São Paulo, Brazil: Practitioners Celebrate World Falun Dafa Day

(Minghui.org) Falun Dafa practitioners in São Paulo held an event at Avenida Paulista on May 13, to commemorate the 31st anniversary of Falun Dafa’s introduction to the public. They played music and displayed banners emblazoned with “May 13: World Falun Dafa Day,” and “Falun Dafa is good.” Practitioners also decorated a car with banners and drove through several districts of São Paulo. 

At their location on Agenda Paulista, practitioners demonstrated the peaceful and calming Falun Dafa exercises. They also displayed information boards introducing Falun Dafa’s spread around the world and exposed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of the practice in China. Many passersby stopped and asked more about the practice and the persecution. 

Passersby read the information on the display boards.

Demonstrating the fifth Falun Dafa exercise.

Practitioners decorated a car with banners reading “May 13: World Falun Dafa Day” and “Falun Dafa is good.”

Learning the Dafa Exercises

Evaldo learns the Falun Dafa exercises for the first time.

Evaldo Ferreira dos Santos, 50, a professional driver, has known about Falun Dafa for two years. On this day, he finally decided to not to just watch, but to learn the exercises. 

“I felt peace in my heart, and my mind emptied of everything,” he said after trying the exercises. 

Dos Santos said that if he had known the exercises would feel so good, he would have started learning them sooner. 

“From now on, I’m going to cultivate,” he said. “[Falun Dafa is] really good. It made me feel good.”

Neuropsychologist: “This is my birthday present”

Alan Alexander Lunardi, whose birthday is May 13, was moved to tears when he learned that the practice of Falun Gong is persecuted by the CCP regime.

Alan Alexander Lunardi, 48, is a neuropsychologist who volunteers at Doctors Without Borders. He received a flier about the practice from a practitioner and exclaimed, “This is my birthday present!” 

Coincidentally, Lunardi’s birthday is on May 13th. Since he is already adept at yoga, he became quite interested in the Falun Dafa exercises. 

“I’m going to search [about this] on the Internet. I’m also going to learn about it a little more in depth,” he said. “Nothing is by chance – it caught my attention.”

When he heard about the persecution, Lunardi was moved to tears when he saw the images of tortured practitioners on the information board. 

“I think it is a totally unfair act, especially when dealing with meditation practices, he said. “I am totally opposed to any kind of oppression against the [Falun Gong] movement. This is human terrorism. Certainly there should be some kind of punishment from higher authorities, at the top [of the Chinese Communist Party], but unfortunately corruption wins, both here and in any other country.”

Before leaving, he said to the practitioners, “Keep going, and you can count on my support.” 

Practitioner Expresses Gratitude

Gisele Paz (middle) and her children Micaela (left) and Davi (right) practice Falun Dafa.

Gisele Paz found out about the practice in 2015 because of its health benefits, but only started practicing Falun Dafa in 2019. She credits Falun Dafa with broadening her heart. 

“I think that this spiritual elevation, this purification of my heart, is what brought improvement to everything in my life,” she said. 

Before practicing Falun Dafa, Paz suffered from ovarian diseases. After taking up the practice, these diseases disappeared, and she is now healthy. 

“My body feels lighter. The best that practicing Falun Dafa has given me is that sense of purity,” said Paz.

Paz’s daughter Micaela is 10 years old. She feels she has changed for the better after practicing Falun Dafa as well. Before, she used to steal money from her mother, but after she learned the teachings of Falun Dafa, she stopped doing that, as she knew it was wrong. 

“Otherwise [if I steal] I lose virtue,” she said. Micaela also used to bully a classmate at school and called her ugly. After she learned Falun Dafa, she felt sad when she realized that she shouldn't have done that. “I felt sorry for [my classmate],” she said.

On World Falun Dafa Day, Micaela thanks Master Li. “Thank you for helping me, because now I know what is right and what is wrong.”

Davi is Micaela’s 11-year-old brother. He said Falun Dafa taught him “not to fight back when attacked.” He and his sister handed out many fliers and lotus flowers to people passing by.

“One has the Right to Live and Believe What they Want”

Andreia Falcão, 46, is a street sweeper. He heard about Falun Dafa for the first time at the event. 

“I see Falun Dafa as meditation,” he said. Falcão thought that the persecution was a terrible thing to do to people who simply want to practice their faith.

“[This persecution] is the end of the world. I feel a pain in my heart. How could people do this to other humans?”

He encouraged practitioners to continue to practice and exercise their freedom of belief around the world. 

“Everyone has the right to live and believe what they want,” said Falcão. 

“Knowing a single word of this Fa was worth the wait of a million years"

Bernardo Schotgues sits in the full lotus position to perform the fifth Falun Dafa exercise.

Bernardo Schotgues, 26, a master’s student in neuropsychology, started practicing Falun Dafa in January 2022. Schotgues and another practitioner drove seven hours from Curitiba to participate in the event in São Paulo. “This is a day that practitioners can meet with other practitioners to clarify the truth to people, and it is very good. It was very beautiful.”

Schotgues said he was very happy because just this week, he was able to cross his legs for the first time in the full lotus position, a meditation position required for the fifth Falun Dafa exercise. On World Falun Dafa Day, he expresses his gratitude towards Master Li, the founder of Falun Dafa, for the newfound purpose the practice has given him. 

“I want to thank Master Li for taking care of me, even when I didn’t know it, and for giving me this very important opportunity,” said Schotgues. “I always think that knowing a single word of this Fa was worth all the waiting of a million years.”