(Minghui.org) There are a lot of Falun Dafa practitioners who had never written or signed a statement promising not to practice Dafa or not to appeal for justice for Dafa during the 16-year-long persecution. However, if one gave in to the pressure of the vicious authorities and made such a promise, even if reluctantly, the consequence could be severe. I personally experienced the severe consequences.
Traditional cultivation practices are very strict about practitioner's words and actions. If a practitioner betrayed his master, he or she lost the opportunity to cultivate.
In my understanding, the old forces are enforcing this rule and if a Falun Dafa practitioner betrays Dafa and Master, the old forces will try every means to destroy this practitioner.
When the persecution of Dafa started in July 1999, I refused to give up cultivation. They held me in the work unit and threatened to arrest me.
The authorities allowed my family to come at night to persuade me. They begged me just to make something up in order to appease the authorities. In the end, I yielded to the pressure and wrote a promise not to practice Dafa.
I was released and began to have insomnia beginning that night and it grew in severity. The insomnia began to torture me. I could not study the Fa or practice the exercise, and felt my life could end any day.
Then I realized that the insomnia was related to my promise to quit the practice. If I had not promised anything, there would be no insomnia.
I knew I did not behave like a practitioner, so Master could not protect me. Once I understood the issue, I believe Master eliminated a lot evil lives in other dimensions and I was bothered by a lesser degree from the insomnia.
Master said:
“Moreover, Gods are not like humans. For example, some students were arrested and imprisoned. When they couldn’t endure the severe torture, they wrote repentance statements. But in their minds they were thinking: "This is to fool them. I’ll still practice after I get out. I’ll still go out to validate the Fa and I’ll still go to Tiananmen." But this is unacceptable. It’s because this kind of notion is something developed in the human world after humans have become degenerate. But Gods aren’t like that. They don’t have thoughts like these. Once they’ve decided on a certain path they’ll definitely stick with it.”(“Guiding the Voyage”)
After I read this Fa-teaching, I made up my mind that I would never make any promises to the evil.
I traveled to Beijing to appeal for justice for Dafa on January 1, 2001. I was arrested and transferred back to my local Domestic Security Division.
More than 10 practitioners were detained in a detention center. I studied the Fa and clarified truth about Dafa to the inmates. Practitioners were told that whoever refused to give up Dafa would be sentenced to forced labor.
Instead of writing a promise, I wrote a letter to appeal for justice for Falun Dafa and demanded my immediate release.
In the end, most detained practitioners were given forced labor, no matter whether they renounced their practice or not. However, I was released on bail.
After I passed the test, my insomnia disappeared completely. Then, I wrote a public announcement to the Minghui website to nullify that statement of promising not to practice.
Recently, many practitioners are facing the same pressure from the authorities after they filed a law suit against the dictator Jiang Zemin. The authorities tried to coerce them into writing promises to give up Dafa.
To my knowledge, a few practitioners surrendered to the evil force and wrote the “promise.”
This will not work for a genuine practitioner. Righteous cultivation is serious. You might get released and avoid some torture or imprisonment. However, the old forces can use this to force more tribulations on you.
Master said:
“As a Dafa disciple, everything of yours is formed by Dafa and is the most righteous, and it can only be that [you] rectify everything that is not righteous. How could you bow to the evil? How could you promise something to the evil? Even if it doesn’t truly come from your heart, it’s still giving in to the evil. This is bad conduct for humans, too, and Gods absolutely would not do such a thing. Even if a Dafa cultivator truly casts off his human skin during the persecution, what awaits him is still Consummation.” (Dafa is Indestructible” in Essentials for Further Advancement II)
Now the Fa-rectification is nearing its end. Fellow practitioners, do you trust Master and Dafa 100 percent? If so and you are not afraid to “cast off this human skin” to validate Dafa, how can you promise anything to the evil?