(Minghui.org) I would like to share my experiences of talking to the police about Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) and cultivating myself in the process.
I came to understand that only by continuously cultivating ourselves and discarding our selfishness and negative thoughts can we better and more effectively save lives.
In the process of talking to others about Falun Gong I have experienced Master’s strengthening and protection and Master’s great compassion for all sentient beings.
As the pace of Fa rectification moves forward, more and more people are coming to understand that Falun Gong is good and are paving their way for a bright future.
In recent years I started having thoughts such as, “What about the police in my local area? How can I help them to understand Falun Gong so that they can also have a good future?”
Master said,
“Saving people should be at the heart of what Dafa disciples do. As I talked about earlier, a lot of people, whether they be officials, police officers, or whatnot, have been poisoned by the lies. Those specific beings are not inherently wicked, actually; the beings themselves are not wicked officials. [Some of] those beings may actually be very good ones, but have been misled after being instilled with the lies of the wicked Party culture, and were thereby driven to do what they did. Of course, there are also some people who knew full well what the situation was and whose acts were motivated by self-interest. You should still give them the chance to learn about the truth.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2015 New York Fa Conference”)
After reading this, I came to understand what I should do.
I never used to think about saving police officers. I was taken to a forced labor camp several years ago and came into contact with many of them who treated Falun Dafa practitioners terribly. I focused my thoughts on disintegrating the persecution and getting out of the labor camp. I didn't think about saving them.
Seeing the police persecute practitioners, I felt distant from them. I didn't hate them, but I did not have any compassion for them either. The future of their lives seemed to have nothing to do with me.
As I kept reading the Fa, Master’s enormous compassion moved me. I came to understand my responsibility and mission, and my thoughts started changing.
I saw my former college application document one day and was surprised that my first choice had been the police academy and my last choice was a police school. I eventually enrolled in my second educational choice—one that had nothing to do with the police.
I asked myself, “If I had become a police officer, wouldn’t I also have deserved a chance to learn about Falun Gong and be saved? The police officers are also lives deceived by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and they are also waiting for salvation.”
After further contact with police officers, I realized that I had developed biased notions about them because of my fear and need for self-protection. I had only considered the police as tools of the wicked Party that persecuted Falun Gong practitioners.
I came to realize that police officers are ordinary people who have also been deceived by the CCP. Just like anyone else, the police share similar doubts and some resent the CCP, but they don't dare disobey orders.
I realized that we shouldn't have negative thoughts about the police. We should open our hearts to offer them the opportunity to understand Falun Gong and receive salvation.
When Hong Yin IVwas published, Master’s new poems deeply moved me, especially when I read,
“I promised Gods to awaken you” (“Your Sentient Beings Are Waiting for You”)
“Thoughts are righteous and the mind is broad, transforming danger into safety” (“Gods and Buddhas in the World”).
Since then, I've started going to the police station to tell the officers there about Falun Gong.
I had visited one officer to obtain certain documents twice last year. The visits were short and I didn't have time to talk to him about Falun Gong. The second time I was there, he asked me if he could come to my home. I said he could and asked him when.
He sighed, “Nowadays, our time is not our own anymore!” I felt that he was anxious for salvation.
He came a month later. When I heard him knock, I started to send righteous thoughts to eliminate any of the old forces' interference. Before I could manage to open the door, he left. What I learned later was that he'd first taken a picture of my door. (The police will often take a photo of the front door as proof that they have visited the property.)
I heard that the district police department had named this police officer a “role model” and had him going around giving lectures. The CCP had brainwashed him and then used him in turn to indoctrinate others, placing him in a very dangerous situation in his future life!
I understood that he came to my door seeking salvation, so I called him on the phone. He told me that the domestic security wanted me to go to the Procuratorate.
We met in the community building, and he asked me if I was going to go to the Procuratorate. I said I wasn't and then told him in detail about Falun Gong and the persecution and showed him pictures of how the CCP tortures practitioners. He listened attentively as we talked for more than an hour.
He said, “The domestic security asked me to talk to you. I told you to go to the Procuratorate. I have done my job. I can't force you. If the domestic security personnel come to me again, I will come to you again. If you choose not to cooperate, then I will not keep pounding on your door.”
He thanked me when I left, and he never came to talk to me about the Procuratorate again.
When I visited the police station one day this year, I heard him talking on the phone, saying, “As a matter of fact, the Falun Gong practitioners didn't break any law!”
Another time, he told me that some people had used cell phone numbers to swindle people. When I told him that I had also bought SIM cards, he replied, “You can keep using them! You Falun Gong don’t do bad things.”
I initially only talked to the police officers who had arrested me before. Later, I started talking to other officers.
When I went to the police station to pick up my renewed ID card, I was told that the head of domestic security had taken my card.
A fellow practitioner reminded me, “Didn't you want to use the excuse of renewing your ID card to talk to the police about Falun Gong? The domestic security is also part of the police and you should talk to them, too. The chief is looking for salvation.”
I made up my mind to meet the head of the domestic security division. But then many difficulties then came up.
My printer stopped working as I was printing information for the chief. Another practitioner and I had planned to go together, but the weather suddenly turned bad that day. Heavy rain and snow caused accidents and traffic jams. Someone in the other practitioner’s family suddenly fell ill and was hospitalized, so she couldn't go with me. So we were not able to meet the chief as planned.
I looked inward to find why these things might have occurred. I found that the materials I had prepared for the meeting with the chief were not suitable or compassionate, and I didn't have a calm and peaceful mind that day. I also realized that something else was interfering with me.
Several days later, it crossed my mind to give up on him. Right then, someone outside yelled, “It’s on fire!” I rushed to the balcony and saw a resident across the street yelling in my direction, “You are not doing what you should do!”
I decided to make a trip to the police department building and called the chief from outside. He said, “I asked you to go to the Procuratorate, but you didn't want to. You left me with no choice but to take away your ID card.”
“Those are two different things,” I told him. “You must return my ID card. And I am not going to the Procuratorate. The persecution is illegal!” I invited him to come outside the building to talk with me. He agreed but then sent another officer in his place.
I wondered why he was avoiding talking to me and looked within for a reason. I found that I had the mentality of self-protection and wanting to overpower others. I was not compassionate.
Master said,
“Human society never had true principles to guide it before, so man has not resolved his problems via shan. Instead, man has always resolved things through fighting and conquest, and that has thus become man's norm. If man wants to become divine and transcend the human state, then he must forsake that frame of mind and use compassion to resolve things.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2009 Washington DC International Fa Conference” from Teaching the Fa at the Conference IX)
I bought a greeting card for him for the Chinese New Year and, with a sincere heart, wrote, “We met seemingly by chance - it may really be a predestined arrangement. I want to sincerely offer you a good future.”
After the Chinese New Year, the chief told the police to return my ID card.
I will keep on giving my best to save this group of lives who have been poisoned severely by the CCP’s lies and propaganda and keep on diligently cultivating myself in order to be worthy of the title “Dafa disciple in the Fa-rectification period.”
Thank you, Master!