My Understanding on Breaking through Notions

By a Falun Dafa practitioner from Hebei Province

(Clearwisdom.net) On my path of cultivation, validating the Fa, and clarifying the facts to sentient beings, I used to have a strong attachment to "facts." This attachment in turn strengthened my notions on this issue. The Teacher taught the Fa principles on this issue a long time ago, but I did not enlighten to it.

Once when I was sharing experiences with fellow practitioners I said that sometimes ordinary people have a hard time accepting the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, and that "those who are selfish, sly, and insincere tend to not want to listen to the truth about Falun Gong or the Nine Commentaries. As soon as they see or hear about it, they feel uncomfortable. I observed this pattern, and this validated my earlier thoughts." The practitioners responded, "You are validating a so-called fact, but not the Fa. Besides, these are only illusions, so what's the point of validating them?" I said, "What I saw was a true social phenomenon, it's a fact, and how can it be an illusion? Validating it wasn't that important. It only showed that I was right." He said, "So what? What's the point of proving it?" I felt hurt by the practitioner's words. I thought that I had validated a fact, but he made it sound like I was showing off. What should I do with this "fact," if anything? I had not thought much beyond this.

The practitioner continued, "I am waiting to hear your solution. Every time you validated a fact, you never have anything to follow up. You make it sound like these things are absolute, that Dafa practitioners do nothing but accept them. If that were the case, why do they need Dafa practitioners? Isn't it our mission to validate the Fa?"

The practitioner's words made me quite uncomfortable. We talked about this issue a few more times, but he kept critiquing me like that, and every time I felt pretty uncomfortable. I tried to look inside for my own problem, but had no new understanding after the discomfort. This time, things were different. I felt a tremor in my heart. I suddenly realized that in my cultivation, on many issues I was using the Fa to validate the "facts." How can this be righteous cultivation? Isn't this actually using the Fa to strengthen my notions? How can I possibly break through the notions? Am I not attached to my feelings about reality and my acceptance of it? I suddenly pinpointed the attachment.

I used to often think, "This person is difficult to save, that person can't be saved, or this or that person is doomed to be destroyed." All of these were conclusions based on my acceptance of the "reality" the old forces produced. In the meantime, I told myself that this was a fact and there was no way I could save them. When I ran into a problem, I often used notions formed earlier to validate the "reality" in front of my eyes. Even though I studied Dafa, I often used the Fa principles to fit my human notions and understandings, while feeling as though I enlightened to some truths.

Actually my true nature does not want to accept this so-called "fact." I really want to help these people see the truth, understand the evil nature of the Chinese Communist Party, treat Dafa with kindness, and be saved by Dafa, yet I didn't have the ability and ways to solve these problems. As a result, I felt helpless and pained. To put it plainly, that was my human attachments and notions acting up. Just like Teacher said,

After I came to this understanding, I also gained a new understanding about "the entire cultivation process for a practitioner is one of constantly giving up human attachments" (Zhuan Falun, English Version in 2000). After recognizing this long-standing attachment and notion, I felt that I was soaring and that many mental blocks were broken through. I felt as if I had just started cultivating, and just began to understand what cultivation means. I also felt a lot more confident when clarifying the facts and saving the world's people.

The above is just some understanding of mine. Please point out anything inappropriate.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/12/17/116691.html

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