(Minghui.org) I was serving as a field officer in the military when the persecution of Falun Gong started in 1999. All practitioners, myself included, had to think about how to face this sudden persecution. I had enjoyed great physical and mental improvements through practicing Falun Gong, and I was becoming a better and better person. But if I were to continue practicing, the military would cause trouble for me. During that period of time I was stressed out and anxious every day.
As the persecution progressed, the CCP fabricated more and more lies to deceive people. I made up my mind to go to Beijing to appeal. However, all kinds of attachments started surfacing, “If I go to Beijing to appeal, I'll risk losing my position, my family, and even my freedom.” I often couldn't sleep during that time.
I arrived at Tiananmen Square to appeal in late 1999. The police arrested me and took me to a police car. They pushed me around and searched me, and they found my military officer ID. Probably because of my officer status, they only asked me why I practiced Falun Gong.
I clarified the truth about the practice, and told them that Falun Gong had changed me into a better person within several short months of cultivation. I pointed out that after I started practicing I stopped chasing after personal interests, and would never try to get a promotion using bribery. I also told them that I became healthy, and all of my illnesses disappeared after I started practicing Falun Gong.
When I told them that Falun Dafa was good, they stopped me from talking. But they asked me questions again a while later, and I kept telling them about improvements I had achieved after I started practicing. They kept stopping me when I began talking about cultivation, and then asked me questions several times.
For more than an hour I told them about the enormous improvements I experienced from cultivating Dafa. The three or four officers in the car all listened to me talking, and one of them started to speak up for me and talk about this injustice. I eventually returned home safely.
At my work place, I directly explained the facts to the people I worked closely with. They had also witnessed my changes after I started cultivating Dafa. For the people with whom I was not familiar, I explained the facts to them indirectly as a third party.
Because I had been in the military for a long time, when I thought about safety I tended to use ordinary thinking. Other fellow practitioners had more righteous thoughts. I used my position to get rid of as many of the study and training materials that slandered Falun Gong as I could, so that they would not poison the attendees.
It was relatively easier for people to accept my truth clarification when I talked to my subordinates or the people I didn't know. When I explained the facts to people who were the same rank as I, or who were of high ranks, even though they might have understood, they tended to become defensive. They were afraid that their careers might be impacted. In this environment I sometimes paid more attention to clarifying the truth in a more indirect way.
During this time I could not access the Internet, and I didn't have much contact with fellow practitioners. I didn't know what to do to help people learn the truth about Falun Gong and the persecution. I wrote letters to explain the facts but felt that they were not convincing enough. I later found that the truth-clarifying CDs were very effective, and started making and distributing the CDs in large quantities.
Wear a military uniform proved to be advantageous. The pockets were large and could hold more CDs, and didn't show when loaded with CDs. Every time I went out, my pockets were filled with more than 100 CDs, and I usually went out two times every evening to distribute them. Sometimes when I went far away, I didn't return until after midnight. The summer uniform didn't have many pockets, and the pockets didn't hold many CDs, so they were easily seen. I carried a handbag full of CDs whenever I went out.
When I went out the first several times to distribute the CDs, I was nervous, and afraid of being seen by others. Over time this mentality disappeared. Every time when I went out to distribute the CDs, I felt pressure at the beginning, but as I distributed more and more, I became relaxed.
I sometimes also ran into unexpected situations. One time when I was leaving a building corridor after distributing CDs, a person shouted behind me. He walked toward me while shouting loudly. I became nervous. However, he kept shouting loudly as he passed by me, so I realized that he was shouting at someone else.
One day, while I was putting CDs into bicycle baskets in the corridor, a woman suddenly came in and noticed that I was distributing something. She looked at me curiously while she was going up the stairs. When she got up to the second floor, I left the building and exited the residential area quickly.
Another advantage to wearing a military uniform was that most people would not suspect me. I could go in and out of residential areas for police or government people, and no one would stop me.
Although there were advantages in wearing a uniform, as a practitioner I understood that I should use this advantage, but not depend on it. I needed to maintain the righteous thoughts of a practitioner. Every time I went out to distribute CDs I asked for Master’s strengthening. In the process of distributing them I kept reciting Fa rectification verses in my mind.
I always felt that the time was not enough, and I really hoped that I could have more time to distribute materials, to help more people learn the truth.
Every practitioner has experienced challenges on their cultivation paths, and some have even experienced the test of life and death. When one maintains righteous thoughts, practitioners experience, “After passing the shady willow trees, there will be bright flowers and another village ahead!” (Zhuan Falun) The feeling only a practitioner could experience through true cultivation.