(Clearwisdom.net) I was very afraid of my father when I was young, and felt that he was very strict. Although my father loved us very much, he even joked sometimes by saying, “If you have to choose between father and mother, who will you choose to stay with?” We didn't hesitate to tell him that we would choose mother.
After my father began practicing Falun Gong in 1998, he changed completely. Sometimes when he was on the verge of losing his temper, he held it, because Falun Gong requires practitioners to follow Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. My father liked his friends visiting him because my mother was against him smoking. However when his friends visited, my father had an excuse to smoke. It wouldn't look nice if he didn't treat his friends with courtesy. But after starting Falun Gong practice he quit smoking and my family was full of harmony.
Sometimes some of my father's friends who practiced Falun Gong came to our home. Even while many people were talking, we had a feeling of tranquility, and no one used swear words. Among the practitioners was a man who was relatively chubby. My father told me that the man was a bully who knew martial arts, and even people in the police station were afraid of him. After practicing Falun Gong, he totally changed. His former friends asked him to be their head of the gang, but he refused.
Among other friends was a former politician, who after practicing Falun Gong, became impartial and would not accept any bribes. An old lady in her seventies began practicing Falun Gong, and looked younger. Her skin also became delicate with no wrinkles. From all the Falun Gong practitioners, we could see that Falun Gong was not only a general healing and fitness exercise, but also purified peoples' minds, and taught people to become good.
In those days my father was very happy, as he had received something valuable. Each day, he studied the Fa and did the exercises. He also voluntarily went to the countryside to teach other people how to practice Falun Gong. He bought Dafa books and gave them to his relatives and friends, even including those relatives living far away. He said that Falun Gong was so good that he hoped people around him would all practice it. He promoted Falun Gong like this from his mouth and his heart.
When I was young I heard my father warn my elder sister. If her classmates at school organized some kind of parade to go to Tiananmen Square to do something, she should never participate. I also often heard my father talking about how the CCP was doing all kinds of evil deeds. At the end of his speech, he would say that we should only care about our own stuff and should not care about other events. However, in 1999 when the CCP began to persecute Falun Gong, my father decided to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. Before he left home, he told me again and again about how to take care of myself while he was gone. Now thinking about that, I realize that my father knew at that time what was waiting for him based on his understanding of what the CCP had been doing.
After my father came back from Beijing, we had no peace at home. Almost every day the police station sent someone over to our home. Sometimes they sent people to our home several times a day. They would ask my father to write a guarantee letter, promising to give up his belief, nothing more than that. My father, who was timid before, was surprisingly firm. Facing the threat from these people, my father declared, “Falun Gong teaches people to be good. It is obviously a good practice. I will not say that it is not good and act against my conscience. The reason that I went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong was also to follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and I wanted to spread the truth. I did not do anything bad that would harm society. If the government resumes our right to practice Falun Gong, and clarifies the rumors they made about Falun Gong, no one would want to go to Beijing.” At the same time, my father kindly warned them to treat Falun Gong practitioners well. During the Cultural Revolution, the so-called eliminating the old-four traditional Chinese culture, many temples were demolished. The people who participated in the destruction had tragic ends to their lives. Elderly people all knew that persecuting divine beings and Buddha is punished by heaven. In fact, when there were fewer people around, some officers at the police station said, “Those people who practice Falun Gong are all good people. We don't want to do this. It was all because of the pressure from the leaders. The police have no choice.”
But in the end, my father was sentenced to a two-year forced labor camp term because he went to one of his fellow practitioners' home, and was accused of a trumped-up charge of “disturbing public order.” Two-years of forced labor camp was hard to imagine. After my father returned home, he told us that it was an unspoken rule that the head prisoner would beat up any new prisoner. When my father first went there, the head prisoner was ready to fight him and asked my father why he was sent there. My father told him that it was because he practiced Falun Gong. After hearing that, the head prisoner did not beat him. However police put shackles on my father for two weeks because he did the exercises. In the forced labor camp, each day he had to do some overtime work. He had to eat very dirty food, with some black spots floating on the top. He was often beaten, verbally abused, and physically punished. In the winter, police dragged him outside to suffer in the cold weather. Sometimes they even poured cold water on his body. In the summer, they forced him to bake in the hot sunshine. However, such inhumane torture did not waver his firm belief. I remember the day when we went to pick him up. At the prison's office, my father looked much older after two years of torture. However facing police's threat, “You must sign your signature to guarantee that you will no longer practice Falun Gong. Otherwise, you will continue to be detained here.” My father remained calm and said, “That's impossible.”
Although he restored his physical liberty, police still harass my father, and he had to leave home. Thus, we had less time to see each other and more time separated. One year during the New Year's day, my mother took me to see my father. My father said jokingly, “Come and visit my pretty house.” It was a very small room. A small bed took much of the space. There was a mosquito net. Behind the bed, there was a computer, a printer, and CD burner which was used to prepare some Falun Gong truth clarifying materials and CDs.
Earning a lot of money, supporting the family, and having a home, were once my father's goals in life. During this brutal persecution of Falun Gong, my father lost everything because he firmly believed in his practice. But my father was calm. Under such situation, he continued preparing Falun Gong truth-clarification materials with no regrets. Far more than my father himself, hundreds and thousands of Falun Gong practitioners, despite of such suffering, persevered in danger to peacefully tell people that Falun Dafa is good, and Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good. They want no repayment and only think about the future of each and every Chinese person. Let's think, if China is banning Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, then doesn't it want to follow “false, wicked, and violent?” Where will China go? Time will tell. Falun Gong practitioners' feat of defending the truth is the backbone of China's bright future. The truth-clarifying materials that Falun Gong practitioners deliver is the hope of Chinese people.
