(Clearwisdom.net) Teacher has written the following words:
"A Dafa disciple completely opposes everything arranged by the evil old forces. Clarify the truth thoroughly, eliminate the evil with righteous thoughts, save all beings, and safeguard the Fa with determination, because you are a part of Dafa, indestructible; rectify all that is not righteous. Those who are 'reformed' and those who are being saved can only be beings who were deceived by the evil. Those who are being eliminated are the evil beings and the evil old forces. Those who are reaching Consummation through all this are Dafa disciples; and through all this Dafa's mighty virtue is established."
(From "Dafa is Indestructible" in Essentials for Further Advancement II)
My father had been plagued with illnesses before he practiced Falun Gong. He spent months in bed every year, and took medicine the whole year round. However, after practicing Falun Gong, he became a completely changed person. He had definitely benefited from Falun Dafa. Hence, after the persecution of Falun Gong started on July 20, 1999, all the rumors and suppression did not shake his steadfast belief and his will to practice Falun Dafa.
One night at midnight, a number of policemen rushed into our house, unlawfully searched our home and arrested my father. They detained him for a day and night. He was then sent to a detention center where he was persecuted for several months. When the police could not achieve their aim of forcing him to renounce Falun Dafa, they transferred my father to a forced labor camp. When he was sent there, the police thought they would severely reprimand him, saying, "Practicing the exercises is strictly forbidden here. You are not willing to change your ways? We have methods to make you change! At this location, coercion can also change the hearts of people, and we are not afraid of our bodies and souls being completely annihilated!" How wicked they were! My father steadfastly replied, "Your theories will not affect me. I know for a fact that coercion cannot change people's hearts."
For the next twenty days or so, they spent more than ten hours a day trying to force my father to renounce Falun Dafa. Initially there were three people, then four, five and finally six persons working together to deal with my father. They started by trying to be kind to him, then they tried to deceive him and mislead him. Finally, they followed by applying pressure and using threats. My father said to them, "We are not against anybody, and even less are we about trying to topple any government. Neither are we thinking of seizing power. We only wish to be given back our right to practice Falun Gong. We have been doing that in accordance with the Chinese Constitution, which guarantees freedom of belief, freedom of speech, freedom of publication, and freedom of association. I am also a citizen!" Though the policemen were very fierce, my father remembered what our venerable Teacher said: "Those who do the so-called 'reform' work, too, are people who have been deceived. Why not turn the tables and expose the evil and clarify the truth to them?" (from "A Suggestion" in Essentials for Further Advancement II). So he carefully clarified the facts about the rumors and slander to them. When the policemen found that they were not getting anywhere, they changed their tactics. They confined my father to a small room that isolated him from the rest of the world and he was guarded at all times and not allowed to leave the room.
I remember that after my father was detained, the first occasion that I saw him was at the end of April, when all the detainees were out working in the field. Formerly, when we walked from afar towards those people working there, the policemen would not let us go near. On this occasion, we had a difficult time arranging to visit him, and were still not allowed to see him. We asked why and were told, "He refuses to change." We then asked, "Which article of the law forbids family members from seeing a prisoner?" The policemen unreasonably replied, "That is none of your business!" We continued to reason with them and spent more than an hour doing so. Finally, they told my father to come forward. The policemen were there to supervise and listen to our conversation. After only about twenty minutes, they took him away.
While being treated inhumanely, my father never neglected to clarify the facts to the staff officers and policemen. He told them the facts about the situation of April 25, 1999 [when about ten thousand Dafa practitioners went to the government officials compound in Beijing to peacefully appeal]; he talked about the facts of the self-immolation [at Tiananmen Square], and told them about what Teacher had taught us. Gradually, some of the policemen began to change their attitude towards Dafa and eventually said, "You are all kindhearted and compassionate people. You are all good people."
Besides physically tormenting Dafa practitioners, the perpetrators are also tormenting them mentally through sleep deprivation and by restricting their freedom. In any dormitory where there are Dafa practitioners, the lights are left on throughout the night. Two criminal inmates are ordered to supervise each Dafa practitioner to ensure they do not talk to each other. The criminal inmates were also incited to attack Dafa practitioners. Inmates that criticized Dafa practitioners received more marks on their record [inmates earning more marks are released earlier]. If any Dafa practitioner stood up to speak, he would have his mouth covered by those supervising him, or else all the other criminal inmates would start jeering to drown him out. Dafa practitioners are strictly not allowed to speak. They are also not allowed to speak in any meeting, but my father would still clarify the facts when a meeting was over. The policemen did not allow inmates of the forced labor camp to associate with any Dafa practitioner. They were under a coordinated system of reward points for reporting on Dafa practitioners, the purpose being to break the will of the practitioners.
My father has always been kind to others, and encouraged others to be kind as well. Even though the policemen would not allow the inmates to associate with any Dafa practitioner, many of them were willing to share dormitory space with practitioners. Among those criminals in the labor camp who were forced to monitor Dafa practitioners, many said that what they did was out of necessity, as they were "forced to do so by the authorities," and that they "hoped that they would be released earlier" for what they did. There were very few truly wicked people among the inmates in the forced labor camp.
Some of the inmates said, "Falun Gong is actually good, but the self-immolation and murders shown in the television broadcasts are really bad." My father was very patient in explaining to them about the television broadcasts being fabricated stories, and how they had been made up to deceive the public. Some of the inmates expressed their desire to refrain from drugs and said they would not commit any more crimes. While in the forced labor camp, my father was sent to various dormitories. In each of them there were inmates who expressed the wish that they wanted to learn Falun Gong. My father did not acknowledge the regulation of not being allowed to speak. Whenever he had an opportunity, he would speak up immediately, firmly grasping every opportunity to provide salvation to others.
Once, when my father walked into a dormitory, he saw the policemen searching the lockers, bags, beds and even doing body searches (which were done periodically). My father asked, "What are you looking for? You are turning everything upside down." "We are searching for jingwen [articles written by the founder of Falun Dafa]." "Jingwen? Yes, I have them!" The policeman demanded: "Where are they, hand them over." My father replied, "The jingwen are issued by the venerable Teacher to Dafa practitioners. They are for guidance in our cultivation, and such precious things cannot be simply given away, or even be placed just anywhere, but must be put in a very safe place!" The policeman shouted loudly: "Hand them over immediately!" My father replied, "Did you all not claim that you would not believe what you cannot see?" And he pointed to his own head saying, "The jingwen are in here, and even if you open up my head you will not see them, but they indeed exist, that is how great they are!"
