Keeping Security in Mind in Our Daily Lives

(Minghui.org) Recently, the Minghui website published several articles concerning safety when using cellphones. I also noticed that many practitioners in China were arrested in one scoop because the authorities had monitored their cellphones and found the links between practitioners. For this I had learned some lessons that allow us to improve our safety when using cellphones.

Don’t Carry Cellphones to Important Locations

I have to carry a cellphone to my workplace. But I never give my phone number to fellow practitioners, and I never ask for or save phone numbers of fellow practitioners on my phone.

I was arrested while working at a material printing site shortly after a practitioner carrying a cellphone visited the site in 2006. It was a valuable printing site in a poor area. A lot of practitioners had contributed to establish it.

Two years later, the police arrested a practitioner, which provided the opportunity to arrest almost all the practitioners in that area who had communicated with him by following the call logs on his phone. The loss was huge. Some practitioners were forced to write repentance letters, and some practitioners died shortly after their release.

Practitioners in my area set up a group Fa-study site at my house. I told practitioners that they could come to study the Fa but could not carry a cellphone. At first they didn’t agree with me. Later, they didn’t bring a phone, but continued to use the cellphone to call each other, announcing that “practitioner xxx has a Fa-study group at home, please come and join.” Several days later, the Fa study had to stop when I received a warning that the local authorities had set up surveillance of my place.

Protecting Printing Sites

The location of the printing site is often common knowledge among local practitioners, but it is best not to mention anything of the site over the phone.

A good example was a practitioner couple in our area. The husband was responsible for picking up and distributing printed materials from the printing site. He never told his wife the location of the printing site.

His wife was arrested one day while clarifying the truth on the streets. Other practitioners worried that his wife might tell authorities the location of the printing site. The husband assured them that she couldn’t because he had never told her where it was. Thus, the authorities couldn’t find our local printing site.

Some older practitioners appeared to be careless about the safety of fellow practitioners and the printing site. They told each other over the phone, “Practitioner Cheng (pseudonym) gave me a new Minghui Weekly. Did you get one, too?”

A practitioner in our area who distributed Falun Dafa informational materials is often followed by the authorities. He suspected that the authorities had heard his name while monitoring other practitioners’ cellphones.

Protecting Practitioners Who Submit Information to Minghui

Practitioners should not openly discuss who has submitted information to the Minghui website. Those who can communicate with Minghui should also keep it to themselves.

I had submitted articles and exposed the crimes of local authorities, but I never shared this information with local practitioners. A few practitioners close to me could tell that I was the author of these articles, but they have not given out my identity.

Practitioners have different xinxing levels, and some may carelessly talk about other practitioners’ contact information over the phone and give the authorities reasons to persecute practitioners.

Staying Safe

In my opinion, safety can be achieved by doing a few easy things in our day-to-day life. One is cultivation of speech: we should not openly discuss sensitive information, such as who is printing materials and who has submitted articles to Minghui. Another is not to depend on cellphones or bring them to group Fa study or a printing site. When discussing sensitive information at home, we should lower our voices and put the phones in a far corner.

I suggest that practitioners not talk about sensitive matters on the phone and only discuss them face to face. It is less convenient but safer. In ancient times, people didn’t have cellphones, and they weren’t so anxious like the people of today.

Master said,

“...But honest and kind were the ancients,Calm and balanced,fortune and longevity were their lot.”(“Casting off Attachments,” Hong Yin)

Not phoning fellow practitioners won’t prevent us from saving people. On the contrary, depending on cellphones will affect our cultivation negatively.

Master said,

“Supernormal abilities are potential capabilities of the human body. With the development of our human society, the human mind has become increasingly complicated, attaching more importance to “reality” and becoming more dependent on so-called modern tools. Consequently, human inborn capabilities have gradually become atrophied. The Tao School teaches returning to the original, true self. In the course of cultivation practice, you must seek the truth, and in the end return to your original, true self and your inherent nature. Only then can you reveal these inborn abilities of yours. Nowadays, we call them “supernatural capabilities” when they are all actually human inborn capabilities. Human society appears to be progressing, but in fact it is regressing and moving further away from the characteristic of the universe.” (Lecture Nine, Zhuan Falun)

Cellphones are a modern tool. Relying on them is the opposite of our goal, i.e. returning to our original, true selves. We must let go of this reliance in order to achieve Consummation.