(Clearwisdom.net)
Greeting to our most revered Master, greetings fellow practitioners!
After reading the "Minghui Weekly" in regards to collecting articles for the Third Mainland Dafa Practitioners Experience Exchange, my first thought was that I wanted to share my experience in practicing Falun Dafa.
1. Obtaining Dafa
My cousin came over one day in 1996. She told me that many people at her work place practice Falun Gong and that it brought about wonderful health benefits. I attended a free-teaching seminar, watched Master's lecture on video, and obtained the book Zhuan Falun. I felt that Master's knowledge was broad and profound. He taught us many things that we could not learn from books, and the meaning of being human. For example, happiness and bitterness in life has everything to do with the virtue and karma that a person carries with him. In worshiping Buddha, no matter how devout you are, even if you are a vegetarian for religious reasons, burn incense daily or chant Buddha's Scriptures, it does not work if you do not cultivate your xinxing. After I obtained Dafa, I mainly practiced the exercises and studied the Fa at home. I was very introverted and had very little contact with fellow practitioners. Later I met a fellow practitioner who was very diligent in exercising and studying the Fa, and I then began to go to the group exercise site regularly.
2. Climbing up after falling down
When the persecution began, I thought things through deeply and reached the conclusion that the CCP propaganda is completely opposite to Zhuan Falun. The propaganda is all lies. Later, no matter what level of management approached me, I told all of them how much I benefited after practicing Falun Dafa. They asked me to fill out forms, and I wrote that I would practice Falun Dafa until the end. Three policemen forced me into a brainwashing "class." My co-workers all came to see me out the front door and watched me as I stepped into the car. I began crying.
The brainwashing class was located in the suburbs. I was delighted to see so many fellow practitioners, but they were "transformed" shortly afterwards. The police tried to "transform" me. At the time, I did not fully understand things on the basis of the Fa. I thought that they had been to Beijing and had suffered so much hardship. They had done it on a grand and spectacular scale. They were marvelous and they had cultivated so much better than I had. Through this reasoning, I was also "transformed."
When I returned home, the more I thought about it, the more uneasy I felt. The scene of my co-workers who came to see me off kept emerging before my eyes. Why did they come to see me off in such difficult circumstances? It is because I am a good person. After I obtained Dafa and did everything according to Dafa, I became a better person. The Fa is righteous. It is good.
After that, whenever workplace leaders talked to me, I replied: "Dafa is good, it is righteous. What I did was wrong and brought damage to Dafa. I will still practice Falun Dafa."
I knew a fellow practitioner through the brainwashing class. I read Master's recent teachings and other materials at her place. That gave me much courage. I saw the difference between fellow practitioners and I. I began to pay close attention to studying the Fa, and elevating on the basis of the Fa. The leaders took turns talking to me, and when they found out that they could not change my mind, they pressured my family to persuade me. I told them: "When I fall down, whoever helps me up I will thank them. Dafa gave me my second life. You want me to tell a lie against my conscience? I won't do it. It goes against my principles."
3. With Master's compassionate protection, with righteous thoughts and actions, I broke out of the den of monsters
One night around 9pm, before the 16th Conference, only my child and I were at home. The secretary at my workplace knocked at my door. I thought that there was something urgent at work and so I opened the door. Six to seven policemen rushed in. They told me to keep quiet and to follow them. They locked me into a cage in an interrogation room. I was very calm, not afraid at all, I kept reciting the Fa by heart and sending forth righteous thoughts.
Master taught us:
"Cultivation is hard. It's hard in that even when a terrible calamity strikes, even when evil madly persecutes, and even when your life is at stake, you still have to be able to steadfastly continue on your path of cultivation without letting anything in human society interfere with the steps you take on your path of cultivation." ("Path" in Essentials For Further Advancement II).
Master also taught us:
"just by having your heart unaffected you will be able to handle all situations." ("Eliminate Your Last Attachments" in Essentials for Further Advancement II).
"However strong the righteous thoughts are, that's how great the power is." ("Also in a Few Words" in Essentials for Further Advancement II).
I was sent to a suburban brainwashing class the next morning. I talked to the director of my workplace: "I was taken away here without any legal procedures, and held in a cage. It is an insult to my dignity, it is an abuse of human rights. I object to this." He turned around and brought the CCP secretary from our work place and asked: "What else do you want?" I replied: "Release me without any condition; I need to take care of my child and my sick mother." The secretary replied: "Once you are here, you have to follow the rules here." I stated: "If this is your answer, I will start a hunger strike against this illegal act." At the end they said: "It is not important whether you are "transformed" or not. It is important that you eat." I answered: "The most precious thing to a human being is life, I will not joke about my life. If a life is without any dignity, without honor, and deprived of any rights, there is no meaning to life." My family came to persuade me: "Mother is in a critical condition, your child is also hospitalized." They blamed me and said that I was selfish. The police threatened to sentence me to labor camp.
I pondered: "I will start a hunger strike. Am I doing it for myself? Is it the way to get out of here?" The answer is no. I am doing this to validate the Fa. This is no longer individual cultivation; we are connected with the Fa-rectification of the universe. Especially in this evil environment, I will be stricter with myself; I will have strong and righteous thoughts in everything I do and I will do it in a dignified way, as all the lives in the universe are watching.
I found the leader of the Political Legal Committee of the city and told him: "I started a hunger strike. The purpose is not to try and threaten anyone. I love this land that I grew up in. I am an ordinary citizen, and the constitution granted me freedom of belief. Through practicing Dafa, it elevated my moral level, made me physically healthy, and granted me a second life. I benefited so much from Dafa. How can I lie against my conscience? For speaking the truth, I lost my harmonious family, and the work that I loved. You use the most despicable, deceitful and shameless method and send me here, forcing me to give up my belief. You are knowingly violating the law." I spoke with a reasonable and calm demeanor; my forbearance spoke volumes about my innocence. I told anyone that I contacted about the course of my abduction and the benefits that I received from practicing Dafa. With Master's compassionate protection, I was released home nine days later without condition.
In September 2004, during some massive arrests in our city, our materials production site was destroyed. I was arrested and sentenced to three years in a notorious labor camp.
At the beginning, they tried all sorts of ways to attempt to transform me. I thought:
"I am the disciple of Master, I am the most righteous life, and I have the righteous thoughts to rectify all that is not right. It is not up to you to decide my future. For those who attempted to "transform" me, I did not treat them as the opposition. I felt sorry for them because they have been controlled by evil. They could sit and talk non stop for two straight hours. I sent forth righteous thoughts incessantly, learning the Fa by heart, and I found opportunities to identify their deviant thoughts and actions, eliminating the evil in other dimensions.
They forced me to watch videos slandering Dafa and asked me what I thought of it. I said: "As the Righteous Fa spreads, Untold fiends try to impede," Hong Yin - "Born Anew"). Such an enormous Fa spreading in the human world, it is not surprising that several "characters" jumped out and slandered it. They took turns coming. Later, several "transformed" individuals came from Shenyang and Fushun. One day, they all came to my room. I looked straight into their eyes; no matter how many brilliant schemes they had, I had only one answer. All of a sudden, they went crazy yelling and screaming at me. I quietly answered: "This is of no use, I firmly believe Master, I firmly believe Dafa, Master speaks the truth, nothing is going to change me." They left the next day. During that period of time, no matter the threats, the intimidation or the hypocrisy, nothing could confuse me. I abode by the Fa, and carried out a Dafa disciple's duty in a dignified way. Master taught us: "The Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts." (Essentials for Further Advancement II--"Drive Out Interference")
I refused to wear prisoner outfits, nor participate in forced labor. I negated the old forces and all of their arrangements. More fellow practitioners refused to wear prisoner outfits, and more solemn declarations were published in other teams. Afraid of the influence, the authorities rearranged the whole place. I was sent to a team that imposed strict rules on us. There were nine of us locked in one room. We learned the Fa by heart, exchanged experiences, sent forth righteous thoughts, and elevated on the basis of the Fa. On July 1st, they arranged people to sing songs eulogizing the CCP. With the entire body of Dafa practitioners' righteous thoughts, the loudspeaker broke, and they canceled the program.
I began a hunger strike against the persecution and developed illness symptoms. When I went to the hospital, I sent forth righteous thoughts: Let none of the lab results be normal. The results of the exam showed that I had severe uremia. I thought that this was not the place for me. Fellow practitioners outside were all sending forth righteous thoughts. As long as I was here, I would send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate all the evil factors, eliminate all evil. On the ninth day of hunger strike, two policeman handcuffed me and told me that the local authorities could not put me on trial. They let me go. My family met me when I arrived. (The authorities afraid of the influence, put on such a show.) I regained my freedom and my heart was at peace, I felt that it should have been this way to begin with. Whenever I thought of Master, I could not stop my tears. I cried in my heart: Master! Master! No language in the human world could express my feelings. After nine months and twenty days, I came back home and my state of health was soon restored. All my relatives and friends acclaimed: "What a miracle!"
The process of writing an experience exchange is also a process of finding shortcomings. Looking back, you will be able to find what kind of human hearts and attachments have caused tribulations. Master taught us:
"You will be made to abandon all those attachments that cannot be given up among everyday people. As long as you have them, all of those attachments must be removed in different environments. You will be made to stumble, whereby you will become enlightened to the Tao. This is how one goes through cultivation practice." (Zhuan Falun, 2000 English version)
As a particle of the Fa, if you firmly believe in Master, believe in Dafa, and view the Fa as your teacher, you will walk on the right path of Fa rectification.
(The Third Internet Experience Sharing Conference for Practitioners in China)
October 12, 2006