Progressing Together In Group Fa Study

Group Fa study is an important cultivation form established by Master. Setting up a collective Fa study cultivation environment where practitioners can make continuous progress by emulating each other and doing a good job with the three things (clarifying the truth about the persecution, sending forth righteous thoughts, study the teachings of Falun Gong) is a task posed for us all.

In 2006, we started our Fa study group with four practitioners. Our area is one that was severely persecuted by the evil Party and thus the cultivation environment was destroyed. Only after the family members left home every day did we start to study the Fa. Later, under the guidance of Master, our cultivation environment stabilized. Through Fa study and sharing, practitioners made progress in understanding the Fa, and thus started genuinely seeing the importance of Fa study, the seriousness of cultivation, and the urgency of saving sentient beings.

An elderly practitioner from our group was a timid person by nature. She was afraid to clarify the truth when she went out with other practitioners, yet she persisted in trying. At group Fa study, we shared ways in which we could effectively persuade people to quit the Chinese Communist Party by addressing their ages, characteristics, and occupation before assigning them a good pseudonym with which to quit. Through such sharing, this elderly practitioner became very eloquent. She once consecutively persuaded two Ph.D. students to quit the Party. After this successful persuasion, she was overjoyed and recounted the entire experience sharing her joy with us. Sharing her happiness, we also reminded her to not become elated, which is a loophole apt to be manipulated by the evil. This elderly practitioner has now become more courageous and can deal with things with righteous thoughts.

During the truth clarification process, we encounter malicious people who want to call the police to report us. For instance, I met one person who not only used profanity at me but said he would call the police. I thought that this incident was to target my fear and test if I was steadfast. Master's words later came to me:

"The old forces don't dare to oppose our clarifying the truth or saving sentient beings. What's key is to not let them take advantage of the gaps in your state of mind when you do things." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston")

When I went back home, I searched within. A few days earlier, a fellow practitioner was arrested and sent from the police station directly to the labour camp. Upon hearing that, my first thought was, why was he not sent to a detention centre before the labour camp? This thought was actually cooperating with the evil's persecution procedure of police station--detention centre--labour camp. This was probably why I got interfered with during truth clarification. Now that the evil is staring at us with ulterior motives---ready to pounce on us at any time, we should be all the more diligent in studying the Fa well and guarding every thought of ours, to not give the evil an excuse for persecution.

We had a newcomer in our group who would drink water as she studied the Fa. Another practitioner pointed out kindly that this gesture was disrespectful to Master and to Dafa. Master would always stand and not take in any water while lecturing. What's more, isn't feeling thirsty a form of pursuit as well? This practitioner came to see her own attachment and dared not drink water any more during Fa study. She was very diligent in doing the three things. She had recited Zhuan Falun from memory over twenty times. Sometimes, as we studied the Fa together, she simply recited from memory. Encouraged by her example, fellow practitioners also started to memorize Zhuan Falun. Some have recited the entire book once, twice, even repeatedly. Thus, a fervour was formed within our group for memorizing the Fa.

One practitioner's husband wanted to divorce her because of an unharmonious marital life. Family relations were strained, which impacted negatively on her doing the three things. One day when she came to group study she said that the following day they would go and file paperwork for a divorce. The other practitioners all wanted to help her in terms of understanding the Fa. Master said,

"Those ordeals and the suffering, no matter how great or harsh you find them to be, are good things, because they take place solely on account of your cultivation." ("Fa Teaching at the 2008 New York Conference")

From our point of view, divorce is only an illusory appearance for the purpose of exposing one's attachments and helping one advance. This practitioner searched within and found that she was clinging to the attachment of selfishness and that she had gone to an extreme. She ended up apologizing to her husband. Our whole group sent forth righteous thoughts together to dissolve the evil lives and elements behind her husband that interfered with her. Her family has now been restored to its previous harmony and peacefulness, and she has rejoined the mission of saving sentient beings.

Before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, news often came of the CCP's (Chinese communist party) intention to round up Dafa practitioners. One day, an elderly practitioner brought the news that the CCP was going to call a secret meeting to arrest those practitioners on the "list." After he broke the news, none of the other practitioners uttered a word. The elderly practitioner asked in bemusement, "Why is there no reaction on your part?" A practitioner replied, "Over the past nine years, not a day has gone by without the evil CCP arresting people. This time around, it has only found another excuse. As Fa-rectification Dafa practitioners, why should we fear it?"

It has not been long since the formation of our Fa study group. On the journey of cultivation, we work together as one body, encouraging each other and searching within in the face of hardships and obstacles, so as to advance in understanding the Fa. Everyone treasures this predestined relationship among practitioners and everyone displays the characteristics of genuine practitioners: Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. In going about the urgent task of saving sentient beings, we are like plum blossoms in the cold wind and falling snow, whose beauty is tempered and accentuated all the more by hardships.