(Minghui.org) Minghui.org has published several articles on issues related to mobile phones. I would also like to talk about my superficial understanding of this.
A few days ago, I saw an online article “He Located Me Easily” that mainly talked about the problem of how mobile phones can be easily located because people use WeChat. I’m not talking about the issue of mobile phone security. This is an obvious issue, so I won’t elaborate on it. What I want to talk about is that playing with mobile phones and using WeChat and similar applications can seriously harm practitioners.
After the Minghui website published “What All Dafa Disciples Must Know” in 2018, most local practitioners deleted WeChat and other unsafe software as Minghui directed. I simply changed to two older-generation mobile phones. I use one to call non-practitioners and the other to call fellow practitioners. It doesn’t show my real name, and it’s usually turned off. I generally do not call fellow practitioners unless there’s an extreme circumstance, and I try to avoid potential safety hazards.
But over the past few years, I’ve observed that many practitioners across the country—not just in my area—have returned to using WeChat and are watching ordinary people’s videos and so on. Some are very addicted to these things. When serious problems arise in their cultivation, they can’t stop even if they are reminded repeatedly. I’ve observed that all these practitioners have problems in cultivation. The most common one is that they have difficulty studying the Fa. One cannot internalize the Fa if one is sleepy. So what does it mean if you can’t learn the Fa? Isn’t this the end of everything in cultivation? Of course, various incorrect states occur. Here are just a few examples of practitioners in my area.
Jing, 81, began practicing Falun Dafa in 1996. She was very diligent and started printing truth clarification materials soon after the persecution began. Most of the people in her village quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations. But she watched news and videos on Dynaweb, sometimes for hours. About five years ago, her husband passed away and she lived alone. Over the years, she was unable to let go of her sentimental attachment to him.
In order to fill the empty hours, she watched videos on her mobile phone. Her health began to deteriorate, she almost lost her eyesight, and she had difficulty walking. Last spring, she suddenly suffered from amnesia. She forgot to do the exercises and send forth righteous thoughts. Now she can’t do any of the three things. She is thin and keeps murmuring, “I no longer want to live.” In this state, how can she validate Dafa and save sentient beings?
Chen, who is just over 50, also started practicing Dafa in 1996. He is a street vendor. He’s endured many tribulations over the past 20 years. However, he became addicted to reading novels on his mobile phone and couldn’t calm down when he read the Fa. He became drowsy as soon as he picked up the book. Master is compassionate and arranged for practitioners to take turns studying the Fa with him every day. He was still very sleepy and the other practitioners earnestly advised him to stop reading novels.
After struggling to eliminate his addiction, he finally stopped reading novels on his mobile phone, and he was gradually able to focus when he studied the Fa. However, beginning two years ago, he started watching videos on his mobile phone. He was so sleepy while he studied the Fa that he dropped the book. Sometimes he became drowsy even when he stood. He also had mild stroke symptoms—his speech was garbled and his mind was slow.
The practitioners who studied the Fa with him were very worried about him. They encouraged him almost every day, told him how harmful it is to play on cell phones, and read Master’s Fa to him. Every day he promised that he would stop playing with his phone. But when he went to work, he started watching it again. He simply could not stop. He fell twice recently but didn’t look inward. He often got angry with ordinary people and cursed them. He couldn’t clarify the truth to anyone.
Aiyin, who is over 50, began practicing Falun Dafa in 1998. She has done the three things since the persecution began and participated in group Fa study, but she fell in love with WeChat. She felt sleepy when she studied the Fa and forgot how to cultivate. She can’t remain unmoved and can’t get over family tests. She often has conflicts with her coworkers and sometimes get into actual fights, which seriously damaged Dafa’s reputation. She no longer attends Fa study. In her own words, she only has time to eat and sleep and cannot study the Fa.
It’s heartbreaking—and there are many similar examples. Some practitioners may say, “You’re retired and no longer work, so of course you don’t need WeChat.” What about the experience sharing articles in which some practitioners who work still do a good job without using WeChat?
I think that smartphones are really powerful tools that the old forces are using to mislead Dafa disciples and ordinary people. My level is limited, so I won’t elaborate further. Many practitioners have voiced their thoughts on this issue online. They’ve all discussed it in depth and explained the key points. I advise those practitioners who are still playing with their phones and using WeChat to read more sharing articles about one’s attachment to cellphones and other electronic devices. I also hope that Minghui.org will publish more articles about this.
I’ve helped many practitioners send Mid-Autumn Festival greeting cards to Master. Almost all of them repeated the same sentence: “We must go home with Master!” I thought, “There is nothing wrong with this wish, but there are strict standards for that, and we must completely get rid of our human attachments.”
I’d also like to ask those who are still obsessed with mobile phones and cannot extricate themselves: “Can you return to your true home if you hold on to the Buddha with one hand and hold on to being human with the other?” The sentient beings in your heavenly world are eagerly waiting for you to return.
The following is a passage from Master’s teachings:
“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.
“This holds true for drug use as well. Some people say that recreational drug use is no big deal and that it seems harmless. And sure, people feel pretty good when they try it. What if they do it again? There’s no apparent problem. How about one more time? Then their self-control starts to erode. But why is that? When that substance is inhaled, inside of your body it forms a very thin and light version of you. One hit is all it takes, since it’s highly poisonous. And with the second hit, that version of you that was thin and light grows a bit denser. And it will continue to get denser with each subsequent hit, growing stronger and sturdier. It will have the full structure of your body as well as thinking, and be an entirely drug-induced and demonic version of you. Of course, it may not do anything other than crave drugs. It can’t bear to be without them. That’s because it is now alive. So what happens, then? As you might imagine, it will become progressively lighter if you stop using drugs, as a result of your body’s metabolic processes, until eventually it dies. Since it doesn’t wish to die, it compels you to take drugs again in order to strengthen it.
“Spending unnecessary time on the computer or playing video games has the same effect; it’s the same idea. If you want to quit, that thing won’t want you to since it would die. And so it will do all in its power to make you engage in those things. And if you try not to, it will interfere with your work or studies by causing your mind to crave them. If you refuse, it might even make you do those things in your dreams.
“It strikes me how easily human beings are controlled by foreign entities. The human body is really just a vessel made up of the foods a person has consumed and that is inherited from one’s parents. With the consumption of food, it grows, but it is really weak, as anyone or anything can control it. Things that are formed in other dimensions are sentient, and though their plane may be low, they still have the ability to control people since the human body is weak.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2019 New York Fa Conference” in Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XV)
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Category: Perspectives
