Some Thoughts on the Importance of Group Fa Study

I am happy to share some experiences from an activity that took place in Paris this weekend. It was quite special. Some European practitioners from Sweden, England and Belgium visited France to take part in our monthly study of the teachings of Falun Gong. It was an "intensive" weekend and we read many of Master Li's lectures. In the morning, we went to practise the five exercises and in the evening we shared our experiences in practising Dafa.

I would like to talk about two or three personal experiences from this weekend:

Since we organised it at the last minute, not all the practitioners were able to come. Around 2pm on the second day, I heard two people come and sit in the seats behind me. I kept focusing on my reading. But when it was our turn to read together, the French speakers read together with them and hearing the voices of the two people who had just arrived brought tears to my eyes. I do not know why. It was as if "the side of me that is cultivated" was happy that they came and we were all able to harmonise in the process of studying the Fa. Now I understand even better that in a group study, each particle helps me to rectify myself and contributes to rectifying the group. This, everybody knows, but it is very moving when you experience it yourself and it helps to better understand the meaning of group study and the role of each particle in the group.

Also, during this weekend I felt that whilst I was in the presence of so many practitioners for those two days, I could feel "bursts of compassion" coming up inside (I don't know where they came from). Whereas in everyday life I can have negative thoughts and judgement about others, again, without knowing why, during this week end I could feel benevolence towards different practitioners that I'm usually not too close to. For someone like me who does not see nor feel anything in cultivation, this was a tangible proof that during Fa study like this, things happen within us and among ourselves. Some things are rectified without us having to think about it. Tensions or conflicts disappear just by reading together and human judgements on other practitioners dissolve in the Fa. In brief, it speeds up the process of being one body.

Finally, since it is a requirement to coordinate ourselves well, as Master often reminds us, this form of collective reading helps us to better accomplish our respective projects. What I mean is: in every day life, we do different things (distribute flyers, write to the government, prepare banners, translate articles etc.). We know that those projects all head toward the same direction, but it's not always easy to see the link between them all that coordinate those actions. So these group study sessions are precious moments to meet and read together. In the process of studying the Fa, without realising it our projects are harmonised and we become better able to cooperate with each other.

This was just a little summary of our monthly Fa study, I hope that practitioners will not forget the importance of and will always treasure every group Fa study.