Letting Go of the Attachment to Time and “Big Things” Happening

(Minghui.org) When I started cultivating around 20 years ago, I had a huge attachment to “big things” happening and the Fa-rectification ending soon. I always thought, “Wow, wouldn’t it be so great if huge things happened that could awaken the world’s people? Wouldn’t it be amazing if Gods showed their might and power?” I was also attached to Consummation, the persecution ending soon, and Fa-rectification arriving in the human world.

Over the many years, I’ve had to let go of my attachments to all of these things. But during the past year, when the CCP virus first started manifesting, my attachments came out again. I started reading articles on Minghui, Dafa practitioners’ media, articles on astrology, etc., to see what would happen next. Given that the U.S. election was happening, Minghui published an editorial, and Master published a teaching on the topic, I followed all of these closely. At each step, I was again disappointed by how events unfolded and had to let go of my new and recurring attachments to each of these.

For example, when the CCP virus first started appearing in China and then around the world, I heard that there would be second and third waves soon in China and worldwide towards the end of 2020. When that didn’t happen, I heard it would happen in 2021. I also heard various practitioners’ commentaries and understandings on what would happen during and after the U.S. election. I was moved and my heart was stirred.

Instead of focusing on cultivation and clarifying the truth to people like in the past, my mind was distracted by prophecies and what was and would be happening. All of these were fundamentally rooted in my same old attachments to the end of Fa-rectification, Consummation, and things being over soon.

For example, when I started practicing, the first experience-sharing conference I attended was the 2002 Washington D.C. Fahui. At this lecture, “Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. Fa Conference,” Master said:

“Looking at the overall situation of the Fa-rectification, all of these things that Dafa disciples are doing to rectify the Fa, to save sentient beings, and to clarify the truth are in their final stage. An article that you wrote and that’s on the PureInsight Website mentions that the Book of Revelation in the Bible says that the evil beast would attack God with his mouth for forty-two months, which is three and a half years. I won’t comment on whether that’s the case, but I can say that this evil drama has really come to the final stage, where it has the will but not the strength to carry on.”

I was excited and thought after this that the persecution would end in 2003. Of course that didn’t happen. Later I heard practitioners commenting that everything would end in 2012. There were a lot of disaster movies during this time, and even ordinary people were predicting based on Mayan and other prophecies that there could be a lot of disasters in 2012. I also remembered Master’s teaching in 2002 in “Touring North America to Teach the Fa:”

“Of course, there won’t be another ten years. It’s not allowed to take that long, and they don’t have that much time left in their lives.”

2012 also passed, and nothing major changed. After that, I thought I had let go of the attachment to these things. But when the CCP virus hit, I thought this time it was really a grand-scale event and that Fa-rectification would come soon, so I again got attached to prophecies, what practitioners saw with their celestial eyes, what practitioners heard directly or indirectly, etc. Some of the sharings sounded strange to me, but I didn’t say anything since I assumed the practitioners who shared them knew more than I did.

Actually, irrespective of whether Fa-rectification ends this year, ten years from now, or even later in the future, we shouldn’t be so attached to big changes in the situation, since it could significantly affect our cultivation and saving sentient beings. In fact, it might slow down our cultivation, our effectiveness in saving sentient beings, and our own Consummation if we are always thinking about big events happening and are not focused on doing the three things well.

Master has already given us so much guidance on this subject. Master said in “Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s)” in “Essentials for Further Advancement II”:

“In teaching the Fa, I have talked about the principle whereby a school student who does his schoolwork well will naturally be admitted to college, whereas a school student who is attached to being admitted to college but who doesn’t do his schoolwork well won’t be admitted. It isn’t wrong for a cultivator to wish to reach Consummation, but your mind should be on the Fa. While continually cultivating you will unwittingly meet the standard for Consummation. Those Dafa students who are unable to endure the suffering are especially likely to have thoughts of leaving the human world and reaching Consummation soon. This allows the evil to take advantage of their gaps.”

Master also said in “Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Washington DC Fa Conference,”

“No matter what big things are happening, pretend nothing is going on and just go about, as usual, doing what a Dafa disciple should do. This is the path you’re taking today, and this is the [legacy of] mighty virtue you are leaving.”

In “The Vows of Gods are Being Fulfilled,”

“Man always thinks that when a God or Buddha appears it will be earth-shaking, that when he saves people his Buddha-image will grandly manifest, and that with a wave of his hand he will destroy the evil ones who undermine the salvation of people. If that were the case, wouldn’t it be better if the Buddha took people up directly from the heavens? You should know that people who are to be saved need to pay off, through arduous cultivation, all the sins and karma that they generated in the past doing bad things, they need to get rid of their human attachments and all the other bad things that they carry, and at the same time they need to rectify their behavior and thinking. Only then can they be saved. If a Buddha were to grandly manifest, even the most evil persons would follow what the Buddha said. Would there still be a chance to cultivate, then?”

Actually, Master has said many more things on these topics, but for the sake of brevity, I will stop here. Even if big things happen in the future soon, we need to be rational, have righteous thoughts, and continue to cultivate and do the three things well, unless we are given new guidance.

These are just my understandings at my level. Please point out anything wrong with my understanding.

[Editor's note: Views expressed in this article represent the author's own opinions, for which the author is solely responsible. Readers should evaluate the article's merits on their own.]