My Understanding of Eliminating Thought Karma and the Attachment to Comfort

(Minghui.org) After practicing Falun Dafa for many years I gained some understanding about eliminating thought karma and the attachment to comfort. I’d like to share my insights with you. If anything is inappropriate, I ask that you compassionately point it out.

I realized that one must pay attention to one’s thoughts—are they truly yours? Try your best to identify and eliminate any thought karma and external interference.

This issue is very serious. It troubled me for over 20 years, from the beginning of my cultivation until the past year or two. My mind never seemed to stop. Sometimes I worried about things that hadn’t even happened, imagining how they might unfold and what strategies I should take for each possible outcome. Other times, while doing the exercises or sending forth righteous thoughts, an “inspiration” would suddenly appear—like a solution to a work or a life problem—then I followed that thought, going deeper and deeper into detail. Not only did it interfere with me but it also affected my life. Some of these thoughts caused me anxiety, leading me to act on them, spend money, energy, and time, only to discover it was all useless.

I felt these thoughts were mine. It was only in the past year that I realized they were not from me—they came from thought karma or were external interference. They exploited my various attachments, strengthened my attachments, and disturbed my Fa study and cultivation—in reality, they were destructive.

I now use three methods to identify and eliminate such thoughts:

1. Maintain Righteous Thoughts

I send forth righteous thoughts to clear out thought karma or external interference. Whenever I have free time, I study the Fa or memorize the Fa, so my mind is on the Fa. If I become distracted I know it must be thought karma or external interference at work. When I read or memorize the Fa, if I come across passages that directly target my current attachments, I memorize them word for word. I know I have to stay very alert, consciously notice these attachments, and eliminate them. I also try to maintain a state of “thinking about nothing” before I go to sleep, while working, or in general—like I try to have a quiet mind when I meditate. If any thought comes to mind that isn’t right—I eliminate it immediately, ask Master for help, or send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate it.

2. Do Not Seek Comfort

Everyone has karma. As true cultivators, we must endure suffering to eliminate it, so how can it be comfortable? Pursuing comfort leads us to deviate from a cultivator’s path.

Once the attachment to comfort arises, one will want everything in the family, work, and life to go smoothly. One may even mistakenly think: “Since I practice Dafa, I should be more blessed than ordinary people, and things should go better for me.” In fact, for new practitioners, there may indeed be a period where things go more smoothly, but once we truly enter cultivation, we cannot keep pursuing that feeling. When it’s time to improve our xinxing, troubles will come and we should handle them correctly.

This attachment to comfort leads to two mistakes: First, if someone disturbs me or creates conflicts for me, I resent them. If it’s a close relationship, I might complain; if it’s not a close relationship, I think it must be interference, and even try to send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate that “interference.” Second, I may desire to do something—like buying a house, or try to preserve the value of my money. I focus on it and work hard at it. If obstacles to my desire arise I think of every possible way to overcome them. Without realizing it I may already be deeply attached. I made both of these mistakes. Now I see that the main cause was my attachment to comfort. Once I started to eliminate this attachment I could see that my anger and agitation back then were irrational—I did not behave like a cultivator—I behaved even worse than an ordinary person.

By the way, let me share my current understanding of houses and wealth. I believe that the property and money one has in this world are only temporarily arranged for us by higher beings. Nothing will ever truly belong to you or your descendants. Even the emperors’ properties were not permanently enjoyed by their offspring—let alone us. So, no matter where I live, I won’t complain about it. Regardless of whether I buy or rent, I must follow my fate. I have to eliminate the mindset that things must go a certain way. If I have extra money, I won’t think about saving it for my retirement or for my children. Instead, I’ll think about how to use it meaningfully, in line with Master’s Fa. If I have no idea how to use it, I’ll just keep it temporarily, but I won’t squander it or claim it as my own.

3. Face Difficulties and Setbacks Calmly

Karma elimination can manifest in any aspect of life, and karma brings troubles and difficulties. When this occurs we should calmly accept it from a cultivator’s perspective, instead of overly interpreting it with ordinary human thinking. For example: if someone doesn’t understand what you say, and after looking within you find it’s your poor communication skills that caused the misunderstanding, you should try to improve these skills.

To give another example: Sometimes, a small action leads to bad results, and you’re blamed, so you become afraid to do things. Or sometimes you see clearly that you’re not wrong, that you’ve been falsely accused, or the fault lies with the other person, and you end up arguing. So what should we do in either case? First, we can look at the situation from the other person’s perspective to see if there is anything we didn’t do well. If there is, we correct it and try to avoid it next time, but don’t take it too much to heart. If it’s a misunderstanding or something inexplicable—then we should pay even less attention to it. Just explain briefly if needed.

The key is to not pay too much attention to ordinary people’s opinions or attitudes. Otherwise, we may fall into ordinary understandings and sometimes even engage in heated arguments about right and wrong. We must stand on a higher level and recognize the real reason a situation happened is to eliminate karma, which will inevitably bring suffering. If it were not to help us eliminate karma many such “coincidental” troubles would not occur. In other words, we must face life’s difficulties and setbacks with greater composure.