Shared at the 2006 New York Falun Dafa Conference
(Clearwisdom.net) The Flushing Nine Commentaries site was created in March 2005 as a result of the rapid progress of Fa rectification. At the beginning, since the anti-torture exhibits in Manhattan were still going on, there were not many practitioners who could participate in the Nine Commentaries site on a full day basis. We could only do it two days a week. Now, as a result of the accelerated Fa rectification process and the fact that practitioners' understanding of the Fa has elevated in general, we've been able to hold the Nine Commentaries site seven days a week for the past several months.
Most of the practitioners at the Nine Commentaries site are senior women. They have to overcome many difficulties every day. For them, loading and unloading heavy materials, sandbags, and other stuff are like lifting weights. Unlike other truth clarification sites where practitioners can do the exercises and sit down to send forth the righteous thoughts, these elderly practitioners have to stand there all day, from morning to dusk. It's very hard. And wintertime was even worse. The cold wind chilled one to the bone. Your face and hands started to hurt or even become numb after just a few minutes standing outside. There is a warm, comfortable library just a few steps away from the site. However, practitioners tried their best to endure the cold weather. When they took a bathroom break, they got a chance to warm up. Sometimes when they were shorthanded, they ate cold food for lunch without leaving the site.
In "Teaching the Fa at the 2005 Manhattan International Fa Conference," Master told us:
"...so many high-level beings dared to take such a perilous risk and come to the Three Realms. They are gods, so how could we not save them? Didn't they come to obtain the Fa? If you look at it from another perspective, wasn't their bravery in coming here a way of validating the Fa-rectification and placing their hope in the Fa-rectification? That's why I have said that we cannot leave them behind, and that we must save them and think of ways to save them! Even though they may be confused at the moment, or they may have lost their capacity to recognize truth or reality, owing to their concepts being warped by the Party culture over time, we still have to find ways to save them."
We've all realized that as Dafa disciples, we have grand responsibilities. It's because of our firm belief in Dafa and Master and because of our unshakable faith in saving sentient beings that we have steadfastly arrived where we are today under the watchful eyes of all gods and sentient beings in the cosmos.
From everyday people's perspective, the establishment of the Nine Commentaries site was a big blow to the evil Party and the evil in other dimensions. Some everyday people also reacted strongly. It's a big test of practitioners' xinxing. It requires us to first study the "Fa" well and to catch up with the Fa rectification process. We need to be clear that we are cultivators. Whatever we do is for the sake of saving sentient beings, dissolving rotten demons and evil spirits that are blocking the Fa rectification, and harmonizing what Master wants. "We are not getting political," as everyday people would say.
The Chinese Consulate frequently sent people to make trouble. Usually these people did not listen to the truth. They cursed and made trouble. When practitioners approached them to clarify the truth, they usually ran away. Gradually, with Dafa disciples' righteous thoughts, everyday people began to understand. They stepped up to help practitioners. One day a couple walked by the site when CCP secret agents were making trouble. This couple stepped up and condemned them, "You say the CCP is so good, then why did you come to the States? Hurry up and go back home!"
Another time, a woman came to the Nine Commentaries site and, from a close distance, took quite a few pictures of a practitioner from the front and side. The practitioner saw her and used a cell phone to take her picture as well. The woman argued with the practitioner and asked that her pictures be removed. The practitioner told her, "If you can take my picture, why can't I take yours?" The woman's partner came up and tried to help her. She told her partner, "It's all your fault. Tomorrow my picture will be in The Epoch Times newspaper." Her partner threatened the practitioner, saying that they would call the police. At that moment, a Mainland Chinese walked by and said to these two people, "What are do you doing? Are you trying to take advantage of these nice elderly ladies and bully them?" He then turned around and told the practitioners, "Don't be scared. Let them call the police. You don't speak English, and I'll help you. I'll wait here for them to call the police." Under the righteous force, these two people looked dejected and left. Before he left, the helpful Chinese man told the practitioners, "You're truly marvelous. I see you standing here everyday. It is indeed not easy. Don't be scared of them. They are simply here to sabotage you. I know the CCP has sent many secret agents, so it's better to be careful in the future."
We've frequently run into people with predestined relationships. Some appeared to be unimaginable coincidences on the surface. One time, a practitioner helped her daughter quit the Party. She wrote her daughter's nickname on the withdrawal register. An onlooker surprisingly asked her, "Are you quitting for me?" The practitioner smiled and said, "How could I be helping you to quit? I've never even spoken to you." The person pointed at the register and said, "Didn't you just write my name?" It turned out that he had wanted to quit but had yet to take action. Her daughter's nickname was the same as his name. Because of this coincidence, he quit immediately.
Everyday people have now learned more and more truth, and more and more of them are stepping out to help us promote the Nine Commentaries. One elderly man came to the site and told a practitioner, "I'm in my 70s now. I must live until the day when the CCP falls. I have to witness that day, and I believe I will!" Another elderly man came over and said, "I've read the Nine Commentaries. Everything is true! I'm going to the Mainland and I will take some VCDs with me so my friends and relatives can watch them and quit the CCP as well. I'm old, and I'm not afraid of death. I'll take these VCDs to China even at the cost of my life." Someone also came to our site and told us, "I took a Nine Commentaries VCD to the Mainland last time I went and made many, many copies. Then I hired a person to put one VCD in each office in our local government building. The next day they shut all the doors in that building and tried to find out who was the insider that delivered these VCDs. It was big news in that area." He also told us, "You're not the only one who's promoting the Nine Commentaries. We produce more copies than you do in China."
We've also had a passerby tell us: "The Nine Commentaries is indeed well written. The CCP is so bad that even ten commentaries would not be enough to list all their crimes. When is it ever going to fall?" Almost every day Chinese people who have learned the truth express their care for practitioners. Some of them come up and shake practitioners' hands; some pat the practitioners' shoulders in a caring way and say sincerely, "You've been working hard. Keep it up. You must take care of yourselves. We sincerely thank you!" Some buy hot tea for practitioners; some even bought them gloves to wear! Also there are many people every day coming to our site to take a few VCDs to take back to China.
Since the beginning, we've encountered great interference from all aspects, and it became part of the personal cultivation for every practitioner involved. We compare in studying, compare in cultivating in our true cultivation, and help each other elevate in Fa understanding. In the beginning, we used a TV to play the Nine Commentaries documentaries. The direct visual effect of large screen TV and the warm weather attracted many people. Oftentimes there were many rows of people watching our TV programs. Some practitioners became overzealous and turned up the volume. The nearby library complained that we were too loud, and the police came. Practitioners on the site exchanged thoughts with other practitioners many times and found our shortcomings. We discussed how to spread the Nine Commentaries more rationally and wisely while conforming to ordinary human society to the greatest extent possible and not let the shortcomings of our personal cultivation interfere with the progress of Fa rectification.
Afterwards, we switched to picture posters to good effect. We display them during the day, and people can stop and read them thoroughly at any time. It's also a learning process for us to figure out how to best display these posters. Similar to the situation in front of the Chinese Consulate, it's very windy in front of the Flushing Library. The wind could easily blow these posters away. We first tried to put the posters back to back, then tried to put them down on the ground and place heavy items on top to hold them down. But that way looked quite messy, and the posters could still be blown away. One day as we were busy collecting the posters that were blown away by the wind, a passerby said to us, "You can use sandbags to hold the posters down." We realized that perhaps it was Master hinting to us via an everyday person's words. When a local practitioner head of this idea, she immediately made several small, long sandbags. They were easy to carry and very practical. Now our picture display looks very neat. Practitioners have further experienced the Buddha Law's boundless might.
The practitioner who drives the vehicle every day to deliver the Nine Commentaries exhibit materials had a big attachment to fear at the beginning. She's afraid that because no parking was permitted at the Nine Commentaries site, the police would issue a parking ticket if they saw her. Because of her fear, the police officer was more likely to show up. The more she feared, the more frequently the police showed up. One time six policemen showed up at the same time to write down her license plate number. One day she was in a hurry to unload the vehicle. She worried about whether she would be fined while nervously pushing two big plastic boxes quickly towards the Nine Commentaries site. A practitioner next to her asked her not to push that way and to take it easy. Otherwise the boxes would be damaged. Right at that moment, she tripped over and fell hard with the boxes. She got up and realized that it was time for her to remove her attachment to fear. Other practitioners also shared their thoughts with her, "We are doing the most righteous thing. Our hearts have to remain still, and we shouldn't be nervous. Master said,
'When the disciples righteous thoughts are sufficient,
Master's almighty power can turn the cosmos around.'(Hong Yin II, provisional translation)
It's time for you to get rid of this attachment to fear."
Besides the attachment to fear, this practitioner was also overly concerned about her vehicle, as this vehicle was responsible for transportation for many projects. But too much concern of whether the vehicle would be safe or not itself is an attachment. Because of this leakage, troubles soon came. First it was the horn. When the vehicle was sent in for inspection, something was wrong with the axle. The more concerned she was, the more likely trouble appeared. In the end, the vehicle was hit by another car and needed major repairs, so she switched to a small, old car. Although she is still behind the wheel, she's no longer as worried as she was with the other vehicle. The small car has served her faithfully in silence without giving her any worry. After the other vehicle came back, she touched the small car and said, "Hey, buddy, thank you very much!" Suddenly the radio in the car automatically turned on by itself, saying something she could not understand. She thought, "Wow! These entities that are participating in and helping with the Fa rectification are so intelligent!" She realized that cultivation is a serious matter, and her personal cultivation status could directly impact the condition of these matters. After joining the Nine Commentaries site, she found that her main consciousness had become stronger. Tempered through these encounters, she discovered that her enlightenment quality had improved and her attachment to fear became less and less.
A practitioner who came to the Nine Commentaries site right after the anti-torture exhibit in Manhattan was over said, "Since I started with the Nine Commentaries site, my attachment to completing a particular task has slowly disappeared. Instead, my benevolence has begun to emerge. Every morning when it's sunny, I am extremely happy, because we can save many people that day. Every day is so precious at the site, and I don't want to waste even a minute. I treat everyone like my own family member. When they accept the material, I sincerely feel happy for them. If they don't, I will still look at their backs and silently wish that they would next time. In the past several months, I have had much physical interference. Every night when I'm home, a small, reddish rash appears on my body, and my feet hurt. I can't sleep well, either. But every morning when I stand at the Nine Commentaries site, all these uncomfortable symptoms quickly disappear."
The process of overall cooperation and coordination at the Nine Commentaries site is also a process of continuously letting go of self. Once a practitioner was initially asked to coordinate the daily schedule of people. Later someone else took over the coordination. Soon one coordinator was telling her to come to the site for these days, and another coordinator was telling her to come to the site for those days. Although she's no longer the coordinator, she came to the site more frequently than some coordinators. She began to get upset, "I come here everyday, so why do I need you to coordinate me? I can coordinate myself." But she soon realized that this was exactly everyday people's mentality. Wasn't this attachment to fame and self-interest? It shouldn't matter who's coordinating. We have only one goal, which is to "save sentient beings." So she put down her own attachment and tried her best to cooperate with others.
We have another practitioner who has been quietly cultivating in the Fa rectification. She does not talk much, but you can always find her in all sorts of Fa rectification activities. She said, "When we first started with the Nine Commentaries site, we didn't have many practitioners. More or less we had some complaints in our hearts. After a while, more practitioners start to join the site. But sometimes they just showed up briefly, or when they met practitioners that they had not seen for a while, they started to chat with each other or just sit there to read the newspaper. Usually it was at those moments when I failed to guard my xinxing. I would think to myself, 'We've been working so hard every day from morning to evening and you just came here for a little while. Instead of letting us take a break, you chat with others or read the newspaper.' With that mentality, I told them not to chat anymore. Those who were told were not quite happy either. Afterwards, I found my attachment and exchanged my thoughts with them again, but with kindness this time, 'The purpose of us setting up the Nine Commentaries site is to save people. At present, every minute, every second is important. We should cherish every minute of our time when we are at the site.' Saying it this way it's easy for my fellow practitioners to accept."
Practitioners at the Nine Commentaries site have realized that only when we position ourselves on the base of the Fa rectification and study the Fa well and send forth righteous thoughts well can we play a better role in truth clarification and save more people. In the meantime, our xinxing will also improve during the process, and each of us can meet the requirement of Fa rectification.
We have an additional experience to share with practitioners from other areas if they want to set up a Nine Commentaries site.
The original posters that we used had big pictures and small captions. The eye-catching pictures attracted many passersby. After these posters were worn out, we replaced them with new ones that have smaller pictures but bigger captions. We've noticed that we now have fewer viewers than before. So we'd like to suggest using posters that have large, eye-catching pictures. A picture is worth a thousand words. It's easy to attract people's attention.
We run into all sorts of people at the site, so we need to observe more and do things with wisdom more. As a result of the CCP's tyranny over time and its secret agents overseas, some Mainland Chinese who really want to learn the truth are afraid of stepping forward to take our materials. They usually look at us, or our Nine Commentaries pictures, from the corner of their eyes. In that case we must be more proactive and more considerate of their situation at the same time. We can follow them and put the material in their hands. Some people write down their names on the withdrawal register in a hurry and leave immediately afterwards. After a while, they come back and glance at the register quietly to see if we have entered their names into the system so they can get a withdrawal number. In this circumstance, we don't need to make any big move. We can simply point out their numbers to them. Usually they leave with relief.
Usually it takes three practitioners to set up a Nine Commentaries site, one for handing out materials, one for taking care of the posters, and the other for talking with people. It also requires another practitioner's cooperation to deliver materials and equipment. If you're shorthanded, then one practitioner can hold the posters while the other hands out the materials and keeps moving on the busy streets. This also has a good effect.
