Our Harmful Attachment to Smart Phones

(Minghui.org) The final dance on the Shen Yun program this year made a deep impact on me and helped me realize the extent of degenerated modern ideologies, which have put people in all kinds of danger. The smartphone addiction is one such manifestation.

There are two scenes in the performance that made people laugh: a pair of lovers are walking on the stage, hand in hand while playing with their mobile phones. The girl lets go of the boy's hand to take some selfies, and the boy keeps walking and takes the arm of another young man who is also completely engrossed in his mobile phone. The two keep walking until the girl catches up with her boyfriend, and only then does he realize that he's taken the arm of a stranger; in the second scene, the other young man suddenly falls and hits the ground hard. His first reaction is to check if his mobile phone is okay.

There is a line in an advertisement to promote mobile phones on TV in mainland China: “Nowadays, people feel lost if they are without their phone for three or five minutes...”

In fact, it has been less than twenty years since mobile phones became popular, and the transition from 3G networks to 4G networks has taken an even short time.

However, people's minds, especially those of young people, have become completely controlled by mobile phones. They play with their phones whenever they have a bit of time and have virtually become slaves to their phones.

There have been all kinds of traffic and safety accidents caused by people fiddling with their mobile phones. The fact that young people spend so much time on their phones has also seriously affected their mental and physical health.

When we think about it more carefully, such interference should not be understood merely as an issue related to technological advancement.

From the cultivation perspective, it is a manifestation of evil beings using people's attachments to control them, so that they can draw energy from them and ultimately destroy them.

For thousands of years, under the protection of the divine, human beings have constantly enriched their leisure activities. Before the arrival of mobile phones, people were living a fulfilling life.

I remember when I was a child, because my family did not have much money, I never had any electronic toys, and we just played with things that were available. There were many kids in the village, and we played games such as throwing sticks into a pot and hide and seek. We had such great fun that even in winter we would play until almost midnight, and we did not feel cold. While playing those games, we also developed our physique, awareness, and critical thinking skills.

However, when we play with mobile phones, we have actually placed our minds under their control and become their captives. This is definitely not something that we should do.

In addition, the mobile phone is also a destructive trap set by the evil in the universe, so that people's minds are completely controlled by mobile phones and they become more indifferent to the truth.

As Dafa disciples, we must understand that the occurrence of such a situation is not a simple matter. Isn't it also related to ourselves? If we can all face up to the temptations and resist them, then all this will become a false appearance and the situation will improve. After all, all beings have come for the Fa. If Dafa disciples themselves are trapped in it, then the evil will interfere even more severely.

During the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) persecution of Falun Gong, mobile phones and ID cards have also become tools used for monitoring Falun Gong practitioners, and the technology is now more and more advanced and powerful.

As Dafa disciples, we still need to do well in truth-clarification. How do we go about things under such circumstances?

My understanding is that we must first of all let go of our attachments to mobile phones and various communication software and social media. We must learn to communicate face to face. The attachment to mobile phones and social media is actually strengthening aliens and evil beings.

We should always keep our traditional way of Fa study and sharing. Even when we communicate with relatives and friends, we should try to avoid using mobile phones and other social media platforms as much as possible.

This is a prerequisite. Then we will eliminate external monitoring by the evil, making that deviant technology become out of order and fail.

When a Dafa disciple has let go of his/her self and any attachment to self-validation, then he/she will be able to maintain a low key and “invisible” state. At the same time, we should eliminate monitoring devices as well as the hidden beings and factors behind them that interfere with our truth-clarification and saving sentient beings.

Then miracles will appear. There are many such examples reported on the Minghui website.

In the face of more and more advanced monitoring devices, especially the application of big data, artificial intelligence, and facial recognition technology, we must not just focus on how to avoid or hide from them “technically.” Otherwise, we will still be trapped in everyday people's mentality and controlled by alien technology.

We should let go of our attachment to these things, not giving them any space or energy. At the same time, we should send forth righteous thoughts to clear out all interference from modern technology so as to improve the environment for the salvation of sentient beings. We must not let the sentient beings down.

Finally, I would like to remind fellow practitioners who are still obsessed with social media such as WeChat and Telegraph: How well we cultivate is a matter of personal cultivation. We should not act as a shield for the evil anymore, and we must stop helping the evil persecute us and sentient beings and stop following the trends established by the evil.