(Clearwisdom.net) The publication of the Nine Commentaries On the Communist Party gave us another method to save a greater number of sentient beings. As a Falun Dafa practitioner since 1997, I naturally felt that I should be instrumental in using the Nine Commentaries. I volunteered as an organizer of "Nine Commentaries" seminars. I wanted to teach ways that would allow us to clarify the truth from more angles and levels, so we could reach more people.
The Communist evil spirit originated in Europe, and this is also where the Communist stronghold began to fall because of the changing cosmic climate. Europeans were affected relative deeply by the Communist evil spirit, and that is why people hate it more because of their own suffering.
During more than thirty "Nine Commentaries" seminars in Europe, many groups and individuals expressed the desire to organize joint seminars. Behind every volunteer, there was a process in how we clarified the truth to people and how they associated more and more with Falun Dafa practitioners. In the meantime, practitioners from Europe and North America formed teams to support and compliment each other.
The "Nine Commentaries" seminars help people and organizations who suffered from the persecution of the CCP, were involved in the democracy movements, or who had studied the history of the evil CCP join hands. Among those standing with us were mayors, leaders of political parties, congressmen, ambassadors, human rights activists, political scholars, historians, business managers, attorneys, groups who are under persecution, sinologists, writers, reporters and representatives of other overseas groups and different organizations.
During the upcoming seminars in four northern European countries, the main subject we will cover is the "CCP's organ harvesting from living Falun Dafa practitioners." Participants will include doctors and medical personnel. During the discussions about the communist dictatorship and the evil nature of CCP, they will gradually come to understand the true reason behind the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong.
1. The Purpose is to Save Sentient Beings. The Procedure of Clarifying the Truth is Essential to the Process.
When we first organized the "Nine Commentaries" seminars, some of the practitioners became impatient and much too eager to see results, instead of clarifying the truth more deeply. Therefore, at some of the seminars, speakers, listeners and media reporters were practitioners. This situation made me very worried. This effort was not for reporting purposes, or for bringing the situation to someone's attention. We are saving sentient beings. More people were needed. The procedure of clarifying the truth is a must. Otherwise, we only were doing an everyday person's job.
Therefore I'm committing this to writing so every one can learn from it. Based on results and lessons learned, I prepared a list of every step required for the seminar preparation, including topics and key points. I hope to provide a reference point for practitioners. Before preparing for a seminar in a given country, we make sure that everyone understands why we hold the seminars and how to prepare for them. During the process, we discuss and share experiences on truth clarification and our personal cultivation. In European countries, there are not many practitioners, especially older practitioners. We faced many problems, so we had to spend more time and work harder.
At the beginning some of the practitioners were afraid of contacting politicians. They were trembling before making phone calls. Some practitioners only managed to say what they prepared in advance but did not communicate with the listener. Some lost confidence because of failing to invite one famous person and so on.
Facing such problems, we studied the Fa diligently and shared thoughts. In time we worked out our problems. We realized that the main problem is "self." If we think of "self" first, then we do things like a human being. Human beings have limited abilities. If we put the Fa first, emphasize saving other beings, then no limitations can stop us. When we stand upright, our attitude improves and we hold clearer thoughts. Then, when we go to clarify the truth, we achieve good results.
Although the "Nine Commentaries" seminars rely on ordinary people's methods, it is not ordinary people's work. When we contact politicians and human rights groups, we need to keep our righteous thoughts and know clearly our purpose. When we truly put our hearts into saving sentient beings, but not on what we will say or do, the Fa will give us wisdom.
Organizing the "Nine Commentaries" seminars is a great opportunity to clarify the truth and save sentient beings. At the beginning the "Epoch Times" was the organizer of such seminars. Later, coordinators, including chairmen of different parties, congressmen, leaders of human rights groups and other groups took on this task. They began to understand many of the truths when planning the event. They supported the seminars by providing meeting locations, equipment, translators, food, drinks, and so on. They spread information about the "Nine Commentaries" seminars to their colleagues and friends. Some of the groups even published the entire "Nine Commentaries" on their websites. Some presidents, former presidents, foreign ministers, and parliamentary presidents sent letters to show their support.
2. Use Righteous Thoughts to Eliminate Disturbance
Before preparing for seminars, or before sending invitations to politicians and governors, we first research as to how much this country and people had been involved in overturning the communist power. Based on each country's background and their past actions, we adjust the information in the letters. Through this, we remind the officials of their duties, as well as giving us a clearer target for our truth clarification efforts.
The people we invite are not practitioners. Thus we need to be very patient when we clarify the truth. We are trying to help them understand the truth, as we are saving them. We are doing the most upright thing in this universe. We are the leaders in this effort, so we should hold the confidence of leaders.
I help local practitioners prepare a plan for the seminar in English, which includes the background, purpose, meaning and information on speakers. Local practitioners, as members of the preparatory committee, invite politicians, human rights group leaders and others to the seminar, and use this opportunity to clarify the truth and spread the "Nine Commentaries." This way we let them further understand the "Nine Commentaries," and learn more about Falun Dafa practitioners.
When holding the "Nine Commentaries" seminar in the Ukraine, the CCP embassy heard about it. They asked the Ukraine [government] to cancel the seminar, using the rationale that foreigners cannot hold such large scale seminars without permission. Staff from the CCP embassy even called a local practitioner and asked him to cancel the seminar. We remained calm. We knew that we were defeating the evil and saving sentient beings. This is what the evil fears the most. The Fa is here. Nothing can stop us.
We immediately visited the office in charge of permits for such events and clarified the truth to the staff. The officers who understood the truth told us that our co-organizer was a famous Ukraine human rights group, which of course has the right to hold any international meeting in the country. This told us of the importance on having multiple organizers for the "Nine Commentaries" seminars.
The CCP embassy realized that they could not stop us. They came up with something else. They gathered those who still held communists ideals and those communist party members who were still deceived by the communist theory. They convinced them to hold a demonstration outside the building where the seminar was held.
When we arrived 40 minutes before the start of the seminar, we saw a few dozen communist party members waiting outside the gate. Almost everyone carried a bloody red flag more than two meters high. In the beginning we were amused by their display. We walked to the entrance in front of their eyes. When I saw in many of the faces the hardship they had suffered, I felt pity and pain in my heart. They are so pitiful. They have human bodies, but they missed the Fa. And they are still being used by the evil communism.
We walked toward them. We used this opportunity to clarify the truth. We told them of the crimes the CCP has committed against the Chinese people and how many Chinese people had suffered under the CCP's control. With each sentence that was translated, we saw the expressions on their faces change. One practitioner distributed the "Nine Commentaries" newspapers in the local language to them. Everyone got a newspaper. They were reading the paper carefully while carrying their bloody red flags carelessly. It was very quiet. Time had stopped. The appearance of this group of people attracted the attention of some people. Some people obtained the news of the "Nine Commentaries" seminar at that time and decided to come to the meeting.
Last year, on November 26, a "Nine Commentaries" seminar for three Baltic Sea countries was held in the capital of Latvia. The title of the seminar was "2005 -- The Baltic Sea Road - a World Without Communism." Since we practitioners were basing our actions on the Fa and we accepted the truth clarification as our fundamental task, six famous human right groups from the Baltic Sea area gladly accepted the invitations from the "The Epoch Times." They agreed to be the co-organizers of the seminar. Mr. Peteris Simsons, member of the Latvian parliament and drafter of the "Communism and Nazism are Criminals" law of the country, hosted the seminar. During contacts with Falun Dafa practitioners, they began to admire their selfless spirit. The dean of the Museum of War provided a free meeting place with all technical support.
A representative asked if we had a resolution. We immediately realized that this was a reminder for us. Thus, we drafted a resolution overnight, with the forms of other resolutions as references. One of the
practitioners thought it focused too much on Falun Gong. After sharing, we agreed to change two areas which left room for discussion. When voting for the resolution, all participants took part in the discussion with great interest. Practitioners kept sending righteous thoughts and let their understanding side grow stronger. They discussed the resolution sentence by sentence, and asked us for detailed explanations from time to time. They changed back the places which we changed previously. During the discussion, all participants understood more about the truth of the CCP's persecution on Falun Gong.
At last, a resolution of the international seminar on "2005 The Road of the Baltic Sea - a World Without Communism" was passed by 8 organizations and nearly 100 participants. This is a good example of clarifying the truth through seminars.
3. Cultivation when Coordinating and being Coordinated
Along with the speed of the Fa-rectification process, I joined more and more truth clarification projects. I told myself, when I join a new project, it should not affect the projects I was already involved in. If every project needs 1000f my energy, then the Fa will give me 200%, 300%, or even more energy to do all the projects well. We are the lives who come to help Teacher in the Fa-rectification.
When there are so many projects and so little time, when complaints and criticism pile up on top of each other, it is easy to give up. But I won't allow myself to quit, because I'm a student of our Teacher. Teacher shows us and give us the opportunities, which means we can do it, we can do it well, and we can cultivate through it at the same time.
In my everyday life I am a manager. This provides more conditions for truth clarification, and it also creates obstacles for my improvement during cultivation, since the notions from it make me believe that I'm infallible.
I noticed that when dealing with something important, difficult, or urgent, I can keep righteous thoughts, a pure heart, and the results are usually good. But sometimes afterwards I get the idea like "see, how capable I am." I told myself right away that this is not a thought from myself! The same situation has come up a few times, usually after I complete a task.
This made me realize that cultivation is serious. The level our cultivation reaches does not depend on how many things we have done. Cultivation is a process of purifying oneself. In fact, our understanding side knows very well what doesn't comply with the Fa. If we tolerate our non-righteous thoughts, evil will immediately take the opportunity to attack us. What they do is to look for our loopholes and only at that time they become active. Our abilities are all given by our Teacher. What can we show off? When the righteous thoughts are strong, this kind of human notion will disappear.
Among many Fa-rectification projects, we are coordinators as well as being coordinated. It is necessary for us to be kind, patient, and tolerant with other practitioners and people. I feel that because we cultivate as human, every one of us has something which needs to be cultivated. Even when there is a good coordinator who cultivates well, Teacher will have other people bring shortcomings to their attention, letting us see where we are not pure yet, and reminding us to follow the Fa at all times.
When we are being coordinated, we usually can see the insufficiency of the coordinator. Some are timid and always fear to offend other people. Some fall asleep when sending righteous thoughts. Some talk impatiently to other people. Some cannot settle on an idea, and so on. In fact, as long as the person understands the Fa, uses righteous thoughts on major things, doesn't draw back when needed, he or she is already a mature Falun Dafa practitioner.
Of course, not all are on the same level and everyone has different duties and looks at things from different angles. So everyone will be facing different tests and hardships, and facing demons coming from different levels. A true practitioner will weather all resistance, criticism and blame, cultivate
him/herself unconditionally, and use the standard of the Fa to measure him/herself. This may not show on the surface, and is not for others to see. No matter how one cultivates, people can always find the obvious weaknesses in others.
For a coordinator, one should work hard to get rid of weaknesses. Even if it is a slow process, it still is individual cultivation. Some problems, such as not understanding the Fa, not joining group cultivation, not participating in group Fa study and other activities, lacking righteous thoughts on important things, gossiping about others and so on, develop from all kinds of human notions. They intentionally make it difficult for others, and are the principle problems. They will us slow down as one body.
A coordinator, first of all, should keep righteous thoughts and a righteous heart at all times. During conflicts, especially when being treated unjustly, misunderstood and blamed, we still need to unconditionally cultivate ourselves. When I was treated unjustly and when my attachment was deeply touched, I wept several times, and I sometimes was angry. What should I do? But when I asked myself: "Who would be happy to see this? Our Teacher? Or demons?" as soon as I thought this, I calmed down. My righteous thoughts prevailed.
Above are my experiences and understandings from the recent preparation of the "Nine Commentaries" seminars. I know there are many things I need to cultivate, but I am confident that I can be a qualified Falun Dafa practitioner.
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