Walk Our Paths Well and be Living Examples of the Magnificence of Dafa

Greetings Master, greetings fellow disciples. I'm a practitioner from Manhattan, New York. I work for an executive at a large, world-renowned investment bank on Wall Street. When I moved to New York over three years ago, I did not fully realize back then the importance and true purpose of my being here. Now that the Fa rectification is focused in the city I call home, I am grateful to have been given this special opportunity to help clarify the truth to my fellow New Yorkers. I'd like to share some of my understandings, particularly around clarifying the truth to business leaders and high-profile executives.

When I started handing out flyers at the torture exhibits in New York this summer, I was astonished that I felt no embarrassment or fear. I used to be extremely uncomfortable and reserved when it came to handing out Dafa information, particularly in New York City, because people here are so distant and unfriendly. But I was filled with a renewed sense of urgency and determination to save the sentient beings in New York. Master tells us, in "Hurry Up and Tell Them,"

"As Dafa disciples tell people the facts,
It's like sharp swords shooting out together from their mouths,
Shredding apart the rotten demons' lies.
Lose no time and save them; hurry up and tell them!"

In doing truth clarification work, I have been moved to tears on several occasions, when I'd see people who take my flyers look into my eyes with a knowing look. Some would wink when they said "thank you" as if their knowing side were grateful for this invaluable piece of information. In some instances, people working in restaurants would walk out onto the street after seeing me walk by their restaurants, and shout to me "I support Falun Gong! Falun Dafa is good!" People in New York are awakening to the truth. This has been especially evident in recent weeks, when most people I clarify the truth to have already heard of Falun Gong as a result of the many torture exhibits in the streets.

It was becoming more and more clear to me that everything does indeed happen for a reason--everything's truly arranged by Master for the Fa. It's not a coincidence that I work for a top executive for a Wall Street investment bank. It is not coincidental that I have many friends from different backgrounds and geographical locations, and many acquaintances and connections in society. Nor is it coincidental that I have always had a passion for media and entertainment, and that I am very good at building relationships with people from all walks of life. This was all arranged for Fa-rectification. I knew I had a responsibility to clarify the truth to those around me: at work, in my extracurricular activities, such my professional women's alliance, to all of my friends from all over the world, and to the many acquaintances I've made in my life.

But even after this realization of the importance of saving sentient beings, I still had difficulty clarifying the truth to my friends and to my work colleagues in particular. It was an attachment to fear of rejection, insecurity about what others would think of me, even fear of losing my job because my firm has very close ties with China. These were all human notions and I tried to get rid of these thoughts and attachments. The more I studied the Fa and immersed myself in the Fa, the less these attachments bothered me. So I slowly started to insert Dafa into my conversations with my friends and relatives. At first it was tough for me to explain why I couldn't hang out with my friends because I had Dafa activities and events. But after speaking with a practitioner from Boston about her methods of clarifying the truth to ordinary people in a way that they can understand, I found it a lot easier to tell my friends about Dafa's importance to me and my involvement with clarifying the truth to people. I began to tell my friends that I finally found a good cause that I stand for and believe in with all of my heart. I told them that practicing Falun Dafa has greatly improved my moral character, my heart, and the way I treat others. It gave me the inner peace that I had been searching for my whole life. I didn't have to tell my friends much for them to believe that Falun Dafa is good, as they could witness with their own eyes that I have changed drastically. I used to be very inconsiderate, self-centered, and competitive, which made me very unhappy, easily angered and frustrated

After practicing Dafa, my friends could see the differences and positive changes in me. I have become a lot more understanding and patient. I am more compassionate and considerate of others. At work, I try to remove myself from office politics and the competitive mentality. Instead, I work hard without any attachment to any outcomes and I always try to put myself in my manager's shoes to understand how I can better help her do her job. As a result, things have become much more harmonious in all areas of my life. Even though I don't get to see my friends very often these days, when we do see each other, things are still very comfortable and they are very accepting and respectful of my dedication towards what they see on the human level as being a very good cause. Many of my friends have said things like, "Good for you!" "I'm so happy that you've found a cause to dedicate your heart to." Many of my friends have even come out to learn the exercises with me!

One thing that has helped me to clarify the truth on a grand scale is my involvement with New Tang Dynasty TV's Asia Brief, an English-language Asia news program. Several practitioners had asked me to audition for an anchor position on Asia Brief. At first, I dismissed the idea, thinking that I wasn't experienced enough and that I couldn't possibly do a good job because I have not had any public speaking experience. In fact, public speaking has always been one of my greatest fears and attachments. I know that this attachment is something that must be relinquished and cleared away. So I tried out for Asia Brief without any expectation or attachment to the outcome, and lo and behold, I ended up being selected to be one of the four anchors. I laughed to myself when I found out the news, as a very senior VP at my company had told me in a meeting shortly before I found out whether I had been selected that he thought I had a perfect newscaster voice because I don't have a place-able accent. I know that was Master telling me that being an anchor for Asia Brief is a part of my cultivation path to clarify the truth to sentient beings.

As soon as the video clips of me were posted on the NTDTV website, I sent it out to everyone I know - relatives, friends, work colleagues, acquaintances, friends of friends, people I had only met once in my life. I ended up sending it out to a couple hundred people. I spared no one because I knew that everyone who comes into contact with me in some shape or form is meant to learn about the Fa. And it is my responsibility to clarify the truth to them, even if it's done via a video clip of Asia Brief. Fortunately, the clip I sent out happened to feature a story about Falun Dafa, so I knew that people who watched it would learn about Dafa and its persecution in China. My manager sent out the clip to my entire group and everyone had nothing but great things to say about Asia Brief and my involvement with it. Just the other day, on a conference call with the senior management team of our office in India, which I had helped to set up, the senior managers all had very positive things to say about Asia Brief and my performance as an anchor. If it were not for Asia Brief, I think it would have been extremely difficult for these senior executives to learn about Dafa (particularly because of our firm's close ties with the Chinese government). Many people are now watching Asia Brief regularly, as they're getting ready for work in the morning, including many senior vice-presidents and managing directors who work at my firm!

As if Asia Brief alone wasn't enough as a means of reaching sentient beings, I was also recently promoted to Vice-President of my non-profit women's alliance, an organization that crosses all industries and is geared towards well-educated, ambitious and motivated women. We have a distribution list of close to one thousand women and we have held very prestigious events with high-profile speakers. As the Vice-President of the group, I now have much more impact and influence on the Board, and I have recently used my leadership position to help clarify the truth to our members by persuading the Board to send out an email advertising an interactive presentation on Falun Dafa, to be held at the Queens Museum. I have already heard from several members that they are very interested in going to this event, and I am reminded yet again that my position within this organization is not coincidental by any means.

More importantly, as Vice-President, I now have more opportunities to be in contact with influential, high-profile people in ordinary society. I attended an event hosted by a men's lifestyle magazine which has been named one of America's 25 most important magazines. The host speakers included the CEO of one of the world's largest corporations and the anchor for one of the nation's leading nightly news programs. When I thought about clarifying the truth these people, I started to become very nervous and scared. But then I remembered that Master has always emphasized the importance of using our wisdom in clarifying the truth to ordinary people, so I maintained my righteous thoughts and cleared away my human notions of fear and anxiety. I used my wisdom and approached the news anchor telling him that I'm an anchor for New Tang Dynasty Television and that we were the first to report on the persecution of Falun Gong and the SARS situation in China. He was very receptive and friendly, telling me that he'll look out for Asia Brief on TV. I also spoke with the CEO, who was also very friendly and down-to-earth. Once again, I used my wisdom to break the ice with him by telling him that I work for one of the executives of my investment bank and one of my current projects is to benchmark our operations division against other companies who have very efficient operations processes, and this CEO's company is one of them. I then went on to talk about New Tang Dynasty Television and asked him if he would be interested in being interviewed. He told us that because most of his company is based in the U.S., most of their news is reported through CNBC and Bloomberg. Despite this disappointment, I still didn't give up, and used another avenue to try to network with him. I asked him if he'd be interested in speaking at an event for our women's alliance. As it turns out, we both knew someone in common. I believe it will be much easier for me to further clarify the truth to him in the near future.

After speaking with these two people, I realized that everyone around us is a precious sentient being who is waiting to be saved. I approached a group of people who were engaged in conversation and introduced myself. At first, I was very nervous, because they did not smile at me. I held on to my righteous thoughts and allowed my compassion to come forth. In the 2004 Western US Fa Conference, Master told us,

"Dafa disciples should do everything cool-headedly and with Shan thoughts. Whether you're clarifying the truth to people or participating in an activity, you should always have people see the goodness and kindness of Dafa disciples. Absolutely don't do anything that's too extreme. When you save beings and clarify the truth, if you speak in an extreme way it won't have a positive effect."

Master also said in "Teaching and Explaining the Fa the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference, 2003":

"With righteous thoughts your mind isn't limited, your thinking will be vast and broad, and your wisdom won't be restricted."

As soon as my Shan came forth, these 4 people became very warm and friendly towards me. I used my wisdom in breaking the ice with them first before telling them about Dafa. I congratulated them on their award and asked them about their company and their invention. I then gave them flyers promoting the film, "Sandstorm" and clarified the truth to them. As it turns out, they had seen practitioners practicing the exercises in Boston Commons and told me they thought the practice was amazing and beautiful. I talked with them for more than half an hour and they told me to get in touch with them on the following day to get them tickets to watch "Sandstorm." I walked away knowing that I had left a good impression because I had demonstrated wisdom, Shan and a calm heart.

Teacher said, in the "Fa Lecture During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference,

"Also, at even higher levels the concept of wanting to achieve something doesn't exist, either. It's just a matter of the cosmos's choice."

Master's words were evident in several instances when I was handing out flyers. I found that when I was attached to the quantity of flyers I was handing out versus actually spending time with people and comprehensively clarifying the truth, the outcome was not as good as when I let go of my attachment to wanting to hand out as many flyers as possible. As soon as I let this go, people would take more flyers and come up to me with questions. I enlightened to the importance of speaking to people and taking the time to comprehensively answer their questions. When you make a personal connection, it may seem that you're saving fewer people as a result because you are seemingly reaching fewer people than you would through passing out flyers without talking to people. But I think that speaking to people is effective for two reasons: 1) this is the way to get direct feedback and understand how we can improve and make our messages more clear, and thus save more people who walk by our exhibits, and 2) these people who understand clearly will be able to tell people in their social circles, thus helping to spread awareness even further.

I'd also like to share a few observations and thoughts on the importance of all practitioners harmonizing into one body. As a Chinese person who was born in Germany and raised in the US, I am able to see things from both sides' perspectives. Westerners may be more organized and thorough, hence slow, while Chinese practitioners are very gung-ho and don't take much time to plan and organize events. Both mentalities and views have positives and negatives. Only by merging into one unified body can we truly become one mighty force, as both groups complement each other very well. I have already witnessed tremendous improvements in the harmony between both groups in recent weeks. I've seen Westerners teaching Chinese practitioners English phrases to use for truth clarification, American etiquette, dress code, etc. The Chinese practitioners have in return, helped to alleviate the shortage in Western manpower by carrying more of the weight when Westerners were under-resourced. I have also been inspired by the steadfast diligence and fortitude displayed by our Chinese practitioners. I was moved to tears when I saw elderly Chinese practitioners handing out flyers late at night in the pouring rain. This recent harmony between Chinese and Western practitioners has manifested itself in the improved torture exhibit demonstrations. The messages are much more clear than they were before and this has helped to raise more awareness of Falun Dafa. I believe that our compassionate Master is giving us all more opportunities to further increase our xinxing and for us to learn to be even more compassionate, truthful and tolerant towards one another so that we may become one body.

In "Let Go of Human Attachments and Save the World's People," Master says "each must come out and clarify the truth, bringing it to every field and valley, mountain and hill, not omitting a single area where there are people." I don't think this means being literally at every street corner in NY, but rather that we should melt into the Fa and see every encounter as an opportunity to save beings, no matter where we are and what we're doing. We should incorporate it into our daily lives and seize each and every precious opportunity to tell the world about Dafa. I am also involved with the business outreach team, and one of my ideas for reaching many senior business leaders at one time and place is for practitioners to go to financial conferences and other large group events and parties. Even if we don't enter the buildings that these conferences are taking place in, we can stand out in front and hold up signs and pass out flyers or invitations to the art show or "Sandstorm." At work, I am also on the steering committee for the Asian Professional Network, and I've raised the possibility of having our firm sponsor the NTDTV 2005 New Year's Gala as part of our cultural offering to employees who are interested in Asian heritage and culture. Also, as part of this Asian Professional Network, I was invited to attend the first Wall Street World Aids Day, in which Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary General, was the keynote speaker. I invited other practitioners to attend and I even asked Mr. Annan a question regarding the inaccurate data and statistics on those infected with AIDS from countries like China. As a result of this event, practitioners have gotten in contact with a very senior vice-president at my firm and have clarified the truth to him. I think it's crucial for Dafa disciples to be diligent in thinking of ways in which we can effectively reach more sentient beings.

It is important to use wisdom and creativity in reaching more sentient beings, to balance Dafa with our everyday lives and to balance our righteous thoughts with our wisdom. There was a point in my cultivation where I completely neglected my friends and non-Dafa activities. I was 100% focused on devoting all of my time and energy to Dafa. I have since come to understand that this is not Master's wish. We are in fact compromising our chances to save sentient beings when we allow omissions like over zealousness and obsession to dominate our consciousness. How will my friends and acquaintances be exposed to the beauty and dignity of Dafa if they never interact with Dafa disciples? A few of my friends had complained that they felt I was unreliable and distant. My performance at work had been suffering also because I had not balanced well my ordinary life with Dafa. This is when I realized that it's imperative for me maintain my everyday life in ordinary human society, that displaying Truth-Compassion-Forbearance in my daily surroundings is in and of itself also clarifying the truth to sentient beings. I started to balance my life better, alongside Dafa, and indeed, everything became much more harmonious and smooth. In "Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Western US Fa Conference", Master said,

"You can't go to extremes with anything Dafa disciples do. Just live a normal life and cultivate normally, and at the same time do what Dafa disciples should do. That's how it should be at present. In ordinary society, other than doing what Dafa disciples should do, there isn't any difference in form [from ordinary people], on the surface it looks the same as ordinary society, only you're a cultivator. That's how it should be. What you're doing today is establishing things for the future, and that's how this path should go. This is the most upright path and what cultivators of the future will follow, so you can't behave in an extreme way at all or go to any extremes, as that would create unnecessary obstacles and trouble for yourselves."

And in the same lecture,

"What I've told you is that you should be a good person wherever you are and have others say that you are a Dafa disciple. You need to handle the things in your family well and handle the things in your workplace well. As Dafa disciples, how well you've cultivated is precisely reflected in these areas, in front of the world's people."

Another principle that I have enlightened to and come to realize is that not only must we fit into society, as Master has told us, but we must do everything we do well, and better than ordinary people. It is a very high bar that we're measured against, but as Dafa practitioners, we can achieve what ordinary people would consider impossible. Master has said in Zhuan Falun that "When it's difficult to endure, you can endure it. When it's impossible to do, you can do it." As Dafa disciples assisting Master, we are all paving the way for future beings and in order to do that, we must walk our paths well and be living examples of the magnificence of Dafa.

As Teacher said, "At this great moment in history, every steady step is a glorious historic testimony, and is incomparably-magnificent mighty virtue. All this is being recorded in the history of the cosmos. The magnificent Fa and the magnificent epoch are forging the most magnificent Enlightened Beings. " ("The Disciples' Magnificence," Essentials for Further Advancement II)

These are just my personal understandings. Please kindly point out anything incorrect.

Thank you.