Looking Within and Seeing Things Take a Turn for the Better

I have been practicing cultivation for more than 10 years. It is because Teacher has always lifted me up at critical moments that I am here today. I would like to share my understanding of looking within.

Looking within is a magical tool for cultivating ourselves during the process of cultivation, and is something Teacher has been emphasizing. Every Dafa practitioner should do it. However, when it comes to specific issues, there are different ways of handling them. When encountering a problem, some people unwittingly look outward first before looking within. Looking within to cultivate oneself is unconditional. When the coordination of fellow practitioners is not very good when we validate the Fa, and we cannot let go of our attachments or make a breakthrough, that's the best time to look within. We will then discover that it is attachments that are blocking us from making a breakthrough. When we are free of attachments, our minds will be instantly broadened and brightened. We will really feel as if "after passing the shady willow trees, there will be bright flowers and another village ahead."

In my experience of doing the three things (clarifying the truth about the persecution of Falun Gong in China, sending righteous thoughts and studying the Fa), I have come to realize that looking within can eliminate the gaps among fellow practitioners. Here in our area, two practitioners and I often get together to discuss things. I'm the one who joined the group last, while the other two have been practitioners for a very long time. Usually they get along very well. Sometimes they have differences and handle things differently because they have a different understanding of the Fa (the teachings of Falun Gong) or different issues. This is actually normal. Because of my attachments, I often felt awkward. If I agreed with one, I feared the other would be irritated. I therefore did not express my opinions or sacrificed my principles when I mediated their differences. I feared that it would affect our validating the Fa and improving our Xinxing (heart and mind nature/ character). However, the more I handled things that way, the more they behaved like that in front of me. My mind was unsettled, and I experienced interference when I studied the Fa.

Through studying the Fa, I reflected on myself and saw that I also had some problems. I was afraid to offend others, and I had a selfish mindset of protecting myself from being hurt. I did not try to harmonize things based on the standpoint of the Fa. I did not check to see who was in accordance with the Fa or what was good for validating the Fa. Instead, I was trying to be a peacemaker. When I found my attachment, the phenomenon gradually diminished. It turned out that it was my attachment that was making it happen. Thereafter, we became more steadfast on the path of doing the three things.

I have a son and a daughter, as well as a grandson and granddaughter. When they visit me every Sunday, I cook for them, and I am busy for half the day. I also have to clean up after they leave. I am happy to do this, of course, but one day when guests visited our home, my granddaughter said in front of everyone, "In my family, my grandpa is good. My grandmother is not so good." This statement made me feel very bad. I thought to myself that I had made sacrifices and did a lot of work, yet I was not good in her eyes. I felt that she had made me lose face and I felt uneasy because she had said it in front of others.

Why did it happen? Whatever a cultivator encounters is not accidental or without reason. Was it because I had attachments that I had not relinquished? It turned out that it was, because I was so attached to my children and grandchildren. Plus, I had the vanity of saving face, which is an attachment that I had not gotten rid of.

Teacher said,

"Those who are attached to affection for family will definitely be burned, entangled, and tormented by it. Pulled by the threads of affection and plagued by them throughout their lives, they will find it too late to regret at the end of their lives." ("Cultivators' Avoidance" in Essentials for Further Advancement)

When I thought about it, my mind instantly opened up. I felt happy about finding and eliminating this attachment. Then I heard my son reprimanding my granddaughter because he worried that I would be mad. I smiled and said, "That's okay. My granddaughter is helping me eliminate my attachments." After I said that, everyone laughed and the tension was gone.

The above are my experiences of looking within. I also deeply realize that in order to cultivate ourselves, we must look within. This is not something that we just say. It is something we need to put into action. Otherwise, we will stay at the same level, and if we don't forge ahead, we'll surely fall behind.