Back in 1996, Teacher Li Hongzhi published two articles in succession to explain that cultivation practice and politics are two different things on two different levels. Falun Gong practitioners will never get involved in politics and they will never be taken advantage of by politics. Teacher Li repeatedly talked about this issue in his later lectures also.
Since the 10,000 Falun Dafa practitioners began appealing to higher authorities on April 25, 1999, the media in Mainland China and the Jiang Zemin gang that has ulterior motives began spreading slanderous rumors about Falun Dafa, claiming Falun Dafa had a political background and would be a threat to the state power of the X Party. Shackled by traditional notions and deceived by rumors, many people in China worried that Falun Dafa practitioners were getting involved in politics. Falun Dafa practitioners' spreading the Fa and safeguarding the Fa during those two years were considered to be involved in politics by some people who did not know the truth. Here, to clarify the truth and restore the reputation of Falun Dafa, I would like to talk about my personal understanding of why Falun Gong practitioners will never get involved in politics.
In the article Cultivation is not Practice, Teacher Li said, A cultivator does not need to mind the affairs of the human world, let alone get involved in political struggles. I think Teacher Li is talking about two things in this sentence. One is that politics is a concern of human society, but that Falun Dafa practitioners are not ordinary people and should not divert attention to such things. Our purpose as practitioners is to let go of ordinary human attachments, assimilate to the characteristics of the universe--Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance--through cultivation practice, until in the end, we return to our true selves. Teacher Li also exhorted us not to get involved in political struggles, because as Teacher Li said, taking advantage of our Dafa to get involved in politics is an act born of a filthy mindset that desecrates Buddha and the Fa (Cultivation is not Practice). Ever since human society started to have classes, ordinary people have had the attachments of reputation, self-interest, and feelings; this causes fighting with each other over reputation, self-interest, and feelings. What is politics? Politics has a close connection with political power. I think that today, politics refers to those strategies and activities which are at bottom struggles initiated by some parties, organizations or individuals, in order to seize or strengthen political power.
Within the boundary of humanitys politics, all those political ideologies, political strategies, political activities, and political movements are fundamentally the same, because their goals are all to fight for or strengthen political power. There are no political things going on without power struggles. When people had similar self-interests, peaceful political activities emerged, but when peaceful means could not solve the political disputes, wars took place. People only remember the brutal, horrible, and fierce wars but forget the filthy and hypocritical politics behind them.
Teacher Li has already made it clear in the article Dafa Will Forever be Pure like Diamond that practitioners should Never get involved in politics, nor interfere with state affairs. Truly cultivate and become benevolent. Keep Dafa pure, unchanged, and indestructible like diamond, and it will thereby exist forever. Then why did some people still take practitioners spreading the Fa and safeguarding the Fa as getting involved in politics? I think there are two reasons. One is that some people that have ulterior motives, like Jiang Zemin and his associates, spread slanderous rumors to confuse people, to confuse right and wrong, to smear Falun Dafa, and to frame up Dafa practitioners; their aim is to protect their political goal of dictatorship. Secondly, many people have not heard the truth of Falun Dafa. Shackled by traditional notions, they could not see through appearances to get at the essence. Besides, the political propaganda of the X Party deceived them so that they simply echoed the views of others.
Actually, Falun Dafa practitioners spreading the Fa and safeguarding the Fa is not getting involved in politics. Rather, it reflects much deeper meaning within Fa-principles. The following is my understanding about this.
1. The fundamental difference between practitioners and ordinary people lies in whether they are attached to reputation, self-interest and feelings. Practitioners try to get rid of these attachments to assimilate to the principles of the universeTruthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance. Throughout history, genuine practitioners have never been interested in human politics.
2. The universe has a principle called mutual-generation and mutual-inhibition: where there is righteousness, there is evil (For Whom do You Practice Cultivation?). Falun Dafa is righteous. Therefore, when the righteous Fa is being spread tens of thousands of demons are in the way. (Poem, Being Calm in Tribulation) Falun Dafa practitioners have to safeguard the Fa because the evil force is trying to damage and concoct lies about the Fa. This is a contest between right and wrong, kindness and viciousness. Falun Dafa practitioners safeguarding the Fa is a resistance against the evil force.
3. Falun Dafa practitioners spreading the Fa and safeguarding the Fa is fundamentally different from political struggles. It is with benevolence in their hearts that Falun Dafa practitioners peacefully tell others about the Fa; they lay bare the evil and clarify the truth. They have no personal motives for reputation, self-interest or feelings, and their actions have nothing to do with the power struggles of human society. Many Falun Dafa practitioners achieved total selflessness while spreading the Fa and safeguarding the Fa. Some even gave their lives. The political struggles of human society are just the opposite, because they serve the self-interest of the few that are holding the power (or fighting for power). Their means to realize their goals are filthy and vicious.
4. Freedom of belief is one of the basic human rights. However, defying world opinion, the corrupt Jiang Zemin political gang framed up and fabricated a charge against our Teacher as well as willfully trampling on Falun Dafa practitioners human rights. Falun Dafa practitioners going to the Appealing Department, Tiananmen Square, other governmental departments, Geneva, and the United Nations is not for the purpose of seizing power from anyone, but to clarify the truth, disclose the evil and call for an end to the malicious behavior of the Jiang Zemin regime.
5. Falun Dafa practitioners spreading the Fa and safeguarding the Fa is a necessary part of assisting Teacher in his journey in this world (Poem, Assisting the Fa). The Fa created the world that we are living in. Now Teacher has come to this world to spread the Fa and is using the Fa to rectify peoples hearts, save all sentient beings and rectify the cosmos. Falun Dafa practitioners spreading the Fa and safeguarding the Fa is assisting Teacher to rectify the Fa. Through this, people will awaken and the evil force will not deceive them any more. Eventually, Falun Dafas reputation will be fully restored.
6. Falun Dafa practitioners spreading the Fa and safeguarding the Fa is a part of our own practice in this human world. Genuine practitioners can improve their xinxing and levels only through stepping forward to experience various tribulations in society. When facing the evil force or experiencing different tribulations, only those who are consistently resolute are genuine practitioners.
7. Falun Dafa practitioners spreading the Fa and safeguarding the Fa is to save ordinary people; practitioners help people to know the truth. Then, ordinary peoples xinxing (heart/mind) level will be revealed in their attitudes towards the Fa and how they acknowledge the Fa, and this will determine their future.
In summary, cultivation practice and politics should not be mixed up; they are two different things in two different realms. Genuine Falun Dafa practitioners will never get involved in politics. Political forces cannot take advantage of practitioners, nor will we will ever get interested in any political trickery.
(Translated on July 16, 2001 from an edited version of http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2001/7/15/13468.html)