Western Practitioners Find Guidance, Inspiration, and Hope By Reading Submissions to Celebrate World Falun Dafa Day

(Minghui.org) On May 4, 2000, Minghui.org declared May 13, World Falun Dafa Day. This year, Minghui sent out a call for submissions to celebrate this special day. To accommodate the large volume of Falun Dafa Day-related submissions from around the world, Minghui extended the usual publication time to span the entire month of May, declaring it Falun Dafa Month. Throughout the month, Minghui has featured a variety of Falun Dafa Day content involving practitioners’ cultivation experiences, celebrations held around the world, government awards and proclamations, and the public’s greetings for Falun Dafa’s founder, Master Li Hongzhi. 

As the month draws to a close, many Western practitioners reflected on the articles they’ve read on Minghui for Falun Dafa Month. They said these articles offer inspiration to further improve their own cultivation. Reports, greetings, and submissions in celebration of Falun Dafa Day show the growing recognition of the Falun Dafa community around the globe. 

Learning from Other Practitioners’ Experiences 

One popular article type featured by Minghui for Falun Dafa Month is the experience sharing articles. Each year, Minghui posts a call for articles asking practitioners around the world to share the experiences of their spiritual journey. 

To Elena Drinceanu, a Romanian practitioner, the stories written by practitioners in China provide motivation for her to continue striving forward in her own cultivation. “The experiences of practitioners in China are far more difficult than ours. Although we go through trials and tribulations, they cultivate better and some of the results are miraculous,” she said. 

Elena began practicing Falun Dafa in 2015 and is a brand layout coordinator. The fact that practitioners in China not only face eliminating their attachments, but also must stand up for their freedom of belief in the face of the CCP’s persecution, is highly inspirational and moving she said. 

“The practitioners in China inspire me to give more in my relationships with others, not to protect my selfishness, not to complain when I have too much to do and to strive to do as much as possible,” she said. 

Often, these experiences also give her inspiration in how to resolve the problems in her own cultivation journey as well. 

“From their experiences I understood how I have to position myself in my relationships with my family. I thought I had to be alone to have time to study and exercise and go to activities and that was all I had to do. Reading their experiences I learned that family is also a nurturing environment and that I have to be extraordinary in my relationships with them, and to do as much as possible without complaining. It’s not like I decided this, but I found myself trapped in this environment and trying to run away when I really needed to do my best as a practitioner. Practitioners in China are not risking their lives for nothing, they are amazing!” said Elena.

Her sentiments are shared by two other Romanian practitioners, Ildikó Somogyi and Delia Dondea. 

Delia Dondea began practicing in 2017, lives in Germany and works as a nurse. “I’ve tried as a practitioner to do my best, but I haven’t always succeeded—especially in these last 4 years. I encountered never ending hardships, from my last job to bringing a baby into the world 3 months earlier than normal. I’ve had a lot of stress and tribulations until now. But practitioners in China have even more challenges. Looking at what they face on a daily basis, my struggles are nothing. Reading about their experiences helps me to endure,” she said. 

Ildikó Somogyi is a secretary and began practicing Falun Dafa in 2012. She is the only practitioner in her family, so seeing the stories of other practitioners posted for World Falun Dafa Day is helpful in guiding her cultivation. 

“I often have xinxing problems, when I don’t know how to remove an attachment, I read the experiences on Minghui. I recently began listening to the podcasts, which are very helpful. I’ve had many trials, tests of karma, but by reading other people’s experiences, I manage to gather strength to pass them.” she said. “I’ve often thought: How would I have been able to overcome such difficulties as the ones practitioners in China experience, if I were in those situations, considering that for me even the minor daily ones often seem enormous!” 

Rosemary, a practitioner from Scotland, was especially moved by the article titled “Letting Go of My Fear,” where a young practitioner reflects on an experience from her childhood. When police came to arrest her mother for her faith, the practitioner stood up to the police and said that all the CCP’s propaganda was lies. 

“She was standing in front of the police and her teacher and said that all of the propaganda is wrong, I was very impressed!” she said.