To Be Fortunate Enough to Be Practising Falun Gong During this Special Period of Time

My name is Sissel and I am living in Stavanger, a city on the south-east coast of Norway. I started practising Falun Gong about four years ago, some weeks after a course in Stavanger.

When I started practising Falun Gong a lot of things around me were chaotic. I had recently had a medical diagnoses, a seldom form of rheumatism. All cartilaginous tissues in the body, inclusive the heart could be attacked, and I had been taking cortisone for more than a year. When I asked the professor at the hospital what I could do to avoid taking the pills, the answer was brutal; I had to take pills for the rest of my life. He believed that nothing, neither lifestyle nor food could help me being cured.

After only two months of practising the Falun Gong exercises and reading the Falun Gong teachings I felt my body was lighter, the pain was reduced and I had more energy. In agreement with my doctor I reduced the dose of medicine. And to make a long story short: I am cured. The pain is gone; I am full of energy and I threw away the pills more than three years ago. My body has been purified.

The last three years I have hardly been away from my work because of illness, whereas in the past I used to take a lot of sick leave. I could handle the pain because I was used to it, but in periods the exhaustion stopped me from going to work. Now my colleges look at me, commenting: “Sissel, you are never ill!”

At that time I was living together with a man. He had an aggressive kind of lung cancer and had been told that he had less than a year left to live. When I started to practise Falun Gong, I knew little about what Falun Gong could do, both to the physical pain concerning my illness and to the psychological pain concerning loosing a loved one.

My daily life became a huge challenge, working full time and with a severely sick man at home. We had many happy days and many bad ones together and so I really wanted him to live on. My wish was that he should start practising Falun Gong at home together with me. “I don’t believe in this, but I see that Falun Gong is good for you. You keep on with it”, he said.

He had a different view of life and death and was preparing for his death.

One clear starry night I was out alone walking the dog. Suddenly a thought came to me: he is living on overtime because of me. He is ready to die. It’s me who won’t let him go! He has made his choice. He is reconciled with death and is ready to die. I must respect his wish.”

From that day on everything went very fast. He weakened and eventually lived on morphine. Five weeks after he fell into a coma and died. The last days at his bed, I read Zhuan Falun. I had been a Falun Gong-practitioner for three months. I knew that people must be allowed to make their own choices and I knew that I had to respect his choice. In hard moments I had been in despair that I hadn’t been able to convince him. At this moment I realised that I could offer Falun Gong to everybody, but every human being has the right to make their own choice.

I let go of him, which in turn filled me with calmness. A certain period of my life was left behind, and I could continue to the next step – with cultivation. By this I am not saying that the time afterwards was easy. I had heavy moments, but was supported by practising the exercises and reading Zhuan Falun, and this eased the pain.

I practised Falun Gong, read Zhuan Falun and cultivated on my own for some time. Then I was ready to go out to let others know about the practise and to expose the atrocities that are taking place in China. I took part at health fairs, anti torture exhibitions, handed out flyers and practised the exercises in crowded city centres. It was easy telling about Falun Gong and the persecution in other cities; it was worse in my own hometown. “Who is seeing me? What are they thinking about what I have to say? What if they think it is stupid!” These thoughts and questions appeared constantly. This was a big attachment.

It was easier to sit by the computer at home doing translation work for the Norwegian Clearharmony web site. Here no one could see me and I was anonymous. I could work several hours a week and spread the truth in that way. I could save people from my home office where it was safe.

I wish to tell a little about how I have matured as a practitioner. First of all, I must tell you that I am a teacher in an elementary school. Only a few of my colleagues knew that I was a Falun Gong-practitioner. Several of my pupils have met me in the city, handing out flyers, some have turned up when doing the exercises in the city, and others have been standing outside the window, peeping in while we were practising Falun Gong in my school. But I had never talked about Falun Gong and the persecution and torture in China with my pupils. I thought that it was not right to tell small children about the persecution.

We are very lucky that we were able to present the international art-exhibition “Truth – Compassion – Benevolence” in our city. During the exhibition a lot of things happened with the practitioners involved. I could almost touch and feel myself maturing during the process. I became more secure in my own conviction and more certain in what I believed in. For the first time I began talking about the exhibition with friends, family and colleges. I invited them to come and see the exhibition. When I could talk naturally about the persecution through the paintings, it was easy for the listeners to understand the cruelty happening in China. I felt that my heart was righteous.

In the exhibition area we had a corner where children and youth sat down to make paper lotus flowers. I sat down on the floor and talked with them about the persecution in China. It turned out to be nice, calm conversations about something cruel. I saw their interest and how curious they where, even the little ones.

I thought, saying to myself: ”I have to try this with pupils in my school”. At first I was trying to avoid telling the truth by just making paper flowers in Christmas colours. I talked with another practitioner, and she was absolutely clear in her voice: the idea behind is to tell the truth, not making paper lotus flowers! I knew this was right, but there was my attachment again. It’s good to have someone around helping me to keep the right direction and we can help each other to do what is best to save the people.

I prepared myself and thought thoroughly about how to tell the truth to children. Then I made a special plan for pupils in 3-7 grade. I tell them a little about Falun Gong and show some exercises, then I tell about the persecution and the torture in China using the painting “homeless”, painted by artist Daci Shen. What and how much I tell depend on the level of each class. At last I make paper lotus flowers together with the pupils. Each pupil gets 2-4 flowers to take home. We call them flowers of peace. The visit in the classroom takes about 70-90 minutes.

The first lesson was fine. It is horrible information, but it was a good event for the pupils in 4th grade. They went home with flowers with a slight touch of Christmas. The first barrier was broken. I had been standing in my classroom, showing exercises, talking about Falun Gong and above all, about the persecution and the torture. I discovered that it was ok to talk about the persecution with small children. I saw and heard the response from the children: ”Is what you have shown us really forbidden?” They would hardly believe it.

The next step followed by itself. A colleague came to me in the staff room with lotus flowers in her hands and talked about the lesson. She had been present in the classroom, listening, and was as shocked as the pupils. She was very impressed by the lotus flowers. The other teachers became interested and asked me to come. I have now been in seven classes on my own school, 3-6 grade. With 28 pupils and a teacher in each class, many are being saved. Maybe some of their parents have been told about the persecution too? It’s great to see what happens and what abilities turn up when attachments are eliminated.

When I was going to visit one of the classes to tell the truth, I felt a great sense of happiness and excitement. I was thinking: ”What have I achieved? How many people did I save?” I felt a strange feeling in my whole body. I knew at once I was too engrossed and went through the hall sending righteous thoughts. Suddenly I felt calm and humble. I was righteous and ready to tell the truth. Doing this with a righteous heart is important. Before entering a class I always sit down sending righteous thoughts. This is important for me. In this way I can enter the classes both humble and with a righteous heart. My challenge is to not treat this as a job, but as an opportunity given to me to spread the truth to many people.

Once I was invited a class with a teacher who has the habit of criticising everything, and did things with his pupils is the worst he can imagine. “What is he going to think of this?” I thought, and was worrying about visiting his class for a whole week. I was happy when it all of a sudden turned out that after all that he couldn’t make it that day. “I escaped today”. I was cheering inside. We made a new appointment for next week. The same evening I felt sick. It was so bad that I wanted to phone my workplace and say I was sick. My ears were aching, and my whole body hurt. I knew it was just a symptom, but it hurt. That evening a practitioner called me. During our conversation I was aware that I just had to go forward. The next day I was at work.

Then the day came when I was to visit the class with the criticising teacher. I had been thinking the whole week. I had realised that what he thought and felt about me, was irrelevant. The most important thing was to tell the pupils about the persecution, hoping that he would listen as well. I sent righteous thoughts on my way to the classroom. My ears and body were still aching, and I had difficulties to hear, but to delay the meeting was out of the question.

The pupils in the 5th grade were very interested. They asked a lot of questions. To be able to hear their questions, I had to wander around in the classroom and only ask the ones sitting close to me. When the pupils folded paper lotus flowers, they where very eager and made them very well. They were smiling and very satisfied when I left them 90 minutes later.

That evening my body stopped aching and my hearing returned to normal.

The day after the teacher came towards me, saying, “Sissel, what you told us yesterday was very good! And you know, I who hate doing things with my pupils, sat for several hours at home making lotus flowers with my children!”

With the righteous thoughts and righteous heart, I can tell the truth to everyone! With this new understanding in my mind, I managed to plan several visits to different classes. I planned immediately the visits other schools.

After the positive experiences from my own school, I have composed a letter to teachers of 3.-7.th grade, offering lessons. I tell them I can come to their classroom and talk about the violation to human rights in China. The letter describes my lesson; about persecution and torture in China.

To get in contact with other schools, I use my network. I visit teachers I know, mostly at lunch hours, talk a little at their workplace and hand out the letter to those I know and others sitting nearby. I am always warmly welcomed, and take the opportunity to put some letters and some lotus flowers in the staff room. My intention is that if teachers don’t want me in their classroom, they have at least read my letter about persecution and torture in China. In this way they get to know the truth. However, the responses from the teachers have been good. I have been to several school classes in two different schools and I have more schools on my list.

What has happened to me? I, who barely wished to talk about the persecution and the torture with people I know, now go seeing teachers I know, asking them to come into their classroom! With a righteous heart and a righteous mind one’s human thoughts are put aside. The goal is to spread the truth and save more people. When I manage to do so, the responses are positive from teachers and pupils.

The art exhibition “Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance” has meant a lot to me. It has helped me mature in my cultivation. I am grateful that we could have the art exhibition in our city, in order to help more people understand the truth of Falun Dafa and the persecution.

Thank you, Master.