Standing on busy streets distributing flyers, practicing Falun Gong quietly in public, and speaking out to expose evils is a life that I never imagined before I practiced Falun Dafa. It is a most meaningful life granted to me by Falun Dafa.
From September 29 to October 1, 2000 about 60 Dafa practitioners from Taiwan and Singapore took a trip to Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand to exchange experiences with local practitioners and to promote Dafa together. As a Singaporean practitioner, I signed up to go. However, I hesitated about going because I did not understand Thai. I thought that Chinese people in Thailand speak a local Chinese dialect and maybe no one would speak English, or maybe no one would understand the Mandarin Chinese that I speak. I thought that I should not go and that I probably was not needed. When I hesitated in this way, a fellow practitioner criticized me severely: "Promoting Dafa is a serious matter, but you consider only yourself from your own interests and try to cover up your attachments." I was suddenly awakened: I was selfish for being afraid of bearing hardships, being tired and being unable to make any contributions, but I did not understand that the whole trip was a part of the process of cultivation and of being responsible to Dafa and to myself. How can promoting Dafa be prevented by any language barrier? I felt ashamed of myself and made up my mind to go to Thailand.
The first Dafa promoting activity in Thailand was practicing Falun Gong exercises together in a large park named "Long for Joy Park" on Saturday morning. Shortly after 5:00 AM we arrived at the large lawn of the local practice site. There was moisture on the lawn from Friday's rain and it was still dark. The practitioners from Thailand were busy arranging the site. Practitioners from Taiwan also arrived carrying various materials for promoting Dafa. We hung banners reading "Falun Dafa (Falun Gong)" on the trees at the entrance of the park and along the road. We also arranged the Dafa-promoting pictures, Dafa introduction brochures in Chinese, English and Thai, and the "Peaceful Journey" in Chinese and English. The auspicious and beautiful Dafa music was being played. Over 60 practitioners stood in rows and started to practice the exercises. Some practitioners taught the exercises on an open space nearby. A few other practitioners distributed Dafa materials to people doing their morning exercises. It was my first time to promote Dafa abroad. I felt great doing this, carrying brochures of Dafa introduction and the "Peaceful Journey," and speaking actively to passersby: "Please have a look at Falun Gong. Please read it." Sacred joy rose in my heart.
There were lots of people strolling and exercising in the park. The majority of them were Chinese. They had heard about Falun Gong but had been misled by negative reports. We used our own experiences as examples to present Dafa to the public. With the materials in their hands, most people said they would read the flyers and brochures. Over 20 people started to learn the exercises right there on the site. We also met several tourists from China. One of them said: "I believe there is human rights suppression in China. There are people practicing Falun Gong in my hometown. I'd like to read the book." One practitioner gave his own copy of Zhuan Falun to him. A practitioner from Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, China who could not practice Falun Gong freely at home was pleased to participate in our activity.
After distributing introductory materials I returned to the practice site and found that there was a female Western practitioner. Looking at her carefully, I wondered if she was the practitioner P from Sweden who had gone to China to exchange experiences with us? I was excited and asked her: "Do you still remember me?" She was excited too and shook hands with me. We started to exchange experiences. I learned that she was temporarily living in Thailand with her husband who was working there. During her stay she participated in many activities of promoting and protecting Dafa, including traveling to Sweden, America, and India. At the same time she was translating Zhuan Falun into Finnish. She actively cooperated with other practitioners to translate Dafa books and prepared videotapes of Master Li's lectures by adding synchronized sound of foreign languages. She provided her house for the local group study. She also studied Dafa with English group members, and promoted Dafa to the people of Thailand. Hearing all of this, I was surprised and touched. I remembered that she had been a new practitioner when we first met. During the past few years when I thought of her, I was worried if she would continue practicing. To my surprise she has already stood out in the front, promoting and protecting Dafa. She said: "One day I taught the exercise to a Thai person while a Thai practitioner taught a Westerner. I think that we are all related." She was right. Dafa transcends countries, races and languages. She introduced herself in Chinese calmly and honestly: "I am a Falun Dafa practitioner. Falun Dafa is very good. Truth, Compassion, Forbearance." Her dedicated and faithful heart toward Dafa shocked me and made me see the difference between other practitioners and myself.
Later on, we were divided into three groups according to the languages -- Chinese, English, and Thai to study Dafa and exchange experiences and personal views about stepping forward to clarify the truth of Falun Dafa. The atmosphere was very auspicious. A practitioner who had only practiced Dafa for half a year had a very deep understanding of Dafa. He encouraged all people to cherish the precious practice time and the predestined relationship of Fa-rectifying cultivation. We discussed the meaning of "To know Dafa from the standpoint of Dafa." A practitioner said that we should not have the attachment of complacency of "helping the Teacher do Fa-rectification in the human world" just because we did some work for promoting Dafa. Actually we are doing this for ourselves and as we are giving we are receiving much more. These practitioners' serious attitude and contribution towards Dafa made me understand that I have too many shortcomings and have given too little to Dafa. I constantly asked myself: when fellow practitioners bear severe suffering and hardship in China, when our Master is slandered, did I step forward both from my heart and in action to get rid of everyday people's attachments and to tell the truth of Falun Dafa each time when the test came? Overall, the two-day Dafa promoting activity in Thailand inspired and urged me to advance further and to do my best as a Dafa particle.
A practitioner from Singapore
October 2, 2000
Category: April 25 Events
