(Minghui.org) I was about to get on my motorcycle when several people suddenly came up behind me, grabbed my hand, and pulled my key out, shouting, “Don't move! We're the police!” They then called me by name to confirm who I was.
I was taken to a nearby police station, where an officer contacted my wife’s manager at work to tell her to return home. She was arrested and taken to the police station.
Why did the police arrest us? It was because we are Falun Dafa practitioners. We started practicing Falun Dafa when we were graduate students and followed the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. We hadn’t done anything wrong, but the police treated us like criminals.
We were taken to our home, and the police ransacked it. They confiscated our Falun Dafa books and a few computers. We were later taken back to the police station and handcuffed to chairs in separate rooms.
I tried to calm down as they started interrogating me and didn’t answer any of their questions. One officer sat behind a computer and seemed to be taking notes. Other officers came in and out. Some slapped my face and beat me, some verbally abused me, and some laughed at me for my staying motionless.
The one who caught my attention that morning looked to be in change. He said, “He looks quite young and should be able to tolerate it. Get officers in here who will treat him to some pepper water and the tiger bench” He turned to me and said, “Wait till we take you to the detention center.”
Many Falun Gong practitioners have died or been disabled as a result of torture. I was frightened. When I thought about other practitioners who could stay calm and clarify the truth to police officers or the guards, I felt that I was far from their level of cultivation.
I decided to send forth righteous thoughts. I tried to calm my mind and recited the verses again and again. Gradually, I was able to calm down.
I realized that I was attached to protecting myself and had a fighting mentality. How could I help save people with a selfish mindset like that?
It was noon, lunchtime, and the officers stopped interrogating me. One of them asked if I wanted to eat something. I shook my head and said, “No.”
After they finished lunch, the person who seemed to be in charge talked to me again. “We talked about you over lunch. We feel for you as you have a young child. How about this? You cooperate with us and answer our questions, and we'll give you a lighter sentence. You're supposed to be sentenced to 10 years in prison. We can have it reduced by a couple of years, and your wife will only have to spend two years in a forced labor camp. Two years will be over in no time.”
I knew it was a threat, but I also knew that he was still kind. His kindness was almost unnoticeable, and I had a strong wish that I could speak to his kind side. Otherwise, he might think I was being unfair—“I was kind to that practitioner, but he didn’t respond”—and think negatively. Wouldn’t that make him more opposed to me?
Master said,
“I'm also telling you that all beings in today's world came for the sake of the Fa.” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. IV)
We can’t neglect trying to save people simply because they did something wrong. I turned around, looked at him, and said, “OK. Go ahead.”
He seemed to get excited and moved his chair closer to me. He sat down and said, “Please tell me who you report to and who reports to you?”
I thought his question was amusing. These people were deeply poisoned by the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) propaganda. I responded, “We practitioners don’t have any organizational structure like that.”
He stood up, pointed at me, and said, “You wait and see.” Then he left. I never saw him again. And during the rest of my time in the detention center, no one interrogated me again.
Due to practitioners’ rescue efforts and their sending forth righteous thoughts, my wife and I were released unconditionally in 33 days.
Many years have passed since then. Every time I think back on that time, I am surprised at my thought that I should respond to the officer's kindness. That thought came out in an instant. I had never thought about that before, so I felt that it was not completely from my heart. Everyday people's messages can be unstable, and we can’t be overly concerned with their behavior.
Maybe my thought was from my true self, the part I had cultivated and was not limited by my human notions. As I kept sending righteous thoughts, it was Dafa that purified me and my environment. It was Dafa that changed me and kept me from being passive, so I was able to help everyday people get rid of their evil thoughts and stop doing bad things.
Although I didn’t help that police officer accept the truth about Dafa back then, it was his own choice not to continue to persecute me. I believe it was also because of our fellow practitioners’ powerful righteous thoughts and clarifying the truth to those officers, including him.
Our mutual efforts prevented him from following up on our case. Because of this, he might have a chance to hear more about Falun Dafa and accept Dafa in the future.