(Clearwisdom.net)
Teacher pointed out in "Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005 (Q&A portion)":
"Some students never eliminated their fundamental attachments, and that is an issue of whether or not they are truly Dafa disciples at a fundamental level."
Teacher's words shook me to the core. I immediately tried to recall my human notions and yearnings at the time I first stepped into Dafa, and I looked for my fundamental attachments.
Because I was a sensible person, I adopted my mother's devotion and prayed to the gods and Buddha. I believed in the existence of gods and Buddha, believed in the law of cause and effect, and knew that retribution and reincarnation were real. After experiencing a difficult life and then entering middle age, I realized the false and deceitful philosophy that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propagated. I wondered about the real meaning of life. In the summer of 1991, I drew a "very best" lot with serial number of 001 in a temple (it was the only time in my life I drew a lot). The poem on the lot was full of propitious sentences, and what interested me most and I will remember to the end of my life were the words "listed in the immortals." After that, I yearned to escape from the ordinary world and cultivate towards immortality, but I could not give up my family and career. Therefore I did not have the courage to actually become a monk.
In 1997, I read Zhuan Falun for the first time. The subject of Teacher's Lecture One, "Genuinely Guiding People Toward Higher Levels," attracted me a lot. This is when I learned that I could achieve consummation by practicing Dafa and did not need to become a monk. I was delighted. In this way, just like Teacher said:
"Some truly see the Fa-principles of Dafa; while many other students have found with their human notions various yearnings and wishes in Dafa, and, compelled by these human attachments, they have come to practice cultivation in Dafa." ("Towards Consummation" from Essentials for Further Advancement II)
Therefore, my fundamental attachment was the attachment to consummation.
For several years, due to not realizing what my fundamental attachment was, I followed many twists on the path of cultivation, and fell many times. The lessons I learned were huge. Recently, I re-studied relevant lectures, thought about my fundamental attachments, and had some enlightenment. Now I'm writing it down as a reference for my fellow practitioners, and hope to be corrected if there are any mistakes.
1. Discovering a Hidden Fundamental Attachment
In "Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s)" Teacher pointed out:
"In teaching the Fa, I have talked about the principle whereby a school student who does his schoolwork well will naturally be admitted to college, whereas a school student who is attached to being admitted to college but who doesn't do his schoolwork well won't be admitted. 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."
From this, I understood the relationship between studying the Fa well, validating the Fa, and reaching consummation, and again deeply enlightened on the important Fa principle of "things are gained naturally, with no pursuit." Teacher's words touched me greatly, so I warned myself not to be attached to consummation from that point on.
It is a pity that I did not truly realize the damage caused by being attached to consummation. I didn't see it as my fundamental attachment because I did not study the Fa well and my enlightenment quality was poor. Also, I did not understand Teacher's words comprehensively and accurately. I understood and emphasized, "It isn't wrong for a cultivator to wish to reach Consummation," and unknowingly took it as an excuse to indulge and cover up my attachment to consummation. In this way, this attachment kept showing up during my cultivation. I handled things all right, and grew joyful as I thought that I could finally improve my level. Then, I encountered a lot of frustration, became sluggish, and worried about whether I could reach consummation. When I validated the Fa in Beijing in 2000, I heard a fellow practitioner say: "The Fa-rectification is about to end, let's go to Tiananmen Square and report to Teacher." Therefore, before I unfurled a banner and faced Tiananmen, I silently said: "Teacher, your disciple is reporting to you!" Actually, this sentence hid the attachment: "Teacher, don't drop me when everyone else is consummating!"
For several years, in this way, I worried about reaching consummation. However I always thought it was a benign wish, and did not realize that I had an attachment, just as Teacher said:
"Because of practicing cultivation among everyday people, a lot of our practitioners cannot release many of their attachments. Many attachments have already become second nature, and these people themselves cannot detect them." (Zhuan Falun)
This pointed out one aspect of how my attachment to consummation was hidden.
On the other hand, when I did not pass a test well in my cultivation, I knew there was leakage, but only identified some superficial human notions. I did not search further to find the root cause, which might be the attachment to consummation. Therefore, other human notions covered up this attachment, and it was actually buried deeply.
2. Seeing the Harm of Being Attached to Consummation
In "Touring North America to Teach the Fa," Teacher talked seriously about the deep connotations behind saving sentient beings. Teacher said:
"Today I can tell you this: your cultivation is absolutely not a personal, simple matter of reaching Consummation--your cultivation is saving the countless sentient beings in the cosmic body that corresponds to you and who've put infinite hope in you. The cultivation of you all is saving the sentient beings in every single gigantic cosmic colossal firmament."
"So a Dafa disciple's responsibilities aren't for the sake of personal Consummation, but to save sentient beings while validating the Fa--that is a Dafa disciple's historic mission, and that is why Dafa disciples are truly magnificent."
This requires us to be in a noble realm with infinite mercy and selflessness, always putting salvation of sentient beings first, and walking our paths correctly.
If you are attached to consummation, it is hard to follow the Fa-rectification process. Attaching to personal consummation is being selfish; you can't help but be swayed by considerations of gain and loss. In "Touring North America to Teach the Fa", a practitioner asked:
"If students in Mainland China go out to spread the Fa, they'll surely be arrested. But if they don't spread the Fa, they're afraid that it will affect their levels in the course of Fa-rectification. How should disciples in Mainland China handle this?"
This is a typical reflection of attaching to personal consummation, but with layer upon layer of fear.
Teacher answered:
"Neither of these two kinds of thinking is right. If a person doesn't go out to spread the Fa, he's afraid that it will affect his level, he's afraid that it will affect his improvement, and he's afraid that it will affect his Consummation. He's afraid of this, he's afraid of that--instead of truly looking at things as a Dafa disciple."
This complex mentality seems to affect many of us. For example, this is the final stage of Fa-rectification, and yet, some people clearly know that Dafa is good, but they are afraid and can't step out of being human. There are still people who use the excuse of "not being involved in politics" for not being able to actively promote the "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party" and urging people to quit the party. There are people doing things on the surface who lack the sense of urgency and passion for saving people. Therefore, the attachment to consummation makes it difficult for practitioners to keep up with the Fa-rectification process.
If you are attached to consummation, the attachment will certainly grow and affect all human notions. It will be hard to have righteous thoughts and righteous actions. For example, under the wish to increase one's level and build mighty virtue, some practitioners mix the element of validating oneself with validating Dafa. The attachments of showing off and jealousy manifest clearly. Some practitioners have strong intentions of doing things, sometimes attending to only one thing of the three things and not doing another, or even mismanaging Fa study. Some practitioners can't use Dafa to harmonize their own environments (including the family), and thus cause negative effects. Under the expectation of reaching consummation and soon leaving the earth, some practitioners developed an attachment to time and prophesies, put hope in everyday people, and caused an unstable mindset, "exhibited a despondent state and slackened in their resolve to be diligent" ("The Closer to the End, the More Diligent You Should Be"). All these are leakages caused by attachment to consummation, which may be taken advantage of by the evil. Weren't there some practitioners who appeared to be doing well but who were abducted, persecuted, tormented by serious illnesses, or even lost their lives? I think some of these people may have had such problems.
Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005" when talking about the evil persecution:
"When the evil can persecute students, isn't that because it manages to exploit the students' gaps arising from their attachments? Isn't that why it can persecute students in the first place? This includes some students feeling physical discomfort, even to the point of having seemingly serious conditions or in some cases even passing away prematurely. There are factors arranged by the old forces at work there, but there's also an element of the students themselves not acting so righteously. If [you] act in a truly righteous manner, nothing will dare to lift a finger against you."
If you attach to reaching consummation, you may create an obstacle for Fa-rectification. Teacher published "Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s)" in 2000 and discussed the attachment to consummation. I enlightened that this attachment to consummation was fairly widespread.
"If one person thinks this way, or two people think this way, or maybe three people think this way, it's not a big deal. But if Dafa disciples as a whole or if more people are thinking this way, then isn't that a strong attachment, a strong obstacle?" ("Touring North America to Teach the Fa").
In the final stage of Fa-rectification, if many practitioners have this attachment, and possibly it is their fundamental attachment, not only does it interfere with and obstruct the Fa-rectification, but it also provides an excuse for the old forces to continue persecuting Dafa. Teacher warned us in "Towards Consummation:"
"Do you know that one of the biggest excuses the old evil forces use at present to persecute Dafa is that your fundamental attachments remain concealed? So in order to identify those people, the tribulations have been made more severe."
Therefore, if we do not abandon the attachment to consummation as soon as possible, its harm is not that one can't reach consummation, but more severely it may affect the entire Fa-rectification process and slow down salvation of sentient beings.
3. Abandoning the Attachment to Consummation While Doing Three Things Well
How can one get rid of the attachment to consummation? Teacher taught us in "Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005:"
"If it's a case where you are aware of it and feel anxious about it, but in practice you don't truly restrain and suppress it, then in reality you are just stopping at this mental activity of seeing and feeling something, but you haven't taken any action to suppress that thing. In other words, you have only thought about it but not actually cultivated and put it into practice."
Therefore, with regards to the attachment to reaching consummation, we must get rid of it through cultivation, which can only be accomplished while doing the three things well.
First of all, we must pay attention to Fa study, and firmly believe that the Fa can break all attachments. Only through studying the Fa, can we identify and locate the attachment to reaching consummation, recognize it from the Fa, take the Fa as master, compare ourselves, and abandon this attachment.
The process of validating the Fa and saving sentient beings is our cultivation process; it is the process of getting rid of all kinds of attachments; it is certainly the process of giving up attachments and human notions, and thereby reaching consummation. This process is sometimes a process of endlessly exposing and overcoming attachments,
"That [occurs] because things developed over a long period of time have been separated into layers by factors pressed down here by beings from the old cosmos. So each time a layer is broken through, that layer is wiped out; then another layer is broken through and wiped out; and another is broken through and wiped out. In this way, they will become weaker and weaker, and there will be fewer and fewer of them." ("Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005, Q&A portion")
Therefore, in order to completely abandon the attachment to consummation, we must be persistent in doing the three things as requested by our Teacher.
