PureInsight Reporter
More than 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners from more than 40 countries from
around the world gathered in Geneva on March 17-18 to hold peaceful appeals
during the 59th session of the U.N. Human Rights Commission. In the morning
of March 17th, practitioners paraded from Place Nueve, a park located in central
Geneva to Place Des Nations, the square in front of the United Nations. In the
afternoon of March 17th and the morning of March 18th, practitioners held group
exercises and sent righteous thoughts at Place Des Nations. Among these practitioners
were many Westerners who had come from all over the world.
David, a 25-year-old software engineer, flew all the way from Israel to Geneva
to attend the activities. About a year ago, he happened to see a group of Falun
Gong practitioners holding a group exercise as he took a morning walk along
a beach in Israel. He saw a banner with the words of “Falun Dafa”
written on it but didn’t give it a second thought. But for the next several
months, the two words constantly popped into his mind. Finally he went to an
Internet search engine and typed in “Falun Dafa”. He found the Falun
Dafa website and read all the Falun Gong books there. He immediately realized
that he had found something very precious and became a practitioner on that
day.
Tobias, 40, lives in Sweden with his wife and two young children. He took his
entire family to Geneva. He has been interested in Chinese Qigong all his life.
Several years ago, he found a Qigong master who had just moved from China to
Sweden. That Qigong master was in his 50s and had been practicing Qigong for
more than 35 years. XX learned a great deal from that Qigong master and thought
a lot of him. Then about 5 years ago, he received a call from his Qigong master.
The Qigong master had discovered Falun Gong, and decided to give up his previous
Qigong practice and concentrate on Falun Gong. He then called all of his students
and suggested that they should do the same. XX began to learn Falun Gong and
has been practicing ever since.
Fareed was born and raised in Iran, and moved to Sweden more than 20 years ago.
He ran into a Swedish Falun Gong practitioner at a computer class. The practitioner
told him that she had been practicing a Qigong practice and lent him a copy
of China Falun Gong. He read the book and went back to his classmate, asking
if there are any other Falun Gong books that he could read. The classmate then
gave him a copy of Zhuan Falun. After reading the book, he could hardly contain
his excitement. He knew that he had finally found the one thing that he had
been searching for all his life.
Jason is a mechanical engineer who lives in his hometown of Portland, Oregon.
He, his wife Xiaoyun, and their three young sons are all Falun Gong practitioners.
He and his wife met in Japan more than 15 years ago when they were doing graduate
work at the same university. They took all three of their sons to Geneva to
participate in the peaceful appeals. Jason had no vacation left and had to take
unpaid leave from work in order to come to Geneva. Both he and his wife said
that they simply want people to know the truth about Falun Gong so that they
could judge for themselves what Falun Gong is all about.
These are just a small sample of the practitioners from all walks of life and
from all over the world who joined the activities. As the activities conclude,
they will return to their native countries and continue on their paths in cultivation.
Posting date: 26/March/2003
Original article date: 25/March/2003
Category: Events
