(Minghui.org) Greetings honorable Master, Dear fellow practitioners,
I started practicing 12 years ago when I was discharged from the hospital with my baby girl. I had been directed to the oncological center for treatment.
The doctors said it was a one-in-a-thousand case for both mother and child to remain alive. I was diagnosed with blood poisoning and cancer of the uterus.
When I arrived home with my daughter I did not even consider going to the oncological center, because I knew for sure that I wouldn’t be getting any help there. However, living normally or even moving around in the house was mission impossible for me. Something had to be done. For some reason I did not even have a thought that something tragic would happen to me. Apparently, Master had already been guiding me at that time.
A friend visited me and brought me the book Zhuan Falun, saying that in that book there were very good exercises (the first edition in Russian contained the exercises). But I was unable to do even one single exercise, though I wanted to very much. I started reading the book and learning a totally new science of self-cultivation of one's character and one's life. I read this amazing book all day, and without my noticing, my physical condition started to improve. Half a year later I was able to leave the house by myself, to go for walks with my child and to take care of her. I also started doing the exercises. For a long time during the fifth exercise I would throw up. After the exercise the illness symptoms stopped and I felt well again. This went on for about a year and a half when during the exercises or after them I was being purified. In this way slowly, step by step, I was climbing out of something like a deep ditch to something clear and bright. There never was a thought that it could be otherwise.
After four years of practice there was a mandatory medical check-up in my workplace. The results were that I did not have any kidney stones or gall bladder stones as before, my blood pressure was normal, the arthritis in my joints was gone and the cancerous tumor in my uterus was gone. All blood analyses showed excellent results.
Several more years of practice passed. This summer we organized for the third time a Minghui school for children. This time there were many children, even ones of non-practitioners. By the end of the summer people wanted to continue the Minghui school for the whole year. The problem was we had no suitable candidate to teach and be at school permanently. My mother, who is a teacher (but not a practitioner), came to me. She worked on the summer Minghui school and agreed to work full-time and for the whole year. We were happy that we had the possibility to run the Minghui school all year round. But three days later my mother was hospitalized. Her condition deteriorated sharply and at night she had a sudden inner hemorrhage. She was moved to the emergency room. When I spoke to the doctor, I was told that her condition was very bad and that the doctors did not expect a positive outcome. I was overcome by qing: tears started flowing from my eyes; I felt pressure in my chest and couldn't breathe. But I pulled myself together and stopped the onslaught of feelings, saying to myself that the things only looked this way on the surface; in reality everything is different. This is the old forces' pressure to stop the Minghui school from opening, for all the hope was laid on my mother – the main teacher of the school. And now they used all methods to interfere with this process. They also wanted to interfere with my mother's entering Dafa. My mother had known of Dafa for a long time, and she saw me and my children cultivate, but did not want to practice herself and even opposed Dafa. Now after she had practiced the exercises with the young practitioners at the Minghui school and after having read the book to them, she decided to begin cultivation. The old forces interfered with her, trying in any way to prevent her from doing so. I also thought that they were interfering with me in the first place. I work daily on a media project but I would have to be in the hospital taking care of my mother. But this was wrong – this would take so much time that could be used for saving sentient beings, for Dafa projects, materials delivery, etc.
Having realized this, I said firmly that I do not accept the old forces' pressure and I negate them. When I came home I wanted to send righteous thoughts to destroy them and their pressure, but then I thought that even one such thought of mine will, in a way, be an acceptance of the old forces' acting and exerting pressure upon me. If I send righteous thoughts for their destruction it means that I had already agreed that they influenced me; that they did damage to me. And now after they have damaged me I start to send righteous thoughts as if defending myself from them. When I thought about it I said even more firmly that I don’t accept their existence at all. They are simply not there to begin with to damage Dafa and Dafa projects. I held these thoughts strongly for three whole days.
In "2012 International Fa Conference at the U.S. Capital" Master said:
"The evil factors are fewer now and cannot control people. Only a very few remain, and they are contracting and being concentrated around certain strategic places and still doing evil and holding out."
This is why we, Dafa disciples, must learn to have strong righteous thoughts at a stable state to move continually forward to save sentient beings and not to surrender to their pressure.
I went on working on the media project, and the amount of news articles I wrote did not diminish. I went on practicing the exercises at the practice site, delivered the materials, spoke to Chinese workers on construction sites, went to work and visited my mother in hospital.
But there was a thick grey curtain enveloping me in a tight ring. It was stuffy and difficult to breathe because of this curtain. I realized that these were the old forces and that they simply wanted to close in on me and achieve their cruel goals. I moved this curtain away with my thoughts and kept saying that it was all an illusion, it wasn’t true, it was all on the surface. The real circumstances are not like this.
Little by little the grey curtain became lighter and started parting from me, with the diameter of the ring getting bigger and bigger. At last the grey fabric grew lighter and disappeared. This took three days. On the fourth day, when I went to the hospital, the doctors told me that my mother's state had improved and stabilized, and that they would watch her for a little while longer and then transfer her to a regular ward. Later the doctors said that she would not be operated on because her condition had stabilized and there was no need to operate. Mother was discharged and went back to her work in the regular school. She cultivates in Dafa, reads the book, does the exercises by herself, and also reads and practices with her students in the regular school she works in. She mentioned that the students' behavior had improved, and that they became more diligent in their studies. As for the Minghui school, on the last day of the summer, quite unexpectedly for us, a teacher who is a Dafa practitioner came. The Minghui school started working on schedule.
Master said:
"But whatever the case, as Dafa disciples we must not let up even though circumstances are changing. Don’t think that because circumstances are easing up that you can let up in your cultivation. You can’t do that. Be sure not to forget that you are a cultivator. It is only because you have cultivation as your foundation that you can go and try to save people. Only with a foundation in cultivation and righteous thoughts that have grown strong will you succeed in saving people and complete your undertaking. So you must not neglect your own cultivation. This will always hold true." ("2012 International Fa Conference at the U.S. Capital")
To understand the need to hold on to strong righteous thoughts, not to accept the old forces' pressure, and to stay calm in a righteous state, I needed 12 long years, although Master had shown me, at the very beginning of my acquaintance with the practice, an example of not accepting the pressure of evil.
I have had many twists and turns on my cultivation way. I have often made mistakes. But all those years I felt the presence of precious Master next to me and his constant support. I am very grateful to Master!
I also thank my fellow practitioners who helped me in my cultivation. Thank you all!