(Minghui.org) For the past two years, the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) brainwashing sessions have intensified again and this time with a vengeance. The CCP continues to arrest Falun Gong practitioners in broad daylight. Some practitioners who were illegally sentenced to ten years in prison and who were forced to give up their belief walked out of the prisons. But after they were released, instead of going back home, they were directly sent to be “transformed” in brainwashing centers. Some practitioners greatly fear these “brainwashing” sessions and this directly interferes with their validating the Fa and clarifying the facts.
Our local group needed to understand this problem, so a number of practitioners in our area studied the Fa and shared our understandings and experiences related to this fear. Basing on our understandings of the Fa, we became clear, and our righteous thoughts became stronger. Below I have shared some of my understandings.
Why Has the CCP Utilized the Method of Brainwashing Again?
When the CCP launched the persecution of Falun Dafa, they used propaganda to fabricate lies and to slander Dafa and Dafa practitioners. When these tricks did not change practitioners' hearts and minds to give up their belief in Falun Dafa, the CCP began to attempt to “transform” their minds with force, by establishing brainwashing centers around the country. In order to deceive the Chinese public, the CCP called the brainwashing sessions things like “legal training session” and “legal education school.” Practitioners kept exposing the persecution, and in order to save face because they had violated the Chinese constitution, the CCP had to close down some brainwashing centers. As their deception was exposed, the CCP began using threatening means to force Falun Dafa practitioners to give up their belief.
The CCP sentenced the practitioners who persisted in their faith to prisons or forced labor camps. The CCP not only could not achieve their goals, but instead caused practitioners to become more mature and resolute in their beliefs. In order to sustain the persecution and give the false impression that the “persecution had succeeded,” the CCP gave “transformation quota updates” to all levels of the Political and Legal Committees. At each level, these committees had to accomplish certain quotas by using brainwashing sessions. Many were afraid of arresting practitioners who firmly insisted on their belief. So some brainwashing classes had requirements for rejecting “four kinds of practitioners.” These included: those who firmly insisted on their belief, older practitioners, practitioners who were unhealthy due to physical torture, and practitioners who had influence in their local area. Nevertheless, the CCP used the “transformation rate” to prove their “political achievement” and influence the general public, and even other practitioners. They also recorded statements given by practitioners after they had been psychologically tortured, and used these statements to further slander Falun Dafa.
From a cultivator’s perspective, the old forces want to eliminate practitioners who they think do not meet the standard. In order to understand the methods used in the brainwashing sessions, I talked with a few practitioners who had just been “transformed” and were released. I asked what caused them to cooperate with the evil. Almost all of them said the same thing: “The living conditions inside the brainwashing centers were not bad. They asked us to read their propaganda materials that slandered Falun Dafa, and they constantly applied mental pressure to install crooked understandings in our minds. We knew it was wrong to cooperate with the brainwashing attempts, but we just didn't want to stay there anymore.” Thus, in order to take advantage of this thought, the police would announce, “If you still refuse to be 'transformed', we will detain you indefinitely.” Behind every word of these practitioners, I could sense that their attachment to comfort was still very strong. Almost all of them had deviated from the righteous path of cultivation by having too many attachments. In our area, four of the seven arrested practitioners still had the attachment of lust. Some practitioner’s hearts had deviated even though they still attended the group Fa-study.
Although it was against the practitioners' wills to be “transformed” in the brainwashing sessions, their cultivation states were not good after being released. They were either puzzled by attachments to their family and could not validate the Fa, or they had attachments to everyday life. One practitioner got divorced and wanted to remarry a non-practitioner. He also performed the sacred three things like they were optional. When I shared my thoughts with him, he said, “I want to tell you the truth. After I came back from the brainwashing center, I no longer had a strong belief in the Fa.” I was shocked to hear that. Suddenly one sentence came to my mind, “The old forces really want to destroy practitioners.” I understood that the attachment of pursing comfort also exists in many others practitioners (including me) in this final period of the Fa-rectification. We should advance more diligently. But instead, we still have attachments to the human world. It seems that we have picked up many attachments that we had already let go of.
My Advice on How to Disintegrate the Brainwashing Sessions:
Improve as a Whole and Thoroughly Deny the Old Forces' Arrangements
We know that the old forces are trying to destroy practitioners by orchestrating brainwashing sessions. It is not the cultivation environment Master has arranged for us during Fa-rectification period. The reason we could not deny the old forces' arrangement is because our actions could not keep up with the Fa-rectification. The Fa-rectification is already at the final stage. We should really have all matured by now. First of all, we must study the Fa a lot with calm mind, and we need to use the Fa in our words and actions while validating the Fa, saving sentient beings and living our lives. We should walk away from the attachment of human notions, human principles, and human sensations. By now, we should have passed the stage of personal cultivation. During Fa-rectification cultivation, we need to let go of our “self” to cooperate with the whole body well. As long as we can think from within the Fa, be aware of the one body, and think of saving sentient beings, we will thoroughly deny the old forces' evil arrangements. If we could really achieve this, the brainwashing sessions would be disintegrated as there would be no one left to persecute.
Expose the CCP's Actions to Inform the Public
In 2005, the province I lived in and the few cities near our local area experienced severe persecution of Dafa practitioners. At that time, we did not have fear. Instead, we followed Master's requirements. On the one hand, we used the persecution happening in other areas as a mirror for us to find our own omissions. On the other hand, we actively exposed the crimes of the political instructor of the Domestic Security Division. We posted his name and photos along all the streets and over a few days we delivered truth-clarifying materials all over the residential communities. Whenever the political instructor met with acquaintances, he would hear the news exposing his crimes. Some joked about it when they saw him, “Ah, so you are the evil police? What did you do? Your photos are everywhere.” His family members also complained that he was too arrogant. Even the police chief's wife warned her husband, “You should never be like him. Look at the big stir he caused.” When this political instructor saw a practitioner he was familiar with, he complained, “You practitioners are not playing the game right. If you had just spent some money [meaning offered him bribes], I could have settled these things. But you exposed me everywhere. Now I’ve hired a few hundred people to clean it all up. You should help me to clean it too.”
During that time, no one in our area was persecuted. We collected the information of the individual who had participated in the brainwashing sessions. We included his telephone number, home address, and all of his family, relatives and friends' addresses, workplaces, telephone numbers and even the public places they usually went. Then Dafa practitioners could expose the evil to let more people understand the truth and know who these individuals were that persecute practitioners. This would help the Chinese citizens clearly understand the nature of the CCP. When people saw the persecutors they would shout and chase them, and the evil acts would be reduced.
Dafa practitioners' family members are the backbone of the public and their being against the persecution is most important. So we need to clarify the truth to the family members of the practitioners who were being persecuted. Once, a town held a brainwashing session and they first arrested a teacher in the county. Dafa practitioners coordinated very well. Besides sending righteous thoughts, posting stickers and passing out flyers, the practitioners' family members also clarified the facts to the Chinese people. They went to the brainwashing center to ask for the release of the practitioners every day. Some family members talked about the positive changes the arrested practitioner went through after he started to practice Falun Dafa and how he became a good person no matter what situation. His mother cried for more than an hour at the office of the relevant authorities. Another practitioner's family member yelled loudly all the time (although this is not what we recommend, the family members' actions did reveal the truth), and this made the CCP personnel so frustrated that they could not work. The personnel promised to release the practitioner the next day instead of the day after next. Then they moved the date to the same day. Finally they promised to release the practitioner unconditionally after half an hour. One person in the local 610 Office said, “It really is not worth it. Not only did we not 'transform' one practitioner, but also we inadvertently invited the practitioners to come, which caused a big stir in the town. It also increased Falun Gong's prestige.” The Political and Legal Committee said that their county wouldn’t have brainwashing sessions in the future.
While I was writing this article, another practitioner walked out of the brainwashing sessions with righteous thoughts just after ten days of being arrested. A few days ago, her family members who already understood the truth went to the district Political and Legal Committee to ask for the release of the practitioner. In the beginning, the CCP officials were strongly controlled by the old forces and they announced that they would keep arresting other practitioners. They also said that they would arrest a well-known practitioner. The practitioners outside sent righteous thoughts and the family members inside had strong righteous thoughts. In the end, the Political and Legal Committee pushed the responsibility to the local community office and said that the community office reported the practitioner to them.
The practitioners and the family members then went to the community office. When the family members arrived, an official in the community office who was strongly controlled by the old forces said that his community was a “civilized community nationwide” and that the arrested practitioner had posted Falun Gong materials everywhere.
The practitioner's family members showed no sign of weakness and they confronted this official. The practitioners reminded each other to look inward since they came to save sentient beings and should not have the attachment to the outcome. The family members told the official that the Political and Legal Committee had informed them that the community officials reported the practitioner. The community official called the Committee who agreed to talk to the practitioner's family members the next day.
The following day, the practitioner's family went to the Political and Legal Committee. The practitioners cooperated with each other to send righteous thoughts. In the end, the party secretary of the district CCP Political and Legal Committee said, “She refused to be 'transformed'. It is no use to keep her here. We will release her tomorrow.” The next day the practitioner was released at the designated time. If the Political and Legal Committees at all levels and the personnel who participated in the persecution all considered that it is not in their best interests to host the brainwashing sessions, the evil could not control them anymore. The brainwashing sessions would automatically disintegrate as no one would want to be part of it.
Cooperate as a Whole, Eliminate Evil Factors with Righteous Thoughts
We all know that the persecution is not a persecution among humans. It is evil factors controlling the evil people who do it. So if we are all based on the Fa and use pure righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil, could the brainwashing centers still exist?
Currently, the evil factors have become less and less, and today the evil does not have the capability to persecute Dafa practitioners on a large scale. So if the CCP wants to have brainwashing sessions, it must find bad people to do it. Usually a few cities host one brainwashing session all together, at the same time. So we need to cooperate together to send righteous thoughts as one body. It is not right if we stop sending righteous thoughts just because there are no practitioners in our local area being arrested. And it is not right that we only send righteous thoughts when there is an arrested practitioner in our local area. Every practitioner in every city and county must fulfill their responsibilities of sending righteous thoughts.
In 2010, a practitioner in our city was arrested and sent to a forced labor camp. One practitioner who had some influence among local practitioners and practitioners from surrounding cities and counties all cooperated together to send righteous thoughts. Every day there were practitioners sending righteous thoughts in close proximity to the labor camp. Inside the forced labor camp, not only did no one try to “transform” her, the police also said to the practitioner, “You won't be here for too long. We need to get you out of here.” Later, the practitioner was released unconditionally. Afterwards the forced labor camp closed down. The prisoners (who were not Dafa practitioners) were all transferred to the drug addiction treatment center in the capital of the province. From this, we can see that the brainwashing centers continue to exist because local practitioners did not do well, and also the practitioners in nearby cities and counties did not fully realize that they also should be helping.
If we truly believe in Master and the Fa, let us give it a try now. Above are just my personal understandings. Please kindly point anything inappropriate.
