(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.
