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Switzerland: An Overview of the Activities of Swiss Practitioners (Photo)

Feb. 9, 2008

(Clearwisdom.net) With lecture videos introducing Falun Gong being shown from Geneva to Lucerne, from Zurich to the capital city of Bern and from metropolitan areas to rural villages, the number of practitioners in Switzerland has grown bigger and bigger and Falun Gong practice sites have sprouted up one after another. Many Swiss people learned about Falun Gong through practitioners' activities to expose the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) brutal persecution and from media reports covering the persecution.

Since 2000, every year in March during the UN Human Rights Conference, practitioners from all over the world gather on the square in front of the United Nations in Geneva to hold a peaceful protest against the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong.

Among them are Chinese and westerners, professors, doctors, lawyers, company presidents, students and housewives, who came of their own free will to take part in the peaceful petition. They sacrifice their own money and time with the aim to appeal for common action to stop the bloody persecution of Falun Gong in China.

Falun Gong practitioners have been so peaceful and steadfast that they have moved the people of the world. A security official for the UN in charge of maintaining order during the various rallies and protest demonstrations said of practitioners, "I have performed my duties for so many years and have never seen such peacefulness. Please pass my words on to those practitioners coming from a long way away. I believe they will have good results."

Many Members of Parliament have expressed support for Falun Gong, feeling duty-bound to stop the persecution. David Hiler of the Green Party from Geneva said, "China has been violating human rights over the past decades. Now China is again so foolish as to persecute those who simply pursue their belief. In 1989, I was indignant at the massacre in Tiananmen Square, but I thought I was alone and unable to do anything, whereas the whole world has now heard about China's persecution of Falun Gong. I wish to express my high commendation for the nonviolent activities of Falun Gong practitioners, including the Western practitioners who had the courage to go to Beijing to expose the truth. They are willing to take a risk to change this world."

Practitioners continue clarifying the truth about the persecution through various means. Sixty-five-year-old Ingeborg and Ursula, 57, from Bern, are among those who tirelessly expose the persecution in China. They both started practicing Falun Gong in 2000.

Ursula (Left) and Ingeborg (Right) in Lausanne

Ingeborg got to know about Falun Gong from one of her colleagues. "I started to practice Falun Gong in 2000. Other people told me that I should download a book on Falun Gong from the Internet, but I did not have access to the Internet and did not know how to download it. My nephew helped me download and print the book. Just at the moment that I opened and started to read the book, I knew that this was just what I longed for. I had been hospitalized for seven years because I was once in very poor health and there was nothing I could do about it. When I started to practice Falun Gong, I became healthier and my outward appearance started to improve, too. My family also became harmonious. So I continued to practice Falun Gong. This has been very good for whole of my family. Falun Gong is really very good.

Ursula, who lives in the same small town, learned about Falun Gong from Ingeborg. "We started to practice the exercises together. I initially started to learn Falun Gong because I had been ill for a long time. The doctor told me that I had to have my large intestine operated on. I was often hospitalized and so I searched high and low and tried many different ways to become well. I had practiced Tai Chi and Yoga. None of these practices had helped me regain my health. It was not long after I had started practicing Falun Gong that I got my health back. I have also become gentler. In the past, my mind was in a tumult. Now I am in a peaceful state of mind and in good health. I feel that I have changed in a very positive way. I have given up many things and many attachments. Take my interaction with other people for example. I used to cast many unfriendly glances and was hard to get along with. Of course, only after I had practiced Falun Gong did I find this out and did I find that actually I had once been very fierce with the people around me. After taking up Falun Gong, I found that I've changed, though gradually, but I'm improving every day. Therefore, I am very happy to recommend Falun Gong to everybody.

Source: http://clearharmony.net/articles/200802/43045.html