PureInsight | January 28, 2002
We Falun Dafa disciples are determined to oppose this unjustifiable persecution through various peaceful means. From the beginning, it has been an act resulting from great compassion and forbearance, based on the Fa-principles of “Truthfulness Benevolence Forbearance.” However, this is the Dharma-ending period, when humans no longer have morals in their hearts to guide their behavior. It is not very easy for Chinese people to understand everything we are doing, as they have been indoctrinated over a long period of time with numerous deteriorated notions from evil beings and blindly believe the fabricated lies. Upon learning the truth, some people are still unwilling to believe it and continue to judge everything with their deteriorated notions. Many of us have noticed that it is not an easy thing to clarify the truth to Chinese people.
Even some of our family members and close friends who actually know our conduct very well have become muddle-headed when encountering these issues. It takes us a long time to clarify the truth to them, and even then, progress is very slow and comes bit by bit. I have personally encountered these situations. Whenever I read about cases on the Internet where fellow practitioners have successfully clarified the truth to people and made them understand, I always deeply admired them. In the process of continually looking inside myself, studying the Fa, reading relevant articles by fellow practitioners, writing down what I have enlightened to and checking its correctness when clarifying the truth, I have discovered that I am getting closer towards that most righteous path.
For instance, my husband and his close friends are all highly educated. But they only believe in things that fall within the scope of the science that they have come in contact with and understand, and they have very strong notions. It won’t do if I cannot rationally explain everything. When I first tried to clarify the truth to them, I told them some facts. I told them about the Beijing appeal on April 25, 1999 at the government compound, about the positive changes in my mental and physical health after starting my cultivation, and even my few experiences with supernormal capabilities. But I noticed that they continued to use their old notions to judge everything and did not believe much of what I said.
Later on, I realized that I had avoided talking about the issue of theism that Falun Gong brings up, thinking that as long as a person sees the truth, he will be able to distinguish good from evil. However, it is exactly because of the prejudice they hold towards theism, which poses intense interference for them. This, together with other notions causes them to have extreme difficulties in understanding the truth. Finally I realized that since they had this prejudice, we must talk to them with a positive approach about theism and rectify their unrighteous notions using the principles we have learned and enlightened to in Dafa. With these prejudices against theism eliminated, the people in the future will believe in gods.
When clarifying the truth, our standpoint has to be righteous. After realizing this, I quickly enlightened to the fact that the most critical issue is “notions.” Humans are controlled by their notions. If we don’t break through these, it will be very difficult for them to understand the truth. The best way to break through their notions is to let them know righteous ideas. We must tell them about the characteristic of the universe, “Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance,” how it differs from everyday peoples’ understanding, and how all genuine Dafa disciples’ actions follow these principles. We must also point out that “Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance” is the Fa, and we need to tell everyday people all this in the most effective way, further helping them to recognize the truth and establish righteous thoughts.
Some of the ways of doing this are to use simple, clear, persuasive language, eliminating all interference and concentrating on the crucial points. We must clearly and completely tell people about the Fa in this human dimension, which Dafa practitioners are following when opposing the persecution. These crucial points together with the examples of practitioners’ actual behavior will further help people to truly understand the idea of “Truthfulness Benevolence Forbearance” through theoretical and practical statements, and recognize the magnificence of practitioners.
Previously I believed that clarifying the truth and helping people establish righteous thoughts were two things, with the former being “the first thing” and the latter being “the second thing,” and that it would take a long time to finish this whole process. Now I think establishing righteous thoughts is the first thing we must do. Establishing righteous thoughts is actually breaking down and eliminating deteriorated ones. We should use all facts and materials available to make people understand the truth, establishing and strengthening their righteous thoughts.
In order to achieve this effect, attention needs to be paid to the following aspects:
1. Our standpoint should be righteous and based upon the Fa. This will surely have its restricting effect towards anything from lower levels. Only in this way, can the most righteous elements eliminate the unrighteous matter in them.2. Pay attention to being thorough and organized when clarifying the truth. If we tell the idea of “Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance” in a clear and complete manner during the process of clarifying the truth to a non-practitioner, this would be like using the things from our level to form a powerful God with a complete body in the listener’s world. Then, this God will automatically play his powerful role, eliminating the evils in the non-practitioner’s small universe and clean up the degenerated things. However, if we are not aware that the first thing we need to do is to let people truly and completely understand the idea of “Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance” and instead use various facts in a scattered and disordered way, or use them completely following the questioner’s train of thought, it would be like placing only one arm, one leg or several parts of the body of a God into the person’s universe. Although this will also have some effect, it will definitely have less power and be less active. Even if all components are eventually pieced together, it will tend to take a very long time for it to have an effect. It’s almost like a Chinese saying, “Obtaining half the results with double the effort.” A complete idea is like an unbreakable military formation with both ends connected, while a poorly connected military formation with “loopholes” will be easily broken and eroded.
3. Sticking closely to the main idea. Because our goal is to establish righteous ideas in people’s minds, we should be careful not to get hung up on details. Instead, the main idea should be closely followed, using clear logic where one step connects to the next. The possible problems and interference coming along half way should be quickly resolved in order to return to the main topic. When people have a positive understanding about Dafa, part of their questions will already be answered. It will then be easy for people to accept when we talk about other issues in detail, and in this way double effects will be gained with half the effort.
4. There are many starting points. We can either start from answering some general questions like, “What is Falun Gong?” or from some detailed ones, such as, “Is Falun Gong political” or “The truth of the self-immolations.” Dafa is harmonious, and any questions are due to not knowing the truth and from degenerated notions, and will all eventually come down to the understanding of the concept of “Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance.”
5. The practitioner’s level and righteous thoughts are the decisive factors when clarifying the truth.
This article has taken me a very long time to write and had several drafts. During the editing process, new understandings continuously came out. The biggest reward is that I finally realized that the center and emphasis of our clarifying the truth should be placed on changing sentient beings’ notions. The organization and usage of all materials should be around this main idea. No matter to whom, clearly and completely tell the most fundamental principles first!
Let’s cultivate even more diligently and make every effort to use our strongest righteous thoughts, the most righteous standpoint that is completely formed to thoroughly destroy the deteriorated notions, and use the principle of “Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance” at the human level to replace them. Only in this way can we truly clarify the truth and save sentient beings from the evil’s talons of deteriorated notions and the fate of being eliminated. We will help them discard the hatred, suspicion and indifference, revere and follow the truth with pure and upright hearts that have turned towards goodness.
I would like to conclude with Master’s poem “New Life” from Hongyin, Teacher’s poetry collection,
“New Life
Righteous Fa spreading,
Ten thousand demons blocking,
Saving all sentient beings,
Notions changing,
The decayed extinguished,
The bright light illuminating.'
The above is my personal understanding at my present level of cultivation. Please correct any inappropriate wordings.
Translated from:
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2002/1/12/13308.html
