A Reminder to Eliminate Sentimentality

(Minghui.org) I hadn’t seen my older sister (who’s almost 80 years old) for a year. Every time I phoned her, she complained that I never visit her. She can’t take care of herself and relies on her sons. Her husband has a bad temper and is always grumpy. Her situation is quite miserable.

I recently visited my older sister, and then I visited my sister-in-law who’s 80 years old. She lives alone after my brother passed away. When I saw her, she said her son got a divorce. Her grandson never came home after he was cheated out of a large sum of money. His nephew was cheated out of 300,000 yuan and was now in debt.

When I visited my niece the next day, her son-in-law angrily complained that his mother quarreled with him.

I remembered one of Master’s poems,

“One who is for fame resents till death,One who is for gain disavows family;One who is for sentiment brings vexation on himself,Bitterly fighting each other, making karma over a lifetime.”(“Being a Human,” Hong Yin)

Immersed in the bitter struggle for fame, money, and emotion, most humans are never happy.

I wondered why Master showed me all my relative’s strife and pain. Wasn’t it to help me enlighten?

Throughout my 20 years of cultivation, my attachment to being moved by emotion (sentimentality) has given me the most trouble. All the strife and trouble people experience in their lives comes from karmic retribution. No one can escape repaying the karma they created. As a cultivator, how could I be moved by sentimentality? Even though my sister suffers hardship, she is also eliminating karma through the process. Getting rid of karma is truly a great thing. I always thought she was so pitiful and I worried about her, but isn’t that an attachment and a human mentality? Cultivators shouldn’t be moved by emotion.

Besides, none of the incidents was an accident. There’s a karmic relationship behind everything that happens to people – no matter how tragic it seems. The debts need to be paid, and things that need to happen will happen. Remaining emotionally attached to these things pulls you back from cultivating diligently.

The biggest attachment I’ve struggled with during the 20 some years of cultivation is sentimentality. Even today, I still worry about my children and grandchildren.

After visiting my relatives, I realized that getting caught up in worries and emotion is endless. It blocks me from returning to heaven. I must cultivate diligently and eliminate my sentimentality. I will fulfill my responsibilities as a Dafa disciple.