About
Dr. Shizhong Chen Dr. Shizhong Chen has been active in
projects concerning China for over 30
years. He has founded, co-founded, or
been spokesperson for a number of
organizations concerning China, and has
spoken extensively on issues related to
China.
__ Dr. Chen began his activism in 1989,
when he helped to organize supporting
activities during the 1989 Beijing
Student Movement. Outraged by the June
4th Massacre, Dr. Chen founded the
Tiananmen Square Foundation, has served
on the Board of the Press Freedom
Guardian, and was elected as the vice
president of The Independent Federation
of Chinese Students and Scholars in the
U.S.
__ Upon learning the brutal persecution of
Falun Gong in China, Dr. Chen founded
the Falun Gong Human Rights Working
Group in 2001, and has since submitted
over 100,000 cases of human rights
abuses against Falun Gong practitioners
to UN Special Rapporteurs. He also
founded and is President of the
Conscience Foundation, a non-profit
organization to publicize and remind
people that the human conscience is the
very essence of humanity.
Dr. Chen has spoken extensively on the
issue of human rights in China. Since
2001, he has frequented meetings of the
U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva
(now the Human Rights Council), spoken
to the Council, to Special Rapporteurs,
and at many forums to forward the cause
of human rights. He was a panelist at an
annual meeting of the California Bar
Association, has spoken to Amnesty
International’s US West Region, and has
made numerous appearances at various
forums and on radio and TV shows and
interviews.
Among the books that Dr. Chen has
authored or co-authored are: Stories of
Conscience, The Falun Gong Report, Falun
Gong, Humanity’s Last Stand, now in its
third edition, and, most recently, a
comprehensive report on the extensive
psychiatric torture taking place in
China. In 2005, Dr. Chen conceived the
idea of the Courageous People, Spirited
Land TV series and implemented the
project. The programs have since become
very popular in China where viewers have
been disseminating them defying Chinese
regime’s prohibition.
From 2010, Dr. Chen has given a
presentation on The Renaissance of
Chinese Culture over one hundred Rotary
Clubs, Kiwanis Clubs, Lion Clubs, and
various colleges.
From 2012, Dr. Chen has been working
with a group of activists in China to
use China’s current laws to defend civil
rights. Dr. Chen was born in China in 1962. At
15, he entered the gifted program at
China University of Science and
Technology. He came to the U.S. in 1982
to study and received his Ph.D. degree
in molecular biology at University of
California, San Diego. He currently owns
and runs a molecular biology startup in
San Diego.
Falun
Gong Founder Mr. Li Hongzhi Publishes ‘How
Humankind Came To Be'
Mr. Li Hongzhi
is the founder of the spiritual discipline
Falun Gong. The practice combines
meditation and gentle exercises with a moral
philosophy centered on the tenets of
truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.
After Mr. Li introduced the practice to the
public in China in the early 1990s, an
estimated 100 million people started
practicing. Since then, the practice has
spread to more than 100 countries around the
world.
Despite this, in China, the practice has
been subjected to extreme persecution by the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This includes
a campaign of hate propaganda and censorship
by the CCP, both in China and in the West.
The Epoch Times, on the occasion of the
Chinese New Year, is honored to provide a
platform to Mr. Li.
Mr. Li is a four-time Nobel Peace Prize
nominee and was nominated by the European
Parliament for the Sakharov Prize for
Freedom of Thought. He is also the recipient
of Freedom House’s International Religious
Freedom Award.
Mr. Li is the author of the book “Zhuan
Falun,” which has been translated into
40 languages. The following is the article
“How Humankind Came to Be” by Mr. Li,
translated from
Chinese.
How Humankind
Came To Be
I would like
to first pass along my greetings to everyone
on the advent of the Chinese New Year.
New Year’s would normally be a time for
sharing a few pleasant remarks about the
occasion. But I am seeing imminent danger
approaching humanity, and have been called
upon by divine beings to pass along, for
this reason, several things to everyone in
this world. Each of what I am about to
disclose is a higher, closely guarded
secret, and these are being shared to
provide a true picture of affairs, and to
give people another chance at salvation.
First is the question of how humankind came
about. From the dawn of its creation to its
final days, the universe has gone through an
exceptionally long passage of time
consisting of four stages: Formation,
Stasis, Degeneration, and Destruction. When
the final point of the Destruction stage is
reached, the complete obliteration of
everything in the greater cosmic body—which
includes the universe in which we
exist—takes place instantaneously, and all
living things perish!
When a person dies, it is just a matter of
his physical body declining and breaking
down, while his true soul (which is who he
really is, and which does not die with the
passing of his physical body) will continue
on in a next life, being reborn. So just as
the universe goes through formation, stasis,
degeneration, and destruction, so too do
human beings go through birth, aging,
illness, and death. These are laws of the
universe, to which even higher beings are
subject, only the time span is longer, with
the process being more drawn out in
proportion to how great the beings are. Life
and death are not painful for them, and they
remain cognizant throughout these
processes—to them, it is as if but changing
outfits. Put differently, normally, lives do
not really die. When the universe and the
cosmos disintegrate at the final stage of
the
Formation-Stasis-Degeneration-Destruction
process, however, lives will not be reborn,
and there will be no more existence of life
or matter, with all turning to dust and
there being only emptiness. Currently, the
human world is experiencing the last period
in the Destruction phase of the
Formation-Stasis-Degeneration-Destruction
progression. Everything has changed for the
worse in these end times, as fated, and
destruction is thus imminent. And it is for
this reason that the world is so troubled.
Good thoughts are rare, people’s minds have
become twisted, debauchery and drug abuse
are rampant, and people subscribe to
atheism. These are inevitable in the last
stage of the cosmos, and bespeak of the time
at which we have arrived!
The Creator cherishes all of the heavenly
beings that exist as well as all of the
lives that are good and kind, and all of the
glorious creations in the cosmos. So at the
beginning of the Degeneration stage, the
Creator led a number of divine beings to the
outermost plane of the cosmic body (known
generally as “that which is outside the
Divine Realm”), a place where there are no
divine beings, and created Earth. But Earth
hadn’t the capacity to exist independently;
it needed for there to be a corresponding
cosmic structure with which it could form a
circulatory system involving life and
matter. For this reason, the Creator made a
larger expanse outside of the Earth, which
higher beings refer to as the “Three
Realms.” Before the final time of salvation
arrived, no higher beings, however great,
would be allowed to enter this expanse
without the Creator’s permission. The
expanse of the Three Realms comprises three
major realms: the Realm of Desire (yu),
which is made up of the lives on this earth,
including humankind; a second realm, the
Realm of Likings (se), which is above it;
and a third realm, further above, known as
the Realm Without Likings (wu se). Each
successive realm is higher and more glorious
than that below it, though none can compare
to the Divine Realm or the many heavenly
kingdoms still higher. The “heaven” that
people normally refer to is in fact within
either the Realm of Likings or the Realm
Without Likings, within the Three Realms.
Each of the Three Realms has 10 planes
within it, making for a total of 33 planes
in all, if you include the Three Realms
themselves. Human beings reside in the Realm
of Desire, and this is the lowest of all
planes, with the worst environment. Life is
painful and short here, but more dreadful
still is the fact that in the human world,
few of the things people take to be truths
are actually valid. What human beings hold
to be true is on the whole considered the
opposite in the larger universe (but an
exception is the higher truths that holy
beings have taught to man). For example, the
divine does not consider it right for
whomever is victorious in battle to become
ruler, for territory to be seized by
military force, or for the powerful to be
seen as heroes, since killing and forcefully
taking from others are involved. That is not
the way of the universe, nor how higher
beings go about things. Yet in the human
world, these are inevitable and accepted.
Those are the ways of the human world, but
they are contrary to the ways of the
universe. Thus, if a person wishes to return
to heaven, he must follow true, higher laws
and work on himself. Some people are content
when they are doing a bit better in life
than others. But such people are only
comparing themselves with other human beings
within this human realm, when everyone here
is in fact living in what is considered to
be the trash bin of the universe. The Three
Realms were established at the outermost
perimeter of the cosmic body, and everything
here is made up of the lowest, crudest, and
filthiest of particles—molecules, atoms, and
the like. In the eyes of higher beings, this
is where the trash of the universe is cast
away. They thus regard this plane of
molecules as dust or “clay” and see it as
the lowliest of places. This is the origin
of the belief held in some religions that
man was made by the divine out of clay. Man
was indeed formed out of matter at the
molecular plane.
When divine beings made man, they did so at
the Creator’s behest, and He instructed them
to each make human beings in their own
unique image. For this reason, there are the
white, yellow, black, and other races. While
their outward appearances differ, the souls
within them were given by the Creator. And
that is why they have common values. The
purpose that the Creator had in directing
divine beings to make man was to make use of
man in the final times when He would offer
all lives of the greater universe—including
holy beings—salvation.
But why would the Creator have divine beings
create humans in such a lowly and inferior
place? It was because, with this being the
universe’s lowest plane, it is the most
grueling of places, and only when things are
trying and painful may a person elevate
himself through spiritual practice and shed
his or her karma. When a person, amidst
painful experiences, still manages to keep
kind thoughts, have gratitude, and be a good
person, he or she is growing through it.
Salvation is a process of ascending from low
to high, and so one has to start from the
bottom. Life is trying for anyone living
here. There are the tensions between people
when they are trying to make out better,
there is the terrible state of the natural
environment, and there is the fact that just
getting by in life takes a great deal of
thought and effort, to name just a few
examples. All of these circumstances provide
people with opportunities to develop
themselves and lessen their karma. It is
certain that going through hardships can
help people to atone for their sins and
karma. And anyone who manages to stay
good-natured amidst painful situations and
interpersonal troubles is going to build up
merit and virtue and, as a result, will
achieve the elevation of his or her soul.
With the arrival of modern times, the
Creator had intended to utilize mainly the
human body to save the many lives of the
universe. And so the souls originally in the
majority of human bodies here were replaced
by those of higher beings, who incarnated in
them. With a human body, they could reduce
their karma and sins by enduring hardship.
And in this place that is devoid of truth,
they could, by holding fast to the higher
truths taught by God and persevering in
goodness and kindness, achieve the elevation
of their souls. The end times are now upon
us; the Heavenly Gate that leads out of the
Three Realms has been opened, and the
Creator is choosing such beings for
deliverance.
Everything in the universe had become impure
during the Formation, Stasis, and
Degeneration phases, and inferior to when
creation was begun. And this is why things
are heading for Destruction. In other words,
everything in the greater universe has gone
bad, the lives of creation are no longer as
good as they were in the very beginning, are
no longer pure, and all of them have accrued
karma and sins. And this accounts for
Destruction coming about. This kind of sin
is what has been referred to in religious
contexts as original sin. So that the
universe could be saved, the Creator
directed a multitude of higher beings and
divine sovereigns to descend to the earth
and assume human form in this setting, where
they would suffer, elevate, atone for their
sins, and forge themselves anew—re-ascending
to heaven as a result. (The Creator has been
re-making the universe at the same time as
saving humankind.) The new universe is
perfectly pure and simply glorious. If, in a
trying setting like this, a person can still
keep his thoughts virtuous; if he can hold
his ground against the onslaught of modern
values and views, and stick to traditional
ones; and if he still believes in the divine
in the face of assaults from the atheist and
evolutionary camps, then that person will
fulfill his purpose: to gain salvation and
return to heaven. All of the madness now
unfolding in the world was planned as such,
for the final phase, by divine beings. Their
goal was to test the lives here and see
whether they were worthy of salvation, and
give them a chance to, in the process, work
off their sins and karma while going through
difficult things. And all of this was done
so that people could be saved and gain
deliverance back to heaven.
All of this is to say that the purpose of
people’s lives on this earth isn’t to
accomplish something in the world. All of
the intense efforts and attempts people make
in life, and their drive to get what they
want, which can even involve resorting to
unscrupulous means, only make people immoral
in the end. The reason people came to this
world and became human was to atone for
their sins and karma, and to make
significant spiritual progress. People came
to this world to gain salvation. They came
and assumed human form to await the Creator
and his salvation back to their heavenly
kingdom. And while they waited, they built
up merit over their many past lives, and
that was the purpose of people’s rebirths.
The troubled nature of this world is meant
to make something great of these lives. Of
course, there are some people who, when
seeking divine help in times of duress,
haven’t been satisfied with the outcome and
started to loathe God—even turning against
Him as a result. Some have even turned to
the demonic, dark side, and committed still
further sins and made yet more karma. Those
whom this applies to had best quickly come
around and beg God for forgiveness, if they
are still to have a chance of reaching
safety. Everything that happens in one’s
life—whether it seems warranted or not—is,
in reality, the karmic consequence of what
one did in one’s past lives, for better or
for worse. The amount of blessings and
virtue that one built up in one’s past lives
determine what fortune is in store in this
lifetime, or perhaps the next. If one lives
a blessed and virtuous life now, perhaps it
will translate in one’s next lifetime into a
high position and salary, or it might
translate into different kinds of wealth and
fortune. And this would also include whether
one has a happy family, or even how one’s
children turn out, and so on. This is the
fundamental reason why some people are
wealthy and others poor, why some hold
positions of high rank while others are
destitute and homeless. It’s nothing like
the diabolical nonsense that sinister
communism spouts about equality between rich
and poor. The universe is fair. Those who do
good are blessed for it, while those who do
bad things will face payback—if not in this
life, then in the next. For this is an
immutable law of the universe! Heaven,
Earth, the Divine, and the Creator alike are
compassionate toward all lives. Heaven and
Earth, just as was man, were made by the
Creator, and it is never the case that He
plays favorites with some lives and
shortchanges others. The reason some people
lead happy lives and others do not all comes
down to rewards and retribution for past
deeds.
When you see people winning or losing in
life, it appears to come about in a normal
way from things in this world. But it is
ultimately the karmic consequences of those
people’s past doings. Whether people have
something or not, or are winning or losing
in life, is going to play out in ways that
accord with this world. So no matter whether
you are rich or poor in life, you should be
sure to do good, refrain from doing bad
things, stay good and kind, be spiritual and
devout, and be happy to help others. And by
doing so, you will build up blessings and
virtue, and reap their rewards in the next
life. In the past, the older generation in
China would often talk about things like not
lamenting your lot in life when things are
hard and about earning a better next life by
gaining virtue through good deeds. And the
point was that it’s useless praying to God
for help if you didn’t do good things in
your former life and earn blessings. The
universe has its laws, and even higher
beings must obey them. Even they will be
punished if they do things they shouldn’t.
So things are not as simple as people take
them to be. Should people expect higher
beings to give them whatever they pray for?
The prerequisite is that one has to have
built up the blessings and virtue for it
over past lifetimes. And so the things that
come to you are on account of the blessings
and virtue you have! This is what the laws
of the universe dictate. But speaking on a
fundamental level, getting what you want is
not the ultimate goal of accumulating
blessings and virtue. The real purpose of
building those up is to pave the way for you
back to heaven. And that is what’s most
crucial, not the brief round of happiness
that they can bring you in this lifetime!
Teacher Li Hongzhi
*** Jan. 20, 2023 ***
Editor’s Note
Falun Gong is practiced by more than 100
million people worldwide. Yet despite the
scale of this cultural phenomenon, it has
largely been underreported. The Epoch Times,
as a media organization that cherishes
religious freedom, is honored to be the
first media to publish this article by Falun
Gong’s founder. We welcome feedback;
however, we expect comments to be civilized
and respectful. We were forced to disable
the comment section on this article because
some debate fell short of this expectation.
We also need to protect our content from
attacks by the Chinese Communist Party. As
always, we would still love to hear your
thoughts; to contact us, please
click here and fill out the contact
form.
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