(Minghui.org) I used to run a small business. I rode my bicycle every day and brought fruit from an orchard to sell in the city more than 30 miles away. The fruit sellers I worked with could not stand the heavy labor, so they eventually quit. I persevered.
Through hard work, my life gradually got better, and I started a small company. Under the corrupt rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), morality rapidly slid down in China. I went along with the flow and made a lot of money through shady means. In the downward trend of money-seeking in Chinese society, I felt I was very capable, and I did many things that I shouldn’t have.
Waking Up
In 1998 I noticed two books laying on the table at home, so I started to read them. It was Master’s Essentials for Further Advancement and Teachings Given at Fa Conferences in the United States. I never read such good books before! I wondered if there were other Falun Dafa books, and I found Falun Dafa’s main book, Zhuan Falun.
As I read I realized: This is a book about cultivation! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is so good, and every sentence speaks to my heart. I felt like I awakened from a dream.
After understanding the principles of Falun Dafa, I felt bad about my lifestyle. Why hadn’t I read this book earlier? If I’d understood Falun Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, I wouldn’t have done so many bad things. I decided to start being a good person, and I began practicing Falun Dafa.
My wife and I began doing the exercises and attending the local Fa study group. Soon after she started practicing, my wife said it felt like the top of her head opened, and as she read the Fa it felt like the words were pouring in. When I practiced the exercises it felt like the mechanisms were guiding my hands. I did the exercises every day. My body and mind were healthy, and I quit smoking and drinking. If you follow Master’s teachings, you will truly be purified by Dafa both physically and mentally. Our two sons began practicing, and our family was immersed in happiness.
Validating Dafa in Beijing
Dafa had taken root in our hearts, and our world outlook completely changed. We were very happy every day. However, in 1999, the CCP began to persecute Falun Dafa, and some practitioners were brutally persecuted. I decided to go to Tiananmen Square with my family to appeal for Dafa.
I wanted to make a banner, but none of the local printers dared to print it. One shopkeeper said, “Even if you gave me 300,000 yuan, I wouldn’t dare to make one for you. The CCP would kill me!”
When I woke up the following morning, a poem came to mind. I wrote the words down and went to the print shop. The shopkeeper said, “The poems you wrote are so good. It belongs to Taoism, right?” He happily printed the poem for us.
I cut out the words, and made the banner. It was early January 2001. After the banner was ready, my wife, two sons, and I headed to Beijing. When we arrived, we took a taxi to Tiananmen Square.
It was a snowy day, but the snow was clean and beautiful. Due to the weather, there were fewer people than usual on Tiananmen Square. We went to the flagpole between Tiananmen and the monument, and opened our banner, facing south. My wife and I held the two ends of the long banner, and our two sons held the banner in the middle. We faced south for a while, and then we turned to the west. Some people took pictures of us. Our banner was opened for a long time. We only had one thought: Restore the reputation of Falun Dafa and Master!
A tall armed policeman who was standing guard spotted us and hurriedly jumped out from behind a barricade to grab our banner. We were illegally detained in the Tiananmen police station, and they contacted the police from our town to take us away.
We Are Persecuted
When the local police arrived in Beijing, they told us, “You’re in big trouble!” We were taken to the liaison office of our town in Beijing, where one of the leaders looked at our banner and shouted at the police, “Why didn’t you handcuff them?” We were handcuffed and taken to the local Domestic Security Department.
We were separated that night. My wife was handcuffed to a heating pipe, our children were locked up in a separate room, and I was also handcuffed to a heating pipe. When a policeman interrogated me, he slapped my face. I thought he was to be pitied because he didn’t understand what he was doing. His hands hurt, and so he used a thick book to slap my face. He slapped me so hard the book broke. He beat me for about 40 minutes, and then got tired. When he saw me smiling, he said angrily, “I’ll finish you tomorrow.” With Master’s blessing, my face didn’t hurt at all.
The next day, the same policeman came, and was surprised to see that my face was not swollen or bruised. He was surprised, and left without saying anything. That day, several policemen came one after another. They smashed a wooden bench, picked up a stool leg, wrapped one end in a towel, and held it as a torture instrument, ready to beat me. I was not afraid, because I knew I hadn’t committed any crimes. Each of them hit me with a leg of the stool, and a policeman kept hitting me on the head. When he got tired, he saw that I was smiling, and he left in a huff. The other policeman kept beating me on all my joints. When he saw me smiling, he left. Another policeman kept beating my arms and legs, but he got tired. When he saw that I was still smiling, he left. Several other policemen came, some of whom hit me in the ankle and smashed my toes, or beat me in different ways.
Finally, a vicious policeman came. He grabbed me by the collar and struck my chest with his fist. If an ordinary person were beaten like that, his life would be in danger. He kept hitting me, but I didn’t feel any pain. I knew Master protected me. After we were detained for more than 20 days, my wife and I were released.
Dismantling the Brainwashing Scheme
When we got home, we began to tell people the truth about the persecution of Falun Dafa. Because of this, my wife and I were seized by the police and taken to a brainwashing center. They brought in seven collaborators (former Falun Dafa practitioners) to brainwash me. When I entered the room they surrounded me and tried to convince me. I told them, “I can’t hear you when you all speak together, why don’t you take turns talking?”
After they all finished speaking, I told the first person, “What you just said is wrong. I think Master’s words mean such and such.” I then said similar things to the second person, and so on, correcting them one by one with Dafa’s principles. They couldn’t argue with me, because what I said was on the Fa. They talked to me for an entire day, but in the end, they couldn’t brainwash me.
One person accompanied me all day. He was sent by the 610 Office to observe me. He witnessed the two-day contest between the collaborators and I. He told me, “You’re right. What they said doesn’t sound reasonable. They’re afraid that you’ll kill yourself, so they told me to watch you. Now, I can see that even if everyone else dies, you won’t.” I saw that he was a good man, so I smiled and said, “Why don’t you join me for breakfast in the morning?” He said, “All right. If those people come again, I will listen to your arguments.”
After I was illegally locked up for more than 10 days, they realized that they couldn’t transform me, and I was about to change their minds, so they let me go home. I said, “You must let my wife go too, or I won’t leave!” So they released her. My wife also resisted the brainwashing with righteous thoughts.
Cultivating Myself During the Persecution
One day in 2004, more than a dozen police cars suddenly surrounded my house and the police broke in. I was not there, so they took my wife. I was seized on my way back from out of town. We were taken to a detention center. My wife was later acquitted, but I was sentenced to eight years in prison. They sent me to a notorious prison in our province, and threw me into one of the most ferocious cell blocks.
As soon as I was admitted to the prison, guards removed my clothes and searched me. I was thrown into the strict management team. The cell, which was only about four square meters (43 square feet) in size and about seven or eight meters high (22 to 26 feet high), was surrounded by thick foam boards. It had large 200 watt light bulbs that were kept on all night. Six prisoners watched me in three shifts, and I was handcuffed 24 hours a day.
I began a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The guards force-fed me once a day, and they didn’t allow the prisoners who watched me to talk to me. After a few days, the prison began to try to forcibly transform me. I was only allowed to sleep for one or two hours each day. I went to bed at 10 p.m., and the guards interrogated me at midnight. Because I didn’t cooperate with the “transformation,” the guards forced me to stand against the wall 24 hours a day. I strongly felt Falun spinning all over my body, which was comfortable and wonderful.
After standing for hours, my heels began to hurt. It felt like two big nails were being driven in. After 72 hours my legs no longer hurt. A prison guard came and said, “You suffered a lot. Don’t stand anymore. Go to sleep.” I thought, “I passed this test.”
I thought to myself, “If I don’t get out of the cell, I won’t see anyone, how can I speak the truth about Dafa and save people?” More than a month later, I was escorted out of the strict management team and was forced to labor in the work area.
The environment was very harsh and I was not able to study the Fa or do the exercises. I realized that to resist the persecution, we must first find our own loopholes. I vigorously sent forth righteous thoughts every day to clear my fear, lust, competitive mentality, and resentment. I recalled Master’s teachings every day, and when I let go of my attachments, everything became better.
Awakening the Prisoners’ Consciences
When I went to work, I found that many of the prisoners who did bad things were driven to do so by the CCP’s corruption, and many of them had been wronged. They worked as slave laborers every day, and they were miserable.
Because I had the Fa in my heart, Master gave me wisdom, and I finished every task well. The prisoners and the guards admired me. As a cultivator, I was considerate, so the prisoners asked me for help if they had any difficulties. I also met other practitioners who were illegally imprisoned, and we were able to talk to each other.
Some prisoners were “informants,” and reported to the guards. I told the inmates about the disadvantages of being traitors and the principles of traditional culture, so that they understood why it was bad to be “informants.” It took me more than a year to gradually awaken their sense of justice, and then I was able to practice the exercises every day. The people in the work area said, “Whoever reports him (referring to me) will be finished by everyone else.” The guards knew that I told the truth about Dafa to the prisoners.
I later convinced a prisoner to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. Under the compassionate protection of Master, a fellow practitioner lent me a copy of Zhuan Falun. I began transcribing and memorizing the Fa. After I finished a page, I passed the page to other practitioners.
Prison Guard Apologizes
In this notorious prison ward, there were 610 Office guards who specialized in persecuting Dafa practitioners. In particular, a section chief of the 610 Office treated Dafa practitioners very fiercely, but I was not afraid.
One day, I was meditating on my bed. I suddenly felt it was so quiet around me. When I opened my eyes, I saw the prison guard staring at me. He attempted to frighten me and shouted, “What are you doing?!” I said calmly, “Can’t you see?” He saw that I was not afraid, so he said, “Okay, don’t practice, go to sleep.” He left.
A practitioner was beaten by a prison captain with an electric baton. I decided to protest the persecution. Another practitioner and I went to the head of the cell block and said, “Why did the prison captain beat him? Can he just vent his anger on a practitioner? Is that right? If you don’t handle this issue today, I’ll report you to your supervisor. You must give us an explanation today.”
When the head of the cell block learned about the situation, he told us, “We will deal with him.” The other practitioner and I demanded that the captain publicly apologize to the practitioner who was beaten. A day and a half later, we were told to accept an apology. The prison guards were afraid of losing face and did not have the courage to apologize publicly. The captain was in the office, and he apologized to the practitioner in front of some practitioners and other cell block heads. The captain said, “I will never do this again.”
Writing “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance” on the Red Flag
The guards set up a CCP flag. I found a jar of yellow paint, and wrote “Truthfulness” and “Compassion” on the flag. A prisoner realized what I was doing and said, “Let me write the third character.” I happily handed him the paint, and he wrote the character “Forbearance.”
I hung the flag with the words “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance” on the pole, and everyone could see it. That day, the prison was inspected by the authorities, and the prison guards were nervous. The captain of the prison guards saw the flag, and he called me to his office.
He asked me, “Did you write the words on the flag?” I said, “I did.” He anxiously said, “If that was seen by the authorities during the inspection, I would have been fired!”
Indeed, these prison guards are very pitiful. They are accomplices to the Party for the sake of their salaries, and persecute practitioners, creating endless karma. Once they leave the corrupt system on which they depend, they lack basic job skills.
The person who wrote the word “forbearance” was blessed. His sentence was reduced by six months.
The Cell Block Head Quits the CCP
The head of the cell block felt that I was a good person. He once said to me, “You practitioners are so good, all for the good of others, and I can really see that you are sincerely for others, not for yourself.” He admired me, so I told him the truth about Dafa. He slowly understood the truth and the danger of following the Party, so he chose to quit the CCP.
After he quit, I had a dream that I saw many people dressed in black, and some were holding the Party flag. It looked like a funeral. People were carrying a large coffin, and the procession was endless. I walked back and forth and shouted, “You all fall!” Then everyone fell. I saw a Party flag was still standing, so I grabbed the flagpole and snapped it.
“I am Protected by Master. I Will Definitely Be Able to Go Home!”
There were more than 100 people in the team where I was illegally imprisoned, and there were several hundred people in the four teams in the entire work area. I helped 90 percent of them quit the Party. When a new person came, I helped him quit the Party. After people understood the truth, they also helped me persuade others to quit the Party. Someone would say to a newcomer, “Are you a Party member? Quit it. Why don’t you quit? How many days will this evil Party live? Quit! it.” When I was released, the people in the work area didn’t want me to leave. I told them that when they encounter danger, they must remember to sincerely recite “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.”
On the day I was released, a prison guard said to me viciously, “You can’t go home.” They knew that because I was not “transformed,” the 610 Office stationed people outside the prison, and when I get out, they would kidnap me and take me to a brainwashing center. I told the prison guard, “It doesn’t matter what you say, I am protected by my Master, and I will definitely go home!” I walked out of prison with righteous thoughts.
Outside the prison gate, I saw that my family members had arrived, and there were four people in plainclothes sitting in the 610 Office car. I walked straight to them, smiled, and said, “I’m going home!” They were speechless. The leader said, “Your family is reunited now. Go home.” I turned around and walked towards my family, and got in the car with them.
I returned home safely and continued to fulfill my mission of assisting Master in Fa-rectification and saving sentient beings.
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