(Clearwisdom.net) May 13 is World Falun Dafa Day. Falun Gong practitioners from the Hualian area rallied in front of the Hualian Railway Station to celebrate this sacred day, welcome the beautiful day, and wish Master Li a happy birthday with a morning group practice. Even more so, practitioners wished to share the happiness of practicing Falun Dafa with Hualian residents.

On May 13, 2005, Master Li Hongzhi formally introduced Falun Dafa to the public in China, a cultivation practice which has benefited more than 100 million people both physically and mentally. People from different nationalities, old or young, rich or poor have been immersed in the Buddha light through practicing Falun Dafa. May 13 is also Master Li Hongzhi's birthday. In order to allow the world's people to further understand Falun Dafa, in order to help people with predestined relationship to obtain the Fa, and in order to celebrate this great festival, in 2000, Falun Gong practitioners from across the world set May 13 as World Falun Dafa Day.

Keng Sheng News Daily reports on the World Falun Dafa Day celebration

In late April of this year, several Falun Gong practitioners from Hualian traveled thousands of miles to New York to attend a series of activities to promote Falun Gong. They wished to tell people about the beauty of Falun Gong and the current severe persecution of Falun Gong in China. In order to uphold justice and goodness, Falun Gong practitioners courageously stand up and say "No" to the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) dictatorship and brutal violence. They hope that the world's people will understand the truth about Falun Gong and realize the CCP's lies and violence. Their wish is for people to not be poisoned and harmed by the CCP's lies, and to safeguard truth and justice.

Brief introduction to Falun Gong

Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong was introduced by Master Li Hongzhi from China. It teaches people to cultivate "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance," and improve one's xinxing. It also includes five sets of exercises to cultivate the body and improve physical health. Falun Gong is a very good practice that fits the lifestyle of modern people. During the 13 brief years since its introduction, through word of mouth, Falun Dafa has been spread to more than 60 countries throughout the world. More than 100 million people practice Falun Gong. At least 1,000 proclamations have been issued by governments of all levels and organizations across the world to praise Falun Gong. Master Li Hongzhi was also nominated for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize.

April 25 peaceful appeal in Beijing

At the Oriental Health Expo held in Beijing in 1993, Master Li Hongzhi won the highest award, "Frontier Science Award," "Special Gold Award," and "Most Popular Qigong Master." Falun Gong takes "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" as the core guiding principles of the cultivation practice. Due to its outstanding effects, free instruction and being simple to learn, the practice has been warmly received. Unfortunately, the rapid increase of people's love of the practice and the subsequent increase in the practice's popularity evoked the CCP's suppression and defamation of Falun Gong.

In 1996, the Chinese authorities banned the publication of Falun Dafa books. In 1997, some people, led by He Zuoxiu, a relative of Luo Gan, started constantly publishing articles attacking Falun Gong. In 1998, local police forcefully scattered people who were practicing Falun Gong, and broke into and ransacked their homes, in an effort to deliberately set in opposition, the police and practitioners of Falun Gong. In April 1999, the Tianjin Police even unlawfully arrested and detained 45 Falun Gong practitioners and told them that without permission from Beijing, the detained practitioners would not be released. They said that if practitioners wanted to appeal, they had to go to Beijing to appeal to the Central government.

On April 25, 1999, more than 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners voluntarily went to the Appeal Office of the State Council which is next to the Zhongnanhai Government Compound, in the hopes of clarifying the misunderstanding to the government and to express their wishes to enjoy the freedom to practice. Representatives of practitioners raised three requests: first, release the illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners in Tianjin; secondly, provide Falun Gong practitioners with a legal and reasonable practice environment; thirdly, allow Falun Gong books to be published.

The then-Prime Minister Zhu Rongji met with practitioners' representatives and ordered that the Tianjin Police release the detained Falun Gong practitioners. He also stressed the policy that the government would not intervene with people's practice. The overall appeal was peaceful and orderly. This is the well-known April 25 incident, which set a precedent in which the Chinese government and common people used peaceful dialog to solve problems. The incident also amazed the entire world.

Unfortunately, on the evening of April 25, 1999, Jiang Zemin, as the Secretary-general of the CCP, wrote to the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau and related leaders, to begin a suppression of Falun Gong. On June 10 the same year, Jiang further abused his power to establish the 610 Office, an organization dedicated to handling Falun Gong issues, and thus began the comprehensive suppression of Falun Gong in Mainland China.

Falun Gong practitioners' truth-clarification

According to incomplete estimates, since the persecution began in earnest on July 20, 1999, 2,220 Falun Gong practitioners have been verified by nongovernmental organizations to have died from the persecution. At least 6,000 practitioners were illegally sentenced to prisons. More than 100,000 practitioners have been sent to labor camps. Several thousand practitioners were locked up in psychiatric hospitals where they were injected with drugs that damage the central nervous system.

In the face of the CCP's overwhelming persecution and its wide spread deceit and propaganda defaming Falun Gong both inside and outside China, Falun Gong practitioners stand up to clarify the facts with their own experiences. Practitioners hope to restore the reputation of Falun Gong and to stop the persecution as soon as possible. They hope that Mainland practitioners will once again enjoy the legal environment to practice Falun Gong.

For this reason, Hualian Falun Gong practitioners also went to New York to attend the Falun Gong experience sharing conference. In addition to introducing Falun Gong at various scenic sites in the U.S., they also went to the Chinese Consulate in New York to participate in the activities calling for an end to the persecution. During their truth-clarification activities, they found that many American people were not clear about the brutality of the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong. After learning the truth, some American people thanked practitioners for telling them the facts. Some Americans wanted to learn the practice and many expressed their support for Falun Gong.

Practitioner Mr. Chang said that the CCP's lies could only deceive people for a while, but that it wouldn't last forever. The truth of the June 4^th incident [the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre] has been revealed to the whole world, just as the truth about Falun Dafa will be become known. He said that it is really significant for him to be able to stand in New York - the center of the world - to let more people know about Falun Gong and the cruel persecution in China. He sincerely hoped that those who follow the CCP to persecute Falun Gong will immediately stop doing such bad deeds and stop the persecution. He also hoped that more kind-hearted people will stand up and bravely say "No" to the CCP's brutal persecution and uphold human beings' sense of justice and morality.

In addition, Master Li Hongzhi personally came to the New York experience sharing conference and taught the "Fa". On April 24, nearly 4,000 practitioners of Falun Gong from across the world attended the conference and shared their understandings and experiences in their cultivation practice.

Practitioners from Hualian felt honored to be able to listen to Master Li's Fa lecture. They said that Master Li teaches people to practice cultivation without charging a penny or accepting a single gift. He only looks at practitioners' hearts. Practitioners expressed their gratitude toward Master Li for the health and moral benefits they obtained through practicing Falun Gong.

In the Fa lecture, Master Li expressed that Dafa practitioners "are cultivators, people whose bodies are in the secular world but whose minds are beyond it. And we're not interested in political power there anyway." Master Li pointed out, "But none of what we have done has a political motive behind it; we don't do things with political motives. How could true cultivators possibly get involved with worldly politics?" He stated, "A cultivator's goal is to go beyond the human world and achieve the Consummation of his being. When he is attached to getting worldly things or to self-interest he can't reach Consummation. When a cultivator cultivates in this world he is to get rid of all sorts of human attachments, and only then can he become a divine being." Master Li reminded practitioners to cultivate themselves well. He said, "No matter how hard things may be for Dafa disciples and how trying your journey may be, your future is bright." (Quotes from "Teaching the Fa at the 2005 Manhattan International Fa Conference")

Hualian practitioners' wishes

Practitioner Mr. Yang expressed that it is a joy to practice Falun Dafa. In addition to obtaining good health, in which he has not had to see a doctor or take medicine for seven years since he started the cultivation practice, he also gradually improved his xinxing. For instance, previously he would often argue with his clients when he was under great work pressures. No matter whether he won or lost the argument, he did not feel good about it. Falun Gong teaches people to be kind and always consider others first, and Mr. Yang therefore is now able to put himself in his clients' shoes and help them to solve their problems. Kindness lets him become open and tolerant. If everyone would be a little kinder, the world would be more beautiful.