Steadfastly Cultivate in Dafa and Improve as a Whole Body
By a Falun Dafa practitioner in China
(Clearwisdom.net) I first learned about Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) in 1997,
yet did not start to actually practice until 1998. My health had been fairly
good before I started practicing Dafa, and therefore I didn't come to it with
any attachments of pursuit. I just felt that the principles were attractive to
me, and the three words, "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance,"
seemed to call me. The more I read Zhuan Falun, the more I
liked it. When I was halfway through the book, I experienced the state of guanding
[pouring energy into the top of one's head - an internal cleansing] as
Master mentioned in the book. The Fa let me understand the true
meaning of life, and I came to understand its value. From then on, I took the
path of cultivation, returning to my true self. People around me noticed that I
practiced Falun Dafa, and they also started to learn the practice one after
another. Through spreading Dafa by word of mouth, very quickly, more than 200
people started practicing Falun Dafa in our area. Whenever we went to the
marketplace to spread the Fa and practice the exercises, there were always lots
of people inquiring and watching. Seeing that Dafa was so peaceful and
beautiful, they all wanted to practice. 1. Validating Dafa after the Environment Suddenly Changed In April 1999, news was suddenly spread that in Tianjin City several dozen
Falun Gong practitioners had been illegally arrested. Soon afterwards, personnel
from our local police station came to our practice site saying that they wanted
to learn the exercises. In fact, they had come to spy on us and we were all put
on a blacklist. Every one of us felt that the situation had changed drastically.
In July 1999, the evil persecution began. I thought, "Master is the person
I respect most. He is the most righteous person. There is nothing wrong in
teaching people to practice according to Truthfulness, Compassion and
Forbearance. No person and no change of circumstances can take away the great
trust I have in Master from deep within my heart." Even under such pressure we made a decision, and five of us went to Beijing
to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. However, we were arrested by the police
halfway to Beijing when we were buying tickets. Several days later, a police
chief came and said to me, "Your site coordinator said you were the main
assistant." I replied that it was not important whether I was or not. I
simply volunteered my time to provide assistance to everybody, and followed the
standard of "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance" to be a good
person. I told the police chief that we did nothing wrong and that our Master
had done nothing wrong either. The police chief said, "Who cares about
being wrong or not wrong. The authorities forbid you to practice, then you must
not practice." At that time, due to the mentality of fear, I handed over
two Dafa books. I thought, "I didn't say bad things about Dafa or about
Master, what's the big deal of signing my name [on an agreement not to
practice]? I'll continue the practice when I get back home." Later, I
realized that this was making a compromise and cooperating with the evil
persecution. Immediately afterwards, I published a solemn declaration nullifying
any agreement not to practice Falun Dafa and stated that I intended to continue
practicing. From then on, due to Jiang Zemin's group's ruthless persecution, we lost our
practice environment. In those days, the site coordinators and assistants were
arrested, fake lectures were spread around, and some practitioners were either
afraid to practice or practiced secretly at home. Seeing this situation, I felt
very anxious. I tried to get in contact with Dafa disciples in various regions.
I got in contact with some disciples who were able to access the Minghui website
[the Chinese version of Clearwisdom]. We developed an experience sharing
environment in our area and we were able to deliver Minghui articles to each
area in a timely manner. At that time, some fellow practitioners didn't trust
Minghui, so I showed them Master's comments about Minghui and Master's poem,
"The Knowing Heart." After our fellow practitioners improved in their cultivation under this
environment, those who could, all stepped out to validate Dafa. We made
"truth-clarification" flyers and banners, and posted information on
the walls in public places. Every one of us did his or her best to clarify
the truth and save sentient beings who had been deceived by the anti-Falun
Gong propaganda. One time, when I clarified the truth to a village head, he reported me to the
authorities. The local police station arrested me and sent me to a detention
center. There, I clarified the truth to the inmates and police officers, and
started a hunger strike to protest my illegal detention. Five days later, the
police dragged me into a police van and drove me to the hospital for
force-feeding. At that time, my human thinking surfaced. I thought that they had
so many people there, including prisoners and police officers, and I probably
couldn't resist them. Therefore I drank half a bottle of powdered milk. After
seeing me drinking, they said, "We will write a "guarantee
statement" for you to say that you will stop practicing. You just need to
sign your name, and then you can go back home." I firmly refused. Then they
conspired to put me into a forced labor camp. At this time, my fellow practitioners came to see me, and it seemed like
Master was giving me hints through their mouths: "How can you feel at ease
eating and staying here? Don't you know people outside are waiting for you, and
your family is looking forward to seeing you getting out of here!" They
gave me Master's articles, "The Catastrophe" and "Foretelling the
Fa's Rectification of the Human World." After studying the Fa, I realized that I had significant responsibilities,
and that I must get out to save sentient beings. I couldn't stay in detention
any longer. The authorities wanted to send me to a forced labor camp. But I knew
that what they said didn't count; I listened only to Master's words and Master
wanted me to save the sentient beings. Therefore, I found the team leader and
told him, "If you don't release me, I am going to resume the hunger
strike." Then I continued the hunger strike for five more days, and they
released me. 2. Validating the Fa in Beijing On December 17, 2000, three of us went to Beijing, but we were abducted when
passing through Tianjin. The fourteen of us Dafa practitioners who were
illegally imprisoned formed a whole body. We maintained a hunger strike to
protest our illegal arrest and recited the Fa together. On the third night, the
guards did not allow us to sleep and forced us to stand throughout the night.
The next morning, they made a big pot of porridge and were ready to force-feed
us. We held hands tightly and didn't let them pull away a single fellow
practitioner for force-feeding. One practitioner's tooth was knocked out, but we
continued the protest, and their attempt to force-feed us ended in vain. Afterwards, observing our safeguarding Dafa in such a determined way, some
policemen were moved to tears. They took me and another practitioner and said,
"You are all good people. We need to come up with some ideas for how we can
let you out." At that time, all that was on my mind was to go to Beijing to
validate Dafa and so I said, "You have released a lot of people who had
been arrested for not having the proper identification; you could release us the
same way. The condition is that we do not tell you our real names, and you may
write down any names you like." They agreed, so we all left and went to a
practitioner's home near Beijing. Some practitioners were stopped several times along the way, and all their
money was confiscated. The rest of us shared our money with them. The local
practitioners gave us lots of help, and we held a small experience sharing
conference. Together we studied Master's lecture, "Teaching the Fa at the
Great Lakes Fa Conference in North America." Afterwards, fourteen of us went to Beijing. We stood in front of Tiananmen
Square and exclaimed from the bottom of our hearts, "Falun Dafa is Good!
Restore our Master's Reputation!" That feeling was solemn and significant.
All thoughts of fear were gone. A group of policemen rushed towards us, kicking
and hitting us, and forced us into police vans. They drove us to the Tiananmen
police station. Between the two buildings, there was a big iron gate that was
locked. The police continually brought in more practitioners who had been
arrested on Tiananmen Square. We recited Master's articles together, and shouted
words to validate Dafa. The police used their batons to beat the practitioners
frequently, and many practitioners were covered with blood. At about 9 o'clock
in the morning, the hallway could no longer hold all the people, so they used a
big bus and drove us to Miyun Detention Center. At Miyun Detention Center, the police took our pictures and videotaped us.
They called us in for interrogation, one after the other. In the end, only one
practitioner and I were left in the yard. At about 4:00 p.m., a police van came
and took me to the police station. A police officer asked me, "What are you
doing in Beijing?" I said, "I shouted 'Falun Dafa is Good, Restore our
Master's Reputation.'" They tried to deceive me by saying some comforting
words, and then said, "Tell us your name and address, then we'll let you go
home." I recognized these tricks and so I said, "I will not tell you.
If I did, you would persecute me even further." Then I clarified the truth to them. I told them about my personal experience
and about the peacefulness and the beauty of Dafa. I told them that Jiang's
groups' repression of Falun Dafa is wrong and told them not to be misled into
persecuting good people. The police officers seemed to understand what I said.
They didn't say much, but sent me back to the detention center. When it was almost dark outside, practitioners were sent back one after
another. Some were beaten to the point that their entire bodies were covered in
blood. Some had a lot of hair pulled out, some were beaten so badly that their
legs were swollen, and some were beaten unconscious and had bruises all over
their bodies. The police poured water on them to wake them up. The police also
used electric batons and electric needles to shock female practitioners' private
parts. The police tore off some practitioners' clothing, leaving them in just
their underwear, and handcuffed them to the police vehicle or a tree in the cold
winter weather. They continued the persecution the next day. Seeing my fellow practitioners
suffering such ruthless torture, my heart was crying. I came up with one
thought: I have the responsibility to expose the police's evil conduct. It was
4:00 p.m. when the police vehicle arrived and drove me to the police department
again. I exposed to them the fact that their officers beat our Dafa
practitioners. They wanted to release me immediately. I said that I wouldn't
leave until every one of my fellow practitioners was also released. I also told
them that a practitioner's leg was broken from the beating and I had the
responsibility to look after her. The next day, they called out the practitioner whose leg was broken and she
never came back. I thought they had might have beaten her to death. I then
knocked hard on the window and the door of our cell, and shouted very loudly.
The police asked me what I was shouting for. I asked, "Where is that
practitioner? Did you beat her to death? If you have killed her, you have to
kill all of us in this room. Otherwise we will come back looking for you to
obtain justice, even if there is only one of us left!" They asked the gate
keeper to find out what had happen to that practitioner. Soon he came back and
told me that she had been released. After a five-day hunger strike, the eleven
of us were released unconditionally. The first thing I did after I was released was to check on whether that
practitioner had really been set free. I made a phone call to her home, and her
family members confirmed that she did return home. 3. Experiencing All Kinds of Tribulations, Practicing Dafa Steadfastly During these past six years of persecution, as a Fa-rectification period Dafa
disciple, I was able to hand out truth-clarifying flyers, Master's lectures and
"Minghui Weekly" to fellow practitioners. As soon as some
practitioners were released from the forced labor camps, I would find them and
help them quickly come back to the Fa-rectification. I went from house to house
to clarify the truth together with fellow practitioners. I always managed to
clarify the truth to any person I met, yet there were also quite a few regrets. In my eight years of cultivation practice, sometimes I had strong righteous
thoughts, and sometimes I had too many human thoughts and hence had to go
through trials and tribulations. Because of my various attachments, I was
illegally arrested and detained at detention centers and brainwashing centers
several times. The evil's intention was only one: to "transform"
practitioners and to not let them succeed in cultivation. Although I didn't
write the three statements, nor was I "transformed," I was
sometimes released after holding a hunger strike. But sometimes my human notions
were strong and my thoughts weren't righteous, thereby causing my family to use
their personal connections and pay a lot of money to help me out. They have lost
nearly ten thousand yuan, which has caused great pain to my family,
both financially and mentally. Furthermore, this also acknowledged the evil
conduct of abduction and extortion. My daughter once wrote in her diary, "I have a great mom. She was able
to persevere with what she wanted to accomplish in her life." Going through
frequent tribulations in these years, my family environment has gradually
improved. We were able to resist the pressure from outside factors. My family
has experienced all kinds of difficulties, and I realize the seriousness of
cultivation even more now. Although I am now living a homeless life outside my hometown, no matter where
I go, I will definitely not stop practicing Falun Dafa. I can find fellow
practitioners wherever I am, and I am able to read each issue of "Minghui
Weekly" and do the three things that Master has told us to do.
I know my life has a mission and I must fulfill my great prehistoric vows.
Master said, "Everyone, keep up your diligent efforts! Human history does not exist
for [people] to take being human as its final goal, nor is human history a
recreation ground created for the evil to display its viciousness. Mankind's
history was established for the Fa-rectification, and only Dafa disciples are worthy of displaying their glory here." ("To the 2005 European Experience
Sharing Conference")
Chinese version available at
http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/5/12/101662.html
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