(Minghui.org) Falun Dafa has taught me to be kind and considerate. Thus, I wish to share my experiences while despite adversity, I could be kind and considerate.
I was detained in a woman's prison for practicing Falun Dafa in 2001. The prison cells were full of convicts. Forty to fifty people were locked in a cell, and all the beds were occupied. New inmates had to sleep on the cold floor. It was winter and one could see the snow when the door was opened. With the door shut, one could feel the cold wind coming in through the gaps in the door. There was frost on the edges of the door frame.
After learning that many Falun Dafa practitioners gave up their beds to other inmates and chose to sleep on the ground, the prison guard made a rule: If anyone was transferred out, her empty bed would be given to the next person in the queue. That way Falun Dafa practitioners had a chance to sleep in the beds.
The next time there would be empty beds, I and another practitioner were next on the list to be assigned to the beds. We decided that as practitioners, we were fit and healthy. So it didn't matter if we slept on the cold floor. However, if other inmates slept on the ground, they might end up getting sick, come down with rheumatism, and suffer for the rest of their lives.
We told two inmates they could have our beds. However, another convict disregarded the rules and took the bed. The two inmates thought that we had broken our promise, so they rebuked us. I did not take it to heart.
Several days later, two beds became available at the same time. I and the other practitioner gave them to the two inmates who scolded us. One of them was from the village, the other was from the city.
One day I was tortured for refusing to give up my faith. My hand was shackled to my ankle, and it was difficult to walk by bending about 90 degrees. At night, the inmate from the village looked at me with tears in her eyes. She apologized for scolding me before. I smiled and told her the facts about Dafa.
Subsequently, I was transferred to another detention center. Before leaving, the other inmate from the city came to say goodbye. She apologized for previously misunderstanding and scolding me for the bed. I told her the facts about Dafa and asked her to remember Falun Dafa is good. She nodded in agreement.
Today, more than a decade later, whenever I recall the expression on their faces, although I cannot remember their names, I am deeply grateful to Master Li (the founder of Falun Dafa) for teaching me to forgive those who treated me with enmity.
The police interrogated me in 2001. I refused to answer or cooperate with them, so one of them began to slap my face viciously. I was hit so hard that I almost fell over. When I steadied myself, I looked at the officer who slapped me. I did not hate him after what he did to me. I looked him in the eye and said, “I don't hate you for hitting me. I hope you will not suffer karmic retribution.” He stopped his hand that was raised. After, he never again hit or swore at me.
A convict told the prison guards that I was reading Dafa books. So a female guard told me to strip off my clothes and wanted to search my body. I refused to comply. She flew into a rage and kept slapping me, demanding that I hand over the Dafa book.
I thought of Master's teachings, and I wondered how I could stop her from abusing me through the power of compassion. I gazed at her with kindness and determination. Gradually the hatred in her eyes melted away. She suddenly stopped hitting me and did not force me to turn in Master's book.
Before I practiced Falun Dafa, I harbored a deep resentment towards my stepmother. She refused to let me attend school even though I was doing well and my grades were at the top of my class.
My younger brother and her own son became ill at the same time. She took her son to the city for medical treatment. My younger brother died due to delayed treatment. I could not forgive her for my brother's death.
However, after I became a practitioner, I learned to let go of my resentment and treat her kindly.
My stepmother's son was a good-for-nothing. He kept asking his mother for money and would hit her if she did not give him any. Once he broke her back in a fight with her. My stepmother is very thrifty, but her son took her money and gambled it away.
As a practitioner, I began to take pity on her and look at the positive traits in her character. She worked hard to take care of our family, and she painstakingly made shoes for me and my brother. She suffered a lot of hardships early in her life.
After I was released from prison, I learned that my father had passed away from sadness over my detention and that my stepmother's son had been beaten to death.
When I went to visit her, my stepmother wept and told me what happened in my absence. Her son's death was a blow to her, and she looked even more frail. I asked her to come and live with me in the city, but she turned me down. Every time I went to see her, she was reluctant to see me leave. I observed that she was beginning to treat me with kindness.
She once gave me some eggs she had saved. In return, I bought her fruit that I could not afford to eat myself, such as grapes from the U.S. and fresh strawberries.
When she was in the hospital, I attended to her. After she returned home, I taught her to recite, “Falun Dafa is good.” My stepmother told everyone that I treated her even better than her own daughter did.
One day when I went to visit her, she told me a secret. She said that she had saved a sum of money, several tens of thousands of yuan, that she wanted to leave for my son. I turned down her kind offer and thanked her for her trust in me.
I'm grateful to Dafa for resolving the enmity between my stepmother and me.