(Minghui.org) The annual Glenferrie Festival was held on Sunday, March 5, 2023 in Hawthorn, an affluent district in Melbourne. Practitioners participated in the festival and introduced Falun Dafa to the public.
The Glenferrie Festival is one of Melbourne’s largest local festivals, and attracts many families with children to come and sample foods and participate in various entertainment activities. Practitioners demonstrated the Falun Dafa exercises and distributed many informational leaflets during this one-day event. Many people from various ethnic groups and ages stopped by the booth to learn more about the practice. Some learned the exercises on the spot.
Troy Quintal, the owner of a loan brokerage company in Perth, is interested in reading Falun Dafa books and learning the exercises. “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance can lead the world to a higher realm,” he said.
Deeply Disturbed by the Persecution of Falun Dafa
Troy Quintal, a senior mortgage broker, co-owns a mortgage brokerage company in Perth and serves as a senior financial manager. He came to the festival with his friend in Melbourne. He watched practitioners demonstrate the exercises and had a long conversation with them.
“I am from Singapore and know about Falun Dafa.” He said, “I have been paying attention to the news about it through news media and other channels in the past ten years. I am deeply disturbed by the persecution of Falun Dafa.
“The government has no reason to persecute it. It’s a peaceful group. What they do is a kind of self-awakening.” He continued, “I think that the communist regime absolutely does not want people to wake up and know who they really are and that they are lives of spirituality. Once a life is awakened, the government can no longer control him through coercion.”
Experiencing the Beauty Brought by Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance
Troy said, “As I grew up in a Christian background, I didn’t have many opportunities to learn meditation. While Eastern philosophies all include the requirement of meditation.”
He said that he hoped to find a way to meditate more peacefully. He said he wanted to read Falun Dafa books and learn the exercises after returning home.
“Only by keeping your heart quiet, free from the noise of the outside world, can you experience the existence of God in the depths of your soul.”
“And the noise is not only physical and external, but also in the human mind, because people are always thinking about the past and planning for the future, and few people sit down and cherish the present moment.”
He shared his understanding, “Falun Dafa practitioners follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to practice meditation. They can also understand the connotation of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance during meditation.”
“Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance Leads the World to a Higher Realm”
Troy believes that Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is a universal value and can help people have better lives.
He said that to obtain such a wonderful result, one has to actually practice it. Otherwise it is very difficult to achieve these three words. “Only by reading Falun Dafa books, learning Falun Dafa exercises, and actually practicing it, can you feel the true meaning of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance from your heart.”
He used the concept of “ego” to explain that if you don’t remove the “noise” in your heart, you can’t achieve Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
“For example, you have always cared about yourself. To protect your own benefits, you may lie to cover up things that are to your disadvantage. So you can’t be truthful. Because of being attached to yourself, you can’t be compassionate, and you always put yourself first and others last. Also because you only care about yourself, you can’t achieve Forbearance.”
As the owner of a loan brokerage company, he said that the company’s operations should not deviate from the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. “The operation of any company should conform to Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and follow these principles. Deviating from it violates the principle of heaven and causes the world to go downhill. Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance leads the world to a higher realm.”
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 over 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 organisation 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 23 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.
Chinese version available
(Clearwisdom)