Bulgaria: Falun Gong Practitioners Participate in ‘Create Your Universe’ Project

The ‘Create Your Universe’ Project was held in the city of Blagoevgrad, psychologists from Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia and Turkey attended. Bulgarian Falun Gong practitioners were invited to share the benefits they obtained from practising Falun Gong, a Chinese cultivation system for mind and body.

Project participants learn the Falun Gong exercises

The project is a gathering of 40 creative young people for a period of 12 days at Bachinovo Educational Centre, situated 4 km from the city of Blagoevgrad, and the aim is to foster mutual willingness for cultural and professional exchange while having fun. The final aim is achievement of positive communication and progress through giving a new meaning of the way of thinking. The project organiser is the Young Bulgarian Psychologist Association, including Boby Slavchov, Petyr Petrov and Daniela Fingarova. After re-writing the project proposal several times they succeeded in receiving EU funding through the Union of Youth in Action Programmes. Another interesting Bulgarian, Geori Hristov, joined the project team. He is a coordinator of the One World human rights movie festival (One World movie festival (http://www.bgoneworld.org/) held for the first time in Bulgaria last spring and is making a tour around the country for the time being.) Georgi instructed morning yoga sessions and presented the exercises of Danovism at the amazing natural background round the campus. He also learned the Falun Gong exercises at the first Zhen-Shan-Ren exhibition in Sofia in 2008 and expressed strong interest in the philosophy.

On 2nd October, 2008 Bulgarian practitioners presented Falun Gong. After a short demonstration of the first video lecture given by Master Li Hongzhi, the founder of the practice, a lively conversation was held as a result of the psychologists’ desire to know about the practitioners’ personal experience, health and mind benefits. They were interested in how practitioners found out about Falun Gong and why they started practising, as well as why exactly this practice is persecuted in China. Macedonian participant shared, that she read about Falun Gong but in her country there aren’t practitioners yet.

Many learned how to make handmade paper lotus flowers - a symbol of the purity and beauty of Falun Gong.

Local reporter interviews a practitioner

Earlier in the same day, practitioners had taken a place for an information day in the centre of city of Blagoevgrad, in front of the main building of the American University in Bulgaria and the South-Western University. They distributed information leaflets to the locals and raised awareness about the persecution of Falun Gong in China by the Chinese Communist Party.