(Minghui.org) Even though I only had a superficial understanding of the Fa teachings when I first began cultivating in Dafa in 1997, I knew Falun Dafa was special. Especially since I recovered from all my illnesses soon after I began practicing Dafa.
My husband, sister-in-law, and mother-in-law, also began to practice Dafa, and we read the Fa and discussed our cultivation experiences every evening. We felt immersed in the Fa and our lives became meaningful.
The unprecedented persecution of Falun Dafa began in July 1999. I wept when I saw the reports on television that slandered Dafa and Master being continuously broadcasted.
In October 1999, a practitioner in our study group and I decided to go to Beijing to appeal. A local practitioner picked us up from the train station and brought us to a big house in the suburbs. Many practitioners from all over China were there, studying the Fa and discussing what they would do. Some went directly to the Petition Office while others went to Tiananmen Square to do the exercises. Some came back and said the petition office had taken down the sign, and practitioners were being arrested.
Two days after we arrived another practitioner and I went to Tiananmen Square. We didn’t have a sign or banner, so we just stood in front of the Tiananmen Square monument and recited Lunyu.
It felt like time stopped—even the air was still. It was as if everything around me was quietly listening to me reciting. I finally spoke up for Dafa; I wasn’t concerned for my safety—I just wanted to seek justice for Dafa. The police ignored us.
We went to a nearby noodle cafe to eat. We returned to Tiananmen Square, sat down by the Jinshui Bridge, and recited Hong Yin. A police car came and we were shoved into it. I was imprisoned in the Qinghe Detention Center. Police from my city and the 610 Office personnel brought me back to my hometown on the third day.
I was illegally detained for 30 days. The village leaders and 610 Office staff pressured me to sign a guarantee statement to stop practicing Falun Dafa, but I refused. They claimed I could go home if I signed and promised not to go to Beijing to appeal. I clarified the truth to them. I told them how practicing Falun Dafa changed my life, and that every citizen has the right to petition. After they extorted 5,000 yuan from my family I was released.
At the end of 2000, I was taken to a forced labor camp. Because I refused to “transform” I was beaten so badly that I lost my hearing for months. I was repeatedly tortured and placed in solitary confinement. They hung me on an iron cage with my limbs spread apart. They poured hot chili water over me. I choked on it and had difficulty breathing.
They kept hitting my lower body with the back of a chair, to increase my pain. They repeatedly struck the insteps of my feet with a wooden board studded with nails. I thought about Master and Dafa, and silently said, “Master, save me.” They eventually stopped.
I was made to work for 12 or 13 hours every day. To force me to “transform”, they threatened me every day. Looking back, it would have been impossible for me to withstand the abuse and intense pressure without the support of Dafa’s principles.
I recited Master’s teachings every day. Many practitioners were “transformed” every day. I was anxious and thought, “How could practitioners believe in the nonsense repeated by those people? Master asks us to remember the Fa!”
I later understood that it would have been very difficult for me to not give in to the intense pressure if I didn’t remember what Master taught us. At that time, I read and memorized more than 10 new articles published by Master, including “Dafa Disciples’ Righteous Thoughts Are Powerful”, “Fa-Rectification Period Dafa Disciples”, “Dafa Is Indestructible”, and “Path.”
Because I refused to “transform” or sign anything, my term was extended to three months. I was released in March 2004.
In 2005, other practitioners showed me how to download from the Internet and print materials. I bought an HP laser printer to print the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. Udumbara flowers soon began blooming in my home, and did so for more than 10 years. I was always able to produce all the materials the other practitioners needed.
I was arrested again in 2016, sentenced to four years in prison, and incarcerated in the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison.
They began pressuring me to “transform” as soon as I arrived at the prison. Because I refused I was punished by being made to stand every day from morning to evening.
I remember Master said,
“Why should you, a Dafa disciple, fear the evil ones when enduring persecution? The crux of the matter is that you have attachments. If not, do not endure passively,
and face the evil people with righteous thoughts at all times. No matter what the situation,
do not cooperate with the evil’s demands, orders, or what it instigates. If everyone can do that,
circumstances will change.”
(“Dafa Disciples’ Righteous Thoughts Are Powerful, Essentials for Further Advancement II)
I felt righteous thoughts strengthen after I recited Master’s words. I sat down in a chair. My inmate who was assigned to watch me grabbed me and pulled me up. I just sat on the ground with my legs crossed and my eyes closed. Seven or eight prisoners grabbed me and walked me toward the warden’s office. The entire way there I shouted, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” Everyone in the workshop looked at me. Some practitioners stood up and shouted sternly, “Do not abuse practitioners!”
The warden yelled at me and said I was causing trouble. I told her the truth about the persecution of Falun Dafa and reminded her that one reaps what one sows.
I recited Master’s Fa, did the exercises, and sent righteous thoughts every day. I refused to comply with the guards’ demands or do slave labor. As soon as I returned home in April 2020 I re-established the materials production center. The little udumbara flowers reappeared and bloomed again.
Buddhists and many Asians believe that this tiny, white flower is a symbol of the Buddha and immortality. Udumbara in Sanskrit means, “An auspicious flower from heaven.”