(Minghui.org) I've been illegally imprisoned for five of the last eight years. I'm writing about my experiences in prison now to show the miraculous power of Dafa and to express my gratitude to Master and Dafa.
Refusing to Wear the Prisoner's Badge
I was illegally arrested in the summer of 2007 and sentenced to five years in prison. In July 2008, a fellow practitioner and I were taken to prison. During the health check-up, both of us were diagnosed with heart conditions and high blood pressure, so the prison refused to accept us. The detention center officials had to bribe the prison personnel to take us.
I always remembered Master's teaching,
“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 does this the environment won’t be this way.” (“Dafa Disciples' Righteous Thoughts are Powerful” in Essentials for Further Advancement II )
In the beginning, I wasn't courageous enough to refuse to wear the prisoner's badge, but it kept falling off. One evening, when a prison section head saw me without the badge she asked for my name. I told her that my name was “Dafa disciple”. She shouted to the section head on duty, “Here is one of yours who is not wearing a badge, and she also says her name is Dafa disciple.” A few days later, the section head on duty called me in, but she didn't do anything about it.
One day in September 2009, the prison administration bureau sent someone to inspect the prison. The division leader accompanied an official to our place. When she asked me why I wasn't wearing a badge, I stood up and said, “I'm a Falun Gong practitioner and I'm in the middle of an appeal. I won't wear any badge.” She nodded her head in understanding.
Resisting Solitary Confinement
The head of our prison zone decided to punish me. One day she told me that if I refused to wear the badge, she would tell the team leader to lock me up in solitary confinement. I held one strong thought: How can a Dafa disciple be locked up in solitary confinement! With this thought, I turned around and went out with the team leader.
The head of the prison zone rushed out of the office to try to grab me. When she touched my back, I shouted, “Falun Dafa is good!” Then I passed out.
When I came to, five or six guards were dragging me into the office.
I shouted out again, “Falun Dafa is good!” Before I could finish, a guard covered my mouth with her hand and I lost consciousness again. They pulled me into the office and talked about force-feeding me drugs. I heard what they were saying and said, “Whoever force-feeds me with drugs will be held responsible if I die.” They gave up the idea in the end. A few hours later, I fully regained consciousness. I had successfully stopped their attempt to lock me in solitary confinement.
I truly understood what Master said,
“If upon encountering trying circumstances your thinking can be truly righteous, then, when faced with the evil’s persecution and when faced with interference, just one sentence of yours fortified with steadfast righteous thoughts can instantly make the evil disintegrate (applause), and it will make those who are being used by the evil turn and flee, it will make the evil’s persecution of you dissolve, and it will make the evil’s interfering with you disappear without a trace. One thought born of righteous faith is all it takes. And whoever can hold firm that righteous thought and go the distance will become a magnificent god forged by Dafa. (Long applause)” ("Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference")
Never Cooperate with the Evil's Demands
Many people could not finish the highly intensive workload on time, and those who failed to meet the quota were not allowed to eat. Later, if someone failed to finish her assigned workload, the whole team was punished and not allowed to eat.
I realized that I should not accept this persecution, so I went to eat. The team leader stopped me and said, “If you want to eat, you can go to see the head of the prison zone, but I guarantee you won't be coming back.” I knew that she was trying to threaten me. I simply said, “Fine,” and went downstairs. When she saw that I wasn't afraid at all, she called an inmate on duty to go with me to eat.
Because I firmly resisted this form of persecution, they dropped this regulation.
Next they stopped allowing us to wash ourselves. The weather was very hot and we had to work over 12 hours a day. Nevertheless we were not allowed to wash. I didn't accept it. When a guard came in, I asked her, “Is it you who won't allow us to wash?” She said no, but after she went out, I heard an assistant calling out and telling us to wash. This was thus abolished, as well.
One Sunday we were required to work overtime, but I refused. Because I showed symptoms of a heart attack, the head of the prison zone sent me to the prison hospital, where I was kept from December 28 until February. I heard that they planned to lock me up in solitary confinement and then the strictly controlled division for persecution.
A fellow practitioner managed to send me a message, asking if I would like her to call my family for help. I decided not to bother my family, as I knew that I had Master helping me.
Three days later, a miracle happened – a family member came to see me and took me home to celebrate the New Year! With the single thought that, “Master is helping me”, the prison's attempt to lock me in solitary confinement and send me to the strictly controlled division failed.
“I Only Listen to My Master!”
During the five years that I was imprisoned, I was hospitalized over twenty times due to high blood pressure and heart conditions, and on a number of occasions I felt I was near death. At those moments, I held only one thought: “I'm a true Dafa disciple. I don't have any illness.”
I wasn't worried a bit about what the doctors told me, that I could have a “brain hemorrhage” or “myocardial infarction” at any moment. I told them I was fine. Seeing that I wouldn't listen to them, the doctors asked me to sign a statement to certify that if I died, my death had nothing to do with them.
In order not to implicate those doctors, I signed a statement each time I was taken to the hospital. I survived without any medical treatment. My personal experiences validate the wonders of Dafa and what Master said, “‘The Buddha Fa’ is most profound; among all the theories in the world, it is the most intricate and extraordinary science.” (“Lunyu”)
“It's a big loss on the evil's part to have sent you here”
The firm faith in my heart that “Master is right here with me!” never swayed when I was in prison. Whenever I felt most helpless, I would call in my heart, “Master, help me!” and the outcome was always the best.
Whenever I came across difficult tests, I would recite Master's teaching,
“So, when you meet with ordeals, it is the perfect opportunity for you to improve. If you are able to look inside, that trying situation will become instead an opportunity, something to overcome and a chance to enter a new state.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2008 New York Conference”)
I recited the Fa and sent righteous thoughts every day to eliminate the evil. The guards all thought I was a “difficult person to deal with”. Fellow practitioners said, “It's a big loss on the evil's part to have sent you here.”
Two months before my term was due, some inmates tearfully said, “What shall we do after you're gone? Who will speak out for justice for us!”
The prison officials and the provincial 610 Office secretly planned to send me to a brainwashing center, and they also sent a “lecturer” to come see me.
The moment the “lecturer” came, I felt like I was having a heart attack. My limbs started twitching and I couldn't speak. The lecturer was so scared that she immediately ran out. It was pretty chaotic in the room. The lecturer stayed in the corridor for a while to see what was happening. She left quietly half an hour later when things returned to normal. Their attempt to send me to the brainwashing center amounted to nothing.
Walking Out of Prison in an Upright and Dignified Manner
When I was released, the local police wanted to take me to their station to sign something. With the help of righteous thoughts from fellow practitioners, my family members got me into the car and took me home. I passed the tribulation of being detained the second time.
During the tribulations, sometimes it was really hard and I often begged Master in tears, “Master, I won't be able to hold on for long.” But each time when I remembered what Master endured for us, I became determined in my heart that I would hold on.
At the same time, I knew that while I was in prison, fellow practitioners paid close attention to my situation and supported me with strong righteous thoughts. I knew that Master was right beside me.
I've been cultivating in Dafa for fourteen years. Seven of those years were spent in prison. I came through with faith and walked my path of Fa-rectification righteously, which made the evil fearful and scared.
Now I've come to a new environment. I will continue to assist Master in Fa-rectification and in saving sentient beings. I will return home with Master!
