(Minghui.org) As Falun Dafa practitioners, we all know the importance of studying the Fa well. It is the fundamental guarantee that we will be able to do the three things well. When we run into problems, we must reflect on ourselves based on the Fa and look within.
Looking back at my cultivation, there was a process to my understanding of what it means to study the Fa well. In the past, my understanding of studying the Fa was to find time to read Zhuan Falun or listen to Master’s lecture recordings every day, as well as to reflect on what I said and did based on the requirements in Zhuan Falun, the main book of Falun Dafa. At the same time, I also wanted to enlighten to some Fa principles, find my attachments, and try my best to remove them. However, I discovered that some attachments and hobbies that I should have completely eliminated seemed only partially removed and slowly came back.
For example, I liked to watch foreign movies and television dramas. I even found an excuse—that watching them could help me improve my English. When I began to realize that I should abandon this attachment, I thought I should try my best not to spend so much time on them. But I would still watch a movie sometimes and enjoy relaxing for a while. When I read fellow practitioners’ cultivation experience sharing articles, I reminded myself to do better. Over time, I relaxed my efforts and again I started to watch dramas.
At the same time, I also noticed that when I was studying the Fa, my mind was often not focused enough. I realized that this was an incorrect state, as I did not achieve the state that Master required us to be in when we are studying the Fa.
Later, I began to memorize the Fa so that I would not be simply going through the motions when I studied. As I memorized the Fa, other practitioners’ sharing articles about memorizing the Fa on the Minghui website helped me a lot. Whenever I had time, I tried my best to recall the content of Zhuan Falun. Gradually, I got into the habit of memorizing the Fa on a daily basis.
Letting Go of Bad Habits
I once started watching a movie at random. After watching it for a while, nothing about it seemed interesting and I switched a different movie. I had the same feeling about that one—it was dull and boring. Then I recalled some of the movies I used to enjoy watching repeatedly and realized they were not at all interesting. Now, all the hard discs of movies and dramas I spent time and effort collecting are just sitting there. I can watch them every day, but I do not even feel like touching them. Thus, I got rid of this attachment. I also feel the same about other attachments and hobbies.
Looking back at the two means of eliminating attachments, the earlier focus on finding them and trying my best to stop doing them was like removing wild grass. No matter how hard I worked at it, I just could not get rid of it by its roots. Sometimes, I made excuses, which seemed reasonable to ordinary people. But I was actually deceiving myself and others. The reason Master leaves some ordinary people’s elements in us is to allow us to cultivate in ordinary human society. We cannot use that as an excuse for not eliminating our attachments and thus stay in our comfort zone.
I know that I need to think based on the Fa when I encounter problems. However, since we cultivate in ordinary human society, it is very easy for our minds to be disturbed by our attachments if we do not get the Fa into our minds when we study the Fa. When we look at problems with strong human attachments, it is hard to recognize the attachment and get rid of it. When our human attachments are too strong, we will stubbornly hold onto our thoughts, even when other practitioners point them out to us.
Studying the Fa Well
In the later stage, I understood that the best method for abandoning attachments is to study the Fa more and study it well. In order to study the Fa well, we must put our hearts into studying the Fa. Memorizing the Fa is a good way to strengthen our studying the Fa with our whole heart and mind. There are many experience sharing articles by practitioners about memorizing the Fa on the Minghui website that can be used as reference. When we really attain a state of studying the Fa well, we will have fewer human attachments when we encounter problems and the Fa will be able to display its powers.
From this, I recall that it was mentioned on the Minghui website that a small number of practitioners reject others’ opinions when practitioners try to point out their problems to them, as some of their behaviors were not within the Fa. I felt sad when I read that. I thought there must be a problem with studying the Fa that caused the problem. When we do not study the Fa well, we will be nurturing the human attachments and limit ourselves within our little bit of knowledge about the Fa. However, that little bit of knowledge about the Fa is mixed with very strong human attachments. In this case, if we still do not put our hearts into studying the Fa, we will hold onto our little bit of understanding more and more stubbornly. Finally, we may end up going down the wrong path.
From my personal understanding, especially for those practitioners who have outstanding abilities, we should not become self-centered and hold onto our opinions stubbornly just because of these abilities.
We can only cultivate when we have human attachments. However, strong human attachments will lead us to deviate from Dafa. What should we do? I think that, although our human side has many attachments that create disturbances, we all know that Dafa is good. Therefore, we should put our minds more into studying the Fa every day. When we have the wish to assimilate to the Fa as we study the Fa, our cultivation state will continue to be corrected, such that we will take a righteous path in our cultivation and do the three things well.
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Category: Improving Oneself
