(Minghui.org) I started practicing Falun Dafa in 1997. Although I have never seen Master in person, I know he is constantly looking after us. Remembering Master got me through my darkest hours of imprisonment.
After Master's article “Rationality” was published, I understood that we must not cooperate with the evil. I witnessed severe persecution while I was detained: Practitioners were killed or tortured into disability. At that time, every Dafa disciple was thinking: "How can I keep going?" After thinking deeply, I decided to follow Master firmly to the end.
I started to recite the Fa every day. Unfortunately, I often forgot to call Master for help when being persecuted. I saw clearly that one could die from torture at any time without Master's protection, so I decided to remember: "I am a disciple of the Lord Buddha, who is always by my side protecting me, and no one dares to touch me." Except for when reciting the Fa, I held this thought all the time, whether I was walking or eating, sitting or standing, and even when I was sleeping. I later called for Master when I was being persecuted.
I was illegally arrested while I was out of town in 2004. At the police station they asked me a lot questions, such as where I came from, what my name was, etc. I kept silent for several days. One day, seven or eight officers came and it looked like they were going to beat me. At that moment, I had a clear picture of Master in my mind. I focused on Master and didn't take any notice of what the police were saying. I didn't feel any fear when they surrounded me. They got so angry that they struck the table and knocked it over. But they didn't dare to touch me.
I later was sentenced to prison. In prison, I refused to respond at roll-call. Since I was not a criminal, I also refused to follow the prison regulations or do slave labor. I refused to cooperate with anything they told me to do. They wanted to beat me and twice tried to lock me in solitary confinement. I heard that they had all the paperwork done and arranged inmates to gather my clothes for the confinement, saying I would be taken there at 10:00 p.m. I totally ignored all this and kept thinking of Master. Our revered Master was in my heart. At the same time, I constantly eliminated fear and human attachments. My mind was on Master all the time and I did my best to keep calm. In the end, nobody dared to touch me.
They were very annoyed with me. They said, “Each time we wanted to punish her, we couldn't, as either this one nor that one didn't agree, or that one didn't approve. She has seriously 'violated' our regulations, and yet she does whatever she wants. How can we remain in charge?”
They complained to their superiors and asked me angrily, “What's so special about you? You look the same as everyone else, with one nose and two eyes?!” Some inmates asked me, “Do you have powerful family connections?” "Yes," I thought, "I do indeed have someone extremely magnificent on my side - the Lord Buddha of the cosmos." But they couldn't see that He is in my heart at all times.
They later asked the head of the prison bureau to intervene in my case. Over 20 people talked with me, from the political commissar of the prison to team leaders. The head of the prison bureau asked me some basic questions, and then he offered to help resolve my salary issues after I was released if I responded at roll-call. I refused and said, “No, I won't do it because I'm not a criminal.”
Because I was detained for a long time and couldn't see Master's portrait, not to mention interference from my own impure thoughts, I sometimes could not form a clear image of Master in my mind. When the interference was severe, I couldn't even remember what Master looked like. When this happened, I would keep sending righteous thoughts and reciting the Fa, and then I was able to remember Master's face, and it became clearer and clearer, and the evil became more and more frightened.
While I was detained in a provincial brainwashing center, my tormentors thought they hadn't beaten me enough and talked about intensifying the persecution. I could see them coming. One of them came into the room first, then he called the others in quickly. I thought to myself that I would keep Master in my heart at every moment. I sat there quietly. No matter what they said, my heart was not moved. I kept calm and focused on Master. A while later, they all left, and no one ever talked about beating me again. The brainwashing center kept calling the 610 Office, asking them to pick me up and said it was a waste of their time keeping me there.
A police officer later told me that the provincial authorities wanted to do a special study on me, and they wanted to know why I was so steadfast and what I was thinking about. I told them I could help with their study if they gave me time to write out my thoughts. So I wrote a long truth-clarification document from various angles, including the law and the persecution of Falun Gong, and handed it in. Many people told me that they had read what I'd written. Some said they read it twice and their superiors also read it. Nobody disagreed, because everything I said was true. Later they said to me, We don't want to try to 'transform' you anymore. Go home." After I got out, I mailed what I had written to authorities at various levels so that they all knew what happened to me.
I remember when I was detained in 2004, I saw them torturing practitioners every day, and there were constant deaths and injuries as a result. I wanted to write letters to expose the atrocities and to deter the evil.
I had some fear when I wrote the first letter and was worried that the evil might retaliate. I kept calling Master in my heart and asked Him to give me courage and strength so that I could eliminate human attachments and fear. I then had a firm thought: "Master is in control of everything. Nobody dares to touch me!"
With Master in my heart, I finished the first letter and handed it to the guards. They were stunned to see that my letter was addressed to the prime minister.
The next day, several guards came and held a meeting. I was a bit moved in the beginning, thinking they would start to treat me harshly. I immediately sent righteous thoughts to get rid of those attachments and fear.
However, these thoughts still kept reoccurring as I tried to eliminate them. I thought of Master, but those bad thoughts blocked his image. I kept trying to think of Master. It was truly a battle between the righteous and the evil. Eventually, Master's image appeared in my mind, and I gradually calmed down and was able to eliminate those bad thoughts. I reminded myself: "I'm Master's disciple. No one dares to touch me! The guards must understand that they will suffer retribution if they keep doing evil things and they will be brought to justice. They must leave themselves a way out. One righteous thought subdues a hundred evil things." I felt calm enough to face anything.
Someone said, “What's the use of your letter? The police won't post it.” I thought that, as a Dafa practitioner, I shouldn't pay attention to things at the surface level, such as: If the letter gets to the prime minister, how would he respond to it? I should just do things according to Master's requirements. We oppose the persecution and will bring it to an end. The guards indeed didn't dare to persecute me; instead, they became more polite towards me.
There were only four practitioners in the strictly controlled division while I was detained there. It was also where practitioners were tortured most severely, and I often heard fellow practitioners screaming out in pain. I started writing letters to expose every torture incident I knew. Altogether, I wrote more than 20 letters. The attention slowed down the evil. Once someone tried to drag me to watch videos that slandered Falun Gong, but I refused to go. Then several others came to beat me. A team leader quickly stopped them and said, “Leave her alone. She writes complaint letters.”
From Master's teachings, I understood that the only way we can make it is by having faith in Master and in Dafa. As long as we put our trust in Master and Dafa, Master will help us.
While I was in that evil place, someone said to me, “Your Master said if anyone can harm you, he or she would be able to harm him and would be able to harm this universe. How come you were moved?” I replied, “Do you know there is another sentence before this? It says: 'If you are a true practitioner, our Falun will safeguard you.' (Zhuan Falun) Everything my Master said is true. It's only that we haven't met the requirements.”
Master's grace is boundless. I can never express my gratitude to Master in words. What I feel most regret over is that, due to our own loopholes, the evil has slandered Master and Dafa, and some practitioners died as a result of persecution. When all this was happening, my own righteous thoughts were not strong enough to disintegrate the evil at the time. I wept and felt very bad. Revered Master, we owe you so much and we will never be able to repay your boundless grace, not even a tiny bit.