PureInsight | October 21, 2002
What is the relationship between studying the Fa and clarifying the truth? In my view, if we can understand the Fa well and apply it properly, our environment will change for the best. Then we can use our determined righteous thoughts to clarify the truth in an even deeper and more rational manner. On the other hand, if we don't study the Fa well, we will experience many distractions. Our minds will be in a dazed and confused state, thus making the work of clarifying the truth more difficult to perform.
(1) Studying the Fa well can create good circumstances for clarifying the truth.
The weather during winter is very cold. People think that they should get more firewood, turn the heat up, and wear more clothes to avoid the cold. That is the state of an ordinary person. When we are in a difficult situation, sometimes we think the way that an ordinary person does. Let's use firewood and cold weather as an analogy. If we are cold, we might think as an ordinary person and tell ourselves, "Let's find a little more firewood and put it on the fire." However, the power of Dafa isn't there to give us more firewood or make the fire thrive. Rather, it lies in the ability to transform the cold into warm weather without our realizing it.
Master has said, "Certain cultivators who have grasped Dafa to different degrees are showing different degrees of steadfastness, and how they currently perceive the overall situation of the Fa-rectification is different, too. The different states of their cultivation result in their different perceptions. Some might think the situation is grim; for some people the situation might seem to have already eased up; and some people might think that it's precisely a great opportunity to save sentient beings and clarify the truth. People's different grasps of and comprehension of the Fa lead to different perceptions of the current situation, and all that's happening is targeting different human thoughts." (From "Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. Fa Conference")
(2) Studying the Fa can help cultivators have a clear mind to clarify the truth with reason.
Studying the Fa well will help us have a clear, pure, and wise mind as well as a good environment for clarifying the truth. We've learned many lessons in this matter. If our own understanding of the Fa isn't that comprehensive and clear, how can we do a good job clarifying the truth? I have read many disciples' solemn declarations. Many of them emphasized that they failed because they hadn't studied the Fa deeply enough. This got my attention. We are cultivators clarifying the truth to ordinary people. However, sometimes we take this for an ordinary person's task. Although cultivators know that studying the Fa is important, in reality some often fail to do so. They cannot give up the mentality of an ordinary person and advance upward in cultivation. They substitute experiences shared by other disciples for the systematic study and understanding of Dafa, or they replace Fa study and cultivation with doing Dafa work. Because of this, they may fundamentally undermine the efforts to clarify the facts. Over time, their understanding will decline. They'll slowly lose motivation, experience distractions, or be unable to solve problems related to truth clarification. The results of their efforts will be small; however the losses will be great.
If a practitioner is accustomed to doing things in habitual ways, then it will be hard for him to settle down to study, understand and clearly experience the Fa. Whether we're in peaceful times or Fa-rectification, Master has emphasized many times the importance of studying the Fa. The Minghui article, "To Fellow Practitioners on September Seventh," especially states that no matter how busy we are, we still need to continue to study the Fa well. When studying the Fa, we must put other things aside in order to concentrate our hearts and minds totally on the Fa. In my own experience, Fa study opened a point or aperture. After that, I found it hard not to study the Fa.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2002/9/13/18513.html
