(Clearwisdom.net) As Fa rectification advances at full speed, the overall requirements for practitioners and the cultivation environments have become more demanding.
The following are our experiences in coordinating the rescue of fellow practitioners who were being sent to forced labor camps. These efforts required our local practitioners to work as one body, validate the Fa with rationality in order to save sentient beings, and wisely clarify the truth of Falun Dafa to people face to face. I am recording the process as a reference for other practitioners.
In December 2004, two of our local practitioners were suddenly arrested. Several of us shared our understandings via telephone. We also notified every practitioner we could and asked him or her to send forth righteous thoughts. We enlightened to the realization that this situation was not a case of ordinary people persecuting other people, but rather, it was the evil forces using ordinary people to persecute Dafa. It was the evil manipulating people to prevent us from saving sentient beings so that the evil forces could destroy them. As genuine practitioners, we couldn't allow that to happen. We therefore took immediate steps to rescue our fellow practitioners.
1. We wrote a letter in the form of a petition to expose the persecution. It explained how one of these practitioners had become a better person after practicing Falun Dafa. The article listed examples of how this practitioner was well known locally for doing good deeds for others and for his diligent work at his job. It also explained how he had dedicated his life to the people and the region. In its conclusion, the petition stated that the people of our region strongly request that this Falun Dafa practitioner be released. After reading the letter, ordinary people agreed that the report was truthful, and without hesitating, they signed their names to the petition. This letter attested to the fact that our fellow practitioner was a good person, who clarified the truth to those around him and in his workplace. It also gave people the opportunity to establish their own future positions.
2. We clarified the truth to the family members of practitioners, so they would know that their loved ones did nothing wrong and did not break the law. We also asked them to coordinate with us in our rescue efforts. We told them what Master had said,
"Some people have family members who have been imprisoned in the persecution and are being persecuted, and yet instead of hurrying up and working along with everyone else to resist the persecution, stop the persecution, and lessen the persecution of your family members, you're talking about things like 'studying the Fa at home' and you're still full of complaints about everything that [Dafa] students are doing. Did you know that when the persecution of your family members who have been imprisoned is lessened or stopped, it's the result of Dafa disciples exposing and shocking the evil beings while braving evil and danger to take action against the persecution? When they get out, how will you bear to face them? What have you done for them?" (From "My Version of a 'Stick Wake-up'")
Because we clarified the truth to them, most of the family members of the detained practitioners accepted what we said, although a few did not.
3. We clarified the truth face to face with those responsible, and exposed the evil in the process of submitting our petitions. Practitioners took turns visiting government offices along with the family members of the arrested practitioners. We visited city and county government offices, including the Superintendents' Offices, Political Offices, Administrative Offices, 610 Offices, and National Security Units to clarify the truth to them, and we firmly asked the government to unconditionally release the Dafa practitioners.
4. We coordinated our efforts and improved together. We sent forth righteous thoughts at home, clarified the truth to people in the streets, and looked for the perpetrators of the persecution in their offices. When some of our fellow practitioners failed to step out of their homes, we studied the article, "Serious Teachings" from Clearwisdom.net with them. In the article, Master said,
"Why does a person study Dafa? Those people only want to gain from Dafa, and they regard Dafa as a protective shield. While Dafa encounters persecution, while disciples are being arrested, persecuted, and beaten to death for protecting Dafa, what are they doing? While their Master is being slandered, what are they doing? Are they waiting for something good to just fall from the sky? Are they waiting to reach Consummation once the tribulation ends? I'm really worried for them. They have no idea how dangerous the situation is for their true beings!"
"In the midst of the Fa-rectification, a god's single thought about Dafa determines his existence or destruction. Can those who've obtained Dafa regard things as everyday people do? If a person has obtained the Fa but isn't able to validate the Fa, does he still deserve to be a Dafa disciple? No matter how he 'persists in studying the Fa and doing the exercises' at home, he is being controlled by demons and is 'enlightening' along an evil path."
As a result, those practitioners who had the attachment of fear were able to break through this attachment and go to the government offices with us. Even though they didn't speak, they sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil in other dimensions.
5. In the process of rescuing our fellow practitioners, the righteous thoughts of Falun Dafa practitioners fully displayed their effect.
One practitioner always burned incense in front of Master's picture and sent forth righteous thoughts, asking Master to strengthen him before he went to the government offices. He also asked Master to develop his supernormal ability of telepathy. He would use it to penetrate to the most microcosmic level of the minds of those officials, telling them, "There will be retribution for persecuting Dafa disciples, and one can only gain the future by repenting for their misdeeds." Several times when he clarified the truth to the officials in charge using his supernormal ability, the official and his subordinates were dumbstruck and unable to argue with him. Eventually, they would agree to unconditionally release the Dafa practitioners. In this way, we were able to expose the evil, clarify the facts, and save sentient beings all at the same time. The two practitioners were released after being detained for 11 and 14 days respectively. Our actions also shocked the evil.
6. In our righteous thoughts and actions, we can't depend on ordinary people. Moreover, we can't be moved by peoples' emotions. When we set out to rescue the first practitioner, we were actually deterred for a few days. If we hadn't enlightened to this fact, it is hard to say what the consequences would have been. On the fifth day after we began our rescue efforts, this practitioner's family called us and asked us to stop what we were doing, saying that we would be responsible if something bad happened to that practitioner. So we stopped what we were doing, and this practitioner's family took matters into their own hands. They tried to invite the perpetrators for dinner and gave them presents, but the perpetrators found excuses to delay them. After a few days, several practitioners got together and shared their understandings. We realized that the evil was using ordinary people to impede our rescue efforts, and that it would be very dangerous to allow them to continue to interfere with us. We decided that we could neither depend on ordinary people nor be influenced by them. We decided to make our move, we stated that we would stay in the authorities' office until our demands were met. As a result, the officials were frightened and agreed to immediately release the practitioner.
The following is the dialogue between the government officials and us:
A practitioner went to the County Communist Party secretary's office with a family member of the arrested practitioner.
The secretary asked us, "What are you doing here?"
"We are here to see the Party secretary," replied the practitioner.
"What do you want?" he asked again.
"It is regarding a very important matter."
"You cannot see him."
"Why can't we see him? We are the people, and it's his job to serve the people. We must see him." The practitioner walked toward the office as he was speaking. The secretary blocked his path and pushed the practitioner out of the office. The practitioner spoke loudly, saying, "You want to hit me, don't you? You are a servant of people, but you push the people out. Aren't you an official of the people? You must have bought your official title instead of being elected, otherwise you would welcome people's visits, instead of pushing people out." Upon hearing that, the secretary's attitude immediately changed for the better. He agreed to pass our petitions on to the Party secretary.
After our successful first step, we went to look for the secretary of the Political and Judiciary Committee. He was not in his office, so we went to the 610 Office. Right after we walked into the 610 Office, the secretary of the Political and Judiciary Committee came in. A practitioner said to him, "We were just looking for you."
"What do you want then?" asked the secretary.
"One of the Falun Gong practitioners we know was illegally detained. He is a good person. We strongly request that he be released. Please take a look at all these signatures and seals from the people." replied the practitioner.
"Why do you keep practicing it [Falun Gong] when it is banned by the government?"
"We don't care if the government has banned it. We only know there is no mention of Falun Gong in the Chinese Constitution, let alone provisions for banning it. A few officials in the government and certain government agencies cannot represent the Constitution. We don't acknowledge them. We only follow the law and strive to be good people."
For a moment the secretary was speechless. Finally he said, "So according to you, we wrongly arrested him?"
"Yes, it was wrong to arrest him." replied the practitioner.
"I am only following legal procedures, arresting those who need to be arrested and sentencing those who need to be sentenced. There is no changing this, no matter what you say."
The practitioner answered, "It is good to hear that you are following legal procedures. We believe you are bound by law to investigate and punish those who break the law. When I was detained at the detention center, I was beaten by [name of the person] so badly that I was covered with bruises. For a week, I couldn't take care of myself. I had to be fed by my fellow practitioners. Many people were beaten until their flesh was torn with gaping wounds. You know that those perpetrators broke the law, why don't you punish them? Someone was detained for hand-copying a couple of Falun Gong articles for others to read. They didn't hurt anyone or cause damage to society, but they were sentenced to one year in prison. According to which law was that done? There are countless examples like that. You know that you are punishing people illegally, why don't you follow the law in these cases? There are people nowadays hurting others by giving out usurious loans, gathering people to gamble, stealing, and robbing others. Why don't you follow the law in those cases? Instead, you put us, the good people, and those who want to be better people, into prison and let criminals and thugs remain at large. Is this what you call 'following the law'?"
The secretary said, "[As practitioners] you are learning "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance;" why don't you just forbear it [the persecution]?"
"We are practicing Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, but Forbearance doesn't mean we shouldn't insist on the truth, and it doesn't mean that we are afraid. You mistake our tolerance for fear. You have put so many practitioners into prisons and forced labor camps. Some of them have died from the persecution. You have mistaken our compassion for fear. You couldn't be more wrong."
Then a practitioner recited for them Teacher's article, "Beyond the Limits of Forbearance," adding, "If you didn't persecute us, we wouldn't be telling you this, but you are persecuting us, so we must expose your actions to show everyone just who is breaking the law." Upon hearing this, the secretary of the Political and Judiciary Committee was rendered speechless. His subordinates were all staring, tongue-tied. Their attitude eased up a bit.
Another practitioner calmly said to them, "You people have exhausted all means to carry on with the persecution. After wasting so much money and resources, you have detained practitioners, sent them to prison, beat them and used the most vicious and despicable methods in your treatment of these kindhearted people. In the end, all your efforts are in vain. Remember [names a practitioner] at the labor camp? He was said to be the most successfully "transformed". He even helped the police to transform other practitioners, but as soon as he returned home from the labor camp, he realized that he was wrong. He immediately declared that everything he had done for you was void. He is now steadfastly cultivating Falun Dafa. Haven't your efforts been a waste? Our teacher clearly stated in his article, "Coercion Cannot Change People's Hearts," that
"The evil has utilized the power in bad people's hands to create turmoil for nearly two years, using the most base actions ever in human history--whether ancient or modern, Chinese or foreign--and employing all the most malicious means to persecute Dafa and its cultivators. Its aim is to use coercive measures to change Dafa cultivators' hearts and have them give up their cultivation practice. This is futile. Never in history has someone who persecuted those with upright faiths ever succeeded."
With justice on our side, we clarified the truth to the officials without fear. The officials were speechless and eventually agreed to release the detained practitioner.
The following is a dialogue between the family member of another detained practitioner and the director of the local 610 Office.
The director asked, "What are you doing here again?"
"We are here to request that my family member be released. Everyone knows he is a good person no matter where he is. There is no reason for you to put a person whom everyone believes to be a good person in prison," answered the family member.
"Do you know there is enough evidence in your home to sentence him to three years in prison? We found so many Falun Gong materials, VCDs, tapes and books."
The family member said, "How can they be counted as evidence against our family member? They are the truth about Falun Gong. All they contain are the true stories about how the government is persecuting good people. How can it be that you are allowed to persecute people, and people are not allowed to speak up about the truth? Is it really true that only the officials can start a fire, but no peasant is allowed to light a candle? How can it be against the law to tell people the truth and the facts about the persecution? Regarding those books and audiotapes; as practitioners, we need books to study. When you work, you need a desk, and you also need to read documents. Can you really say that reading books and listening to tapes is against the law? There are people out there right now promoting illegal gambling and lotteries. Why don't you do something about that? There are also officials who knowingly break the law, deceiving their supervisors and deluding their subordinates in a completely lawless way. Why don't you arrest them? Are you colluding with and covering up for them? If you won't release my family member, then I am asking you to be fair and arrest everyone who has broken the law in our county. If you won't, we will ask the provincial and central governments to send people to investigate all of our officials, then we will see just who is breaking the law here."
The 610 Office and the county officials were terrified and agreed to release the detained practitioner that very day. Because we had firm faith in Teacher and the Fa, we believed that our rescue efforts would be successful.
The author wishes to encourage more experience sharing from others, using this article as an example, so that we can rescue all of the detained practitioners in a short period of time. Let us form one body and save more sentient beings before the Fa rectifies the human world.