Keeping the Promise We Made Before History

[PureInsight.org] It has been over one year since the rescue team was established. Looking back on the course of our Fa-rectification activities in the past 1-1½ years, our rescue team has undergone a process of growth and maturity. During the Fa-rectification, our rescue team has been gradually keeping the promise we made before history in accordance with the Fa principles that Master has taught: "Validate the Fa with rationality, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa and save people with mercy..." (From "Rationality" in Essentials for Further Advancement II)

I will now briefly communicate with you what our rescue team has learned during Fa-rectification.

In the beginning, when the rescue team was established, the main purpose was to rescue the overseas practitioners' relatives who are being persecuted in China. These relatives were arrested, beaten or forced into labor re-education camps only because they insisted on practicing Falun Gong in China. The upshot of these injustices is that by establishing an organization for the purpose of maintaining human rights makes it relatively easier to get in touch with governments, media and other human rights organizations while we are helping those persecuted relatives. After a while, during our activities and communication with fellow practitioners, we came to understand that we should open up our minds and focus our efforts on all the persecuted practitioners in China and abroad. In terms of dealing with this hardship we should negate it using the Fa principles and, through our practice, alleviate the pressure on practitioners in China. In the meantime, we should clarify the facts through various channels and from various angles in order to achieve the goal of suffocating the evil and rescuing practitioners. After understanding this point, we officially registered the "Global Committee to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners" in America and then successively in sixteen countries and regions. In the name of this organization or its branches, we clarified the facts to the local governments, media, Chinese communities and people in China to rescue the practitioners in China. During the later activities, the information that we provided to ordinary society not only stressed how to rescue the relatives, but took the typical cases of persecuted practitioners (including relatives) as our focal point. We then exposed the facts about the persecution of Falun Gong happening in China from the angle of relatives and third-party international human rights organizations, and made rescue efforts accordingly.

What I just talked about is how we understand the mission of rescuing from the perspective of the Fa. In concrete actions, we also gradually went from a state where everybody was involved once something happened, to a state where we conserved our efforts and dealt with the persecution cases by coordinating and communicating with each other. When creating a television program to raise awareness, we no longer tried to pack in everything at once. Instead, we focused our strength on a few key cases, so that we definitely make good progress. With respect to rescuing relatives, after more than ten relatives of Canadians were released, twenty more were released, making a total of more than thirty practitioners released. These efforts are still continuing and broadening in their scope. Next, I shall share our understandings about the America team effort of rescuing Charles Li.

In the beginning, we clarified the facts to the American government, media and public in an uncoordinated way. Now, practitioners from different places coordinate and communicate with each other, and orderly expose the brutal facts of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China with the emphasis on rescuing Charles Li. We remembered at the end of January, when we heard the news that Charles Li was arrested, many practitioners knew that we should have relevant American departments help rescue Charles Li. As for why he was arrested, although it was said that it was related to broadcasting over Chinese TV, we didn't know the concrete facts. Because of different understandings of the Fa principles, when we explained the situation to the American government and media, we only gave some ambiguous reasons instead of giving an answer that affirmed the true reasons, which later on led to various versions among the practitioners about the reason why Charles Li was arrested. Due to our loopholes and different understandings of Fa principles, the activity of rescuing Charles Li didn't make much progress at that time. Later, in March we found out that Charles Li was illegally sentenced in China because he admitted to intentionally trying to clarify the facts to the Chinese people by using TV, which conflicted with our explanations in the past. Facing the suspicions and doubts from the American government and media, some practitioners became confused and had no idea how to explain it to the government and media. We felt that the strength of our effort to rescue Charles Li had diminished in different places and that we had gone from acting like one body to acting separately.

A couple of months later, the practitioners in the rescue team continuously improved their xinxing, exchanged ideas on Fa-principles and analyzed our ways of rescuing Charles Li. We found that the barriers we encountered in rescuing him were mainly due to our doubts about the rationality and legitimacy of tapping into television broadcasts. Through studying the Fa more and reading the articles from Clearwisdom, we have gradually realized that the current situation in which a political power is persecuting innocent, good people, and that all legal rights and all normal appeal methods have all been deprived, the fact that Falun Gong practitioners have taken advantage of tapping into television broadcasts and clarified the facts to people in China is a righteous action which is truly fair, rational and legitimate. It is the great compassion and great endurance manifested from practicing the principle of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." Just like the other methods, such as lawfully appealing and distributing fliers and VCDs, which are all protected by the Chinese Constitution and protecting the right of the people of China to know what their government is doing. As a matter of fact, Master earlier pointed out in the article "Look at Things with Righteous Thoughts," "Right now, the Dafa disciples of Mainland China using television to let people know the truth is exposing the evil's persecution, is saving the sentient beings whose minds have been poisoned by the evil's deceit, and is a magnificent act of mercy."

During our Fa-study, we realized that in our previous rescue work, we had put our minds merely on the act of rescuing Dr. Li from prison. This was a one-sided understanding of the Fa, and it was also a strong attachment. Regarding the efforts to rescue Dr. Li, Teacher has already told us:

Since you're Dafa disciples, when there's a problem, everyone should work together as one. Since they aren't afraid of having their dirty deeds brought out into the open, we should expose them all to the whole world, and let all Americans know that a U.S. citizen has been arrested. Since they're not afraid of having their dirty deeds brought out into the open, we should go ahead and do those things. Every day that they don't release him is another day for us to expose them.

(From "Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference") As a Dafa practitioner and a member of the rescue team, I felt that what we should do is utilize Dr. Li's arrest as an opportunity to clarify the truth and to expose the evil persecution to the American public, media and government, providing them with an opportunity to position themselves for their futures.

In July, right after we had this breakthrough in understanding Fa-principles, the news that Charles Li had been on a hunger strike three times to protest the persecution was reported from the American Consulate in Shanghai. It provided an opportunity for our rescue work. During August, the national rescue team suggested a month-long car tour to rescue Charles Li. Mainly based in the American media, we exposed the fact that the Chinese Government made the Chinese media help persecute Falun Gong, and we brought out the fact that Dafa practitioners took advantage of TV to expose the evil's persecution. Over a month-long period, the car tour started in California and worked its way across the coutry and ended in Washington, D.C. It covered 32 States and over 90 cities, received over 170 interviews by English or Chinese media, and collected over 20,000 signatures, effectively clarified the facts. I remember that when the car tour was in the Wilmington, in one of the Chinese reports, there was a photo that was taken in front of City Hall. It depicted three flags, with two Falun Gong flags hanging on a flagpole on either side of an American flag. Supposedly, this was the decision of the city government. The report also quoted the words from a government official, "In commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of Wilmington Parade (to strive for the freedom of blacks), we support your protesting for freedom in order to change the current situation. We hope that we can help you walk through this adversity. Your adversity is not only Falun Gong's adversity but also the adversity of all mankind. I firmly believe that injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere." Thus, it can be seen, the American call for justice is formidable. We must let this call for justice resound, making that evil place quake, and suffocate their evil persecution.