(Minghui.org) In 1997, my wife, daughter, and I were blessed to be able to begin practicing Falun Dafa.
Before learning Dafa, I didn’t know anything about cultivation practice. My sister was a practitioner who introduced Falun Dafa to us. I was moved after hearing her talk about how good Falun Dafa is. It was like something I had been waiting for, for a long time. I felt good about Dafa, so my wife and I followed along with my sister to learn the practice.
A while later, a fellow practitioner invited me to a Falun Dafa experience-sharing meeting that would be held in our city. After listening to the practitioners sharing their cultivation experiences, I felt sick when I ate meat. I knew from reading Zhuan Falun that this state comes about from the gong (energy) and the Fa. I could not eat meat during this period.
Without my noticing it, my heart disease and rheumatism disappeared. Our whole family had undergone significant changes physically and mentally. My daughter was 14 or 15 years old then, and said she would seize the time to study the Fa well. Many others in our family also began practicing Falun Dafa.
Master said:
“Its broad and immense, profound inner meaning can only manifest itself to, and be experienced and understood by, practitioners who are at different levels of true cultivation.” (“Broad and Immense”, Essentials For Further Advancement)
I realized that one can only enlighten to the profound connotations of the Fa by cultivating solidly. So I was determined to be a true cultivator.
When I was practicing the first set of exercises, I felt so tall, like a divine being. It was wonderful, but I can’t clearly describe it with words. That period was the happiest time of my life, and I felt that nothing could shake me.
In July 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Jiang Zemin launched the persecution of Falun Dafa out of jealousy. On July 19, the Falun Dafa coordinators in our county were arrested. More than a thousand practitioners in the county peacefully gathered along the roadside to petition the government, demanding the release of the arrested practitioners. At midnight, that street in front of the county government was under martial law, and the police came out to clear the area and arrest people. The county government used loudspeakers to demand that officers from each town and village take their local Dafa practitioners back to their areas. Several police officers came up and encircled me. They grabbed my head and struck me. I was unable to resist, so I closed my eyes and recited Master’s Fa:
“Live with no pursuit,Die not caring about staying;Clear out all wild thoughts,Cultivating to a Buddha is not hard.”(“Nonexistence”, Hong Yin)
Suddenly, my head seemed covered by something, and I only heard “Bang! Bang!” I didn’t feel any pain at all. Six or seven policemen pressed me to the ground and used electric batons to shock me. The sparks burned holes in my pants. But I still didn’t feel any pain. (I was in tears while writing this because I know that Master endured it for me.)
My family members came over to stop the police and told them not to beat people. The police arrested me and my family without saying anything, and took us to the county public security bureau. Just as I was getting off the bus, a policeman grabbed me by my hair and threw me under the bus.
When we got to the first floor of the public security bureau, police officers were slapping three practitioners in the face. My sister-in-law went to stop them, but a policeman slapped her and she fell onto a sofa a few meters away. My leg was bleeding due to being kicked by a policeman. Personnel from my village then arrived to take us home. If it weren’t for Master’s protection, I would have had a concussion from the beating.
On October 20, 1999, Jiang Zemin slandered Falun Dafa during his visit to France. On October 25, I went to Beijing again with six or seven practitioners to validate the Fa. Some practitioners suggested: “We should not go to the Office of Letters and Appeals. They won’t reason with us. Let’s go to Tiananmen Square to do the exercises and show the world that Dafa is good and Master is innocent.”
We reached an agreement and took a taxi to Tiananmen Square. As soon as we arrived, armed police came over to check our ID cards. We had no IDs, and four of us were arrested and detained for a night. We were taken to our provincial agency in Beijing, where dozens of practitioners had been arrested. We were all sent to various detention centers. I was detained for 20 days and then sent home.
In 2001, I opened a dental clinic in a township. The township police came and searched my room under the pretext of checking my temporary residency. They found a copy of Zhuan Falun and truth-clarification materials in my room and arrested me. I was illegally sentenced to two years of forced labor. In the forced labor camp, many of my attachments were exposed. For example, my fear was exposed after a prisoner said to me, “The guards and collaborators had a meeting and said they would fix you two first [referring to me and another practitioner].”
I was terrified and felt a little dizzy. After calming down after a while, I remembered Master’s instructions to send forth righteous thoughts, so I concentrated on sending righteous thoughts. I thought of letting go of the fear dying, and that it was not my “true self” who was afraid. After sending forth righteous thoughts for half a day, my heartbeat returned to normal, and I was no longer afraid.
Another time, the guards tied up a practitioner’s legs and tied his hands behind his back. I discussed with another practitioner that we couldn’t just ignore this and let the guards persecute the practitioner so recklessly. What should we do? Who should go and talk to the guards? All the practitioners in the two cells decided to come out at once.
When the guards saw this, they asked one practitioner to stay with them and talk, while the others returned to the cells. All those who returned to their cells sent forth righteous thoughts and, soon after, the fellow practitioner being tortured also returned. The practitioner who stayed behind to talk to the guards didn’t return until the middle of the night. Our strength as a whole body disintegrated the evil factors persecuting fellow practitioners.
The head guard once came to talk to me. He said something, but I didn’t respond. He thought my silence meant I was defiant. So he arranged for someone to “transform” me. I told that person, “I don’t want to talk to you; I want to speak to the head guard.” I went to the head and said, “Today, I want to talk to you on equal footing.”
He replied, “Falun Dafa is fighting for power with the Communist Party.” I said, “Mao Zedong [the founder of communist China] said that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Falun Dafa practitioners are empty-handed. How can they fight for power?”
He repeated, “You are going against the Communist Party.” I said, “Our Master taught his disciples ‘... as a practitioner one should not fight back when being punched or insulted ...’ (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun). You see, who are we going against?” He was speechless and replied, “You can go back.”
The head of the prison Education Section called me in and asked if the Tiananmen self-immolation was real. I said, “That video is a fake ‘self-immolation’ that was staged by the Communist Party. Falun Dafa practitioners have pointed out its many suspicious aspects to people, yet we were arrested and sentenced to prison. What do you think is true or false?” He didn’t say anything and asked me to go back quickly.
I had a dental clinic before I started practicing Falun Dafa. During the years I was persecuted, I didn’t see many patients. My son has learned dental skills and is very good at it. So we work together, and we’re each in charge of one area. Over the years, I never missed an opportunity to clarify the truth about Falun Dafa to the patients who come to our clinic.
I once went to a town for a consultation. I talked about Falun Dafa and the persecution to four or five people there, and they decided to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. When I was about to leave, the wife of one of the men came in. And as soon as I mentioned some of the CCP’s crimes, she pointed at me and kept saying, “You are anti-China!”
I replied, “The Communist Party has launched various campaigns to kill people. Anyone who wants to follow its example is not a good person. If the Communist Party tells you to go east, you need to go west. That is a good person!” Her husband then said to her anxiously, “You should quit the Young Pioneers as soon as possible.” When I talked to her again, she agreed to withdraw from the Young Pioneers, one of the CCP’s youth organizations.
A patient had been wearing dentures made by another clinic for two years. He came to me and said that they were uncomfortable and wanted to have a new set of dentures made. I removed his dentures and took a look. They were still usable if they were repaired. If the dentures were completely remade, it would cost him 500 yuan. The patient was pleased with my offer. I didn’t charge him for the repair, and told him I was a Falun Dafa practitioner. I used the opportunity to clarify the truth about Dafa to him. He was very receptive and withdrew from the CCP and its affiliated youth organizations.
Nowadays, some dentists try to cheat patients to make more money from them. I could have just made a new pair of dentures for him and made lots of money. But I’m a Falun Dafa practitioner; my actions reflects the selfless state of a practitioner.
Another older man complained that his dental crowns were not suitable and wanted to replace them. The problem was not serious, so I repaired them for him for free. He was delighted and thanked me again and again. I took the opportunity to tell him the truth about Falun Dafa, and he readily withdrew from the CCP. There have been many such cases. I wish to use my profession to be available to people who need to hear the truth and be saved. How much money I earn is not my priority. I want to tell people about the beauty of Dafa and save them from elimination in the future.
My son agrees very much with Dafa and supports my cultivation. He once ordered a set of high-end dentures for a patient. They were processed in the city, and the order was misread during the processing, and a set of ordinary dentures was made. He did not notice it at the beginning. When the patient put in the dentures, my son felt that something was wrong. He did not expect that the processing factory could have misread the order because it had never happened before.
When the patient left, my son called the factory to confirm the order. They replied that the order was misread. There is no difference in appearance between the ordinary and high-end dentures; the only difference is in the materials. If my son didn’t tell anyone, no one would know. But we practice Dafa, and my son also does things according to Dafa’s standards of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. We would never cheat patients for financial gain. He refunded the patient the difference. Our family has a principle: If the patient is unsatisfied, we will refund the money. We will not charge the patient if we do not do a good job.
Over the years, I can’t remember how many people have learned the truth about Dafa through our dental clinic. I’m grateful to Master for giving me everything. When I was persecuted, I promised from the bottom of my heart: “As long as I’m alive, I will validate the Fa in an upright manner when I get out.” This may be an oath I made when I came to this world.
My whole family is grateful to our great Master!