PureInsight | September 9, 2002
I would like to share with everyone the three major weaknesses that I found in myself during the trip to Iceland.
The First Finding: My Own Righteous Thoughts Were Not Pure Enough
When I decided to go to Iceland, I only knew to go and “send forth righteous thoughts.”
When we were stopped in customs on June 10th, I was one of the first to be questioned. During the initial interrogation by the police I did not directly answer any questions regarding Falun Gong. I thought, “Who cares why he lets me in, the important issue was to get into the country.” It wasn’t until the last wave of people arrived, almost four hours later, that I told the customs officer my real reason for entering the country. This time I directly told him that I was a Falun Gong practitioner, and that I had come to Iceland to clarify the truth. I had been given plenty of time to learn from my previous mistake, and received a second opportunity to correctly respond to their questions. I had to deserve the title of a Dafa disciple, and to walk into Iceland with dignity.
Some hours had passed, but we were still being held in detention. Around four o’clock the police chief even told us that we had to leave the country that day. I had pondered the possibility of deportation, but thought that if we sent righteous thoughts continuously, the situation would change.
Suddenly, I realized what an unthinkable situation it would be for a democratic country to deport Falun Gong practitioners. Tears came to my eyes. The people of Iceland would pay so much for their government’s mistake. It was then when I realized the true reason for coming to Iceland-- to save people and only to save people.
We began clarifying the truth from our hearts to the customs officers in the room. Every practitioner shed tears while they sent forth righteous thoughts. Perhaps we had all enlightened to the true objective of our trip. The moment we finished sending righteous thoughts, the police chief told us that we could stay in Iceland for at least a day. It is really just as Master said, “However strong the righteous thoughts are, that’s how great the power is (From the article, “Also in a Few Words”).”
The Second Finding: I Underestimated Everyday People’s Understanding of the Fa
The citizens of Iceland strongly supported Falun Gong. This amazed me.
Early one morning, six or seven drunken Icelandic people sat down to learn the fifth exercise. Because one of the drunks had disturbed us while we sent righteous thoughts, I did not want to reveal that I spoke English. However, this same person kept asking where they could learn the practice. Finally, he and his five friends started to learn the fifth exercise. One teenager came up to us afterwards and said, “This practice is really divine. You even let a couple of drunks sit down, close their eyes, and meditate.”
Supernormal results have their reasons, and that is because Falun Gong is supernormal. I underestimated normal people’s understanding of Falun Gong. This was a loophole in my cultivation. Dafa’s greatness has no boundaries!
The people of Iceland greatly supported Falun Gong. More than two thousand people, about one percent of the Iceland population, walked on the streets to show their support. Coming back from Iceland, I told a high-level assistant to a Member of Parliament that I was amazed at the amount of support shown by the Icelandic people. She replied loudly, “Oh, that’s the way it should be!” Only then did I realize that our goal was to save every Icelandic person.
The Third Finding: I Didn’t Always Consider Others First
From the two previous findings, I uncovered a most important problem within me.
The night I was released, I decided to participate in a Fa-study and discussion in the English-speaking room. I joined in while they read Master’s “Lecture in Boston” out loud.
Amazingly, in the other room, no one thought about the non-Chinese speaking practitioners. After studying the Fa, no one offered to have the English-speaking practitioners join the group discussion. One practitioner, who didn’t understand Chinese, even sat in the Chinese group until the study was finished. He did not know there was an English group, and no one informed him otherwise. In the end, since no one else was translating, I ended up becoming the translator.
As I normally act as the translator for local study groups, I should have automatically taken responsibility for this task during the Iceland group activities. I realized that many mistakes could have easily been avoided by simply communicating.
In Iceland, my lack of caring for other people was further revealed to me. I heard that one practitioner lived in Iceland. However, I never thought to ask why we never saw this practitioner. Why wasn’t she with us right at that time?
Finally, when it was time to leave, I saw this practitioner. She had already been practicing for ten months and wanted to do more for Dafa. However, since she normally cultivated alone, she was unsure whether she was allowed to join us. Everyone even made her think that she was not welcome. Whose misconception was this? Many of us even heard that no one took care of her. We might have heard one or two sentences about her existence but never paid it much attention. Because of our uncaring hearts, she lost the chance to share this experience in her own country with fellow practitioners from all around the world.
My heart trembled after thinking about the possibility of the 26 detained practitioners being deported. Because of my one-sided view, I almost gave up going to teach the exercises to Icelanders. I almost gave up the chance to save people! I neglected to speak a couple of sentences, and thus cost the Icelandic practitioner the opportunity to share the experience with practitioners from all over the world. I really should be more considerate of other people.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2002/8/2/16915.html
