(Minghui.org) I often hear fellow practitioners say “I don’t know how to cultivate,” “I didn’t have that attachment that people pointed out to me,” or “Why did so and so who has cultivated so well encounter those problems?”
In the beginning, I never questioned fellow practitioners’ mindset when hearing such “pet phrases” and I even felt they were very pure or innocent in cultivation. However, as I gained a better understanding of the Fa recently, I was began to see the attachments behind their comments.
When we share cultivation experiences, there are always some who casually comment that they didn’t know how to cultivate. I now realize that such a mentality is deceiving oneself and preventing one from being diligent in cultivation.
Anyone who wants to engage in any profession must learn the required skills in order to do well in that profession. If a soldier carries a shovel to the battlefield or a student carries a gaming machine to the classroom, that simply wouldn’t do.
For us cultivators, our goal is to get rid of our attachments and improve our xinxing. When we are stirred by something or feel upset about the loss of personal interests, our attachments are revealed for everyone to see. If we turn a blind eye to the attachments, with the excuse that we didn’t know how to cultivate, that would be the same as not cultivating ourselves.
Master said,
“Each of your attachments could cause your cultivation to fail.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2015 West Coast Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XIII)
The principles of Dafa are very straightforward and clear, and all we need is to live by these principles. As a cultivator, when we say that “I don’t know how to cultivate,” aren’t we deceiving ourselves?
Is it that one doesn’t know how to cultivate, or that one doesn’t want to follow the principles to cultivate themselves? Cultivation is serious. If we don’t cultivate away our attachments, various tribulations may render us unable to continue. How can we not actively remove our attachments?
There are many Dafa practitioners who are not well-educated but who are able to follow Master’s words in everything they do. Master taught us to be kind to everyone and they treat others well. Master taught us to not become obsessed with fame or personal interests, and they remain unmoved when being taken advantage of by others.
When we actively face our attachments and get rid of them, we are cultivating ourselves. When we work harder to get rid of the attachments, we are showing strong righteous thoughts. And when we persistently work to remove the attachments, we are being diligent in cultivation.
I also noticed that some practitioners failed to keep proper boundaries with practitioners of the opposite sex. They flirted with the opposite sex and sometimes even slept in the latter’s bed when visiting them and feeling tired, really making themselves at home. When others pointed out to them it’s not appropriate, they would say, “I didn’t have that attachment [to lust].”
Master has explained clearly that the divine has set strict rules on how men and women should interact with each other. Even for a married couple, I understand that they should also respect each other and not indulge in their desires. If we watch our behaviors and maintain a rational state of mind at all times, it would be hard for foreign entities to control or interfere with us.
For a divine being, their heart is pure and they are free of the attachment of lust. They are noble and upright. Whether one has the attachment or not, it’s easy to see from one’s behavior. When the old forces see the lust attachment in the practitioners, they may seize upon it and use that to control the practitioners to make mistakes. If the practitioners don’t take the attachment seriously and get rid of it, they may stumble on that issue.
Master said,
“Especially notable are the notions that one forms, or habits of thought that one forms, which make it very hard for a person to recognize when human thinking is unconsciously at work. And if one can’t recognize it, how is one to get rid of it? This is particularly challenging in the setting of China, where the evil Party has destroyed traditional Chinese culture and rigged up its own evil Party stuff instead—what we refer to as “the culture of the Party.” It’s indeed going to be hard to recognize the Truth of the cosmos when one uses the habits of thought bred by that culture. And one won’t even be able to recognize that certain bad thinking and behavior are at odds with universal values. If one can’t recognize bad thinking for what it is, then what can be done? There is no other way but to act according to Dafa.” (“20th Anniversary Fa Teaching,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XI)
If one measures oneself against the Communist Party’s culture, one may think that they are doing well if they didn’t develop the actual sexual relations with the opposite sex. But when we measure ourselves against the traditional culture, will one still think they are a decent person if their requirement of themselves was just not to have the sexual relations with others? For many of them, I also noticed that they despise traditional culture and think that it’s too low and only meant for human beings.
Speaking of traditional culture, Master has taught us the following,
“Gods had planned to utilize Chinese culture during the Fa-rectification, and it was something that gods founded. It is a semi-divine culture, after all. What the culture has is just outstanding, and the examples of glorious things in the five thousand years of civilization—including its historical stories, which are simply too many to possibly count—are all bright spots of a divinely imparted culture, and it is a culture that was established during the process of man being reared from what he was in remote antiquity to the man we have today, with a modern mode of thinking. Then, when such a culture is presented to people, wouldn’t you say it’s marvelous to watch? Is it not a classic? Won’t people really enjoy watching it?” (“Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XI)
From another perspective, Dafa disciples’ cultivation isn’t only for our own consummation, but we are also setting the example for future cultivators and perhaps beings at different levels of the universe. We must walk a very righteous path to validate the Fa.
In Dafa cultivation, once we’ve reached the standard of a certain realm, the cultivated side will be separated from our human side, which is still not up to par and requires us to continuously improve ourselves in order to rid our remaining attachments. If we fail to keep up with our cultivation and Fa study, our human side would be easily interfered with.
Some practitioners couldn’t make sense of why a certain “well-cultivated” practitioner would still encounter various kinds of problems. I think that thought in itself reflects a lack of understanding of the Fa and may cause them to waver in their faith in Dafa and the old forces to intensify the persecution against the other practitioner. The intensified persecution may further shake those practitioners’ faith, becoming a vicious cycle.
As a result, when practitioners around us encounter tribulations, we should look at ourselves to see if we still harbor fear or lack faith in the Fa. Once we identify any loopholes, we can work to have a clearer understanding of the Fa and strengthen our faith in Dafa. Our improvement in cultivation will also help the practitioner in tribulation to pass the test sooner.
There were also practitioners who immediately jumped to their own defense when being reminded to check if they lacked faith in the Fa that may have resulted in their sickness karma or other forms of tribulation.
They might say things like, “If I didn’t believe in the Fa, I wouldn’t have come this far in my cultivation!”
Such a “rebuttal” can easily stop further discussions with others and also cover up one’s attachments. As I see it, these practitioners have conflated not giving up cultivation as having faith in the Fa.
The Fa encompasses everything. Even if we persist in cultivating Dafa, it doesn’t mean we have understood and unconditionally followed everything Master has taught us.
Here is one example. A practitioner shared her personal experience of attending Master’s lecture in Jinan, Shandong Province on June 21, 1994.
“It was quite hot then and the stadium had no air conditioning. I sat in the far back. I was listening to Master carefully initially but gradually I was distracted by people fanning and started thinking: Fanning was not appropriate during an everyday people’s meeting, how can someone do it here? How impolite was it to Master!
Master then said to the audience that those who held fans in hand might want to put them down. Isn’t the heat a good thing (for people to reduce karma)?
My mother, sitting on my left, stopped fanning but the woman on my right still kept fanning. Shortly after, I felt my mom’s side became much cooler but my right side remained hot.”
The example above indicates two different mindsets of practitioners. The author’s mother listened to Master Li and put down her fan, but the other woman kept fanning and still felt hot. For the woman and others who were still fanning, they wouldn’t think that “I just don’t believe you [referring to Master];” otherwise they wouldn’t have been in attendance. But their action did reveal that they didn’t fully believe Master that putting down their fans would actually make them feel cooler.
There are many more such examples of practitioners failing to listen to Master’s words. We have some practitioners who are long-time business owners and have become very cunning in order to maximize their profit. Even after they take up Dafa cultivation, they may continue to do things the same way and also calculate how to best protect their own interests. They perhaps don’t realize that if something is truly theirs, they wouldn’t lose it. They actively do things to protect themselves, without believing that Master is looking after things for them. Such practitioners might diligently do the three things to clarify the facts, but they still didn’t believe in the Fa wholeheartedly.
I believe practitioners fail to following Master’s teachings because of their lack of faith in the Fa. Only by studying the Fa well and truly cultivating our hearts, can we remain undisturbed by superficial phenomena and find the underlying attachments to remove.
I welcome fellow practitioners to point out to anything inappropriate.
Editor’s note: This article only represents the author’s understanding in their current cultivation state meant for sharing among practitioners so that we can “Compare with one another in study, in cultivation.” (“Solid Cultivation,” Hong Yin)