(Minghui.org) I started to practice Falun Dafa, also called Falun Gong, in 1995. Dafa changed me as well as those around me.
By studying the teachings of the practice, I have learned how to be a good person. I look inward when I encounter conflicts, I always think of others needs first, I do not argue when it comes to personal interests, and I always follow the Dafa principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance.
For nearly 24 years, first during the personal cultivation period and ever since the persecution began in 1999, I have tried to be a true practitioner by following the Fa principles.
My family was assigned a 0.3-acre, second-quality rice field in 1997. We rented a bulldozer and spent an entire day leveling the land.
At the beginning of winter that year, without any notice, some farmers across the river plowed a dirt road 30 meters long and 3 meters wide through my field.
Encroaching on another’s contract field like that is regarded as bullying. This is done when the target is considered to be weak and incompetent. I was well-known in the village for being strong and for being quick to right a wrong.
As a practitioner, however, I had learned to be tolerant and not to fight. Although they said they would give me compensation, I didn’t take it.
I just told them they'd better not dare occupy my field. But I did not make them remove the road. Even just thinking about it, if I hadn’t learned Falun Dafa, I would definitely have fought with them.
In the spring of 1998, after the young rice plants were planted in the field, they grew tall, much taller than others in the area, and the leaves were deep green. The farmers in the village all came to look. Some asked me what type of seed and fertilizer I used.
I told them I used the same fertilizer as everyone else and had purchased the seeds from the local agricultural research institute just like everyone else. I told them that the supernormal state of my rice plants had to do with my cultivation of Falun Dafa and my allowing the road to pass through my land. I said it might be a reward for doing a good deed.
During the autumn harvest, the clusters of ripe golden grains of rice were so heavy that they hung over the top of the plant and blew in the wind like golden waves. This attracted people to stop and admire my field.
There were no empty grains or half-empty grains of rice that year. Usually only one person is needed to catch the grains at threshing time but that year, two people were needed. The clusters had more grains and each grain was full grown. I had worked in the rice fields for decades and had never seen such a good harvest. We sold more than 4,800 pounds of rice, which was indeed unprecedented.
All the farmers talked about it, saying: “You see, he practices Falun Dafa and let someone put a road across his field. He got a big harvest—almost double what we got from our field, which is the same size. Falun Dafa is really good. Let’s practice Falun Dafa!”
Many people came to learn Dafa. They witnessed the changes in my family as well.
My family's heart problems and skin diseases were cured. We became more friendly and didn't fight over self-interests, either. Everyone witnessed that “Falun Dafa is good! Falun Dafa is really good!”
Jiang Zemin, the former head of the communist regime, launched the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999. In the middle of October that year, the township government and the local police created a “Maintaining Stability Office” to prevent practitioners from going to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong.
Led by the Party secretary of the township, they monitored practitioners, and anyone who went to Beijing would be taken to a forced labor camp and also fined.
I thought I should have a talk with the Party secretary and let him know why we practice Falun Gong, how we try to be good, why we want to appeal for Falun Gong, and so on. I just didn’t want them to treat us like enemies and to prevent us from appealing for the right to practice Falun Gong.
I rode my bike to the township hall on October 21, 1999, and knocked on the secretary’s door. He said, “Come in. I was just going to look for you and have a talk.” After I sat down, he politely poured me a cup of tea and asked why I was there.
I handed over a pile of receipts from 1995 to the present. The receipts were proof that I’d sold grain to the government and what I’d paid into the government fund. He asked why I showed them to him. I told him that receipts were proof of how I had improved my moral standard after I practiced Falun Dafa.
I told him that I was the headstrong person who refused to pay into the government fund around 1995. I made trouble for the township cadres who came to collect the government fund and refused to pay it.
I also told him I even tried to beat people. The township cadres were scared to death of me when they came to the village to collect what I owed.
I took advantage of their corruption, saying that was why I would pay less or not at all. After I started to practice Falun Dafa, however, I followed the teachings to do good. Each year I took the initiative to pay into the government fund. The grains I sold to the government were all high-quality and were carefully prepared, personally by me.
Those receipts proved what I said. I also talked about how I allowed the road to go through my land and didn’t ask for compensation. I helped repair the township road, and flood zone and always did a good job.
I said, “You can ask those cadres in my village. They used to say, ‘If half of the people in the village practiced Falun Dafa, our job would be really easy.’ We do not pretend to be good!”
I asked him, “Is it right to persecute Falun Dafa and to prevent us from appealing for the right to practice?”
He answered quickly, “It’s not right, it’s not right! I do know Falun Dafa more or less. However, it comes from my superiors. I have to follow orders.”
I told him about my family. My child and my wife had ailments that hospitals said were incurable. But they recovered after practicing Falun Dafa.
Out of gratitude to Master and Dafa, we had to do something when Master and Dafa were being framed and maligned. I asked him, “Should we say a good word for our master or shouldn’t we?” He answered, “You should! You should!”
I told him that I would go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Dafa in an upright and noble manner and not slink off trying to be unnoticed.
By this time, the Party secretary was sweating and pacing back and forth. At last, he said, “It is good for you and your family to practice. Then stay at home to practice. I can guarantee that you will not be arrested.”
I said, “Given the current situation, wouldn’t it be selfish to stay at home to practice?” He helplessly said, “I can only do what I can. I hope you take care of yourself.”
We went to Beijing to appeal for Dafa three days after I talked to him. We were arrested in Beijing and escorted home. The head of the local 610 Office insisted I be sent to a forced labor camp. The township Party secretary refused to agree.
They quarreled, and the head of the 610 Office accused him of being brainwashed by me.
The Party secretary was later promoted and transferred to the district government. I accidentally ran into him one day and he warned me to be careful because the restrictions on Falun Dafa had not been lifted yet. It is clear that he knew the truth.
I was arrested on December 28, 2002, when I was on my way home after putting up truth-clarifying stickers.
I was taken to an empty room in the local police station and restrained on a tiger bench. Officer Xin pulled the hood of my heavy coat over my head and squeezed it tight. I started to choke from lack of oxygen and was in extreme pain. At the same time, several officers next to me hit my head with sticks. My head fell forward and I passed out.
A powerful rotating force came up and threw the tiger bench down on the floor. I saw that my body was under the tiger bench and saw the police take off.
In fact, I was looking down on what was happening from the ceiling. The officer in charge undid the restraints on the tiger bench and unlocked the handcuffs that had forced my arms behind my back.
I felt nothing. They pinched my Renzhong point and poured hot water over my face. Suddenly a powerful force pushed me into my physical body. I slowly and painstakingly opened my eyes. It seemed that everything that had just happened had happened a long time ago.
When the officer in charge saw that I was alive, he asked “Just now, what kind of force pushed you and the tiger bench to the ground? This tiger bench is so heavy, one person couldn’t do that. Is it a god who came to save you?”
I answered, “Yes, it’s a god’s doing! It’s the Master of Falun Dafa who came to save his disciple. Not just to save me but also to save all of you.
“You know, it is illegal to torture me like this, and you will pay for it. Aren’t you ashamed of yourselves for doing such terrible things to such a good person who would not strike back when being beaten and would not fight back if being scolded?
“Let me go now if you still have a little conscience. There are gods within three feet of us and they are real. You actually witnessed what happened just now, didn’t you? Good is rewarded with good and evil incurs evil.
“The reason that you haven’t yet incurred retribution is to allow you an opportunity for your conscience to be awakened.”