Falun Dafa Workshop at a Homeless Center in California (Photos)

By Falun Gong practitioner Steve Ispas

(Clearwisdom.net, March 19, 2004) Recently, Falun Dafa practitioners from California taught a workshop at a homeless center in Oakland, California. The manager of the homeless center, who met a practitioner months ago and was very impressed with what he heard about Falun Dafa, asked if the practitioners could give a workshop to the members of the homeless group.

As the practitioners prepared for the workshop, a group gathered to attend. From the very beginning, we noticed that the audience was quite interested and paid a lot of attention to what was being said. During the presentation, they were very attentive, nodding their heads and commenting once in a while. If someone who came in late would make some noise during the presentation, everyone would ask him or her to be quiet. They also asked several questions at the end, and their overall understanding and awareness were quite good. The manager commented at the end of the presentation how thankful he was that we came to give this workshop, how he thinks that these people will get a good chance to improve themselves through being introduced to Falun Dafa.

Those at the homeless center were very appreciative of the information given to them. They seemed to genuinely want to learn the exercises and the Fa. Some people had a very hard time moving their arms straight up and down, and even though their arms were shaking sometimes, they would still do their best to continue and not give up. For some, during the sitting meditation they could not sit on the ground with their legs folded, so they had to straighten their legs. There was also a person in a wheelchair, and others who had a hard time sitting on the floor for the meditation exercise. Yet they all tried to do it and there were no complaints. In addition, after we taught them the exercises, we played the music for the 5th exercise for quite a few minutes, so they could experience the meditation. None of them said anything or stopped; they all tried hard to finish the session.

Many were interested in books, magazines and other materials. We left some books for the library, which they could read later. We talked to them during the break and afterwards, explained more the difference between Falun Gong and Tai Chi for example, told them about the principles of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance", and how practitioners follow these principles in their daily lives. They were very impressed and mentioned that even though the principles seem simple on the surface, they can be very complex at higher levels.

They applauded several times during the presentation and at the end, they asked us to come back sometime and teach the workshop to more people.

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