Article from UK 2002 Falun Dafa Conference: A Personal Story of Practising Falun Gong

I first experienced Falun Dafa about a year ago. I had been doing bits of Qigong, Taichi, and Yoga for about two years. I was struggling for quite a few years with a drug addiction problem and many problems with depression, which had on and off plagued my life. I was overcome (that is not too strong a word) by the impact of the very first Falun gong class I attended. Upon leaving the class, after doing five exercises, I almost experienced disbelief at the positive effects on every level. From that moment I could not stop thinking about how different, how positive, I felt. I mentioned this to everyone I saw, and was compelled to seek out classes in the London area, all the other disciplines I was practising just lost their importance.

Even though, upon reading “Zhuan Falun”, I thought I could never ever fulfil the xinxing [This means mind-nature or moral standard] requirements, something pushed me to continue and bit by bit my confidence in my ability to clean up and be a better person, has persisted. After so many years in this life, where one must take drugs, drink, fulfil social obligations, dress codes, political beliefs etc, it is like magic to be able to feel safe and even happy amongst people one doesn’t know in the normal sense, sharing a clean energy field, the pure land that Master Li speaks of. It is quite incredible and I realize that it is a “miracle” that someone as errant as myself can even think of sharing this feeling, this pure land. I put this last fact down to the pre-destined relationship that master speaks of. I must been looking for it all my life!?!

All my drug problems have disappeared and although it has only been the last three or four months, the significance of my not wanting to pollute myself is very great indeed. I feel that this is clearly Master Li’s encouragement to me, but that I must earn it, in other words, I have a very long way to go, to be a cultivator in the true sense.

On a number of occasions now I have been to the Chinese Embassy in London to sit down with practitioners and send forth righteous thoughts [This is a special kind of meditation], do the exercises and show my face, validate the Fa [The principles of Falun Dafa] and have felt I have done something I very much believe in. Although there is much inhumanity in the world, the fact is that Falun Dafa is reversing a downward slide in morality among humankind. The Buddha Fa [Fa here refers to universal laws and principles] is a whole infinity ahead of any other system and is completely comprehensive it its understanding of the problems facing humanity. The significance of the cruelty and lies perpetrated by Jiang Zemin and those in fear of him is major, in that it is an attempt to destroy humankind’s one chance of saving itself, and the terrible sufferings of practitioners in the mainland are thus worthy of the attention of anyone who really cares about the future of the human soul, regardless of race, age or culture. A number of times, I was thanked by practitioners for turning up, and was dismayed in a sense, because it is I who should be thanking them for allowing me to join them. This last is in no way a cheap sentiment, I feel that it is pure divine grace that has allowed me to join them. I also realise that my responsibility to the reputation of Dafa is now established and this will oblige me henceforth to abandon the negativity, weakness and selfishness, which characterised my behaviour before I heard about Dafa.

I cannot say anymore except to declare my gratefulness to Master Li and for what he has given the world with Dafa. Were I to forget that gratefulness at any future time, I can only lose in terms of true humanity, so I must never forget, no matter how much the big dye vat poisons my consciousness. Falun Dafa hao! [Falun Dafa is great!]