(Clearwisdom.net)

Greetings from a Native American practitioner. I'm a native of northern Arizona (U.S.) and started reading and cultivating Falun Dafa in May 2000. It was a lonely experience for a time, until I was able to explain what cultivation is to a friend of mine. You see, in our native culture, cultivation is different. Talking to other tribal members about Dafa has also been difficult due to the language barrier from my native language to English, and the fact that the book Zhuan Falun itself is a translation from Chinese to English.

I would like to express my humble gratitude and appreciation to our Teacher, Mr. Li Hongzhi, and also to fellow practitioners. I have been reading many articles on the various Dafa websites. They are all very good reading. They offer good exchanges and sharing of experiences, ideas, understandings of Teacher's articles, and a variety of other related news worldwide, and some closer to home. It never dawned on me that I would become one of the cultivators and be a part of that family.

I am just like other practitioners who found themselves through reading the Dafa. It is what I have been searching for all my life. Yes, there has been cultural confusion, and I have been trying to overcome it by means of continued reading and studying Dafa. My thanks to the many practitioners who are constantly writing to share their understandings of various aspects of the Fa. Teacher's tolerance and mercy is of such great, great magnitude. It is beyond anything I can imagine! I am overwhelmed by the greatness of Dafa, and when other practitioners express their gratitude to our great Teacher, it just seems that words cannot go far enough.

When Teacher says to study the Fa, I try to keep up with it. It can be challenging, as there are also many daily activities to be dealt with. At times, I struggle with certain passages of Zhuan Falun, and then another practitioner will share their understanding of its meaning at a certain level on Clearwisdom, such that I am able to try to absorb the meaning and translate it into an understanding in my own native language. It is very challenging at times also, to try to do all the things that disciples should do: clarifying the truth, studying the Fa, sending forth righteous thoughts and doing the exercises.

When I first began cultivating, sometimes my mind would question, as a Native American, should I be one to obtain the Fa? Questions like these weighed heavily on me. The cultural differences weren't easy to make my way through, either. But, by studying the Fa, I have found most of my questions resolved. For example, in the Native American culture, the cosmos is our Father. Similarly, as the Chinese term "Shifu" translates to Teacher/Father, I understand in my own way that Master Li is like the Father.

I am so grateful to Master Li, and would like to thank him for the opportunity to cultivate Dafa. Also, I wanted to share a little bit about my own cultivation experience with other practitioners of Falun Dafa. Thank you for reading.