Falun Dafa also known as Falun Gong is an advanced self-cultivation practice
that improves mental and physical wellness through physical exercises and
the development of one's character.
In China cultivation practices have a history of thousands of years
and formed the spiritual foundation of Chinese civilization.
In 1992 Falun Dafa was introduced to the public by Master Li Hongzhi.
The practice quickly spread because of its profound principles
and proven health benefits.
By 1999 with over 100 million practitioners
Falun Dafa had grown to become the largest practice of its kind
in China and around the world.
Traditional Chinese medicine focuses on energy channels and believes that the
health of the body is related to the health of the mind.
Falun Dafa cultivates mind and body simultaneously
improving the body's natural immunity.
I had a very, very bad immune system, I was sick all the time,
and I came to the practice for spiritual reasons, but
I immediately stopped getting sick.
I kept thinking, why am I not getting sick? I woke up, what’s wrong?
As a matter of fact I go to parties now, and umm,
they used to say oh give all the sick babies to Jeannie she never gets sick.
I feel an energy in my body that's very subtle
and hard to describe, but it feels very good.
I could have very little sleep
and I'll feel awakened, but not like a coffee energetic, like a very calm and
collected energy and at one hour it can feel like a day and then I'm refreshed
and ready to go.
Before I practiced Falun Gong,
when I got scolded by my boss or supervisor I was very annoyed and immediately I would complain
about others, you know or felt it wasn't fair. But after I started practicing,
the biggest lesson I learned was looking inside,
and always find something to improve within myself.
if I didn't like something that another person did
I would think about, oh I don't like that, I don't like that; that person does that
and I realized that it was having a direct effect on my health by having
that bad thought about that person. And as soon as I realized that
I changed my thinking so that I wouldn't think about what things I didn't like or liked about
other people and more just how I should be responsible to being a good person
and controlling my thinking, and quieting my thinking, and then the headaches went away.
The first time I heard about Falun Dafa
was actually when I was 12 years old. At the time I was going through a rebellious stage.
I barely talked to my parents, you know I come home, slammed the door.
The meditation taught me to look within. I started talking to my parents more,
I started respecting them more. So my mother was very happy, because you know,
she it's like she got her son back.
In 1983 I was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy
which is incurable in Western and Eastern medicine.
In February 1998 a friend from China wrote me a letter.
She told me that Falun Dafa is a true practice
that can improve people’s morals as well as people’s physical health,
so I began to practice Falun Gong.
In three months I totally recovered.
At the core of Falun Dafa are the values of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance.
Falun Dafa teaches that these are the supreme qualities of the universe
and takes them to be a guide for daily life and practice.
Well when I was little I would stare like at night,
just sit on my bed and look at the stars and think,
like why were you here in the first place?
Why do you even exist and most of all, where do you come from?
The first time I read Zhuan Falun, the book on Falun Dafa,
I felt a lot of those questions were just immediately answered.
I think the best benefit is the peace of mind.
I have incredible peace of mind.
My family has certainly benefited, my husband said to me
within a month I was much easier to live with.
Applying truthfulness, compassion and tolerance to my daily life,
is the greatest challenge of my life actually.
You would think it’s so simple, but therein lies the challenge.
But everyone else around you feels it,
you know ’cause you become lighter, you become, you smile a lot more, umm...
and you become much more genuine.
It was like I was always searching for something
and it's so easy to think that what we're searching for is outside
whether it's money or clothes or beauty or whatever,
and Falun Dafa just provided me with an
inner peace that I just feel like whatever happens around me, I'm fine.
Like, I have these values and principles that I can follow.
It's just like a sense of... not security, but inner security,
and a sense of calm and peace
which I didn't have before.