By Kerry Huang, Minghui correspondent

(Clearwisdom.net) The solemn occasion of the 2005 Mid-USA Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference was held on June 26, 2005 at the Lyric Opera House in downtown Chicago. About 2000 Falun Gong practitioners attended the grand conference. At about 3 p.m., benevolent great Master came in person to the conference hall. The entire audience burst into thunderous applause. Master taught the Fa for about 20 minutes.

Master pointed out in Fa-lecture that spreading the Nine Commentaries on Communist Party is not getting involved in politics. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has dragged all Chinese people into politics, whereas telling people to realize the true nature of the CCP and to withdraw from the CCP is, in fact, allowing people to break away from politics. What we are doing currently is not for the purpose of overthrowing or fighting against the CCP. What Falun Gong practitioners have been doing is all for the sake of saving sentient beings. Master said that after clearly seeing through the vicious nature of the CCP, many people will not want to cooperate with the CCP and will quit the CCP, and ultimately the CCP will no longer exist. However, this is not the fundamental goal.

About 2,000 Falun Gong practitioners attend the conference

Local practitioner Mr. Yang said that since 1999, experience sharing conferences have been held annually in Chicago area. Practitioners felt that these Fa conferences have been very effective to allow local residents to learn about the truth of Falun Gong.

Mr. Yang felt that the current situation is very different from before. He said in 1999 when the persecution just began, it was like that dark clouds were bearing down. Through truth-clarification over the past several years, more and more people are now willing to learn about the facts. Many people feel good about the practice and begin cultivating in Dafa.

Practitioners sharing their cultivation experiences

Two western practitioners who have been cultivating the practice for less than a year talked about their stories of obtaining the Fa and their experiences of cultivation. One of them abandoned his attachment to alcohol. Another gave up his attachment to gambling.

Mr. Lin, who works near the Chinese Consulate in Chicago, said in his speech that he was fortunate to obtain the Fa because of local practitioners' persistent effort in clarifying the truth. He said that Falun Gong practitioners hold sit-in appeals in front of the Chinese Consulate in Chicago 24 hours a day in all kinds of weather. At the beginning, he was very touched and admired Falun Gong practitioners. Therefore, he wanted to learn more about Falun Gong, but did not start practicing cultivation. One day last year, he suddenly wanted to read the book Zhuan Falun. He was deeply touched upon reading the book and he found that he understood many questions that he had been perplexed in his life. This way, he began his cultivation.

Mr. Liu, also from Chicago, spoke of his experiences while holding an art exhibition and parade to clarify the truth. Because the events were sponsored by practitioners and all funds came from practitioners' voluntary donations, in order to spare the expensive cost of purchasing frames for the paintings, practitioners with wookworking experience took the responsibility. They took measurements, built and painted the frames, and mounted the paintings. Lacking professional tools and equipment, they had to work in a wet and cold environment where the temperature was several degrees below the freezing point.

A Chicago practitioner who clarifies the truth through writing articles talked about how she abandoned her attachments and corrected herself when she was commended and criticized. She said that her articles were highly praised by her editors and each time she felt quite good about the acknowledgement, but she did not consider it carefully. Later after she submitted another article, an editor sent her a series of links of articles about how to write and edit articles. The editor also kindly pointed out that she'd better start from the very beginning to learn how to write an article. She was quite shocked at this. Later, through other practitioners' help, she intensified her Fa-study and became more diligent in practicing the exercises. She also carefully looked within herself and found her attachment to "self". She strengthened her righteous thoughts and continuously abandons her attachment to "self" in doing the work to validate Dafa and tries to dissolve herself into the Fa.

A practitioner who participated in the truth-clarification in Manhattan said that several months ago, when they went to Manhattan to explain the facts about Falun Gong, most of the well-dressed mainstream western people would not stop when passing by the anti-torture exhibits. They looked ahead and hurriedly walked by. Nevertheless, with the rapid progress of the Fa rectification and practitioners' persistent sending forth righteous thoughts and telling them to learn about the truth themselves rather by than listening to their Chinese colleagues who were also deceived by lies, the current situation is much different. Many of these people are willing to learn about the facts and even sign petitions to support efforts to oppose the persecution.

Children from Mid-US Minghui School Reciting Poems and Singing Songs

During the Fa conference, about 40 young practitioners from Mid-USA area Minghui Schools gave performances to welcome fellow practitioners who came from other regions. They recited three poems from Hong Yin and performed songs, "Little angel" and "I'm a good Minghui School student" as well as "Falun Dafa is good." The young children's innocent and sincere appearance won warm applause from the audience.

The experience sharing conference concluded at around 6 p.m.

Posting date: 6/27/2005
Original article date: 6/27/2005
Category: News & Media Reports
Translated on 6/27/2005
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/6/27/105000.html

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