On February 19, which was Mid January in the Lunar calendar, western Practitioners from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania organized a full-day activity for book study and exercise practice by themselves. Among the 50 participating practitioners, a majority were western practitioners who spoke English, Russian, and Spanish. Some practitioners having practiced Falun Gong for more than two years had never had the opportunity to get together like this, to exchange their cultivation experience, due to scattered residences and the fast pace of life. They met at the home of a New Jersey practitioner, reading the whole new English translation of the book "Falun FoFa - Essentials for Further Advance" and partial sections of the "Falun FoFa - Lecture at Changchun Assistants' Meeting". They also exchanged their experience of promoting the great law. It was an especially cordial gathering and invaluable experience to all the participants.
There was a female practitioner who had just learned Falun Dafa a month ago when she was on a business trip to China along with a practitioner. After reading "Zhuan Falun" she was so excited, as she has understood many unsolved puzzles about human live and religion. Moreover, she has seen her own "true eyes" and experienced body reactions for karma elimination, as well as going through some other interesting things related to cultivation. From the bottom of her heart she said, "Falun Dafa is remarkably powerful!" An American practitioner M who knows Chinese and another American practitioner E have spent a lot of their leisure time to revise "Falun FoFa - Essentials for Further Advance". When M was trained in Qinghua University, he was touched by the earnestness and dedication of practitioners in China, and understood the importance of studying the Fa. During experience sharing, a Chinese-speaking practitioner discovered by chance that some American practitioners were studying Chinese language in order to be able to read the original Chinese text of the great law. Two practitioners from New York were self teaching themselves Chinese, while another two college students from Pennsylvania are taking a Chinese course this semester. A college student named L has already been able to recognize many characters in "Lun Yu (A Statement of Comments)". A Chinese practitioner was happy about the diligence and dedication of the western practitioners and felt very lucky that his mother tongue was Chinese. When L attended the New York Falun Dafa conference last October when he just obtained the great law, he brought with him a lot of questions and yet he had not completed reading "Zhuan Faun. At that time, other American practitioners enthusiastically encouraged him to go home and finish reading the book. He nodded agreement. Several months later, his change was so dramatic that it seemed to suggest that as long as you obtained the great law, no matter if it is sooner or later, things will progress in a right way. His room !
mate S came from the Middle East and was brought up in the States, who was also lucky enough to join in the cultivation of the great law two weeks ago.
During the activity, in addition to book study and experience sharing, we also took time to do group exercises. A large number of western practitioners who just learned the exercises can already sit in a full lotus position. Furthermore, it is not a problem for them to practice the exercises in the chilly wind of winter and in the snow and ice.
Time went by quickly and it was 8:00 PM. There were still some practitioners exchanging their experiences. The local study group started their routine group study. When S heard we were reading the English "Zhuan Falun", he came to join us right away. During exchange, we realized that he had just gone through the 9-session video seminar and finishing reading "China Falun Gong", but still has not completed reading "Zhuan Falun". Nevertheless, the consciousness for cultivating Xinxing was already rooted in his mind. He inquired of others about their experience in Xinxing cultivation and also talked about his own changes, "During these two weeks, I have given up smoking and drinking. This time, they are completely given up." He added, "My mind seems to become more and more pure." When his parents living far away from him asked what Falun Gong is really about, he answered, "It is truth!"
As time elapses, practitioners progress in the great law. Throughout history, there have been many aspired and motivated people painstakingly seeking the truth of human lives, and there are also a great number of people who have strove to cultivate Buddhahood or Tao so as to get at a perfect and eternal life. Such a day has finally come. Falun Dafa has once again revealed the primordial characteristics of the universe - "Zhen-Shan-Ren (Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance), which has solved many mysteries that have been left unexplained for a long time and brought to the lives of the universe a hope for eternity. May all those people who have the predestined affinity obtain the great law at an early date and fulfill their old wishes for an eternal life.
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