(Clearwisdom.net)
I know that a lot of practitioners have placed great emphasis on Fa-study. And although Teacher has talked about this matter in several lectures, I think that our effort in this area is not enough. In other words, we have not truly placed enough emphasis on this matter. Since the Fa has different manifestations at different levels, what a person sees before reaching that level may not be the truth; instead, he only sees the manifestations of the Fa that is supposed to be seen at that level. It's the same with Fa-study. Before one's own Fa-study reaches a higher level, he feels that his state of Fa-study is good and proper. Only when one goes beyond this level can one realize that this is not the case.
Here I would like to talk about my experiences and lessons regarding Fa-study over the past few years.
When I first started cultivation practice, my mind often wandered off when I read Falun Dafa books. I often thought about nonsense for quite a while before I would put my mind back on the book. At that time I also paid great attention to the time spent on Fa-study, but I always felt as if I were completing a chore. Moreover, when my eyes were on the book, I often failed to discover that I had misread the words because I was reading the words based on a presumption of the contents that I had in my mind. Afterwards, when I read aloud with other practitioners at Fa-study sites, I felt good at the beginning. But the more we read, the faster the reading-speed became, and I had no impression of the surface meanings in the book after reading. I felt that this was not normal. The normal condition should be at a slow speed -- at least the brain should understand the meaning. When I studied the Fa by myself, I often changed from reading aloud to reading silently. I found reading silently to be not as effective as reading aloud. It was easier to focus on Fa-study when reading aloud. Having studied the Fa like this for a while, I discovered that what I understood of the Fa was quite muddled.
I saw that it was an incorrect state, so I started to memorize the book instead. It was difficult when I first started to memorize it, and it took me a long time to memorize the content of a single paragraph. After memorizing it for a while, I discovered that when the content of a paragraph is linked together as a whole, there are hidden meanings behind it. Moreover, when a paragraph is linked with other paragraphs, there are even more profound things inside, and it is revealed naturally. Actually, there were various attachments that interfered with me in order to stop me from memorizing the book. The most serious situation was that in my mind I felt very lonely. I would feel bad and want to go out for a walk. This kind of thinking tried its best to make me do something else. I was able to remember the Fa easily after I had memorized the book, and this had never been the case beforehand.
After July 20th, 1999, I lost contact with other practitioners, and I did not have access to the Internet. I was completely isolated and due to various forms of interference, I could not calm myself down to study the Fa. It became quite evident that various forms of communication from overseas are so important to practitioners in China.
I have now made up my mind to memorize the book again, and I've improved my method. I now memorize it by reading it slowly: I let my eyes read the words and my mouth say the words one at a time. With my ears being able to take in the meaning, I try hard to memorize it with my mind. I think that in our daily lives our thoughts are the most polluted. But it is the eyes and ears that transmit the polluted thoughts after they themselves have been polluted. The eyes and ears must also participate. My mind is now a lot clearer than it used to be.
I'm writing this for everyone's reference. Using the method of memorizing the book, we can discover obstacles that we fail to discover when we use other methods to study the Fa. We also have a clear sense of directly participating. Isn't this the Primordial Spirit studying the Fa? Any time we fail to persist in memorizing the book, we'll realize it, and we will be fine as long as we can break through the difficulties.