(Clearwisdom.net) July 9th report: The overseas Dafa practitioners' lawsuits against Chinese government officials have lately made remarkable breakthroughs. One question we need to answer is: How should Dafa practitioners look at the issue of financial compensation involved in the lawsuits?
Many Dafa practitioners believe that based on the Fa principles, we should demand financial compensation as a means to punish the evil. Some practitioners think, though, if we started the lawsuit to stop the defendant from helping the evil and also to save people and if we then ask for financial compensation, we are not being compassionate; moreover, Dafa principles require that "no money or possessions are to be kept" (The Great Consummation Way of Falun Dafa), and other considerations. I think that this understanding is similar to the one a while back when we first proposed to clarify the truth to government officials and other VIPs. Some practitioners thought then we were getting involved in politics. This is the result of the limitations from personal Fa study and understanding of Fa-rectification.
First, when considered from the level of ordinary human society, if you file a lawsuit in the United States but do not ask for financial compensation, both the defendant and the court may think that you only wanted to go through a formality and at most what you want is media publicity, but you are not serious about the charges against the defendant. Our lawsuits, including those against Jiang, against the head of the "610 Office" or other Party officials who took part in the persecution are serious and necessary in terms of laws in the ordinary society and for Dafa practitioners validating Dafa during Fa- rectification.
Secondly, the old forces think little or no financial resource can help Dafa practitioners build mighty virtue while validating the Fa. However, that is the old forces' thinking and arrangement, so we shouldn't acknowledge it. Master has said that everything was created for Dafa. My personal understanding is that the same applies to money. Any fines or court-ordered damages that might be paid by Party officials who committed crimes against Dafa can be used for large-scale truth clarification activities, and this would be a form of using money in a proper way, and it would also be breaking away the old forces' arrangements.
Thirdly, during the Fa-rectification period, the expenses required for large-scale truth clarification is a considerable amount. It is done with the quiet support from Dafa practitioners all over the world. Some of them would rather eat less or spend less on themselves to use their savings on truth clarification. Our demand for financial compensation in overseas lawsuits is absolutely not for individual compensation, nor is it for other personal purposes. The purpose is to directly suppress and eliminate the evil to better save the people. This is a selfless act, and its nature differs from keeping money or possessions during the period of individual cultivation.
Question: "Could Master please talk about how, in the Fa-rectification period, Dafa disciples can walk a righteous path in terms of spending money and using material things?"
Teacher: "Yes, in the Fa-rectification period there's been a special change in the situation. In your history a line of personal cultivation has been drawn. During that period it was just cultivation, and everything had to be done that way. But today's situation in society is different from that before. As you've seen, today's science has brought about many modern transportation vehicles and mass media outlets. So think about it, with these mass media outlets, in particular, when one person speaks at one place, people around the world can immediately know about it, hear it, and see it at the same time. The influence is quite significant. From the old forces' perspective, the evil beings are using these things to carry on the persecution and to lie. When Dafa disciples only rely on their mouths to talk to people, sometimes they feel that it's hard to save more people. Of course, one of you is a match for ten or a hundred people. But it is exposing the lies and the evil produced by all of a country's propaganda machines, after all--it's still pretty hard. So when you make use of these everyday people's media tools to validate the Fa, expose the evil, and save sentient beings, it's not wrong in principle. Since today's science has already brought about a special society like this, while validating the Fa you need some financial resources to do those things... That having been said, I'm telling you that you still can't collect money from students who depend on their salaries for living. The principle is that we can't collect money from students--and I've said this long ago" ("Lecturing on and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference").
Therefore, in this special situation of the Fa-rectification period, if, for example, the court awards punitive damages to the plaintiffs and orders the perpetrators, Party officials and others, to pay a large amount of fines, and if we use this money for newspapers, T.V. programs and websites to expose the lies and clarify the truth on a large scale, then we would be saving people and breaking away from the old forces' arrangements, and at the same time we won't violate the Dafa principle of not collecting money from practitioners, even during Fa-rectification period.
Let's say, hypothetically, that the news media outlets under the Chinese government's control were given over to Falun Gong practitioners and put to good use clarifying the truth. From the perspective of Fa-rectification, Dafa practitioners can clarify the truth and save people on a larger scale without touching the money, which saves us a great deal of processes and trivialities associated with dealing with money, while for the people who are being used by Jiang to spread lies and create hatred, it's easier for them to change their wicked ways and keep away from the job that hurts the futures of their true being. Therefore, isn't this a great act of kindness toward readers, audience and people whose job is to spread lie and slander Dafa?
In fact in societies that operate on the rule of law, a lawsuit does not necessarily guarantee financial compensation. In other words, the eventual amount of fine determined by the judge is not automatically delivered to the hands of the plaintiff. Of course, some defendants would pay the fine, but in some situations the plaintiff has to pursue the money through legal channels.
Dafa practitioners' misunderstandings and omissions in their thinking and righteous thoughts will directly influence ordinary people involved in the lawsuits. For example, the judge and lawyers may be taken advantage of by the evil, so I want to remind all of us about this issue. I welcome fellow practitioners to point out anything inappropriate.