My Experiences of Moving from Australia to Cornwall

Hello. My name is Kat and I am a practitioner from Cornwall, the South West of England. I came across, and started to practise Falun Gong in 2004, almost exactly 3 years ago, in Melbourne, Australia. I first came across the practice while walking past an exercise demonstration in the city and being handed a leaflet by an elderly Chinese lady. At that time I had been thinking about doing some sort of practice to help me with the stress of completing my PhD research. I read the leaflet and felt it was good, so I looked up the contact details for my nearest practice site, and phoned the lady. This was in itself a big deal for me as ever since I was a small child I have been very shy and afraid of talking to people on the telephone. I was most disappointed to find out that there would not be a practice session that weekend as everyone was away on holiday – I later understood that they were away at an activity. So I wrote it on my calendar and waited excitedly for two weeks. I persuaded my husband to come with me and on the following Saturday morning I woke up at 6 o’clock to get ready and go and catch the bus to the practice site. This was again an achievement as I liked to lie in on weekends.

The practice site was very small – only two to three practitioners regularly attended – so we had individual, patient tuition. We were given a copy of Falun Gong to borrow, which we read in one week. We then read Zhuan Falun, one lecture a day, and at the same time watched Teacher’s lectures on video at the local study group, one lecture each night. By the end of the nine days all our questions had been answered and we started to understand the meaning of Falun Dafa.

After two months my husband and I had decided to sincerely cultivate in Falun Dafa. Teacher adjusted my body, and we quickly became involved in many of the Falun Dafa related activities been held in Melbourne. Soon we were part of the large main body of active practitioners, both Western and Chinese, helping with many different projects including the Epoch Times, Quitting the Chinese Communist Party, Truth, Compassion, Forbearance International Art Exhibition, Petals of Peace, dancing at festivals and parades, making websites, flyers, and clarifying the truth on the streets. We were very busy, but looking back our cultivation environment was really quite comfortable – my husband and I were both practitioners, we lived alone with no family, children or other responsibilities; we could travel to national activities whenever we wanted; work on projects at any hours of the day or night; join group study of the Falun Gong teachings twice a week, and activities almost every weekend during the summer months; and share with many practitioners on an almost daily basis.

In June of 2006 we left Australia to move back to the UK as I had finished my PhD and my student visa had expired. Leaving was a good test as we had to leave behind most of our material possessions, friends, jobs and the body of practitioners we had grown to know well. These tests were relatively easy to pass and I did not feel moved. But on another level, I may have been covering another attachment as in the past I liked to move house every few years to make a fresh start and run away from my past mistakes, rather than face them and truly let them go. We arrived back at my parents’ house in Cornwall with plans to find work, move out and get back into truth-clarification activities. However, Teacher had another plan for us.

When I had just started practising I had the sense that I would one day return to Cornwall to give the people in that area a chance to find out about the practice and the brutal persecution. Now it seemed that was coming true. However, instead of making the best use of my new found time, my attachment to comfort came up and I became lazy and found excuses for not practising the exercises or studying the Falun Gong teachings, the Fa, saying “I have to spend time applying for jobs” or “I have to fit in with my family’s routine now”. Living with everyday people without regular contact with practitioners and lacking strong righteous thoughts, my cultivation began to waver and I felt myself slipping into an everyday person’s way of living.

I was having trouble finding work, and the future looked uncertain. Instead of trusting in Teacher, a lot of fear came up, and I was reluctant to communicate with UK practitioners as I felt ashamed of my poor cultivation state and didn’t want to commit to help with any projects. One thing I did manage to do was continue to contribute articles to the Epoch Times via the Australian edition.

The turning point was joining in with the online Teamspeak Fa study. Although I understood the importance of group Fa study, it was not until I moved to an area where physically meeting up with other practitioners regularly was impossible that the true significance of such environments was made clear. Now I join the online Fa study at least three times a week and truly feel part of the one body of practitioners again.

When we were in Australia, activities for introducing Falun Gong and exposing the persecution were mostly arranged by a team of coordinators, and we just turned up to help on the day. I never appreciated the role that each individual practitioner plays in clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings until I moved to an area where I was almost entirely responsible for coming up with ideas and organising events to clarify the truth to people in my community and local area.

I suddenly realised that Teacher had prepared me for the task of saving sentient beings in the southwest as I had learnt many skills in Melbourne from being involved in so many projects and being supported by so many practitioners over a period of two years. We found out that there were only two other practitioners in Cornwall, but they lived at the other end of the county. However, we were able to meet up and over the past 8 months have formed a very co-operative team with regular study, sharing, exercising and clarifying the truth together. If I hadn’t obtained the Fa in Melbourne as part of large group of practitioners, I wouldn’t have had the knowledge or understanding to help to quickly establish truth clarification in the southwest. We bought a table, made poster displays, printed flyers and petitions, made hundreds of lotus flowers, wrote letters and media releases, contacted our local MPs and distributed the Epoch Times to Chinese takeaways, medicine shops, doctors surgeries and libraries.

One of the first things I did was write an article about Falun Dafa and send it to all the local newspapers. One journalist with a predestined relationship responded and ran a full page spread in the newspaper supplement about the practice which was distributed to the whole county. Another newspaper ran my article exactly as I had written it. Through this we had many enquires from people wanting to learn the exercises and so we established a practice site in central Cornwall, about one hour’s drive from our home.

All of this was only possible after both my husband and I learnt to drive and passed our tests in February. I was very scared of driving and at first did not want to learn, but then I realised that without having a licence, and living in a rural area, I would not be able to travel to different towns to clarify the truth and the effects would be very limited. It would also not be right to rely on just my husband or family to drive me around. With this motivation I overcame my fears. Being taught to drive by my mother also provided many tests.

Moving from Australia helped me to see many of my fundamental attachments and fully understand the responsibility each practitioner shoulders for their local region. I would also not have experienced what it is like to live with everyday people, which has tested my forbearance and cultivation of speech to their limits. For example, my sister and I like to tease each other and sometimes we get carried away and say hurtful things. I realise now that she is acting like a mirror for my own attachments; if my thoughts are pure and I do not respond in a bad way, she also does not tease me or say bad things. The same is true for the rest of my family; when my cultivation state is good, there is harmony in the household. When I lived with just my husband I could cook and clean whenever I wanted to. Since living with my family I have had to take on domestic responsibilities and eat at set times, which has shown me where my attachments of selfishness and laziness still lie and has helped me to think more of others before my self. I still have a long way to go with many of these things, especially balancing my time well, and am grateful to Teacher for giving me these opportunities.

We have clarified the truth well to my family members and they all understand the true nature of the Chinese Communist Party. Although they are not practitioners, they often help to clarify the truth to others, both independently and at activities. As we have attempted to maintain our characters, we have hopefully been a good influence on my family; for example they have reduced the amount of alcohol they drink and compete less with everyday people for material gain. My father often says something like, “We can’t do that, Trevor [my husband] wouldn’t approve.”

After six months we had still not found work. I applied for many jobs and had been to interviews in Oxford and London, but was unsuccessful. I felt a strong sense that I should stay in Cornwall, but couldn’t find work locally. When approached with a human mindset, the situation seemed hopeless, and I couldn’t figure out where I was going wrong and felt very anxious. Master has taught us to “follow the course of nature”, but what was the correct path? To further complicate things I had been offered a job back in Australia soon after returning to the UK, but this had fallen through due to lack of funding for the position. The offer is still open and we may return to Australia next year, this time to Adelaide, which is also lacking in practitioners. At first I thought this long procedure was interference preventing me from re-establishing myself and getting involved in truth clarification, but actually it was buying me time to fulfil my promise to the people of Cornwall. I never thought I was attached to stability or routine, but I was clearly seeking this, and so my attachment was revealed and I was able to get rid of it.

Together with the other West Country practitioners we have held monthly activities in most of the major towns in Cornwall and have a few larger truth clarification projects in preparation. My husband and I have joined our local Amnesty International group and have had the opportunity to clarify the truth to them successfully. They have since signed up to the China updates and campaigns and offered help with our Falun Dafa events. Several other opportunities have also arisen from our contact with the group; for example one lady told us about a Peace Action Group in a neighbouring town. We went along and at the end of the meeting were given the opportunity to clarify the truth to a large group of people that had come to listen to the guest speaker. We later contacted the guest speaker who has provided us with a space in which to hold the Truth, Compassion, Forbearance International Art Exhibition.

I now feel like truth clarification is being done well in Cornwall and many people who had never heard about Falun Gong have been saved as a result. I always thought that you needed a lot of people to achieve a good effect, but have been amazed at how much four people can accomplish. It has also helped me to realise that the actions of each individual play a large part in the success of a project in saving sentient beings. It is easy to see when there are only a few of you, if you are not righteous at all times, there will be problems and things won’t be done as well. One thing we noticed is the importance of maintaining a righteous field at events. As we have gone to each town we have been able to see the area being cleaned up as the weather improved, and on subsequent visits, people were more receptive and supportive.

Where before I was afraid, I can now feel Teacher is taking care of things, and if I can have faith in Falun Dafa and just do my best in all situations, the true purpose will be revealed. Ultimately, coming to the UK has given us the opportunity to really step forward rather than just following others. I will try my best to catch up with exercises and Fa study and become truly diligent.

Please kindly point out any shortcomings in my understandings. Thank you everyone, and thank you Teacher.