(Clearwisdom.net)

1. The Paris incident appears to have taken place unexpectedly. The first thing I realized from this incident is that we cannot let a troublesome incident in a small area confuse our understanding of the overall situation of Fa-rectification.

After the Paris incident and other isolated incidents in other countries, some practitioners began to feel that the overall overseas situation of Fa-rectification has become passive. Actually, this is exactly the false image the old forces are trying to create through exaggerating the situation. Our Teacher has spoken several times on the whole situation of Fa-rectification.

In "Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Midwest-U.S. Fa Conference," Teacher said: "as far as this whole persecution goes, today the situation is already pretty different from before. And especially outside of Mainland China, we've now gone from being on the defensive to being on the offensive; those evil beings are on the defensive now, because there are really few evil factors now. And those people in the evil gang who were being used are changing, too. You could say that the evil's attempt to persecute Falun Gong beyond Mainland China has been a complete failure."

In "Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Midwest-U.S. Fa Conference," Teacher said: "Eradicating Falun Gong around the world is something the evil no longer dares to even dream about."

If one doesn't clearly realize these points, it is due to insufficient righteous thoughts. When dealing with individual incidents in this state of mind, we could easily limit ourselves to the surface of the incident, busy ourselves with just "putting out the fire" and forget the essence of saving people. An unstable mind can also be easily used by the old forces. No matter how troublesome the Paris incident appears to be, with today's progress of Fa-rectification, the situation of Falun Gong overseas has become unshakable. It is just a matter of how Falun Gong practitioners save sentient beings in France.

The Falun Dafa Association and The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong made a joint announcement on January 30, 2004. The announcement exposed the tactics of the evil forces' exaggeration of the situation and went right to the essence of the incident: "China used economic incentives to lead a few people in the French government who were overcome by the temptation to order the French police to arrest Falun Dafa practitioners for no reason."

In "Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference," Teacher said: "As for the behavior of the evil, that is it [acting] in an irrational, crazed state before its disintegration, and it provides Dafa disciples with the conditions to reach Perfection."

The Chinese leader originally planned to visit seven European countries, but he actually only visited France and three African countries. If he visited more European countries, Falun Dafa practitioners' truth-clarification efforts would have made more delegates awaken to the truth of the persecution. Since the old forces understood that they had no foundation of truth to support themselves, they concentrated their massive manpower and financial power to cause this ridiculous incident in Paris. In reality, the arrests were illegal and unacceptable in a democratic country. This was disagreeable to everyone and also exposed the "under the table" deals behind the incident. This incident created an environment for Falun Dafa practitioners to completely clarify the truth and save sentient beings.

2. As for the attack of the French media, we also need to look inside ourselves calmly. Overall, we should not again have a mindset that depends on ordinary people doing things for us. This lesson should have been clear after the incident with the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

What happened in Paris was not totally unexpected. Jiang started to attack Dafa when he was interviewed by the French media several years ago. Since then, the French media have always cited the slanderous words of Jiang's regime. This problem has existed for several years. This is not to say that French practitioners did not do a good job; rather, the root of the problem is very deep, and it is not easy to quickly solve. As the grand wave of Fa-rectification pushes ahead, this problem will eventually be solved. Moreover, practitioners will be more and more capable of solving it.

According to a report in the British newspaper Independent on January 28, 2004, the Iraqi government claimed that it will investigate many internationally famous politicians, including those from anti-war countries like France. These people are accused of accepting bribes from Saddam Hussein to support his dictatorial regime and to oppose the war in Iraq, launched by the United States and Britain. It doesn't concern us if this particular accusation is true or not; however, it suggests that there may be similar underhanded deals behind the scenes causing this abnormally strong opposition to Falun Gong practitioners' celebrating the traditional Chinese Spring Festival in Paris. The subterfuge behind the Tiananmen Self Immolation that was plotted by the Chinese government has shocked the world. I think that all the underhanded deals behind the scenes that led to the persecution of Falun Dafa will eventually be exposed. The despicability of these deals will shock the world.

When Li Lanqing was sued, the media reported the lawsuit. The whole process was reported in a neutral tone. However, the report ended with "The Chinese government considers Falun Gong as an X religion." We called the newspaper to get in touch with the journalist and told him that Falun Gong practitioners are ordinary citizens from all walks of life. We were shocked with his answer: "I understand you, but this is the policy of our news agency. I could not make the decision in this case. Go talk to our chief editor." I read the article again and I found that the slanderous words in the end of the article were not consistent with the rest of the report. They were apparently tacked on at the end. We called the chief editor. The chief editor on duty could even speak Chinese and we made an appointment to meet with him at 5 p.m. the next afternoon. However, when we went to the office of the newspaper and registered, he never showed up. When we asked the front desk, we learned that he had already left for home. We did not have a clear understanding of this incident and did not follow it up. Recently, the French media collectively have suddenly been silent about the illegal arrest of Falun Gong practitioners. Apparently, it is not that the journalists do not know the truth of the persecution; instead, it is very likely that there are underhanded arrangements motivating the silence.

We must realize this factor, that no matter how famous the news agencies or what kind of media, ordinary people are helplessly under the control of the old forces. Without righteous thoughts, they are very likely to be taken in; however, they are waiting for us to save them. Those who participated in these dirty deals and intentionally slandered Dafa are the people we need to expose and hold accountable legally. How can we count on them to give us a fair evaluation? The announcement of the Falun Dafa Association says: "We will comprehensively investigate everyone involved both in China and abroad, and bring you all to justice in accordance with the law in the near future." If we want to change all this, we must first of all realize it collectively, have determination to expose it and investigate it to the end in cooperation with the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong.

In Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference, Teacher said: " Mankind, the mankind of the future, they'll eulogize today's Fa-rectification for generation after generation. (Applause) The truth about this persecution hasn't yet been fully revealed for mankind to see. Mankind will be shocked. The Consummation of Dafa disciples, the occurrence of everything that mankind doesn't believe in, and the process of all of mankind's deviated things being rectified--these will be soul stirring, and not just shocking but terrifying. All of those things will happen. So this segment of history will be passed down by mankind for all eternity."

We are facing a very complex and difficult situation; however, we are writing a segment of history that will be passed down by mankind for all eternity. If we can clearly realize our responsibility we won't be confused again and won't count on ordinary people.

3. It is my understanding that the Paris incident has deeper meanings from another perspective.

"Because, in the Fa-rectification, every stage is a trial, a test, being left for different situations in different future periods of history, this is a magnificent Fa being left for the history of the cosmos. As far as your own cultivation goes, you've already gone through the course of cultivation. You are beings who are being established for Dafa. The last leg of your journey is your elevation to your own original and highest position. With their exceptional breadth of mind, Dafa disciples can endure anything, but different things will happen in different histories of the future. This Great Fa of the cosmos is to leave for sentient beings at different levels in different periods of history a reference for when problems occur in different periods at different levels, and is to leave for beings ways of handling all kinds of situations that occur at different times in history. That is, all the types of problems that manifest today are references being left to history. The manifestations are complicated and they seem random, but in fact they're very well ordered. They're being left for history [to demonstrate] how problems that will occur in different periods in the future should be handled. So if the evil has reached the point of being no longer savable, how to handle it isn't a question of one's personal cultivation--it is guarding the Fa of the cosmos. When necessary one can use different abilities of different levels to eliminate it." (Guiding the Voyage, Teaching the Fa at the 2001 Canada Fa Conference).

From this perspective, how well we do is critical. The manifestation of this in the human world is, that when facing unfair treatment from despicable plotting, we peacefully clarify the truth so that the policemen will end their wrongful actions, and we expose the underhanded deals behind the scenes and investigate the illegal acts. At higher levels, what we are doing will be passed down as a reference for sentient beings of the universe and will determine the cosmos' harmonizing, all-encompassing, non-destruction mechanism.

If we treat the Paris incident from the perspective of Fa-rectification, saving sentient beings and establishing references for different stages of history in the future, we will not merely solve the problem for the sake of solving problems and we will not quarrel with ordinary people. As for an apology from the concerned parties, we should assess if the apology is sufficient to redeem the bad influences created by the incident and make up for the losses in our efforts to save sentient beings.

In addition, I think that if we deeply and concretely clarify the truth, more French government officials will express their apologies. These apologies are actually for the world's people to redeem the losses that they created themselves. It is unavoidable that some victims may seek legal redress from some officials involved in the incident. Moreover, those who succumbed to the temptation from China and instructed policemen to arrest Falun Dafa practitioners for no reason will eventually bear the responsibilities for their crimes.