How Cultivating in Falun Dafa Transformed Myself and My Family for the Better

Honourable Teacher, my fellow practitioners

My name is Lukáš Kudláček and I would like to share my experiences of coming to practise Falun Gong and the changes it brought to myself and my family.

First of all let me mention how I started to practise Falun Gong. In 2002 I kind of woke up from an endless merry-go-round of drinking and partying and I found out that I don’t remember much of my childhood and youth. I realised I wasted a lot of my time and that I used to be interested in a lot of things in the past, for example matters of space and cosmos were always a subject of my interest. I realised I wanted to change my mentality and so two possibilities opened in front of me – either I could “take a look up there” by studying science or I had a dim idea there could be some other way to do this – some inner practise. I wanted to try to reach a higher level through the way of science and started to study. In a few months I saw this would take years with a lot of messing about, wandering along many side-roads.

I realised that I had gone astray and so I decided to find what I was looking for via a spiritual practice. I bought a lot of books which I didn’t even read in the end while my bookshelf was starting to fill up. I searched the Western philosophies but I could not find any purpose in it, I searched the South and the North and everything seemed somehow remote to me. I even went through domestic tradition and all that I could find were the remnants of original wisdom.

I realised that I would have to study history first and learn ancient languages. I still didn‘t see any goal in it even though I knew I will eventually find what I search for. In the end of 2003 I found out I forgot to look East as if something was preventing me from doing so. Just when I was beginning to choose among many Eastern practises, in the beginning of 2004, a friend of mine called me on a phone and said he met someone who practises Falun Gong.

Just when I heard these words on the phone I knew this was it. I was trying to get more information or meet the practitioner but there were many obstacles in my way. Finally we decided to go to Prague to see the exhibition of Chinese painter Zhang Cui Ying. There I got Falun Gong book and found out about severe persecution I didn’t know about before. I immediately started to read the book and it has provided me many answers to elementary questions. I knew I wanted to practise Falun Gong.

My attachments to laziness, comfort and various fears would not allow me to practise regularly and I didn’t have Zhuan Falun, despite this I felt a lot of big changes inside me and this has manifested in my family environment also.

My parents didn‘t get along well during their marriage. In the middle of 2003 our father had already been living away from home for eight years, my brother was somehow irresponsible and kept on having arguments with my mom. Even I could not get along with my mother, we did not argue but since I served my parents as a middleman I didn’t pay any real attention to anything they told me.

By that time my father built our family a new house and my mother moved in - I encouraged her to do so because of my own very selfish intentions. She furnitured the whole house and got used to the new house when my father decided she had to leave – back to the flat he bought in a different city. It left very strong and painful feelings in my mom, who started to hate my father.

My brother was not willing to do anything about this and he ignored the situation, which made my mom even more mad. I still served as a middleman and there were other things which showed up between my mom and dad in that period of time, some of which were very dark. They left our family in a desolate state, I started to work for my dad which also made my mom angry, my brother kept on ignoring these problems and finally my mother would only dress in black. On several occasions she told me she wanted to kill my father, everything around her collapsed as if she was causing it by her dark thoughts. Right at this moment when I began to see she needed my help, I came to know Falun Dafa.

I started to change the way I was thinking which was in turn visible on the outside. I decided to visit my mum more often. Several times I came by, telling her about what I have found but still I found my powers were very limited due to attachments of fear which did not allow me to speak openly about Falun Dafa. Even so some changes took place regarding in my mother’s behaviour.

In the spring of 2004 the festival of esoteric music took place, which was visited by several practitioners from Moravia as a way of introducing the practice and the persecution to more people. My mother came to visit our stand while I was walking around and I did not pay much attention to her. Finally I bought a Falun Gong book for her, she was surprised yet pleased. Afterwards we took part in the seminar and my mom tried for the first exercise in the set of five Falun Gong exercises.

After this event I did not get to see my mother for a while. When I visited her and I saw she had really changed. I asked her whether she had read the Falun Gong book. She said she did but did not consider it a solution to her suffering. I spent a long time talking with her and ever since she was a different person. She kept making hints at my father but that field of dark energy was gone. Around this time I bought Zhuan Falun and found out about many wrong things I did regarding the situation with my mom. I tried to be more benevolent and kindhearted. My mother was going through big changes this time.

In her fifties she started to study, found herself new friends and quit thinking about hurting my father. Some major changes occurred in my life too. I kept on smoking a box of cigarettes a day, kept going to the pub and smoked marijuana, but I could sense big changes on the inside. These were happening because I read Zhuan Falun. In spring, I found my way to my brother and forgave my father his behaviour in the past. In the summer I noticed my mom let go a few wrong thoughts and notions, she started to wear light colour dresses and I heard her laugh from time to time.

After the Czechoslovak Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference in September of 2004 I quit smoking and drinking overnight. In the course of following 14 days I quit smoking marijuana and I felt my body started to purify. My mother was surprised that I have simply quit all these bad habits. Yet she did not want to believe it was our honourable Teacher who helped me and that I have changed thanks to Falun Dafa. Still I kept visiting her and talking to her, etc. In those days I started to attend the events that had been organised to let more people learn about the practice and the persecution. I began to read Master’s articles, send forth righteous thoughts and cleanse myself.

My obvious attachments, which I recognised in the beginning of my cultivation, were a very big obstacle when I tried to show the truth of the practice. It was my laziness, fear and desire – I kept repeating from dusk till dawn that I want to get rid of those – it worked, some part of these attachments were afraid and literally ran away. I thought I removed all of my attachments which was not true but my righteous thoughts were a lot stronger.

This has also manifested in my body. I had a strong headache for several months during which I could feel something beating, pushing and pressing inside of my head, so much so that it became unbearable from time to time. I told myself that my body is starting to be purified and did not really care about it but anyway.

As I got rid of some of my attachments, practised regularly and read Zhuan Falun often, some traces of what I had read in Zhuan Falun began to manifest. At first I did not understand what was going on but then a few specific cases opened my eyes. For example my father was very unsatisfied with Czech laws, judicial norms and our government so he often use to swear terribly. I recognised that when I practised the exercises in the morning and had a lot of righteous thoughts when I came to my dad’s office he could not swear even if he wanted to, he often apologised even before he started to do so.

I realised that it is the field of righteous energy and righteous thoughts of a Falun Dafa practitioner. This also awakened some of my attachments so I thought that I had cultivated well. That is when my dad started to swear again. I gave it a second thought and my father restrained himself. I told him several times that he is causing himself big damage when he swears. My father also said that Falun Dafa must be something splendid since it made me quit smoking and drinking, speak the truth and value my job in his office. I realised that it is our actions through which we can validate the practice amongst everyday people.

In December of 2004 big changes occurred regarding the relationship between my parents. My father came to spent Christmas with us, I felt that things were really changing. He even asked my mother whether he could spend New Year‘s Day with her, my mother said no, but they spend it together anyway.

I went through a very strong experience when after a very strange night my headache was gone and also some other sufferings of mine were suddenly relieved, my head was suddenly very clear. This did not last for a long time but it also showed up in my family.

I found out that my parents have met a lot of times during January and that they had started to communicate again. My mom has expressed herself regarding the persecution, when I was returning from a Falun Gong activity she asked me whether I took it too seriously. I did not hesitate and started to show her the photographs of our banners, our group practise, how we clarify the truth and how people gather to sign our petition. She wasn’t interested and went to switch on the TV I switched it off and started to tell her about our activities. After a while she said that what we do is good and signed the petition to help stop the persecution. I felt that it was a relief for her.

Thanks to other practitioners I started to realise my attachments and to remove them – those were the same attachments as in the beginning – I did not remove their roots - I only weakened them but did not fully remove them. My father came up with the idea of employing my mom and she agreed, since then our family has become a lot stronger

My mother has changed even more…some time ago, when I read an experience named “My relatives do not practise Falun Dafa” I found out that I did not have enough righteous thoughts regarding my relatives. I changed my way of thinking and I thought that one day they will simply begin to practise. That’s when my mom asked me if I could teach her how to fold paper lotus flowers so that she could help us and then she started to visit our regular group exercise class. From this and from some other cases where my righteous thoughts took effect I found out how righteous thoughts are important and that they can rectify all abnormalities.

This transformation of myself and my family, especially of my mother, made me understand the massive power of Falun Dafa and the words of our Teacher. If we see some attachments around us it is probable that these are our own attachments which we can’t distinguish because we haven’t looked inside hard enough. If we understand this and always look inside we will be able to do the three things we are supposed to do more efficiently. This way we can continue our cultivation all the way to Consummation. These are simply my own understandings, please correct me if I am wrong.

Finally, let me thank our honourable Teacher and my fellow practitioners.