My Experiences in Texas

My wife and fellow practitioner, Alena, and I arrived in Houston the evening of October 22 along with other practitioners from North Carolina. We checked into our rooms at the Sheraton Hotel and went to bed. The next morning by 7:00 am we were out in front of the Intercontinental Hotel where Jiang Zemin was staying. It was already raining and the sky was dark and overcast. I set up with some other practitioners directly across I-610 from the Intercontinental. We had many banners and began to diligently send forth righteous thoughts every half hour. The morning weather was wet, cold and windy. As we looked up after sending forth righteous thoughts we saw bright lightning bolts flashing over the Intercontinental. A practitioner nearby told me that the same thing happened in Russia and Germany when he had been there to protest. I later read an article on Clearwisdom by a practitioner from Australia that said the same thing had happened a few days earlier in Houston over at the Chinese Consulate as practitioners were sending forth righteous thoughts.

All that day I found myself sometimes sending forth righteous thoughts for 30 to 40 minutes straight, then trading off with others to hold a banner for an hour or two and later again sending forth righteous thoughts for long periods of time. The attitude of practitioners all around seemed to be that we were here on a solemn, historic mission and we knew what we had to do. Later in the morning, around 9 or 10, Jiang's "Welcoming Group" started arriving. They were very loud and took to waving around very large Chinese flags and often tried to get right in front of our banners. The policeman seemed to have a lot of trouble dealing with the welcoming groups. We later heard a policeman say, "You're lucky you get to work in this area with the peaceful meditation group [Falun Dafa], and I have to work over there with the loud and obnoxious people with the Chinese flags." Often throughout the day I saw practitioners thanking the policemen and offering them drinks and snacks.

The rain never really let up that day and I went back to my room at 9 pm to rest up. I was extremely grateful that there were hundreds of practitioners who were going to stay out there throughout the night. The welcoming groups had arrived and left throughout the day in busses about every three hours as their contracts (which were rumored to be $35 - $50 and a lunch) ran out and they left to be replaced by another batch of rented protest workers who were mostly Chinese students who had been deceived and put up to this by the dictator Jiang. I think the last group of them was gone by 6:00 pm.

The next morning I arrived out there by 6:00. I walked past hundreds of practitioners who had held banners and sent forth righteous thoughts all night. The morning was clear and calmer than the day before. I again set up right across the Interstate from the Intercontinental. The morning followed the pattern of the previous morning and was a solemn occasion. About 8:00 am, some of the welcome group started to show up. A few of them drove into a parking lot behind us and at top volume, started blaring what sounded like Chinese nationalist music toward the hotel and us. It was interesting; I noticed as the volume got louder and louder I was able to concentrate clearer on my righteous thoughts. It was as if their music had no effect on us at all. I noticed other cultivators diligently sending forth righteous thoughts, unaffected and determined. Just before 9:00 am, when the business that the welcome group was disturbing was about to open, a policeman came over and asked them to leave with their music. It was the first of many losses that Jiang's paid supporters would suffer to the power of determined righteous thoughts and belief during the day.

Throughout the day, sending forth righteous thoughts every half hour, holding banners and doing the standing exercises I experienced many instances of interference and fatigue. It seemed harder than the day before to remain resolute. My forbearance and endurance was tested many times but I was determined to persevere. I also noticed other practitioners being tired, some acting irritated and a few engaged in arguments with the paid supporters. Despite these losses, the vigilance of the power of Dafa pervaded the entire scene and could not be matched by the weak hearted welcoming committee.

Early in the afternoon the rain began to fall again from the cloudy sky and before long everyone was wet and cold. After several hours of cold and wet mixed with fatigue, I found the power of my righteous thoughts to have waned somewhat. Although I didn't want to, I thought it might be best to go back to my hotel for a quick shower and rest. Sure enough, an hour and a half later I was back out in the rain, refreshed, and ready to send powerful righteous thoughts. As I watched others nodding off while sending forth righteous thoughts I wondered if a break wouldn't help them too. Of course, most were determined and resolute. The break was what I had needed in my particular situation and at my level.

What I walked back out into was a battle of epic proportions. The wind was whipping extremely hard and it was all we could do to hold the banners up. The rain was pouring down and our whole area was a mud pit. After a little while, the welcoming group tied up their banners and left, most likely abandoning the rest of their contracts to the power of the elements. The majority of the 2,000 Falun Dafa practitioners remained. After another hour, we watched as the welcome group banners were shredded by the wind and most ended up piled in the mud. The storm continued to rage. We continued our vigilance. At about 6:00 pm, the storm blew over. The rain stopped, the sky cleared a bit and the wind died down. We continued to send forth righteous thoughts every half hour, when the time was over, we cleared our eyes and looked around us. No paid supporters were to be seen. All of their banners lay in a heap or were scattered across in the mud. Dafa practitioners stood resolute. As we looked behind us we noticed a beautiful double rainbow. It was behind us, but was facing the Intercontinental Hotel. It was as if the heavens were announcing that the power of Dafa, Truth-Compassion-Tolerance, had outlasted and overcome the powers of the old evil forces. We knew we had achieved a victory that day.

Early the next morning at 1:00 am we set out to drive 5 hours to Crawford to confront the evil during its visit to President Bush's ranch house. We arrived around 6:00 am and immediately went to a hall that practitioners had rented and sent forth righteous thoughts for two hours. The field that we created was very powerful. At about 8:00 am we went out to the front of the building to display our banners on the street. Soon I began to detect interference as some practitioners had some difficulties with the police regarding where we were allowed to gather and display our banners. The weather, as wherever the evil goes, was miserable-- overcast and very chilly. The welcoming committee had apparently procured permits to demonstrate at the central intersection in town while we were confined to a side street and a kind person's property a block away from the intersection. This caused some feelings of disgruntlement and anxiety among practitioners but things eventually calmed down and we resumed righteous thoughts and banner display.

Around noon we had a truth clarification press conference in which interference kept us running around and lessened the power of our righteous thoughts. This went on for a period of a couple hours. Later in the afternoon the climate seemed to settle down again and we were able to solely focus on the purpose of our mission - to send forth powerful righteous thoughts and eliminate large hoards of the evil. Several North Carolina practitioners and myself were among several thousand practitioners alternately sending forth righteous thoughts and practicing the standing exercises continuously for many hours that afternoon in a nearby state park. It was a beautiful sight for everyone around and the tranquility and righteous demeanor was impressive to everyday observers, which attracted the attention of several media crews. More importantly, the evil was being eliminated on a large scale. I later heard that Jiang Zemin had been 30 minutes late to his meeting with President Bush and had collapsed in the airport on the way out and had to be carried onto the plane. (The report of the collapse has not been confirmed. – Ed.) I also later saw a picture on Clearwisdom of a huge cloud that looked like a monster's face hanging over the Bush ranch house during the meeting between the two leaders. It seemed as if Jiang had barely escaped Texas, but not without incurring some serious losses.

The Dafa of the cosmos is all-pervasive and cannot be suppressed by even the most evil of persecutions. The power of Truth-Compassion-Tolerance will soon rectify the human world and create a new peaceful and benevolent age for humanity. We had a few minor gaps and losses, but on the whole I feel that in Texas, Dafa disciples performed their duties wholeheartedly in this solemn and historical event and were able to eliminate a large amount of evil in other dimensions. Humanity and the entire cosmos have greatly benefited.

These are my own understandings. Please point out any inconsistencies.