(Minghui.org) I first heard about Falun Dafa in 2009 when I was in a military unit. A fellow noticed me sitting with my legs crossed and began talking about Falun Dafa. I was fascinated by his explanation of Buddha and the universe. He promised to give me some Dafa books so I could learn more about the cultivation practice.
Long before reading Dafa books, I experienced an emotion that I had never felt before in my life. Then, when I read the books for the first time, I felt like an electric shock was running through my whole body and how, little by little, all my doubts about life, the universe, and morality were being answered.
Despite having practiced yoga and some qigong for several years, I had never experienced such peace within myself. Master purified my body and I was filled with energy. One of the most shocking sensations at first was the discovery that the Falun was rotating in my abdomen one night while I was lying in bed.
Little by little, I lost my shyness and nervousness when I spoke to other people. I understood that good and evil have their consequences and that the whole universe has a very well-planned design.
The start of my cultivation coincided with the end of my military service, and I soon started college. For three years I read the book and did the exercises all by myself, so my movements were not very accurate. One day I contacted the other practitioner I knew in Havana. He kindly showed me the correct movements and also gave me some materials on the persecution of Falun Dafa in China. Only then did I learn about the crimes being committed against practitioners in China and the many activities practitioners outside of China were doing to oppose the persecution and to validate the Fa.
From that moment on, I realized that it was my mission as a practitioner to catch up with the Fa-rectification process and to talk to people about Dafa and the persecution in China. I started with my family and continued with my classmates. I then began to hand out flyers and talk to Chinese visitors at tourists' sites. Many ignored me, but some accepted the information with joy and surprise. On several occasions I have felt fear, but I understand that this attachment must be eliminated, because if these people lose their chance, they may never have another one and all the conscious beings behind them will suffer the same way. I thank Master for all His arrangements and for enlightening me that this is what a being forged by Dafa should do.
I stopped cultivating for several years after failing to resist the numerous temptations faced by college students. I knew that Dafa was what I had been waiting for, but I couldn't get certain twisted human notions out of my mind. I was attracted to people of the same gender as me, which brought me tremendous shame, pain, and damage. I'd like to remind other practitioners of the danger of such an unnatural desire, which is not our true self.
Master has warned us many times against such attachment.
"Desires, lust, and things of these sorts are all human attachments, and all of them should be given up" (Lecture Six, Zhuan Falun)
“A person should live in an upright manner, living honorably like a human being. He shouldn’t indulge his demon-nature and do whatever he likes” (Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Switzerland)
However, Master never abandoned me in all those years and gave me hints in my dreams. Sometimes I saw myself floating like a being of light and sometimes flying. I understood that it was my true self in other dimensions begging me to return to Dafa. In those years, I returned very intermittently to the practice. It wasn't until February 2018 that I finally made up my mind to be diligent and follow Master's arrangements.
We don't have many practitioners in Cuba and it is our responsibility to spread Dafa. To make it possible for more people to learn about Dafa cultivation, we recently set up a practice site, where we can do the exercises and share our experiences on how to improve our xinxing. The place is a bit noisy at times, but once we start the exercises it's like Master describes:
“When you sit there, you should feel wonderful and very comfortable as though you are sitting inside an eggshell; you will be aware of yourself practicing the exercise, but feel that your whole body cannot move.” (Lecture Eight, Zhuan Falun)
Elevating xinxing was one of the things that took me the most time to internalize. Through diligent study of the Falun Dafa teachings, I have come to understand the true nature of suffering. According to my understanding, it is key for a practitioner to read the books regularly, because only that way can we really know what the practice of cultivation consists of and that tribulations do not come just to dissolve karma but also to improve xinxing. With Dafa in our minds and by looking inward, there is no test that we cannot pass.
Master asks us to send forth righteous thoughts well. I think we cannot limit ourselves by our location and we must keep sending righteous thoughts no matter we are at the moment. With this in mind, I try to do my best by sending forth righteous thoughts not only at home but also at work and even when I walk down the street.
This applies equally to clarifying the truth. Over the years, Master has arranged for me to get close to the Chinese and tell them that Falun Dafa is good and that they must know the truth. One experience where I could see the power of Dafa and our perseverance occurred at a tourist site. Two Chinese girls were taking pictures. I tried to give them some flyers, but they ignored me and told me they didn't have time. “We're not interested,” they told me.
At that moment I asked myself, “Aren't you here to help them and let them know the truth?” I waited patiently for them to finish taking their photos and again tried to give them the flyers. They said in English, “We don't understand why you keep insisting.” I told them that my interest was not to force them to practice Dafa, but that they should know the truth and what really happened. When they understood, they took the information and I said goodbye with great joy in my heart.
My greatest wish is to continue to advance and improve as an altruistic particle of this great body.