Western Practitioner: Reading and Memorizing Zhuan Falun in Chinese

(Clearwisdom.net)

I would like to share my experience of reading and memorizing Zhuan Falun in Chinese. I am a Western practitioner from Holland and I obtained the Fa in 2003 in Malaysia after a long search. Before that I traveled to many places, tried many different ways, even had different teachers, but no matter what I could not truly progress in cultivation. On the contrary, I seemed to be getting further and further away from my destination and I started to lose hope I ever would obtain a righteous Fa.

"There are many people who would like to practice cultivation toward high levels. They have such thoughts and wishes, but they have not obtained the right methods for cultivation, thereby causing great difficulties and many problems. "(Zhuan Falun, Lecture One)

When I first started reading Zhuan Falun I knew that this was not an ordinary book, as it described all the things I had encountered and struggled with in the past. While reading my body and mind underwent many changes and I knew that a long, long search finally had come to end, and that at last I could truly start cultivating.

After obtaining the Fa I sold all the books I used to carry with me for a low price and just kept two books, Zhuan Falun, Falun Gong, and one of Master’s recent lectures. I realized that many of the books I had carried with me were actually harmful, and in the best case they could not account for one sentence in Zhuan Falun. The process of getting rid of these books was also one of getting rid of the bad substances of attachments. Afterwards I felt fresh and light. With these remaining books I entered mainland China, where I stayed for half a year, spending a lot of time reading the book and doing the exercises. At that time I could hardly speak a word of Chinese and felt discouraged with my previous attempts to learn that language. (I had been there a couple of times before.) When I went into a restaurant without an English menu, I just looked at what other people were eating and pointed at their plates, or ordered Tofu, as that was easy to say. I did not know where to start and was frustrated that even when I memorized a sentence or word, the Chinese people still would not understand me. There was one lady that sold fried food who was very friendly. I always greeted her saying, "ni zenme yang?" (how are you) She never knew what I was saying. Every time I saw her I tried a different tone, but she only gave me a friendly smile. That time I only learned to write some simple characters. After half a year I returned to Holland.

In Holland, after reading fellow practitioners articles, I got interested in the idea of memorizing Zhuan Falun. The first night I started memorizing Lunyu in English, I felt this to be a very powerful method in which I could truly absorb its contents. For about half a year I memorized about one or two pages every day and felt satisfied with this method, as now I could be immersed in the Fa wherever I was and felt I could enlighten to its principles more deeply. At times it seemed my life was synchronized with the part I was memorizing at that time. At the same time, I had purchased a software program that enables one to see the pronunciation of a Chinese character and its English meaning. I downloaded the Chinese version of Zhuan Falun into the program and made a habit of reading it every day for one or two hours. In this way it never felt like learning Chinese; it was more like studying the Fa while at the same time learning Chinese. When I did not recognize a character, I wrote it into my notebook. The day before I left Holland to join the Fa rectification activities in New York, I had finished reading the Chinese Zhuan Falun once. I took with me all the books in English, one Chinese Zhuan Falun and my notebook.

In New York I was happy to meet my fellow practitioners, both Western and Chinese. At that time I could slowly read the Chinese Zhuan Falun with many characters still missing, but I never felt that this was obstructing me in any way in terms of understanding the Fa. Actually almost all Chinese practitioners reacted enthusiastically when they found I was trying to read the Chinese Zhuan Falun and did all they could to help and encourage me. Some were patient enough to read very slowly with me. In this way I gradually grew accustomed to the pronunciation, and every now and then was able to recognize some things they were talking about. I really enjoyed the process and actually did not think about reaching any goal.

One day I went to the laundry with a fellow practitioner and carried my notebook and the Chinese Zhuan Falun in my hat. He was unaware of that and wanted to help me to put my clothes into the washing machine, and he put in my hat as well. I threw in some money and started the machine. Later I was sitting in a restaurant and tried to find my book and realized it was missing, I ran back to the Laundromat place and was horrified to discover my Zhuan Falun and notebook in the washing machine. When I opened the machine there were loose parts of Zhuan Falun and the notebook throughout and they were all soaking wet. I felt truly miserable, that I had been disrespectful to the Fa and Master, and that I should enlighten to something. Later I enlightened to the fact that I should pay attention to details, as I tend to become very casual and loose, whereas cultivating Dafa is a truly serious matter. I could not determine whether I did not respect the Fa or the book enough, because I did consider it as my most valuable possession. But as I write this sentence I have already spelled out a big attachment. I was developing an attachment to outer forms and manifestations, especially for the book. Actually that too is disrespectful to the Fa.

At that time, memorizing Zhuan Falun in English was becoming more difficult as I had developed the wish to memorize Zhuan Falun in Chinese instead, so in the English version I got as far as Lecture Six. I once tried to memorize a small part of Lecture Five in Chinese and it seemed to take ages to memorize a few sentences, yet my mind was already determined that I wanted to memorize the book in Chinese. When I returned to Holland, my spoken Chinese and my listening capabilities were still far behind. Many Chinese people that I met at that time may have found it hard to believe I could read Zhuan Falun, as I could not express myself very well, and seemed to understand little of what they said. I use to say, "When people talk about the Fa, I can understand, but when they talk about other things, I don't." That may not have been entirely true but there was some truth in it.

The Dutch Chinese practitioners also welcomed me and were willing to assist me in the process. One practitioner invited me to read the Chinese with her and work on my pronunciation. On weekends we spent a lot of time reading. She would read one sentence and I would repeat it, and like this we moved slowly but surely. Under normal circumstances I would never dare to take so much of another person's effort and time, but I knew that we were just studying the Fa and that surely she would also gain in that process. I felt quite embarrassed to come every week and repeat the same mistakes I had made the previous week, but the more I would forget about all these things, the more I could concentrate on reading the Fa, and the easier it seemed. It is all cultivation. Sometimes she or I would bring some Chinese learning books along in the hope we could speed up our progress, but the time we spent on that really felt quite awkward and it even seemed to be counterproductive. In the end we both understood that we also had to let go of that. After all, learning Chinese should not be the main objective, and once it becomes so, one will be subject to the laws of this world, and progress might become slower. If one insists on some kind of rigid method or way, it might be difficult to follow Master's arrangements. When one puts the Fa in the first place and pursues nothing, it will be a different story. "Cultivation depends on one’s own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one’s master."(Zhuan Falun, Lecture One)

The process of memorizing Zhuan Falun in Chinese was most difficult in the beginning. I had doubts whether I could really do it, as it took a long time to only memorize one page. Yet I just continued to memorize each day and found it becoming easier. It is great to memorize Master's original words. I found in one way they are most simple and not as elaborate as some of the translation versions. Master Li uses simple characters and explains things in a way all of us can understand, while its inner meaning is boundless. Now when I read or memorize Master's words in Chinese, it appears to be completely natural. And when I memorize Zhuan Falun well I can enlighten to Master's new lectures more deeply, and recognize that all the principles are already in Zhuan Falun. Altogether it has taken a little over a year to memorize Zhuan Falun in Chinese once, and now the second time it's going easier and quicker. Yet I think we should remember that the goal is not to memorize Zhuan Falun, the goal is to assimilate to the Fa, and that all things, including learning Chinese, are nothing but small byproducts of our cultivation process.

It also has helped me to clarify the truth, as many Westerners spontaneously strike up a conversation when they see me reading Zhuan Falun in Chinese on the train or in other public places. Also, the effect we as Western practitioners can have on mainland Chinese people (even when one does not speak or read Chinese) cannot be underestimated. Just the fact of a Westerner practicing Falun Dafa really can have the effect of opening up their hearts. Sometimes while passing out Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party in Hong Kong, some mainland Chinese people seemed like they even wanted to hug me. Really, their gratitude was immense. On a few occasions, some Chinese people whose minds were poisoned by the CCP's propaganda seemed to have a change of heart after they learned I could read and speak Chinese to a certain extent and could talk with them about Chinese culture.

I have found it very inspiring and helpful to read fellow practitioners’ experiences in memorizing the Fa, and hope my experience can have a similar effect on others who want to memorize Zhuan Falun or read it in Chinese. When other people praise me for reading in Chinese, I don't feel uncomfortable, as I know it is certainly not because I have some kind of ability. It just shows some of the magnificence of the Fa. This is something that manifests at the surface and can be recognized as such, while who knows what kind of wondrous things have not manifested on the surface?

Thank you Master Li! Thank you fellow practitioners!