PureInsight | August 4, 2003
[PureInsight.org]
1. Media
The media function as armies in the battle between righteous and evil. The evil spreads its lies slandering Dafa on a large scale worldwide, utilizing the state-owned media under its control. Nowadays, when electronic technology is highly advanced, Dafa disciples face an unprecedented battle of the righteous versus the evil. Here there's no gun smoke, but electronic messages reaching everywhere. Doing our media work well is actively eliminating, suffocating and completely cleaning out the evil's lies.
The U.S. is playing a leading role in today's world. There is a lot of news generated every day in Washington, D.C., the capital of America. It is very important that we report news according to the requirements of Fa-rectification and distribute this news to other countries, especially Mainland China. We are short of manpower in DC for news reporting, and we have very few reporters for Chinese community events. There is also a large volume of news from the Congress, the administration and many other agencies everyday. We were unsure of ourselves and didn't know our way around.
This April, we started combining all practitioners who did media reports and established a DC reporting center. Everyone cooperated in interviews, building the bulletin board system, and dealing with media invitations. Practitioners participated voluntarily. A lot of work that looked quite complicated was done almost automatically, without any meetings to divide responsibilities. Our initial thought was to solve the issue of lack of manpower. We've gained far more than that.
After trying for more than three months, our news has become better and better, both regular news reports and comprehensive overview types of reports. Especially those Fa-rectification big events, such as the Hong Kong anti-subversion law, suing the evil head, and the Independence Day parade. The media team studied the Fa and shared understandings. We first understood this news event from the perspective of its significance in Fa-rectification. Then we collected materials. The report in the end reflected the tremendous force of Fa-rectification.
Due to the group cooperation, the heavy workload was not imposed on particular individuals. Everyone contributes his/her best part for the needs of Fa-rectification. At present the degree of sharing at the DC reporting center is still expanding. Practitioners who do VIP work, who organize events, who are very familiar with background information, all participate in event reporting. In the end, the reporting is accurate and appropriate.
The media work in DC is not done by DC media team members only. In fact, many practitioners who are active in the Chinese community, who do VIP work, who are scholars or experts, have all actively participated in not only reviewing and commenting, but also writing. As for those practitioners who focus on media work, the majority of their job is to revise and edit articles, provide comments based on professional journalism, and organize and co-ordinate articles. The end result of all of this is that the DC media efficiency has been significantly improved in terms of the quantity and quality of news reports. It really took the leading role of media founded by practitioners in the Fa-rectification to another level.
During the whole process, everyone has had big breakthroughs without even noticing them. We are more flexible and confident in dealing with news about ordinary society. In the past, DC had a lot of news. Most of it was ordinary people's media events. Practitioners were busy doing many various Dafa projects. When we spent a lot of time covering ordinary people's media events, many practitioners had doubts to some extent. On the other hand, when we were reporting Dafa events, oftentimes the news report was about the event itself, and was a little boring. Such reports didn't have many hits on the web. At that time, we had not broken through the framework of old media reporting, and didn't cover activities that were hosted by the Chinese Embassy or people who were uninformed about the truth very well. When ordinary people read such news, they said that Chinese propaganda is not good, but your method is not much different than theirs.
There are many projects going on in DC. Media team practitioners also work on other Fa-rectification projects. After we combined the media teams, practitioners came from different work teams such as the newspaper, breaking the internet blockade, VIP, Minghui school, online chatting, phone calling, TV, writing team, and so on. When we shared understandings, we would naturally talk about our respective Dafa projects. In such an environment, everyone has a more comprehensive understanding of the overall Fa-rectification state. And this was reflected in the news reporting. We discussed what message we would like to convey from this piece of news, and once we thought from this perspective, the initially boring news was injected with life. On the surface, it is a piece of news from ordinary society. Covering the news from the perspective of Fa-rectification Dafa disciples, the end report naturally reflects the meaning and force of Fa-rectification.
Chinese people say "We know the autumn is coming from a single falling leaf." Now it looks to us that there is news everywhere. It's only up to us how to utilize, how to co-operate with Fa-rectification, and how to express the news in a way that's easy for ordinary people to accept. On the surface, we are doing ordinary people's news. But when we are reporting activities, because we are in Fa-rectification, each sentence, each character, are starting to reflect the profound meaning of Dafa disciples saving sentient beings.
After we got our own news sense, when it came to specific work, we could handle interviewing and reporting events that did not seem relevant to Fa-rectification very well. In the past, some practitioners only wanted to cover Dafa events. They didn't want to write news items that were not directly related to Dafa. After all this time, we have all realized that the Fa has different manifestations on different level. When reporting different news, we can also reflect the meanings of Dafa on different levels, and convey Dafa's requirements for different levels. Every detail, every minor event, are all important elements that embody the overall Fa-rectification.
On July 4th of this year, more than 100 practitioners participated in a big parade. When reporting, practitioners gathered materials together and brought up several news points. At the time of the U.S. Independence day, we needed to emphasize the founding values of this country, the Declaration of Independence, freedom of belief, freedom of speech and the rule of law. From the parade that occurred on Constitution Avenue, the report naturally mentioned that Falun Gong practitioners in China are persecuted without any protection by law. During the process of news production, co-coordinators, field reporters, TV, newspaper editors, discussed and shared understandings of news points necessary for the progress of Fa-rectification. After that, the report carried the title "Falun Gong Practitioners Carried Chinese Culture to Constitution Avenue in America." It reflected the persevering spirit of practitioners who have come through the four years of persecution.
We have also published some ordinary peoples news, such as SARS, the congress on the issue of internet blockage, organ selling, and the like. We pick the angle of Chinese Communist lies, media censorship and degeneration of moral standards. When covering Taiwan community events, our reporters asked questions from our unique angle, and expressed our unique news points. We are not restricted by the basic mode of ordinary people reporting ordinary people events.
In the same way, media team members also participate in truth-clarification and VIP work. During interviews, and interactions with the Chinese community and mainstream society, media team members also collect information, analyze different phenomenon, and thus help other roles of practitioners in assisting Master in Fa-rectification.
This didn't interfere with other work, but pushed forward all different types of work. The result was very obvious. All media team members in DC have regular weekly group study. We enhance our understandings on the Fa together and also share how to co-ordinate media work better.
Now looking back, it was really like the situation described in Zhuan Falun about opening acupuncture points. From points to planes, in the end everything is connected. There are no energy channels, no meridian points. Everyone is doing Fa-rectification work. At the same time, everyone does media work to different extents. Truth clarification work is connected to the media team. Many energy channels intersect in this team and converge to form a cohesive force, and then it spreads out in the form of media, causing a ripple effect throughout ordinary society. In a sense, this has become a large-scale action of an army. Because we are, after all, limited in manpower while practitioners clarify the truth in person, media can play a bigger role in terms of scale.
Coordinating media teams well goes hand in hand with the enhancement of the group's cultivation environment. During the process of media operations, we owe it to everyone's silent cooperation. The media team has run for more than three months, and we almost haven't had meetings to talk about specific work arrangements. Everything was up to the improvement of the realms of cultivators' xinxing. The work moved forward in such a simple and effective way.
We have also realized that no projects should stray away from Fa-rectification. When our thoughts are in Fa-rectification, boundless Fa power brings us unexpected miracles. The uniqueness of the DC media team is that every member participates in different projects. This has opened up the inspiration of the media team. Nobody frames issues with his or her narrow perspective. When we expand our eyesight to look at a broader scale of Fa-rectification, things break through.
Oftentimes, the technical work we do doesn't seem to be relevant to truth clarification and saving sentient beings. We didn't want to "waste time" trying to understand big events in the Fa-rectification, always thinking that there are people doing this. We restricted ourselves in the circle of "professionalism". Projects were stuck in the state of ordinary people making efforts. We were very tired. "The most effective way should be the most righteous way. The most righteous way is often the simplest way." When we focus on fundamental issues such as how news can assist the Fa-rectification and saving sentient beings, we share a lot about how we should understand big events in the Fa-rectification such as the lawsuit against the evil head. Naturally we formed our own news style. Now the volume of our news being transcribed by other news outlets has more than doubled.
Difficulties are often from our own notions. We should not treat the hardship in front of our eyes as reality. Hardship is oftentimes the extension of our own cultivation status. It's an illusion. When we improve our assimilation to the Fa, many things are done when we think about them. We simply do a little bit on the human side to make it happen in this dimension as well. Many projects in DC in the past year have demonstrated this.
2. The Role of Dafa Association Members in the DC Local Cultivation Environment
The integration of different DC media teams has brought a new beginning to the DC area. And all of this was not under the organization of Dafa Association members. Dafa Association members didn't participate in many projects.
The disciples can do so well as a group. This also brings up an issue that we may understand from the Fa. In the local cultivation environment, how do Dafa Association members build a good cultivation environment together with fellow practitioners?
Master said in "To All Students at the Nordic Fa Conference," "...every student should, in addition to participating in group activities, in his daily life fully take the initiative of a Dafa disciple, establish his own mighty virtue in the process of clarifying the truth, and do well on his own Dafa disciple's path. So in clarifying the truth, don't wait, don't rely on others, and don't just hope for changes in external factors. Every one of us is creating history for the future, that's why everyone is not only participating in group activities, but also taking the initiative to look for things to do. As long as something is good for Dafa, you should take the initiative to do it, take the initiative to work on it...I hope that every Dafa disciple will fully take initiative and fully play his role as a Dafa disciple." We realize that Master wants every disciple to walk his/her path well.
The force of habit can easily trap us in the old rules. Is it that everything should only start after a Dafa Association member gives a "go ahead"? Is it that any document writing has to be reviewed and finally approved by the Dafa Association members? Is it that every person who volunteers to take a tape recorder for group exercise sites has to be approved by the former tape recorder carrier who is now the assistant? Or Dafa Association members have been positioned as "police" or "review committee." When they think practitioners are doing something wrong, do they simply jump up and tell them to stop? Practitioners described this situation as like a Communist Class Cadre organizing classroom cleanup or entertainment activities.
The rapid progress of Fa-rectification requires every disciple to play a role of 100 people. No matter how much wisdom several Dafa Association members have, no matter how perfect their standards are, it is not comparable to all disciples' wisdom. When we do not do well, the cultivation state that Dafa Association members have is not fully trusting everyone. This type of seemingly responsible state may be exactly hindering the powerful group force. How do we view whether disciples can only do their work well under our guidance and approval?
The Fa has different manifestations at different levels. Master teaches the Fa principles directly to each disciple. Every single disciple's cultivation state depends on the group's cultivation environment, but also determines whether the group environment is good or not. During the four years of Fa-rectification cultivation, DC disciple's sharing of good ideas for truth clarification, and their realization of the good ideas and methods have been the determining factor of our local cultivation environment.
When Dafa Association members are not functioning so efficiently, everyone's initiatives compensate for the shortcomings of Dafa Association members. When Dafa Association members are too busy to think of everything, the cultivation solidity of all disciples overcomes Dafa Association members' mental blocks and limitation to help in achieving many things at the same time. They formed different project teams, organized everyone into different modes of truth clarification. For example, the Chinese older ladies team, phone call team, against anti-subversion law team, internet blockage breakthrough team, cartoons, TV, newspaper, combination of media. In all of these big projects, the share and responsibility of all disciples have greatly enhanced the group's xinxing and operation ability, pushing many projects forward, and attracting more disciples to take part. It is also because of such a state, DC disciples are responsible, careful and self-coordinating when participating in different projects.
In our group sharing, some practitioners who have cultivated for a relatively longer time have stated that they started cultivation at the same time as Dafa Association members. At that time, everyone was equal. Now some practitioners put you on higher positions and even ask you to lead them with the so-called power associated with such positions. This is not right.
Dafa Association members are all cultivators. This is not the complaint of disciples to Dafa Association members. This also should not become the excuse that Dafa Association members use when their local area does not fulfill Fa-rectification requirements well. This is a Fa principle that Master taught us. It is the guideline of our cultivation. No formality of the "leadership" of Dafa Association requires all disciples to understand Fa-rectification progress. It also requires a good group cultivation environment with solid individual cultivation states. Cultivating in the Fa, treating the Fa as the Teacher, no formality of ordinary people's leadership, are the fundamental elements of a healthy cultivation environment. When all disciples are voluntarily co-coordinating with others, when every work team actively participates in other teams' projects, and is flexible in forming a group or dismissing a group, and does things from the Fa, then the group force will fully work. This type of cultivation state is the true group state in terms of Fa-rectification. It is also a type of group cultivation environment that Master hopes us to have.
Dafa Association members melting into the local group doesn't mean not saying anything or simply being nice people in a sense that they do not have conflicts with anyone. Practitioners have also criticized us for not bring responsible when we didn't say things that we should have said. A good group can have different opinions, and can also reach consensus in the way of discussions. Dafa Association members participate in group activities as cultivators, not using our own standards as THE standards, and maximally creating an open-minded cultivation environment, so every disciple feels comfortable in speaking about their thoughts, even if it's an issue that needs to be resolved. Because Master trusts us he didn't set any regulations for Dafa Association members. How can we set the standards with our views? This may block disciples' breakthroughs, and even block Dafa Association members' own breakthroughs. We are not doing well enough in this regard either. There are still DC disciples who cannot freely share in the group environment, afraid of saying something wrong. Also some disciples' ideas could not be realized for a long time because they didn't get timely assistance from us.
In short, Master fully trusts us. There's no reason that we shouldn't trust all disciples. Everyone can do everything well without the presence of Dafa Association members. This is our fundamental point. The group cultivation environment and disciples' cultivation state didn't come forward because of our so-called "leadership." It is because of Master's guidance and care. Only when our group cultivation environment opens up for disciples with different states and capabilities, can the entire group wisdom and abilities fully work. This, maybe, is the assimilation of our area in the force of Fa-rectification.
Fully reflect the current Fa-rectification situation through media reports
1. Change from passive to proactive when revealing evilness and promoting everyday people's righteous thoughts
Master said in "Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Midwest-U.S. Fa Conference," "Around July 20, 1999, when we were most severely persecuted by that evil, we were pretty much on the defensive; the evil was persecuting us, and we were really laboring to tell the world's people about it. We were in quite a passive position. Now the situation is different...And especially outside of Mainland China, we've now gone from being on the defensive to being on the offensive; those evil beings are on the defensive now..."
Recently, the Minghui web site revealed that Ms. Wei Xingyan, a female Falun Gong practitioner in Chongqing University, was raped by a vicious policeman. This was an outrageous issue. In an ordinary situation, if this news is publicized, it is enough to stun people in the same degree as Sun Zhigang's case. In Sun Zhigang's case, because he didn't have his ID with him in Beijing, the police arrested him and beat him to death. But because Ms. Wei Xingyan is a Falun Gong practitioner, people withdraw their sympathy due to fear. Bearing this in mind, when we produce this piece of news especially for the audience in Mainland China, we titled it as "Female graduate student in Chongqing University was raped in public by policeman from Sha Ping Ba detention center because this student is a Falun Gong practitioner. The local 610 office and Chongqing University jointly covered up the truth, which aroused public wrath." The words "public wrath" changes our report angle from passive complaints to condemnation with great momentum.
2. The news report is not limited to the event itself. We utilize and demonstrate the phenomenon out of great Fa-rectification momentum to connect to everyday people from all angles.
The most vicious measure the evilness takes to bring tribulation to Dafa is to utilize lies and fears to separate Dafa practitioners from everyday people, keeping them away from us so they can't listen to truth. Recently, DC practitioners started to make great efforts on each piece of media report, displaying the essence of each event to audiences from an angle they can accept. The outcome has been very good. For example, on the April 25th anniversary this year, DC practitioners went to the Chinese embassy again to hold a press conference. This piece of news started with "no matter whether you like it or agree with it, the peaceful appeal has been part of the scenery in this city. A number of Washington DC people recognize the words 'Falun Gong' from the banner on Connecticut Avenue held by Falun Gong practitioners day after day for years. " Next the news tells the difference between that day and other days, conveying the facts of the April 25th event. When we reported "World Falun Dafa Day", we started like this: "May 13th is an ordinary day to many people, but it has special meanings to the Falun Gong practitioners who stand behind me."
Moreover, to demonstrate the great momentum of Fa-rectification progress, we try to assemble information from different angles together. In the latest article on the "Tiananmen self-immolation", we edited as follows: From video tapes of the Education Development Organization of United Nations, to the fraud of the "self-immolation", to the pervasive doubt among international communities about the authenticity and purpose of Chinese news caused by SARS. Many sociology scholars analyze that for the smooth power transfer on CCP's 16th congress party and People's Congress, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, related departments deliberately covered up the truth and deceitfully claimed there was no epidemic. This resulted in the export of SARS all over the world and many people died of it. Similarly, to reach the goal of eliminating Falun Gong, Jiang Zemin faction faked so-called "Tiananmen self-immolation" case and a series of lies on taking medicine, murdering and suicide to stir up the hatred towards Falun Gong in mainland China. Finally, we mentioned that Wen Jiabao listed the top eight crisis of the new government session in an internal State Department conference. It is the first time that he admitted that the top crisis is the trust of the people towards the government. External commentators have said that whether or not the government has been fairly treating Falun Gong has been a touchstone and the world is taking a close look at whether the new government personnel can regain people's trust.
This piece of news is organized in such a way that it is not only a matter of Falun Gong and "self-immolation". People get to know the truth while getting a block of information, and meanwhile they get to know the current situation. The final focus is diverted to the CCP.
(3) Everyone in the DC news station has taken several Dafa projects. While they are already very busy, they can produce a lot of news, articles and make quick progress. This is not dividable from our close cooperation and joint improvement in this cultivation group. Nowadays, VIP, TV, Newspaper, community Fa spreading jobs in DC have almost merged together. It becomes a big melting furnace for our group cultivation.
At the end of April and beginning of May, SARS and April 25th became our media's focus, the DC news station started running. I have seen some practitioners, who have been very busy, involved in many Dafa works, to produce a piece of news every one or two days. I also saw some others very busy coordinating news group. I am very clear on the workload of a piece of news and I can also imagine how they squeeze their schedule to get some time to produce news. It is a kind of motivation for me. Although we don't even have time to exchange our understanding on the Fa on this issue, but from their behavior itself, I have seen the places I can improve.
I personally feel that cultivation can bring us to this state. When we just started practice, we met many conflicts between our personal interests and the requirements of Dafa. We had to find the balance and it seemed that we had to study the Fa very hard and improve our xinxing to do things well. With the progress of Fa-rectification and getting closer and closer to the Fa, many things are done naturally, even without a noticeable process of thinking.
There are a number of people in the DC news station and we certainly need coordination. When a task is there, people can actively take the role of reporter, cameraman, cutting and editing and dub. Therefore, the whole workflow is very smooth. I haven't seen people avoid the jobs, and each one is just busy with the thing he thinks important. When I wrote this sharing paper, I was trying to remember if I have faced any conflict among the group and how I have cultivated and improved through this conflict. When I thought it over, it seems every thing is just so smooth, and the cooperation with other practitioners is like an unvoiced pact. This working environment is truly helpful. The situation of smooth cooperation is truly because we have cultivated as one body. We don't interfere with other Dafa jobs because of news reporting.
Before 7/20, we needed to contact many media and VIPs. One day during group Fa study, we were asked to volunteer how many people we could contact. I thought I should contribute some effort and I said I could contact two media at most. The next day, a person who is busier than I am spontaneously asked me, "Are you extremely busy these days? If you are too busy, I can help contact the two media you are responsible for." She said it naturally, but this offer to help really touched me.
In the past, we often had to tell other people what to do and use many understandings on the Fa to convince other people how important our plans were, and use this method to encourage other people to cooperate. However, the caring and selfless help among practitioners, even when there's only one word, is more powerful than lengthy attempts at persuasion.
(4) Looking back at the first piece of news I made, it was two years ago. I went to the World Bank to report a bid which a group from Mainland China also attended. We had no experience at all and just learned how to push buttons on the camcorder. We started out with a camcorder. The person who came with me had never even touched a camcorder before. That day, about ten thousand people came and a lot of people were present in the ballroom. Many famous media people came. The host built a big stage for the media to set up their camcorders to make a live show. The equipment was large and professional. Our camcorder was very small and I felt embarrassed to set up our small camcorder on that stage. The practitioner with me didn't have that notion or those sentiments at all. She climbed up on the stage without hesitation. Because we took a good place, we could shoot the whole view of the ballroom. People around us even said that our camcorder was cute.
In the beginning of this year, I saw a sentence in Master's poem, "Descending to the Earthly World," "Who is really the gallant lead in this gigantic play?" I suddenly remembered that experience. Maybe we were not experienced at the beginning stage, but we are the lead of current society and carry a huge historic mission. Our style must match this magnificent Buddha Law and our title as "Dafa Disciples." Though we need to work hard to get more professional, but we should not necessarily underestimate ourselves.
I was not a person who was sensitive to philosophy, economy or politics before and I didn't know how to dig up news. But I need to have a broad knowledge if I want to validate Dafa and clarify the truth through the news.
When I really started to learn things about everyday society, I found my confidence and wisdom increasing a lot after cultivating Dafa. When we gradually get detached from fame, interest and sentimentality, we can easily penetrate into the background story of many social phenomena and can use very easy words to tell the audience while adding our own analysis. Although we deliver the message from a very objective angle, people feel it's very easy to get to know the truth.
4. Government Work
In the two years after the persecution began, DC practitioners were mainly responsible for coordinating and preparing materials for clarifying the truth to the American government. As the Fa-rectification progressed, it required that Dafa disciples come forward as much as possible. The team of practitioners responsible for government work in DC began to take shape and took responsibility for a lot of the work in clarifying the truth directly to the U.S. Congress and related government agencies.
Washington, D.C. is a very special area, as it is home to the United States' legislative, executive and judicial branches. You never know when you might run into some important official just walking down the street or taking the subway. So, when D.C. practitioners are clarifying the truth to the people, they are having an effect of clarifying the truth to the American government, as well. Practitioners often heard these comments when they visited Congressmen's offices: "Oh I pass by your Falun Gong banners every day on the way to work, "Once on the subway a lady handed me a Falun Gong flyer," "I saw Falun Gong at this year's Cherry Festival Parade."
Through the practitioners' weekly group study and experience sharing, as a whole we recognized that clarifying the truth to government is our primary task locally. In the beginning we had some reservations about the government work. Such as should it be limited to only experienced practitioners with good English? On this point, our government team went through a process of breaking through our own notions. During group study, we tried our best to talk about the progress of clarifying the truth to the entire group, and when more practitioners were needed, we looked at a volunteer by his or her enthusiasm and sincerity rather by some other criteria. Whenever someone volunteered, the relatively more experienced practitioners would encourage and help them as much as possible, and emphasize exchanging understandings based on the Fa. Many times we found that some practitioners, even though their English was not so good or they were inexperienced, their pure states of mind and cooperation with other practitioners led to unexpectedly good results.
The practitioner responsible for contacting the various embassies based in Washington DC extended an invitation to all of the local practitioners to help in this effort, asking for one person to be responsible for each embassy. A practitioner who had not participated in group study for a long time volunteered. This took the practitioner responsible for the project by surprise, but the coordinator did not presume how this volunteer would do based on any notions. The coordinator's opinion was that as long as she was willing, we should encourage and support her. So over email, we exchanged understandings with this practitioner, suggesting the types of Dafa materials to bring and how to set up an appointment with the embassy officials. In the end, this practitioner successfully met the Consul stationed in D.C. and other high-ranking officials, talking to them in a friendly atmosphere for more than an hour. There were even officials who expressed interest in learning to practice.
Washington, D.C. is the United States' political center. It's not just the home of the federal government, but also hosts many major NGO's, think tanks, national and international media organizations, labor unions, and embassies. These few thousand agencies and organizations can materially affect the operation of the entire United States, and they reflect the attitude of the American government towards Dafa, while at the same time significantly affecting the American public's attitude towards Dafa. So when we talk about clarifying the truth to the government, we're referring to this multitude of organizations. Over the course of the last few years of Fa-rectification, we have felt more and more like we should do our best to proactively clarify the truth to these organizations.
You can call government work a project, but it's better termed a way of thinking for every DC practitioner while he or she is clarifying the truth. Whether it's the practitioners dealing with the media, those who work on the television and newspaper projects, those who call China, those who work breaking the internet blockade, or those older ladies that hold vigils in front of the Chinese Consulate, everyone recognizes the importance of government work and is doing his or her part. Regarding the lawsuit against Jiang in Chicago, the media team organized timely press conferences about the lawsuit's progress, practitioners working with the television station and newspaper interviewed lawyers and China experts, and the older ladies went to distribute materials in front of U.S. government office buildings.
I would like to relate a few moving episodes that happened in the course of clarifying the truth to the government regarding the lawsuit against Jiang.
Since the head of the evil is being sued in the U.S., we realized that we should tell every official in the State Department why we've brought this suit, what kind of crimes it has committed, and the significance of this lawsuit in relation to the founding principles of the United States. We prepared a letter and related materials for every official in the State Department. After the conclusion of a day-long, city-wide group study, more than two hundred practitioners worked together to put together and mail the packages in less than two hours. We knew that the lawsuit against the head of the evil is every Dafa disciple's responsibility and deeply felt the strength of the entire group cooperation.
To support the lawsuit against Jiang, a group of Congressmen sent an "Amicus Curiae" brief to the presiding judge and sent out a Dear Colleague letter to ask other Congressmen to sign. The Amicus brief was not finalized until Thursday afternoon, and it had to be mailed out the following Tuesday with the Congressmen's signatures. In order to allow every member of Congress to see this document, more than a dozen practitioners took the day off from work and personally delivered the document, one by one, to the more than five hundred Congressmen's offices on Friday morning. When the practitioners heard that they needed to deliver the Dear Colleague letter in the afternoon, they waited by the side of the road for several hours and then began their second round of visits.
Master said in "Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference," "...how are we to do a good job cooperating and coordinating with each other–that's what Fa-rectification needs the most from Dafa disciples."
Government work in DC is not done by a few practitioners, but brought about by the state of the entire body of DC practitioners. We have seen that when the pressure falls on a few practitioners' shoulders and there is not a lot of good group-wide experience sharing, the work meets with a lot of obstruction. However, when everyone reaches a common understanding and works together on a particular project, the progress is usually very smooth.
The overall cooperation is also reflected among practitioners from DC and other areas. When practitioners from other states made appointments with their Congressmen but could not make it to DC, the local practitioners would go to the appointment on their behalf, or the local practitioners would help provide truth-clarifying material. In asking the Congressmen to sign the Amicus brief, practitioners from various places gave their maximum effort to contact their Congressmen in a span of two or three days, and under extremely difficult circumstances this led to 39 Congressmen signing the brief. So the state of practitioners in other areas is also helping to drive the situation in DC.
Another notable thing is that the local television, newspaper, media, and government teams are very active in coming up with ideas. The groups often discuss together how to clarify the truth to the public based on current events. The format differs, but the Fa understandings behind the efforts and the starting points of the truth-clarification are quite similar. For example, the SARS outbreak was a hot news topic, so it gave us a good opportunity to expose how the Chinese government has been lying for so long. When we felt that it was difficult to capture their interest with just discussing the facts of the persecution, we used the topics of Article 23, the lawsuit against Jiang, Charles Li's imprisonment and the like, to recapture their interest.
In "Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Midwest-U.S. Fa Conference," Master said, "So going forward, Dafa disciples should still do these three things: Cultivate yourselves well, clarify the facts, and send righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil."
My understanding is that cultivating ourselves also consists of three things: studying the Fa, doing the exercises and cultivating our xinxing. So if we are truly going to rectify the Fa we need to improve ourselves in each and every environment we are in. Passing out fliers, calling representatives, or talking to someone on the subway about Falun Dafa are all a part of Fa-rectification. Most important, though, is cultivating ourselves. If we cannot meet the standard for consummation--and I don't think that we should take that for granted--we cannot hope to rectify the Fa.
