June 03, 2006 | By a Swedish practitioner
(Clearwisdom.net) The Swedish people are very fortunate, since they were one of the first group of people in the western world who learned Falun Dafa. Mr. Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Dafa, taught the practice personally in Sweden on April 6th, 1995. To help more people understand Falun Gong, Mr. Li made five speeches, about three hours each speech, including three in Gothenburg, one in Stockholm, Sweden’s capital, and one in Uddevalla.
The First Falun Gong Class in Sweden
From the 14th to the 20th of April, Master Li taught the first Falun Gong lessons in Gothenburg, Sweden. More than one hundred and twenty people attended the class, most of whom were westerners. During the seven days of the lessons, Mr. Li taught people what Falun Dafa and cultivation practice was.
Afterwards, to create an environment for cultivation practice and to let more people learn Falun Dafa, practitioners held a nine day workshop with videos many times. They have insisted on holding workshops for years, so more and more people practice Falun Dafa. Every practitioner wanted to have a Swedish Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Dafa. Therefore, practitioners started to translate the book. The English Zhuan Falun had not been completed at that time, so they asked practitioners from Mainland China to help translate Zhuan Falun into English, and then they translated it into Swedish. The Swedish Zhuan Falun was formally published in October 1997.
What is cultivation practice? It is unfamiliar to western people. Though they can understand its general concepts, when confronting concrete matters in daily practice, they don’t know how to deal with it. A practitioner liked to drink beer. He always bought a box of beer each time. After he attended Master Li’s nine day workshop, when he drank the beer at home, it tasted bitter. He though it might be going off, so he emptied the remaining beer. He bought another box of beer the next day. It still tasted bitter. He looked at the date, but it was still within the expiry time. He then was enlightened and quit drinking.
Some western practitioners do not complete attending the workshop when they have sickness karma. To avoid the situation, veteran practitioners attend each workshop. They discuss and share experience after learning every lecture. They also organised a visit for western practitioners to Dalian, China, to study the Fa and share experiences with practitioners in China.
To Share the Benefits of Falun Dafa with People in Other Countries
The Swedish Falun Gong practitioners initiated a long journey for spreading the Fa. In December 1999, seven Swedish Dafa practitioners went to South Africa. They held a nine day workshop and spread the Fa in many cities.
Since then, many practitioners from Sweden have travelled to many countries in Europe, as well as to Asia and America. In 2000 Swedish, French and American practitioners held workshops in India during a long period of time. Later, Swedish practitioners visited other countries to clarify the facts about the persecution and also to introduce Falun Gong.
Sven works in a shipping services company. He has been to many big cities to participate in conferences and activities for spreading the Fa. In 2002, he and practitioners in other countries went to India together. They held Master Li’s nine day workshop with local practitioners. He recollected, “People there were friendly. They spoke English, so it’s easy to communicate with them. When we talked about the content of Zhuan Falun, they understood it easily.” Many people attended the workshop at that time. When they knew the facts of Falun Gong, they made great efforts with local practitioners to broadcasted Master Li’s nine lessons to the entire nation through the biggest television station in Bombay, the capital of India.
Coming for You
On November 20th, 2001, more than thirty Dafa practitioners from twelve countries held the banner, “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance,” on Tiananmen Square in China. The action shocked the world.
Among the practitioners, nine were from Sweden, including Pirjo. She is a nurse in the Neurosurgery Department of one hospital in Gothenburg. She obtained the Fa in April 1995. Pirjo said that she had not heard anyone tell her such profound theories with such simple and understandable words. Since then, she decided to practice cultivation. Pirjo usually listens to the recordings of Master Li’s Fa and reads Zhuan Falun after coming off duty. She also practices the exercises at the exercise site. All the pain in her body has disappeared.
After the persecution, she and other Falun Gong practitioners gave a petition to the CCP’s Embassy to ask for a stop to the persecution.
Falun Gong practitioners in China are persecuted to death every day since then. Pirjo cried several times. She could no longer stay at home. So, on November 20th 2001, she and other Falun Gong practitioners went to Tiananmen Square. Under the red terrorism of the CCP, to let more Chinese people know that facts, they opened a big banner, “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance,” and cried out from their inner most self, “Falun Dafa is good! All people in the world knows that Falun Dafa is good!”
Their shouts struck the CCP’s police with panic. Six police cars sped to them and surrounded them in one minute. A lot of policemen jumped out of the cars. They beat and arrested them. Pirjo was dragged into a police car by pulling her hair. Some practitioners were injured, some practitioners’ hair was pulled out and others’ clothes were torn. A practitioner in her fifties was beaten black and blue in many places. This experience made them firmer in their belief of Falun Dafa.
The song “Coming for You” was written for this magnificent event. It has spread all over the world, including China.
Coming from far away,
Again and again, I came for you,
I came for loving you.
Precious Chinese people, please listen to my heart-felt voice,
Falun Dafa is good, Falun Dafa Hao!
See the truth behind those lies.
Source: https://www.clearharmony.net/articles/a33337-Sweden-The-Fortunate-Swedish-People.html#.Y1P4D7ZBy5c
Editor’s Note: Dear readers, do you know that Falun Dafa, originally from China, is currently practiced by people in over 100 countries? But in China, since Jul. 20, 1999, Falun Gong is defamed, slandered and persecuted due to the Chinese Communist Party’s fear of Falun Gong’s rapidly growing popularity. Jiang Zemin, former head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), perceived the spiritual discipline’s growing popularity as a threat to the CCP’s atheistic ideology.
To learn more about the persecution Falun Gong practitioners are subjected to in China, visit http://faluninfo.net/.
For more information about the practice or to download Zhuan Falun, visit: www.falundafa.org. All books, exercise music, resources, and instructions are available completely free of charge.
