PureInsight | April 15, 2002
When I heard about the first group of Western practitioners appealing at Tiananmen Square in November 2001, I was very glad. I thought it was a huge step forward in Fa-rectification.
When we first arrived at Tiananmen Square on the 11th, I saw how unattractive it was. I thought it would be brimming with beauty and prosperity, with a gate of heavenly peace. I did not expect all the monumental buildings that the old evil force has tried to clog the place up with. It was my mission as a Dafa disciple to rectify this place in all dimensions and to be responsible for all the righteousness in the cosmos. I was constantly sending forth righteous thoughts while walking on the square, but I adapted a very arrogant attitude towards the police, that they couldn’t catch me, as it was not time for the appeal yet.
I therefore left a loophole for the evil. A police officer then came up to the five others that I was walking with and started asking questions. Since he was facing them, I kept walking past him. After a few seconds he came after me instead. He wanted to see what was in my bag. I had Zhuan Falun in the front pocket of my bag. I thought that I would be exposed there and arrested and that I had failed. It was a totally selfish thought, since I didn’t consider the others in the group and only thought of my own failure. I became afraid and handed the bag over to the police officer since I didn’t want to open it myself. I started to half-heartedly send forth righteous thoughts and could only remember the first Fa-rectification verse. He told me to open the bag myself. I first opened the top pocket to show him that it was empty. Then I went on with one of the side pockets and was, at the same time, trying to hide that there was another front pocket. I showed him that I had my camera in the side pocket. When I was moving on to the other side pocket he already excused himself for making a mistake. I realised the power of the righteous thoughts and the importance of being responsible and not walking around with the book. I had not been reading anything during the time we were out anyway. That evening when we were at a restaurant I came to realise even more how sacred and great this appeal was. I realised my attachment of selfishness and arrogance on the square earlier that day. My compassion grew for all the people, especially the Chinese practitioners who had gone to Tiananmen Square to appeal, and were arrested. If they were still alive, they may not even have a home to return to.
The next day we were sitting inside reading and exchanging experiences with the English practitioners in their room. We also talked about what could happen on Tiananmen Square the next day, and to be somewhat prepared. I became concerned about some books and banners being left lying out on the table and on the windowsill. I thought it was being responsible when storing them in a safe place. I wanted to be more responsible for myself, especially after my experience from the day before. I realised that I shouldn’t rely on a group. As Master says. “Cultivation depends on one’s own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one’s master.” Of course experience sharing with the group was also good.
The next day seven of us went to the Summer Palace in the Northwest part of Beijing. One English practitioner stayed behind in the hostel. When I got back and walked into the hostel, I was instantly jumped by a police officer. He demanded to see my passport without giving any reason why, and then he wanted to know my room number. He asked me, “Do you know about Falun Gong or Falun Buddha-Fa?” I just said, “What?” I was constantly sending forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil. I did not accept any of the evil’s arrangement, because I was a Falun Dafa practitioner. The young policeman looked very confused as he looked at his papers. I was completely calm and I kindly asked him, “Have I done something wrong?” He just replied, “One moment,” and went over to the reception counter to have a closer look at his papers. Another police officer came over to him and asked something about Falun Gong and was given something that sounded like a denying answer. I understood the power of the righteous thoughts and the saving compassion of Dafa. The police officer gave me my passport back when I asked for it. They told me I had to leave the hostel since the personnel there had broken the law. Since I had paid for two more nights I asked for my money back.
I asked the receptionist to follow me up to the room to unlock the door since I thought no one was in the room. He immediately went downstairs after unlocking the door and when I came in, both Petter, Christian and our African friend were in the room with the lights turned off. They told me that the British practitioners had been arrested. We started to talk about our next step and I said that we were beyond suspicion from the police, and that we should just find another place to stay and concentrate on the next day. Two police officers came into the room, a man and a woman, and they wondered if we were ready to leave. I understood their vicious intentions with trying to get us under surveillance in ‘their hotel,’ so I questioned their recommendation since the hotel was close to the airport and we had no business staying there. She immediately backed off and said that we could stay wherever we wanted, that it was only a recommendation. Then I told her that they could leave, and that we would come down when we were ready.
It was just before 2:00 p.m. on the 14th of February. As we went up the stairs leading to Tiananmen Square, two female police officers stopped us. They demanded to search our pockets and belongings without giving a reason why. They found my banner and got very afraid and nervous, and immediately called for back up. One of us started to shout “Falun Dafa Hao!” (Falun Dafa is good!), and I immediately followed suit. At once I had four or five policemen on me who started to violently pull and tear at me, to get me off the square over to a waiting police van. All the time I passively resisted and I turned facing the square and kept on calling out “Falun Dafa is good!” as loud as I could, to eliminate the evil. It was as if the police didn’t have any power and were slipping and couldn’t get a hold of me. I understood the power and righteousness of Dafa and felt both happy and calm inside to be able to be there and rectify the Fa. I kept on calling out that Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Europe knows that Falun Dafa is good! The whole world knows that Falun Dafa is good! And, called in Chinese, that Falun Dafa is a righteous law.
After a while I got shoved into the van and was pushed down in the first seat on the right hand side. The police tried to silence me by pushing my head down so that I sat doubled over and they screamed at me to shut up. I just laid my arm in a friendly manner around the back of the police officer who sat next to me and pushed down my head, and patted him on the shoulder. I felt only compassion for them and hoped that Master’s benevolence would save them. Later on I started singing the song “Falun Dafa Hao” (Falun Dafa is good) in this position. The police laughed nervously since they had never heard the song before. I can imagine how it shook and eliminated the evil in other dimensions.
We continued singing the whole way to the police station. When we came out, there was a full contingent of police. I saw the officer in charge from the hostel the evening before. He looked at me in astonishment. I understood how struck he must have been by the greatness of Dafa that we manifested there, and how completely wiped out the evil was. I just walked up to him with a smile, singing and shook his hand. He could only smile back. It was the same with the woman police officer who had come up to the room. She was also there and couldn’t help but smile back at me in astonishment. I patted her shoulder and shook her hand.
In the station a practitioner next to me had a banner hidden under his shirt which we took out and the police were shocked and very angry. They tried to violently pull the banner out of our hands, but they didn’t succeed. Instead, the practitioners won the tug of war with the banner. I can imagine how effective this was in eliminating the evil in this vile environment.
When they started to pull me I held on to two other practitioners. Since they failed in their first attempt to pull me loose in my upper body, they aimed for my legs instead. Two police officers pulled a leg each from my trousers so violently that the zipper and button got torn apart. They managed in their violent manner to tear me loose from the other practitioners in the corridor and dragged me backward on my stomach into the room next door. One police officer grabbed my left arm at the same time and lifted me up and knee-butted me hard three times on the left side of my rib cage. I kept on singing “Falun Dafa Hao” all the time.
Two policemen were acting especially aggressive towards me, since they recognised me from the hostel that they illegally had thrown us out of the evening before. I continued to sing with a smile on my lips and reached out my hand to the older one of them. He aggressively waved his hand and showed his detest with a “Pshaw!” and threw a kick towards my groin to scare me. The younger one of them threateningly shouted “Do you remember me? I’ll show you!”
We were taken out of the police station to a bigger bus. The police officer next to me looked very young. I kept on singing “Falun Dafa Hao” for another while and then started talking to the policeman next to me to clarify the truth. I used the few Chinese words that I knew and talked very enthusiastically, but it showed in the end that he didn’t understand much English and I hardly gave him the chance to open his mouth.
We arrived at a temporary detention center, a hotel, not too far from the airport. Three policemen took me away for interrogation. My fear of getting hurt when I was alone with the three police officers in the lift came up and I just stayed calm. When we got out of the lift onto another floor, and were walking in the corridor, I got hit on the mouth with a rolled-up magazine by the fat, plainclothes police officer, probably from the “610 Office”. I just smiled back at him.
Different fears flared up, about being beaten and tortured, but I calmed down. I thought I would totally oppose the evil forces and do whatever it takes to help Master rectify the Fa. I had come to stop the persecution. I asked from the beginning to call my embassy and said that it was my right.
I told him that my name was Falun Dafa and that I came from Zhen-Shan-Ren, That according to laws recognised by China, people have the right to freedom of faith and assembly. Any living being and any society can only benefit from following Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance. He got very frustrated that I didn’t want to “co-operate,“ drank water and smoked indiscriminately. He probably drank alcohol as well since his breath stank of gin. I told him that no matter what they did to me I would always follow Zhen-Shan-Ren. I told him that Master says “Force cannot change peoples hearts,” and they could never change my heart. Even if they beat me to death my heart would still be in Zhen-Shan-Ren.
When I was alone with the other police I clarified the truth about the self-immolation. He kept quiet and was listening closely all the time. I asked him if he had read Zhuan Falun. Since he hadn’t he couldn’t know the truth about Falun Dafa and that it would be the most beautiful and joyous day of his life when he was able to read it. I also asked him if he thought that it was wrong to follow Zhen-Shan-Ren in everything one does. I was glad for his sake and for the boundless compassion of Dafa.
When I was taken back to the room I sat down and did righteous thoughts for around an hour. I felt so powerful, serene and peaceful and there was no pain or discomfort in my legs whatsoever. At the same time the other practitioners started to do the exercises while the police watched. I joined in later and, after a while when some practitioners had been taken to interrogation, I was the only one still doing the exercises. When I did the Falun standing exercise I saw many scenes very clearly from other dimensions and it was like I was flying through different landscapes and buildings.
Later on an older, smaller and slightly bald plainclothes police officer with glasses interrogated me (probably also from the “610 Office”). He said that I would be sent to jail for life and threatened me, and that no one would find out where I was. He then removed my money from my wallet and counted the bills. He said that I would need these to pay for my food in jail, and then gave a roguish laugh. I just stayed with the Fa and thought that I would oppose all the old evil force’s arrangements and only go through the things that Master had intended for me. In the end we were six practitioners and we had the chance to clarify the truth to the police who were in the room. Some police officers didn’t want to listen and were resentful. One young female police officer felt uncomfortable every time I said the words Falun Dafa and Zhen-Shan-Ren.
Eventually we were taken to a prison northeast of Beijing (one could hear the airplanes from the airport in the distance). The German practitioner, André, and I were taken to a clinic or hospital next to the prison, because they wanted to check blood pressures. They told me to face the wall and pushed me up against the wall. I said I am not facing the wall and turned back. Then the small man, probably the same man who threatened me that I would be sent to prison for life and that no one would know where I was, became very upset and shouted at me to face the wall and pushed me more violently against the wall. I refused again and turned back. They did that four or five times before they let me be. When it was my turn I refused to sit down or to take my clothes off. Then they violently tore my shirt’s cuff links apart on my right sleeve so that the button fell off and the cloth got ripped. Then they took my blood pressure while I was standing. I relaxed totally in the arm and sent forth righteous thoughts. They worriedly commented on the result in Chinese, probably because it was so very low, and one police officer said something about gong. They probably thought that I was controlling it with my energy.
We were then taken to a prison cell where they asked us get completely undressed, so that they could examine our clothes. I resolutely refused and told the prison guard/police officer to take his hands off me. When I was the only one left, they tore my shirt in front. I was continuously making passive resistance when one of the police officers pulled my clothes off and they confiscated our shoes. A bit later Petter and I were placed in the same cell together with eight other prisoners. The cell was only 20 square meters in size and all the time they monitored us via a surveillance camera. We used as much time as possible for Hong Fa to the prisoners, doing the exercises and sending forth righteous thoughts. All the time, when sitting in the corridor, I was reciting Lunyu, Hongyin and parts of Zhuan Falun that I knew by heart. Petter and I had to sleep on the floor next to each other on two blankets. It was on a one-meter wide path, which was a plastic floor on concrete.
One prisoner from Iraq was especially interested in what we said about our cultivation experiences. Petter wrote down Master’s Jingwen “The knowing heart” for him, which he was reading during the night and I helped him understand it. I wrote down two of Master’s poems and half of Lunyu. I talked a lot about the cultivation of the heart being the most important thing, and to follow Truth-Compassion-Tolerance. He was very excited listening the whole time and commenting with “yes, yes” and smiling. One of the Chinese prisoners even started to sing “Falun Dafa Hao” and they always became very quiet when we started to do the exercises. They had many questions about how we lived and Zhang showed me how to write Zhen-Shan-Ren in Chinese. Since we were illegally imprisoned and to oppose all evil arrangements, I decided to start a hunger strike on Friday evening. I did that also because I would not let myself be used in their propaganda that could show foreign Falun Dafa practitioners they were well treated in a Chinese prison.
On Sunday February the 17th I got to see a man from the Swedish Embassy and two women from the UN. I told them about the whole course of events from when I was arrested and how I got my clothes torn, was beaten, knee-butted, interrogated and harassed. I said that I might have a fracture or a crack on my left rib cage. I thought if I had done anything wrong I would admit it, if it were the arrangement of the old evil forces I would totally oppose it, and I did not belong there in the first place since I was a Falun Dafa practitioner. The woman from the UN said that Falun Gong was outlawed according to Chinese laws and that it was a an undesirable practice. I told them that it was a cultivation practice and qigong, and that following Truth-Compassion-Tolerance is something that one can only gain from. They meant that it had nothing to do with what our meeting was about, which I also agreed upon, but I also wanted them to know the truth and not being poisoned by the conspiring lies and propaganda from Jiang’s regime. They said that they would try to book my return ticket, if not for the next morning then the day after. Thereafter, the police authorities once again asked me to step out of the van to have my photograph taken, so they were constantly trying with their tricks and manipulating. I just closed my eyes and held my right hand in front of the chest when they took the picture.
Later, back at the prison, they called me in for interrogation. It was an overweight police officer in uniform with glasses who asked me if I remembered him. I presume that he was one of the three police officers who were sitting closest to me during the meeting with the Embassy personnel, since he reminded me of him. He asked me why I had lied the day before. He claimed that I had said “I must have a fracture or a crack on the ribs.” I said that I had stated, “I might have a fracture or a crack on the ribs” and then he wanted me to write a statement in English that said this. I refused to write anything and I understood that they only wanted to use this to distort the truth and absolve themselves of their responsibility.
I was able to talk quite a lot to the American practitioner Masooma on my last evening when we were sitting in front of the TV. I encouraged her to totally oppose the evil forces and to be steadfast in her cultivation. “Be determined!” was the last thing I said before we had to go back to our cells. She was the last one of the practitioners there and I could read later that she was released a day later.
On Tuesday morning, February the 19th I got released around half past eight. I had by then been imprisoned for four days and nights with an additional 19 hours, because I called out, “Falun Dafa is good!” on Tiananmen Square. I was taken to a police State car, which had my suitcase in the trunk. I was allowed to check so that all my things were in there. At first I didn’t find my book, Zhuan Falun, but later I saw it underneath some clothes and said that I had found it. Then one of the police officers quickly grabbed the book and started to flick through the pages to see which book it was. I was happy for him since he had seen a part of the Fa, but I was also upset for the first time, since I had not come this far to lose this book. I told them, “Give me my book back!” and another of the police officers, who had a mean look, grabbed the book and said that it was forbidden in China. I held out my hand and said, “I want my book back!” After a few seconds he gave it back to me, with something that sounded like a curse in Chinese. I told them that my camera was missing and that I wanted it back, but I never did get it back. I was then to take a seat in the dirty trunk, on a few newspapers that they had spread out. All were in the car except the driver who was sleeping. I wrote Falun Dafa with big letters on the dirty side and back windows of the police car. I was happy for them that they could promote Dafa with their police car afterwards.
In cultivation, I have understood the importance of writing one’s experiences and sharing them with others and that scenes in other dimensions are splendid when one overcomes these tests, eliminates attachments and raises ones xinxing.
I would like to finish with one of Master’s Jingwen:
True Nature Revealed
Firmly cultivate Dafa with an unaffected heart and mind,
Raising one’s level is fundamental,
In the face of trials, one’s true nature is revealed,
Achieve Consummation, becoming a Buddha, Dao or God.
Translated from: Geneva Fahui
