(Clearwisdom.net) From Clearwisdom articles, I have seen that many fellow practitioners are memorizing the Falun Dafa books as a way of studying the Fa. Early this year when I visited my hometown, a fellow practitioner asked me if I had begun to memorize the Fa, and I said, "I had a bad memory when I was young. Now I am approaching 70." He said, "Cultivation should not be limited by age." After I returned home I thought seriously on this matter and finally decided to begin memorizing the Fa. Now after one hundred days, I look back and realize that I have passed three tests of my attachment.
1) Relinquishing the attachment to age
Loss of memory during old age is an intrinsic human notion. If one does not eliminate this notion, there is no way one can memorize the Fa. I opened Zhuan Falun and found the following writing:
"Cultivating mind and body refers to cultivating one's xinxing at the same time that one's body is cultivated. In other words, benti is being transformed. In the process of transformation, human cells will be gradually replaced by the high-energy matter, and aging will slow down. One's body will appear to gradually return to youth..."
Suddenly I realized that my vision began to decline when I was 47, and between the ages of 50 to 60, I wore +2.0 reading glasses, and could not read without them. After I started to practice Falun Gong, I could read without glasses. I am 68 now. Hasn't my body returned to 46 years of age or younger? Why do I still insist that I am an old man? Isn't this a human notion?
I was so happy when I realized this, because I now seem at least 22 years younger than my real age. I must study the Fa diligently as a young man. I am determined to memorize Zhuan Falun, Essentials for Further Advancement, Essentials for Further Advancement II, Hongyin and Hongyin II.
2) Relinquishing the attachment to sleep
In my entire life of 68 years, I have formed a routine of sleeping seven to eight hours per night. When work was busy and I slept a couple of hours less, my head felt heavy, and I usually had to make up the loss later. Now that I have begun to memorize the books, if I still kept the old routine, I would have to squeeze time from my already busy schedule. Right now, my mornings and evenings are full. During the day I am busy doing truth clarification work. Sometimes in a whole day, I could not even memorize one paragraph. What can I do? I could only reduce my sleep time. So I began to wake up at 4:00 a.m. instead of 6:00 a.m., and use the extra two hours to memorize Zhuan Falun. But after I woke up, I could not open my eyes, and my head felt heavy and I had a hard time staying focused. When I read the book, I could hardly remember one sentence. I thought "I should quit!" But right after this thought came to my mind, I suddenly woke up. No! I am a Dafa disciple. I will not quit. I must remain diligent all the time. I kept the 4:00 a.m. wake up time and endured the discomfort. Even when there was little progress, I still pushed myself to continue. After sixty days of struggle, I passed this test. My head was clear when I woke up at 4:00 a.m., and my progress in memorizing the book was better. Recently, I changed the schedule to 3:30 a.m. At the beginning, my head again felt heavy, but after approximately two weeks, I overcame the hardship again.
3) Relinquishing the attachment to time
When I began memorizing the Fa, my progress was slow. In two to three days, I could not even memorize one page. The book has 330 pages, so when would I complete the book? I kept thinking about how to be faster. Before I could solidly remember the first paragraph, I moved onto the next. The result was that I memorized pretty fast but also forgot equally fast. At this time, I recalled Teacher's words, "attaining naturally without pursuit" ("Lecture at the First Conference in North America") and realized that if I kept trying to speed up the memorization process, then I was pursuing time. I must relinquish the pursuit mentality and anxiety, and I should memorize the Fa with a calm mind. My procedure is to follow the subtitles, and work on two paragraphs at a time. I first read the two paragraphs over and over until I can memorize them, then close the book and recite the two paragraphs. The effect has been good. After I memorize the paragraphs, I feel very good.
July 20, 2006
