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Life is Precious: How I Overcame Severe Persecution with Righteous Thoughts

April 25, 2005

(Clearwisdom.net) My three-year-old cousin walked behind his grandpa. From time to time he stopped and waited for me. The bright warm sunshine caressed my body. Even the wind was warm. Trees along the street bore purple flowers. To my eyes, everything was beautiful and serene.

This was the third day after my release from detention. After a fierce, 18-day battle between good and evil, much of my body no longer functioned as it should. Even now parts of my body just didn't obey me. Despite my efforts to walk faster, I could not catch up with the little boy and his grandpa.

Even in such a weakened condition, I still felt amazingly good. Those who had persecuted me could never have imagined that I, who had almost died from their torture, would be able to walk down the street only two days after my release.

The previous weeks had brought me quite unforgettable experiences and profound lessons.

One day after lunch almost three weeks before, I heard the doorbell. I opened the door and saw a colleague of my husband and a stranger. The stranger said he wanted to see our residential registration papers. But as soon as he came in, he changed his story. A group of police arrived soon after. They identified themselves as officers from the Qiaodong Police Department and showed a search warrant to take me away. I refused, so they had to carry me down the stairs and out of my apartment building. I shouted along the way, "Everyone, look! The police are arresting good people who believe in Truth, Compassion and Forbearance while they are leaving murderers alone. What kind of society is this?" The police remained silent, pushed me into a car and drove away.

The police station was ready for me: a small metal chair and small handcuffs seemed to have been especially prepared for my petite size. I recalled a fellow practitioner who was forced to spend 28 days in a metal chair during the summer. Her buttocks had developed ulcers. Her husband and younger brother suffered from the bamboo stick torture: all their fingers were pierced by sharp bamboo sticks.

It was dark. I tried to figure out what I had or had not done to cause this to happen. It had all happened so suddenly, and I felt tired and sleepy. A police officer walked in. He acted as if he cared about my well-being and asked if I had had dinner. I said, "I am on a hunger strike to protest the illegal arrest." I refused to answer his questions. At the same time, I felt extremely sleepy. Soon, I could not feel his presence. Vaguely, I felt that he raised my head and asked something. My conscience told me, "Send forth righteous thoughts and eradicate all factors that persecute me," but I could not control my mind, and I fell asleep.

The next day, they took me to a military guesthouse. The small metal chair and the small handcuffs came along. It seemed that they had thoroughly studied my background and knew that I once had escaped from detention under an "impossible" situation. They locked me onto the metal chair and shackled my hands to the chair. They also assigned a three-person crew (two men and a woman) to monitor me around the clock. They sent a new crew every 24 hours.

This did not last long, however. They had to release me from the chair soon, because I convinced them that no conversation was possible under such conditions.

Now I was able to remain calm. I thought to myself, "As bad as things can get in situations like this, I'd better be prepared for a good fight with the dark minions and rotten demons. I am a Dafa practitioner. My wisdom is superior. Although those dark minions and rotten demons can control people, they are evil and I am righteous. They are forever inferior to me." My courage was so great that I had no fear of death. Justice was one hundred percent on my side, while they had none! Although I still had attachments and impure thoughts, that's precisely the reason for continuing my cultivation. The evil forces are by no means allowed to take advantage of my omissions.

On the fourth day, they started to force-feed me. After they chained me to a metal chair, six people came to pinch my nose. They fed me a liquid of mixed glucose and salt. I resisted strenuously, so their effort was not very effective and most of the liquid spilled.

I became weaker and weaker. They could no longer feed me anything. I would vomit whatever they fed me, so they started to give me infusions. As soon as the nurse left I would pull out the needle. They begged, "Please, don't fight us. What do you want to do?" How shameless of them to ask me what I wanted! I answered, "Let me go home." They refused. Next time they locked me in the chair and tied my hands to the chair, I was too weak to sit straight. I had shortness of breath and a rapid heartbeat. They carried me over to a bed and ordered three people to hold my hands to make the infusion possible. A female guard could not bear to see me suffer like this. She would unlock my handcuffs when the others left. Consequently, I was reluctant to pull out the needle under her watch because she might be blamed.

After several days, I became very weak and skinny. At my request, they opened the door and windows, but I still felt as if I were suffocating. The nurse adjusted the infusion rate to the minimum, fearing I might have heart failure. Although my human side was extremely weak, my divine side felt extremely strong. I was powerful enough to keep on eliminating bad elements in other dimensions. Those bad things were all different but equally ugly. During that time, bad thoughts sometime surfaced. I even had doubts about my abilities. Whenever this happened, I asked Teacher for help. I felt ashamed for begging for Teacher's help to defeat these incorrect thoughts, but who else could I ask for help if not our Teacher? What I could do was to try my best to eliminate those bad elements and purify myself.

The police from the National Security Bureau were the ones who had arrested me. They had found some materials in my home that I had downloaded from the Internet and reported their findings to the municipal government. I became a key person in a big case, but I couldn't care less about such circumstances. I paid no attention to their actions. I didn't care how much they knew about me. I was as solid as a rock. I only concentrated on exposing their hypocrisy and evil. I always demonstrated my righteousness, compassion and mercy. I used my wisdom as a Dafa practitioner to defeat them. This was not to show myself off but to demonstrate the wonderfulness of Dafa.

In every "conversation" (the police were careful not to used the word "interrogation"), I always had the upper hand. Whether we debated theory or facts, I always won. Later, even the guards assigned to watch me said, "We can tell that they'll never be able to "transform" you! Every time they said one word, your answer came out in full sentences. They are no match for you at all." Actually, my intention was not to argue with them. They had no truth on their side, yet they chose to debate me, so the results were obvious.

Finally, they realized that they could never win (and make me renounce Dafa), and two weeks later they gave up. Yet they refused to admit their failure, and sent me to a forced labor camp.

I was carried to the "reforming" center on the third floor of the labor camp building. On the first and second floors they detained several "reformed" practitioners (collaborators). This building held Team Five, the so-called "Falun Gong Team." Most of the detainees were practitioners, and the rest were drug addicts assigned to monitor the practitioners. The environment in this team was very bad, and evil behavior was widespread. Some of the "reformed" people looked very strange: everything about them, from their facial expressions and mannerisms to their conversation, seemed abnormal. I was surprised to see how evil this place was.

The perpetrators sent two former practitioners to persuade me to give up Falun Gong. The guards considered these two to be completely "reformed." The first person only spent half a day with me before asking for a transfer. The second person and I knew each other very well. We used to hide in the same place to avoid police harassment. She also requested to move out after the first day. My other companion, a young girl, said, "It's strange. Those two are commonly recognized as the most persuasive. How come they became speechless before you?" The answer is simple: evil cannot overcome righteous.

On the third floor, the authorities were trying to force two other practitioners to "reform." One hadn't slept for over twenty days. Despite this harsh treatment, she refused to compromise.

In my four days in the labor camp and during my detention in the military guesthouse, the authorities' major objective had become to convince me to eat. While in the guesthouse they tried to persuade me to eat tasty egg drop soup by bringing it close to my mouth several times. In the labor camp they blamed me for "not listening to Teacher's words and not cherishing life." All their tactics failed. I told them clearly, "I cherish my life very much, but there are other things that I cherish more. Some things are more precious than life, such as the freedom that I don't have. My conscience and dignity are also more precious than life. If you take these away, I would rather die!" They asked, "What would make you eat?" "Let me go home," I answered.

After their failure to make me eat, the police guards threatened me with force-feeding. The next day they sent in two new inmates to monitor me. They also sent seven or eight people to force-feed me. They pushed me down and inserted a tube into my stomach through my nostril. The labor camp doctor intentionally dragged the tube back and forth, causing great pain and nausea. I almost suffocated. The food poured down the tube and into my stomach and it spilled out of my mouth again. I don't know how much they forced into my stomach. After the feeding, they left the tube inserted. They also separated my hands and handcuffed them to the bed. One hour later I began to vomit. They unlocked the handcuffs and removed the tube. They were furious, because their effort was wasted, "We will feed you again this afternoon, using the same tube!" In the afternoon they were even more violent. After they finished the job, my nose bled profusely.

They were torturing me to make me compromise with them. I would not compromise, but I didn't welcome such torture either. I could no longer waste my time with them. I had many things to do. I had to get out quickly.

I kept on sending forth righteous thoughts and asked Teacher for help. In the meantime, the two other practitioners who were strongly resisting the persecution also gave me encouragement. At about 5:00 p.m. that day, I suddenly had a bowel movement after more than ten days without. I saw black colored stool and told two inmates to have a look. I told them that I had internal bleeding. Before bedtime I had another bowel movement. The team leader also learned about this. I also told them that my stomach had hurt all night and that it had become worse in the morning. They were frightened and stopped the force-feeding. A doctor came in with a bottle for an infusion. The doctor examined me first. Wherever she touched, I would yell and complain about a pain. She was frightened and stopped the infusion.

Soon, a district 610 Office supervisor and two deputy police team leaders arrived. I told them, "I don't want to see you." The deputy leader said, "You should be happy today. We are taking you home." But before that, a team leader said they were sending me to a hospital. Indeed, they sent me to a hospital and I had a complete physical examination. They didn't show me the results, but the doctor appeared very nervous and refused to accept me. I guessed the result must have been very bad; otherwise they would not give up after spending so much time and effort on me. I knew, however, that I was alright. I would recover very quickly. In the end, I was unconditionally released.

Both sides of the Old Moat River were well decorated with flowers. Yellow chrysanthemum blossoms tossed in the wind. I sat on a long bench and enjoyed the warm sunshine. I breathed this free and fresh air while slowly recollecting the details of the whole event.

Although it superficially appears that the reason for my arrest was a traitor informing the police, the outcome was that I was released after a life-and-death struggle. But, after I looked harder, I found that the root cause of this tribulation was my own attachment to "doing things." I was so attached to "doing things" that eventually, I could not even find time to study the Fa and do the exercises. The evil took advantage of my attachment and exhausted me with busy work. This is a profound lesson learned.

I was finally able to overcome the persecution and come out of detention, relying on my firm belief in Dafa. More importantly, I later learned that many practitioners were helping me: they sent forth righteous thoughts and tried other ways to rescue me. It was truly a one-body effort.

Although I never complied with my tormentors, my noble and upright character inspired the police and criminal inmates. I earned their respect. Even though the traitor who turned me in helped the police, the police looked down on him. He betrayed fellow practitioners and sold his soul for personal gain. I feel pity for such a person.

In the military guesthouse, my room cost 180 yuan a night. They rented three rooms and assigned a total of seven to eight people to my case. Their living expenses alone were very high. On my way home, the 610 official shook a finger at me and said, "Do you know that your case cost 10,000 yuan!" I said with a sigh, "Wouldn't it be wonderful if you spent the money to help poor people in mountain villages or unemployed city residents? Instead, in just twelve days, you spent all that money just to torture an innocent woman almost to death."