PureInsight | August 4, 2003
[PureInsight.org] The fact that Falun Gong is legal in Hong Kong has always troubled the head of the evil. Since July 20, 1999, it has ceaselessly pressured the Hong Kong government to restrict Falun Gong activity in Hong Kong.
Under such pressure, Tung Chee-hua twice denounced Falun Gong at the Legislative Council. The Hong Kong government refused to rent us the government conference hall for our experience-sharing conference more than seventy times. The government also sent the Food and Environment Department to grab away our banners and posters that were used for peaceful appeals. The Hong Kong police twice detained Falun Gong practitioners who were appealing in front of the China's Liaison Office in Hong Kong. The second time this happened, they came up with seven crimes, such as "blocking the street," and sent practitioners to court, for no legitimate reasons. Several hundred Falun Gong practitioners have been denied entry into Hong Kong. In addition, the Hong Kong government has never helped rescue Hong Kong citizens that have been arrested in mainland China due to being a Falun Gong practitioner. The Hong Kong government has done so much to interfere with Falun Gong practitioners' human rights, but even so Jiang is still not satisfied. It wants Falun Gong to be extinct in Hong Kong.
Last September, the consultation document for Article 23 legislation was rushed out. On the surface, Article 23 was to protect the security of the state, but in fact, it wants to transplant the persecution system from the mainland to Hong Kong, and to legalize the persecution of dissidents. In the despair, the evil wants to sever the future of seven million Hong Kong people.
As Dafa disciples, whenever there is a conflict, we look inward. Master said: "When your righteous thoughts are strong enough the old forces can't do a thing." (From "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.") Then what excuses will the evil use to test us? First, we still have the attachment of fear. Among our practitioners, some still have not gotten rid of this fundamental attachment, and some treat Dafa according to the human way and cannot recognize the evil nature. Deep inside, there is still fear of the evil. Using the human mentality they think, "Hong Kong is adjacent to the mainland and is part of China, and the situation here is bad, evil and sometimes even dangerous." We do not understand from the bottom of our heart the sacred and mighty side of Fa. Secondly, we had a loophole in coordination as a group. When we have different understandings on the Fa, and when fellow practitioners cannot do well enough yet, we do not point it out with great compassion and help them. Instead, we accuse each other and avoid problems, and do not cooperate with each other. In the cultivation process, we still need to let go of self, and do better in looking inward. We need to look from the counterpart's point of view, and cultivate compassion and tolerance.
After the consultation document for Article 23 was pushed out, the human mentality came out among practitioners. Some feared for the future cultivation environment once it is legislated, some thought the majority of legislators were leaning towards the Communist Party, and thus Article 23 would surely pass. Still other practitioners thought they did not have the attachment of fear, and felt that even if the legislation passed, it would not harm Dafa disciples. However, they did not realize that this is a good opportunity to expose Jiang's evilness to the Hong Kong people. Through studying Fa and sharing among practitioners, we came to understand what Dafa disciples are during the Fa-rectification process, and we also came to understand that Article 23 was targeting Dafa disciples. The mission of Dafa disciples in the Fa-rectification process is to eliminate any evil that disrupts Dafa. In the process of purifying ourselves, clarifying the truth, and rescuing and saving more living beings, we are denying the arrangements of the old forces. It is us who are creating the future. How can we be moved by the arrangement of the old forces? Isn't this acknowledging the old forces? Any of our thoughts are material substances. Isn't the field created by unrighteous thought creating an environment of existence for the old forces? As Dafa disciples, we should keep a mindset as described in Master's poem: "Quietly watch the clowns, their demon show ending," calmly and rationally look at this event, and rid our thoughts that acknowledge Article 23. At the same time, we should use enormous compassion, send forth the purest and strongest righteous thought to extinguish evil at every dimension, and save all beings. Through mistakes and experience, we Hong Kong practitioners get more and more mature each day.
Hong Kong people work very hard, and their life style is fast. People are indifferent towards many things. However, Article 23 truly touches the fundamental interest of the Hong Kong people because it completely destroys the "One-country, Two-policy" system. Article 23 seriously shakes the two poles for economic prosperity, which are human rights and the rule of law. This in effect shortens the distance between themselves and Falun Gong practitioners who are being persecuted. There is no doubt that this gives us a good opportunity to clarify the truth.
Practitioners all realize the importance of sending righteous thoughts. All Hong Kong practitioners have kept on sending righteous thought to eliminate the evil that disrupt Dafa each night at nine o'clock and ten o'clock. We have been doing this for two years. Since the Hong Kong government proposed to legislate Article 23, when sending righteous thought, we add a thought to eliminate all evil that is behind Article 23. In the past month, we, as a group, began each day sending righteous thought in front of the Legislative Council building. Many practitioners overcame many difficulties to participate. Wind or rain, or heat cannot sway our determinant will to extinguish the evil.
Many, many times, we sent letters to officials of the Hong Kong government, asking them to seriously consider and choose a good future for the Hong Kong people. In addition, we constantly sent letters to and visited representatives of the National Congress, members of the Legislative Council, and foreign embassies, to expose the true nature of Article 23, and to expose the fraud that the Hong Kong government has been played in the recent months–"the fake consultation, and real legislation." We warn people that Article 23 will cut the future of Hong Kong people by telling them of the persecution of Falun Gong during the past four years, and we do not want to let the tragedy in the mainland repeat in Hong Kong. We also wrote letters to governments of other countries, calling them to pay attention to the crisis in Hong Kong and letting them know the damage that the head of evil in the human world has brought to modern freedom and civilization.
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong government also constantly visits all of the embassies and business societies in Hong Kong. These visits are to make use of the fact that some westerners do not know China well and presume that such legislation would not affect Hong Kong's social system. The government is trying to fool the public and international community and gain their support. Some major embassies were once fooled, and thus committed themselves not to intervene with the legislation of Article 23, and only said that they will continue to observe after its legislation. This greatly surprised us for we had always thought that they already knew the truth, so we had relaxed our truth clarification to them. The stances these embassies take directly impacted on what stance would be taken by their country's institutions in Hong Kong. Realizing the problems, we immediately went to clarify the truth. Soon afterwards, these embassies expressed clearly their position against Article 23.
With Master's protection, Hong Kong disciples have become mature daily. More practitioners volunteered to participate in activities to clarify the truth. They pass out flyers to people on the street and do not ignore opportunities to clarify the truth such as in public assemblies. We pay special attention to those who have been fooled and are actively supporting Article 23. At the end of last year, about 60,000 people took to the streets against Article 23, but the Hong Kong government also bought a batch of people to support the legislation. Knowing this, practitioners collectively sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil that deceives people. We also go to distribute materials at schools that lean toward the communist party and send truth materials to China sponsored institutions. In the past several months, over 400,000 copies of materials have been delivered to the hands of Hong Kong people.
In addition, we also try to collect as many signatures as possible to fight against Article 23. Whether it is cold winter or hot summer, practitioners take every opportunity on every street. We have collected over 100,000 signatures. There is an old man who has just obtained Dafa, but he firmly believes in Dafa and wherever he goes, he collects signatures, clarifies the truth, and hands out flyers. He has collected over 10,000 signatures by himself.
At the same time, we also hold rallies to raise people's sense of justice.
Master told us we are one body so when we can coordinate well as a whole, Fa's power will be very strong. After the consultation document for Article 23 was pushed out, practitioners from all countries also realized that this is a great opportunity to clarify the truth. Fighting against Article 23 was taken as the theme for the last August Fa conference in Denmark. Practitioners in Europe paid visits to members of the parliaments, foreign ministries, and the European Committee and American practitioners clarified the truth about Article 23 to the US government. In June, the White House spokesman spoke strongly against Article 23. Then the US congress passed a resolution against Article 23 with a vote of 426 to 1. In Australia and New Zealand, practitioners often organized rallies or parades. At the same time, practitioners from different regions held various forms of rallies or assemblies with many communities and collected signatures to support Hong Kong people. Information about such appeals against the evil legislation through the media came into Hong Kong. This not only encouraged the Hong Kong people, but also shook the Hong Kong Special Administration.
As Master's tremendous force of Fa-rectification constantly breaks through and while global disciples constantly send righteous thought and clarify the truth, the deep-asleep Hong Kong people have awakened. The evil attempt to destroy all beings has turned into a force that pushes forward an unprecedented pro-democracy movement all over Hong Kong. The evil has raised the rock but it has hit his own foot. The evil's disgusting manner has been completely exposed to the international society. The dream of the human evil head to eliminate Falun Gong in Hong Kong has been completely shattered. He is riding a tiger, but it is difficult to get off. In great despair, he is trembling to the core, waiting to meet justice.
Last year, when Article 23 was pushed out, over forty private societies in Hong Kong immediately formed "The People-To-People Human Rights Front" and became a major force against Article 23 in Hong Kong. They held a series of activities, like great assemblies, parades, public speeches, and signature collections. The fact that the Hong Kong government says one thing and does the other, and insists on legislating Article 23 has brought general opposition from Hong Kong people. Constant protests against the government came from the media, religions, lawyers, businessmen, schools, and labor unions, and so on. On July 1, the sixth anniversary of China's resumption of Hong Kong's territory rights, over half a million people took to the streets, peacefully and rationally expressing their appeals against Article 23 and asking for the governing power back. With pressure from the Hong Kong people and the international society, on July 5th, the Tung government announced three revisions to Article 23. The revisions were abolishing regulations regarding local organizations subordinated to organizations that are banned in mainland, adding "public interest" as a reason to be protected from being prosecuted for revealing unauthorized official secretes, and abolishing regulations that police can enter civilian residences any time without a court's warrant. Soon after, the chairman of the Freedom Party resigned from the administrative council demanding that Tung stop the enaactment of Article 23, which greatly shocked Tung's government from inside. The next day, Tung announced a delay in the legislation process.
This was a dramatic change. We felt happy that living beings are awakening. However, as Dafa disciples, we should not be led by such superficial changes. No matter whether there are three revisions, a postponement of the legislation of Article 23, or a resignation of the security bureau chief, none of them have fundamentally changed the evil nature of Article 23, which directly targets Dafa. Our determination to extinguish the evil should not at all decrease. Above changes only indicate that the situation for the evil is hopeless, and that the evil cannot sustain any longer. Master told us: "So, as far as this whole persecution goes, today the situation is already pretty different from before. And especially outside of Mainland China, we've now gone from being on the defensive to being on the offensive; those evil beings are on the defensive now, because there are really few evil factors now. And those people in the evil gang who were being used are changing, too. You could say that the evil's attempt to persecute Falun Gong beyond Mainland China has been a complete failure." (From "Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Midwest-U.S. Fa Conference") I realize that Master not only tells us the situation of our Fa-rectification, but also gives us higher requirements for this stage. We should truly come out of the passive mindset, and not slack off just because the persecution lessens, and the evil weakens daily. The evil is still taking a last stroke. We Dafa disciples on the offense should use our immense righteous power to completely extinguish evil in the other dimensions.
As a matter of fact, the evil has never stopped at preparation for enactment of Article 23. On July 23, the Legislative Council will again discuss the legislation. Sections in Article 23 still have all the traps, and are full of the intention to kill. On the basis of the Fa, we understand that Article 23 is used by the evil to disrupt Dafa. The nature of evil is poison, and is evil. What we want is not just revisions or postponements, what we want are a total cancellation of such legislation, and completely break through the arrangement of the old forces. Article 23 is just like a sword. The so called revisions or postponement are as if temporarily putting it away, while considering when and how to kill later. What we want is to take the sword away and destroy it. This can only be done by Dafa disciples. We should all understand clearly from the Fa principles and for the safety of all beings that we cannot take any chances with the evil! To eliminate the evil, we cannot hesitate.
When we feel happy about the wakening of all beings, we should not become complacent as ordinary people. Even more so, we cannot put weight on the superficial forms of ordinary society. We must continue to stick closely to what Master requires us, cultivate ourselves well, clarify the truth in to more depth and breadth, send righteous thoughts, and rescue and save more living beings.
However, only cultivating the inside can secure the outside. Constantly studying Fa, looking inward–only this can insure that we do well in truth clarification and sending righteous thoughts. We Hong Kong practitioners as a whole still have many shortcomings. We have not yet formed an effective mechanism to hold Fa group study and look inward. Our sharing dwells on doing things while lacking sharing on Fa. In addition, practitioners as a whole, we still need to look inward deeply and forcefully. In fact, in the aspect of tolerance and cooperation, we still need to let go of self. But we believe we will do better and better and perfectly fulfill the historic mission of Dafa disciples. We are wordless in expressing our gratitude for Master's compassionate salvation.
Finally, let us encourage each other by quoting Master's poem,
"Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions"
"A Great Enlightened Being does not fear hardship
Having forged an adamantine will
And with no attachment to living or dying
He walks his path of Fa-rectification openly and nobly"
Master also said: "On the rest of the journey, may you fulfill, with godlike righteous thoughts and righteous actions, the grand vows you made before history!" (From "New Year's Greetings from Master")
