(Minghui.org) I am 68-year-old male Falun Dafa practitioner who started practicing in the summer of 1996. I live in the Chinese countryside.

Before practicing Falun Dafa, I suffered numerous illnesses, and it had seemed that my life would soon end. I may not have lived to this day without Master's compassionate salvation. Through practicing Falun Dafa, I regained my mental and physical health and left behind the torment of sickness. I have endless gratitude toward Master.

I would like to share my experience of how Master protects his disciples.

I was among more than 100 practitioners held in the city detention center who were brutally tortured on a hot summer day in July 2000. We were forced to crawl face-down with our limbs stretched out on the scorching concrete floor.

Police, domestic security officers, and detention center heads directed five or six inmates to follow us with metal whips in their hands. Practitioners were forced to hold our stomachs above the ground at all times. The police coerced the inmates to whip anyone whose stomach touched the ground.

I had been left without food for eight days. However, I didn't feel hungry and was in good spirits.

Master's words appeared in my mind:

“Some disciples said: “What’s there to fear? My body would still sit there even with my head cut off.”” (“Huge Exposure” from Essentials For Further Advancement)

I suddenly stood up and called out, “Fellow practitioners, stand up! We are Dafa disciples. We cultivate Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and strive to be good people. We have done nothing wrong. We should not be persecuted like this.”

The police commander turned his head and ordered the inmates to tackle me to the ground. The person who beat me was a large man with wide shoulders and a thick waist. He used all his strength to whip me four times.

They thought that I would be unable to move due to the pain. But after they walked a few steps away, I stood up and repeated the same words. I had no fear at that moment. The head of the detention center yelled furiously, ordering four inmates to hold down my limbs and beat me hard. They then thrashed me three more times with the whip.

I felt a bit of pain at first, then no more after that. The 6-foot-long whip they used was made of three metal wires that were as thick as cane and tremendously heavy.

The man beating me was tired and breathing hard. He said, “I don't want to beat you. But if I don't, they'll beat me.”

“I am a Dafa disciple,” I replied. “I cultivate Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and am a good person. I won't hate you.”

Short of breath, the man finally told the head of the detention center, “Director, I'm too tired to continue.”

One of the public security bureau heads then said, “The whip is heavy. Use the tree branch until it breaks.”

I felt a bit of pain from his first three lashes with the branch, and that was all. I didn't feel any pain afterward. The inmate spent a long time beating me until he became so exhausted that he couldn't even wield the branch. Panting, he told the detention center head that he could no longer beat me.

The detention center head then said, “Beat all three of them.”

I thought to myself that the other two practitioners also wouldn't feel pain under Master's protection.

The head inmate could not bear the brutality. Once the police supervisors left, he told the inmates, “You should hit the branch on the ground, and it will break.”

The inmates did just that, and it snapped into smaller pieces. One of the inmates yelled to the supervisors, “Sir, the branches are broken and can't be used anymore.”

The sun was scorching in July, and the concrete floor was so hot it could burn. The vicious police commander forced the practitioners to be out until the sun started to set.

One of the detention center heads said, “Beat everyone in three rounds, starting from the top of the head. Let's see who insists on practicing [Falun Dafa].”

After striking the first practitioner three times, the detention center head asked the practitioner, “Will you practice?”

The practitioner bellowed, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” His words echoed through the air of the detention center.

What this practitioner said was the innermost cry shared by more than 100 practitioners. His powerful words were made of righteous thoughts and shook the evil. As a result, the thugs stopped.

A person in the detention center's monitoring room later told me that the whips used on us were capable of ripping open human flesh. However, I didn't feel pain anywhere, nor was there a trace on my body that I had been beaten.

I understood deeply that Master had borne everything for his disciples. Master is protecting us at every moment. This is also a magnificent demonstration of Falun Dafa in the human world. As a Dafa disciple, I am very thankful for our great, compassionate Master.

Twenty-two years have passed, and I have endured numerous types of torture and many tribulations. However, I have still proceeded on my path of cultivation with great determination.

As a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple, I will look inward at all times, cultivate myself well, and do the three things well.

Thank you, Master, for your compassionate salvation.