(Clearwisdom.net) I reached 58 years of age in 2006. I obtained the Fa in 1998. The first time I picked up the book Zhuan Falun, I read it twice in a row. I was so ecstatic that my hands trembled in excitement. In July 1999 when the evil Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to launch a series of lies, slander, and hate propaganda against Falun Gong, I had only one thing in mind: going to Beijing to speak out for Falun Gong. Teacher has endured so much for us. We, as disciples, must not be callously indifferent to these ruthless attacks on Teacher and the Fa. On January 1, 2001, I unfurled two banners at Tiananmen Square that contained the truth about Falun Gong. As a result, I was illegally arrested and thrown into a forced brainwashing session. After I was released, I had to leave home and go into hiding to avoid further persecution.
During the journey of clarifying the truth about Falun Gong and validating the magnificence of Falun Gong, I continue to cultivate myself and temper my will. Has it been a hard life since I left home? Yes, especially when I am alone. I am a woman in my 50’s. I have shed countless tears in the middle of wind, storm, night, and turmoil. I didn’t cry because I was homesick. I cried for my poor enlightenment, for my lack of thorough understanding of the Fa and for my inability to help people understand and accept the truth about Falun Gong. Once I was thirsty and asked a storekeeper for some water, but he gave me a bowl of water brewed with golden thread in it. It was terribly bitter! But I found joy in bitterness. [Golden thread is an herb that tastes very bitter.]
I have tended sheep, cows, and donkeys. I have hoed farming fields. I have harvested corn and rice. I have taught school. I have spent the night on the roadside. I have had to walk one day and one night straight. I have met many kindhearted people that gave me help when I needed it the most, but I have also met depraved people that reported me to the police. I have even met thugs. My stubborn attachments to fear, sloth, fear of losing face, and fear of filth were thoroughly exposed in the journey of clarifying the truth. In these difficult days, I gradually eliminated these attachments. I conducted myself as a cultivator. I helped farmers with their chores, cooked for them, and did their portraits in exchange for meals.
Every time I was on the verge of starvation, I thought to myself, "I will let go of all worries. What’s the big deal?" Each time I let go of attachments, help arrived at the most pivotal moment. Someone would have me stay at his home or someone would offer me food.
When I first went up to a mountain, I was at loss. I didn’t know anyone. I had no friends and I was penniless. I had no idea where to sleep or eat. I had no idea what I should do from then on. I didn’t have answers. However, I didn’t back off. I clarified the truth to the farmers on the mountain. I had faith that Teacher was right beside me. Deep in the mountain, I walked alone. Ever since I was little, I have feared darkness and wild beasts, but I was fearless because I did not have any doubt that Teacher was right beside me at all times.
Door by door I clarified the truth to each family. First and foremost, I require myself to be a good person, even when it comes to trivial issues.
Once I went to a small mountain village. Most of the residents there believe in Buddhism and have a shrine at home. When I first arrived at the home of one family, the husband was deceived by the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) lies. When I told them that I was a Falun Gong practitioner, he immediately repeated the lies he saw on TV. There were only two of them living in this household – he and his wife. It was in the middle of autumn harvest time. Every farmer was terribly busy. As soon as I arrived at his home, I started to carry water from the water source to his house, cook for them, and help with the chores in the paddies without being asked to. I fought for every chore.
After a few days, they were convinced that I was a good person. That was when I started to tell them the facts about the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong and to reveal the truth about the lies broadcast on TV. At night I read Lunyu in Zhuan Falun to them and had them read Zhuan Falun. The husband said, "The size of the words in this book seems to grow bigger each time I read it! Why is it that the more I read the book, the more I want to read it?" They finally understood the truth about Falun Gong and accepted the fact that I am a cultivator. The wife said, "A cultivator is half a divine being. I feel like starting cultivation practice, too." I explained to them about "no second cultivation way." On the following day, villagers asked them to have a meeting in a Buddhist temple, but she declined the invitation.
I found a school in a remote village on a mountain. I approached the school principal and asked to stay overnight in a classroom. He immediately gave me his own bedroom and stayed elsewhere. He also asked me to write words on the blackboard in each classroom and I agreed. Three days later I finished the task and started to clarify the truth to the villagers. That night villagers told me, "We didn’t report you to the police, but some individual villagers have." Meanwhile Teacher gave me a hint to escape from danger. At around 5:00 a.m. the next day, I fled from the mountain village with the help of kindhearted villagers. I felt as though I was flying when I was walking on the mountain path. It started to rain, so I found shelter from the rain in a village on a hill. The rain stopped when a police car drove past me towards the mountain village I had just escaped from. What a close call!
During this period of time, I have met a lot of people and clarified the truth to them. I have experienced many incredible things. Life was hard, but I found pleasure in it.
In December 2001, I was in my home when I heard a loud voice shouting, "You have ruined many sentient beings!" I was astonished at first. Then I calmed down and thought, "I have been clarifying the truth to save sentient beings. If I am doing a bad deed, Teacher would not have been protecting me for Teacher would never protect anyone that is doing a bad deed." I was immediately convinced that the voice came from an evil being. I spoke towards the sky, "You claim that you have been helping Teacher, but you are not. You are the ones who are ruining the sentient beings." I opened up Zhuan Falun to the page with Teacher’s portrait. Teacher smiled at me. I knew I had been doing the right thing.
In 2002, I was very attached to distributing truth-clarification materials in an area. As a result of my attachment, a police car on night patrol spotted a fellow practitioner and me when we were distributing materials. We were both arrested and illegally imprisoned in a detention center. We ended up being imprisoned for three years. My fellow practitioner paid a dear price for my attachment. This was a very costly lesson.
During the persecution in the illegal imprisonment, the fellow practitioner had severe heart pain. I asked the warden of the detention center to notify her family. A prison inmate told me it was impossible for her to meet with her family before the trial. I interrupted her and continued to ask the warden to notify her family to come see her. What the prison inmate thought impossible came true. She finally met her family. The prison inmate commented, "A Falun Gong practitioner’s words carry energy."
For three years we refused to cooperate with the police. They didn’t obtain our signatures or photos. They wanted to transfer us to a forced labor camp and had made several attempts, but each time we saw through their schemes and exposed the prison police’s crimes. The photographer realized that he would be assisting the criminals with their crimes if he took our photographs and that everyone participating in their crimes would eventually suffer karmic retribution. He stopped his involvement.
We passed food to another fellow practitioner in another cell through the prison police, but they kept the food for three months. I asked them to return the food to us. With a kind heart and a mentality of saving sentient beings, I reasoned with the prison police. I said, "It is our freedom of spiritual belief to practice Falun Gong. You should return our things to us." Prison inmates told me, "It is fairly common for the prison police to take your things. They will never return it to you." I think it was because of my kindness and my mentality to save the prison police, a policewoman returned everything to me and said, "Thank you." Prison inmates commented, "She was thanking your Teacher!"
For the three years of imprisonment, we studied the Fa, memorized the Fa, validated the Fa and clarified the truth about Falun Gong. As a result, group after group of prison inmates understood and accepted the truth about Falun Gong. One after another they wrote to their family members, "Falun Gong is good. Do not believe the CCP lies."
Every afternoon fellow practitioners and I sang "Falun Dafa is good" and prison inmates sang along. The singing of "Falun Dafa is good" made the evil in other dimensions tremble, and helped everyone here improve morally little by little.
At one time during the persecution, my body started to jerk all over as a result of the torture. I refused to acknowledge the persecution and sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil elements in other dimensions. Meanwhile, I searched inward to find the root cause for why the evil was able to exploit me. Under Teacher’s protection and the guidance of the Fa, I overcame one deadly test after another.
On the day of our release, the prison police told us, "You should file a lawsuit against the CCP because it was wrong to imprison you. You remain very faithful to your belief. We have not practiced Falun Gong. If we had, we might have been like you."
After I returned home, my confiscated wages were returned to me. A fellow practitioner asked me how I reasoned with them. I explained, "I didn’t fight for the confiscated wages. I just clarified the truth about Falun Gong to them."
In this new environment, I must study the Fa even better, be diligent in my cultivation practice during the Fa-rectification, have righteous thoughts and righteous actions, seize the time to clarify the truth and to save sentient beings, because these are the responsibilities of every Falun Gong practitioner!