(Clearwisdom.net) July 20, 1999 was a shameful day for mankind, because on this day Jiang Zemin began persecuting Falun Gong. From that day on, Jiang's villainous group began a thorough, public and cruel persecution of Falun Gong and Falun Gong practitioners. Overnight, 100 million Falun Gong practitioners were deprived of their basic human rights. This persecution has now lasted five years.
Five years is not too long compared to the length of a lifetime and is almost nothing in the length of human history; however, for Falun Gong practitioners faced with the full onslaught of China's state machinery, financed and undertaken with the abuse of a huge portion of China's vast national resources, and utilizing every imaginable base means to carry out the persecution, the past five years have been dark, long and difficult. Jiang's group has created a living hell for countless practitioners. There has been much suffering and pain.
When the persecution began, Jiang's clique used China's entire media resources as a giant propaganda machine to spread lies inside China and throughout the world. TV stations, radio stations, newspapers and other modern media tools churn out the most vicious lies and slander around the world day and night, all intended to demonize and turn public opinion against Falun Gong.
The persecutors plot the same political schemes that have been used throughout history to incite people to hate and be prejudiced against Falun Gong and Falun Gong practitioners. Jiang and his minions have used the military, the police, secret agents and other secretly violent branches of the autocracy to arrest Falun Gong practitioners throughout the country. Indeed, it felt like the "From the sky will come a great King of Terror," (from "Centuries," by Nostradamus) as if the sky was going to collapse. At that time, five years ago, Jiang Zemin was so furious and full of malice, he shouted, "I will annihilate Falun Gong in three months."
Right from the beginning, the perpetrators searched for and confiscated Falun Gong books everywhere so people could not read them and see for themselves what the message in the book is all about, so the enforcers were emboldened to do whatever they wanted to brutalize Falun Gong, and they could willfully play their power and fool people. They forced the whole nation to attack the people they didn't like; they used villainous methods that were used over dozens of years, such as "completely destroy," "firmly attack them," "deeply criticize," "persist in the struggle [against Falun Dafa] until the end," to once again instill hatred into the minds of the Chinese people. Jiang's group exhausted its entire store of base persecution methods accumulated throughout the Party's history on innocent Falun Gong practitioners. Jiang's cohorts also label Falun Gong practitioners with all of the past's negative political connotations, mostly with the label "anti." Nevertheless, what goes around comes around. When all the "anti" labels are used up and the situation reaches an extreme, it will turn around.
Calm-minded people soon were repulsed by Jiang's fiendish means and they began to think what Falun Gong really is all about. Why is Jiang Zemin persecuting Falun Gong? So far, tens of thousands of Falun Gong-attacking articles published in the highest CCP newspaper, People's Daily contain nothing more than lies, slander, defamation, frame-ups and devious schemes to manipulate public opinion. None of them stand their ground, academically or morally, and none of them can suppress Falun Gong's principle of Truth-Compassion-Tolerance.
After these five years, people are surprised to see that Falun Gong has tenaciously survived the most barbaric, most vicious and most over-powering persecution in the history of human civilization. Falun Gong practitioners never did anything wrong; not only that - Falun Gong is widely practiced in China and in many other parts around the world. This is the only civilian organization that the CCP hasn't been able to destroy in all of its political movements. The persecution of Falun Gong is one thing, and one thing only ¨C Jiang Zemin abusing his power to conduct a most vicious political persecution! And now they do not dare to imagine in their wildest dreams the annihilation of Falun Gong.
During the past five years, no matter how difficult, no matter how perilous, with Master's benevolent protection, millions of us Dafa practitioners overcame such tribulation and we persevered in our faith. Jiang's minions never expected that they would fail in their persecution of Falun Gong, nor did they expect to fully expose their ugly and malicious nature - the falsehoods, the cruelty or the violence - in broad daylight. They also set off and contrasted the greatness of Falun Dafa and the indestructible will of Dafa practitioners. Now, Jiang and his cohorts, those political roughnecks, the evil police and other perpetrators have to face this fact: it is completely impossible to change Falun Gong practitioners' faith in Truth-Compassion-Tolerance!
In the face of Jiang's genocidal policy during the past five years of "destroy them physically, defame their reputations and bankrupt them financially," Dafa practitioners have faced and suffered indescribable tribulations. We were confronted with the most powerful, autocratic and villainous political group ever, a group that conducted the most malicious, horrific and atrocious genocidal atrocities in history.
Falun Gong practitioners in China at all time face the threat of arrest, detention, torture and murder. They have been under the brutal persecution for long periods of time. Many of our fellow practitioners who we used to meeting every day were tortured to death and were taken away from us one by one. In these past five years we suffered imprisonment, slave labor, violence, torture, humiliation, framing, slander, misunderstanding, hatred, prejudice and numerous other unjust treatments. Countless practitioners were arrested, sent to labor camps, mental hospitals, brainwashing classes and prisons, where they were physically and mentally devastated or tortured to death. Countless practitioners lost their jobs or were expelled from school; they went into exile to avoid being persecuted and their families broke up; countless practitioners left their elderly parents and young children behind, and tragedies have constantly taken place.
Faced with all of this for the past five years, Falun Gong practitioners have endured with the strongest will, and they still treat people with compassion, which is not something easily done by ordinary people in their spiritual realm. People all know that Falun Gong has numerous practitioners. Under this huge, innocent persecution, we still open our hearts, so people who don't know us could learn about us, and we always kindly advise the roughnecks who were poisoned by Jiang's lies not to help Jiang's group in committing crimes and leave themselves a way out for future. We patiently clarify the true story about Falun Gong and our personal experience to people. It is because of our compassion and tolerance that the Chinese society has stayed calm and undisturbed as it is today despite the brutal, unreasonable persecution. If Falun Gong practitioners really were murderers and arsonists like Jiang's clique claims, China would have been turned upside down by now, which is an exact proof that Falun Gong is not at all like Jiang's lies describe, and is testimony to the fact that Falun Gong practitioners have been doing things peacefully and rationally. In fact, it is Jiang's group that has constantly spread lies to deceive and poison people's minds and has persecuted people in the past five years, and it is Jiang's group that is truly the greatest "unstable element" in society.
In the past years, the only things that Falun Gong practitioners have been doing is to persist in Dafa practice and explain the facts, to tell people the true situation of Falun Gong, to expose Jiang group's lies. Falun Gong practitioners' goal is to return the facts to people. Without Jiang and his cronies' persecution and lies about Falun Gong, the practitioners would not have had to clarify the truth. When all national resources are monopolized and controlled by Jiang and his followers, we used our own life's savings, pension money and salaries to print truth clarification flyers and make VCDs, to spread Falun Gong's truth. Without Jiang and his enforcers' persecution and lies about Falun Gong, there would be no need for us to do all this. In the cities and rural areas, at home and in Tiananmen Square, under the broiling sun and in the freezing winter, we clarified the truth and told people, "Falun Dafa is great" and "Falun Dafa is the righteous Way."
We will continue to clarify the truth until the persecution ends. All that we do is not to be done to snatch power from anyone, nor to overthrow anyone. Five years ago, Falun Gong didn't get involved in politics, and now, five years later, Falun Gong still has no political goals; five years from now, Falun Gong still will not seek any political power.
Many people asked the same question these past few years, "Why did Jiang Zemin fail to destroy Falun Gong practitioners' belief with such vicious means? Why do they persist in Falun Gong practice despite the brutal tortures they were subjected to?" For people in modern China whose belief system was destroyed, this phenomenon is indeed hard to understand. Some people indeed said, "If we say we give up Falun Gong, we will not go to prison, my family will be spared and got together, we will keep our jobs and can pursue our education, and we will get whatever we are supposed to get..." The majority of Falun Gong practitioners chose to firmly believe in beloved Master and Dafa without any second thoughts. We persistently followed Falun Gong's "Truth- Compassion-Tolerance," the ultimate truths. All of this is not manifest in grand speeches or dramatic actions; we have silently kept our unshakable faith in Truth-Compassion-Tolerance in our hearts under this huge tribulation.
Through our efforts to explain the facts during the past several years, people have learned the fact that the top priority for Falun Gong practitioners is to cultivate their xinxing [mind and heart nature], which means to be a selfless and altruistic person according to the principle of "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance," to become a noble person, a better-than-good person with lofty spiritual realm. We are open and dignified, honest and kind, modest and tolerant, and we never bear grudges or hatred toward anyone. We work hard and never complain. We take fame and fortune lightly, and we don't fight for self-interest. Through Falun Dafa cultivation, we deeply feel that the cultivation has benefited us endlessly; our beloved Master has given us too much through his compassion. We have become physically healthy and free from illness, and we have also obtained spiritual support, the most fundamental aspect for human beings. Our hearts are purified, our mindset is raised; we have found the true meaning of life. We learned how to be good people, and we live happily and fulfilled.
Because of the excellence of Falun Gong, so many people voluntarily learn it and so many people persist in the practice, even when faced with death threats. Because Falun Gong is good, it rapidly spread throughout the world in a short few years. Because Falun Gong is the most righteous, it exposed all that is unrighteous in the world, and the evil entities felt threatened. All of this is what Jiang Zemin does not want to see and could not tolerate, he is envious. For this man does not want the Chinese people to be freed from the heavy life and spirit shackles and does not want to see the Chinese people live clear-minded and with the ability to think and live for themselves. Imagine, if we give up Dafa cultivation under Jiang's evil persecution, we would in fact give up our conscience, our morals and sense of justice, things that are the most essential for a human being, to make an exchange with the devils and evils. We would destroy our souls! If we didn't persist in our belief of "Truth- Compassion -Tolerance," Jiang Zemin would succeed in his conspiracy. Such an outcome is unimaginable. He would totally destroy the morals and spirit of the Chinese people with his lies, evilness and tricks, people's moral will be destroyed, humanity will not exist and conscience would be gone.
Thus, in the face of tremendous tribulations, we follow and practice "Truth-Compassion- Tolerance" all the time. When confronted with autocracy and violence, we persist in the truth without giving in or returning violence with violence; when facing lies, we only clarify the truth without giving in or returning blow for blow; in treating the roughnecks who beat and torture us, we truly followed "not fighting back when being punched or insulted." We dissolved lies with sincerity, we awakened conscience with compassion and we melted violence with tolerance.
Time and history witness all of this. The Falun Dafa's principle of "Truth- Compassion ¨CTolerance" is the universal foundation of moral and value for human existence. The most essential and best of human nature and moral characters of any individual person, ethnic group, country and the whole world are included in these three words. In the past decade, more than 100 million Falun Gong practitioners around the world have proved this by following "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance." Falun Gong has brought people healthy bodies and noble morals. In any place and any environment, Falun Gong always benefits and brings no harm to any country, people, society and individual. As front-runners, Falun Gong practitioners are practicing the most wonderful and common moral and values that all human beings should follow.
After over a decade of an arduous journey, Falun Dafa has spread around the globe. We are firmly walking on the joyful path of Falun Dafa. As human morals degenerate day by day, we start with ourselves to become good people; we then tell others about truth of Falun Dafa. Our families, friends and people who learned the truth have joined us in Falun Dafa cultivation, which has formed a great pure current that brings back humanity's morality. Dafa practitioners of different skin colors, inside and outside China, men, women, the old and the young, demonstrate their indestructible belief and noble morals by practicing "Truth -Compassion -Tolerance," and they move people's hearts. Our righteous belief and actions open up a sky of hope for human morality to be returned, and have made a path of happiness for humanity's future.
When history has turned this page, people will marvel at everything that has taken place on earth today. The glory that Falun Dafa has unfolded and continues to unfold will leave indelible imprints in the universe! Falun Dafa has rebuilt human morality through the principle of "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance." Under the principle of "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance," sincerity, kindness, firmness, rationality, peace and justice are building the most splendid, moral statue for the future, which has become the only hope for mankind to return to glory. Mankind will forever follow and praise Falun Dafa.
