Shared by a practitioner from Switzerland at the 2002 European Fa Conference in Copenhagen.
Salutations to our beloved and respected Master! Salutations to all of you!
My name is Richard. I was born in Sweden, but have lived in Switzerland since 1990. I'm very happy to share my understanding and cultivation experiences with you. I would like to start by saying, that you are my family, my great Dafa family, and are very near and very dear. Just like pearls on a thread, our hearts are joined in the light of the Fa.
I got to know Falun Gong at a seminar in the city Lucerne in Switzerland 13th of September 1997. It was a joyful day. I felt the strong energy field and at the 5th exercise my body got full of light and I saw a smiling Buddha. The music was as if from an ancient time and it was calling me home, filling me with longing.
Since my childhood I practiced martial arts with deep dedication, spending most of my free time in meditation and practicing what I loved. Being sometimes a bit sensitive, shy and introverted I was contemplating the nature of life, asking myself why there is so much suffering and pain. How does one find peace of mind? To discipline the mind seems more difficult than to control the wind. Pleasure is deceptive and goes hand in hand with pain. Time catches up with everyone and nothing seems to remain the same. Seeking the answer and truth within, taking one step forward and one step back, longing for liberation and enlightenment-- but how could I find it?
My cultivation way back home to the true origin started genuinely when I got to know Falun Dafa and a big transformation of my body, mind and spirit took place. My body got lighter, stronger and firmer. My mind got calmer and clearer, taking things more lightly with much deeper understanding. And after meeting Master Li for the first time, my restless spirit came to peace, like finding my home and feeling completely safe.
At the beginning my cultivation went quite smoothly without any major difficulties, but in April of 1999 it was time for me to break away from human attachments like fame, showing off, and doing what I liked most, practicing martial arts. The tests were coming one after another and the hardest one was over my attachment to martial arts. At that time, I was requested to teach kung fu by some friends and everything seemed to be arranged with a place to practice. On the first introduction day, my mind was not upright and I felt weak, tired and heavy. What was happening? In the darkness of my ignorance I got support from a Dao at a low level, which I had seen some days before. He looked fascinating to me; then I ignored him and did not think of him any more.
As you all know our Teacher is watching over his disciples. Thanks to his saving grace, urgently, already the next day, a veteran practitioner came from Geneva and we met at my mother's place to read the latest article from Master Li concerning exactly my situation. Reading the article and talking to her, I immediately got enlightened to what was going on. I decided to stop teaching kung fu, but was worried about what my students would say and my strong attachment to kung fu created a big conflict in me. I gave one more class the following week and after coming home late at night, I came to know the seriousness of cultivation: my body started to shiver strongly and got very cold. It took me four days to recover and at the beginning I felt a tremendous pain. Being unable to move, I was thinking that humans are really suffering a lot. When my mother read Zhuan Falun for me at that time, small Falun rained upon me and at the beginning it felt painful with every word she said, but after a while my body began to relax and I felt much better.
Feeling that I had to start from scratch, I was sad and shameful. What had I done, putting obstacles in my own way home? Wasting my time on human skills like kung fu, what is that in comparison to Dafa? During the next class, I explained what cultivation and Falun Gong is for my students--and from then on we started to practice Falun Gong. My head got hot and over it a Gong pillar shot up in the sky. And from the energy field, one person was even touched to tears from the compassionate and peaceful atmosphere.
After this experience I was still full of questions about what had really happened to me at that time. I got my answer when reading the Fa lecture from New York, March 27-28 1999. It was not that the martial arts itself caused me trouble. I was tainted by the small Dao and had various motives which were not upright, driven by my own attachments. May I express my deepest gratitude to Teacher and Dafa practitioners' having patience with me at that time.
Some Swiss practitioners were planning a trip to China in August 1999 and I was very excited to go and practice Falun Gong in the land where Falun Gong was started. But in July shocking news made us cancel our plans of going there. The most terrible persecution had begun. Dafa practitioners started to safeguard Dafa around the world and clarify the truth, and because of that many people know today about the situation in China and give us support. Most of the newspapers are sympathetic and VIPs put pressure on the Chinese government. The SOS campaign brought a good response as well. All this was the result of joined efforts. But in China the situation is very bad. Reading the reports from China about how great beings are getting tortured to death, my eyes were filled with tears, and emotions like anger and sadness came to govern my mind. Dafa and Teacher are getting slandered, and the pain seemed endless.
By studying the Fa my mood changed to optimism; strength and unwavering determination filled my heart and that which was not possible seemed possible. The words from Master Li penetrate every level of our being, transcend time and space, bring life to that which is dead and rectify everything, leaving out nothing. Sometimes when I read Zhuan Falun or other writings from Master Li, it is like quenching my thirst with the nectar of bliss. The book is glowing; golden and small Falun are shooting out from the letters. The universe is opening up before my celestial eye. Seeing galaxies, different realms, Buddha's, Dao's and different Gods come to see and listen to the great Law. And Master Li is manifesting himself in his glorious form, at different levels through out the whole universe, level by level, endlessly. Reading and studying the great Law, there is nothing greater than this. All good beings in the universe are delighted.
It is bound to be that the one who safeguards Dafa, will be safeguarded by Dafa. When we forget our self-interests, put the Fa in the first place, think only from the Fa, and see only the Fa before ourselves, nothing can go wrong.
Last year, I was thinking that if westerners went to Beijing to do Fa-rectification on Tiananmen, it would draw much attention from the world, especially if the Chinese regime would treat us the same way as they do to the mainland practitioners. Being not the only one thinking like that, we got together and made some plans for the trip. While feeling excited about going, I felt also the seriousness and danger of the trip. But whatever would happen, it would happen for the higher good. Not thinking of the fruit of my action, I would try to do my very best and the best would come. Upon landing in China on the 17th of November, I felt nostalgic and a wave of bliss and warmth filled my body and heart.
The day before our appeal on Tiananmen Square, I went there with another practitioner to send forth righteous thoughts and see how it looked. Standing on the square, looking at the Forbidden City, I saw a huge dragon with a transparent red colour and its tail was moving with the wind. Gazing at it for a while I came to realize that the dragon was evil and has put the whole of China, if not the whole world, to sleep. I told my fellow practitioner about my experience and we started to send forth righteous thoughts. My righteous thoughts felt very powerful and I could sense that Teacher and all good beings were with us. That filled me with a deep calmness and security.
I was in a nostalgic mood; I just loved being in China. When seeing the Chinese people, so sweet and innocent, living in their own country as if it were a prison, without any human rights, poisoned by wicked lies, it hurt my heart a lot and tears fell. Feeling even stronger determination to go and appeal the next day, I was sure many of us felt like that.
Everyone was clear about what happened the next day; a strong battle between good and evil took place. After we succeeded in opening up the banner with Zhen Shan Ren, we were rounded up by the policemen. Six police officers found it very hard to move me. Having great trouble taking me to the bus, the police officers found it funny and started laughing. After struggling for a while they carried me high up in the air and one officer said, "I love you."
These officers belonged to the good ones. I explained to them the truth about Falun Gong. When leaving the detention centre, one officer in particular seemed to be very sad and ashamed of his own country. It was very nice to see how practitioners were explaining the truth to them. I also saw that when all Dafa practitioners were sending forth righteous thoughts on that day, the dragon fainted away. I told this to another practitioner and he answered with a smile.
I have seen that the sphere in heaven is full of Teacher's Gong, Zhen-Shan-Ren. It is immense, beautiful and clear, with sparkling playful light and transparent, beautiful colours. I have also seen that the energy takes on special patterns like snow crystals, but much more complex and beautiful. It is like a beautiful cosmic play and I cannot find words to express it; still I have only seen a little, some few glimpses of this glorious Dafa.
The evil forces have destroyed many beings so that they could not receive Dafa during the Fa rectification, and there are even beings that turned away from Dafa's saving grace because of them. When thinking of all the people who were predestined with the Fa-rectification and could not assimilate to the Fa at this time, it is really sad.
Teacher says: "I know all of the suffering of my disciples. The truth is, I treasure you more than you treasure yourselves!" "Whenever I see you suffer hardships, Master feels even more upset than you; whenever you do not take a step well, it really pains my heart."
If we one day will reach the goal of our cultivation, then we will think like a Buddha, Dao, or a God. Our state of well-being will be incomprehensible. Thinking then back on this time in the human world of so much pain and sorrow, will it not hurt a lot if we had not given our best when we had the chance to save all sentient beings.
Let us treasure this time even more, since it will never come back again. May we Dafa practitioners do even better!
(Copenhagen, 22nd September 2002)
Category: Journeys of Cultivation
