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My Father Did Not Forget to Clarify the Facts Even in the Midst of Persecution
By a Dafa practitioner from Yunnan Province, China
(Clearwisdom.net) Teacher has written the following words: "A Dafa disciple completely opposes everything arranged by the evil
old forces. Clarify the truth thoroughly, eliminate the evil with righteous
thoughts, save all beings, and safeguard the Fa with determination, because
you are a part of Dafa, indestructible; rectify all that is not righteous.
Those who are 'reformed' and those who are being saved can only be beings
who were deceived by the evil. Those who are being eliminated are the evil
beings and the evil old forces. Those who are reaching Consummation through
all this are Dafa disciples; and through all this Dafa's mighty virtue is
established." (From "Dafa is Indestructible" in Essentials
for Further Advancement II) My father had been plagued with illnesses before he practiced Falun Gong. He
spent months in bed every year, and took medicine the whole year round. However,
after practicing Falun Gong, he became a completely changed person. He had
definitely benefited from Falun Dafa. Hence, after the persecution of Falun Gong
started on July 20, 1999, all the rumors and suppression did not shake his
steadfast belief and his will to practice Falun Dafa. One night at midnight, a number of policemen rushed into our house,
unlawfully searched our home and arrested my father. They detained him for a day
and night. He was then sent to a detention center where he was persecuted for
several months. When the police could not achieve their aim of forcing him to
renounce Falun Dafa, they transferred my father to a forced labor camp. When he
was sent there, the police thought they would severely reprimand him, saying,
"Practicing the exercises is strictly forbidden here. You are not willing
to change your ways? We have methods to make you change! At this location,
coercion can also change the hearts of people, and we are not afraid of our
bodies and souls being completely annihilated!" How wicked they were! My
father steadfastly replied, "Your theories will not affect me. I know for a
fact that coercion cannot change people's hearts." For the next twenty days or so, they spent more than ten hours a day trying
to force my father to renounce Falun Dafa. Initially there were three people,
then four, five and finally six persons working together to deal with my father.
They started by trying to be kind to him, then they tried to deceive him and
mislead him. Finally, they followed by applying pressure and using threats. My
father said to them, "We are not against anybody, and even less are we
about trying to topple any government. Neither are we thinking of seizing power.
We only wish to be given back our right to practice Falun Gong. We have been
doing that in accordance with the Chinese Constitution, which guarantees freedom
of belief, freedom of speech, freedom of publication, and freedom of
association. I am also a citizen!" Though the policemen were very fierce,
my father remembered what our venerable Teacher said: "Those who do the
so-called 'reform' work, too, are people who have been deceived. Why not turn
the tables and expose the evil and clarify the truth to them?" (from
"A Suggestion" in Essentials for Further Advancement II). So he
carefully clarified the facts about the rumors and slander to them. When the
policemen found that they were not getting anywhere, they changed their tactics.
They confined my father to a small room that isolated him from the rest of the
world and he was guarded at all times and not allowed to leave the room. I remember that after my father was detained, the first occasion that I saw
him was at the end of April, when all the detainees were out working in the
field. Formerly, when we walked from afar towards those people working there,
the policemen would not let us go near. On this occasion, we had a difficult
time arranging to visit him, and were still not allowed to see him. We asked why
and were told, "He refuses to change." We then asked, "Which
article of the law forbids family members from seeing a prisoner?" The
policemen unreasonably replied, "That is none of your business!" We
continued to reason with them and spent more than an hour doing so. Finally,
they told my father to come forward. The policemen were there to supervise and
listen to our conversation. After only about twenty minutes, they took him away. While being treated inhumanely, my father never neglected to clarify the
facts to the staff officers and policemen. He told them the facts about the
situation of April 25, 1999 [when about ten thousand Dafa practitioners went
to the government officials compound in Beijing to peacefully appeal]; he
talked about the facts of the self-immolation [at Tiananmen Square], and
told them about what Teacher had taught us. Gradually, some of the policemen
began to change their attitude towards Dafa and eventually said, "You are
all kindhearted and compassionate people. You are all good people." Besides physically tormenting Dafa practitioners, the perpetrators are also
tormenting them mentally through sleep deprivation and by restricting their
freedom. In any dormitory where there are Dafa practitioners, the lights are
left on throughout the night. Two criminal inmates are ordered to supervise each
Dafa practitioner to ensure they do not talk to each other. The criminal inmates
were also incited to attack Dafa practitioners. Inmates that criticized Dafa
practitioners received more marks on their record [inmates earning more marks
are released earlier]. If any Dafa practitioner stood up to speak, he would
have his mouth covered by those supervising him, or else all the other criminal
inmates would start jeering to drown him out. Dafa practitioners are strictly
not allowed to speak. They are also not allowed to speak in any meeting, but my
father would still clarify the facts when a meeting was over. The policemen did
not allow inmates of the forced labor camp to associate with any Dafa
practitioner. They were under a coordinated system of reward points for
reporting on Dafa practitioners, the purpose being to break the will of the
practitioners. My father has always been kind to others, and encouraged others to be kind as
well. Even though the policemen would not allow the inmates to associate with
any Dafa practitioner, many of them were willing to share dormitory space with
practitioners. Among those criminals in the labor camp who were forced to
monitor Dafa practitioners, many said that what they did was out of necessity,
as they were "forced to do so by the authorities," and that they
"hoped that they would be released earlier" for what they did. There
were very few truly wicked people among the inmates in the forced labor camp. Some of the inmates said, "Falun Gong is actually good, but the
self-immolation and murders shown in the television broadcasts are really
bad." My father was very patient in explaining to them about the television
broadcasts being fabricated stories, and how they had been made up to deceive
the public. Some of the inmates expressed their desire to refrain from drugs and
said they would not commit any more crimes. While in the forced labor camp, my
father was sent to various dormitories. In each of them there were inmates who
expressed the wish that they wanted to learn Falun Gong. My father did not
acknowledge the regulation of not being allowed to speak. Whenever he had an
opportunity, he would speak up immediately, firmly grasping every opportunity to
provide salvation to others. Once, when my father walked into a dormitory, he saw the policemen searching
the lockers, bags, beds and even doing body searches (which were done
periodically). My father asked, "What are you looking for? You are turning
everything upside down." "We are searching for jingwen [articles
written by the founder of Falun Dafa]." "Jingwen? Yes, I have
them!" The policeman demanded: "Where are they, hand them over."
My father replied, "The jingwen are issued by the venerable Teacher to Dafa
practitioners. They are for guidance in our cultivation, and such precious
things cannot be simply given away, or even be placed just anywhere, but must be
put in a very safe place!" The policeman shouted loudly: "Hand them
over immediately!" My father replied, "Did you all not claim that you
would not believe what you cannot see?" And he pointed to his own head
saying, "The jingwen are in here, and even if you open up my head you will
not see them, but they indeed exist, that is how great they are!" |