By a practitioner from Peru

(Clearwisdom.net)

Every baby comes into the world with a first exhausting cry. Why are babies always born crying? I was born in China. From childhood, I was taught to be an atheist. My parents and teachers all told me that a human's life was just this life; time and one's death simply resembled extinguishing a candle flame with no vestige of anything left. In the boundless human world, I always had many questions. Is it really true that this is all there is to a human life? From childhood, I liked to listen to the elders tell stories of past and future lives and to read books about spiritual phenomenon.

As I grew up, I was even more bemused by life. In the boundless world, what was I looking for? I had no answer. I became more and more melancholy day by day. A feeling of fear and sorrow often came up and it came from deep within me.

In 1990, my husband and I moved to Peru in South America, a remote alien land. Although we had just arrived in a foreign country and faced a society with poor economic conditions, bad public security, and terrorists, I had an easy time adjusting. I didn't know why, but, when I set foot on this land in Peru and saw the native people, I felt as if we were friends meeting again after a long separation. Later, we started an import business. After several years of effort, my husband and I became successful. Since our business was importing products from China, we became good friends with the officers from the Chinese Embassy in Peru, from the ambassador and his wife to the regular officers. They often visited our villa. My husband and I were also important guests, always being invited to the Chinese Embassy for all kinds of parties. Materially, I had everything. We also had a lovely daughter. I was supposed to be happy and satisfied. However, when I awakened from dreams in the middle of the night, I often tossed and turned in bed, and had a difficult time falling asleep again. The feeling of sadness, which I could not remove, kept coming up.

One day in May 1997, a business counselor from the Chinese Embassy unintentionally introduced to me a high level Qigong cultivation method, Falun Gong. Strangely, upon hearing these words, my heart was moved. I immediately asked him to lend me the book. When I received Zhuan Falun with the blue cover, opened it to the first page, and saw Master's photo for the first time, my heart was filled with boundless excitement. In that moment, the feeling of fear and sadness that often bothered me totally disappeared.

When I finished the book, I understood why I had kept thinking of, but could not find, the answer to life's questions. It's Master who taught me the principle of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" and guided me on my return journey to my true home. The happiness and peacefulness in my heart and the feeling that my life finally had meaning is something words cannot describe.

The ambassadress of the Chinese Embassy in Peru also started practicing Falun Gong. We often shared our experiences together. Before she returned to China, the business counselor sent me a set of the audiotapes of Master's Fa-lecture in Jinan City, which I put in my car. I listened to Master's lectures every day when I was out driving.

At that time, my husband was neither for nor against my learning Falun Dafa. In July 1999, the overwhelming persecution of Falun Gong started in China. My husband believed the evil propaganda of Jiang's regime and urged me to stop practicing Falun Dafa. The ambassadress who once practiced with me also called me, trying to persuade me to stop cultivation. I told her, "Ambassadress, you have also read the book and done the exercises. Please frankly tell me, is the practice good?" She said, "Of course it is good! My health improved a lot after practicing the exercises. However, since the government doesn't permit us to practice, you must stop it. Moreover, it will have a tremendous impact on your husband's business with China if you persist in it." I answered, "You clearly know it is good, yet you will still give it up. Falun Gong is the cultivation method I have been looking for all my life. I shall persist in it."

Later on, because I insisted on practicing, the Chinese Embassy no longer supported my husband in his business. Neither did they invite us to attend the officers' parties. The overseas Chinese in Peru all talked about my husband's situation, the past resplendence and the present loneliness. Because of the decline in his business and his loss of fame, my husband put all the blame on me and tried to force me to give up practicing. Therefore, my family experienced a lot of tribulations. My husband thus returned to China, for he couldn't continue his business in Peru. I remained there.

In 2000, I met a Falun Gong practitioner from China. She told me that Peru's first Falun Gong practice site was established in Soldier Park. Every weekend we would study the Fa together. We also began printing truth-clarifying flyers, and we delivered them to many Chinese restaurants in Lima.

Our effort immediately drew the attention of the Chinese Embassy. The embassy people asked the Peruvian police to investigate the immigration status of one practitioner. Taking advantage of the opportunity, we went to the immigration office and introduced Falun Gong to a police colonel. We also told him why Falun Gong was being persecuted in China and how the Chinese embassy was trying to have this practitioner expelled. We pointed out that the Chinese embassy wanted to extend the persecution to overseas practitioners. After we clarified the truth, the immigration police and their superiors, became very sympathetic. Finally, they informed the Chinese embassy that this practitioner had legal status in Peru.

In order to appeal for the end of the persecution, we began to practice the exercises and to study the Fa every Saturday afternoon in a park next to the Chinese Embassy. One afternoon, a truck-load of armed police officers came by and told us to stop practicing there. They had received a phone call informing them that we were terrorists. Imagine that two unarmed civilian women practicing meditation were considered to pose a security risk to the Chinese Embassy behind the high walls and the tightly guarded gate. It is the most ridiculous thing in the world.

From then on, every weekend when we went to the park, police or security would come and tell us to leave. We told the police that Peru is a free country. No law forbids citizens from staying in a public park. We told them that as long as the Chinese government continues persecuting Falun Gong, we would not stop our peaceful demonstration in front of the embassy.

It's now easy to talk about this. But at that time, the two of us knew clearly that we were facing the Chinese Embassy's pressure and threats. When they realized the Peruvian police would not make us leave, they started to bother my husband, using him to cause many difficulties for us. We heard that they even planned to employ some local thugs to bully us.

For more than four years, every Saturday and Sunday, we went to the park. We displayed banners, sent forth righteous thoughts and steadfastly expressed the voice of Peruvian Falun Gong practitioners. The police gradually realized the truth and they became very supportive of us. They assured us, "You are very safe here. We will protect you." Every time I came, and faced the high walls and guarded gate with the Chinese diplomats inside, I felt sad for them. Jiang Zemin's fear of Falun Gong was so strong that he went all out to crush it. Before the persecution in 1999, diplomats in many countries (including such a remote South American country as Peru) were practicing Falun Gong themselves. I, as their respected guest in those days, am sitting here in silence to appeal for basic fairness and justice. I want them to hear my voice: Stop persecuting Falun Gong.

To help the Peruvian people, especially government officials and the members of Parliament learn about the persecution, we sent truth-clarifying materials, photos and appeal letters to the office of the President and the ministers. We also visited the President's reception office and asked the staff to distribute copies of the Spanish version of Zhuan Falun, Falun Gong and some VCDs. One week later, we received a letter from the president's public affairs officer.

We also sent a letter and some truth clarifying material to all 118 members of the Parliament to appeal for their help in stopping Jiang Zemin's persecution of Falun Gong. A member of the Parliament, Ms. Cesilia Tait, immediately contacted us. After she learned the truth, she was deeply shocked by the cruelty of the persecution. Practitioners' peaceful demeanor and kindness touched her. She wanted to learn Falun Gong.

We also received invitations to teach Falun Gong from some municipal governments. After the mayor of Comas received the truth clarifying material, he invited us to do a Falun Gong demo. After the demo, the mayor spoke to the audience, "Falun Dafa promotes Truth, Compassion and Tolerance and improves our moral standard. This practice not only will benefit people in our city, it is good for the whole country." After his speech, he signed a proclamation for Falun Gong.

The Peruvian National Police Commission Against Corruption organized over 100 police officers to learn Falun Gong on Saturday mornings. Each police officer that came to the practice received a Dafa flyer. They also saw pictures of torture on our photo boards. When they saw the cruel torture display, the police officers were shocked. They repeatedly asked me, "Just because they practice, they were tortured this badly! Is this true?" I told them, "It's true. If I return to China today, the same thing will happen to me. Our names are on the blacklist." On the last day of the class, the National Police issued a certificate signed by their top officer to praise our volunteer teaching of Falun Gong, the ancient Chinese cultivation.

With the advancing of Master's Fa-rectification, it is our mission and responsibility to do better in clarifying the truth through the media in order to save more sentient beings.

On July 16, 2003, Commercial (El Comercio) newspaper published an article called "Silent Reform" ("La revolución del silencio") that introduced Falun Gong to the public. The article included our photos and described how, since July 1999, Jiang's regime brutally persecuted Falun Gong, using the media to cover up the facts and to frame people by lying about them. The article also gave the details of how Peruvian practitioners' passports were stamped invalid because they practiced Falun Gong. (See details in http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/9/23/40594.html)

On August 13, 2003, the No. 5 America TV Station broadcasted an interview with Falun Gong practitioners in its morning news. During the interview, western practitioners told the reporter that practitioners in many different countries were suing Jiang for crimes against humanity, genocide and state directed torture. We were very moved by the interview. The No. 5 America TV Station covers a very large area, including all of Peru, and most of the Spanish countries in South America. Their broadcast can even reach Florida in the USA.

On November 18, 2003, the No. 2 Peru TV Station broadcasted the interview with us during its evening program by Cesar Hildebrandt. During the interview, we expressed our wish for more Peruvians to know about Falun Gong and about the lies spread by Jiang's regime to persecute Falun Gong. The fact that the Chinese Embassy canceled our Chinese passports unreasonably, illustrated that Jiang's persecution of Falun Gong extends overseas. More people should know about such a tragic regime that willfully tramples freedom and human rights. Hundreds of thousands of Peruvians and its neighbors in bordering countries had a chance to see the precious scenes in which practitioners in China were beaten, and tortured even to death, and how Falun Dafa has spread all around the world. They got to know how those who follow the principle of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" were suffering unreasonable persecution.

From May 2003 to October 2004, we were not only interviewed by C.R.N and R.P.P which are two large and popular radio stations, but we were continually interviewed by many radio stations including COMAS, LATINA, etc.. The most moving interviews were done by Doctor Cai whose special programs were broadcasted on three radio stations. Doctor Cai interviewed us nine times, for one hour each time, over a period of three months. More and more people listened to Doctor Cai's program and many people called us after watching the program to express their support for us. During the weekend, many people came to our exercise sites to learn Falun Gong. A lady who had many different diseases for 15 years recovered quickly after studying the Fa and practicing the exercises. She said movingly, "I didn't know until now how wonderful it is to be disease-free!"

Fellow practitioners and I often organized small groups in other provinces to spread the Fa to more Peruvians. Everywhere we went we were moved by the warm welcome. In Chiclayo, just after we set up the posters and started to distribute flyers, crowds came and lots of people surrounded us to ask for the flyers. Facing their thirsty and hopeful eyes, we were moved and couldn't calm down for a long time.

During the three days in Chiclayo, five radio stations interviewed us on site. The local No. 9 TV Station broadcasted its interview including the video clip of us doing exercises in its morning news the next day. The yellow clothes became the symbol of Falun Gong in that city. Everywhere we went many people raised their thumbs to show their support and understanding for us.

In Cajamarca, none of the radio stations or TV stations wanted to miss this opportunity. They earnestly set up a special interview for us. It seemed people there were waiting for the universal law of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" all along. Through thirty to sixty minute interviews by six major radio and TV stations, the truth of the persecution of Falun Gong in China was told to thousands and thousands in the audiences. The three local newspapers also reported our activities. Through the local media, many local people got to know where we were going to give free classes. It's hard to forget all those people who came to the teaching site from many areas. After the two hours of teaching was finished, a lady handed a rose to me and said Falun Gong was exactly what she had been waiting for her whole life. (see details at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/5/27/48596.html)

There are many Chinese living in Peru. Many of them watch CCTV through cable TV. Since July 1999, Jiang's regime has spread its evil lies to these overseas Chinese. CCTV broadcasted to the world the story of the Tiananmen Staged Self-Immolation and many other programs that framed Falun Gong. Many innocent overseas Chinese were deeply poisoned.

Since the year 2000, we have clarified the truth to the local Chinese people. Besides distributing the truth clarifying materials to Chinese restaurants and Chinatowns, we also mailed truth-clarifying materials or CDs to more local Chinese, which shook the local Chinese communities. When we handed out our truth-clarifying materials, we witnessed the change from an unconcerned attitude at the beginning to a thankful feeling from the bottom of their hearts. They respectfully took the materials with both of their hands. Sometimes, the whole family would follow us with their eyes when we departed.

It is hard to describe how grateful I am when seeing this. Indeed, I realize how important our responsibility is as Fa-rectification period disciples. Let us remind each other and improve together. In this magnificent, historic period, do well on the three things so that we will truly be worthy of Master's benevolent salvation.

Please point out anything that is improper.

January 13, 2005

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/1/14/93491.html