Cleaning Out the Insects in the Bathtub

Written by Xiaoyuan

In Chapter Seven of Zhuan Falun, it says: "One day Sakyamuni was going to take a bath in a forest, and he asked a disciple to clean the bathtub. His disciple went to the bathtub and found it full of insects crawling everywhere. The insects would be killed if he cleaned the bathtub. The disciple came back to Sakyamuni and said: 'The bathtub is full of insects.' Sakyamuni did not look at him and replied: 'You should go and clean the bathtub.' The disciple went back to the bathtub and did not know how to clean it, as doing so would kill the insects. He again came back to Sakyamuni and said: 'Master, the bathtub is full of insects. If I clean it, the insects will be killed.' Sakyamuni looked at him and said: 'What I asked you to do was to clean the bathtub.' The disciple understood all of a sudden, and he went and cleaned the bathtub right away."

Though I have read Zhuan Falun nearly 100 times, I never realized what the disciple understood in the passage. Sakyamuni told the disciple to go clean the bathtub. What is the meaning behind this? It wasn't until I was reading Zhuan Falun with a clear mind recently that I finally came to an understanding of it.

Sakyamuni said: "What I asked you to do was to clean the bathtub." The focus of this statement is the bathtub. A bathtub is a place for people to take a bath, it is not a home for insects. If it is not cleaned, it will not be able to carry out its function, and cannot be called a bathtub. It will exist in an incorrect state.

Let me apply this principle to human society in this special historic period. Human society should have its principles of development for human society, and humans should have the human dignity and living environment for human beings. Therefore, Falun Dafa practitioners sending forth pure righteous thoughts is nothing more than their compassion for and responsibility towards human beings. [“Sending forth righteous thoughts” can be understood as a kind of meditation in which practitioners think of eliminating bad, corrupt elements in the universe which cause harm to living beings. In particular Falun Dafa practitioners understand that the persecution of Falun Dafa in China is caused by the existence of these corrupt, negative elements].