Sweden: The Journey of Falun Gong Practitioners Over the Past Ten Years (Part 2)

Introduced to Falun Gong

The Swedish people were introduced to Falun Gong long ago. Many Swedish Falun Gong practitioners learned about Falun Gong by participating in a Falun Gong class, which is different from other countries. On April 6th 1995, Mr. Li Hongzhi, founder of Falun Gong came to Sweden. He held five public lectures. From 14th and 20th of April, Mr. Li held the second Falun Gong class overseas in Nordgarden, Gothenburg, which was also the last face to face class. Those who attended the class were mostly westerners; among them were professors, doctors, nurses, workers and managers from different cities. The number of people was so big that exceeded Ms. Wang’s expectation. In 1995 when she Invited Mr. Li Hongzhi who was holding a Falun Gong class in France to Sweden, Ms. Wang felt worried that there would be less people attending the class.

She said, “On learning that Mr. Li was giving lectures in France, I immediately contacted France asking if Teacher Li could come to Sweden, Teacher agreed. I was very excited and started to make preparations, but I had no idea how to. As we needed an interpreter who must know what Falun Gong is. As there were very few people who knew Falun Gong, Qigong etc. that I did not know how to prepare for it. I just wanted to tell all friends of mine, all my patients, I tried what I could do and sent out advertisements as well. Even so, I was not certain in my heart. I remembered telephoning Mr. Li, thinking that there were 6000 people attending the class in China but how many people here could attend the class? I was not sure at all. When I told Teacher what I had thought, Teacher said: “Go to sleep right now. Even if only one person obtains Fa, it is worth it for me to go there”. Now I felt as thought a load had been taken off my mind. In fact, I found that when the class started, there came more than one hundred people, which was beyond my expectation. The venue we hired could hold over seventy people. Now it was over crowded. Later when we held the class, we changed to a place which could hold more than 100 people. Because we wanted other people know Falun Gong, we first held classes in Gothenburg. The number of attendees was grew each time. We had more than seventy people in the first class, and then we held a class in a library, a class in Vaxenskolan Adult School. The last class we held had the most number of people. Besides that, we held a public lecture in Udvalla and one in Stockholm. Altogether we held five.

When we held classes in China, Mr. Li finished his nine day lectures in seven or eight days in order to lighten his students’ burden. Mr. Li also did the same in the class in Sweden.

“It was on April 6th the eve of Easter when Teacher came. We started to hold a class when Easter began. Teacher said that it could be difficult for people overseas to attend a nine day class; the least was a seven day class.

Teaching by personal example and showing his students every consideration

When giving lectures, Mr. Li showed his students every consideration, trying to let them hear clearly and really understand.

“It was during the classes that I was especially worried about the interpretation of the lectures, but Teacher explained everything very clearly, giving every consideration to overseas students for fear that they could not understand. Sometimes he helped them understand by drawing pictures. When I was demonstrating the practice on the stage, Teacher was down the stage correcting his students’ movements one by one. So it took very long time. The students were willing to come to the classes ahead of time to have chances of having their movements corrected. Every class, Teacher arrived ahead of schedule and was especially punctual and started his class on time. Therefore, Teacher especially stressed that the students should come to the class on time. There was a sort of hardworking and thrifty life belonging to Teacher, what left me a deep impression was: Teacher was carrying a box of instant noodles in his hands when he got off the plane.”

When giving lectures in mainland, Mr. Li was rushing about in China and for long time eating instant noodles to allay his hunger. Besides his thrifty life, Mr. Li taught by personal example as well as verbal instruction everywhere, which left a deep impression on his students.

Ms. Wang said, “It was just because of the lack of hands, I was somewhat fussy and impatient. When I answered questions raised by the students, I had a manner of impatience. One day when we were having a meal, Teacher asked me aside saying that he would like to have a word with me. Teacher put forward to me: ‘For these students, you should treat them well.’ It was felt that Teacher was very modest and unassuming, and especially amiable. He is never choosy about what he eats and has no requirements in his life. He is able to adapt himself to different circumstances. Every time when he gave lectures, he was always neatly dressed. He left me with an impression: He always considers others but set very high demands on himself. Teacher was especially patient when giving lectures. He taught his students again and again. After his movements were corrected once, he would still repeat his mistakes in a while, so Teacher corrected them again. Sometimes Teacher had to correct his movements several times. This was only for one person. Teacher is very, very patient.

When recalling, a nurse who attended the class at that time said with delight, “ I remember that when I was first in the class, Teacher Li entered, I was very pleased to see him, and he seemed very pleased as well. It was the energy he carried that made me very happy. He told us many, many things which are very good, such as the importance of being a good person and why one should be a good person. I remember that he was very warm and peaceful. He himself is sending out what he has taught Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. No matter how many questions we raised, he always answered one by one with great patience, though many questions were repeated several times, he also answered them very patiently.”

For these Swedish practitioners, different languages and entirely different cultural background are not at all restrictions. A dance teacher, said, “Without the same languages, we can communicate with our hearts. It does not matter if we don’t understand Chinese, we were listening with out hearts, and there were no obstacles.”