(Minghui.org) (Continued from Part One)
The ancient city of Lucerne is located in Switzerland, a country many people call “heaven on earth.” Situated on the shores of Lake Lucerne with Mt. Pilatus in the background, this picturesque city with its ancient architecture, watch boutiques, and high-end shopping districts has been a popular tourist destination for people from all over the world, including China.
Rain or shine Shuzhen has spent three hours a day commuting between Bern and Lucerne for several years to meet Chinese tourists visiting Lucerne. Some would wonder why she pushes herself so hard, when she could relax and enjoy her retirement time in this "heaven on earth."
Shuzhen at the Chapel Bridge, Lake Lucerne.
A Rainbow after the Storm
Once a high-profile manager in the Chinese Academy of Science & Technology, Shuzhen spent many years earnestly practicing Taoism with her father. Despite her diligence, she still suffered from many chronic ailments. She was fortunate to learn about Falun Dafa, which brought new light and hope into her life.
When Falun Dafa was first introduced to the public in 1992, the miraculous changes to health and spiritual morality that people experienced when they began to practice helped it to spread rapidly to millions in China and other countries. However, the peaceful lives of those practitioners were shattered when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) suddenly a campaign of persecution against Falun Dafa in 1999. The CCP’s ex-head, Jiang Zemin, acting out of jealousy, initiated a nationwide campaign of defamation and murderous persecution.
“At the time, my husband and I were fairly well-known in Chinese society. The Chinese embassy staff knew us, and when the head of the State Scientific and Technological Commission came to Zurich to hold a scientific meeting, he and his wife stayed at our home instead of at the embassy. We even helped the embassy by recommending frontier talents to return to China and interact with their Chinese peers.
The embassy said that we had done a lot for the country and were loyal Chinese citizens. In fact, many Falun Gong practitioners are some of the best and most hard-working at their jobs. They are all publicly recognized as good people. Yet, overnight, the CCP twisted right and wrong. They suddenly made such a large group of people targets for destruction, purposefully defaming and persecuting them.”
In the face of attacks against Falun Gong, tens of thousands of practitioners stepped forward to share with the world the wonderful health and spiritual benefits they experienced. They exposed the brutal persecution of Falun Gong and helped the world realize the lies of the CCP so they would choose a better future.
Shuzhen and her husband peacefully protested in front of the Chinese Embassy every day from 2002 to 2004. Their neighbors noticed that, despite having retired, the couple left home daily at the same time. Some people asked them, “You’re both such good people, why do you want to interact with the CCP? The people at the embassy are always sarcastic and abusive towards you. Doesn't that upset you? You both must be saints!”
Shuzhen said, “From being so highly regarded to being looked down on was initially definitely a trial for us. But when we think about how Dafa teaches people to value virtue and be good, and we remember that our illnesses have all been cured, we can’t bring ourselves to betray our conscience. The people who are on the side of the persecutors are very pitiful, and they need us to help them understand the truth about Falun Gong, so we continue.”
During the 2003 United Nations Human Rights Commission meeting, Falun Gong practitioners from around the world gathered in Geneva, where they appealed to the United Nations to help stop the persecution. To intimidate them, the Chinese embassy staff took photographs of the practitioners and took close-up photographs of Shuzhen. At first, Shuzhen was worried that she would implicate her family in China, but she immediately thought, “What is there to be afraid of? Practicing Dafa is open and dignified, and I am going to continue practicing no matter what!”
“At that moment, Master suddenly opened my third eye (tianmu). I saw immense spinning Faluns and within them were innumerable layers of vast worlds and many different forms of Buddhas, Taos, and Gods. Some were standing, some were sitting in meditation, and some were flying. What I saw was indescribably grand, bright, and wonderful--I can still remember it clearly even today. It encourages me to have steadfast faith in Master and Dafa.”
During one of the days when Shuzhen and other practitioners were outside the Chinese embassy, the embassy was receiving important visitors. Embarrassed by the practitioners’ presence - they were wearing yellow “Falun Dafa Is Good” T-shirts and distributing flyers about the persecution - the embassy workers tried to drive them away and even threatened to call the police.
Shuzhen recalls that day: “We used the powers we had cultivated through Dafa to eliminate the evil beings that were controlling the embassy employees. With my third eye, I could see all the filthy, evil beings that filled the dark dimension being swiftly cleared with our energy. Before long, the sky cleared, and the embassy people in our human realm changed. Their faces, which had once been menacing, were totally different. They greeted us and said, “How are you? You’ve been working hard!” I said, “It’s not hard work at all. Will you take this information leaflet?” They replied genially, “No thank you, we already know the facts. Give it to someone else.”
Compassion Can "Harmonize Heaven and Earth, Ushering in Spring"
Shuzhen and her husband then shifted their efforts to the ancient city of Lucerne to help Chinese tourists learn the truth. “The Chinese tourists who come here are very complex. In earlier years, many of them had obviously been poisoned by the Party’s lies. Once, I handed a special bulletin about Falun Gong to an elderly couple and their son, who was in his 20s. The couple didn’t accept the bulletin, and when his son reached out to take it, his father stopped him and said that it was a “Falun Gong newspaper.” The son shoved the bulletin into my face. He then threw it on the ground and stalked off.”
Shuzhen believes that practitioners should have both compassion and a sense of justice, so she told him: “Young man, despite my age I come here to tell you the truth about Falun Gong for your own good. It's a crime to hit people here. If I report you to the police, you won’t be allowed to leave the country.” The young man wilted, and his parents hurriedly began to offer their apologies. Shuzhen told them, “If I did not practice Falun Gong, I would not forgive you. Falun Gong teaches us that we '...won’t fight back when you’re beaten or sworn at.' (Lecture Nine in Zhuan Falun) Since you have apologized, I’ll let it go.”
When she got home, Shuzhen’s heart was very heavy, and she couldn’t stop crying. “People told me before that we were silly. We're so old and we should be home taking care of our grandchildren and enjoying our twilight years. Why do we spend our hard-earned savings every day and endure wind and rain to do this? We don’t get anything in return, and we even risk being persecuted ourselves. Indeed, I’m already over 70, older than that young man’s parents. My own parents never hit me. I wanted to save them, and yet I was assaulted instead. It was very discouraging.”
After calming down, she searched inside for her shortcomings: “Master said that ‘Compassion can harmonize Heaven and Earth, ushering in spring’ (“The Fa Rectifies the Cosmos” in Hong Yin Vol. II). I was not compassionate enough, so the young man couldn’t feel that I wished him the best. Through studying the Fa, I know that the people who reincarnated in China have significant backgrounds. They firmly believe that Dafa will save them, which is why they risked everything to descend to the human realm.
"But they have been deceived by the CCP’s lies and have developed misunderstandings of and hatred towards Dafa. Their lives are in danger and they don’t know it. How can I not save them? This is my mission, and no matter how difficult things are, I must persevere. Through the excruciating process of cultivation, my attachment to self is gradually being eliminated, and my mind-heart nature (xinxing) is constantly elevating.”
When she saw the line of elderly tourists waiting for the tram, Shuzhen didn't have any feelings of superiority. Instead, she felt pity for their physical suffering in their old age and sincerely hoped that they, too, would benefit from Dafa. She would tell them, “Mt. Männlichen, opposite the main peak Jungfrau, is 2,300 meters above sea level. Before I began practicing, I was also crippled with illnesses, and, just like you I had to take the tram up the mountain. Now I am free of illness and can climb the mountain without taking the tram. This was all given to me by Falun Dafa.”
Some people would ask Shuzhen how old she was. She would tell them, “I was born in 1940, so I am 73 years old.” “You don’t look 73 at all! Is that your real hair?” Shuzhen would reply, “It’s not a wig. Practitioners look younger than they actually are, and I’m certainly no exception.”
Shuzhen then would talk about how Dafa has spread to over a hundred countries around the world. One young man said, “You’re still so sharp.” He then shouted, “Falun Dafa is good!” Some of the tourists would even ask for copies of Zhuan Falun.
Falun Gong practitioners persevere in helping people understand the truth about Falun Dafa, and more and more people have righteous thoughts about it. Now when a tourist is abusive or says something disrespectful, other tourists often say, “Be quiet, I want to hear what Falun Gong has to say. If you don’t want to listen, then go away!” When some tourists see people distributing information leaflets, they ask if it's about Falun Gong.
Wishing for All People to Be Saved
The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party was released in 2004. The book is very insightful and systematically documents the CCP’s evil nature. Its publication sparked a global movement to quit the CCP and its affiliates. After reading the Nine Commentaries, Shuzhen understood why her father tried so hard to dissuade his daughter from becoming a Party member. She said, “This evil Party, which persecutes a Buddha Fa that teaches the values of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, is about to be destroyed by heaven. But the Party continues to drag others along with it to its grave, and only by distancing oneself from this evil force can one avoid being destroyed with it.”
Shuzhen once met a middle-aged tourist on a boutique-lined street. He was also an academic at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Physics, and he had a good understanding of Falun Gong, but he politely refused to withdraw from the CCP.
“I thought that it would be such a pity if such a good person was not saved, so I asked Master to give him another chance. There were many boutiques selling watches along that street, and I bumped into this man eight more times.”
Shuzhen gave him advice on the different watch brands, their prices and styles, as well as information on tourist tax refunds. As they watched the swans placidly swimming on Lake Lucerne, Shuzhen talked about how many of China’s rivers and natural habitats have been destroyed by the CCP. She spoke about how good would be rewarded with good, and evil with evil, and that quitting the CCP protects one from harm. Despite talking to him seven times, not once did the tourist express his stand on wanting to quit the Party.
“Just as he was about to board the tourist bus and leave, I silently asked Master to save him. I told the man, ‘You’re such a good person, and I've talked to you eight times today. All I hope is that you’ll quit the Party so that you'll be safe and not have any regrets.’ Moved by my sincerity, the tourist and his wife finally quit the Party using aliases. They said that once they returned home, they would look up relatives who practice Falun Gong to learn the practice. As I watched them leave, my heart was full of gratitude to Master for his boundless compassion.”
Shuzhen once helped over 130 people quit the Party in the space of two and a half hours. They all harshly criticized the CCP, and even told her that many Chinese now go to Beijing to seek redress for wrongs the Party has done to them. However, the police beat, curse, and arrest them with such brutality and injustice that one can hardly watch it. The CCP does not treat people like humans. Now, resentment against the CCP is almost at its boiling point, and it will only take one more slight push for everything to break loose.
“Based on my records beginning in May 2008, I have helped over 40,000 people withdraw from the CCP and its affiliated organizations. Some were families on holiday, experts and professors, and even high-ranking Party officials. Now, people frequently quit in groups and even by the busload. I feel that, no matter how difficult it is, it’s all worth it. My only fear is that I'll miss a predestined person to be saved. I fully appreciate how urgent it is to let the world’s people know the truth.”
The Greatest Blessing in Life
Shuzhen wakes up before 6 a.m. every day to practice the exercises and study the Fa. After eating breakfast, she leaves home at 10 a.m. for Lucerne. Despite her advanced age, she carries a heavy backpack and two bags full of truth-clarification leaflets. After traveling on the tram and train for an hour and a half, she finally reaches Lucerne’s tourist district, where she speaks to people about the truth of Falun Gong to Chinese tourists. She doesn’t stop until the tourists have left or she's run out of leaflets. By the time she reaches home tired and hungry, it’s already late in the evening.
“We don’t have a stall to place our materials, and we don’t have a car. The materials can be really heavy to carry around. In the summer, I carry the materials with me as I walk and talk with the tourists, and with the sun beating down on me I often become drenched in sweat. In the winter, the temperature falls to 14 degrees Celsius or even below zero. The wind chills one to the bone and my legs often shiver from the cold. To make it easier to distribute the materials, I don’t wear gloves even if it’s below 14 degrees. There are fewer tourists in winter, but because of that I try to wait around a bit longer, hoping for more people to come by. Even if I only distribute one information flyer that day and save one person, it won’t have been a waste of time.”
“Over the past 10 years, besides going for group exercises on weekends and taking care of household chores, I have spent every single day in the tourist district. We try to be as thrifty as possible in our daily needs, and we use the money we’ve saved on transportation to the tourist district and to pay for truth-clarification materials. In fact, Dafa disciples are giving their all to save people. My daughter is very understanding and supportive, and she tells us that our efforts are very noble.”
Moved by the selflessness and hard work of these practitioners, some people have bought them cold drinks in summer or hot coffee or chocolate in winter. The Chinese tourists who understand the truth have also voiced their encouragement and support: “Hang in there, you’ll definitely come out victorious!”
“We are stopped by neither wind nor rain, all for whom?
We eat and sleep on the street, all for whom?
Standing on the sidewalk, disciples of Dafa
Leaflets in hand born of compassion and painstaking effort
It is solely to save you from the disaster
Only by knowing the truth can you see clearly the future
We don’t seek anything in return
We merely wish to give you a path of hope”
(“Showing You a Path of Hope” in Hong Yin III )
This is Shuzhen’s favorite poem. It verbalizes the heartfelt wishes of practitioners. Shuzhen always weeps when she hears it, not because of the suffering she has endured, but because she feels fortunate to have become a selfless person through Dafa.
One tour guide has observed Shuzhen and her husband for years. One day he came over and asked, “You live in this place that is dubbed ‘heaven on earth,’ so why don’t you relax and enjoy the twilight years of your life?” Shuzhen replied, “To be able to save people every day by helping them to quit the CCP and to thereby improve in my cultivation is the greatest blessing in my life.”
(The End)
