Holding Onto “Fundamental Attachments” Is Not True Cultivation

(Minghui.org) In their sharing articles, practitioners often refer to the attachments they find difficult to let go of as “fundamental attachments.” 

In “Towards Consummation,” we discover that the fundamental attachments Master Li speaks about impair our ability to cultivate if we don’t give them up. When describing some of the reasons people have for taking up cultivation Master said:

“Some people thought that Dafa is in keeping with their own conception of science; some people thought that it agreed with their own code of conduct; some people thought that it spoke to their dissatisfaction with politics; some people thought that Dafa could salvage humankind’s degenerate morals; some people thought that Dafa could heal their sickness; some people thought that Dafa and Master have integrity, and so on and so forth. It isn’t wrong for human beings in this world to yearn for these attachments for the nice things they pursue and desire. But a cultivator definitely should not be that way. You may start on the path of Dafa with those thoughts, yet over the course of cultivation you need to regard yourself as a cultivator. During the course of cultivation, through reading the books, studying the Fa, and diligently making progress, you should manage to clearly recognize what your thoughts were when you first came to Dafa. After cultivating for a period of time, are your thoughts still the same? Are you continuing on the path because of those human attachments? If so, you cannot be counted as my disciple. It means that you have not discarded your fundamental attachments and have failed to understand the Fa from the Fa.” (Towards Consummation, The Essentials of Diligent Progress II)

What were your initial thoughts when you first entered Dafa? The thoughts we held when we became interested in the practice are our fundamental attachments. They are based on notions—not on cultivation. The vast majority of people start learning Falun Dafa based on human desires for fitness, health, and longevity rather than the purposes of cultivation, assimilating the Fa, transcending humans, and ultimately achieving Consummation and returning to the new universe.

If one does not get rid of those initial thoughts and holds on to them, one will be practicing on the basis of those fundamental attachments and will not be genuinely cultivating. If the foundation is not correct, can the house over it be solid, pure, and complete?