By a U.S. Dafa practitioner

December 3, 2002

1. Reflecting on Our Trip to Germany and Iceland

In March this year, the head evil, Jiang, who persecutes Falun Gong visited Germany. Before then, only a few practitioners in Germany had clarified the truth to the government, the media and the police. Being deceived by the Jiang group's lies, the German government and police harshly restricted and intervened with our peaceful protests. However, we were not affected by such restriction and interference. We sent forth righteous thoughts in close proximity and we unfurled small banners. We shouted with the most powerful voice from the depth of our heart, "Falun Dafa is good!" which greatly shocked Jiang. He tried to avoid bright yellow T-shirts everywhere he went, and we truly felt the power of righteous thoughts. However, because of our tolerance of the police's wrongful behavior afterwards, Jiang was able to extend his claws into other countries.

As for Jiang's trip to Iceland in June this year, some practitioners went to Iceland to clarify the truth to the government and media beforehand. This had a great effect on the later support from the people and positive media reports. However, Jiang's group had directed the Chinese consulate to distribute large amounts of slanderous materials to the Icelandic government and police bureau one month before practitioners arrived in Iceland, causing the Icelandic government to make the wrong decision, which resulted in many practitioners being stopped at various airports around the world. Seventy practitioners, including myself, were detained at a school near the Icelandic airport. Since our mind was set on entering Iceland to send forth righteous thoughts and eliminate the evil, we didn't clarify the truth when we were stopped at the airport, which was an omission that was taken advantage of by the evil.

Master told us, "Wherever there's a problem, that is where you need to clarify the truth and save people. Don't take a detour when you run into difficulties. When you see something that does us harm, or when you see something blocking our validating the Fa, don't take a detour -- you should face it, and clarify the truth and save those beings." ("Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. Fa Conference")

"The old forces don't dare to oppose our clarifying the truth or saving sentient beings. What's key is to not let them take advantage of the gaps in your state of mind when you do things." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston")

During our trip to Iceland, the kindness of the Icelandic people, their great support for us and their longing for Dafa deeply impressed us. However, the German and Icelandic governments' unjust treatments of Dafa practitioners, although due to the fact that they were being deceived, not only damaged the reputation of their countries, but also brought disasters upon them. Dresden, the city Jiang visited, suffered the biggest flood in a century, and Iceland was hit by a rare and strong gale in June. It was so severe that people could hardly stand still, and afterwards, the crops, leaves and grass all turned brown. Indeed, Jiang brings lies and disasters everywhere he goes.

I deeply felt the importance of thoroughly clarifying the truth to the government before Jiang's arrival and especially before the distribution of so many lies. The president, premier/secretary of state, state governors and mayors are officials who came in direct contact with Jiang and their minds were seriously poisoned by the lies. If we didn't clarify the truth to them thoroughly before and after our peaceful protest, those lies that got to them first would mislead them and then lead them to think negatively of Dafa. This would form a black material field. At the same time, because they are the decision makers of their countries, if they treat Dafa practitioners unjustly, they would bring serious disasters to their country and people. The kind people of Iceland would have to bear the dreadful outcomes.

After we learned that Jiang would visit the U.S. in mid October, we remembered how the U.S. government supported us and we could not let what happened in Iceland and Germany happen again in the U.S. Starting from mid July, I wrote to the U.S. President, some Congress officials, all state senators and representatives. I faxed and delivered truth clarification materials and visited the offices of senators and city councilors to clarify the truth.

In mid September, we learned that Jiang's group had sent dozens of Chinese officials as early as April to Texas to prepare for Jiang's visit. According to what we learned in the past, many evil elements in other dimensions would come before and during Jiang's visit to replenish and support him. I felt that eliminating evil elements with righteous thoughts could give people a period of time during which they could learn about Dafa without interference. Clarifying the truth and helping Master save people is the duty-bound responsibility of all Dafa practitioners. We should arrive early to clarify the truth and send forth righteous thoughts, eliminate the material field of the evil and reduce their interference and damage. In late September, I went to Texas.

2. Break Away All Separations and Work as a Whole

During Fa-rectification, all Dafa particles are a whole body. "The next person's things are your things, and your things are his things." ("Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. Fa Conference")

In Texas, I did whatever needed to be done, be it clarifying the truth to government officials, media or police. I actively cooperated with the local practitioners and took the initiative in doing what needed to be done. Practitioners who participated in the truth clarification to the Texas government came from many places, and some had no prior experience of clarifying the truth to the government. When they saw the effect of clarifying the truth with pictures, they started to use picture booklets to assist them in truth clarification as well. After I went to a government official's office to clarify the truth with several fellow practitioners who had little experience in this aspect, their confidence was boosted. On the next day, one practitioner prepared truth clarification materials and went to clarify the truth to government officials in his local area. Having gained certain experience, some practitioners volunteered to work with other inexperienced practitioners in clarifying the truth. In the daytime, we went out together to clarify the truth, and in the evening, together we studied the Fa, shared our experiences and sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil field.

3. Using "Rescue Our Family Members" as Gateway and Thoroughly Clarifying the Truth With Pictures

In the past, when I clarified the truth to government officials, some would say, "Falun Gong is an international issue; we are local officials. You'd better go and talk to the Congress." I would tell them about the story of how practitioner He Haiying and his family were persecuted, and let them know that the persecution is not remote, and that residents living in the same state where he is from are suffering the pain of a broken family. As representatives of the people, they have the responsibility to help us. After learning the truth, they would change their attitude from evading responsibility to supporting us, or offering constructive advice.

In the past three years, inspired by the effectiveness of clarifying the truth with picture boards, we mainly showed pictures with explanations when clarifying the truth to government officials and the media. This "talking with pictures" worked very well. There is a saying, "Seeing for oneself is a hundred times better than hearing from others," "Seeing is believing." Ordinary people tend to believe things they can see in front of their eyes. Pictures are directly perceived, and with a few words of explanation, they can convey a large amount of information that would otherwise take lengthy and wordy descriptions. With the help of pictures, even practitioners who are not usually articulate or do not speak very good English can still achieve good results in truth clarification.

During truth clarification in Texas, we combined these two methods (picture and words). We put the stories of Texas practitioners and their families on exhibit boards with pictures and captions, and into flyers. The exhibit boards were used at press conference(s). Flyers, Resolution 188, the Compassion magazine, the Witness to History magazine and a senator's letter to President Bush were made into a set of truth clarification materials. Using "Rescue Our Family Members" as the gateway, we comprehensively clarified the truth with pictures, and the outcome was very good.

Master told us,

Master also said,

"This, more than anything, is what you should do with all your effort, and it's the most magnificent. The salvation of sentient beings and the Consummation of cosmic bodies that correspond to you are all part of this. Every single Dafa disciple needs to do this. Don't miss a single opportunity." ("Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. Fa Conference")

I know that what we are doing is the most righteous thing in the world, and I also understand that all people, regardless of their status and background, are in fact waiting for us to clarify the truth to them. When clarifying the truth we are also validating the Fa and saving people. With this in mind, we would not feel nervous or embarrassed when facing high-ranking government officials or the media. I would make sure that all people I come across would hear the truth from me.

At the council meetings of some major cities in Texas, local practitioners whose family members needed to be rescued, together with Dai Zhizhen and Lin Shenli and his wife, all clarified the truth to the city council officials with their personal experience. The officials all paid close attention to their stories, and were deeply shocked by the brutal facts. After the meeting, we also talked to them on a one to one basis, and many of them expressed sympathy and were willing to help us.

When we clarified the truth to the state government, local practitioners whose family members needed to be rescued, Dai Zhizhen and Lin Shenli and his wife formed teams of two. We knocked at every office door and clarified the truth to the congressmen, their assistants and secretaries, using "rescuing our family members" as a starting point. First, we told them about the ongoing "rescue our family members" campaign in North America, then we showed them flyers of the stories of these family members. We told them that five Texas Dafa practitioners' family members were suffering persecution in Mainland China. Usually we would mainly use Wang Xiaodan's story, then we would show them "Witness to History" to explain how Dafa is widely spread around the world and the Jiang group's systematic and brutal persecution against Dafa practitioners. Also, how Dafa practitioners in and outside China stood up in the face of brutality and persistently held peaceful appeals in Tiananmen Square and other places in the world. Then we would use "Compassion" to tell them about the story of Dai Zhizhen and Lin Shenli. We also told them that if we kept silent, more families would be facing the tragedy of a broken family like Dai Zhizhen, and if they made active rescue efforts like the Canadian government and citizens, more practitioners would be freed and this persecution would end sooner.

When they saw that the voice of justice from governments of all levels had a positive impact, they would actively join in. We also told them that Jiang, who was about to visit Texas, was the head criminal that created this disaster, and that the purpose of our peaceful appeals around the world was to call for governments and kind-hearted people to join us to help end this inhuman persecution sooner. When we genuinely wanted them to learn the truth from the depth of our heart rather than trying to get something from them, they were truly touched. When many asked sincerely, "What can we do for you?" we showed them the reprinted letter written by Wang Xiaodan's MP to President Bush. Many offices promised to write to President Bush and pass our wishes to the state governor.

It's not easy to have the media report what we would like. Some reporters who were deceived by the lies of Jiang/Luo's group would ask unfriendly questions or add their subjective opinions into the report, and sometimes the content of a report even differed from the content of the interview. However, when people who suffered persecution clarified the truth to them face-to-face, or when we clarified the truth to them with pictures, we were in control. These heart-breaking stories and bloody torture scenes truly touched the reporters' consciences, and in addition to being shocked, many of them were willing to help us.

This time, all the press conferences we held with the theme of "Rescue Our Family Members" in various cities in Texas were very successful. Influential media all came to interview us. On the day before the press conference in Waco, a local practitioner and I went to deliver truth clarification materials to the largest local media. At the front desk, we asked to talk to the editor for a few minutes. Upon our repeated requests, the lady at the front desk called the editor, and the editor invited us into his office. We began by telling the story of persecution against Wang Xiaodan and other Texas residents, and we showed him pictures to help him get a full picture of the situation. Half an hour had passed before we knew it, and after he understood the severity of the persecution, he expressed deep sympathy for us and promised to send news reporters to interview us the next day. Later, they reported very positively about Falun Gong and our activities.

Every time we held an appeal, the police bureau would assess our application, define the location where we held the appeal and they would help keep order. During Jiang's visit, they cooperated with the Chinese police officers. They were a group of people who came in direct contact with the Chinese representatives and were given lots of slanderous information. If they unreasonably interfered with Dafa activities after being deceived by lies, they would not only hurt themselves, but would also bring damage to their country. After being deceived by lies, the police in Ukraine even arrested Dafa practitioners without governmental orders. In Germany, initially the police didn't even allow us to display banners or wear yellow T shirts, but we clarified the truth to them every time after Jiang's motorcade left, and there was an obvious change in their attitude after they learned the truth, which made us realize the importance of clarifying the truth to police.

One day, I followed local practitioners to the Waco Airport Police Department to confirm the location we had applied for our appeal. When the police officer was about to take us to inspect the location, we gave him a copy of Resolution 188 and told him it was passed unanimously in the Congress. In the car, I told him about how Dafa gave my husband a second life; after we got out of the car, he flipped through the pictures as we clarified the truth to him. He told us he would try his best to reserve location No. 1 for us as it faced the path Jiang's motorcade would pass.

Because of Jiang group's world-wide slander and libel, plus the fact that all tortures, abuses and murders have taken place behind the iron curtain of prisons and labor camps where people cannot see the truth, other than family and friends, it's very hard for outsiders to learn about the brutality of the persecution. With the superficial serenity in society plus the bloody scenes Jiang group uses to disparage Falun Gong, many Chinese people believed these lies. They act indifferently to this unprecedented brutal persecution, and some even assist the persecutors. Therefore, we must let them see the true picture. We help people from Mainland China to learn about how Falun Dafa is welcomed around the world, the horrific, brutal tortures and abuses all over China, and especially the truth about the self-immolation incident. As long as they were willing to listen, they would change.

A Witness to History, published in both Chinese and English, was compiled with carefully selected pictures, which practitioners used in the past three years during their truth clarification to governments, media, NGOs and the Chinese people. Every picture represents a theme, and many pictures have corresponding captions. Practitioners can use these according to what they know and understand when showing the pictures. The captions also provide prompts for what we can say about the pictures, and help us to clarify the truth with ease and grace.

Truth clarification pictures work as mini exhibit boards, which we can bring with us all the time -- in the office, at airports or bus stations. I always have both the Chinese and English versions of Witness to History with me, so that I can clarify the truth at any time to anyone, be they Chinese or Westerners, the President or an ordinary citizen. Pictures are a universal human language, even if you are not that articulate, or you do not speak English very well, with the help of these pictures, people will still understand and be touched by the few words from your heart.

Just as Master said, "When you have all the people of the world, and all the people of China, see this evil drama for what it is, could the evil still have any effect? It will collapse" ("Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A.")

Posting date: 12/21/2002
Original article date: 12/21/2002
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Translated on 12/10/2002
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2002/12/5/40401.html

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