With the Fa in My Heart, I Walked Out of a Brainwashing Center with Dignity

(Minghui.org) I am a Falun Dafa practitioner in China. I have been illegally detained several times during the heinous persecution against Falun Dafa over the past 22 years. But I managed to get through them every time thanks to Master Li’s (Falun Dafa’s founder) protection and strengthening. The following is one example of how I survived that I’d like to share with my fellow practitioners.

Getting Arrested

I was sending righteous thoughts outside the courtroom where a practitioner was having an illegal trial at 3 p.m. on May 10, 2017. I was arrested and taken to a brainwashing center.

Seven or eight young men and women in their 20s and 30s tried to "transform" me. When I was brought into a room, one man told me with a smile on his face, “Don’t get nervous or irritated. There’s not a problem. We just want to have a talk with you.”

Several groups of two talked to me one after another. They asked how many people there were in my family and what crops I planted in my field. I knew they were trying to find some weakness to exploit to "transform" me. They wanted to use my family members to move me and to see if I was eager to go home to harvest the crops.

I told them, “My husband and two children are at home. We don’t grow canola or wheat.” What I said was true and I hoped to stop their malicious thoughts.

They were divided into four teams and talked to me in turn. One woman said to me, “You can go home tomorrow after you write the three statements.” She showed me a sample of the three statements and said, “This one was written yesterday. The person who wrote this was released today. You can copy it.”

“I will never write it,” I replied. “I cultivate Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance and try to be a good person. In which way do you want me to be 'transformed?'”

They called me into the hall to watch TV at 7 p.m. I told them I would not go because I was not interested in watching TV and I hadn’t watched TV for many years. One man said to me, “If you don’t want to watch, you can just sit there and recite your scriptures.” He seemed reasonable, so I followed his lead.

They were playing DVDs that slandered Dafa. I sat there sending forth righteous thoughts and recited the Fa.

Master told us,

“The Fa can break all attachments; the Fa can destroy all evil; the Fa can shatter all lies; and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts.” (“Drive Out Interference,” The Essentials of Diligent Progress II)

Not Writing the Three Statements

They let me go back to my room at about 10 p.m. Then 11 people came and asked me to write the three statements. I didn’t cooperate with them. They didn’t leave until 1 a.m.

The following day, they played DVDs that slandered Falun Dafa all day. They talked to me once in the morning and once in the afternoon. I took those two opportunities to clarify the truth about Falun Dafa to them.

I said, “You work here and watch the DVDs all the time. You think what’s on the DVDs are facts. The CCTV program ‘Focus Report’ is regarded as ‘Focus Lies’ in the international community. It is used to deceive people nationwide. In the staged Tiananmen self-immolation incident, Wang Jindong didn’t do the basic jieyin hand gesture correctly. Is it possible that a genuine Falun Dafa practitioner didn’t do this correctly? His face was burned but the big green Sprite plastic bottle wasn’t damaged at all. How is it possible?”

They said that Falun Dafa was a [slanderous words omitted]. Falun Dafa teaches people to speak the truth, to be kind to people, and to forbear in conflicts. Isn’t it good?” They left in disappointment.

Director’s Wife Tried to "Transform" Me

The wife of the director of the brainwashing center came to talk to me with several other people in the evening. I greeted them warmly and asked them to sit down. She said to me, “You can believe in Christianity, Catholicism, or Buddhism. Why do you believe in Falun Dafa? The government doesn’t allow us to practice Falun Dafa.”

I told them, “Falun Dafa is an advanced way that elevates its practitioners to a high level. In our village people believe in Christianity, Catholicism, and Buddhism, but only we Falun Dafa practitioners are healthy. Some practitioners in their seventies or eighties haven’t taken medicine for ten or twenty years. I have practiced Falun Dafa for seven years and I haven’t needed to take any medication.”

“When I was pregnant with my son, I was in poor health and was sleepy all the time. My mother-in-law thought I was lazy and was not happy. She gave all her property to her eldest son. They gave us three bags of wheat, half a bag of canola, and 3,000 yuan in debt. She moved out to live by herself.”

“My husband and I took the baby stroller to the field when my child still couldn’t walk. We put him in the stroller while we worked the field. When he was sleepy, I put him on a shelf car to sleep on. When he sat in the stroller for a long time, he became restless and cried his eyes out. He grew up like this. My grudge towards my mother-in-law became deeper and deeper.

“My mother-in-law injured her spine in an accident two years before she passed away and was hospitalized for more than 20 days. My younger son was only one-year-old, so I had to look after him. My husband took care of his mother in the hospital and paid more than ten thousand yuan in medical expenses for her.

“If I didn’t practice Falun Dafa, I wouldn’t have let my husband look after his mother. She gave all her property to her eldest son. Now she was hospitalized but her eldest son didn’t come to look after her and didn’t help to pay any of her medical expenses. He went to work every day. If I didn’t follow Falun Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, I would have quarreled with my husband.

“Nowadays people only know that Christianity is not suppressed and Jesus is a god. Jesus was crucified, but people don’t know why he was crucified. It was the persecution of a god by humans. The ancient Roman Empire sent people to set fire to the palace and then blamed the Christians. They said that the Christians burned the palace. They crucified Jesus.

“You see, what was the difference between the deeds of the Roman Empire and the staged Tiananmen self-immolation? Aren’t they similar?”

The director’s wife didn’t say anything, stood up, and left. When I was talking to her, several people were listening to me outside the window.

Party Secretary Tried to "Transform" Me

The Party Secretary came to me one week later and asked me how I felt after I watched the DVDs. I told him that I didn’t feel anything because I didn’t listen to them at all. He asked why I didn’t listen to them.

I said to him, “My mind is full of Falun Dafa’s teachings and doesn’t have space for anything from the DVDs. Some Falun Dafa practitioners have memorized the whole book of Zhuan Falun. I haven’t memorized it yet, but I know clearly that Falun Dafa is good. I used to have a bad temper and fought with my mother-in-law all the time. I fought with my husband and wanted to get divorced. After I started to practice Falun Dafa, I followed its principles and started to put up with them. Our Master tells us to look within, so I started to look for my own issues. Gradually, I could see my husband’s merits. My family became harmonious.”

He sat there listening to me quietly.

I told them that I would definitely not write the three statements. They said that I would not be able to go home if I didn’t. I told them that I wouldn’t write them even if I couldn’t go home. They asked me why I didn’t because others did.

I said, “Every person has his/her own understanding. My understanding is that I will not write them. Cultivation is not ‘jumping on the bandwagon.’ If 99 out of 100 people wrote the three statements, I would be the one who didn’t write them.”

“You can pick up the practice again after you have written them,” they said. “We will not follow you and monitor you 24 hours a day.”

I replied, “I can cheat people, but can I deceive gods? Other people might have another chance to learn Falun Dafa again though they wrote them. Would I have another chance? No, I have cultivated very hard this time already.”

At that moment Master’s Fa appeared in my mind:

“I know all of the suffering of my disciples. The truth is, I treasure you more than you treasure yourselves!” (“Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s),” The Essentials of Diligent Progress II)

That night they tried harder to "transform" me. They moved the speaker from the hallway to my room and put it in front of me. They turned the volume up all the way and played the contents that slandered Falun Dafa. They went back to the hallway. I sat on the bed and recited the Fa calmly.

“...Looking, but caring not to see---Free of delusion and doubt.Listening, but caring not to hear---A mind so hard to disturb....”(“Abiding in the Dao,” Hong Yin)

The words on the DVDs didn’t enter my mind. They didn’t turn off the speakers until midnight.

They moved the speakers back to the hallway several days later after they discovered that they didn’t achieve their goal. They didn’t let me sit on the sofa in the hallway, but on a small stool instead. So, I sat on the stool upright and recited the Fa. They thought that I would not be able to bear it and would write the three statements. They realized that I was getting more energetic on the stool. They even stopped watching me. They used to stay with me for over ten hours a day when they wanted me to watch the DVDs. They became exhausted and took turns watching me. They were laying on the sofa and playing with their cellphones. The director told them to play only one DVD a day repeatedly. The more than 10 days of brainwashing class didn’t affect me at all.

Using Other People to Try to "Transform" Me

One day a man in his 40s came. He said that he would send an email to my child’s school and ask my child to come to talk to me. I told him that nobody could change me, not even my husband. He then suggested that I jog or dance in the square to achieve a healthy body. I told him that only by cultivating oneself could a person have good health, not just by doing exercises. He couldn’t persuade me and left.

One night a man and a woman came to talk to me. The woman said that Falun Dafa practitioners accused Jiang Zemin of many crimes, but she respected him.

I said to her, “You don’t know how inhuman he is. He launched the campaign to persecute Falun Dafa practitioners. Practitioners are illegally detained, sentenced, and tortured by over a hundred methods. Organs are harvested from living Falun Dafa practitioners. Many lawyers defended practitioners. On the day I was sent here, one lawyer pleaded not guilty for a practitioner in a trial.”

She smiled and said that she attended the court hearing.

They told me to watch the DVD after they talked to me. It was obvious that they only followed formalities now. The young man gave me a glass of water in between. He was rude and cursed at me when I refused to write the three statements on the third day I came in. I guessed that he apologized by giving me a glass of water.

The next day the woman came to see me. She smiled and said, “I don’t know what to say to you.” She no longer returned and I heard that she resigned.

The chief of the brainwashing center came that afternoon. I was sitting in the hall. He sat down and told me, “If you continue fighting, you will not have any meals to eat. I will go home and work on my field in a couple of days.”

I replied, “If you practiced Falun Dafa, you would know that I shouldn’t write the three statements. Many practitioners were beaten to death because they didn’t write the three statements. They used to suffer all kinds of diseases but completely recovered after they practiced Falun Dafa. They tried to be a good person and even a better person according to the principles of Falun Dafa. Only we practitioners know the best the physical and mental changes Falun Dafa has brought to us. I only walk on the path my master has arranged for me. If Falun Dafa requires me to cultivate in here for twenty or thirty more years, I will stay here for twenty or thirty more years. By then I will be in my 70s. You will be in your 80s.”

The chief said that I was hopeless.

The security chief came in the evening. He said to me amicably, “You have been here for quite some time. Please write down your experience here.”

He gave me a piece of paper and a pen. I wrote “Falun Dafa is good!” and handed the paper to him. He looked at it and asked me, “Do you think you can go home after writing this?” I replied, “Yes, I might go home.” I knew that I would go home if I had reached the standard of the Fa.

He left with the paper in his hand. It was very quiet the next day. No one spoke or came to talk to me. The director came in after 9 a.m. He was not happy and said, “I asked you to write your thoughts, but you wrote those words instead.”

“Yes, that’s my genuine thought,” I replied. “And that’s what I want to say. You just handed in that piece of paper and you have finished your task.”

“Though you wrote what you thought, do you think I can hand it in and finish my task? You cultivate Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Where is your compassion? Can you show your compassion, OK?” he said.

My heart didn’t get moved. They couldn’t go home until 11 p.m. if I didn’t write the three statements. Normally they finished work at 6 p.m. The problem was with them, not me. They persecuted me. I knew his nature was not evil. I clarified the truth to him before. One day he said to me, “Some practitioners were going to be sent here. I stopped them. People are busy this season. It won’t work if people get stuck here.” I knew he didn’t want to do evil. He left after he vented his anger.

After that day no one came to talk to me or monitor me while the DVDs were played.

A woman asked a man to take over "transforming" me. I clarified the truth to the man several times. When he came in at 7 a.m. two days ago, the loudspeaker was playing songs praising the CCP. He sighed and said, “It is chanting CCP and CCP every day.”

Going Home

I was called in to watch the DVD again after I finished breakfast on June 5, 2017. I said to Master in my heart, “Master, if there are still sentient beings to be saved here, please arrange for them to come here. If there are none, can you please arrange for me to leave here? This is not a place where I should stay. I have yet to complete my mission.”

At about 10 a.m., an official from the county judicial department and the Party secretary came to the “transform” room. The director of the brainwashing center followed them. After a while, the woman who was in charge of playing the DVD shouted that I could pack up my things.

It came so suddenly and didn’t sink in. I was wondering if I could go home or would be sent elsewhere. The car drove me towards my home.

When I came home, I reviewed what had happened. If Falun Dafa didn’t unlock my wisdom, how could I deal with so many people who talked with me over those three weeks? Thanks to Master’s protection, I came home without writing the three statements. As long as I comply with the Fa’s principles, Master will have the final say.

With the progress of the Fa-rectification, the evil factors in other dimensions have become fewer and fewer. People here are not as bad as before. The real reason that we don’t do well is because of our attachments, not the evil’s persecution.

We are at the last stage of the Fa-rectification. We shouldn’t tarnish our cultivation due to fear and attachments. We shouldn’t become fearful in the face of persecution.

Clarifying the truth well can save sentient beings. It is also the best way to save ourselves.

The above is my understanding at my level. Please point out anything inappropriate.