(Minghui.org) Although the Minghui notice about deleting WeChat and other software was first published in 2018, I did not see it until this May, because I was being persecuted at the time. A practitioner’s exchange article mentioned the notice, so I looked it up and found the original article. I realized that Master didn’t want me to fall behind, and wanted me to make up for it, so I decided to do it right away.
Uninstalling Software Apps
I did not know much about cell phone apps, and didn’t realize the difficulty until I sat down to do it. Among the four software packages mentioned in the notice, I did not have the first one installed. The second one was installed on my phone, but never used, so all I needed to do was delete it. I had been using WeChat frequently.
Prior to this, every time I got a new cell phone, I had the seller install the software and import my profile data into the new phone for me, before I started using it. Now, I had to uninstall software myself, I had to figure it out bit by bit by looking up information and understanding the settings. It took patience and perseverance, and I had to overcome the fear of it being difficult, and restlessness.
When I was cleaning up my address book, I almost had a meltdown going through hundreds of addresses. I wondered if there was an easier way. I had nonetheless always wanted to organize my address book by updating some and deleting some, but had delayed it again and again due to the huge amount of work. Now it has finally been cleaned up.
Deleting WeChat
I have been using WeChat the longest, I used it at work, in daily life, also when making payments. It was one of my most-used apps. In addition, I had joined a variety of WeChat groups.
To delete WeChat, I had to first sort the contacts stored in the app. I went through them one by one, and found there were not as many frequent contacts as I thought. Many contacts were business one-offs that I had not cleared; some were businesses who solicited to be a friend of mine with small offers. As for the classmate groups, they were just filling the empty spaces.
In the process of cleaning up the software on my phone, I found attachments of greed and curiosity, and so on. I realized that cleaning up my phone was also cleaning up my dimensional field.
Since calls made on WeChat are free, friends did not have to worry about time limits, and easily talked for over an hour on the phone. Without WeChat, regular phone calls cost money, so my friends often spoke briefly and hung up quickly. It has saved me a lot of time.
I oftentimes kept an eye on incoming messages on WeChat, and my mind was not empty. I sometimes found articles shared by others interesting, so I opened them. Time passed by quickly like that. Sometimes I accepted invitations and was interfered with by them without realizing it.
I sometimes also wanted to show off and share what was going on with me, and look for recognition. All kinds of attachments were displayed.
Removing WeChat was like unloading the baggage I had been carrying, and it felt very refreshing.
As for losing the convenience of making payments with WeChat, it was no problem at all. Hadn’t we been paying in cash – the most legitimate way – before electronic payments existed? Convenience is a human notion, and a long-established indoctrination.
Reinstalling Necessary Apps
The biggest inconvenience for me when deleting WeChat was how to show the health code when I went out during the pandemic. I found alternative ways later, which exposed my “notions.”
After restoring my phone to factory settings, I reinstalled all non-native apps, and made sure all photo albums were cleaned up. I found an attachment in doing each item.
I was careful when installing the apps, and only installed the necessary ones, not the ones I could find alternative ways to get the same thing done, nor the ones that offered me nothing more than convenience.
In my understanding, software has given people ease and convenience, but on the other hand, it has reduced the contact and face-to-face communication among people, which is the state that people should be in. People should not need software to connect us together, but it seems that people nowadays have become subordinate to computers, and computers are interfering with and dominating our lives.
To my surprise, deleting the phone apps did not cause me much inconvenience. The biggest challenge I had to deal with was people’s questioning my actions of removing them. My relatives and friends were all using WeChat, and were used to getting and passing information through WeChat. They felt inconvenienced by my absence.
They actually did not need me that much in WeChat - I was a phone call away if they really needed me - but they did not want to call, because they were used to sending a message to the group and reaching everyone, and sometimes expressing their opinion that way.
Although no one said it explicitly, they were implying, “Why on earth did you delete WeChat? How inconvenient it is for us!” It was as if I’d become an alien among them.
Planting a Product in People’s Lives
This helped me see more clearly how businesses have planted a product in people’s lives and gradually, people could not live without it.
Many things are arranged in our lives in such a way that we rely on them and let them become part of our lives. These things include various acquired notions. Notions are contrary to the goal of cultivation - which must be removed one by one.
How did we communicate before WeChat? Did we feel any inconvenience? No. We seemed to be closer to one another than we are now. We are relying too much on WeChat. Isn’t reliance an attachment?
I thought of the story of the Taoist and the fawn that Master told us about, and felt a little chill - attachments creep up like that. I came to understand that whether something is used or not depends on whether we choose to use it, so human beings, not computers, external environments, or other people’s perceptions, and so on, would dominate our lives.
However, when something is used in every aspect of people’s lives, and given too much leeway, people will slowly give up their dominant position and let that thing become the dominant one. It is just like when I chose not to use WeChat. I was regarded as an alien by those who use it, because WeChat is taking over people’s lives and people are unconsciously expanding its scope of existence and giving it a value and status above normal things.
The consequences of this development are terrible.
We live in such a time, but we must conduct ourselves according to the Fa. I came to realize that recognizing the true nature of this matter is probably what I should accomplish as well.
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Category: Improving Oneself
