(Minghui.org) The fourth Bulgaria Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference was held on July 20, 2014, in the capital city of Sofia. The conference and other events to raise awareness marked 15 years of the unprecedented peaceful resistance to the persecution in China. Practitioners protested in front of the Chinese embassy and held a signature drive at the National Assembly Square, inviting citizens to show their support.
Eighteen practitioners shared their experiences at the conference.
One of the conference speakers, Anna, spoke about how she gained a deeper understanding of the meaning of Fa-rectification while memorizing the Fa every day. As a result, she improved in sending forth righteous thoughts. She said that she had identified the gap in her cultivation during sharing and participation in practitioners' activities and this enabled her to relinquish fear and elevate her xinxing.
Another practitioner, Dmitry, shared how he rectified his notions while working on translations. He strengthened his righteous thoughts as he memorized the Fa and improved his understanding. By detecting and overcoming interference, he learned how to use righteous thoughts to negate them, break through his own boundaries, and elevate his xinxing, he said.
Also sharing about the power of memorizing the Fa, Dalinka explained how this helped her overcome a sudden attack of illness karma. The power of the Fa also enabled her to find and bring back practitioners who had left the group.
A practitioner named Martin spoke about his understanding that every person represents countless sentient beings and the importance of holding strong righteous thoughts while saving sentient beings. He also shared his experience of looking inward and letting go of the attachment to self.
Many new practitioners shared how they handled karma elimination with righteous thoughts and elevated their xinxing to catch up with the progress of the Fa-rectification.
Practitioners staged a peaceful protest in front of the Chinese embassy in Sofia on July 21, 2014. They distributed flyers to the police officers on duty. Some of the officers were interested in the exercises.
As practitioners did the exercises together, a young Chinese woman came out of the embassy and started taking photographs. Practitioners told her the facts about the persecution and asked her not to assist the persecution by taking photos for the embassy.
They also raised awareness of the persecution by informing passersby about the organ harvesting atrocities in China.
Many locals and tourists signed the petition to call for an end to forced organ harvesting in China during practitioners' signature drive at the National Assembly Square on July 21.
One woman said that she was not surprised to learn what the communist party was capable of, that harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners simply revealed more of its crimes.
Another person asked, “Why is the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) persecuting Falun Gong?” Before practitioners responded, she reached an answer on her own: “Of course. A dictatorship won't allow people to gather freely.”
Many Chinese at several Chinese restaurants in a busy area in Sofia chose to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations after discussing China issues with practitioners.
One young restaurant owner said he had to leave China because he couldn't stand the CCP. “I read about the history of the CCP in my spare time. It is really a very ugly story!” He asked if his Young Pioneer membership would still need to be addressed even though his teacher took back his “red scarf” (a signature decoration for communist Young Pioneer members) after just a few days.
Practitioners explained to him that the pledge to sacrifice his life for the CCP still existed regardless of how many days he had worn the “red scarf.”
He then smiled and said, “All right [I quit]!”