A few days after coming back from the memorial activities for the 7.20 anniversary in Washington DC, we received a phone call inviting us to a symposium on beliefs and faith held that weekend. It happened that the Western practitioners of our practice group were not available on that day. So we, two ladies who cannot speak fluent English, attended the meeting. Here are some of our thoughts after the meeting.
1. Opportunities knocking at the door
Sponsored by the Washington Post Foundation, American Leaders Conference invited heads of many local spiritual groups to a meeting. The topic was on how to solve the problem of ever-decreasing morals in the U.S. and all over the world. Meetings on the same topic were held in all 50 states during the month of July. On the weekend of July 29, throughout the country there were a total of 28 meetings held on this topic. The chairwoman of our meeting said that she often saw our practitioners doing Falun Gong exercises on the campus of North Carolina State University during lunch breaks. She had a good impression of us, and felt that our practitioners were a group of nice and peaceful people. She once got a flyer from the group of practitioners, and that was why we were invited to this meeting.
2. People touched by "Truthfulness, Benevolence, Forbearance"
The main topic of the meeting was "Freedom, Faith, and Family." Spiritual leaders and people active in public affairs gave speeches related to this topic, followed by group discussions.
When our group discussed the topic "What is the main factors for good conduct/behavior?" I opened Zhuan Falun to the part under Zhen-Shan-Ren is The Sole Criterion to Discern Good and Bad People, and read: "This characteristic, Zhen-Shan-Ren, is the criterion for measuring good and bad in the universe. Whats good or bad? It is judged by this." "As a human being, you are a good person only if you can follow this universes characteristic of Zhen-Shan-Ren. A person who goes against this characteristic is truly a bad person. In the workplace or in society, some people may say that you are bad, yet you may not necessarily be bad. Some people may say that you are good, but you may not really be good. As a practitioner, if you assimilate yourself to this characteristic, you are one who has attained the Tao--its just such a simple principle."
After listening to my reading, our group leader was deeply moved and said, "It makes complete sense. It seems like the principles of all religions. It is indeed the truth of the universe." When a representative presented a summary of the group discussion to the other groups, he asked me to represent our group. I went ahead and read this paragraph to the meeting audience. During the break, he still kept saying, "Its so inspiring, so inspiring.
It makes so much sense. I want to buy this book. I am really interested in it." Another person at our table also purchased Zhuan Falun.
One of the speakers who gave the speech about domestic problems in the meeting, also showed his interest and kept asking how "Zhen-Shan-Ren" was interpreted into English. He was very sincere, and borrowed a copy of Zhuan Falun from us. He said he would read the book carefully at home.
3. Falun Gong Practitioners in China are really something!
The chairwoman let us make a three-minute speech during lunch. My fellow practitioner read the text of her speech that she prepared the night before. She first introduced Falun Gongs overall situation around the world. She then emphasized on telling the audience how Falun Gong practitioners in China are, when facing brutal persecution by the Chinese government, determined in their faith. She talked about how they keep benevolence and forbearance in their hearts, and how they are going through all different types of hardships and some even sacrificed their lives in order to communicate with the government and make the truth known to the world.
Compared with the impassioned speech by other specially invited speakers, my fellow practitioner gave a simple and unadorned speech, but with more for everyone present to think about. After her speech, the chairwoman condemned the Chinese government for their action against freedom of belief, and suggested that spiritual groups write to the Chinese Embassy to express their concerns. During the recess, a lady said to us in tears, "We appreciate that you shared the information with us. We were deeply moved by the encouragement and behavior of Falun Gong practitioners in China. We enjoy lots of freedom in the States, and cant imagine that sort of brutal persecution. If I were in China, I would not know if I could be as brave and determined as those practitioners. They are great." She hoped the situation in China would improve. She also said she felt something would happen in the world. I gave her a copy of Zhuan Falun and hoped that she would read the book that had made so many great practitioners in China.
In the meeting we met many nice people with spiritual pursuance. Many of them are probably waiting for us to tell them the true cultivation Fa.
4. We should do more to spread Dafa far and wide.
After the meeting, the chairwoman said to us, "Thank you for sharing your story with us. You should let more people know what is happening in China. When I saw you doing the exercises before, I felt it was serene and peaceful. I did not know your fellow practitioners in China were so brutally persecuted. You should tell people more actively about the situation. For example, if you had prepared a letter in advance today, most people here would sign it to show their support. Many people present today are leaders of spiritual groups. They will spread the information to more people."
A lot of live stories have been written with blood and even lives of our fellow practitioners in China. These stories can deeply move the heart of every nice person. If we are not able to make these stories known by more people, we would have a guilty conscience. There are too many things we could have done. I don't think going back to Tiananmen Square is the only way to test practitioners in the US. For Chinese in the US we still have lots of tests to pass: not being familiar with the environment here, not knowing how to communicate with American society, not speaking fluent English, being shy and not talking to people about the Fa, not having good communication skills, etc. None of these are excuses, all of them are difficulties that we must overcome. How to let people all over the world know the truth of Falun Gong is the main cultivation project for all practitioners outside mainland China.
5. Some particular ways
Coming back from the meeting, we started collecting the addresses of local spiritual groups. We planed to mail the pamphlet of "The Peaceful Journey of Falun Gong" to them. We will appeal to them for support, and give them a chance to know Falun Gong.
The American society is a public society. It is very important to work on the grassroots of this society. All senators and congressmen are responsible for their constituents. If more Americans and local organizations stand up and ask their senators and congressmen to help Falun Gong, then it would be more effective than us practitioners doing the work directly. Therefore, when we sent letters to each spiritual group, we also enclosed a name list of local senators and congressmen. These groups could send the letters to their senators and congressmen after signing them, or send them back to us and let us do the mailing.
In all cities in the US, big or small, there are lots of Chinese restaurants where quite a few Chinese people work. But there are no practitioners in many cities. How do we let these people know the truth of Falun Gong? We have found the names and addresses of these restaurants via Internet, and plan to send materials to them.
In the past we only hand out our materials during festivals, parades, and other gathering events. But now we think that materials handed out only in this way are limited in quantity. We can see all kinds of free newspapers in libraries, bookstores, and grocery shops. Those materials must have certain distribution channels. Why not use these existing channels to send out our materials? The next step we are going to take is to find these channels. Although there may be some costs involved, but compared with the way that practitioners stand at the gate of stores to distribute materials, much more geographical areas could be covered. Besides, we would also be able to use more of our precious time to study the Fa and practice the exercises.
Attached:
How to find different types of organizations and Chinese restaurants from Internet:
Go to www.athand.com, for category, fill in "Religious Organization" or "Chinese Restaurant", and then fill in the city and the state. Practitioners good at computers could download the results from the Internet, and use MS Excel or MS Word to make address labels.
Some Practitioners in the US
8/4/2000
Category: Rallies & Protests
