- Promoting the Fa at the Golden Autumn Festival
The traditional Golden Autumn Festival is held almost every weekend in the Fall in San Diego. Sometimes Festival activities take place at several different locations, attracting thousands of people. From our previous experience in promoting Falun Dafa and expounding the truth to American society, the practitioners in San Diego have learned that we should actively participate in all local activities, so we decided to attend this festival. A Western practitioner volunteered to collect the festival schedule and information, and we began planning.
On the weekend of October 6th and 7th, San Diego practitioners gathered together for a demo of Falun Gong exercise by the entrance to the Golden Autumn Festival. Meanwhile, two practitioners at the front handed out Dafa introductory materials to the passersby. With the Falun Gong music, we repeated again and again the five sets of exercises. Our harmonious energy field was an oasis of peace amid the busy, noisy market-going crowd. Thus, we attracted people to slow down and take a look of us for a while. Many jotted down our Group Exercise Sites and contact numbers. Some others also expressed their support of Falun Gong's appeal for freedom of belief in China.
Across from us was a market stand run by an American mother and daughter. The daughter came to pick up a copy of our flier on the first day. The next day, the mother came over to ask for more information and took several sets of materials for her friends. She said: "I've been observing you guys. I can tell that you all are good people. Falun Gong must be a good way of cultivation practice."
One time a young American man attracted by our yellow T-shirts came directly to the practitioner who was handing out the Falun Gong newspaper and asked: "What's that?" For some reason, at that moment the practitioner could not utter any words but started weeping. After quietly reading the material, the young man said softly: "You don't need to say anything and I understand. I know what to do." As he left, he took the Dafa materials with him. On another occasion, a practitioner was introducing Falun Gong to an American couple and talking about China's persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. As they were chatting, the practitioner could not help but become tearful and so did the couple.
In those two days of spreading Fa, we sensed the immense benevolence of the Dafa and of our Teacher. We realized the urgency of expounding the truth to the people of the world. In the process of doing it, we help to bring out the good side of people and we appreciate their good-heartedness.
(2) Distributing Falun Dafa Newspapers at a Chinese Supermarket
San Diego has many Chinese residents scattered widely throughout the city. On weekends, the best place to find Chinese people is at the local Chinese supermarket. One practitioner has been going to one of these markets for hours every weekend to distribute the Falun Dafa newspaper. Other practitioners hand out materials when they go shopping there themselves. A few months ago, 60-70% of the people were reluctant to receive the materials. Now, with the cosmic climate changing, 70-80% are not just willing but are eager to take the Falun Gong newspaper. Some even come to ask for new issues and tell us that they have enjoyed reading every issue of the newspaper. We now hand out 400-500 copies of the Falun Dafa newspaper every weekend.
- Promoting the Fa and Expounding Truth in Innovative Ways
- Fully Utilizing Media and Distribution Networks
In this big election year, there are lots of candidate activities. Every week there are debates or community meetings. On the evening of October 25th, we attended the debate meeting at the UCSD campus. With goodness in mind, practitioners chatted with candidates and others present about Falun Dafa and China's suppression of Falun Gong. Surprisingly, the candidates knew about the Falun Gong situation in China and they expressed sympathy and support for us. They also accepted the latest Falun Dafa publications from us. After the meeting, some practitioners continued to distribute Falun Dafa materials to those attending. Then, at the suggestion of an American practitioner, several practitioners volunteered to work at a local election site. They took that opportunity for spreading Fa to the voters by handing out extra Falun Dafa materials. We found that that was another innovative and effective way to spread the Fa.
Practitioners in San Diego have been making efforts to introduce Falun Gong via the mainstream media. Since last November, the San Diego cable TV network has broadcast "Falun Dafa- The Real Story" once every month. Today the major bookstores such as Barnes & Noble, Bookstar, Borders, and Crowns in San Diego carry English copies of the book Zhuan Falun. Also people can buy the Chinese edition of all Falun Dafa books as well as the Falun Gong Exercise Instruction tape at the city's Far East Culture Co. and Evergreen Bookstore. Since April of 1999, all the 34 city libraries have had the book China Falun Gong for residents to check out for reading. Several American practitioners got the opportunity to attain Dafa via reading that book from the libraries. Also, starting this August, people can borrow the videotape of "Falun Dafa- The Real Story" from any of those 34 city libraries.
Falun Dafa Practitioner in San Diego
10-31-2000
