(Clearwisdom.net)
I started to practice Falun Dafa in March 1996. I'm sixty years old. When I first listened to Teacher's Fa lectures, I immediately felt Falun Dafa was different. I understood that Teacher was offering salvation to us. I hadn't been practicing Falun Dafa for long before my serious heart disease was gone. I said to myself, "What a great practice. Is there anything I can do for Falun Dafa?" Back then, there were many people practicing Dafa. Generally they'd practice outside. However, it wasn't very convenient when the weather wasn't good. My family owned a store, so I decided to offer our store as a site for practitioners to do the Dafa exercises together. We ran our family business during the day. At night, practitioners would come and we did group-study and exercises at the store. After a while, this caused some inconvenience to our family business. My family wasn't happy. Once they even kicked the tables over right after I had finished setting them up. I talked to them with a calm heart. I reminded them of the fact that Falun Dafa is magnificent as it had cured my serious heart disease. My health condition used to be so bad that even the hospitals couldn't help me. Soon after I started to practice Falun Dafa, I became 100 percent well without taking any medicine or acupuncture. It was Teacher that saved me! I said all of this from the bottom of my heart. They were moved. From then on, they no longer complained. When more practitioners came to our store, my family offered to make more room for our group study and exercises in the basement and storage area. Whether it was a holiday or a severe thunderstorm, fellow practitioners would always come to my home and it became a group practice site.
In November 1999, after the persecution started, I went to appeal to higher authorities for Dafa. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) illegally detained me and then sentenced me to a forced labor camp for two years. They searched my home and harassed my family every few days. My daughter was frightened so she went to a college in another city. Policemen stayed at my home. Many other fellow practitioners were illegally arrested. The others were closely monitored and harassed. Nobody dared to come to my home anymore. Some of the families of fellow practitioners blamed my family. My husband suffered a lot while I was illegally imprisoned and still had to handle all the complaints from other people. We had had such a harmonious family, but because of the evil persecution, my family was broken into pieces. My husband was very upset with me.
When I was illegally detained, I simply refused to follow the authorities' instructions and commands. They tried to punish me by making me stand for a long time, so I did the Dafa standing exercises. When they broadcast malicious slander against the Fa, I was the first practitioner to start reciting the Fa with other fellow practitioners. In such an evil place, whoever started something like that would be slapped in the face. Yet I thought, "I am a person on my way to godhood. All these policemen and guards are not in any position to beat me up." It was a very pure thought. Because of this thought, they never beat me when I led Fa recitation. I know it was Teacher that helped me. The workload was extremely heavy at the forced labor camp. Sometimes we had to work till 2 a.m. and get up again at 6 a.m. It was very cold in the winter, so I did the meditation exercise at night. The head of the cell who slept next to me tried to uncross my legs and slapped me, but the other practitioners also sat up to do the meditation exercise when they saw me doing it. The guards realized that they couldn't change me a bit, and I was actually a role model for the other practitioners. They didn't know how to handle me, so they let me go. In February 2001, I was released more than six months before my prison term ended. I returned home openly and with dignity without signing any type of repentance statement or handing over any fines.
When I came home, I found the environment there totally changed. My husband didn't allow me to go out or see any fellow practitioners. My mother-in-law watched me at home all the time. Vicious policemen watched me from outside of our house. I thought for a long time about what I should do. A strong sense of responsibility kept me awake even at night. I remember what Teacher said, "Cultivation is hard. It's hard in that even when a terrible calamity strikes, even when evil madly persecutes, and even when your life is at stake, you still have to be able to steadfastly continue on your path of cultivation without letting anything in human society interfere with the steps you take on your path of cultivation."(Path from Essentials for Further Advancement II) I thought, "Nothing can stop a god from what he or she's planning to do, no matter whether it's the family watching or the evil monitoring." I sent forth righteous thoughts. Then I went to talk to fellow practitioners one by one. I invited them to my home for group study since that is the cultivation format that Teacher gave us. They were very happy and willing to come. So our practice site was restored. After a few days, policemen broke into my home and asked me whether there was any activity going on. I said openly, "We are cultivators that follow Truth-Compassion-Forbearance. We are good people. Do not interfere with us. We are only here together to study the Fa and practice the Dafa exercises. If you come to harass us again, I'll go to Beijing to appeal to higher authorities for a second time." They were scared and said, "Keep studying. Keep practicing. Do not go to Beijing, please. We won't bother you again." Since then, they haven't bothered much with us except during the a few "sensitive days" when they send someone to watch us not far from my home. Meanwhile, we kept our site open to fellow practitioners.
In the past ten years, I've always firmly believed in Teacher and the Fa. I continued to strive forward along the Fa-rectification cultivation path. I put my heart into the three things that Teacher asked us to do. I used the Fa to judge my words and actions, which changed my family and friends. After they knew the truth, they knew what to do. For example, we don't have a very large house. During holidays, my son, daughter-in-law, daughter, and son-in-law came back to visit us. Sometimes my mother-in-law came, too. They watched TV in the living room and gave up their rooms to us for group study until we were done.
In order to clarify the truth to save more people, wherever I went, I brought people the beauty of Falun Dafa, the truth of the persecution, and the true stories of people being protected after they quit the CCP and its affiliates. I brought truth-clarification materials to each and every family in the villages nearby. Teacher said in his poem "What's to Fear"in "Hongyin" II,
"Should you have fear,
it will seize upon you
If thoughts are righteous,
evil will collapse..."
Therefore, I had no fear, and I knew it was truly for their own good when I talked to people directly and helped them quit the CCP and its affiliates. Every time it went very smoothly. Occasionally, it appeared dangerous but it turned out just fine. One day, I explained the facts about Dafa and the persecution to a person in his sixties at a construction company. He took the materials that I gave him and said, "You gave me this? Aren't you afraid that I'll report you? Don't you not worry that I'll send you to the police?" I said with a calm heart, "Once you read the materials, you'll know the truth. Then you'll be saved. Therefore, I can sacrifice my life in order to let you know the truth. Many practitioners were illegally arrested because they distributed this kind of truth-clarification materials. Then their organs were taken while they were still alive. Yet they weren't afraid. What's for me to fear? I'm saving you." He said, "I can tell that you are not afraid at all. You are such a nice person. And you have very strong technical skills. How could I ever report you?"
Besides talking to other people, I have helped all my relatives quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. Going forward, I'll continue to strive ahead on my cultivation path. I'll do a better job with the three things and look inside to cultivate my mind and heart.