(Minghui.org) After a practitioner was released from serving time for practicing Falun Dafa, she sought justice by filing a motion to have her case reconsidered. The court refused to take it up. She then mailed her petition with a short letter to government agencies at all levels to clarify the truth. After that, she sued everyone involved in getting her incarcerated and mailed her complaint again to all relevant government agencies.
A few months later, a dozen police officers seized her and held her in a brainwashing center. She went on a hunger strike, and the authorities released her several days later. Right away, she made public the names of all the officers who’d arrested her. The police later raided her home, so she added the officers and staff members of the brainwashing center to the list of defendants in her lawsuit.
When she was talking to people in her neighborhood about how brutal the persecution was, the police arrested her, took her to a hospital for a health check, and interrogated her in the police station. They released her and put her on residential surveillance. In just a week, the police submitted her case to the procuratorate.
She told me about her situation a few days ago, adding that she had no fear. I believed her, but on the other hand, the evil must have exploited some attachment of hers, hence the continued acts of revenge and persecution. My understanding is that we are conforming to the teachings of the Fa when we use legal means to expose the persecution. In the process, we get to clarify the truth to people in public offices. If this understanding is correct, then why was the practitioner being continually targeted?
I reminded her to look within, and she agreed. After she left, a few things came to mind. The following are my understandings that I would like to share with practitioners who may be in a similar predicament.
1. Listing Everyone Involved as a Defendant Is Not Compassionate
The lawyer the practitioner hired is well known in China. The CCP revoked his license because he often defended Falun Dafa practitioners in court. Every time he fought a case, he would list everyone whose names appeared on the official documents as defendants in the lawsuits. That meant there were dozens of defendants. He also told the practitioners or their families to send their letters of complaint in his name to government agencies at all levels. His strategy did work and deterred the authorities from interfering in efforts to rescue practitioners. However, the authorities then retaliated.
The practitioner I mentioned above took her lawyer’s advice and sued everyone involved. The defendants she listed did participate in the persecution, but they are the precise people we want to save. What we do and don’t do depends on how effective it is in saving people. Suing everyone may turn some people who were reluctant to persecute us in the first place against us.
Our lawsuits should target the main culprits and those who torture practitioners relentlessly. Once we do that, the unwilling participants back off, which is what we want. Besides, suing too many at once takes too much time and prevents us from focusing on solving the real problem
Master said,
“You might have heard recently that the matter of putting the CCP on trial would be postponed. Here is a thought on the subject. I told you a long time ago that a Dafa disciple, or a cultivator, has no enemies. The only thing you have a role in is saving people, and you have no role in using human means and human principles to punish or pronounce judgment on people. This is a fundamental issue!” (“Teaching the Fa in the City of Chicago,” Collected Teachings Given Around the World Volume VII)
In the limited time that remains, Master has left it to us to save everyone in this world, except for the few who are extremely wicked. Perhaps we have suffered too much, and the pain and resentment has made us want all the perpetrators to pay. But it is not up to us—it is up to the law of the universe. People who persecute practitioners, even after they know the truth and quit the CCP, will still have to pay for their karma and make up for what they did.
The divine created the law for mankind and surely we can use it for a righteous cause, which is to save people. The brave practitioner took legal action when she was persecuted. In the process, she clarified the truth to people she came across and exposed the evildoers. However, in the letter of complaint she sent out, nowhere did she mention Falun Gong. Only if a person reads the entire document and the verdict at the end, would they know that it was about the persecution of Falun Gong. A lawsuit without clarifying the truth is just an ordinary person fighting for her rights.
In any and all circumstances, a practitioner must clarify the truth calmly. Only in that way can Dafa manifest its mighty power and will we be able to save people. It seems inappropriate to list everyone she came across, those who were meant to hear the truth, as defendants. When we sue all participants, it might agitate some unwilling participants and force them to oppose Dafa.
2. Pay Attention to Personal Cultivation While Negotiating the Legal Process
The practitioners in China have all been tainted with Party culture in one way or another, especially those who ignore personal cultivation. When I was incarcerated, I was still a student. Sometimes I had to face a group of guards or former practitioners who had betrayed Dafa all by myself. I had no other practitioners to talk to or a Dafa book to read, and I had to make decisions based on my own understandings of the Fa at the moment. I knew that I could well be wrong, but I had no choice but to carry on, knowing that I’d have to rectify my thoughts after I got out. The entire time, I never took orders from guards or former practitioners. Gradually, I became arrogant and tough and did not realize it. After I returned home, no one would cross me, even my father, who was also arrogant. He even made fun of me by mimicking me, saying, “How dare you mess with me!”
After they were released, many practitioners had to study the Fa intensively to recover and re-discover the calm state of a cultivator. If a practitioner fails to do so, he or she may remain hostile, defensive, and tense.
3. Improving Xinxing Is the Ultimate Way to Solve Problems
We want to solve problems through legal means. However, as a person who walks the divine path, the ultimate way for us to solve a problem is to improve our xinxing.
When the persecution first began, most of the practitioners knew little about the law, except that freedom of belief is our constitutional right. All I knew then was that following the Fa principles was the only way to keep the evil elements away. There was no other way to overcome tribulations but to look within and correct myself.
When I was incarcerated and did not know where my gaps were, I remembered what Master said just before the persecution started:
“I can give up to the greatest extent possible everything of mine, and that is why I can resolve all of it.” (Teachings at the Conference in Switzerland)
In the seven months I was incarcerated, I tried to give up my attachments to the greatest extent based on my understandings at the time. Even though I only realized my problem after I was released, Master still protected me when I was detained, just because of my effort to get rid of my attachments based on my limited understandings.
I’ve read many similar experiences by practitioners nationwide. We remembered something Master said and acted based on it. As we rectified ourselves and improved our xinxing, Master protected us.
In the practitioner’s letters to government agencies, she did not include information that directly clarified the truth about Dafa. Instead, she included the announcement by the Chinese Administration of Press and Publication that repealed its ban on the publication of Falun Gong books and the Resolution on Banning Cult Organizations passed by People’s Congress, which did not include Falun Gong on the list of cults.
I feel that she relied too much on the law, which the regime does not bother to abide by. One time the police put me in a detention center, and I insisted that I had the rights listed on a poster on the wall. A guard mocked me, “You believe in a piece of paper on a wall?”
I read the practitioner’s letter. It was well written but would not attract ordinary people’s attention. We should pay attention to the readability of the letter we file in a legal process and not forget to highlight the persecution. Minghui.org provides many publications that explain complicated legal issues in simple terms. Other truth-clarification publications on Minghui contain interesting stories with fine illustrations. Nowadays people have short attention spans. We must present our case in an appealing way to catch their attention.
The goal for us in taking legal action is not to get revenge on people or to expect them to help us exonerate Falun Gong. We, in fact, want to save people in the government. Hence, we need to do it well and write our letters and complaints like professional legal documents with the truth incorporated. If it is not practical to include the truth, then we should clarify the truth face to face where we can.
Editor’s note: This article only represents the author’s current understanding meant for sharing among practitioners so that we can “Compare in studying, compare in cultivating.” (“Solid Cultivation,” Hong Yin)
Views expressed in this article represent the author's own opinions or understandings. All content published on this website are copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
Category: Improving Oneself
