"Stand Down 2000", a yearly meeting sponsored by various charity organizations to help homeless people was held in an exhibition hall, the Cashman Field, in Las Vegas on November 8, 2000. As usual at the meeting, there were over 2000 homeless people, as well as the media and government officials including the Mayor.
At first, we had different opinions about whether to take part in this event. Some practitioners felt we should make use of every opportunity to promote Dafa and clarify the truth. However others thought these people might have too much karma and therefore be unsuitable Hongfa candidates. After some discussion and exchange of ideas, we arrived at a collective understanding. Although the homeless have sunken to a very low level in the secular world, they were born into this period of the extensive dissemination of Dafa and therefore are entitled to the opportunity to learn about the Buddha Law. Some of them may appear hopeless. However, from the perspective of the high level deities, from the realm of Master Li, don't we appear pitiful as well? Our Teacher is so compassionate towards us, why can't we show some compassion to other people in this world? Moreover, beside the homeless people, there would also be government officials, police officers, volunteers and various community groups attending this event. We believed Master Li's fashen would lead the pre-destined people our way. Therefore, we gladly reserved a booth.
As we had expected, many pre-destined people came to our booth to learn about Dafa. They included a staff member from the office of the event's organizer. Some of the homeless people appeared really dirty and bad smelling, but others had practiced Taichi before and were not unaccustomed to cultivation. One Asian man with four boys passed by our booth. We were playing Master Li's exercise instruction tape at the time. He couldn't help but stop and stare at the TV screen. Later on he sat down, as did his boys. We were moved by the kindly and sincere expressions on their faces. We handed them a copy of our flyer without disturbing them. Either because this was the first time we attended this meeting or perhaps our banner of "Zhen-Shan-Ren (Truth-Compassion-Tolerance)" was too eye catching, many of the staff members came to ask questions. Shortly after the start of the meeting, the Mayor and other government officials came to our booth. He informed us that our application for "Falun Dafa Day" was approved and would be officially conferred presently. We thanked the Mayor and presented him a copy of Zhuan Falun.
To ensure all pre-destined people the opportunity to obtain Dafa, one practitioner went to other booths to promote and distribute Dafa introductory material. When a volunteer saw the yellow T-shirt the practitioner was wearing, she instantly showed us one of the exercises. She said she had heard about Falun Gong, had read Falun Dafa material, and she would like to learn Falun Gong.
The pre-destined people we met in this occasion included practitioners of taichi, qigong, martial arts and religious lay people. They had some understanding of cultivation and asked: " Is Falun Gong a religion?" "What is enlightenment?" "Is there really punishment for bad deeds? " etc; and commented: "There are many churches and temples nowadays, and many people worship God and Buddha. But I always feel there is something wrong with what they do. There is something missing."
We also encountered Xinxing (mind-nature) tests during this Fa-promotion occasion. For example, a middle-aged man came to our booth to inquire about Dafa. He was no stranger to cultivation. But his body really smelled bad. At first, there were three practitioners introducing Dafa to him. After a while, two of them could not bear the smell, they slipped away leaving one female practitioner. She stayed and patiently introduced Dafa to him. This man talked to her for a long time. Afterwards, when the two practitioners returned, they asked her: "Don't you find him smelly?" She just smiled. Her conduct made the two practitioners realized they were not compassionate enough and had failed this test. They wished: "He could come back again, so we could pass this test." Sure enough, the middle-aged man did come back, not once but twice. Nobody slipped away this time around. His smell really permeated the practitioners' noses, and lingered forever as if to leave the practitioners an indelible lesson.
Master Li said recently at the Western US Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference: "I can tell everyone that all gods in the cosmos - be they rectified or not - all indicate, with regard to everything we've done, that we're too compassionate." In this occasion, although we haven't promoted Dafa in a life or death situation, we have experienced the compassion and power of Dafa.
Reported by Falun Dafa practitioners in Las Vegas
(November 18th, 2000)
