(Clearwisdom.net) On April 25, 2009, Montreal Falun Gong practitioners rallied in Zhongshan Park, Chinatown, remembering the peaceful appeal of ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners who upheld the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. During the rally, practitioners called for the end of the persecution.
Many people were drawn by the sight of the practitioners demonstrating the exercises, and some of them asked about Falun Gong and the persecution. Many people signed postcards calling for the persecution to end.
At a press conference, more then ten practitioners spoke about their experiences as practitioners and about how they have benefited from Falun Gong spiritually, mentally, and physically.
Part of the "4.25" Appeal
Ms. Chen, who started practicing Falun Gong in 1997, was part of the "4.25" Appeal. She said that she arrived at Fuyou Street at around 5:00 a.m. that day. From early morning till 9:00 p.m., they stood there quietly. Nobody shouted, and nobody held up signs. People just stood there quietly, waiting for a reply from the government to their appeal to "release the Falun practitioners who were illegally arrested by Tianjin police" and "provide a legal environment and allow Falun Dafa books to be published legally and publicly." Later they got the news that the problems had been resolved, so they left quietly. It was around midnight when they arrived at home.
Ms. Chen said, "I had been standing for a whole day, but I didn't feel tired at all. What I saw that day has resurfaced in my mind again and again. I felt even more strongly about the mighty power and sacredness of Dafa, which greatly strengthened my faith. I was also proud of myself as a particle that helped to safeguard Dafa. "
Falun Dafa Brings Goodness to People and Uplifts the Virtue of Human Beings
Ms. Sun, who started practicing Falun Dafa in 1995, talked about her experiences. About one month after I started practicing Falun Dafa, I participated in a 9-day lecture. I remembered that day when Teacher gave us a lecture about "Loss and Gain" and "Upgrading Xinxing" (Lecture Four of Zhuan Falun). After the class I went to the bank for the withdrawal of a matured high-interest-rate bond. The deposit amount should have been 8,000 yuan, but was wrongly written down as 80,000 yuan. When the cashier was about to give me 80,000 yuan, I was very calm, without any distracting thought of greed. I explained briefly about the mistake. At that moment my heart was full of gratitude towards Teacher. It's the principles of Falun Dafa that changed me into a noble person.
"Later I practiced in the park every morning and studied the Fa at the home of a fellow practitioner at night and on the weekends. We shared cultivation experiences with each other. Man or woman, old or young, all we shared was about what we did during the day, whether we cultivated our hearts, whether we followed the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. We shared about what we had done right and well and found our own faults if we didn't do well. We learned from each other through experience sharing and constantly upgraded our xinxing. We follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance at home, in society and at work.
"When the CCP started persecuting Falun Gong in 1999, my supervisor had a talk with me. He said that his superiors had ordered people not to practice Falun Gong. At that time, I thought maybe they were not clear about Falun Gong, so I appealed to higher levels of management. I told them what changes Falun Gong had brought to me. I appealed to the leaders and officials at different levels, from the CCP Secretary to the President of my school, from the appeals office at the city level to the appeals office at the provincial level. Despite practitioners' consistent efforts, we still failed to prevent the persecution from happening. The CCP was going to go after Falun Gong no matter what. But many people still don't know the facts about Falun Gong. We have the responsibility to tell people the facts, although we have sacrificed a lot, even risked our lives. "
Ms. Sun said, "In such a society, people's moral standards are declining dramatically. Some people don't believe that there could be such a group of people constantly upgrading their moral standards, purifying themselves, and bringing the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to the world. During the past ten years, Falun Gong practitioners from all over the world have been upholding their beliefs, telling people the facts with rationality, going against the persecution, and living by the principles of Falun Dafa: Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance."
She continued, "Falun Gong practitioners have thought of many ways to tell people the facts, such as newspapers, radio stations, TV stations, and websites. They've experienced numerous sleepless nights, year after year, day after day. They are not after some reward. In Chinatown, people often see sixty to seventy-year-old practitioners handing out flyers with great compassion, hoping that the recipients will benefit from Falun Dafa and not be deceived by the CCP's lies. Maybe you see them every day, and sometimes even get tired of them. It's because you don't know the truth; you don't know the touching stories behind them; you don't know that those flyers come from their tiny pensions; you don't know that they escaped from a forced labor camp in China. They have been detained in the labor camps, where they were tortured by the CCP."
She said, "If you walk near them, find out what they are doing, accept a flyer, a copy of a newspaper, and read what's in it. You might broaden your views and change your fate."
Call for an Immediate End to the Persecution of Falun Gong
Ms. Chen had suffered from many diseases before practicing Falun Gong. After she began to practice, all her illnesses disappeared. When Dafa was defamed by the CCP, Ms. Chen clarified the truth by putting up Dafa materials in public. Just for doing this, she was arrested twice, and each time she was sentenced to more than two years of forced labor, for a total of four and a half years. While she was detained, Ms. Chen was subjected to severe sleep deprivation and hard labor.
Ms. Bu, over 60, was arrested four times because she practiced near her home, went to a fellow practitioner's home, logged onto the Falun Gong website, and delivered Teacher's articles to other practitioners. She was detained for sixteen months in all. Later, she was constantly harassed and threatened by the authorities.
Ms Bu said, "We hope to stop the persecution of Falun Gong immediately, not only for Falun Gong practitioners, but for others' sake, as well."
