The Attachment to Time is a Serious Obstacle

By a Falun Dafa practitioner from China

(Clearwisdom.net) Practitioners' attachments to time have very bad consequences because they are related to attachments to consummation, personal fame, interest, and sentiment. They result in serious interference and damage the Fa rectification process. When a practitioner has this attachment, he or she is impatient about reaching consummation or seeing the Chinese government's policy toward Falun Gong reversed. These practitioners commonly hope to end the persecution soon, so that they will regain freedom and a comfortable life. These attachments are stronger when the practitioners are being persecuted.

Because these practitioners pay a lot of attention to time, they guess and speculate about what will happen next and base their actions accordingly. Some become irrational, and others are persecuted because the evil takes advantage of their loopholes. These practitioners subconsciously think that there is not much time left before the persecution will end and that they will not suffer long. On the surface, the attachment to time manifests as not considering safety concerns or the consequences of their actions and not conforming to the state of ordinary people's society. When their hopes that the persecution will "end at a particular time" go unfulfilled, they are disappointed. Some become negligent, and others enlighten on evil paths and "reform."

I was arrested and put in a detention center with three other practitioners in late 2000. Two of the practitioners had been arrested in Beijing and were brought back to our hometown. Another practitioner and I had been arrested locally. We were all attached to time at that point. With the Chinese New Year approaching, we "enlightened" that "the persecution would end around the coming Chinese New Year." One of the practitioner's purposes for going to Beijing was that he had heard that a practitioner would be left behind if he did not go to Beijing to validate the Fa. All four of us believed that to be true to different degrees. The two of us who had not gone to Beijing were envious of the other two practitioners who had gone.

We all expected the end of the persecution with human attachments, thinking that it would be only a matter of days. We were all very happy, talking and laughing among ourselves. However, more than 20 days passed. The Chinese New Year came and went, yet there was no sign of the persecution ending. Instead, the staged "Self Immolation" incident happened. We were all very disappointed and felt that we had been deceived by rumors. Later on, the two practitioners who had gone to Beijing were both moved by ordinary people's sentiments and gave up their belief in Falun Dafa. One of them was sentenced to forced labor and the other was released. The one who was sentenced to forced labor stayed with me in detention. He often said that he had gone to Beijing and thus had reached consummation, so he could "reform" on the surface and some other things like that, all of which had a very bad effect in the forced labor camp.

I was also moved while I was in a detention center because of my attachment to time. It took me a very long time and a very painful process to enlighten to the truth of this issue. It was a big and profound lesson for me.

Sometimes I think about it: if practitioners had not been attached to consummation and time, how could the old forces have created the staged "Self Immolation?" Teacher said in "Towards Consummation" from Essentials for Further Advancement II: "Whatever you're attached to, they have evil ones concoct lies about that." If we had not been attached to consummation, how could the evil have made someone cry out about having reached consummation during the staged "Self Immolation?" Currently, the Fa rectification has proceeded to the point where practitioners should expose the evil nature of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and quickly save the people in the world. If we are not clear headed and still have an attachment to time or hatred toward the evil party, maybe the evil will again take advantage of our loopholes and create lies which will deceive people and make clarifying the truth harder. If that happens, then we have unnecessarily created trouble for the entire Fa validation process.

Teacher said,

"It isn't wrong for a cultivator to wish to reach Consummation, but your mind should be on the Fa. While continually cultivating you will unwittingly meet the standard for Consummation. Those Dafa students who are unable to endure the suffering are especially likely to have thoughts of leaving the human world and reaching Consummation soon. This allows the evil to take advantage of their gaps." ("Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s)," Essentials for Further Advancement II)

When I recalled the above experience, I deeply realized that the attachments to time and consummation are truly huge obstacles for practitioners. They harm both the practitioners themselves and others and thus need to be eliminated firmly and completely. Today, Teacher has made the Fa rectification proceed even faster. Some practitioners have some misunderstandings on this issue. They are not able to understand it and use human notions to view the matter, thinking that the persecution will end soon. These practitioners become hasty, yet they cannot put saving sentient beings before their own interests. In my opinion, these attachments are easily taken advantage of by the evil that then persecutes the practitioners who have the attachments. I think the current situation is a big test for practitioners to see if we can relinquish our attachments. We should examine ourselves for hidden attachments and do as Teacher told us in "Further Understanding" from Essentials for Further Advancement:

"If you are able to succeed in improving yourself this way, what you do then, with a pure heart, will be the best and most sacred."

03/07/2005

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