Cultivation Report

(Shared at 2001 Orlando Conference) Greetings to my fellow practitioners. My name is Scott Roberson from Atlanta, Georgia where I work as a computer consultant. I've been a practitioner for 1 ?years. I've had several experiences in this time and I want to share them with you. Master says that the best method of spreading the Fa is group practice. He says that his fashen will guide those with a predestined relationship to the practice site. This is how it happened to me- although not quite as straightforwardly. The practice site that I saw was one in China at the sports stadium where thousands of practitioners sat, doing the 5^th exercise. I saw this practice site in a picture printed on a flier on the window of an Asian bookstore. The only English on the flier was the url to the website FalunDafa.org. I visited the website and made my way through to a local contact person who promptly answered my e-mail. My new friend showed me the exercises one evening and told me to read the book. I don't really remember specifically what he said to me about Falun Dafa except that he kept mentioning the word 'principles'. "What a curious word," I thought. I've always been interested in Eastern philosophies and religion and had read many books on the subject, but "principles" was a word so basic, so defining, so absolute that I was confused by its use. I had to know more. I ordered the Zhuan Falun online, but I couldn't wait for it to arrive, so I downloaded it from the internet. I was amazed that everything was free to download. I recalled years before that a Tai Chi teacher made us promise that if we were to ever teach the practice to others we weren't allowed to charge money for the classes. She had, apparently, paid big bucks for her training and didn't think this was right. I agreed that something worth teaching was worth teaching for free. As I started reading Zhuan Falun, my mind was exploded open with a bright light. Although this is only a figurative expression, I have the feeling that this is how it might look if it were seen from a higher level. But my mind was reeling. I was being blown away with every sentence. So many answers to so many questions in such a short number of pages. What kind of book was this? I had to keep reading. I stayed up late every night reading. Then I went to sleep and got up and read before work. I read on the way to work, on the train. I read walking down the sidewalk. Even during slow points of the day, I would pull up the computer download and read. 15 minutes, here. 5 minutes there. I finished the book within a week or two. I noticed that I seemed to feel different- lighter, clearer, excited, scared. At that time, I figured it was my imagination. Master talked about Falun Dafa being such a righteous Fa that evil forces will try to intervene to keep one from attaining the Fa. Less than one month from learning about Falun Dafa, I wrecked my car into the back of another car while on the way to my first date with my girlfriend. I had to call her to come get me. She later said she was impressed that I just let the tow truck man take my car away while we still made our dinner reservation. Attachments were already falling from me. I started practicing the exercises in my home. I noticed certain energies that felt like the repulsion of two same-sided magnets when in Diekou Xioufu. I also noticed that I could feel my tianmu as I passed my hands by it. I also felt something above my head, like the edge of a huge suspended disk. One time as I started the first exercise, bringing up jeiyin past my tianmu, I noticed a wonderful shade of deep blue in the area between my hands. I also noticed that several times just when I started practicing, people would arrive at my door, knocking for me to come out, but I continued on with the practice. I knew what was going on, and I persisted. Later, I had some items stolen from my house- hubcaps, trashcans, even my hot-water heater!!! The night I noticed that, one of the neighborhood guys came over and I was very suspicious of him. I wondered if he was responsible, but also knew that I shouldn't wrongly accuse someone. Instead, I offered him some clothes that I was going to take to good-will and felt much better. I kept in touch with the other practitioners through e-mail and attended a couple of group practice sites here and there. They kept urging me to practice more and more with others as it is said to speed up one's progress. The only one near me was a 5:45am 2-hour practice. I shuddered at the thought of getting up that early. But eventually, I did. The first time, I was in so much pain after nearly an hour that I had to let go. I was within a minute or 2 of an hour. So close! The next time, a couple of days later, it was much easier. I was practicing with one other practitioner who was very comfortable doing the sitting exercise such that she could sit for over an hour and a half. I noticed that when practicing with her, while doing the 3rd exercise, every time my hands came by tianmu, I could see sparkles of white light. As you can see, I was developing an attachment with this tianmu experience even though I was trying not to. I knew I shouldn't care about it, but every time I did the exercises, I'd look to see if it would happen again. Eventually, they stopped happening. I now figure this was Master helping me to drop the attachment. At the time I feared that I had, perhaps, dropped down. But then I came to understand what Master said about the cultivated part of me versus the uncultivated part. The part that could see was the cultivated part. This is taken away so that what's left can be cultivated. This comforted me. I went to my first experience-sharing conference in Washington, DC. I didn't know what to expect. I was impressed that so many people were helping me by lending me a radio for translation and they even had sections of chairs reserved for Western people. I was impressed by the stories I heard- the man who couldn't walk and had to sit with his legs propped up so the fluid could drain out. He started practicing Falun Gong and was now able to walk just fine. A younger man, in tears, talked about how his bed-ridden mother became well by his mere reading of Zhuan Falun to her. I heard these stories and was greatly moved. I knew I was in the right place. The night I returned home from New York conference in last September, I was dreaming when I realized that I was awake. "Wow", I thought, "I'm out of body!!!!" I was with a friend- assistant spirit? -other friend? -I don't know. We were flying all around, but we were not supposed to let all of the other people around us know that we had these powers. He was much better at this that I was. He made steps appear from the side of the hill whereas I wanted to jump to the top at one bounce. We started flying all over the place. At some point I met up with many friends in my waking life- which is very unusual for me during dreaming. I saw my brother, and several other people. We were getting acquainted when an Asian woman lead another woman toward me. This woman was Andrea Benin, my current girlfriend. She was groggy and didn't really know what was going on. I thanked the Asian woman as she walked away and, just in case, told her that I looked forward to seeing her again. Finally, I was too excited and felt I had to get up to record this experience by speaking it into my tape recorder. As I was walking around talking about the experience, I saw a huge glimpse of a dark object pass in front of me. I knew that it was my friend, wondering why I was down here when we were having so much fun up there?. This past summer, I decided to give up drinking alcohol. This was hard to do because all of my friends drink a lot. I knew Master explicitly explains why one should not do this, but I had to grow into it. I gradually slowed down my consumption until I finally announced last July that I was not going to drink anymore- and I have not. So, I've been reading every new article and re-reading Zhuan Falun fairly diligently. I've been practicing, but have slacked off a bit these winter months. I think my attachment of complacency is coming out. It is such an integral part of me that I don't even notice it, so I have to make special efforts. Recently a fellow practitioner's car engine quit working and he has to buy a new car. At first I was surprised that he would have such a large tribulation because I considered him beyond that so-to-speak. But here Master seems to be telling me that this is not the case- that we all have many attachments yet to relinquish. I went to feeling bad for him, to feeling bad for myself because I didn't have such tribulations. Well, be careful what you ask for! When I arrived home I immediately started laughing when I noticed that my trash can had been stolen again. That was a couple of weeks ago. Then, last week, as I was driving my mother and her friend around Atlanta, I was pulled over by a police officer. My car tag was expired and he asked me to step out of the car. When I approached him, he informed me that my driver's license had been suspended and started placing hand-cuffs onto my wrists and escorted me into the back of his car. I was arrested and had to wait in jail 5 hours until my girlfriend arrived to bail me out. I now have to take the bus and train everywhere I go. This has really allowed me to deal with my attachment to comfort and convenience and money- as this problem will cost a lot of money. I also get to experience and talk to new people on the train or bus as well as those I met in jail. My mother and girlfriend were very worried about my safety while in there, but I knew that I would be fine. If anything, I imagine I helped them out, instead of them hurting me. They have so much karma. The whole place is full of karma. Even the people that work there are tainted by it. They all seemed unhappy. I thought about the practitioners in China who were in jail, but I quickly realized the comparative luxury in which I found myself. Also, they were being persecuted because of Dafa, while I was persecuted as a result of my own attachments. As a particle of Dafa, I should not so casually disregard the laws, as doing so damages Dafa. I must uphold Zhen-Shan-Ren in ALL aspects of my life if I am to truly consider myself a Dafa disciple. Thank you. Scott W Roberson Georgia Department of Education