(Minghui.org) I am a Falun Gong practitioner in China. I was fortunate enough to begin practicing Falun Dafa in 1997 when I was still a young woman in college.
Since the evil Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, I have persisted in my faith in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and have never given up practicing Falun Gong. I have personally known a lot of practitioners who have held onto their faith in Falun Gong. All the people around me who understood the truth of Falun Gong have also kindly supported me. I have also known many new practitioners who came to practice Falun Gong throughout these years. Most Chinese people have heard of the vicious means that the CCP uses to persecute people. Why is Falun Gong so powerful that it can survive such a brutal persecution and even awaken the conscience of more and more people? I will share with you three stories from my personal experience. I hope you will be enlightened by these stories.
A Police Officer: "How Can You Be So Calm?"
I was illegally arrested by the City Police Department in 2002 as I carried many booklets and DVDs which I distributed to tell people the truth about Falun Gong. Police officers from the Domestic Security Division who specialized in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners took turns interrogating me around the clock. They attempted to force me to renounce my faith in Falun Gong and to disclose the source of the materials I had with me.
I was quite young and had just graduated from college two years previously. My parents were both intellectuals. I grew up in a simple environment, and I was a quiet person. The officers began to threaten me right away, “No one has ever survived the interrogation room without making a confession.” They even told me some frightening stories. A girl like me would have been scared to death and would have followed any orders. However, I had only one thought in my mind: I must behave like a practitioner, and maintain a righteous mind. There is nothing wrong in persisting in my faith in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. A practitioner who betrayed her faith would not meet the standard of the Fa. Slandering Master and Dafa would be even beyond the basic ethics. At the same time, I knew that I must cultivate my character with a clear mind. I must search for inadequacies in my words and actions, control my temper and try not to get angry, treat every police officer who interrogated me calmly, rationally, and kindly. I must with dignity refuse to follow their improper orders, answer their questions about Falun Gong with patience, and correct their wrong notions instilled by the CCP.
I seemed to be too calm and peaceful for someone my age, and a police officer who actively participated in the persecution kept asking me, “Why can you be so calm?” “How can you be so calm?” I remembered that I thought about it seriously, and answered, “Falun Gong cultivation requires one to cultivate with a clear mind. We must have a right mind, look inside, and pay attention to the cultivation of our character. A genuine Falun Gong practitioner must be rational and peaceful.” He looked very moved. After interrogating me for three days and three nights, the police officers became very polite. They asked me a lot of questions about Falun Gong, and even consulted me about their confusion about their own lives and the persecution of Falun Gong. No one gave me a hard time any more.
Neighborhood Committee Cadre: "Go Ahead and Practice [Falun Gong]. I Won't Come Again.”
There was a time when the CCP commanded the neighborhood committee cadres to monitor Falun Gong practitioners. The cadres often came to knock on my door. My parents were afraid that I would be persecuted again. So they refused to let them in and the cadres always shouted and argued boisterously every time they came.
One day, a female neighborhood committee cadre came to knock on my door again with other two ladies. I was home alone. I thought, “Why not tell them the truth about Falun Gong?”
I opened the door. I apologized to them first, “I know why you've come here. I am sorry for not letting you in before. I hope you can forgive us.” The cadre didn't expect me to open the door myself. She was quite surprised that I sounded so polite.
I said, “My parents were not polite to you. I hope you can forgive them. Maybe you can understand it better after I tell you why they treated you like that.” They waited for me to tell them more. A neighbor was peeking through the door peep-hole to find out what's going on. I then spoke loudly so the neighbor could also hear, “To tell you the truth, I didn't give up my faith [in Falun Gong] even when I was imprisoned in the labor camp, let alone today. Falun Gong is really good. It teaches me to follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. There is nothing wrong with that. I will definitely keep practicing.”
The cadre looked quite disappointed. I continued, “You may not know how brutal the persecution of Falun Gong is. You look like a kind person. You must have known more than a few Falun Gong practitioners. You must make your own judgment about whether practitioners are bad people like you hear from the CCP propaganda. Let me tell you about Aunt Wang (alias) who lives across the street. Just because your group found a copy of Zhuan Falun in her bag, she was persecuted for three years in a forced labor camp. You know she is not young, and she is stout. In the labor camp, to force her to renounce her belief, she was hung up off the ground with her hands cuffed to a window railing. She was fortunate to survive. You know how many practitioners are persecuted in the labor camp? The stories on the brochures distributed by Falun Gong practitioners are all true. I personally have seen a practitioner who was locked in a solitary cell. She was quite strong. However, three days later when she came out of the cell, she was as skinny as a skeleton from the torture. You must have your own family at your age. You have your parents and children. If your parents were tortured for believing in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, for being good people, could you feel good about it? If I would be sent to a forced labor camp again because of your report, and my life were at risk, could you live the rest of your life without regret?” Everyone was silent. In the end, the neighborhood committee cadre said, “Go ahead and practice [Falun Gong]. I won't come again.”
From then on, no one came to my home to harass me any more. Sometimes when I ran into people from the neighborhood committee, they smiled at me. Some of them told my parents, “I didn't do any bad deeds (i.e., didn't persecute Falun Gong practitioners). We are your friends.”
An Aunt from Abroad: “I'll Share Your Story in My Church.”
My uncle and aunt came to visit us from abroad one year. When we had dinner, we began to talk about how I was persecuted for my faith in Falun Gong. My uncle was quite sympathetic about my situation. There were not a lot of practitioners in his country at that time, and he had learned about Falun Gong mostly from the CCP's slanderous propaganda. He suggested to me kindly, “What about going abroad, and not coming back?” I calmly refused, “If I want to leave China, I actually have a lot of opportunities to either work or study abroad. Falun Gong is being persecuted here, and the persecution is brutal. All the media are spreading slanderous rumors. I have a firsthand understanding of Falun Gong and have benefited from Falun Gong. If I don't stay to tell people the facts, how can Chinese people learn about Falun Gong? Who will stop the persecution? In fact, I see hope in the Chinese people. In these years when Falun Gong is being persecuted, I have received help and even protection from many kind people, including police officers. I believe in the Chinese people; this is a nationality with hope. China had a great history and will definitely have a great future when it regains its conscience. That's why I will stay in China.”
Everyone was touched, and said nothing. My uncle interpreted my words to my aunt who could only speak dialect, instead of Mandarin. She was a devout Christian. She was moved, and said, “I'll share your story in my church.” Now, there are many Falun Gong practitioners in their country, and I think they must have learned more about Falun Gong.
After sharing these stories, I am also quite moved. Yes, Falun Gong has such a great power of compassion. Getting to know Falun Gong personally, thinking rationally, and practicing it seriously, you can find out the truth, wake up your conscience, and spread kindness. I feel fortunate to practice Falun Gong in the prime of my young years, to follow the principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance in my life whether in prosperity or in adversity. I would like to share the beauty of Falun Gong with more people.
