(Minghui.org) I am a 15-year-old Caucasian Falun Dafa practitioner from Northern California. My mother started practicing Dafa when I was 3 years old.
I have sincerely practiced Falun Dafa for over a year now and have experienced great changes in my mental outlook. I was born with a very bad temper and used to get very angry when things would not go my way. Through studying the Fa I have learned to control myself when I begin to feel angry and to look inside for my own shortcomings when encountering conflicts. I aspire to treat everyone in my life with kindness and patience. While I still have much work to do in this regard, my mind is already much calmer and more peaceful than it was previously.
Growing up, most of my family members were Christians, so I used to have a strong attachment to Christianity. Through studying the Fa, however, I have come to realize that in this final period of Last Havoc, those religions are not pure anymore. Dafa is truly the only pure land left in this muddy world.
I have experienced many changes in the short time that I have been truly cultivating. For instance, I find that I can no longer stand listening to the modern songs I used to like. I only like listening to classical music and very old country and folk songs now.
Master Li said:
“During the 1950s and 60s people were rather simple and kind. But the old forces thought it would be too easy for people like that to gain the Fa, as people’s thinking was too wholesome and virtuous. And so they brought about many modern ideas, modern art, and modern theories. Every field and domain is filled with modern, negative and bad things, and with time the negative elements came to dominate the world.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the New York Fa Conference Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Dafa’s Spreading”)
Reading that helped me to understand why I can no longer listen to modern music; why it is repelling to me now. It’s because it’s filled with negative and bad things. I’ve realized how important it is to only fill ourselves with what is good and beautiful.
My aunt and her two children live with my family. My ten-year-old cousin poses a big test for me, as he always seems to do just the things that make me angry.
When they first moved into our house in June 2016, I would often bicker with him. Because of Dafa, I have become much more patient with him, and don’t let him make me angry as much anymore. I have learned to look inside and find my own attachments that I need to relinquish whenever I feel annoyed with him. I still need to do much better, however, as there are times when I cannot control my temper and will argue with him. I often thank Master Li (the founder of Falun Dafa) for sending them to live with us so that I can improve my xinxing faster.
I am by nature a very competitive person. I want to be the best at everything I do. Every game I play, I want to win. If I lose, it can make me very angry. Falun Dafa has helped me to be less attached to winning, and to follow the course of nature. The competitive mentality is definitely one of my biggest obstacles in cultivation, and I am still working hard to overcome it. When I feel the competitive urge rising, I ask myself, “Would a heavenly being be attached to beating an everyday person at a game?” That always helps to put things in perspective for me and allows me to let go of the attachment to winning.
I was fortunate enough to see Master Li at the 2014 Fa Conference in San Francisco. I am by no means an emotional person, but when Master walked out, I started to cry and couldn’t stop. I couldn’t explain why I was crying. I was just overcome with an overwhelming feeling of gratitude and a wish to go home to heaven.
While I am still a relatively new practitioner, my understanding of the Fa is ever deepening. As Dafa practitioners it is our duty to spread light and goodness to the world, telling people about Falun Dafa and the persecution, while embracing our ethnicities' traditional culture, which was given to us by Gods.
By embracing Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, and doing the three things well, we can help to remake humankind while ascending to heaven.
My thankfulness to Master is boundless and cannot be measured with words. I vow to continue cultivation diligently all the way to the end.
Thank you, Master!
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