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Western Practitioner in Europe: My Cultivation Path
Shared at the 2006 Benelux Experience Sharing Conference Greetings to Revered Master Greetings to fellow practitioners One day in January 2000, my husband arrived home with the newspaper 'Morgen',
and told me that he had found an article about the persecution of Falun Gong in
China. He said that there were 5 exercises in Falun Gong, that it was free of
charge. Since it was prohibited in China, it would certainly be something good.
Therefore, he was going to give it a try. At that time I was searching for something that would help me to find
tranquillity and inner peace. All my life I was guided only by sentimentality. I
was cheerful when things were going well and I was down when they were not. I
was tired of living like this. Not being able to handle situations, I felt that
I was destroying myself and what was most beautiful for me: My husband and my
two children. It was imperative to find a solution to this situation. There was another problem. I am a podiatrist nurse, and I used to give
reflexology massages as a complimentary gesture. After each session of massages
I would feel very tired. I thought I did not master the technique well and I did
not want to improve. I thought some meditation ,might help improve my emotional
instability. It was precisely when I was in this distressful situation, that the Fa
entered my house. Ever since I obtained the Fa, I have been constantly amazed by
the profound nature of the Great Law of the Universe. The Fa has guided me
through a process of learning, of understanding and of constantly raising my
realm of thought to a point beyond imagination. I started the practice by attending, together with my family, Master's 9-day
video lectures. One day while I attended these lectures, I had a dream related
to my hands. I shared this dream with a practitioner who told me that if my
giving massage was not part of my work, it would be better for me to stop it. I
followed his advice right away. I have never regretted having done it and later
on I understood fully the reason behind it. I understand that to give massages
one establishes a link between one's own energy field and that of the patient,
thus, an exchange of energy, good or bad, was inevitable. If I absorbed the dark
energy, this could retard the purification process of my body. Moreover, I came
to understand that there exists a karmic reason for a person to suffer an
illness and that I should not intervene. Whenever a newcomer spoke about this kind of things at the practice site, I
would tell him what I thought about it and how I have stopped doing it. I would
rather share the most beautiful thing that I have found in my life, Falun Dafa.
Everyone can learn how to take care of oneself; the cultivation of body and mind
allows us to achieve good physical and mental health, and it depends on how much
effort one puts in to achieve it. The first three years, my cultivation was slow. I did the exercises once or
twice a week and it took me a year to go through Zhuan Falun.
One day, another practitioner gave me the Essentials for Further Advancement,
which helped me to understand Zhuan Falun better. Later I understood that
it was my karma that prevented me from understanding Zhuan Falun. After
that I continued reading any teachings from Master that I could get hold of. In 2002 I had a car accident that left a serious problem in the cervical
area. I already had a whiplash injury to my neck from an accident in 1994. I had
9 years of treatment and medication to relieve the pain, but I hardly made any
progress. With the new accident, my body felt like broken doll. I started to
lose strength in my right arm, which made my work as a nurse difficult, it was
an ordeal even to do the exercises. A specialist advised me to undergo neck
surgery. All this looked like it could happen to anybody, yet I did not realize
that if I was diligent in my cultivation, I could rise out of such situations.
Besides, I was not clear-headed when handling different
situations. My cultivation continued at a slow pace until 2003, when the first Benelux
Dafa Conference took place in Brussels. Thanks to this event and to my
experience sharing with seven German practitioners who came to the conference
and stayed in my home, I finally came to realize that if I wanted to make real
progress in my cultivation, I had to study the Fa diligently and do the
exercises regularly. I remembered when we were riding in the car, one of the
German practitioners asked me if I was a practitioner of the Fa rectification
period, to which I answered 'yes', but I realized now that I was not really
aware of the meaning of being a practitioner in Fa rectification period. The day
after the conference, I felt as if I were born again. My daughter felt the same.
I started to look at life in a different way and I was so happy. From that moment on, I started to read and to do the exercises on a regular
basis, I also started to send forth righteous thoughts at fixed hours. A fellow
practitioner told me that to send forth righteous thoughts would help me cross
my legs in the lotus position when meditating, and to achieve tranquillity and
concentration when reading Zhuan Falun. I felt that it was time for me to
stop any sort of therapy and medications, so I did so, and have remained
like that today. The discomfort from the two car accidents started to minimize.
I can even carry heavy things now. It does cause a little discomfort from time
to time, but it disappears in a couple of days. A great source of inspiration for me is from Lecture 4, in Zhuan
Falun regarding 'Transformation of Karma': We have said that Dafa is boundless, and it is completely
up to your heart to practice cultivation. The master takes you through the
entrance, and it is up to you, yourself to practice cultivation. It all
depends upon how you, yourself practice cultivation. Whether you can practice
cultivation all depends upon whether you can endure, sacrifice, and suffer. If
you can commit your mind, no difficulties can stop you." Now, I will go over another aspect of my cultivation in the period of the Fa
rectification. When I started the practice, the most horrific persecution was
underway in China. Practitioners from all over the world were stricken by it. In
order to offset the propaganda campaign to ruin the reputation of Falun Gong
(which the Chinese Communist Regime even extended beyond China's borders)
practitioners started to find ways to counteract the evil that was behind these
harmful actions. They started to appeal to the governments of the world and to
draw the attention of the people with the aim to gain their support and bring
the persecution to an end. Practitioners of different talents started to emerge
and many got involved in different projects. However, due to my sluggishness in my cultivation, my xinxing
was not making obvious progress. I could not understand yet the urgency to
clarify the truth and neither did I get involved in any project. Only when I
attained discipline in doing the exercises and reading the books, could I see
how my understanding of the Fa made real progress and did my xinxing
upgrade. I finally woke up and started to participate in some activities. I
lacked confidence at first. I remembered the moment when I handed the first
flyer out. I could feel my heart beating strongly and I was not sure whether
what I had said was correct. My shyness, fear and the lack of more understanding
limited me from doing well. But, inside I could feel the force that pushed me to
continue. I could not understand things well yet, but I followed my heart and
continued distributing the flyers. Two years ago, the opportunities for me to participate in different projects
started to emerge. With fear I got involved in the Fadu Petals of Peace Project.
When my my daughter was a little girl, I was once involved with creative
workshops, thus, I immediately felt that I could handle this project. Besides,
this project would allow me to work with children, to share the beauty of Dafa
with them and to tell them the truth about the persecution against Dafa. The
story of Fadu would make an impression on them, they would talk about Falun Dafa
to their parents, grandparents, other family members and friends. Moreover, the
director and teachers of the schools would know about Falun Dafa as well. Other projects started to emerge, and I started to get more and more involved
with them. I realized that every time I participated in one, my xinxing
would upgrade. However whenever I heard of a new project, despite the fact I
knew about its importance, my attachments would emerge again and the evil would
take advantage of that to make me resist taking part. It took me some time to
understand that I should not look to the exterior (project's difficulties,
responsibility, conflicts, the issue of the resources, etc) but look inside
myself and search for what was causing such a reaction, and once recognized to
proceed to rectify it. My family tried to help me by stressing the issue of
looking inside myself and insisting that I should read more Zhuan Falun.
I tried it but even when I thought that I understood better, I would again not
be able to look inside myself and ended up looking outside, and then I would
have the same reaction of resisting participation in the projects. Once more,
the day arrived when I was finally able to look inside myself and discovered
that my attachments were the cause of such a reaction. In the same way, I came
to understand that improvement of my xinxing was a decisive factor if I
was to make progress in my cultivation. Furthermore, I discovered I was lacking Shan
(compassion) and Ren (forbearance) in my heart. In Essentials for Further Advancement, in the article "A Person
in Charge is Also a Cultivator", Master says: The persons in charge of our assistance centers in
different regions are those who can work hard for Dafa without complaint. Yet
many of these persons just cannot seem to get along well with one another, and
so fail to cooperate in their work... Don't you know that the tensions among those in charge are
arranged by me for you to improve yourselves? ... It's not that just because you're the coordinator of a
center and work for Dafa you can reach Consummation without having to improve
your xinxing. Even a student can realize that he's improving his xinxing
in any disagreement--why can't the coordinator of a center? In order for you
to improve, your heart has to be provoked when problems arise; otherwise it
won't do. Working for Dafa is also a good opportunity for you to improve your xinxing! Reading this paragraph made me understand that the involvement in a project
was the opportunity that my Master was giving to me in order to improve while
confronting with all the difficulties that a project may bring. Among theses projects and activities to clarify the truth, study the Fa and
the exercises, I came to realize that I should find a balance among my work, the
family and those activities. I am lucky that in my family we are all Dafa
cultivators, thus, together we have found that balance, each one at his own pace
and following his own path. I think I have integrated Dafa harmoniously in my daily life. To hand out a
flyer or a newspaper, to attend a practice site, to help at the 'Truth,
Compassion, Forbearance' Art Exhibit, or to participate in any other project, I
always see an opportunity to share the beauty of Dafa, and there is always the
opportunity to make known the truth about the persecution that our fellow
practitioners suffer in China. I feel blessed and I will always be thankful for
having such an opportunity. I may be very busy after a day full of activities,
yet I still have the energy and time to prepare a delicious meal for my family,
and work to the best of my capabilities. Finally, I would like to share what Master says in the Preface to
"Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa": "When every assistant spreads Falun Dafa, he must be
responsible to himself, be responsible to the students, be responsible to
society, and be responsible to Dafa. When promoting [Dafa] and answering
questions, he should advance Dafa appropriately, as fitting the recipient's
degree of understanding of Dafa and capacity to accept it." I understand now what it means to be a true Dafa disciple in the Fa
rectification period. I want to be worthy of such a title. Therefore, I will
continue to improve in my cultivation and upgrade my xinxing. I know that
I still have a long way to go, but I will do my best. I will finish with Master's poem: Study the Fa and gain the Fa, October 7, 1994 (Hong Yin, Version A) Thank you for your attention. What I have said is my understanding. Please kindly point out its
shortcomings.
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