(Minghui.org) My name is Mei Lian and I am 71. I used to be a lay Buddhist and attended temple activities for 20 years. I stopped going to the temple after I began to practice Falun Dafa in 1994.

Before the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Dafa, I hosted a group practice site at my home. After the suppression started in 1999, I turned my home into a production site for Falun Dafa materials. I experienced many ups and downs in the past 24 years, but nothing could change my faith.

1. “This Is True Cultivation”

I was born in a county seat, but my family was always poor. My parents had five children and I am the fourth one. Since childhood, I did not have enough food to eat or enough clothing to keep me warm. Life was always miserable for me. I looked forward to cultivating Buddhahood to avoid suffering.

I began searching for a master in 1970s. I met a nun with all 12 precepts. Having a vague instinct that my master should be very young, I respected her very much and wanted to take her as my master after I found she was younger than me. But she recommended that I find someone who was older than her. I did not budge. In the end, I chose the nun’s deceased master as my master. I also did Buddhist rituals with her.

I could not read, but I wanted to hand-copy the scripture, so I copied the characters stroke by stroke. The nun treated me very well. Living a thrifty life, I gave the vegetable oil and rice I had to the temple. Other than working, raising my child, and buying daily necessities, I did not go anywhere else and just focused on studying the Buddhist scriptures.

Twenty years passed, and I still had health issues. After getting divorced in 1990, I took custody of my 9-year-old daughter. Life became especially hard after I was laid off in 1994. In May of that year, I vomited with diarrhea, and could not eat or drink for seven days. Seeing me lying in bed, my daughter asked me to go to see a doctor. I told her that I had bought medicine already. In reality, we did not even have money for food, let alone medicine.

After a few days, a coworker came to me and said, “You should try Falun Dafa. It is very good and is a Buddha school practice.” Although I had not tried other spiritual systems aside from visiting the temple, somehow I followed her to the practice site. I felt very good while listening to the exercise music. “Falun Dafa is great and this is true cultivation,” I thought to myself.

I began to do the sitting meditation. I was sweating and my shirt was wet. The sweat came down in both palms. My coworker was a little afraid and asked me to stop. But I felt very comfortable and continued. It was not until later that I learned Master was cleansing my body.

After getting back home, I listened to Master’s lecture audios. The teachings sank into my mind sentence by sentence.

When Zhuan Falun (the main text of Dafa) was published, I was one of the first practitioners in my area who bought it. I could not read, but I held the book in front of me when listening to Master’s lectures. I learned by reading word by word. Gradually, I was able to read Zhuan Falun. But if I see the characters elsewhere, I am unable to recognize them.

One day while sitting on the couch reading Zhuan Falun, I had my legs in the full lotus position and covered them with a blanket. As I was reading, I felt as if my feet were gone. I pinched that place and could not feel anything. I was scared and lifted the blanket – my feet were still there. I think this was the situation Master was describing in the book, “As you sit in meditation it will seem as if your legs have disappeared and you don’t know where they are...” (The Eighth Talk, Zhuan Falun)

I told the nun that I wanted to practice Falun Dafa and she tried to stop me. Seeing that I was unwilling to change my mind, she invited other nuns and lay Buddhists to talk to me. Some of them threatened me, but I did not give in and was determined in cultivating Falun Dafa.

One day when listening to Master’s lectures, I heard the following,

“The Buddha stated that in the latter days it would be hard even for temple monks to gain salvation, much less lay Buddhists, who would no longer be watched over by higher beings. You might have formally become a student of some teacher, but if that individual isn’t doing genuine spiritual practice, then he will be no different from an adherent himself; spiritual progress isn’t possible without working on the mind. The ceremonies of conversion are human affairs, and couldn’t possibly be all it takes for you to become, for instance, Buddhist, and enjoy the Buddha’s care and protection. That’s not how it works. And neither will praying and bowing to a statue so fervently that your body aches, nor lighting scores of devotional candles, change anything. What you have to do is really work on your heart and mind with all due sincerity.” (The Third Talk, Zhuan Falun)

From this, I realized the importance of “only one cultivation way.” So I sent the three Bodhisattva statues I had back to a local temple. I also returned the chanting rosary and Buddhist scriptures to the nun. After searching for many years, I knew I finally found my true Master: Falun Dafa’s founder, Mr. Li Hongzhi.

After the CCP began to suppress Dafa, I went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Dafa. I was arrested and detained at a local detention center. The nun asked a lay Buddhist to bail me out so that I could join her in the temple. “She is determined and it is not worth trying,” said the lay Buddhist to the nun.

I was later sentenced to seven years in prison. When I returned home, weed was all over the yard and everywhere inside the house was covered with dust. My daughter was already married. The nun still asked me to go back to the temple. I said no, because I know what Falun Dafa means to me.

2. My Home as a Group Practice Site

After losing my job in 1994, I did part-time sewing jobs to make a living. My house is located in the city center and it is big. Although I could rent it out to earn some income, I still decided to use it for group practice, as more and more people had taken up Dafa. I connected two large rooms on the second floor. About 50 or 60 practitioners came to my house every morning and evening doing exercises as well studying Dafa teachings.

Seeing me having financial difficulty, the group site assistant wanted to help cover some utility costs. My daughter and I did not want to accept it.

I had a dream one night, in which someone said to me “Ninety-eight.” I asked what that means and he replied, “You will know it when you go shopping tomorrow.” The next day, the music player we used for the group exercise was broken. My daughter and I immediately went to buy a new one. The new music player cost exactly 98 yuan and my money was enough to pay for it.

My second sister also came to my home for practice. She often saw colorful Falun rotating on both the first floor and second floor of my house. She also saw lotus flowers growing in the yard. But after I was jailed for my belief, she was scared and stopped practicing. When I was released, she had been diagnosed with severe heart disease. I tried to persuade her to come back to Dafa. She was still afraid and later passed away.

In the room where I do exercises, there is a large portrait of Master. I respected Master very much and took good care of the Dafa books. Whenever I was reading them, I would sit in full lotus and carried the book with both hands – Falun Dafa is the true way.

3. Speaking up for Dafa

After the CCP began to suppress Falun Dafa in July 1999, my daughter and I joined other practitioners in going to the provincial capital and Beijing to appeal for Dafa. We took the train to Beijing on August 15, 1999. Upon arriving there, we stood in the corn field for one night. With little income, I had to borrow money to pay for the train tickets.

Police took us to a detention center and we went on a hunger strike. We refused to give out our names. When being forced to take a picture, I realized that it was important to show the dignity of Dafa practitioners. So I placed both hands together in front me in a jie-yin position while wearing a smile. In the beginning, there were many practitioners. But gradually, all of them were taken away, and only three of us left in the end. Since we all spoke mandarin with no dialect accent, police could not tell where we were from.

One police officer was upset and asked, “What exactly do you want?”

“We just want to tell the government that Falun Dafa is good,” I replied. “We want the freedom to practice Dafa, nothing else.”

The officer then asked about my family. I told him my situation. After hearing I had lost my job, and I had to borrow money for my daughter and me to come to Beijing, the officer sighed, “How silly you are! How can one person like you make a difference?”

“Falun Dafa is great! To me, Master Li is like my parents and he was wronged,” I said. “I have to speak up for Dafa and Master Li.”

Knowing saying bad things about Dafa would accumulate karma, I hoped the officer would not do this. He asked me to squat down next to the window and did not say anything else.

The police figured out later on where I came from. They took me to my region’s liaison office in Beijing. Seeing many local practitioners there, I waved to them with a smile and called out, “Hi fellow practitioners, how are you?” Police officers were surprised by my attitude.

After some time, we were taken to the detention center in our area. Every day, we recited Dafa books and did the exercises. We asked for a copy of Zhuan Falun, but the guards did not give us one. We went on a hunger strike and then received a copy of the book. One evening, I did sitting meditation for over 7 hours. My mind was calm and I felt very comfortable.

One lay Buddhist I knew came to visit me. Her husband is a high official and they asked the detention center not to mistreat me. When an officer asked if I had any requests, I replied, “We request to immediately release all detained practitioners unconditionally. We also need to be able to study Dafa teachings and do exercises publicly.” Hearing these words, these officials thought I was an organizer and put me in solitary confinement. In fact, all practitioners were thinking about the same thing and we did not have organizers.

One practitioner in the detention center was put into foot shackles, and it was hard for her to change clothes.

“Take it off,” I said.

“Yes, I also want to take it off,” she said helplessly.

“One officer said that if she could take off one shackle, they would remove the other half,” another practitioner said.

“You can take it off,” I encouraged her.

She tried and one of the shackles did come off.

We called the guards. They checked again and again, but could not find anything wrong. So they removed the other half too.

After being released, I learned how to print Falun Dafa materials. I had one computer and two printers to print Minghui Weekly and materials. I also had a DVD burner for the informational videos. I worked day and night to produce the materials, with very little time for eating and sleeping.

Later on, the police found the site and arrested me. I was taken to a provincial brainwashing center. Due to my dangerously high blood pressure and a heart condition, the brainwashing center refused to accept me.

The 610 Office and Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC) didn’t want to release me so easily. They sent me to the provincial hospital for another physical examination. After the doctor tied me to a machine for a color Doppler exam, the machine began to shake and stopped working. “This has never happened before, my instrument is almost broken,” he cried out. The doctor then connected me to an ECG machine and the lines were everywhere. “She is in a life-threatening condition!” yelled the doctor.

Despite my condition, the 610 Office agents pressured a local detention center to accept me. I was kept there for over a year before being sentenced to 7 years.

4. “I Cannot Give up My Conscience for a Job”

My daughter was released ahead me after we were arrested for appealing in Beijing. Upon returning home, she graduated from college and began job searching. Her father used his connections to find two positions for her, one in the tax bureau and another in the city finance bureau. Both agencies had agreed to take her, but a deputy mayor who also worked in the PLAC did not approve it. He insisted that I had to sign statements to renounce Dafa first, before he could sign my daughter’s work contract. I said no and told him not to do bad deeds like this.

The deputy mayor then approached my daughter and asked her to sign a document, promising to stop me from practicing Falun Dafa. Despite being so young, my daughter was clear-minded and refused to comply.

“My mother has suffered her entire life. Now she just wants to uphold her faith to be a good person,” she said. “I cannot give up my conscience for a job. Were I to sign the document and get this office job with high pay, I would not be happy,” she continued.

Because of this issue, my daughter didn’t get either of the two jobs.

When I was detained, the authorities also wanted to sentence my daughter. But with Master’s protection, she escaped the arrest. During my 7-year jail term, she had to borrow money from others and did some temporary jobs to making a living. Even her uncle humiliated her by showing money to her, but not lending it to her.

No matter what happened, I bore no resentment towards the perpetrators, knowing that they were placing their positions in this battle between good and evil. After I was released, I continued treating them well and persuaded the uncle to renounce his membership of the CCP organizations.

4. Twenty-Year-Old Silky Lotus Flower Growing New Pistils

Once when burning incense in front of Master’s portrait, I suddenly noticed a silk lotus flower had grown many new pistils.

I bought two lotus flowers in 1995. Each of them had three pink lotus petals, one lotus pod, and several green leaves. Inside the lotus flower are beautiful, thin, yellow pistils. I placed them in two small vases on both sides of Master’s portrait.

When I was incarcerated, the lotus flowers survived the police raid. After I returned home, I obtained another portrait of Master and placed it in the same place. I cleaned the two lotus flowers and kept them in the vases. Every time before Chinese New Year, I would clean the flower. That was how I found out two petals of the flower on the left side were special. Several light yellow pistils had emerged. With an oval shape, each of them was plump and pretty. By year's end, they had grown even more.

In April 2015, one practitioner planned to take a picture of the flower and submitted it to Minghui to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day. The pistils seemed to grow more overnight. Other practitioners and I were very moved – we never thought a 20-year-old silky lotus flower like this could grow new pistils. I know this was encouragement from Master Li.

Nowadays after doing exercises, I would send my granddaughter to school. Then I talked to people about Falun Dafa and refute slandering propaganda from the CCP. Many people are thankful upon learning the facts. I, too, am happy for them to have a good future.

The lotus flowers

The new pistils on the lotus flowers

The flower without new pistils