(Clearwisdom.net) Cultivation seemed both mysterious and strange to me. However, perhaps because of a predestined relationship, I began Dafa cultivation.

Like other young Chinese people, I used to belittle Heaven and earth, and not believe in God. I was an atheist, immersed in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) culture, as a result of their education methods. In the past, if anyone talked about cultivating the Tao or Buddhahood, I thought, "What age are we in now? Why do you still believe in these old things?" The thought of cultivation was ridiculous to me.

Just because I don't believe in something doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't exist. By chance, I was introduced to Dafa.

Like other young Chinese people, I only valued tangible things and did not believe in anything invisible or that couldn't be explained. I enjoyed practicing martial arts and qigong, so I had some understanding of qigong. Naturally, some friends and I would discuss questions regarding qigong and the martial arts. In January 1997, my friend gave me the book "Falun Gong" and told me that it was the best among all the qigong practices in the world. I took the book home and finished reading it overnight. I was deeply attracted to the book.

The next day, I had a bad cold and slept the whole day. Although I had practiced qigong and martial arts for a long time, my health did not improve much. I still suffered from rheumatism, chronic gastritis, lung diseases and other acute, chronic illnesses. After sleeping for a day followed by reading Falun Gong, I suddenly felt my whole body relax, and all the former symptoms seemed to disappear. From that day on, I became energetic. While half asleep, I saw Falun adjust my body. One time, I saw a bright beautiful Falun rotating at my lower abdomen. However, it disappeared when I tried to touch it with my hand. At that time, I was not aware that Falun is in another dimension. On another occasion, I clearly felt that Teacher adjusted my body. Sometimes when I'm asleep, I can see Teacher's fashen. I suppose that this is because Teacher uses different ways to teach me, an atheist in the past, to change my ideas and notions. Teacher underwent numerous painstaking efforts to strengthen my righteous thoughts. In retrospect, I understand more of the value and profound meaning of the word "Teacher."

On July 20, 1999, the CCP began to persecute Dafa and practitioners. I was not scared and walked a winding path of blood and tears to assist Teacher to rectify the Fa. Every practitioner walks a different path. Some are great, others are tragic; some are tortuous, and some may be very painful. No matter what kind of path one must travel, the practitioner who can pass through is really remarkable, because the characteristics of each life are different; the amounts of karma are different, and they understand the Fa-rectification differently. There are no identical paths in assisting Teacher to rectify the Fa.

When the persecution of Falun Gong began, I went with several local practitioners to the Chongqing People's Grand Hall to validate the Fa, where policemen from the Chongqing Public Security Bureau and National Security Team tried to disperse us by force. After two days, we realized that we had no other way to validate the Fa but to petition in Beijing. At Tiananmen Square, we saw practitioners from all over the country. Every day, an extraordinary number of practitioners petitioned in Beijing, while more were continually arriving from every direction.

We were in Tiananmen Square for only 50 minutes when policemen arrested us, and took us to the Chongqing's Beijing Office where we were detained for a day. Then we were taken to the local police station, where we were held in custody for two days. The officials forced our family members to sign the three statements, and to pay 200 yuan for my release. The practitioners who went to petition with me were all forced to pay an illegal fine of 1,000 yuan per person, and detained 15 days before their release.

My first petition to Beijing was done in good conscience, with the hope of an appeal for justice. I was not clearheaded enough to validate the Fa, and I still wanted the CCP to understand that the persecution was wrong and to give us an unequivocal reply. Although my first petition did not yield any results, I was aware that I had to continue on the Fa-rectification path.

After one year of Fa-study at home, I gradually had a new understanding of the situation. Since the CCP is unreasonably evil, we should stand up, validate and protect the Fa, and let people know that the persecution is absurd and autocratic. On August 20, 2000, I went with some practitioners to Beijing again to validate the Fa. At that time, tens of thousands of practitioners validated the Fa by doing Falun Gong exercises daily at Tiananmen Square. The CCP's persecution of Falun Gong was focused and aggressive; one out of three tourists in Tiananmen Square were policemen, spies, or police clothes officers. Practitioners might be arrested if they were careless. When several practitioners and I were ready to begin the exercises at the center of Tiananmen Square, we were questioned. When we answered that we were practitioners, we were arrested. One of the practitioners shouted "Falun Dafa is good!" He was severely beaten and his glasses were smashed. We were physically thrown into a vehicle, and taken to the Qianmen Police Station, where we were interrogated. The police sent those who provided their names and addresses back to their home towns, where the local police tortured them; those who refused to give their names and addresses were taken to unknown locations. I later learned that these practitioners were sent to secret concentration camps, and had their organs removed and sold at high prices, and then their bodies were cremated! We know that practitioners have disappeared for over nine years, their whereabouts still unknown.

After we were returned to the local detention center, we were sentenced without any legal proceedings to one-year terms at a forced labor camp. During this period, I personally experienced the CCP's shameless, evil brutality.

In mid-May of the second year, officials at the forced labor camp sent some of the practitioners whose prison terms were nearly complete to different Divisions to "transform" them. Several practitioners and I were put in one Division. Each of us was surrounded by more than 20 drug dealers. The police issued the command: Within seven days, the practitioners must write "three statements" and be "transformed," and it did not matter what punishment was used on the practitioners, as long as they were not killed. Should the criminals succeed in "transforming" a practitioner, their prison terms would be reduced by three months. The police gave each inmate two thick, bamboo boards to use for beating practitioners. This group of prisoners was utterly devoid of any conscience. At the instigation and protection of the police, they tortured us like madmen: One practitioner's liver was split, causing him to spit blood; some practitioners were screaming due to the cruel torture they were suffering; some were beaten so badly that they could not walk; one received such unbearable torture that he jumped off the building. As a result, they sutured his wound with 16 pins, and extended his prison term another three months.

One afternoon, I was beaten eight times by several prisoners. They cut my ankle with the edge of an iron bowl. When I called the guards, they said: "We haven't seen anyone hit you, they are helping you." No matter how I shouted for help, the police did not come. The prisoners became frenzied, gagged my mouth with a dirty towel, and nearly beat me to death. At that time, I knew that Mr. Li Zetao had already been tortured to death.

After five days of torture, some of the older practitioners yielded, and wrote the "three statements" according to the police requirements. At that time, I lacked righteous thoughts and assumed that I was smart and played a word game. I changed most of what the police had written, thinking that I could cheat them, then validate the Fa after being released. My moral character was low, and when I think about it, I feel really sad that I hadn't lived up to Teacher's expectations.

I did not lose heart, and was greatly encouraged by Teacher's great benevolence. I know that as a Fa-rectification period practitioner, that no matter how great the difficulties are that we encounter, as long as I'm alive, I choose to walk my cultivation path without hesitation. Now that I've chosen cultivation practice, I must do the three things well and fulfill my great, prehistoric vow.

After I returned home from the Xishanping forced labor camp, I learned that we did not have a truth-clarification materials source. I discussed this with other practitioners, and we set up a media development site to help us distribute information to our local and surrounding areas. During this process, I was busy with doing the "work", and did not spend enough time studying the Fa. A year after we set up this media site, one practitioner was arrested, and once again, I was placed in custody. Fortunately, the media site was safely relocated.

After several years in prison, I recognize the seriousness of cultivation practice, and in particular, the operation and safety of the media sites, and that we should never be careless. The lessons we learned from failure are painful. Of course, as a practitioner, how can we be flawless? The key is to find out the cause of the problem, where we fall short and not let the old forces take advantage of our loopholes.

With Teacher's protection, I have gone through nine years of ups and downs during the insane CCP persecution. During the limited time remaining, I'll strive forward with confidence along the path that Teacher has arranged for me. I believe that I will walk more steadily, and better.