(Minghui.org) I am a Falun Dafa practitioner in China. While studying Lecture Nine in Zhuan Falun I read:
“When it’s difficult to endure, you can endure it. When it’s impossible to do, you can do it.”
“When you are overcoming a real hardship or tribulation, you try it. When it is difficult to endure, try to endure it. When it looks impossible and is said to be impossible, give it a try and see if it is possible. If you can actually do it, you will indeed find: "After passing the shady willow trees, there will be bright flowers and another village ahead!"”
The words “give it a try” gave me a feeling that I'd never experienced before. Yes, at a most difficult time, we are moving forward by following the sentence “give it a try” and have indeed experienced that, “After passing the shady willow trees, there will be bright flowers and another village ahead!” I would like to share several cultivation experiences that other practitioners and I have encountered.
While distributing Falun Dafa informational materials in remote areas in our region, five practitioners were arrested in the autumn of 2009. The authorities ordered the villagers to hand in any Falun Dafa materials they had been given. Villagers who were not aware of the truth were so scared that they began to be hostile toward Falun Dafa.
Two senior fellow practitioners were released the next day and three others were illegally detained. Through sharing, we realized that it was not wrong for us to let people know the truth and that we couldn’t give up. We had to endure the pressure, not be affected, and dispel all evil factors in other dimensions that were hindering sentient beings from being saved. Informational materials about Falun Dafa are a long-awaited hope for all beings—we had to continue distributing them.
We separated and prepared everything, such as materials and vehicles. Within a few days, those of us who were to distribute the materials were interfered with to varying degrees: a male fellow practitioner had a fever; a female practitioner’s mother (also a practitioner) did not let her go; I was busy looking after my hospitalized brother every day. I was so upset that I wanted to tell the practitioner in charge of the effort that I wouldn’t go. But I knew in my heart that I couldn’t say that. Even if only one person felt that way, the whole body would be affected and we would fail to save people. I then seized the time to study the Fa and sent forth righteous thoughts. By doing that, my thoughts stabilized and my state of mind improved a lot.
In the evening, all of us went to the village where the practitioners had been arrested. No one in the car said anything. When the car passed a detention center, we felt as if the air was freezing. We stopped the car and started to walk into the quiet village. However, being unfamiliar with the road, we found that another group of practitioners had already distributed materials where we ended up. Then we went to another place and discovered the same thing. Feeling anxious, I asked Master for help: “Please take us to where we should go.” We then walked in the other direction and finally we distributed all our materials.
On the way back, a practitioner who was responsible for sending forth righteous thoughts said, “Why didn’t we hear dogs barking in the village?” An elderly practitioner said, “While distributing the materials, I felt very warm, as if I was standing in front of a stove.” We were all grateful to Master!
This time everyone went forward despite the pressure. We dismantled the old forces’ attempt to stop us from saving people by distributing the materials. All of us felt the power of the Fa, the attachment of fear lessened, and our character improved. We encouraged each other in our efforts to save people without missing a step.
At the end of 2010, about 25 practitioners in our city were abducted. Many Fa-study groups were disbanded. From time to time, there was news that fellow practitioners in different regions were abducted. A practitioner in our Fa-study group was also taken away. At the same time, we were told that the places where we often studied the Fa together had become known to the authorities.
This overwhelmed many of us, and everyone felt the intense pressure. We wondered what caused the evil to be so rampant and who it was still watching. I thought, “We have Master and our hearts should be calm. What is the evil most afraid of at this time? It is afraid that we will form a united whole.” At that time, the whole body was represented by our Fa-study groups, which couldn’t be disbanded. We immediately changed the location of our Fa-study groups. Although everyone felt the pressure when we attended the Fa-study, we never stopped studying the Fa for even a day and neither was there ever any danger.
After sharing, we decided that we needed several people to help rescue an abducted fellow practitioner. Before the Chinese New Year, we went to see the family members of the abducted practitioner. On the 15th of that month, we contacted several lawyers. At that time, we had no experience retaining lawyers but felt that we should clarify the facts to them in advance. We experienced great pressure at this time. Since some families couldn’t afford a lawyer, other practitioners helped them financially.
When practitioners in other areas found out that so many lawyers were being retained in our region and that the family members were cooperating, they praised us for doing a good job. I thought to myself, “Seeing our determination to move forward, Master has helped us with this.”
Under the circumstances, fellow practitioners did what they could do. Practitioners we were not familiar with took the initiative to pick up the lawyers and invited them to dinner. Practitioners with the means paid the bills willingly. The practitioner who prepared the report verified the facts with the family members many times and uploaded the information to the Minghui website. Every day we received emails on how things were going so that we could send righteous thoughts. And all of us cooperated in a quiet and orderly manner.
Prior to the court proceedings, we posted stickers and issued invitations. When the case was to be presented, many practitioners came to the courthouse to send forth righteous thoughts. The bus stops nearby were often full of our fellow practitioners.
During this incident, many evil substances and factors appeared. By believing in Master and the Fa, we constantly sent strong righteous thoughts, which gradually reduced these evil substances. In spite of the persecution and in the face of the immense pressure, we did not feel depressed or fall but moved forward steadily. At the same time, this also created an environment for saving sentient beings. The evil was unable to illegally sentence Dafa practitioners in this area for several years to come.
While studying the Fa, seven practitioners in the city were picked up and detained by the police in 2016. The practitioners in that region wanted me to help rescue them. I was reluctant to offer help because I thought the place where the incident took place was rather far from us and Alice, the coordinator in that region, was very pushy. So I asked them to contact Alice for help and told them that I could offer cooperation behind the scenes.
Apparently these practitioners did not have any success talking with Alice. They again asked if we could help rescue the detained practitioners. I still had concerns and wanted to have a sharing with them about the incident before doing anything. There were many setbacks and we were never able to sit down together.
In a few days, a practitioner told me that practitioners in another city had helped find lawyers, found the family members of the detained practitioners and that the materials for rescuing them were all written. I thought that was great. When I met the practitioners in another city, I knew that everything was ready except for who would go to the police stations where the incident took place and distribute informational materials. Practitioners in several areas made arrangements to distribute the materials in different places.
When discussing these plans, Alice said she would cooperate but she didn’t go when the time came. This happened twice. The practitioners in her area wanted to go but she would not let them. That made us disapprove of Alice. We went out four times to put up truth-clarifying posters and distribute the materials about the detained practitioners to police stations, the public security bureau, and the entire township and surrounding areas where the practitioners had been abducted.
Why did Alice stop other practitioners from saving people by distributing materials? What weak points did we have? We started to look inward unconditionally. Finally we found the cause affecting us as a whole body. We all had an attachment to “hiding” the fact that nobody was willing to deal with someone difficult. That meant we were not responsible for our fellow practitioner. This was caused by our own human notion of selfishness and this didn’t comply with the Fa Master taught.
We did not follow the requirements of Master, who said: “...he must be responsible to himself, be responsible to the students, be responsible to society, and be responsible to Dafa.” (“Preface” from Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa）
We also had a sharing with fellow practitioners in Alice's region. Everybody started to look internally and finally realized that it was our own problem.
By using this opportunity, Master helped me look at the issue according to the Fa. When I let go of my attachment, tolerance came forth and I began to see only the good side of our fellow practitioner. As a result, we trusted each other more in our later cooperation and the abducted fellow practitioners all returned home.
A male practitioner who worked closely with us was abducted in 2016. We went to the police station in the area where he lived, to the branch office, and to the detention center, but we couldn't locate him. His parents came from out of town and we escorted them to the police station to ask about their son. The police told them that their son was taken away by the branch office. They were told not to ask any more questions as the police could do nothing about it.
So we retained a lawyer, who went to the detention center but was denied access to his client. The family then started to write letters about suing the center. The letters were sent to all relevant departments, but still the lawyer was not allowed to see their son.
The lawyer went to see the detained practitioner five times in one month, but he still wasn’t allowed to see him. At the detention center, the lawyer phoned the caseworker, who said, “The person you want to see has been taken away.” When the lawyer asked where the practitioner was, the caseworker refused to tell him. The lawyer pointed out that the caseworker was violating the law and he was going to sue him.
We did not back down and took the initiative to cooperate with the family and the lawyer to go forward, suing the person who was in charge of the case step by step. Together with the family, we exposed the information about the law-breakers. The family also used overseas media to expose the facts of how the police had handled the case illegally. We practitioners cooperated to distribute many materials locally so that ordinary people could see that a good and innocent person was detained just for practicing Falun Dafa. People throughout the world would be aware of the truth without being deceived by TV programs and without becoming hostile to Falun Dafa.
However, due to fear, the family members were not willing to mail the letters to sue the authorities. Then all of us sat down and shared. Everyone said that it was the evil that was scared of being sued.
Master 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)
If something is done according to Master's requirements, then it must be correct. We patiently discussed the issue with the practitioner’s parents and they eventually agreed that they would sign the letters and continue with the lawsuit.
Besides posting letters concerning the lawsuit, we also distributed materials explaining why the practitioner was abducted and Minghui periodicals to the provincial government, the provincial public security department, and the provincial Political and Legal Affairs Committee. Everything we did was to save people. Our hearts were no longer obsessed with when the fellow practitioner would be released. Instead, we made sure we did what we should do. We knew that Master always takes care of every practitioner.
It wasn’t long before the detained practitioner returned. In this seemingly menacing tribulation, all of us practitioners withstood all kinds of pressure and believed in Master and the Fa. We destroyed the arrangements of the old forces. In this case, no other practitioners were harmed; this stabilized the environment in which fellow practitioners saved people in other projects.
Thank you, compassionate Master!