(Minghui.org) During the past 15 years of persecution of Falun Dafa in China, I had been detained several times, both at detention centers and labor camps. Again and again, guards told me under the threat of further abuse, “Give up your beliefs, and you will be free.”
Each time they asked was one more time I would shake my head.
“You don't need to waste time anymore,” I said to them, “No matter how many times you ask me, I will always practice Falun Dafa.”
I often told them about how I came to learn Falun Dafa, and how it changed my life.
Escaping a Miserable Life
It all started one evening when I was a young girl, lying in bed. I noticed a giant golden eye—bigger than a house—blinking at me. Then, an object appeared before the eye. It was golden and round, and rotated in front of me. The object became larger and larger, until it seemed to cover the sky and the earth. Surprised and afraid, I hid in my quilt. But it was still visible even with my eyes closed.
After that, I was able to see people and things in other dimensions, both during the day and at night. I didn't think much of it, as I assumed everyone else could do the same.
As I grew older, I learned that most people could not see divine beings in other dimensions like I could. I tried to find out why, and looked through almost all the books in the school library, where I worked after graduating from college. But nowhere could I find an answer; instead, the books only talked about atheism.
Seeing things in other dimensions did not help my life, however. Like other people, I gradually developed a pursuit of fame, personal gain, and other attachments arising from human emotions. Plus, I was often bothered by illnesses, which made me pessimistic about my future. I longed for a happy life, and a nest where I could feel safe. But things did not work out that way. My husband often swore at me and beat me. His older sisters also bullied me, and my mother-in-law looked down upon me, too.
After my son was born, neither he nor I were healthy. We had to see the doctor a lot and take various medications all the time. This led to my husband and his family treating me even worse.
One day when my son was two months old, my father-in-law and his two daughters came to our house. They swore at me, beat me, took my baby, and left, leaving the entire room a mess. I had fainted on the floor, but they did not try to help me.
After waking up, I cried. Why did all these things have to happen to me? I cried for a long time, but nobody answered me.
My husband's sisters later sent my son back: the baby was often sick, and they didn't want to take care of him. Because of the cold and these unexpected changes, my son cried and made a fuss every day.
Fearing that he might become mentally handicapped and a long-term burden, my husband planned to throw him away. I didn't agree, although I didn't know how much longer this miserable life would last. Life seemed hopeless.
One day in 1996, a coworker visited me and brought me a copy of Zhuan Falun. I opened the book and saw Master Li's picture. He looked familiar, as if I'd seen him somewhere before. Then I saw the Falun emblem, which I recognized as the same round object that I had seen during my childhood.
I cried again, this time out of joy–after suffering for so many years, I finally found what I had been waiting for.
My son used to cry a lot at night. Whenever that happened, my husband would beat me, which made the baby cry harder. One night when I began to read Zhuan Falun, I was still worried about this happening and was a bit anxious. Surprisingly, my son slept very well, and so did my husband. For the first time in our family, we had a peaceful night.
Through reading the Dafa books and doing the exercises, my health improved and my illnesses were gone. My son experienced the same thing after he became a young practitioner.
But my siblings were skeptical.
“They [my husband and his family] have bullied you so much. Now, if you don't argue or fight back, wouldn't they take advantage of you even more?” they asked. I knew that such retaliation was against the principles of Dafa.
They waited and waited, but what they feared did not happen. Seeing how I had improved both physically and mentally, they too began to read the Dafa books.
“You are so fortunate—you have a master to take care of you. We want to learn this, too!” they said. Just like this, some of my coworkers and friends also started practicing Dafa.
Producing Materials about Falun Dafa and Exposing the Persecution
While my fellow practitioners and I were bathed in the joy of cultivation—a path of returning to the origin, the Communist Party's persecution campaign broke out in July 1999. Knowing that Falun Dafa was precious and righteous from my own experience, I was determined that nobody and nothing would take Falun Dafa away from me.
My family agreed with me. When police officers asked them to stop me from practicing, they said no.
One of my relatives even told them, “Falun Dafa gave her a new life. There is nothing we can do about that.”
But most Chinese people were misled by the state-run propaganda and turned against Dafa practitioners. To remedy this, I decided to print and distribute some fliers so that people could know the truth. But for someone who doesn't even know how to use a computer, where do I even begin?
I went to a practitioner for help. He said it was not difficult at all. He taught me lots of things, and demonstrated everything to me step by step. Though the first lesson only took about 10 minutes, I was nervous and sweating by the end because I was still confused.
After returning home, I looked at the equipment and felt that producing truth-clarification pamphlets was still a challenge for me. Kneeling down in front of Master's picture, I asked if another practitioner could do this work in my place. However, Master looked at me with compassion and confidence.
So I decided to give it one more try. After I pushed a button, the computer was turned on. I managed to work the mouse, and even installed some software. Everything suddenly became very easy, as if the mouse cursor was guiding me through what to do, one step after another.
I connected the printer to the computer without thinking about it, and it happened to be the correct way to do it. I soon learned how to make DVDs, get onto the Internet, type Chinese characters, print documents, install operating systems, and set up various configurations. I knew that it was Master and Dafa that gave me the wisdom.
To make more materials, I bought two more computers and four more printers. There are many steps in preparing the truth-clarification booklets – I had to download the files, print them out, bind them into booklets, package them, and distribute them, all by myself.
Despite the increased workload, I took every step seriously and was careful with my work. Sometime later, another major effort was producing Shen Yun DVDs at the beginning of each year (Editor's note: Shen Yun is banned in China). The standard is higher than that for most other materials, and we always paid meticulous care to each step in the production process.
Through this process, preparing materials became part of my cultivation. Although my equipment usually works well, some pieces run into problems from time to time. When that happens, I always check myself first to see if there were any loopholes in my xinxing. By the time I corrected my own problems, the equipment would be working again.
One time, a computer stopped working. I looked it over, wondering what had happened. Somehow a thought came to me right then, as if the computer was communicating with me, “You have too many attachments. Please fix them and I will start working again.”
I checked myself: Yes, indeed, I have slacked off in cultivation lately. I apologized and promised to remain diligent afterward. The computer then went back to normal.
This material site has been up and running for 8 years now, and I have maintained it mostly by myself for security reasons, as well as saving other practitioners' time. I am grateful for Master's help in training my formerly computer-illiterate self.
Writing Articles
When reading and printing articles from Minghui, I noticed that some cases in our local area had not been reported. I wondered if I could take up the reporting work.
I was not good at writing—in fact, I often had headaches when I thought about writing articles. But I live in a big city, and somebody has to report these cases. Knowing Master would assist me, I decided to give it a go.
Things went smoothly after that. I wrote many articles on how other practitioners had been mistreated for their beliefs. They helped people find out about what had happened and suppressed the perpetrators' viciousness. Once, police arrested me when I was distributing truth-clarification materials in another town. The police in my local area heard about this and went to pick me up.
“Please don't give her a hard time,” one officer said to another, “otherwise, she would write it up and publish it on the Internet.”
He then told the other officer some anecdotes about how the abuse of other practitioners ended up as articles on Minghui. That evening, an officer contacted my family, asking them to pick me up. The officer explained to them in front of me that they had not tortured me or taken money from me.
Writing articles for Minghui amid the harsh suppression is similar to working as a wartime journalist. It meant after hearing that a practitioner was arrested, one has to go to the front line, collect information, organize it into an article, and submit it to Minghui as soon as possible. Exposing the viciousness in this way is critical, because it not only allows other practitioners to start rescuing the detained ones, but also helps everyday people understand the severity of the persecution.
Practitioner B was recently released after being imprisoned for more than ten years. Because her case was special, the 610 Office and police dispatched a large number of officers to watch her 24 hours a day. They would hide at train stations and intersections near her home, and even had security cameras installed in her house. Nonetheless, I knew that I had to visit her and write about her experiences while in prison, so I did.
Righteous Thoughts
Right before Practitioner C and I were ready to go visit B, Practitioner D contacted me, warning me to be careful and not get myself arrested. This made things more complicated, because D did not know that I was about to visit B, but she could see things with her Celestial Eye. Was this a hint that something might happen? What should I do?
I thought about it and made up my mind. My cultivation path is arranged by Master, and nobody is allowed to interfere; after all, Master is overseeing everything. So I told C that we would make the trip as scheduled. The moment I stepped on the train that afternoon, however, I saw with my Celestial Eye that evil beings were being eliminated and that many people were saved. I knew that I had made the right decision.
The trip took several hours. After arriving there, we found Practitioner B to be very weak. She was now unable to take care of herself. Nonetheless, we were deeply touched by her steadfast faith in Dafa after such a long, difficult time. She told us how she had been tortured in prison, both physically and mentally.
Having endured so many things in those ten years, she was a bit traumatized. As a result, she would often retell her most painful experiences over and over again, like a broken record.
We decided to be patient, and hoped that extra time would help B recall more of her experiences and speak out. The situation improved little by little and, to help explain exactly what had happened in the prison, B suggested that we set up a reenactment to show how she was mistreated, and videotape it.
This seemed like a good idea, so we began to work on it. We collected materials, came up with a storyboard, and performed the reenactment. Because B was still physically weak, she could not fully repeat the actual torture she suffered; nonetheless, what she did show us was already appalling.
It took us three days in total to finish the reenactments. For security reasons, practitioner C and I had to live at one place in the beginning and move to another afterward.
In the middle of our move, someone approached us and asked, “Who are you? What are you doing here?”
Realizing that was interference, I sent forth righteous thoughts: “It is none of your business—we are doing something sacred. Please stay out of the way.”
I looked at the person and smiled at him. He walked away.
There was also interference from my family. My parents, who were perfectly healthy, suddenly became severely ill right after I left to visit B. Because they were unable to take care of themselves (my siblings were all busy with their own jobs and families as well), my parents had been looking for me during those three days.
Apparently, the bad elements that attempted to stop me from exposing the persecution had manifested through my parents. In my mind, however, I was clear about what I was doing and wouldn't acknowledge anything other than Master's arrangements.
On my way back, my parents were still calling me, asking me to live with them and take care of them. But I knew that, were I to go and live with them, their health would further deteriorate, and in the end I would not be able to write my truth-clarification article. This way, my parents would be harming themselves and risking their future—and I cannot let that happen.
So after coming back, I sent forth righteous thoughts for an entire morning, to completely eliminate any interference related to my article-writing and other truth-clarification efforts.
When I went to visit them in the afternoon, my father was already able to ride a bike, and my mother could walk on her own.
After I helped with them with some household chores, my parents said to me, “We know you are busy. Go ahead with whatever you're doing—we will be fine.”
I wrote up the article, collected the contact information of officials involved in harassing practitioner B, included it in the report, and submitted it to Minghui. The report was soon published, integrated into other truth-clarification materials, and widely distributed. Overseas practitioners also made lots of phone calls to help. In the end, the officials stopped harassing practitioner B. Many people learned about Falun Gong and the persecution this way.
Above are some of my experiences. I am sharing them here, in the hopes that all of us can continue encouraging one another and do better. No matter what I do, I know that Master is always by my side, helping me and enlightening me. I will never be able to thank Master enough for his boundless compassion and sacrifice.
