(Clearwisdom.net)
Emphasize Clarifying the Facts to Westerners
Over a period of time, when I went out and encountered Chinese people, I tried to persuade them to quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). When I saw Westerners, however, I ignored them and did not clarify the facts to them. Recently, every evening I have been taking my child for a walk near my house. Westerners live in my neighborhood, not Chinese people, so I had few opportunities to clarify the facts to people. I felt that it took me some time to go for a walk every day, but since I did not clarify the facts, it was a waste of time. I realized that I harbored a reservation. After every Dafa activity, a lot of leaflets in English were left behind on the ground. Furthermore, I felt that many Westerners did not know what Falun Gong was. They took Dafa materials with a muddled mind and did not cherish them. I always used this excuse not to distribute leaflets to Westerners. I thought that they should be deeply impressed by Falun Gong and cherish the Dafa materials that were handed out at parades. I thought it over carefully and found that my reservation was not right. The printed leaflets were to be distributed, and didn't we hesitate to distribute them due to fear that they would be discarded?
Therefore, several days ago, I began distributing the leaflets as I took my child on our walk. I said, "Please understand the truth about Falun Gong." The majority of people accepted the materials and read them as they walked. I realized that because I had a simple thought of distributing materials as I walked, some changes occurred in other dimensions, and people who had a predestined relationship with Dafa gathered around me. In the past when I took my child to go to the beach to play, because I had no thought of clarifying the facts to Westerners, the Indians and Pakistanis I encountered rarely talked to me. Now, however, quite a few people come up and talk to me. I take these opportunities to clarify the facts to them. On my way home one day, I met two Westerners at the entrance of a walkway. I said hello to them in a friendly manner, and they responded in kind, as if we were friends. I handed them material and they accepted it. Later one of them introduced me to another person and told them that I lived in a certain building. When I seemed surprised that she would know that, she said again that I was her neighbor. All of a sudden, I remembered her. Because I rarely encountered her and was not familiar with Westerners' faces, I did not recognize her. I had said hello to her in a friendly manner, so she was not aware that I had not recognized her.
The next day I encountered two older Western women. They each took a leaflet. One of them said excitedly that this was what her daughter had introduced her to. She was interested and very appreciative.
For two days I collected signatures, and the results were good. Many people read the petition very carefully. After they signed the petition I gave them flyers. I thought that they would pay more attention to the leaflets after signing the petition. Even when some people claimed that they did not understand and didn't sign, they still took the leaflets to read. When I asked the persons who wanted to sign if they had heard of the persecution of Falun Gong, I found that the majority had. However, once I had human notions, I had difficulty clarifying the facts. For instance, I encountered people who liked to play with children, and originally I thought it would be easy to clarify the facts to them because the atmosphere was harmonious. Unexpectedly, they refused me at once because these were different from ordinary people's things.
Overcoming Psychological Barriers to Clarify the Facts in the Malls
I had another barrier. I was unable to clarify the facts when I met with Chinese people in the malls. I had always been afraid of bothering others and violating the mall regulations. When I encountered Chinese people in the subway, on a bus, outdoors, at a tourist site, or at a school, I had no impulse to hesitate in trying to persuade them to quit the CCP and did not feel that I was bothering them. I knew there was a regulation that distributing leaflets in the subway was forbidden, so I gave them to people privately and never encountered any problems. I did not feel that I was violating the rules by distributing the leaflets this way. However, when I went to the malls I became mute, and although I encountered many good opportunities to clarify the facts, I lost them because of my psychological barrier. Later I wondered why I did not feel I was bothering others at a tourist site, but in the malls I was afraid of bothering them. Furthermore, I often went to big malls, and there were a lot of public rest areas outside of the shops. In fact, these were just excuses. The fundamental reason was that I subconsciously did not want to clarify the facts. Therefore, I used these excuses to keep from doing it. As a matter of fact, previously I distributed many leaflets on New Tang Dynasty Television's Chinese New Year Spectacular in the malls. I felt that I had a good state of mind to do that. However, while trying to persuade people to quit the CCP, I began to fear bothering them and even of being reported for violating mall regulations by Chinese people who did not understand the truth. What was worse, I did not identify with the principle that persuading people to quit the CCP was saving them. I knew the principle, but did not feel the same way. Therefore, I had scant righteous thoughts and had a lot of apprehensions. Later I shared with fellow practitioners and we achieved mutual understanding. We thought that in the malls we could not distribute the materials to every person we encountered, but we could clarify the facts privately. There were many opportunities to clarify the facts. After all, many people stroll for a while and then rest, which provided us good opportunities to give them materials or talk to them.
Yesterday I finally overcame this long-term barrier. When I saw some people who were resting, I went over to collect signatures, and the results were good. I encountered three Chinese people who were strolling, so I began trying to persuade them to quit the CCP. This was the first time I had clarified the facts in a mall, so I was overly concerned about the attitude of others. I was afraid of the frustration, and it seemed that my state of mind was the same as when I began to clarify the facts outside. One person was walking with his son and daughter, and his two children were only a few years old. That person indifferently sent me away. As a result, I felt frustrated and the thought of not being tactful came forth in my mind. Nevertheless, the two children were extremely friendly and came up to talk to me. They took the materials and read them carefully. In the end, they said good-bye to me. The children had knowing sides, and it seemed that they knew what I was doing, which really was a big encouragement to me.
Facing Chinese People, Compassion Is the Most Important Thing
I found that my problem was dealing with Chinese people in everyday society. I subconsciously had an oppositional state of mind and did not feel that they were the ones I should rescue. In addition, I did not feel close to them. Instead I felt estranged and excluded, and I disliked them. I had not eliminated this incorrect state of mind. I knew that this state of mind, rooted in many Chinese persons, is hostile to Dafa due to believing the CCP's rumors. Therefore, my state of mind was confrontational. Furthermore, this mental state was deeply embedded--it seemed as if it ran like the blood in my veins and was difficult to eliminate. At first, while trying to persuade people to quit the CCP, I needed to overcome the attachment of fear and emotion. Later I realized that my state of mind that was oppositional and wanted to exclude them was at the root of not my having compassion for and an interest in rescuing them. Although I had been clarifying the facts for a while, few people had quit the CCP at my suggestion. Every time, although I was friendly and polite on the surface, I was very disturbed if I got an unfavorable response. Many times I could not calm down.
Recently, I heard that one of my relatives tore up a copy of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party that I had mailed to her. At once I recalled her bad behavior in ordinary society. I thought that if I were not clarifying the facts to her, I would not have any social dealings with her at all. The thought of how long I had disliked her came forth so that I had to adjust myself to restrain and eliminate this thought.
Although I persuaded people to quit the CCP for a while, I felt that my xinxing had not been fundamentally upgraded, and my compassion had not come forth. Therefore, I often felt that I was reluctant to do that. Once, because I restrained the attachments of the competitive mentality and hatred in clarifying the facts to my relatives, my xinxing upgraded a little bit. At that time, when I went out, I encountered a Chinese person. I was in a good state and felt that my words were full of compassion and sincerity. Obviously, the Chinese person was touched by my compassionate and sincere field. At first, his attitude was just so-so, but later it became better and better. In the end, he quit the CCP resolutely. However, many times I did not have such a good state of mind.
Last Saturday I was going to attend a rally in support of the disintegration of the Chinese Communist Party in Chinatown. Just before I took the subway, I noticed that my shoes were coming apart, so I had to made a phone call to my family and have some shoes brought to me. Near the subway the roads were being worked on, so those of us waiting for the subway had to move to the outside. A lot of people were gathered there and I saw many Chinese people. I realized it was a good chance to persuade them to quit the CCP. However, I still complained about why my shoes had to come apart at that moment, which caused me to be late for the rally. Moreover, I had no thought about this good opportunity to clarify the facts. Although I understood that it is the same wherever we clarify the facts, I still was not prepared well for this sudden change. (I subconsciously felt that facing these Chinese people alone was more difficult than attending the rally.) I began to adjust my state of mind and decided to clarify the facts. While waiting for my shoes, I talked to three people, and succeeded in persuading one person to quit the CCP. One of the other two took my materials, and another one did not want to take them, but I clarified a lot of facts to him. I feel that compassion is the most important thing. It is just as Master said, "good or evil comes from a person's spontaneous thought" ("Lecture Four" from Zhuan Falun, 2000 translation version) Otherwise, if the realm has not improved, however much we do is useless.
