Honorable Master, Fellow Practitioners, Dear Guests:
My name is Monika. I am 61 years old and come from Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Prior to my retirement I had worked as a film editor for a German TV station. I am able to benefit from my journalistic media work experiences in my duties with the German Falun Gong Information Center.
Today I am standing before you, my heart full. I have learned a lot during the past three years of cultivation, have suffered much, and had collected wondrous experiences. During all these processes I have rid myself of many notions that had plagued me for a long time and that I had wanted to abandon anyway, especially my impatience. It is a habit that resurfaces from time to time and occasionally rocks my compassion. The teachings from Master have somehow given me wings and helped me to understand after a deep reckoning how much a practitioner must depend on the daily readings of Master's scriptures on her path of cultivation, and especially the reading of Zhuan Falun. They are vital for doing my part for Fa-rectification!
It was the Fa lecture in Boston of this year that finally nudged me into true awareness and persistent action. And I almost had not gone there. Twice I had booked the flight and canceled it, until something told me that I had to go to Boston, and that this trip has nothing to do with any attachment. I had a solemn feeling that I would encounter something there that would advance my cultivation, something that would guide me further, and that is exactly how it happened.
The first big lesson I learned that day in Boston came about through Master's benevolence. When meeting Master, I suffered the tribulation of an almost unintelligible translation [of his speech], blamed and chastised myself for being exhausted and only realized later on that it is not necessary for me to understand His words, but I could learn from the example of His demeanor, which radiates all-encompassing benevolence toward all living beings. That was His example to me. Through that experience I figured out that I had much to learn yet. I often experience physical symptoms as a result of not showing enough compassion or patience, and not enough kindness. Then I remember the image of Master in Boston and try to improve the next time.
The second lesson I learned in Boston has to do with Fa-study and the realization that many of us have neglected Fa-study, especially when we have much Dafa work to do. Master has said, "And when you argue, because you've neglected your day-to-day Fa-study or have slacked off in your cultivation, you fall into ordinary people's ways of arguing." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston") How can we assist Master to do Fa-rectification if we fight among each other? Every time a situation like this crops up in my surroundings, I call to mind those words, that such a situation is an opportunity for cultivation and elevation to the next level and, that most of all, we must study the Fa much better! If we do that, then we will quickly see the difficulty in a different light and have a better attitude toward it. Presently I am reading more and more, at the same time trying to let go of the attachment of "having everything around me ship-shape" before I begin to read. I am more successful in reading in the morning. It is also easier for me to do the exercises in the morning. I seem to read faster, and I also recognize how the rest of the day seems to order itself. It becomes clearer what I need to do for Dafa and how I must do it. That way, following the natural way of things, many chances present themselves to do Dafa work.
I discovered the importance of our role during Fa-rectification step-by-step. I had scarcely begun my cultivation when the ban of Falun Gong in China happened. I was outraged and on a purely human level wrote a letter to Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary General to the United Nations. Many other letters followed that one, as did many a flyer that protested the persecution in China and called the plight of the Chinese practitioners to the attention of the German people, the German politicians and relevant public associations, urging them to act. Participating that way I had to again and again explain my position and portray the situation in China, my way of outwardly intervening for the Chinese practitioners.
At the beginning I did not much feel like driving to different cities to participate in Information Days. But then we had one in Frankfurt and I had no more excuses. At first I hesitantly and shyly participated in the exercises in public. But, with each exercise demonstration my feeling of responsibility rose. I overcame my shyness and even approached people with signature petitions, with flyers and simply with my knowledge about the criminal acts against practitioners that we heard about from China.
Our first time in Geneva saw 1,500 of us demonstrating in front of the United Nations building. Then came contacts with human rights organizations and the media. Prior to each such undertaking we had to become clear among ourselves what needed to be done, what can we do, what are we permitted to do, and which step might be too much? The question arose how far to go with our efforts to show compassion toward our fellow men, those people who are, out of ignorance, doing nothing against the persecution, and where and how we can effectively counteract this evil. It was up to us to encourage these people to actively assist in the fight against this persecution and not stand helplessly on the sidelines, and give them hints on how to actively assist us. Those actions would affect their futures.
Only slowly and gradually did the far-flung spread of the persecution in China dawn on me, because most of the information came through the Internet, and that was a source I had no access to until two years ago. I had the greatest aversion to a laptop computer my son had urged me to use. I had to overcome this aversion in the fastest time and in the quickest way possible, in order to do my part for Fa-rectification. My skirmish with technology lasted for several months. I bit my teeth tightly and with sheer determination persisted through each and every task, to complete a promised translation, to finish a letter, no matter what. Often I sat in front of the computer until the wee hours of the morning. I also knew whom I could call on for help during these night sessions. I was always impressed at the patience of many of the Chinese practitioners who often helped me unconditionally.
I also noticed the mixed "climate" in the media across Germany. To my utter horror, the print media did correctly report about human rights abuses, but then reprinted verbatim the vocabulary used in the lying Chinese propaganda machine, and thereby unwittingly damaging [the reputation of] Falun Gong and condoning the actions of the Chinese government. This necessitated for me to break through another inner barrier. I had to correctly inform the media. I realized that the source of the information is to be found in China. I made a snap decision to join a group traveling to China, to let our correspondents know what is really going on, an undertaking that for a Chinese person by now would carry the risk of being killed. That led to my trip with a Sinology student. We managed to contact several important correspondents but had mixed results during our interviews. One interview actually brought us a damaging article. After our return to Germany we expended much energy to win over this correspondent's heart. We traveled a difficult path that finally led to two editors-in-chief, something that was a great challenge for us and made us feel the pressure of our responsibility. There is no room for missteps in Fa-rectification, because our attitude can affect the outcome. As it turns out, by now we feel free to ask this particular correspondent for information that is otherwise hard to come by.
To supplement and support the reporting by the German media, we created a team for the German Falun Gong Information Center. We are a small group that works closely with the Falun Gong Information Center in New York, but over time have become more autonomous. Each new press release requires demands to be handled differently. Each fact has to be exact; and we have to be precise in the type of result we want to achieve. Usually, prior to a session, we would clarify among us the whole process in light of Fa-rectification, because our positions toward an issue can have different results at different levels. And over and over again I see this question in my mind, "What can we do better to end this persecution as soon as possible and bring about relief to those unfortunate people suffering the persecution, so they won't have to endure another day of abuse, and also that the perpetrators do not heap additional guilt on top of the existing pile?"
Last fall I booked a group tour to China. Naturally, at first vaguely, though, my plans included a visit to Tiananmen Square and a public declaration of the persecution and crimes against Falun Gong. I could not imagine that my simple plan soon mushroomed to become a group of 36 Westerners who had embraced a plan of their own, to counter Jiang Zemin's plans and also show the Chinese citizenry that Falun Gong is practiced abroad and in the West. Our undertaking was meant to draw the attention of the world to the plight of the Chinese practitioners and show them our solidarity. The designated day was to be November 21, 2001.
At Tiananmen Square, our group was only left undisturbed for perhaps a scant minute. That was enough time for a photograph that is still not missing its effect today when I tell people about the situation in China, about the persecution and the torture. I can tell them I was there; that one has to take a decisive step forward, sometimes a huge step. When one encounters evil, one has to stop it. All possible avenues to do so must be utilized.
Jiang came for a state visit in April of this year. Many of us drove to the locations where he visited. We sent out intensive righteous thoughts; we had the sheer will to confront him with our banners condemning the persecution. But in spite of our best efforts, his agents managed to exert so much pressure on the German authorities that we were almost completely banned from his field of vision, to the point that his secret service agents actually manhandled us on German soil. How could this be happening? Everyone has to search inside him/herself for the reasons. In Master's Jingwen "Toward Consummation," He says, "The only way to prevent the old, evil forces from taking advantage of the gaps in your mind is to make good use of your time to study the Fa." I neglected to do precisely that in the days prior to Jiang's visit. I think we had recognized the arrangement of the evil too late and did not immediately remedy the situation with the correct methods.
Copenhagen, 22nd September 2002
Category: Experience Sharing Conferences
