(Minghui.org) Practitioners often discuss their fundamental attachments and what caused them. When I read cultivation experience sharing articles I’m able to see other practitioners’ problems. However, it was hard for me to identify my fundamental attachments.
I realized I’m not the only one who has this issue and I’d like to share my recent insights with you.
Hidden Attachments
Many practitioners, including my family members, began practicing Falun Dafa to eliminate their illnesses. I was a teenager when I began practicing and I was in good health. When other practitioners talked about their wish to become healthy, I felt I didn’t have this attachment. I just wanted to practice Falun Dafa because I knew Dafa is good.
I later discovered that my motive was not as pure as I initially thought, I just covered up my fundamental attachment. How could a human not have many attachments when he begins to cultivate?
When I began practicing Falun Dafa I didn’t truly cultivate myself—I subconsciously felt Dafa would protect me. Cultivation was a low priority in my life—I held onto ordinary things and I was only half cultivating. Although I stepped away from cultivation the seed was planted in my heart.
My grandparents died when I was in my 30s. They all lived into their nineties, longer than the average lifespan. They were afflicted with illnesses and their suffering haunted me. I instinctively yearned for a life free of illness—this desire grew stronger with time and it motivated me to return to cultivation. I sought a way to avoid sickness and death, and I hoped to gain eternal life. I later realized this was my fundamental attachment.
However, I couldn’t give up the wonderful life I was living. I realized that once I chose to cultivate, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy many things. Because I wanted to avoid the on-going persecution and because I was so young, I put off cultivation again and again. In 2014, when Zhou Yongkang, the top leader in charge of the persecution of Dafa, was taken down, it dawned on me that the opportunity to cultivate was about to end and I should get serious.
When I realized the persecution wouldn’t end soon, I slacked off again. During the short periods I did cultivate, my cultivation was not solid. The Fa principles that puzzled me before were still incomprehensible and I couldn’t let go of the things I enjoyed. I thought: if Dafa is so immense and powerful, I might be blessed with a safe life just by drifting along in cultivation. This was the most cunning mentality. I wanted to gain maximum benefits with the smallest effort.
I began to calculate losses and gains in everything I did, including clarifying the truth to people. I believed that doing truth clarification made me qualified a Dafa practitioner so I could enjoy blessings and be free from illness and death. I thought that Dafa’s immense power would help me get out of the three realms.
Through more Fa study, Dafa empowered me to break through this bad mentality and recognize it as my fundamental attachment.
The Danger of Fundamental Attachments
It’s easy to see others’ fundamental attachments but why is it so difficult to find ours?
One reason is that these fundamental attachments manifest naturally on us and are part of our thoughts. If you don’t measure yourself with the Fa but with the standard of everyday people, you may never find your fundamental attachments since your mindset blocks you.
For example, if you’ve been cultivating for a long time but your illnesses haven’t gone away, you may lose your faith in Dafa and stop cultivating. This may be one reason why it’s difficult to detect our fundamental attachments.
With a lack of solid cultivation, if one’s fundamental attachment is not satisfied to his liking, their faith in Dafa can be shaken, or one may even give up cultivation. Just like the above example, when some practitioners did not have their illnesses cured, they began to lose their faith in Dafa. Some did regain their health during the early years of cultivation, but when their illnesses relapsed, their faith weakened.
Some practitioners are attached to Dafa’s blessings, believing that practicing Falun Dafa shields them from danger, disaster and death. When they see practitioners die, face prison terms or their spouses divorce them, especially when this happens to practitioners who are diligent, others may lose their will to cultivate.
If we fail to remove our attachments, we may suffer tribulations. If they continue, the suffering may grind our will down or weaken our faith. Ultimately, the old forces may take away our lives or make us turn against Dafa.
After I finally found my fundamental attachment, I realized they are easy to eliminate if we constantly measure our every thought and action with the Fa. I hope my experience helps others.
Articles in which cultivators share their understandings typically reflect an individual's perception at a point in time based on their cultivation state, and they are offered in the spirit of enabling mutual elevation.
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Category: Cultivation Insights
