By Yiyan

(Clearwisdom.net) Recently, some media outside of China with Falun Dafa practitioners as volunteer workers published articles collecting signatures of support and requesting donations for specific projects. When practitioners in China read those articles, some tried this as well. Each time something like this happened abroad, some practitioners in China discussed and argued about the issue, without keeping a calm heart. Here, I'd like to share my understandings of this from a different perspective. Please correct me if anything is inappropriate.

Over the past six years, practitioners have used many approaches to validate the Fa and save sentient beings. The purpose is to reach more people of different backgrounds and walks of life, in order to give them all a chance to learn the truth of Falun Dafa. Gala events, forum discussions, parades, gatherings and parties, as well as collecting signatures for support are all different ways to do this. In the process of holding those activities, practitioners have the opportunity to clarify the truth in greater detail. Increasing our communication with the public creates more opportunities for people to choose their future and be saved.

Some practitioners in China saw each new approach as a way to get more practitioners involved, without carefully considering whether it was an appropriate approach for their particular situation. In collecting signatures for support and donations among Dafa practitioners, those practitioners' actions were not based on how effective the method would be for their specific environment, or whether it would draw more people to learn the truth. Although their actions might not necessarily be wrong, we should certainly consider whether they are in accordance with the requirements of the Fa-rectification, and whether they truly help us to validate the Fa and save sentient beings.

Outside of China, practitioners hold large-scale activities with the support and involvement of many practitioners. Those activities are magnificent and have had very good results almost immediately. However, the activities were successful because the practitioners involved intended to clarify the truth to people via those activities. Therefore, they spent a lot of time reaching out to people, so the public could see the events and even participate. A public event with only practitioners being involved does not provide the same opportunities for the public to learn the truth and be saved.

Practitioners outside of China need to think about this as well. China is a special situation, since the persecution is still going on, and not all the practitioners there have stepped forward to clarify the truth. Before the overall situation in Mainland China is rectified and the persecution ended, when practitioners try to collect signatures or even go as far as soliciting money for activities from fellow practitioners, isn't this taking a shortcut and focusing on getting a certain number of signatures, rather than using the opportunity to explain the facts to the public. They seem to forget that the real purpose is to clarify the truth and save sentient beings, rather than completing a task such as putting on a performance or holding a workshop.

Posting date: 6/3/2005
Original article date: 6/3/2005
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/5/22/102359.html

 Yearly Archive  Printer Version