PureInsight | August 18, 2003
[Continued]
D. What Really Moves People Is Compassion
[PureInsight.org] Just like there is no constraint between this qi and that qi, so it is with our knowledge and logic at the level of ordinary people. What really moves people is compassion. When we are compassionate and really want to rescue sentient beings, our words are powerful. We need to treat people with compassion and "doing without pursuing." Dafa will then demonstrate the Fa's power for us.
An ordinary person might display some religious knowledge, be good at making arguments, but not know about cultivation. One such person has posted articles against Dafa on many major internet forums over the past three years. It is said his intention is to uphold Buddhism. He even wrote an article questioning our program about the truth of the self-immolation incident with some co-authors, and co-founded a website to defame Falun Gong. He had had a negative influence on the internet.
Such a person seems to have committed a lot of crimes against Dafa. I wasn't sure whether or not he could still be saved. Once I met him on a forum and some fellow practitioners clarified the truth to him, kindly and patiently. I could see that he was really looking for the ultimate goal of life and believed in the benefits of cultivation. I thought, no matter whether or not he might be saved, if I could stop him from going against Dafa on the internet, it will be a good thing for him, for other users on the internet, and for reducing the severity of the persecution. After debating with him twice, I posted a response. It read,
"You cannot differentiate between right and wrong. Actually you have unconsciously created tremendous karma. Please listen to me." And I continued,
"When the Jewish people were being persecuted and slaughtered, kind-hearted people, even those who were against Judaism, wouldn't go through the Hebrew Bible and find things that they didn't agree with in it to justify the persecution.
In the brutal persecution against Falun Gong, what genuinely kind people would do is put aside their prejudices and stop the killing in the first place, no matter what their viewpoints were – whether based on science or religion. Let's take a look at what you have been doing! Let's put aside the fact that you always tried to find fault with points from Falun Gong books. I want to talk about the article you wrote on the staged self-immolation incident. Although you don't believe it was done by the Jiang's political gang, its function in the persecution is obvious – to support and validate the persecution. Their lies and propaganda serve the same purpose. They are calculated to instigate hate and exonerate those murderers and hangmen who are responsible for the death of hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners. The self-immolation case did a good job of instigating hatred towards Falun Gong. After reading our exchange, a lot of people might believe more firmly that Falun Gong is an evil cult and the crackdown is justified. The actual role that you've played in the persecution is that of a cheerleader for the killers. No one was born to be a killer or vicious person, torturing one's fellow countrymen. Humans have a conscience. Those who want to do bad deeds against their conscience will at first struggle in their hearts. At that moment, many outside factors may influence them, such as orders from their bosses and public opinions. Your articles might mislead them at that moment. It may misinform the public so they don't recognize the persecution for what it is, which validates the persecution and makes it more vicious. Your article may help evil people choose evil in the struggle between right and wrong. More than 700 innocent Falun Gong practitioners had been tortured to death or died as a result of torture, while millions of them are suffering, losing their freedom and jobs, and their families are breaking apart. Ask your conscience how much contribution you made to escalate their tragedies. Buddhism affirms retribution. I think you will agree that my analysis here between the cause and the effect of what you've been doing is reasonable. Don't be so conceited that you think you are smarter than everyone else. It might turn out that it is the other way around."
Before long he apologized for his article on the self-immolation incident. He said he would no longer write any articles that go against Dafa. He added that he would delete all articles he posted on a forum that was against Dafa.
This incident really revealed the power of Dafa. One fellow practitioner said he could sense the clean-up of those evil ghosts and sense the awakening of common people in the tremendous force inherent in the Fa-rectification. He felt the grandeur of Dafa.
E. Debating Skills
During truth-clarifying, should we use skills of logic that everyday people apply? I believe so, but in a restrained manner. Some people are very irrational and do not listen to our advice. In those instances we can use our skills. One example of this is proactive confrontation.
Let me give you an example. In general, Chinese people who have the wrong view toward Dafa are always aggressive and hostile when we clarify the truth to them. The propaganda has brainwashed them. They usually interrogate us and bomb us with one question after another, but their questions are based completely on lies. If we try to defend ourselves and answer all the questions one by one, we actually fall into their traps. What we can do is simply ask them to provide proof for their misgivings. This way we can tell them all accusations made by the evil propaganda machines are groundless and not supported by evidence. According to the reasoning of the common people, before one can accuse someone else of any wrongdoing, he has to have proof to back up his claims. It is the same idea here. By taking this approach, we've gone from being defensive to offensive (Of course we should always be soft in our tone and avoid using rhetorical question, which may easily result in an unproductive debate).
For example, I met one person whose mind was deeply poisoned. He knew the facts about the persecution but he refused to admit that it was persecution. On the contrary, he said all the police officers he met were nice and that labor camps had rules which state that jail guards must not beat prisoners or they would be severely punished. I said to him what he saw could not represent the total picture. I told him if he really wanted to invalidate our persecution facts, he could examine the case of Chen Zixiu, which was documented very well. I said he could find out if there was a Chen Zixiu in Weifang City, Shandong Province and if she was still alive. After that it would be easier to tell if we were lying or not. Rules in labor camps are on paper, but what is really happening there is another story altogether. Finally I said, "for instance, the constitution of the Chinese Communist Party (the ruling party) and the laws in China stipulate bribery and corruption are illegal, but that does not necessarily mean party members don't accept bribes or are not corrupt."
Some others thought Falun Gong had too many members and it seemed the "4.25" appeal was well organized. They did not believe Falun Gong was non-political in our truth clarification. Instead they believed we are very much likely a well-organized and well-disciplined political group. I responded like this, "Some might argue that it appears so. But 'very likely' does not mean it actually is so. If the crackdown is based solely on such a possibility, is it justified? Recently the human genome was deciphered and the genetic similarity between human and mouse is found to be 97.5%. So you can say that a human and a mouse are completely different creatures. Just because something seems to resemble something else at first glance, it doesn't mean that these two things are one and the same."
There are many other techniques we can use, which I will not enumerate one by one.
Finally I want to quote a verse by Master to our fellow practitioners:
Hurry Up And Tell Them
"As Dafa disciples tell people the facts,
It's like sharp swords shooting out together from their mouths,
Shredding apart the rotten demons' lies.
Lose no time and save them, hurry up and tell them."
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2003/8/5/22826.html
