Overcoming Cell Phone Addiction

(Minghui.org) Smartphones nowadays have many functions, and seem to make life easier, but they also cause many problems, particularly in China.

As Falun Dafa practitioners, the harm of the cell phone is that it serves as surveillance equipment for agencies of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It can severely affect one’s cultivation when one is addicted to it.

Some practitioners have to use WeChat and other software as part of their jobs. It is not feasible to use only a flip phone.

Let me share how I deal with this problem. When I get home from work, I leave my phone in my car and do not take it inside. That way, I can study the Fa and do the exercises without interference.

A cultivator can develop a strong addiction to using a cell phone. One may use it for entertainment, including watching videos, playing games, or browsing TikTok, thus wasting time that could have been spent studying the Fa or doing the exercises. If one keeps wasting time like this, one cannot be diligent in cultivation and will quickly slide down.

The Internet is full of degenerate and inappropriate things. Some argue that they only browse the internet to relax for a while, but isn’t it better to use the time to do the exercises instead of allowing those things to pollute ourselves?

Master made this issue very clear when he talked about addiction:

“I’d like to give you my take on what people normally refer to as “addiction.” In the medical sciences it’s believed that addiction occurs when the part of the nervous system associated with addictive behaviors is stimulated and develops to a sufficient degree. But that’s not it. What’s happening, then? Over time, that addictive substance accumulates, and forms inside of your body an identical version of you that comes to control you. Because it is composed of strong attachment, and has your appearance, it has an equally strong desire to control you; it was formed out of strong desires, after all.

“This holds true for drug use as well. Some people say that recreational drug use is no big deal and that it seems harmless. And sure, people feel pretty good when they try it. What if they do it again? There’s no apparent problem. How about one more time? Then their self-control starts to erode. But why is that? When that substance is inhaled, inside of your body it forms a very thin and light version of you. One hit is all it takes, since it’s highly poisonous. And with the second hit, that version of you that was thin and light grows a bit denser. And it will continue to get denser with each subsequent hit, growing stronger and sturdier. It will have the full structure of your body as well as thinking, and be an entirely drug-induced and demonic version of you. Of course, it may not do anything other than crave drugs. It can’t bear to be without them. That’s because it is now alive. So what happens, then? As you might imagine, it will become progressively lighter if you stop using drugs, as a result of your body’s metabolic processes, until eventually it dies. Since it doesn’t wish to die, it compels you to take drugs again in order to strengthen it.

“Spending unnecessary time on the computer or playing video games has the same effect; it’s the same idea. If you want to quit, that thing won’t want you to since it would die. And so it will do all in its power to make you engage in those things. And if you try not to, it will interfere with your work or studies by causing your mind to crave them. If you refuse, it might even make you do those things in your dreams.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2019 New York Fa Conference”)

The cell phone does not have any positive effect on cultivators. Some claim they study the Fa with it, but I strongly recommend not doing that because all phones made in China have surveillance functions, so using them to study the Fa is not wise.

I wasted much of my precious cultivation time on the cell phone. Only when my life, health, and safety were seriously affected did I finally realize the insidiousness of the cell phone. I finally eliminated my attachment to my cell phone.

I hope practitioners who are addicted to their phones can rectify themselves quickly and walk well the path Master Li arranged for us.