The Importance of Studying the Fa

Greetings, Master!
Greetings, fellow practitioners!

My name is Tomek and I am from Poland. I would like to share with you about my last few years of cultivation.

Some of you might remember my sharing during the European Fahui in Warsaw, Poland, in 2022. I shared that starting in 2006 I had the honor of supporting Shen Yun performances every year in the backstage area during shows all over Europe. While doing it, I saw local practitioners getting together to work really hard, creating one body to assist Master to save sentient beings during Shen Yun shows. I was very happy to see that they had this possibility to assist Master to save sentient beings but at the same time I felt sad that, as the main coordinator of Poland for several years, I was not able to invite Shen Yun to Poland. I was not able to provide my Polish fellow practitioners with the possibility of working for this greatest of projects, led personally by Master.

Things changed at the end of 2021. Covid was still ongoing, and while venues in other European countries still had many Covid restrictions, the situation in Poland was more relaxed. There were many gaps in the European tour, and those gap dates were approaching quickly. I saw this as a chance to finally have Shen Yun in Poland again after many years in which we kept hearing “please wait for bigger cities to find a venue”, and then that there were no available dates left. I saw this as a chance for Poland to really help out Shen Yun in those difficult times. We started searching for a venue, but because those gap dates were just 2.5 months away, most venues had no available dates. We managed to find one venue with available dates, but this venue was quickly rejected because of technical issues. Some of you might remember how at the European Fahui in Warsaw I shared about not taking no for an answer and working hard between Shen Yun and the venue to convince both sides that we could really do a successful show.

This time I want to share about my cultivation in that period. The time was tight as we started promotion and sales just 46 days before the show. Actually, we heard comments from experienced countries that we must be crazy to start sales and promotion just 1.5 months before the show. At the same time, for me personally, there started a period of really difficult cultivation. Let me add that I am a co-owner of a mid-size company, and I have to be directly involved in it more than full time. Also I have 3 kids who require some devotion of time and focus.

As we had had no SY for 7 years, I was the local person who had the latest experience with Shen Yun shows. As time was tight, I had no time to pass the experience and knowledge on to other practitioners. So even though I was the main coordinator for the SY project, I had to quickly personally take care of contacting the venues concerning technical issues, and it took a lot of time going back and forth between the SY production managers and the venue technical team. At the same time, I had to set up all aspects of the sales system with Shen Yun Ticketing from scratch. Also, although I asked our group who could coordinate promotion – nobody volunteered. So, at the same time as arranging the technicalities and setting up the sales system, I had to plan the promotion and the budget, and then manage the promotion including the online promotion. I was in constant daily contact with the marketing team in the USA managing our online promotion.

All other practitioners jumped into leafleting and putting brochures into mailboxes in good areas, and thanks to Master’s arrangements, the tickets were selling really well, and we even had to add another show.

But for me this was a time when, because of too much regular everyday work, family responsibilities, and the organizing of Shen Yun, I started to neglect Fa Study. I was studying less and less – once I picked up the Zhuan Falun book to study, right away I would remember very important things concerning Shen Yun in Poland that I was supposed to do or finish the day before, things that could not wait, and I would stop Fa Study and do those tasks.

But I thought: “It’s ok, it’s only 1 month more and then Shen Yun will be over in Poland, and then I will catch up with my Fa Study.” When Shen Yun finally came to Poland in January, we learned there would be another gap in the tour in 4 months' time and we were asked if we could again find some venues.

The whole story repeated itself: we found a not so perfectly qualified venue, and by going back and forth through “negotiations” with Shen Yun and the venue - we finally signed the contract. Again, as well as general coordination, all technical aspects and promotion were on me. This time tickets were not selling as quickly as before, so my promotion duties required even more time - as this time - the war broke out behind our Eastern border.

On the day we started the promotion, on the very same day, Russia invaded Ukraine. During the first few days of the war the Russian army was making rapid progress. People in Poland were all in shock and no one was sure about their future. The city where Shen Yun was to perform was only 75 km (or 45 miles) from the border of Ukraine, and Shen Yun tickets were not selling at all. Soon we received a phone call from the European Logistics coordinator and Shen Yun management. They said they would like to know how ticket sales were going in Poland. I held my breath and answered: “No tickets were sold.” Then I heard, “Cancel the show!”

I froze and I thought: there had been no Shen Yun for so many years in Poland and we had to overcome so much to bring Shen Yun back here, we had fought through so many “no’s” – so we can’t give up. So, when I heard “Cancel the show!”, I said, “Please, give me a moment to quickly share with Polish practitioners and get back to you.” I hung up and quickly shared with the key practitioners involved – all of us felt the same – no one had even the slightest feeling that we should give up, we must not surrender no matter what, not even because of war.

So right after, I responded by saying, “Please give us a week - and we will show you we can still sell tickets.” The response that came right away was: “NO, there is a WAR!!!” I didn’t give up and responded, “The real WAR is in another dimension. Please, we are asking just for one week to prove that we can do it.” The response was: “Ok, but you have only 3 days! We can only wait for 3 days, and then we have to cancel the show.”

Although there were no practitioners in the city where Shen Yun was supposed to perform, right away we organized additional promotion activities. The tickets started to sell, and in the end the shows were a huge success. Actually, since this was a new venue, built in 2015, no other show had ever before in this venue managed to reach even one full house. And Shen Yun managed to have 3 full-house shows.

But to manage this, I had to devote even more time to it and I neglected Fa Study even more. I was thinking, “Soon Shen Yun shows will be over and then I can catch up with my Fa Study.” But after the Shen Yun shows in May, we applied for Poland to host the European Fahui, and basically I had to jump in and coordinate this effort. I was neglecting my Fa Study even more. I thought, “Ok, soon the European Fahui in Poland will be over, and then I will catch up with my Fa Study.”

During the European Fahui in Poland, my family heard amazing stories about the Northern Academy in Middletown, New York, and one of my daughters decided she would really like to go there to study. I was surprised at how much effort was required to go through the 14-step application process, and how many documents and efforts were needed to pass through this process and get her admitted to the school, including obtaining a visa. Of course, it was totally worth it – but I had to spend lots of time  managing that.

And after the European Fahui, unfortunately we had to change the CEO of the Polish Epoch Times, and as no one wanted to take the job at the time – I felt that as the main responsible person for Poland I had to take on this task, otherwise the Epoch Times in Poland would cease to exist. Once I took up this position, I felt like another big chunk of pressure was added to my shoulders.

At the same time, we started working on next year’s Shen Yun. I was also coordinating the Polish dragon dance team. In the last few years we have supported over 75 parades and events across the whole of Europe, and coordinating this actually required quite a lot of time. Then my oldest son said he would like to follow his sister and apply for Fei Tian College in Middletown, and again I had to spend lots of time to make that happen.

Every year I coordinated our local Fahui in Poland, big main meetings, some big activities and many other tasks. I had difficulty getting other practitioners to help take on the coordination of these activities. I treated all of this as my responsibility, and I was simply doing it.

Then my youngest daughter said she would like to try to follow her siblings and apply for the Northern Academy in Middletown as well. In addition, the son of my business partner (they are all ordinary people) decided to try Northern Academy in Middletown, so I spent quite a lot of time helping to make that happen.

Every year we were increasing the number of cities and Shen Yun shows. Although I managed to involve other practitioners in technical issues, I was still the promotion coordinator, and personally managing online marketing as well.

At the end of 2024 I reached my limit. My Fa Study had become almost non-existent. I sent a message to Global FXH to report my inadequate state. I called for a coordinators meeting in Poland and I openly shared with them: I said, “I am basically not studying the Fa, and I really feel squashed and smashed by too many responsibilities. And I have completely lost all enthusiasm to assist my fellow practitioners. Actually, I don’t really even want to see other practitioners.” I shared how I saw that there might be two scenarios happening: the old forces are getting the upper hand in eliminating me from being a practitioner and soon I will be gone, or this is the time for other practitioners to take up the responsibilities. I said that the only way I would survive as a practitioner was if others take over different responsibilities. Either way – even if I am replaced and we have a new main coordinator – other practitioners should still get involved more, as this is all too much for any one person.

I was happy to see that practitioners took my words seriously and funnily enough, they started to assign tasks to each other. I said the first thing we needed to do was to get the position of CEO of the Polish Epoch Times off my shoulders. So one practitioner said to another practitioner heavily involved in our Epoch Times: “You – you have to take over as CEO of the Polish Epoch Times, as you are the only person who can take it from Tomek, and you are actually the best person to do it.” And that person hesitantly agreed.

Then I said: “SY marketing – we must find another person to do it.” Actually – there had always been a person we all thought would be good for this job – but he was always avoiding it. So now, someone said to him: “You – enough of this whining – you have to take over SY marketing, as you are the best person to take it over from Tomek”, and he hesitantly agreed.

Then I said we had to do the same thing with the upcoming Polish Fahui – I said if other members of Polish FXH thought that we should have our local Polish Fahui, then this time they had to arrange it and coordinate it from start to end. And they agreed.

Then I said I could not do the Polish dragon dance team coordination, and for this job someone actually volunteered. Then we talked about other tasks. Of course, passing on the tasks was a process, and it lasted months, but the more things were taken off my shoulders, the easier it was for me to study the Fa.

And the real breakthrough came during the next 4-day Polish National Fa Study a few months later – during that meeting I felt how my body and my thoughts were being cleansed. That meeting gave me so many righteous thoughts and so much strength that, since that meeting until Shen Yun’s arrival months later, I was reading one full lecture of Zhuan Falun every day (and if I missed one day, I was catching up by reading 2 lectures the next day). I felt my righteous thoughts became stronger and again I felt very enthusiastic about assisting my fellow practitioners, and in general very enthusiastic to see practitioners – and share and work together with them.

After my cultivation state started to improve, I looked inside to find the attachment: I understood that for too many years I actually had an attachment to doing things and to coordinatig too many projects by myself and that the truth was I was actually doubting that other practitioners could do those tasks as well as me, or I was even afraid that they could do a better job than me – anyway, all those notions in my current understanding were connected to my attachment of jealousy. Master says in Lecture Seven of Zhuan Falun: “The issue of jealousy is very serious as it directly involves the matter of whether or not you can complete cultivation. If jealousy is not abolished, everything that you have cultivated will become fragile. There is this rule: If in the course of cultivation jealousy is not given up, one will not attain Righteous Fruition—absolutely not.” 

Once I recognized this attachment of jealousy in me, I felt ashamed that I had to almost fall in my cultivation to see this deep layer of attachment of jealousy in me. So recognizing it was the first very important step in removing it, and since then I’m watching my thoughts carefully, and if I am noticing those thoughts again, I am able to eliminate them quickly.

Please point out anything that is not in accordance with the Fa.

Thank you, Master. Thank you, fellow practitioners.

(Speaker at the European Fa-Conference 2026 in Prague)