(Clearwisdom.net) On the afternoon of May 8, Falun Dafa practitioners in Dallas held a series of events at Russell Creek Park to celebrate the 6th World Falun Dafa Day.
Though it was very cloudy and it even sprinkled in the morning, by the time practitioners' celebration kicked off in the afternoon, the weather had become very nice. The harmonious and peaceful event site attracted many visitors. A woman who watched the practitioners for a while said, "I am very lucky to run into your activities."
It has been 13 years since the introduction of Falun Dafa to the public in May 1992, and the practice has brought more than 100 million people good health and moral excellence. However, due to his own wicked interest and jealousy, former Chinese president Jiang Zemin started an unprecedented brutal persecution against the innocent Falun Gong practitioners, who have been routinely arrested, sentenced to prisons or labor camps, tortured and even murdered. Since the persecution started in July 1999, more than 2,100 practitioners have been killed, with hundreds of thousands detained and tortured in forced labor camps and prisons.
Facing the persecution, practitioners have demonstrated an incomparable courage and spirit of compassion. Practitioners outside of China have been conducting peaceful appeals around the world, while practitioners in China are risking their lives to clarify the truth to the public and the government. As practitioners of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance, no Dafa practitioner has ever used violent means of any kind against the Chinese authority. In honor of the introduction of Falun Dafa, Falun Dafa Associations around the world unanimously declared May 13 as World Falun Dafa Day for practitioners and all people to celebrate the spread of Falun Dafa.
Practitioners Thank Master for His Compassionate and Arduous Salvation
May 13 is not only World Falun Dafa Day but it is also the birthday of Master Li, the founder of the practice. Dallas practitioners displayed "Falun Dafa is Great!" and "World Falun Dafa Day" banners and held up characters reading, "We Respectfully Wish Master a Happy Birthday," to send their sincerest greetings and to express their highest respect to Master Li.
  Practitioners send greetings to Master Li |   Practitioners celebrate World Falun Dafa Day |
Only after personally experiencing the benefits brought by the practice can people understand practitioners' gratitude toward Master Li and Dafa. During the celebration, to validate the greatness and beauty of Falun Dafa, several practitioners shared their experiences.
Shan comes from Mainland China. When she was only about 12 years old, she developed several chronic diseases and later, severe insomnia. As she described, she never had a good day over the past dozens of years. She came to the United States last year, and the pressure from work and family almost overwhelmed her. She said: "If I didn't practice Falun Gong, I really don't know how I could deal with all these."
Hearing that Shan started to practice Falun Gong last year after she moved to the U.S., I couldn't help asking, "Weren't you influenced by the Chinese Communist Party and the Jiang regime's propaganda against Falun Gong? How did you come to start practicing Falun Gong?"
Shan said, "It is true that people are exposed to the negative propaganda everywhere in China, from newspapers, TV, radio, etc. However, I think that people have their own standards. Though many have been deceived by the propaganda, a lot people still have a lot of doubts about the propaganda. However, they don't dare talk about this sensitive topic publicly and have no resources for obtaining true information.
"For example, I knew there were some questionable points with the 'Self-immolation' incident after I watched the news. I knew that self-immolation is very painful and that people wouldn't risk that unless they have been wronged by the government. Because I had been living in China for dozens of years, I knew the party's measures. Somehow, I felt that Falun Gong must be good. When I came to U.S., I finally learned that the Chinese Communist Party is much more vicious than I thought. The so-called 'Self-immolation' was just a staged tragedy used to deceive the public and persecute good people," Shan continued.
Shan obtained a copy of a Falun Gong flier from a local Chinese grocery store and then attended a free Falun Gong seminar. She also attended the 2005 New York Falun Dafa conference. When asked about her experience with Falun Dafa, she said, "After I practiced Falun Gong for a week, all my pain and the insomnia disappeared. I can now work for a long time without feeling tired. I used to fight for every tiny bit of personal interest, but now I can take them much lighter and thus I have become more harmonious from inside. All these changes are brought to me by Falun Dafa; I am so grateful to Master Li."
In many cases, family members started to practice Falun Gong because they saw the positive changes Falun Dafa brought to their relatives. Ms. Chen said, "In the beginning of 1998, my husband had a car accident and his neck was injured. Because he knew that Western and Chinese medicine cannot fundamentally heal the injury, my husband started to research Qigong practices online. What he found was Falun Gong. After reading the introductory materials, he thought that the practice must be good and thus started to practice. Later, I joined him."
Ms. Chen continued, "Because we practice Falun Gong every night, our daughters found the movements very interesting and the music very beautiful. My oldest daughter then said that she wanted to practice. Following her big sister, the younger daughter also wanted to learn. So, every member of my family now practices Falun Dafa."
When I asked her if Falun Dafa has brought her family any changes, Ms. Chen said, "Our children noticed that I have changed for a great deal. I used to be very weak and thus had a bad temper. However, I am now truly a healthy and joyful mother. From body cleansing to xinxing improvement, we always ask ourselves to act according to the requirement of the Fa. My family often comes out to raise awareness of the persecution and to clarify the truth to others."
More and More People Are Coming to Falun Dafa
This is the 6th Falun Dafa Day celebration in Dallas, and practitioners told me that the number of participants has been increasing continuously.
  Group practice |
The first practitioner came to Dallas from Mainland China in 1996, and she contacted local people who had an interest in Falun Dafa. When she heard that Master Li was going to lecture in Houston, she advertised the news. In the end, several local people drove to Houston to attend the lecture. After the lecture, they started to hold free teaching workshops and established a practice site to introduce Falun Dafa to more people.
Another practitioner, Mr. Li said that he attended one of the very first free workshops in Chinatown. After he watched Master's Li's nine-day lecture series, he realized that Falun Dafa was the practice that he had been looking for.
Mr. Kang said: "I found Zhuan Falun online in early 1996. I read the book twice in just a few days, I then contact a volunteer to buy China Falun Gong [an introductory book about Falun Dafa] and the Falun Gong exercise instruction video. Later, I read the news from a local Chinese newspaper that Master Li was coming to lecture in Houston. I then drove to Houston (I left at 2 a.m.), where I saw Master and listened to the whole lecture. Since then, I started to practice Falun Gong seriously. When I came to the local practice site in the beginning of 1997, there were 7 or 8 practitioners."
Since the Jiang regime and the Chinese Communist Party started to persecute Falun Gong in July 1999, the overwhelming lies not only deceived people in China but also greatly influenced people outside of China, especially Chinese people. Facing the indifference and misunderstanding resulting from the negative propaganda, practitioners have been continuously clarifying the truth to the public with great compassion.
Mr. Kang said, "Before the persecution started, my family was very harmonious. When I introduced Falun Gong to my friends and co-workers, they never had a hostile attitude even if they didn't believe in Falun Dafa. However, because of the negative propaganda, my family members were deceived and couldn't accept Falun Dafa anymore and my friends and co-workers also viewed me as an odd-ball. In the past several years, much of my time and energy have been used to clarify truth to them.
"Because I knew the evil nature of the Chinese Communist Party, my faith was never shaken even when the persecution was most rampant. However, so many people have been deceived by the Party. At the same time, I also notice that many people, especially Westerners, have come to learn about Falun Dafa because of the persecution," Li continued.
Indeed, many people have come to learn Falun Dafa after they visited Falun Gong websites or read about it in the newspapers. Ms. Yang said, "During the past several years, many people have come to us to learn Falun Gong. Because some then practice at home and we never ask anyone to leave their contact information, it is very hard to estimate how many are practicing."
Seeing the group practice during this World Falun Dafa celebration, a person who came to participate in another event told me that he was very interested in this practice and wanted to learn. A practitioner gave him some materials and invited him to attend a workshop to be held later this month. Another woman talked with practitioners for a while. After she learned about the truth of Falun Dafa and the persecution, she expressed her respect to the practitioners' noble endeavor and her hope that the persecution would end soon.
