PureInsight | December 2, 2002
Greetings, Master. Greetings, fellow practitioners.
I would like to take this opportunity to share some of my experience with the approaches we use in truth clarification. How we clarify the truth has a lot to do with the degree to which we understand the Fa. Every one of us has enlightened to certain levels in our cultivation. What I am going to say here may be better for you when you have more time and when you are with people you know. Master says in the essay "Validation," in Essentials for Further Advancement, that "Then, as a cultivator, you should make use of all feasible conditions to spread Dafa and validate Dafa as a correct and true science, rather than preaching or idealism—this is every cultivator's obligation. Without this enormous Buddha Fa there would be nothing—and this includes everything in the universe, from the most macroscopic to the most microscopic, as well as all of human society's knowledge. " I feel that if we can clarify truth to such an point that they develop deep respect for Dafa and not only just sympathize with us or feel we are pitiable, then when they talk to others later, they themselves will talk about the greatness of Dafa. What I am going to talk about involves my personal understanding of history, science, culture and religion. Some of it may not be very mature. I hope you will help me by pointing out my shortcomings.
In our clarifying the truth to others, one very frequently asked question is: "why are you persecuted?" I'd like to share some of my understanding from the perspective of the Fa.
Master said in "Lecture at the Conference in Europe" (Given in Frankfurt, Germany on May 30 & 31, 1998) that, "In order for anything to have a foothold in this world, to be able to hold up, and establish itself, there has to be a key factor: It has to form a field in this dimension, a field that's of material existence." What kind of a field did China have before 1949 when the Communist Party began its rule? Master mentioned in "Touring North America to Teach the Fa" (March, 2002)
that "When it arrived at this time period of the last five thousand years of China's semi-divine culture, a systematic normalizing of the human mind began so that it would be able to accept the Fa." Chinese culture began with Xuanyuan Huangdi (the first head of the tribes in China). Taoists call their philosophy "The Theory of Huang and Lao", in which "Lao" refers to Lao Zi while "Huang" is this Huangdi. In terms of the human history, Huangdi was 2500 years earlier than Lao Zi. In other words, ever since the first day of Chinese culture, it has been a culture centered around Taoist cultivation.
From the time of Han Wu Di, one of the most famous emperors in the Han Dynasty, Confucianism became dominant due to its advocacy by the emperor. After the Han Dynasty and the following short period of the Three Kingdoms, when South-North Dynasty began Buddhism was introduced to China. During the Sui and Tang Dynasty, Chinese culture developed greatly. The "May 4th Movement", which occurred after the Qing Dynasty, the last Dynasty, was overthrown, was a major blow to Confucianism, since they advocated "democracy" and "science" which were borrowed from the West. But it was basically "taking Chinese culture as the main body while making use of Western technology." So, for nearly 1800 years of history, Chinese people were immersed in the culture of Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism. Any average Chinese person knew about concepts such as "retribution" and "cultivation" and believed in them. If we take a look at Chinese traditional literature, no matter whether it is the one of the most highly regarded classical works of fiction from ancient China like "Journey to the West" (Written in the Ming Dynasty, it is the story of the Monkey King,) "A Dream of Red Mansions" (Written in the Qing Dynasty, it is the story of four aristocratic families falling from peak to trough), or "Three Kingdoms" (about the history of the Three Kingdoms) or so-called official history books such as "The Record of History" (one of the best China's history books, written in the Han Dynasty) or "The History of the Three Kingdoms," they have a lot to do with the concepts of cultivation. For example, "A Dream of Red Mansions" talks about predestined relationships; "History of Three Kingdoms" was about arrangements of history; while "Journey to the West" is purely a cultivation story. There are lots of relevant articles on PureInsight net, so I will not delve into too much detail.
Marxist theory was totally foreign to China. There was not a bit of basis for it and there was no field for it to be established there. In order to do that, a necessary thing to do was to destroy the field generated from the belief of Chinese people in Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. And that was to destroy traditional Chinese culture. Since 1949, after various movements like "criticism of theism", "criticism of Confucianism", "destroying the Old Four" (old thinking, old culture, old customs, and old habits), the "Cultural Revolution," and so on, the essentials of Chinese culture such as valuing virtue that the Taoists stressed, saving people as offered by Buddhism, and ren (good heartedness or tolerance) emphasized by Confucianism were all ruined. While, as it is commonly put in Chinese, "Only when something was destroyed could something else be set up", communist theory was established after all this damage to traditional Chinese culture. But the basis of this "field" is very weak.
The precondition for communist theory to be established in China was to thoroughly cut off Chinese people's roots in traditional Chinese culture. However, the emergence of Falun Gong hit just the right button here: it totally inherits the legacy of traditional Chinese culture and, even better than that, the number of people who practiced Falun Gong increased rapidly. The righteous field is strengthened by group practice of the exercises, experience-sharing conferences, talking to each other about it, and the like. Add in everyone's respect for Master and this field has gotten quite strong. In "Lecture on the Fa at the U.S. Midwest Conference" (given in Chicago on June 26, 1999), Master mentioned that "Mind and matter are one and the same." The situation, then, was similar to the process of eliminating thought karma, the righteous field became stronger and stronger till it threatened the existence of the foreign theory of communism. If we can explain why this persecution came about from this perspective, and help them see how it is destroying the best part of traditional Chinese culture, maybe we can elicit more understanding from others.
I saw several postings on Chinese internet forum websites that indicated misunderstanding of the profound meaning of Dafa. It seems that notions from science are one of the biggest barriers to people's coming to understand the truth. Let me tell you some of my experiences. I am a graduate student myself now and I know quite a few of them in my daily life. Their fields are in the natural sciences. So when I talked with them, I would usually begin with some common natural phenomena and my understanding of them from a scientific perspective. Then I would tell them how I came to understand these phenomena after my cultivation of Falun Gong. I feel this is an effective way to validate Dafa.
The paths taken by eastern and western sciences are quite different. In my opinion, it is like the differences between qigong and physical exercise, which I will discuss in a moment. First I would like to say something about my understanding of western empirical science. Any so-called epoch-marking progress in human civilization depends on breakthroughs in two aspects: one is the understanding of matter; the other is the command of energy. Apart from these two, any development can not be called science, but only technique. If this point is explained well, then ordinary people will understand why cultivation is the only right way.
An example I use quite often is: everyone knows paper is made from trees. We take it as common sense now. But if we think about this, we can see something much deeper: it actually involves the two aspects I just mentioned. First, man has to realize that the components of paper and wood are the same, both are made of the same thing. This is knowledge about matter. Then we have to have the necessary energy to take wood back into its original components and then arrange them as they are in paper, hence paper is made. This example only involves physical changes and not changes in the structure of the molecules, i.e., only changes in the arrangement order. If we can further our understanding of matter and mastering of energy, we can make chemical changes possible, i.e., to change the ordering of component atoms. For example, out of petroleum, we can produce rubber, plastic, or tar.
There are two examples with respect to energy that I often use. James Watt perfected the steam engine so it could be used for industrial applications. It was a big step in enabling humans to transform heat energy into mechanical energy efficiently. From then on, human history shifted from workshop manufacturing to large-scale mechanical manufacturing. When Michael Faraday's electromagnetism theory was applied, man was able to transform mechanical energy into electronic energy, and thus we entered the age of electronics.
Man cannot utilize energy more microscopic than the level of atom and cannot manipulate the material on those levels either. Otherwise, we could get whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. For example, if we realized what the common components of stone and gold are, and we had the energy to re-arrange them, we could have a "sorcerer's stone". Man cannot do this, though, and of course it has to do with the corruption of human moral standards. Man is not allowed to reach that high energy because he doesn't have the high moral standard required.
Western science has reached its peak so far, since the more microscopic the level, the more energy required to affect it. We all know that atomic energy is stronger than chemical energy. Even if we construct a particle accelerator as big as the solar system, it will have no way to accelerate the particles into a more microscopic level. Using current scientific methods, science has hit a dead end in regard to both matter and energy, hence the halting of the development of science.
The development of science could take some different path, such as cultivation from Chinese traditional culture. Then it comes to something related to the Fa. Western science takes the same path as physical exercises; both are "seeking outwards". The renovation of knowledge and technology are like the metabolism in physical exercises. It seems that it can sustain vigor, "maintaining strength and making improvements", always kept in "prime state" but, in actuality, it is depleting natural sources, and the costs are too high to keep it vigorous, let alone the cost in environmental and personal health.
Science in ancient China was very advanced. It took the path of "seeking inward" as in cultivation of qigong. For example, the human body is very delicate. Through cultivation, we can have our bodies in other dimensions developed or strengthened. If we want to utilize the energy in any specific dimension or see into the structure of matter in any specific level, we only need to do so via our body in that level. It is as convenient as using mechanical energy in this current dimension where we exist. Master said in his "Lecture on the Fa at the U.S. Midwest Conference" (given in Chicago on June 26, 1999), that, "So, the eye has a form of existence in each layer of particles. Cultivators will enable precisely that eye to work and to be connected to this human side. That's when you can see. This is talking about the Third Eye from another angle." This scientific method was also mentioned by Lao Zi in "Dao De Jing", only it was less clear. It says "Then we look at body using body, look at family using family, look at hometown using hometown, look at country using country, and look at the world using the world." Therefore, even though Chinese ancient science may not look as spectacular as modern western science on the surface, nor is it reflected in this dimension, it has created many precious mysteries that simply are beyond modern science. For example, Lu Ban (a famous craftsman living in Spring and Autumn / Warring States Period) made a wooden bird that could fly for three days as recorded in Mo Zi, a book written by Mo Zi, a famous philosopher of that time. ZhuGe Liang, a famous person in the Three Kingdoms period, could make mobile wooden horses and bulls and apply them in battles. What kind of energy was he using? We modern people simply cannot comprehend. Ancient Chinese people, however, knew.
I often use some well-known stories and tell people the real meaning behind them. A small story for example: Liu Bei, one of the kings in the Three Kingdoms period, overheard the playing of a yao qin (a type of ancient Chinese instrument) house when he happened to be outside of Mr. Shui Jing's place. After a little while, Mr. Shui Jing stopped playing and said to himself that "The playing sounded serene at first, and then there suddenly came some resounding score. Well, I guess there must be some heroes here listening to it." This story may sound incredible to non-cultivators. Actually the reason is simple. Why? The music in ancient times was called "five sounds." This has a corresponding relationship with the "five elements". People called their musical instrument "yao qin", implying that it was made according to the numbers in the small universe. From its playing one could get much more information than just musical melodies, for example, information about the five affairs, including "emperor, its court members, other people, their matters and affairs". In addition, the five elements also corresponded to the five organs in human bodies, human emotions, time, location or even colors. This is the real rule or principle behind various phenomena, which connects all these complicated and seemingly separate matters together. If you explain in this way, ordinary people may come to realize the profundity of cultivation and realize the shortcomings of western science.
Many Chinese immigrants in North America send their children to Chinese schools to have them learn Chinese. I feel Chinese people have a special love for Chinese culture. But today many don't know that the essence of Chinese culture is cultivation practice. To those who show their love for Chinese culture, I like to talk about how to understand our own culture from this point of view.
The lives of ancient Chinese people had many aspects related to cultivation--- they needed to look into fengshui when building a new house, check the Chinese calendar for good days for marriages, and go to see Chinese medical doctors when they fell ill. These three things have a lot to do with cultivation of the human body. When kids went to school, they studied the "four books and five scriptures", which taught how to cultivate one's virtue and maintain the perspective of the universe in ancient times. Even when they talked about battles and wars, the famous military books such as "San Lue," written by Huang Shigong, and another famous one called "Liu Tao," by Jiang Ziya, had Taoist authors.
Chinese history is something we Chinese all learn. Entertaining programs such as story telling or TV shows also talk about some stories from history. There is a very interesting thing in Chinese history: if we count from the Shang Dynasty, all of those advisors for the kings-to-be were Taoists, such as Jiang Ziya for the Zhou Dynasty, Zhang Liang for the Han Dynasty, Wei Zheng, Xu Maogong, Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng for the Tang Dynasty, Miao Guangyi for the Song Dynasty, and Liu Bowen for the Ming Dynasty. Many of them were great at prophecy, too For example, Yuang Tiangang and Li Chunfeng wrote Tui Bei Tu and Liu Buowen wrote Shao Bing Ge. The Yuan and the Qing Dynasties were ruled by minorities, but Cheng Ji Si Han who established the largest kingdom ever on earth had, from an early age, learned from a Taoist, Qiu Chuji. The emperors of the Qing Dynasty all believed in Lamaism, a type of Buddhism. Every one of us has read the North American Lecture Tours and you may have done some thinking on this, too. When I clarify the truth to ordinary people, I mention all of this and integrate in it with my own experience in practicing Falun Gong. In this way, people will usually sense the greatness of Dafa.
One classmate of mine initially didn't know about and wasn't interested in knowing about Falun Gong. She even thought it was ridiculous that I was reading Zhuan Falun. Once, I mentioned the point I was just making while chatting with her. I said "Look, Chinese culture is quite unique. The Spring and Autumn Period was known for 'Poems.' The Warring States Period was known for 'Chu Ci' (a type of poem, but in a more flexible format, indigenous to the Region of Chu, Hubei Province nowadays). The Han Dynasty was known for 'Fu" (another type of poem). The Jin Dynasty and the North/South Dynasty were known for Pian Wen. Then followed the Tang poems, the Song Ci, dramas of the Yuan Dynasty, and the novels of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. These make up a clear vein in the history of Chinese culture." She was interested at once and said "Hey, how come I never heard you talking about this before?" Then she became more interested in what I told her. Another colleague of mine was the same way. He would feel compelled to look for me and chat with me every couple of weeks. He often asked me things about Falun Gong. I thought they would love to listen to what I had to tell them. Once shown the greatness of the Fa, any living being would love to know about the truth, right?
All of these points are better for some relaxing occasions such as in casual chatting rooms. This is just for everyone's consideration. During the course of my clarifying truth to others, I felt many of them were quite rational and would like to do some thinking on the fundamental questions about life. If we could guide them to think in this way, that it would also be easier for them to understand Dafa.
Dafa created everything on the human level. Anything can be used at will by Dafa. I feel that if I cannot show the wisdom cultivated from Dafa to ordinary people around me, or I fail to help them realize the profundity and greatness of Dafa, that would definitely be cheating on my duty. The wisdom shown from Dafa is, by itself, part of the truth about Falun Gong. As for my classmates and colleagues, I feel this way is very powerful in clarifying truth with them.
What I just talked about is merely my personal understanding of history or culture. It is nothing compared with the great Buddha Fa Master teaches us. Due to time limitations and my cultivation experience, many things may be quite incomplete or even mistaken. I hope it is like "throwing out a brick in hope of attracting more jade".
So long. Thank you.
