(Clearwisdom.net) On the evening of December 6, local Falun Dafa practitioners gave a seminar about Falun Gong at the Satchidananda Ashram, Yogaville, Virginia to introduce Falun Gong and the persecution in China. Many people learned the five sets of exercises during the seminar.

People listen to truth-clarification about Falun Gong

Learning the Falun Gong exercises

As early as September 2001, a woman who had practiced Yoga for about 30 years at Yogaville saw a program about Falun Gong on TV, and she started to practice Falun Gong. Since then, more and more people began to practice Falun Gong. At first, the Ashram didn't allow them to practice at the center. In August 2003, they obtained permission for the first time to demonstrate the Falun Gong exercises on the lawn outside of the center. It was evening time, and many people watched and some of them wanted to learn the exercises. For some time the administrators of the Ashram didn't allow Falun Gong practitioners to openly introduce Falun Gong in the center by holding seminars, but after persistent efforts on the part of the practitioners, the administrators approved the seminar a short time ago.

The practitioners put up posters and sent a flyer to every resident of Yogaville. That evening, over a dozen people attended the seminar, including two important members of the center. After an 8-minute video introduction of Falun Gong, the attendees learned the five sets of Falun Gong exercises. Next, a practitioner from the University of Virginia gave a lecture entitled, "Falun Gong: A Peaceful Exercise Persecuted in China." In the lecture, he introduced what Falun Gong is, why Jiang Zemin's faction wants to persecute Falun Gong, methods of persecution and its results, and why the world needs to be aware of the persecution. After the lecture, many people raised questions. One woman asked in detail what she could do to help Falun Gong.

A woman named Beth had lived in China for four years. It was obvious that she had a special feeling for the Chinese people. She gave a testimony from her own experience, about when she was in China. The school where she worked had a senior-level teacher whose husband practiced Falun Gong. Just because her husband was a practitioner, the school leaders re-assigned that teacher to be a janitor.

Beth said she couldn't understand why her Christian friends in China believed the Communist party's anti-Falun Gong propaganda. However, she kept sending them news explaining the truth. She said, "They appreciated that I provided them the information. Because of the information blockade in China, they didn't know about the persecution." Beth thanked the practitioners for the seminar, and said that she would come to group practice in the future.