My Experiences of Group Fa-Study and Group Exercise

(Minghui.org) I am a Falun Dafa practitioner from New York who began practicing in 2018.

Looking back at my path, I have stumbled along the way, but I am grateful for Master’s compassion, which helped me progress on my path of cultivation, strengthen my faith, and take the Fa as teacher.

Since I started cultivating, I have never slacked off in studying the teachings every day. I gain enlightenment from my tribulations and work to get rid of my attachments. Group exercises and group Fa study were a huge help to me as a new student.

My Experience with Group Fa-Study

When I first started cultivating, hundreds of New York practitioners would gather every Friday night in a large auditorium at Hotel Pennsylvania in Manhattan. If there weren’t enough seats for everyone, many would sit cross-legged on the floor to study the Fa.

Practitioners would alternate between reading in Chinese and English, reading loudly and in a unified voice, creating a powerful energy field. I always saw a middle-aged female practitioner sitting cross-legged on the floor with her eyes closed, reciting the Fa while everyone else read out loud. In that collective study environment, we read Zhuan Falun many times.

Afterwards, the person in charge would talk about current activities, followed by cultivation sharing. The sharing among fellow practitioners was very in-depth, and I was often deeply moved by their actions of putting saving people first. I was a new student then, and the environment of studying the Fa and sharing inspired me and made me work harder to keep up with the progress of Fa-rectification.

When the pandemic began, we lost this group Fa study environment. Although I have adapted to online study, I miss seeing hundreds of people studying and sharing together.

In addition to the large group Fa study on Friday, there is a small one every night. I was fortunate to study with several diligent veteran practitioners for one and a half hours every night. After finishing Fa study on Thursday nights, we share cultivation experiences.

I remember one practitioner in our group. She always wrote her sharing ahead of time, organized her thoughts and experiences, and provided a link for Master’s Fa teaching quotes. I began to pay close attention to sharing experiences. Each time I finished a sharing article, I felt I had cleansed myself. I could feel the improvement after each sharing experience.

The group Fa-study environment benefited me immensely as a new practitioner and allowed me to truly enter Dafa cultivation. I was also deeply impressed by practitioners’ understanding of Fa principles and their strict demands on themselves as practitioners.

When I first started studying the Fa, I remember that I had particularly strong thought karma. Questions kept popping up in my head, and there was even a voice in my mind saying, “How is that possible? Is that true?” I knew that I couldn’t continue in that state, and it was precisely because of the group Fa study environment that I was able to quickly suppress this thought karma and firmly walk the path of doing the three things well every day.

The support of fellow practitioners is critical. For a while, I had sickness karma, and the hoarseness in my voice was unbearable even to me. I was afraid of disturbing others while studying the Fa, so I said I would stop reading and just listen. But another practitioner said, “It’s okay, just keep reading. We don’t mind.” Although these were just a few brief words, her righteous thoughts touched my heart, and I quickly recovered.

I joined a new study group with practitioners I knew from a Dafa project. This group is small, but the requirements are high, and we study for more than two hours every night until midnight. We make sure we study one lecture of Zhuan Falun and other lectures chronologically every day. I thank Master for these arrangements, which have allowed me to have a group study environment at every stage and to practice diligently with like-minded practitioners.

My Experience with Group Exercises

Since I learned Dafa, I have been practicing outdoors in a park in the heart of New York City, regardless of the heat or cold. Sometimes there were as many as 30 practitioners, both Westerners and Chinese, exercising together, lined up in a row, creating a strong energy field.

The park was in a good location, with many people coming and going. Every time we practiced, at least a hundred people passed by. Many stopped to watch and take a flyer, and some joined the group to learn the exercises. Gradually I learned how to clarify the truth to people, which planted the seeds for saving people in the future.

I remember that when I first attained the Fa, the best part of my day was when I got off work and walked to the exercise site. I saw all the practitioners around me were meditating in an upright and beautiful posture.

I forced myself to sit in the lotus position. It was so painful that I felt like a knife was stabbing my feet, but I gritted my teeth and recited, “When it’s difficult to endure, you can endure it. When it’s impossible to do, you can do it.” (Zhuan Falun). When I finished, tears were streaming down my face from the pain, but I felt grateful. If there had been no group exercises, I know it would have been difficult to be so strict with myself, and it would have been difficult to complete the five sets of exercises in one go. It was through group exercises that my cultivation improved every day.

When the pandemic broke out in March 2020, New York City shut down all businesses, but the parks remained open, and our exercise site continued. Although there were fewer practitioners during this extraordinary period, many everyday people became interested in meditating and exercising, and there was a steady stream of people coming to learn the exercises every day. There were countless miraculous stories at the practice site during the epidemic.

Master told us:

“I’m talking about getting people with a predestined relationship to come obtain the Fa. Today I might as well tell everyone clearly: The Fa-spreading method we’ve adopted all along is that you do the exercises outdoors. Another one is to have our Dafa books for sale in public bookstores. My Law Bodies will direct people with a predestined relationship to buy the book, and as soon as they read it they will come and learn. Also, we’re doing the exercises outdoors, so the Law Bodies will arrange for them to find the practice sites and obtain the Fa. Through a strange combination of circumstances they will be led over here to do the exercises, or they will find our students.” (“Teachings at the Conference in Switzerland”)

Looking back at the six years I spent at this exercise site, I witnessed how this site saved many predestined people. If it hadn’t been for the group exercise environment at the beginning of my cultivation, I wouldn’t be in my current state.

Everything returned to normal after the pandemic ended, but only two or three practitioners remained at the once busy practice site. I don’t know why most of the other practitioners didn’t come back. They may have opened a new site or got used to the convenience of practicing indoors. Maybe they were too busy.

I have found that when there are more practitioners, the energy field is greater, and the number of people who stop to look and take information is greater, so it is of profound significance that Master wants us to exercise as a group outdoors.

This practice site was established ten years ago and has played a very important role until now. But in this final critical period, we are facing difficulty maintaining the site. If those who pass by the park, and should have been saved, miss their opportunity because of our absence, what a great pity that would be!

I remember just six months after I started cultivating, one Friday night after sending forth righteous thoughts, I had the desire to go to the big group Fa study to share my experience, encouraged by Master. I didn’t have time to write my experience down, so in front of hundreds of practitioners, I spoke about my experience as a new practitioner, my eagerness to save others, and my goal of saving at least one person every day.

Several practitioners came over to greet me, saying how touched they were after listening to my sharing, and that it awakened them to regain their original state of cultivation, as before.

At that time, I didn’t understand what they meant by “cultivating as before.” Recently, I realized that I’d been thrilled and diligent when I first obtained the Fa. Several times while I was meditating, my heart was so pure that tears would stream down my face. After the meditation, my eyes were stuck together with dried tears and couldn’t open. I didn’t know why I was in such a state. It was a mixture of sadness and joy. I was happy for my belated salvation, and Master’s compassionate salvation infinitely moved me. The Buddha’s grace is immense!

In the years that followed, my state of mind fluctuated during meditation. Sometimes, I would just muddle through, with my mind not as calm as it should be, and there were even times when I missed meditation because I was busy. At these times, a thought would remind me: “Practice as you did in the beginning!” I miss that state of diligence. I believe this thought was given to me by Master to protect me.

Master told us:

“It has been said, “When I come to this ordinary human society, it’s just like checking into a hotel for a few days. Then I leave in a hurry.” Some people are just obsessed with this place and have forgotten their own homes.” (Lecture Nine, Zhuan Falun)

Every time I read this, I was particularly touched. I always choked up while reading. I used to be deeply trapped in everyday desires for fame, wealth, and love. When I first started cultivating, I felt a deep resonance with Dafa. Expressing my understanding of the Fa principles in human language is difficult.

Later, when I reread this Fa, I was not so touched. My heart seemed less focused, and the Fa principles were no longer revealed to me. I realized that my cultivation might have become a formality.

I feel deeply ashamed. Because I have been pursuing comfort, I have slacked off in my cultivation. From time to time, human thoughts have surfaced: resentment, lust, comfort, and even cunning and deeply buried jealousy will appear. It is difficult to cultivate as before.

For a while, not only did the number of practitioners coming to the exercise site decrease, but there were also fewer everyday people stopping to ask questions. This made me sad, and I suspected that it was because there were too few practitioners and the energy field was insufficient. Recently, the remaining practitioners around me suggested shortening the exercise time, and some wanted to change the site because the park was too noisy on weekends.

After thinking about this, I looked inward: We are one body, and I must start with myself, do well, improve my cultivation state, and practice in earnest. Only then can I attract more predestined people to come here, and Master will perfect this practice site.

Recently, I met another practitioner, and the first thing he said was to return to group Fa study and exercises. I was shocked, and I knew that nothing was accidental. This is also what prompted me to write this sharing article.

From my own experience, I grew from a new practitioner to a Dafa disciple who can think calmly and practice firmly, inseparable from the collective cultivation environment required by Master.

I recall a Westerner who joined the exercise site for two years, but never started to truly cultivate. I feel that if there is an environment where group study and group exercise go hand in hand, and newcomers can be supported more in their Fa study, perhaps more people will be able to come and truly cultivate.

In short, cultivation is very serious. The recent events and Master’s two new articles point directly at every cultivator. On the way home tonight, the last sentence of the new article “The Ordeals Our Spiritual Discipline Faces” kept coming to mind:

“And during these ordeals, lives are being chosen to either remain or be sifted out in the end, and just as much is at stake for our Dafa practitioners.”

I hope that the above sharing will inspire other practitioners. My level of understanding is limited. If there is anything not in line with the Fa principles, please kindly point it out.