(Clearwisdom.net) Winifred Tung was an attorney in both Taiwan and the state of New York. She was once a legal advisor to Microtek Inc. in the United States and a Taiwan patent agent. To the surprise of many, she quit her career as a well-known and highly respected lawyer when she was thirty-eight. At the time, Tung was already the director of a law practice that had 100 members.
What made Tung quit her career as an attorney-at-law? She said, "How many people in the legal community entered law school with the noble ambition of helping people and saving the world? How many law students who held such aspirations lost sight of them after stepping out the door of law school?" The many years of practicing law led Winifred to become disappointed in and feel dejected by the downward trend of humanity and of society.
When she felt puzzled and was faltering at a crossroads in her life, a home interior designer who was then helping her family gave her a book entitled Zhuan Falun. Although Winifred had already read this book once, she still went to Tibet to search for the meaning of life. However, she found no answers there.
When she came back home, she started learning more about Falun Gong. She wanted to know what "cultivation practice" really meant, where a life comes from, and what life is for. She originally felt that Falun Gong was just an ordinary cultivation practice. Her strong interest in Falun Gong was sparked when she saw how many Falun Gong practitioners in China, in the midst of a brutal persecution, risked their lives to speak out for Falun Gong.
"I had traveled in the past to mainland China for work many times. I knew that many people focused on their personal interests very much. However, I kept seeing that under such a severe suppression by the Chinese Communist Party, so many people had been sent to forced labor camps because of their persistence in cultivation. Moreover, these people would be released if they signed their names promising to no longer practice. Why was this happening? Don't they want to be released? It really seemed inconceivable!"
Winifred wanted very much to know why so many Falun Gong practitioners chose to step forward to protect Falun Dafa. After she read Zhuan Falun and other related books and materials, she was moved to tears.
"When I read the persecution cases one after another, I knew that those stories were real. The practitioners described the persecution in different tones. While reading their accounts, I kept crying. I saw numerous moving stories and so many magnificent feats of sacrificing themselves for their beliefs. I can usually endure a lot mentally. However, this time I was deeply touched. I thought that it must be a great Fa that has this tremendous spiritual power!"
Having been deeply moved, Winifred Tung joined those who were practicing cultivation. Since starting, she has followed the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance in her daily life. After a period of cultivation, she found that she underwent great changes.
"Last year I suddenly noticed that I somehow no longer got angry while driving. I had not sounded the car horn in the past two years. I wondered if it was because the people in Taipei had gotten better in their driving or if the traffic conditions had improved. This was not the case. I found that those who drove wildly still drove that way and the traffic conditions had become even worse. So why wasn't I affected any longer? I found that my disposition of easily becoming agitated and impulsive had been cultivated away without my noticing."
Seeing the changes in herself, Winifred said with a sigh that if she had attained the Fa when she was still an attorney, she perhaps would not have quit her job. She could have done better as a lawyer, and she would not have had so much friction with her partners. Winifred further shared with us what she has learned, through cultivation, about the law profession.
She said, "From the perspective of 'Truthfulness,' lawyers today do not speak truthfully in court because we know that defendants have the right to remain silent. When a person is arrested, if he chooses not to tell the truth and if there is no one testifying against him, he can deny the accusation. This phenomenon has made it more difficult for society to see the virtue of telling the truth. One just does not admit fault whatsoever, and one is not required to always tell the truth."
"I'll give another example of society not following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. In buying a house that was to be built, one made a down payment. After doing so, the buyer's family encountered some financial problems and had no way to continue with the purchase, so he wanted to stop the purchase. Many builders would say that the person had violated the contract and would keep all of the down payment for themselves. In thinking about it, everything is judged by the law, but much of the criteria for judging right and wrong have already deviated from a relatively high human morality that was required of mankind in previous times. It's easy to forget morality when one just needs to do things according to the lowest requirements of the law and to maximize personal gain."
"In court the lawyers question each other and examine every word the other side says, looking for things to attack. If people really want to resolve a conflict, shouldn't they first think about whether they are at fault or not, and at the same time view the situation from the position of the other side? In many cases, if people do not follow the criteria of 'Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance' in handling things, and instead go to court to fight, they are putting the responsibility in the hands of judge and jury, rather than facing up to their own responsibilities first."
Winifred said with conviction that the law cannot make people control their own hearts. If a person wants to commit evil, the law cannot prevent him from doing so. One should have a moral code to live by, and that is much more effective than laws. Winifred then related a story that occurred over ten years ago.
Winifred had worked on a case free of charge involving a lady who was furious. Her husband, while riding a motorcycle, was hit from behind by a car that was being driven by a girl. He was injured badly and went into a coma. However, the girl did not want to pay any damages, so the lady filed a criminal charge as well as a civil compensation lawsuit against the girl. The girl's fiancé was a policeman, who brought to court another policeman who worked at the 110 Reporting System Center [for traffic accidents]. This policeman testified that he had the accident report (but he did not have the voice recording of the phone call), and that the girl had asked some passerby to report the case. This constituted her "surrendering herself to police." So she met the requirement of voluntarily surrendering herself to police, and in the end, she received a suspended sentence.
Regarding the civil lawsuit for seeking compensation, the girl quit her job to evade her responsibility. The lawsuit lasted several years, and during the interim, the girl got married, became pregnant, and gave birth to a baby. In the end, she did not pay a penny. The lady discovered that the policeman who had testified was a classmate of the girl's husband. She believed that the policeman had committed perjury to help his friend. She insisted on filing a perjury charge against the policeman. In court, as expected, she could not provide any evidence, and she was humiliated by the defense. However, her hatred kept her going, and she just did not want to give up. Although she failed in the lawsuit, the policeman, who could not withstand the embarrassment of the lawsuit and the questions that followed, asked to be transferred to a security guard position in the house of the Taoyuan County head. Thus he left the 110 Reporting System Center in Taipei.
How did the case end? That policeman was killed in an unrelated incident while on duty. After so many years, Winifred still cannot figure out who was right or wrong, but she knows that there exists another kind of justice in dimensions beyond this one. Is a victory in this court a true victory in one's life?
As another World Falun Dafa Day has come, Winifred truly hopes that people in the legal profession and people in society can follow "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" in their daily lives, which would tremendously impact society and mankind. In a society that is sorely in need of a moral compass, Falun Dafa can truly bring spiritual tranquility to people and give them hope of true peace!
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