(Minghui.org) I obtained the Fa in 1997. Walking on the path of cultivation through rain and shine for more than a dozen years, I am constantly inspired by Master’s protection. I would like to share my experience and lessons learned on how I let go of my sense of self-importance by cooperating with fellow practitioners and used the legal system to save people.
1. Do What Master Wants
A practitioner in our area was arrested by the local 610 Office in May 2010, and our company’s car was also taken away. Afterwards, our area was put under police surveillance for a long period of time. What should we do?
Examining myself, I realized that, recently, we had been trapped inside our own shells--we did not cooperate with one another, and we were unable to do the three things the way we should. We had thus given the evil forces loopholes to persecute us. I sent forth a strong righteous thought: "As a disciple of Master, I only accept Master’s arrangements, and absolutely do not want, and neither do I acknowledge anybody else’s arrangements. I completely release my attachments of jealousy, competition, and lust, as well as any evil substances and lives that oppose the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance."
About 30 minutes later, I could feel my environment brighten. A kind of heavy substance that had encircled me left, and my mind loosened up. As I left my residence, I saw a shiny Falun emblem on the ground. I was very grateful for Master’s protection and encouragement.
After sharing, our local practitioners decided that we must go face the evil forces to demand the return of our fellow practitioner. Along with the practitioner’s family, we went to the police station. The police station notified us two days later to submit our case to the local criminal police division.
Many people had already gathered at the criminal police division when we arrived. The thugs from the police station and the 610 Office were also there. The atmosphere was tense. The malevolent forces from various agencies all went inside a room to discuss what to do with us.
Meanwhile, I sent-forth a huge “Mie” to blanket the entire sky. After that, I sent forth righteous thoughts continuously and asked Master to strengthen our power. Very soon, we were notified that we could all go home because they would investigate our case immediately. Afterwards, we learned that the fellow practitioner had already been transferred.
The perpetrators had planned to detain us, too, but with Master’s protection and our righteous thoughts, their plan failed. One week later, that fellow practitioner walked of the detention with righteous thoughts. Then we decided to demand the return of our car.
At first, they denied ever taking the car. We firmly told them, “Stealing is against the law. We’ll sue you.” They said, “Go ahead and sue whoever you like. We’re thugs, so we aren't afraid of anyone!”
Since we were unable to get the car back after several attempts, we hired two lawyers from Beijing to help us sue them. We made it clear to the lawyers that we were the plaintiffs, and we were suing the agencies involved in the persecution of our fellow practitioner with the following requests:
1. Return our car,
2. Compensate us for our financial losses because our company was unable to carry out daily business after losing our means of transportation,
3. Punish those who illegally arrested the fellow practitioner for the illegal arrest as well as other lawless conduct.
The lawyers hesitated at first because there was no precedent in China for Falun Gong practitioners suing law enforcement personnel for their lawless conduct. Under intense pressure, they suggested that we submit an application to get the car back first. Disagreeing with the lawyers, we explained clearly that we did not need to apply for anything. All we were interested in doing was to bring them to justice, which according to our understanding, was to do unconditionally what Master wants.
Since the lawyers had very tight schedules, we asked one of them to go with us to turn in our documents to the court. At first, no court was willing to accept our case. They told us that anything related to Falun Gong was not allowed. While clarifying the facts to them, we went to other agencies to submit our grievances. Wherever we went, we clarified the facts to people.
One guard warmly greeted us after looking at our letters and understanding the facts about Falun Gong. He also encouraged us to “sue those thugs!”
We also submitted our letters to public legal agencies, including those of law, supervision, investigation, and legal discipline. Our perseverance eventually pressured the 610 Office to return our car. We also posted our law suit online. The 610 Office talked to us and asked us not to post our articles on the Minghui website, and not to sue them anymore, but to resolve the matter with them privately.
2. Denying the Arrangements Made by the Old Forces
Afterward, we were told that the other practitioner who was incarcerated had been sentenced. We then hired another lawyer for this practitioner.
After meeting the practitioner, the lawyer discovered that the practitioner had gone along with the authorities and had also given them my name. Puzzled, the lawyer could not understand: similar cases, two dramatically different results; one was free and suing the perpetrators, the other in custody and sentenced. It was inconceivable for him under normal legal circumstances in China.
He asked us, “Do you plan to continue suing them?” We replied with conviction, “Yes, let’s continue! We do not acknowledge any arrangement made by the evil forces.”
Soon after that, we contacted the families of the practitioners and delivered our letters to the related agencies. The head of the detention center told us, “You Falun Gong called us from overseas and blamed us for persecuting you. Who persecuted you? We don’t have any choice. The practitioners were brought to us, so we have to detain them.”
We clarified the facts collaboratively on a large scale: some posted banners, some made phone calls, and the others mailed invitations to spread the word about our lawsuit. The information we sent out mainly included, “In October, the lawyers from Beijing will defend Falun Gong practitioners as innocent in court! Falun Gong has been embraced in more than 100 countries and areas worldwide. Only China persecutes Falun Gong.”
Before the trial, we sent invitations to all government agencies, companies, and law firms to tell them about the trial. On the day of the trial, dark clouds gathered in the sky. All the police squads from the local area came, and the courthouse was heavily guarded.
However, our Dafa disciples’ righteous thoughts were stronger. Even practitioners from nearby counties came to send forth righteous thoughts outside the courthouse. Some of them attended the trial, some assisted the lawyers, and others collected evidence to expose the evil forces. However, right before the trial began, under intense pressure, the detained practitioner's family was forced to terminate their contract with the lawyers.
We also distributed our defense statements widely in the area to let the public know about the case. Almost everybody was talking about it: “Falun Gong is going to be vindicated! Even the lawyers from Beijing are here to defend Falun Gong practitioners.” Collaborating as a team, taking the initiative to accuse the evil forces, we were able to greatly deter the evildoers and help more sentient beings know the facts about Falun Gong.
3. Righteous Thoughts
Before the Chinese New Year, a fellow practitioner was arrested when he was out of town. Thugs broke into his residence. Breaking the lock with a knife, they looted the house. After forcing the practitioner’s family to sign the falsified search list, they took it with them. The thugs arrested, illegally incarcerated the practitioner, and then ransacked his residence. During the entire time, however, they never showed any kind of legal documents, search warrants, or even their identifications.
We quickly went with the lawyers to rescue the practitioner. The local 610 Office personnel were very fierce, and they treated the practitioner’s families rudely. We firmly warned them: "No law in China states that Falun Gong is illegal. Jiang, who initiated the persecution of Falun Gong, has been sued overseas in many countries." They were shocked, but lied to us: "We did not arrest her." They claimed that they were simply following orders from their supervisors. They told us that they would release the practitioner a few days later.
A few days later, we were notified to go get the practitioner. However, when we arrived, we were told that the practitioner had been sentenced to one year and six months of forced labor, and had already been transferred. We refused to be moved, and we immediately began our lawsuit. With our lawyers’ help, we prepared the letters of complaint, which explicitly described how the law enforcement agents illegally arrested the practitioner, broke into his residence, and took his personal property without displaying any legal documents.
A veteran guard at the detention center where the practitioner was incarcerated accepted our letter and was very shocked. He asked, “I had never heard that you Falun Gong protect human rights.” We told him, “Falun Gong has been protecting human rights worldwide for a long time. Jiang was sued in court years ago.” Then we went to court to request a trial.
Accepting our letter, the court told us that they would notify us of our trial a week later. That day, the practitioner left the labor camp with righteous thoughts and went home. It turned out that the forced labor camp refused to admit him. One week later, the court gave its permission for a trial after investigating the case and decided that our case complied with the legal requirements for a trial.
In early February, the lawyers and the practitioner’s family received a notice notifying us that a trial would be held February 10 at 8:00 a.m. A further notice said that the trial was postponed.
At around 11:00 p.m. on February 16, the two practitioners who were the major coordinators of the lawsuit were arrested by armed police. Without showing any legal documents, the officers ransacked the practitioners’ residences and took everything with them. After that, they arrested more than a dozen local practitioners. It was a well plotted criminal act. Their goal was to keep the trial from taking place.
One day a fellow practitioner received four letters that told us to leave and hide immediately because the authorities were looking for us. The letters claimed that, according to reliable sources, orders from above had been issued to have us arrested. At that time, we remembered what Master taught us, “Just by having your heart unaffected you will be able to handle all situations “ (“Eliminate Your Last Attachment (s)” Essentials for Further Advancement II). Our Master is superior.
4. Silently Collaborating with Fellow Practitioners to Create a Better Future for Our Group
While suing the evil forces, our local practitioners did not have sufficient righteous thoughts, and some coordinators were interfered with by fear. They thought that suing the evil forces would cause more severe persecution. During the entire process, I could see that the two coordinators’ fear was strong, and their egotism was also interfering with them. I wanted to talk to them (I planned to help them), but they seemed to avoid me on purpose.
Fellow practitioners and the coordinators did not fully understand the importance of the case and the trial. We failed to post the case online sooner, and some of us even had attachments of zealotry and doing things. Some coordinators planned to post the trial online after the trial, because they were afraid that the publication of the case would create interference from the authorities. Our going along with these attachments helped them. We even failed to deliver the letter of complaints written by the lawyers on time. My mind was quite unbalanced back then: I blamed fellow practitioners for having a strong desire to do a beautiful job. Soon afterwards, the two coordinators were arrested, and the projects that they worked on were also destroyed. I then blamed another coordinator for failing to gather fellow practitioners to share our experiences sooner, as well as not collaborating with fellow practitioners which had caused heavy losses on our end.
While I stubbornly searched externally, not letting go of myself, Master’s lecture awakened me:
“Actually, though, as a Dafa disciple, if in such cases your thoughts are righteous, and what you are thinking about is cultivation, about being responsible, and about how it’s something that should be done well, then you should quietly take whatever it is that you feel is lacking and do it well. That is in fact how a Dafa disciple should handle it. If all Dafa disciples could manage to handle things in this manner, everything out there would go extremely well, for sure.” (“Be More Diligent”)
Studying Master’s Fa and listening to Master’s lectures, I became enlightened, and my heart was profoundly brightened. It felt as if a golden key had suddenly opened a door that had been locked for a long time. I thought, “Even though I have been cultivating in Dafa for over a dozen years, I failed to search within myself when problems occurred, but looked externally for the causes of issues. I have not followed Master’s requirements the whole time.”
I went to talk to the fellow practitioner and sincerely shared my thoughts. Since both of us had strong egos before, even though we had worked together on the same projects, it was difficult for us to collaborate well. As a result, that fellow practitioner had to leave the cultivation environment twice. After sharing our thoughts and hearts, we both realized how we had been interrupting and interfering with each other before. We also knew how important it was to collaborate with each other as a team. I sincerely asked the fellow practitioner to stay, and from then on, we reformed our group as one body again.
After breaking through that test together, we now treasure the cultivation environment that Master gave us even more. We understand better now that we need to quietly cooperate with each other and that our one body will have a bright future.
As the Fa-rectification moves forward, the persecution of Falun Gong and the evil forces’ crimes will be exposed, and the truth of Falun Gong will soon be revealed to the world. The Three Realms are created for the Fa Rectification. The current time that Master extended is for us to save sentient beings. The human world is by no means a recreation ground for the evil forces to show their viciousness.
At this historical moment, the Fa-rectification Dafa disciples are the protagonists on the grand stage. Let us set ourselves aside, cooperate well as a whole body, eliminate the evil forces, and save sentient beings. Utilize well all human resources, including the legal system, to stop the evil forces. While we do this, we are also giving people opportunities to be saved. This is the noble task that Dafa bestows on us, Dafa disciples.
Please kindly point out anything inappropriate. Let us all walk diligently on the path to Godhood!
