(Clearwisdom.net) After July 20, 1999, the vicious persecution prevented us from having group Fa study and practice as before, which caused great losses to our personal cultivation and improvement. It especially affected our coordinating as a whole and our stepping forward to validate the Fa, save sentient beings, and catch up with the Fa-rectification progress. It was not until a little over a year ago, when we re-established a Fa study group, that the situation started to change. By having group Fa study, we have strengthened our determination to cultivate and our faith in Master and Dafa. By doing the three things well, we practitioners have changed fundamentally.
We hold group Fa study four times a week. We mainly study Zhuan Falun and sometimes Essentials for Further Advancement, Hong Yin, The Great Consummation Way of Falun Dafa, Master's lectures in different places of the world, and Master's new articles.
Rectify incorrect states through group Fa study
It is an extremely rare opportunity that Master has imparted this Fa of the universe to us. As Dafa practitioners, we should take the Fa as our guide and follow Master. However, different practitioners have different family environments, which play different roles in practitioners' lives. When one studies the Fa at home, one may feel less disciplined and can be easily interfered with by other things. Take my case as an example. When I studied the Fa at home, I could not calm my mind. Sometimes, I could not start Fa study on time (because of guest visits or phone calls, etc.), and could hardly avoid interference. In the evening, sometimes before I finished one lecture, I already felt sleepy. There were also things like grocery shopping, making meals, cleaning, and numerous other household chores that were waiting for me. Because I could not guarantee the time for my Fa study, when I studied, I wanted to do it as fast as possible, so I just studied the Fa for the sake of studying. Because I could not wholeheartedly study the Fa, my ability to send righteous thoughts and clarify the facts of the persecution was also affected. We felt that when we studied the Fa alone at home, we really could not achieve the state of respecting Master and the Fa; there were still gaps even when we thought that we were strict with ourselves.
The effect is different when we study the Fa together as a group. We have agreed to start the Fa study at 8:30 in the morning. It only takes five minutes for all the practitioners to get to the Fa study site. When we sit down, we assume the half- or full-lotus sitting positions and then start to read the Fa with each person reading one whole section under one subtitle. There is no stopping during the reading. If we miss or add words or read the words wrong, we are corrected right away. After we finish reading one whole lecture, we share our understandings. We send forth righteous thoughts at the beginning of each hour.
In the afternoon, we go out on our own to clarify the truth and encourage people to withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the Youth League, and the Young Pioneers.
Having had group Fa study for almost one year now, there are fewer occasions when we read the words wrong. Sometimes, not even a single word is read incorrectly in an entire section, so we feel very satisfied. Our sitting postures are also getting better--from our sitting in any positions in the beginning to our currently taking half- or full-lotus sitting positions. While initially we held the book any which way, currently we hold the book with both hands.
We feel that group Fa study is also a process of our cultivation, from which we have improved and upgraded together.
We cannot let even one fellow practitioner fall behind
One year ago, Practitioner A was busy with things related to her son's marriage, so she did not wholeheartedly do the three things. Her body showed severe symptoms of sickness; she almost could not take care of herself. Without strong righteous thoughts, she sometimes did whatever her family members, who are not Dafa practitioners, had her do. With pain, she cried almost every time she saw fellow practitioners. She had also developed the thought of going to a hospital.
Practitioner B mentioned A's situation to me, saying, "We should help each other and not let even one fellow practitioner fall behind, so that we can return home together with Master." After discussion, we set up a Fa study group right in A's home. We study the Fa and send forth righteous thoughts together. We share our understandings, encourage each other, and find our gaps. We especially pay attention to searching within ourselves. We also study the experience-sharing articles on the Minghui (Chinese version of Clearwisdom) website, which are quite enlightening to us. After one week of such a group Fa study, practitioner A has shown obvious improvements in her condition; she has gone from being able to read only one page of the Fa in the beginning to reading an entire section as usual. Every day she does the three things. Once she persuaded more than ten people to declare their withdrawals from the CCP and its related organizations. At another time, she went out to post truth-clarification stickers and walked over five kilometers, which would have been unimaginable for her before she participated in the group Fa study.
Put Fa study as priority and walk our own path of cultivation
In our Fa study group, besides studying the Fa together, we also ask each practitioner to study the Fa more at home. We have agreed that we finish reading Master's lectures in different places of the world within a certain period of time. We also make time to memorize the Fa. Because we have done well in our Fa study, we also have done well in the three things.
For example, Practitioner B is a new Dafa practitioner who attained the Fa in 2005. Through group Fa study, she can be strict about following the Fa. Besides group Fa study, she also gets up early and goes to bed late to copy the Fa by hand, word by word, and memorize it. Now she has memorized five lectures of Zhuan Falun. She has copied Zhuan Falun one time. She has also copied Master's Fa lectures in different places of the world, Hong Yin, Essentials for Further Advancement, and other Fa lectures. To better clarify the facts about the persecution and send out messages, she has bought two cell phones. To help a practitioner who has been her neighbor for many years and who has stopped cultivation, she went to the neighbor's home many times, bringing with her Master's articles, Fa lectures, and Minghui articles. Practitioner B also bought, with her own money, MP3 players for new practitioners. She does very well in persuading people to withdraw from the CCP and its related organizations. She brings in a new list of individuals who have declared their withdrawals almost every day.
Practitioner C initially only clarified the facts of the persecution inside the residential buildings. Later she made breakthroughs and started to clarify the facts on the streets. One time, she spent three hours in going up and down different streets and lanes and posted over one hundred truth-clarification stickers. She also personally handed materials to people. After going home, she found blisters on her feet.
Practitioner C also uses the gatherings of friends and relatives to explain the truth and ask people to withdraw from the CCP and its related organizations. During each and every occasion, she gets very good results; almost everyone with whom she has dealt has declared his or her withdrawal. With her encouragement, her husband, who is not a practitioner, also helps her distribute materials and clarify the facts of the persecution. One time after he visited a person in another place, she brought back a list of over thirty people who declared their withdrawals. Now C's husband has also started reading Zhuan Falun.
Group Fa study has enabled us to take a big step forward in cultivating ourselves solidly and diligently. We have felt very fulfilled while doing the three things to assist Master in rectifying the Fa. We have let go of many of our human attachments, especially the attachments of fear, pursuit of comfort, and other selfish notions.
Here we hope that those who have not participated in group Fa study can quickly join group Fa study. Let's not miss this opportunity, as time waits for no one.
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