(Minghui.org) Ten years ago, it was very common in China for so-called practitioners to travel around and give speeches that disrupted the Fa. These people spread their own set of evil principles among practitioners, claiming that they were doing so to help Dafa disciples improve. Many practitioners who participated in these activities were severely interfered with. 

I myself committed the crime of disrupting the Fa and suffered grave consequences. As I understand it, all thoughts have material existence. Factors comprising the speeches that disrupt the Fa remain in our thoughts and bodies long after. We must take the initiative to eradicate the interference within us, rectify ourselves, and safeguard Dafa.

Traveling to different locations to give speeches to Dafa practitioners is a serious disruption to the Fa, and any practitioners doing so should stop immediately. Practitioners who followed and provided opportunities for these speech givers should publicly acknowledge their mistakes and attachments. I feel this is the only way to break through the old force arrangements and stay on course in Dafa cultivation.

Lian Baochang and His Speeches 

Lian Baochang, also known as Old Li or Big Brother, travels to different cities in China to give lectures that disrupt the Fa. Many Dafa practitioners with strong human attachments are drawn to his speeches. He has nearly a hundred loyal followers, and some of them have even settled down overseas.

Lian is a controversial figure in his local area, and has no market among the practitioners from his region. Most of his followers are from other regions, and they do not know him well. He constantly lies and creates disagreements among practitioners. In addition, he loses his temper quite frequently, cheats practitioners out of their money, and has had improper relationships with various women.

In his speeches, he always presents himself as someone who is trustworthy and reliable. He brags about how strong his righteous thoughts are, how many evil forces he has dismantled, and how many miracles have occurred to him. He also bluffs that he has contributed nearly one million yuan for Dafa. 

As a matter of fact, he has no source of income, and has been living on fellow practitioners’ money since 2006.

Master said clearly in “Non-Omission in Buddha-Nature,” (Essentials for Further Advancement)

“You must be clear that the form of cultivation practice that I leave you can never be altered. Don’t do anything that I do not do, and don’t use anything that I do not use. In cultivation you should say things however I say them. Pay attention! Inadvertent alteration of the Buddha Fa is undermining it all the same!”

Shortly after the Minghui Editorial article, “Giving Speeches Amounts to Disrupting the Fa” was published in 2013, Lian was arrested after he returned from a speech-giving trip, and was later sentenced to seven years in prison. At the same time, dozens of his followers were also arrested and later sentenced. Many others were forced to leave their homes and become destitute to avoid the police. In addition, some practitioners’ personal belongings were confiscated along with over one million yuan in cash and about one million yuan in bank deposits.

Speeches Interfere with Fa-rectification and Our Cultivation

I was among Lian’s followers ten years ago. I did not know him well, but after listening to his speeches numerous times, I developed a blind loyalty to him without understanding what he said. I adored him and had even developed feelings for him. 

When Lian gave speeches, he eloquently quoted and recited long passages of Master’s lectures, while claiming how many supernatural skills he had, portraying himself as someone who was “magical and superior.” Practitioners who did not study the Fa deeply and still had strong human desires were easily carried away by this fictitious, over-the-top character.

Every time he went to a new place, Lian gave lectures several times a week. The terms he used the most are “materials” and “factors.” Accustomed to Lian’s interpretations of these terms, his followers also used them while sharing with other practitioners. After each speech, these followers reviewed and repeated the content of Lian’s speech to each other in order to memorize what they learned and deepen their “understanding.” 

Some practitioners also took detailed notes, some recorded them, and some even compiled the content of many of Lian’s speeches into manuscripts and mailed them to his other followers. This is a typical example of how Lian’s speeches seriously interfere with practitioners’ understanding of the Fa.

It became increasingly challenging for his speech attendees to enlighten to Master’s teachings after hearing Lian’s speeches. When we read the Fa, our minds would reflect Lian’s interpretations when we see terms such as “old forces,” “matter,” “factors,” and so on.

Lian’s followers believed in and worshipped him because of his self-claimed supernatural abilities. He often spoke vividly about what he saw with his third eye. He told everyone that he saw that so and so was possessed by a snake, a fox, or a weasel, and warned his followers that all of them had animal possessions.

Some practitioners believed that listening to Lian’s speeches helped them make more progress than studying the Fa. Some fantasized that they had enlightened to a very high level, and also wanted to go on a tour themselves to give speeches to other practitioners. Some practitioners immediately appeared disoriented right after listening to Lian’s speeches.

Due to their various attachments, Lian’s followers were deluded by his false appearances. They gradually changed from safeguarding Dafa to defending Lian and then to rejecting Minghui and Dafa practitioners altogether, sliding further and further away from the path of Dafa cultivation. The toxins within Lian’s speeches which have infected these practitioners’ brains led them to deviate from Dafa. 

Practitioners with strong human attachments were attracted to Lian’s speeches for remedies or comfort. These practitioners believed in him, and approved of what he did. Some practitioners who were going through tribulations or persecution attended his speeches hoping for quick relief. 

However, many of Lian’s followers experienced physical conditions and other tribulations. Among them, seven died of illness karma, many battled with serious ailments, dozens were incarcerated and jailed, several got divorced, and some have even quit Dafa cultivation.

Lian trained several other speakers who then also toured around to give speeches to Dafa practitioners. 

In Qian’an City, one of his students suffered from a stroke and became mentally disoriented. His wife, also a practitioner, suffered from serious illness karma. Confused about their parents’ circumstances, their children refused to accept Dafa, and did not allow fellow practitioners to help their parents.

In “Wake Up,” Master said, 

“The Fa’s rectification of the Cosmos has finished, and now a transition to the Fa’s rectification of the human world is taking place.” 

Master further indicated that during the transition period to the Fa-rectification of the human world, many people will be annihilated,

“And still others have followed certain individuals who have gone awry in their understanding of the Fa, or have followed undercover agents of the CCP who pose as practitioners, and have been seriously disruptive to others. For all of them there will be consequences in keeping with the vows that they made.”

Even after realizing that Lian’s speeches and behaviors violated the Fa, most of his followers still thought that he was a good fellow practitioner who had made a few mistakes.

Not long after Lian was released from prison, Master published the lecture, “Another Stern Warning” in 2020. Many of his followers, with insufficient faith in Master and Dafa, myself included, still did not realize that Lian’s speeches had disrupted the Fa and interfered with Fa-rectification and Dafa disciples’ cultivation. We continued supporting Lian, which lent a hand to the evil forces.

Gradually, we came to realize the negative impact of Lian’s activities. We shared relevant Fa lectures and Minghui articles with Lian, and kindly pointed out his disruptive behaviors. He accepted our materials but showed no remorse. Whenever there was an opportunity, he continued giving speeches that disrupted the Fa. 

Old Force Traps

The old force tests of Dafa disciples take many forms, and I believe these speeches that disrupt the Fa are one of them. 

When Buddha Shakyamuni taught the Dharma, one of his disciples, Devadatta, caused a schism in the sangha by persuading 500 monks to leave Shakyamuni. His actions befuddled Shakyamuni’s disciples, and caused a large number of them to leave Shakyamuni and join Devadatta, who later started his own religion. Due to that interference, many Buddhist cultivators eventually lost their opportunities to cultivate in Buddhism.

In his later years, the demonic interference grew so strong in Devadatta’s heart that he murdered his disciples who advised him to return to the Buddha. He even attempted to kill Shakyamuni, and ultimately fell into hell after his death.

In the schools of cultivation in the old times, the law was disrupted and destroyed intentionally to test whether disciples were able to remain solid in their righteous beliefs and move towards Consummation. But these are the principles arranged by the old forces in the old universe. In today’s Fa-rectification, Dafa disciples must completely eliminate and negate anything that is arranged by the old forces.

To protect us, our merciful Master published the article, “Wake Up” in 2021 on Minghui. In the article, Master gave an example of the woman who went from Singapore to Japan to remind us of the serious consequences of disrupting the Fa by giving speeches to other practitioners. 

Lian’s Brainwashing Tactics

“I don’t recognize the arrangements of the old forces, and I’ve never been persecuted, nor has anyone who followed me been persecuted.” 

This one of the common lies in Lian’s speeches. Yet, when the persecution of Falun Dafa first started in 1999, he was detained. Many fellow practitioners who followed him were also persecuted.

Lian alleged that what he did was the most righteous, and whoever interfered with him would be punished. A story he liked to tell mentions a certain practitioner who broke out of the labor camp because he supposedly remembered Lian’s speeches at a critical moment and was thus saved by Lian. One the other hand, another practitioner who interrupted his speeches was arrested and locked up in a forced labor camp as punishment.

He declared in his speeches, “We’re the highest-cultivated group of people in the world. Over the years, I’ve never met a person who has cultivated as high as me. If there was someone like this, the two of us could work together to end this persecution. I’m not afraid of whatever serious problems are out there!”

He told his followers not to go out to clarify the truth, because after he matured, he would share the principles of truth-clarification with everyone. He added that before practitioners became mature, they should just study and memorize the Fa more. 

He often maintained that he understood advanced Fa principles, and compared himself to a college student while others were still primary school students in terms of cultivation. He bluffed that he came down with Master without signing a contract with the old forces, and that after the onset of the persecution, he quickly “matured” in the Fa and broke through many evil arrangements. He told to everyone that he had asked for Master’s guidance, indicating that Master had approved of what he did. 

He encouraged practitioners from other places to attend his speeches so that they could spread his speeches to more practitioners after returning to their areas. He assured them that the purpose of his project was to help fellow practitioners improve.

Master said in Lecture Three, Zhuan Falun,

“Normally, such a person does not value xinxing and dares to say anything. He will consider himself second only to heaven......” 

Although his former followers, myself included, had stopped following him after realizing the serious issues that Lian’s speeches created among us, the poison in our brains from his speeches still persisted and controlled us. Our thinking was no longer normal. When encountering problems, we intuitively looked for Lian’s words to handle issues instead of using Dafa’s guidelines.

Cheating and Collecting Money from Practitioners

Lian did not have a regular job and had no income. He traveled to different places to give speeches full-time, and his food, lodging, and transport were all paid for by fellow practitioners. He relied heavily on practitioners’ financial support. His wife worked hard to earn money to raise their children and support the family all by herself.

Some practitioners provided for Lian and allowed him to stay with them for months or years. He once stayed at a single female practitioner’s home for over five years. Some practitioners even quit their jobs or closed their businesses to follow him. Some got divorced and moved closer to him in order to hear his speeches. Some practitioners obsessively promoted Lian’s speeches among other practitioners, which constantly expanded and strengthened the field of Lian’s disruptive behavior.

During his latest imprisonment, he revealed that a practitioner gave 20,000 yuan to him so that he could buy high blood pressure medicine in prison.

Without the financial support from practitioners, Lian’s speeches would not have been spread on such a large scale, and neither would he be able to gather so many practitioners, nor squander such a large amount of money.

Lian lied that he was working on a big project to temporarily gather displaced and persecuted practitioners, as well as practitioners with poor cultivation status to help them improve. Deluded, his followers believed that he had cultivated so high that supporting him was the same as supporting Dafa, so they entrusted him with their money and told him to use it any way he saw fit.

A female practitioner from the countryside did not have a job, and her entire family relied on her husband’s salary. She often gave money to Lian without telling her husband. Every time Lian accepted it, he praised her, “Look at her, see how much she can contribute!” 

The female practitioner was so happy that she almost gave him all of her family’s savings. After her husband found out, he was outraged. He often beat her and never allowed her to touch their money anymore. To console her, Lian told her, “I can beat him (her husband) up to help you vent your anger.” The female practitioner found his words very comforting.

One practitioner handed over 100,000 yuan of his savings to Lian. After Lian was arrested, all of the money was lost. Another practitioner refused to use his savings for local projects to validate the Fa, but waited several years for Lian to finish his prison sentence so that he could give the money to Lian. 

Some practitioners put together nearly one million yuan to buy a new house, renovate it, and give it to Lian. They let the house remain vacant for ten years while Lian was in jail.

After Lian hinted to practitioners that he needed a car to commute to different locations to share experiences with fellow practitioners, several practitioners chipped in to buy a few cars for him to use.

Lian often commented, “When your family members, relatives and friends come to visit you, you treat them with good food and drinks in fancy restaurants, but when fellow practitioners come, you only give them simple meals. Aren’t fellow practitioners real relatives? You should give the best to fellow practitioners and let go of your self-interest. For example, a practitioner first planned to make noodles for me, but he soon understood how to improve and cooked me a nice meal instead.”

With that, many practitioners began to arrange big meals and everyone ate together after Lian’s speeches. Sometimes practitioners prepared banquets in practitioners’ backyards, and sometimes they would gather in restaurants and spend thousands of yuan on meals. Lian also used the money raised to arrange meals for many practitioners who listened to his lectures.

Master said, 

“Swindling and bluffing, they take advantage of Dafa by capitalizing on the kind nature of students. But why can’t our students distinguish them? Practicing cultivation is to cultivate one’s own self. Think about it: Why don’t these people do actual cultivation calmly in their own homes? A difficult environment can help a person cultivate himself better. Why do these people disregard my words and move around the whole country?” (“A Heavy Blow,”Essentials for Further Advancement)

Lian never mentioned that his money was donated by other practitioners. In fact, he was inconsistent in describing his financial situation to his followers. 

Whenever someone expressed the intention to stop following him, or when he wanted to recruit someone to follow him, he would tell him or her, “You can live here and not have to worry about anything. I have a lot of money, which can last until the Fa-rectification reaches the human world.” But to people who donated to him, he never mentioned how much money he had, and even purposefully gave those practitioners a false impression that he was short on money and had to live a simple life.

Grateful for Lian, some practitioners gave him brand-name clothing, expensive watches, and even tens of thousands of yuan in cash. He accepted all of them, asserting that, “These are sentient beings repaying Dafa disciples.” He assured his audience that he gained all the belongings through the mighty virtue of his enlightened self, which, according to him, resided at a very high level.

Master said, 

“Why do these people eat, take, and ask for students’ things, yet ask them to abandon their attachments? Is this what I’ve taught them?” (“A Heavy Blow,” Essentials for Further Advancement)

Attacking the Minghui Website

Lian rejected the Minghui website and openly discouraged Dafa practitioners from reading Minghui articles. His excuse was that the editors of Minghui are also cultivators, and they are not always on par with the Fa. He often quoted Master’s Fa out of context alleging that Master’s words, “on important matters, practitioners must watch the position of Minghui.org...” did not apply to sharing articles. He criticized Minghui for publishing articles that only talked about the author’s own insights, and said that a certain practitioner was not fit to be a Minghui correspondent because he had been incarcerated for nearly ten years and did not fully understand the Fa.

These lies against Minghui ruined the website’s reputation in many practitioners’ minds, and because of that, they rarely read articles on Minghui and have lost their righteous faith in Minghui. Instead, they only listened to Lian’s speeches. 

The Minghui website has been a window for Dafa disciples worldwide since the beginning of the persecution in 1999. It provides a vital channel that connects all Dafa practitioners together as one body. It exposes demonic interference and records our cultivation process. It shoulders the great responsibility of calling out any issues that affect the whole body of Dafa disciples and plays a crucial role in our cultivation. 

In addition, Minghui is pivotal in validating the Fa. It strikes fear into the hearts of evildoers, which is why the old forces try their best to interfere with Minghui.

Master said, 

“Then as Dafa disciples, you must have a positive view of Minghui, regardless of whatever ordinary people may think. There are some who don’t see Minghui in a positive light, and I would say they’ve got a problem. At least that much is certain. Since Minghui directly reports on the cultivation state of the main body of Dafa disciples, it plays the pivotal role of facilitating the exchange of experiences among Dafa disciples around the world, and that is something no other media outlet can do. Nor can they report from Minghui’s angle. So that is what sets Minghui apart.” (“Fa Fa Teaching Given at the Fa Conference Marking the Tenth Anniversary of Minghui’s Founding,”Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. X)

We should trust that practitioners working on Minghui have solid faith in Master and are in a good cultivation state. That explains why the Minghui website has remained steady for so many years.

After Minghui continuously published Master’s comments on the articles to stop the violation of the Fa, Lian’s Fa-disrupting actions were also exposed on Minghui. Lian, together with a few of his followers, sent a letter to Minghui to prove that he was good and righteous. Many other practitioners then followed suit and wrote to Minghui, defending Lian and criticizing Minghui. Some even asked Minghui to delete those articles and apologize to Lian.

Even after the publication of “Giving Speeches Amounts to Disrupting the Fa” on Minghui, Lian still did not admit that his speeches had violated the Fa. He insisted that he was not on tour, but was invited by practitioners from other cities. He admitted that Minghui editors contacted him directly and asked him to stop his tours, and begin to look within. The end result was that he continued to defend himself while accusing the Minghui editors of wrongdoing, “I am not wrong, what do I have to look within for? You should look within yourself!”

He argued that he was falsely accused, and thus refused to accept the feedback from the Minghui editors.

Hearing his accusation of Minghui editors, it finally dawned on me that he had been lying to us this whole time! 

But others within the group were not so lucky. His various antics, along with the fact that Lian was soon arrested on his way home under the pretense of being invited to other places to give speeches and swindle money, led some practitioners to believe that Lian was wronged and that “Giving Speeches Amounts to Disrupting the Fa” is an irresponsible article.

In “Fa Teaching at the 2013 Greater New York Fa Conference” (Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XII), a disciple asked,“Minghui has continually published articles asking people to stop disrupting the Fa, but some students in China still haven’t gotten clear about it.”

Master answered, 

“Indeed. They are being controlled by the evil, and they even oppose Minghui. Do you know why I publish information on Minghui? It is to tell you that it is trustworthy, that it is a platform via which Dafa disciples can communicate. Speaking from another angle, Master is also keeping an eye on It, and it won’t have any major problems.”

Some practitioners who followed Lian in the past still do not read Minghui. They do not contact other practitioners, and still partake in the severe interference instigated by Lian.

Slandering Local Coordinators and Alienating Fellow Practitioners

Lian often slandered local coordinators he had contacted, which caused many practitioners to have bad impressions of coordinators they had never met.

Realizing that Lian’s words and deeds did not comply with the Fa, some practitioners stopped following him. However, many of his followers rejected these practitioners who left, and some even completely isolated themselves from other practitioners—they only listened to Lian’s speeches and blindly followed him, doing whatever he told them to do.

Lian wantonly spread rumors during his speeches, slandering practitioners who disagreed with him. He claimed that they enlightened on the evil path and that they had extramarital relationships. Therefore, nobody should listen to them. He made up lies about these practitioners, saying that one practitioner was possessed by animals, another was mentally ill, another was hallucinating or had sequelae from encephalitis, and so on. 

He sowed discord among practitioners who followed him, smearing practitioners at will, and created divisions between practitioners. He even swore that a certain practitioner would have been hit by a car had he not protected the practitioner. As a result, practitioners looked up to him but down upon one another.

Lian also stirred up conflicts between husbands and wives who were all practitioners. He always told the female practitioners that the male practitioners were not capable enough, causing a feud among family members. He told a female practitioner that her mother was arranged by the old forces to kill her, and even described the future crime scene so vividly that one night, she suddenly woke up and hallucinated that her mother standing by the bed trying to strangle her to death.

Master told us, 

“I said long ago that the criterion for evaluating a disciple is nothing but his xinxing, and I will never allow anyone who hasn’t attained Enlightenment or reached Consummation to see clearly my disciples’ actual cultivation states.” (“Another Comment on Evaluation Criteria,” Essentials for Further Advancement)

Unfortunately, some practitioners have forgotten Master’s teachings, and used only Lian’s words to tell right from wrong. They believed that he was the only one worthy of everyone’s trust and reliance. They become fully obedient to him, which made it possible for him to repeatedly succeed in taking their money. 

Inappropriate Relationships

Lian has had improper relationships with several women. He told many female practitioners that they had been couples for several lifetimes, and that some female practitioners had even been with him for many, many lifetimes. He told some of his followers that they came down to this human world together because these practitioners urged him to “be sure to wake me up” when they met again in this lifetime.

Lian often told some female practitioners that he had predestined relationships with them in their previous lives. He told several young female practitioners privately or in his speeches that they were family members in their previous lives, like he supposedly was their father in the Tang and Song dynasties, or something like that. 

We had a young, beautiful girl as a new practitioner. She had a bad impression of Lian during their first meeting when he claimed that she used to be his child. Later on, however, Lian and other practitioners repeated that the young practitioner’s hands and feet looked very similar to Lian’s, and that she was his child in a previous life, so she gradually warmed up to him. When the young practitioner was persecuted and terror-stricken, Lian showed up when she was vulnerable as a strong male presence and convinced her to look up to him. 

After Lian was arrested, a police officer told a practitioner that Lian saved many pornographic messages in his cell phone. Fellow practitioners did not believe the police at first, assuming that Lian would not have done anything like that since he was a Dafa practitioner. Recently, some female practitioners revealed that many of the text messages that Lian sent to them were indeed flirtatious and provocative.

Master said, 

“Some practitioners, upon hearing provocative remarks like those, which have been audaciously made to them as members of the opposite sex, have actually been very much charmed by her and believed her.” (“Wake Up”)

Lian used these stories of supposed past lives to win practitioners’ trust by constantly reminding practitioners of his stories via text messages, on special occasions, or in his speeches. A lie being repeated multiple times eventually becomes truth. After he repeated his stories over and over again, those practitioners completely fell for them. 

Physical Abuse

Lian is a shrewd liar who is good at covering up his defects. He often beats his wife at home. Once he bragged, “My wife dares not control me when I do things, but if she does, I will beat her.” 

After physically abusing her, Lian told practitioners, “My wife is too weak. Her arm was dislocated after I only tugged at her lightly.” 

When he stayed at one female practitioner’s house, he often physically abused her teenage son. His eloquent excuses were so convincing that female practitioner completely believed that the physical punishment was necessary to educate her son, so she never intervened. This happened for many years until this child grew taller and stronger than Lian, who was no longer a match for the child. The child hated him and blamed his mother for failing to protect him, so he resented his mother. After the female practitioner was released from the prison, she was on the verge of dying. Before she passed away, the child even refused to go to the hospital to see her.

Lian also physically abused a female practitioner in her 20s several times causing bruises all over her body. His excuse was that he was educating a minor—because she did not listen to him, he beat her up to make her obey him.

Epilogue

A demon grew in Lian’s heart when he put himself above Dafa and Dafa disciples. Practitioners who used to follow or are still following him should stop giving him opportunities to continue spreading his Fa-disrupting speeches. 

Dafa cultivation is a very serious matter, and genuine Dafa cultivators should only believe in Master and the Fa. The fact that speeches given by practitioners that disrupt the Fa have spread among practitioners for so many years demonstrates that Dafa disciples still have fundamental issues in our cultivation. It is our attachments that have given the old forces loopholes to seriously interfere with our cultivation and cause many to deviate from the path arranged by Master. 

The lesson learned from the example of Lian and his followers is that we must truly understand the seriousness of cultivation and the importance of solid faith in Master and the Fa.

Master is always by our side protecting us and helping us enlighten. When we genuinely understand the reason why Lian’s speeches and his behaviors are harmful to Dafa and Dafa practitioners, we should study the Fa more to elevate our xinxing and send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil factors that interfere with the Fa. By doing so, we will improve our cultivation environment and state, and correct the physical conditions that some of Lian’s followers have experienced for long periods of time.

I hope my sharing helps those who attended Lian’s speeches or followed him in the past to wake up. If you have even a tiny bit of approval for Lian, the old forces will take the advantage of the loophole to persecute you. Dafa cultivators should study Master’s teachings earnestly, safeguard the solemnity and sanctity of Dafa, truly be responsible for ourselves and Dafa, and take the initiative to reject the evil principles and law-disrupting factors in Lian’s speeches. 

Let’s cherish the time and opportunities given by Master and Dafa, rectify ourselves, and improve together as one body.