(Minghui.org) Practitioner A is in her 50s. She was “transformed” recently in a brainwashing center. Fellow practitioners all felt sorry for her. Practitioner A also felt deep remorse afterward.
Practitioner A was always very diligent. Although she had been detained and persecuted brutally, tortured on the death bed, and twice gone on hunger strikes, she always endured the ordeals with righteous thoughts and Teacher's help. At the brainwashing center this last time, however, the guards took good care of her, and did not beat or curse her, let alone torture her. But she ended up being “transformed,” and wrote the “three statements.” So what happened exactly?
According to Practitioner A, all she did in the brainwashing center was watch videos—all sorts of videos. She watched them from after the breakfast until 11:00 p.m. At the end of the day, the guards had her watch “Di Zi Gui” (“Standards for Being a Good Student and Child”), which teaches people to be kind and respect others. Watching “Di Zi Gui” made her feel that she had not been nice to her husband, and this thought caused her to let her guard down and begin to follow the evil’s instructions to “transform” and write the “three statements.” She became clearheaded after she returned home; however, she was in deep remorse.
Another practitioner, Practitioner B, who is in her 70s, was also taken to a brainwashing center. No matter how the authorities threatened or pressured her, she just refused to budge. She recited the Fa whenever possible, and she recited as much as she could remember. Even if she could only remember one sentence, she just kept reciting it. Before the agents would say anything, she would send forth righteous thoughts to get rid of the evil elements behind them and let the thoughts of “Falun Dafa is good” be impressed upon their minds.
When the guards tried to smear Dafa and “transform” her, she would speak at the same time they did. She spoke about the facts of Falun Dafa: how Falun Dafa is good; how it teaches people to behave according to Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance; how it is practiced in over 100 countries; how it is supported by many governments and their people. She told the guards to remember that “Falun Dafa is good,” to not follow the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in persecuting Falun Dafa, and that there is nothing to be gained by persecuting Falun Dafa, only punishment later by heaven.
She repeated these things over and over as long as the guards talked. She did not care what the guards said; she would hear nothing of it. When they mentioned her family, be it her husband, grandson, and son or daughter, she would not give it any thought. She just kept reciting Dafa, sending forth righteous thoughts, and clarifying the facts to everybody. Once a guard got angry and yelled at her “Stop talking!” She responded immediately, “You stop talking. I’ll stop when you do.”
Some agents got headaches, and some had stomachaches. They asked her what had happened, and she said, “You are being punished because you smear Dafa.” From then on some of the guards did not dare to come into her cell.
The head of the brainwashing center came and said to Practitioner B, “I did not persecute you, did I?” She said, “Please remember ‘Falun Dafa is good’ and be nice to practitioners. You will have good fortune if you quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations.” The head became angry and said, “I will send you to a forced labor camp.” She responded, “I’ve done nothing wrong; I only try to be a good person. The forced labor camp is not for me. I will not go.” The head said, “I will give you a sentence of two years in the labor camp,” to which she replied, “What you say does not count. My Teacher decides everything.” The head turned around and left. The agents never asked her to watch any more videos but only said, “Forget it. It's useless.”
Practitioner B always believed that Teacher would save her. Sure enough, her blood pressure suddenly shot up one day and reached as high as 220 mmHg. The agents were scared, and the head of the center accompanied her home personally after she had been detained for 19 days. When he left her halfway to her house, he cautioned her, “If you die on the street, don’t you say that you just left our facility.” Practitioner B laughed. She said, “If I die, would I be able to say anything?” He patted himself on the head and said, “I've been so angry with you that I've become easily confused.”
Both practitioners had to deal with brainwashing centers, but they dealt with them in different ways and ended up with different results. Practitioner A was “transformed.” Practitioner B did not disclose her name or address, did not yield in any way to the evil, and was released with dignity. Practitioner A learned a good lesson, while practitioner B’s experience is one that we can all learn from.
Teacher has said:
“No matter what the situation, do not cooperate with the evil’s demands, orders, or what it instigates. If everyone does this the environment won’t be this way.” (“Dafa Disciples’ Righteous Thoughts are Powerful” from Essentials for Further Advancement II)
I feel that Practitioner A’s problem arises mainly from the fact that she complied with the evil’s demands. She watched the videos when they wanted her to, and she ended up watching them all day long. Perhaps she felt that the videos were not smearing Dafa, and so it was OK. But should we think that the reason the authorities put practitioners there is to wine and dine us and have us watch videos all day long? There is an evil intent behind showing the videos. Although they do not directly smear Dafa, and were things like “Di Zi Gui,” which teaches people to be good, they are all only ordinary people’s materials, after all. Our will as practitioners will thus become unwittingly weakened, and our divine spirits will become diluted while we watch them. We are then influenced without even realizing it. Gradually, our human spirit will erode by our divine spirit, and our will to cultivate will be weakened. The evil will then take the opportunity to instill unrighteous thoughts into our heads and continue to enhance them.
Brainwashing centers encourage practitioners to feel that they are completely wrong so that they will follow directions and become compliant with the persecutors. This is how practitioners get destroyed. On the surface, it is because they watch “Di Zi Gui” that they fall off track. In reality, “Di Zi Gui” is only an opening for the evil to slip through. The reason that they are able to break through is because practitioners have their righteous thoughts weakened, their human notions accumulate, and they begin to move toward evil-enlightenment the moment that they start watching the videos.
On the other hand, Practitioner B followed Teacher’s instructions: “No matter what the situation, do not cooperate with the evil’s demands, orders, or what it instigates.” Thus, we must maintain our righteous actions: “Do you want to “transform” me? Then I will tell you the facts about Falun Dafa to transform you, instead. And I will not listen to your nonsense even if I cannot transform you.” Practitioner B was without any attachment, and she did not listen to anything that the evil had to say. Her mind was filled with Dafa and the righteous thoughts of believing in Teacher and Dafa. Furthermore, she never let up, always maintaining a pure heart and not listening to coercion or threats. “Just by staying unaffected you will be able to handle all situations.” (“Teaching the Fa at the Conference in the Midwest-U.S.”) She eventually escaped from the evil’s dungeon by using her righteous thoughts.
Teacher has arranged everything for disciples. As early as 2001, He told us, “No matter what the situation, do not cooperate with the evil’s demands, orders, or what it instigates.” Having learned Dafa well, how could we become a captive of the evil's false sincerity?
I felt very sorry for the situation of Practitioner A and wrote these thoughts to remind myself, and also for it to serve as lessons for fellow practitioners. Let us help each other, study the Fa well, and walk well our last segment of the journey.
This only represents my personal views. Please point out my deficiencies.
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