By Dafa practitioner Dai Zhizhen from Australia

(Clearwisdom. Net) My name is Dai Zhizhen. When I was 17 years old I went to study at Hangzhou University. During the four years of university studies I was always looking for answers to the questions I had about life. Fifteen years ago I came to Australia, hoping I could continue to search for the answers in Western culture. Ten years ago, with an Australian passport and all my savings, I traveled around the world alone for 12 months, visiting all the museums, galleries and libraries I came across; still, I could not find the answers to my questions about life. I went back to live in China.

On April 28, 1997, I came across the book Zhuan Falun [main teachings of Falun Dafa] for the first time at a relative's home. Here I found all the answers I had been searching for all along. My feeling of joy was beyond words. I spent the next 16 days hand-copying Zhuan Falun, word for word. By the time I had copied up to the section "A Clear and Clean Mind" I was able to sit in the full-lotus position. Although my whole family had never seen Master in person, we trusted Master. I knew that no matter how much effort I put into cultivation, it would still be far too short to pay back the grace of our Master. Master, how great you are!

I met my husband Chen Chengyong when I went to a Fa-study group for the first time. My husband's father suffered uremia before 1996. His family spent a lot of money consulting famous doctors of both traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine, but to no avail, and he had no hope but to await death. One day a neighbor gave him a copy of Zhuan Falun. My father-in-law studied at home and did the exercises in the park. Miraculously, he was healed. Then, in 1996, my husband started to cultivate Dafa.

Because both the physical and mental health of my whole family's benefited immensely from Dafa, my husband went to Beijing three times to appeal to the authorities after the crackdown started. On July 21, 1999, around 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners went to the Appeal Office of Guangdong Provincial Government, demanding the release of all the Dafa practitioners illegally arrested and detained in various places across China. Both my husband and I participated in this activity. The next day, I flew to San Francisco for a Fa-conference, while my husband went to buy a plane ticket to Beijing.

On October 1, 1999, my husband took a ten-day leave and went to Beijing with another fellow practitioner. From July to October, many practitioners from all over China gathered in Beijing, preparing for a group appeal like that on April 25. However, Beijing imposed a tight curfew and many practitioners were arrested. I had not stepped forward to validate the Fa, as I was three months pregnant. My husband asked me to go to Beijing, but I didn't, about which I felt very sad later on.

The last time all three members of my family went to Beijing was December 28, 2000. On December 31, my husband and practitioners from Daqing City and Honghu City went to Tiananmen Square to unfurl banners. They were beaten up and the Square was spattered with their blood. When my husband held a banner and shouted, "Falun Dafa is good," the police slapped him in the face many times; blood ran from his nose. He was then thrown into a police van and was detained in the Tiananmen police station. That day, over a hundred practitioners were detained there. They shouted together, "Falun Dafa is good." This time my husband did not disclose his identity and where he was from. He was then sent to Yanqing County Detention Center in the suburb of Beijing, where he was tortured, and was only released when the police feared that he would die in the detention center. He got back to the hotel and met our daughter Fadu and me. We then went back to Guangzhou City by train. Four days later, he was kidnapped and we have lost contact ever since. After returning to Australia I found out about his death from Minghui Net. At that moment, my whole body was trembling from shock. I was speechless.

Later, I thought that what my husband wanted to see most was that Fadu and I would continue with what he had left unfinished -- to clarify the truth. For the last nine months I have taken my two-year-old daughter Fadu and traveled to 20 countries to clarify the truth about Falun Dafa. My husband named our unborn baby Fadu, meaning that he hoped our child would be blessed by Falun Dafa. It is a name suitable for either a boy or a girl. Our daughter's name also carries my husband's firm belief in Dafa.

Every mother knows that a journey such as we are traveling can be very exhausting. Sometimes, I really wanted to take a rest. However, when I thought that there were hundreds and thousands of Falun Gong practitioners who were suffering every second, every minute, with their lives in danger, and there were hundreds and thousands of children like my daughter who were suffering from destroyed families, I felt my hardships were nothing in comparison. I have all the Dafa disciples in the world helping me, and how fortunate I am being blessed in such a pure land!

On March 10, 2000, three or four weeks before Fadu was born, while watching a video playback of Lecture Nine of Master's Lecture in Guangzhou City, I felt my whole body being consumed by a high fever. Because of a lack of righteous thoughts at that moment I suspected it to be a symptom of childbirth labor, so I turned off the video player and went to lie down in bed. The discomfort became more and more unbearable, though. Then I remembered that I was a practitioner. I told myself that I must finish listening to Lecture Nine, even if I would die that day. When I finished listening to the lecture, I was not able to stand up. All the karma was pushed to my right leg, which was red all over as if it had been bitten by a poisonous snake. Two days later, yellow fluid trickled out.

Only after I experienced this life-and-death test did I understand Teacher's words in Zhuan Falun,

"If it were not removed for you, you might already have dropped dead had you encountered this trouble. Perhaps you would never be able to get out of your bed."

I had not been aware how ridiculous the thought was to save the life of my baby and my own by myself until I experienced what happened to me. Only Dafa can defeat death! The difference between others and myself is that I had traveled around the whole world to search for the answer to life before I started cultivation, and I know that there is no way out in this world except for Dafa, the only way out! With this thought on my mind I recited "Lunyu," Master's scriptures and Zhuan Falun to unborn Fadu and got through the tribulation. Dafa gave Fadu and me a second life.

For the safety of Fadu I went back to Sydney to give birth. When Fadu was only four months old I took her back to China. Because I attained the Fa in China and was living in China afterwards, I wanted to go to Beijing to appeal as a Mainland Dafa practitioner. I stayed in China until after my husband was arrested, and my name was on the black list. I was forced to leave China. Still, I considered myself a Mainland Dafa practitioner, and I took Fadu to Beijing.

I had planned to entrust Fadu to the care of others and go to Beijing on my own to validate the Fa. But all the people I knew were either arrested by the police or watched by the neighborhood committees. I had no choice but to take Fadu to Beijing with me. From the airport to Tiananmen Square, Fadu was sleeping in my arms. I was worried about how the police would treat Fadu, and this fear was like a wall, blocking me and preventing me from stepping forward. I hung around on Tiananmen Square for a while and left. Beijing was a big melting pot; there were practitioners from all over China. Some of them brought their children with them. When I saw the greatness in them, I found out my own shortcomings. After staying in Beijing for a month I said to Fadu, "Fadu, let us go with Master." Then, I took Fadu to Tiananmen Square and did the exercise "Embracing the Wheel" beside the Golden Water bridge. As a result, I was arrested and put into the Beijing Tiananmen police department.

Just before I set out a practitioner told me, "Xiao Dai, you must cultivate benevolence. Don't let the policemen's demonic nature bring out the demonic nature in you." I remembered these words.

When the police asked where I came from I had nothing on my mind and replied, "I don't want to tell you." All those who did not answer questions were put in a single room. There were over 20 practitioners detained in the room. We kept reciting "Lunyu," Hongyin and Master's scriptures. It was so scary that no words were adequate enough to describe the scene. All practitioners in the room were badly beaten. An elderly woman around 60 years of age was taken out and when she was brought back she fell down to the ground and vomited spittle.

Among the practitioners detained was a woman who had a 17-month-old boy with her. This woman had also experienced the power of Dafa. She had been married for 10 years, but due to her poor physical condition she had not had a child. After her elder sister gave her a copy of Zhuan Falun, she conceived this baby, but when the baby was born, she was paralyzed and unable to walk by herself. Her sister visited her in the hospital and asked her to read the book. After her sister left, she picked up Zhuan Falun and began to read. She only read it from page 1 to page 5 before she needed to use the restroom. She found she was able to walk to the restroom all by herself. Since she had benefited so much from Dafa in terms of both physical and mental health, she said, "I must go to Beijing Tiananmen Square to unfurl my banner." She made the banner at home and practiced how to unfurl the banner with the fastest speed. Fifteen practitioners from her practice site went to Tianjin City by train. In Tianjin, they changed to a van to Beijing. Unfortunately, the driver asked them to get off the van midway. They had no choice but to take a bus to Beijing. Plain-clothed police were everywhere at the bus station in Beijing. In order to get avoid them, the 15 practitioners separated. When arriving at Tiananmen Square, there were only she and an older man. The old man had never seen so many policemen and so many police cars. He said, "Initially, there were 15 of us to boost my courage. Now, only you and I are here. I want to go home!" After the older man left in a taxi, she took out the banner. The police had not expected that she would unfurl a banner as she was carrying a child and had so much luggage. Only after she unfurled the banner for a while did the police start to grab the banner and thus frightened her child into crying.

During the five or six hours while we were detained in the room, officials stationed in Beijing from each province and city came to identify us, one batch after another. We all stood and faced the wall. A practitioner who stood in front of me and who led us to recite the contents in Dafa books "to suffocate the evil" was identified and taken away.

A policeman told me to go to another room. I had no fear at all, and I did not even glance at him. I can't recall what he looked like. The policeman 'roared' at me, "Do you think we dare not beat you simply because you have brought her [Fadu] in?"

At that moment, seven-months-old Fadu was sleeping in my arms. I replied, "Dafa has given us a second life and that is why I brought her here." Later, the police told the woman with the 17-months-old boy and me to go to the Beijing Train Station and go home by train.

The Fa will only manifest itself when I have put my cultivation into genuine practice- - that's genuine cultivation. As an everyday person, I worked hard and got into the university. I made an effort and traveled around the world. But as a Dafa practitioner, one cannot elevate unless one lets go of attachments.

(Experience sharing at Taiwan Falun Dafa Conference, 2002)

Posting date: 1/13/2003
Original article date: 1/12/2003
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Translated on 1/10/2003
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.cc/mh/articles/2003/1/5/42229.html

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