Thoughts about Personal Safety and Science

By a Falun Gong practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) First of all, one's awareness of personal safety reflects one's attitude, will, and goals.

We should position the foundation of our thoughts correctly, and we must not be selfish. Our lives do not only belong to us, but to the one-body of Falun Gong practitioners. Any mishap that happens to you happens to the one-body of practitioners. Additionally, any compromise of your personal safety may jeopardize the safety of other practitioners. We should be thoughtful of others, and we must solemnly handle everything that pertains to other practitioners' lives and personal safety.

What types of safety measures will suffice? How do we protect our personal safety? Each cultivator may have a different understanding and take different security measures because each of us has a different cultivation realm. There is no solution suitable for everyone. For example, a non-cultivator may believe it is not good for his body to drink ice water frequently. But a cultivator does not think so. A non-cultivator might remind people to protect themselves from catching cold at the change of weather. But a cultivator does not believe that the change of weather is the cause of colds.

A non-cultivator has a different view of the world than a cultivator and does not follow a non-cultivator's values. When it comes to safety measures, a cultivator does not compete with everyday people on the level of technology or strategy. An everyday person is still an everyday person even if he has mastered all the safety measures there are in the world.

Everyday people's perception of safety is reflected in their understanding of science and truth. Different cultivators have different perceptions of safety at different levels of cultivation, and therefore handle the issue of personal safety differently. But what is the goal? Do we employ safety measures to enhance our cultivation level and to validate ourselves? Or do we do it for the sake of the one-body of practitioners? It should be our goal to validate the Fa and save sentient beings.

For any given issue, each cultivator may have a different expectation and solution. In the final stage of the Fa-rectification, every Falun Gong practitioner will definitely have a different understanding and solution. In my humble opinion, we should take two things into consideration. First, we must be thoughtful of others. Your solution may be good, but you should think about whether other practitioners will be able to accept it psychologically. It is important to use an appropriate approach that's acceptable to other practitioners. Otherwise, other people might feel nervous when they are with you. During the SARS outbreak, I went to visit a non-practitioner friend. In order to relieve his jitters, I bought a mask and wore it during the visit. Second, we should not force our understandings on others. We may find a certain safety measure effective, but it does not mean that fellow practitioners are not responsible for the Fa, fellow practitioners or themselves if they don't want to use the same safety measure.

In 2006, practitioners in Liaoyuan were arrested for broadcasting truth-clarification programs on TV. On the surface, the root cause for the arrest was that a fellow practitioner made a call to his work organization from a local pay phone, which could be traced by the police. I think the majority of practitioners did not know about this security loophole because not many practitioners in the area are highly trained in the field of technology. In my opinion, it is difficult to protect our safety using everyday people's safety measures. The requirements for our xinxing keep raising. After the arrests, all the practitioners in our area realized that there must be attachments that caused the phone trace. The slightest xinxing loophole can cause very severe damage. The phone call would have been made for a selfless reason if the practitioner did not have any attachments. We may not know the technical details of the phone trace, but Teacher will be able to protect us from the phone trace if we don't have any attachments. For example, the police may not have thought of tracing the phone call, or Teacher may have hinted to the practitioner not to make the phone call.

We need to use rationality instead of emotion to address security issues. Everyone cares about fellow practitioners' personal safety. So do many kindhearted everyday people, but Falun Gong practitioners' personal safety issues are different from those of everyday people.

Having no fear does not mean we no longer need to pay attention to personal safety. Fear is only one attachment. Removing the attachment to fear or eating meat alone is not enough to allow us to reach Consummation. We must remove all the attachments, such as lust, the mentality of showing off, the lack of respect for Teacher, jealousy, etc. Having righteous thoughts is the first priority. Taking safety measures is the second. The old forces use any excuse to persecute practitioners--they beat us until our righteous thoughts come through.

In terms of science, many religious followers do not believe in their god, but only modern science. Everyday people's philosophy is not everyday people's science. The foundation of everyday people's science is completely wrong. The great enlightened beings protect everyday people's philosophy, but they do not protect everyday people's science. Modern science is not scientific. If the old forces had not covered up the truth, everyday people would have dismissed modern science and would have believed in God already.

Ancient Chinese medicine was far more advanced than Western medicine. On the surface, it is not as glamorous as Western medicine, but traditional Chinese medicine is more direct and effective. Like modern empirical science, Western medicine has but a shallow understanding of the universe.

In the Fa-rectification period, there is also the problem of the evil old forces. In order to ruin practitioners' righteous faith, the old forces have made a lot of arrangements that do not follow the genuine law of the universe. Sometimes a situation is very complicated because of a practitioner's origin and history in the universe, and some practitioners have a very special history in the universe. Given the large of number of practitioners, even a small percentage of practitioners can constitute a large number of people. When I studied "Path" in Essentials for Further Advancement II, I realized that each practitioner is walking on a different path of cultivation. There is no such a thing as a free ride in cultivation practice. If we do not harbor any notions when we study the Fa and are enlightened to the Fa, it is an accomplishment in our cultivation practice. Even if we all do the same thing in the same way, the outcome will be different for each person because of our different mentalities and bases.

Now let's get back to the issue of security measures. Since 1999, we have accumulated many experiences in this harsh environment of China. On the other hand, have we also accumulated some notions over the past seven years?

Our generation, regardless of education levels, is soaked in modern science. Before we started practicing Falun Gong, everyone, including uneducated people, idolized science. The main purpose of this article is to remind fellow practitioners to regard this issue with righteous thoughts and to evaluate and analyze everything based on the Fa. We should use the Fa to guide our actions. Do not be confused by illusions or modern science.

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