One Visit Leads to Another

I really enjoy telling people about Falun Gong. Most of the time it is best when I don’t try too hard and instead let nature take its course. This is one example:

On Tuesday November 19 2002, I was invited to my local Amnesty International group in Mönsterås in the southeast of Sweden, to tell them about Falun Gong. They had been thinking about inviting me since the spring, when my husband was imprisoned in China for five days because he appealed for the human rights of Falun Gong practitioners, but it was not until November that they finally did. There were eight ladies of different ages in the group and they told me that they had heard and read some things about Falun Gong, both good and bad, and now they wanted to find out the true facts.

The ladies had a lot of questions such as, “What is it that China think is so dangerous about Falun Gong?” and “Could you explain your Falun symbol?” I told them that when the persecution began there were more Falun Gong practitioners than members of the communist party and Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin became jealous of this. I also told them that the swastika is a very old symbol. Someone in the group had already heard that used to be regarded as a symbol of happiness or of the sun. When the Amnesty group heard about the Jiang regime’s persecution, they thought that it’s terrible and they discussed the social system in China. They asked how China could act in this way and still be allowed to host the Olympic Games in 2008. I told them how China only shows the world what they want it to see.

One young woman was particularly interested and she asked a lot of questions. Before we went home she asked if I would be interested in visiting her class in an adult education college to tell them more about Falun Gong. Two weeks later my husband and I went there. It was a health and disease prevention class and at that time they were talking about the meaning of life and similar things. Thus it was a very suitable time for us to tell them about Falun Gong. They were interested in finding out about the practice methods and our personal experiences during cultivation.

We started with a short introduction about what Falun Gong is and how its popularity grew rapidly in China. We then taught them the exercises and most of them thought it felt good. After this they asked some questions. They seemed open-minded and curious. They asked what kind of changes we have experienced from practising Falun Gong and how we live our everyday lives. My husband told them about how he used to live before: that he travelled a lot and worked in different countries for about five years and was quite restless and that Falun Gong had changed his life and he had become much calmer.

The teacher was also very interested and had some questions to ask. Among other things, my husband talked about Master Li Hongzhi (the founder of Falun Gong) and his teachings and touched upon issues such as supernormal abilities, and that when you do bad deeds, such as hurting and taking advantage of others, you get karma. Karma is a black substance. By doing good deeds and by enduring hardships you get a white substance, virtue. These substances will follow the primordial spirit, which in the cultivation community is considered to be immortal, when your physical body dies it reincarnates with these two substances in the next life. The teacher found this way of thinking very interesting considering the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China: “In that case, what is the persecution? Is it virtue or karma?” They understood that the persecution is bad.

My husband also mentioned the fact that Master Li Hongzhi talks about cause and effect. There is a deeper cause behind all diseases and hardships that man encounters. Another student then asked, “Does that mean that you look down on people who are ill or disabled because they have done something bad, since they suffer like that?” “It is not like that” my husband explained and continued, “you should be honest, kind-hearted and compassionate to all people and always follow Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance in everything you do!” The class found it very interesting and appreciated our visit a lot.

A few weeks later I found out that the Amnesty group in Mönsterås has got two new cases. They are two sisters who practise Falun Gong and who were arrested before the persecution began because their bookstore sold Falun Gong books. The activities of the Amnesty group consists of writing letters to the involved authorities to tell them that the world knows about these two cases. In this way they put pressure on the Chinese authorities to release the two sisters. Members of the group were astonished that this happened just after my information visit.