(Clearwisdom.net) Greetings Master, greetings fellow practitioners,
I want to share my experiences in using the Eutelsat incident to clarify the facts to the government. Please point out anything inappropriate.
On June 16th this year, Eutelsat, which is head-quartered in Paris, shut down NTDTVs broadcast signals to mainland China using the excuse of experiencing technical issues. As a result, the Chinese public lost the only Chinese language TV channel where they could learn the truth. I enlightened that this gave us an opportunity to widely and thoroughly clarify the facts to the government, the media and society.
As Master said in "Fa Teaching at the U.S. Capital" (2007),
"Really, no matter what the old forces do, that's what will happen under the effect of the cosmos's [law of] mutual-generation mutual-inhibition--whatever it does will amount to advertising on the Dafa disciples' behalf. Let's take, for example, the many projects Dafa disciples are doing. As soon as the evil interferes, the forces that are upright and good emerge in turn. And it's the same with whatever the bad people do: As soon as they smear us, or want to do something bad and stir up trouble, it inherently has the effect of expanding our influence."
A few truth-clarification activities at the European Parliament
Five Members of European Parliament (MEP) drafted a written declaration in the European Parliament at the end of September to support NTDTVs broadcast to China via Eutelsat. If it was signed by over half of the MEPs, the declaration would automatically become a resolution by the European Parliament. Using the drafted declaration, we collected signatures from over 700 MEPs across 27 EU membership countries, taking this opportunity to clarify the facts to them on a large scale. At the same time we expanded our government truth-clarification efforts to a larger scale.
From July to October, we clarified the facts on multiple occasions at the European Parliament locations in Brussels, Belgium and Strasbourg, France. Some practitioners held out banners outside of the Parliament building. Other practitioners went inside to clarify the facts to MEPs face-to-face. Taking full advantage of all current affairs to save sentient beings, e.g.: the recent poison milk scandal unfolding in mainland China, we exposed CCP press censorship and the information blockade in China,and pointed out the importance of NTDTV to Chinese people, to Europe and to the world.
On October 23rd, when the European Parliament decided to award its human rights prize to a Chinese human rights defender, we immediately made the connection to the Eutelsat incident, highlighting the importance of freedom of press and expression in China hoping that the MEPs would support NTDTV. Many MEPs responded strongly. At various press conferences, many MEPs, Reporters Without Borders and Tibetan groups all came to give supportive speeches.
Some assistants to the MEPs told us that the most effective way was to clarify the facts to each MEP one-on-one. Through practitioners' efforts, many MEPs learned the truth and supported NTDTV in different ways. For example, some MEPs directly wrote to, faxed or telephoned Eutelsat, demanding restoration of NTDTV's broadcast to China. Some MEPs contacted the European Council Committee in writing, asking the EU to apply pressure on Eutelsat. Some went in person to various French ministers to demand help in resuming NTDTV's broadcasting signals to China. Some used their personal connections to make the truth known to more people, such as sending news bulletins to the media, publishing articles on their own websites, etc. One MEP especially came out in the rain to meet and support appealing practitioners outside of the Parliament building. One assistant to a MEP persisted in phoning Eutelsat. In the end, a Eutelsat employee who did not want to disclose his name had to admit that the shutdown regarding NTDTV was indeed politically motivated.
While we were clarifying the facts to the VIPs, Eutelsat was also at work, writing to deceive them. Even when confronted with the evidence, Eutelsat still tried to deny and avoid responsibility. As we sent righteous thoughts to clear the evil elements behind this incident, we enlightened that truth-clarification to VIPs must be done persistently and thoroughly. Otherwise, even those who once supported us, if they do not know the facts very well they can still be deceived by the lies and turn around and say bad things about NTDTV. In the past we only rarely persisted in clarifying the facts to the government and the VIPs thoroughly. Often, only when a project came along, would we contact them, looking to them for help. When everything was over, we would not follow up and keep in touch with them. When the next project comes along, this process gets repeated, resulting in an undesirable effect.
These VIPs are the elite of ordinary human society. Due to their roles in human society, if we clarify the facts to them well, it will have a big impact in that society. Otherwise, the negative impact is huge as well. We should be considerate as to their attachments and notions but not be bogged down by them. We need to let go of the attachment to achieving results and human notions, clarify the facts to them with compassion and humility, and make friends with them. With a high-level understanding of the Fa, we will be able to harmonize the truth at the human level and let them position themselves using our compassion.
In July, when we were organizing a NTDTV press conference at the European Parliament, the Parliament was about to go into summer recess. The MEPs were extremely busy. After a group sharing discussion, practitioners decided that the conference should never the less go ahead at this critical moment.
We contacted a MEP that supports us, who promised to help immediately and assisted us in finding a venue. Subsequently with firm righteous thoughts, rather than a state of mind of forcing things to happen, we contacted some MEPs without attachment to results. We only had two days to prepare, which ordinarily would have been an impossible situation. Several MEPs happily accepted. Two of them even cancelled other pre-booked meetings to especially come to NTDTV's press conference to show support.
At present, 144 MEP have already signed the declaration to support NTDTV, though the number is still far from enough. Further truth clarification efforts without human notions or attachments and coordination as one-body are still required from all practitioners who appeal outside of the EU, who enter the EU buildings to clarify the facts to MEPs one-on-one, and also from those who can not attend in person but support with righteous thoughts.
Cultivation through coordination
While coordinating the truth clarification activities on October 18th and 19th at the European Parliament in Brusssels, I discussed details with coordinators from several other countries. During the discussions, due to lack of communications, I got the itinerary late and felt that it was not well thought out. I pointed out the shortcomings of a German coordinator and the problems this caused. Almost immediately I received a strongly worded reply arguing on just grounds. I thought, no matter what, I must point out her problems to avoid further mistakes. Thus, we engaged in a battle of words and blamed each other via emails. Another coordinator who was also in the copy, later said to me, "Look at the two of you, fighting with emails in the middle of the night...It does not solve the problem." At the time I was not thinking about how to progress together to the next step but rather stubbornly focused on assigning blame. I knew that my behavior was going against the Fa's principles but I pressed on.
Master said in "Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference at the U.S. Capital" (2006),
"When you encounter something, the best approach is not to charge forward and contend with others, push your way to the front, and rush forward to chase down the solution. Let go of your attachment, take a step back, and then resolve it. (Applause) If whenever something happens you instantly jump into who's right, whose problem it is, and how you have done, then while on the surface it looks like you are resolving the conflict or tension, in reality that's not the case at all. On the surface it looks plenty rational, but in reality that's not rational at all. You haven't taken a step back and fully cast off your attachment, and then thought the issue over. Only after a person calmly and peacefully withdraws from a conflict and then looks at it can he truly resolve it."
Often when I have not studied the Fa enough, various interferences, such as human notions, attachments to lust and comfort, would surface, causing delays in truth clarification work or barriers in fellow practitioners' cooperation. On the other hand, I realized that the different notions amongst practitioners impact the one-body coordination tremendously. Sometimes there are misunderstandings among practitioners from different countries. Sometimes there are barriers among practitioners from the same country. These all have the effect of preventing us from coordinating well.
On the evening of October 18, we local practitioners gathered to study the Fa. We read Lecture Four of Zhuan Falun. From the bottom of my heart I strongly felt Master's vast benevolence manifested in the Fa. I was deeply moved by His unconditional benevolent salvation of all sentient beings, beyond description. I could not help but shed tears. Dafa taught me how to handle coordination with fellow practitioners and truth clarification to the VIPs.
Let us better assist Master in saving sentient beings with the compassion that we cultivated from the Fa and the firm righteous thoughts bestowed on us by Dafa and satisfactorily fulfil our responsibilities as Dafa disciples during the Fa-rectification period.
Thank you, Master. Thank you, fellow practitioners.
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Category: Clarifying the Truth
