My Path to Falun Dafa

There is an old Eastern story, about a traveller overtaken on a plain by a hungry beast. Running away from the beast, the traveller hides into a dry well, but at the bottom of the well he spots a dragon with its mouth open, ready to swallow him. Afraid to leave in fear of the beast, and unable to jump to the bottom of the well, because of the dragon, the unfortunate man seizes a twig growing in a crack in the well, and clings to it. As his hands are getting weaker, his knows his end is inevitable, but he still clings on. He watches two mice, black and white, going around the stem of the twig, gnawing it. The twig will crack and he will fall into the jaws of the dragon; being aware of this, he looks around, desperately looking for something. All he finds is two drops of honey on the leaves of the twig. He reaches them with his tongue and licks them.

This is how we spend most of the time in our lives: while black mice of the night and white mouse of the day gnaw the rest of our days, we all find consolation in licking honey. My honey was my work, which I enjoyed, my family, my friends, my plans and my dreams - all the time I sought joys which will hinder me from thinking about what’s inevitable. It is not that I was ever afraid of falling down to the bottom of the well – that’s not the case. But as the days were passing by, the honey did not taste that sweet any more, to the point that there was no sweetness at all. Finally, what I tasted was bitter, not sweet, and that’s when I started wondering about the true meaning of life.

Initially, it was not my own life, but rather lives of all others. I observed people’s misery and ignorance, their contamination with various messages bringing false values of money, fame and lust, fake sense of security and belief that they are in control of their own lives, while in fact they are manipulated, exploited, devoured by a grand illusion called modern world. I saw that this civilisation was heading backwards, not forward, I knew that so called progress is no progress at all, and that it can lead us only to self-destruction. I saw the world wrong. But this criticism could not help me one bit. It only gave me a false impression that if others would be able to see what I see, the world would be a better place to live. Aware of my gift for writing, I started writing novels, which have depicted all that I found bad in people, including nasty and selfish politics that leads to such bad behaviour. I thought this was my way of changing things. I thought, if I can be good at this, then the result will come naturally. This mentality is typical for an everyday person – we often overestimate our power and self-importance, not being aware of the forces we’re against. Actually, I was Don Quixote against windmill. No ordinary book can change what people think, and no ordinary man is capable of doing so. When I learnt this simple principle, I became desperate; actually, for the first time in my life there was no reason for me to continue living. There was no strength left in me in order to hold to my twig any more. I was washed out of the illusion called the World, as well as my own illusions that I could change it. The pitiful me was completely disillusioned. It was ready to start practising Falun Gong.

It was not an easy thing to obtain the Fa (law and principles taught in Falun Gong) in a country like Serbia. When, in 1992, Teacher started spreading the Fa in China, we were not even aware of the phenomena of thousands of Chinese exercising in parks, as we were so busy fighting a civil war. When Teacher visited Europe for the first time, in 1995, we were at another bloody war. War crises’ on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, which started through out 1991, will finally end in June 1999. Although I wasn’t involved in war, those years were a real agony to me, as most of the time I felt like all the evil of the world was concentrated around me. When it finally withdraws, I should have felt relief instead, but somehow I didn’t. How could I – one moth latter, all those evil forces initiated the persecution of Falun Gong in China.

Of course I was not aware of this at the time. The isolation in which we spent our time was still rather deep, so a man looking for the Dao could would not be able to find it in this neighbourhood. I thought it was economic reasons that forced me to start looking for a new home in Czech Republic, after 1999. But, actually it was my path to Falun Dafa that had to pass through Prague, where I’ll meet Falun Gong.

First time I saw a Falun Dafa practitioner meditating on a street, I was spellbound by the true harmony I noticed within him, to the extent that for a moment I felt harmonious, too. On this occasion, I received a leaflet about the practise, and learnt about the persecution. This was only the beginning. When I returned back to Serbia, I carried the leaflet with me. The business I started in Prague was broke; I thought I was very unlucky, but in fact I was the luckiest guy around. Because one year later, in a case of supposed illness in my family, I’ll remember this leaflet and what was stated on positive health effects of Falun Gong. Now I know the illness case was a staged one, as well as my moving to Prague – I think the real purpose of these arrangements was to make me read the Zhuan Falun, for the first time.

From the first glance I knew every word of it was gold. Finally, there is a book which can help me understand both myself and the vast universe around. Finally a book which utilises physics, mathematics, psychology, philosophy, religion and everything else of the human knowledge, and even goes beyond. This is a book of the books, such book that has never existed before – I thought. Moreover, I felt like I already knew many of those Fa-truths that the book revealed, just could not express them by words. It’s been within me: Zhen-Shan-Ren - Truthfulness - Compassion - Forbearance, as principle of universe, laid in my heart all the time.

Although I found Zhuan Falun to be the most fascinating book I ever read, at that time I was not to become a Dafa practitioner, yet. To definitely step on the Fa, some preliminary steps were still missing, and major obstacle was the fact I wasn’t sure all those truths were really meant for me, a Caucasian. White folks have no concept of cultivation, we neither believe in reincarnation; our roots are so far away from cultural heritage of East, that I could only regret I was not born in China in the first place. Before I could become a cultivator, I should research a little what cultivation is all about – I said to myself; I wish to be a cultivator, but this is very serious thing – do I have enough time for it right now? What a nonsense reasoning this was. Lao Zi said: “When a wise person hears the Tao, this person will practise it diligently. When an average person hears it, this person will practise it on and off.” Actually, I was a typical Lao Zi’s average person, and I needed someone to help me on my way, to push me on the right track.

Unfortunately, another year and a half will be wasted, with black and white mice gnawing my stem, before I’ll find two persons willing to help me out – one being a well-known cultivator of his time, and the other a famous God. The first one was my colleague, a nineteenth century writer, who presented me this Eastern story, which he used as a reference in one of his works. He was Caucasian, born in Orthodox Christian community, a person accomplished in any sense - but sick of this world just as I was. Before he could become a true Christian cultivator, he searched the meaning for a long time: first in science and world’s religions, at people of various professions, on various continents, whom he asked this same simple question: what is the meaning of life.

As far as I’m personally concerned, I always thought that church is yet another deception, that priests aren’t real believers but merely professionals, that church is actually an instrument of politics, not faith. Obviously, there wasn’t much difference one century ago. Because, although my colleague found out that a poor Christian believer of his time could grasp the true meaning, he himself was still unable to find the same within dogma of Orthodox Church. So he made journey to the very roots of Christianity, by reading original Gospels, in Greek, and soon he was rewarded: Jesus started to reveal to him, in all his glory and magnificence.

Further to this enlightenment, I was able to go one step further in apprehension that true principles from the orthodox religions are part of Fa principles, to teach also compassion and truth. Doesn’t that mean there is, after all, only one principle of the universe to follow? One universal law, one nature of all things: Zhen-Shan-Ren.

I was in a quite shock. It was as if a big rock fell on my head, but didn’t kill me, just woke me up from a big, deep sleep. There is the truth, after all - universal truth, common to rich and poor, black, white and yellow, young and old. There is a truth of all times, all space. And this truth is taught by a person here among us, in plain and simple language we can all understand, in modern world’s concepts, without a bit of mystification, using science to explain what I previously considered unexplainable. The Fa. That truth is called the Fa. And I finally started to enlighten to it.

It’s been a year since I found my way, and I stick to it firmly. Jesus pointed me out this way, he shed a light on it; to him, I’m eternally grateful, but Li Hongzhi is my only Teacher. It is my way to Falun Dafa, and everything I’ve done, everything I experienced, everything I went through in my past life was leading to it. This is why I’m here, on Earth, this is the meaning. Life has no other goal for a person than to find a way in the maze of this world, to step on it, and to follow it to the very end.

Although I believed I was the only Falun Dafa practitioner in Serbia until recently, not for a moment I’ve felt lonely – how could someone be lonely as a part of such immense Fa? Moreover, even if I’m very late at obtaining Fa, I’m lucky to be one of the Fa-rectification Falun Dafa disciples. My profession used to be a translator, and a lot of Fa waits to be translated into Serbian. What’s even more important, many sentient beings in my neighbourhood need to be saved before the Fa rectifies the human world.

The Fa is magnificent. Not long ago, I found out there was a practitioner from Zagreb (Crotia) who spread Fa and clarified the truth by attaching Teacher's poems on the walls of her office. She worked in a police department, so many people go through her office, and ask her about the poems. She told us she is very shy and this is her only way to tell people about the practise. I don't think she ever read much of the Fa, as her English is not that good - which gives this event even more significance. You know, police in southern Europe are not like those working in Sweden or Switzerland, it is an instrument of violence. In spite of this, now policeman can read Fa-poetry from their walls! Isn't this a greatest miracle!

I have to cry when I think of this. In the last ten days or so, I cry like a baby, although this isn't like me. This must be the current state of my cultivation.