Accompanying a New Practitioner in Fa Study: Experiences and Reflections IG07

Accompanying a New Practitioner in Fa Study:

Experiences and Reflections

Fang Tianliang

I obtained the Fa in Beijing in March 1996 and came to the United Kingdom in 1998. Today I would like to share the experience of a new practitioner and reflect on why accompanying newcomers in Fa study is so important.

1. Why Could a New Practitioner Read Zhuan Falun Twice Yet Still Struggle to Understand It?

Anna is a Chinese woman in her sixties who works as a massage therapist in Britain. She had also studied acupuncture in China, although she seldom spoke about her past. She married a British man, and after her husband passed away she lived alone and often felt lonely.

Seeking comfort, she began attending Christian activities. People at the church treated her kindly and made her feel welcome. Around 2020, she attended a Shen Yun performance. That day, at a nearby McDonald’s, she met a Dafa practitioner who introduced Falun Dafa to her and spoke with her about withdrawing from the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organisations.

Anna had lost trust in the CCP after the events at Tiananmen Square in 1989. Her older sister was in Beijing and knew about the crackdown on students. Later, Anna’s family went into business and she was too busy to watch much television. As a result, she had not absorbed much of the official propaganda against Falun Dafa after 1999. She had previously known almost nothing about the practice, and readily agreed to withdraw when the practitioner explained it.

The practitioner later mailed her a copy of Zhuan Falun. Anna tried to read it on her own but found it extremely difficult. Over approximately two years she read the book twice, yet retained little of what she read. She continued both reading Zhuan Falun and attending Christian activities.

Her reasoning was simple: “People on both sides treat me well. Why can’t I take part in both?” Although she had read the discussion of the principle of “no second cultivation way” in Zhuan Falun, she had not truly understood it at that time.

2. A Young Practitioner Read Just Three Lectures with Her

The practitioner who first introduced Anna to Dafa worked for The Epoch Times and was very busy. Unable to read with her regularly, this practitioner found a young male practitioner from mainland China who was studying for a master’s degree.

The young man was sincere and unassuming. His mother was a university teacher in mainland China. He agreed to read Zhuan Falun with Anna. They arranged to meet on Sundays, reading one lecture each time and taking turns paragraph by paragraph.

After three Sundays, the young man had to leave for New York. Yet those three sessions became a turning point for Anna. She resolved to focus on cultivating in Falun Dafa rather than continuing two different religious or spiritual practices at the same time.

Why had two years of reading alone left her undecided, while three shared reading sessions brought such a change? Anna could not fully explain it. She said the young man was very pure-hearted and that his willingness to make time for her, despite being busy, deeply moved her.

In my own understanding, sending forth righteous thoughts may also have played a role. Sitting face to face and studying the Fa, the young practitioner’s compassion and pure righteous thoughts, together with Master’s fashen strengthening her, may have helped Anna. This is how I understand the experience from a cultivation perspective.

3. I Began Reading with Anna Every Morning

Before leaving, the young man helped Anna find the volunteer practice sites listed on a Falun Dafa website. My practice site happened to be the nearest to her home, so she contacted me.

After teaching her the exercises, I hoped she could join our existing group Fa study on Sonant. I felt that studying together would create a stronger energy field. However, the coordinator was concerned about security because the group also discussed activity arrangements, and did not want to give the login password immediately to someone we did not yet know well.

The coordinator suggested that I first help Anna read through Master’s other lectures and, if she continued studying, we could then consider admitting her to the group. I wondered how long it would take to read so many lectures. But I had promised to help her, so I decided to continue.

It took more than a year.

During that time I could not attend my former morning group study because I used that hour to read with Anna. We connected by WhatsApp on our phones. She had to start work at eight each morning, so we usually read for about an hour before work, sometimes longer.

4. After Eight or Nine Months, She Said, “The Fa Is Finally Entering My Heart”

At first, reading was extremely difficult for her. Her eyesight was not good. She often misread characters or words, substituted one character for another, skipped lines, and sometimes did not even realise she had made a mistake. She said that simply listening to another person read left little impression; she needed to read aloud herself to take in the words.

So I let her do most of the reading. When she made a mistake, I reminded her. Sometimes she misread several characters in a single sentence, and I would ask her to read it again, or read the passage aloud myself before asking her to repeat it.

While accompanying her, I also sent forth righteous thoughts, hoping to help clear away interference with her Fa study. At that time I knew nothing about her earlier experiences. I only saw how unusually difficult reading was for her.

She later acknowledged that during the first few months her eyes followed the text and her mouth spoke the words, but almost nothing stayed with her. She felt as though something stood between her and the Fa.

Yet she did not give up.

After about eight or nine months, her state began to change noticeably. She said, “Before, the Fa did not enter my heart. Now I’m beginning to understand what Master is teaching.” She was no longer merely sounding out words; she gradually began to grasp their meaning, and each reading brought a different understanding.

From then on she became increasingly eager to read and could appreciate more of the Fa’s deeper meanings. She said she had changed profoundly. In her own words, she was grateful that Master had “guided her step by step onto the path of cultivation.”

This experience made me realise that receiving a copy of Zhuan Falun and developing the ability to study it consistently and understand it can be two different stages for a newcomer. The period between them may be precisely when help is most needed. If we overlook this stage, we may miss opportunities to help more people with a predestined connection begin cultivation.

5. Strengthening Righteous Thoughts and Breaking Through Interference

I often wondered: if Anna had already read Zhuan Falun twice, why did she need someone to accompany her for so long before she could truly enter into Fa study?

As we read together, I gradually felt that she was encountering interference, so I paid more attention to sending forth righteous thoughts. Only after we had known each other for some time did she tell me about her past.

When she was younger, she had studied acupuncture, massage, and what was called a “mind method” with a disciple of an acupuncture teacher. According to her recollection, that teacher had run another qigong class near a place where Master Li Hongzhi was holding a nine-day lecture series and had called himself a “son of Buddha.” Anna had not realised at the time that what she was learning involved qigong.

She said that after studying with them she had unusual sensations, as though objects carried electricity when she touched them after waking in the morning. This reminded me of the description in Lecture Three of Zhuan Falun of experiencing electricity when touching things. She also felt that the results of her acupuncture and massage had changed noticeably, and she later earned money providing these services.

Anna also told me about an incident in Singapore. A woman originally from Fujian, China, who was a leader at a temple, had studied certain religious teachings there. According to Anna’s account, the woman heard a voice telling her that she would become a Buddha if she jumped from a tall building. She then jumped from a height of about six or seven storeys. Her husband had learned of her intention and tried to catch her from below. Although he could not catch her completely, he reduced some of the impact. She nevertheless suffered multiple fractures. Anna later used electroacupuncture and massage to help relieve the woman’s pain. According to Anna, her condition improved significantly.

On hearing this story, I immediately thought of Master’s teaching in Lecture Six of Zhuan Falun about people practising false qigong who become controlled by outside messages and may even be told to jump from buildings or into water. I heard the story second-hand from Anna, but its striking resemblance to what Master taught gave me a more immediate understanding of that passage.

Anna’s earlier experiences also reminded me of the discussion of “Reverse Cultivation and Borrowing Gong” in Zhuan Falun, and of what I remember Master teaching about different qigong classes. From my cultivation perspective, I believe those early experiences may have been connected to the interference she later encountered when studying the Fa. This strengthened my resolve to send forth righteous thoughts and accompany her patiently.

Fortunately, Anna never gave up studying Dafa. I believe Master was always looking after her. On the human level, the steady companionship of fellow practitioners also helped her through her most difficult period.

6. What New Practitioners May Need Most Is Someone Willing to Keep Reading with Them

Looking back, I see three especially important stages in Anna’s experience.

First, someone introduced Dafa to her and placed Zhuan Falun in her hands.

Second, a young practitioner read three lectures with her and helped her decide to focus on cultivation.

Third, we continued reading together each day through the most difficult months, until she herself felt that the Fa had begun to enter her heart.

Without that first introduction, she might never have encountered Zhuan Falun. Without the young practitioner, she might have continued wavering between two spiritual paths. Without the long period of reading together, might she have given up because she could not understand? I do not know.

I am not suggesting that every new practitioner needs someone to accompany them for more than a year. Everyone is different. But we should not assume that someone no longer needs help simply because they have received the book or even read it once or twice.

Older newcomers, people who have difficulty reading or using the language, and those who have previously followed other religions or cultivation practices may especially benefit from patient, consistent companionship.

7. Why I Hope to Establish Reading Together Groups

This is why I have long hoped to establish online Reading Together groups.

We spend much time distributing leaflets, introducing the exercises, and organising activities. All of that matters. But when someone becomes genuinely interested in Dafa and wants to begin reading Zhuan Falun, will someone be there to help them continue?

When they cannot understand a passage, is anyone willing to read with them? When work leaves them only an hour each day, is there a regular group to help them persevere? When the first reading still leaves them confused, is anyone willing to accompany them through a second?

I hope more practitioners who grew up in Britain and speak fluent English will take part, forming groups at different times to read online with newcomers. We already have a website and an online platform to support this effort.

A group need not be large. Two or three people can begin. What matters most is that someone is willing to give their time and patiently read with a newcomer, paragraph by paragraph.

The young practitioner accompanied Anna for only three Sundays. I read with her for more than a year. The lengths of time were different, but both experiences showed me the importance of companionship.

These are only my personal understandings. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.