One night at work I was listening to a radio program that was has an audience of approximately 500,000 listeners. During the program, the host announced that they would give listeners the chance to call in and talk about matters that concerned them. Immediately, I realised that this was a good opportunity to explain the facts of Falun Gong to the Swedish people.

Owing to “selfishness”, we unconsciously have misgivings and worries because we have learned to protect our own interests. It comes from the narrow-mindedness and insignificancy of selfishness. We are naturally nervous and cautious when the mentality of fear emerges because this selfishness does not come with the broadness and open-mindedness of selflessness, let alone perfect calmness.

The town I live in is rather small and seldom are Chinese to be seen here. Yet one day all of a sudden, when we stand in the park and practise I see a thin and visible figure slowly walking towards our direction. It’s a young woman with an Asian look. I call her and ask if she is Chinese. To my surprise she answers, “Yes”.

She said to the officer, "You should arrest thieves and other people who violate the law. We Falun Gong practitioners cultivate 'Truthfulness Compassion Forbearance' and try to be good people. You should not arrest us." Whatever one's thought is at that moment can bring about different consequences. After hearing this, the security officer understood and released her.

Those thugs would use foul language to defame Teacher in order to incite me to talk, but I would not budge and thus avoided falling into their traps. My staunch belief and faith was the only thing that mattered now. Each time that I was clear-minded, I would clear away interferences, and recall and study the Fa like a baby sucking milk. I felt that the Fa was so profound, instilling in me boundless confidence and helping me to break through many interferences and attachments.

I had never spoken out in front of so many people before, so I did not pull out my banner right away. Time passed by quickly while I hesitated, trying to decide whether or not to raise my banner. When I looked at my watch, I saw that it was nearly noon. At that time, there were many tourists on the square. I thought to myself that I shouldn't miss such a good opportunity

My little cousin though, did not yield to this emotional blackmail and firmly answered, "I want Falun Dafa. I can't give up Falun Dafa for the reason of my friends. However, I don't believe I will lose my friends just because I practise Falun Dafa!" Just as she said, several days later, her classmates came up to play together with her. They folded paper together with her to make paper-cranes and even asked her for Falun Dafa books.

I told him the facts about the staged Tiananmen Self-Immolation incident, and the facts of how Falun Dafa practitioners suffered inhuman persecution for speaking out the truth. At first, he made some bad comments about Falun Dafa. I asked him to stop saying that before he had learned the truth about Falun Dafa, and he agreed. I told him the facts from my kind heart and with righteous thoughts. After a while, he apologised to me for what he had done.

My fellow practitioners also saw that my schedule was a bit tight, so they reminded me not to have the heart for doing things. Schoolwork was also very important. We should also do well in the human level. It also validated the Fa. So, I started to think about it calmly. Why should I go out? Did I have an impure heart? How to balance the relationship of cultivation, Fa-spreading, and studying?

My son said: "[shouldn't we] send forth righteous thoughts to rescue the little girl’s Mom?" I was shocked at that moment and found the difference between my son and me. He had not been contaminated by the dye vat of everyday people’s society and could think of others first. By contrast, my selfishness was revealed entirely.

On his own, he has kept up with clarifying the truth in China. He clarified the truth to his friends and classmates. The teacher in charge of his class was very verbally abusive to him and even beat him, so he said with a calm assurance, "Falun Dafa teaches people to be good, and I have been learning Falun Gong for so many years." Xiao Gang wiped away his tears and did not give in.

I made some notes of a few simple and clear points to remind me. No matter what would happen, I would keep calm. I wanted to let the Chinese citizens realise that we were aware of what the Chinese government did to Falun Gong practitioners. We were making it clear that they should not assist in the persecution of innocent people.

One day I saw the girl (with whom my husband had had the affair) across a crowded shopping street and was overcome with compassion for her and for him. They seemed so lost in delusion but still trying to find a way out, albeit in a deviant way. I saw that all sentient beings are indeed suffering.

At 1 a.m. on February 6, 2003, my mother, Yang Yueli, called from Beijing and told me that she had safely returned home after having been detained for 400 days and nights. Due to the endless effort of the Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners, the intense pressures from international organisations and overseas media, and with the help from millions of kind-hearted people all over the world, the Chinese regime finally released my mother who was detained groundlessly just because she practises Falun Gong.

When something happened to a fellow practitioner, other practitioners would sincerely solve the problem for him. I could see that those practitioners considered other practitioners’ affairs their own affairs. When a problem arose, they did not try to “educate” and oppress practitioners but would solve the problem with him from their hearts.

At the exercise site, many practitioners have noticed that some fellow practitioners sometimes showed “complaining” in their spoken language. I myself experienced this condition too. So, this is why I’d like to share my personal realization on this and talk about my understanding of such an attachment as “complaining”.

In his drive to eradicate Falun Gong he has also slandered, pressurised and tried to intimidate practitioners of all the nationalities in the 50 or more countries (China being but one) where Falun Gong is practised. He has tried this with a propaganda campaign both at home and abroad, the low cunning of which is historically unmatched. He has hoodwinked his own people with these lies and effectively made it illegal for them to be good!

I realized then that my ideas to push my activities into the foreground had been a huge attachment, to only work in my city, in my area, and to do it well. That notion was like a wall that had separated me from working together with others, prevented me from becoming part of the whole. It finally dawned on me that the others had waited for me to finally join them and become part of the whole...

Even though my sister doesn't practise Falun Gong, she helps practitioners when she can based on her own conditions. When other practitioners and I told her that what she has done will have a profound reward, she said calmly, "I offer assistance to practitioners not in order to get any reward, but because I feel it's a human being's duty. If I have the ability, I should do it naturally."

Many people believe that good will be rewarded with good. Some believe that they are accumulating virtue if they perform good deeds, and they will be rewarded in the future. Some just feel good when doing good things, and believe that's what they should do.

I was shocked at learning the news that Charles Li, an American citizen, was arrested as soon as he got off the plane in China. The reason was merely that he is a Falun Gong practitioner. I would like to share some of my thoughts here.

It is like being on a river – if you stop paddling, the current will take you downriver. That is exactly how I felt when I read less than I usually did. The result was that my realizations were no longer so solidly based on the Fa and some loopholes appeared. This awareness jolted me into deliberately taking more time to read. I have now made a habit during my leisure hours to first read the Fa before I do anything else.

Although she was initially reluctant to take our materials, it felt as if it was just a very thin shell that was restraining this lovely woman from accepting the truth. When we broke through it, everything about her changed immediately. I had the impression that the whole field around her immediately became bright and infused with light.

An overpass on Highway 102 is a prominent place to hang banners - all traffic heading south into central China must pass by. Thousands of cars pass by everyday. Banners such as "Falun Dafa Is Good" and "Falun Dafa Is A Righteous Cultivation Practice" can fly on the overpass for a whole day before someone removes them.

During our chats, no matter how he treated me, I always kept a compassionate heart and shared with him many details of my life. One time, we chatted about Falun Dafa until dawn (previously he was not willing to discuss the subject).

Although many fellow practitioners are still being persecuted and Falun Dafa is still being slandered, I truly believe the principle that evil can never overpower righteousness, because the origins of all living beings are from "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." Kindness is the nature of living beings. Truth and Righteousness can never be defeated.

I noticed that if I got to know the Chinese people better before we touched on the subject of Falun Gong, they were more open-minded and were able to understand the truth easily. A typical case was when I met with two girls. We sat and talked for almost an hour before I told them that I practise Falun Gong, and they were not afraid but instead rather curious and had many questions.

Being aware of human rights violations from the media, many passersby came to our stand right away to enquire enthusiastically, and more than 200 people signed their signatures that day. One local person said, “You’ve done a good job exposing this evil to the public. Surely one day this evil will be brought to account.”

“I didn’t understand Falun Gong when I was in Mainland China after seeing the propaganda on TV and some bad words about Falun Gong told me by my friends. Over here, I’ve got the chance to get touch with Falun Gong practitioners and I feel that you are all nice people. Besides, what Teacher Li has said truly makes sense. It isn’t like what was said on TV. It’s not easy for you to do these, so I’d like to help you as much as I can.”

The desire for ease and comfort is manifested at every moment in practitioners’ daily lives, but cannot easily be observed. So we are most easily influenced by it, and thus fall behind with our cultivation practice. Only maintaining a clear mind can we see it clearly and then relinquish it.

My dad's ceaseless efforts inspired me. As long as the television continues with its slanderous rumours, we will continuously refute these rumours. We will clarify the truth over and over again until people come to understand.

I looked around and saw many tourists in front of the Memorial. I walked to the tourists, pulled out the banner, and held it high above my head. I shouted twice, "Falun Dafa is good!" "Falun Dafa is the righteous Law!" "Clear the name of Falun Dafa and clear the name of our Teacher!"

We had only two days to prepare for the activity. In these two days, we had to sign up, prepare the information materials and the signboards, inform practitioners, write materials, and borrow different kinds of equipment. If we were lead by human notions in this period of time, it would have been completely impossible to have had a satisfactory result with such a rush. The process was in fact a process of continuously discarding human notions.

My understanding of the difference between cultivation in Fa-rectification and individual cultivation is that it is a question of whether one can position Dafa in the right place. Those practising individual cultivation put the improvement of their levels in a higher position than the Fa, so no matter how they practice cultivation, they cannot step out of “selfishness” even if they reach the standard of consummation.

Through this cultivation process, my personal experience and understanding has been this: As Dafa practitioners, we are, first of all, members of society. Therefore, the way we speak and act should conform to ordinary human society's form. Moreover, we must be good people in ordinary human society and demonstrate the righteous human principles of "sincerity, kindness, and tolerance."

I found that when doing local truth clarification work with the media and government officials, I was often passively holding out hope that everyday people would help us. I had not regarded this as a problem of my Xinxing (heart nature) and had not given myself strict requirements. But isn't this vain hope the same as reliance? It is already an attachment...

Once, after leaving my office, I did some things for exposing the evil persecution in China. During the way home, I thought my family would complain about my returning home late without a call to them. As a result, it was indeed so after coming home. After this, I understood that the mentality of fear was the source of tribulation, so I no longer feared anything. In return, I no longer have such tribulations.

The more I reasoned with him the more confusing it got and the angrier I became. I recalled that one fellow practitioner mentioned that to clarify the truth to a few people whom you knew very well might only take a few minutes, but before that, the elevation of one’s xinxing [moral quality] took a few months.

One practitioner held his court verdict and said, "I am sentenced to one year in forced labour camp. Since two months have passed already, I can go home in ten months." He also held the other practitioner's court verdict and said, "Take a look at yours. You are sentenced to three years in forced labour camp." The other practitioner said steadfastly, "I am not going to look at it, they have no right at all to sentence me to a forced labour camp...I truly believe that instead of three years I can go home in three days."

What are the beauty and goodness of Dafa? The topic is very broad and the meanings too profound to completely convey. The following is an attempt to explain my understanding of the beauty and goodness of Dafa, which I would like to share with you.

I said, "You are the police and you should know the law. It should not count if you cannot show me the law. Jiang does not represent the law and he is putting himself above the law. The persecution of Falun Gong violates the 36th and the 41st articles of the constitution: namely, a citizen has the freedom of belief, and the right to legally appeal to the appeals offices."

We are anxious to have them accept that Falun Dafa is good. However haste will solve nothing. We should let them feel we are truly families. Through cultivation we have become magnanimous, open-minded, and more concerned about others. When they accept us, naturally they also accept our choices. Harmonizing the Fa on the level of everyday society is our responsibility

Falun Dafa practitioner Zhang Li, female, was a resident of Anshan City, Liaoning Province. Having great compassion, she was always very kind and considerate, and thought of others before herself. In early 2002, police broke into her home and kidnapped her. She was viciously tortured for more than five months. On many occasions, she was brutally beaten until she lost consciousness. On August 27, 2002, she was tortured to death. The following are three short stories of her righteous actions in restoring the reputation of Falun Dafa and clarifying the truth.

Once she read about a female practitioner who spent 8 Yuan out of the 200 Yuan [The average monthly income of an urban worker is 500 Yuan] her son gave her to buy a pair of trousers and used the rest to print truth-clarification materials. My colleague said that she almost cried. "Falun Dafa practitioners are amazing. I have not brought my money with me today, but I will pay for some of the materials. This is my tribute to Falun Dafa."

After growing up, I inevitably learned all kinds of notions. Sometimes I had disagreements or a bad attitude towards my mother. But cultivation has helped me to break away from many concepts. I can see things from different perspectives. So I do not insist my own concepts, and measure others with my own concepts anymore. I have learned to understand others better and from their own perspectives, including my family members.

Human beings yearn for beautiful lives and strive for every goal all the time. However, if we recall the path of the life we have been through, we rarely find that we can determine our own destinies. Humans are so insignificantly small when facing their complex lives, complicated societies and ever-changing circumstances; so trivial that an economic wave will smash more than ten years’ achievements...

At that time, my younger sister, younger brother, friends, schoolmates, and neighbours all thought that it was too unbelievable that a person who had a stroke could completely recover in 20 days. It was simply a miracle. They asked me what had cured me. I told them frankly, "It is Falun Gong that saved me! [Falun Gong] gave me new life. I hope you also come to learn Falun Gong."

But let me ask you, what do you believe in? When I asked this question regarding belief of the children around me, their eyes clearly told me that they have no idea and are ignorant about this. Do you know, this kind of indifference for the meaning of life and the purpose of one’s existence and incorrect understanding is the cause of one's life feeling empty and devoid of meaning?

After washing and dressing, I headed towards Tiananmen Square... I selected a central spot, stood there and started doing one set of Falun Gong exercises. When I was about to leave after finishing the exercise, I heard a policeman yelling, "Stop. Don't go. Stop her over there. Don't let her go." Several policemen quickly surrounded me. I stood there and asked them in an upright manner: "What is the matter? What can I do for you?"

As a matter of fact, the words and phrases used by the media in China are a complete reversal of the facts. The writer of this article has re-written a media report on the arrest of a Falun Gong practitioner to unravel the lies that the state-controlled media machine has created in an attempt to defame Falun Gong.