(Minghui.org) I took a good look at my cultivation state not long ago and realized that I had not done well when studying the Fa, clarifying the truth, doing the exercises, and sending righteous thoughts. I had not met the basic requirements for a practitioner.
Local practitioners thought I was a diligent coordinator, but I felt ashamed of my cultivation state. If I were an ordinary practitioner, it would just be my personal problem. However, as a coordinator, my cultivation state could affect my area adversely.
I had been busy with Dafa projects. I told others that we needed to look within, yet I was only helping others look within. Thus, our group of practitioners experienced major conflicts and disagreements.
Importance of Memorization
Two practitioners from another city visited me a few years ago. We used to work together on the same Dafa project. They shared their experience about memorizing the Fa and suggested that I give it a try.
I knew that what they said made sense, but I was not ready to take the advice. I thought that memorizing the Fa was too difficult. Without a strong will and long-term hard work, one could not do it. Zhuan Falun itself is a thick book, not to mention three volumes of Essentials for Further Advancement, four of Hong Yin and other related Dafa books. It was overwhelming just to think about memorizing all of them.
I thought that reading through the Fa was quicker and easier. If I began memorizing the Fa with fellow practitioners, my laziness would be easily detected. In short, the attachment of fear blocked me for a long time.
However, those two practitioners did not give up on us. They visited us several times. They told us that they frequently recited Zhuan Falun. In fact, they hand copied and memorized Zhuan Falun many times. And they also memorized the three volumes of Essentials for Further Advancement. Our local practitioners were amazed.
On another occasion, several local practitioners and I visited those two practitioners in their city. They recited the Fa while we could only read it. We truly saw the gap in our cultivation.
The two practitioners reminded me that if I could memorize the Fa well, many of my local practitioners would join me. If I failed to realize the importance of memorizing the Fa, I could not improve. This might affect many local practitioners, who would not always base their actions on the Fa.
Whenever they had trouble, they would not think about how Master addressed the issue. Instead, they would ask a practitioner, a coordinator, or try to find articles on the subject matter on the Minghui website.
Their words deeply touched me. I realized that it was a serious issue. If practitioners were reluctant to memorize the Fa due to my influence, I would generate huge karma.
I did try to memorize the Fa before but I gave up half way along. This time I decided to keep reciting, and not give up, no matter how busy I was or what kind of interference I met.
Benefits of Group Fa Reciting
Two Fa-study groups began to recite the Fa, so the field of righteous thoughts was really strong. We encouraged each other and pointed out each others' shortcomings while maintaining pure minds.
Almost everyone met with the same problem: one could recite the Fa frequently at home, but as soon as one arrived at the group Fa-study, one became nervous and tongue-tied when reciting the Fa.
We found that the root cause was the attachment to seeking fame and hoping to be respected by others. When we removed the attachments, we were no longer nervous.
Two years have passed since then and left us with a good group Fa-reciting environment. We could not have achieved such good results if we just did this at home.
Master told us:
“Study the Fa and gain the Fa,Focus on how you study and cultivate,Let each and every thingbe measured against the Fa.Only then, with that,is it actually cultivation.” (“Solid Cultivation” from Hong Yin)
We gradually increased our reciting the Fa from one paragraph to two, from one page to two, three, and four pages. An elderly practitioner in her 70’s could memorize five pages each time.
Three elderly practitioners were very active. They had little education and had to do lots of house chores. They used to have trouble reading each word. Now they have memorized both Zhuan Falun and The Essentials of Diligent Progress VOL. III.
We mainly studied and recited Zhuan Falun. With regards to other Dafa books, we would memorize them for a change. Now we have finished memorizing three volumes of Hong Yin and begun to systematically memorize Essentials for Further Advancement.
Master’s new articles, such as “On Dafa”, “A Reminder” and “On the Responses to the Piece About Assistant Souls,” were all memorized as soon as they were published on the Minghui website.
After finishing reciting the Fa, we shared experiences. We no longer commented on who was good and who was wrong. All conflicts were eliminated.
Our Brain Occupied with the Fa Is a Good Thing
The more we recited the Fa, the more profound was the meaning I realized. I often suddenly enlightened to a new principle from the paragraph I memorized. I was so excited and tears fell. I felt that the Fa was truly profound; we were not as diligent before we began to recite the Fa.
Practitioners in my Fa-study group work on farms. They hand-copied the Fa on a sheet of paper, put the sheet into their pockets and went to the mountain to work. Their hands were busy but their brains were occupied with memorizing the Fa. If they forgot some of it, they would look at the paper.
I memorized the Fa while I was on the bus. I no longer worried about wasting two to three hours on a bus ride.
Local practitioners had concerns that it might be disrespectful to Master to study the Fa while doing other things. But, then they concluded that having our brain occupied with the Fa was a good thing.
Reciting the Fa worked particularly well for those practitioners who had previously failed to study the Fa attentively.
I have enlightened and gained many new understandings about the Fa since I started to recite it from memory. Reading the Fa and memorizing it cannot be compared.
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Category: Improving Oneself
