(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master. Greetings, fellow practitioners.
I started cultivating Falun Dafa about 15 years ago, just before beginning my Ph.D. coursework in India. Before finding Falun Dafa, I was looking for the meaning of life for a long time, so I read many books on psychology, philosophy, and spirituality and tried many different popular meditation and qigong methods, but none brought me satisfaction. I had many illnesses and was suffering from chronic back pain and kidney disease, so I had to take a lot of medicine, without getting well. My illnesses also led me to depression and anxiety. Before I began practicing Falun Dafa, my husband fell in love with another woman, divorced me, and took our children. I felt like dying.
I was introduced to Falun Dafa by a practitioner after I had lost all hope. As soon as I started the practice, I was filled with energy and became well in both body and mind, and all my illnesses disappeared. I recognized that all my hardships resulted from my previous karmic relationships, so I began to forgive everyone and gradually eliminated my resentment. Shortly after I began practicing, I went to India from my hometown in the Middle East to complete my education.
I went to a city in India where there were no other practitioners. I started practicing alone at the University Park every morning. After a while, some students and local people joined me. I prepared materials and coordinated some activities and became a coordinator for that city. I sometimes practiced with many people, and sometimes I was alone. I was not happy to be alone and did not understand that this could be an arrangement to save sentient beings.
I successfully finished my Ph.D. course in psychology, but my best experiences were the times I introduced people to Falun Dafa. After the head of education and psychology faculty and my supervisor saw how the practice changed me, they suggested that I introduce Falun Dafa to the university students. These activities led to fantastic and unbelievable outcomes. Many university students learned about the practice and persecution in China. I then did research on practitioners’ health and prepared some scientific articles about the impact of this practice on people’s health (both mental and physical) and presented the work at national and international conferences.
Early in my cultivation, I did not seriously look inward and concentrated only on doing the exercises, studying the Fa, and promoting Falun Dafa. One day a veteran practitioner came from another city to meet me and said that I was not cultivating seriously. This upset me, and I felt hurt. I thought that my cultivation was totally fine and that he was wrong. After he left, I started to seriously look inward and realized that he was right. In fact, for a long time, I had stayed at the same level and still had the attachments of laziness, complacency, and jealousy. I understood that by eliminating our wrong notions we can improve, but that it may be painful. Actually, this kind of pain is good. I then thanked him from my bottom of the heart.
Master said:
“As practitioners, in the course of cultivation there are so many attachments to be relinquished, such as the mentality of showing off, jealousy, the competitive mentality, and zealotry. Many different attachments must be discarded, for the loss we discuss is one in a broad sense. During the entire course of cultivation, we should lose all everyday people’s attachments and various desires.” (Zhuan Falun)
One day, I went with some local practitioners to introduce Falun Dafa at a national exhibition. Our booth was crowded with people who wanted to learn the exercises. During the event, a man from a nearby booth promoting another spiritual practice was jealous and said some rude things to me. I listened to him patiently and talked to him respectfully. I told him that our Master teaches us to show compassion to everyone, regardless of their behavior. Despite his bad behavior, I was respectful toward him. Suddenly, he seemed embarrassed, calmed down, and then left. I realized that our behavior and compassion affect others' behavior, aside from simply talking about the principles. I took some photos of our booth and saw uncountable Falun in the sky above it.
I met a Chinese woman who was a Falun Dafa practitioner in China and had been persecuted. Her neck was injured badly and she could not hold her head up. She helped me to clarify the truth even though she was suffering. After seeing her, I felt the deep pain from this unbelievable persecution. It was not long before that that I had first heard about the brutal persecution of Falun Gong in China. When I met her—a victim of this persecution—in person, I could not believe my eyes. I wanted to cry and tell everyone around the world to come and see what was happening to such kind people just because they practice Falun Dafa. This made me more diligent in doing things to clarify the truth.
After returning to my home country, I became an assistant professor at a university and continued doing the three things. As a cultivator, I did not compete or fight for fame or personal benefit with my colleagues and tried to do my job very well. My supervisor later said to me, “I wish all the other professors were like you. I do not have any problem with you.” I was happy to hear this and explained that I practiced Falun Dafa. I also told him about the persecution situation in China. My students told me many times that they felt secure and comfortable in my class. I knew it was because I practiced Falun Dafa, so I told them, “Do you know why? It is because I follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.”
I was involved in several accidents but nothing serious happened to me. In one of them, during a work trip to another city, our car crashed into another car and rolled a few times. I passed out for a while. When I came to, the car was totaled and all the passengers were injured except me. They were taken to the hospital. The driver, who was also injured, asked me if I was upset with him. I said that I wasn’t. He was happy and thanked me. On the night after the accident, I had a fever, but I knew that Master had protected me and that I would be fine soon. I felt better the next day and went to work. One of my colleagues talked about the accident because he had passed by and seen it himself. I told him that I was one of the passengers, and he could not believe it!
As an educated person, I know that science cannot answer all the important questions about human life, especially in the field of human sciences, in which nothing is absolute. I always told my students not to limit themselves to the current scientific theories and to be open-minded and consider things beyond their current thoughts.
My studies concentrated on parapsychology, which helps people to learn about truths that exist but cannot be seen with one’s eyes. I conducted scientific research on personality, mental health, and wellbeing comparing Falun Dafa practitioners to non-practitioners. The results showed that there was a big difference between them. Falun Dafa practitioners had less anxiety than non-practitioners and experienced more wellbeing and more positive personality traits than non-practitioners. I feel that the scientific world needs to change its perspective and take a renewed look at the human mind from another angle. I published the results of this study and presented the findings at several international and national conferences.
The author
Moving to Canada was a good opportunity for me and my husband, who is also a practitioner, to be more involved in activities to raise awareness. It was nevertheless not an easy decision as I had to leave my comfortable life and respected position. After selling all of our household belongings and arriving in Canada with only four suitcases, I told myself that this world is like a hotel and we should not get attached to anything. We should just continue to do the three things as cultivators of Falun Dafa.
This sharing is my based on my current understanding. Please kindly point out anything not in accordance with the Fa.
Thank you, Master. Thank you, fellow practitioners.
Category: Journeys of Cultivation