(Clearwisdom.net) I started to practice Falun Dafa in 1995, and, in the 11 years since then, I have read Zhuan Falun many times. Before July 20, 1999, I made three verbatim transcriptions of Zhuan Falun. At that time, I just read the book over and over, although I knew that I would be better off if I could recite the Fa from memory. I felt frustrated whenever I picked up the book, as it was so thick and contained so many words. How could I remember them all word by word? With my old age and bad memory and my forgetfulness, how could I remember so much of the Fa! In this way, my postnatal notions controlled me and made me give up the idea of learning to recite the Fa from memory. Later I was illegally sent for two years to the forced labor camp, where I regretted that I had not made the effort to memorize the Fa. How it felt to not be able to study the Fa was beyond description. I really felt regretful about not remembering more of the Fa when I wanted to study the Fa.
In 2002 I started to realize that I was in the Fa rectification period and that I needed to learn the Fa more and study the Fa well. Otherwise, during this special period of time, especially amidst the evil environment in Mainland China, I would not be able to catch up with the progress of the Fa rectification, and it would be difficult for me to walk out of humanness to assist Master in rectifying the Fa, validating the Fa, and saving the sentient beings. I thus started the process of memorizing the Fa word by word. Although I was very busy, I could still squeeze in time to recite the Fa. However, before I finished memorizing the first lecture, I gave up for various reasons. At that time I did not realize that my failure to go on was because of the evils' interference, which hurt my confidence in my ability to learn to memorize the Fa. Not until the winter of 2005, through sharing with fellow practitioners, and by reading the Minghui/Clearwisdom articles in which practitioners talked about how to recite the Fa, did I again decide to memorize the Fa. As I improved with fellow practitioners, I found my gaps.
This time I am determined that, no matter how busy I am, even when it means that I cannot eat or sleep, I still make sure that I recite the Fa every day. I will eliminate all the interferences, whether they are from internal or external sources. I have come to the understanding that the notions of being very old and having a bad memory are all arranged by the old cosmic forces, and I will completely negate them. Because what I am cultivating is the Fa of the cosmos and what I am following is a body and mind cultivation, Master has already changed my cells, and my cells are already filled up with high energy matter, so how can the cells still be controlled by the old cosmic forces? This time I have made my determination that I will memorize the Fa word for word, and as long as the Fa rectification is not over, I will recite the Fa every day and nothing can interfere with my reciting the Fa.
When I first started the memorization process, after I had spent one and a half hours, I could remember only one paragraph of the Fa. As I continued my efforts, I could, in a period of over one hour, remember one, two, three, or four paragraphs or even two to three pages later on. The more I recite the Fa, the more familiar I am with the Fa, and the quicker I progress in my ability to recite it. Every day while reciting the Fa, I feel relaxed, happy, and clearheaded. Especially after reciting the Fa, when I am reading the book each day, I feel that my mind is very clear and my body very light. When I read the Fa, it is no longer the case that I read the Fa word by word; instead, when I read one line or one sentence, I am able to know the subsequent lines or even more of the contents, and furthermore, I am able to accurately remember the Fa without memorizing one word wrong. In this way, I speed up my reading of the Fa. It used to take me more than one hour to finish reading one lecture, but now it takes less than an hour. Through reciting the Fa, I am also able to study the Fa with a clean and calm mind.
When I recite the Fa, I am able to understand meanings in the Fa that I could not enlighten to before, the deeper meanings of the Fa, as well as the various extremely wondrous manifestations of the Fa. I feel as if I had just started to learn the Fa, which made me enjoy reciting the Fa more and more. I feel that reading the Fa many times is not as effective as reciting the Fa once. Sometimes while reciting the Fa, I suddenly feel that my mind is enlarged numerous times, and my body is also enlarged. I have experienced the magnificent feeling of being as high as the sky. While reciting the Fa, I better understand more principles of the Fa. Through reciting the Fa, I have felt the extraordinariness and wonderfulness of Dafa, and I have truly melted myself into the Fa.
When I initially started to recite the Fa, while I remembered one paragraph, I forgot another one. I needed to come back to repeat the memorization process again and again, so my progress of reciting the Fa was very slow. After I learned about fellow practitioners' experience of reciting the Fa in the Minghui/Clearwisdom articles, I felt that their way of reciting the Fa was very good, so, after I finished memorizing one paragraph, I went for the next one. In this way, my progress of memorizing the Fa accelerated. As I read the Fa, when I came to a paragraph, I would naturally connect the several paragraphs of the Fa together. Furthermore, by doing it this way, I can remember the Fa very well and very deeply. This is because the Fa has opened up our wisdom. Only though reciting the Fa have I enlightened to this point.
Usually when one starts to recite the Fa, one always encounters interference; some come from external sources and some from inside oneself. All this interference is a manifestation of the evils taking advantage of our gaps to achieve their goal of preventing us from studying the Fa. What I just mentioned about my old age and bad memory was one aspect of the interference I experienced. Sometimes my laziness and my seeking comfort also interfered with my reciting the Fa. I always wanted to lie down for a while, find some one to chat with, read the newspaper, listen to the radio, watch the television, or go to the street or the market for a walk. So every day I had little time to study the Fa, and sometimes, I was even unable to study the Fa at all, or I went to do something else after I had studied only a few paragraphs of the Fa. The interference also came from the demon of sleepiness. Whenever I picked up the book, I started to feel sleepy and wanted to sleep, and I could not study the Fa well, not to mention studying the Fa with a calm mind. Some of the interference was from external sources. I always had so much work to do that I could not finish it. For example, I needed to take care of the children or someone always came to ask me to do this or that or to chat with me about something. All this interference is to prevent us from studying the Fa. If our minds are affected or if our will to cultivate slackens, we will be really interfered with. The situations that I mentioned above are all because we do not have enough righteous faith in Dafa, and this is the interference that has come about under the influence of our strong attachments. I also encountered such interference before, but it was eliminated during my reciting the Fa. We must have a persevering heart when studying the Fa and reciting the Fa. When our righteous thought of being determined to study the Fa comes out, Master will help us eliminate all the interference. We should make good use of all of our time in reciting the Fa. All the difficulties and interference are false manifestations, and those who are determined will for sure succeed.
As I recite the Fa, I have gradually elevated my xinxing. After my xinxing is elevated, I can easily get into the state of being tranquil when I meditate or send forth righteous thoughts. When I practice the meditation exercise, I can stay calm for a very long time and I really feel as comfortable as if I were sitting inside an eggshell, and I always have a feeling of wanting to meditate longer. I do not feel tired when I walk, ride the bicycle, or do heavy labor. My feet and legs are very light, as if I could levitate. I had such a feeling before, but not for long. Sometimes I felt that my body and legs were heavy. Reciting the Fa, all these abnormal states disappeared. I find that as I recite the Fa, my mentality of competing and showing off have been largely eliminated. In the past, I always wanted to compete with others and felt that no one could speak as correctly as I did. Whenever I did something good, I would show it off in front of fellow practitioners, as I had a strong attachment to validating myself. Now I can listen to different opinions in a rational and modest way, and I can share my understandings with fellow practitioners from the perspective of validating the Fa. These are some of the concrete experiences that I have had learning to recite the Fa, and I wanted to write them down to share with fellow practitioners.
It has been three months since I started to try to memorize the Fa word for word. I have not stopped my effort for even one day under the various forms of interference. During this period of time, my strongest feeling is that I started to recite the Fa too late and I feel much regret about this. I hope that those practitioners who have not started the process of reciting the Fa can find the time and start the process soon. When you truly calm your mind in reciting the Fa, you may have more understandings and experiences than I have had, and you may even develop deeper understandings than what I have had. At the same time, you may also feel regret that you did not start sooner. We will also cherish Dafa and know what it means by calming our minds to study the Fa. While reciting the Fa, we can feel the deeper meanings of Master's wanting us to study the Fa and his benevolence in bearing the sufferings to save us. I really hope that fellow practitioners can calm their minds and recite the Fa. The broad and profound meanings of the Fa will manifest only when we can let go of our human notions and recite the Fa.
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