(Clearwisdom.net)

In order to study the Fa well and study the Fa more, I set a goal for myself a while ago on how many chapters I had to finish reading everyday. With the pursuit of chapter numbers, there was much interference in my mind and I was unable to calm down. Although I could not calm down, I could still read the Fa a lot everyday. Many impure thoughts and attachments were hard to get rid of. The results of my Fa study were very bad. Recently, I suddenly realized that, in Fa study I emphasized too much on "quantity," but did not pay much attention to "quality."

My understanding of Fa study is that we must calm down to study the Fa. The calmer we are the better. When we are able to calm down and study the Fa, we are being rectified deep in our minds during the reading of every sentence. The more our minds and bodies assimilate into the Fa, the more we study the Fa, the clearer we become, and the more we want to study. Throughout the process of Fa study, there should be no personal judgment of the Fa. If we cannot calm down during Fa study, we only appear as reading the books. Our minds and bodies are untouched, and the impure thoughts would come in one after another. Still, we may feel complacent if we have read three chapters today. In reality, we only read the books, but we did not learn the Fa with our hearts.

I have some experience on how to calm down to share with fellow practitioners:

1. Remind ourselves to calm down. Make every chapter we learn count. Calming down to study is more important than reading more chapters with poor results. If we cannot calm down, then that is because of impure thoughts or human notions that are interfering. We need to remind ourselves that they are not from the true, original existence of us. They are all bad things that need to be eliminated during the cultivation. With strong thoughts to oppose them, we also need to strengthen our main consciousnesses. Do not follow impure thoughts, while reciting Teacher's Fa (this is the most important). We can also sit down, and send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate them.
2. Find the root of the impure thoughts. When there are some bad feelings or discomfort in our minds, then there are some attachments that need to be eliminated. At that moment, we need to pay attention to things that disturb us the most. Pay attention to them and check them out, and do it many times. We will then be able to see what the thing that bothers us is, and what the attachment behind that is. And then, as we dig deeper, we will find its root: is it for selfishness, or is it because of human notions at different levels? Do it like this many times, until reaching the stage where it no longer disturbs us. Until then, one has passed this opportunity and improved through this.
3. We can read the Fa aloud while studying, as long as it does not interfere with others. After reading like this for some time, the impure thoughts that interfere with us can be eliminated from our minds. It is also good to transcribe, or recite the Fa.
4. During the Fa study, when we are not clearheaded with feelings such as sleepiness or fatigue, we could do the Fa exercises for a while. This way, we will regain our energy, and it is helpful to Fa study and sending forth righteous thoughts.

October 23, 2003