Looking at the Zero-out Harassment Campaign from a Different Perspective

(Minghui.org) During the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s ongoing “Zero-out” campaign against Falun Gong, many practitioners and their family members have been intimated or ordered to write statements to give up the practice. 

The campaign aims to force every Falun Gong practitioner on the government’s blacklist to renounce their faith. Local authorities across the country often went door to door to “work on” local practitioners.

Most of the targeted practitioners were able to resist the harassment with righteous thoughts and did not cooperate with the authorities. They told the harassers the facts about Falun Gong and advised them to withdraw from the CCP and its two junior organizations.

But some practitioners became scared of the harassment and did not want to deal with it. They sought ways around it. As a result, their family members cooperated with the authorities to varying degrees and complicated the practitioners’ cultivation environment.

While facing the repeated harassment, if we could all look at it from a different perspective, the situation might not be the same. I would like to share my recent experience here.

One day, my husband received a phone call from a man claiming to be a police officer from our local police station. The police officer said that he would visit my home and talk to me. 

Because of previous harassment and persecution over the past years, my husband was under great mental stress about the upcoming visit. He became anxious and complained to me with irrational words. I comforted him and said, “You don’t have to be afraid. Our family has gone through so much in the past and we have only come this far because Master Li (the founder of Falun Dafa) has been watching over us. You don’t need to be scared. They just want to talk to me. In fact, I have long wanted to talk to them. You do not have to say anything, just watch quietly when they come.”

At the scheduled time that afternoon, I prepared some tea. Two people showed up. One was the chief of the police station and the other was the officer who called my husband. I was polite and poured tea for them. I asked them to write down their names and phone numbers in my notebook. I said, “Over the years there may have been a lot of misunderstanding and lack of communication between us. Since you are here today, let’s have a good talk.” They agreed.

I spoke first, “Before we start, I would like to clarify a few points. First, what the media has reported over the years and the internal communication you’ve received has all been false information against Falun Gong. You have been dealing with Falun Gong practitioners for so many years. I am sure you all know who we are. Second, Falun Gong teaches people to be good by following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Third, no law has ever criminalized Falun Gong in China. You have all studied the law. I’m sure you know it better than me.”

The police officer who called my husband said, “We have studied the law so we acknowledge all of this. The Ministry of Public Security and the Central General Office listed fourteen types of cults, which did not include Falun Gong. But there was a document from the Ministry of Public Security and two other documents from 1999 that singled out Falun Gong.” 

“Do you have these documents?” I asked.

“Not now.”

“The Ministry of Public Security is a law enforcement agency, not a legislative body, and whatever regulations it makes cannot be enforced as law,” I said to him.

The police officer said, “Let’s not talk about this. Let’s go through the procedure.” Then he began to ask my ID number and phone number, and if I had a car, a motor scooter or a bicycle. 

I looked at him seriously and said, “You come here today because I practice Falun Gong, right? What do you want to talk about if you don’t talk about Falun Gong? Your questions have nothing to do with what we are supposed to communicate (which is Falun Gong) today. Are you treating me as a suspect? If that’s the case, you have to show evidence first.” 

They quickly denied it. “No, no, we are just here to talk to you today.” 

I said, “I am treating you as my guests today, and I sincerely want to clarify the facts and clear some misunderstandings. To do that, we have to do it based on mutual respect, right?” 

They said yes.

The police officer tried hard to show his knowledge on Taoism, Buddhism, medicine, and philosophy, etc. He said that the reason he couldn’t force Falun Gong practitioners to give up their belief before was because his own knowledge level was too low. He also mentioned Master’s name and said he now knew more than Master. 

I asked him to respect my Master. “Since our conversation is based on mutual respect, I hope you won’t talk about my Master in such a tone,” I said. He silently acknowledged what I said.

Then he said, “Falun Gong teaches Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, so do Buddhism and Taoism. You are not unique.” 

I said, “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance are the universal values. The principles of Buddhism and Taoism were derived from the universal Dafa and they teach the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance at their different levels.”

He went on to say, “Falun Gong talks about curing diseases and improving health, which is related to medical science. But it also talks about philosophy. So which branch does Falun Gong belong to? Zhuan Falun has content from Buddhism, Taoism, and everything. It is just a mess. If you don’t believe me, bring it here and I can point it out for you.”

I realized that his limited knowledge prevented him from thinking out of the box and that it would not be possible for me to explain everything to him clearly at the moment. I then said, “How do you compare an egg to the universe? Have you read Zhuan Falun?” 

He said yes. 

I asked him how many times he had read it. He said, “Three to five times.” 

I said, “I am not the most intelligent person. After reading the book for more than 20 years, I have only come to a very limited understanding of it. Though you are smart, three to five times is not enough. After you read the book another three or five times, we can talk again.” He quickly responded that it was not necessary.

I said, “No one can ignore Falun Gong’s miraculous effects on curing diseases and improving health. When our Master gave lectures at the China Foundation For Justice And Courage Chinese Volunteer Foundation back then, He cured 98% of those people who were injured in their courageous actions. The effect was obvious to the patients. Falun Gong also made its name at the Oriental Health Expo in 1992 and 1993, and soon spread all over the country. There were hundreds of millions of people practicing it before the persecution in 1999. At that time, people did the Falun Gong exercises in parks and on streets in the mornings all over the country.” He said that he knew all of this.

Then he and his chief talked about so and so who died after practicing Falun Gong and so and so who got sick but did not take medicine. 

I gave them my personal view on this topic. “The doctors in the hospital treat people, right? Do doctors get sick?” They said yes. 

“Then does the doctor take medicine when he is sick?” They said of course. 

“Can we say the doctor who takes the medicine won’t die?” I asked.

“The doctor could die,” they said.

I then said to them, “If the doctor died, could you say he was not good at practicing medicine? You can’t say that. Here is another example. A teacher may have taught hundreds of students over the years, but not all of his students are admitted to college. Would you say that the teacher is not good? We cannot view it this way. So many people practice Falun Dafa and they are not under any form of management. They just study the book voluntarily. There is no guarantee that anyone who studies the book will never die. And you can’t say Falun Gong is not good because of that.”

I continued, “Let’s analyze this phenomenon. For decades, in our country, if the government decided to take down someone, from an ordinary citizen up to the president of the country, or any group, an editorial in the People’s Daily plus critical voices in the major media could take them down in less than three days. But Falun Gong practitioners are still standing strong after enduring more than 20 years of brutal persecution. Instead, the practice has spread to more than 100 countries and regions around the world. What does this tell you? Isn’t it worth pondering?” 

At this point, the police chief got up and wanted to leave, and the officer asked me to go to the police station to talk to them later. Then they left.

Reflection

With Fa rectification coming to this stage, the cosmic climate has changed. Many perpetrators are facing sanctions from the international community. In the meantime, domestically, public prosecutors and law enforcement officers will be held accountable for their (illegal) actions that date back to up to 30 years in the past. 

If we change our mindsets, instead of thinking we are being persecuted by them, but treat them as people to be saved, we could compassionately clarify the truth and stop them from participating in the persecution.

It’s as Master said,

“…Lives are rescued, minds gradually awakenedWaking, police and citizens cease to obstruct…”(“Glimpses of Goodness,” Hong Yin III)

This zero-out incident exposed many of my attachments and shortcomings. I felt lucky to have not encountered harassment before the police’s visit. After my husband received the phone call, my attachment to fear was stirred up. 

I asked myself, “Are they coming just because of my practicing Falun Gong?” Then I thought, after all these years of tempering, Dafa disciples all have no problem telling the basic truth of Dafa to people. It is not easy to find the police to clarify the truth to them. I should talk to them well when they come, with nothing to fear. When my fear of being persecuted was gone, I was no longer afraid of their visit.

In the sharing article Eliminate the Notion of “Seeing Is Believing” on Minghui.org, the practitioner said, “As a joke, if you could see the evil in another dimension driving the police to you like herding ducks, or manipulating them like puppets to persecute you, would you still be afraid of them? Not at all.” 

We should not be confused by the superficial, false appearance. Master gave us the ability to eliminate the evil. While eliminating the evil elements that manipulate the police, we should also change our human mindsets. We should stop acknowledging ourselves as victims of the persecution, and instead look at the issue with righteous thoughts. 

Doing so not only conforms to the principles of the human world but also stops the old forces from persecuting us and the police from doing evil things, which in turn will enable them to listen to the truth and stop taking part in the persecution.