Resisting Temptation

(Minghui.org) I reached a bottleneck in my cultivation of Falun Dafa recently. Some attachments that had seemed trivial suddenly deeply affected me, with one being that I wanted to buy a house.

The wish to buy a house began bothering me in the first half of 2017, and went on for a few months. I tried hard to overcome it, but the urge was very strong. It began to seriously interfere with my doing the three things, and I couldn't concentrate when I studied the Fa. I finally addressed the thought karma directly and said, “Why don't you go buy a house! Stop bothering me.”

Although I didn't eliminate this strong attachment, I managed to suppress it. For about six months I felt calm and peaceful, but recently, the thought came back and attacked me again. It used all sorts of reasons to urge me to buy a house.

Since I don't have much money I would have to take out a loan to buy a house. The Dafa project that I'm involved in to save people is pretty effective, but requires money. I realized that this attachment to buying a house was a form of interference that was trying to affect the project.

However, a thought kept creeping in, noting that buying a house was also validating Dafa, since ordinary people would see that practitioners did live affluently, and thus people would believe in it.

After I examined why the thought to buy a house kept resurfacing, I realized that in order to buy a large nicer house, I would have to take out a loan. Or, I could afford to buy a small cheap house in the suburbs if I paid in cash. Either way, it would consume all my savings and the money that I needed to clarify the truth to people would be gone.

Breaking Out of Confusion

At one point I was ready to place a deposit on a house, but I couldn't find my identification (ID) card. Afterward, I thanked Teacher for awakening me. The part of me that was clear-minded knew that this interference was trying to ruin my cultivation.

I feel that my developing this strong attachment has to do with the down slide of Chinese society. Everyone in China seems to be obsessed with getting rich, fast. Some try to get rich by buying and selling houses. Others trade in stocks or gamble. It seems like the air is filled with the foul stench of money and corruption.

Practitioners are not immune to this either, and I've noticed that several practitioners are trying to get rich quick. Some who already own houses want to buy more houses. Years ago few practitioners thought about acquiring property or getting wealthy.

Most of us just felt that our living in this world was a short stay, as though we were in a hotel for a few days and that we would soon leave. Now, many talk about how the market value is appreciating and it will be too late if one doesn't buy a house soon. The peaceful mind of a cultivator is nowhere to be found.

We are on the final leg of our cultivation, and the attachments that surface are very strong. A single attachment can destroy a practitioner. The old forces aren't standing idle. It would be terrible if one does not control oneself and falls into their trap, ruining the path that Teacher arranged for us.

I've also noticed that some practitioners who used to be very diligent fell into the attachment of lust and were unable to extricate themselves from it. Some ignored other practitioners' warnings and advice and did very damaging things. Even in ordinary people's eyes their behavior was disgraceful. I felt very sad.

Because I was almost trapped by the old forces, I want to caution other practitioners that it is very important to resist the temptation. Don't let your heart be swayed by the bad things in human society and allow it to destroy your cultivation.