(Clearwisdom.net) At the end of 2000, I developed the attachment of doing things. For several days in a row, I was busy distributing truth-clarification materials but spent no time studying the Fa. As a result, I was arrested while passing out materials. While in the detention center, I recited from memory Master's articles and passages in Zhuan Falun that I could recall over and over again. Whether I was doing hard labor, eating meals or taking a break, I never stopped reciting the Fa. I recited the Fa from dawn to dusk every day during the one and a half years' detention.
During my detention, I found that even one article of Master's could help rectify my mind and realm so I could pass tribulations easily.
The guards, police and my colleagues constantly came to talk to me, trying to persuade me to give up my practice. At the beginning I felt tremendous pressure and didn't know what to say to them. I then remembered the following passage of the Fa,
"For a long period of time the sentient beings in Dafa, especially the disciples, have had a misunderstanding of the Fa at various levels regarding xinxing improvement. Whenever a tribulation comes, you do not see it with the side of your original nature but view it completely with your human side. Evil demons then capitalize on this point and inflict endless interference and damage, leaving students in long-term tribulations. As a matter of fact, this results from an inadequate understanding of the Fa by your human side. You have humanly restrained your divine side; in other words, you have restrained the parts that have been successfully cultivated and have prevented them from doing Fa-rectification. How can the uncultivated side restrain your main thoughts or the side that has already attained the Fa? Having humanly fostered the evil demons, you allow them to capitalize on the loopholes in the Fa. When a tribulation arrives, if you, a disciple, can truly maintain an unshakable calm or be determined to meet different requirements at different levels, this should be sufficient for you to pass the test. If it continues endlessly and if there do not exist other problems in your xinxing or conduct, it must be that the evil demons are capitalizing on the weak spots caused by your lack of control. After all, a cultivator is not an ordinary human. So why doesn't the side of you that is your original nature rectify the Fa?" ("Expounding on the Fa," Essentials For Further Advancement)
I enlightened from the above passage of the Fa that I could pass the test if I remained unmoved. Therefore I recited "Expounding on the Fa" over and over again in my heart to rectify myself. Gradually I calmed down and was able to conduct conversations with them. In the end, they even smiled at me.
Whenever they talked to me, I only gave this reply, "Falun Dafa teaches people to cultivate their hearts and be compassionate." They stopped pressuring me. After some time, they all showed sympathy towards me. Later I realized that my constant memorization of the Fa had enabled me to have pure thoughts. So even one sentence was enough to disintegrate the evil factors controlling them.
Later I was sent to a prison. By then, I was already able to recite many of Master's articles and lectures, including "Dafa is Indestructible," "What Are Supernormal Abilities," "The Effect of Righteous Thoughts," "Coercion Cannot Change People's Hearts," "The Disciples' Magnificence" and "Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. Fa Conference." However, I still felt difficulty meeting the Fa's requirements all at once. I decided, foremost, to stay determined, so I firmly refused to give up my practice. Whenever they asked me if I would continue with my cultivation, I always replied yes. Through constantly reciting the Fa, I went through that stage.
Next, they told me to attend a technical workshop. I knew Master said,
"No matter what the situation, do not cooperate with the evil's demands, orders, or what it instigates. If everyone does this the environment won't be this way." ("Dafa Disciples' Righteous Thoughts are Powerful," Essentials For Further Advancement II)
So it must be that I hadn't met the requirements of Dafa disciples. How could I reach consummation? I was determined to meet the Fa's requirements.
During the workshop, I refused to cooperate with their demands, orders, or what they instigated. Soon two weeks passed. The prison management came to watch the final exam. I didn't attend the test, though. I sat in my prison cell to recite the Fa. They came to drag me to the exam room. I refused to pick up the pen. The prison head asked if I was protesting the exam and I said yes. They pulled me out of the room and ordered me to squat down. I ignored them and they showered me with kicks and fists. They knocked me down and ordered me to get up. I didn't listen to them. They pulled me up before beating me down to the ground again. They repeated this several times and then handed me over to the guards in charge of me. The guards took me to their office and asked me to go in. After I was inside, they asked me to come out. Then they ordered me to go in again. I didn't move. I knew they were waiting for me to shout "Report" before going in. I remained silent. They pulled me inside and beat me hard. One punch landed on my stomach and I could barely breathe. I didn't say a word, but instead recited "Expounding on the Fa" during the beating. After a while, they stopped beating me and handcuffed me to a tree outside. I went on a hunger strike and told them I didn't do anything wrong. After several days they said, "Eat first and we'll take care of the rest." After this incident, they had many talks with me, but I still kept reciting the Fa. So eventually I didn't do any hard labor nor did I attend the required political studies every week. They had no other alternative but to label me as a "sick person" and put me together with a bunch of truly ill detainees.
Every night I recited the Fa for one or two hours. Then I sent forth righteous thoughts while imagining I was crossing my legs. I fell asleep and in my dream I really crossed my legs and flew over mountains and trees to send forth righteous thoughts. The second day I refused to get up during routine roll call. I didn't join everyone for breakfast. Instead I still lay in bed reciting the Fa. In a few years, I could recite ten lectures and many articles of Master's. Oftentimes I recited the Fa for three hours before getting up. During the day, I went around to see sick detainees and those off duty. I told them Falun Gong teaches people to be good and we're being persecuted.
Because I could pass every test and was pure and compassionate, plus I was younger, detainees were very amicable to me. They commented tht they really saw that it's possible for someone to sacrifice for their belief.
The prison intensified the persecution every few months. They made me sit with my eyes wide open 24 hours a day. Whenever I was about to close my eyes and doze off, they used a high-wattage light bulb to scorch me or poured cold water on my head. That was April. After several rounds of pouring cold water I thought, "Who is afraid of you?" I grabbed the bucket and poured cold water on my head myself. Seeing this, they took away the bucket. Even though they tried everything to prevent me from falling asleep, I still dozed off for a while because I was so sleepy that I couldn't feel anything they did to me. Two days later they held a mirror in front me. I saw a dark and thin face with bloodshot eyes and cracked lips. On the third day, they told me I was free to either stay in my cell or come down to the workshop. Sometimes I went to take a shower in the workshop. I also watched how other detainees were working there. I saw them throw charcoal, iron, or steel into a red-hot pit so they could melt and be made into new things. Seeing this I was even more determined to not be "reformed"; otherwise I would have committed a sin against Dafa, which would result in punishment similar to that of the charcoal, iron, and steel that were suffering in the heat. At night I had a dream that I went inside a steel plank and couldn't move. Some detainees turned the plank upside down and I also felt upside down inside the plank. After I woke up, I realized that Master had me experience the feeling of the steel, as everything has life.
One year later, an elderly practitioner was sent to the prison. Soon afterwards, the prison launched another round of intense persecution. The guards summoned us to the office. They showed us a document that supposedly said the higher authorities had ordered all practitioners be "reformed"; otherwise they would put us into confinement cells. I said to them, "I'm not going to do anything. I am not a criminal and I have not committed any crime. In no way will I go to the confinement cell." They had two young men carry me on their backs and run to the confinement cell, about 100-meters away from the office. The criminals assigned to monitor the cell came to get me. I refused to cooperate. They then jerked my handcuffs and dragged me to the cell. When I was finally inside, my pants and the skin on my wrists were all torn. They put shackles on me and linked the shackles with the handcuffs so I could not stand straight and could only squat while moving along. I went on a hunger strike for nearly 20 days, during which time the prison guards force-fed me every day. In the end, the criminal in charge said, "As long as you promise to eat, I'm not going to have you write anything. I assure you they will come get you soon." I agreed and began to eat. The next day, some guards came with the newly arrived elderly practitioner. I saw beams of golden dots by the elderly practitioner. I didn't know what that was, but I had a feeling he had been "reformed". It turned out that was true. Later he told me that the guards didn't allow him to sleep and used a high-wattage light bulb to scorch his face. In the beginning, they only had him write a guarantee promising to obey the prison rules. He refused to write for the first two days. Then he thought that was not a big deal, so he wrote that statement. Afterwards, the guards began to beat him savagely. Soon he wrote statements to give up Falun Gong as well. I was once under the same torture, yet I continuously recited the Fa, so the guards didn't really beat me and they left me alone instead.
During the five years I was in the detention center and the prison, I pulled through by reciting the Fa from memory. On the day of my scheduled release, because I still refused to be "reformed", they sent me straight to the brainwashing center, where I continued to refuse to cooperate. They put me again in a confinement cell. At the brainwashing center, there were dozens of confinement cells, each of which held one practitioner. It was deep in the winter and there was no heat in the cell. I only had a very thin sweater and coat. My back was against the freezing iron door and my hands were cuffed and hung up high on top of the door. I kept reciting the Fa and thought to myself, "I'll hold on for as long as I can. In two months, spring will come and things are going to get better." Practitioners were often held in a confinement cell for 2-3 months in a row. And we were hung up like this for long periods of time, from one week to several months without being let down. Because we couldn't sleep lying down, I often fell asleep while being hung up.
My experience made me realize that as long as I have the Fa in my heart, Master is by my side at all times. As long as I conduct myself based on the Fa's requirements, Master can help me pass every test that comes my way.
