(Minghui.org) I was imprisoned in Liaoning Province Women’s Prison for the second time in 2017 for practicing Falun Dafa. This prison is notorious for torturing Dafa practitioners who remain steadfast in their faith. I told myself that, no matter what happened, I absolutely would not renounce Dafa, even if it meant losing my life. I was determined to follow Master and walk the path arranged for me by Master. 

I kept reciting the Fa to strengthen my righteous thoughts. I also sent righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil and I looked within to rectify myself. 

Master said, 

“It is thus all the harder to, while being subjected to ordeals imposed by the old forces, manage to walk the path correctly. And this is even more so for the Dafa disciples in mainland China. For them, amidst the tremendously harsh persecution, every single thought and idea is critical.” (“What a Dafa Disciple Is,” Collected Teachings Given Around the World Volume XI)

Indeed, when my thinking did not conform to the Fa, the persecution I faced intensified. But when my thoughts were based on the Fa, the people I came across would be kind and friendly. 

On my first day in prison, a guard told me, “Here we dictate what you do and force you to comply.” 

I replied, “You can only force me to stay in prison, but you cannot control my mind.” 

She immediately replied, “Who wants to change your mind?” Her arrogant attitude had gone, and I knew that I had dissolved the evil that was manipulating her, thanks to Master’s help. 

The inmates assigned to transform the practitioners had to work hard to please the prison guards. These inmates had to stay up late to monitor and torture the practitioners, because their rewards and reduced sentences depended on the number of practitioners they “transformed.” At the same time, they still had to finish their daily quota of slave labor. They were under a lot of pressure and I knew they could physically assault me if I said something to bring out their demon nature. 

One of the inmates told me that a practitioner was viciously beaten due to something the practitioner had said. The practitioner had said, “It’s not my fault that you have to stay up late to watch me. The guard made you do this,” and “I would not transform even if you put a knife to my neck.”

I thought about what this practitioner had said. On the surface it sounded as if she’d resisted the persecution, but in fact she had acknowledged it. 

I knew that it wasn’t coincidental that I heard this story, and believed it was a hint from Master that I should be rational and handle everything with wisdom. When the inmates tried to brainwash me, I focused on sending righteous thoughts and reciting the Fa in my mind. I avoided answering their questions directly and instead gave responses based on traditional Chinese stories. 

A collaborator said, “We have to stay up with you every night, and still have to work in the mornings. What do you have to say to that?”

I replied, “In the novel Journey to the West, the White-bone Demon seized the Tang Monk and his two disciples, and the goblins in the cave hung the three of them on a tree. That was hard work for the goblins.” 

This story was meant to tell them that the harder they worked for the evil, the more sinful they became. Only one person replied, “So we are the goblins,” while the rest stayed silent. From then on, they never blamed me for the work they did. 

When the collaborators tried to threaten me to sign the statements to renounce my faith, I told them a story from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in Chinese history about four historians in the Qi State. The first three were killed because they wrote a line to record the true history. The fourth historian wrote down the same words, knowing that he’d be killed for doing so. After I told this story, the inmates knew that I would not change my mind about my practice, and they stopped ordering me to sign the statements. 

It was physically very demanding for some of the collaborators to stay up late monitoring me and still have to wake up early in the morning to work in the sweatshop, especially those with poor health. 

One time a guard arranged two inmates to monitor me at night. One was in her 60’s and had hypertension and the other had an injured leg. The guards arranged this deliberately to try to take advantage of my kindness, as some practitioners indeed agreed to sign a statement renouncing their faith because they felt sorry for the inmates. One inmate told me that a very steadfast practitioner eventually renounced her faith after a collaborator fainted in front of her. In my opinion, this practitioner did not have a good understanding of Fa-rectification period cultivation, and the old forces exploited her human emotions. I did not let this happen to me. 

A guard would come to see me every morning when she arrived at work and ask, “Have you decided [to renounce Dafa] yet?” One day, I calmly replied, “You deprived the inmates of their basic rights, so they had no choice but to help you put on this ridiculous farce of transforming Falun Dafa practitioners. At the same time you took advantage of practitioners’ kindness. You gave your life to the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda.” 

I wasn’t sure how she’d react. She jumped up immediately, yelling, “You’ve gone too far this time. I’m gonna tie you up!” She handcuffed me to a heating pipe. I wasn’t moved and remained calm. 

A guard later made an inmate read Buddhist scriptures to me until 1 a.m. every morning, in another attempt to transform me. One night, the two collaborators watching me fell asleep around 11 p.m. Suddenly the director of the prison’s administration division stormed into the room and woke up the guard on duty. The director scolded the guard and asked why the inmate couldn’t read Buddhist scriptures to me during the day. He ordered the guard to let me go back to my cell.

One inmate later told me that she had never seen anyone from the prison administration come to inspect at night. I knew that it was Master who ended my transformation session and resolved the tribulation. 

From then on I tried my best to clarify the truth and help the people in the prison quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations, including the inmates who tried to transform me. 

As I reflect back on my time in prison, I’m reminded that as long as my thoughts stay righteous, Master will help me. No words can express my gratitude to Master. With Fa-rectification approaching the end, I will cherish the time to study and assimilate to the Fa, look within, and save more people.