It has been almost a year since last July. Within this past year, our fellow practitioners in China have undergone the test of life and death in a situation full of perils, and the practitioners outside China have also matured through the trials and hardships. For us, cultivation is not simply reading the books and practicing the exercises at home any more, we also needed to step forward and make a great effort in helping to spread the Law in this human world. After the Chicago experience sharing conference in June, practitioners have realized more clearly that at present, for every practitioner, clarifying the truth of Falun Gong to people around the world is the most important task in "assisting the teacher in the human world".
Chicago is one of the biggest cities in America with a concentrated population. There are also many Chinese communities here. The practitioners tried various ways to help the general public learn the truth about Falun Gong. Because we have limited capabilities we cannot accomplish any thing earth shaking yet, with a pure heart for our teacher and for the Great Law, we'd like to do our utmost, starting from the small things, to converge into the mighty torrent of rectifying the Law.
The followings are a few examples of the local practitioner's recent activities in spreading the Law.
Libraries
Chicago has a very good library system. Our practitioners regularly hold Falun Dafa introduction seminars in the libraries at various locations. At the beginning, it is more difficult to organize such seminars since the majority of the staff in the libraries have not heard of Falun Dafa. Those who have heard about it only had very limited knowledge. Each time we contacted them, we had to start from the very beginning and gave them introductory materials. However, after a few seminars, the situation took a turn for the better. Not only did the attendees give good feedback, but the librarians also had some understanding of the truth about Falun Gong. The person in charge of organizing seminars in each library maintains close contact; they often share experiences learned from organizing this kind of activity. Hence after we held seminars in several libraries, almost all the libraries had some understanding about us. When we contacted them again, once we mentioned Falun Gong, they all know about it. As long as the schedule permits, our seminars all went off without a hitch.
For the seminars, we first give a brief introduction of the background and characteristics of Falun Dafa, then teach the movements of the five sets of exercises, and if time permits, we also give a demo of the exercises. At the end, we would play the videotape Falun Gong, the Real Story to help the audience learn about what is happening in China. The number of people in the audience varies for each seminar. Most of them had several dozen, while sometimes there are only a few. Nevertheless, the number does not affect the effect of our seminars. When there are few attendees, we can answer their questions in more detail. Some attendees are interested in the Eastern culture, some heard about what happened in China and want to learn more. In a recent seminar, a lady said that she was deeply touched by the Wall Street Journal article on Chen Zixiu's being tortured to death. She admired the courage of the Falun Dafa practitioners in that they can persist in their belief even in the face of such extremely inhuman treatments. This lady wanted to have a chance to learn more about Falun Gong and she appreciated our seminar very much.
We generally achieved a good result when we donated Falun Dafa books to the libraries after the seminars.
Art festival
Summer is the liveliest season in Chicago. All organizations like to organize big activities during the summer. Art festivals, cultural festivals and a variety of entertainment, etc. As long as it is appropriate, these can all become a good opportunity for us to spread the Law.
In June, there is a large-scale art festival. The organizers had read the introduction material of Falun Dafa before and liked it very much. They invited us to participate of their own accord. Our program was scheduled in the morning, so several practitioners went there in the early morning. People in other booths were very friendly to us; they helped us to coordinate the use of our space. The art festival was very lively; many people passing by stopped to listen to our practitioners' introduction and learned to do the exercises. Several Westerners were very interested and wanted to set up a practice site nearby. A lady said that she was searching for things related to spiritual cultivation for a long time and she was very excited to see Falun Dafa, and she contacted the concerned people trying to set up a practice site.
Although it was only for a few hours, we cherish every opportunity for spreading the Law.
Bookstores
Practitioners in various cities have done a lot in spreading the Law in bookstores. The practitioners in Chicago are also working on it. We try to have Falun Dafa books on the bookshelves of every bookstore, doesn't matter if it is a big chain store or a small independent one. We held Falun Gong introduction seminars in some of the bigger bookstores; many of them liked it and distributed our introduction material. For the bookstores, these activities can help to promote their sales, to us, this is yet another opportunity to clarify the truth to the public. Having Dafa books in bookstores is an important channel for predestined people to attain the Law. We need to make more effort in this regard.
In the past year, our fellow practitioners in China have endured tremendous tribulations; their unswerving belief in the Law in the face of the extreme brutality inspires us constantly. Their sacrifice not only helped to safeguard the Law, but also gave more predestined people a chance to learn Dafa. As practitioners outside China, we are living in a much more relaxed environment and hence do not face such brutal persecution, but have we fulfilled our responsibility in revealing the truth to the people around the world? Sometimes, what we need to do is not necessarily spectacular; it may be something that can be easily accomplished without requiring any special skills. As long as we have the heart to do it, it can be done well. Perhaps the ability of each practitioner is different, but our sincere heart for Dafa is the same. One day, when the clouds are cleared away, when we look back, did we spare any effort? Along with all other fellow practitioners, we would like to tell the truth of Falun Gong to people around the world from the bottom of our hearts and truly "assist the teacher in the human world".
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