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My Experience as a Tour Guide for the "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" International Art Exhibition By Xiao Xiao
(Clearwisdom.net) The "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance"
International Art Exhibition was held for a month at the
Pingzhen Social and Educational Cultural center in Taoyuan County, Taiwan.
In Taiwan, most people have a very supportive and positive attitude toward Falun
Gong. However, they are not clear on why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
persecutes Falun Gong and the fact that organs are harvested from living
practitioners. Through the exhibition, the artists not only display the beauty
of Falun Dafa, but also the kindness, peacefulness, as well as perseverance and
dauntlessness of practitioners, while exposing the CCP's inhuman persecution. It
also gave people the sense that, "Doing good deeds is met with good
rewards, and being evil is met with evil returns." While guiding visitors at the exhibition, I realized that practitioners'
righteous thoughts play a decisive role. Some visitors could not understand why
we had the exhibition and therefore, had misunderstandings toward us, and
developed a negative attitude. Even some of our fellow practitioners were
worried about the exhibition. I would like to express my views on the issue.
Before anything else, if we can set right our own attitudes and treat the issue
righteously, this can help correct any misunderstandings that some people might
have. During my first day as a guide, a mother came into the exhibition with her
child, a first grade student. After they finished touring the exhibition, the
mother told me, "The techniques used on the paintings are very good, the
paintings are very vivid, the textures are good, and the compositions are also
very good, but why are there so many bloody torture scenes? My child is still
very young." Normally, I would accept such saying and think that the
mother's worry was reasonable. However, after evaluating this issue from the
perspective of the Fa, I found that I had that thought because my righteous
thoughts were not strong enough and failed to enlighten from the Fa. Teacher said, "You should remember that your righteous thoughts can change ordinary
people and that you are not to be directed by them. If ordinary people say
something or interfere with you, don't take it to heart, and just do what you
need to do." ("Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005" ) Teacher said, "So the problem doesn't lie in what is presented. Haven't Dafa
disciples been subjected to similar ordeals in the persecution? You are not
trying to use art to portray evil acts, you are saving people. " "Everything we are giving people is wonderful, and we are saving
people. We can't compromise to accommodate those who are no longer good and
who obstruct the salvation of people, leading to good people not being saved.
Of course, when we talk about those who are no longer good, they are not
necessarily completely bad, and perhaps it's caused by their notions. But you
have to stay coolheaded and rational when it comes to this. Don't be swayed by
that small number of people and don't be affected by people. You should be
very clear in your mind about what you're doing: you are saving people, you
are doing the most righteous and most magnificent thing! "
("Teaching the Fa at 2004 International Fa Conference in New York") Upon understanding the issue clearly from the Fa, I acted differently. My
second time as a guide at the exhibition, I said to the visitors, "The next
section depicts the personal experiences of the painters. It might be difficult
to look at them, but these painters and Falun Gong practitioners have personally
been subjected to these inhuman tortures. What's more, all of this is still
happening in China right now." Since I had the Fa in my mind, I have since
then never come across anyone who asked questions as to the validity of torture
depictions. There was a petition form to appeal to help to stop the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP) from persecuting Falun Gong on the service desk and almost
90 percent of the visitors signed it. One old man said to me after visiting the exhibition, "You should go to
school campuses to inspire more students to become kind-hearted. These paintings
help people have a better understanding on the bearings of life, and it reminds
people of the principle that doing good deeds is met with good rewards and being
evil is met with evil returns. Let people know that whatever they have done will
be compensated." One morning, I showed a gentleman and his friend who was a
painter herself around the exhibition. This painter was from Shaanxi Province
and went there to ask a curator to give her back her painting. However, the
curator did not show up, so she paced up and down the exhibition hall. I invited
her friend to see the paintings first. His friend asked him to leave, but not
long after, they returned and the gentleman asked me, "Just now, when I was
listening to your introductions and while I looked at the paintings, I almost
shed tears. That's why I dragged my friend with me to come in again. Can I ask
you a question? Did these paintings come from the imagination of the
painters?" When I told them that these paintings were the personal experiences of the
artists, in China, it took him some time to step forward as he seemed lost in
thought. I continued, "What the painters depicted was not of sadness
because you can hardly see resentment or grievances. From the eyes of
practitioners who were injected with unknown drugs, force-fed, forced to endure
the tiger bench, or endure having four people stepping on their body, we can
only feel their indomitable spirit and compassion in kindly telling people the
karmic relationship of cause and effect so as to advise people to be kind. Their
courage came from their steadfastness of their belief in the truth. Only when
someone has learned the truth can he/she have such fearless courage." The
woman turned around, looked at me, and said, "That's right." The
gentleman wrote down the truth-clarification website address and expressed his
hope to learn more about it later. One woman had tears in her eyes all the way to the end. Some older people who
came to Taiwan in 1949 from the mainland said to me, "Seeing these
paintings, we have even more strong feelings than you have. The CCP's
brutalities were much worse than that! We know it better than you do." The whole process of presenting the exhibition was actually the process of
truth-clarification. The next exhibition is to be held in Hualian. If we can
have a full understanding as one body and not have any doubts about the torture
section, whether or not one is directly involved in the exhibition, then it will
play an even greater role. The righteous thoughts of the painters and ourselves
strike deep inside people's hearts to arouse their compassion and conscience. It
also plays a role in exposing all the lies fabricated by the CCP so that more
people can learn the truth.
Posting date: 4/1/2008 |