Get Rid of the Attachments of Showing Off, Self-Absorption, Pursuit of Admiration and Dependence on Others

By a practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) A human being develops attachments such as showing off; being too engrossed with oneself and seeking admiration from others. Because we cultivate among everyday people, we take some attachments for granted and it is hard to detect them.

At several experience sharing conferences in mainland China in recent years, which were sabotaged by the evil and which led to many practitioners being arrested, some fellow practitioners who were invited to speak talked all about themselves. This caused practitioners who couldn't see things from within the Fa to worship them as models. These speakers, surrounded by admirers like the "Moon surrounding the stars," could hardly behave themselves well and wanted to show off. In the process, they became too self-absorbed. Although the speakers meant well initially and didn't intend to show themselves off, eventually they couldn't conduct themselves well. This is my personal understanding, and there might be other deep-lying reasons as well.

This situation warned me that in order to avoid the attachments of showing off, being self-absorbed and seeking admiration, we must discuss the issue without talking about other people. This means, only talk about positive experiences and negative lessons which we need to learn from, without mentioning practitioners' names. For instance, if I feel a fellow practitioner's understanding of a certain Fa principle and his actions are helpful to others, I would say: "A fellow practitioner's understanding in this aspect is very helpful to me..." or, "I met with a fellow practitioner, whose method of clarifying the truth is great..." Sometimes when I share my own understanding or actions, I don't mention myself. This prevents some practitioners' curiosity and desire to see a cultivator who cultivates well.

In fact, this is what we should do in minding our speech, not letting the evil take advantage of any omissions. Over these years that the evil has persecuted us, oftentimes it was caused by our not minding our speech. The evil took advantage of it. We must treat this issue seriously.

Two days ago, I heard from practitioner A that practitioner B has some truth-clarification materials at her home. Some nearby fellow practitioners went to fetch the materials from her home. Practitioner B's husband has been arrested many times. She was afraid, when it became known among the police that her home had become a target. Some practitioners might have the attachment of showing off which is unnoticeable and they may not mind their speech towards fellow practitioners whom they trust a lot. If all of us did the same, the evil would take advantage of the omission.

Practitioner B and her husband are merely acquaintances of mine. Through sharing with practitioner A, we thought that talking about issues without mentioning names during our sharing is not only minding our speech and a safety issue, but also prevents us from developing admiration toward others and other attachments. The purpose of experience sharing is for advancement; one's attachments can be located through sharing with others. If new attachments are formed during experience sharing instead of our upgrading ourselves, then it makes no sense to share.

In addition, we think that we should ask practitioner B to transfer away her materials. It not only involves responsibility toward a certain fellow practitioner, but also involves practitioners who get materials from her home.

There are a lot of lessons from the past. If we did well, practitioners who were arrested wouldn't suffer from huge trials and tribulations, others wouldn't have so much fear, and the police who arrested us wouldn't create so much karma for themselves. If these negative impacts were reduced, it would be easier to inhibit human beings' fear of the evil and thus be able to save them. From this point of view, we are being responsible for the Fa since Teacher's mission in disseminating the Fa is to save sentient beings.

This event also disclosed other practitioners' strong attachment of dependence, with fear disguised in it. Everyone should consider whether you have fear or not when the materials are in your home. So we need to think about fellow practitioners who make the truth-clarification materials! Being responsible for others is also being responsible for oneself and furthermore, being responsible for the Fa. Teacher told us, The Great Way is formless. Everyone has to walk his or her own path, so we need to get rid of dependence on others.

If the mind is on cultivation, each occurrence can be a warning and a hint for us.

April 17, 2007

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/4/18/152962.html

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