Some Reflections After a Nativity Play

Christmas arrived. The Church was full of people, and our children and their friends performed a traditional Nativity Play to parents, teachers and other guests. Angels in white walked forward slowly, a few little angels snuggled in older angels’ embrace, there was the sacred star, the 3 wise men; flocks of sheep and shepherds… Children sang, teachers sang, parents sang, one song after another. My eyes were filled with tears. Although I don’t understand a lot about Christianity and those songs, my heart was touched by my child’s purity, and by the aspiration to seek the Divine, and yearning for compassion from the depth of people’s hearts. This aspiration, this benevolence, beyond the usual pursuit of self, power and reputation, came from the depths of people’s hearts.

I thought of my motherland – China, where people are deprived of this kind of spiritual aspiration. In the Great Cultural Revolution 30 years ago, all kinds of pursuit of spirituality and ancient culture were banned. Buddhists, Daoists, Christians and so on were all demanded to transform their faith, to believe in the the Party, and it’s doctrines and ideal such as “Communism liberates people heavily burdened under Capitalism”, and it’s saying “Man can definitely defeat Heaven”. Huge propaganda campaigns brainwashed the whole race. Hundreds of millions of people would hold Mao’s Anthology in their hand and sing revolutionary songs. No one knows how many of those upright and outspoken people who opposed this movement/campaign out of their own conscience were killed. Those who thought that they themselves did not participate in this movement/campaign would realise, after the Great Cultural Revolution, that no one in the entire nationality was outside of this catastrophe.

Today in China the persecution of the people is not over. In a Christian newspaper I read about a Swedish priest’s visit to China, and understood that although China in name permits Christianity, it’s freedom of belief is actually limited. Amnesty International and other human rights associations have reported cases of arrests or death sentences of Christians, Muslims and followers of Tibetan religions. “Terrorists”, “superstition” and “evil cult” have became the latest labels, slapped on these traditional beliefs, and used by those in power to suppress them at will. The persecution of Falun Gong has spread throughout the country, even to the extent that people are forbidden to mention the words “Falun Gong”. The self-immolation incident was blamed on Falun Gong. Not only in China do they broadcast propaganda on TV day and night, they also do so in foreign Chinese embassies’ and on overseas Chinese activities; according to my friend who had just arrived from China, even toddlers in nurseries had to watch those bloodcurdling videos. In order to arrest people who practise Falun Gong, on the streets, the police forced people to curse Falun Gong. It’s founder’s portraits have been placed under turn-styles in train and bus stations. If pedestrians didn’t swear at, or step on the picture on it then they would be taken to be practitioners, and would be detained.

I mourn, because I know in my homeland, the evil regime is persecuting kindness and the aspiration for the Divine in people’s hearts. Falun Gong is a Qigong cultivation practice of the Buddha school, upholding the principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance”. It emphasises rectifying one’s heart using benevolence, helping people to judge things according to one’s own compassionate nature, being responsible to oneself and to others, without emphasising any external format or ceremony or ritual.

On the way back home from the nativity play, my heart was filled with joy - I had heard a tune that is passed on around the world, the song of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance.