Firmly Believe in Master and in Dafa and Take all Opportunities to Explain the Facts About Falun Dafa to the People
By a Dafa practitioner from Washington, DC
Shared at 2004 Washington DC Falun Dafa Conference (Clearwisdom.net) Master mentioned in "Teaching the Fa at the
Western U.S. Fa Conference," "But when someone comes to persecute the Fa, what should you, a
disciple, a particle of Dafa, do? Shouldn't you let the truth be known and
make people aware of the facts? This is looking at it in terms of you. You are
a particle of Dafa, so you should play this role." I came to the United States in the beginning of 2001. My lack of English
presented some difficulties for me to explain the facts about the persecution.
One time, when I passed some materials about Falun Dafa to a Western person, he
asked me a question and I did not understand him. When I gave a flyer to a
Chinese person, I was ignored or even given a look of contempt. Some people even
shouted insults at me, taunting me, "How much money do you make doing
this?" and so on. When that happened, I became so anxious that I did not
know what to say. When other practitioners encountered this kind of situation,
they would keep explaining the facts very patiently to the person with the
misunderstanding. This gave me an idea to make visits to Chinese people's homes
in the US to explain the facts in more detail about the persecution of Falun
Dafa. The end of 2001, was the first time I went to a Chinese American family to be
their housekeeper. At the beginning, when I explained the facts about Falun Gong
and talked about my physical and mental changes since I started to practice
Falun Dafa, they did not accept what I had to say very well. They asked me to
play Master's lecture tape only in my room and not to let their children listen
to it, and asked me not to bring my Dafa books into their children's rooms. They
also said something to the effect that they did not understand Master. During the one year that I worked for them, I demonstrated the high qualities
of a Dafa practitioner. I practiced Falun Dafa in a dignified manner. I
considered others first from many aspects of daily life, as was evident from my
personal conduct. If there were any issues I would look inside myself first for
my own shortcomings. I properly arranged to balance studying the Falun Dafa
teachings, practicing the exercises and working as a housekeeper. I learned that
it was the best to study the Falun Dafa principles and practicing the exercises
in the early morning and late at night. The remainder of the time I did my best
to take care of the children and do the housework. I did not forget my
responsibility as a Falun Dafa practitioner, to explain the facts of the
persecution in every opportunity without going to extremes or appearing too
anxious. When my employers asked questions such as, "Why does Jiang Zemin want to
persecute Falun Gong? What was the self-immolation at Tiananmen Square all
about? Where does the money come from for Falun Gong conferences, rallies and
for printing the literature?" There were other questions, too. I answered
these questions one by one. From the onset of admiring my work ethic, the family
I worked for gradually reached a positive understanding of Falun Dafa. I kindly
suggested to them that if they wanted to further understand Dafa they should
read Zhuan Falun [main teachings of Falun Dafa] with an open mind.
Finally, both the husband and the wife agreed to read Zhuan Falun. Their
daughter also learned to practice Falun Dafa. The boy listened to Master's
audio-lecture tapes ten times. At every holiday they wanted to give me a bonus
in a red envelope, as is the custom in China. I refused to accept a tip for my
work, but thanked them for it. They said, "We heard you always make phone
calls to clarify the truth about Falun Gong to people in China. Please use the
money to buy phone cards." I said, "Thank you for your kind
intention!" One time, the wife learned on the phone that her father was ill and was
hospitalized in Beijing's 301 Hospital. She told her parents, "You should
practice Falun Gong!" Her mother who still did not know the truth about
Falun Gong said, "You want to push us into a fiery pit!" This showed
how deceiving the propaganda from those evildoers was. Another time when she was
chatting with her colleagues during a lunch break, one colleague said,
"There must be some organizations donating money to Falun Gong; otherwise,
how could they support themselves until now?" My employer said, "I
know about this; my friend practices Falun Gong. Every time she joins any
activities she uses her own money that she saved from her daily living
expenses." After she returned from work she told me, "Look, even those
Westerners won't believe that Falun Gong does not have support from society.
Today I spoke out for you and finally they believed me." She also told me,
"I was lucky that the first Falun Gong practitioner I met was you." Several times when the husband spoke on the phone with his former bosses in
Beijing, he made positive comments, how Falun Gong has been spread outside of
China. One time he joined a reunion with more than 50 of his former classmates.
Some people made negative comments about Falun Gong. He spoke out in front of
all his former classmates, "If Falun Gong is negative, how can I leave my
whole family in the trust of a Falun Gong practitioner to take care of?" It
left those people speechless. Finally, because my home was so far away from their home, I told them I
wanted to stop doing the housekeeping for them. They said, "Then, please
find us another Falun Gong practitioner!" The second family's woman of the house was an important business manager of a
company and had an eight-year old daughter. At the beginning when I explained
the facts about Falun Gong to her, she did not want to listen. She told me,
"If you believe, go ahead and practice. We have no problem with it. We
don't want to get involved and we don't want to say anything." When I gave
her some materials that explained in detail about the persecution of Falun Gong,
she claimed that she did not have time to read it. She told me not to waste the
material. During two months of contact, I spoke to her about my personal
experiences, how many positive experiences had happened to me after I started to
practice Falun Gong. She was moved by hearing my experiences. Finally she said,
"Falun Gong is really great. I should learn more about it." I gave her a copy of Zhuan Falun and several VCD's containing
documentaries of the persecution in China. She told me that her husband had a
company in China and remained in China for a long time. He came back to the US
once a month. But since I stayed in their house for nearly a month, he did not
go out for the whole period; he worked on his computer all day long each day. I
thought it was strange. When the woman employer paid me my second month's
salary, I asked her how things were going with her family. She responded,
"To be honest, my husband and his friend's company went bankrupt. He has
not found a job yet. We did not want you to know because if you leave, we will
not be able to find such a good person like you in the future. We prefer to
accept some of the difficulties to keep you here." I replied, "I
finish the work you give me each day before ten o'clock in the morning. As Dafa
practitioners we should consider others when we do things. I can not take more
money from you like this." She said, "None of those housekeepers who
worked in my house before said that they were overpaid. They all complained that
there are too many things for them to do. You do things quickly and very
efficiently." She also said, "I appreciate it very much that you
consider my family like your own family." I told her, "After your
husband finds a job, if you need me I will still come to help." The third family's woman of the house was a restaurant owner who was busy all
the time. She had one six-year-old girl and one nine-year-old boy. She asked me
to take care of the children, to put them to bed at night and tell them a
bedtime story before they went to sleep. I wondered what I should I read to
them? I thought of telling them about Falun Gong, but I hesitated at the
beginning. I was afraid that the children would tell their mother and that if
she had misunderstandings it might cause obstacles. Then I thought again that
explaining to people what is Falun Gong is the most holy thing one can do and I
should not have any incorrect thoughts. I needed to adjust my understanding.
This way, I am taking care of the two children with a Dafa practitioner's
mentality. The children were too young to take care of themselves. I patiently taught
them every tiny thing in daily life, from brushing their teeth, washing their
face, washing their hair, taking a bath and wringing out wet towel; I considered
them as my own children. I told them how and why one should follow the
principles of "Truthfulness-Benevolence-Tolerance," instructed them to
always to speak the truth, and told them that swearing at others, beating others
and stealing will make one to lose virtue. I explained that they should listen
to their parents and be good children. I also taught them to recite Master's
scriptures, to sing Dafa songs and to practice Falun Gong. After that, the two children changed greatly. The little girl said that she
was very comfortable while practicing Falun Gong and felt she was flying into
the blue sky. While she was waiting for her school bus, while in school and in
other public areas she would sit in the double lotus position and practice the
meditation. Once she asked me, "Grandma [a term of respect, in Chinese,
to an older person not necessarily a blood relative], if a person steals
from others and beats others, what is going to happen to him if he used up all
his virtue?" I told her, "He will be truly dead." One time she
came back from school and told me, "My mother got a lot of virtue
today." I asked her why? She said, "A thief stole a lot of money from
my mother's wallet. The thief then gave my mother a lot of virtue." When the little girl called her relatives she told them that she was
practicing Falun Gong. She asked her mother to learn to practice it too. When
her mother made the excuse that she was too old, her little daughter showed her
the picture of an elderly lady on a Dafa bookmark and said, "She is much
older than you and she practices Falun Gong." Her mother smiled. Every day
after they came home from school, the sister and brother loudly sang, "Falun
Dafa is Good!" I heard that they sang the song in the restaurant too, and
all the customers heard them. It had a really good effect of introducing Falun
Dafa to the public. The children's true grandmother lived in New York. Before she retired, she
was a deputy bureau head in China. She had some misunderstanding about Falun
Gong as a result of the propaganda she was exposed to and was afraid that I
would mislead the two children. She came here purposely to investigate the
situation. At the beginning when she saw me, she was distant and asked me,
"How old are you? When did you start to practice Falun Gong?" I told
her about my personal experiences in a patient voice and described the positive
benefits that had happened to me after I started to practice Falun Gong; for
example, illnesses that doctors had said could not be cured were all gone after
I started to practice Falun Gong. She was surprised and, faced with the facts,
had to change her attitude toward Dafa. One afternoon when she wanted to go out,
the two children wanted to go with her. She said, "It is too hot outside!
You stay home and practice Falun Gong with ¡®grandma'." I gave her several
VCD's about Falun Gong and she watched them all. She also read Zhuan Falun
and asked me for a Falun Gong exercise tape. She wanted to practice Falun Gong
after she got back to New York. Even though the children's mother did not try to
learn more about Falun Gong, she had a good impression of Falun Gong. She said
that many practitioners went to her restaurant to eat, and every one of them was
kind and nice. The owner of the restaurant invited two cooks who had misunderstandings about
Dafa. Interestingly, one of them had witnessed the staged
"self-immolation" incident on Tiananmen Square personally. He insisted
that the Chinese Party did not lie, as he saw the fire starting and the police
started to put the fire out right away. I told him it was true that somebody set
these people on fire but they were not Dafa practitioners. I gave him a copy of
a VCD with a documentary that shows the discrepancies of the incident. After he
watched it, he did not make claims it was true any more. Another cook said if Falun Gong is so powerful, how come that his friend's
mother did not have her illness cured by practicing Falun Gong? I told him,
"Falun Gong's book explains that someone who wishes to practice Falun Gong
with the pursuit of curing illness will gain nothing. One must follow the
principles of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" to improve oneself.
Illness then will be cured automatically." I also told him some examples.
Finally he said, "Now I understand." I was glad that they could understand the truth. Finally, because I needed to
help a friend to take care of their children, I told the family that I wanted to
leave. This way, I left within two months. Later, the friend's mother arrived
and I came to the fourth family. When I talked on the phone with the woman of the house she asked me how old I
was. I told her that I was almost 57 but others said I looked younger. After we
both agreed, I went to her home with my luggage. The hostess said, "Are you
almost 57? You really don't look that way; your talk and walk don't show that
you are that old and your mental state is also very good." She wanted to know very much how I could be that way. This gave me a good
starting point to tell her the facts about Falun Dafa. I told her that my
physical condition was previously not good and I could not take care of myself.
I needed a housekeeper to help me. After I started to practice Falun Gong, my
physical condition improved greatly. When she heard me begin to mention Falun Gong, she looked serious. She said
that her friend's relative also practiced Falun Gong but she did not understand
something he had done. I said, "If he did not do something well it was
because of himself, not because Falun Gong taught him not to do well."
Master told us to be a good person anywhere. When doing things we need to
consider others first. We should be good employees in the work place and we
should be worthy of our salaries; we should be good wives, good husbands, good
daughters-in-law or good children at home. She said, "Your words were easy
to understand. Let's talk more next time." This family had two boys, one six years old and one nine years old. The
younger one was medically diagnosed as a mentally handicapped child and could
not take care of himself at all. He destroyed many things at home and sometimes
he even hit his mother. If anything did not go according to his will, he would
bump his head against the wall. The mother was often upset and crying over the
situation. One time during one of our chats, I told her that many children became
healthy and improved their behavior after they learned Falun Gong, saving their
parents a lot of worries. The hostess was intrigued and said, "Then you can
teach my younger son to practice Falun Gong." I said, "I suggest that
you also read through Zhuan Falun with an open mind and then we can talk
about it." She soon bought a copy of Zhuan Falun and started to read. Two days
later she found that a small wart she had on her lower right eyelid for several
years became soft. She told her husband. Her husband said, "Don't be too
worried; go ahead and practice if you feel good about it." Two more days
later something amazing happened. The wart the size of a small bean fell off.
She came to me excited and told me, "Falun Gong is really miraculous!"
I told her that many patients with terminal illnesses were healed by practicing
Falun Gong. She was touched to hear that. One night, the hostess brought her younger son to my room. I told them about
the magnificence of Dafa and the greatness of Master; told them that Jiang Zemin
persecutes Falun Gong by various means, and so on. While she was listening, her
eyes turned red. She told her son, "Looks like auntie's purpose for coming
here is for saving us." My tears ran down my face. I really felt the
meaning of saving the lives using various methods mentioned by Master. She then
bought a few Dafa books and Master's lecture audiotapes from the Internet. She
read Master's lectures at different locations. She started to practice Falun
Gong. I was really glad for her. One time she took out 100 dollars and said that I could use the money for
anything in support of Falun Dafa. I did not take it. I said to her that Master
told us that Dafa does not gather money and possessions. She then bought 200
dollars worth of stamps for mailing letters to China that explained the facts of
the persecution. I told her that her son's daily visit to the psychologist
already was a high expense for her, and that she did not have to spend more
money. She replied with smile, "You have done so much and I only did a
little." At several parties with her former classmates, she told them that she also
started to practice Falun Gong. Some of them said, "Everybody knows about
your boy's condition and we were worried about you. When we met, others
complained about something being wrong in their families; only you are not
complaining and your mental state is good. We feel relieved." One day I talked to her husband. He also recognized that her mood was better
than before and she would not get angry over trivial things anymore. While they
were talking, the boy who used to speak only several simple words clearly
shouted out "Falun Dafa is good!" twice and then started to sing the
song, "Falun Dafa is good, Falun Dafa is the righteous Fa." The boy's
mother was deeply moved and said that even she did not know how to sing the
song, expressing "It is real that Dafa manifests miracles!" Living in Chinese American families during the past two years and clarifying
the truth about Falun Dafa made me feel deeply that it is an opportunity that
Master gave me to offer salvation to people and to validate Dafa. The above are some of my experiences. If there is any mistake, please let me
know so I can correct it. Thank you, Master, and thank you, fellow practitioners.
Chinese version available at
http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/7/27/80372.html
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