(Clearwisdom.net) Every issue of "Minghui Weekly" (a weekly collection of Minghui articles often passed from practitioner to practitioner in China, most of whom are unable to access the Internet freely) can move me to tears. I am deeply moved by Master's compassion and salvation and by fellow practitioners' heroic and righteous thoughts and actions. "Minghui Weekly" helps me examine myself, find my shortcomings, strengthen my righteous thoughts, and cultivate myself more diligently. In reminiscence of my cultivation path, I found that I had acknowledged the arrangements of the old forces, especially during the three years of tribulations in the labor camp. Even during the time when I thought that I had done pretty well, I was still in a state of passively and helplessly enduring tribulations, and did not exhibit the state that a Dafa cultivator should have. Looking into the causes, I found that it is just as what Master told us in "Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference,"
"When it comes to those who oppose the old forces' arrangements and who have very strong righteous thoughts, they can't touch them. In other words, during this period of time, no matter how bad the persecution is, if the Dafa disciples' minds are very upright, they have very strong righteous thoughts, and understand everything clearheadedly and calmly, a lot of losses will be averted."
On March 13, 2000, I was unlawfully sent to the 4th division of Shijiazhuang City Labor Camp. Other practitioners and I resisted the persecution. We refused to do the forced labor. The punishments that the guards gave us started with forcing us to stand by a wall for 17 to 20 hours each day (accepting the punishment was, in fact, tantamount to our condoning the persecution) to later forcing us to participate in "military drills." Fellow practitioners later came to the understanding that we came here to validate the Fa and not to follow the evil's orders.
One morning in late March 2003, when over 50 of us practitioners were forced to perform "military drills," some fellow practitioners stepped forward and started to practice the Falun Gong exercises. When the guards pushed three of them into the office and prepared to tie them up and beat them, other practitioners continued to step forward to practice the exercises or started to recite the poems in Hong Yin. I said to the fellow practitioners beside me, "Let's recite 'Lunyu.'" So eighteen of us practitioners tightly held each other by the arms and closely stayed together, and we simultaneously started to recite, "The Buddha Fa is most profound; among all the theories in the world, it is the most intricate and extraordinary science..." Our powerful voices greatly shocked the evil beings in the labor camp and in other dimensions. Almost all the labor camp guards came swarming toward us and started to punch and kick us. The labor camp was in chaos. The guards dragged me away from my fellow practitioners. They pushed me down to the floor and my head hit the floor heavily. I did not feel any pain, nor did I have any bruises. When I stood up, a female guard slapped my face. I loudly recited Master's "Non-Existence" [Master Li's poem in Hong Yin]. After I recited the poem several times, I noticed that the female guard had gone away. (Although I was able to think and act righteously, I failed to understand that Dafa is almighty, Master is with us and the evil can do nothing to us.)
After we recited Lunyu the second time, the guards divided us into two groups, trying to make us feel scared. Some fellow practitioners thought that the evil would come back and attack us if we continued to validate the Fa, and they felt heavyhearted. (We failed to negate and eradicate the evil from deep in our hearts, not to mention that we didn't realize that Master was right beside us. Why didn't we ask Master for help?) I discussed the issue with several fellow practitioners and decided that the next day after I loudly counted "one, two, three," we would all start to practice the exercises simultaneously.
On the morning of April 4, 2000, we came back from using the toilet and gathered together. Seeing we all were standing together, I held the arms of the fellow practitioners beside me and shouted loudly, "Lunyu." Immediately, over twenty practitioners started to recite "Lunyu." The voices reciting "Lunyu" again resounded into the sky over the labor camp, penetrating layers of dark clouds.
We were beaten up even more severely than the first time. I was dragged into the office. My mind became very calm (I completely acknowledged the beatings that were about to happen). Guard Liu Xiumin slapped my face with both of her hands. After she was tired, Liu Yuying took over the slapping. The two guards tied me up and forced me to kneel on the floor. They picked up the batons and started to hit me fiercely on my buttocks. Later, they took up a kind of wooden board (I had my eyes closed at that time. Someone told me later that it was a piece of bamboo.) and held my hair, and they started to slap my face on the left side with the bamboo. When they had hit me many time on the left side of my face, they started to slap the right side. My face became so swollen that it seemed as if it would burst open; it was black and blue all over. Liu Yuying held onto my arms, which were tied behind my back, and pulled them up painfully.
An ordinary person's life would be in great danger if he or she were tortured to such a state. However, I did not feel any pain. It was as if it were not me who was being beaten. Later a fellow practitioner told me that someone saw Master's face became black and blue that day as a result of the beating.
In "Teaching the Fa at the Great Lakes Fa Conference in North America," Master told us,
"At that time, since this evil was incredibly enormous, it would have been impossible for students to bear it; and then if it weren't borne, their test wouldn't count. You can't just annihilate it, so you have to bear it. But I knew that if the students were to bear it, it would be very hard for them to make it through. So I could only let the students bear the evilness played out by human beings, whereas I bore the real things."
At the end of April 2000, we all took off our prisoner's clothes and staged a hunger strike simultaneously, demanding an unconditional release. The labor camp often broadcast recordings defaming Dafa over the lunch period. One day I sat by the door when I was allowed to go out of the cell. I found that the broadcasting room was right across from our cell. Several of us agreed that we would go there to stop them and recite "Lunyu" next time they broadcast. At noon on June 1, four of us went into the broadcasting room. A fellow practitioner then pulled the microphone out of the socket. I told the inmate who was broadcasting that it would not do him any good if he slandered Dafa. Just then, the guards and those who were watching us rushed into the room and closely surrounded us. Three of us were transferred to a different division for over three weeks. When we were sent back, a fellow practitioner told me that after we were taken away, the broadcasting slandering Dafa continued. One day in mid-June, by herself she rushed into the broadcasting room and spoke loudly into the microphone, "Falun Dafa is great!" The whole labor camp was shocked. The guard who was on duty was so scared that the bowl in her hand dropped to the floor. In other dimensions, there must have been a big battle between the righteous and the evil.
At the beginning of July 2000, sixteen Dafa practitioners including me were detained in the strictly controlled class, and we were watched around the clock. One day at noon, the broadcasts slandering Dafa resumed. We all started to loudly recite "Lunyu" at the same rhythm. Over ten people who were watching us came to pull our hair, cover our mouths, shock and slap us in order to stop us. Our voices reciting "Lunyu" rose one after another. When we finished reciting "Lunyu," the evil broadcast also stopped. As long as the evil broadcast continued, we would keep on reciting "Lunyu." In just a few days, the slanderous broadcasting stopped.
In January 2002, I was transferred to the 5th Division of Shijiazhuang City Labor Camp. On April 12, 2002, the first day the guards started to force me to go through a one-day brainwashing session, I started a hunger strike. A guard attempted to prevent me from sleeping. I questioned him, "Is it all right if you are not allowed to sleep?" I would sleep when it was bedtime. Later because I did not have strong righteous thoughts, I could not bear the pain of hunger and thirst, and I started to eat. One day when it was after midnight, I asked the collaborator [a former practitioner who was brainwashed] why she did not allow me to sleep, and I asked her to call in the division chief, who said that I could sleep for a little while when I was sleepy. I was only allowed to sleep two to three hours each day. Ten days later, because I refused to give in, the guard said, "You will not be allowed to sleep if you refuse to be 'transformed.' If you want to sleep, you must accept the transformation." I said that I would rather not sleep than give in. (So unknowingly I again walked onto the path that was arranged by the old forces by accepting the persecution.) One night after I was deprived of sleep for eight or nine days, a vicious collaborator was watching me, and in order not to let me sleep, she allowed me to recite "Lunyu." I started to walk back and forth in the cell and kept loudly reciting "Lunyu." The collaborator counted how many times I recited. By the time of the shift change, I had recited "Lunyu" 35 times.
Only until a later time did I realize that my reciting "Lunyu" that time had greatly suffocated the evil and it had played critical role in clearing up the corrupt beings in my own dimensions. By the thirteenth day, the brainwashing finally failed.
During the months before I left the labor camp, the guards kept telling me, "You can not go home and you will be imprisoned instead." I was also prepared to die rather than give in. (So I still based my views on my personal cultivation.) Fellow practitioners outside the labor camp kept supporting me by sending forth righteous thoughts. I also kept reciting the Fa and sending forth righteous thoughts daily. One day I finally realized that I would soon go home and the evil could no longer persecute me. I was unconditionally released on schedule.
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