Overcoming the Obstacles--My First Trip to Beijing to Validate the Fa
After July 20, 1999, I was detained for two months for practicing Falun Gong in public. After being released, we made the best of our time to study the Fa practice the exercises and organize a Fa conference, and as a result our minds were elevated. On November 27, I set out to go on my first trip to Beijing to validate Dafa.
While waiting for a train in Wafangdian City, Liaoning Province, I was stopped by the police when they searched my baggage at a check-in boarding entrance. The police tried to force me to curse Teacher. I said, "Do the police order people to curse others?" Several policemen took me, along with two other practitioners whose names were unidentified, to the police office in the train station. They tried everything to force us to reveal our names and addresses, yet they got nothing. Later they took the three of us to Wafangdian police station. An officer offered me his phony kindness to find out my address and name. After playing the "good cop" and the "bad cop," he still could not get any information from me.
It was past 10 p.m. when the police cuffed the three of us to a pipe of a heater. That night, all the policemen of Wafangdian police station were on duty. By 12 a.m., the other two practitioners were picked up by their local policemen. Facing all this, my mind was very calm and my thoughts were pure and clean. I studied the Fa, recited the Fa, and was not affected by it at all. While reciting the sentence, "In order to explore this domain, humankind must fundamentally change its conventional thinking" (from "Lunyu," the introduction to Zhuan Falun), I turned my eyes to the handcuff, and this thought came to me: "Nobody can stop my journey to Beijing." Miraculously, I opened the handcuff, and I waited for a good opportunity. I held the handcuff with my hands, which were blocked by a desk so the police could not see them. By 1 or 2am, there were only two guards left in the room: one was playing poker at the other end of the desk; the other was walking around in the room. I thought I should wait until they fell asleep to make any move. I was not in a hurry, and I even relaxed and slept for about half an hour. When I woke up, all the policemen had fallen fast asleep. I immediately put on my overcoat and walked out. When I walked along the long corridor, the only sounds to be heard were my footsteps, yet I was not afraid at all. I calmly walked out of the main hall and came to the front yard. The light of the front gate was not on, and I could not push open the door. Considering that climbing the high wall while wearing heavy clothing was not very easy, I looked around and noticed that a side door was not locked. So I walked out from that side door and ran along a big street. When I was too exhausted to run any further, I thought to myself, it would be nice if I could take a taxi. Then a taxi drove toward me. Overcoming the many obstacles on the way, I finally arrived in Tiananmen Square on the 29th.
Striving Forward Together in All Circumstances--My Second Trip to Beijing to Validate Dafa
A little before October 1, 2000, I went to Beijing again for a peaceful appeal. The police started arresting Dafa practitioners at around 8 or 9am on October 1st. Because the actual situation was not the same as I had expected when I was home, I waited a long time without making any move. I saw Falun Dafa practitioners being arrested for holding up their banners and in my mind I knew it was the right thing to do, yet I was unable to act then as I had too many notions that I couldn't let go. Then the police started to clear out the square, so I walked with the crowd to the edge of the square and sat down. There were eight or nine practitioners and we exchanged our experience. As soon as we got together, we were arrested by the police. I was very upset because I didn't validate the Fa. A policeman asked me: "Are you a Falun Dafa disciple?" I replied: "Everywhere I go, I am a Falun Dafa disciple. Which regulation of the law forbids Falun Dafa disciples from going to Tiananmen Square?"
Eventually I was sent to Tongzhou City's detention centre. On October 1, one hundred plus practitioners who refused to tell their names were sent away in just one day. The environment here was evil, and we were not allowed to do anything. One night around 6 p.m., after seeing us practicing the exercises together in the courtyard on the video monitor, the guard who was on duty came over and angrily scolded us. We were driven back into our cell. They asked us who initiated the practice, and every practitioner raised their hands high. Realizing that we were all so single-minded, the guard was very furious and he locked the door to the courtyard. He punished everybody, including the criminals in the cell, forcing us to sit on the bench for the whole night. The head of the cell was so mad that she cursed us while walking around the cell. The head of the cell was tall and strong and used to be a hit-man in an underground gang. With her shoes on, she kicked a fifty eight year old practitioner (number 30) whose body was really thin into my chest. So I grabbed the practitioner and protected her body from being hit by the head of the cell. Other practitioners also protected me from her reach. Still in a rage, the head of the cell again asked number 30 over to the side and bullied her, then she violently kicked her on the chest and the practitioner fell to the ground and her head banged against the wall. The old practitioner was not able to catch her breath, and her eyes were fixed and non-responsive. I walked over and held her up and shouted: "Dafa disciples cannot be down." The big sister immediately became alert. The eight of us unanimously recited the poem "non-existence" by Teacher Li:
"To live with no pursuits,
To die with no regrets;
Extinguish all illusory thoughts,
Cultivating Buddhahood is not difficult."
This voice of justice was all-powerful and the policeman was very panicky as he rushed over to us and told us with a trembling voice: "Don't anybody move." At that time, the head of the cell received immediate karmic retribution: her heart ached so much that she couldn't catch her breath, and her head ached so much that she cried and said she couldn't stand it anymore. Teacher says: "Strive forward together, a bright future lies ahead" (from In Harmony with the Fa, in Hong Yin). As a group, several of us practitioners studied the Fa, practiced the exercises, discussed with each other and encouraged each other--as if we were one single body. We also cared about every inmate who cried for us when we were beaten up. Two of them even obtained the Fa. To validate Falun Dafa and resist the evil, every Falun Dafa practitioner had been beaten up.
One day in November when we were reciting the Fa in the courtyard, the guard was so furious that she made us take off our cotton coats and pants. We were trembling as soon as we stripped off the clothes, and the head of the cell forced us to stand up facing the wall. One by one, the head of the cell grabbed us by the hair and banged our heads against the wall. After she was done with me, she also kicked me in the side three times. When she was making her third kick, her shoes fell off, but she continued cursing. She then grabbed me by the hair and dragged me out and slapped me on the mouth. Seeing that I had no response at all and that I was still smiling, she almost exploded. She was about to pick up her shoes to hit my face when the guard came in and stopped her, for fear of this being seen by other prisoners. After that I noticed the cement on the wall had fallen off where she banged my head against, yet I didn't even have any scratches on my face or my head, and I didn't feel any pain at all. I knew I was protected. From that day on, even when we wore only thin clothes, we felt warmer than when wearing thick cotton clothes. In the night, other cellmates were concerned about us and came over to feel our hands, yet our hands were warm. They were amazed and said it was a miracle.
Another time, in order to prepare for their supervisor's inspection, the guards said we must recite the prison regulations. The head of the cell ordered each and every one of us to get up and recite it. Yet none of us read it, and we all said that we cultivators would only read Teacher's books. Later, the head of the cell said spitefully, "I'll take care of you when I have time in the afternoon." At noontime, when the guard came over, the head of the cell said: "It was all these people who refused to tell their names that refuse to recite the regulations." However, the guard said, "Forget about it. Don't ask them to do it again." Teacher says: "If a cultivator can let go of the thought of life and death under any circumstance, evil is sure to be afraid of him. If every student is able to do this, evil will of itself no longer exist" (from Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s), in Essential for Further Advancement II).
After a few days, the guard asked us to write down our thoughts. Everybody got a piece of paper and a pen. We took turns writing and everybody was very serious about it. The head of the cell cursed us when we were writing, and she eventually took the pens and papers from us by force. A few days later, a practitioner who was transferred to our cell said, "The guard told people in other cells that practitioners in our cell had the best writing."
One night fellow practitioner number 68 had a dream about our pictures being taken for our graduation ceremony. So we were enlightened that we were about to leave the place soon. On November 23, the guards took us to Langfang train station and released us.
Climbing Mountains to Gain Freedom--My Third Trip to Beijing to Validate the Fa
After reading Teacher's article "Dafa Disciples' Righteous Thoughts Are Powerful," and through discussing with fellow practitioners, I thought I should go to Beijing. I boarded a train on May 12. The police were checking ID's in Wafangdian. I was taken to a rear compartment because I didn't have my ID with me.
We arrived at a drug rehabilitation centre [functioning as a detention centre] in the early morning. The chief of a large unit of the rehab centre, Zhuang, raised his hands and hit a Falun Dafa practitioner. Another practitioner said, "You are not supposed to hit people." He turned around and slapped this female practitioner on the mouth, and said: "Have I hit her?" So I said, "Aren't you hitting her now?" The evil perpetrator turned to me and slapped me on the face. After threatening us with a few words, the police forced us to stand in the corridor. At the time I thought to myself, "It's time to find a chance to escape." A practitioner by the door turned the knob and the door opened, so we ran down five flights of stairs. When we were in the big front yard, we passed three gates and two posts. The corridor was very narrow; the police could have easily grabbed us with their hands. But the police on the two posts just looked at us without making any move. After we were out of the third gates and running toward the main gate, the police started to realize what had happened. They rushed out and chased me to the main gate. I slipped through the gate and ran out. As I was running, I checked my surroundings and found that only the northern mountains could provide me shelter, so I ran toward the northern mountains. As soon I was in the mountains, a pack of dogs led by a big black dog were about to attack me. I turned and stood there and shouted: "Who dares to bite me?" The pack of mad dogs all immediately lowered their heads. Falun Dafa has manifested so many miracles on my behalf, and it's impossible to cover everything here. What I've mentioned is just a small portion of what I have experienced.
I did not know how to climb a mountain, and I was not able to tell one road from another while in the mountains. I was so exhausted that I wanted to just lie down on the ground and rest. I was given constant reminders that this was cultivation. I recited the poem "Climbing Mountain Tai" (from Hong Yin - Teacher Li's Poems) as I climbed up the mountain. As I climbed the last mountain, which was the highest mountain, I turned back and looked back at the rehabilitation centre. It was already three or four mountains behind me. When I reached the summit of the mountain, before my eyes was a small, winding road. So, by climbing half of the way and rolling for the other half, I made my way down the mountain. After wiping away the dust on my body, I did not even find a scratch on my skin.
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