(Clearwisdom.net) In mid-June every year, the Art Festival held in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland attracts thousands upon thousands of citizens and tourists. On June 10-11, 2006, some practitioners from Scotland showed the serenity, peace, and grace of Dafa by means of offering workshops and demonstrations of the practice.
  Clarifying the truth to tourists |
  Civilians sign the petition calling for an end to the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) atrocities |
On June 10, practitioners held a lecture in a library in Glasgow's west end, introducing Falun Gong and the principles of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" to those who came. With their own personal experiences, several practitioners told how their bodies and characters had benefited from the cultivation of Falun Dafa. While practitioners were demonstrating five sets of exercises along with the music, visitors stared at their demonstration. Thereafter, when practitioners taught them the exercises, people learned them in earnest. Additionally, many people said that they would go to the practice site and learn the practice.
It is the third year that practitioners have held Falun Gong lectures here. Practitioners still remember the first year when the lecture was held. Librarians even asked practitioners not to tell about the persecution of Falun Gong happening in China, which they thought was "something political." And yet, after reading truth clarification materials, they agreed that the persecution of Falun Gong is an issue of human rights, not politics. Since then, for three years in a row, practitioners in Scotland have held lectures clarifying the truth about Falun Gong for the civilians of Glasgow, and exposed the CCP's genocide of Falun Gong during the Art Festivals at the western zone. Every year, the library also expresses their gratitude to practitioners for their contribution to the festival.
After this year's lectures, and upon learning that all Falun Gong practice sites offer free instruction of the exercises and Falun Gong practitioners use their own money to rent a place at the library as a practice site, a librarian was deeply moved. She gave the address of the coordinator of the General Library to practitioners and suggested we should negotiate a rent reduction when contacting the General Library. Two days later, when the practitioner went to the library and paid for the rent, the curator told the practitioner that as the librarian had briefly told the General Library about Falun Gong practitioners using their own money to run the class, etc. the General Library decided to reduce the rent by half.
On June 11, dozens of exhibition stalls were set up on the busiest street at the western zone of Glasgow. The organizer of the Festival arranged a bigger place for Falun Gong practitioners so that they could have enough space to demonstrate the five sets of exercises. Practitioners used two banners reading "The World Needs Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" and "Falun Dafa is Good" as the background of the exhibition stall. On the stall were posters exposing how the CCP cruelly persecutes Falun Gong practitioners. There were truth clarification materials exposing the facts that the CCP have removed organs from live Falun Gong practitioners for profit in forced labor camps and concentration camps. Some practitioners distributed leaflets and newspapers and explained the facts to tourists. Practitioners demonstrated the exercises, and the peaceful practice and energy field drew tourists in groups. Some tourists stood there looking at the exercises from the beginning to the end, and praised, "Very peaceful!" "Really relaxing!" and some learned the practice on site.
Practitioners distributing leaflets told people about the CCP's genocide of Falun Gong practitioners and its atrocities of the past seven years. People were shocked - "Too horrible!" "We can't believe such cruel incidents still exist in the world!" Many people also expressed that they had already known about the cruel deeds of the CCP's organ removal from death-row prisoners. Many people raised the same question, "Why does the CCP persecute such a peaceful group?" Falun Gong practitioners told people Falun Gong's principles "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" and exposed the CCP's evil nature in advocating "Fake, Ferocity and Cruelty." On hearing these explanations, many people nodded.
Many tourists signed the petition urging the Prime Minister and the government to support the investigation of the incident in order to stop the CCP from harvesting organs from live Falun Gong practitioners. Some tourists accepted leaflets and started reading while walking. On finishing reading the leaflets, they returned and asked to sign the petition. After signing, some went to other booths and asked their family members to sign the petition.
Some Chinese also came to the booth for truth clarification materials. One of them, after signing the petition, helped practitioners distribute leaflets. She said that she had already read the Nine commentaries on the Communist Party and knew very well about the evilness of the CCP. She also wished to stop the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong practitioners as soon as possible.
Some tourists still came to the booth to sign the petition when the activity was concluding. After signing the petition, a staff member working for the Festival took some truth-clarification materials and said that he would give the materials to his colleagues.
