(Clearwisdom.net) Attachment to comfort has been weakening our will and wasting our valuable time. Here in Beijing it has even destroyed some practitioners.
Indulgence in comfort, like laziness, is not an appropriate state for a practitioner. There are two types of pleasures, one is material interests, and the other is more spiritually oriented—hoping to have a steady life to enjoy. We know that the material and spirit are connected. Instead of clinging to the attachment to comfort, a practitioner must eliminate it. However, this attachment is not easy to notice. Only when remaining diligent are we able to be aware of the existence of this attachment.
From Fa-study, we know that cultivation means enduring hardships, as well as enlightening. Attachment to comfort will slow down or hinder both of these.
For example, one may think: I have worked so hard today and have no energy to do the exercises, so I will skip it this time. I am very sleepy today, and my Fa-study will not be good, so I will skip it. Since it is still two minutes away to sending forth righteous thoughts, let me lie down a few more minutes, but then 10 minutes pass and sending righteous thoughts is missed. It is still 5 minutes before the group exercises, just a couple more minutes of nap, thus, we go back to sleep again. Because of rain, snow or strong winds, I do not go out to clarify the truth. It is difficult to endure the pain from my illness karma, how about I go see a doctor? There are also concerns over truth-clarification to strangers, thinking they might report us to the police…
Some practitioners could not endure even minor hardships. They even stopped practicing or switched to other cultivation ways. The attachment to comfort interferes with us in many ways. There was one practitioner who, after being released, stayed at home for Fa-study, doing the exercises and sending forth righteous thoughts. That is, he only did two out of the three things. Later, he could no long bear the pain of illness karma and underwent surgery to remove part of an organ. After returning home from the hospital, he still did not look within. Instead, he went around complaining that so many years of practice had not made him healthy…
The attachment to comfort makes us unwilling to endure hardships. It also weakens our will, causing us to be less diligent. In addition, this attachment stops us from being enlightened and, as our righteous thoughts weaken, we gradually descend to everyday people. The evil is using the attachment to comfort to drag us down and destroy us, rendering our cultivation in vain. Especially in Beijing, the living condition is relatively good and there are also other types of temptations. It is very easy for a practitioner to yield to this attachment and fall to the level of an everyday person. Therefore, we should be cautious of this attachment and once finding it, immediately eliminate it.
As a practitioner, it is not unusual to come across the attachment to comfort, but we must pay attention to this and eliminate it. I wrote this article not because I did well. Instead, I have done rather poorly and am still trying to learn how to overcome this issue. Seeing the attachment to comfort has interfered and destroyed many practitioners, I am very worried. So I wrote this article, hoping more practitioners could learn this lesson and improve in this aspect. Please point out anything inappropriate.
