PureInsight | December 9, 2002
Before I obtained the Fa, I found fundamental conflicts between Chinese culture and human nature. The essence of Chinese culture is denying people. However, we live in the human world. We have to live with human nature and desires. I thought for sure that it was the inherent pain of being Chinese and I just couldn't find a way out. Every time I spoke of or saw various conflicts among Chinese personalities in society, I sighed, "old Chinese people."
After I obtained the Fa, I realized that this culture was developed to enable the Chinese to obtain the Fa, and make it easy for the Chinese to practice cultivation. Master also mentioned this in his lectures. Indeed, the superficial formality of Chinese traditional culture is largely consistent with the rules in the human dimension, according to Zhuan Falun. A person who has preserved Chinese traditional culture within will find it easier to obtain the Fa.
However, Chinese culture has an effect in other ways. It imposes strict requirements and expectations on people. Those who cannot meet these requirements are not accepted by the society. People in Chinese culture are more likely to treat others judgmentally. They tend to lack good communications skills, tolerance and mutual understanding. This has functioned as a severe hurdle in our Fa-rectification work and has caused divisions among practitioners.
Before I came to America, a fellow practitioner in Europe had trouble with the Chinese embassy in her country. The embassy refused to issue a passport for her child because the practitioner went to appeal in China. Something about this fellow practitioner really touched my notions. In ordinary people's words, I didn't like her. I didn't treat her tribulations as my own. I didn't treat the issue as a tribulation for Dafa practitioners as a whole. At that time, many practitioners shared the same view as I. As a veteran practitioner, I influenced other practitioners making it so that we didn't consider this issue rationally. As a result, this fellow practitioner's problem took a long time to resolve. This caused losses to our local government work and truth-clarification activities.
Looking back, we used characteristics we inherited from the semi-divine Chinese culture to evaluate other people. This conformed perfectly to an arrangement of the old universe: the more karma one has, the more difficulties one has to endure. This is similar to what Master taught about old evil forces using practitioners' attachments in order to intensify their so-called test. I have found that in many areas, Dafa disciples who have obvious personality problems are experiencing tribulations due to their participation in Fa-rectification. This is in fact a test of all Dafa disciples. How do other practitioners treat the tribulations these practitioners experience, especially when these practitioners are people with whom we don't get along with well? How clearly we understand such issues shows the cultivation level and Fa-rectification progress of an entire region.
I have read Master's lecture, "Touring North America to Teach the Fa," many times. Master said, "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. Although the principles in the human dimension are reversed, the Great Fa of the cosmos is upright."
Master also said, "When I teach the Fa, the inner meanings of the Fa-principles, the words, and the ways it's expressed are heard differently at different levels above the Three Realms, but the Fa-principles are still consistent throughout. The different realms that different beings have elevated to account for the differences─they aren't misaligned. If I taught one way here among humans and another way in the heavens, think about it, this Fa wouldn't be all-encompassing─and we can't have that─because in the Fa-rectification the Fa taught here among humans has to correspond to the entire cosmos. When I teach the Fa, the me's at level after level are teaching the Fa, too, and sentient beings at level after level are listening to the Fa."
Master mentioned in "Dafa Is All-Encompassing," "Human society is also a level created by the Dafa, so within this level there are bound to be standards of existence that the Fa has at this level for sentient beings, as well as principles for human conduct at this level. However, the Three Realms are the reverse of everything in the cosmos, so the Fa's principles have also provided beings at this level with reversed principles suitable for the existence of everyday people, such as conquering the world with military force, the victor governing the country, acquiring food by killing, the strong being heroes, and so on. Along with concepts of a good person, a bad person, war, etc., all of these things have given rise to ordinary humans' principles and human understandings. All of these are wrong when judged by the righteous Fa-principles at high levels in the cosmos. So a cultivator needs to let go of all the notions and principles of everyday people, and only then can he cultivate to a high level and break out of the Three Realms, the reverse of the cosmos. But if everyday people also reverse all these understandings and use the righteous Fa-principles of high levels in the cosmos to set requirements for and evaluate humankind or everything in the Three Realms, then the Three Realms would be governed by the righteous Fa-principles, human society would cease to exist, and the human condition would no longer be there, either; it would be a world of Gods, and, along with this, human illusions and the opportunity for humans to cultivate would disappear. That isn't allowed to happen, because high-level beings' garbage has to drop down, and human society is the garbage dump of the cosmos. For the beings here to exist, there has to be a way of existence for this level, which is also requirements and conditions for existence that Dafa created for the sentient beings here."
In order to arrange Dafa practitioners to obtain the Fa, the old evil forces spent 100 million years to systematically normalize today's human mentality. As Teacher said, "In history, there were also different schools of thought, and there were also the concepts of benevolence, yi, propriety, learning, trustworthiness, and so on, that Confucius set forth with his teaching of the golden mean." (From "Touring North America to Teach the Fa")
Mutual-generation and mutual-inhibition have gone to extremes due to the degeneration of the cosmos. In addition, the physical environment on the Earth is the reverse of the upright Fa principles of the universe. Dafa disciples entered cultivation practice with notions created and accumulated through millions of years. Inevitably, we use the same set of notions to judge others and to restrain ourselves. These notions govern our external pursuits. We even alter the profound meaning of Dafa to comply with our rigid notions. This, in fact, reflects the deterioration of the universe on the Earth. In many ways, these notions inhibit our understanding of the real meaning of the Fa.
This is the challenge of Fa-rectification cultivation. Previous cultivation ways had little to do with human society. After beginning cultivation, practitioners would leave human society. There was no issue of cultivating with righteous Fa principles in the midst of human society. Master said in Zhuan Falun, "Our school of practice is the most convenient, as one can practice it among everyday people instead of becoming a monk or nun. It is also most difficult because of this, as one will practice cultivation in this most complex environment of everyday people." (Chapter 8," Whoever Practices Cultivation Will Attain Gong") By diligently looking inward, we can cultivate away the deep-seated mechanism of external pursuit in our minds. By doing this, we will be able to turn the tables and use the old evil forces' arrangement instead.
After I realized this principle, I broke through the old evil forces' arrangement in my mind in this regard. At the same time, I also made use of this arrangement. On the one hand, I cherish more the meanings of Chinese culture. It was very helpful to understand from the Fa the real meaning and deeper implications of Confucius' benevolence, yi, propriety, learning, and trustworthiness. I also used my understanding of ancient culture, especially ancient Chinese culture, to spread the Fa and clarify the truth. On the other hand, we need to clearly recognize that ancient Chinese culture is a semi-divine culture. It is for cultivation. It is not for imposing requirements on people about how to live as humans. Ordinary people live according to the rules in human society. This is the correct position of human beings.
I no longer use the notions I acquired in this culture to judge people and fellow practitioners. Not even a thought. I try my best to purify my thoughts. I ask myself to treat others with immense tolerance, compassion, and understanding. Through sending forth righteous thoughts and Fa study, I feel that I am truly capable of breaking through the old evil forces' arrangements. This is the immense, divine power Master's Fa has bestowed upon us. Only through these means can we break through the old arrangements.
Recently, I saw an example of breaking through the old forces' arrangements in the Washington, DC area. A practitioner went to a restaurant to spread the Fa. The manager of the restaurant gave him a hard time. This restaurant has very close ties with the Chinese embassy. The manager refused to serve the practitioner lunch and even called the police. The practitioner was arrested and faced prosecution. At the time, some practitioners thought that the practitioner didn't handle the situation very well and invited trouble. When we discussed this during Fa study, our group understanding was clear that we should support the practitioner's overall behavior. Although the practitioner had some omissions, we could not allow the old evil forces to take advantage of them. We decided to form a special team to clarify the truth to the police and to help the practitioner in various ways. Everyone had his or her heart in the right place and the issue was quickly resolved. The police decided to withdraw the charges and the case was dismissed.
If we didn't understand this from the principles of the Fa, it would be impossible for us to break away from a self-centered, human mentality. I saw that there were still many fellow practitioners who didn't realize this. They are still doing Fa-rectification work and evaluating people and fellow practitioners with notions inherited from the semi-divine culture. This causes divisions among practitioners. Ordinary people don't understand us. The evil staged events such as the "self-immolation" to deceive people. In fact, all of this is cultivating within the framework of old evil forces' arrangements. We haven't eliminated those arrangements.
The trial of Hong Kong practitioners is another example. The event started in April. It dragged on for a long time because of differing opinions and conflicts among practitioners. Today, Hong Kong is facing the restrictive legislation of Statute No. 23 in the Basic Law. In fact, this is another test of the whole body.
If we rid ourselves of notions learned from the Chinese semi-divine culture and don't use those notions to judge others, we will understand others. The impact of truth clarification will increase. We will say things according to the other party's state of mind. We will be formless like water. A river adapts to the shape of the earth. Water assumes the shape of a cup when it's in a cup, the shape of a bottle when it's in a bottle. Master said, "Especially under this circumstance, if I do not tell the truth in teaching the Fa, if I make inconceivable statements, or if I speak aimlessly and casually, I will be teaching an evil Fa." (From Zhuan Falun) I realized that this sentence, for cultivators in high-level dimensions, is very profound.
It is true wisdom to handle human and societal issues from the standpoint of Fa-rectification and to evaluate situations without personal opinions or preferences.
Whenever I read Master's Fa late at night, I really feel that no one can change today's people. The factors that constitute life are no longer pure. Immeasurable gratitude to our Master and righteous belief in Dafa rise in my heart. When I gained a deeper understanding of how the old evil forces function, how we can break through their arrangements, and how Master is using all of this to rectify the Fa, I experienced peaceful streams of joy and contentment. Human languages are truly inadequate to describe the profound meanings of Dafa.
