PureInsight | November 17, 2014
[PureInsight.org] Ms. Dai is a new Falun Dafa practitioner who began practicing Falun Gong just recently. I volunteered to form a Fa-study group with Ms. Dai to read the Fa together.
Ms. Dai dropped out of school in fourth grade and had not read or written anything for many decades ever since. She had also forgotten many words that she learned in elementary school. As a result, when we were studying the Fa together, Ms. Dai would always add extra words, miss certain words, or simply mistake some words for others. She read the Fa very slowly. When I read the Fa together with other veteran practitioners, we would usually finish almost half a lecture in about one hour. However, when I study the Fa with Ms. Dai, we could only finish around ten pages of Zhuan Falun in about one hour. I became very uneasy and tried to rush, thinking to myself, “Am I wasting time? Is Ms. Dai dragging me down in my cultivation? How can I finish studying the Fa in a timely manner with Ms. Dai?”
In order to speed up the pace, I read two or three paragraphs for every one paragraph Ms. Dai read. However, it didn’t seem to help too much; we only saved about ten minutes this way. Besides, I tended to read the paragraphs very fast, and as a result, Ms. Dai had trouble catching up with me, so she would become sleepy. When it was her turn to read the Fa, Ms. Dai would sometimes get lost and not know which paragraph to read. Gradually, Ms. Dai became apprehensive before studying the Fa with me.
I began to realize that the way in which Ms. Dai and I studied the Fa together was not correct. It was not in accordance with the principle of “Study the Fa and gain the Fa” (Solid Cultivation in Hong Yin) I understood it was my own fault that led to such a result. As a veteran practitioner, I had not done a good job helping a new practitioner learn the Fa in a proper way. I had let Master down.
I immediately looked inwards to see what kind of human notions were interfering with me. I was quite surprised when I began to seek inwards for my human notions. I had regarded reading the Fa as being similar to how ordinary people read a story; whenever I read the Fa, I just wanted to finish the study as soon as possible and didn’t pay much attention to what I was reading. I primarily focused on the “reading” part, whereas the “learning” part was missing. At the same time, I had an intention to show people how well I read the Fa and how good my tune, pace and pronunciation were. I wanted people to admire the way I read the Fa. I had this notion in the back of my mind that I had a much higher education level than others and that my way of reading the Fa was the most beautiful. Whenever fellow practitioners praised my reading, I would become extremely happy even though I tried not to show my happiness. Furthermore, I had been expecting to receive more praises from fellow practitioners.
How could I still be a Falun Gong practitioner with so many improper notions? I became very ashamed of myself. I realized that Master must have been worried about me. Master was giving me a hint to help me realize my problems.
I began to send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate all my human notions. I was determined to eliminate all such human notions because they didn’t belong to me.
Now, Ms. Dai and I have started to read the Fa together again. While we study the Fa, I no longer pay any attention to Ms. Dai’s pace. We simply read one paragraph after another with a calm mind. Ms. Dai will sometimes still add words or miss words, but I no longer jump at it immediately to try to correct her; Ms. Dai will often realize her mistakes herself right away and correct herself. When Ms. Dai does make a mistake that she doesn’t realize, I then quietly correct her.
With my mind in a proper state, everything began to change. Ms. Dai has changed dramatically as well; she is more eager now to read the Fa with me, she seldom gets lost while reading the Fa, and she reads the Fa much more smoothly now.
I’d like to express my gratitude towards Master for his merciful protection over me along my cultivation path. When I study the Fa with a calm heart, I always feel a strong and warm energy field around me, and my whole body is so happy.
In conclusion, I’d like to quote the following poem titled “Solid Cultivation” from Hong Yin to encourage fellow practitioners as well as myself:
Study the Fa and gain the Fa,
Focus on how you study and cultivate,
Let each and everything be measured against the Fa,
Only then, with that, is it actually cultivation.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/node/136001
