(Minghui.org) I started practicing Falun Dafa in 2002, at the age of 53.
I grew up in a family with an atheist upbringing and a scientific mindset. I never searched for any higher wisdom or truth. Everything suited me – everything suited my notions at that time. But I must have had some predestined connection to Dafa that I wasn’t aware of.
What was it that drew me to Falun Dafa? It was my desire to get rid of illness. I already understood that all manifestations of sickness are the result of contamination in the body due to accumulated karma. For that reason, I started practicing Falun Dafa.
It could be that because I entered Dafa due to sickness karma, the tests I experienced were also related to sickness karma.
I had suffered from migraines since I was a student. The headaches were accompanied by severe pain and vomiting. When I had a headache I could not work, and the pain could only be alleviated with very strong painkillers. In addition to the migraines, a few years before I started cultivating, a physician gave me a prescription to treat high blood pressure, and I was instructed to take a pill every day for the rest of my life.
After I started cultivating, I gradually gave up all that. I stopped thinking about migraines and blood pressure issues.
About six months after I started cultivating, I suddenly ran a very high fever and began shivering violently. My family insisted on calling an ambulance. I flatly refused. The condition lasted for three days. On the fourth day, while everyone was still asleep, I woke up and felt as light as a feather: I paced around the apartment. It felt as though my feet barely touched the floor, and felt weightless and completely healthy. I did not feel my body at all. I later understood that I underwent an intense cleansing. Today I’m 75, and it’s been 22 years that I have lived without any medications or any type of medical services.
It took me a long time to read Zhuan Falun the first time, and I kept pausing. I didn’t feel moved or inspired. The other practitioners suggested: “Keep reading, and you will understand.” But I wasn’t convinced. But I guess fate was stronger than anything, and things were prearranged for me, and the book pushed aside all the other literature which I used to love to read. I believed every word, every phrase, even if not everything was clear. I believed that this was indeed a Law sent from Heaven, a ladder to salvation.
In terms of my personal cultivation, I understand that the most important thing is to live according to the principles of Dafa “Truthfulness, Benevolence, Forbearance” and let go of attachments.
Over time, as I made progress in studying Zhuan Falun and Master’s other writings, I gained a deeper understanding and realized that along with the purification of my body, my thinking also changed and my moral level has risen.
I grew up in the Soviet Union, so communist ideology was deeply instilled in me. As I kept cultivating, the book Nine Commentaries of the Communist Party was first published. Reading it was not easy for me. It manifested in body aches and other negative feelings. Fellow practitioners said that other practitioners also experienced similar things, and that it was a result of the cleansing process of eliminating the substances of Communist ideology from our bodies.
Over time I realized that I had to tell everyone I knew not only about the benefits of doing the exercises, but also the truth about the persecution of Dafa practitioners in China, in order to give people the opportunity to choose a bright future for themselves. It became the meaning of my life. I adjusted my lifestyle to this sole purpose – I must save sentient beings in every possible way.
While participating in one of Dafa’s international projects, I wrote several articles dedicated to commemorating certain dates and occasions. Each article, although dedicated to a certain historical event, also clarified the truth, and talked about the persecution in China and forced organ harvesting.
I also pay a lot of attention to clarifying the truth at my workplace. I work as a receptionist, and therefore have the opportunity to clarify the truth to every person who approaches my desk. I also offer them a chance to sign the petition. I was able to organize the screening of a film about the persecution at my workplace.
I live in the center of my country, so I usually have the opportunity to participate in many truth-clarification activities.
There is a war going on, on the border of my country. I recently visited wounded soldiers at a central hospital. I went from room to room, and distributed paper lotus flowers to them and to their visitors, I told them about Falun Dafa, and explained that Dafa is based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, which are very important at this time. I invited them to learn about what’s happening in China through the link on the bookmark attached to the lotus flower.
I am grateful to compassionate Master who gave me the opportunity to save sentient beings.
(Selected submission to celebrate World Falun Dafa on Minghui.org)