(Clearwisdom.net) The Clearwisdom website editors received tens of thousands of letters around the 2011 Chinese New Year sending New Year's greetings to Master Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong. One of them stood out because of the unique background of its authors. The letter stated, “All Western Falun Dafa Practitioners in the U.S. Special Operations Forces and Their Families Extend Their Chinese New Year Greetings to Revered Master!”

“Some of us have been in contact with Falun Gong practitioners because of our special forces work. We were shocked at the Chinese Communist Party's wicked suppression and witnessed Dafa's miracles and wonders, and we have decided to begin practicing! Each of us had our celestial eye opened, one after another in just a few days after we started to practice. Our supernomal abilities received Dafa's strengthening. We saw magnificent scenes in other dimensions. We saw cosmic bodies layer upon layer and countless high-level beings. We also saw the impending karmic retribution in store for bad people! Every time I saw You in other dimensions, with a noble and calm countenance, removing disciples' karma that was as high as the sky and as huge as a mountain, asking nothing in return. I saw Your hands turn into something like bloody gourds, and I was moved by Your endurance and compassion! When I saw all that You have done for Dafa disciples in other dimensions, I knew we are unable to repay Master's grace and compassion, no matter how we try! Revered Master, You have worked hard for another year! Thank you! Your disciples will definitely follow the guidance of Your Fa.”

According to Wikipedia, Special Forces agents are “specifically trained to conduct operations in an area under enemy or unfriendly control or politically sensitive environments.” Falun Dafa’s mighty virtue overcame cultural barriers to make it possible for people of different ages as well as ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds to experience its wonders.

Practicing Falun Gong

Following Master Li Hongzhi's lecture presented at the Chinese Consulate in Paris in March 1995, Falun Gong quickly spread abroad. Now Falun Gong is being practiced in more than 100 countries worldwide – in Europe, North America, South America, Central America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East. Falun Gong has helped millions of people improve themselves; many sensed they had been looking for Falun Dafa their whole life and finally found it.

Indian students learning the Falun Gong exercises

Practicing Falun Gong in Italy

The Koerper sisters doing the Falun Gong exercises in Germany. Six members of their family practice Falun Gong

San Diego practitioner George Stamm mentioned in his experience-sharing paper that prior to practicing Falun Gong he had everything except a purpose in life. His son, who was taking Chinese lessons, introduced him to Falun Gong, and he started reading the books daily. He was able to quit drinking, and his temperament also improved. He said, “Only Dafa can change everything.”

French practitioner Thomas Dobson, who lives in Sydney, answered a Clearwisdom reporter’s question as to why he was studying the Chinese language: “When I first began practicing Falun Dafa we didn’t have any English nor French translation of Zhuan Falun. When I first got a translated copy in September 1996, I threw myself into it. I wanted to go to Asia to study Chinese, because there were so many Falun Gong books that were not translated that I could not read. The professors and students I had previously met at Northeast Normal University and Jilin University (who practiced Falun Gong) all patiently helped me and tried their best to understand me. I had different opinions because of my cultural background, but I learned a lot from them.”

Protesting the persecution and informing the public

It’s hard for people who grew up in the free world, who have never experienced communist brutality, to imagine being persecuted for practicing the principles inherent in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Western practitioners, however, could not sit on the sidelines and watch practitioners in China being tortured or the Chinese people being bombarded with vicious lies.

Falun Gong practitioners form the phrase “Fa rectifies the cosmos” in front of the Washington Monument in July 2003

About 2,000 Falun Gong practitioners from all over the world did the exercises and peacefully appealed for an end to the persecution in China in front of the United Nations Headquarters during the Millennium Summit

In the past decade, practitioners around the globe have consistently exposed and called for an end to the persecution and for the rescue of practitioners in China.

Western practitioners protesting in front of the Communist Regime’s Consulate in Austria

Despite language and cultural barriers, Western practitioners have made tremendous efforts to share information with local Chinese residents. One practitioner in Saint John, Canada kept up this endeavor over time and stayed compassionate and patient, regardless of others’ attitudes toward him. He told other practitioners, “We should explain things [about Falun Gong] at all times, just as the Falun turns all the time. We should never stop rescuing people.” With help from the Halifax City government, he played Chinese movies for the local Chinese community and looked for opportunities to dispel lies about Falun Gong. He also took lessons from a local Chinese school to improve his language skills. Perhaps it might give people pause to reflect that Falun Dafa gave him such compassion that he would use his own time and resources to help people learn important facts.

Thirty-six Western practitioners unfurl a banner that reads “Truth-Compassion-Tolerance” in Tiananmen Square on November 20, 2001.

At 2:00 p.m. on November 20, 2001, thirty-six Western Falun Gong practitioners held a peaceful appeal in Tiananmen Square and unfurled a banner that read, “Truth-Compassion-Tolerance.” They were illegally arrested several minutes later. These people came from the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, France, the United States, Canada, Australia and five other countries. They hoped to show the Chinese people that people around the world embrace Falun Dafa, and that the communist regime was telling lies. One Canadian practitioner wrote in a letter to the media, “We come from different countries, which shows we not only practice Falun Gong but we also resolutely stand up for Falun Gong. That’s why we did not fear the complex and serious situation and came here to tell people the truth…if something cures terminal illnesses, fixes broken families, lifts the spirits of older people and points the way for young people, inspires new scientific discoveries and overcomes rape, torture, murder and systematic persecution in a peaceful manner, when something is creating history, then the society needs to re-evaluate itself.”

Bringing hope

When news of the persecution first broke in July 1999, many overseas practitioners rushed to Washington D.C. and gathered on the lawn in front of Capitol Hill. The summer temperature shot above 100 F; despite their heavy hearts, the practitioners remained calm. A Western tourist told a practitioner that he didn’t know what was happening but it must be something major, because he saw many rows of divine beings circling the air above the practitioners.

Falun Dafa teaches great virtue. People have waited ages to be offered salvation, and Falun Dafa gives us this opportunity today. Many historic prophesies foretold the arrival of Falun Dafa, and more and more miracles became manifest as Dafa spreads far and wide.

About 6,000 practitioners in Taiwan formed the shape of the book Zhuan Falun on May 9, 2009, to celebrate the 17^th anniversary of Dafa’s introduction to the public. The video taken during this event clearly captured gong columns that move with each practitioner.

Falun Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance are the characteristics of the universe. The books have explained numerous mysteries and brought hope to millions. We hope that everyone in the world, especially the precious Chinese people, can quickly learn the facts and choose the best future for themselves.