(Minghui.org) I was born in Poland. As a young woman I was determined to stand on my own. At 19 years old I moved to America and the next day I started working in a factory. At age 25, I was a mother to one daughter. Most of her life it was just my daughter and I. I was stressed, exhausted, and struggling, but those feelings gave me the tough skin that I have today. There was only one way: my way.
As a child I was raised going to church on Sundays. When I got older, it seemed to me that going to church was just a formality that people did for an hour each week, but it didn’t have much effect on them the rest of the week. Nonetheless, like the rest of them, I fell into the same modality.
Later on in the course of my life I developed symptoms of hypothyroidism. My symptoms were muscle aches, dry skin, thinning hair, and sleepiness. My doctor also warned me that it may affect my heart later on and sent me out for cardiac tests. I also developed glaucoma in my left eye. I had to take eye drops daily for the rest of my life and yet there is no cure for glaucoma. The drops just slowed down the rate of my vision deterioration. The thought of going blind one day from glaucoma terrified me, so I always made sure that I went in for my checkups with the ophthalmologist.
In mid November 2014, I decided to get a new pair of eye glasses so I happened to walk into a vision center and asked if I could be seen for an eye exam. To my surprise, they said I could be seen right away. In the exam room, I discussed the condition of my eye disease with the eye doctor. Even though I knew that there was no cure, I still asked whether or not there was any alternative option for my condition. What the doctor discussed next led me through a door of new hope and a new world. She told me that her mother also had glaucoma and by cultivating Falun Dafa, her eyesight is good now and she is not taking any medication.
I had never heard of Falun Dafa before, but what was said nevertheless caught my attention. Immediately, I knew I wanted to find out more about it and asked the doctor to write the name of the practice down for me. She not only handed me a Dafa flyer but a brilliant blue book entitled Zhuan Falun. She said that she brought it in for an employee who worked in her facility, but despite two attempts to deliver the book to that person, she was unsuccessful in finding her. The eye doctor then said that the book must have been meant for me and told me that I could keep the book so long as I wanted to read it, and I should treat the book with respect.
Immediately the change inside me affected my energy. I felt energized by the information that I just received. Excited by this, it seemed as though I awoke from a long slumber and forgot all about my eye problems. I did not realize it at the time, but I was about to embark on a journey – the journey of my new life.
Upon coming home that day, my 34-year-old daughter caught sight of my new-found treasure, and excitedly exclaimed “Zhuan Falun!,” grabbed the book and ran off with it. She had been living in the New Jersey/New York area for the past 10 years and had received a Falun Gong flyer from a practitioner there. She had just come home to help me take care of my 87-year-old aunt and another 96-year-old lady who was my daughter's babysitter when she was a child. Neither of them have any family members to care for them in their old age so I decided to take them in. They both suffer from dementia, so taking care of them became a very demanding job. They need constant monitoring and even required diaper changes especially after bowel movements. My elderly aunt often curses at me, bites, pinches and hits me. Whenever this occurred, I felt indignant and angered by her unjust treatment toward me.
The eye doctor also gave me the address to a practice site where I could learn the exercises. Upon doing the exercises the very first time, I felt lightness in my body. My body was hot and later the energy was moving my body from left to right and forward. Also, I felt movements in my abdominal area. I let my daughter keep Zhuan Falun and ordered some more copies for myself, both in Polish and English. It wasn't until a couple of weeks later that I started to read Zhuan Falun.
I found it difficult to read it through the very first time. With encouragement from the fellow practitioner, I finally succeeded in reading it through after two months. Despite not having fully grasped what Dafa is yet, I still came to the practice site every Sunday for the first eight weeks, for I felt wonderful changes happening in my surrounding environment and I knew I wanted to learn more. With the change in my attitude toward my aunt, she in turn became less hostile toward me each and every day. This indeed was so amazing!
After reading Zhuan Falun for the first time, I was encouraged to read it through again for the second time because my comprehension would increase with each read. By then, it was January 2015 and I began to have a lot of interference. I was faced with an increase in my workload, bouts of bad snow storms, laziness, and vacations that prevented me from going to the practice site for the next several weeks, nor could I do much of the exercises at home.
Even when reading Zhuan Falun I had interference. My mind kept wandering and I could not stay focused. I had to read the sentences a few times because I didn’t want to miss anything. To facilitate my learning of the Fa, I was given an mp3 player with Master Li's nine-day Fa lectures downloaded in it. Along with listening and reading the Fa, I could understand its deeper meaning better. Steadily, something changed in my heart that made me want to change myself for the better.
At the time, I didn't understand that I needed to be among other Dafa practitioners to help me have a better cultivation environment. So, having been away for a couple of months, I felt my thoughts and emotions returning to their former state. I was easily agitated again by those around me. After sharing my situation with the fellow practitioner who introduced me to Dafa, she suggested that we meet once a week for Fa study. She told me that without a cultivation environment such as Fa study and attending group exercise practice, we can easily fall away from cultivation. I felt like I'd received a good kick, which was needed to get me back on track. I realized that Teacher was using this practitioner's words to remind me to be more diligent. Since then, I have not missed once going to the practice site to do all five exercises. With great effort, I finished reading Zhuan Falun for the second time, so that when we met up for Fa study in mid February, we started to read Master's teachings from the Fa Conferences beginning in 1996.
Upon hearing about Shen Yun Performing Arts coming to Chicago in March, I quickly purchased tickets for myself and my daughter and later brought two more people with me to attend the show. In one of the dances, for reasons unknown to me, I felt deeply moved and began to tear up. The show touched my heart.
Then later, I came to learn that there would be a Fa Conference in May, which Master Li typically attends. I knew deep in my heart that I very much want to see Master in person. In order to get the most from attending the Fa Conference, I had to deepen my understanding of the Fa, so I began to take reading the Fa lectures more seriously. I also had to write a cultivation essay to determine my eligibility for attending the Fa Conference since I was such a new practitioner. Since English is my second language it was challenging to write the essay, but I wouldn’t allow anything to stop me. I spent great time and effort writing that essay. Despite the difficulty, my efforts were well paid off when I received news in mid April of my acceptance to the Fa Conference! Soon I learned how to send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil from interfering with my cultivation path. I found this to be very useful and tried to do it as often as possible, even when I was out running errands because I felt as though I was constantly being interfered with.
Upon reading the Fa and sharing articles from fellow practitioners, I started to question whether or not I needed to continue taking my thyroid and glaucoma medication. I realized that this is something I needed to enlighten to and that it could not be answered by anyone. One week later, during my stay in New York for the Fa Conference, my enlightenment on this matter came. One day prior to the conference I took my thyroid medication as usual, but then shortly afterwards, I began feeling unwell. I started to perspire profusely and my stomach felt very queasy. On our way to attending Dafa activities in downtown New York, I sat in the back seat of a fellow practitioners' minivan. I felt progressively worse. Then I suddenly vomited a very watery and powdery white substance. I thought it was odd that no food came up. Minutes later, I enlightened that the white substance was the medication that I had taken just moments prior. From that point on, I stopped all my medications. Master had purified my body! Recently I went in for a medical checkup. As it turns out, the results of my blood work up all came back normal. I no longer need to take any medication! I cannot express the joy and gratitude I have for Master!
At the conference on the following day, Master also opened my third eye. At first, I wondered whether it was my imagination or an illusion. I opened and closed my eyes, but when I looked at the audience and people around me, everything seemed very normal. However, when I closed my eyes I vividly saw a stairway to a throne on which a dark-skinned Buddha dressed in a yellow robe was sitting in full lotus and was surrounded by bright rays of light. Above the throne was a beautiful royal blue color. The site was so magnificent that I cannot express its beauty fully in words. The experience that I encountered in those few days in New York gave me full confidence and faith in Master and in Dafa.
Today, I remind myself at every moment that I’m a Dafa practitioner, and that no matter how hard things get, I always end the day with positive thoughts. Since my cultivation in Dafa, I feel that I am a calmer person; I don't get agitated easily as before and feel more in control of myself. My view on life has changed, and I understand now that I must look within myself when encountering conflicts and tribulations. In just these few short months of cultivating, I can more easily detect my notions and attachments when encountering tests, which I could not recognize before.
On Wednesdays now, I drive one hour to attend group exercises and Fa study with fellow practitioners. Whenever there are opportunities for me to clarify the truth, I go to help sentient beings understand more about the persecution in China. Having been raised under the rule of a communist regime, I’m very aware of its evilness. This experience has made me feel deeply compassionate for those who have been unjustly persecuted in China. Since I live on the border of Illinois and Wisconsin, I’m able to clarify the truth in both locations.
Through my transformation, my family has witnessed the power of Dafa. Both my daughter and my 82-year-old mother know that Falun Dafa is good and both are starting to practice the exercises and read Zhuan Falun with me now.
I am so thankful to Master Li for allowing me to obtain such a great Fa, and for providing us with a wonderful cultivation environment in which fellow practitioners can share and encourage one another. I can see how different practitioners are from every day people now because my view of things has changed through understanding and following the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. I’m committed to moving forward, drive out all my negative thoughts and to cultivate to consummation.
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