(Minghui.org) I happened to read an article a couple of days ago about the story of Yan Ying's loyalty to his elderly wife. The story was thought provoking given both fellow practitioners' and my own cultivation experiences of eliminating lust. I would like to share this story with fellow practitioners.
Yan Ying was a famous philosopher and diplomat in ancient China and was prime minister to Qi Jing Gong, Lord of the Qi State during the Spring-Autumn Period. Lord Jing Gong visited Ying’s home one day and noticed an old woman receiving guests at Yan Ying's home. He asked Yan Ying, “Is that your wife?” Yan Ying replied, “Yes, she is.” Qi Jing Gong sighed and said, “She is old and ugly. I have a young and beautiful daughter. How about you marry her?”
Hearing Qi Jing Gong's words, Yan Ying stood up and said respectful but seriously, “My Lord, my wife is indeed old and not beautiful anymore, but I have lived with her for decades. I saw her beauty when she was young. Besides, she entrusted her whole life to me regardless of my social status or my appearance. It's a great honor that you, my Lord, are willing to marry your daughter to me. As a man who keeps promises, I have already accepted my wife's entrustment. How can I betray her commitment upon your glorious offer?” Seeing Yan Ying’s determination, Qi Jing Gong dropped the idea.
On another occasion, a minister of Qi, Ten Wu Yu, saw Yin Yang’s wife and tried to persuade Yan Ying to drop her. Yan Ying told him, “I heard that abandoning an old wife is unlawful, and marrying a young beauty for a concubine is promiscuous. It's against Heaven's principles for a man to forsake morality for the sake of beauty, and for the wealthy and prominent to lose their ethics. It is not possible for me to be promiscuous, ignorant of morals, and rebellious to traditional discipline.”
Yan Ying's noble character has been well respected by people for more than 2,000 years.
In today's society, many marriages have broken up, and some fellow practitioners have divorced. From a cultivator's point of view, it's usually the result of an attachment to lust being manipulated by the demon of sentiments. The specter of the Communist Party has destroyed traditional Chinese values, leading to serious deviations from traditional standards of morality.
Willard Cleon Skousen, a former FBI clerk, wrote a book called The Naked Communist. It lists 45 communist goals, including “Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with 'social' religion...Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce...Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and TV.” These are some of the steps that communism takes to convert and rule people and to eventually rule the world without using wars to seize power.
Through speaking with fellow practitioners, I found that most of those who haven't passed the tests of lust have failed to realize that degenerated modern notions had taken root in their minds. Some words and behavior that are not in accordance with the Fa have been accepted as part of normal life. When human moral standards are lacking in people's minds, they accept marriage and divorce as common occurrences.
Falun Dafa practitioners have to purify ourselves through self-cultivation and have to walk a righteous path in this chaotic world. It's critical for us to play a positive role and serve as good examples for the people of the future. We have to be responsible to ourselves as well as the sentient beings in our worlds, fulfill our missions, and never fall short of Master's expectations. Master won't tell his disciples what to do in specific cases, but Master has taught us the Dafa principles on lust and desire.
The attachment to lust is one of the first attachments to eliminate as a cultivator. As soon as I started my cultivation, I corrected my own behavior and stopped a dubious relationship with a colleague. I now check that my behavior follows traditional moral standards and make sure not to leave any loopholes for the evil to exploit.
However, I failed to pass the test of lust recently in a dream. I was deeply troubled. My desires have been rampant recently. When I tried to help a fellow practitioner who had made mistakes in relationships in this regard, a bad idea flashed into my mind. I felt weakened and unwillingly deluded by the old forces. I followed a bad train of thought several times, which brought me discomfort all over my body. I realized it was interference from the demon of lust. I deeply regret having submitted myself to the interference. Things got better after I sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the demon of lust.
I find that the commonly accepted concept of love between a man and a woman is a material that encompasses people's bodies like fog. All the lust, desires, and attachments to comfort and living a beautiful life are comprised of degenerated materials that we cultivators have to eliminate. They are utilized by the evil that strives to block our will to cultivate ourselves diligently. I was suddenly awakened and made up my mind to completely eliminate all of these degenerate materials. It took me many rounds of sending forth righteous thoughts before I experienced any breakthrough. My body was lighter after the degenerated materials were removed layer after layer.
Master told us,
“That desire and lust stuff are all just human attachments, and we should get rid of all of them.” (The Sixth Talk from Zhuan Falun, Translation Edition Feb. 2003, North America)
Both Eastern and Western cultures regard unhappy marriages as a result of karma. Men and women should repay their debts to each other through tribulations instead of running away. Unhappiness has never been a reason for divorce in the eyes of gods.
Life after life, many predestined relationships, favors, grievances, sentiments and animosities have built up. As Dafa practitioners, we don't need to be tangled up in all of these things. Giving consideration to our past sentiments from our previous lives will do us no good. Dafa is able to free us from our previous resentments. As long as we study the Fa well, identify the demons of lust, and eliminate our attachments to desires and lust, we should be able to cultivate ourselves well and still conform to the format of our cultivation in the human world. Thinking on the basis of the Fa-rectification is the only way to resolve problems and fulfill our mission. After we make improvements in our xinxing, the boundless power of the Fa will manifest!
The above is my personal understanding. Please feel free to point out anything inappropriate.