(Minghui.org) I am a veteran practitioner, but I had a hard time being diligent during the most recent years. I was studying the Fa every day and doing the things I was supposed to do, however, I felt interfered with by an unknown substance. My cultivation state fluctuated, and I often felt physically uncomfortable. I was distressed and couldn’t keep my spirits up.
Master said,
“The Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts.” (“Drive Out Interference”, Essentials for Further Advancement II)
Memorizing the Fa
I shared my thoughts at the group Fa-study and proposed that we should start memorizing the Fa as soon as we finished reading Zhuan Falun. The group reached a consensus to not give any room for regret in the future, that we must overcome our fear of difficulties now and persist in memorizing Zhuan Falun. We started our endeavor in the second half of 2017.
We combined individual efforts with group efforts. Everyone except me had a full- time job so we met only one night a week for group study. Everyone made sure to memorize one paragraph each day, and six to seven paragraphs a week, without affecting other responsibilities.
When we met, everyone took turns to recite a paragraph. The first time, one could glimpse at the book or get help from others, but the second time one must recite without any help. When everyone passed the paragraph, we moved on to the next. This way everyone had an opportunity to recite a paragraph. If one couldn’t pass a paragraph, the group would recite together.
When we were done, we decided on the next week’s paragraphs. By comparing with one another how we had studied and cultivated, no one slacked off, because no one wanted to hold back the group.
Memorizing the Fa helped me to enlighten to some Fa principles. Sometimes, as I was memorizing it, I was suddenly enlightened to a new meaning of it at another level, and was startled to realize how far I had departed from the Fa’s requirements! I was assimilating to it in the process of memorizing it and correcting my shortcomings.
In the past, I wasn’t entirely sure I could understand this Fa. Then, one of Master’s quotes opened my mind,
“When some people read Zhuan Falun they are not concentrating, but rather, thinking about other things, and not able to focus their attention on cultivation. It thus amounts to wasting time. And not just wasting time—instead of it being the time when they are to be elevating, they are using their minds to think over issues and things that they shouldn’t concern themselves with, and thus, not only aren’t they elevating, but on the contrary, they are often dropping in level. If you don’t study the Fa well, there are many things you will not be able to do well.” (“Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa - Fa Teaching Given at the 2011 Washington DC Metro Area Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XI)
Now, I understood that, in the past, I got stuck in a state of doing things and my mind couldn’t calm down while studying the Fa. My mind was busy and often distracted.
Even though my eyes were on the book, my mind was on getting things done, therefore I failed at “The Mind and Body Join Together” (“Chapter II Illustrations and Explanations of the Exercise Movements,” The Great Way of Spiritual Perfection), and how different was I from “While reciting the scriptures, they even cast furtive glances?” (“Cultivators’ Avoidances,” Falun Dafa Essentials For Further Advancement)
Would the inner meaning of the Fa be displayed for me when I was studying it like that? Not only could I not improve, but on the contrary, I would drop in levels because I failed to respect Master and the Fa. Disrespect for Master and the Fa is a major taboo in cultivation!
Through memorizing the Fa, all of the practitioners in our group have improved in cultivation.
Removing External Interference
A practitioner was a parent of a high school student who lived in a rental property near the school. The practitioner lived very far away and rode the company bus every day. Every evening, as soon as she got home from work and finished the housework, she went to her child’s rental place, and arrived before her child came back from the evening self-study.
She spent the night, prepared breakfast for her child the next morning, and caught the company bus to work. She was so busy every day that she thought about quitting memorizing the Fa several times, but she eventually overcame the difficulties and found time to memorize it on the bus. Moreover, she was able to step out and do truth-clarification on weekends.
Our group has slowed down our pace in Fa-study, but everyone has experienced improvements in solid cultivation. By removing human thoughts and attachments, external interference has reduced as a result.
I was delighted at seeing everyone’s absorbed and serious facial expressions when they were reciting the Fa. I wish we had started memorizing it earlier!
Improving Righteous Thoughts
I also participated in a daytime Fa-study group, which were mostly older practitioners. We meet once a week for two-and-a-half hours.
A few practitioners shared that they couldn’t memorize the entirety of Hong Yin IV, some practitioners proposed that we memorize Hong Yin during Fa study. Everyone agreed.
From that point on, we started our group study with 15 minutes of sending forth righteous thoughts and reading one lecture of Zhuan Falun. Then, we began memorizing Hong Yin IV. Everyone first took turns to read the poem, and then took turns to recite it. When we all passed, we moved on to the next poem. This way we could finish two or three poems each time.
We then read the poems together and made sure that there weren’t any unrecognized characters.
Persistence is the key. Now our Fa-study group of 10 has finished memorizing Hong Yin IV. We moved on to Hong Yin. Because most practitioners had memorized Hong Yin before, we finished it very quickly. Now we are on Hong Yin II. In the process of Fa-study and memorizing Hong Yin, practitioners have all improved on their cultivation path.
An octogenarian practitioner shared that, he often lost his temper when dealing with his daughter. But one day, when he was about to do that again, a sentence of the Fa that he had memorized occurred to him,
“Do not complainBut hold on to your kindness” (“Dispelling Your Delusion,” Hong Yin IV)
He immediately restrained himself and thought, “I cannot disobey Master’s words!” Practitioners have all compared themselves to this poem and identified their complaint about their family and fellow practitioners.
Master said,
“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,” Hong Yin)
Through memorizing Hong Yin, we have not only measured ourselves against the Fa and looked inside to practice solid cultivation, but also understood more the urgency of truth-clarification.
A practitioner was close to 70 years old and was not active in clarifying the truth. Memorizing Hong Yin has increased his righteous thoughts, and now he was teaming up with a practitioner to step out and do truth-clarification almost every morning.
An octogenarian practitioner was pulling a shopping cart full of all kinds of truth-clarification materials and the books Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and The Ultimate Goal of Communism to clarify the facts.
In our experience sharing after Fa-study, our subjects no longer deviated as they did before, instead, our sharing is now focused on measuring ourselves against the Fa and identifying our shortcomings, or situations that we run into during truth-clarification. Then we share it for others’ reference.
Although most people in our Fa-study group were older practitioners, every one of us was doing the three things Master has asked of us with a pure heart.
An octogenarian practitioner could not go out due to her physical condition, but she knew most fellow practitioners were doing truth-clarification in the morning, so she sent forth righteous thoughts at home to eliminate evil interference for them every day.
Every practitioner was very conscientious in memorizing the Fa, sentence by sentence, and character by character. A practitioner shared that she felt very happy because she was in the Fa every day. She got up at 3:50 a.m. to do the exercises, sent forth righteous thoughts and studied a lecture of Zhuan Falun before doing house work. She memorized the Fa while doing housework.
She also memorized the Fa while doing Dafa work. When she went out shopping, she distributed Dafa informational materials she made herself, and supplied other practitioners with the materials too. When she was taking care of her blind mother, she did the morning exercises with her, and read the Fa to her. She lived by the Fa the entire day, every day.
She could memorize a lot of the Fa. With her suggestions, our Fa-study group not only finished memorizing Hong Yin, but also started memorizing Zhuan Falun. Our routine is: sending forth righteous thoughts, taking turns to read Zhuan Falun, reciting two to three paragraphs of Zhuan Falun, taking turns to recite Hong Yin followed by brief experience sharing.
Some practitioners said that since they started memorizing the Fa, their fear when doing truth-clarification lessened, and they attained wisdom and compassion. Some practitioner said, memorizing Hong Yin has helped remove human thoughts and improve righteous thoughts. Everybody knows now how to cultivate.
In summary, through memorizing the Fa, the practitioners in our group have improved collectively, and our truth-clarification efforts became stronger. These all come from Master’s strengthening. All we should do is obey Master’s words, and cultivate ourselves well.
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Category: Improving Oneself
