(Minghui.org) When my in-laws came from China to visit me recently, they told me a few stories that they had heard about Falun Gong.
They told me about a practitioner who was accidentally run over in Jianping County, Liaoning Province. The driver took the practitioner to a hospital and stayed with him. When the practitioner regained consciousness, he told the driver that he could go home. The driver was very surprised, and so were the people around him. They couldn't believe that he didn't blame the driver or ask him for compensation. The man said that he was a Falun Gong practitioner and that things happen due to karmic retribution, and therefore he did not believe that the driver was at fault.
My in-laws relayed two other stories which had left them with a negative impression of Falun Gong. The first story was about a family that lived one floor below them. The grandmother, who is a practitioner, would often go out to do Dafa work and leave her young grandson at home alone, while the parents were at work. Her family was not happy about this, and the neighbors couldn't understand why practitioners would do something like that, leaving a young child at home unattended.
The second story was told to them when they rented out their commercial unit. The person renting the premises was a talkative young man who often complained about his parents. His parents were practitioners who were once held in Masanjia Forced Labor Camp. His father used to make a good living as a carpenter, but stopped working after he was released from the labor camp. The father told his son that he should support his parents financially, as the father wanted to concentrate his time on Dafa projects. The young man complained that he had his own family to support, and that what his father was asking was no easy task. He understood that supporting his parents was his duty, but his parents were not that old and so he thought that they should try to support themselves. The young man didn't understand his father, and thought that this was a practitioner's mentality. Thus, he complained about Falun Gong.
My in-laws started to have their doubts about me after hearing these two negative stories, as I am also a practitioner. They associated everything I did with Falun Gong and thought that I was neglecting my family. After much explaining and clarifying the facts about the practice, my in-laws gradually developed a better impression of Falun Gong.
Teacher told us that we should conform to everyday society as much as possible. If we only do Dafa work and don't take responsibility for our families, wouldn't we create a negative impression? My in-laws heard these stories through word of mouth, which is a very powerful form of communication and can leave a lasting impression. Whether we are in China or abroad, we should consider our actions with rationality and think of others first before we do things, as our actions could lead to negative results. We should truly cultivate ourselves to validate the Fa.
When I visited China recently, I was speaking with a couple and mentioned that I practiced Falun Gong. The wife looked very surprised and said that she often received truth clarification materials about Falun Gong, but found most of the information about the relationship between heaven and earth hard to believe. So, she didn't spend much time reading them. I told her that practicing Falun Gong offers very good health benefits and has helped to improve my health. This approach resonated with her more.
I thought about why Falun Gong still seemed strange to this woman, even after she had read some of the truth clarifying materials. Perhaps it was because she had never met a practitioner. In recent lectures, Teacher encourages practitioners to step forward and clarify the facts to people. Although many everyday people have changed their attitudes toward Falun Gong through the great efforts of practitioners both inside China and abroad, there are probably many people, like the woman that I talked to, who need to meet and talk to practitioners in person.
When Falun Gong was spreading widely in China, practitioners were seen almost everywhere. If we could openly and rationally present ourselves as practitioners when we meet people, we could leave them with a positive impression and eliminate the negative view that people have of Falun Gong because of the lies and propaganda spread by the Chinese Communist Party.