Digging out attachments from its roots and breakthrough the limits of selfishness

Digging out attachments from its roots
and breakthrough the limits of selfishness

Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!

I obtained the Fa in 2009 as a young disciple, but because I have long been unable to dig out my fundamental attachments, I have been stuck between comfort and diligence, unable to mature into a genuine cultivator. As fellow practitioners say, “you are still like a child, we couldn’t count on you anyway.” Whenever I hear this, all I can do is smile awkwardly, not knowing what else to do. Indeed, after so many years of cultivation, after having studied the Fa quite a lot, I am not someone who sees nothing or who completely fails to understand the principles—so why can’t I truly recognize the essence of cultivation? Trapped between comfort and worldly conflicts, endlessly wasting limited time, yet failing to recognize my shortcomings from the Fa and move forward diligently—why is this? This question lingers in my mind and won’t go away.

1. Having Pursuits or Not

As summer approached, I unexpectedly developed a rare desire to go to tourist sites to clarify the truth. Unlike before, this thought kept circling in my mind, over and over. Finally, one day, I stopped delaying and went straight to the truth-clarification site after school. The practitioners there were a family from Mainland China who had been abroad for over a year. For the entire year, it was their family who had continuously persisted at the truth-clarification site, regardless of the bitter cold, scorching heat, wind, or rain.

Curious, I asked them how they could keep this up for so long. The uncle practitioner shared a lot with me. In summary: “With no pursuit, there is nothing to worry about.” Aside from the single thought of doing the three things and following Master’s words, they thought of nothing else. And just like that, they persisted for over a year without feeling much about time.

To be honest, I was stunned. Could such a simple reason really be enough? Just as I was about to ask more, the practitioner urged me to join in since I was already there—either practice the exercises or introduce the petition to tourists. At that time, my social anxiety kicked in. Seeing a large group of tourists, I escaped by choosing to do the exercises. While meditating, still unsure of the situation, three lines of golden words appeared before my eyes:

“Born for the Fa,
Come for the Fa,
Fulfilled by the Fa.”

I knew Master was encouraging me to be diligent, but at the time, I couldn’t fully grasp the deeper meaning. I could only understand the surface, silently resolving in my heart to come regularly to the site during summer vacation.

Thus, with the intention of seeking answers, I joined the truth-clarification project at the tourist site. Sometimes, I felt embarrassed to speak proactively to tourists, missing opportunities to save them. Feeling helpless, I thought: After cultivating for so many years, how can I still be blocked by such childish attachments? I must break through. So I gathered my courage and started conversations with tourists who had not yet signed. To my surprise, one tourist already had some understanding of qigong and cultivation. Not only did he willingly sign, but he also asked where he could learn the exercises.

I looked at the practitioner next to me in confusion. He came over to handle the petition and asked me to demonstrate the movements. So I practiced the fifth exercise with the tourist, briefly introduced Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and told him how to find practice sites in his country and learn online. He was very excited, put his palms together in thanks, and then left with his companions.

Gradually, I began to understand. The Fa and Master are like the power source—the outlets and cables are already in place. A Dafa disciple clarifying the truth is simply plugging in the cord. At the tourist site, there is no need to overthink—just show up and do what a Dafa disciple should do, and everything is contained within it. Overcomplicating things only makes them harder. It turned out this is the state of “gaining without pursuit.”------(Teachings at the Conference in Switzerland)

In an instant, all my distracting thoughts faded. From then on, I happily went to the truth-clarification site every day. If it was cold, I brought tissues for my nose; if I was hungry, fellow practitioners shared their food; if it rained, I brought rain gear; when free, I studied the Fa. Every day I had new insights to share with practitioners, and through their sharing, I also saw my shortcomings and corrected them. How joyfully time passed in most of the summer.

2. Trusting Master and the Fa, Harmonizing in Cultivation

Perhaps my cultivation state had finally reached the minimum requirement for diligence, for Master gave me many hints during meditation.

Once, during an hour-long sitting meditation, Master showed me the process of a barren, desolate world being repaired into prosperity. One hour here equaled tens of thousands of years there. If I had broken off midway, that world would not have been completed, failing to meet the standards of the new cosmos, and I would not have witnessed Master’s Fashen at the end. I realized how important persistent practice is.

I also gradually came to understand that every long-term truth-clarification site is guarded by Master’s enormous Fashen—seated on lotuses, covering the entire sky. I enlightened to this: wherever practitioners persist, that place becomes a core. A great Falun turns at that core, pulling along other projects, gradually expanding to save local sentient beings. Outside of China truth-clarification frontlines truly benefit the entire region. Every being who comes is due to Master’s compassion. As much as possible, we should approach them with kindness, becoming a beacon of hope.

Another time, I saw jealousy manifesting as a thick black cloth covering the person who harbored it. Everything that person encountered was distorted by the black material, preventing them from seeing truthfully. If it covered a practitioner, sometimes strong righteous thoughts allowed a bit of golden light to shine through, thinning the black cloth, allowing for gradual correction. But the harm of jealousy is immense. If attachments ruin the effort to save sentient beings, how could such karma be repaid? Cultivation, already difficult, becomes even harder—especially when those attached to fame and gain gather together, amplifying jealousy and magnifying attachments, making escape from illusion increasingly remote. Truly, this is one of the old forces’ most insidious tricks.

Master said in Fa Teaching Given at the 2004 Western U.S. Fa Conference:

“Selfishness is a fundamental attribute of the cosmos of the past. Because of that attribute, formation-stasis-degeneration-destruction and birth-aging-sickness-death are inevitable. In the future the Fa will be all-harmonizing, perfect, and selfless. The change in that fundamental attribute of the cosmos leads to fundamental changes in the cosmos’s progression and beings’ characteristics. The fundamental attribute of the cosmos has determined the fundamental state that the cosmos is in. The impurity of beings, and even the dropping down of beings that have gone bad, have been caused by formation-stasis-degeneration-destruction. And formation-stasis-degeneration-destruction, in turn, results from the fundamental attribute of the cosmos, but it doesn’t seem to relate directly to the fundamental attribute.”

Why are attachments so hard to remove? Because we protect ourselves. Why protect ourselves? Because we don’t want to be hurt. Why view difficulties as suffering instead of taking joy in them? Because righteous thoughts are insufficient. At the first sign of hardship, one gives up, clinging to comfort instead of actively removing human attachments. Often it takes karma accumulating into a painful blow, like a brick on the head, before one is forced to improve. It looks like progress, but really it only protected selfishness again. Such cultivation only scratches the surface—root attachments remain untouched, resurfacing later.

Master said in Lecture Two of Zhuan Falun: “Some of you will find, starting today, that your whole body feels chilly, as if you’ve come down with a heavy cold, and your bones might even ache. Most of you will find that some part of you doesn’t feel good; it could be an aching leg or a dizzy head. Or you might seem to have a relapse of some issue that you thought you’d resolved through an energy practice or healing. That’s because it didn’t actually heal your condition. It had merely been postponed, and was still lodged in its original spot, ready to relapse at a later date. So we have to make it surface and drive it out of you, and remove the whole thing from its root.”

Cultivation without rooting out attachments is like practicing qigong to heal illness—it only postpones the tribulation. Not digging into the root means attachments will keep sprouting. Sometimes, when fellow practitioners point them out, we excuse ourselves by saying it’s like peeling an onion layer by layer. It sounds reasonable, leaving others speechless, but in fact it protects the attachment. That being breathes a sigh of relief: “I nearly got eliminated!” And meanwhile, we still think we cultivated well. I felt so shameful!

Upon reflection, many attachments can’t withstand even a few rounds of “why?” Asking “why?” repeatedly digs out more than half of the root already. The unwillingness to keep digging shows we’ve nearly touched the core attachment, and that being resists, making us recoil. Thinking about this, I felt so embarrassed—after so many years of cultivation, I still hadn’t mastered looking inward as a basic act. Like the story of the kitten fishing—distracted by every passing thing, wasting effort with little result.

3. Actively Cultivating—Escaping Passive Traps

This period of cultivation forced me to reflect deeply on my path. I realized my cultivation had always been passive. I studied the Fa, understood certain standards, thought “oh, okay, I know,” but then made no effort to live by it. Always passive—only when matters confronted me would I reluctantly act, and even then, inconsistently, half-heartedly, wasting so much time.

But that summer was different. Every day I proactively assimilated to the Fa, cultivating actively. I increasingly felt Master’s presence nearby. Once, when I wanted to slack off and doze, I closed my eyes and saw Master’s Fashen appear. He turned, donned Daoist robes, and produced in hand a staff with a flick—instantly I was wide awake and rushed to the truth-clarification site.

Yes, just as the song says, “Having obtained the Fa, break through delusion and ascend to the heavens.” Since we’ve obtained the Fa, shouldn’t we break through delusion and rise upward—what’s the point of lingering in the human world? Always blocked by obstacles—then break through them! Sometimes I could even sense heavenly beings feeling weary over their king and lord (me) lagging behind. Feeling that weight of their disappointment, I could only apologize inwardly. At such times, beyond an awkward smile, I had no other expression.

I recalled the three sentences Master imprinted in my mind that first day at the tourist site and gained a deeper understanding:

• “Born for the Fa” — Life originates from primal matter, innately carrying Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. At first glance, all beings seem the same, but some were born from the Creator’s thought to save the cosmos at its inception. These lives became Dafa disciples—not only by their choice, but by Master’s and the universe’s choice. Our cultivation is less about building from nothing than about awakening—returning to our most fundamental nature, a particle of Dafa. The difficulty lies more in the weight of attachments and degeneration than in cultivation itself. With strong Fa study, truly, “Clear out all wild thoughts, cultivating to a Buddha is not hard.” (Nonexistence-- Hong Yin)
• “Come for the Fa” — This encapsulates our journey with Master, descending through layers, incarnating lifetime after lifetime, until today when we obtained the Fa. The meaning is simple but profound: Cherish! As Master said:

“I hope that you all cherish yourselves, cherish others, and cherish this environment that you have. Cherishing the path that you travel is cherishing yourselves.” (What a Dafa Disciple Is, Fa Teaching Given at the 2011 New York Fa Conference, Collected Teachings Given Around the World Volume XI)

• “Fulfilled by the Fa” — Our cultivation is selfless, rooted in saving others. Unlike any past cultivation method, ours is based on selflessness. Because of this, we bear the mission of saving sentient beings. Any excuse not to clarify the truth or save people is baseless. Saving people is what Master wants. Outwardly it seems we are saving them, but in reality, Master is fulfilling Dafa disciples through this form—lifting us out of the old universe’s cycle of formation, stasis, degeneration, and destruction.

Fellow practitioners, be diligent!
Return to consummation with Master!

Heshi

(This article was presented at the 2025 Nordic Fa-Conference)