Dafa Practitioners Send Greetings for Master's Birthday
Voices of Justice
Facts of the Persecution
Practitioners Exchange Insights
Practitioners' Stories
News and Activities from Around the World
News from China
SARS and Chinese Society
(Clearwisdom.net)
Editor's note: We have received numerous birthday greetings from Mainland China and many other countries in the world to our revered Master. Practitioners expressed their boundless appreciation to Master for his infinite grace and vast mercy in saving both his disciples and sentient beings. Practitioners will continue to follow Master's teaching and do even better what Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples are supposed to do and improve as a whole to walk well the last leg of journey in the Fa rectification. Due to our limited resources, here we only translate a representation.
Master, You have borne so much for us
We will closely follow Master's teaching, "When it's difficult to endure, you can endure it. When it's impossible to do, you can do it." and do the three things well.
After having read "Lecturing on and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference", we deeply feel teacher's boundless compassion at the historic moment of Fa rectification and the sacred responsibility and the requirements for Fa rectification period Dafa disciples. Our lives were created by Teacher, we are made of Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance. Please be assured, Teacher, we will hurry up to clarify the truth and won't disappoint benevolent Teacher
Happy Birthday, Master Li,
We will fulfill our vows we had made since the prehistoric time with our righteous thoughts and righteous actions. We will not disappoint Master's compassion and benevolence.
Benevolent Master,
Guided with your teaching, we have steadfastly walked though the darkest four years in human history. Amid the unprecedented persecution, we have become more rational, more mature and more determined. We know the time left will not be long. The time of Fa rectifying the human world is not far away. At this moment, we feel even more that we have so many things to do and so many people waiting for us to rescue, and our responsibility is heavy. We will step up our efforts to clarify the truth, send forth righteous thoughts and study the Fa. Our righteous action and determination is the present we dedicate to Master's birthday.
We will firmly cultivate in Falun Dafa, closely follow the Fa rectification process and do the three things well -- study the Fa, clarify the truth and send forth righteous thoughts. We will walk steadily on the road of Fa rectification.
Dear Teacher,
I am a new practitioner and just start cultivating in Dafa. I learned that your birthday is coming. It is my sincere wish to say something from my heart. I am so lucky. Maybe because of my predestined relationship, even though I've just practiced for one week, I know that Dafa is precious. Teacher, you are so magnificent. I am so thankful you could arrange for me to know Dafa and study Dafa, and teach me the way to return to true self in such an adverse environment. Teacher, please be assured that I will continue to cultivate in Dafa.
(Clearwisdom.net)
Under Master's vast merciful protection, we have gone through the past four years of vicious persecution. Under Buddha's infinite grace, with righteous faith in Master and Dafa and with righteous thoughts, in the course of practicing "validating the Fa with rationality, clarifying the truth with wisdom, spreading the Fa and saving people with mercy" (Essentials for Further Advancement II -- Rationality), the practitioners in Fushun City broke through layer upon layer of resistance and difficulties. They have traversed a difficult but splendid part of the way in Fa-rectification. Every Dafa particle used different ways in his or her own environment to explain the facts and offer salvation to sentient beings, to resist the evil persecution and to validate Dafa, created many amazing occurrences in the human world and countless touching stories. These are a testament to Dafa's magnificence and extraordinary power.
On the occasion when Master's birthday is upcoming, all the Dafa practitioners in our city would like to send our most sincere greetings to our great and benevolent Master, who has given all he has to sentient beings in the cosmos. We Wish Master a Happy Birthday!
In the future course of Fa-rectification, all Dafa disciples will continue to do well the three things that a Dafa disciple is supposed to do, so as to fulfill Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples' mission and to express our gratitude for Master's vast benevolence.
Dafa practitioners from Fushun City, Liaoning Province He Shi
April 29, 2003.
Words in the image: Respectfully Wish Teacher a Happy Birthday!
Weihai Dafa practitioners.
2003.5. 6
Words in the image: Respectfully Wish Teacher a Happy Birthday!
Longkou Dafa practitioners.
2003.5. 6
Words in the image: Best Wishes for Teacher's Birthday and World Falun Dafa Day
Dafa disciples from Dongying City and Shengli Oil Field.
Master, please be at ease, we will definitely following your teaching and do well the three things that Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples are supposed to do. No matter what difficult circumstances we encounter, we will not be shaken in our faith in Dafa and our determination in cultivating Dafa. We will continue to strive forward so as to not let down of Master's compassionate salvation.
Honorable Teacher, Greetings! You have been working so hard! We miss you and sincerely wish you a Happy Birthday!
During this period of time before the Fa rectifies the human realm, we will by all means do well all that we are supposed to do, fulfill our vows and walk well the last leg of the journey. We will not let down Teacher's benevolent salvation and truly encompass Dafa, improve as a whole and achieve Consummation to follow Teacher to return home.
(Clearwisdom.net)
We want to express our highest respect to our infinitely merciful Master. We wish Master a Happy Birthday!
We thank Teacher for your benevolent salvation. We will follow Teacher's teachings and double our efforts to walk well every step henceforth!
Greetings, Benevolent Master! We will not let down your merciful salvation. We will firmly cultivate, set strict standards for ourselves, and do well the three things that we are supposed to do. At this historical moment when the creation of the new cosmos is about to be done and the vast force of Fa-rectification is coming, we will "take the Fa as teacher" and walk each step well with more maturity.
Dafa practitioners from Pengzhou City, Sichuan Province, who were forced to leave home to avoid being arrested, practitioners who are held in Pengzhou Psychiatric Hospital and went on hunger strike for more than 10 months to oppose the persecution, as well as practitioners who have been wrongfully detained for over 10 months in Pengzhou Detention Center send greetings to Teacher: "Teacher, Happy Birthday!"
Master, you appeared at the pinnacle of the colossal firmament, and then from there you descended step by step to the Three Realms to save sentient beings. We are extremely lucky to obtain Dafa and no human words can express our appreciation and thankfulness. Your grace is infinite!
We will try our best to earnestly do the three most important things well, assimilate ourselves to Dafa, study the Fa and lead our lives according to the Fa at every moment.
Master, Happy Birthday! We miss you!
Words in the image: Wish Master a Happy Birthday!
Young practitioners from Weifang, Shandong Province.
Words in the image: Wish Master a Happy Birthday!
Dafa disciples from Mainland China Send Greetings to Master
(Clearwisdom.net)
Layer upon layer, Master rectifies the colossal firmament,
You personally lead students to save sentient beings.
Were it not for your vast and mighty grace,
How could it be possible for students to have this chance!
Your students will definitely achieve the righteous enlightenment of selflessness and altruism through cultivation.
We shall follow Master to return to our origin!Happy Birthday, Master!
Honorable Master, Happy Birthday!
Under Teacher's greatest mercy and infinite grace, Dafa disciples and sentient beings in the cosmos are able to welcome the day that both heaven and earth are celebrating. There are no words that can express your disciples' boundless appreciation and gratitude towards benevolent Master. We can only do the three things well that Teacher has asked us to do.
(Clearwisdom.net)
(Clearwisdom.net)
I began practicing Falun Gong in 1997, and my husband started in 1995. Since the beginning of the Jiang regime's persecution of Falun Gong, my husband and I have been illegally arrested and detained 6 times. This is the consequence of our simply going to Beijing to appeal to the Central Government and to clarify the truth about Falun Gong. We were fined more than 20,000 Yuan. [500 Yuan is the average monthly income for an urban worker in China.] With no means to continue running my business, we were forced to leave home and go from place to place to avoid persecution.
In March of 2001, because we clarified the truth about Falun Gong, my husband and I were arrested. My husband was illegally detained for 15 days. He was severely beaten by police agents because he refused to tell them where the truth clarifying materials were produced. Later he was sentenced to 3 years in a forced labor camp, and I was thrown into a forced labor camp for one and a half years.
On July 6, 2001, my husband died in the forced labor camp. Witnesses say that the labor camp guards tortured him for 7 hours in a row. The guards stripped off his clothing and knocked him to the ground with a rope tied tightly around his mouth and head. They put a large wooden board on top of his body, weighted down by two benches, which guards mounted on either side of the board. They then used six electric batons on the sensitive points on his body. They tortured him this way from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. Little of his skin was left unharmed due to the high voltage electricity of the batons, and it smelled of badly burnt flesh. The tight string cut 5cm (about 2 inches) into both corners of his mouth, and he was left unable to even eat. After the torture, up to July 6th when he died, he still couldn't close his mouth due to the severe damage. During his detention, family members requested many times to visit him, but the labor camp refused. Even after his death, my family members didn't get to see him. Without the permission of our family, his body was illegally cremated.
After my father-in-law heard the terrible details of his son's death, he fell into extreme despair and passed away shortly thereafter. My father passed away from the shock of the double tragedy: his daughter detained in a labor camp, and his son-in-law dying a horrible death. In this way, three of my family members have died due to the Jiang regime's vicious persecution.
I started out with a happy, harmonious family and a very prosperous business. But after 4 years of Jiang's persecution, my whole life fell apart. The reason the labor camp dared to persecute Dafa practitioners so viciously is that, according to what they said themselves, "We got orders from above: If we beat you to death, it will be counted as suicide." What they term "above" is precisely Jiang's "610 Office," which is under his orders to carry out the persecution of Falun Gong at all costs.
I hereby strongly appeal to those upright people in the world: please help to stop this vicious persecution that is now happening in China. I would like to ask to be one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit in the United States District Court of the Northern District of Illinois against Jiang on the charge of genocide.
(Clearwisdom.net)
Liang Zhenxing was brutally beaten by inmates, who were ordered to do so by the prison police.
Lei Ming was forced to write a "letter of repentance" after having been brutally beaten. During his detention in a small cell, he bit his finger open to write a solemn declaration in blood to invalidate the "letter of repentance." Later, the prison police viciously and relentlessly beat him.
Zhang Hongwei was tied on a "dead person's bed" [The four limbs of the practitioner are stretched out and tied to the four corners of an icy-cold metal bed. The practitioner cannot move at all. Neither is he allowed to get up to eat, drink, or go to the bathroom.] for many days. His inner thighs and other areas of his body developed festering sores.
Officials directly responsible for the tortures:
Jinlin City Prison Political Supervisor, Liu Changjiang;
Education Unit Leaders, Li and Geng.
Original article date: 5/1/2003
(Clearwisdom.net)
In 1999 I was in 9th grade and barely 14 years old. I was also persecuted by Jiang's regime for my faith in Falun Gong.
On July 14, 1999, my parents, also practitioners, appealed to the city government and urged them to stop a magazine from publishing a slanderous article on Teacher Li and Falun Gong. In the afternoon, approximately twenty people from the County Police Department and the management of my parents' workunit, led by the County Political Secretary, broke into our yard. They threatened me, yelling, "Where are your parents?" I did not answer their question, instead while they were forcibly entering our yard, I hid our Dafa materials. They then kicked the door open violently. The one who stood at the front smashed the window pane. They broke into the house, trying to find my parents. They turned all the cabinets upside down and searched everything they saw. I was petrified by what they did. Failing to find my parents, they took it out on me, pushing and hitting me.
Not long after they left, another group of people came to our house. A temporary worker with the last name Liu from the Police Department hit me hard in the face and pushed me down. I tried to stand up a few times, but he pushed me back into the chair each time. Once, my head was knocked against the back of the chair and I felt dizzy. They kept grabbing me by the shirt and yelling at me. They shook my head and body violently. I felt extremely sick and threw up until I couldn't anymore.
Later I was sent to a hospital. When my parents and relatives saw me, I was lying flat on the bed. My face was pale and swollen, and I was hardly conscious. It turned out that I had suffered a concussion. Because of my physical condition, I couldn't go to school for more than a month. The concussion seriously affected my ability to remember things, and my performance at school slipped significantly. I used to be a top student but afterwards I became one of the poorest performers in class. Since my mother was violently beaten and mentally tortured when she appealed in Beijing, and was later sent into a forced labor camp, I was blatantly bullied in class by some of my classmates. Because of what happened to my family and myself, I almost collapsed mentally. The pain that I suffered and the sadness that I felt had taken away my ability to concentrate on my studies and to sleep; as a result, I dropped out of school.
The persecution started when I was a child. The suffering that I have endured physically and mentally is beyond what any child should have to bear.
(Clearwisdom.net)
Yang Runpin, male, 32 years old, is from Minfeng village of Pengxi County, Suining City in Sichuan Province. He graduated from the Sichuan Sports Institute and taught in Minfeng High School at Pengxi County. He began to practice Falun Gong in 1995. He has been well regarded among his family, school and work place. On July 5, 2000, he went to Beijing to tell the people that "Falun Dafa is Good." For doing this, he was escorted back and detained at Pengxi County Detention Center. Later, he was sent to the Xinhua Forced Labor Camp at Mianyang City, Sichuan Province for a one-year term. In the labor camp, he refused to write a statement to denounce Falun Gong and was detained in Pengxi Detention Center for nearly two years. His mother died years ago, and his brother is disabled and mentally retarded, so his nearly 70-year-old father had to go back to work to earn some money for the family. Yang Runpin is being held under extremely harsh conditions. He doesn't have any way to get daily necessities and clothing. The Pengxi County "610" Office [an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems] and Public Security Bureau said that without writing a statement to give up Falun Gong, they would not release him.
Pengxi County Detention Center is holding many practitioners, who are being detained from several months to two years. We call for kindhearted people everywhere, human rights organizations and the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong to put a stop to such severe human right violations.
Related working units and their phone numbers:
Pengxi County Public Security Bureau in Sichuan Province: 86-825-5439550
Pengxi County Detention Center in Sichuan Province: 86-825-5433589
Pengxi County Sports Bureau: 86-825-5428550
Pengxi County Education Bureau: 86-825-5428368
Mingfeng Town High School at Pengxi County, Sichuan Province: 86-825-5400130
Government of Mingfeng village at Pengxi County, Sichuan Province: 86-825-5400090
Mingfeng Town Police Station, Pengxi County, Sichuan Province: 86-825-5400095
Suining City Education Bureau, Suining City, Sichuan Province: 86-825-2280419
Tongnan County Public Security Bureau, Chongqing: 86-23-44551138
Guxi Town Police Station, Tongnan county, Chongqing: 86-23-44210202
Guxi Town Government, Tongnan county, Chongqing: 86-23-44210001
(Clearwisdom.net)
The following is what a Dafa practitioner in Liaoning Province has witnessed and experienced. It shows us how Jiang's regime persecutes Falun Gong practitioners. This practitioner was illegally arrested and sent to the Guangming Police Substation in Jizhuo District, Dalian City, where police beat and shocked her with electric batons so that her whole body was covered with bruises. She was later sent to a forced labor camp where she witnessed how police beat, force-fed, and used instruments of torture to persecute practitioners. None of this can shake her determination in truly cultivating herself and becoming a better person.
In June of 2001, while I was distributing truth-clarification materials in the countryside, someone reported me to the police, and I was arrested. Other practitioners who were arrested along with me include Ms. Yang Lixia, Mr. Meng, and Ms. Zhang. The driver of the police car and the person who reported us punched and kicked Meng. They also hit Meng in the head so hard that he became unconsciousness and lost his memory for a long time. Meng was illegally sentenced to one-year of forced labor and is now imprisoned at the Dalian Detention Center.
Yang Lixia, Zhang, and I were illegally sentenced to two years of "reeducation through labor." Eventually I was sent home under house arrest due to illness, but Yang and Zhang were sent to the Masanjia Female Forced Labor Camp. On the way to Masanjia , Zhang managed to escape by jumping down from a high place, but was badly injured. She lost consciousness but later recovered. Yang is still being detained at the Masanjia Labor Camp.
While I was detained in the labor camp, I met a Dafa practitioner with the last name of Tan, who was arrested while she was spreading the Fa. She refused to write her name on the interrogation record and, for this she was cruelly tortured by two policewomen. Her feet and hands were handcuffed to a window. One officer used an electric baton to shock under her armpits while another used a dumbbell to hit her feet. Her feet turned purple and were so swollen so that she was not able to walk. Her armpits were covered with over 40 bruises due to the electric shocks. Two police also dragged her and slammed her onto a table, causing a 10 by 20 cm bruise in the middle of her chest, right over her heart. Since that time she often experiences heart palpitations. Although her entire body would shake and she frequently spit up blood, the police just left her unattended in the cell. Dafa practitioners asked the police several times to send her to a hospital, but they paid no attention to the requests, and kept Tan in detention.
One day at midnight, the head of a village led over ten police officers on a raid of Sun Lunxiang's home. They jumped over the wall of her yard, broke open the door, and forced Sun into a police car. Because they even didn't even allow Sun to put on her clothes, she was dressed only in her underwear. Her husband was not at home that night, so her two young daughters were extremely frightened and cried for the police not to take their mother away. The events of that night deeply hurt these young girls.
Dafa practitioner Sun Ping was arrested by plainclothes police while she was telling people the truth about Dafa. Her husband works in another city, and her arrest left their sick child unattended. Sun Ping herself was tortured with an electric baton and physical beatings.
Dafa practitioner Han Runzhi was arrested while she was sending out truth-clarification materials. In the detention center, the police discovered that using an electric baton to shock her had no affect. The police then used the electric baton to ruthlessly beat her arms and legs, covering them with black and purple bruises.
In the detention center, the guards forced us to do labor, sometime for as long as 17-18 hours a day. If anyone refused to do the labor, they would use a special torture instrument, an iron frame 40 cm long and 30 cm wide to which our hands and feet would be handcuffed as a torture. Dafa practitioners Yin Baolan, Sun Lunxiang, and Han Guizhi were all tortured with this instrument.
Yin Baolan, Sun Lunxiang, Han Guizhi, and I held a hunger strike. On the fifth day of the strike, a female guard Liu Hong brought four or five policeman and two male criminals to our cell. Liu ordered the two criminals to drag me out to be force-fed. I warned them sternly, "Don't touch me!" They right away drew back their hands. Liu screamed at them to force them to drag me out, but they didn't budge. When Liu then used a bamboo stick to strike me, other practitioners came forward to protect me. Some went forward to fend off the bamboo stick while others held on to me and wouldn't allow the police to take me out. I saw police beat Yin Baolan's face and head and kick her from a wooden bed to the floor. I used all my strength to resist them, but at last I was dragged to the detention center clinic. Four thugs forced me onto a stool and broke one of my teeth while prying my mouth open. When the doctor inserted a rubber tube into my esophagus, it pressed against my trachea so that I almost lost my breath. It took me a long time to be able to breathe normally. After the guards force-fed me, the two criminals dragged me back to the cell. Then in turn they force-fed Yin Baolan, Sun Lunxiang, and Han Guizhi. We maintained our hunger strike for over two weeks. My health became very poor during that period. Three times I asked them to send me to a hospital for an examination, but they declined. Later, my family members sought out the head of the detention center and demanded that I be sent to a hospital. They warned that the detention center would bear full responsibility if anything happened to me. Under pressure from my family members, they had to send me to a hospital. The results of the examination showed that I had serious heart and kidney problems. The doctor said my life would have been in danger if the exam had been even slightly delayed and asked that I be immediately hospitalized. I declined. Later my family members managed to get me out under a condition of house arrest due to my health problems.
After I got out of the detention center, I returned to my job. Because I insisted on practicing Falun Gong, however, my employer fired me.
April 27, 2003
(Clearwisdom.net)
Wan Chao, male, 33 years old, is a teacher at the Langjunluda Elementary School, Yingcheng City, Hubei Province.
On April 2, 2003, the Yingcheng City Public Security Bureau and Langjun Police Station sent out police to the school where Wan Jun worked and took him into custody, interrogating and threatening him day and night. The guards lied to Wang Chao, "As long as you sign the statement under interrogation, (admitting that he had distributed Falun Gong materials), you will be released." Wan Chao signed the document. On the evening of April 3, they not only didn't release Wan Chao, but also sent him to First Detention Center of Yingcheng City. On April 4, the guards announced that he had been sentenced to two years in a forced labor camp. Wan Chao went on a hunger strike for one week to resist the treatment. After April 18, the guards sent Wan Chao to Rangfan Forced Labor Camp and later the Shayang Forced Labor Camp, but they both rejected Wan Chao. He is now being jailed in the First Detention Center of Yingcheng City. On April 18, Wan Chao started a second round of hunger strikes and it has been over a week now. On April 25, the guards took him to the hospital to force feed him.
Those responsible for persecuting Wan Chao
Zuo Yong'an, Chief of Langjun Police Station: 86-13907293548 (cell)
Zhou Hua, Principal of Langjunluda Elementary School: 86-712-3518656(Home)
Lu Huofa, Vice-principal of Langjunluda Elementary School: 86-712-3519011(Home)
Nie Meshan, Head of the Political and Security Department, Yingcheng Public Security Bureau
86-13971940576 (Home)
Tang Zhuqing, Director of Yingcheng City First Detention Center: 86-712-3229088
Practitioners Ms. Tian Qingxiang (30 years old) and Ms. Zhou (50 years old), both from Yingcheng City, were arrested by Yingcheng City police on April 2, 2003 and taken to Yingcheng City Second Detention Center and Yingcheng City First Detention Center, respectively, where they have been held since.
2003-4-30
(Clearwisdom.net April 26) Dafa disciples Zhang Guangya and Zhang Guangyuan are brother and sister, and residents of Lingshan Street, Lishan District, Anshan City, Liaoning Province. Because they practice Falun Gong, the Zhang's were stripped of their personal freedom.
The younger brother, Zhang Guangya, obtained the Fa in December 1998. On July 20,1999, the evil persecution began and in March 2000, Zhang went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. Policemen from his local Hongqi Police Station took him back to his hometown. After Zhang came back, his workplace, Anshan City Yigong Group, illegally fired him. He was also illegally detained for 15 days and was fined 2000 Yuan [500 Yuan is the average monthly income for an urban worker in China.] In October 2000, Zhang was arrested by policemen from Liaoyang County Police Department while he was driving his taxicab and distributing flyers. His family asked their friends to help get him out. On February 4, 2002, Zhang was again illegally taken away by policemen at a material production site while printing flyers. He was convicted and sentenced to eight years and has been placed in Wafangdian Prison in Liaoning Province.
His elder sister Zhang Guangyuan obtained the Fa in 1997. After the July 20th crackdown, she went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in January 2000. Policemen from her local Lingshan Police Station took her back and illegally detained her for 15 days. On the morning of September 17, 2001, a neighborhood policeman named Yi brought other policemen and tried to take Zhang away. She didn't open the door so the police left. However, she was caught by the neighborhood committee personnel who stayed behind and hid in her apartment building. She was illegally sent to a brainwashing center where she started a hunger strike. Later she was released. In October 2001 neighborhood policeman Yi took Zhang away again and put her into the Third Detention Center. While detained, she went on a hunger strike that lasted for 15 days, and on the 17th day she was released. The third time Zhang was taken away by neighborhood police was in November. On December 27, Zhang and 19 other Dafa disciples escaped from the detention center, and the police frantically tried to catch them. They searched the households of all the family members, relatives and friends. On February 4, 2002, Zhang Guangyuan and her brother Zhang Guangya were caught together at a material production site, and both were illegally sentenced. Zhang Guangyuan was sentenced to nine years in prison. She is currently being held in Dabei Women's Prison in Shengyang Province.
April 26, 2003
Shared at 2003 New York Falun Dafa Conference
(Clearwisdom.net) I remember early last year, after a study group some practitioners suggested going to tourist sites to introduce Falun Dafa to the public. At the time, I thought, this is something I can do.
Of the main tourist sites in New York, Battery Park was the only one that allowed us to practice our exercises because it's a park. It's also the harbor where people take the ferry to go to the Statue of Liberty and it's a place where all the tourists go when they come to New York. I figured I had been here in NY this long already, and even though I actively participated in activities, I had not actually taken on the responsibility of initiating anything and seeing it through from start to finish. I also had a wish, and that was to start from myself to create a pure and righteous cultivation environment that would allow everyone here to improve. But in order to be able to keep something going in a stable and continuous way, we would need some practitioners who had the same wish, who could take on the responsibility, and who could work hard to create the conditions that would allow them to persevere.
Very soon, I was able to get in contact with some practitioners. We set up a practice site at Battery Park. The purpose was to explain the truth to Chinese tour groups -- seven days a week straight without a break. Later on, practitioners from other practice sites came to support us and our little team grew by a few more people. We would start every morning on time at 8:30am. The ferry ticket booth would open at 9am. The practice site we chose was along a path that the tour groups would have to pass by. We would welcome them in and send them off when they left. When they came in, they would all be lined up in rows, their faces were tight and they didn't dare take any flyers, but our very existence and our practice site was firmly imprinted on their minds. When they came back, their ranks were more scattered and when they passed by us individually, there would be those who would accept the materials. In the beginning, if the weather wasn't good, we would call each other on the phone and discuss whether we would go or not go. Later on, we decided we should still go forward and so we stopped calling each other and just went even if it was raining. If it was still raining when we got there, we would hand out flyers and then we'd practice after the rain stopped. If it started raining while we were practicing, we would wait in the ticketing area and go out again after the rain stopped. Anyway, no day was wasted.
At Battery Park, we learned how to hand out flyers and to clarify the truth. We kept exploring new ways, kept communicating with each other, kept evaluating, kept adapting to the other person's degree of acceptance. In the beginning, the park administration only allowed us to practice the exercises and they would come and interfere with us if we handed out flyers or set out a table. We always smiled and tried to talk to them however we could using gestures and gave them materials to read. Gradually, those around us got to know us and accepted our presence. Not only could we hand out flyers but we also set up a small table where tourists could pick up materials themselves. The vendor nearby who sold T-shirts would sometimes help us introduce the practice. One thing worth mentioning is that the person who lugged the tape deck and the materials was the husband of one of our fellow practitioners. He doesn't practice, but he would come out with his wife on time every morning. We would start practicing and then he would start handing out flyers. He's the only man in our group and he stayed with us from day one all the way until the end for five whole months.
After "9/11," Battery Park closed down. We stayed at home for a few days but got antsy and called each other, saying we had to find something to do. Right at that point, a practitioner said, "You can all go to the Chinese consulate." So, by the second Monday, we went to the consulate. We kept the Battery Park tradition of showing up rain or shine. At that time, the consulate opened its doors at 10 in the morning. We would start practicing across the street at 8:50am. The long line of people waiting for the consulate to open would quietly watch us finish our exercises and send forth righteous thoughts. At this point, the doors would open, then half of us would go to the doorway to hand out flyers, half would do the meditation. Then we would switch. After a time, some practitioners suggested we should show videos to the people in line before the consulate opened. So we bought a DVD player. Every morning, we would show videos on one side of the road and practice the exercises on the other side. With our light reflecting from both sides, the energy field was really great.
The consulate is different from Battery Park. One is that the weather is terrible. Everyone who's been to New York's Chinese consulate knows the winters over there are colder by a few degrees than surrounding areas, the summers are hotter by a few degrees, and the wind blows all year round. Sometimes the wind is so strong it's hard to walk over there and it's hard to set the mats down when we meditate. Our bags, shoes, gloves, and hats often get blown away. When the weather's at its coldest, over here the freezing wind and bitter cold chills you to the very bone. In the summer, the sun is high and the buildings can't block the rays. There's no shelter or shade here. The dry cement ground is okay when doing the standing exercises, but when meditating while sitting on the ground, it's like being roasted and steamed, and after an hour, sweat is pouring down like rain and our faces are beet red. When the winters and summers are at their most miserable, we all silently recite Master's poem:
A Great Enlightened Being does not fear hardship
Having forged an adamantine will
And with no attachment to living or dying
He walks his path of Fa-rectification openly and nobly
We keep going day by day, we don't analyze, we don't calculate, we don't watch the weather forecast. We keep one thought in our heart: we will make it through for sure.
The second difference comes from the people we face. Here we face the representatives of the evil. Furthermore, this is where the elements of evil are concentrated. We are here to suffocate the evil. It is therefore essential that we eliminate interference and stay. At the very beginning, we stayed until noon, just like what we usually did at the Battery Park. However, we noticed that there were still quite a few people coming in the afternoon. We decided not to leave them out. Ever since then, two of us always stayed in the afternoon, distributing flyers until the Consulate closes.
New issues arise in the new environment. The first conflict is how to handle the issue of discarded flyers. The expense of the flyers all comes from practitioners and none of us are rich. It's really a pity to have them thrown away. This is especially true here in front of the Chinese Consulate as Dafa materials are bundled as a set, which include one booklet of "The Returning Path", one "QingLiu" magazine, and one VCD. All of them cost us about fifty cents for each set. Worrying about the materials being tossed, we were concerned deep in our hearts when distributing the materials. Whenever a person came, I would judge that person's attitude towards Dafa by looking at his or her face. I realized that this was not right. Offering salvation is a magnificent task. The factors inside the salvaged could be unstable, and our heart also drives the outcome of salvation. When distributing flyers, one's heart must be in the realm of giving up everything but desiring nothing. Behind us is the enormous strength from the Fa-rectification. In fact, it's similar to mailing VCDs. If one is discouraged when failing to reach an addressee, it'll be even more difficult later.
In the video footage of "Witnessing 2002", a Canadian practitioner was calling Mainland China to clarify the truth. He got hung-up on every time he called. Without giving up, he tried again and again. Finally the person was moved, and he said, "I'll remember, Falun Dafa is good". This is the greatness of Dafa practitioners. In the Mainland China, thousands of practitioners are detained, yet another thousand step forward. Thousands after thousands, standing up after falling down, practitioners never give up. If we keep on going as a whole without worrying about any individual result, we are bound to succeed.
In the "Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference," Master says, "In the eyes of human beings things don't change, but in the eyes of Gods all of this changes." I believe that what makes it change exists among us. It is of utmost importance to save the sentient beings. Even if only one flyer is used after we distribute ten, the remaining nine are not wasted, because these nine exist for the sake of the useful one. They exist as a whole. With that understanding, we were no longer concerned when distributing the materials, and we tried our best to have them taken. To make the person open his heart and to know the overall truth, we prepared four versions of the truth-clarifying VCDs and we encouraged people to take them all. Besides, we always assign practitioners to pick up the discarded ones on the next bus stop. By doing so, we picked up most of the discarded materials. The loss was minimized.
Our group finally overcame this obstacle and was doing better and better. We distributed the materials wherever we go and tell people about the facts whenever we can. Day after day, we've melted the rock-solid ice. When we first appeared here, many people were hostile to us. The Consulate staff was bullying us, the construction workers and their bosses were staring at us with suspicious and hostile eyes, and even some of those who come to Consulate for business were not friendly to us. Slowly, things were changing. The construction workers started to talk to us and signaled to us when Dafa materials were tossed away. Their two bosses smiled and said hello to us. And even the Consulate staff accepted our presence. Though with various attitudes, they mostly no longer bully us, and the hostility has finally faded away. Whoever comes and goes with whatever attitude towards us, we always smile at them, and present a set of Truth materials to them.
One group of people comes every day. Their job is to apply for visas for their clients. One day, a person who had refused to take the flyers after hundreds of times finally took one. Recently, another old man from this group also finally took the materials. The next day, a young lady who was accompanying this old man was still reluctant to take the flyer. The old man took it for her and told her, "This is good. Check it out!" There are so many touching stories that encourage us to keep on going.
One day, a young man asked me to go to the other side of the street and he wanted to chat with me. He said, "The Party is really afraid of you. This is lethal to them. My family and I all admire you very much."
Indeed we're creating miracles. Everyone was astonished how we could possibly show videos just a few feet away from the Consulate gate. Attempts to stop us from the Consulate all failed. One day, while we were showing the video, over twenty well dressed Chinese who were apparently from Mainland China rushed out from the Consulate, staring at us. The practitioner showing the video simply stood right next to the equipment, peacefully looking at the group. The long line of people were watching and the clock was ticking, second by second. Suddenly, the head of the group turned back, followed by the rest. The practitioner later cheerfully shared the experience with us. He said, "This is the power of a righteous thought. I was very peaceful in my heart. It was this righteous thought that safeguarded the equipment and made it possible for people to keeping on watching the video."
With the first attempt failing, the Consulate turned to the police. One day, a policeman came while we were showing the video. After talking to a lady in English, the policeman turned to our fellow practitioner and instructed her to not show the video here. Without saying a word, the practitioner turned off the player. Later she called practitioners in the Dafa association, asking western practitioners to talk to the nearby police station. The Police Chief said, "As long as you are not blocking the traffic, there's no reason to stop you. That policeman was not supposed to do so. If it ever happens again, you can write down his plate number and his name and tell us."
On another occasion, a lady in the waiting line started bullying fiercely. She was shouting so loudly that she could be heard clearly across the street. Nevertheless, the practitioner simply stood there silently without responding back. I asked a fellow practitioner to check it out. She went there, again, silently standing there. The DVD kept on playing. It was my turn to play the DVD after the standing movements exercises. A young man came out of the Visa office, asking me, "Where did the DVD lady go?" I said, "Go straight. She is taking care of her child over there." Later my fellow practitioners told me that the young man talked to the practitioner for more than an hour. He tried very hard to comfort her. He said, "We all witnessed the scene. They are really very bad. You are good. Please forget about this. I hope it didn't hurt you." Later we asked her why she didn't respond to the bully. She said she didn't want to have the audience interfered with and she wouldn't be fooled. "What a great practitioner!" I thought.
I was thinking lately, "Everybody is doing well. Is there anything we can improve on?" A few days later, a practitioner told me that the Consulate once again displayed hate literature. In the renovated Visa office are four glass doors. On the left is a shelf. Ever since the office was moved to the new building, the slanderous materials had no longer been there. Now it reappeared, with the book being displayed on the shelf, slandering Dafa. We were all worried. "What shall we do to stop it?" Sending forth righteous thoughts. What else can we do? Also clarify the truth to everyone. The practitioners distributing the flyers kept watchful eyes inside the door. We waved our hands whenever we saw people picking up that book. Some people stopped, while others took it out. We then told those who took the book that the book was full of lies. Please don't read it, as it's not good for you. A young man quickly picked it up and left hastily. A fellow practitioner went to him and clarified the truth to him. He then tossed it into the garbage can. Another driver took the same book. After we explained to him, he decided to drop it. Instead, he took our flyers.
Day by day, we kept doing the same thing. One day, at around 2:00 pm, when both practitioners were leaving, a car on the street was suddenly driving up the sidewalk, passing the stairs in front of the Consulate, smashing the three glass doors right into the bookshelf. It carried the smashed books and shelf together with the cart that carried the books. A large hole was created on the wall with newly installed granite slabs. According to the World Journal, the whole building was shaken, but the driver was not hurt at all. He seemed to be puzzled how he could possibly get here. The witnesses were shocked at how this could possibly happen. Fire trucks and ambulances all came, turning the Consulate upside down. The next morning, the staff from the Consulate were still shocked. They explained that the driver was stepping on the gas pedal by mistake, and the visitors to the Visa office were pondering why it happened. Even today, nobody wants to be on that spot. Even the guard stands inside the two doors and stays away from where the shelf was, as if it brings bad luck.
In the winter of 2002, some practitioners started to make VCDs, so I decided to distribute them in front of the Consulate. Just in a few days, I observed good feedback. Those who took the VCDs were certainly changed. They became kinder, and their hearts were apparently more peaceful. They started to say hello to us. That was really wonderful. People started saying "Falun Dafa is good". Making a VCD costs at least 40 cents, though. We decided no matter how expensive it is, we will do it. One thousand dollars were used up very quickly. Hearing the good impact of the VCDs, we realized that VCDs are indispensable in clarifying the truth and spreading Dafa. This is because VCDs are living beings, I thought. You don't even have to think. Just sit back, and the information in it will overwhelm you with pictures, music, and comments as all senses are used at the same time. The number of VCDs we have is limited, however, so we were not able to give it to everyone. Since most of us are not economically independent, we felt the pressure to rely on our children. This is especially the case for those of us who came from the Mainland. Later some practitioners sponsored us so we can carry on our VCD campaign. Still we have been trying to reduce the cost. My daughter told me one day that Taiwan can make a VCD for only twenty cents. I asked around and learned that it could be even cheaper. I was very happy. We made the first twenty thousand VCDs and distributed them during the 2002 New York Falun Dafa Conference.
One day, having distributed the materials until noon, we entered a restaurant. Right after we sat down, we noticed a person was watching us so we invited him to come in. Holding the VCD in his hand, he said to us, "I just came from the Mainland. In the Mainland, such materials are everywhere. Every time I ride a taxi, the driver will ask me if I want to watch the Falun Gong truth and he would show me a few VCDs. Can you please give me more of these so I can take them back to China?" I was deeply touched. Even in the dangerous environment of China, practitioners did so well. What excuses do we have here in US to not do the same? The expense of making the VCDs here is no higher than in China and we must spread the Fa everywhere. I often recite Master's poem "Tathagata":
He comes with the Truth, which gives him full control
And travels the four seas with a free and easy spirit
Spreading the Fa's principles throughout the secular world
Loaded full with sentient beings, his Fa Boat sets sail
The word "Spread" is always in my mind. It so thoroughly describes the state and scope that we're supposed to attain. I often think, "Every practitioner should keep a couple of truth-clarifying VCDs in one's pocket, no matter what he does and where he goes. Spreading the VCDs, planting the seeds of truth along the way. Day by day, year by year, the world will surely change."
The DVD player outside the Chinese Consulate has been playing all the time. This type of DVD player has two advantages. 1. It has an internal charger. It can play continuously for over 3 hours outdoors without recharging. 2. The daylight does not affect its visual effect. The practice sites in New York play videos on the streets, but the screen is not visible during the daytime. I heard that Hong Kong practitioners have been doing really well. They distribute materials and play VCDs at every tourist site. I felt that we should do our best too. After we communicated with each other, we felt it would be a good idea, and thus every practice site got a DVD player. Although the screen is small, it is lively. It attracts people to come watch it during the day, when we can distribute materials. We saw the small MP3 audio player from Taiwan practitioners, which is very convenient. We also introduced it to New York. With a DVD player connecting with a small MP3 player, we can make a good show on the street.
I wanted to move forward. New York is a transportation center, and has many advantages. We could provide help to practitioners in the remote areas. We could make more VCDs for everyone to use. Fa rectification is a matter of being the one body. It is effective only when everyone does it. I started to supply VCDs at Fa Conferences. I have practiced Falun Gong for 10 years. I have seen how Master taught in the early years. I know the principles that Falun Gong practitioners must strictly follow. When I started to do this, I knew that I must take the right path at the beginning.
When I decided to do this, I knew that I had to reach a certain realm. Just like when I decided to go to the Battery Park 7 days a week, and should never stop, as soon as the thought came out, nothing could shake it. I did not have much plan or book keeping, nor did I have a set goal. I just follow the opportunities. Yet while doing this, I focused on setting every single thought of mine on the basis of Fa. You cannot say you are on the basis of Fa because you are doing Dafa's work. Your thinking pattern, your judgment on a thing, and your mental state at critical moments are all the results of many years of cultivation.
Once, for several days, everyday there were practitioners telling me that the VCD cannot be played. We were rushing to produce 100,000 VCDs at that time. How could this be? It cost so much money, and every VCD is the chance for someone. No! I called in the middle of night and asked them to stop, and redo the master VCD. Time went by day after day. The master VCD still has not come out. It is so far away between here and the factory. And it takes at least one and a half months to turn things around. If we delay for a few more days, we won't be able to get it done by next the Fa conference. I was very anxious. I used up quite a few calling cards. One day, I sat on the floor and wondered, "Am I attached to some results? I must be careful on this." When I thought deeper, I felt it wasn't the problem. Then I asked myself to calm down further, and let go all worries. Suddenly, I asked, "Am I being interfered with?" I set aside the matter, and let myself view it from outside. Missing the Fa conference would have to miss many opportunities. It is precious for the practitioners to gather together, and rise up the thought of wanting to distribute or mail the VCD. We must catch that on time. I demanded too much of details of the VCD, and many people might lose their chance. I jumped up, and decided to start the mass production. I would take all responsibilities if there were any bad result. We made it in time for the Fa conference, and 120 thousand VCDs were taken. Later, a practitioner told me that they verified that it was their machine that had the problem. Even so, I felt that we should work harder to improve the quality of our VCD. Our VCD is not a flyer, not merchandise. It does not have fixed audience. It must be suitable to different families, different people, people who are not familiar with computers, people who do not have computers, and different brands of VCD and DVD players. From then on, whenever a master disk is made, we would try it on different computers and VCD players, including the Toshiba DVD player, which is quite picky on the disk. Here, I want to salute all the practitioners who worked behind the scenes for this. They have tried their best with all of their wisdom and capabilities. Besides the effort of our practitioners, the factory also kept giving us suggestions, taught us how to improve the quality, and gave us technical guidance. Now, the design of the VCD cover, the program's linkage, the clarities of VCD are getting more and more professional. And the DVD can be played on either computer or different types of players automatically and continuously.
In the past, religion always talked about "nothingness", which I couldn't figure out what it was about. During the past year, I gradually enlightened to its true meaning. When you have that high aspiration and are not attached to anything, the doors would open for you one by one. It will open wherever you are. I was astonished what Fa is. Is it a method? It does not have any form, or any firm concept. In my heart, it is just a word: "wonderful".
Once, the practitioner who was helping us with designing covers sent me a big batch of pictures and asked me to prepare captions for them. In that period of time there wasn't an urgent need for revamping the cover, yet things were really hectic, quite often she would call me at midnight to tell me to hurry up. Preparing captions isn't something easy. It has to match the cover's picture yet provide a fresh angle on the meaning, so that it will inspire the reader to think about it deeply. I also wanted to bring in the Fa's inner meanings as much as possible without being too generic or making too much of a stretch. Whenever I was in this situation, I would calm myself down, and clear my mind of everything else. Staring at the pictures, I would relax my whole body and have my truest thoughts come out. Sometimes it would take a long time to select the right words, and at times nothing would emerge for several days. Then days later while practicing the exercises, a phrase would suddenly appear in my mind, so I would rush home to fill them in.
Time goes by fast. One day, I was distributing the materials outside the consulate. A lady came out. I said, "Please get the truth of Falun Gong." She stood there looking confused. Her attire revealed that she came from the Mainland. She said, "I am confused. I don't want to see anything. You have your reasons. They have their reasons. I don't want to know. I don't want to listen to anyone. I don't want it." She stepped backward as she said so, as if she was really scared. Although she said she didn't listen to anyone, she has been poisoned already. The propaganda had really reached her. I thought about some other people that I met lately. Most of them are adult males. He knows that the Party is bad, that the Jiang regime is full of lawlessness, and that the self-immolation was staged. He knows everything, but he does not agree with Falun Gong. He does not know what Falun Gong is. I then had a thought to make a program to introduce Falun Gong straight to the point, and display Dafa's wonderfulness to people. Every life has the component of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." The Fa can break through it. Just like when we attained the Fa at the beginning, our hearts are touched when we see the Fa.
Since the persecution started, we put away our Hongfa materials. All of our effort has been focused on opposing the persecution, and exposing the evil slander. When we introduce Falun Gong, we try to tell them as simply as possible. Now there are far less elements that suppress people. People are thinking, and wondering. Thus, we started to show a gap here. I found the articles we used to use for spreading the Fa. When truly talking about Falun Gong, we must use Master's own words. Then we followed the framework of Falun Dafa -- Path for Humans to Return to the Origin, and made the current script. In order for the audience to have a gradual process, we used the cultivation story as the foundation at the beginning. Then we used Taiwan's video clip to show how people rush to attain the Fa. We made the program "Rebirth," which is to clarify the truth from another aspect.
Since we started to make "Rebirth," I became a loyal watcher of FGMTV. Every day I would take a look at the FGMTV website, and check to see if there is new program. I found many programs that I'd not seen before. When I seriously watched the programs, I was touched. Every program shows how the composer improved himself, and how the fellow practitioner validated Fa in his own way. Great respect rose inside me. I felt grateful to what the practitioners of FGMTV have contributed to the world. I watched the program "Let Us Tell the Future" a few times. If the word "profound" is too much to describe it, it is at least hard to forget on how it deeply analyzed the cosmic climate of Dafa's spreading in the world and people's inside world. No wonder some people kept asking if the next episode is available.
Today, the practitioners play the role of connecting the past and the future. These true human bodies display the process of being assimilated to Fa, and pave the path of humans turning into Gods. We suddenly deeply understood that this is one of the things that Master wants to do during Fa rectification, which not only saved us, but also leaves great benefits for all sentient beings. I had another wish. I want to help to make these programs available to the world. No matter how many copies of each program there are, I shall let it become available in the world, spread in the world, and play its role. I started to combine programs into VCDs. Then the covers we made earlier were used here as well. In the past, in order to help the mailing, the cover and contents had no connection. Now the cover and contents are related. We won't cause misunderstandings anymore, and have some people say that we tricked them.
I felt that I should keep going forward. I should take advantage of what we have and provide help to practitioners around the world, and push the distributing of VCD to a new level. We should have a global view in Fa-rectification. From then on, I started to pay attention to different areas. If I hear someone comes from other country, or is going to other countries, I would try to contact them and ask them to take some with them. Last year, a Russian practitioner wrote a letter to me. The letter was written in some not-so-fluent Chinese. He said that there are lots of Chinese in his area. He really hopes to have some VCDs to distribute to them. He asked me to send him a copy, and he would make copies. I knew that they were having a hard time. I started to call around and look for solutions. Then, during the Russian Fa conference, Taiwan practitioners brought them 10 thousand copies.
In doing such things day in and day out, I realized the importance of materials that clarify the truth. I decided to make the VCD and other materials always available. I always have enough in stock. I am always available to people. I would supply to everyone continuously. It's been a year. Practitioners around the world have all done their best. We have produced 1.8 million copies. This is the great achievement of all practitioners.
Sometime ago, a Boston practitioner asked me to help her to mail the program "Witness." I was reluctant. I felt that I had a heavy enough burden. Later I realized that I was wrong. Then I took both the program "Walk with You" and the program "Witness" to New York for mailing. One spot can solve most of the programs when people need some materials. If I can do more simple work, then the practitioners who know computers and speak English can have more energy and time to do a better job in TV, radio, government, and media.
One day I was chatting with an assistant. Some of her words made me ponder for quite some time. The folks at her practice site are elderly Chinese. They rented a basement. A while ago, they wanted to put in some computers. But the landlord did not allow it. She said, "What to do? I was hoping to teach them to get online and do chatting. It didn't work. Now I just ask them to mail VCD, and I try to provide stamps to them. Otherwise, what would our practitioners do?" I understood her. She is thinking about the future of those practitioners. What a great assistant! If every assistant can be like her, do what he or she can do to help practitioners put efforts into saving people during Fa rectification while walking towards his own Consummation, it would be really great.
Another practitioner talked about her father. Her father is quite old and never came out to practice. He is afraid of going to the Consulate. His xinxing is not there yet. But he really enjoys mailing the VCDs. Everyday he would write dozens or over a hundred envelopes for mailing. I realized that everyone has the desire to improve. At his level, he must believe that mailing is what he can do, which also fulfilled his desire to cultivate and contribute to Fa rectification. Every one of us is responsible to contact all of those who can contribute to Fa rectification.
I have yet another wish. We would prepare a bag of materials for every practitioner at the Fa conference. Let everyone have a firsthand feeling. You can give your precious feedback on different VCD and printed materials. I hope everyone can remember this. No matter what Dafa work you do, please don't forget to mail some VCDs, distribute some materials, write a couple of envelops during breaks, and carry a few copies of these materials in your bag. Always keep the heart of saving people and truly participate. It doesn't matter how much, as long as you persist, you will have a different feeling.
Let us cherish this great era. Start from ourselves and put in all of our wisdom and capabilities. We shall be worthy of Master's compassion and suffering to save us, and be worthy of living during the time of Fa rectification.
(Clearwisdom.net)
Recently, two fellow practitioners that were responsible for making Dafa materials were arrested in succession. When I heard the news, the first thing I thought was that they must have problems, must be having conflicts with fellow practitioners, have not done well in certain aspects of their cultivation, or perhaps have not represented themselves well as practitioners. I did not consider that the problem was linked to the whole body.
Subsequently, I contemplated deeply and wondered if being arrested was just an individual's problem. Wasn't the problem also related to fellow practitioners who were working with them? Why was it that a practice site can have a problem arise one day and a different one on another day? Even though the problem caused by the relevant practitioner was adjusted in accordance with safety and cooperation in doing Dafa work, it did not fundamentally put an end to the possibility of that problem recurring. I think that if a fellow practitioner at a particular site is in trouble, it cannot be denied that there is a possibility that a problem with how the whole body handles the work has existed for a long time. It is not only the problem of this particular practitioner, especially if losses continually happen at that site. Many fellow practitioners thought that whoever was in trouble must be responsible for the problem. Personally, I believe that treating any trouble this way is actually demonstrating a basic problem of the group.
This type of narrow understanding can only limit fellow practitioners to looking at problems from a perspective of individual cultivation. Hence they cannot look into, or consider at a fundamental level, the problems existing in a group or be responsible for their fellow practitioners and the entire body. Isn't this the problem? If every practitioner doing work for the site holds this concept, then how can they bring into play the strength of the whole body and become indestructible like diamond? This happens because they have not stepped outside of their individual cultivation, so they cannot correctly arrange or clearly see the relationship between the individual and the whole body.
An organization is like a human body. If the body has a large amount of karma (existing problems), then the karma will manifest itself in a specific part of the body. When the karma becomes intense, then the symptom of the illness will manifest in that particular part. If it were treated using Western medicine, only the part that has the problem would be dealt with, using such methods as amputation of a limb, or removing part of the liver or a lung. In so doing, it does not only destroy the wholeness of the body, it also forces the karma (problem) deeper into the body. Similarly, when a small group is in trouble, the problem may be that of the group but manifesting only in one practitioner. If the problem were dealt with as the individual's problem, it would be like treating only the part of the body that was manifesting the symptom. If the problem arose from this particular practitioner, it may be that he has not been diligent and was not making progress during this period, or that he may have an attachment that is very intense and is being reflected more prominently amongst his fellow practitioners.
This is like a weak link in the body that the karma can manifest through. Therefore, if the problem of the weak link is solved, has the basic problem really been eliminated? For example, if this practitioner is in trouble (being arrested), the tribulation is in reality being imposed on him by the old forces. But, shouldn't we attribute this to the desire of the old forces to disintegrate the small group in order to disrupt the progress of Fa-rectification, so that the more intense tribulations can become the tribulations of the whole entity? When we fundamentally step out of our realm of individual cultivation and view problems from the perspective of Fa-rectification, then, and only then can we properly eradicate the arrangements of the old forces.
These are my personal understandings. If there are inadequacies, kindly correct them with compassion.
(Clearwisdom.net)
On the afternoon of April 14, 2003, people from the Wuhan City, Qiaokou District "610 Office" - an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong - organized over one hundred government staff members, including district and community officials, and police stations who had been deceived by government's propaganda, to conduct persecution against Falun Dafa practitioners in their districts, such as Liji Street District, Sanshu Street District, etc. Wherever they went, they formed groups of about 30 people. Among them were people in charge of the "610 Office," police station superintendents, the Chief of the Administration Section in a police station, and the District Party Secretary. They said, without even any cover-up attempt, "The Central Government ordered that every practitioner has to write a statement of 'breaking away' from Falun Gong. Anyone who refuses to do so will be taken to the brainwashing sessions." And they claimed that there were "experts" participating in holding the brainwashing sessions.
The Dafa practitioners refused to cooperate with any request from these wicked people. On one hand, they used wisdom and compassion to clarify the truth to those people who had been deceived; on the other hand, they sent forth strong righteous thoughts in close proximity to eliminate the evil forces behind them in other dimensions. Some people left, one after another, after they learned the truth. The police then tried another method and asked Dafa practitioners to sign a piece of blank paper. The practitioners firmly refused. The police - almost 30 strong - came forward menacingly; however, they couldn't intimidate the practitioners at all. They couldn't accomplish their goals. Instead, the practitioners exposed the persecution against Dafa practitioners conducted by Jiang's regime to the onlookers, clarified the truth to them, and awakened their righteous thoughts.
April 26, 2003
(Clearwisdom.net)
Delivering Truth Clarifying Materials in a Storm, Rings of Light Guide the Way, Falun Appear in the Sky
One Sunday night, I was distributing truth-clarifying CDs with my daughter. It was during a heavy storm, and the road was uneven. It was too dark to even see the houses. I thought that if there were some light, it would be helpful. At that moment, many circles of light appeared and brightened the sky. I knew that this was Master aiding our job of clarifying the truth. After I distributed all 50 truth-clarifying CDs, on the road returning to my home, many large and small colorful Falun covered the sky.
Master Saved My Life
One day after I started practicing Falun Gong, while I was walking on a path, it was raining very hard, and the wind blew violently. Suddenly, I slipped into the deep ditch beside the path. I felt pain throughout my whole body as if needles were piercing me, and then I lost consciousness. After I woke up, I found myself lying in the deep ditch, and saw that an electric wire had fallen into the ditch. I realized that I had been electrocuted and Master had saved my life.
(Clearwisdom.net) On May 4, 2003, Argentina Dafa practitioners held their first Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference in Buenos Aires.
Experience sharing plays an important role in fostering practitioners to improve as a whole, as Argentina has a vast land, and practitioners in different provinces hardly have any opportunities to share experiences. Representatives of practitioners from Tucuman, Cordoba, Santiago Estero, Catamarca and Formosa took more than a dozen hours to come to attend the Fa conference. Some practitioners arrived in the morning and returned home by taking night buses. Practitioner representatives from Chile also came to attend the Fa conference. Everyone cherished this Fa conference very much.
Practitioners who arrived one day before the Fa conference studied the Fa together and then went to Chinese Embassy to send forth righteous thoughts. For those practitioners coming from outside the capital city, it was the first opportunity for them to send righteous thoughts outside the Chinese Embassy. In the evening, practitioners held a group Fa study and exchanged ideas on questions they did not understand in the Fa. The following day, several practitioners shared their experiences in front of everyone present. The practitioners also showed films entitled, "A Peaceful Journey" and "We Will Show You the Future." The practitioners were deeply touched and gave a warm round of applause. Most practitioners saw Master's photo only in Dafa books, so when they saw Master in the film, they were very excited.
The Fa conference successfully concluded at 7:00 p.m. after the practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts.
(Clearwisdom.net) At 7:00 p.m. to 10 p.m. on May 7, 2003, some Los Angeles Dafa practitioners gathered outside the Chinese Consulate to send righteous thoughts as a group in support of the trial against Jiang.
(Clearwisdom.net) In order to support the trial against Jiang, Dafa practitioners in Melbourne and Sydney held a three-day candlelight vigil outside the respective Chinese Consulates from May 6 to May 8. They sent forth righteous thoughts to clear away evil factors in other dimensions and to expose the evil, uphold righteousness and safeguard morality and justice in the human world.
(Clearwisdom.net)
(Clearwisdom.net)
Practitioners Exchange Insights
Currently, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is spreading in China and many people are in a panic. Saving sentient beings is of great urgency. However, we ourselves have to adopt a serious attitude towards the incomparable sacred principle of the universe and use a cultivator's maturity and rationality to ensure a proper standpoint and proper limits of speech and action. During the course of clarifying the facts, if we ourselves fail to talk to people from the standpoint of Fa-rectification about the reason of this calamity, and how to get rid of the root of trouble from their hearts, we would not be able to achieve the effect of saving sentient beings. We cannot just superficially let people who are anxious to seek a way to save themselves from damage to "try out" Dafa. We are not providing a folk prescription or a last resort. Even worse, if in choosing our words we lack rationality or preciseness, or we carried a mentality of pursuit or human sentiment, it might induce people to be disrespectful towards Dafa.
Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions
After July 20, 1999, I went to Beijing twice to appeal for Dafa, but as a result, I was wrongfully sentenced to forced labor. During my hunger strike, I was force-fed. I was afraid of being beaten. Later, after I was beaten a few times, I began to realize that the evil just had these few tricks. I did not fear it anymore and was not beaten anymore. A few people in Masanjia Forced Labor Camp started spreading their self-deceiving lies. I deeply realized as long as we are determined, the evil will not dare to touch us and those former practitioners who turned against Dafa under pressure will not harass us anymore. Afterwards, I learned about sending forth righteous thoughts. At a meeting to release ahead of schedule people who had been brainwashed, the guards ordered some criminal inmates to beat practitioners who shouted out. I immediately recited the verse of righteous thoughts. After I just recited it twice, all of the vicious people in the meeting place stopped beating practitioners. The guard was flustered and announced, "The meeting is over!" Later, I walked out of the evil den with righteous thoughts.
Facts of Persecution
Over the past three years, because I refused to give up cultivating Falun Gong, I endured both physical and psychological torture. I had been illegally imprisoned three times. My company wrongfully fired me and expelled me from the Party. When I was held in the detention center, I was forced to do intensive hard labor and to sit on a bench all day long. As a result, my body was festered with sores and I became deaf. It was hard for me to walk or sit. Later, because of the municipal public security bureau put both my spouse and I are on a blacklist, and we had to take our one-year old baby and leave home to avoid being further persecuted. The persecution over the past few years has made me lose all sources of income.
(Clearwisdom.net)
[Zhucheng City, Shandong Province] "610 Office" Offers 20,000 Yuan Reward to Those Who Turn In Dafa Practitioners
Recently the "610 Office"*, security bureau and police station in Zhucheng City, Shandong Province publicly offered a 20,000 Yuan award to those who report on the whereabouts of Falun Dafa practitioners.
In April of 2003, Dafa practitioner Liyi was detained by the police of Zhucheng City due to the fact that someone reported him. A few days later, Dafa practitioner Xu Peiyuan (male, about 38 years old, a former teacher from East suburban school of Zhucheng City) was also forcibly detained.
*The 610 Office is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.
*Yuan: Chinese currency, the monthly salary for an average Chinese urban worker is about 500 Yuan.
[Changchun City, Jilin Province] Dafa Practitioner Ms. Chen Ji Is Brutally Tortured
Chen Ji, who works in the judicial system, was illegally detained and forcefully kept inside the police station; her family and children were not allowed to visit her. She was brutally tortured during her detention and is now no longer able to take care of herself.
[Shuangyashan City, Heilongjiang Province] Seven Dafa Practitioners Are Kidnapped
On April 21st and 22nd of 2003, seven practitioners, Deng Chunying (female), Sun Shuyan (female), Zhang Hongbo, Zhao Yuhua (female), Guohui, Cui Hongwei and Da Changjie (female) were illegally arrested by the police.
[Zhenyang City, Liaoning Province] Dafa Practitioners Wang Xianfen, Zhang Changlin and Qi Fenglan Are Kidnapped
On April 7 a few policemen from the Tiexiqu police station arrested Wang Xianfen from her home. The police also ransacked her house but were unable to find any "evidence." With righteous thoughts Wang escaped from the vicious police station on the same day that she was detained. On April 9, police once again took her to the brainwashing center in Zhangshi Education Center to persecute her.
Zhang Changlin and Qi Fenlan, who are husband and wife, were turned in. They were arrested by the police from Yuhongqu police station and detained at the Number 3 and Number 4 detention center of Zhenyang respectively.
[Weifang City, Shandong Province] Police Kidnap Dafa Practitioner Ms. Wang Quanlin
On April 14, 2003, the night before the Weifang International Kite Festival, Dafa practitioner Wang Guilan (female), Wang Quanlin (female) from Xian Village of Weicheng District in Wangliu County went to Fuyan Mountain in order to hang up some banners clarifying the truth about Falun Dafa. The Deputy Director Wang Haiyan chased them from the police station in Fuyan; Wang Quanlin escaped but Wang Quanlin was arrested. She was illegally detained at the Weicheng detention center. The police immediately ransacked Wang Quinlin's house and confiscated her motorcycle, which they are now openly riding around town.
[China] "610 Office" Plot To Put Dafa Practitioners Into Brainwashing Center
Before the People's Congress and the Political Consultation Conference meeting, the Central "610 Office" in Beijing ordered all the affiliated "610 Offices" over the country to again brainwash Falun Dafa practitioners. Any Dafa practitioner who has not been through one of the brainwashing centers must now be put into a brainwashing center to be subjected to further persecution. Those who have already been to the brainwashing centers and have already been brainwashed, including those who have signed the "three letters" [letter of guarantee, written statement of repentance, and letter of rupture] also need to be sent to the brainwashing center in order for "reinforcement."
[Beijing] Female Dafa Practitioner Feng Yunqing Is Illegally Detained In Zhaoyang Detention Center
Feng Yunqing and her child were arrested and abducted from their house on April 11, and their house was also illegally ransacked. She was arrested and sent to a brainwashing center. Because of her refusal to give up cultivation in Dafa, on April 24 she was sent to the Zhaoyang District detention center in Beijing.
Relevant police officers' phone numbers:
Beijing People Public Appeal Office: 86-10-63848720
Beijing Zhaoyang District Security Bureau Branch Office: 86-10-65521296
Beijing Zhaoyang District Government Report Office: 86-10-85094413
Beijing Security Bureau Dongjiaomin Lane Foreign Visitors Receptionist: 86-10-65242840
(Clearwisdom.net) A "solemn declaration" is a person's public statement declaring to the world that whatever he or she has done or said under duress or deception that was against Falun Dafa is null and void. Most of these statements have come from Falun Dafa practitioners in China who wished to express regret that, in the face of physical torture and brainwashing, they had signed documents renouncing Dafa and guaranteeing not to practice again. Also, as more and more people in China learn the truth about how they have been deceived and lied to by the Jiang regime, many non-practitioners are also submitting "solemn declarations."
Here are some examples of the Solemn Declarations:
Please click here for more Solemn Declarations.
Please click here for more Solemn Declarations.
05/08/2003
(Clearwisdom.net) Crowds are forming across China. Some people block roads; others surround
and invade government buildings and destroy property of the state. Provincial and local authorities
defy Beijing's edicts. Is the central government losing control of the People's Republic?
Commentators have praised China's new president and premier for finally taking decisive steps late
last month to combat Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS . What is not said is that they acted
only after Chinese doctors and nurses openly contradicted their government and made the continuation
of the cover - up, which had lasted almost half a year, untenable. Leaders in the Chinese capital
were, for the first time in a decade, left with no real choice but to tell the truth, since health
care professionals were already telling all they knew to the foreign media and the World Health
Organization.
Ordinary people then took matters into their own hands. In the week following the announcement of
the government's new campaign against the disease, about a million people fled Beijing to get away
from the contagion. Administrative edicts to prevent departures did not work and stringent controls
were not effective either.
The Health Ministry knew that the mass migration out of the capital would lead to a health-care
catastrophe but could not move itself to act. "The government held meetings for hours with no
decision and meanwhile, everybody left town," said Bi Shengli, a virologist who worked for the
now disgraced Zhang Wenkang, the former health minister.
As a result of government paralysis, people, some carrying the disease and others driven by panic,
fanned out across China and the rest of the world. Many of those who didn't leave shuttered
themselves in their homes and thousands of others were quarantined by authorities.
The Chinese people at first appeared dazed, but as the panic subsided fear turned to anger. Anger,
in turn, has led to a new assertiveness. Today a few openly call for the leaders to resign and
others -- in Zhejiang, Henan, Tianjin and Beijing -- take to the streets, sometimes engaging in
violent protest. Villagers establish their own roadblocks, hoping to prevent outsiders from bringing
SARS into their homes. Across China, some ordinary folk have now decided that they are indeed the
masters of their own destiny
and don't need the Communist Party to tell them what to do.
A month ago -- before the mass quarantines, blanket closures of businesses and official resignations
-- China's population was pliant and the regime on a roll. In the space of a few years, the
Communist Party had managed a remarkable string of achievements: the country joined the World Trade
Organization, won the 2008 Olympics for Beijing and the 2010 World Expo for Shanghai, delivered high
rates of economic growth and racked up stunning trade surpluses and foreign reserves. Gross domestic
product for the first
quarter of this year increased by 9.9%, which is the highest quarterly growth rate since 1998.
Virtually every analyst was predicting that 2003 would be another banner year for Beijing. The
People's Republic, it appeared to almost everyone, had finally arrived.
A few weeks later the country is in distress and its leaders are losing their ability to direct
events. The "first global epidemic of the 21st Century" is ravaging not only the Chinese
people but the nation's growth as well. J. P. Morgan Chase predicts that the economy will shrink 2%
in the current quarter, while other analysts talk of the economy coming to a
standstill.
At this early stage it's not clear if the effect will be that severe. But it is evident that the
current period will be the worst since at least the downturn that followed the Tiananmen Square
massacre of 1989. For one thing, the emerging service sector, perhaps the fastest growing component
of gross domestic product, has been knocked flat by the mandatory closing of places of entertainment
and other public venues, the restrictions on travel and,
most importantly, people's unwillingness to leave their homes.
Next to suffer will be exports, which provided almost three-quarters of last year's growth. China's
sales to the world will be relatively unaffected during the current quarter, but plant closures, a
slowdown in investment and cancelled trade fairs will have an adverse effect in the second half of
this year and perhaps the first quarter of 2004. Observers are correct when they say that the export
sector doesn't yet show any effects from the epidemic. But what they don't say is that, although the
Chinese economy may take a
long time to cool off, it will also take an even longer time to get started again. Like SARS,
recessions have long incubation periods.
Yet there's an even more important problem for Beijing's technocrats. Central government leaders
have managed to produce impressive growth in the past, but they have done so with tactics that are
ultimately unsustainable. The government's inability to cope with SARS highlights how economic
planners skimped on education, health care and other essential social services.
Now, in the face of discontent, the central government will have to spend much more to provide basic
services. In addition to setting aside $725 million to fight the epidemic itself, the nation's new
Health Minister Wu Yi recently announced the allocation of $423 million for the establishment of a
health network for the nation. That amount is just a down payment to rebuild the system that has
eroded after decades of neglect. The Chinese people, post- SARS, will demand more health care, more
education, more of
everything.
Beijing's swollen budget deficit grew at 27% a year during the past half decade and will increase
even faster as officials are now forced to pump money into previously-neglected basic services. Then
the world will begin to appreciate the precarious nature of China's finances. The cost of the
current fiscal stimulus program, now in its sixth year, has already pushed the deficit-to-GDP ratio
well into the danger zone, far beyond the 3% level claimed by the nation's statisticians.
When growth stalls because of SARS, Chinese leaders will lose the ability to paper over the problems
inherent in "market socialism." Government spending will not make the Chinese people
return to the shops or force foreigners to visit the ground zero of this disease. At that point, the
cost of postponing structural, as opposed to cosmetic, reforms will become apparent: China will
still have a half-reformed economy, plagued by problems left over from the Maoist era and even a few
created during the reform period. And there may be no way to stimulate growth short of implementing
wrenching changes such as withdrawing support for uneconomic state enterprises and recapitalizing
insolvent state banks.
For the past decade, many in the business, diplomatic and China-watching communities have managed to
ignore the unsustainability of the regime's policies, as if in a trance due to years of accelerating
economic activity. However the current epidemic has forced a reexamination of our critical
assumptions about the future course of the People's Republic. SARS exposes the weakness of both the
Chinese economy and the regime itself. And the disease tells us something else: the nation has a
population that can no
longer be ignored.
As economic growth rates come down this year and possibly next, a government that bases much of its
legitimacy on delivering prosperity will be in trouble. Then the challenges of ruling an
increasingly complex nation will test Beijing. As the SARS epidemic reveals, leaders are still stuck
in the old way of thinking. "China's Communist party once ruled a very simple society,"
says Zheng Yongnian of the National University of Singapore. "Now, with globalization and the
market economy the whole society is mobile and the old methods don't work anymore." As the
world is now learning, SARS is marking the end of China's cycle of good fortune. We are now
witnessing a turning point in the history of the modern Chinese state.