Eliminating the Toxin of Atheism

(Minghui.org) Recently, my wife (a fellow practitioner) experienced some tribulations in her cultivation due to her attachment to our son.

She loves our son very much and cares for him in every possible way. Letting him suffer even a little bit is unacceptable to her; her hope is that he will grow up happy, without any hardships, like a flower in a greenhouse.

To that end, she has planned our son’s future path by herself and works hard to educate him so that he will succeed.

However, all of her efforts have resulted in her spoiling our child.

Doting on Children Is Not a Normal Parent-Child Relationship

I’d always thought that it was normal for mothers to dote on their children. But now I’ve realized that this kind of relationship is not normal. It’s actually a deviant phenomenon rooted in atheism.

In traditional culture, when a mother teaches her children, she understands that a child’s life is arranged by the divine, and she guides her children with that understanding in mind.

She teaches her children rationally and with kindness. She doesn’t go to either extreme by coercing or coddling. She knows that children should suffer some hardships so that they can learn to persevere and overcome difficulties from an early age.

There are many examples throughout history of healthy parent-child relationships, such as how Emperor Kangxi educated his children, how General Yue Fei’s mother taught him to “serve the motherland with selfless loyalty” and tattooed the phrase onto his back, and how Hua Mulan enlisted in the army in her father’s place.

However, due to the influence of atheism nowadays, people do not believe in the existence of gods and Buddhas, let alone that their children’s lives are divinely arranged. And they have no way to understand that the hardships their children experience are a way of paying off their karmic debts from past misdeeds.

As a result, modern parents try to plan out every detail of their children’s lives based on their own limited mindsets and seek to shield their children from any hardship. They want their children’s lives to be easy and successful—but with all the complications of karmic relationships and debts, how could that be possible?

And when these parents cannot achieve their goals, they go to extremes. They either spoil their children rotten or use unreasonably strict measures to force their children into doing what they want. This kind of parental love has corrupted the normal parent-child relationship.

As practitioners, especially Dafa disciples, if we want to get rid of this human attachment, we should clean out the toxins of atheism and completely eradicate the root cause of this sentimentality. Only then can we truly let go of this kind of misguided love for our children that does them more harm than good.

In fact, I have noticed that atheism, instilled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has not only distorted the mother-child relationship, but also the relationship between all kinds of people in China, including the love between husband and wife, the love for parents, the love for family members, and so on.

Atheism has warped all these relationships, which no longer meet the standard for what people should have normally.

Atheism Seriously Hinders Our Cultivation and Saving People

I have now become more and more aware that the toxin of atheism has seeped into every aspect of our lives and seriously hindered our cultivation and ability to save people. Many problems that arise in our cultivation are connected in one way or another with atheistic beliefs.

Cultivation requires faith in Master and the Fa, but oftentimes we behave as if we don’t believe in Master and the Fa due to a fear of the persecution and other human attachments that we haven’t let go of yet. But beyond that, at a deeper level, is atheism—something I never noticed until recently. Oftentimes, this toxin has not been cleaned out of our minds.

We all know that in ancient China, people were prepared to give up their lives to stay true to their word and regarded as a life principle the willingness to sacrifice one’s life for a just cause. Cultivators had an even stronger faith in their master, as well as gods and Buddhas.

As one example, no matter how badly his master treated him, Milarepa never had any negative thoughts about his master. Tripitaka firmly believed in the Dharma and remained unmoved in the face of tribulations he encountered on his journey to the west in search of Buddhist scriptures.

So why is it that sometimes some fellow practitioners behave as if they do not believe in Master and the Fa? This is because they do not truly have a rational understanding of Master and the Fa due to the atheistic beliefs in our minds, and they are actually still using atheistic notions to understand cultivation and our relationship to Master and Dafa.

That’s why they don’t seem to care much about the tests they have failed to pass, including their acts that betrayed Master and Dafa.

If we can understand our cultivation from the perspective of traditional culture, we will not have such incorrect attitudes about cultivation. We will be able to perceive the profound and unprecedented nature of Fa-rectification cultivation in the history of the entire universe in light of Master’s Fa-rectification.

We all know that in cultivation we must look inward to cultivate our own xinxing. But we often fail to look within because we are so used to looking outward and have thus lost many precious opportunities to improve our xinxing.

Where does this outward-looking way of thinking come from? In traditional culture, the ancient Chinese paid attention to self-cultivation and self-examination instead of looking outwards.

I have realized that the reason some fellow practitioners habitually look outwards is because they have yet to free themselves from the deviant way of thinking instilled in them by CCP culture.

The CCP brainwashes the Chinese people by declaring repeatedly that it is always “great, glorious, and correct.” All along, however, it has been destroying authentic Chinese culture so that we cannot reflect upon ourselves from the perspective of the traditional when dealing with problems.

Under these influences, the Chinese have gradually developed the attitude that, by default, they are always right. Driven by such a perception, when problems arise, they point fingers at others instead of looking within themselves.

If we want to truly cultivate ourselves, we must do away with this degenerate way of thinking and eliminate the toxin of atheism in our minds.

I understand from Master’s teachings that one cannot succeed in cultivation without letting go of jealousy. Jealousy can stem from various factors, such as an introverted personality, egalitarianism, a competitive mentality, excessive vanity, and so on. This led me to understand that the reason why people in China today are so jealous is because they have been so thoroughly indoctrinated by atheism and the Party culture.

If we educated ourselves with traditional culture, we would understand that everyone’s life is arranged by the divine based on one’s karmic debts. Everyone’s gains and losses in life are predestined, so there is no point in being jealous.

As Fa-rectification disciples, we know that Dafa and the Creator have arranged everything that happens today. If we feel resentful about something in our lives, aren’t we being dissatisfied with Master’s arrangements? Isn’t this a problem?

The CCP has destroyed traditional culture, and people now regard everything they possess as the result of their own efforts. They fight each another for a tiny of personal gain. On top of this, the delusion of absolute egalitarianism instilled into people’s minds by the CCP has driven their jealousy to extraordinary levels.

The root cause of the jealousy in Chinese people today is the CCP’s atheism. As Dafa practitioners, if we want to get rid of this jealousy, we must first eradicate the toxin of atheism in our minds.

The Attachment to Comfort Is Also Derived from Atheism and Evolution

Another thing that can destroy a practitioner is the attachment to comfort. Many cultivators were ruined because they were driven by a strong attachment to comfort and didn’t want to suffer any hardships. They wanted to find shortcuts and were taken in by so-called “high-level Fa principles” by the old forces, which ultimately led them astray.

The attachment to comfort wants our physical bodies to feel comfortable. Where does this idea come from?

I found that such an attachment is engendered by atheism and the theory of evolution, which encourage people to perceive the human body as a purely material entity. When people stop believing in gods and reincarnation based on karmic relationships, they devote themselves to enjoying life’s pleasures in the here and now.

The theory of evolution has deceived people, leading them to believe that humans are a random product of evolution and that the human body is just a clump of DNA and proteins that disappear after death.

Therefore, to be “happy,” people have developed a mentality that shies away from hardship and rejects suffering, making them strongly attached to comfort.

From the perspective of traditional culture, God created everything we have, including this physical body, so that we can repay our karmic debts through suffering—not to enjoy life.

From the perspective of Fa-rectification cultivation, Master gave us our physical bodies so that we can cultivate and assist him in saving people, not to seek comfort and ease in the human world. However, we are often influenced by the toxin of atheism and use our physical body to seek human comfort, which delays both our cultivation and saving people.

In order to get rid of the attachment to comfort, we must eliminate the toxin of atheism in our minds. The Chinese have always been known for their diligence and courage. It is the CCP that has destroyed China’s traditional culture, leading us to deviate from tradition and seek comfort above all else.

One Cannot Truly Obtain the Fa without Completely Eliminating the Toxin of Atheism

Dafa cultivation directly targets people’s hearts. If we want to cultivate ourselves well, we must study the Fa more, study the Fa well, and truly comprehend the Fa.

Yet, there is one factor that hinders us from obtaining the Fa in our Fa study, and that is the toxin of atheism. Whether we can truly study the Fa and obtain the Fa, it all comes down to our attitude towards the Fa.

In the past, how did monks treat the scriptures that guided their cultivation? Their humble and respectful attitude toward the Dharma was well documented in history books.

However, people today who are deeply influenced by atheism treat gods, Buddhas, and the scriptures with modern notions. They regard gods and Buddhas as idols and scriptures as ordinary books. Such deviant thinking also exists in our minds.

Some practitioners casually leave Dafa books just anywhere and have even let them get dirty. Isn’t this also a reflection of these deviant notions? With such an attitude towards Dafa, can they obtain the Fa while studying the Fa? One cannot truly obtain the Fa with such an atheistic mindset.

This is probably the main reason why many of our fellow practitioners fail to obtain the Fa even though they study the Fa. It is also the fundamental reason why they cannot truly understand the Fa of the universe and Master.

We must eliminate the toxin of atheism and return to tradition, for only then can we truly understand and enlighten to the great Fa of the universe, and only then will we know how to cherish it.

The Fa-rectification period is now transitioning to the Fa-rectification of the human world. Atheism, evolutionary theory, as well as modern concepts and behaviors, have become the main obstacles to our cultivation and saving people today, and they are also the main stumbling blocks that hold back the transition to Fa-rectification of the human world.

To eliminate the deviant substances in our minds, we need to read and listen to the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, The Ultimate Goal of Communism, Disintegrating Party Culture, The Devil Is Dominating Our World, and, more importantly, study Hong Yin VI.

I feel that Hong Yin VI is a precious Fa tool Master has given us to do away with all these deviant notions. My personal recommendation is that we memorize Hong Yin VI, as we will gain unexpected benefits by doing so.

The above is only my personal understanding. Please kindly point out anything improper.

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)