(Minghui.org) Greetings esteemed Master and fellow practitioners.
I am a Vietnamese practitioner who started practicing Falun Dafa in 2010, while studying at a university.
Memorizing the Fa
Master said,
“…they thought about how people used to memorize many scriptures even though their meaning wasn’t very clear and all of them were pretty vague.” (“Suggestions Given at the Beijing Falun Dafa Assistants Meeting,”Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa)
“Those of us who have the ability, who are in their prime, excepting people who are older or who have poor memory, should try to memorize the book. Perhaps what I’m suggesting is high—my requirement might be really high.” (“Comments Regarding the Fa-Rectification Made at the Falun Dafa Assistants Meeting in Beijing,” Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa)
I thought it would be good if I could memorize the Fa, but I did not have much confidence in myself, even if I could memorize the Fa in Vietnamese. Although I am young, I am not like what Master said, “in my prime.” I think it is already very good that I am able to read Zhuan Falun.
I later met a Vietnamese practitioner at the same university. He had begun to practice Dafa one year later than I, but had already started memorizing the Fa. I was a bit surprised when I realized that memorizing the Fa was not something impossible to achieve after all. After that, I started to memorize the Vietnamese version of Zhuan Falun, but stopped after I memorized “On Dafa,” as I felt that the preface was already very difficult to memorize.
I then read a cultivation sharing article on the Minghui website where a practitioner shared that if he could not memorize a full paragraph, he would instead memorize sentence by sentence. After memorizing every sentence, one can then memorize the sentences in a paragraph, as the sentences have already been memorized, and are already stored in the brain. The brain is just not able to link the sentences immediately. However, when you memorize Zhuan Falun bythe paragraph, you can recall sentences. Although I fully agreed with this practitioner’s understanding, I still could not start memorizing the book. When I shared this experience with another Vietnamese practitioner, she immediately started to memorize Zhuan Falun like I said. Before long, she had memorized the entire book Zhuan Falun.
I subsequently experienced a tribulation which I could not overcome, and I shared the problem with this practitioner. She said, “You shared such a good cultivation experience with me so well, but you did not put it into action. You should quickly start taking action. I feel that this is really very good.” I later heard that she had already memorized Zhuan Falun four times.
With her encouragement, I started to memorize Zhuan Falun. Memorizing the Fa is very convenient, as I can do it when walking. As I memorize each sentence, it is relatively easy. I memorized the Fa, which helped me realize that this is a very good practice, and my understanding of the Fa improved greatly. I understood many things in the Fa which I had missed when I read it too quickly during my Fa study. I tried to make use of whatever time I have available to memorize the Fa. Before long, I had finished memorizing Lecture Four. During this process, I discovered many of my shortcomings, and overcame a tribulation.
I then stopped memorizing again. I'm not quite sure why I stopped, maybe it was because I had no confidence in memorizing the Chinese version, or experienced interference. Then, in 2014 when I realized that the attachment of lust was very difficult to eliminate, I searched for a way to let go. No matter how hard I tried to reject the bad thoughts, they still appeared in my mind. I even looked up the Zhengjian website to look for related cultivation experience articles from other practitioners about this problem.
Master said,
“…so reading my book can eliminate it. When you read the book what’s sent out is gong, what’s sent out is Fa, so it can have the effect of eliminating karma.” (“Suggestions Given at the Beijing Falun Dafa Assistants Meeting,” Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa)
After reading that, I suddenly understood that in order to get rid of the attachment of lust and all other attachments, I would need to memorize the Fa! Through learning from Master’s lectures, when I faced the attachment of lust, I recitedMaster's Fa:
“Desires, lust, and things of these sorts are all human attachments, and all of them should be given up.” (Lecture Six, Zhuan Falun)
I recited this sentence continuously 81 times, and should I discover remaining lust or other thoughts of attachments in my mind, I will recite the sentence another 81 times, and will keep doing so until my mind is at peace.
This experience gave me hope, as I did not expect that the effect of simply reciting this one sentence 81 times would be so good. I then thought that if I could memorize one more sentence, I would just add one more sentence, and another sentence. Since this memorization method worked, I just memorized another sentence and recited it. I gradually memorized the paragraph in Chinese, then used the same method to memorize one more paragraph. Gradually, the paragraphs added up and I was able to memorize the whole section, “How Practicing Provokes Evil.”
This was a very critical milestone on my cultivation path. Not only did Iovercome my attachment of lust, I also realized that I could memorize the Fa in Chinese. After I memorized a large portion of the Fa, I felt that the Fa was always with me, and my confidence improved a lot.
As practitioners who have studied the Fa know, numerous divine beings and gods are behind every word in Zhuan Falun, with Master’s spiritual body being at the top. Therefore, the book is filled with limitless powers. When we memorize a few pages of Zhuan Falun, our brain fills with so many words from the Fa, along with energy empowerment. If we put our hearts into memorizing Zhuan Falun, those divine beings and gods can point out our mistakes and shortcomings. I felt as though my soul was immersed in Dafa, and that my powers increased significantly, including that I became a very confident person.
I used to wish to memorize the Fa in Chinese, but I did not have much confidence in myself, as my Chinese was limited because I had only taken an introductory course. Many people said that it was already very good that I was able to read the Chinese Zhuan Falun, but they did not give me much hope about memorizing the book. I realized that this was not the case.
Memorizing the Fa improved my Chinese a lot. I gained a better understanding of the Chinese grammar, vocabulary, and spoken language, because while I was memorizing the Fa, apart from filling my mind with Fa, the language also filled my mind. The Fa was also empowering me and giving me the wisdom to learn faster. I thus gradually mastered the Chinese language, and am sounding more natural when talking in Chinese.
When taking a taxi in 2014, a taxi driver asked me if I was from Hong Kong, after listening to my Chinese. This year, someone asked me if I was from mainland China. Therefore, when our Chinese is good we not only can memorize the Fa, but can also take part in a conversation, and speak Chinese at any time.
When I later memorized the Chinese language books, it was a very slow process. I already felt that it is very difficult to persist when I finished memorizing Lecture Two. At that time, I had unknowingly started to memorize the Fa with an attachment. I also experienced interference. So I slowly stopped memorizing the Chinese language version of Zhuan Falun.
When on the RTC platform, I thought of looking for a small Fa study group to recite the Fa. However, when I found a small Fa memorizing group, in which was a Vietnamese practitioner, I got curious. I thought that those small Fa memorizing groups have memorized Zhuan Falun very well, and would not need to bring Zhuan Falun to the Fa study. So this Vietnamese practitioner must be so capable to be able to achieve that. I therefore stopped by to find out how they memorized the Fa. I realized that things were not like what I had expected. The practitioners were memorizing by paragraph. I joined in to memorize. I felt that this was much better than in the past when I was memorizing by myself, as this method allowed us to encourage one another in the process. Therefore, I persisted in joining this group to memorize the Fa, and am currently memorizing Lecture Nine.
In addition to memorizing the Fa on the platform, I joined a small local Fa memorizing group. I felt that the environment where we get to memorize the Fa face-to-face with practitioners was wonderful. At first, we memorized Hong Yin IV. After that, the chairing practitioner said that we should continue on to Zhuan Falun. I felt that the environment of this small Fa memorizing group was very good and very pure. After memorizing the Fa, I felt as though I had been washed clean. My mind was very clean, and my mental state was very good too. The participating practitioners all felt that they have benefited greatly from it too.
Forming a Practice Site
After memorizing the Fa like that for half a year, I had a breakthrough. I rent a flat, and the flat owner is a practitioner. However, we have always practiced the exercises separately. I also find it hard to wake up in the morning to do the exercises when I am by myself. Every night, I set the alarm to wake up for the morning exercises before I sleep, but every time I wake up, my mind is not clear and the mental karma makes me think that studying the Fa is more important, while doing fewer of the exercises will not pose too much of a problem, and I can thus sleep a bit more. However, once I go back to sleep, I wake up at 7 a.m. or even later.
After memorizing the Fa for some time, I realized that once I was awakened by the alarm, I would no longer have the thought of going back to sleep, and I could do the exercises in the morning. However, for a few months, I have been practicing the exercises by myself in my room while the other practitioners did them in the living room. So, in July, I suggested that we do the exercises downstairs, even if there were only the three of us. In this way, we persisted in doing so for a few months, and could wake up to do the exercises in the morning almost every day. After that, more practitioners joined us, and before long we formed a new practice site.
Letting Go of Selfishness
I am the type of person who would fight for my goals. I thought of myself as a strong willed and determined person. After studying and memorizing the Fa, I slowly discovered that these were selfish thoughts.
For example when I want to obtain something as a non-practitioner, being strong willed and determined was normal. The more I wanted to obtain something, the more I was complimented as someone with determination, as I could persuade someone who was obstructing me from obtaining what I desired.
Master said,
“…the more selfish he becomes; the more he wants to possess, the further away he moves from the characteristic of the universe. He then heads for destruction.” (Lecture Three, Zhuan Falun)
“...a practitioner should follow the course of nature. If something is yours, you will not lose it. If something is not yours, you will not have it even if you fight for it. Of course, that is not absolute. If it were as absolute as that, there would not be the issue of committing wrongdoing. In other words, there are some unstable factors. But as a practitioner, you are in principle protected by Teacher’s fashen. Others cannot take away what is yours, even if they want to.” (Lecture Seven, Zhuan Falun)
Master mentioned similar problems in his lectures. My understanding is that what we can obtain has already been predetermined. Although cultivation can change our fate, from the moment we start cultivating, everything has also been prearranged. Our working hard for it is just superficial so as to align with the law of this realm where “the amount of effort put in is equal to the amount that you gain,” so we can only obtain something when we put in the effort for it. We can only obtain something if we are destined to own it. If not, we will not be able to get it. No matter if this destiny was arranged at our birth or at the start of our cultivation, everything is predetermined. If we work too hard for what we want, we obtain what belongs to someone else, and will incur karma and owe others for it.
Master said,
“In religious cultivation practice of the past, the Buddha School required emptiness. One should not think about anything and enter the door of emptiness. The Tao School taught nothingness, as there is nothing. One should not want anything, and neither should one pursue anything. A practitioner believes he should only focus on practicing, without paying attention to obtaining gong. In cultivation and practice one should be in a state free of intention. As long as you focus on cultivating your xinxing, you will make breakthroughs in your level and certainly get things you deserve. If you cannot give something up, isn’t it an attachment?” (Lecture Two, Zhuan Falun)
Therefore, my understanding is that in whatever we do, if we feel that we are supposed to do it, we should try to do it well. As for the result, we will let nature take its course.
Master said,
“Yet as the number of lives increases, a collective form of social relations develops in which some people may develop selfishness and gradually their level will be lowered. If they cannot stay at this level, they must drop down further.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)
My understanding is that the living beings fell from the higher realms due to selfishness. Through studying the Master’s lectures, I also understood that the old universe cannot last forever. It will also need to go through the process of formation-stasis-degeneration-destruction because of selfishness. We will therefore need to eliminate this selfishness during our cultivation. At my level, this selfishness is reflected in the desire “to attain something,...” (Lecture in Sydney) Be it gaining benefits, reputation, relationships, having my opinion acknowledged or accepted by others, as long as it is for the purpose of gaining something for myself, these are all signs of selfishness.
Master said,
“But true improvements come from letting go, not from gaining.” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. II)
My understanding is that not only should I not have the delusion of thinking that I can own something that I want, I should also get rid of attachments. If we can get rid of attachments, even if we did not obtain anything, won’t we have already benefited? Isn’t obtaining something a motive for cultivating ourselves? We may all have experienced the joy of getting rid of attachments. To me, the feeling when we ascend in our cultivation levels is a relaxing and wonderful feeling which far surpasses the type of happiness of when we obtain something that we wanted in the sentient world.
The above are my cultivation experiences. As I look back on the process of my memorizing of the Fa, I realized that if I wanted to have a breakthrough in my cultivation state, memorizing the Fa was the most effective way to do so. I therefore hope that every one of us can memorize the Fa so that our brains can be filled with the Fa, understand the Fa in a logical manner, improve ourselves on the basis of the Fa, complete our mission, and fulfill our promise to Master.
Master said,
“With righteous thoughts each step of the way—in the world are GodsReturning with full bounty, they’re received by all Gods” (“Stirred by Reflection,” Hong Yin IV)
Thank you Master, and fellow practitioners!
(Presented at the 2019 Singapore Fa Conference)
