(Minghui.org) Many cultures hold the belief that humankind was once divine, and that the purpose of our lives is to constantly improve ourselves through self-cultivation so that we can return to where we came from. The first step of this cultivation process is to be a good person in human society in accordance with divinely-mandated rules.
On our own, human beings are very limited in our abilities. We should be aware of that fact and live with humility and gratitude for what heaven has given us. If we forget our origins and defy heaven’s order for society, however, the consequences could be disastrous.
The Most Heinous of All Vices
A Chinese saying tells us that “lust is most heinous of all vices, and filial piety the greatest of all virtues.”
Motivated by lust, people violate the standards set for humanity by the divine. They damage their bodies, destroy traditional values, and accelerate humanity’s descent into depravity. This is something that divine beings cannot forgive.
Filial piety, on the other hand, promotes kindness between family members. Once kindness becomes a habit within the family, it can then spread outside of the family and ensure that moral behavior is upheld in society.
The juxtaposition of lust and filial piety can be found in the story of Bo Yikao, the oldest prince of the Zhou Dynasty, from the Investiture of the Gods.
When he heard that his father, King Wen, had been captured by the debauched king of the previous Shang Dynasty, Bo went to the king with treasures and begged for his father’s release.
But the king was not moved by Bo’s plea. Instead, the king’s favorite concubine, Daji, came to seduce Bo Yikao. This was a woman as bewitching as she was wicked, who’d used her charms to turn countless men—the king included—into her playthings. This time, she wanted to make Bo forget his father and his mission.
Ever the filial son, Bo ignored Daji’s advances. He returned to the king and once again pleaded for his father’s release, advising the king to be a responsible ruler for the people of Shang. Incensed by Bo Yikao’s imperviousness, the ruthless king put him to death. On the king’s orders, Bo’s corpse was then ground up and turned into filling for meat buns.
Bo Yikao’s integrity, filial piety, and loyalty ultimately earned him a divine rank after his death: he became the Great Emperor of the North Star, a prominent position in the Jade Emperor’s celestial court.
In contrast, many people in today’s society pay little attention to moral values and heavenly laws. After the Soviet Union issued decrees such as “On the abolition of marriage” and “On civil partnership, children and ownership” in 1918, sexual freedom exploded within the country. In the relatively conservative 1910s, the Soviets even opened a nude beach on the banks of the Moskva river.
The ensuing chaos led to a dramatic rise in rape, sexually transmitted diseases, and homeless orphans, which eventually forced the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to tighten restrictions. But the concept of “individual liberation” in terms of sexual relations lived on and spread to China, where it ate away at family values, resulting in countless tragedies.
In recent years, the situation in China has deteriorated even further. The chained woman in Xuzhou in January of 2022 caught the attention of the public, and shed a sliver of light on China’s robust human trafficking industry. A 1989 documentary from Xie Zhihong and Jia Lusheng revealed that nearly 50,000 women had been abducted and sold in the Xuzhou area between 1986 and 1989. Among the trafficking cases they had access to, the youngest woman was only 13.
The Danger in a Single Thought
Human bodies were crafted by gods, and the relationship between husband and wife was also established by gods to sustain human society. Any sexual relationship or improper thought outside of those bounds ran counter to traditional values and was tantamount to blasphemy.
In Journey to the West, Pigsy was once a divine general under the Jade Emperor. However, he once had inappropriate thoughts about the goddess Chang’e after getting drunk at a party, which ended up in him harassing her and making a scene. As a result, he was banished to the human realm, condemned to a form that was half-pig and half-man.
The King of Shang who executed Bo Yikao, Di Xin, also began his tragedy with a lewd thought towards a goddess. While paying his respects to the goddess Nü Wa, he grew covetous of her beauty and composed a salacious poem. To punish the king for this indecency, Nü Wa sent a nine-tailed fox and several succubi into his court. These demons took the form of gorgeous women in order to beguile the king and destroy his kingdom.
The king, not knowing temperance, indulged himself fully in a hedonistic lifestyle. His country withered away as he spent his days with his harem. And under the influence of Daji, the human form of the nine-tailed fox, he killed his own wife and son, tortured his officials, and tormented his citizens. Both he and his kingdom perished in great misery.
In the eyes of divine beings, living in the human world is no different than living in a cesspool. As practitioners who seek to become divine once again, we cannot take any of this world’s contaminants with us if we want to ascend to higher realms. Lust is one of these contaminants that we have to let go of—and if we don’t let go of it in time, it may cause severe problems in our cultivation.
A Hurdle Every Cultivator Must Overcome
As Falun Gong practitioners, we should be vigilant about the attachment to lust. There have been many serious lessons from practitioners who’ve fallen on this particular issue.
One practitioner is both very competent and good-looking. Because he was a fast learner who picked up technical skills quickly, many practitioners would come to him for help. This gave him a big head. He began to neglect the basics of solid cultivation and gave in to his desires, which not only ruined himself, but other practitioners as well.
The old forces took advantage of his loopholes to further persecute him: he was arrested multiple times, and also faced financial difficulties. A while back, his situation was so desperate financially that he joined a multi-level marketing racket, something a practitioner definitely should not do. Now, it’s hard to say if he’s even a practitioner, given his current state.
It’s not just the practitioners who take improper actions that need to be careful, though—improper thoughts alone are enough to cause trouble.
Confucius once said, “Do not look at what is contrary to propriety; do not listen to what is contrary to propriety; do not speak what is contrary to propriety; do not do what is contrary to propriety.” This is the baseline for everyday people, so it follows that the requirement must be higher for practitioners.
In the cultivation community, there is a saying that goes, “A lustful thought arises, a deadly mistake is made.” Cultivators from all different schools have been wary of lust since ancient times, so much so that failing the test of lust is seen as something that will destroy any progress made in cultivation.
Today, we are Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples who carry the expectations of myriad divine beings on our shoulders. We cannot afford to make mistakes in this respect.
Editor's note: This article only represents the author’s understanding in their current cultivation state meant for sharing among practitioners so that we can “Compare in studying, compare in cultivating.” (“Solid Cultivation,” Hong Yin)
Views expressed in this article represent the author's own opinions or understandings. All content published on this website are copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
Category: Improving Oneself
