(Clearwisdom.net) In Colorado we just finished three organ harvesting forums hosted by university student organizations, including two Amnesty International Chapters, Asian-Pacific American Law, "Never Again," the Student Diversity Council, Asian-Pacific Islander, the Black Student Union, and the Latino Student Union. The success of the forums made me realize that ordinary people are ready to help us expose the evil crimes of organ harvesting and the persecution of Falun Gong in China.
Master said in "Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference at the U.S. Capital:"
"People with predestined relationships and those who can be saved can be made to--made to by Master's Law Bodies, righteous gods, or the immense field that Dafa has formed in the world--appear right before you in any of a range of settings, providing them with a chance to learn the truth. But you have to carry it out, and it doesn't work if you're not out there doing things."
This is exactly what I experienced while coordinating the organ harvesting forums. Many people suddenly stepped forward out of nowhere to help expose the persecution.
Last November I was invited to the Amnesty International meeting at the University of Colorado in Boulder (CU-Boulder) to speak about the persecution of Falun Gong. I showed the students a seven-minute video on organ harvesting and answered their questions. In the end I asked whether they would like to host a forum exposing the organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners. They were all highly motivated and set a date for the forum right then and there. They even said they'd pay all the expenses and host it in the best ballroom on campus. I was a bit surprised because over the years we've always volunteered to pay for things out of our own pockets. This was the first time that another group wanted to cover the expenses.
While working with the students I came to realize how dedicated and serious they were about the issue. According to the CU-Boulder Chapter of Amnesty International, this was one of the biggest events they've hosted in the past several years. They spent quite some time gathering thousands of signatures in order to get the funding. They ended up getting enough money to pay for airfare to Colorado for David Matas, Erping Zhang, Charles Lee, and Wenyi Wang, plus all the other expenses of the forum, totaling more than $7,000. They advertised the forum in the local newspaper and printed 3,000 flyers and posters for the 26,000 student population and invited us to help hand out the flyers. We printed another 7,000 flyers using our own money to reach more students.
We utilized this opportunity to inform professors and student organizations from other campuses, principals, social studies and history teachers from elementary schools, middle schools and high schools, members of the media, transplant doctors and associated organizations, national, state, and local governments, as well as the local communities. Shortly, seven other university organizations from the University of Denver and the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs responded to support us and wanted to host the event on their campuses as well. Many student organizations pulled together to co-sponsor the forums on each campus. There were other student organizations that also wanted to co-sponsor but didn't get organized in time. The Speaker of the House and a U.S. Congressman wrote supportive letters for the events and called for an independent, direct and unimpeded investigation of the organ harvesting issue in China.
We were hoping to perform an organ harvesting reenactment to further promote the forum to the students, but we ran into numerous obstacles, including bad weather and the requirement to meet with eight different people in order to get a permit. By the time we got the permit it was the afternoon before the forum, so we ended up using our backup plan. We held a 10-foot banner and played the song "Set Them Free" while handing out flyers. It drew everyone's attention and people were quite willing to accept the flyers.
The day before the forum four of us were standing in the freezing, snowy weather holding the banner and distributing flyers. Two students and two professional looking cameramen came and took pictures of us, perhaps because it was rare to see people standing outside in that type of weather. We also placed signs around the campus lawns to promote the forum. Though it was very difficult to quickly get approval for the use of campus grounds, we were able to clarify the truth to the eight people we had to speak to, and they were all very supportive of our forum, especially the campus police. We also got permits to place posters on bulletin boards in campus dorms and buildings. In addition we displayed the torture art exhibit at two campuses during the promotional period. It drew so much attention that Amnesty International at the University of Denver had to change to a larger room.
Many ordinary people showed tremendous support. For instance, one engineering student saw that we only had three people to hand out flyers to the rushing crowd of students, so he came over to us. He wanted to help us situate the banner poles through the icy snow so we wouldn't have to hold them. He also asked me to email him the forum invitation so he could forward it to his email lists. At the office supply store we encountered a lot of strange things while printing the flyers, signs, and posters. When the printer wouldn't print correctly, the clerk spent hours trying to figure out what was wrong. He came to work very early the next morning, above and beyond the range of his responsibility, to finish the lamination so that we'd get the posters on time.
During that time I often had to rectify my bad notions. For example, one day an Amnesty International member asked me how many people I thought would attend the forum. She didn't want to overestimate the number and end up with too many empty seats, as it wouldn't look good. I told her, "Maybe 100 or 150, but we should plan for a few more just in case." She was shocked by my response. She said that she was expecting at least 600, and that the building administration said that the event could potentially attract more than one thousand people. Right away I looked inside and recognized my notion. I was limited by pessimistic thoughts, just because we haven't had so many ordinary people attend our events over the years. I needed to rectify these bad notions and thoughts and have righteous thoughts to help more people be saved. I realized I shouldn't be attached to the results but simply try my best to inform people about the forums.
For myself, I certainly had many cultivation issues to deal with during the events. A few days before the forums, the majority of the practitioners dropped out of the promotion efforts. Some of them thought it was too much work, a few went on vacation, and others got too busy with work or had other urgent projects to work on. With only three days left and three practitioners to promote the forums it was no longer possible to put on the reenactment. At this point I felt really overwhelmed and disappointed. Then I realized that I was attached to depending on the practitioners I thought were the most skilled or reliable. They were the ones who dropped out. The new practitioners and those who weren't as skilled proved to be the most motivated. They wanted to help from deep in their hearts. Even though I had to spend hours providing transportation and training for them, I was extremely touched by their eagerness to help.
More of my attachments were brought to the surface at a Fa study the day after the forum. Of course, when one is least expecting criticism, there it is. One practitioner told me that I'd offended her during the forums because I put too much pressure on others and had unrealistic expectations. At that moment my mind wasn't clear and calm and I didn't take a step back. I felt that the other practitioners hadn't done their best and then criticized my work instead. As the conversation went on I remembered that Master told us that we needed to be able to take criticism, yet my heart was moved and I didn't pass the test well.
Master said in "Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles,"
"As cultivators, think about it--I've talked about this in Zhuan Falun and in my earlier teachings on Fa--I have said, 'Don't hit back when hit, don't talk back when insulted.' When others mistreat you, you should respond with just a smile and let that be the end of it. And when others are embroiled in conflict and you are just an onlooker, you should think about it, 'How can I do better? If I were in that position, would I be able to control my xinxing and face the criticism and disapproval like a cultivator?' Cultivation is about looking inside yourself. Whether you are right or wrong, you should examine yourself. Cultivation is about getting rid of human attachments. If you always reject reproaches and criticism, always point your fingers at others, and always refute others' disapproval and criticism, is that cultivating? How is that cultivating? You have grown used to focusing on other people's shortcomings, and never take examining your own self seriously. When others' cultivation one day meets with success, what about you? Isn't Master hoping that you are cultivating well? Why won't you accept criticism, and why do you keep focusing on other people? Why not cultivate inward and examine your own self? Why do you get agitated when you are criticized? How many of you seated here can keep at ease when someone points at you out of the blue and berates you? How many of you can stay unruffled and search for the reason on your part when faced with others' criticism and chiding?"
The next couple of days I tried to further look within to see why so many practitioners weren't working together as one body for the event. One thing I realized was that prior to the event, due to the extremely bad whether, we hadn't kept up with group Fa study. We only communicated via email. Additionally, I was attached to self and reputation. Over the years I've seen these attachments in other practitioners, but failed to cultivate it out of myself. I was also attached to my high expectations. I expected others to work hard and contribute to the project. I never thought that I was pressuring others because I always asked them if they would like to do a certain task instead of telling them, but the practitioners could sense the expectation behind my words and emails. Indeed, many opportunities are arranged for us to cultivate while we do Dafa work.
We met with challenges and interference throughout the planning stages, and the day of the forum didn't go quite as well as we'd hoped. Several weeks prior to our events we were hit with one of the worst winter storms in decades. The day of the forum it snowed a few hours and the temperature dropped to below freezing, causing terrible traffic jams. This prevented a lot of people from coming, though we did have about 300 people show up to our main event, a hundred more to the University of Denver, and a smaller group at UCCS. More than four major media told Amnesty International that they were coming to report but didn't show up. However, "Univision Colorado," a major Spanish TV station, came to interview a Spanish-speaking practitioner that flew in for the event. The University of Denver campus newspaper The Clarion published a half-page article on its February 6 front page. Also, after the forum the main campus library was eager to display our "Truth, Compassion, Tolerance" Art Exhibit, and even helped us promote it.
All in all, I hope that through my sharing I'm able to encourage practitioners from other areas to start communicating with local student organizations (especially Amnesty International) to see if they might host similar forums. If we can mobilize the student population, who are future professionals, lawyers, and leaders, they'll have a great impact on many people in the future. More importantly they'll be positioning themselves positively for the future.
These are my current understandings. Please point out any shortcomings. Thank you.
Heshi.
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