(Clearwisdom.net)
Greetings revered Master, greetings fellow practitioners!
Starting Cultivation
I am a Romanian practitioner, but I started to practice Falun Dafa while I was in Israel.
During my walk on the seashore in Tel-Aviv one day, I saw people practicing the Falun Gong exercises. I started to practice Falun Gong very diligently, improved my health and got a lot of good things in my personal life. My husband later also started to practice. The cultivation environment was very harmonious in Israel. Practitioners follow the Fa's requirements in their daily lives. When we were together I always felt that we were one body in this "land of purity" that is Dafa, as Master said.
Back to My Country of Birth
After two years we decided to go back (in my case) to Romania and on this occasion to help the local practitioners. I thought at that time that no matter where you go practitioners are the same. I found very soon that I was totally wrong. Romania is a post communist country with a lot of communist party evil specter left in people's minds and behavior. It turned out that this environment affected the practitioners also.
The atmosphere was tense. People were not open and honest with each other. People liked to speak critically behind the backs of others. The attachment to hierarchy and positions made the coordinator used to give orders to others and expect others to respect her completely and do exactly what she told them to do. For a year or two everything continued this way. But then people began to feel that things were not as they should be. Some of them together with me developed a mentality of adversity towards the coordinator, thinking incorrectly that she was the cause of all evil. I made the big mistake of looking outside instead of examining inward, which almost cost me my life.
After another two years of constant conflicts, I developed sickness karma and underwent an operation. After all this suffering, I suddenly realized how wrong I was and decided to do better. I am thankful to Master for giving me a second chance. I was now also in the Falun Dafa Association of Romania so I tried to organize Dafa projects. But fellow practitioners were reluctant about me organizing things because they remembered the terrible situations I created in the past. It took quite a while to re-establish the trust and relationship.
When I look back, I think that I still had an attachment to self-validation. A veteran practitioner gave me a very good advice which I cherish until the present day. He said that a good coordinator gives all practitioners the chance to participate in projects and gives them the opportunity of getting their portion of mighty virtue. A coordinator is not a leader, a manager of the human world who gives orders to his workers, a Dafa coordinator has to think of the others, find their needs and strength, makes them feel a part of every project. I want to thank him for his kind advice.
The International Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance Art Exhibition project
We organized for the first time the Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance Art Exhibition in Bucharest in October 2009. A practitioner traveled to Hungary to get the paintings, framed 10 of them and brought them to Bucharest. Another practitioner made a PowerPoint presentation with the pictures and the explanatory notes. Another translated the subtitles for the movies. Every time we met, we discovered that there is something new to do. We ordered the postcard sets from Germany and a fellow practitioner brought the posters from Vienna. We were ready for the presentations, so a group of practitioners started to look for venues and arranged the appointments. It was a very good opportunity to clarify the truth. We presented to the manager and the curator the movies and the postcards and left them always a CD and an introduction brochure.
Everyone was moved by the pictures and by the persecution, but only one gallery agreed to actually hold the exhibition. We almost obtained another venue. But after agreeing to rent us the hall, the manager spoke with the Chinese Embassy and then changed his mind.
We decided to go on with the lady from the private gallery that is a relatively famous one in Bucharest. A professor from the Romanian Academy was asked to speak at the opening and he agreed. So we published his name on the invitations and on the Internet. Invitations were given to the Romanian Parliament and to all Ministries to clarify the truth. This meant also new contacts for the future.
Three days before the opening, the Academy professor called and said that a night before he was called at 23:30 at his home phone by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and by his boss to summon him to an urgent meeting the morning after. I understood he was very afraid of the consequences he may face in case he would speak at the exhibition. The visit of the vice-president of China was expected in Romania and he was about to visit the Academy also. Therefore he expressed his sorrow and declined to give the opening speech at the exhibition. He asked me for Zhuan Falun, saying that he and his daughter would like to read it.
It was Thursday, four days before the opening and we had no speaker. One of the practitioners called me a day before and gave me the telephone number of a curator and art historian from the National Art Museum of Romania in Bucharest recommended by his acquaintance, an architect, and said that I should call her, which I did. But, she refused, saying that she was leaving town with her father for his 80th birthday on the day of the opening. I asked her if she knew someone else who could speak and she promised to call me back.
Friday came. We started to go to the media, thinking that Master would help. We sent forth righteous thoughts all the time, every hour. Suddenly the art historian called and said she postponed her trip so that she could present the paintings. We went to see her immediately with the truth clarifying and exhibition materials. We also called a human rights NGO co-president who agreed to make a speech. The opening evening came, and one hour before the ceremony one of the new practitioners called and asked if a university professor, who was also the vice president of a well known political party, can speak at the opening, because he expressed his wish to do so. Of course we agreed and waited for him to come.
We had now three speakers instead of one. We felt we were really helped all the way. The opening went very well, the speakers admired the works of art, their purity and radiant light, their benevolence and truth, as well as the message of hope they transmitted. The art historian pointed out that these works of art are creating a new trend in art and their value is very high. The human rights activist said, "This is a living proof that art can save lives" and "as you see any totalitarian regime will destroy not only its opponents, but also its potential adversaries, and in a scoundrel's mind of a dictator anyone can be a potential opponent. Torture destroys the tortured one, but it's dehumanizing the torturer. What is going on now is a horror spread in the entire country of China."
The university professor was impressed by the light emanating from all the pictures and also by the goodness of the tortured. He said that a society needs morality, competence and love for the others.
One of the visitors, a philosophy student, said that she felt a deep sorrow for the tortured and at the same time a great joy to see people show concern with such things. "I realized that there is still hope for these things to change today. I hope that there will be more such events that will help these persecuted people and make the public sensitive."
Overall the project involved at least 90% of the Romanian practitioners from the country.
We've all felt that we are one body and by acting this way we can achieve much more in saving people and improving together.
My understanding from this was that one can coordinate well only when he leaves himself out and thinks about helping the others. It is like he wants to be in the back stage and leave the others in the light.
Thank you all!