(Clearwisdom.net)
In our Fa study group, we have seventeen or eighteen people at the most and at least five or six people coming together to study the Fa. The majority are elderly practitioners. Some are illiterate and full of human notions. Some are very fearful. But no matter what, everyone regards himself or herself as a cultivator and a particle of the Fa, and fully uses his or her own talents to do the three things (study the Fa, send forth righteous thoughts and clarify the truth) that Falun Dafa practitioners should do, and everyone is doing well.
At the start, many of the practitioners in our Fa study group had difficulty reading the Fa out loud. They asked me to read out loud and they listened, but I noticed that most of the practitioners didn't take Fa study seriously. Some even fell asleep. Then we changed to reading one paragraph out loud together and then everyone read out another paragraph in turn. By then we realized that though we had studied the Fa for so many years, many practitioners didn't read properly. Either they missed words or added extra words or read words incorrectly. Some didn't read smoothly. But we helped each other and encouraged each other and made great improvements. We even learned to read the Fa in standard Mandarin. Though our Mandarin is not up to standard yet, we believe that as long as we have the determination, we will surely learn well because "Cultivation depends on one's own efforts, while transformation of gong is done by one's master." (Lecture Two in Zhuan Falun) As long as we believe in Master and Dafa, there is no test that we cannot pass.
Everybody takes the initiative to do things. Whether in the country or in the city, Falun Dafa practitioners bring blessings to people everywhere they go, either directly or indirectly, by giving out flyers or by clarifying the truth face to face. No matter how tiresome or exhausting, we are happy in our hearts. Some elderly practitioners didn't dare to step forward, but with the help of other practitioners in their study group, they ended up stepping forward.
Once, a practitioner went to give out flyers and was reported to the police, who sent her to the custodial station. She refused to say her name or sign anything and didn't obey any of their orders. She kept saying, "Falun Dafa is good!" and clarified the truth to them. After practitioners learned of the incident, they cooperated as one body and sent strong righteous thoughts repeatedly and in close range to dissolve the evil beings and factors that persecuted practitioners in other dimensions and to release illegally detained practitioners immediately and unconditionally. With Master's protection and the practitioners' righteous thoughts, practitioners walked free and came back to validate the Fa again.
In the Fa study group, practitioners will find their own shortcomings in conflicts. Practitioners are like mirrors and reflect the shortcomings of any practitioner. As long as we regard ourselves as practitioners, we are able to get rid of our human hearts and attachments.
In "Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles" Master said:
"In any case, a cultivator must look at things as a cultivator should and with the mind of a cultivator, and absolutely cannot look at things with the mind of an ordinary person. Nothing you encounter is simple, accidental, or an ordinary thing. It must have to do with your cultivation and your improvement."
In our Fa study group, one practitioner didn't behave like a practitioner. I didn't like her and didn't want to see her. But the more I didn't want to see her, the more she appeared in front of me and the more I didn't feel good in my heart. The most difficult part was looking inward and I couldn't find the attachment. I felt unbearable distress. One practitioner told me that she didn't like that practitioner, either. Why did she say this to me? What human attachment did I have that caused her to say this?
In "Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference at US Capital" Master said:
"When a Dafa disciple has a hard time with something and needs to think things over, he should look for things starting with himself and do things in line with the environment needed by Dafa disciples and the Fa-rectification. When a problem occurs, it is because that person is stubbornly going against the Fa principles."
What was the reason that I didn't like her? Was there a factor of wanting to validate myself and put myself above her? Why did she always behave like that in front of me? Wasn't it Master letting me see my own shortcomings from that practitioner's behavior? When I rectified myself and straightened things out, everything around me changed.
My fellow practitioners, let us cultivate diligently at this final stage of the Fa-rectification.
