Our Body Is Not Our True Self

(Minghui.org) In my understanding, many cultivation tests that we find too difficult to pass are related to the attachment to our human self. To remove this attachment, we often have to go through a lot of hardship, because we've failed to look at things from within the Fa. If we can look at things by transcending our human self, the attachment would be easy to remove. 

In fact, xinxing tests manifest because of our human self. For example, “Someone said something that irritated me,” “You took that without my permission,” “I know someone was badmouthing me,” and so on. 

On the surface, these thoughts are all related and are a subset of being attached to reputation, personal gain, and sentimentality—they are caused by one's attachment to self. If we look closely, every one of them contains the word “I,” “me,” or “my.” 

What this “self” desires is not something that goes beyond this dimension of our flesh body. In other words, the self wants things in this surface dimension that provide what the flesh body wants, desires, or enjoys, including reputation. 

Master said,

“A person has a physical body, yet a person is not complete with only a physical body. One must also have human temperament, personality, character, and Primordial Spirit in order to constitute a complete and independent person with individuality.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)

As we know, our primordial spirit is our true self, and none of the other aspects of a person is our true self. When we are upset or angry, what’s controlling us is not our primordial spirit. We have, in fact, experienced a human drama. It’s just like watching a movie in which the main character is treated unfairly—we are drawn into the movie and feel angry. 

Our flesh body is not our true self. It is only a tool, so we can live among everyday people and awaken their conscience. The tool’s feelings are not the feelings of our true self. 

Eating and sleeping are maintenance activities, so the tool can function properly. Everything else, including hunger or craving specific foods, are the tool’s desires. 

Say, for example, a wrench wants to stay in a cool, dry place with no direct sunlight or moisture. And it would be nice if someone lubricated the wrench, the more expensive the brand the better. And it would be best if it were wrapped in a piece of cloth, and it would be even better if the cloth was of good quality.

The wrench’s desires can be endless. It wants something nice, and then it wants something nicer if possible. All of these are what the tool wants. 

The human body behaves the same way: It doesn’t like to suffer hardship. All it wants is comfort, and it will fight for it. It’s as if we are applying the best lubricant to the wrench, wrapping it with a top-quality piece of cloth, and doing everything for it, as if we are enshrining it. Is this how we want to cultivate? 

It is good enough to keep the wrench in good condition. Likewise, the pursuit of everyday people’s happiness is not something that our primordial spirit desires. 

If we can have a broader or objective point of view and look at things from the tool user’s point of view, and not take the tool’s feelings as our feelings, then we have transcended the human mentality. We will be able to break away from being interfered with by acquired notions and external factors.

After coming to this understanding, I found that my attachments to reputation, personal gain, and sentimentality were greatly reduced. All the difficult tests and mentally unacceptable humiliations I previously experienced are now unimportant.