(Clearwisdom.net) Since February, more than a dozen practitioners in my area have been arrested, sent to forced labor camps, sentenced to prison, and/or had their homes ransacked. Fellow practitioners felt different amounts of pressure from all directions. Many of them lost the group Fa-study environment, resulting in their cultivation level becoming worse and worse. As soon as they heard anything suspicious, some of them would leave home immediately for "safety," which severely affected the truth-clarification work and caused the loss of a lot of precious time to offer sentient beings salvation. I would like to share some of our group Fa-study experiences from the recent few months. I hope this will inspire all.
Our group of four or five used to study the Fa in an elderly practitioner's home. At the end of February, some practitioners were arrested and their homes ransacked. This practitioner changed the Fa-study time to daytime hours, meaning several working practitioners couldn't participate. All of us think that we should not miss group Fa-study. One of us volunteered her place for night Fa-study. We did that at her home for about a month. For another reason, her place became a key community-monitoring target, which put the practitioner under a lot of pressure. One day at Fa-study she shared this with us and suggested we only have Fa-study once a week for everyone's safety. Considering the pressure that practitioner and her family faced, as well as to keep the group Fa-study format, I said that, while our group Fa-study cannot be interrupted, we can temporarily do this: have one practitioner go to my place [for study] and another practitioner stay in the same place, even if it means there were only two people studying the Fa together, which is still a group. We divided the group into two and continued to study the Fa together.
Actually, before that happened, I had not been regular about attending daily group Fa-study, using various excuses to stay away. Another group eventually quit having Fa-study, so one of their practitioners came to my place, and then we had three people. It's been like that ever since. Occasionally, another practitioner joined us. We studied the Fa and sent righteous thoughts together, shared experiences, and discussed issues with each other. Fellow practitioners' clear understanding of Dafa and their strong faith often made me see my shortcomings. We helped each other improve and to do the three things better.
After we finished reading Zhuan Falun, we would study other Fa lectures and articles. Now we have finished studying the lectures from different regions once. I felt my attachment to fear becoming less and less and my righteous thoughts become stronger and stronger. All these came from the Fa. We benefited from group Fa-study, a format Master imparted to us.
Each time I meet a practitioner, I try to persuade him/her to participate in group Fa-study, where circumstances permit. My wife used to be a practitioner. Because I didn't walk the path well, I was once confined in prison. She felt great pressure and didn't catch up with Fa-study. She gave up cultivation for a while. Now she has started anew. Although she is still somewhat afraid, she said that Master had arranged the group Fa-study format. No one will be in danger because of group Fa-study.
After Master's lecture "Fa Teaching at the 2008 New York Conference" was published, we studied it three times and strengthened our confidence in firmly walking down the path arranged by Master and doing the three things well. Master said in this lecture,
"Don't let having relatively fewer students in a particular area, or the presence of ongoing disputes among our students in some areas, become grounds for being passive about validating the Fa, saving sentient beings, or even your own cultivation. You would be ruining yourselves, then."
We hope everyone can abandon their ego, do well as one-body, create a Fa-study environment, and step forward to validate the Fa. Quickly restore the group Fa-study format, and walk the rest of the path well. It is for all sentient beings as well as for ourselves.
