing in intensity. Me, my mother, my aunt, and two other practitioners decided to go to Beijing to appeal and tell the truth on January 1, 2000. The five of us took the train to Beijing. Our hearts were pure and steadfast. Everything went smoothly, and we arrived in Beijing. There were police officers all over the place when we got off the train. It took us a long time to find the appeal office because the "Appeal Office" sign had been changed to read "Print Shop." (Jiang's evil regime replaced the appeal office's sign with a print shop sign. This is laughable). They had been arresting people in the appeal office.
As soon as we arrived the police took us back to our local police station. They even extorted 6,000 RMB from my parents. They detained my mother and my aunt. They locked me up for half a day and called my father to pick me up. From that day on I valued cultivation even more and became increasingly steadfast.
To further persecute Falun Gong, the head of the evils started various movements such as the "Anti-Falun Gong Signature Movement" in all the middle and high schools and colleges in the nation. My school was fooled by the lies as well. One February, we were all summoned to school. Our homeroom teacher asked, "Is there anyone here practicing Falun Gong?" I was shocked for a moment but recovered quickly. I remembered Teacher's lessons. The moment to clarify the truth, reveal the lies, and fulfill my oath from the past had come. I calmly stood up. The homeroom teacher took me outside and said, "You are one of the better students, why do you practice Falun Gong?" I took the chance to tell the teacher the truth about how my family had changed since we had begun to practice Falun Gong; how the police had arrested my mother because she practiced Falun Gong, sentenced her to a labor camp for one year, and tortured her in Masanjia; and that there were over 60 countries practicing Falun Gong. The homeroom teacher was moved by what I said. After school I told my father what had happened. My father said, "Child, you have done well. This is the proper deed of a practitioner." To let the homeroom teacher further understand Falun Dafa, my father went to school immediately and spent 2 hours talking to the teacher. After learning the truth, my homeroom teacher said to my father, "If I hadn't heard it from you and your child, I wouldn't have known what's really going on." After learning the truth the teacher ripped up the report that was supposed to be sent and told my father to let me practice at home. From that day forward the homeroom teacher was kinder to me and took special care of me. I felt happy that the homeroom teacher had learned the truth.
I didn't forget my mission and went on to reveal the truth to my fellow classmates. One time, a classmate read a truth-telling Falun Gong article out loud in the classroom and received a round of applause. Seeing my classmates learning the truth I felt happy for them.
In July 2001, my mother returned from Masanjia Labor Camp. She immediately joined the work of helping Teacher in the human world to rectify the Fa.
After her return, the police often came to our house to disturb us for no reason, but we never cooperated with them. They took my father away on numerous occasions. Before April 25, 2002, about a dozen police officers surrounded our house in order to arrest my parents. We were not home that night so they failed. The police didn't give up and went to my father's company. My father escaped with righteous thoughts in mind. From that day on my parents were forced to flee from their home and wander about. I had to live at a fellow practitioner's home; but the police followed me to my new place. At 6 AM on July 17, 2002, seven or eight officers rushed in as soon as I opened the door. They illegally ransacked the practitioner's house. When they rushed into the house I was frightened and lost my righteous thoughts; my mind became blank. Later, when I looked back, I realized at the time I wasn't studying the Fa enough, my righteous thoughts weren't strong enough, and I was slacking off in telling the truth of Falun Gong, so the evils took advantage of my errors and persecuted me.
The police took the practitioner and me to the police station. As I entered the station I immediately remembered Teacher's words, "...face the evil people with righteous thoughts at all times." ("Dafa Disciples' Righteous Thoughts are Powerful") I was to face evil people with righteous thoughts and not cooperate with them. Whatever they asked me I either refused to answer or said I didn't know. They didn't dare look at me and had to lower their heads to ask me questions. I asked them to release me and said that they couldn't illegally detain a teenager not even 15 years old. They couldn't get any information from me so they let me go. They illegally detained the other practitioner and sent her to Masanjia Labor Camp to torture her.
After leaving the police station, I couldn't find my parents. I had nowhere to go, and my education was terminated. I didn't know where my parents were. I remember one night my sister and I were sitting in a park. We were staring at the sky and didn't know where to go. I wished to cry but I couldn't shed any tears.
With the help of practitioners we found a place to live. My sister and I value this environment tremendously. We get up at 4:50 in the morning and send forth righteous thoughts around 5. We then practice the first, third and fourth sets of exercises. We practice holding the wheels (the second set) after sending forth righteous thoughts again at 6 AM. We then do the sitting meditation after we send forth righteous thoughts at 7. At night we study the Fa together and clarify the truth. We feel that we have to treasure these last moments that Teacher has left for us. We have to complete the three things that Teacher has asked us to do: study the Fa well, clarify the truth, and send forth righteous thoughts. I used to think that my story was unworthy of mentioning. But I realized that I should tell it to reveal the evils. If not for the forced persecution from the old forces I would now be a middle school student. I wish that all practitioners would write out their experiences. Do not think that your story is uninteresting or not worthy of writing. Writing it out exposes the evils to the light of day and eliminates them.
Due to my lack of education my writing isn't that great. Please forgive my shortcomings.
August 14, 2003