(Minghui.org) I experienced a setback while talking about Falun Gong and raising awareness of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution to a good friend a few years ago. After that I didn’t clarify the truth face-to-face again until July last year, when one of my friends was heading overseas to study. I was worried that I would never see her again, so I was determined to invite her out so I could clarify the truth to her. A fellow practitioner encouraged me by saying, “As long as you have this wish, Master Li [the founder of Falun Dafa] will help you.”
I initially wavered in my mind. The thought of talking to someone about Falun Dafa would make me imagine the other party’s embarrassed or scared facial expression, so it was hard for me to talk face-to-face. I am introverted and I normally don’t speak much. So I was worried that my friend might ask me some questions that I didn’t know how to answer or she might say things that I couldn’t rebut.
Studying the Fa and hearing fellow practitioners’ face-to-face truth clarification experiences encouraged me and helped me build up some righteous thoughts. I became determined not to think about the other party’s response and simply leave everything up to Master. I believed that Master would give me the wisdom when I needed it. In the end, this friend easily accepted what I said about Dafa. During the process of clarifying the truth to her, I had some experiences and insights that I would like to share with fellow practitioners.
Do Not Mix Clarifying the Truth With Personal Favors
Before meeting my friend, I recalled that I had once promised her that when we met the next time I would bring her a type of fruit jelly, which is quite popular online but is not sold in her area. So before setting out, I made a special trip to a supermarket to buy the jelly for her. My motive was to show that I cared for her with even such a small agreement. I hoped to move her with this favor so that she would accept my truth clarification.
But I could not find the jelly anywhere in the supermarket. When I asked a salesperson, I was told that someone had purchased all the remaining jelly the day before. I went to another supermarket and the jelly was sold out there too.
I understood that this was maybe Master trying to enlighten me to clarify the truth without mixing in any favors. Clarifying the truth is a serious matter for Dafa practitioners. How could I do it with human notions? If I were to clarify the truth to her as a friend, I would have placed myself at the human level. What I talked about and my actions would not carry Dafa’s power.
I recalled a bad truth-clarification experience a few years back, which was caused by my human affection. I thought that since we were best of friends, the other party would definitely understand me and easily accept what I said. I did not treat my friend with a pure attitude, as a normal sentient being, and clarify the truth to her with righteous thoughts. She rejected what I said and her stubborn attitude triggered a negative reaction on my part, making me feel angry. The words that I spoke were full of anger toward her and my hatred of the CCP. These bad elements from me made it hard for her to accept the truth, and they also made her really reject everything that I said, such that she spoke thoughtlessly just to oppose me.
Master Made the Best Arrangement for Me
Before I decided to meet this other friend, I had a lot of apprehension. One was that we would usually eat and drink when I went out with her in the past, so I was worried that our meeting at a restaurant this time might make it too noisy to clarify the truth to her. Just before we were to meet, this friend had gastric problems so we agreed to meet near her house for a walk instead of going out for a meal.
Another concern was that I did not know which topic I should use to begin the truth clarification. I felt that it would be a bit abrupt if I were to clarify the truth to her from the get go. Thinking that she has always been concerned about women’s social issues, I decided to start off from this topic. I even listed out a general outline of what I was going to say, starting off from the chained woman (abducted and trafficked) to the CCP-staged Tiananmen self-immolation hoax and finally to Dafa. I even watched the truth-clarification documentary on the CCP’s history and made notes so that I could switch from topic to topic smoothly. By the time I finished my notes, I felt as though I had written an entire speech. I was afraid that I might forget my “speech” and so I went through it a few times before I left the house.
But when we actually met, I was taken aback. My friend did not have much interest in anything that I said because of her upset stomach. She just looked very uncomfortable. I thought to myself how will she accept all of my historical “speech” in her state now? How should I continue to talk? Suddenly, a thought flashed into my mind: I can speak based on her current state, using my experience as an example to tell her about the amazing effects of reciting the two phrases “Falun Dafa is good. Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.”
I did not expect that after all the preparation I went through, I still had to clarify the truth spontaneously. At that moment, I felt as though there was a deep valley in front of me and I needed to get over to the other side. The long ladder which I had prepared especially to get to the other side suddenly broke and I had no choice but to try my best to jump across to the other side. I felt that Master was trying to push me out of my comfort zone, so that I could overcome my fear and clarify the truth openly, in a righteous manner. Although I had decided to clarify the truth, I had tried to beat around the bush to get to a truth-clarification topic, and so I had not gotten rid of my fear and my attachment to reputation.
I was still a bit taken aback, but I understood in my heart that if I missed this chance, there may never be another one. I needed to tell her the truth today no matter what. I begged Master in my heart, “Master, I understand your kind intentions. I must save this sentient being today and I will not cower anymore. But I still feel some difficulty, so I hope Master can empower me and help arrange a suitable place to clarify the truth.” Just as I sent out this thought, my friend suggested we go to the community common space near her house. When we reached there, I realized that it indeed was a quiet place that looked like a park with many long benches. I was surprised and full of gratitude in my heart.
Maybe because my objective was pure and my thought to save my friend was steadfast, when I spoke about the amazing effects of the two phrases, she expressed gratitude for my concern for her health.
She said, “It’s weird. Recently, my stomach only felt uncomfortable after meals. But today, five minutes before meeting you, my stomach started feeling uncomfortable.” Hearing that, I felt even more that everything is part of Master’s ingenious arrangements. Not only did that help me to get onto the topic successfully, I overcame my fear. Thank you, Master!
Sentient Beings Are Here for the Fa, Do Not Use Human Notions to Imagine Their Choices
After telling her the basic information about Dafa, my friend said with a bit of regret, “Couldn’t I see that book (referring to Zhuan Falun)?” I told that I had brought a thumb drive that contained the electronic version of the book. She was pleasantly surprised and said that was great. Then, she thanked me sincerely for telling her everything. That kind of joy that comes from the bottom of her heart made me feel that her knowing side was aware of what was going on all this while, and seemed to have been waiting for this for a long time.
Before setting out, I had only planned to bring one thumb drive with truth-clarification information. Because she was just over 20 years old, I figured like most young people, she would just play on her mobile phone every day. And young people’s notions about science and atheism are so rooted in their minds, so it’s good enough if they can understand the truth and quit the CCP and its youth organizations. Cultivation may be a distant matter to them. However, my mother, who is a practitioner, was bent on me bringing a thumb drive that contained the precious Dafa book. Luckily, I brought it in the end. My arrogant, ignorant and rigid notions had almost caused this friend to miss her chance to fulfill her affinity with Dafa. I felt really remorseful about that.
We watched the animated movie Up We Soar. When the mother was beaten by the inmates who were assigned to keep watch on her in the prison, the mother wanted to retaliate but she recalled that she was a Dafa cultivator so she must “refrain from fighting back” (The Fourth Talk, Zhuan Falun).
The mother stopped herself from retaliating and put her hand down. When we watched this scene, my human notions came out again. I was worried that my friend might not understand and might feel that cultivators were all like Ah Q (a rather stupid character from a 1921-22 novel series). However, much to my surprise, when she watched this scene, my friend said that the mother was really great. She said if it was her, she would have retaliated. I did not expect that a cultivator’s forbearance would have made such a deep impression on her.
We were talking later about some of the bad behavior of modern people due to society’s moral degeneration, such as cutting in line and taking advantage of others, she laughed and said, “If things like this would have happened in the past, I would have become impatient. But now I have learned that I need to be tolerant.” I was surprised. She did not even know why cultivators need to refrain from fighting back, she had only seen how Dafa practitioners practice Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and she was already willing to abide by those higher principles.
The Process of Clarifying the Truth Is Also a Process of Checking My Own Understanding of the Fa
I originally thought that I needed to get to all the talking points in one go. However, after I told her about the two phrases, she voluntarily asked questions. While answering those questions, I ended up explaining the truth to her without following any script. The same thing happened later when I was clarifying the truth to another friend. Sometimes I could immediately recall the Fa when they asked certain questions. But some of their questions could also make me feel lost about how to answer. Even if I answered them, I would stutter. I looked within and found that it happened because I was still not clear about the Fa in these aspects. I also noted that although I studied the Fa, the quality of my Fa study might not be very high, sometimes in the sense that I did not really absorb the Fa.
Self Reflection and Thoughts
After going home, I thought about the whole process. I discovered some areas where I did not do well. For example, when I touched on content about the persecution, I still spoke with elements of feelings for fellow practitioners, and expressed anger and hatred toward the persecutors. When I discovered that this friend could accept the truth quite well, I started speaking with enthusiasm and did not consider how much she could accept with what I said after that. I asked her to watch the movie Up We Soar without asking her if she was willing to watch it. This animated film’s pace is slower than normal commercial movies, and sentient beings have become used to the style of visual stunning movies. I could feel that in the middle she was reluctant to watch anymore.
Also, although she had a positive understanding about Dafa and did not like the CCP, I have yet to persuaded her to quit the CCP and its youth organizations successfully. Looking within, I discovered that this was because I still did not understand well some aspects about quitting the CCP and its youth organizations. With my limited understanding, my words did not carry much energy to move the other party.
Through this truth-clarifying experience, I discovered that my Fa study was not deep enough and I also did not have complete faith in Master and the Fa. So my righteous thoughts were not strong and it was hard for me to have any benevolence. This has caused me to become less active about clarifying the truth.
In the past, one of the reasons I was afraid of clarifying the truth was that I was not good at talking and I could not answer questions flexibly like other practitioners. In fact, I was scared about things over which I had no control. However, how much can a small human being like me control? When I saw how little confidence I had in myself, I realized that I was actually not believing that Master is taking care of everything. I did not attain full belief in Master and the Fa.
There is another matter. Before clarifying the truth, it is also important to send forth righteous thoughts to get rid of the evil elements behind sentient beings. For the whole week before I met up with this friend, I basically sent forth righteous thoughts for her every day to get rid of all the evil elements that would stop her from understanding the truth. This may be one of the reasons why she accepted the truth this time.
Conclusion
Thank you, Master for your benevolent enlightenment and guidance, so that someone as timid as me can go out to clarify the truth to people face-to-face. I am also full of regret for not clarifying the truth to more people that I know. Among those people, were there also people with an affinity with Dafa just like this friend? Have they lost the chance to fulfill their affinity with Dafa because I did not bring them the truth?
From now on, I must focus on clarifying the truth. Not only are sentient beings waiting for the truth, some of them are also waiting to learn Dafa.
My cultivation level is limited. Kindly correct me if there is any room for improvement.
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