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Clarifying the Truth to Everyone I Meet
Shared at the 2004 Canada Falun Dafa Conference (Clearwisdom.net) Greetings Master! Greetings Fellow Practitioners! My topic is "Clarifying the Truth to Everyone I Meet" It is a Falun Dafa practitioner's duty to clarify the truth to people so as
to offer them salvation. We should therefore take every opportunity to clarify
the truth to the people we meet. Now, please allow me to share some of my
cultivation experiences during the truth clarification process. Please be
compassionate when pointing out any of my shortcomings. Clarifying the truth to my colleagues Besides my family members, my colleagues are the ones whom I spend the most
time with in my daily life. From the beginning, when I first obtained the Fa
until now, I have been constantly clarifying the truth about Falun Gong to them.
I try not to miss any opportunity. When I had just obtained the Fa five years
ago, I wanted my colleagues to also obtain the Fa. I told them everything I knew
with good will, mixed up with the show-off mentality. Once I became over zealous
and I actually demonstrated the exercise movements to them in the office.
Although I behaved a bit too excitedly, my colleagues didn't give me any
negative feedback. They seemed to have sensed that I truly wanted to share
something good with them. I discovered that what makes everyday people accept us
as Dafa practitioners is our good behavior in our daily life. Some feedback my
colleagues gave me was that I have become less selfish. I am able to think more
about others. On top of that, I have never been sick during any flu season. When
some of my colleagues got sick, they would say, "I will practice Falun Gong
someday." After I have made my colleagues understand that Falun Gong is
good and Falun Gong practitioners are being persecuted, this has made things
much easier. It is easier for me to get a day off work; I can wear a "Falun
Dafa Hao" badge to work; I can exhibit a "Compassion" magazine
and have a copy of Zhuan Falun [main teachings of Falun Gong] on
my desk. Sometimes my colleagues not only encourage me to clarify the truth to
my clients, but also would help me do that for their clients or other
colleagues. All these positive factors are a great aide for me to clarify the
truth to my clients. Clarifying the truth to clients I am an investment advisor. I have the opportunity to contact many clients
every day, either face to face or over the phone. I have been trying to clarify
the truth to each client I meet. The more I have tried, the easier I could
direct the topic of our conversations to Falun Gong. Some clients asked me
questions after they saw my badge or the "Compassion" magazine. Most
of the time I initiated the discussion. I can start to talk about Falun Gong
from many angles. For example, when I answer a question such as, "How are
you doing with your own investments lately?" I would reply, "Great,
because I have not made any investment since May 2000! I am a practitioner of
Falun Gong and follow the teaching "No Gambling." I sold all my stocks
in May 2000, and that is why I did not get hurt by this stock market downturn. Some might ask me whether I had visited China in the past few years. I would
answer, "No, I want to wait until Jiang is brought to justice for genocide.
I am a Falun Gong practitioner and I don't want to go back there to get
persecuted." When the topic of physical health came up, I would say,
"I am lucky that my lower back pain was cured because I practice Falun
Gong;" or, some people might like to raise the issue of what life is all
about. Then I would have an opportunity to tell them that I have gained much
more inner peace since I started to practice Falun Gong. When I wanted, I could
find many opportunities to clarify the truth of Falun Gong to the people I met. It is a cultivation issue It is not a technical issue when it comes to clarifying the truth of Falun
Dafa. I have found that I would be able to come up with many ideas, take various
actions to clarify the truth on my own initiative during certain periods when I
could concentrate on the Fa study, cultivate internally and have stronger
righteous thoughts. When my Fa study fell behind, my righteous thoughts would
become weak. Many confusing thoughts would arise. Once I had some moments of
hesitation and wondered if I should start to clarify the truth to somebody I
just met. I might wonder, "Should I tell him this time, or wait for some
other opportunities to arise?" Once I had such hesitation, then sure enough
I would find a lot of reasons not to clarify the truth. Those reasons were all interferences that stopped me from stepping forward to
clarify the truth. For example, our company hired a new high-ranking
administrator who took his time to visit our branch one afternoon. I planned to
clarify the truth to him, just like what I had done in the past with the other
superiors. But my immediate boss, the branch manager, suggested to me to hold
off on the topic of Falun Gong until I got to know this new boss better. I
agreed with him because my righteous thoughts then were not strong enough. The
problem is that this man came by only once and then has never shown up again. I
couldn't even find him when I went to the head office. There were also some
prospects who visited our office only once, then never returned. I didn't
clarify the truth to them either. I regret it very much every time I remember
those cases. I think some of the people might have only one or two chances to
listen to the truth of Dafa from a Dafa practitioner. It should be my
responsibility to rescue those people once I had a chance to meet them. Just to
avoid this regret again, I have decided that I don't need any excuses at all
when it comes to clarifying the truth. I have decided that it is a MUST for me
to clarify the truth to each one I meet. Regardless whether it is a company's
CEO or a beggar, once they have an opportunity to come close to me, they all
have a predestined relationship with me and they all come to listen to the truth
of Dafa. It is much better to at least tell them a bit of the truth when time is
tight than not tell them anything. Later on, I tried very hard to clarify the truth to almost everyone I met.
When I had more time, I told them more. Normally, I told them right away that I
am a Falun Gong practitioner. I have gained tremendous benefits from the
practice, physically, spiritually and emotionally. I have therefore promised
myself to clarify the truth about Falun Gong to everyone I meet. It only takes a
short moment. This way, I seldom miss anybody. Once I had made such a promise, Master arranged for many people with
predestined relationships to come to me. For example, some clients came to see
me to solve some very minor problems, which could have been solved over the
phone. Some clients forgot their original purpose for seeing me. They'd say,
"Something drove me to come and see you and I forgot why." There were
some salesmen who tried to sell me long distance phone services, etc. To me,
these people all came to me for the truth of Falun Gong. There was a fellow who walked into my office and asked for some kind of
insurance. I said I don't sell insurance. He said, "I think you do, because
one of your colleagues in the head office recommended that I see you." My
company has never been in the insurance business. All of my colleagues should
know this fact! This fellow came for the only purpose - to hear the facts of
Dafa. Really, when I told him about Falun Dafa, he appeared to be excited. His
other side seemed to know that he was there to hear about Dafa. Usually these
kinds of people whose paths had been arranged to come for the truth are those
who are more compassionate. Once they hear of the persecution, they would show
their compassion. Some of them might even want to learn the exercises. Many truth clarification opportunities exist in our daily lives. It is a good
idea to carry some fliers with us at all times. We can hand fliers to people
anywhere, at any occasion, such as in an elevator, in front of a cashier when
shopping, in restaurants. During lunch time I sometimes go around the same
office building and talk to people. It was a bit awkward to talk to strangers in
the beginning. Once I thought that I might never have another occasion to meet
this fellow again, I told myself not to have too much human notions. Just go
ahead and tell him. Not only should I tell them quickly, but I should also ask
those of my colleagues or friends who have already known the truth to clarify
the truth too. There was such an example; one day my boss told me that he was just about to
take off to meet one of his clients in a remote, small town. He went on to tell
me that the client was an elderly woman, a faithful Christian, a person without
any relatives, a person who had been leading a hard life, yet keeping a
compassionate heart. I was touched and wanted to clarify the truth of Dafa to
her immediately. But she was not my client. What should I do? I then asked
Master to give me some insight. Just the moment before my boss took off for his
appointment, I had an idea. I asked my boss to ask that old lady to say a prayer
for those of our fellow Falun Dafa practitioners who are still being persecuted
in China. I told him the reason that compassionate people's prayers might be
helpful. I then had an excuse to ask my boss to give a Dafa flier to that older
woman, to better explain the Falun Dafa facts. My boss accepted my request and
went ahead to do it. The result was great. My boss told me that the older woman
not only agreed to say prayers for our fellow practitioners who are persecuted,
but she also became very interested in Falun Dafa. Master taught us at Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference, " Also, with those people that you run into by chance, who you run
into in daily life, and the people you run into at work, you should all
clarify the truth to them. Even when in your daily life you pass by people so
quickly that you don't have a chance to talk to them, you should still leave
them with your compassion and kindness. Don't lose those who should be saved,
especially those with predestined connections. Actually, a lot of Dafa
disciples say when they're clarifying the truth, "I'm going to go clarify
the truth now," as if at that moment they're going to clarify the truth,
but they don't clarify the truth normally. Saving beings should permeate every
single aspect of your daily lives at this time. If you can all understand and
really see its importance, I think you'll probably save more beings." I think it is all caused by predestined relationships to meet certain people,
therefore, I should tell them the facts about Falun Dafa. Some Sharing There are some other additional thoughts that I want to share: Try to tell
people the facts based on their ability of acceptance. For example, I talk more
about the persecution part to one of my Jewish colleagues. He really showed his
compassion because he is Jewish. He understands what persecution means. Jewish
people have suffered from persecution for quite a long time. He was willing to
sign the petitions for us. To another colleague who strongly believed in
"reward and retribution" I told that it is inevitable that there will
be a retribution awaiting those wicked persecutors, therefore it is better to
tell his friends and family members to not support the persecution policies of
Jiang's regime. To Christian clients I usually point out to them that some
Christian's comments about Falun Gong are not factual. It is helping the wicked
Jiang's regime to persecute Falun Gong practitioners by openly criticizing Falun
Gong. Those people of the Roman Empire did the same thing towards Christians,
which resulted in harsher persecution. The Romans later on received a horrible
karmic retribution (4 wide-spread plagues) because of what they did to
Christians. After the truth is clarified, I normally ask those Christians to say
prayers for our fellow practitioners in China. The ones with a compassionate
heart usually agree to help. In addition, we should follow Master's teachings about not to talking at too
high a level. I had an experience of failure in the beginning of my cultivation.
I talked to a friend about Falun Gong from 9:00 p.m. until 1:00 a.m. am the next
morning across a Kungfu Tea table. I had the good will of helping my friend
obtain the Fa, mixed with excitement and some show-off mentality. In short, I
talked too much and at too high a level. Later on, I found that the more I
talked, the more confused this friend got. I might have achieved a better result
to just tell him "Falun Dafa is great," and that I have gained such
and such benefits; that our fellow practitioners are persecuted in China. Another issue: Master taught us not to get involved in common people's
events. We should correctly follow this teaching. I have some Taiwanese friends
who would be very angry when "Blue Alliance" is mentioned, whereas
some would complain that the "Green Alliance" used tricks to win the
Taiwanese presidential election. Since I do not understand "Blue
Alliance" and "Green Alliance" anyway, I just told them I have no
comment. One more caution: Don't go too far. Just tell people about the truth of Falun
Gong. Just tell people we are against this brutal persecution. The reason is
that some new immigrants from China have confused the concept of supporting
China and supporting the Chinese Communist party as being the same thing due, to
the life-long brainwashing by certain people in the ruling Party. We don't want
to get into sensitive topics. One more thing to comment on: we should always stand up against defamations
of our Master and Dafa, and put down those absurd sayings. For example, when I
participated in the 36-hour hunger strike on Parliament Hill in Ottawa to rescue
our fellow practitioners in Changchun, I met the MP for my area. I explained to
him why we were there and asked him for help. He replied that the Falun Gong
issue is an issue between the Chinese government and the Chinese people. It
should be left to the two concerned parties to "negotiate to find a
solution." I immediately found his response disturbing. I had clarified the
truth to him before. I had also helped him for his MP election campaign. He had
an indifferent attitude toward Falun Gong. He was perfunctory. I could not
accept that response. I then said, "That is nonsense. The Chinese
government is cruel and violent. How can the Chinese people negotiate with them?
Falun Gong practitioners' appeal to the government is an attempt to
"negotiate for a solution." The result has been that the police
arrested them and then tortured them. Some of them even were tortured to death!
Right now, the Changchun police received orders to shoot our fellow
practitioners in the streets. We wouldn't come to you for help if we could
"negotiate." He was surprised to see the look in my eyes and said,
"We have a disagreement." Some of our fellow practitioners had asked
him to help us before. He didn't do much. But this time he had a better
reaction. According to a fellow practitioner, this MP then went back to the parliament
building to urge his fellow MPs to pay attention to the Falun Gong practitioners
on a hunger strike in front of the parliament building. Later on when I thought
back, although I was a bit upset, I had righteous thoughts that suppressed his
wrong notions. A good result came out of that. Of course, from the perspective
of personal cultivation, I didn't do it perfectly. I shouldn't be upset. Master said in Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York
Fa Conference (2003), "Question: Even now I still find that it's hard to handle and
balance well having compassion for all beings and safeguarding Dafa's dignity.
Master, would you please help and guide me on this? Teacher: Your intention to safeguard Dafa's dignity is correct, but how
do you safeguard it? Do you shut their mouths? Do you debate with them? I'm
telling you, just treat all beings with compassion, and just clarify the facts
to people with compassion, and you will be safeguarding Dafa's dignity, and
you'll be able to safeguard Dafa's dignity." That MP's ignorant words came to my ears because of two of my attachments:
sometimes my righteous thought is not strong enough, being indifferent to
matters of principle. Sometimes I get easily upset. To meet the Fa's
requirements, I should disprove of his words without anger. There is yet another thing I want to tell you. Although we should not go to
extremes when it comes to the issue of truth clarification, we don't have to
follow those unreasonable rules. People establish way too many rules, such as
prohibiting talking about belief or religion; prohibiting flier distribution in
front of shopping places because it is privately owned property, etc. I think
these are all arrangements of the old forces. They have not arranged the truth
clarification part. Colleagues can talk about hockey games forever at work. It
is not fair that following "Zhen, Shan, Ren" and being a good person
cannot be discussed in the same office. In the beginning when I wore a "
Falun Dafa is Great" badge, my immediate supervisor, in a roundabout way,
tried to talk me out of wearing it in the office. I refused him curtly. I said,
" Jewish people can wear a ‘yamukah;' Indians can wear a turban and
Christians can wear a necklace with a cross to work. This is a much lower
profile, to just wear a badge that says, "Falun Gong is Great" which
are my true words, my conviction. It is not fair to prohibit this." Upon
hearing that, he didn't say any more and has left me alone since then. Of course
I am not saying we should act recklessly. I mean we should try to improve our
space and condition for cultivation and truth clarification. We should not be
too easily restricted by unreasonable rules. Getting rid of selfishness during the process of truth clarification The process of truth clarification is a very good cultivation process. I
obtained the Fa on 7.20, 1999. In the beginning, I clarified the truth for
myself. Since I had just obtained the Fa and I was very excited. I was trying to
spread the Fa to my friends and colleagues. Every time I heard some of them
repeat the lies of Jiang's regime I got upset. I thought these people don't even
know what Falun Gong is all about before they make their comments. Weren't they
lacking in wisdom? Back then, I believed that it was very lucky for me to be able to come to
cultivate in Dafa. I believed I had the opportunity to cultivate longevity in
Dafa. In ancient China, some truth seekers had to beg the master on their knees
in front of a cave for just a little bit of the truth. Without a predestined
relationship, they would not be taught at all. Now, Master delivers such a
righteous practice to my front door; what a lucky man I am! I thought I had
wisdom. Those people bad mouthing Dafa was insulting my wisdom, which is why I
felt I had to disprove them. The usual line I used was, "If the Ruling
party's word has become reliable, then an old female pig can climb a tree. Is
this the first time you have ever heard that party's lies? If Falun Gong were
like what they say, there wouldn't be anyone learning it. How come so many
people have come to learn it? Many practitioners are highly educated. I feel
great about learning Falun Gong. My lower back pain is cured. I have gained
inner peace and many other benefits. It cost me nothing to learn it. Where else
can you find such a good practice? You have not even read a single Falun Gong
book. You are just repeating others' words. Where is your wisdom?" Upon hearing what I said, those people became a little better. They would say
the Falun Gong you practice sounds good. It may be different from the Falun Gong
in China. My words worked a little bit. On the other hand I might lose patience
when I encountered some stubborn ones, or someone with strong notions, or
someone who kept attacking Master. By then some thoughts might flood into my
mind, "This guy is bad" and "I shouldn't waste my time with him.
I will go my own path until consummation. Who cares about such people?" Along the way of my Fa study, I gradually realized that being impatient is a
sign of selfishness. I only wanted to hear good words. It goes without saying
that we should disprove those attacks on Master and Dafa. The result would be
better if I am unmoved by human emotion. If I can truly think of others, I then
can touch their heart. I then can show them the way to be saved. There is a
chance I could meet very bad people, but most of the people I would meet are
still not so bad, and are still savable. Some of them are just utilized by the
evil due to their own notions and lack of understanding of Dafa. Once the truth
is clarified to them they might wake up and become savable. A Dafa
practitioner's impatience or bad attitude might push these people away. Since I
have come to understand this, I have become much more patient. It took me a long
period and quite a lot of hard lessons to become more patient. In the past few
years, I sometimes managed to do well and sometimes I failed. I think this all
came down to the issue of Fa study. When I could concentrate on the Fa study, I
then could suppress the odd thoughts in my mind and I then could take initiative
to clarify the truth with patience. If my Fa study didn't go well in a certain
period, I then would fail to subdue my selfishness. Laziness and selfishness
would overwhelm me. Master has told us many heavenly secrets. We all know that this period will
not be long. We all know that everyone in the world is here for Dafa. If they
fail to position themselves, they are in danger then. It is just a simple act
for us to open our mouths to clarify the truth to people around us. Let's all go
ahead to tell them now. Only when we have fulfilled our duty we will have no
regret then. Imagine this scenario: after we consummate and return to our
position, we look back and find a few beings in our world missing. They failed
to catch up because you did not clarify the truth to them when you met them in
the human world; some human notions tied you down. It would be too late for you
to be regretful. I do not want to be regretful. Let's motivate ourselves with Master's poem: Hurry Up And Tell Them As Dafa disciples tell people the facts, |