(Clearwisdom.net)
I started practicing Falun Gong on July 1, 2001. At that time I found a small ad in a newspaper in Bucharest, mentioning free qigong courses. I had heard brief things about the practice and I wanted to know more about it; I became even more interested when I saw that the courses were free of charge -- a situation so seldom seen in my country. I went to a park -- where the practice site was -- and I practiced together with the other people gathered there.
The first day I left the practice site with the impression that it was the very thing I was looking for, for a long time in my life.
After a short while I received a "Falun Gong" book. I begun reading it knowing that I would find the answers to all the questions I pondered about in my life, questions I didn't have the courage to speak about before, afraid that I would be considered ridiculous. Despite this I understood that "someone" knew all these answers and this person was helping me to find them out myself, giving me this chance. I considered all the things written there were true and logical and somehow I had the impression that I already had experienced some of the things explained there.
I remembered what the media had said one year ago about the self-immolation incident, and I asked myself why there were all these lies about Falun Gong. After a period of practice and reading I understood what was happening and I decided to help in this respect -- to tell the truth about Falun Dafa. I started by passing out flyers in the street and putting up posters about the persecution. I did this together with all the other practitioners in Romania, including veteran ones.
Last year in July, when China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a short visit to Romania, I decided to make an appeal in front of the Chinese embassy in Bucharest. I had some time to plan this appeal, some few days in advance. One of the problems was that at that time the Romanian Falun Dafa Association was not officially established yet, which brought some formal problems with regards to appeal permits, etc. On top of that, a lot of Romanian practitioners were not really ready for such an appeal. So suddenly I had to face a tough situation: I had to appeal by myself, alone.
Very soon this turned into a very good opportunity to see the attachments I was still harboring at that time. Before the appeal day, I had nightmares the whole night. All kinds of demons floating around and intimidating me were trying to make me waver. All the attachments harbored proved to be invitations for all evils: I was afraid of physical violence, did not trust myself, afraid in general, the attachment of my own image and the way others perceived me, fear of loneliness in the common human sense, etc. All these were gaps that were used by the evil to disturb me. That night I was awakened by a terrible nightmare. I saw very vividly all my attachments. From all evils there was one more insistent in particular -- he looked pretty much like the evil picture of Earth captured by NASA and displayed on the Clearwisdom website (http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2000/9/29/1550.html). It was coming towards me and then going away over and over, with the intention to frighten me and make me drop the appeal idea.
Despite all these, in the morning of the appeal day I took the two posters prepared especially for the event and placed myself in front of the Chinese embassy. I had the posters on me, as a sandwich board, and I was passing fliers, magazines and CD-s with information about the persecution. Not many people passed by at that hour, so at some point in time, considering that nobody would notice my presence there, I decided to leave - things caused by attachments, again being afraid that I would be considered ridiculous, etc. I gave myself a period of another hour for this appeal.
At some point in time the embassy doors started opening and more and more cars were coming out, and I was turning towards them, so they could read the posters. To my surprise, many of the people in the cars were smiling at me, as if happy that somebody was doing this. This made me understand once again that the ones in need are not only those who are being tortured, but also those who torture and those who participate directly or indirectly by keeping silent or by not taking an attitude to counter the persecution. I changed my mind and decided to stay as long as possible.
More and more cars were passing by and so did passers by. After a while, from out of the embassy came two Chinese officials. One of them was some Chinese embassy official, Mr. X. They came towards me and Mr. X recommended the other person: apparently a qigong master. They tried to convince me to practice this guy's qigong system. Of course, I told them that for me it was enough to practice Falun Gong. Then both of them tried to make me give up my appeal and to lead me away from that place, stating that they were concerned about my health (it was a very sunny and hot day). I was firm and told them that I prefer "walking." So Mr. X started to discuss with me, but while talking, I was also walking, so Mr. X had to walk with me. Of course this was an arrangement that I attribute to Master: To the people seeing us, we looked like two people making an appeal, one westerner and one Chinese. So Mr. X protested there together with me, unwittingly. After all his attempts to convince me to go failed, he tried to make the security police from the embassy push me away. But these Romanians refused -- they had received fliers with information from me and they didn't want to do anything against me.
After a while the two Chinese officials went back in the embassy building, looking very upset. For a while nothing happened, but I was sure it was just an appearance. Shortly afterwards a police van showed up. It was moving very slowly and apparently looking for something. Apparently they were seeking something very special. When they saw me, they approached, asked for my identity papers, etc. They asked me the reason of my appeal - a good chance for them to know the truth. They were 3 policemen. At some point in time one of them -- maybe with his own family -- was very moved to learn that in China even practitioners' babies are not safe in the hands of the police. He even said "But why doesn't somebody do something?"
Another car approached -- they were street police -- about 4, 5 people. They also approached me and learned the truth. As I was still discussing with them, 2 more cars came, this time with special security officers. One of them presented himself as a colonel. So now I was surrounded by about 15 military. Of course all of them got materials. The security forces colonel told me they were called from inside the embassy and they were imagining something serious was happening, so they were surprised and a bit embarrassed to find just a little peaceful woman, walking by and expressing her opinion.
In my heart I was very peaceful -- the peace that comes only when one knows one is doing the right thing, trying to save people and being helped to do so -- and physically very light. After some discussions with them I was told that I had to leave the place, even if they understood the reasons for my appeal. Considering it would help nobody if they were forced to take me away, I decided to leave. They had after all got a chance to know the truth about the persecution; I saluted and left, walking very slowly, with the posters on me.
I went home peaceful and serene. I had been looked after closely by Master's Fashen (law body) and I knew it. I had been helped to see my attachments and get rid of them. Two days after this event, I could stay in meditation for one hour, with both my legs crossed.
Over the course of this experience I have been supported by my fellow practitioners who knew about the appeal. So after two weeks (July 20) we went again and left some flowers, light candles in memory of those who died, tortured just because they respected the principle on which the whole cosmos is built: "Truth, Compassion, Tolerance." We sent forth righteous thoughts and left. For all of us it was a chance to see our own shortcomings, the state of our cultivation and to understand the meaning of "acting as a whole body."
The situation of the Romanian practitioners has improved ever since. We are trying to do our best to validate the Fa, clarifying the facts and we understand now the importance of all these actions. We now form one body.
