By a Fa-study group in North America

(Clearwisdom.net) As Fa-rectification forges ahead, the amount of evil elements behind ordinary people is dwindling. Especially outside of China, the evil can no longer sway the situation. Now that the environment has become more relaxed, what should we, the practitioners outside of China, do to adapt to the new Fa-rectification situation? We want to share with our fellow practitioners our shallow understandings based on our observations of our media reports.

We started our own media organizations because the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) bribed or even bought control of a large number of Chinese-language media outside China. Our media has played an important role in "clarifying the facts" and halting the persecution, effectively intimidating the evil. While the CCP tries to use anything "good" to polish its image, our media, in principle, never sugarcoats the CCP. We've been explaining the truth and exposing the CCP's evil deeds and lies for quite some time now, so many of the words we use do not sound jarring to our ears.

To the general public, however, especially to those Chinese readers who do not yet know the truth and who have been long immersed in the Party culture, the impact of some of these words and ideas may be too strong. Our media is directed at the general public, so naturally we need to understand their feelings and their attachments. We should not deviate from our principle to accommodate ordinary people, but at the same time we should take into account the various sentiments of the Chinese people who come from China, as they have been influenced by the Party culture. Thus we must achieve a high standard.

If the readers think that we are exaggerating, complaining, reprimanding, fuming, seeking to incite them, or getting emotional in our papers, or if they think that what our papers carry is irrelevant to them or hurts their feelings, they will not be saved. Worse, they may even be pushed to the opposite side. If, on the other hand, our papers use peaceful and compassionate words and maintain a calm tone for the benefit of the readers, even though the words may not sound pleasant, the readers will still be moved, because compassion is able to go right down to a being's microcosmic particles and activate the knowing side of ordinary people.

The practitioners who have called China for a long time to explain the truth know that their listeners can feel their compassion. In part this is because these practitioners have cultivated to that realm and have developed their compassion as they talk directly with people. What we do reflects the state of our hearts, so if we want the reader to sense peace and compassion as soon as he or she opens our papers, we have to develop compassion in our hearts through cultivation.

From the Fa principles, we know that we are saving sentient beings by explaining the truth; in practice, we tend to be confrontational when people do not understand or accept what we tell them because we are cultivating in delusion. If they say that we are good, we will feel good about them, and if they say that we are not good, we don't want talk to them anymore. Why can't we tolerate their misunderstandings? This mentality is the same as that of those who cannot tolerate us when we say the CCP is not good--they are on the same level.

It seems natural for us to become confrontational when the CCP suppresses us. But as cultivators we should move beyond this level and refrain from doing things with a human mind. Some readers said in their feedback that some of our reports went to extremes and used emotional words. Though these were not the reactions we had hoped for and they may not be all true, they may have played a negative role among our readers. In answering questions from practitioners who are involved in media work in Touring North America to Teach the Fa, Master said:

"Everyday people say all kinds of things, and it's hard to make something suit all tastes; some people like spicy things, some people like sour things, and some people like sweet things. We should just project a moderate image, just do it that way."

Master has emphasized this "moderate image" in many of His lectures. Although our media focuses its reports on CCP atrocities, we should run our media with a peaceful state of mind. If we needed courage and strength to gain ground a few years back when the evil was rampant, today the evil elements that control ordinary people have become very few, so there is all the more reason for us to display a peaceful demeanor. This is closely linked to our realm as cultivators. When we are free of a confrontational mentality, we will truly be able to demonstrate peace and patience when we clarify the facts and do our reports.

When we say, "the CCP is not China," we are helping the Chinese understand the CCP, rather than smearing China. Meanwhile, we should be clear that "China is not the CCP," either. Good things as well as bad things are happening in China. It is true that the bad things happening in China are usually either directly related to the CCP or arranged by the evil forces from other dimensions; but when we explain the truth to people, we should avoid placing everything bad on the CCP. Instead, we should be rational and try to tell people the truth in a way they can accept. Certain things we have done have left some people with the impression that we oppose anything related to China. Of course, that impression is their own understanding because they have been influenced by the Party culture; nonetheless, it is not a result we want to see. From the human perspective, a group that has been suppressed by the CCP likes to hear and see bad things happening to China, doesn't it? When bad things happen in China, they tend to feel happy about them, don't they? If we do not go beyond that perspective through cultivation and we end up getting bogged down in a cut-throat struggle, especially when the persecution is brutal and the CCP's propaganda is vicious, impure thoughts such as these are likely to develop. This impure state of mind will find its way into what we do to clarify the facts, be taken advantage of by the old forces, and negatively affect the effectiveness of our media.

We know the real reason for China's economic development, but there is no need for us to deny such development. A country that does not hold God in awe and slanders God will be in for calamities, and that has been borne out by history and determined by the law of the universe. Our media needs to guide people to think about the disaster that may soon befall a nation that does not base its economic development on moral values, so that they will understand that our media is trying to save the Chinese people. If, however, we give the impression that we are delighted when China is out of luck, and if we fail to let the reader sense that our media is truly concerned about the long-term interests of our nation, the reader will detest it. China has not been able to hold its head high for nearly 150 years, so the national sentiment about standing tall in the world is now very strong. Exposing the CCP's dark side and refusing to sugarcoat it is not the same as expecting China to fall or collapse. China is not the CCP.

Many things in China, such as the Olympic Games, the launching of spacecraft, and so on, are sensitive topics among the Chinese. Falun Gong does not take a stand on any of them. We can use them to explain the truth, help the Chinese people better understand the CCP and think about China's future, and contemplate how China should truly improve its international image as a respected nation. Our media should stick to our principles and at the same time take into account the feelings of some of its readers. It is hard to do, but it is a path we have to blaze. Confrontation and hatred are attachments we should get rid of. Since we are helping our readers know the truth and saving sentient beings, we should explain the truth with reason, rather than alienating our readers.

The CCP mouthpiece deliberately tells lies. Oftentimes, its reporters and editors know that they are fabricating stories on the grounds that "our superiors require it" or "we'll lose our jobs if we do not do it." But why has our media sometimes also left our readers with the impression that the stories we have written are not true? The CCP tells ten lies, but no one mentions it because it is expected. In our case, however, if there is only one report among ten that doesn't seem to be true, even though it is true, if the method or the tone we use gives that impression, it will still have a negative effect, because people expect us to be truthful all the time. Although we are not deliberately being "untruthful," the tone of incitement, the emphatic words, and the way we report it will indeed cause people not to believe what we write. To put it more seriously, the CCP is calling what is false true, while we, in our clarification efforts, are sometimes unwittingly "turning the truth into falsehood."

Organ harvesting is indeed an incredible story to people who do not have a sufficient understanding of the magnitude of persecution against Falun Gong by Jiang Zemin, Luo Gan, and the like. It was only reasonable that when we collected enough evidence we requested an investigation. But since our fellow practitioners were horrendously persecuted, our emotions ran high, and these emotions were reflected in our truth-clarification materials and media reports. We sometimes assume that the readers know as much as we do about how vicious the CCP is and thus we are eager to reach our conclusions. That will exceed the ability of overseas Chinese to accept what we would like them to know, and they will believe that what we are saying is only a tactic we are using to fight the CCP, rather than the truth. When we explain the truth to individuals, we can make adjustments based on the listener's ability to accept the truth and on their understanding of the nature of the CCP. Since our media reaches a large number of readers, we need to do our uppermost to consider the state of mind of a wider audience in order to save as many people as possible. We need to be more considerate of our readers' needs and clarify the facts with reason and wisdom.

The 270 million-year-old rock with the hidden characters found in Guizhou Province is another example. Many overseas readers did not know how the rock was found, and when we cited it as evidence in our articles we didn't say that the story about the rock was reported by the CCP itself. Some readers consequently thought our media was making things up, and they even compared what we were doing to the historical anecdote about how farmers made up Heaven's will when they rose to rebel against authorities. Our credibility was damaged, reminding us that we cannot assume that our readers know the facts and background that we already know.

Some of our reporters and commentators have gotten out of touch with reality on certain things after working in their own fields for so long. The words they use, wittingly or unwittingly, tend to annoy a lot of readers. When they pick words they choose absolute terms, such as "all," "entire," "every," and so forth, and our readers don't like them. Even though the words may be fairly accurate, if the reader can only absorb 70 percent of it, he or she will feel you are not telling the truth when you use such an absolute word. Sometimes readers think that our materials go to extremes, and the words we use are part of the reason. We may start by telling 70 percent of the truth. If our story is 100 percent true and we tell it as if it were 120 percent true, that will produce a negative result even though we mean well.

Let's look again at the example of organ harvesting. Our purpose is to show readers the wickedness of the CCP and the inhuman nature of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners happening in China today. Do we really have to highlight every detail to achieve that purpose? Another example is when news from China says that a certain practitioner was believed to have been killed by wicked policemen in an extremely brutal way. Is it all right for us to say with complete assurance in our truth-clarification that the practitioner was murdered in such and such specific way? Not necessarily.

Because of the CCP's attempt to cover up evidence and to threaten witnesses, the information we have may not be 100 percent accurate, even though we know it is generally correct. If we excessively highlight and emphasize certain details to prove the cruelty of CCP, or if we describe some isolated cases or some horrifying events in local areas as common occurrences, that will run counter to our expectations. Some practitioners think that regardless of what we say--whether it's true or false or speculative--as long as ordinary people believe it they will know the CCP is evil and so they will be saved. But we have to remember that the way in which we save people is through explaining the truth, not saying whatever way we want, and that is a Fa requirement. Moreover, the evil is watching, waiting to exploit our gaps. If we do not walk straight, we may unwittingly incur losses.

Using excessive and exaggerated words and tones is a problem we must address. If we use words such as "crisis" or "international tension" in our article titles when we discover a case of infectious disease, people will think we are overdoing it. It may be a serious issue, but we don't have to blow it out of proportion in our titles. Readers are more likely to be convinced by the facts they read in the articles.

We hate those who mistreat us and rely on those who treat us nicely, and that is another kind of human mentality. We have had lessons in this regard. This reliance may include Western governments and the democratic system. For example, some people tend to think that everything in the US is good or that the democratic process is able to resolve everything or morality in the US is high. These people fall into their own trap. If something immoral happens in the US, they won't know what to say, thinking this should have happened only under the CCP. From the Fa principles, we know that all of humankind is in the Period of Dharma's End, morality is declining everywhere, and democracy is not what we want to promote. Those are human business. But in the events we organize, our readers and listeners have the idea that our commentators always say that the US is good. This is a sensitive area for the people in China, and it may backfire if we are not careful. If one in ten of our commentaries gives people this impression, they will think that all of us are like that.

Our media is like a window through which we communicate with the public. It represents our image, and it could be one of extremes or of compassion, depending on how we run it. More importantly, we have found that if one of our programs, or even one of our articles, goes to extremes, people will think our entire media is like that, and they will begin to doubt our media's credibility. So we should really hold ourselves to a high standard.

Another window is our group practice and sending forth righteous thoughts in the open. It is no longer a matter of individual cultivation, it is projecting our image to the public and it is like a show in which practitioners are performing on the huge stage of humanity. The requirements are high for performers in a show. If their movements are not up to standard, or not graceful enough, the audience will be unimpressed. Dozing off while sending forth righteous thoughts, a shaky erect hand, a hunched back and legs tilted upward while meditating, a body swaying back and forth, uneven arms embracing the wheel, a weak look on the face, movements not in sync with Master's directions, personal effects scattered around on the ground--all of these will give people a negative impression. Master does not require that every movement of ours be in unison, but we, as disciples, should hold ourselves to higher standards.

"Validate the Fa with rationality, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa and save people with mercy" ("Rationality," Essentials for Further Advancement II) We used to pay a lot of attention to rationality and wisdom. Now that the evil elements are few and far between, it is more important to introduce our mercy and compassion into our truth-clarification materials and our media reports, so that ordinary people are more willing to accept them.

June 7, 2007

Posting date: 6/23/2007
Original article date: 6/22/2007
Category: Truth Clarification
Translated on 6/13/2007
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/6/8/156441.html

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