Improving through Group Fa Study

(Clearwisdom.net) We meet at 2:00 p.m. for our group Fa study six days a week. We send forth righteous thoughts for fifteen minutes before studying the Fa, then take turns reading the Fa. We then send forth righteous thoughts for another half hour, and then share our experiences. We feel that everyone has improved and has benefited from the group Fa study, and we now have a deeper understanding of why Master tells us again and again to study the Fa more.

Fellow practitioner B is 75 years old. When she reads the Fa she often adds or skips words. Other fellow practitioners have suggested that she memorize the Fa. It was difficult for her to memorize Zhuan Falun, so she started with Hong Yin. She worked very hard and memorized four poems from Hong Yin every day. When she encountered a character that she didn't know well, she inserted a small piece of paper there to note the pronunciation. Before she started memorizing, she had a cough that had lasted for over a month. Though she didn't treat it as an illness, she was getting a little worried that ordinary people might misunderstand, and have a negative impression of Falun Dafa. After she began memorizing the Fa, her coughing completely disappeared. She shared with the group that she found her attachments of jealousy and not wanting others to talk about her shortcomings. She is now very active in clarifying the facts about the persecution.

Fellow practitioner C is 70 years old. She is literate and previously studied the Fa by herself. In the past year she had some facial pain. When it got bad, she could not even open her mouth, and she was having trouble eating and sleeping because of it. She used to be too afraid to share with fellow practitioners, worried that the others would laugh at her, but when she contacted fellow practitioners, she realized that everyone looks only within themselves rather than focusing on others' shortcomings. She immediately understood and also began searching within herself. She found that she had the attachments of jealousy, pride, too much human emotion, and other human notions. She shared quite a bit about these during our Fa study sessions. She also began to realize that "being afraid" was caused by the evil factors, which are afraid of being exposed and disintegrated. The more afraid she became, the more the evil factors interfered with her. She studied Master's explanation of "benevolent solutions," and came to understand that she didn't study the Fa enough, wasn't clear on the Fa principles, and had been following the arrangements of the old forces. Her situation is now much better, and there is no more interference. She does very well in distributing materials to clarify the facts about the persecution. When she distributes the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, she thinks in her mind, "The evil forces cannot see me, and good people will be saved." Whenever she sees a predestined person, she tells them they should quit the Communist Party. She has done so very smoothly.

Fellow practitioner D is 66 years old. Her son is a businessman who has many debts with others. She was thinking a lot about these debts and was affected by them. She felt a lot of pressure and couldn't calm down. When she talked about it, she had tears in her eyes. The worry caused pain in her lower back and legs. Fellow practitioners encouraged her to put these aside. She persisted in studying the Fa continuously for two weeks, during which time her grayish facial color improved. Master also hinted at her in her dreams. She dreamed that she took a test in a classroom. Others all finished the test but she was unable to answer the questions. There were also two people right next to her who were distracting her from answering the questions. She was very anxious and yelled "Master!" But Master was standing in the front, looking at her, and said nothing. Then she woke up. One day, members of her family were going to another town to ask for the repayment of debts. She said, "I'm not going. I'm just going to calmly study the Fa at home. You all can take care of it." Unexpectedly, her family member said, "You are doing the right thing." She now actively participates in distributing materials about the persecution.

Let me talk now about myself. I am 55 years old, and in this Fa study group I am like a youngster. I have joined several Fa study groups and I can read the Fa very smoothly, with accurate pronunciation. Thus, the rest of our practitioners all subconsciously rely on me. I gradually began to regard myself as better than the others, and fellow practitioners pointed out my shortcomings. Though I didn't say anything, in my mind I was not convinced. One day another fellow practitioner had difficulty reading the Fa smoothly, and in my mind a kind of repulsive thought appeared. I realized it and exposed it with fellow practitioners after studying the Fa. Fellow practitioners also pointed out that when I corrected others' pronunciation, my voice was not compassionate. I was quite shocked to hear this. How could I not realize these attachments? When I dug deeper, I found that since some fellow practitioners in our Fa study group were my relatives, I had the attachement of human emotions without even realizing it. I was treating fellow practitioners with human notions. Digging even deeper, I saw that when I studied the Fa, I had a thought of completing a task, rather then truly assimilating to the Fa from my heart. These are not my true self, but are bad notions formed during my lifetime. I must clearly recognize and eliminate them. When I truly looked inward to cultivate myself, I found that my legs no longer hurt much when doing the morning exercises.

The Fa study group meets at my home. In the beginning, this also exposed my attachment of fear. My residential area is closed from the outside. After a while I began to worry that it might catch the security guard's attention that several people came to my apartment at the same time every day. But the more I fear something, the more it happens. When some practitioners come to my door, they always pound their feet to remove the dirt. It is very loud and I was really scared that it would draw attention from the neighbors. When some fellow practitioners read the Fa very loudly, I also felt uncomfortable. I knew that I had the attachment of fear. Through Fa study I came to understand that the evil could take advantage of me only if I have the attachment of fear. We were not doing anything wrong, so why should I be afraid? Falun Dafa practitioners have the greatest god to protect them. Aren't I selling myself short if I have fear?

One day, I read an article on Minghui (Chinese version of Clearwisdom.net) about treating doing the exercises seriously. It talked about some practitioners doing the meditation with a blanket around them. I talked about it in the Fa study group, and everyone laughed, because we all do it. A fellow practitioner said, "We didn't realize it before. Now that this has been brought up, we will correct ourselves. We indeed should not be too attached to ease and comfort."

In the group Fa study environment, we have all improved. In fact, it is all Master's arrangement. Forming the Fa study group early-on seemed quite casual, and many fellow practitioners came to share with us. All were filled with Master's compassion. Now everyone knows to look within unconditionally, and cultivate every thought. When something happens, we don't focus on right and wrong on the surface. Instead we look at whether it touched upon an attachment that we might have. We have formed a cultivation environment, and that is exactly the benefit of group Fa study. Of course, each of us still has many attachments that we have not be aware of, and there are also some attachments that we may know about, but haven't been able to completely eliminate. We will eventually correct ourselves within this great Buddha Fa cultivation. Group Fa study is the "shortcut" that Master has left for us to help us to improve quickly. Group Fa study is indeed much different from studying the Fa by oneself. I see that some fellow practitioners don't attach much importance to group Fa study and use all kinds of excuses to stay home to study the Fa. I hope that fellow practitioners will quickly begin coming out to join group Fa study sessions.