(Clearwisdom.net) As practitioners, we must beware of being attached to our children. I have seen some elderly practitioners who were attached to their children during the Fa-rectification period, which contributed to their financial difficulties.

Some practitioners have spent all their savings for their children to study, to find a job, to get married, or to buy an apartment, to the extent that some of them are in debt or have run into other, more serious financial problems. They are mentally exhausted and feel helpless. At the current time this situation is deteriorating, which seriously affects their cultivation state and their ability to do the three things.

Master said in “Teaching the Fa at the Conference in the Midwest-U.S.” in 1999:

“Then, during the cultivation process, you can take good loving care of your children and elders. That is not wrong. It’s not wrong even for a cultivator. The key is not to be overly attached, because attachments are exactly what cultivators shouldn’t have. If any one thread ties you up, you won’t be able to depart.”

I realized the problem from studying the above-mentioned article. The following is one example of how being attached to our children can lead us to conduct ourselves as ordinary people, eventually deviating from the Fa:

A 74-year-old Dafa practitioner has cultivated since 1995. She had asthma for more than forty years, but the symptoms were cured a short time after she started practicing Falun Gong. She was not able to read in the past, but within a few months of cultivation she could read Zhuan Falun.

Her financial situation improved more and more. She had savings of 100,000 yuan, owned an apartment worth more than 100,000 yuan, and had her retirement pension—overall, quite good living conditions. However, this older practitioner had a strong attachment to her children. She spent all her savings on her daughter's family. She gave money to her daughter, son-in-law and grandson; helped her grandson to get settled in a new job; and bought computers for them all.

Now the old woman has less than 20,000 yuan. Her older son has managed her retirement money since day one when she retired. She asked her son for the retirement pension, but he said that her younger son was managing her financial affairs. She asked her younger son for the money. He also said he had never seen her money. Now she is encountering financial difficulties.

Let’s think about it. If she had let go of her attachment to her children and had a good handle on the relationship between the cultivation and her children, she would not have run into financial problems.

If she had used that money to help end the persecution of Dafa, to offer more people salvation, she could have rescued many people. If we continue to hold onto our attachments to our children, the old forces' arrangements will not only destroy us but also sentient beings who are waiting for the truth.

This is my personal understanding, please point it out if there is something incorrect.