Enduring the Cold and Welcoming the Warmth of Summer - Clarifying the Truth in Manhattan - Part 6

By a Dafa Practitioner from the U.S.

(Clearwisdom.net) Many conversations we had with people while clarifying the truth on the street - their questions, their words - are whirling in my mind and staying in my memory for a long time.

He was an African American. When he passed by our anti-torture exhibition site he stopped. I told him about what is currently happening in China, that many innocent, good people are being killed because they follow the principles of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." While listening, he signed the petition to help stop the persecution.

When he saw the documentary pictures of how Falun Gong practitioners are being persecuted in China he seemed moved. He told me, "About a couple of years ago I had a very strange dream. There were scenes of people from the East suffering. Their pale faces and suffering expressions made it hard to forget..." When seeing the anti-torture exhibition, he remembered the dream right away. I asked when he had that dream. He tried to recall and said, "About three years ago." Three years ago, the time period around 2001-2002 were the darkest days for Dafa practitioners as the evil madly persecuted Falun Gong.

I know that his dream was not just a dream because almost all the tortures that Dafa practitioners experienced showed up vaguely in his dream. Would you call it a coincidence? "I can't believe that what the dream told me is actually true." He sighed with emotion. Before he left, he specifically asked me not to let the practitioners who were re-enacting the Tiger Bench and wooden cage lockup scenes stay there for too long. He told me that they should take more breaks from their re-enactments. I could imagine that he felt the brutality and pain from the scenes in his dream.

An Indian couple stopped at our anti-torture exhibit site. They applauded our peaceful and nonviolent anti-persecution activities. When I told them that Falun Dafa has been spread to over 60 countries in the world, including India, and our practitioners come from all walks of life, the woman was surprised and impressed. She raised another question, "Being such a huge organization, where do you get your monetary support?" Because she tried to organize several non-profit organizations herself before, but due to insufficient financial support was unable to continue the operations, she was very curious and doubtful about the rapid spread of Dafa.

I told her several things that are unique to our Falun Dafa. First, that we don't have any organization. Every practitioner is free to practice and cultivate [no money is involved in the practice itself]. Many of the practitioners don't even know each others' names. Secondly, we never accept any financial support from any government or any corporation. Then where is our money coming from? Except for retired Falun Dafa practitioners, most of our practitioners have regular jobs. Scores of our practitioners use their own money to spread Dafa and for anti-persecution efforts. Because Dafa gives us newness of life in everything, we hope more and more people can enjoy the same freedom in practicing as we do.

I didn't tell her all the facts I know: A New Zealand practitioner once told me she used the majority of her income on anti-persecution efforts. As a result, when her younger sister got married, she wasn't even able to provide a decent gift. But she said that without Falun Gong she would never have such a happy and healthy life. A Taiwan practitioner said that out of her NT$80,000 salary she kept only NT$10,000 for her family's expenses. The rest was all put into making truth-clarification materials. She said her daughter was an excellent student because she is also a Dafa practitioner. She received a university scholarship. She said very proudly, "Because of Dafa, I don't even need to worry about my daughter's college tuition." An older practitioner in America used the money she made from babysitting to pay part of the rent for a local Dafa conference. She said, "I'm 75 years old already. If I weren't practicing Falun Gong, how could I be healthy enough to baby-sit?"

I told this Indian lady only that our Falun Dafa practitioners are all doing things from our hearts and that our hearts contain "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance," so its energy is supernatural.

A pigeon near our anti-torture exhibition site couldn't stand for some reason. Two well-dressed ladies passed by and saw it. They looked at the pigeon with pity and didn't know what to do. Their discussion caught my attention. Out of compassion, I was spontaneously compelled to walk over there. I carefully picked up the pigeon and put it in my palm. I found that its feathers were quite dirty and one leg seemed broken, but no other open injuries. I put it in a box and asked two young practitioners from Taiwan take care of it. Against any of my expectations, these two ladies came right to our petition table, signed their names and said, "Because you helped the pigeon, we also want to help you."

I didn't expect that this pigeon would actually be a facilitator to help these two ladies choose a promising future. Of course, to our practitioners, nothing is accidental.

* * * * * *

My summer vacation is almost over. Every day I have lots of thoughts and experiences I want to share with everyone, but I cannot write every single story that happened every day. There are lots of other moving stories that happened to other practitioners as well. The environment in Manhattan is so much different than last year. Sentient beings are awakening and some are even coming to learn the practice. We have passed through the cold winter and welcomed the warmth of summer. Isn't the fruitful autumn right around the corner?

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/8/15/108461.html

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