(Shared at 2001 Chicago Conference)
Greetings Master Li! Hello, my fellow practitioners!
I am a new practitioner who has been practicing for four months. We moved to Windsor from the west of Canada at the end of 2000. Not being familiar with the new environment, I felt home sick all day long. One day after his class, my husband brought a newspaper home for me. I said: "I will read it after dinner." When I turned the newspaper over, the title "Window of Dafa" caught my eyes. "What? Is this the Falun Gong which has been persecuted by the Chinese Government? Has it been banned in China?" But the peaceful faces of the practitioners on the first page really touched me, and pushed me to read it and to know what kind of people they are. What is Falun Gong really? I read through all the newspaper articles, including the introduction to Falun Gong and cultivation stories of practitioners. I had a strong desire to read the book Zhuan Falun. So I called the local contact person and told her my idea. She happily sent the book to my home the next day. On February 9, I first met Zhuan Falun and read it almost without a break. I could not help admiring the rigorous logic and the profound and wide realm of knowledge in this book. More importantly, it has answered my many questions about life that I had been looking for. I decided in my heart of hearts to cultivate this Dafa which is so rare that one could only find it in ten thousand years!
As I studied Fa and practiced the exercises, Master purified my body bit by bit. Before cultivation, I had very serious rheumatoid arthritis. I dared not wear a skirt for several summers. Instead, I had to wear two pairs of thick socks. Otherwise, there would be unbearable pain in the joints. In addition, I was bothered by other diseases. I had to lie down even after I made dinner and I was unable to go to work. During the first several weeks, the old pains were unbearable. One fellow practitioner told me, this was our Teacher purifying my body; the pain would disappear soon only if I endured it. Three months later, almost all diseases have disappeared. Now I feel I am a new person, and more important, my heart is filled with a calm and happiness that I had never known.
I often read www.clearwisdom.net with tears in my eyes, especially when I read the news from China. I thought: what can I do for Dafa? My English is not so good and I do not have a driver's license. What I can do is to distribute newspapers. In the daytime, I started distributing newspapers on the street with my younger son. At first, I had some attachments; I feared meeting friends or being laughed at. Gradually, I gave up these ordinary people's notions and now know how sacred and important Dafa work is.
In April, a fellow practitioner told me there would be a Dafa Conference in New York and asked me if I would like to participate. I answered without any hesitation: "I will go for sure." Our Master has endured so much for us, how could I stay at home when Dafa and Master were suffering injustice? At the same time, I had a small attachment: I wanted to see our Teacher because I heard that he lives in New York. I did not see our Teacher in New York because of my strong attachment. I told myself when I came back, "In China, many fellow practitioners have a rocky determination to serve Dafa and our Teacher though they have never seen him. I will strive forward no matter if I see our Teacher or not in my lifetime. Nothing can shake my heart when it comes to Dafa. "
In May, fellow practitioners asked me if I wanted to participate in the Canadian Dafa Conference. My answer was: "Yes, I will." But in my heart, I was thinking about how to tell my husband. His attitude towards my cultivation changed after the New York conference. Would he allow me to go again? At that moment, a voice in my mind told me: I must hold my will firmly no matter what he might say. The next day, I told him my plan to go to Ottawa. He did not say anything but just asked me about arrangements for our two sons. When I showed him the videotape about the Tiananmen Self-immolation Incident, he kept quiet for a long time. I did not plan to bring my elder son due to the limited seats in our car, but he insisted on going with us. Fellow practitioners thought we should let him go with us. So my son and I squeezed into one seat for more than 10 hours all the way; I did not feel uncomfortable at all. We set off at 1 am and thick fog and heavy rain accompanied us until noon, when we finally arrived at Parliament Mountain in Canada.
Far away, I saw the bright banners of the Falun Dafa Festival, colorful balloons with "Falun Dafa" written on them or "Truth, Compassion, Forbearance" and traditional style banners standing on the green grass. They were all so holy and solemn. My fellow practitioners were quietly sitting there with yellow Dafa sweatshirts. I was moved to tears by this scene.
On May 19, at the beginning of the Experience-sharing Conference, the host read Master Li's greeting letter, "The Disciple's Greatness." He said, "Dafa disciples are truly great, because what you are cultivating is the ultimate Great Law of the cosmos, because you have validated Dafa with righteous thoughts, and because you have not fallen amidst the massive tribulation..." I felt both proud and ashamed. What made me proud was that I was one of the Dafa disciples; what made me ashamed was that I had not done anything for Dafa. At noon, somebody said: "Our Teacher is coming." My heart almost jumped out, I tried to keep quiet. When I saw Master Li walking on the stage, I could not help but cry constantly. It seemed that I had been waiting for this moment for a long long time. He said, "As Dafa disciples, you know that this is different from any cultivation of any time in historyit's unprecedented. Why? It's because you are Dafa disciples, while any type of cultivation in history was purely for a person's own improvement and Consummation." I experienced Master Li's great compassion and felt proud again to be a Dafa disciple. Suddenly I remembered that day was the 100th day of my obtaining Fa. How fortunate I was! I could not express my happiness in words! My elder son told me later, "Mom, I was very excited when I saw Master Li!" I knew then he was also a disciple.
On May 20, I was walking in the vast and mighty Dafa parade. There were disciples as young as two-months, elder disciples in their 80s, and practitioners who in were in the late months of pregnancy. The parade looked most magnificent! Enthusiastic and friendly pedestrians waved to us. Raising my head, I saw the clear blue sky and happy atmosphere. Both heaven and earth were celebratingDafa has arrived in the human world; the evil will be eliminated! I felt solemn and dignified.
On the way home, a young disciple asked his mom: "Mom, look! What is rotating around sun?" I watched the sun through the window. I saw a string of Falun floating away from the sun. We stopped by a gas station and watched the beautiful scene together. We saw a light purple circle with a golden swastika in the center. It was rotating very fast clockwise and counter-clockwise. There were different colorful rings around the sun: yellow, orange and red; the outer ring was blue strings of Falun rotating and floating; many small orange Falun rotated around the sun; there was a golden tower near the sun. I heard the music of Pu Du when I entered the car and other fellow practitioners heard it too. These wonderful things seemed to tell us: The Day of Great Disclosure is drawing near!
