(Clearwisdom.net)
Every practitioner knows about "looking inward," but can we really do it in our daily lives? Sometimes, we look inward reluctantly. As a fellow practitioner pointed out, even when we look inward, we fail to give up looking outward. In other words, we can not look inward unconditionally, so we only improve slowly in cultivation.
I realized that I had an attachment of curiosity that kept me from looking inward. For example, when being in a conflict or a situation, which actually meant little to me, I was still trying to figure out why it happened. There are two paths in front of us, the path of ordinary people and a road to godhood. We are on the road to godhood when we study the Fa and do the exercises, but when we look outward, we go astray and follow the path of ordinary people. Therefore, we miss an opportunity to improve ourselves in cultivation.
There are lots of similar situations: A person who cared about you suddenly becomes indifferent to you, so you feel lost and lonely. Although you know it is time to get rid of the attachment of longing for attention from others, you still can not stop from digging for the reason behind it: "Did she forget me since we separated for a while? Did she pretend to care about me before?" Thus, you go the way of ordinary people unconsciously.
Regarding these things, if we just want to find superficial reasons, we may find many excuses or we may not find any reason. No matter whether we find the "answer" or not, as long as we are thinking along these lines, we are just accumulating more thought karma. In other words, nothing happens without a reason related to our cultivation. Any problem just exposes our certain attachment, whether or not we realize it.
Looking inward is the master key to solve any problems in cultivation. The degree to which one can look inward reflects the cultivation maturity of a practitioner. Instead of looking for superficial reasons, we should look inward unconditionally to improve ourselves, then "After passing the shady willow trees, there will be bright flowers and another village ahead!" (Lecture Nine, Zhuan Falun) This is where the true joy of a Dafa practitioner is found.