Sweden: The Journey of Falun Gong Practitioners Over the Past Ten Years (Part 3)

Cultivation is to cultivate one’s character and to assimilate Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance

“Cultivation”, a word with mysterious oriental connotations, is still new to many westerners. Many western Falun Gong practitioners regard themselves as good people according to “Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance" in their daily life, and they are becoming clearer and clearer what cultivation is.

Sven, a practitioner who listened to Teacher Li’s lectures in 1995 says, “At first, I really did not understand what the meaning of cultivation was, what Falun Gong was. Through explanations by Teacher in his third class in Gothenburg and my study in a seven day Falun Gong class, I came to understand what the cultivation was and knew that the meaning of cultivation is to cultivate one’s character. From then on, I have been trying to cultivate myself in my daily life and in my work place, at any moment and at any place, which is not that easy. When working, especially there is a lot of work to do before you, you will be under pressure and you will become fussy so that you can not cultivate “Tolerance” well. When something expected occurs in my work, I can easily become impatient. Sometimes I am also reminded of that. I remember once, a young man working together with me, told it to me like this: “You have ‘Truthfulness’, also ‘Compassion’, but ‘Tolerance’...” After that, I seriously looked inward; it was not really bad for him to remind me like that.

While working, I can get cold, dirty and strained. Sometimes I need to shout loudly. Some of my colleagues will say some dirty words; it is really difficult to reach the level of “Tolerance”. Sometimes, I make it, I feel very happy. Sometimes I fail to do it well, I will try to look inward and make an effort to do it well next time. Actually, how we are thinking, every thought and every idea is very important. Like a mirror, they will reflect what we are thinking, telling you whether you are really clear. I am getting clearer how to cultivate myself. At the beginning, we did not have much material but I understand his core is Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. It is very important to know this.”

To let more people know about Falun Gong

After Teacher Li left Sweden, in order to let more people benefit from Falun Gong, these Falun Gong practitioners who have benefited from cultivating Falun Gong were holding nine day lecture video classes in addition to going to practice sites doing the exercises every Sunday. They had been doing it like this for several years. More and more people participated in it and everybody wanted to have a copy of the book “Zhuan Falun” in Swedish (Zhuan Falun is the main text of Falun Dafa). In order to meet the need, some Swedish practitioners started to do the translation. At that time, the book “Zhuan Falun” in English was not yet finished, they asked practitioners from mainland China to help translate it into English first, and then they translated English into Swedish. During the translation, they were scrupulous about every detail. The first translation was not good, they did it twice. Thus, “Zhuan Falun” in Swedish was formally published in October, 1997.

At the same time, these Falun Gong practitioners went to neighbouring countries, introducing Falun Gong to more people. Marya went back to Finland, her hometown, holding nine day classes, watching Teacher Li’s lectures video with local practitioners and translating “Zhuan Falun.”

Sven went to all nearby countries. Every week, he would spend three or four hours driving to Denmark and doing the exercises with fellow practitioners there.

Just as Falun Gong practitioners in other countries did, practitioners in Sweden were together doing the exercises, sharing their experiences and upgrading their characters. But these peaceful days were interrupted by the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong in 1999.