(Clearwisdom.net) I recently started to memorize and recite Zhuan Falun again. I recall many memories and experiences of previously memorizing and hand-copying the Fa. Here, I want to share some experiences of my studying the Fa with fellow practitioners. I hope these experiences can awaken practitioners who have been slacking off in their Fa-study, and encourage them to strive forward vigorously and diligently.
I am very lucky that I studied the Fa in the earliest Fa-study group in Changchun. I remember it was in a senior activity center on Xi'an Avenue. Practitioners studied the Fa in two rooms. Since there were many practitioners, the rooms were very crowded, without any spare space. Practitioners studied the Fa together every day. At that time, those people who had obtained the Fa all knew how precious the Fa was, and they paid much attention to studying the Fa and doing the exercises in a group. In such an environment, everyone improved very quickly.
At that time, the practitioner who was the assistant organized people to study the Fa and do the exercises together every day. On the weekends, they went to the nearby countryside to introduce the Fa to the people there.
When I first started to memorize and recite the Fa, thought karma interfered a lot with me. I could only memorize a small paragraph every day. After I finally memorized a paragraph, the next morning after I got up, I couldn't remember anything. I even cried because I was so anxious. I said to the thought karma, "The more you interfere with me to stop me from memorizing the Fa, the more I will memorize and recite it; I will never give up." If I couldn't remember it after I only tried to recite it once, then I would recite the Fa twice. If I still couldn't remember it, then I would recite the Fa three times. Every day on my way to work or to the group study site, I recited the Fa until I could remember it very clearly. In this way, I could memorize a section every day. I remember the first time I went to the study group after I started trying to memorize the Fa, we recited, "Why Doesn't Your Gong Increase with Your Practice?" At that time, we took turns to recite the Fa. It happened that I was the only person who had memorized the whole section, so I recited it from the beginning to the end. After I finished, the practitioners all clapped for me to encourage me. After that, we changed to the format in which every practitioner recited one section. The assistant asked us every day, "What did you memorize for today? How much of the Fa have you memorized?" When practitioners met with each other, they only talked about how to memorize the Fa, how to hand-copy the Fa, or how they improved their xinxing. It was indeed a cultivation environment. No one gossiped; all they were thinking about was the Fa.
There was a young practitioner from our Fa-study group who read Zhuan Falun every day at his vendor stand. He had read the book more than 100 times. There was another practitioner who copied the book a dozen times and others of Teacher's articles several times. Such things were quite normal in our study group. At that time, we knew which paragraph a quotation of the Fa was in, and sometimes we could even tell the page it was located on. Every time Master published a new article, all the practitioners memorized it on their own. On the second day after the article was published, almost everyone in the study group could recite it. Regardless of how long it was, all the practitioners recited the article. In this way, we formed a very good Fa-study environment. Now, when I look back, I see that all the practitioners in our study group who have persisted until today are all the people who studied the Fa diligently.
I benefited a lot from such a good environment. In order to recite the Fa very fluently without any mistakes in the study group, after I finished memorizing every section, I repeatedly recited it for another 20 to 30 times. I hand-copied Master's other articles more than five times and Zhuan Falun 14 times. I could recite almost all the articles. It took me almost two years to memorize Zhuan Falun for the first time. Sometimes I even recited the Fa in my dreams. Because of these efforts, I studied the Fa very well at that time.
I also had many mystical experiences. Here I just want to give a few examples. When it was summertime, because we had so many people at the group study, the room was very hot. For anyone coming in from the outside, it may have felt like a sauna that was too hot for people to bear. However, every one of us was focusing only on the Fa. Although we felt it was very hot, no one thought it was unendurable. At that time, I worked at night, and I got off work around midnight, and after the shift, it was about 1 a.m. In order to be able to join the morning exercises, I often spent forty minutes riding a bicycle home, and then I came to the exercise site around 4 a.m. When it snowed very badly in winter, I rode the bicycle in the middle of the road, and it would take me almost one hour to ride back home. On my way home, I often recited the Fa, and I wasn't afraid at all, even if there weren't any streetlights. There was one period of time that people were often robbed in the streets in Changchun; so when it got dark, people dared not go outside. But I still went back home as usual. Since I kept the Fa in my heart, nothing would scare me. I obtained the Fa in 1994. After several years of cultivation, I didn't have many special experiences. But through Fa-study and assimilating to the Fa, I believed in the existence of other dimensions, even though I couldn't see them, and they were even more real than if I could see them myself. I know my enlightenment quality wasn't very good, but I believed whatever Master told us. I only have one simple thought: "Believe in Master and Dafa unconditionally." Cultivation was just this simple, nothing more complicated.
Facing the persecution that started on July 20, 1999, there were all kinds of reactions among practitioners. Some people who used to work at the assistant center accepted interviews on the TV news and said things against Dafa, and some suggested that I hide for a while. With a solid basis of Fa-study, I wasn't moved by them and I wasn't afraid at all. At that time, practitioners had all kinds of thoughts; so I went to visit them and helped them to unravel the knots in their minds and validated the Fa. I just had a simple thought, "Dafa is so great. Since I have obtained the Fa, there is no way that I should give it up." Once a practitioner's son half-joked to me, "Aren't you aware of what's happening? How dare you come to people's homes and tell them to practice Falun Gong! Aren't you afraid that other people may report you to the police?"
Before 2002, I had been illegally arrested four times, but each time I got out of prison in the end. I even coordinated some events resisting the persecution during the detention, and I was leading practitioners to call for an end to the persecution. Most of the practitioners who often stayed with me in detention were subjected to imprisonment for more than ten years, and some of them were persecuted to death. During that period, I was twice informed that I had been given a sentence of three years of forced labor, but I never gave in or accepted the evil's persecution. Under both circumstances, I went back home successfully.
Later, I often lived away from home and hid myself in different places to avoid being persecuted. During those times, I didn't pay much attention to Fa study. All my human notions came back: I had strong desires for fame and personal interest, and I had great conflicts with practitioners, my family members, and coworkers. Then, in May 2007, I was sentenced to a forced labor camp for one year. Although my family helped me through their connections with other people, which led to reduced physical persecution in the forced labor camp, the mental persecution became even worse. In the end, though, I made it through as a practitioner.
I didn't realize, though, how bad my cultivation state was, until the beginning of 2010, when the conflicts between me and other practitioners became extremely intensified. One practitioner said that I was a communist party spy and that the communist regime paid me a certain amount of money, etc. After that, I stayed at home and cried all day, and then I stopped studying the Fa, doing the exercises, or seeing my customers. My eyes became swollen, and my body was shaking. After a long, painful, and difficult process, I finally studied Master's "Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan." Then I started to look back at my recent cultivation path, and I realized, "How could I say that I was cultivating myself! I have wasted so much precious time because I didn't study the Fa with my heart. And the way I did things wasn't consistent with the Fa, how can I say that I am a practitioner! Although I have been doing the three things, I've done them like an everyday person. And when everyday people are doing things for Dafa, they only accumulate virtue, and can't increase Gong."
From then on, I began to discipline myself strictly and handle myself as a true practitioner. After I changed myself, the environment around me also changed, and the blocks between me and fellow practitioners have been removed little by little.
The reason that I write down my experiences here is because I want to share with practitioners what I enlightened to: the reason why I wasn't persecuted when I actively participated in validating the Fa before 2004 (when the evil still acted very savagely), and why I was persecuted so badly after 2007 (when most of the evil had been eliminated). It was because I wasn't consistent with the Fa, and I didn't truly treat myself as a practitioner after 2007. I know why some practitioners dare not step up to validate the Fa and do the three things: they are afraid of being persecuted. Actually, as long as you are grounded in the Fa, the old forces won't dare to persecute you. If you have the attachment of fear, and don't discipline yourself according to the Fa, you will be persecuted even worse. For those practitioners who can't step up, it appears that they are not arrested or sentenced to forced labor or imprisonment; however, they are actually under severe persecution. Think about it this way, if you don't save sentient beings and don't fulfill your prehistoric vows, are you walking on the path arranged by Master? If you don't walk the cultivation path arranged by Master, then you must be following the old forces' arrangements. Master is saving sentient beings, but the old forces are destroying sentient beings. Isn't this another kind of persecution by the old forces? This type of invisible persecution is even worse. Driven by the attachment of pursuing comfort, practitioners develop all kinds of human notions. And gradually, they walk further and further away from the Fa. This is the most terrifying thing.
Now when I recall those days when I wasn't doing well on my cultivation path, I am scared thinking about it. I almost missed this unprecedented opportunity. Here I want to remind practitioners, hurry up and cultivate yourself diligently. My lesson is profound. Don't let yourself have regrets until it's too late.
In the past, when I encountered conflicts, I sometimes managed to hold myself back, but still felt anger or grievances. Sometimes I failed to control myself, and I exploded when people offended me. Now, after having resumed reciting the Fa, I rediscovered the grandeur of cultivation. If I remember the Fa in my heart, when I encounter some problems, I don't have to force myself to tolerate it. On the contrary, I know that it's the result of my attachments, and I want to look inward from the bottom of my heart and get rid of those attachments, and thus improve my xinxing. When I was reciting the Fa, I could feel that Master was eliminating the thought karma for me. Sometimes I just didn't want to recite the Fa, and I felt very uncomfortable; I knew it wasn't me and that it was the thought karma that was interfering with me. The more it interfered with me, the more I wanted to recite the Fa. When I decided to recite the Fa, regardless of what happened, the karma was eliminated immediately. My mind suddenly became very clear, my whole body felt very light, and I could memorize and recite a section very quickly.
This is the great Fa of the universe, and it's a ladder for us to go back to heaven. We must treasure the Fa and this opportunity. I hope fellow practitioners and I can follow the example of how the practitioners in Changchun studied the Fa in the past. Starting with ourselves, we can encourage and learn from each other, and then we can cultivate diligently together.
