(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
Today, I would like to share my cultivation experiences while eliminating my attachments and improving my xinxing.
For years, I did not watch television and I was not attached to my mobile phone. I only used it when it was necessary. I read other practitioners’ experience-sharing articles about some who developed attachments to watching short videos, online shopping, or playing games. I felt fortunate that I didn’t have these problems. However, as I became involved in a media project that required me to watch videos, I gradually developed an attachment. At first, I only watched content related to my work. Later, my phone began to suggest other videos. Some matched my interests, so I started watching them. After finishing one video, I searched for related ones and continued watching. An attachment had already formed, but I didn’t realize it.
When I later studied English, I began watching English language videos online and browsing political topics that interested me, from last year’s presidential election to this year’s various political issues. I thought I was learning English, but in fact, my attachment was driving me.
I soon downloaded an app to learn English. The app added a section to learn chess, so I decided to give it a try. Since I often lose when playing chess with my child, I thought it might be good to learn. At first, I only studied for a few minutes each day, then it gradually increased to ten minutes, and later to thirty or forty minutes. This chess app was designed like a game, it encouraged you to keep winning and gave rewards, which drew me in. I spent more and more time on the app. Sometimes I planned to study just one more lesson, but ended up doing another, then another, I couldn’t stop. Often after playing, I regretted it, but when I didn’t use the app, I craved it. I realized this wasn’t right, but still couldn’t stop.
Master saw that I couldn’t let go, so he used the app to enlighten me by causing problems. The app that used to run smoothly began to malfunction. Sometimes I couldn’t log in, and other times it would freeze after running for a while and needed to be restarted. Even so, I was unwilling to give up and I continued to play after I restarted it. Seeing that I still did not awaken, Master raised the difficulty level beyond my ability to win, making the game feel meaningless. Only then did I make a firm decision not to open the app for an entire day. After I made this resolve, it worked. I didn’t open the app for one day, then two days, then three. Gradually, the attachment faded away.
Besides playing the game and using the learning app, I was also attached to online shopping and watching videos. The more I watched, the harder it was to let go. As a result, I became immersed in these distractions, which caused eye fatigue and worsened my vision. It also affected my Fa study.
For example, when I read the Fa, I could initially quiet my mind, but after a while, various thoughts surfaced. Many of these were from videos I watched or articles I read, and they were filled with struggle, desires, and attachments. By the time I noticed, a long time passed. After I refocused and continued to read the Fa, my mind soon wandered again, and I couldn’t suppress it. As a result, I spent two to three hours trying to read the Fa but I still couldn’t finish reading one lecture.
Master said, “Whatever you lay your eyes upon is polluting.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2010 New York Fa Conference,” Collected Teachings Given Around the World Volume XI)
I realized it was because I wasn’t treating cultivation seriously enough. Watching these ordinary people’s things only strengthened my attachments. Many popular videos contain negative content. Dramas often focus on struggles, jealousy, and fame, which promote harmful thoughts. Shopping videos are filled with desire for status and material gain, and fuel people’s attachments to lust and showing off.
The old forces and low-level spirits are always trying their best to fill people’s minds with harmful things, so how could I, as a practitioner, willingly seek them out? How can I still call myself a cultivator if I let these things influence me? I must follow Master’s teachings and let go of these attachments.
First, I gave up the habit of constantly scrolling whenever I had free time. I controlled what I browsed to eliminate these sources of pollution.
Next, while studying the Fa, I strengthened my main consciousness and rejected negative thoughts. If my mind wandered, I reread the parts I missed. If I still couldn’t focus, I wrote down or recited the Fa to keep my mind clear and allow my main consciousness to absorb the Fa.
By doing this, I was able to quiet my mind while studying the Fa and better understand Fa principles.
I realized that today’s mobile phone is not just a tool. If used improperly, it becomes a kind of “demonic box” that drags people down. Whatever you are attached to, it will give you more of the same. I must constantly remind myself to keep my main consciousness clear and alert. I need to take cultivation seriously and not let the phone control me.
About a year ago, the group coordinator started organizing outdoor morning exercises. At first, I thought it had nothing to do with me because the practice location was far from my home. I believed it was better to practice at home, where it was quieter and it saved time and fuel.
After a while, some practitioners who attended morning exercises shared their experiences and talked about the benefits. I decided to give it a try. The day I went, many practitioners were there. We practiced all five sets of exercises together, which felt very good. But I still felt unprepared and didn’t continue attending.
In fact, during that period, my practice at home was not very effective. Sometimes I got up late and couldn’t complete all five sets of exercises. Other times, I practiced halfway and then went back to sleep because I felt I hadn’t rested enough.
Should I practice outdoors? I tried to find the answer by asking myself: Why practice outdoors? The answer is that the outdoor environment supports cultivation, allowing us to practice all five exercises in one go and eliminate laziness. Also, Master wants us to study the Fa and practice together as a group, so we should follow his guidance.
Then I asked myself why was I hesitating to practice outdoors? Because I was afraid of the hardship, getting up early and being punctual. I worried I wouldn’t be able to persist. Also, there was the concern about fuel costs, which was an attachment to personal gain.
Reflecting on this, I realized that all my hesitation came from selfishness. I didn’t want those thoughts, I wanted to follow Master’s guidance, so I began to join the outdoor practice.
It wasn’t long before challenges came.
The place where we practice is surrounded by greenery, with many grasshoppers and mosquitoes. One time during the sitting meditation, I heard the buzzing of mosquitoes. I thought to myself, “It’s okay—they’ve eaten enough and won’t bite anymore.” But that day, there were many mosquitoes, buzzing nonstop. When I opened my eyes, I saw three or four mosquitoes circling around me. Fear arose in my heart. I wondered, “How long will they keep biting?” I tried to shoo them away, but they wouldn’t leave. Feeling discouraged, I decided to pack up and go home. On the way back, I thought, “What should I do? Summer is still long. Am I going to stop practicing outdoors just because of mosquitoes?” Unwilling to give up, I came up with a solution: I would buy mosquito repellent at the supermarket. At that time, I didn’t realize this was my fear of hardship, I had not yet awakened to it.
Another time, I got bitten by mosquitoes again. I asked an elderly practitioner, and she said she hadn’t been bitten at all. I noticed she hadn’t taken any mosquito-repelling measures, while I was applying repellent and wearing gloves. I realized that it was my attachment that attracted the mosquitoes. Because I was afraid of being bitten, I stayed tense, and fear brings what you fear. That’s why the mosquitoes came.
Actually, I should have seen being bitten as a good thing, a way to eliminate karma. Otherwise, how would this part of my karma be eliminated? I know that my attachment hasn’t been completely eliminated yet; I am still working on it.
Another incident was when Master helped by providing light for me. The place where we practice uses motion-sensor lights. If no one moves, the lights stay off, or if they are on, they go out after a few minutes. We practice quite early in the morning. One day, I arrived before the other practitioners. It was dark and secluded, and I began to feel a little afraid. But I couldn’t just leave, so I gathered my courage and started to meditate. Then something miraculous happened, the motion-sensor light stayed on the whole time. I was deeply moved and knew that Master was beside me, watching over me. Master kept the light on to accompany me. The next day, I observed the light again, and it had returned to its normal state, it only turned on when someone moved.
I’ve been practicing outdoors for over a year now. My experience is that it is better than practicing alone at home. It allows me to endure hardship and eliminate karma, while also helping to spread the Fa. More importantly, this is what Master asks us to do. I should persist.
I realized that when we clarify the truth about the persecution our mindset is very important. If we approach it with selfish motives or a passive, task-oriented attitude, the effect is poor. It feels like there’s a barrier between me and the sentient beings, and they don’t want to listen to what I say.
Sometimes, when clarifying the truth to Chinese people, I carry a strong preconceived notion: since they appear serious, they must be difficult to talk to. Yet, constrained by this mindset, I find their response exactly matches my expectation, they either say the very words I anticipated, or they say nothing, just stare at me briefly, and then walk away.
After I realized that my attachments were interfering, I sent righteous thoughts to clear away my negative ideas, so that those with a predestined relationship can come and learn the truth.
When telling people the facts with a sincere heart “for their sake,” the effect is much better. Once, I was clarifying the truth in downtown Wellington. Watching the busy pedestrians come and go, I felt that each person was precious and should be cherished. They endured countless reincarnations and much suffering without knowing the truth. Compassion arose in my heart, and I sincerely hoped they could all be saved. I handed out Falun Dafa materials with genuine kindness, silently sending a thought: “May all beings come to read the Falun Dafa materials and understand the truth.” Some people stopped and smiled as they accepted the materials; some signed the petition to “Dismantle the CCP;” others wrote down the names of their accompanying family members, who then signed it.
Another time, while clarifying the truth at a local market, I saw a line of people waiting to collect something. I thought, “This is a good opportunity, since they are standing here with nothing to do, they can read the truth-clarification materials.” So I started handing out the materials from the end of the line to the front. Most people accepted them. A fellow practitioner who saw me reminded me, “Do you have the petition board? Let them sign it!” I hesitated for a moment and thought, “I just gave them the materials, maybe it’s better to let them read first.”
I also realized there was a bit of selfishness in me: I was afraid that if one person refused, others might also refuse, and that would feel awkward. But I knew what the practitioner said was right. So I gathered my courage and started collecting signatures from the front of the line to the end. It went quite smoothly. Although some people didn’t sign, many did. One local resident, when I approached him to sign, began talking about the CCP’s live organ harvesting, saying how evil it was. He also said the CCP is a dictatorship that has done many bad things. Not only that, when he saw me asking the two people behind him to sign and noticed they were a bit hesitant, he turned around and started telling them about the CCP’s crimes. After hearing that, they both signed as well. I encouraged them to tell their relatives and friends to go online and sign the petition too, and all three of them agreed.
Through this experience, I realized that when clarifying the truth, we must not carry any human attachments or notions; otherwise, we may miss those with a predestined relationship.
Another time, at the entrance of a market, after I clarified the truth to a woman, she stood nearby waiting for someone. When I was clarifying the truth to another person and that person hesitated to sign, she became anxious and called out to him from behind, “You should sign! This is very important.”
I realized that once a sentient being understands the truth, he or she will take the initiative to clarify the truth to others.
I enlightened that, as a cultivator, every day is a part of cultivation, and everything we encounter is an opportunity to cultivate. How we handle each matter reflects our cultivation state. The time for Fa-rectification cultivation is very limited, yet I still have many attachments. By looking within, I found that behind these attachments lies a deeply rooted selfish heart. I realized that whenever I feel unhappy or my mind becomes unsettled, I can always find traces of selfishness there. I must follow Master’s teachings, eliminate these attachments, cultivate myself well, save sentient beings, and return home with Master.
Finally, I would like to say to Master: "Thank you, Master. You have worked so hard. I will do well what I am supposed to do. Your encouragingsmile is my only wish."
(Selected article presented at the 2025 New Zealand Fa Conference)