[Clearwisdom.net] I had many new understandings after visiting the U.S. Congress in Washington D.C. last week.
I had contacted congressmen to seek support for Falun Dafa before, but those conversations were just limited to the cause of "violations of human rights." Although people were sympathetic, they usually didn't fully support us from deep within their hearts. This time, we emphasized that, despite the intense and extensive hardship they are enduring, the practitioners are still peaceful, rational, persistent, courageous, selfless and compassionate. We also mentioned how great and powerful Dafa's principles are, as well as the selfless efforts of our teacher to introduce it to the world. We told all these in a way that the listeners could understand and accept. Hopefully, people will be moved by the greatness of Dafa (great law and principles) and the enormous contribution it has brought to world peace.
In my previous efforts to "Assist teacher in his journey in this world," my thoughts were limited to the ancient cultivation ways and my personal understandings. I was thus satisfied with spending time and money on Dafa. Many practitioners have put countless efforts into spreading Dafa, so much so that some have to live on their credit cards, while some become too busy to study the Fa (law and principles) and do the exercises. In his lecture during the Dafa Conference in the Great Lakes area, our teacher asked us to further our work. With the ongoing various ways of promoting Dafa, I think we have to be able to go through the "bottle neck." In addition to asking more practitioners to step forward and help, the more important thing is to break the confinement of the way we think. Otherwise, even though we are exhausted to death, or spend every penny we have, we may not let more people know and obtain the Fa. The U.S. is a large country, and there are still many good people who haven't been saved.
The most important thing we need to do is to utilize the social mechanisms. In doing this, we will become more effective in suppressing the evil as well as promoting Dafa.
If, through our telling the truth, more people with conscience can sense and understand the great spirits the practitioners have shown under the most vicious persecution, they will realize and be moved by the profound effect of Dafa's principles over the human society. In this way, they will become more supportive, which will in turn bring themselves a brilliant future. By getting involved in rectifying the Fa, their help and efforts will be invaluable.
There are not many practitioners in our local area, so we cannot just go on to the street to collect signatures or hand out flyers. Those efforts are good and worth doing, but we can do better by using our wisdom. If we can get in touch with organizations and individuals from all social levels, they will help us appeal and collect signatures. To let more people know about Dafa, we need to work not only from the top, but also from lower levels to higher ones. While doing this, we need to do as much as we can in terms of how many people we will reach and how deep the contact will be. By raising awareness of Dafa in this way, everyone, no matter if they choose to practice or not, will find his or her own level in Dafa.
We used to have these kinds of ideas before, but it was just hard to fulfil them. Maybe the overall situation was premature, or our understanding was too shallow, which caused the greatness of Dafa to not easily be perceived. Now, the overall situation is different, and we need to keep up with the rectifying process of the Fa. For example, if we don't have many practitioners in the local areas, we can provide training for every one of them so that everybody is ready to clarify the truth in any circumstance as well as help with Dafa related work. In this way, every practitioner can act better as a Dafa particle, and be able to create some means of promoting Dafa wherever he goes. Each practitioner, no matter of high levels or low levels, should be able to achieve this, since it only requires wisdom in this world. Thus, it is not just limited to the practitioners who interact with the Congress. As a Dafa practitioner, if you cannot explain well the Dafa phenomena in this world, you may feel guilty when thinking of our teacher. It appears to be straightforward, but I found that there are many factors related to cultivation when you are trying to explain well. A variety of issues will come up when you meet different people, and it's not easy to always keep a peaceful mind.
It would be a big breakthrough if we could change from just spending more time and money, to increasing interactions with all sorts of organizations so that more opportunities will be created for the people to know Dafa. This is also a process based upon a selfless and compassionate mind. We will still need to spend time and money, but in a more effective way.
This trip to Washington DC also made us have a better understanding of our teacher's words in Essentials for Further Advancement: "Do you know this? As long as you are a cultivator, in any environment or under any circumstances, any troubles or unpleasant things you come across, even if they involve work for Dafa or no matter how good or sacred you think they are, I will still use them to eliminate your attachments and expose your demon-nature in order to dispose of it since your improvement is the top priority." If we have some pursuits in mind, we will be interfered with various ideas like an ordinary person. If so, we could even miss the opportunities and people that come right across us. Only with a pure mind, can we help to show the greatness of Dafa.
Above are just my personal ideas. Any comment is welcome.
January 14, 2001
