Greece: Learning Falun Dafa at the Athens Second Yoga Festival

In celebration of World Yoga Day, the second Yoga Festival of Athens took place on June 26, 2016, in Nea Smyrni Park. The festival was organized by the Greek Yoga community and the Indian Embassy.

The organizers had heard about Falun Dafa from previous events and invited practitioners from Greece to take part. It was the only group to present a self-cultivation practice from China.

Throughout the park were people demonstrating different types of yoga and meditation techniques. Visitors also learned about Falun Dafa and its persecution by the communist regime in China.

Practitioners introduced Falun Dafa's principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance and demonstrated its four standing exercises and meditation.

Visitors learn the Falun Dafa exercises

After trying the exercises, a woman told the practitioner that she had travelled around the world in search of a true practice. She said, “Now I’ve finally found it! This is what I was searching for.”

A man who studies Chinese medicine said that he felt strong energy while learning the exercises, especially in his hands.

A passerby asked why Falun Dafa is being persecuted in China. A practitioner explained that former Chinese president Jiang Zemin saw that there were more people practising Falun Dafa than there were members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). To this day, practitioners in China are still tortured to death and killed for their organs.

Another woman said, “If it's persecuted by the CCP, then this practice must be very good!”

A yoga teacher said that she had seen Falun Dafa practitioners in Thessaloniki, too. She said, “What you do [to inform people about the persecution] is very brave. It is great that you do that, and it is very important that you keep it up.”