PureInsight | November 7, 2005
[PureInsight.org] Time: Thursday, October 2, 2005
Location: The National Mall in front of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
Teacher said, "As for whether the result is good, don't look at the other party, it comes from your minds." (From "Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference")
Around noon today, while Falun Gong practitioner A was distributing The Epoch Times' "The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party" (referred to as "The Nine Commentaries" from now on) at the National Mall between Capitol Hill and the Washington Monument, a Chinese tourist, AA, in his 50's came towards her with a camcorder in hand. At first AA refused to accept "The Nine Commentaries" or acknowledge practitioner A. Instead, he indulged himself in photographing the Capitol Hill and the Washington Monument.
He was alone with no one taking photographs for him. It was early so there were not many tourists at the time. Practitioner A thought she might as well help photograph for tourist AA. "Would you like me to use your camcorder to videotape you here?" She asked twice, but tourist AA still refused to acknowledge her, so she continued to distribute "The Nine Commentaries" flyers to other tourists with a friendly smile on her face. In about two minutes, tourist AA finally spoke to practitioner A, "Please videotape me here."
Practitioner A took the camcorder and began to videotape him, adding audio notes to the videotape, "This is the Capitol Hill located in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. This is Washington Monument."
Just as soon as A finished videotaping AA, two other Chinese tourists from his tour group, also in their 50's, approached. Practitioner A took the opportunity to offer them a copy of "The Nine Commentaries," but they refused to take it and mumbled some uncivil words. Seeing that they were occupied in videotaping the landmarks, practitioner A thought she would wait until they finished videotaping.
Then suddenly practitioner A spotted a copy of "The Nine Commentaries" in a pamphlet next to tourist BB. She thought BB must have thrown it down after receiving it from practitioner B, so she picked it up from the ground and put it away. But practitioner B immediately came and whispered to practitioner A, "He (BB) is a decent man. I promoted 'The Nine Commentaries' to him and he did not say anything nasty. I saw that he just placed 'The Nine Commentaries' on the ground to free his hands so that he could start videotaping. Why don't you return it to him?"
Practitioner A immediately walked back to the three Chinese tourists and gave back "The Nine Commentaries" pamphlet she had picked up from the ground to tourist BB. She said, "Uncle, you have dropped your pamphlet to the ground. I have picked it up for you." [Note: It is polite and affectionate gesture for the Chinese people to address an elderly man outside of one's family as "uncle."]
But tourist BB pretended not to hear her. Practitioner repeated her words again with her arm stretched out to BB. Tourist AA laughed and took "The Nine Commentaries" for BB. He folded it and inserted it into BB's coat pocket.
AA's response brought everyone to laughter. The ice was broken and the atmosphere became friendly.
The three tourists talked to practitioner A for a while. During the truth-clarification process, practitioner A realized that they were relatively good men who had unfortunately fallen prey to the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) lies. At first the three of them repeated the lies of the CCP and practitioner A eagerly tried to lead the conversation, but she immediately remembered a lesson she had learned from the parade in Flushing, NY back in October 2005 to celebrate and support the withdrawal of five million people from the CCP. At the time she was too eager to clarify the truth about the CCP to keep her composure. Consequently, she failed to clarify the truth. Moreover, one of the people made sarcastic remarks about how she had failed to follow Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance at all times. This time practitioner A patiently waited with a smile until they had finished what they had to say. Then she said, "Would you also give me an opportunity and listen to a few words I have to say now?" Surprisingly, they were willing to listen with more civility. The atmosphere was friendly at all times.
Later tourist CC, who had refused to even acknowledge A at first, even told practitioner A affectionately, "You are only a child in your early 20's. You don't know better. We are thinking for your own good. Remember what we have told you and in the future and understand we, the three uncles, are well intended." Practitioner A found his remarks amusing at heart. She replied, "In the future when you think of the CCP, will you think of what I have told you as well? My name is ____." Surprisingly, tourist CC said yes right away.
Finally when they were about to leave, practitioner A told tourist BB, "Truth will survive the test of fire. Since you are so confident that the CCP is good, you shouldn't be afraid of reading 'The Nine Commentaries.'" Surprisingly BB said yes promptly. When he was about to accept "The Nine Commentaries" in newspaper format, practitioner A pulled it back and said, "Wait a second! Uncle, you have taken a copy in pamphlet form. If you wish to take one in newspaper version, you must return the pamphlet version to me first because we print everything out of our own pocket." BB smiled and said, "Okay!" Then he exchanged it for "The Nine Commentaries" newspaper before he bade farewell.
We are confident that they will read "The Nine Commentaries," otherwise, why wouldn't he ask for its newspaper version with a larger print? People do not always say what they mean or mean what they say. Chinese tourists sometimes put up a show by criticizing "The Nine Commentaries" or our cause in front of other tourists in their tour groups, but in their heart they long for a chance to read it in secret right away.
Practitioner A later thought, "Why did practitioner B think BB was a good person while I rushed to judgment and thought he was throwing away 'The Nine Commentaries' as trash? Why did I pass judgment so quickly? Isn't it because of my notions that I had judged him uncharitably and almost denied him a chance to read 'The Nine Commentaries'? I have acquired such a notion because I have seen some Chinese tourists littering the ground with the truth-clarification materials in the past. Therefore, I jumped to the conclusion based on my notion when I saw a copy of 'The Nine Commentaries' at his feet. Didn't I just read the article, 'Learning to Evaluate Others from Outside of My Umbrella,' published at PureInsight.org this week? I have read it in vain because I am still full of notions. Teacher has repeatedly and repeatedly given us opportunities to improve, but I have given BB only one time and then deprived of his chance because of my foolish notion!"
Practitioner A approached B and told her, "Thank you for asking me to return 'The Nine Commentaries' pamphlet to BB. If you hadn't told me so, it would be the end of the story. Because you believe that he is a good man and told me to return it to him, our kindness has touched all of them and we started to have conversations where I could clarify the truth to them. Teacher said, 'We have said that good or evil comes from a person's spontaneous thought, and the thought at that moment can bring about different consequences.' (From "Upgrading Xinxing" in Lecture Four in Zhuan Falun.) I thought he was just another Chinese tourist who had littered the ground with our truth-clarification material, so I picked it up from the ground and took it from him. Teacher is so right to say, 'Mercy can dissolve heaven and earth, bringing about Spring' (From "Fa Rectifies the Cosmos" in Hong Yin II, provisional translation subject to further improvement.)"
Practitioner B replied, "Indeed. Teacher said, 'Just by staying unaffected, you will be able to handle all situations.' (From "Lecture on the Fa at the U.S. Midwest Conference" on June 26, 1999) Sustain your kind thoughts in all circumstances and you will be able to save them! Sometimes I will wave at a whole bus of Chinese tourists and shout out loud, 'Happy and safe journey! Good luck! Good health!' Finally I add, 'Withdraw from the CCP as soon as possible!'"
We both burst into laugher. We laughed heartily. What a special blessing!
Practitioner B also advised, "Do not keep checking how many Chinese tourists there are each day. Even if there is only one Chinese tourist, we are not doing this in vain if we can save just one person! The key is to persevere!"
Because of this experience, I have developed a deeper understanding of Teacher's words, "Mercy can dissolve heaven and earth, bringing about Spring." (From "Fa Rectifies the Cosmos" in Hong Yin II, provisional translation subject to further improvement.)" Some individual practitioners would comment immediately when they encounter uncivil Chinese tourists poisoned by the CCP's systematic lies. "Look how evil this man is! I think he is just plain evil!" Every thought and every word of a cultivator carries powerful energy. How can we ruin their opportunity by calling them "evil." The more we call them evil, the more evil they might become.
Teacher said, "As for whether the result is good, don't look at the other party, it comes from your minds. If you want it to be good then it will be good. And if you don't intend to make it good, or if your mind is unsteady, then it won't be easy to rectify things." (From "Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference")
Teacher also said, "The only thing you have a role in is saving people, and you have nothing to do with using human means and human principles to punish or pronounce judgment on people. This is a fundamental issue!" (From "Teaching the Fa in the City of Chicago")
I feel very bad for the three kindhearted Chinese tourists who have been terribly deceived by the CCP. They have been repeatedly deceived by the CCP throughout their lives. Now they are at the dusk of their lives, but they still have not learned the truth about the CCP. It is my genuine wish that all the practitioners will encourage one another when we clarify the truth. When we encounter obstacles in our truth-clarification work, we should remind each other that we are cultivators and we must search inward and cultivate ourselves so that our hearts will grow purer in order to save more poor people from the evil claws of the Communist Party.
Reference:
[1] PureInsight.org: Learning to Evaluate Others from Outside of My Umbrella http://www.pureinsight.org/pi/articles/2005/10/31/3455.html
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2005/11/3/34456.html
