Being a Dafa Practitioner for a Year

I started practising Falun Dafa in February 2013. At first, I mistook Falun Dafa for a gym exercise, and I was suspicious of fellow practitioners. Despite that, when I could not go to the practice site I felt depressed, although I did not know why. One day, as we were doing the exercises, a force so powerful struck my stomach that made me cry. I got frightened and shared this experience with fellow practitioners. They calmed my mind and in the following days they gave me the book Zhuan Falun.

A crucial step in cultivation: eliminating lust
At the beginning of my cultivation I took the matter of lust lightly. A veteran practitioner pointed to me the importance of this matter, and I really laughed when she told me all fellow practitioners keep away from extra marital sexual relations. To me, lust was a basic measure for judging relationships.

But, because I thought highly of this practitioner, I kept reading Zhuan Falun and tried to have my own enlightenment over the issue.

At work, a colleague was flirting with me. After some hesitation, I gave in. The moment we met I felt his lips were covered with a black matter like karma and I felt repulsed. I also felt as if somebody was pushing my own body to his body, and that force was so powerful that I had to put in a lot of effort to keep my body still, away from him. Later he revealed to me that he was in a relationship, so I realized that all this was a test for me and I kept my distance from him.

For the following months, I yearned for his company and had sentimentality towards him. Although I kept sending righteous thoughts, my sentimentality would not go away.

One day I had a dream. I was flying in some other dimensions back and forth, moving wherever I wished to go. Suddenly, this man appeared to me naked. He sat behind me, he touched my hands and dragged me down. Suddenly, I could not fly. I was stuck on the ground with him. I tried to fly again but I could not move.

This dream was a wake-up call. I started sending righteous thoughts more diligently, but still, I saw little progress.

One day, I read an experience sharing on Minghui of how a practitioner got over her lust by sending righteous thoughts. That sharing awoke me. It was lust I had to eliminate and I had to eliminate it by sending righteous thoughts more than four times per day. The first day of this enlightenment, I started sending righteous thoughts for three hours. It was the first time I ever did this, so at the end I was exhausted.

The next morning I woke up feeling better. I continued sending righteous thoughts and continued eliminating the thoughts I had for this man in all other dimensions.

In one week, most of the lust was eliminated. After removing this much of the attachment I felt friendship and compassion towards this person. I also became more honest about my feelings towards him. Before I eliminated lust, I was jealous, I was worried about what he thought about me, I yearned for his company and dreamed about being with him. I realized that all these attachments were coming from lust.

To my understanding, lust is in direct relation to our body. As long as we make our body a priority, pain, pleasure, excitement, jealousy, fame and fear will torture us.

Lust keeps us locked to the world of the Three Realms, a world of illusion. Sex, food, comfort and laziness, are all major obstacles to our cultivation and to my understanding, that is why Master says in Zhuan Falun, lecture Six: “Throughout history, or from the perspective of higher dimensions, the issues of one’s desire and lust have been very critical in determining whether one can practice cultivation”.

The test of lust was not over yet, as Master arranged one more test for me to realize the severity of this attachment. The moment I let go of lust for this person, I started working hard for Dafa projects, and I spent more time with fellow practitioners. Then I realized that as I was closer to fellow practitioners they seemed attractive to me. At first I thought this was just friendship but I realized that it was connected to lust and it was hiding behind friendliness. When I enlightened to it, immediately I started eliminating this hidden attachment with righteous thoughts until I felt it went away completely.

One day, I sat in meditation and I felt my body lifting, ready to fly. Master says in Zhuan Falun, Lecture One “The more you empty the bottle, the higher it will float in the water. If it is emptied entirely, it will float on the surface completely.”

Clarifying the truth to Chinese People
In May this year, the Premier of China would visit Athens. We decided to hand him a letter and I was entrusted to write and deliver it. I started writing the letter. The same day, I finished it and e-mailed it to fellow practitioners for comments and everyone answered immediately. The letter was soon translated in Chinese as well.

Three hours later, I was heading to the place where the Premier’s meeting would be. On my way, I encountered two obstacles: One, I could not print the Chinese letter and two, the fellow practitioner who would come with me and bring another copy of the letter wasn’t there and I could not find him.

I still had 2 copies of the English letter so I decided to continue my course without the Chinese letter or the fellow practitioner. I entered the hall and the doorkeepers asked for my private invitation. I used my professional ID, as a worker in a political party, so they let me in.

The meeting would soon be over, so I rushed towards the Chinese Premier, but one of his guards pushed me away. I kept still and waited to have another chance. Then more people surrounded him, while this guard was watching me closely.

Time was limited as the limo was at the entrance to the hall ready to take the Premier away. I trusted Master would help me through. Then, among the crowd, I saw the Greek Prime Minister. I approached and handed him the 2 letters, asking him kindly to give one to the Premier of China. He truly thanked me and I left. Next, I called our coordinators and told them what happened, so everybody continued sending righteous thoughts.

Even though I was a new practitioner, fellow practitioners trusted me completely with the letter, and to my understanding, this attitude encouraged me so much and eliminated all interference letting Master's arrangement be accomplished.

The trip to Santorini
After some time, I went to Santorini, a Greek island that welcomes thousands of Chinese people every year. I was travelling alone. Behind my seat a group of Chinese people was sitting. I slipped them a newspaper about quitting the CCP and continued reading Zhuan Falun. I could hear the paper's noise as a Chinese girl was going through the newspaper.

Suddenly, she started screaming. All the Chinese gathered together to read. One middle-aged man went out, looking very anxious and all the laughing and talking between them stopped completely. I continued reading and after finishing the lecture, I laid it down and fell asleep. When I woke up, I saw a little Chinese girl aged five or six watching me thoroughly. When she realized I’d woken up, she touched my head and left.

Although I don’t speak Chinese, this incident gave me courage to continue with truth clarification to Chinese people, and I found out that it was easier for me to do so when we actually landed on the island. During my stay on the island I gave many newspapers to Chinese people.

On the way back to Athens, I travelled alone by boat again. I started sending righteous thoughts and gave a newspaper to a Chinese man. He smiled and just took the newspaper. I lost sight of him and started walking up the steps to the boat. The Chinese man was there with his wife. When they saw me they started waving at me in a friendly manner, thanking me and showing their appreciation.

To my understanding, this gesture was a congratulatory message from Chinese people, recognizing the importance of our mission and our unconditional offer to them out of compassion (Shan). At the start of my journey I had doubts whether a letter or a newspaper could change people's hearts. Now I am confident that they can really make a huge difference and we should do our best to clarify the truth to Chinese people.

All the above is my personal understanding. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.
Thank you Master, thank you fellow practitioners.