PureInsight | October 27, 2003
Greetings to our respected Master!
Greetings to fellow Practitioners!
[PureInsight.org] Several of us began practicing Falun Dafa after hearing Master teach the Fa in October 1996. We were the first students in our area. Many others came to practice later. We are very pleased and most fortunate in having this opportunity today to report to our Benevolent, Great Master as well as our fellow practitioners who have traveled far to be here, about our cultivation over these past seven years.
When the Wind and Clouds Suddenly Changed
In July 1999 the head of the evil in the human world used his power to initiate a persecution against good people who cultivate "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance." He did this out of jealousy. For those of us living outside China, and having never lived through "movements" such as the Cultural Revolution, we only know the persecution is wrong, but had no idea of what we should do. Hence, we went to Washington DC with students from other regions, and appealed for support from many countries' governments to stop the persecution.
Some students wrote to local newspapers after returning from DC, and we began to attract media attention. For the first time, they came and interviewed practitioners at our practice site.
We felt we should help more people learn the truth to better understand Falun Dafa, so we began utilizing all kinds of ways to introduce the Fa to the public.
Dallas is located in northern central Texas. We went every weekend to nearby cities to host free Falun Dafa instruction classes. Our footprints covered all of Texas as well as nearby Oklahoma public libraries, and we established many group practice sites to make it convenient for people learn Dafa.
One year a practitioner paid to put big signs promoting Falun Dafa on the sides of our local buses. The biggest local newspaper, the Dallas Morning News, interviewed this practitioner. We were invited to introduce Falun Dafa in various churches. I remember in Tylor of East Texas, that a church minister who had attended our class invited us to introduce Falun Dafa in his church. The music they used during the service was our Dafa music Pudu, and the minister read Lunyu to everyone. That service was so sacred and solemn. Additionally, some elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and colleges also invited us to introduce Dafa, and teach the exercises.
A Key Phase in Cooperating As One-body
As our activities increased the scale was getting larger. Many tasks could no longer be accomplished by one or two practitioners alone.
For instance in 2001, we joined the State Fair, which lasted 3 consecutive weeks and lasted from 10 AM to 10 PM everyday. It was very hard arranging 4-5 people to be at our booth every day, let alone other preparations. We do not have many practitioners. Most have to work during the day, and many of our spouses are not cultivators. We had to cover 12 hours per day, each day for over 3 weeks, plus maintain our regular weekend Hongfa activities. It was our first time to Hongfa through cooperating as one-body. Many practitioners overcome all sorts of difficulties. Practitioners who can drive gave rides to whoever could not drive. Practitioners who work during the day would come after work. We had a multi-shift schedule, which was to make sure we had people passing out materials, while some one demonstrated the exercises. The Texas State Fair is very famous. People travel from other states to attend. We passed out several thousand materials each weekend day. Most importantly, we became closer through coordination with our fellow practitioners, and had a key experience on cooperating together.
Battle in Texas
The evil head visited the U. S. in October 2002, and planned to stop at 2 places in Texas. Practitioners used many ways to expose the true nature of the evil, clarify the truth, and demonstrate the true wonder of Falun Dafa.
We visited all levels of government offices, from Congress to State Congress, Mayors, the City Council, and attended City Council meetings. We told them who was coming to visit, and how it treated Falun Dafa practitioners. Many of them issued proclamations in favor of Falun Dafa. We held a practitioner's art exhibit in the Dallas City Hall as well as the Peaceful Journey of Falun Dafa photo exhibition in front of a local Chinese supermarket.
In addition to the activities in Dallas, we held an art exhibit in Crawford, President Bush's hometown, and joined a local parade with practitioners from other places. We reported our activities through TV and newspapers. Some of us traveled to Crawford several times each week.
Because of a lack of communication, some friction occurred between practitioners. When having different ideas, or coming across problems, we had forgotten to seek inward to upgrade our xinxing. At times we lacked tolerance and compassion for each other.
Master said in "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.,"
"So what's their state of mind? It's tolerance, an extremely immense tolerance, being able to accept other beings, and being able to truly think from other beings' perspectives. This is something a lot of you haven't achieved yet in your cultivation, but you're gradually catching on and achieving it. When another God proposes an idea, they aren't eager to reject it, and they aren't eager to express their own ideas and they don't believe that their own ideas are good. Instead, they look at what the end result of the other God's proposed approach will be. The paths are different—everyone's path is different—and the truths that beings validate and enlighten to in the Fa are different, too, but the results might very well be the same. That's why they look at the results, and if the result of a God's idea can achieve the goal, if it can truly achieve it, then all of them will go along with it. That's how Gods think. Also, if there's something lacking in it they'll unconditionally and quietly supplement it to make things more complete and perfect. That's how they handle things."
This Teaching pointed out the problems that had surfaced during that period of time as well as the realm we should reach as one-body.
Do the 3 Things Well During Fa-Rectification
Master said in "Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference,"
"For Dafa disciples there are just three things right now. One is clarifying the facts. One is sending righteous thoughts—sending righteous thoughts has an effect on your own bodies and things outside of your body. And the other is cultivating yourselves and studying the Fa well. These three things are of utmost importance."
Although each of us does a lot of Fa-rectification work, most of us can still make it to the weekend group practice site. There have been predestined people coming to learn the exercises continuously. We hold classes once a month, and send righteous thoughts during group Fa-study every hour.
In comparison with many other cities, the Dallas Chinese population is not high. Chinatown consists of a row of supermarkets. For the past 2 years we have gone there every day around noon passing out Falun Dafa truth clarification materials. We try to go every day no matter what kind of reactions we meet with, be it supportive, opposing, or indifferent. The progress of Master's Fa-rectification is also reflected here; now, almost everyone is willing to accept our truth clarification materials. We also, in a very clean and tidy way, put the truth clarification materials in prominent places in Chinatown. Practitioners maintain the shelf full with new materials. Also, we continue mailing truth clarification materials to Mainland China. Some write letters, some write addresses onto envelopes, some provide the truth clarification materials, and some provide the envelopes and stamps.
We recognized the powerful effect newspapers and television have in clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings. Although we do not have a lot of practitioners, many joined together into teams such as a newspaper editing team, and an interviewing team. Our TV team is very short handed, still we spent a large amount of time and energy diving into our community doing community news, providing our TV station to the viewers. We also provide two regularly scheduled special topic programs for our TV station. It takes several hours to produce each of these short programs, and requires excellent cooperation. At the start of the year, our practitioners had secured a one-year commercial contract for our TV station.
For practitioners outside China clarifying the truth to governments is very important. We have continued doing so over the past several years. In addition to visiting their offices in DC, we also deliver materials to their local offices. The most important thing to remember while doing this is to keep a pure, peaceful mind, and to not be influenced by ordinary people's positions, politics and attitudes. We want to tell them what is happening in China - such a cruel persecution against people who believe in "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance," and we want to show them the grand mercy and forbearance that practitioners display when facing the evil.
One congressperson did not know about us. He didn't even seem to care. But his attitude changed through his interaction with our practitioners in various situations, and he now has a good understanding of us. He wrote support letters and letter of congratulations to us.
Recently, we have been traveling to smaller towns and cities to introduce Falun Dafa in areas that do not presently have practitioners and to call upon their help to stop the persecution. During this process, we have found places where we need to upgrade as one-body. Of the two practitioners who were actively involved, one lives relatively far away from other fellow practitioners and her non-cultivating husband created many obstacles for her. It is often hard for her to join large group activities. The other practitioner had never done this kind of work before. They were very willing to join the project upon sharing experiences. They contacted several dozen cities, and highly upgraded themselves through making phone calls to the local governments to clarify the truth.
There are still some shortcomings within the Dallas group compared to other regions, especially in the aspects of Fa-study, and sharing experiences. We are, however walking towards maturity during these years of Fa-rectification cultivation and when looking back on the cultivation path of these past several years, a sense Master's boundless mercy comes over us. We would like to thank and praise Master and Dafa from the bottom of our hearts!
