My process of getting rid of attachments during cultivation practice

Greetings dear Master! Greetings disciples!

To be accurate I am someone who has only practiced cultivation for 28 months. I have taken part in the art exhibition for a bit more than a year. In the summer of 2020, I was still a practitioner who had just started practicing, when I went to Styrso to see the “Zhen, Shan, Ren art exhibition” (“Truth, Compassion, Tolerance art exhibition”). I was deeply moved by these art works and their message, moreover, I began to have the wish to become part of the art exhibition team.

These paintings had a strong message and they had strong energy, and I had a dizzy spell. After seeing the art exhibition, I wanted to become part of the small team. I went many times to the art exhibition held in Styrso. When I went the second time, because of a special reason, I was criticized and reprimanded by another practitioner, I felt very wronged, and felt very greatly offended, and even had the thought of leaving Falun Gong. This was my old pattern of dealing with things. I was a new student, although I still didn’t understand how to deal with other people’s blame, however I started soul searching about this situation, and the conclusion I reached was that my coming to cultivation was for myself, and I knew that I had a predestined affinity with Falun Gong, which was enough. I waged a struggle between me and my self-pity and was able to gradually get rid of it.

At present I have understood the reaction of that practitioner as well as why she reprimanded me like that. These were all tests. This first year of my cultivation was filled with tests, and there were several times when I thought of leaving. There was always that feeling of feeling uncomfortable, and the feeling that I was being harmed. These were all attachments from different periods of my life, and I was reminded again this time of these attachments. I rethought these attachments and also looked within. Because all was a process happening within my inner being and heart, naturally it was very difficult to say at what time I had gotten rid of a small part of an attachment, or whether I had gotten rid of an attachment in its entirety. Along the path of cultivation, I was always going through the process of getting rid of attachments, for instance I more easily could bear things, and had a sort of inner freedom, and a lighter body, soul and thinking.

Master says in Lecture Nine of “Zhuan Falun”: “Only when you upgrade your xinxing can you attain a clear and clean mind, and a state free of intention (wuwei). Only when your xinxing is upgraded can you assimilate to the characteristic of the universe and remove different human desires, attachments, and other bad things.” (from Lecture Nine, Zhuan Falun).

In the autumn of 2021, I became a member of the art exhibition, and also started to take part in the small meetings on Sonant (an online conference sharing platform).

In Spring of this year, with the help of the diligence and efforts of the other practitioners in the art exhibition team, we obtained opportunities to hold exhibitions in four different places in Sweden: Grunewaldvillan in the countryside around Stockholm, Salsta Slot outside Upsalla, in a picture gallery in the city centre of Molndal, a city close to Gothenburg, and moreover at the book fair of Gothenburg in September recently.

Whilst preparing the painting exhibition for the first time in Grunewaldvillan in the countryside around Gothenburg, I was imbued with faith in looking forward to it and started reading the introductions to all the paintings. I felt unsettled and stirred by the responsibility for this task and set myself a very high requirement.

Was my knowledge enough? Because after all I was a new hand and hadn’t had any experience before of being a guide for an art exhibition. I thought of how embarrassing it would be if I couldn’t answer visitors’ questions! In the social environment, when feeling unsettled, I was one who would be more willing to hide myself. My feelings of being unsettled made it difficult at first to take the opportunity to guide visitors, because I would hide at the back of the stage. This was so that I could avoid stepping out to guide people. However a practitioner pushed me to step forward to come and guide a visitor, and this was just what I needed. As a matter of fact, being a guide, for me, wasn’t so difficult. The most difficult part of it was my troubled mind and fear. Following this, in the art exhibition at Salsta Slott castle, my unsettled feeling and fear had already disappeared, and I was able to face the visitors.

In lecture nine of Zhuan Falun Master said: “When it’s difficult to endure it can be endured”

Our art exhibition in Salsta Slott was on the third floor of the castle, there was no central heating and it was very cold. But during the days when we held the art exhibition, I never managed the freezing cold. On the last day of the exhibition, we had to take down and detach all the paintings in the exhibition and other things. After the last day of the exhibition finished, I felt very tired, and thought in my mind – How are we going to be able to take down all these paintings, and moreover we will still have to go up and down these staircases to move these paintings, and you know, there were a lot of staircases there.

We made a great effort to climb and descend these castle staircases, and spent several hours working, going up and then coming back down again and again. Thinking back to it now, I still had no way to realise how easy this task turned out to be. In general, for thirty or more times, we were carrying the paintings and other things down the stairs. Master was with us, and this was very evident for me. I think that the other practitioners in the art exhibit team learned the same through experience.

The art exhibit at Molndal

Although when I first came across the paintings in this art exhibition, I had felt the energy of these art works and was influenced and had a dizzy spell, but not until the art exhibit at Molndal, did I really understand the power behind these paintings. This time I took part right from the beginning, and at first saw an empty exhibit room, and moved the paintings up there, and helped with placing them, and then admitted the visitors. After I finished work and came directly to the exhibition room, I could feel the power of the paintings and the energy they created. If I got there in a tired state, then the feeling of tiredness would immediately be blown away, my energy would be strengthened, and this enabled my mind to be filled with righteous energy.

Those of us working there, along with these art works which made people exclaim with admiration and the energy field that they created drew people to come here, even if it was people who didn’t originally know this art exhibition existed. Many children dragged their parents to come in and have a look at the paintings after “coincidentally passing by”. Several children also came back several times to see the paintings again. A ten year old young girl said: “Every painting is like a story.” The young girl told her parents the story of those paintings, and they would again come to see those paintings. It was very evident, that many of the children had a predestined relationship with these art paintings.

Holding an art exhibit is saving sentient beings, and this is something we all know, but it was not until I had finished this years art exhibit at Gothenburg, that I truly came to understand in the depths of my soul the meaning of holding the art exhibitions. This was no longer just literally and perceptually an important thing, but became a rationally and realistic thing. I lead people through the exhibitions along with other practitioners in the art exhibition team and conversed with many people. Speaking for myself, the art exhibition this time at Gothenburg became an icebreaker for me, because I truly got out of the difficulties or parts of the difficulties I experienced before. It was just as I said, everything was a process of changing my inner mind, and sometimes it is very difficult to explain this using language.

I used to be very lazy when it came to practicing the exercises – I wouldn’t finish the exercises or not practice every day, and didn’t often study the Fa. Although I knew that I was lacking in this regard, however I didn’t amend it, because I would always attribute the fault to different reasons, for instance I couldn’t wake up to practice in the mornings, because in that way I would have no way to get enough sleep, and thought, then how would I have enough strength during the day to work or do other things? I myself had already decided that I couldn’t get up early to practice but hadn’t given it a go to see if I actually could achieve this or not. But when I was chatting to a practitioner who practiced every day, I myself decided that I certainly must make a decision, and that I must strengthen my will.

At present I practice the exercises and study the Fa every day. Usually, I start practicing the exercises at 4:20 am, and then I study together with two other practitioners. However sometimes I would practice the exercises and study the Fa at other times during the day. Still, as for me, the most important thing is that I study Fa and practice the exercises every day, and this is a great difference between my way of doing things before. In Lecture 9 of “Zhuan Falun”, Master says: “When it’s difficult to endure, you can endure it. When it’s impossible to do, you can do it.”

Thank you, Master! Thanks, fellow disciples!

Original article：https://se.clearharmony.net/articles/a112142-.html