(Minghui.org) I often hear people say that their fate or destiny is out of their control and that they wish they had a crystal ball to tell them what lies ahead in their life. When the same efforts on the same thing result in different outcomes for different people, some attribute that to pure coincidence, while others consider it an arrangement by the divine. So how is our destiny determined then?
Scientists and the Divine
Isaac Newton, one of the greatest scientists in history, once made a solar system model and kept it at his home. The sun was golden yellow while the planets each moved in their orbits. When visiting him, astronomer Edmond Halley was impressed by the model and asked who made it.
“All these materials happened to come together and formed this structure,” Newton joked.
Halley dismissed that saying it must be someone very smart and skillful who put together such a sophisticated system.
No matter how this system seemed to be, it was nothing compared to the true physical world, Newton explained. “If you do not believe this system was formed naturally, then how can you say the true solar system was created by nature instead of being produced by intelligent design?”
Another great scientist, Albert Einstein, shared a similar view. “To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly: this is religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I am a devoutly religious man,” he wrote.
They were not alone. Many other scientists were also known to hold religious beliefs, such as Thomas Edison, Wilhelm Röntgen (discoverer of X-rays), Alessandro Volta, André-Marie Ampère, Georg Ohm, Marie Curie, and others.
Traditional Culture and the Divine
Ancient Chinese also believed in the existence of the divine and developed different religious beliefs. Confucius once said, “If one learns the Tao in the morning, there is nothing to worry about even if this person dies in the evening.” This shows ancient people’s eagerness to find truth and their purpose in life. Lao Tzu, on the other hand, said, “The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name.”
Another major religion was Buddhism, which was passed down by Buddha Shakyamuni about 2,500 years ago. Having given lectures for 49 years, he said before nirvana that he did not teach the ultimate dharma (or the Fa) in his life.
The quest for finding what is true Tao or Fa continued into modern China. In 1992, Mr. Li Hongzhi introduced to the public to Falun Dafa, a spiritual discipline also known as Falun Gong that is based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and has five sets of meditative exercises. Mr. Li said the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance are the characteristics of the universe. By following these principles in their daily life, Falun Dafa practitioners have been able to improve their character and elevate to higher levels. Even non-practitioners who identify with the principles would be blessed.
The profound teachings of Falun Gong soon drew numerous students and quickly spread to entire China and the rest of the world.
Fate and Choice
The popularity of Falun Gong hit a nerve in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), whose ideology of class struggle, hatred, and lies stands in sharp contrast to the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Since it took power in 1949, the CCP has launched one political campaign after another to attack select groups of citizens. It has also nearly wiped out traditional culture.
For example, shortly after taking power in 1949, the CCP killed landlords in the Land Reform Movement and targeted capitalists in the Three-anti as well as Five-anti Campaigns. After intellectuals were attacked in the Anti-Rightists Campaign (1957 – 1959), tens of millions of people died in the Great Famine (1959 – 1961). Following systematic cultural havoc during the Cultural Revolution havoc (1966 – 1976), the democratic movement was once again suppressed in the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre.
After waves of ruthless movements, the Chinese intellectuals and general public dared not challenge the Party when its latest political campaign, this time against Falun Gong, was launched in 1999. Because of their faith in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, a large number of Falun Gong practitioners have since been arrested, detained, imprisoned, and tortured. According to data received from Minghui, over 4,000 practitioners have lost their lives to the persecution. Because of censorship and information blockade, the real numbers could be much higher. By siding with the CCP on the persecution, however, many Chinese people are facing a gloomy future as a result of harming the innocent and undermining traditional values.
Aristotle once said, “Choice, not chance, determines your destiny.” There is also a Chinese saying that, “Good is rewarded with good, and evil meets evil.” Fortunately, after the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party was published in 2004, over 400 million Chinese people renounced membership in the CCP organizations, including its junior associations of the Youth League and Young Pioneers. We hope more people, both inside and outside China, will reject the CCP. Doing so will help us take control of our destiny and ensure a bright future. It will also lead to a better world.
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Category: News Commentary
