(Clearwisdom.net) In April and May of 2001, we were detained in the Strictly Monitored Group of Dalian City Forced Labor Camp in Liaoning Province. Every day there were three criminal inmates at the front of the room watching us intently and a newly installed video camera monitoring our every movement from above. Additionally, policemen would walk in from time to time to check on us. Under these circumstances, being even slightly inattentive meant getting beaten by the police or even being shocked with electric batons. The situation was unusual in its severity, so we all recited in our hearts Teacher's poem, "Tempering One's Mind and Heart:"
Achieving Buddha's fruit upon Consummation,
Hardship suffering treated as joy.
Physical suffering can hardly be counted as painful,
Cultivating one's heart is most excruciating.
Every pass must be broken through,
Everywhere are demons.
Hundreds of hardships drop at once,
To see how one lives.
With suffering in the world endured,
Leaving the world as a Buddha.
I also recited the verses of the exercises. One day I was reciting one of Teacher's lectures, when suddenly I noticed a bag falling from out behind a heater by the wall to the ground. I thought there might be Dafa books in the bag, so I mulled over how to reach it. But this was completely impossible with the video camera monitoring us from above and the three prisoners watching us just 2 or 3 steps away. I felt more and more anxious with each passing moment. If the guards found the bag, they would surely persecute us even more severely, and we would lose the precious books inside.
It was when my heart beat most furiously and my mind was most devoid of ideas that a fellow practitioner beside me whispered into my ear, "We must protect the books with our lives." I thought then that he had noticed that bag also.
Just as I began waiting for the right moment to approach the bag after committing my life to protecting it, I saw that two of the prisoners had left for the bathroom and the third one was taking a nap. I immediately seized the opportunity and hid the bag. The policeman from the control center then rushed into the room, but upon finding nothing out of the ordinary, he left. Later I asked the practitioner who had whispered to me earlier, "What did you see?" To my surprise, he answered that he did not see anything. Then I inquired, "Why did you tell me: ‘We must protect the Dafa books with our lives'?" He simply admitted he did not know why he said that. I realized then that it must have been Teacher who had him say that to me. The bag contained Teacher's publication, Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa.
2004-6-21
