(Clearwisdom.net)
Take off
With dust on our shoes from our last trip to Washington, D.C., we packed again and took off for New York. Without any hesitation, more than 20 Falun Dafa practitioners set off on a trip in two cars to clarify the truth about Falun Gong.
Realizing the significance of this trip, the practitioners made great efforts to send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate possible interferences. Before we started, a rainstorm hit and we were forced to drive slowly. The next day we went to pick up a fellow practitioner, but the street was blocked for a local festival. We left at 11:30 p.m. but didn't "officially" start for New York City until 3:00 a.m.
One practitioner said, "The more the evil fears something, the greater opportunity it is for us to eliminate the evil. We should be diligent in sending forth righteous thoughts during the trip."
First day
On Saturday afternoon we arrived at the Chinese Consulate in New York City. A newly built gray "shell" covered the original building, and there was no sign outside the consulate. One practitioner said, "Nothing is coincidental. Everything in this dimension is a manifestation of changes in other dimensions." If the perpetrators here build a "fortress," the evil entities in other dimensions must be gathering in large quantities. We briefly exchanged understandings and decided to eliminate the evil completely since they are concentrated. We felt a battle was about to begin in New York in other dimensions, a process of completely destroying the evil. The process of eliminating the evil is the also the process of us rectifying ourselves and maintaining righteous thoughts and righteous actions.
We voluntarily sat in rows outside the consulate and sent forth righteous thoughts every 30 minutes, during which we did the exercises. Practitioners from Taiwan sat on the left in three rows, and several practitioners stood in the back holding up a banner. Many of them had gone to Washington, D.C. for the Falun Dafa conference, and then they went to Boston for the parade, followed by this trip to New York. Their busy schedule did not affect their righteous spirits and compassionate demeanor. Dafa practitioners' righteous thoughts can destroy all evil, and no steel wall can prevent us from accomplishing our mission.
Sending forth righteous thoughts in front of Chinese Consulate
The second day
In the morning we drove to Central Park to clarify the truth. We heard a large-scale festival was going to be held there and many people were expected to attend, but only a few people were there when we arrived. Soon it began to rain. We grew a little uneasy because it is difficult to distribute flyers in the rain.
People lining up for getting Dafa truth clarification materials
When we walked around the park, we saw many people standing in a long line in the middle of the park. Later we learned they were waiting to see a show. We arrived at the time when they were waiting to enter but the show had not yet begun. We thanked Master for his benevolence because he gave these people an opportunity to learn the truth. What a great opportunity!
Despite the rain, two young practitioners who spoke English well left to distribute truth clarification flyers, and the rest of us stayed to do the exercises. The oldest one among us was a 74-year-old practitioner from Taiwan. He said to every passerby, "Falun Dafa is good" and gave him or her a flyer he carefully kept under his raincoat. Many people took the flyer. He said to us, "We should tell them Falun Dafa is good, because this will eliminate the evil. Even if they don't take the flyer, we should still let them hear 'Falun Dafa is good'."
The two young practitioners worked with each other. One of them held an umbrella while sending forth righteous thoughts, the other one passed out flyers to people in line. They walked from the beginning to the end of the line. The majority of the people took the flyer and began reading before the show started.
When we were trying to decide where to go next, we had a difference of opinions. Some wanted to go to the Chinese Consulate to eliminate interference in other dimensions with righteous thoughts, others wanted to go to downtown and hand out flyers, and several wanted to stay in the park. Each person had his reasons, which were well justified. One practitioner said, "Yesterday, local practitioners said they hoped we practitioners from Toronto can take charge of clarifying the truth in Central Park. Since we have always been cooperative and are not attached to our own opinions, then I guess we should stay in Central Park as the local practitioners had hoped."
Children: Remember "Falun Dafa is good!"
Frog exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History - not a coincidence
When we were looking for a place to do the Dafa exercises we saw a huge picture of a frog hanging in front of the American Museum of Natural History, and we learned that over 200 species of live frogs were on exhibit at the museum. It didn't seem like a coincidence to us. We chose to stay there to send forth righteous thoughts and to clarify the truth.
We sent forth righteous thoughts at every hour and during each hour we did the exercises and distributed truth clarification materials to people visiting the museum. Many people were surprised to learn about the persecution, and they thought it was ridiculous that such persecution was targeting such a peaceful practice.
Side-story I: "Let me give each one of you an entrance ticket"
Two museum workers took our flyers and read them. One of them said, "Can you not only give me a flyer but also explain this to me? I want to listen to you talk." We talked to him for a long time as we explained to him the wonders of Dafa and the cruelty of this persecution. We also told him we had to save money and gave up our weekend to come to New York City just to tell people "Falun Dafa is good. The persecution must be stopped."
He was deeply touched and asked us repeatedly whether we would return on the next day and he told us he wanted to give each of us an entrance ticket on the following day. Because our itinerary was undetermined at that point, we could not give him a positive answer. We could see he was truly sincere and felt sorry when he heard our answer. Many Dafa practitioners left their footprints in many places on their trip to validate the Fa and clarify the truth. Many times they passed by famous tourist attraction sites without stopping to enjoy themselves, as they knew people were waiting to hear the truth about Dafa, and they knew fellow practitioners in Mainland China are doing the same thing under much more perilous and difficult circumstances.
During short breaks we said, "We are clarifying the truth and trying to make the truth clear, so when we give out flyers, we should grasp every opportunity to tell people about the truth and not assume that they will necessarily read it." We reviewed Master's scripture,
"As Dafa disciples tell people the facts,
It's like sharp swords shooting out together from their mouths,
Shredding apart the rotten demons' lies.
Lose no time and save them, hurry up and tell them."("Hurry Up And Tell Them")
Side-story II: "I'm thinking about how to get more people to help you guys"
One passerby who learned the truth suggested that we go to another place in Manhattan because there were more people there and they have power and influence. He said, "I'm thinking how to get more people to help you guys." We thanked him and said, "We have no political pursuits, and we only hope other kind-hearted people like you would know that Falun Dafa is good and the persecution is wrong and it must be stopped. From this perspective, you are just as important to us as those powerful people." He didn't expect our reply and was moved beyond speech for a while. Then he said he wished us much good luck before he left.
When the car arrived to pick us up, we had finished giving out all pamphlets and newspapers.
Our contingent
The Third Day
Today we were in Central Park again. When we arrived at the park, the other group of Toronto practitioners had already been there and had been doing the Falun Gong exercises for over an hour. So we went to another entrance to the park where there was an open area. We set up display boards and hung up the banner. Two practitioners distributed flyers while the rest did the exercises and sent forth righteous thoughts. Our effect was very good. Most people passing by took our flyers, and many of them stopped to talk with us to learn more, which was exactly what we hoped for.
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|   People come one after another |
|   Many people want information about a local exercise site so they can learn Falun Gong |
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A word about the older practitioners in our group: From early morning until 8 p.m., they were doing the exercises, distributing the flyers, and sending forth the righteous thoughts. Even when our young people felt tired, these practitioners still had very high spirits, and none of them wanted to take a rest. They said, "We came a long way to get here; what are we here for? Why not use every minute fully?"
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|   The man received a flyer, and walked a little distance to see our display boards and learn more about Falun Gong. |
Another practitioner and I left the group for a while and went to a place that was away from our event site. We distributed the flyers there, but the effect was not as good as it had been with the rest of the group. The people seemed isolated from us and were indifferent to us. So we joined the others. While some of us were doing the exercises, others were distributing flyers, and the effect was very good. We wanted to grasp every chance to talk with people. When people were listening to us, they could also see what Falun Gong is by watching practitioners doing the exercises, or looking at the pictures of Falun Gong around the world on our display boards. When we told people about the persecution, they were very willing to read the flyers they held in their hands. This method turned out to be very effective.
We will probably only meet once in our lifetime, please take this blessed message and keep this precious moment in your heart forever.
Today we heard many moving stories.
The story of a young man named Tom: Tom is a 16-year-old African American. He seemed a little shy. Both his grandfather and grandmother have some Chinese in their heritage. From the very beginning, when we started our event in the morning, he was standing nearby watching us. We gave him a flyer, and he looked like he had just been given a precious gift. He carefully read every word again and again. He wanted to talk with every one of us and said, "Tell me more about Falun Gong, more please." He picked up one of each kind of flyer we had, including flyers in Chinese. We gave him a two-page flyer full of pictures. He read it, finished it, and read it again.
Tom: "Please tell me more about Falun Gong, I want to hear more."
Tom was like a child; he followed our practitioner who was distributing the flyers. Very soon, he knew how to say "Falun Dafa Hao" and "Zhen-Shan-Ren" in Chinese. Later, he practiced in Chinese by saying "Zhen-Shan-Ren is really good, Falun Dafa is wonderful, really good. You practitioners are good, you are good people."
The young man's innocence and purity of longing for the truth of Falun Gong and loving of it moved me to tears. Every sentient being, do you know this lifetime is for receiving Dafa? Please do not miss this precious opportunity. As Dafa practitioners, how many sentient beings are waiting for us to tell them the blessed message of Dafa? We cannot slow down or refuse to overcome all difficulties, or be reluctant to give up our attachments that make all those troubles in our Fa- rectification activities.
More and more people came to our display boards to learn about Falun Gong. The lovely Tom helped us and told people, "Falun Dafa is wonderful." In the afternoon, Tom took a bunch of flyers, walked to the center of the sidewalk, and stretched out his hand to give every pedestrian a flyer. He distributed all of the flyers very quickly. When he handed over the last flyer that he had, he was so pleased. He said to us when he returned, "I told them Falun Dafa is good, I told them Falun Dafa is good!" Then, he took another bunch of flyers to distribute, and told everyone he met "Falun Dafa is good!"
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In the evening, our car came to pick us up. When Tom realized that we had to leave, the young man who had stayed with us for the whole day reluctantly left.
"I want to learn right now"
Many people wanted to learn Falun Gong after watching our practitioners doing the exercises.
A street pianist who was playing nearby read a flyer. He waited and watched us for a while. Then, he came over and said, "I want to learn Falun Gong right now, even if it's just a little bit, I still want to learn." We taught him the second exercise. He learned very quickly and his movements were very accurate.
  Pianist: Look, is my "holding the wheel" accurate? |
|   This young man immediately starts to learn Falun Gong. |
|   I can feel the turning of the Falun! |
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