(Minghui.org) Greetings Master! Greetings fellow practitioners!
I am a Vietnamese practitioner currently living in Japan. Below is my sharing on memorizing the Fa.
I started practicing Falun Dafa in September 2017. During my first year of practice, I had a lot of time. I read one lecture of Zhuan Falun and listened to one of Master’s audio lectures every day. I also read Master’s other lectures. After cultivating for about 10 months, I managed to finish all the lectures and I felt I was elevating quickly and understood the Fa fairly well.
The second year after I began practicing, however, I became busier with research and teaching at a university. I also had to take care of my baby. I gave birth to my second child in late 2018 and a third one at the beginning of 2020. I was preoccupied with ordinary people’s tasks and barely had any time to study the Fa. Every day, I could only read the Fa for one hour online with other practitioners. During Fa study, however, I always felt sleepy, and I kept making excuses for myself for being in a special circumstance - having little ones - so I thought studying a little less wouldn’t matter, as long as my heart was always on the Fa.
But after five to six months in this state, my body began to show negative signs such as fatigue, loss of appetite, constant sleepiness, stomachache, and itchy rashes all over my body. It became so bad that I could easily fall asleep anywhere, on the train or at my desk, and I found it impossible to get up early in the morning to do the exercises. In addition, my husband and mother-in-law were opposed to my cultivation and expected me to go to bed early so I could get my babies to sleep. I was also not allowed to stay up late or even wake up during the night, so as not to disturb my mother-in-law’s sleep. My husband and my mother-in-law used all kinds of ways to prevent me from doing the exercises, and thus my cultivation state became worse and worse.
Memorizing the Teachings Changed Everything
I tried to look within to discover my problems, but the situation not only did not improve but only got worse. When I really could not bear it anymore and felt disappointed with myself, I cried and begged Master to give me some hints so that I could find my problems. After looking inward further, I realized that I had not been studying the Fa seriously. I hadn’t gained new enlightenment on the Fa principles for a long time. I lingered at the same level because I didn’t study the Fa well and did not send enough righteous thoughts. My mind wasn’t clear enough to see how serious this interference had become. I asked myself, “Do I wish to cultivate? If yes, I should be really determined.”
In my circumstances, it still wasn’t possible for me to arrange time for cultivation during the day or on the weekends, so the only way left was to sleep less, stay up late, and wake up early to earnestly study the Fa and do the exercises. I made the decision to sleep for only four to five hours a night instead of eight to nine hours as I used to do. I also made up my mind to memorize Zhuan Falun every night so that I could understand the Fa principles better.
As soon as I began to memorize the Fa, many of my notions and attachments started to surface—such as a desire to make quick progress and my dissatisfaction at memorizing too slowly. While it usually only took me a couple of days to memorize dozens of pages of ordinary books, it could take me as long as two to three hours to memorize a single paragraph of the Fa.
I felt exhausted and my throat was sore. Memorizing some parts but forgetting others, I was discouraged and in low spirits to continue. However, after reading several articles on Minghui and talking with fellow practitioners, I was able to abandon my attachments and persevere in memorizing the Fa.
First, I memorized paragraph by paragraph, starting with one per day. I memorized each paragraph sentence by sentence. After memorizing three or four sentences, I repeated those until I knew them by heart and then moved to the next three or four sentences. When I had memorized the entire paragraph, I recited it several times. The following day, while walking or on the train, I’d recite that same Fa paragraph from the day before, and so on.
Reciting the Fa helps me to stay calm, removes bad thoughts, and allows me to enlighten to the Fa more deeply. It also helps me to reflect on my problems and pinpoint my various attachments and abandon them. 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)
If today I memorized a paragraph, then tomorrow I would continue with the next. I repeated this until I memorized the whole book. In the beginning, it took me two hours to memorize one paragraph. Later, I was able to memorize faster—two or three paragraphs a day. To maintain this process, I prioritized memorizing the Fa as the main task of the day. As soon as I got up, I would try to learn the Fa by heart. When I was too busy, I would memorize the Fa on the train or during my lunch break.
Day by day, after 14 months of unrelenting perseverance, I managed to memorize all of Zhuan Falun for the first time.
During the process of memorizing the Fa, Master encouraged me a lot. For example, after I memorized the part about the celestial eye, in my dream at night, I saw my celestial eye spinning continuously and radiating lights. Or when I memorized a little more than usual on one day, while sleeping, I felt my body was light and floated up or I saw my main consciousness leave my body and fly around.
After having memorized the book once, I began memorizing a second time. I continued memorizing one paragraph at a time. Even though it was the second time, it wasn’t faster. I felt that whether I could memorize quickly or slowly depended on my heart. Memorizing the Fa also reflected my cultivation state for that day. When I was holding on to a lot of attachments, it was very difficult. Some days I was unable to memorize anything at all. This was what I had experienced during the second time as well, so I realized I had to break it down into smaller parts. Instead of memorizing sentences, I would memorize only phrases composed of three to four words. I would move from one phrase to the next until I memorized the entire sentence, then the whole paragraph. I realized that memorizing phrases was also very good, and I enlightened to many inner meanings of the Fa behind each word. It took me 10 months to finish the second round.
Currently, I’m in my third round of memorizing Zhuan Falun. With more free time than before, I’ve decided to demand more from myself by memorizing sections. At night, I memorize two pages and recite those two pages the following day, together with all the other pages I’ve memorized previously from the same section. After memorizing a section, I repeat it until I’m able to completely recite it without the book—only then do I move on to the next one. My goal is, having memorized all sections in a lecture, I will spend a few days repeating them until I can recite the entire lecture without the book, and then continue with the next lecture.
Throughout the process of memorizing the Fa, I have enlightened to the fact that no matter how many times we have memorized the Fa by heart, we should always keep our heart as if it was our first time. It will not work well if we believe that since we have already memorized it once, we should be able to do it really quickly the second time, or we already know it and we just need to read it through and all will come back.
Master said,
“Some of you are able to memorize the Fa. Why is it that after some time you forget even the parts you’d memorized really well? Because the part of you that memorized the book really well became fully cultivated and was moved over. What’s left is the part that still doesn’t understand, so you still need to keep studying the Fa.” (Teachings at the Conference of Changchun Assistants)
As a result, I always keep my heart as if it was the first time. I still read every single word and sentence carefully. Only after I memorize one sentence, do I begin memorizing the next one. In this way, every day I feel the joy of studying the Fa and enlightening to new Fa principles.
As the Fa-rectification is reaching the end, I think each of us should seriously rethink our Fa study, because only by studying the Fa well will we have stronger righteous thoughts and the power to save people. If you have time, why don’t you try memorizing the Fa?
This is my current level of understanding based on the Fa. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.
Thank you Master! Thank you fellow practitioners !
(Presented at the 2021 Online International Young Practitioners Experience Sharing Conference)
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