(Clearwisdom.net) When Teacher taught us the Fa, he provided us with an environment in which we could both study the Fa and practice the exercises as a group. Before the persecution began in 1999, millions of practitioners from all over China had set up local practice sites for group Fa study and exercises. The number of practitioners at these sites ranged from just a few to over a hundred. Practitioners outside China did the same thing. They overcame difficulties like travel distance and busy schedules, and set up many practice sites.
After the persecution began on July 20, 1999, the progress of Fa-rectification rapidly increased as many practitioners responded to the persecution on a large scale. Practitioners outside China started various truth-clarification projects involving newspaper, radio, and TV media. As skilled practitioners and local assistants joined more and more projects, the original practice sites received less attention. There are some practitioners, including some local assistants, who feel that practitioners outside China should focus on media and truth-clarification projects while de-emphasizing the care, maintenance, and promotion of local practice sites. These practitioners feel that the importance of validating the Fa makes it unnecessary to spend time and effort on practice sites.
We have in fact seen quite a few practitioners become involved in various media and truth-clarification projects during the last few years. At the same time, there are still a large number of practitioners who do not directly participate in these activities. There are practitioners who step forward from their own personal cultivation from time to time. There are also practitioners who have moved to new places. All these practitioners need to unite themselves with local practitioners through practice sites. The sites provide an environment in which practitioners can improve themselves, advance in their cultivation, and lay a foundation for their future participation in the most fitting projects.
To think that one is too busy to take care of the local practice site is a shortsighted notion that amounts to the pursuit of an instant result. Think about it. If we have a good practice site where practitioners can improve themselves, more and more practitioners, including new ones, will constantly join and participate in the various projects. This will allow them to share in and reduce the workload of the busiest practitioners.
Practice sites may adopt various methods to accomplish the task of saving sentient beings. In addition to setting up practice sites near our homes, we may establish groups to clarify the truth in the nearest Chinatown and at local tourist sites. Furthermore, each practice site can be more than just a place where practitioners study the Fa, practice the exercises, and share their cultivation experiences. It can also provide a centralized location for phone teams, truth-clarification activities, newspaper distribution, and the assignment of skilled practitioners to various projects.
We have also seen instances in some media team meetings where the environment was lacking compassion. Practitioners became distant and disharmonious because there was no regular Fa study or experience sharing. These practitioners felt a need to talk only about the assignments they were working on. But if we use Fa study and experience sharing at the practice site to complement our Dafa project work, it will be very helpful to our cultivation.
In summary, we believe it would improve our overall cultivation environment and help our fellow practitioners to do the three things well if we put more effort into maintaining our local practice sites. This would help to strengthen local projects and media efforts by enabling the practitioners involved in them to become more stable and mature in their cultivation.
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