PureInsight | September 13, 2004
[PureInsight.org] In "Lie Zi Shuo Fu" [Lie Zi: a book of philosophy written by Lie Yukou of the Chou Dynasty. It is considered a Taoist classic], there was the following fable: A person lost his axe. No matter how hard he tried to find it, he still couldn't find it. He suspected it was his neighbor's son who stole it. So he started to observe him in detail and felt that the way he walked and talked was just like he had stolen the axe. Even the expressions on his face and his actions all looked like he had stolen the axe. Several days later, he found his axe accidentally. He then remembered that he had left it there himself earlier. After he recovered the axe, when he looked at his neighbor's son again, he found that the young man's speech and actions were very normal. No matter how he looked at the young man, he couldn't figure out why he had been convinced earlier that the young man was a thief.
Why did the person who lost his axe have this delusion? It was because when he started to suspect his neighbor's son, the delusion gradually accumulated and later escalated. His mind formed a subjective impression of his neighbor's son that "He has stolen my axe." The impressions and notions of one's mind definitely affect related thoughts. So when he observed and analyzed the other person, he unconsciously connected the person to the impression and used it to explain the person's every single action. This resulted in his conclusion that he "looked like he stole my axe." This process took place in his mind. He did not realize that it was his impressions at work, so he regarded it as his own feelings. In other words, his "feelings" resulted in subjective impressions and not an objective judgment of reality.
In reality, there are a lot of cases that are similar to this kind of delusion. Almost everyone has come across them. They range from small things such as misunderstandings and biases among people, to greater things such as a whole society developing a collective delusion. Although there are various forms of delusion, essentially all of them are generated by being misled by prepossessed impressions and notions. For example, during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, many good patriotic people were wrongfully labeled as "Right-wingers" and "Capitalists", etc. Therefore, in the eyes of other people, every word and every action of these people seemed to be selfish, crafty, cunning, based on evil intentions, and "counter-revolutionary." The reason is because this kind of systematic mentality was at play. And at that time, crazy and irrational slandering through propaganda made a lot of people lose their own correct standard of judgment and made them use wrong perceptions to determine things.
Using the same concept to look at the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong, the continuous propaganda and implantation of ideas carried out by Jiang's regime has caused people's minds to be prepossessed and develop incorrect impressions. Just like when one sees things though a pair of dark sunglasses, everything will be covered with a layer of dark shadow. The consequences of this misleading will make people generate delusions against Falun Gong and Falun Gong practitioners. Also, people will misunderstand the righteous and unselfish actions of Falun Gong practitioners when they clarify the facts to the world. And this point, it blocks people from accepting and seeing the truth. Therefore, I hope you can calmly think about whether you are objective, prejudiced, and if the preconceptions in your mind are true or false. Do not let the vicious lies in your mind determine your judgment. Seriously and objectively listen to what Falun Gong practitioners say and take a look at what the reality in the world is. You will know what the genuine truth is. The fact is that neither rain nor danger has stopped Falun Gong practitioners from sincerely doing things that are for you to have a wonderful future.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2004/8/6/28553.html
