(Minghui.org) Greetings, venerable Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I'd like to take this opportunity to report my cultivation journey to Master and share my experience with fellow practitioners. Please point out anything inappropriate.
Obtaining Dafa, Whole Family Bathed in Buddha's Light
I started practicing Falun Dafa in 1996 in hopes of curing my breast tumor. One week later, my health had improved. By the third week week, the tumor was gone. I also recovered from pharyngitis, neurasthenia, and omarthritis. My entire body felt light.
My husband started practicing Falun Dafa after he saw the changes in me. Soon, he quit smoking and drinking. He looked very healthy.
My mother used to have tuberculosis and was not able to do any labor. Her illnesses disappeared and she became completely healthy after she started practicing in 1997.
My elder daughter developed epilepsy in 1997. When the disease began, her mouth would foam and she would become unconscious. After she started practicing, Master purified her body and cured her disease. She has not relapsed since. She is now a mother of two children.
Master didn't asked for a penny from us but gave our whole family good health. We know the meaning of life from the Fa. I am not able to pay back a bit of what Master has given us.
Experiencing Persecution: The First Time
My tribulation started at the onset of persecution on July 20, 1999.
My husband and I ran a cafe in the Teacher Training School. We went to see a relative during the morning, and the director of the local police station came to the cafe and asked my daughter of my whereabouts. They intercepted me on the way and put me into a brainwashing facility. I was transferred to a detention center in the city one week later. I was detained for 14 days and the police extorted 1,360 yuan from me.
Three men from the county government came to my cafe in December 1999. They tried to force me to give up my cultivation, and the school sent people to monitor me. They were afraid that I would go to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Dafa.
After New Year's day in 2000, I went to the Appeals Office in Beijing. I was arrested as soon as I arrived. I was handed over to our local Beijing office, and local police escorted me home from Beijing. I was detained for fifteen days.
The school breached my family's home rental agreement, and we were evicted in February 2000. My elder daughter and I had no where to go. My husband was held in the detention center, and my younger daughter stayed at a relative's home.
“Mom, are we going to sleep on the street tonight?” my elder daughter asked. “School will start tomorrow. What shall we do?”
I indeed asked myself this same question.
It was dark. I pushed my bike, which was loaded down with our blankets and my daughter's school bag. We walked towards the city in the snow. The road was slippery and it was cold. It was snowing and tears were on my daughter's face. I felt sad.
I recited Master's poem:
Each and every barrier must be broken through,And everywhere does evil lurk.Abundant troubles rain down together,All to see: Can you pull through?The world’s miseries endured,One departs the earth a Buddha.(“Tempering the Will” from Hong Yin )
When we crossed a bridge toward the county, we ran into a practitioner. She took us home.
The next day, I went back to take care of my mother-in-law who became ill due to her anxiety over the persecution I suffered. But soon, officers from the town came and arrested me. I was taken to the police station and forced to sit on an iron chair for three days and three nights. They used five sets of handcuffs to cuff my arms behind my back to torture me.
Soon after my release, I moved to Nanguan Village. But the police from the Nanguan Police Station kept harassing me and often came to my apartment at midnight. Soon I was arrested again. I went on a hunger strike to protest and was released nine days later.
Narrow Escape
Over 30 officers from the Town Political and Legal Affairs Committee broke into my apartment at 4:00 p.m. on July 9, 2000, and arrested my husband and me. We were taken to the Town Birth Control Committee.
They lifted us off the truck and dropped us to the ground. We were dragged along the road, and our heels bled. They put us onto iron chairs, cuffed our arms behind our backs, straightened our legs, and put stools underneath as a method of torture. Then, they put a full basin of water on each of our legs. They tied our necks to our legs with ropes so we could not raise our heads, and our heads almost touched the water in the basins. Then, they poured the basins of water out onto our heads and put other basins of water back onto our legs to continue the torture.
They dragged me to a room at night. Five or six officers frantically beat me for two hours. They beat my face with my own shoes, beat me with brooms, whipped me with nylon ropes, and stomped my legs with their leather boots. My legs were bruised all over. I became unconscious.
It was a hot summer. We were forced to stand in the scorching sun during the day. They whipped our faces with a tree branch. Our faces were deformed and entirely bruised, and our eyes were swollen shut. Our clothes were torn and blood had dried up from the torture, so we could not take our clothes off.They beat me every other night in an attempt to force me to give up my belief. But I was determined to cultivate until completion. They tortured me numerous times. My back was black all over with bruises, and there were bruises all over my legs. When the officials came, they transferred me to another place to hide me and my horrendous state from the light of day. My husband and I were even tortured at the same time. We were chained to the iron chairs, side by side.
Several days later, the deputy director of the county police department, who was in charge of the persecution, came to further force us to relent in our cultivation. Yet, I told him about the wonders of Falun Dafa and validated the wonders of Master. I was tortured again. I had fecal incontinence and discharged in my pants from the beatings. They simply laughed at me.
The persecution lasted over 20 days. They sent my husband home and demanded 10,000 yuan from him as penalty.
When I came home, I learned that my sister, her husband, and my mother had all been arrested and fined. My sister was even beaten and passed out.
Mother-In-Law Passed Away on the Day of My Release
The director from the county 610 Office and the deputy director of the county police department took me to the brainwashing center in December 2001. They asked several former practitioners who had already given up the practice to brainwash and threaten me. I was unmoved by their ploys, so they sentenced me to three years in the labor camp.
My husband had a hard time after I was sentenced. He had to take care of his elderly mother and two teenage daughters, in addition to managing the cafe. He could hardly manage and survived only with the help of relatives.
My mother-in-law often went outside the camp to wait for me. She returned day after day, that is, until the day I was released. My husband and daughters came to meet me at the gate of the forced labor camp, but on their way, my husband received a call that his mother had passed away. He had to return home while my daughters met me. Thus, my mother-in-law and I were in separate worlds when I reached home.
My mother-in-law had borne so much due to me. She underwent fear, threats, and anxiety. She was psychologically unsafe, but she was still looking forward to seeing me every day. I didn't shed any tears during the three years in the labor camp, but I cried during the moment I learned of her passing. When I could finally take care of her, she was gone.
Tremendous Hardships, Indestructible Like Diamond
A gang of police agents came to my cafe and arrested me on July 4, 2007. I was soon sent to a forced labor camp. I asked them the reason for my arrest, and one of them said that since 2008 Beijing Olympic was nearing, they would be more at ease if I was detained.
So I was held in the forced labor camp for two years and underwent more severe persecution.
On one occasion, I was forced to stand in the latrine for 10 days around the clock. Another time, it was for 9 days. The guards instigated drug addicts to torture me. They were not allowed to sleep until I was “transformed.” They were hostile to Dafa practitioners, and sometimes they poured my meal into the toilet. They formed groups of two and took turns monitoring me and didn't let me sleep.
Because I didn't sleep for a long time, sometimes I slept while standing and would hit my head on the wall. When they saw me sleeping, they beat me and kicked me. My head was covered with blisters and it bled often. When they saw this, they poked my head with different things. My feet were also covered with bruises. I fainted and fell to the ground from all the pain. My two front teeth were loose, and my legs and thighs were swollen to the point that I could not take off my pants.
Sometimes, I was unable to bear all these tortures and had the thought of giving up on life. But immediately, I would realize that it was not right and that these were not my true thoughts. “I should follow Master to my original home,” I thought. I had to leave the labor camp alive. With Master, I assumed the role of a Dafa disciple.
When it was beyond the limit of my forbearance, I recited Master's poem repeatedly in my heart:
“A Great Enlightened One fears no hardshipHaving forged an adamantine willFree of attachment to living or dyingHe walks the path of Fa-rectificationconfident and poised”(“Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions” from Hong Yin Volume II)
When I refused to listen to them in brainwashing class one day, guards ordered me to stand behind the door at the office. I didn't obey. They forced me to squat there and threw my shoes away. They said that they would not let me wash myself if I didn't yield. I told them that I would not give up even if they didn't let me wash for two years. I squatted behind the door for 72 days. I didn't wash for 72 days. I was not allowed to have water or food.
Regardless how they treated me, I treated them kindly. I clarified the truth to them when I had the opportunity, and I helped them with their everyday needs. I clarified the truth to a drug addict and gave her 60 yuan worth of coupons. I also helped her sew her quilt. She remembered my kindness, and when everybody was in the workshop, she gave me half a bottle of water in secret.
During the few days of my detention, the other drug addicts watched me closely, and I was not given any water. But under any circumstances, I didn't cooperate with them. When the guards saw me in a poor condition, they gave me water and food to avoid any liability. I was reduced to skin and bones, and I was only allowed to go to the toilet once every 24 hours.
Yet, my strong will and righteous belief in Dafa negated the test the old forces set upon me. On this way, the guards and the inmates who watched over me were touched. They changed from being hostile and torturing me to giving me respect. Thus, the team leader didn't ask me to write the statement of giving up the practice until I was released.
Still, my sentence was extended for another month after the two year sentence due to my refusal to write sign the guarantee statement. I hadn't seen my family members during the detention. They came to visit me but were not allowed because I refused to be “transformed.”
One of Master's poems stuck out in my mind:
“In the chaotic world, like pure lotus flowers—plum blossoms, a hundred millionCold winds only accentuate their beautyThe interminable snowfall and rainare the tears of gods,Who look longingly for the plum blossoms’ returnNever, ever get preoccupied with worldly thingsSteel your righteous thoughtsFor all [that you have gone through] since ancient times,Was for none other than this time around.(“Plum Blossoms” from Hong Yin Volume II )
Though I have undergone tremendous hardships, my will in cultivation and righteous belief in Dafa has never wavered.
As soon as I was released, I quickly continued with the three things that Master requires of us. Five years in the labor camp—the old forces took too much of my time away from saving sentient beings. I will double my efforts to make it up.
Thank you, Master!Thank you, fellow practitioners!
Views expressed in this article represent the author's own opinions or understandings. All content published on this website are copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
