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Awakening the Guards in a Forced Labor Camp with Compassion

Sept. 27, 2016 |   By a Dafa practitioner in Jilin Province, China

(Minghui.org) In the spring of 2003, the authorities put me in our local forced labor camp. More than a thousand inmates were housed there, most of them Dafa disciples.

I was in a group of about 150 inmates, of which most were Dafa disciples.

To coerce Dafa disciples to turn our backs on our faith, the labor camp did all kinds of despicable things, including forcing us to watch videos defaming Dafa, using brainwashing specialists, keeping us under constant surveillance, shocking us with electric batons, slapping us in the face, depriving us of sleep, and so on.

To try to “transform” me, the camp deprived me of sleep for four days and nights. I was then allowed to sleep for two hours every day for a few days, and then back to no sleep.

That went on for over three months.

Through it all, I maintained only one thought: “I am a Dafa disciple. Falun Dafa is good. It is not wrong to practice Falun Dafa.”

Whatever they said to me, I blocked it out by reciting the Fa. I also sent forth righteous thought for 15 minutes every hour religiously. I did that every day.

When they realized I would not be “transformed,” the camp director and the chief descended on me themselves.

The director introduced herself as an alumna from my school, only she was a year behind. I didn’t know her, but I had seen her name on the Minghui website and realized she was quite evil.

She asked me why I refused to cooperate.

I looked at all those pitiful lives in front of me without rancor. I wanted to do my best to help them understand the truth about Falun Dafa so they would do less evil, so they could escape being eliminated in the future.

So, I started telling them what Falun Dafa is, how I live my life according to the teachings of Dafa, and how Dafa has given me a healthy body with no ailments.

The chief said, “So you got well. There was a practitioner in another group who was cured of throat cancer. But she is now “transformed” and is not practicing anymore.”

I said, “Let’s talk about this. Let’s say you once helped someone and even saved his life. When you are suffering injustice, that person decides to stand with those who persecute you, all because he wants to get a promotion or make big money or is just afraid. Is he truly a good person?

“If he remains silent, continuing to enjoy what you have given him and living a life of ease, and turns a deaf ear and a blind eye and is indifferent to the fact that you are being persecuted, would you pick such a person for a friend?

“Our Master has helped each one of us unselfishly, teaching us how to be better people and purifying our bodies, without looking for anything in return.

“Now Master is being defamed, Dafa is under attack. If we cannot stand up and speak up for Dafa and for our Master, do we deserve to be called true human beings?

“I don’t have any power, but I have a sincere heart. I need to speak the truth. Our Master is righteous. Falun Dafa is good!

“If I am to be persecuted because of this, I have no regrets. I am speaking my conscience. I have made my choice.

“I will also tell the world’s people, and that includes you all here, if you participate in persecuting Falun Dafa, if you do not relent, your future will be grim indeed.”

The director commented, “You seem honest and honorable.”

I said, “If I did not practice Falun Dafa, I would probably be very selfish. I wouldn’t be thinking of others. I would not be concerned about your future. Let me tell you, we practitioners have no enemies. Our Master teaches us to treat everybody with kindness.

“The communist regime will not hesitate to throw you under the bus once it has finished using you.

“After the 10-year Cultural Revolution, the progressive leaders of that political campaign all became scapegoats. Many were shot, but the families were told they died in the line of duty.

“When this persecution is over, the ending for those who participated in the persecution will be worse. Good is rewarded and bad incurs retribution. This is the law of the universe.

“If I allow myself to be ‘transformed,’ I would be allowing you to commit a sin. I would truly be harming you.

“Since you have not succeeded in ‘transforming’ me, that is like planning to kill me but failing to, and you will not be guilty of murder. If you succeed, then even the law cannot protect you.”

At first, they kept interrupting me. Then they settled down to listen quietly. There were at least a dozen people present, including police officers and guards and the so-called mentors/facilitators.

After more than two hours of struggle between good and evil, the evil factors in other dimensions were disintegrated.

When they were leaving, the camp director told the chief, “Let her sleep.”

From that day forward, nobody tried to “transform” me anymore.

The director was a classmate of a good friend and colleague of mine. I found out she had called my friend to encourage my family visit me often. I learned that that was about the time when the Party was the most active in harvesting practitioners’ organs while they were still alive.

The evening before my release from the labor camp, the director again called my friend to remind my family to be sure to get to the camp early to avoid possible complications.

Every month, the labor camp required us to write two self-examination reports. I used the opportunities to clarify the truth and validate Dafa.

Master gave me wisdom. I was clear-headed and could write anything and fast—essays, verses, my cultivation stories. Everybody would read them and nobody gave me any grief.

The child of one of the guards was studying for the International Mathematical Olympiad. The guard knew I was a teacher and asked for my help.

I had never seen what she was showing me, but Master gave me wisdom, so I was able to provide her answers to whatever she asked me.

One afternoon, she was reading me a problem, but before she finished I already had the answer for her. She was amazed, saying she couldn’t figure it out even after having spent the whole morning on it.

From then on, she would sing my praises to anybody who would listen.

Of course, I never missed any opportunity to clarify the truth to her. I also tried to prevent her from participating in any acts of persecution. I asked her to be good to Dafa disciples.

The guard would say, “You Dafa disciples are all talented. Why are these good people being arrested? It’s truly incomprehensible.”

The day I was to be released, that guard and the chief both saw me to the camp entrance to make sure the 610 Office would not have a chance to whisk me off to a brainwashing center.

One day, we were lining up to go outside. I saw a practitioner in another group who just had visitors the day before, so I asked her if she had gotten a copy of Master’s new writings.

One of the inmates assigned to watch us yelled at me, telling me she would have the guard extend my sentence.

I didn’t expect the head of the guards would tell her off instead. She said, “What do you think you’re doing? Just mind your own business. Who gave you permission to mind others’ business?”

One evening, an inmate ‘guard’ on the night shift said to me in private, “Just hang in there.”

It was the same inmate assigned to watch other inmates who wouldn’t let an elderly practitioner use the toilet for a few days and had her tied up.

When I found out, I went over to give her a good scolding.

For that, one of the guards told me she would add 6 months to my sentence.

That day, I would not let myself be moved. I went with the guard to the office for a face-to-face negotiation.

I said, “It doesn’t matter if you increase my sentence. All practitioners are good people. What right does that inmate have to bully and persecute any of them?”

The guard said, “I gave her the authority.”

I said calmly, “That elderly practitioner is over 60, probably the age of your mother. If anything happens to her, you will have committed a sin. Even if there are no laws to punish you, how can you live with your conscience?

“In the past, we knew that if we gave a monk a bowl of rice, blessings would return to us tenfold. Today, if you were to offer practitioners kindness, heaven will definitely grant you blessings.”

As I talked on, my tears fell. I truly felt bad about the guard. I honestly wished the best for her.

That woke up the good side of her human nature. Tears fell from her eyes, also.

She said, “Don’t say anymore. I know what to do. Wait here.”

When she returned, she told me, “Go now, and wait for the news.”

I noticed the elderly practitioner had been released. I was told the guard also ordered the inmate to allow the practitioner to use the toilet.

I was happy the guard had made the right choice. She understood the truth about Falun Dafa. She corrected her ways. She stopped persecuting practitioners.

That afternoon, I overheard a commotion in the corridors. I found out later the guard was having an argument with the manager who wanted to add time to my sentence, but the guard wouldn’t let him.

Later, the guard went in person to look for the camp director to make sure an order was issued that my sentence would not be extended.

The following day, the guard called me to her office to say, “So that you can go home as scheduled without any side issues, I have made use of every contact I have carefully built up over the last dozen years. I would never do that for anybody else, not even for a 100,000 yuan.”

But she also advised me to write whatever the authorities required. When I adamantly refused, she said, “What will you do when you get out? They intend to take you to the brainwashing center.”

Afterwards, I read what was in my release documents. I noted that what the guard wrote about my distinctive features was quite misleading. I knew she felt I would become a displaced person subject to being monitored and followed and arrested at a moment’s notice and was doing her best to help me by throwing them off track.

One day after I was released, I dreamed that Master was purifying her body. I knew she was physically unwell. I gave her a phone call to let her know.

She said with deep sincerity, “I thank your Master. Thank you, Dafa’s Master. I know Falun Dafa is good!”

With Master’s help and support, I was released as scheduled. I did not get taken to the brainwashing center, and I did not become a displaced person.

I left the forced labor camp with dignity and threw myself right away into the cultivation mainstream of clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings.

I realized there was no way I could have overcome any intense adversity by merely depending on my human side. The only way I had survived was because I had immersed myself in the Fa.

In assisting Master in Fa-rectification, to save all sentient beings, to do well, to maintain righteousness—everything depends on Master.

If Dafa disciples do well, more lives will be saved. If we don’t, lives will be lost. There is no alternative for us.

By the same token, how people place themselves and their hearts is of utmost importance. Those who place themselves correctly will be saved. Those who continue to persecute with no bottom line will be eliminated.

I wrote this to let those who are still involved in persecuting Dafa disciples know that, the sooner you learn, understand, and accept the truth about Falun Dafa, the sooner you will turn away from the misguided evil ways forced on you by the Communist regime.

To treat Dafa disciples with kindness is to treat yourselves likewise. That is the only way to provide yourselves and your families a meaningful life and a safe future.