|
Letting Go of the Attachment of Pursuit
(Clearwisdom.net) When studying the Fa (1) or clarifying the truth, I
noticed that we cannot do anything well if we do it with the attachment of
pursuit. For example, when studying the Fa, some practitioners did not realize
they were thinking that studying the Fa could help reduce the persecution,
resolve conflicts, or improve health; this actually is studying the Fa with the
attachment of pursuit. Why is it? We are here to cultivate, not to pursue
ordinary people's comfortable living. "In religious cultivation in the past, Buddhists taught Emptiness--not
thinking about anything, and entering the Gate of Emptiness. And Daoists
taught Nothingness--having nothing, wanting nothing, and seeking nothing.
Cultivators used to talk about, 'Putting the mind on practicing, not putting
the mind on getting gong.' So you cultivate in a state of nonaction and just
focus on cultivating your character, then you'll be making breakthroughs in
your level, and you'll definitely have whatever you should. If you can't let
go of something, isn't that an attachment? Here we're teaching such high-level
Laws right at the outset, so of course the demands on your character are high.
And that's why you can't come to learn the Law wanting to get something."
(Zhuan Falun) Let's think about these two points: religious cultivation in the past
required Emptiness and Nothingness, and Dafa cultivation should have higher
standards. My understanding is that the Fa is our guide, and as long as we study
more with a pure heart, we will learn more, assimilate more into the Fa and
improve more. I feel very lucky, happy and grateful for getting so much benefit
from reading one book and I should not worry about anything beyond that.
Pursuing more is really a greedy illusory thought, rather than our true nature,
and we should completely deny such an attachment. I treasure the opportunity to
study the Fa and cultivate. That is why I always take every chance to study the
Fa with a pure heart. Lots of attachments have been exposed during the process of clarifying the
truth. Some practitioners became pleased with themselves and complacent when
people understood and supported us. Conversely, they felt lost and angry when
people ignored or opposed us, and became depressed when they suffered
persecution. How to keep a calm heart and righteous thoughts? I once read a
sentence in a book that said that giving someone a rice grain with no
expectation of return is worth a ton, while giving tons of gold with the
condition of repayment is not true merit. This is just a saying from ordinary
people. Why, when we Dafa practitioners do so much, do we sometimes not get the
expected good results? The key is that our hearts were not pure enough. If we
unconditionally show the greatness of Dafa to people without any expectation, I
believe that most people will be happy to listen to us. Non-practitioners protect themselves when they are hurt …quot; that is human
nature. As a cultivator, we should not look outwards, rather look inwards to
find our own problems. Master told us that the whole process of cultivation is a
process of constantly getting rid of human attachments; we should not nurture
any attachments under any excuses. We can only achieve calmness when we do not
have any pursuit; we achieve pureness when we are calm, and we achieve
benevolent resolution when we are pure. Occasionally some practitioners who did lots of Dafa work would have the
attachments of comparing and competing, and they looked down on fellow
practitioners who did not do as much. All the sentient beings are waiting to be
saved …quot; we should just focus on saving people. Saving one is not too little
and saving 10,000 is not too much. Everybody has different capabilities, and as
long as every one of us does our best, we should not pursue any results.
Achieving higher levels is the result of cultivation, not pursuit or
competition. Every life has its own original position. An enlightened being in
the new cosmos should not have any attachment of pursuit. June 12, 2004 (1) Fa: Law and principles; the teachings of Falun Dafa.
|