A Discussion of Fundamental Attachments

By a Dafa practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) Since Master published his article, "Towards Consummation," Dafa disciples have gradually realized what their fundamental attachments were. However, there are still some practitioners who have a cloudy understanding of or do not know their fundamental attachments, or just think that they do not have fundamental attachments. When encountering issues of grave importance, these practitioners often stumble because of their fundamental attachments and some have met all kinds of interference and even enlightened along an evil path.

When I first read, "Towards Consummation," I could not find my fundamental attachments. However, as I knew that this is a very serious issue, I always thought about it. Before learning Dafa, I knew something about cultivation. When I first encountered and read Zhuan Falun I came to understand what genuine cultivation practice is and thus gave up my minor cultivation way and followed the way of Dafa.

I felt that I had walked my path very righteously and that the phenomena Master mentioned in the article did not apply to me. As a result, I did not recognize my fundamental attachment. However, I did realize that I have many kinds of attachments. I observed these attachments and found that all of them seemed to be centered on showing how different I was from the others and how great I was. Only then did I realize that my running into Dafa was because I had felt that Dafa is the best, and I, with such a good enlightenment quality, should of course cultivate the best. This mentality was also intermingled with the attachment of feeling complacent. The moment I realized this issue, it felt like a layer of a hard shell was breaking away and peeling off from all sides of my body.

Through constantly cultivating, I gradually realized that almost all of my attachments, such as jealousy, showing off, competitiveness, various desires, etc., were related to this fundamental attachment. It had tied together my various other attachments, and they strengthened and enlarged each other. Without discovering my fundamental attachment, it seemed very difficult for me to eliminate all the other attachments quickly. Just like in the case of curing illnesses, which is explained in Zhuan Falun, without recognizing one's fundamental root cause, it does not work no matter how one has tried to discharge one's black qi.

This fundamental attachment has manifested differently at different realms of my cultivation. However, it is centered on how to protect and get more benefits for myself. Although different attachments manifested themselves differently, their fundamental cause was "selfishness." Now, when I again examine the thoughts that I had when I started to learn Dafa, my understandings are different from what I had at that time. My thought at that time was that Dafa, being the best, was most likely to be able to help me in achieving my goal of being superior to others.

We, of course, all know from Master's teachings that our fundamental attachments are selfish in nature. However, some practitioners may have failed to fully understand this. They think that since they have already identified their fundamental attachments, it would be fine as long as they pay attention to getting rid of this selfishness during their daily lives and cultivation. But I feel that it is not that simple. Master told us that selfishness is a fundamental characteristic of the old cosmos. Since all Dafa disciples came from the old cosmos, and they came from different realms and different cosmic systems, the manifestations of this selfishness among us are quite varied. The manifestations in the human world are the notions that we had when we began to practice.

If one cannot clearly understand the fundamental attachments manifested at different realms, it would certainly bring difficulties to one's cultivation and validation of the Fa.

For example, when I argued with fellow practitioners about how to do things, I often thought that I was not defending myself and it was not for my selfish purposes. I just believed that it would be better to do it my way. However, after a period of time, when I could calm myself down and think of the issue again, I realized that it was still this fundamental attachment that was at play. I was still validating how I myself had independent and unique views.

My main understanding is that during one's cultivation, one should not be confused by the manifestations of the various attachments. One can start from the mentalities that we had when we initially walked into Dafa, find out one's fundamental attachments, and recognize its manifestations at different realms. This is the only way that we can avoid being controlled by our fundamental attachments, effectively break through the old force interference, and validate the Fa even more efficiently.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/10/18/112642.html

 Yearly Archive   Printer Version