By a Falun Dafa practitioner

(Clearwisdom.net) Recently, the Epoch Times newspaper published a series of articles entitled, "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party." The Commentaries are a systematic exposure of the true nature of the ruling Communist Party that has been ruining China for half a century, with an analysis of why this party started the persecution of Falun Gong. The Nine Commentaries are an attempt to awaken those people who are still under the influence of and being fooled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). However, after reading through the Commentaries, some people in the general public, based on their own perspectives, think that Falun Gong is starting to become involved in politics now. Some believe that Falun Gong will take power in China in the future as its influence grows even more widespread, or that Falun Gong is going to do this or that, and so on and so forth.

It is not surprising that ordinary people would think this way, because they can only look at things from a worldly point of view. What many of them pursue and hold onto are power and self-interest in this world. It is a common phenomenon in this modern society. Nevertheless, if this perspective starts to twist people's correct perception of Falun Dafa, it is the responsibility of Falun Dafa practitioners to approach them and clarify the truth patiently and meticulously. Even though people may already have learned the truth about Falun Gong, it is still not easy for them to understand every single step and decision that Falun Dafa practitioners are taking in this Fa-rectification period.

As far as politics are concerned, the general public finds the following situation hard to understand: Falun Gong seems so capable of enduring and carrying out various truth clarification activities, and its influence is growing stronger and stronger, yet, Falun Gong is not interested in power at all. Why is that? The fact that ordinary people raise such a question means that they have not truly realized what cultivation is. Throughout the five thousand years of Chinese history, personal cultivation was always a part of the Chinese culture. It is only during the past 50 or so years, while the CCP has been ruling China, that this concept of cultivation has been forcibly erased from the minds of the Chinese people. I am not going to talk about the ultimate nature of cultivation here, but will mention that all the cultivation practices, from very ancient times down to the present, have one thing in common -- that is, cultivation requires one to go beyond this material world. In other words, the basic goal of cultivation is to transcend this world, to completely detach from worldly conflicts and to jump out of the cycle of karmic retribution. In order to reach such a goal, each cultivator has to gradually let go of all human attachments to this world through a process of strenuous personal cultivation. Only by doing so can a cultivator succeed in cultivation. It is simply impossible to succeed in cultivation if cultivators cling to their various emotions and desires, or even worse, become deeply attached to worldly power, position and material wealth.

Falun Dafa is a superior cultivation way within the Buddha School. In order to make sure that its practitioners will genuinely cultivate to higher levels, Falun Dafa has a very strict requirement that practitioners must never get involved in politics. Throughout human history, there have been numerous kings, princes and other royalty who abandoned their worldly power and wealth to live a life of cultivation. The general public may or may not understand this. Today's Falun Dafa practitioners will never let worldly power and politics impede their cultivation, or even worse, destroy their cultivation altogether. The fundamental nature of cultivation has already determined that most cultivators will not pay much attention to worldly power and politics.

Right now, there are also some practitioners who write articles exposing the evil nature of the CCP. This is because the CCP and Jiang Zemin have colluded to persecute Falun Gong and try to destroy practitioners' cultivation. These practitioners are simply exposing the CCP so that the ongoing persecution will end. If the CCP had not started this persecution, Falun Dafa practitioners would not have participated in such exposures. Even though practitioners are exposing the CCP, they don't have any political agenda, let alone any ulterior motives to gain power. It is drastically different from ordinary people's reciprocal criticism, which is done in order to remove a party from power and start a new form of government.

If exposing the truth causes the CCP to lose its grip on power, then, who will benefit from it and who will be the new rulers of China? We practitioners believe that all such worldly affairs are governed by the will of Heaven. But the path that cultivators follow in order to transcend the material world is not connected to worldly affairs.

Furthermore, Falun Dafa cultivation must come from one's own determination. Cultivation touches directly on one's mind. Cultivators must decide from the depth of their hearts to change themselves and go beyond this world. Only by doing so can they reach a cultivator's mindset. If one is forced to cultivate while his heart is not interested in cultivation at all, it's just impossible to do so. On the contrary, it will ruin the cultivation community. So, Falun Dafa cultivation emphasizes that each practitioner must be "pure as diamond" in every respect. Falun Dafa would never attempt to embrace such an idea as "unity of politics and religion."

Posting date: 1/30/2005
Original article date: 1/30/2005
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/1/21/93978.html

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