Western Practitioner: The Importance of Eliminating the Evil When Saving Sentient Beings

(Clearwisdom.net) I am writing to share two different experiences of organizing activities to clarify the truth to sentient beings. It was during the organizing of the two events that I realized the importance of eliminating the evil when saving sentient beings. Moreover, I discovered that there were aspects of my cultivation that needed improvement, such as sending forth righteous thoughts or gaps and attachments I was not previously aware of. Planning the two events helped me to enlighten to these issues and begin to address them.

Until recently, I had been the only practitioner in my area, and I had mostly been going to events in larger, nearby cities to clarify the truth. With other practitioners' help and on my own, I had only done a little here and there in my city. All along, I felt I wanted and needed to spread Dafa to a greater extent in my area. However, because of my own attachments, lack of materials, inexperience, and others' feeling busy with their own efforts, I had not yet managed to do so. Then it was announced that a national organ-transplant society would hold a symposium nearby, in Marco Island, Florida. Thus I decided to hold an event in my city in addition to one focused on the organ-transplant symposium. This was the first time I had organized an event, and I was going to organize two events. While I got help and support from other practitioners, I was the only one located here and able to do the majority of the organization.

The first event I planned was the one held in my city. I am a clinical psychologist, and I used to work in business at a major corporation, so I had some skills as a non-practitioner in organizing events, project planning, and dealing with people. Immediately, at the start of the organization, I encountered resistance. It seemed that I would not be able to obtain a permit. My response, the mode I went into, was to use the skills I gained in the ordinary world. I had to anticipate the next level (from park event manager, to mayor, to city board, etc), their fears, and my approach to clarify the truth and convince them to allow the event. They treated the situation as if I were requesting something that could offend the U.S. Government or the country of China. My city is quite manicured; they don't like anything messy. I managed through ordinary means to turn things around by convincing them that the U.S. Government supports our speaking out about these human rights violations and that Falun Gong is good and peaceful. (One thing I did was get the name of a policeman in the Chinatown district of New York City who was willing to relay his experience to the police in my city of how peaceful and positive Falun Gong events have been there.) Overall, I used ordinary means to organize the event in my city. The event went well; however, we could not get any media to cover it.

The second event was an effort to clarify the truth to attendees at the organ-transplant symposium. I went armed with all that helped me in the previous effort. At the start I encountered the same resistance. The city planner that I requested the permit from indicated that he was retiring in one year and wanted that year to go smoothly. He kept putting me off, and I was still uncertain myself about the event details. It was about here that I enlightened to clearing away interference. I had read articles on Clearwisdom.net about how practitioners in China eliminated evil interference while clarifying the truth in order to stay safe or to facilitate saving sentient beings. The Chinese practitioners also spoke about clearing their field. I realized that I needed to include regular efforts to eliminate interference in my organizing efforts. This also made me to be clear on what cleansing myself, sending forth righteous thoughts and clearing the field in my area meant, and that I am doing so correctly. I regularly sent forth righteous thoughts to keep my area clear of interference. If I encountered specific interference then I would send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate it.

After beginning to focus on eliminating the interference, the city planner I was requesting the permit from completely changed. He told me about some Chinese friends he had in Ohio that were kind to him. He also conveyed an understanding that organ-harvesting is a horrible violation against humanity. We then worked very well together. It seemed that this was what he wanted to do all along, and that the interference was keeping him from doing so. I found this to be the case for everyone I interacted with in planning the event. The hotel that housed the symposium was another example. The hotel manager initially wanted to put security outside the hotel with us. After my eliminating the interference, he said he found out that Falun Gong is a peaceful group and that we could call him if we needed anything because he would not have security outside the hotel.

A final experience I would like to share was my effort to get some media involvement. After eliminating the interference, I found the media to be interested in what we were doing, and they published a very good article. When I was driving to work one day, I sensed that the local paper was reviewing my request and trying to decide whether to do an article, so I asked Master's Law Body to help me to send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the interference so the newspaper would be able to freely decide. I also learned to ask Master's Law Body for help, especially when it comes to saving sentient beings. This is something I enlightened to from reading the experiences of practitioners in China.

I hope this article can be helpful to practitioners as we clarify the truth and save sentient beings. In many places in the western world, we don't readily see overt interference like practitioners in China do. Instead, we see indifference, but this too could be a result of interference. Sending forth righteous thoughts to clear our areas, ourselves, and those we clarify the truth to could give sentient beings the best chance to encounter Dafa and find out the truth about Dafa.

Please point out anything that is incorrect.