(Minghui.org) I recently discovered that I had harbored traces of deep-seated, hard to discover attachments, when I thought that I had removed them already.

I go through a process of eliminating attachments, starting from awareness of the attachments, to gradually caring less about them, and eventually giving them up. Some attachments might seem to be removed, but are still there deep down.

Master told us:

“If you, as a cultivator, only part with things superficially while deep down inside you still stick to something or cling to your own vital interests that you don’t allow to be undermined, I’d say to you that your cultivation is fake!” (Lecture at the First Conference in North America)

I asked myself, “What exactly is true versus fake cultivation? What is it that makes one stubbornly hold onto an attachment? What are my vital interests? What is that attachment I won't allow to be undermined?”

I read again Master's scripture “Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s)” and felt that it all depends on how a cultivator cultivates.

If one day a test were to come, where everyone had to cultivate in temples and monasteries, would we go? We would lose out on our daily hustle and bustle, the kinship and happiness of family life, and our comfort and leisure. We would be left with only poverty and solitude. Could we truly let go of the entirety of our attachments?

If we were required to go out and wander about in society alone, would we go? Could we handle the hardship?

If we were asked to give up our jobs, money, nice clothes and accessories, good food—relinquishing our pride, prestige and privilege and instead go begging for food, would we go? Could we eat whatever scraps that others offered us?

I know that I still have deep-seated attachments in these areas. Maybe these what-ifs would never happen, but the aforementioned attachments may be tested in other ways.

No matter what the setting is, we may encounter tests that bear out whether we are cultivating genuinely.

Think about it: in order to become an enlightened being, one has to go through a great deal of trials and tribulations. How can the path of godhood be smooth sailing?

Only by truly, solidly cultivating and doing the three things well, can we cultivate to reach a state that is pure gold, and one that is eternal and immutable.