Hello everyone!
my name is Leisha Wadhawan and I have been practicing this
life-changing philosophy for three years. I wanted to share my victory with you
all regarding my hobby- dance.
Sensei says I quote "But no matter how wonderful our dreams, how noble our
ideals or how high our hopes, ultimately we need courage to make them a
reality."
I have always loved dancing and mystically when I was 2nd-grade dance school
opened near my house I joined classes and every time I learned a new dance
routine with a lot of excitement I gathered up my family and made them see
what I have learned. Our dance class even used to take us for a lot of stage
performances and I used to participate in functions of dance in school as well.
But suddenly fear started developing inside me as I could not gather the
courage to dance and I stopped dancing for four years. During the lockdown
period, my sister encouraged me to chant about and go beyond my fear and
overcome self-doubt and self-pity. It was very difficult initially but I didn't give
up and started seeking Sensei.
Sensei says "if you failed yesterday, strive to win today. If you were defeated
today strive to win tomorrow." Through keeping this guidance in my heart and a
little hope inside of me and complete faith in the practice I still kept in my
prayers that I should be able to have the courage to dance again. Alongside I
kept a lot of prayers for the ones who are suffering in my environment, I filled 4-
5 pages of my diary with just my prayers and goals. I was so determined to
make a change in my life.
At that time, I got a lot of interest in Korean stuff, like watching their shows and
listening to Korean music, which influenced me to learn their language. I used to
learn Korean from youtube videos for fun but I was really sincere to learn the
language. I saw in the tutorials that if you have a certain goal to learn this
language you will not get distracted and stay motivated for a long time. My
sister explained the same thing to me from the Buddhist perspective I should
have vast goals and I should align them with Kosen-rufu and not something self-
centered, if I do that I would reach my goals faster and by helping everyone. As
Korea is the country in which the maximum number of suicides have happened,
by learning their language I want to have lots of dialogues in Korea and create a
difference in the country by spreading Nichiren Buddhism. And right after
making my goal clear so mystically, I got the opportunity to learn Korean from
school during summer breaks as Korean Cultural Centre has collaborated with
our school. I was so grateful a Korean teacher taught us hangeul( Korean
alphabets). At end of the classes, I had to recite a poem in Korean, and my vice-
principal liked my performance so much that she made me do it twice and
apricated me a lot. I chanted all that I should be able to continue from the
Korean culture center only, and somehow I got an online course to continue
Korean. I enjoyed learning it so much that I never missed a class intentionally. I
never took Korean as studying, it is a fun activity for me and whenever I'm not
feeling good I start studying Korean to feel motivated again. At the end of this
course, I had a basic level 1 proficiency exam and I am happy to report that I
scored 90% on the exam. And now I can read, write and understand Korean at a
basic level.
Recently I started to watch a lot of dance covers and my friend also started to
post them. I used to be envious of her but by chanting I turned that into
inspiration, and I said to myself that if she can then I can too. I summoned up a
lot of courage to start working out as my body got so stiff and most importantly
I changed my mindset and always thought while dancing that I dance to enjoy
and be happy not be perfect, My school started and I had continuous classes I
used to be so tired to even do anything. I saved up dance covers for months but
it kept pending. But I strengthened my Daimoku again and determined to dance
on weekends. Though my doubts resurfaced again but I regained strength
through my faith faced my fear and recorded a beautiful video. And also in
school again by facing my fear, I participated in a dance function and I enjoyed it
the most. We got the third rank and it was my biggest victory ever. Also recently
I had 2 dialogues and encouraged 2 unactive FDs. Now, I am determined to
chant regularly, do my intense human revolution and have many dialogues at
my school and neighbourhood.s
