Western Practitioner: "Learning these exercises truly changed my life..."

It was by way of my wife that I was led to finding Falun Dafa. As my wife had gotten interested in learning about Falun Dafa due to the persecution, which she started to read about back in 2000. My wife, being Chinese, was trying to learn and understand why the Chinese Government was against Falun Dafa. So she started to read up on Falun Dafa. She would read the newspaper and then she started to read this little yellow book. At that time, I did not pay that much attention to it.

Then one Sunday morning when we went for a bicycle ride down by the beach, I had my first contact with Falun Dafa as we came upon a group practising the exercises in one of our local parks. At first glance, one of the things that caught my eye was this big swastika symbol (referring to the swastika symbol used in the Falun or Law Wheel, the symbol for Falun Dafa). I asked myself, what is this and why is my wife so interested in this? I initially associated the swastika with Hitler, even though it seemed different at the time. I soon realised that my initial thought was the wrong, after doing a little reading of the informational fliers the practitioners had provided. My wife was very eager to jump right in and started talking to one of the practitioners, as I read the posters and banners they had on display. It was not long when another Chinese practitioner asked me if I would also like to try the exercises, and so I hastily joined in. During and after the exercises something happened to me: all of a sudden I was full of so much energy and just felt like I was sitting on top of the world.

I had this feeling for the rest of the day and for weeks after. Learning these exercises truly changed my life from that day on. Another amazing thing happened to me; at that time I was also a smoker. I had been smoking for some 20 plus years. However, after just learning and doing these simple exercises that first morning, I have never had a cigarette since. In fact I very rarely ever even thought about smoking after that morning. I had tried everything before to quit, I mean everything, from patches, to hypnosis, chewing gum, cold turkey, acupuncture, you name it. But I still could not maintain the willpower to quit. However, after this one morning, that was the end of my smoking habit.

At the end of the exercises, another practitioner gave me this book to read called Falun Gong. So I took it home with us. Now I have to explain something here about reading and me, for during my school years and even up until now, I really dislike reading, I mean really. My idea of reading a book was to check out the back cover, read it and then I understood enough. If I had to write a report, I would write it based on that or I would find the movie to watch. So for me, to do any reading was a real chore.

Well, later that afternoon I sat down and read this whole book from cover to cover. I just could not put it down. It was so amazing to me to find that so many of the things and beliefs that I had thought about over the years were all written in this book. Wow! It was as if I had read this book before or at some point in my life. Upon finishing it, I still had not had enough of what I had been reading. I had a need and a desire for more - much more. I had so many question that I wanted answers to.

So I soon got on the computer and on the Internet to see what else I could find out and learn about Falun Dafa. I found a wealth of information there. I was also led to the group that we had met in the park that morning and I made a few calls to see how and where they were to meet next. I found out that they would meet that Friday night and that it was going to be a group study. I had been to many different study groups before for different religions that I had studied in the past. So in some ways this was sort of a turn-off for me. But even with this uneasiness, for some reason I still wanted to go and gain more of an understanding of this new practice. In fact, I could hardly wait until Friday night.

The group study was really great. It was mostly Chinese people. They started out by reading in Chinese and I followed along in English. Then they decided it might be better to put in a tape of Master's first lecture. This was very interesting, and at the end they gave us a set of the 9-lecture videotape series to take home and watch. And so I did, and I watched each and every one of them and still do. I would watch a lecture and then read the lecture in the book. I still like this way of understanding, however nowadays I usually listen to a lecture, then I read it.

I think one of the other things that really caught my eye was the fact that when giving all of this, not one of the practitioners would take any money for any of the information given out. So no one was making money on any of it. It was truly just given from the heart and they wanted to pass what they too had learnt to others, as I do myself now. I do not remember how I came about my first book of Zhuan Falun. I believe my wife bought it in a store in Chinatown for me. I have been reading it ever since and each time I'm lifted to a new and higher level. It is truly amazing that you can read the same book over and over and still gain so much. Thanks to everyone who has helped to lead me down this path of cultivation in Falun Dafa.

This is my limited understand from my level.