By Dafa practitioner Yuan Rong in China

(Clearwisdom.net) Background: Mr. Liu Chengjun was a Dafa practitioner in Nong'an County, Changchun City, Jilin Province. He was one of the Changchun City practitioners that made the first broadcast of video programs over China's state-run airwaves that exposed Jiang Zemin's systematic cover-up of atrocities against Falun Gong practitioners and the truth about Falun Dafa. As one of the main participants in the March 5 broadcast, Mr. Liu Chengjun was sentenced to 19 years in prison. After 21 months of torture and abuse, Mr. Liu Chengjun died on Friday morning, December 26, 2003, while in police custody.

My heart was greatly troubled for a long time after Liu Chengjun's death. I was often overcome by guilt and self-criticism for not being able to rescue him from the police's clutches and the atrocities he had to suffer. Then I thought of several dozen other determined fellow practitioners still illegally detained in prison in Nong'an County, Changchun City. After Liu Chengjun's death, I feel all the more responsible for rescuing my fellow practitioners in Nong'an County.

Among them, Ms. Zhao Xiuxiang and Ms. Zhang Dianrong require most immediate and urgent rescue actions. They are presently kept in a hospital in Changchun City. Due to the cruel tortures, blood gushed from Ms. Zhao Xiuxiang's mouth and she is in a coma. Ms. Zhang Dianrong has become handicapped from the tortures. She is now bedridden, paralyzed for more than a year. Fearing the exposure of their crimes, Jiang's henchmen in Changchun City kept moving Ms. Zhang Dianrong between hospitals so that her family won't be able to locate her.

In addition, the policemen at the detention center have lately escalated their torture of three female Dafa practitioners. They relentlessly punch them, hit them violently with sticks and rods, and torment them with deadly torture instruments. Outside the detention center and jail, the Public Security Bureau has increased its surveillance since January 1, 2004. The so-called Public Security Bureau recruited hatchet men and scheduled them to take turns monitoring the streets.

The police and the hatchet men have now joined forces in abducting law-abiding Dafa practitioners, illegally detaining them, ransacking their homes, looting things of value, confiscating Falun Dafa books, and committing other crimes against Dafa practitioners. Dafa practitioners in Nong'an County continue to face unrestrained and frequent persecution. We can no longer overlook these problems. We have come to the final stage of Fa-rectification. What could be the reasons why Jiang's henchmen haven't lessened their persecution? The following are a few reasons that come to my mind.

Since the March 5^th video broadcast in Changchun City, Jiang's henchmen in Changchun City have escalated the persecution. They found and destroyed the truth-clarification materials site in Nong'an County, and illegally sentenced more than ten Dafa practitioners in Nong'an County to prison terms. The overall strength of Dafa practitioners in Nong'an was thus reduced. Some individual Dafa practitioners even started to fear the persecution. Moreover, Jiang's henchmen spread rumors about some practitioners to create conflicts, divisions, distrust, fears, and doubts among practitioners. Alleged accusations reflecting distrust and suspicions began to circulate among practitioners: "X is a spy for the Public Security Bureau." "A has given B's name to the police," or "C's cultivation state has regressed these days." Dafa practitioners in Nong'an County started to suspect each other and guard themselves against each other. Tension started to rise among them.

For example, take Liu Chengjun's story. Clearwisdom.net reported on October 27, 2003 in the article titled "More Than 100 Falun Gong Practitioners on Hunger Strike in Jilin Prison; Mr. Liu Chengjun on Brink of Death" that Liu Chengjun was on the brink of death and urged practitioners worldwide to take immediate rescue action. At that very critical moment, a rumor had it that more then ten policemen from Changchun City Public Security Bureau had come to Nong'an County to hunt for Dafa practitioners with access to the Internet in order to find out which Dafa practitioner exposed the news related to Liu Chengjun.

Another rumor said that the police had tapped Liu Chengjun's home telephone line, and had been monitoring and controlling all incoming and outgoing calls. Therefore, his family no longer wished to communicate with the outside world via telephone. Many fellow practitioners and I were confused by these demonic illusions, and forgot to reinforce our righteous thoughts or take righteous actions. I thought to myself, "The security is tight right now. Maybe I should wait two days before I start to take rescue action." Little did I know that I had submissively accepted the evil's arrangements while I should have tried to overcome my attachment to fear with my righteous faith in the Fa (law and principles) and drive out this demonic interference.

Later I realized that it was precisely during those two days that Jilin Prison dispatched two policemen to the Public Security Bureau in Nong'an County in order to request a medical bail approval. Because no practitioner knew about this at the time, no practitioner went to clarify the truth to the Public Security Bureau. We did not even print out or distribute the truth-clarification materials related to Liu Chengjun that we had already finished compiling. The end result of our lack of righteous thoughts and actions was that Liu Chengjun's opportunity to be granted medical bail was denied.

Later, some fellow practitioners were astounded by this phenomenon. They originally believed it to be absolutely impossible for the police to grant Liu Chengjun medical bail, since he was one of the chief coordinators of the March 5^th video broadcast, the very first video broadcast of truth-clarification programs in China. They found it hard to believe that, as soon as they exposed the information regarding Liu Chengjun's mortal danger that police would contact the Public Security Bureau to release him on medical bail. It was too miraculous for them to believe. Our feelings of shock and disbelief regarding this specific phenomenon reflected our lack of steadfast belief in the Fa. It also reflected how much we lagged behind in the pace of the Fa-rectification. Later on we exchanged our understandings on the Fa regarding the rescue of Liu Chengjun and figured out an excellent way to rescue Liu and for his family to see the true goodness of Falun Dafa, but it was too late. Liu Chengjun was tortured to death on December 26, 2003

At this moment, I no longer have tears for Liu Chengjun or hatred toward the policemen that had murdered him. Instead, I am consumed by strong feelings of regret and self-criticism. I keep recalling some of the scenes I had witnessed while Liu Chengjun was in the hospital. Liu recited Teacher's article "Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions" to his family in a weak voice. He asked his family to look after his child (also a Dafa practitioner) and kindly treat a policeman that was looking after him. As I recalled these moments that reflected his faith in the Fa and altruism, my respect toward Liu Chengjun grew stronger. His admirable actions continue to inspire me to reinforce my faith on my path of Fa-rectification. Now that Liu Chengjun is no longer with us, we are carrying more responsibilities in this Fa-rectification.

There is one thing I feel I must mention here. Some practitioners in Nong'an are still not diligent in their cultivation. They would do some of the things that they know go against what the Fa requires of them, such as not doing consistently the three things that Teacher requires of Dafa practitioners. It follows that they have bred many evils in their sphere. I hope that Dafa practitioners in Nong'an County would help each other in cultivation and enhance together in cultivation.

In response to the overall cultivation state of practitioners in Nong'an, I feel that each of us must face the fact that we may be part of the problem and solemnly seek inward to elevate our understanding of the Fa. We must sufficiently understand the meaning of Fa-rectification. I would also recommend each of us in Nong'an to study a few more times "Expose the Evil Happening Locally to the Local People With Master's Comment." We must try to eliminate the barriers between practitioners. New and veteran practitioners should form one indestructible entity. We should try to collect telephone numbers and addresses from each criminal policeman, as well those of their family and relatives, and reveal their crimes against Falun Gong practitioners. When necessary, we should file lawsuits against the policemen who have been persecuting local Falun Gong practitioners. Meanwhile, we should keep contacts with the families of those fellow practitioners subject to significantly more severe persecution so as to seize every opportunity to rescue them.

I have learned painful lessons in this regard. Back in 2000, I was twice under illegal detention. After I was released, the fear of persecution took hold of me. There was a period of time when I hid myself at home, and refused to go out to clarify the truth about Falun Dafa. Even when I was sometimes encouraged by fellow practitioners to help with truth-clarification work, I would quickly get it over with and run back home. I also know that a practitioner that I used to keep in touch with moved to another city to flee from persecution after he had experienced just a taste of it. Some individual practitioners are too busy making money to help clarify the truth about Falun Dafa. These practitioners share a common mentality: "I have been to Tiananmen Square to appeal for Dafa. I have been incarcerated in prison. I have done enough. I don't want to risk being imprisoned again. Otherwise, I might sway from the Fa in prison." The root cause of such a mentality is selfishness. Blinded by their selfishness, these practitioners lack a sufficient understanding of the nature of the persecution and cultivation via Fa-rectification work. I suggest that these fellow practitioners make better use of the remaining time to study the Fa with a pure heart, especially those Fa lectures after July 20, 1999. The Fa will help us correct our understanding and catch up with the Fa-rectification.

After the police destroyed the truth-clarification materials site in Nong'an, we still managed to read Minghui articles. Other than that, we are unable to mass-produce truth-clarification materials. Thus some practitioners started to produce handmade truth-clarification materials.

Handcrafting truth-clarification materials is a time-consuming process, and the end products are less appealing to everyday people. Another disadvantage is that we are unable to keep a steady supply of truth-clarification materials when we need to expose a specific person's crimes against local Falun Gong practitioners. When we only have a small number of truth-clarification materials, we are unable to reveal the persecution to a larger area of local residents, thus reducing the possibility of lessening the persecution. Because of the lack of truth-clarification materials site, we sometimes write only the depraved policemen's names. Sometimes we only post public letters on the streets, but fail to reach and make those policemen's family members and friends understand the truth. Some practitioners are embarrassed by their lack of education and good writing skills, and worry that their letters would not be able to clarify the truth. Perhaps we should tell ourselves that we ought not to be attached to any form of truth-clarification. Besides writing letters or distributing truth-clarification materials, we can also clarify the truth in person or over the phone. It takes no more than a few minutes to make a call, but by making each call we will be able to eliminate a large amount of evil and discourage Jiang's henchmen from committing additional crimes against Falun Gong practitioners. As long as we think and act from within the Fa, and base our actions on offering salvation to sentient beings, we will most certainly be able to attain our goal.

The quality of truth-clarification materials needs a lot of improvement as well. It involves technical and financial issues and xinxing (moral character) cultivation. The old forces have blocked our financial resources to increase the difficulty of truth-clarification work with the excuse of helping us build our mighty virtue. I think we should send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the old forces' obstructing the sentient beings from learning the truth about Falun Dafa. Though it be challenging to keep up with Fa study, we must persevere in studying the Fa daily, sending forth righteous thoughts daily, and creating high-quality truth-clarification materials that are tailored to the background of the local residents.

I must also mention that some practitioners hold fast to their attachments of fear and dependence. They will read and create truth-clarification materials only when you compile the content for them. Some practitioners are attached to their human notions, and consider using computer software and surfing the Internet to be too complicated as well as dangerous. I think that's another manifestation of the old forces' force-fed notions and interference. It is very easy to overcome the Internet blockade that has been setup by Jiang's regime intending to prevent Chinese people from learning the truth. It takes no more than an average level of computer software knowledge. If we can try to establish a few truth-clarification materials sites of more humble scale, we will be able to clarify the truth all over Nong'an and thus completely deny the information barrier. The evil elements in other dimensions that try to damage or destroy truth-clarification materials sites will self-annihilate in our righteous field. Besides, having more truth-clarification materials sites will allow fellow practitioners to share the large workload, and allow everyone enough time to study the Fa. The Fa will reinforce our righteous thoughts and righteous actions, and thus help us improve the quality of truth-clarification materials.

Dear fellow practitioners in Nong'an County, Changchun City, we must remember that we are practitioners in Teacher's hometown. We must become one powerful entity, catch up with the progress of the Fa-rectification, carry out our prehistoric vows, and walk our final path well. We must not let Teacher bear tribulations for us.

This is my personal understanding on improving the overall cultivation state of practitioners in Nong'an County. Please kindly correct anything erroneous.