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A Firm and Steadfast Fellow Practitioner By a practitioner in China
6/13/2003 (Clearwisdom.net) In the winter of 2000 I was illegally detained in the Shijiazhuang Forced
Labor Camp. While in the camp, I got to know a fellow practitioner, an elderly
woman from the countryside of Hebei Province. She was 56 years old. I will call
her Sister A. The first time I saw this practitioner, she was handcuffed to a
rail in the corridor on the second floor. She was handcuffed because she had
openly practiced the Falun Gong exercises. Sister A was handcuffed every day
from morning until night, and she was only released when the lights were finally
turned out for the day. Except for using the bathroom and having meals, she was
handcuffed continuously. Regardless of whether the sun was baking or the wind
was blowing, she was not allowed to come inside. When I passed by her, even
before I greeted her, she greeted me with a warm smile, being so calm and
compassionate. After seven days Sister A was released from the handcuffs,
whereupon she continued to practice the exercises. The police then handcuffed
her again. I remember that she had been handcuffed for more than one month.
During the worst period of this persecution, she was handcuffed 24 hours a day,
and even when she was sleeping, both of her hands were handcuffed to the rail of
an iron bed. Later, Sister A and I were both assigned to the same room, and I
learned a bit more about her situation. Sister A came from the remote and poverty-stricken countryside, where an
extremely hard life caused her to develop a number of diseases. In 1997 she
began to cultivate Falun Dafa. This woman, who had once lost all confidence in
life, became free of all her diseases, and at the same time she resolved a
long-standing resentment towards her husband and other family members. It was as
if she had become a new person. Although she had little formal education, in a
short time Sister A was able to read through Zhuan Falun. She could
recite Hong Yin from the beginning to the end without stopping. Whenever
I would see her with her eyes half closed, reciting Hong Yin, I always
felt a heart of purity and righteousness. Her heart is indeed very pure and
steadfast. No matter how rampant the evil was, it could not interfere with her.
She kept practicing the exercises and studying the Fa. What is more, she always
looked happy and always smiled at everyone. She cherished and carefully guarded
her copy of Zhuan Falun, with a righteous faith in Teacher and in Dafa;
from detention center to labor camp, that book was never found by the police.
She often said, "This book is my life. I will protect it with my life." Sister A went to Beijing on two occasions after July 20, 1999 to validate
Dafa . After she came back she was illegally detained and fined. In the autumn
of 2000 she went to her friend's home to return the 20 Yuan* she had borrowed
for the cost of going to Beijing, and she was abducted by police. She was
sentenced to two years of forced labor because she said that she would continue
to practice Falun Gong. She was sent to the Shijiazhuang Forced Labor Camp.
Inside the labor camp she was beaten and cursed by police agents and criminals
because she practiced the exercises and studied the Fa. But in every situation
and occasion she always had a warm smile on her face. She repeated these words,
"I just know that Dafa is good. My body is the testimony. I have never done
anything bad and I will never abandon my principles." No matter what the
policemen said, she always said these words with a warm smile. Whenever she saw
policemen she said it. Finally, whenever the policemen saw her they would avoid
her. After a time, nobody asked her to give up cultivation. It is just as
Teacher said, "It looks like human conduct, but in reality it's not. It's
because she reached that point through cultivation and truly arrived at that
realm--'Now that you've arrested me, I haven't thought at all about going back.
Now that I've come here, I've come to validate the Fa.' So the evil was scared."
(Lecturing on and Explaining the Fa on Metropolitan New York Fa Conference) In March of 2001, in order to deal with steadfast Dafa practitioners, the
labor camp established a "strictly managed class" under Team Four. Sister A was
sent to this class and so we were separated. But sometimes when I was in the
bathroom I saw her. She still had a warm smile on her face. Sometimes when there
were no criminals watching me, I would talk to her briefly or pass her a copy of
one of Teacher's new articles. We encouraged each other by eye contact. In order
to resist the persecution of the evil, she and other fellow practitioners in the
"strictly managed class" began a hunger strike to protest, claiming their
innocence, and demanding their unconditional release. Facing the intimidation,
the deceit, and the torture by policemen, Sister A's heart for steadfastly
cultivating Dafa, and her faith in Teacher never wavered. Later on, I saw Sister
A only occasionally. Her face had become emaciated because of the hunger strike,
but she still had a happy smile and her eyes sent out brightness and firmness.
She maintained the hunger strike for over 40 days, and her body became extremely
weak, her blood pressure dropped precipitously, and she continuously refused to
cooperate with the force-feeding and infusions by the vicious policemen. Finally
in the middle of April, because the labor camp feared bearing responsibility for
persecuting people to death, they asked her family members to take her home.
Thus, after being detained for over seven months, Sister A walked out of the
forced labor camp in an open and dignified manner, and she once again devoted
herself to the current of Fa rectification. * Yuan is the Chinese currency. The average monthly salary
of an urban worker in China is 500 Yuan. Posting date: 6/23/2003 |