By Longquan Moke
A common question people ask about Falun Gong is: "You
people have distributed so many flyers, done so much, and held such big events,
where on earth does all this money come from?"
Some people think that
one source is behind-the-scenes financial backing from a political party. In actuality,
there has never been any evidence put forward to support this theory. In many
cases, theories like this one are a direct or indirect result of the influence
of Jiang’s propaganda machine’s accusing Falun Gong of having "political
motives" and getting support from "overseas anti-China forces."
For instance, if someone were to "bribe" Falun Gong practitioners–let’s
say around ten thousand US dollars per year for each practitioner to cover their
living expenses–and let’s say that there are only ten thousand practitioners
in North America, then the cost for maintaining these "anti-China forces"
would amount to at least one hundred million US dollars per year. The financial
records of many democratic countries are a matter of public record. Let’s take
the United States as an example. Is it possible that such a large sum of money
could have escaped the notice of the media? That it could have been approved by
the House Budget Committee? Or that there could be a clear explanation for tax-paying
citizens?
In fact, practitioners outside of China hold regular jobs with
average incomes. Below are several inspiring incidents that took place outside
of China.
Once, some practitioners rented a space at a respectable location
to hold an experience-sharing conference. To pay for the venue, one practitioner
took more than forty checks, each for a different amount and from a different
bank, and gave them all to the property manager. The manager said, "Can’t
you just give me the money in one check?" The practitioner was embarrassed
and replied, "I’m sorry, my fellow practitioners and I each paid for a portion
of the rent. That’s just how it is."
Every day in Chinatown, rain
or shine, practitioners hand out truth-clarification materials that help people
learn the facts about the persecution against Falun Gong. One female practitioner
was constantly ridiculed by a nearby storeowner, "How much money do they
pay to have you work your fingers to the bone for them?" The practitioner
just smiled and did not say anything. Her son who drove her to Chinatown could
not take it anymore, and one day he said to the storeowner, "You go find
some people for me. I’ll pay them to distribute flyers under the condition that
they have to be like my mother. It doesn’t matter if there’s a snowstorm, gusty
wind or pouring rain, it doesn’t matter if the temperature is above a hundred
or sub-zero, they have to work 365 days a year and cannot skip one day of work."
After hearing that, the storeowner quieted down. Since then, he ceased to make
disrespectful comments.
An elderly couple, both practitioners, have been
living outside of China for five or six years. They seldom buy clothes for themselves,
because they spent their entire pension on clarifying the truth to people. It
is common for some families with higher incomes to spend several thousand US dollars
all at once to make truth-clarification materials, to buy materials, or to rent
public places. In order to save money, many practitioners do the work in their
spare time, including making banners, hand-outs, truth-clarification posters,
CD’s, VCD’s, and so on.
In China, where conditions are more severe, there
are even more touching stories that have happened to Falun Gong practitioners.
In order to protect people from being conned by the government media’s
lies and deceitful propaganda, a practitioner businessman withdrew 4,000 yuan
to make truth-clarification flyers and CD’s. Full of kindhearted intentions, practitioners
risk being arrested and sentenced to forced labor camps for delivering these truth-clarification
materials to hundreds of thousands of households, free of charge. By doing so,
they have made it possible for people to discover the unaltered facts, free of
lies and deceit.
In another story, the family of a practitioner had fallen
on very hard times. They had very little money, because both the husband and wife
had lost their jobs with the government, the mother-in-law had recently passed
away from a severe illness after being hospitalized for several days, and their
child was also sick and had been hospitalized. Working as a nanny, she made a
meager monthly salary of 400 yuan. The entire family relied on her to barely make
ends meet. While living under such difficult circumstances, she found a practitioner
who made truth-clarification materials. She took out 100 yuan and handed it to
the practitioner saying that it was for making truth-clarification materials.
That was a quarter of their entire family living expenses for a month. She said
earnestly, "I’m doing this so that people will no longer be deceived by lies.
This is from the bottom of my heart."
Some people have said that practitioners
are at peace with themselves. Why? This is because they have benefited from the
practice of Falun Dafa and found the true meaning of their lives. They know that
people are being fooled and deceived by reckless lies, and they understand that
the suppression of good people who practice "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance"
is an abuse of humankind’s morals and conscience that will push China and its
people into a bottomless pit of disaster where there is no moral bottom line.
There is an elderly practitioner who is a farmer and sells vegetables at
a farmers’ market. Nowadays, it is expensive to grow food and the selling price
for vegetables is low. This practitioner has three sons. The eldest is married,
the second son recently married, and the third son is also old enough to start
his own family. You can imagine the financial strain on this family. (In China,
parents are usually expected to shoulder their children’s wedding costs.) Even
under such difficult conditions, every time he sold a vegetable, he put away one
or two yuan in order to print more flyers and help even one more person to understand
the truth. Eventually, he saved up more than one hundred yuan in coins and gave
them to fellow practitioners to make truth-clarification materials.
Another
young practitioner couple were more than ten thousand yuan in debt. In gusty winds
or under baking sun, the couple went to a silkworm farm to pick cocoons left over
from the harvest. They picked cocoons for several days and sold them for three-hundred
yuan. They did not spend the money on food, toys or clothes for their young child.
Instead, they spent all their hard-earned money on making truth-clarification
materials.
Many practitioners in the countryside save the money they earn
through sweat and blood. Their day-to-day lives are very simple and frugal. They
wear the same clothes for several years. They mix pickles and sauce for their
meals. They have to think twice when they spend even one penny. They try not to
spend money whenever possible. Yet, they never hesitate to use their money for
the sake of people who don’t know the truth about Falun Gong.
These are
a few examples of how practitioners save their money, one penny at a time. Practitioners
do not seek fame or wealth. They do these things in order to eliminate the propaganda-induced
hatred in people’s minds. They do so to safeguard justice and conscience in the
human world.
Posting date: 20/Dec/2004
Original article date: 19/Dec/2004
Category:
Open Forum
