(Clearwisdom.net) First I want to thank the Minghui website for giving us a chance to share our experiences. Although it has been a relatively uneventful eleven years of cultivation for me, we are fortunate to be in the great historic period of Fa-rectification. What we have experienced is divine and meaningful.
The three people in my household began cultivation in 1997 when my son was ten years old. We see ourselves as being among disciples who cultivate smoothly and steadily according to the Fa without stirring deeds. Being Beijing practitioners during the time of the CCP's frenzied persecution, we have survived the hard times with a righteous and firm belief in Master and Dafa.
1. My experiences on April 25, 1999
My whole family was a part of the "April 25" appeal to the Communist regime. The night before, our coordinator told us about police arresting practitioners in Tianjin, and said that practitioners would go to the central government office the next day. All practitioners were welcome to take part if they wished. My wife and I thought it was the responsibility of every disciple to do so. We asked our son, who also wanted to go, and our whole family went.
In the early morning of April 25, the practitioners gathered at the exercise site. Everyone smiled and didn't appear to be nervous. At about 6:30 a.m., we went to Zhongnanhai, where many practitioners had already gathered. We stood along the street quietly without slogans or banners.
My wife, son and I stood in the front of the line. Our son stood with us for five to six hours, never complaining. A few practitioners took out bottled water, bread and other snacks to share with others as lunch. More and more onlookers gathered in the streets and some crossroads were blocked. Several practitioners took the initiative to direct traffic and others collected trash and disposed of it properly. Passersby were drawn by the scene and wondered what kind of people we were, and why our gathering of so many was so orderly, quiet and peaceful. Practitioners kindly explained and told them what Falun Gong is all about. It was the first time for many people to hear about Falun Gong, and we discovered that some people questioning us were actually government agents.
At about 9:00 pm, we were informed that Premier Zhu had met with practitioners, and the problem had been resolved. The historic "April 25" incident concluded after more than ten thousand practitioners appealed peacefully for about 15 hours.
2. My experiences on July 20, 1999
The morning of July 21, 1999, we heard that the regime had begun to persecute Falun Gong. Many coordinators at different exercise sites were arrested in a unified action all over the country. We were very surprised. What should we do? We communicated briefly with each other and thought the real test had come. We decided to immediately go to the regime headquarters to appeal.
We returned home and told our son. Even though he was in elementary school, we thought that a young disciple should also take part in protecting the Fa. Our son decided to appeal along with us.
We saw crowds of police in the early morning of July 22, as we just got off the bus near the State Bureau for Letters and Calls. The police were assigned at different crossroads and wanted to block people from getting closer to the building. The police shouted at us and asked what we were doing. As long they saw anybody carrying bags, they simply snatched them, took things out of the bags and threw them on the ground. Many practitioners gathered from all directions.
Then, unidentified people arrived to make trouble and wanted to disperse the line. Suddenly someone shouted out, and another person yelled that someone was struck. Our line fell into confusion, and then some practitioners spoke loudly, "Practitioners, calm down and stand orderly in the queue. We should never present a mess. We came here to reflect the real situation instead of making trouble." Practitioners linked arms, stood there and didn't let the government agents scatter our queue. A large group of police then surrounded the practitioners. At noon, some buses came and we were pushed onto the buses and sent to the suburbs. Practitioners recited Master's scriptures on the way there. We were first sent to the Fentai Stadium, and then to a big courtyard of a town government.
In September 1999, my wife and I went to State Bureau for Letters and Calls again to tell them the facts about Master and Dafa. Before we left, I heard that the regime had turned the bureau into a police department, and that police from different provinces waited there to arrest people. As we got close to the Bureau, a crowd of police officers emerged and surrounded us. In the confusion, my wife and I lost contact with each other. I was subsequently illegally imprisoned in a temporary office in the Bureau. They asked for my name and address, and then they called people in my hometown's Government Liaison Office in Beijing and ordered them to immediately take me away.
3. Master, we are coming
Practitioners often communicated with each other and prepared to go to Tiananmen Square to protect the Fa on New Year's Eve. I was released because I had written a guarantee statement. I felt tired in body and mind. Besides, I had just received a translation assignment and got a 3,000 yuan advance, with the promise of another 7,000 yuan once the translation was completed.
I made a mental commitment: No matter what happens and how much it costs me, this time I must go to Tiananmen Square to protect the Fa. I realized the moment I made the decision, I had let go of the issue of life and death. I relaxed suddenly, as if a huge weight had dropped off my shoulders.
My wife also decided to go to Tiananmen Square; she was firm and insisted on accompanying me. On New Year's Eve in the afternoon we made final preparations to go.
That day, I went to see my boss and brought the 3,000 yuan advance with me. Our conversation went as follows.
Boss: Why couldn't you finish the translation? Do you not have enough time?
Me: That's right. I will go to Tiananmen Square tonight.
Boss: You can take the three thousand with you.
Me: It is not proper for me to accept payment, as I haven't finished the job.
Boss: Once you return from Tiananmen Square, you can work on the translation.
Me: I probably will not be able to return.
Boss: I will wait for you to come back.
Me: Thanks.
I put the money into my jacket pocket and understood that Master was encouraging me through my boss' words. I believe Master was telling me that I would return from protecting the Fa at Tiananmen Square and do the translation after that.
At 11:30 a.m., we went out and walked toward the front gate of the square. There were many people in the square, wandering around and taking pictures. Then we were at our position, looked at our watch and knew it was time. I put my hand inside my clothes, took out the Dafa banner, unfolded it to the sky and shouted in my mind, "Master, we have come! Your disciples have come!"
We declared to the whole world, "Falun Dafa is the righteous Fa," and "Restore our Master's reputation."
At that moment I felt my life dissolving into the Fa, and my body was as light as a feather, without fear or tension. Instead, I felt strong compassion and pride. Several police officers ran toward me. I quickly stepped aside and went running. They quickly beat me to the ground and then punched and kicked me. Strangely enough, I felt no pain, as if my body had separated from me. It seemed that the police officers were beating someone else. Later on my wife told me that at that moment, she suddenly couldn't see anything. She didn't see how the police beat me, as if something had suddenly covered me.
4. Mailing letters
On August 15, 2001, Master published the article "Fa-Rectification Period Dafa Disciples," which my wife read over and over. We were excited for a long time. Master gave us the name "Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples"! We came here for the Fa and for assisting Master to rectify the Fa.
My wife and I decided to clarify the truth with letters. We bought the necessary supplies and began to put the letters together. Our first addresses came from business cards that I had. With more and more letters mailed out, we became better at it.
We mailed once per week, on Sundays, with each mailing consisting of 100 or 150 letters. My wife and I did it separately. I put letters into mailboxes from the northern part of the city to the southern part. My wife and my son went from east to west. We happily walked along Beijing's streets, with light steps and broad smiles. Between September 2001 and September 2006, we mailed out about 30,000 letters.
5. Offering relatives salvation requires good self-cultivation
When I was just released from labor camp, my older sister expressed her dissatisfaction with my wife. While I was in the labor camp, my wife repeatedly mailed materials to my older sister, who refused to listen to my wife's persuasion. My sister was angry at her for the mail. In my large family, my wife's prestige was high, as she was always kind and gentle, showing consideration for her husband and being amiable with relatives. My sister told me, "You have been sentenced to forced labor. How would your family cope if something happened to her? What would your son do? You adults might sacrifice or be imprisoned for your belief, but you should not entangle your child."
To my surprise, all of my relatives thought like this. Before I was sent to forced labor, they had listened to us telling them about Falun Gong and even expressed sympathy and understanding for our suffering. But now, as they worried about our safety, they no longer wanted to hear any of our explanations and used various ways to discourage our choice. I found that their worries for us far outweighed their attention to Dafa. This result was the opposite of our original intention of clarifying the truth to them and rescuing them. Due to our being persecuted, our relatives had resistance to Dafa on different levels. This was against our expectations and increased our difficulties in clarifying the truth to them.
When we searched inside ourselves, we discovered another fault of paying attention only to our cultivation but ignoring relatives' feelings. For example, when my wife and I resolutely went to appeal for Dafa, my relatives thought we were not being responsible to the family. We surely sacrificed for sentient beings, but they thought that we were selfish to care about our own cultivation instead of other people's feelings.
My wife and I realized that to rescue relatives, we had to cultivate ourselves well first. We understood that first we needed to help our family not worry about us and establish a good family environment. With Master's help, I quickly found a job that paid 5,000 yuan per month, and my wife also found a contract job. We had a steady income. Our family felt very happy and hoped we would never live in exile.
My wife invited my parents, two sisters and younger brother to visit us in Beijing at their convenience. They took us up on our invitation and visited us. When they saw our clean sitting room, living room, kitchen and much food in the refrigerator, and how all of us were healthy and happy, they were delighted and said that now they could set their hearts at rest.
My older sister admired my wife again and wondered why my wife had such a rosy complexion now and could do any kind of physical work. My wife explained that this was the benefit of cultivation in Dafa. Then she spoke of the staged Tiananmen Square Self-Immolation incident, about how people in more than 80 countries were cultivating in Falun Gong, and how Jiang Zemin was being sued in several countries. My sister listened with great interest. She is a college professor and has many preconceived notions about happenings in society. Now, listening to my wife, she was excited. At last she watched a DVD about the persecution, and was greatly surprised and realized that Falun Gong was being wronged. She learned the truth and told us to practice Falun Gong well at home and pay attention to our safety.
At the end of 2004, with the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party published, many people withdrew from the CCP and its related organizations. I called my younger brother and asked him to come to Beijing. I asked him to read the book and told him that it was crucial to let every relative read it and act upon it. My bother returned and told every family member about what I said. In the end my father, who was in his seventies, agreed to quit the Youth League. Many other family members also withdrew from the CCP and its organizations.
