(Minghui.org) Our local Political and Legal Affairs Committee enforced the “Zero Out” campaign in the second half of 2020, where they attempted to force Falun Dafa practitioners to give up the practice by writing a guarantee statement. They threatened to suspend our pensions and cause issues at our children’s workplaces.
Some practitioners refused to sign and were taken to the police station. They sent forth righteous thoughts and clarified the truth to their captors. They finally overcame the tribulation righteously. Some practitioners were afraid of affecting their children’s jobs, so they ultimately signed the statements against their will after being repeatedly harassed. Other practitioners hid away and chose to avoid the problem altogether.
As the October 1 holidays were approaching and my mother lives in another city, I took the opportunity to visit her and my relatives. I actually had the intention to avoid harassment. However, I did not expect that despite managing to hide from the harassment of the local neighborhood committee, the Political and Legal Affairs Committee and the police, I could not avoid the pressure from my own family. I thus went through a big test regarding my attachment to my family.
During the first two days of the visit, everyone seemed normal, reminiscing, enjoying, and preparing to go out and enjoy everyone’s company. That day, all ten members of my family gathered at my younger sister’s house, preparing to go on an outing together. However, much to my surprise, my younger sister suddenly changed her attitude and said that she had just received a phone call from her good friend who was her classmate (a retired local official), telling her about the current “Zero Out” campaign.
She revealed the dire consequences if a practitioner did not sign the statement renouncing their faith. She was eating at the time and she immediately put her bowl down and said that she felt tightness in her chest and was short of breath. It was obvious that she was under great pressure. My sister’s husband also stopped eating, and while making his way out, said, “It seems that this statement must be signed no matter what!”
My three other sisters all started chiming in, coming towards me. Some asked me how could I continue living without my pension. Some said that if I temporarily had financial problems, they could help me, but not for the long run, as every family has their own matters to deal with. My son said that his wife was changing jobs and her company requires a background check, too. Some said that my eldest sister’s husband was suffering from a chronic illness so he was most afraid of mood swings, and my husband actually cried in front of everyone.
My younger sister said that her classmates had insight and that she was clear about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) policies, saying that it could do whatever it wants to people. It seemed that even scarier consequences would follow and she just did not tell us about them. A dark cloud loomed over the whole family and everyone seemed stressed and sad.
Despite all that, I was quite determined. I made up my mind: never ever sign the statement! In the face of all the unreasonable commotion, I did not feel like saying anything else. Through all these years, I have done quite a lot of truth clarification to my family. This time, whatever I said resulted in their saying negative things about Dafa, as ordinary people take personal benefits to be the most important thing. Actually, they could also see my steadfast attitude and that they could not change me. Therefore, everyone just sighed and worried about me. They thought that I was just too stubborn.
Since I could no longer stay there, my family headed back home. Along the way, I thought: the police have yet to come and make trouble, but my family has already made such a big commotion; is it because I have loopholes? What are the attachments that I have yet to get rid of? Oh! I see, my attachment to my family is too strong. I made a mistake because of this attachment before. Cultivation is very serious, and we cannot have any loopholes. I must let go of the attachment to my family and I also cannot have any complaints or hatred towards them. They are here to help me to improve in my cultivation!
After arriving home, the community committee and the police called my husband and asked me to come over, but I refused to go. When they kept harassing us, my husband got anxious and he went there. The authorities showed my husband the names of people who’d signed a guarantee to stop practicing and told my husband to bring me back to do the same. They even said things like our son’s company is quite good [insinuating that they could change his situation]. The community committee also kept calling every day. When I did not go to the police station, they said that the committee members and police would come to my house in a while. But despite saying that a few times, no one came. I realized that they also followed me once.
Two police officers came to my house twice. One of them listened when I told him the truth of the persecution and he was able to accept it. I told them that Article 36 of the Constitution states that, “Citizens of the People’s Republic of China are free to have their own beliefs.” The Constitution is above other laws and regulations. All the laws, regulations and government policies that go against the Constitution are all considered to be violations and have no effect. The civil servants at government agencies are not allowed to illegally deprive citizens of their right to have their own belief.
That police officer nodded in agreement. When I asked them which article in the Constitution they based their actions on, that officer turned his head towards the window. He knew that he had no grounds on which to persecute me. Then they left, asking me to reconsider my decision.
Although I did not sign the statement, I still had fear in that I did not face this so-called “Zero Out” harassment in a righteous manner. I did not clarify the truth but just resisted it passively, choosing to escape. This “Zero Out” campaign even made me go through a heart-wrenching test with my attachment to my family. Through this incident, I saw my reluctance to give up this attachment of mine and it also revealed that I hadn’t clarified the truth to my family well.
In 2022, our family once again went to my mother’s place for a reunion at Chinese New Year. I thought about how I could use this opportunity to clarify the truth to them. It just happened that Minghui.org was requesting cultivation experience sharing articles. Therefore, I tried to write an article titled “Discussion About the Meaning and Ultimate Objective of Living on Earth.” In the article I wrote about the purpose of living on Earth and our eternal quest based on the ups and downs that people of our generation have gone through. I also talked about how lucky I was to have practiced Falun Gong.
After completing the article, I showed it to my younger sister, but she did not want to read it. She asked me not to write these kinds of things. I said that I was not creating any problems and that she would understand after reading it, so she reluctantly read it. Halfway through, she said, “This is quite good! Things should be like this.” After she finished reading the article, she complimented me, saying, “Your writing is good. Honestly, I cannot even write one sentence of what you have written.”
She said that when our father was still around, he said that the CCP did not do anything good, they just kept giving the people a hard time. She even listed examples of how she suffered under the CCP regime, saying that our father once reminded her not to fall into the trap of the CCP.
I did not expect that this method of clarifying the truth would be so effective. I made two more copies of the article so other family members could read it. I asked my younger sister to have her husband read it, too. Later, I asked her if her husband had read it and she said, “He has read it and he read it very attentively. First, he edited it (he is a teacher) and keyed in the article into his mobile phone.”
I also read the article to my husband. At the time, he did not say anything. He looked like he was deep in thought. After that, he asked with concern, “Has that article that you have written been published?”
Before I submitted that article, I asked my son to help me type it up. He read through it once and was very happy to help. One day, he told me that two of my former colleagues asked him how his parents were doing and if they were still healthy. Before he replied to them, one of them said that his mother is definitely healthy (she knew that I practice Falun Dafa). The other said, “She is still practicing?” My son replied, “Practicing Falun Dafa brings good health and a good attitude. It is a very joyful thing.”
I think that I should try my best to help my family understand why cultivators can persist in their belief without wavering. On this earth, apart from the material things in life, there are even more beautiful spiritual things. Righteous belief will turn people into kind souls. Abiding by the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance to be a good person can never be “zeroed out.” Who is kind and who is evil? The stark difference tells all.
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
