(Minghui.org) When prison guards try to force Falun Gong practitioners to give up their belief, they use many tactics, one of which is to forbid the practitioners' families from visiting them. I would like to share my experience on this.
When I was first put in prison for practicing Falun Gong, the guards and monitoring prisoners told me that I could only be visited if I agreed to be “transformed.”
According to the law in China, prisoners have the right to be visited by their families. Normally, a prisoner can be visited once a month. However, revocation of this right has become a way for the prison to pressure practitioners to “transform.”
There were several fellow practitioners detained in the same prison who could not let go of the attachment of family sentimentality and eventually agreed to write the three statements to renounce Falun Gong in order to be allowed visitors.
One practitioner who was sentenced to a long term stayed very firm, but toward the end of his stay, he agreed to renounce his faith. I could not believe it at first. I thought: “How could he give up at the end?”
Someone later told me what happened. One of his family members was very ill and was in danger of passing away. He thought that if he didn't “transform,” he would not be able to see that family member for the last time.
My understanding is that, while this is an obvious example of the evil nature of the Chinese communist regime, I also wonder, “Are the old forces taking advantage of practitioners' attachment to family sentimentality?” When a practitioner truly lets go of this attachment, the situation will change.
My cultivation on this issue has been pretty good. I realized my family relationships are due to predestined arrangements, and I should not be attached to them. So when the prison guards threatened me with denying me any visitors, I was not upset about it and clearly told them so.
As it turned out, the guards asked my family to visit, and they always asked me whether or not I wanted to see them. They even insisted that I call my family on phone call days. Several other practitioners had the same experience. When we are able to truly abandon this attachment, there won’t be a problem.
Cultivators are blessed and, to some extent, so are their families. While I was in prison, my parents went on vacation a number of times, and each time they met very good people. My father also got very ill several times, but on each occasion someone took good care of him.
Basically, they did not suffer from a lack of care just because I was not there. I realized that it was all Master's arrangements because I got rid of that attachment.
But each practitioner's situation is different. There are cases when a practitioner's family member passes away while he is in prison. But even when that happens, we still must let go of the attachment.
A prisoner monitor once asked me, “If your parents pass away while you’re in here, and they were sad that they could not see you, how would that make you feel?”
I said, “I would be very calm, because I am not here because I committed a crime. I'm here because I'm upholding justice and suffering for justice. My parents would be the same and they would be blessed.” That prisoner really admired me for this.
Every tactic the guards use to try to “transform” us is targeting an attachment we have. If one doesn't have the attachment, then that tactic can’t be effective, and they will not even use it.
Category: Improving Oneself
