(Shared at 2002 Boston Conference)
(Clearwisdom.net) We, a group of Falun Dafa practitioners as plaintiffs, have recently filed a civil lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Washington, DC. The lawsuit, which has drawn much attention in American society, accuses the defendants, China's Ministry of State Security, Ministry of Public Security, China's Central Television (CCTV) and some individuals in the Chinese Embassy. The following are our understandings on the issues, based on the principle of the Fa.
1. Persecution Awareness -- Several Incidents:
Since the persecution against Falun Gong in China started, we have suffered the following forms of duress, oppression and abridgment of freedom:
- Because we practice Falun Gong, our relatives in China have been threatened and questioned by the State Security and are living in fear;
- Because the media in China has spread lies and vicious attacks all over the country, our relatives in China are confused and are not able to understand us. They think we are against China and are afraid that we may commit suicide;
- Deceived by vicious propaganda, Chinese colleagues in our workplaces look at us strangely;
- Customers left us, due to the evil propaganda and high pressure from the evil forces;
- Because of the pressure from the Chinese Embassy, Chinese overseas news media dare not publish or have stopped publishing articles that report favorably about Dafa;
- Because we practice Falun Gong, we are not able to visit our relatives in China and are not allowed to participate in some activities in the Chinese communities in the U.S.;
- Because we practice Falun Gong, our applications for Chinese passport extensions are rejected, with no reason given, and some passports are even suspended. The process of our application for an American passport is thus obstructed;
- We have been followed and accosted by secret agents. During parades or peaceful appeals, we have been photographed, verbally abused and even beaten by them.
- Our houses were broken into. Car tires have been slashed. Our cars have been smashed and even burned;
- Because we practice Falun Gong, our names are on a "black list" and our entry to Hong Kong is rejected without explanation;
- Our phones are tapped. Conversations have been recorded and then played back on our home phones or mobile phones;
- Hotels from which we rent venues for Dafa conferences receive threats of arson or bombs. As a result, we are unable announce the location of a conference ahead of time or are forced to change venues.
- Because we have filed lawsuits against the evil forces, we have received threats against our lives;
- Furthermore, the evil forces of Jiang Zemin have harassed local government officials because they have made proclamations honoring Falun Gong.
Some of the above-mentioned incidents have been happening almost everyday since the persecution started, and we seem to have become somewhat used to it. Maybe we think what we have experienced is nothing, compared with what our fellow practitioners have suffered in China. No matter how small or big an incident may be, though, and no matter what excuses the perpetrators may have, persecution is persecution. No form of persecution against Dafa should exist! Even less should we silently accept such persecution and condone it.
Master said, "I reject all of the arrangements they've made, I don't recognize them." ("Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A.") "Do you know? I don't recognize at all this evil test arranged by the old forces."("Suggestion")
In this respect, overseas practitioners haven't done enough to expose the evil.
2. The foundation of our work with these lawyers is based on our righteous thoughts
In the process of looking for lawyers who are willing to help us, we clarified the truth to all the people we came across. Many people showed sympathy for the suffering we have endured and helped us in various ways.
After reading our materials, one lawyer commented: "Jiang's regime has extended the persecution in China into overseas areas and persecutes you in all segments with all kinds of means and at all levels, such as government agencies, the business sectors and the media. No foreign agency should be allowed to deprive American people of their constitutional rights on American soil. Your peaceful and serene practice is part of our lives. The persecution against you today could become the persecution against us tomorrow. In our present lifestyle it does not happen very often that we work for our true beliefs. Now we can see that you are good people who abide by the principle of 'Truth-Compassion-Tolerance.' We trust you and are willing to work for you."
The mutual understanding between us and our lawyers is based on our strong righteous thoughts. Their wisdom and talents are brought into full play in their work, which assists our Fa-rectification, supports righteousness and upholds justice, and also helps us in strengthening our confidence and decision-making in this detailed process. The lawyers have helped us gain much knowledge of law, enabling us to use the current law of the human world to restrain and strike at the evil.
Looking at everything from the standpoint of the Fa, we realize that we need to use the law of the human world with wisdom and creativity to stop the evil. If we cannot make breakthroughs in our understanding or if our righteous thoughts are not strong enough, it will directly impede or interrupt the lawyers' work.
The current lawsuit is filed under a federal statue called the "Racketeering Influence Corrupt Organizations Act." (RICO) The facts listed in the lawsuit clearly reveal the criminal pattern the defendants have adopted in their continuing, planned and deliberate violations of the law. The officially exposed crimes not only strike a heavy blow to the evil but also help the common people realize the threat and the damage the evil has brought to the whole society, including damage to freedom and to constitutional rights.
3. If we don't act, who will?
Lawsuits filed by the practitioners in Canada and by people in other places are examples of one of the ways to break through the old forces' arrangement during this Fa-rectification period.
If we have an inadequate understanding on this, the difficulties arranged by the old forces will hinder us. If our righteous thoughts are not strong enough, we might be tied down by the articles of law and might not successfully restrain the evil to the maximum extent.
Master said in the " Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A," "Of course, being able to do all these things well is inseparable from each of us, from each Dafa disciple's own cultivation and improvement. And that's why no matter how you've been persecuted, in difficult situations you've still been able to persevere in cultivating, persevere in studying the Fa, and keep a clear head. When a cultivator's mind departs from the Fa, the evil will find its way in. Seen with the human eye, people and everything else in the human world are three-dimensional. But in reality, all matter in humankind's entire dimension--be it flowers, grass, trees, human beings, the air, etc.--everything is made up of particles of that size (molecules). And in this layer of particles, everything, including the human body, is connected. When a person himself doesn't have righteous thoughts, all the bad things in the cosmos, or in the Three Realms, will flow around continually in the human body, and even when they stay there the person doesn't realize it. That's how people are manipulated; in other words, they manipulate people when these particles are able to connect with each other. So during the two years of persecution that you've been through, you have been able to persevere in your cultivation, make yourselves more and more clearheaded, and recognize ever more clearly the evilness of this persecution. So in other words, Fa-study truly is extremely important for a Dafa disciple."
Restraining the evil itself is to save the sentient beings. That is the reason why we write down what our families, our friends and ourselves have suffered during this persecution, in order to help people realize how evil the persecution is and how it affects the whole society. Every practitioner should write down his or her experiences. All the experiences put together will help the common people clearly realize how evil the persecution is.
"When you have all the people of the world and all the people of China see this evil drama for what it is, could the evil still have any effect? It will collapse." ("Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A.")
At the same time we suggest that practitioners overseas gather all the facts together and hand them to the relevant government authorities in your own country, for the record and further investigation, and in full preparation for punishing the evil within the framework of the law.
May 4, 2002
