(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
Under orders from the 610 Office, local police arrested me in October 2012 and kept me in a detention center and later at a brainwashing facility.
At that time, I had practiced Falun Gong for only three years and did not have a deep understanding of the Fa principles. The force-feeding, electric shocks, and other torture were so brutal that I gave in.
After waking up to what I'd done, the regret and pain were beyond description. But I picked myself up and was able to continue on my cultivation path.
Master said:
“Don't forget, you are all Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples! You came to validate the Fa! Cultivation is hard, and the evil is more evil while you are validating Dafa. Those who can make it through are bound to be Kings of sentient beings.” (“Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference” from Teaching the Fa at the Conference III)
I would like to share how I stood up as a Dafa disciple, open and aboveboard, and played a leading role in the detention center after a recent arrest.
After I was arrested, I was interrogated overnight but did not say anything. The following day, they took me to a detention center. The minute we arrived, I called out, “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” Then I stood in the most open space in the detention center to do the exercises.
Guards patrolled the detention center three times a day: in the morning, at noon, and in the afternoon. I ignored them and did the exercises whenever I liked. When the patrol came by, I would call out, “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” At first, they walked by quickly, but later they went on only after I'd finished calling out.
One officer told me to come to her office. When I got there, she told me to sit on a small stool, which was sometimes used as a torture device given its small size and low height. I stacked several small stools on top of each other to the same height as a regular chair before I sat on it.
“You need to follow the rules here,” she said.
“I practice Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to be a good person. I only listen to Master Li,” I replied.
“If that is so, when manager Zeng comes back, she won't be happy,” she said. Other detainees had also told me that, when Zeng came back from vacation, she would not tolerate my doing exercises or calling out like I'd been doing.
One day, all the detainees were gathered in an open area for inspection. Then the steel gate banged and someone whispered, “Manager Zeng is here.” Everyone was quiet.
Sitting with the other detainees, I sat up straight and put up one hand to send forth righteous thoughts. My expression was natural and calm, while my heart was filled with compassion.
Manager Zeng did not say a word. After I finished sending forth righteous thoughts, she told me to meet her in her office.
As I entered, she put one foot on the chair in front of her and told me to sit on a small stool.
“Can I sit on the chair?” I asked, looking at her foot resting on it. “Or, I can sit on the floor to do the exercises.”
She thought about it and said, “Go ahead and do the exercises then.”
Seeing me sitting there in the full-lotus position with both legs crossed, she spoke softly, as if speaking to herself, “I have heard about you—you almost turned this detention center division upside down. But do you know what I thought when I saw you a moment ago?” Her tough tone suddenly changed to appreciation: “Dignified, graceful, and noble.”
She then told me to call out the phrases not only in our division but also in the common area so that other divisions could hear them. After that, whenever she was on duty, she would open the gate, allowing me to call out in the common area shared with other divisions. I did not let her down and repeated, “Falun Dafa is great!”
I was later moved to another division, where things were slightly different. One person there always wanted people to call her “your majesty.”
“How about you?” the guard asked me.
“I want to be a queen,” I replied.
When “her majesty” objected, I proposed an arm wrestling contest. Seeing my slim arms, she nodded.
Surprisingly, I defeated 8 or 9 people in a row. “Congratulations!” she said, “You are now officially the queen!”
I was responsible for drawing on the wall. One time, I drew a giant canola flower, and many people told me they liked it. “The picture is uplifting,” one of them said. “Just looking at it relieves my pain.”
Another time, I drew nine wild geese flying in four groups. Ming Ming, who accompanied me when I made the drawings, was already a good friend of mine. Seeing the last goose all by herself, she asked, “Why isn't she with her friends?”
Not long after that, Manager Zeng announced that nine detainees would be transferred to four other divisions, with Ming Ming the only one going to a division we'd barely heard of.
“I am the lone goose,” she cried. “You already told me in the picture.”
Several days later, she appeared in front of me again, all happy. It turned out her new division was handling “odds and ends,” and anyone assigned to it could walk around freely; it was a detainee's dream assignment.
“Thank you for making me the last goose,” said Ming Ming. “If there is anything I can help with, just let me know.”
In fact, she did help me a lot later on as I mention below. I was grateful for Master Li's arrangement in all these instances.
I started to recall the many articles on Minghui in which detained practitioners hired lawyers. I was not sure how it worked, but I decided to give a try. “At least I can let the lawyer know about Falun Gong,” I thought.
Since I was illegally detained, I decided to hire a lawyer so that he could learn the truth about Falun Gong. I figured he might help with my case free of charge. Plus, it would be better if it was an influential lawyer. To thank him, I planned to give him a picture.
In fact, I knew I might have to engage a lawyer for free anyway. When the police arrested me, I was in my husband's car and we were both arrested. Now, he was also in a detention center. My son was too young to hire a lawyer for me, which meant I had to do it myself.
But it was easier said than done. How can a detainee engage a lawyer for free? But I believed in Master. In Zhuan Falun, Master said, “Cultivation depends on one’s own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one’s master. It is good enough if you have this wish.”
Right after I made that decision, a drug addict asked me, “Are you looking for a lawyer? Mine is very good. He is a retired regimental commander and has worked as a judge in the past. He is now a lawyer.”
“That will work. Thank you for the recommendation,” I said.
She gave me his address, and I wrote to him. Then I asked the division manager to send it out. The manager thought I was daydreaming: “How can you believe a drug addict?” But I insisted that she mail the letter. According to policy, such a letter could not be sent out, but she did it anyway.
The lawyer came to see me in the detention center several days later. During our conversation, I confirmed he had once been a regimental commander and a judge.
“I was very impressed with your letter, so I decided to meet you,” he said. “Because mine is a premium service, my fees are a little higher than other lawyers. But don't worry. I will take your case free of charge.” He said he would follow it closely to minimize my loss.
When I asked how I could thank him, he said a picture drawn by me would be sufficient. This is what I had thought earlier. Thank you, Master Li.
Many people in the detention center soon heard that I had engaged a lawyer free of charge.
The detainees in my cell helped each other to maintain a steady supply of daily necessities. When other detainees were put into our cell, they were very moved. Because we got along well with each other, it was easy to tell the newcomers about Falun Gong. Once they heard how the Communist Party has mistreated so many people, not to mention Falun Gong practitioners, many of them agreed to quit the Party organizations.
One of them was a Chinese Canadian. I recited Lunyu and wrote it down for her to copy and memorize. After a few days, she was no longer suffered from farsightedness. She told me she would continue practicing Falun Gong after she returned to Canada.
Yu, a drug addict, asked me to teach her Falun Gong. I said I would but asked her if she wasn't afraid since we were in a detention center.
“No, she replied, “I would not care even if they extended my term.”
I was impressed by her courage. “Being a Falun Gong practitioner means you cannot be on drugs anymore. Can you do it?” She said nothing and later left.
One afternoon, she came to me, all smiles. “A few minutes ago, the division manager told us to go out to smoke. I refused because I did not want to let Master Li down. Then the manager lit a cigarette and gave it to me. I tried it and it was horrible, so I put it out.
“Now I know Falun Gong is miraculous! Since I can quit smoking here, I can stop using drugs once I get out,” she said.
I was moved to tears by her progress and her pure heart.
I gave Yu some truth-clarification materials I had written. She sat next to me reading them while I sent forth righteous thoughts. Soon afterward, I noticed small droplets of dark liquid appear on her skin, like gasoline. Then she said she had a bad headache. I knew Master Li was purifying her body for her. She continued reading and dark droplets of sweat continued to appear.
Yu later told me she was once drunk and driving and killed a family of three. The gasoline tank broke, and all three people were soaked in gas. Because the car belonged to her boyfriend, her family spent some money and her boyfriend ended up in jail instead of her. Although she escaped that time, she had been in detention centers a few times since then for drugs. Her conscience told her something was wrong, so she wanted to practice Falun Gong as a way out.
“Are you practicing Falun Gong to avoid this karma?” I asked
“No, I truly want to practice it,” she answered.
I told her she might have to suffer since three people had died because of her. “I am fine with that,” she said. “As long as I am able to breathe, I will practice Falun Gong.” With those words, she had a stomachache and went to the bathroom.
In the following two days, she had the symptoms of diarrhea, headache, and fever and passed out. When she regained consciousness, I told her that, since she had not learned the exercises yet, she might go to the hospital if she wanted to. But she said she would forebear and lost consciousness again.
When her temperature went up to 43 degrees Celsius (109 Fahrenheit), the doctor sent her to the police hospital. When helping her prepare what to bring, I gave her a copy of Master's poem “Cause and Effect” in Hong Yin:
“‘Tis not that the journey of cultivation is painful,Karma from generation upon generation is blocking you.Steel your will,eliminate karma,cultivate xinxing,And become a Buddha who keeps forever the human body.”
A week later, she returned, happy and lively. “I had fever for one week. But I recited the poem all the time. Falun Gong brought me back and gave me a new life. I will definitely continue practicing it.”
I was touched, too, and was grateful for Master Li's help.
The Moon Festival was approaching, and everyone in my cell told our families to buy apples. But only my order was delivered before the festival. It was the first time I'd seen an apple that entire year I'd been.
Before that, my family sent me some clothes, including yellow stretch pants, a white cotton shirt, and pink shoes. Such delicate clothes were rarely seen in the detention center. It turned out my son had asked the lawyer to help get them to me.
I also made a banner with watercolor paint that said, “Greetings to Master for a Happy Moon Festival.” I was arrested for posting Falun Gong banners and now I planned to put this one up in the detention center.
That morning, I took out the apples and candies I had saved and divided them into piles, one pile per cellmate. It was very impressive, and people were wondering what I was doing.
Then I changed to my white shirt, yellow pants, and beautiful shoes. Thinking about practitioners all around the world celebrating this special occasion and sending greetings to Master, I decided I would celebrate it in my way.
Smiling with compassion, I said to everyone, “I am glad that we can celebrate together this special holiday. Most importantly, I want to thank Master Li for his great sacrifice and compassionate salvation.”
Everyone in the cell was moved and some were in tears.
As a Falun Gong practitioner, I know I need to clarify the truth to people and awaken them wherever I am. So I decided to write materials and save people, including guards and officers, in the detention center.
I asked to purchase 50 notebooks and 50 pen refills (only refills can be purchased in the detention center, not pens). Many people thought that would not be possible, but the manager approved it.
Two weeks later, the notebooks arrived but no pen refills. I knew it was the old forces' interference: the notebooks were useless without the pen refills. I asked one of the guards and she gave me two. She also gave me a dictionary after I requested it.
As I look back, the detention center was a relatively relaxed place. In fact, our environment is related to our mentality and righteous thoughts. The next morning, I got up at three, sent forth righteous thoughts, and began to write. In the following days, I only slept two or three hours a day and spent most of the remaining time writing.
From my personal experience, I explained why I practice Falun Gong and how millions of people benefit from it physically and mentally. I debunked the Party's hate propaganda and told how 36 practitioners from different counties unfurled a banner on Tiananmen Square. I wrote about practitioners' efforts to stop organ harvesting from living practitioners in China.
I got pen refills from other detainees. Ming Ming, who could walk between divisions, also helped a lot. In 70 days, I filled 46 notebooks with factual information about Falun Dafa and used up about 200 pen refills. “I got all the pen refills in the detention center and gave them to you,” said Ming Ming.
In “20th Anniversary Fa Teaching,” Master said:
“I’ll tell you, for years I have been continually saying that Dafa disciples’ abilities are tremendous, yet many people don’t believe this since those abilities were not allowed to be seen. Under the effect of righteous thoughts, everything around you, as well as you yourself, will undergo changes. Yet you have never thought to give it a try.”
I was released two months ago and will do well on my remaining path of cultivation.