PureInsight | May 24, 2004
Chapter 18: Home Sweet Home
[PureInsight.org] On the way home I shared some stories with my family and I heard quite a good one myself. My friend in Canada found out about my detention at about 2 am when I made the call from the cell phone at the police station and that morning my mother, who is also a Falun Dafa practitioner, was in a press conference.
One of the reporters was really trying to shake her up, trying to get her scared. Finally he just came out and asked her directly "Aren't you worried about your son!?!." She answered very simply, "No." He is my son and I would be lying to you if I told you I wasn't concerned. But in Falun Dafa we believe that good is rewarded with good and evil with evil. I know he is going out of the goodness of his heart to do something good, so I know he will be OK." Well it didn't give him much to write but with her actions she sure took control of the situation and showed them the good nature of Falun Dafa practitioners. I just laughed wishing that I could have seen the reporter's face. After spending some time with my family my mother and I went home to get rest. My press conference was the next morning.
I had been to many press conferences before but none of them were ever like the one on that morning. Usually there would be about three various press statements and then we would open for questions and once that was done we would all exchange business cards and go home. This time there wasn't even a press statement.
We were in a hotel just across the street from Toronto's City Hall. Virtually all the major TV stations and newspapers were there. Even a team from the nearby media arts school was there. I sat up at the front of the conference room with Joel facing all the media. For the first time in my life I wasn't nervous. There was nothing planned for me to say and nothing was in my head. I was waiting for someone else to start the conference and everyone was waiting for me to start it.
Then Joel suggested that we get going. I wasn't sure what to say. "I am assuming that everyone has read my press statement while I was in China? If you would like I can reiterate it for you." I felt like saying does anyone want to help me out a little. After coming home from my trip I figured the media would be hungry. They were probably thinking the same thing about me. Well after a few moments of awkward silence we got underway.
There weren't any questions so I just began to tell them why I went to China and what happened to the other foreigners and myself in the square. Then the questions started to fly. One of the main things they couldn't accept was that I wasn't planning on being arrested. They were convinced it was a stunt. "Well then why the statement and why the taped statement etc.?" I replied,
"That's simple when China first banned Falun Gong they put signs up in all the parks around China saying you have to stop practicing. Well, millions of people continued. Then the government intensified their means of repression until it turned into a full-blown persecution. Since they haven't been able to wipe out Falun Dafa for over two and a half years, the methods used in this suppression just keep getting more and more severe. I would not put it past them to take it that one step further to take a heavy and violent hand with a foreigner. We all know how easy it is for them to fabricate some story and convict me. So if something were to happen to me then how could I stop them from making up lies about me to further their persecution, except by clearly explaining myself? There was a statement for my family and friends as well as media and the government not to mention one statement for all Chinese people. This was a matter of my responsibility. Before I practiced Falun Dafa I blamed society for all my problems now I see that it is I who should be doing things, not just for my friends and family but for society and humanity. If I let them use me or my story to create more lies to deceive people then it would be my fault because I wasn't responsible. That's why I prepared those statements."
The last thing I wanted to do was carry on about myself as there were so many other important issues to discuss but this was important for them to understand. We are not exhibitionists; we are serious people who through the virtuous guidance of Falun Dafa are becoming better and better people. But with so much propaganda circulating this is very difficult to get across to people.
The questions kept flying, then all of the sudden I heard a familiar voice coming from the side of the room and it wasn't reporter. He wasn't asking a question, instead he was answering one. I turned to see my good friend Jason addressing one of the questions. My ego jumped up instantly "well isn't that nice of you Jason to be helping me at "MY" press conference." The second this condescending thought came to mind I was kind of embarrassed for being so selfish and self-righteous. I began to wrestle this rather depraved manner of thinking. I tried to use excuses like "keeping the press conference orderly" to hide the fact that I wanted all the attention. That just feels terrible to admit. Especially because his answer was good. Regardless of the excuses I could come up with I knew that my ego was trying to jump into overdrive and I almost interrupted him.
He was explaining that in China "AMWAY" is classified as an "evil cult" and that they just use this term at their leisure to attack something they don't like. Once he was finished I really appreciated his help. While Joel was answering a question I took a few moments to reevaluate the situation and I looked around the room. The Falun Dafa practitioners in the room were comprised of two senior IT consultants, a scientific researcher , an entrepreneur, a wealthy real estate agent, a 3rd year engineering student from the University of Toronto, an award winning actor and a couple of others. These people naturally had many important things to do and they certainly were not there for me. They were there for the same reason I went to China. Because Falun Dafa touched their lives and hearts and they felt the need to help others understand Falun Dafa and the issues surrounding it.
Who was I to stop anyone? My press conference? Who was I kidding? My heart changed and I was happy that Jason spoke up when he did. It just goes to show that even after peeling away so much ego, it still seemed to interfere with my true heart. Then so did others and this very loose press conference became even less formal but more comfortable. Now it was so informal that many people took turns to talk, from their hearts, from many parts of the room and the issues being raised were getting thoroughly explained to most of Canada's national and Toronto's local media.
In the past we were prepared, then media would get what they wanted and then leave. But this time the media stayed for over an hour as we talked about many if not all the issues surrounding Falun Dafa current situation and gratefully took the chance to address many of the lies being circulated by the propaganda.
The other major issue that seemed to be raised again and again was "why is the Chairman of China saying so many bad things about Falun Dafa? Why is the government so threatened by the Falun Dafa etc.…? Regardless of the answers these two issues kept being raised. They just couldn't accept that one man, the Chairman of China, could be so evil. Furthermore they couldn't except that there was nothing wrong or underhanded about Falun Dafa.
Then one of the practitioners went to speak up and I happily invited her to the front table. She began to address the issue by talking from the perspective of Chinese history, when the Great Cultural Revolution started. The Chairman (Liu Shao Qi) at the time was arrested, slandered, defamed in front of the nation. He was killed, which gave one man complete power. The many lies made to defame him were all revealed years later. Now people know that it was all a lie. The issue is exactly the same now. But instead of using lies to justify persecuting and killing the Chairman of the nation, the Chairman is doing it to persecute the people.
I decided to address this ongoing question from a different angle with two points. The first one being that what you hear from China is part of their campaign of lies. In the 10 days following the official beginning of the persecution, July 20, 1999, there were 300 slandering articles in the media against Falun Dafa and its founder. It is a campaign. When I made the second point I said,
"I am going to tell you what I told the police in China. You have your own hearts and your own minds and we respect that. We have never told anyone to practice Falun Dafa. In fact if you don't want to that's fine. Even if you don't believe me when I tell you things that's fine too. Go and investigate it for yourself if you don't believe us. There are other people to find that you can talk to. Read the book Zhuan Falun. It's on the Internet. We have nothing to hide. Make the decision for yourself, please investigate it for yourself, then you will really know."
After talking so much and clarifying so many issues, one reporter almost seemed shy when he asked, "so the founder didn't say he was three hundred years old?" All of us, the practitioners that is, broke out into laughter. He is just over 50 years old. Then I explained to him that on the television show 60 minutes the Chairman of China accused Mr. Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Dafa, of claiming he is the reincarnation of Jesus. Then in Asia he says that he claims himself to be the reincarnation of the Buddha. He just tries to push people's buttons. All of those are lies. He didn't really have any questions after that.
The way I see it the reason Falun Dafa is so hard for people to accept is not just because they are looking for some loophole or story. Often times people will accept, then they draw some parallel or reference to something they know about and pass it off as just another one of those "yoga's" or "tai-chi's." In fact it is much more profound and at the very least far more reaching. One of the problems is that some people just don't want to admit that Falun Dafa is truly significant at our time and in our world.
When I have had the pleasure and chance to talk to high school classes and I am introducing Falun Dafa I explain it to them very simply and directly.
Falun Dafa has never asked anyone to practice and never will. Someone must want it in his or her own hearts. If they don't want it for themselves then practicing on the surface is useless. Yet without solicitation or advertising Falun Dafa spread to over 70 million people, in over 30 countries around the world in less than seven years. The tremendous benefits it brought to people physically, mentally and spiritually has set a precedent. After the persecution began and despite the millions spent on international propaganda attacking Falun Dafa in the next two and a half years Falun Dafa spread to over 20 more countries making it now over 50 countries. Despite the fact that it and its practitioners have faced vicious and extensive persecution they have not only remained peaceful but have taken an active role in battling their oppressors using peaceful and compassionate means in China and all over the world. Furthermore the founder and the practice have received international recognition from scholars and government officials. All of this has happened in less than one decade. Turn on the TV and look at other people facing persecution. If they don't have weapons to fight back they will use stones. But the practitioners respond with such a commitment to Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
At this point I tell them to check their history books. Don't just believe me when I say it is unprecedented go and check the history books yourself. This has never happened before.
How good Falun Dafa is, is no smaller pill to swallow than the pill the mainland Chinese have to swallow if the are ready to face the truth about their Chairman's persecution. It is indeed very significant. So much so that is scares people. But we, the practitioners, are not afraid. Instead we live to practice Falun Dafa and share it with others. That is exactly what we did with the ladies and gentlemen of the media on that day.
After we were done the press conference we ended up doing a half-hour shoot. CBC wanted some video footage of the exercises for their news piece. The atmosphere was playful and happy as the cameraman hopped around, excited like a child, getting this and that angle. Later I found out that he even started to learn the practice for himself. When I found out that the cameraman became interested in the practice for himself my heart became warm, and for just a moment the pain for the Chinese people wasn't there. I quietly spoke to myself "another one" as a smile grew on my face and deep in my heart.
It is heartening for Falun Dafa practitioners to see other people obtain this practice because we know some of what they will have the fortune to experience. When it comes down to it, this is simply why I wrote this book. For 3 years people have heard this about Falun Dafa and that about Falun Gong practitioners. The level of misunderstanding is really quite great. The main reason for this is the propaganda campaign expounded by the leader of the communist party in China. But I wanted people to learn a little bit more. What are these Falun Gong practitioners like? Although I am only one and not attempting to speak on behalf of all practitioners neither am I trying to tell you what Falun Gong specifically is, I just wanted to you learn a little more.
For Clarification:
These are the events of my trip to China as they happened. From the two old men on the Great Wall to the two female art students I met in Tiananmen Square to each interaction with each individual police officer. Unedited and told from how I experienced them. I didn't tell you about every single moment and time as that may make the story drag on in tangential matters. Instead you may have noticed I chose the more poignant events in their chronological order to tell the complete story. You may have noticed a great deal of little "trips down memory lane." Many were inserted and some happened at that time. Whether the memories where inserted into the story or not, they all happened the same way I told them. This was to allow you to meet a Falun Dafa practitioner and his course of starting, then practicing, cultivation. To enter the heart and mind of one Falun Dafa practitioner. In some ways we are like everyone else and in some ways we are not and I simply wanted to let everyone see us more specifically more clearly.
While writing the story I paid particular attention to describing my true state of mind in each instance at the time. Even if I thought some parts of myself were a little shallow in retrospect, I left them in the story to keep the story real and allow you to see the process I went through rather than just write a story that I think people would like. So if there is something that you may not like it is inevitable. Although I aspire to be, I am not perfect yet. Of course I am not Falun Dafa and neither would I ever be able to teach it to anyone. As each person's own path of cultivation is so unique. I am not trying to tell you the way all Falun Dafa practitioners are. I merely shared my experiences as they happened and shared some of my past few years of practicing Falun Dafa. All the events that I wrote about were true events.
I would like to say a few words about Mr. Li Hongzhi. He is the Master of Falun Dafa and I also regard him as my Master. He never asked for that and told us specifically that we can call Mr., Master or by his first name and that was up to us. The term Master can conjure up many bizarre notions in the western world. In Chinese Master is translated with two Chinese characters as Shi Fu. "Shi" meaning teacher and "Fu" meaning father. That is one who teaches and guides his students with similar concern and care a father has for his children. From having the opportunity to meet him on multiple occasions and I can affirm that he is exactly that, a very caring and compassionate man and a truly wise teacher.
There have been too many occasions that people who don't know the context in which he is teaching have quoted his words with very misleading and imposed implications. Often times it is easy for us to see that they do not take into consideration the context he is talking or teaching in. In the very least he has dedicated his life to guiding people to follow Truth-Compassion-Forbearance and to live with a higher moral standard then the good people in society. He has helped millions obtain healthy bodies and minds. This promotes morality and virtue in society. For this he has asked nothing for himself.
It is his living example of his teachings that have motivated me to think of the wellbeing of others before myself. Although he explicitly warned practitioners not to go to China his compassionate teachings and manner have guided me to think of others before myself. Thus eventually heading to China to use my life to show the Chinese people that the State Terrorism carried out by the current leader is based entirely on lies.
When I got back from China two friends had heard many of my stories from my trip. They suggested I write a book. Well to be honest it was not something I wanted to do at all. My education is not high and my ability to write is not very strong. Yet they convinced me that this may help other people to better understand Falun Dafa practitioners better. After some thought I agreed.
There had been so many people who had heard about Falun Dafa and yet from my perspective (with the exception of a few articles in the media) nobody had been discussing the fundamental issue. That people who live to be good people, exceptionally good people were being persecuted. That a dictator was torturing and killing people all to wipe out and ancient Chinese practice that taught the some of all things good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Rather than believe that it is possible, it is easier to believe that there is indeed something wrong with Falun Dafa. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. Jealousy and hate rot the human heart and will drive a father and husband to destroy his family and in this case drive the leader of the communist party to destroy his nation. In using the countries capital, and every institution in China's society to pressure the citizens to help attack, torture, beat, rape and kill innocent friends family members and fellow citizens. Isn't this destroying a nation?
With a slew of messages flying in all directions I have hoped to simplify the matter and allow the general public see how Falun Dafa guides ones heart and mind towards Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance through my story. Be it myself or other practitioners around the world; we do what we do because we know that a world that embraces the teachings of Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance will be a better world to live in.
Wishing you a wonderful future.
