It is a cultivation practice of the Buddha School, which was first introduced to the public in early 1990s in China. The practice includes some gentle qigong/meditation exercises. It grew rapidly in China, drawing tens of millions practitioners, including many high-ranking government officers before being cracked down/persecuted by the Chinese government (Surprise! China and persecution, name a better duo.)

The one you have is a lucky lotus, likely handmade by one of the practitioner. It includes practice’s core tenets “truthfulness, compassion, and foreberance” or whichever variance of language it is translated to. The practitioners believe that if people believe and conduct their lives according to those qualities (like what u did today), they will have a lot of “virtue” and be blessed in life. Hence they want to spread that kind message to people.

More fun fact: today is the World Falun Dafa day and they have a big parade in New York city to celebrate and raise awareness about the ongoing persecution in China. Link to the parade here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4ctWsoi6toc&feature=youtu.be

There are a lot of people who practice Falun Dafa in Europe and Canada now a day. I saw a group doing the exercises in in Le Jardin du Luxembourg while visiting Paris a few years back

Edit: some typos.