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The Issue of Sacrificing One's Personal Beliefs for the Sake of "What is Important" (Clearwisdom.net) Recently my family members and friends kept urging me to place the
highest priority on my own family. One family member told me, "A person has to be responsible
to his own family first and foremost. Individual beliefs come after that." He was implying that
when I refused to give ground and held fast to my individual beliefs as the evil used the happiness
of my family to threaten me, I was bringing pain, suffering and anxiety to my family members and
being too selfish. A friend also advised me, "A smart man does not simply face the situation
head-on when he is outmatched. A real man can bend himself or stand up straight at will. Why don't
you admit you were wrong and get yourself out first?" According to notions of the contemporary Chinese people, the type of action that my family and
friends are urging me to take is called "suffering the loss of one's personal ideals for the
sake of others importance." For the sake of one's own family, for the sake of one's own
survival, a person is supposed to endure temporary mistreatment, go along with those who force their
own wills upon others, sacrifice correct stances that he should have insisted on taking, sacrifice
the self-interest and benefits of other people, and even sacrifice one's own beliefs. This is now
considered a positive character trait that should be praised and encouraged in the eyes of
contemporary Chinese people. In reality, this is a warped notion. What lies behind the splendid and upright exterior are
extreme care for one's own self-interest and extreme selfishness. Throughout the countless waves of political movements, the Party has been forcing people to write
the despicable "statements of remorse" or "pledges." One can imagine how much
suffering that a person who was forced to write such things felt inside, because what he betrayed
was his own conscience. It is true that some people managed to stay alive this way, were able to go on with their lives,
and in the end achieved certain things. But has anyone thought of the fact that because of what they
did, many other people might have lost their future, health and even lives, and many other families
might have lost their own happiness? What is even more frightening is that these kind of people
became role models. People think that only those who abandon their own principles and betray their
own consciences can manage to stay alive and become accomplished later on in life, and only those
who "endure mistreatment for the sake of what is important" can survive. During the last 50 plus years, in order to ensure that the citizens stay obedient to the wills of
their rulers, the Party has been continuously encouraging the spread of this kind of behavior. Using
the welfare of their families and their own lives as threats, it forces people to abandon their own
correct stances, admit responsibilities to crimes that were arbitrarily made up, and betray their
friends, colleagues, and even family members. After enduring and being tempered in so many political
movements, the Chinese people deeply know that the only way for them to survive and have a
comfortable life for the time being is to follow the ruling class without any principle by lying,
making wildly exaggerated statements, and verbally and physically attacking others. To put it
simply, the motive of the ruling class is satisfying their own desires and preserving their own
power. They do whatever they want and get away with everything no matter how evil it is, shocking
and frightening people everywhere. If a person is willing to give up his belief in Falun Dafa for the sake of his family today, he
might cut all ties with his family for the sake of his own life tomorrow. To those Dafa
practitioners' family members who have been deceived by the evil, have you thought of this and its
consequences? As to the notion of "enduring mistreatment for the sake of what is important" that the
contemporary people have in their mind, on the surface, "what is important" seems to refer
to their own families, relatives or friends. In reality, "what is important" are
themselves. When the true nature of such a mentality is revealed, it is in fact sacrificing one's
own morality and conscience to preserve one's dirty, selfish desires. Isn't this an extreme
manifestation of one's own selfishness? Then, how can people abandon their beliefs, morality and conscience for the sake of their own
selfish desires? That is because they think that beliefs, morality and conscience are spiritual
things and as fleeting as the wind, and these things cannot be compared with the actual benefits
that the physical, materialistic things bring them. Under the atheist education in China during the
last 50 years, people no longer believe that "good is rewarded with good, and evil is met with
evil." Therefore, they dare to do whatever they want to do using all kinds of methods
imaginable. As a matter of fact, the genuine "enduring mistreatment for the sake of what is
important" is to sacrifice one's own benefits and endure one's own mistreatment out of concern
for other people and the people of the future. In the midst of the vicious persecution by the evil,
Dafa practitioners are enduring a great deal of mistreatment and pain. Yet they are still clarifying
the truth to the people of the world. And that is the genuine "enduring mistreatment for the
sake of what is important." Posting date: 1/24/2002 |