(Clearwisdom.net)
It is easy to be good for one day, but much harder to be good all through life. Too many people fail to maintain their morality for long, and the world is in short supply of people who choose to be good and stick with it. It is because the world is a dangerous place; there is a perception of a high cost to being good and moral. The world is also full of discord and scandals. People who are easily swayed will be susceptible to losing their way and forgetting their original purpose. Very few people in the course of history can truly claim to have stood by their principles in the face of the threat of death.
However, in the past four years, we have witnessed tens of millions of ordinary citizens persistently sticking to and safeguarding their belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance despite cruel torture, imprisonment, and brainwashing. Their arduous journey started on April 25, 1999. On that day over ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners went to the Office of Appeals at the State Council in Beijing and petitioned the authorities for the release of more than 40 practitioners. Good people are not necessarily targets to be bullied. The people in power who call themselves public servants don't have the right to kidnap people at will. Without shouting slogans or displaying banners, without any political agenda or fear for their own safety, the practitioners' open, peaceful and solemn appeal was probably the first of its kind in China's history.
At the time, the dictator thought that he could deploy a large-scale suppression and finish off Falun Gong in a matter of months. Initially many observers thought the same. However, in the past four years, the Falun Gong practitioners' resolve has proven them wrong. These four long years have been filled with cruel mental and physical torture, but the Falun Gong practitioners have made it through. They remained steadfast in their belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance. They chose to persist in their beliefs and these four years have not dented their determination.