Some Thoughts on the Activities in New York City

There have been many articles discussing clarifying the truth about Falun Gong to people in New York City. When we handed out Falun Gong informational materials there, the New Yorkers, including policemen who were on full alert pending orders, would often tell us, "We have already read your materials," "We already have quite a bit of understanding of Falun Gong and the persecution," and "We support you."

Another point worth mentioning is that many New Yorkers are willing to accept the material now, and this is a marked change from the attitude of indifference that the same New Yorkers showed when we first started handing out information. Evidently, our righteous field is strengthening.

In the past few days we also noticed some room for improvement.

First, a number of fellow practitioners were gathering together on several streets, and we noticed especially that many Falun Gong practitioners had congregated in a particular area on a narrow street. From a distance, we certainly appeared as a rather large group; however, we were unsuccessful in distributing materials. On the contrary, having a group of two to three practitioners doing the same job on other streets with photo displays and exercise demonstrations was very effective.

From one perspective, is "gathering together" not a "follow the crowd" mentality, a mentality of fear or of not daring to hand out materials by oneself? We thus enlightened to the truth that coming to New York is an opportunity to validate Falun Dafa provided by our Teacher, and if we let go of our human attachments, we will do well even if we are alone.

Secondly, we must pay attention to our image on the streets of New York City. We saw a few practitioners stop handing out materials after meeting practitioner acquaintances and instantly begin chatting in the middle of the streets. Furthermore, many practitioners are bringing their own food with them to save some money while taking part in Falun Gong activities and so we need to pay especial attention to our surroundings and our image while having these meals. We had better not eat on the busy streets.

We have not come to New York with plans to leave after participating in only one activity, and because the teachings taught in Falun Dafa requires that we think of others at all times, we have certainly not come to validate ourselves. Instead, we are here as one body, and we ought to consider things from a perspective conducive to our activities.

Thirdly, we could not find practitioners on a majority of the streets, including the busy spots on Broadway. One older Chinese man wishing to learn the exercises explained to us, "Finding you has been quite a challenge, but the situation has improved in recent days, and I am very glad to see you."

New York is a world-class metropolis. If we are to clarify the truth about Falun Gong and the persecution thoroughly and painstakingly, we must advance street by street, talking to people in person in accordance with their specific situations, and we must also go to the places that need us most. With the shortage of practitioners at the present, we should divide into smaller groups, each with one to three practitioners and, in this way, cover the entirety of Manhattan. Perhaps this is a better path to take at the moment.