(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I started to practice Falun Dafa in 1996. In 2017, the local police illegally arrested many practitioners on the same day, including me.
My family hired a lawyer for me. According to the lawyer, the police were creating a “special case” against all of us and they threatened to sentence us to more than three years. Meanwhile, in order to force us to give up our faith, the guards in the local detention center instigated the inmates to torture us by promising them term reduction.
Master said,
“...Dafa disciples are suffering, But who is ruined are sentient beings....” (“Every Lifetime Was for This Life,” Hong Yin III)
I understood that the real purpose of the persecution was to destroy sentience beings and I must stop it. I thought about going on a hunger strike in protest so as to awaken the conscience of the guards and inmates. But at the same time, I knew some guards used other practitioners’ hunger strike to aggravate the persecution. I became hesitant and didn’t know if a hunger strike was the right thing to do. Then Master’s words from Lecture Given at the Conference in Sydney appeared in my mind, “With Master and the Way by my side, what is there to fear?” I knew what I should do.
I started the hunger strike on the next morning. I said to the guard on duty, “The police illegally arrested me and also fabricated a ‘special case’ to frame me and other practitioners, some of whom I didn’t even know. The police are harming themselves by persecuting good people.”
The guard couldn’t understand me, and said, “You will be force fed anyway, and you’ll have to bear the unnecessary pain.” I urged her not to partake in the persecution. She made up an excuse and left.
She came to check on me every day to see if I was fine. I said she could help me by letting the police know about my situation.
On the third day, I was sent to the detention center’s in-house clinic, where I saw the detention center director and other officials, as well as some police officers. A guard briefed my situation to them. They said they would be held responsible for my health so they must take action now. They bound me to a bed and tried to give me an infusion of some glucose. I firmly rejected and struggled with all my might. They relented, but still asked me to drink the glucose solution or milk. Since I hadn’t drunk water for a few days and my lips were dry, I simply moistened my lips with a little milk.
I asked them if they knew anything about Falun Gong. The political commissar said, “I heard that if people practice it, their ailments will disappear without taking medicine, or they won’t even get sick. But I don’t believe it at all.”
I explained, “What you heard about Falun Gong are probably propaganda made up by the government. The truth is that only by following the principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance can people recover from illnesses. It’s clearly explained in Zhuan Falun (the main text of Falun Gong) that one will only get well by valuing virtue.”
I went on to say, “I had many diseases including low blood pressure, purpura, severe anemia, migraine headaches and arthritis. I tried different treatment and practiced many Qigong, but nothing helped until I took up Falun Gong. I started to follow Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, let go of my pursuit of fame and personal gain, think of others in all matters, and look inwards when facing conflicts. Soon all my diseases were gone.”
They still did not believe what I said. In the following days, I requested to meet with the director, the instructor and the division chief. I tried to talk to each of them in person.
On the eighth day of my hunger strike, the Domestic Security Office director came and told me that the “special joint case” had been dropped. Now they were handling each practitioner’s case separately.
The guard on duty told me that if I didn’t stop the hunger strike, she would not be allowed to go home to celebrate the upcoming Chinese New Year with her family. Since my goal of having the “special joint case” dismissed had been achieved, I agreed to eat.
In fact, people around me were amazed to see that I was still in good condition except some weight loss, even after eight days without eating or drinking. A 19-year-old girl in my cell said, “How can you still be energetic and even have strength to wash your blanket? Falun Gong is extraordinary!”
When my cellmates heard I started to eat, they all shared their food with me. The guard on duty offered me noodles which was a delicacy in the detention center, for five meals in a row. And I shared it with my cellmates.
Later on, I found that it was commonplace that the inmates dumped their unfinished food to the toilets. They were curious about why I always finished all my food no matter what. I told them the story of Master finishing other people’s leftover food when he ate with practitioners. Master taught his disciples by his action. When the inmates learned that cherishing food is cherishing their blessing, they tried their best not to waste food.
One day I told the guards that I would like to see the political commissar. And I was led to meet him at the instructor’s office. He politely called me “sister,” asked me to have a seat and then handed me a cup of water.
He started the conversation by asking me several questions. I soon changed the topic to how my diseases were gone and I regained health by practicing Falun Gong; how my son, his wife and their son all benefited. I talked for about an hour and he listened to me attentively. He said that if possible, he wanted to meet with my son after I was released.
Before he left, he told the guards, “After hearing her story, I feel Falun Gong is really amazing.” He said that if I wanted to talk to him, I can simply let the guards know.
After this conversation, the political commissar totally changed his understanding of Falun Gong and the practitioners.
One day a girl was transferred to my cell. She was detained for cell phone fraud. There was an unwritten rule that newcomers would clean the toilet. When she was doing it, she couldn’t stop coughing and the coughing sound was really loud. I asked her if she was alright. She said she had bronchial asthma. But the medicine she took was not available in the detention center clinic and her family had to mail it to her.
I told her about the health benefits and principles of Falun Gong. She was glad to hear it and asked me many questions. She said that her father also taught her to be tolerant and forgive others. I also told her the crimes against humanity by the Chinese Communist Party and urged her to quit it. She agreed. She also sincerely recited the phrases “Falun Dafa is good; Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.”
Surprisingly, when she was cleaning the restroom the next day, she didn’t cough at all. Her frequent stomachache disappeared. She always found opportunities to talk to me. She said she felt very comfortable staying close to me and she wanted to learn Falun Gong after she was released.
One day in 2019, a drug addict Jing was assigned to sleep next to me and we had to share one blanket. She was very tall but not very strong. She gave the impression that she was knowledgeable, but she didn’t like Falun Gong and refused to listen to me talk about it.
Two inmates warned me that Jing was not easy to get along with and that her imposing figure would make me uncomfortable sleeping next to her. They invited me to share the bed with them. I thanked them and said I would prefer to stay where I was assigned, because I hoped to talk to Jing more about Falun Gong.
The next morning as I was doing the meditation, Jing cursed at me and accused me of bullying her. Although I did not argue with her, her hostile attitude irritated me. I couldn’t calm down, and was thinking of my counter-argument: “What is wrong with you? Considering your size, I gave most of the bed and blanket to you; besides me, no one else wanted to sleep next you; it is nonsense to accuse me of bullying you.”
The more I thought about it, the more upset I became. I had been in the cell for over a year and won the respect of most of the inmates. I felt a bit embarrassed when she cursed at me in front of others.
At that moment, I remembered Master’s teaching about looking inwards under all circumstances. I immediately calmed down.
The next day Jing was on duty at night. I saw her sitting on a small stool and leaning against the wall, looking very weak. I asked if she was uncomfortable, and she nodded with a bitter smile. I felt pity for her and stopped doing Falun Gong exercises. I helped her lie down on the bed and then finished her night duty.
Since then she was willing to listen to me talking about Falun Gong. She came to understand the true situation the brutal persecution of Falun Gong and agreed to quit the CCP and its associated organizations. Some other inmates in the cell were also touched by how I treated her and changed their attitude towards me.
Between 2017 and 2019 there were two outbreaks of influenza in the detention center. At that time, there were about 20 people in the cell. I was the oldest one, while everyone else was younger than 60, with the youngest in their 20s. However, during the two flu outbreaks, everyone was infected but me. The whole cell witnessed the miraculous health benefits of Falun Gong and some said they would practice Falun Gong upon returning home.
A woman was implicated in her brother’s arrest, who was a high-ranking official being investigated for taking bribes. She was accused of offering bribes for a total of nearly ten million yuan. Her family spent half a million yuan hiring a famous lawyer, but for more than half a year, the lawyer hadn’t been allowed to visit her.
When I was in the same cell with her, she never worked the night shift. She often paid for someone else to do it for her. At the beginning, she didn’t want to listen to me talking about Falun Gong. As time went on, she felt that I was different from others, and was willing to talk to me. After many conversations, she fully understood what Falun Gong is and how the persecution came about, and declared that the CCP is evil. She also sincerely recited the auspicious phrases.
Shortly after, her lawyer came to see her. The lawyer told her that her case was very complicated. Even with the lawyer’s best effort to defend her, she might still be sentenced to more than 10 years. She broke down and wept.
I told her that anxiousness wouldn’t help. I comforted her and urged her to continue reciting the auspicious phrases, as it would bring her blessings.
The more she talked to me, the more she knew about Falun Gong and the more she trusted me. She also developed an interest to practice it. When she heard someone badmouth me or Falun Gong, she felt they were saying something bad about her and she would stand up to defend Falun Gong and me.
When the police came to interrogate her again, she was very worried. I said to her, “I hope you can return home earlier.”
Sure enough, after the interrogation, she was released without being charged. I believe it’s her blessing for supporting Falun Gong.
My hair was yellow and gray, dry and split-ended since I was young. After I started to practice Falun Gong, I once lost all my hair when I went through a sickness karma test. It happened to be during winter time, so I holed up at home for three months. When the spring came, new hair started to grow and it was dark and shiny.
My hair turned gray again after I was released from the prison last time. Since then I had always dyed my hair. In 2017 after I was detained again for my faith, gradually the white roots showed up. Once when I was having a haircut in the detention center, a guard stared at my hair and said, “Your hair is turning black.” There was no mirror, and I didn’t believe what she said. One day after I was released, my son suddenly mentioned that my hair was getting darker and took a picture to show me. Indeed, a lot of my hair had really turned dark.
It is hard to explain my hair situation by science. The food in the detention center was barely nutritional. The environment was filthy. But I maintained a good health. I believe it was a result of my trying my best to do the three things well. I had no Dafa books to read, but I tried to recall the Fa as much as possible. And I always did the exercises and sent forth righteous thoughts.
Among all the people I talked to at the detention center, 90 percent of them became aware of the truth and quit the CCP. The day before I was released, the inmates had a farewell party for me, and I was asked to teach them to sing the song “Falun Dafa is good.”
Due to my limitations, there are many more stories in the detention center that I have not been able to share.
Thanks to Master’s benevolence, I’ve come this far on my cultivation journey. I’m sharing my experience to validate Dafa. And I shall do better in the future to live up to Master’s salvation.