"Through Hardship the Body of Gold Is Tempered," Part III -Canadian Practitioners Embark Upon a Truth-Clarification Journey to Iceland Early on the morning of June 14th, we arrived next to the Prime
Minister's office, getting together with practitioners from other countries. In
the afternoon about 1,000 Icelanders were supposed to join in a demonstration in
support of and to serve as a voice for Falun Gong as well as to protest against
the government's ban on Falun Gong practitioners. But it turned out that 3,000
Icelanders attended the demonstration, well over what was expected. The
Icelanders showed their determination to let their government know the ban was
wrong. Looking at the issue from another viewpoint. If no trouble was caused by
several thousand Icelanders in the protest, then how could it be possible for
the known to be peaceful and orderly Falun Gong practitioners to cause any
trouble, as claimed by the government? The Icelandic Ministry of Justice had
justified its ban on Falun Gong by saying that there was not a large enough
police force to maintain the order of the demonstration. Now their excuse
clearly appeared to be fabricated.
Furthermore, in Iceland, I had a deeper understanding of Master's words,
"For where there is Evil there is dark, dense haze." ("Cleaning
Out") That is to say, if I wanted to know where Jiang was, I just had to
see in which direction the dark clouds were. Usually my guess was quite correct.
It was previously very sunny in the Icelandic capital but it had become cloudy
since the evening of Jiang's arrival. It even rained at night.
I knew that Jiang would make a show at Perlan (a famous restaurant in
Iceland) on the evening of June 14th. So, I decided to go to Perlan
to send forth righteous thoughts and to make a peaceful appeal. About ten other
practitioners arrived at Perlan, too.
One hundred meters away from Perlan, there were over ten police officers
blocking each entrance to the restaurant. At first, the atmosphere was a little
tense. However, Falun Gong practitioners' peaceful demonstration and willing
cooperation with the police based on their high morality relieved the tension.
At first there were over ten police officers near us. But because of our
orderliness, there were just two police officers remaining before the end of the
dinner.
On that evening, Falun Gong practitioners' peacefulness and orderly
activities were changing people's opinions of us. On the contrary, Jiang's
slandering of Falun Gong was exposed.
On the evening of June 14th, Falun Gong practitioners sent forth
righteous thoughts outside Perlan. Many Icelanders hurried to join us, some of
them standing with a strip of black paper sealing their mouths to symbolize the
Icelandic government's restrictions on Falun Gong's freedoms of speech and
belief. One of the practitioners sighed with emotion, saying, "They did
this in a very creative way." Other Icelanders held up signs with the words
on them, "Please whistle to give a voice."
Finally the Icelanders would not have any more of the unreasonable
infringement on freedom. They were angered by their government's ban. Regardless
of the police's warning and words, they ran after Jiang's car and the Chinese
officials' cars, trying to block their path. The Icelanders were more passionate
than usual and got into a little trouble.
On June 15th, six Canadian practitioners, as well as some others,
decided to rent a car to drive to the natural Geysir, 100 kilometers away from
the Iceland capital, Reykjavik. Accidentally we found that one section of the
road was blocked by police cars. We determined that Jiang was very likely to
visit Geysir, too. We drove directly to Geysir based upon our original plan.
During the exact moment of Jiang's arrival, a dark and dirty column of water
spurted from the fountain. Meanwhile, the sky suddenly became cloudy. The locals
told us that it was very rare for black water to spurt out of the fountain,
which was suppose to greet the "honorable guest" that was not very
welcome.
At this time, the police were asking the crowd to leave the place and
blocking the main entrance to the fountain. A large crowd of visitors gathered
around here, Falun Gong practitioners were waiting here, and so were the police
and the cheering squad hired by Jiang. Suddenly I found that the cars of Jiang
and the officials were not likely to go through the main entrance, but another
road 100 meters away from the main entrance. According to my observation, no
practitioner was around there and that was the only road that the cars could go
through. Therefore, I brought my camera with me, walking toward that road.
There was only one police officer, watching at the road entrance. Twenty
meters away from the road entrance, unobserved by the police officer, there was
one practitioner sending forth righteous thoughts. I walked toward the police
officer confidently and completely at ease, wearing a friendly smile, sending
forth powerful righteous thoughts. Seeing my open and confident behavior, the
police officer let me stand by him.
Several minutes later, about ten expensive cars containing Jiang and the
officials were driving toward my direction, escorted by the police. Inside my
pocket there was a little banner on which were the words, "Falun Dafa¡ªTruthfulness,
Compassion, Forbearance." But I made another choice.
Holding the wheel in front of the head, I performed the well-known second
exercise of Falun Gong, sending forth righteous thoughts in my mind. The
motorcade was driving right in front of me, no more than four meters away from
me. Jiang in his car with the Chinese national flag could not avoid my appeal
and my powerful righteous thoughts.
At that instant, I felt I was as tall as heaven and incomparably noble,
sending forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the Evil and to offer salvation to
all beings.
In Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston, Master said,
"All sentient beings are closely watching everything we're doing. There are
eyes everywhere in this cosmos, and both the beings that have been rectified and
the beings that haven't been are watching. The beings in the new cosmos are
eagerly longing for the ultimate conclusion, while the beings in the old cosmos
are longing to be saved." This is what the sentient beings and gods in the
cosmos are expecting and longing for. This is brought about by cosmic changes.
This is the most merciful thing in the universe."
All of a sudden, I was enlightened to understand how one feels when the heart
is benevolent and the will is strong.
At 6am on June 16th, thirteen practitioners were driving to the
airport. One or two kilometers away from the airport we were stopped by the
police. We showed the police our tickets to the 7:40 plane, so the police let us
go. In fact, eight of us in the car planned to take the plane in the afternoon,
but the police let all of us go. Outside the airport, we quietly sat down to
send forth righteous thoughts.
There is one thing worth mentioning. Not until we arrived at the airport to
have our tickets checked did six practitioners find that their tickets to go
back home had been cancelled by Iceland Air. After being informed of our
situation, the travel agents at the airport showed sympathy for us and
immediately re-booked the six tickets. With enthusiasm the agents said, "It
was stupid of the Icelandic government to make such a decision, against the
public will. All Icelanders welcome you to visit Iceland, and we invite you to
visit Iceland again."
All morning, the sky above the airport had been cloudy. At first we sent
forth righteous thoughts inside the airport. Then we walked out of the airport
and sat on the grass lawn next to the police station, sending forth righteous
thoughts. At about 10 a.m. when Jiang's plane started to take off, one
practitioner said, "Look! Here comes sunlight."
Indeed, suddenly we found that beams of sunlight penetrated through the dark
clouds upon the departure of the head scoundrel. Surmounting multiple hindrances
and going through numerous tribulations, Dafa practitioners exposed Jiang's
deceitful lies. On this journey to Europe, Master's magnificent mercy and
practitioners' righteous thoughts and righteous actions were spread to the
universe. In the sky, the beams of sunlight penetrating the darkness appeared
glamorously dazzling.
Upon our arrival at Helsinki Airport, we felt immeasurably delighted at
reading Master's latest article, "The Heavens Become Clear Again."
Just as Master said in the new article,
The Heavens shrouded in darkness, the Earth enveloped in gloom Posting date: 7/15/2002 |