(Clearwisdom.net) My family lives in Wuhan City, Hubei Province. There were five people in our home, including my father, mother, oldest brother, second older brother, and a younger sister. We all practiced Falun Dafa and followed the principles of “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.” Our life was a simple but happy one. We respected, cared for and loved each other. Not long after the persecution began in July 1999, the harmony in this family of five ended. Two are now dead and three severely harmed. The oldest brother is still being held in jail, which has left our younger sister, who has suffered all sorts of abuse, alone with our father, who has lost his sanity.
When people listen to our little sister Peng Yan talk about our mother Li Yingxiu and brother Peng Min, who passed away ten years ago, about their stories, it makes me realize that even though we are in a difficult time, a cultivator's calmness, hope for the future, and firm conviction are beyond ordinary people. Let us listen to the story told by my sister Peng Yan.
******
From left to the right: Peng Min ( 2nd older brother), Peng
Weisheng (father), Peng Liang (oldest brother), Li Yingxiu
(mother), Peng Yan (younger sister)
My Mother
My mother Li Yingxiu was born on July 16, 1949. She was a youth when she was sent from Wuhan to Xinjiang during the Cultural Revolution. After twenty years of hard labor, she suffered all sorts of illnesses. She moved back to Wuhan in 1987 due to severe asthma, emphysema, and tuberculosis, as she could no longer work or live in Xinjiang. But her family finances were very tight. There was no money to seek medical treatment. Her illnesses got worse.
Mother Li Yingxiu
In 1997, my father discovered the book Zhuan Falun. He read it, felt it was great, and decided to learn Falun Gong. He encouraged his whole family to learn, so my mother began to practice Dafa in June 1997.
We got up early to exercise and went to study the Fa with the group in the evenings. When we came home, we shared experiences. We enjoyed happy lives and felt full of hope for the future.
Early in my mother's cultivation, she was able to see numerous Falun adjusting her body. Her health improved, as did her mood. Mother said that since she found the “heavenly book,” she was determined to be strict with herself and view herself as a cultivator.
We lived on the ground floor at the time. Our neighbors upstairs often poured out dirty water and threw down their trash just for convenience, and the yard was full of the dirty water and trash. My mother just cleaned it up without complaint.
On July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began persecuting Falun Gong. Like millions of Falun Gong practitioners, mother also went to Beijing in October 1999 to appeal for justice for the practice. She was arrested and held in a sports stadium in Beijing. She was later beaten and held in Xicheng Detention, and subsequently transferred back where Wuhan City Liangdaojie Police Station staff sent her, to the Baofenglu No. 1 Detention Center for one month. She was held in the Women's Correction Center for two weeks in October 2000.
At one point, with my father, brothers, and I all being held in jail, only my mother was outside by herself. Even though under tremendous pressure, her heart of cultivation was firm. She came to visit us with money, clothes, Teacher's new articles, and even Zhuan Falun. She encouraged us to walk well on our cultivation paths.
During the time of our confinement, we had no information from the outside world, it was our greatest longing to listen to Master's teachings. During those difficult times, mother was always able to pass the new writings to me. I learned them by heart and studied with fellow practitioners, to catch up with the pace of Fa rectification. We thus endured the darkest days with the Fa in our hearts.
Mother was very thrifty with herself, but with us, she was always generous. She cared for our needs in every detail. Besides taking care of us four when we were in jail, she also took care of fellow practitioners who were held with us. I was worried that she would run out of money, and I asked her stop giving us money, but she brought more every time she came. She told me, “Don't worry too much, just use whatever you need.”
Brother Peng Min was brutally beaten while in jail, and he was paralyzed. Mother knew that was because he firmly believed in Dafa, and would not give in to the evil. The letter mother wrote to me, “If you learn that anyone in our family has been hurt in any way, don't be affected by it. We are all cultivators.” The encouragement from mother was brief, but her faith in Master and Dafa was firm.
After CCP thugs killed my brother, they were afraid their crime would be exposed on the Internet. They held my mother and brother Peng Liang in the Hongxia Brainwashing Center in Qingling, Wuchang, attempting to “transform” them. Mother was still in deep grief for my brother. She could not eat for days, and due to the poor conditions in the brainwashing center, she developed a high fever and was sent to Wuhan No. 7 Hospital. When she returned, four guards brutally beat her. When mother attempted to record their crime, they beat her even harder. The severe beatings caused brain injury and she was sent back to the hospital and died there. She died only 22 days after my brother passed away, on April 29, 2001.
My father went to see mother's body for the last time from Hewan Forced Labor Camp. Her hair was shaved off, there were wounds on her face, blood and pus in her mouth, and her head was covered with blood. My father asked the guards and hospital staff, “How did my wife die?” A doctor said, “She died of stroke. The blood on her head is from the autopsy” Mother never had any medical history of stroke. With father's persistent inquiry, one staff member from the Public Security Bureau unintentionally revealed, “Her death was because she talked too much after her son died.”
Brother Peng Min
My brother Peng Min was born on August 2, 1973. He didn't attend high school because money was too short in those days. He went to a trade school to learn how to repair motorcycles. Even though he could not continue his education, he was very diligent, and loved to learn. He kept learning by teaching himself. He went to Wuhan University, took classes for business management and later became a manager in a private company. He began practicing Dafa in July 1997.
Brother Peng Min
My brother always has a smile on his face. I remember we all liked fairy tales as children, and loved to read stories of cultivators, and books of Taoism and Buddhism. We all believed in Buddha and God. We often discussed, “Who am I? What is the meaning of our lives?” and we kept looking and searching.
My brother was a strong person, and able to endure hardship. When he was eighteen years old, he left home searching for a place where he could cultivate. When he returned after two years, he told us that he had gone to many places. When he ran out of money he worked for others, and he once worked in a coal mine. He risked his own safety to rescue six co-workers after an accident. He traveled to Hua Mountain and befriended an orphan whose Master raised him as a child. From his friend, my brother learned that it is very difficult to cultivate, and extremely difficult to find a true cultivator. His friend's Master mentioned that the temples were too chaotic, and that he refused to enter them. Later my brother went to Shaolin Temple to learn marshal arts. When he found the temple, he realized that it was not a place for him to cultivate, since everyone there was pursuing profit and fame.
My brother contacted a mountain climbing team when he was twenty-three years old, in 1996. He prepared his gear to climb a snow-covered mountain, and told us it would be good to train his willpower. But when he arrived there, the team had already left. He was sorry that he missed the chance. We were, on the contrary, very happy.
My brother and I were very close. We talked about everything and anything together. When I began to practice Dafa, he encouraged me to do better. We went to a different exercise site, and he asked me to listen to others share their experiences. We learned a lot, and discussed among ourselves our cultivation experiences. We improved quickly together. Every morning at 3:40 a.m., he took me on his bike to the exercise site. At 7:00 p.m. every night, he took me to study the Fa. He would also finish the exercises and then come home. In order to spread the Fa, he took us to form another new exercise site at the TV station, and we went there with a recorder every day.
I remember the very first time we came to an exercise site. My brother was shocked to see so many elderly ladies double crossing their legs doing meditation. That was great! He double crossed his legs and did the meditation for half an hour. Fellow practitioners thought that he was a veteran practitioner. Once they learned that it was his first time, and not only could he double cross his legs but also last so long, they were very surprised! During the meditation, he saw a lotus flower as big as a basketball court, and small lotus flowers flew towards him. He understood that Falun Dafa was special. It was the most lofty truth, what he had been seeking for so long, and he became determined to cultivate well.
My brother told me that story. Although I had not yet begun cultivating, I was very curious. I asked him, “What is a lotus flower? Is it like the lotus I see in the pond?” He answered, “No, it's like the one on the back of the book Zhuan Falun.” I began going to exercise site after that. I could double cross my legs, but the pain was unbearable. Tears ran down my face, and he always encouraged me to endure.
After I had exercised for just few days, he took me to group Fa study. My brother sat with his legs double crossed with the others. He sat that way for one hour and twenty minutes. I could not tell from his facial expression whether he was in pain or not. I asked him, and he said “Oh, it was so painful, not just my legs, but in my heart as well. I wanted to put my legs down.” I said, “When I was in pain I kept moving around. Why didn't you move?” He said, “You should not touch the legs. The more you touch, the less you want to continue. Master said 'Maintain a serene expression on the face'. You need to endure, if you keep moving, looking as if in agony, it will not look good for others, you need to pay attention to your appearance as a cultivator.”
No matter where he went, he always carried Zhuan Falun with him. Whenever he had time, he studied the Fa. He slept very little. Most of the time he was studying the Fa and learning the Fa by heart. One time he did not sleep on a bed for a month.
My brother was very down to earth. He was sincere, his smile was so natural, and people liked him very much. He didn't say much, and never said anything using strong words. When others were sharing their experiences, he listened quietly. He always treated others kindly, was forgiving and considerate, loved to help others, and was able to endure hardship without complaint. He treated things and people around him with a compassionate heart.
Before we were arrested, his last words to me were, “Remember, no matter where you go, always treat others with kindness, and cherish every relationship.” Recalling his cultivation path, he had always done that.
On April 5, 2000, my brother and I met at the Hongxia Brainwashing Center ( it is currently called the Yangyuan Brainwashing Center). I was very upset when I saw my brother. Only one month after his arrest he appeared abused out of shape as he was held by two guards. But his eyes were firm and bright. He looked at me, very concerned, for my face and my body were covered with red bumps. “What has happened to you?” I told him that was caused by the shackles. I never imagined that this was the last conversation we would have. The sight of his back became an eternal moment in my heart.
My brother passed away on April 6, 2001. A healthy, kind, active young man lost his precious life due to persecution and brutality. He was only twenty seven years old. His layers upon layers of wounds revealed that the time spent in the detention center was a living hell.
Even some of the guards admired my brother's character. During the detention, he refused to cooperate with them and continued exercising. The guards began to savagely torture him round after round. He endured mental and physical torture, had no fear of the evil guards, and he was always kind to other inmates, inspiring them with the wonders of Dafa.
Arising From Deep Grief, as Saving Sentient Beings is Our Duty
Over all these years, I have missed my beloved family members all the time, and have often been saddened by what they endured. One early morning in 2007, I had a vision of my brother. He sat in a grand temple. He was huge, with an appearance of a Buddha, with radiant light, just like the scene in the Shen Yun show, and there were numerous tiny heavenly girls flying around him. He looked at me smiling, and didn't say anything. I was awakened to the fact that my older brother was asking me to exercise.
I believe what I saw was real, and I also understood why this was revealed to me. Life in the three realms is transient, as a human life truly comes from a higher plane. Dafa is saving sentient beings in a chaotic world. Before the big calamity, how many people will truly understand the truth about Falun Dafa. How many of them can be saved? Every Dafa practitioners should cherish every moment of saving sentient beings. In the near future, people will see the nobility and grandness of life through a Dafa practitioner's firm belief.
There is Justice in This World
As I understand it, the following perpetrators have met with justice in the last ten years: Guard Li Yong who persecuted Peng Min to death in Qingling Detention Center of Wuchang, died in a motor vehicle accident in the summer of 2001. He was 35 years old. Former Wuhan Public Security Bureau Director Yang Shihong attempted to climb the ladder of power through brutally persecuting Dafa practitioners, and increasing the so called “transformation” rate, but he was sentenced to a life imprisonment for corruption. Zhao Zhifei who is the deputy director of Hubei Province Public Security Bureau and also director of the 610 Office, was sued in the United States of America on December 21, 2001. The United States Federal Court determined Zhao Zhifei committed a crime against humanity and violated international human rights law. Within his district, there were Falun Dafa practitioners who were tortured, illegally detained, and persecuted to death.
I believe that true eternal payback awaits those who participated in persecution without repenting, who are against Dafa, and who continue committing evil deeds. Don't allow the same fate to become you!
The world's people are awakening. We believe that the truth will shine through, and the truth of Dafa will be revealed to all. That will be a moment celebrated by both heaven and earth.
