A Brief Encounter at Gustav Adolf's Square in Gothenburg, Sweden

(Clearwisdom.net) On October 1st 2001, China's National Day, about 15 practitioners from Gothenburg, Sweden, held a peaceful rally to protest the persecution of Falun Gong in China. At Gustav Adolf's Square, located in the city's center, we presented an exhibition with many pictures of the victims of the persecution, as well as several long banners.

Recently I had been reflecting quite a bit about why I could not feel a true closeness to the practitioners in China who are imprisoned. When I was in Greece recently on a Hongfa trip, I thought that the gap between us had shrunk and I felt closer to the practitioners in China, although I did not know why. Perhaps it was because the world shrinks when we travel around.

Here in Europe we also have many barriers which hinder practitioners from reaching each other unconditionally, some of which are language and cultural barriers, traditions, etc.

Several practitioners and I walked around to collect names on a petition to end the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China, from some people who were standing and waiting at a bus stop. I was standing there with my collection of names when a young man approached me. He pointed to a large picture of a young student, Zhao Ming, who is enrolled at the Trinity College Department of Computer Science, in Dublin, Ireland.

"This is my classmate," he said with an Irish accent. "We were studying at the same course together in Dublin. It is terrible what is happening to Zhao Ming. It's a disgrace, it's really a disgrace."

He told me how the father of one of his friends in Dublin who also has an official position in the city, had tried to appeal to the Chinese regime to release Zhao Ming and even other imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners. "There are many people in Dublin who are engaged in the effort to release Zhao Ming," he said.

I felt my heart ache when I thought about how people were being tortured for spreading the truth. It could have been one of us who was being subjected to the same thing which Zhao is experiencing at this moment.

Suddenly, the world shrunk again, as this brief encounter with Zhao Ming's classmate led my heart even closer to the practitioners in China.

I was thankful for this meeting, which gave me a deeper insight into how all of us practitioners in Europe, China and the rest of the world are actually part of the same body.

It encouraged me to work even harder to spread the truth about the persecution, so that Zhao Ming and other practitioners will be released as soon as possible.

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