(Clearwisdom.net) I started to practice Falun Gong in late 1997. I want to talk about things that happened to me recently. I will tell you how I walked out of a forced labor camp under Master's merciful protection.
At around 9:00 p.m. on September 28, 2006, I was studying the Fa at home. Hearing a rapid pounding on the door, I asked who it was. The voice from outside did not sound familiar to me. I knew that it must be the police. I told them that I was sleeping and that they should come back if they needed something. They would not leave and kept pounding. My family and I started to send forth righteous thoughts together to eliminate the evil control. About one hour later, the pounding stopped. At about 11:00 p.m. over 20 policemen returned. They used a ladder to climb over the wall of my courtyard. I immediately locked the front door, but they used a screwdriver and an iron bar to pry the door open. I shouted, "You broke into my house in the middle of the night. Breaking into civilians' residences is against the law." They ignored me and took my wife and me to the Public Security Bureau.
Police officer Wang Wei searched me and took everything I had on me, including more than 90 yuan in cash. He handcuffed me and put shackles on my feet, yet still was not satisfied. He then used an iron chain to tie me to a tiger bench. I was forced to sit on it the entire evening. In addition, Wang Wei hit me in the face, which was swollen for several days. The officers also would not let me use the toilet. The next day policeman Liu Zhaoguo interrogated me. I had just one thought then: denying all the arrangements made by the evil forces and refusing to cooperate with their unreasonable demands. "No matter what the situation, do not cooperate with the evil's demands, orders, or what it instigates." ("Dafa Disciples' Righteous Thoughts are Powerful" in Essentials for Further Advancement II) In the meantime, I clarified the truth to Liu Zhaoguo about Dafa. I refused to sign my name on the interrogation report. Afterwards, the officers escorted me to be detained and again told me to sign the paper. I said that I was innocent and refused to sign.
I was taken to a detention center. For seven days, I refused to cooperate with the guards or sign anything. After that, agents from the 610 Office interrogated me twice. I remained silent and did not sign my name. There was no record of the interrogation at all. The guards were very fierce, but I was not scared. I sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil behind them. One guard quickly drafted a note while the other one read a newspaper. After that, they started to chat and completely left me alone. It did not seem like an interrogation.
The forced labor camp ordered us to do hard labor. I was ordered to work with another elderly person. I did not give it too much thought at first. Since there was nothing else to do, I started working. However, during the interrogation that day, I was put in handcuffs. When they went to take the handcuffs off, they could not find the keys. I realized I should not have done the hard labor. Yes, I would not do the hard labor! At that time, if someone refused to do any hard labor, his/her handcuffs and foot shackles would be connected, and they would have to bend over to walk. Nevertheless, I was not scared. I had not committed any crime. I should directly tell the guards. After sending forth righteous thoughts for a while, eliminating the evil that planned to persecute me, the guard who was in charge of labor assignments came in. I told him that I would not do anything. Forcing me to do hard labor was physical abuse. Because I had done nothing wrong, I firmly protested my illegal imprisonment. After hearing me out, he did not give me anything to do. I thought that being a Falun Gong practitioner, a good person, I should help others with their assigned forced labor. That would be different from what the guards assigned to me.
During this time, I had been telling the inmates who were in the same cell with me the truth about Dafa. They agreed with me. One of them even learned the five exercises. One inmate asked me to teach him to recite Master's lectures. In the meantime, I also searched inside myself to find the reason for being arrested, and where I had gone wrong. I sent forth righteous thoughts every day, denying the old forces' arrangements.
After being in the forced labor camp for 23 days, on October 20, 2006, I was sentenced to three years of forced labor and was escorted to Wangcun Forced Labor Camp. On the way there, I kept sending forth righteous thoughts: "This is not the place for me; I must go home." When I had been sentenced to forced labor in 2002, Master helped me so that I failed the physical examination and hence was released. However, this time they tried everything they could to lock me up. In the labor camp, two personal monitors closely followed me every day. They constantly overwhelmed me with their fake "law theory." I learned how important it was to study the Fa well. Had I not studied the Fa well, I would not have been able to see through their evil tricks. After over 12 days of fighting between righteousness and evil, their evil theory did not work on me.
I pondered on the reasons why I was arrested and sentenced to forced labor. Every day, I thought about what Master said:
"Calmly reflect on how many attachments you have
As you get rid of human mentality, evil is naturally defeated"
("Don't Be Sad," Hong Yin Vol. II)
I found many of my attachments. First, I had a strong human mentality while working outside. I did not calmly study the Fa. It was like an assignment to me when I studied the Fa. Second, I had a strong attachment to fear. Master says, "For a god or a cultivator, fear is considered a major attachment." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York") But why did I have fear? After searching deep inside, I found that I had not completely laid aside my attachments.
Third, I had a fairly strong human mentality. I still felt that human life was full of tastes and meanings. I was like what Master said,
"If you hold on to humanness with one hand and won't let go, and you hold on to Buddhahood with the other hand and won't let go, just which one exactly do you want?" ("Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference")
Fourth, I had not completely let go of my attachment to lust. I would take an extra look at anyone who was attractive. During that time, my desire was strong, and I had slacked off doing the exercises. I thought that it was due to not being very diligent. As a matter of fact, the real reason was that I was still not cultivating as a genuine practitioner. To sum it up, the persecution that I suffered at that time was the consequence of all my attachments. However, no matter the reason, I knew I should absolutely deny this persecution and not cooperate with it. Every day I talked to Master, and said, "Master, this is not a place for me to stay. I want to leave this place. There is so much Fa-rectification work for me to do out there, and there are so many sentient beings waiting for me to save them. Three years will be wasted. Besides, being arrested itself caused a great negative effect on Fa-rectification."
I felt uncomfortable and the guards took me in for an examination. The result was that I had a "dangerous type" of high blood pressure. My heart beat was extremely fast, too. The guards were scared. After two days, they checked again and the results were worse. On November 5, fearing that something would happen to me, the guards took me to a hospital. I said that I did not need any medicine or injections and that I would be alright. They then mixed some drugs in my food. When I found out, beginning on November 5, I started a hunger strike. In addition, I refused to have my blood pressure checked. I believed that those daily examinations also meant cooperating with them.
Then the guards were even more scared. They came to the hospital almost every day. Because my blood pressure was high, staff in the hospital dared not to force-feed me. This encouraged me more to walk well on my path.
It happened that at the same time, another practitioner was there in the hospital taking care of a relative. He also secretly encouraged me.
Master says in the "Lecture in Sydney,"
"If you do not care and do not put them on your mind, with the Master and the Fa here what is there to fear? As long as the green mountains remain, there is no fear of having no firewood to burn. Ignore them! Once you give them up, you will find that the tribulations have become smaller and you have become bigger. You will overcome them in one step, and the tribulations will become nothing. It is guaranteed to be this way. If one cannot overcome them, it is actually that he cannot give up the attachments or does not believe in the Fa. In most cases, it is because one cannot give up one or another attachment. His failure is all due to his inability to give up the attachments. Because he cannot back that one human step, he is not able to overcome them."
I asked Master in my heart: "Master, please give me strength. Since I am a genuine practitioner, I will give up all my human mentalities and attachments. I am a divine being. I am not hungry or thirsty. I will persevere."
During this time, the director, the deputy director of Team 7, and the doctors at the hospital showed me a paper they had drafted which said that I refused to receive any medical treatment. They told me to sign that paper but I refused. They asked me who would be responsible if something happened to me, and I replied, "The labor camp." Seeing that I was so steadfast, they left, mumbling things such as if I died, they would ask my family to come and collect my things. I was not moved by them at all, but kept sending forth righteous thoughts every day to eliminate the evil that occupied the people at the labor camp. "Let the guards who are controlled by the evil have fear so that they will release me; eliminate all the elements that prevent me from being released."
At around 2:00 p.m. on November 10, two guards from Team 7 went to the hospital to pack for me. I did not know where they were sending me, so I continued to send forth righteous thoughts to stop them from persecuting me. But they told me that they were sending me home. The labor camp originally had planned to ask the county 610 Office to take me home, but they were afraid. After that, they wanted to get the township 610 Office to take me, but they, too, were afraid of the responsibility. The labor camp officials thus had to escort me to town. I was first taken to the 610 Office to be released from forced labor. After that, they told my family to take me home.
As I write this, I am now very excited and full of tears. I give thanks to our Master, who has brought me back so that I would have the opportunity to be involved in Fa-rectification tasks again. After walking out of the labor camp, I feel more steadfast in my faith in Master and Dafa. I will closely follow Master's Fa-rectification process, and do the three things well. I will progress diligently and accomplish what Master has arranged for me.
