(Minghui.org) I'm a retired teacher in my 70s. I've been practicing Falun Gong for 18 years now, and I would like to share a few of my experiences.
When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Gong in 1999, I went to Beijing to appeal, but was arrested and taken back to my hometown.
I was held in a detention center, where there were two guard dogs. The dogs jumped up and down and barked fiercely when they saw us coming. The police officers escorting me seemed to be scared of the dogs, so they left me with the duty guard and drove away.
The dogs stopped barking as soon as the police left, and started wagging their tails at me. The duty guard said, “You must be a good person. Even the dogs don't bark at you!”
The police officers came back to see me the following day. They looked very scared when they saw the dogs barking again. I told them that I could keep the dogs calm, but they didn't believe me. So I walked over to the dogs and talked to them. They stopped barking. I turned to the police and said, “You've seen with your own eyes that even dogs don't bark at good people. You mustn't persecute Falun Gong practitioners.” I have always been afraid of dogs because I was once bitten by one, but I used this opportunity to show that Falun Gong is good.
I was sentenced to two years of forced labor in December 1999 and taken to Nanmusi Women's Forced Labor Camp.
We were subjected to all kinds of persecution there, such as intensive physical training in the scorching heat, exposure to the blazing sun for long periods of time, standing still for hours on end, put in solitary confinement, and having cold water poured over us in the winter. Every day, we could hear painful screams coming from fellow practitioners.
I was ordered to write a “thought report” every week, so I used this opportunity to tell people that Falun Gong is good.
At one point, a professor from Beijing University came to talk to me in an attempt to get me to renounce my belief. He said that my master hadn't even gone to university. This is what I wrote in my “thought report:” "Although Master Li Hongzhi never attended university, He gave talks without the need of any lecture notes. Thousands of people attended each time, and when He spoke, the hall is very quiet. When he finished, there were rounds of applause. You are a university professor, but when you lecture the students chat among themselves. You tell me who is more capable."
Another time, I decided to write an article when I heard on TV that Jiang Zemin was going to the US for a visit. Part of my article went something like this: "Jiang Zemin staged the 'self-immolation' on Tiananmen Square to frame Falun Gong. He not only deceived the Chinese people, but also everyone all over the world. This time when he goes to the US, he should apologize to Master for his many crimes."
The inmate assigned to monitor me was terrified when she saw what I had written, because she didn't want to be implicated. So she dragged me to the guard's office and handed in my article.
The guard said, “You've got guts, haven't you? Tell me, what actually happened at that self-immolation?” I replied, "I've been to Tiananmen Square to appeal for Falun Gong. It's a tightly controlled area. Police and plainclothes police are everywhere, checking and questioning passersby. It would be impossible for a group of people to prepare themselves and then set themselves on fire there. It was staged by Jiang Zemin and his clique to frame Falun Gong and stir up national hatred against us.” He listened and didn't say anything.
A week after I wrote the article, the camp authorities notified the police to take me home, ending my two-year term six months early. As long as we hold righteous thoughts, Master will protect us.
A fellow practitioner and I went to Pingtang County, Guizhou Province, in July 2005 to see the rock inscribed with the characters, “The Chinese Communist Party Collapses.”
We spoke to many people about Falun Gong on our way there and handed out truth clarification materials. When we arrived, we were reported to police by the manager of the hotel where we were staying. That evening, we were taken to the Zhangbuxiang Police Station.
A female officer handcuffed me to a chair and poured water over me. Soaked through, I was very cold that night still handcuffed to the chair. My fellow practitioner was badly beaten.
One day, a local 610 Office agent told us to sign the notification form sentencing us to three years of forced labor. I told her, “The sentence is groundless. I won't be there for three hours, let alone three years.”
She said they would take us to the camp the next day. I was not afraid and told her that our master tells us to clarify the facts to save people, that we must try to save them before heaven destroys the CCP. How could we stay here? We couldn't, and our master would not allow it.
We were taken to Guizhou Women's Forced Labor Camp the next day, but the authorities there wouldn't accept us because we did not pass their health exam. The police and personnel from the 610 Office tried to persuade the camp officials to take us, but without success. We were given another exam the following day, but the results were the same. The total length of time we spent at the labor camp for the two health check-ups was less than three hours. Under the compassionate protection of Master, the illegal sentence they tried to impose on us ended up as nothing.
I went to our regional government offices on September 3, 2013, with a fellow practitioner. We were putting up truth clarification posters exposing the atrocities of forced organ harvesting when a man grabbed my arm. “How dare you put up posters here!” he shouted. I told him that we wanted the officials to see how cruel the CCP is. The man called the police on his cell phone, and we were taken to the local police station.
About half a dozen officers were sitting around chatting when we arrived. I said to them, “I've come here to tell you something important. You must have all joined the CCP organizations, right? Now it's time for you to quit. The CCP is responsible for the deaths of 80 million Chinese and destroyed our 5,000-year-old divinely inspired culture. It also is involved in harvesting organs from Falun Gong practitioners for profit.”
One officer asked ,“Have you seen any organs harvested? Who has seen it? Who could do something like that?” I replied, “The Communist Party is capable of it. These atrocities were exposed by the wife of a surgeon who was directly involved.”
Another officer asked, “How was the divine culture destroyed? Give us some examples.” So I told them how the CCP destroyed the profound meanings of Chinese characters by simplifying the traditional characters.
When I finished talking, another officer said, “Well put. I can understand when you talk about these specific things.”
A young officer then asked me, “Didn't your master write some poems? Write a few for us in traditional characters.” I neatly wrote down a few poems from Hong Yin. I don't normally know how to write traditional characters as I was educated in simplified characters. However, with Master's help, surprisingly, I was able to write the poems in traditional characters.
After I finished talking to the officers, I walked out of the police station and went home.
I've had many nerve-racking experiences over the years, but no real harm has ever come to me. This is all because “Cultivation depends on one’s own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one’s master.” (Zhuan Falun)