(Clearwisdom.net) During the Chinese New Year break in 1996, one of my colleagues gave me a book titled Zhuan Falun. Because I was on vacation and not busy, I began to read it. When I saw in the contents "Cultivation Insanity," I read this chapter first. I read, "In fact, let me tell you that cultivation insanity does not exist whatsoever." (Zhuan Falun) It shocked me. Everyone was talking about "cultivation insanity." How come it does not exist?
It was in the 1980s when I first heard about "cultivation insanity." At that time we had PE (Physical Education) classes that taught qigong. One student who lived in the same dorm with me practiced qigong. He ended up getting insomnia, which eventually led to mental problems. It gave me the impression that qigong could not only cure illness as reports indicated, but it could also lead to ailments. It seemed that it was different from physical exercise and sports. I also felt that it seemed that qigong had supernormal power to either cure diseases or to induce illness. The negative effects were also different. Excessive exercise would result in physical harm, whereas qigong resulted in mental illness. Physical harm was easier to treat than mental illness. In short, I thought that qigong could cause "cultivation insanity" in people.
However, Zhuan Falun said that "...cultivation insanity does not exist whatsoever." There were some other problems for me in the book. For example, "the possessing spirits or animals, making them mentally disoriented or making them yell and scream;" people feel uncomfortable when "qi is congested somewhere in the body or when qi cannot come down from the top of the head." "... a person becomes psychotic; " "Such a person has mental illusions." All of these phenomena do exist but they are not "cultivation insanity." The book said that all these phenomena are caused either "Because one's mind is not righteous, ... pursuing some qigong state to show off " or they intentionally abandon "their Main Consciousness. They lose their awareness of everything and give away their bodies to others." "Some people go right after supernormal abilities or have practiced sham qigong." In short, troubles start when one's mind is not righteous.
I thought this book was very unique because it put forth the idea that all troubles were caused by people's unrighteous minds. In addition, it said with certainty that "you will not have any problems as long as you can conduct your xinxing well, since one righteous mind can subdue one hundred evils." After reading this, my understanding of qigong changed, and I felt released from the fear of "cultivation insanity."
Then what is xinxing? I wanted to find the answer in the book, so this made me interested in reading the thick book to the end. After reading the book once, I found that it talked about not only qigong but also the meaning of human life, the goal of being human, and even about the world view. I realized that this was no ordinary book. It talked about something brand new, even beyond human knowledge.
Zhuan Falun tells a lot around Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, about people's xinxing and how to upgrade one's xinxing. The book explains explicitly, "As a human being, you are a good person only if you can follow this universe's characteristic of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. A person who deviates from this characteristic is truly a bad person." "As a practitioner, if you assimilate yourself to this characteristic you are one that has attained the Tao--it's just such a simple principle. " These ideas were so different from what I had learned from other books or from my notions formed by my personal experiences.
Decades of life experiences told me that fighting among people was the eternal theme, because the textbook I had learned from told me: "the history of human development is a history filled with classes struggling [against each other]." Then, in life, the true motivation for social advancement had been to fight and compete with each other, hurt one another, deceive and harm each other. The society I live in advocates the "fighting philosophy" of Marxism. However, it is painful for people to struggle against each other; they drift through life helpless; they advance with the times in despair. In order to conform to this kind of environment, people have to change from being passive and helpless to taking the initiative to fight and compete. It seemed to me that the teachings in Zhuan Falun could reduce their suffering and the pain in their hearts.
In this ruthless society, Zhuan Falun opens up a totally different world and manifests brand new life principles. All changes exist in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance in everyone's heart. How wonderful it is!
When I read the book, an idea came to me that, if one follows these principles in the book, he must be very righteous and very nice. He can become a person with high ethical standards. Righteous, very righteous is my first impression of Zhuan Falun. This conclusion invoked another thought: If I behave in accordance with the principles in the book, then what will happen? I'll be an absolutely good person, a person who constantly upgrades himself, a nice, kind person full of righteous thoughts.
This book awakened something in my mind that I had desired for a long time.
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Category: Beginning Cultivation
