(Minghui.org) I am 67 years old and started to practice Falun Dafa in September 2009. Every step on my cultivation path was taken because of Master’s compassion. Without Master, I would not be where I am today.
My mother is also a Dafa practitioner. She recovered from all her ailments within a few months after she started practicing Dafa. This was amazing and impressive. She advised me to study the Fa, and gave me a copy of Zhuan Falun, the main book of Dafa. Maybe it was not my time yet. I scanned a few pages, and then put it aside. I was busy working, earning money, and having fun.
After a period of time, I was sleeping one morning when I heard a voice say, “Get up and do the exercises! Get up and do the exercises!” It was not yet 5 a.m., so I fell asleep again. The next morning before 5 a.m., I heard this voice again. I still felt indifferent. I heard this voice the next morning, and the next, and the next, but still didn’t wake up.
I accidentally knocked over a pot of boiling water at my workplace. It went on the instep of my feet. My feet were red, swollen, and had blisters. I went home and lay on the bed. I felt a large hand gently rubbing back and forth my burned feet, which was very comfortable. When I opened my eyes, the redness and swelling of the back of my feet had subsided, and the blisters disappeared. It didn’t truly hurt that much. Only then did I realize that Master was taking care of me.
In order not to leave one disciple behind, Master repeatedly used various methods to enlighten me, so that I finally got interested in Dafa. I began to study the Fa and do the exercises every day. When I read Zhuan Falun for the first time, I had a feeling that I had lost so much time, and almost missed this precious opportunity to be a Dafa practitioner. I knew I had to hurry and catch up in my cultivation.
Master asks us to do the three things well, so I had to get involved in saving people. I can’t just stay at home, studying the Fa and doing the exercises. I hand out truth-clarifying materials, large and small Dafa booklets, CDs, and so on. Every day, I go door to door in residential buildings and distribute a number of informational Dafa materials. I walk along the streets and alleyways to deliver the materials.
I clarify the truth face-to-face and help people quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its youth organizations. Some people are happy to quit the Party with just a few words, some will not quit no matter what I say, some are mean and curse at me, and some explode when they hear me talk about Falun Dafa, and want to report me to the police.
There were a few teenage boys hanging out together, and not far from them was a boy standing alone. I went up to talk to him. He agreed to quit the Young Pioneers, a CCP youth organization. Suddenly one of the teens ran over and yelled at me: “What quitting the Party? Nonsense. Catch her! Don’t let her go! Kill her!” Other boys rushed over, and beat me with tree branches.
My heart really hurt—even children in China are so polluted by the CCP’s evil specter, and lost their humanity. I left, begging Master to save me. This experience made me understand the urgency and importance of saving people.
I live alone and have a simple life. After breakfast every morning, I go out to clarify the truth. On the way back, I get some groceries. I cook once a day, and have leftovers at night. I study the Fa in the afternoon, and in the evening I study Master’s new lectures, read the Minghui Weekly, and participate in group study once a week. My schedule is tight, and I feel it’s very fulfilling.
My xinxing has been continually improving, and my human notions are getting fewer and fewer. I am now doing the three things better and have improved at helping people to understand the truth, too. I am able to help over 20 people quit the Party every day and hand out a lot of informational materials. I meet up with all kinds of people. No matter if they curse at me, I am not moved and keep in mind Master’s teachings: “...it is the mission of a Dafa disciple to clarify the facts and save people.” (“A Reminder”)
Whether it is the bitterly cold winter or the scorching heat of summer, I always continue to distribute materials and clarify the truth, because I know that saving people is my responsibility.
Dafa brings me incomparable beauty, which I have benefited from physically and mentally. I no longer care about personal interest and have become more cheerful and kind. I am healthy, full of energy, and look younger than my peers.
With Master’s merciful arrangement, my living conditions have greatly improved, and I have also applied for pension insurance, so that I, an old lady who survives by doing part-time work, have a stable source of income. I have more time to devote to saving people, which is my only objective. All this is a reward from Master.
Several practitioners and I went out to hang up banners in July 2015 and the police caught us. In September 2016, I was illegally sentenced to five years in prison. I was put in the notorious provincial women’s prison, which has a reputation for its extremely cruel persecution of Dafa practitioners.
As soon as I entered the prison, the guard in charge ordered me to memorize the prison rules. I refused, because I was not a criminal. Someone threatened me, saying, “We have all kinds of ways of handling you.” At first, they didn’t let me use the restroom, so I often had to relieve myself in my pants; they turned off the water before I finished taking a shower. They rarely provided hot water on cold days, and even cold water was scarce. They gave the criminal inmates two steamed buns for breakfast but only gave me one. I had only half a meal for lunch and dinner, because the guards threw away the other half.
I was forced to watch videos slandering Dafa’s Master every day, and I was supposed to write a report every day, but I never did. The guard in charge told me I had to renounce my belief. I answered, “Master told me to be a good person and follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. How can a good person be “transformed”. “Transformed” into what? A bad person?!” She didn’t say anything. In her eyes, I am not easy to deal with, so she mobilized several very fierce criminal inmates in the same cell to assist her in supervising me. They often yelled, cursed, and beat me.
I took off the “prisoner” sign hanging at the end of my bed and threw it away. The guard in charge told the inmates to look for it. They searched everywhere, but couldn’t find it. They were angry. Seven or eight criminals rushed at me, holding me down. I am small, and they were all big. I couldn’t breathe. I begged Master in my heart to save me, and I could breathe again. If it wasn’t for Master’s protection, I might have died.
The guard in charge used all kinds of tricks but still couldn’t break my will, so she tried to target my family. She said that I wouldn’t be able to see my son if I didn’t renounce my belief. When I told her it was fine, she was very angry and took away my son’s visitation permit. She threatened me, saying, “You will have to stand for 100 days. See how long you can last!” I didn’t have the slightest fear. In my heart there was no resentment, nor hatred. I only felt sorry for her.
Being forced to stand in a certain spot is another form of torture used in this prison. It was April and the weather was getting hotter. During the day, I went to work as usual, and after work, others went back to the cell to rest, but I had to stand in the place designated by the prison guards until the next morning.
In those 100 days, no matter how hot it was, I was never allowed to take a shower or wash my hair. Nor could I sleep through a whole night. I was allowed to sleep when it was time for bed, but it wasn’t long before I was woken up by the guards. If I was slow in getting up, I would be punished. After standing for a while, I was allowed to go back to sleep, and then woken up again. This was repeated several times every night for the 100 days.
I was only given a bowl of rice for each meal, but no vegetables. They started out by giving me a whole bowl, then reduced it to half a bowl, and then less than half a bowl. In the next 80 or 90 days, I only got less than 2 ounces of rice each meal. Due to long-term malnutrition and low water intake, I only had a bowel movement once about 10 days, and there was very little urine.
During this period of torture, the guards changed shifts every two hours. They couldn’t stand it, and begged me: “Granny, please sign the ‘transformation’ letter. You can't stand like this anymore. People were punished like this, and they all collapsed after a few days. If you continue, you will die.” As soon as I heard “sign the ‘transformation’ letter,” I thought how could I let them ‘transform’ me?
In such a harsh environment, a practitioner would not be able to survive without the protection of Master and a firm belief in Master and Dafa. So from the first day the torture began, I started to recite the Fa.
At the beginning, I recited On Dafa, and later Hong Yin and Zhuan Falun. I recited everything I could remember. Every day while standing, I recited the Fa. I could only recite one or two sentences at first. After repeating these sentences, the following sentences of the Fa naturally came to my mind. It often happened like that. The more I recited, the more clearer my mind became and more energetic I got, and the more I wanted to recite the Fa.
I recited the Fa while standing and then while working. When they repeatedly woke me up, and I slept very little every day, I recited the Fa. I didn’t have anything else in my mind, and my body was surrounded by a powerful energy. It was so comfortable. Sometimes it seemed that everything was still, and my body and mind were tranquil. This state occurred more than once. All this could only be achieved with Master’s blessing.
I stood for many days, but I didn’t feel tired, hungry, or thirsty. When I worked, I was not slower than the others. More than one guard in the workshop said to the others: “Look at her [referring to me]. She is punished every day, she eats little, and yet she works so quickly.”
This went on day after day, week after week, until the 100 days finally passed. At the moment it was announced, I was about to return to the cell. All of a sudden I felt terrible and saw that my legs were swollen. I was dizzy and confused, couldn't see, and had such a sinking feeling. I could no longer stand. I shouted in my heart, “Master, please save me” and kept silently reciting the nine magic words, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” All the symptoms disappeared, and I quickly returned to normal.
A clear voice sounded in my ear, “Disciple, you have passed the test!” It was Master. Master has always been right next to me! I also realized that the tribulations I endured were only a small part of it, and the main portion was borne by Master! Otherwise, I simply could not stand it. It was great compassionate Master who helped me through this ordeal.
After this hellish torture ended, the guards who were monitoring me all bought me good food and said that I should replenish my energy. I politely refused. After that, the guards no longer constrained me. I became the only free inmate in the prison. There was a rule that inmates must go through designated security checkpoints, but I walked through without being checked. The inmates were all amazed. Some said, “That Falun Dafa granny is really powerful, really amazing!” They were not saying that I am great, but that Dafa is amazing.
Fellow cellmates also said, “You didn’t take a shower for so long, yet you don’t smell, and you still look so healthy. Falun Dafa practitioners are really divine beings!”
One day, the guard in charge who had persecuted me asked, “Do you hate me?”
I replied calmly, “No, I do not hate you.” She was very touched.
The prison authorities began to panic when the COVID pandemic began to break out in early 2020. The whole prison conducted physical examinations every day, in addition to COVID testing and other virus tests. The results of the physical examinations were published on the bulletin board, and I was the first in the health ranking of each test. There were 20 people in my cell, and everyone else had all kinds of illness symptoms. Only I was healthy.
The cellmates all said, “You Falun Dafa practitioners are really divine. We are all sick, only you have no symptoms.” Yes, Falun Dafa has a miraculous effect on healing and fitness, which was obvious to all. I also used this opportunity to tell them about Dafa and persuade them to quit the CCP. During the five years of imprisonment, I did not forget my mission to save all beings. I seized every opportunity and calmly and rationally helped many people quit the CCP and its youth organizations.
An unforgettable day – August 4, 2020 – the five-year wrongful imprisonment ended. That morning, the guard in charge came to my cell, politely walked me all the way to the main gate, and stood there with me for a long time until the car arrived to pick me up. After watching me get into the car, she turned around and slowly left.