Part 1: http://clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2005/9/1/64490.html
Part 2: http://clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2005/9/4/64588.html
(Clearwisdom.net)
Fa Conference in Mainland China Held on July 20, 2005
(c) About Clarifying the Truth
Conference Host: Now, we will present a short TV program, "Coming for You." On November 20, 2001, thirty-six Western practitioners from twelve countries traveled to China's Tiananmen Square. They unfurled a large banner with the words "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" to validate the Fa. Their courageous act shocked the whole world. After these practitioners returned to their countries, they composed their experience as a song called "Coming for You," and set up the "Coming for You European Chorus." They toured the world to tell people what was in their, and all Dafa practitioners', hearts during the Fa-rectification period: We are coming for you.
(Shows "Coming for You", many practitioners were moved to tears. The conference took place in a solemn and compassionate environment.)
Host: Some of us shared our thoughts some time ago, because we felt that we lived in a problem-filled environment. We continue to find truth clarification materials we had handed to ordinary people torn to pieces or in trashcans. Somehow we think that this happens more frequently now. Let's discuss and share our thoughts about this.
Practitioner: I feel that we should maintain righteous thoughts when distributing truth clarification flyers. Our sole purpose is to save sentient beings. We should not distribute the materials carelessly, with an unconcerned attitude or without feeling the responsibility of what we are doing and why we are doing this activity. First of all, we must treasure every flyer. Think about it, the flyer looks so simple, yet it has been prepared through so many practitioners' coordinated efforts.
Every step during the preparation process was not easy, starting with writing articles to downloading them from Internet, and from printing to copying and distributing. Most often, there are many dangers that practitioners have to face and resolve. Therefore, when we receive materials for distribution, we should value each and every flyer. One can buy small and cheap plastic bags in supermarkets. One can buy a few, put the materials into them and seal the bags. We deliver the bags to every house. It looks neat and shows consideration on part of the practitioner, leaving the recipient with a good impression. Do not casually insert the material under someone's door and then leave in a hurry. Remember, what we give to the people is the best and most righteous. In addition, we should assign different districts to different practitioners. Sometimes, after we finished distributing the materials, other practitioners will distribute in the same location. We are duplicating our efforts, which is a waste of effort and materials. Yet, there are some places, where no one distributes materials. We have to have good coordination.
Practitioner: Materials we distributed were torn up and thrown away. It is difficult to save people. They don't know how precious the materials are. But since this happened, we also need to look within to find the attitude towards distributing the materials deep in our hearts. You gave him or her a flyer, but he tore it up and threw it away. Why? Was there a problem in our xinxing when we distributed the flyers? What we are doing is not an ordinary activity. If we really have pure hearts, consider others' good future without any hesitation, truly believe that we are saving them, then we will hold compassionate thoughts. When you give the material to him of her, or you leave it some place and someone picks it up, I think that he or she will not tear it up or throw it away because the universal principle controls everything. Besides, ordinary people also have their side that understands the importance and righteousness of what we are doing. If we ourselves don't have a clear understanding of truth clarification, are unable to hold the proper attitude and thoughts why we are doing this, if we treat truth clarification as completing work or an assignment in ordinary society and hold an attachment of fear, including fearfully placing the truth clarification materials and quickly leaving, then we ourselves cannot pay attention or value the truth clarification activity. Then, how can ordinary people value the materials or care for them?
Teacher said,
"If every one of you can understand the Fa from the depths of your mind, that will truly be the manifestation of the Fa whose power knows no boundary--the reappearance of the mighty Buddha Fa in the human world!"
("Cautionary Advice" Essentials for Further Advancement I)
An ordinary person will use money, tools and physical work to do something, but we are using our hearts, righteous thoughts, supernormal abilities and divine power to accomplish something. We must improve our understanding of the Fa, only then can we do these things well.
Practitioner: What our thoughts are during our truth clarification work matters greatly on what we can achieve. Teacher said in Zhuan Falun, "matter and mind are one thing." Scientists in Japan did a laboratory experiment. They put rice in two bottles. They labeled one bottle, "Hello, thank you!" and the other, "You fool." Then, they read the labels toward the rice in the bottles every day. One month later, the rice that people had said "Thank you" to was nearly fermented and had a nice mellow malted rice aroma. The other rice to which the people had said "You fool," turned black and had become rotten.
The other experiment is called, "Water, the Origin of Life." It is to observe the variation of water crystals when different music is played to a cup of water. Crystals are slowly separated after listening to Chopin's "Farewell Song." When very joyous music is played, the crystals are frozen. This experiment showed that good music positively affects water. The experiment verified that matter and mind are one thing. It is higher level science and beyond regular science. While clarifying the truth to the public, if we send compassionate thoughts to people, it is also a material thing. The people can feel it. If our hearts are not pure, the people who receive our thoughts can feel them subconsciously. Then they will be uneasy and unwilling to accept the flyers. Clarifying the truth to save sentient beings is what the old force dare not damage. Yet, it also heavily depends on what is in our hearts when clarifying the truth.
(Detailed information about the two experiments is available at http://www.pureinsight.org/pi/articles/2002/4/22/188.html)
Practitioner: Teacher said during overseas lectures that Mainland practitioners should pay attention to safety issues, and should not let the evil take advantage of any loopholes. Teacher also pointed out that there are some practitioners who could not keep a clear and calm mind. They neither pay attention to their own safety nor consider the safety of other practitioners. Many truth clarification materials production sites had been destroyed over the six-year period [of the persecution] and some practitioners who went out to clarify the truth of Falun Gong were abducted and detained. Practitioners have learned lessons from past mistakes, matured and have improved their truth clarification activities. Now our practitioners have attained deep understanding of security needs. It is certainly necessary. But, in my understanding, Teacher's thoughts on "security" and "safety" are different from the concept held by ordinary people. You can use ordinary people's measures to maintain security, but the importance is not on the safety arrangements themselves. If one holds onto attachments and fear, the evil will not hesitate to attack and persecute that individual. Master told us that the evil in other dimension is watching carefully. Master said "What to be afraid of" (Hong Yin II), "If you are afraid, it will capture you." What the evil latches onto is a practitioner's attachments. But, isn't this how we cultivate? We want to get rid of attachments. I believe that our sense of security is the manifestation of Dafa practitioners' righteous thoughts and actions during the Fa-rectification period. If we fully assimilate to the principle of Dafa without attachments, our thoughts and actions will be able to dissolve any barrier, eliminate evil forces. The evil will run away from us. Aren't you safe? The ultimate safety comes when we truly put down the attachment of life and death and live with strong righteous thoughts.
When people told us, "Watch out for your safety," we actually are told to be stronger in our righteous thoughts, more careful when doing things, more conscientious in studying the Fa, and more diligent on our cultivation path. This does not imply that we should put greater attention to how the evil is doing, and indirectly accept and acknowledge the dangerous set-up, arranged by the evil forces.
Host: I would like to share my understanding. Practitioners who have been involved in truth clarification materials production for a long period of time, do not let producing materials become a barrier to improve your cultivation. We first have to be a cultivator in the Fa-rectification period instead of putting being a worker producing materials as the number one priority. Making truth clarification materials for a cultivator is not the same work as work done by ordinary people. And it is not ordinary people doing ordinary work. The security of materials production sites is very important, but at the same time the practitioners' cultivation improvement is also of great importance.
(It was time to send forth righteous thoughts. Practitioners sent righteous thoughts for ten minutes.)
Evidence Collection and Rescuing Orphans
Host: Time passes so quickly. Some practitioners will leave this afternoon. Let me address a number of issues before they have to leave.
First, I will bring up the subject of collecting persecution evidence, including court documents, statements, appeal letters from practitioners sentenced without legal cause, forced labor documents issued to practitioners sent to forced labor camps, receipts of fines and lists of confiscated items after practitioners' homes were ransacked, detention papers, etc. In the future, keep such evidence in a secure place and do not throw them away. Our overseas practitioners established an "Evidence Collection Center," and FangGuangMing TV station, Falun Dafa Radio Station etc. Overseas practitioners are doing everything in their power to clarify the truth to people and are exposing the brutal persecution of Falun Gong in China. They need first-hand persecution evidence from our Mainland practitioners. We will collect as much evidence as possible and send such materials to overseas practitioners.
For example, practitioners who were released recently from prisons or forced labor camps, should take photos and attach to photos taken before the detention. We want to show what happened to the practitioners, as a comparison. This will be a very effective tool in showing the truth of the persecution. If condition permits, we can use a camera and camcorder to make video clips. We want to expose the persecution, record the perpetrators' crimes and collect tangible evidence. This will be used to show the people of the world the evil deeds perpetrated in China. Reporters' names that slander Falun Dafa in the media, such as in newspapers, books, CDs and fake photos also must be collected. They are evidence of their crimes. I hope that we can focus on this.
It appears that since last year, the 610 Office staff realized the eventual doom and failure of the persecution. They issued a secret order to all levels of its system, "Hand in persecution related documents and notices they had sent to the offices." In other words, they are destroying the evidence. Humans and gods condemn the crimes the evil committed against Dafa practitioners. We must expose their crimes and let all the world's people know what they did.
Teacher said,
"The only thing you have a role in is saving people, and you have nothing to do with using human means and human principles to punish or pronounce judgment on people. This is a fundamental issue!" ("Teaching the Fa in Chicago")
The purpose of our exposing the evil is to save people. We should always keep a righteous mind, break through the old force arrangements, eliminate evil elements with righteous thoughts and save sentient beings. Collecting persecution evidence is for the people of the future to see the evilness of this persecution and provide a serious lesson to be learned from human history.
Secondly, the rescue of Falun Gong practitioners' orphans is of great importance. Many practitioners were tortured to death during the six-year-long persecution. Today we mourn over 2,686 practitioners who lost their lives in the persecution. And, there are many more who died that we do not know off. Many of these practitioners have children. So many children lack proper care, are homeless, and live with relatives. These children's lives are miserable. Teacher said in a lecture that he is thinking about this, hopes to find a way to rescue these orphans, bring them out of China, let practitioners take them in and have them study in Minghui schools.
Teacher's words are:
"As their master, I have been thinking about this all along. I have wanted to bring them to the mountain, gather them together, set up a school for them, and have them be raised together." quoted from "Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference." )
"We can't not look after Dafa disciples' children--children who have lost their families. Those are my little disciples and your little fellow cultivators." ("Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference.")
The Minghui/Clearwisdom website has provided a list of practitioners tortured to death in our province, along with these practitioners' basic information. Some of them have children, some practitioners' situation is unknown...please submit information to the website ...coordinate it well.
Our time is almost up. If any practitioner needs to leave, please feel free to do so. Before leaving, I want to emphasize one more thing. Regarding our conference today, the things we talked about and planned to do, you may share and discuss with your local practitioners, so we can improve as one body. This sharing is also the purpose of this Fahui [experience sharing conference]. But, regarding any discussion about individual practitioners, I think that we need to base our action on being responsible to practitioners and the Fa, we should remain quiet and not spread personal information. I think that we all understand this.
The experience sharing conference ended successfully.
6. Remaining in a Harmonious and Indestructible State
After the conference, some practitioners stayed on to share some more, discuss in greater depth the things to be done and watched a documentary "Falun Gong and Politics." Finally, the practitioners cleaned the room and left.
The Fahui was over, yet we all felt it just started. The Fa's magnificent power will manifest gradually. The Fahui assists our cultivation. At the same time, we are assuring a successful Fahui.
We deeply feel the importance and necessity of practitioners being able to form a whole body and coordinate well. In one area, because the persecution's damage is extensive, practitioners no longer trust each other and are no longer acting as one body. Every practitioner just does his or her own things. Some individuals do very well. They even do the exercises in public. But the overall environment is not good, which in turn caused great pressure on the practitioners who practiced in public. Eventually, the practitioners were unable to do daily exercises in public on a daily basis. Compared to areas where practitioners are well coordinated and form one body, the practitioners of these areas have to improve, including their xinxing and cultivation status. For practitioners who are not one body, every step forward becomes a tremendous effort. This situation remains because the whole body had not improved and thus cannot cooperate effectively.
If practitioners cannot improve based upon the Fa, there is no need to talk about doing things [for Dafa]. The three things we are requested to do are highly related. Studying the Fa and improving based on the Fa is the most important factor among the three things. Most people in our area are relatively new practitioners who have not been able to understand the Fa from the Fa and have not yet achieved a rational understanding. Before the persecution, most of us had a strong attachment. We depended on the local coordinator. He cultivated so well that all of us wanted to observe and follow his lead so there wouldn't be any mistake. These practitioners did not take the Fa as their guide. In fact, such a mentality put the coordinator in a very dangerous position. Consequently, at the beginning of the persecution, to target practitioners' strong attachment, the old forces forced many problems on the coordinator. The coordinator was imprisoned in a forced labor camp where the perpetrators used various measures to "transform" him. In the end, the coordinator could not hold up under the torture and was what we would call "transformed". This incident caused a big loss in that local area. This was the result of the situation in which the practitioners as a whole did not study the Fa well and had a strong attachment.
Someone with the surname of Guo spread something called "Lecture Ten" through the entire area. Unfortunately, many practitioners read, believed it, and help to spread it. The resulting damage to the local cultivation environment has not been fully eliminated yet. This incident interfered greatly with local practitioners' improvement as one body. It is because we did not study the Fa well as one body, the old forces took advantage of our omission.
"The Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts." ("Drive Out Interference")
It is important to improve, based solely on the Fa.
From our experience, we found that to set up a small Fa-study group is most beneficial. If we can have many such groups in different places, the entire situation will improve significantly. To set up such a Fa-study group in the harsh environment of Mainland China and continue it successfully is in fact the basis for firmly eliminating the evil elements. All practitioners who can keep studying the Fa in a group are very determined practitioners and they are in a good cultivation state. Studying the Fa together and sharing experience is the cultivation form our teacher left to us.
"The lofty conduct that Dafa disciples have established in this environment--including every word and every deed--can make people recognize their own weaknesses and identify their shortcomings; it can move their hearts, refine their conduct, and enable them to make progress more rapidly." ("Environment")
Many articles are published on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website and in the Minghui Weekly about cultivation and understanding of the Fa. When we read these, we actually are sharing experiences with practitioners from around the world. In some areas, when Teacher's new article was published, many practitioners shared one copy. When everyone in one group had finished reading it one time, the article was returned and transferred to another group of practitioners. Many practitioners have not had access to Teacher's articles published in recent years. Some of them only quickly read through teacher's articles once, and some did not have a chance to finish an article even one time. Periodicals, such as Minghui Weekly, are rarely available to practitioners. Practitioners' improvement from the Fa is top priority. If practitioners do not have access to Teacher's articles and are unable to systematically study the Fa, how can these practitioners do well in truth clarification?
We suggest that every materials production site print and prepare more copies of Teacher's articles, and make sure every practitioner gets one copy. In addition, articles from Minghui/Clearwisdom editors, notices, and Minghui Weekly have to be printed and become available to practitioners. Don't neglect the notices from Minghui/Clearwisdom editors and Minghui Weekly, as they also help practitioners improve. It is the environment our practitioners created to exchange understanding, share cultivation experience and improve as a whole.
We also have learned many lessons. A coordinator must measure his or her conduct with the Fa, has to be one with the practitioners, and never put him or herself above practitioners. Don't focus on how to manage practitioners. Dafa doesn't have leaders. Our main purpose is to coordinate and communicate. Teacher said,
"except when it comes to group efforts, which need coordination, they shouldn't restrict the path that each Dafa disciple takes as an individual who's validating the Fa." ("Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students.")
The coordinator needs to be humble among practitioners, and also pay attention to not strengthening practitioners' attachment of dependence. Practitioners need to do what Teacher told us. Don't always look at others' faults, pay more attention to looking inward, cultivate the self and truly follow the Fa. If most practitioners focus on the coordinator and watch him or her, it becomes a strong attachment and will be taken advantage of by the evil. The evil also will look at and target the coordinator, find every possible loophole to persecute him or her, and arrange problems. This, in turn, will eventually affect other practitioners. The evil is using the old cosmos' principles to interfere and damage practitioners' activities.
In "Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students," Teacher said
"If a certain region is doing well, then it's definitely something like this: the coordinators just say that something needs to be done, and Dafa disciples, on their own initiative, coordinate with each other and overcome the challenges together, fully utilizing Dafa disciples' wisdom, to get it done well and in a more ideal way. Even when the coordinators don't think things through too well or have even overlooked some things, the Dafa disciples will perfect it along the way--and that is your mighty-virtue."
Let us look at several more of Teacher's words about Fa conferences:
"We should make our Fa Conferences grand gatherings in which we summarize what we've experienced and learned, find where we fall short, draw on what we have achieved, and establish the righteous thoughts of Dafa disciples. Cherish all of what you've done, and on the path ahead may you do even better." ("Master's Message to the European Fa Conference Held in Vienna")
"In our Fa conferences you are continually summarizing [what you've experienced and learned]. While validating the Fa and putting into action how Dafa disciples should cultivate, you still have some shortcomings. Fully utilize the good things you've learned and strengthen your righteous thoughts, and doing so will allow you to do even better with Dafa disciples' things." ("To the Fa Conference in Montreal, Canada")
* * * *
Author's note: The materials from 'The Solemn Fa Conference' were a summary of the conference in raw format, and a recollection of happenings from practitioners. When we wrote the article, we modified it and put it in readable format for better reading. The main ideas and most of the content were not changed.
July 25, 2005
China