In March 2002, I and nine other practitioners from Australia (eight from Melbourne) went to Beijing to appeal to the Chinese government to release the persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in labour camps, mental hospitals and detention centres. We wanted the Chinese people to know what is happening in their own country and that their government is responsible for the torture and killing of people who refuse to give up practicing Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. The people we were able to clarify the truth to would have the opportunity to break through their rigid mentalities and accept the truth that Falun Dafa is good.
We were very cautious and applied cultivation of speech at all times, as our hotel rooms could have been under surveillance, and we were followed by plainclothes police most of the time we were in Beijing. This helped us to refine our thinking so righteous thoughts were in control of every word and action. Travelling in a group of four, it was more effective to keep each other in line. Every place we went we were sending forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil, as there is evil running rampant everywhere in China. Each day the thoughts became more pure and had more energy behind them. By day four I was sending shocks through everything from people to foreign objects I touched. I felt this was a result of sending forth righteous thoughts, not just every hour but whenever the environment changed.
My mother and I had the same wish to clarify the truth to the Chinese people. We discussed with Melbourne Chinese practitioners what methods of clarifying the truth would be the most suitable. The one I felt would be most effective would be to get a self-inking stamp made and print them onto sticky labels. In Chinese it said: "Truthfulness Compassion Forbearance -- Over one hundred million people practice Falun Gong in over forty countries world wide." These few points were enough to break through the mentality of the firm belief of the governments' propaganda. All that was needed was a different point of view.
My mother and I went out at night on several occasions as there were more opportunities to stick more labels and there were fewer people around. As we are western in appearance, we pulled our hats down low to make us less conspicuous to people on the street and blend into the crowd better.
When the thought emanated to place a label somewhere it was arranged in slower dimensions by Master, so that by the time I took the label out of my pocket the people around me would have their backs turned, were distracted or there was just no one to see at that second. With a righteous mind we made each of the labels invisible to the evil. Then, once it was over and we began to walk away many people would come again. Master made us invisible so that this could be done effectively.
The morning we went to Tiananmen Square the plan was to meet at 10am at the stone lion on the left side of the gates. When we were about ten meters away from where we were meeting, other practitioners had already unveiled their banners. By the time we got there the banners were being pulled down. Everyone was calling out: "Falun Dafa Hao!" (Falun Dafa is good!) One of the ladies I was with ran into join them. (Note: she was Jan Becker, silver winner of Olympics) I was pushed back with the crowd by one of the guards. I caught up with the other two practitioners and we decided to go around to the other side of the square and do our demonstration between the flag poles in front of the tall monument.
Everyone around us was acting very suspiciously; it seemed there were as many undercover police as there were tourists. The police van was circling the square. We waited until the van was way on the other side then we took our jackets off to show our t-shirts that said FREE THE JAILED FALUN GONG PRACTITIONERS and ZHEN, SHAN, REN, in English and in Chinese. Mom and I sat cross legged with one palm erect while the other lady (Merilyn Ford) took a banner out of her trousers and held it in the air. I could hear her telling stories to the people about the persecution going on in the jails and what the government is doing. In Chinese we were yelling at the top of our lungs 'Falun Dafa is good' intermittently, 'Falun Dafa is righteous', 'the Buddha's light illuminates everywhere', and 'good is returned with good and evil is returned with evil'. This continued for two or so minutes before a guard ran up to me and stood next to me, befuddled on what to do with me. Thirty seconds later he tried to drag me and pull me out of full lotus but he couldn't as my shoes locked my legs together. Two of them tried to pick me up several times; I then opened my eyes to see that they had taken the banner and left Merilyn wondering around, so she continued to clarify the truth to the people. By this time there were over one hundred people in a semi circle ten feet from us. There were people coming from all around to see what was going on. Video cameras were rolling and cameras were flashing everywhere.
I felt the Gods looking at us from above, watching and listening to what we were yelling to the world. It felt so good to stand up for Chinese practitioners and do it in a righteous manner.
The two of them carried me and threw me into the bus. I was sitting on the steps for a moment, then decided to unfold my legs and stand up. A policeman pushed me to the back of the bus while trying to get my t-shirt off me. I sat there for a minute, then a sudden impulse hit me to open the window and continue to yell "Falun Dafa hao" several times before I was restrained. He grabbed my hair and pulled me into my seat. I smiled and said Falun Dafa is good, and he commented "Yes I know, I know. Now be quiet."
Meanwhile Merilyn had been walking around for over five minutes. She could have walked off into the crowd if she'd wanted to. She kept on speaking to the people in English as a number of them understood her. One guy in the crowd was thrown into the van with us because he was taking photos. We said we did not know him and to let him go as he had nothing to do with our demonstration.
We were taken to the Beijing Police station. We were taken into a canteen area where they tried to take off my clothes and were looking down my pants. I didn't allow it to go any further and they accepted my response. One of them had a camera. When I saw he wanted a photo I closed my eyes with one palm erect. Just as they were taking things out of my pockets my mobile phone started to ring in my bag. I bent down to answer it and said, "We've all just been detained...". The policeman snatched the phone and yelled at me to stop with mixed languages, as he was so flustered. The phone dropped on the ground and the battery and sim card came out. Then we were sent to sit with the others. Now there were ten of us together. I sat and did some exercises while the others talked to the police to clarify the truth about Falun Dafa. Some policemen sat and watched, as they hadn't seen the meditation practice before.
We sat there for half an hour or so, then we were taken to The Garden Airport Hotel. On the way we sang the Falun Dafa song. The van parked around the back; then they took out passports of those they wanted first to get off the bus. We all refused as we didn't want to be separated; we wanted to stay together and work as one. The police called out the practitioners' names and pointed. By the third person that refused, they were steaming mad, so three of them grabbed one of our practitioners and pulled him to get him off the bus. The three women in the back held tight to the practitioner; one of the three police officers pushed in between them holding his fist in the air ready to swing, and one female practitioner said with a calm righteous tone "there is no need for that." This righteous thought broke through and he was inadvertently restrained. A policeman opened a side window to restrain one of the female practitioners; she was held with force in an arm lock, and immediately let go of the practitioner the police wanted. She knew if she didn't, that her arm would be broken. The police dragged the practitioner off the bus punching and kicking him to the ground. They repeatedly punched and kicked the practitioner on the ground, and then the police, laughing hysterically, pushed him inside. I was at the back of the bus in the corner; I was sending forth righteous thoughts through the whole ordeal.
I was taken into a room and questioned for about five hours; I talked to the police about the beatings, murders and rapes going on in their jails to the Falun Gong practitioners. I explained that there are millions of people practicing Falun Gong in China, and there were more people practising Falun Gong than people in the Party. This made the government scared, so they ordered a ban. The police I talked to were quite stubborn in their understanding of Falun Gong. At first they didn't want to accept what I had to say. Gradually the supported facts I used trigged some thoughts that all of what they believed about Falun Gong was not correct and they started to take in some of the things I was talking about.
They took us in groups to get our luggage from our hotels. When I got off the bus at the hotel I told everyone I saw that Falun Dafa is good. The police told me to shut up in a stern tone, but I didn't and I continued to talk to the people. We stopped at the service desk to collect the deposit on the room. I gave the lady the key cards to the room. I was waiting for her to give me the money then I said 'Falun Dafa hao'. She looked to see if the police were looking our way and then said very quietly "I know."
Once we got back to the hotel where we were being held, the police went through everything I had in my bags. They found 84 stamped labels in a jacket pocket that said, 'Truthfulness Compassion Forbearance, over one hundred million people practice Falun Gong in over forty countries world wide'. The stamp was found in my mothers' luggage. At first they didn't know what it was. They were playing with it then when they looked inside they found Chinese characters backwards and couldn't make sense of it. My mom showed them how to use the stamp and they jumped back, astonished. She couldn't stop laughing, within minutes the room was filled with fifteen police officers. A high ranking police officer demonstrated the use of the stamp on video camera. Everything they found in our bags that had to do with Falun Dafa was confiscated and recorded on camera.
After I packed my bags I was taken to join the other practitioners in a large meeting room. Fifteen or so young policemen sat with us. We sat on the floor in a semi circle sending forth righteous thoughts, and then I suggested that we sing the Falun Dafa song. The words are "Falun Dafa hao, Falun Dafa hao, Falun Dafa Shi jian fa, fo gwang po zhao". (Falun Dafa is good, Falun Dafa is good; Falun Dafa is the righteous practice, the Buddha's light emits everywhere.)
When we started it was like a battle between righteous thoughts and evil ones as they refused to accept what we were saying. We sang the song for four hours and towards the end some of the police were toe tapping and singing the song with us.
Food was offered in front of us but we refused. One of the practitioners got up to put the bags of food in front of each policeman, so I followed his lead and helped him. When we were ready to eat we got out our bags of food that we had brought with us and shared it around. We spoke to them and told them what Falun Dafa is all about. Previously they didn't know anything except for what they were told. The police watched the conduct of the practitioners very closely, to see whether what we were telling them was the truth. All they could see was our true and kind nature the whole time.
When it was time to leave for the airport we had been detained for twenty-three hours. The van dropped us off at the bottom of the tarmac near the aircraft. My mother was waiting for me at the top of the stairs of the plane and saw a plainclothes policeman with a suitcase get on after me as I was the last to get on the plane.
I took out two badges that weren't found by the police and put them on the front of my shirt. One was in Chinese and the other in English, which said 'SOS URGENT CALL TO RESCUE FALUN GONG PRACTITIONERS PERSECUTED IN CHINA'. One of the practitioners also had a banner, so I walked up and down the isle of the plane with the banner that said 'Falun Dafa hao' in Chinese characters and I told the passengers Falun Dafa hao.
When we got to the airport of Singapore we were met with a representative of the Australian consulate to see if everyone was okay--also cameras and reporters. Then after a stop over there were more reporters in Melbourne, so we held a press conference in a city park.
The whole time I was in China my thoughts were calm, clear and righteous. I would send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil or I would be singing the Falun Dafa song over and over. I had no interference and no fear at all. Master was watching over me closely and protecting me all the time. I am proud to be a particle in the Fa rectification.