Walk Our Paths Well and be Living Examples of the Magnificence of Dafa
By a practitioner from New York
Greetings Master, greetings fellow disciples. I'm a practitioner from
Manhattan, New York. I work for an executive at a large, world-renowned
investment bank on Wall Street. When I moved to New York over three years ago, I
did not fully realize back then the importance and true purpose of my being
here. Now that the Fa rectification is focused in the city I call home, I am
grateful to have been given this special opportunity to help clarify the truth
to my fellow New Yorkers. I'd like to share some of my understandings,
particularly around clarifying the truth to business leaders and high-profile
executives. When I started handing out flyers at the torture exhibits in New York this
summer, I was astonished that I felt no embarrassment or fear. I used to be
extremely uncomfortable and reserved when it came to handing out Dafa
information, particularly in New York City, because people here are so distant
and unfriendly. But I was filled with a renewed sense of urgency and
determination to save the sentient beings in New York. Master tells us, in
"Hurry Up and Tell Them," "As Dafa disciples tell people the facts, In doing truth clarification work, I have been moved to tears on several
occasions, when I'd see people who take my flyers look into my eyes with a
knowing look. Some would wink when they said "thank you" as if their
knowing side were grateful for this invaluable piece of information. In some
instances, people working in restaurants would walk out onto the street after
seeing me walk by their restaurants, and shout to me "I support Falun Gong!
Falun Dafa is good!" People in New York are awakening to the truth. This
has been especially evident in recent weeks, when most people I clarify the
truth to have already heard of Falun Gong as a result of the many torture
exhibits in the streets. It was becoming more and more clear to me that everything does indeed happen
for a reason--everything's truly arranged by Master for the Fa. It's not a
coincidence that I work for a top executive for a Wall Street investment bank.
It is not coincidental that I have many friends from different backgrounds and geographical locations, and many acquaintances and connections in society. Nor is it coincidental that I have always had a passion for media and
entertainment, and that I am very good at building relationships with people
from all walks of life. This was all arranged for Fa-rectification. I knew I had a responsibility to clarify the truth to those around me: at work, in my extracurricular activities, such my professional women's alliance, to all of my friends from all over the world, and to the many acquaintances I've made in my life. But even after this realization of the importance of saving sentient beings,
I still had difficulty clarifying the truth to my friends and to my work
colleagues in particular. It was an attachment to fear of rejection, insecurity
about what others would think of me, even fear of losing my job because my firm
has very close ties with China. These were all human notions and I tried to get
rid of these thoughts and attachments. The more I studied the Fa and immersed
myself in the Fa, the less these attachments bothered me. So I slowly started to
insert Dafa into my conversations with my friends and relatives. At first it was
tough for me to explain why I couldn't hang out with my friends because I had
Dafa activities and events. But after speaking with a practitioner from Boston
about her methods of clarifying the truth to ordinary people in a way that they
can understand, I found it a lot easier to tell my friends about Dafa's
importance to me and my involvement with clarifying the truth to people. I began to tell my friends that I finally found a good cause that I stand for and believe in with all of my heart. I told them that practicing Falun Dafa has
greatly improved my moral character, my heart, and the way I treat others. It
gave me the inner peace that I had been searching for my whole life. I didn't
have to tell my friends much for them to believe that Falun Dafa is good, as
they could witness with their own eyes that I have changed drastically. I used
to be very inconsiderate, self-centered, and competitive, which made me very
unhappy, easily angered and frustrated After practicing Dafa, my friends could see the differences and positive
changes in me. I have become a lot more understanding and patient. I am more
compassionate and considerate of others. At work, I try to remove myself from
office politics and the competitive mentality. Instead, I work hard without any
attachment to any outcomes and I always try to put myself in my manager's shoes
to understand how I can better help her do her job. As a result, things have
become much more harmonious in all areas of my life. Even though I don't get to
see my friends very often these days, when we do see each other, things are
still very comfortable and they are very accepting and respectful of my
dedication towards what they see on the human level as being a very good cause.
Many of my friends have said things like, "Good for you!" "I'm so
happy that you've found a cause to dedicate your heart to." Many of my
friends have even come out to learn the exercises with me! One thing that has helped me to clarify the truth on a grand scale is my
involvement with New Tang Dynasty TV's Asia Brief, an English-language Asia news
program. Several practitioners had asked me to audition for an anchor position
on Asia Brief. At first, I dismissed the idea, thinking that I wasn't
experienced enough and that I couldn't possibly do a good job because I have not
had any public speaking experience. In fact, public speaking has always been one
of my greatest fears and attachments. I know that this attachment is something
that must be relinquished and cleared away. So I tried out for Asia Brief
without any expectation or attachment to the outcome, and lo and behold, I ended
up being selected to be one of the four anchors. I laughed to myself when I
found out the news, as a very senior VP at my company had told me in a meeting
shortly before I found out whether I had been selected that he thought I had a
perfect newscaster voice because I don't have a place-able accent. I know that
was Master telling me that being an anchor for Asia Brief is a part of my
cultivation path to clarify the truth to sentient beings. As soon as the video clips of me were posted on the NTDTV website, I sent it
out to everyone I know - relatives, friends, work colleagues, acquaintances,
friends of friends, people I had only met once in my life. I ended up sending it
out to a couple hundred people. I spared no one because I knew that everyone who
comes into contact with me in some shape or form is meant to learn about the Fa.
And it is my responsibility to clarify the truth to them, even if it's done via
a video clip of Asia Brief. Fortunately, the clip I sent out happened to feature
a story about Falun Dafa, so I knew that people who watched it would learn about
Dafa and its persecution in China. My manager sent out the clip to my entire
group and everyone had nothing but great things to say about Asia Brief and my
involvement with it. Just the other day, on a conference call with the senior
management team of our office in India, which I had helped to set up, the senior
managers all had very positive things to say about Asia Brief and my performance
as an anchor. If it were not for Asia Brief, I think it would have been
extremely difficult for these senior executives to learn about Dafa
(particularly because of our firm's close ties with the Chinese government).
Many people are now watching Asia Brief regularly, as they're getting ready for
work in the morning, including many senior vice-presidents and managing
directors who work at my firm! As if Asia Brief alone wasn't enough as a means of reaching sentient beings,
I was also recently promoted to Vice-President of my non-profit women's
alliance, an organization that crosses all industries and is geared towards
well-educated, ambitious and motivated women. We have a distribution list of
close to one thousand women and we have held very prestigious events with
high-profile speakers. As the Vice-President of the group, I now have much more
impact and influence on the Board, and I have recently used my leadership
position to help clarify the truth to our members by persuading the Board to
send out an email advertising an interactive presentation on Falun Dafa, to be
held at the Queens Museum. I have already heard from several members that they
are very interested in going to this event, and I am reminded yet again that my
position within this organization is not coincidental by any means. More importantly, as Vice-President, I now have more opportunities to be in
contact with influential, high-profile people in ordinary society. I attended an
event hosted by a men's lifestyle magazine which has been named one of America's
25 most important magazines. The host speakers included the CEO of one of the
world's largest corporations and the anchor for one of the nation's leading
nightly news programs. When I thought about clarifying the truth these people, I
started to become very nervous and scared. But then I remembered that Master has
always emphasized the importance of using our wisdom in clarifying the truth to
ordinary people, so I maintained my righteous thoughts and cleared away my human
notions of fear and anxiety. I used my wisdom and approached the news anchor
telling him that I'm an anchor for New Tang Dynasty Television and that we were
the first to report on the persecution of Falun Gong and the SARS situation in
China. He was very receptive and friendly, telling me that he'll look out for
Asia Brief on TV. I also spoke with the CEO, who was also very friendly and
down-to-earth. Once again, I used my wisdom to break the ice with him by telling
him that I work for one of the executives of my investment bank and one of my
current projects is to benchmark our operations division against other companies
who have very efficient operations processes, and this CEO's company is one of
them. I then went on to talk about New Tang Dynasty Television and asked him if
he would be interested in being interviewed. He told us that because most of his
company is based in the U.S., most of their news is reported through CNBC and
Bloomberg. Despite this disappointment, I still didn't give up, and used another
avenue to try to network with him. I asked him if he'd be interested in speaking
at an event for our women's alliance. As it turns out, we both knew someone in
common. I believe it will be much easier for me to further clarify the truth to
him in the near future. After speaking with these two people, I realized that everyone around us is a
precious sentient being who is waiting to be saved. I approached a group of
people who were engaged in conversation and introduced myself. At first, I was
very nervous, because they did not smile at me. I held on to my righteous
thoughts and allowed my compassion to come forth. In the 2004 Western US Fa
Conference, Master told us, "Dafa disciples should do everything cool-headedly and with Shan
thoughts. Whether you're clarifying the truth to people or participating in an
activity, you should always have people see the goodness and kindness of Dafa
disciples. Absolutely don't do anything that's too extreme. When you save
beings and clarify the truth, if you speak in an extreme way it won't have a
positive effect." Master also said in "Teaching and Explaining the Fa the Metropolitan New
York Fa Conference, 2003": "With righteous thoughts your mind isn't limited, your thinking will
be vast and broad, and your wisdom won't be restricted." As soon as my Shan came forth, these 4 people became very warm and
friendly towards me. I used my wisdom in breaking the ice with them first before
telling them about Dafa. I congratulated them on their award and asked them
about their company and their invention. I then gave them flyers promoting the
film, "Sandstorm" and clarified the truth to them. As it turns out,
they had seen practitioners practicing the exercises in Boston Commons and told
me they thought the practice was amazing and beautiful. I talked with them for
more than half an hour and they told me to get in touch with them on the
following day to get them tickets to watch "Sandstorm." I walked away
knowing that I had left a good impression because I had demonstrated wisdom, Shan
and a calm heart. Teacher said, in the "Fa Lecture During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the
U.S. West Fa Conference, "Also, at even higher levels the concept of wanting to achieve
something doesn't exist, either. It's just a matter of the cosmos's
choice." Master's words were evident in several instances when I was handing out
flyers. I found that when I was attached to the quantity of flyers I was handing
out versus actually spending time with people and comprehensively clarifying the
truth, the outcome was not as good as when I let go of my attachment to wanting
to hand out as many flyers as possible. As soon as I let this go, people would
take more flyers and come up to me with questions. I enlightened to the
importance of speaking to people and taking the time to comprehensively answer
their questions. When you make a personal connection, it may seem that you're
saving fewer people as a result because you are seemingly reaching fewer people
than you would through passing out flyers without talking to people. But I think
that speaking to people is effective for two reasons: 1) this is the way to get
direct feedback and understand how we can improve and make our messages more
clear, and thus save more people who walk by our exhibits, and 2) these people
who understand clearly will be able to tell people in their social circles, thus
helping to spread awareness even further. I'd also like to share a few observations and thoughts on the importance of
all practitioners harmonizing into one body. As a Chinese person who was born in
Germany and raised in the US, I am able to see things from both sides'
perspectives. Westerners may be more organized and thorough, hence slow, while
Chinese practitioners are very gung-ho and don't take much time to plan and
organize events. Both mentalities and views have positives and negatives. Only
by merging into one unified body can we truly become one mighty force, as both
groups complement each other very well. I have already witnessed tremendous
improvements in the harmony between both groups in recent weeks. I've seen
Westerners teaching Chinese practitioners English phrases to use for truth
clarification, American etiquette, dress code, etc. The Chinese practitioners
have in return, helped to alleviate the shortage in Western manpower by carrying
more of the weight when Westerners were under-resourced. I have also been
inspired by the steadfast diligence and fortitude displayed by our Chinese
practitioners. I was moved to tears when I saw elderly Chinese practitioners
handing out flyers late at night in the pouring rain. This recent harmony
between Chinese and Western practitioners has manifested itself in the improved
torture exhibit demonstrations. The messages are much more clear than they were
before and this has helped to raise more awareness of Falun Dafa. I believe that
our compassionate Master is giving us all more opportunities to further increase
our xinxing and for us to learn to be even more compassionate, truthful and
tolerant towards one another so that we may become one body. In "Let Go of Human Attachments and Save the World's People,"
Master says "each must come out and clarify the truth, bringing it to every
field and valley, mountain and hill, not omitting a single area where there are
people." I don't think this means being literally at every street corner in
NY, but rather that we should melt into the Fa and see every encounter as an
opportunity to save beings, no matter where we are and what we're doing. We
should incorporate it into our daily lives and seize each and every precious
opportunity to tell the world about Dafa. I am also involved with the business
outreach team, and one of my ideas for reaching many senior business leaders at
one time and place is for practitioners to go to financial conferences and other
large group events and parties. Even if we don't enter the buildings that these
conferences are taking place in, we can stand out in front and hold up signs and
pass out flyers or invitations to the art show or "Sandstorm." At
work, I am also on the steering committee for the Asian Professional Network,
and I've raised the possibility of having our firm sponsor the NTDTV 2005 New
Year's Gala as part of our cultural offering to employees who are interested in
Asian heritage and culture. Also, as part of this Asian Professional Network, I
was invited to attend the first Wall Street World Aids Day, in which Kofi Annan,
the United Nations Secretary General, was the keynote speaker. I invited other
practitioners to attend and I even asked Mr. Annan a question regarding the
inaccurate data and statistics on those infected with AIDS from countries like
China. As a result of this event, practitioners have gotten in contact with a
very senior vice-president at my firm and have clarified the truth to him. I
think it's crucial for Dafa disciples to be diligent in thinking of ways in
which we can effectively reach more sentient beings. It is important to use wisdom and creativity in reaching more sentient beings, to balance Dafa with our everyday lives and to balance our righteous thoughts with our wisdom. There was a point in my
cultivation where I completely neglected my friends and non-Dafa activities. I
was 100% focused on devoting all of my time and energy to Dafa. I have since
come to understand that this is not Master's wish. We are in fact compromising
our chances to save sentient beings when we allow omissions like over
zealousness and obsession to dominate our consciousness. How will my friends and
acquaintances be exposed to the beauty and dignity of Dafa if they never
interact with Dafa disciples? A few of my friends had complained that they felt
I was unreliable and distant. My performance at work had been suffering also
because I had not balanced well my ordinary life with Dafa. This is when I
realized that it's imperative for me maintain my everyday life in ordinary human
society, that displaying Truth-Compassion-Forbearance in my daily surroundings
is in and of itself also clarifying the truth to sentient beings. I started to
balance my life better, alongside Dafa, and indeed, everything became much more
harmonious and smooth. In "Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Western US Fa
Conference", Master said, "You can't go to extremes with anything Dafa disciples do. Just live a
normal life and cultivate normally, and at the same time do what Dafa
disciples should do. That's how it should be at present. In ordinary society,
other than doing what Dafa disciples should do, there isn't any difference in
form [from ordinary people], on the surface it looks the same as ordinary
society, only you're a cultivator. That's how it should be. What you're doing
today is establishing things for the future, and that's how this path should
go. This is the most upright path and what cultivators of the future will
follow, so you can't behave in an extreme way at all or go to any extremes, as
that would create unnecessary obstacles and trouble for yourselves." And in the same lecture, "What I've told you is that you should be a good person wherever you
are and have others say that you are a Dafa disciple. You need to handle the
things in your family well and handle the things in your workplace well. As
Dafa disciples, how well you've cultivated is precisely reflected in these
areas, in front of the world's people." Another principle that I have enlightened to and come to realize is that not
only must we fit into society, as Master has told us, but we must do everything
we do well, and better than ordinary people. It is a very high bar that we're
measured against, but as Dafa practitioners, we can achieve what ordinary people
would consider impossible. Master has said in Zhuan Falun that "When
it's difficult to endure, you can endure it. When it's impossible to do, you can
do it." As Dafa disciples assisting Master, we are all paving the way for
future beings and in order to do that, we must walk our paths well and be living
examples of the magnificence of Dafa. As Teacher said, "At this great moment in history, every steady step is
a glorious historic testimony, and is incomparably-magnificent mighty virtue.
All this is being recorded in the history of the cosmos. The magnificent Fa and
the magnificent epoch are forging the most magnificent Enlightened Beings.
" ("The Disciples' Magnificence," Essentials for Further
Advancement II) These are just my personal understandings. Please kindly point out anything
incorrect. Thank you.
It's like sharp swords shooting out together from their mouths,
Shredding apart the rotten demons' lies.
Lose no time and save them; hurry up and tell them!"
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