Don’t Go to Extremes in Our Cultivation

(Minghui.org) I recently realized I was making things hard for myself, especially when it came to food. I ate only very simple meals, thinking that it saved me the trouble of cooking and I could finish quickly. Plus, I could eliminate some karma. But after a while, I began to have health issues, and my complexion was pale. My family worried about me and even developed some misunderstandings about Falun Dafa.

Initially, I couldn’t understand what I did wrong. I later realized that if I chose to endure unnecessary suffering I was taking a side path in cultivation. As a Falun Dafa practitioner, I should set my sights on a broader perspective and not get hung up on small things.

When I thought about this, I found attachments connected to my habit of eating very simple meals. I was too lazy to cook, and I avoided eating eggs because I read a sharing article that implied that eggs weren’t good. By avoiding them, I was actually following another practitioner’s understanding to guide my cultivation instead of taking Dafa as my sole reference.

After noticing these attachments, I went back to eating a normal diet. Then I went to another extreme. When food went bad, I didn’t want to throw it away and ate it anyway. In the past, I ate expired and even rotten food. But thanks to Master’s protection, I was usually fine. But I had a stomachache for over two weeks after I ate a moldy steamed bun.

Our human body is a small universe, and Master is constantly helping to purify our bodies. Yet I often ate bad food and contaminated myself. Had I not practiced Falun Dafa, I probably would have died, but I kept doing foolish things. How much extra burden was I causing Master? I took Master’s protection for granted and thought it was no a big deal for me to eat spoiled food.

When I look back on that behavior now, I see elements of zealotry, showing off, and the attachment to validating myself. It was almost the same as standing in the middle of traffic while holding Zhuan Falun and assuming that I would be protected.

I admitted my wrongdoings to Master and decided to eliminate these attachments. I spent my spare time reading the Fa (teachings) and doing the exercises. After a few days, I recovered. Nonetheless I had taken a detour in my cultivation and brought an unnecessary tribulation upon myself.

Letting go of our attachments doesn’t mean we have to let go of the material things themselves. In fact, our cultivation is most solid when we remove the attachments amid the materialistic environment of a normal life. We should manage things well, live a dignified life, and avoid going to extremes.