(Clearwisdom.net) Five practitioners were recently held in the local detention center. Two of the practitioners’ families had asked someone, a non-practitioner, for help, as they thought this person had connections with people in high places. This person took several documents to the two practitioners and told them that if they signed them, they would able to return home when their detention period ended. Attached to human emotions and grateful for this person's help, they both signed the documents. Two other practitioners also wrote down information about Falun Gong and signed guarantee statements to renounce their belief.

Only one practitioner didn’t write or sign any documentation, as she was illiterate. When she was asked to give information about Falun Gong so that they could write it down for her, she talked about how her cultivation had helped to rid herself of many illnesses. She also told them about how she no longer competed for fame and personal gain. This practitioner’s family members went to the police station, demanding that they release her. When the detention period ended, only this practitioner was released unconditionally. The other four practitioners were sentenced to one year in a forced labor camp. However, one practitioner was allowed to serve their sentence at home due to their advanced age.

A similar incident occurred last fall, when eight practitioners were held in a detention center. Three practitioners’ families used personal connections to help them, and the three practitioners wrote and signed guarantee statements promising to stop practicing Falun Gong. When another practitioner was told that they might be sent to a forced labor camp if they refused to write a guarantee statement, she replied, “Your words don't mean anything to me, only my Master’s words count.” Then this practitioner and two others went to the courtyard of the detention center and shouted three times, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance is good, Falun Dafa is a righteous Fa!” The two remaining practitioners remained silent and did not shout with them. When the practitioners' detention period was over, the practitioners who shouted in the courtyard were released unconditionally. The two practitioners who had kept quiet were sent to a forced labor camp. The three practitioners who wrote guarantee statements were also released, but they had it on their conscience that they agreed to stop practicing Falun Gong.

As we near the end of Fa-rectification, these two incidents help to show that when we remain steadfast in our belief and do not waver when threatened with persecution, and believe one hundred percent in Master and the Fa, then the old forces dare not persecute us. However, if we do not fully believe in Master and the Fa, and try to find ways in ordinary society to get released, then the old forces will exploit our gaps and persecute us. As a fellow practitioner put it, “How can an ordinary person decide the future of a divine being?”

The old forces are attempting to weed out practitioners who are not doing well. However, there is still an opportunity for us to choose the right path. We must be clear on what we need to do. Teacher has already told us how to face this persecution:

“Should you have fear,
it will seize upon you
If thoughts are righteous,
evil will collapse
The cultivator’s mind
is loaded with Fa
Send righteous thoughts,
and rotten demons explode
Gods walk the earth,
validating the Fa”
(“What’s to Fear” in Hong Yin II).