(Minghui.org) In the past I worried all the time. The more things I had to do, the more I worried, whether it was a Dafa project I was involved in or my own personal work.

Things progressed to the point that that I found myself worrying even when I had nothing to do! Of course, whatever one thinks about expands, and this was especially so in my case.

After enlightening to the fact that worry itself is a thought, and that thoughts are things—which have material existence—I noticed that my mind was no longer distracted while sending righteous thoughts.

I felt as if my body, mind, and even the space around my body, had become one. I also enlightened to the fact that divine beings and Fa truly exist in this universe, that attachments manifest as karma, and that everything we take in through our senses are illusions.

Our experience of the outside world is definitely a reflection of human mindset. For example, if someone of the opposite sex suddenly becomes interested in you, it is may be because you are still attached to the love between a man and a woman.

When someone is jealous of you, it may be because you still have jealousy inside you or some other attachment to get rid of. When you see two people quarreling, it may be because you, too, have an attachment to competition or the need to be right.

Whatever situation we find ourselves in is directly related to certain factors within ourselves, otherwise those situations would certainly not arise.

If our personal factors (attachments or karma) are the source of our tribulations, then it makes sense that all tribulations that we encounter are in one way or another self-imposed. Didn't we ourselves generate the karma that we each have—which is the cause of all of the tribulations that we run into?

When certain practitioners are being persecuted, doesn't the persecution itself serve as evidence of the existence of human attachments? Isn't it those human attachments that are being targeted?

Isn't this what “looking within” comes down to: examining ourselves to see what existing factors within us are causing the factors outside of ourselves to come into being?

As a result of these new understandings, I now find it easier to clarify the facts, because I don't have to keep second guessing myself or feel overly worried about every little thing.

I am now more aware that the fear that I occasionally feel is a substance in another dimension, which is definitely not me, nor a part of me. Therefore, it is incumbent on me to completely get rid of this attachment.

Shortly after I had these realizations, I calmly talked to a stranger about Falun Gong and why withdrawing from the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations was essential to her future wellbeing.

I noticed that my mind at that time was completely devoid of any worrisome thoughts. It was a truly freeing feeling!

Master said,

“The troubles are self-wrought. If it weren’t for those attachments, those bad people would not come about and nor would the old forces arrange for those things to happen. It’s as clear as could be. Why would they arrange for those things if you didn’t have that attachment? They would have done something completely unnecessary in that case, and would have given me a reason to straighten them out.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2016 New York Fa Conference”)