United States: Clarifying the Truth in San Francisco

After the one and a half years long Manhattan truth-clarification project concluded, some Taiwanese practitioners realised the importance of clarifying the truth in San Francisco from Master's Lecture "Teaching The Fa in San Francisco, 2005". Therefore, twenty-seven of them went to San Francisco first to clarify truth on their way to Los Angeles Experience Sharing Conference.

San Francisco has a lot of Chinese people, and many of them speak Cantonese. Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to persecute Falun Gong in 1999, local practitioners have been clarifying the truth and exposing the persecution at the Chinese Consulate, city hall plaza and Chinatown.

Clarifying the Truth

Practitioners went to the Chinese Consulate to clarify the truth. Standing on the sidewalk across from the consulate, they kindly greeted passersby, distributed fliers, and clarified the truth person to person. There were quite a lot people who listened to their truth-clarification and accepted the materials. Many expressed their goodwill, understanding, and even appreciation to the practitioners' efforts.

The "Garden Corner" is a small park at a corner of San Francisco Chinatown. The park has two kiosks and a playground, as well as an underground parking lot. When the weather is good, many older Chinese people and tourists come to the park to rest, play cards, chat or just sit. The Taiwan practitioners came to the park to clarify the truth. When some Chinese treated them roughly or even cursed at them, they responded with kindness and compassion. In just a few days, they not only distributed many copies of truth-clarification materials and the Nine Commentaries [An Epoch Times publication discloing the nature and history of the Chinese communist regime. See www.theepochtimes.com for more information]. They also helped 8 Chinese to quit the CCP. Some people held a very negative attitude toward the practitioners on the first day. However, they changed and started to help the practitioners on the following day after they witnessed the practitioners' tireless effort and great compassion. Some people appeared to come to the park for the truth, as they never came back after they obtained the information and quit the CCP. A gentleman said to me with a smile: "They should not curse at you guys, everyone can have his own opinion."

The "Garden Corner" practice site with truth-clarifying posters	Rally at Garden Corner in support of 8 million quitting the CCP

One day, the Taiwanese practitioners were clarifying the truth at a corner of Chinatown. They divided into groups, 2 per group with one holding a poster and the other distributing fliers. It is a bustling corner, and they suddenly heard someone shouting in English. Standing against a metal box, an older man was shouting with an English poster in hand. All the faces of the metal box had papers with slanderous words against Falun Gong.

Upon seeing this situation, some practitioners started to send forth righteous thoughts. Some approached him to tell him not to do bad things against his own conscience, and some distributed fliers to passersby and told them not to believe in his lies. They repeatedly told people to distinguish between good and evil, and not to be deceived by lies. Many people accepted the practitioners' fliers. In the end, the old man stopped yelling. He tore off the papers and left. The practitioner didn't see him anymore after that.

Chinatown has all kinds of Chinese organisations. Local practitioners realised that they should establish a good relationship with them and clarify the truth to them. Therefore, the Taiwanese practitioners visited these organisations one after another. Upon receiving the practitioners' polite visit, people responded with politeness as well, including those who were not friendly to practitioners before.

Fearless and Compassionate Heart Reaches Everywhere

A New Zealand practitioner can speak Cantonese. When San Francisco residents held an event in support of 8 million people quitting CCP, some Chinese people manipulated by the CCP were making a scene, trying to sabotage the event. The practitioner went to the most rampant one and clarified the truth to him. Later, the person ceased cursing and making a scene.

One day, the New Zealand practitioner went to the Garden Corner to distribute fliers. While she was clarifying the truth to people, a group of arm-waving Cantonese-speaking men surrounded her. She was not frightened at all. She calmly talked with them for about 30 minutes. Later she told me that one of the men asked her: How could you be not frightened?

Taiwan practitioners clarify the truth to Chinese people	New Zealand practitioner clarifies the truth in San Francisco

Diligent Practitioner Aunties

Taiwan practitioner Ms. Chen is in her 70s. She is illiterate and can neither read Chinese characters nor understand Mandarin. After she started to practise Falun Gong, gradually she could read Zhuan Falun (the main text of Falun Gong) in Chinese on her own and read aloud together with others. When practitioners were sharing, she always quietly listened to others. I didn't know how much she could understand. However, several hours passed, and she still sat there, listening patiently. During the Los Angeles Experience Sharing Conference, Ms. Chen was attentively listening to fellow practitioners' sharing. After the conference, I asked her how much she could understand. She smiled and said: "Some!"

The local times to send righteous thoughts are 2am, 8am, 2 pm and 8pm. Ms. Lin woke up everyday to send righteous thoughts at 2am. On the third day, I told myself: If I can wake up on time, I will send righteous thoughts as well. So what happened? I woke up at 1:54 a.m. and I was very clear minded when I was sending righteous thoughts. With such a thought, Master's law body woke me up to send righteous thoughts. It is so true that Master is watching us every second.

Our group plan is to study one lecture of Zhuan Falun everyday. One day, we attended local practitioners' Fa study and then shared experiences. By the time we came back to the hotel, it was almost midnight. Most of us thought that we had read one lecture with local practitioners and thus can go to sleep. However, Ms. Lin read one lecture alone before she went to bed. When participating in truth-clarifying activities, she always has a MP3 player so that she could listen to Master's lectures whenever possible. She also carries some truth-clarifying bookmarks and other materials, and passes them to every person she runs into. She is indeed acting according to Master's teaching:

"Even when in your daily life you pass by people so quickly that you don't have a chance to talk to them, you should still leave them with your compassion and kindness. Don't lose those who should be saved, especially those with predestined connections." [Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference]

When clarifying the truth, Ms. Yu can always talk sincerely and calmly. Therefore, people who listened to her often can easily sense her compassion and thus accept the truth-clarifying materials. One day, we had lunch in a restaurant. Because she is so friendly and caring, the Chinese who sat next to us was moved by her and quit the CCP right away.

Ms. Ye carries a small audio player to play exercise music and to keep the time for sending forth righteous thoughts. She keeps the Dafa books and new lectures clean and orderly, with character corrections pasted neatly. Though she never uses any makeup, she always dresses neatly and gives others a good impression.

Ms. Ou Bravely Looks Inward

When planning the trip to San Francisco, Taipei fellow practitioners somehow left off Ms. Chen's name by mistake. As Ms. Ou is our voluntary group leader, she looked inward to take the responsibility and tried her best to solve Ms. Chen's difficulties. On the way back, Ms. Chen was not in the same flight from Taipei to Kaohsiong with others. She would have to travel from Taoyuan to Tainan on her own. For an illiterate and non-mandarin-speaking old lady with no family members to meet her at the train station, it will be very difficult. Ms. Ou then made a plan for her: She will have a fellow practitioner in Taoyuan to accompany Ms. Chen by train and then she will meet Chen at Tainan. Though it was a good plan, Ms. Ou had a thought: Ms. Chen will fly with us.

While waiting at Los Angeles Airport, Ms. Ou told an airline staff about her mistake and Ms. Chen's difficulty. She asked him if he could help to get a ticket from Taipei to Kaohsiong. The young fellow was quickly able to help, and the problem was solved!

From Ms. Ou's courage to acknowledge her mistake and look inward, I witnessed practitioners' selflessness and the improvement of xinxing.

We stayed in San Francisco for a week. Through experience sharing, the Taiwanese practitioners' compassion touched the local practitioners. We realised that we would soon succeed in the truth-clarification in San Francisco as long as we improve our "xinxing", pay full attention to truth-clarification and take prompt action because we are with Master and the Fa. We encourage all practitioners, where they can, to come to San Francisco to clarify the truth to the Chinese people there.