Retrospect: The Geneva Conference

There are already a lot of reports regarding activities in Geneva on the Internet. They are all very inspirational. I am writing a retrospective article to help us further improve ourselves and do our work better. That way, the influence of the vicious forces will be nullified more quickly. What is the purpose of us going to Geneva? Is it to have a good experience sharing conference? I think there's more to it than that. The first day of the conference was very good; I benefited most from hearing the practitioners' experiences. But how could we help the practitioners to carry the spirit of the conference into their activities over the next few days? How do we improve ourselves in the real world? There were more than one thousand practitioners. Was their presence just limited to making the group practice look larger? Of the practitioners that I met, many wanted to do more than just that. During the experience sharing conference, I remembered a French practitioner who talked about his tremendous improvement during the process of collecting signatures. It inspired a lot of practitioners. Why didn't we go out and collect signatures after the conference was over? I also met a Canadian practitioner. On the surface, she seemed like a typical person, but she collected over one thousand signatures in Canada. Didn't the vicious forces bring with them the so-called "million signatures"? There are over seven billion people in this world, and only 1.2 billion are in China. Falun Gong is a worldwide practice. What can the so-called "million signatures" prove? Some people said, "Don't pay attention to the methods used by the vicious forces, rise above it." I agree that we should not think like them, but the "million signatures" is a vicious tactic used to create a perverse effect. We should try our best to let people know, in order to prevent it from doing harm to them. We received a lot of support from the media in the first three days. This is Teacher's arrangement as well as the result of numerous practitioners' effort. If our practitioners were to fully utilize their time to collect signatures and let people know the truth, then what kind of cultivation state would we have? Let's look at it from another angle. For those practitioners who didn't go to Geneva, they could have also actively collected signatures via various channels. This way, those that could not go to Geneva, due to practical difficulties, would also have contributed to the Geneva activities. If the worldwide overseas practitioners all participated, then what kind of result would we have? Jiang Zemin sent 500 people to do mischief in Geneva. By this, we can see how significant this event was to the opposing force. Then, what is the significance to practitioners? Going to Geneva is not limited to attending the conference or improving oneself through experience sharing. We can improve ourselves while effectively nullifying the vicious forces. Is our mentality from the perspective of true Dafa cultivators? Are we acting as the guards of Dafa in the human world, or are we still in the state of cultivation through self-improvement? Teacher said in Zhuan Falun, "people only have that little bit of hardship of their own. There is only that little bit of trouble among them. They have a lot of attachments that they still can't give up!" If we truly melt ourselves into rectifying and safeguarding the Fa, it will be very easy to remove a lot of attachments. Although our activities had ended and we all went home to take a break, the vicious forces remained very active in Geneva. It's three days after the conference and I fear that the opposing force will become fully rampant. Last Friday, the opposing force insulted a representative from a non-government organization (NGO) because he spoke out for Falun Gong. From this situation, one can see the madness of the vicious force. Looking from another perspective, isn't it the same as telling the overseas practitioners that we haven't done enough yet? In order to levy for the April 18^th vote, the head of the vicious force will visit five Latin America countries from April 5^th - 17^th. Will the part of us that has successfully cultivated allow him to spread rumors and harm people that have a predestined relationship with Dafa? In his new article, Teacher said, "Validating Dafa and exposing the evil in ordinary human society seems to resemble the work in ordinary human society. But they are not. Everyday people do everything for self-interest, whereas what we do is for safeguarding Dafa. This is what a Dafa practitioner should do, and it is without any selfish elements. It is sacred, it is magnificent, and it is establishing the magnificent mighty virtue of an enlightened being in the face of the real evil--the old forces." This is my personal opinion: It is very important for practitioners to safeguard Dafa, therefore, practitioners' active participation as a group in such activities becomes very critical. This is not only the requirement of the Fa-rectification process, but also what the practitioners need to do in order to reach consummation. In this situation, the activity organizers should pay extra attention to give all practitioners a chance to participate and fully utilize the impact of every practitioner. Currently is seems like only a few practitioners are working hard. The majority of practitioners seem to be limiting themselves to support activities. Even though more and more people from society support us, it will only have a small affect on the vicious force. The reason we can truly face the opposing force is that we have a side that is fully cultivated. As practitioners, we should not acknowledge the vicious forces. We should not recognize the vicious forces just because they provide us with an environment to improve ourselves and eliminate karma. Teacher said in his Lecture at the Great Lakes Conference: "I can't accept any of these. So I need to eliminate them, including this evil drama." Because of the disturbance from some vicious forces, the activity in Geneva seemed to carry a theme like "It is already good enough and it fulfills our goal if we can just carry out the activities smoothly in these days." Such a mentality itself may be a recognition of and yielding to the evil. Because of a lack of confidence in Dafa, we became overly cautious. We were afraid that the evil would take advantage of any mistake that we made. It is absolutely necessary to be cautious because of our responsibility to Dafa. However, there may be fears and other human notions hidden in our thoughts. If there are, we cannot have the grand spirit that Teacher mentioned: "Two feet treading on thousands of demons" and "The Great Dao is unmatched throughout heaven and earth." Here is a notion that had turned into interference --- "It is Europe, people are conservative. We should not be too aggressive. It would be enough if we would just behave as helpless victims." I think we should have a clear understanding on this issue from the standpoint of the Fa. The purpose of telling the truth and exposing the vicious persecution is to give people a chance to know Dafa in a positive light, to help people form a correct understanding of Dafa, and therefore, offer salvation to people. It is necessary to take the European culture into our consideration. However, our human notions should not obstruct us. Because we have Dafa in our hearts, we can help others. Because of the realm of mind that Dafa brings us to, and the pure energy of our cultivation, people can feel the kindness, honesty and determination of Dafa practitioners. They can sense the selfless power of "Zhen-Shan-Ren," and thereby develop a kinship with Dafa. Fundamentally, through direct or indirect means, what are people supporting? Shouldn't the people support a certain level of principle within "Zhen-Shan-Ren" instead of "the very incapable people or pitiful victims"? In fact, if we have a notion of being victimized, aren't we presumably accepting the persecution? If we do ordinary people's deeds with a mentality of victims, and if we neglect the factors of Fa-rectification and cultivation improvement, then we would hinder ourselves. The power of Dafa would manifest through us only after we relinquish human notions. Many practitioners who delivered packages to the missions of various nations had miraculous experiences. Some practitioners received many appointments within just two days; one practitioner was invited to an ambassador's home for a conversation that lasted for hours. It was nothing like we had imagined. In addition, looking back at our previous mentalities, we had unintentionally mixed many human notions in our work. For example, there is a trend to emphasize on the formality in our actions; it is hard to break through the barriers of sentimentality among practitioners; etc. After Teacher had pointed out the ending of the vicious force, some of us seemed to subconsciously just wait for the Fa-rectification process to finish, and forgot Teacher's clear remark: "You can't lower your guard." In addition, we limited ourselves to specific tasks and short-term results, and lacked long-term and overall visions. These are the consequences of not truly studying the Fa more with a calm mind. We have deeply sensed the rapid pace of Fa-rectification. Many things are happening quickly and simultaneously. If we follow our human notions to do things, we can only get the efficiency of human society and be confined to the worldly principles; if we break through our human notions, our actions will bring extraordinary efficiency. We realize that people from many countries have started to know Dafa through the contact we had with various missions and governments. The door is opened. Some practitioners met and spoke to people from Africa and Arabic countries, they all seemed to have interest in Dafa. Jiang Zemin's visit to South America may be a hint to us that it is time for South Americans to know Dafa on a large scale. We need to expedite our pace, break through many human notions, and catch up with the Fa-rectification process. The above are personal thoughts. Please point out anything that is inappropriate. 3/27/2001 Editor's note: Over two weeks remain before the 2001 United Nations Human Rights Commission will come to an end. There is still time to collect signatures and support practitioners in Geneva.