(Minghui.org)
Greetings, Compassionate Great Master!
Greetings, fellow practitioners!
When the deadline for submitting an article to the 9th China Fahui on Minghui.org approached, I felt I had nothing in particular to write about. But when I read Minghui's notice urging practitioners to submit articles, I was anxious and I wept. I looked inward and found that it was not because I had nothing to write about; instead I didn't take it seriously. I did not realize that this is an overall coordination among Dafa practitioners in China and it was a rare opportunity for improvement. Recognizing this, I shared my thoughts with our local coordinators. We felt we needed to write our experiences and lessons learned from the last several years of validating the Fa and report to Master and share with fellow practitioners. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.
1. Resisting Persecution by the Old Forces Without Understanding Fa Principles
When the persecution started in 1999, our area lost its overall cultivation environment. Practitioners could only do their own things and didn't cooperate as a whole. Some practitioners did things not according to the Fa. Some practitioners even gathered accomplices to form factions, and many of them had conflicts with each other, found others' inadequacies and argued endlessly. The attachments of showing off, doing things and validating oneself all came out, and we lost valuable time and energy. Wide gaps existed among practitioners. Most practitioners did not look inward and thus the old forces were able to take advantage of the loopholes, causing many practitioners to be persecuted.
From 2008 to 2009, many practitioners suffered severe persecution. Forty-seven practitioners were arrested and eight or nine material production points were destroyed. It brought damage to Dafa, practitioners, their families, and sentient beings. Facing this situation, we began to study the Fa together and share experiences. We realized we had to cooperate as a whole, negate the old forces' arrangements, walk on the path arranged by Master, resist the persecution, and rescue fellow practitioners. After that, we went to the families of arrested practitioners to clarify the truth to them and ask them to cooperate with practitioners to demand the release of practitioners. Practitioners also sent forth righteous thoughts in close proximity.
Some practitioners' families were afraid of their loved ones being persecuted inside the detention center and thus wanted to pay to get them out. We asked them: Could you really afford it? Even if you got them back, the evil perpetrators would arrest them again after a period of time. They would ask for more money the next time. There are a lot of such examples. When you do such a thing, you are encouraging them and they will be full of enthusiasm to arrest more practitioners, as it is easy money for them. Aren't you helping them persecute Dafa practitioners? When the family members understood, they took the initiative to cooperate with practitioners. Since then, our area has not given the evil perpetrators a penny, and even the money they took was returned.
When each practitioner was arrested, we posted flyers to expose it with a photo of the practitioner to prove its authenticity. We put up large numbers of sticker posters and people said, "Falun Gong newspapers are posted everywhere. This man was a civil servant and yet he was arrested." Every time we brought practitioners' families to demand the release of practitioners, we recorded what the police said, what harm was caused to the families, and the number of times they were persecuted. We also mentioned the changes in physical and mental states of the practitioner before and after practicing Dafa. We wrote in fine detail and sent these records to the Minghui website. For more severe cases, we sent information to the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong.
In the process of rescuing fellow practitioners, we mainly focused on saving sentient beings. We disregarded their social status and type of job; we would clarify the truth to them as long as we could contact them. I felt that we lack the opportunities to clarify the truth to mainstream society. When a practitioner asked Master in a Fa conference regarding hiring righteous lawyers as a means of taking legal action. Master answered,
"Hiring an attorney and making a defense in court can itself thus serve to save people. Whoever attends the court hearing, be it someone sent by the wicked CCP or an ordinary citizen, is going to hear the facts clarified when presented with the lawyers' just reasoning. Doesn't it serve to bring out the goodness in such people? Some judges have fallen silent as they listened, hanging their heads. And some police have even had admiration afterwards, saying things like, "Well said!" when they left the courthouse. That meant that these people's goodness was awakened. What is it that the evil fears? Isn't it exactly this that they fear? That's why I think that hiring lawyers is necessary." ("Fa Teaching Given at the Fa Conference Marking the Tenth Anniversary of the Minghui Website’s Founding")
Through sharing, we agreed that we should hire attorneys to make a "not-guilty" plea for practitioners. With that thought, Master blessed us. We soon were in touch with lawyers in Beijing. But they said they were busy with a case at hand that needed to be finished. They asked whether the case could be postponed one extra day. What happened next was that the local court had decided to open the session three days later. We sought Master's blessings and practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts continuously for 24 hours. Through negotiation, the court agreed to postpone the day of the hearing. The lawyer arrived after 11 p.m. the night before the hearing.
At 7:30 a.m. on September 10, 2009, the lawyer went to the court and did not have time to prepare for the case. The court offered to delay for one hour. When we heard the news, we almost shed tears. Master had arranged everything and we just ran the errands. There were over 100 practitioners sending forth righteous thoughts close by. One of the practitioners thought that it would be nice if she could send forth righteous thoughts on the roof! With that thought, she went to the top of the building. She saw various sizes of Faluns rotating around the court.
The court opened the session at exactly at 10 a.m. Two lawyers sat in the defense gallery. There were over 100 people sitting in the gallery. Five Dafa practitioners were presented as well as the unit leaders, colleagues, and family members of the accused practitioners, along with legal professors and observers. When the lawyer said, "My clients are innocent and the defendant should be released immediately," voices of "release the defendants!" echoed through the court room. The guards immediately stopped it. The court ended the trial hastily. When a prosecutor walked by the door, he spoke to a practitioner, "So-and-so Dafa practitioner has hired these two lawyers. How wonderful!" After listening to the defense counsel's arguments, the family members now know that practicing Falun Gong doesn't break any law! This matter spread widely from the city to rural areas. It caused a strong shockwave. People were talking about it, "The lawyers from Beijing said practicing Falun Gong did not break the law. Why do police still arrest them. Don't they have anything else to do!"
What we had done reflected our realm at the time. We had put forth our greatest efforts and felt some "achievement." Other practitioners also felt what we had accomplished was alright, and did not recognize the inadequacy from the Fa standpoint. We were always busy round and round and had to squeeze in time to study the Fa and do the exercises. It was really like fighting a fire here today and another one the next day. We had no idle time. During those two years, we were busy going to the public security bureau, detention centers, the court, and prison. In fact, due to a lack of understanding the Fa principles, what we did had been resisting persecution from the old forces.
2. Completely Negate the Old Forces' Arrangements and Create the Work Environment
We began to study the Fa peacefully. Master said,
"When you encounter ordeals during your cultivation, you have got to cultivate yourself and look at yourself--that doesn't mean acknowledging the ordeals arranged by the old forces and trying to do well amidst the ordeals they've arranged, that's not the case. We negate even the very emergence of the old forces and everything that they've arranged; we don't even acknowledge their existence. We're fundamentally negating all of their things, and all of, and only, the things you do while negating and getting rid of them is mighty-virtue. It's not that you're cultivating amidst the ordeals they created. Rather, you are to walk your own path well while not acknowledging them, not even acknowledging the elimination of their ordeals' manifestations." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference")
Master also said clearly,
"Let me tell you, all those who remain and that can persecute Dafa and Dafa disciples are due to our students themselves. Students who haven't taken sending forth righteous thoughts seriously: the evil in the dimensions that you are supposed to shoulder and be responsible for has not been eliminated. That's the cause." ("Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A.")
Through studying the Fa and sharing, we recognized that we could not just be led by the old forces. We had to take the initiative to eliminate the evil elements in other dimensions, so that evil forces could not persecute practitioners in the human dimension. We arranged to send forth righteous thoughts throughout the 24 hours of each day for almost six months. We divided into four groups, and every day at least four or five practitioners went to the public security bureau, public security branch office, the Procuratorate, the court, detention center, the 610 Office, Political and Legal Affairs Committee, and Municipal Party Committee to send forth righteous thoughts in close range, regardless of whether it was raining, cold or hot. We encouraged each other. Practitioners were aware of the necessity and importance of sending forth righteous thoughts. Once receiving the notice, we sent forth righteous thoughts on a 24-hour basis, regardless of how far we were or whether it was day or night. We all dutifully did whatever we needed to do.
For the last three years, because of our focus on studying the Fa, emphasizing sending forth righteous thoughts, and cooperating as a whole, our cultivation environment has become better and better. More people understand the truth and the persecution of practitioners has been reduced. Many local people have understood the truth and quit the CCP. Fellow practitioners have unremittingly clarified the truth in the mountain areas or at the city junction without any regrets or complaint. Some police officers even protected practitioners quietly.
More practitioners came out to join us and we worked as a whole body. Once, nine practitioners from the neighboring city went to a remote mountainous area to clarify the truth and were arrested. The morning we heard the news, we immediately notified every practitioner to send forth righteous thoughts. Twelve practitioners drove in two cars to the local police station located about 50 miles away and arrived there before 8 a.m. We braved the rain and sent forth righteous thoughts for the entire day.
The next day, we heard that a male practitioner was detained in a local detention center. We sent forth righteous thoughts every day near the detention center. A few days later, the practitioner was able to leave. While eight other practitioners were in the detention center, we sent forth righteous thoughts at close range. Some practitioners went there at around 5 or 6 a.m. and left for work at 8. Some practitioners went without having lunch, some brought their lunch, or ate at a local shop. We persisted until most of the practitioners were released. Regrettably, three practitioners were sentenced to one year of forced labor.
In pace with studying the Fa and looking inward, practitioners became more forgiving, were considerate of others, and cultivated themselves. Criticizing or complaining among practitioners had reduced. Practitioners recognized that accusations, complaints, and self validation were all acts of looking outward, cultivating others, creating karma, and hurting themselves and others. Selfishness is the fundamental characteristic of the old universe. The old forces just want to change others but not themselves. If we do not get rid of these attachments, are we any different from the old forces?
When we saw practitioners in some areas had suffered great losses due to lack of coordination and were unable to work as a whole body, we felt deep regret. We thus focused on these things in our region. Brought along by a coordinator, we sat down to share our own understandings and had a frank and sincere sharing and were able to reach a consensus and work together.
The Fa-rectification is in its final stage. We are determined to do a good job and be worthy of being Dafa disciples in the Fa-rectification period.