(Minghui.org) The annual Croatian Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference was held at the Hotel Antunović in Zagreb, the capital city, on November 16, 2024. Practitioners from Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia, and Slovakia gathered to share their cultivation experiences. Seventeen practitioners discussed their experiences of practicing Falun Dafa, looking inward, cultivating compassion, and treating people kindly. They talked about how they seized the time to clarify the truth and fulfill their missions.　

The 2024 Croatian Falun Dafa Experience Conference was held at the Hotel Antunović in Zagreb.

Remembering the Power of Dafa in the Face of Difficulties

Dejan from Serbia shared his experience of being illegally detained by the police when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader visited Serbia in May this year. On May 7, Serbian police picked him up at his home and took him to police headquarters. The police chief reluctantly explained that, although he knew that Falun Dafa practitioners were honest, the arrest warrant came from the local prosecutor’s office and Dejan would have to wait there for specific instructions.

While he was in the station, Dejan told the police the truth about Dafa and demonstrated the Falun Dafa exercises. He learned that several other practitioners had been arrested, as well as his non-practitioner brother and the husband of a fellow practitioner. He was later taken to a cell, where the lights were on all night. There were no windows, and no toilet, just a toilet seat.

He began thinking about his situation. He didn’t know how long he would be held and if he would express his dissatisfaction when he saw his lawyer: “How dare you detain my non-practitioner brother and those elderly people?” “Are you working for this country or for communist China?”

When he calmed down, he thought about the Falun Dafa practitioners who were illegally detained in China. They were able to maintain righteous thoughts in an even more cruel environment. He realized that he could not wait passively. The protagonist was not the police or the local prosecutor’s office, but Falun Dafa practitioners. He should take the initiative in any situation and tell more people, including the police, the truth about the CCP’s persecution of Falun Dafa.

The next night, Dejan and other practitioners who’d been arrested were released. Over the following days, they accepted interviews from many domestic and foreign media and TV stations, and some worldwide media reported on the incident.

After this incident, the CCP’s harassing of Falun Dafa practitioners in other countries was exposed to the world, and many people who had never heard of Falun Dafa and the persecution expressed their support for Dafa and practitioners. Dejan’s relatives and friends asked to learn Falun Dafa. He said he was very grateful for Master’s compassionate protection and understood that we should use the kindness given to us by Dafa to deal with the difficulties we encounter.

Getting Rid of a Strong Fighting Mentality

Filip, a Croatian practitioner, said it took him a long time to realize that he had a strong fighting mentality. He didn’t understand why he and his wife often had fierce conflicts. It wasn’t until his wife had an asthma attack and nearly died because of his selfishness and arrogance that he realized the seriousness of the problem. He began to examine himself.

Filip realized that when things did not conform to his understanding, wishes and interests, or when someone interfered with his interests and made him angry, he couldn’t control his temper. At such moments, he felt that he didn’t behave like a practitioner. His aggressiveness and need to protect himself also made his wife suffer.

After sending forth righteous thoughts to cleanse himself, Filip realized that Master had given him hints many times to change his fighting mentality, but he ignored them. For example, his car failed the vehicle inspection two years in a row. On the surface, it was because the car’s brakes were not up to par.

He later realized that he could not “brake” and take a step back when he encountered problems, that he did not think about whether his words might hurt someone. He said that Master’s hint also showed him that he often fought and threatened people in his dreams, and he refused to back down. He realized that this is not what a practitioner should be like.

“This is a manifestation of self-protection and a fighting mentality, because I think of myself first, I think that what I think is right, and I put my comfort and interests first, instead of trying to put myself in the other person’s position. I realized that, unless I try to understand the other person, it’s not possible to cultivate true compassion.”

Nothing Is Trivial in Cultivation

Gordana from Serbia realized that she liked to joke around. When she thought about the issue seriously, she realized that the root of this joke-telling contained a lot of obsessions, dating back to her own experience of being underappreciated and marginalized as a child, so she learned how to stand out while growing up by telling jokes. When you joke, you “look relaxed and funny and show that you are smart,” she said.

Now Gordana realizes that there’s nothing trivial about practicing cultivation, and that in telling jokes, “anxiety, fear, jealousy, sadness and other attachments are hidden,” and telling jokes became a defense mechanism to protect herself. Telling jokes also made her proud and rude. The reason she didn’t have enough willpower to face and solve this problem for a long time was because she was afraid of losing this way of protecting herself. This approach is far from what practitioners want.

Resuming Cultivation and Seizing the Time to Clarify the Truth

Sven from Croatia is 18 years old this year. He occasionally followed his father to practice Falun Dafa when he was young. As an adolescent, he hung out with children in the neighborhood and got into bad habits, such as listening to loud music, shaving his head, and wearing black. After his parents divorced, he made some bad friends, began to drink and smoke, often stayed out all night, and developed extremist views.

Despite this, he said, “No matter how many bad things I did and how many evil thoughts I had, I always had one thought that did not change, that is: ‘Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.’ My opinion of Dafa never changed. No matter what I do, I always respect Master’s portrait and bow to him. Whenever I have the opportunity, I say good things about Dafa.”

In September 2023, Sven was deeply moved after reading Master’s new article “Cultivation in Dafa Is Serious.” He realized how precious time is now and that cultivation must be serious. He began to read Falun Dafa’s main book Zhuan Falun and seized every spare moment to listen to the recordings of Master’s lectures and practice the exercises.

After reading the entire book, he realized what he’d missed over the years and how he lost himself in fantasy and picked up harmful habits. Sometimes when he thought of this and Master’s great compassion, tears welled up in his eyes. He knew what he needed to do. He took advantage of every opportunity to clarify the truth to his professors and classmates at school, and looked for opportunities to play truth-clarifying films.

Sven said, “I must remember that I’m a practitioner. When I encounter problems, I must see in which areas I need to improve and think about why I encountered the situation.”