(Minghui.org) All human notions are formed after we are born and they can severely impede a cultivator from advancing. My daughter who also practices Falun Dafa, often points out that I still have many human notions but I never took the issue seriously.
Seeing that food was always tasty to my son-in-law, I said, “It's great to be young!” I didn’t want to say that I was getting old.
When I noticed how young and healthy a fellow practitioner looked, I would say, “He looks much younger now!” When the children in our residential subdivision call me “grandpa”, I don't know what to say.
My daughter often says that every time I open my mouth, my human notions are exposed. For example, “I ate too much today, I have to take a walk outside.” “I am sweaty. I will wait a while to let it dry before going outdoors.” “The weather is getting colder, I must put on another layer of clothing.”
When I stopped and thought about what I said, I realized that I let my human notions control my thoughts, for example, I feared catching a cold.
I recently began having hiccups and sometimes they would go on for several days. It affected the tranquility of our group Fa study and prevented me from reading the Fa smoothly. A doctor said it was a symptom of cerebral infarction. I didn’t say anything but I accepted what he said and I kept thinking about it.
The hiccups went on for a long time and I became distressed. Fellow practitioners reminded me not to accept it. They said if I didn’t change my human notion, the situation would not improve.
Master said,
“The most difficult things for people to abandon are their notions. Some people cannot change, even if they have to give up their lives for fake principles. Yet notions are themselves acquired postnatally.”and“In fact, other than a person’s innate purity and innocence, all notions are acquired postnatally and are not a person’s actual self.”(“For Whom do You Exist?” Essentials For Further Advancement)
This teaching helped me realize that my thoughts are all based on human notions, and these notions are seriously preventing me from improving.
Master said,
“If you do not want to change your human state and rationally rise to a true understanding of Dafa, you will miss the opportunity. If you do not change the human logic that you, as an ordinary human, have formed deep in your bones over thousands of years, you will be unable to break away from this superficial human shell and reach Consummation.”(“Cautionary Advice,” Essentials For Further Advancement)
Cultivation practice turns an ordinary human into a divine being. These notions are roadblocks on our path to divinity.
When I seriously looked inward I saw my problem is that I didn’t let the Fa fill my thoughts.
Master said,
“A person is like a container, and he is whatever he contains.”(“Melt Into the Fa,” Essentials For Further Advancement)
When I first began practicing, I focused on doing things and spent less time studying the Fa. After I was released from a brainwashing center, I studied the Fa even less and I really didn’t know how to look within.
Being born and living in this modern society, people developed numerous human notions related to the desire for fame and gain, jealousy, the competitive mentality, the attachment of zealotry, the mentality of showing off, and various other attachments. Our human notions protect these attachments like an umbrella.
How can an ordinary person with so many human notions be allowed to go to heaven? I must study the Fa more diligently, identify my human notions and eliminate them.
Thank you Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!
Category: Improving Oneself
