(Clearwisdom.net)
When we clarify the truth to the Chinese people, they often ask us a lot of questions. How well we are able to answer the questions is directly related to how well we understand the Fa. In a certain sense, this is like taking a test. Some questions simply look like they directly target our omissions--if these questions are not answered well, they will leave a deep impression on us. Afterwards when we read a certain section of Zhuan Falun, we suddenly realize, "Wow! Why was I so stupid? It is all in the book. How come I just didn't remember this?" With this, a good cycle is started; we elevate ourselves while clarifying the truth and gain a more profound understanding of the Fa. Meanwhile, making progress in comprehending the Fa enables us to better clarify the truth. As time passes, I have developed a desire to clarify the truth to the Chinese people, feeling that I am capable of explaining any question clearly to them.
At the beginning, I liked to get a hold of somebody and I didn't care if he or she cared to listen. Although I would lecture to the person with kind words, I often ended up scaring the person away. Now I often say, "How are you. I am a Falun Gong practitioner. What do you think of us? Please let me know your thoughts and share any objections you might have." It does not matter how inflammatory their objections might be, as long as they don't attack Teacher or Dafa, I always say, "We will seriously consider your suggestions, because we cultivate Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance in order to become good people. If there is something we don't do well, we will certainly correct ourselves." This way, he or she won't stay hostile or defensive. Thinking that you are very kind, they will be willing to talk to you. After finding out a person's attachment or obstacle that interferes with his understanding of Falun Gong, I then give him more specific information accordingly. If he attacks Teacher or Dafa, I interrupt him immediately, "Wait a moment. Do you understand Falun Gong? Have you ever read Falun Gong books? Propaganda in Mainland China is not trustworthy..." and so on. I then clarify the truth. When encountering someone who arbitrarily reviles or attacks Dafa, I think of ways to reduce his arrogance. If his answer is forceful and sarcastic, I think of ways to turn it around. This is so that he will feel respectful toward us and feel that Falun Gong practitioners are so filled with righteousness that he won't dare to treat us with disrespect, and will behave himself afterwards. Of course it is not very easy to accomplish this, but if we make the best use of our time to study the Fa well, Dafa will open up our wisdom, and when the time comes we will naturally know what to do.
Through actual experience, I discovered that, when answering questions, if we can focus on a few key points, we will be able to explain it clearly in a few words, and the effect will be the best. Talking for too long will actually confuse a person and make him lose his patience. Below are some questions and understandings I've come across.
Question: Your Teacher is only a high school graduate, how come people with PhD's and Master's degrees like you believe in his theories?
Answer: Do you know if Confucius was a high school graduate or a college graduate? Yet his Confucianism has been promoted in China for two thousand years. As long as what he said was good and upright, people were willing to live by his words. Who cares if he was a high school graduate or a college graduate. The great American inventor Edison only attended elementary school. Were it not for Edison's light bulb, people might still be burning candles as their light source.
These kinds of questions are not easy to answer directly. Because what Teacher says is the great Fa of the cosmos, which does not originate from human knowledge or from school teachings. But everyday people won't understand it if I explain this to them directly. Therefore, I often explain this to them using an analogy. Confucianism is also not human knowledge and is instead from heaven. When I studied the Fa, I noticed that Teacher often used analogies to answer students' questions.
Question: Is Teacher Li using Falun Gong to make money and accumulate wealth?
Answer: If Teacher Li wanted to accumulate wealth, he would not have made all his books available for free download on the web. Falun Gong practitioners have benefited from practicing Falun Gong and a lot of people with terminal diseases have all become well. All Teacher Li has to say is, "Everybody give me one dollar," and he would become a multi-millionaire. Not just one dollar, one hundred dollars or even one thousand dollars--students would be willing to give him their money. Yet Teacher Li does not do these kinds of things. On the contrary, he has never collected one cent from students.
Question: Why did you guys besiege Zhongnanhai?
Answer: This is a complete misunderstanding. On April 25, 1999, over ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners did not besiege Zhongnanhai at all. They were going to the State Council Appeals Office, which was located on Fuyou Street, to request the release of Tianjin City's practitioners who were detained earlier. Fuyou Street happened to be close to Zhongnanhai. Furthermore, even if they had gone to Zhongnanhai, what is wrong with that? We didn't hear US government complain about being "besieged" after twenty thousand Americans showed up to protest President Bush's inauguration ceremony.
Question: Falun Gong students have a tightly knit organization.
Answer: Ever since July 1999, Jiang's gang started the cruel persecution of Falun Gong. Almost all assistants of all practice sites all over the country were arrested. Yet a large number of Falun Gong practitioners still went to Tiananmen Square to appeal peacefully. They distributed flyers on the streets, posted slogans and hung up banners, and so on. Who was organizing them?
Question: Falun Gong students' truth-clarification is disrupting China's stability.
Answer: It is Jiang Zemin, not Falun Gong students, who has been disrupting China's stability. Why? As you know, for a country to have stability, you have to be able to let your people live a happy, peaceful life so as to have a solid and stable political power that will not be overthrown. Nevertheless, instead of working on building up the economy, instead of punishing embezzlement and corruption, instead of letting tens of millions of unemployed workers and hundreds of millions of farmers have food on their tables--Jiang has been vigorously focusing his forces on creating a cultural-revolution-like movement that cruelly persecutes peaceful Falun Gong practitioners. To whom have the morning exercises of a group of old men and women in the parks caused any inconvenience? Yet they have been locked up in dark prison cells and beaten, even to death, without even being allowed to defend their innocence. What kind of law is this? If there is indeed a risk of the party's or the country's downfall, the only culprit is Jiang and there won't be any one else.
Question: Are you guys involved with politics to overthrow the government?
Answer: A lot of practitioners in Mainland China are retired senior citizens who would like to have peaceful lives in their old age, how could they be interested in involving themselves with politics. Moreover, isn't it a joke to expect these people to overthrow the government? On the other hand, Falun Gong talks about never killing, and Falun Gong students will not even kill a chicken, how could they take up a weapon to overthrow the government? Falun Gong students used to practice cultivation happily and peacefully, striving to become good people. Now the Chinese dictator has pushed them to the point that they have no place to turn to. Also, a lot of people have been beaten to death, so the practitioners come out to distribute flyers and clarify the truth. Their purpose is to call on people to help stop the killing and to stop the persecution of Falun Gong as soon as possible. Although the persecution has been so cruel, instead of fighting back when they have been beaten or sworn at, they have insisted on appealing in a peaceful manner.
When I call perpetrators of the persecution in China to clarify the truth, some people hang up the phone as soon as they realize it is about Falun Gong. Therefore, I talk about other issues first. Here is an example:
Me: Secretary so-and-so, how are you! I am a Chinese American. May I take two minutes of your time? I have a very important issue to discuss with you.
Him: Yes?
Me: You've been through this before. After the liberation, the highest-ranking leader started up countless movements, which history has proved to be all wrong. It was out of political motives that these movements incited people to fight with people. This is especially so with the Cultural Revolution. However, as soon as the Cultural Revolution ended, knowing that he had committed too many evil deeds and knowing that he would not be able to escape the consequences, the former chief of the Beijing City police department committed suicide. Afterwards, a group of policemen who had committed evil deeds were secretly executed. Even Mao Zedong's wife, Jiangqing, was sentenced to a death sentence with reprieve and eventually committed suicide by hanging herself in the prison of Qincheng.
Him: What exactly are you trying to say?
Me: I'm trying to say that a wise person will always leave himself a righteous alternative in case he is mistaken. Don't be deceived by the authorities in power and go all the way to the end with them. The persecution of Falun Gong is also another round of political movement. Now, in order to uphold justice, there exists internationally a list of evil perpetrators, which documents their crimes. Once the true situation reveals itself, those people will not have a happy ending. The number of policemen and government officials who will regret persecuting Falun Gong will be countless...
Below are some questions I came across when I called the people in Mainland China who have taken the path of evil enlightenment.
Question: Why cultivate? Is it not for Consummation? Then what is Consummation for?
Answer: It's not for anything. Humans fell here from a splendid world at a high level, so we are indeed supposed to return to the origin. A person's life is not for being human. It is meant to return to one's original, true self. It is as if a person has fallen into a toilet, the only thing he can think of is how to quickly get out. Do you then ask him why he wants to get out?
Question: Everything you guys have done in cultivation is for the purpose of your own Consummation. Yet Lei Feng [Chinese moral exemplar in the 1960's] didn't think about Consummation, he just served people wholeheartedly. He was the one that was truly selfless.
Answer: Lei Feng was a good person. However, we cultivators should reach an even higher standard. Teacher says, "If you cannot love your enemy, then you cannot reach Consummation." Would Lei Feng love his enemy? No. He was "as warm as spring" only to his comrades and his brothers. He was "as cruel and heartless as cold winter" to his enemy. Consummation is a realm of true selflessness; it is indeed not referring to pursuing comfort or personal desires. People who have not reached the state of selflessness are not qualified to talk about Consummation. To put the realm of Consummation of Gods and Buddha at the same level with everyday people's personal profit is the biggest blasphemy to Gods and Buddhas. Of course, people who reach the realm of selflessness will attain elevation of their lives and will be rewarded, which is the manifestation of the cosmic law. What would evil deeds incur according to the cosmic law? Reaching the wonderful realm of selflessness through cultivation is the true home to return to for all lives, it is also the reason we are here in this world.
Question: Mujianlian, [one of the ten major male disciples of Buddha Sakyamuni] who was number one in supernatural capabilities, died on his way home as a result of a group of people throwing stones at him. Why? Sakyamuni said that supernatural capabilities cannot defeat karma. Therefore, the reason that Zhao Xin was beaten to death was due to her own karma.
Answer: We have no way to confirm what Sakyamuni said at that time. Why was Jesus crucified? It was because of the old forces' persecution. Because the old forces had deviated from the great Fa of the cosmos. Accordingly, the persecution of Zhao Xin and other Dafa practitioners is also due to the old forces' persecution. Even if they have their own personal karma, Teacher would not have arranged to have them pay back their karma this way.
Question: You should give up your attachment to Teacher. Without Teacher you can still cultivate and improve your xinxing (mind nature, moral character). You can still reach Consummation.
Answer: There's a heavenly secret in the community of cultivators, namely, "Cultivation depends on one's own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one's master." Without Teacher, who will protect you? Who will transform your gong (cultivation energy)? Who will purify your body and eliminate your karma? Where do you go after you reach Consummation? It doesn't matter which school of teaching you are cultivating in, without your Teacher's arrangement, you cannot go anywhere and will stay in this garbage dump.
Through this conversation I also came to understand the special meaning of "Master." In Chinese, "master" is composed of two words. The first word, "teacher", is the Teacher who teaches us the Fa. The second word, "father," refers to "father" or "mother" who gives us our lives. Let's not go into the fact that Dafa has created our lives. Were it not for Teacher's coming here to rectify the Fa, all of us would stay here and would be forever unable to return to our origin. Everyday people don't know about this, but we Dafa practitioners know about this: Teacher has endured countless hardships for us. Besides Teacher's giving us our new lives, we are so incomparably fortunate to have become Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples. What reason do we still have to not treasure our time and assist Teacher in the Fa-rectification? If we don't "lose no time and save them, hurry up and tell them," ("Hurry Up and Tell Them") when will we have another chance?
