On October 15 and 16, 2005 Falun Dafa practitioners in Montreal, Canada organized activities in Chinatown to promote the upcoming "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" International Art Exhibition.

Falun Gong practitioners demonstrating the exercises

People wait in line to sign their names to support the rescue of Falun Gong orphans

The activities comprised five sections, including a group of practitioners demonstrating the exercises, practitioners reenacting the torture of Falun Gong practitioners under persecution in China, a team of children singing songs, a team of practitioners passing out Falun Dafa bookmarks, paper lotus flowers and clarifying the truth, and a team of practitioners passing out invitations to the "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" Art Exhibition.

People carefully watching the activities

Chorus "Children and Stars"

The peaceful and serene exercise demonstration attracted many passersby and the torture reenactment exposed the inhuman treatment of Falun Gong practitioners being persecuted in China. The cruel and bloody tortures and the serene and peaceful exercises stood out in sharp contrast to each other.

The organizer of the event said that during the over six-year-long persecution of Falun Gong in China, more than 3,000 practitioners have been persecuted to death and more are still held in prisons. Their children have lost the care of their parents and some of them were driven out onto the streets. Falun Gong practitioners outside of China are making every effort to rescue these orphans to free countries overseas.

The Chinese Communist Party's persecution of Falun Gong not only involved about 100 million Falun Gong practitioners, but it has also involved about 10 million Chinese children. In the persecution, many children have been expelled from school, driven out of their homes, discriminated against, jailed together with their parents, and some have even been killed in the persecution. Many orphans have only lived with their parents for a short time, and most of them don't have any support from society. Some of them even don't yet know that their parents were murdered.

Tina, a girl in the children's chorus, said, "I still can't imagine their real situation. But I think that life without their parents can be very hard."

Ms. Hu was one of those passing out invitations to the International Art Exhibition. She said, "This is the invitation to the 'Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance' Art Exhibition. We invite everyone to attend the exhibit. It runs from October 25 to November 12 and is free to public. There will be about 40 artworks from Falun Gong practitioner artists. This is one stop on the exhibition's world tour."

The organizer told this reporter, "What we are doing today, including the exercise demonstration, anti-torture exhibition, art show and the children's song, is to let more people learn the truth about Falun Gong and to let more people benefit from Falun Dafa. People are kind and supportive. We feel happy for them."

On October 4 and 5 2005, Taiwan National Chung Cheng University held a student associations' event for the associations to recruit new members. The Falun Dafa club actively participated in the event and aimed to let more freshmen know about Falun Dafa, which is practiced in over 70 countries.

After the student associations event, in order to let new students learn more about the rich content of Falun Gong, the Falun Dafa club held an introductory seminar on October 6. For the seminar, they invited professors and students from Chiayi University, Nanhua University, and Chung Cheng University to share their experiences and changes after practicing Falun Dafa. The practitioners from Nanhua University also performed Dafa music and let the audience experience the solemnity and serenity of Falun Dafa.

ntroducing Falun Dafa to new students

Students from Chung Cheng University share their experiences

That night, some new students who had not practiced Falun Dafa before attended the seminar. From the video program introducing Falun Dafa, they obtained a better understanding. Next, several veteran practitioners shared their experiences. Almost every one of them mentioned the big changes they experienced both physically and mentally after practicing Falun Dafa, and their stories were very moving.

A practitioner from Nanhua University said that when his family heard he was going to practice Falun Dafa, they got worried that it would interfere with his studies, because there was one relative who entered religious cultivation and abandoned the family. So his parents thought all cultivation involved abandoning parents and family. He explained to his parents that Falun Dafa belongs to the Buddha School and it is cultivated in the normal society. The founder, Master Li Hongzhi, told us that we must do our jobs well in all situations. Being a student, he must study hard. After a few years of practicing, he has used his own improvement to convince his parents that cultivating Falun Dafa will not interfere with study; on the contrary, Dafa helped him a lot in school.

Students talked about two key points in Dafa cultivation. One is to search within and not outwardly, and the second is to eliminate human attachments during cultivation. One student shared that during Fa-study, he found the reason why he hated studying. He used to search for reasons outwardly, and ascribe it to the social environment and pressure from his parents. He was studying for fame and wealth in society and studying for the sake of his parents' feelings. He felt that if he didn't study hard, his parents' feeling would be hurt. After realizing this attachment, he understood that as a Falun Dafa practitioner, he should cultivate openly and in a dignified fashion. As a student, studying well is his duty and a basic requirement of a cultivator. Before, he cared a lot about grades. Now, he no longer pays a lot of attention to it because he understands that he must be responsible for himself by studying well. The important thing is to improve one's understandings during the process but not be attached to the outcome.

Another student said that she benefited a lot after practicing Falun Dafa and learned that practitioners are persecuted in Mainland China. In order to help more people understand the beauty of Dafa and learn the truth of the persecution in China, she wanted to join the Fa-promotion and truth-clarification activities. At first, when her parents heard about the activities, they worried and asked how she would handle her studies. Now, when they hear about her activities, they ask if she needs some support or a donation. The change came after the parents saw her improvement in study, and their coming to understand that all Dafa activities are open and righteous and benefits others. Her major is social welfare. In her fieldwork, she saw that when other religious organizations participate in social work, they receive transportation fees and meal compensation. But in Falun Dafa, there is no such compensation. All practitioners do the work voluntarily and use their own money. She saw other students in restaurants and hair salons, but she used her money for Fa-promotion, including mailing truth-clarifying materials, making phone calls and printing flyers. She believes these are the important things.

The last part of the seminar was a Question and Answer session. The discussion was very interesting and the seminar ended successfully.