By a practitioner from Northern China

(Clearwisdom.net) I am a practitioner from the countryside. I first learned Falun Dafa in 1998. After obtaining the Fa, I wished that I had obtained the Fa much earlier. Ever since then, I make use of all my free time to study the Fa and to cultivate. Besides reading the Dafa books, watching the videos, and listening to the Fa, I also copy the books. By the end of 1998 I had copied all eleven of my Dafa books two or three times, except for Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa, which I have only copied once. Especially for Zhuan Falun, I told myself, no matter how busy I am, I have to copy it three times. I have kept doing so, right up to today. From the very beginning I volunteered to be an assistant for the practice site in our area. Early in 1999, I volunteered to be an assistant for our county.

In April 1999, the Tianjin police illegally arrested a dozen Falun Gong practitioners, an event which lead to the April 25 Falun Gong appeal in Beijing. At that time I thought to myself, "For such a good practice, for such a good teacher, and for something you could find nothing bad about, how come there are people who do not allow us to practice it?" I wanted to go and reason with them, because I felt that I could never understand their opposition otherwise. We arrived in Beijing fairly late and sat down on the ground at Fuyou Street. At nightfall we remembered what had happened during the "June 4" incident [the government crackdown on the Democracy movement] and were concerned about what might happen during the night. So we decided that all the assistants and contact persons would voluntarily stand in a circle around the outside of the group so that, in case the tanks rolled in, we could protect our fellow practitioners. We had hardly finished our discussion, however, when a message arrived that everything had been settled. We were asked to go home, so we took the bus arranged by the Appeals Office to go home.

On July 20, 1999, Falun Gong practitioners all over the country were suddenly arrested. All the public transportation was stopped, so I rode my bicycle to Beijing. On July 23, I was sent back to the local detention center, where I thought very calmly about all my behavior. I had done nothing wrong. Therefore, it did not work at all when my relatives and friends came to persuade me [to give up Falun Gong], nor did it work when the police came so many times to talk to me and threaten me with forced labor and imprisonment, asking me to "separate" and write the so-called statement to "stop practicing." I had firmly decided to keep on practicing, without giving up, even if I was imprisoned. Half a month later, they released me. The day after I came home, I went and asked everywhere in order to find a place to access the Internet, and I downloaded Teacher's article, "Some Thoughts of Mine."

During the following year, whenever there were holidays, politically sensitive dates, or other major public activities, the local authorities would illegally arrest me. I was arrested seven times. I was fined, and my home was ransacked. My audiotapes, color TV set and motorcycles were all taken away. On December 5, 2000, the last time I was abducted and taken to the Public Security Bureau, I was handcuffed outdoors and left out in the freezing weather for three days and four nights. With the help of righteous thoughts, the handcuffs loosened and I was able to escape. Since then I have been destitute and homeless.

Over the past three years, I have walked throughout seven or eight counties helping to coordinate communication among fellow practitioners. During this time, in such a severe situation, practitioners have all looked forward to sitting together and having a chance to share experiences. I made use of the opportunities to visit the different villages to get together with the local practitioners. Sometimes it was four or five people, sometimes it was forty or fifty people. Sometimes, over the course of a day, we would have three experience-sharing meetings ¨C in the morning, afternoon and evening. We would share the positive experiences of fellow practitioners in other counties and share our understanding of the Fa principles. It was very encouraging and exciting for every practitioner, whenever we could gather together.

We also shared our understanding of the Fa with those practitioners who were having difficulty stepping forward or who were severely interfered with by the evil, so as to upgrade our understanding as a whole body. We also had forums with those practitioners who had gone astray, so as to remove their obstacles. At the very beginning, things did not always go smoothly. Sometimes we had to move to different places during a single experience sharing meeting. Sometimes we had barely dispersed our meeting when the police suddenly arrived. Sometimes when the situation was not good and we could not find a proper place to meet, we would just have our Fa-conference on a mountain slope or in a cornfield. At that time, I often had an attachment of fear, but when I saw fellow practitioners' thirst for the opportunity to share experiences and study the Fa, I was encouraged to go through with all of this, with my righteous belief in Dafa.

In September 2001, I was riding in a bus. However, the bus was stopped by the public security officers to check identify cards. Since I had Dafa materials in my bag, I begged Master for help before I climbed over a wall to escape from the danger. However, a police car stopped me. When the police asked for my identity card, I said voluntarily, "No, I don't have it." At the same time, I adjusted my state of mind and sent forth righteous thoughts. I thought that I was doing the most righteous thing, and I should be upright and aboveboard. The police kept looking at my bag and asked me to follow them. I did not listen to them. He asked the driver to call for more officers. I pointed my finger at the driver and shouted, "How dare you!" The driver just sat there without moving. As I faced the policeman one-on-one, he could hardly do anything. I criticized him loudly, "In broad daylight, you go about abducting people. How dare you!" All of a sudden, a big group of people started to gather around. When the police officer saw that there was no one who would say he was right, he gave himself an out by saying, "Just go. Next time if I run into someone who does not have an identity card, I will not be so nice to him." I suddenly remembered a scene in a dream I had several days before, where I was caught and handcuffed by the evil police. I could not help shedding tears and feeling really thankful for Master's compassionate care.

So long as fellow practitioners require coordination in group experience sharing, I will try my best to do it well. This has been the means for me to validate Dafa over the past three years. When I am coordinating Dafa jobs in neighboring counties, I try to help make the neighboring counties function well as a whole group. Fellow practitioners have also stepped forward to help coordinate, to be truly responsible for the Fa, and to think about fellow practitioners. We find time whenever and however we can, with no formalities at all, to share experiences. When we come across any problem, we solve it in a timely manner to reduce any potential losses to the least degree.

For example, in one county at the beginning of this year, there were evil ruffians who were preparing to run a brainwashing class. Fellow practitioners spread this news quickly so that the neighboring counties could simultaneously send forth righteous thoughts. It turned out that the main ruffian suffered from a severe disease, and the brainwashing class never materialized.

In one county in 2000, there were over one hundred practitioners who went to Beijing to appeal. They were sent back to the local detention center to be illegally detained. Except for a very few families who paid extortion money and wrote the "guarantee letter to stop practicing" to bring the practitioners home, the majority of those practitioners had been illegally jailed for over two years. In the beginning, the "610 Office*" said that only after the practitioners' families had paid ten thousand yuan and written the "guarantee letter," would any practitioners be released. Most of the practitioners who were detained were assistants and veteran practitioners. During that time, we shared our experiences with fellow practitioners at their homes around the whole county many times, and upgraded our understanding of the Fa as a whole group. We also did well in patiently talking to the families of practitioners who had been detained so as to clarify the truth more comprehensively to them. Most of the families had righteous thoughts after they learned the truth. They decided not to cooperate with the evil police, refusing to pay any money, without making difficulties for their family members who had been detained. Instead, they helped to send the practitioners books and new articles. They also wrote letters to keep them well-informed of current events. They made a consistent effort to cooperate with each other.

We also clarified the truth to the County Party Committee, the County Government, the "610 Office," the Political and Legislative Committee, the Public Security Bureau, and the labor camp, either by sending them truth-clarifying materials or writing them letters. If practitioners could not find the specific contact people in question, they tried to find their family members. The truth-clarifying materials mainly related the facts of the persecution and actual cases of good being rewarded with good and evil meeting with retribution. They also recounted cases of actual patients in our own county who had been suffering from incurable and chronic diseases yet who had fully recovered after practicing Falun Gong. Other truth-clarifying materials recounted typical cases of how practitioners volunteered to hand in grain and pay their taxes, and how they chose to pave a road and repair a bridge. In all, we used our hearts to clarify the truth in many areas. Afterwards the "610 Office" said they would release the practitioners if they paid eight thousand yuan, then they changed it to five thousand yuan. Then, when they saw that even that did not work, they had a meeting with the County Government and agreed that, if the practitioners paid two thousand yuan, they would be released. Finally they said that if practitioners just wrote an IOU, they would be released.

Later, we promoted our truth-clarification by writing letters to the County Party Committee, County Government, all the Administrative Bureaus, factories, institutions, companies, the town governments, police substations, the village Party committees, and all the schools. We worked very carefully in searching out addresses and names. We had people working from their homes who were trained to take on this special responsibility. We supplied them with stamps, envelopes, paper, detailed addresses, and the proper truth-clarification materials. We also gave this opportunity to the practitioners who had difficulty stepping forward to participate in the Fa-rectification. We promoted these truth-clarifying methods to other counties beyond our own.

At the end of 2001, a town police substation illegally arrested a practitioner who stepped forward to validate Dafa, and sent him to the county detention center. The director of the detention center refused to accept him, saying that whoever sent in a practitioner should first pay his living expenses. The police substation made phone calls everywhere to ask for instructions, and was given the runaround. They were told to ask whoever signed the paper to accept the practitioner. They were also told to show the financial loss for the past two years for jailing practitioners. Finally they had no other choice but to release the practitioners. The next day, apparently, the director of the police substation went to the Public Security Bureau, cursing all the way, saying that from now on, under no circumstances, would they arrest Falun Gong practitioners. During the Sixteenth National Congress, the county government leaders told the police substation that whoever arrested a practitioner should solve the problem of expenses. Since fellow practitioners have cooperated with each other, the environment is much more relaxed. Even for those practitioners who had been jailed in a labor camp or gone astray, it did not take long for them to be reawakened and participate once again in the Fa-rectification.

In 2002, practitioners in one county did very well with face-to-face truth clarification. In fact they clarified the truth several times in all the villages and towns. I suggested that practitioners from all the neighboring counties go there to learn from their experiences, share experiences in truth-clarification and in the understanding of the Fa, and finally, to accompany those practitioners to do the truth-clarification job. After they returned to their home areas, they could help others to step forward. In this way, we made great progress in clarifying the truth.

In addition, we also exchanged views among all the coordinators to upgrade ourselves as a group and break through the interference arranged by the old forces. We tried to be truly responsible to Dafa and think first about how fellow practitioners could best cooperate with each other. As a result, the Fa would exhibit its mighty power as a whole. In validating Dafa, we helped each other to do well in all that we are supposed to do. In studying Master's lecture, "Teaching the Fa at the Discussion on Creating Fine Art," I came to realize that, when the Fa-rectification has been pushed to the surface, the key point is whether we can recover our own thoughts and our genuine self, and that, when we can fully control our own self, there will be a manifestation of the great Buddha Fa at the human level. That is also the Fa's requirement for us. Enlightened by the article, "Expose the Evil Happening Locally to the Local People * With Master's Comment," at the present time we are focusing on searching out those police officers whose hometown is our local area but who are working in other parts of the country where they are persecuting practitioners. In this way, we want to give our truth-clarification efforts more breadth and more depth, and do it more comprehensively.

We still have a great deal to do to meet the requirements of the Fa. We should do much better as a whole group. Please correct me if there is anything improper in this article. My deepest thanks to Master's compassionate salvation and care, and many thanks to those fellow practitioners who have given me accommodations, meals, and all kinds of help during these past three years.

November 26, 2003

* The "610 Office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

Posting date: 12/12/2003
Original article date: 12/10/2003
Category: Fa-Rectification Stories
Translated on 12/1/2003
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2003/11/26/61267.html

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