(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I still remember clearly that on the afternoon of July 22, 1999, while I was visiting my parents with my daughter during summer vacation, a friend of my parents urged us to watch TV. I was shocked to see the news that slandered Master and Falun Dafa. The lies were so overwhelming that I felt the sky was falling!
I was dumbfounded. How could the government spread such lies! I was heartbroken, indignant, and wanted to cry. I was saddened to the core by such nonsense. In the days that followed, the television broadcast the propaganda on a rolling basis from morning to night every day. I could not eat or sleep.
My parents are devout Christians. They asked me to believe in Christ, but I did not follow them. They believed the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s smearing lies against Dafa and put a lot of pressure on me. My daughter was also saddened to see me under pressure. I didn’t want to stay at my parents’ home anymore and returned to my own home.
Distributing Truth-Clarifying Material
As soon as I came home, I visited a married couple, both of whom were practicing Dafa. They were just as heartbroken as me, worried and concerned, but did not know what to do next. But no matter what, we had firm faith in Master and Dafa and did not believe the propaganda.
Back then, I had just begun practicing Falun Dafa not long ago. Master taught me how to be an upright, considerate and selfless person. I had yet to understand the profound meaning of Dafa, or the true significance of cultivation toward higher levels. Faced with such intensive slander, I was at a loss with only one firm thought: Dafa is good, and Master is righteous.
Before the persecution, many people practiced Falun Dafa, but they stopped due to fear after the persecution began. I wasn’t able to share or discuss my thoughts with many practitioners. The local instructor was also confused and not able to offer much help with my cultivation. Later, after intensive Fa study, I realized that as a Dafa disciple, when Master and Dafa are slandered, we should step forward to validate the Fa.
Master taught us:
“It is under the circumstance of demonic interference that you can demonstrate whether you can continue your cultivation, be really enlightened to the Tao, be unaffected by interference, and be sure-footed in this school of cultivation. Great waves shift the sand, and that is what cultivation is all about. What is left in the end will be genuine gold.” (Lecture Six, Zhuan Falun)
I wanted to come out to validate Dafa, but I needed to figure out how. Master saw my heart and helped me. A fellow practitioner came from out of town and brought me three articles from Minghui. One talked about how Master endured unimaginable karma while eliminating the evil in the cosmos, which deeply touched me; the second one was about Falun Dafa’s basic information, and the third one was about how Dafa practitioners should clarify the truth to the public. I was greatly inspired by the articles, and made 200 copies of the article with the basic information and distributed them. I also made copies of the sharing articles and shared that with practitioners nearby.
When my daughter and I delivered the articles to practitioners, some accepted them and others did not. For one of the practitioners, I could see her sitting on her bed inside. I called to her for a long time, but she just didn’t come to open the door for me.
On my way back, I tripped over a pile of sand on the roadside and fell hard. The pain was so severe that I couldn’t get up for a long time. After returning home, I saw that my clothes were torn, my right forearm was bruised and bleeding, and I couldn’t move my right shoulder. After studying the Fa and doing the exercises, the pain quickly went away.
Later, when I read Master’s Fa, I realized it was evil interference that prevented Dafa practitioners from forming one solid body.
“...evil beings from other dimensions attached to each blade of grass and each tree. As you walked down the street tree branches would whip you in the face, the grass would trip you, and the air was filled with evil.” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference,” Collected Teachings Given Around the World Volume IV)
One day around midnight, I went out to distribute informational material. I felt delighted that night: the sky was clear with many stars; everything was quiet and peaceful. I wished the world’s people would know the truth and not be deceived by the CCP’s lies. I was so happy when I finished distributing the materials that I jumped around in the street. I felt like I was fulfilling my responsibility as a true Dafa disciple and didn’t let Master down.
That experience left me with a very deep impression. I made another 400 copies and distributed them as well. But because I developed elation in the process and my attachment was taken advantage of by the evil, the owner of the printing shop reported me and that married couple. We were arrested and held in a detention center for one and a half months.
Passing the Family Test
In the first week I was held in the detention center, I faced a storm of tests from my family.
On Monday morning, my husband and daughter, as well as my brother, my husband’s two sisters, and their families, all came. They cried and yelled. They knelt in front of me and tried everything to persuade me to give up my practice. Several guards nearby observed my response closely. I knew I shouldn’t be influenced by them and I asked Master to help me.
My husband did not say anything though, because he benefited greatly from my practicing Falun Dafa and we also avoided getting into divorce. My daughter was sobbing on the side. She later asked me quietly, “Do you think you are doing the right thing?”
“You mother did not do anything wrong.”
“Then, you must hold on and not give up!” she nodded her head while talking to me.
I felt so relieved to hear her words. I knew Master was encouraging me through her. Upon seeing that my family was unable to persuade me, the guards ordered them to leave.
My husband, his younger sister, and my daughter came again on Wednesday morning. She wanted to force my daughter to kneel in front of me to weaken my will. My daughter refused to do so, and she began slapping her in the back.
My husband stopped her: “Why are you hitting my daughter?”
My daughter was crying and wanted to join me in the detention center. My heart was aching for my daughter, but she was a Dafa little disciple, and I knew Master would take care of her.
On Friday morning, my parents came; they aged a lot and looked exhausted. My father wanted to say something, but he cried so hard that he could not finish his sentence. My mother said nothing but cried. I tried my best to hold my tears in front of all the guards. I asked Master again to help me. I calmed down soon and felt a sense of peace. As my parents also failed to persuade me, the guards ordered them to leave and took me back to the cell.
After one and a half months, that couple and I were released. I was grateful for Master’s protection and support!
Going to Beijing to Appeal for Dafa
After studying the Fa for a long time, the three of us believed we should go to Beijing to appeal for Dafa.
One day, the couple went to the public security bureau to pick up Dafa books that had been illegally confiscated. The police fined each of them 500 yuan and threatened to detain them if they didn’t pay the fine. They came to my home pretending to borrow money and told me about it.
After a short discussion, we decided to leave for Beijing that night. As soon as they left, I became nervous, and my hands and feet were trembling. I tried my best to calm down. I cooked many buns to eat on the road. When my daughter came home and learned about my plan, she asked to go with me and said she was not scared. She was only ten years old and I did not want to leave her home alone since my husband was working out of town. So I said she could come with me.
I was under so much pressure that I couldn’t even take a bite of the food. I managed to have some congee. While waiting for the couple, I felt that the air was frozen, my spirit was low, and that time was indefinitely extended. When it was finally dark, the practitioners came. We took a taxi and quickly left town. We did not go to the local railroad station, but took the train in a town further away. Upon arriving at the provincial capital, we met with the practitioners there and they gave each of us a banner.
When we were waiting at the railroad station in the capital, we were stopped by security and the male practitioner was held by them. To give us more time to run away, he grabbed the two officers’ clothes to prevent them from running after us. We held each other’s hands and ran against the crowd. Looking back now, the scene felt like an action movie in my head. With Master’s protection, we ran out of the train station. My heart felt like it was in my throat, thumping.
It was snowing heavily with very low visibility. We called a taxi and went to a small town nearby. We stayed at the train station and tried to avoid the light and the crowd. Then my daughter began to have stomach pain. I took her to the restroom, but she was unable to relieve herself, likely because of the mental pressure. I asked my daughter whether we should go home or still head to Beijing. She said with a low but resolute voice, “Beijing.”
I calmed down, thinking about what we should do next. Then Master gave me a hint: avoid large stations. We went to a small station and purchased a ticket to a mid-size city. It was already dark when we arrived. We didn’t know where to go, but we also did not dare to ask strangers for directions. Then a middle-aged woman approached us: “Need a hotel?”
“No.” I said.
We went to a screen looking for the following train schedule. That woman came again, telling us in detail what train to take and where to stop. We were grateful. When we purchased the tickets and turned around to thank her, she was gone already. We realized Master had sent her to help us!
We did not purchase direct tickets to Beijing, but to a small town nearby first. There, we took a break and filled our stomachs. We then purchased three tickets to the west station in Beijing. Again, a man in his 30s guided us out of the train station. He left without giving us a chance to thank him.
With Master’s help, we found a hotel that did not check our IDs, something so rare then. After three hours of rest, we got up and divided the money we had, so that we could buy the tickets ourselves to go home if anything happened to any one of us. Then we left for Tiananmen Square.
When we arrived at Tiananmen Square, there were not many people around but many plainclothes agents. We found a flag pole. The three of us, back to back, opened the banners and shouted at the top of our lungs: “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good! Falun Dafa is a righteous Fa!”
I felt that our voices reached high up to the sky. My face was red and flushed, with tears running down my cheeks. Several police officers rushed over in less than two minutes, took away our banners, and tried to cover our mouths. In the meantime, many fellow practitioners stood up and held banners from different locations in the square, shouting one after another. It was soul-stirring!
We were pushed into a police car, held in the Qianmen Police Station, and then escorted back by our local police. We learned from our local police that they sent many officers to stop us. They were in Beijing two days ahead of us, and many caught a cold with fever and cough due to the low temperature. They could not believe that we could break through their layers of checkpoints and arrive in Beijing without any problem! And the frigid weather in Beijing did not affect us at all!
Closing Remarks
Over the past 25 years of cultivation, I have felt very fortunate and happy. Master is always with me, protecting, guiding, and supporting me. I will not let Master down and will continue to cultivate as I first started. Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!
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