The Strength of Acting as One Body, the Power of Righteous Thoughts -- Activities for Rescuing Lin Mingli in Montreal

By Falun Dafa Practitioners in Montreal

(Clearwisdom.net) Lin Mingli was released early from forced detention and openly walked out of the forced labor camp where he had been illegally detained. On April 23, 2001, the police kidnapped Lin while he was paying his telephone bill in a residential district. It wasn't until after half a year had passed that his family found out that he had been illegally sentenced to two years in a forced labor camp. In order to resist the evil persecution that the practitioners were subjected to, he went on a hunger strike. The police forcefully fed him so violently that the feeding tube punctured his esophagus, rendering him unable to eat for a long time. The Global Rescue Team and his brother, Lin Shenli, who live in Canada, called for his release as well as the release of all the illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners. On March 26, 2003, Lin Mingli was released early.

During the process of rescuing Lin Mingli, the Montreal practitioners, together with Falun Gong practitioners from around the world, used the form of rescuing our relatives to achieve our results and understood the significance of the rescue from the standpoint of the Fa [Law and Principles] and were able to form a unified body while actively clarifying the truth and suffocating the evil. The results that we gained from using these methods were relatively good.

It may be hard for us practitioners who live overseas to feel the actual influence of our appealing on the practitioners who have been detained in that evil environment. However, Lin Shenli, who was released from a forced labor camp, has personally experienced how important it is for overseas practitioners to appeal.

Lin Shenli used to be incarcerated in a Chinese jail. He recounted from his personal experience that, "One phone call or one banner from an overseas practitioner has the effect of saving the imprisoned practitioners from the most vicious tortures or even from death. During the last Olympic Games in Australia, many Falun Dafa practitioners held a parade and group practice in order to appeal for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong. Although the CCTV intentionally made this scene black and white and distorted the footage, from my viewpoint it was completely different, as I could see the magnificent efforts from the practitioners living overseas during this Fa-rectification period. It also reflected the harmony and diamond like solidity of the whole body of those practitioners living overseas and those in China. These moving scenes caused some Falun Gong practitioners who had been led astray to return to the path of cultivation and thus greatly encouraged the practitioners who were protecting Falun Dafa in such an evil environment."

After Lin Shenli was rescued, some practitioners realized the necessity of rescuing Lin Mingli. However, they always felt it was relatively difficult since unlike Shenli, Mingli is not a direct family member of a Canadian resident. Later, the Toronto practitioners started the activities of "Rescuing Our Family Members." This deeply touched the Montreal practitioners. We realized that using the form of rescuing our relatives to rescue Mingli is an activity for the Fa-rectification and in clarifying the truth, suffocating the evil, and saving sentient beings. It is not simply just rescuing Mingli as an individual. However, the rescue action was only limited to a few practitioners who still had thoughts like, "Lin Shenli is the most suitable person for this activity." "A brother rescuing a brother would be best suited for ordinary people to relate to." Actually, they still took the activity as something that "a certain practitioner" should do. On the other hand, although they were actively involved in clarifying the truth with their personal experiences and that of rescuing other practitioners, in the initial rescuing process, Lin Shenli was too shy in his actions to push for the rescue of his own brother Mingli, and he was even conservative in talking about his understanding about the rescue effort. Later, everyone realized that rescuing Mingli was not something born out of human emotions, that what we were rescuing was not only Lin Shenli's brother, but a Falun Dafa practitioner. We were clarifying the truth, suffocating the evil, and minimizing our losses. It was Lin Shenli's business as well as our business, since "the next person's things are your things" ("Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Washington, D.C. Fa Conference") and we are a whole body. After this understanding, more and more practitioners directly participated in the rescue activities, including making telephone calls and sending letters. The effect became better and better.

Initially, when some practitioners talked to the parliament members about rescuing Lin Mingli, some members thought that it would be very difficult and that the appeal in Canada could not reach China. The practitioners immediately realized that the everyday people's attitude towards the situation reflected our own thoughts. Teacher said, "As I've said, everything that happens today in the ordinary society is the result of Dafa disciples' thoughts." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.") Therefore, in order to change ordinary people's thoughts about rescuing Lin Mingli, we ourselves must first upgrade from the standpoint of the Fa. According to the practitioners who were dealing with the rescue project from the side of parliament, as soon as they truly realized from the bottom of their hearts that rescuing Lin Mingli was "what we should do" and "what Canada should do," the parliament members' point of view immediately changed. Even our fellow practitioners were surprised by this. We further saw the manifestation of the Fa at this level.

When we just started to call the forced labor camp, it was very difficult. The phone was either busy or the person answering the phone would immediately hang up upon hearing the words "Falun Gong." This caused great pressure on the practitioners that were participating in this activity. Then the practitioners encouraged each other. After group study of the teachings of Falun Gong, several practitioners formed a "Dafa particle group" where one practitioner would make the phone call and the others would send forth righteous thoughts. Gradually, the phone calls to the labor camp went through as well as well as the calls to the police department.

Through experience sharing, we saw clearly that as we thoroughly and carefully clarified the truth, the evil gradually changed from acting rampantly to being restrained and then eventually to being eliminated. For example, a police officer claimed that he had received many calls from the practitioners and had grown very "experienced" and very "familiar" with a lot of the truth surrounding Falun Gong. Yet he treated the truth in an evil way. A practitioner consciously exposed his self-deceiving lies one by one; one practitioner sternly told him the truth about Dafa and the cruelty of the persecution; another practitioner kindly advised him to do kind deeds. Finally, this police officer listened to the practitioners quietly for a long period of time and said "Umm, um." Later, the police officers not only promised the "definite release of Lin Mingli," but some police told the practitioners that there were several dozen other practitioners detained in that labor camp and hoped that we could also help to rescue them.

During the process of rescuing Lin Mingli and the other Canadian residents' family members persecuted for practicing Falun Gong in China, the Canadian people have been extremely supportive.

Parliament member Mr. Scott Reid proposed Motion 236, which was unanimously passed in October 2002. It clearly requested the Canadian government to help rescue 13 Falun Dafa practitioners, including Lin Mingli, and brought a very important impact to the rescue activities in Canada as well as across the world.

Parliament member Robert Anders directly wrote to the pertinent agencies including the Chinese Ambassador in Canada and the Chinese labor camp where Mingli was detained. He wrote, "If your government continues to ignore human rights you will never be able to gain the respect of the international community and be considered a just regime."

For the past two years, Mr. Irwin Cotler, the internationally renowned human rights attorney and a member of Parliament, has highly praised Truth, Compassion, and Forbearance and the noble realms of Falun Gong practitioners and has strongly condemned the Chinese government for the cruel persecution of Falun Gong. He emphasized that the imprisonment of Falun Gong practitioners should not have happened in the first place. His appeals for the release of Zhang Kunlun, Lin Shenli, and all detained practitioners had moved the Canadian people.

Lin Mingli could be released early first because of his own righteous thoughts and action in denying the persecution by the old forces. The active rescue project from the overseas practitioners manifested the power of Dafa practitioners as a unified and indestructible body. The appeals and actions made by the Canadian people and all kind people in the world to rescue these practitioners also contained the righteous thoughts of the Canadian people and the world's Falun Dafa practitioners and revealed that Dafa has deeply entered people's hearts.

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