Attachments of Preference, Self-Interest, and Selfishness

By Falun Dafa Practitioner Rongxin in Dalian City

(Clearwisdom.net) Recently I found that I have a strong attachment of preference, and I have different attitudes towards different practitioners.

Some practitioners have a solid sense their of mission, and they always cultivate their mind, get rid of human attachments, and their righteous thoughts are very strong. When I am together with these practitioners, I feel like I benefit from them, and the time is spent rather pleasantly because they always think of others. On the other hand, some practitioners' standpoints seem like they are still among ordinary people, and they are still very attached to human things, always thinking of themselves, and they are even not aware when they hurt others. I could endure this at first. But after they refused to correct themselves several times, I became hostile towards them, and I was very impatient.

Through studying the Fa and looking inward, I realized that our xinxing levels are different and our understandings of the Fa are different, so I cannot force others to have my level of understanding. When my heart is disturbed, I should look inside to see if I still have attachments. It is not necessary to argue, and it is even worse to act like I did: refusing to have contact or forgetting to use appropriate speech and have compassion in my heart.

Why was there such big differences when I was dealing with diligent practitioners and "not diligent" practitioners? I found I had attachments of pursuit, self-interest, and selfishness hidden inside. I know that by coming in contact with diligent practitioners, I could be inspired in the Fa. But I have to sacrifice time, energy, and patience in dealing with the not so diligent practitioners. I always felt that they brought me trouble, harmed me, and brought about my human attachments. To put it plainly, all I wanted was to gain. I was happy to gain, but felt that it was painful to lose.

Master said in Lecture at the First Conference in North America,

Master's teaching helped me enlighten that there are benefits existing in every relationship between people, including those among Falun Dafa practitioners. Looking from a shallow level, there was an issue of how to handle personal loss and gain. Looking from a deeper level, one should always be in the mindset of being helpful to others and being selfless and altruistic. We Falun Dafa practitioners are predestined to work together today to validate the Fa and save sentient beings. We have formed a network of coordination and communication. It does not seem wrong for one to pursue an environment that can help oneself diligently melt in the Fa. But during the Fa-rectification process, upgrading and harmonizing the whole body, which is harmonizing with what Master wants, is the best choice. In order to establish ourselves as great enlightened beings, we need to eliminate selfishness at every level.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/11/7/141761.html

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