Discussing the Attachment to Gaining Merit through Achieving Some Goal and Focusing Only on Doing Work

By a Dafa Disciple in Mainland China

(Clearwisdom.net) It has come to my attention that some practitioners are busy doing Dafa work out of the attachment to gaining merit through achieving some goal, while some other practitioners do things out of the attachment to doing work. On the surface, these two types of practitioners might appear to be very busy doing Dafa work, but they are not doing things based on the right foundation, and their states of mind are not what Dafa practitioners should possess.

When one has the attachment to gaining merit through achieving some goal, his motive isn't pure, and it is based on selfness and the sense of self. There is an ulterior motive behind everything he does -- he wants to accumulate merit for himself. The following are things that this type of individual often does: whenever something comes up, he jumps up and grabs it. But he doesn't cooperate with other people and is jealous when others do things well, and it seems that he isn't as careful and meticulous as he should be when it comes to doing the actual Dafa work itself. That is because he places his own individual need above everything else. A person who wants to cultivate must completely eliminate the attachment to gaining merit through achieving some goal. When one does things out of this attachment, it is likely that he won't gain anything at all. It is just like Master Li said in his poem "Intentional Actions" from Hongyin, "Building temples and worshiping gods, truly busy, But not knowing intentional actions are only in vain; Foolish and lost, vainly dreaming of the road to the western paradise, Like blindly groping in night walk and scooping for the moon in water."

For a practitioner who has attachments to doing work, he does do things for the sake of Dafa. But because he is too busy doing things, he rarely studies the Fa and has neglected improving his own xinxing (mind nature). When it comes to doing things, it is possible that he might spend twice the effort while being able to accomplish only half the result. At the same time, it has also affected the progress that he has made toward assimilating to Dafa. In addition, it is highly likely that the evil is able to take advantage of the gaps that the practitioner has when it comes to his individual cultivation, and brings damage to Dafa. Therefore, we must keep in mind that we are Dafa disciples completing the majestic tasks of saving sentient beings and we are not everyday people doing Dafa work. At the same as doing Dafa work, we must also put emphasis on studying the Fa, cultivating our xinxing, and improving ourselves at all times.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/8/5/55146.html

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