(Minghui.org) I am now 71 and live in the countryside in Shandong Province. I would like to share my experience of practicing Falun Dafa.
My husband had severe heart disease in 1995. As a result, he was in the hospital almost every day. Our son graduated from college the following year and found a job. Within two weeks, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died soon afterward.
This was a heavy blow for us, and my husband was in tears day and night. Our two daughters came to visit and cried with us.
My sister-in-law heard about it and tried to comfort me. She also brought me a copy of Zhuan Falun. “Maybe you can try it. Falun Dafa will benefit you and your family,” she said.
“I'm not in the mood,” I replied. “Look at how miserable we are. It is difficult for me just to sit down and try to read anything.”
Days passed, and nothing changed. Seeing my husband suffering every day, I suggested that he read the book my sister-in-law had given me.
“No way. It is just a qigong book,” he said.
“Why not take a look at it? If it is good, you can practice it; if not, no harm done,” I told him.
My husband nodded. After reading Zhuan Falun, he said, “This is a cultivation practice and it is very good. You need to learn it, too.”
In January 1997, my husband and I joined a group to watch the nine-day video lectures. On our way home, the bike I rode seemed very light, as if it was floating in the air. It required almost no effort for me to pedal home.
Not long after that, my husband's heart disease was gone and he was happier than ever. My family was also happy.
In December 1997, I went to a nearby city to attend the nine-day video lectures again. Our group practice site assistant said the hotel was heated, so we did not need to bring winter bedding. I followed her advice and just took some regular clothes.
When I got there, I discovered that the two-story hotel had no heat. Outside was a thick layer of snow and frost covered the windows. We had a bunk bed and the practitioners on the lower level slept together for warmth. Seeing I had brought nothing, one of them said she would give me her cotton-padded mattress. I thanked her and accepted it. I did not think about being warm or cold, but the minute I lay down, warm air began to flow from my feet all over my entire body. Back then, I did not know Master was helping me. I thought to myself: “This place is very warm after all.”
After a few days, another practitioner sleeping on the lower level said she used two mattresses and two quilts, and was still cold. “How about you?” she asked. “I didn't hear you complain.”
“I don't know. It's been very warm for me,” I told her. “I think Master has provided me with heat.”
The persecution started in 1999. Two of my nephews, one who worked with the county police department and the other in Beijing, came to visit me. They told me Falun Dafa had been banned and I couldn't practice it anymore. I told them I could not live without Falun Dafa. “If you are worried that my practicing will affect your jobs, you can disown me,” I said.
Police officers and staff from the county 610 Office took me to a brainwashing center in the spring of 2000. After locking me in an iron chair, a thug pulled my hair with one hand and smacked my head and face with the other. I could hear the slapping sounds, but I did not feel pain at all, as if my head and face were made of cotton.
In my mind, I thought, “I am a Falun Dafa practitioner who practices Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to return to my origin. How dare you beat me! Do you know how much karma you are accumulating?”
With that thought, I saw the thug hold both hands in front of his chest, bend over in pain, and walk around in circles. Later that evening, he came to me and whispered outside the cell window, “After I retire, I will learn Falun Dafa from you.”
“Why not now?” I asked.
“No, I cannot do it, because I have to work,” he said. In my mind, I was thankful Master helped me.
There were about seven people detained in the cell, including my aunt and me handcuffed together. I decided I needed to get out, and I asked Master for help.
In the afternoon, someone gave several bottles of beer to the guard, who drank some and went to sleep. Then one practitioner said she needed to use the toilet. When the drunk guard came to open the door, I told him my aunt's handcuff was too tight and asked him to undo it. He did and went back to sleep.
My aunt and I helped each other and were able to escape. We first went to a relative's place. Seeing me still handcuffed, the relative asked her son to open it with a hacksaw. “I've heard many miracles about Falun Dafa. Why haven't I seen one?” the young man murmured to me.
With those words, the handcuff popped open with a click. The young man was astonished and later became a practitioner.
Another practitioner and I went to Beijing in May 2001 to appeal for Falun Dafa. Police stopped us on the way and took me to a brainwashing center. My husband's brother, a village Party secretary, helped get me released and said, “Please do not go to Beijing anymore. It is under martial law.”
After a few days, I felt I could not let the persecution continue without taking a stand, so I took a bus and went to Beijing by myself. The police picked me up and took me to a place where many practitioners were being temporarily detained.
As we were reciting Hong Yin together, someone told us to stop and all of us were quiet. “Hey! We are Falun Dafa practitioners and we cannot stop studying the Fa,” I said. We continued reciting poems from Hong Yin and the person who'd attempted to stop us left.
Later I wanted to do the sitting meditation, but one officer said I couldn't. I said Falun Dafa improves the body and mind through five exercises. “No one has the authority to stop me from doing the exercises,” I said to him.
In the end, I was taken elsewhere and held with a girl, a college student. “We came here to validate Falun Dafa and the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Why don't we do the exercises here?” she suggested, and I agreed.
Right after we started the sitting meditation, a man came and stomped on me with his boots. There were bruises all over my legs. The man also tightened the girl's handcuffs, which made her writhe in pain. The girl and I began to recite Lunyu. After about 20 minutes, the girl said her wrists didn't hurt anymore.
Government agents from my township came and took me to a brainwashing center. One official told me to write a statement giving up my practice. I only wrote one sentence on the paper: “I will practice Falun Dafa all the way to the end.”
After returning from Beijing in 2001, I thought about distributing information to let people know the truth about Falun Dafa. In 2002, the police arrested me, kept me in a detention center, and later transferred me to a forced labor camp.
Because they were tortured and brainwashed, some practitioners stopped their practice. I was undisturbed and continued to tell others how good Falun Dafa was.
A guard once shouted at me, “Do you still believe in Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance?”
“If you can find anything wrong with these three words, we can discuss it,” I answered. I told him I was telling people the facts about Falun Dafa and wished them well. “Everything I have done is lawful. Even if you beat me, I will not fight back. Can you find that I did anything wrong anywhere?” The guard had no reply.
Because I did not give in, the guards sometimes put me in solitary confinement. Someone who had stopped practicing was once instructed to convince me to give up my belief. “Are you still practicing Falun Dafa? Go face the wall!” she yelled at me.
“That wall is for you, not for me,” I replied without thinking.
At that moment, through my celestial eye, I saw a gap in the middle of my body. The two parts expanded and separated, until I disappeared. There was nothing around me anymore.
From this I learned that, as long as we are determined in our cultivation, we will witness how wonderful Falun Dafa is.
At first, I went out with other practitioners to tell people about Falun Dafa. Later, I decided to go by myself.
The first day I went out I saw someone walking by, but I did not know where to start. So I asked Master Li to help. Then a man came by on a bike. I chatted with him and said I had good news. I briefly explained to him how the Chinese Communist Party has been harming people for decades, including persecuting Falun Dafa. I then suggested that he quit the communist organizations, and he agreed. I was relieved and happy for him.
Another day, I saw three people get out of a car and go to a flower vendor. Suspecting they were government officials, I decided not to talk with them just then since I had been detained recently. So I continued on and spoke to two other people, who agreed to quit the Party.
On my way back, I saw the three people still at the flower vendor. I walked over and began to chat. In the end, all three decided to renounce their memberships in the communist organizations.
Once after I gave someone a pamphlet, a man appeared, grabbed the pamphlet from the person I'd just handed it too, and shouted at me, “What are you doing?” I asked Master for help and said to him calmly, “I am here to tell people that Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good. Look at the pictures in the pamphlet—all these people who persecuted Falun Dafa have been arrested.” The man started to read it, and I left safely.
Sometimes I took DVDs and Minghui calendars to farmers' markets to distribute. After I sent forth righteous thoughts, many people rushed over to get them. I was very touched because I knew that, by supporting Falun Dafa and the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, they would have a good future.
In “Fa Teaching at the 2016 New York Fa Conference,” Master said:
“You once signed a contract with me when you came to this world, vowing to save those sentient beings. You could then become a Dafa disciple, and you could then do this thing. But you did not fulfill it. You did not completely fulfill your vow, and you cannot even save those beings allotted to you, those you undertook to save, behind whom are countless sentient beings and gigantic groups of beings. What is that?! Is that simply just a matter of not cultivating diligently? That is an extremely serious crime! An unparalleled crime!”
I hope we can all do well as Dafa disciples.