(Clearwisdom.net) (Continued)
Part 1: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2005/5/8/60484.html
III. Working to Rescue Fellow Practitioners
Since the persecution began, the arrests of practitioners in our region have been non-stop. The arrested practitioners are sent to brainwashing classes, sentenced to forced labor or even put in prison. Practitioners have no fear of the tyrannical and despotic rule and act as one body in their endeavor to rescue detained fellow practitioners. Some practitioners cooperated very well with the family members of detained practitioners; they went to the police stations, the procurator's offices, courts, detention centers and prisons to report and follow up the cases of persecution. We also distributed materials to public security offices, procurator's offices, courts, the municipal government, detention centers and residential communities. The materials distributed include appeal letters, open letters, flyers and booklets designed specifically for the rescue efforts. We have rescued several practitioners including Wang Kemin and Zhang Zhong. All this has greatly terrified the evildoers.
1. Rescuing practitioner Zhang Zhong
In 2002, after Changchun practitioners successfully tapped into the cable TV and broadcast the truth-clarifying program, Jiang Zemin issued a "red document" to investigate the event countrywide and listed it as the No.1 priority case in the Northeast region. In April 2002, practitioner Zhang Zhong was arrested. Zhang Zhong started a hunger strike on the day of his arrest. He suffered brutal torture in the office of "Attacking Dark Forces" and the detention center. They smeared hot-pepper juice on his face, into his eyes and nose; put a plastic bag over his head to suffocate him; punished him by forcing him to sit on a metal chair for long periods of time, and force-fed him for four and half months. The inhuman torture put Zhang Zhong's life in danger and he was struggling at the edge of death. At that time, the female practitioners in the detention center held a group hunger strike to protest the inhuman treatment of him.
Denouncements of the evil conduct by the lawless scoundrels kept coming in from overseas practitioners. Because of this pressure, the detention center requested the municipal court and the municipal procurator's office to release Zhang Zhong three times. However, all these requests were ignored. Zhang Zhong was illegally sentenced to twelve years in jail and sent to the prison in our city.
Zhang Zhong firmly resisted the persecution. He claimed his innocence all along, refused to answer roll call and continued to practice the exercises. Because of this, he suffered brutal beatings, causing him to vomit blood and his stomach became paralyzed. The fellow practitioners immediately exposed the cruel torture on the Internet, and distributed flyers and put up posters to expose the persecution of Zhang Zhong, accusing the evil perpetrators of their crimes. Practitioners both inside and outside of China kept making phone calls, writing letters, and brought a lawsuit against the evil scoundrels in the prison. Zhang Zhong tenaciously resisted the persecution in prison and wrote letters to related authorities. He made three requests, "Immediately release me from jail for medical treatment; immediately allow me to see my family members face to face; the prison authorities should value human life."
On February 5, 2004, in an effort to cooperate with Zhang Zhong's request to be released with no criminal record, fellow practitioners in our city made a lot of truth-clarifying material, posted rescue announcements, distributed flyers and hung up posters. At that time, we mainly used large strip posters. We were worried that the older practitioners might not be able to climb up to high places to hang the posters. However, it didn't bother them at all. They acted together during the day, hanging posters here and there and they even managed to paste some inside the prison office building. In 2004, fellow practitioners in the district made sure that there were several practitioners sending forth righteous thoughts every day at close proximity to the prison to eliminate all the evil factors that persecute Dafa.
After a nearly-two-year-long concerted effort from fellow practitioners worldwide, on July 23, 2004, Zhang Zhong finally gained his freedom. The skinny Zhang Zhong was carried back home. He called out from the bottom of his heart, "I'm free!"
After two years of hard effort in rescuing Zhang Zhong, when we finally heard and saw him released, all the practitioners in our city wept.
2. Rescuing practitioner Cheng Peiming
Practitioner Cheng Peiming was detained in No.6 Ward of the municipal prison. He suffered brutal beatings many times by the inmates. He was put into solitary confinement and suffered the torture of being hung up in the air. On November 9, 2004, his elderly mother traveled three thousand miles to visit her son. She hadn't seen him in over five years. At the beginning, the prison refused to let her see her son, but under the forceful requests from his family members, the prison authorities finally relented and allowed her to see him, but they were not allowed to speak to each other. Their meeting lasted less than half a minute when the prison guards forcibly dragged Cheng away and put him back to solitary confinement.
In the afternoon of November 18, 2004, the rings in the wall that hung Cheng Peiming broke and he fell on the ground. Under the extremely cruel circumstances, beyond the limits of human endurance, Cheng Peiming became mentally unstable and he swallowed a wall paper knife and long metal nails and lost consciousness.
At 4:00 p.m., November 18, Cheng Peiming had surgery in the hospital and was very weak. Still, his feet were cuffed to the hospital bed.
When fellow practitioners heard the news that Cheng Peiming was in the hospital, practitioners in different regions coordinated their efforts to send forth righteous thoughts. At the same time, some practitioners went to the hospital to calmly and wisely deal with the police and managed to make a record of the persecution. On the same night, news and photos of Cheng Peiming's persecution were sent to Minghui website. At the same time, Cheng's family member held a banner with the words of "Free my family member Cheng Peiming" in front of the municipal government and the photo of their appeal was published on Minghui website as well. In a timely manner, fellow practitioners made truth-clarifying material with photos of Cheng Peiming and distributed them on a large scale.
During the process of rescuing Cheng Peiming, there was a lot of interference and obstruction. In the end we did not succeed in our effort to rescue him. The time we had to rescue him while he was in the hospital for an operation was very limited. The practitioners involved had become exhausted from continually dealing with the prison guards. Besides, only a limited number of practitioners were able to participate throughout the rescue process. Meanwhile, our Fa-study and sending forth righteous thoughts were interrupted, and this loophole was taken advantage of by the evil and we became less rational and less clear-minded as a result. On our first effort to rescue Cheng Peiming, the time for practitioners outside to send forth righteous thoughts didn't coincide with Cheng's attempted escape. His own righteous thoughts weren't strong enough either. Therefore, just as he was about to walk out of the hospital, the authorities found him and blocked his escape. We didn't give up and continued with our rescue effort. We asked fellow practitioners to send forth righteous thoughts near the hospital and if possible, to enter the hospital to coordinate inside. However, because of differing opinions, we didn't cooperate well and the rescue effort failed again.
We thought about why the rescue failed. First, we didn't study the Fa well or take sending forth righteous thoughts seriously. Our human minds clashed and we did not coordinate well. We looked externally for reasons and did not look inside of ourselves. We realized that every rescue effort we make is not just for the rescue of a fellow practitioner, instead it is a serious and fierce battle between the righteous and the evil. It is an effort to save people on a large scale and a comprehensive test of our validating the Fa as a whole body in a cooperative manner. Master said,
"You want me to be happy, but I can't be. How many Dafa disciples are being persecuted in those evil labor camps in China at this very moment! But I do appreciate your goodwill." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference")
"Some people have family members who have been imprisoned in the persecution and are being persecuted, ... When they get out, how will you bear to face them?" ("My Version of 'Stick Wake-Up'")
"You have to rescue your fellow cultivators and Dafa disciples--we can't let the evil persecute them wildly and without restraint." ("Fa-Lecture during the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference")
Master's teaching has boundless meanings. We Dafa disciples have a mission to assist Master in Fa-rectification and to save sentient beings. We did not come to suffer persecution. Evil is not allowed to persecute us even when we have attachments. We have Master and the Fa. Everything will be rectified. Rescuing our fellow practitioners is part of our Fa-rectification cultivation, part of our clarifying the truth, part of eliminating the evil. It is our responsibility. We believe we will do better and better and become more mature with a rational and clear mind.
On the day when Cheng Peiming nearly escaped from the hospital, it was very foggy outside and it was hard to see people even just a few meters away. Apparently Master and the righteous gods in other dimensions were trying to help as well. Although there were many factors that affected the rescue of Cheng Peiming, the magnificent action of fellow practitioners who risked their own safety and made their best efforts to rescue a follow practitioner has already terrified the evil.
3. Conditions Necessary to successfully rescue fellow practitioners
How can we break through the old force arrangements and successfully rescue fellow practitioners? We should first put stress on improvement as a group on the Fa. It is not just for the rescue itself that we engage ourselves in the rescue. We should combine the rescue work with improving our Xinxing through looking inward, with clarifying the truth and eliminating the evil, and with improving ourselves together and validating the Fa as one body. Practitioners in the tribulation should also have a clear understanding of the Fa and have righteous thoughts to resist the illegal detention and that they must get out of the evil den to assist Master in the Fa-rectification. When one's righteous thoughts come out, Master will help rescue the disciple and arrange his Fa-rectification path.
Practitioners overseas and in China should cooperate as one body and do our best in what we should do during the rescue effort. Once we cultivate ourselves well, the evil is eliminated and the fundamental reasons in other dimensions are resolved, then the rescue work in the human world will be successful.
(To be continued)