Genuine Cultivation: Eliminating Bad Habits

(Minghui.org) I am a 16-year-old Falun Dafa practitioner who experienced a genuine change in cultivation in 2021.

My parents are Falun Dafa practitioners, and I’ve been immersed in Dafa cultivation since I was young. I firmly believed in Dafa but was not diligent in cultivation. My parents read the Fa to me every day or had me study the Fa on my own. Although I understood the principles—Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance—of the practice on the surface and studied the Fa every day, I always regarded it as a task I was obliged to complete. It also was an issue that I seldom enlightened to the Dafa principles.

Becoming a Genuine Cultivator

How I became a genuine cultivator was quite remarkable. My father and I were talking about Pangu, a God who created heaven and earth. My father said that Master had mentioned Pangu in his lectures. Out of curiosity, I looked up Master’s lectures and started to study them diligently. I finished reading most of them on Pangu quickly and realized that I had never truly read them before. I then realized that, by reading those lectures, I’d gained a deeper understanding of the principles in Zhuan Falun. Therefore, I began reading Zhuan Falun earnestly and took cultivating my xinxing seriously.

At the time I was engrossed with online media platforms, playing video games on my phone, reading fictional novels, and watching short videos. My attachment was so strong that oftentimes I’d play video games all whole day long or read novels from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. at night! I was also exposed to many negative things online, which directly affected my personality and schoolwork. My parents tried all kinds of ways to have me quit my addictions. They told me many principles of the Fa and even broke one of my cell phones. But nothing worked. I was still secretly reading novels at night during my third year of middle school.

My nose started to run one day and it lasted for a month. Although I enlightened that Master was purifying my body, I was still addicted to the negative things published online. I began to find many of my human attachments once I began to have new understandings of the Fa, such as a competitive mentality when I played games and being sentimental when I read novels.

I asked myself, “Shouldn’t I eliminate these attachments?” Therefore I decided to let go of these attachments. I forced myself not to touch my cell phone and increased my Fa study time. The attachment to my cellphone slowly decreased. After a period of time, I began to regress. However, I firmly listened to my inner heart and my attachment to cell phones slowly faded away.

I enlightened to the fact that Master was eliminating my human attachments. I was grateful to Master from the bottom of my heart.

I started to look inward and found several factors that caused my addiction to cell phones. I was attracted to many video stories that increased my curiosity. I was also satisfied, which increased my sense of competitiveness whenever I won video games. When I read novels, I became emotional. Attachments like zealotry, jealousy, the competitive mentality, and lust all surfaced when I read fictional novels.

Those attachments, which are manifestations of human desires, are burdens and huge attachments to a cultivator. Dafa had shown me these attachments, and I needed to eliminate them. I also realized that many things I encountered online were negative factors interfering with my thoughts. I hope that practitioners like me can take it seriously and change their thoughts. These are all attachments that we need to eliminate.

My cultivation of speech was poor in the past. I was like an ordinary person in that regard. In the big dye vat of ordinary society, many of my classmates used bad language and only a few of them were polite. I would have been cast out if I didn’t use bad language. Therefore, I began to say bad words and disregarded how other people felt. I also talked behind their backs and did not care about their feelings. I was lucky enough to realize my shortcomings after I began cultivating.

Master said,

“To share an analogy I’ve used before: have you ever seen a religious statue with a cigarette in its mouth?” (The Seventh Talk, Zhuan Falun)

I enlightened to the fact that no Buddha or Dao would swear or curse at people. I decided to change for the better, be considerate of others, and align myself with the principles of Dafa.

Our determination in Dafa and studying the Fa is very important. If we have a wavering heart, we invite tribulations and our righteous thoughts will not be as strong. As time passes, we get numb to these conflicts. We need to study the Fa well to break through such situations.

I hope my experience sharing can help other practitioners who are going through the same tribulations.