Boston, USA: Introducing Falun Dafa to Children in the One World International Festival (Photos)

On October 21--24, 2003, the One World International Children's Festival was held in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The main purpose of the event was to provide children with a sampling of a variety of cultures, customs and products from around the world. The festival consisted of vendors with goods from different countries, and a main attraction that featured a variety of ethnic arts, performances, dances and music.

Thousands of primary and secondary school children from neighboring states of the New England region visited this festival daily in buses. Every day there were from 1,500 -- 3,000 children in attendance from Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

The Falun Dafa theme at the show was the lotus flower. We had a large booth that accommodated a wrap around poster display of the practice of Falun Dafa around the world, showed a streaming video of the practice and history of Falun Dafa internationally, two exercise locations for simultaneous instruction of sitting and standing exercises and two locations for teaching and making origami lotus flowers.

We distributed information on the significance of the lotus flower in Asian culture and its symbolism in Eastern spiritual practices. Above all we explained that the lotus flower grows out of mud and dirty water to emerge, as a beautiful flower. This symbolizes people who are able to rise above the mundane or corruptness of society and remain morally untarnished with compassion for all beings. We told the story of Falun Dafa practitioners in China today who have set this example, that despite being subjected to severe persecution, they do not fight back or retaliate and by cultivating Truth, Compassion and Forbearance are emerging from this persecution with purity and peace, just like the lotus flower.

At our booth, the activities were very popular. The children, their parents and teachers spoke positively of the experiential opportunities we were offering the children. The children, from middle school ages through high school were very attracted to making the origami lotus flowers, and learning the standing exercises and the sitting meditation in the lotus posture. All ages easily learned the exercises and many of the children and high school students found the sitting meditation to be their favorite experience.

Dafa practitioners took turns meditating continuously during the festival, creating a field of tranquility and peacefulness that continually attracted students and teachers to our display area. Groups of students would be drawn to the group of practitioners meditating and spontaneously join the practice. Students loved to sit in the large lotus flowers to meditate.

Many children sat down to try the meditation. Some were attracted to it as they thought it was a novelty and a cool thing to do at first, but found at the end of sitting they were feeling refreshed and tranquil. One girl commented that she had never been able to calm her mind, that this was the first time that she was able to do so. Another child who has been known to be the most hyperactive in his middle school class amazed his peers and teachers by sitting himself down inside a giant lotus blossom and remaining there unmoved and silent for a prolonged period of time, while his friends jeered and tried to distract him amidst loud music and sounds all around. He continued to sit there and eventually all the other children sat down in a circle around him and started to meditate with him. Another teenager, who was intrigued by how practitioners were able to focus and meditate amid such loud noises tried the exercises and sitting meditation himself and commented at the end that his mind was cleansed and purified.

Falun Dafa broke through language and cultural barriers when the elder Chinese practitioners who don't speak English easily taught the exercises to students and teachers. Some students came back once or twice, bringing more of their classmates after they tried the meditation themselves.

A large number of Dafa materials were distributed. Most students and teachers received flyers, CDs and other Dafa materials. We also specially prepared some Dafa materials in Chinese for those students who speak Chinese or whose parents are Chinese. They happily accepted our Dafa materials and promised to give them to their parents.

Large groups of students and their teachers found making the lotus flowers a favorite activity. They came in so many groups that it was necessary to have two simultaneous teaching locations for making the flowers. After learning about the beauty of the lotus flower, many children wanted to learn how to make them from paper. So many wanted to learn that when the teaching table overflowed, practitioners and students sat on the floor in front of the Dafa display on meditation cushions and made them there. When other students saw this group they would stop and wanted to make the flowers too. Teachers and parent chaperones came to check upon their charges and they were so moved by the peaceful children and practitioners that they offered to assist the practitioners in teaching the children.

While making the lotus flowers a wonderful opportunity presented itself to clarify the truth to the students and adults. A group of high school seniors asked many questions about the persecution and one shared her experience of having been adopted from a country where she had been orphaned when millions of people had been killed. She was very compassionate and wanted to know what she could do to help stop the genocide campaign against Dafa. Another high school girl sat in full lotus and became very tranquil while she made the lotus flower. Her chaperone who was Chinese was very moved and wanted to know everything about Dafa. Everyone expressed gratitude towards practitioners for teaching them about Dafa and the lotus flower. They easily recognized and spoke of the goodness of Dafa.

Another chaperone came with four boys and asked if they could sit and make the flowers. They were sixth graders and were very patient, kind, and gentle towards each other while folding the paper. They were all athletes with gentle, coordinated hands and attentive minds. They sat and listened quietly to the discussion about Dafa. Many other children chose just to sit and watch their friends make their special projects, quietly reading the truth clarification materials and watching the exercises.

For four days, the school children, teachers and parent chaperones of New England cities and towns had the opportunity to experience the wonder of Dafa and the joys of the lotus flower. Practitioners clarified the truth to hundreds of children, adults, and fellow participants at the festival. Even the vendors near by benefited from the Dafa presentation. One of the practitioners loaned a book to a vendor who was deeply interested in Falun Dafa. He took it home to read that night and when he came back the next day, said he had been looking for this all his life. The practitioner gave him the book to keep.