PureInsight | June 18, 2014
[PureInsight.org] After cultivating for over ten years, I realized that a lot of my human attachments were not eliminated through reading the Fa. On the contrary, my misunderstanding of the Fa caused me to go into extremes. I thought that letting go of material objects was cultivating one’s heart. This created lots of human notions, which caused me to stumble frequently along the path. The main reason was that I did not fully understand Dafa’s cultivation form. The cultivation forms of the past interfered with me.
Before cultivation, I was very concerned with clothing and makeup. I strove for beauty. I liked hearing others’ compliments. After cultivation, I realized that this was an attachment to vanity. I knew this was bad, so I went to another extreme. I never wore makeup. Sometimes I was even very sloppy, which caused ordinary people to not understand and negatively impacted Dafa’s image. When I saw other practitioners with rosy cheeks without the need for makeup, I threw my makeup away. I thought that I would become younger by doing that. Because I did not cultivate my heart through Dafa and instead hung on to my attachments, the attachment to vanity was still firmly lodged in my dimension. It did not vanish because I stopped putting on makeup. Many years later, I was still very concerned with my outward appearance. Sometimes I even wasted precious time shopping instead of saving sentient beings. Now I realize that many attachments were hidden beneath that one attachment, yet I was unable to completely dig them out, to eliminate those human notions and rectify them with the Fa.
In “Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York”, Master said, “If a person wants to be saved, he must transcend the fact that he is in and experiencing first-hand a tough environment where there is adversity, self interest, emotions and desires. Everything will involve a cultivator's self-interest, and anything can affect you as a person, your thoughts and emotions, your xinxing,1 and the things that you are attached to inside. If you manage to take a certain path and make certain choices, then you are extraordinary. Otherwise, you are an ordinary person. If you are able to step out of the reasoning and attachments of ordinary people, then you are a god. (Applause) That's totally different from the cultivation methods of the past.”
We must eliminate human attachments. I know my previous efforts to let go of materialism was a way to escape my human attachments. It is like people in the past who cultivated in caves; they basically did not cultivate! I now clearly understand that cultivation in Dafa is completely eliminating one’s human attachments.
A fellow practitioner’s husband is an ordinary person. In order to eliminate human notions and attachments, she decided to sleep on different beds from her husband. Because of this, her husband fought with her every single day. One time because of this, her husband beat her with a large wooden stick and threatened to divorce her. I once also tried the method of sleeping on a different bed with my husband. However, because I was not careful to eliminate attachments through the Fa, the attachments to lust and desire were not eliminated simply because I took that course of action. Even though I did not sleep on the same bed as my husband, when I realized that my husband had been seeing another woman, I could not take it. I began hating my husband. I did not let go of the attachments to emotion and desire.
Through carefully reading the Fa, I understand that letting go of attachments in the presence of materialistic benefits is “directly focusing on your mind and cultivating on the Fa”. I thus put extra effort in studying the Fa and improving my xinxing rather than avoiding the issue. Through studying the Fa, I continued to realize my human attachments and deranged notions, eliminate unrighteous elements such as vanity, regret and other human attachments. When these things showed up, I could immediately realize them and seriously eliminate them with righteous thoughts without leaving anything behind.
In order to eliminate the attachment to eating meat, I once decided to stop eating meat altogether. Over the holidays, my relatives really did not understand me. They asked, “You cultivators cannot eat meat?” From then on, I decided to act according to Master’s Fa, go with the flow, eat things even if I did not like them, watch my every thought on the problem of eating and not be attached to any food. My attachment to picky eating was not eliminated through difficult cultivation. Instead it was through cultivating in Dafa. I can now eat anything. “Eating, but caring not to taste—The palate’s attachments severed” (Abiding in the Dao from Hong Yin).
Another issue is my cultivation has stopped at simply finding an attachment. After I recognize my attachments, I do nothing more; I do not suppress these attachments through my actions. I very rarely put cultivation to practice, so I still had many attachments years later. When I encountered interferences, I would hastily search for my attachments. Once I found many, I would try to eliminate them with righteous thoughts. Because I had many human attachments, there was limited room in my head for the Fa, so my righteous thoughts were not strong.
Now I do not use makeup. I am not imitating others’ methods. Instead, I am cultivating by reading the Fa. Master said, “But that does happen to our Falun Dafa practitioners. On a lighter note, young women like to do facials to get fairer and better skin. I’d say that if you truly do a dual practice of nature and longevity you’ll naturally get that, and I can guarantee you won’t need to do facials” (Zhuan Falun). Through studying and assimilating the Fa and sending forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the elements causing me to age, I no longer need makeup to look young.
Because I no longer study the Fa the way I used to in the past, I constantly use the Fa to conduct myself, watch my actions and words, and eliminate deranged notions that developed through my interactions in society, many human attachments and emotions are now gone. I can now always think about sentient beings and fulfill the three tasks with a solemn mindset.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/node/128995
