Australia: Young Falun Gong Practitioners Hold Experience Sharing Conference in Sydney

On the morning of the 5th of September, 2004, the Sydney Young Falun Dafa Practitioners' Experience Sharing Conference was held at the Sydney Minghui School. About 60 young Falun Dafa practitioners attended. Among them, the youngest was only three years old, and the eldest was eighteen years old.

Young practitioners sharing their experiences

Experience sharing articles were collected during the two weeks prior to this conference. Young practitioners in Sydney often participate in various kinds of activities with their parents. Some of the older children take the initiative to distribute leaflets, collect petition signatures, and clarify the facts about Falun Gong face to face with people. Especially in large-scale parades and art performances, young practitioners' performances attract much attention. This time, many young practitioners wrote their own papers. Some seldom use Chinese to communicate during their everyday lives, and had difficulty writing the paper. They asked their parents or teachers to help them, and tried their best to express their understandings of the teachings of Falun Gong.

The conference began at 8:30 a.m. Gao Xiang and Wu Zhao hosted the conference. First the practitioners recited Teacher's [referring to the founder of Falun Gong, Mr Li Hongzhi] article "Lun Yu" as a group. Then the masters of ceremony recited poems written by young practitioners from China. Altogether, nineteen young practitioners submitted their experience sharing papers.

During the experience sharing, young practitioners talked about how they eliminated their attachments to jealousy and computer games. Some talked about how they went through tests of "losing face," tribulations within the family, and sickness karma. They also related their experiences and feelings of going to the U.S. to attend other Falun Gong conferences and their participation in Falun Gong parades.

Gao Xiang is the eldest among the group of young practitioners. He had just turned eighteen this month. He attended the Second Young Falun Gong Practitioners' Experience Sharing Conference held in July of 2004, in Washington DC. This time, he said, "When I calm myself, and adjust my heart, I understand that I am not doing things for others, but that I am doing a sacred thing, and it is what Dafa requires, it is for the sake of saving people. At that moment, my fear is gone. I feel my mind is clear and I know can achieve a good result in the Falun Gong related activities that I take part in."

Although Xu Yang is only fifteen years old, she has practised Falun Gong for five years. She talked about her daily life, and how she passed tests when she had conflicts with her mother. She said, "I could not understand for a long time why I was not moved if other people accused me, but whenever my mother criticised me, I felt aggrieved, and thought it was unfair. After thinking it over, I found the attachment of 'sentimentality.' In the human world, that is sentimentality with family members." She said, "Although the relationship with my mother isn't perfect, from our shortcomings we can improve ourselves and elevate ourselves... My mother once told me, 'In fact, it is very good to realise our mistakes and shortcomings. But as a practitioner, we should constantly improve ourselves.' Words without action is no good. We should cultivate ourselves well!'"

Eight-year-old He Zihao and seven-year-old He Zixin are brothers and sisters and have practised Falun Dafa for seven years. Through their studying at the Minghui School, they have been able read the books (the teachings of Falun Gong) on their own. He Zihao is very concerned about those young practitioners in China, and understands why we try to introduce Falun Dafa to people. He said, "What we can do is to tell people about the real situation of Falun Gong, let people know that Falun Dafa is good, and help end the persecution as soon as possible."

Liu Houxian was once attached to playing computer games and almost forgot that he was a practitioner. Through studying the teachings in Falun Gong, he understood that he should not waste his time, but should make good use his time to tell people about Falun Gong.

What moved us was that two young practitioners, Zhu Guanghui and Li Xinhang did not prepare their exchange sharing papers in advance, but they requested to speak at the conference. Their extemporaneous speeches moved all people in the audience and won warm rounds of applause.

During the sharing, several young practitioners recited Teacher's poem, "Dafa is Good."

At around 10:10 a.m., the conference successfully concluded with the song, "Falun Dafa is great."

Some parents expressed that this was a very good experience sharing conference. One said that his child could realise his shortcomings and he found that these young practitioners were maturing all the time. The teachers of Minghui School were also very happy that the children were able to write their experiences and express their feelings and understandings in Chinese.