(Clearwisdom.net) Teacher said: “The wicked Party is using the things of Chinese culture to glorify itself.” (“Teaching the Fa at the Meeting on Writing Music”) I would like to share my understanding on just “going with the crowd” when singing communist party songs or celebrating the so-called birthday of communism. It is my hope that other practitioners can be clear-headed about these matters.
Dafa practitioners are very productive members of society, with many special skills. This is especially so with mainland practitioners who, in the midst of persecution, rationally clarify the truth, do the three things, and assist Teacher in saving sentient beings. However, some practitioners participate in choirs, fashion shows, opera, and dancing. Others attend university for seniors, learn calligraphy and drawing, attend art exhibitions, and just generally indulge in things of everyday people. From the perspective of a practitioner, this is just consuming precious time by spending your life on frivolous things, not to mention encouraging attachments like the show-off mentality and vanity. But the more fundamental issue is that practitioners are helping the communist party create the illusion of happiness in a “perfect” society, pretending like everything is going well. This can only make it more difficult to save sentient beings.
A practitioner that I know of, call him practitioner A, was very diligent prior to April 25, 1999. He along with fellow practitioners jointly appealed to municipal and provincial party committees around the April 25, 1999 period, acted openly and honorably, and was always very healthy.
One day I called practitioner A's home, hoping to ask about delivering Teacher's new article to him for materials production. His wife answered the phone, and she told me that her husband had an accident, that one of his friends was joking around and hit him, knocking practitioner A down and injuring him so that he couldn't move. The doctors examined him and said that he had fractured one of his lower lumbar vertebrae. They operated on him, but he still wasn't able to move. His wife had been taking care of him, and he was so disabled that she even had to change his bedpans. I was shocked. I later visited him at the hospital, together with his wife. When I saw A, even before I said anything, I could see that he was feeling embarrassed, probably because he realized that he had not acted according to a practitioner's xinxing standard. I gave him Teacher's new article along with the latest Minghui Weekly, but I didn't comment on cultivation issues since I didn't want his wife to misunderstand Dafa. I just asked him to keep studying the Fa and doing the exercises, and not to be discouraged. On the way home, as I thought deeper about what had happened, I realized that it could be related to him having only studied the Fa but never having gone out to clarify the truth. I too had this problem, and wasn't able to talk about it and share with other practitioners. I started to practice Falun Dafa on January 3, 1999 (on the lunar calendar), and delivered lots of materials to fellow practitioners, but due to my own attachments to self, I always felt embarrassed to talk to veteran practitioners.
Teacher never gave up on A though, and he quickly recovered. Just one month later he was able to ride his bike over to my home for a visit. We talked and I found out that not only had he spent very little time clarifying the truth, but he had also participated in his work unit's senior choir. He told me that he broke his vertebrae the day before they were to perform. I told him I thought this had happened for a reason, that practitioners are normally too busy clarifying the truth and doing the three things, and asked him how he had time to sing? He defended himself by saying, “I didn't sing songs about the communist party, I sang folk songs.” I said that he shouldn't even sing folk songs. I was thinking about practitioners who participate in drawing classes, and though they only draw flowers and plants, it can still play a negative role. The wicked party uses all these things to create an illusion of happiness, and convince people that they lead beautiful, peaceful lives, when in reality it is to cover up the party's lies, wickedness and violence. We should never go along with helping the communist party create the illusion of prosperity and happiness.
I urged A not to participate in the choir, and he was silent as he thought about it. He called me when he got home: “I thought about it, and what you said makes sense. I won't be part of the choir anymore.” I was happy that he understood.
I am not saying that practitioners shouldn't be able to sing, or shouldn't take up artistic pursuits. Dafa songs are very pleasant to hear, so if you really want to use your skills, then sing the songs written by other practitioners. Otherwise, I would not want to be part of it. One time at a school gathering, everyone was singing, and when the microphone was passed to me, I overcame my habit of shyness and sang a Dafa song. To my surprise, my schoolmates asked, “That's such a beautiful song, where did you learn that? Teach me.” I gave one of them the Shen Yun Performing Arts Chorus Concert DVD, and the 2010 NTDTV Global Chinese New Years Gala, and told her, “Watch these, there are many good songs in there.” She was very happy: “Thank you so much!” I also gave others the DVDs as well.
Today I read a Clearwisdom article: “Dafa Practitioners Should Never Sing Songs to Praise the Wicked Party”. I realized that more than one person had encountered this issue, so I wrote this to warn other practitioners. Even if you are afraid of going out and clarifying the truth, the last thing you should do is sing songs that help the CCP maintain its control over others. This is my personal understanding, please point out any mistakes.
