(Minghui.org) Master has emphasized the importance of studying the Fa as part of a study group many times in his Fa lectures. Everyone understands this and it seems like there is no need to talk about it. However, there are still a few practitioners, including myself, who do not attend a Fa study group. Last November I was inspired by the local coordinator. I joined the Fa-study group and I have benefited a lot. Therefore I wrote this article to share my experience with fellow practitioners who still do not attend such a group.
Since my childhood I have liked to study and to think independently. I also like to write notes. Therefore, I thought that learning the Fa as part of a group would not benefit me or help me concentrate. I thought that if I had questions, I wouldn’t have time to think about the questions or to get them answered. If there were too many questions and they were not answered, I was afraid that I would forget them later. I also thought that studying the Fa in the daytime would cut down on my available time to clarify the truth. Therefore I did not want to study the Fa during the daytime. Actually the real reason was selfishness and fear of not being safe studying in a group, rather than just studying the Fa at home alone. So I stayed home to study. I thought that studying the Fa at home would fit my character best and that I would study more deeply. If I found that there were some questions that I could not understand in the course of studying the Fa, I would communicate with some individual practitioners. I felt that was pretty good. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started the persecution on July 20, 1999, I studied the Fa at home.
On the day I first attended the Fa-study group, it felt just like I was in the early stages of cultivation. It felt so pleasant and like a drop of water melting into a large river. The energy field affected me. I previously had a condition that made me have to urinate frequently. While I studied the Fa at home I needed to go to the bathroom every 30 to 50 minutes. It was so strange that while I stayed with the Fa-study group for two and a half hours, I did not feel bad or have the need to urinate. After I left the group, within only 10 or 20 minutes, my condition returned. One month later, a practitioner told me that my face had turned rosy from my previous sallow look. My hair consisted of a mixture of white and black hair, with mostly white hair. Previously the white hair was gradually turning black but then after awhile it stopped. White was still the dominant color. More recently my hair has been more black than white and the gradual change from white to black has begun again. I still wear my glasses when I attend the Fa-study group but one day I forgot to bring them with me. I found that I could read without the glasses and sometimes the words even looked quite clear. Since then I have not worn them anymore. My knee was damaged in a bicycle accident several years ago. In those days, because I had been working too hard, my leg hurt again. When I mentioned it during Fa study, my fellow practitioners instantly told me it was a false appearance and practitioners should not have any sickness. One day while communicating with my fellow practitioners, they told me that the way that I was clarifying the truth was good. They asked me to explain how I clarify the truth. Fellow practitioners' words and deeds are like a mirror that shows us how to improve together. The most wonderful thing is that my enlightenment ability improved and I realized that I had been wrong to study the Fa by myself for so many years.
Since July 20, 1999, I had read Master’s newer Fa-lectures but I could not understand the meaning. Therefore I started to write notes and my notes included special features and main topics of each article. I also quoted Master’s Fa about cultivation of the mind. Sometimes the quotation was one paragraph or one line—a few sentences at most. Thus I thought I had an idea about each Fa-lecture topic. Above each of my notes, I would write “due to my limited shallow understanding this is a brief outline.” I turned 67 in the year 2000. I tried to recite the Fa but I could not remember it; therefore, I organized the Fa I quoted in my notes as an index. I selected one short phrase or abbreviation from each Fa article subject as a sub-title for my index. I used that method to recite the Fa repeatedly. In reciting Zhuan Falun and other articles of the Fa, I also picked out quotations about cultivating the mind, added a sub-title, and made that into an index. I did not directly use the book to remember the Fa. After attending the Fa-study group for four months, one day when I practiced the second exercise, “Holding the Wheel above the Head,” Master gave me a hint. I suddenly realized: when I tried to remember Master’s Fa-lectures I was actually just reciting my Fa-study notes. My notes gave an explanation and definition for the whole Fa. I realized the seriousness of my actions. I had already started on the path to unintentionally interfere with the Fa and I had done this for a long time, a total of 11 years. The scope of my notes was very wide and that was an unpardonable wrong deed. Fortunately I did not share my notes with others, otherwise it would have been an even greater crime. It was so terrifying and I was so regretful when I thought about it. Master emphasized the issue of studying the Fa and guarding the Fa in his book Essentials for Further Advancement in his articles, “Learning the Fa,” “Definitive Conclusion,” and “Environment.” I studied these articles countless times, so how did I not recognize the situation and be on guard to protect the Fa? It was caused by my average person’s attachment to studying theories and I was lacking righteous thoughts.
I used to think that there were shortcomings in Fa-study groups, but now I believe that any problems associated with group study can be fixed. If any questions are found, the page number can be recorded and the question can be shared with my fellow practitioners or I can study the material again after I go back home. Studying alone and studying with a group complement each other. The atmosphere and communication of group Fa-study is very important and is not comparable to when I study the Fa by myself. If there is concern over the time spent and that this could interfere with time for clarifying the truth, I could study the Fa in the morning and clarify the truth in the afternoon. If I study the Fa well, I have enough righteous thoughts and the results in clarifying the truth are better.
Now, most local practitioners attend a Fa-study group. I hope that all those who still do not attend a Fa-study group may cast off the attachment of fear and keep pace with the cultivation tide in the last stage of Fa-rectification.
