(Minghui.org) Falun Dafa practitioners held activities in Bucharest’s Roman Square on April 1 and on Gorj Square on April 8, 2023, to raise awareness of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of the spiritual practice in China, and also to show Romanians the positive effects the practice has on people's health and well being.
Practitioners distributed Falun Dafa calendars, flyers and lotus flower amulets, and demonstrated the exercises. Many people expressed their support for the persecuted practitioners in China and requested more information about the practice’s meditative exercises.
Falun Dafa practitioners demonstrate the exercises, distribute flyers and talk with passersby about the CCP’s persecution on Gorj Square on April 8, 2023.
Practitioners set up two tall banners next to their information booth, one with details about what Falun Dafa is and the other about the suppression of practitioners in China.
Distributing calendars, information leaflets, and lotus flowers to passersby on Roman Square in Bucharest on April 1, 2023.
A banner caught the eye of an elderly man on Roman Square on April 1, 2023, and he stopped to ask about the banner’s headline, “Stop the persecution of Falun Dafa.” After learning about how practitioners were persecuted for their faith and even had their organs forcibly harvested for profit, he showed sympathy for their plight.
“It’s unbelievable that these things are happening in this century, nowadays. It is good to inform as many people as possible about these atrocities,” he said.
The man left the booth with a flyer, but soon returned without it. He said that when he was grabbing something to eat at a bagel shop, the server was interested in the Falun Dafa flyer and asked him to leave it with her. He gave it to her and then came back to get a second one for himself, and also asked for a lotus charm for his wife.
A senior who passes by Roman Square on April 1, 2023, listens to Falun Dafa practitioners explain what the practice is and how it is persecuted by the CCP.
A man in his 40s stopped by the booth to ask about the practice. At the end of the discussion with a practitioner, this man said that he knew about the persecution, and he knew the CCP also persecuted Uyghurs and other minorities. He told the practitioner that they need to “continue to do this, the world needs to know the truth.”
Another passerby in Roman Square said that practitioners’ efforts were extraordinary, and she asked if they would accept her donation to raise awareness about the persecution. The practitioners at the booth explained that they don’t accept donations and had paid for everything themselves, she took a flyer so that she could better understand the practice.
People of All Ages Interested in the Practice for Body and Spirit
Many local people were interested in the meditative exercises of Falun Dafa that practitioners demonstrated at the booth.
An elderly woman with a little girl stopped to watch the practitioners demonstrate the Falun Standing Stance in Roman Square. While doing the exercise, the practitioners held their arms in a circle above their heads. The little girl copied the practitioners’ movement, and the elderly woman praised the soothing exercise music.
“You see, I didn’t tell her to stand like that,” the woman said to a practitioner, “that’s the way she wanted to do it.”
The two of them stood for a few seconds before accepting a flyer and lotus flower charm and then walking away.
A middle-aged woman approached a practitioner at the booth and asked if the exercises could be done by people who are “more corpulent, like me.” A practitioner told her that the exercises were easy to learn and self-paced.
The woman confessed that she often felt that her thinking was scattered and wanted to “pull herself together.” A practitioner told her that the Falun Dafa meditation could help a person think better thoughts and become more in control of their thoughts.
“So [the practice] makes your dark thoughts disappear?” asked the woman. The practitioner affirmed that it certainly can. The woman left after taking a Falun Dafa calendar and lotus flower charms, and learning about the Bucharest practice site that the practitioners have in King Michael Park I Park every weekend.
The sky was overcast when the practitioners set up the booth in Roman Square on April 1, and from time to time, it would drizzle. But at the end of the day, when the practitioners were packing up, the sun came out, and it almost felt like a symbol of how kindness always triumphs over suppression and brutality.
Gorj Square in Bucharest, Romania, on April 8, 2023
The Falun Dafa booth on Gorj Square in Bucharest, Romania, on April 8, 2023.
Three practitioners demonstrated the exercises on Gorj Square in Bucharest, Romania, on April 8, 2023, while a practitioner shared information about Falun Dafa with passersby, and another gave people information leaflets.
A practitioner provides information about Falun Dafa at the booth in Gorj Square on April 8, 2023.
A middle-aged woman came over to ask for more information after seeing the banner about the persecution in Gorj Square. When she learned about the human rights abuses that Chinese practitioners suffered, she encouraged practitioners at the booth to continue their efforts.
“If more and more people pooled their energy for such a good cause, things would surely change for the better,” she said.
A young mother and her young son approached the booth in Gorj Square . The mother asked a practitioner if her son could have a lotus flower charm. As the mother and son tried to pick a color for their lotus flower, the practitioner explained that the lotus is a symbol of purity and the words “Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance”—the principles of Falun Dafa—are printed on the charm.
In the end, the boy chose a yellow flower. “I was sure you’d choose this one, it’s your favorite color!” the mother said. When the practitioner wished the mother and son a nice day as they were leaving, the mother replied that she already felt like her day was brighter. The mother said she felt “a special energy that has been giving her a very good feeling ever since she stopped in front of the stand.”
A young mother and her son receive lotus flowers on Gorj Square on April 8, 2023.
The booth attracted many passersby, each with their own reason for stopping. One man had met practitioners at a health fair in the past, and stopped to greet them and wish them well. An elderly man wanted to pass information about Falun Dafa to his grandson. Another elderly man asked where the practitioners did the exercises on the weekends, so that he could go and watch the whole set of exercises. The practitioners distributed many flyers, calendars, and lotus flower charms, with the hope that they could share the principles of Falun Dafa with everyone who walked by.
Background: What Is Falun Dafa and Why is the CCP persecuting it?
Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) was first introduced to the public by Mr. Li Hongzhi in Changchun, China, in 1992. The spiritual discipline is now practiced in more than 100 countries and regions worldwide. Millions of people who have embraced the teachings, which are based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, and have learned the five exercises, have experienced improved health and well-being.
Jiang Zemin, former head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), perceived the spiritual discipline’s growing popularity as a threat to the CCP’s atheistic ideology and on July 20, 1999, he issued an order to eradicate the practice.
Under Jiang’s personal direction, the CCP established the 610 Office, an extralegal security organization with the power to override the police and judicial systems and whose sole function is to carry out the persecution of Falun Dafa.
Minghui.org has confirmed the deaths of thousands of practitioners as a result of the persecution over the past 24 years. The actual number is believed to be much higher. Countless practitioners have been imprisoned and tortured for their faith.
There is concrete evidence that the CCP sanctions the harvesting of organs from detained practitioners, who are murdered to supply China’s organ transplant industry.
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