(Clearwisdom.net) The Fa rectification process is progressing rapidly. We cultivate ourselves through participating in various Dafa activities, and we are gradually becoming more mature and constantly breaking through our own mindsets. Here, I would like to talk about my own personal experiences in clarifying the truth to the government.
Because my English is very poor, I never liked to volunteer to approach the government. One day in July of 1999, someone asked me to help out with something, so I went there. But they didn't arrange anything for me to do, and I couldn't suppress my sense of inferiority. Since then, I thought that anything that involves approaching the government had nothing to do with me. I only needed to try my best in clarifying the truth to the Chinese people and some western people, and that would be enough for me. In the past few months, I began to look into myself. I never felt that those fellow practitioners who have been dealing with the government had not done well enough. On the contrary, I began to regret having an indifferent attitude for the last three years. It might be that the old forces took advantage of my own omission of not caring about other fellow practitioners. From the Fa's point of view, I totally understand the importance of working with the government since I live in the capital city, Washington DC. However, since I didn't break through my own attachment for the last three years, I didn't make any progress myself and also held up some Dafa work.
Later on, I heard a lot of experience sharing stories by those who validated the Fa and clarified the truth to the people in the government. We have been emphasizing that what matters is one's heart while doing things. Therefore, I began to pay more attention to our local government work. I felt very badly while sharing experiences with those who do government work. There are so many things that need to be done and so few fellow practitioners to do them. Actually, I can help with some of these things, such as making phone calls, setting up appointments, delivering materials, etc. For the past three years, I never asked to work on any of these things.
One day, when one of the fellow practitioners who worked with an embassy mentioned they needed someone to help deliver some materials, I finally gathered my courage and told him that I would like to give it a try. That practitioner didn't say anything and gave me the materials immediately. After returning home, my heart was moved. After all, the fellow practitioners had never thought that my poor English was an obstacle. The next day, for the first time, with a map in my hand I looked for the embassies of each country. I finally got to the first embassy and found that it had moved to another location. I couldn't help but smile at the difficult beginning. Although I was very timid about looking for directions, I thought to myself: "Would this intimidate a Dafa practitioner?" I smiled to myself and calmly looked at the map for a new address. Because I was not good at finding directions and driving, I made 5 turns and finally with the help of a policeman, I found it and parked my car. I visited more than ten embassies. I was surprised to see that it was so easy to clarify the basic truth about Dafa to staff members working at the embassies. They were also very willing to listen. Whenever I encountered any tribulations during that time, I would ask myself, "Should I give up doing Dafa work only because I do not want to endure any hardships? I certainly cannot accept this."
In the last one or two weeks, the practitioners who were doing the government work asked me to work with them on something related to the Congress. I agreed even though I was still afraid of being looked down upon for my poor English. I thought maybe they didn't want to make me feel bad. After working with them a few times, I realized that they really welcomed me to work with them. Whenever I had something that I couldn't understand, they would tell me with patience. They weren't impatient with me even after calling them several times for a small thing. On the contrary, they constantly encouraged me. That reminded me of not long ago, of what a fellow practitioner said at a meeting: "I need to have your total support." Now I deeply feel the importance of the encouragement and support among practitioners. This might be the reason that we now emphasize the meaning of "one whole body."
These events exposed my strong sense of suspicion. In fact, no matter what kind of attitude other fellow practitioners might have toward you, it is always for the purpose of doing the Dafa work better instead of for themselves. We truly need to trust other fellow practitioners, and should be more tolerant and more magnanimous.
I gradually let go of my worries. Therefore, I began to be more active in doing things. At first, I called the Congressmen's assistants to make appointments to talk with them about the blacklist in Iceland. I made two phone calls and both times successfully got the appointment. Later on, I heard some practitioners saying that they could not even get one appointment for one to two days. I knew in my heart that it was because I had the genuine wish of doing the government work and got this encouragement from Master. I am also very grateful to the fellow practitioner who guided me to this road of doing the government work. Although she might quietly feel happy for me, she never praised me too much because the praise between practitioners might also make us have another attachment of delight, which might also be bad for our cultivation and Dafa work. This is my personal understanding from Master's article "Take the Middle Way."
Compared to other practitioners, I have the advantage of recently graduating from school, so I am not working yet. So, I have more spare time during the day. I decided to visit the Congressmen's offices to make appointments since I noticed that it was so slow to make an appointment on the phone. This idea gained support from other practitioners. After visiting two offices, I met a practitioner from New York who was also visiting the offices. Therefore, I accompanied her during those two days while visiting the Congressmen's offices. She acted almost like an expert in the government work, but we exchanged our ideas mostly on doing government work from the Fa's point of view. She first said that this time she came to understand that it was very important to clarify the truth to the staff members in the Congressmen's offices. Otherwise, even though they would help you temporarily, it would still be very limited. It would not come from their hearts. After two days of visiting the offices with her, I felt like I received the most hands-on and effective training in doing the government work. Both of us wondered about this arrangement. After she left, I became more confident in doing government work. I also deeply realized that the result is totally based on how much you put into it. The reason that she was doing it so well was because she spent great effort on this.
Quickly I was arranged to deliver the Dafa concert tickets to the congressmen. Another fellow practitioner who had never done government work before also gave it a try, and this time we made great progress. After three days, we tried to talk with the congressmen's assistants. Sometimes, we even got the chance to meet with the congressmen themselves. We talked with more than ten assistants, often for about half an hour. I noticed that when we didn't have any notions while talking with people, there was really nothing to be afraid of. We do not need to hide anything. We would begin with the Iceland blacklist. I would talk about the persecution of Falun Gong in China, my mother's and my own personal experiences, and how my mother was persecuted in China. Sometimes, I would tell them, "I am not good at such talks and my English is very poor. However, what is happening in China gives me no choice. I must stand up and tell you the truth from the bottom of my heart." The result was that they kept encouraging me to talk. Two days later, I paid a special visit to one of the Congressmen's offices and gave the assistant a Dafa magazine that he wanted. As soon as I entered the office, the secretary at the front desk even knew that I was looking for him. He warmly greeted me and also said that he would share what I told him with the Congressman.
During the meetings with the Congressmen's staff, I also realized that we haven't done well enough in our truth-clarification. We need to make more appointments with them and try our best to clarify the truth to them more thoroughly. Then the situation might get better.
I also would like to talk about the relationship between doing the government work, studying the Fa and having righteous thoughts. It felt as if I had a regular job at Congress this week. I went there in the morning and came home after 6 p.m. At night, I had to prepare some of the materials. I felt that I could not guarantee some time to do the exercises and read the book. However, we need to try to grasp any chance to study the Fa. For example, sometimes, while waiting for an appointment, I would find a place to study the Fa.
Recently, while I was delivering some materials, some practitioner said that I looked very skillful now. This is not a surprise as we Dafa practitioners do things from the bottom of our hearts and we help each other wholeheartedly. This is what one cannot get from any type of training among everyday people.
Looking back at these two weeks of doing government work, I have a lot of feelings. In fact, it was only after I had the genuine thought of doing the government work that Master Li arranged everything for me, including the encouragement from fellow practitioners, the practitioner from another state coming to teach me, and also the predestined relationships with some of the assistants in the congressmen's offices. Again, I deeply felt that what Master Li asks from us is a pure heart and to show our true thoughts through our pure hearts. I hope that we can all march forward together. No matter what kind of Dafa work we do, we should try to send our genuine thoughts through our pure hearts coming from our cultivation and assist our Master in rectifying the Fa in the human world.
