Free China in Belgrade

I’m a practitioner from Serbia. I joined the Free China project as country coordinator and have since then experienced many wonderful things. This is my story about the first private screening for Friends of Falun Gong and VIPs held in Serbia's capital, Belgrade, and my insights during the process.

It all started with screenings to my family members. Although I’ve been practising Dafa since 2005, I felt some of them never adopted a truly righteous attitude towards what I was doing so my wish was to rectify this. The time was ripe.

My daughter read Zhuan Falun in her teens. She took the book on her own initiative and read it from cover to cover, but she was quite negative about it, because she understood people should give up their emotions. That made me really sad. Years had passed since then and she became a student of a film academy. When I asked her to see the movie and share her opinion, she said OK.

Indeed, the film Free China helped to remove some of her notions and to get a better understanding of the persecution and her father's cause. Later she helped me do the subtitling, search for a venue and even invited her professors and colleagues to the private screening. What’s more, she decided to make a short film about my transformation through Dafa.

Next followed my father and mother – although they admitted I changed so much since I started practising Dafa, they did not understood why should I devote myself to the practice and help Chinese people. So one day, after a relative's funeral, I used the opportunity to be open with them: You are already old and could depart this world very soon. How could you go without understanding my cause? May I show you a movie?

My mother was touched by the movie. My father, however, had been poisoned by communist culture all his life and he was quite irritated and in disbelief to all what’s shown in the film. I didn’t try to persuade him. Only compassion has the power to change people’s hearts, so I just tried to be sincere with him and share my experience. In my youth I was rebellious and opposed to any authority, including school teachers and my parents. I made a lot of trouble for them and caused them pain. I cannot turn things back, but now that I’ve found my peace of mind in Dafa, I feel sorry for that. I asked their forgiveness for my misbehaviour in the past.

Actually, father needed my absolution too. The movie was a trigger to start being truthful and open to each other and I think that openness finally broke the barrier produced by his notions. He understood that although small people such as me cannot defeat the Party, fighting for the good is worthwhile. I felt relieved. It was like unblocking the chi.

The actual first private screening was held in a cultural centre, a popular place for students and art lovers. We actually got the venue free of charge with the help of a daughter of a practitioner, who was not a practitioner, and who maybe lacked the true understanding of Dafa just like my own daughter. The centre even gave us permission to show a photo exhibition in the lobby on the night of the screening. So convenient!

During early preparations for the screening, we planned a family event to celebrate my 50th birthday. I made arrangements for a quiet dinner party for relatives and close friends. But something happened and dinner ended up as a party for 60 people!

Of course, any chance to save people is welcome, but still I wondered how come I had to have such an ordinary event for ordinary people. Free China! I used the opportunity to inform them about the screening. It was a training for Free China events. I not only gained experience to run the film screening, but also all the guests ended up on Free China’s guest list.

An elderly practitioner from our city thought she had no one to invite to the screening. One day, she saw a young man sitting next to her on the bus reading Chinese. She started a conversation with him. It turned out the guy was a student of Chinese language at university. She told him about the Free China film and invited him to the screening. He asked if he could invite professors and classmates to the screening. Of course, they all are welcome!

A new practitioner had many friends to invite, including a Taichi instructor. But the instructor declined the invitation on account of her future cooperation with the Chinese consulate and fear of losing her position. She was quite negative and even asked why we should care so much for Chinese people, instead of our own. The practitioner took those words to heart. Next night she saw Master very vividly in her dream, coming out of a cloud and asking: “Are you coming to study with us?” That was real encouragement. She knew she was a Dafa practitioner with a great mission. so she did a great job afterwards.

One day, I had dream. I was driving a van full of practitioners; we were heading to another city in my country, where Shen Yun was about to perform. I was worried we'd be late and I was speeding. While talking to practitioners I didn't spot something on the road, so to avoid it I turned abruptly and fell off the road. Nobody was hurt but we were stuck in a ditch. Instead of having a calm mind needed to resolve the situation, I panicked: “It is too late; we won’t be able to find alternative transport; we won’t make it on time and this will make it difficult to start the show. Maybe the show will be cancelled because of me?” I felt so guilty and woke up.

Even when I woke up, there was bitterness and regret in my heart. Did I really let Shen Yun down in some other dimension?

On the day of the screening, I also had that “being late” feeling. I asked our Master to help me not to be late. Everything in the venue was ready and my arrival one hour early seemed timely enough. After all, I just had to plug in the cable to my laptop and click ‘play’. But that's only if you don't have interference. And we did.

It turned out that the projector in the venue had a low quality picture, so we decided to replace it with a spare one (actually, earlier that day my neighbour offered to bring his own and assist with the technical part). After we replaced the projector, the picture was fine, but then my laptop started to behave crazily by freezing the mouse pointer, and slowing down. We transferred the video file to my neighbour’s laptop. Just before he was about to finish, his mobile rang and he had to answer the call. After hanging up the call, he wondered: “I can't believe it, it’s my business partner from Mexico – why did he have to call just now?”

His laptop was not OK, the picture was cropped and changing settings was of no help. In the meantime, guests were filling the venue. It was time to start and we were not set yet. I tried my laptop one more time and now it seemed to work. After checking the connection, I made an opening remark, apologising for the delay. The lights went off and the screening started.

It is only then I realised each of the 100 seats was occupied and some guests were still standing. After providing extra chairs, I settled myself down and asked Master for help: “Please make the computer work.”

Master did actually help and the screening went through without interruption. The responses were positive and guests were quite happy to attend such an event, even on a rainy day.

One of them commented: “Here, with you people, I feel at home.” Some wanted to learn the practice or buy Dafa books and some wished for more discussion with Q & A after the screening, because my closing remarks were too short and my invitation to Q & A was a mere formality due to the interference before the screening.

The photo exhibition provided more chances for people to get some more info. Practitioners mingled with guests during the reception afterwards, but still some expected more. This made me realise how important live truth clarification is. We shouldn’t think the actual film can do the whole job by itself. After all, the guests probably belong to our own domains, so who else could save them but us directly?

As a body of practitioners (there’s four of us in Belgrade) we cooperated very well and that may be the key point. Actually, any of the future screenings of Free China in my country will prove to be a perfect opportunity for cooperation and improving xinxing. As long as we regard it as cultivation instead of a job to be done and try to look inside, a number of people will indeed get their chance. On the other hand, a flash of human thought, such as “I did well”, or “it’s hard to do” will ruin everything. From my understanding of the Fa, those who we save have their own criteria for salvation and if we are not up to par, we will not get the chance to save them.

We should not rely on everyday people or expect anything from them. But it seems this time Master was taking care of those close to us as well. My non-practitioner wife helped a great deal in inviting guests. The same goes for the husband of one of the practitioners, and my own brother, in addition to those already mentioned.

We all feel gratitude to Master for giving us this chance. It’s only that some of those involved, being non-practitioners, have no clear understanding of what they were doing - and that’s saving sentient beings.

I will finish my sharing with a quotation from “Touring North America to teach the Fa”:
“During today’s persecution, if an ordinary, everyday person can say to another person, “Don’t persecute Falun Gong, Falun Gong is good,” and as a result that person doesn’t persecute Dafa disciples, and in the future he even has the opportunity to remain and obtain the Fa, if he came down from a high level to obtain the Fa, then his cultivation will be rapid. Then think about it, his Consummation will be the Consummation of an enormous group of beings, and the Consummation of a Lord, or a King. Yet his Consummation was made possible by an everyday person. That everyday person, an ordinary everyday person, will even become a great God. Then even more so, what about Dafa disciples doing something so magnificent ...”

Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!