Not long after obtaining the Fa, I felt that Dafa is very broad and profound, and that the spreading of Dafa is a priceless gift to mankind.
In the beginning, I didn't study the Fa thoroughly, and my compassion was always lacking. I was worried that if I didn't tell the predestined people about Falun Dafa, it would interfere with my consummation. So whenever I met my friends and relatives, I told them that I was learning Falun Dafa and that it would be great if they could practice too. Sometimes I even added, "I have told you already, so don't blame me in the future for not letting you know!" I felt quite righteous thinking that I had done my job--whether or not they would learn was up to them.
After I studied the Fa and cultivated my heart more deeply, many of my notions changed and I understood spreading the Fa more profoundly. I regretted very much that the opportunities for people to understand the Fa further were missed because of me. However, there were also many pleasant stories.
I remember in the end of 1997, after my experience sharing with some practitioners in Beijing, I went to a friend's home by taking a taxi from the hotel. I talked to the driver on various topics from family, school, to today's society. When I got off the taxi, the driver asked me "where can I learn Falun Gong?"
As a genuine practitioner, if we really act according to the requirements of Dafa, we can spread the Fa anytime, anywhere. Because our every move and word will affect the environment around us. Once I was having lunch in a restaurant. I was one penny short when I was paying the bill and the manager of the restaurant told me to forget about it. I said that I would return the penny to her, but she didn't take my words seriously. Later on I found some change in my car and returned the money to her. She was surprised. She said, "Falun Gong practitioners are amazing!" Today nobody really cares about a penny. We shouldn't haggle over every ounce, however we should be meticulous in small matters.
In 1998, when I was on the way to the Singapore Experience Sharing Conference, I had to make a transfer in Zurich, the capital of Switzerland. It was going to be a long time before the airplane would take off, so I went to a nearby river in the city and began to read on the riverbank. Later, an old woman passed by. I don't remember how we started talking. Perhaps I was asking her what the name of the river was. We talked for a long time about China, America, and Switzerland. I told her that I was going to Singapore for the Falun Dafa conference, and I was in Switzerland only for a short while. I briefly introduced her Falun Gong and told her to contact local practitioners. I also told her that in two weeks there would be a conference in Geneva. The old woman said that she never imagined talking to a Chinese person for such a long time and was reluctant to part with me.
One day, an American came to our practice site. As usual I instructed him using the photos of the movements, and started teaching the five sets of exercises. When we were almost done, he told me that he was the editor-in-chief of a newspaper, and that he came here to find out about Falun Gong. After practice, I asked two practitioners, who had experienced dramatic physical changes, to talk to him. I gave him the books, China Falun Gong and Zhuan Falun, hoping that he would read them seriously. Later when a fellow practitioner was talking about how she obtained the Fa, she said that she decided to learn Falun Gong after reading an article about Falun Gong published in the editor's newspaper. I mentioned that the editor-in-chief of this newspaper had come to learn Falun Gong. She confirmed that it was his article that she had read.
It was a small publication about spirituality, and a lot of spiritual seekers read their newspaper. I was considering if we should post information about our practice site and mention that we offer free instruction. However, there were a lot of bad materials in the publication and I doubted that it was the right thing to do. Yet when I considered that there must be a lot of seekers who were looking for this practice, I decided to post the information about our practice site and free instruction in several issues. This would give people an opportunity to understand Falun Gong. Actually, many people came to our practice sites after reading the newspaper. In actuality, a lot of people read this type of non-mainstream publication.
In the beginning of this year, I heard that there was a public broadcasting network in New Jersey that often broadcasted the Falun Gong the Real Story and the Falun Dafa Exercise Instruction videos. I called the practitioner over there and asked for more information. Although he told me that it was not hard to do, I pondered about the situation for quite a while before acting. After a lot of searching on the Internet, I only found information about PBS in the state. According to their website, it seemed that it was impossible to broadcast for free and all the services were quite expensive. After another long consideration, I decided to ask anyway. The receptionist at the front desk said that she wasn't sure whom I should contact and that she had never heard of this kind of thing. However, she did say that there was a PBS nearby that broadcasts videotapes.
Actually, that was the PBS that the New Jersey practitioner was telling me about. I went to this PBS office and, after a few minutes of paper work, gave them the videotapes. Later when we were registering for a broadcasting schedule, a technician said that they had broadcasted some Falun Dafa videotapes before. Another staff member said that he would come to our practice site to learn Falun Dafa. Now they broadcast "Falun Gong: The Real Story" video and the Exercise Instruction video biweekly. The technicians who were responsible for the broadcasting of the tapes came to one of our sites to practice the movements. There are a lot of Public Access Networks everywhere that broadcast local community news, and let local residents use their facilities free of charge.
Something else that is worth mentioning was that, in the fall of 1999, in Washington DC, I was talking to a person in charge of a senator's office about Falun Dafa and the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. He said that he went to China when he was young. He was a soldier sent to China during the Chinese civil war. When they were withdrawing in Huangpu River in Shanghai, bullets were flying over his head. The old man said that the determination of the practitioners was respectable, it also would make some people in the Chinese government scared. He also mentioned the problems that modern science has brought to mankind. I showed him the first and fifth exercises. He said that the first movement relaxed the body, and the fifth one was very serene.
A Falun Dafa Practitioner in the USA July 17, 2000
