Some of my memories in cultivation

How I came to start practising Falun Dafa

My profession is a registered nurse. I have also studied journalism, and I write articles as well as do web editing. For a long time I had a back-pain and was burned out from my work. I worked at a unit with very sick children and I had insomnia. Then I went to a medical Qi- gong course. One day somebody told me about a special Qi-gong Teacher who would come from China to Sweden; that he was quite young but very wise. In my heart something told me I just had to attend that course. So I called very soon and made a registration for the course.

I learned Dafa from Master Li during Easter 1995, and that week was the happiest time in my life. I became hopeful for the future and felt very excited. Intuitively I understood my life was going to change for the better. I also had cleansing of the body and mind. I felt changes in the body, and also an incredible energy.

When we learned the exercises, we felt serene and energetic and Master Li went around smiling and correcting our movements. It was a very special time. The lectures were translated so it took several hours every evening, however we never got tired listening. We could ask questions and Master would compassionately answer all of them.

Before Dafa I had been longing to find a meaning in my life and a meaning to all the difficulties I was going through. I used to wonder why there was so much suffering in the world, why sick children have to suffer and whether life was really supposed to be like that. There were many questions in my mind.

I have always believed in God and when I was so tired of everything I prayed to be shown a way in my life. Dafa was God's answer to me.

After beginning the path of cultivation I started sleeping well, like a child. I quit using sleeping-pills and I did not need painkillers any more. My body had a renewal, and the back pain disappeared. Every time I practised I felt my soul was smiling inside. Dafa cleansed my heart and healed my heart and body.

Quite early in cultivation I studied Chinese language at university in Gothenburg together with a fellow Dafa practitioner. It was wonderful to learn Chinese characters, and I wrote Lunyu in Chinese before writing out the first chapter of Zhuan Falun by hand. So when we were visiting practitioners in China, the last time, just about seven months before the persecution began, I read Lunyu in Chinese at a meeting with many policemen. We were some Western practitioners there at the meeting together with Chinese practitioners and we shared some of our experiences of practising Falun Dafa. They listened quietly and I think it was interesting for them. That time was in a city named Dalian, and one time we were about ten thousand practitioners doing the exercises together.

The journeys we made every year between 1995 and 1998 to China from Sweden to visit fellow practitioners were precious. We visited the Chinese practitioners in their homes and were received like family members. The Chinese practitioners' experiences helped us to better understand cultivation. Their stories were so extraordinary and moving and their steadfast belief in Dafa helped me to move forward faster in cultivation.

Pictures are from a trip to a temple named Jietaize outside Beijing in October and November 1996 (from Ms. Svensson's private photo album)

I will never forget our trips to China and our fellow Dafa disciples.

The persecution in China shocked us

In 1999 the persecution started and we were all shocked. I could not understand why it happened and the media started to send false information about Falun Gong from China, and the Western media from Beijing followed suit. That autumn in 1999 we learned about many terrible torture methods used in the jails against Dafa practitioners, from the English version of Minghui.net and we cried. There were so many cruel things happening to our kind friends in China.

We wanted to do something, therefore a few of us practitioners from Sweden went to Beijing in November 1999 to talk with Western media and to see what was going on.

We met some Western journalists and explained to them what Dafa really is and we met also two Chinese practitioners who told us about what had happened to other practitioners after the persecution started.

We could feel the evil environment in Beijing, the air was all heavy, and bad things were everywhere. We felt like we were being followed everywhere, but the bad people did not dare to stop us. We met some American journalists and were interviewed by CNN. A television journalist from Finland met us in a park in Beijing and we showed the meditation and told the truth about Dafa. That interview was shown on national news on television in Finland.

One day we went to Tiananmen to see if there were any practitioners, and we said to each other, "Maybe one day we will come here, many of us Western practitioners."

Two years later I received a phonecall from a German practitioner who said, "We are going to Tiananmen soon, are you coming?" I said, "Oh, the time has come now, I will come with you." I guess subconsciously I had been waiting for this.

By going to Tiananmen we wanted to do something for our Chinese friends. The governments were obviously not doing enough. So we had to show the Chinese Communist Party, that it was not right to persecute innocent and goodhearted people. We wanted to stand up for Dafa and the Chinese practitioners.

We were detained about 36 hours, and there we met some good policemen. When we said "Falun Dafa Hao" ("Falun Dafa is good") in the police station, one police officer said in frustration, "I know, but I have to do my job!"

Going to Tiananmen was one of the best things I have ever done. It was something righteous and it scared the evil persons in China, and gave courage to the Chinese practitioners, that they are not alone. And because we were practitioners from many different countries who were arrested, many Western media learned more about the persecution in China.

When you receive Dafa, you get a new life, a new body and a new future, which is completely different and much better than anything else you would have received without Dafa. While you will become strong inside, and upright in the heart, you will care more and more about other people, and will drop your selfishness. Dafa is a great gift to us and we can bring that gift to other people.

With Dafa there is something so great that is even difficult to describe with words. We have come a long way, and perhaps one day, not far away in time, we can meet our fellow practitioners again in China.