For many years there was just one practice site in our city, and it was active twice a week, on Friday and Saturday mornings. During the other days of the week, having no other choice, I would sometimes practice alone at home. A few months ago, I suddenly began to feel an urge to take my practicing outside, to the park. It wasn't an easy decision, since I was overwhelmed by fear and all sorts of different attachments.

My primary fear was of being ridiculed. I had grown up in a home were people who did non-ordinary things in public were considered crazy. I didn't want to be branded with that stigma. Looking back from a Fa perspective I now realize that it was my attachment to reputation and saving face that had kicked in. My second greatest fear was of being attacked from behind by someone. So for starters I picked a secluded spot in the park where I felt relatively secure. But I still didn't dare to play the music out loud, and did the exercises while listening to it through my mp3.

I persevered in my practice. I also made a point of studying the Fa diligently and sending forth righteous thoughts to the best of my ability. With time and strong faith in Teacher and Dafa, the intensity of my fears began to dwindle, and my body to strengthen. In about a month I gained enough confidence to take my practicing to a more crowded spot in the park, and play the music out loud. I felt I wanted to share this wonderful practice with everyone instead of keeping it all to myself.

From this point on, the way to establishing a new practice site was short. I hung up a golden colored silk Falun Gong banner saying "Falun Dafa is Good" in English and Chinese and placed a stand with brochures in different languages. The word about the new practice site spread and fellow practitioners soon came to join me.

One morning, a woman of about 60 approached our practice site. She was tall and slender and she covered her hair with a scarf, like all married religious Jewish women do. She said that she had practiced several types of Yogic techniques and Qigongs in the past but as she got close to our practice site she immediately sensed that this was something totally different. She said our practice site was radiating holiness, and was open to all directions like a "Lulav" (a slender palm branch that is held together with willow branches and is used in Jewish religious rituals).

One day, as we were practicing the fifth exercise, a fellow practitioner sitting beside me called out my name. When I looked, she pointed at the location where our banner was hung, about 50 meters away. I saw a man taking the banner down. I was furious and ran towards him, shouting for him to stop. I thought he was stealing it. It turned out that he was one of the park's cleaners and he was taking down the banner because his boss had told him to. He told me that they didn't know it belonged to us. At that point I suddenly realized that as a Falun Dafa practitioner I was not supposed to get angry, and that this was probably a test for me. I understood that I was to step out of humanness and compassionately tell this man about Falun Dafa and the three principles guiding our practice: Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. I felt so thankful towards Dafa for teaching me how to master my emotions and be able to keep a good mood throughout the day, no matter the circumstances.

As winter set in, temperatures in Jerusalem began to drop and it became very cold during the early morning hours when we practice. Especially during the second exercise, the Falun Standing Stance, my hands were freezing, causing me great discomfort. A fellow practitioner felt the same and stopped coming to practice because of this, saying she would return in a couple of months when the weather gets warmer. I felt in my heart that she was not thinking and acting in line with the Fa. I had seen pictures of practitioners in China wearing gloves and practicing in the snow, in temperatures probably much lower than ours. So I went out and bought myself a good pair of leather gloves with fur inside, and that completely solved the problem.

I decided nothing would stop me from practicing. Since I established the site, I have never missed a day of practice, except when it rained. However hard it is for me to wake up early in the morning, or however moody I feel, I still go to practice, and I never regret it. The way I see it, that's what cultivation is all about - overcoming obstacles.

Teacher says in Zhuan Falun, Chapter 9:

"Back when I was cultivating, a lot of men of great character told me this: "It's hard to endure, but you can endure it. It's hard to do, but you can do it." And that's really how it is. When you go back you might want to give it a try. When you're going through an awful tribulation, or maybe a critical juncture, give it a try. When it's hard to endure, try to endure it. When it seems impossible to do, or just hard to do, give it a try and see just what you can do. And when you can really do it, just like that worn and weary traveler, you'll see, "the shade of willows, the blooms of flowers, a place to rest my head"! "

These are my understandings at my current level of cultivation. Please point out any errors.

Thank you Teacher and Dafa.