(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master, greetings fellow practitioners,
There are so many aspects of cultivation that it’s hard to decide what to share. I’ve been through some very difficult tribulations in the past several years and recent months that have made me stronger and broadened my heart, but at this point, it is still difficult for me to talk about the specifics of that tribulation.
So today I’m mainly going to talk about lessons I’ve learned while doing projects and tasks to clarify the truth to people in our government, whom we often call VIPs. This tends to make us feel intimidated about approaching these officials, but actually, the more you do this work, the more you see them as just people with a predestined relationship with us, who are even like our friends and family, and who represent countless lives eagerly waiting to be saved.
When Master gave us a serious reminder about accepting criticism from others in 2006, I took note, but at the time I’d felt that I generally took to heart others’ criticism of me and would look inside to improve. But actually, back then, I was not in a leadership role and those who were my superiors on the projects I worked on did not usually criticize me much, so I wasn’t really tested on this issue.
Years later, however, my husband started to point out that I would often reject criticism and make excuses. I didn’t believe him at first, still having the image of myself as someone who accepted criticism easily. This time, I argued that the reason I was defensive with him was that he criticized me too much. This happened several times and when I looked inside I found that the reason I accepted criticism easily in the past was that I saw myself as a student of the work I was doing, but as time went by and I developed more abilities, my ego grew, and I began reacting negatively to criticism—especially if I felt that my level of ability or understanding was above the one criticizing me.
I also realized that my husband’s criticism of how I did things for him was accurate, that I didn’t put my heart into doing the best job, and had a subconscious attitude that since I was doing these things to help him, he should simply be grateful, no matter the quality of my work.
Master said,
“There are also some people who think that since they are project coordinators, they should be immune to criticism. And then some people who have special talents in some regard or other won’t take criticism from people. Another group won’t hear anyone out on account of having a negative opinion about the other person. It comes in all shapes and sizes.” (“Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan,” Collected Teachings Given Around the WorldVolume X)
After realizing this, I did try to put my heart into such tasks and if my husband pointed out an error, I started to see it as him assisting me to do better rather than a lack of gratitude.
Around the same, time I began taking on the role of coordinator of government outreach in our state, and one practitioner who was fairly new to our team was more vocal about the problems she saw in my coordination. I found myself becoming defensive or I would simply dismiss it in my mind.
When I looked inward as to why I was reacting negatively to criticism, I found the same two issues: One was the sense of superiority I had developed after having done this work for so long, and feeling like I knew better than others. The other problem I had was that because I was not officially named coordinator of the project at that time, I didn’t feel that I had to reach any standard, as if any work that I did counted for me, but nothing I did poorly counted against me.
I then became determined to own up to my role as coordinator, hold myself to a high standard, and truly listen to others’ criticism. I had initially been intimidated by this practitioners’ criticism, but when I let go of my sensitive emotions and began seeing it in a positive way, I became truly grateful for the honest feedback to help me improve and help our team do better.
Recently, this practitioner sent an email to several practitioners about an issue she was upset about and I felt I was being wrongly accused. I replied to everyone on the email to clarify the issue. She was still upset, however, and wrote me a private email countering my response and listing out several unrelated things I’d recently not done well in coordination.
At first I felt attacked, and while I realized her criticisms were valid, I criticized her back in my mind for not telling me these things in a constructive way earlier, but instead bombarding me with it all at once when she became upset about a completely different issue.
However, when I took a step back, I realized that she’d probably held back on the criticism before because she knew I was overwhelmed with issues in my personal life, and even though she noticed things that were lacking, she didn’t want to burden me with it at that time.
So instead of judging her for criticizing me out of anger, I now felt grateful, seeing her heart of being considerate and tolerant of my shortcomings, while trying to cooperate well on the project despite things not being ideal.
The next time we communicated, it seemed we’d both completely resolved the conflict within ourselves so there was no need for further discussion and we could continue working on our project in harmony.
Looking back on this situation, I had a new realization about myself. A few practitioners who are close to me pointed out my tendency of complaining about others, especially complaining about conflicts with my husband and blaming him. I knew they were right, but I had developed the notion that complaining helped me to get the poison that was in my mind to come out to the surface so that I could see it and see how I was wrong and improve. I think this was true for me at a certain level, but as we improve in cultivation, so rises the standard. At some point, I knew that I must learn to detect and resolve grievances without having to complain to someone else about it.
But how? I wondered. I was such an introvert that I would not realize that I was harboring resentment until I complained about it to my husband or to another practitioner and then I’d suddenly and more clearly see where I was wrong.
But this recent incident, where I was able to refrain from getting upset, which allowed me to take a step back and see it completely differently from my initial reaction, proved to me that complaining about it to someone else is not needed at all.
I used to analyze a lot of my interpersonal conflicts, but eventually realized that such analysis didn’t help me improve much, maybe not at all.
I went through many big tribulations and in recent times, I began to let go more and be bothered less by little things. The elevation came naturally from focused Fa study, enduring hardship, and tolerating differences in others. My heart broadened and my mind naturally elevated.
A state-level organ harvesting resolution and later a bill gave our group many opportunities to clarify the truth at meetings with staff, representatives, and house and senate leadership.
The most special opportunities were often the committee hearings held for these pieces of legislation, where we were allowed to give short speeches or testimonies in support of the bill. When persecution survivors from our group shared their testimonies, the entire room would become very quiet and all listened closely. You could see everyone change from not paying much attention, to being deeply moved, compassionate, and uplifted. Through these real, personal stories, the audience truly understood how evil the communist regime is and how good and kind Falun Dafa practitioners are.
A few years ago, a new state level bill was introduced and we were asked to provide testimonies for it. I figured it would be easy because we’d done this several times for the organ harvesting resolution that passed in 2019. But one of our torture survivors had moved away and the other one was unwilling to do it again this time.
I didn’t know what to do. I felt frustrated. It was such a good opportunity, but could we truly have an impact without first-hand stories of the persecution? I didn’t know what to do. I felt upset with other practitioners as they didn’t seem to be concerned about it so I assumed they didn’t care about this like I did.
Finally, I realized that I needed to let go of resentment and relying on others and I just needed to trust Master. I knew if I did that, things would work out for the best. Soon after I changed my heart, a practitioner told me that a couple who had suffered persecution in China had moved to our state.
So we called this couple and we then helped translate their stories and they testified at the hearings for this new bill. Each time they testified, it was very powerful. I remember once, there were two elderly men who looked especially noble on the committee and after these practitioners’ testimonies, these representatives’ faces were smiling and seemed to be glowing. After the hearing was over, they came down from their desks to shake hands with the torture survivors, very grateful for their courage.
Seeing this impact, we later invited these practitioners to join us for our meetings in Washington DC with federal-level representatives and their staff. Although the language barrier is difficult, and doing simultaneous interpretation is time-consuming, the effect was again noticeable.
We also brought this couple with us to local government offices. We had them share their stories first, and then the staff would be moved and start asking a lot of questions about Falun Gong and the persecution, as if they suddenly became truly interested in this, rather than just doing their job of meeting with citizens.
There is so much power behind these stories, because they are real, amazing acts of courage and pure faith in the modern world that help people instantly grasp the truth behind the persecution.
If you have people in your area who have powerful stories, I encourage you to use this approach when clarifying the truth to government and community groups.
From Master’s teachings about how to successfully host Shen Yun shows, I realized that the most important factor in obtaining success in whatever project we do is cooperation and how well we cultivate ourselves.
Master said,
“How sales go in a given locale is, in reality, a true, tangible sign of how well practitioners have cultivated and cooperated there.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference,” Collected Teachings Given Around the World Volume IX)
In the past, I had done somewhat poorly in cooperation while doing government work especially because I was afraid of sharing my efforts with others, for fear that they might criticize my approach or my writing, etc.
However, I later began to apply the principle of good group cooperation to my role as a coordinator of efforts to clarify the truth to government and seek support. A few years ago, I asked those from our state planning to go to DC to meet with representatives to join a weekly online meeting and we’d also have some Fa study before the meeting. Since that time, our state has usually received a good amount of support letters for the DC rally. I believe this was due to our improved cooperation.
A couple years ago, instead of just meeting in the month before the DC rally, we started meeting weekly all year round.
Not many attend the meeting even though there are quite a few more who are willing to help with larger events when needed. But despite not everyone coming to the meeting, I feel it has made a huge difference in our efforts. It keeps our minds on what more we can do to clarify the truth, and to be more prepared for upcoming events.
We also encourage each other when we are not getting any responses from offices, or suggest trying different approaches. When we get good news of a successful effort by a fellow team member, we celebrate that together as well, feeling that our individual successes are also the success of our one body.
This year, we received a resolution for Shen Yun Performing Arts that was co-sponsored by several representatives, as well as a letter from the state governor, and some city mayor proclamations.
One of our practitioners who worked on gathering this support also made a beautiful table display at the theater during the performances. Three state representatives came to the show to present the resolution and gave wonderful interviews after seeing the performance. I heard that members from Shen Yun said that we’d done a good job getting support, which was especially valuable as we combat the lies spread by the CCP’s transnational repression. This made me feel very encouraged and pleased about our team effort.
For the past several years, we’ve held World Falun Dafa Day events at our state capitol featuring a reception with food and informational materials for the representatives, staff, and public. We now receive about a dozen co-sponsors for World Falun Dafa Day resolutions each year, along with various city-level proclamations. Many of the co-sponsors from the state legislature come to the reception to present the resolution and take a group photo. It’s a fairly easy and fun way to connect with people while clarifying the truth to more people in the capitol.
Our state governor has sent a heartfelt letter of support each year for this event. He told practitioners that our sincerity, gentleness, and unwavering commitment to our beliefs even in the face of hardship, and the persistent yet patient actions, have truly demonstrated the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance.
Thank you, Master, thank you, fellow practitioners.
(Presented at the 2026 Mid-US Fa Conference)