9/28/2003
(Clearwisdom.net)
China's regime detains Falun Gong practitioners in "Transformation (i.e. Brainwashing) Centers" and employs various means to shake their belief. In addition to torture, sleep deprivation, and forced exposure to programs that criticize Falun Gong, a new tactic has recently been adopted by the "Transformation Centers." Falun Gong is now being criticized through the scriptures and prophecies of Buddhism.
First of all, it is not persuasive at all to attack one spiritual belief using the scriptures of another. For example, because the scriptures of B and C are mutually exclusive, the masters and pastors from these religions cannot use the doctrines of one set of beliefs to refute another. Different schools exist even within the same system of belief. For example, Buddhism has the schools of Dharma, Mahayana, and Tantrism. Their beliefs differ in many ways; no school can persuade another.
It is a ridiculous act to use the negative prophecies in the scriptures of one belief to challenge another belief and even to claim that these prophecies are "surprisingly accurate." Religions tend to label aspects of other religions as phony practices and evil theories in order to guard their own doctrines and reject others. So any theories not consistent with a particular religion's scripture are labeled as evil theories. For example, since Mahayana considered Tathagata as the highest level, it naturally labeled the concept of the different levels of the Gods of Creation and Buddha as an evil theory. Mahayana prohibits eating meat (considers it to be "hun") and requires one to be become a monk. Mahayana consequently considers religions without these taboos to be evil (Actually, Dharma and Tibetan Tantrism never completely prohibited eating meat, or considered it to be "hun," because of the local conditions in those regions). The Buddhist religion was always taught in temples and therefore refused to recognize anyone who spread the Fa that was not a monk. (Actually, some Masters of Tibetan Tantrism did marry and have children). These prophecies [that are circulating in the Brainwashing Centers] are undated and credit no source or author. They are merely a list of heretical opinions. No wonder these prophesies fit other beliefs with surprising accuracy. It would be "surprising" if they were not accurate.
Actually, these prophecies just talked about the "heretical beliefs" beyond their own concepts. They could not even imagine any beliefs beyond their realms. Teacher Li's Fa lectures in the United States and all the other Fa lectures have all been published on the Internet. Did Buddhism predict the United States? Has Buddhism ever mentioned the Internet? Teacher Li's Fa lectures, especially the most recent, have explained many mysteries. Have the prophecies of Buddhism talked about the horizontal and vertical structures of the cosmos? Has Buddhism ever mentioned the surface dimension? Has Buddhism ever described the formation of the small cosmos? Has Buddhism talked about the purpose of forming the Three Realms? Has Buddhism ever talked about the things that existed on earth during different generations? Has Buddhism touched on the origin of matter on earth? Has Buddhism talked about the origin of human images? Has Buddhism talked about the origin of human history, races, culture, and art? Has Buddhism talked about the causes of the origin of science? These "surprising prophecies of Buddhism" become surprisingly inaccurate when presented with the above questions.
Some scriptures in Buddhism are very isolationist and strictly reject other religions to protect itself. All kinds of heretical beliefs have been listed in great detail and been believed by many monks without a shadow of a doubt. They forget the fact that these scriptures were written several hundred years after Buddha's death. They were then translated from the Sanskrit to Chinese. From a religious perspective, to cultivate only one way requires that their scriptures be pure. Thus, it is not unreasonable for one religion to exclude others. On this issue, Teacher Li also emphasizes to cultivate only one way and that one cannot practice different religions at the same time. As a religious disciple, however, it is shallow and ignorant to attack other religions using exclusive statements and "surprising prophecies" with the sole purpose of listing what is heretical by definition of the scriptures of one's own religion. A so-called disciple of Buddhism placed his matching "surprising prophecies" on a downloadable Website to "save" Falun Gong practitioners. I have also read the Website of a Christian who published the record of his investigations to save Buddhist disciples from "going astray." I don't want to judge who is right or wrong, but the person who attacks others with Buddhist scriptures should face up to reality.
Scriptures undoubtedly have some truth and reality, but scriptures cannot replace the ultimate truth and cannot replace the complete reality. To attack the thought and exposition of other people with scriptures actually exhibits a fear of the reality and truth beyond the reach of the scriptures. Just because of this fear, they try their utmost to establish the authority of scriptures in society. They try to utilize the psychology of "fear of authority" to replace truth and reality with scriptures. Even more ridiculous, some "materialists" who claimed to be respectful of science also cited scriptures to criticize Falun Gong. Religious judges, out of fear, once cited scriptures to disprove the theory of a sun-centered planetary system. This fear, however, could not negate the truth of the heliocentric theory. Even if you cited scriptures that described heliocentric theory as a heretical, demonic theory, even if you set people to burn at the stake, you could not negate the fact of heliocentric theory.
In the past I have written articles introducing the research on reincarnation conducted by Western medical and psychological scientists. The evidence of spiritual activities uncovered by these researchers was very clear. The individual examples of reincarnation, the details of reincarnation, and the descriptions of the cultures, including religious cultures and the status of higher lives, were not consistent with the descriptions in Buddhism but very close to the descriptions in Falun Gong. While the investigators had a very open mind toward the scriptures of religions, they were not bound by those documents because the goal of their research was to look for truth and reality. Although many fundamentalists cited scriptures to attack these investigators, they could not prevent others from evaluating the value of their research.
Falun Gong has over 20 books. Conceptually, it forms its own system. Falun Gong expounds deeply on religions, cultures, histories, science, the cosmos, space and time, and the human body from many perspectives. Falun Gong is profound and powerful; it is deep and perfectly harmonized. It was promulgated all over China and spread far and wide overseas in just a few short years. It taught tens of millions of people from various social strata to commit no evil and to do only good deeds. In a time when religions have no courage to discuss reality and truths with scientists and in a time when morality is declining, Falun Gong has attracted many believers to cultivate and become good. Even under the brutal persecution, they persist in being compassionate. At the same time, Falun Gong discusses science, cultures, histories, and art with an open-minded attitude. The immense moral attraction of Falun Gong and the courage and confidence displayed by Falun Gong practitioners should make these people who fear truth and hide in the scriptures think deeply. In the past, the emergence of Jesus shook the Jews; the appearance of Sakyamuni upset the Brahmans. The Jews and Brahmans also cited scriptures to criticize Jesus and Sakyamuni. Those criticisms were based on the same fear of truth and reality.
The "Transformation Centers" in China cannot deny their brutal tortures no matter how hard they try to cover-up their actions. They establish illegal prisons and deprive people of their right to freedom of belief. It can be said without a doubt that the personnel who work in the "Transformation Centers" are not disciples of Buddhism but rather are disciples of a dictatorship and of violence. It is blasphemous to Buddhism for those people to attack Falun Gong with Buddhist scriptures.
I respect true Buddhist disciples and Buddhist scriptures. How can people be Buddhist disciples who have adhered to the atheism of the Communist Party, who recite books for the Party, who attack Falun Gong with Buddhist scriptures, and who assist the brutal persecution? When did Buddha teach them to hit people when they are already down? These people challenge Falun Gong with the scriptures of Buddhism; actually they are the ones that deserve to be challenged. Didn't the scriptures say that in the end of Dharma monks would be demonized? The secluded "Transformation Sessions" organized by China's regime have provided these evil disciples with an opportunity to frame others, but have prohibited Falun Gong practitioners from expressing their viewpoint. The regime even prevents China's citizens from reading Clearwisdom.net. Do these actions mean that they fear truth and reality?
Category: Perspective
