(Clearwisdom.net) On the cultivation path, as long as you believe in Master, believe in the Fa and follow Master's requirements, you will improve rapidly. These are not just empty words. In my own cultivation practice, I've always been improving by following Dafa's guidance and having Master's protection. I would like to share my experience of following Master's requirement regarding joining group Fa-study.
Master said,
"You can use the seminar form to have everyone communicate with one another, and you may discuss and share things with one another. We require that you do it this way." (Zhuan Falun)
For a very long time, I didn't understand why Master requires us to study the Fa this way. Therefore, I never joined any Fa-study groups. My mother and sister are both practitioners. We didn't even form a Fa-study group at home.
This state continued until my mother had a stroke and was taken to the hospital by a neighbor. When my sister took me to another practitioner's home, I realized that Minghui Weekly and other brochures that I printed out were all taken over there by my mother to share with other practitioners. Now that my mother was sick, there was no longer a way for them to get current information about Falun Dafa. Therefore, my sister brought me by so that I could provide materials directly to them. Right before I left, the practitioner told me that there was a Fa-study group in her house every week. Therefore, I joined a Fa-study group for the first time.
There were four practitioners in this group. The other three were all in their sixties or seventies. The first time I attended, after we read the Fa, we started discussing my mother's situation. She seemed to have been practicing diligently and had never been "transformed," despite being illegally detained several times. Why, all of a sudden, did she suffer from this serious sickness karma? Recalling my mother's recent cultivation state, we gradually recognized that it was all due to her many long-time attachments to things such as emotion, fear, money and personal gain not being eliminated. They had turned into a huge loophole.
After I attended the Fa-study group, I examined myself. Why hadn't I reminded my mother of her loopholes in her cultivation when I saw them? Not only that, but Master had given me hints about her in my dreams. It was because she didn't allow others to say anything to her about her shortcomings. She would argue as soon as I pointed them out to her, "Why are you talking about me? Have you ever been persecuted? Have you ever been arrested? How many lectures have you been reciting?" I stopped saying anything after that. I thought, "She is getting older. I shouldn't argue with her and make her upset." In fact, that was my attachment to fear of losing face, fear of being hurt and being indifferent. Sometimes I even thought that Master always takes care of her anyhow. This was a dependent mentality. After thinking through all this, I was shocked. I always thought that I had minimal attachments. However, after just one time of participating in group Fa-study and discussion, I have identified many of my attachments!
I regretted that I hadn't participated in any group Fa-study sooner. Due to my own lack of diligence in cultivation, I had contributed to the persecution of my mother. Cultivation involves cultivating your heart and eliminating your attachments. Group Fa-study helped me find so many attachments so fast.
I made up my mind to continue to participate in group Fa-study. In the past, I read the books, practiced the exercises, and sent forth righteous thoughts. I felt good about myself. After I joined the Fa-study group, I met practitioners who had copied all of Master's lectures once. Some practitioners were sending forth righteous thoughts almost every hour on the hour. I've seen my own shortcomings. Additionally, when I had questions or when I faced xinxing tests and struggled to pass them, as soon as I came to the group, Master would use fellow practitioners' words to give me hints. I then tried my best to look for my attachments and rectify myself. From helping the elderly practitioners in establishing materials distribution sites and buying equipment and supplies, I found my attachment of being afraid of extra burdens. From teaching them how to use the equipment, I found my attachment of anxiety. When printing materials, I found my attachment of wasting things. Even when I cleaned up the ink roller, I found my attachment of being afraid of dirty things.
I joined my second Fa-study group after my mother was released from the hospital. Because she had a stroke and could not move around freely, I often stayed with her in her flat in the suburb. There were many practitioners in that area. There was one practitioner who lived right in front of my mother's house. My mother had known the practitioner for years. Every week, when I went to visit my mother, I also visited her. From our conversations, I learned that she had been arrested and persecuted several times, and she had been "transformed" once. Afterwards, fellow practitioners suspected her of being a spy. Therefore, no one reached out to her for Fa-study or experience sharing. It didn't bother me too much. So we formed a Fa-study group between the two of us.
After several times together studying the Fa, I felt that she had something in her heart that she was not willing to share or didn't know how to express. One day, a policeman suddenly came in. This officer stuttered badly. He said something that I couldn't understand and then he just left. When I turned around and looked at her, I was shocked. She was just staring and looked terrified. Her face turned grey. After I called her name twice, she then recovered from the shock and said, "What did he come here for?"
The next time, after we read one lecture, I asked her, "Do you have fear?" She said, "I am afraid of being arrested again. I am afraid of being transformed again." I told her, "We as Dafa disciples are doing the greatest thing in the world. We are saving sentient beings. Master doesn't acknowledge the persecution. Why should we?" She said that she had never thought of it that way. When I went there again, she told me that she had come to a realization about a lot of things. Dafa disciples should listen to what Master asks us to do, follow Dafa's requirements, and cultivate with dignity. It should be the evil who is afraid of us.
After that, she was arrested another time. With her strong righteous thoughts and Master's benevolent protection, she was able to walk out of detention soon afterward with dignity. The rest of the practitioners who were arrested with her were sentenced. The police came to visit her several times to try and get her signature on a repentance statement, but she refused. After that, the police didn't show up again. Her materials production site continued its operation. Several of her neighbors and relatives also started practicing Dafa. Every night, they studied the Fa and practiced the exercises together. On her glass door, Udumbara flowers have been blossoming for two years in a row.
The third Fa-study group I joined also only had two people, my sister and I. After my mother passed away, my sister changed significantly. Her husband called me several times and asked me to talk to her because she had been arguing with her mother-in-law and her husband at home. When I tried to have a conversation with her, she raised her voice to me, "I don't need you to tell me. I have not read less Dafa books than you. I do not understand the Fa principles less than you. I just can't tolerate her (her mother-in-law). I just don't want to see her!" I knew that was not the real her. It was all due to her emotional attachments. My mother could not let go of sentimentality and left the world like that. Now, my sister was interfered with by this attachment as well - she even thought that the reason my mother passed away was because her husband brought her over to stay at their home.
There were three people in our family who practiced Dafa. One has passed away. I couldn't let my sister to continue in her current state like that! When we came down to this world together, we made a promise to each other. If one of us became confused in the human world, the other needed to wake her up. If one day, when I meet with Master, and he asks me, "Why did you come back by yourself? Where are the other two you were with?" How would I answer? What would I do? I looked at Master's photo and suddenly thought, "I should look for the answer in the Fa! Only the Fa can truly change a person. Why can't we form a Fa-study group?" I found my sister again and asked her, "Do you still want to cultivate?" She clearly stated, "Of course." I immediately decided that starting one afternoon the following week we would start studying the Fa together.
We first started reading one lecture of Zhuan Falun right away. We didn't share our thoughts together. I said it was hard for me to catch the bus (which was true). I left right after we were done, because I didn't want to give her any time to complain to me. On one occasion, just when we were almost finished reading Zhuan Falun, she asked me not to leave right way, as she wanted to talk to me about her thoughts about studying the Fa. She told me how she was interfered with by emotional attachments and had gradually slipped down. I knew that she had come back up. Only when she found her attachments would she be able to systematically eliminate them.
Dafa is supernormal and has boundless power. I witnessed my sister gradually meld into the Fa and rectify herself. She no longer has any conflicts with her mother-in-law and helps her buy nutritional products. Her mother-in-law suffers from heart disease. My sister takes her to the hospital and also educates her own child to respect the elderly.
Only when we let go of all our human notions, believe in Master, believe in the Fa, and improve ourselves solidly, will we be able to accept Master's benevolent salvation!
On our cultivation path, Master always watches over us and protects us. The first Fa-study group was very special to me. I usually rode my bike to get there, and the other aunties took a bus. What we found amazing was that no matter how bad the weather was the day before, when it was our Fa-study day, the weather was always very nice. After we were done and went home, the weather would go back to the state of the day before. The location of the second Fa-study group was far away. It took over two hours by bus to get there. It was fine in summer, but during the winter it was tough. Even when I put on my thickest winter jacket and boots, when I arrived, my feet were often numb due to the cold. Then, a year later, my husband's company gave him a new car for business purposes. So he gave his old car to me, so winter travel was no longer that bad.
My sister's house was also far away, and when I had to go there, the crowded bus and the traffic made the trip difficult. We usually studied the Fa at around noon. It worked out fine in the winter. But in summer, that was the hottest time of the day, especially on the crowded bus. I realized that it was not a bad thing for me to suffer a little bit, and after realizing this, I no longer felt too hot. A while later, several new subway lines opened up. One of them went very close to her house. The station was very close to my home too, so my travel time was cut in half. For some reason, I always felt that this subway line was opened just for me. That was given to me by Master to serve other practitioners and Dafa.
With such benevolent protection and caring from Master, I feel so moved every time I think about it. When I think of my attachment to laziness and the competitive mentality, I feel ashamed! Only if I let go of all my human attachments and improve diligently will I be able to accept Master's benevolent salvation!
I wanted to share my experiences to encourage fellow practitioners.
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