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Let Go of Pursuit and Progress with a Pure Mind (Clearwisdom.net) In the following article, I will share some of the
understandings that I have enlightened to during my cultivation. Master emphasized in "Towards Consummation" (Essentials
for Further Advancement II), "During the course of cultivation, however, through reading the books,
studying the Fa, and diligently making progress, you should clearly recognize
what your thoughts were when you first came to Dafa. After cultivating for a
period of time, are your thoughts still the same? Are you continuing on the
path because of those human attachments? If so, you cannot be counted as my
disciple. It means that you haven't gotten rid of your fundamental attachments
and that you are unable to understand the Fa from the Fa." My understanding is that, if one still cultivates for the purpose of just
assimilating himself to Dafa and still learns Dafa for the sole purpose of
returning to his original, true self, he is using Dafa, no matter how noble or
correct he thinks his purpose is, and no matter whether he is conscious of it or
not; he will then gain nothing. Master mentioned in Zhuan Falun: "If you come to learn the practice and this Dafa with various
pursuits, you will not learn anything." During my cultivation, I found that if I had pursuit in mind while trying to
get rid of an attachment and cultivate myself, it would be difficult for me to
progress forward on the issue. In other words, my cultivation would stagnate if
I was pursuing something while trying to discard an attachment; the attachment
would remain for a long time and I would be unable to progress in my cultivation
diligently. To get rid of an attachment with pursuit is often expressed as trying to
remove the attachment for the purpose of resolving a specific problem. Sometimes
I was not aware that I was doing that, but when I calmed my mind, I was able to
find that it was there. The following are some examples of the different
expressions of the pursuits I had. 1. Trying to remove the attachment to fear for the purpose of not being
arrested. Master said in "What to be afraid of" (Hong Yin II),
"If you are afraid, it will capture you." [unofficial translation]
I often had a thought, "Let me discard the mentality of fear and I will not
be arrested again this time". 2. I had an attachment to trying to remove lust so that Master would not
leave me behind. When lecturing on the question of "Recently there has been
an instance(s) around us of a man and a woman having an affair....," Master
mentioned, "... the moment I truly give up on you is the moment you go down
to hell!" ("Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New
York Fa Conference") 3. When I had difficulties in finding a job because of the evil interference
and when I had difficulty in maintaining my everyday life, I often thought when
or after I was sending forth righteous thoughts, "As long as the evil is
eliminated, I will be able to find a job." 4. When I was persecuted by the evil and when I was illegally kidnapped and
detained by the evil, I often thought as I was trying to remove attachments and
impure mentalities, "I have discarded the attachment, so I should be
released soon." After I found the problem, I paid attention to letting go of the pursuit when
I was removing attachments in cultivation; I progressed much faster. The feeling
of being blocked and being unable to progress forward quickly disappeared.
Master mentioned in the section "The Issue of Eating Meat" in Zhuan
Falun, "As a practitioner, why don't you take it as an attachment to be
abandoned, and see if you can quit." I came to understand that it is the same in our process of removing
attachments and cultivating our mind; when we find out our impure mentalities or
attachments, we should discard them; they are the barriers on our path of
returning to our original, true selves; they are attachments and we must remove
them. When we find our problems we should not have a mentality of pursuit; we
should elevate ourselves with a pure mind. If we have an extra thought we would
have an extra attachment. June 10, 2004 Posting date: 6/25/2004 |