C.28 A Letter from 68 Detained Practitioners Who Are on Hunger Strike in a Drug Rehabilitation Center

March 7, 2000

To All officials in the Fangshan District of Beijing:

Greetings!

We sixty-eight practitioners are being detained in the Huangshandian drug rehabilitation center in Fangshan district of Beijing.

It has been seven months since the government denounced Falun Gong as an illegal organization. In these months, you must have known something about us Falun Gong practitioners through constant contact and interrogation. It might seem inconceivable that we are so determined about Falun Dafa. We believe that everyone has a kind side. We would like to tell you our thoughts in order to eliminate your misunderstandings of us.

Our teacher is an enlightened person, a very kind person. The slanderous programs on TV have all been fabricated. We know what Falun Dafa is from our own cultivation practice. We have gone to appeal for Falun Gong voluntarily, out of our own will. Falun Gong teaches one to become good. We could give you several examples. A practitioner was a tax collector. Before he learned Falun Gong, he would accept all the bribes offered to him. After he learned Falun Gong, he no longer accepts any bribe because he knows from Falun Dafa that he would lose virtue if he did that. A female practitioner was a salesperson who sold clothes. One day, a customer bought a set of clothes. She happened to find a hole on the clothes when the customer was about to leave. She immediately told the customer, "These clothes are not good. I will give you another set." That customer said, "There are still good people in society nowadays." Another female practitioner had not visited her parents-in-law for eight years because they did not get along. After she learned Falun Gong, she visited her parents-in-law with presents. They were moved to tears by her visit. She told them, "I would never have come to visit you if I had not learned Falun Gong."

There are numerous examples like these. While we strive to become good people according to Falun Dafa, we have got rid of our illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and cerebral hemorrhage at the same time, although curing diseases was not our purpose of practicing Falun Dafa. We have felt the power of Falun Dafa when cultivating our hearts, which has made us more and more determined about Falun Dafa. If everyone learns Falun Dafa and becomes a good person, then this nation will become peaceful and happy. Wouldn't you like to see more good people in society?

Now people in society have become so complicated and are living miserable and tiring lives. Falun Dafa can enlighten the kind nature of people. We hope you will understand that we are striving to be good people. We go to appeal to the government just to tell the truth so that the government will not misunderstand us. We can be detained or beaten up easily. However, we do not fight back when the police beat us, and we do not curse back when the police swear at us. We are following the teachings of Falun Dafa. We would always treat others kindly. In the past few months, we did nothing wrong. We just went to the government departments to appeal. We want nothing but the right to purify our hearts according the teachings of Falun Dafa. We hope the government could return us a legal environment to practice Falun Gong.

Signed by sixty-eight practitioners