Shared at European 2002 Conference
(Clearwisdom.net) When I heard about the first group of Western practitioners appealing at Tiananmen Square in November 2001, I became very happy. I thought it was a huge step forward for the Fa-rectification.
When we first arrived on Tiananmen Square on February 11th, 2002, I saw how ugly it was. I thought it was supposed to be round and covered with beautiful prosperous life, a gate of Heavenly Peace, not at all the monumental buildings that the old evil forces has tried to congest the place with. It was my mission as a Dafa practitioner to rectify this place in all dimensions and to be responsible for all the righteousness in cosmos. I was constantly sending forth righteous thoughts when I was walking on the square.
I adopted a very arrogant attitude towards the police, thus leaving a loophole for the evil. A policeman came up to the five others that I was walking with and started asking questions. Since he was facing them, I kept walking past him and after a few seconds he came after me instead. He wanted to see what was in my bag. I had Zhuan Falun in the front pocket of my bag. I thought that I would be unveiled there, arrested and would have failed. It was a totally selfish thought since I didn't consider the others in the group and only thought of my own failure. I became afraid and handed the bag over to the police since I didn't want to open it, and I started to half-heartedly send forth righteous thoughts and could only remember the first Fa rectification verse. He told me to open the bag myself and I first opened the top pocket to show him that it was empty. Then I went on with one of the side pockets and was at the same time trying to hide that there was a front pocket. I showed him that I had my camera in that side pocket and when I was moving on to the other side pocket he already started to excuse himself for making a mistake. I realized the power of righteous thoughts and also the importance of being responsible for the Dafa book. That evening when we were out at a restaurant I came to realize even more how sacred and great this appeal was. I realized my attachments of selfishness and arrogance on the square earlier that day. My compassion grew for all people and especially for the Chinese practitioners, who maybe wouldn't have a home to return to, if they were still alive, after they had gone to Tiananmen Square to appeal and got arrested.
The next day we were sitting inside reading and exchanging experiences with the English practitioners in their room. We also talked about what could happen at Tiananmen Square the next day, to be somewhat prepared. I became concerned with how some people left books and banners lying out on the table and on the windowsill. I thought storing them in a safe place was being responsible. I wanted to be more responsible myself, especially after my experience the day before. I realized that I shouldn't rely on a group, as Teacher says. "Cultivation depends on one's own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one's Teacher." Of course it was also good to share experiences with the group.
The next day when I got back and walked into the hostel, a policeman immediately jumped up to interrogate me. He demanded to see my passport without any explanation why. He wanted to know my room number. He asked, "Do you know about Falun Gong or the Falun Buddha Fa?" I just said, "What?" and I was constantly sending forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil. I did not accept any of evil's arrangement, because I was a Falun Dafa practitioner. The young policeman looked very confused as he looked in his papers. I was completely calm and I kindly asked him, "Have I done something wrong?" He just replied, "One moment" and went over to the reception counter to have a closer look at his papers. Another policeman went over to him and asked something about Falun Gong and was given something that sounded like a denying answer. I understood the power of the righteous thoughts and the saving compassion of Dafa. The police gave me my passport back when I asked for it, and they told me that I had to leave the hostel since the personnel there had broken the law. Since I had paid for two more nights I asked for my money back.
I asked the receptionist to follow me up to the room to unlock the door since I thought no one was in the room. He immediately went down stairs after unlocking the door and when I went in, Petter, Christian and our African friend were in the room with the lights turned off. They told me that the British practitioners had been arrested. We started to talk about our next step and I said that we were beyond police suspicion, and that we should just find another place to stay and concentrate on the next morning. Two police came into the room, a man and a woman, and they wondered if we were ready to leave. I understood their vicious intentions with trying to have us under surveillance in "their hotel," so I questioned their recommendation since the hotel was close to the airport and we had no business staying there. She immediately backed away and said that we could stay wherever we wanted, that it was only a recommendation. Then I told her that they could leave, that we would come down when we were ready.
It was just before 2:00 p.m. on the 14th of February. When we went up the stairs leading to Tiananmen Square, two female police stopped us. They demanded to search our pockets and belongings without giving a reason. They found my banner and got very afraid and nervous, and immediately called for backup. One of us started to shout "Falun Dafa Hao!" (Falun Dafa is good!) and I immediately followed and shouted as well. At once, four or five policemen pounced on me and violently pulled and pushed me, trying to drag me off the square over to a waiting police van. All the time I passively resisted and I turned facing the square and kept on calling out "Falun Dafa is good!" as loud as I could, to eliminate the evil. It was as if the police didn't have any power and were slipping and couldn't get a hold of me. I understood the power and righteousness of Dafa and felt both happy and calm inside to be able to be there and rectify the Fa. I kept on calling out in Chinese that Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Europe knows that Falun Dafa is good! The whole world knows that Falun Dafa is good! Falun Dafa is a righteous law!
After a while I was shoved into the van and pressed down in the first seat on the right hand side. The police tried to silence me by pushing my head down so that I sat double folded and they screamed at me to shut up. I just laid my arm friendly around the back of the police, who sat next to me and pressed down my head, and padded him on the shoulder, I just felt compassion for them and hoped that Teacher's benevolence would save them. Later on I started singing the song "Falun Dafa Hao" (Falun Dafa is good) in this position. The police laughed nervously since they had never heard the song before and I can imagine how it shook and eliminated the evil in other dimensions.
We continued singing the whole way to the police station. When we were let out of the van, the area was full of police. I saw the officer in charge from the hostel the evening before and he looked at me in astonishment. I understood how struck he must have been by the greatness of Dafa that we manifested there, and how the evil was completely wiped out. I just walked up to him with a smile, singing and shook his hand. He could only smile back. It was the same with the policewoman who had come up to the room. She was also there and couldn't help but smiling back at me in astonishment. I patted her on the shoulder and shook her hand.
At the station, a practitioner next to me had a banner hidden under his shirt. We took it out. The police were shocked and very angry. They tried to violently pull the banner out of our hands, but they didn't succeed. Instead, the practitioners won the tug of war with the banner. I can imagine how effective this was in eliminating the evil in this vile environment.
When they started to pull me I held on to two other practitioners. Since they failed in their first attempt to pull me loose from my upper body, they aimed for my legs instead. Two police each pulled at the legs of my trousers so violently that the zipper and buttons tore apart. They managed in their violent manner to tear me loose from the other practitioners in the corridor and dragged me backward on my stomach into the room next door. One police grabbed my left arm at the same time,lifted me up and kneed me hard three times in my left ribs. I kept on singing "Falun Dafa Hao" all the time.
Two policemen were acting especially aggressive towards me since they recognized me from the hostel that they illegally had thrown us out from the evening before. I continued to sing with a smile on my lips and reached out my hand to the older one of them, he aggressively waved his hand and showed his detest with a "Pshaw!" and threw a kick towards my groin to scare me. The younger one of them threateningly shouted, "Do you remember me?" "I'll show you!"
We were taken out of the police station to a bigger bus. The policeman next to me looked very young. I kept on singing "Falun Dafa Hao" for another while and then started talking to the officer next to me to clarify the truth. I used the few Chinese words that I know and talked very enthusiastically, but it showed in the end that he didn't understand much English, and I had hardly gave him the chance to open his mouth.
We arrived at a temporary detention center (in what looked like a hotel), not too far from the airport. Three policemen took me away for interrogation. I just stayed calm. When we got out of the elevator on another floor, and were walking in the corridor I was hit on the mouth with a rolled up magazine by a plainclothes policeman. I smiled back at him.
I told the interrogating officer that my name was Falun Dafa and that I came from Zhen-Shan-Ren (Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance). I told him that according to laws recognized by China, people have the right to freedom of faith and assembly. Any living being and any society can only benefit from following Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance. He became very frustrated that I didn't want to "co-operate," drank water and smoked indiscriminately. He probably drank alcohol as well since his breath stank of gin. I told him that no matter what they did to me I would always follow Zhen-Shan-Ren. I told him that Teacher says, "Coercion cannot change peoples hearts." The police could never change my heart. Even if they beat me to death, my heart would still be in Zhen-Shan-Ren.
When I was alone with the other policeman, I clarified the truth about the self-immolation and he kept quiet and was listening closely all the time. I asked him if he had read Zhuan Falun and since he hadn't, then he couldn't possibly know the truth about Falun Dafa and that it would be the most beautiful and joyous day of his life when he was able to read it.
When I was taken back to the room I sat down and sent forth righteous thoughts for around an hour. I
felt so powerful, serene and peaceful and there was no pain or discomfort in my legs whatsoever. At
the same time the other practitioners started to do the exercises while the police were watching.
When I did the Falun standing exercise I saw many scenes very clearly from other dimensions and it
was like I was flying through different landscapes and buildings.
Later on, an older, shorter and slightly bald plainclothes police with glasses interrogated me, probably also from the 610 Office (an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems). He said that I would be sent to jail and threatened me with that it would be for life and that no one would find out where I was. He then took out my money from my wallet and counted it. He said that I would need to pay for my food in the jail, and then gave a roguish laugh. I just stayed with the Fa and thought that I would oppose all the old evil force's arrangements and only go through the things that Teacher had intended for me. In the end we were six practitioners and we had the chance to clarify the truth to the police in the room. Some police didn't want to listen and were resentful. One young policewoman felt uncomfortable every time I said the words Falun Dafa and Zhen-Shan-Ren.
Eventually we were taken to a prison north east of Beijing. The German practitioner André and I were taken to a clinic or hospital next to the prison, because they wanted to "check our blood pressure." They told me to face the wall and pushed me up against it. I said I am not facing the wall and turned back. Then the small man, the same man who threatened me with being sent to prison for life and that no one would know where I was, became very upset and shouted at me to face the wall and pushed me again even more violently against the wall. I refused again and turned back, they did that four or five times, before they let me be. When it was my turn I refused to sit down or to take my clothes off. Then they violently tore my shirt's right cuff apart so that the button fell out and the cloth was ripped, then they took my blood pressure while I stood there. I relaxed totally in the arm and sent forth righteous thoughts. They worriedly commented the result in Chinese, probably because it was so very low, and one police said something about gong. They probably thought that I was controlling it with my energy.
We were then taken to a prison cell where they asked us get undressed. I resolutely refused and told the prison guard/police to take his hands off me. They tore my shirt in the front. I was continuously making passive resistance when one of the police pulled my clothes off and they confiscated our shoes. A bit later Petter and I were placed in the same cell together with eight other prisoners. The cell was only 20 square meters (about 200 square feet) and all the time monitored by a surveillance camera. We used as much time as possible for Hong Fa (promote Fa) to the prisoners, doing the exercises and sending forth righteous thoughts. Because it was the holiday, inmates could watch TV in the corridor. I felt all of this was like an illusion. The police gave inmates food, candies and cigarettes, at the same time they used beating and torture to threaten them and prove their authority. All the time while sitting in the corridor I was reciting "Lunyu", Hongyin and parts of Zhuan Falun that I knew by heart. Petter and I had to sleep on the floor next to each other on two blankets. It was on the one-meter wide path where the concrete was covered with plastic flooring.
A prisoner from Iraq was especially interested in what we said about our cultivation experiences. Petter wrote down Teacher's article "The knowing heart" for him, which he was reading during the night and I helped him understand it. I wrote down two of Teachers poems and half of Lunyu. I talked a lot about that the cultivation of the heart being the most important thing and to follow Truth-Compassion-Tolerance. He was all the time listening excitedly and commenting with "yes, yes" and smiling. One of the Chinese prisoners even started to sing "Falun Dafa Hao" and they always became very quiet when we started to do the exercises. They had many questions about how we lived and one even showed me how to write Zhen-Shan-Ren in Chinese. Since we were illegally imprisoned and to oppose all evil arrangements, I decided to start hunger striking on that Friday evening. I would not let myself be used in their propaganda to show that foreign Falun Dafa practitioners were treated well in Chinese prisons.
In the evening of February 16, the older one of the two police, the one that was very rude to me, interrogated me again. I kept sending forth righteous thoughts and reciting Fa-rectification verses. I was a little worried, though, and didn't feel very calm. I didn't speak to them except telling them what I wanted, so as to resist their persecution. A half-hour later they sent me back to the cell.
On Sunday February the 17th I got to see a man from the Swedish Embassy and two women from the UN. I told them about the whole course of events from the time when I was arrested and how I got my clothes torn, to when I was beaten, kneed, interrogated and harassed. I said that I might have a fracture or a crack on the left side of my ribs. I also told them that I didn't think I had done anything wrong and I should not be locked up here just because I practice Falun Gong. The woman from the UN said that Falun Gong was outlawed according to Chinese laws and that it was a [Chinese regime's derogatory term omitted]. I told them that it was a cultivation practice and qigong, and that following Truth-Compassion-Tolerance is something that one can only gain from. I wanted them to know the truth and not be poisoned by the conspiracy, lies and propaganda from Jiang's regime. They said that they would try to book my return ticket, if not for the next morning, then for the day after. Thereafter the police once again asked me to step out of the van to have my photograph taken, constantly trying to manipulate me with their tricks. I just closed my eyes and held my right hand in front of my chest when they took the picture.
I was able to talk quite a lot to an American practitioner named Asuma on my last evening when we were sitting in front of the TV. I encouraged her to totally oppose the evil forces and to be steadfast in her cultivation. "Be determined!" was the last thing I said before we had to go back to our cells. She was the last practitioner who left the jail.
On Tuesday morning, February the 19th, I was released around half past eight. I had been imprisoned for almost 5 days (115 hours) because I called out "Falun Dafa is good!" on Tiananmen Square. I was taken to a police station wagon that had my suitcase in the trunk. I was allowed to check that all my things were there. At first I didn't find the book, Zhuan Falun, but later I saw it underneath some clothes. One of the police quickly grabbed the book and started to flick through the pages. After a few seconds he gave it back to me. I told them that my camera was missing and that I wanted it back, but I did not receive it. I was then to take a seat in the dirty trunk, on a few newspapers that they had spread out. All in the car except the driver were sleeping, so I wrote Falun Dafa with big letters on the dirty side and back windows of the police car. I was happy for them that they could promote Dafa with their police car afterwards.
In cultivation I have come to understand the importance of writing one's experiences and sharing
them with others, and that scenes in other dimensions are splendid when one overcomes these tests,
eliminates attachments and raises one's Xinxing.
I would like to finish with one of Teacher's articles:
True Nature Revealed
Firmly cultivate Dafa with an unaffected heart and mind,
Raising one's level is fundamental,
In the face of trials, one's true nature is revealed,
Achieve Consummation, becoming a Buddha, Dao or God.
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Thank you.