Germany: Practitioners Share Cultivation Experiences during the Holiday Season

After Christmas Day of 2004, around two hundred Dafa practitioners from Switzerland, Austria and Germany gathered in the scenic forest region of Erbach in the midlands of Germany, to hold the annual holiday season activity of group experience sharing and studying the teachings of Falun Gong together. The activity lasted four days.

Sharing between New and Veteran Practitioners

There were a lot of new practitioners joining this activity and many of them were westerners. Some had practised Falun Gong for half a year and some for just a few months. Therefore an experience sharing between new and veteran practitioners was arranged to help new practitioners to further their understanding of cultivation. Most new practitioners had a very good understanding and many were actively involved in telling the facts of the persecution to people and undertaking projects to promote Falun Gong. A Chinese couple from Southern Germany, who had practised Falun Gong for six months, worked very hard and used their holidays to clarify the truth about Falun Gong to the Chinese tourists in the German town of Trier where Karl Marx was born. Some new western practitioners took time every week to distribute Falun Gong leaflets to Chinese tourists in Cologne Cathedral. One Chinese practitioner learned about Falun Gong in 2001 but out of fear for her family members in China, she didn’t practise. Later she encountered great health problems and had been hospitalised twice. She was extremely thin and her life seemed to be nearing its end. At this time she chose to practise Falun Gong. Now she has recovered fully and is able to do all kinds of work.

Actively Undertaking Projects

During this holiday season activity, aside from studying Falun Gong teachings together, we also arranged time to share our views about different ongoing projects to promote Falun Gong and expose the persecution. Practitioners, especially western practitioners, actively joined the group discussion and sharing. In the German newspaper project, western practitioners took a very different approach than that of Chinese practitioners. They carefully studied all relevant information from library books as well as the Internet. They also invited specialists to train everyone.

2005 Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference in Erbach

In the afternoon of the 30th, the German Falun Dafa Association organised the 2004 Falun Gong Experience Sharing Conference in Erbach. Five practitioners and one project group shared their cultivation experience. A full report can be seen at http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200501/24208.html.

Minghui School and the New Year Party

Because practitioners live quite far away from each other in the German-speaking area, they haven’t the conditions to organise a regular Minghui school. In order to help young practitioners in their cultivation and also to help their parents have time to join various activities, four female practitioners organised a Minghui school. In the school, young practitioners studied Falun Gong teachings and learned singing, painting Lotus flowers and writing the Chinese characters Zhen (Truthfulness), Shan (Compassion) and Ren (Forbearance). In the New Year party, young practitioners performed a song called “Falun Dafa is Good”, recited poems written by the Falun Gong founder and demonstrated the first set of Falun Gong exercises. Joining the performance in the New Year Party were also many new faces, which injected new diversity into the party.

Through four-days of collective study and sharing, many practitioners had a better and deeper understanding of the requirements bestowed upon them during this period of time. During the group sharing, practitioners had lively discussions about ways to further clarifying the truth about Falun Gong. Many practitioners realised the importance of clarifying the Truth of Falun Gong to people. It was recognised that by cooperating better among practitioners, practitioners could unite as a whole body and play a better role.