(Minghui.org) On January 14, 2017, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on a speech by the president of the Supreme People's Court on “strengthening the battle against cults” and bringing “further the punishment of Falun Gong.”
On Jan 25, the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate both released judicial interpretations labeling Falun Dafa as a “cult.”
These speeches against judicial independence in China immediately caught international attention. More than 1,000 lawyers and scholars in China signed an open letter suggesting that the Supreme Court President step down.
As practitioners, what should we do? Just four days after the Supreme Court President defamed Falun Gong on CCTV, practitioners in another city mailed letters to CCTV and four major legal departments of China to tell them what Falun Gong is and about the persecution.
The letter, signed by more than 20 practitioners, explained the “self-immolation incident” on Tiananmen Square in 2001 that the authorities staged to incite public hatred of Falun Gong. The letter also argued that the Supreme Court President's speech ran counter to the Chinese constitution.
After we saw a copy of this letter, practitioners in our city realized that we should not remain silent after the authorities openly defamed Falun Gong. We signed a similar letter and mailed it to CCTV and legal departments.
After it was done, we had several group discussions on what we learned from this incident as cultivators. We specifically studied this part of a lecture by Master:
“... what is a Buddha? "Tathagata" is what human beings call someone who’s come with the truth and the power to do what he wants, whereas real Buddhas are guardians of the cosmos and are responsible for all righteous elements in the cosmos.” (“Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. Fa Conference” from Guiding the Voyage)
After years of efforts by practitioners, Chinese society has changed so much that everyday people, including the upper class, now dare to speak up for our rights. We have no reason to fear.
Everything happening in this universe is watched over by Master. Can the evil's latest round of defamation be a coincidence? This is a test of our xinxing on whether we can let go of fear. Most of us signed the letter without hesitation. Some practitioners hesitated and did not sign.
This is an opportunity that Master arranged for us to clarify the truth to more Chinese people. We decided to also use the opportunity to tell our local media and legal departments. If we can clarify the truth to everyone, the evil will be completely gone.
This is a summary of our understanding towards this incident. Please compassionately correct us if there is anything inappropriate.