Bearing Witness to History: A Morning Group Practice after April 25, 1999

By Xinsu

(Clearwisdom.net) I live in a small town in Northern China. Even before April 25, 1999, our daily morning Falun Gong group practice was interfered with by the local authorities in violation of our right to practice Qigong exercises. The administrative personnel of the park where we used to do our group morning practice refused to let us in to practice in the park. When we asked them for a reason, they only told us that it was an order from their superiors. Later for a period, they even closed the entrances to the park and refused to let in any people for any type of morning exercises. Many people (who did not practice Falun Gong) stood by the entrances and complained, and some even argued with the park administrative personnel.

During that period, we heard that the group practice sites in different areas were being harassed. We also knew that public security personnel were secretly photographing and maintaining files on us.

As Falun Gong practitioners, we did not complain or argue as other people did. From then on, until July 20, 1999, we practiced our morning exercises along the sidewalk outside the park. I remember that one morning there were about a 100 Dafa practitioners practicing exercises at the morning group practice. We sat down on the ground in rows in preparation to do our sitting meditation. At that moment, the park administrative personnel pulled out the machines that they used to remove weeds; they started the machines and set them running next to us. These machines made loud noises and caught the attention of the many people who were practicing other types of morning exercises to come see what was going on.

Because of the loud noise, we could not hear our exercise music. To help every practitioner do the sitting meditation as usual, our assistants walked out of the practicing group; they lined up facing the group, kept a distance from each other, and sat down quietly but very solemnly. That morning, my back was very straight while I was doing the sitting meditation. A feeling of sacredness and dignity filled my mind. I felt that the one-hour sitting period passed quickly and my mind was very tranquil; I did not feel any leg pain. While we were doing the sitting meditation, the park administrative personnel threw lit miniature firecrackers at us, but we ignored them.

That was a day that I will never forget. The whole course of the morning group practice was very solemn and moving. After the practice, we as usual picked up the trash around us and took it away. This is an account of the experience that a Falun Gong practitioner went through during this historic period.

November 15, 2003

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/11/16/60670.html

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