(Clearwisdom.net) I began to practice Falun Gong in 1998. When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched the persecution of Falun Gong, I was illegally sentenced to one and a half years of forced labor. After I was released from the forced labor camp in 2003, I failed to study the Fa well and thought that I must hand out more truth-clarification materials to make up for the loss of time. Then, I was sentenced to forced labor again.
While in the detention center, I sent forth righteous thoughts, did the Falun Gong exercises, memorized the Fa and looked inward. I really understood that in cultivation practice, I must not neglect the cultivation aspect. I also realized that I must not acknowledge the persecution by the CCP, but cultivate in line with Teacher's Fa and negate the persecution.
I did not obey the evildoers in the detention center, refused to read anything with the Party ideology and refused to recite the prison rules and regulations. On the day I was to be transferred to the forced labor camp, my fear emerged. My heart started racing when the guard called my name. However, I instantly thought of Teacher's poem “What’s to Fear?” (Hong Yin, Volume II) and repeatedly recited it to strengthen my righteous thoughts. When the guard wanted to handcuff and hang me up, I did not look at her. She asked me to stretch out my arms to put on the handcuffs, but I questioned her, “Why don't you wear them?” She looked at me and remained speechless for quite a while. Then the deputy head rushed over and said, “She is a law enforcement officer.” I replied, “I am a law-abiding citizen.” The guards called in five or six people to drag me into a cell. They punched me and verbally abused me while cuffing me. Then they brought me downstairs.
Once downstairs, I saw the guards holding electric batons. One of them purposely said that he needed to check if the batons had enough power; he turned on several electric batons, which sent out electric sparks. However, I did not have any fear in facing the torture; my mind was filled with the Fa. I knew my mission there was to let all of the people in the detention center know that Falun Gong is good and that our Teacher is innocent. I began to shout these things out. Just at that time a guard came and took me to a car.
There were two CCP agents in the car. On the way to the forced labor camp, I talked about the greatness of Falun Gong and recited poems from Hong Yin, and they remained silent. Since I did not cooperate with prison officials in anything they asked me to do upon arriving at the labor camp, they forced me to sit in the division leader's office during the day and ordered drug-addict inmates to monitor me. Only when all the other people had gone to bed, did they allow me to wash my face and brush my teeth. They also forced me to get up prior to everyone else in the morning. Therefore, I did not meet any other practitioners in the camp.
One evening, the inmate on monitoring duty told me to stand in the hall while she chatted with the guard on duty. When she finally told me to go and take care of my personal hygiene, it was two o’clock in the morning. She then forced me to get up at four o'clock in the morning and to stand still in the hall again. I thought, “Why is she treating me like this?” Shortly thereafter, she started to read aloud a book that slandered Falun Gong in front of me. While she did that, I recited the Fa, with my voice overpowering hers.
I then thought that I should not cooperate with her, so I sat down and began to do the sitting meditation. She became very scared and begged me, “Please get up!” I ignored her and continued doing the exercises. The guards got up and asked some inmates to drag me into the office. I began to shout, “Falun Dafa is good!” The head of the No. 5 Division jumped on me and grabbed my neck, saying viciously, “I will choke you to death!”
Only after I was gasping and couldn't breathe, did the guard stop choking me. Then the guards sent me to the unit for intensive persecution. When I got there, every room was covered with curtains, with only a small hole in the middle. You could only look into the cells, but could not see anything from the cell. There was only one practitioner in each room, with five to six monitors. There was one bed in the room. Every day the practitioners could only sit on the floor and were not allowed to move. They could not look sideways and could not talk. They were forced to sit from 5 a.m. to midnight every day. At every meal they were only given a quarter of a steamed bun and a small amount of rice porridge. A monitor sat on each side of the practitioner. These monitors used every opportunity to try to “transform” me. They wrote down everything in the notebook and reported to the prison authorities. They did not allow me to take a shower or to change clothes for over a month. It was August at the time, with the scorching summer heat. I was only allowed to take a shower when it was late September.
During that period of time I did not just endure the suffering, but also looked inward to find my shortcomings, while at the same time sending forth righteous thoughts to suppress the evil factors. Each time the guards came to make trouble for me, I would talk to them, “Don't act like that. You will only add karma to yourselves,” and each time they would stop upon hearing this.
After that I was transferred to the No. 3 Division. Every day we had to do forced labor during the day and the prison organized a “comments meeting” in the evening. At the meeting everyone was required to speak. Since I did not have any opportunity to clarify the facts about Falun Gong elsewhere, I used this opportunity to clarify the truth. I talked about the fact that the Tiananmen Square self-immolation had been staged. The monitor assigned to watch me and four other collaborators stood up to stop me. On the following evening, the monitor skipped me when it was my turn to speak.
The CCP intensified its efforts to search and arrest practitioners around the country in 2008 because of the Beijing Olympics. Once again I was sent to the forced labor camp. I did not attend the prison's events around that. The guards forced me to stand with a fixed posture as punishment from the time I got up until midnight on a daily basis. One month later, my legs and thighs were badly swollen. I said to the guard, “Look at my legs. They are very swollen. You use such a cruel method to persecute me. How can you sleep well at night?” She said, “This is because you did not attend the prison training.” I told her that I had not violated the law, so I should not attend any prison activities that are designed for criminal inmates. She later stopped enforcing the punishment.
Through the difficulties and hardships over the last ten-plus years, it is Teacher's merciful salvation and compassionate care that has made it possible for me to cultivate to this point. When I was falling, He pulled me up; when I was able to walk, He encouraged me to walk well. I must let go of all of my human attachments, seize the time to clarify the truth and return home with Teacher.
