Writing a Truth-Clarifying Diary

I always felt it was so hard that it gave me a headache whenever I clarified the truth to the Chinese. I always ran into situations where I couldn't explain the truth clearly. Very often, I felt that the people I talked to were unreasonable and some even made irrational and groundless remarks. I thought that I had already explained the truth to them clearly and eloquently. However, my explanations did not get through to them. They just could not accept what I said. After our conversation, they still had a bad impression of Dafa. Every time this happened, I ended up feeling either angry or depressed.

I knew that I needed to eliminate attachments such as the competitive mentality, fear, losing face and so on during this process of clarifying the truth. But whenever I couldn't clarify the truth, I only briefly reviewed the situation before forgetting it. For example, 'on this occasion my competitive mentality was too strong, and I should pay more attention to it in future,' and so forth. But the next time, things did not change that much. This situation continued for a long time.

In addition to the publication of Master Li's new articles and the truth-clarifying articles from the Minghui editors, clarifying the truth to the Chinese has become extremely urgent. Eliminating the misunderstandings about Dafa of the Chinese is like saving lives. This situation is comparable to a surgeon performing life-saving operations on critically ill patients. When I reviewed this situation again, I found that I had not seriously and thoroughly examined the reasons why I had such difficulty clarifying the truth, or how I needed to improve and what I should do the next time.

So, I adopted the method of writing a truth-clarifying diary. Every time I clarified the truth to someone, I wrote down the main points of the conversation. It was like a doctor writing a medical record after an operation. I usually wrote briefly. It usually took less than five minutes. The content included:

(1) What misunderstandings did the person have about Falun Gong?
(2) How did I clarify each misunderstanding?
(3) Which questions did I explain satisfactorily? Which questions did I not answer clearly?
(4) While doing the above, which of my attachments were exposed?
(5) How should I improve to make it better the next time?

After recording several truth-clarifying cases, it became very clear to me why I previously had difficulty clarifying the truth. I found that every individual who had misunderstandings about Dafa had different problems. They were just like terminally ill patients, and each had a different disease. For example, my mother had negative feelings towards Dafa because she believed the propaganda broadcast in China, such as 'self immolation' and a case where the Chinese government claimed that a group of Falun Gong practitioners killed a fellow practitioner and tried to hide his body. On the other hand, my aunt thought that the gathering at Zhongnanhai on April 20, 1999 to make an appeal was 'getting involved in politics.' In order to change people's notions, we need to prescribe the right medication for each illness. We cannot solve everyone's problem using the same method. Previously, I did not really think about this from other people's perspectives. For example, what they want to know, which questions they might have and so on. I always thought about it from my perspective. For all the people who thought that Dafa was not good, I told them how the Chinese government brutally persecutes Falun Gong practitioners, how Falun Gong improved my health and so on. However, their doubts might not lie in these areas, and thus I did not answer their questions even though I spent a lot of time talking. In my heart, I even complained that these people did not have a kind heart because they did not seem to care when they heard about the persecution. As a result, I became overly excited and a little agitated, which further drove them away. In the end, things did not turn out as expected. I not only failed to change their minds, but also both of us became unhappy, which increased the difficulty of clarifying the truth to them in the future. Therefore, when we clarify the truth, we should first listen to people with a calm heart and find out where their problems lie. It is very important to give people a chance to talk first. Recently, when I called people in China to clarify the truth to them, I told them I was conducting a social survey. I asked them whether they were willing to talk about their impressions of Falun Gong as part of a social survey. I found that, in this way, they had a chance to talk about the questions on their minds. Then they were able to change their minds after I explained the facts to them. This was more effective.

By keeping a truth-clarifying diary, I saw more clearly which areas of my xinxing had problems whenever I clarified the truth. Writing helped me to see where I did well and where I did not do well. It also let me see which parts of the truth I myself do not yet understand deeply enough. This is like a doctor needing to be equipped with state of the art surgical tools before performing an operation. We must also continuously improve ourselves by mending the flaws in our xinxing and enriching our knowledge of the truth so that we are prepared to clarify the truth thoroughly.

Another problem I had is that sometimes I forgot to send forth righteous thoughts when I ran into difficulties while clarifying the truth. When I thought about the matter carefully, I realized that I handled things using an everyday person's notions instead of using the principles of Dafa. For example, once I met a person and offered him some truth clarifying material. Not only did he refuse to accept it, but also he stared at me angrily as if I were his enemy. I spoke to him very politely and asked him his opinion about Falun Gong. He did not answer. So, I told him that a lot of reports from China regarding Falun Gong are not true. I hoped that he could know the truth. He rudely replied that he did not want to know anything about Falun Gong and just wished that I wouldn't bother him anymore. His attitude was very bad. I walked away. At that moment, I felt some sort of grievance in my heart. I thought that this person was really quite bad. I had spoken to him very politely, but he treated me with such an unreasonable attitude. I thought it was really unfair. After walking away, I regretted that I had forgotten to send forth righteous thoughts at that time. In fact, forgetting to send forth righteous thoughts indicated that I did not believe strongly enough in Dafa, which is why I always made judgments using an ordinary person's mindset when I encountered problems. That is why I was sometimes unable to see the real cause of a problem. The thoughts that this person was no good, not compassionate and so on are thoughts of an ordinary person. The real reason that he spoke to me rudely was pointed out by Master Li at the Washington DC International Conference, 'An everyday person is very weak before a cultivator. Today's humans have in fact had tribulations arranged for them by this system of old forces at different levels, and humans have been controlled by the old forces at different levels. This is why they've become so forceful, why they dare to do things to cultivators, and why they dare to be disrespectful to Dafa.' Therefore, in that situation, when faced with unreasonable people, we should send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil force behind them. Only then can the real problem be solved.

By writing a truth clarifying diary, I clearly saw all my flaws exposed, enabling me to make big improvements. The different doubts about Dafa that an ordinary person has become very clear at a glance. In addition, I saw clearly where I should improve and upgrade myself. Seeing my own improvement also gave me a lot of encouragement and confidence. This reminded me of my school days when I always made progress by reviewing the graded exam papers.

I am writing down these experiences to share with my fellow cultivators and I hope they will be helpful.

Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2001/12/7/12811.html