- "Don't worry. No one believes it."
- "I'm coming to hear about Falun Gong"
- Righteous attitudes and righteous words change people's minds
- WHO official praised Falun Gong: "Falun Gong exercises are so elegant."
- "I will try my best to help you clarify the truth of Falun Gong to the people around here."
Today I met a government official, G. He eagerly asked me, "Why didn't you come to the meeting yesterday?" "Did anything interesting happen at the meeting?" I asked. "Oh, yes," he said, as he excitedly told me this story. In the meeting, representatives of the Chinese government stood up to talk about how bad Falun Gong was. Two foreigners at the meeting just shook their heads with wry smiles while listening to the speech. A journalist came up to them and said peacefully, "Don't worry. No one believes what they say."
An official was just leaving his office when he met the practitioners who had come to visit him to clarify the truth about Falun Gong. So they took the same bus and talked.
Courteously, the practitioners started the conversation with an exchange of conventional greetings. They were surprised when the official asked them directly, "I'd like to get information about Falun Gong. Could you tell us something about you practitioners?" The practitioners then realized that sometimes, out of misconceptions about western forms of courtesy, they inhibit themselves from directly saying what in fact people want to know: the truth about Falun Gong.
A practitioner called a human rights organization. The person at the other end of the line answered, "We are not interested in it. Sorry!" then hung up. The practitioner called again, "As an international human rights organization, it is your responsibility to hear about the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China, whose human rights have been severely violated." The person on the line was silent for a moment and then changed his attitude. He provided both the contact information of the person in charge and some other useful information.
At the annual World Health Day conference held at the headquarters of the World Health Organization, for which the topic this year was spiritual health, two practitioners got to know an official. They briefly introduced Falun Gong and talked about the persecution of the practitioners in China. The official expressed his concerns about the serious human rights violations in China and showed sympathy for the practitioners who are suffering from the persecution. He also said that two weeks earlier he saw the moving scene of Falun Gong practitioners doing the exercises in front of the UN building. He felt the exercises were so elegant. The practitioners told him of some cases in which Falun Dafa had helped people to improve their physical health as well as raise their moral standards. He became even more interested and asked the practitioners to show him the exercises while he followed along. He found the local contact information from a brochure and indicated that he would go to the local practice site to learn Falun Gong.
After coming to Geneva, every day we had opportunities to clarify the truth of Falun Gong and expose the brutal savageries of Jiang Zemin's criminal gang [The president of China who ordered the persecution]. One day we met a lady from the U.K. on the bus. She showed a lot of interest after hearing that the reason we came to Geneva was to seek help from representatives of the UN Human Rights Commission . She said she had seen the practitioners appealing peacefully and doing Falun Gong exercises on the UN Square a few weeks ago. She said many Europeans didn't understand why Jiang Zemin's regime persecuted Falun Gong and took such brutal measures against such peaceful people.
The practitioners explained that Falun Gong was a practice to cultivate both mind and body based on "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance," and to promote higher moral standards. Jealous of the flourishing development of Falun Gong in China, the authorities started suppressing it by every possible means, brutally increasing the pressure over the months. She told the practitioners with deep feeling that she was very interested in the ancient Chinese culture and had been to many cities in China. She always felt a lot of pain when she saw this ancient culture being criticized and ruined. The brutal persecution of Falun Gong by Jiang Zemin's regime not only violated the people's human rights, but also damaged traditional Chinese culture. Furthermore, it was against human nature to suppress the kindness of the human heart. Now she clearly understands the essence of the persecution. Before she left, she accepted the materials about Falun Gong and told us, "I will put forth every effort to help you clarify the truth of Falun Gong to the people around here."
- Meeting predestined people in a beautiful city
- Spreading Falun Gong in small towns outside of Geneva
- Encountering the ambassador by chance
- "Belief in the God and Buddha is restricted; only that in XX doctrine is promoted."
- Meeting predestined people everywhere
- Unexpected gain
- "It is difficult, but yet not difficult to break away from humanness" --- how one young woman came to Geneva
One morning, several practitioners and I traveled to Lucerne by train, about an hour's journey. In the afternoon, we came to the lake. There was a gentle breeze blowing over the lake, and the Alps could faintly be seen far away in the distance. The tourists were all enjoying the beautiful scenery. Under the clear blue sky, we played Falun Dafa exercise music and attracted tourists to come by. We distributed the Dafa materials and talked to the people who stopped and showed an interest. A father and his daughter sat beside the practitioners doing meditation and started to imitate their movements. A young man took off his roller skates and began to learn the first and second exercises. He was very serious and grasped the essentials quickly, and his movements were quite accurate. I left him with the local contact information and sincerely wished he would become a Falun Gong practitioner very soon.
The clouds came and the sky became a little gloomy, but it soon brightened up again. It was a very beautiful scene: floating white clouds, a clear blue sky, and twinkling spots of light on the surface of the lake. The practitioners began the meditation sitting in the Lotus position. A couple stopped by and we had a chat. They came from Gaithersburg, Maryland, and their home was just a half-hour drive from where I live. They had come to Switzerland for a holiday and would leave the next day. I gave them the Dafa materials with the contact information in the Washington DC area on it. They were very interested and said they would contact the practitioners. Groups of tourists came and went. We hope some day they will finally realize the importance of this moment in their lives.
Here there are clear skies, blue lakes, and people with crystal pure hearts. The quality of the living standard depends upon the quality of people. I'm very glad that this piece of land became even more beautiful because of our coming here.
On Saturday, April 7, nine practitioners went to some small towns outside of Geneva. On the way we passed by some famous cities of Switzerland, some old small towns from the Middle Ages, and we met many predestined people. Some folks talked with us for a long time; some read the materials seriously; some actively asked for the location of nearby practice sites. Most people had heard of Falun Gong and knew something about the persecution of Falun Gong in China.
There were two little girls, one just 3 years old and the other 5 years old. They tried to learn the meditation and sit with their legs crossed. Their father watched the practitioners' movements and kept correcting them patiently. A passerby came up to a practitioner taking a break by the side of the road, and asked him to photograph her. She was very patient and polite, and listened to the practitioner's true stories of Falun Gong. Later her companion told us that she was the UN representative of an Asian country. On the train to a small country village, an old man asked for the materials and had a conscientious discussion with the practitioners. He indicated that he would take the materials back home to share with his family.
A couple from another country were deeply impressed by the beautiful scenery. After talking with the practitioners, they said they planned to move here and asked how to find and start practicing at the local practice sight. A person passing by initially refused to take the Falun Gong materials when a practitioner handed them to him. When the practitioner spoke out the words "Falun Dafa" [another name for Falun Gong], he immediately stopped and turned around to get them. The mighty power of Dafa moves people's heart.
On the train, a little girl with golden hair kept watching the practitioners. Her father told us she had just started to walk and was very shy with strangers. However, after gazing at the practitioners for a long time, she finally walked towards us bravely. The practitioners took turns holding her on their laps. They showed her the picture of Teacher and the Falun emblem and talked to her about Falun Gong. The little girl kept pointing to the Falun emblem with her little finger and a thoughtful expression. Her mother came back with a 10-day-old baby in her arms and was amazed to find that her daughter could get along with strangers for such a long time. When we got off the train, the little girl and the rest of the family kept waving their hands and giving us flying kisses.
A practitioner couldn't meet the ambassador in an embassy, so he left the materials there. He then stopped at a nearby location where some practitioners were doing the exercises. He started to talk with a passerby who had been standing there for a long time and wouldn't leave. He talked about Falun Gong and the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. The passerby expressed his deep sympathy. Through further conversation, the practitioner was pleasantly surprised to learn that he was now talking to the very ambassador for whom he had just been searching.
During a talk with our practitioners, the attitude of an official from one country quickly turned from one of indifference to deeply agreeable, as he acknowledged that Jiang Zemin's gang "restricts the belief in God and Buddha, only allowing the belief in XX doctrine."
A practitioner was dining in the cafeteria across the table from a European. He asked the practitioner what Falun Gong was. He was surprised there were so many people practicing it. After the practitioner introduced it to him, he was very interested and said that he was going to read the book after he went back home. The European left and an Iranian living in Malaysia came. He asked a question almost exactly the same as the European had asked and finally indicated that he would look for the practice site in Malaysia. In just a few minutes, Teacher's Fashen [a law body made of cultivation energy and law and principles/translator] brought two predestined people to the Truth. The practitioner couldn't help but think that the stage was set for more worldly people to attain Dafa soon.
We had visited an office twice and didn't meet the people for whom we were looking. On the third try we met four or five people who were just coming back from outside. They were very happy to hear about Falun Gong and immediately invited us to sit with them and have a discussion.
Actually these were all representatives from different international organizations. Some had heard of Falun Gong and some hadn't at all. They asked the practitioners many questions: about the Tiananmen "self-immolation" incident, why Jiang Zemin's regime was cracking down on Falun Gong, whether Falun Gong practitioners were allowed to take medicine, and so on. The practitioners answered each question one by one.
A representative said, "I'm going to meet the Chinese representatives now. It would be better to give me the materials in both Chinese and English so I can point out the issues to them one by one. I have dealt with them before and have had similar experiences. If you don't do it in such and such a way, they will disavow it."
She is a student from a famous American university and will graduate soon. A big company has already agreed to employ her on the condition that she will start as an intern and be officially employed after she finishes school.
Before she came to Geneva, she had two group assignments from school that were due very soon, as well as a task from the company which was to be completed in two weeks. She had just taken a week's leave for the trip to Geneva, and now she had to ask for leave again.
"In fact, as soon as I returned home from Geneva, I realized the importance of coming back to Geneva, because it is important to eliminate the evil." Before I came, I was really under pressure with many things. But I felt I should come back at the very beginning. If I knew I should come but did not, I would be one of those people who had "sworn to offer salvation to people but was lost in ordinary society."
A Falun Gong practitioner in Europe
