My Understanding of a "Hunger Strike"

By a practitioner from Hunan Province

(Clearwisdom.net) I have read several articles from the Minghui Weekly discussing "hunger strikes." I think I have a different understanding, so I have written down my understandings to share with everyone.

My understanding after I was arrested was that I should not eat food provided by the evil. When I chose not to eat the food the authorities provided, I was using peaceful means to resist my illegal detention. In my understanding, when I eat food offered by someone, they have to be a sincere, good person, without any conditions or expectations for repayment. Also, eating should be done at the appropriate time and place. Master taught us in Zhuan Falun: "No loss, no gain. To gain, one has to lose." It is perfectly justified when we try to be a good person in society and earn our bread by working hard. After we were arrested, however, they fed practitioners like animals. They tried to manipulate us through cruel punishment and torture, using any methods they pleased. Sometimes, they even kill practitioners if they feel it's necessary. Isn't that the case? So why should we eat their food?

The first time I went a on hunger strike at the labor camp, some of us did not sign our names on the decision statement sentencing us to the forced labor camp: we did not acknowledge the forced labor. As a result, the guards instigated four to five drug-addict inmates to seize each practitioner's hands and take his or her fingerprints. All the practitioners' fingerprints were taken this way except for me, because I was the only practitioner on a hunger strike. From time to time they punished us by forcing us to stand, to sit on tiny stools, or to go out for calisthenics whenever they liked. If you disobeyed, someone would drag you, pull you, and beat you, so we were left with no other choice but to obey them. This is why my understanding is that when we eat their food, we are losing our rights and putting ourselves under the full control of the evil.

Master mentioned in Zhuan Falun: "Matter and mind are one and the same." Since I didn't do well, the evil took advantage of my loophole, and I was illegally jailed. However, I chose not to eat their food or follow their instructions. This was my understanding and this was what I did. Sometimes they even put on their hypocritical face to lure me by saying things like: "If you do not want to eat the food provided by the forced labor camp, I can use my personal money to buy a box lunch for you from outside and I can also buy you some fruit." I refused all of their offers. Of course I did not have the competitive mentality and did not fight with anyone. I just quietly and silently persisted. When I had contact with people around me, I always maintained a kind heart. In time they did not try so hard to force-feed me anymore. They started to feel sympathetic towards me, and someone even commented: "You are stronger than any guard in this forced labor camp." The prisoners that surrounded me started to honestly get along with me. They even encouraged me, washed my clothes for me, got hot water for me, etc. Because I persisted, my environment improved greatly in many ways.

For an ordinary person, a "hunger strike" is something incredible. I went on a hunger strike three times. The first time lasted for over five months, the second time lasted for over a month, and the third time for over two months. Every time, I almost died. During the first hunger strike, my weight plummeted to just over 60 jin (roughly 70 pounds), and my internal organs started to fail. During the second and third times, I developed coronary disease, and I was sent to an emergency room. Each time I went on a hunger strike, I suffered great pain. My human attachments arose, with thoughts like: "What if I die?" All human attachments, including the attachment of death and all the other human desires, tortured me. I felt immense pain and sadness. I thought to myself: "When will this come to an end?" However, I reminded myself that I was a practitioner, a Dafa practitioner. When truly facing death, I followed the requirements of Dafa to calm myself and to actively repel and eliminate all unrighteous thoughts. As a result, even though I went on hunger strikes for long periods of time, and my captors thought that I was not well physically, my eyes still glowed with health and radiant vigor, and I still spoke with clarity and calm.

Every time after I was released from the forced labor camp, I suffered from diarrhea whenever I ate anything. I had dropsy, and my hair fell out. I was on the brink of death every minute. However I did not worry. I ate meals, clarified the truth, and I never found any excuses to put off whatever I was supposed to do. I did not lie a single day in bed, and I never felt that the hunger strike would do me any harm. In just a short time, my health started to improve. I used to be a heavy person, and now I am still heavy, about 120 jin (about 133 pounds).

Of course the law of the universe is not unilateral, it is comprehensive. Different levels have different Fa. It is not the time to encourage everyone to go on a hunger strike--it is the time to completely disintegrate the persecution of Dafa practitioners in all detention centers, forced labor camps and jails, and it is time for the persecution of practitioners to end. When a practitioner is arrested, he/she should try to get out of the situation with righteous thoughts, the righteous thoughts Master taught us to have, so that the persecution will cease to exist.

September 30, 2006

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/10/15/140137.html

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