(Minghui.org) When it comes to letting go of attachments, I find some and understand quickly. Others are hard to detect, as they have become second nature.
I recently had two experiences that I had trouble explaining to myself. In both cases I was not completely truthful. The first time it came about because of shame, and I detected the attachment to reputation and saving-face. I felt very bad and corrected the facts, but a lie once told cannot be undone. I searched inward, and I got the vague idea that I had been embellishing the truth in one way or another since I was a child. Specific memories of the past came to mind.
Several weeks later I ran into a similar problem. I told someone something quite close to the truth, but not exactly as it really had been. I only fully realized this after our conversation ended. So I had a serious issue for sure.
The next day I was reading Zhuan Falun in a beautiful garden by myself. I read almost two chapters, and felt terribly drowsy. The words were blurry and I was on the verge of falling asleep. But I kept reading.
Back home I reopened the chapter I had just read and received hints, and looked inward again. The incidents of lying were the surface symptom. What came out when digging deeper was that from my life’s experience, I was convinced that people don’t want the truth, “In fact, it is the truth that gets me into trouble!”
“Because people are selfish, it is better not to say what they don’t want to hear.” I also wanted to avoid feeling humiliated by their criticism.
Stretching or avoiding the truth is also a selfish act. It is an act of self-protection and an attachment to fear, the fear of other people’s negative reactions.
After realizing all of this I noticed something else, that the mechanisms provided by Teacher, as talked about in Zhuan Falun, allow such findings and thus provide and enable fundamental inner change. Teacher said:
“Here we will provide you with Falun, qiji, and all the mechanisms for cultivation practice and so on, more than ten thousand of them. They will all be given to you like seeds being planted in your body.” Lecture 3 of Zhuan Falun
I am grateful for both revealing instances, that Teacher arranged for me to experience. Otherwise I would not have been able to detect the attachments within myself. My meddling with the truth revealed that I had a stake in the outcome, and was not allowing nature to take its course.
I would like to end this sharing with something Teacher said:
“My truly cultivating disciples, what I have taught you is the Fa for cultivation of Buddha and Dao. Nonetheless, you pour out your grievances to me over the loss of your worldly interests, rather than feeling upset for being unable to let go of ordinary human attachments. Is this cultivation?”
“Only when you are about to let go of your reputation, interests, and feelings will you feel pain.”
“Can you bring to heaven the things deep down inside that you cannot let go of?” (“True Cultivation,” from Essentials for Further Advancement)
Fellow practitioners, please point out anything in my sharing that is off track.
I would like to greet and thank fellow practitioners for all the helpful articles you have written. Thank you, Teacher, for imparting this Dafa to save humankind.
Category: Improving Oneself
