(Clearwisdom.net) Before the persecution of Falun Gong began in China, people tended to learn about it on their own. They formed independent opinions about Falun Gong and made their own decisions about whether to practice it. At that time, many Chinese media reported on Falun Gong from a fair and objective point of view. Once the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to persecute Falun Gong, however, it also influenced people's opinions of Falun Gong through a campaign of misinformation and propaganda.
How much do the Chinese people know about Falun Gong when they are free from the CCP´s propaganda? Do they form their opinions on the basis of their own observation and inquiry? I would like to make a comparison between the Chinese and the people of the free world through the following events, which took place in a foreign country.
According to a Clearwisdom report, Spain's most prestigious national health fair took place in Madrid on November 5, 2009. More than 700 exhibitors participated in the fair, and Falun Gong was among them, as it had been in previous years. According to estimates by the organizers, more than 80,000 people attended the fair.
The organizers arranged a maximum of two seminars for exhibitors who wanted to publicize their products or services. Two seminars had already been arranged for Falun Gong. Because of the extraordinary popularity of Falun Gong among attendees, however, the organizers arranged an additional Falun Gong seminar. It was scheduled to take place just an hour before the fair closed, since the agenda was full. One would think that this would not be a good time for a seminar, since the fair would close just an hour later, people would be getting ready to leave, and exhibitors would be busy packing their things. But when the Falun Gong practitioners went to the meeting room to conduct the seminar, they were surprised to find a long line of people waiting to attend. Many of them had attended the previous two Falun Gong seminars, but they came again after they learned that another seminar had been added.
A woman who attended the first seminar bought the Falun Gong book, Zhuan Falun. The next day she went to the practitioners and said to them, "After I attended the seminar yesterday, I found myself in tears for no reason. I feel that my life has undergone a great change and that I have found what I have been looking for all my life." She told practitioners that she would practice Falun Gong.
A female exhibitor also attended the Falun Gong seminar. She told a practitioner, "On the day before the fair opened, I began suffering from pain in my arms. They hurt so much, I could not even raise them. I was very worried that I would not be able to manage my exhibit for four days with so much pain. But after I attended your seminar yesterday and learned the first set of Falun Gong exercises, I was surprised to find that the pain in my arms was gone. It was really miraculous." She lifted her arms to show the practitioners and said, "Look, I have recovered completely." She attended the following two seminars and also invited her colleagues.
At the Falun Gong exhibit, practitioners played a video demonstration of the Falun Gong exercises. A man stood in front of the TV screen and watched the demonstration closely. A practitioner approached him to tell him more about Falun Gong, but the man kept his eyes fixed on the screen and said, "Please let me watch it first."
The day after the fair was over, a woman called the practitioners and told them about her experience at the health fair. She was from Galicia in northern Spain, and she had gone to the heath fair in search of spiritual guidance. She had received a Falun Gong flyer before the fair closed, but she did not have time to read it, so she left it in her bag. When she read the flyer after she went home, she experienced a profound feeling that seemed to move her from the bottom of her heart. Then she called the practitioners and told them, "I want to learn Falun Gong. It is exactly what I have been looking for and waiting for all my life."
I was quite moved by these reports. The first woman could not help her tears after she went home from the fair because she saw Falun Gong with her own eyes and came to understand the true meaning of her life. The female exhibitor who recovered from the pain in her arms also spoke about her observations of Falun Gong on the basis of her own experience. And the woman who called practitioners after the fair was a seeker of truth. There are people like her all over the world who seek spiritual enlightenment and purification. Many of them may have had experiences similar to hers when they learned about Falun Gong.
I was most moved by the man who declined the practitioner's explanation as he kept his eyes fixed on the exercise video and said, "Please let me watch it first." He was a man who definitely had his own point of view. He wanted to learn about Falun Gong by seeing it with his own eyes.
I believe that in China, there are many people who trust their own judgment as this man did. They do not parrot what others say or blindly accept the CCP's propaganda. Although people's opinions of Falun Gong can be influenced by the CCP's media monopoly and misinformation, sincere people are bound to get a objective and fair view as the truth about Falun Gong continues to circulate throughout China.
I have some suggestions for those Chinese people who have been blinded by the CCP's propaganda against Falun Gong. Please take a look at Falun Gong with your own eyes and think about it without being influenced by the notions the CCP seeks to plant in your mind. If you learn the truth about Falun Gong, you too may be moved to tears and find your illnesses gone. If you are interested in the true meaning of life, you really need to see Falun Gong with your own eyes. You should not dismiss it on the basis of CCP propaganda. Rather, you need to be like the man who said, "Please let me watch it first."
