(Minghui.org) Recently, people in Hebei and Heilongjiang Provinces have supported Falun Gong on many occasions. They have signed petitions protesting the persecution. Overseas media have published supportive articles on a regular basis. This is a reflection of people awakening as Fa-rectification has proceeded forward. This has also given Falun Gong practitioners in China the opportunity to clarify the facts about Falun Gong in greater depth and in person. Here I want to share a few things with my fellow practitioners that I think we should pay closer attention to.
1. Firmly and Solidly Clarify the Truth to Attain the Desired Result
Many practitioners have broken through their fear of clarifying the facts about Falun Gong in the process of soliciting signatures for petitions. We've read touching stories of popular sentiment in the media as people have become aware of the truth. This has awakened more people and is the true significance behind what we do.
Dafa disciples have done the three things well, steadily clarified the truth, and maintained righteous thoughts over the last dozen years while enduring trials and hardships. They have attained good results and received the approval of divine beings by their righteous thoughts and actions, and their thoroughly explaining Falun Gong to people. Practitioners would have lost their orientation, achieved the opposite results and not obtained the admiration of divine beings if they had pursued the attachments to quantity and speed or only superficially clarified the truth to save sentient beings.
2. Don't Pursue Holding Large Scale Events and Sensational Effects
Master is fully in charge of Fa-rectification and our task is to assist Master in rectifying the Fa. The degree to which people are opposed to the persecution is determined by celestial phenomenon. Dafa disciples are like drops of water in the ocean, each conscientiously doing what one is supposed to do. The portion of people who are saved has a natural correspondence with the level of cultivation attained by practitioners in that area. If practitioners have the thought, “Everyone will oppose the persecution if we hold a large scale event,” I think this attitude is incorrect and should be changed right away.
Of course, this doesn't mean that we shouldn't consider opportunities further or do more things. We are Fa- rectification period Dafa disciples and this is our mission. Coordinators in many areas have worked very hard and made great efforts. This is merely to remind everyone that we should examine our thoughts and actions to see if they are aligned with the Fa.
Looking back over these past years, there has been interference and persecution on a large scale because we have had the mentality of holding large scale events and achieving sensational effects. We only paid attention to superficial things. We overlooked the fact that clarifying the truth is best done in person, and people can only be saved one at a time. Sometimes, elements such as exaggerating, inherited from the culture of the Chinese Communist Party, are mixed into our language. The gods of the old universe clearly see this.
Master said,
“They will only feel okay with it when you meet the standards that they acknowledge; only then will they let you progress upwards free of interference; and only then will they think that you are qualified to save them.” (“20th Anniversary Fa Teaching,” May 13, 2012 – New York)
Gods, at all levels of the universe, are watching what Dafa disciples are doing. We should act according to the principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to the best of our ability, so that the old forces have nothing left to pick at or interfere with, and we can save them.
3. Paying Attention to Safety
Falun Dafa disciples in China are being persecuted. In a normal society people can sign petitions to express their opinions, but if practitioners in China sign their names on petitions and try to rescue fellow practitioners who have been arrested, it involves a question of safety and the protection of practitioners.
I think you should ask yourself several questions when determining whether to sign a petition with an alias or soliciting signatures among practitioners. Does this represent clarifying the truth to the masses? Are you thoroughly clarifying the truth? Will this encourage an attachment to the quantity of signatures if this is done on a large scale? Will you stop collecting individual signatures and thoroughly clarifying the truth to each person? It is not the purpose of Dafa disciples to express their own thoughts. Our mission is to let people know the truth and to save them.
The number of signatures is nothing in itself. What is important is truly saving each sentient being. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can easily collect a million signatures, but everyone knows that it doesn't mean anything. It's just the CCP's need to dominate and spread its propaganda and doesn't represent people's true sentiments. Dafa disciples have received the approval of the world's people by always speaking truthfully.
4. Practitioners Don't Rely on the World's People While Saving Them
Asking people to sign petitions opposing the persecution is a method of clarifying the facts about Falun Gong and saving people. Whoever expresses the desire to support Dafa is choosing a good future for themselves and receiving blessings. Government officials who act to support Falun Gong because they clearly understand the will of the people are also choosing their futures. More Chinese people and government officials are reading overseas media reports and are understanding the aspirations of the Chinese people and that the CCP's persecution of Falun Dafa doesn't enjoy popular support. Similarly, people in other countries are learning the truth about Falun Gong through these media outlets. If officials in a country are willing to step forward to support the Chinese citizens' opposition to the persecution, then they are making a positive choice for themselves.
This is the result of sentient beings making their true choices. More people can be saved when practitioners do well. But practitioners don't rely on government officials or non-practitioners, and don't count on them to rescue incarcerated practitioners. The extent of what non-practitioners can achieve is limited. Practitioners, please review Master's Fa below.
Master said,
“And some think, 'There are so many democratic countries in the world. Why don't they raise their voices? What's the United Nations doing now?' And that's how things look on the surface. But actually, I can tell you what that reflects: We're too dependent on human beings. If human beings were to end the persecution, what a disgrace that would be to Dafa disciples! We wouldn't have validated the Fa, we wouldn't have established mighty virtue in the persecution, and our Dafa disciples wouldn't have blazed their own path. I've said that this path is to be left for the future. Then isn't this matter critical? That's how the old forces have been able to take advantage of the gaps. You placed your hopes in ordinary people, so the old forces had the resolution that they sponsored voted down. And as you kept putting your hopes in ordinary people they made it so that your resolution couldn't even be raised and so that the U.S. was kicked out of the Human Rights Commission. You still placed your hopes in ordinary people, so they made a country that violates human rights the chair. We should become more rational by learning from these lessons. We've gone through so much, and through these lessons we should gradually get clearheaded.” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Midwest-U.S. Fa Conference” from Teaching the Fa at the Conference III (June 22, 2003, in Chicago))
Even though practitioners have cultivated for many years, had many experiences and matured a lot, sometimes attachments appear when practitioners are doing things. All kinds of attachments will manifest if one doesn't pay attention to cultivating oneself. This is what I've observed and enlightened to. It may not be comprehensive or completely correct. I wrote this article to remind my fellow practitioners to do even better and experience fewer losses, and to diligently clarify the truth and save sentient beings.
