Validating Dafa

From St. Petersburg, Russia

A group of Falun Gong practitioners were walking in the streets while distributing Dafa materials to pedestrians on June 11^th in St. Petersburg, Russia. Policemen and soldiers were everywhere. Like ordinary people, they were pleased to accept Falun Gong truth-clarification materials. Some of them even said "Thank you" in English. When we reached the center of the city, policemen told us that we were not allowed to distribute materials, so we stopped.. Local practitioners were going to lead us to pass through the busy center area to find a quiet place to have some discussions. We talked about whether we should go to a park to do the exercises and spread the Fa or to go back to our hotel to study the Fa and send forth righteous thoughts. Twenty minutes later, we walked on a road along a river. One practitioner held a stack of newspapers in her arms. A policeman passed by and took a copy of the newspaper. We continued to walk ahead and three or four policemen ran after us and wanted to take away all of our Dafa materials. Four accompanying Russian practitioners said firmly to the policemen: "You can't take away a single copy of these Dafa materials." Policemen said: "If you leave these newspapers, all of you are free to leave right away. Otherwise, you all have to go to the police department." Then they put all of us 16 Dafa disciples into police cars. After arriving at the police department, an officer started to check everyone's passport. He asked in his low voice after examining seven or eight passports: "Who holds a Chinese passport?" I suddenly remembered our great Teacher's merciful cherishing of his disciples and felt touched in my heart. In the end, the police wanted to see my passport. I asked: "Did I do something wrong? Which article of the law did I violate? Why did you take us here?" The police said: "You didn't do anything wrong and I just need to check your identification." I passed mine to him. Having finished everyone's identifications, they began to shout loudly. Although we didn't understand their language, we could see how ill-mannered they were. After a while they asked for everyone's passport again. I told our fellow practitioners: "We had gaps in cultivation just a moment ago. We cooperated with evil's request and hence encouraged their spirit. We shall not make a mistake again this time. Let's not give them our identification." We resisted the evil's attack all at the same time. As a result, they didn't get anything and left dishonorably. Then a woman came in who looked like their boss. She shouted at them the minute she walked in: "Who told you to do that?" We recalled Teacher's new poem: "Riding a tiger, so hard to dismount, humans trying even to challenge Gods, doing all possible kinds of evil things. Any chance of survival utterly ruined." I realized how silly and pathetic these human beings, controlled by the evil, were. The Dafa disciples calmed down and sent forth righteous thoughts. The room was so silent that the policemen became nervous. They opened the door slightly and peeked inside. After a long time, they finally figured out a solution. They told us that they would return our newspapers and let us go if we accept a misdemeanor charge, which carries a fine of 50 rubles, then they would return our newspapers and let us go.' "No, we can't give them a penny. We did nothing wrong, why should we get punished? We need to make contact with the American Embassy." But some practitioner felt that 50 rubles are not even worth two U.S. dollars and we should just give it to them. We shouldn't make the situation worse. We argued about this seriously. "This isn't a matter of how much money we pay. Paying the fine means that we admit fault and obey the evil. They will become even more demanding and intensify the persecution. Political punishment is something that the Communist party gets used to manipulating, and we can't accept it. How can they manipulate political punishment on foreigners? Nonsense! We shall not accept this." Quickly, everyone agreed, based on the Fa. "Don't listen to evil's requests, commands and instructions. Don't accept the fine. Contact the American Embassy immediately."

At this time, some fellow practitioners outside the police department got our messages. Several western practitioners came to the police department. The officers had no idea how to handle such a situation. Dafa disciples were sending righteous thoughts quietly, peacefully and nobly. After a long time, an officer came and notified us that the issues couldn't be solved here and asked us to go to the court for a solution. When we arrived at the court, we kept sending righteous thoughts. An official asked everyone to record what happened. I described our Dafa disciples' compassion and peace, and policemen's violence and unreasonableness. I requested to have my property returned and to let us go. We asked to get in touch with the American Embassy as soon as possible. The judge announced while he walked to the stage "As a special case, the newspapers should be returned to Falun Gong practitioners." He did not mention a word about the fine.

At the court, every Dafa disciple was validating Dafa openly and nobly, and spreading Dafa to people. From our own experiences we told them that Dafa could teach people to believe in truth, help people to become healthier. It benefits all people from any country and does no harm to anyone. We told them the truth of China's persecution of Dafa and called on them for kindness and righteous action. We talked about how Dafa has gained proclamations and respect from all over the world. We also stated that the Russian people understood and welcomed Dafa, and more and more people became Dafa practitioners. Falun Dafa will bring a bright future to kind Russian people.

A 65 year-old woman was the eldest person among practitioners distributing Dafa material to every judge, policemen and workers there. They all accepted it with a smile. When we got back to the police department to pick up materials, we again sent those materials together with some gifts having "Falun Dafa is good" and "Zhen-Shan,-Ren" written on them to everyone there. Several practitioners started to sing the "Falun Dafa is good" song in front of the policemen. People looked at us with kindness and respect. The woman translator even said that she wanted to practice Falun Gong.

The second day, while I was practicing the second exercise, "Holding the law wheel in front of head," I saw an image: A big gate opened, many people were running upstairs from a basement, fearfully. When I told this to fellow practitioners, they interpreted this as Teacher encouraging us to save sentient beings by telling the truth.

The day we left Russia, on the way to the airport, a fellow practitioner told me that the paper we signed in court had some false statements written by policemen. I was greatly shocked! How could this happen? Wouldn't this cause some negative effect to Dafa? Why didn't the translators at court tell us? Lying, lie openly! How could I be so stupid? I signed without knowing the details and caused some damage to Dafa. I felt much regret of leaving a "dirty spot" on my cultivation history.

Overcoming hardships in Iceland

Falun Gong practitioners were asked to sign a form when they entered the Icelandic customs on June 14^th. The content of the form was roughly this: "You must abide by Icelandic law while staying in Iceland. During the period of the Chinese President's visit, you are not allowed to do this and that…" I refused to sign the form. I am an American citizen and came here to visit Iceland. Iceland and America are friends. Icelandic people and American people are good friends, too. Both Iceland and America respect human rights. I couldn't sign this form. Jiang Zemin is the evil head of persecuting Falun Gong, and Falun Gong practitioners would demonstrate peacefully and request the stop of persecution immediately. A practitioner told policemen the truth of the persecution of Falun Gong in China. They said "Yes, we know that. People in Iceland all support Falun Gong. No one likes Jiang, including us. We promise you that once you enter Iceland, you are free to conduct all of your activities. You can practice the exercises, parade and put up banners, and so on. But you have to sign this form now. This is the rule from the legislature. Your fellows all signed already when they entered." My heart was hurt badly but I still refused to sign it. The policeman was mad at me and said, "If you don't sign it, you will be forced to return to your country." I was not afraid because I knew that they had no right to do so. However, I was disgusted by his evil attitude. A fellow practitioner asked me "Don't you believe his words? Why don't you use our kindness to make them further believe Falun Gong?" I disagreed with this opinion. I didn't have patience discussing this with my fellow practitioner based on Fa principles. I disliked her in my heart "Wrong understanding!" When another fellow practitioner persuaded me "Our purpose to come here is to send forth the righteous thoughts from a close proximity and to eliminate the head of the evil. We overcame so many problems and finally got here. If you were forced to turn back, wouldn't it prevent us from doing our major task here?" This was also the point of view that I couldn't accept for a long time. But now I didn't want to insist. And at that moment, I couldn't find my passport. It was only a small bag where it was supposed to be and several fellows helped me to empty it and still couldn't find my passport. How strange was this? I got upset. OK, I signed it. I didn't have any energy to fight with them any more. After stepping out of the customs entrance, the more I thought about it, the more upset I was. I didn't want to move my feet forward. It was really like "slow and leisurely steps." I told my fellow practitioners: "No, I feel terrible. I have to go back and ask for that piece of paper. We came to validate Dafa and how could we sign our names under the head of evil's name and admit his control? What difference would this be from signing a "promising paper" in jail? This was wrong, very wrong." Two fellow practitioners wished to go back with me. We knew that if we didn't do it right the first time, and it would be even more difficult to get it right the second time. But no matter how hard it was, we must correct the mistake and not leave any damage to Dafa. The police officer was very angry, as expected. He blocked us at the door and shouted "You signed it all by yourselves just a moment ago. How could you regret it? It is impossible to undo it. You have to either pass to customs or return home." We persuaded him peacefully not to be so mad "Please sit down and let's take some time to chat about it." Then seven to eight policemen came to the hall and an official also joined the discussions. Every policeman except the official one had a serious look, and some of them even showed off in front of us with arresting hand-locks. I knew in my heart that this was again a xinxing test arranged by the old evil forces. We were caught last time, and now we would not get moody again. My fellow practitioners and I kept righteous thoughts. According to law, we just stepped on Icelandic soil and didn't violate any law yet. How could you arrest us? On the other hand, I know that you are supportive of Falun Gong from your heart. You were just acting like actors in a movie. I smiled, looking at them, nobly, straight into their eyes. At last, a policewoman laughed out loud, and then all of them fell into laughter. Then the police officer understood the description from a Falun Gong practitioner. He took a pen and crossed the whole paragraph saying that you can't do this and that during Jiang Jemin's visit. The policeman who had interactions with me all the time came and shook my hand. The rest of the policemen also walked by, shaking hands with fellow practitioners. We said "Thank you" to each other. Thanks for Falun Dafa's Buddha enlightening the universe and harmoniously endowing courtesy and respect. Thanks for the bright future for the Icelandic people!

Asking for justice back

Walking outside of customs, we all started to cry. I was crying and regretting painfully for not being able to hold my righteous thoughts firmly at the critical moment. Afterwards, I heard that some fellow practitioners refused to sign the form with a determined mind and entered Iceland gracefully. I respected them from the bottom of my heart. As Dafa disciples, we shall disregard completely the arrangement that the old evil forces set up for us. That so-called signature itself was forced on Falun Gong by the evil demons. Crossing out some contents didn't change the meaning of the action. In Russia, Falun Gong practitioners didn't violate any law and didn't perform any harmful activity in society. Why did the policemen want to take all the Dafa materials away? What reasons could they present for arresting us for as long as eight hours? Furthermore, the police illegally arrested and kept a Dafa disciple for five days who had registered in the same hotel as Jiang Jemin in St. Petersburg. They released him only after the head of the evil left. Policemen kept saying "You didn't do anything wrong but we just need to check your ID." Then why did they send Dafa disciples to court and fooled us into signing something and disgraced Dafa and Dafa disciples by taking advantage of the language barrier between the two parties? Here, I stated seriously that all my signatures that I signed at the customs in Iceland and the court of St. Petersburg are useless.

The Icelandic government and the Russian police violated the law while executing the law, with no respect for the law or gods. We need to ask them for justice and to tell them the truth. This is not politics, nor a fight with human beings. We don't want to struggle for power or anything in the human realm, either. Ordinary people were controlled by evil and persecute Dafa. If we don't uncover it and stop it, instead when we let it go to obtain a superficial and temporarily happy ending, we actually hurt it. If we admit it and obey it, as a result, we push it further into the deep bottomless valley. As Dafa disciples in the Fa-rectification period, we should correct all things that aren't right. Validating Dafa during the course of eliminating the evil and saving sentient beings are the greatest compassion and forbearance and a great heart of a Dafa disciple.

Due to my limited understanding of the Fa, please correct me mercifully if there is anything inappropriate.

Translated from:
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2002/8/24/18256.html