Reflections on the Fifteen-year Journey of Falun Gong

By Li Zhiqing

Falun Gong has been here for fifteen years, from 1992 to today. Within these
fifteen years, millions of people have experienced an elevation of moral standards
and improved health. Non-practitioners have witnessed the journey of cultivators
who live their lives according to the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion,
Tolerance. Today is an occasion for deep reflection.

Among the millions of people who practice Falun Gong, it is very common for
practitioners to experience improves in their health, many even recover from
deadly diseases. Almost every practitioner could write a book about their experiences.
Before I practiced Falun Gong I got sick every few months. After practicing,
I haven’t been sick for seven or eight years. The practitioners I know, whether
they are old or young, are almost all like me. They stay healthy all year round.

In the history of China, we have had such outstanding medical scientists as
Bian Que, Sun Simiao, Zhang Zhongjing and Hua Tuo. These scientists could effectively
heal illnesses using supernormal abilities. The diseases they could cure and
the number of people they could reach was relatively limited, but stories about
them make the Chinese people very proud. Then how should we regard the founder
of Falun Gong, Mr Li Hongzhi, for what he has done? Shouldn’t our Chinese people
be even more proud of him and treasure him? How much can we understand of the
health principles and the celestial phenomena that Mr. Li Hongzhi has explained?

Those who have been in touch with many Falun Gong practitioners for a long
time feel that the practitioners are very sincere and kind. They are a group
of people with high moral values. A common Chinese saying goes: "A long
journey shows the full potential of the horse, while time tests people’s hearts."
The severe persecution in China has lasted eight years. Falun Gong practitioners
still bear huge pressures and struggle in their efforts to resist the persecution
and clarify the truth, but they remain peaceful and kind. When people see them,
they are deeply touched by their kindness and smiles.

This is a group of people who believe in heavenly principles. They know that
those who have hatred towards Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance and towards
kind Falun Gong practitioners will bring harm to themselves, so they keep on
clarifying the truth to people. They also know that the perpetrators who slander
Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance and who persecute innocent people will eventually
by punished by Heaven. The crimes the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has committed
have brought the CCP to the brink of disaster. Therefore, practitioners stepped
forward to stop the persecution and help people withdraw from the CCP.

"Good medicine tastes bitter but is effective in curing diseases; good
advice may irritate but it is good to improve your actions," as an old
Chinese saying goes. Some people may not understand the Falun Gong practitioner’s
way of doing things, but when practitioners go out to the street to give out
truth-clarifying materials or ask people to quit the CCP, they do it for the
good of people. They know the message they give to people will eventually bring
benefits to them, even if people don’t realize it at the time. Others should
consider what kind of force drives practitioners to continue appealing through
to today, and what kind of belief lets them walk so righteously? The difficult
circumstances practitioners endure show thier extraordinariness. People should
reflect: Does the public need to take some moral responsibility for attitudes
and behaviors that may contribute to the suffering of Falun Gong practitioners?
If some day we come to understand what they have done for all of us, won’t those
who ignored them feel full of regret?

The persecution of Falun Gong is still going on. The fifteen years that Falun
Gong has been through demonstrates the glory of righteous belief and foretells
the inevitable failure of the persecution. We need to think about whether we
have passed the test during the whole process of the persecution, from the start
to the end. If justice is the criterion to measure whether a person is good
or bad, then do we deserve to be given a good future?

Posting date: 18/May/2007
Original article date: 18/May/2007
Category: Open Forum

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