(Clearwisdom.net) Note: Deng Shiying was a Falun Dafa practitioner in Jilin City, Jilin Province. She died on July 19, 2003 after being tortured in the Jilin Province Women's Prison for ten months. On October 16, 2002, she was arrested and detained at the Yongjie County Detention Center for clarifying the facts to the local residents, and was sentenced to seven years in prison by the Yongjie County People's Court. After she was prosecuted and sentenced, Deng Shiying took the initiative to clarify the facts and filed a formal appeal to the next higher court, the Jilin City Intermediate People's Court and People's Procuratorate Court. Deng Shiying's steadfast belief in Dafa dealt the evil a severe blow, and the authorities ended the show trial they had staged against her hastily. Her righteous action has contributed a great deal to the truth clarifying activities of her hometown, and greatly shocked and eliminated the evil. The following is the original appeals brief that she wrote for the court:

To the People in Charge of the Jilin City Intermediate People's Court and People's Procuratorate Court:

My name is Deng Shiying. I am a Falun Dafa practitioner. I was arrested while distributing Dafa truth-clarifying flyers in order to clarify the facts to the people of the world and validate Falun Dafa. The Yongjie County People's Court found me guilty on trumped up charges and sentenced me to seven years in prison. I refuse to accept this type of illegal prison sentence against me. I am a Falun Dafa practitioner who tries to be a good person according to the principle of "Truthfulness Compassion Forbearance." I have done nothing wrong, and I am not guilty of any crime.

1. Why did I distribute Falun Dafa flyers and use other methods to clarify the facts?

I began to practice Falun Dafa in 1996 after I was introduced to it by a friend. Before I obtained the Fa, I was seriously ill. I was suffering from sclerosis of the liver, slipped disk, spinal injury, and serious heart problems. It had been 3 to 4 years since I was able to take care of myself on my own. Due to my spinal injury, I was unable to lift my head. I had such a serious case of slipped disk that I didn't dare to sit up. The sclerosis of the liver that I was suffering from had progressed to an advanced stage. To make things worse, I also suffered from Meniere's disease. As a result, I was in a tremendous amount of pain every single minute of every single day. I suffered from neurasthenia, and couldn't sleep for days at a time. Eating or drinking water became very difficult. My family spent a lot of money on my medical treatment, but nothing helped. The hospital finally reached the conclusion that my diseases were terminal. My mind almost reached a breaking point after being forced to deal with both the physical and mental suffering for so long. My family life became very disharmonious. My husband and I argued and fought with each other all the time.

Just as I was feeling that I would be better off dead and that I had reached the end of the road, a friend introduced me to Falun Dafa. After practicing it for only three months, all the incurable diseases that I had suffered from for so long disappeared and I returned to perfect health. I went back to the hospital for a physical. All the test results came back normal. My doctors thought a miracle had happened after witnessing such a huge improvement in my health. From then on, I began to require myself to follow the principle of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" even more strictly. My whole body felt light and relaxed. I enjoyed a greater breadth of mind, and my family life became harmonious. I truly felt that I had obtained countless benefits through practicing Falun Dafa. At the same time, I also came to understand that the real reason for a person's life is to return to one's true, original self.

Falun Dafa requires its practitioners to be good people according to the principle of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance." It is a highly virtuous Great Law of the cosmos that brings countless benefits to any individual or any country without having a single negative effect. Yet on July 20, 1999, some people who were in a position of power used a whole country's machinery to brand Falun Dafa a cult and forbid people to practice it. They have used all kinds of propaganda to fabricate lies to slander and persecute Falun Gong. They staged the Tiananmen "Self-Immolation." They falsely claimed that a mental patient who had killed his parents and a person who had mortally wounded himself by slitting his stomach open were Falun Gong practitioners. The lies became stranger and stranger and more and more unbelievable. Their intention is to invoke the hatred of those who aren't aware the facts toward Falun Dafa and its practitioners. They have deceived many people and poisoned the minds of many kind-hearted ordinary citizens. The country's Appeals Bureau has been turned into a police station. Anyone who goes to Beijing to file a peaceful appeal and speak their mind faces the danger of being arrested and persecuted to the point where they become permanently disabled or are even killed.

We Dafa disciples have been unjustly persecuted without cause. While facing this type of unjust treatment, we have displayed immense compassion and forbearance. Our benevolent and magnificent Teacher has told us to let people know the truth about Falun Gong and eliminate the bad notions that people have against Falun Dafa after being deceived and poisoned by the lies. With all the propaganda machinery being used to fabricate lies, there is no place for us to speak, and we have no choice but to use flyers and other methods to clarify the facts to the precious Chinese people and save them.

Think about it, everyone. If the evil had not slandered and persecuted Dafa disciples and hadn't used slanderous lies to poison people, why would there be a need for us to clarify the facts to them? If there hadn't been this persecution, we would be at our homes carrying on our daily activities and taking care of our children and family members. Wouldn't it be good? Under the risk of being arrested, beaten and forced to leave our homes and having our families fall apart, we still clarify the facts to the people in order to save them as well as you. You also have parents, siblings, spouses and children. Compared to you, what kind of life have we been leading? I sincerely hope that our benevolent action can wake you up so that you can tell what is right and what is wrong. Therefore I'd like to take this opportunity to tell you this: It isn't wrong to be a good person and speak the truth, and neither is it a crime!

(2) Falun Dafa is not mi xin (superstition or blind faith). It isn't an evil cult, and it has no organization.

It is a cultivation method of high virtue. Certain people who have ulterior motives have spent a lot of effort trying to portray Falun Dafa as mi xin. In the article "What is Mi Xin," our Teacher said, "Without mi xin in discipline, soldiers would not have combative abilities; without mi xin in their schools and teachers, students would not acquire knowledge; without mi xin in their parents, children would not be brought up well-mannered...." If something hasn't been discovered or recognized by today's science, it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. Things that are invisible and untouchable are scattered all over the universe. Certain things that are invisible to human eyes can be seen under a microscope. How can you say that those things don't exist? What today's people have discovered or invented are all things that people before them hadn't discovered or invented. How can you say that they are superstitious and don't exist? When we cultivate, we open up the innate abilities and wisdom of human beings, and obtain a better understanding of the material world.

What is evil? Evil means not being righteous. It teaches people to do bad things and in the end leads people astray. But we are cultivators who try to be good people according to "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance." We don't fight back when we are hit and don't argue back when we are cursed. We try to be good to everyone and think of other people first in every situation. How is this evil? We don't have any organization. Everyone comes to study the Fa and cultivate his heart out of his own free will. Anyone who wants to study it is given the opportunity to study it, and anyone who doesn't want to study it anymore is free to leave. Nobody forces anyone else to cultivate, and the only thing that we try to tell people to do is to be kind. We don't keep a list of names of practitioners. We don't own any churches or places of gathering, and neither do we have any office buildings or office locations. No matter what we do to spread the teaching, we do it out of our own desire to do so. How is it a religion? We are conducting cultivation in the Buddha school. What we cultivate is the most righteous Law. The path that we have taken is the most righteous path, and can rectify anything around it that isn't righteous. How can a righteous thing become evil just because it doesn't conform to the wishes of a certain person who is in a position of power? Does it mean that an evil thing is good as long as it conforms to the wishes of a certain person who is in a position of power? Isn't that the same as turning things upside down just because a wicked person is in power?

Right now good people are being arrested, detained, sent to forced labor camps, sent to prisons and tortured to death while those people who have committed real crimes such as embezzlement and corruption are allowed to go unpunished. Political power is placed higher than the law. People have become very discontented. So many people have been laid off and are unable to support their families. Yet Jiang Zemin had the audacity to say that right now is the period of time when China's "human rights are at its best?" It is so ridiculous! Our most benevolent and magnificent teacher has imparted the most precious Great Laws of the cosmos during the period of time when human morality has degenerated to its worst state. He wants to save all beings in the cosmos. But because of personal jealousy, Jiang has used his power to fabricate lies and slander Falun Gong. He has used all kinds of methods to deceive people and make them hate Dafa. He says that there were too many people studying Falun Gong and the number of people who were practicing it had exceeded the number of the Chinese Communist Party members. Isn't it a good thing to have so many good people? Truth won't stay hidden forever. If there were no ulterior motive on Jiang's part, why is he so afraid of good people? As cultivators, we strive to let go of attachments to fame, fortune or human sentimentality. We are not interested in anyone's political power.

Our Teacher began to spread Falun Dafa in 1992. Think about it, why is it before July 20, 1999 there wasn't a single case of shocking events such as "self-immolation" and suicide? Why is it that no such cases have been reported outside of China with it being practiced in more than 60 countries in the world? Those [reports in China] are obviously fabricated. The book Zhuan Falun clearly states that mental patients aren't allowed to practice Falun Gong. You ask why our Teacher doesn't come to China to face all these things. Right now our country is being ruled by a political scoundrel group with a leader who doesn't possess a single trace of humanity, who places his personal power higher than the law, who doesn't have even a shred of genuine willingness to solve this problem, and who rules the country purely on his personal whims. What would our Teacher be able to accomplish by returning to China? You say that our Teacher spreads the practice because he wants to make money for himself. But our Teacher's books are published on the Internet in their entirety, and many people who have predestined relationships with Dafa as well as those who want to understand more about Dafa are able to download the books free of charge. Yet in order to prevent people from knowing the facts, the Jiang regime has blocked these websites. The lies now sound more and more fake. People in more than 60 countries in the world are spreading Falun Dafa. Governments in various countries have issued more than 1000 proclamations for our Teacher and Falun Dafa.

Our country's laws have been constantly refined and improved. Under the law, every citizen should have the right to hold his own personal beliefs as well as visit appeal offices to air their grievances. But we Falun Dafa cultivators have been stripped of all these rights. In February of 2002, I was illegally detained by the local police station for going to a fellow practitioner's home to study the Fa and share experiences. I was charged with "disrupting public order." Because I refused to give up practicing Falun Gong, I was sentenced to 1 year at a forced labor camp. While being detained at the Heizuizi Forced Labor Camp in the city of Changchun, each day seemed to last a year, and I experienced inhumane treatment and cruel torture both physically and mentally. The police there hit me with electric batons on numerous occasions. When I held a hunger strike in protest, they force-fed me with such force that I vomited blood on three occasions. I was tied to a bed with four limbs spread open and cuffed in that position for more than ten days straight. I wasn't allowed to sleep for days and nights as they attempted to "transform" (brainwash) me by force. I once asked the police and the inmates, "What do you want 'transform' us good people who cultivate 'Truthfulness Compassion Forbearance' into?"

Here I'd like to ask a question to all the judges and prosecutors. The power that you have was given to you by the people. Your duty is to protect the innocent and punish the guilty, and protect the kind-hearted citizens. Despite being forced to live under Jiang's inhumane directive of "Destroy their reputations, bankrupt them financially and annihilate them physically," tens of thousands of us Falun Gong disciples have courageously put aside the concern for our own safety and stepped forward to clarify the facts and save sentient beings. In the face of such acts of immense kindness, people of conscience and sense of justice are giving us support and help. Why do you have to assist the evil to commit these acts? When you sentence Dafa disciples to prison, aren't you joining forces with Jiang's faction that has committed so many crimes?

I hope that all the prosecutors and judges can maintain a clearheaded attitude when it comes to Falun Gong and make correct choices for yourselves. Don't lose the hope for the eternity of your lives for the sake of just this small bit of immediate personal gain. Right now, many people who work in the legal departments of the government and other organizations as well as kind-hearted people have started to protect Dafa disciples and treat them well. I hope that you can treat this as a lesson that you can learn from in the future when it comes to issues that are relevant to Falun Gong and position yourselves well. Remember that "there are consequences for both good and bad deeds" is a heavenly principle. Remember that Falun Dafa is good.

Here I would also like to formally ask you to clear the name of my Teacher, clear the name of Falun Dafa, clear the name of Dafa disciples, find me not guilty, and let me go home immediately. At the same time, I ask you to bring Jiang Zemin, who has brought serious damage to the Chinese people and to people all over the world, to trial and punish him severely for his crimes so that the righteousness and solemnity of laws in the human world are upheld.

Dafa disciple Deng Shiying