A Western Practitioner Shares Experiences: How I Came to Falun Dafa and Some Thoughts on Being One Body

By a Western Practitioner from Poland

Shared at the 2003 European Falun Dafa Conference

(Clearwisdom.net) I first learned about Falun Dafa in Florida through someone in a chat room about a year ago. This person was probably a practitioner. All he said was that he does a practice that really changed his life, and he left the Falun Dafa web address. I was grateful, and I also felt it was meant to be like that. However, my notions prevented me from starting cultivation of Falun Dafa. After about half a year I returned to the website. I was in my hometown in Poland and was sitting at an Internet café about 3:00 a.m., then from "nowhere" I thought, "Hmm, what was that website called?" I opened an English search engine and typed Falun something and there it was. I quickly looked over the page and decided that I would download the book.

As I started reading the first sentences of Lunyu I was shocked. I thought, "This is impossible, this can't be right, wow, I can't believe it, this knowledge actually exists." For the next couple of days I spent hours in the Internet café, downloading Falun Dafa books, articles, audio, videos, and anything I could get my hands on.

I think I visited almost every Falun Dafa website that was in English. While downloading one lecture I listened to another, and at the same time looked for more Dafa books. I took all the materials I had gathered and burned it on a little CD that I carried with me, since I didn't have a computer. I read Zhuan Falun everywhere, in school, at my cousin's house, any place that had a computer.

At that time four years had passed since I started looking for my life path. And I had read a lot of messy things, but looking back I feel that Master was helping me not to fall down too far and teaching me things that would allow me to make faster progress once I obtained the Fa.

Even though I am a newcomer I still treat myself as a Fa-rectification period disciple. Sometimes it feels hard but I know it's just an illusion that I have to jump out of. I often feel that I don't do well enough, and that I am not worthy. At the same time I remember that I must not think like that, because it is slowing me down, and instead this should be something that motivates me. I have to keep going and always think of the ones that may still be saved. I believe that I am still here because I haven't finished my mission. This is an arrangement and I still have the opportunity to make a big difference.

Now I would like to share some of my understandings with you about truly becoming one body.

Master said in "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.": "As I've said, everything that happens today in the ordinary society is the result of Dafa disciples' thoughts. Even though the old forces do exist, if you don't have those thoughts they can't do anything. When your righteous thoughts are strong enough the old forces can't do anything..."

The following is my personal understanding that I would like to share with everyone.

One body. What is one body? Can we become one body only by thinking about becoming one body? I think not. While reading Clearwisdom one day, while admiring the stories of fellow practitioners and the remarkable deeds of Mainland Chinese Dafa practitioners, I took a really hard look at myself. Not just at one attachment but I looked at my entirety.

This is what I saw. I saw a human who is trying to do his best for Dafa, a human who is trying to find time to read the Fa and do the exercises, a human who is trying to figure out what's the best way to inform the government and the best way to tell the people about the persecution and at the same time let them position themselves. I also saw that I have fear and that I'm often nervous and worried. And then I asked myself, why is this and should this feeling take place, is it good, or is it bad? Is this how a Great Enlightened Being should feel? Then I thought no, that's not the mind of a Great Enlightened Being, that's the mind of a human. And then I reminded myself of how sometimes, when I was really in the Fa I would not worry about anything and everything would get done almost all by itself.

My fellow practitioner gave me a nice comparison of how he feels sometimes. He said that when he feels that he is in the Fa, it's like being in a spinning ball -- he is in the very center of the ball and he actually spins slowly, though everything around him is happening really fast. Everything happens really fast, but he keeps calm and has everything under control. But then he said that when he is not within the Fa, he feels like he is close to the surface of the ball, where matter and everything is just spinning and spinning. And no matter how hard he tries to put everything in balance, he can't do it because he is fundamentally on the surface, which is everything human, and not at his center, which is actually Dafa. So it comes down to the source of one's thoughts and the way they manifest. Are they clean or are they coming out polluted by our notions? If they come from the innermost part of us, they come from the most microscopic, which is already assimilated to Dafa. If they come from the surface, no matter how hard one tries to keep Dafa and everyday life in harmony, it is apt to fall apart. And I thought of myself and that it's the same with me. My mind should be calm and I should not be moved or touched by anything.

I should not be moved by whatever evil things manifest around me. That doesn't mean I don't care about anything. I see it as being in a state of wuwei, and at the same time miraculously find myself to be more effective in what I do, and as a result do more to truly save sentient beings and to fulfill my mission. I believe that this is a part of gaining without pursuit. I think that that is the mind of a higher being - it's always calm, pure and not attached. Sentimentality is just a human emotion.

Master said in "Teaching the Fa at the Washington, DC International Fa Conference": "Get rid of any attachment you have, and don't think about anything. Just do everything a Dafa disciple should do, and everything will be covered."

I believe that "one body" will come about not because I pursue it, but instead it will come about because I will ensure that it happens in a natural way. I will stop worrying, and being scared and nervous. I have understood that if there is a problem in a group, if only one person can change, he will change his whole environment. I will change myself so that my environment changes. So what is my environment? My environment is everything that relates to me, it is everything that happens around me. My house is my environment, my city is my environment, my country, your country, and his country is my environment. China and the whole cosmos is my environment. So I will change myself so that the environment will change. Everything around me that is not within Zhen-Shan-Ren is wrong, and this must be rectified. But first I have to rectify my mind. I have to make it right.

Our thoughts and state of mind can change everything. It is not us who are physically rectifying the world and eliminating the evil, this all happens in different dimensions, all of it just manifests in this ordinary human society. Our supernormal abilities and gong does this. And our gong will have the most power only if we elevate our thoughts and understanding. If we can attain a clean and calm mind, a higher being's state of wuwei, if we can change our thoughts in the right direction, this should manifest in ordinary human society. And everything around us should change.

Master said in "Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Philadelphia", "Fa-rectification disciples, the persecution has already come to this stage, and Dafa has already come to this stage in the Fa-rectification: what's there for us to still be afraid of? Haven't you already seen your future very well? So when it comes to those evil beings and their arrangements, as long as your righteous thoughts are strong enough you can reject them, repel them, and make them helpless."

Everything is reversed in human society. So in order to do more to help I have to pursue less and change my thinking. It's not how much you say but what you say. It's not how much you do but how much gets done. If I totally don't acknowledge the old forces, then it's like they cease to exist, and they would become helpless. If I calm down and think from the perspective of a God, everything will fall into place correctly. I need not be worried, scared or nervous. All good beings will be saved. I believe that if we keep up with our efforts, get rid of the attachments of pursuing and getting something done, and remember our true position, I think that good things will come and all the evil will be rectified.

We are here to save all sentient beings, by letting them have a chance to position themselves, by letting them calmly decide and making the best environment for their decision. If I keep this state of mind, not worry and not be nervous or scared, and remember Zhen-Shan-Ren, I will be in the Fa and naturally correct my environment.

I believe that we are like the thousands of thousands of energy channels that all meet at the point of the Tianmu. We are all connected but haven't yet completely reached Master's requirement of forming one body. The energy channels widen only through practice and elevating understandings. All the channels widen and thousands of thousands of energy channels become one. I think that's when the Fa will rectify the human world, when all of us Dafa practitioners become one. When we treat ourselves like true gods, then naturally we will rectify everything around us. There will be no room for evil, and there will be no room for attachments and loopholes.

The future is formed by us and depends on us. I believe that Master is waiting for us.

This is my personal understanding. Thank you everyone.

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