[Selected Opinion Articles] Embracing the Divine with a Humble Heart

(Minghui.org) Growing up in China, with the atheist education under the communist Party, I had always busied myself in pursuing a better life or getting promoted at work. In my eyes, everything was tangible and practical. It never occurred to me whether there were deeper connections between things or the existence of the divine or a higher consciousness.

Thirty years ago, Falun Dafa, an ancient spiritual discipline, was introduced to the world. I had the privilege of reading the writings. Although I had little knowledge on Gods, Buddhas and spiritual cultivation, I was touched by the beautiful sacredness of Dafa. My innate pursuit for goodness shone through and led me to Dafa.

Falun Dafa’s profound exposition on life, the universe and its fundamental characteristics opened my eyes. One day, I suddenly understood that Gods are real. Gods and Buddhas have great abilities; without moving their hands or feet, they are able to do what others cannot do.

But somehow, I still couldn’t understand the manifestation of miracles, even after years of spiritual cultivation.

In the past, I was at odds with my husband over trivial matters. In my eyes, I was often wrongfully accused, despite having better character and good intentions for him. When he grew unreasonable and a mutual understanding couldn’t be met, my resentment, jealousy and suffocation would evolve into anger. It was not until I made up my mind to truly act by Dafa’s requirements that I was able to move on in my cultivation.

Although our quarrels had lessened after I practiced Dafa, I would still weigh rights and wrongs with surface reasons and then passively accept it. I thought to myself: this is how it is, and it can’t be helped. A few years ago, I finally began to pay attention to this problem and decided not to emphasize various superficial reasons and justifications, and let my own attachments fall away. Instead, I needed to focus on unconditionally improving myself.

It pained me to my core to still look within unconditionally to find my own faults, especially when I felt wronged and indignant. Fortunately, Dafa’s teachings constantly strengthened my righteous thoughts, and let me see my shortcomings. I began to recognize attachments such as resentment, anger, jealousy, and many other bad thoughts within me.

I was limited to my own point of view and had formed negative thoughts and stubborn notions towards family members. I was able to recognize and correct more and more of these problems. As I continued to see my limitations, superficiality, indifference, and irrationality, I developed a sense of humility and truly felt that as a human being, we need to be humble and kind.

Looking back at my own cultivation journey, I suddenly realized that I had experienced many miracles without ever noticing it: I had not been in a hospital for 20 years, yet I was in better health than my younger self.

When detained in the brainwashing center, I was on a hunger strike for over 20 days, yet my body was functioning normally. The only thing I noticed was that I lost some weight.

After being force-fed with a thick salt paste, I was in critical condition and diagnosed with tuberculosis. I stopped the medicine after returning home and three months later, my re-examination showed that the tuberculosis calcification had healed.

In prison, the torture I endured was enough to break a regular person’s spirit. But with Dafa in my heart, I was able to withstand it with peace, without bearing resentment or hatred for the perpetrators.

I came to an understanding that things that cannot be explained or achieved by science or the average human were the work of the divine and the manifestation of miracles.

With this new understanding, I felt that miracles were omnipresent, even in this modern, chaotic society. People with incurable illnesses or suffering from natural or man-made disasters regained their lives after sincerely chanting the auspicious phrases “Falun Dafa is good; Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance is good.”

Many people who were addicted to drugs, gambling, video games or grew agitated, depressed or suicidal quit the bad thoughts after taking up Dafa. Even death row inmates, upon hearing from unlawfully imprisoned Dafa practitioners, were touched by Dafa’s principles and atoned for their sins.

It’s also a miracle that Falun Dafa practitioners have endured over 20 years of brutal persecution and suppression by the Chinese Communist Party and the entire state apparatus, and persevered in spreading the truth.

Now that I think about it, Dafa cultivation has never been short of miracles. They are all around us, but it just depends on whether we can recognize it or not.

Since ancient times, viewing human existence, the human body, life and everything else as Gods’ creation was commonly accepted. It’s the divine that unconditionally gives every person in the world sunlight, air, water, day and night, life and the environment in which we live. But the lie of atheism and the theory of evolution has cut off the connection between man and the divine and lead people to sin against the divine.

Because of modern notions and atheism, some people, including practitioners, remain oblivious to the divine existence around us. Looking back, wasn’t I one of them?

Since ancient times, “good is rewarded with good and evil with evil” was common sense for those of righteous faith. It is with righteous faith and the divine’s blessings that we humans have been able to continue for thousands of years to come to this day. Although we have been poisoned by atheism and the theory of evolution, it is in the nature of man to be good.

As human beings, we need to have faith in the divine and be humble to everything around us, as there is a divine presence in everything in the world.