After the Chinese dictator left Germany in April, German practitioners discussed several times about how to clarify the truth regarding the unfair treatment by the German police toward practitioners during Jiang's visit. As the city I lived in was quite far from the cities Jiang had visited, I thought, "Let local practitioners deal with local matters." So I just visited the MPs in my own city. Furthermore, because urgent matters came about one after another after that, I didn't calm down to think of this problem from the perspective of clarifying the truth in depth and in detail. It was not until I discussed with other practitioners in August that I finally decided to go to Dresden, where the Chinese dictator had visited, to clarify the truth.
On August 12th, we arrived in Dresden in the rain. We talked with the spokesman of the Sachsen Home Office for two and a half hours, raising our concerns over the behaviour of some German policemen during Jiang's visit. At the beginning, he was still defending the acts of the German police. We then clarified the truth to him patiently, telling him that Falun Gong had always been peaceful. Practitioners in China had endured three years of cruel persecution, which had cost thousands of lives. But there hadn't been a single reported case of Falun Gong practitioners fighting back with violence. All the large-scale activities we had held in Germany and in other parts of the world had also proved that we were perfectly peaceful, because what we cultivate is Zhen-Shan-Ren (Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance). We also told him why we had been willing to use our own annual leave, spend our own money, and take considerable risks to do all these things. We had not been doing this for ourselves. Rather, we had been doing so for those who wanted to be good people but had been subjected to severe persecution. If people like this are persecuted, is there still any hope left for the human race? Gradually the spokesman realised the unrighteousness in himself and drooped his head, saying, "Even if I agree with what you said, I still..." When we said we wanted to sue the German police, he even went out of his way to give us suggestions. And he said he would forward our letter and truth-clarifying materials to the Domestic Minister.
In the two days that followed, we visited the State government, party representatives in the municipal government, the police, MPs, and some media. But the floods were already very severe by then. In many places, the water level was more than two metres high. Many roads were blocked, and the city's transportation came to a complete halt. Even the TV station had no power. Many people couldn't go to school or go to work. As a result, we often couldn't find the people we wanted to visit. This caused serious problems for our truth-clarifying work.
We walked on the streets and were shocked to see the ghastly scene in the city. All the places that the Chinese dictator had visited had been badly flooded. The lower part of the ancient castle was submerged. The basement of Kempinski Hotel, in which the Chinese dictator stayed, was filled with water, and several big pumps were roaring with deafening noise. A car on the roadside drew everyone's attention. The windowpanes were gone, the car seats were buried in black mud, and there was mud even on top of the car with stripes left by the currents. Obviously the flood had submerged this car. People walked around the car silently and walked away slowly without a word. Looking through the windows of the shops, one could only see black mud everywhere left behind by the flood. The clothes in a fashion shop all turned black. All trains stopped running. There was no supply of hot water or electricity. All lifts stopped working, leaving the 20-story buildings virtually inhabitable. Sirens were heard every now and then as ambulances, fire engines or construction vehicles went by. The wire poles on the riverside only had a third of their lengths above water. The coffee shops and hotels beside the river were half under water.
People sat on sand bags in silence, looking in despair at the flood water flowing slowly along the streets into the city, knowing too well that the water level was to reach where they were sitting in a matter of hours, and that the flood water would then simply flow through the dike they were now building. They could do nothing apart from waiting helplessly for that to happen. A few hours later, a square surrounded by famous ancient buildings became a big pond. The floodwater had entered the city. The buildings that had been submerged by rain a few days ago were now attacked again by floods from the Elbe River.
Looking at the people busy working in the mud, I felt very sad. I knew that humans had to pay back for what they had done to Dafa - this is a heavenly principle. When I heard the sirens of ambulances here and there, I told myself, "As a Dafa disciple, you should think why you have heard so many sirens of urgent rescue - This is a warning against your apathy!"
As we couldn't get in touch with the politicians and the media, for the following two days we just took hundreds of newspapers to distribute in the city and chatted with people, telling them about the facts about Falun Gong and the ancient Chinese philosophy. Ancient Chinese people believed that when heaven is angry, it must be that humans have done something wrong. Therefore, whenever disasters took place, people would bathe and fast, rectify their thoughts, pray to the heavens, and examine themselves. Some of those we talked to said nothing and remained silent, while some said, thoughtfully, "It's time for Europe to think it over." Some said, "Whether rich or poor, we should have a complete change in our way of thinking now." Some others said, "As a German proverb goes, man thinks, God decides. Human beings always think of themselves as capable, but they are helpless in the face of nature." From them I saw the pain the human beings were going through, and their emptiness, despair and helplessness deep down in their hearts. I also saw the human beings' ignorance and their kind nature entangled together.
When clarifying the truth in Dresden and later in Goslar, we were always thinking of how we could really clarify the truth in depth and in detail. Although the German incident had passed quite some time before and was no longer a hot topic, I felt that it had not ended so long as we as Dafa disciples had not conducted sufficient work on it. On the stage of history, everything has been happening around Dafa. So long as the people of the world hadn't realised the evil of this persecution, we needed to clarify the truth in greater depth. If the people of the world couldn't realise their unrighteousness, they could by no means resist the evil. On the contrary, they might even assist the evil, as they have done in Germany, Iceland, Hong Kong, and, more recently, in Cambodia and Ukraine. Their lack of righteousness has brought themselves huge disasters.
It happened to be the election period in Germany. I took this opportunity to talk briefly about what happened in April with several important politicians. They all knew this, but their attitude was that it had passed and that it was no longer an issue to be discussed. Obviously they wanted to play down this issue as much as they could. Some of them even failed to realise what they did had been wrong.
When everyday people encounter problems, they do not look inside. This is the most fundamental difference between an everyday person and a cultivator. That is why everyday people need policemen and judges and think of laws as so important. I thought that it was not sufficient to just tell them that they had done wrong from a moral perspective, and that economic gains were not independent of morality. We should also tell them that their behaviour had been wrong from the perspective of the law, which was seen as a symbol of justice. If we could help them wake up to it and avoid making similar mistakes in the future, this would be the biggest compassion to them. This would be as good as saving the German people from catastrophes.
When I realised the above two points, I knew I would do all I could to work on this matter. I also knew that, with the power of Dafa, we could overcome all difficulties and bring this matter to a successful end. Several practitioners raised the issue of the costs of legal action. When I talked about this with a member of the Falun Dafa Association in Germany, I said, "Some practitioners have suggested that we talk to human rights organisations, foundations, and NGOs, asking for help. The process of finding financial support will also a process of clarifying the truth." She said, "It is a very good idea, but someone has got to genuinely get down to work on it." At that very moment, the flood in Dresden and the righteous actions of the people in Goslar suddenly came to my mind. I immediately said that I would like to take up this responsibility. I realised that this would have a decisive consequence for the future of Germany. I believed that we could definitely find financial support for our court case. If we could clarify the truth in depth, the righteous people were bound to help us.
A few hours later, we went to see a lawyer. The last time we met, he already got to understand some truth about Falun Gong, and had agreed to take up the case of Goslar. This time, he made special arrangements to see us after 6 p.m., so that we could discuss this case in depth without being interfered by incoming phone calls. We showed him our truth-clarifying VCDs. After he had fully understood what had happened, he made it clear to us that he was not going to charge any fee.
Afterwards, when I discussed with other practitioners, we all felt that Master had already arranged many things for us and was just waiting for us to do what we were supposed to do. This person had been arranged to be there, after learning about the law for so many years, and then practising law for so many years, accumulating so much experience. All this had been arranged just for this case. And the arrangement had not been made for just this lifetime. Maybe he had been waiting for this moment for hundreds of lifetimes. But because of our poor enlightenment qualities, we had made Master wait for so long, and made the sentient beings wait for so long.
In His latest articles, Master repeatedly mentioned the huge responsibilities of Dafa disciples. Master said, "I've said that Dafa disciples are magnificent. In fact, the responsibilities you shoulder are quite large." (Touring North America to Teach the Fa) Master also said, "Dafa disciples: the things you are faced with are magnificent, your responsibilities are major..." (Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Conference in Boston).
In early September, we, two German practitioners and two Chinese practitioners, arranged a meeting with the head of the Goslar police bureau and two other police officers. We told them in detail our respective experiences in Goslar and the way the police treated Falun Gong practitioners. A German practitioner pointed out that such police action was in violation of democracy and freedom, which the German people have always valued so much. He also pointed out that Falun Gong had been proven to be peaceful in the last three years. What we were doing was just calling for support for those who had been persecuted for trying to be good persons. The reason why Jiang Zemin was so afraid of Falun Gong and even the colour of yellow was that he feared "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance," and that he was afraid of the horrific crimes he had committed in China being revealed.
We began with what Jiang Zemin had done in China to make himself so afraid. We showed them the TV programme "A Call to the World" using a laptop. In twenty minutes' time, the German police officers saw how Chinese policemen and plainclothes agents beat and kicked Falun Gong practitioners so cruelly on Tiananmen Square in broad daylight, and how the practitioners reacted peacefully without ever fighting back. When they saw Liu Yufeng's body bearing horrid cuts and wounds all over, the officers knit their brows. When they saw the picture of a vibrant Zhao Xin contrasted with the same person lying in a hospital with a broken spine, sorrow and sympathy were obvious in their eyes. They were holding their breath, their hands holding their chins, and their eyes glued to the screen. Maybe they had never imagined that their Chinese "colleagues" could be so cruel and ruthless. After the video ended, they didn't say a word for quite a while. We asked them, "Maybe you now know why Jiang is so afraid of Falun Gong. He has done too many bad things to Falun Gong." All of them nodded. Again, they said that as policemen, they didn't have many choices when executing orders from above. But their expressions and tones indicated that their hearts had been deeply touched. We then cited the example of the Nazi generals under Hitler's command. Although they had just been executing orders, they didn't escape punishment after the war. No matter under what circumstances, one has to bear full responsibilities for what he has done. Again, the officers nodded and nodded.
We told them that, after all, what was done was done. We hoped such things wouldn't happen again. For the justice and freedom that the German people were entitled to, we would start a lawsuit against the inappropriate actions of the police toward Falun Gong practitioners during Jiang's visit, asking the court to rule such behaviour as unlawful. We hoped by doing this we could draw attention from the German politicians. The officers just nodded, without saying yes or no. But they suggested that we talk to politicians more often.
At last, I would like to end my experience sharing with our Master's Jingwen:
Hurry Up And Tell Them
As Dafa disciples tell people the facts,
It's like sharp swords shooting out together from their mouths,
Shredding apart the rotten demons' lies.
Lose no time and save them, hurry up and tell them.
Thank you all!
(Copenhagen, 22nd September 2002)