(Minghui.org) I am a 58-year-old Falun Dafa practitioner who started practicing in January 1997. I was arrested and sent to a detention center in 2010. I was able to save people while I was there. I am so grateful for Teacher's protection and Dafa's mighty power and miracles. Here is my story.
I was arrested in 2010 while distributing materials to clarify the facts about Falun Gong. At that moment, an attachment surfaced. I was treating truth clarification as an everyday person's task, and wanted to finish it quickly, so I didn't pay enough attention to safety. I was at a military post surrounded by twenty soldiers who carried guns, and many ordinary citizens.
I didn't feel any fear. Instead, I was quite calm. I kept sending forth righteous thoughts and asked Master for help. I handed my last copy to a soldier who was communicating with his office via a walkie-talkie, “Please find out the truth about Falun Gong.” He took the material and his expression became stern. He looked at me and ordered, “Falun Gong! Stay here!” He called the police immediately.
Many people and soldiers then surrounded me. I looked at them calmly and said loudly, “Please remember Falun Dafa is good, and Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good. Falun Dafa practitioners are here to save you.” I felt that I was strengthened by a strong force. Master and other heavenly beings were helping me!
In the eyes of people who were looking at me, I could see their kindness and expectancy. They were waiting for Dafa to save them. I understood the great responsibility that Dafa disciples are carrying.
I was taken to a detention center the next day. On the way there, the head of the police station asked me, “Do you regret what you did?” I smiled at him and said, “What Dafa practitioners are doing are to benefit sentient beings. We have no personal agendas. Human morals have corrupted. That's why people are facing Heaven's punishment. We are telling people the truth about Falun Gong to save lives from being destroyed. None of us feels sorry, including me.”
All the police present were quiet. The police chief gave me a thumbs-up and said, “Dafa practitioners are great! Real heroes!”
I replied to everyone listening, “I hope you all treat Dafa practitioners nicely so that you will have good futures. I wish all your families to be safe!” They all thanked me.
The car arrived at the detention center. As authorities prepared the paper work, I sat on a bench and sent forth the righteous thoughts to eliminate all the evil in the entire detention center. I also send out a divine thought to all the imprisoned practitioners, “Fellow practitioners, Master is thinking of us and waiting for us. Let's all send righteous thoughts to reject the arrangement, interference, and persecution by the old forces. Let's use our righteous thoughts and righteous actions to leave the prison.”
The guards took me to the clinic for a blood test. I said, “A Dafa practitioner does not have any illness. I don't need the test.” They grabbed my arm and injected a needle in it. I then had the thought, “If they waste even one drop of a practitioner's blood, they are committing a big crime.” No blood came out.
I then walked to the cell in my bare feet, and wearing only a thin shirt. I felt cold air flying toward me. I kept sending forth righteous thoughts and telling myself, “A Dafa disciple should have her every thought on the Fa. We are Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples. We are walking on a divine path. No environment will stop us from telling people the truth about Dafa and saving them.”
I recited Master's poems in my heart:
“A Great Enlightened One fears no hardship Having forged an adamantine will Free of attachment to living or dying He walks the path of Fa-rectification confident and poised” (“Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions” from Hong Yin Vol. II)
“In life, nothing sought, In death, regretting naught; Washing away all wrong thought, Buddhahood, with less adversity, is wrought.” (“Nothing Kept” from Hong Yin)
Suddenly a strong warm breeze flowed through my entire body. It was Teacher encouraging me and protecting me. I shed tears of appreciation.
I wiped away my tears and then stepped into the cell. I already knew what I should do. The first thing was to send forth righteous thoughts. I needed to clean out the bad things behind the inmates and awaken their kind sides. The room, about 200 square feet in size, held thirty people. It was late at night. I said “hi” to the inmate leader and a few people next to me, then laid down. Since there were so many people, we all had to sleep on our sides and could not turn over.
After being half asleep for some time, I heard some music in my ears. I listened to it carefully. It was Falun Gong exercise music! I was so excited – Teacher sent the music to me! I got up and went to the basin to do the exercises. The two monitors looked at me, but said nothing.
Thus, I started the first item of the three things that Teacher told us to do... Doing exercises and reciting the Fa. I recited Lunyu, Hong Yin , and any part of Master's writings that I could think of.
The inmate leader was ferocious to inmates. She yelled at everyone, but she was nice to me. “If you need anything, just tell me,” she said. She also gave her new clothes to me. I thanked her and politely gave them back to her. She saw that my sitting posture (with two legs double crossed in the lotus position) was different from others, then told me to sit in the front row.
I strictly applied Dafa's standards to myself and was nice to everyone. Gradually the inmates opened up to me. I felt very sorry for them when I saw them arguing and fighting over trivial matters. I talked to them individually saying, “We are all having a difficult time here. It is a great predestined relationship for us to meet here. My Teacher said that Dafa practitioners should not hit back when they are hit or curse back when being cursed. We should forbear. It is a good thing to suffer a loss. Though you don't practice, please remember, 'Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good', and keep reciting it in your heart.”
They agreed, “Falun Gong is right.” After that, yelling and cursing disappeared from my cell. Instead, it was “Falun Dafa is good, and Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” The inmates learned how to help each other. Dafa's miracle manifested in the cell.
I knew that Dafa practitioners should keep a righteous image in any environment so that people could see it, act according to Dafa, and be saved. People were unhappy with the guards' behavior and the food at the detention center. They often threw the food into the toilet. Because wasting food was a crime, I wanted to stop this. I sat down to send forth righteous thoughts with the thought, “Every life in the room listen—from now on no one should waste a single grain of food.”
The miracle happened again! When it was dinner time, a guard shouted outside, “X cell (the one I was in), don't take extra food. Just take half the container.” Wasting food stopped.
The detention center later gave each inmate a boiled egg every other day. I gave my egg to the sick people in my cell. I also offered my good dish to the people sitting next to me. My actions and words moved everyone. Each day, two people cleaned the room. It was hard work so I asked the inmate leader, “Please include me to clean.”
She refused, “There are plenty of people to do that work. You don't have to do it. Just do your exercises.” I knew this was Teacher's protection and encouragement.
May 13th arrived, my Teacher's 58th birthday, also World Falun Dafa Day. I put the three eggs that I saved earlier in my bowl, left my bed at 9:00 a.m. (we were not allowed to come down), and knelt to the west. Holding my bowl over my head, I said to Teacher, “Teacher, I am imprisoned. I cannot bring any fresh fruits to you on your birthday. These three eggs represent my appreciation and sincere heart. I thank you for your benevolent salvation of all people. I wish you a happy birthday! Happy birthday! Happy birthday! I miss you, Teacher!”
Tears flowed down my face. No words can express the wonderful feeling that Teacher gave me. Though Teacher was overseas, I could always feel that he was next to me, teaching me and protecting me.
All the people in my cell watched me quietly. They brought their towels to wipe away my tears. They shared the moment's sacredness and happiness with me.
Time flew by. I kept telling people the truth of Falun Dafa, and its wonderfulness and miraculousness. They all enjoyed Dafa stories. I told them about the staged self-immolation at Tiananmen Square and the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) persecution of Dafa practitioners. Several people said that they would start practicing Falun Gong after they were released. Some even asked me to teach them the exercises in the cell. I told them that wherever they went, they should remember and keep reciting, "Falun Dafa is good" and "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good." They held my hands, thanking me again and again.
One inmate kept to herself and would not talk to anyone. She often cried to herself. I talked to her. She had been arrested for a small altercation with her neighbor. She couldn't bear the pain of being in the cell and had been thinking of knocking her head on the stone platform to end her life.
Holding her hand, I said, “Please don't do that. For your parents, for your family, you should live. Please cherish your life. Dafa practitioners risk their lives to save people. The pain they suffer is hard for people to imagine. But they still won't give up their belief and their responsibility to protect the universe. So you must cherish your life.”
She was moved. “Elder sister, I hear you. I won't kill myself,” she promised me. I then asked her to recite, "Falun Dafa is good" and "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” Her mood subsequently improved. She told me that she would visit me when she was released, to learn Falun Gong. She also quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. I was quite happy for her.
Thus, all the lives in my cell were saved. They understood the truth of Falun Dafa and the wonderfulness of Dafa. The few people with illnesses improved greatly after reciting “Falun Dafa is good.” They thanked me every day. I told them to thank Teacher instead. I also encouraged them to look for Dafa and practitioners when they got out. They all stated that they would practice Falun Gong.
Dafa's mighty power and benevolence had saved all the lives in my cell.
Fifty six days passed. When I sat down to do the sitting exercise, the woman next to me said, “How I wish to be a bird and fly out of here.” I echoed her sentiment, “Yes, I also wish to be a bird.” Then suddenly an idea occurred to me. Teacher was using her to tell me that I should leave. I immediately heard a voice saying, “Eye.” Oh, Teacher was telling me to use my eye problem to leave. I then said in my mind, “Teacher, I want to leave now. The sentiment beings here are all saved. I want to go out to do the three things.”
My eyes had previously been diagnosed as blinded. Since I am cultivating the universe's Dafa, Teacher has given me unlimited wisdom, and miracles could happen. I could read the Fa without glasses. I could read every character. I could ride my bicycle to clarify the truth to people. When I needed to see something, Teacher let me see it. When I didn't need to see it, Teacher would not let me see it. I needed to use this to get out.
I kept sending forth righteous thoughts and asking Teacher to help me. In two days, I couldn't see anything. The detention center doctor sent me to a hospital. They put me through many checks. All diagnoses were the same... no eyesight.
Thus, on the fifty eighth day, I was released.
When I was at the detention center's gate, all the people in my cell surrounded me, “When can we meet again?”
I held their hands and my tears flowed. “The time will come. We will see each other again. You must remember to recite 'Falun Dafa is good' and 'Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good', and try to get out earlier.”
“We will remember!” they answered.
A guard smiled at me, “I have something to do. I will not walk you out. Please go by yourself.”
I smiled back, “Thank you for caring for me these days. Please also remember 'Falun Dafa is good' and 'Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.'”
She waved to me and smiled, “I will remember. Bye-bye!”
For fifty eight days, I wasn't able to walk around at the detention center. But my body was still in very good condition. Teacher gave me a divine body that didn't need metabolism. Thank you, benevolent Teacher!
On the second day after my return home, Teacher's poem “Stirred by Reflection” was published:
“After ten years of trials and tribulations, Lotuses fill the courtyard. A rainbow of colors, Illuminates the heavens. One’s purity is seen, After the adamantine will is fully tempered. True thoughts dissolve all, The whole sky is clear. Disciples of Fa walk the earth, Compassion they bring. With kind thoughts they save people, Evil specters they vanquish. Righteous thoughts each step of the way, Divine beings are present in this world. When they return with full bounty, The multitude of gods shall receive them.”
Holding Teacher's poem in hand, I read it again and again. Tears flowed as my voice echoed in the air.