Cultivating Myself While Rescuing Detained Fellow Practitioners

(Minghui.org) When I read sharing articles on Minghui.org, I was often inspired by practitioners’ diligent cultivation states and their profound understanding of the Fa. I learned a lot from these articles, and I was sometimes moved to tears by the righteous actions of the practitioners. Compared to them, I still fall far short. But I deeply cherish the cultivation path Master arranged for me. I’d like to tell you about my cultivation experiences.

Eliminating Fear

A practitioner named Jie wanted me to join the Fa study group of fellow practitioners who worked to rescue persecuted practitioners. She reached out to me several times, but I was reluctant to go. The reason was that I was arrested and persecuted when I was involved in rescue efforts in the past. The shadow of persecution haunted me, negative thoughts kept surfacing, and fear still lingered.

I understood from the Fa that it wasn’t my participating in rescues that led to my being persecuted. It was because I had cultivation loopholes. When practitioners are arrested and persecuted, it’s our responsibility to rescue them. I thought, “If fellow practitioners are coming to me, it must be that I have attachments I need to let go of, and responsibilities I need to shoulder. Yet, this “fear” was keeping me stuck, and I was unable to take that step forward to participate.

I looked inward and dug deep into myself. Isn’t the root of this fear just selfishness? It’s a desire to protect myself and avoid personal loss. Master teaches that we should cultivate away our selfish notions and become selfless. When I measured my behavior with the Fa, I saw how far I still had to go.

My cultivation state was stagnating. How could I eliminate this fear? I could choose other truth-clarification projects, but I knew this fear wouldn’t just go away on its own. This was a barrier I had to break through. I was determined to eliminate the fear and improve myself.

Jie spoke to me in a stern tone, “You must come to the rescue group’s Fa study tomorrow!” My heart was stirred at first, but I quickly calmed down. I felt no resentment toward her. I just felt sad because I was still being held back by fear. Rescuing fellow practitioners required manpower, yet I stood by and did nothing. I felt ashamed.

Jie realized that her tone was inappropriate and apologized. I said, “I don’t blame you. It’s because of my poor cultivation state.”

I was very upset that I couldn’t take that step forward. I thought, “Jie kept reaching out to me—wasn’t Master giving me a chance to eliminate fear? Wasn’t he arranging a path for me? I had to take that next big step!

So I intensified my Fa study and sent forth righteous thoughts to dissolve the substance of fear in my dimensional field, and its constraints on me. While sending forth righteous thoughts, Master’s words suddenly appeared in my mind:

“There is one point to make to everyone: No matter how much you suffer from the “illness,” I hope that you will continue to come, because it is difficult to obtain the Fa.” (Lecture Two, Zhuan Falun)

At that moment, I truly felt that Master was encouraging me to move forward. When Jie talked to me again, I agreed to go with her to the study group. Before I went each time, I sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate all evil beings and elements that interfered with my participation in the rescue efforts. When I arrived at the group, I felt light and joyful, as if surrounded by birds singing and flowers blooming. I knew Master was pleased that I took that step.

This may seem like a trivial matter to others, but it took me over two months to break through this barrier. It was a process of solidly cultivating myself, step by step.

Cultivating Myself

A practitioner named Hong was arrested and later released on “bail pending trial.” After learning this, I took the initiative to talk with her. She was a senior and not very familiar with legal procedures. I read some Minghui articles on how to use the law to resist the persecution and knew that rescue efforts would involve drafting our own legal documents. Since bail only provides a temporary reprieve, this period should be used to clarify the truth to the police, the procuratorate, and court officials, and advise them not to commit crimes.

After we talked, she agreed with my suggestions. We both understood that clarifying the truth is a key that opens all doors. Since we encountered this situation, it was our responsibility to help save the sentient beings involved on the persecuting side.

I first helped her draft a letter that we could send to the relevant personnel. After other practitioners revised it, we mailed it to several local police officers, procuratorate officials, and their supervisors.

Hong was anxious because she had trouble finding someone to help prepare the legal documents. I said, “If you really can’t find someone, I’ll give it a try. I’ll check the Justice Forum online and help you draft them.” I registered an account on the forum and started browsing. It really opened my eyes! The legal methods for resisting persecution were thoroughly covered, and materials in every category were available. I learned a lot about legal clauses.

Whenever I helped rescue a practitioner in the past, the legal documents were always drafted by lawyers. I’d read them and forget them. This experience helped fill in my legal knowledge gap. The templates shared by practitioners on the forum were very complete. I was able to use them by incorporating details of this specific case. Normally, the documents written by lawyers lacked truth-clarification content, but those drafted by practitioners contain the aspect of coming from a cultivation perspective, which made them very effective in resisting the persecution.

I used the templates and compiled the application for non-prosecution, application to withdraw the indictment, application to lift bail restrictions, application to return confiscated items, application to exclude illegal evidence, application to request exonerating evidence, application to explain the law through the case, and a criminal complaint. While organizing these, I gained a clear understanding of the CCP’s legal violations in persecuting Falun Gong.

Although I was quite busy and sometimes worked until 2 a.m., I didn’t feel tired. On the contrary, I felt fulfilled and also sensed Master strengthening and encouraging me. I’m grateful to Master for his compassionate help, and to the practitioners on the forum for their selfless contributions. On the surface, I was helping compile materials for another practitioner, but in the process I was cultivating and fulfilling myself.

The case kept progressing, and the file was transferred to the court. I went to Hong’s home to bring her some downloaded legal documents. She asked me to fill in the application for her family member defender to review the case files. Since the court blocked such access, I also drafted a legal complaint against the judge for denying the family member defender the right to review the files, and asked practitioners on the Justice Forum to help revise it.

I was in a hurry that morning because I had to go study the Fa with another group, and while filling out the application I accidentally wrote Hong’s name in both the “applicant” and “respondent” fields. I didn’t double-check the document, and rushed off. After I got home, I suddenly realized it and asked Hong to check for that mistake. She told me another practitioner, Cheng, noticed the error while printing it, and made the correction. I felt deeply ashamed but also relieved that the error had been fixed.

Two days later, someone forwarded me a voice message from Cheng. She pointed out my mistake in a harsh tone. She chastised me and said that my legal complaint was poorly formatted, and the language was verbose and poorly written.

Hearing this was a big blow. There was sarcasm, mockery, and criticism in her tone, which was really hard for me to accept. Her words didn’t sound like a fellow practitioner, but more like a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official scolding someone. In over 20 years of cultivation, I’d never been criticized by another practitioner like this. Although it was unpleasant to hear, I knew that nothing in cultivation happens by chance. There must be something that I needed to cultivate. I quickly calmed down and looked inward, wondering, “What attachment had her rebuke touched?”

I felt embarrassed. In the past, fellow practitioners always praised me, as I was good with writing rescue reports. But I was now being utterly dismissed by Cheng. Behind that embarrassment was my attachment to reputation. My face burned with shame, and I felt heavy and stifled. I also had a hidden desire to explain why the mistake happened. I realized, however, that my wanting to defend myself came from a heart of discontent, a desire to shift blame, and to cover up my lack of responsibility.

I had not seriously compiled that application. The mistake showed a lack of responsibility, a perfunctory attitude rooted in CCP culture, and an impatient mindset.

When I had this realization, my heart suddenly became clear, as if a wall had collapsed in front of me. I truly wanted to thank Cheng. So I wrote to her, “Listening to your voice message deeply moved me. Making such a mistake is really inexcusable. You pointed out that the language wasn’t concise, and the format was improper. This reflected my weak language skills and unfamiliarity with legal documents. I failed to carefully check my work. That’s a typical CCP culture attitude of doing things superficially. Thank you for being straightforward. It was a wake-up call for me. This is just the beginning of my involvement in legal work. In the past, I only skimmed over what others did, and never took it to heart. But to do anything well, one must take things seriously. I will work hard going forward, and if there’s anything I don’t understand, I hope you will continue to guide me.”

I felt that I had passed the test of accepting criticism with humility. I also tolerated her unkind tone, as I understood it was due to her high standards and strict approach. My ability to handle this came from the power of Dafa and Master’s teachings. I sincerely thank Master for bestowing the strength of the Fa upon me.

My response also helped her sense my sincerity. In our work together later on, she always patiently offered me a lot of help.

In cooperating with fellow practitioners, situations that test our xinxing can occur at any time. My understanding is that if a situation does not contain elements that will help me elevate, it won’t appear in front of me.

My cultivation path of more than 20 years has made me deeply aware of the immense efforts Master makes for us to succeed. His compassionate protection enables us to walk through great tribulations. Every step we take through hardship and obstacles reflects Master’s painstaking effort. Words can’t describe Master’s boundless grace. I can only diligently cultivate, fulfill my mission, and walk well the final stage of my cultivation journey in order to live up to the title of “Falun Dafa practitioner in the Fa-rectification period.” Thank you, Master!