More than 400 practitioners from Australia, Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, New Zealand, Taiwan, and mainland China attended a Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference that was held in Sydney, Australia on September 17.
Pictures of Master Li and the Falun emblem were hung in the middle of the conference hall. In the front, a banner with the words "Validate the Fa with Reason, Clarify the Truth with Wisdom" highlighted the theme of the conference. There were also two other banners with lines from Master Li's poems, "Buddha-light Illuminates Everywhere and Rectifies All Abnormalities," and "Cultivate Diligently Together, the Future Outlook is Bright." Fresh flowers were placed on each side of the podium. Underneath the podium, a giant lotus flower (about 5 feet wide) made of pink silk was especially eye-catching. A giant book model (about 5 feet tall, 1 foot thick) of Zhuan Falun in Chinese and English was placed on top of the flower. The conference hall looked grand and solemn.
Speeches given by Taiwanese practitioners received waves of applause from the conference participants. It made everyone realize that cultivation in Falun Dafa eliminates all boundaries that separate practitioners from different countries. We were deeply moved and encouraged by how well practitioners from other countries were able to spread the Dafa in an active and responsible manner, regardless of where they were. Australian practitioners would like to take this opportunity to express our most heart-felt gratitude to all practitioners from other countries, who traveled to Australia to participate in the experience sharing conference in order to spread Falun Dafa during the Sydney Olympics.
Practitioners from different parts of Australia shared their respective experiences on spreading Dafa. The head of the Australian Falun Dafa Association made a keynote speech entitled "A Look Back on How Australian Practitioners Made it through the Difficult Time." Practitioners also talked about their personal understandings of "practicing cultivation while conforming to everyday people as much as possible, but not conforming to everyday people as much as possible (in and of itself)." A Caucasian practitioner talked about how the Dafa turned him from a marijuana smoker to a true cultivator seeking to "return to the initial and pure stage." Australian public TV station SBS also covered the experience sharing conference, in preparation for a 30 minute special on Falun Dafa.
This experience sharing conference was different from previous ones. Everyone saw how much Australian practitioners were lagging behind practitioners from other countries, and grew more determined to catch up. Some were immediately able to find their areas for improvement. Furthermore, everyone realized that the immediate task is not only to "spread the Fa and offer people salvation with benevolence," but also to use a heart of kindness to help those practitioners who have fallen behind catch up. If we can truly "cultivate diligently together," then, indeed, "the future outlook is bright."
Australian Practitioners, September 20, 2000
