[Drew Parker, Musician, Falun Dafa Practitioner]:
“I’d always be writing about my own personal feeling of experience, but after I practiced Falun Gong I started to think about OK how will this impact the other person? What kind of feeling? What kind of experience is this song going to create in them? And how can I create a good one? Not just in terms of entertaining someone but how can I give them something that will hopefully make them feel a little bit better about their life or put them in a better mood, or something like that.”
(http://youtu.be/eieZhIo22RI)
A US-born musician with a rising career. And it was an encounter with a traditional Chinese meditation practice that inspired him to expand his music.
[Drew Parker, Musician, Falun Dafa Practitioner]:
“I’d always be writing about my own personal feeling of experience, but after I practiced Falun Gong I started to think about OK how will this impact the other person? What kind of feeling? What kind of experience is this song going to create in them? And how can I create a good one? Not just in terms of entertaining someone but how can I give them something that will hopefully make them feel a little bit better about their life or put them in a better mood, or something like that.”
“I’d always be writing about my own personal feeling of experience, but after I practiced Falun Gong I started to think about OK how will this impact the other person? What kind of feeling? What kind of experience is this song going to create in them? And how can I create a good one? Not just in terms of entertaining someone but how can I give them something that will hopefully make them feel a little bit better about their life or put them in a better mood, or something like that.”
Falun Gong, the practice that changed Drew’s musical career, is a traditional Chinese meditation and self-improvement discipline. Also known as Falun Dafa, the practice was first introduced to the public in China in May, 1992.
Parker came across the practice in 2000. That year was just after the Chinese regime started a nationwide crackdown on Falun Gong. Since then, Parker has used his musical talents to campaign for those persecuted in China.
At this Chinese New Year event in 2004, Parker was part of a chorus to raise awareness of what’s happening in China. And this chorus later led Parker to his future wife.
[Christine Parker, Falun Dafa Practitioner]:
“In Washington D.C. afterwards some western practitioners got together to sing a song at an event called ‘Coming For You,’ and we met in that chorus, in the choir.”
“In Washington D.C. afterwards some western practitioners got together to sing a song at an event called ‘Coming For You,’ and we met in that chorus, in the choir.”
The couple now has three children and the whole family practices Falun Gong. As well as meditative exercises, it teaches the principles of Truth, Compassion and Tolerance, something Parker says he’s grateful for.
[Drew Parker, Musician, Falun Dafa Practitioner]:
“We’re just so much more harmonious, because we can be patient with each other, we can be kinder to each other…. Everyone wants it to be harmonious, but whether we can actually achieve that is something totally different. But with Falun Gong I’ve found, yeah we’re a family, we still have conflicts and stuff, but they get smoothed over so much faster, and I just feel very, very fortunate about that.”
“We’re just so much more harmonious, because we can be patient with each other, we can be kinder to each other…. Everyone wants it to be harmonious, but whether we can actually achieve that is something totally different. But with Falun Gong I’ve found, yeah we’re a family, we still have conflicts and stuff, but they get smoothed over so much faster, and I just feel very, very fortunate about that.”
Parker’s first solo album “On My Way Home” reached the entry ballot for the Grammy’s in 2009. The following year, one track from the album, titled “See Me Go” received an honorable mention in the Billboard World Song Contest.
On May 8th, Parker performed his song “Changed and Amazed” in front of Canada’s Parliament Hill in Ottawa. It’s for World Falun Dafa Day on May 13. A day marked around the world—by those whose lives changed for the better, whilst remembering those who still suffer in China for their beliefs.
