Conducted by Falun Gong Practitioners in the Great Washington Area
Maryland--On the afternoon of February 24, Falun Gong practitioners from the Great Washington Area conducted the Fourth Special Hongfa [Chinese term for spreading Dafa] Seminar in a local Chinese school named Minghui. The main theme of this seminar was "Exploring Qigong and Cultivation." There were 5 speakers and around 70 to 80 participants.
Ms. Yang from Taiwan shared her story about how she switched from doing Yoga to cultivating Falun Dafa. Ms. Yang practiced Yoga for 18 years, from 1979 to 1997, and had been a World Yoga Association accredited Yoga teacher since 1989. She had encountered some hard to solve problems in her long time with Yoga practice, for example: lack of observable effect, slowness in achieving result, and that the everyday body stretching and folding routine could be hard, costly and time consuming, etc. She was deeply bothered, and had been longing to find a truly perfect practice for many years. In December 1997, Ms. Yang attended a "Falun Gong 9-Day Seminar" in Maryland, and within 5 minutes she experienced for the first time in her life the feeling of "hundreds of pulses in motion." She has not done Yoga again since that day. Many of her Yoga students could not understand, and asked her if it wasn't a great pity to give up something that she had been practicing so diligently for so many years. She's always answered, "Not at all, because I know that I've found what I really want."
Ms. Yu from China works in the medical field. In her speech she talked about how from her experiences and her 6 years of medical training, she strongly felt that Western Medicine is based totally on physical evidence, so that without pathology, x-rays, etc., accurate diagnosis cannot be made. This type of "seeing is believing" mentality, though seemingly reasonable, is in reality very restricting and limiting. For example, we cannot see the meridians of the human body, but already quite a few scientists have proven their existence using a variety of different techniques. For instance, a couple from Russia, both scientists, discovered in 1939 that under the environment of high-frequency and high-pressure, the human body is covered in "light spots," with their distribution matching exactly with what was in the meridian diagram in an ancient Chinese medicine book, Huangdi Neijing, written over 2000 years ago. Ms. Yu pointed out that we should keep an open mind and be brave in our explorations and the search for the truth.
Dr. Li, who is working for a U.S. national organization researching the atmosphere, loved martial arts since his youth . Ever since he started studying qigong and martial arts in the late 70's, Dr. Li never felt contented, always wishing to find a truly advanced master. All the teachers he'd learnt from told him that the purpose of martial arts is not for fighting. In the beginning, he could not understand why - if it is not meant for fighting, what's the use of kung fu? Cultivating in Falun Dafa finally revealed to him the reason behind why kung fu is not for fighting, which involves the issue of treasuring "virtue." Falun Dafa also allowed him to understand why individuals with advanced kung fu care not about loss and gain among everyday people, and why their realm of living goes beyond the human world.
Ms. Ge, a civil servant in a U.S. government department, talked about her own experience in cultivating Falun Dafa. Ms. Ge came into contact with a number of traditional religions during her study in the U.S. as a foreign student, but she still felt that she had not found the meaning of life. In the early 80's, her husband's ill health prevented him from being able to work, so he started learning various kinds of qigong. She witnessed some the supernormal phenomena of qigong, and directly experienced things that she could not explain. Since practicing Falun Dafa beginning in August 1996, her long outstanding questions have been answered. Three months after her husband started practising Falun Gong, 70% of his problems were gone; after another three months of practice, he was able to return to normal work.
The seminar continued until 5:30 pm. During the seminar, a proclamation of February as "Falun Dafa Month" by the Mayor of Washington D.C. was read, together with a commendation to Falun Dafa from the Maryland House of Representatives.
Reported by Falun Dafa practitioners from Washington D.C.,
February 25, 2001
