A Trip to the Eastern Russian City of Vladivostok

Greetings to Teacher Li, greetings to fellow practitioners!

My name’s Yulia and I’ve been practising Falun Dafa since the summer of 2004. I would like to take this opportunity to share my experiences of travelling to Vladivostok with you.

I had already decided to go to the Far East before such suggested by other practitioners. I didn’t know then, what I was going to do there, but I knew that I would have a good opportunity to clarify the facts about the persecution and to clear away some of the propaganda instilled in so many of the Chinese citizens minds. Such a trip would also give me the chance to spend some time with local practitioners so as to see how they go about explaining the facts about Falun Dafa to Chinese people. I should note here, that I have had a little experience in communicating to Chinese people but with little success. However, I knew that it was very important to let them know the truth, though at that time I didn’t realise just how important it was.

So this summer, due to coordination of practitioners from all over the world we managed to arrive in Vladivostok. We arrived in the middle of July and it turned out that nobody had really put their efforts into clarifying the truth to any of the Chinese citizens living there and so we had to arrange things and learn for ourselves.

Fortunately we brought the photo exhibition “Trip to Falun Dafa World” with us, so firstly we decided to find a good location for the exhibition. On the first day we practised the Falun Dafa exercises and read a lecture of Zhuan Falun. We then set off into the city but as we did not know the layout of the city we were walking without any proper direction. It turned out, that we walked straight to the city centre and visited all the places suitable for holding the exhibitions. It seemed like all the museum and exhibition managers had been waiting for us to inform them of the situation in China and what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is doing to Falun Dafa practitioners there. Even when a hall didn’t suit our exhibition, they happily helped us and listened to what we said about Falun Dafa being suppressed in China. Some thanked us greatly for telling them about Falun Dafa and asked when they could learn the exercises. A receptionist was so thankful after we explained the suppression and gave her a CD, she wouldn’t let us go until we had taken two tins of fish from her.

There were a lot of Chinese tourists in the centre and we had some Chinese editions of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party with us, but we feared their reactions. Instead we talked to the Russian bus driver, who had brought the tourists to the centre. As soon as we started telling him about Nine Commentaries, he told us that he already knew about it because he had seen people on the Russia-China Border, distributing the materials and standing with banners. He said the guides wouldn’t let the tourists take the newspapers so instead he let us put the Nine Commentaries in the bus so that the guide wouldn’t see and the tourists would be able to read it. It was a pleasure to know that somewhere close, some practitioners had done a great job. This gave us more confidence. I realised that even if the Chinese don’t read the Nine Commentaries they would still benefit from seeing us distributing them and come to understand that in Russia we don’t support communism. As far as I understand this can be quite influential to the Chinese opinion of Communism.

We soon decided to distribute the newspapers to the groups of tourists. Upon seeing the Nine Commentaries, some of them were crying out “Falun Gong, Falun Gong!” Some were turning away and others were confused but carefully took the newspaper. One group of Chinese tourists saw that we were taking pictures of each other and came over to join us when we invited them. This gave us a chance to talk to them and let them know we were practising Falun Gong. One of them told us that in China people were being put into prisons for being a part of Falun Gong, but he didn’t approve of it.

Later on in the day we started distributing newspapers and the Nine Commentaries on the market, where a lot of Chinese work and we also left them in the Chinese restaurants. The reaction was different, but mainly positive. I still remember talking to a Chinese woman on the market, who was complaining about the government. When we told her we practise Falun Dafa, she was very glad and said it was good for the health. After we gave her some materials containing the truth about Falun Gong and the persecution, she wouldn’t let us go until we took two pairs of socks from her. She then showed me a sign with her hand meaning that we should speak quieter about things. Another Chinese man, whom we told about our practice, said he knew it is Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance - the core principles of Falun Gong. We replied yes, Zhen Shan Ren – Hao! He repeated with a smile several times: “Zhen Shan Ren – Hao!” - Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance is good

We found the place for the exhibition the very first day. When we arrived at the museum it was closed but somehow the manager and her assistant were still there and we met them at the entrance. Having learnt about our exhibition, they immediately started to plan the details and talked about how they’d organise it, which media they’d invite and how we’d be teaching them exercises. The conversation seemed very emotional and I felt that everything seemed to be working so perfectly that nothing bad could happen.

After a few days we met to discuss the details, composed a plan for the opening day and sort a press-release for the media. The manager noted down the information about Falun Dafa, but decided that we shouldn’t say anything about the persecution. I somehow agreed. The day and time was determined and the practitioners signed the contact. We were told that the head manager would sign it soon and after that we would pay the rent. It took two days to install the exhibition and I took this opportunity to speak to all the personnel and visitors who came to see the museums other exhibitions. It seemed meaningful that the museum was situated just near the Triumph Arch, where all tourist tours started and there was always a lot of Chinese around. In the morning we went to practise there and other practitioners who arrived later that week distributed the Nine Commentaries there.

On the opening eve of the exhibition, we sent press releases to all the local media to inform them about Falun Dafa and the illegal persecution taking place in China. Before going to bed we prepared a speech and materials for the media. As we were still very exited we were laughing and joking whilst discussing the following day. We thought that the laughing may lead to tears (according to a Russian proverb) however we tried to get rid of such feelings and went to bed.

Later on we understood that having a righteous state was important, especially on the eve of such a big occasion and that we needed to study the Falun Gong teachings more and try to think righteously, preventing any negative thoughts from forming. That night I barely slept because of worry, but I still didn’t properly realise the importance of such an event. I thought that nothing could happen, as everything was going so well. I suppose there was some feeling of self-content, instead of realising that this was such an important opportunity to let so many people know the bad situation in China. This state evidently left a big loophole for negative influences.

On the opening day, when we came to the exhibition the head manager and other museum personnel were waiting for us. They had already quickly taken down our exhibition. They explained to us that it didn’t suit the format of the museum. The head manager said that he was taken aback that we had hung photos without him seeing them or signing the contract. I couldn’t believe what was happening. Nevertheless, I tried to stay calm. The head manager and his assistants talked to us for a long time, as if trying to say sorry, but at the same time, wishing to learn the truth.

We tried to tell them as much as we could, but it was difficult to move their hearts because they were locked by fear. The manager was worried because of an article in the local newspaper Vladivostok, published that day entitled, “Shall We Protect Falun Gong?”

When a journalist arrived the head manager didn’t allow him to speak to us and only spoke to him in his cabinet. After that meeting the journalist managed to ask us some questions, it was clear that he didn’t believe in the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners. He decided that he would rather not write anything than to write something negative.

Although no one told us, we soon found out the real reason that the exhibition was cancelled. It was because some people from the Federal Security Service had visited the museum early in the morning. The museum personnel told us they had never seen such a charade. Although the worker didn’t say anything negative about us or Falun Dafa, but refused to put the exhibition back. They were very afraid. We always kept our conversations calm and called in at the museum several times afterwards, just to talk. We wanted them to have good opinion of Falun Dafa.

For me this was all a big test which exposed many attachments. I felt the deep devastation and weakness of not being able to do anything when there is a lot of pressure on me. Sometimes I thought that I was the only one that is so weak, and that all other practitioners are very strong. I didn’t know how I could continue in such a state. However after looking inside and sharing with other practitioners, I understood that my state is the result of emotions. Everything, that I was doing, was based on senses, and this is why things turned out the way they did. The cultivator’s field determines somehow the state of his environment, and it may cause harm to other people by making then miss the opportunity to understand the truth. Also I enlightened to the fact that we should never forget why we are undertaking these activities, and if there’s some abhorrent thought, we should get rid of it at once. If there’s a hint I shouldn’t ignore it as you cant wait until a situation changes before you do something about it.

I managed to come out of such a state due to daily study of the Falun Gong teachings and practising the exercises alongside the support from other practitioners, and of course the Teacher, who even allowed me to take a picture of him with fellow Russian practitioners that time in New York. The photo reminds me of this meeting with Teacher in New York. I felt the compassionate field, which seemed to wrap around in such a way that can’t be described in words. After these events happened in Russia, we started to place more emphasis on the distribution of the Russian versions of the Nine Commentaries: to the government, universities, historical museums, libraries etc.

After taking all our drawbacks into consideration we decided to organise another exhibition, but this time pay more attention to the preparation and seriousness. We want to stop similar things happening so that we can give more people a chance to learn the truth.

I want to thank all the students who were there with us and those who supported us along our trip, and of course we send our up-most thanks to our compassionate Teacher, who helps us to see our attachments and who waits so passionately whilst we walk our cultivation paths.