PureInsight | December 17, 2001
We have been able to give up our attachments to everyday people’s fame, interest and sentiment through our cultivation. We can be untouched by worldly fame and gain; we can even be indifferent to them. However, is it possible for us to regenerate attachments to fame and self-interest when doing Dafa work?
At the current stage of Fa-rectification, Dafa practitioners all utilize their own strong points and take advantage of any media and methods that are practical to bring their ability and wisdom into play to validate Dafa and to expose the evil. During the course of this great and marvelous effort, I found I began to develop another kind of filthy attachment -- pursuing fame and self-interest within Dafa.
For a period of time, I immersed myself in the memory of self-satisfaction. When I recalled all the things I did in the past to validate Dafa, a human sentiment of happiness and satisfaction came to my mind, and I even felt proud of myself. This fully satisfied those sentiments in me that had not been eliminated. Suddenly, I woke up and realized I was not supposed to have such sentiments, but I still didn’t think much of it and failed to keep alert. I just told myself to stop thinking about it and go on doing what I needed to do. As I let pass that call to wakefulness so easily and indulged in those filthy thoughts, they started to choke my righteous thoughts tightly, like uncontrolled wild vines.
In accordance with all these derivative attachments, I behaved badly. I considered myself to be always right, disdained even looking at others, and was dissatisfied with, and scolded, my fellow practitioners for their faults. Those evil vines broke up the relationship between my fellow practitioners and me, and poisoned the friendly and harmonious atmosphere among us, while making me feel profoundly distressed deep in my heart at the same time. I gave things short shrift and seemingly looked inward, but spent more than half of my energy finding fault with others. The more righteous I thought myself, the more I thought all others were at fault.
I was astounded by the attachments in human society. When you are attached to something and don’t focus on Fa, the attachment will surround you and devour you quickly. If you fail to regard yourself as a genuine Dafa practitioner and to melt into Dafa, you are just a negligible and powerless being.
My improvement in cultivation slowed down precipitously, then stopped. I started genuinely looking inward, which was very painful. I was overwhelmed by the tremendous power of Dafa through calmly studying the Fa, reading articles of fellow practitioners on Clearwisdom.net, and learning about the variety of great deeds that fellow practitioners have done to validate Dafa. All of a sudden, the inroads that the vines had made in my heart disappeared completely. Right away I understood what Master said: “(You are just)…like a particle of Dafa.” (“Master Li Hongzhi's Lecture at the Great Lakes Conference in North America”).
I am a particle, and I am in the place I’m supposed to be and playing a role that I’m supposed to play. To the great universe I could not be more common and ordinary. If there were no Dafa and no Master, how could I exist? I came into existence for Dafa, so the needs of Dafa should be number one. When having a difference of opinion with my fellow practitioners, I didn’t stubbornly insist on my way as the best any more. When working with fellow practitioners, I didn’t feel I was being directed by others any more. Even when I was, it wasn’t a big deal any more. Teamwork needs cooperation and leadership, but one’s intention should be pure. I didn’t have the desire to lead anybody any more. Those were all from attachments to fame and gain. Furthermore, they facilitated people in developing the desire to show off. I made up my mind to eliminate them from the root. When I cleared away all my wrong thoughts and notions before sending forth righteous thoughts, I sent out a very clear thought from the bottom of my heart, “Try my best to eliminate these warped, evil, and filthy attachments and think they are dying. The Fa rectifies the Cosmos, the Evil is completely eliminated!” When my determination was as firm as a rock and my thoughts were wholly righteous, I found that to look inside is so important. Only through looking inside, can we find all degenerated notions, differentiate our true selves from them, and strengthen our righteous thoughts. This is the fundamental difference between Dafa practitioners and everyday people.
From that, another issue came to my mind. Maybe I am needlessly worrying about other practitioners. I am only writing this down for fellow practitioners to consider. During the current period a lot of practitioners took responsibility for clarifying the truth to the media and the public and for eliminating the evil in order to meet the needs of Fa-rectification. Therefore many practitioners became “celebrities” or showed up frequently in public places. In this situation I believe we need to keep righteous thoughts all the time because we do these things to validate Dafa, not for personal interest. We must not develop attachments to fame and gain in disguised form. “There is no fame, self-interest, or official titles in Dafa, but only cultivation practice”. (“A Heavy Blow”, Essentials for Further Advancement)
Translated from:
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2001/12/1/12697.html
