(Minghui.org)
Obtaining the Fa
Before I began practicing Falun Dafa in 2004, I had experienced insomnia for almost three years. I was treated with both Chinese and Western medicine. It would get better for a short time, but soon I could not sleep again.
At one point I tried to find a solution by reading religious scriptures, but that did not help. One day a colleague suggested I practice qigong. By that time I doubted that anything would help. The next day, my colleague gave me a magazine. Falun Gong, a five-exercise practice, grabbed my attention. Reading that it was a dual cultivation of mind and body that followed the moral guidelines of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, I immediately decided to try it.
Since I didn't know the location of any practice sites, I followed the movements and principles described in the magazine and practiced for five days. My insomnia miraculously disappeared! I thus obtained the Fa. I am so grateful for Master’s salvation.
For the first two years, I cultivated at home and didn’t go to an exercise site. After I exchanged cultivation experiences with a fellow practitioner the third year, I started to step forward and help Master validate the Fa.
Clarifying the Truth at Tourist Attractions
Because I work and have limited time, to clarify the truth I mainly mailed materials and sent text messages at first. It fit in with my shy personality, since I don't like to speak in public. However, my attachment to comfort and ease was increasingly being reinforced. I did not put more effort into truth clarification, nor did I do three things with rationality, figuring that would suffice.
Master taught us,
“For a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple, personal liberation is not the goal of cultivation: when you came, saving sentient beings was your great aspiration, and that is the responsibility and mission history has bestowed upon you in Fa-rectification. Thus great numbers of beings are to be saved by you.” (“Let Go of Human Attachments and Save the World’s People,” from The Essentials of Diligent Progress Vol. III)
I knew that not only did I have to cultivate myself well, but I also had to do more to save people. With fellow practitioners' encouragement, last June I decided to clarify the truth at tourist attractions. I had previously felt inexplicable panic and nervousness, but when I looked within, I found nothing wrong. After sharing with a fellow practitioner, the only solution that came up was that I needed to study the Fa more.
To my surprise, the situation miraculously changed after I began clarifying the truth at tourist attractions. Master’s benevolent enlightenment helped me understand that clarifying the truth and saving people should be done proactively. Moreover, an attachment to comfort and ease or going through the formalities won't work. I decided to clarify the truth at tourist attractions every Saturday.
I discovered that it wasn’t hard to do. I could hold a display board, send righteous thoughts, do the exercises, distribute informational materials, and encourage Chinese people to quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations. With determination and righteous thoughts, things went well.
One tour guide with a group from Beijing impressed me as I distributed the informational materials. She approached me and asked for a handmade lotus flower and a ballpoint pen specially designed with messages about Falun Gong. She shared her thoughts on Falun Gong. She said, “It's too bad that your anxious manner in encouraging Chinese tourists to quit the CCP organizations caused them to have some negative thoughts. The CCP has further sensationalized and demonized Falun Gong, making it even more difficult for mainland Chinese to accept, listen to, or read the materials.”
I said, “Thank you for your concern. We practitioners are so anxious to save people and we have been aware of the situation after exchanging opinions. You must have felt it!” The tour guide said some positive things about us and said that she would encourage her clients to listen to and see more as they traveled.
I once met a white-haired, old Chinese man. Before talking to me, he asked the other practitioners whether we were being paid. They told him, “We come here at our own expense.” He didn’t believe it and said no one would go through all this trouble without being paid, asking for nothing in return.
He asked me the same question. I gave him the same answer and he replied with an expression of disbelief, “That's remarkable.” Then he began asking questions about deceased political leaders. I answered, “Let history judge!”
He wasn’t satisfied with my answer and asked another question, “You have to fight to get what you want, don’t you?” I said, “You look like a benevolent person. Why do you struggle against others? Does it make you happy to fight? Isn’t it better to treat them with truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance?”
He said in astonishment, "Truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.” He hastily left after he seemed to realize something. Even though we only spoke for a few minutes, I missed out on an opportunity to save him and ask him quit the CCP organizations, due to fear and a lack of righteous thoughts. I hope he will have another chance to meet fellow practitioners and choose a bright future.
Eliminating Attachments When Serving as a Tourist Attraction Contact Person
After I had been clarifying the truth at tourist attractions for a while, fellow practitioners encouraged me to be a contact person. I wasn’t mentally prepared, and felt bad when I turned them down.
I examined myself for three days to rectify myself according to the Fa. I found that I feared being bothered, I was afraid I wasn't competent enough to handle it, and I still had an attachment to comfort and ease. All of these attachments stemmed from being selfish. I didn’t give priority to Dafa and therefore dodged the responsibility.
When I was hesitant, I thought of what Master said in Hong Yin Vol. II:
"Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions
A Great Enlightened One fears no hardship
Having forged an adamantine will
Free of attachment to living or dying
He walks the path of Fa-rectification
confident and poised"
The concerns soon became insignificant and I courageously took on the responsibility.
Coordinating and sharing experiences with fellow practitioners was something that I hadn’t thought of, but it's a duty when you are a contact person. I am shy and inarticulate, and I didn’t know what to do. However, I came to realize that this was fear. Master said,
“With any project or any task, if you decide not to do it, then don’t do it; and if you do decide to do it, then you definitely have to do it well and carry it through to the end.” ("Fa Teaching Given at the 2010 New York Fa Conference")
I then decided to listen to what Master said and do it well.
I realized that it was time for me to remove fear. Master said,
“All of you are already aware of the principle of mutual-generation and mutual-inhibition. If you are not afraid, the factor that would make you afraid will cease to exist. This is not to be self-imposed, but is achieved by truly and calmly letting go of it.” (“Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s)” from Essentials for the Further Advancement II)
When I encountered stress and conflict, I thought to myself that I was a practitioner and a Dafa disciple. There wasn’t any issue of fear, rather insufficient righteous thoughts. I spoke in a tremulous voice while holding a microphone at first. Although I was gradually able to overcome my fear, my voice still trembles when speaking publicly.
Some Experiences and Thoughts about Coordinating at Tourist Attractions - Turning Bad Things into Good Ones
As soon as I took on the responsibility of being contact person, I noticed that there was interference from the tourist attraction management and the police. Over time, fellow practitioners had explained the facts, but it didn’t work out well. We were told we were not allowed to put up our informational display boards after the New Year. I then asked practitioners who had more experience and were good at talking to people to clarify the facts with the management.
We clarified the truth of what Falun Gong is and why the CCP persecutes practitioners, explaining that practitioners have endured heat and cold to distribute materials at tourist attractions, so the public will know the facts.
We told them that we do it to rescue those practitioners being persecuted in China and to let Chinese tourists and those whose thoughts are contaminated comprehend the truth, to prevent them from believing the Chinese regime's lies and being hostile to Falun Gong. That way they won’t wind up being eliminated.
The police chief in charge of the site gave a friendly response, saying, “We will not take any action if no tourists file a complaint.” The practitioners asked the chief to explain to anyone that complained that Taiwanese are entitled to freedom of speech. We also apologized for increasing their burden.
The administrative manager at another tourist site complained that practitioners harassed tourists and pursued them, so the tourists complained. As for banning the exhibition boards, it was because they set them up arbitrarily. After communicating and clarifying the truth with the manager, we said we would improve.
Throughout the discussion, he no longer insisted on no display boards, but gave us a limit on the number of boards and requested that we keep them off the ground. I thought it would affect our truth clarification, but it was acceptable.
At the end, I told him, "We will try our best to do it well and not cause any inconvenience.” He unexpectedly said, "Not just try to do your best. You must do your best. I will be watching.” I was surprised and replied, "Definitely." I knew Master enlightened me with his words, and I hoped to eliminate my attachment.
We had a personal contact after that, and I kept in touch with him, greeting him regularly. I expressed my concern over his health and checked to see if he was satisfied with our arrangement. His attitude changed, and he was no longer so tense.
When the interference started, fellow practitioners held different opinions. Some thought that we should carry on as we had and negate the interference with righteous thoughts. Others thought that we should put away the exhibit boards when the management or the police came and put the boards back up after they left. I finally shared how I felt after the manager said that we cultivate Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, yet the way we acted was the exact opposite.
I talked with fellow practitioners, suggesting that we should look at things from his perspective. He had to deal with pressures from his superior, Chinese tourists, and tour guides. We had to agree a solution that would yield the greatest returns on saving people.
I let fellow practitioners know the outcome of our meeting and asked everyone to cooperate unselfishly. I clarified the truth as clearly as I could so that we could display our exhibit boards in the Park.
After all these experiences, we came up with more aesthetically pleasing exhibit boards and some equipment to help fellow practitioners hold the boards with ease and make a better presentation. Not only did the manager’s attitude change, but fellow practitioners did a better job. In the end, bad things turned into good ones and the tense situation at the tourist sites relaxed.
Conclusion
During this last year, I witnessed fellow practitioners being growled at, reviled, having materials knocked out of their hands, and even hit with umbrellas. However, we don’t hold grudges and benevolently continued to clarify the truth and save people.
I thought of my understanding of what Master said in Hong Yin III,
"How Hard to Save You
The divine path leads to Heaven’s gates
How many people can recognize it?
Lies have obscured the vision
People don’t believe the Divine has come
Eighty million graves, innocent souls
Five millennia of civilization set on fire
Why don’t you examine your conscience?
The Divine is turning the Falun
Dafa disciples shed blood on the dust— It is for the sake of sentient beings
How hard it is to save you"
Throughout this time, I have spoken with a variety of people, including management personnel, police officers, store owners and many tourists from China and Taiwan. I greatly feel that ordinary people do not know of the Fa, therefore, our words and behavior are the truth they see. Whether we behave well or not is very important and it directly affects whether these people will be saved!
Last, I would like to encourage every one of us with the Fa in Essentials for Further Advancement II,
"Rationality
Validate the Fa with rationality, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa and save people with mercy— this is establishing the mighty virtue of an Enlightened Being."
Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.
(Presented at the 2013 Taiwan Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference)
