(Clearwisdom.net) We have maintained our practice site and Fa study group for 14 years, because doing the exercises and studying the Fa as a group is the cultivation practice form that Master has left for us.
In doing the exercises and studying the Fa together, we help each other by forming a very good cultivation environment to elevate as one united entity. Master said,
"I ask you to do the exercises as a group in parks in order to form an environment. This environment is the best way to change the surface of a person. The lofty conduct that Dafa disciples have established in this environment--including every word and every deed--can make people recognize their own weaknesses and identify their shortcomings; it can move their hearts, refine their conduct, and enable them to make progress more rapidly. Therefore, new students or self-taught disciples have to go to the practice sites to do the exercises." ("Environment" from Essentials for Further Advancement)
Following Master's teaching, before the persecution started on July 20, 1999, whether it was the freezing cold of winter, the intense heat of summer, in strong winds or heavy rain, we persisted in doing the exercises and studying the Fa at the practice site. The nearby residents were touched and said, "You've been doing the exercises here for years. Our family members haven't caught a cold. Even the trees are greener here than in other places." They offered to set up the power cord through the window to make it easier for us to play the exercise music. In this righteous environment there were always new practitioners stepping forward, and there are many miraculous cultivation stories.
Gentle Breeze and Fine Drizzle or a Violent Storm
Once, just as we just started to do the fifth exercise, suddenly there came howling wind, thunder and lighting. A few new practitioners couldn't keep sitting and were about to stand up. Then a fellow practitioner said, "Hold on. Don't move! Master said, 'A benevolent person always has a heart of compassion. With no discontentment or hatred, he takes hardship as joy.'" ("Realms" from Essentials for Further Advancement) Most fellow practitioners kept their hearts steady and kept on meditating without any movement. They just felt their bodies were relaxed, as if bathed in a gentle breeze and fine drizzle; there was the murmuring of a little brook nearby, and they were surrounded by huge energy. Immediately, a feeling of dignity, transcendence, and wonder emerged. Afterwards, everyone said that when the exercise music ended and everyone came out of meditation, they observed that a little ditch had formed beside everyone's sitting pad while the downpour was falling around them. Then everyone ran under the eaves to study the Fa and together recited a paragraph of Master's teaching in Zhuan Falun,
"The field at our practice site is better than any other. If you can just do the exercises in that field, you're better off than if you had your health problem treated. My Law Bodies sit in a circle, there's a dome over the energy field where we practice, and above the dome there's a huge Law Wheel and a great Law Body guarding the field. This field is no ordinary field--it's not like the field at the average practice site. It's a cultivation field. A lot of us who have abilities have seen this field that our Falun Dafa has, and it's enveloped in red light, the whole thing is red." (Zhuan Falun, 2003 translation version)
Keep Master's Words, "I'm a practitioner," Firmly in Mind
A 70-year-old practitioner was riding a bicycle. A motorcycle hit him, and he landed on the ground. The two young people on the motorcycle got scared and hurried to help him up and take him to a hospital. But the practitioner said, "I'm all right. No need to go to a hospital." The young men felt very responsible and wanted to give their phone numbers to the older man so that he could find them if there was any problem. The practitioner asked for nothing, and when he got home, he carried the bicycle by himself up to the fourth floor. His son couldn't understand him after hearing the story. His father just said, "I'm a practitioner." The next day, he shared the story with everybody at the practice site. He said his first thought at that time was Master's words "...was alright." He has held himself to a practitioner's standard and this incident has helped improve others' insights.
A Man with a Broken Leg with an Implanted Metal Bar: Gain the Fa and Walk as If on Wings
A senior practitioner could not bend his leg. It had been broken, and a metal bar had been implanted in it. At the beginning when he came to the practice site, his wife brought a stool on which he sat to study the Fa. A few days later, a fellow practitioner asked him to sit on the ground, but he worried that he wouldn't be able to get back up once he sat down on the ground. He enlightened to Master's teaching: "It's hard to endure, but you can endure it. It's hard to do, but you can do it." (Zhuan Falun)
The fellow practitioner encouraged him to see himself as a cultivator and to just try and said that he had confidence in him. Just as expected, he sat on the ground to study the Fa and then stood back up with just with a light pull from his wife. Gradually, he was able to do this without others' help. Later on the other practitioner encouraged him to bend and fold his straight leg to practice the sitting meditation, and he did. After some time, he really could sit with both legs crossed! He understood Master's teaching,
"None of that matters. Your body in that other dimension hasn't had an operation, and when you practice it's that body that functions." (Zhuan Falun)
The infinite power of Dafa was revealed, and this encouraged his family to begin cultivating. Later when they went to distant places to do the Falun Gong exercises, he walked very fast and lightly. Unless they knew that he had had problems with his leg before, they couldn't see that there was anything wrong. After July 20, 1999, he went to Beijing to validate the Fa and was arrested by the police. The police took him to a rural area and pushed him out of the vehicle. On those same two legs and keeping righteous thoughts, he hurried as if on wings back to Tiananmen Square before dawn to validate the Fa.
The Once Illiterate Can Now Read the Fa
One senior practitioner couldn't read or write. She couldn't follow along while others studied the Fa during group study and thus preferred to listen to the recordings of Master's lectures at home. Other practitioners encouraged her to come to the practice site. Master said,
"...You know, we cultivators of a true teaching have all experienced this: since we've undergone cultivation of a true teaching, which emphasizes compassion, and which is assimilated to the nature of the universe--to be True, Good, and Endure--when our students sit in this field, their minds are free of bad thoughts" (Zhuan Falun)
In that righteous field every incorrect thing will be eliminated. A miracle might happen, and she might be able to read the Dafa books. Master has mentioned examples like this in his lectures, so she was encouraged to look at the book and follow along to read the words when we were studying the Fa together, and to read the book carefully word by word when she was alone at home. With good enlightenment quality, she adopted this suggestion. The next day she joyfully told us at the practice site, "I can read the first sentence in the first lecture of Zhuan Falun!" In this way, from a sentence to a section, from one page to ten to one chapter, she could read through the whole book in about a month. At last, she could read all the books of Dafa and also all the lectures and articles.
Non-practitioners naturally find this unbelievable. When asked to read a newspaper, she smiled and said, "I can't read the newspaper, only Dafa books." Later on, she hungered and thirsted to read the Dafa books. Whenever there are concerns over relationships with children and neighbors and conflicts with others, she looks inward, cultivates her inner self, and thus upgrades her xinxing rapidly. After the persecution started, when the police came to harass her at home, she calmly said, "Dafa is good! Why should I stop practicing such a good Fa? I'll keep on! My family members all practice and my daughter cultivates better than I do." She then enlightened further and understood a lot based on the Fa. A few months ago, she floated about two thirds of a meter high up in the air during the sitting meditation.
Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance Is the Truth
Practitioner G became a practitioner quite a few years ago. Her husband is a policeman who was strongly against her practicing and followed the evil officials in arresting Dafa practitioners. She could only study the Fa while her husband wasn't home and thus advanced slowly. With help from fellow Practitioner B, she came to the practice site to exchange insights and experiences. Her daughter also came to listen. After studying the Fa several times and sharing insights, her daughter asked for help to quit the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations. They both understood the importance of clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings, and returned home to discuss the Fa with her husband rationally. She shared her understanding of Dafa's teachings. Her husband quietly listened. When they went to sleep, he saw two three-dimensional characters "Zhen" and "Shan" ("Truthfulness" and "Compassion") and saw Master's fashen sitting on a lotus flower. He was so shocked! The next day, he came to the practice site and said he wished to cultivate and to study the Fa. He began to urge his wife to go to the practice site often and advance as rapidly as possible.
Before long, at a police meeting he said in a dignified and upright way, "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is the truth."
His story has touched other practitioners. Practitioner D was monitored by the authorities during the persecution and was blacklisted. Her husband's attitude about her changed dramatically from positive to negative. Although she never stop studying the Fa or doing the exercises, she had fear deep in her mind and was afraid of clarifying the truth to her family directly. Practitioner A seriously pointed out several times that those attachments and notions must be relinquished and that we must break out of a human mindset. Master said,
"All of you are already aware of the principle of mutual-generation and mutual-inhibition. If you are not afraid, the factor that would make you afraid will cease to exist. This is not to be self-imposed, but is achieved by truly and calmly letting go of it." ("Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s)" from Essentials for Further Advancement II)
After studying the Fa a few times at the practice site and in such a strong righteous field, Practitioner D and other fellow practitioners have gradually gotten rid of their fear and have studied the Fa and done the exercises in an open and dignified way. Master said,
"There is another issue. Remember that you do your cultivation in ordinary human society. All along you haven't done well dealing with the issue of having family members who don't cultivate. The expression that I used earlier holds true here, too--a three-foot block of ice doesn't form overnight. After you fail to handle things well at first, the resentment starts to pile up until it grows serious, and it will become, over time, a rift that seems completely irreconcilable. This kind of situation will bring difficulty to Dafa disciples as they attempt to validate the Fa. In every instance, however, the problem lies with our Dafa disciple. It is because you didn't handle the situation well initially that it has turned into what it has." ("Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan")
Studying this paragraph of the Fa, Practitioner D and other fellow practitioners began to feel Master's boundless grace deeply and to understand that the problem was within themselves. Only by looking inward carefully, letting go of human attachments, and cultivating ourselves well can we follow Master closely with the progress of Fa-rectification and fulfill the important tasks that Dafa has bestowed upon us.
Regaining Righteous Thoughts
A practitioner in his 30s suddenly had symptoms of a stroke. His righteous thoughts were not strong enough and it seemed that he was about to pass away. He was in a coma several times in the hospital. The hospital also gave up on him. His mother-in-law and wife are both practitioners. They came to our practice site filled with anxiety. Practitioners A and B followed the Fa and helped them to look inward at their xinxing for the reason, to eliminate human notions, to advance their understanding of the Fa, and to strengthen their righteous thoughts. They became clear and brought the male practitioner back home and read the Fa aloud for him. Practitioner A also went to their home to exchange and upgrade insights based on the Fa. While studying the Fa for 10 hours, the male practitioner regained consciousness and said with a 'thumbs up,' "Good!" Later on, once while we were studying the Fa together, he sat up and was able to go to the restroom by himself. With Master's reminder, Practitioner A became enlightened that there should be some deeper factors that had led to his tribulation. Then Practitioner A discovered that the male practitioner had printed several copies of Zhuan Falun with misplaced rows and missing words, and he immediately took those books back. Also, he found the same problem with other practitioners' books. So he recalled over 20 books that had errors and destroyed them to maintain the purity of Dafa. Before long, the holy and pure udumbara flowers bloomed on the wall of this practitioner's home.
Fa Study Site--Environment for Cultivation
After July 20, 1999, some practitioners at former practice sites were confused and lost. One after another, they came to the site to study the Fa and exchange insights. Whenever Master announced any new scriptures, we all went to study the new scriptures together and understand the teachings, spontaneously forming a Fa study site and a very good environment for cultivation. In this environment, fellow practitioners speak openly and straightforwardly. We talk about our insights based on the Fa and our cultivation states, and focus on rationally understanding the Fa.
Upon understanding that each of us is linked to a gigantic cosmic system and gigantic groups of beings, how can we not hurry up to let go of all our human thoughts and attachments and follow Master's
Fa-rectification? The Fa study site environment is truly necessary for our progress. Sometimes when people have human thoughts and show different states of cultivation, those who study the Fa well point it out immediately so that we can correct our mindsets and eliminate the wrong thoughts and factors quickly. Therefore, the Fa study site Master has arranged for us is an environment for cultivation and is a field of compassionate energy.
Each of us at this Fa study site has his or her own everyday life. In doing the three things we cooperate with each other as one body and coordinate without trouble. Thus this Fa study site is one peaceful and energetic united entity. In following the enormous current of Master's Fa-rectification, we are growing and advancing further steadily and in a healthy way.
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Category: Improving Oneself
