(Minghui.org) One project was introduced to my area three years ago. It’s a phone call platform to tell people the facts about Falun Dafa. This project helped many people recognize the true nature of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and quit its organizations. Practitioners have varying opinions about it.
Those who participate in the project consider saving people the highest priority; they think those who aren’t involved have the attachments of fear and selfishness. Other practitioners believe this project is not suitable for practitioners living in the harsh persecution environment in China and poses a safety risk to many practitioners; it is not in accordance with what Master Li (the founder of Falun Dafa) said about safety in mainland China.
In fact, practitioners in China who participate in this project do not know the situation of overseas practitioners who lead this project. The CCP’s spies can easily take advantage of the loopholes of those who set up the overseas platform. They live overseas but direct activities in China, and some claim to provide funding for the overseas platform or practitioners in mainland China.
We would like to share some information with you.
1. How the Platform Functions
This platform works by connecting online between practitioners in mainland China and overseas personnel. Practitioners living overseas dial the phone numbers of people in China, then practitioners inside China clarify the facts about Falun Dafa and recommend people quit the CCP organizations. TIPAS VPN (also known as Shendun) is used to circumvent the Internet blockade followed by the launching of Freegate.
The project coordinators proposed an everyday society managing model. Two types of software are used. One is meant for group sharing, training, and qualification. This software is Mumble, through which training and sharing is held once a week. Some practitioners held group Fa study on Mumble and it is now used for truth-clarification. Another type of software is used for forming chat groups, communicating between practitioners, and collecting the number of people who quit the CCP organizations in various regions. Different software tools are used in different regions. They previously included Telegram and Nandbox, and now include Datcent as well as BrightChat. Practitioners often talk about everything, including their home addresses, personal information, how they send righteous thoughts to help someone, and even family weddings or funerals.
There are also other words and actions inconsistent with Dafa teachings or the situation in mainland China. Here are some examples.
1) A coordinator established a chat group for each region, for large-scale coordination, cross-regional connections, and online group training and sharing. The coordinator also wants to know everyone’s cultivation status. Such large-scale coordination is not in accordance with Master Li’s lectures on safety concerns regarding practitioners in China.
2) Everyone is required to report in the chat group how many people he or she helped quit the CCP organizations as well as how long each phone call lasted. This led to the pursuit of higher numbers of quitting the CCP organizations. The coordinator also asked some practitioners to analyze why the numbers were low in their regions.
3) When one practitioner had concerns about forming chat groups, he met with major resistance from the coordinators. In addition, when the practitioner reminded others of cell phone security, the coordinators said, “The cell phones are Fa instruments” and, “do not regard yourselves as victims of persecution.”
4) Some practitioners prefer to work with overseas practitioners individually instead of participating in large-scale groups and training. The coordinator said these people had selfishness and fear, and banned those practitioners who had different opinions from participating.
5) This project requires computer skills, but many practitioners are elderly and they have difficulty with pinyin (simplified Chinese). Because of this, practitioners often need to meet offline for group training. The computer system, TIPAS VPN, and Google Chrome also need to be routinely updated. All this is done by practitioners with technical skills. More than 10 practitioners meet at a certain place to have their computers and cell phones updated by the technical practitioner. This also poses serious safety risks.
6) Practitioners in various regions responsible for technical support have little technical knowledge or expertise on Internet security. They just follow instructions from the technical coordinator.
7) When we remind them of the article, “Paying Attention to Security and Safety Is Essential” from the Minghui Editorial Board in November 2018, they replied, “It is a stretch to relate this to a sharing on Minghui in 2018. Master is aware of this project. Why did we encounter numerous setbacks but were still able to launch this? It is because compassionate Master agrees with this form of saving people.”
My personal opinion is that such a project, directed by people outside of China and promoted in mainland China, has at least two kinds of issues.
First, on the technical level, overseas projects are established based on the situation outside China. They do not have tight security measures sufficient to address the safety risks in China. Other than Freegate or Ultrasurf, using other VPN tools to visit overseas websites can easily be monitored by the CCP. Even if they connect with overseas practitioners individually without forming groups, a practitioner in China can easily be tracked down through an IP address once a truth-clarification website is monitored. The loss for practitioners is immeasurable. Plus, Master discouraged us from forming groups or chatting online in China, and the Minghui Editorial Board has made repeated announcements to stop it.
Second, from the angle of xinxing improvement, this platform accommodated the attachment of fear from some practitioners in China on face-to-face truth-clarification or distributing materials. Organizers and administrators of this platform also promoted an everyday society management model. In my understanding, Master has said numerous times that overseas media could adopt management models of the everyday society. But Master never said truth-clarification projects in mainland China could take this path. Moreover, this model can foster many attachments in the organizers, administrators, and participants. They include fame, showing off, jealousy, relying on others, sentimentality, and so on. When ego surfaces, it can cause barriers between practitioners and trigger many conflicts.
2. Learning From Past Lessons
Some practitioners who participated in this project were arrested one after another. In 2022 a major coordinator in China was arrested and severely tortured. In one region all practitioners who participated in this platform were arrested (but later released). Even the CCP authorities knew who the coordinators were, and who was in charge of technical support. Even practitioners who participated for just a few days were arrested. Police in other areas also have partial name lists of the participants. After a coordinator in one region was arrested, he provided information on all the participants in the area where he was sentenced, and the other practitioners were arrested or harassed.
3. Different Opinions
This project has been controversial all along. Practitioners in my region also have major, different understandings on this, similar to what happened when someone undermined Dafa by giving lectures. There are three main different opinions:
The first opinion is that, since the remaining time is limited, saving people is most important. No truth-clarification project in China is absolutely safe. As long as we have righteous thoughts, the vicious elements dare not interfere with this. Those practitioners who were persecuted had karma and loopholes in their cultivation. As a result, practitioners with this opinion ignore the huge safety risk of this phone calling project.
The second opinion recognizes safety concerns, and believes this project is inconsistent with Master’s lectures and the Minghui Editorial Board requirements. Inquiries to Minghui also received responses to stop this. But practitioners who participate in this consider this interference in saving people. They said such individual replies were only addressed to those who asked this question; those practitioners who responded are also individuals and what was said are not Dafa’s principles. They will continue as long as Minghui does not make an announcement.
The third opinion was remaining neutral. These practitioners know such large-scale coordination may cause safety issues for practitioners and it is inconsistent with the requirements of the Minghui Editorial Board. But they also feel they are doing nothing wrong as long as they are saving people. They think those who participate in this project have overcome their attachment of fear.
They feel the practitioners who do not participate should not interfere with their efforts to save people.
Listing these opinions is not done to point out who is right and who is wrong. We just want to remind every practitioner that we cannot go to extremes just because time is limited. We cannot ignore Master’s lectures and articles from the Minghui Editorial Board because we want to cover up our own attachments.
Summary
Our understanding is that, just because you have done things for Falun Dafa and helped many people quit the CCP organization does not necessarily mean you are cultivating well. The fundamental issue is whether you listen to Master’s words and follow the direction of Minghui.
When commenting on the article of “Practitioners in Mainland China, Please Stop Online Fa Study,” Master wrote, “These software programs cannot be used among practitioners.”
Master also wrote,
“Another thing is, some people always think, “What Master wants, we’ll do it, but let’s do it a little better,” and again it’s a case of changing what Master wants. There are human attachments at work whenever that’s the case, and it serves as interference.” (“Be More Diligent,” Collected Teachings Given Around the World, Volume X)
A sharing article on Minghui titled “Ignoring Cellphone Safety is a Major Issue” talked about two practitioners who paid little attention to cell phone security. This project is led by overseas personnel while practitioners in mainland China clarify the truth, exchange ideas, and receive training online. For those who have strong human notions and ignore Master’s words, they could be taken advantage of by the old forces and be eliminated by the old forces. Some coordinators of this project think if they have such strong human notions that interfere with others, they were arranged by old forces to cause damage, or do things that the CCP spies want to have done.
We should listen to Master unconditionally, instead of protecting a project or our own opinions. Training and examination on making phones to people in China is a suitable project for overseas practitioners.
Practitioners in China have our ways that work here. We cannot just make excuses saying a project requires us to do this or that. We should follow what Master said.
This article is not written to target certain practitioners. Rather, it’s because we’ve seen danger and we cannot share our insights with those practitioners. We have to resort to Minghui because so many practitioners are involved.
“Student: Revered Master, practitioners use the Internet to exchange understandings and experiences. Is that format good or bad?
“Master: I think that’s not a problem outside of mainland China, but don’t talk about the specifics of what you’re doing to validate the Fa. If it’s in mainland China, it’s best that you give priority to your safety and don’t allow the old forces to take advantage of gaps. This isn’t a matter of being afraid or not, it’s about not letting the evil take advantage of any gaps.
“Student: If our thoughts are very pure and righteous, then the old forces have no way to interfere. So if there’s interference, does it reflect our cultivation state?
“Master: When interference comes up it’s usually caused by those old forces. Then when we do everything righteously, should we expect there to be no interference? That can only reduce a lot of the losses, because your gaps would be taken advantage of due to the fact that you yourselves still do have undetectable elements, and the old forces insist on forcing in what they want to do. At the same time, there are some students, especially the third group of students, who still have a certain amount of karma, and so they will use these things to exploit the gaps.” (Teachings Given on Lantern Festival Day, 2003)
Here we want to remind everyone that we have to unconditionally follow Master’s teachings on communication security. Especially issues that Master has stated clearly, if we know them but do not follow them, the old forces will target our loopholes. When that happens what excuses do we have? Are we willing to pay the price with our own lives? How about the losses we caused our family members and the people who rely on us—those who are waiting for us to save them?
Cultivation is serious and any human notion can hinder our cultivation path. No matter how much or how clearly we see, we only know part of the picture. Only Master knows everything. Only Master knows what’s the best for us. Only by having full faith in Master and constantly letting go of attachments can we meet Dafa’s requirements and be genuine practitioners.
These are some understandings several practitioners have had. Please kindly point out whatever is inconsistent with the Fa.
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