Thoughts after Learning that Fellow Practitioners Were Illegally Sentenced to Eight Years in Prison

In July 2008, two fellow practitioners from our local area went to the countryside to distribute truth-clarification materials, explaining the facts about the illegal persecution of Falun Gong. They were illegally arrested and have been detained since. During the process of rescuing them, we drew on the lessons we learned before. Therefore, we were able to keep a righteous mindset. We carefully discussed the next steps each time, and took action after we reached agreement based on the Fa. We came to understand that we should use it as an opportunity to save sentient beings, which is the basis of our actions. We should just do what we are supposed to do without any pursuit. Our efforts included talking to the attorneys, people in the legislative system, detention centre staff, the local 610 Office (agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems), the provincial court system, and related bureaus in the government. We also clarified the truth to local people. We sent forth righteous thoughts, wrote letters to wake up people's conscience, called people, put up posters, and exposed the persecution. The two practitioners' family members went to request their unconditional release. At the court, the attorneys defended them as not guilty. Those two fellow practitioners were very righteous as well. The other fellow practitioners all coordinated very well too. However, suddenly we heard the news that those two fellow practitioners were illegally sentenced to eight years of imprisonment.

I was shocked. I realized that my heart was moved. I looked inside to see what made me so anxious. The answer was: eight years of imprisonment. I asked myself, "Would you be so worried if it were only one year of imprisonment?" I had to say no. Those two practitioners had been detained for eight months; therefore, if it were for one year, they'd be out in four months. I came to know that I still had the attachment of pursuit. It's just that it was hidden deep down in my heart. I asked myself, "Wouldn't one year be persecution as well? What's the difference between accepting it if it were one year and not accepting it because it's eight years? Besides, what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) said doesn't count." Then I came to know that I had not completely denied the old forces' persecution.

I continued to ask myself, "Why are you so concerned about the 'eight-year' imprisonment? Why do you feel so confused?" I realized that it was because the CCP only found seventy-eight copies of the truth-clarification fliers and all their other so-called evidence and witnesses were all fake. Therefore, according to the CCP's own laws, it's unreasonable to come up with an eight-year sentence. Suddenly, I woke up. How can we use everyday people's logic when we talk about the CCP? How would they be reasonable and rational when using their "laws" to persecute Falun Dafa practitioners? Besides, the CCP is not qualified to try Falun Dafa practitioners. They are committing crimes when persecuting practitioners. My logic was wrong as well. If I believed those practitioners shouldn't have been sentenced to eight years of imprisonment because they only carried seventy-eight copies of Dafa materials, does it mean I'd acknowledge the eight year sentence was correct if they had seven hundred and eighty or seventy-eight hundred copies of Dafa materials with them? The truth-clarification materials are Fa-weapons to save sentient beings; how can I use the number of materials to determine how many years Dafa practitioners should be illegally imprisoned? Isn't it a fundamental issue that I actually had recognized the old forces? Also, I had sentimentality towards the fellow practitioners, therefore, unintentionally I acknowledged the old forces' persecution of us. In other words, I'd feel relieved if they were sentenced to only one-year of imprisonment since that way they'd come out soon.

I then asked myself, "What would I think if those two fellow practitioners were indeed found not guilty by the court?" I had to say if that were the case, I would think that's the way it's supposed to be since we were so righteous when rescuing them and those two fellow practitioners had righteous thoughts and righteous actions too. It would be expected in a normal society for them to be released right at the court. Actually there were some hidden attachments here as well. Firstly, the CCP is evil. How should I expect it to do anything normal? Teacher said,

"Poison is just poisonous, and if you want it to stop being poisonous it can't do that. So when you look at it that way, we shouldn't have any fantasies about the evil forces and those evil people who are persecuting Dafa. " (Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.)

Didn't I have fantasies about the CCP? The CCP is abnormal since it is just like that due to its fundamentally evil characteristics.

Secondly, I had the attachment of zealotry. We put in our hearts and much effort when rescuing those two practitioners. We were righteous and we did see some superficially positive responses. Therefore, I thought we should receive good results. Teacher said,

"'Goodness... why is it that I still can't overcome this thing? I've done better today, so it should have improved a little. Tomorrow I'll do even better and it should improve some more.' He can never let go of that thing. On the surface it appears that he's letting it go-- 'Look, I'm doing well now.'" (Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference).

Therefore, I had the attachment of pursuit.
Thirdly, I was hoping that the attorney would succeed in defending the practitioners as not guilty so that we could leverage it to build up the reputation of Dafa. I was pursuing such a result. It was a hidden attachment which wasn't easy to dig out. I didn't realize it before. We should understand that at the current stage of the Fa-rectification, there would be some attorneys with conscience that would step forward to defend Falun Dafa practitioners. It is actually an opportunity for the attorneys to position themselves. Also, it is another chance for us to expose the CCP's persecution of Dafa practitioners. When defending practitioners as not guilty, we'd showcase what a gangster organization the CCP really is, since even using its own laws, they can't make up a story to legally imprison Dafa practitioners; yet they still went ahead to illegally sentence practitioners to imprisonment. In other words, the CCP would imprison Dafa practitioners even when they couldn't justify it at all using any of its laws. Only the CCP is able to do such wicked things! Just like some everyday people in our local area said, "What a trivial thing! Yet they were sentenced to eight years of imprisonment. No wonder people say the CCP is evil. As I see it, the CCP is really doomed."

When I think about it, I came to realize that other practitioners successfully broke through the potential illegal imprisonment because of their righteous thoughts and because they studied the Fa well. Therefore, at such a critical time, their xinxing (character) reached a high level and they kept righteous thoughts and righteous actions on the Fa. That's why the old forces didn't dare to persecute them anymore. Teacher's Law Body and their own guardian gods of the Fa then helped them dissolve the danger. Plus with help from the fellow practitioners outside of the prison, good results were achieved. Obviously, the good results weren't achieved because of our pursuit, but from our cultivation. Those practitioners validated the Fa by themselves instead of depending on attorneys or other ordinary people. The practitioners outside used the rescue process as an opportunity to improve from the Fa while saving ordinary people. Meanwhile, the practitioners who were being persecuted improved themselves as well. In this way, wouldn't the bad thing truly turn into a good thing? I came to understand deeper meanings of what Teacher told us earlier regarding the principles in the everyday people's society being opposite to those in higher dimensions.

For us, however, we didn't study the Fa well. Therefore, when validating the Fa, we lost many chances to improve ourselves. Sometimes what we talked about were different from our actions. We thought we knew about all the Fa principles, but we didn't truly understand the Fa from the Fa. Thinking about it further, I came to realize why Teacher has been repeatedly reminding us to study the Fa, study the Fa, and study the Fa.

The above is my personal understandings. Please correct me if I said anything inappropriate.