United States: A Three-Day Trip to Introduce Falun Gong to the People of New York City

Take off

With dust on our shoes from our last trip to Washington, D.C., we packed again and took off for New York. Without any hesitation, more than 20 Falun Dafa practitioners set off on a trip in two cars to clarify the truth about Falun Gong in New York.

Realising the significance of this trip, the practitioners made great efforts to make sure everything would go smoothly. Before we started, a rainstorm hit slowing down our driving. The next day we went to pick up a fellow practitioner, but the street was blocked for a local festival. We left at 11:30 p.m. but didn't "officially" start for New York City until 3:00 a.m.

First day

On Saturday afternoon we arrived at the Chinese Consulate in New York City. We voluntarily sat in rows outside the consulate and sent forth righteous thoughts every 30 minutes, during which we also practised the Falun Gong exercises. Practitioners from Taiwan sat on the left in three rows, and several practitioners stood in the back holding up a banner. Many of them had gone to Washington, D.C. for the Falun Dafa conference, and then they went to Boston for the parade, followed by this trip to New York. Their busy schedule did not affect their righteous spirits and compassionate demeanour.

Sending forth righteous thoughts in front of Chinese Consulate

The second day

In the morning we drove to Central Park to introduce Falun Gong to the people there. We heard a large-scale festival was going to be held there and many people were expected to attend, but only a few people were there when we arrived. Soon it began to rain. We grew a little uneasy because it is difficult to distribute leaflets in the rain.

People lining up for getting Dafa truth clarification materials

When we walked around the park, we saw many people standing in a long line in the middle of the park. Later we learnt they were waiting to see a show. We arrived at the time when they were waiting to enter but the show had not yet begun. We thought, "What a great opportunity!"

Despite the rain, two young practitioners who spoke English well left to distribute leaflets, and the rest of us stayed to do the Falun Gong exercises. The oldest one among us was a 74-year-old practitioner from Taiwan. He said to every passerby, "Falun Dafa is good" and gave him or her a leaflet that he carefully kept under his raincoat. Many people took the leaflet. He said to us, "We should tell them Falun Dafa is good. Even if they don't take the leaflet, we should still let them hear 'Falun Dafa is good'."

The two young practitioners worked with each other. One of them held an umbrella while sending forth righteous thoughts, the other one passed out leaflets to people in line. They walked from the beginning to the end of the line. The majority of the people took the leaflet which they then began to read before the start of the show.

When we were trying to decide where to go next, we had a difference of opinions. Some wanted to go to the Chinese Consulate to send forth righteous thoughts, others wanted to go to downtown and hand out leaflets, and several wanted to stay in the park. Each person had his reasons, which were well justified. One Falun Gong practitioner said, "Yesterday, local practitioners said they hoped we practitioners from Toronto can take charge of introducing Falun Gong to people in Central Park. Since we have always been cooperative and are not attached to our own opinions, then I guess we should stay in Central Park as the local practitioners had hoped."

Children: Remember "Falun Dafa is good!"

Side-story I: "Let me give each one of you an entrance ticket"

Two museum workers took some of our leaflets and read them. One of them said, "Can you not only give me a leaflet but also explain this to me? I want to listen what you have to say." We talked to him for a long time as we explained to him the the facts about the practice of Falun Dafa and the cruelty of the persecution. We also told him we had to save money and gave up our weekend to come to New York City just to tell people "Falun Dafa is good. The persecution must be stopped."

He was deeply touched and asked us repeatedly whether we would return on the next day and he told us he wanted to give each of us an entrance ticket on the following day. Because our itinerary was undetermined at that point, we could not give him a positive answer. We could see he was truly sincere and felt sorry when he heard our answer. Many Dafa practitioners left their footprints in many places on their trip to introduce Falun Gong. Many times they passed by famous tourist attraction sites without stopping to enjoy themselves, as they knew people were waiting to hear the truth about Dafa, and they knew fellow practitioners in Mainland China are doing the same thing under much more perilous and difficult circumstances.

During short breaks we said, "We are clarifying the truth and trying to make the truth clear, so when we give out leaflets, we should grasp every opportunity to tell people about the truth and not assume that they will necessarily read it."

Side-story II: "I'm thinking about how to get more people to help you guys"

One passerby who had learnt the truth about Falun Gong suggested that we go to another place in Manhattan because there were more people there and they have power and influence. He said, "I'm thinking how to get more people to help you guys." We thanked him and said, "We have no political pursuits, and we only hope other kind-hearted people like you would know that Falun Dafa is good and the persecution is wrong and it must be stopped. From this perspective, you are just as important to us as those powerful people." He didn't expect our reply and was moved beyond speech for a while. Then he said he wished us much good luck before he left.

When the car arrived to pick us up, we had finished giving out all the pamphlets and newspapers.

Our contingent

The Third Day

Today we were in Central Park again. When we arrived at the park, the other group of Falun Gong practitioners from Toronto were already there and had been practising the Falun Gong exercises for over an hour. So we went to another entrance to the park where there was an open area. We set up display boards and hung up the banner. Two practitioners distributed leaflets while the rest did the exercises and sent forth righteous thoughts. Our effect was very good. Most people passing by took our leaflets, and many of them stopped to talk with us to learn more, which was exactly what we hoped for.

People come one after another	The man at the centre stopped in front of our display boards and took the time to carefully read every word.	Many people want information about a local exercise site so they can learn Falun Gong

From early morning until 8 p.m., even the elderly Falun Gong practitioners were doing the exercises, distributing leaflets, and sending forth the righteous thoughts. Even when our young people felt tired, these practitioners still had very high spirits, and none of them wanted to take a rest. They said, "We came a long way to get here; what are we here for? Why not use every minute fully?"

Finding out more about Falun Gong

Another practitioner and I left the group for a while and went to a place that was away from our event site. We distributed the leaflets there, but the effect was not as good as it had been with the rest of the group. The people seemed isolated from us and were indifferent to us. So we joined the others. While some of us were doing the exercises, others were distributing leaflets, and the effect was very good. We wanted to grasp every chance to talk with people. When people were listening to us, they could also see what Falun Gong is by watching practitioners doing the exercises, or looking at the pictures showing the situation of Falun Gong around the world on our display boards. When we told people about the persecution, they were very willing to read the leaflets they held in their hands. This method turned out to be very effective.

A woman accepts a leaflet

The story of a young man named Tom:

Tom is a 16-year-old African American. He seemed a little shy. Both his grandfather and grandmother have some Chinese in their heritage. From the very beginning, when we started our event in the morning, he was standing nearby watching us. We gave him a leaflet, and he looked like he had just been given a precious gift. He carefully read every word again and again. He wanted to talk with every one of us and said, "Tell me more about Falun Gong, please tell me more." He picked up one of each kind of leaflet we had, including leaflets in Chinese. We gave him a two-page leaflet full of pictures. He read it, finished it, and read it again.

Tom: "Please tell me more about Falun Gong, I want to hear more."

Tom was very inquisitive; he followed one practitioner who was distributing the leaflets. Very soon, he knew how to say "Falun Dafa Hao" and "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" in Chinese. Later, he practised in Chinese by saying "Zhen-Shan-Ren (Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance) is really good, Falun Dafa is wonderful, really good. You practitioners are good, you are good people."

The young man's innocence and purity of longing for the truth of Falun Gong moved me to tears.

More and more people came to our display boards to learn about Falun Gong. The lovely Tom helped us with some of our activities and told people, "Falun Dafa is wonderful." In the afternoon, Tom took a bunch of leaflets, walked to the centre of the sidewalk, and stretched out his hand to give one to every pedestrian. He distributed all of the leaflets very quickly. When he handed over the last leaflet that he had, he was so pleased. He said to us when he returned, "I told them Falun Dafa is good, I told them Falun Dafa is good!" Then, he took another bunch of leaflets to distribute, and told everyone he met "Falun Dafa is good!"

Tom: Have your heard of Falun Dafa and Zhen-Shan-Ren (Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance)? They are truly good.	Tom telling people the facts about Falun Gong: Look, Falun Dafa is so good, but these Chinese police are beating the practitioners.
Tom happily ran up to us after he had handed out all the leaflets, "I told them Falun Dafa is good! I told them the truth!"	Tom gave a leaflet to every Chinese person selling goods along the street. Most of the Chinese pedestrians took a leaflet from him too, and some of them came to our display boards to learn more.

In the evening, our car came to pick us up. When Tom realised that we had to leave, the young man who had stayed with us for the whole day reluctantly left.

"I want to learn the Falun Gong exercises right now"

Many people wanted to learn Falun Gong after watching our practitioners doing the exercises.

A street pianist who was playing nearby read a leaflet. He waited and watched us for a while. Then, he came over and said, "I want to learn Falun Gong right now, even if it's just a little bit, I still want to learn." We taught him the second exercise. He learnt very quickly and his movements were very accurate.

Pianist: Look, is my "holding the wheel" accurate?	This young man immediately starts to learn Falun Gong.