Taiwan: Teaching Falun Gong in a Prison and Inspiring Inmates’ Compassionate Nature

In sharp contrast to Falun Gong practitioners in Mainland China who are being illegally arrested, forcibly brainwashed and cruelly tortured by the Jiang group because of their belief in Falun Gong, many Falun Gong practitioners in Taiwan have volunteered to serve as rehabilitation instructors to help various prisons' reform inmates and inspire their compassionate human nature.

In I-Lan County, some local practitioners have taught Falun Gong exercises in Sanxing Prison every Monday afternoon since December 2000. They have introduced Falun Gong’s excellent principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance” to this law enforcement agency and its inmates. In the past three years, they have been highly praised by the prison authorities and the inmates.

A local practitioner Mr. Wu said, “Falun Gong precisely targets one’s heart, regardless of formality. Though inmates are imprisoned because of the crimes they committed, they should have the opportunity of hearing and learning this great Dafa.” After local practitioners met with the Chief of the Prison’s Rehabilitation Department and introduced Falun Dafa to him, a nine-day Dafa-learning class was held a week later.

It was said that to begin with, discipline in the class was not so good, but it gradually got better and better. On the sixth day, there was no longer any tension. After the conclusion of the nine-day class, the Chief of the Rehabilitation Department, because of the obvious change in the inmates’ behavior, expressed his appreciation and heartfelt feelings to the practitioners. He added, “To discipline these inmates, I routinely had to mete out punishment to them every day. But a miracle happened on the sixth day of this introductory class. For the last four days, there has not been any need to punish them, because there have been no conflicts.” He continued, “Falun Gong’s principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance,” purified these inmates’ seriously polluted hearts within nine days; it is really difficult to conceive such a remarkable change.”

Given the above, the Chief of the Prison’s Rehabilitation Department has already drawn up a plan. According to the existing arrangements, two months prior to inmates’ release from the prison they are supposed to attend a training class which was designed to equip them with some working skills so that they are able to make a living after being discharged from prison. The plan that the Department-chief has drawn up is: Include Falun Gong in the training programme so that every inmate can attend the Falun Gong class for nine hours in three sessions prior to being released. Besides, a regular Dafa class is conducted in the Prison’s factory once a week for one and a half hours. In the class, they study Dafa books, including Zhuan Falun [Falun Dafa's main text] and Hong-Yin [Master Li's poems], exchange experiences, watch Dafa videos and practise the exercises.

Practitioner Wu said that inmates often borrow copies of Zhuan Falun that were provided for the prison. In addition to attending fixed classes, they also study the Fa and practise the exercises in their cells. Some have even asked practitioners for other Dafa books and information about practice sites so as to introduce Falun Dafa to their relatives and friends, or keep studying and practising Dafa themselves after being released from prison.

Mr. Wu also revealed that Falun Gong practitioners were treated with great courtesy by the prison authorities. Usually, people need to apply for admittance with their photo IDs before entering the Sanxing Prison, but all that Dafa practitioners need to do is to inform them of the number of practitioners who want to enter the prison. It indicates that the prison authorities completely trust Falun Gong practitioners.