(Clearwisdom.net) In October 2007, two Falun Gong practitioners from a province in China were tried in a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) court. Practitioners from a local city hired an upstanding lawyer to defend them, and as a result they were not sentenced. Six months later, the CCP conjured up other charges to try the two practitioners again, but again they failed. Unfortunately, the two practitioners still remained in the local detention center.
During that time, practitioners took the situation very seriously. They coordinated very well with each other and clarified the facts of the persecution to the defense lawyer. As a result, a successful verdict of "not guilty" was announced, which had a powerful impact on the local community and shocked the CCP officials. Many practitioners from other areas tried to hire this lawyer to defend them against illegal charges in their areas. They hoped that the charges in more trials would fail as well. This would allow them more time to rescue practitioners already imprisoned. After thinking about it, these thoughts are not righteous, as they seem to carry the element of acknowledging the old forces' arrangements. Later, practitioners from another province hired this lawyer to defend a practitioner and achieved the same result. The court was thus unable to charge the practitioner with any crime, but the practitioner was still not released. Why not? These are my thoughts.
1. Lack of persistent righteous thoughts and actions
When the lawyer initially won the case, the impact on the local community was good. But then when the practitioners were not released, other practitioners aggressively sought out the county magistrate to demanded their release. They then exposed the evil to the public and asked the families to also demand their release. However, as time went by, there were more incidents of practitioners in other areas being arrested, and the local practitioners didn't seem to be able to focus on one particular case. They got stuck and couldn't find an appropriate way to continue trying to secure their release.
2. The rescues not based on principles from the Fa
When the case couldn't move forward and the lawyer was out of ideas, the practitioners remained content with the thought, "As long as we win the case, the authorities will release the practitioner." Sometimes we were unwilling to accept the fact that the situations are tough, and everything is a result of practitioners' thoughts. When the practitioner on trial was not sentenced, did we become satisfied and think that we had reached our goal? We should have wanted for the court to immediately release the practitioners after the trial found them "not guilty." If everyone had come to this understanding and held the same righteous thought, the result could have been better. I felt that Teacher was waiting for us to improve. However, six months later when another "illegal trial" started and practitioners again stopped the CCP from putting the practitioner in prison, we still remained satisfied with the result, holding the same notion that we had done fine. When the lawyer asked our opinion of how things had turned out, we told him that it was fine, without thinking further and pressing for the immediate release of the practitioners. Therefore, the case remained open.
3. The thought of depending on others
When another incident regarding a Falun Gong practitioner presented itself and the CCP organized a trial, we immediately thought of hiring a lawyer who had successfully defended Falun Gong before. I am not against this idea, but to save more sentient beings and when the time frame allows, we should find a different lawyer to clarify the facts of the persecution to. But we always continue to search for a good lawyer from other areas. The local lawyers often turned down our requests, and we got frustrated, even blaming them for not being courageous enough and being too scared of the CCP. It was our human notions that stopped us from finding a good lawyer locally.
When the lawyer went to another province to help with a case, the practitioners there became dependent on this lawyer. As a result they didn't coordinate well with each other, and very few practitioners sent out mail to clarify the facts of the persecution, posted flyers in the streets, or talked to the police, procurators, and people in the court. There were even very few practitioners sending righteous thoughts during the trial. There seemed no one-body coordination and the outcome of the trial was not decisive. It seemed that we wanted the lawyer to do all of the work.
4. Other Shortcomings
As the lawyer began winning more cases, practitioners stopped thinking that everything was as a result of Teacher's compassionate arrangement and practitioners' hard work, and instead began praising the lawyer. They thought it was great that he defended Falun Gong, and the importance of getting the practitioners released was not given much concern. The process became more important. Practitioners were satisfied that there was no imprisonment, that this was the best result, and affirmed that the lawyer had done his job well. Some practitioners wanted to use the same lawyer because it was easier and quicker. Some practitioners wanted to please the lawyer and tried to accommodate him by paying his fees. As a result, the lawyer had many cases and was under a lot of pressure. Practitioners didn't even continue supporting the lawyer with righteous thoughts, which caused him to not do well. When a court refused to take any cases involving Falun Gong, the lawyer didn't even try to appeal. As mentioned in the earlier case, when the court refused to release the practitioners, the lawyer was supposed to push for their release, but he did not.
5. Suggestions
We need to look inward and try to find our attachments that prevent us from coordinating as one-body and prevent fellow practitioners from returning home. We should watch Teacher's "Fa Teaching Given to the Australian Practitioners" from 2007.
We should let go of the attachment of wanting to achieve something and focus our minds on clarifying the truth of the persecution and rescuing practitioners. If our minds are righteous, Teacher will lead us to find a lawyer to defend us.
We should clarify the truth to officials at higher levels, including the provincial and central levels. We should all participate in the truth clarification work and send righteous thoughts more diligently.
Several days ago, I went to a local law office that had been in business for 15 years. Through clarifying the truth, he took three cases from us and accepted all of our conditions, and with a lower fee than the previous lawyer.