[Selected Opinion Articles] Existence of the Divine

(Minghui.org) Since ancient times, there have been many legends in China about immortals, such as Journey to the West and the story of Eight Immortals.

There have also been many ancient books that explored mankind and the universe. I Ching (also known as Book of Changes), for instance, discussed how celestial changes would be reflected in the human world. The book was included as part of the Five Classics and appeared in imperial examination. Tui Bei Tu (Back-pushing pictures) written by Li Chunfeng and Yuan Tiangang in Tang Dynasty, is another example. The book accurately predicted the rise and fall of future dynasties. It was often compared to Les Prophéties by Nostradamus in the western world.

Who could have made meticulous arrangements of mankind and the universe? Only the divine. Ancient Chinese believed that the divine created everything and that mankind would be blessed if they acted in accordance with the divine’s will.

After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took power in 1949, however, it wiped out traditional culture and replaced it with atheist communist ideology. For phenomena that cannot be explained, the CCP either denies it or attributes it within the limitations of science. Several decades have passed, and few from the younger generations still believe in the divine or know anything about traditional Chinese culture.

Seeing Is Believing?

Some people question the existence of the divine, as they’ve never seen any Buddhas, Taos, or other gods with their eyes. However, the divine will only reveal themselves to people who have elevated their spiritual levels by acting in accordance with the divine’s will to be good.

The Issue of Karmic Retribution

There are also people who say that following the divine’s will to be a good person does not seem to pay off. They argue that good is not always rewarded with good and evil may not always meet with evil. They give examples of how some good people are struck with misfortune but some bad people get to enjoy a good life. They feel that the divine is not always fair if it indeed existed.

The story of a ten-year-old blind boy in the Song Dynasty may help shed light in this regard. The boy was orphaned and disabled. Despite his miserable life, he always picked stones and piled them up, hoping to build a bridge that was badly needed in the area. When the villagers worked with the boy to build the bridge, however, he went blind after being hit in the eyes by shards from the rocks. On the day of the bridge’s completion, the boy was struck by lightning and died.

Bao Zheng, a famous minister at the time, happened to at the village on business that day. He was outraged by the “unfairness” and wrote a phrase reading “Thou shall do bad, rather than good.”

It was not until much later that Bao found out what had happened. The boy had been very vicious in his previous life and the divine planned to punish him in three cycles of reincarnation: orphanage and disability, blindness, and being struck by lightning. Because the boy always helped others in this life cycle, all three cycles were combined into one, so he paid off his karmic debt much faster. The boy reincarnated into a prince right after his death.

The moral of the story is that the principle that good and evil will meet their due retributions indeed holds throughout people’s numerous reincarnations. Virtue and karma may also pass from one generation to another in the same family. Those whose ancestors have accumulated a lot of virtue are often blessed with prosperity. Conversely, a lot of karma by ancestors may result in their offspring suffering from misfortunes.

Worshiping the Divine Not Necessarily the Same as Being a Good Person

In today’s China, while many do not believe in the existence of the divine at all, there are still people who worship the divine, burn incense and kowtow in temples. But most of them did so to seek protection and good fortune from the divine, such as having more money, getting promoted, or having a baby boy. To them, worshiping the divine is similar to bribing an official with a gift in exchange for some favor or special treatment.

But such an understanding is wrong. The divine would not bless worshipers with what they pursued just because they burned incense or kowtowed. Only by acting in accordance with the divine’s will can a person be really blessed by the divine. There is a saying in ancient China that “good is rewarded with good, and evil meets evil.” Both Buddhist and Taoist schools taught their students to follow the divine’s will to be a good person with high moral standards. A good person will then naturally be blessed by the divine in one way or another.

However, if a person keeps doing bad deeds or has ill intentions, worshiping the divine would not bring blessings. The divine might give hints for the person to make corrections to their behaviors. Were the person to continue doing bad deeds, he might still face a gloomy future.

A Path of Returning to Our Origins

People may wonder how to truly follow the divine’s will to return to our heavenly abode, where we came from. We need to constantly improve our character. This is a process called cultivation and it requires one to let go of bad thoughts and bad behaviors. For thousands of years, traditional Buddhism and Taoism have taught people to be good and offered salvation.

In today’s China, however, the CCP has not only eradicated these traditional values and ancient wisdom, it has also replaced them with the ideology of class struggle, hatred, brutality, and lies. Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that was introduced to the public in 1992, has brought hope to its practitioners, enabling them to improve health and character. Yet the CCP launched a nationwide campaign against the practice in 1999, and the persecution remains unabated to this day.

Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, a book published in 2004, has revealed the true history and nature of the CCP. Not only the regime has brought harm to Chinese people by persecuting innocent Falun Gong practitioners, it is now also endangering the world by exporting its ideology. By rejecting the CCP and embracing virtue, we will be able to get back on track of being good and receiving blessing from the divine.