These ideas are really good. If all Chinese Dafa students can be more mindful of their conduct in daily life, be neater, and be considerate of others in everything they do, then that's the demeanor of Dafa disciples. As your Teacher, throughout all these years of teaching the Fa, I have always done things with a sense of responsibility to the society and its people.
All the Dafa disciples who participate in the sit-ins in front of the Chinese embassies and consulates are remarkable. You've really endured a lot. The weather is so hot, now make sure to take good care of yourselves.
Li Hongzhi
June 21, 2002
"Falun Dafa takes 'Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance', the universal truth, as the standard for cultivation practice. It cultivates goodness and is peaceful. All of Dafa's activities are open to the public, and the practice is voluntary. Each practitioner is from different walks of life, and there are no activities that violate the law or that are harmful to society." However, "since July 20, 1999, when the gang inside the Chinese government that's led by the head political scoundrel began to suppress Falun Gong practitioners, more than 100 million people have been unjustifiably persecuted; more than 100,000 people have been sent to jails, to forced labor camps, and to mental hospitals; close to 1,000 people have been persecuted to death without cause; and this type of persecution still continues. Because of this, the students of Falun Gong are doing all they can to let the world's people and governments know the truth about this persecution and the degree of its wickedness."
We go to the Chinese consulate and conduct sit-ins there to protest the slanderous attacks on Falun Gong by the gang inside the Chinese government led by Jiang Zemin, and the brutal persecution he and his cohorts have inflicted upon those good people who cultivate the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Our purposes are to evoke the concerns of kind-hearted people, to help them to learn the truth, and to stop the evil atrocities by Jiang and his accomplices. In essence, we are shouldering the greatest mission of saving sentient beings, while at the same time enabling people to improve their understanding of Falun Dafa and its practitioners through every one of our words and deeds.
In the lecture at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston, Master said, "You are cultivators, whose conduct is [supposed to be] pure and righteous. There are so many people who think you're great just by having seen how you act. If we don't pay attention to our own behavior in our daily lives, everyday people will see our actions and, since they can't get to know you at a deep level such as by studying the Fa, they will just look at how you act. And it's possible that one sentence or one action of yours will make them unsavable or create a bad impression of Dafa. We need to think about these things."
On this note, a few practitioners who participated in the sit-ins had a discussion and found it necessary to pay more attention in the future to how we can overcome various bad habits that have become prevalent in Chinese society since the Cultural Revolution. Also, we should be more disciplined in our conduct and make sure we always fulfill the following:
- For those people who will never have a chance to talk with us, every word or action of ours represents the most effective way to clarify the truth to them. As cultivators are genuine practitioners of the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, Dafa disciples need to watch every word and action. While being compassionate to others with a benevolent heart, we should always be strict and disciplined with ourselves, which includes following the principle of "never hitting back when hit, and never cursing back when cursed." Specifically, when we participate in a sit-in, we should be kind and friendly to those residents and pedestrians in the area, and always consider their convenience first.
- We should be decently dressed, and make sure our shoes and socks are not tossed around all over the place. If one brings a bag, it should be kept close to you. It leaves a very unfavorable impression--of being messy and unhygienic--on others if there are many things next to the mat, such as shoes, bags of all sizes and textures, clothes, food, books, bottled water, etc. Thus, we would like to suggest that everyone should carry along a manageable amount of belongings, should cover his shoes with his bag, and should put everything else in the bag. Doing so not only makes the whole sit-in block look neat, but also leaves a favorable impression on others.
- Do not make noises. Except for special circumstances (like a press conference), loudspeakers should not be used when playing the music for the exercises. Moreover, we should pay attention not to play the music at all before 9 am and after 8 pm (the residents' rest time). In addition, low volume should be applied when playing music or talking.
- We should take care to keep the environment clean and tidy, and in a related matter, to cooperate with the work of janitors.
- We should not occupy the parking spaces for the residents on the sides of the building, to ensure they are not inconvenienced in their daily lives. During the sit-in, we should follow the instructions of the police and sit in the designated position, which also should leave some open space in the front for the residents to load or get out of their cars, and in the rear, as a walking lane. We should not sit close to the entrance of the apartment building behind us, lest we disrupt the coming and going of the residents. Between practitioners in meditation, there should be enough room for people to walk through. In addition, we should not wander about; nor should we sit too close to the curb where vehicles are parked, because the drivers find it rather difficult to park their cars when they see people sitting there.
The above are just several examples of the many things we should bear in mind. If we do not pay adequate attention to them, a lot of people around us will think there is not much of a difference between ordinary people and cultivators. It is even possible that some people could have misunderstandings about Dafa due to the personal behavior of some practitioners of Chinese descent. All this cannot be further from the objective of our truth-clarification efforts.
