PureInsight | May 17, 2010
Experience sharing at the 2009 European Fa Conference
[PureInsight.org] Greetings Respected Master, greetings fellow practitioners.
Master said in “Fa Teaching at the 2007 New York Fa Conference:” “I just said, and I have discussed before, that there are Dafa disciples in all professions and in all social strata, and that they are saving sentient beings, validating the Fa, and playing the role of Dafa disciples in all the various professions. And actually, when you manage to, while in the various professions, do well all the things that you ought to do, you are then in fact cultivating. The various professions in the human world are all cultivation sites that are provided to you.”
I’m a chief tour guide of a well-known Dutch tourist agency. For 18 years, I’ve guided Dutch tourists traveling in and around China, which gave me a lot of opportunities to meet many Dutch people from different communities in main-stream society, as well as many mainland Chinese.
Most of these tourists include mayors, lawyers, doctors, professors, engineers, artists, reporters, as well as ordinary people who have showed great interest in Chinese history and culture.
Due to the evil Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) superficial propaganda of prosperity, many tourists have false impressions of China, i.e. the true China, and even regard the evil CCP as China. From these false impressions they have good expectations so if I didn’t clarify the truth, they would have been cheated and put in danger by the evil CCP regime.
From my understanding, it’s no coincidence that I work here. These people have a predestined relationship with Dafa and me, I felt a great responsibility and didn't want to miss the chance to clarify the truth to them.
Besides organizing the trip as a tour guide, I also need to introduce relevant information of tourist sites. This gave me a lot of opportunity to clarify the truth wisely. For example, on the way to Tiananmen Square, I explained how I was present during the massacre in 1989, when the evil CCP cracked down on the student protest. In front of the tomb of Mao, I told them how many Chinese people had been killed in many movements initiated by Mao. I also reminded them: “Please don’t stretch your arms or do similar hand movements, otherwise the police on the square may think you are practicing Falun Gong exercises and arrest you.” And then I would follow up with a talk about Falun Gong, as well as the CCP’s persecution.
One time, I brought tourists there and immediately felt the evil pressing down on me. My heart almost stopped beating and I felt like something had stuck in my chest. I realized the evil was trying to prevent me from clarifying the truth, so I eliminated the evil by sending forth righteous thoughts (SFRT). From then on, such a thing never happened again, as each time, I cleaned out the evil elements with SFRT, after which I finished clarifying the truth.
When we had a lot of time on our way from one city to another, I told my guests some stories about China according to their fields of interest, such as economic issues, forced abortion, human rights, my personal experiences and so on. A false impression of China’s great economic development is the main point that the CCP uses to cheat tourists. I picked out passages from articles written by fellow practitioners that clear up those false impressions of the economy, as well as articles that exposed the shocking crimes taking place in China nowadays, often with convincing statistics. For instance, factories where people worked day and night and were paid very little, or nothing at all; environmental pollution; natural resource consumption; the huge gap between rich and poor; poisoned milk powder; counterfeit and substandard goods; jerry-built projects, all of which are the consequences of degenerated moral standards in China.
After getting off the coach, tourists would say: “Ping, thank you for letting us know the truth.” Of course, there were some who did not understand and asked: “Since you do not like China, why do you still do this job?” I’d reply: “I love my country precisely because of its profound traditional culture that I am proud of, and so I personally take you to witness these things. China has over five thousand years of history with some 20 dynasties. The CCP seized power a few decades ago, just a tiny piece of China’s long history. How could it represent China? So the CCP is not China. Loving the country is not equal to loving the Party.”
“It is the same as you. You travel here not because you like the CCP but because you like China; you like her long history of civilization, like to see her places of historic interest and scenic beauty, like her hard-working people. If this is not the case, would you travel here only for those tall buildings and great mansions?” After listening, the tourists very much agree and understand that the CCP does not equate to China.
When they are about to leave China, they say: “As a tour guide, Ping not only did an excellent job in everything, but also showed us the true China. These are things that we could not have learnt from books or other tour guides. We are so lucky to enjoy Ping’s special service.”
As a Dafa disciple, I use Zhen-Shan-Ren to measure my behavior, put others first, and do my work well, which is well-received by my company and the customers. Usually, our company asks tourists to evaluate the tour guide after returning to Holland. They often give me full marks: “10.” Some tourists wrote to praise my work; my understanding is that any recognition of me is recognition of Dafa.
Besides the Dutch tourists, local Chinese tourists and other precious Chinese people are even more in need of hearing the truth. Being cheated by the evil CCP, many tour guides are actually promoting the evil CCP while talking at tourist sites. I clarify the truth on such occasions.
When visiting a temple, oftentimes tourists would ask: “Does China have freedom of belief?” Many guides would answer: “Yes. See all these people; they are free to come to this temple and worship.” In this case, I would ask: “Will the CCP allow you to believe in Falun Gong?” The tour guide would answer: “Our leader asked us to say so, and the government said Falun Gong is bad.” Then I would reply: “What’s wrong with being truthful, compassionate and tolerant? I myself am a Falun Gong practitioner; do you think I’m vicious? We use Zhen-Shan-Ren to guide our behavior. There’s nothing wrong with that, but we are unfairly treated and illegally and brutally persecuted. Is this the so-called religious freedom?”
The other guide would have nothing to say, but apologize. Some tourists also asked: “Do you have freedom of speech?” The guide often answered: “Yes, we can say whatever we want.” I then immediately ask: “Do you dare to say Falun Dafa is good? Why does the CCP block websites it doesn’t want you to see? Is that real freedom?”
As long as I had the chance, I told those precious Chinese people how wide-spread Falun Dafa has become in the world, the false self-immolation incident in Tiananmen Square, the quitting the CCP movement, etc. Many predestined Chinese people have quit the CCP and its affiliated organisations.
Lay Down Fame, Gain and Sentimentality; Seize Every Opportunity to Clarify the Truth
When I was in China for work in April, I was kidnapped from the hotel by police from the public security bureau in Beijing. They interrogated me and asked me what I was doing in China. I answered in an upright manner: “I didn’t do anything illegal; religious freedom and freedom of speech is the freedom of every citizen.”
They threatened me, describing how they knew about me, my relationship with my younger brother and sister-in-law, and even which things I brought them every time I visited. They pretended they knew everything about me.
At that moment, I remembered Master’s words: “Actually, I knew about their set of tricks a long time ago. Before they do this they first get to know you well. They even get to know what you like and dislike when it comes to food, clothing, living quarters, and transportation. And it includes getting to know the subject's relatives and friends well. Then they set a trap for you and arrest you. At the very first meeting they scare and threaten you, making you feel as if you're about to get shot to death. Then they take advantage of your mental state of being afraid and talk to you. If you don't want to talk, they'll share with you the things they gathered a long time ago. During the conversation you feel as if they know everything already, and it seems like they even know things only a very small number of people know.” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference”)
With Master’s Fa, I have no fear. Seeing this trick didn’t work, they started to threaten me with losing my job and tried making me confess to something they wanted to know. I kept silent so they implied that I mustn’t care if I could lose my job if I didn’t do what they wanted. I replied: “I’ve been working in the same company for 18 years and have become the chief tour guide, the only Chinese guide. If I can’t work there anymore, it's all caused by your persecution.”
Since they had nothing to confront me with, they would ask how long had I practiced Falun Gong. I took the chance to clarify the truth and told them how I obtained the Fa and the practice, how I would use Zhen-Shan-Ren to guide my behavior, and how I benefited physically and spiritually by doing so.
Through their investigations, they knew very well what kind of person I was in my family, work and society, and couldn’t find any excuse to defame Dafa. From time to time, they attempted to brainwash me into believing that Falun Dafa is a “cult.” I used my understanding of Dafa to clarify the truth to them. They changed the subject whenever they could not justify their own argument. During that period, they tried to pry into Falun Gong’s situation overseas, such as how many Falun Gong practitioners are in the Netherlands, what are their occupations, etc. I replied I didn’t know how many practitioners there were because we don’t keep a list, and we are free to come and go as we please.
They wanted me to tell them who I had told the truth to, the time, location, and what I had said, etc. They would then say these actions were illegal. I refused to acknowledge any of it.
I had another tour group coming to China the next day and if they did not release me or deported me back to Holland, my customers and my company would be impacted. Because of this concern, I agreed to their request and wrote a statement that I would not participate in any Falun Gong activities inside mainland China. However, I also claimed that Falun Gong was not a cult, and that I had not violated any laws. Later, I realized my righteous thoughts were not strong enough because of a lack of belief in Master and in the Fa, and I had cooperated with the evil. I have since declared [in writing] invalid the statements I had made.
Since I didn’t tell them anything, they kidnapped me again while guiding in Shanghai and this time proposed three things: 1) tell what I did and said in China; 2) confess that all these were illegal; 3) write down all of the above on paper.
I said I wouldn’t do anything of the sort. They called my younger brother from Beijing to Shanghai. They knew my parents had passed away and that my brother is my only living family, so they hoped to persuade me with sentimentality. I was not moved. I said: “I am a completely unarmed weak woman. You chased me from Beijing to Shanghai. What are you afraid of? I am only a Falun Gong practitioner. Why are you so afraid of Falun Gong?” They did not know how to answer me and made ridiculous remarks. “We are worried that you are going to set yourself on fire.” They also warned me not to do anything in Shanghai because the World Expo is to be opened there. We can see how afraid they are of Dafa practitioner’s truth-clarification efforts.
After I returned to Holland, I sent letters to my guests who had traveled with me before and described the kidnapping experience together with Dafa links and the Nine Commentaries in Dutch. These people then understood the evil nature of the CCP more deeply. Many of them replied condemning the CCP. This also gave them a chance to understand Dafa. Some of them bought Dafa books to read and did the exercises. One former tourist sent me an email and expressed her intention to raise funds for Friends of Falun Gong at her birthday party.
The second day after my return from China, I told my experience to my company. Many people worried that the company would fire me. Instead, later the company told me: “Ping, we need you to continue your work. You are the best guide, and we don’t want to lose you.” They renewed my contract with a higher salary, signed by our general manager.
I believe that because I’m a Dafa disciple, this company’s attitude toward me might lay the foundation for them to step into the future.
The above is my sharing about how I validate the Fa and clarify the truth during my work. Please correct me if I’m wrong about certain things.
Thank you Master, thank you everyone.
