(Clearwisdom.net) I would like to share how important it is to study the Fa and share insights with fellow practitioners in a group setting.
My husband was always against my practicing Falun Dafa, and beat me a couple of times after I started my cultivation. He had not done that before. Although I managed not to fight back physically or verbally, I still felt very upset and had very negative feelings toward him. I even thought about a divorce. I didn't think about looking within or taking the incident as a test or a good opportunity to improve myself. Since I started coming out to participate in group study a few months ago however, my xinxing has improved naturally.
One day my husband came back after having a drink with his colleagues. Every time he beat me previously was after he had been drinking. He said to me very seriously, " Do you want our home or cultivation?" I asked him, "Did I do anything wrong? I do a good job at work and with household chores. I do a good job raising our child and respect our parents. It is all because of my cultivation in Dafa that I can do these things well." He said, "Because of your cultivation, my life is unbearable. I spend every day in fear, and I worry that you could be arrested at any time. I want a divorce."
I was very calm as I listened to what he said. Seeing how much pain he was in, I felt pity for him. There was no anger or sorrow in my heart. I thought about what a fellow practitioner said, "Every Dafa disciple's family faces lots of pressure. It is not easy for them." I also understood what Master said,
"So how do we tackle this? When you attain the Dao later on, maybe a lot of people will benefit from it, and so a lot of people will bear a share for you."(Zhuan Falun)
"In this universe there's a law called 'no loss, no gain'--if you want to gain, you have to lose."(Zhuan Falun)
During the process of each disciple's cultivation, their family members have contributed a lot, and they will get what they deserve. I thought if he really could not bear it, maybe a divorce would also be a release for him. I said to him, "If you think it will be better for you, then I'll agree to a divorce." We talked about issues such as our house and child. He was still talking about it before he went to bed. I asked, "Do you want to think it over?"He said, "No. We will do it tomorrow." Then he went to sleep.
I got up on time to do the exercises the next day, and then prepared breakfast for my child and sent him to school. I waited for my husband to get up. When he did, he behaved as if nothing had happened the night before, and calmly went about his usual activities. Then I realized that it had been a test for me. Since I passed it well and met the requirements set by Master, the issue no longer existed. From then on, my husband's attitude became much better.
Since I came out to join the group study quite late, I only recently found out about the table for changing characters (without any changes in meaning, only in the Chinese characters) to match Master's revised text. Since the changes happened quite a while ago, many fellow practitioners had already finished changing the characters. I didn't think it was a big deal, but in the process of changing the characters, I realized that there was a huge difference between doing and not doing it.
Since I started changing the characters, I slowly realized that my understanding had improved after I changed many characters. Why did Master clearly require us to do it? Because Master is also correcting the errors in our cultivation. It was very wrong for me to not give it enough attention. Did I really believe in Master and the Fa one hundred percent? Everyone is reading the same Dafa book, but why does everyone progress differently? Master said,
"However much you put in, that's how much you get out." (Zhuan Falun)
During the process of changing the characters, my mind was also becoming more and more clear, and every word in Dafa has become very clear. Previously, a whole paragraph would pass by with my hardly noticing. I also have a different understanding of things that happen around me, and my xinxing has improved without my noticing it happening.
Master said,
"This Great Fa of the cosmos is to leave for sentient beings at different levels in different periods of history a reference for when problems occur in different periods at different levels, and is to leave for beings ways of handling all kinds of situations that occur at different times in history." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2001 Canada Fa Conference" from Guiding the Voyage)
Dafa disciples in the Fa Rectification period are also responsible for leaving a most righteous path of cultivation. We should take the Fa as our Master, and firmly follow what Master said.
I found that since I started studying the Fa and sharing and doing things to validate the Fa together with fellow practitioners in the past few months, the speed of my xinxing improvement has been much faster than when I cultivated at home for the past few years. If each of us can come out and follow what Master said to study the Fa and share in a group, form an environment to improve as a whole body, and coordinate well to do things well to save sentient beings, the environment around us will see a bigger change.
My level is limited, if there is anything improper, please kindly point it out.