(Clearwisdom.net) This morning I went to our practice site. I had not been to the site for a long time. To my surprise I found that several of the big tall trees had disappeared and the green lawn had also disappeared. What replaced them were some small trees newly planted in a somewhat random fashion. I was shocked and felt sorry that such an originally good practice environment was destroyed.
I have lived in Lyons, France, for two years. To be honest, I have only gone to the practice site a very limited number of times. The schedule for group practice was only on Sundays starting at 9:00 a.m. I felt ashamed that I could not even make it once a week. I had always found many excuses, such as having a young child, the weekend being a time for family, the practice site being so far from my home that it took an hour to get there, the weather not being good, and so on, not to mention the wintertime cold. At the site I only knew two Western practitioners. I heard from them that there are several other Western practitioners, but I have not seen them yet.
During two years of clarifying the truth, I met some people that were interested in learning Falun Gong. They asked me the location of the practice site and the practice schedule. But I could never tell them accurately. The first reason why I couldn't was that I did not go to the practice site and did not know the specific situation. The second reason was that if I gave them incorrect information and they went to the site following my directions but did not find anyone, it would give them a bad impression.
It had happened that two people with predestined relationships really did go to the practice site following my directions, but they did not find anyone there. Although I had made appointments with them later to continue teaching them the exercises, I did not hear anything from them afterwards. If the practice site had a relatively fixed schedule, and if they felt good the first time they did the exercises, they probably would have come a second time and a third time, and they would then have had the opportunity to obtain the Fa.
At the same time, I also noticed that Chinese students and tourists frequently visited the park. One time on my way home after finishing the exercises, I met several Chinese gentlemen. I greeted them in a friendly way, and they asked me where they could find a place to eat, so we started chatting. I took this chance to give them truth-clarifying material and they pleasantly accepted. They also told me that they often receive truth-clarification material in China.
This made me realize that only by forming a Fa-study group with other practitioners to elevate based on the Fa can we then establish a relatively stable group practice environment. At the same time I hope that overseas practitioners can give some suggestions on this issue.
For the group Fa-study, I wrote about my recent experiences to share with everyone. First I want to thank the fellow practitioner who wrote "Excerpts from Teacher's Lectures Relating to Group Fa-study" (http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2007/1/4/81434.html) because this was what happened: Last week I made a suggestion to a Western practitioner to form a Fa study group. He did not answer me. I called him, and he said there were too many activities and he did not have the time. But as a practitioner doing Dafa work, we have to learn the Fa well. Only by learning the Fa well can we then do Dafa work well, and Master has taught us the principle of the Fa very clearly. Especially in the new lecture "To the Australia Fa Conference" Master further stressed this point. I sent an email to our practitioners again and told them that they could come to my home anytime in the following week, even if it was for only a half hour or one hour. One week passed and I still did not receive any response. I then read the Clearwisdom article mentioned above. I was very moved. This was precisely the answer to the question I was facing! Following the list organized by the article's author, I found the French translations of Master's teachings about group Fa study. I then sent the translations to the Western fellow practitioners, hoping they would understand, based on the Fa, the importance of group Fa-study.
