(Minghui.org) At today’s Fa study session, one practitioner brought some food for another practitioner, who refused to take it despite the former's insistence. Normally after we are done studying Zhuan Falun, we would study Master’s recent lectures. However today everyone was busy discussing whether the second practitioner should take the food.
We didn't stop until a third practitioner reminded us that it was time to study a lecture. After we finished reading the lecture, though, everyone reverted back to the topic about food.
I exchanged my opinion with a fourth practitioner, and we thought that we needed to keep our thoughts pure during the Fa-study session and focus only on studying and sharing based on the Fa. Other unrelated matters should be resolved privately.
A few years ago I was with another Fa study group. At first everyone shared their cultivation experience based on the Fa and progressed diligently. After a while human notions emerged. Topics such as food, clothes and hair styles became frequent points of discussion. One practitioner tried to remind everyone of this problem, but the situation continued. In the end the practitioner felt helpless and stopped reminding everyone. After I left, the practitioner organizing the Fa-study sessions was arrested and is still now being persecuted.
Though there are many reasons as to why the organizing practitioner is being persecuted, I wonder whether the study group not functioning in a righteous way was one of them. It had everything to do with the members of that group.
A third Fa-study group I know had a similar experience. At first everyone cherished the environment. The practitioner hosting the group at her home often cooked meals for everyone. While some practitioners spoke with her about keeping the event purely about Fa studying and sharing, others sang praises of her cooking skills. After a while those who initially refused to eat her food didn’t want to continue to be rude and started eating as well. In the end she suffered persecution, which caused her family to harbor negative thoughts about Dafa.
None of us wanted this kind of loss. We should all cherish the environment that allows us to study the Fa together. Most importantly we must be responsible for other practitioners and ourselves.