(Minghui.org) Falun Dafa practitioners come across all kinds of people who are either respectful or disrespectful to practitioners. However, if one finds the reason behind a certain attitude when clarifying the truth of Dafa, a bad situation may turn into a good situation.
When I went to a neighboring county to talk to people about Falun Dafa, I met an elderly farmer who did not want to listen to me. He started to criticize what I said and was obviously agitated. As he walked away, he gestured that I should leave.
My first thought was to give up until I remembered I was there to tell people the truth. I might not have this opportunity again.
I smiled and said to him, “I apologize for coming on too strong. I did not mean to anger you. It is not an accident that we ran into each other. Shall we try again?”
He seemed touched by my new attitude and relaxed. We sat down on a bench and first talked about our daily lives and children. We also talked about the proverb of doing good to accumulate virtue and reaping what one sows, about the hardship of farming, and about the rampant corruption in China.
When it comes to Dafa, I said that some principles were traditions inherited from our ancestors, and some were the ones I'd learned from cultivating.
He said that his daughter's in-laws were Falun Dafa practitioners. They talked about Falun Dafa and asked him to quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) every time they met. He said he didn't like that, so I asked him why.
“What they said did not seem believable,” he said. “I know that the Communist Party is bad and I wanted to quit, but I didn't like the way they approached it.”
Now I understood what the problem was. They spoke to him at too high a level and it made him uneasy.
I took a different approach and began to talk about the most basic facts of Falun Dafa. I told him that Falun Dafa teaches people to be good and can improve one's health. He said that his daughter's in-laws were nice people and always in good health.
I then told him about how the CCP defames and persecutes Dafa. I told him what the CCP says about Falun Dafa are lies, just like the lies about what happened in the cultural revolution. They would stir up a crowd and incite hatred. He nodded from time to time.
I told him how Falun Dafa has spread throughout the world and that there are now about 100 million people practicing it. It was not defeated by the CCP but became stronger and stronger. He said he admired Falun Dafa.
I helped him quit the CCP and its youth organizations. I told him that his in-laws were a bit too eager, but they meant well and cared about him. He knew that was true and promised to be good to them.
When things were explained to him in a way he could understand, there was nothing to stop him accepting it.
This also helped me understand that I sometimes talk to people from too high a level and cause them to be uncomfortable and not want to listen to what I have to say. I am also often too anxious when I talk to relatives and want to bring up the subject every time we are together. They get uneasy about being around me.
Teacher Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Dafa, told us:
“Don't talk at a high level. If in one shot you want to tell him all the Fa-principles you've understood while cultivating you'll scare him. You've come to this stage of understanding only after so many years of cultivation, and you want him to instantly reach a level as high as yours? How could that be possible? Even for you, you cultivated up step by step, so you can imagine what it's like for him, an everyday person listening to the truth. And what's more, he's somebody who was poisoned. So really make sure you don't rush things.” (“Teaching the Fa at 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference” from Teaching the Fa at the Conference IV)
I was relieved of my duty as the high school principal and transferred to another school in 1999 after the CCP began to persecute Falun Dafa. I continued to perform my job conscientiously at the new school, so the entire staff thought well of me.
The school principal was a person with integrity and was very respectful. I told him the facts of Falun Dafa and helped him to quit the CCP. He said that he had read the pamphlets about Falun Dafa. He found nothing wrong with the principles of “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.”
To protect me, he resisted all pressure from people in power. In the managers' small meetings or the staff meetings of the entire school, he never discussed Falun Dafa in a negative way. He also praised me openly in front of the entire school staff and said that I was a person of a high moral standard. He said that I did not fight for positions or recognition, and everyone should follow my example. I was selected as a model of a high moral standard for the city that year.
One day before the CCP held its 18th Congress in 2012, the personnel director at school called and told me to go see the principal. I went to see him and he came right to the point. “I have to tell you, those in power wanted the school to monitor you,” he told me.
He took a short document out of his desk drawer for me to see. It was a memo from the 610 Office that said that the school would be held responsible for my association with Falun Dafa.
The principal returned the document to his desk drawer after I read it. “They always try to interfere for no reason,” he said indignantly. “I really respect Falun Dafa and you. You've held fast to your belief for so many years. You have endured so much and have so much integrity. Falun Dafa is great.”
Then he said, “The school will not monitor you. You just need to remember to be careful.”
I would not have known that I was on the blacklist if he had not told me. He had protected me for so many years and I had not been affected at all.
Because he was supportive of Dafa, he had a good career and a happy family.
Teacher said in Lunyu:
“Any person who can align with Dafa is truly a good person, and will be rewarded and blessed with health and happiness.”