(Clearwisdom.net) As practitioners clarify the truth more and more thoroughly, people are beginning to understand Dafa more clearly and see the distinctions between good and evil in society more clearly. We can see the formation of a global tide against the persecution, like sparks that can set the prairie afire. As Dafa practitioners, how can we do a better job in clarifying the truth and in offering salvation to more sentient beings in the current situation? Here are some initial ideas I wish to share with fellow practitioners.
1. Conform to the norms in your social setting to clarify the truth well
We live and work among many others in society. We have jobs and families, just like everyone else. We are members of our society. The term "Dafa practitioner" identifies us as cultivators. We are Dafa practitioners, but we are also professors, students, workers, farmers, merchants, or mothers, fathers, sons and wives in 'society. ''The difference between practitioners and non-practitioners is that we have reached a higher realm which manifests in whatever we do and can motivate and touch the hearts of others.
Some practitioners participate in website bulletin boards and signature collections. Sometimes they sign "in the name of Dafa disciples" or "all Dafa practitioners in xyz county." My understanding is that it is not good enough to clarify the truth by simply letting people see the words "Dafa" or "Dafa disciples," especially when we participate in activities as individuals. If we place ourselves in a way that ordinary people can accept, it would make it easier for us to communicate with them, and would not give them the feeling that we are "above them." Some practitioners signed "in the name of True God," "Dafa Particle," "Clean Universe," "Purified Universe" and so on. I' think these kinds of signatures are not proper either. If people can't understand what we are saying, our efforts in clarifying the truth would be in vain, and sometimes people might misinterpret us. We should pay particular attention to the fact that in many situations it is not proper to participate in activities "in the name of a Dafa practitioner."
2. Signing a petition is to offer salvation to sentient beings and not for the purpose of expressing revenge and feeling good. Pay attention to our Xinxing and do not become emotive
As a member of society, we can participate of our own will in signature collection drives on ordinary web sites. But our mind should be peaceful and full of compassion. It is not merely a signature. Our purpose is to offer salvation to living beings. Imagine you are giving a speech to a crowd - what do you want to tell them? Can you become emotive and impulsive? In the latest lecture given in California, Master mentioned the issue regarding our attitude when clarifying the truth. My understanding is, without purity and kindness behind the words, people may not listen to us and we would not be able to achieve good results.
Master said in Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference,
"Also, with those people that you run into by chance, who you run into in daily life, and the people you run into at work, you should all clarify the truth to them. Even when in your daily life you pass by people so quickly that you don't have a chance to talk to them, you should still leave them with your compassion and kindness. Don't lose those who should be saved, especially those with predestined connections. Actually, a lot of Dafa disciples say when they're clarifying the truth, 'I'm going to go clarify the truth now,' as if at that moment they're going to clarify the truth, but they don't clarify the truth normally. Saving beings should permeate every single aspect of your daily lives at this time. If you can all understand and really see its importance, I think you'll probably save more beings."
Only by cultivating ourselves well can we do better in offering salvation to living beings.
3. The comments we make when signing petitions should be clear to the point, open-minded and arise from different angles
Every signature we put is like we are talking to tens of thousands of people, and therefore we should do it with reason and wisdom and with consideration of the audiences' different mind sets, their abilities to accept, as well as the environment they might be living in. We should inspire their kindness, their courage and their responsibility to the nation from different angles, encouraging them to speak out the truth, to face up to the persecution and to oppose and peacefully resist all forms of persecution. It is not necessary to always present a lengthy article to mention everything, or to talk about the truth of Dafa. Maybe a few carefully chosen words are enough to stimulate their thinking. Tens of thousands of such stimuli might awaken people's kindness and their righteous thoughts, and global initiatives to end persecution would be a natural outcome of the process. It is better to talk about our own understanding and our own experiences, and to share our own understanding on issues such as society and morality as Dafa practitioners based on our assimilation into the Fa. '
4. Do not talk at too deep a level and thereby prevent ordinary people from understanding and accepting the truth
In the past, Bodhisattvas would act out thousands of roles in order to save living beings. We should have greater wisdom. As we all know, the verse "The Fa rectifies the Cosmos, the Evil is completely eliminated" is very powerful and is used to eliminate evil of all sorts. Dafa practitioners can eliminate evil at any time with righteous thoughts. However, it is not necessary to write this down on a public website because people do not understand its implications. We have seen many practitioners repeatedly writing these words as their comments on various website bulletin boards. In addition, many practitioners call Jiang "the head of the evil," "Jiang Ghost," "Jiang XX," "Jiang Evil" or "Toad," which gives people the impression that we are cursing this individual. People don't' understand our higher levels of understanding'. Just because we know it, it is not necessary for us to prove it to anyone else. We can just call Jiang directly by his name, or use words ordinary people can comprehend, such as "the source of evils," "a villain," and so on. Some practitioners wrote down comments such as "Master has come to save living beings in the universe," "Hurry! Wake up and choose your own future." These comments are at too high a level for ordinary people to understand.
5. Don't use slogans - clarify the truth along with people's attachments
It's better not to write the same words, such as "Good returns good; evil returns evil," "The Fa rectifies the Heaven and the Earth," "Eliminate all the evils," "Falun Dafa is good," "Return the innocence of Dafa and Master" and so on. Such words may make people think that what we say does not have anything to do with the theme of the signature collection'. "A thousand horns playing one tune" would not achieve our goal to offer salvation to living beings, and it may create an impediment for ordinary people. Clarifying the truth does not mean to simply call out slogans. Truth-clarification should come from the bottom of our heart.
Signature collections on websites usually have a theme. We are only using this opportunity to clarify the truth, and therefore we should talk in a manner that conforms to the mode of ordinary people, not simply paste in some Dafa materials. For example, we can start from such truth-telling points as our views on speaking the truth, on not using one's wits to protect one's personal interest, on not having a guilty conscience, or on being brave to expose the bad things in society, and we can encourage people to confront evil, resist the lies, expose the crimes of Jiang's regime and bolster righteous thoughts, thus laying a foundation for their understanding of Dafa. We should give it more thought and go "along with the ordinary people's attachments to clarify the truth" and write comments in accordance with people's state of mind and use more common words and everyday people's language. We should be able to write simple words with deep meanings and express our meaning from different angles and levels. These websites are encouraging righteous thoughts and actions in people, yet what we aim to truly achieve is to encourage worldly people towards kindness, righteousness and Dafa in their hearts.
6. Improving ourselves as a whole
I suggest that fellow practitioners who leave comments firstly browse through the comments left on the website and see what needs improvement and make complementary comments accordingly so that we can clarify the truth better as a whole.
7. Do not write down Master's words as your own words or post an entire one of Master's articles or paragraphs. This is not taking a serious attitude. We should write down our own understanding of Dafa, how we perceive society, human beings and other particular subjects based on our cultivation and our assimilation into the Fa. It is' better to provide discussion along these themes. Do not talk too high!
8. Wisely pass on information about such websites to your friends, co-workers, relatives and to people in Mainland China, in all kinds of ways, so that these issues become popular topics among people overseas as well as in China.
9. Practitioners in China should pay attention to safety issues. It is' better to get on such websites through a dynamic IP service. It is not necessary to write down your real address. Be careful and do not let the evil take advantage of our loopholes.
10. In the preceding we have discussed the issues relating to practitioners' personal participation in website 'signature collections and the issues we should pay attention to. There is another important aspect, which is that such signature-collecting websites are for the ordinary people in society, and as cultivators we should not focus on the mere action of signing our name. Instead, we should make use of such websites to clarify the truth extensively to everyday people and to encourage them to sign the petition and to express their righteous views. This is the true value of such activities.
What I have written above is just my shallow understanding. Please kindly point out anything improper.
April 3, 2004
