(Minghui.org) Looking back at my 17 years of cultivating Falun Dafa, I've realized that almost everything I did to validate the Fa would have been impossible without the cooperation and collaboration of my fellow practitioners.
From my experiences, I've learned that working together as a whole is especially important when it comes to rescuing practitioners incarcerated for their belief in Dafa. One rescue effort I was involved in a few years back was a textbook example of this idea, in which our collaboration as practitioners was crucial to achieving success.
The detained practitioner was from out-of-town, but was held in the provincial prison located in my city. Both local practitioners and those from neighboring cities were involved in rescuing the detained practitioner.
We were turned away numerous times by various government agencies while seeking her release. But we were not deterred, as we knew that our goal was to help as many people know of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) treachery as possible. So we urged everyone we met during the process to sever ties with the CCP and to identify with the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
Though there was not any sign that the practitioner would be able to come home, we did not give up and remained persistent. She eventually returned home about half a year after we initially launched the rescue effort.
Below, I have some anecdotes of our collaboration efforts in securing her release.
It all began when a practitioner from out-of-town asked me and another local practitioner if we could help rescue a practitioner who had been held in prison for nearly 10 years. The practitioner in prison was very weak due to the persecution she had suffered, and her parents (also practitioners) had not been allowed to see her for a long time.
We decided that I would to go to the prison the following morning with the practitioner's parents. Other practitioners would help us by sending righteous thoughts outside.
We went directly to the visiting room and asked to see this practitioner, but were refused. We then tried the political department of the prison, but were blocked by a security guard. We then started telling him about the persecution of Falun Gong and how severely the practitioner had been persecuted, and why cultivating in Falun Gong is not against the law and that the persecution violates the law.
His attitude gradually changed after listening to us. Eventually we were allowed to enter the building.
We met the heads of the political and discipline departments, and also saw the representative of the local Procuratorate at the prison. We told them how serious the situation was for the practitioner, and requested that she be released.
However, they all denied that the practitioner had been persecuted and shirked their responsibility. We then asked to see the director of the prison, but not without resistance from the prison staff. What were we going to do?
We encouraged each other to keep our will steady and not give up after running into these obstacles. We thought that we should not be affected by what was happening on the surface, and just do what we are supposed to do.
The reason we came here was to rescue the practitioner, but in reality, it was also an opportunity to save sentient beings; we could talk to the prison staff and clarify the facts to them. We decided to stay and wait for the director.
A male guard in the office tried to get rid of us.
I said to him with a smile, “What would you do if this happened to one of your family members? If their lives were in danger, wouldn't you want to talk to the director?”
Later, he changed his attitude after we told him about the persecution, and he stopped saying hurtful things to us.
We came across another detainee's family members in the hallway. We told them about how the practitioner was being persecuted there. We also told them that quitting the Chinese Community party (CCP) could save their lives, and they showed their sympathy.
We finally saw the practitioner in prison after weeks of clarifying the facts to the prison guards and different government departments.
We found the practitioner in critical condition, and yet, she was still being relentlessly persecuted. Appalled by her treatment, her parents and I were determined to go to the prison management bureau of the local province to appeal and ask them to bail her out for medical treatment.
We asked a practitioner proficient in law to prepare a set of formal documents before we went to the prison management bureau. She wrote a powerful letter talking about why the persecution violates the law, clarifying the facts to whoever reads it.
We took the letter to the appeals office of the provincial prison management bureau and other departments many times, but saw no tangible results.
Our progress wasn't immediately evident even after quite a long period of grueling effort. We shared our experiences with other practitioners to find out what was going wrong, and they reminded us to look inward first. Also, were our hearts filled with compassion when we approached the guards and officials? Did we really consider those police and prison guards' situations? Or was it only about rescuing the practitioner? They also saw that the detained practitioner's parents didn't study the Fa enough. So they suggested that the parents come to group Fa-study with us.
We tried to hand the letter to the department of judicial law of the local province and the local people's congress to accuse the prison guards who persecuted the practitioner. No matter who we met, we made sure to treat them with compassion and held grudges against no one; we knew that they were deceived and brainwashed by the CCP's lies and propaganda.
We also talked to people we met along the way – in the streets, on buses, and in offices – about the persecution and quitting the CCP.
The detained practitioner was finally released after more than half a year's effort of trying to rescue her.
Many practitioners from the local area and other cities were involved in this rescue effort. Some sent righteous thoughts, some posted letters to different government departments, some sent information to the Minghui website, and some provided free accommodation to the detained practitioner's parents.
In particular, one woman who just lost her husband and had to take care of her parents and small children did her best to help with the rescue efforts. She spent a whole night writing a letter to the prison management urging them to release the detained practitioner.
We all knew that the process of rescuing the concerned practitioner was also a process of clarifying the facts and saving people. It is our obligation and our vow.
Thanks for Master's help! And thanks, fellow practitioners!