Belgium: Falun Gong at the Sfinks International Music Festival

The Sfinks Festival (International Music Festival) was held during the last weekend of July. At this year's festival, Falun Gong practitioners introduced Falun Gong to the festival visitors.

Practitioners demonstrate the Falun Gong exercises behind informational display boards

Festivalgoers stopped to read the information boards and watch the exercise demonstration

This year, the festival was held in a large open area. There were dances, games, food and a small market. Several volunteer organizations also participated the event. From July 24 until July 26, there were over 30,000 visitors to the festival.

Falun Gong practitioners set up a tent with display boards about the worldwide spread of Falun Gong and the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) persecution of the practice. In the tent, Falun Gong books and other materials were displayed amid beautiful hand-made paper lotus flowers.

People learning about Falun Gong

This was the third time that Belgian practitioners participated in the Sfinks Festival. Their wish was to promote Falun Dafa and give more people the opportunity to benefit from the practice.

Falun Dafa Inspires Conscience

Rita, a Belgian woman, told a practitioner after watching the exercise demonstration, "I like Falun Gong very much.. I have read some books about Buddhism and understand [the relationship between the] body and karma." When she found out that there were Falun Gong books for sale, she bought Zhuan Falun (the main text of Falun gong practice) and Falun Gong (the introductory text of Falun gong practice). She also said that she would check for information about the local practice site.

Buying Falun Gong books

One man told the writer that he had come to the festival with his family the day before, but he came back again the next day just to buy some Falun Gong books. He wished to learn the meditation.

A Belgian practitioner named Uria, who just graduated from university, is part of a family of practitioners. She, her parents and her brother all practise Falun Gong.

Uria told the writer this story: A young man and his friend came up and told her that they had already learned about Falun Dafa because they had seen the practitioners' demonstration at the festival last year. He said knew that Falun Gong practitioners are persecuted in China. Uria related, "I could see the sorrow deep in his eyes. But when I told him how graceful Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is, and how it can help people improve health and uplift morality, his eyes sparkled with happiness. I was so pleased that he knows about Falun Dafa."

Another gentleman, who was in his thirties, said to Uria after reading the informational boards, "[Reading about] the organ harvesting made me cry. I have come across Falun Gong practitioners several times. I know what is happening in China and how brutal the persecution is. I have been wondering what I can do to help Falun Gong and help end the persecution."

When he saw the postcards with the message, "Freedom Belongs to Falun Gong", he asked for a dozen of them. He said he will mail them to Belgian leaders and give them an opportunity to learn about the persecution and to provide help to end it.

Louis Band, a Swiss singer from Columbia, asked a lot about the persecution. He said, "I know how the Cuban communist party persecutes Cubans. That is why I know how the CCP persecutes Falun Gong." He expressed his best wishes for Falun Gong to succeed in ending the persecution.

A young Tibetan, Zelang, and his friends, in their twenties, were visiting Belgium from mainland China. After watching the practice demonstration, Zelang asked, "Are you paid for doing this?" He found it hard to believe that a great deal of the materials are handmade by practitioners and the others are donated by practitioners. He said, "What I heard in China about Falun Gong is completely different. It looks like the information in China is not true." He then said that when he saw how peaceful the practitioners were when they were doing the meditation, he felt that they were Bodhisattvas.

Another gentleman wanted to buy the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party after reading through the informational boards. A Russian lady bought the Nine Commentaries and said that she wanted to know more about the persecution.