(Clearwisdom.net)
Beginning Cultivation Practice
I'm an ordinary farmer. I remember when I was a child, I often suffered with lower back pain. After I got married, my back pain became so severe that I had difficulty even bending over to pick things up. I went to a county hospital, where I was diagnosed with congenital bone hyperplasia. The doctor suggested that I have an operation, but warned me that if the operation were unsuccessful, I would be paralyzed. If the symptoms kept developing, pressure would continue to be placed on the nerves, and my lower limbs would become paralyzed. My feelings when heard this diagnosis cannot be described! Because I was financially unprepared to manage such a large fee and the outcome was not optimistic anyway, in the end, I decided to resign myself to fate.
At that time, somebody suggested that I practice Falun Gong. I remembered that someone had introduced Falun Gong to me two years before, saying that it had a miraculous effect on healing illnesses and that practitioners were required to cultivate their characters based on Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. I thought of trying it out of curiosity. It was after the 1999 Chinese New Year.
Within a week after I began practicing Falun Gong, I experienced a tremendous change in my body. It seemed that a huge heavy object was removed from my back that always used to be sore, hard and heavy. My legs that used to be sore and numb now felt incomparably light. I was really emotional in those days.
From then on, I strictly followed Master's teachings in Zhuan Falun. I looked inward to find my own shortcomings when I encountered anything and was considerate of others. I conducted myself according to Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. From then on I no longer felt back pain, whether I worked in the field or did anything else. I truly experienced how beautiful Dafa is.
Subjected to Persecution
It was July 1999 when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) suddenly banned Falun Gong. I was extremely sad and puzzled. How could this happen? How wonderful Falun Gong was! Practitioners not only had their illnesses cured, but also cultivated their characters to become good people. How good this was for our country! I thought, "Is it because the CCP does not understand the situation? I've benefited greatly from the practice, so I should explain the situation to the appropriate departments."
Thus, I traveled to Beijing on July 6, 2001, to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. I sat on Tiananmen Square to do the fifth exercise. As soon as I sat down, I felt a powerful energy field, sacred and solemn. After a short while, somebody grabbed my shoulder. I opened my eyes and saw two plainclothes policemen. They took me to a nearby police station where I was locked in a room with metal bars. Many others were inside, and they spoke with different accents. Just as had happened to me, after practicing Falun Gong, they became good people and had many illnesses cured. They had also traveled to Beijing to explain the situation to the authorities.
We were transferred to a big detention center, and then sent to the Harbin Liaison Office in Beijing. That evening, Beijing won the bid to host the [2008] Olympics, and two young guards could not go out to join the carnival-like celebration because they had to watch me. They were so angry that they verbally abused me.
I was then held at the Tonghe Detention Center. I thought I should not arbitrarily be detained here, so I went on a hunger strike. Li Weimin, head of the detention center, slapped my face. The guards put shackles on me and drove me to the county hospital to force feed me. After they restrained my hands and feet with handcuffs and shackles, two female doctors inserted a tube into my nostril, but the tube was pushed into my trachea. I struggled. A doctor hurriedly pulled out the tube and reinserted it. They fed me with saline solution and milk. Another practitioner, Li Chunxiang, was also force-fed. They jammed the tube into her so hard that her face was covered in blood. They used this form of torture on her until she was almost suffocated to death. One day when I was getting ready to sleep, Teng Zhenxin, the head of the detention center who was drunk, came into my cell. He verbally abused me and instructed a male criminal to handcuff my hands and hang me up on the metal fence. I was not released from this torture until the next day. Afterwards I was unable to move my arms.
I did not break any law, nor did I harm anybody, but I was sent to Wanjia Forced Labor Camp for a year in August 2001. After I returned home I learned that my family had been forced to pay 7,000 yuan to cover the travel expenses of the people that had gone to Beijing to catch me. My mother was unable to bear the traumatic impact and pressure of everything that had been done to me and fell ill. She passed away four days later.
When I was in my mother's home, agents from the county 610 Office and the county head, Ding Guozhu, drove out to my home every day to harass me. One day, so many people came that they packed the room. They attempted to force me to write a "guarantee statement" not to practice Falun Gong. They also threatened to arrest me if I refused to write it.
I was upset. Where should I go? I could not just wait at home for them to return and arrest me. I had to go to Beijing again to voice my grievance. I felt bad about leaving my husband and child, with whom I had just recently been reunited, but I believed that the heavenly principles were fair and just. On my trip to Beijing, the Mudanjiang train police arrested me. Three plainclothes officers interrogated me at the Zhanqian Police Station in Harbin. They demanded that I tell them the names and addresses of those that traveled with me. However, I had traveled alone, and I did not carry anything with me. Because I did not say anything, they brought in a picture of Master and tried to make me step on it. I refused to step on the picture of my beloved Master. Next, they brought in a wire with one end connected to a power supply and placed it close to my nose, saying, "If you don't answer, we'll shock you." I remained very calm and did not say anything.
They took me to Harbin No.2 Detention Center in Yaziquan. An officer from the Tonghe Police Department came several days later and recognized me. I was then taken back to the Tonghe Detention Center. They wanted to take my fingerprints, but I refused to cooperate. They put shackles on me, rubbing the skin on my ankles raw. The pain was unbearable, and I had difficulty walking. I staged a hunger strike to protest the mistreatment. Li Weimin, head of the detention center, instructed several male criminals to tie me up on a table and force feed me. This time I was sentenced to three years in a forced labor camp. All their so-called evidence against me had been falsified.
On the first day when I arrived at the labor camp, a criminal named Li Changjie slapped my face twice, because it was the second time I was incarcerated there. All the practitioners who were detained there refused to curse Master and Dafa. We were forced to squat from morning to midnight, and we could not move a bit. Some practitioners were forced to squat for an even longer time. We were often made to do high-intensity labor. Once we worked overtime until1:00 a.m. the next day. There were also so-called "examinations." All the questions on the answer sheet slandered Master and Dafa, so we refused to cooperate and did not write any answers to those questions. I was hung between two bunk beds, with each hand cuffed to a bed. The handcuffs were locked on my wrists too tightly, and my feet were suspended above the ground. The perpetrators shocked my face and neck with two electric batons and then they ordered two criminals to push the two beds in opposite directions. That pain was truly unbearable. All the gross abuse and mistreatment were aimed at making me comply with their demand to give up my cultivation practice.
Every genuine practitioner has a story. I sincerely hope that those who have not learned the facts about Falun Gong and the persecution can learn the truth and be safe.
Written on October 20, 2009
