(Minghui.org)
Greetings esteemed Master!
Greetings fellow practitioners!
I was detained for 3 years in a forced labor camp. Inside the forced labor camp, I did not have any fear of the evil and I validated the Fa with righteous thoughts and actions. I want to share my experience inside the camp with fellow practitioners and report to Master.
An Electric Baton Attack Has No Effect
One event shocked the forced labor camp guards and prisoners and led them to show respect for me. Once thirty to forty Dafa practitioners in the forced labor camp refused to wear the prison uniform, recite their prison number, or do slave labor. We also began a hunger strike to protest that some practitioners were tortured.
A guard said, “Whoever does not obey the forced labor camp rules needs to be made an example of. Let's see who can survive my rope torture.” A dozen practitioners immediately stood up in protest. The guards tied the practitioners with ropes one by one. I shouted loudly, “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” Meanwhile, I recited the Fa-Rectification verses. My voice was very loud and spread over the entire forced labor camp.
Several guards came over to stop me. I ran from them while shouting at the same time. After a guard caught me, two guards twisted my arms, one guard removed my socks and another guard used handcuffs to pry open my teeth and tried to gag my mouth with the socks. I used all my strength to keep my mouth closed and did not cooperate with the guards. Those guards just could not get anything into my mouth. Then they tried to pull my arms behind my back and handcuff me. I stretched my arms apart and did not let them pull my hands together. The guards were afraid of losing face in front of the prisoners. Two guards held my arms and pushed me to the backyard.
In a room by the backyard, the guards told me to kneel down. I told them I only kneel to my Master. A guard kicked my legs and back repeatedly for a long time. I raised my head and said, “I won't kneel. I did nothing wrong.” Three guards came over. Two of them twisted my arms and pulled them back. One put a rope around my neck and then tied it to my arms. I jerked my head hard and all three guards were pushed away a few steps. They came back again to try to tie me. I jerked my head again and they were pushed back again. This happened several times. The guards became exhausted. A guard said, “Why does she have such strength? She is very tiny.” Finally the guards came all at once and managed to tie my arms to my neck, pulling my head down. But I did not feel pain.
The guards tightened the rope until my fingers turned purple. Then they released it a little and then they tightened it again. They repeated this a dozen times. But they still could not control me. A guard said they should tie my neck to my legs. Then the guards really did tie my legs together, and then tied them to my neck. My body was bent at 90 degrees. Usually when the guards used this method to torture practitioners, the practitioners could not stand it for more than ten minutes. So I sat on the ground and ignored them. The guards grabbed the rope on my back, pulled me off the ground, and brutally smashed me back on the ground again and again. But I did not feel any pain.
The guards still could not control me. A tall guard pulled out an electric baton and planned to shock me. He pushed the button and I saw blue sparks come out of the baton. I was a little afraid. But then I immediately remembered what Master said,
“Grand talk counts for naught when it comes to life and death,
Actions reveal what is true.” (“The Knowing Heart,” Essentials for Further Advancement II)
I immediately felt as if my body was very tall and I was not afraid of anything. The electric baton just looked like a toy and I also felt the evil guard was so tiny. The guard shocked my feet with the electric baton. I did not have any reaction. He shocked my face, I still did not have any reaction. Then he shocked my arms. I just felt like ants had crawled on my arms. The tall guard told the others, “She is insulated from the electric shock. She did not have any reaction.” I said, “This is a supernormal power.”
After they tried to torture me for the entire morning and afternoon, they watched over me in shifts all night. But then they stopped torturing me, just tying my arms loosely with ropes. I started to clarify the truth to the guards. Quite a few guards came to understand the truth. During the shift changes, the departing guard often told the one who came on duty, “She is really great! She is really something.”
The next day after I went back to the prison room, almost all the prisoners came over. The prisoner who was in charge of all the prisoners said to me, “Sister, you really suffered a lot. We all truly admire you and respect you. We all have been very afraid of the rope torture. But you are so brave. You are not afraid of them. The guards are afraid of you Falun Gong practitioners!”
“You Are the 'Big Sister' from Now on”
The prisoners all admired people who could stand up to the guards and not compromise. I stood up for Falun Gong. They felt I was very loyal and all said they wanted to be friends with me.
When I practiced the exercises, the prisoners all watched for guards for me voluntarily. When I sent forth righteous thoughts while sitting on my bed, all the prisoners left me alone. Once I was practicing the meditation on the bed. The captain of the prison guards came over and saw me. She called me to her office. As soon as I entered the office, she shouted to me to squat on the ground. I said, “I won't. I am not a prisoner. Why would I want to squat?” She said, “I will torture you really hard.” I said, “Is this what you refer to as 'education, influence and salvation' every day? Those are all hypocritical words.” I stared at her without blinking my eyes. She became upset and could not speak a word for a while. Finally she said, “You can go.”
The two prisoners who brought me to the office were scared. After we came back, the prisoners told the others what happened at the captain's office. All the prisoners said to me, “Big sister, you really have a strong mind.”
At the forced labor camp, some prisoners were very mean to practitioners. They frequently scolded and even beat the practitioners. When I was there, I did not allow this to happen. Once a prisoner brutally beat a practitioner. She said the practitioner had given some Dafa articles to other practitioners and the guards found out. I came over to pull the prisoner away. Another prisoner said, “Big sister, we all respect you. You should leave us alone.” I said, “We are all Dafa practitioners. Her thing is my thing. You must stop beating her.” The prisoner who was in charge of all the prisoners then came over and said, “Big sister already asked you to stop. Why don't you stop?”
Once a practitioner from another prison team died as a result of torture. In order to keep this quiet, the forced labor camp gathered the prisoners who monitored the Dafa practitioners for a meeting. The guards criticized practitioners, and asked the prisoners to watch us even more closely. After that, I talked with another practitioner as usual before going to sleep. The prisoner who was sent to watch me immediately came over to grab my hair and pulled me down from the bed. Then she started to beat me. I tried to push her away with my hands. She then beat me crazily. I grabbed her hair and swung her to the side. Just when she was about to stand up and beat me again, the person in charge of all the prisoners came over, grabbed her hair and slapped her face back and forth. Then she kicked her while scolding, “Do you know the rules here? How dare you beat our big sister? Do you still want to survive here?”
“I Won't Go Anywhere, I Am Speaking Here”
Once a year, on the evil party's so-called “national day,” the forced labor camp allowed a half-day break. Practitioners decided to send forth righteous thoughts directly under the evil party's bloody flag. At 10 a. m., all the practitioners came out of their prison rooms and gathered in the middle of the courtyard. They started to send forth righteous thoughts, sitting in the meditation position and with the palm held up in front of the chest.
A few minutes later, the guards saw this and were scared. They immediately asked the prisoners who were sent to watch us to drag the practitioners back inside. Some prisoners used this opportunity to beat the practitioners. The practitioners then began a hunger strike to protest and refused to go to lunch. The guards asked prisoners to drag us to the cafeteria. When it was time for forced labor work, they also asked prisoners to drag us to the workshop. Many practitioners' pants were damaged. Many practitioners and I started to shout loudly, “Falun Dafa is good!” We recited all the way to the workshop. The captain said to me, “You must come over to this room to shout. Then I will let you shout as much as you want.” I said, “I won't go anywhere, I am speaking here.” I stood in the middle of the workshop and continuously shouted, “Falun Dafa is good! Restore the reputation of Dafa and Master!”
At that time my mind was blank. I felt Faluns turning around my face. A few dozen practitioners stopped working and started to send forth righteous thoughts. The workshop became quiet and the guards were shocked. After I finished reciting, I started to practice the exercises. Other practitioners saw it and also stood in the middle of the workshop to practice the exercises. Most of the prisoners stopped working and just watched us practice the exercises.
“Big Sister's Speech Is Excellent”
Once, the prison team I was on accepted some orders for making duvet covers for the new students at a school. Some practitioners suggested that we should write letters to expose the persecution and put them inside the covers. This way the students would find them when they put the covers on their duvets. All the practitioners started to help. I found some paper and copied Master's new article, “Some Thoughts of Mine.” Then I folded the letters, wrote down “blessed with fortune” on the outside, and put them inside the covers.
Two to three weeks later, the school reported the letters in the duvet covers to the forced labor camp. The head of the forced labor camp got really angry. Guards were sent to investigate secretly. They asked many questions of prisoners who were watching the practitioners, but could not find any clue.
One day after 5 p. m., the guards gathered all the prisoners for a meeting. They said, “Today's meeting is about Falun Gong materials found in duvet covers made by our labor camp. Whoever did this should come out and acknowledge it. If no one comes out, then no one can eat dinner or go to sleep tonight. We won't end this until we find who did it.” The guards also told the prisoners, “The leadership does not want all people here to have to suffer. Why are Falun Gong practitioners afraid of taking responsibility for what they did?”
I thought, “If no one stands up, everyone will have to stay here and be taunted by the guards. This will also lead the prisoners to have bad thoughts about Falun Gong.” By then, some prisoners had already started to complain about Falun Gong.
I stood up and said, “Please stop complaining. Please stop listening to someone's incitation. I wrote the letters and I put them inside the duvet covers. What do you want to do?”
The others saw that I admitted it and all stopped talking. The guards saw that I had admitted to everything. One said, “Ok. You are all dismissed. Let's see how the leaders handle this case.”
The next day, some guards took me to the office. As soon as I entered the office, the captain told me to sit on a small bench. I said, “I won't sit on the small bench. It is for prisoners. I am not a prisoner. I need to sit on a regular chair.” So a guard asked a prisoner to bring a chair. Then I sat down. She said, “Regarding you putting the letters in the covers, the chief of the labor camp said you acknowledged it by yourself and your attitude is good. After we discussed, we decided to let you write a letter to acknowledge your mistakes. This is so we can give the school a good explanation.”
I said, “I cannot write such a letter. I did nothing wrong. Jiang Zemin's regime used the state's propaganda machine to deceive the world's people. Why can't I tell the truth about Falun Gong to the people? What kind of world is this? Bad people persecute good people. And the bad guys are still so arrogant. I won't write the letter even if you kill me.” She said, “How about you just talk about it in front of all the prisoners before lunch? They can line up twenty minutes before lunch.” I agreed.
I thought, “You asked me to talk. But it is not up to you what I say.” Before lunch, all the prisoners lined up and a guard called on me to talk. I peacefully stood in front of the people and said, “Hello everyone. I am a Falun Gong practitioner. I was sentenced to forced labor just because I went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Dafa. I just wanted to say Falun Dafa is good and requested them to restore Dafa and Master Li's reputation. I did nothing wrong. I am a Chinese citizen. The constitution gives me the right to petition. Falun Gong is innocent of trying to harm the state and has been brutally persecuted. I have the right to state my beliefs. This is the most basic human right.”
I further explained, “Why do I say Falun Dafa is good? Because Falun Dafa is the Buddha Fa. Falun Dafa teaches one to be a good person, to be selfless, to think of others first, and eventually become a person who can live for others. Falun Gong not only taught me how to be a good person, but also cured my illnesses. I once spent tens of thousands of yuan at hospitals to treat my many illnesses. But I did not improve. After I practiced Falun Gong for nine days, all of my illnesses disappeared. You tell me whether Falun Gong is good or not! Why did I write the letters to the students at the school? Because Falun Dafa has come to save all sentient beings. The people who think that Falun Dafa is not good will be in great danger in the future. So we Dafa practitioners risk our lives and safety to try to tell the public the truth about Falun Gong. We want people to know Falun Dafa is good, so they can have a beautiful future.”
A few guards walked back and forth. I wasn't sure whether they did not understanding what I said, or if they were afraid that if they objected to what I said, they could not finish their task of having me admit to putting the letters inside the covers.
A team leader asked, “You acknowledged what you did. What will you do in the future?”
I said, “I will do better in the future. And I really feel sorry for those who do not understand the truth about Falun Gong. I really feel pity for the people who are still helping the evil to persecute Dafa practitioners. Thank you everyone. I am finished. I won't delay everyone's lunch.”
As soon as I finished, everyone started to applaud. They all said, “Her speech is excellent. We really did not realize she was such a good speaker.” At lunch, a prisoner told me, “Big sister, you spoke very well. The only problem was that it was too short and I wish we could have heard more.”
“Falun Gong Practitioners Are Really Not Ordinary People”
Many prisoners liked to talk to me. When they had conflicts with someone, they came to me to talk about it. Some were misunderstood by others. They came to me to talk. When some prisoner's family sent them good food, they wanted to share it with me. I clarified the truth about Falun Dafa to them and told them about my personal improvement after practicing Falun Dafa. I also taught them to look inward and learn to tolerate others.
A prisoner was sent to the forced labor camp after being convicted of prostitution. Everyone disliked her. She realized she was unpopular. Once she got sick and had to stay in bed for a few days. I went over to take care of her a few times. She was very touched. I told her to recite “Falun Dafa is good and Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” She nodded sincerely. Someone gave me a few pieces of candy. I gave the candy to her. She cried, “Sister, I do not know how to thank you.” I said, “You should thank Master Li. He taught me to think of others first.”
A sixty-year-old woman was detained for reselling train tickets. Once she slipped and fell in the cafeteria and broke her arm. She could not eat, wash her clothing, take showers or go to the restroom. No one else took care of her, so I went over to wash clothes for her. It was during the hot summer, so I also helped her to take a shower every day. I cooked instant noodles and gave them to her. She was very touched and said she must learn Falun Gong after she was released since Falun Gong practitioners were so kind to people. Other prisoners told me, “You are not her family. But you treat her so well. You must treat your mother-in-law very well at home.” Another said, “Whoever has you as her daughter-in-law must be very fortunate.”
Finally, the three years of illegal forced labor imposed on me was about to end. During the few days before I was released, almost all the prisoners came over to say goodbye to me. They said I should really pay attention to my safety and practice Falun Gong well at home. They said they would look for me when they were released and left their contact information and telephone numbers with me. I also gave my contact information and phone number to them.
On the day I was released, the prison hallway was full of people. Everyone was there to see me off. The the sincere reverence these people had for Dafa after learning the truth was really touching. Seeing this, a guard said, “Falun Gong practitioners are really not ordinary people.”
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