(Minghui.org) I heard there was a recent push for the authorities to knock on the doors of Falun Gong practitioners to harass them. This reminded me of all the times that this had happened to me in the past.
Our entire family went to the State Appeals Office in Beijing to clarify the facts about Falun Gong on July 20, 1999. Shortly after we returned home, a group of police officers showed up at our door and wanted us to go to the police station. I told them that we’d already gone to the State Appeals Office, and there was no need for us to go with them. But they insisted.
I remembered Master's Fa teaching right before the persecution began:
“Many reporters and others are puzzled, wondering: Why are there so many people studying this Fa? The people sitting here today may have seen the answer. And what is it? Here we ask people to walk a righteous path and to be truly good persons. There is nothing filthy or dirty involved, like out in society. We will purify anything not righteous and become, right up until we meet the standard for Consummation, people who benefit others and society.” (Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Canada)
I knew then that I wanted to make it clear to them that we had not created a disturbance, that we were just being responsible to ourselves and to the social order. I went to the station and told them about Falun Gong, how much we had benefited from the practice, and why we went to Beijing to appeal. I shared with them my personal experience and feelings, and said that I wanted them to have a good future. They sensed my sincerity and sent me home.
When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had its annual meeting in 2000, there was a knock at my door. When I opened it, over a dozen police officers pushed their way in.
When I asked what was going on, they said that since I had gone to the State Office to appeal the year before, I was now “a person of interest.” That meant that they would show up every day for the next 15 days to monitor me.
What they said really startled me, but I smiled and told them that they were worried over nothing, that I did not plan to go anywhere. But if they wanted to come visit and chat, that would be fine.
The tension in the room dissipated some. I told them about Falun Gong, that it was not like how it was portrayed on television. I asked them to feel free to find out what kind of people we were and judge for themselves.
They listened quietly and learned the truth about Falun Gong, and even apologized for disturbing me. They left, and we were not disturbed for the next two years.
Someone knocked on my door in 2004. I looked out and saw just one person. But when I opened the door, 12 more who had been hiding on another floor all came in. They started to go through my things. I yelled at them, “Stop! What you are doing is illegal. If you don’t stop, I will sue you!”
One person who looked like he was in charge ordered me to go with them to the police station. I began sending forth righteous thoughts and thinking about how to clarify the truth to them at the station.
They accused Falun Gong of being political, saying “You see, in your fliers, they keep mentioning Jiang Zemin this and that. He was our former leader. Doesn't that mean you are getting political?”
I replied calmly, “We are cultivators. We just want to quietly cultivate ourselves and improve. We do not care for power or the things ordinary people want. And yet, Jiang Zemin was jealous of so many people practicing, dead set on making us stop practicing, so he started the persecution of Falun Gong. So many people have been disabled and killed. Won't you even let people seek help?
“You are obsessed with superstitions.”
“If you read the book Zhuan Falun, you will understand. There is nothing superstitious in it. It guides people to be good, to follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.”
We talked for over six hours, and they asked me all sorts of questions. In the end, they found nothing wrong with me and let me go.
I let them come in because I believed they were all there to learn the facts about Falun Gong. I told them how wonderful Falun Gong was and asked them to think for themselves. I said, “Falun Gong is practiced in over 100 countries around the world, and the only place where it is suppressed is China. Does that make sense? I have the right to sue Jiang, because he is responsible for initiating the persecution. I openly put down my name down on the complaint. How could you use that information to threaten and harass me?”
After they mailed in their own legal complaints, other practitioners worried that the authorities might come knocking on their doors again. They put away their computers and printers.
Later, after studying the teachings and discussing it, they believed that they should not acknowledge the old forces’ arrangements. If someone did knock on the door, it would be a chance to clarify the facts to them.
We also need to learn to use the Constitution to protect ourselves. In the Constitution, articles 35-39 protect freedom of belief, so what they are doing is illegal. I tell them, “I will not cooperate with you because you are committing a crime, and I will not let you ruin your future.”
We have had to deal with all kinds of interference since we took up cultivation. Particularly since the persecution began in 1999, the authorities have knocked on our doors many times.
Master taught us:
“With such an enormous Fa here, the Fa will be with you when your thoughts are righteous, and this is the greatest assurance.” (“Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan” in Teaching the Fa at the Conference X)
Knocking on a door or even breaking a door down is not hard to do in the ordinary world. Only when we do well ourselves, maintain our righteous thoughts, and not give the old forces any loopholes to seize upon, will we be able to stop the persecution.