(Clearwisdom.net) Some practitioners in our area have recently escaped from police stations, detention centers, forced labor camps and jails where they have been illegally detained with the assistance of other practitioners and righteous thoughts. This coincides with the current status of the Fa-rectification and the elimination of great numbers of evil elements in other dimensions.
As Dafa practitioners, when we walk the path righteously, the magnificence of Dafa is revealed.
However, can a practitioner who suffered the persecution calmly study the Fa and search within his/herself for the root of the cause of being arrested in the first place, after escaping? We must find our attachments in Fa-rectification cultivation, ceaselessly rectify ourselves, and walk every step well and righteously in cultivation.
The following two cases and a bit of my personal understanding may be a reference to my fellow practitioners. Please correct me if there is a mistake.
Exposing the persecution on Minghui in a timely manner, Falun Dafa practitioners Li Shaopeng and her mother-in-law Sun Liyan were released after one month
On November 24, 2004, officers of the Taishan Road Police Station in Fengman District, Jilin City arrested 28-year-old practitioner Ms. Li Shaopeng and her 58-year-old mother-in-law, Ms. Sun Liyan of Jilin City, at their home. On November 28, her family members went to the police station and demanded her release. The director of Taishan Road Police Station ordered three policemen to beat Ms. Li's older brother, who was not a practitioner. The three policemen sat on him and viciously beat him. As a result of the beating, he suffered a relapse of an old illness. Although the deputy director wanted to make peace with Li's family by paying them off, the policemen involved in the incident refused to apologize. Later, Li's family members continued to appeal to the appropriate department regarding the incident.
After some local practitioners heard about this, they immediately collected the perpetrators names, telephone numbers, facts of the crime, and relevant evidence (such as torn clothes, etc.) implicating the police and the responsible departments, and exposed these crimes on the Minghui website. More practitioners strengthened their righteous thoughts. After Dafa practitioners all over the world saw this message, they immediately called the police station and relevant departments and clarified the truth to the people there. Later, according to feedback from police officers in the police station, they received calls from practitioners from many countries, including Taiwan. What's more precious, with such a vicious environment in China, practitioners in Beijing also directly called to tell the truth, which terrified the perpetrators to the extreme. Meanwhile, it manifested the power of Dafa practitioners from all countries as one body.
The policemen realized that their actions were unjust and unreasonable, and being questioned by so many voices from all over the world, they attempted to deny responsibility for the incident. Twenty-eight days later, Ms. Li Shaopeng was released unconditionally, and her mother-in-law Sun Liyan was sentenced to one year of forced labor. She was sent to Heizuizi Forced Labor Camp, but authorities at the labor camp refused to admit her and she was sent home.
A Group rescue effort -- Without relying solely on everyday people's laws, a practitioner returns home as result of righteous thoughts and righteous actions
On December 4, 2004, practitioner Yu Wenzhong of Jiangbei in Jilin City was arrested while reading a Falun Dafa book on a train. He was later detained at the Jilin City Railway Detention Center, and the police refused to allow his family to visit him.
When the local practitioners found out about the situation, they first shared their understandings based on the Fa with each other. The practitioners thought they had done a thorough job clarifying the truth in most areas of Jilin, however Yu Wenzhong was detained at the Railway Detention Center for reading a Dafa book, indicating the truth-clarification efforts in the railway system were insufficient. Afterwards, practitioners started to collect the names of those in charge and their telephone numbers, and the railway system detention center's detailed address.
The next day, several practitioners and family members went to the Jilin Railway Police Department and demanded his release. In the beginning, the policemen's manner was illogical, and they threatened to sentence Yu Wenzhong. The practitioners remained unmoved, and continued to clarify the truth to them. Later the police officers changed their attitudes, and asked them to wait for an answer.
The practitioners and the family members enlightened to the fact that the detained practitioner was innocent, and that they should not passively endure and wait, and let the evil continue to persecute Dafa practitioners. They should instead take the initiative to clarify the truth and clear away the evil. They asked almost all practitioners in the city to send forth righteous thoughts together to eliminate the evil elements and strengthen the fellow practitioners. The practitioners who were able went to the proper departments to clarify the truth, while others studied the pertinent legal provisions, and more practitioners voluntarily gathered at locations near the Railway Detention Center to send forth righteous thoughts.
During the days that followed, practitioners and Yu Wenzhong's family members went to the Jilin Railway Police Department many times to demand his release, and explained the truth from the legal perspective during the process. Because the practitioners and his family continued to clarify the truth to the police officers, they gradually came to understand the true situation, but felt they lacked the authority to release Yu Wenzhong, because the "country decides" the policy regarding Falun Gong.
Practitioners argued based on reason, and told the case police officer that the persecution of Falun Gong was not the will of the majority of the central government officials, but was the policy of the dictator Jiang Zemin and a few of his cohorts. At last the police officer said, "After you receive the decision, you can continue to appeal according to the legal procedure." Some practitioners enlightened at once: during the process of rescuing our fellow practitioner, we clarify the truth from the legal perspective, but we can't rely on it. To wait for a decision and then appeal is the same as accepting the evil persecution on a different level.
As Dafa practitioners in the Fa-rectification period, we must completely negate the old forces' arrangements. Dafa rectifies everything, including man's warped laws. Dafa practitioners and Yu Wenzhong's relative, acting as his lawyers, immediately drafted an appeal stating that the detained practitioner had breached no law by being a good person, and demanded his unconditional release. With the joint efforts of Dafa practitioners, on December 20, 2004, the day after submitting the appeal letter, Yu Wenzhong was unconditionally released.
Have the correct understanding, continuously rectify oneself, and validate the Fa rationally and clearheadedly
From the second half of 2002 until now, through the joint cooperation and effort of practitioners, our local Fa-rectification environment started to change for the better to a certain degree, and the intensity of the persecution began to wane. For more than a year, we estimate that more than half of the arrested practitioners have been released due to practitioners' righteous thoughts. This is a source of great encouragement to the local practitioners. Many people have witnessed Dafa's mysterious and supernormal power, and more practitioners have stepped forward to join the Fa-rectification process.
For some time now, because of the depth of our exposure of the persecution to the local people, the persecutors began to restrain their evil acts, and some have stopped altogether.
As Dafa practitioners, Teacher has given us the sacred mission of validating Dafa, clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings. The old forces aim to destroy the sentient beings, and imposed this tribulation on Dafa and Dafa practitioners in the Fa-rectification, increasing the difficulties in saving the sentient beings. In this situation, a practitioner's every thought is extremely important.
Teacher has told us,
"The old forces don't dare to oppose our clarifying the truth or saving sentient beings. What's key is to not let them take advantage of the gaps in your state of mind when you do things."
("Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston")
Regardless of the situation, no matter how the social climate changes, we should clearly understand that this big tribulation is caused by evil elements in other dimensions, and not by human beings, so we should have no misconceptions about the real evil. The dark minions and rotten ghosts are jealously watching us, and we can only take every step well on our path of cultivation, and righteously follow Dafa's requirements at all times.
"Validate the Fa with rationality, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa and save people with mercy -- this is establishing the mighty virtue of an Enlightened Being." (From Master Li's article, Rationality, August 9, 2000.)
Many of the detained Dafa practitioners had fallen in into a poor cultivation state before they were arrested, and sometimes only did one or two of The Three Things we are supposed to do. After some of our fellow practitioners escaped with righteous thoughts, they did not calm down and truly look within themselves for the cause of the persecution, but felt that their experiences while escaping were the main things to share with others, and ignored the requirement of looking inward and improving one's xinxing as a practitioner. Some practitioners did not take this as the focus, but concentrated on studying the Fa, and gradually forgot to rectify themselves because they were influenced by the praise of others. Some practitioners even judged the level of cultivation status by how much Dafa work practitioners do, and neglected the essentials of cultivation- "However high your character is, that's how high your gong is." (Zhuan Falun) Some practitioners were again subjected to persecution.
Teacher came to save all of the sentient beings in the cosmos, and all of our Dafa practitioners play major roles in saving sentient beings. The persecution that a Dafa practitioner encounters is also the loss of sentient beings. Dafa practitioners are all particles in the Fa-rectification, and our correct path will be the standard for future beings, so we must have a correct understanding, and rectify ourselves at all times, we should regard validating the Fa and saving sentient beings as the fundamental aim of everything we do, and get rid of selfishness, fear, and attachments. We should be thinking of the sentient beings at all times, and eventually cultivate ourselves into enlightened beings who are unselfish and consider others first, completely assimilating to the standards of the new cosmos, fulfilling the hopes of all sentient beings, and fulfilling the vows we made before history.