(Clearwisdom.net) From December 28th 2005, German Falun Gong practitioners spent their New Year holiday at the annual four day gathering in Erbach. They had group study and exercises; and held the 2005 Experience Sharing Conference.

Study groups	Group Practice

Experience sharing conference

The annual Experience Sharing Conference for German speaking Falun Gong practitioners was held in the afternoon of December 30th. Nearly two hundred practitioners attended the conference.

Sharing conference	Sharing conference

One practitioner's mother was once detained in a labor camp and German practitioners were widely petitioning to rescue her. She was sitting in front of all practitioners, telling them how she overcame the attachment of fear and came out to expose the truth, as well as how she and other practitioners were being persecuted in China's labor camps. Practitioners were shocked and touched by her speech and many were in tears. Another female practitioner who is sixty seven years old also shared her experience. She told practitioners how she was persecuted to become destitute and homeless in China. After she came to Germany, she cried when she went to appeal in front of the Chinese Embassy for the first time. Because of the persecution situation in China, she had not been able to do the exercises publicly and explain the facts to the Chinese people.

Besides talking about the situation in China, another five practitioners shared how they cultivated themselves under the relatively loose environment abroad. Some of them are veteran practitioners, and others are new practitioners who became practitioners after July 20th, 1999.

After the conference, practitioners were still discussing their feelings. Some said that they found out their shortcomings from others' speeches; some said that they became clearer on problems they could not understand for a long time. For them, this conference was really a place to 'compare while studying, to compare while cultivating.'

One picture is better than a thousand words

Folding the lotus flowers	Big John's dexterous hands

During the break, some western practitioners seized the time to fold paper lotus flowers together. It was quite touching to see a very tall practitioner nicknamed 'Big John' folding those little lotus flowers with his dexterous hands. He said, "Folding these lotus flowers can bring calmness to my heart. I have cultivated Falun Gong for many years. I would like to let people know about the persecution happening in China in every way. One picture is better than a thousand words." When people received this little lotus flower, they can feel the kindness from practitioners' hearts, then it is easier for us to explain the persecution to them.'

Dolores from Vienna in Austria expressed that a lotus flower grows from the mud but does not die; it represents Falun Gong practitioners' holiness and goodness. It helps people to have a correct understanding of Falun Gong.

Christina felt that by doing so, it is easier to express to let people know that Falun Gong is being persecuted in China. Many people have asked us what they could do to help after they heard the truth, some would sign on the petition form and some would give us their best wishes.

The New Year's performance

To celebrate the New Year, practitioners performed an entertainment program, including singing, playing musical instruments, acting, etc. There was one practitioner who learnt how to play dulcimer when she was very young. She hadn't touched it for more than thirty years. However, she picked it up again for this special occasion. Even though she only practiced it for very short time, her performance was superb. When she played the recorded tape to her father, he just could not believe his ears.

The most surprising and brilliant program was the living theatre "Dream and Predestined Relationships." In a practitioner's dream, he saw many of his previous lives: he had been a peasant, a warrior and a monk, etc. While he was a peasant, he died as he saving others during an earthquake; while he was a warrior, he and his wife were reluctant to separate and he died on the battlefield; while he was a monk he bid farewell to his parents to go to the temple, nevertheless, because he could not let go of his attachment of emotion to his family, he did not succeed in his cultivation. Now, he has become a Falun Gong practitioner and while exposing the persecution has met his children, wife, enemy and parents, etc. who were in his previous lives. All those good and bad predestined relationships were dissolved. The performance was genuine and moving, which made many of the audience shed tears.

Previous life as a peasant	Bidding farewell to his parents to become a monk	Fighting with a warrior

Many new practitioners of Falun Gong

Quite a lot of practitioners who came to join the group study were new practitioners and a large proportion of them were westerners. Many of them started to learn about Falun Gong through various activities held by practitioners in different places. From the beginning point of simply hearing about the persecution, to reading Falun Gong's main text Zhuan Falun, they began to practice cultivation.

Just over one year ago, practitioners Stephen from Cologne and Wu Wei from Hamburg went to visit the Cologne Cathedral. There, for the first time they saw practitioners distributing leaflets. They were deeply attracted to Falun Gong. They went back to their own cities and started to search the exercise venues locally. It was to be regretted that when Stephen first went to the Cologne exercise venue, there were some spies from China who took pictures. He felt very uncomfortable and started to do the exercises at home on his own. But he did not read Zhuan Falun and thus wasted five months' time. But he finally joined other practitioners. Wu Wei was luckier. Since back home, he started cultivation soon afterwards. He wanted to give his New Year greetings to the Chinese people, he hoped that they would stop being deceived by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s poison; they could accept other alternatives, clearly recognize the evil of the CCP and then have a better future for themselves.

Ulla was only fourteen when he first met Falun Gong practitioners in front of Cologne Cathedral. At that time, he just came to Germany from Russia and he could not speak German very well. What a coincidence was that there was one practitioner who was from Russia. They kept in touch since then. Now, Ulla is seventeen and very happy that he can cultivate in Falun Gong. He always carries a lot of materials to distribute to Chinese people. In this New Year's performance, he acted as the practitioner in this life time. He believes that he must have many previous lives' family members and friends in China. He expressed his willingness to do more and better in the future. He hoped that the Chinese people could get rid of the Communist Party soon, as Russia has.

Little old disciple

Before I left Erbach, I glimpsed out of the window and saw little disciple Mario in the garden on his own, he was cleaning the vestiges of fireworks from the day before. Watching his busy silhouette, I sighed with emotion. Though he is still very young, he should be counted as a veteran disciple. A picture of him doing the fifth exercise is on a German leaflet. During this persecution by the CCP, he has traveled with his Mum and Grandma all around. They took part in all kinds of activities worldwide, in the hope of that the CCP could stop persecuting Falun Gong. Now, he has grown so tall, but the persecution by the CCP is still going on. Therefore, only when the Communist Party is cleared completely will the whole world's people gain peace.

In 2001, Mario appealed at the UN in Geneva with his Mum in 2001	Now he has grown much taller