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Braving the Storm with My Head Held High (Part 1) By a Falun Dafa practitioner in Daqing City
(Clearwisdom.net) On July 20, 1999, a historically unprecedented persecution began. China was
shrouded in an atmosphere of terror. During the morning of July 20, my mother
and I went to the Falun Gong practice site as usual. We saw uniformed and
plainclothes police everywhere. It was mother's turn to teach the Falun Gong
exercises. When we got home my father was furious. He struck me to the ground with a
four-edged wooden club, pointed it at my nose and asked, "Will you still
practice Falun Gong?" Looking my father straight in the eyes I gave a firm
answer, "Yes!" He put the club away and has never hit me since. He
said beating didn't work with me. One night, some security officers called for me. They pointed at truth
clarification VCDs on a table and said, "You should know that we are
closely connected with the city police department!" I didn't feel the
slightest fear, because their intimidation had no effect on a Dafa practitioner.
As a Dafa practitioner, my mission is to offer people salvation and it's not to
suffer persecution. I solemnly and compassionately clarified the truth to them.
In the end they nodded and said they now knew the facts. Only one person was
very stubborn. He walked me home and when we parted he suddenly said,
"Truth -Compassion -Tolerance is really good!" Although I could not
see his face in the dark, I felt the genuine gratitude of a person whose heart
Falun Dafa had illuminated. I was again moved beyond words by Master's
benevolence! -- Author 1. Predestined to obtain Dafa On the morning of July 12, 1996 I woke up and saw two books on the coffee
table in the living room. One of them was Falun Gong, and the other one
was Zhuan Falun. At the time I didn't know their names since they were
wrapped up, but I knew that I wanted to read them. This seemed a bit strange,
though, since I was a person who didn't read anything aside from textbooks.
Later I learned that a Falun Gong practitioner had loaned the books to my mother
when she was doing morning exercises in the park. As I started reading, I knew I had finally found something for which I had
been searching for many years. I cannot put into words how excited I was. The
moment before I opened the books I was a hard-line atheist, but several pages
later, I had realized the meaning of being human is to return to one's true
original self. I learned that people can change themselves for the better and be
forever freed from illness and death through the practice of cultivation. I
learned why people should conform to the principles of
Truth-Compassion-Tolerance, and why people should care about their morality and
their character. More than a decade of atheistic theories instilled in my head
completely fell apart, and my heart was moved countless times by Master's Fa
principles. I thought, "Master, I will cultivate myself according to
Truth-Compassion-Tolerance, and I will return to my true original self!" 2. Cultivate Dafa with determination and closely follow Master The next morning I followed mother to a practice site. It was the first day
they were teaching the exercises, so I learned them right then and there. In 1997, a certain university accepted me into their law school because of my
outstanding grades. There was no practice site at my university. Since the Guangming
Daily incident in 1996 [the Guangming Daily published a deceptive article
attacking Dafa], a few university officials forbade Falun Gong practitioners
from doing the exercises at school. I practiced on my own. On July 20, 1999, a historically unprecedented persecution began. China was
shrouded in an atmosphere of terror. The morning of July 20, 1999, my mother and
I went to the practice site as usual, and we saw police in uniform and
plainclothes police everywhere. It was mother's turn to teach the Falun Gong
exercises. When we got home, my father was furious; he struck me to the ground
with a four-edged wood club and pointed it at my nose and asked, "Will you
still practice Falun Gong?" Looking at my father straight in the eyes, I
gave a firm answer, "Yes!" He put the club away and never hit me
since. He said beating didn't work on me. Soon after I returned to school from summer break, the university officials
had a talk with me during which they threatened to expel me if I didn't give up
my belief. I was an excellent student and my grades were the highest in my
department, yet I was to be expelled only because of my belief in
Truth-Compassion-Tolerance! At that time, Falun Gong practitioners in China were
forced to choose between their faith and career, faith and education, faith and
family and sometimes even faith and life! Master said, "A magnificent cultivator, on the other hand, is able to
let go of his Self and even all of his ordinary human thoughts amidst crucial
trials." ("Position," Essentials for Further Advancement II)
I explained to the school officials the wonders and the facts about Dafa, as
well as the illegality of the persecution. One instructor who was assigned to
"reform" me learned the truth and asked the school authority to stop
persecuting me, but the authorities said he was "not taking a firm
stand" and berated him. However, at a class meeting this instructor said,
"There is a girl at our school who practices Falun Gong. She is the most
intelligent student I have ever taught, and she always persists in her
belief." In early June 2000, I stood in Tiananmen Square and shouted to the whole
universe, "Stop persecuting Falun Dafa!" Officials from my university took me back to school. Some fellow practitioners helped me get in touch with a Dafa materials
production site in my city. I used all my spare time to study the Fa. I studied
as many as nine chapters of Zhuan Falun in one day, and I was never tired
although I slept only about 10 minutes a day. I took the bus to the Dafa
materials production site and picked up hundreds of flyers by myself. I
separated the flyers and went to faculty dormitories, student dormitories, staff
residential areas and to the communities surrounding the university. Two
security officers were guarding each building at night, but I successfully
delivered the flyers without any difficulty. I realized I was not an ordinary person doing things for Dafa. I was a Dafa
practitioner doing things for Dafa, and there are fundamental differences
between the two. An ordinary person does things with a show-off mentality, a
competitive mentality or the desire to achieve a certain goal, while a Dafa
practitioner offers salvation to deceived people with the compassion Falun Dafa
bestows on them and by constantly eliminating attachments and degenerate
notions. A Dafa practitioner does the work but is not attached to the outcome. I
gave out every flyer with a pure and compassionate heart, and I also sent forth
righteous thoughts, "Eliminate the evil's persecution of Dafa! Let
predestined people learn the truth about Dafa." The flyers were rarely torn
up or thrown away. Sometimes right after I posted the flyer on a door, someone
would immediately start reading it. During the process of truth clarification, several people did obtain Dafa and
we distributed the flyers together. We left home after sending forth righteous
thoughts, and no matter how many people we encountered in the streets, we always
openly posted flyers and hung up Dafa banners. One person did the posting or
hanging while the rest of us sent forth righteous thoughts. Once, other
practitioners went home and I was the only one distributing flyers. Suddenly I
felt very tall; the city and the whole earth felt very small in comparison. My
whole body felt empty and I was completely void of fear. I knew Master was
helping me. In May 2001, a friend of mine who worked as a tour guide asked me to help
with daily translations for the CEO and managers of a company owned by the
family of a powerful American politician. I was writing my dissertation at the
time, but I thought it was a good opportunity to clarify the truth, so I went.
Arriving at the country villa, I openly carried Zhuan Falun (unwrapped)
with me all the time. The staff at the villa looked shocked at my boldness, but
I smiled and told them the truth about the persecution. They listened. It was a
little difficult to clarify the truth to the Americans, and I used almost all
the words I could think of. I also gave them the URL of the Clearwisdom website,
and they liked Dafa. Later, the CEO of the company sent me an e-mail in which he
said, "Bless you and your book!" One night, some security officers called for me. They pointed at truth
clarification VCDs on a table and said, "You should know that we are
closely connected with the city police department!" I didn't feel the
slightest fear, because their threats had no effect on a Dafa practitioner. As a
Dafa practitioner, my mission is to save people and it's not to suffer
persecution. I solemnly clarified the truth to them with benevolence, and in the
end they nodded and said they now knew the facts. Only one person was very
stubborn. He walked me home and when we parted, he suddenly said,
"Truth-Compassion-Tolerance is really good!" Although I could not see
his face in the dark, I felt the genuine gratitude of a person whose heart was
illuminated by the benevolence of Falun Dafa. I was again moved beyond words by
Master's benevolence! When I returned to school, all my classmates were worrying about the
dissertation. I wrote the draft in one afternoon, 20,000 words in all, and spent
another day and night to complete the written dissertation. I received the
highest overall score in my department after successfully defending my
dissertation during the stressful verbal portion of the process. 3. Validating Dafa amidst the storm (1) Coordination as a whole body In late October 2001, during the flag-hoisting ceremony in Tiananmen Square,
I held up a banner with red characters and a yellow background that read, "Falun
Dafa is good" and shouted, "Falun Dafa is good! Falun Dafa is a
righteous Way! Restore Dafa's reputation! Restore Master's reputation!" A
police officer snatched the banner from behind me and stuffed it in my mouth. I
pulled the banner out and shouted to the crowd, "The government staged the
Tiananmen Square Self-immolation!" The police shoved me into a car and
drove me to the Qianmen Police Department in Beijing. They put me in a cage used
only to hold practitioners who validate Dafa in Tiananmen Square. More than ten
Dafa practitioners were arrested that day, and many other practitioners came and
left safely. We shared our experiences and sent forth righteous thoughts. In the evening, we were sent to the Fangshan District Detention Center. After
exchanging our understandings, we realized we should not cooperate with the
evildoers and decided to hold a group hunger strike to resist the evil
persecution. We are a whole body and we must advance together. Two practitioners
didn't want to hold a hunger strike; one of them was about to be transferred to
a prison and the other one thought she was about to be released. Several days
later, the practitioner who was supposed to be released was instead sent to a
forced labor camp. When the guards came to escort a practitioner to the
force-feeding room, we stood in front of that practitioner and would not let the
guards take her away. Seeing us protect a fellow practitioner with our bodies,
the practitioner who was about to be sent to a prison was very moved. She said
we were the only practitioners among those she has encountered who did this for
a fellow practitioner. She later joined us in validating the Fa. Once, the guards dragged us outside individually and beat us. They put
handcuffs and shackles (weighing more than 10 lbs) on us. They connected the
handcuffs and the shackles behind our backs. This torture was called
"backward stringing." Our bodies were forced into the shape of an
ellipse. We experienced great physical agony if we stayed in any position for
more than a few seconds. It would have been hard to endure if we didn't have
righteous faith in Dafa. It felt as if time had slowed down as I gritted my
teeth and endured. I clearly knew that I must completely do away with the old
force's arrangements. I recited Lunyu in my heart again and again. When I
remembered that Master bears the actual hardship for us while I was only
enduring a little physical pain, I couldn't hold back my tears. The next day, a
miracle happened: all pains disappeared, and my arms and legs felt as if they
were stretched out flat in front of my body instead of being tied up behind me.
In the evening, the guards unlocked the handcuffs and shackles because they
realized nothing could change Dafa practitioners' righteous faith in Dafa. I was able to do as Master had said, "...just by having your heart
unaffected you will be able to handle all situations." ("Eliminate
Your Last Attachments," Essentials for Further Advancement II) I
knew Master was right beside me and he was protecting me! Nine days into the hunger strike, police officers from my hometown picked me
up and planned to take me back on a train. While on the train I had two dreams,
the gist of which is I still have unfinished tasks and cannot leave yet. I knew
dreams cannot guide my cultivation, and I must understand Fa principles and
regard the Fa as the teacher. I am a Fa rectification Dafa disciple and I
absolutely cannot walk the path arranged by the old forces. I still have much Fa-validating
work to do. I asked Master to help me as I looked inward to find my attachments.
I discovered that I was afraid of the persecution that may be awaiting me should
I fail to escape. I sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate that fear. When the train stopped, I escaped right in front of three police officers,
and again I validated the magnificence of Dafa. (To be continued) Posting date: 11/27/2004 |