(Minghui.org) Continued from Part 2
The author recounts in the first and second part how she changed the environment in the labor camp while detained for her belief in Falun Dafa. She treated all those around her, be they guards or inmates, with compassion and kindness. In doing so, she was able to cultivate away fear and stop others from harming themselves by committing crimes against Dafa.
It was harsh when I first arrived at the labor camp, but I was determined to change the environment.
Master said:
“So long as you, a Dafa disciple, do things righteously, you will transform the environment around you, and you will change people.” (“Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005”)
Practitioners were mostly required to put matches into match boxes, and our daily quota was thousands of boxes a day. When we did not meet our quota, we had to work extra hours at night.
How could I validate the Fa, expose the persecution, and at the same time end the forced labor?
One night when I had to do an extra shift, I suddenly saw the words “Falun Dafa is good” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” glittering in the match boxes. Master presented the answer to me.
The next day, I organized more than a dozen practitioners to write the words “Falun Dafa is good” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” inside the match boxes, and we did this for more than 10 days.
When the director from the match box factory came to collect the match boxes, someone found the Falun Dafa messages inside the match boxes, and the director was arrested.
The leaders of the labor camp ordered that practitioners' handwriting be checked. I knew everything was under Master's control, so I told fellow practitioners not to hold any fear and to negate the persecution with righteous thoughts. The guards investigated for two days but could not pinpoint the practitioner who was responsible.
The factory director said that he would no longer deal with the labor camp, although he made a lot of money because of the forced labor. After he was released from the detention center, he explained and apologized to his clients about the incident. This exposed to the public how Dafa practitioners were being used to do forced labor.
The labor camp was then given orders to produce chopstick covers, so inmates and practitioners had to make paper covers for disposable chopsticks. We had to work more than 10 hours a day and did not even have time to wash our hands after we used the toilet.
I knew what to do this time. However, all practitioners—except for one—were afraid after the match box incident and refused to help. So, this other practitioner and I wrote “Falun Dafa is good” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” on a thousand covers and put them into different cases.
After that, the chopsticks factory no longer gave orders to the camp. They announced during a meeting that someone had sabotaged the chopstick contract.
The inmates were thrilled to hear that there were no more chopsticks orders. When they learned that it was because of practitioners, they agreed that Dafa is really wonderful.
Two months later, the labor camp received an order to make special bags for apples. We had to stamp the Chinese characters for “Blessing” and “Happy Birthday” on the bags.
This was a good opportunity for me. I wrote “Falun Dafa is good” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” on the other side of the bags and then stitched continuous holes on the words.
Since supervisors monitored our work, I asked Master to put a shield around me to not let them see me. Sure enough, the supervisors did not check on me, so I wrote the words and stitched the holes at ease. I made about 200 such bags.
I also mixed those bags with other bags. I sent a righteous thought that these bags would leave the camp safely and that the apples would grow nicely. The production inspector checked the bags and did not find any problems.
Later on, during the Mid-Autumn Festival Day, a police officer and a farmer holding the apple bags came to the labor camp to get an explanation. They had discovered the words “Falun Dafa is good” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” on the other side of the bags as well as the word “blessing” on one side. The labor camp had to refund some money.
The leaders investigated the incident, but they could not find anyone responsible because those words were stitched and not hand-written.
The next spring the labor camp received a big order to make microcomputer finger cots. I took this opportunity to ask three practitioners to write “Falun Dafa is good” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” on the finger cots and roll each of them so that they looked the same as the others.
The cots were then delivered to different provinces. Two areas returned the goods because they found the words.
The leaders of the labor camp destroyed the returned goods and ordered us to make new ones. This time they implemented a new method: They grouped three people into a group and numbered each group. If the goods were returned, they would check the number and know which group made the goods.
I could not sleep that night. Finally, I thought of a way, and I asked several practitioners to work extra hours at night to write “Falun Dafa is good” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” on hundreds of finger cots. I put some into each carton of every group during a lunch break. The finished products were delivered to other provinces but were then soon returned. The labor camp guards checked the cartons and found there were finger cots with words in each carton, so they were not able to find out who did it.
To compensate for the financial loss, the labor camp signed a contract to make finger cots for export to Germany. It was a small order but carried a high price. This time I wrote on the finger cots in English, “Falun Dafa is great.” The goods were checked before leaving China, yet they were still returned to the labor camp. This was the last time the camp received a finger cot order.
The labor camp received an order to make pirated textbooks. It was a big order and carried a good price. The guards were afraid of any drama and confiscated our pens. But since the textbooks were to be distributed widely, it was a great opportunity to let people know that Falun Dafa practitioners were being subjected to forced labor in the camp.
So I cut paper into small pieces and wrote Falun Dafa messages on them. I asked several practitioners to insert them into the textbooks.
Two weeks later, officers from the Commerce and Industry Bureau came to the labor camp and put an end to the pirated textbooks.
There were still large quantities of textbooks in the camp. They penalized the labor camp, and the leaders could not find those responsible. Still, they did not find anyone, and I was soon released.
Master said:
“And this is even more so for the Dafa disciples in mainland China. For them, amidst the tremendously harsh persecution, every single thought and idea is critical. Whether you’ve done well or not; whether or not you’ve been susceptible to being persecuted; whether or not you’ve handled things correctly and to what degree you have been persecuted—all of this is directly connected to how you have walked your path and how you have thought about things.” (“What is a Dafa Disciple”)
When I read this passage of the Fa, I felt encouraged. Whenever I wanted to stop the persecution yet did not know what to do—but was ever determined to do it—Master always gave me hints and provided a path to follow.