(Clearwisdom.net) Every practitioner probably has many understandings and experiences with the attachment of fear. The attachment of fear is an obvious human attachment, one that we cultivators must be able to identify and then get rid of. Otherwise it will affect the diligence of many practitioners.
I personally think that there are two layers of meaning associated with the attachment of fear:
The first sense of fear is the same as its meaning on the surface, meaning fear or being frightened. It is similar to the connontations of being timid. Some practitioners were afraid of dogs, cows, snakes and spiders before they started practicing Falun Gong. This attachment of fear can come back quite often, even after a practitioner has started cultivation. There is a practitioner close to me who was afraid of dogs and cows. One night, on her way back from distributing truth-clarification materials, a big dog ran towards her. She quickly bent over, pretending that she was picking up something from the ground. The dog ran off. That same night she had a dream, in the dream she saw a dog that looked like a bear with a group of dogs following it. Just as she got worried, she woke up from the dream. Later she enlightened that it was time for her to get rid of the attachment of fear. We should not be afraid when we suddenly encounter dogs or other animals; we should quickly stop them from doing bad deeds with our righteous thoughts. I also had a similar experience. Once a dog suddenly ran next to me and started to bite me. I scolded it loudly, "Beast, how dare you bite me?" I was thinking in my heart: I am a Dafa disciple, don't you want to live any more?
Because we are still living under the persecution, some practitioners are afraid of the police and police vans. This attachment of fear indicates a lack of righteous thoughts. Usually if I see a police van on the street, I send righteous thoughts to the people in the van. When we encounter a police vehicle, we must not be afraid. Those people are merely the tools used by the evil specters and the wicked Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to persecute Dafa disciples. Now we are thoroughly eliminating the remaining elements of the wicked CCP. We must also stop these tools used by the CCP from committing evil deeds. Otherwise they must receive immediate retribution. Receiving retribution is to awaken them. How can human beings commit evil deeds against gods? That was the principle of the old universe. We must eliminate this evil with righteous thoughts. This kind of fear is quite easy to be identified. We have Master's law bodies protecting us. Dafa disciples shouldn't allow this evil to stop us from doing the three things.
The second aspect of fear is being afraid of bad things. For example, a practitioner daring not to do something, or maybe he or she was worried that something might happen if he or she chose to do something, or maybe the practitioner was worried about having thought karma. Thus some practitioners dare not contact fellow practitioners lest they be reported; some dare not visit Dafa websites lest they are being watched; some dare not talk to strangers about quitting the CCP lest they may have a bad result; some also betray fellow practitioners lest the police go after them.
I've had my own lessons with this kind of fear. A year ago, an elderly fellow practitioner's life was taken away by the old forces. I was worried that I might have the same illness as her. Then I really had similar symptoms as her. A few days later, I realized that I had invited the illness because of my attachment of fear. Later, I had another kind of fear; I was afraid that I might have the thought of fear of being like her. Then I felt uncomfortable for another few days. My life finally became normal after I clearly recognized the fear of having the attachment of fear. There was another elderly practitioner who was overly worried about her son being persecuted by the CCP after she found out about the CCP's crimes of organ harvesting from living practitioners. Her attachment of sentimentality was taken advantage of, and her life was taken away by the old forces. Cultivation is a serious matter. A cultivator's every thought must be on the Fa to avoid being controlled by the old forces or one's postnatal notions.