Keeping Our Hearts Unmoved

(Minghui.org) In Zhuan Falun, Master Li Hongzhi talked many times about whether we can keep our hearts unmoved when running into conflicts and tribulations, being taken advantage of, or facing temptations in everyday society or other dimensions. I would like to share my own understanding of keeping our hearts unmoved in cultivation.

I realized the “heart” that is being stirred or moved is our attachments, which are living beings in other dimensions. Why would our heart be moved, and for what? For ordinary people, they live for fame, profit, and sentimentality, which “move” their “heart.” In other words, everyday people are motivated by their pursuit of fame, profit, and sentimentality, which, however, are the things we as cultivators must relinquish. Of course, it will not happen overnight—it is a gradual process of letting go.

When one elevates one’s level and realm during cultivation, things that stir one’s heart will gradually subside and lose their appeal. How one handles each and every temptation reflects one’s cultivation state. When nothing affects or moves one’s heart, one is near consummation.

During cultivation, at times I can feel the purity and beauty of spiritual elevation that cannot be described in words. Our innate heart was pure and had no attachment. Sometimes it is said that children have “pure hearts.” This is not a metaphor but a real picture. As a person grows up and comes into contact with human society, one develops the attachments to fame, fortune, and sentimentality. Their hearts are no longer pure, and these attachments become part of them.

When they are driven by these attachments and compete for personal interests, they will incur karma, and the “fake self” or “fake selves” will become more dominant. When one treats the “fake self” as one’s true self and is controlled by it, one will generate more karma and make the “fake self” even stronger. This forms a vicious cycle. Gradually, one will deviate from the Fa and enlighten on a crooked path.

Master told us:

“I am rooted in the universe. If anyone could harm you, he or she would be able to harm me. Put simply, that person would be able to harm this universe.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)

I did not understand in the past why the evil can arrest and sentence so many practitioners. Later on, as I cultivated better and enlightened to deeper Fa principles, I realized that the evil can only reach the part that we have not cultivated well. When we truly reach the Fa’s standard, the evil would not be able to harm us anymore.

The part that we have not cultivated well is the part of us that still has attachments to fame, profit, and sentimentality that can be “moved.”

When we cultivate ourselves diligently, we are in fact constantly seeing through those “fake selves” and eliminating them. It’s also a purification process for us. But the process is not easy, with many detours and repetitions. People often say that “man’s greatest enemy is oneself,” which is not without reason. In a sense, it is ourselves who can really move and affect us.

On the other hand, during the Fa-rectification cultivation, our attachments should not become a reason for the old forces to persecute us. We need to negate the persecution completely and eliminate all the evil factors behind it.

Editor’s note: This article only represents the author’s current understanding meant for sharing among practitioners so that we can “Compare with one another in study, in cultivation.” (“Solid Cultivation,” Hong Yin)