We were inspired by the article "Practitioners' Experiencing Sharing on Improving as a Whole Body." Here we would like to share how the practitioners in our area are following Teacher's instructions and doing the three things that Teacher has asked us to do [clarify the truth of Falun Dafa to all people, study the Fa (1) and send righteous thoughts].
In teaching the Fa, Teacher has emphasized again and again, whether in China or overseas, that practitioners should study the Fa more and study the Fa well. Our understanding is that only if we study the Fa more and study the Fa well, will we be able to think and act righteously so as to clarify truth to save all sentient beings. We have truly learned the profound nature and the great power of Falun Dafa from our own experiences in clarifying the truth in our area. Falun Dafa has enabled us to clarify the truth with more compassion and more wisdom. We believe this is because for many years, the practitioners in our area have been taking Fa study very seriously.
Studying the Fa more and studying the Fa well
As early as seven years ago, we began studying the Fa every evening at our practice site. In the beginning, there were only a dozen practitioners. In 1998, more than 100 practitioners participated. We were divided into several big groups and had group Fa study every evening. Also, people voluntarily got together to study the Fa together in the daytime. We read three or four lectures every morning. Some practitioners attended Fa study at other practices sites, too. Everyone was very diligent at that time.
"Study the Fa and obtain the Fa, Share in learning and share in cultivating, Following [the Fa] in everything, Compliance is cultivation." ("Solid Cultivation," Hong Yin)
We were completely occupied by the Fa. Everyone came to the group Fa study every day, regardless of holidays or bad weather. We used every spare minute and every spare second at home to transcribe the book Zhuan Falun (2) by hand. Some practitioners transcribed the book several times. There were some practitioners who could recite every article and every poem in Teacher's book of poems, "Hong Yin." Several elderly practitioners were able read clearly without their reading glasses after transcribing Zhuan Falun. They could even read tiny print clearly. Many people recovered from other eye ailments as well, after practicing Falun Gong.
An elderly lady in her 70s who was illiterate was able to read Zhuan Falun by herself after participating in group Fa study, and she was also able to recite every poem in "Hong Yin."
From April 25 to July 20, 1999 (3), we were no longer allowed to get together at our usual location to study the Fa in the evenings. However, we continued group Fa study every morning from 4:30 a.m. until 6:00 a.m. in small groups on the street. Then we practiced the exercises together at 6:00 a.m.
Clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings
Because we studied the Fa persistently, most practitioners in our area were able to clarify the truth in various ways from 1998 until July 20, 1999 [this was a time when Falun Dafa was being publicly slandered in some areas]. For example, some practitioners went to the Chinese Propaganda Department, the State Council and the newspaper offices to clarify the truth to people face to face. Some wrote letters to the relevant departments to clarify the truth. Nearly every practitioner went out to clarify the truth.
Teacher told us in the "Fa-Lecture During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference,"
"Every person in the entire world was at one point part of my family (applause), including the worst people, or else they'd have no chance to be a human being during this time. What happened in history is what they have gone through and what they chose for themselves. The most despicable are the old forces. They dare to massacre my people at will since they don't belong to them. What's held in Master's heart are all the people there are."
We followed Teacher's guidance and clarified the truth to all kinds of people with different occupations and different mindsets, including the government officials at different levels of government, and the staff in the judicial systems. We maintained strong righteous thoughts with no fear at all. When we spread the Fa and safeguarded the Fa, we always kept these thoughts in our minds: "We are practicing Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. You have been deceived by the evil. Falun Dafa is the most righteous law. Please don't listen to the rumors and false incrimination fabricated by those with ulterior motives. Please don't become an accomplice in this evil persecution." Because we had pure hearts, we accomplished very good results. Here we will share just a few touching examples of how we clarified the truth to the local police stations, detention centers, neighborhood administration offices, and residence commissions.
1. Clarifying the truth to the police
Since July 20, 1999, the persecution of Falun Gong by the evil forces has been overwhelming. However, Falun Dafa practitioners who persistently studied the Fa every day and firmly believed in Teacher and the Great Fa were able to break through the enormous pressure and clarified truth to the policemen in the local police stations. We delivered Teacher's new articles and every piece of truth-clarification material to the police officers, from the chief down to the ordinary policeman. Some policemen even made friends with Falun Dafa practitioners. From July 20, 1999 until the end of the year 2000, we frequently held group Fa-studies and shared experiences with practitioners from other practice sites or other areas. The local police just pretended they didn't know about it, because they all knew that Falun Dafa is good.
At the end of 1999, some practitioners went to appeal for Falun Gong, and were arrested and taken back to the local police station. The policemen were quite polite to us. We were allowed to sit on a sofa or lie down on a bed, while the detained criminals had to squat down with their hands on their heads or stand facing the wall. The police even helped us to get lunch. A young girl who was not a local resident came to the police station for help because her travel fare had been stolen. No one in the police station expressed any concern for her. The practitioners took the opportunity to demonstrate their compassion and spread the Fa to the policemen. They said to her, "We will help you. Take this money and buy a ticket to go home. After you go home, tell your parents that Falun Gong practitioners are all good people." The policemen at the scene were impressed. After a while, a few policemen came to express their respect. They said, "We know you are good people. Just practice at home and don't go outside. Arms can't compete with thighs [meaning you cannot win against the government]. We have no choice but to follow the orders of the higher authorities." A young policeman even asked us to teach him the Falun Gong exercises. In the evening, a policeman escorted us to the detention center. He asked us if we were afraid or not. He sadly told us, "This is not a place that you are supposed to stay." Before he left, he told the guards whom he knew, "Be sure to take good care of them. They are all good people."
Below are examples of positive interactions that we have experienced from police officers and from a judge.
After the persecution began on July 20, 1999, when we clarified truth to the local policemen, a certain police officer listened to us intently and said he would treat us kindly. At the beginning of the persecution of Falun Gong, he was ordered to go to practitioners' homes to confiscate their Falun Dafa books. He purposely neglected these orders. Once when he was sending a practitioner to the detention center, he told the practitioner, "If they demand (Falun Dafa) books from you, just tell them you have turned them in." Whenever the so-called "sensitive days" [national holidays and political meetings] were approaching, the higher authorities ordered the local police stations to arrest practitioners and guard them. The policeman would inform the practitioners in advance. Later, when the evil forces stepped up their desperate persecution of Falun Gong, more than a dozen practitioners in our area were sentenced, sent to labor camps or detained. He told the family members of practitioners, "Society is now chaotic. The criminal offenders are too many for us to deal with. However, the higher authorities order us to arrest the good people who practice Falun Gong." Soon after that, he quit his job as a policeman.
A practitioner lived in the area under a certain policeman's jurisdiction. After July 20, 1999, local practitioners as well as practitioners from other areas came to the practitioner's house almost every day to study the Fa or share experiences together. The policeman has never interfered with or troubled them. Sometimes he even watched them from outside the door. He often went to visit the families of those practitioners who were detained or sent to labor camps. Sometimes he brought them some fruit. Once he ingeniously returned the Falun Gong books that were confiscated by the policemen from the city police stations and staff from the National Security Department. When practitioners encountered problems during the course of spreading the Fa and safeguarding the Fa, he reminded them, "You need to examine yourself!"
A practitioner was arrested when he went to appeal, so he clarified truth to the preliminary judge handling his case. The judge listened carefully, and politely told him, "I will write three more requirements on your behalf. The first one is, to restore your practice environment; the second, to restore your Teacher's reputation; and the third, to release all practitioners that are in custody."
2. Clarifying the truth to staff in the Neighborhood Administration Offices and Residence Commissions
The Neighborhood Administration Officer went to a practitioner's home with the director of the Residence Commission to "transform" (4) the practitioner. The practitioner read his letter of appeal to them with a compassionate voice and a pure heart. He also told them the wonderful stories of how other practitioners had recovered from their illnesses and stayed healthy after practicing Falun Gong. The officer was very impressed. He said when he left, "You are all good people. I will definitely help you whenever needed." The director joked, "So who was transformed today'"
On another occasion we went to visit the same Residence Commission director. We told her stories about how practitioners in her jurisdiction had raised their moral standard and become good people and how they had become stronger and healthier because of Falun Dafa. For example, when one practitioner's workplace assigned some apartment units, the practitioner voluntarily gave his apartment to others. Another practitioner's workplace evaluated their workers and granted professional titles. The practitioner took it all lightly without fighting for a title at all. Some practitioners had been seriously sick for many years before they practiced Falun Gong; however, they completely recovered after they began practicing. The director listened to us and said she would resign from her position as director and would not be involved in the persecution of practitioners. She also borrowed the book Zhuan Falun.
Later on, the Residence Commission changed its director twice. When the new director took his position, he always followed the orders from the "610 Office" (5) and designated Falun Gong practitioners as those people to be put under surveillance. They demanded that we practitioners fill out all kinds of forms and write the so-called "Guarantee Statements" (6). We clarified the truth to them. We told them the truth about the staged "Self-Immolation in Tiananmen Square" (7) and how Jiang is being sued in various countries. After they listened to the truth, they stopped demanding that we fill out the forms. They said they knew what to do if they received more orders from the upper authorities. They also became friends with some of the practitioners.
Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference,"
"In fact, you've all seen that in the course of Dafa disciples clarifying the truth, the people of the world have been changing. If you do it well, then the people of the world and all beings will wake up. And once the beings wake up, the evil has no audience at all and it really can't do things rampantly".
We sincerely feel that our environment has become more relaxed and we feel much less pressure than before. No matter who we clarified truth to, whether our colleagues, classmates, neighbors, friends, relatives, or strangers; no matter where we clarified truth, be it at home, on the street, in a park, in the marketplace, or in various other places, we all got good responses. People were no longer afraid to hear what we told them. They no longer argued with us, using the lies and rumors that had been propagated by the government-controlled media. They agreed with what we said. Once when we clarified the truth to a college student, he told us, "I knew about it from the Internet. Falun Gong is persecuted by Jiang." An elderly man in his 70s told us of the many questionable points in the "Self-Immolation in Tiananmen Square" after he read the truth-clarification materials. When we clarified the truth to the people who sold fruits and vegetables, they sometimes added some more fruits and vegetables to our purchase. We told them, "Teacher tells us to be good people. We cannot take anything more than we pay for, not even a penny more. Remember that Falun Dafa is good; Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance are good. You will be well rewarded." They nodded their heads, "Yes, we will remember."
It is just as Teacher says in "Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference,"
"Clarifying the truth during the gigantic changes has already become the major way of saving all beings and the world's people, so in doing this, the wisdom that Dafa has given you and the enormous capability that the Fa has provided you with are manifesting. Your clarifying the truth inevitably initiates a sort of chain reaction. Once a person knows the truth, he realizes, 'Oh, so that's how it is. Dafa is so great, after all!' Some people who've learned the truth may think about taking up cultivation, some may be quite sympathetic, and others might offer support in the form of concrete actions. These responses that came about through clarifying the truth spread from person to person, heart to heart."
April 28, 2004
Notes:
- Fa: Law and principles; the teachings of Falun Dafa.
- The book, Zhuan Falun, comprises the principal teachings of Falun Dafa.
- April 25, 1999 was the date that approximately 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners went to appeal to the State Council's Appeals Office on Fuyou Street in Beijing. The peaceful appeal received international attention because of the peacefulness, rationality, good faith, forbearance, self-discipline and high level of social awareness demonstrated by Falun Gong practitioners. July 20, 1999 was the date when Jiang Zemin and his followers began a rigorous persecution of Falun Gong, using the entire government machinery to slander and attack Falun Gong.
- To "transform": to brainwash practitioners so they give up their belief in Falun Gong.
- The "610 Office": an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.
- "Guarantee Statements": A statement to declare that one is remorseful for practicing Falun Gong and guarantees not to practice Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Dafa practitioners.
- Staged "Self-Immolation in Tiananmen Square," please refer to http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/special_column/self-immolation.html