A Touching Story of Compassion during a Painting Exhibition in the EU Parliament

During Chinese New Year, Australian practitioner Zhang Cuiying’s painting exhibition was held in the EU parliament. On the last day of the exhibition, a very touching event occurred.

When the artist was presenting a book of her paintings to members of the European parliament and others who have supported Falun Gong, one of the practitioners picked up a copy of the book without noticing that there was a lady who was also about to pick up it. This hurt the lady deeply, and she became very upset and left the exhibition. A practitioner saw this and told the others about it. Unexpectedly, just after he finished talking, the lady came back to the main table, angrily grabbed a leaflet and tore it into pieces. She then went into a bank opposite the exhibition place. Everyone was shocked.

After a little hesitation, another practitioner followed her to the bank. When she was entering the bank, she saw the lady was standing in front of a cash machine. Without hesitation this time, she walked toward the lady and put her hand onto her shoulder gently, said to her in tears: “ We’re terrible sorry…” The lady turned, in tears, and gently put her hand on the practitioner. The practitioner said: “At that moment, my friend did not notice that you were looking at that painting as well, and her act hurt you. We apologize. The artist hopes that you would select a painting you like, and she would like to sign the painting and present it to you.” The lady nodded her head quietly, and both of them went back to the exhibition together.

When everyone saw their friendliness towards each other they understood what had happened.

The lady selected the painting “Harmony”, on which the artist wrote the sentence: “Hope ‘Truth, Compassion and Tolerance’bring a forever lasting happiness!” One of the practitioners also explained to her: “ Truth, Compassion and Tolerance’are the principles of our cultivation practice, if we did something wrong, and violated these principles, we should correct ourselves.” After the practitioner finished speaking, the lady gave this practitioner a big hug and said: “Please forgive me”. She then gave all the practitioners hugs and expressed her regret to each practitioner. Finally, she wrote one sentence in the visitor’s book: “With all my appreciation”.

At the end, we all had a photo taken together, and she said: “I need ‘Truth, Compassion and Tolerance”! “Today, you have awoken something rooted in the bottom of my heart. I will remember this day forever”.