Our Trip to St Petersburg and the Baltic Countries (Photos)

Written by practitioners from Toronto

We obtained deeper understandings through the activities of eliminating the evil in other dimensions by sending righteous thoughts in close proximity to the evil head. Dafa disciples from all over the world gathered together for this task. As Dafa disciples during the Fa-rectification period we deeply felt that righteous thoughts and disciples themselves are a unity, which forms invincible power.

At the crowded square many people gathered to watch the practitioners performing exercises. People frequently approached practitioners for more information about Falun Dafa.

Male practitioners demonstrating exercises.	Female practitioners demonstrating exercises.	Teaching exercises on the spot.

Sticking to Dafa disciple's righteous thoughts at every instant

On June 3^rd we departed for our journey to Russia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. At a club in St Petersburg we sent forth righteous thoughts in close proximity for four consecutive days. We then read Master's "Lecture at 2002 Boston Fa Conference" and held an experience sharing session the next day. We became aware of our shortcomings and realized that we should put equal emphasis on Fa-study, truth clarification and righteous thoughts.

On the afternoon of June 8^th a practitioner went to purchase train tickets to Latvia for our group. However he was told at the ticket office that cabins were sold out and only seats were available. Hearing this, the practitioner hesitated. There were 11 of us, including 4 senior citizens, the eldest of whom was 78 years old. At St Petersburg we hardly rested for four days and were all exhausted. How could they stand a 10-hour train journey on hard seats? Just then, a practitioner standing next to him pointed out, "What are you hesitating for? We have to get whatever tickets are available!"

After boarding the train we realized that our seats were located in the cabin car, and we were supposed to sit on the bottom beds, while the beds above us remained unoccupied. Thus, each of us had a bed to sleep in. We all slept well during the train journey. Upon reaching the capital, Riga, we had fully recovered.

We checked into a hostel near the train station. That afternoon, while we were still resting, the sky suddenly turned dark, followed by strong winds and heavy rains. It was as if the whole city was shaken up. Soon we heard the news that the evil head had arrived. Immediately we all began sending righteous thoughts, and we did not stop throughout the night.

The following day a group of four of us went to the riverbank to send forth righteous thoughts. The hotel where Jiang rested was just across the river. Some of us were leaning against the railings on the bank, and others were sitting on the benches, watching the hotel. A patrol boat moored up nearby and two armed policemen alighted from it, pacing back and forth in front of us. We realized that they were only carrying out their duties and that we should project the righteous image of Dafa disciples. Therefore we stood up, calmly walking along the bridge, towards the hotel on the other side of the river. When we got close to the other side, a bunch of stocky soldiers in neat military uniforms appeared. More soldiers joined this bunch later. What was more, the patrol boat also followed up. The four of us were still talking and smiling in a natural way. A male practitioner walked towards the soldiers, holding a camera in his hand. He asked a soldier if he could take a picture for us on the bridge. The soldier hesitated briefly, before he smiled and took a picture for us. Shortly afterwards, more and more soldiers gathered on the pedestrian area next to the bridge. We realized that the evil head was about to leave the hotel. We quickly walked towards the square near the hotel entrance. Soon the evil head's car came out and we sent forth righteous thoughts with pure hearts. All of a sudden the whole space around the square was covered by a righteous energy field, within which no evil could possibly have survived. After two or three minutes, an ambulance with a loud siren rushed in the direction of the evil head's car.

Upon returning to the hostel, we saw many people passing by, and realized that it was equally important to reveal the truth to the people of Latvia. Therefore we took out flyers from our bags and started handing them out to people in the street. Everyone accepted our flyers. People were very friendly and some of them even stopped and asked us about details. It was only after we showed them the Dafa website address on the flyers that they left happily. Soon we had given out all our flyers.

Before leaving for Estonia, we handed out flyers at the coach station to travelers. Almost everyone in the waiting room was reading the flyers carefully. Just before we left the waiting room, a pretty local girl stopped us and, pointing to the flyer in her hand, exclaimed, "This is great!"

It is equally important to study the Fa, clarify the truth and send forth righteous thoughts - our trip to Estonia.

It was already early evening when our coach arrived at Estonia's capital, Tallinn, a clean, quiet and elegant seashore city. While we were waiting for the bus to our hostel, passers-by were greeting us cheerfully. An aged couple even tried to talk to us in their very limited English. The old man was very pleased to meet us. We wanted to give them a flyer but we were not carrying any with us. But we did have in our hands some candies for them. The old couple left happily. When they were out of sight we truly regretted that we did not have a flyer for them. Indeed, as soon as a gap gets into our cultivation, we can miss some predestined persons at any minute. We must not let such incidents happen.

Upon reaching the hostel we started sending righteous thoughts. It was another sleepless night for us. Several practitioners were sending forth righteous thoughts every half an hour close to the hotel where the evil head rested. We used pure righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil elements in other dimensions that had been controlling the evil head in the human world. Apart from this the only other things we did were study the Fa and share experiences. The practitioners came from different regions and through experience sharing we all understood from the Fa principles the importance of sending forth righteous thoughts. We barely slept that night but our minds were very conscious. We understood further the importance of preserving a righteous energy field.

It was already 9 am when we returned to the hostel the next morning. We were about to take a nap after breakfast but a practitioner informed us that the evil head was going to leave that same afternoon for Iceland. We decided to go immediately. However, this time, we did not forget to bring Hong Fa materials with us. We were handing out flyers all the way to the airport.

Upon arriving at the airport we came to a café on the first floor. At the balcony we could see the whole airport. Each of us got a coffee and sat on a table at the balcony. There was already a China Airline aircraft down there, and a bunch of Chinese representatives were preparing to board the flight. The sun was almost baking the ground's surface. Soon, a red carpet was laid along the runway and military troops as well as government officials arrived. They stood under the baking sun for over two hours waiting. Then came the evil head's car. Suddenly the sun disappeared and chilly winds started to blow. Practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts. We felt our supernormal capabilities as they were sent out and the warm energy flowed through our palms.

Upon returning we split into a few smaller groups. Still, wherever we went we handed out truth clarification flyers. One group met a Chinese merchant and handed him a flyer. To their surprise the merchant dragged the practitioners to a residential zone, and told them that practitioners must persevere and the ultimate success would belong to them. After a meal in a restaurant, we gave the waiter a flyer when we paid our bill. On the way back, we went to a shop to ask for directions. When we were about to give the shop assistant a flyer, he held high a flyer given to him by others. We all smiled joyfully.

Hongfa in an ancient city - our experience in Estonia

It had rained for a whole day. We did not go out and made use of the time to do group Fa study. At night, after reading Zhuan Falun, we had a discussion on our recent two weeks spent in Europe. It became clearer to everyone that during this trip we had placed too much emphasis on sending forth righteous thoughts and did not aptly combine it with fa study and clarifying the truth. This is something we had neglected and hence everyone decided to go out on the streets to clarify the truth should the weather improve the next day.

Sure enough, the next day was a bright and sunny day. However as the flyers we had sent to the shop for photocopying would only be ready at one in the afternoon, we used the time in the morning to repeatedly study Master's "Lecture at the 2002 Boston Experience Sharing Conference." Then we set off. We split into three small groups and headed straight to a popular tourist destination in Tallinn - the ancient city. This is an old city built in the middle of the last millennium. It is very small and the buildings are old yet distinctive and scattered on both sides of a narrow stone road. Those in our group did not go into the ancient city right away. Instead we chose to practice the exercise movements and distribute flyers on a stretch of parkland close to the ancient city. As we practiced the standing exercises, passersby would follow us and stretch their arms, even a policeman on patrol. When all our flyers had been handed out, we went into the ancient city.

On reaching the public square at the heart of the ancient city, we were astonished to discover that it was crowded with people. There were all sorts of restaurants surrounding the square and outside the restaurants many chairs and tables were set up. People sat nearby drinking beer. On one side of the square there was an open air market with many stalls in it and tourists came in and out in an endless stream.(see picture) A stage was set up opposite the market and unexpectedly in front of it were hung Falun Dafa flags in all sorts of colors. On closer inspection, it turned out that a group of practitioners from Australia and Toronto had already begun a demonstration of the exercise movements. What a great opportunity to spread the Fa! And it did not take much effort.(We subsequently discovered from the Internet that practitioners from Australia had negotiated with the manager in order to use this stage). Hence, we immediately went on stage and started a new round of exercise demonstrations (see picture), first the young practitioners, next the elderly practitioners, followed by the female practitioners and finally the male practitioners. We demonstrated the exercise movements repeatedly in the following sequence, the standing exercises first followed by the Falun standing stance and lastly the sitting meditation. We attracted countless observers. Below the stage, practitioners seized the opportunity to hand out information in English, Russian and Estonian. People took the initiative to talk with us and some asked to learn the exercise movements on the spot (see picture). A young Estonian man shyly came forward. Using his limited knowledge of English, he repeatedly said: "I like this music very much," and asked whether there were any practitioners in Estonia. He had a Dafa flyer in his hand.

At night, when it was time to close the shops, the flow of people in the square gradually diminished. I then noticed that the same young man was still standing there quietly watching us, reluctant to leave. Several male practitioners were still meditating quietly on the stage. All of a sudden there came more than ten young men dressed in the same sportswear. Nearly everyone had a bottle of beer in his hand and they created an uproar. It was time to end the exercises. A male practitioner stood up and walked towards the group of young men. He led them to say "Fa-lun-Da-Fa-hao." Thus the young men shouted along with him: "Fa-lun-Da-Fa hao!" The chorus shook the entire square, once again attracting many people's attention. After yelling like this several times, one of the young men asked in English, "What does Falun Dafa hao mean?" The practitioner replied in English: "It means Falun Dafa is good!" With that, everyone cheered once again, pushing the day's activity to a climax.

Wherever we go, we bring the truth with us

On June 13^th, we boarded the plane back to Toronto. We transited at Helsinki. Just as a group of us settled down to wait at the transit lounge, two uniformed policemen (or soldiers) holding guns came to interrogate us. They asked: "Are all of you going to Toronto?" I looked at them, astonished that although they already knew our situation, they still bothered to ask. They continued: "We want to look at your passports. What is your nationality?" Another practitioner and I handed them our passports and replied at the same time: "We are Canadian citizens." They took a look at our passports and then left. We were shaken by the experience: There is so much human traffic in the airport. Since they knew that we were on our way back to Toronto (returning to our own country), they should know our identities, yet they still wanted to check on us--so what was their motive?! We are Falun Dafa practitioners. Wherever we go, we should act in an upright and dignified manner. Thus we took out the only shirt we had with the words "Falun Dafa - Truth Compassion Forbearance" printed on it and took turns wearing it. At the same time, we wore all our Dafa badges on our chest. A practitioner felt that there was a need to clarify the truth to the airport staff. Hence three practitioners went together to the customer service desk and asked to meet the airport manager.

Obviously, the staff on duty already knew our travel plans. He asked us directly: "Have you come from Estonia?" and said: "Today is Sunday; our airport manager is not around. There is only a manager on duty." We said, "Then we would like to meet the manager on duty." Thus, he made a phone call and arranged a meeting for us. After putting down the phone, he asked us our purpose for seeing the manager on duty. We then told him the truth and he seemed to be interested in understanding more about it. He leaned forward and continued to ask questions. At this moment, a Chinese holding a hand phone (and wearing an airport staff badge) came over. Immediately, the staff at the customer service desk changed the topic: "So all of you are heading for Toronto." This was unrelated to the topic we had just discussed. At once, we realized the dilemma he was caught in. The man spoke English with a prominent Chinese accent. We smiled knowingly and returned to our seats to wait for the manager on duty. The Chinese kept watching us from the customer service desk with a hostile look. We sat in our places, unmoved. A practitioner said: "In a while we should also clarify the truth to him." At that moment, the man unexpectedly came walking towards us. He asked us rudely: "How many of you are there?" We looked at him puzzled. He unexpectedly shouted sternly: "I am not from China. Tell me, how many of you are there?" We replied: "We have already been checked once, why are you still checking?" He actually shouted threateningly: "So you have chosen not to tell me!" obviously meaning that we will be responsible for any consequences from our actions. Then he left in anger. We know that everything we do is upright and dignified. Moreover, we had chosen to go on this trip together out of our own free will. Every one of us represents himself and is responsible for his own actions. Therefore there is no reason for us to answer his question!

At this moment, the manager on duty came along with his assistant. Both of them sat down with us at a table. We could tell that the manager appeared slightly nervous. One of the practitioners brought out a few copies of the truth clarifying materials with pictures and began to explain it to them in a very gentle tone. Gradually, they seemed to relax a little and started asking us questions and responding. Actually, in the course of their conversation, they expressed that they are deeply aware that Falun Gong is a human rights problem. It is not only China's problem but also a world crisis.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2002/6/26/32370.html

 Yearly Archive   Printer Version