What Practitioners Watch and Read Is a Serious Matter

(Minghui.org) I felt that the New Year holiday was a good time to write about my own experiences. It is time to focus anew on letting go of attachments to a comfortable life, and everyday peoples’ television programs and websites, and to not read, listen, or talk about things that have nothing to do with cultivation or the three things.

During this final phase, all human attachments are nuisances that may prevent cultivators from succeeding in cultivation. This is my personal experience. I am writing about it to remind myself, and hopefully benefit other practitioners.

My Pursuit of Comfort Invited "Television Interference"

Before I started practicing Falun Dafa in 1996, I was not able to watch TV or read for 13 years. During childbirth I suffered with puerperal fever, which affected my eyes. Watching just a little TV or trying to read a newspaper caused my eyes to hurt, so I just stopped.

I subsequently began practicing Falun Dafa, and this condition was cured. I worked a lot, so I did not have time to watch TV or do other ordinary things. Because of this, I also did not read other practitioners' articles about “television interference,” because I did not think it had anything to do with me. Time proved me wrong.

Every Chinese New Year, Dafa disciples are busy trying to save sentient beings. But I recently slacked off, and my hidden attachments, including the pursuit of comfort, resurfaced.

During the Chinese New Year in 2013, I started watching a television drama series with my family. When the thought arose in me that I should not be watching, I reassured myself by saying that it was a period drama—just a presentation of happenings in the court palace, and nothing to do with the CCP. I told myself it should not be a problem.

When I first started watching the drama, I heard explosive sounds, like glass breaking, and I went look for the source of the sound out my window. My husband, who is not a practitioner, asked me why I kept looking out the window. I told him it was to find the source of the noise, but he said he heard nothing.

I didn't understand at the time that when cultivators spend precious time indulging in television and other attachments, this is being irresponsible to themselves as well as to sentient beings. It is self-destructive, and the sounds I heard may have been explosions in my own dimensional field.

For those few days, I was deep in my attachments, and I continued watching television. Unknowingly, I became immersed in the drama—which was full of lust and self-interest. At the same time, strange beings that were neither humans nor beasts appeared on the television screen. I continued to lie to myself, thinking that my vision was failing me. This eventually started happening more often.

Then one day one of these strange beings appeared, and I heard an eerie, deep voice, “You dare to barge into my kingdom. I’m going to pressure you for ten thousand years!” This went on repeatedly, and I felt I was entirely surrounded by monsters and ghosts. Finally, I stopped watching television.

There are no trivial matters in cultivation. “Watching TV” is not as simple as “I’m just going to watch today. I won't continue to watch this much after today.” The interference will come immediately.

I became unable to concentrate while studying the Fa, sending forth righteous thoughts, and doing the exercises, because my mind was full of scenes from what I had watched on TV. I was unable to suppress and eliminate them, and I then understood what Master said, “It is easier to invite an immortal than to see one off.” (Lecture Six from Zhuan Falun)

After a few months, I started to think about myself being in a scene where the emperor was choosing a concubine, and I was the concubine that the emperor chose. This phenomenon was like an animal possession, controlling and making my thoughts run astray like a wild horse, directly interfering with me doing the three things. This was an example of my human heart inviting demonic interference.

Understanding the Lust Behind Watching Television

I regretted this state and struggled to correct myself. I extended the time I read the Fa and sent forth righteous thoughts. I downloaded experience sharing articles from Fa conferences in different countries published on the Minghui website, as well as other experience sharing articles on Minghui, songs composed by Dafa practitioners, “Talking About Party Culture,” and theNine Commentaries on the Communist Party.

I studied the Fa and spent my time reading and listening to the Fa conference articles. I needed to stop the bad thoughts from entering my space. I persisted in reading Minghui articles every day, and I begged Master to help me overcome the tribulation.

One day, I stumbled upon a Minghui article, “Eliminate All Thoughts of Lust.” I read it a few times and thanked Master from the bottom of my heart for using another disciple’s article to remind me! This was exactly my problem. I downloaded more articles concerning sexuality and lust, and I felt awakened and cleansed. I saw that lust was behind many of my previous thoughts and actions.

I understood that if non-righteous factors were suppressed for long durations by my human heart, they would be molded into a “climate” by it. The evil forces will use them to distract and even destroy cultivators. Being in control of every single thought is indeed a very serious matter.

I also regretted not reading Minghui articles regarding lust in the past, just because I felt that I did not have that problem. This is an area where I fell behind. Actually, the experience sharing articles that have been compiled topically are very useful in ensuring that cultivators do not stray, and we should take them seriously.

Thinking back, although I only spent a few days watching television, I had to spend more than six months eliminating the interference, and overcoming this tribulation.

There were many distractions, and it affected my daily life. For example, six men from the tax revenue department barged into the office in my house, and without saying a word, they took away all the books (ordinary books), filling up two sacks. They also took away my hard disk drive. When asked by my family about it, they said, “Somebody reported you!”

I knew it was interference invited by my own watching of things that cultivators should not be watching (that is, television). I also realized the reasons that I watched TV were the pursuit of comfort, and beneath that, my attachment to lust and sentimentality. Soon after my realization, the men returned the books and hard drive.

3. Remembering Master’s Teaching

Master said:

“Since you are here among humans, what your eyes have seen and ears have heard include terribly filthy things from society. Do you know what it means to 'have heard' or 'have seen' something? It’s not what people think, where after you’ve viewed something, it’s over with if you didn’t take it with you; or when you’ve heard something but didn’t pursue it further, it doesn't matter. That’s not the case. All things are material. When you have heard something, it has been infused into you, and it enters your body. When you have seen something, it has entered.” (“Fa Teaching on World Falun Dafa Day”)

I recently read “Notice from Falun Dafa Association,” and I’ve corrected some of my own mistakes. I always thought that the websites managed by fellow practitioners were all “Dafa websites,” but now I am clear that there are only two Dafa websites: Falundafa.org and Minghui.org.

I also understand that no matter how the evil Party censors websites, the Minghui website has never been censored. Those practitioners who are not attached to reading everyday peoples’ news are able to read Minghui every day as if it were normal.

In the last lap, let us be in good control of what we hear or see, and cherish Minghui—the channel in which Dafa disciples share and exchange experiences. Let us save more people.

We cannot let down Master, who has been so merciful to extend every minute and second. We also need to live up to the expectations of sentient beings.