(Clearwisdom.net)
Sending Forth Righteous Thoughts
At dawn on Saturday, August 8, 2004, we left for New York City. On our way there we studied the Fa and shared our experiences while being immersed in righteous thoughts. Our final destination was Battery Park in New York, a busy tourist attraction. Without wasting any time we sat down and sent forth righteous thoughts. Then I experienced a unique sensation. I felt very serene and powerful from inside-out. During the last five minutes, while doing the lotus hand gesture, I suddenly "froze up." The energy emitted from my head was stronger and steadier with time. I also felt more clear-minded and relaxed, without any random thoughts. For the first time, I clearly felt a Falun spinning between my hands. When the malicious Jiang Zemin went to Iceland and Texas in 2002, I also had three or four similar experiences while intensely sending forth righteous thoughts with large groups of practitioners. During these special moments, our righteous thoughts were steady and long lasting. I was aware that the huge battles being fought between good and evil in Beijing and New York are indeed significant.
Changing Places
We also held an anti-torture exhibit. Soon after we started our exhibit, the police asked us to move to a smaller street. As we were preparing the move, we patiently talked with the police. Very shortly after the move, the police told us to move again. This time they assigned us to a new place, on a wider walkway in the park with more people. This was just what we needed!
An Art Vendor
When I distributed flyers, I saw a young Chinese man selling paintings in the park. I asked him whether he knew Falun Gong. He smiled politely and said, "I have heard an earful. Several days ago, two other Falun Gong practitioners talked with me for a long time. But I still have negative opinions toward Falun Gong. I knew a practitioner in China. He was not persecuted, but he claimed to his company that he was persecuted." I asked, "How did you know that he was not persecuted? Have you been arrested, detained and brainwashed together with him?" He couldn't answer my question. With strong, upright, noble thoughts, I went on to tell him true stories of how my relatives and friends were persecuted in China. I also told him what happened at the Zhongnanhai appeal on April 25, 2004 and the true story of the staged Tiananmen "Self-immolation" incident in 2001. Gradually, the young man's facial expression turned grave and sincere. I started to tell him the significance of the lawsuits against Jiang Zemin. He then told me that he was really disgusted by Jiang. Seizing the right moment, I told him that many Chinese people in China and abroad are playing a "Stomp on Jiang" game to protest the former leader. He immediately showed great interest and asked, "How do you do that?" After over 30 minutes of conversation he said to me with a sincere attitude, "I realized that I don't know much about Falun Gong. I will take a good look again."
Middle School Students from China
On Sunday morning I saw a large group of Chinese people in the park. They were a group of middle school students visiting New York. At first they refused to answer my questions when I asked them in a friendly manner where they were from. One said, "We know about Falun Gong. We don't want to read your flyers." Surrounded by the children with hatred in their eyes, I was saddened to see how much the evil propaganda had polluted their souls. The extent of this is even difficult for us grown-ups to fathom.
I told myself that I have to purify myself and correct my surrounding area. I looked them in their eyes and firmly held the thought, "I must not let them leave like this today." Suddenly I felt my body expanding and head extending into the sky. I asked them politely, "Where did you hear those things from?" A girl replied with her chin up, "I have the right to keep a secret. I don't want to tell you." I continued to ask, "Have you seen and contacted any Falun Gong practitioners?" Still no one answered. They started to move in the line. I continued to talk to them, "I know you are all good kids. When you were born, everyone wanted to be good. All of you wanted to assimilate into Truth-Compassion-Tolerance." A boy who previously wanted to curse me suddenly came and accepted a flyer. Immediately, the other children also came forward and took the flyers.
Looking at the children who are 20 years younger than me I recalled Teacher's speech in "Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Washington, D.C. Fa Conference,"
"When we got to today, and especially when I went public with the Fa, a multitude of gods came down and incarnated as humans. What's in many ordinary people's bodies are no longer the souls (yuanshen) from when gods created man, because at that time man's soul was created out of matter from within the Three Realms, whereas now many people's souls came from high levels. And why did they come? As I've told you before, nothing in this world, in fact, is by chance. Every being and every object came for Dafa, was formed for Dafa and created for Dafa, and that includes all people."
Thinking about Teacher's words, I felt so sad for those deluded children that I was in tears.
A portrait pencil painting
When I was trying to find my meditation mat, a Western practitioner showed me a self-portrait, done in pencil. It was the work by a Chinese artist working nearby. Another Western practitioner came over and pointed at the picture's lower right corner and asked, "Are these Chinese characters correct?" I was shocked when reading them. Noticing a problem, the Western practitioner, myself, and another New York practitioner went back to the park and found the Chinese artist. The man panicked when he saw us. He claimed that he didn't know much about Falun Gong, and that other people surrounding him made him write a word slanderous to Falun Gong. We explained the consequences of damaging Falun Gong and left some flyers with him. On our way back I told the Western practitioner what the Chinese artist had said. He said, "No! When he worked on this drawing, there wasn't anyone around. He said he didn't want to write 'Falun Dafa is Good.' I told him if he refused I would not want this painting done. I had no idea that he wrote the word BAD in place of GOOD." We now realized that we had not resolved the issue.
We returned to the park again. This time we had a long and deep discussion with the artist and some other Chinese people. The New York practitioner used a good analogy to explain how a person without knowing the truth had aided and abetted the evil and eventually received retribution. We sincerely hope they can think for others and themselves and weigh the pros and cons. This Chinese artist finally told us, "Beginning today, I really have to learn more about Falun Gong."
