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Self-Immolation Event from a Cultivator's Point of View

February 13, 2001 |   A practitioner in the United States

[Minghui Net] On the Chinese New Year's Eve of this year, a self-immolation incident occurred in Tiananmen Square, shocking people both in China and the whole world. During the time that Dafa is being introduced into the human world, being a human has never been more precious. Therefore, regardless of the identity of the self-immolators or the true reason behind the event, its occurrence is a tremendous tragedy for the participants.

Over the past half month, hot discussions arose both among practitioners and in the society regarding the reason and inside story of the self-immolation event and the true identity of the self-immolators. The western media and the general public raised various different incisive and cutting points. As a member of the Chinese society, I also agree to some of the analysis and judgment. However, as a cultivator of Dafa, we should look at the event from a more detached point of view. Following are some of my recent thoughts that I'd like share with you:

1. The significance of the self-immolation incident

First, as I said previously, regardless of the identity of the self-immolators, it is a tragedy for human life. The society where the tragedy happened is certainly a dark and hopeless one. From the perspective of humanitarianism and human rights, the western countries have come to a consensus and have been actively calling for the Chinese government to stop the crackdown, stop violating human rights, respect the law and promote morality. I believe that if the Chinese authorities can be rational, they can also see this point. If the Chinese leaders can reflect on themselves from the event, China can indeed go toward civility and prosperity and make its special contribution to the world as an ancient civilization and a country with a large population. Regardless of whether the dead were employed or displaced members of the society who became disillusioned with reality and died in protest, their death should incur tremendous public scrutiny.

Some people in the society hope that the action was carried out by Falun Gong to further prove the brutality of Jiang Zemin in cracking down on Falun Gong. From a personal view, such mindsets and motives are understandable. Actually, everything Jiang Zemin has done since he started cracking down on Falun Gong is showing his viciousness and brutality. So long as more people can step forward to disclose his conducts and let all people see the truth, their benevolent nature will enable them to see through the tyrannical nature of Jiang Zemin and how much he harms people. As to the self-immolation or suicide, there's no possibility for any serious cultivators to do such a thing. Nor would they speak against their conscience in order to achieve special effects.

Before I started cultivation, I indeed held great respect for the people who "would rather die if they are deprived of freedom". However, after I practiced Dafa, I grew to understand the preciousness of human life and have attained a higher spiritual realm through cultivating "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance". Therefore, no matter what difficulties and tribulations I may face, I can persistently tell the truth, be tolerant, retain a kind heart and treat others with compassion (as well as myself). I believe this is really what Dafa teaches us to do.

2. The true story of the self-immolation incident

Revealing the true story of the self-immolation incident is part of our high aim of "exposing the evil and telling the truth". At present, Jiang Zemin is using his domestic and overseas propaganda machines and other national resources to paint the self-immolation incident as one conducted by people who were "poisoned" by Falun Gong, attempting to prove his label of "XX (slanderous words omitted)" and to justify his brutal suppression and his further bloody slaughtering of peaceful practitioners. Jiang Zemin also attempted to use the self-immolation incident to incite public hatred against Falun Gong, and to fool more people to become his accomplice in future killings. All of these acts are directly in contrast to the public's best interest. As Dafa disciples, we have the responsibility to stand up and clarify the truth. However, we should not get lost in the trivial and superficial phenomenon created by Jiang Zemin and his gang of thugs. Nor should our heart be moved. Our main goal is to aid the grand need of Fa rectification. One non-moving will subdue ten thousand moving.

Actually, the tragedy has enabled more people to better understand Falun Gong and to see through the vicious nature of Jiang Zemin. That's probably one of the reasons that such an incident could happen. Of course, all we can do is to clarify the truth with compassion and forbearance. We have no say as to how sentient beings make choices and position their lives. We can only do our part- without pursuit.

In the aftermath of the incident, I had been thinking of pointing out the obvious loopholes in the incident to remind the public to think independently and with a calm mind, instead of jumping to a conclusion from the XX party's propaganda. I next realized that if a government wants to take actions against its own citizens, it has too much to do. If we cultivators adopt the same thinking as they do, we might fall onto their level and compromise our advantage. Later on, more inside stories were disclosed from the Chinese police ranks, such as "the Ministry of Public Security was aware of the self-immolation attempt in advance", and "no one ever saw her (mother of the 12-year-old girl) practicing Falun Gong", as investigated by the western Media (Washington Post).

In addition, what had happened during the "Cultural Revolution" and "June 4th" after the Chinese Communist regime came to power, such as a few people using propaganda machines to mislead the public during the Cultural Revolution, the cruel and secret power struggle with the Chinese XX Party, the planning and occurrence of massive public violence and social turbulence, how the hard-liners in the government created and publicized the violence images of students during the "June 4th" event and how they rehearsed the scenes of the public welcoming the PLA(people's liberation army) into the city to smash the "violence", all testified to the fact that the Jiang Zemin authority lacks credit and morality and would use extremely vicious measures for the sake of their own self interest and power.

3. Cultivators live in the human world, but look at issues from beyond

To cultivators, all scenes in the human world are superficial. The elements behind everything in higher levels are closer to the real truth of the matter. Therefore, when we are working for Dafa in the Fa-rectification process in the human world using human forms, we can achieve unexpected positive results only by sticking to Dafa principles and bearing in mind the whole picture of the Fa rectification, instead of being submerged in the details.

Jiang Zemin's suppression of Falun Gong was from its very beginning based on creating and spreading rumors. In the darkest time of this tribulation, they put forward the so-called 1400 cases. But the black field they spread has been almost completely subdued and wiped out by Mainland practitioners' truth revealing activities and overseas practitioners' all-out support. Over the past 19 months, Jiang Zemin has repeatedly attempted to escalate the crackdown but has never succeeded. And it's not that Falun Gong practitioners are fighting back because we never engage in politics and it's never worthwhile for cultivators to fight ordinary people. We are just holding onto our beliefs and compassionate thoughts, clarifying the truth and exposing the evil. Since what we are doing agrees with the cosmic climate and meets the requirements of the cosmic truth, and is manifestation of mighty compassion and forbearance, in practice we are subduing the evil, suffocating the evil and eliminating the evil. The vicious nature of Jiang Zemin dictates that everything he's done- past, present, and future- is completely brutal and violent. Regardless of whether the public will accept this now, many will recognize this after the truth is finally revealed. For now, since Jiang Zemin is losing final support from other dimensions, all his evil performance becomes more superficial, more vicious, yet short-lived. Truth will ultimately defeat the evil, and no one can stop the Fa-rectification process. Fa rectifying the universe is a historical trend.

The above is some of my personal views for your reference.