(Clearwisdom.net) I have been involved in the legal team for a year now, but my college degree is in engineering. The legal team is focused on clarifying the truth to those in the judiciary system and to help practitioners with their cases. I have experienced many surprising things from the Fa that are hard to describe, as well as Teacher's benevolence. I have realized that practitioners around the world are one body.
1. Forming a Legal Team
A local practitioner from our city was arrested last year, so his family hired an attorney for him. The attorney didn't know too much about Dafa, so practitioners used the opportunity to clarify the truth to him. As a result, he quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations. He also filed a "not guilty" plea for the arrested practitioner. However, he insisted on handling the case according to the CCP's system and created pressure on the practitioner. We were confused by the attorney's incorrect request and didn't know how to help him have a correct understanding since we barely understood the law.
I was eager to share my understanding on this issue and to establish a professional rescue team with other practitioners based on the Fa. The practitioners, however, wanted to focus on sending righteous thoughts, posting truth-clarification flyers, and mailing letters to police stations. No one wanted to work on the legal issues, and some thought that it was not the right direction to follow.
During that period, I read many articles on Minghui.org (the Chinese version of Clearwisdom.net) about hiring lawyers to defend practitioners. I understood that using Article 300 of the Constitution to sentence practitioners was completely wrong, but it was difficult for someone without a law degree to develop a clear picture. In addition, those articles were about individual cases and not written from a legal perspective. After Teacher's article mentioning that practitioners can hire attorneys was published, practitioners no longer questioned it anymore. Still, very few wanted to spend time reading tedious legal papers. I wished that practitioners with a law degree would step forward to share with us about laws relevant to truth-clarification to better help direct and rectify lawyers on defending practitioners and clarifying the truth systematically to people working in the legal system.
It was a cultivation test for me when many practitioners didn't agree with my idea to form a professional legal team. I have a college education, so I tended to look down on other practitioners and often argued with them. However, I was able to observe our local coordinators' righteous thoughts and compassion in saving sentient beings when they clarified the truth to the families of practitioners who were arrested. I was moved, and from then on, I stopped complaining about others. Everyone has their own mission, so I shouldn't expect everyone to walk on the same path as mine. When the coordinators shared with me that they had a different understanding about forming a legal team and that they wouldn't be able to help me contact practitioners who knew law because of safety reasons, I accepted it.
I later met a lawyer who told me that the attorney who insisted on handling the case using the CCP's legal system violated the Law of Attorney. I then felt more of a need to form a legal team to help practitioners understand basic legal knowledge. Under Teacher's arrangement, I met a practitioner who understood the law and we formed a legal team.
2. Setting Up Goals for the Legal Team
We gradually realized the responsibilities of the legal team--to rectify people's understanding of the law, educate practitioners in basic legal knowledge, and clarify the truth from the legal perspective to people, especially those working in the legal system. We started collecting relevant articles from Minghui.org and created a simple legal pamphlet.
Another local practitioner's case allowed us to meet a lawyer from Beijing. He told several of us about legal issues that included the CCP's illegal proceedings to persecute practitioners, the current status of attorneys making a "not guilty" defense for practitioners, and the gradual maturing techniques used in defending their clients. The attorneys initially used the freedom of belief angle to point out the CCP's illegal rules and defended from the principles of the Constitution and rule of law. Then they argued that using Article 300 in the Constitution to sentence practitioners was wrong. At the end, they realized that using any existing law or regulation to sentence practitioners is wrong. The judges who sentenced practitioners were abusing the law. Some used the excuse that Falun Gong is banned to justify their actions. In reality, there was only a notice about banning the Falun Dafa Research Association that had been issued by the Ministry of Civic Affairs, but nothing on banning Falun Gong itself. Therefore, all the charges brought by the CCP are completely wrong and illegal. Even lawyers thought it strange that there was such a huge loophole in the judiciary system. It took two years to come to this conclusion.
There were many legal experts among practitioners, but only a few lawyers (both practitioners and non-practitioners) were confident in coming up with an excellent defense for Dafa. Some practitioners thought that cultivation is above the human realm and thus avoided the actual legal issue. In addition, many practitioners' families thought that practicing Falun Gong was illegal according to the CCP's law. A legal team member shared with me, "We should use the law righteously and not let the evil use it to persecute practitioners." Defending Dafa and clarifying the truth from a legal angle is also suppressing the evil and a compassionate way to save those in the legal system.
I shared my thoughts with other practitioners and wished more practitioners could help. At that time, some practitioners opposed my suggestion because I couldn't clearly express myself since my understanding was immature. They thought that I had taken a wrong direction since I was following everyday people's laws and forgetting about righteous thoughts; and that focusing on legal knowledge wasn't that important since many practitioners without much legal knowledge have been able to leave forced-labor camps with righteous thoughts and clarify the truth to people in the legal system.
When I looked within, I found my omission. I emphasized using the law to defend practitioners too much, but didn't clearly state how to use the law to tell people the truth to save them. It was actually due to the attachment of validating myself that caused me to not pay attention to saving sentient beings or be able to cultivate compassion.
During that time, I also shared with other practitioners in my city who had done very well in exposing the evil. I often shared with them articles about the legal process from Clearwisdom.net. They gradually realized that learning about legal issues was not a waste of time. The legal team also realized that our pamphlets should explain the legal issues in a systematic and simple way, so that even those with a limited education could use it to clarify the truth.
3. Feeling the Power of the One Body
The experience sharing articles I read on Clearwisdom made me realized that practitioners working on legal cases in other areas also had similar challenges. They had a hard time finding someone who thought from the basis of the Fa and also understood the law. I felt that our legal team urgently needed help from practitioners who had knowledge of the law, but I couldn't convince the main coordinator in our city to help. The more eager I was to finding practitioners that were lawyers, the more the coordinator felt it was unnecessary, and the more I couldn't clearly express myself. I eventually had to give up my request, feeling isolated and misunderstood. The real issue I later found was that I had a hidden attachment to doing things that caused the misunderstandings.
I didn't have a clear thought since I didn't improve on the basis of the Fa. More articles including a video on legal defense were published on the website--the "Not Guilty Defense" video was posted to the website on January 15, 2010, and two pamphlets, "Clarifying the Truth from a Legal Angle" and "Rescuing Practitioners from Legal Procedures," which included articles we submitted to Minghui, were published on January 21. These materials were simple and concise and exactly what I had wanted. My thoughts were clear. I had the feeling of a "great way without form"--when practitioners improve based on the Fa, the group thus makes a breakthrough so that practitioners' righteous thoughts around the world can form a solid, diamond-like net.
Many practitioners said that, after reading the two pamphlets, they felt more confident when facing the evil. This was actually Dafa's righteous field opening up another dimension in the human world.
Our legal team provided legal assistance to practitioners in our city that included providing basic legal information to help practitioners work with their family and appeal or file a case; drafting legal documents; sorting out relevant legal procedures; and helping them hire lawyers.
4. Conclusion
My participation in the legal team project allowed me to observe how other practitioners are doing in cultivation and my shortcomings. For example, the coordinators, while letting go of the attachment to life and death, have also let go of the attachment to themselves. When faced with misunderstandings or complex human notions from other practitioners, they showed great tolerance. The practitioners working on editing truth-clarification materials have let go of a comfortable life and spend all of their time on doing the three things. The practitioners who send forth righteous thoughts during rescue efforts always make themselves available when asked, and show great righteous thoughts when facing the evil. Compared to them, I felt my righteous thoughts weren't strong enough. I hesitated when I was asked to coordinate the legal team and handle all the cases in our city since I had been in hiding for many years and didn't want to be in a high-profile position. I told other practitioners of my concern. To help me eliminate my fear and improve, several coordinators arranged to study the Fa with me every week. From our sharing on the Fa, I eventually realized my shortcoming of why I was always moving and not able to stay with a group for the past several years. My righteous thoughts were strengthened, and I no longer had fear. I let go of myself and completely devoted myself to the legal team project.
I also understood that if you think of doing something, you must try your best to do it with your wisdom and capability. After a year in this project, I have deeply felt the vastness of the Fa. Without Teacher's salvation, practitioners wouldn't mature in cultivation. I will be more diligent and do better in the future.