Scotland: Falun Gong Presentations in Two Scottish Schools (Photo)

(Clearwisdom.net) At a Modern Studies Teachers' Conference in Glasgow, Scottish practitioners set up a stall to raise awareness of the persecution of Falun Gong. Many of the teachers were interested in human rights in China and were teaching this as part of the Modern Studies curriculum. So they were keen to invite practitioners to come and talk to classes in their schools.

Following up from this, two practitioners, one Western and the other Chinese, visited two schools to give a talk on Thursday, December 1st. The Chinese practitioner traveled up to Scotland from England to visit the schools.

A practitioner talks to students about Falun Gong

The first school they visited was a secondary school in Glasgow, where they spoke to a fifth-year class studying moral philosophy and how governments in other countries use punishment. The Western practitioner first introduced Falun Gong, explaining how it was a discipline of mind and body based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance. She talked about how following these principles in one's life and regularly doing the gentle Falun Gong exercises and meditation helps cure illness and improves interpersonal relationships dramatically. People who practice Falun Gong have felt more at peace within themselves and could achieve more in their lives. She spoke about one woman in China who had been bedridden for sixteen years and the doctors could not help her. She was introduced to the book, Zhuan Falun, and after reading it her energy improved. She could get out of bed and be pushed in her wheel chair to the park to meet others to practise the exercises. After some time she was able to walk there by herself, unaided, without a cane, because she followed the principles of Falun Gong. One boy in the class asked how many people have been cured of illness. The Chinese practitioner told them that a government survey had been done in China before the persecution started, and, 95 per cent of people had reported that their illnesses had been healed or improved through practicing.

The practitioner then told the class how Falun Gong had grown very popular in a short space of time in China. When the number of practitioners grew more than the membership of the Communist Party, Jiang Zemin, the former leader of China, banned Falun Gong in July 1999. He overrode the Chinese Constitution, which allows the Chinese people to freely practice their beliefs and to gather together peacefully, and made Falun Gong illegal. Jiang initiated, with the backing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), a vicious and systematic campaign against Falun Gong and Falun Gong practitioners. Their stated goal was to ruin their reputation, bankrupt them financially and destroy them physically. This has had the effect of severely harming the lives of the seventy to a hundred million practitioners of Falun Gong in China, and through a virulent anti-Falun Gong propaganda campaign, of turning the rest of the population against the practice.

The practitioners then showed a DVD called, "Rescue the Children of Falun Gong practitioners persecuted in China." The class was shocked and moved by the poignant stories of children orphaned because their parents had been tortured to death, with some children themselves dying from shock and fear.

Next, the Chinese practitioner spoke about how he had spent two years in a "re-education through forced labor" camp in China, where he was tortured with sleep deprivation and with beatings so as to break his spirit. He was forced to do hard labor making sweaters and cigarette lighters. Many times, he said the situation was so horrific that he felt like committing suicide, but he knew that he should not because he followed the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance, which prohibit killing of any kind. He also said one of the saddest consequences of his incarceration was that his three-year-old daughter, who was only one year old when he was imprisoned, did not know her father when he was released. Since he has been in the UK for the last year and a half, his daughter has not wanted to talk to him on the phone as she considers him a stranger.

After his talk, the pupils asked some questions such as: "Can they (practitioners) practice at home?" In answering this question, the practitioners said that even if people practice at home, often the neighbors know that they practice and could report them to the police, so it is still very dangerous. Another girl asked, "How do the police know that they practice Falun Gong in China?" The practitioners answered this by explaining that because practitioners felt that they had done nothing wrong and because Falun Gong has given them a new life, they openly appeal in Chinese towns and cities for the right to practice. They hand out leaflets to the Chinese people who have been deceived by the government propaganda, to tell them the facts of Falun Gong. This has meant that often the police arrest and beat practitioners.

The class all signed the petition to help rescue children orphaned in China and took leaflets and VCDs detailing the persecution. The teachers thanked the practitioners and said it had really given them a lot to think about and discuss.

Next, the practitioners went to an academy in Ayr to speak to a fourth-year Modern Studies class. The teacher had previously shown the class an article written in the Glasgow Herald about the Chinese practitioner's horrific experiences in a labor camp, so they had some background knowledge about the persecution.

The class listened very intently. One boy asked the Chinese practitioner how he got out of China. Another girl asked, "Will Falun Gong be banned in China forever?" The practitioners replied that as more people learned the truth and stood up for justice for Falun Gong in China and around the world, it was their belief that the CCP would not be able to sustain the persecution. Also, six million Chinese people have now renounced their membership in the CCP in the last year since they had found out about the history of its crimes after reading The Epoch Times publication, the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.

At the end of the class, the teacher said she had thoroughly enjoyed the presentation and would ask the class to write a letter to the practitioners giving their comments about it.

Source: http://clearharmony.net/articles/200512/30204.html