(Minghui.org) In the past ten or so years, certain prisons in China have focused on persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. Inmates imprisoned behind the high walls and electric fences are monitored closely, forced to work as slave laborers, and live a very hard life.
Practitioners are additionally forced to endure mental persecution inflicted on them by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). They are pressured to renounce their belief in Falun Gong, which is called “transforming.” To reach their “transformation” quota, the labor camps never hold back in adopting the most brutal torture methods. Even after some practitioners were “transformed” by force, the evil Party would still not let them go and would continue to arrange for criminal inmates to monitor and abuse them, because the CCP knows that all forced “transformations” are false. The CCP operates under the principles of “falsehood, evilness, and fighting” to maintain its power.
As an illegally detained practitioner I strived to negate the persecution that I was forced to endure in prison, just as other practitioners did. We fell and then got up, fell again and got up again. Finally we enlightened to what Teacher said: “The Fa can destroy all evil.” (“Driving out Interference” in Essentials for Further Advancement II ) As long as practitioners can assimilate themselves with the Fa, the evil in the CCP's prisons, labor camps and detention centers will be eliminated.
A few years ago I was arrested with other practitioners as a result of having my attachments exploited. Even though I did my best to reject the old forces’ arrangements, refused to sign anything, didn't follow the authorities' “legal procedures,” and never responded to their questions, the court still illegally sentenced me to prison.
On the way to the prison, I thought to myself: "I am heading to a dark dungeon where the evil Party persecutes practitioners. Practitioners have exposed such atrocities many times and sent forth righteous thoughts toward the evil. This time I am going into it myself; I must dissolve such evilness that persecutes practitioners."
As soon as we arrived, we were put in a small cell and were handed over to a few special inmate-helpers to be monitored. The police announced: “All you Falun Gong practitioners will have to go through a month-long 'education with cuffs on.'”
We were handcuffed all day long and told to reflect on ourselves. The guards or inmate-helpers would come from time to time to check on our attitude. Because we refused to follow their orders, by the third day, they brought over a bunch of handcuffs. They cuffed my hands behind my back, then used two more pairs of handcuffs to suspend me from the frame over the bed. No matter how painful it was, I did not make a sound.
But after a while, I had difficulty breathing and was panting for air. It got worse. They were afraid that I might not be able to breathe and die, so they hurriedly put me down. It was no better even after I was put down, and I only resumed breathing normally after I had sat on the floor for three hours. When I recovered, they gloated, “You would have died if we had waited a few more seconds to let you down. Don't you dare be defiant again!” At night, they dared not hang me the same way, so they handcuffed me with my arms spread apart.
A few days later, the officer in charge of monitoring Falun Gong practitioners came to talk with us, asking us if we'd "transform." I briefly explained to him that I had been terminally ill before and had many illnesses, but I totally recovered a few months after I started practicing Falun Gong. He didn't believe me and responded with some nonsense. He came again the next day, asked the inmate-helper to put me down, and declared, “Here we treat people humanely, but it is not effective on you. We have talked to the manager and will move you to a new place. You can call them demons or minions, but you will find out for yourself just how cruel it can be over there.”
I was amazed that the officials that worked for the Party could lie so casually. They had almost killed me only a few days after I had gotten there, and then he said that they treated people "humanely."
After quite some time I learned that Ward A, the ward that I was transferred to, was an intense training ward. The management there was different from all the other wards. Not only did their own inmates complain about the way they treated people, inmates in other wards also criticized them. Even officers in other wards felt that what they were doing was not right, but they liked to scare their own inmates by threatening them: “We will transfer you to Ward A if you do not behave.” Thanks to its ruthlessness, Ward A is regarded as the model unit by the CCP directory.
The 610 Office gave Ward A an order to “transform” me within six months. Ward A planned carefully. Before moving me over, they emptied a small cell and arranged for the two toughest and most vicious inmate-helpers, B and C, to come over, and prepared a large bed that was suitable for hanging people from.
The torture was carried out in stages. They used one method a week and tested me to see my responses on Sunday nights. If I didn't respond the way they wanted, they would switch to another method on Monday. But it seemed that they dared not torture me to death right away, either. They had two inmate-helpers take turns watching me around the clock and would let me down as soon as I showed any urgent symptoms. They also had their medical staff checking my blood pressure and temperature every morning, and would begin to torture me for as long as my physical condition was normal.
When the torture switched to the “hanging Jesus,” which they deemed the toughest torture method, inmate helper C arrived for his new shift and saw that I was still silently enduring. He asked inmate-helper B, “How it is possible? Even this doesn’t do anything to him?” Inmate-helper B replied, “It does. I saw that the back of his sweater was drenched in sweat.”
During that time, I told them facts about Falun Gong whenever they asked me anything. As long as I still had any energy I would send forth righteous thoughts to get rid of the evil persecution. On the bed at night, I kept sending forth righteous thoughts. But I was often exhausted and fell asleep very soon. One night in my sleep I heard the two inmate-helpers secretly talking: “If hanging him during the day does not do it, starting next week we will cuff his arms and legs apart and let him sleep on the floor at night.” I was awake immediately and began to send forth righteous thoughts, “Let these two inmate-helpers be punished right away.” I did it until I finally fell asleep again. The first thing I did the next morning when I was awake was to look at the two inmate-helpers and saw nothing had happened to them. I knew that the torture of the day was to begin again.
I wanted to escape the painful and endless cycle of torture, but was helpless. All I could do was to encourage myself to be strong. But it was painful indeed, and there was no end in sight. I felt that my physical body couldn't endure much longer. At the time, enduring was the only thing I could do. Every morning when I woke up I encouraged myself, but when I was put on the torture apparatus I wanted to get off because of the pain. After biting my teeth and enduring it till bedtime, I felt proud and congratulated myself for having lasted another day.
To overcome the thought of wanting to get off, I recited Hong Yin or kept thinking, “It is good to suffer.” But because I had been persecuted for a long time and my body was in bad shape, I was unable to focus my attention and the thought of wanting to get away kept emerging.
Finally one day, I needed to use the bathroom when I was being tortured with the “hanging Jesus” method. The situation provided me a convenient excuse to ask to be taken off. I told the inmate-helper: “Put me down. I need to use the bathroom.” He said: “You have to promise me first to reconsider your position. Otherwise you have to soil your pants.” With all the pain and suffering my righteous thoughts were weak already. Since I could not endure it any longer, I agreed to reconsider. They put me down and let me go to the restroom where I sat and rested.
Then they ran to the ward administrator to report to him, as though they had accomplished a great deed. The administrator called his superior immediately and they were very excited. He called me over, and told me that I needed to do such and such. I said I only agreed to reconsider my position, and I could not promise him anything. He asked me how long did I need to reconsider. I said three months (I was hoping that I could make it past April 25, thinking that the external environment would change). He said that three months was too long and he could give me at most one month. Then he told the inmate-helper to bring over a few deviant books for me to read. For the whole month I was seated on the small bench and was deep in thought. Their supervision was somewhat relaxed, and I had some energy to think about my problems. I knew I had stumbled on my path of cultivation. I felt deep down that I was not good enough, but such negative thinking was of no use. I needed to get up again.
At the time, my main focus was on how to live through the persecution. Should I go on a hunger strike? I tried before when I was first arrested. I even lost my voice and was unable to yell out messages on my way to the detention center. Later I enlightened to the understanding that going on a hunger strike is only an ordinary person’s way of coping with things, and cannot be regarded as saving sentient beings. (It might be effective when faced with people who have a conscience, but it is useless when faced with evil people who purposely torment others.) It may be able to delay the persecution in certain circumstances. But being governed by the principle of mutual generation and mutual inhibition, its negative impacts were becoming more evident. Then what else could I do in such an evil situation? To pass this ordeal, the only way was to look within.
I found that my main problem was that I had too much karma. (Were it not for Dafa, I would have died long ago to repay my debts.) As time went on, not only did the flesh where the cuffs rubbed against hurt, the part of my body that had problems before began to hurt as well. Every cell was painful to the bone. My tolerance for pain was not high in the first place and I regretted that I did not do too well in the lotus position when meditating and did not train my tolerance for pain enough. So I decided to use the month to make up for my deficiencies. How? I did whatever I could right there, trying every way to make myself uncomfortable and lengthening the time I could endure the pain. After doing it for a couple of weeks, I felt that my tolerance for pain had improved significantly.
After I regained my energy, I calmly reflected on the entire process. I gradually realized that what I faced was not an ordeal, but, rather, I treated it as an ordeal. If it was an ordeal, no matter how intense it was, there would be a time when it ended. I thought many times that they could let me fight the strongest person, or require me to endure twice or three times what other people were enduring. I believed that with my steadfast belief in Dafa I would prevail. But it was not an ordeal or a test that I could pass if I just gritted my teeth. It was not that they would let me off when I endured so much that they admired me. They would keep increasing the intensity of the torture, infinitely extending the time. They just would not let me pass. Because this was persecution. Their purpose was not to test me, nor was it to kill me, either. What they wanted was to destroy my faith. This is the old forces' arrangement – to destroy sentient beings.
Being isolated and faced with such cruelty, did I have no way out? Teacher has told us:
“With a lot of the Fa-rectification things, it's not that there is no way to do them. No matter how hard it is, there is a path for you to take, even though it is a fairly narrow one. You have to go down that path correctly, and it won't work if you come up even a little short or stray a little bit. Nevertheless, there is a path for you.” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York”)
Teacher said that no matter how hard it is, there is a path. Then there must be a path in my situation.
The reason I was tortured so brutally was because I had deviated on my cultivation path. Then, where was the right path for me to walk in order to break through the evil’s persecution? I thought of Teacher’s words: “The Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts.” (“Drive out Interference” in Essentials for Further Advancement II)
It turned out that Teacher had given the answer. It was only that I was too dumb and did not enlighten to it from the Fa. Basically, I found that I still harbored an incorrect mindset and had notions that did not agree with parts of the Fa; hence, I was unable to break through the persecution. So I made up my mind to study the Fa with all of my effort and use Dafa's principles to rectify every single thought. I would do it until I could cultivate myself to the extent that the righteous divine beings and Teacher’s Fashen could help me deal with the persecution with no objections from other lives in the cosmos, and then they would cease to persecute me.
While being monitored closely, I had to totally rely on my memory to study the Fa. I would recite Lunyu one to two times every morning, and sometimes I would also recite parts of Hong Yin and Essentials for Further Advancement that I could remember. Although I had never tried to memorize Zhuan Falun in the past, I remembered the contents page and had a clear impression of its content because I had read Zhuan Falun hundreds of times. Therefore I could basically go through the whole book without reading it. Thus the evil environment did not hamper my studying the Fa in any way. Whenever I was awake, I would recite and study the Fa or send forth righteous thoughts. I analyzed and evaluated my thoughts on all sorts of practical matters based on the Fa principles that I enlightened to.
In time I discovered the fundamental errors in my thoughts. For example, despite many years of cultivation, although I had positioned myself with respect to the Fa correctly, often I was not able to position myself with respect to others. I didn’t often think about others. When faced with any problem, the order of my consideration was: Dafa first, me second, and others third. I did many things to clarify the truth and participated in projects to save people, but in my heart I was not doing so for them. Rather, I treated such work as ordinary tasks, so the results were not that great. What was worse was that I had the sense of being in charge of Dafa. In front of ordinary people, my mindset was: “I am a Dafa practitioner. I am a life that sees the truth of the universe. What are you human beings?” I did not look at them as lives created by the Fa and that they were also lives to be assimilated with the Fa. After I was taken to the prison, I looked upon people there as evil police and guards and evil people. In my subconscious, I was against them from the start. I did not distinguish people here from the evil in other dimensions. As a result, not only was I not able to save them, I was savagely persecuted by the evil in other dimensions through the people that they controlled here.
Every time I found a problem, I would rectify myself, until I was clear about how I should think about the issue in accordance with Dafa. While cultivating my heart and changing my notions, I followed Teacher’s words to practice:
“A Dafa disciple--a most magnificent, merciful being--is the most remarkable and most merciful in every environment of human society, and is beneficial to other beings.” (“Teaching the Fa at the Great Lakes Fa Conference in North America”)
After I studied the Fa and put it into actual practice for two years, my environment changed fundamentally without my paying attention to it. For instance, out of fear, the evil isolated practitioners from everyone else. Not only could practitioners not communicate among themselves, they were prevented from talking with other inmates. Even guards and police were not allowed to contact practitioners without good reason; only the warden, deputy warden, and the administrator were allowed to interact with them. Three days after I arrived, they announced to all the inmates: “No one is allowed to talk with Falun Gong practitioners. Whoever does will have five points deducted.” They repeated the announcement three months later. Some inmates were very bad, such as the inmate-helper C. He was very stubborn. He said that he had thought qigong was laughable since the 90s, as though qigong had done him some wrong. He had killed someone in a fight and was imprisoned. But he strongly supported the CCP and was liked by the prison guards, and they made him an inmate-helper. He persecuted practitioners often and badmouthed them to inmates to justify the CCP's persecution.
I did not care what the regulations were. In such a crowded place, all activities were done together. It is impossible to keep people from communicating. I used Dafa to guide my xinxing and made sure I always behaved properly and did my best to think of others. Whenever someone asked me for help, I always agreed and tried my best. Many people liked me, and their views of Falun Gong practitioners improved. The evil factors tried to control the guards and the inmate-helpers, but to no avail. Once, inmate-helper B was upset with me: “See what you have done!?” I thought I did something very wrong. To my surprise, he continued: “You’ve been here for one year only, and you know more people than I do.” Inmate-helper C also yelled at me: “The whole ward is filled with your friends.” I thought it was a bit funny. Could one be upset over that? But thinking a bit deeper, it was actually not so surprising. This was no more than the last cry from the evil in other dimensions.
Later on, faced with all the facts, inmate-helper B changed. For example, I was responsible for all the daily routines in the cell. I had to empty everyone’s water bottle and put them in designated places outside. Inmate-helper B wanted to sleep a bit longer, and most of the time the bottle had been put outside when he was ready for a drink. After I noticed this, I would pour some water in his tank first before I dealt with the water bottles. Sometimes only very little water was left. I would leave it for him rather than to myself. After a while, sometimes when he got up early and I was busy with something else, he would go lay out the bottles for me, and poured some water in my water tank. For him, this was unprecedented, because he never did anything for others. Later on I was moved out of this cell. Inmate-helper B came from the same hometown as my new cell head. He introduced me to him and told him how nice I was and asked him to take good care of me. He also treated other practitioners who came later much better and never said anything to degrade Falun Gong. He even ended up allowing me and other practitioners to talk amongst ourselves.
Later, I was switched among a few different cells. I brought the kindness that I had cultivated from Dafa to every cell I went to, and wisely told people there the facts about Falun Gong. In the beginning the guards assigned inmate-helpers to me, but they all became good friends of mine. In the end the guards gave up, and I could move around on my own.
Only inmate-helper C was not pleased. One day he called me over: “You can do nothing to me. I am not counting on you. When I get out of here I will not need your help either.” I was surprised. I had nothing against anyone, and I had no pre-existing notions. I treated everyone nicely and was very sincere to inmate-helper C and others. I did not want to or did do anything to harm anyone. Why did he say such weird things to me. Thinking it over, I realized that it was because he had lost his audience from when he used to slander Falun Gong and Falun Gong practitioners. The whole ward believed that Falun Gong was good. He couldn't mislead people any longer, but still stubbornly wanted to badmouth Falun Gong. Faced with the facts, he was totally isolated. He had retreated so much that he had to reconsider his position. I just smiled a bit and did not say anything, since I had treated him nicely and told him all the facts. Whatever he chose for himself was just his own choice. There was no need for me to be attached.
My own environment was getting better and better. Many people who used to be deceived by the evil learned the facts, and in turn started criticizing the Party’s doings. They became sympathetic to and admired Falun Gong practitioners. One young inmate once came to me and said: “People in our cell all say that you practitioners are all of high realms. Last night we ranked you guys. Mr. X is No. 1, and you are No. 2.”
Some people expressed their support for Falun Gong practitioners, and some wanted to help us. Once we went through an alley on our way to work and were stopped by a big puddle that we could not get around. A few of us who wore canvas shoes were worried. An inmate wearing rubber boots came over to me and said: “Let me carry you over.” Even though there were so many other people wearing canvas shoes he didn't help any of them, he only helped me, while I had never helped him before. I could not explain how come such good things happened to me. I just felt that the more I cultivated in Dafa the better it was for me.
After I was detained in Ward A for two years, I had enough merit points to apply for a term reduction according to the prison rules. The deputy warden informed me that the ward wanted to apply for me and wanted me to write a report saying that I renounced Falun Gong. I thought the time for me to truly rectify the Fa had arrived. I discussed my thoughts with the practitioner that the inmates had ranked No. 1. He said: “In that case you need to do two things. One is to put down the thought of life and death. The other is to be able to meditate in the lotus position well. What if he insists on reducing your term?” Actually at that time I had long given up any attachment to life and death, all I thought about was how to save the sentient beings there.
But in such an evil environment I had to be prepared for the worst. So I prepared myself before going into solitary confinement. I gave important messages to those that I needed to tell. I also had myself mentally prepared in case I would be tortured. I sent forth righteous thoughts – I no longer wanted them to receive retribution in this lifetime. Rather I sincerely thought: “Please clear the other dimension behind so-and-so and save him.”
I talked with the deputy warden in a mindset that was totally for his sake. I told him how I became a healthy and useful person to my company, although I was terminally ill before, and about my determination to steadfastly cultivate in Dafa. I told him that our cultivation practice is not against any government. On the contrary, it is beneficial to any country or society. The time that the CCP started to persecute Falun Gong has surpassed that of the “eight years of fighting against the Japanese” and the “ten years of the Cultural Revolution,” which were the longest events in its history. Not only has Falun Gong not been destroyed, it has become stronger than ever. No matter how brutal the torture, practitioners will declare that whatever they were forced to write or sign in the prison to be null and void and do whatever they needed to do once they were released. "What would you have gained? How long can such a policy of persecution last? What impact do you think it might have? Wouldn't peaceful negotiations be the best policy for the government, the police, and all the people involved?"
The deputy warden was normally very tough toward inmates, and he was the one who invented many torture methods in Ward A and was mostly cursed by inmates. He was quite interested in what I said this time. Our conversation lasted for over half an hour and went quite cordially.
But my cultivation was not all smooth sailing. A few days later the deputy warden went back to his hometown. The administrator summoned me over and wanted me to write reports renouncing Falun Gong. I said those reports were all fake. I told the deputy warden that I wanted to be honest and would not write anything false to deceive people so that I could be released. The administrator retorted: “No matter what you say, if you do not write them you will be considered rebellious, and we will have to re-train you.” I replied calmly: “Can one’s belief be changed by force? No matter who was forced to 'transform,' he will go online to nullify it once he is released and he will still be a Falun Gong practitioner.” He asked me: “Would you nullify it, too?” I replied: “By all means.” He then asked: “Then you tell me if Mr. So-and-So has truly 'transformed?'” I answered: “The way I see it, no one here truly 'transformed.'” He saw that I was not swayed and did not know what to say. Finally he said something that surprised me: “If you have to do it, you’d better be persistent. Don’t you change your mind.” I said: “No problem.”
However, things were not that easy. A few days later they summoned my family to the prison. First they tried to scare them, telling them that if I did not follow their orders to write reports renouncing my belief, they would be very tough on me. My family faced me through the big glass window and talked to me on the phone with tears in their eyes. The guards listened in and stopped us from time to time to give my family members instructions. I thought it was a bit amusing. All I did was just repeat my words to calm my family down.
A few days later, the prison authorities suddenly searched me. One day I was called to the guards’ office when we were waiting to get lunch after work. The warden and the administrator were in there waiting. The warden tried to scare me first, throwing a thick pile of documents on the table, saying: “How come you are making so much trouble for me this time? What did you say to the deputy warden? Tell me again.” I said: “No problem.” But I could not remember anything.
The administrator said: “Why don’t you tell us what is your position regarding Falun Gong, and why don’t you want to write the report?” The warden emphasized the questions: “In particular, what are your thoughts after having talked with your family? What did you think before and what do you think now, and why?” He raised a series of questions. Every question was a pressing question. It was daunting giving straight answers to his questions. A small mistake could be used as an excuse for further torture. Although this meeting was a surprise to me, I had already formed a benevolent and calm mindset through cultivation in Dafa. More importantly, I had obtained an understanding of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance that could directly guide me in dealing with my problems. I used my understanding of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to guide me and took my time to answer all their questions. Gradually the warden became more and more relaxed, and began nodding when I spoke. The administrator left quietly. At last the warden said something that I did not expect: “Today, our purpose for bringing you in here was to understand your position.” When I was leaving he added: “This is the first time we have applied for a term reduction for someone in such circumstances. We will discuss it with the relevant departments.”
A few days later, I heard that the ward had posted the list of names up for term reductions. The last name on the list was mine, and after it was noted that it was based on the warden’s suggestion. I almost cried. My immediate reaction was: “The sentient beings are savable.” Whether my term was reduced was not an issue. What was important was that these lives that the old forces arranged to be here to persecute practitioners were now negating the persecution in the face of practitioners’ righteous thoughts and conduct. They could approve of practitioners’ steadfast belief and applied for my term reduction after I clearly expressed my position. This meant that the evil persecution of our righteous belief was broken. The result was sufficient to validate Teacher’s words: “The Fa can destroy all evil.”
As long as a practitioner acts according to the Fa, the evil factors in other dimensions that try to manipulate human beings to do bad things will be powerless.
Teacher said,
“But Master has said that, 'When disciples have ample righteous thoughts, Master has the power to turn the tide.' If your righteous thoughts are strong enough, who would dare to do something? So if you are in the right, Master can resolve anything.” (“20th Anniversary Fa Teaching”)
I further marveled at the benevolence of Teacher in his rectifying the Fa and saving sentient beings. The lives have deteriorated to such an extent. Only Teacher is teaching Dafa and saving lives, and indeed he did change these lives and save them.
I am still walking my path of Fa-rectification. The evil in other dimensions did not want to throw in the towel and did not wait for long to play more tricks on me. One afternoon on our way back from work a practitioner asked me: “Have you read the “International Fa Conference in Washington DC?” I said I hadn't. The next day he handed me the lecture with a letter he wrote to me at the work site, and I put them in my pocket.
On our way back, we were stopped at a turning point by a dozen guards. A deputy warden led the team, claiming that, since it was the Dragon Festival the next day, they wanted to search everyone. They wanted everyone lined up to be examined. This had never occurred before, whatever the festival.
I was immediately on the alert, feeling that this sudden search was geared toward me. It was the evil in other dimensions trying to get me because I had Teacher’s article on me. I sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil. But I had to do well in this dimension, too. I calmed down first, then I took the article out of my pocket and put it in front of my stomach, since I'd found that they only searched one’s back and chest.
After four or five people it was my turn to be searched. I seemed to feel that I did not put the article in the right place, so I took it out and held in my hand. When the police searched me, they looked only at the area around my stomach, and nowhere else. They did not find anything, and I passed the test safely. My enlightenment to this near miss was that the evil in other dimensions could know my thoughts and use it to exploit any loopholes. But between different dimensions, time lags exist. When I made a change, the evil controlling the people in this dimension to do bad things may have too much of a time delay, while Teacher’s protection of practitioners transcends all dimensions and can alert disciples immediately when needed. As long as disciples do not stick to their notions and don't get attached to things, they will not be harmed and can break through the evil. This event led me to realize once again:
"Transmitting the True Fa, Proves harder than just hard. Many are the demons who impede, Risks piled atop risks.” (“Composure Amidst Calamity” from Hong Yin)
A dozen days later they published the list of people for whom the term reduction was approved. Next to my name was printed “denied.”
This was totally expected, because I did not write the report that was required by the Party directory. But I felt that if all the evaluators had a chance to talk with me, I would have been approved. This was actually an opportunity for them to resurrect their future. Although they did not approve my term reduction, they did not begin another round of persecution either. After all, I was already in the strictest ward, Ward A, so what else could they do? So the incident ended there.
My environment was getting better and better. Not only did no one restrict my movements, the guards and inmates all respected me. Everyone liked to be around me and many people wanted to do things for me. Some people washed my bowl and chopsticks after meals; someone poured water for me; someone washed my clothes; someone did my assignments. Every morning when I woke up, they would have prepared water for me to wash up with. I could do all these things myself, but people would be unhappy if I did not let them do it for me. One person waited for more than a year and still waited until he was finally able to wash my clothes. He told me: “I just like you. I wanted to wash your clothes.” The old forces could not imagine that the person they wanted to persecute could live so comfortably in the prison. From a human being’s point of view, whether I was in prison or not seemed to make no difference by then.
Because other practitioners in Ward A all still had inmate-helpers monitoring them, I became the one who did the communication for them, delivering messages and bringing in new articles. With Teacher’s help, I was also able to contact a practitioner outside of Ward A. He told me that, although they had tried for several months, he was able to contact practitioners in all wards except for Ward A because it was too tight here.
After we shared some information, he said he wanted to give me a new article. A week later, he told me that he would have the inmate in his ward stick the article in the crevice in the window. So we made an appointment whereby he would do it the next Sunday morning. Then it was my job to get it out. I could not let other inmates know about it.
In the afternoon I went to check on it in order to retrieve it in the evening. When I climbed up the window and looked, I was stunned. Between the upper and lower halves of the window was a steel bar, and I could not reach the article lying below. I was helpless. It was not possible to retrieve the article from the crevice either. If I left it there for long, both the other practitioner and I would be in big trouble when the guards found it on Monday.
As I was worrying and could not find a way, an inmate from the same cell came over and said: “To get the thing your friend gave you, all you need to do is just to find a thin rod, and tie a…” I was stunned at first, wondering how he had found out about it. Since he already knew, I said: “Why don’t you help me get it?” I knew he was a thief before and was much more capable of doing this than I. He said: “Sure. Let’s wait till it’s dark.” When I met him in the evening, he said to me with a smile: “I knew what your friend gave you was this kind of thing,” and handed me some pieces of nicely folded paper. I thanked him with a sigh of relief. I took better care of him later on. A week later I described the situation to the practitioner who gave me the article. He said: “Teacher arranged for him to help you.” We modified our communication methods.
A few months later, the deputy warden and the administrator were both replaced. Inmates all felt that their lives became a bit easier. But the evil in other dimensions did not relax. It manifested itself in making others look for my shortcomings so as to make excuses for further persecution. They could not find anything else, so they kept trying to find problems with our passing on Dafa articles.
From time to time they would come to my cell to look for things when we were working outside. To hide their intentions, they would mess up everyone’s stuff to show that they did not focus on a particular person. One time it would be my neighbor to my left; the next time it would be my neighbor to the right, always centering around me. A kind Ward A inmate told me quietly: “A person told me that three officials came yesterday. They flipped over your English book for over half an hour. You need to be careful. They are aiming at you.”
I normally hid my new articles in my English book, and I happened to have passed it to another practitioner a week before. This kind of thing occurred many times, and it was becoming more and more frequent. It started from occurring once a month, to once every two weeks, and then to once a week or even twice a week. Sometimes they would suddenly grab my English book to check when I was reading it. I knew that no matter how I kept my things in this dimension, the evil in other dimensions would know. But Teacher was protecting me, using the time difference and other ways to foil their attempts.
Although I mad it through all these incidences, whenever I think back on those events I get emotional. It was indeed difficult. Every step of a practitioner’s moving forward is accompanied by immeasurable amounts of Teacher's effort.
Fellow practitioners told me that the practitioners in other wards could do better since they were not monitored so tightly. Not only could they read new articles from Teacher in time, they could even smuggle audio recordings on the Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party and even let other willing inmates listen. But it was not possible in Ward A. Even the limited amount of articles smuggled in could only be read by a few practitioners.
I told some inmates about the “Nine Commentaries” and some were very interested but could not read it. All I could do was to tell them the headline of each commentary. Even just the headlines were shocking enough for them.
Relatively speaking, the inmates in this ward knew the facts about Falun Gong much better than the guards, because they dealt with practitioners day in and day out. The guards only talked with inmates when they had to; usually they were high above and did not listen to you at all. Plus, the evil Party kept poisoning them with written lies. When we talked about Falun Gong, an officer said to me once: “I learned a bit about it from some documents, which may be different from what you know.” I also heard that a practitioner saw through his celestial eye that we were lacking in our efforts in talking to people in the judicial and political systems. The fact that guards at all levels knew much less than those people at the bottom layers of society was the main reason why the persecution continued in the surface dimension.
To save those who fell within the Party’s system, I decided to write to them in a more systematic way to let them know the facts. So I wrote a long letter to the warden, in which I described my personal experiences of how I benefited from Dafa – not only were all my illnesses cured, I have since been in good spirits and am able to do well at work. I told him about the persecution that has been ongoing for the past ten years, and about the guard's attempts to “transform” me through brutal torture in prison. I asserted that everything that I was forced to write or to say against Dafa in the prison was false and could not count, as none of that represented my true thoughts. I cited examples that showed that at every step of the way, I never changed my belief and I had no resentment or regret in the face of all the persecution and cruelty against me; even in the prison I was able to use Dafa to guide me and treated everyone kindly. I made it clear to him just how much harm the CCP had caused by persecuting Falun Gong. It not only harmed practitioners, it also hurt the Chinese society and the government itself. I told him that Falun Gong is practiced in over a hundred countries, and that many states, cities and county government officials issued proclamations to honor it. I told him about Shen Yun Performing Arts and about the Divine Land Marching Band. The Chinese government was more and more isolated on the issue of Falun Gong. Not only do people from other countries not understand the CCP, but even Chinese people don't understand it. It was increasingly more reactive and precarious. For the sake of the whole country and the people, including the prison guards, openly upholding Falun Gong and giving practitioners a fair and legal environment to practice was the best policy to promote the Chinese heritage. It would be the best decision for the nation, the people, the government, and the prison guards.
It was quiet for several days after I handed my letter over to the guards. After a while, the newly arrived deputy warden called me over and said: “The prison authorities will be meeting with you in a couple of days. You’d better behave yourself. Don’t cause trouble.” But the prison authorities never saw me. I felt that whoever they arranged to meet with me would have nothing to say after he saw my letter. Because as a practitioner who had been badly persecuted by the government, I had no resentment whatever; I had nothing to fear and was seeking nothing. I did not complain about my losses, neither was I constrained by the notions of government or political power. I only held the thought of wanting what was best for the Chinese people. Because I was following Teacher’s words:
“Everything that Dafa disciples are doing today is for the sake of saving people. Otherwise what are you doing it for? Clarifying the truth in an upright and open manner are the very things Dafa disciples should do. I'm also telling you that all beings in today's world came for the sake of the Fa. If you want a being to clearly understand this point, you should go and clarify the truth to him. It is a master key, the key that can unlock that thing all beings have had sealed off for a long time and been awaiting for ages.” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference”)
The only feedback I sensed that had resulted from the letter was that the new administrator of Ward A called me to the office and chatted with me for two hours and asked a series of questions that I did not mention in the letter. I was surprised when he raised the first question. To this moment he still did not know the basic facts. For example, he asked: “Does Falun Gong ask people not to take medicine?” I told him: “Falun Gong did not say that practitioners cannot take medicine. It is up to the individual. But a true cultivator, take me for example, has not needed to take any medicine in the past ten years because Falun Gong cured all of my illnesses. It is not that I was told not to take medicine.” He asked: “You described Falun Gong as so good. How come you people still go to Tiananmen Square to self-immolate?” I replied: “I knew that [self-immolation] was fake from the first time I saw the broadcast about the so-called self-immolators on TV. There were too many loopholes in the stunt. For example, Wang Jingdong was burned, but the plastic bottle containing gasoline between his legs was intact.” He said: “I remember the plastic bottle was a few feet away. Nowadays the video editing techniques are so good. What you saw must be videos modified by the foreign Falun Gong practitioners.” I said: “We have this video in our ward. You can get it and watch it for yourself.” He said: “I don’t want to watch it. Who played it for you? Did you point it out to him?” I said: “The inmate-helpers, two of them. I pointed it out immediately.”
He was quiet. After a while, he said: “If Falun Gong is so wonderful, how come I don’t know anything about it?” I said: “That is because you haven't had enough contact with it. If you try to make more contact, gradually you will understand.” He asked me: “What Falun Gong books are there?” I said: “Zhuan Falun is the main text.” He then asked about its contents. I told him that there are nine lectures, or 60 sections. Then he asked about the sections in the first talk. I recited the section titles. Then he wanted to know its contents. Especially when I told him about the section titled: “Characteristics of Falun Dafa,” he insisted I explain to him in detail the eight main characteristics. At the end he asked: “Do you do the Falun Gong exercises?” I said: “There are five exercises. The first four are standing exercises, and the fifth is a sitting meditation.” He requested: “Why don’t you show me the fifth exercise.”
I sat down in the prison office and crossed my legs with my shoes on. I closed my eyes, folded my hands in jieyin, and began to do the mudras, with a glorious feeling rising in my heart – “Can you, the evil in other dimensions, stop us from saving sentient beings?”