PureInsight | September 30, 2021
[PureInsight.org] In the process of cultivation, everyone has attachments that are difficult to get rid of. They feel that their attachments have gone one layer after another. Some attachments keep growing because of years of ignorance. The attachments even form a layer of body, preventing us from advancing vigorously. Only when we keep distinguishing and purging them, can we reach higher realms.
1. Why Are There Attachments and Human Notions?
Because mankind has seven emotions and six desires. In ordinary society, a range of attachments will be formed such as likes and dislikes. They act on the human body to bring you feelings.
Master taught us in Zhuan Falun, “Objects in other dimensions can expand and shrink, and once the idea gets on that object, the Buddha statue will have a brain, and it’ll be able to think, but it won’t have a body. Then other people come to worship it, they worship and worship, and that gives it some energy. It’s even more dangerous if the worshippers are practitioners. From the moment they start to worship it it’ll gradually start to get energy. So it forms a tangible body, but the tangible body is formed in another dimension.”
Attachments were relatively weak in the beginning. However if we do not measure ourselves against the Fa and remove them, they will become stronger, and a tangible body will be formed in another dimension.
For instance, some practitioners have to pay off sickness karma. If you have flu-like symptom, you may not feel scared. But if any life-threatening symptoms, the attachment of fear may occur. Because you feel really painful when hit by sickness karma. At this sort of test, your postnatal notions will tell you that you are not in a good healthy condition. As a result, you will feel stressful in the test. At such moment, the attachment of fear will be strengthened. My understanding is that these stubborn notions are exactly the tangible bodies in another dimension.
Master taught us in Zhuan Falun, “That’s because whoever the karma falls on, that’s who feels the pain. It’s definitely that way.” Actually, human attachment is a manifestation of karma, which is alive. The more energy you give them, the stronger they become. Then you will be controlled by karma, the tangible body in other dimensions. Why do you sometimes feel physically and mentally uncomfortable? Because the tangible bodies want to survive. They make you painful and fearful, so you have to compromise.
2. Purge human attachments and notions
When affected, some practitioners reckon that the true self feels uncomfortable. This is exactly the way human beings think. As cultivators, we should measure ourselves against the Fa in everything. When you feel painful, you should realize that the attachments are desperately struggling to survive. We can fully understand that when our legs feel painful in meditation, the karma is being eliminated.
Master taught us in Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference in Australia, “That is to say, matter and mind are one thing.” Therefore, when fear and irritation emerge, we should clearly realize that we need to remove the negative feelings, which is another form of eliminating karma.
Master taught us in Fa Teaching at the 2019 New York Fa Conference, “Over time, that addictive substance accumulates, and forms inside of your body an identical version of you that comes to control you. Because it is composed of strong attachment, and has your appearance, it has an equally strong desire to control you; it was formed out of strong desires, after all.”
“This holds true for drug use as well. Some people say that recreational drug use is no big deal and that it seems harmless. And sure, people feel pretty good when they try it. What if they do it again? There’s no apparent problem. How about one more time? Then their self-control starts to erode. But why is that? When that substance is inhaled, inside of your body it forms a very thin and light version of you. One hit is all it takes, since it’s highly poisonous. And with the second hit, that version of you that was thin and light grows a bit denser. And it will continue to get denser with each subsequent hit, growing stronger and sturdier. It will have the full structure of your body as well as thinking, and be an entirely drug-induced and demonic version of you. Of course, it may not do anything other than crave drugs. It can’t bear to be without them. That’s because it is now alive. So what happens, then? As you might imagine, it will become progressively lighter if you stop using drugs, as a result of your body’s metabolic processes, until eventually it dies. Since it doesn’t wish to die, it compels you to take drugs again in order to strengthen it.”
“Spending unnecessary time on the computer or playing video games has the same effect; it’s the same idea. If you want to quit, that thing won’t want you to since it would die. And so it will do all in its power to make you engage in those things. And if you try not to, it will interfere with your work or studies by causing your mind to crave them. If you refuse, it might even make you do those things in your dreams.”
It is hard not to be controlled by the addictive substances. However we’re cultivators, we should be exceptionally self-restraint. Whenever the attachment pops up, we should dismantle it tirelessly. Why does it pop up? Because it does not want to die. When affected, we should take such a good opportunity to purge it.
Master taught us in Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference in Australia, “If you were to say, ‘I don’t want you,’ and it just died, that would be too straightforward. When you can clearly distinguish it, you yourself are getting stronger, you yourself are awakening and enlightening, you yourself are breaking through its encirclement, and getting progressively stronger, while it becomes progressively weaker and progressively disappears, until the point where it’s ultimately eliminated. There needs to be a process.”
Human attachments and notions get progressively stronger because awakening does not come to us yet. There needs to be a process if we are to dispel the tangible body in another dimension. We should strongly believe that it would get gradually smaller because we continue to have it removed. When we are totally freed from the attachment, it is supposed to be dispelled.
3. Keep Studying the Fa and Sending Forth Righteous Thoughts Can Dispel Strong Attachments
A practitioner I know suffered severe pain in her legs. She could only sit on the bed and didn’t dare to move. Other practitioners told her that this situation was an illusion. But she really felt painful, so she was unable to acknowledge that this was an illusion. Meanwhile, she admitted that her xinxing did not meet the criterion of Dafa. What could she do to dispel such a strong fear?
Then she was determined to study the Fa. She was struggling during Fa study. Once affected by fear, she was unable to control negative feelings. She was afraid that she was going to be paralyzed. Neither was she able to look after her little kids. At such critical moment, her husband was not with her. Therefore she felt helpless. Keeping studying the Fa is the only way to be saved by Dafa. Every time she finished Fa study off, she felt scared. In some cases, she could sit on the bed and learn the Fa for up to six hours. Three months had passed. One day she felt that she was able to leave the bed and walk. But she trembled with fear when affected by the severe pain once again. Fortunately, she spent large blocks of time studying the Fa, and Master removed the body of fear in other dimensions. She thus embraced health and happiness again.
That is to say, it is particularly important to study the Fa. Master taught us in Drive Out Interference from Essentials for Further Advancement II: “The Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts.”
Sending forth righteous thoughts can dispel the strong attachment too. This can be viewed from an article “I Confronted My Fear” published by Minghui website. When the author of the article kept sending forth righteous thoughts, the fear that accompanied and enveloped him/her was shattered.
We should not get frightened by strong attachments. As long as we’re determined to identify and dispel them, we are able to disintegrate them.
Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.
Chinese version: https://www.zhengjian.org/node/267686
