Greece: Dafa Practitioners Celebrate World Falun Dafa Day in Athens

(Minghui.org) On Sunday, May 11th, Falun Dafa practitioners in Athens organized an event to honor World Falun Dafa Day. They gathered at Thiseio, where they demonstrated the five Falun Dafa exercises and talked with passersby interested in learning more about the practice.

Practitioners demonstrate the exercises and talk to people about Falun Dafa.

Several practitioners who attended the celebration shared their experiences of practicing Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong).

Benefiting from Practicing Falun Dafa

Panagiotis, 44, works at an e-commerce store, and began practicing Falun Dafa in 2004. He said the practice helped him to become calm and to give up smoking and drinking. He later noticed that practicing Falun Dafa benefited his health and brought him peace and tranquility. In addition, “By reading and studying Master Li’s teaching, I was able to understand more important things, such as why I am here and what my mission in this world is,” he said.

Effie has practiced Falun Dafa for eight years. As a result, she has gained harmony and balance not only internally, but also in her relationships with her family and others. She said that she participated in the event in Thiseio in order to celebrate the day with millions of other practitioners around the world.

Chrysa, a painter and long-time practitioner, highly recommends Falun Dafa, and said that thanks to Dafa, she enjoys balance and peace of mind, as well as good physical health. “Falun Dafa is good and beneficial,” she said.

Vladimir, a radiology technologist, has practiced Falun Dafa since 2006. “It helped me tremendously, incredibly, especially in my spiritual growth and mental health, but also on a family and professional level,” he said. “I consider it the best thing that has happened to me.”

Retired Salesman: Falun Dafa Helps Society

Francis, a retired former salesman for an IT company, practiced martial arts and qigong before he was introduced to Falun Dafa about 4-5 years ago. He said that by reading Dafa books, especially Zhuan Falun, the main book of Falun Dafa, he understood that Falun Dafa is of a much higher level than what he practiced before. “Therefore, I focused on Falun Dafa and stopped doing other qigong,” he said.

One of the reasons Francis is so happy with Falun Dafa is that it helped him improve as a person, improve his character, and enable him to help society and the world. He said that’s why he feels grateful to Falun Dafa, and he expects to see even more improvement in many areas. “The spread of Falun Dafa will help not only in broadening our horizons, but also in the matter of developing intelligence and training the body, to become much better people—better beings—than what we are today.”

One practitioner said that before she started practicing Falun Dafa, she had many health problems and relied on medication. In addition, she had a bad temper and could not see things from other people’s point of view. Falun Dafa has also helped her to take losses lightly and stop pursuing her own interests. She no longer cares if others get the upper hand. “I feel infinite gratitude to Master Li and wish him a happy birthday. Master, you have worked hard for us, and I will work hard to always apply the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. Thank you, Master,” she said.

Her husband, who also practices Falun Dafa, thanked Master Li and said, “Why we live, the meaning of life, the direction you gave me: to always think of others first and to look for the causes of everything first within myself. Happy birthday, Master!”