Germany: Sharing Experiences and Studying the Falun Dafa Teachings at the Annual Retreat

The annual retreat for practitioners throughout Germany took place from the 27th to the 30th of December 2006. Although many people were busy with important activities, more than 150 practitioners participated. They all wanted to take part in the experience sharing, reading the Falun Gong books together and practising the exercises.

This year, many practitioners brought their children. They wanted their children to have the opportunity to participate in the “Minghui School”. Nearly twenty children participated in the school activities. The children had some understanding about cultivation. They talked about Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance and how difficult it was to follow these principles in day-to-day life. The already knew about the exercises and some of the children were doing the movements almost perfectly.

The children already knew about the persecution. They learned to sing a song that tells the story of Fadu, a little girl from China whose father was murdered because he practised Falun Gong. The children sang this song on the last evening of the meeting. The practitioners’ hearts were deeply moved by the children’s voices and the song.

The adults had ample time to study the Falun Dafa teachings and practise the exercises. There was also a conference one afternoon where the practitioners listened to one another sharing about their experiences in cultivating their moral nature according to the Falun Dafa principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance.

Most of the time, practitioners met in different work groups. During those group activities, they had the opportunity to exchange thoughts how to more effectively raise public awareness about the unprecedented persecution in China, the torture methods used and the illegal organ harvesting.

Originally published in German at http://clearharmony.de/articles/200701/35690.html