(Clearwisdom.net)

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 59^th session of the U.N. Human Rights Commission. In the morning of March 17^th, 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 17^th and the morning of March 18^th, 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 "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. Tobias 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. Tobias began to learn Falun Gong and has been practicing even 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 Fa-rectification.