"HURRY UP AND TELL THEM"

[PureInsight.org] As the 2002-03 school year approached, I thought that whatever I must accomplish in clarifying the facts at my workplace and in my profession, I must do it this year. In June, I would retire after 34 years of teaching high school English. Teacher's words in the poem "Hurry Up and Tell Them" seemed even more urgent:

"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."

As the summer drew to a close, I resolved to do my best to tell people about Falun Gong in the coming school year. Just before the opening of school, I had a strange experience. After sending forth righteous thoughts, I went to bed. Soon, while in a sleepy state, I felt something enter the room, walk over to me, place a pillow over my face and press it down to suffocate me. The presence was very real. I felt unafraid and eliminated the entity with righteous thoughts. It was evident that evil wanted to stop me from speaking the truth in my last year of teaching.

During the school year, I was able to find many opportunities to clarify the facts to students and staff at the high school, which has a large Chinese population. Evil showed up again from time to time to interfere with my efforts, but in more subtle forms – as my own attachments or notions. Most frequently, what came up was anxiety about stepping forward publicly or the notion that others wouldn't be interested, or, worse yet, would reject my information or petition. I learned first hand "…that good or evil comes from a person's spontaneous thought, and the thought at that moment can bring about different consequences." (From Zhuan Falun, Lecture Four)

I found a number of ways to reach students and staff at the school. I wrote two new Dear Colleague letters to staff at the school. One was about my going to Houston when Jiang Zemin visited. My other letter was to say good-bye, to provide information about Charles Li's detention and to invite people to sign the petition for his release. When I talked individually with teachers and other staff, the responses were usually very positive, but I never knew the overall effect of my letters. The high school is a large building, and teachers have little opportunity to talk with each other. This contributed to my misgivings about what people thought, and sometimes I found it easier to speak to strangers than to my colleagues.

My team leader welcomed me to talk about Falun Gong at our team meetings. I taught the exercises, spoke about Charles Li and invited them to sign the petition for his release. Only the team leader signed. I realized that my notion that people wouldn't like being asked to sign a petition had brought this about. Other experiences also revealed how my own thoughts affected the outcome.

I had many opportunities to clarify the facts to my students. I had written "Cultural Enrichment," a subject that was welcomed by the administration, into the curriculum for all my courses. I showed Falun Gong videos, taught one or two exercises, played music written by Dafa practitioners, read excerpts from Zhuan Falun, told them about cultivation, showed them Zhang Cuiying's pictures and read newspaper articles about Falun Gong. I told them that after attending a rally for the Falun Gong practitioners being persecuted in China, I had asked myself what I could do to help and decided to write an article for the local newspaper. Reading the published article from the newspaper had a very good effect.

I gave VCDs to all the seniors in my classes and to all the Chinese seniors in my homeroom and study hall on their last school day. I described China's propaganda campaign against Falun Gong and its information blockade. I told the students that most Chinese language newspapers are controlled by China and publish only the PRC's slander of Falun Gong. I encouraged them to use the VCD's to help get the truth out. I also reminded them about xinxing cultivation and that I was cultivating my xinxing too, especially in the area of patience. I gave them an example of a time I had lost patience with one of them and told them that I had realized that I had to work on my patience, tolerance, and compassion. When the underclassmen saw the beautiful labels on the VCD's, they wanted one too, so I promised to have one for everyone on the last day of school.

With the librarian's permission, I put up a large Falun Dafa poster in the school library. However, it was removed after a few days. A staff member and some students had complained to the principal about the swastika in the Falun emblem they had found on the Dafa web site. I went by the principal's office many times over several days in an effort to see him. At his office door, the first thing to meet the eye was the large, beautiful Dafa poster. Truth–Compassion–Forbearance was clearly visible to everyone who came by his office.

Finally, I had a meeting with the principal. I told him about Falun Gong, provided information about the Falun emblem and told him that I would be happy to talk with the students about their concerns. He thanked me for showing him some of the beautiful pictures in Compassion magazine, but he did not agree to reinstate the poster in the school library because of concerns about complaints.

Soon it was time to prepare for the school's cultural fair. First, I had to get permission from the principal. I was concerned that he would say no, given his experience with reactions to the Dafa poster. I left a message with his secretary. Then, I considered what I would display at the fair. What about the exercises? I felt self-conscious about being the only one doing the exercises and couldn't be there all day anyway, so I dismissed the idea of doing the exercises.

It was late in the day before the fair, and I still hadn't heard from the principal, so I went to the assistant principal, whom I thought would be sure to give permission. She told me that the principal had said I could not have a Falun Gong table because there was no more space in the gym, but that I could talk to him. The principal was in the auditorium, about to address a large gathering of students. Under the circumstances, I hesitated to interrupt him. The assistant principal told me a second and third time, "Just go talk to him. He said you could talk to him."

Teacher told us, "Wherever there's a problem, that is where you need to clarify the truth and save people. Don't take a detour when you run into difficulties. When you see something that does us harm, or when you see something blocking our validating the Fa, don't take a detour -- you should face it, and clarify the truth and save those beings." (From "Teaching the Fa at the D.C. Fa Conference" )

I had a brief exchange with the principal while the assembled students waited for his lecture about the school's ID policy. He gave permission for a Falun Gong table, but it had to be strictly cultural. His final words were, "No exercises." How strange. What could be more cultural and beautiful? I was struck by the realization that my own reluctance to do the exercises had surely brought this about. The evil had not succeeded in suffocating me, but had crept in through my attachment to self-consciousness.

At the fair, the Falun Dafa table was located right at the entrance, a little oasis in the noisy gym. Students stopped by and took information. A fellow teacher from China and Hong Kong took pictures and sat at the table for a while looking over the book of Zhang Cuiying's paintings. Although he had remained skeptical about Falun Dafa over the years I had been clarifying the facts to him, it now looked as if he was promoting Dafa.

Later, I had an opportunity to address my colleagues as a delegate to the Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Teachers' Association. I prepared materials and wrote a motion that the MTA endorse the Mass. House of Representatives' resolution condemning the persecution of Falun Gong. I had to submit my printed material to the committee that would decide if I could distribute it to the delegates. Although I sent forth righteous thoughts, the committee did not give permission for me to put Dafa materials on the table with all the other literature. However, on the morning of the second day, a copy of my motion plus my supporting statement had been placed at every seat–a far better arrangement than being put out among all the other material for teachers to stuff into the shopping bags provided.

My proposal came up near the end of the second day. I sent forth righteous thoughts through much of the day to eliminate sleepiness, a headache and my anxiety about addressing the delegation. The motion was defeated, but I was able to speak clearly so that hundreds of people could hear the truth.

Finally, graduation day arrived. The valedictorian was a Chinese girl. In her graduation speech, she spoke about her travels in China with her grandmother. I thought, "I must give her a VCD and one in Chinese for her grandmother." I got a graduation card, thought about what I would write, and looked up her address.

To my surprise, days after her graduation, the valedictorian showed up in the back room where some of us teachers were having lunch. I was able to talk with her about Falun Gong and to give her the VCD. Her parting words as she hurried off were, "If I want to do something with Falun Gong, I know where to find you." Now, I had another reason to send her the card: she wouldn't find me at the school next year. Again, I resolved to get in touch with her. And once again, I ran into her at the school, where she was no longer even enrolled. I felt these chance encounters happened because of my strong righteous thoughts to hurry up and tell her the facts.

The school year concluded with final exams. In her final exam essay, one of my Chinese students wrote, "Time went by just like a waterfall that falls down … the hill and never comes back again, and so we better use every single second of our lives wisely…You taught us so many things that we never learned before, and you taught it with your heart… Based on what I knew about 'Falun Gong,' thought that was a harmful qigong to practice, although I wasn't really interested in Falun Gong, but as we learned from you, at least I learned the truth of it."

Let's use our lives wisely. Let's hurry up and tell them.