With Righteous Thoughts, A Practitioner is Unscathed by Brutal Lashing

The following was transcribed from an oral account by a Falun Dafa Practitioner from Shouguang City, Shandong Province:

In June of 2000, more than fifty Falun Dafa practitioners from our township held an experience sharing conference. Someone informed the authorities and we were arrested by the police and detained at the township government where we were tortured for four days. Then several of the practitioners were sent to the city detention centre, which had already imprisoned more than one hundred Falun Dafa practitioners.

On June 25th, the director of the detention centre ordered the police to force us to do push-ups on the cement pavement under the scorching sun. That day the surface temperature of the cement reached 50 degrees Celsius (122o F) and we were sweating profusely. The policemen also ordered the criminals to whip us. At that time, we did not know about sending forth righteous thoughts. However, one thought stuck in my mind "We are good people and we should not accept the persecution by the evil forces." I shouted, "Fellow practitioners, we are all following the principles of 'Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance' and trying to become good persons. We should not accept being persecuted like this." The police ordered the criminals to pin me to the ground. They whipped me four times and said, "Let's see if you dare to stand up again!" At that moment Teacher's words appeared in my mind "To live with no pursuits, to die with no regrets." ("Non-existence," Hongyin, draft translation) I stood up and shouted at the top of my voice, "Fellow practitioners stand up! We should not take their persecution!"

The director of the detention centre came and ordered four criminals to force me down to the ground. With four of them firmly pressing down on my four limbs, the director ordered another very tough criminal, "Whip him to death!" (The whip is made of three steel wires wrapped with bamboo. It is said that normally an inmate would be bruised and lacerated and then collapse if he is whipped dozens of times.) The criminal whipped me several hundred times until he became tired and was unable to whip anymore and said breathlessly, "Director, what can we do?" The director of the detention centre said, "Change to a strip and continue to whip!" (The strip is more than two meters long and made of cotton that is soaked in hot water. It will not break and is specifically used to whip criminals.) After the criminal whipped me several hundred times more, he was exhausted and out of breath. He asked the director, "I am too tired to continue whipping him. What can we do?" The director said while swearing, "Rubbish! You can take turns whipping him until the cotton strip is worn out." It was a very hot day so the director and the policemen all went to the shaded area to cool off while leaving the criminal to beat me. One criminal told the criminal who was beating me that the way he was using the cotton strip would never wear it out. He told the criminal to hit the ground with the cotton strip.

In this way the cotton strip was worn out. The criminal who was beating me squatted down and said quietly, "Grandpa, please forgive me. It was against my will to beat you; however, if I do not listen to them they will punish me." I said, "We follow the principles of 'Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance' so we are all good people. I do not blame you." The criminal was moved to tears.

The policemen tortured us until 10 o'clock in the evening. When I returned to the cell and washed myself with cold water I found that there were no traces of the whip or the cotton strip. I had not had anything to eat for seven days; however, during the whole process of the torture I did not feel any pain. On the contrary, I felt as if I was in the same tranquil state as when I was doing the sitting meditation. I knew it was the merciful Teacher who strengthened me so that I was able to overcome the torture; otherwise I would have been bruised and lacerated or worse still, disabled.