What Falun Dafa has done for me

About a year and a half ago I was like most practitioners before learning Falun Dafa, just an ordinary person living an ordinary persons life. All my thoughts, actions, and speech were all centered around my life and what was best for Nick at the time. I would fight with my brother, argue with my parents, take advantage of my friends and just cause a whole bunch of chaos for myself and for everyone around me. I didn't care too much about my grades, used drugs, stayed out late and became more and more reckless as time passed. I always felt lost in life and didn't have any direction. I carried within me an unquenchable void that was yearning for something more than what my life was currently providing me with.

It was not until my freshman year in college that I became active in my search for spiritual peace. I had always been fascinated by eastern beliefs and the internal martial arts such as tai chi and qi gong. After doing some reading on the internal arts I decided "what the heck I'll give it a try". I looked up a local Kung Fu and Tai Chi instructor and enrolled for a Tai Chi and Qi Gong class. I began the classes with much interest and enthusiasm and believed that I had found something very good. But after some time of practicing I began to feel that I still needed more and that although this was good, it wasn't enough. I still wasn't content. I was still hanging out late at night drinking, doing drugs and continuing in my old ways. Things in my life were not getting any better. I was still very unhappy and still very lost.

As my first semester was coming to an end I decided that I would go back home to Nashville and live with my parents and get away from the negative lifestyle that was continuing to drain me. While back at home and back in school in Nashville I again decided to try and find another a Qi Gong or Tai Chi class to attend. After searching around and not finding anything to my satisfaction, I suddenly remembered an article that was in the newspaper a few months back about a local Qi Gong group that practiced Falun Gong at one of the nearby parks. I jumped on the Internet and looked up Falun Gong and eventually found my way onto the falundafa.org website. I downloaded all the books and lectures and wrote down the local contact practitioners number hoping to attend a 9-day video lecture.

After getting in touch with one of the contact practitioners, he told me of a 9-day seminar that would be held in about a week, and that I could attend then. As that week passed I read through all of the books and through most of the lectures that were available. I was just amazed at the amount of questions that the teachings were answering for me. The more I read, the more and more I became excited and happy. I had never found any books or teachers who went into so much detail and taught of so many profound things. I knew I had stumbled onto something that was incredibly genuine although at the time had no idea that it would change my life forever.

The week passed and I attended the classes and learned the exercises fairly well and knew enough then to practice on my own. The contact practitioner told me of their group that met on the weekends every Saturday and Sunday from 8:00am to 10:00am to practice together. I thought to myself 8:00 o'clock in the morning that was too early for me. That means I would have to wake up around 7:00am to get ready, Yeah right!!

I continued practicing at home off and on and read the teachings whenever I was on the computer and had time to kill. I was feeling pretty good spiritually and emotionally and enjoyed practicing outside in the nice weather. I was beginning to feel the energy around my body while I practiced and was quite happy by that. Anyway, a few months went by and I slowly began to slack off in my practicing and reading. I eventually stopped almost all together. I began to feel more depressed and began having feelings of being lost and not knowing what to do in my life. I decided I should get back to practicing Falun Gong and decided to join the group practice and hopefully find some encouragement to continue practicing.

I began attending the group practices on the weekends and joined in every now and again for Fa study. It was kind of awkward for the Fa study at first me being the only native English speaker and everyone else being a native Chinese speaker. I began coming more and more and my encouragement and determination to continue practicing was increasing. I went online and bought both the China Falun Gong and Zhuan Falun books and began to read more often. I was becoming a true practitioner of Falun Dafa.

Well that was only about five months ago and yet it seems as if it was years away. I have since then progressed so much that it seems as if that was during a different lifetime and in a way it really was. I now am no longer the person I was at that time. It took me some time to actually realize how much I had changed since then. Being in such a peaceful and content mood all the time I never consciously thought about they way I used to feel. But now looking back and comparing to my past, I feel so thankful and appreciative of Master Li's teachings and of being able to be a part of Falun Dafa. I am much more calm and neutral both emotionally and spiritually. I no longer have such highs and lows as I did before and now have a much more peaceful disposition. I am able to deal with my family and friends in a much more enjoyable way. I don't drink nor do drugs, my grades have been the best they have ever been and I just live a tremendously better life now. I have finally found a way of life that is able to fill me spiritually. All my life I have been consciously and unconsciously searching for what I now have today. Sitting here writing this I am having such a hard time expressing what Falun Dafa has done for me. What Dafa has done for me and the gratitude that I have for Master Li and Falun Dafa can never be properly expressed in words. I just hope that through my cultivation that I am able to represent Dafa in its true light and to share with others the gift that it has brought me.