Falun Gong is Openly Practised in a Chinese Village Where 610 Office Agents Have All Learned the Truth

Since July 20, 1999, there have been around 30 to 40 Falun Gong practitioners in a certain village in China who have been improving themselves diligently though studying the Fa and following the Fa closely. As a result, most people within the village have come to understand the truth about Falun Gong. Some people have even started to practise Falun Gong. Officers from the 610 Office who had previously persecuted practitioners have learned the truth and become supportive and are now protecting practitioners. Some have even started to study Falun Gong. The following details some events that have taken place in that village:

1. Righteous actions can break through notions

Officers from the village's "610" Office and government officials had been deceived by the lies. Consequently, they tried to stop practitioners from making appeals and persecuted those who did. They illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners in the autumn of 2000 for more than a month. At that time, practitioners enlightened to the fact that they must use righteous actions and leave the guards with a good impression of practitioners, thus validating the Fa and helping them understand the truth. During their detainment, they undertook cleaning jobs and other tasks which turned around the misconceptions of those who worked at the detention centre that had been created by the propaganda.

2. The Head of the village "610" Office visits practitioners and apologises

In summer, 2001, the village 610 Office was afraid that practitioners would go to Beijing to appeal, so they illegally kidnapped and detained several practitioners.

A few practitioners went to the house of the Party Secretary of the city to tell him the situation surrounding Falun Gong, yet they were accused of trying to trespass on private property and were reported to the local police. Later this Party Secretary sent a few people to the local police station to learn more about the circumstances around their arrest. Practitioners clarified the truth to everyone at the police station and were released later that day. The village "610" Office was reprimanded by the City government and they even visited some practitioner's homes to apologise. From then on, the "610" Office became less impulsive.

3. "610" Officers Change Their Behaviour after Learning the Truth

For the past two years, whenever there are so called "sensitive occasions", Falun Gong practitioners have been able to clarify the truth to the "610" Office and the so called "inspection teams" from the local government. One practitioner expressed, "We often tried to find them to clarify the truth to them, but they were usually busy. Now they are looking for us. Isn't this a great opportunity to clarify the truth?" The practitioners slowly broke through the misunderstandings that the "610" office personnel had towards Falun Gong due to lies and deceits.

After coming to realise the truth, they felt guilty and ashamed for their previous actions in arresting practitioners and organising brainwashing classes. They later began to work against the persecution and protected Falun Gong practitioners. Now, the "610" Office tries their best to find ways around "orders" from higher officials and they try to protect Falun Gong practitioners whenever they can.

After long periods of contact with Falun Gong practitioners, the officers began to admire the practitioners' high moral character and the practitioners have gained their trust. Some even risk their own safety to pass on messages to practitioners. In the summer of 2002, the former officer from the village who was in charge of persecuting Falun Gong practitioners called one practitioner and told him that he had received news that the higher level officials were planning to arrest him, so the officer advised that practitioner to hide.

Eventually, some of them decided to practise Falun Gong as well. They secretly contacted practitioners to ask for truth clarification VCDs and Master's lectures on VCD.

There are still people who do not understand the truth and continue to persecute Falun Gong, but practitioners do not treat them differently. There was one female leader who did not understand the truth before. She believed that brainwashing classes are good things, and she continued to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. However, after practitioners clarified the truth to her numerous times, she started to practise as well.

4. Establishing a Dignified and Open Cultivation Environment

The environment is created by us, ourselves. When the persecution first started in 1999, the situation was not good. Practitioners did not dare to talk to each other. Later they realised that if everyday people can get together for fun, why can't practitioners get together openly to cultivate and share experiences? This obstacle was caused by the unrighteousness of our own hearts. Therefore, from then on, practitioners continued to share experiences and were able to maintain their cultivation environment.

With respect to clarifying the truth to the people, every practitioner does this whenever and wherever they go. They do not wait or rely on anyone. If they did not have truth clarification materials, they would make some by themselves, including banners, writings, and drawings. Every practitioner cultivated step by step in this environment and it has been very solid. Whenever they encountered any problems, they would look to the Fa and truly improve based on the Fa and share experiences. As their Xinxing was upgraded, they became more experienced in truth clarification work. As they gradually deepened their truth clarification efforts, they were able to help more and more people understand Falun Gong and the meaning of cultivation. As a result, more and more people have started to practise.

There are always new practitioners at local practitioner's homes learning the exercises, and it is even very common for new practitioners to be seen reading Falun Gong books in public. Truth clarification tapes can be openly played in public as well. Now during those so-called "sensitive occasions", police cars seem to be parked at the entrance of the village as if they are there to protect the practitioners' cultivation environment, rather than to disrupt it. Some "inspectors" even ask practitioners whether there have been new articles from Master and a couple of them can even recite some articles.

Practitioners have not become passive with truth clarification, but rather, they are increasingly active in clarifying the truth, and ordinary people are becoming more aware. The situation went from "when the evil tells lies, we will expose it" to "when the evil tells a lie, the people will realise it at once". One time, a higher-level official asked people from the 610 Office to watch a video defaming Falun Gong. Afterwards, they said, "It is all lies. We have lots of contact with practitioners and they are not like that." The higher-level official said with shock, "No practitioners from this village have been transformed. You are the ones who have been transformed!"

Due to that fact that most people in the village now know the truth, Falun Gong banners can be seen everywhere. No one dares to tear them down, so there is no need for practitioners to hang them up again. The people started to ask for truth clarification materials, and those who were persecuted during brainwashing sessions have also awakened with the help of fellow practitioners. Many who did not step forward and who even stopped practising since the persecution started gradually returned and started to practise again. The local situation was slowly rectified and they even led the way in surrounding areas by distributing truth clarification materials to nearby counties and cities.

Since the situation has been rectified to such an extent, practitioners have no competitiveness or show off mentality. They said, "Actually, it's nothing. The environment should be like this now...The most important thing is that we must do things according to the Fa."