Abandoning the Attachment to Negligence

[PureInsight.org] This year, when we were planning our trip to the U.S. Fa Conference in New York, one of our elderly fellow practitioners in the local area asked me to help him apply for the U.S. VISA. Upon knowing that he had already acquired a British passport, I supposed that passing the U.S. VISA interview should be very easy. Distracted by several other things I forgot about his request, it was a couple of days before the flight I finally got the application form. When I read one of the columns on the form, it asks, “Have you ever been rejected for the U.S. visa?” That night, I completely forgot that it was the fellow practitioner’s application form that I was filling out, and instead I thought the question was directed to me. So without double thinking, I wrote a “NO” in the blank. After I made the payment, I informed the practitioner that his application was approved.

The next day, when I received an email from the U.S. Consulate titled “NO-REPLY”, I took for granted that it was just a confirmation letter and put it aside without opening it. However, it turned out that the elderly fellow practitioner got rejected for the visa. But it was not until the moment we went to check in our baggage before takeoff were we informed of the situation. It was impossible to immediately apply again for the visa, because normally the U.S. Consulate requires applicants to schedule an appointment a few weeks in advance.

Due to my careless mistake, the elderly practitioner lost the opportunity to attend the Fa conference. I was filled with guilt and sadness. In fact, early on Master showed me the way. One night before, I found the faucet in my bathroom was left open all night—I knew this was Master reminding me of a big loophole of my Xinxing, but as I thought for a short while, I did not find any and simply just let it be.

Your Main Consciousness Should Predominate

This is not the first time I did something wrong because of my carelessness. Being absent-minded, careless, panicky and reckless are not new to me. It is almost as if my mind is never at rest, but at the same time I find it hard to focus. I find that more often than not, when I am about to make a mistake, something occupies my mind and makes me do it involuntarily, although I always regret it afterwards.

Back in the 1980s, I used to practice one kind of Qigong with my eyes closed. Just like what Master says, oftentimes I opened my eyes only to find that I had backed up from one side of the playground to the other. I had absolutely no idea of whatever I did and however I did it. But it occurred to me that I might have several subordinate souls, of which some are here to create trouble. Because sometimes when a thought or image came across, I realize that I would cause a great mess if I were to do it the way the subordinate soul wanted. In fact, my carelessness should read as a sign of my weak Main Consciousness—I handed myself over to the subordinate soul, the acquired interferences and the foreign beings from other dimensions. From now on I should strengthen my Main Consciousness.

One Should Never Lose the Sense of Awe

Logically speaking, filling out a visa application form is so important that I have no reason I should be sloppy. However, hidden behind the situation is another one of my attachments: a lack of awe, a lack of respect for other people as well as for everyday people’s laws; there was no room in me for rules and orders. Perhaps because I might have been a robber in my previous life, I tend to treat the laws with contempt and to take advantage of loopholes in laws in my subconscious. It has to do with the CCP’s brain washing but more of my own problem.

Aren’t just the old forces the ones who disrespect Master and Dafa? These higher beings who consider themselves above Master claim to arrange the cultivation path for the Lord of Buddhas. If the earthly life of the ordinary were to reflect this self-righteousness, it would be those who flatter themselves from all walks of life: the Communist Party flatters itself on fighting the Gods and Buddhas; everyday people flatter themselves that the indoctrination they took from the CCP is the truth; practitioners never consider themselves wrong. After all, what’s behind this is the attachment to self-righteousness, which makes you take it for granted that you are always correct. If it goes on like this, one might develop demonic interference from one’s own mind. Self-righteousness is also a manifestation of the Main Consciousness not being clearheaded.

Taking shortcuts May Also Be an Attachment

What’s behind my carelessness is yet another attachment—unwillingness to take the time to overcome the trouble. For everything I do I tend to take shortcuts, without taking efforts or taking anything seriously. I recall a passage from Zhuan Falun where Master mentioned a story about eating tofu, “It was a pretty big hassle hustling and bustling to prepare food in the morning before going off to work. Sometimes I’d buy two steamed buns and a piece of tofu in soy sauce. You’d think such light things would be alright, but it still wasn’t okay to eat them all the time—that attachment had to go.”

I had been wondering what “that attachment” was. I had no attachment to picking on food. I ate tofu only because it doesn’t take much time to eat it. However, now my understanding is that “not willing to take efforts” might as well be an attachment. In the process of transforming the human body, it is necessary that we feed ourselves certain nutrients. Perhaps it wasn’t okay to eat the same type of food all the time.

My understanding isn’t necessarily right, but at my current level I realized that many people from mainland China have a tendency to take shortcuts. This may be because modern humans’ thinking has been badly warped by the Party culture. Such crooked, warped mentality will be reflected in all aspects. It is especially the case with the pursuit of product quality going downhill. Numerous products made in the Western world appear to be delicate and fine, say, a handbag or a watch, and of course people will buy it, even though the price may be several times more expensive than that of the ordinary ones. However, many products labeled “made in China” turn out to be rough and slipshod work. Behind this phenomenon is a question of the value orientation concerning “conscientiousness”. As practitioners, we practice Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. Doesn’t “conscientiousness” pertain to this principle as well?

I was upset at the thought that my negligence had prevented the fellow practitioner to attend Fa Conference, and that I did not do well in my cultivation and it is likely to go awry at any moment, because the old forces always cast a covetous eye on us when we aren’t vigilant. Indeed, we must maintain righteous thoughts.

Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/node/145656