The Wonderful Story of how I Discovered Dafa

By a German Dafa practitioner

Falun Gong had a lot of practitioners in Mainland China before the Jiang regime began the persecution four years ago. Master Li Hongzhi started to spread Falun Gong in public at the Oriental Health Expo in 1992. The number of practitioners reached 70 million by the mid-90s. At the same time, more and more western people started to practise Falun Gong. Many asked, “What’s the magic of Falun Gong? Why has it spread so rapidly?” Falun Gong is the only practice that has spread widely despite there being hundreds of different qigong practices in China. When people realised that Falun Gong spread from person to person and by word-of-mouth, they were amazed that no advertising was necessary.

Many Falun Gong practitioners had previously practised other kinds of qigong, such as Tai Chi. I was one of them. By way of an acquaintance, I attended a Tai Chi school in Germany, where various kinds of classes were provided. I started to learn Tai Chi movements in one class for more than a year and over a period of time I learnt more than forty single movements. We learnt a new movement in each session, but a lack of diligence and bad attendance meant that some practitioners had to quit because they did not make progress.

Compared to this, Falun Gong has only five simple sets of exercises. People of all ages can practise. As it’s very simple, it doesn’t take long to learn. You don’t even need to go to the exercise site as you may practise at home with a VCD or video.

I understand that qigong and Tai Chi have been popular in China for a long time. In addition to curing illness, I would have liked to study them more thoroughly. I asked my teacher many questions. She, however, could not respond to my questions and always said to me that I didn’t try hard enough and ought to come to the classes more often.

I gradually came to realise why my questions were not answered. It wasn’t because of my effort but was because the teacher knew very little and had no answer to my questions.

I saw Falun Gong in a magazine later on, in which it was said to be a new kind of qigong practice. In addition, it was said to be more effective than other qigong practices and it was free, which impressed me a lot. When I discovered that we had an exercise site in my university, I realised that this was not accidental. Though I didn’t know Falun Gong very well, within three days I knew I had found what I was always looking for and realised how lucky I was. One night, I went to the exercise site for the first time. There were already about 50 people there, and two Chinese ladies were the assistants who helped practitioners to learn the exercises. I was told that the exercise site had been running for only a couple of months and the German version of Zhuan Falun [the main text of Falun Gong] became available on that night for the first time.

After I learned the exercises that night, I borrowed a book, a VCD that showed the exercises and a music tape from a Chinese lady: now I could start to practise at home by myself. In the following three days, I read Zhuan Falun and enjoyed it immensely. My husband also showed an interest to read the book but I was reluctant to give it to him. At night, we practised the exercises together but I forgot some of the movements. I went to my parents’ house without any hesitation for they had a VCD player. After three days, I could practise the exercises by myself. We started a free Falun Gong class after 2 weeks.

There are many reasons why Falun Gong spread so rapidly. One could be because it’s free and people can go to the exercise sites without any registration or membership. If you are not satisfied, you may leave at any time. Another reason is that it’s simple to learn the five sets of exercises. Once you learn how to practise it, you can practise for the rest of your life. When I first read Zhuan Falun, my previous questions were all answered. I expanded my wisdom each time I finished reading the book. I have found a cultivation way superior to what I had learned from before. It has miraculous effects and takes little practice time away from my daily life. Whoever practises Falun Gong feels peaceful, relaxed and can always treat others kindly. They open their minds and are in complete control of their lives. To me, this is the magic of Falun Gong. It is said that the great way is extremely simple and easy. That is what I understand Falun Gong to be!

Chinese version available at
http://yuanming.net/articles/200301/16471.html