(Clearwisdom.net July 24, 2003)

There once was a practitioner who could not pass his tribulations for a long time. Fellow practitioners persuaded him to study the Fa more but he said, "I understand the Fa and yet, I cannot advance."

Did he truly understand the Fa? If he really did, he would treat the tribulation from a cultivator's viewpoint, rather than treating it like an everyday person. From the standpoint of ordinary people he may "know" but he is not "studying the Fa well" according to a cultivator's standard. Although an everyday person may know what he is supposed to do, he still may not do so because he thinks he has other choices. However, once a cultivator understands the Fa, he will have firm righteous beliefs and voluntarily assimilate to Dafa according to the requirement of the Fa.

Truly understanding the Fa is not limited to superficially recognizing and comprehending the words. Our bodies in other dimensions are also exposed and constantly assimilate to Dafa, and constantly increase the level of their realms. True understanding of the Fa also implies the continuous relinquishment of attachments and further determines our righteous beliefs. When manifest in this dimension, the practitioner maintains righteous thoughts and righteous actions, doing things according to Master's requirements, striving forward without stopping.

From this perspective, practitioners that have been unable to move forward for long time while claiming at the same time that they "understand" the Fa, do not truly understand the Fa. The Fa has different deeper meanings at different levels and gets closer to the ultimate truth at higher levels. For cultivation, what matters is the comprehension of the Fa principles at the level that we are at, not the quantity of study. We have to make it clear that the Fa is as big as the cosmos. No matter how high a level we reach, and even if we reach consummation, we will only attain a certain level of Fruit Status within the great universal law and it will absolutely not be a complete enlightenment to the whole universal law.

The thought of "I understand it all" is often a result of secretly wanting to protect an attachment. The evil old forces take advantage of our attachments to interfere with us in order not to let us understand the Fa and finally drag us from the very high level we have cultivated, trying to ruin us. We have to clearly realize this point, understand the Fa from within the Fa, and not regard the Fa like non-practitioners regard theoretical knowledge. We must eliminate interference, strengthen our righteous thoughts, and work hard to study the Fa well. In this way, we will be able to pass tribulations swiftly.

2003-7-24