PureInsight | December 12, 2005
[PureInsight.org] Hu and I are the only two Dafa practitioners living in our city. As we live in a pleasant environment overseas, we became too comfortable with our own lives and were not cultivating diligently.
Starting from last summer, two of us have been doing the exercises in the square in front of city hall every Sunday. Other than doing the exercises, we studied the Fa only intermittently. We had planned originally to study the Fa for two hours after finishing the exercises on Sundays. But in reality we only did it infrequently. Either Hu had other things to do or I had things to do or we needed to go to the city to spread the Fa. Sometimes during our studying, we started to chat about different things and let the time go by. The result wasn't very good. We both realized that we had been stuck in our respective tribulations for a long period of time.
When we heard the United Nations Human Rights Commission was holding its annual meeting in Geneva, we talked to each other and decided to grasp this opportunity to go to Geneva. By going to Geneva, we'd be able to rectify the Fa, provide support to our fellow practitioners in China, and learn from fellow practitioners from other countries. So we went to Geneva in mid-May. The trip changed us a great deal. During experience sharing with other practitioners, we were deeply touched by fellow practitioners from other countries when they talked about using various methods to rectify the Fa. During the day, we held parades, did the exercises, and made peaceful appeals. After completing those activities, practitioners would study the Fa together past midnight. All of these activities made me realize my inadequacy and the gap between me and other practitioners.
After we came back from Geneva, we thought we should break our deep-rooted routine. We couldn't just study the Fa together once a week. We should study the Fa regularly and needed to find time to do it. We decided to study the Fa every day. Hu comes to pick me up at 6:30 in the morning and we drive to the front of a gymnasium at the university near me to study the Fa together. We send forth righteous thoughts together on the hour. When we finish the Fa study at 8:40 a.m., I go to work. Hu's car has become our mobile station for our Fa study. It takes Hu 40 minutes to drive to my place, but he has never complained about it.
The very first day when we started to study the Fa, there was interference. It was as if there was a big obstacle placed between Dafa and us. We needed to focus all our attention while reading the Fa. Otherwise, we'd miss words or add words, or skip to a wrong line. I felt it was because we hadn't studied the Fa diligently in the past that we had created such an obstacle and allowed the evil demons to feed on us. The same thing happened the second day, but we were able to control ourselves against the evil better. On the third day, the evil still came to interfere. Both of us thought we should thoroughly oppose the evil and refuse to allow it to take advantage of our loopholes. We sent forth righteous thoughts continuously three times to eradiate the evil. The interference ceased to appear. On the fourth day, when we sent forth righteous thoughts, I experienced a divine state. My mind was calm. When I raised my palm, I could feel my gong and Fa pulsing out from my palm like electric waves, eradicating the evil and rectifying degenerate things in my own universe. I hadn't felt that way even once over the last several years. I knew then I was finally on the right path.
We read the last three lectures the following Sunday since we had more time. We had finished reading Zhuan Falun from the beginning to the end in seven days. Each of us feels like a new person. Hu's skin has become delicate and rosy white. His manner of reading and speaking has totally changed. He no longer seems as overly emotional. Although he drives for an hour and twenty minutes each day so we can study together, he has never been late and is always cheerful. He listens to Teacher's lectures as he drives. He told me that he is now able to comprehend some of the inner meanings and Fa principles when he reads Zhuan Falun, which is something that had never occurred to him before. Hu said that two of us reading together is more effective than when he reads alone. Great changes have also happened to me. My mind has become less impulsive; instead I've become calmer and more composed. My mind had been drifting aimlessly for the last several years. I always followed my wish to do things. When I encountered difficulties, I used ordinary people's thinking to judge things, instead of the Fa. I had been living a very tiring life. It is because my mind was filled with my ego, not the Fa. When I truly immerse in the Fa, I deeply feel that Dafa has given sentient beings endless righteous strength.
The process of studying the Fa is a process of purifying one's spirit and raising one's xinxing level, a process of constantly finding one' shortcomings. When we study the Fa, each of us takes turns reading one section out aloud. While one person reads out aloud, the other person reads silently and corrects the mistakes that the other person makes. At the beginning, we simply corrected each other's mistakes. Later we found out that the places where we had misread were the places we were having problems with. For example, Hu and I always treated things that had happened in our lives very emotionally, instead of with rationality. Our understandings of the Fa were perceptual instead of rational enlightenment and weren't based on the Fa. We both lacked in making our own judgments and were easily influenced by the outside world or by other people. These were all things we needed to cultivate away. It is Teacher who showed our problems to us during the Fa study. While reading the Fa, I've witnessed Teacher's wisdom and the mighty power of Dafa.
An episode occurred one day while we were studying the Fa. I heard a voice coming from my side of the car door. I turned around to find a blonde girl who was about three years old smiling at me. A moment later, the girl's father took her to a car parked next to us. I guessed that the little girl had mistaken our car for theirs. I thought about it and realized it couldn't be just an accident. From the surface, it seemed like the girl was trying to open our car door, actually the girl was looking for Dafa. I mentioned my thought to Hu, he saw the light suddenly and told me we should go clarifying the truth to them. We quickly took out pamphlets and VCD and gave them the information. The girl waved her little hands in joy as if to say, "I have found Falun Dafa. I can go home now." I thought that if we hadn't been studying the Fa intensively we wouldn't have recognized the opportunity. While studying the Fa, I could recognize problem with more rationality and understand it from the perspective of the Fa.
Studying the Fa together has also helped us get rid of our attachment to the pursuit of comfort. It is like a net. It can easily hold people within it and make people feel comfortable living inside it, causing them not to look for their true selves. If we don't eliminate that attachment, it will delay our progress in Fa rectification and prevent us from stepping forward. In the past, because we lived far apart, we had decided to only study the Fa together once a week. Once the thought was formed in our minds, we never thought of changing it. We did the easy thing, the thing that supported and endorsed our pursuit of comfort. During the peaceful environment prior to 1999, Dafa practitioners in Mainland China were studying the Fa every day together and thus had laid a solid foundation for the Fa-rectification. Today we are also living in a peaceful environment overseas, which means that we should do even better. Teacher has created for us the environment to participate in the group study and sharing. It helps us find the root of our problem.
I have come to understand that, during the Fa-rectification period, when we study the Fa together more frequently, we are not only studying the Fa, but we are also validating and spreading the Fa and eradiating evil. It is because only when we step forward that we will study the Fa together. Also gathering together to study the Fa is a process of eradicating the evil. If we all try to understand the Fa from within the Fa, the evil will cease to exist. After the practitioners finish the Fa study, we do the exercises outdoors. It is also a form of spreading the Fa and helps to introduce the Fa to people. It is very beneficial for us to study the Fa and do the exercises together.
The two of us have come up with a few ideas to let more people in our city and neighboring areas hear about Falun Dafa and learn the truth about Dafa. Our ideas came from the Fa. It is our compassionate Teacher who creates our wisdom when we study the Fa together. Many of the fundamental changes that the two of us have experienced are the result of studying Zhuan Falun together. Teacher doesn't want to miss even one disciple. We thank Teacher from our hearts.
Translated from: https://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/4/9/48025.html
