(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
Three and a half years ago my Fa-study group started memorizing the book Zhuan Falun. I benefited from it so much—I felt that memorizing the Fa helped me truly cultivate myself.
I was jailed for many years due to the persecution. After I was released, the first issue I faced was finding a job. At first, I spent so much time and energy on my job that I couldn’t calm down when I read the teachings. Even when work slowed down later on, I still struggled to concentrate during Fa study, which became a serious issue in my cultivation.
Master asks us to participate in group Fa study, yet I only encouraged others to join, thinking it wasn’t necessary for me. I thought I was doing well without it. But how could I consider myself a Falun Dafa practitioner if I didn’t do as Master asked? This showed I didn’t fully respect or believe in Master.
I decided to correct myself and look for someone to study with. Then Ling came to see me. She said one of her family members had been illegally arrested and she heard a rumor that the police intended to arrest her as well. Fearful of being persecuted, she didn’t dare stay at her own home or with her relatives. I said she could stay with me. She was worried that I might be implicated, but I reassured her that I wasn’t concerned. We talked a lot that night. She felt relieved and mentioned how important a group cultivation environment is.
That was how our Fa study group made up of Ling, me, and my older sister (also a practitioner) began. After local practitioners heard about it, they were worried and said that since the three of us were on the police blacklist, it wasn’t safe for us to meet every day.
But I wasn’t worried. I felt Master arranged for Ling to come to my home, enabling us to create a Fa study group. I also believe our thoughts dictate whether the police target us or not. If we don’t acknowledge the persecution, the police won’t pay attention to us.
After reading Zhuan Falun together once, Ling suggested we start memorizing it. She knew of a Fa study group of three practitioners that memorized the Fa for years, and the police never harassed them. We talked about whether we should meet with them and ask if they had any experiences to share, but we soon realized it was unnecessary. We all knew memorizing the Fa is beneficial, and that we should just do it.
At first, I felt somewhat intimidated, and my sister was even more hesitant. In her 20 years of practice, she rarely read the book and felt she didn’t have a good memory. Ling read the book the most and memorized it once before. Our familiarity with the book and abilities varied, making it challenging to stay in sync. Often, after Ling memorized a paragraph, my sister barely remembered one sentence. Sometimes I was embarrassed that Ling had to wait for us, but she didn’t mind. She said, “We should become one body when memorizing the Fa.”
Every day, we spent half an hour sending righteous thoughts before we memorized the Fa. Our routine was to read each paragraph aloud together around ten times and then memorize it individually. Once we could all recite it accurately, we moved on to the next paragraph.
It was especially challenging for my sister, who had to spend additional time memorizing. We soon witnessed the power of the Fa. After memorizing the first lecture with great difficulty, she seemed enlightened as we worked on the second lecture and kept pace with us.
For me, the challenge was the opposite. I memorized the first lecture well but found the second one harder. I realized that I was reading mechanically without internalizing the Fa’s meaning.
I also noticed another interesting phenomenon. Sometimes I felt I memorized a paragraph perfectly, only to make mistakes when I recited it aloud. This happened every day, and I noticed it was usually a sentence or concept where I didn’t do well or when Master was trying to enlighten me to something. This also happened to Ling and my sister. By examining the specific mistakes we made, we often found longstanding issues we had.
For example, when I tried memorizing the first paragraph of the section “A Clear and Clean Mind,” I struggled despite many attempts. I realized this was because my mind was too active and I couldn’t calm down.
I repeatedly misread the sentence in Lecture Six “Because qigong practice is not a physical exercise...” as “...qigong practice is the same as regular physical exercises...” I realized Master was reminding me that if I didn’t maintain a pure mind when I did the exercises, they merely became physical movements.
Ling once misread the sentence in Lecture Two, “You will no longer suffer and will be set free...” as “...will no longer suffer and enjoy a good life...” She looked inward and found a deeply hidden attachment—that she was hoping Dafa would bring her spiritual perfection and everlasting happiness.
While reciting the following sentences in Lecture One, “When you are asleep, the gong refines you as well. When you are walking, the gong still refines you. The gong also refines you when you are at work...” my sister often added the phrases “when you are eating.” And she also inserted “eating” to another part of the lecture several times.
My sister was always hungry. She ate several times a day but still felt hungry. She didn’t realize it until we pointed this out. When she made up her mind to change the situation, she ate less frequently and didn’t feel as hungry.
Memorizing the Fa helps us eliminate attachments and correct our state of mind. Through memorization, we understand the Fa better. In the past, we might read two lectures daily without knowing what we learned.
Another crucial aspect of memorizing the Fa is accuracy. Each word must be exact, as only then can our lives and corresponding cosmic bodies fully assimilate to Dafa.
Months later, we faced two challenges. The polices destroyed a local material production center and a practitioner was arrested. The environment was hostile and practitioners were fearful of being persecuted and didn’t want to step up.
As a group we hesitated, wondering if we should do something to rescue that practitioner. We wanted to, but we were also worried that our righteous thoughts were insufficient. Memorizing the Fa helped us reach an agreement: We should do something, even though I was still fearful.
I helped to rescue a practitioner before and was harassed as a result. Another practitioner who worked with us was also arrested. Although I was safe, I was still fearful when I thought about it.
When we met with the practitioner’s family to discuss our plan of action, I was afraid that the police would discover us. But it was different this time, as we didn’t encounter any difficulties when we visited various agencies regarding the practitioner’s case. No one stopped us when we attended the practitioner’s hearing.
Recalling the last time I accompanied the lawyer to the procuratorate to read the other practitioner’s case file, I was ready to give up my life before I went. Now the field in another dimension was indeed different.
Ling said that in the past she’d always followed other practitioners to do things and didn’t have any ideas of her own. After memorizing the Fa, she felt more grounded and clear-headed about what she should do. I realized that, if we act according to the Fa and let go of our attachments, obstacles will disappear.
In the past, I often encountered trouble after I helped rescue detained practitioners or helped practitioners who experienced physical karma. I realized it was because I was doing things with my human notions, not true righteous thoughts. Because I did not internalize the Fa, I often failed to look within when I encountered problems.
Another significant change after we started to recite the Fa was that the people the police arranged to monitor me were gone. I believe this was because when we improved in cultivation, the environment in other dimension was also cleansed.
Group Fa study is a form Master gave us. From the beginning, we were determined that, no matter what, we would maintain the group Fa study. We believe that this is validating Dafa in the human world. Therefore, even during the pandemic lockdown, we still managed to study the Fa together.
There were some long-standing problems among practitioners in our area. We didn’t communicate openly and avoided pointing out each other’s problems. Reciting the Fa enabled us to open our hearts. As a result, some longstanding family conflicts and other issues were resolved. A year later, more practitioners joined us. No matter how many people came, the atmosphere was always genuine and pure.
This field of purity and openness spread, and more practitioners are now memorizing the Fa. We know that we should put more effort into clarifying the truth to people, and we are working in this direction.
Master said in Teaching at the Conference in the Western U.S.,
“I can tell you that watching the videos, group study, group practice, and conferences like the one we’re holding today are the only forms of Dafa cultivation that I have left you.”
Many villagers stopped studying the Fa together, because they were afraid of being persecuted. I want to tell them: Believing in Master means following his words. If we truly believe and act according to Master’s teachings, there won’t be any danger.
I know several practitioners in a rural area near us who started a Fa study group in 2005. Every night when they were on the way to the group Fa study, the other villagers asked them, “Where are you going?”
They simply replied, “Going to study the Fa.”
Later the question became, “Are you going to Fa study?” or sometimes “How come you aren’t going to Fa study today?” Even the village official who once actively participated in the persecution turned a blind eye to the practitioners’ Fa study group.
In my view, group Fa study benefits not only practitioners but also the community, because our own improvement brings hope to those around us.
When I read several Minghui articles about practitioners being arrested, I believed that there must be a reason behind it. For example, reading with one’s mouth but not with the heart, chitchatting while others were reading, or doing other things that don’t conform to the Fa could all be loopholes the evil could use as an excuse to persecute us.
I heard that some groups had to stop due to a lack of participation. Master said in “Fa Teaching Given at the 2015 New York Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XIII:
“Disciple: (Translated) I’m a Turkish Dafa disciple. Some veteran disciples don’t participate in group Fa study and Dafa projects. What can we do to become a whole?
“Master: I’ve actually spoken with the European coordinators about how, at the beginning of the persecution, the Dafa disciples in Europe had a big impact and achieved solid results in their work against the persecution. Your hearts really came together at that time. But gradually you have drifted apart and have become more lax over time. So I talked to the European coordinators about how to get everyone to be more serious in terms of cultivation and truly be like Dafa disciples. If you cannot work hard at cultivation, then people will disperse and you will start to lose people, and even if you gather them together physically, when you do things it will be no different than a group of ordinary people being together, and you won’t be able to keep them. All beings have come here to obtain the Fa and cultivate, and it is postnatally acquired notions that affect their ability to obtain the Fa and move ahead. Yet they don’t realize these things. Because of this, veteran practitioners must bring them along and guide them with the Fa.”
My experience over the past three years has taught me that if we can truly create a cultivation environment at Fa study, the other practitioners will sense their own improvement and be more willing to join.
In our group, we can detect our attachments and then get rid of them. Our family environments also became better. If we always look inward we can identify our problems. When more and more practitioners benefit from group Fa study, they will be more willing to join other Fa study groups. This means that those who lead the group should put more effort into their own cultivation. Only by cultivating themselves better can they attract practitioners to join.
My wish is for all fellow practitioner to be more diligent and do better. Thank you, Master!