2004 European Conference: Recalling an Afternoon in Poland

Honoured Master, Esteemed Fellow Practitioners:

When I read the plea from a Boston practitioner, to go to Poland during the occasion of the state visit of China’s Chief of State, the Honourable Hu Jintao, as well as the Trade Minister, Bo Xilai, I knew that I had to go to support and show solidarity with the few local practitioners, helping them to explain the facts about Falun Gong. It seems that I have a special connection to Poland. Three years ago I had pleas from the same practitioner, when she had begun Dafa activities in her native Poland.

Urgent other business kept me hesitating and not making a decision until the last minute. Nonetheless, I found a reasonably priced airline ticket. It was meant to be. I arrived punctually for the 10:00 a.m. press conference, during brilliant sunshine. I was able to hear the public charges pronounced against Minister Bo, accusing him of genocide, crimes against humanity and torture, while the various assembled media listened in. This was followed by an official exchange of documents in the offices of the State Attorney General’s Public Prosecutor’s Office. We were only six of us – the three lone practitioners from Poland, the practitioner from Boston and another practitioner from Germany and me. We were the ones who had to overcome out fear of the evil for the next few hours. In spite of the fact that our numbers were so small, we were not afraid nor did we feel helpless, because we were sure of our mission and could sense the support from other practitioners’ righteous thoughts.

Four hours later, at 2:00 p.m. on the way to the Palais [Presidential Palace], the venue for the state visit, the weather had changed drastically. It rained heavily. We were soaked through within a few minutes. Two well-dressed Chinese woman passed us by. Their initial response to my contacting them was friendly, but then they absolutely refused to accept my flyer I had offered them. I hesitated to have Dafa rejected in such a way and inquired as to their reasons for the refusal, but received no response. Then a thought hit me and I said in a conversational tone, “Oh, you must be from the Chinese Secret Service.” I had hit the bulls-eye! They headed for a group of conservatively attired men across the street from the Palais, where reinforcement arrived by the minute in the form of three bus-loads of equally conservatively dressed Chinese. The plot was thickening.

I stood at the edge of the road on purpose, so that people could read the lettering on my yellow Dafa jacket. All the practitioners were quite calm and intensely sent forth righteous thoughts. Many police officers arrived who later positioned themselves at two meter intervals (6 feet apart) between the sidewalk and the roadbed, to secure the area. We stood on the sidewalk edge and held our banners high that read, “Falun Dafa – Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance” as well as one reading, “Bring Jiang to Trial,” readable from both sides of the banners and in the Polish language. One police officer approached us immediately. Although I did not understand what he said, I showed him our recently acquired written permit. He read it carefully, looked astonished, nodded to us and left.

Then the hired Chinese greeting contingent arrived; dressed conservatively, holding the small, familiar red flags as well as a bunch of tremendously large, red Chinese-lettering in scripted banners. At the same moment a thunderstorm materialised, spewing hefty raindrops. The Chinese wanted to run for cover, but we were not about to budge. Since we would not leave, neither could they afford to leave! They positioned themselves in front of us, rudely elbowed and pushed and shoved us ever further toward the back. We did not want a confrontation and searched for a different location. But no matter where we went, those dressed-up, banners carrying male Chinese agents would position themselves in front of us. We raised our flags, and they raised theirs in front of ours, covering ours. They manoeuvred their umbrellas in front of us and our banners, and kept jumping around in front of us and behind us.

We tried our best to preserve the dignity of Dafa and not engage in their game. Our only goal was that the arriving delegation and the cameras would at least see the letters “Falun Dafa.” We were able to pull that off, as we saw in the newspapers the following day.

The Chinese agents became more and more physical with us, but the observing police did not move a muscle. Then suddenly we felt a heavy tug at our solidly constructed banner that two of us were holding. Someone from behind forcefully pulled it away from us. We discovered later that the thief was a passenger in the official diplomatic limousine! With a flying leap he wrenched both our banners from our hands and ran in the direction of the Presidential palace. I immediately turned to the police officers nearby who had witnessed the whole affair, asking for their assistance. They completely ignored me. Luckily, the three local practitioners had another two banners in reserve.

The rain began to let up. One of the passer-by offered to help hold up the banner. That freed one of us to hand out more flyers. The other German practitioner continued to send forth righteous thoughts. One passer-by, carrying a tiny baby in a sling on his chest, inquired what this was all about, saying he had observed the goings-on. He did not have to return home for the baby’s breast-feeding, because another passer by had given the baby her breast. That is why this man could remain with us. Local and visiting passers-by commented positively on our calm demeanour.

Those people as well as the journalists inquired, what is going on here, since they had observed the attitude of the Chinese people who were present. What a wonderful opportunity to explain the truth to them! They understood quickly. Many expressed their annoyance at the Chinese people’s rude behavior and then wanted to know what Falun Gong is all about. Nobody asked the Chinese who were present, although they spoke both Polish and Chinese and could have answered. Instead, two young Chinese women yelled at the top of their lungs that we are sabotaging the friendship between China and Poland, that we are placing ourselves between the two countries.

The Chinese woman agent dressed in elegant black also turned toward passers-by, screamed and yelled and tried to make us look bad. She turned toward the baby carrying father, taking him for a practitioner, and yelling at a group of school children, telling them to witness how poorly he treats his child.

The other one, a pretty young woman in a light-blue leisure suit cried almost non-stop, alternately venting her rage at us and the police officers, shouting her displeasure with a face distorted by anger. She shouted at the immovable police officers, “Why don’t you protect us from them?”, referring to us six practitioners. I took all this in, but remained unaffected inside, as were the other practitioners. When the blue-clad one had to pause in her tirade to catch her breath I quietly told her, “We are not against China, nor are we against the Chinese government. We merely want to have human rights respected, so that people will no longer be subjected to torture for their belief system, particularly those who follow Falun Gong.” I lost sight of the woman for a while and saw her again later, as she alighted from a black, diplomatic limousine.

Her hysterical screaming and my calm explanations were repeated several more times. When the absurdity of the situation dawned on me, I noticed a great change coming over me. I felt a deep compassion welling up for all of them – a feeling that soon seeped through my whole body. From then on I enveloped them with my compassion. I realised that the propaganda had clearly poisoned their minds and I only felt sorry for them. That reflected in the way I was able to communicate with them. At once point it came to be that they noticed our pure intent and the atmosphere changed in a remarkable way.

The father of the baby approached the “official” Chinese with lists prepared by the WOIPFG detailing the crimes committed against Falun Gong and her practitioners in Liaoning Province. A local newspaper inquiry confirmed from the Chinese Legation information that most of the “official” Chinese standing in the street were employees of the Legation of relatives or acquaintances of the employees. Several of those now surrounded the baby’s father and his baby and looked at the compiled deaths lists. One or the other occasionally took the baby’s foot and caressed it.

I continued to enfold all of them in my blanket of compassion. My heart grew big as I contemplated the lies their government had instilled in them, with which they were stuffed full. I saw shy smiling humanity emerging in their faces. I could sense that they wanted to escape this cage of lies and deception. It might be possible how, because they also sensed our sincerity. I again spoke with the light-blue-dressed woman who longer wanted to get away from me. I gently placed my hand on her arm and told her reassuringly and repeatedly that we are not against China, nor the Chinese government, nor against any Chinese citizens; that I have several Chinese friends, had been to China several times, but I insist that human rights must be respected.

Even she became calmer and could discern my sincerity and at one point uttered something to the effect, “Yes, I believe you. You are truly a good woman.” It was touching to see that something inside her began to dissolve. Even the black-dressed one slowly calmed down. When I had previously asked her what she harboured against Falun Gong, she made a gesture suggesting that Falun Gong practitioners commit suicide and also kill others. When I asked her about proof for her assumption, she remained silent. When I explained to her that we have many photographs of torture having taken place and still taking place, she was angrily quiet. But now she too told me, “I believe that you are a good woman, (she said “woman,” not “human being”) and when you come to China, I will make sure that my family invites you.” Did she change her tactics? Perhaps.

For instance, when official sirens from approaching diplomatic vehicles sounded and the Chinese again wanted to place themselves in front of us, as before, she said in a friendly but assertive manner, “We go left, you go right, then there is equality.” The Chinese did not even unfurl their huge banners! When we left the venue at 6:30 P.M., the sun was shining.

We did file charges that evening regarding our stolen Falun Dafa banners. The complaint has by now reached the Polish Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, because the amount of damages involved exceeds U.S. $100.00. The clerk taking all the information down noted everything. Our interview with him lasted two hours, because he wanted to learn more and more about the persecution, in detail! We were so happy that evening, not only for him. That day was a good opportunity for many Polish people to take a stand. We could even tell the resounding effects to that in the media.

The next day we saw a lengthy front-page report in the largest-distribution Polish paper, the Gazeta Wyborsza, accompanied by a large photograph. The widely read paper in Warsaw, the Metropol, followed suit with an equally impressive coverage. Their photo showed the “official” Chinese red banners, overlaid by “Falun Dafa, -dobre,” meaning in Polish “great.” The accompanying report’s ironic tone left no doubt about the Polish people having seen through the Chinese shenanigans. The Gazeta Wyborsza furthermore published an article in the same issue entitled, “Arrest Minister Bo Xilai,” and detailed his crimes in a precise manner.

Two prominent TV station conducted interviews with the Boston practitioner and me. We took turns sending forth righteous thoughts, while the other one was being interviewed. The reporters well thought-out questions allowed us to unmask much evildoings. One female reporter had that morning attempted for 1-1/2 hours so as to gain information from the prosecutor regarding our suit against Minister Bo. The response she received stated, “We have not received any such complaint.” After the TV stations had aired our receipt of the filings for this case, the prosecutor was willing to be subjected to an interview. That conversation was then broadcasted even more widely!

I think these facts speak for themselves. The evil was and is afraid of these six practitioners, as if we were a whole army. But we know only too well that “One righteous mind can subdue one hundred evils.” [Quote taken from Zhuan Falun, Lecture Five] We have experienced it ourselves!

When I got off the plane in Frankfurt from my return trip, I saw “The Black One” a few feet away from me. We looked at each other. I gave her smile for her journey back – she returned it.