Western Practitioner: My Experience in Flushing Leads Me to Encourage More of Us to Go There

By a western practitioner from St. Louis, Missouri

(Clearwisdom.net) I want to share with all western practitioners my recent experience of spending two weeks on the streets of Flushing, New York, working and living with many Chinese practitioners.

As a western practitioner, I know that I have never shared the urgency to do Dafa work that I know has always been present with Chinese practitioners. However, I have always preferred to study the Fa with Chinese practitioners because there is never any doubt or question with respect to the validity of the Fa. As a westerner, I sometimes have great trouble understanding what Chinese practitioners take for granted as truth the first time they hear it. In my own cultivation, I often look outward rather than inward to find answers to the many tribulations which I have encountered in everyday life.

I made the decision several weeks ago to go to Flushing and to spend nearly two weeks on the streets distributing newspapers and perhaps even writing an article for the Epoch Times if I was able. I say "if I was able" because I am not a writer. I knew that I would be living in a house with many practitioners and with very little privacy which I as a western practitioner value very much. I knew that I would have to lose this attachment. Because I work on a contract basis for my company and because I do not get any vacation time from my company I knew that I would be losing a considerable amount of money for each day which I did not work at my job. But, I decided that it was time for me to lose all of these attachments, so I went to Flushing.

When I arrived in Flushing it was very chaotic. From the moment I stepped off the plane it was like being in a different world. I had been told by Chinese practitioners that I would need to have strong righteous thoughts to fend off the evil that is present in New York.

When I arrived at the house there were many people there. I was told that there were about 20 people total. For the two weeks that I was there I never really did get a good impression of just who was living in the house. It was crowded, sometimes the housekeeping was lacking, it was confusing, the food was always excellent and constant, but most of all it, we were all practitioners and everyone was working together as one body. The fact that we lived and worked as one body was what enabled me to work and live within this chaotic environment.

Before leaving for Flushing I had decided to tell several of my co-workers the reason for my visit and time away from work. One day after arriving in Flushing I received an email telling me that my company would pay me my standard salary for every day that I was in New York doing Dafa work. This was a big surprise because I had not received any paid vacation time for the past 15 years from my company. I believe that because I lost the attachment and decided to go to Flushing to help in Dafa work, Master Li arranged this to show his compassion for all practitioners, Chinese and western.

There were very few western practitioners on the streets of Flushing distributing the Epoch Times. Mostly there were Chinese. The Chinese practitioners never made me feel anything other than a full practitioner and that we were one body. Many times we communicated only by a smile but with that smile much was communicated and understood among fellow practitioners. Those who had good English skills came up to me and told me how important it was for western practitioners to come to Flushing and to work on the streets spreading the Fa and talking to the good (and bad) people of Flushing as we distributed the Epoch Times. It is hard, grueling work and it goes on day after day. It ends when the newspapers are distributed not when the hours are done. Your reward is a quick dinner, if there is time, and then Fa study for two to three hours every evening. Every morning begins with practicing the exercises before hitting the streets to distribute newspapers. No one ever complains.

I am back home now in St. Louis. I live in a beautiful house with a yard and trees and sometimes there are even deer in my backyard. The streets here are spotless and everyone drives a fancy car. But my time in Flushing taught me the true importance of being a practitioner. It is not a paycheck and it is not a beautiful house. It is doing the three things that Master has told us that we must do to be a good practitioner during this time of Fa rectification.

I will be heading back soon to Flushing to be with my fellow practitioners (Chinese and western) and to be part of one body that is Dafa. I encourage all western practitioners to do the same. Our fellow Chinese practitioners want us there with them side by side on the streets of Flushing doing Dafa work. As I understand it, for those of us with the right conditions to do so, nothing is more important than for us to be there with them at this time.

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