(Clearwisdom.net) I first learned about Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) in 1997, yet did not start to actually practice until 1998. My health had been fairly good before I started practicing Dafa, and therefore I didn't come to it with any attachments of pursuit. I just felt that the principles were attractive to me, and the three words, "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance," seemed to call me. The more I read Zhuan Falun, the more I liked it. When I was halfway through the book, I experienced the state of guanding [pouring energy into the top of one's head - an internal cleansing] as Master mentioned in the book. The Fa let me understand the true meaning of life, and I came to understand its value. From then on, I took the path of cultivation, returning to my true self. People around me noticed that I practiced Falun Dafa, and they also started to learn the practice one after another. Through spreading Dafa by word of mouth, very quickly, more than 200 people started practicing Falun Dafa in our area. Whenever we went to the marketplace to spread the Fa and practice the exercises, there were always lots of people inquiring and watching. Seeing that Dafa was so peaceful and beautiful, they all wanted to practice.
1. Validating Dafa after the Environment Suddenly Changed
In April 1999, news was suddenly spread that in Tianjin City several dozen Falun Gong practitioners had been illegally arrested. Soon afterwards, personnel from our local police station came to our practice site saying that they wanted to learn the exercises. In fact, they had come to spy on us and we were all put on a blacklist. Every one of us felt that the situation had changed drastically. In July 1999, the evil persecution began. I thought, "Master is the person I respect most. He is the most righteous person. There is nothing wrong in teaching people to practice according to Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance. No person and no change of circumstances can take away the great trust I have in Master from deep within my heart."
Even under such pressure we made a decision, and five of us went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. However, we were arrested by the police halfway to Beijing when we were buying tickets. Several days later, a police chief came and said to me, "Your site coordinator said you were the main assistant." I replied that it was not important whether I was or not. I simply volunteered my time to provide assistance to everybody, and followed the standard of "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance" to be a good person. I told the police chief that we did nothing wrong and that our Master had done nothing wrong either. The police chief said, "Who cares about being wrong or not wrong. The authorities forbid you to practice, then you must not practice." At that time, due to the mentality of fear, I handed over two Dafa books. I thought, "I didn't say bad things about Dafa or about Master, what's the big deal of signing my name [on an agreement not to practice]? I'll continue the practice when I get back home." Later, I realized that this was making a compromise and cooperating with the evil persecution. Immediately afterwards, I published a solemn declaration nullifying any agreement not to practice Falun Dafa and stated that I intended to continue practicing.
From then on, due to Jiang Zemin's group's ruthless persecution, we lost our practice environment. In those days, the site coordinators and assistants were arrested, fake lectures were spread around, and some practitioners were either afraid to practice or practiced secretly at home. Seeing this situation, I felt very anxious. I tried to get in contact with Dafa disciples in various regions. I got in contact with some disciples who were able to access the Minghui website [the Chinese version of Clearwisdom]. We developed an experience sharing environment in our area and we were able to deliver Minghui articles to each area in a timely manner. At that time, some fellow practitioners didn't trust Minghui, so I showed them Master's comments about Minghui and Master's poem, "The Knowing Heart."
After our fellow practitioners improved in their cultivation under this environment, those who could, all stepped out to validate Dafa. We made "truth-clarification" flyers and banners, and posted information on the walls in public places. Every one of us did his or her best to clarify the truth and save sentient beings who had been deceived by the anti-Falun Gong propaganda.
One time, when I clarified the truth to a village head, he reported me to the authorities. The local police station arrested me and sent me to a detention center. There, I clarified the truth to the inmates and police officers, and started a hunger strike to protest my illegal detention. Five days later, the police dragged me into a police van and drove me to the hospital for force-feeding. At that time, my human thinking surfaced. I thought that they had so many people there, including prisoners and police officers, and I probably couldn't resist them. Therefore I drank half a bottle of powdered milk. After seeing me drinking, they said, "We will write a "guarantee statement" for you to say that you will stop practicing. You just need to sign your name, and then you can go back home." I firmly refused. Then they conspired to put me into a forced labor camp.
At this time, my fellow practitioners came to see me, and it seemed like Master was giving me hints through their mouths: "How can you feel at ease eating and staying here? Don't you know people outside are waiting for you, and your family is looking forward to seeing you getting out of here!" They gave me Master's articles, "The Catastrophe" and "Foretelling the Fa's Rectification of the Human World."
After studying the Fa, I realized that I had significant responsibilities, and that I must get out to save sentient beings. I couldn't stay in detention any longer. The authorities wanted to send me to a forced labor camp. But I knew that what they said didn't count; I listened only to Master's words and Master wanted me to save the sentient beings. Therefore, I found the team leader and told him, "If you don't release me, I am going to resume the hunger strike." Then I continued the hunger strike for five more days, and they released me.
2. Validating the Fa in Beijing
On December 17, 2000, three of us went to Beijing, but we were abducted when passing through Tianjin. The fourteen of us Dafa practitioners who were illegally imprisoned formed a whole body. We maintained a hunger strike to protest our illegal arrest and recited the Fa together. On the third night, the guards did not allow us to sleep and forced us to stand throughout the night. The next morning, they made a big pot of porridge and were ready to force-feed us. We held hands tightly and didn't let them pull away a single fellow practitioner for force-feeding. One practitioner's tooth was knocked out, but we continued the protest, and their attempt to force-feed us ended in vain.
Afterwards, observing our safeguarding Dafa in such a determined way, some policemen were moved to tears. They took me and another practitioner and said, "You are all good people. We need to come up with some ideas for how we can let you out." At that time, all that was on my mind was to go to Beijing to validate Dafa and so I said, "You have released a lot of people who had been arrested for not having the proper identification; you could release us the same way. The condition is that we do not tell you our real names, and you may write down any names you like." They agreed, so we all left and went to a practitioner's home near Beijing.
Some practitioners were stopped several times along the way, and all their money was confiscated. The rest of us shared our money with them. The local practitioners gave us lots of help, and we held a small experience sharing conference. Together we studied Master's lecture, "Teaching the Fa at the Great Lakes Fa Conference in North America."
Afterwards, fourteen of us went to Beijing. We stood in front of Tiananmen Square and exclaimed from the bottom of our hearts, "Falun Dafa is Good! Restore our Master's Reputation!" That feeling was solemn and significant. All thoughts of fear were gone. A group of policemen rushed towards us, kicking and hitting us, and forced us into police vans. They drove us to the Tiananmen police station. Between the two buildings, there was a big iron gate that was locked. The police continually brought in more practitioners who had been arrested on Tiananmen Square. We recited Master's articles together, and shouted words to validate Dafa. The police used their batons to beat the practitioners frequently, and many practitioners were covered with blood. At about 9 o'clock in the morning, the hallway could no longer hold all the people, so they used a big bus and drove us to Miyun Detention Center.
At Miyun Detention Center, the police took our pictures and videotaped us. They called us in for interrogation, one after the other. In the end, only one practitioner and I were left in the yard. At about 4:00 p.m., a police van came and took me to the police station. A police officer asked me, "What are you doing in Beijing?" I said, "I shouted 'Falun Dafa is Good, Restore our Master's Reputation.'" They tried to deceive me by saying some comforting words, and then said, "Tell us your name and address, then we'll let you go home." I recognized these tricks and so I said, "I will not tell you. If I did, you would persecute me even further."
Then I clarified the truth to them. I told them about my personal experience and about the peacefulness and the beauty of Dafa. I told them that Jiang's groups' repression of Falun Dafa is wrong and told them not to be misled into persecuting good people. The police officers seemed to understand what I said. They didn't say much, but sent me back to the detention center.
When it was almost dark outside, practitioners were sent back one after another. Some were beaten to the point that their entire bodies were covered in blood. Some had a lot of hair pulled out, some were beaten so badly that their legs were swollen, and some were beaten unconscious and had bruises all over their bodies. The police poured water on them to wake them up. The police also used electric batons and electric needles to shock female practitioners' private parts. The police tore off some practitioners' clothing, leaving them in just their underwear, and handcuffed them to the police vehicle or a tree in the cold winter weather.
They continued the persecution the next day. Seeing my fellow practitioners suffering such ruthless torture, my heart was crying. I came up with one thought: I have the responsibility to expose the police's evil conduct. It was 4:00 p.m. when the police vehicle arrived and drove me to the police department again. I exposed to them the fact that their officers beat our Dafa practitioners. They wanted to release me immediately. I said that I wouldn't leave until every one of my fellow practitioners was also released. I also told them that a practitioner's leg was broken from the beating and I had the responsibility to look after her.
The next day, they called out the practitioner whose leg was broken and she never came back. I thought they had might have beaten her to death. I then knocked hard on the window and the door of our cell, and shouted very loudly. The police asked me what I was shouting for. I asked, "Where is that practitioner? Did you beat her to death? If you have killed her, you have to kill all of us in this room. Otherwise we will come back looking for you to obtain justice, even if there is only one of us left!" They asked the gate keeper to find out what had happen to that practitioner. Soon he came back and told me that she had been released. After a five-day hunger strike, the eleven of us were released unconditionally.
The first thing I did after I was released was to check on whether that practitioner had really been set free. I made a phone call to her home, and her family members confirmed that she did return home.
3. Experiencing All Kinds of Tribulations, Practicing Dafa Steadfastly
During these past six years of persecution, as a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple, I was able to hand out truth-clarifying flyers, Master's lectures and "Minghui Weekly" to fellow practitioners. As soon as some practitioners were released from the forced labor camps, I would find them and help them quickly come back to the Fa-rectification. I went from house to house to clarify the truth together with fellow practitioners. I always managed to clarify the truth to any person I met, yet there were also quite a few regrets.
In my eight years of cultivation practice, sometimes I had strong righteous thoughts, and sometimes I had too many human thoughts and hence had to go through trials and tribulations. Because of my various attachments, I was illegally arrested and detained at detention centers and brainwashing centers several times. The evil's intention was only one: to "transform" practitioners and to not let them succeed in cultivation. Although I didn't write the three statements, nor was I "transformed," I was sometimes released after holding a hunger strike. But sometimes my human notions were strong and my thoughts weren't righteous, thereby causing my family to use their personal connections and pay a lot of money to help me out. They have lost nearly ten thousand yuan, which has caused great pain to my family, both financially and mentally. Furthermore, this also acknowledged the evil conduct of abduction and extortion.
My daughter once wrote in her diary, "I have a great mom. She was able to persevere with what she wanted to accomplish in her life." Going through frequent tribulations in these years, my family environment has gradually improved. We were able to resist the pressure from outside factors. My family has experienced all kinds of difficulties, and I realize the seriousness of cultivation even more now.
Although I am now living a homeless life outside my hometown, no matter where I go, I will definitely not stop practicing Falun Dafa. I can find fellow practitioners wherever I am, and I am able to read each issue of "Minghui Weekly" and do the three things that Master has told us to do. I know my life has a mission and I must fulfill my great prehistoric vows. Master said,
"Everyone, keep up your diligent efforts! Human history does not exist for
[people] to take being human as its final goal, nor is human history a recreation ground created for the evil to display its viciousness. Mankind's history was
established for the Fa-rectification, and only Dafa disciples are worthy of
displaying their glory here." ("To the 2005 European Experience Sharing
Conference")
