(Minghui.org) I have been practicing Falun Dafa for 20 years, and would like to share my experiences of how the Dafa practitioners in our area have tried our best to do well the three things that Master asks us to do.
Falun Dafa was introduced in my county in 1996. Various Fa study and exercise sites soon sprang up, with people attending in droves. Besides these people, quite a large number of people had read the Falun Dafa books and planned to take up the practice.
However, when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started the persecution against Falun Dafa in July 1999, many people succumbed to the tremendous pressure and stopped practicing.
Too few people were able to stand firm in their belief and do well in cultivation. However, those of us who continued to practice Falun Dafa felt blessed to be protected by Master's compassion and mercy.
We were able to come together and form a strong entity, creating a relatively relaxed environment, and at the same time, letting many people know about Falun Dafa and the persecution.
After the persecution started, practitioners in our area developed a strong attachment to fear and, for about eight years, were unsure of what do.
We had seen many practitioners get arrested and sentenced multiple times over the years.
Under the immense pressure, a large number of practitioners ended up practicing in secret, or stopped practicing altogether. Some embraced other religions. A few people even turned against Dafa and gave the police names and addresses of practitioners.
I obtained the Fa at the end of 1996, and have been arrested and detained many times since the persecution began.
My attachment to fear was also palpable, but I continued to study the Fa every day. I looked inward and cultivated solidly. When I fell down in cultivation, I quickly picked myself up. My attachment to fear gradually diminished, and I became more and more steadfast in my cultivation.
In the process of standing up against the persecution, other practitioners began to look to me for coordination and direction.
I picked up the skill of coordinating essentially by having been thrown into the situation.
A number of practitioners started to admire me and looked to me for guidance. They began to rely on me instead of relying on Dafa. I quickly developed the attachment to feeling pleased with myself and to showing off.
The old forces took full advantage of the situation and ruthlessly exploited my loopholes.
On April 25, 2005, my wife and I were both arrested and taken to a forced labor camp for two years. Several practitioners were also arrested and others were forced to leave home to avoid arrest.
I continuously looked inward while in the labor camp, to try to find out where I had gone awry. But, no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t figure things out, until I was released. The whole thing stemmed from the fact that I had indulged myself when fellow practitioners had “worshiped” me.
I spoke to some practitioners about their human notions towards me, but a portion of them continued to look at me favorably. So I resorted to keeping a distance from them and even went so far as to avoid some practitioners altogether.
In the two years of forced labor, I refused to perform any work the guards assigned me and tried my best to make sure I studied the Fa diligently with a calm mind, sit in meditation and send forth righteous thoughts on a regular basis.
When I was released in March 2007, I still devoted my time to coordinate other practitioners on projects to validate the Fa. I helped set up a multitude of materials production sites in practitioners' homes, resumed group Fa study, and made plans for all to join in the efforts to save sentient beings.
We needed to expand our materials production sites and increase the number of practitioners involved in distributing materials, so we could distribute to remote areas and surrounding villages.
I wanted to concentrate on producing Dafa materials, and play less of a coordination role, so towards the second half of 2010, after working at my regular job during the day, I put in another six hours operating more than a dozen printing machines simultaneously to crank out over 1,000 truth-clarification brochures.
My wife and another practitioner did the binding and packaging, while a fourth practitioner took the finished product to specified locations and separated them into bags ready for delivery.
Every week, different practitioners were assigned to pick up the bags to distribute in the countryside.
I later replaced more than a dozen machines with eight more efficient printers. My wife and I alone were able to print and package almost 2,000 brochures.
Over the past years, we've produced enough materials for our own county, surrounding areas, and also have surplus to help out the neighboring counties.
Falun Dafa has basically become a household name. A lot of people now are aware of the lies behind the CCP's persecution, and our cultivation environment has seen a dramatic improvement.
The materials production site at my home continues to operate in safety under Master’s watchful care.
I believe our region is successful because we have been able to look to the Fa for guidance. We trust Master and Dafa, and we trust each other. We cooperate with each other and behave as one body. We do things and make decisions by taking the whole group into consideration. We ensure that everybody is intertwined as strands that make up a strong rope.
After the large-scale material production site was established at my home, practitioner Xin (alias) became the coordinator. Xin is very capable and was doing a commendable job, but because he is a new practitioner with limited experience, other practitioners did not afford him enough trust and support. Xin himself also felt that he was not the best choice, so after six months and much consideration, a decision was made to have Mei (alias) take over.
Mei started off doing a fine coordination job, but soon unfavorable comments came her way, putting her under undue pressure and causing a lot of distress. After several exchanges with other practitioners, it was agreed that Mei would be the main coordinator while Xin and I would assist, and when handling big projects, all three of us would coordinate together.
This style of coordinating has proved efficient and effective. Last year, in the matter of suing former CCP head Jiang Zemin for initiating the persecution of Falun Dafa, the coordination effort for our region was extremely well done.
When we learned that it was possible to sue Jiang, we three coordinators got together to set up several groups. One group prepared the necessary documents, another accessed the internet, another helped those in need to write their complaints, and another went to the surrounding areas to spread the word. We all did our best so that the whole process ran very smoothly.
Over 300 practitioners used their real names to sue Jiang Zemin, which was reported and published on the Minghui website.
The Domestic Security Division conducted an investigation into the matter, and sought out Xin, Mei and myself. We told the officers about Dafa and the persecution and reiterated the reason for bringing Jiang to justice.
Because of our calmness and righteous thoughts, we were not harassed any further, and the practitioners in our region were also left alone. As a result, no practitioner has been detained for suing Jiang.
The county where I live is also known as the “long-standing liberated red region.” From the early days of the CCP's rule, my county has always been at the forefront in keeping with every Party political campaign. So, for the first few years, personnel from the local Public Security and Procuratorate were very brutal when dealing with Falun Dafa practitioners.
We decided that the best way to change our environment and save more sentient beings was to focus on those in public security and the Procuratorate. We distributed Dafa materials in large quantities to these places, wrote truth-clarification letters and made face-to-face contact with the people working there.
Xin used to be a police officer, so he was in charge of handling the police, the 610 Office, the Public Security Bureau and the Domestic Security Division.
A chief of the Public Security Bureau visited me many times, and I have spent long hours talking with him. He has gotten to know me quite well and respects me. Many staff members in the Bureau know that Dafa is good, which has helped to improve the situation in our region.
Last year, Xin and another practitioner traveled to some outlying areas to distribute Dafa materials. Xin was arrested, but the other practitioner managed to escape. That evening, Mei and the practitioner came to my house to see what we could do to get Xin released.
The following day, I phoned the chief of the Public Security Bureau asking for his help. He sent the deputy director of our local 610 Office, the head and deputy-head of the Domestic Security Division, and the supervisor of Xin’s work unit to negotiate Xin's release.
The entourage invited everybody involved to discuss the case over lunch. The chief called me later that afternoon to say that Xin was safely home.
Practitioners in our region pay close attention to letting everyone know about Falun Dafa and the persecution. We go to shopping malls, train stations, bus stops and taxi stands. Wherever crowds gather, practitioners talk to people and hand out Dafa materials.
Security personnel and the police basically leave us alone. Whenever they have to respond to Falun Gong cases, they go through the motions, but practitioners are quickly released.
For the past 10 years, on almost 10 different occasions, we have gone all out to rescue practitioners being persecuted. We have organized groups of practitioners to attend court hearings and sent forth righteous thoughts in close proximity to the court.
Most of the arrests took place when practitioners went to neighboring areas.
A practitioner was arrested in a neighboring county in 2012. We went through our normal rescue procedure, and in the end the neighboring county’s Procuratorate declared that the evidence produced by the police was insufficient, and stated that the practitioner should be released.
However, the practitioner was still sent to a forced labor camp for one year.
This year, two practitioners were arrested outside our region. One practitioner was soon released because of their strong righteous thoughts, but the other practitioner was taken to court.
The day of the court hearing, about a dozen practitioners from our rescue team either attended the hearing, sent forth righteous thoughts close by or informed as many people as possible about the situation. All other practitioners stayed home to send forth righteous thoughts.
We produced a report to expose the incident and made about a hundred copies, then hand delivered them to all relevant personnel in the local government.
We also assemble important cases into comprehensive reports and submit them to the Minghui website. After the reports are published, we use them as truth-clarification materials to send out en masse via text messages and social media.
Because the reports involve local residents, people often talk to each other about them, further helping to spread the information far and wide.
An elderly practitioner, a retired teacher, was under house arrest in a senior residence, and her pension had been withheld. The local Bureau of Education even used her pension to hire people to monitor her movements.
We managed to get her released and the Bureau of Education reimbursed all of her lost pension.
What I have shared above are some of our achievements over the past decade-plus, as well as the ways and means we have used to save sentient beings. It also demonstrates our efforts to stand up against the long years of unjustified persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners.
Of course, there have been down sides, as some practitioners have succumbed to sickness karma and passed away. There are others who have been struggling for a long time with the illusion of illness and can't break through.
Many of us have truly wanted to help, but these practitioners do not cultivate diligently. They neither look inward nor conduct themselves in accordance with the Fa.
We are worried about them, but feel helpless when they will not help themselves with righteous thoughts and righteous actions. This affects our whole group's efforts to save sentient beings.
As we walk the final leg of Fa-rectification, the demand on us is more stringent.
Master said:
“Clarifying the facts at this point in time very much requires manpower, and if sentient beings are to be saved, it will take participation from more people. More people need to be involved in the variety of projects that aim to snuff out the evil’s persecution. In this light, then, a great deal of strength is lost when there is one less person, and a great deal of strength is gained when there is one more set of hands. So I don’t wish to leave a single person behind, nor do I want to lose them or let them depart too soon.” (“Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan” in Teaching the Fa at the Conference X)
It is our great mission to assist each other to overcome all obstacles, to elevate together, and to advance fearlessly in helping Master rectify the Fa, save sentient beings and fulfill our prehistoric vows. We have to forge ahead to the best of our abilities.
If I have written anything inappropriate, I hope that fellow practitioners will kindly point it out.
Thank you, Master!Thank you, practitioners!
Heshi!