Get Rid of Attachments and Cultivate Diligently

After reading Teacher's new article "The Closer to the End, the More Diligent You Should Be" (October 8th, 2005), I felt that all the words were meant for me. I felt ashamed for still having so many attachments after seven years of cultivation. Here I share my painful experiences in getting rid of attachments during the past month and hope that fellow practitioners can benefit from it.

I started to practise Falun Dafa in September of 1998. After the persecution started in July of 1999, I went to Beijing to appeal for a stop to this outrageous law. I was detained twice and was sent to a forced labour camp for three years. I was also fired from my job.

In July of 2003, another company hired me. I worked very hard, went to work early and left late, and spoke to those around me about Falun Dafa and the persecution so that they too could know the truth. Disturbances and confusion, however, frequently appeared in my mind. I was not able to rectify myself with the Fa¹ promptly. I was a group leader, and one day when I assigned work to a group member, the co-worker complained about the low salary and did not want to do more work. I argued with my co-worker, which in turn caused my co-worker to cry and shout. The co-worker also reported the matter to the manager.

My environment changed with my poor mindset, and people turned hostile toward me. Suddenly I felt that many hardships were coming all at once, so I started to look inward to see what I had done wrong and sent forth righteous thoughts more often to negate the arrangements by the old forces. I thought that even though I might have loopholes, Teacher would rectify me. I would not accept persecution from the old forces.

While looking inward, I tried hard to take care of work issues. Sometimes my work was really busy, and sometimes I could not sleep at night. I was behind in my Fa-study and exercises, and that affected my truth-clarification. Attachments and human notions frequently disturbed me.

I realised that I did not study the Fa diligently enough, even though I was doing the three things. I did not realise that my human notions were disturbing me. I decided that I would only follow the arrangements made by Teacher. No evil was qualified to test me and I would never waver in my belief in Falun Dafa!

According to the Fa, I did not pay enough attention to my speech, and people misunderstood me. As a result, it left a negative impact. Since most people around me knew the truth of Falun Dafa and most of them denounced the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the environment was very favourable. Sometimes I used the Fa standard to measure ordinary people instead of myself. When they failed to listen to me, I would be unhappy. Actually, the problem was with me, but I did not look inward.

While I was looking inward, painfully using the Fa as a standard, one co-worker told me, "Our bonuses are so small. Everyone says it's because of you!" I was shocked and thought, "I was studying the Fa and sending forth righteous thoughts to negate the old forces. Why couldn't I overcome this tribulation?" I felt overwhelmed. Right then, a fellow practitioner visited me at my home and said, "Forget about yourself and proceed with determination. Then see what happens!"

I realised that Teacher was enlightening me with the practitioner's words. I should not care about who was right or wrong: my duty was to save sentient beings. After my mindset changed, the environment changed instantly. I remembered portions of Teacher's Fa one after another, and I was enlightened to many aspects of the Fa.

"Don't Be Sad
Your body lies in prison - don't be sorrowful, don't be sad
With righteous thoughts and righteous actions, the Fa is here
Calmly reflect on how many attachments you have
As you get rid of human mentality, evil naturally disappears"

(From Hong Yin II, provisional translation)

Before when I studied Teacher's poem above, I used to think that "prison" meant only a real cell. Now I realised that every one of us practitioners should break out from the imprisonment of our "human mindset and attachments." I also gained a better understanding of Teacher's poem "Solid Cultivation:"

"Study the Fa and obtain the Fa,
Share in learning and share in cultivating,
Following [the Fa] in everything,
Compliance is cultivation."

(From Hong Yin, October 7th, 1994)

As a genuine practitioner, if we do not look at things happening around us according the Fa, that's not real cultivation. Because whatever happens to us is not coincidental, it is related to our minds and warns us to get rid of our attachments.

Cultivation is very solemn, and attachments are the shackles that block our way home and prevent us from saving sentient beings. The title of " Fa-rectification Period Disciple" is the most glorious in the universe, but we have to earn it.

Note:

1. Fa: Law or principle, the teachings in Falun Gong