(Clearwisdom.net)

I enlightened to the following: Cultivation practice is extremely serious and a small amount of effort will not meet the standard. In the past, although I had memorized the Fa, and I had talked and thought about not acknowledging the old forces, unknowingly, I occasionally used human principles to deal with the persecution. For example, I said, "I will not give up my beliefs and even death cannot convert me." Wasn't that an acknowledgement of the old forces' arrangement? With this kind of omission, the old forces can continue to persecute a practitioner because of the willingness to die during the persecution.

My fellow practitioners, absolutely do not believe that the more we suffer, the better or the higher we can cultivate. The cultivation process for a practitioner is one of constantly giving up human attachments. During cultivation practice, the evil may exploit attachments left in the human heart. Dafa practitioners should deny the exploitation with righteous thoughts that emerge from Fa study. Thus, under whatever circumstance, we must study the Fa well and melt into the Fa, enabling us to take every step steadily on our cultivation paths.

(1) Memorizing the Fa to Firm Up Righteous Thoughts and Negate Brainwashing

In November 2002, the prison officers at the Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp of Hebei Province started another round of high-pressure brainwashing tactics. They put serial numbers on each steadfast practitioner and assigned a group of camp personnel to convert each one.

The camp police chief Yang Zemin, policeman Wang, Zhao Yanping, and policewoman Chen were the group assigned to brainwash me. They coupled threats with promises and methodically escalated their brainwashing tactics.

To begin with, Yang and collaborators took turns to tire me out. They did not let me sleep and kept trying to deceive, seduce and draw me over to their side. Fortunately, I had memorized the Fa, including Teacher's short articles, the collected poems in Hong Yin and other pieces of Teacher's works and was able to recite the Fa for up to four hours. So, I seized this opportunity to recite Teacher's articles to the collaborators to awaken and save them.

The periods they attempted to convert me became my Fa-study time. As soon as they started to talk, I recited Teacher's words to them with dignity and diligence. After over an hour of reciting, I stopped to check their response. One simply whispered, "We are not converting her; she is converting us".

Many times they sent college graduates to brainwash me with their ideology. I would recite Teacher's words for the whole half day to negate their attempts. They told the team leader, "The old lady did not give us a chance to talk, and we could not say a single word because she was reciting Falun Dafa books during the whole afternoon." After almost two weeks of the persecutors taking turns, they could not brainwash me, so they started to viciously beat me.

(2) Upholding the Righteous Belief in Dafa to Eradicate the Evil's Brutal Tortures

One afternoon right after lunch, four camp guards and two helpers pushed and dragged me to an open field where some torture equipment was set up. They took off my shoes and forced me into the torture position of "sitting on the latrine pit." I had to squat with my hands pulled to their respective sides, with each locked to an iron ring on the ground.

The guards surrounded me to deceive, cajole and coerce me into renouncing Falun Gong. I simply didn't listen to them, but quietly recited Teacher's poem, "Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions"

A Great Enlightened Being does not fear hardship
Having forged an adamantine will
And with no attachment to living or dying
He walks his path of Fa-rectification openly and nobly

I told myself that I have Teacher and the Fa, and Teacher is with me. I kept reciting the poem without any disturbance in my mind. They tried in vain to ask, "Do you want to convert or not?" Seeing my cool-headedness and firmness, a policeman picked up a heavy wooden rod and hit me in the back. Although the strikes made loud noises, I did not feel the blows. Immediately, I knew that our great, benevolent Teacher was protecting me.

While hitting and beating me, guards kept trying to extract a concession from me. At that time, I felt as stable and solid as a mountain, without any fear. My mind focused on reciting the article, "Your Main Consciousness Should Predominate, Your Mind Must be Right." During this, I was melting into the Fa and not listening to their rubbish. Then, they told me that my mother had passed away, trying break my resolve with sentiment. I replied, "It's not unexpected since my mom was 84. I should have been with her, but you illegally deprived me of my personal freedom. This unlawful detention is your doing, and you are persecuting my whole family."

Then, they tried to trick me by saying, "As soon as you convert, camp police chief Yang will personally give you a ride home for the Chinese New Year." I replied, "Dafa gave me a second life, and as a practitioner, I will not do anything wicked against heavenly law, such as selling out my conscience." Meanwhile, I held only one thought in my mind: "Under any circumstance, a practitioner must not betray Teacher or Falun Dafa because that would be a sinful deed."

I kept thinking that since I was a practitioner, I must firmly uphold Teacher and Falun Dafa. Then, one article after another, "The Knowing Heart," "Position," "True Nature Revealed," and "Suffocate the Evil" appeared in my mind. This helped me to become more solid and steady.

Next, the lawless thugs used electric batons to shock me. I did not feel anything. Then, they called in a dog to bite me. The ferocious dog rushed toward me, but then turned its head away and ran somewhere else as if sidetracked. They tried to run over me with a car, but the brakes suddenly kicked in. At that moment, I was thinking, "Whom are you are trying to scare?" Then, the car made horrible horn noises but I stayed calm and maintained my composure. They ran out of tricks, so they again resorted to brutal beatings. Seven or eight of them beat me with their fists, clubs, whips and electric batons.

All of a sudden, I thought of Teacher's poem "The Chill of Autumn's Winds"

The evil ones should think twice about their flagrant savagery,
When Heaven and Earth are bright again, down to the boiling cauldron they go;
Punches and kicks do little to change people's hearts,
Violent winds usher in an autumn with even harsher chill.

Those attackers, who were supposed to be enforcing the laws they broke, wasted the whole afternoon and suffered in the cold. Their efforts were in vain, and they had to take me back to the camp.

(3) Righteous Thought and Righteous Belief to Do Away with Inhuman Torture

The camp personnel took me to a torture room instead of the dormitory. In below-freezing temperatures, with bare feet, I was forced to squat on torture equipment and suffered inhuman torment.

The guards, led by Yang Zemin, shocked my mouth and face with electric batons. My mouth was full of blisters, and my ear lobes swelled up as large as bells, going down to my shoulders. I had open wounds on my nose.

They escalated the brutal torture with two electric batons constantly shocking my feet. I could smell my burning flesh. Then, they shocked my legs until my whole body was twitching back and forth. As I uncontrollably convulsed, the guards told detained drug addicts to hold me tight, so they could continue to shock me all over my body. They applied the shocks to my toes one by one and even inserted a nail between the toes to make the electric shocks more intense. They used wooden rods to hit my insteps, causing my feet to swell to the shape of bread loafs.

Looking at the electric torture devices, a guard named Cheng challenged me: "Today you have to convert, no matter how much you resist." In my heart I answered, "It's not up to you, but up to me to decide. And I refuse." He shocked my ten toes one after another, pausing only to ask for my recantation. Each time I refused, he increased the pressure. My toes became purple, swelled up and began to fester. The camp police also used iron nails to cut my feet, causing bloody wounds. They baked hot red peppers and made paste out of them, and inserted the paste into my nostrils and mouth. They also put pepper powder on my nose, mouth and eyes. There was so much pepper dust in the air, the police themselves began to sneeze continually. But I only could slightly smell the pepper powder at first and then could not smell any of it at all. A guard said, "This old lady is numb."

They then used firecracker fuses to burn my hands and face, and used the paper rolls to clean my nose, causing me to sneeze. Basically, I did not feel anything they did to me. Clearheaded, I knew that Teacher was bearing the pain for me.

Failing to convert me, the guards swarmed around me, increasing the electric shocks while beating me with batons. They also punched, whipped and hit me with sticks. They tightened "wolf teeth" handcuffs on me that cut into my flesh. I still have scars on my wrists. They also had two drug addicts with long fingernails pinch my nipples, ribs, neck, and inner thighs. The camp guards were shouting, "Pinch her until she cries out!" The scars were with me for half a year.

With all their efforts in vain, the camp police dragged me out to the wide field again. They forced me to sit on the icy ground and covered my body with snow. Then they told me to walk on the snowy ground. I refused, and they ordered two drug addicts to pull and push me along. During the walk, I kept dropping down. The male guards poured excrement over me. They brought a pan of warm liquid that emitted a horrible smell, and they forced me to crawl while they poured it over me. I did not sense any bad smell, but all the guards ran far away while covering their noses with their hands.

For twelve hours, the camp personnel repeatedly tortured me. But with Teacher's merciful protection, I emerged from the torture. During the 45 days of torture and high-pressure brainwashing tactics, Teacher opened my Third Eye to let me enlighten, to encourage me and to help me pass through the tribulations. In Touring North America to Teach the Fa, Teacher said, "When you conduct yourselves righteously Master can do anything for you." That is really true!