(Clearwisdom.net) When I read the practitioner's article "When You Feel Hurt, It Is Always Due to a Human Attachment and to Emotion" ( http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2007/10/19/90611.html ), I realized I had the same thought when facing Chinese Communist Party persecution for the past eight years.
For the past several years, even though I was arrested and imprisoned multiple times, I didn't truly look inward. Recently I was again taken advantage of by the old forces due to my loopholes. As a result, six of our elderly practitioners were arrested and sent to the prison where we first met on May 24, 2007. One month later, all of us were released. After I returned home, I studied the Fa many times and understood from my heart that I should look inward from now on.
For eight years, even though I was doing the three things, I always looked outward to compare with other people or to compare with my past. I didn't understand well the different cultivation levels of the Fa. When a tribulation came, I didn't view it with the side of my original nature. The old forces then inflicted endless interference and damage, leaving me in long-term tribulations, such as being taken to prison multiple times and suffering abuse.
Why did those incidents happen? Because I was attached to myself too much. In other words, I was attached to whether my heart or my emotions were hurt. The attachment to sentiment is what Dafa disciples must finally rid themselves of, and this will be replaced with compassion. Only if one has a compassionate heart can one have righteous thoughts and do righteous deeds. One can truly look inward, truly save sentient beings, and truly do well in the three things. The evil dares not touch us if we have righteous thoughts. Only the compassionate heart can save sentient beings.
I still have such attachments as selfishness, showing off, and jealousy. I always thought that I did well in my cultivation and that I had made no mistakes in the past. I also looked down on other practitioners. I didn't treat them from a practitioner's realm and I didn't keep in mind that fellow practitioners were cultivating in ordinary human society as well. Their attachments that had not been removed would inevitably be exposed in the tests.
In the future, I will do well in studying the Fa and spend more time reading the Fa. I will follow Teacher's article "Realms" to treat fellow practitioners with compassion:
"A wicked person is born of jealousy. Out of selfishness and anger he complains about unfairness towards himself. A benevolent person always has a heart of compassion. With no discontentment or hatred, he takes hardship as joy. An enlightened person has no attachments at all. He quietly observes the people of the world deluded by illusions." ("Realms" from Essentials For Further Advancement)
Category: Improving Oneself