Germany: “Finally I found you!”

Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) was introduced to the public by Mr. Li Hongzhi in China in 1992. In seven short years, nearly one hundred million practitioners irrespective of age, sex, nationality, all benefited a great deal from consistent cultivation. In July 1999, however, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started a brutal crackdown. In their spare time Falun Gong practitioners all over the world started to tell people about the beauty of Falun Gong, its success internationally and the brutal persecution happening in China in various ways.

One of the most common methods is an Information Day held on the streets, where there would be various information and material about Falun Gong, petition forms to call for a stop to the persecution, photos from before the persecution when Falun Gong was tremendously popular in China and photos of how it is currently practiced in over eighty countries in the world. Also on display would be various truth material exposing the CCP brutal torture of Falun Gong practitioners. Here people could learn about Falun Gong and its truth. They could also express their righteous support for practitioners. Some with pre-destined relationships also started to learn the practice here.

In November 2007 at an Information Day in Leipzig, Germany, Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Wang had such a touching experience:

“When our Information Day was about finished an elderly German gentleman came up to our table excitedly. His first words were, “Finally I found you!” We were all shocked. He asked where our books were. During previous Information Days, many Germans were interested in Falun Gong. They all wanted to read our books. Thus I did not stop to think before handing him a leaflet with details of how to buy the books through local bookstores. Later he produced a notebook. Opening the notebook to a page, he pointed to some Chinese writings there, asking, “Take a look. Is this you?” What was written in the notebook were three Chinese characters, “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance”, followed by the name of a practitioner and a date from five years ago. Seeing this, I asked the gentleman curiously, why these characters were written there. He replied, five years ago he got to know a Chinese person in Leipzig who happened to be a Falun Gong practitioner. That was how he came to know about Falun Gong and the persecution in China. When they parted ways, that fellow practitioner wrote the three characters, “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance”, in the notebook. From then on, the gentleman found out that there is such a traditional Chinese cultivation method that benefits both mind and body in the world and remembered the three characters.”

“Since the elderly gentleman did not know how to use modern communication tools nor could he get onto the internet, for five years he tried many times to find information about Falun Gong to no avail. But obviously he could not forget “Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance.” Today, he finally saw these three characters on display in passing. Thrilled, the gentleman took a copy of every kind of material from the table, carefully inserting them into his notebook. He also took down details of Falun Gong practitioners to stay in touch.”

“Before he left, the gentleman gave us a white candle. I did not think much about it at the time and said to him, ‘We do not need this candle.’ But he insisted that we did need it. After he left, I held the candle and realised what he meant. In Germany, especially in churches, people would light a candle when they pray. So it seemed that the gentleman knew the truth. Meanwhile he gave us his blessings.”

A chance-meet with a practitioner five years ago introduced the gentleman to Falun Gong. Five years later, an Information Day finally gave the pre-destined person a chance to learn more about Falun Gong.

During Information Days, practitioners often answer questions such as what is Falun Gong, why the CCP persecutes Falun Gong, etc. Some who had put forth the questions started practicing Falun Gong after their questions were answered. Later they started answering the same kinds of questions. This was the case for a young practitioner from the Netherlands, Jasper. The first time he heard about Falun Gong was in Australia, thousands of miles away from home.

“It was a year and a half ago. I was in Melbourne, Australia at the time. A Chinese lady was giving out newspapers and offered me a copy. I asked, ‘Thank you, but what is the content of this newspaper?’ She replied that the paper talked about the persecution Falun Gong suffered. I asked, ‘What is Falun Gong?’ She explained that Falun Gong is a meditation exercise. Those who practice Falun Gong in China are being persecuted. I was very interested. She told me that there was a group practice site in Melbourne. They exercised in a park every Sunday morning. The next day happened to be a Sunday. I went to the park and was taught the exercises and given an English version Zhuan Falun. That was the first time I came into contact with Falun Gong. The first time I heard about Falun Gong was when the lady explained it to me. I found it very interesting the first time I did the exercise and read the book, Zhuan Falun. Many things that I did not know about before became clear now.”

After the trip to Australia, Jasper went to Thailand where he finished reading Zhuan Falun. “The first time I finished reading Zhuan Falun, I was very excited. I started reading it the second time. Later I read it again and again. Every time I read Zhuan Falun, I found it extremely interesting. After reading it over many times, I decided to practice Falun Gong.”

After returning to the Netherlands, Jasper looked up Falun Gong practitioners’ information on the internet. Having got in touch with one lady, he learned that there was an Information Day that Saturday. He attended the activity and met many practitioners who told Jasper the purpose for holding events like this was to inform people of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners happening in China. There were also many other kinds of activities. “I started supporting such activities. Initially we held such events almost on a weekly basis in various places in the Netherlands. We gave out leaflets, talked to passer-bys to tell them about human rights issues in China.”

Actually there are many stories like this around the world. Like Jasper, many learned about Falun Gong through practitioners’ truth-clarification efforts. Having started practicing, they in turn would tell more people the truth about Falun Gong. Falun Gong practitioners all hope to stop the persecution as soon as possible. The more people learn the truth, the more people can stop this persecution together.