(Clearwisdom.net) When I first started cultivation in Falun Dafa, my goal was to obtain the Tao and reach consummation. While I was striving toward this goal, nothing could stop me from cultivating, not even the suffering I experienced during karma elimination and getting rid of all kinds of attachments. I was determined in my righteous thoughts and in giving up the attachment to life and death. Even though it was not perfect and sometimes I fumbled through the tests, eventually, I made it through.

In due course, I found out that the goal I had at the beginning of my cultivation was also a deeply hidden and an easy to overlook fundamental attachment. In order to reach my goal of consummation, I was willing to give up all I had in this human world, even my life. My xinxing (1) indeed was improved. However, would I still have been able to do the same without this goal? Would I still have been able to put down the attachment to life and death just for the positive elements in the universe and the salvation of other beings without thinking about my own salvation? Could I still do things for others regardless of the personal price and in any situation? When I discovered the fundamental selfishness hiding in my initial goal, I put down that goal.

In the beginning, when I first abandoned the goal of self-cultivation, I often reminded myself that as a living being I should be good by nature because I am a life created by Dafa whose nature was originally assimilated to the characteristic of the universe. Therefore, my basic nature was good from the beginning. Since it had turned bad over the course of countless lifetimes, now I should become good again without any conditions. Even though my original goal was to join Fa-rectification cultivation, actually I was still doing it for selfish reasons and had not really given up selfishness. My cultivation was still from a basis of attachment.

When I finally let go of this fundamental attachment, I no longer had the mentality that I had before. I started my cultivation over in a different state. In this condition, I felt that the Fa (2) had higher requirements for me than before. Those notions that I had developed during my cultivation in earlier years kept reappearing and I had to identify and eliminate them one by one. While cultivating without selfish goals, I still needed to improve my xinxing. Some other human notions that I had initially suppressed with force also often re-emerged and they also needed to be cleaned out. Under such a condition, I was able to look at my own dimensions with righteous thoughts and distinguish and eliminate all kinds of human notions without being affected or overwhelmed. I felt my true self starting to become more revealed and my mind becoming clearer.

Before that, when I encountered issues, I would remind myself that I was a practitioner and that I should do this and that. Now, when I encounter problems, I no longer use the human way of thinking. I just use the Fa to evaluate those human notions occurring in my own dimensions and I'm not affected by them. I just negate their existence and maintain my own pure righteous thoughts. Once I was able to do this, it seemed like I was always able to understand some principle from the Fa. Perhaps it was the natural manifestation of the Fa when my xinxing met the requirements of the Fa at different levels. After a while, when the human notions in my own dimension became less and less, my true self started to become strong and I gradually understood that the previous thoughts in my mind were actually all human notions. Then, when I read Teacher's lectures, my heart was pure and I had a feeling that worldly things could no longer affect me. It was as though I kept liberating myself from human notions.

Looking at our fellow practitioners illegally detained in China, some of them are dying due to the persecution. Are those practitioners not firm? They are very firm practitioners. But why does the evil still dare to persecute them? Is it because one's fundamental attachment has not been recognized and the situation has become a deadlock? Here, I am not questioning those practitioners' firm hearts toward Teacher and Dafa. But, if we could put down the fundamental attachment to ourselves, could the evil still find excuses to persecute us? Would the persecution still exist?

A living being should naturally be good. To do good with a human objective, one can never reach the realm of Gods and Buddhas because that still has a selfish goal. It would be best if we could put down the fundamental attachment of doing things for ourselves, correctly position the relation between Fa-rectification and self-cultivation, and always have the goal of perfecting everything for Fa-rectification while continuously upgrading our own xinxing standard. It's not right to only focus on self-cultivation and to disregard our responsibilities in this Fa-rectification period. It's also wrong to ignore the fundamental xinxing improvement in one's individual cultivation.

Notes

(1) Xinxing: mind-heart nature; moral character.

(2) Fa: Law and principles; the teachings of Falun Dafa.