The Danger of the Attachment to Oneself

(Minghui.org) A practitioner in his 50s in our area recently passed away. It was a huge loss for Dafa and offering salvation to sentient beings. It also caused some misunderstanding of Dafa among his family members.

The deceased practitioner was very steadfast in his belief. He had been held in a labor camp for 3 years because of it, and his sentence was extended for 6 months because he refused to give it up. When he was on a hunger strike, he was force-fed so violently that most of his teeth were knocked out when they pried his mouth open. It was hard to see that he had any teeth at all. Even the most abusive jailers admired his steadfastness.

How could such a steadfast cultivator lose his life to the old forces? This is a question in the minds of many fellow practitioners.

I met up with this practitioner 3 times. One time, he went to pick up Falun Dafa informational materials from another practitioner when I happened to be there. I invited him to stay for a little while to share experiences. But he declined. The other practitioner with us told me he never shared about his cultivation and never read Minghui Weekly. I thought we needed to talk to him about it. The other practitioner said he wouldn't listen.

I had chance to talk to him a couple of times when we were filing lawsuits against Jiang. During our last conversation, he said he was concerned that he couldn't protect the people that he saved. I asked him what made him think that. He told me one of his former classmates believed in and supported Falun Dafa, and had quit the Communist organizations. But he died last year. I told the practitioner that he was protected by Master and that he had to rely on his righteous thoughts.

Saving people, as Master has told us, means their souls—and not their bodies—will be saved. Anyone who has a positive understanding of Dafa may be blessed and may even have his or her life extended, but it doesn't mean the person will never die.

The practitioner had no reply to what I said. When I told him he should read Minghui Weekly, he said there was nothing worthwhile in it for him to read, because all the articles were written by cultivators, and that studying the Fa would suffice.

Based on his attitude, he didn't think highly of others and couldn't let go of the attachment to self. He did everything by himself and never worked with any other practitioners. In other words, he seemed to be sealed off by his own standards.

I think the reason Master tells us to coordinate with each other is because no life in the cosmos is isolated, and all lives have to rely on and supplement each other. My understanding is that we can't live without the whole body of practitioners; it would leave loopholes for the old forces to take advantage of.

Master said,

“But this enormous cosmos of ours, no matter how big it is, it's not the only thing there is in the cosmos;” (“Teaching the Fa on Easter, 2004, at the New York Fa Conference”)

When some practitioners pointed out issues and quoted a good experience-sharing article, other practitioners argued that the article had been written by a cultivator and that it wasn't the Fa. It's true that cultivators wrote them, but Master has told us,

“It is necessary for disciples to share with one another what they have experienced and learned in their cultivation. There is no problem with them helping one another make progress together, so long as they don’t have any intention of showing themselves off.” (“The Fa Conference” from Essentials for Further Advancement)

Master has also told us to “Compare in studying, compare in cultivating.” (“Solid Cultivation” from Hong Yin)

If you think any experience-sharing article isn't in line with the Fa, or if you have a higher level of understanding, there is nothing wrong to talk about your own understanding. If you simply dismiss it as another cultivator's writing, isn't it putting yourself above others? It's actually an attachment to yourself.

Based on my limited understanding of the Fa, the key is to look inward for our own shortcomings when we notice other people's problems and to improve our xinxing.