Western Practitioner: Truly Studying the Fa Well

(Clearwisdom.net) The wholehearted dedication of practitioners to improving our one body, along with Master’s recent Fa teaching in Washington, D.C., inspired me to write this sharing. I hope it may be helpful to fellow practitioners.

When I began my cultivation three years ago, veteran practitioners around me often talked about how they study one, two, or even three lectures from Zhuan Falun daily. I felt that since I began cultivating so late, I should try to keep up with them. Master also indicated in His Fa teaching in Guangzhou that one’s level is raised each time one reads Zhuan Falun. (my paraphrasing of the English audio translation). Due to my low level of understanding at the time, I thought that I should get through the book more times as quickly as possible.

Therefore, I tried to read the book fairly fast. At the beginning, I read with my heart, really trying to understand the principles involved. After a while, however, it felt more like a task. Incorrect thoughts often popped up in my mind, such as “I already know this,” or “This is so complicated, I may never understand it,” or “This doesn’t apply to me.” However, I just ignored these unrighteous thoughts and continued reading, pursuing finishing a certain number of pages a day.

After a while, my cultivation state deteriorated and I started to skip Fa study altogether on some days. For a while, I also stopped going to the local group Fa study each week, with the excuse that I could not comprehend Master's Fa lectures when reading in a group as well as I could when reading on my own. There were other tribulations involved at the time as well, which further discouraged me, as I could not pass them well. I wasted a lot of precious time by being in this state, although I still had the heart to cultivate and help Master save sentient beings.

After I became clearheaded and determined to cultivate properly and diligently again, Master helped me gain many new insights and understandings in a very short period of time. I can never repay Master for His boundless compassion and benevolent salvation!

One of the biggest realizations that I gained was regarding Fa study. I became determined to study the Fa truly well. I told myself that even if I read just one sentence or one paragraph with a pure heart and a clean mind, that would be much more beneficial than reading a full lecture superficially.

Master said that each word in Zhuan Falun has the image of His Fashen. I understood that it is most disrespectful to rush through some characters or words. Each character in the book represents the highest Fa and must be given the highest level of respect. Each word has the ability to help true cultivators improve and rise up, and each character is more precious than we could possibly imagine.

I then started reading the Fa in a different way—really paying attention to each word and giving each word my most sincere focus and respect. I read as much as I could with a pure heart and a clear mind, and actively negated any interfering thoughts that popped up. At first, these thoughts constantly interfered with my study. Sometimes it took me an hour just to read two or three sentences with a pure heart and a clear mind! After that, I felt mentally exhausted—like I had just fought a big battle—and had to take a break.

Gradually, the interfering thoughts appeared less, and I could study more. In the process, my overall cultivation state improved and I could do the three things much better and more diligently than before. Master was then able to arrange several very precious opportunities to encourage me further. I am so thankful to Master!

This process also provided me with the opportunity to increase forbearance, as well as to eliminate impatience, pursuit, and other bad notions, habits, and attachments, such as competitive mentality, insecurity, pride in being highly educated and “smart” on a human level, analyzing Fa concepts from an academic perspective, etc. I’ve realized that studying the Fa with a pure, clean, and calm mind is only possible when the mind is not polluted with any of these notions and attachments. Therefore, one must actively negate all interfering thoughts and truly focus when studying the Fa. Otherwise, Fa study may not be effective.

I still have a long way to go to improve my Fa study and cultivation. Sometimes even after studying for two hours, I don’t finish one lecture. But I don’t give up. I just continue to negate the interfering thoughts and reread the sentences when needed in order to make sure that I really read each word with a pure, clean, and calm mind. I then feel that I am truly making progress, and my cultivation state, xinxing, and enlightenment quality continue to steadily improve as a result.

Practitioners in our state have recently been talking about how to improve as one body. I think if we could study the Fa with a pure heart and a focused and calm mind, then we could all improve together very quickly.

When reading the lectures in our large Fa-study group, some practitioners sometimes inadvertently skip lines of text without noticing it, which indicates that they may not be paying attention to the meaning of what they are reading. Other practitioners often appear too timid to correct them; I was one of these practitioners in the past. However, I’ve come to realize that it is actually selfish to be too timid to gently and compassionately help a fellow practitioner improve in Fa study or in other serious matters. My understanding is that we must help each other notice and overcome shortcomings, as this is how we can truly help each other improve, raise our cultivation levels, and grow to become a better one body. Of course, we should always help each other with compassion—and from a pure and noble mindset of truly wanting to help each other improve.

Also, we should be considerate of other practitioners’ reading abilities when studying the Fa together. For example, many Western practitioners in our large Fa-study group come from different countries, so English is their second language. Nevertheless, they try their best to read the Fa in English, so as not to inconvenience the rest of the group. When others read too fast, these practitioners struggle to keep up. Could reading just a little bit slower, for the sake of really being considerate toward each other, improve our comprehension, focus, and unity as one body?

During the process of improving my Fa study, I’ve come to experience something I had not experienced before: the pure joy of being a Dafa cultivator and of having the opportunity to study the Fa. It can't be compared to any ordinary human joy. This joy comes from deep within my heart, and I feel that it comes from the very depths of my being—from my original, true self. It feels like the purest gold that shines more brilliantly that any words could ever describe.

I have finally truly realized that regardless of any superficial “reality” at the human level (i.e., ordinary day job or family tribulations, conflicts, worry about having money to pay rent, loss of personal interests, etc.) , I am truly the most fortunate being in the world. I have Master, who looks after me, who has bestowed on me this incredibly precious opportunity to be a Fa-rectification Dafa disciple!

Let’s not miss this most precious opportunity of all time! Let’s eliminate our human notions and attachments, help each other improve, complete our grand missions, and return home with Master!

This is my limited understanding at my current level. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.