(Clearwisdom.net) On October 23-24, Falun Dafa practitioners participated in the Wisdom Festival in Concord California. Many people were very interested in Falun Dafa, and were surprised by the fact that Falun Gong is free of charge. Some also looked at the book, Zhuan Falun [the principle text of Falun Dafa] and started to read it right away. The organizer of the festival, after learning about the truth of Falun Dafa, provided practitioners with a designated time to formally introduce Falun Dafa to the festival participants and guests.

The Falun Gong booth

Demonstrating the Falun Gong exercises

Introducing Falun Gong to visitors

The festival is basically a "seekers" bazaar, a place where people go to find a weekend spiritual retreat, a relaxing spa, stock up on some incense, or perhaps find a true spiritual practice.

The price of one booth is normally $550. One practitioner called the organizer and explained our situation, how we do not sell anything, nor charge people to learn, nor even take money as a donation, and how we are being persecuted in China. In the end the organizer decided that we could have a bigger booth and a half-hour speaking time to introduce our practice, for only $200.

During the festival, practitioners offered to help in many of the festival areas, including with the registration table, cleaning the cafe, and taking down the booths and curtain set-ups. This was actually another excellent way to clarify the truth and show Dafa practitioners' diligent and hard-working nature.

Falun Dafa was very favorably received at the festival. People nearby said they could feel the strong energy coming from practitioners who were demonstrating the exercises, and most people were amazed that we do not charge money to teach the exercises. Many people stopped at the Falun Dafa booth to learn about the persecution in China and obtain truth-clarifying materials. Some became so interested in our practice that they took our copies of Zhuan Falun that we had brought for display.

A woman who stopped by the booth became very interested after she learned about the practice and the persecution. She said that she understood the persecution issue in China very well because her Jewish family was persecuted in such a cruel way during World War II. Before leaving, she took a copy of Zhuan Falun and said, "I can't wait to read this book!"