Turkish Practitioner: Falun Dafa Gave Me a Second Life

(Minghui.org) I started practicing Falun Gong in 2008. Although I had lived in Germany since childhood, I was deported to Turkey in 2007 after committing a crime and being imprisoned for two and a half years.

Rough Childhood

I have always been a sensitive person. My family environment was not the best because my father was an alcoholic. I developed an introverted character and lacked self-esteem. Life didn’t seem easy for me. I was the only Turkish person in primary school and faced many problems as a result, sometimes feeling marginalized.

I finished school when I was 18. My relationship with my father was getting worse at the time, and we argued often. He insulted me a lot, and I was strongly affected by it.

I was involved in martial arts and released a lot of my stress there. I also fought in the streets often and vented my frustrations on others. Unfortunately, I hurt many people this way.

After a fight in 2000 in which I was stabbed, I was in a coma for three days and hospitalized for ten days. This incident became a milestone in my life, because I was interested in martial arts and my body was very strong.

I trained for five hours some days, and my master told me that I was very talented and that I could be a champion one day. However, this became nothing more than a dream for me, because I had an operation after the incident and it took two years to recover.

During this time, I met new friends and formed new habits. I started to drink and smoke, followed by taking all kinds of drugs. I tried to relieve myself of the pain. I started to commit every kind of crime and got worse and worse every day. My body was in terrible shape, and I often thought of suicide.

In 2004, I was sentenced because of the crimes I had committed and sentenced to two years in prison.

Although jail was a bad place, I read many books there, and somebody gave me a book of a Taoist qigong practice. In the beginning, it seemed that I was benefiting from this book, but I was saddened to find that it did not contain high-level teachings.

I came to Turkey in 2007. In the military, I met someone who told me about Falun Dafa. He told me that it was a high-level practice, and this sentence caught my attention.

Early Experiences with Dafa

After finishing my military service in 2008, I went to live with my grandfather. I felt a powerful energy field around me when I was reading Zhuan Falun, the main book of Falun Dafa. My mind became empty as soon as I started to do the exercises. I was able to relax so much that I was in tears.

I had a dream after starting to practice Falun Dafa: I was traveling quickly in a car. I came to the edge of a cliff and started tumbling down when a sound echoed in my ears: “Master Li gave you a second life.”

One day, I suddenly felt a warm current flowing through my body from head to toe. I understood that Master was cleansing my body as he said in Zhuan Falun.

Master said in his lecture:

“When seen from another dimension, genuine guanding makes one’s bones look like a white jade from the head to the feet. It is through gong or high energy matter that one’ entire body is purified from the head to the feet.” (Lecture 4, Zhuan Falun)

When I started to read Zhuan Falun, I found answers to the many questions I had all my life and could better understand the reasons for my suffering. I was very happy because I found this practice and my life was changing for the better. Thanks to Falun Dafa, I gave up all my bad habits, including smoking, drinking, and drug addiction. My health also recovered, and I have not needed any medicine since.

Elevating My Mind

However, the most important change was in my character. The founder of Falun Dafa, Master Li Hongzhi, asks us to cultivate our mind nature, or xinxing. I put in effort to cultivate myself according to Dafa's principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. I was becoming a better and more thoughtful person day by day.

In this process, I was able to let go of my many attachments and learned to look within for shortcomings whenever I faced a problem. Now, I know that everything we encounter has a reason.

In the eight years that I have practiced Falun Dafa, my life has changed in a very positive way, and I have experienced many miracles. The teachings of Mr. Li Hongzhi saved me and gave me a second life. I have completely changed from a selfish person full of filthy thoughts to a thoughtful person.

I also came to realize in my practice that everything I have gone through was for a reason and that I should forgive everybody, including myself. This thought gave me an immense feeling of bliss. I even made up with my father, and we now have a very good relationship.

I am grateful to Master Li for giving me a second life. As someone who has been through much suffering and trauma, I can wholeheartedly recommend the practice of Falun Dafa to everyone.