(Clearwisdom.net) While practicing Falun Gong and stepping forward to clarify the truth in China, we endured tremendous pressure, but I didn't cower and worry about my personal safety. In April I was arrested for spreading Dafa truth-clarifying materials. At that time, there was only one thought in my mind: firmly resist the evil and thoroughly deny its arrangements. With whatever means the police used to torture me, although they swore at and beat me, they could not get a single word from me. They even tried to provoke me with the argument that Falun Gong practitioners should always tell the truth. However, I understood that the evil is not worthy of knowing how we Dafa practitioners assist Master in Fa-rectification.
The police tortured me for several hours and then put me into the detention center. Seeing that I refused to answer any questions, the policeman on duty threatened that I would be detained with the drug-addict criminals. I didn't pay attention to him at all. Another policeman told him, "She will not say anything." I was detained in the cell with common criminals. I resisted the persecution with a hunger strike, and eliminated the persecution against Dafa practitioners with righteous thoughts.
The next day, the police wanted to take a photo of me. I refused, saying, "I am a good person. I won't take a criminal photo." They said, "Taking the photo is the regulation here. Whoever comes here must have a photo taken, no matter if you are a good person or not." I replied, "That is your business. I should not be detained here. I won't take the photo." Seeing my firm attitude, one of them said to let it be. Another person in charge ordered, "Put shackles on her if she won't take the photo." My heart didn't move a little bit. They put a pair of iron shackles on me. Even with shackles, I could still meditate and send forth righteous thoughts as usual. I persisted in practicing the first four sets of exercises once a day and meditating both in the morning and evening. The criminals were quite annoyed when I practiced, but when they saw that I paid no attention to them, they just let it be. On the 8th day of my hunger strike, I stopped practicing the first four moving exercises, and only practiced the sitting meditation in the morning and evening and sent forth righteous thoughts. Seeing that my superficial physical power was diminishing, the policemen asked me everyday, "Did you practice the exercises today?" When they got an affirmative answer, they felt relieved. On the 12th day of my hunger strike, I was unconditionally released.
I have been to Beijing to validate Dafa and to spread truth-clarifying materials. This was the third time that I was arrested, and the police were going to send me to the forced labor camp. My family worried a lot about this. In fact, the cultivation path of Dafa practitioners is hardly understandable to ordinary people. At the moment I was detained in the detention center, my only thought was that they must release me within twelve days. I told the common criminals in the same cell that I would be back home before long. I told them that "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" is the sole criterion to discern good people and bad people, and asked them to remember, "Falun Dafa is good."
They all listened to me very carefully. They said, "As a matter of fact, we know you are a good person. No drug addicts wish to beat Falun Gong practitioners." I asked why, and they said, "You are beaten without fighting back, sworn at without swearing back. Who could bully such kind people?" Yes, Master said in "A Brief Explanation of Shan" from Essentials for Further Advancement, " If a nationality is to be truly virtuous, it must have little karma; it is certain there will be no wars against it. This is because the principles of Dafa prohibit it, as the nature of the universe governs everything. One doesn't need to worry that a virtuous nation will be invaded. The nature of the universe - Dafa - is present everywhere and encompasses the entire cosmic body, from the macroscopic level to the microscopic level." The beings who met practitioners were all moved and turned to kindness under the benevolence of Dafa practitioners.
On the morning of the 9th day of my hunger strike, the supervisor of the policemen patrolled the detention center. Hearing about my situation, he was utterly discomfited and ordered, "Force-feed her if she doesn't eat by herself. Otherwise send her to the forced labor camp." I didn't have a single thought about being force-fed since I was detained. I replied, "You cannot force-feed me! Whoever tries, that is a sin and the person will have to repay it!"
"I heard that you get 500 Yuan [average income for an urban worker is about 400-500 Yuan] for arresting one Falun Gong practitioner. All you want is money, right?" I followed up with a sentence from the bottom of my heart, "Everything I do is for others, including you; absolutely nothing is for myself." All the four policemen in the room were moved. At that time, I almost burst into tears. Under the energy field of my compassion, that supervisor became very peaceful and said, "I was afraid that your body could not stand this."
In this difficult environment, I also found many shortcomings of my own and let go of many human desires and attachments. I remembered that in the first several days of my hunger strike, when an appetite came, I wanted to drink water and eat watermelon. I immediately remembered Master's words, "Cultivating heart, giving up desires, and getting rid of attachments." ["Who Dares to Give up an Everyday Person's Heart" from Hong Yin, Master's book of poetry, un-official translation] I repeatedly recited this and then the desire to eat and drink was gone. In the last several days, whenever I felt thirsty, some sweet-tasting saliva would appear in my mouth. It is hard to describe with words. I knew this was the mercy of Master, the mercy of Dafa, and the true manifestation of the Buddha Fa at different levels.
The above is just my limited personal understanding. Fellow practitioners, please kindly point out anything improper.