The Value in Joining Small Group Fa Study

(Minghui.org) Fa-rectification is at the end of its final phase. It has not been easy for Dafa practitioners to follow Master Li (Dafa’s founder) to rectify the Fa through today. Especially since many Dafa practitioners are now in their seventies and eighties, so many of our lives have been extended by Master. I discovered that many elderly practitioners around me have illness karma tribulations manifesting. Some of them do not have a clear main consciousness. Some have already not done the exercises for a year, and some have forgotten the movements for the five sets of exercises. Some could not let go of their affection for children and passed away. Some do not join small Fa study groups due to fear or the attachment to comfort.

A Dafa practitioner I know had always cultivated quite well, but after her children got married and had children, they asked her to go to the suburbs to help them look after their children. She went. She could not interact with other practitioners when she was in the suburbs, and she gradually slacked off in her cultivation. An illness karma tribulation then manifested. She could not persist in the suburbs, so she came back to the city.

After coming back, fellow practitioners went to her house to study the Fa and exchange cultivation understandings with her and her body recovered.

She did not realize that this was Master saving her and helping her get rid of her illness karma, so she did not cherish the life that Master had extended for her, and she wanted to go back to help her children look after their kids. When fellow practitioners tried to persuade her to let go of her attachment to her relationship with her children, she said that if she did not help them, they would not be able to cope. She ignored the practitioners’ recommendations and went.

After just a few days, her illness karma symptoms became serious and she became thin, like a bag of bones. She could not stand stably, and she came back to the city again. Through studying the Fa, practicing the exercises, and exchanging cultivation understandings with fellow practitioners, she realized her mistake and wanted to let go of her attachment to her children to cultivate properly. As her xinxing improved, Master benevolently gave her another chance. Master cleansed her body to allow her to cultivate.

After the illness tribulation passed, her attachment to her children came up again and she still wanted to go help look after her grandchildren. She said if she didn’t go, it would be too tiring for her children to work and look after their children at the same time. Practitioners talked to her and reminded her: You repeatedly go back and forth. Master gave you chance after chance, but you still do not cherish the chances, aren’t you letting Master and his benevolent salvation down? She did not listen to the practitioners’ kind reminders and went to the suburbs again.

After just a few days, she came back to the city again. This time, her illness was so serious that she could barely walk. If she had been able to treat herself as a cultivator and cultivate diligently, benevolent Master would have still given her a chance. But instead, she really treated herself as a patient. She had originally been able to go to the toilet herself, but she just lay in bed and waited for others to look after her. Before long, she passed away. This was a really painful lesson!

Whenever we recall this matter, the practitioners in our small group feel very guilty. After seeing that she would not wake up from her mistakes repeatedly, we lost confidence in her, and after a few days we stopped going to her house to study the Fa with her.

I recently ran into a practitioner who said that for the past two years she had fallen down many times and kept spraining her ankle so badly that she couldn’t walk for a long time. She said that it was Master helping her get rid of her karma. I replied, “Let go of the attachment, everything that happens is a good thing.”

I went home and started to think: this practitioner is very diligent in her cultivation, and she has shouldered many projects that validate Dafa. She has sacrificed a lot and she is always steady when things happen. She also does not have much fear. When Master helps us get rid of our karma, it should not affect us doing the three things. I recalled that a practitioner had introduced Dafa to a sentient being who had an illness. To help this new practitioner who had just obtained the Fa, the practitioner with the ankle issue started a small Fa study group at a practitioner’s house. One of my relatives did not have a Fa study group so I asked her to join their group. Initially, the relative did not want to go, because she had never joined a Fa study group before. I said, “You should go. After you go, you will not be able to stop going. Each time the day for group Fa study comes, you will look forward to it and be happy about it as though the New Year was coming.” She went and after that, she said, “Sister, you are right. Every week I really look forward to this day.” However, the small Fa study group was later disbanded. I thought that this practitioner’s repeatedly spraining her ankle may have some relationship to this matter. Since she started the Fa study group, shouldn’t she continue it instead of giving up halfway through?

There was one more matter. Although it happened 10 years ago, I can still remember this matter clearly in my mind.

A practitioner was kidnapped and illegally sent for re-education through labor, so our Fa study group was disbanded. After the practitioner was released, I found another practitioner and said, “Group Fa study is the cultivation path that Master has left for us, so shouldn't we revive our small Fa study group? Our current cultivation environment won’t do!” The practitioner agreed so we divided into two small groups, one for the north of the road and one for the south of the road. Due to safety considerations, we decided that every family would take turns studying the Fa. We thus revived our cultivation environment.

A practitioner from the group south of the road was scared and asked that we not go to her house. She also didn’t want to go to other people’s houses. One night, I had a very vivid dream: in the dream, many people were in a big house. From east to west, we queued in long neat queues. Out of all those people, I only knew two practitioners from our small study group, and they were standing at the front of the two middle rows (we happen to live in the city center). At this time, the practitioner who did not want to join the Fa study group walked over and wanted to join our queue, but she just could not get in. When she wanted to join another group, she also could not get into that queue. In the end, she had to leave grumpily.

I woke up and felt that this dream was so vivid, it must be trying to enlighten me to something. I understood that it was saying that the practitioner wants to join a Fa study group, but neither of our groups wanted her. I must look for that practitioner and talk to her about it.

When the sky became light, I grabbed my breakfast and went to the practitioner’s house. I told her about the dream I had the night before. That practitioner was very shocked. “It is true?” she said. I said, “Sister, you see, Dafa practitioners were all in a queue forming an entity, everyone was standing in their position and you were the only one all alone. Your house has only you and my brother. Both of you are practitioners, so how come you are scared about taking turns holding Fa study sessions? Let me talk to the practitioners and you can come and join us.” The practitioner agreed and joined our Fa study group. That practitioner later still could not let go of her fear and would not stay in one fixed group. Sometimes, she would join this group and then join another group a few days later. Now, she has the manifestations of an illness karma tribulation and is employing a caregiver to take care of her.

Group Fa study is the cultivation path that Master has arranged for us. It is to let us exchange our understandings from cultivation and become diligent in cultivation together. Some places still have not started Fa study groups. The practitioners in these places are still cultivating by themselves at home, so they can’t read the truth-clarification materials or the weekly publications. How could they become diligent in their cultivation? There are also some Fa study groups that were very good in the past but after suing Jiang Zemin (the former communist party leader) they became scared and the practitioners no longer dared to join Fa study groups. Some went to their children’s houses to hide. There were all sorts of situations.

There’s not much time left for us to cultivate. We should not forget our prehistoric vows or let the beings in our world down. We also should not let down Master’s benevolent salvation. Master is worried for us!

Let’s revive our Fa study groups to their initial state! Let’s all return to our Fa study groups! Let’s remember Master’s teaching well:

“Cultivate with the heart you once had, and success is certain.” (“Fa Teaching on World Falun Dafa Day,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XII)

I am very worried when I see the problems that have appeared among fellow practitioners so I wrote this article. Kindly correct me if there is any room for improvement.