By a North American practitioner

[Clearwisdom.net] My trips to Russia and Iceland gave me some inspiring thoughts. I would like to share my visits to Russia and Iceland with you. I hope that my fellow practitioners can get some encouragement and inspiration from my experiences.

I heard of the news about the head political scoundrel's visit to Northern Europe at the Toronto Fa Conference this year. On Clearwisdom Net and other Dafa websites were many articles written by fellow practitioners about Jiang's visit. Through reading these articles, I came to realize the importance of my trip to Northern Europe. Therefore, I started to apply for my visa, to ask for some days off, and to book the plane tickets.

Considering that my company might not give me many days off, at first I only planned to visit Russia. However, several days before my departure, my manager told me not to worry about my absence because I could ask for two weeks off. At that moment, the thought flashed into my mind that perhaps I was supposed to go to Iceland. But I gave it no deeper thought. Meanwhile, on line there were fellow practitioners discussing whether or not they should visit Northern Europe. I was not completely sure about my visit to Northern Europe and some practitioners called me to ask me to seriously consider my decision. Then I calmed myself down to read Master's new articles and "Touring North America to Teach The Fa." Through my Fa-reading, I realized that whoever arranged the whole event, the purpose of practitioners' sending forth righteous thoughts in close proximity was to eliminate the evil elements that manipulated the head political scoundrel, and to offer salvation to more beings. After evaluating the whole event with the Fa, I was more determined to visit Northern Europe. Several days before my departure, Master had published three poems in succession. I felt that the poems were written for us. Therefore, I brought with me Maser's merciful protection and the holy mission to redeem more beings. I stepped on my Fa-rectification journey to Northern Europe.

Upon starting my journey, I sent forth righteous thoughts at the top of each hour. Two days later, I was finally within the borders of Russia. It just so happened that the five planes I transferred to took off or landed at the top of each hour when I was sending righteous thoughts. The coincidence reminded me of some supernatural factor in other dimensions and it seemed to foretell "the difficult path to Godhood."

The bus, filled almost completely with Dafa practitioners, arrived at the airport customs and we waited in line to be checked before entry. After seeing my European passport, the customs official wanted me to wait for a while. At that time I thought nothing about being denied entry, but I knew this delay was interference. Another Dafa practitioner from New York was stopped. Both of us were kept waiting, and we sent forth righteous thoughts together. Many practitioners expressed their encouragement through their eye contact when passing the customs. I knew that they were sending forth righteous thoughts for us. About one hour later, the customs official returned our passports to us and waved his hand, signaling that we could go through the customs. After getting on the bus, one practitioner from Washington DC said to me that he had been sending forth righteous thoughts for us. Yes, in hardship it is very important for all Dafa practitioners to encourage and support one another because each of us is one of the whole body. We arrived at St. Petersburg and had a rest. Then, we spent the following three days sending forth righteous thoughts at the top of each hour, day and night. During the winter nights in Russia the sky still looked bright and clear so we did not feel like sleeping.

These three days presented a severe hardship for every practitioner arriving in Russia. What a precious opportunity to be tested and refined. Thus, every practitioner would not easily give up; we decided to do even better. But as time went by, fatigue would not give up the chance to attack us and it became more painful for us to have our legs crossed. Whenever I felt exhausted and sleepy, whenever my crossed legs were in pain, I silently recited Master's poem, "Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions,"

A Great Enlightened Being does not fear hardship
Having forged an adamantine will
And with no attachment to living or dying
He walks his path of Fa-rectification openly and nobly.

Whenever I recited the poem, I felt that all of my body was full of boundless energy. I understood that Master had been reinforcing us the whole time, and I knew that all the gods in the cosmos had been focusing their attention on us. Therefore, we had to do a good job. On the morning the head political scoundrel was leaving, all the Dafa practitioners around the world continued sending forth righteous thoughts for three hours. I sat on the ground; my body seemingly fixed and wrapped up by energy. Though my legs were still in pain, the pain seemed to be indistinct and far away. My energy-field was so peaceful, serene and pure. During my reciting Master's Fa-rectification formula appeared distinctly and clearly in front of me. I knew that in such a field the Evil had nothing to live on. It is Dafa who gives practitioners never-degenerated righteous thoughts and righteous actions.

Later, I left Russia one day earlier than planned. This decision resulted in my trip to Iceland. I originally planned to take the train from St Petersburg to Amsterdam, but I found the journey too long so I decided to take a plane instead. At the Amsterdam airport, during the three hours of waiting for the next flight, I met four groups of Chinese tourists. I first took the initiative to approach them and chat with them, asking about the current situation in China. They met with a fellow Chinese who was also very happy to chat with me and asked me about the situation overseas. When everyone was chatting very happily, I took out the Falun Dafa truth-clarifying VCD and materials to give them. Usually at this point they are very willing to accept and further ask me about what the self-immolation incident was about. The owner of one private factory chatted with me very happily, but he did not dare to accept the VCD. From his words, it was clear that the horrible persecution had made him afraid [of being implicated]. At this time, one of his counterparts in the same industry took the VCD from my hands and said, "I am not afraid, on the contrary I would like to have a better understanding [of Falun Dafa]." When I was just about to board the plane, I gave the last piece of truth clarifying material in my hand to a writer from China and he happily accepted with a smile as he bade me farewell. In my heart, I was very touched and filled with awe of the miraculous arrangements of Teacher that are reflected in all areas of our cultivation. Today these fellow Chinese, who got to know the truth about Falun Dafa, finally tied the knot of good predestined relationship.

Oddly enough, the air tickets available for my return journey all required me to change flights at Iceland airport. When I reached Iceland Airport, at that time I was unaware that there were already Falun Dafa practitioners who were barred from boarding the plane in other countries and was also unaware that a handful of practitioners were stopped at the airport and refused entry into Iceland. But from the moment I saw the police car I started to send forth righteous thoughts. At the customs, the customs officer asked me, "How long do you intend to stay in Iceland?" When I told him that I planned to switch planes, he immediately let me in.

Originally I wanted to spend the night at the airport sending forth righteous thoughts at the top of every hour and studying the Fa and then take a flight home the next day. But the airport closes after 2 a.m. Where could I go then? In a spate of haste, I contacted a Falun Dafa practitioner. When I just reached the residence of the practitioner, one practitioner from Seattle said to me: "Many practitioners were barred from entering Iceland. We only have these few practitioners here. You must know, one more practitioner adds to the strength."

The Dafa needs me, why don't I stay? Furthermore why is it that I happened to have a layover in Iceland? Why is it that the day before, I ended up having to leave the airport because it closed at night? Why is it that I had previously copied down the contact numbers of practitioners in Iceland? Why is it that before I left the office, my manager told me that I could be absent for two weeks? I reprimanded myself for having poor enlightened quality. Therefore, I decided to stay on in Iceland. I went with the Seattle practitioner to a small town, and for the entire night we distributed "A letter to the citizens of Iceland" to the passers-by in the streets and in the shops. After a few hours, we walked through almost half the small town. When we told them we were Falun Gong practitioners, they often said that they already knew. They told us that the government's decision was wrong and that they welcomed and supported us in Iceland. Many people wanted to learn Falun Gong on the spot. Seeing that they had such a good understanding of Falun Gong, we were really happy for them

The situation following this was even more moving. During the few days that we did the exercises outside, every day there were many Icelandic people who would come to learn Falun Dafa exercises. One slender female artist learned the exercises from me. She could sit in the lotus position whereby both her legs were crossed over her thighs immediately and she could meditate for one hour. She repeated the rest of the four sets of exercises over and over until she learned it thoroughly. She said that she came from another town to settle some matters and happened to catch us practicing the exercises. She said that she practiced yoga for twenty years already. I thought, "Today, her predestined relationship with Dafa is fulfilled." One other Icelandic artist who was selling his paintings in the streets made me keep one of the paintings that he drew personally, asking me to choose one that I liked most. He said, "Take it! That is my way of showing support for Falun Gong!"

There was another Icelandic citizen who was tall and well built. He had been with us every day since we practitioners came to Iceland. He used the words "Falun Gong," and "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" to decorate his little white car. Later he took practitioners around and helped translate Icelandic news reports about Falun Gong into English.

On the third day that I was in Iceland, we were demonstrating the exercises and sending forth righteous thoughts. Two teenage boys, aged eleven to twelve years old, followed us for a whole day. I first taught them the five sets of exercises. After that, whenever we practiced the exercises, they followed along. When we sent forth righteous thoughts, they also followed our actions seriously. The words between us were few, but the natural affinity and closeness was very harmonious, as though we were long time friends, as though we were family members who had lived together for many years. Seeing their clear and pure eyes, we felt a sense of affinity and tears filled my eyes. It is indeed, "Predestined relationships spanning endless lifetimes, each connected by the thread of Dafa" (The difficult path to Godhood)

The third day after the evil head's arrival, we learned that he was going to some tourist attractions. Dafa practitioners thus rented several cars to send forth righteous thoughts within a short distance. Before we arrived at his first destination¡ªa hot spring resort, the whole area had been cordoned off by police cars, policemen and helicopters.

Through a map, a Swedish practitioner identified a deep valley at the foot of the hill on the right-hand side leading to the resort. Then two Swedish female practitioners and I started to climb the hill right away. Our thoughts were so pure that we felt we were as light as a swallow, and we arrived at the end of the trail within only a half an hour. After climbing up to a high cliff, we arrived at a wooden bridge where policemen were on guard. We started to send forth righteous thoughts and walked toward them step by step. When we were close to them, one of the policemen politely told us that we were not allowed to go any further. I replied with smile, "We will just stop here." Therefore, we sat on the ground and erected our palms to send forth righteous thoughts. About three minutes later, one of the policemen said: "It is not allowed to sit on the wooden bridge." I stood up with a smile and backed up along the fringe of the cliff.

We stopped at a place near these two policemen, and erected our palms to send forth righteous thoughts. A few minutes later, we saw an RV accompanied by two police cars driving out of the hot spring resort on a trail at the foot of the hill. My instinct told me that the evil head was in the RV. So we rushed to the place where other practitioners were waiting for the motorcade to send forth righteous thoughts. I told them that the evil head had gone via another trail, and asked them to rush to the next destination.

Upon our arrival at the next destination, we saw that some overseas Chinese cheerleaders hired by the Chinese embassy had been there unfurling banners. As I was ready to send forth righteous thoughts, two Chinese next to me started to swear at me. I clarified the truth to them with a peaceful mind, though they were absolutely unwilling to listen me. As the motorcade passed us, the hired cheerleaders struggled to obstruct me with banners while I held my palm erect. The moment I pulled away the banner with my hands, Jiang's motorcade was passing me slowly, and I saw the ugly face in gray. I silently recited the formulas of Fa-rectification. I sent forth my purest thoughts to clear out the evil substances controlling the evil head in another dimension.

After returning to my car, I started to recall those two Chinese who swore at me. I felt pain in my heart for not being able to clarify the truth to them more as I only concentrated on sending forth righteous thoughts. I was worried about their fate in the future. From this viewpoint, I felt that I didn't study the Fa sufficiently, and my righteous thoughts were not powerful enough as result.

After driving for a while, I suddenly found that we were right behind Jiang's motorcade. We started to send forth righteous thoughts immediately. I seldom had any feeling when I erected my palm in the past. However, I felt my palm was tightly wrapped with energy this time, and Falun were rolling out of my palm continuously. Although I was unable to see it, I vividly felt the evil in another dimension was completely annihilated in the field of our righteous thoughts.

The night before the evil head's departure, we were told that it was going to switch to another hotel. A practitioner from California and I were planning to send forth righteous thoughts toward the evil head within a short distance. Usually it would be easy to call a taxi on the street, but it was strange that when we called several cabs, no one stopped. Finally, a taxi skidded to a stop in front of us. The female driver asked us to get into her taxi, and drove us to the hotel where we thought the evil head would be staying. I told the driver: "Don't stop here. Let us drive around the hotel a few more times first, and take a look around." I found that there were no security measures taken in front of the hotel. Then the female said, "He is not staying here today." She was an enthusiastic and sensible Icelander, and later on she told us that she had helped Dafa practitioners for several days. She then drove us to another hotel. As soon as we arrived at the intersection nearby, we found the security there was very tight. We were sure that the evil head would stay in this hotel, and it was later confirmed after she called another driver she knew at the hotel. When we drove our cars to a caf¨¦ on the top of a hill close to the hotel, we found that police cars were following us. They identified us through a video monitoring system.

A practitioner from California told the shopkeeper of a caf¨¦: "We are Falun Gong practitioners. The policemen want to interfere with us." The shopkeeper thus went out and said to the policemen: "This is private property. I allow them to stay here. Please get out of here!" In the meantime, the Dafa practitioners also came forward to clarify the truth to the policemen. The police car then drove away shortly. Late that night in a freezing wind, we sent forth righteous thoughts the whole night until the early the next morning.

On our trip to Northern Europe this time, I noticed that all the Dafa disciples have done their best to do what they are supposed to do. Let us regard the Fa as our teacher to do a better job. We must not miss this precious opportunity to fulfill the sacred historic mission.

This has been my personal understanding, and your comments are welcome.

The following is Master Li's article entitled "Tathagata" serving as a reminder to all of us:

"Tathagata"

He comes with the Truth, which gives him full control
And travels the four seas^[1] with a free and easy spirit
Spreading the Fa's principles throughout the secular world
Loaded full with sentient beings, his Fa Boat sets sail

Posting date: 8/13/2002
Original article date: 8/13/2002
Category: Falun Dafa Worldwide
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2002/8/2/34198.html

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