(Clearwisdom.net) I am an ordinary farm woman from a mountain district. I started practicing Falun Gong at the end of 1996. Before I started practicing I had various illnesses, such as uterine cancer, nephritis, arthritis, headaches, toothaches, and pain in my arms and back. All my illnesses and symptoms disappeared when I started practicing Falun Dafa. This helped me to remain steadfast in my cultivation.
After July 20, 1999, when the persecution began, two fellow practitioners and I went to Beijing to validate Falun Dafa, and we were arrested. The lawless officials took all the arrested practitioners from Hebei Province into a courtyard in Baoding City. On the second day, the local police from various districts and counties came to take us back. One by one, the officials dragged the practitioners into cars. I kept Teacher's words in mind,
"Just by staying unaffected, you will be able to handle all situations." (Lecture on the Fa at the U.S. Midwest Conference, June 16, 1999, Chicago)
I refused to move, and they beat and dragged me. They damaged my watch. My heart was not disturbed, and they couldn't move me, so they left me on the road in the courtyard. In the afternoon, when all the practitioners were gone, a car from the Laishui County Police Department came and took thirteen practitioners from Yi County. That night, the Yi County police took us back and illegally locked us up in a college building.
In the morning, the police department bureau chief said that since I had already been to Beijing twice, they would send me to the detention center. While I was there, my relatives and friends were terribly worried about me. My husband was working out of the city, and he returned to try to convince me to stop practicing. I said, "What I practice is righteous and it is not wrong. I have regained my health and no longer get angry at people or become sick. Falun Dafa teaches people to be kind, and asks us to look within to improve ourselves. Falun Dafa teaches us about virtue, not to commit crimes, and it is good for society and families." My husband even threatened to divorce me. I passed these tribulations one by one. They wanted me to compromise by writing a Guarantee Statement while keeping up the practice at home. I refused. The lawless officials threatened my family members, forcing them to write the statement and to sign for me. I refused every time. Some practitioners were released, and my heart was moved. I thought that I could not practice or read the books in the detention center since I did not write the guarantee, and if I went back home, I could practice and read, and how nice that would be. I did not realize that this was a plot by Jiang's regime to persecute us. I hereby solemnly declare that the guarantee my husband wrote for me is null and void.
When they released me from the detention center, the police wanted to videotape me. They wanted me to say what they wanted to hear, but I refused. A policeman tried to coach me sentence by sentence, but I recited Teacher's "True Nature Revealed" instead:
"Steadfastly cultivate Dafa, the will unflinching
The raising of levels is what's fundamental
In the face of tests one's true nature is revealed
Achieve Consummation, becoming a Buddha, Dao, or God" (Essentials for Further Advancement II)
Maybe because my righteous thoughts were strong, their videotaping was not successful. They fined me two hundred yuan. I said that I had not disturbed the peace, but the police said that they still had to fine me.
In November 1999, I went to Yi County for an experience sharing conference. Someone reported it to the police, and the police arrested everyone who attended the conference. The town police station arrested me and three other practitioners. They asked us if we still practiced, and we said, "Yes." Seeing that we were steadfast, they put us on record.
The town officials, knowing that we were firm practitioners, wanted to persecute us. They made four signs and hung them on us, then paraded us down the street. They put two signs on me, one of them saying, "Falun Gong Core Member." We had to stand for a long time on the road while people watched us. I thought that this was a good opportunity to promote the practice, so I smiled at the others and I was not cowed by the public humiliation. Before I started practicing, I was always timid in front of others, but this time it was different. To validate that Falun Dafa was righteous, I could not cling to human notions. Even after the officials exhausted their tricks, they had still failed to change our confidence in Dafa. They sent me and another practitioner back to the detention center.
The county police took a dozen practitioners, as if we were criminals, into a hall to make a videotape to slander our Teacher and Falun Dafa. They wanted every practitioner, our families, and friends in the county to see us. I thought that I had not committed any wrongdoings, and I firmly believed in Teacher and Falun Dafa. I could not shame our Teacher, so I smiled. At that time the situation was somewhat chaotic, and the policemen were angry, but they didn't know what to do.
A policeman slapped my face and took us back to the detention center. The police dragged me out of the car, and started hitting my left cheek and my head. I felt dizzy from the beating. Four or five policemen were hitting me, and my left cheek and my eyes became swollen immediately. I could not see anything. A policeman mocked me, "What happened to your face?" And I said, "The law enforcement officers, who know the laws, broke those laws and hit me."
One time when I was meditating, a prison guard saw me. He ordered a practitioner to pull my hand away, but the practitioner refused. The prison guard became angry and called out all the practitioners in my cell. They whipped our buttocks with rubber tubes. Later, they handcuffed anyone who practiced. When they ran out of handcuffs they cuffed two practitioners together.
A few days later, practitioners who came back from Beijing said that the practitioners in Beijing went on a hunger strike to suppress the evil. We went on a hunger strike with no food or water. On the fourth night, prison guards took me and three other practitioners into their office. They forced us to kneel on the floor for a long time. My face turned pale and I was numb all over. Seeing this, the prison guards sent us back. I passed out as soon as I left the room. I don't know how long it took me to regain consciousness. I saw that all the practitioners were crying when they saw me regain consciousness.
When I went back to the cell, the prison guards sent a village doctor to see me. I said, "I am not sick. You can't solve my problem. All we need is a place to practice, but the government won't let us." The doctor, knowing that there was nothing he could do, left.
On the fifth night, the town police department came to take me and another practitioner away, and released other practitioners. The county police chief asked us whether we still practiced, and we both said, "Yes." He said that we both could go. They would not let us go home when we got back to town. The town police said that we could go after we got something to eat, and they asked my family members to convince me to eat. I told my family that I would not eat unless they allowed me to go home. They did not let us go until the afternoon of the next day. A few days later the police department came to ask for five thousand yuan. I said that I did not have money, and my two children needed money for school, and I refused to give them anything.
The elders of the family and my siblings were fearful of the constant harassment by police, so I talked to them about the truth of the persecution. I told them that we follow the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance," and we are not wrong. It's Jiang Zemin who persecutes us and Falun Dafa. I am a practitioner, and I know right from wrong, good from bad. Gradually my family came to understand Falun Dafa, and now knows that "Falun Dafa is great." I live my life according to the Fa principles, let go of my human notions, remain steadfast in my cultivation, and strive to bring salvation to all beings.
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