PureInsight | October 31, 2005
[PureInsight.org] I want to share how we organized the Ukraine's first international forum "Communism is a Threat to the World." We exchanged our understanding on the importance of this event for the entire Ukraine. This was so because the explanation of truth has already reached this level as it is being done not only by practitioners, but also by ordinary people.
Ukrainians were terribly repressed during the Communist occupation. This was a preparation done by history, so that today's people could more easily accept the truth and be saved. For us Ukrainian practitioners, it was also an invaluable chance to have, for the first time, so many practitioners from different countries come to participate in the forum and to exchange their experiences with us. And, we clearly understood that it was necessary to fully use this opportunity.
Preparation time for the forum was very limited as it was less than a month. Moreover, we did not have a place nor did we know whom to invite as speakers. But we knew that this forum would be a success and that we would quietly do everything without losing a minute. We decided that we should meet personally with people to clarify the truth, communicate heart to heart, provide a copy of the "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party," and invite them to the forum. We considered sending e-mails and faxes as only additional means. We divided the preparation for the forum into several stages.
The first one was the search for a place to hold the forum. One practitioner divided the city by districts and different organizations: parties, media and others. Thus, in every region we went around to all of the nearby organizations. While searching for a place in the central part of the city we mainly concentrated on the explanation of the truth to ordinary people. Thus, in a short period of time we succeeded in meeting with many people, clarified the truth to many heads of different institutions, representatives of government and non-governmental organizations, political parties and media.
We also understood that failure to find a place should not prevent us from explaining the truth to wide circles of people. We believed we would find a place anyway, but we could not miss precious opportunities and time for the truth clarification work. Therefore, we began to invite people to the forum even without a place to hold it. We told them that we would let them know about the place and time of conducting the forum later, took their phone numbers and then contacted them later. In the process of contacting different people we found more speakers - those people, who wanted to express their opinions regarding communism and those who already had their speeches ready. Many of those, who could not grant a place to us proposed different services of another kind. For example, they sent invitations to their affiliated organizations, posted our announcement in the lobby, and so on.
Practitioners from other cities used the information about the forum in Kiev for clarifying the truth to the media in their cities.
We also obtained good experience with the distribution of invitations by e-mail. We sent out personal invitations to some of the people by addressing the invitations with their name or surnames. This took more time, but the effect was very good. People felt, that the invitation was addressed personally to them and not some kind of junk mail. Many answered with appreciation, promised to arrive or voiced their regret, if at that time they were not able to make it, but they expressed their support. Some of them forwarded their invitations to others.
On several occasions I realized that Teacher was always next to me, always helping us, so that everything would be done in the best way. For example, one of the speakers was acting on behalf of a certain political party. He wanted to come out at the forum with a speech which exposed communism. After I got to know him better I realized that, in reality, he wanted to talk about the policy of his party and to make a political campaign speech. I want to remind all that in our country the parliamentary elections are approaching, and many parties are now actively conducting their pre-election campaigns. Since we already promised him that he could talk, we could not just refuse him. We could only try to correct his speech. When we agreed to meet again for the more detailed discussion of his speech, he said that he was very busy and his speech was not ready yet. So, he was present at the forum as a listener.
In other cases, I was advised to contact one experienced speaker, who was an instructor of philosophy at the Kiev-Mogilev academy. In the phone conversation he said that he would be able to give a speech, but refused to meet with us before the forum and to read the Nine Commentaries. He told us that he would use the time before the forum started to look it over. He also refused to send us his speech in the electronic form, since he did not have one. After the conversation I had the unpleasant feeling, because I realized that each of the speakers must understand clearly the purpose of the forum, the value of the Nine Commentaries, and not only speak out against communism. I decided to call him and tell him that. Unfortunately, we have to refuse him since we did not know him personally and did not know what the content of his presentation would be. It is my understanding that it is not very tactful to act like this since we were the ones who approached him, but I decided to call anyway. When I was about to call, the phone rang. It was him. He said that, unfortunately, on the day of the forum he was called to the ministry, and he wouldn't be able to make it to the forum.
I was introduced to two other speakers only the day before the forum but, nevertheless, their speeches were very good. We also invited to be our co-sponsors a well known Kiev organization called "Memorial" that is named after Vasyl Stus [a Ukrainian dissident poet]. They have a large exhibition about the Communist inquisition in SNG. We presented it at the forum. All speakers talked in such a way as to show the problems with communism from different sides: from famine in the Ukraine to the influence of the Communist system on the education system and personal development. There was a speaker who explained in depth, how communism hinders belief in God and any moral principles. Another speaker talked about how he himself had been repressed in the USSR as a political prisoner. He described as an eyewitness what was going on at that time in the places of imprisonment with people who were thinking differently. A professor described in detail the essence of the Chinese Communist Party and showed the true face of today's China.
One of our omissions was the fact that we sent out invitations to the forum to all deputies, including Communists, and the head of the Communist Party in the Ukraine. We gave the evil a loophole and during the day of the forum the Communists picketed the building where we had our meeting. We used this chance in order to clarify the truth to them by giving them newspapers and meeting with them. The representatives of The Epoch Times explained that we were not protesting against them, and we are not at all against the Communists. We are simply telling the truth about those crimes, which the Communist Party in China is still executing towards their good people.
Our forum took place in the building where at the same time there were several other meetings and a Party Congress. Thus, it was also a chance to tell these people about our forum.
The next day we held an information action in the center of the city. We met many people with predestined relationships. One of the women rejected the materials at first, justifying this by the fact that she had known everything about the Communist Party for a long time. Nevertheless, one practitioner had a chance to talk to her and even spent much time talking and listening to her story. In the beginning, she was a very active party member, but one day she had a dream. In this dream there was a parade and Lenin was riding the armored car along the street. The soles of his feet were at the level of that woman's eyes, and she saw, that instead of the feet, he had hoofs. It was a hint. She realized that it was Satan in Lenin's appearance. She immediately quit the Communist Party and turned to belief in God. The practitioner patiently listened to her. At the end of the discussion she took materials not only for herself, but also for her neighbors.
Everyone had a good experience during these meetings and it provided an invaluable chance for upgrading our xinxing [moral or heart nature]. Our cultivation is no longer on the problems of personal cultivation and not passing some test. If you did not improve qualitatively, and did not get rid of attachments, emotions and feelings, this all can negatively influence the general preparation and conduct of the forum, since you are responsible for the specific part of the project. I also realized again that no matter what could happen it is necessary to always remain calm and good-natured to others. Regardless of how complex and critical the situation may seem, if you are able to maintain self-control and tolerance, any problem can be resolved unexpectedly in the most positive way. The main thing is raising one's spiritual level and then indeed the situation will change in accordance with a change in one's heart.
