(Clearwisdom.net) Recently when I was printing 2012 Shen Yun DVD labels, my new printer experienced some problems: It didn't recognize the ink cartridge a couple of times. The ink cartridge light was on and indicated that the cartridge was connected. However, the printer wouldn't recognize it. This happened during the Chinese New Year, which is one of the best times for distributing the DVDs. The demand for the DVDs from fellow practitioners was huge, and my supply wouldn't meet the demand even if the printer ran nonstop. However, during this critical time, the printer was experiencing problems. How could I not be anxious? Of course, I realized that anxiety would only make the problem worse. Cultivation issues need to be addressed by cultivating and upgrading xinxing. In the end, I was able to fix the problem by looking inward.
The first time the printer had a problem, it took an hour to remedy it. I reflected on myself and found the attachments to comfort and self-validation, as well as the fact that I wasn't studying the Fa enough. However, this didn't resolve the issue. Then I sent forth righteous thoughts and tried to communicate with the printer. In short, I tried as many ways as I could think of to solve the problem, but nothing worked. In the end, I ran out of ideas, so I stood in front of Master's picture, put my palms together and asked Master for a hint. Then I sat down and calmly looked inward. I found my answer: I had been spending my time in inappropriate ways. For the previous two mornings, I browsed the Internet before printing the DVD labels. Before I shut down the computer at night, I also browsed the news on the Internet. While these activities didn't take long, I also often thought about the Internet. Thus, I was spending my time in inappropriate ways. Once I found the gap, the printer started working again. My attachments had created an illusion―the printer didn't have a problem!
The second time my printer stopped working, it took two and a half hours to get it to work again. I considered that my enlightenment quality may be poor. From the first experience, I knew that I should look inward. However, my efforts of looking within did not seem to produce the desired result. I did everything I knew of, such as looking inward, sending forth righteous thoughts, and communicating with the printer. Because it was taking a long time to remedy the situation, my anxiety came up and I started to complain. I accused the printer of being uncooperative. I even threatened the printer, telling it that if it continued create problems, I would get rid of it. Then I started swearing at the printer. The printer still did not work.
In the end, I was quite frustrated. I thought of getting technical help from fellow practitioners, but at that moment I thought: “No. I need to look inward again.” The attachment of doing things suddenly came to mind! I was attached to doing things. I had a hectic schedule over the previous few days and had a lot of things to do. Without realizing it, I treated doing things as cultivation. Master helped me identify this attachment; otherwise, how could I have realized the issue all of a sudden? Once I found the attachment, the printer began working again. It happened instantly. I was very grateful for Master's guidance and was sincerely apologetic to the printer.
I have come to realize that many of issues during our cultivation result from our attachments. Our attachments need to be eliminated by us because they come from us. Master has given us the best tool to eliminate attachments: looking inward. As long as we look inward with pure thoughts, the issue can be instantly resolved. It is similar to what Master has told us about curing illnesses. Different illnesses are cured by specific supernatural powers. If we list numerous reasons but don't really know which specific attachment caused the issue, then we may confuse ourselves or cover up the real issue when cultivating.
Many practitioners say they don't know how to look inward or say that they cannot find their problems. They may be able to find a lot of human attachments, but cannot resolve specific issues that they are faced with. Most practitioners know and can talk about the Fa principle of looking inward. Yet, they still do not know how to look inward or cannot find their attachments, and say that looking inward doesn't work. In reality, they haven't found the substance that causes the problem. We are cultivating in the secular world and may have quite a few human attachments. Some of them are for maintaining our daily human lives, and some are to be eliminated in the future at different levels in our cultivation. To address the issues that we face, it won't help to just list all human attachments. It would only be enough to identify the specific attachment and meet the requirement of our current cultivation level.
The above is my personal understanding, limited by my current cultivation level. Please point out if anything is inappropriate.
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Category: Improving Oneself
