On the Issue of Letting Go of Attachments with Respect to What We See In Dreams

By a Falun Dafa practitioner

(Clearwisdom.net) I often read articles on Clearwisdom or hear practitioners around me discuss what they have enlightened to from their dreams. It is true that many practitioners have received hints from Teacher via dreams. Some images in their dreams were either evolved by Teacher or what their primordial spirit encountered in other dimensions. However, there are also other factors involved in one's dreams. If we become too attached to our dreams, we will bring much interference to ourselves. So no matter how we came across these scenes, if they are truly hints and reminders from Teacher, they would be consistent with the Fa that Teacher has lectured in public. If there are inconsistencies, we must think whether or not the contents of these dreams comply with Dafa. If they don't and are farfetched, or directly run counter to the Fa, we must be on the alert instantly and eliminate those dreams as interference, and at the same time, we should look inward to check what mentalities we had that attracted these things.

I believe that even if Teacher did hint us through a dream, we should not dig into the specifics, as it would only make it harder for us to realize the true meaning behind the dream. We must refer back to the Fa and truly cultivate our hearts. We should enlighten to things based on the Fa, because this is the foundation for all transformation and strength.

If we become too attached to the plot and the fine details of a dream, we would be like a person who has lost his way, and when asking a passerby for directions, instead of continuing forward with the help of the passerby's instructions, we become overly attached to the passerby's hand gestures and movements, etc. This way, we may fail to grasp the main points or even mislead ourselves by creating new problems.

This reminds me of practitioners who have taken detours under the evil persecution. Some of them had their celestial eyes opened. When they held onto their attachments and would not let go, demons in other dimensions appeared in various forms. These practitioners then tried hard to figure out what these images meant, but only ended up feeling very confused and exhausted. This might be one of the reasons why they had enlightened along an evil path. It is true that images practitioners see through their celestial eyes under interferences are somewhat similar to the "dreams" they experience when having attachments. However, even if a dream is indeed a hint dropped by Teacher, it is there to guide us out of our mistakes and to encourage us to cultivate more diligently, and not meant for us to enjoy the dream itself.

We all know that everything of today's human society is actually brought about by Dafa disciples' thoughts. Everything changes according to our mentalities, so how can we continue to be so attached to these things and so easily affected? As Dafa disciples, we should not be moved by anything, be it success or failure. We shouldn't be moved by phenomena of the surface dimension or become attached to what other practitioners see at different levels of the colossal firmament. We should grasp this opportunity to cultivate, to validate the Fa, and to accomplish our historic mission! Teacher said, "A heart unmoved subdues ten thousand hearts attempting to move."

From this I recall that during experience sharing, some practitioners often say things like, "My cultivation state has not been good these past few days.", "I do not feel that my righteous thoughts are as strong as before." and "I'm doing great these days." These are all observable personal cultivation states, and could be caused by all kinds of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Or it could be just the manifestation of a particular level in cultivation. Or perhaps it is time we let go of our attachments to progress to a higher level. It may also very well be a state intentionally created by the evil to interfere with us both physically and mentally. These are a different form of interference. We should focus on our cultivation in Dafa so that nothing can move us. We need to strengthen our main consciousness and differentiate them clearly.

I realize that we need to let go of not just attachments, but also all of the old notions and standards deposited throughout our lives at various levels in the history of the old universe, as well as our attachments to certain states that were derived from the old notions. These deeply rooted notions and mentalities often manifest in our everyday life. Although they appear to be similar, what underlies them is actually quite different. We must maintain a clear main consciousness. I have come to realize that the standard Teacher has set for us in our cultivation is extremely high. In the past, I often exhibited a mentality of feeling pleased with myself after enlightening to some principles, and in the next few days, I would find that both validating the Fa and my personal work ran exceptionally smooth. I was in a really good state, however, it faded away quickly too. The smoothness that I experienced previously then took a drastic turn. My mood was also affected in the process, and I was not as confident as before.

Why is that? I realized that in cultivation, we should not feel reluctant to leave the so-called "good state". Cultivation is not easy, and we have to continue to raise our levels and to make breakthroughs. How could we improve if we always long to stay in a "good state"? The only way to achieve this is to keep progressing, make breakthroughs, and not be attached to a particular level. Teacher said in "A Righteous God", "With righteous thoughts and righteous actions He is diligent without letting up" Indeed, we cannot pause for even a second!

On the issue of studying the book, some practitioners said, "Why is it that I can no longer enlighten to as many profound principles as before when I read the book?" Of course, this may be the manifestation of a certain stage in cultivation. However, I find that there is actually an attachment hidden deeply beneath these words. It is the attachment to obtaining more profound principles and to enlighten to even higher levels. There appears to be nothing wrong with this, yet I can see in these words a mentality of pursuit and a mentality of demanding things from Dafa. In fact, whatever we enlighten to is determined by us having assimilated to that level of the Fa. Seeing this, Teacher then points it out to us. Or we may say it is a natural result of us unconditionally assimilating to the Fa, and of us having understood the Fa principle of that level, not a result of pursuit. Teacher has said, "Pursue nothing and gain naturally."

January 9, 2004

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/1/10/64473.html

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