Warm Welcome of SOS Hongfa in Czech and Slovak Republics, Part 1

On Tuesday 31^st July 2001 four UK practitioners, two from Manchester and two living in London, who are originally from Czechoslovakia and can speak the Czech and Slovak languages, arrived in Prague for two and a half weeks of Hongfa in the Czech and Slovak republics.

Within one hour of landing, the practitioners were in the centre of Prague attending a workshop arranged by two local practitioners to introduce Falun Dafa.

At the meeting were some Swiss practitioners who have been there for a weekend Hongfa. Everyone was eager to learn the exercises and participated in finding out about Dafa. All the new people bought the draft version of Falun Gong in the Czech language and left their contact details.

The following day, the UK practitioners with two local Czech practitioners took a train from Prague to the mountains of Northern Moravia to join the activities of the Second Czech and Slovak Falun Gong Summer Camp. During the journey in the Prague metro and later on the train, people were attracted by our Falun Gong badges, asked questions and wanted leaflets. Sometimes the reception and giving out of the leaflets in three languages (English, German, Czech) on the train was very encouraging and at other times the practitioner had to use all his forbearance, compassion and courage. As he upgraded his xinxing and cared less about his own fears and feelings he was able to continue to offer the leaflets throughout the train. All practitioners realised how necessary and important this activity really was. After reading Zhan-Shan-Ren from the headline of the leaflet many Czech people remarked that these are the qualities their country needs very much, especially Forbearance.

After lunch at the camp and sitting outside on the grass, fifteen of us had a lively discussion about Falun Gong. Together we read Lunyu in three languages and sent forth righteous thoughts. One of the practitioners was a ten-year-old Czech boy who had also attended last year's camp. Last year when he learnt that everything has life, he said, "If all has life, then the characters I shoot in my computer games are all lives. Since I cannot kill lives I gave away all my computer games." This time he saw the Garden of Dafa with different layers and a huge Buddha - our Master - on the highest layer. On the first layer he met a Chinese boy whom he made friends with. He saw demons attacking the Garden of Dafa and sent out beams of light to destroy them. When these beams of light hit the demons, they disintegrated them, made them fall down and he said they turned into something which was thicker than water. This young practitioner could read Master's book in the Czech and Slovak languages. During the past year he was also helping with the translation of the book Falun Gong from Slovak to Czech.

Later we read and translated Master's speech from the Washington conference. We realised that most of the local practitioners did not understand Chinese or English at all. So we began to work on translation of Master's articles into Czech. As that happened, we found there was a recording machine, fax, computer and internet connection in the camp, which made it possible to do translation. In the evening eighteen of us read the first lecture of Zhuan Falun in Slovak and English. Later we all did the fifth exercise. Before breakfast twenty-five of us stood outside in the sun doing the four standing exercises.

During the exercises, one new person who had come to the camp for a different activity had a deep realisation. She saw many coloured lights around and above the group, stars landing next to the practitioners and felt huge movements of energy. Afterwards she said, "I did not come here for Falun Gong but I found the greatest path of all. From reading Zhuan Falun last night I realised it contains all the paths and it is the bible of bibles."

Next day we unwrapped the big pictures of Falun and the Master's portrait we had brought to give to the local practitioners. Looking at Master's picture one of us realised that we should have an exhibition about the true story of Falun Gong. We set it up in the foyer of the central building of the camp. It looked very impressive with the huge posters from Washington, banners, bookmarks, other materials and newspapers and fliers in five languages. Many people signed our petition. That afternoon many of us caught a bus to Zßb eh, a nearby town, where we had permission to show exercises and give out leaflets. We calmly practiced our exercises in the searing heat of the afternoon sun, while a local person fainted in the supermarket from the heat. Passers-by were impressed by our resilience and our exercises. Most were kindhearted, curious, polite, and pleased to accept our leaflets. A lady who accepted one of our leaflets came and joined us in the camp for the evening readings and early morning exercises. All our reading and exercise classes were well attended.

Even though Falun Gong is virtually unknown here, people are joining our early morning practice, 20 to 25 at a time, wanting to learn the exercises. They are actively asking questions to make sure they are learning the exercises correctly. In the evening session up to twenty people came to read Zhuan Falun. It is important to remember that Zhuan Falun is not published in any of the local languages. There are only twenty draft Slovak translation copies in existence. In spite of this difficulty people are turning up, actively seeking Falun Gong and enthusiastically asking lots of questions. All the Czech people have to read Zhuan Falun in Slovak which is not their mother tongue.