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A Practitioners' Dignity and Compassion During Detention

April 02, 2004 |   By a practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net)

I was taken to a detention center for insisting on continuing to practice Falun Dafa. In a single cell that was about a dozen square meters in size, more than twenty people were being held. The detainees slept on the wet floor and on a wooden board. Turning one's body to the side during sleep might wake others and lead to some rumbling. Next to the cell was a smaller room used as the washroom. We ate, worked and slept in this narrow and filthy place. Most of the detainees were criminals.

After I entered the cell, many detainees surrounded me and tried to coerce me to write the so-called "three statements" to give up practicing Falun Gong. It was definitely a form of persecution. I know that they were instructed by the guards to do so. And it was only a superficial manifestation in the human world. In reality, it was the arrangement of the old forces. Teacher does not acknowledge it. As Dafa practitioners, we should completely oppose everything arranged by the old forces. During the first few days, the old forces were in a frenzy. They controlled the prisoners to trick me, make fun of me and abuse me in the name of persuading me to write the "statements." Some even said things that defamed Dafa and Teacher. They shouted at me day and night. Facing this situation, I realized that the abduction should not have happened in the first place and this chaos in the cell should not exist at all. Even though I had attachments and omissions, the old forces did not deserve to test me. Therefore, I enhanced my righteous thoughts: I wanted to leave the prison unconditionally by clarifying the truth and validating the Fa. Although there were quite a number of people being taken advantage of by the old forces, they were nothing in front of a Dafa practitioner's righteous thoughts.

Making use of the chances to talk to them, I promoted Dafa to them all and exposed the truth of the persecution by Jiang's regime. One righteous mind can subdue one hundred evils. In front of the dignity and mercy of Dafa, most of the detainees began to have a positive attitude towards Dafa except for two---one was sentenced to death and the other was a drug dealer. The two still did not have respect for Dafa in their hearts. The environment was rectified after the detainees' hearts were rectified, and the intense atmosphere in the cell disappeared. Instead, laughter and joyful talk could often be heard. They surrounded Falun Gong (jailed practitioners were called 'Falun Gong' in the prison) and listened to their experiences and recitation of Dafa lectures. Some of them started to learn the lectures by heart. One morning, when I opened my eyes, I shouted, "Truth, Compassion and Tolerance are the principles of the universe. Falun Dafa is good!" Without instruction or inspiration, the detainees followed me and shouted, "Truth, Compassion and Tolerance are the principles of the universe. Falun Dafa is good!" These voices greatly shocked the evil.

Thus, something happened on its own: we shouted, "Falun Dafa is good!" before getting up every morning. The police guards intended to "transform" Falun Dafa practitioners by using the criminal detainees. Quite the opposite of their expectations, all of the detainees in the cell got to know the truth of Falun Dafa. So the police guards were extremely frustrated and transferred me to another cell, where I kept my righteous thoughts and righteous behavior. I kept clarifying the truth and went on a hunger strike. Helplessly, the police transferred me back to the previous cell. When I came back to the cell, all the detainees got to their feet excitedly and joyfully. They greeted me as if they were meeting a distinguished guest or their family member. They were so happy, especially the one who was sentenced to the death penalty. At the time, he held my hand and said in a quivering voice, "Falun Gong, I am at rest now that you are back! Do you know, I was sworn at every day since you left. They called me a symbol of disaster. They said, 'Falun Gong is so good, how could you oppose it. It is you who made him leave us.' I confessed my mistake and apologized. However, they did not forgive me and kept swearing at me every day. Then I did regret it, and promised that I would get Falun Gong back to us. I've been longing for you every day. See, you have returned. I won't be sworn at any longer since you are back. From now on, I am determined to be a good person!"

His regret moved the drug dealer as well. He became less disrespectful of Dafa. But he only changed superficially and his heart did not change genuinely. Soon, there was an open trial in the city to crack down on crimes. Some detainees were picked out to accompany the criminals to be sentenced. It turned out that only drug criminals were singled out this time. It was really strange that the drug dealer in our cell who was detained for selling 0.3g of cocaine, which was the lightest crime among the criminals, was chosen to attend the open trial. Some drug dealers who were detained for selling over 100g of cocaine were not picked. After he was taken out, the police handcuffed him extremely tight. He felt so much pain that he almost fainted. He pleaded for them to loosen the handcuffs a little bit, but they did not pay attention to him. Not until the street demonstration finished after the open trial did his handcuffs get loosened. When he came back to the cell, he said, "Since I did not respect Falun Gong in my heart, I almost lost my life today during the street demonstration. It looks like I suffered karmic retribution today. From now on, I will never say anything against Dafa!"

Due to my righteous thoughts and righteous behavior in the prison, I was released unconditionally. I walked out of the prison nobly and joined in the mighty current of Fa-rectification once again.