How I Eliminated My Attachment of Sexual Desire

Many people want to cultivate and wish to succeed in cultivation. However, many have failed to fulfill this wish because they experienced difficulties when trying to eliminate attachments. Among the various kinds of attachments, sexual desire and lust seem to be the most difficult to eliminate. From ancient times to today, there have been countless practitioners who failed the last hurdle in their cultivation and were ruined instantly. Thus they left behind ten thousand years of suffering, only because they were not able to pass the test of desire and lust.

As a Falun Dafa practitioner, I did alright with respect to eliminating my sexual desire. Because of this, I have been able to walk a righteous path during my cultivation process over the past ten years. I also did well the three things practitioners are supposed to do. I would now like to describe my own experience in eliminating sexual desire and share it with fellow practitioners so that we can improve together.

I was very simple when I was young. I have been very guarded in terms of relationships with members of the opposite sex. I got married at the age of 30 in 1995. My husband and I met each other when we went to a temple to burn incense and worship Buddha. It was our common belief and pursuit that brought us together. During the second year of our marriage, in 1996, we both started to practise Falun Dafa. We had a son in 1997, and just after our son was born, my husband and I stopped having sex in our marital life.

Why did we choose this way? Because at the time I felt that fame, profit and emotions were barriers to our improvement in cultivation, and we had to remove them as soon as possible. I believed that the earlier we could eliminate these barriers, the sooner we would improve. If we cannot break away from the bondage of fame, profit and emotions for a long time, then we cannot surpass this level for a long time. Moreover, as practitioners we should restrain ourselves and follow the standards of the gods. Whenever we are faced with an issue, we should think that if gods were doing such things, how would they act? We should act as they do. Therefore, I decided to eliminate my sexual desire that impedes practitioners from improving in their cultivation.

At the very beginning, my husband was not accustomed to it, and sometimes he would have the desire.

Each time, I restrained the sexual desire and restrained wicked thoughts with righteous thoughts, and restrained thousands of movements with one unshakable action. In that way, every time I restrained myself I was able to restrain my husband as well with my strong will, thanks to the fact that my husband is also a practitioner. After a period of time, he also removed that attachment. When he completely walked away from sexual desire, he said to me appreciatively, "It is your determination and strong will that brought us out of the bondage of sexual desire. Otherwise, I would still be in the state of sexual desire without any improvement." During the past ten years, my husband and I have lived together in the same house, and we have been living, cultivating and improving this way, without interfering with each other. When we walked away from sexual desire, we both felt light, as though our bodies had lost heavy burdens. In the meantime, we felt relaxed and comfortable, and our minds seemed like pure water. Not only were our bodies purified, but also our minds had elevated.

When I shared my experience with some fellow practitioners, they were surprised. Some said they would catch up with me, and some thought that I had gone to an extreme. As to whether I went to an extreme, I view it this way: Concerning the removal of these attachments, for those who cannot remove them for the time being, we certainly cannot force the issue. While for those of us who can remove them, we must strive to improve and not indulge ourselves. We should restrain ourselves to the extent that we can restrain ourselves. We must not have the thought of "taking our time." Only if we are strict with ourselves can we improve rapidly. One who always relaxes and emphasizes that he or she will "take time" will improve very slowly.

Concerning the removal of sexual desire, Master has given us strict requirements and warned us again and again that we can not deviate. However, Master didn't raise any specific requirements as to how a married couple should remove sexual desire, but only presented some principles. My understanding is, the reason why Master didn't raise any specific requirements in this respect was because so many practitioners are at different xinxing levels. Even if Master had set a compulsory rule, practitioners would not necessarily meet the requirement. On the contrary, some practitioners may regard cultivation as being difficult, and thus might be impeded from obtaining the Fa. Therefore, Master didn't set any specific requirements in this respect. That is to say, Master actually permits us to improve gradually. However, that doesn't mean that we can allow ourselves to not move forward. Moreover, we can't allow ourselves not to let go of our attachments for a long time, and thus we cannot relax in this respect. We need to remove various attachments, otherwise we might give in to dangerous thinking that it is difficult to succeed in cultivation, if the sexual desire cannot be removed.

Because I was able to completely remove my attachments to fame, profit and sexual desire, I walked my way smoothly in the process of cultivation and Fa-rectification during the past ten years. At the end of 2000, I led my two-year-old son to validate the Fa at Tiananmen Square. I carried my son on my shoulders while holding up a Fa-rectification banner. I started at the front of Jinshui Bridge, then marched toward the police cars and Tiananmen Square. I walked around the square and passed by the police and the spies. They all saw my action clearly, but no one dared to touch me or look me in the eye. They instead turned away. That time, I genuinely felt the power of "One righteous mind can subdue one hundred evils." (Zhuan Falun)

In the summer of 2001, I went to a supermarket to distribute flyers for three consecutive days. On the third day, I was arrested by a plainclothes police officer. He finally just went through the official procedure by repeating the lies of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and let me go. I was able to face such a dangerous situation because I had the protection of Master and the mighty power of Dafa. Another reason was attributed to the removal of my attachments and walking a righteous path of cultivation. If we walk a righteous way, the evil will not be able to find any excuses to persecute us even if they want to.

I am writing about my cultivation experience because I would like to share it with everyone so that we can refer to each other and improve together. I have no intent to show off, nor do I want other fellow practitioners to imitate my behaviour. I only want to remind everyone that we should be strict with ourselves on the path of cultivation. We should do the things that can be done right now and should by no means postpone them to later. Every attachment, every human thought is a heavy burden. All these burdens suppress us and prevent us from elevating. Fellow practitioners, let's make great efforts and improvements together, so that every Dafa practitioner can return to his own paradise, own world, and our original true self, and fulfill our vows from thousands of years ago -- "Reaching Consummation, returning with Master." ("Predestiny Leads Back to Sacred Fruit" Hong Yin, Translation Version B)