Emerging from the Demon's Den With Dignity

By Dafa practitioners in China

(Clearwisdom.net) I went to Beijing to validate Dafa shortly before New Year's Day in 2001, and was sent back home by the local government there. All the Dafa practitioners in our village were illegally detained in the village government compound, and harshly beaten for four consecutive nights. Afterwards, I was released. While I was preparing dinner at home one evening, the police, led by the director of the station, came for me and said that I was wanted for questioning at the county office, but I would be released afterwards. But they lied. I was held at the county detention center overnight, and was forcibly sent to Shijiazhuang Labor Camp the next day.

At the labor camp, we refused to cooperate with the evil. When they wanted us to work, we said: "We were sent and held here without due process; we haven't committed any crimes, so we do not accept forced labor." The prison guards frequently restrained us with handcuffs, tied us up with ropes (with one hand over the shoulder tied to the other hand from the back), or put us in solitary confinement. One practitioner was beaten so severely that she could only sleep on her stomach, and later was held in solitary confinement. Another practitioner from Gu city was handcuffed to the bed. The leader of Team Five at the labor camp asked her: "Do you feel you have been wronged?" She replied: "Not me particularly, but my teacher and Dafa have been." Her pure and selfless comment moved the leader to tears.

One night, about twenty of us practitioners, decided to complete the entire set of five-exercises. When we began the sitting meditation, the prisoners who were sent to keep an eye on us tried to stop us, but we were unmoved. They then called in the guards. The guards, who were wearing leather boots, started to kick us savagely. They kicked us for quite a long time but nobody moved. Finally they were exhausted and sat down around us. Then one of the guards left after a while, followed by the others. We thus completed our practice of the set of five-exercises. When we finished, it was also time to get up in the morning. But our legs were swollen from the kicks and the soles of our feet were severely bruised. They are still not quite healed as of this date.

Once when we refused to participate in sports, one practitioner was taken upstairs for beating by the guards. The guards also forced every one of us to write a warranty to participate in the sports; otherwise we would receive a beating. I refused to write the warranty and was shocked with electric batons and beaten with plastic sticks. This lasted an hour. My mouth developed numerous blisters. Then I was handcuffed and monitored by two female guards. They told me that I was not the kind of person they thought I was when they heard me speak. They started to respect and admire me because I did not utter a word when I was savagely beaten.

A guard named Jiang said: "I saw with my own eyes that the Jing county practitioner Sun Yanyun's handcuff fell open by itself." I also saw a big Falun and three flowers in the sky when I was held in Team Five; the scenes were especially clear and beautiful. I overheard a conversation between two guards one day. One of them, Jiao, said: "I think they (the Dafa practitioners) can rectify the Fa for sure sooner or later." Ye, a guard who specialized in the suppression of Dafa practitioners in prison, appeared worried. Later after some thoughts, I felt if I could conduct myself as an enlightened being, the tortures would not be as frightening as they seemed, the evil could not possibly subdue the righteous.

We had discussion and exchange of ideas with other practitioners after I was released. In the article "Expounding on the Fa," Teacher says, "After all, a cultivator is not an ordinary human. So why doesn't the side of you that is your original nature rectify the Fa?" I then enlightened to the fact that we should rectify the Fa with our original nature amidst tribulations and tests. There was another incident: a prisoner dreamed that an immortal undid the fetter for the practitioner she monitored. Next morning, she lifted up the practitioner's quilt, and found the fetter was indeed unfastened and set aside.

One night, I was discovered as I practiced the sitting meditation. The guard took me out to handcuff me and forced me stand facing the wall. She asked me how many times I had practiced. I told her every night. They hung me up to the window lattice with my feet off the ground. I said to them loudly: "What is wrong with meditation, put me down!" But I received another round of beating.

During this ordeal that lasted over twenty days, they tried every means to confound me. Once the team leader asked me how I, being illiterate, could read Zhuan Falun. I told them other Dafa practitioners taught me how. He then said I would be excused from having to write my confession with my own blood if I would read some passages from the book Zhuan Falun. I said: "Dafa is solemn, I would never use Dafa to make deals." One night, a prison inspector said to me: "Since you can't read, why don't I teach you to read tomorrow." I told him, " I don't want to learn." He struck me on the face and knocked me down twice. Jiao, a guard, said sympathetically: "If you didn't say anything, you could have avoided the beating." Eventually, they sent me to the brainwashing class and wanted to have me brainwashed by those people who had enlightened along an evil path. But I talked to them about the Fa principles and awakened them. When the guard saw that they could not transform me, but instead were being led back to the righteous path, they took me out of the class.

This way I broke through the evil's persecution from day to day. One day at dusk, the team leader told me that they would move me to a different class; actually they personally escorted me home in their car. Another practitioner, who also came away with dignity, was escorted home together with me. Those who gave in at the labor camp were sent out in broad daylight, with the stipulation that their families pick them up, and with a lot of ostentatiously engendered commotion . But the determined Dafa practitioners were all sent home quietly under the cover of darkness to avoid being noticed.

I asked them when I would be back home; they said it would be about 4:00 am in the morning. I thought to myself: "I will emerge from the demon's cave with dignity--this shows the magnificence of Falun Dafa. It would be better if I were to arrive home about 7:00am to 8:00am to let the villagers see the glorious splendor of the return of a Dafa practitioner." With this thought, the driver got lost during the trip and arrived at my house after 8:00am. Such is the power of Dafa.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2001/9/16/16637.html

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