(Clearwisdom.net)
I. Overcoming a Demonic Interrogation
The police once dragged me into a police station while I was clarifying the truth about Falun Dafa. At first the police chatted with me, trying to coax the information they desired out of me. I immediately saw through their scheme, and handled their questions carefully and calmly. When they realized they couldn't retrieve any information out of me using this approach, they handcuffed me to a metal chair with my hands behind my back. Then they started to curse me, and grabbed my hair while punching my chin from below. My teeth chattered loudly from the impact of their repeated punches. I kept sending forth righteous thoughts, imploring Teacher for protection to overcome this demonic trial. Next a policeman raised his arm and kept slapping me violently on the face. Despite the loud noise from his slapping, I did not feel any pain. Instead I felt a gentle breeze. The policeman, on the other hand, felt too painful from the impact to continue the slapping. Instead he grabbed a table wipe, bent it in half, and started to flog my face with it continuously and curse me at the same time. My face did not flush or swell. Normally this type of torture would have distorted one's face. I knew right away that our compassionate, magnificent Teacher had endured the torture for me.
Since I refused to give them any information, the police decided to escalate the torture. They put a plastic bag over my head and sealed it tightly to suffocate me. When there was no air left, the plastic bag clung tightly to my nose and lips, and my eyes began to bulge. My main consciousness, nevertheless, remained sharp and clear. I looked directly at the policemen from behind the plastic bag, sending forth my righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil that was manipulating them to persecute Dafa practitioners. After I lost consciousness, the policemen removed the plastic bag and splashed cool water over my face. When I came to, I breathed in and out hungrily for air. Then they repeated the suffocating torture. Still I refused to give them any information.
Then the policemen decided to employ a new type of torture. They brought a bottle of mustard oil and started to pour it into my nostrils. Some of the mustard oil went into my esophagus, and some flushed out and moistened my chest. When the policemen noticed that some of the mustard oil was wasted, they became frustrated with anger. As they continued to pour mustard oil into my nose, a policeman used one of his hands to keep my chin raised while the other hand jammed my nose with a dirty rag to prevent me from flushing mustard oil out with my breath. During this ordeal my mind was never once filled with anger. I felt nothing but pity for them. I pitied them because they were ruining themselves with their ignorance. Meanwhile, I was determined that I would walk through the road of cultivation that Teacher had arranged for me as long as I was alive and breathing. Next, a miracle happened. My tongue tasted the mustard oil, but it did not taste spicy at all. To my surprise it tasted refreshingly sweet. I felt very distinctly the mustard oil traveling down the esophagus and into my stomach. I could feel the distinct flow of mustard oil. The policemen were puzzled to find no nasal mucus and tears, or any sign that I was stifled by the mustard oil. When a Dafa practitioner is filled with strong righteous thoughts and the Fa, she is bound to experience what Teacher described in Zhuan Falun as "After passing the shady willow trees, there will be bright flowers and another village ahead!"
The policemen kept me handcuffed to the metal chair continuously for several days and nights, denying me sleep, food, water, and the use of a toilet. They continued to batter me, curse me, and torture me with many other methods, but they completely failed to shake my steadfast faith in Teacher and Falun Dafa. I never stopped telling the policemen about Falun Dafa [with any chance I got], and teaching them to cultivate kindness. During the demonic interrogation, I experienced many supernatural states that no words could describe. I could only describe these unusual experiences with Teacher's words: "Its broad and immense, profound inner meaning can only manifest itself to, and be experienced and understood by, practitioners who are at different levels of true cultivation. Only then can one truly see what the Fa is." (From "Broad and Immense" in Essentials for Further Advancement.) Under the protection of our compassionate, magnificent Teacher, the policemen failed their demonic interrogation.
II. "The Buddha-Light Illuminates Everywhere"
At the detention center, Dafa practitioners in our cell were subjected to severe abuse at first. The guards cursed us all day long, and beat up everyone they didn't like at will. In fact, the battering caused one of the Dafa practitioners in our cell to have blood in her urine. "White Dragons" often cracked from their intensive usage. (Note: "White Dragon" is a fancy name the guards gave to a type of torture tool. It is a white hard rubber tube used to batter Dafa practitioners. A person battered with a hard rubber tube will not show signs of abuse on the skin, even when the tissues under the skin have become severely damaged.) In addition, the guards ordered the inmates to watch Dafa practitioners' every move. If a Dafa practitioner was caught sitting in the double lotus position or with one hand held vertically in front of the chest, the entire cell of inmates would be denied time for fresh air in the courtyard. Consequently, all the inmates in our cell watched us like a hawk.
We disciplined ourselves according to what Falun Dafa required of us. We tried to rectify our environment and touch the inmates' hearts with our sincerity and kindness. When it came to forced labor, Dafa practitioners volunteered to do the dirty work that required wiping the toilet bowls clean, and left the inmates with less filthy work, such as dishwashing, and bed cleaning. When a convicted murderer was chained to the bed [and could not move about freely], we would bring her a basin of water so she could wash her face, or we would bring the toilet bucket to her when she needed to use it. In addition, we clarified the truth to the inmates every chance we got. We told them that Falun Dafa is good; we explained the truth about the persecution against Falun Gong; we explained the truth behind the staged self-immolation at the Tiananmen Square, the truth about the trip to the National Appeal Bureau on April 25, 1999, and the truth of many fraudulent lies pertaining to Falun Gong; we explained that those who treat Dafa practitioners with kindness will be rewarded immensely and those who persecute Dafa practitioners will eventually meet with tribulation; we explained that Falun Dafa can save sentient beings.
We also tried to promote Falun Dafa to each inmate in our cell using different approaches from scientific and medical facts, fables and historic stories, etc. The inmates gradually realized that we Dafa practitioners were not at all like what television had portrayed. Eventually the inmates began to improve their conscience, while our righteous thoughts and righteous actions began to improve our cell. The former head of our cell, who had been persecuting Falun Dafa practitioners and spoke of our Teacher with disrespect, was given a sentence and transferred elsewhere. Another inmate, who had a positive perception of Falun Dafa and had been kind to Dafa practitioners, was elected as the new head of our cell. One night the new head of our cell had a dream that someone told her, "Try your best to write an article that praises Falun Dafa, and you will be released from prison." After she shared this unusual dream to the entire cell, all the Falun Dafa practitioners encouraged her to write a letter to her manager at her former workplace, sharing her personal story where Falun Dafa had shed a new light on her personal problem. She wrote in one of the passages in the letter, "When I was wronged and thrown into jail, I despaired and became cynical about this secular world. It was the noble deeds of Falun Dafa practitioners in my prison cell that embodied Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance that touched my heart and gave me a new hope in life." A Dafa practitioner that was released from this detention facility managed to take this letter to her old boss. Then a miracle happened. Three days later she was released from jail. All the inmates in our cell were shocked. After all, they witnessed with their own eyes that someone who treated Dafa practitioners with kindness was indeed rewarded immensely. The inmates in our cell mumbled, "Falun Dafa has truly shown its power to us!" Since then they have improved their attitude towards Dafa practitioners.
We selected another inmate who had a correct understanding of Falun Dafa to become our new head. She made it possible for us to study the Fa and send forth righteous thoughts in our cell. Sometimes she would even join us in memorizing and reciting the Fa. More and more inmates in our cell began to have a clearer main consciousness. Even a murderer started to form righteous thoughts and told us that she would most certainly study the Fa and practice Falun Gong if she could get out of jail alive. Because she had positioned herself correctly in her attitude towards Falun Dafa, she did not get a death sentence, but instead got a much lighter sentence. (After I was released from jail, I paid her family a visit. Her husband accepted the truth about Falun Dafa wholeheartedly.) There was another inmate that constantly called Falun Dafa practitioners names and bullied everyone in our cell. One day she was suddenly ill and overcome with pain. While she was in tears because of the pain, some of the inmates celebrated her tribulation. Everyone ignored her. Although she had bullied me as much as she had bullied other Dafa practitioners in our cell, I still treated her with compassion. I asked a guard for some hot water to warm her stomach and comforted her with kind words. For the following days I looked after her day and night, which finally touched her heart. I said to her, "It is my Teacher and Falun Dafa that has taught me to treat you like this. If you must thank someone, thank my compassionate Teacher and Falun Dafa." When she felt better, she expressed her wish to learn Falun Gong. I managed to avoid the surveillance camera and taught her to practice Falun Gong.
There are so many stories that had happened in our cell, I cannot tell each of them here. What had happened in our cell was exactly like what Teacher had said, "The Buddha-light illuminates everywhere and rectifies all abnormalities." (From "Energy Field" in Lecture Three of Zhuan Falun.) The profoundness and compassion of Falun Dafa is indeed saving all sentient beings. Dafa practitioners' speeches and actions of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance have validated the Fa in so many places and so many ways.
III. Take the Fa as Teacher and Deny the Evil
Although we continued to validate the Fa in the detention center and have successfully improved the environment, it was not our goal to improve the detention facility. Our goal as Dafa practitioners was to eliminate the evil and walk out of the detention facility. Teacher wrote in "Rationality", "Some students suggest that the best practice of cultivation is to get placed into a detention center or a labor camp, or get sentenced to jail in order to validate the Fa. Students, it is not so. Stepping forward to validate the Fa using many different approaches is a magnificent act, but this absolutely does not mean that you have to be arrested by the evil." Minghui editors said in an article on August 2000, "Prisons are evil places used by malicious forces to suppress Dafa and sabotage the cultivation practice of Dafa disciples. The police vans are not the Law boat, the prisons are not temples, the labor camps are not the environment for cultivation, and even less are these the necessary formalities that Dafa disciples should rely on to make progress." (From "The Purpose of Stepping Forward is to Validate Dafa.")
Thus we realized that we must send forth righteous thoughts to break through the restraints set by the evil old forces. We must not stay on the road the evil old forces had arranged, or stay in the detention centers or forced labor camps. We must return to the society in a righteous way and finish the profound wishes that we made before the history of mankind to help Teacher rectify the Fa and offer sentient beings salvation. Hence, we started to send forth righteous thoughts on every set hour every day to eliminate the evil old forces and to break through their arrangements. We were determined to walk only the road of cultivation that our Teacher had arranged for us. Neither my family nor I had written or signed anything that the scoundrel police had demanded, but I was released unconditionally several months later. My steadfast belief in Falun Dafa exemplified in my speech and actions had won the admiration as well as praises from the police at the detention center.
After I was released from jail, I resumed Fa-rectification work. I utilized the strengths of my living environment and continued to clarify the truth about Falun Dafa in an open, righteous way. Every time I saw a sentient being learning the truth about Falun Dafa and thus coming to his senses, I felt immensely gratified. I could have validated the Fa better in retrospect, so I shall take the Fa as Teacher and continue to improve myself in order to become a qualified guardian of the cosmos that has completely fulfilled what Teacher and Falun Dafa requires of me.
This concludes my humble understanding of the Fa at my current cultivation level. Please kindly correct anything erroneous.
