(Minghui.org) I traveled to Washington DC during the week of July 20 to attend the rally, parade, and candlelight vigil with several others from my area. We also visited our congressional offices on Capitol Hill.
There, I had the opportunity to participate in sharing among practitioners who have persevered in clarifying the truth to congressional offices and other government agencies. Inspired by the wisdom and elevation in cultivation of those who spoke, I'd like to share some of these insights for the benefit of fellow practitioners.
Making Friends
A western practitioner talked about an early experience with clarifying the truth to the government when she approached her Congressman for help to rescue a persecuted practitioner.
Her meeting with the Congressman established a good relationship, but she realized that this was just the beginning. “Little did I know that VIP work is not a one and done, but about relationship building and like any other relationship, for success, there needs to be Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance.”
A Chinese practitioner also shared on the importance of cultivating friendships with VIPs while clarifying the truth.
“In the beginning, it took months and months to make appointments with important officials, because they are not obligated to meet with us. But after we became friends with these officials and their staff, a single call was sufficient to arrange a face-to-face meeting,” shared the practitioner. “Sometimes, they would even set up a meeting for us with people from other offices. This privilege was unimaginable before.”
Making and maintaining friendships with officials opened many doors. “At one event, we shook hands and chatted a bit with an important official. Just when we were about to end the talk, he suddenly said, 'Wait here, I want to introduce you to someone.' And then he brought over another very important official and said sincerely: 'These are Falun Gong practitioners and they have been our loyal friends in the past few years.'”
“Gradually we became complacent and sometimes forgot to seize opportunities to clarify the truth during social events. Noticing that this caused some negative results, we realized that although we cannot clarify the truth all the time, we must have a clear mindset, that our mission here is to clarify the truth and save people.
“We came to realize that it is our Master and the power of the Fa that are saving people, not us. As long as we work based on the Fa, the people that we are trying to save should not reject us. Even if what we do is not perfect, they will understand our earnest hearts to save them.”
Working Together as One Body, Without Pursuit
“We may not know the outcome of our efforts, but the right outcome happens when we do things without pursuit.” This practitioner proceeded to describe several instances where a simple action led to greater than expected results.
In one case, a question he managed to raise at a congressional roundtable meeting led to him being able to clarify the truth in depth about the illegality of the persecution of Falun Gong. And this led to a one-hour meeting with the host. The next report from this agency included the information that the practitioner provided during that meeting, and corrected misinformation in the previous year’s report.
Another practitioner echoed, “I understand that clarifying the truth to government officials is saving them, is giving the best things to them. If I am not careful, I will feel that they are helping us and have the attachment of pursuing something from them.”
It was the day before the deadline for the proposal for a resolution to condemn organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China. Practitioners were still looking for politicians from the biggest political groups to introduce the resolution.
“I looked inward and eliminated all other thoughts, replacing it with just one: Only Master decides, if Master wants it to happen, it will,” shared a practitioner who had worked on this effort from beginning to end.
“It was afternoon already, and we still had no response. We sent forth righteous thoughts and called. Nobody was picking up the phone. We sent forth righteous thoughts again and called again. No answer. We sent forth righteous thoughts again – only Master decides. The phone was picked up and we were told the politicians are discussing our proposal right that moment. They asked some questions and later confirmed that they would support the proposal.”
The practitioner was moved to tears several times during her sharing about the arduous, and faith-affirming, process of seeking this resolution and seeing it through.
A practitioner who also worked on the resolution project shared his perspective, “Fellow practitioners and I knew that it was Master who made this happen. Master said in The Master-Disciple Bond, Hong Yin Volume II,
'When disciples have ample righteous thoughtsMaster has the power to turn back the tide.'
“All we did was to bring the truth to people who are waiting for it – be it high-ranking officials or staff; and during the process, we should never give up and should continue with a resolute determination.”
“The Fa’s strength was manifested through the practitioners’ cooperation. It’s a process of continuously purifying our hearts and clarifying the truth at a deeper level,” concluded the practitioner.
“This Is So Important!”
“This is so important! You need to make everyone sign this!” said a woman at a farmers' market upon encountering a western practitioner, who was collecting signatures to support the pending House Resolution 281 to condemn forced organ harvesting.
When the next person the practitioner asked kept walking, this woman yelled out: “Hey! You need to sign this! Don't just ignore her, she's asking you to sign something important! You'll feel good about this later!” The man immediately turned around and signed the petition.
The practitioner was happy that this woman gave herself such a bright future with her strong support. At the same time she felt her words were direct encouragement from Master, saying that we must bear in mind the importance of what we are doing in rescuing sentient beings.
A DC practitioner realized through an obstacle affecting another truth-clarification project that many big issues need government work to resolve, and that if practitioners do government work well, many big issues can be resolved. “I also realized that rectifying the Fa and saving people depend on how well we do our government work.”
Seeing the necessity, this practitioner changed jobs to get more day time opportunities to do government work.
“This task requires us to have a bigger sense of responsibility for the mission we are entrusted with, in the time that is slipping by, in order to find the determination needed to push forward and succeed further,” he shared.
Another DC practitioner who spends a lot of time clarifying the truth to foreign embassies shared, “Since the government’s policies can deeply impact society’s direction, clarifying the truth about Falun Dafa to the government becomes very important.”
Awakening Consciences
A practitioner enlightened that living close to the state government building meant that it was his responsibility to clarify the truth to the state level officials. With the support of practitioners from other areas, they thoroughly clarified the truth to the state representatives and received a significant amount of support from them.
When Master mentioned the organ harvesting atrocities in a lecture in 2013, this practitioner felt heavyhearted. He felt that practitioners have not done well enough to expose this and seek support from the international community.
“It was more than seven years - from 2006 to 2013 - since the crimes of organ harvesting were exposed, yet these crimes are still continuing, and governments of various countries, especially the US government, still haven’t made any clear condemnations of them. The way these governments have behaved, is not only due to being controlled by the old forces, but also has a lot to do with our understanding about this issue as a whole, and the extent of effort put forth by practitioners directly involved in truth-clarification to governments at various levels.”
“Since the crimes of organ harvesting challenge the bottom line of human morality, in the face of such crimes, many people feel deeply disturbed, condemn the CCP’s organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners, and they will be saved as a result. At the same time, our truth-clarification process will also restrain the CCP, disintegrate the evil, and help stop the persecution.”
So he and fellow practitioners set out to approach the state level government once again for support to end forced organ harvesting in China. This time, they involved the community by collecting thousands of signatures to support legislation to stop organ harvesting, clarifying the truth to people along the way.
As it had been several years since their last effort, they had to start from scratch with many offices and do a thorough job of clarifying the truth. The representatives who finally agreed to initiate the resolution were new in office, breaking the practitioner's notions that it would come from those who had already been familiar and supportive in the past.
When it came time for the resolution to be considered for the floor vote, practitioners were invited to answer questions from the committee. The practitioners kept righteous thoughts while addressing doubts about the evidence and whether this was a state level issue.
In the end, a veteran representative said, “We’ve passed a number of resolutions in the past ten years. What use are they?” The practitioner got stuck and didn’t know how to respond to his question. Time seemed to have frozen at that moment. Then he said firmly, “They are very useful. Falun Gong practitioners are being persecuted in China. They need your support.”
After that the chairperson asked them to vote verbally. The practitioners sent righteous thoughts while this was going on. The resolution was passed.
“I knew in my heart that the evil couldn’t stop the resolution,” said the practitioner.
Perseverance and Self-Discipline
“To clarify the truth to government officials, we need to be unafraid of difficulties and to have perseverance,” said a DC practitioner who has quietly been interacting with government officials for many years.
“I once had contact with a very senior level official. Almost every time, he would say he was very busy and could spare me no time, but I continued to contact him and give him truth clarification materials. Once, in an event attended by 200 people, I submitted a question. In his answer, he said, 'The Chinese Communist Party is against nature, against humanity…' The practitioner could tell by his answer that he had in fact read the materials and understood the truth.
“Clarifying the truth to the government is unlike some other projects that have defined deadlines. Newspapers have to be published or a performance needs to be on stage when the curtain rises. Whereas when working with the government, others may not know how much or how little you have done, and may not see the direct impact you have made,” said a Washington DC practitioner.
This practitioner has coordinated truth-clarification to congressional offices for many years. Comparing government truth-clarification with cultivating in ordinary human society, he said, “This type of work all depends on how strict we are with ourselves, and how responsible we are to our cultivation and sentient beings.”
Category: Improving Oneself
