(Clearwisdom.net) In the middle of last June, several Dafa practitioners, including myself, were arrested. On June 17, to resist persecution from the policemen, I jumped out of a forth floor window of the Shuangqiao police substation and escaped safely. Before long, however, I was caught again. On November 19, to protest the persecution, I started a hunger strike. My hunger strike lasted over 150 days. The policemen tortured me during the hunger strike. They kept cuffing me with large shackles and they placed me in special confinement several times that was reserved for serious offenders. Jailers interrogated me dozens of times but were unable to get anything from me. Thus, they became very angry. In March 2002, they held a "hearing" and claimed, with several fabricated accusations that they would sentence me to over ten years of imprisonment. Since I was extremely weak at that time due to the long hunger strike, they were not able to fulfill the judgment. Since they thought I was the local Falun Dafa "organizer" and hoped to obtain useful information from me for monetary rewards from authorities, they continued to detain me there.
On April 19 of 2002, I was sharing experiences with some new practitioners who had recently begun to practice. They asked me, "During the five months when you were on a hunger strike, do you have anything you enlightened to that you could share with us?" At that time I thought of what Teacher said in his article "Expounding on the Fa", "...if there do not exist other problems in your xinxing or conduct, it must be that the evil demons are capitalizing on the weak spots caused by your lack of control." I realized that the evil demons were actually capitalizing on the tribulation if I passively endured it. It was on the same day that I luckily obtained Teacher's "Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A.", "Touring North America to Teach the Fa", "Also in a Few Words", "Path", "Look at Things with Righteous Thoughts", and "Dafa Disciples' Righteous Thoughts are Powerful," and an article written by a practitioner, "Breaking through the Evil Den with Righteous Thoughts." I read Teacher's articles and other materials for almost the entire night and I suddenly enlightened to some issues. Teacher spoke of, especially in the relatively recent articles about righteous thoughts. I, therefore suddenly understood what to do. To believe in one's righteous thoughts is to believe in Teacher and believe in Dafa.
On the evening of April 23, I was suddenly transferred to a brainwashing center. I knew this had been arranged. When I arrived there, however, I found that my wife had gone along with the arrangements of the evil forces and actively helped the evil in forcing me to give up practicing because she was not able to let go of her attachment to fear. I realized that it was a test and a tribulation for me. I also realized that it was time for me to utilize the righteous thoughts I had obtained through my cultivation.
Having not seen her for more than ten months, my wife had changed a lot. She used to be a quiet person but now she was talkative, sometimes with tears brimming in her eyes and sometimes gnashing her teeth in hatred. Facing her abnormal behavior, I suddenly held a thought, "Teacher, please stop her if she is being controlled by the evil forces." She instantly became tongue-tied and her facial muscles twitched, but she couldn't say a word. I witnessed the power of Dafa and that made me more determined to escape from the evil den with my righteous thoughts. They gathered a dozen people from the public security department, the procuratorial department [a special legal system in China, similar to governmental prosecution authority in the West], and law court and six to seven collaborators (practitioners who stopped practicing and turned against those who continued to practice) to watch me. Thus, I constantly reminded myself to better utilize the wisdom I gained through Dafa cultivation.
Later on, my wife attempted to persuade me to eat and I agreed to consider her request. I was extremely weak at that time and needed to support myself on the wall even to take a few steps. I told the head of 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 or judicial systems), "The purpose of my hunger strike is not to end my life. It is to protest the persecution of Jiang's regime. Now that you have changed a lot, I can consider eating some food." They were overwhelmed upon hearing that and told my wife that she made an outstanding contribution. It was already midnight but they even arranged some food for me and accompanied me while I ate the meal. After that, the guards fell asleep one by one. I thought of Teacher's words, "The Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts" ("Drive Out Interference"). I then carefully took Teacher's articles that I just got a few days before and gave them to my wife. I asked her to read the articles and at the same time, I used my righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil forces, especially those evil factors in her dimensional field, as well as those poured into her mind from the brainwashing "class". She read the articles quietly until dawn. At that time, a collaborator woke up and she immediately hid the articles. Upon seeing this, I knew her true nature had not gone astray. In the morning around daybreak, I found a chance to tell her to pay attention to the attachments and the loopholes where the evil has dug in, and to strengthen her main consciousness. After an afternoon nap, she found me and excitedly told me, "I totally understand! Just now, a glimmer of light passed through my mind and I got my true nature back." I told her, "All of this has been arranged but we should keep calm."
I originally planned to leave the brainwashing center on the morning of April 27, but I felt in my mind that I should leave the next day. I told my wife this and she enlightened that there must be something for us to fulfill. It turned out that there was an elderly man in the brainwashing class who had gone astray under the severe pressure and torture and taken the initiative to write a report to those in charge of the brainwashing "class" every day. Since he was hard of hearing, it was difficult to communicate with him. I hesitated to speak with him, as I was afraid it would have an adverse effect on my escape plan. I realized that was out of an attachment to human notions. Upon realizing the attachment, I wrote him what I came to understand and gave it to him while we were having a meal. At the end I wrote, "Uncle, to put it plainly: 'You have passed over the hail of bullets, but don't fail in the face of the sugar-coated bullets!'" ["Sugarcoated bullets" is a Chinese expression meaning the kinds of methods that can destroy a person by shaking his belief gently and indirectly, instead of violently and directly]].] He skimmed through what I wrote and quietly gave me a thumbs-up. Later, he managed to visit our room and told my wife "It must have been our Teacher who pointed it out to me." I was really happy for him. At first glance, the evil forces are very vicious but actually they are very fragile. The so-called results they had achieved with more than ten days of "work" and with more than ten people was instantaneously smashed. I realized that no matter how serious the surroundings are, as long as we can hold a pure heart and do what we should do, many people who have predestined relationships with Dafa can still be saved.
On April 27, several leaders came to talk with me. They told me with an ulterior motive,, "The first possible verdict is over ten years of imprisonment. However, as long as you can make a good use of this opportunity, all can be resolved. We can let your wife wait at home for interrogation with bail. They said, "If you agree to give up practicing and promise to help us to work on other practitioners--We are sure that you are able to perform this task well if you wish to do it--then all can be resolved. We have gotten permission from the general Party secretary of our city. He said he would come to see you in a couple of days." I laughed on the spot and thought, "What a difference! If I insist on practicing, I will be sentenced to over ten years of imprisonment, separated from my wife and children, and have my family ruined. On the other hand, if I agree to appear on TV renouncing my belief and attacking Dafa, I will be awarded and have a family reunion. This enticement, however, has no effect on a true practitioner."
At about two o'clock that night, my wife first sent out righteous thoughts to help a dozen guards fall asleep. I opened the lock on the second floor with the handle of a tablespoon and then broke a glass window on the first floor. The sound of breaking the glass was so loud at midnight. The guards, however, were all sound sleep. We successfully escaped from the first floor's window. We helped each other and jumped over the almost four meter high wall even though we were skinny and weak from torture. Thus we left the evil den and rejoined the magnificent stream of Fa-rectification.
May 18, 2002