(Minghui.org) After I began practicing Falun Dafa, my body was free of illness but pimples started to appear on my face. They were large, red, and unsightly. I always wore a mask whenever I left the house .
I knew they appeared to help me identify and eliminate an attachment. I kept looking inward but to no avail. I examined myself for any attachments I had that were related to face and appearance such as reputation, competing with others, wanting to look attractive, not controlling my speech, not being compassionate, jealousy, resentment, ego, etc. There were so many and they all seemed to be related to each other.
In order to not make Falun Dafa look bad, whenever I sent righteous thoughts I added the thought to get rid of these pimples. Sometimes, I talked to the pimples. I even clarified the truth to them and told them about benevolent resolutions. I told them to remember, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.”
I focused on eliminating my attachments. However, the pimples still kept erupting. I logged onto Minghui.org and read other practitioners’ cultivation articles. Unfortunately there were no references to pimples. When I mentioned my situation to other practitioners, they said I was eliminating karma so it was a good thing. I thought that, apart from problems in my xinxing, there must be some loophole in my cultivation.
I had pimples pretty badly when I was about 10 years old. I tried all sorts of remedies, but none of them worked. The doctor said that I was going through puberty. At that time I loved reading fiction. I stopped reading these books when I was in high school and my pimples went away.
After I began practicing Falun Dafa, I no longer read literature or watched television or movies. I threw out or gave away any paintings, books, and photos that had anything to do with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party).
When I thought about it, I realized that I had an attachment to watching the news. Every day after I finished looking at Minghui.org, I looked at the news. I was interested in what was going on in the world and this had become a habit. This was a very big attachment. It was a loophole and it might be what was polluting my body and mind. I decided to stop and did so for a period of time. However, during the US election in 2020, I became attached to the news again. Gradually, I steered away from the Fa, and before long, I was addicted to my old habit.
Why was it so hard to get rid of this attachment? Even though I read and memorized the Fa every day, I did not really obtain the Fa. I was still not clear about the Fa principles and I was being led by my attachment.
Minghui.org published a notice asking practitioners to stop using WeChat, so I immediately uninstalled it. Even though I heard some negative comments, especially from coworkers in my office, I managed to resolve all of them. I sent out one thought: “Master, please empower me and let me know if anything happens at work.” In the end, I was able to find out about all the important matters in the office. I never used WeChat again.
The moment I uninstalled WCchat, my mobile phone made a sound similar to someone opening a bottle of champagne to celebrate. It was amazing. After I uninstalled Wechat, my body felt light and relaxed, as though a layer of heavy armor was removed. My complexion looked better but the pimples were still there.
Later, Master published a new lecture A Strong and Urgent Warning,which really helped me. I read it repeatedly along with Master’s other related lectures. In Fa Teaching at the 2019 New York Fa Conference, Master answered a practitioner’s question:
“Question: My cultivation state has had ups and downs. Sometimes I am attached to doing things that I’m fond of, such as spending time on the computer, on video games, or on my mobile phone, and it’s been to the detriment of my cultivation. How can I get better control of myself and stay diligent?
Master: I’d like to give you my take on what people normally refer to as “addiction.” In the medical sciences it’s believed that addiction occurs when the part of the nervous system associated with addictive behaviors is stimulated and develops to a sufficient degree. But that’s not it. What’s happening, then? Over time, that addictive substance accumulates, and forms inside of your body an identical version of you that comes to control you. Because it is composed of strong attachment, and has your appearance, it has an equally strong desire to control you; it was formed out of strong desires, after all.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2019 New York Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XV)
Through reading and memorizing Master’s teachings I had a deeper understanding and kept correcting myself. I was able to get rid of my desire to read and watch the news. I truly no longer felt like reading it. It’s not that I’m controlling myself, instead it’s as though I never had the desire. Master helped me to get rid of this thing that I had been attached to for so many years. Thank you, Master! No words can describe my gratitude.
When I thought about it, many of the attachments I had and the many incorrect states I was in, including the negative way of thinking, not being able to get the Fa into my head when I read it, etc., were all related to my reading the news. Now, a big obstacle in my cultivation was removed.
Although I no longer read the news, I’m still able to do the three things. In the process I also realized that I need to watch what I say. In the past when my husband asked me about the news on the Internet I would talk about it all excitedly. I always commented on what was going on.
He was interested and listened. After a while he said, “You always focus on the negative aspects of what’s happening. You are too extreme.” Seeing that I was so full of confidence when I talked about the imminent result of the U.S. election, he made a bet with someone. The outcome left him speechless. Afterwards, he no longer believed what I said and no longer listened to me. I realized that Master was using his words to shake me awake so that I would not sink any deeper. However, I just did not pay attention.
After I read Master’s new lecture A Strong and Urgent Warning, I realized that I was also being duped. A practitioner should listen to the Fa, not everyday media. I’m a practitioner, how can I believe the media?
The media exists to serve society and people rely on it and follow it. People today cannot be separated from their mobile phones; on the other hand, what cultivators rely on is Dafa. The Fa is the true sustenance and lifeblood of a cultivator.
A cultivator must detach oneself from the mundane world. Why can’t I even let go of this most superficial thing? Why am I so attached to it? How can I talk about breaking through to higher levels? Furthermore, everything in society works around Dafa. We are the main players in this show, while everyday people are being manipulated by celestial changes.
The chaos in the world is just an environment that the Gods use to eliminate people. Everything is under Master’s control. Once the number of people to be saved has been reached, the show will end and everything will wrap up. You will become what you should be. If you are good, you will still be here. All the beings in the universe hope to be saved in this process of rectifying the Fa, and they are putting their hopes in us. Why are we still searching outward?
After I eliminated my attachment to reading the news, my negative thoughts decreased. Since my mind does not store this messy information, I’m no longer disturbed by it. I no longer chat much anymore. I no longer use the mundane news as a reference or guide. When I run into problems, I look for the answers in the Fa and deal with the matter from the perspective of a cultivator.
My thoughts have become pure and I’m able to quiet my mind. My thoughts are now on the Fa instead of the things such as which pop star evaded paying taxes, what’s the latest fashion, etc. How can a cultivator quiet herself when her mind is full of all this rubbish? In the past, I sent forth righteous thoughts to get rid of these thoughts, but they kept surfacing. Now, they are gradually diminishing.
Master said,
“The real reason why you can’t quiet your mind is not due to your technique, or because you haven’t found the secret to success; but rather, that your mind, or what’s inside of your heart, is not pure.” (The Ninth Talk, Zhuan Falun)
Although my pimples were still there, I was no longer attached to them. Their existence just meant that I still had loopholes.
One day I received offensive emojis sent to me from a certain website. I was puzzled and contacted customer service. They said that it might be due to an error by the supplier. This was an ordinary, surface explanation. But wasn’t this an enlightenment from Master that I should stop using this website? The things on the website were rubbish and it is one of the dirtiest places. Every message it sent to my mobile phone was messy.
Since I understood this, shouldn’t I delete the app from my phone? I immediately uninstalled two negative apps from my phone.
After I uninstalled these apps, my mobile phone was truly clean. The next day, when I washed my face and looked in the mirror, the pimples on my face were gone! A few days later, my skin became luminous, smooth, and delicate with no traces of the pimples at all. It was miraculous!
These pimples were with me for years and heard me clarify the truth many times. They are also living beings that came for the Fa. Thank you, Master, for using them to enlighten me!
They recurred a few times. I knew this happened because I temporarily downloaded that bad app to purchase things online. Although I always uninstalled it immediately, I was wrong. Just using it once caused the pimples to erupt on my face again.
When people go online and play with their mobile phones, they are being interfered with, but they don’t realize it. They do not believe that the illnesses they contract are related to these habits. We are cultivators and we talk about improving our xinxing, so how can we not get rid of this attachment?
This incident exposed so many of my attachments.
Master said,
“Whatever you experience during your cultivation—whether good or bad—is good, for it comes about only because you are cultivating. A cultivator cannot achieve Consummation when laden with human thoughts, laden with karmic debts, or laden with attachments.” (“To the Chicago Fa Conference,” The Essentials of Diligent Progress III)
This time, I truly understood some of the meaning of this Fa.
In the face of tests and tribulations, some practitioners are unable to find the cause of the problem so they just keep suffering for a long time, thinking that it is helping them reduce their karma. Master does not want us to suffer for years. Master only makes use of tribulations and gives us a chance to improve. When Master helps us to get rid of our karma, it validates the Fa and helps us save people. A practitioner's image is part of our truth clarification. How can we allow interference to go on for so long?
My poor understanding of the Fa led me to acknowledge the old forces so I cooperated with them for many years without knowing it. This is defaming Dafa and, in some ways, causing damage to the Fa. What allowed the old forces to cause such disturbance? The reason was because I did not correct myself based on the Fa. I just relied on sending forth righteous thoughts. That is not cultivation! Just like rotten fruit attracts houseflies, when I sent forth righteous thoughts to get rid of the houseflies, I did not look for the rotten fruit and throw it away. The houseflies kept coming back. Only by finding my attachment, eliminating it, and improving my cultivation was the problem truly resolved.
The Internet and mobile phones can disturb cultivators. It may not be obvious on the surface how they are interfering with us, but they will definitely cause serious interference to a cultivator’s mind and body. I thank Master for using the pimples on my face to help me find such a big loophole and thus I was able to correct myself.
I wrote about my experience to help other practitioners see their attachment and eliminate it. In the past, I did not write experience-sharing articles as I thought that other practitioners were doing better than me so I had nothing important to say. However, after studying Master’s lecture Teachings at the Midwestern U.S. Conference, my opinion changed.
Master said,
“Yesterday a reporter asked me, “What has made you the happiest in your whole life?” Of course, my whole life has been devoted to this one thing. I said, as to matters of ordinary people, there’s nothing that would make me happiest, but when I hear or see students sharing their experiences, that is when I feel most gratified. (Applause) Every bit of improvement the students have made hasn’t been easy at all. They have endured a lot of hardships.” (Teachings at the Midwestern U.S. Conference)
Everyone’s cultivation path is different. As a disciple, to please Master is the most rewarding thing to do. Through my experience with the pimples, I gained a new level of understanding about not acknowledging the old forces.