PureInsight | April 17, 2015
[PureInsight.org] The bell of the 2015 New Year had just sounded. With holiday joy, Falun Gong practitioners from Moscow, Voronezh and Ukraine etc. traveled thousands of miles and gathered together in the “north capital” of St. Petersburg for the annual Russian Winter Fa Conference.
It was snowing heavily in St. Petersburg, but this did not interfere with the practitioners’ enthusiasm for Fa study and sharing. By the early morning of January 3, Falun Gong practitioners from different places had arrived at St. Petersburg. Regardless of the toil and exhaustion from traveling, they started the three-day Fa study and sharing at 10:00 am. The practitioners read Zhuan Falun and Master’s Fa teaching given at the 2014 San Francisco Fa Conference. Later, they had group exercises, sent forth righteous thoughts and shared their recent experiences in personal cultivation, exposing the persecution, saving sentient beings and validating the Fa.
Many practitioners mentioned in their sharing that recent local events showed them their deficiencies and emphasized that they had eliminated distrust and estrangement among themselves. They could understand each other better and improve themselves.
Although she could not make it this time, Lisa, an Israeli practitioner, wrote an article sharing her experience going to Tashkent last year with four fellow practitioners to clarify the truth and collect signatures against the persecution. A Canadian practitioner had learned that Lisa was born in Tashkent and suggested that she go to Uzbekistan to collect signatures several months ago. There were five people: two Israeli practitioners, one practitioner’s twelve-year-old grandson and two Russian practitioners. After preparing all the information and documents, they boarded the airplane to Tashkent. “After arriving at Tashkent and waiting for customs, I began to clarify the truth about Falun Gong to people nearby. Two other practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts. One practitioner could not speak Russian. Upon seeing that many people were listening carefully, this practitioner took out the petition and said, ‘Give it a try!’ I suggested to a young man nearby to sign, and he did so right away. Then he gave it to another person to sign. Every one carefully signed and passed it to next person. Just like that, we had already accumulated many signatures, which increased our confidence. We knew that we were on the right track. Sentient beings are waiting for us.” After collecting about 150 signatures, the practitioners visited the Justice Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Civil Office, Attorney General’s Office, State Duma and Congress, handed in prepared documents and talked with some officials. Everyone treated them with respect, showed them care and provided them with ideas.
In the last two days of sharing, practitioners also shared experiences of how to not view issues with an ordinary person’s mindset and to instead use righteous thoughts to expose the persecution, save sentient beings and validate Dafa while facing all kinds of events in society.
On the evening of January 5, the three-day Fa study and experience-sharing conference ended in a peaceful atmosphere. Everyone benefited greatly and hoped to cultivate more diligently in the New Year.
Translated from: http://news.zhengjian.org/node/24393
