Warm Welcome of SOS Recue Efforts in Czech and Slovak Republics, Part 1

On Tuesday 31st July 2001, four UK practitioners, two from Manchester and two living in London, who are originally from Czechoslovakia and can speak the Czech and Slovak languages, arrived in Prague to spend two and a half weeks in the Czech and Slovak republics sharing the principles of Falun Gong, the practice and the truth about the persecution in China.

Within one hour of landing, the practitioners were in the centre of Prague attending a workshop arranged by two local practitioners to introduce Falun Dafa.

At the meeting were some Swiss practitioners. Everyone was eager to learn the exercises and participated in finding out about Falun Dafa. All the new people bought the draft version of Falun Gong in the Czech language and left their contact details.

The following day, the UK practitioners with two local Czech practitioners took a train from Prague to the mountains of Northern Moravia to join the activities of the Second Czech and Slovak Falun Gong Summer Camp. During the journey in the Prague metro and later on the train, people were attracted by our Falun Gong badges, asked questions and wanted leaflets. Sometimes the reception and giving out of the leaflets in three languages (English, German, Czech) on the train was very encouraging and at other times one of the practitioners had to use all his forbearance, compassion and courage. As he upgraded his xinxing (heart and mind nature) and cared less about his own fears and feelings he was able to continue to offer the leaflets throughout the train. All practitioners realised how necessary and important this activity really was.
After reading Zhen-Shan-Ren (Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance) from the headline of the leaflet many Czech people remarked that these are the qualities their country needs very much, especially Forbearance.

After lunch at the camp and sitting outside on the grass, fifteen of us had a lively discussion about Falun Gong. We read together in three languages and sent forth righteous thoughts (action of thinking righteous thoughts in one’s mind according to the principles of Falun Gong). One of the practitioners was a ten-year-old Czech boy who had also attended last year's camp. Last year when he learnt that everything has life, he said, "If all has life, then the characters I shoot in my computer games are all lives. Since I cannot kill lives I gave away all my computer games." This young practitioner could read Zhuan Falun (the main book of Falun Gong) in the Czech and Slovak languages. During the past year he was also helping with the translation of the book Falun Gong from Slovak to Czech.

Once when we were doing the exercises, one new person who had come to the camp for a different activity had a deep realization. She saw many coloured lights around and above the exercise group, stars landing next to the practitioners and felt huge movements of energy. Afterwards she said, "I did not come here for Falun Gong but I found the greatest path of all. From reading Zhuan Falun last night I realized it contains all the paths and it is the bible of bibles."

Next day we realised that we should have an exhibition about the true story of Falun Gong. We set it up in the foyer of the central building of the camp. It looked very impressive with huge posters, banners, bookmarks, other materials and newspapers and fliers in five languages. Many people signed our petition. That afternoon many of us caught a bus to Zábøeh, a nearby town, where we had permission to show exercises and give out leaflets. We calmly practised our exercises in the searing heat of the afternoon sun, while a local person fainted in the supermarket from the heat. Passers-by were impressed by our resilience and our exercises. Most were kindhearted, curious, polite, and pleased to accept our leaflets. A lady who accepted one of our leaflets came and joined us in the camp for the evening readings and early morning exercises. All our reading and exercise classes were well attended.

Even though Falun Gong is virtually unknown here, people are joining our early morning practice, 20 to 25 at a time, wanting to learn the exercises. They are actively asking questions to make sure they are learning the exercises correctly. In the evening session up to twenty people came to read Zhuan Falun.

Reported by practitioners in the UK