2004 European Conference: Providing Real Protection To A Country

Honourable Master [referring to the founder of Falun Gong, Mr Li Hongzhi],
Dear Fellow-Practitioners.

My name is Renate Lilge-Stodieck. I have practised Falun Dafa since 1998. Today I do not want to talk about one big experience, but about several interrelated experiences and insights.

A Chinese Falun Gong practitioner once told me very kindly: “You are really German, right?” “Yes”, I replied, “it is for sure that I am not Chinese”. What this being German really meant I only noticed much later.

In the very eventful year of 2002 there was a state visit from China, through which the German government, our authorities and our police permitted to be put so much under pressure that several illegal measures against practitioners were taken by the police. This happened in Berlin, Potsdam, Dresden and Goslar, without ourselves at that time being clear right away on the issue which proceeded to follow. We thought about how we should react to this situation.

Experienced in searching for the mistakes in ourselves, we of course found some inner attitudes like a fighting spirit or the habit of following others. We did not overlook that we had left loopholes, but we could not see either, that there was about to happen a big interference around this visit that confused all those involved the police, the authorities and me too.

It was already noticeable clearly by just looking at the surface, that by touchdown (landing) of the state visitor the wind in Berlin was not just getting colder but it got really icy, a climate that lasted several days which we rarely experience in Berlin. Because of this the “Mahnwachen” and demonstrations were made more difficult, but we did not care about it.

We experienced an escalation of confused police action, when several practitioners were ordered to move out of the famous Adlon Hotel after the police invaded their rooms. Although we informed some people from the media, we were not experienced enough to handle such situations and didn’t react clearly enough.

Weeks later we were still too busy to assemble the written reports about the details of these incidents around the visit. I heard that some felt responsible and some wanted to react and some didn’t, everything was suspended in the air. I did not feel responsible. I was not involved directly in any of the events and deep in my heart I discovered hidden anger about the whole thing. I judged and condemned, I evaluated and devaluated the conduct of my fellow practitioners. Then I put everything aside again. But each time I thought about these events I had a bad feeling inside. Obviously I did not want Germany to appear in such a bad light. I had the slight hope that this feeling would disappear and didn’t understand that it was an attachment.

In the weeks and months to follow I always felt an inner prick when reading on the websites about Germany and how badly we had done everything and that the results of our hesitating to appeal to the courts were the problems seen in the Baltic States as well as in Russia. But I thought that we have to keep on going because we cannot make undo mistakes. There were many discussions about the issue if it still was possible to take legal action or if it was already too late for that.

After several months had passed we had already discovered that two Chinese practitioners in Berlin used these events to explain the truth to lawyers and figure out at the same time, if and how legal steps still were possible against the authorities that were involved. I was very shocked about my attachment. I thought “Why don’t I have anything to do with this”. I thought that Germany could get away with it somehow just by covering up. How could I myself be so covered up?

Realising this, my attitude and action turned completely around. I participated in the visits of the lawyers and soon we could develop a way that was compassionate and helpful for the guilty party. We decided to write to the responsible Ministries of the Interior, present the cases and ask for an appointment to clarify the facts.

From our reflections of the Fa [Law or Principles, teachings of Falun Gong] we were to offer our help to recognise the truth. This was more important than a condemnation. This thought is guiding us until today, because up till now not all the procedures had ended. I don’t want to describe the different steps because they can be read on Clearwisdom. For us it was important to really do that which Master has explained to us: If there are difficulties occurring, you have to go there and clearly explain the truth about Falun Gong to those people.

We succeeded to do this together with several practitioners who travelled to Berlin for the purpose of explaining the truth to the Minister of the Interior and his employees, who were responsible for the actions the police had taken. In the meantime other practitioners stood in the parking lot near the building of the Senate and sent out righteous thoughts. After some weeks of examination we received a written excuse for the illegal actions of the police in Berlin in April 2002 from the administration of the Senate.

In the other cases it proved to be necessary to submit a belated complaint of establishment (Feststellungsklage) to the respective administrative courts. All opportunities were used to declare the truth in length and depth. We were taken more and more seriously and they started to listened to us more carefully. We were able to see that not only the Chinese security staff had slandered us by claiming that we were potentially violent but that the German administration had believed this after having been able to have insight into official files. That is why the police increased their security measurements.

During the lawsuits the German authorities had to admit in the composition proceedings that are so far completed, that the practitioners never had been violent and that the police action was partially illegal.

Finally there have been lengthy meetings and discussions prepared in advance with highranking police officers and the state criminal office (Bundeskriminalamt), where we could explain our position in depth. During the visit several surprising situations happened because of the pressure and the lies of some of the members of the Chinese delegation. The police kept talking to us and reacted as carefully as we did.

In Berlin it all started with trying to forbid us to sit in the lotus position, because it was supposed to be an insult to the state guest: we were able to talk the police out of that. Later it became clear, that some delegation members took advantage of the lack of knowledge of the Germans about the positions in meditation and thus lied to them about it.

We had to remove a banner about Bo Xilai because the Chinese translation could have been understood as an offence; this accusation was dropped some days later. At that time we had already tried to contact our lawyer but we could not reach him. Police cars were placed in order to block the sight of us. Some were restless; others did not want to react. I was in favour of staying calm and sending forth righteous thoughts.

A little later there was another attempt of the Chinese delegation demanding to also take the banner with the writing take “put Jiang Zemin on trial” down, because it could mean in Chinese: a “Death sentence for Jiang Zemin”. Three translators were necessary to convince the German police and the administrations that the Chinese had lied to them. After that it turned out to be all peaceful.

In those situations I was sometimes myself not sure how to react. But from the Fa the conviction got through that we only had to do our demonstrations upright: then we did not need to take legal action.
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In reality the followers of Bo Xilai behaved so indecently, that the German police finally understood that we were the ones they would have to protect form the slander and not the state guests from the peaceful practitioners. The evil collapsed before us like a heap of dirt, because we did not feed it and also did not take notice of it.

Already the next day after the departure of the delegation the state criminal office rang us up to thank us for keeping all our agreements. I replied that we had never acted illegally before in anyway. But now I understood even more clearly that this time we had thought more of others. In this case the others were the German police whom we had clarified our situation in China, our motives and actions ahead of time. There was no surprising situation created from our side. The police had two days to observe us peacefully. The officers assured that all had put a lot of trust in us and in the future all our demonstrations during Chinese state visits could be viewed relaxed. They also told us they had seen very well behind the stage who from the Chinese delegation acted against Falun Gong and who did not.

Finally the leaders of the Second Berlin police squad phoned us and asked for a visit of as many practitioners from Berlin as possible and a talk on Falun Gong and the persecution in China. We were pleased to fulfil this wish. We showed the movements, talked for one hour about Falun Gong and discussed the persecution with pictures by means of a Power-Point presentation and answered questions for another two hours.

At the end the policemen thanked us and said that they had seen and understood now, that we were really peaceful from within. This for me was the the most beautiful result, because this protects them now from the poison of slander through their own observations and recognition; now they can look forward to a good future.

There is still a special realisation that I made that I still want to share. I always have explained at the end in the talks with the state criminal office as well as in the discussion with the police that we had come to help them. Yes, we had come to prevent them being used unknowingly as co-offenders in this persecution. Each time a deep dimension of silence spread while I was talking. I cannot describe it any other way. It was like touching a deep understanding in them, a knowledge different from the spoken word. This dimension touched me every time like the sound of a deep link between us.

I thank all fellow practitioners for the cooperation that always could be felt along the way. I thank Master that I can enable people to see the true beauty of Falun Gong this way and can save sentient beings.

Thank you for your attention.