(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I feel very fortunate to share my recent experiences and understandings here at the 9th China Fahui. Please point out anything inappropriate.
I began practicing Falun Dafa in 1994, and my husband subsequently also started practicing. During the past several years, I have been persecuted a number of times, including being detained in a forced labor camp and imprisoned in jail. I am very grateful for Master's compassionate care.
Last year, my husband was detained in a prison. I went there many times, but the prison officials wouldn't let me see him. Because many local practitioners had also been arrested, there weren't enough practitioners to do the rescue work. Although I had only recently been released myself and still had fear, I knew the situation was urgent. An elderly practitioner and I thus began to work on this.
Working Together to Rescue Fellow Practitioners
We needed to hire attorneys, but we had no experience in doing this. Master arranged for us to contact practitioners in another city, who were very helpful. They said, “We've had some experience doing this, and we will do our best to support you.” They contacted some attorneys for us, and with their encouragement, I hired one. They helped us work with the attorneys, send forth righteous thoughts at the prison, clarify the truth, and rescue the detained practitioners. Truth-clarification from the legal perspective is important in saving sentient beings. This is because the staff working in prisons, police departments, and the Procuratorate often consider themselves law-enforcers, but don't realize that by blindly following the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), they are actually breaking the law. When we interact with them through attorneys, we are helping them to realize that they are committing crimes, and helping them learn the right things to do.
The attorney first went with us to the prison, where officials denied our visit, saying, “Since the detainee's wife is also a Falun Gong practitioner, she is not allowed to visit.” We and the attorney refuted this from a legal perspective, but the officials still insisted on their stance. We then went to the district court and city court to appeal this, but both places said they didn't accept cases related to Falun Gong. We then went to the provincial capital, but were not allowed to enter the provincial court or Procuratorate. In the end, we went to the prison administration bureau and clarified the truth at the appeals office.
During this process, I asked myself why the progress was slow and what the problem was. I then remembered Master's words, “Wherever there's a problem, that is where you need to clarify the truth and save people.” (“Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. Fa Conference”, 2002) I realized that our truth-clarification efforts were not enough, and decided to contact the city court and district court again. A few days later, surprisingly, I received a phone call from the city where the prison is, asking to me to resubmit the case. After the fellow practitioner heard this, she said she would go with me again to that court and the prison to ask that the practitioners be released.
The next day, a practitioner in a nearby city told me that more than thirty local practitioners could go with us to help send forth righteous thoughts. I was surprised and asked how that could be possible. I learned that these practitioners—mainly retirees—have been helping rescue practitioners for years. They often went to places near the prison or detention centers to send forth righteous thoughts. When detained practitioners were released, they often went there to give support with righteous thoughts. On one occasion prison officials were hesitant. This group of practitioners stayed there and kept sending forth righteous until that practitioner was released. They had been doing this for years.
We first visited the district court. Two practitioners and I went inside to clarify the truth, while the other practitioners waited outside and sent forth righteous thoughts. After listening to our statements and understanding that the persecution of Falun Gong was immoral and illegal, the court staff were sympathetic and said, “We can request that the prison officials allow your visit since this is your legal right and is permitted by the law.” At around 11:30 a.m., we arrived at the city court. The staff were on a lunch break and we decided to wait until the office reopened at 1:30 p.m.. One practitioner said that if we waited there and then went to the prison in the afternoon, it would probably be after midnight when we returned home. Thinking that the practitioners had already sacrificed so much, I suggested not to wait any longer, but to go straight to the prison. Three cars had already left, but my car would not start. We looked within and realized that it was because we had not clarified the truth as we had planned. We contacted the drivers of the three cars that already left and the practitioners came back. We then sent forth righteous thoughts at the city court for more than an hour.
When the office reopened after lunch, we went inside to clarify the truth and send forth righteous thoughts. We then went to the prison, but none of the officers were available due to a meeting. So we went to the Procuratorate office inside the prison and asked to see my husband. After hearing the facts, the staff said, “You can directly go to the prison to make the request. If the officers deny your visit, then they are breaking the law.” We waited until 4:00 p.m., but their meeting was not over. We thus sent forth righteous thoughts for an hour outside the prison. The next day, we went to the prison again to see my husband. The guards checked with officers, and we were able to meet with my husband at 11:00 a.m. This was the first time we had visited with him since he had been detained there 14 months earlier.
Sending forth righteous thoughts is very important in doing the rescue work. One time, when a practitioner was scheduled to be released from that prison, only two practitioners and four family members came to pick him up. Several local practitioners and I gathered at a practitioner's home nearby to send forth righteous thoughts. We sent forth righteous thoughts for the entire morning, but the practitioner was still not released. I notified more practitioners about this, asking them to send forth righteous thoughts and submit this information to the Minghui website. We agreed to send forth righteous thoughts for one hour. When an hour had almost passed, some practitioners began experiencing leg pain and could not continue, so we took a break. We then began to play with a one-year-old child who came with us and forgot to send forth righteous thoughts. Seeing this, I got worried and reminded everyone, “Please remember to send forth righteous thoughts since the practitioner has not yet been released.” We thus continued sending forth righteous thoughts for 40 minutes, followed by a 10 minute break. We repeated this until the practitioner was released at 3:40 p.m. According to a practitioner whose celestial eye was open, Master shed tears throughout the process. Practitioners who picked up the released practitioner at the prison said that the weather was very harsh there with strong wind. We could see that a fierce battle was being waged in other dimensions.
There were also times when we did not do well. Once three other practitioners and I went to the district court to clarify the truth while four other practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts outside the building. The officer who talked with us was being severely interfered with. Although two of us sent forth righteous thoughts while the other two talked with him, he was frequently distracted by phone calls and other visitors. We wondered why sending forth righteous thoughts this time did not seem to work. Later, this officer had to leave due to other reasons. When we came out of the district court, we met the other four practitioners who had sent forth righteous thoughts there. Every one of them had a bag of herbs. I was almost in tears. How could they dig herbs from the ground while sending forth righteous thoughts? In other dimensions, the evil treated us as one body. Therefore, it was difficult to win the battle when part of our side did not do our work. In the beginning, I was hesitant to speak out and tell them my thoughts. Then, remembering to be responsible for other practitioners, I shared my understandings with them. They did not agree at first, but later accepted it once they considered what had happened from the standpoint of the Fa.
Rescuing Practitioners Is Everyone's Responsibility
I was there when another practitioner was released in that city. We sent forth righteous thoughts together and the practitioner walked out of the prison at 11:00 a.m. The practitioner went in at the age of 29 and came out at the age of 38. I was touched by this fact, and in my mind I was determined not to permit the evil to detain our fellow practitioners any longer. Before descending to the Three Realms, practitioners made vows to come here to save sentient beings, however the old forces kept them in prison and did not allow them to fulfill their prehistoric vows. This is indeed vicious and we cannot let it happen.
The persecution in that city has been rampant in recent years, and over the years, several practitioners have died as a result. We studied the Fa with practitioners in that city. We read “Thoroughly Dissolve the Evil” and exchanged our thoughts. We came to understand that disintegrating the prison in that city and rescuing detained practitioners is a task for all of us. Master said,
“As a result of the righteous thoughts that Dafa disciples have put into validating the Fa and saving the world's people, the complete dissolution of the evil beings and elements that play a negative role and persecute Dafa disciples is taking place. Right now, there are only a small number of evil, rotten demons, and they are being concentrated by the old forces in labor camps, jails, and other dark dens that are taking part in persecuting Dafa disciples. This has caused the evil's persecution to remain severe in certain, limited areas. In order to completely eliminate the persecution of Dafa disciples by the dark minions, rotten demons, and old forces, all Dafa disciples around the world--particularly the Dafa disciples in each region of mainland China--are to concertedly send righteous thoughts toward those evil places, thoroughly dissolving all evil beings and elements that persecute Dafa disciples, clearing away the evil circumstances under which Dafa disciples are persecuted in mainland China, and saving the world's people, [thereby] fulfilling the duties of a Dafa disciple and advancing toward godhood.” (“Thoroughly Dissolve the Evil” 2006)
Rescuing detained practitioners is a very important project. There are currently more than 100,000 practitioners detained in forced labor camps and prisons. We cannot let them wait in jail until Fa-rectification ends. They need to get out, save other sentient beings, and fulfill their prehistoric vows. We need to help them.
Cooperating With Each Other and Improving Together
In the beginning, very few local practitioners went to detention centers and prisons to send forth righteous thoughts. When I shared what practitioners in other cities had done, many practitioners decided to do so as well. Gradually more and more practitioners participated in this. Several practitioners saw that when we went to detention centers and prisons to send forth righteous thoughts, a big battle was being waged in other dimensions.
The evil is fearful when we cooperate as one body, so it always tries to create barriers between us by utilizing our human notions. Once when several of us went to that city, the driver started to complain about one of the coordinators as soon as we departed. The coordinator could not understand why this was happening, but she nonetheless did not argue back until the event was over. When we reviewed this later, she said, “If I had argued back at that time, the discussion would have continued and our group rescue effort might have been in vain.”
Another time when we went to a prison to clarify the truth, all of us criticized one practitioner for one sentence she had said, which caused her to become depressed. After coming back, we discussed this and realized that we should be tolerant of each other rather than critical. Otherwise, barriers will form among us and the one-body group effort will not be effective.
Only by eliminating human notions and letting go of ourselves could we do things well. In “Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.” Master said,
“Actually, did you know that those Great Enlightened Beings have a lot of things in the heavens that they too need to coordinate and discuss with each other?”
“So what's their state of mind? It's tolerance, an extremely immense tolerance, being able to accept other beings, and being able to truly think from other beings' perspectives. This is something a lot of you haven't achieved yet in your cultivation, but you're gradually catching on and achieving it. When another God proposes an idea, they aren't eager to reject it, and they aren't eager to express their own ideas and they don't believe that their own ideas are good. Instead, they look at what the end result of the other God's proposed approach will be. The paths are different--everyone's path is different--and the truths that beings validate and enlighten to in the Fa are different, too, but the results might very well be the same. That's why they look at the results, and if the result of a God's idea can achieve the goal, if it can truly achieve it, then all of them will go along with it. That's how Gods think. Also, if there's something lacking in it they'll unconditionally and quietly supplement it to make things more complete and perfect. That's how they handle things.”
Through Fa-study and working together as a group, we have made significant progress during the past several months. One prison political officer used to do everything he could to humiliate our attorneys. Later he was less active and moved to another position. Once when I met with him, he said, “Please do not come to me anymore. It was too much for me and I've already moved to another position.” Nonetheless, there are still many people who do not yet know the truth, and we have to work harder. When working with practitioners in other regions, we found that they also improved significantly, and we worked together as one body.
I also had another understanding during the past several months. When encountering difficulty in the past, I tended to avoid it, especially when I was attached to comfort. Through working with others to rescue detained practitioners, I had a better understanding of Master's words in “Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005,”
“So whether it is good things or bad things you run into, so long as you cultivate in Dafa, they are all positive, to be sure.”
I hope we can all become more rational and more mature. Thank you, Master. Thank you, fellow practitioners.