By a Practitioner in Heilongjiang Province, China

(Clearwisdom.net)

After graduating from college this year, my roommate and I rented a nearby apartment to prepare for the graduate school admissions test. It would usually be difficult to find an apartment in July; however I found a very bright and spacious one without much effort. Not only was the rental cost not high, but also the surrounding environment was very quiet.

Recently, I had some friends visiting; they were high school classmates, college roommates and other classmates. I let them know the truth that Falun Dafa is righteous, that it is welcomed all over the world and now has been spread in over 60 countries and has received more than 1000 proclamations from various governments and non-governmental organizations. Falun Dafa Day, Falun Dafa Week and Falun Dafa Month are celebrated in many countries. One hundred million people practice Falun Dafa and they receive the benefits of improvement in their mind and body through the practice. I told them that my relatives and friends in my hometown had some very refreshing changes. After my mother started practicing Falun Gong, her rheumatism and neurasthenia went away. My mother's colleague started practicing Falun Gong and in just one month, her diabetes was much improved. An elderly woman in the neighborhood who started practicing Falun Gong with determination was cured of cancer and her hair was restored to its natural black color. After I began practicing, my chronic gastritis and rhinitis got better.

I further clarified to them the fact that Falun Gong is being illegally persecuted. The so-called "Self-Immolation" and "Besieging Zhongnanhai" shown on the TV are fabrications designed to attack Falun Gong out of Jiang Zemin's envy and fear.

My friends had many questions. I knew they might have many doubts, so I let them express their opinions as much as possible. In the meantime, I was sending forth righteous thoughts. When my righteous thoughts were strong enough, I noticed that their words became less intense than in the beginning. Although they didn't say, "Falun Dafa is good" promptly, they were at least not negative anymore. Their thinking changed and they now wanted to know more about Falun Gong and no longer followed the others. They got out of the position of hating Dafa without knowing much about it. Therefore, their future would become more hopeful.

In the past, I had been thinking that it wasn't enough to just help people understand the truth about Falun Dafa. They also had to say, "Falun Dafa is good." If they didn't say, "Falun Dafa is good" explicitly, then it indicated a failure on my part. Therefore I would sometimes feel at a loss. But through Fa study, I realized that as long as we can get rid of the hatred and misunderstanding towards Dafa in their minds so that they no longer oppose Dafa, we will have done our part.

We certainly must treasure this period of time, let go of all the human attachments, and save sentient beings in a timely manner. Even if one didn't do well in the past, one should not be discouraged. Feeling inferior in the heart is a barrier that blocks one's improvement and validating Dafa. One should realize this from the standpoint of the Fa and try to do better. And those who have done well should not become complacent. Let us truly manifest a Dafa practitioner's purity and indestructibility.

Cultivation is sacred and very serious. Especially validating the Fa and clarifying the truth, which is taking place for the first time since the beginning of history, must be treated carefully and done with sincerity. Stepping out to save people and participating in validating the Fa is not just about coming out in the middle of the night, leaving a few flyers under someone's door, pasting a couple of stickers, hanging up a banner, or writing a statement. In the beginning stage of validating the Fa, adopting these methods was very good. But after five years, when the evil is being eliminated on a large scale, Dafa disciples are getting more and more mature and rational, and Fa-rectification cultivation is about to end, it is not very good to be attached to these methods of the beginning stage. I've not read the article "Distributing Flyers cannot Replace Clarifying the Truth", but I agree with the idea. I suggest that other practitioners read it again if possible. Of course I don't oppose distributing flyers. In special situations, or remote areas, or places that have not had flyers, it is fine to make a concentrated effort and distribute the flyers. Places that have received our flyers many times don't need more flyers put under people's doors. For those that you only had enough time to talk to briefly, it would be helpful to give him a flyer or a VCD, which can also have a very good result.

I know there are still practitioners who only clarify the truth without regarding whether the people accept it or oppose it. Even when they occasionally come out, the content of their clarifying the truth is very simple, "Falun Dafa is good. Remember that Falun Dafa is good." This has left a very bad impression with the people. I suggest that such practitioners seriously and carefully treat clarifying the truth as an important thing. We should not simply hang the banners on the trees or take it as finishing a job by saying or shouting a couple of sentences. What truth have you clarified? What have you told people? How is Falun Gong good? Have you told them what the good is? When people who have been contaminated by the slander see you as a crazy person, isn't that causing a negative effect? We are letting down our conscience if we cannot save someone who was drowning. If we push someone on the bank into the water, isn't that committing a crime? We should know that the principle of goodness being rewarded and evil receiving retribution is the same for everybody.

It's been three years since I started to clarify the truth face to face. Since I often get in touch with different kinds of people, I have gotten lots of feedback, such as the following examples. Some people didn't understand Falun Gong, nor did they know the truth, but they did not oppose Falun Gong either. They feel rather negative when practitioners keep sticking flyers on their doors. Some people were sympathetic to us at the beginning, but later, they started to feel negative about us when they see our messages and stickers everywhere. I have also seen the sanitation workers crying because they were fined for not being able to remove our truth-clarification stickers. If we are able to successfully clarify the truth to these people face to face, we would have been able to get rid of their misunderstandings. We should also clarify the truth about why we have to stick flyers under their doors or paste slogans on the streets. Clarifying these actions is exposing the evil's persecution and clarifying Dafa's truth.

In Zhuan Falun, Master said,

"You should always be benevolent and kind to others, and consider others when doing anything. Whenever you encounter a problem, you should first consider whether others can put up with this matter or if it will hurt anyone. In doing so, there will not be any problems."

Have we thought about this when we do things? From a different perspective, if you were a park administrator or sanitation worker who didn't know the truth or merely knew a little bit of it, yet you have limited tolerance, how would you face it if you were fined over and over because of the stickers that clarify the truth? Wouldn't you feel negative about it after a long time?

Master said in "Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference," "Clarifying the facts is most powerful." "It's like sharp swords shooting out together from their mouths." ("Hurry Up And Tell Them") Do we have any reason not to listen to Master? Just as Master pointed out,

"But sometimes, because we don't keep up our Fa-study, we handle like an ordinary person some of the things we do to spread the Fa and save sentient beings. This makes a lot of the sacred things we do not so sacred, it prevents us from doing them well, and it also causes people in society not to understand us sometimes. So it not only prevents you from improving, but also causes Dafa some losses." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston")

For those practitioners who dare not to speak, or believe that they don't speak well enough, I suggest that they read Master's articles a few more times. We should give up our attachment to fear that we've had for a long time. As long as you truly want to tell people the facts, and save people, you will break through this obstacle. Don't stubbornly cling to your own ideas. Come out and clarify the truth every day. Keep accumulating experience, and the more you do it, the better you will be.

Of course, we should be clear-minded and rational when we clarify the truth. We should not go to the extreme because time is limited or the task is heavy, and only care about quantity instead of quality. We should not seek convenience and expediency, talk to more than a hundred people a day, or take shouting a couple of slogans as clarifying the truth. We should conform to ordinary society while clarifying the truth. As Master told us in Zhuan Falun,

"All of our practitioners should be sure to never behave very abnormally among everyday people. If you play a bad role among everyday people, others may say, "Why do those people who learn Falun Dafa all behave this way?" It is the same as undermining the reputation of Falun Dafa, so make sure to pay attention to this issue."

These are just my personal understandings. Please kindly correct me if there is anything improper.

September 20, 2004

Posting date: 11/11/2004
Original article date: 11/11/2004
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Translated on 9/24/2004
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/9/21/84655.html

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