My Understanding of "Pulling Teeth in Eastern and Western Medicine"

In Zhuan Falun (a book containing the core teachings in Falun Gong), the founder of Falun Gong, Teacher Li made a comparison between how teeth are extracted in eastern and western medicine. Master said,

"His point wasn't to pull teeth but to sell his chemical solution. The solution gave off strong yellow vapours. When he pulled somebody's tooth he'd open the solution's bottle and hold it next to the person's cheek where the bad tooth was, and ask the person to suck in the vapours of the solution a few times. Barely any of the solution would be consumed, and he'd cap it and set it aside. Then he'd take a matchstick out of his pocket, and as he talked about his solution he'd just flick the tooth with the matchstick and it would pop out. It wouldn't hurt, and there'd just be a few flecks of blood, but no bleeding. Just think about it, the matchstick would have broken if he'd used any force. But he used it to pop the tooth out with just a flick."

"I'd say that some of the folk things that have been passed down in China actually beat Western medicine's sophisticated instruments. Let's see which works better. That person flicked the tooth with a matchstick and it popped out. When a doctor of Western medicine pulls a tooth, he first injects an anaesthetic, he jabs all over the place, and the jabbing hurts badly. Then, when the anaesthetic kicks in the doctor pulls the tooth with a pair of pliers. After all that pulling, whoops, the tooth might even snap off with its root still in there. So then he uses a big hammer and a chisel to dig it out, and the pounding scares you out of your wits. Then he uses this sophisticated instrument to drill into you, and it's enough to make some people jump out of their seat. It really hurts, you bleed a lot, and you keep spitting out blood for a while. So whose would you say is better? Whose would you say is more advanced? We shouldn't be looking at how the tools look, but at how effective they actually are."

After reading Master's teachings in this section once again, I came to the following new understanding. The street vendor who pulled teeth for the onlookers did not have any academic degree. In the eyes of most people, only scholars and professors with seniority and degrees in higher education are expert enough to cure sophisticated illnesses. What most people look at are only superficial things. However, no matter how high a degree a person holds, he can only utilise superficial tools to cure the illnesses in this dimension. Because of the superficial and mechanical nature of western medicine, he cannot solve the fundamental problems.

When Falun Dafa practitioners clarify the truth, they are trying to eliminate the root cause of people's "illnesses." As a result of slanderous propaganda, "the evil spirit of communism" has possessed many people. This dark spirit is the root cause of all of these "illnesses." Realising the root cause, one can easily save the sentient beings that are possessed by this evil spirit.

Therefore, "His point wasn't to pull teeth but to sell his chemical solution." (From Zhuan Falun) Likewise, the purpose is not to reveal the facts of the persecution, but to save the sentient beings and to assist Master to rectify the Fa (Law or Principles, the teachings in Falun Dafa). Falun Dafa practitioners all have the supernormal abilities that are comparable to how the street vendor pulled the tooth with just a matchstick. It was not the matchstick the street vendor used, but the vapours of the solution that helped him to pop the tooth out. Likewise, the righteous thoughts that Falun Dafa practitioners send forth before clarifying the truth are the supernormal abilities that can eliminate the root cause of people's "illnesses" in other dimensions, just like the yellow vapours of the solution did to the bad tooth. Since pure righteous thoughts can dissolve the evil spirits in other dimensions, sending forth pure righteous thoughts is the simplest but the most effective supernormal ability that Teacher grants to us practitioners. Although every Falun Dafa practitioner possesses this ability, some of us cannot give full play to the ability because we often use our flesh eyes and human way of thinking to look at superficial things. Of course, it is our attachments that restrain us from making good use of this supernormal capability. Master taught us, "A great way is extremely simple and easy." (The Great Consummation Way of Falun Dafa) How much do we truly understand the meaning of these words?

With regard to the persecution by the old forces, we often make the same mistake as non-practitioners by seeing it as something like a sophisticated precision instrument. Some of us are doubtful of the most sacred supernormal capability that Teacher grants us - sending forth righteous thoughts. Our attachments are also beings that possess our bodies. On the Clearwisdom website, practitioners have talked about how sickness karma recurs. Back on March 5th, 2002, when official TV programming in China was interrupted by footage about Falun Gong aired by practitioners, the suppression that followed was strikingly severe in the city of Changchun. There were widespread arrests, and the authorities abducted me. When I tried to escape imprisonment and persecution by jumping out of a building, I fractured my back. Due to my own attachments, I had to have surgery, where metal pins were used to repair my vertebrae. Since then, whenever I don't do well in practising the Falun Gong exercises, I feel pain in my back. After reading a fellow practitioner's recent article entitled "Possession by the Communist Spirit," I suddenly enlightened that having an operation itself is to follow the arrangement of the evil forces. As a result, the evil spirit stays in my body and constantly reminds me of my fractured back. It keeps reminding me that I have problems in my body. I can't help massaging myself when it's very painful. This further strengthens the evil spirit.

The cultivation path is supposed to be straight, but our attachments make it distorted and bumpy. I hope all practitioners who have the same problems and attachments as mine can let go of them. Occasionally when I talk to others, I show off my superior capability by talking about how I could melt the metal in my body without needing a second operation as long as I keep practising. Such a thought is certainly not righteous. It is the attachment to validating myself, which can be easily exploited by the evil.