Here is a question that I pose to Master Li Hongzhi of Falun Dafa after reading some articles at PureInsight.org this morning and also Lecture 3, the section on animal or spirit possession. Of course in light of today's scientific world, there is a scientific explanation for everything, and to even hint at a spiritual cause is to invite all kinds of attacks of superstition. Nevertheless I want to explore this possible connection and how to deal with it with an open mind.
Question for Master
Master has a fair explanation on "How Humans Came to Be" at Pureinsight.org.
One question arising with me lately as an educator is, what about those who have mental disorders?
We are seeing an over 200% rise in autism cases over the past 20 years in United States. Some believe there is a correlation with the schedule of over 80 vaccination shots that babies in the USA receive. Their baby was normal at birth, then at about 1.5 years, they began to develop autism.
Being in a classroom with over half the children (ie. 10-12 autism) students is very difficult. They are taxing emotionally, psychologically, and socially. They cannot understand simple logic.
When you leave at the end of the day, at night, you have very strange dreams. Some will seem to even project an intelligent para-consciousness that is communicating using words and utterances that are predictive, prophetic. It is as if in another dimension they are trying to take over you, and have you fix them, because their para-consciousness recognizes that they are not normal, but they want to be cured.
Master has said that for those with serious health issues, they cannot be fixed. However those who put their mind and effort into learning cultivation will naturally have their health improved.
Well, I am not sure they can be taught to cultivate,
In the United States, I doubt they will allow me to teach Falun Gong meditation especially in public school. Can and should they be taught to cultivate? If they cannot do this or practice Christianity, what will become of they? Are they destined to, if not already, "animal-possessed"?
I am not sure, but for a few, unfortunately, I do think so. The reason is because their defectiveness makes it easier for them to be prone to or controlled only by the basest of instincts, like animals.
Sadly, some Special Ed teachers even able and abet this, thinking they are offering support and encouragement by giving them lots of junk food to eat. If they are given a handful of Skittles and Cheeto balls in the middle of the classwork even when nothing has been done and they are ignoring any instruction, what does that do?
My observation is that those already prone to hyperactive ASD will be much more excited by the stimulants presented them than in any schoolwork. But it is not just the teacher. Parents send their children lunchboxes that contain nothing except bags of chips and cookies. The students become addicted to eating only junk food even for lunch.
Adult Animal Possession
Another concern is that parents and teachers are animal or spirit possessed. They are at least eighty pounds overweight, they exhibit ravenous appetites, and they even take the leftovers from school lunches back to the classroom to eat for lunch or later on.
If the teacher herself is sort of animal-possessed, or if the teacher assistant is spiteful and predatory, won't that eventually cause the students to become even more prone to animal and spirit-possession?
(The advantage of Dafa is that one can often sense when people are not as sincere as they appear to be, for instance, they sing sweetly because they are incentivized mostly by name-fame-gain rather than sincere love for the children.)
What should I do to protect myself from these threatening Selves and Sub-selves emerging during day or at night under altered consciousness?
According to Master, if one cultivates with mind-and-body, practicing the Falun Law (Truth, Compassion, Forbearance) and doing the exercises, one can progress and the Law Wheel will protect one from harm. The condition also is that one must make a good effort and improve one's character and xinxing (heart fate). Theoretically, the Law Wheel guides you but also protects you from the worst kinds of harm. Even if you have to pay your karma all at once, it will have been paid for by your virtue.
Karma Test
Since I have been doing cultivation for a long time, I should be able to come to some conclusions.
Maybe I will even improve on those answers once I open my mind and heart to their hope for change.
By cultivating Dafa, even with this karmic test of suffering a bad cold because one of the students coughed in my face, and another "wished me dead," and the teacher had a lack of strict behavioral consequences, I can try to recover my health.
Even if I doubt these students can cultivate now or maybe ever, they are there to learn pro-social skills, and I did model pro-social and cognitive learning skills. Even if the TA and the teacher were instilling some cognitive dissonance or mixed messages, that should not dissuade me from the primary purposes for attending school. If this were School A conditions, the students would learn more self-control, classroom integration, and ultimately more inclusionary opportunities.
In the Chinese cultural sense, they can learn about and gain "De" or "Virtue." By gaining and storing up De over time, they will evolve into a better character. In their next reincarnation, they will live a wholesome and fortunate life with many blessings.
This is the classic Buddhist explanation for why people are born misfortunate and what can be done when you cannot help them personally. They are paying for karma from a past life, but if they improve by the end of this life, their next life will be better.
Conclusion
Is it prejudice to say that ASD is the result of karma?
In my humble opinion, it is somebody's karma whether the medical system, the parents, the newborn fetus, or their past lives.
And for all of us who are in the industry of teaching, empowering, and cultivating these children, of course it is a struggle of philosophies. I routinely run into adults who sincerely believe that "over-coddling the youngster" is the best way to cure all issues.
I don't think so. I told a librarian the other day about a young student sitting in the adult computers section and standing in his chair, why he can't go to the empty children's computer section (where the height of the tables are lower). She told me he could do whatever he wanted. The youngster simpered at me and made a face while peering and looking at what I was doing on my computer.
I told the librarian that I had seen many a high-school student breaking down come graduation time. They were angry, they were frustrated, they knew they were going to be cutoff from their support system, and they had never developed the tools and self-learning skills they needed for the real world.
They never connected the dots between cause-and-consequence because they were "coddled."
Our system of capitalism loves for everyone to hide in escapism, fantasies, virtual games, and learning about anything other than hard news, finding out the truth about America's new reality, and how we are being beaten down by those who would have us sitting and watching ABC News all night.
If adults cannot practice personal self-discipline and higher spiritual goals and ambition, what of the children?
Only with the help of cultivation, the truth-finding alter can be honed and one can eventually rediscover the true-self and our real destiny and escape final disintegration. Even if one does not succeed in cultivation and reach the final achievement, there is this, a parallel version with Christianity one might say, that we must try to be charitable and bear our burden while leading others towards the light.
"Suffering enables one to cultivate; suffering allows one to atone for sins and karma. Amid suffering, if one can still remain kind, be grateful, and be a good person, one is elevating oneself. Furthermore, salvation is a bottom-up process—it must start from the lowest place. Beings suffer in this place; there are interpersonal conflicts over interests, the condition of the natural environment is harsh, and people have to labor their minds and bodies for survival, so on and so forth. All these provide beings with the opportunity to elevate themselves and eliminate karma. Suffering can reduce karma—that is for sure. Amid suffering and conflicts, if humans can still remain kind, they will accumulate merit and virtue, and their lives will be elevated." --- Master Li Hongzhi, "Why There is Mankind"
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