Insight into "With No Attachment to Living or Dying"

By Zheng Xin, a Falun Gong practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) I became deeply distraught when reading "Remembering My Younger Brother, Liu Chengjun (Photo)," published on Clearwisdom.net on December 24, 2004. While I was overcome with grief, I thought, "Chengjun, you shouldn't have died!" Therefore, I would like to share my insight with everyone.

Liu Chengjun's sister told us in the article that after she told her baby brother that she was trying to get medical parole for him, Chengjun tried hard to dissuade her and said, "Don't...be...attached...to...anything." Then he recited Teacher's poem, "Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions" and then told his sister, "After I die, you must be kind to him (the man who had looked after him)."

I think that Chengjun shouldn't have regarded his sister and fellow practitioners' rescue efforts as an attachment and thus refuse to get rescued. By acknowledging with his words his imminent death, Chengjun had already accepted the end to his life. Did he think that preparing himself to die proved that he had no attachment to living or dying?

Let's think about it for a moment. What might have happened if Chengjun had reinforced his righteous thoughts and said to himself, "I must not die! I must overcome the demonic persecution and walk out of this place alive! I shall cooperate with fellow practitioners' rescue effort while asking for Teacher's protection and reinforcement of my righteous thoughts! I must completely deny the old forces' arrangements of the persecution against me! I will only accept the cultivation path that Teacher had arranged for me! I pledge to assist Teacher with his Fa-rectification until its completion!" What might have happened if Chengjun had regarded the physical symptoms of imminent death as the demons' illusion to crush his spirit? What might have happened if Chengjun had said to himself, "As long as I am alive and kicking, I am determined to walk out of here alive!" Perhaps he would still be alive and still be helping with the truth-clarification work! Teacher said,

Since "enjoying doing one thing" and "resenting doing another thing" are rooted in sentimentality, could "fear" and "fearlessness" are also be rooted in sentimentality? If that's the case, both "fear" and "fearlessness" are capable of bringing out our humanness. Teacher said,

I now realize that we need to remove the attachment to both "living" and "dying." That's the true state of emptiness. Teacher said,

Besides, I don't believe that having no attachment to living means embracing death or giving in to death. As Falun Gong practitioners in the Fa-rectification period, we should choose to live in order to help Teacher save lives.

I, too, had a few brushes with death when Jiang Zemin's henchmen tortured me cruelly and when I faced the rotten demons' persecution in disguise of severe symptoms of sickness karma. During those periods, I was often interfered with such thoughts as, "I don't fear death. Let it come!", "I can let go of this 180-lb body," or "Death is nothing but tossing away my physical body in the human realm." In addition, I once used to carry the thought, "I do not fear the danger of arrests," when I clarified the truth about Falun Gong to people. In hindsight, I was not very rational and, thus, I ignored my safety. I might have appeared to be "fearless" on the surface, but I was actually attached to the notion of being "brave." It was by no means a righteous thought. It was a major loophole, because I had submitted to the old forces' arrangements, which included being arrested. The truth is that we should think of nothing but helping Teacher with his Fa-rectification and offer the worlds people Teacher's salvation until the completion of the Fa-rectification. In other words, when we are determined to walk only on the path Teacher has arranged for us, we would never have these worldly thoughts.

Teacher said,

Teacher's words keep echoing in my heart. Starting with 2005, let's further reinforce our righteous thoughts and fulfill our pledge by doing the Three Things well. We must not allow the evil to take away any more fellow practitioners!

Please share with me if you find anything inappropriate in my understanding.
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/3/15/97391.html

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