(Clearwisdom.net) It has been a while since the "consultation exercise" for Article 23 of Hong Kong's Basic Law began on September 25, and the consultation period will end on December 24. Since we have all been busy with other Fa-rectification work, practitioners outside Hong Kong didn't have the time to learn much about Article 23. Recently, some practitioners in my area had the opportunity to learn about Article 23 in a relatively thorough way. We exchanged opinions from the perspective of the Fa, which enabled all of us to gain a deeper and thorough understanding on this issue. Below is the summary of some important points we made, to share with fellow practitioners.
1. Article 23 is Directed at Dafa
In "Enlightenment" of Essential For Further Advancement, Master told us to "distinguish the righteous from the evil." Faced with the current situation, we must look through the trivial and the illusions on the surface of human dimensions and recognize the nature and motives of the Hong Kong government for establishing Article 23, the anti-subversion law.
Looking at the surface, I understand the direct cause for the Hong Kong government to enact Article 23 is the arrest and sentencing of 16 Dafa practitioners earlier this year. The Hong Kong police applied laws governing merchants and vendors against Dafa practitioners' peaceful appeal, which made the Hong Kong government and police seem ridiculous before the governments and people of the world. Therefore, the Hong Kong government and police needed a new "law" to deal with peaceful appeals. A major official from the Jiang's government also publicly requested the Hong Kong government to make a law against Falun Gong. This is very similar to the situation in Mainland China, when Jiang urged the People's Congress to create laws to justify the persecution against Falun Gong, after the persecution had already begun on July 20, 1999.
The passage of Article 23 will immediately enable the Hong Kong government and police to ban, strike and persecute Falun Gong and Falun Gong practitioners in Hong Kong. It appears, then, the nature and motive for the enactment of Article 23 is to persecute Falun Gong.
On the surface, the Hong Kong government claims that Article 23 is not directed against any single organization, although this is only an attempt to deceive people. Of course, aside from Falun Gong, other democratic, free, human rights and religious organizations in Hong Kong will also become targets, and every citizen of Hong Kong will become a potential target. Looking at it from another perspective, in order to extend the anti-Falun Gong political movement into Hong Kong, Jiang's regime is willing sacrifice the fundamental interests of six million Hong Kong citizens. We can see how crazy and hysterical the evil is in persecuting Dafa.
When we have a clear understanding of the motives and nature of Article 23, we will see that opposing and resisting Article 23 is a process and opportunity to thoroughly and comprehensively clarify the truth. Through clarification, we will let more people learn about the truth so they won't side with the evil.
2. A Good Starting Point for Truth Clarification
Article 23 involves many aspects and is aimed against many different people. Any individual or group organizations involving democracy, freedom, human rights, religions and beliefs are direct or potential targets for persecution. Since Hong Kong is an international city, this incident involves governments, businesses and people of many countries in the world.
Since it's easy for ordinary people to understand the consequences of Article 23, it is at the same time a great starting point to clarify the truth to them. Here are some suggestions:
- Clarify the truth to Chinese people in Hong Kong, Macao and also other foreign countries. They are important groups. Article 23 gave us a great opportunity to contact them.
- Clarify the truth to governments around the world. When Hong Kong was returned to Chinese sovereignty, some prominent Western countries, including the U.K. and the U.S., made certain promises to Hong Kong. Now is a great opportunity to clarify the truth to these governments and to ask them to fulfill their promises.
- Clarify the truth to the media around the world. Article 23 affects everyone. Even foreign citizens visiting Hong Kong might unconsciously violate this "law."
- Clarify the truth to economic and business institutions around the world. Since Hong Kong is an international city and a world financial center, many well established banks, businesses and financial institutions have their businesses in Hong Kong. Article 23 will bring tremendous potential threats upon these businesses, in that they can unconsciously commit the crimes of "divulging national secrets" or "subversion."
- Clarify the truth to democratic, free, human rights, legal and religious organizations about how Article 23 could affect them.
- Clarify the truth to civil, non-profit and academic organizations around the world about how Article 23 could affect them.
3. What Facts Are We Going to Clarify?
Since the current situation is much different from previous times, we also touched upon a practical issue during discussion: what facts should we clarify as Falun Gong practitioners? Through exchanging opinions, we realized that the content and emphasis of truth clarification should be different in different environments, situations and with different people. According to people's different ability to accept the truth, we summarized several main points:
- From the ordinary people's perspective of freedom, human rights and law, the fundamental interest of all people in Hong Kong and those whose interest is associated with Hong Kong will suffer losses, and the "One Country, Two Systems" policy will be severely damaged.
- Through discussing the reasons for and consequences of Article 23, we can further talk about how the evil persecutes Falun Gong in Mainland China and in Hong Kong.
- Let people realize that Jiang's persecution of Falun Gong is not limited to Mainland China. It has poisoned the minds of many people through media channels, diplomatic offices and by other means. In fact, it affects everyone and involves everyone.
- Let governments and people of the world clearly see that despite the consequences and costs, Jiang nevertheless chose to irrationally persecute Falun Gong, which caused great damage to Chinese society, including economics, politics and diplomacy. Many of Jiang's actions were directed against Falun Gong.
4. Eliminate the Evil Substances and Offer Salvation to People with Powerful Righteous Thoughts
Master does not at all acknowledge the old forces' arrangements in Fa-rectification. Dafa practitioners must break away from the old forces' arrangements. Since the old forces want to extend the persecution against Dafa into Hong Kong, Dafa practitioners can eliminate it with powerful righteous thoughts and not allow the old forces to further interfere with Fa-rectification. Dafa practitioners can also use pure and powerful righteous thoughts to completely eliminate all evil elements manipulating and controlling people's minds, so people can see the nature of the evil. Although the evil elements are already extremely sparse and weak, only when Dafa practitioners completely eliminate them with righteous thoughts will the world's people be able to easily become clear-headed.
Prior to December 24, people can express opposing views on Article 23 by accessing http://www.article23.org.hk/english/main.htm (there is detailed background information on this website. People can voice their opinions). We should express our opinions in a timely manner but this should not limit us. We are Dafa practitioners; in Fa-rectification we offer salvation to people.
5. Remember We Are Dafa Practitioners Offering Salvation to People
Some fellow practitioners said, "When I first read the content of Article 23, I was very angry, but since anger is the manifestation of demon nature, I calmed down and read Master's scripture 'Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Experience Sharing Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.,' and afterwards I realized the evil beings have again used the evil thugs to do this, and they are staging this farce using the attachments some practitioners still have."
Master said, "As I've said, everything that happens today in the ordinary society is the result of Dafa disciples' attachments. Even though the old forces do exist, if you don't have those attachments, they can't do anything. When your righteous thoughts are strong enough the old forces can do nothing." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Experience Sharing Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.")
If, starting from now, we do well in studying the Fa, clarify the truth and sending forth righteous thoughts, which are required of us by Fa-rectification; if we do our best to eliminate the degenerated material elements and our omitted human notions outside and inside our dimensional field; if we do not leave any gaps for the evil and remember the lesson we learned from the Sixteenth Party's Congress, and stop treating this issue with an ordinary person's mentality, we will surely do better.
"Absolutely don't think about any favors the old forces might do for us, or about how the ordinary society might help us. You are the ones saving the ordinary people's society, and you are the ones saving sentient beings!"
"But when you're among ordinary people and you face these issues, although you've had different thoughts, and we might even have more people who have different understandings and who display some human attachments, it's not all that surprising. That's because while you're improving yourself in cultivation, your path of validating Dafa, of saving sentient beings, and of moving towards the final Consummation is going to be a bumpy one. What's key is that you take every step well after you come to realize something." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Experience Sharing Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.")
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