Ignoring Cellphone Safety is a Major Issue

(Minghui.org) We have been cautioned about cellphone safety issues for many years, and many practitioners have been arrested after the police monitored their cellphones. Some were sentenced to prison or were persecuted to death.

Master taught us clearly about cellphone safety:

“There isn’t much to talk about here. You are carrying a listening device on you. Besides spies and governments, anyone is able to monitor you at will, and it’s very simple. That’s all it is, and whether you keep it on or off, it doesn’t make any difference.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2016 New York Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XIV)

I know of an elderly practitioner who started to cultivate before 1999 who always brings her cellphone with her. She has a very strong personality and is self-centered. Although she is very diligent in doing things, I haven’t seen much improvement in her xinxing over the years, and she still has intense conflicts with her family members, who have gradually gone from supporting her practicing Dafa to opposing it.

This practitioner worked at a large materials production site when she was forced to live away from home in 2000 to hide from the police. When she missed her son, she kept calling him on her cellphone from the materials production site, which eventually led the police to discover the site and destroy it. Several practitioners were arrested and sentenced to prison. She wasn’t sentenced herself, however, as her family used their connections to bribe the authorities and get her out.

But instead of learning a lesson, she still brings her cellphone with her even when she visits other practitioners or attends Fa study sessions. When practitioners urged her not to, she said she wouldn’t, but brought it with her anyway. We didn’t find out about it until her phone rang during Fa study one day. Because we didn’t know she had it with her, we had discussed many things about printing and distributing the materials when her phone was on. Not only that, she never changed her number after putting it down as her contact number in the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin in 2015, so it’s frightening to think how much information the police could have obtained through her phone.

Because of her unwillingness to change, we were forced to suspend several Fa study groups. For one of the groups, the police came the day after we decided to stop meeting. With Master’s protection, no one was arrested that time.

That practitioner was also attached to reading news about the internal struggles of the Chinese Communist Party and couldn’t keep up with her Fa study. She later developed a severe physical condition and spent a fortune on brain surgery. After she recovered, instead of catching up with her cultivation, she visited practitioners, always with her phone, to talk about non-cultivation-related things.

She recently went to a materials production site several times, seeking help from fellow practitioners, because her computer wouldn’t connect to the Internet. For a few days, the technical practitioner had dreamed that he was in danger. He looked within but couldn’t find a problem. When that female practitioner came to the materials production site again, the technical practitioner suddenly remembered her cellphone issue and asked her about it. She initially attempted to deny it, but eventually admitted that she had her phone with her.

Another elderly practitioner does the same thing. She is diligent about going out every day to distribute materials and talking to people face to face to clarify the truth, but she still fights with her husband at home and always brings her cellphone with her when she visits the materials production site. We’ve tried to persuade her to pay attention to safety, but she refuses to listen.

Such practitioners may think that as long as they aren’t arrested, it’s fine for them to bring their cellphone with them. They don’t think about the critical information they are leaking to the police. They are actually acting as police “insiders” leading to practitioners being arrested. Of course the police wouldn’t want to arrest the “insiders!”

I hope these practitioners will think seriously about this issue. I don’t know if they realize what a serious crime it is if practitioners are arrested and stop cultivating due to the persecution, all because someone didn’t pay attention to cellphone safety. I believe a genuine practitioner knows the importance of being responsible for oneself and fellow practitioners.

Editor’s note: This article only represents the author’s understanding in their current cultivation state meant for sharing among practitioners so that we can “Compare in studying, compare in cultivating.” (“Solid Cultivation,” Hong Yin)