Notes from Truth Clarifying Journey in Turkey and Greece

I decided to travel from Ankara, Turkey to Thessaloniki [Saloniki] ,Greece to link up with two practitioners and their young daughter who have moved to Greece. The practitioner in Turkey and I had shared insights and she told me many stories about her time in China and her present time now in Turkey. We felt related while being together, it was a profound experience for both of us as we each became more tuned into being a true practitioner at this special time. I admired her with new people. She gave them insights that I hadn’t realized. We shared the principles of Falun Dafa in many diverse places such as a fighter plane factory, an exclusive club, people’s homes, to the government etc.

During the journey, a few people accepted fliers in Turkish. I should have been more at ease and maybe more people would have recognized the opportunity to know about Falun Gong. I think I was not handing out fliers each time I could because I was influenced by what had been told to me about not trusting people and that everyone was out to cheat me because I was a stranger. Now I feel I followed others words instead of following the teachings of Falun Dafa. When I do it, it feels completely joyful and light with no thought- just a feeling of sunshine even in the rain.

On the train, a Turkish- born Greek lady in my compartment shared her sandwiches with me. The kindness of strangers brings tears to my eyes. Another young man came and offered me bread. He said it was still warm from the bakery. He said his friend was a SOS walker from Manchester, England and did the England to Brussels Walk. I asked him why he wasn’t a practitioner yet. He said he would look into it when he got home. The lady with me only spoke a little French so I had plenty of time to sit in double lotus and read. She liked the flier I gave her and felt agony over the persecution as she related it to her own experience and laughed and laughed as she too tried to sit in double lotus.

In Saloniki, Greece I met a young man who spoke a little English so I told him about Falun Dafa and the Truth Walk. He thought it was a good idea and wished me a good walk. He helped put my backpack on me but had it upside down so we laughed at me and how weighted down I was to walk. I am lighter than when I started. My huge suitcase is left in Italy and now I have a big backpack, a little one in front and a little pull suitcase. Each place I go to, I get a little more organized and my packs get lighter. Vasilios, a Greek practitioner, and his 9 year old daughter came to collect me after a lady at the train station phoned for me because I didn’t have a phone card. She even came to check when Vasilios came and of course was introduced to Falun Gong in her own language. Her smile glowed.

I shared experiences with the practitioners in Greece about overcoming language barriers in clarifying the truth. I spoke of my journey across the north of Canada and my experience with Aboriginal and Inuit peoples. I showed the pictures that I usually use to overcome this barrier.

Later we met Sue, a Chinese girl, at the nearby university. When she saw the pictures from China and from all over the world she said the Chinese government never told them there were so many who did Falun Dafa and she suddenly said I want to do the exercises now. There was one man who always had a reason against what we told him about the persecution and Falun Dafa’s goodness until some one said it was just a matter of good against bad. Just having similar things happen in the past doesn’t make it right or good then or now and it is not the same as what happened in other countries because the persecution is being spread into other countries in a planned way and causing Chinese people in other countries to treat good as bad there too. In Canada, a member of Parliament was physically abused by Chinese visitors in the House just for wearing a Falun Gong t -shirt. I was body checked by Chinese men and they tried to knock me down many times as I walked beside a Chinese parade on Canada Day in Toronto just because I had Falun Dafa printed on my shirt. These are a few of the increasing incidents which show how the bad spreads. Each of us gave our point of view. I spoke about the Truth Walk and all the SOS Walks to rescue practitioners in China and how crucial it was to tell everyone that the practitioners in China are being tortured to death to force them to lie and how this Chinese President is trying to manipulate everyone to believe good and peaceful Falun Dafa is evil. How can Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance be anything but good? Extracts from Zhuan Falun convinced him about Falun Dafa and answered his questions. His mother even asked to read the book too after seeing the pictures and talking to us.

From a Canadian practitioner in Europe
Nov.1, 2001