(Minghui.org) My daughter is a young Falun Dafa practitioner in sixth grade, and she has been buried in her homework lately.
Just last night, after finishing some other homework, she began to tackle an essay. Normally, she's a slow writer, but this was not the case last night. I checked in on her while she was working, and she was beyond excitement.
“It's like someone's telling me what to write!” she exclaimed. “The words are just constantly flowing.”
I was very pleased for her, only to see the essay titled: “Me – Your Favorite Video Game.”
How Gamers Are Infected
I read her essay when it was finished. It was presented in the first person–the video game.
It first of all wants to thank human beings for feeding it. “I don't have a real body,” says the video game, “just different mediums that I take over. I can follow you seamlessly from your computer to your smartphone and your iPad.”
Although she had read articles from fellow practitioners on Minghui.org and Master’s lectures related to the topic, my daughter did not truly understand why the Internet could be so dangerous for cultivators.
She said that it was as if someone was standing by her side, telling her what to write. She had never thought of this issue in the way she wrote her essay. There was too much information coming to her at once, and she didn’t get to write it all down.
The essay went on: “When you open our applications with your finger, I will insert countless pipes, called 'addictions,' into the acupuncture points of your body.”
I was a little shocked, as I hadn't looked at it from this perspective. I immediately sent her essay to my younger brother using my husband’s smartphone.
My brother used to believe in Dafa very much when he was a child, but he had little self-control and had been playing video games for more than ten years, negatively impacting his studies and giving him an irascible temper. It became difficult for him to get along with people.
Fortunately, Master arranged a very good job for him after he graduated. It was an easy job but far away from home. He was able to live and eat as if he were staying at a luxury hotel. One drawback for him was that he lived far away from big cities, so his Internet connection was not great for playing the games he likes.
I would like to thank Master for this thoughtful arrangement on behalf of my whole family.
Even so, my brother found some other smaller games to play while complaining all the time that the place was too remote. It appears that the effects of the Internet were still greatly affecting him.
My daughter said the following in her essay:
“When you are excitedly fighting other gamers, many bright colors and crystal clear liquids flow from these tubes and are planted in the gamers' bodies. When they merge into the virtual network of the game screen, they become different dark colors: dark blue, black, grey, etc. Most of these liquids are sent right to our mouths, becoming our food, and they are an important ingredient in generating new parts of the game. Another small fraction of it is spread to all corners of the screen to create a more immersive visual experience.”
The scenes described in the essay could be from Master, who used a young practitioner to directly reveal the root of my brother’s addiction to playing online games.
Internet Ruins My Cultivation
My daughter's essay was also a reminder for me. My cultivation state was particularly bad during that time, and I was pretty involved with everyday people's things. I didn't do the three things that Dafa disciples should do. Moreover, I was constantly on my phone, mainly doing online shopping.
When my daughter was writing her essay, I was checking for discounted goods online. Although I didn’t always buy things, I felt a sense of satisfaction just by looking at all of the fancy products. When I went to bed, I'd even see these things floating before my eyes, keeping me awake.
I couldn’t even calm my mind to send righteous thoughts and didn't want to do the exercises. I also decided to put a small truth-clarification project I had undertaken on hold for a while.
I developed physical problems: both my ankles and wrists were in pain for more than a month and couldn’t move freely. I always believed this was caused by my attachments, such as fear, seeking comfort, laziness and lust. However, I had ignored the trappings of the Internet.
It acts like a drug that strengthens the attachments that we haven't yet removed, drawing us further and further away from reason and human nature. With the passage of time, this can make a practitioner give up on their cultivation path and lure them back into the throngs of everyday people.
After recognizing the dangers of the Internet, we need to have the courage to completely sever ourselves from it. Demons in other dimensions clearly see our attachments and control the Internet to show us the stuff we like, arousing our interests and leading us astray.
Precious time will have been wasted, and the Internet's control over us will be strengthened. When we finally realize that something is wrong, removing this addiction may prove very difficult.
The Internet not only harms young people who like to play video games but affects anyone who use computers, mobile phones, and other electronic products. Everyday people don’t know its effects, but we practitioners can’t be muddleheaded anymore.
