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Maturing as a Dafa Practitioner While Breaking Through the Persecution by the Old Forces (Part 1)

December 21, 2002 |   By a Practitioner in Mainland China

On January 31, 2002

(Clearwisdom.net)

Section 1

March 1994 is the eternal spring in my life. From then on, I walked along the path of cultivation. In June, my wife, my son, and I attended Master's 9-day-lecture in Jinan, Shandong Province. We saw our great compassionate Teacher. It was a truly beautiful and unforgettable period in my life.

Before I obtained the Dafa, I was a lieutenant commander and an assistant of political guidance. In 1990, I wrote a letter to report the bribery my supervisor committed. He retaliated and charged me with lodging a false accusation against him. The charge was almost filed. I was on edge at that time and I almost collapsed from the stress. In order to free myself from those troubles, I went to a temple. Later on, I studied many qigong practices; however, my health became worse, so I was utterly disheartened. In 1992, I became a restaurant manager in the army. Selfishness and desire made me use my position to eat, drink, gamble and make money whenever possible. My moral standard rapidly degenerated. I don't even want to remember those times.

After I obtained Dafa, the dark side of my heart was swept away. Both my mind and body changed a great deal. I haven't been ill for 8 years. What I say frequently to my friends is, "The heart is broadened while treating fame and interests lightly. I haven't needed medicine since I started practicing Falun Dafa."

Section 2

In 1996, I was transferred to civilian work. The remarks from my leaders before I left the army were, "He is righteous and remains uncorrupted." I told them that I could not have accomplished that if I did not practice Falun Gong."

Shortly after I started in the new workplace I won the respect and praise from my supervisors and colleagues. This is the natural manifestation and inevitable outcome of my cultivation. The party secretary said, "His realm of mind is unsurpassed in our bureau. I can't compare with him, neither can the director of the bureau." Following my suggestion, she read Zhuan Falun and watched the videotapes of Master's 9-day lecture. She and another 8 people practiced the exercises and studied the Fa with me every afternoon during that period. When the persecution of Falun Gong began, they were afraid and gave up. However, my good performance laid a solid foundation for me to have a relatively relaxing environment later on. Many of my colleagues said "He is completely different than what the propaganda says."

Section 3

I immersed myself in Dafa with my whole heart. I carefully examined myself and tried hard to follow every requirement Master requested of assistants. I studied and recited Fa seriously and actively attended all kinds of activities promoting Dafa. I also made Dafa materials, helped practitioners to buy books and devoted large amounts of time. I also bought books for those practitioners living in remote and backward mountain areas. I was glad I had the opportunities to help them. Later, the Jiang regime spread rumors that we made a profit from selling books. What a joke. How could they understand the mind of a Dafa practitioner?

Section 4

In 1998, the Beijing TV station broadcasted a program slandering Dafa. I went to the station to clarify the truth, where I heard fellow practitioners talk about their experiences and how they benefited from practicing Falun Gong. I was moved to tears by their stories. The following day, my wife and I took our son and went to the station again. We talked about our experiences and the benefits that Falun Gong brought to us.

On April 25, 1999, I stood next to the gate of Zhongnanhai Compound. I witnessed lots of things. In the morning, Prime Minister Zhu Rongji asked some of the practitioners to come in and have a dialogue. Around two or three o'clock, the police officers asked us to leave but we didn't move. In the evening, many plainclothes police officers mingled with the practitioners. They listened while practitioners exchanged their experiences.

After April 25th, some police officers came to my home and took notes of what I did on April 25th. When they left, my fear came out. I turned over and over on the bed and could not fall asleep. At the breaking point, I got a hint while I was half-awake and half-asleep: "Your main consciousness must be clear; you have to find your own self." The following night, I was asked to go to the police station. They yelled and shouted at me. I was very determined. They released me after a few hours.

We still kept practicing outside but were disturbed frequently. At the beginning, some workers on duty didn't allow us to practice in the public places. Later on, the army leaders talked to me and told me that we were not allowed to practice in the places near the troops. I asked them to show the regulation; he himself knew they were short of any legitimate reasons and then told me they were just following orders. The following day, a group of people showed up all of sudden while we were practicing the exercises. They worked in front of us and shouted out slogans in order to disturb us. We were not moved by them and continued to practice. A few days later, they surrounded the public place with fences. The fences are still there and look very silly. Since then, we practiced outside the fences. They continued to harass us; the plainclothes police were always there.

From April 25th to July 20th, 1999, we were harassed many times. Sometimes police officers came to our home; sometimes we were asked to go to the police station. But we still held large-scale group practices every week. Once, they parked dozens of buses on the public place where we practiced the exercises. We then practiced between the buses. The police officers therefore directed the bus drivers to wash the buses; the water splashed over the practitioners, but they held the recorder to their chest and continued to practice. Another time, while we were doing the exercises, all of sudden several police cars showed up. The police moved back and forth among the practitioners and said they were looking for the organizers.

Section 5

On July 19, 1999, the local police station sent out three people to monitor me, and they put me under house arrest at my workplace. Those days I just introduced Dafa to them and they had nothing to say.

The situation became worse and worse. On July 23rd, seeing that I would not renounce Falun Gong, the police searched my home. Fortunately, all the Dafa books, audio and video materials had been transferred to a safe place. They also interrogated my wife. She was resourceful so they didn't get any information from her.

Afterwards, they began to interrogate me in turns, a vice director of a sub branch of the local police station swore at me; a head of some division, however, asked me to stand up and sit down over and over. He just wanted to harass me in this way. In addition, he used a bottle of mineral water to beat me on the head. I never experienced this before and asked them "Why did you beat me?" That night, another two people interrogated me until three or four o'clock in the morning. Later on, I was taken to the duty office, where I saw three more practitioners, including my wife. She told me the whole course of how our home was searched. We exchanged our experiences.

I wasn't clear about the situation from the perspective of the Fa at that time. I didn't realize this was the evil that was persecuting Dafa. The evil then took advantage of my loophole. I thought I should not resist like this any more. With this thought, I started to give in when they interrogated me and used human notions to deal with the police officers. However, the evil pressed me more and more until I wrote an ambiguous so-called Guarantee Statement that on the surface seemed that I had given up practicing Falun Gong. I was allowed to go home after 8-days of detention.

I became passive after I returned home. At this time a practitioner brought me a false article which just satisfied my cultivation state. So I though what I did was right.

Section 6

Little by little, I realized that something was wrong with my behavior and I also realized that I mistakenly believed in the false article. Then I began to contact other practitioners and attend experience-sharing meetings, some of which had several people and others had dozens of practitioners.

On the second day of the Chinese calendar of January 2000, I attended a small experience sharing conference. During the conference, a group of police officers broke in and rudely took away our books. They took us to a police station in Chaoyang District, Beijing. The following day, I was detained as a criminal. Facing being sentenced, I was determined and stated that I would never give up my practice of Falun Gong. I also tried every opportunity to introduce Dafa to them. Eighteen days later I was released.

Returning to my workplace, I was expelled from the Communist Party. They also put the "administrative error" on my personal record and deducted part of my salary and my entire bonus. [In China, the workplace holds a personal record for each employee on which they record their work performance, political performance, etc..-Translator] Whenever some "sensitive days" were coming. They arranged for me to be working on post or asked the security police to watch me.