(Clearwisdom.net) As cultivators, we should not drag our feet and procrastinate when eliminating attachments. We could lose precious time for saving sentient beings. Prolonging our tasks, or procrastination, is a very bad substance. There are many reasons a cultivator is affected by the "dragging" substance. I would like to explore several reasons for this situation:

1. We do not study the Fa diligently. As a result, our main consciousness is not strong, and we cannot maintain the calm mind required for improvements to occur.

2. We do not want to actively assimilate to the Fa, but would rather wait to be assimilated by the Fa. The manifestation here is that one knows exactly what to do, and knows the urgency, yet is still unworried and/or indifferent. Once things become urgent, the main consciousness will be awakened by the dire circumstances, and take action in haste. However, much time has been lost, so one cannot perform the required actions deeply and completely. Therefore, you cannot obtain an optimal result. Additionally, since the best opportunity has been missed, more difficulty is added to the problem.

3. We do not have enough compassion. That's the reason why one thinks that it very difficult to eliminate attachments. The process of setting the mind on something, but never taking action is too long. If this process is not changed, then the mission which could be completed within 10 minutes, might not be done for several months. All the attachments that we have are obstacles for us to eliminate by striving forward diligently, and are heavy burdens that prevent us from saving sentient beings. If we truly consider saving sentient beings to be very important, and if we have compassion when we see that people are facing danger due to not knowing the truth, then it wouldn't be that difficult to eliminate these attachments.

4. When eliminating attachments, one procrastinates. This could also be connected with other attachments such as regret and impatience. A practitioner knows that his or her state is not correct, yet he or she does not have the determination to change. Therefore, once one suddenly awakens and realizes how far behind he or she is on the journey of cultivation, the concerned practitioner will experience regret and impatience. Shaken by such attachments, one might think of taking shortcuts, which would be easy for the old forces to take advantage of.

5. Engaging in the cycle of being very diligent, then slacking off, then being diligent again, then slacking again. If one uses slacking off as the driving force for going forward, and a mode of self-elevation in cultivation, then it is easy to fall into a state that resembles smoking and cultivating at the same time - not knowing that one is polluting oneself while being purified at the same time.

6. Setting goals that are too low. A practitioner that is too self-conceited and confident might think that he or she would take appropriate action when necessary. In fact, instead of placing the act of saving sentient beings as the most important thing, one considers self-elevation to be more important. If the enormous number of sentient beings to be saved can be taken into consideration, he or she would not be that overly confident, and would take immediate action to save people.

7. One cannot differentiate between important and non-important tasks. Instead of evaluating things from a broad perspective, one thinks that what he or she is doing at the moment is the most important thing. This is like being blind, and the practitioner does not understand how to meet the requirements of the bigger situation.

I have wanted to share these insights for a long time, but I procrastinated until now. In fact, after I calmed myself and settled down, it only took an hour to write this.

Please kindly correctly any mistakes.