(Clearwisdom.net) I am 57 years old. I had previously suffered from over 20 illnesses. Since I started practicing Falun Dafa in April of 1997, within less than one month all my illnesses disappeared. I never attended school so I am illiterate. After practicing Falun Dafa, gradually I could read the entire book Zhuan Falun (1). When the persecution began in July 1999, I went to the Provincial Government and to Beijing several times to appeal for Falun Dafa. Each time, however, I was illegally arrested and held before reaching the Appeals Office (2). I was fined a total of 30,000 yuan (3). Since there was no avenue left for me to appeal, I started my journey of steadfastly clarifying the truth of Falun Dafa and the persecution to people ever since. The following is an account of some of my experiences on this path.
1. Posting Truth-Clarification Messages in Public Places Within a Thirty Mile Radius of My Home
In the beginning, I took a bus to a city over 25 miles away from my home to get truth-clarification materials. Later, as not many truth-telling materials were available, I followed Teacher's teaching, "So in clarifying the truth, don't wait, don't rely on others, and don't just hope for changes in external factors." ("To All Students at the Nordic Fa Conference" of Essentials for Further Advancement II) I bought a brush pen and some red paper. I copied the styling of characters from books to write, "Falun Dafa is great," "Falun Dafa is a righteous way," etc., and placed the posters on my bed and on the floor so that I could make them double-sided with glue strips. I then went out to post them on streets and lanes. Since these posters are easily destroyed, I bought spray cans of paint to make more signs (4). One bottle of spray paint could make 13 to 23 signs. As of today, I have bought over 500 spray paint cans, many of which I have given to fellow practitioners. Most of the signs I have made are still there. There were only a few damaged where I had sprayed them on major streets. I did a touch up on these. Therefore, many truth-clarification notices I had sprayed were found on the streets and lanes within a distance of about 30 miles from my home. I usually sprayed the signs during the daytime. Sometimes, people even walked by me while I was making a sign. I would smile and I would quickly finish the work while I was talking to the person. Then, based upon his or her response, I would tell the person the truth about Falun Gong. Most people were receptive to what I said. There were some people who read the signs and exclaimed, "This elderly lady can write so well!" I would then take the opportunity to tell the person, "This is the wisdom bestowed upon me by Dafa. I was illiterate before. After I started practicing Falun Gong, I could read all of Zhuan Falun. I not only can read and write now, I have also become a healthy person -- all my illnesses are gone." Sometimes, a person would approach me from behind in a huff, asking, "Are you the one that wrote the Falun Dafa sign on my wall?" I understood that this person came to learn the truth, so I would peacefully ask them, "What was written on your wall?" "Falun Dafa is great" and "Falun Buddha Law saves people," was the reply. I would then say, "That is good for you! Your cherishing Buddha Law will bring blessings to your family!" I took the opportunity to tell them the truth about Falun Dafa. After learning the truth, they left satisfied.
2. I Openly Tear Down Pictures Defaming Dafa
In October of 2001, I heard from a fellow practitioner that there were some pictures displayed on one street defaming Dafa. Thus, we sent righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil behind the negative images before going there. There were many people already at the scene. I quickly went to the front of the crowd to tear down the pictures while telling them, "All these are deceiving you. You cannot look at them. I had previously suffered from all sorts of diseases, and within only one month after I started practicing Dafa, they all disappeared. Falun Dafa is the true Buddha Law that saves people. If anyone defames Dafa, he or she will receive retribution. Jiang Zemin and his followers are deceiving people by incriminating Falun Gong practitioners with lies and distorted stories. In the future, remember not to watch such false stuff. Don't believe the lies broadcast on television." Since many people in the countryside believe in Buddha, they thus left. Another practitioner and I tore down all the pictures and tossed them on the ground and quickly left. We went to the city and shared experiences with practitioners there. They informed more practitioners to send righteous thoughts for us. In the afternoon, we went back to our town. We informed all the practitioners in our town to send righteous thoughts for an extended period to completely destroy the pictures. That same day, the pictures were destroyed in a fire by a street cleaner. With Teacher safeguarding us, no one said a word about it afterwards.
3. Explaining the Facts to Family Members and Relatives
Not only do I tell the facts of Falun Gong to my family members and relatives, I also let them know how to help Falun Dafa practitioners spread the truth, which will bring them blessings. Therefore, not only were they happy to listen to me, they also invited me to their homes to explain the truth and to distribute truth-clarification materials. There was a relative who was over 60 years old in my hometown. She became paralyzed and has been bedridden for three years now. I wrote "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance" and "Falun Dafa is great" on the wall of her home. She asked her husband to teach her how to read them. Within less than a month, she was able to walk without using crutches. News of this spread throughout her local area. Besides explaining the facts to adults, I also explained the truth to children. My 12-year-old grandson came to visit me when he was on vacation. He helped me to mail truth-clarification letters and post truth-clarification stickers.
4. Explaining the Truth of Falun Gong to Police and Officials in Charge of Falun Gong Matters
Since government officials are directly involved in persecuting Falun Gong and they are also relatively more influential, I especially paid attention to clarifying the truth of Falun Gong to them. I sent truth-clarification materials to them and also directly explain the truth face-to-face. After 2001, I often found chances to explain the truth to the head of our township. Once, the head of our township was sitting in front of a house relaxing. When he saw me, he said, "Come here and tell us more about Falun Gong." I thus started talking, from the changes I experienced in my health, to how Falun Dafa is spread over the world, the truth of the Tiananmen Square Self-Immolation, as well as the persecution of Falun Gong in China. They were all absorbed in listening to the truth. The head of our town added, "Falun Gong is really miraculous. There were many mosquitoes here biting us a while ago. Now that we are listening to her telling us the truth, the mosquitoes are gone."
After that, whenever there was a chance, I would take the initiative to tell them the facts of Falun Gong. After the township head had learned the truth, he said, "Falun Gong practitioners are all good people. Why do we have to monitor them? We should turn our attention to crimes like killing, stealing, robbing, and gambling." He later handed in his resignation to his superiors, asking to be discharge from his duties to avoid persecuting Falun Gong. He switched his job to supervising road construction. When the new head took the post in our township, I often mailed truth-clarification materials to him. Now, many township officials smile to me when we meet. They say, "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance; Falun Dafa is great. I know that." The head of our police station and other police officers are special targets in my truth-clarification efforts. When they learned the truth, they did not interfere in our group study sessions and group practice at my home. They told us directly, "If you want to practice, you can do it at home. If you want to paint signs, it is okay as long as you write them at the locations that draw less attention away from the major streets. Otherwise, we cannot explain to the higher authorities. A sign reading, "Hold Public Trials Throughout the World to Bring Jiang Zemin to Justice" is still on the wall of a police station where it was written.
In the past few years of truth clarification endeavors, I did encounter many difficulties. However, with the protection of Teacher, I was able to safely go through them.
5. Using Wisdom to Distribute Truth-Clarification VCDs
Truth-clarification VCDs are relatively expensive. Our local residents are mostly farmers and most of them don't have a VCD player. If a VCD is sent out but no one can view it, it won't save people. Therefore, I would first tell people the facts about Falun Gong. If the person indicated that they were willing to watch the VCD, I would give him or her a copy. Also, I would place a sticker on the cover of a VCD and place it at a public place. Someone wishing to watch it could come to take it. Once, I explained the facts of Falun Dafa to a former neighbor of mine. She told me that she had heard the truth and also told me the following story: "I had a neighbor who went out to buy fish and saw a VCD stuck on a electric pole and took it home. He didn't have a VCD player so he came to my place to view it. Both our families watched the VCD together and so we all know that Falun Gong is something good. After we watched it, we placed it back on the electric pole. Later, we found someone else took it."
6. Everyone I Meet Is Someone I Clarify the Truth
When I was explaining the truth to people, I would speak to anyone I met. Everyone I met became the focus of my clarifying the truth. Once, I met an elderly lady in her 60s who carried a bundle of sweet potato vines. She looked like she was struggling. So I walked up to her and helped her to split the vines into two smaller bundles. I found a wooden stick to carry the vines and shouldered the vines for her. I told her the facts of Falun Gong while carrying the vines for her. We walked a long distance and she understood that Falun Dafa was something good. She repeatedly said "Thank you," while we said good-bye. I told her, "I did this for you because Falun Dafa teaches me to be a good person." Later, when I was on a truth-clarifying trip, I unintentionally went by her village and met her again. She held my hands and told everyone she met saying, "This is the Falun Gong sister I talked about who was helping me to carry sweet potato vines." When I explained the facts to the villagers, they all were happy to listen to me. They told me, "Since this elderly lady met you, she has told everyone of the goodness of Falun Gong practitioners. Therefore, we all understood that those were lies broadcast on television."
Besides going out by myself to explain the facts, I also cooperated with fellow practitioners. Sometimes, two to four of us, or even a bigger group of practitioners would go out together. That way, a larger amount of people all can learn the truth. Someone made a joke to us saying, "The Falun Gong truth-clarification brigade has launched off." We usually cooperated with each other very well. Some of us would explain the facts, some would send forth righteous thoughts, and the others would write truth-clarification messages. Sometimes, practitioners from other regions came to our area to clarify the truth, and they met many people that told them, "We already know Falun Dafa is good."
Besides truth-clarification, I also paid attention to Fa study and sending forth righteous thoughts. I basically arrange my time this way: I get up at 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. in the morning to study two to three lectures of Zhuan Falun. At 7 a.m., I start doing housework, during which time I use slots of spare time to read Teacher's scriptures and recent lectures, as well as "Clearwisdom weekly." In the afternoon and occasionally at night, I go out to do truth-clarification. It didn't matter whether it was raining or snowing, I usually went out every day to tell the facts to people. Sometimes, I would go out every other day. I would make an effort to come back before 6:00 p.m. so that I could do the global sending forth righteous thoughts with practitioners worldwide. Sometimes, I would walk more than ten hours to explain the truth to people. In the beginning, my hipbone was very painful. Afterwards, I could walk for over ten hours and still felt very good. I did the five sets of exercises at night. Each day, I would send righteous thoughts 8 to 10 times on the hour.
7. I Resist Brainwashing Class with Righteous Thoughts
One day in mid-November last year, the head of the provincial "610 Office" (5), the head of the county "610 Office," the new head of our town, and the head of my son's company came to my home to send me to a brainwashing session held by the province. I continuously told them the facts of Falun Gong. I questioned them, "I just want to follow the principles of 'Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance' in order to become a good person. Do you want to transform me into a bad person?" Meanwhile, I kept sending forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil behind them. It was over 40 minutes before they left. They claimed that they would come back the next day. I thus left home for several days and also kept sending forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil that wanted to persecute me. Later, I openly returned home. Afterwards, I learned that several months earlier the officials in the province informed the head of our town to send me to a brainwashing session. They said in ignorance that if they could transform me, then all the other practitioners here would all be transformed. This time, the authorities personally came to my home. Before that, they went to my local police station to ask them to abduct me. The police station avoided the order with various excuses. The police there asked them to find the local government officials. Thus, they found the head of our town. Their efforts met my resistance. The head of our town told them, "They are now staying at home and are very good people. Why do you want to trouble them? If they get upset, they will go to Beijing one by one. That will really be trouble for you." In the end, the effort to take me to a brainwashing session ended in vain.
May 30, 2004
(1) Zhuan Falun, the main book of Falun Gong.
(2) Appeals Office: a governmental agency which is guaranteed by the Chinese constitution by which citizens can resort to for their grievances or report if their local officials have handled their cases improperly.
(3) Yuan is the unit of currency in China, where the average monthly salary of an urban worker is 500 yuan.
(4) With access to all normal means of communication such as newspapers, magazines, TV and radio denied to them, Falun Gong practitioners have resorted to many creative and sometimes unusual methods for clarifying the true facts about the persecution of Falun Gong to the Chinese people.
(5) The "610 Office" is 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.
