Over the span of 30 years, on and off, I had searched for "the path" everywhere, finding nothing. In fact, I had stopped searching, thinking the path was nowhere to be found. And then, one day, I obtained the Fa.
I obtained the Fa in Canada in November 2000 when the persecution was at its peak in China. After attending some qigong classes at a local college, my co-worker, a Canadian Chinese woman, found the Falun Gong website and read the description to me. I remember her saying: "an advanced qigong practice, all activities are free of charge, practiced by more than 100 millions people around the world and persecuted in China since July 1999."
Several years earlier, I had heard that Chinese people were being encouraged by their government to do exercises in public parks, but in my mind whatever the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was promoting was of no interest to me. However, this time when I heard that the Chinese Communist Party was persecuting a spiritual practice it aroused my interest since I knew a communist regime promotes atheism and would not bother with a spiritual practice unless it was a very good practice. It that case, the popularity of this practice would not please the CCP's wicked ideology.
At that time, there was no contact person in my city; the closest contact was quite far away. I thought this was unfortunate and just left it at that. About 8 months later, I saw in a local newspaper that someone was teaching the exercise practice of Falun Gong at a public park near my house. I went, and as soon as I started the second exercise, I felt dizzy and close to throwing up. I also felt that if I continued to practice I would pass out. So, I sat down by a tree nearby and in another dimension, I did in fact throw up. This was Master quickly cleaning up my dirty body.
I returned to the practice site the following day and the following week. When I was holding the wheel (the second exercise), a gigantic and kind heavenly being stood in front of me. I could only perceive this being up to about his knee, the remainder of the body was above the clouds. This being wanted to install something in me. I knew I should be cautious and not accept things, even from a heavenly being, unless I really knew what I was accepting. In my head, I said: "No, please wait, I cannot accept it right now because I do not understand what it is."
In the meantime, I was impressed by the kind hearts and behavior of two female practitioners. I wanted to know more about practitioners, and what kind of people they are, because that would tell me much about the practice itself. I knew this practice was good but didn't know if it was for me. I was anxiously waiting for my copy of Zhuan Falun to arrive in the mail because I knew it was the main book, China Falun Gong being the introduction only. Zhuan Falun was delivered to my doorstep, but I never saw it because it was stolen before I arrived home that day. So I had to reorder it and wait again. Patience was not my strong point, so this was my first lesson in patience; I had to wait for several more weeks to get the book.
Then, a practitioner invited me to their pot-luck supper followed by a group study. I accepted happily. While supper was getting ready, the host practitioner played the exercise video. When I saw Master doing the hand movements at the very beginning, I thought that it was the most beautiful thing in the world and would have loved to watch it over and over again. I felt like an excited child but only asked the practitioner to replay it once.
We then started to read the 1st chapter of Zhuan Falun. At the end of the chapter it was my turn to read the last paragraph, which is very long. After a while, I was losing my voice and asked the next practitioner to continue. She had been listening with her eyes closed and could not find where we were in the reading. Then someone said to me, "It's because you are supposed to read it." So I continued with difficulty and a bit disappointed to have to do so. I read:
"There is one thing that I must also point out: At present, no other person is truly teaching people toward high levels like me. In the future you will realize what I have done for you. Thus, I hope that you do not have very poor enlightenment quality. A lot of people want to practice cultivation toward high levels. This is now provided right before you, and you may still be unaware of it. You have been everywhere looking for a teacher and spent a fortune, yet you have found nothing. Today, it is offered to you at your doorstep, and maybe you have not realized it! This is an issue of whether you can become enlightened to it and whether you can be saved." (Zhuan Falun)
It was as if someone was sounding a loud bell in my heart saying, "Do you understand now? This is what you have been searching for all your life."
Following the path of cultivation practice since then has been an amazing journey. I'm still learning to look within myself deeper and deeper while understanding and assimilating more and more to Zhen-Shan-Ren [Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, the principles of Falun Dafa] and taking part in the Fa-rectification. All this requires my incessant efforts and constant determination to improve. No words can express my appreciation to our benevolent Master for imparting the Fa to us at this time.
Thank you Master!