(Minghui.org) I do not know how it happened, but in 1993, before I finished high-school and went to university, the martial arts instructor at the Ju-Jitsu club where I studied said to us one night that he had heard about a new meditation exercise. He taught us the movements for Dafa's Exercise Three. I grew up in a small town in Queensland, Australia, so I don’t know how the exercises of Falun Dafa travelled so far so soon after Master began teaching in China. I guess that many martial arts practitioners are seeking righteous and effective teachings, so maybe the exercises were spread that way among martial arts instructors.

In 1996 I was again in Queensland on a break from university and encountered people in a park near where I was staying doing what I thought was Tai Chi. After the session, one of the practitioners taught me and my now wife the Falun Dafa exercises. I didn’t think much more about it, as I had wanted to learn Tai Chi.

It was not until I encountered the exercises again in a park in Australia’s capital, Canberra, in 1998 that I read Zhuan Falun and started to practice in earnest. Looking back on almost 30 years I can see how the path of predestination has been woven through my life.

As well as doing my job, raising our five children with my wife, and continuing studies for my Doctorate, I also write songs in the style of the Western folk traditions of Ireland, Scotland and England. I work to preserve the cultural heritage of folk ballads that contain many of the ethical and moral stories that are central to these cultures.

I was struck by Master’s comment on March 5, 2022 “ To the Czecho-Slovak Fa Conference” that “You are the hope of the lives of the race or ethnic group that you were born into” (Team Yellow translation). It confirmed to me how important our role is in relation to the cultural group that we come from.

I am working on an album of songs about cultivation to celebrate May 13, 2022, which will mark 30 years since Master first started to teach the practice in public. Here is one song I recently wrote to celebrate this milestone and encourage myself and fellow practitioners to continue doing well in the Three Things.

Turning the Wheel

Nations rise, cultures fall,Planets and atoms spin,The wheel revolves and changes all,Come seek the truth within.

The wheel held lightly in your hands,Will make the world anew,Changing everything around,Just as it changes you.

Chorus

Nine times forward, and nine times back,The ghost and demons reel,The ship sails safely through the storm,While the Master turns the wheel

The world of ten directions,Shaken to its core,A wish to find salvation,A hope that there is more.

To walk the path of honesty,With compassion held for all,To endure the world’s suffering,Upright and standing tall

The tempering of will and flesh,No easy road to take,The sand it must be sifted,If gold you wish to make.

Amidst the vat of fortune,Of money lies and fame,The heart can be so easilyDrawn deep into the game

Category: Music & Art