(Clearwisdom.net)
Early this morning I was reading, "Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference."
"Question: The evil beings don't allow the students in Mainland China who have been sentenced to or kept in labor camps to study the Fa or do the exercises. In other words, they don't have the conditions to practice cultivation. How can they reach Consummation?
"Teacher: I often see students like this: 'You don't let me do the exercises, but I insist on doing them. You don't let me study, but I insist on studying. I just won't listen to you evil beings. All you can do is threaten me with death, right?' Of course, Master has said that here to you, who are cultivators. But even so, Master doesn't want to say it, because if everyday people hear it they won't be able to understand. What I'm telling you is that when you're truly able to let go of the thought of life or death you can do anything!"
This is the fifth time I have read this Fa, and I would like to recall some of what actually happened more than five years ago (2000-2003), when many practitioners validated Dafa with their lives, moved forward diligently, and eventually achieved group Fa study and an environment to do the exercises in the evil forced labor camps, and share with fellow practitioners who are still in this condition as a reference.
After July 20, 1999, every practitioner had to step on a rough path of cultivation. The evil beings came down from the sky and spread widely, blocking our way to move forward. Every steadfast practitioner in China faced the risk of being seized, beaten, arrested, and having his or her property confiscated. The pressure was enormous, but countless Falun Dafa practitioners were not afraid of death, violence, or the brutal, bloody persecution of Jiang's regime. Large numbers of Falun Dafa disciples stepped out to validate the Fa against such pressure. On January 19, 2000, I also stepped on this boundless way, like thousands of fellow practitioners. I was held in custody, taken to forced labor camps and brainwashing centers, one after another. No matter where I was, I practiced the exercises in public. Whether it was the detention center in Hebei or in Inner Mongolia, I still practiced the five sets of exercises. After I was released, I heard that many police officers and some other people had all squeezed in front of the monitor and watched me with concentration--they had probably never seen our practice done systematically. At that time, when I first stepped out to appeal, I was prepared to not come back alive. In the detention center, when the police first warned not to study the Fa or practice the exercises, I said, "I am a Falun Dafa practitioner. I will study the Fa and practice the exercises, but I will not do anything else you prohibit. These two things are nonnegotiable." I studied the Fa (I mainly recited the Fa at that time) and publicly practiced the exercises. When I was arrested for the second time, I practiced the exercises as usual. To protest the persecution, as soon as we were taken in, we 30 practitioners held a hunger strike to request the unconditional release of illegally detained innocent practitioners and restore justice to our Teacher and Dafa. As obnoxious and evil as the authorities were, practitioners in every cell practiced they exercises together. The authorities had no way of taking control, but they did confiscate our Dafa books, and we could no longer learn the Fa.
We conducted a hunger strike to protest. On the ninth day, I begged Teacher in my heart, "Teacher, as a Dafa disciple, being unable read Zhuan Falun is worse than dying." I thought all the practitioners thirsted for Fa study like I did. When the morning shift officers came to inspect, I said I wanted my book back because I wanted to study the Fa. Unexpectedly, as soon as I said that, I truly entered into another state. I heard all my neighbors and friends come to my side to hold my head and cry their eyes out. Many doctors and a roomful of police officers also surrounded me. I heard a voice in the chaos. It was a policeman suggesting to a group of approaching officers, "Use her Teacher's book. See if it can bring her through." Someone else answered, "Quickly, go to find the book. Quick, quick, bring all here." Another voice said, "Find the Dafa book." The whole room became silent, as if everyone was holding his or her breath. Then I heard an animated voice say, "Miss, quickly wake up! Look! Your Teacher is here." I opened my eyes as if I had been revived from death. I sat up and saw the section chief of public security bureau holding the book in both hands. He had turned to the page with Teacher's Buddha image. It was he that had yelled to wake me up and told me that my Teacher had come. As soon as I saw Teacher's image, I could not hold back my tears. Instantly I wanted to get up to grab the book, but the police chief quickly took a cup of water from a doctor, moved the water close to me, and moved the book further away. He said, "After you drink this water, I will give you the book." In order to have the book, I did not have a second thought but simply drank the water. Finally, I started Fa study again after several days of interruption. I had no disturbance at all. It as if I was at home, eagerly reading "Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Singapore." Just after I finished the last page, someone came in and deceived me, saying that I had a visitor. I was taken out of the cell, dragged into a car, and secretly transferred to Jingan Hotel, where I was put under house arrest.
I continued to hold hunger strikes, demanding practitioners' unconditional release. Later I was set free. I rested for two days, and then the authorities secretly sentenced me to three years of forced labor without any legal procedure. In order to create an environment to study the Fa, practice the exercises, and take off the prisoner's uniform at the forced labor camp, practitioners used their wisdom. Everyone was steadfast, utilized every means to oppose the persecution, and even used their lives to protect the universal truth. Some people became paralyzed from the torture; some lost control of their bowels from the tight tying of ropes; some people's ribs were broken; some people's eyes were injured; some people's coccyx were broken into pieces; some were cuffed and hung up; some people were stabbed with needles; some people's fingers were broken off; some had bruises on their faces and bodies from beatings. The place was full of evilness, viciousness and cruelty. Terrible things happened everyday in the dark confinement cells. Under the sinister and horrible persecution, practitioners challenged the police officers' illegal acts and realized the importance of cooperating with each other.
In April 2000, over 70 practitioners took off their prison uniforms and then conducted a collective hunger strike, refusing to perform slave labor. This move employed two methods to achieve one goal, and we succeeded. We all got our own clothes back, did not work, and had more time to study the Fa together and exchange views and improve together. When we studied the Fa, we mainly loudly recited together Lunyu, Zhuan Falun, and Hong Yin. That precise, ringing sound penetrated the universe and convulsed the world. The evil was really frightened. That period of time was the best environment we had for group Fa study and practicing the exercises. We memorized Teacher's new articles and recited them together. When the guards found out and came to search for the articles, we had already committed them to our minds and hearts. After every search, the guards asked, "Hiding more?" Practitioners would answer with humor, "Yes!" "Where?" And we would point to our heads and answer, "Here." The guards felt helpless and became less aggressive. Once the guards even called me out and secretly asked, "We have two fully armed sentry posts, and the National Security Bureau, so this place is really secure. How did you get the new articles?" I answered with a smile, "How can gods let humans know what they do! Ha ha, you should hurry up and study the Fa, and when you become a Falun Dafa practitioner, you will naturally understand." Afterwards the guards suspected that certain practitioners had supernatural capabilities, so they identified nine influential practitioners, pulled them out, and re-assembled them into a class called the "subordinate class." The guards decided to let those nine people study and practice whatever way they liked, as long as the others would not practice. Hence, on January 26, 2001, they selected one person from each of the nine teams and put them into the subordinate class. Our nine people shared experiences as soon as we met. We had to shoulder heavy responsibilities. On the first day, we decided that, before the National People's Congress and The Political Consultation Conference meeting on March 5, everyone had to write a letter to directly expose Jiang Zemin's disgraceful human rights' violations, using his power to violate and ignore the law. We submitted nine such letters to the National People's Congress, ordering Jiang Zemin to stop damaging the citizens, stop lying, and stop trampling on the national constitution. Then, beginning March 1, 2001, all the practitioners refused water and food to protest the evil persecution. From the very first day, we studied the Fa and practiced the exercises as usual and strictly refused water and food. This act of truly letting go of life and death scared the evil away completely, and no one came to stop us from studying the Fa and practicing. Two new guards only required the people monitoring us to touch our noses every five minutes to see whether we had stopped breathing. Later those two also learned Dafa. In order to convince me, they often recited a paragraph of Fa to me.
On the night of March 27, 2001, I wrote the article "To All Fellow Practitioners Worldwide." On the third day after finishing this article, two guards thought that I might die. One of them had me brought to the meeting room and said with tears, "I also like 'Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance.' I secretly practice the exercises at home everyday, and I dreamed of Teacher last night." This officer ignored the others. In front of all of them, she held my hands, sat on my bed, and asked me to teach her the movements for the sitting meditation. I certainly taught her and comforted her not to cry and not to be anxious. I pointed at the other eight practitioners, "They all practice better than I. You can still ask them." The average man says, "If a person is not afraid of death, then what in the world can frighten him!" Of course, Falun Dafa practitioners are essentially different from everyday people. When a practitioner can truly let go of life and death, his level increases in rationality and in the Fa, and he has abandoned the worldly substance of "fear." In practice, he achieves the realm of surpassing everyday people, and his level is higher than the level at which the "fear" exists. Therefore, "fear" cannot restrict lives in higher realms.
Every fellow practitioner let go of life or death, so we could have the only place of sunshine and pure land in the dark den of evil forces. We could study the Fa, practice the exercises, and clarify the truth much better than in any other place or environment. On the night of the 27th day of our hunger strike, our nine people embroidered "Falun Dafa is Good" on a snow-white silk scarf and the bright red and beautiful silk lining of new winter clothing. One person wrote the characters, another cut them out, someone else tacked the characters down, and another person sewed them on. Nine people composed and embroidered these characters full of power. On either side of the characters, we embroidered two very beautiful flowers! In that environment of "hundreds of hardships drop at once" (draft translation) that was full of evil, if we did not truly let go of life and death, it would have been impossible for us to study the Fa in groups, practice the exercises, and make those characters. This was an exact manifestation of Teacher's teaching:
"What I'm telling you is that when you're truly able to let go of the thought of life or death you can do anything!" ("Teaching and Explaining the Fa
at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference")
On March 29, 2001, I was put into solitary confinement. Other inmates no longer monitored me, but I also was no longer with my eight diligent sisters. I entered a new environment alone, with only one thought in mind, "No matter where I go, as long as I am still alive, I shall assist the Teacher in Fa-rectification!" Later they put me in a reception room, where officers took turns supervising me around the clock. I tried my best to earnestly explain the truth to every one of them. Strangely, they were very surprised and moved, as if they had never heard of the truth. In my 10 days of isolation, more than 70 officers out the 87 in the brigade supervised me or especially came to see me. Most of them came out of curiosity. Because I did not take any food or water, I should have died much earlier, according to everyday people's medical analysis. Because almost all the guards believed this, they thought it was a practitioner's supernatural phenomena allowing a momentary recovery of consciousness just before dying. So every police officer that visited me suddenly became kind. The kindness I tasted during that period of time came from their true souls, including the most recognized evil policeman. During his visit, he also thoroughly revealed his caring side to me. After everyone had listened to my truth clarification, they all cursed Jiang for being so immoral and said, "He does not pay attention to the corrupt officials and bad people but bullies good people instead. You go ahead and follow Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance. Sister, do not endure any more. We will help you to fight!" They showed their true feelings and were very angry. In those 10 days, the essential truthfulness and kindness of human nature was completely demonstrated and vindicated in front of me. There were no accusation, only comfort and sympathy. This was arranged to save one more life, let one more life accept "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance." Actually, because I did not drink water, I appeared to be on the verge of death. Even still, I tried my best to maintain a sweet smile and be gentle. Even though I could only use my weak voice with difficulty, I meticulously told the truth to every new face. Some of them quietly turned their faces and secretly wiped away their tears, and some became enamored and wanted to sing for me. Afterwards I heard the sound of sobbing, which passed from person to person. Someone said, "Come quickly and look at Falun Gong (the nickname they used for me). Possibly she is not going to make it." On the 37th day, the Bureau of Justice sent a doctor to perform a transfusion, but she could not inject it into my body. The doctor pulled out the needle and found that a blood clot had clogged the needle. Then she started to cry loudly. That day, they feared I would die in the labor camp, so they immediately transferred me to the City No. 2 Hospital for a transfusion and emergency treatment and notified my family to take me home. Before I left the labor camp, the officer recognized as the most evil policeman in the camp (but who actually also had kind thoughts) and the unit head who had learned the sitting meditation movements wrote some final notes about me. This time they asked me to sit at the chairman's podium, while they sat below me and raised questions. The entire process was very peaceful. They recorded everything meticulously, according to my wishes and even gave me the pen and said, "Have a look. If there is anything inappropriate, you can make changes yourself."
The above are recollections from five years ago. I clearly know all practitioners in Mainland China are doing well. As a particle of Dafa, I only did a bit of what everybody has done, and there is nothing to brag about. Today I understand from the Fa that writing this is to validate the Fa, not showing off, so I picked up my pen to write it. We are Dafa disciples. Every particle feels the boundless power of Dafa. For everything we do, we should stand on the side of Teacher and reflect, so that we can deeply understand. You have Teacher and the Fa, Falun rotates constantly, and the Buddle Fa is boundless. I have experienced and am living proof of the truth of "when you're truly able to let go of the thought of life or death you can do anything!"