(Clearwisdom.net) I began Falun Dafa practice in 1996 and have cultivated in Dafa and followed Teacher for the past ten years. Teacher stressed the importance of Fa study in "To the Australia Fa Conference." I have deep feelings about this. I didn't take Fa study seriously during the period of individual cultivation prior to the persecution, which began on July 20, 1999. I wasted a lot of time and didn't lay a solid Fa-study foundation for myself. I fell and took detours during the brutal persecution. Evildoers persecuted me several times, and I was held in a forced labor camp for three years. I learned painful lessons.
I sought out other practitioners after leaving the labor camp. I studied Teacher's articles and came to understand the principles of Fa rectification. I learned how to validate Dafa during the the evil persecution. I joined other practitioners and dove back into the great current of Fa rectification. I did the three things, clarified the truth, and worked hard to rescue sentient beings. During that time I realized the importance of Fa study, and I was able to study the Fa consistently. However, there are lots of things to be done in rescuing people, and I sometimes slipped into a "being busy" mode and could not focus when studying the Fa. I merely went through the motions when I studied and didn't truly study the Fa well. As a result, I often felt exhausted, and the result of my efforts was not very good. I experienced physical discomfort as well.
In the past several years the authorities in my area have never stopped persecuting Dafa practitioners. Fa rectification [in our area] fell short of expectations. There are many reasons for it. In my opinion, it has to do with the overall lack of Fa study among practitioners in our area and failing to form a whole body. Many practitioners I know are busy doing things and cannot calm their minds to study the Fa. Fa rectification has reached its final stage, and there are still many people to be rescued. Many practitioners are anxious to save more people, and it is easy for them to develop the addiction to doing things and thus cannot study the Fa with a serene mind. Of course some practitioners are not diligent and don't study the Fa very attentively.
The evil persecution has lasted seven years in Mainland China. From the perspective of Fa rectification, this evil persecution should have ended a long time ago, but the old forces were able to continue the persecution because we didn't do enough as a whole body.
Where do we fall short? If you ask me, I would say it is Fa study! If we divide Teacher's Fa rectification into several phases, we can see that these negative things happened because we did not study the Fa well enough during the individual cultivation period. We didn't step forward as a whole body between April 25, 1999, and July 20, 1999, and because of having not studied the Fa well enough, the evil began a deceitful persecution in China after July 20, 1999. Many practitioners have been detained and tortured to death. Because we had not studied the Fa well enough, many of us thought that distributing the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party was getting involved in politics, and we didn't start helping people quit the Communist Party in a timely manner. We also didn't effectively send forth righteous thoughts to completely disintegrate the evil behind the illegal detention and persecution of practitioners in prisons, labor camps, concentration camps, and other places of persecution in Mainland China.
Because we didn't study the Fa well enough, we had to learn many deep and painful lessons the hard way! The old forces took advantage of many of our omissions. In my opinion, not studying the Fa well is the biggest omission! The success of Fa rectification is unstoppable and certain, as is Dafa practitioners' Consummation. Teacher said,
"You should take fewer detours on this most magnificent, divine path; not leave reason for regret in your futures; and not fall so far behind in terms of levels. That is my hope, your hope and the hope of the beings who are counting on you." ("The Closer to the End, the More Diligent You Should Be")
Since Fa study is so important, we must study the Fa well! I think a practitioner who doesn't take Fa study seriously does not know how to practice cultivation, just as one cannot achieve Consummation by building temples. Personally, I think Fa study is not difficult but the key is whether we can truly understand the importance of Fa study. If not, we will get mired in tasks once our workloads increase. After we truly take Fa study seriously in our minds, we should work hard to study the Fa with consistency, just as dripping water hollows out a stone. Formality is not important in Fa study because the key is our mindset. We can read, recite, or copy Fa passages, and we can study in a group or study on our own, but we have to make sure the Fa truly enters our minds. If we can persist we will see the results and will form a mechanism and become motivated to study the Fa. If we study the Fa this way, we can achieve great results with half the effort. It will be a good cycle, and our path of cultivation will grow ever wider.
If Dafa practitioners can truly improve as a whole body through Fa study, the evils will disintegrate instantly, and practitioners can then truly fulfill the Fa rectification mission Teacher has assigned us.
