My Understanding of How To Eliminate Attachments

(Minghui.org) I started practicing Falun Dafa when I was 18. I am 28 years old now. I am an extrovert and I feel that cultivating and looking within can be more challenging for people who are extroverted as most of the time we tend to look outside ourselves for everything, and “looking within” may be a bit of a challenge.

Although I have been cultivating for almost ten years, I believe I have just recently come to a better understanding and realization of how to look within and get rid of my attachments.

I would like to share my understanding on how to eliminate attachments with my fellow practitioners.

I came up with a few steps in the process of eliminating attachments:

- Look inward, and identify and become aware of the attachment.

- Ask Master for help to remove the attachment. Master is so compassionate that if we have the wish and will to eliminate attachments, and put in the effort, he will assist us in removing them.

Master said:

“Cultivation depends on one’s own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one’s master.”(Zhuan Falun, Lecture One)

“My fashen will help eliminate the most of such thought karma.” (Zhuan Falun, Lecture Six)

- Study and recite the Fa and send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the attachment. In my understanding, sending forth righteous thoughts is a supernormal ability that Master has bestowed upon us. Not only can we use it to eliminate old force interference and evil in other dimensions that persecutes Dafa practitioners, but we can also use it to eliminate the negative elements in our own dimensional fields, which can include attachments.

Master said:

“Dealing with it requires such a supernormal ability in which one extends one’s hand and ‘Bam!’ nails it there.” (Zhuan Falun, Lecture Seven)

- Consider the attachment as something bad, and then, with a strong will and with your main consciousness, you should have the desire to eliminate that attachment.

Master said:

“What we lose is actually something bad. What is it? It is karma, and it goes hand in hand with different human attachments. For example, everyday people have all kinds of bad thoughts. For self-interest, they commit various wrong deeds and will acquire this black substance, karma. This directly involves our own minds. In order to eliminate this negative thing, you must first change your mind.” (Zhuan Falun, Lecture Four)

“Some people do not have a very strong Main Consciousness and will comply with the thought karma to commit wrongdoing. Such people will be ruined and drop in levels. Most people, however, can remove and resist it with very strong thoughts from themselves (a strong Main Consciousness). With this, it indicates that this person can be saved and can distinguish good from bad.” (Zhuan Falun, Lecture Six)

- Identify that attachment in your everyday behavior, speech, and thoughts.

Master said:

“Monks in the past took these things very seriously, because once one started to think one will create karma. Therefore, they would cultivate ‘body, speech, and mind.’ The cultivation of body they spoke of meant that one would not commit bad deeds. Cultivation of speech meant that one would not talk. Cultivation of mind meant that one would not even think. In the past, there were strict requirements for these things in professional cultivation in temples. We should conduct ourselves according to a practitioner’s xinxing standard.” (Zhuan Falun, Lecture Eight)

- After identifying and becoming aware of the attachment in daily affairs, take action to prevent and restrain that attachment from surfacing again. Also, be aware of not doing things that would feed the attachment.

This is my current understanding at my limited level. Please kindly point out anything which is not aligned with the Fa.