Not Accepting the Evil's Arrangements

Each year, Flushing, New York holds a Chinese New Year parade in the large Asian communities in the downtown area. For the last 3 years, practitioners have participated in the parade, and this year we applied to participate again.?

However, due to outside pressure, a few days before the parade, the parade committee informed us that they would not allow us to participate. They held a meeting two days before to make the final decision. Practitioners attended the public meeting, but asked to leave the room while the committee took its vote. The vote's result was to revoke the rights for Falun Gong to participate in the parade.

How many people would miss their chance to know Dafa if practitioners could not walk in the parade? The next day, many practitioners phoned the members of the parade committee to urge them to correct their decision. Some committee members were sympathetic, but others were not. We informed them that their decision was not in accordance with US law, and a lawyer also FAXed them a letter notifying them of this as well.

That night, local practitioners discussed the best way to rectify the situation. After making a lot of effort trying to make plans for how to work around the parade committee's decision, one practitioner phoned and shared her perspective. "Working around" the evil plan was essentially accepting the evil's arrangement for practitioners to miss the parade. We decided we would reject this notion, and simply go and participate in the parade, not even acknowledge the evil's arrangement.

On the morning of the parade, practitioners gathered early to study Fa together and to share our understanding. As a group, we eliminated all doubts and deviated thinking that the evil could control us or interfere with our mission. Each practitioner's mind was strengthened by the strong righteous field from the group. We sent forth righteous thoughts and then left for the parade.

Press Conference and Beginning the Parade

A half hour before the parade began, practitioners held a press conference to clarify the truth of the situation. One parade organizer told us we could walk in the parade, but as the very last group. However, another practitioner overheard the organizers telling the police that Falun Gong was going to try to walk behind the parade, but that it was illegal and should be stopped. It seemed the organizers were trying to create a conflict.

We quickly went to the local police precinct a couple blocks away to clarify the situation with the police. They told us there was no problem, and we could walk in the parade.

Once the group of practitioners lined up, we had to wait while every other group passed by before we could join the parade. Although this was a ploy by the organizers, under the influence of the evil, to cause trouble for practitioners, it actually turned out very well because it meant that every other parade group walked past our display of Zhen-Shan-Ren and heard the Pudu music as they past. Several people in the other parade groups even asked for our Dafa buttons and flags to carry themselves.

Once our slot in the parade came, right after a large Chinese dragon from a local kungfu group, the parade organizers brought in another obstacle for us to confront. A huge, black garbage truck, for hauling sewage, drove up suddenly and was directed to drive before the Falun Dafa group. Who ever heard of a sewage truck in a parade? We all sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate this interference. The organizers insisted that it go in front of the Falun Dafa group, but one practitioner quickly pointed out to the police that it didn't make sense to put people behind the truck. We marched forward, followed closely behind by the huge black truck.

Clarifying the Truth

We handed out Dafa brochures and truth-clarifying materials to everyone as we passed in the parade. The Flushing community has many groups of people, so we handed out materials in Chinese, English, Spanish, and Korean. Everyone seemed to want more materials, so some practitioners supplied the rest so we would not run out. The kids along the way took our Dafa bookmarks, and some repeated back to us: "Zhen Shan Ren!" A couple times we all stopped to sing the song "Falun Dafa Hao" over the loudspeaker.

At one point, the parade organizers told the police to move us to one side of the roadway. We complied, and then realized what was happening. They were trying to let the big sewage truck pass by our group before we got to the reviewing table. The reviewing table is where the local politicians and VIPs watched the parade. Once we realized what was happening, we stood in front of the truck to block its path, and the practitioners spread out again to occupy our place in the parade.?

When we eventually arrived at the reviewing table, the announcer abruptly said on the loudspeaker that the parade had come to the end, completely skipping over our group. He even announced the garbage truck that was following behind us! We stopped, however, right in front of the table, and turned on the exercise music to perform Exericise 1 in front of the VIPs. After a long period of silence, eventually the announcer acknowledged us and said, "Falun Dafa Happy New Year!"

A Lesson in Participation in the Community

The local practitioners learned several lessons from this event. One has to do with how our own notions can block the power of Dafa in carrying out our mission. By accepting the evil's arrangement, we actually allowed it to have power over other people. Once we enlightened to this, and decided to just go ahead with what we knew was right, everything fell into place.?

Another issue was that we have not done enough to reach out to local community groups and local politicians. If we had formed and maintained strong relationships with different parts of the community, they would know what Dafa is and support us more readily in a conflict like this. Instead, we seemed to approach them only when we needed something from them. The right way to approach our task is by integrating our efforts of clarifying the truth, hong fa, and participating in ordinary human society. We all felt the environment changed for the better once we understood the gap we had in the past.

Practitioners held a press conference before the parade to clarify the truth about the parade committee's attempt to deny practitioners' participation in the parade.

Practitioners gather before the parade begins. Other groups in the parade stopped by to get our Falun Dafa buttons and flags, and they carried them in other parts of the parade.

Practitioners wait for their place in the parade. Because the organizers made us wait until the very last place, that meant that all the other groups in the parade walked past our group and got to view the big characters "Zhen-Shan-Ren" and hear the Pudu music as they passed. What was intended to cause trouble for us turned out to be a chance for more people to know Dafa.

Many banners were carried, including "Zhen-Shan-Ren" and "Falun Dafa" in both Chinese and English.

Whenever the parade paused, practitioners demonstrated the exercises. When the organizers tried to rush our group past the review table, we stopped anyway, and they got to watch Exercise 1.

After the parade, all the groups gathered to hear closing remarks from local politicians. We introduced ourselves and thanked them for their support. It became clear to us that we need to bring our participation in the local community to a new level.