(Minghui.org) I am a businessman. An employee of mine who is a Falun Dafa practitioner introduced the practice to me in December 1998. I was very interested in it, so every day we talked about how to cultivate. After the New Year, he encouraged me to go to a local group Fa-study.
At the site, I read a lecture of Zhuan Falunwith the group and borrowed a copy of the book. At home I finished the other eight lectures without stopping. I was so excited—I had finally found what I had dreamed about. I consider the day I obtained the Fa to be my new birthday.
I was busy with my business when I first obtained the Fa, and I didn’t have much time to study the Fa or do the exercises. I didn’t have a good understanding of improving xinxing, either. So I missed many precious opportunities to improve myself in Dafa. I didn’t go to the group Fa-study often or talk to fellow practitioners much. My understanding of Dafa was based on my feelings, and was shallow.
When the persecution started in July 1999, although I was a little confused, I didn’t believe the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) propaganda attacking Dafa and Master; I still studied the Fa. One year later, after reading the Fa intensively and giving a lot of thought to cultivation, I realized that cultivation is very serious. When Dafa was being persecuted, I felt that I needed to do something.
Since I had lost contact with practitioners, all I could do was to make banners myself, such as “Falun Dafa is good,” “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is Good,” “Restore Master Li Hongzhi’s Reputation,” etc., and hung them up at public places. The banners did have some positive impacts.
Since I hadn’t cultivated well and had a strong attachment to doing things on the surface, the evil took advantage of my loopholes. In April 2002, I was arrested by the police and badly tortured. Later I was sentenced to four years in prison.
Maintaining Solid Righteous Thoughts in Prison
In the prison, the guards used many kinds of torture on me, including beatings with electric batons, burning, hanging by handcuffed wrists, sleep deprivation, and force-feeding. I held three hunger strikes to protest.
Relying on my solid belief in Master and Dafa, I broke through all kinds of difficulties with Master’s protection. Once when I refused to do the slave labor, the guards beat me with four electric batons until the batteries died. My whole body was scorched. I held a hunger strike for seven days until the guards promised not to force me to do the slave labor.
Although every day was difficult in prison, I kept reminding myself that as a Dafa disciple, my mission is to validate the Fa; the evil cannot destroy my belief. During that time, I recited Master’s poem every day:
Nothing KeptIn life, nothing sought,In death, regretting naught;Washing away all wrong thought,Buddhahood, with less adversity, is wrought.(Hong Yin, English Translation Version A)
Clarifying the Truth and Saving People in Prison
I was arrested again and sentenced to 11 years of imprisonment in November 2008. With Master’s protection, help from practitioners in China and overseas, my family’s efforts to rescue me, and the strides I made clarifying the truth in prison, the torture I was subjected to was not as severe as before.
In March 2011, the prison intensified their efforts to force jailed practitioners to give up their belief, and “transform” them. Facing the guards and the inmates who tried to force me to give up cultivation, my first thought was that they are the people I need to save and I should not let them commit sins. I must clarify the truth to them. I had no fear. More importantly, I didn’t have hatred towards them; my heart was filled with the Fa.
Master said:
“I told you a long time ago that a Dafa disciple, or a cultivator, has no enemies. The only thing you have a role in is saving people, and you have nothing to do with using human means and human principles to punish or pronounce judgment on people.” (“Teaching the Fa in the City of Chicago,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. VII)
I didn’t treat them as the people who persecuted me, and my heart was full of mercy. I clarified the truth to every guard. I took all kinds of approaches to communicate with the inmates. Several guards and inmates who learned the truth from me helped me during the persecution.
In daily life, I helped the inmates who had difficulties. For example, the newcomers often needed daily necessities, such as chopsticks and bowls, so I tried my best to get those things for them. They all knew that I was a good person, which made my truth-clarification efforts easier.
Forty-some newly sentenced inmates arrived in 2012. A prison worker said to me, “Falun Gong (that is what they called me), come here and talk to them about your belief.” I went over and talked to the newcomers for more than an hour. In the end, all of them quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations.
Master said:
“When you are overcoming a real hardship or tribulation, you try it. When it is difficult to endure, try to endure it. When it looks impossible and is said to be impossible, give it a try and see if it is possible. If you can actually do it, you will indeed find: ‘After passing the shady willow trees, there will be bright flowers and another village ahead!’” (Lecture Nine, Zhuan Falun)
During the years I was imprisoned, whenever I ran into a hardship or tribulation, I recalled Master’s teaching. I understood that as long as my thoughts are righteous and my heart is compassionate, I will be able to overcome any tribulations and difficulties. The environment in prison gradually improved. I could study the Fa, do the exercises, send forth righteous thoughts, and clarify the truth every day until I was released.
My Wife Took Up Cultivation, My Whole Family Supports Me
Because of my wife’s efforts to rescue me, she was also sentenced to three years in prison and tortured. When I was imprisoned for the second time, she also tried her best to rescue me. With fellow practitioners’ help, she talked to the law enforcement departments and collected enough money to hire a lawyer for me.
I was jailed in a different city from where she lived, but she came to visit me every month. Once, the prison didn’t allow her to see me. My wife and mother-in-law stayed in a hotel, and in a fellow practitioner’s home for a week, talked to the prison officials many times, and she finally got the permit to visit me.
During the process of rescuing me, my wife witnessed the beauty and amazing power of Dafa, such as an udumbara flower blossoming in my home. Meanwhile, she also saw the darkness and shamelessness of the CCP. She finally came to the understanding that cultivating Falun Dafa is a wise decision, and she took up the practice.
My mother-in-law is 90-years-old but nonetheless came to visit me in prison several times a year. She said, “Falun Dafa is good; Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” every day, and she was blessed.
My daughter was forced to drop out of school the first time when I was in prison. She was under tremendous stress and had anxiety. During that period, she was almost a parentless child. Once, because she missed her parents, she walked into the mountains for 16 miles.
My whole family now supports my Falun Dafa cultivation practice. My daughter and her husband have great respect for Master.
After I got home from the prison, I immediately joined the group Fa-study. I also started to memorize the Fa. Every day, I clarify the truth in the morning, memorize the Fa in the afternoon, and at night I read one lecture of Zhuan Falun. I also study Master’s other lectures. Fellow practitioners and I often share our cultivation experiences and understandings of the Fa. We are all able to solidly cultivate, rationally look inward for our own shortcomings, and strive forward diligently together to do the three things well.
I have had many beneficial experiences and understandings from memorizing the Fa.
First, one must be very focused when memorizing the Fa. Only then can one understand the deeper and more profound meaning of the Fa, and only at that point will the Fa manifest its contents to you.
Second, it is better to have a partner when memorizing the Fa, because you can recite the Fa to each other and point out the mistakes. You can also encourage each other.
Finally, memorizing the Fa makes you calm down and eliminate a lot of interference.
