(Clearwisdom.Net) When I read the article "Memorizing the Fa" published on Clearwisdom website on February 8, 2004 I was moved to tears. The author said, "I like to memorize the Fa." His joy of melting into the Fa can clearly be felt and left a deep impression. I suddenly understood why I had a conversation about the Falun Dafa principles with a Christian lady several days ago. I tried to inspire her with my questions, but instead she replied by quoting passages from the Bible. I felt ashamed and embarrassed; she was able to memorize the Bible and I could not even memorize Zhuan Falun. I have obtained something so precious yet I still have not truly grasped it. In "Memorizing the Fa," the author mentioned, "I am not sure if fellow practitioners have ever thought about this question: If Fa-rectification ends one day, our cultivation will also end, then will there be an end to our time of studying the Fa? Will it be cut off on a certain day as well? Are we losing one day every day? Sometimes when I see fellow practitioners spending their thoughts and energy on unnecessary things, I really feel distressed. We should really have a good idea of what we are here for, and what the most precious, biggest, most ultimate happiness for a living being is. We should repeatedly and clearly think about these questions!" After reading this paragraph, I finally realized that meeting the Christian woman was a hint from Teacher and I decided to start memorizing the Fa.
When I began to memorize Zhuan Falun I felt overwhelmed as though the task was as huge as a mountain. I have been cultivating Falun Dafa for many years and read the book hundreds of times, and I still couldn't memorize it with ease. I could only remember the sentences momentarily; as if they quickly vanished into a bottomless pit. I read and read. Sometimes even after I read a very short paragraph more than a dozen times, I still couldn't remember anything. It was so difficult.
I understood that this was not a "memory" issue as ordinary people may say, but a test that I must pass. In my personal cultivation, I have always been bothered by one thing: I never conduct myself as a true cultivator in my dreams. I truly felt there were two different people in me, the "me" when awake and the "me" in my dream. Which is the real me? Are my dreams revealing my genuine character? When I calmed down and thought clearly, I realized that even when I was awake, many things I did or thought about were things a cultivator should not do or think of and they were far from the Fa's requirement. Many times, my initial thoughts were not very righteous and I would only realize that afterwards.
Not studying the Fa well was the root cause of my not being able to remember what I read. Then what should I do? Realizing there was no shortcut, I decided to try my best to memorize the Fa. Then I was able to stumble my way through all of Zhuan Falun. Although I cannot remember everything now, I do feel that I have improved a lot in cultivation through memorizing the Fa. I feel confident that as long as I am persistent, I will eventually be able to memorize the entire book. If I can also abandon my attachments, I think memorizing the Fa will be easier than it is now.
In order to overcome the issue of forgetting that I am a cultivator, I try to strengthen my Master Consciousness while memorizing the Fa. No matter if I am riding my bicycle or on my way to work, I remind myself that "I am cultivating 'Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance.' I am Teacher's disciple." In the beginning, I felt a bit awkward to say those sentences. After repeatedly thinking them, slowly the sentences seemed to dissolve into my body and I was able to immediately think as a cultivator whenever I came across unexpected things.
Taking time to memorize the Fa will definitely help us improve. I hope all practitioners will try to do this if their situation allows. I feel in our cultivation, when we make breakthroughs from the microscopic to the surface level, we will eventually be able to memorize the Fa on the surface. Otherwise, how can we reach Consummation? When I memorize the Fa, I can understand and grasp the fundamentals better. Now I can feel the Fa's inner meanings and its guidance in my cultivation has becomes more obvious. For example, when I did the fifth meditation exercise in the past, my mind could not calm down most of the time and I kept thinking about things at work. But since I memorized the paragraph where Teacher describes that when meditating, it is like sitting in an eggshell, and you'll feel really good, I can easily enter that state during meditation.
I still remember reading lecture nine in Zhuan Falun with an Israeli practitioner during the last Fa conference in Berlin. Her tears trickled down as we were reading. I have had that kind of feeling when reading Teacher's other books, but never experienced that while reading Zhuan Falun. One day after I started to memorize the Fa, while I was reading Zhuan Falun, I suddenly felt that Teacher's compassion was so real that I couldn't help crying. Our new lives depend entirely on Dafa to nourish and guide us, so how can we not study the Fa well? Dafa is like a bridge that will allow us to reach the other side of the shore; just like how we will enter the new universe from the old universe. Only through cultivating in Dafa can each microscopic structure inside our body evolve to the Indestructible Adamantine Body. Our daily Fa study is as essential as air and food. Gradually I am able to taste the joy of reading the Fa.
When memorizing the Fa, I can feel the book become "alive" ¨C when I am memorizing some sections, Teacher would make arrangements to test whether I truly understood that part. Unfortunately, I failed quite a few times. For instance, on April 25 I was traveling to a different city to attend some activities with several practitioners. At that time I was in the process of memorizing the section "Cultivation of Speech" in chapter eight. In the car a fellow practitioner brought up something and I thought what he said was not right, so I talked back to him. When the driver took a wrong turn by mistake, I didn't realize it was my problem and kept complaining and blaming others. Just as I finished, smoke came out of the car's engine and the car wouldn't start. I sat there stunned as I had never experienced "immediate retribution in this lifetime" before and that was also the first time for me to realize that my words could have such a big impact.
I feel that the key when studying the Fa is not how much time you spend, but the state of mind you are in while studying the Fa. If we regard Dafa books the same way as our respect towards Teacher and read the book as devoutly as worshiping a statue of a God or Buddha, then the effect of studying the Fa will be good. To study the Fa as if it is an assignment is essentially the same as not studying the Fa.
I write down these experiences in hopes that more practitioners can understand the urgency and truly realize our fortune in being Dafa disciples. There is nothing more joyful than studying the Fa.
