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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
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