One of the major German media had been unwilling to stop calling Falun Gong an "evil cult." Many practitioners had made efforts to clarify the truth to them, but their correspondents in Beijing continued to use the slanderous term. For a period of time, I had felt it hard to face this obstacle, as it seemed as insurmountable as a high mountain.
One day after reading the newspaper's usage of this slanderous term again, I knew that our indulgence of the evil would encourage even more evil doing. Immediately I wrote a letter to the editor of this newspaper, but got no response. Then, I wrote another letter to the editor and called him. His secretary said that the received letters were transferred to the general editor. I proceeded to call the general editor, whose secretary coldly told me that this issue had nothing to do with the editor. Therefore, the issue had been turned over to the legal department of this newspaper office. I insisted on faxing another letter to the general editor. "It is up to you," said the secretary, hanging up the phone. I did fax the letter to the editor.
Then, I informed other practitioners of the whole event in hopes of getting their support and sending forth righteous thoughts together. Right away I got various feedback. Some of them felt that we did not clarify the truth in a deep and comprehensive way. The others thought the whole issue was not necessarily bad. And still others, shocked by the issue, commented that I should not have pushed the newspaper staff so far.
It dawned on me that whatever differing opinions there were, I should keep my righteous thoughts. It was the most righteous matter to clarify the truth to the newspaper staff and to ask them not to use this slanderous term. If one of the newspaper reporters had been biased by the evil propaganda of Jiang, the newspaper office might continue to publish unfair reports about Falun Gong. Then, a lot of readers might be poisoned by these unfair reports and develop incorrect understandings of Dafa, which would in turn bring serious consequences to their futures. The editors in charge of the newspaper should have corrected--not overlooked--the mistakes made by the reporters. This also would offer them a chance to choose the position of their future. I realized that as Dafa practitioners, we should eradicate the evil, clarify the truth to mankind and offer salvation to sentient beings. But we should be compassionate. Master taught us that whatever difficulty we encounter, we should look inward and eradicate the evil factors behind the issue. I saw my attachment to argument when clarifying the truth to the newspaper reporters, and that I had not been compassionate enough. Because I did not solidify my righteous thoughts, I was unable to eliminate the evil factors behind the issue. Only by abandoning my attachments could I have the most righteous thoughts to walk my way righteously.
After figuring this out, I felt calm and knew what to do next. The next few days, I spent more time reading the Fa and sending forth righteous thoughts. Then, I started to call some major departments of the newspaper office, telling them the truth on the phone. That day, I felt that I held a righteous manner, and had very smooth conversations with some of the newspaper staff. Finally, I decided to call the general editor again. His secretary, who had been cold and tough before, said to me in a friendly way, "Wait a moment, please. I will transfer your call." The assistant to the general editor sincerely assured me, "'evil cult' is not an accurate term to use, and we will not use it again." He added that he would inform all of the concerned staff of the decision, and thanked me.
I felt that the high mountain in front of me had disappeared. I had a deep understanding of what it means to solidify our righteous thoughts, of Master's words, "It's like sharp swords shooting out together from their mouths," (from "Hurry Up and Tell Them") and what it means to walk our own path of cultivation righteously.
