Increasing Number of New Practitioners
Our practice site is centered on the University Campus. To ensure that there is practice session available every day for the practitioners, what used to be a single weekly session has now grown to become daily session with multiple practice locations. New practitioners keep joining us by two or three. At the weekly group practice session on Tuesday night, practitioners increased from five or six to more than twenty. In the past, Chinese was the main language on our practice site; now English dominates the session. The newcomers' ardent devotion and seriousness in pursuing the study of the Fa were in no way inferior compared with the veteran practitioners. Nevertheless, there were always opinions and concerns regarding segregating the two groups. Actually, the problem lies within the Chinese group who was used to the Chinese language. The expansion of the group also brought about a new cultivation and practice environment. We need to constantly share our experiences and constantly upgrade ourselves.
Promotion of Nine-Day Lecture Class
One of the main ways for attracting new practitioners is through holding nine-day video lecture seminars. In order to let the public know about this event, we printed pamphlets, sent out flyers, posted our event activity on public bulletin boards and also in stores around the city. We also placed advertisements in the newspaper; set up promotion tables on campus and distributed promotional materials. Some media reporters also came to provide coverage thus help us in promoting the event. On the first day of this year's first class, over 40 people showed up. By the conclusion of the 9-day session around thirty people completed the whole lecture. There was a young western lady, she said she had read and studied many schools of philosophy and religion books, including western and oriental schools such as Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Yoga. She said that the many years of pursuit that were spent, probably was to prepare her for obtaining this Dafa. It was also prophesized that there would be a big change in life for her when she turned twenty-nine. Indeed, two months away would be her twenty-ninth birthday. She also asked, at this special time period, what can she contribute to promote Dafa?
In order not to let people with predestined relationship miss the opportunity of obtaining the Fa, we set up Chinese and English classes simultaneously. We released the notice on the BBS of a Chinese student association. Unexpectedly, some people threw down a provocation on the BBS and wanted to boycott the 9-day session seminar. As a result every day, several people stood outside our classroom and held protest signs trying to disrupt the session. We peacefully talked with them and suggested them to come in to listen to the Teacher's lectures personally. They refused and claimed that Falun Gong opposes China, does harm to society and people, they even brought the pictures of Tiananmen Self-immolation incident released by the Xinhua News Agency to show people. Their actions did not produce any effect to our new students. Actually, new students told reporters that they thought Falun Dafa is good. After listening to Teacher's lectures, they can distinguish who is righteous and who is evil, who is benevolent and who is wicked. The Chinese Consulate uses such false public opinion and wicked propaganda to defame Dafa. However, lies are weak, deceitful and shameful, they are incomparable to what is truthful and righteous. These people that were manipulated and used by the Chinese Consulate, no matter what their intention and motives were, they were lamentable and pitiful.
Our second 9-day class ended a few days ago, about ten people persisted until the end of the ninth session. A new Caucasian student related his experience at the conclusion of the session that at the time when one of our practitioners was distributing the promotional materials, a tall man in white stood behind her in another dimension. This revelation motivated his curiosity toward Falun Dafa. Now he keeps having new understanding towards Dafa day by day. This story told us that although distributing pamphlets is a small issue, but in another dimension, Teacher has made arrangements for us and also for those people with predestined relationship to obtain Dafa and join us. Therefore, we should always keep a righteous mind and do whatever we should without paying too much attention to the result.
Seminar in the University to Clarify the Truth
A practitioner has a friend that is a professor at the University of Alberta, Education Department. Though their chat, he became interested in Falun Dafa. So he invited her to go to the Department of Education to give a seminar to professors and students. The seminar was presented from a scientific angle. The Fa was introduced and explained from a scientific perspective that Falun Dafa is a supernormal science and a righteous practice beneficial to people's mind and body. At the same time, she also introduced the vicious crackdown by the Chinese government and the great compassion and extreme forbearance exhibited by Dafa practitioners in safeguarding the Fa. Previously audiences only knew that Dafa practitioners suffered from human rights abuses through the news, they did not realize that Falun Dafa is so broad and profound. This seminar gave them a chance to have an in-depth understanding of Falun Dafa. It was no co-incidence that there were so many people around the world learning and taking up the practice! Among the audience members, there was a student from Mainland China. She later shared a real life story of her friend who was in China and also a Falun Dafa practitioner. She went to Beijing to appeal and was arrested and jailed. This supplementation reinforced the audience belief that the persecution in China is real, severe, horrific and rampant.
Dissemination of Falun Dafa in Small Cities
March 5 to 11 of this year was proclaimed as Falun Dafa Week in the City of St. Alberta that was located about half an hour's drive from the City of Edmonton. We went to St. Albert on March 10 to celebrate the proclamation event. We also set up a whole day seminar and exercise instruction session at the public library to introduce, promote and teach the exercises. Nine local residents became interested from the community event
announcement in the newspaper and came to join the class. From then on, every Saturday, some of the practitioners from Edmonton voluntarily drove to St. Alberta to practice and also help to establish a practice site for the local practitioners.
Fort McMurray is an oil-producing town situated at the northern part of Alberta. Through the efforts of Edmonton practitioners and a local practitioner who is the only practitioner in Fort McMurray, March 24 of this year was proclaimed as Falun Dafa Day in the City of Fort McMurray. On this day, we drove five hours one-way to Fort McMurray to celebrate the proclamation. The event took place in the shopping mall. We set up a picture display that illustrated the popularity of Falun Dafa. It also exhibits the cruel persecution and sufferings endured by practitioners in China. The serene, tranquil and peaceful atmosphere attracted many pedestrians. Some practitioners were distributing flyers and newsletters; so many were distributed that we ran out. Some people expressed interest in learning the practice. They inquired whether we had a local practice site. We told them with regret that there was no practice site yet (the only local practitioner had moved back to Edmonton). We gave the exercise instruction materials to them, told them about the Falun Dafa website and left our contact number. We hope they will have an opportunity to come to Edmonton's practice site. We presented exquisite bookmarks with the Falun emblem to the passing kids. They held it in their hands and watched carefully. I wonder whether they saw the rotating Falun? A little girl asked us,"Will you come next time?" We also hope that we will have the opportunity to come again to hold a nine-day lecture class to satisfy the wishes of these people with predestined relationship. We plan to go to more small cities and towns in Alberta to spread Dafa in the future.
Falun Dafa Day Celebration
This year, we celebrated Falun Dafa Day in front of the Provincial Legislature Building. We hung up posters displaying the inhuman persecution of Falun Dafa in China. The earliest visitors were a few tourists from Mainland China. They read the display very carefully. They were also very receptive. They openly accepted our newspaper clarifying the truth. One of them also took pictures of our persecution display. Later, a busload of student tourists from out of town arrived, we handed our newspaper to them, almost everybody accepted them. At the same time, other practitioners were performing the exercise demonstration. A TV news reported our celebration activity. The Edmonton Journal also covered our event celebration. The news reporter interviewed both veteran and new practitioners. According to the new practitioner, she just started learning the practice and doing the exercises a few weeks ago, the results were very prominent. She felt energized, relaxed, comfortable and peaceful after the exercises. The media coverage also truthfully reported about the persecution in China. A note was made about the high effectiveness of Falun Dafa and our contact number and exercise practice location and time. The day following this news report, a massive response was generated from the general public, some expressing concern and providing support while others expressed interest in learning the practice and also inquired where to get the books.
Every genuine practitioner in Edmonton is trying their best to get rid of attachments, keep up with the process of Teacher's Fa-rectification in the human world. They're making use of every possible chance to promote Dafa in addition to some collective activities---some are doing translation work for Dafa (including translating Dafa books into Polish), and some are talking with NGOs and VIPs. Even one senior practitioner, who doesn't know any English, is distributing Dafa materials to people around every day. We don't have many people here in Edmonton promoting Dafa, but every one of us is trying to be a pure particle in Dafa.
We would like to tell all the people in the world, please cherish this opportunity when the great law is being made available to everyone. Do not miss this golden opportunity. In this battle between the benevolence and the wicked, the righteous and the evil, when determining and positioning your eternal future and position in the universe, please bring forth your righteous thoughts. At the time of spreading the Fa, how can we best send out this deep meaning and message manifested within the Fa? I think first we need to radiate the light of Zhen, Shan, Ren from ourselves, manifest the true divine radiance of our Buddha nature, the power and energy of compassion and righteousness will then automatically shine forth and penetrate the microscopic layer manifested in the lives of the audiences, so that his inner heart will be touched and reawakened to generate the righteous thoughts toward Falun Dafa.
All these require that all our actions and deeds should conform to truthfulness, compassion and forbearance (Zhen Shan Ren) to illuminate our purity and righteousness with brilliance at all time.
Let us advance further, help the Master in spreading and rectifying the Fa. Spread the Great Law, provide salvation to all beings, eliminate all evils and embrace the arrival of the splendor and magnificence of the Fa-rectification in the human world.
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