(Minghui.org) I would like to share my current understanding of human society’s dependence on modern tools.
Master said:
“Supernormal abilities are potential capabilities of the human body. With the development of our human society, the human mind has become increasingly complicated, attaching more importance to ‘reality’ and becoming more dependent on so-called modern tools. Consequently, human innate abilities have gradually atrophied.” (Lecture Nine, Zhuan Falun)
Modern tools bring great convenience to people, while ancient tools looked crude and simple. It took more effort and hard work for people in ancient times to do things.
However, human society’s development is arranged by divine beings to help people eliminate karma in the process of hard work, and at the same time restrain human desires. In this way, ancient people’s virtue was greater than that of modern people. Their enlightenment quality was also better, and their righteous faith in God was firm.
The tools brought about by modern science have reduced human labor significantly, resulting in the accumulation of karma. At the same time, they have stimulated people’s desires. Consequently, people are lost deeper in this maze of the human world and have lost their faith in gods.
The ancients had great virtues and supernormal capabilities. There were fewer tools at that time, but people were happier. It was an age when divine beings and human beings coexisted, and people often used supernormal powers to do things.
Zhuangzi, a famous philosopher in China who lived around the 4th Century B.C., recorded a story in the book Heaven and Earth. The story describes how Confucius’s student Zigong saw an old man working in his garden. The old man carried water by hand, which took a lot of effort. Zigong said, “There is a way that you can do that with little effort. Would you not like to know about it?”
The gardener said he would, so Zigong replied, “You can use a mechanism which is weighted at the back and light in front. By using this kind of lever, you can bring up water quickly and easily.”
Anger rose in the old man’s face, and he said, “My teacher said that whoever uses complicated tools would strive for ways to design them. In the process, he will develop tactics in his mind. Once a person’s mind becomes complicated, he loses his simplicity. When a person loses his simplicity, he goes in the opposite direction from his original true self. I carry water by hand, not because I do not know the tool you said, but because I do not want to use it.”
I did not understand this story until recently. With the appearance of more and more modern tools, human instincts have degenerated. This degeneration was slow until modern science and technology emerged. It now seems that humans have control over modern tools, but if we look at it from another perspective, we can see that modern tools and computers control humans, because humans can do almost nothing without these electronic technologies.
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Category: Perspectives
