(Minghui.org) While reading “Fa Teaching at the 2015 U.S. West Coast Fa Conference”, I felt as if I'd been suddenly awakened by a thunderstorm.
In my understanding, Master is alerting us to the urgency of getting rid of our attachments because the remaining time is quite limited. I believe Master is ushering us forward to make rapid breakthroughs so that we can reach consummation.
In recent years, I discovered some hidden attachments regarding technology in myself and those around me. I would like to share this with fellow practitioners, especially those who use technology often in truth-clarification projects.
Using Modern Technology to Save People
Since the persecution of Falun Gong started in 1999, the communist regime has invested a huge amount of money to block the internet in order to cover up the details of the brutal persecution and prevent Chinese people from learning about the popularity of Falun Gong around the world.
To meet the requirements of Fa rectification in this human world, some practitioners quickly learned advanced technology for which they had no prior experience, including how to assemble, maintain and install computers, how to operate the systems, how to install software for clarifying the truth, and how to maintain printers, DVD burners and other equipment.
Practitioners in China used technology to set up truth-clarification material production sites, and soon they sprung up everywhere like flowers blossoming. They played, and are still playing, a significant role in saving people.
Attachments to Technology Cause Serious Loss
From Teacher's Fa lectures, we know that the entire system of modern science was copied from aliens. It was aliens that brought modern science to the earth. Their goal was to degenerate and control human beings. We are living in an environment that is permeated by modern science. Consequently, we were affected unknowingly and formed many attachments.
After long-term efforts to break through the internet blockade and expose the persecution, many practitioners became heavily attached to modern technology. The old forces targeted practitioners with technical expertise and we lost many “technology resources” in the first several years of the persecution. Our truth-clarification projects saw major setbacks, as well. It was painful and disheartening, but most practitioners still looked externally for the solution. We helped the arrested practitioners to identify their attachments and loopholes, but not everyone seriously considered the implications for his or her own cultivation state.
At that time, I sensed that it was because we relied too much on these practitioners for technical support. Admiring their technical ability, we failed to bear in mind that they were also practitioners in the process of cultivation. We had unrealistic expectations and put all kinds of demands on them for truth-clarification materials. We relied on them to solve all the technical problems, which occupied too much of their time and made it hard for them to find time to study the Fa.
Even when we noticed cultivation-related problems, we didn't compassionately point out their attachments. Oftentimes our admiration for their technical skills translated into an assumption that they cultivated well. Even more problematic, some practitioners admired them so much that they developed inappropriate feelings of attraction toward them. All these problems caused serious and painful losses to these practitioners.
High-Tech Doesn't Mean High Realm
One time a skilled practitioner that we all relied on was arrested. I was shocked when I saw that some female practitioners felt heartache and expressed their “complex feelings” towards him. I could see that such feelings contained their admiration and worship of technology. They had equated high-technology with high xinxing. However, I didn't realize the worship of technology was also an attachment.
In recent years, more and more of our local practitioners started producing truth-clarification materials themselves. However, some of them developed complacency in the process. One erroneous understanding was exposed: some practitioners regarded the technical skills they grasped as the measure of their breakthroughs in realms. They grew attached to how much technology they learned and were proud of their abilities. Gradually, they stopped listening to fellow practitioners' suggestions and looked down on others.
Some practitioners developed skills in a specific area and were responsible for a certain project in Fa rectification, but they became arrogant due to their “special status.” Like ordinary supervisors, they attempted to interfere with other Dafa projects.
Looking Within
Looking inside, I identified my own problems, too.
I was so focused on mastering technical skills and solving technical problems that sometimes I would forget about eating or sleeping. I would continue working on it without taking a break, even without doing the exercises, and I treated Fa study like completing a task. If I learned a technical skill or figured out how to fix an error, I got excited. I considered myself quite capable and failed to recognize that it was Master and Dafa who strengthened me and endowed me with wisdom.
I hope that technically adept practitioners, who have been attached to technology like I was, can get rid of this gap as soon as possible. I do not mean we should avoid technology, but we should be careful not to become attached to it.
Fellow practitioners, please point it out compassionately if you see anything in my understanding that is not in accordance with the Fa.
Thank you, compassionate and great Master!
Heshi.
Category: Improving Oneself
