The Harmful Effects of the Show-off Mentality and the Attachment of Zealotry

(Clearwisdom.net) I heard that practitioner A, for a long time, often felt drowsy during Fa study, and his mind easily wandered during exercises and sending righteous thoughts. He has been suffering from sickness karma for a long time as well. While he was fine before, he now walks with a limp. This has made it difficult for him to clarify the facts to people. I also heard that some fellow practitioners reminded him several times that this was an abnormal state. He also realized this himself, and, though he tried to deny the old forces' arrangement, his efforts were in vain. Some people around him already carried negative thoughts about him and were reluctant to listen to him when he clarified the truth. Some of them even said that they would only believe him if his foot healed.

One day, practitioners B, C and D decided to have a discussion and sharing with practitioner A to see whether they could be of any help and if they could assist practitioner A to uncover his fundamental attachments and rectify them.

Practitioner B asked practitioner A if he sent righteous thoughts every day to negate the arrangements by the old forces. Practitioner A said that he often did so to break through the old forces' arrangement. Practitioner C asked whether there were any attachments that he could not let go off or if there were any loopholes being taken advantage of by the old forces. Practitioner A pondered a minute and said that he still had the attachment of competitiveness, desire for good food, and a bad temper. Practitioner D told him that, due to his problem and prolonged sickness karma, everyday people had formed some negative thoughts about Dafa and were reluctant to listen to the facts. Practitioner D continued to say that he should take a deep inward look at himself. Upon hearing this, practitioner A became agitated and emotional, he talked a lot about how he had walked righteously through many hard times before. Everyone listened patiently and decided to send more righteous thoughts as a group.

During the process of sending righteous thoughts, Practitioners B, C and D had to remind practitioner A several times that his hand gesture was not correct; his posture was not upright; his head tilted and his body was shaking; his lotus hand gesture was closed, etc. After this, practitioners B, C and D had a further discussion about practitioner A and it came out that practitioner A was often all smiles while sending righteous thoughts. Practitioner A said that the strong energy going through his body made it difficult to control the movement of his body and head. They then realized that the key was his attachment to zealotry and showing-off, which were developed through his long-term pursuit of different physical experiences. Because of this, practitioner A failed to understand the seriousness of his sleepiness during Fa study, exercise and sending righteous thoughts, and he failed to acknowledge the negative impact his sickness karma had caused during truth-clarification activities.

Through deeper sharing, practitioner A finally came to realize his attachment of zealotry. He came to understand that whether it was the movement of real energy or not, it was unacceptable to let it control his body. Meanwhile, if it was energy, how could that make one feel sleepy and one's mind wander about? It was obvious that there were loopholes. With this understanding, practitioner A is determined to get rid of it. It was much better the next time they sent righteous thoughts together. Practitioner A said that no matter how hard he tried to do away with his sleepiness before, it was very difficult to break through. He said that he must try to eliminate it in the future. It is not an easy thing to break through one's tribulation if the root of the attachment is not exposed. Master says:

"The desire to show off plus the attachment of zealotry are most easily exploited by the demonic part of your mind.." ("Definitive Conclusion" from Essentials for Further Advancement)

July 19, 2005

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/7/21/106523.html

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