(Minghui.org) I am 76 years old and started cultivating Falun Dafa in the winter of 1996. When I first read "On Dafa," my heart was deeply shaken and filled with an excitement that I could not explain. I felt that this was not something an everyday person could write and was the most precious thing that a life could have. I started cultivating Falun Dafa immediately.
Minghui.org encourages Dafa practitioners to write about their cultivation experiences. I had only an elementary school education and felt writing was difficult. I gathered up my courage and wrote this article to report to Master Li and share with fellow practitioners. Due to limited space, my writing focused on the 10 days I was held in a detention center in 2015, for suing Jiang Zemin, the former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader who initiated the persecution of Falun Dafa.
The police arrested me after I mailed my document suing Jiang Zemin. They then took me to a detention center. When we got there, the police officer escorting me pointed at me and told the detention center staff registering me, “He’s a good person.”
The staff looked surprised, and one of them asked, “You mean you want me to look after him, right?” The police officer grunted and left. This also surprised me. I thought my words and deeds probably left him with that impression when I talked to him about Falun Dafa. For the next 10 days, I was detained, and my situation was indeed very relaxed, and both the guards and the inmates treated me with great respect.
After the registration process, I was taken to a cell with five inmates. I said loudly upon entering the cell, “I practice Falun Dafa.” They all welcomed me warmly. After exchanging greetings, I asked them if they had heard about quitting the CCP to ensure their safety, and I explained why one should quit the Party. Two of them agreed to quit immediately. The other three agreed to quit the next day, after I explained it to them again.
There was a large dining hall in the detention center, and about 40 people ate there. At eating times every day, I talked to the people who sat close to me at the dining table about quitting the CCP and the truth about Falun Dafa. Most of them accepted my words and agreed to quit the Party. There were also some who didn’t want to quit. I wasn’t discouraged and continued to talk to them. During the 10 days, three guards also quit the CCP and its youth organizations.
There were cameras in the cells monitoring us. One day, while the guard was on duty in the monitoring room, he heard me talking about quitting the CCP in my cell through the camera. He came to my cell the next day. I was at the window when he arrived. He greeted me and said, “Please help me to quit too!”
It took me by surprise, and I spontaneously responded, “Sure.” Since his voice was low, I thought, “What does he mean? Did he mean to quit the CCP? I must clearly understand him.” I waited for him to return to the window again and asked, “You just said ‘quit,’ did you mean to quit the CCP for your safety?”
He replied, “Yes!” and added, “You practitioners did a great job. I’m going to get online and tell your Master that the practitioners explained the facts very well.”
I thought that he probably visited the Minghui website often and learned about quitting the Party. I also thought that it’s possible that Master encouraged me through his mouth. A few days later, I asked him for a pen and some paper. I wanted to write down the names of those who wanted to quit the CCP, because the list (I chose pseudonyms for them) was getting longer, and I didn’t want to forget any of them. He got me the pen and paper.
One day, after I finished lunch in the dining hall, a guard asked another inmate and me to carry a large trash can from the dining hall to outside the gate to dump the trash while he followed behind us.
I thought it was a rare opportunity to talk to him about quitting the CCP. For people like him (because of their jobs), talking to them about quitting the Party in front of many other people usually didn’t have a desirable effect. The dining hall was over 200 yards from the gate. On the way, I explained to him why one should quit the Party. He listened attentively and agreed to quit. He told me about many of the CCP’s evil deeds that he knew of. The inmate who carried the trash with me also quit the Party.
After everyone had finished eating and returned to their cells, I mopped the floor in the corridor and looked for opportunities to talk to people. A guard suddenly appeared and quickly walked into the dining hall. I thought, “This is a perfect opportunity!” I followed him into the dining hall and saw him washing something in the sink alone.
I treated the inmates and guards with kindness. My conduct influenced the people in my cell. They became more caring and peaceful. My conduct and the change in the inmates also left the guards with a good impression, helping me become more familiar with them.
I chatted with this guard at the sink and sincerely explained to him that quitting the CCP was to ensure that he had a good future. I asked him to quit and void the bad vows he had made when joining the Party. He smiled and said, “Okay, I’ll quit!” Another life accepted Dafa’s salvation. I was truly happy for him.
There were also times when I didn’t do well. Once, I saw a guard outside my cell window, waiting for the inmates in the cell to fill out a food purchase order, so that the detention center staff could go buy the food. I thought about talking to him. However, I worried that he would leave as soon as the order was filled out, and there was not enough time for me to explain the truth to him clearly. I hesitated and missed the opportunity. I felt a deep sense of guilt afterward.
During the 10 days of detention, I did the five sets of exercises before dawn every day. I then sent righteous thoughts, recited Master’s poems and paragraphs of the Fa that I knew from memory. Whenever I got the opportunity, I talked to the inmates about how Dafa teaches people to be good and talked about the Party persecuting Dafa practitioners. They all accepted my words.
I got along very well with my cellmates and the guards in the detention center. We were like good friends. When I left the detention center on the 10th day, I had a list of 16 people who had quit the CCP and its youth organizations.
Master made all these arrangements to save the people there, and saw my heart for saving people, and made the arrangements for these predestined people. The time and the place—everything was laid out. All I did was approach them and talk to them about quitting the CCP. It was Master who truly saved them. Thank you, Master!