(Clearwisdom.net)
In the recent lecture "To the Australia Fa Conference," Teacher once again told us:
"Don't just go through the motions when you study the Fa. You should study with a concentrated mind, and you must really be studying."
In fact, to study the Fa well, the first thing we must do is to study with a clean mind. When I shared my thoughts with practitioners in my area, they had the same feeling—it is not difficult to put aside some time to study the Fa. What is difficult about Fa-study is being able to study the Fa with a clean mind and, in a limited time, and to truly achieve the effect of Fa-study. Sometimes we spend a very long time studying the Fa, and study a large amount, but we don’t improve on the basis of the Fa and achieve little. The reason for this is that we are not studying the Fa with a clean mind.
Since I started cultivating Dafa, with limited Fa-study time every day, I haven’t focused on quantity. Rather, I pay great attention to the state and effect of studying the Fa with a clean mind and truly studying the Fa with a strong conscious mind. When I read the Fa, I read slowly and with a peaceful mind. Sometimes I am very busy and only have a small amount of time to study the Fa (for example, just one hour). Still, I don’t pursue a specific amount that I want to read. I try to be in the state of having a clean mind and try my best to study the Fa with a clean mind.
Take reading Zhuan Falun over and over as an example. With one hour of study time, although I only study half of a lecture or even less, I maintain a conscious mind and clearly and truly study the Fa with my true self. During Fa-study, Dafa’s boundless connotations often give me hints, lead my enlightenment to Fa at different levels, and allow me to enlighten to the greatness and beauty of studying the Fa with a clean mind. Now I will share my understandings about studying the Fa with clean mind.
1. Only when you study the Fa with respect can you have a clean mind
I came to understand that only when we study the Fa with respect can we reach the state of studying the Fa with a clean mind. Studying the Fa with a clean mind is not just about one’s state of mind, it is also an issue of respecting Teacher and the Fa. Teacher said,
"If we look at it from another angle, when you study the Fa and your mind isn’t on the Fa, it’s not only a problem of just going through the motions, but also that the person studying the Fa is actually not being very respectful of the Fa. How could the Fa reveal itself, then?" ("Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A.")
The Fa that we study is taught personally by Teacher. If our minds are not on the Fa when we study the Fa, not only are we being disrespectful to the Fa, but also disrespectful to Teacher.
Some practitioners inaccurately quote Teacher’s Fa during sharing, and some even say their own words after they say, "Teacher said." This is taking Teacher’s words as their own. From the surface this is unintentional, but it discloses the issue of respecting Teacher and the Fa. If we are not one hundred percent sure of Teacher’s original words, we can say this is our own understanding and express our understanding using our own words.
2. Studying the Fa is a process of cultivating the main consciousness
Teacher said in "Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A.:"
"When your eyes read the Fa and yet your mind isn’t on the Fa, think about it, aren’t you reading in vain? Who are you reading for? You yourself aren’t really studying the Fa, then. Haven’t I told you to make sure that you yourself truly obtain gong? Then if your mind isn’t on the Fa when you're studying the Fa, who are you studying it for?"
Our Falun Dafa cultivates the main consciousness, and it is the main consciousness that obtains gong. Thus, not only do we need to clearly know that we are doing the exercises, but we also need to clearly know that we are studying the Fa. During Fa-study, whether we can concentrate determines whether we can truly study the Fa with a clean mind.
Teacher taught in "Towards Consummation:"
"When your mind wanders all over the place as you read, the countless Buddhas, Daos, and Gods in the book see your laughable and pitiable mind, and see the karma in your thoughts controlling you, which is detestable. And yet you cling to delusion and fail to wake up."
In fact when our minds wander during Fa-study, our attachments, human notions, and thought karma are interfering with our brains, interfering with our main consciousnesses. Such interference comes from the factors in the old cosmos. We should not only deny the interference, we also need to maintain a strong main consciousness (one’s true self) to suppress the interference, because the forced "not acknowledged" interference by the old forces is not allowed. So this process of denying the old forces is a process of actively eliminating the old forces and a process of improving the main consciousness.
If we study the Fa without a strong main consciousness and cannot use our strong main consciousnesses to control our minds, those attachments and notions formed after birth will interfere with us and cause us to not be able to study Fa with a calm mind.
When the evil forces control people in the human world and make them interfere with us and persecute us, we all know that we need to validate Dafa and save sentient beings. At the same time, we need to deny all evil and eliminate all evil. To be able to do this, our main consciousnesses must be firm and strong at that moment. For the same reason, the human notions and thought karma that show up during our Fa-study are in fact a more severe interference; it is just a different method and form of interference. During cultivation, the ordinary people's factors are preventing us from breaking away from human notions and behaviors. Interference that occurs during Fa-study, or that comes from old cosmos factors, needs to be treated in the same way as we treat external evil interference. We all need a firm main consciousness to see through the manifestation in the human world and to recognize their real forms and, at the same time, to suppress and eliminate them. This is also an indication of improvement in ourselves and the whole body.
Teacher has mentioned many times, "Cultivation depends on one’s own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one’s master." (Zhuan Falun, "Lecture One") I realized that during Fa-study, if we can really study with a clean mind, the process of studying the Fa with a clean mind is the manifestation of "cultivation depends on one’s own efforts." Also, because we are able to study the Fa with a clean mind, Teacher’s Law Bodies, behind every letter, can give us hints about the higher-level Fa. The process of giving us hints is the manifestation of "while the transformation of gong is done by one’s master." This is my understanding of "cultivation depends on one’s own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one’s master," in terms of studying the Fa with a clean mind.
3. The process of Fa-study is also the process of saving sentient beings
In Touring North America to Teach the Fa, Teacher told us that Dafa disciples have corresponding cosmic bodies. I came to the realization that during Fa-study, as our understanding of Dafa improves constantly, our postnatal human notions and attachments and all those distorted notions that do not conform to Dafa are corrected or eliminated. This process is also the process of improving our xinxing. Because Dafa cultivates both mind and body, when our xinxing improves, a part of our body will be replaced by the high-energy matter. At the same time, Dafa will assimilate the cosmic body corresponding to the part that was just converted to the high-energy matter. The sentient beings in this new cosmos will also become the beings that are assimilated to the new cosmos. During cultivation, if we have some attachments that are not eliminated at their roots, those attachments will interfere with some part of our bodies and will not be replaced by the high-energy matter. Thus, the cosmic body corresponding to the part will be interfered with and Dafa will not assimilate the sentient beings in that cosmic body.
The principles of the old cosmos constrain and interfere with Dafa disciple’s cultivation and saving sentient beings. Those sentient beings in a corresponding old cosmos that have not been assimilated to the new cosmos are still beings of the old cosmos. Beings in the old cosmos will still follow the principles of the old cosmos. Thus, those beings in the old cosmos corresponding to one’s body will prevent one from saving sentient beings. On the other hand, the reason that they were not assimilated and saved was because of our attachments. Just as Teacher said,
"Your not getting rid of a lot of attachments interferes with them, and they, in turn, are also interfering with you." (Touring North America to Teach the Fa)
During Fa-study, with constant improvement in our understanding of the Fa, the sentient beings in the cosmos that we correspond to will be assimilated to the beings in the new cosmos. Those beings in the new cosmos will follow the standards of Dafa (that is, the standard of the new cosmos), thus they will do their best to help us validate the Fa and save sentient beings.
4. Experience the greatness of studying the Fa with a clean mind
Teacher said,
"Because our practice is one in which the Fa cultivates practitioners, this means that some situations will arise from gong and the Fa. In the course of practice, different levels produce different situations." (Lecture Seven, Zhuan Falun)
When I study the Fa with a clean mind, I enlighten to Dafa’s connotations at different levels, and at the same time I also experience the greatness and wonderfulness of a Fa-study state. When I read Dafa, I always feel I am enveloped by the energy field of Dafa, and even feel that my thoughts are also melted into Dafa. Sometimes, with Teacher’s Law Bodies constantly giving me hints about the Fa, I clearly feel that the capacity of my thoughts and mind are constantly increased to higher levels of the cosmos. This feeling of being blessed by the boundless inner meaning of Dafa is beyond description.
Sometimes when quietly reading, with my mind becoming more and more clear, I feel that my surroundings have stopped and do not exist, and I am completely out of that time-space. I truly feel I have completely melted into Dafa’s vast wisdom and magnificent dignity. At that moment, the feeling is even more great and wonderful than entering the tranquil state of the sitting meditation—it is truly "The infinite beauty and wonder is hard to describe with words." ("The Falun World," "Hong Yin," translation Version B) This state of originating from Dafa and completely melting into Fa-study with a clean mind makes me further realize that to be able to study the Fa with a clean mind and enlighten to Dafa’s all-encompassing and boundless inner meaning, for Dafa disciples in the Fa-rectification period, is incomparably glorious. Each improvement and rise in level is a manifestation of Teacher’s great compassion.
Concluding remarks
To be able to study the Fa with a calm mind, and considering the three things we need to do, sending forth righteous thoughts and clarifying the truth also need to be done well. Each of the three things helps and affects the others. For example, when we can’t sleep regular hours, if we show up weary and even drowsy during Fa-study, this is severe interference. We need to send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate all evil factors that use sleep and weariness to interfere with our Fa-study. After we send forth righteous thoughts, the effect and quality of our Fa-study will improve. When we study the Fa well, our righteous thoughts will be stronger and stronger, and the power of our righteous thoughts will be stronger and stronger. If we study the Fa well during truth-clarification work, our rational nature, righteous thoughts, and wisdom will be strong, and there will be less interference and a better result. On the other hand, when we encounter issues and difficulties during our truth-clarification, in our following Fa-study, Teacher’s Fa will give us hints to resolve the problems.
We need to combine Fa-study with a clean mind and looking inside. Teacher said,
"Yet when we run into problems, we often look outwards—‘Why are you treating me like that?’—and feel that we've been treated unfairly, instead of examining ourselves. That's the greatest and most fatal obstacle for all living beings." ("Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Singapore")
All beings in the old cosmos share the common and huge deviated notion of wanting to change others but not themselves. Our Dafa practitioners were also beings of the old cosmos before we obtained the Fa. Our renewed lives are formed when we help Teacher to rectify the Fa, clarify the truth, and save sentient beings. Thus, during the process of clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings, whenever and wherever we are, no matter what the outside environment may be, we should all look inward unconditionally. Regardless of how wicked the evil is, if we ourselves do not have issues and loopholes, the evil will not dare to persecute us (this principle is accepted by the old cosmos), so we need to bravely face and confront those factors and human notions that hinder us from assimilating to Dafa. Some practitioners do not know how to look inward when facing problems or cannot find the root cause when looking inward. In my understanding, it is because they do not study the Fa enough with a clean mind. All our righteous thoughts and acts originate from the Fa.
Let’s seize this unprecedented opportunity that will never happen again in the cosmos—the Fa-rectification period and being Dafa disciples—and sincerely remember Teacher’s guidance to study the Fa well with a clean mind.