Shared at 2003 UK Falun Dafa Conference
(Clearwisdom.net)
Great Compassionate Master and dear fellow practitioners,
During the Fa-rectification period, Master requires every Dafa disciple to do the three things well: Study the Fa, clarify the truth and send forth righteous thoughts. Today I would like to share my understanding of clarifying the truth with you all. Please do point out anything that is not appropriate.
In his "Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A," Master said, "Let me tell you this: next to your own cultivation, currently the most important thing is clarifying the truth, because this is directly saving sentient beings, it's directly saving the people of the future, and it also demonstrates the magnificence of Dafa and Dafa disciples--in such a difficult environment you're still managing to save sentient beings."
When we are clarifying the truth to people outside China, it happens very often that we overlook the significance of telling our family members and friends about the truth. At the beginning, though I knew the importance, I always tried to find excuses for not doing so, such as "I'm too busy these days" or "I have lost contact with them for a long time," etc. In fact, if we spend a little bit of time, make a phone call or write a letter to our friends and relatives, it will be very effective so long as we put our hearts into it. Once I managed to get my old schoolmates' contact details from an online alumni address book, and started emailing them one by one to tell them the truth of Dafa. At the same time, I asked for their home addresses so that I could mail them VCDs and booklets at a later point. I did the same with my relatives.
When clarifying the truth to everyday people, I realised that we cannot just send a one-off email and think "Ok, that is all, job is done." We should use our hearts to communicate with them. We can first listen with patience to their comments or opinions or even nasty abuse before telling them the truth with a compassionate heart. If once is not enough, we can talk to them a second time. If that still doesn't work out nicely, we still shouldn't feel disheartened or give up on them. Isn't it a good opportunity to improve our xinxing? We can tell them the truth in a direct manner by explaining, for example, the self-immolation incident on Tiananmen Square. We can also clarify the truth in some indirect ways. For instance, we should always be helpful to others, and let them understand that Dafa disciples are good people who always put others before themselves. We should behave ourselves very well in the society, so that everyday people will get to know how wonderful Dafa is through simply looking at us.
When a former secondary-school classmate of mine got to know the truth of Dafa, he not only started to introduce Dafa to his classmates and teachers here in England, but also took several copies of Dafa VCDs and leaflets back to China and showed them to his family and friends. He told me that our old classmates inside China passed those truth materials to each other and even had some discussions on it. Several secondary-school teachers of mine were quite supportive of Dafa, and they even publicised their good opinion of Falun Gong on the Internet. In "Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Midwest-U.S. Fa Conference", Master said, "Don't overlook any of the things that Dafa disciples do. Your every word, every flyer, every keystroke, every telephone call, and every letter is having a huge impact. Beings that have come to understand the facts become mobile media, and they too clarify the facts. It's had a big impact on society. "
In February this year, the Chinese Consulate in Edinburgh held a big party to celebrate the Chinese New Year. My roommate was a member of the Embassy-controlled Chinese student association, and she invited me to go with her. As it was said that more than 100 Chinese people were going, I thought this was a great opportunity to clarify the truth. Also, the Chinese Consulate had refused to renew a practitioner's passport, so I felt I needed to have a talk with the Consulate staff.
However, just before we left our flat, my roommate said to me that, for her sake, I had better not mention Falun Gong at the party. On our way to the Consulate, I hesitated. It looked like I shouldn't mention Dafa because of my roommate who invited me. But it was such a good opportunity. What a pity it would be if I went there and didn't clarify the truth! After a while I realised that that was no excuse for me not to clarify the truth about Dafa. In fact, if I hadn't got any fear or loopholes in my xinxing, my roommate couldn't have said that to me. As Dafa disciples, wherever we are, we should behave in an open and dignified manner. The purpose of my clarifying the truth was to help those Chinese people dissolve their misunderstanding about Dafa, and to remind the Consulate staff to behave so that they could have a chance to reposition themselves. I believe that people of the world, even those who have been very seriously poisoned, still have goodness remaining in their hearts. So long as we maintain a pure and compassionate mentality, we can touch their hearts. To really think of others is to tell them the truth. Having realised this, I said to my roommate, "I think I'll still talk about Falun Gong, but I won't get you into trouble. I hope you can understand." My roommate didn't oppose.
At the party, my roommate introduced a number of leaders of the Chinese student association to me. So I took this opportunity to tell them the truth. During our conversation, I managed to move our discussion gradually and naturally in the direction of Falun Gong. They raised some questions to me, and I answered them one by one. Some of them looked very nervous, and didn't say anything. But at least they heard the truth about Dafa.
When dinner was ready, everybody went to eat. I like food very much actually, but on that day I felt disgusted at the sight of the feast and the luxury. I thought of practitioners in China who were being tortured. The police only gave them rotten food, and they even force-feed practitioners with human excrement. I felt very bad and didn't eat anything. A Consulate staff came to me to ask my name. I didn't answer him. Another person wanted to take photographs of me. After a while, a person who looked like somebody in charge told me to leave the Consulate immediately, saying that it was because I hadn't got an invitation. I thought I had no time to waste, and walked straight to a small room beside the dining hall where the so-called VIPs were having dinner. I kindly asked them whether it would be OK to have a talk, but they began to get nervous. So I told them that I am a Falun Gong practitioner. I hoped they wouldn't believe the lies and slanders. "Falun Gong is good. Don't follow Jiang Zemin and continue to do bad things..." Some of them just listened quietly, but one person shouted and wanted to stop me. People began gathering outside, and the atmosphere became tense. The chairman of the Chinese student association got hold my arm and dragged me with the help of another person. I was dragged to the lobby, and many people were looking at us. I asked them not to treat me like that, and told them I would leave myself. I looked at those Chinese people. In my eyes, in spite of their differences in profession, social status and age, they were actually no different from one another, because they, including those Consulate staff, were all sentient beings, and deserve Dafa disciples' care and salvation. While I walked, I said loudly, "I hope you can understand Falun Gong is good, and it's nothing wrong to cultivate Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance. Many Falun Gong practitioners in China lost their lives simply because they said this..." I kept talking until I was outside the Consulate. Several Consulate staff, the Chairman of the Chinese student association and some students followed. I said to them that I hoped they could let me finish. I told them the changes that had taken place in myself since I took up cultivation practice, and my experiences of the benefit. I went on to tell them the persecution practitioners in China had been suffering. The student Chairman was choking a bit. She said she had recognised me from the beginning. She had stood beside me just to make sure I didn't mention Falun Gong. She said she knew many things, but they were powerless. The Consulate staff called a taxi to send me home, but I politely declined. Later, I walked home with three other students. They listened to me on the way home, and they all said they were sympathetic towards Falun Gong and very angry at what Jiang had done. I felt really happy for these people who had got to know the truth. And I was thankful to Master for having arranged this opportunity.
Through this experience, I realised that Chinese embassies and consulates overseas are places that particularly need us to clarify the truth to. People there have been deeply influenced by Jiang's evil gang, but, having been sent overseas, they have the chance to hear the truth about Dafa. Apart from participating vigils in front of the embassies and consulates, we can also try to communicate directly with their staff members so as to let them really understand that we are telling the truth, for their own good. Besides, every opportunity to clarify the truth is also a chance to improve our xinxing and correct ourselves. We need to value every opportunity and make sure we don't miss any chance to clarify the truth to the people of the world.
In March this year, I came to a foreign city to study. I heard that there were many Chinese students here, so I was wondering how I could clarify the truth to them. I decided to begin with distributing Dafa newspapers. In this city, there are no big Chinese supermarkets, and there are only Chinese restaurants which do not accept many copies of the paper. So it looked quite hard to distribute a Chinese newspaper. In spite of the difficulties, I made up my mind to work on it. I tried the university and the library, had some success. And, after some exploration, I found some Chinese medical clinics and restaurants, and, at the suggestion from my classmates, contacted two major Chinese associations. After that, the newspaper distribution became stable. During the first few weeks, when I distributed the newspapers, I just said hello, put the papers at the right place, and left, acting like a robot. After a while I realised that it was far from enough. We need to communicate with the readers to break any doubts they still have towards Dafa. Therefore I changed my attitudes. Every time I went with the newspapers, I would first talk with them for a while, and then ask them whether they liked our newspapers and whether they had any suggestions for us. Some time later, I became very familiar with them. They began asking me questions regarding the articles in the paper about Falun Gong, some even expressing an interest in learning the exercises. Some asked for Dafa website address. But I also met people who had a lot of misunderstanding on Dafa and who tended to say very nasty things. But I always tried to explain to them kindly. Gradually, more and more Chinese people began to know the truth. Many people who have a sense of justice expressed their support for our lawsuits against the evil head, saying that it should have been subjected to punishment a long time ago. Many everyday people said they really admired Dafa disciples, espeically those in China, for their bravery and determination. Many said, "Falun Gong people are really capable. You can give up everything for your belief. We just can't do that." When I left this city, Chinese students and teachers took up the responsibility to continue distributing the newspapers. Some Chinese restaurants asked for Dafa materials to put on their front desk so that their customers could read. Seeing these changes taking place, I genuinely felt Master's compassionate and painstaking effort to save sentient beings. So long as people still have a trace of goodness left, Master would give them opportunities to reposition themselves for the future. So long as we, Dafa disciples, have a heart for Dafa, Master would arrange for every one of us a path of improvement and ascending.
Another thing that I would most like to talk about is that I feel, if Dafa disciples can cooperate and coordinate well with one another, our truth-clarification efforts would be most powerful. For example, among the everyday people around us, if several Dafa disciples could clarify the truth to them with wisdom and some coordination, many of those people could have their problems resolved. When we talk about the practitioners being persecuted in China, when the everyday people see that Dafa disciples treat one another as family in spite of differences in income, status, race or nationality, and that we all treat one another's matters as that of our own, they will be touched. I think this is also a manifestation of the power of the one body. At the same time, we need to combine truth-clarification, Fa-study and sending forth righteous thoughts together and do all three things well. Practitioners always need to look inside. When we encounter difficulties, we need to study the Fa more, and check whether there is something that we have done wrong which has caused misunderstandings among everyday people. If not, we need to send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil factors preventing people from knowing the truth.
At last, I want to say that what I have done is what a Dafa disciple should do. Whatever we have done is disproportionate to what Master has done for us in his compassionate salvation.
Thank you, great compassionate Master! And thank you all for your encouragement! Let's carry on with our cultivation diligently and do whatever we can to save sentient beings.