(Minghui.org) After I took up Falun Dafa in 1998, my liver cirrhosis disappeared in six months. Grateful for Dafa, I persevered in practicing it after the Chinese Communist Party ordered the persecution a year later, and I worked with other practitioners to raise awareness about the persecution. I would like to share a special experience in the detention center following an arrest in 2017, and how I used that to cultivate myself and clarify the facts.
Two local practitioners were arrested while distributing Dafa materials on June 12, 2017. The police also raided our materials production site. To rescue the two practitioners, three of us put up banners and wrote an open letter to the police, resulting in our being arrested that evening.
The police interrogated us for over 20 hours without a break. We refused to answer any of their questions, but tried to clarify the facts to them, and urged them to release us. One officer told us that he saw practitioners distributing materials when he went to Hong Kong. He knew that Dafa is good and beneficial to society, but he still had to follow the orders from above to persecute us.
Not long after, three police cars came and took us to the hospital for physical examinations needed to detain us. In the car, I told the police stories of two former public security officials who regained their health from practicing Dafa. They were surprised to hear our story.
We refused to cooperate with the police at the hospital. They held my arm and tried to measure my blood pressure, but I broke free from them. The blood pressure monitor and stethoscope fell to the floor. I held up my cuffed hands and shouted, “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance is good! Clear my Master’s name!”
The hospital’s staff members and patients gathered around me. Unable to take me back to do the physical examination, the police called for help. About 20 minutes later, more than ten armed officers arrived. They held me on the ground, forcibly drew my blood and performed an electrocardiogram on me.
After the physical examination, the police took us to the detention center. I refused to follow their order of admitting that I was a criminal. The guards threatened to shoot me. “I can kill you today if I really want to,” one of them said to me. Then they carried me into a cell that was shared with eleven other inmates.
The inmates asked me what crimes I committed. I told them that I didn’t do anything wrong, and that I was persecuted for practicing Falun Dafa. One of them recalled that she was detained with a practitioner before, who remained firm in her faith despite all the brutal torture, including electric shocks, being hung up by handcuffed wrists, and solitary confinement. I told the inmates that Falun Dafa is a spiritual cultivation practice that follows the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance, and it has been spread to many countries around the world. I also told him more about the historic appeal by 10,000 practitioners on April 25, 1999, demanding a peaceful environment to practice Dafa, and how the communist regime staged the Tiananmen self-immolation hoax to demonize Falun Dafa.
On the third day of my detention, the deputy police chief came to interrogate me. He sat in front of me, with more than ten officers standing behind him. They took photos of me and video recorded me. They asked my name, and I said, “I am a Falun Dafa practitioner.”
He said to me, “We’ve asked you many times what’s your name. Why don’t you tell us? If you tell us, we can let your family come to see you. They’ve been waiting outside of the detention center for days.”
“If my family is here, don’t you already know my name?”
“Of course I do, but I am testing your attitude.”
“I won’t tell you my name, but I demand to see my family.”
“That’s not possible. It’s your own choice. Let me ask you another question, as a government employee, why did you join a cult organization?”
“Falun Gong isn’t a cult. No enacted law has ever criminalized Falun Gong in China. I used to suffer from many ailments, but completely recovered after practicing Falun Gong. It benefits society and does no harm.”
The police chief himself came the next day, still trying to persuade me to write a statement renouncing Falun Gong. They promised that I wouldn’t be subjected to any prosecution, and could still keep my salary. But if I didn’t comply, I would lose my high-paying job, or worse. I told them that I wouldn’t write the statement whatsoever. I was willing to lose everything, but not Dafa. The police chief kept saying, “It’s a pity! It’s a pity!” when he left.
In fact, it wasn’t an easy choice for me. Since I began working at age 17, I enjoyed good pay in the government system over the next 30-plus years. When I was first taken to the detention center and held in the dark and damp room without seeing the sun, I felt that I had fallen into hell. But I kept reciting Master’s poem to encourage myself.
“Don’t Be Sad
Imprisoned as you are, don’t be sorrowful or sadCarry on with righteous thoughts and actions, and the Fa with yourselfCalmly reflect on the attachments you haveRemove your human thoughts and evil will naturally die out”(Hong Yin II)
I persisted in reciting the Fa, doing the exercises, and clarifying the facts. Gradually, I didn’t feel so sad, but more grounded and calm. When the Autumn Festival came, I looked at the moon that night and said in my heart, “Master, you have been working hard.” Despite being later sentenced to a year in prison, my faith in Dafa became ever strong.
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