PureInsight | October 29, 2001
1) With a righteous heart and mind, defend the Fa with courage and integrity
I am a practitioner from North America. I was originally from Beijing, but now I am a graduate student at an American university. In May 1999, I read in a World Daily report that in the incident of April 25, 1999, when the ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners left Zhongnanhai, they not only didn’t leave any trash, but also picked up the cigarette butts left by the police. Inspired by Dafa disciples’ high moral standards and courage, I started to read Dafa books. After two weeks of reading, I noticed that my chronic eye pain and back itch both disappeared. In October, I had a cut in my hand that was about a quarter of an inch deep. Surprisingly, the cut was healed the next day. More importantly, my spiritual realm was also elevated. I became more considerate of others, and more peaceful and tolerant. I thought about how I used to fight painfully for small personal gain, and sincerely thanked Falun Dafa for the improvement the Teacher brought to me.
Falun Dafa received numerous awards and is welcomed by people from over 40 countries. However, it is being brutally persecuted by Jiang Zemin's government in the land where it originated. Since the beginning of the persecution in July 1999, countless Dafa disciples from every corner of China took the only way they could to appeal to the government in Beijing. They risked their lives to have their words heard. At the Bureau of Appeals in Beijing, they were usually detained before they could say a word or deliver their letter. They have lost their basic citizen’s rights granted by the Chinese Constitution. By July 2000, more than 30 practitioners had died from the persecution. As a Dafa practitioner who had benefited deeply from the practice, I felt that I had to tell the authorities a few truthful words from my heart. So I decided to go to the Office of Appeals in the State Affairs Department while visiting relatives in China. Before I left, many fellow practitioners tried to persuade me from appealing, fearing that I would be detained. I thought that what I was doing was very righteous, only seeking a word of justice for Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. This was legal, reasonable, and appropriate, and they would have no reason to detain me! I was convinced that the evil wouldn’t prevail.
When I arrived in Beijing, the sky was gray everyday. It was very hot and the city was very dusty. My parents were worried about my going to Tiananmen Square, and tried to hide my book Zhuan Falun from me. They seemed a little more distressed everyday. I felt as though my soul was locked up. In the subway I saw everyone looking numb or bitter. I felt even more saddened. On the way to the Office of Appeals, I told people the truth about Falun Gong while asking for directions. Their reactions confirmed the kind of state terrorism I felt. People all said to me, “You will be sent to a labor camp for three years. Is it worth it?” They also thought that since I was well educated and had a good career outlook, being put to a labor camp or prison would not be worth it. But I knew this desire to care only about one’s own self had become a detriment to society, including my parents. Even these people that tried to persuade me out of it were very scared. They were nervously looking around while talking to me, fearing that they would be detained because they talked with me! I thought about the Cultural Revolution and various other government-led movements. If nobody passively cooperated with the bad people, how could they have done so much damage? It was exactly this desire to only care about one’s own self and the fear for retaliation that resulted in the disasters that these movements brought. The moral standard of the entire nation is rapidly deteriorating. Now it’s almost to the point that a person could kill someone in public, and nobody would intervene. Humans are not even like humans! If every one of us spoke up for justice, these disasters and deviations in values wouldn’t have happened. This desire to only care about one’s own self is harming both the individual and society as a whole. Feeling the seriousness of the issue, I went to the “terrifying” Office of Appeals without hesitation.
“A great Arhat in the world, Spirits and ghosts fear the most.”(“Mighty Virtue, ” Hongyin, Teacher's Poetry Collection) I walked pass all the policemen that were scattered in the area around the Office of Appeals without being stopped. Because I cultivated Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance, the most righteous principles in the universe, I firmly believed that I shouldn’t be detained. I filled out the appeal form and handed my letter to them. Then I was interrogated, but I answered every question with a righteous heart. A policeman accused me of lying, and I responded that he should know in his heart what I said was true. When even the Central Office of Appeals is staffed by police, how can the local offices be free of abuses? They asked for my address twice, but I didn’t give it to them. I told them that my family was already worried. I didn’t want to cause damage to them. Also, I told them I came here to tell the government they had done something wrong; this had nothing to do with my home address. They only wanted my address so that they could punish my family or me later. Another older policeman came to interrogate me, but I again responded with a righteous heart. A younger policeman moped around and tore my appeal form into pieces. I tried to talk kindly with the policeman who was monitoring me, but he viciously refused. I then thought that it was illegal for them to detain me, so I should leave. So while the policeman was having lunch, I picked up my bag and walked straight out of the interrogation room. I found the back door of the building, and left this appeals office that had been taken over by the police.
After I left the Office of Appeals in the State Affairs Department, I decided to visit the Appeal Office of the Chinese Communist Central Government. Because it was no longer open to the public, I stopped by the Changqiao Public Security Management Office across the street. There were seven or eight public security guards inside. I directly told them that I was here to appeal for Falun Gong. I also said that over 30 innocent Falun Gong practitioners had died from torture, the number of deaths was increasing, and this persecution must stop. They looked at each other, stunned by my courage. At last, they said that there was nothing I could do to change the situation, and I should leave immediately. It made me realize that as long as people still deserve to be people, they should know that Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance is good and Falun Dafa is righteous. In history, evil never prevails. The fact that the evil forces were destroying the books and using the entire nation to spread lies is a demonstration of their malevolence and fear.
Before I decided to appeal, I watched many veteran practitioners handing out truth-clarifying materials with great caution. They had to travel very far to hand out just a few pamphlets. On the weekends they also were forced to attend 'transformation classes.' Seeing their situation, I was worried for them. We should be careful, but how can the righteous fear the evil? We need to adjust our hearts and protect the Dafa with courage and reason. Right now the evil's propaganda is everywhere, while over 1 billion people still need to be saved. We should have the courage to hold up the sky, because we are Dafa disciples and cultivate the fundamental Dafa of the universe. I often carry a bag full of truth-clarifying materials to put in people's mailboxes. Once when I was putting the materials in the mailboxes, the delivery person for a local newspaper complained that my materials were so thick that she couldn't even put her newspaper in the boxes. I seriously told her that I was delivering materials that people needed more. So she just quietly watched as I delivered the materials to the rest of the mailboxes. I then left with out fear.
I am still far from meeting the standard of a Fa-rectification disciple. I just wanted to tell everyone, through my experiences, the evil is nothing to fear. When you adjust your attitude and do things with reason and courage, you can conquer it. When you're not fearful at all, the evil will be afraid of you. On the other hand, our attachment to fear will give evil an opportunity to take an advantage. The evil is most afraid of Dafa disciples' righteous mind and actions.
Another year passed, and the number of death of practitioners from the persecution increased from 30 to 270. The persecution has intensified from scattered cases to the group murders of 15 female practitioners in the Wanjia Labor Camp and 10 male practitioners in Changlinzi Labor Camp, from accidental deaths to rape, intentional burning to death, dragging to death at the back of a car, and so on. There are many horrific examples of brutal beatings, tortures in mental hospitals, illegal detention and labor camp sentences. The country's shameless leader has said that they target Falun Gong because the practitioners don’t fight back. This is extremely evil.
My heart bleeds to watch these people who believe in Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance die one after another. If I was a human, how could I not be moved? If I was a god, how could I allow the evil to continue to do damage? This kind of evil should not be able to exist in this universe. These evil demons should not be able to hurt people. With this thought, I fearlessly joined the group hunger strike in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C. this August.
During the hunger strike, I learned that 130 practitioners had been on a hunger strike for 3 weeks to protest the illegal extension of their term at the Masanjia Labor Camp in Shen Yang. The “610” Office of Shen Yang astonishingly claimed that they would rather break the law than let these practitioners go. Here in Washington D.C., the Chinese Embassy repeatedly refused our appeal letter. All these evil actions have further exposed the indifference and cruelty of Jiang Zemin's group towards kind and innocent citizens. I remember the Teacher said we should “validate the Fa with reason, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa and offer people salvation with benevolence.” (“Rationality”) In the face of this evil that cannot be saved anymore, the best way to save people and break through the despicable intent of the evil to damage the Fa-rectification and destroy all beings is to tell people the truth and validate the greatness of Dafa. Thinking from the standpoint of the entire situation of Fa-rectification, and in order to further expose this most evil persecution, six of us went to the U.N. in New York City on the tenth day of our hunger strike. We had faith in justice and people's conscience. We appealed to the U.N. to urge the Jiang Zemin regime to respect the Chinese Constitution, release the 130 innocent practitioners detained in Masanjia, stop state terrorism against Falun Gong, and stop ruining people's innocence and conscience.
2) Eradicate deeply ingrained deviations and dig up hidden selfishness
The evil is using every despicable means to damage Fa-rectification, destroy all beings, and torture and kill Dafa disciples. The SOS Urgent Rescue efforts are targeting both the disciples being tortured in China, and our attachments to not stepping out of humanness. SOS is an urgent call for us to drop our fears and courageously step forward. What we are validating is the truth of the universe–Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance. It is so noble and solemn. We are doing the most righteous thing in the universe, and we shouldn't be scared and hide. It is the evil that should be scared and shiver, because its demise is inevitable. We are the gods to protect the Fa in this human world. We can't allow the evil to continue poison beings here. We need to deliver truth-clarifying materials to every home, and leave the evil nowhere to hide.
Our great Teacher has said very clearly 'It is a xinxing issue if you do not help stop a murder or arson when you see it.' (Zhuan Falun) All of us have benefited a lot from the Fa. If we don't step forward in the face of this evil persecution of Dafa, we are not even good ordinary people, let alone cultivators! Some people often say that our cultivation needs to conform to the state of ordinary people. But what is really the state of ordinary people? We should conform to what a real human should be, not the ordinary people with distorted and degenerate values. Have we realized that when we are enjoying our meals and a good night of sleep, the evil might have already killed countless people! We need to stay alert, and shouldn't let the so-called 'conforming to the state of ordinary people' become a shield for our attachment to fear and selfishness.
Even a good person would stand up against killings. Now there are Dafa disciples being detained, tortured, raped and killed everyday. As a Fa-rectification cultivator, how can we just sit still and watch? Some people only want to benefit from the Fa, but don't want to contribute to Fa-rectification. They are not good beings even in the eyes of ordinary people. How can they possibly reach consummation in cultivation?
Many people think about the question when the Teacher will end Fa-rectification, but actually our hidden fears and selfishness have formed a field in another dimension for the evil to grow and do damage. If all of us Dafa disciples could rid our fears, step forward with courage and righteousness, and tell the truth and break through the evil with the mind state of a god, the situation would be completely different now!
Right now the utter insanity of the persecution also shows that the evil has tried everything it can. The darkness will soon be over, and dawn is near. Our great Teacher has been compassionately waiting while bearing an enormous amount for us. All of us Dafa practitioners should keep up with the Fa-rectification process of Teacher; eradicate our selfishness under the cover of indifference, fear, passive compliance, laziness, and comfort seeking. We should all step forward with courage and a righteous mind to tell the truth, break through the evil, and uphold justice. We should become the most righteous and indestructible beings that encompass heaven and earth!
Translated from:
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2001/10/11/11750.html
