(Clearwisdom.net) A good friend of mine is not a Falun Dafa cultivator, but she often shows her support for Falun Dafa in front of her relatives and friends. A practitioner in our area died as a result of the persecution perpetrated on her, and my friend went out of her way to visit the deceased's husband and children. The kids are young Dafa practitioners. My friend even left some money for living expenses for the family, which was in dire straits financially. She was very willing to listen to any news or information about Dafa. Whenever she encountered a problem in her life or career, she came to me and listened to my perspective based on Dafa principles that I understood, which she found helpful to resolve her situation.
A while ago, I told her about a recent development, where practitioners in several overseas countries had filed lawsuits against Jiang and discussed the principle of "human rights above sovereignty", which is commonly recognized by the present Western societies. To my surprise, she became very upset: "This government is indeed not good. But we do not need foreigners to point fingers at us and criticize us like that. I certainly don't want to become a conquered, subjugated person!" I was shocked to find that she would associate this kind of news with an invasion by foreign nations. Therefore, I solemnly clarified the issue for her by saying: "We Falun Gong practitioners always insist on using peaceful, rational and nonviolent principles. The lawsuits against Jiang, and our seeking support from the international community, are simply following international laws to punish a few specific murderers that have brutally harmed good, innocent people, in order to safeguard the standard of justice and righteousness in the human world. We absolutely don't get involved in politics or power struggles." Realizing that I was very serious, she did not say anything else.
I thought a lot about the issue. Sovereignty and political power are two different concepts. If a political power was overthrown because they used the power in their hands to persecute people and caused the populace to become angry with them, this is generally acceptable to folks. However, sovereignty is generally linked to a nation's territorial integrity and dignity. People still have a fresh memory of China's being trampled by large foreign powers in recent history. In the minds of Chinese people, the notion of "the nation's interest above personal interest" is deeply rooted.
I personally think that it does not matter what was said in society: that is not the Fa, so that cannot be taken as a guideline for what we do. Dafa practitioners should simply solidly "take the Fa as the Teacher", follow Teacher's requirements to act, and expose this persecution, which is completely based on lies and also is obscured by the Chinese authorities' lies. Then those people who still possess goodness in their hearts will understand the truth, will naturally stand on the side of justice and will choose a wonderful future for themselves. From the perspective of the ordinary world's laws, Jiang has personally violated China's Constitution, related international laws on human rights and international covenants for protecting victims of torture, and so on. With this ironclad evidence, Jiang cannot possibly escape the consequences. Everyone knows that doing good should be rewarded and committing evil should be punished, therefore, filing lawsuits is also living up to the standard of the common good. In fact, I don't think it is necessary for us to focus so much on common terms, stressing which one is more important among human rights, sovereignty and political power, in order to prove that we are right. If we do so, non-practitioners will misunderstand us. Actually, this kind of mentality of trying to explain Falun Dafa actions using everyday and common terms can easily be taken advantage of. For example, it can result in some people fabricating rumors that accuse us of "involvement of foreign political powers", "anti-China, divisive", and who also created certain international laws, which obstruct our efforts to seek justice. Any lack of righteous thoughts or having gaps, may even influence the people in the society to bring about something which could subsequently become an obstacle for our validating the Fa or successfully clarifying the truth in various ways.
I would like to review Teacher's words with everyone:
"Master isn't leading you to revolt like those revolutionaries (people laugh), Master isn't leading you to take away somebody's political power. Master is leading you to cultivate. (Applause) What you expose is the evil, the evilness of that scoundrel regime, and the purpose is to restrain the evil, to eliminate the evil, and to eliminate the persecution of Dafa disciples and Dafa (Applause). It isn't about getting some ordinary people's things out in the ordinary world. So when you do things you have to do them from the standpoint of a Dafa disciple. You need to have ordinary people understand the things you do, and you don't want to make ordinary people think we're after some ordinary thing--absolutely not! " (from Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference)
My article was originally written back in August, but I didn't send it out in time. Because the lawsuits against Jiang were obstructed, I added some further details to it. This is just for your reference.
I personally think that when the United Nations was having a human rights conference in March, the public's focus was distracted by the recent war and war-related issues, so they forgot about the persecution that is happening in China against Falun Dafa practitioners. Meanwhile, quite a lot of Chinese people, because of the long-term influence by government propaganda, have very strong anti-American sentiments. In particular, this year's war in Iraq is seen by those Chinese people as a matter where the U.S. invaded another country's sovereignty, because the war was not authorized by a United Nations resolution. Many Chinese people, as a result of the long-term propaganda they have grown up listening to, still worry that the same fate will befall them.
I think that a lot of events that occur in the society happen because of Dafa practitioners' thoughts. What if many Dafa practitioners hold the thought that the U.S., the "international police" arranged by the old forces, will step forward to solve the problem of an evil government and use the value of 'human rights above sovereignty', to prove that putting Jiang on trial is an act of justice? Then the old forces will probably create obstacles for our clarifying the truth by controlling ordinary people to target this mindset and cause some event to happen.
The above is just my personal understanding at my current level. It is just for your reference.
