(Minghui.org) Whether we hand-copy the Fa, memorize the Fa, or read the Fa, the ultimate goal is the same; we want to truly obtain and assimilate to the Fa. However, the results vary greatly.
My husband passed away in 2012. With Master’s guidance and fellow practitioners’ help, I began to hand-copy the Fa, character by character. When I first started, my mind was full of random thoughts that I couldn’t stop. Because I couldn’t focus, the characters I wrote were misshapen and of varying sizes, and I often added or omitted characters; sometimes I couldn’t even recognize what I just wrote. At that time, I did the hand-copying when I was bored; my attitude towards Master and the Fa was not respectful.
As time went on and I kept copying, my thoughts became clearer and purer; the characters I wrote were organized and neater. Master’s Fa gradually enlightened me. When I came to understand that behind every character in Master’s Fa are layers of Buddhas, Daos, and Gods, I vowed in my heart that from then on, I must hand-copy the Fa with a respectful mind, and I must hand-copy the characters wholeheartedly stroke by stroke, and follow the format in Zhuan Falun, the book comprising Dafa’s main teachings. I bought notebooks, which had 24 lines and 22 character spaces on each line; I focused as I wrote every stroke, and the characters looked neat.
My speed slowed down a lot; I was able to copy four to five pages of Zhuan Falun in half a day before, but now I was only able to copy two pages and sometimes only a little more than one page. Although I was much slower, I felt my xinxing improving quickly. My previous way of thinking changed, and my compassion grew—I became tolerant and stopped competing with others. When I saw other practitioners’ cultivation issues, I no longer complained—instead, I looked inward to see where I could improve. I noticed that when I could really do this and did my best to improve, what Master said about “Appearance Stems from the Mind” soon manifested and the other person also improved.
Practitioners in our region began to memorize the Fa in 2016, and I joined them. I decided to hand-copy the Fa in the morning, do other things in the afternoon, read Minghui sharing articles in the evening, and memorize the Fa until it was time to send righteous thoughts at midnight.
Memorizing the Fa sounds easy, but it’s not easy because I’m elderly; I had difficulty focusing and clearing my mind. It would be impossible for me to do this without Master strengthening me.
When I first started to memorize the Fa, I was distracted and couldn’t concentrate. I was only able to memorize two paragraphs in one evening, and I forgot everything the next day. I persisted: I memorized and forgot, and I memorized again. This way I kept filling my head with the Fa. It took me about nine months to finally memorize and recite Zhuan Falun.
When I closed the book after I finished reciting Zhuan Falun, my mind went blank, as if it had nothing in it. But when I started reciting through the Fa for the second time, I felt very different; there were fewer distractions and mental obstacles. The more I recited the Fa, the purer and more focused my mind became. I could memorize two or three paragraphs of some sections in one hour. The more I memorized, the easier it became to memorize the Fa, and the smoother my reciting became.
After I finished memorizing and reciting the Fa for the third time, I started again. Since it was much easier to memorize the Fa, I started combining hand-copying with reciting. I wouldn’t look at the book if I could recite from memory, and I hand-copied the characters from memory while I recited the Fa. This greatly helped me to memorize the Fa.
I also experienced xinxing tests during copying and memorizing the Fa. A practitioner mentioned that another practitioner passed away. Another practitioner asked, “Wasn’t her cultivation pretty good? She hand-copied and recited the Fa. Some practitioners even envied her.” A practitioner said, “What’s the point of hand-copying and reciting the Fa for the sake of hand-copying and reciting the Fa? Obtaining the Fa and assimilating to the Fa is the key.” She then suddenly asked me, “I heard that you memorized Zhuan Falun several times. Do you think you’ve assimilated to the Fa?”
I was speechless and felt embarrassed. I felt she was deliberately insulting me, so I said in an unfriendly tone, “I didn’t cultivate well, and my enlightenment quality is poor. I’ll answer you when I think it over.”
Another practitioner said, “Master has affirmed memorizing the Fa, so it can’t be wrong.” She went on to talk about some cultivation articles on this topic. Her words caused me to think about the changes in me. I did feel optimistic about learning the Fa and assimilating to the Fa, and I felt that I’d benefited a lot. Below I am sharing what I have gained from hand-copying and memorizing the Fa in recent times.
The biggest change is that my temper improved. I’m no longer as emotional, reckless, and impulsive as I was before. I remain calm when I encounter situations and I’ve stopped speaking loudly. No matter how serious the situation is, I remember that I’m a Dafa practitioner; I control my emotions, and examine myself to see why a conflict happened. I wasn’t able to do this before.
Before I began practicing, I argued with people. Even after I started cultivating, I didn’t pay attention to cultivating my speech and I wasn’t able to eliminate this bad habit; instead, I became eloquent and arrogant, and often showed off and talked about people behind their backs.
After I began practicing Falun Dafa I tried to get rid of this bad habit. However I didn’t succeed. I often failed to control my speech when something happened, and my words caused a lot of misunderstandings among fellow practitioners. I created a lot of karma for myself. When I overheard people talking about events in society, I often commented to show how much I knew.
Through copying and memorizing the Fa, I stopped being competitive and arrogant, and I was able to listen to other people. When I heard people chatting about scandals or other social phenomena, I was unmoved, as if I did not hear their conversation.
Another big improvement is that I take money and personal interest much lighter than before. I tended to be very careful before when I spent money and I even haggled with people for 10 or 20 cents; I was very stingy. Nowadays, I am a completely different person.
For example, I once bought a box of milk priced at 60 yuan; I gave the salesperson a 100-yuan bill and she gave me 60 yuan back as change. After I left I realized she gave me 20 yuan more, so I immediately went back. I explained the situation and handed her the 20. I said, “I practice Falun Dafa, our Master taught us to think of others. Please remember that Falun Dafa is good, and Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” She was deeply moved and thanked me sincerely.
Another time, on the way back from my hometown I found that the tire pressure on my electric bike was low; I stopped at a repair shop in the neighboring village and inflated the tires. A blackboard at the shop showed that the fee was 3 yuan. It happened that I only had a 100-yuan bill in my pocket. The shop owner knew me and insisted that I didn’t need to pay. Without paying him, I left the scene. The next day, I went back to the shop riding more than a dozen Li (1 mile = 3.2 Li) and paid him the 3-yuan fee.
These things may be trivial for fellow practitioners who cultivate well. However, for me who had a low xinxing level and poor enlightenment quality, they were improvements that I considered significant. I wouldn’t be able to achieve these improvements without Master’s protection and help, and without Master opening my wisdom.
I will keep Master’s teachings in mind and diligently cultivate myself. To get back to cultivating like when I first started practicing, I’ll read the Fa, hand-copy the Fa and memorize the Fa diligently to assimilate myself to Dafa, and to validate Dafa’s extraordinary power and Master’s greatness.
These are my personal experiences. If there is anything I’ve said that is not in line with the Fa, please correct me.