I Have Found the True Science

Puzzled with questions like “Could Darwin’s Theory of Evolution be possibly wrong? Haven’t humans evolved from apes?” I held on to the curiosity about the human body, life and the universe, and also my quest in the pursuit about the truth of the universe. I have earned one degree after another, from a bachelor’s degree in biology to a master’s degree in physiology and eventually an M.D. degree. Searching agonizingly in scientific and religious fields, I could not find satisfactory answers. Finally one day I fortunately got to know Falun Dafa, and since then I have “boarded the boat of the Law of True Science.”
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When I was a child I often sat alone in the middle of our courtyard, staring into the midsummer sky, thinking: “Where did life come from? Are there any lives among the stars?” Maybe it was because of this curiosity I had toward life, the human body and the universe that I chose to study biosciences when I entered college. In college, Darwin’s Theory of Evolution told us “humans have evolved from apes.” One day in class, a senior professor who was a well-known authority on evolution, commented with a sigh: “I have studied the theory of evolution my whole life. Yet, one day I visited a church by chance and felt that what is said in religions is reasonable …” I thought in my mind: “Could Darwin’s Theory of Evolution possibly be wrong? Is it true that humans have evolved from apes?” Soon, this senior professor who had become ill suddenly passed away. His sighed comment had become his last lecture. The incident has left a profound impression on me and those specific questions have often occupied my mind.

The following are my true experiences I would like to share with you. Maybe we will experience some resonance in our hearts.

1. I have found the fundamental Law of the Universe – the Buddha Fa

I remember that one day in 1981, I suddenly felt that there seemed to be an invisible and intangible, however irresistible energy permeating the universe. Ever since then I had wanted to get to know these invisible and intangible worlds. I didn’t know what a meaning these worlds would have for me, and knew even less why an invisible world seemed like it could know everything about me. Faced with it, I felt insignificant and powerless. Therefore I followed my instinct, as if I wanted to catch up with this fateful guidance. My motto for life, or my pet phrase, was “let nature take its course and follow predestined relationships.” Following this guideline, seemingly by chance I have always encountered good people who had become my helping hands at critical moments, and there were often mystical things happening. For instance, my dreams always told me in advance when major events were going to happen at my home, although I studied at a place far away. Sometimes I could feel these mystical forces during the daytime, too. Things I foresaw or dreamed the day before they occurred would actually take place. I also often dreamed of flying about in the sky. Some of the people around me envied me these magical properties. They said things such as “it means that I wouldn’t need a visa to go abroad.” Some people made fun of me, saying that I was an alien visitor. While some others did not understand me, wondering how a person engaged in scientific studies could talk about such topics. However, as these kinds of real experiences became stronger and more and more frequent, I came to recognize more and more the existence of God and revered God. However, all these were not acceptable in my then-present field of empirical science. I felt psychological oppression and constraint in my thoughts. As a person engaged in research on the phenomenon of life, I felt distressed at not being able to explain the phenomena happening in my own life. In 1991, while visiting Shanghai and doing a project for my master’s degree, I asked someone on the street for directions. The woman who gave me directions turned back and asked: “Do you believe in God?” I said: “Yes, I do.” She said: “Do you want to go to church?” I said: “Yes, I do.” In this way, I was introduced to formal religion. After I came to Japan in 1993, I have had opportunities to get to know different religions, but it was a pity that they all disappointed me. While they outwardly claimed that fame, personal interest and sentimentality were things external to the self, in their inner hearts they still prayed to God for power and fortune. I wondered why that was. While they were aware of their own mistakes, why did they beg God to bear the consequences of their own actions and went so far as to sit by and repeat those mistakes? Could one really go to the heaven in the next life by just waiting passively in this life? I found it hard to understand. During that time I met a Canadian doctor of theology who was called a personal prophet, and he said: “God has said to you that you have been seeking for something. Actually, what you are seeking for all this time is the truth of the universe.” Upon hearing this I thought that I had already discovered this on my own. Where was the truth of the universe? Since that incident I have given up religion and turned to Zhuangzi, hoping that he could point out a path for me to go beyond myself. However I was still lost. A Japanese teacher who knows me very well said to me: “Li Rui, wasn’t the prediction that Canadian prophet gave you good enough? What else do you want to have? Please don’t seek further for the truth.” But at that time I couldn’t get this thought out of my mind.

Miracles happen when the heart is sincere. When I was looking everywhere and couldn’t be satisfied, in 1998 I fortunately got to know Falun Dafa. For the first time I knew that the universe has a Fa and this Fa is “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.” The fundamental Fa of the universe, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, creates all living beings in the universe. In order to return to the realm where one’s life was created, one has to assimilate to the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and truly cultivate one’s inner self. Teacher Li Hongzhi has written in Zhuan Falun that: “… All things and matter in this universe are an aspect of material existence. However, it also has the characteristic of Zhen-Shan-Ren at the same time. Any tiny particle of matter bears such a characteristic.” (From “Zhen-Shan-Ren Is the Sole Criterion to Judge Good and Bad People” in Lecture One of Zhuan Falun) “All matter in the universe, including all substances that saturate the universe, are living beings with minds, and they are all the existing forms of the universe’s Fa at different levels.” (From “Why Doesn’t Your Gong Increase with Your Practice?” in Lecture One of Zhuan Falun) and “Actually, the universe is in essence composed of energy.” (From “Preaching the Law at Lantau Island” of Zhuan Falun (II)) I finally realized what that invisible and intangible world means to me and why there were those magical phenomena occurring. When I first read this text that Teacher Li said in “Teaching the Fa in San Francisco” in Lectures in the United States that “Actually, the origin of matter is water. The water that’s the origin of the cosmos is not everyday people’s water on Earth” and “But I can tell you that at different levels there exist different origins of matter—in other words, different waters as origins of matter.” (From “Teaching the Fa in San Francisco,” April 6, 1997 in Lectures in the United States), I began to cry like a gushing spring. All that time I had been puzzled why I have such a liking for water, and I didn’t know the reason. When people ask me what I like best, I often answer, “It’s water.” I often stare at water in a daze and feel excitement and liking for it with no reason. When I graduated with an Master’s Degree, I contacted universities and research institutes in 50 cities located on a body of water, trying to find an environment near water where I could live and work in peace and joy. Thinking about it now, this might be a kind of affection for life at its origin. It is a helpless feeling when longing to return without knowing the path. My whole being, spiritually and physically, and my whole life were shocked by this Fa at the time I got to know the Fa.

2. The Buddha Fa Is True Science

Modern science has made progress in unveiling the mysteries of water. Not long ago I was lucky to find an illustrated scientific research report about water crystals, (http://www.rainbowjaguars.com/hadoindex.html) issued by the IHM General Research Institute. [Note: when a water molecule crystallizes, pure water becomes a pure crystal.] I was thrilled and touched by their research findings. The water was exposed to music, words, and human thoughts, and the responses were captured on film. For instance, researchers would expose water crystals to music with graceful and unusual as well as encouraging words written on paper, such as “Love” or “Thanks,” and degrading words, such as “Disgusting” or “I will kill you!” The groups of crystals exposed to graceful lyrics and encouraging words formed beautiful, hexagon-shaped water crystals while others failed to form any crystal at all. Crystals of distilled water, when moved next to a TV or a computer, broke up, yet others labeled with “Love” and “Thanks” remained almost as beautiful. Distilled-water crystals also formed beautiful hexagon-shapes when shown benevolent TV programs such as the “Mysteries of Life.” The researchers, hence, maintained that love and appreciation were foundations of life, and that messages of any unkind nature aren’t part of the universe, which made it difficult for the water crystals to accept messages of an unkind nature. The researchers also believe that water is the origin of life, and if one does not regard water as a unique form of life, one will not be able to interpret any phenomenon of life.

Obviously I believe there exists another world where everything is intangible and invisible in our domain, but still I was amazed by the intangible and invisible phenomena of water, which vividly manifested themselves before my eyes. I suppose I’d be even more shocked if I were someone who only believed in the existence of tangible and visible things.

Then I began to ponder why these researchers were blessed with an opportunity to witness the phenomena of life invisible to the human eye, and to see the truth in the universe. Was it the exquisite equipment they had used? Was there any special technique that they applied? Or was it attributable to their dedicated efforts? The answer is, none of the above. The author shared his thoughts in his report, “In hindsight, it gave me cold sweat to think that we should be able to capture ANY water crystals on film with that kind of laboratory environment.” The technical assistant expressed a similar opinion, “There is nothing to the technique that we used. Any high school student can capture the phenomena with the right equipment.” What’s the secret of their success for this significant discovery then? I felt that it must have been their hearts that did the work. From reading the report I felt they have shown respect toward water; they did not just regard it as distilled water, and regarded water with respect. They tried to perceive what messages the water tried to convey, realizing that water was showing mankind the correct mentality to live by. They also displayed faith in their water crystal research and because of their mentality during their work the phenomena of life and the truth of universe manifested themselves to these researchers. I came to understand that this was an expression of compassion and majesty from the universal Fa.

As a scientist who passionately explores the mysteries of life and is engaged in revealing the truth of the universe, I should begin to re-evaluate the basis for my research. It becomes evident that my perspective toward my work apparently will be critical to the success of my subsequent research.

I’d like to share with you my experiences of exploration in field of science.

I am a linguistics researcher in bird language. I had chosen this area because I wanted to communicate with birds. To follow the empirical science approach, proof-based science, I came up with the following research plan: in order to talk to birds, I need see the inside a bird’s head. In other words, I needed to kill birds so that I could find ways to talk to them. As a Falun Gong practitioner, obviously I have a completely opposite view now. Master Li said, “If when your Tianmu reaches Fa Eyesight level, when you go out the door, once the door opens you’ll see that even rocks and walls will speak with you, will greet you.” (From “Answering Questions at the Lecture in Zhengzhou” in Explain the Fa of Zhuan Falun) I think only when one has arrived at a higher level of Compassion will birds begin to converse with you. However, we scientists think differently. Birds refuse to communicate with us, so we continue to kill birds until we learn how to communicate with them. Because similar research was being conducted in many other scientific fields, we felt quite “at ease” in killing birds. Underlying that ease, however, lays a struggle with natural compassion.

My research involved injecting birds with a drug, a substance that would display the language center of birds on film, which allowed us to study their cognitive functions. The discovery would be used to reveal the secrets of human languages. An hour of live injection was a torture to both the birds and me. Even though the birds had been anesthetized before being given the drug, often times they would still be eyeballing me. I avoided eye contact and chanted silently, “I am sorry. I am so sorry. I really do not want to hurt you or kill you…” At the time I had not begun cultivation of Falun Dafa, therefore I did not know killing generated karma. However, I often asked my laboratory advisors why we had to kill these birds and if we would eventually be punished for the crime. One advisor replied, “Stop right there. Conversations like this would only make it more difficult for me to kill the birds.” Another one said, “I never teach parrots to speak because I am afraid they might cry for help in Chinese when I kill them.” Perhaps it was to sooth the souls of the researchers that there was a yearly day of worship when we would bring the ashes of birds to the temples for soul-freeing rituals.

I was not sure if the subsequent occurrence was a coincidence or predestined, but I was diagnosed with upper jaw disease, which required removal of my right eye as a cure. How could I live without my right eye! The right eye was a necessity during the birds’ drug injections, the very eye that was referred to as “the eye of measurement” by my research advisors. I was in agony beyond description. I suspected that God was taking my right eye because I took the lives of those birds. A week later the doctor changed his mind, and decided to keep the right eye but began surgery to remove cancerous tissue. I felt fortunate to keep my right eye. It was not until I began cultivation of Falun Gong that I finally realized why it had to be my right eye. Master Li said in Zhuan Falun, “Yet there is no sub-channel below this eye (the right eye) because it is related directly to the Fa. People tend to use the right eye to commit wrongdoing; so no sub-channel exists below the right eye.” I could completely correlate his words to my case! When I first heard the diagnosis I imagined that there might be two reasons why I was afflicted with the disease. First, God would take my right eye because I took the lives of those birds. Second, cancer-promoting drugs used in research could have had a negative impact on my health. I shared this suspicion with my research advisor who did not accept the first reason, so he replaced the drug with a mild one. Later during chemotherapy I really felt what those birds must have felt during drug injections. I was tied up to horrible-looking equipment during chemotherapy. The scene was almost identical to when I gave birds drug injections. I thought to myself during this therapy, “And you thought those birds did not understand that they were being murdered. You never knew that the birds understood exactly what they were going through, just as you are now.”

Shortly after the surgery I was fortunate enough to acquire the Fa. I wish I had acquired the Fa before the surgery. I am confident that I would have been cured without any surgery. I felt the existence of the Fa through my cultivation. Yet the Fa can be merciful and stern and at the same time be compassionate. Unlike the water crystal researchers, we had never based our research on “compassion”. Consequently, we have never been granted the answers we pursued. Moreover, both the researchers and the subjects of research had become the victims of empirical science. Since then I have always wanted to share my understanding with more people, an understanding I acquired for exchange of my own life, hoping that they would assimilate themselves to the characteristics of the universe and hoping that they would respect the Fa and Gods.

I began sharing my understanding with my research advisor. He listened to me with interest, although he could only partially accept what I said. That night I had a dream, where I stood behind the podium with a student, demonstrating a biological experiment, and my advisor was sitting with a group of students in the audience. When we mixed transparent liquid from two tubes, the color of the liquid began to change. The audience yelled out “Excellent!” until an offending smell came out of the tube and permeated the entire room. The students now yelled, “Peeuuu! What a disgusting stench!” I remained behind the podium and looked at my advisor gravely, “This is the result of proof-based, Western science.” The next day I shared my dream with my advisor and asked for his feedback. “Very meaningful,” he said. Sometime later we had lunch together at the cafeteria when he told me that he had read a new scientific publication from the U.S. about cloning. American scientists were capable of cloning a dying pet, belonging to a rich pet owner, using only one of the pet’s cells. He added, “If you are dying, we can now retrieve a cell of yours right away to clone another you who will take over the research.” Then he paused as if he suddenly realized something important. And she said gravely, “Science would be horrible if we are really capable of that.”

In April of 1999 I began my Ph.D. study at another graduate school. As a result, I no longer performed any research with this advisor, although we still called each other sometimes. In August 2000 I had a dream where an animal crawled around in blood, and then my former advisor appeared, standing there red-eyed, telling me the red eyes were caused by something in his blood. I could not understand what this could possibly mean and did not put much thought to it, for my advisor had always been very healthy. Two weeks later I called him at school, only to find that he was hospitalized. The news was too abrupt to me. When I asked her colleagues about the cause for her illness, I was told it was leukemia. Then I thought of the dream, which had come true! Two weeks later I had another dream where several of my professors had dinner together after finishing the experiments, and we toasted a wish for a new life for my former advisor. Upon awakening from my dream I knew that my former advisor would recover from leukemia for he was predestined to acquire the Fa. I brought a copy of Zhuan Falun and the Falun Gong videotapes when I visited him in the hospital. He expressed his interest in these Dafa materials. Several months later he got out of the hospital. He shared with me his encounter with death, and his vision of people in another dimension eliminating black substances for him. He also felt what birds must have felt because the therapy he had gone through had a striking similarity to the process of administering drugs to birds. As for cultivation, he expressed his respect toward the spirit of “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance” that Falun Gong promotes. He agreed that Falun Dafa would genuinely guide people toward high levels. On the other hand, he said that he did not have the time for cultivation for he had many unfinished research projects to work on. I knew I had not done my job in explaining the true meaning of cultivation. I also knew that he had put cultivation in an opposing position relative to science and that he believed in science more than anything else. The truth is that cultivation can become part of your daily life. All it requires of you is to cultivate your mind according to the three principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. It is open to people from all walks of life. Besides, Falun Gong cultivation will not conflict with science. Wouldn’t it be nice if a scientist who abides by Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance could benefit mankind and help guide society?

The September 11, 2001 terrorism attacks in the U.S. struck my former advisor with disbelief. Once we had a phone conversation when he declared, “The world has completely gone out of balance now.” “The root cause was the degeneration of moral values,” I said. He agreed. Then I added, “If everyone highly regards virtues, and everyone tries to get along with one another based on Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, the world will surely be in peace and joy.” “Yes, but it is very challenging to have everyone cultivate their mind.” I replied, “Nowadays human society is completely dependent on science. Everyone only believes in science. If this goes on, in the future advanced scientists like you may very likely lead societies. Therefore, we should regard it as our responsibility and scientific mission to lead society toward a correct path.” He immediately echoed my thoughts, “Well said! We scientists, more than anyone else, should emphasize moral values.” I was very pleased that my former advisor and I began to find common ground on this subject.

Once I was an invited as a guest at Christian friend’s home whom I asked, “Do you believe more in science or in religion?” She replied, “I have more faith in science. Humans made God made up for “spiritual consolation.” Science, on the other hand, brings tangible progress to human civilizations whereby mankind can live a comfortable, modern life.” I was shocked to learn that they actually believed more in science instead of their God. No wonder that the Vatican agreed with Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. Just then the newspaper arrived. She exclaimed in disbelief upon reading an article in the newspaper. It was a report about a research institution where scientists were working on solutions to environmental pollution and took sperm from executed inmates in order to study environmental hormones. The families of more than 300 inmates had filed charges against that institution. My friend sighed, “They wouldn’t even let the dead rest in peace. Modern science just does not know where and when to stop!”

I had chosen to study science because I was interested in the human body, life, and the universe, and wanted to explore the mysteries of life and the truth of the universe. Since I had acquired the Fa, I have realized that the Fa is the true science, and that the ideology of science had its limits. Because of these limitations, science led to the corruption of human moral values, which will further limit the ideology of science, and so forth. Because proof-based science does not have the capability of recognizing sub-microscopic substances, it does not know or believe that doing bad deeds generates a black substance, known as karma, which brings tribulations, and that doing good deeds generates a white substance called virtue, which brings good fortune. Because science cannot verify the existence of any of these, it allows itself to be developed away from moral values. It is very dangerous to continue with this line of development. Genuine science is for mankind to recognize the truth of the universe and to explain the phenomena of life through our true nature. In other words, mankind should acquire the truth of the universe through continuous cultivation, during which we will be able to perceive, understand and learn the characteristics of the universe. Because Falun Dafa guides people according to the characteristics of the universe, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, practitioners progress very quickly when they continue to assimilate themselves to nature and unveil their true nature. Therefore, the universe will continue to manifest the truth to these practitioners. The ultimate reward, if translated into cultivation terms, would be to acquire the “Fruit Status” a practitioner is entitled to; conversely, putting it in scientific language, the rewards for scientific achievements that a scientist is entitled to.

What makes research results acquired during Fa-cultivation so different from those based on empirical science? I think it depends on what his research is based on that makes the difference. The former approach, when cultivating in the Fa, is based upon Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance while the latter steers away from considering virtue. The former approach believes that everything in the world has life and that “matter and mind are one thing,”(From “Why Doesn’t Your Gong Increase with Your Practice?” in Lecture One of Zhuan Falun.) therefore, they regard everything as perceptible. The latter approach denies everything intangible and invisible. In addition, the former approach seeks inward while the latter seeks outward. In the end, the latter approach expands its research in breadth while the former approach in depth. Many people know that Zhang Guolao, one of the Eight Deities, rode backward on his donkey. But why did he wish to ride backward on his donkey? He discovered that going forward is moving backward, so he rode the donkey the other way around.

As a scientist I share the same enthusiasm with my fellow scientists for the exploration of mysteries of life and the truth of the universe. We all yearn for more insight into the truth of life and the universe. If only we could base our research on the characteristics of the universe, Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance, the future before us is guaranteed to be beautiful.

“The Buddha Fa can save mankind, but it is not for the salvation of human beings that the Buddha Fa came into existence. The Buddha Fa can unravel the mysteries of the universe, life, and science. It enables mankind to resume the correct path in science, but it is not for the guidance of mankind’s science that the Buddha Fa has been brought forth. The Buddha Fa is the nature of the universe. It is the factor that created the origin of matter, and it is the reason for the genesis of the universe. In the future there will then be many experts and scholars whose wisdom will be broadened through the Buddha Fa. They will become the new mankind’s pioneers in different fields of learning. Yet it is not for you to become a pioneer that the Buddha Fa has given you wisdom. You have attained it because you are a cultivator. That is, you are first a cultivator and then an expert.” (From “Validation” in Falun Dafa “ Essentials for Further Achievements.”)

As a Falun Dafa practitioner I will continue to make every effort to enhance my xinxing (mind set/moral nature) as the Fa requires of me. Meanwhile I will cherish the wisdom I have acquired from the Fa, and share my research findings with the world.

“This book, Zhuan Falun, has already shaken the scientific and technological community the world over!” (From Lecture at the Conference in Europe, May 30 and 31, 1998, in Frankfurt, Germany) It unveiled the mysteries of the universe, time-space, and the human body, and revealed the standards of truly distinguish what is good from bad.

I am so glad that I have found true science in the Fa!