Amazing Recovery From a Coal Mine Collapse

(Minghui.org) I was sentenced to prison in June 2001 for my perseverance in practicing Falun Dafa. I was incarcerated in Jixi Prison in Heilongjiang Province.

Twenty-two inmates and I mined coal in the prison coal mine on September 20, 2002. A major collapse in the mine occurred at around 2 p.m. All the roof boards fell. I was trapped under three big rocks and I could not move. I was stunned by this sudden accident. Various thoughts raced through my mind. I thought of my parents and my daughter. I also wondered if I would die there.

As the ceiling and walls collapsed, the inmates fled. I heard one yelling, “That Falun Dafa practitioner must be dead!” I immediately shouted loudly, “Pull me out!” They were stunned that I was alive.

“Come and help pull him out,” the inmate team leader Li Chunhu said. He and a man named Geng attempted to push the big stone off my leg. But it did not move.

I was lying on my back on the ground, and my headlamp illuminated the ceiling above the two inmates helping me. I clearly saw a small stone fall from the ceiling, followed by tilting of a large stone about two meters long and one meter wide. The inmates nearby also saw it and shouted, “That big rock is coming down!”

I thought, “Don’t let these two young people die because they helped me.” The team leader was 25 years old, and Geng was 27. One of them was set to be released from prison in a week.

“Run, leave me alone!” I shouted loudly. I shouted this several times, but they both stood still while looking up at the big rock. The big rock suddenly stopped falling and seemed to hang in midair.

The team leader quickly called a few more people to work together. Seven or eight men rushed over. Together, they pushed the stones off of me and carried me to the main alley. The mining squad leader asked the prison guards to get me out of the mine.

At that time, an inmate who often worked for the Education and Reform Division of the prison (who insulted me before) walked up to me and said, “I never imagined that in today’s society, someone can still think of others in the face of death.” His sincere admiration was beyond words.

Years later, when I shared this experience with fellow practitioners, one said, “The big rock suspended in the air and did not fall, because you thought of others at the critical moment and gave up the thought of survival. You knew the consequence if such a heavy stone hit you. Your pure and kind thought was selfless, so Master helped you.”

After the accident, the prison guards agreed to take me up the shaft. When I emerged, the squadron instructor Song Jian said, “Why is such an inmate brought out?” He probably thought I wasn’t seriously injured and that I could come out of the mine after finishing work. The prison did not take it seriously when inmates’ arms and legs were injured.

I was taken to have a medical examination. My ankle was badly fractured. I was sent to the prison hospital and had a plaster cast applied. After being hospitalized for six days, I was returned to the prison.

Inmates’ Attitudes Change

Back in the prison, I felt that the atmosphere was different from before. The inmates no longer looked at me indifferently. Instead, they took the initiative to greet me and smile at me. During lunch, the other inmates shared the food that their family members brought them from home with the team leader.

The team leader invited me to eat with him and said, “I’m sorry I didn’t protect you well.” He announced loudly, “The inmates in the whole squad must share their delicious food from home with this Falun Dafa practitioner.”

I repeatedly expressed my gratitude and declined. I was puzzled—they behaved completely differently from before. They used to curse and beat me when we worked underground.

Bai Jinbao, a handyman, was the most notorious for beating people for the prison guards. When I initially arrived at the Jixi Prison, he beat me badly. He often beat and scolded me under the command of Jiang Zhenying, the head of the Education Reform Division. His behavior changed after he heard about my accident.

When I returned from the hospital, he visited me and arranged other inmates to get meals for me and help me go to the restroom. Later, when I was tortured to give up my belief and deprived of food, he secretly gave me a bag of steamed buns.

What’s even more incredible was that an inmate named Kang San secretly gave me some food after the squadron leader Liu Yajie just announced that no one was allowed to talk to me or give me any food. He told me what the squadron leader said, “Just be careful.” When the inmates returned from their meal, they treated me as usual, not taking the squad leader’s words to heart.

It seems that as long as practitioners can follow Master’s requirements, cultivate selflessness, be selfless, and put others first, the environment will naturally change. If we act righteously, we can change the environment. If we don’t cultivate well, then the environment may change us.

Master taught us,

“Compassion is an enormous energy, the energy of righteous gods. The more compassion that is present, the greater this energy becomes, and it can disintegrate anything that is bad. This is something that has never been taught, be it by Shakyamuni or cultivators of the past. The greatest manifestation of shan is compassion, and it is an expression of tremendous energy. It can disintegrate all that is not right.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2009 Washington DC International Fa Conference” in Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. IX)

Master Helps Me Pass the Tribulation

The mine collapsed and three boulders crushed my body. It was assumed that I died in the accident, but I just got my ankle fractured. Without Master’s protection the consequences would be unimaginable. Even if my ankle bone was fractured Master endured a lot for me. My ankle did not hurt much.

Two and a half months later, I removed the cast myself. According to the hospital the cast may be removed after three months. When I went to fetch water, the squadron instructor Song Jian said, “It’s amazing! His leg healed so quickly. This is a phenomenon that has never happened in the prison.”

Anyone with a little conscience can be influenced by practitioners’ kindness. But the persecution did not stop. Although my actions changed many inmates’ attitudes towards practitioners, many prison guards were driven by their own personal interests, and tried to force practitioners to give up their beliefs.

The Education Reform Division planned to forcibly transform four practitioners during the 2003 Chinese New Year. But they did not do it because an inmate escaped before the new year. They talked to us in an attempt to convince us to give up our belief. After numerous unsuccessful attempts, they decided to force us to comply.

In March 2003, Jiang Zhenying, the head of the Education Reform Division, ordered me to “reflect.” I was forced to sit on a small stool from 4 a.m. to 9 p.m. A few days later, the torture escalated: I couldn’t sit on the small stool but had to squat on the cold tile floor in bare feet. I was not allowed to sleep from 4 a.m. until 2 a.m. the next morning. I could sleep for only two hours a day. Four inmates were assigned to monitor me.

Knowing that my ankle was badly injured, the prison guards wanted to insult me and weaken my will in an attempt to force me to yield. One inmate said, “If you go barefoot every day, your kidneys will be damaged. Repent now, at least you can save your health.” Many inmates said similar words and I knew they said this because they thought they were helping me. But I was not moved.

What they didn’t know was that my ankle didn’t hurt at all, I knew Master was protecting me. No matter how the prison guards ordered the four inmates to beat me, none of them did. Only one mentally ill one kicked me. He himself was badly beaten by the handyman one night. The head of the Education Reform Division asked the inmates to smash my injured leg, but no one did.

The inmates did not participate in the persecution because they knew the beauty of Dafa and the kindness of practitioners through my words and deeds. The wicked guards couldn’t persecute me because Master was protecting me.

In order to continuously brainwash the inmates, the prison guards ordered all inmates to watch the news on the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) central TV station. The prison guards knew that I recited Master Li’s teaching. Whenever it was time to watch TV, they would instruct the inmates to drag me to sit beside the TV in the corridor. The inmates sat on the benches to watch TV, and asked me to squat barefoot on the tile floor to listen to the TV.

Facing this situation, I felt the prison guards’ attempt to compromise our will was ridiculous. I feel that they and others who persecute us are pitiable as they will be brought to justice in the future.

The head of the Education Reform Division also encountered the other three practitioners’ determination. He attempted to break our will and stamina in a protracted way. He did not know that Master kept blessing me so that my injured leg didn’t hurt at all! No inmate listened to him to persecute us. Master helped me to recall his teachings. I slept very little every day, but I was full of energy. Song Jian, the squadron instructor, said, “What happened? Why are you getting more spirited?!”

Since the persecution began in July 1999, more than 20 years have passed. I have faced many obstacles and difficulties on the path of cultivation. It is because of Master’s compassionate care that I have come step by step to where I am today. I can’t express my gratitude in words for Master’s compassionate savlation. I will practice cultivation diligently.