(Minghui.org) Greetings to Master! Greetings to fellow practitioners!
We found out that the Toronto school board had signed a contract with the Confucius Institute (CI) in June 2014, and in September it would start to teach children their Chinese Communist Party-influenced version of Chinese culture in our schools.
When the day came to stop the CI in Toronto, practitioners approached me to be the coordinator. However, I did not want to do it.
I was always reluctant to get involved with big projects and I preferred to work alone. In the projects I did get involved with, like Shen Yun, I also battled with my feelings of resentment and dislike for some practitioners, something I have struggled with for many years.
Whenever they had an idea or would ask me to do something, no matter how nice or how badly they said it, I would automatically not like it. I would politely criticize or come up with excuses as to why their idea wouldn’t work. In my heart I would not want their idea to succeed so that I would be seen as right and they would be seen as wrong.
At the time I saw nothing wrong with this. I thought I was the one being responsible to the Fa by protecting the project from bad ideas.
Then one day while complaining to my wife about other practitioners she said to me, “You fight their ideas because you don’t like them and you don't want to do anything for them. You are not following the Fa. You are following the old forces. You are being manipulated by the old forces instead of realizing the importance of cooperating together and remembering that the goal of the project is to save beings. It is your problem not theirs.”
She was right.
Master says:
“Then at other times, when Dafa disciples do not cooperate well, or get angry and lose their temper, I can see that certain degenerate beings, some of which are rather large, are present, adding to it; and also at work are those layers upon layers of bad beings at various lower levels that [the practitioners’ thoughts] have aligned with.” (“Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa - Fa Teaching Given at the 2011 Washington DC Metro Area Fa Conference”)
Master also says:
“In other words, when beings of different planes notice that you want something, or are attached to something, and that it precisely aligns with them, they take effect and even direct you. When a person is not rational, or is venting anger, negative elements are taking effect. Everything is alive, and those things include evilness, desires, and hatred, among others. So in such situations they naturally take effect. ” (“Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa - Fa Teaching Given at the 2011 Washington DC Metro Area Fa Conference”)
I enlightened that in order to see if I am worthy enough to be able to save them, these low level beings are the ones creating these types of bad thoughts and feelings about others in order to test me. They are not my own thoughts at all!
Looking inside myself I saw that my anger actually came from the attachment of laziness. When others propose something I get uncomfortable and criticize it due to the fact that I am lazy and don't want to do anything. I then become negative about the idea to try to stop it and I become resentful of the person who brought it up.
I also saw that my resentment towards others was also due to competition and jealousy. I find fault with others because of a deep insecurity that I have had about myself since I was a child, so I get jealous of others for no reason. It really has nothing to do with others at all but the evil saw these attachments and used them to interfere with me and the projects I was involved with.
Master states:
“But do you know what a bad person is and what a good person is? If your mind is filled with hatred and malice, think about it, everyone: what kind of a being would one be? And it will show in your conduct and even in your looks, and people will see evil in you. I’m not saying that some Dafa disciples have cultivated poorly. The part of them that has been fully cultivated is separated away. For as long as you have human things left here on this human side, you will have bad things and bad thoughts, and the closer things are to the surface level, the worse they appear to be. The reason Master teaches the Fa to you is to tell you about these things and help you understand.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2014 San Francisco Fa Conference”)
Master also states:
“Nothing has changed. Master is still the same Master he was at the beginning, and the Fa of the universe will never change. (Enthusiastic applause) It’s just that during this persecution, during this so-called “test,” some people have gotten rid of their attachments while others have not, and some have actually increased their attachments. This is how they have acted during this so-called “test.” It is you who are changing; it is Dafa disciples who are changing. And if you are not changing in the positive direction, you are changing in the negative direction, for sure.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2014 San Francisco Fa Conference ”)
Master also encourages us by saying:
“There are such a large number of complex things that interfere with cultivators. That’s why this approach was adopted and why you would cultivate this way. Even with it being like this, the closer it is to the end, the worse the things are that come out—even though the evil things have less and less strength. That is why some people find that the things coming up in their minds are filthy. I would like to tell you, and I often have encouraged practitioners by saying: it’s okay, just repel it, handle yourself well, don’t let it interfere with you, and you will be fine.” (“Fa Teaching on World Falun Dafa Day ”)
So when practitioners approached me to coordinate this CI project, although I was still afraid to do it based on my poor cultivation state, I looked at it as a precious and rare opportunity given by Master to cultivate and cooperate with fellow practitioners to save beings. There were eight of us on the core team that came together and none of us knew what to do or how the school board worked.
The board is made up of 22 trustees who vote to accept or reject issues. In order to stop CI we would need the majority of trustees to vote to cancel it. To do this we needed to clarify the truth and we needed the support from the whole body.Unfortunately, many practitioners did not know what the CI was, how evil it is and that the CI is actually the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in disguise. They were fooled by the title of “Confucius,” so we had to first share our understandings with practitioners so they would better understand the situation.
We then created an information website and attracted lots of media and were also able to reach out to other groups and citizens to join the efforts as well.Our core team started to call and make appointments with trustees. Some trustees were shocked to hear what the Confucius Institute really was. Others refused to speak to us. We could tell they were already influenced by the CCP.
We rallied the body of practitioners to email trustees as parents and concerned citizens to demand that they completely cancel their association with CI , and many trustees started to change their stance, including one trustee who actually went to China to bring CI to Toronto. In the beginning she refused to speak with us, but through our wisdom and continuous truth clarification she completely turned around and became our strongest supporter!
Because we continued to step forward, opportunities started to appear out of nowhere. One trustee told us that on June 11th a board meeting would be held where we could raise our concerns.
With this opportunity we organized a massive rally outside the school board with hundreds of practitioners and members of other community groups. They all stood in front of the building holding STOP CI signs. Media from many TV stations and newspapers came.
Inside the meeting we called for the cancellation of CI. We told all the trustees that we did not want our kids to be brainwashed by evil communism and propaganda from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). We showed them proof of CI textbooks and songs promoting communism and how they lied about historic events. In the end the majority of trustees tabled a motion to vote on the cancellation of CI at the next meeting on July 18th.
Also, because of our powerful campaign efforts, the trustee chairman who was directly responsible for bringing CI to Toronto resigned the very next day. He had strong ties to the CCP and tried to sneak CI in without telling the other trustees. This upset many of them and excited media so much that they all reported on it as a scandal.
In the weeks that followed we became complacent and relaxed a bit. It was then that we found that the CCP had been very actively and powerfully lobbying the trustees to vote to keep the CI. They were also going into the community to rally the Chinese community to support CI and to attack us.
We realized we should not have relaxed. We were able to research these Chinese groups and show the trustees how they were all linked to the CCP. We continued to meet trustees and send them information on important news about other CI scandals around the world. We also got the body of practitioners to continue emailing trustees.
On the day of the meeting, due to all the controversy and massive outcry from the public, the majority of trustees passed a motion to delay the CI decision until further notice.
However, we were not happy that they did not cancel it completely. We felt that we might have relied on everyday people too much and lost sight of our final goal to stop CI completely, so we then decided that we must continue our efforts.
We found out from our strongest supporter that there was one final board meeting before the New Year where we might be able to kill CI once and for all. With this insight we continued to meet with trustees to clarify the truth.
Some of the key people in the school board were still very much influenced by the CCP and not willing to talk to us. I personally felt that we should not waste our time trying to reach these people. Time was limited and we should focus more on those who may possibly change. However, others on the team felt it was very important that we try to save these people as well.
One practitioner shared, that there is a divine being overseeing each trustee and there is also a divine being overseeing each profession. In order to clear the field we had to talk to those beings in other dimensions as well.
The practitioner shared that back in 1999 there was no way to make it through if you only looked at things on the surface level. Practitioners must always remember to think about the other dimension and to clarify the truth to the beings in other dimensions.
In the end, from the surface level those trustees didn't change, but due to our continued efforts to reach everyone we felt we were able to clear the field.At the final board meeting hundreds of supporters and hundreds of people influenced by the CCP protested on the street. Inside, the meeting room was packed with people from both sides. The trustees took turns to speak and all of them expressed their concerns over CI.
In the end, 20 out of 22 trustees voted to cancel CI completely. The entire room exploded into applause and cheers. That was it. CI was dead.
The CI-influenced people quietly left one by one. We shook hands and congratulated all the supportive trustees who had been saved through the entire process.
Afterwards, many trustees came up to us and said they really respect Falun Gong practitioners. They said, “You guys did an amazing job here.”
The community groups also gained a big respect for Falun Gong due to our leadership and efforts, including our cooperation with everyone during the campaign.We also heard that because our campaign was so strong, the CI itself wrote a letter to the school board wanting to cancel the agreement before the vote in order to try to save face.
The cancellation of CI was picked up by news media around the world. It was a major blow to the evil CCP and their CI campaign.
A month after the vote the Toronto School Board came under serious scrutiny by the government, who took over the entire board, including all the decision-making. If we had waited to act, we would have lost all hope to cancel CI. It was a good lesson to learn.
Upon looking back, the most important aspect that led to the success of this project was our cooperation. The second most important factor was our efficiency.I have witnessed that one of the biggest problems in many Dafa projects is lack of efficiency. If someone sent an email asking for help or suggestions, other practitioners would not answer for days or even at all.
I used to complain in meetings that practitioners liked to talk and talk and talk. To stop them from talking someone would just have to ask for volunteers to help with a project. Then everyone would be silent.
During this five-month project there were tasks that constantly had to be done each hour and also meetings with trustees almost every day. Whenever an email went out asking for help it would only be minutes before several people would reply. Each member stepped forward, even if they felt some fear, and each member was quick to help when the help was needed without one complaint or even a second of hesitation.
Because of this we were able to take every opportunity that came our way without missing any of them and we were also able to stay a head of the evil at every step.
This entire project was a great learning experience for me. I was truly moved by the attitudes of my fellow practitioners who fully accepted me and did not complain or fight back even when at times when I was the one who was hard to deal with and not easy to like!
I learned how to trust my fellow practitioners and accept their ideas. I also learned that no matter how scared or nervous I feel, with the support of my fellow practitioners, the evil is no match for any of us.
Most of all I learned that if we truly follow Master’s teachings when it comes to conflicts or bad thoughts and if we cooperate with each other, clarify the truth and send forth righteous thoughts, we will always be successful and we will never have anything to fear.
Thank you Master. Thank you fellow practitioners.
(Presented at the 2015 Canada Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference)
