(Clearwisdom.net) A fellow practitioner wrote an article entitled, "Learn How to Study the Fa." On reading it I discovered that I have the same feelings. After cultivating for a few years it felt that I only learned how to cultivate at a certain point. At that moment it was like I had just walked into the door (of cultivation). I will share my thoughts and understandings regarding how to study the Fa.
When I just started to cultivate, I did not know how to study the Fa. Since I did not have a good understanding of Teacher's words:
"Study the Fa and gain the Fa,
Focus on how you study and cultivate,
Let each and every thing be measured against the Fa.
Only then, with that, is it actually cultivation." (Hong Yin, "Solid Cultivation")
I had misunderstood and thought that it is only called cultivation after you have achieved something. I did not know that studying the Fa is cultivation. I thought that after I had compared my attachments according to the principles written in book, and after I had accomplished this and cleansed myself, I would not need to read the book again. At that time, the principles from the higher level would appear again, and they would guide me to the attachments that I needed to eliminate - and through this process, I would continually rise in levels.
A fellow practitioner pointed out my problems, saying that I read too little. I replied, "I know where my problem is. It is just that I feel that I am not able to eliminate my attachments."
From Teacher we understand that matter and mind are one. A fellow practitioner understood that as we cultivate, we need to control our thoughts. We cannot let bad material stay in our heads. We should keep our thoughts in a state of emptiness and have no thought in our heads. Whenever we have a human thought, we should stop it instantly. However, I did not understand this. From my understanding of matter and mind being one, Teacher is the judge of our thoughts. How come this fellow practitioner used this phrase to guide his cultivation? I later understood that Teacher's words have a deeper purpose; they guide my cultivation. In another words, the words have a special meaning for me.
Many similar phenomena happened to me later. The words in the book seemed to be speaking of some bad phenomena in the area of qigong, the development of religion, the issues of eating meat and smoking and so on. The issues appeared to be irrelevant to me, however, they all guide me in cultivation. I never smoked, however, by reading this paragraph, I still can understand principles of the Fa. Because ordinary people form notions, such as believing that things such as smoking can lift one’s spirit, they think smoking can help, when it actually does harm. With regard to illness too, it should not be simply seen as illness. Speaking from a different level, the attachment to ordinary people’s thoughts is also an illness. A fellow practitioner from the web understood that "no second cultivation way" meant that practitioners need to be clear on the true purpose of cultivation.
After I understood the above point, I was very happy. I finally learned how to study the Fa! I saw the principle of Fa behind the words on the surface. I understood the first effect of studying the Fa: Studying the Fa itself is eliminating attachments. The process of studying Fa is cultivation. Many fellow practitioners have not learned this. The reason is, when you study Fa, you must concentrate, and the process of concentrating is controlling the chaos in your head, such as human desires, human thoughts and wrong thoughts, including every thought the old force had planned for you.
Controlling thoughts is eliminating them, because when you reject them, resist them and discard them, Master will help you to take away the harmful substances. If you allow bad thoughts in your mind and sleepiness to prevail, then Fa study can likely drop into a mere formality. Just concentrate when you study Fa. It might seem like you did not see any principle of higher levels, when in actuality you have already eliminated many attachments, and broken through many levels. Many attachments are not just on one level, they need to be eliminated on every level. Therefore, continuous Fa study will naturally weaken our attachments.
After I understood that studying the Fa is the same as cultivating my heart, I enjoyed studying the Fa very much, and my desires become weaker and weaker - even my worried heart calmed down. I used to have the understanding of the Fa as a user’s manual, and would read the book looking for solutions, like how to treat lust and worry. Actually, these attachments are like how Teacher said, "Treatments just do not work no matter how they are applied"(Zhuan Falun). Keep reading the book, memorize the book, listen to the tapes and watch the videos, and all attachments will be eliminated naturally. It is truly very easily done. So you can see, Fa is capable of doing everything and anything. There is not a bit of exaggeration here.
After some time, I read an experience sharing article entitled, "Why being Diligent in Cultivation does not Exempt you from Persecution." I gained some insights from it. I felt that having an empty mind is one level, and assimilating to the Fa is an even higher level. Since you live among ordinary people, your mind cannot be completely empty. In the ordinary people’s world, every bit of information can affect you, but by using Fa to fill one’s mind, those undesirable elements will not be able to interfere with your mind.
Therefore, I started to memorize the Fa. I noticed an elderly fellow practitioner constantly reciting "Hong Yin." He recites whenever he has time. I pitied myself then, that I enlightened so late, while he has already assimilated to the Fa. Naturally, it would be even better to memorize Zhuan Falun. Buddha Amitabha’s cultivation way only requires the repeated recitation of "Buddha Amitabha" to reach enlightenment. To cultivate in Dafa, and continuously recite such a high level Fa, what could be better?
From studying the Fa, I realized the importance of controlling my mind. In Zhuan Falun, the reference to practicing an evil cultivation way unknowingly seems to me to be talking about how some people’s minds are not calm during meditation, whereby they practice an evil cultivation way unknowingly. In the beginning, I thought it would be OK as long as I didn't think too much during meditation. Later, I found that this way of thinking is not right. I should not have bad thoughts in my mind, even when I am not meditating and studying Fa. Since Falun is spinning nonstop, we are doing the exercises and refining energy every second, even when we are not doing the exercises physically. Therefore, when we are not doing the exercises, if our minds are filled with ordinary people’s business and we do not attempt to restrain our minds, then, isn’t that also practicing an evil cultivation way unknowingly? During cultivation, if you cannot identify your true self and control your own mind - on a light note, doesn't this mean that you don’t have a strong main consciousness.
If you take human concepts and thoughts as yourself, Teacher can do nothing to help. Looking at the matter this way, it is very important to distinguish which thoughts are yours and which thoughts are not yours. Then what thoughts are yours? My understanding is that any thoughts which are not based on the Fa are not yours. Therefore, only from studying the Fa can one reflect on whether his thoughts are based on the Fa or not. One can only compare them after studying the Fa. This leads to my understanding of the second effect of studying Fa: Recognizing attachments. Most of my fellow practitioners already know this. If a Dafa practitioner during Fa-rectification doesn’t base everything on the Fa, then what’s in his head must be arranged by the old forces. It is extremely dangerous. Therefore, if you keep human things in your mind, the evil will focus on your human things, because your mind contains a suitable environment for the evil.
A fellow practitioner wrote the article, "Validate True Thoughts; Deny the Old Force’s Arrangements." It is a good article for fellow practitioners to consult. Some practitioners constantly say, "I have a worrisome heart; I’m scared;" or "I’m worried," "I don’t want to." Actually, most of these thoughts are not from his/her main consciousness. They are the result of notions acquired in the human world. If you see them as yourself, then haven’t you given them the permission to exist in you? So how then would you eliminate them? Whenever you see anything that is not based on the Fa, just say in your mind, "Those are not my thoughts!" and firmly deny and eliminate them. As Teacher sees that you can now always distinguish them, He will then eliminate them. It is even more convenient now; some of the things can be eliminated by yourself when you send righteous thoughts.
The above observations are not really enlightenments, because they have actually all been clearly said by Teacher. It is only that I just recognized them. It is like what a fellow practitioner wrote, "I finally understand what human notions are - after a long battle, I just realized that the enemy is the thought!" The actual enlightenment is truly amazing, but it sounds flat and boring as we speak of it. Myself too, after having studied the Fa for such a long time, I just realized Fa is capable of everything and how Fa comes into play. After writing this article, I suddenly feel again that when I am in the Fa, I am standing among the divine beings, and I suddenly feel the Fa's grandness.
