(Clearwisdom.net) During cultivation, because we have taken a long time to let go of the human mentality and notions formed over long years, they would play a role at certain times, and sometimes they could even destroy a cultivator. This is a very serious issue.

Talking about the issue from this dimension where our main body is, the cause of the problem actually lies in ourselves, because we have not let go of the attachments and notions we should have and that the part of us that needs to assimilate to the Fa has not done so. Those bad notions and attachments came from the old universe, yet we are to enter the new universe, so why don't we cultivate more diligently and let go of these elements through cultivation?

Master has told us all the Fa principles, yet we are held back by our restricted vision and limited capacity, and are thus unable to rationally comprehend the Dao according to the Fa.

For example, Master has told us many times to study the Fa more, and that all the truth is contained in Zhuan Falun. But because we have not relinquished our acquired notions or because they are deeply covered up, we cannot see the truth of the universe and life, and we are obstructed by karma and notions. Under such circumstances, our way of thinking has omissions and it is not harmonizing. Because our decisions are interfered with by the acquired old elements and these old thoughts, mentalities are based on selfishness and they are afraid of being touched or harmed, therefore their logic of thinking to protect themselves would further permeate our natural way of thinking and influence our assessment of a situation. We would think of protecting ourselves first before we do anything, or, to put it in other words, we assess a situation or make a decision on the basis where there is already a notion of "self." Such a mode of thinking would become a fixed notion over time, and it would become part of our life, making us believe that this is our self, and we would become used to looking at things with this notion. Over time, we would enrich and accumulate various notions to protect our "self," and step by step, we would form and consolidate our selfishness. This type of notion would eventually become very stubborn and would completely control our life, causing us to completely lose our nature until we end up with poor enlightenment quality.

If we cannot see these things clearly, and view them as ourselves and go along with them, we would be completely destroyed. We would not be able to improve, we would have doubt about Master and would show attitudes of hesitation, wait-and-see and indifference, and we would have a strong attachment to when all this would come to an end. We would pay attention to how much we give and endure, or we would only think of "me" and not see the sacredness and solemnity of the Fa. These are themselves manifestation and limitation of notions and human mentalities formed in the degenerate old universe.

We all know that Master requires us to read the book often, and that all is contained in the Fa. However, some practitioners simply believe they can see things most clearly. They may read the book a few times when they had doubts, and when they did not experience what Master said, they would say that Master was over-exaggerating, and some even used reading the book as a way to avoid persecution. This is in fact resisting assimilating to the Fa.

Some practitioners do not pay much attention to rectifying their own thoughts, and some even take an indifferent attitude toward their bad thoughts, thinking it is nothing to have bad thoughts, as long as we know they are bad and we could do better in the future and so on and so forth. This is a manifestation of our main consciousness indulging old notions and human mentalities, and it is in fact a very important issue. Why is it that some of us cannot improve for a long time and have doubts about the Fa? Why is it that some of us, because we cannot see the profound inner meaning of the Fa in Zhuan Falun due to our delimited boundary, would stop believing in Master and take this heavenly book lightly? In fact, for a diligent cultivator with good inborn quality, his knowing side knows the value of this boundless Fa. Don't deny the importance of studying the Fa simply because you cannot see anything when you study the Fa with a human mentality. How can we expect the broad and profound inner meaning of the Fa to conform to the notions of us insignificant human beings?

Master has long made it very clear in Zhuan Falun,

Let each of us calm our mind and think it over carefully. In fact, these few words have covered it all. If we see the true inner meaning of the Fa (not with the word-by-word reasoning of human mentality), and when our enlightened nature has become integrated with our life in the human world, then even if we cannot do things perfectly in the present as we would when we are enlightening properly to the inner meaning of the Fa, we would not be as passive and indifferent.

Some practitioners say, "I understand the Fa principles"; in fact, even though they say they understand the Fa principles, their understanding is different and is far from the ultimate manifestation of the Fa principles. Some things shared by fellow practitioners are very inspiring, with every word used precisely and appropriately, and they are able to break with many attachments and notions. They are very beneficial to others. Their effectiveness is not due to being written out in words or composed with colorful phrases. They are enlightenment of fellow practitioners from solid cultivation. They are simple in language (It is difficult to express the state of mind and feelings of a cultivator in language when he is in a state of righteous enlightenment). On the other hand, some other articles are plain and ordinary but with little inspiration. Sometimes, practitioners write articles for the sake of writing them, and there is not much inner meaning in depth between the lines and they cannot touch people's hearts.

We often say that we understand what is said in Zhuan Falun and the examples given in the book. Then why is it that when it comes to actions, we would do things according to the acquired set of notions and habits?

When we look at things with acquired notions, we may feel that the examples Master gave in Zhuan Falun are very simple, but the fact is that the same sentence would represent profound inner meaning to some fellow practitioners. The reason that some other practitioners cannot feel anything is because their thoughts and hearts are not pure and calm to the required standards.

"Lunyu" [preface of Zhuan Falun] covers the whole book of "Zhuan Falun." Take the line "humankind must fundamentally change its conventional thinking" for example. These few characters have covered many of the common and individual problems we have today. It depends on how much we can enlighten to, how much we can let go of our "self." We always habitually judge things with our acquired notions formed over thousands of years or even longer time, and we always crawl along within the boundary delimited by our own ignorance.

Some practitioners have a strong attachment to time, and have developed a feeling of fear and indifference in the face of the evil persecution. In fact, longing and fear are two major material factors that hinder cultivators from elevating, and would cause serious interference and obstruction. This is not a simple spiritual element, but a material existence, and a life that has a certain form and capability in other dimensions. They are actually stumbling blocks, or demons by another name, on our path to Dafa. Their existence would seriously interfere with our righteous thoughts and breaking through levels, and it could seriously interfere with our righteous decisions and badly weaken our will. Only by constant improvement in our xinxing, and by eliminating them with righteous belief and thoughts can we be more diligent, assimilate to the Fa and save sentient beings.

The above is a bit of sharing at my level. Please point out anything improper.