Shared at the 2004 New York Falun Dafa Conference
(Clearwisdom.net)
Greetings to Master! Greetings to Everyone!
I am 15 years old, and I have practiced Falun Dafa since 1998. It has already been more than five years. Today, I want to share my experiences of clarifying the truth with everyone. In 2002 I started to chat on the Internet. It was a classmate who told me about it. In the beginning, I typed very slowly and just talked about ordinary things. Although I made many friends through the Internet, I felt it had no significance. Then suddenly I reflected on how wonderful it would be if I could share the facts in this way! Since that day I have been spreading the facts through the Internet. At that time, the suppression of Falun Gong in China was very severe, and many chat room friends did not understand Falun Gong, and even maligned it. In the beginning, I was a bit at my wit's end. However, I gradually calmed down and started to explain it to them patiently. As time went on I increased my typing speed. Because I had studied Chinese in Singapore, Chinese is not very difficult for me.
In the chat room I tried many ways to spread the truth, by sending instant messages, chatting one-on-one, sending the addresses of truth-clarifying websites, etc. Eventually, I focused on chatting one-on-one, since I felt it had the best effect and was more personal.
The path of sharing the truth, actually, is also a path of upgrading my xinxing (heart or mind nature, moral character). For example, when some people did not believe I was in the USA and just thought I was lying, or they did not believe my age, I frequently became impatient. This was especially true when I used the QQ website to chat at the beginning. Many of the people did not believe there was a QQ website overseas. However, I realized my impatience was wrong. Then I just said to the other side, "It is up to you to believe or not. Anyway, I do not lie to you. What I cultivate is 'Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance,' I do not deceive people." Thereby, I introduced the Dafa topics and shared the truth.
As the Fa-rectification accelerates, people are gradually understanding much better and starting to use their own minds to think through the issues. They changed from reviling to quibbling and from rebutting to questioning. Their tone changed a lot. So, compared to three years ago, now it is easier to explain the facts.
In these years of truth clarifying, I met many people ranging from friends who are the same age as I am to old people whom I call grandparents. Among them, there are undergraduates, students in middle school, policemen, Internet administrators, and so on. Some are curious, some are indifferent to Dafa, and some have very deep misunderstandings about Dafa. I often talk to different types of people in different ways. For example, one day, when I talked about Dafa with a man, he said to me: "Do you know who I am? I am a policeman!" I typed a smiley face to him and said: "Really? That is great. It is hard for me to find a policeman right now. I'll just tell you, you should not persecute Falun Gong practitioners. They are all good people." I talked to him a lot. Finally, he changed his thoughts about Dafa. Usually, I made friends with them first and related Dafa from my own life. However, sometimes I talked about Dafa from the voice of a third party, which also had good effects. When I explain the facts, I do not like to make the atmosphere tense. Usually I type all kinds of smiling faces to the other person. Sometimes, I joke with him and show that I care about him, which makes him feel Dafa practitioners are not that rigid but really want to help from their hearts. For example, one day after I clarified the truth with a man, he asked my age. He said, "You don't seem like 14." I told him that it surely was my real age. He said: "Actually, if you turn around the numbers of your age, I am still older than you." I joked: "I am almost 15. In that case, if you turn it around, am I older than you then!"
Many times my chat room friends have said to me: "You are so young. You do not understand many things. It is only important for you to study hard." To that I reply: " I may not understand some things. But I know the most basic things. I know "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" is good. I know people who cultivate "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" are right. People who persecute a group of harmless good people are wrong. However, that man who is in his 70's and also once worked as Chairman of China does not know the most basic things at all!" The other person is sometimes left speechless or changes the topic.
Often the chat room friends thought that the evil Jiang represented China. When I mentioned the lies Jiang spread, they criticized me for not loving the home country and being against the government, etc. I just said: "Jiang cannot represent the government, even more, he cannot represent China. If he can represent China, China is disgraced overseas. Do you know that he suddenly stood up and sang in an international conference? When he visited Chicago, Jiang did not enter the hotel he had booked by the front door or the even the side door, but by the back door. Jiang was afraid to see a group of virtuous Falun Gong practitioners.
During the course of sharing the facts I think what is most important is sending righteous thoughts and studying the Fa well. When I began clarifying the truth, I just sent righteous thoughts when the other person abused Falun Gong terribly. As expected, the other person had no reply for a long time. Moreover, studying the Fa well helps me keep a harmonious and merciful state of mind during the course of explaining the facts. I would not get upset over a little thing. When my state of mind was not stable, what I said to the other person simply had less effect, or even had an adverse effect. So before I tell people the facts each time, my mother always urges me to study the Fa or listen to the Fa first.
The above are my experiences in spreading the truth in chat rooms. Next, I want to relate some stories about clarifying the truth in school. One occurred last year when I was in eighth grade. It was my first year after transferring to this school. There are not many Chinese students in this school. There are only three in the grade I am in. The other two Chinese students do not know how to speak English very well. So when I talked to my American friends in English, and my exam scores were excellent, both of them were astonished. One time, in a history class, time passed but our teacher did not come to the classroom. Someone suggested asking a boy to tell a story. Then another boy interrupted him and said that I should tell some stories about China. In the beginning, I was a bit shy, but I realized it was a very good chance to tell my classmates the facts. I could not lose such a precious chance simply because I was shy. So I said: "OK. I'll just tell you a story that happened in China." I talked about Dafa and mentioned the persecution. When I spoke about people ranging from an 8-month-old infant to an over-70-year-old senior citizen, who were tortured to death, they looked at me with serious and earnest faces. During this time, there was also some interference. Someone raised questions, but others were impatient and said to him: "You let her finish first." So, in a few minutes, I told the whole class about Dafa's situation in China. Just after I finished, the assistant principle came in. My classmates told him I had told them the stories of what is happening in China. The assistant principle nodded and said: "Good, anyway that is also history." I deeply experienced Master's mercy and encouragement. I also thank Master for giving me such a good opportunity.
Another time, also last year, there were many places where practitioners collected signatures to rescue Charles Li. We also did this in our area. A practitioner encouraged my friend and me to go to school to collect signatures. At the beginning, I was a bit nervous and shy. When it was the time for the fourth class, my friend asked the teacher to read the introduction on the signature list, and he signed his name without any hesitation. I was very encouraged and also ashamed of my own fear. So, after the class, it was lunchtime, and my friend and I started collecting signatures of people we knew and did not know. However, because I did not let my fear go, my friend did better than I. Later, with the continuous hints Master gave me, under the situation that Master reminded and encouraged me even through ordinary people's mouths, my friend and I collected in total more than 100 signatures.
This year, I transferred to a high school. It is a totally new school. There are new teachers and classmates. Some have already heard about the Dafa truths and some have not. I recall one time during English class our teacher mentioned a main character of a book. For the sake of justice and conscience, he would rather endure torture, and was not willing to give up the belief he held fast to, which made me reflect on Dafa. So after class was over that day when I passed by the classroom, I saw her sitting there alone. I just walked in. At the beginning, I just spoke to her about my grades. Then I said to her: "Teacher, what you talked about in today's class reminded me of something happening in China. Do you know Falun Gong? It is a practice to teach people to cultivate Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance. It is welcome in more than 60 countries in the world. However, in China, it is suppressed unreasonably and propaganda is broadcast about it. Falun Gong practitioners are detained, even persecuted to death, just because they wanted to speak up to defend it. They are not against the government. They only wish the government would give them the freedom and environment to practice that which belonged to them originally." When I spoke about this point, the teacher nodded and said: "I see, it is not against the government." I continued to talk. When I mentioned that the 8-month-old infant was tortured to death, she suddenly said: "It seems I read what you said somewhere. It seems there once was some information regarding this in my mailbox." I became speechless for a moment. I recalled it could be the Dafa practitioner who once took over a class for an absent teacher and put the materials in her mailbox. And then I gave her a smile. When I mentioned that the evil Jiang did not dare to enter the hotel by the front door, just because he was afraid to pass a group of Falun Gong practitioners wearing yellow clothes, the teacher looked amused and laughed. In just 10 short minutes, another life knew the truth. I am really happy for her. There are some other stories. For example, a classmate got a truth-clarifying flier a long time ago. One day when we were in school, he suddenly said to me: "I read the flier about Falun Gong at home one day. I read that China arrested a person just because he unfurled a banner. It really was not right." I smiled at him and agreed.
During the course of sharing the facts I also let go of my own attachments, including fear and shyness. However, whenever I am hesitant, I always recall Master's mercy and encouragement for me to let go of my fear, expose the persecution in China to more people, and show Dafa's beauty.
Thank you Master! Thank you everyone.
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