Study of the Falun Gong Teachings has Been My Shield against the Persecution

I began to learn Falun Dafa during the end of 1996. However, it was the beginning of 1998 when I started to study the Fa seriously (Fa - Law or Principles, the teachings in Falun Gong. At the time, I studied the Fa for 7 hours a day and cultivated my heart according to "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" during my daily life.

Teacher said,

" For a cultivator, all the frustrations he comes across among everyday people are trials, and all the compliments he receives are tests." ("A Cultivator is Naturally Part of It", "Essentials for Further Advancement")

By keeping this teaching in mind, I could always find my attachment.

After Teacher published the article "A Dialogue with Time," I learnt the seriousness of cultivation. Therefore, I began to copy the core text of Falun Gong Zhuan Falun. I was able to copy the book twice a month and would use my spare time to memorise Teacher's other articles. Often I worked at copying the book until 2 a.m. Then I slept until 4:30 a.m. I would then work on copying the book until I went to the group exercise practise. Since I laid a very solid foundation for my Fa study during the period of personal cultivation, I did not take a roundabout course during the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners that began in 1999.

During the first two years of the persecution, many Falun Dafa practitioners in our area were sentenced to prison terms or forced labour. At that time, many fellow practitioners suspected that I was a special agent. This was because I took part in all the activities, but I had never been arrested. When we handed out factual materials about Falun Gong, I did it openly without any fear. All I thought of was to clarify the truth so that sentient beings would not be deceived. Thinking about it now, my understanding was so simple at the time. The old forces had no excuse to persecute me.

On World Falun Dafa Day in the year 2000, someone planned to have the Falun Dafa practitioners in our area do the exercises together in the park. Many 610 Office (an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems) officials from the province, the city, the district and the community came to my home the evening before. They told me not to go out the following day. However, I need to go to work everyday. After these officials from the various levels of the 610 Office left, my husband asked me if I intended to go to the park the next day. I replied calmly, "Definitely! I have been cultivating Falun Dafa for these many years and it is Dafa that gave me back my good health. Tomorrow is Falun Dafa Day. I will go to practise the exercises in the park to express my respect to our Teacher and show my firm belief in Dafa." My husband did not say anything further. He was not a practitioner and he worried so much about me. I went to the park the next day, but I did not see any practitioners. I waited for half an hour, but still did not see anyone coming. I learnt later that almost all the practitioners had been arrested, except for me. Some practitioners were suspicious since I was the only one that had not been arrested.

Later, fellow practitioners who were arrested confessed to the authorities on two occasions about my involvement in Falun Gong activities. For a third time, I was reported to the authorities by a print shop owner who was forced to confess. She told them that I printed more than forty pages of Falun Dafa materials in her shop. Actually, most of the materials that I made were printed in her shop. It was a very serious matter. If you put all three confessions together, I could have been sentenced to a few years of imprisonment. However, I was not arrested. I learnt all of this from the officials at the 610 Office later.

There were times when I was not doing well. For a pretty long period of time, I could not reach a tranquil state to study the Fa, so there was interference. That was in the second half of 2001. The police arrested me when I brought Teacher's new articles to another practitioner's home.

While in the detention centre, I looked inside to find out why I was arrested. I realised that by not reaching a tranquil state during Fa study, the old forces found a gap to exploit. I am a Dafa practitioner and my mission is to save sentient beings. When the evil arrested me, I obediently went with them to the detention centre. In a way, I did great harm to those people who arrested me. Didn't they commit a sin by arresting me? Then how could I save them? I came to see the great responsibility Dafa practitioners are shouldering. We cannot deviate from our course, not a tiny bit. Otherwise countless sentient beings will be eliminated because of our mistakes. Since I was in the detention centre, I had to rectify the environment there to make amends for my mistakes.

Upon my arrival at the detention centre, a warden started to beat me. The first time she beat me with slippers. I ignored her and felt she was very pitiful. I used the opportunity of being interrogated to clarify the truth about Falun Gong to the prison police. As a result, they agreed that I could practise the exercises. They said, "You can practise by yourself. We'll turn a blind eye. However, if we see you practise, we must still stop you, because that is our job." I thought it was pretty good as long as they knew Falun Dafa is good, Dafa practitioners are all good people and we are being persecuted. The warden beat me again when I returned to the cell. I told her very peacefully that I could withstand her abuse, but beating me would do harm to her. I did not feel any pain at all. Since I had just come back from being interrogated, the warden did not have time to find a tool to beat me with, so she just struck me with her hands. As a result her hands were in great pain, but I did not feel anything. From that time on, the warden did not beat me, nor did she beat any other practitioners.

During the first few days at the detention centre, the inmates told me that I would be sentenced to forced labour if I did not write a guarantee statement. I told them that I would not write it. They said I should write it only because they did not know that Falun Dafa was good. However, my mind was clear. If I were to betray Dafa instead of protecting it, I would be punished by the heavens. I told them that I would not be sentenced to a term of imprisonment or forced labour. I asked them to just wait and see. One month later, I was released without having to write any statement of guarantee.