My name is Davide. I’m a student from Italy, and 2021 is going to be the seventh year from
the moment I first started practicing Falun Dafa. I’ve always been interested in Eastern
culture. When I was little, I practiced a traditional form of martial arts, which made me
develop a strong appreciation for Chinese and Japanese culture. I learned discipline and
respect, and understood the value of wisdom.
Growing up, I soon realized that an external practice wasn’t enough for me. I felt the urge to
look for something internal, something deeper. I then started looking for spiritual answers. I
learned about esotericism, spirituality, reincarnation, karmic retribution, and many other
subjects. But, once again, nothing I found felt enough. Finally, a friend of mine shared a
book with me. He told me it was special. The book was called ‘Zhuan Falun’.
After reading the first chapter, I was blown away. It shook me deep into my bones. Many
answers to my questions about life, humanity, and the universe were there, written in such a
clear way for my eyes to see. I felt the urgency to learn more and to experience the practice
of the exercises. I finished the book in just a few days and soon learned the 5 exercises.
During the first experience, I felt a tangible energy field around me while I was practicing,
and I started to believe that what I found was incredibly unique. I experienced sudden
changes in my approach to life, by letting go of unnecessary vices that most people of my
age indulged in. For example, I quit smoking and drinking in just a couple weeks, and felt
lighter and cleaner, in a way never felt before. The good changes kept coming and they
slowly shown me that my life was not going to be the same anymore.
In all these years, the amount of work I’ve done on improving myself, on doing my best to let
go of evil thoughts and behaviours, on learning to take a step back in front of conflicts, on
accepting things as they unravel instead of always fighting back, it’s nothing I would have
ever thought possible or achievable, if it wasn’t for Falun Dafa.
I’m immensely grateful to the founder of the practice for bestowing Falun Dafa to the world.
I also feel pretty fortunate, if I think about the amount of spiritual freedom that one can
experience in this part of the world, while fellow practitioners in China are facing a brutal
persecution since 1999. This year it’s going to be 22 years of persecution, a terrifying
achievement.
The crackdown perpetrated by the CCP against Falun Gong practitioners has shown an
unprecedented amount of evilness, which practitioners have been facing with an even
more outstanding amount of benevolence and tolerance, by never violently retaliating, and
always trying to make people understand that Falun Dafa is good. This, for me, is what
cultivating in this practice can really mean: being able of letting go of everything, for other’s
people sake and salvation.
Thank you Students For Falun Gong for giving me the opportunity to share my story.
All the best,
Davide
