Finland: Falun Gong Practitioners Invited to Attend an Exhibition in Tornio (Photos)

(Clearwisdom.net) Between July 29 and August 1, 2005, practitioners in Finland took part in an exhibition in Tornio, a city in northern Finland, near the border with Sweden. There were around 170 exhibitors, and Falun Gong was invited to be one of them.

The exhibition organizer made contact with a Falun Gong practitioner and inquired if we could attend and introduce Falun Gong at the exhibition. Practitioners happily accepted this offer, as this would give more people a chance to know about Falun Gong.

The weather was sunny during the four days and we had a nice area with lot of space to demonstrate the exercises. At our booth people learned about the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong in China, and had the opportunity to sign their names to a petition to help stop the persecution. Many people showed their support by signing their names.

We demonstrated the Falun Gong exercises on the stage on two of the days. One lady told us that she needed just this kind of practice to improve her forbearance. She told a practitioner how impatient she was when having conversations with other people, and that she seldom had time to wait for her turn. This had caused her a lot of problems. The other thing that caught her interest and made an impression was the young child who demonstrated the exercises along with the adults.

One young man had seen Falun Gong being practiced in a park in Turku, a city in southern Finland. He said he was always busy working and he talked about how stressed he was. He wondered if he could become calmer by practicing Falun Gong. When he understood that he could learn the exercises right on the spot he said, "Let's go and try." He asked his friend to join, and they learned the first set of the exercises. When we began to demonstrate the movements it was cloudy, and after finishing, the sun was shining. One of the young men opened his eyes and remarked that the movements really were powerful.

Many people had already heard about Falun Gong and about the persecution in China, and they just could not accept the evilness and cruelty against such a peaceful practice. One man knew about the persecution and how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) used lies and propaganda to defame Falun Gong. He wished us good luck.

In the eyes of the former head of the CCP and Chinese President Jiang Zemin, the greatest threat was the popularity and respect that Falun Gong held among the Chinese population. Once the number of Falun Gong practitioners reached between seventy and one hundred million, and became larger than the CCP membership, Jiang Zemin began his brutal persecution of these peaceful people.

When people learned about this, they showed their concern and said that the persecution will never succeed.

An elderly gentleman told us sadly how he had seen in Beijing's Tiananmen Square a practitioner holding a banner and how the police had pulled up and forced the practitioner into the van. "I can't understand why they did things like that." he said sadly. This elderly man was one of the exhibitors and every time he passed our booth he smiled compassionately. His kind heart could be seen in the expression on his face.

One man stopped at our booth and said he had seen Falun Gong in Philadelphia. He had been talking with practitioners in the U.S. and learned about Falun Gong. He was very surprised to see Falun Gong in Finnish Lapland.

We handed out leaflets to exhibitors and some of them came to sign their names to the petition in support of Falun Gong. One gentleman told us he supported us one hundred percent. "You are doing good work, I know all about it."

Practitioners who attended the exhibition learned how important it is to let more people know about Falun Gong and to let the light of goodness shine by following "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" in their own actions.

Originally published in Finnish at:http://fi.clearharmony.net/articles/200508/3117.html

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