(Clearwisdom.net) Tears ran down my face when I read the news that Dafa disciple Liu Chengjun had been tortured to death. Our fellow practitioner, and a good man, Liu lost his life at thirty-two years of age simply because he exposed the evil to save sentient beings. His benevolent deeds will be forever recorded in history.

I met Liu Chengjun at an experience sharing conference in July 2001. He was a tall man with a strong build. He sat by my side and shared with everybody about how he broke out of the labor camp. He shed tears when other practitioners shared their experiences.

Later, some of us, including Chengjun and I, lived together for awhile and cooperated in Dafa work. He never wore expensive clothes, but his clothes were always very neat and tidy. He would wipe his shoes clean and put them away each time he returned home.

Chengjun was very diligent in studying the Fa. When the persecution started on July 20, 1999, he had already read Zhuan Falun more than 300 times. When we studied the Fa together, even without looking at the book, he could catch any mistake other practitioners made when they read. For a while after his release from the labor camp, he encountered interference when he studied the Fa since he hadn't had the chance to study the Fa for a long time while in detention. Each time he picked up the book, he would feel sleepy, but he never gave up. He would read the book aloud if he felt sleepy. If this didn't work, he would wash his face with cold water. Soon he was able to stay alert and read the book. He cherished that time very much. He would recite the Fa even when he was cooking. Every night he insisted on studying the Fa until midnight. The next morning he would get up at 3:40 sharp to study the Fa and do the exercises.

At that time, we did not pay enough attention to sending forth righteous thoughts. We only did it three times on Saturdays. However, Chengjun was very serious about sending forth righteous thoughts. He did it every hour and suggested that we do the same. At times when we didn't join him, he would sit there quietly sending forth righteous thoughts by himself.

We often went out together to distribute truth-clarification materials. Each time Chengjun would ask us to return first, while he stayed behind to deal with any possible trouble. At that time, we had a copier. Because the volume of materials needed was very large, we had to leave the machine running from morning to night. Finally the machine broke down, and we couldn't make materials for half a month. Then Chengjun took charge of the material production work. The machine worked again and never broke during the time he was printing materials.

On October 1, 2001, Chengjun went to Tiananmen Square, in Beijing, to appeal. He held a Dafa banner and ran around the Square shouting, "Falun Dafa is good!" The police arrested him. While in detention, he refused to give the police his name and address. After twenty-two days of hunger strike, he was released. When he returned, he was emaciated, but he fully recovered within a few days. Later the police raided our material production site because a spy had reported us. As Chengjun was leaving the site, he passed by the police as they were going upstairs. Restrained by his righteous thoughts, the police were not able to move and he left safely.

A month later, he helped us set up a new material production site. However, the police raid at the old site had frightened many practitioners. We all had a strong attachment to fear and didn't even dare go out to distribute materials. The whole area was blanketed in terror. Seeing this situation, Chengjun was very concerned. He arranged meetings for us to share experiences with each other. In order to improve the cultivation environment, he took the lead in validating the Fa.

One day, he bought seven buckets of paint. He went out with the paint in the morning and didn't come back until 2:00 in the afternoon. His hands were stained with red paint, and five of the buckets were empty. He had painted truth-clarifying messages everywhere. [Note: Without access to any typical means of communication such as newspapers, magazines, TV, or radio, Falun Gong practitioners in China have resorted to many creative and sometimes unusual methods for raising awareness among Chinese people about the persecution.] Inspired by him, we gradually stepped forward and started to make materials again.

After the new materials site was running smoothly, he left to help other practitioners set up materials sites. After that, we rarely saw each other. He came back only once in awhile. He usually didn't tell us what he had been doing to expose the persecution. Only when the news came that he was arrested for intercepting TV signals did we know that he was one of the pioneers who broadcast the truth of Falun Gong on Chinese TV.

Liu Chengjun has left us --his fellow practitioners, his family, and his friends. Using his own life, he has acted according to the highest standards, has resisted the evil, and awakened the general public.

2004-1-6