Looking Within is the Key to Letting Go of Sentimentality

I have been practicing Falun Dafa since 1998. I would like to share my experience with Teacher and fellow practitioners.

Since my son was very young, I have often taken him with me to exercise and study with other practitioners. One day my son told me that he did not want to work anymore because it was too tiring living that way. He became violent and got into fights. I had not a clue how to deal with him. His mental state then became abnormal. I could not handle his behaviour at all. My relatives arrived to talk with him but nothing worked. This caused me great sorrow and pain because I had devoted so much of myself to him and he did not care and constantly talked back at me. Some people told me that my son was really behaving strangely and that I should have someone look at him to see if he was possessed.

I was desperate and wanted to do what was suggested to me. However, I knew a practitioner should not hold such a perception. I talked to a new practitioner and asked him his opinion. He said, "Certain people have many forms of spirit and animal possession. You would ruin your son if you appropriated him with those disciples." He also told me that nothing happens accidentally in our practice and to look within. "Your son will eliminate an attachment of yours. You must identify this attachment that is hindering you from practicing and eliminate it."

The practitioner reminded me that I was holding on to sentimentality for my son. I then remembered what Teacher said,

"Cultivation is something you do right in the thick of tribulations. They'll test whether you can sever your emotions and desires, and they'll see if you can take them lightly. If you're attached to those things you won't be able to finish your cultivation." ("The Fourth Talk" in Zhuan Falun)

I realized that what my son did to me was to tell me not to hold on to my feelings for him. I worried that he'd feel cold in the winter, and very hot in summer, or feel tired at work... My thoughts were completely focused on him. When my son was unhappy, I tried to see what was happening to him instead of looking within myself based on the teachings. I knew that if I did not eliminate my attachments of sentimentality, my son would not change.

I tried to follow the Fa principles to let go of my attachments to my son. I sent righteous
thoughts to eliminate the evil factors behind me and my son. That day when I went home, my son had changed. He was as obedient and as sensible as he used to be and he went back to work.