By a Young US Dafa practitioner

(Clearwisdom.net) Greetings Venerable Master! Greetings ladies and gentlemen! Greetings everyone! My name is Liang Shihua. I turned twelve this year. I began practicing Falun Dafa six years ago. I would like to share with you my understandings gained through truth clarification via online chatting.

I was born in the United States. When I was very young, I could only speak a little Mandarin and Cantonese. When I turned eight, my Dad became determined to teach me Chinese characters. First, he taught me Pin Yin, and when I had almost mastered it, he started teaching me to read Lun Yu from Zhuan Falun. At first I misread many words, in fact, I misread almost every word. My Dad spent almost 3 months helping me until I could read Lun Yu smoothly. Then, China started to persecute Falun Gong. After that, my Dad was very busy and did not have time to teach me Chinese. I had to learn slowly from others during the weekly group Fa study. I tried very hard. As a result, after eight months, I could read almost all of Zhuan Falun.

Because Falun Gong is being persecuted in China, I felt that, as a little Dafa disciple, I should also clarify the truth to people in China. I met a friend who often clarified the truth through online chatting. While she was online chatting, I stood next to her to see how it was done. Later she introduced me to a chat room as well as some software I could use. As a result I started chatting too. Because my Dad had taught me Pin Yin, I used it to type Chinese on the computer. From that day on, I have been clarifying the truth in chat rooms every day. Although I type slowly, I will not give up.

At the very beginning, when I clarified the truth in a chat room called "sina.com," I introduced myself as an 18-year--old. I did this because I was concerned that people would not want to chat with me if they knew my real age, and that they would consider me too young to know enough to judge why China should not persecute Falun Gong. At first, this worked; but later it gradually became more and more difficult. Usually, I would get to know my chat friend very well before I started to clarify the truth. This way, I gave them the impression that Falun Gong practitioners are just like other people. Once, when I was just getting to know my chat friend well, he asked me whether I had written the college entrance exams. I answered yes. Then that friend asked me how I had done on the SAT test and what score I got. I suddenly felt very hot, since I did not know what SAT was and could not answer the question. Not knowing what to do, I told my chat friend that my mother was calling me for lunch and in this way, I retreated from the chat room. Later, the more I thought about this, the worse I felt. Finally, I realized that, when clarifying the truth, I always talk about how our Falun Gong practitioners are all trying to be better people following the principals of Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance, yet I was not living up to these principles; so how could I clarify the truth? From that day on, I started using my true age when clarifying the truth. As a result, the effect has been even better than before. I told my chat friends that I was eleven. They did not believe it and asked how such a young child could understand so many things that even grown-ups don't understand, they said that I was so mature, and that my Chinese was good, considering that I was born in America. They thought I was extraordinary.

I felt that it was better to clarify the truth by playing the role of a bystander; this way the outcome would be better. This is because Chinese chat friends all have some psychological distance from Falun Gong practitioners. Because of this, they will talk at a shallow level and gradually become deeper. Every time I used this approach, the truth clarification came out very smoothly. Once, a chat friend told me: "You must not be a Falun Gong practitioner, since Falun Gong practitioners could not be like you are." Later, when I told him that I was a Falun Gong practitioner, he was very shocked, but also knew the truth with no need for me to explain further.

Just before I start to clarify the truth, I always send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil in other dimensions. Then, I start talking about SARS and gradually get to the topic of the truth about Falun Gong. Sometimes, I do not even need to talk about Falun Gong before my chat friend feels that I am very normal, and not like how the Chinese government has described Falun Gong practitioners. In fact, I always feel that when chat friends observe your behavior and feel that you are like everyone else, they will be willing to chat with you and this in itself already has the effect of clarifying the truth. However, some people were very stubborn and had some animosity towards Falun Gong. I would talk to them about how kindness is rewarded and evil is punished. First, I said: "People in the old days used to say: kindness is rewarded and evil is punished, so if you are not clear about something, please do not talk about it." Sometimes this will make the listener think calmly before making statements. When the listener knows me relatively well through chatting and knows that I understand lots of things, and am not like a young child, he or she will listen to what I say. I then say: "Recently I saw a website that had some articles in which foreign countries were commenting on the behavior of the Chinese government. Do you know about this?" My chat friend became very curious upon hearing this and asked me what kind of comments I had read. This way people do not feel offended and also they don't immediately say bad things. At the very beginning I was afraid to talk directly about Jiang's persecution of Falun Gong. So I would talk about how SARS was covered up and how the number of SARS cases later exploded in China because of it. This way the listener can accept the truth more easily after his or her mind is opened up. Then, I gradually introduce the topic of the truth about the persecution of Falun Gong.

Once, while I was clarifying the truth, I mentioned that I live in Las Vegas. My chat friend said: "Several days ago, I received a Falun Gong VCD sent to me from Las Vegas. But I do not want to watch it." I had to talk to him about the truth of the self-immolation in Tiananmen. He did not believe me, asking me: "Do you have evidence?" I said, "Sure, the evidence is on that VCD." He said, "All right, then I will watch the VCD."

Someone who chatted with me had a very good impression of Falun Gong. After I clarified the truth to him, I started introducing the Fa to him (he didn't know that I was a Falun Gong practitioner). I told him that I had worn glasses since I was very young, but after I started to do a qigong practice, my eyesight totally recovered. My chat friend immediately asked me: "What kind of practice has such a miraculous effect?" I answered: "Ah, in fact I practice Falun Gong."

One of my chat friends lived in Inner Mongolia. Because he already disliked Jiang, after hearing the truth he said that he would beat and yell at Jiang when Falun Gong is recognized as legitimate in China. He then told me how bad Jiang is, and that Jiang is a thief who betrayed the country. Although he used lots of words that are not very nice when he was talking to me, I still felt happy for him, since he knew the truth. After listening to the truth I told him, one older gentleman felt very thankful as he had become much more clear-headed after chatting with me. I know that these people's hearts are filled with gratitude, since, as Teacher said, everyone has a knowing side.

To date I have clarified the truth to over 150 chat friends. After they recognized the truth, they all had very good impressions of me. They asked me: "Is it true that you are only twelve?" I answered, "Yes." They were all very surprised. I know that my wisdom is from Dafa cultivation and was given to me by Master. Online chatting is a good method for clarifying the truth, but inevitably you will meet some bad people that use bad language and dirty words. If you are not cultivating by studying the Fa, it would be very easy for you to become polluted. I still gave them the opportunity to hear the truth. As a cultivator, others can treat me badly, but I will not treat others badly.

I thank Master. I thank all of you.

Posting date: 12/16/2003
Original article date: 12/16/2003
Category: Fa-Rectification Stories
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2003/12/4/61766.html

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