A Falun Gong Practitioner from a Small Village Shares Her Experience of Uprightly Resisting the Persecution

I am an elderly Falun Gong practitioner living in a village in China. I don't have much education. After I read Clearwisdom.net's call for papers on righteous thoughts and righteous actions, I wanted to share my experiences with my fellow practitioners. But every time I picked up the pen to start writing, I thought about how the articles written by other practitioners were so good and of such high standard, I didn;t think that I could produce such an article and so I'd put down my pen. Today, I am determined to share my experiences.

On July 20th, 1999, when the persecution against Falun Gong officially started, I went out to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. When I arrived at a nearby city, a large-scale arrest of Falun Gong practitioners was taking place. Amongst the mass of arrests I was arrested and sent back home. Since my child was in college and we didn't have much money, I did not go to Beijing to appeal. Local government officials and police visited my house regularly to ask me to renounce my belief in Falun Dafa and to prevent me from going to Beijing to appeal, they confiscated my identification card, which is needed to pass through certain check points. Although the village officials monitored my house frequently, I was never afraid and continued to study the Falun Gong teachings and do the exercises.

One evening while I was exercising, my husband ran in and told me the police were coming to arrest me. I was startled at first. My heart beat very fast and I felt some fear. However, after the police entered my home, I thought that as a Falun Dafa practitioner there was no reason for me to fear them.

Teacher says,

"Dafa is what you carry everywhere, Zhen Shan Ren, rooted in the mind; A great Arhat walks the earth, Gods and demons fear with awe." ("Benevolent Might" from Hong Yin, Version A)

Regarding myself as a great Arhat¹, I calmed down and reasoned with the police and township officials. They were speechless, but still took me to the local police station. Upon entering the building, I heard some police officers cursing and beating someone like mad, followed by a practitioner screaming in pain. I thought of Teacher's words,

"I'd say it's nothing more than just hardships that humans have to endure when they practise cultivation. If you're able to let go of [the fear of hardship] you're sure to reach Consummation. Speaking from a higher perspective, if you're able to let go of the thought of life and death, you are truly a God!" (Falun Buddha Fa - Lectures in the United States)

Letting go of the thought of life and death, I entered the room. To my surprise, the practitioner was sitting in the room looking fine. That really was like Teacher said,

"After passing the shady willow trees, there will be bright flowers and another village ahead!" ( Zhuan Falun)

Suddenly it occurred to me that the episode was just a test for me.

The next day, the police attempted to force all of the practitioners to sign a "Guarantee statement"² against our belief in Falun Dafa. They threatened that if we did not sign the statement, our children wouldn't be allowed in school, our family members working in other cities would be forced to go home without work, we wouldn't be assigned any fields to grow grain and our spouses who were government or communist party officials would lose their positions. At that time I remembered Teacher's words,

"At the crucial moment when I ask you to break away from humanness, you do not follow me. Each opportunity will not occur again." ("Digging Out the Roots" from Essentials for Further Advancement)

I immediately told the police that I didn't need to sign. If my husband and my son didn't agree with my practising Falun Gong, I was willing to leave home and leave all the property to them. The police then asked me who taught me the practice and whether or not I still had any Falun Gong books. I told them that there is no need for them to ask me anything about my cultivation, since I couldn't tell them things that put others in danger, but I didn't want to lie either, because I practise "Truthfulness - Compassion - Forbearance." The police then set me free. I realised that it is only what Teacher wants that really matters.

Since Teacher asked us to send forth righteous thought in 2001, I carefully studied Teacher's article, "The Effect of Righteous Thoughts" as well as what Teacher said,

"With a practitioner, his thoughts direct his abilities to do things. But with an ordinary person, his thoughts just direct his four limbs and his sensory organs to do things. It's like a factory whose production office or general manager's office sends out instructions, and the different, specific operational departments carry out the task. Or it's like the headquarters of an army, where the command centre gives orders and directs all the troops to carry out a mission." (Zhuan Falun)

After studying the Falun Gong teachings, I had a good understanding of the importance of sending forth righteous thoughts and how to do it properly. During times of the year when the farm work is not demanding, I send forth righteous thoughts 8 to 10 times a day, each time taking 20 minutes to an hour. When the farm work is demanding, I send forth righteous thoughts 6 to 8 times a day.

In our area, all of the practitioners are female, and we are the only ones who practise in our families. Usually we go out to distribute materials containing information about the practise and the persecution at night. In the summer the days are long and the nights are short. Moreover, our husbands are afraid that we will be arrested, so they watch over us and don't let us go out. Practitioner B lives very close to me. I told her to send forth righteous thoughts to let her husband sleep soundly till the next morning and then go out. In our area, two villages are about 1 to 3 miles away. Each time we go out, we send forth righteous thoughts all the way and things go very smoothly. In villages, many people have dogs. Usually when we approach a village, we will send out righteous thoughts to the village thinking, "All people in the village go back to sleep and dogs do not bark, as Falun Dafa practitioners are coming to save sentient beings." When we enter the village, it is indeed very quiet.

In the wintertime, the night is much longer and people go to sleep late too. We often run into people when we go out to distribute flyers. I usually send righteous thoughts when there are many people outside. Few people live in our area and everyone knows almost everyone. There are several practitioners living here, so if we are seen at night, people will know what we are doing. When I go out to distribute materials, if I see someone coming towards me and I have no way to avoid that person, I will think, "I am coming to save sentient beings, let him not see me." Thus when the person passes by, even though he might have a flashlight, he will look down at the road and won't see me at all.

A few times practitioners heard that government officials were coming again to confiscate our Falun Dafa books. I told them to send forth righteous thoughts to deny the evil people coming to our area. We sent forth righteous thoughts many times under these circumstances and everything turned out fine.

From my own experiences, I feel that as long as we keep our minds righteous all the time, Teacher and the guardian gods are always with us, helping us whenever we need it.

Note:

1. Arhat - Enlightened being with Fruit Status in the Buddha School and one who is beyond the "Three Realms."
2. Guarantee Statement - A statement to declare that one is remorseful for practising Falun Gong and guarantees not to practise Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Dafa practitioners.