Lessons Learned from the Attachment to Time

By Falun Gong practitioner Dongfang Wenying in China

(Clearwisdom.net) When Master's new article "New Year's Greetings" was published on Clearwisdom.net and disseminated among practitioners, some fellow practitioners around me once again studied the Fa with a human mentality. They claimed they had come to understand when the "conclusion" time would occur and they began to spread their understandings about the "ending time." Other practitioners told them we should not be attached to time, but the reply was, "It is not that we are attached to time. The purpose is to help more practitioners step forward."

It sounds like they are being responsible for the Fa, but in reality, it is a result of their not having studied the Fa well, so they are unaware that their so-called understanding comes from their deeply-rooted attachment to time. Moreover, it is also a huge deviation from the Fa to push the practitioners who have the attachment of fear to step forward by telling them that Fa-rectification is coming to an end. My personal understanding is that when the issue of time is brought up, we should enlighten to the urgency in our mission, and make the best use of our time to save sentient beings, rather than thinking about at what specific time we will finish our cultivation and leave the human world.

Because of an attachment to time, I once experienced demonic interference in my own mind. In 2000, I thought that since we had entered the new millennium and Dafa disciples had endured the persecution for over a year, that the persecution was probably about to end. This thought was initially not right, but I felt good about myself and thought my enlightenment quality was not bad. One day I had a dream and I saw the date "September 9" clearly in my dream. I "was enlightened" that it was the conclusion date of cultivation. In the days that followed, everything around me was a manifestation of "transformation follows mind-intent." For example, I often encountered the number 99 at work and in my daily life, which further solidified the interference.September 9 passed and I saw that the Fa rectification had not yet completed. I had truly experienced "demonic interference from one's own mind," which in the past, I thought would be experienced only by those with the celestial eye open.

I knew I had stumbled on the path of cultivation, and I calmed down to study the Fa. Actually, in Lecture 6 of Zhuan Falun, Master has articulated the issue of "demonic interference from one's own mind," which we may incur during our cultivation. Why had I been interfered with? It was because I didn't study the Fa well.

At the end of 2001, I was held at a detention center and placed in the same cell as practitioner A, who had been sentenced to forced labor last time. Because after her expected conclusion date, the cultivation was not completed, she turned against Dafa. When we were held in the detention center this time, she did not want to leave another blemish on her cultivation path. I remember when the evil interrogated her repeatedly, in utter exasperation they couldn't get anything from her. I admired her righteous thoughts and righteous actions very much. Unexpectedly, one day, she said to me, "I am not attached to time, but let us try to 'enlighten' to when the conclusion time will be." Upon hearing that, I immediately remembered my lessons from incurring demonic interference from my own mind. I knew her mind was not right and I immediately told her, "Do not think of this issue. It is a demon that makes you to want to 'get enlightened' to the conclusion time."

Although she had manifested a fearless attitude in the face of the evil, she had an attachment to time deeply hidden in her mind. She told me that when she was held in the forced labor camp, quite a few other practitioners were attached to time and they set for themselves a conclusion time. Some practitioners even didn't let their family members bring winter clothes to the labor camp and claimed that on July 20 they would attain consummation and leave the labor camp. In the end, without warm clothes, they endured the freezing cold in the winter. Even the guards laughed at them.

Twenty days later, I got out of the detention center with righteous thoughts. Later, I heard that practitioner A got out as well, but after that, she was arrested numerous times and is being held in a prison today. In my opinion, the fact that the evil persecutes her repeatedly is not completely unrelated to her attachment to time.

Because of some practitioners' attachment to time, the old forces have found the best excuse to "test" Dafa disciples. Because of this attachment, some of us have taken a deviated path and learned the lesson after we paid a painful and tragic price. Why did some practitioners not learn from these lessons and stumble over the same obstacle again and again without being enlightened to it? In essence, it's because some practitioners haven't studied the Fa well and have not melted into the Fa. When they encounter problems, they don't measure themselves according to the Fa to find their loopholes.

Master said:

"When I taught the Fa I told you before about all the problems that might occur during this malicious and destructive examination. It is indeed difficult for those who haven't truly done cultivation to come through this. Now you can see why I've often told you to read the book more, right?! The Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts." ("Drive Out Interference" from Essentials for Further Advancement II)

The above is my personal understanding. Please kindly point out any mistakes.

As of today, a number of practitioners are still struggling on the cultivation path arranged by the old forces. When the old forces' dark minions transform themselves into a demon to interfere with or into beauty to seduce practitioners, some fellow practitioners cannot distinguish them. It is all because we haven't paid enough attention to Fa study.

Originally, I had hoped Clearwisdom.net would publish articles to address the prominent issues wherein practitioners deviated from the Fa and urge them to pay more attention to these issues. As for me, I have found it very important to search within myself for the things that I have been able to find in others. I now feel that we should break through our human notions and obstacles, and actively submit our articles about what we have observed and our cultivation experiences to Clearwisdom.net, so as to contribute to a good cultivation environment.

2/27/2005

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/2/28/96294.html

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