Falun Dafa
Lecture in
(August 3, 1996)
Li Hongzhi
I don't need to introduce
myself since you all know me. I am Li Hongzhi. I have been thinking about
meeting everyone. However, due to various reasons, there has not been such an
opportunity. This time I have come especially to meet with everyone, because I
know that in the past there were not as many people in
I know that some of you present here have not yet started
learning it. Some are still practicing the exercises only without paying
attention to the study of the Fa. Some are doing relatively better. Why do I
require that everyone must study the Fa? It is because there is such a
correlation. Everyone knows that in
Although
Qigong has been spread for quite a long period of time, several decades
already, no one knows its real implications. Therefore, I have written in the
book, Zhuan Falun, everything about certain phenomena in the Qigong community,
why Qigong is spread in ordinary human society, and what the ultimate goal of
Qigong is. Therefore, this book is a systematic work that enables one to
practice cultivation. Through reading it repeatedly, many people feel that
there is something unique about the book:
no matter how many times you have read this book, you always seem to
feel a sense of freshness, and no matter how many times you have read it, you
always attain a different understanding from the same sentence, and no matter
how many times you have read it, you always feel that there is still a great
deal of content in it that is yet to be found. Why is it this way, then? It is
because that I have systematically compiled many things that are considered
heavenly secrets within this book, such as that people are able to practice
cultivation, how cultivation should be practiced, and the characteristics of
this universe, etc. For a practitioner, it can enable him to complete his
cultivation practice successfully. Because no one has ever done such a thing in
the past, when reading this book, many people find that a lot of the contents
are heavenly secrets. Some of them are the secrets within secrets, which
mankind has never been allowed to know. I have disclosed in the book things
that the human race could never possibly know. Of course, I am doing so for a
purpose. If one casually reveals the heavenly secrets, does such things irresponsibly
and unveils such very high-level principles at will as ordinary theories to
ordinary people, he is then indeed disclosing the heavenly secrets or doing a
bad deed. As a result, he is bound to face retribution.
I have reasons for doing this. For one thing, on a superficial level, I have found that a
lot of people have realized, through so many years of Qigong practice, that
Qigong has very profound implications. They also know that it can enable one to
reach a very high realm through cultivation practice and, it can even enable
one to successfully complete his cultivation. However, they feel frustrated as
they cannot find such a genuine cultivation way. And ordinary Qigong systems
are for healing illnesses and keeping good health rather than cultivation
practice. So, many people have gone to temples to become lay Buddhists and
worship monks as masters. Having said this, I will note here that Buddha
Sakyamuni said that his Dharma could not save people in the Dharma-ending
Period. This was what Buddha Sakyamuni said. This situation was the consequence
of many causes. Therefore, for many people, no matter how they practice
cultivation, whether in temples or through Qigong, they still feel that they
have not gained anything or improved, nor have they made any real progress. I
have seen that people have such a wish to improve, but are in distress since
they cannot find a way to do so. I feel that people are suffering. Accordingly,
I would like to genuinely bring those who want to attain the Fa to higher levels.
This is one principal reason.
However, once an orthodox Fa is made public, it will require
that the human mind and moral values return to higher levels, and people are
required to be good. Thus, the requirements for practitioners must surpass the average
moral standards for ordinary people. Consequently, it will also benefit human
society. Although many people, after reading this book, may not be able to
genuinely practice cultivation, they will nonetheless understand the principles
of human conduct. They may become better people afterwards. Though they may not
be able to practice cultivation, still they will become better people. Then,
they will benefit society. It is bound to be this way once an orthodox Fa is
made public. In fact, orthodox religions that have appeared in history in the
world such as Christianity, Catholicism, Buddhism, Taoism, and including
Judaism, could all enable the human heart to turn to goodness while, in the
meantime, enabling those who genuinely wanted to move up in cultivation
practice to attain the Fa and complete their cultivation practice. They would
also enable those who were not able to succeed in cultivation for the time
being to become better people in ordinary human society and would create
opportunities for them to practice cultivation again in the future. This is the
way it will be.
Though we are not a religion, I am teaching things at the
higher levels of Qigong, it is therefore not the ordinary Qigong. To put it
plainly, Qigong is not something created by ordinary people. What is this
Qigong then? Qigong is cultivation practice, but it is something at the lowest
level of cultivation practice, including Taichi boxing. Everyone knows that
Taichi boxing is very good, and it has been widely spread throughout
Of course, we have quite a few new practitioners here, some of
whom may find what I am talking about very profound upon hearing it. It is
known that all religions tell people to
be good so that they can go to heaven. As for Buddhism, the Paradise of
Ultimate Bliss, of course, is also a paradise in heaven. Historically,
enlightened beings and sages all spoke of how to be a good person and that only
by reaching the standard of a higher realm can one go to heaven. However, none
of them explained the principles behind it. This is because that all such great
enlightened beings appeared about two thousand years ago, whether it was Jesus,
Buddha Sakyamuni or Lao Zi, etc. People at that time were not the same as
people today. At that time they were more simple-minded and kinder. Their
thoughts were not as complicated. Because the mentality of the people at that
time was different from that of today, the Fa they taught then could work at
that time, and what they taught could fully enable one to complete cultivation.
With the passage of time, the human mind today is becoming increasingly
complicated, and the ways of thinking have also changed. Accordingly, people
nowadays cannot comprehend what these great enlightened beings taught in the
past. Therefore, when people read these scriptures now, they feel unable to
understand the true meaning. Although I am teaching the Fa today in the form of
Qigong, people all know that I am in fact teaching the Buddha Fa. Some may
wonder, “Isn’t your teaching of the Buddha Fa unlike the way Buddha Sakyamuni
spoke?” If I used Buddha Sakyamuni’s words to teach it, nobody today would
understand it. Buddha Sakyamuni’s language was the language of mankind at that
time, so the people at that time could understand it. Then, in teaching the
Buddha Fa today, I have to use modern language to speak to everyone, and only
then will you be able to understand it. Some may still question, “but what you
teach is not the same as the scriptures from Buddhism.” Did Buddha Sakyamuni
teach the Fa taught by the seven primeval Buddhas? If Maitreya came down to the
world, would he repeat what Buddha Sakyamuni said? All enlightened beings that
provide salvation teach the Fa that they have become enlightened to and make it
public to save people.
In this book, I have written many things on cultivation
practice. One begins cultivation practice as an ordinary person, and there will
be Fa to guide your cultivation practice until you complete your cultivation. I
have truly done something that no one ever did in the past by teaching a
greater fundamental Dafa (great law) of the universe. Such things cannot be
found even if you check out all the books at home or abroad, from the past or
today. The principles that I have taught are the characteristics of the
universe and the essence of the Buddha Fa, which are truthfully expressed
through my language. Many people think after reading the book, and some people
ask, “How much scholarly knowledge does Teacher Li have? He seems to have
included in the book a wide range of knowledge, from ancient times up to today,
both domestic and abroad, such as astronomy, geography, history, chemistry,
physics, astrophysics, high-energy physics, and philosophy.” People think that
the teacher’s scholarly knowledge is very extensive and profound. In fact, to
compare with others in terms of ordinary human knowledge, I feel rather
inadequate. However, as for these theories, you may have either read all the
books in the world or studied all the subjects on earth, you still cannot
acquire them. You may have learned all the scholarly knowledge in the world,
you are still an ordinary person. This is because you are just a person at this
human level and remain an ordinary person, except that you have mastered a
little bit more ordinary human knowledge. Whereas, the principles that I have
taught and what I have said are not things at this ordinary human level. They
are beyond this ordinary human level. Therefore, its principles do not come
from ordinary human knowledge. The Fa encompasses all the knowledge from the
universe to ordinary human society.
I
have expressed all the principles of the Fa from the lowest level to the
highest level of the universe in a very plain and simple language of the
ordinary people and through Qigong, the lowest form of cultivation practice.
After reading the book for the first time, you will find that it is teaching
people the principles of how to be a good person. If you read it again, you
will find that what it states are not the principles of ordinary people, but it
is a book beyond ordinary human knowledge. If you can read it a third time, you
will find that it is a book of heaven. If you continue to read it, you will
love it so much that you simply cannot let it go of your hands. In
Speaking of completing cultivation, it is known that Jesus
said, “You can go to heaven if you have faith in me.” It is said in Buddhism,
“If one cultivates Buddhahood, he may go to the Paradise of Ultimate Bliss.” Of
course, they all put it very simply and did not stress that only through the
actual cultivation practice can one go there. However, religion is also
cultivation practice in essence. It is
just that whether it was Buddha Sakyamuni or Jesus, they all saw the same fact,
as the saying goes in the community of cultivators “Cultivation depends upon
the individual himself, and the transformation of Gong is up to the master.”
Ordinary people did not know this either.
Ordinary people think, “By doing the exercise, I will be able to attain
a certain amount of Gong.” This is a joke in our view, and it is absolutely
impossible. Of course, if you want to practice cultivation, the master would
need to be genuinely responsible to you and would install many of these energy
mechanisms in your body. He would also plant many things like seeds in your
body. Only then, will you be able to succeed in your cultivation practice. In
addition, during the course of cultivation practice, the master must look after
you, protect you, eliminate your karma, and help with the transformation of
your Gong. Only then will you be able to move up in cultivation practice.
Religions do not talk about cultivation practice. Why is that? Jesus knew, “If
you have faith in me you will be able to move up in your cultivation practice.”
Nowadays, one cannot practice cultivation in religions simply because of his inability
to understand the real meaning of what he said. Many people think, “I believe
in Jesus, and I will be able to go to heaven upon death.” Please think about
it. We want to go to heaven, but how do we get there? You carry an ordinary
person's mind with various sentimentalities and desires, your various
attachments, the competitive mentality, as well as the show-off mentality.
There are just too many such bad attachments of ordinary people. If you were
allowed to be there with Buddhas, you might compete with Buddhas or start a
fight because your ordinary human mind has not been given up. If you find a
Bodhisattva so beautiful, you may develop some evil thoughts. Can this be
allowed? Of course it won't be allowed. Thus, you will have to give up these
attachments and the filth as well as bad thoughts in ordinary human society.
Only then can you ascend to such a realm. One is able to go there by
cultivation or by faith. However, following confessions, one should not repeat
the mistake. In this way, one will become better and better. Only after
reaching the standard of a deity, can one go to heaven. This is in fact
cultivation practice.
Some people say, “If I believe in Jesus, I will be able to go
to heaven.” I say that you won't. Why not? It is because people nowadays do not
understand the true meaning of what Jesus said. Jesus is at the level of
Tathagata and also an enlightened being in the realm of Buddha. Ordinary people
cannot understand the implications of what he said. Only when you constantly
practice cultivation by following his method, can you gradually comprehend the
implications of what he said. For instance, Jesus said, “If you have faith in
me, you will be able to go to heaven.” In fact, you must follow the principles
that he taught you to be a good person. Only then do you genuinely have faith
in him and can you go to heaven. Otherwise, why did he say that much?! While
making confessions, you may find yourself doing it well and in the right mood.
However, once you step outside the door of the church, you continue to behave
at your own will and may become even worse than an ordinary person. How can you
go to heaven? Your mind has not been elevated at all. As Jesus put it, “If you
have faith in me, you can go to heaven.” That means if you have faith in him,
you must follow what he said, that is genuine faith, isn't it? This principle is also true in
other religions.
What Buddha Sakyamuni said was later compiled and written down
as scriptures. Still later, people began to regard how much one reads the
scriptures and how much Buddhist knowledge one masters as cultivation practice.
In fact, there were no scriptures at all when Buddha Sakyamuni was around. The
scriptures were only systematically compiled five hundreds years later, and
they had already departed from what Buddha Sakyamuni had said during his time.
However, at that time people were only expected to know so much, and knowing
too much would be improper. So, what happened was inevitable. In his later
years, Buddha Sakyamuni finally said, “I have not taught any Fa in my
lifetime.” Buddha Sakyamuni said this because he indeed did not teach the Fa of
this universe, nor did he mention the manifestation of this characteristic of
Zhen-Shan-Ren in ordinary human society or at his level of Tathagata. He indeed
did not teach it! What was it that Buddha Tathagata taught then? What he taught
was what he had been enlightened to during the cultivation practice in his
previous lifetimes, some situations of cultivation practice in his previous
reincarnations, cultivation practice stories as well as his understanding of
some specific manifestation of the Fa. As the scriptures were sorted out on and
off, they are not systematic either. Then, why did people later on regard what
Buddha Sakyamuni said as the Buddha Fa? On the one hand, this is the human
understanding. On the other hand, it is because Sakyamuni is a Buddha.
Accordingly, what he said bears the Buddha nature. Teachings bearing the Buddha
nature will thus be a layer of the Buddha principles to mankind, which is then
regarded as the Buddha Fa. However, he indeed did not systematically teach the
principles of cultivation practice, the characteristic of the universe, nor did
he explain why one could ascend to higher levels, etc. Indeed, he did not make
it public! Therefore, I said that I have done something nobody did in the past,
and I have opened a big door. I have done something even greater. That is, I
have made public all the principles of cultivation practice as well as the
elements for completing cultivation. In addition, I have talked about it very
systematically. This is why the gods at very high levels have said, “You have
left man a ladder to heaven-- Zhuan Falun.”
I am not saying here how I am in comparison with Buddha
Sakyamuni. I do not have such an attachment. I am not in the ordinary human
sentimentality and do not have an attachment to fame and interest in the world.
Since I am making these things public, I will be responsible to you and state
such a principle clearly to you. I do not want anything from you, nor will I
ask for a penny from you. I am only teaching you to turn to goodness. Someone
asked me, “Teacher, you have taught us so many things and have given us so
much. What do you want?” I said, “I do not want anything. I have just come to
save you. I just want your heart to be good and want you to be able to move
up.” It's because we have found that,
for a person, being human is not the purpose. People today are all lost in the
false reality of ordinary human society and think that they have to be this way
as human beings. In particular, the moral values of the human society are now
declining very badly. Everyone is drifting downward in this flooding current,
and society as a whole is declining. Then, no one is aware that he is declining
downhill. Some people think that they are good people when they consider
themselves a little bit better than others. In fact, you are sizing yourselves
up against this declined standard, and you are only a little bit better than
others amidst all the badness. If you are able to practice cultivation and
return to this original realm of human society, you will find even from not too
high a level that today’s people and the human society rather frightening! It
is truly terrifying! You will find that mankind today are indeed full of all
the ten sins.
The great enlightened beings, may they be Buddhas, Taoists, or
gods, no longer consider today's people as human beings. This statement may
seem to be a bit absolute. Of course, there are still good people. However,
what they are referring to is mankind as a whole and on a large scale. It is
indeed like this. In the past, when one went to a temple or a church to make a
confession, he would feel that Jesus or a being in heaven was indeed listening
to him talking. In addition, there would be such a responding echo in his mind
as though answering his questions. Yet, people today will not have such a
feeling, and those who worship Buddhas cannot see the presence of Buddhas
either. Why is that? It is because people in human society have become less and
less enlightened, and people in human society have become increasingly
corrupted. Then, gods will no longer take care of them. Because modern people
have quite a great deal of karma and are becoming less and less enlightened,
when facing retribution after they have done something wrong, they would take
it as a mere coincidence. I have seen that although human moral values are
declining very badly, yet people are all declining with this flooding current
without being aware of it. Some people still have their Buddha nature and their
original nature. Through my teaching over these years, there are many people
who have raised their level through cultivation practice and the level of their
cultivation practice is very high. Some people have become enlightened, some
are in gradual enlightenment, and some are already practising cultivation
within Fruit Status. I feel very happy that I have not done such a thing in
vain. I have been responsible to mankind and to society. I have not disclosed
the heavenly secrets for nothing and I am enabling people to ascend through
cultivation practice.
The issue that I have just mentioned is to say that the purpose
of a human life is not to be a human being. Many people probably still do not
quite understand what it means. They think that human beings should just live
this way. Yes, when you were born from your mother's womb, everyone was the
same and could not see the existence of other dimensions. Then, you would not
believe them either. In addition, people nowadays believe too much in modern
science while modern science is in itself incomplete and imperfect. The extent
of its understanding of this universe is very shallow or it is something of
very low level in other words. Then, when people believe in it excessively, it
will make mankind face the greatest danger: namely, the human morality will be
thoroughly destroyed. Accordingly, the paradises up there no longer regard
people without moral values as human beings! Because it is not only human beings
who have the external human form, ghosts, monkeys, and apes all exist with
brains and four limbs. The reason that man is called man is because he must
have the human moral codes to live in the world with the standard of human
morality as well as the human way of existence. Without these, gods will not
regard people as human beings. However, people all think how they should live
better and how they should develop. Nevertheless, human society is controlled
by higher lives, and mankind can never reach the realm of Buddha through
technology. Otherwise, star wars would indeed break out! Therefore, the human
technology that bears the competitive mentality, jealousy, various kinds of
sentimentality and desires is just not allowed to reach a higher standard.
More than seventy percent of the human brain cannot be used,
and modern medicine has also recognized this point. Why is it? Human wisdom is
repressed. Why do Buddhas have great wisdom and great supernatural powers then?
Why are they able to know everything? And have great wisdom and intelligence?
It is because of this principle that I have just explained. Some people say
that this book of mine encompasses a very wide range of scientific knowledge!
Does the teacher have a lot of scholarly knowledge or has he attended many
colleges? I have not. Why is it then? The difference between myself and
everyone else is that my mind is completely opened up while yours is not.
Because in this world, whether it is philosophy, astronomy, physics, chemistry,
or human history, etc., people may consider them very complicated. They are
actually very simple and it is just that little bit of stuff of mankind at the
lowest level within the scope of the Buddha Fa. They are all of one same
principle and brought about by the characteristic of the universe as well as by
the existing form of matter at this level. It is just this little bit. Yet,
human wisdom is already unable to accommodate it because the human brain is
sealed and cannot accommodate it. What can be done about it? To learn more
things, but one’s brain is unable to take them. Then, you will have to study
physics, and you study chemistry, and you study astronomy, and you study
high-energy physics, and you study philosophy, and you study history. You will
study this and you will study that. Yet, even for knowledge in one such
subject, one is unable to grasp all of it in one’s lifetime. Therefore, human
knowledge is very pitiful.
As I have just mentioned that, no matter how much knowledge you
have learned, you still remain an ordinary person even if you are a professor
or a supervisor in a university or however well-known you are. This is because
your knowledge has not gone beyond this level of ordinary people. In addition,
this empirical science of modern man is imperfect. For instance, this modern
science cannot prove the existence of gods, nor can it verify the existence of
other dimensions. It cannot see the lives and the existing forms of matter in
other dimensions. It does not know that there is the manifestation from the
matter of virtue on the human body. Nor does it know that there is the
manifestation from the matter of karma around the human body either. People all
believe in modern science and yet, modern science is unable to verify such
things. What’s more, whenever virtues, kindness, sins, or other things beyond
science are mentioned, they are considered superstitions. In essence, isn't it
waving the stick of modern science to strike at the most fundamental nature of
our mankind -- the human morality? Isn't it so? Because it does not recognize,
nor is it able to verify the existence of De (virtue), it will claim that it is
superstitious. If human moral values are indeed wiped out, man will lose the
constraints from the Fa of mind and the moral codes. People may dare to do
anything and dare to commit any wrong doing, which will make the human moral
values decline constantly. This is the role played by the weakest side of
science.
I have explained that an accomplished scientist will not carry
the stubborn understanding like many of those who substitute rationality for
sentimentality, nailing modern science within a fixed frame and believing that
anything beyond empirical science is not science. Think about it. For things
that man has not yet recognized, but when they are recognized by us with
scientific methods, isn't it science? It has also become science. Man is
continually improving himself and re-understanding himself. Therefore, science
can develop and genuinely understand the universe in the end. The way modern
empirical science develops now is very clumsy and slow. It is really like a
blind person groping an elephant. It cannot recognize the existing form of
matter in the entire universe and cannot recognize the existence of the
characteristics of the universe. Accordingly, if it touches a bit of something,
it will take it as the whole. It has only touched the leg of the elephant and
claims, “Oh, science is like this. This is the science that really understands
life and matter.” It cannot see what this entire elephant is like. Thus, it
cannot understand that the universe is made of countless and different
time-spaces, nor can it understand other dimensions and the existence of other
forms of lives as well as matter. As a result, these will all be called superstitions
by those simple-minded and stubborn people. This is the most critical reason
why our human morality is declining. Many people will then wave the stick of
science to strike at the most ancient and the most fundamental virtue of man.
It is really dangerous! If people do not have De, gods will no longer consider
them human beings. If heaven no longer sees people as human beings, they will
be eliminated and start all over again.
Some people think, “Our mankind is progressive, and it is
already quite magnificent to have evolved to this day from apes!” However, let
me tell you that historically, during prehistoric times, a hundred thousand
years ago or even much, much earlier than that, up to over a hundred million
years ago, highly advanced civilizations had always existed on this planet,
only that they were destroyed in different time periods. Why were they
destroyed? It was because they developed very fast materially and
technologically while their morality could not keep pace or was destroyed. They
were then no longer allowed to continue to exist and were destroyed. To put it
with the understanding of modern science, the motion of matter follows the law.
When its motion reaches a certain form, it will inevitably take on another
form. For instance, during its motion in this universe, the earth may have been
impaired when being hit by some planets. Regardless of what reasons there may
be, scientists have now indeed discovered that there have been numerous remains
of ancient civilizations on our planet. In addition, such remains of
civilizations are quite remote from the present time. Some are from several
hundred thousand years ago, several million years ago, or even from tens of
million years ago. The civilizations that existed and the remains left in each time
period were all different, and they were not things from the same time period.
Therefore, some scientists are pondering over this issue. Some scientists have
already proposed such a theory and said, “There were prehistoric civilizations
as well as prehistoric cultures.” This is what scientists have said. Our
community of cultivators can see it more clearly that prior to this human
civilization of ours, there were indeed many human civilizations. Because their
moral values became corrupted, later, such civilizations no longer existed. Of
course, this is what we have seen. From the destroyed ancient Greek culture, we
can see remains of the human corruption and degeneration of that time.
Some people claim, “Our human race evolved from apes.” In fact,
let me tell you that man did not evolve from apes at all.
In fact, man did not evolve from apes at all in our view, only
that there are different species existing in each time period. The continental
plates on the earth planet inhabited by mankind are shifting and changing.
Geologists call the continents of Asia, Europe,
Of course, I’m teaching the Buddha Fa, which is different from
the theories of ordinary people. Ours is a higher understanding that truly
understands mankind. I am telling everyone that man did not evolve from apes,
but was born in the universe. It is known that there is a Taoist theory of
Taichi in
Why is there this human level? There was no such human level in
the beginning. The lives created by the motion of this matter in the universe
are all assimilated to the characteristics of the universe. Namely, they are
assimilated to the principles of the Fa in the universe, assimilated to
Zhen-Shan-Ren, as they are in fact created from Zhen-Shan-Ren. Then, when the
number of such lives created in high-level dimensions increases, their living
environment becomes complicated, and they form their social survival framework,
just like in our human society, human beings have their social framework as to
how they would survive. Then, when they have their social modes, these lives
will gradually change and become complicated. Some will develop selfish
thoughts and deviate from the requirements that the characteristics of the
universe maintain for lives at that level. Then, they are no longer able to
stay in that realm and, they can only fall to a lower level. Then, when they
become even worse at the lower level, they have to drop further down again. In
this way, such lives are continually becoming worse during the endless ages of
history and will gradually drop downward, dimension by dimension, until they
fall to this dimension of mankind. Consequently, they lead a low life,
reproducing and raising their descendants by low means.
However, there was no such human dimension in the beginning.
Then, these enlightened beings and high-level lives wanted to create another
dimension for mankind, a most illusory dimension, to see if man could keep this
little bit of his nature and if he could still come back. Therefore, such a
dimension was created. At that time, they just wanted to give mankind and lives
one last opportunity and did not consider too many issues. However, they found
later that this dimension is very unique because all beings in this dimension
cannot see other dimensions, nor can they see the lives in other dimensions.
Whereas, lives in other dimensions of the universe can all see scenes in other
dimensions. For a life in any other dimension, its body can fly in space and
float here and there. A life from any other dimension can make its body large
or small. Now scientists believe that human thoughts are of matter, something
like electronic waves. Of course, you will acknowledge that electronic waves are
of matter. However, it is found to be not so simple in other dimensions. Human
thought can produce what you imagine, and what you think of can become reality.
Because people do not have energy, it will dissolve soon after it is created.
However, for the great enlightened beings, heavenly people, and high-level
lives that have energy, the things they think of will then really exist. Thus,
if you want something, it will be created while you are thinking. Therefore, it
was said in the past, “For Buddhas, they can have whatever they want and enjoy
great freedom.” Those lives all exist in this way. However, when mankind was
pushed to this dimension, he is turned into such a way of existence.
Everyone comes from his mother’s womb and feels not too bad.
Some people do very well in business, some rank very high in office, some
people live very comfortably and consider themselves better than others. In
fact, you are also very miserable! It is because you do not know how you lived
before. For instance, it is said in religions, “Living is suffering.” Why is
it? When you came out from your mother’s womb, you had this physical body made
of molecules. In other dimensions, one does not have this layer of a body
composed of molecules, and his most surface body is made of atoms. The surface
matter made of molecules constitutes this dimension, including the human flesh
body, which is also made of such molecules. With a body made of this layer of
matter, you had this flesh body as soon as you were born and you were given
such a pair of eyes made of molecules so you cannot see other dimensions.
Therefore, you are all in a maze. Then, you cannot see the truth of the
universe while being in the maze. Wouldn’t you say that the way you live is
like watching the sky while sitting on the bottom of a well. This way of life
itself is quite pitiful? In addition, after you had this body, your body is
afraid of pain and cannot stand cold, heat or thirst. It cannot endure the
tiredness from walking either. Anyway, it has brought you much discomfort as
well as much suffering. Moreover, there is the existence of birth, aging,
illness, and death. You often become sick. You think that you live very
comfortably. In fact, in that suffering you only seem to be a little bit better
off than others with slightly less suffering. And then, you feel that you are
very comfortable. Man just exists like that. It is living in such an
environment that man gradually loses his original human nature, increasingly
disbelieving the existence of gods. With the inadequacy of empirical science,
man has also lost the human moral values and slid down to the most dangerous
situation.
However, human society also has a big advantage: because a
person suffers, he is able to practice cultivation. Why is a Buddha always a
Buddha in that realm of Buddhahood? Why can’t he ascend even higher? Why can’t
a Bodhisattva become a Buddha through cultivation? Because they cannot find a
place to suffer a little bit even if they want to. He could practice
cultivation precisely because he is able to consolidate his Buddha nature in a
maze. If there is no maze for him over there and he is able to see everything,
then cultivation does not count because one can see everything. Therefore,
cultivation and enlightenment come first. Seeing comes later. Some people say,
“If I see it, I will practice cultivation. If I do not see it, I will not
practice cultivation.” If everyone were allowed to see it, ordinary human
society would no longer be human society, but a society of gods. With one
hundred percent and no one left out, everyone would practice cultivation. Those
people with all kinds of unforgivable sins and people with worse character
would all want to practice cultivation. Do you think that it is still a human
society? It is precisely because man has become corrupt that he has fallen into
this environment. If you want to return where you came from, you must have the
following two factors. One is suffering. The other is enlightenment. With
regard to enlightenment, Jesus talked about faith while enlightenment is
required in the East. If you have lost these things, you will not be able to
practice cultivation. However, why is it that people normally find it very
difficult during the course of cultivation? Actually, cultivation practice is
not difficult. The difficulty lies in the inability to let go of ordinary human
mind. Man has never been told what the Buddha Fa is in history. People had all
regarded what Buddha Sakyamuni said as the systematic Buddha Fa. Please think
about it. This enormous universe is quite complete and rather wise. Buddha
Sakyamuni only mentioned a small portion of the Buddha principles. Besides,
Buddha Sakyamuni did not disclose to man everything he knew either. He only
taught people what they should know. Therefore, the Dharma left for human
society now is only a tiny, tiny bit of the Buddha Fa. I mentioned earlier that
the things that I have left to human society are many, and I have done
something that no one did in the past. The language I used in this book “Zhuan
Falun” is not standard because using modern standardized language cannot
encompass higher levels and greater content. Thus, I wrote it in colloquial
style.
I have said so much. Since there seems to be plenty of time
today, I would like to say some more to everyone. However, some people sitting
here may not be able to accept it if I say something too profound. For
instance, some people have not studied it at all and come to listen to me as
they feel that it is very good. Some people may want to gain something or come
to see what I will demonstrate. They come with various mentalities. If I were
to do demonstrations here for you today, you would laugh as though you were
watching magic or watching tricks. You would not take the Fa and me seriously.
It is also not allowed to do so in teaching the Buddha Fa. I am only teaching
you this Buddha Fa, and it is up to you whether you believe it or not. However,
its power is quite enormous. I have put what I want to give to human beings and
the things that will enable them to practice cultivation all in the volume of
the Fa. As long as you watch my videotapes, listen to my audiotapes, or read
this book that I wrote, you will experience it. As long as you read it, your
body will be purified and you will be able to reach the state that is free of
illness. As long as you practice cultivation, you will be able to see things
that ordinary people cannot see. As long as you practice cultivation, you will
experience things that ordinary people cannot experience. The realm will become
higher and higher and more and more wonderful. It is all in that book. However,
if you do not practice cultivation, you will not see it. If you say that I want
to see it all after reading it once, that is impossible! You can only see
things within this realm of yours and within your capability of understanding.
For more wonderful things, as long as you move up in cultivation and as long as
you continually study it in depth, practice cultivation in depth, and read it
in depth, you will then be able to experience it, see it, and know it.
If I talk about something too profound, many people may not
understand it. As I intended, I have not systematically taught the Fa for two
years already because the Fa that I gave to man has already been left in its
entirety. I did not even have people record my lectures. Why is it? Many people are seeking novelty. What else
has the teacher said or talked about? They are going after such things instead
of practicing cultivation steadily. What I gave man for cultivation practice is
Zhuan Falun, and this book is the systematic Fa. The other things that I have
said are merely interpreting Zhuan Falun and they are all supplementary. If
recordings are made and passed around in society, it will create interference
for those genuine practitioners. The book Zhuan Falun is systematic from the
lower level to the higher level, and what I am talking about now are only
directed at the people present here.
I would also like to emphasize another point: that is, our
practitioners are required to follow one cultivation practice only. I am
telling everyone that the statement of taking the best of every school is a
saying of ordinary people. It is not in the language of the community of
cultivators. In learning skills, learning from whoever has good skills is not a
problem. However, from the perspective of higher dimensions, the principles of
mankind are reversed. What mankind considers good may not be good. It is
entirely the other way round. You see that it is daytime on our side, but it is
dark on the other side. What you consider correct may not be correct. Why is
it? I will tell everyone a simple principle. Everyone knows that it is not good
when people suffer or you will not feel comfortable and good if someone bullies
you. I am telling everyone that it is a good thing when one suffers a little
pain and experiences a little hardship! You see what I am telling you is indeed
different. Why? It is because this principle is totally reversed when viewed
from a high-level dimension. They believe that being a human being is not an
aim for man. If you suffer a little hardship in human society and repay the
karma you owe from your previous lifetimes, you will be able to return to a
higher dimension. You may even return to the place where your life was created,
the most wonderful place. Even if you are unable to move up, you will also have
fewer tribulations in the next lifetime because your karma has diminished.
However, if you do not repay the karma that you owe, you will
not be able to go to a high-level paradise. It is just like the principle that
I talk about. If this bottle is filled with dirty things, no matter how tightly
you screw the lid, “Dong”, it will immediately sink when it is thrown into the
water. If you pour out a little bit of the dirty things inside, it will float
up a little bit. If you pour out a bit more, the bottle will float up a bit
more. The more it is poured out, after you put the lid on, the more you will
find that you will not be able to push it down even if you press it, and it will
float up by itself. It is just like our human beings practicing cultivation.
Throughout your lifetimes, which is to say, during each of your lives, each of
your lifetimes, you might have all bullied someone, deceived someone, or harmed
someone or killed someone, etc. Perhaps, you did something even worse. Then,
you will have to repay such karma that you owed. There is a principle in this
universe, which is called: No loss, no gain. To gain, you must lose. What is
owed must be repaid. If it is not repaid in this lifetime, it will be done in
the next lifetime. It is definitely this way. When a person suffers now, he
will consider it an accident, and think that others are not being fair to him
or others are not being good. I am telling you that none of these are
accidental, and they are all caused by the karma you owed in the past. If you
do not have karma, as you walk on the street, everyone will smile when they see
you. People you do not know will all offer to serve you, and you will be just
too comfortable! However, such a person will definitely not be living in the
human dimension, and he should have returned to heaven. Human beings are just
the way they are. Because people have karma, they will never be able to move up
in cultivation if their thoughts are not purified. It is the same principle as
I mentioned earlier.
It is not a bad thing for
people to suffer a little bit and to have a little tribulation. By facing a
little tribulation, you will repay the karma. You will really go to a wonderful
place and never again suffer hardship. No matter how happily you live in the
human society, with millions of dollars at home, or however high your rank is
in office, it will be just for a few decades and will soon be over. Please
think about your reincarnation. You come with nothing on your body and you
leave with nothing on your body. What can you take with you? You cannot take
anything with you. Who do you leave things to? You think that you have left
them to your descendants. However, next time when you are born again, they will
not know who you are. If you go to work for them or sweep the floor for them,
they may not be kind to you nor may they pay you an extra penny. It is truly
this way! Man simply can’t see it.
Here we are talking about the essential principles of human
life. Particularly for our practitioners, think about it, when we suffer pains,
when others bully you, when others cause you trouble, or when you lose some
material interest, in my view it may not necessarily be a bad thing. Because
there is a principle in this universe that those who do not lose do not gain;
in order to gain, one must lose. There is also another characteristic that if
you gain, but do not lose, it will force you to lose. This is a characteristic
of the universe. Every substance in the vast universe is a life. Every
substance is made up of Zhen, Shan, Ren (truthfulness, compassion,
forbearance). Therefore, for any object such as a rock, iron and steel, air,
any man-made product or substance, their microscopic components are all matter
made of this characteristic of Zhen-Shan-Ren. This vast universe is composed of
Zhen-Shan-Ren, which balances everything in the universe. When someone hits
another person, swears at someone, bullies someone, or causes pain to another
person, he feels very happy for he is the gaining party. An ordinary person
tells him, “You are really something! Great!" He has not lost anything.
However, I think that he has lost quite a lot. Why is that? When he does
something bad, he is the party that has gained. He has bullied another person,
which counts as having gained. Then, he must lose something. Because what the
other person got was pain and suffering, this other person has indeed lost
happiness. Consequently, this other person should gain something. How does he
gain? If you punch him or say a scolding word to him, an equal amount of white
matter proportional to how badly you scolded him or punched him will fly away
from the area surrounding your body. This matter is called De (virtue). It will
land on the other party, on the body of the other person. Then again, the other
party is also a human being, and he may not understand this principle. “You
punched me.” He is furious. When he gets angry, he is in fact pushing back this
De. When he punches back at the person or swears at him, he is tossing this De
back again. They get even with each other, and nobody has got anything. The
principles of the Fa in the universe are fair.
If, as a practitioner, he can let it go in his mind: You hit
me, you swear at me, my heart is very calm and I will not take it seriously
because I am a practitioner. You are an ordinary person and I cannot be the
same as you are. Think about it, hasn't this person’s moral standards already
risen and surpassed those of ordinary people? When someone hits him, isn’t this
person giving him De? And this matter of De can be transformed into Gong
(cultivation energy). Where does your Gong come from? I am telling everyone
that it comes right from the transformation of De, plus some matter collected from
the universe in addition to your De. Only then can your Gong be transformed. If
you do not have this De, you will not be able to develop this Gong in
cultivation. Thus, when he hits you, he gives his De to you. You have got more
De, so you can reach an even higher level through cultivation practice. Isn’t
it such a principle? Isn’t what you have gained much greater than the
compensation that this ordinary person gets for creating this suffering for
you? So, as he is hitting you or scolding you, creating some trouble for you,
you will bear pain and suffering as a result. Amidst the suffering, the karma
that your body carries, the dark matter owed from previous lifetimes called
karma will also be transformed into De. It will also give a comparable portion
of De. As an ordinary person, think about it, everyone. You get two for one. He
has created a little bit of suffering for you, but you have gained double
compensation.
However, as a practitioner, one will gain four things. While
bearing all of this, you did not stoop to his level and your heart was very
calm. You did not hit back or swear back. When your heart is very calm, think
about it, hasn’t your Xinxing made progress in cultivation? If he does not
create this trouble for you and he does not create pain and suffering for you,
how can you practice cultivation? It is absolutely impossible for you to move
up in cultivation and reach a level as high as you want by sitting there
comfortably, drinking tea while watching TV. It is precisely in this complicated
environment amidst trials and tribulations that you can improve your mind and
reach high standards as well as high realms. So, your Xinxing was not like his.
Then, hasn’t your Xinxing been improved in cultivation? You have gained three
for one! Then, as a practitioner, don’t you want to raise your level to
complete cultivation as soon as possible? Since your Xinxing has moved up in
cultivation, isn’t your Gong also improved? Definitely! There is such a
principle, which says: “The level of Gong is as high as the level of Xinxing.”
It is absolutely impossible to claim that a person’s Xinxing is only this high,
but his Gong keeps increasing. This kind of thing does not exist, and it is
absolutely impossible. One may think, “Some practitioners’ Xinxing is not even
as good as mine and why do they have Gong?” They may not be as good as you in
this aspect, but they may be better than you in other aspects. Because in
cultivation practice, one gets rid of attachments one by one, some of the
attachments that have not been discarded will make him look like that he is
still an ordinary person. However, the attachments that have been removed are
gone, so of course they will not show. As a practitioner, when you bear pain
and suffering, you get four for one. To joke about it, where can you find such
a good deal?
“Someone hits me or swears at me.” The person is extremely
furious and quite resentful in his heart, or “Someone has taken advantage of me
and made money from me.” It becomes simply unbearable for this person! People
take such things very seriously and cannot lose even a tiny bit of
self-interest. Think about it. How pathetically this person lives! When he
gains a bit of an advantage, he feels happy from the bottom of his heart just
for that tiny bit of an advantage. This is what people are like nowadays. They
do not know what they have really lost, and this is most terrifying! Why is
this De so precious? Everyone knows that elderly people in the East all say
that only by having De can there be good fortune. This good fortune includes
several aspects: being a high-ranking official, making a lot of money, owning
houses, having land and happiness etc. They are all traded with that De. It
follows along one’s life. When a person passes away, it follows his Yuanshen (the
main spirit). When you are born again, it will still follow your reincarnation.
Not only De, the black matter, or the karma I just mentioned, also follows
one’s life. These two substances always accompany a person. Elderly people in
the past would say, “Doing a bad deed will lead to retribution”. Who punishes
you? Who keeps a record of that account of yours? How can there be someone to
take care of these things for you? However, this De is on your body, and it is
firmly stuck to you. The next lifetime all depends on this De. With a lot of
karma, this life of yours will have a lot of suffering, a lot of illness, and a
lot of adversity. With a lot of De, this life of yours will have a lot of
money, a lot of good fortune, and a high-ranking position. They all result from such a thing. Then, as a
practitioner, this De is even more precious as it can be transformed into Gong.
It is just such a principle.
Modern science is unable to see this point because it cannot
break through this dimension. What kind of dimensional form does our human race
live in? I am telling everyone that this dimensional layer where mankind lives
is between two kinds of particles. As for particles, those of us who have
studied physics know that molecules, atoms, nuclei, quarks, and neutrinos are
each a layer of particles. They are physical elements that constitute larger
particles. Which layer of particles does mankind exist in? The largest things
that we see with human eyes are planets, and the smallest things that we can
see under the microscope are molecules. In fact, our mankind just exists in
this dimensional layer between the planets and the molecules. We may find it
very vast, very extensive, and incomparably big. I say that modern science is
not advanced. No matter how far a spacecraft can fly, it cannot fly beyond this
physical dimension of ours. However developed a computer is, it cannot match
the human brain. Now the human brain is still a mystery. Therefore, the science
of mankind is still very shallow.
Try to imagine it, everyone. Our human race lives in between
these two kinds of particles of planets and molecules. Molecules are made up of
atoms, then what is the dimension between atoms and molecules like? Modern
scientists can only understand an atom as a point, one of its small structures.
In fact, the place where atoms exist is also a plane, and the physical
dimension formed by such a plane is also quite huge. It is only that what you
have discovered is a point. Within this plane then, how big is this dimension?
Our standard for measuring distances is always based upon the perspective of
mankind’s own modern science to judge everything. You must jump out of the
framework and the concepts of empirical science. In order for you to enter that
dimension, you must comply with the forms of that dimension, and only then can
you enter it. The distance from an atom to a molecule, as science understands
it, is approximately two million atoms lined up, and only then can an atom
reach a molecule. That is to say that this distance that it can understand is
already quite vast. You cannot understand it from the standpoint of this
present empirical scientific model of mankind. Then, please try to think about
it for a moment. Isn’t it a dimensional layer in between from an atom to its
nuclei? How great then is the dimensional distance between the nuclei and a
quark? What about between a quark and a neutrino? Of course, the current
science of mankind can only understand as far as neutrinos. Man cannot see them
except for detecting them with apparatus to know their mode of existence. In
fact, it is not known how far away they are from the original source of matter!
What I am talking about is the simplest form of dimensional
existence. All physical substances of our mankind, including all substances
that you cannot see in the air as well as those substances that we can see such
as iron, cement, animals, plants, matter, and the human body, are composed of
molecules. Mankind just exists on this plane of molecules, just like a 3-D
painting. You live on this plane and you cannot escape it. Mankind’s science is
also limited within this one dimension which it cannot even break through. Yet,
people still claim how developed science is and disregard all other theories.
Mankind’s technology cannot reach a higher understanding of the universe. If it
were really able to break through this dimensional layer, it would see the mode
of existence of life and the mode of existence of matter in other dimensions,
as well as the structures in them made by time and space. However, our
practitioners can see it. Only Buddhas are the greatest scientists.
When I talked about opening
Tianmu (the third eye), I mentioned this issue. One can avoid using eyes to see
things and look through this Tianmu of ours, namely between the two eyebrows,
or from the Shangen as the
I’ve just spoken of this dimension
in which mankind lives. Actually, this planet that our human race inhabits is
neither the largest particle nor the largest substance. Beyond the planets
there are still larger substances! Therefore, Buddha Sakyamuni’s eyes could
already see quite microscopic matter in the extremely microscopic microcosm and
could see quite enormous, macro matter in the macrocosm. However, at the end
Buddha Sakyamuni could not see how big this universe ultimately is. Therefore,
he made a statement, “It is big enough without exterior, and it is small enough
without interior.” How huge this universe is! Please think about how complex it
is. It is unlike what mankind knows. Even for this dimension of ours, this
form, it is quite complex! Besides this dimensional form, there is also a
dimensional form that exists vertically, and within this vertical dimension
there are also many unitary paradises. It is very complex. The unitary worlds
that I am talking about refer to paradises, etc. Each dimension has different
time-spaces. Do you think that the time in the dimension composed of atoms, can
be the same as that in our dimension over here, which is made up of molecules?
Its concept of space and its distance is also different from ours, and
everything becomes different. Why do the extraterrestrial UFOs come and go from
nowhere and fly so fast? They are traveling in other dimensions; it is just so
simple. If man tries to understand the unexplained phenomena in the universe
from his own current scientific perspective or uses this method to study cultivation
practice or religions, he will never get it in his research. He has to change
his way of thinking, and he must understand it from another perspective. In the
history of man, science is not only today’s so-called empirical science that
was discovered or invented by the Europeans. This is not the only path; there
are other paths as well. For those ancient civilizations that have been
discovered on earth and once existed in history, their courses of development
all took different paths in understanding life, matter, and the universe. The
ancient science of
I said earlier that man was not
created in this physical dimension of ours and talked about the purpose of
being a human being. If man continues to decline, he will face elimination, a
thorough elimination, which is called, “extinction of body and soul.” It is
very frightening! Therefore, Buddhas want to save man precisely from facing
such a helpless situation and to save you to heavens away from the suffering of
mankind. That is truly and fundamentally solving the issue of human suffering.
The starting point of people nowadays for believing in Buddhas is entirely
different from that of people in antiquity who believed in Buddhas. In the
past, people who believed in Buddhas worshipped Buddhas, cultivated Buddhahood,
respected Buddhas, and did not have any other motives. People nowadays believe
in Buddhas in order to ask for something from Buddhas. However, to Buddhas,
this mind of pursuit is the dirtiest and the filthiest mind. Therefore, think
about it, everyone. Buddhas are to save you, and yet, you pray for comfort and
happiness among ordinary people. If you were really allowed to be blissfully
happy and to live in great comfort among ordinary people, you really would not
want to become a Buddha. You would be a Buddha right now. How can this be
possible? Instead of your repaying the karma owed from lifetime after lifetime
and the bad deeds that you have done, you only seek happiness. How can that be
attained by pursuit? You have only one choice: to practice cultivation and only
then can you eliminate the karma that you owe. Suppose that you do not wish to
become a Buddha, you must be a good person, do more good deeds, and do fewer
wicked deeds. Only then can you be happy in the future, and the life of your
genuine self can be extended. However, it is possible that after your brain is
cleansed at the time of reincarnation, you may be reincarnated into a bad environment,
drifting with its tide to the brink of destruction.
Just now I mentioned that Buddha Sakyamuni said that this
universe was big enough without exterior and small enough without interior.
Perhaps some people still do not quite understand this statement. What did
Buddha Sakyamuni actually see? He spoke of the theory of three thousand great
worlds. Buddha Sakyamuni said that not only people living in other dimensions
were like us with the same human physical bodies, but also there were three
thousand such worlds that are like our human society. Within this Milky Way
there are three thousand such planets. In addition, he also made another
statement and said, “A grain of sand contains three thousand worlds.” He said
that within a grain of sand there were three thousand such dimensions like the
one inhabited by our mankind. But, as for the size ratios for the people there,
you cannot use the understanding and concepts of modern science to understand
them as they exist in another mode of time and space.
Some people may find what I just said strange and
incomprehensible. Try to think about it, everyone. The earth is orbiting with
great regularity. Then, what difference is there between when electrons revolve
around the nuclei and when the earth revolves around the sun? They are of the
same pattern. If you could magnify an electron to the size of the earth and
take a look at it, you'll see if there is life on it? What kind of matter is
there on it? Buddha Sakyamuni said, “It is small enough without interior.” To
what extent did he see? In the microcosm of matter, he could already see
something very microscopic. He said that in a grain of sand there were three
thousand great worlds. Inside a tiny grain of sand there are three thousand
great worlds. Then, try to think for a moment, everyone. If what Buddha
Sakyamuni said is true, within that grain of sand, in that world, aren’t there
also rivers, streams, lakes, and seas? Then, on the sides of those rivers,
streams, lakes, and seas, isn’t there also sand? Then, within that grain of
sand, aren’t there also three thousand great worlds? Then, in the sand within
that grain of sand, aren’t there still three thousand great worlds? Exploring
it further, Buddha Sakyamuni discovered that it was endless. Therefore, he made
a statement and said, “It is small enough without interior.” He did not see
what the most original source of matter was. Of course, we talked about this
most original source of matter in the past, so I shall not talk more about it
here. If I say something too profound and too deep, people may not understand
it, especially when many people do not quite understand the Chinese language,
so I will not talk too much about things on this topic. I think that I will
just say this much first. Now, you may raise some questions concerning
cultivation practice and the study of the Fa, and I will answer them for you.
Question: We have read “Zhuan Falun” Book 1 and Book
II, in which I have found a sentence not easy to comprehend, because I was once
a disciple in Tantrism. An issue there
seems to suggest that the levels of Bodhisattvas and Tathagatas are presently
experiencing a catastrophe?
Master: This is a very
high level question. Only when you have reached a higher level through
cultivation practice, will you be able to see it and understand it. Of course,
I can only give you a simple and general answer. The fact that this Fa at the
human level is no longer effectual is because the morality of human society has
altogether declined. The moral values in people’s hearts have been corrupted.
When there is no righteous mind, it means that the Fa is no longer effectual.
When the Fa is no longer effectual in human society, mankind will decline. If
this Fa became ineffectual not from this society of mankind, but from a very
high-level dimension, then it evinced a deviation, and the physical lives will
fall downwards. They are not good anymore, so they fall downwards. In that
case, if it evinces problems on a large scale, it is no longer just an issue of
mankind. For instance, the Dafa comes all the way down. If it deviates a little
bit from above, below that, everything will have changed beyond recognition. It
is just like shooting a gun. If your aim is off the target by just a little bit
when the bullet goes out, you do not know where it will hit. Why does such a
great change occur down below? The change in human society has been quite
frightening! People would stop at nothing in doing evil things such as drug
abuse and drug dealing. A lot of people have done many bad deeds. Things such
as organized crime, homosexuality, and promiscuous sex, etc., none are the
standards of being human. How do Buddhas look at these issues? Your government
permits them. Laws permit them. Still, it is only the approval by mankind
itself. The principles of heaven do not permit them! In the past, beautiful and
good things were the objects of pursuit for mankind. Now, you take a look at
the toys that are being sold, the paintings that are painted, they are all
randomly and casually slapped together and smeared, and this is artistry. What
is it? No one can say it for sure. All human concepts are changing in the
opposite direction. A pile of trash laid out there would become a master
sculptor’s work. The entire societal phenomenon is like this. As for the toys
in stores, even excrement has been made in the form of toys to be sold. In the
past, a doll had to be made very pretty so that people would be willing to buy
it. Now, skulls, evil-looking characters, goblins, devils, ghosts, and monsters
have all been made into toys, and they are sold quite fast. People with no kind
thoughts are willing to buy them. What issue does this elucidate? People’s
values are declining very badly! In the past, singers would have beautiful
voices and were graduates of music schools. The physique and bearing should be
as elegant as possible since music is supposed to give people a sense of
beauty. Nowadays, there are people, hard to tell whether they are men or women,
with long hair, who when screaming hysterically “Ah!" would become singing
stars with the help of TV promotion. Everything is being corrupted, and
everything of mankind is declining. There are also a lot of phenomena that are
extremely terrifying! If you do not practice cultivation, you will not notice
them. Man’s understanding of religions has also become different, and he treats
them as politics. Some people are insulting Buddhas as soon as they open their
mouths. There is even the so-called “Buddha Jumps over the Wall” on restaurant
menus. This is slandering Buddhas! What has happened to human society now? You
do not know it if you do not practice cultivation. Once you practice
cultivation, you will be shocked if you turn back and take a look! Think about
it, everyone. This mankind has not corrupted to such an extent in isolation. It
is because problems have occurred with this Fa in certain dimensions. It
results from the deviation of a lot of substances and a lot of lives from the
Fa. I can only tell you in such a way. If I talk about it too deeply, many people
sitting here would not be able to comprehend it. I think that you will
understand it when I put it this way.
Question: I was very embarrassed originally, but, if I
do not grab this opportunity, I am indeed afraid that I will miss it. This is a
question that many people could not answer. Today, Teacher is here, and this
opportunity is too precious. It is that I was doing the sitting meditation
according to the Tantric way one day around 12:00 midnight several years ago. I
practiced Tantrism in the past. However, I was spinning like a plane propeller.
It was so fast that I cannot describe it, and I levitated in this way. I rose
up this high and came out from the top of my head. There was a little bit of a
sharp pain while coming out from the top of my head. When I continued to rise
up higher in pain, I was very frightened. I thought that maybe my soul had
left, and I could not see my body. The following day, a strange phenomenon
occurred. I was sitting in the room in broad daylight when I saw a silver aureole
and silver light. Then, they disappeared five minutes later. On the third day,
I saw a Falun. What was going on?
Master: Although you
practiced Tantrism in the past, it did not have an effect. Why were you able to
see a Falun? It was because we were already taking care of you prior to your
cultivation. It is very easy for a practitioner to levitate, which scientists
nowadays cannot explain. In fact, when all the channels of a person’s body have
all been completely opened up, he will be able to levitate. Even if he does not
levitate, while walking he will also feel light and airy. Be it hiking or going
upstairs, he will not feel tired. This is when the channels are opened up, and
it will be this way. As for one’s Yuanshen coming out, some people’s Yuanshen
can easily leave their bodies while other people’s Yuanshen cannot come out as
easily. After it left your body, the Falun brought in motion your body that
levitated. Thus, it spun very fast. As for your not daring to go up that high,
it is just because at the time you only had energy of that height. The first
time you encounter this kind of thing, you will be frightened. Everyone would.
In fact, there are many practitioners of our Falun Dafa who have levitated. It
is quite normal. Once a practitioner begins cultivation practice, he will start
to open his channels. Then, as soon as one’s Great Heavenly Circuit is opened,
he is then able to levitate.
I have made it known, but I would still like to advise everyone
that no one should have this kind of thought, “How great it would be if I could
levitate!” Once you have the idea of pursuit, even if you can levitate, you
will not levitate. It is because cultivation practice requires non-action,
emptiness, and intentional cultivation without the intention of attainment. One
should have the intention of practicing cultivation without the intention of
attaining Gong. Everyone should maintain such a state to practice cultivation.
If one always thinks about becoming a Buddha all day, that is a strong
attachment. One will never make it if this attachment is not given up.
Therefore, cultivation practice is to remove human attachments. Among ordinary
people, anything that you are attached to is an attachment. Speaking of
pursuing this or pursuing that, the more you pursue it, the less you will have
it. Only when you give up this attachment will you have it. Everyone should
make sure to remember this principle. Among ordinary people, if you want to
attain something, you may pursue it, study it, and attain it after making the
effort. However, for things beyond ordinary people, only by giving it up, can
you attain it. What is it called? It is called, “natural attainment without
pursuit.”
You have mentioned the issue of
fear. In fact, there is nothing to be afraid of. If you levitate, you just
levitate. You were scared because no one told you about it at that time and
there was no master amongst ordinary people to teach you. Levitation is a very
normal phenomenon, which is controlled by one’s mind. If you say, “I want to
come down,” you will come down as soon as you think about it. You can levitate
again if you want it. When you become increasingly scared, it is also an
attachment, and you would fall down easily. Thus, make sure that you never get
scared. In the past, there was a person who became an Arhat through
cultivation, and he fell down as soon as he became delighted. Why? Delight, the
human delight, is also a manifestation of sentimentality as well as an
attachment. As a person who has succeeded in cultivation, he is not moved if
you swear at him or say something unpleasant about him. He is not moved either
if you say something good about him. He does not take it to heart if you say
something bad about him. Therefore, once he was delighted, he fell down. It is
not very easy either to become an Arhat through cultivation. In the end, this
person again continued to practice cultivation! A few years later, he reached
the level of an Arhat again. He thought to himself this time, “I should not be
delighted. If I become delighted, I will fall down again.” Then, he became
afraid of being delighted in his mind. However, once he became scared, he fell
down again because such a fear is also an attachment. Cultivation of Buddhahood
is a very serious issue, not a joke! Therefore, everyone must pay attention to
this matter.
Before you continue to ask questions, I shall mention another
issue, which is we must stick to one cultivation way in our practice. I know
that many people sitting here studied Tantrism in the past. A lot of people
believe in Buddhism, and many people believe in Christianity or Catholicism. I
hold that one must stick to one cultivation way only! Why should one stick to
one practice? This is an absolute truth! This is a principal reason why people
nowadays cannot succeed in cultivation in the Dharma-ending period. It is
caused by a couple of reasons: being unable to understand the Fa, and the other
is mixing up cultivation practices. Mixing up cultivation practices is a main
reason. Once you practice this way, you should not practice others. Why do I
tell you this? It is because the statement of “taking the best of every school”
is what ordinary people would say, and this is a principle for pursuing the
skills and techniques among ordinary people. However, the principle in
cultivation practice requires sticking to one practice. In Buddhism it is
called sticking with only one way of cultivation practice. If you say that you
will follow both the
Buddha Sakyamuni’s way of completing cultivation is called
“Precept (morality), Samadhi (meditation), Wisdom.” One must cultivate four
types of deep meditation as well as eight forms of concentration, etc. and
follow his cultivation way. In practicing this way of cultivation, your Gong
also has to be the Gong cultivated by Buddha Sakyamuni. Only then can you go to
his place through cultivation practice. If you want to practice Tantrism, you
must follow the requirements of “Body, Speech, Mind” in Tantrism, and only then
can you go to the paradise under the care of Tathagata Dari via cultivation. If
you practice everything, you will not get anything. If you practice the
What I am saying here is a principle. It is not to say that you
have to study this Falun Dafa of Li Hongzhi. Like Buddha Sakyamuni’s Buddhism,
our Falun Dafa once saved people on a large scale in human society during a
prehistoric time. In this period of human civilization, it has never done so.
Since the appearance of mankind this time, this is the first time that we have
brought it out again, and it could also be the last time that it is made public
and taught to man. However, it is something that will never become defective.
Of course, we have the Falun Paradise, and those disciples who complete
cultivation can go to the Falun Paradise. However, it is not to say that you
have to practice cultivation in my Fa. You may practice cultivation in any kind
of Fa. As long as it is an orthodox Fa or if you are able to gain the genuine
teaching of that school and you think that you can complete cultivation in that
school, go ahead and cultivate in it. But, I advise you to stick to one school.
I am also telling everyone that a Buddha cannot directly come
to save you with his real Buddha’s appearance, displaying great divine powers.
If a Buddha sits here and teaches you the Fa, that is not saving people. That
is called undermining the Fa. Seeing a real Buddha here, those with all kinds
of unforgivable sins would also come to learn it, and there will be no need for
enlightenment. Who would not learn it? The entire mankind would learn it.
Wouldn’t it be this way? Therefore, only a master that is reincarnated among
ordinary people can teach it and can save people. There is an issue of
enlightenment in this. It is up to you to believe it or not. But, you may weigh
up the Fa yourself. Anyway, out of responsibility to you, I am disclosing such
a principle. I am telling you this because you want to practice cultivation.
Otherwise, I would be as good as not being responsible to you. Now that you
have such an opportunity and affinity to sit here, I would tell you about it.
Nowadays, it is very difficult to succeed in cultivation in any school, and
nobody cares about it anymore. The key point is that cultivation practices are
all messed up. Of course, if you think that you can handle it properly by
yourself, you may practice cultivation on your own. If you think that you can
complete cultivation successfully, then it is fine for you to practice
cultivation in any school. This is just the way it is. Because Buddhas mean
well for the mankind, therefore, I will tell everyone that if you want to
practice cultivation, you should stick to one school. You should neither
practice movements from other schools, nor read the teachings of other schools.
You should not think about things of those other schools in your mind, not even
a mind intent. This is because in practicing Gong many things rely on the
mindwill. Once your mindwill occurs, it becomes a pursuit. If you go after
something, it will come. Then, the Gong in your body will be messed up, and the
Falun will become deformed and will lose its effectiveness. Your cultivation
will be in vain.
I am telling everyone that this Falun is simply too precious.
Even though I have given it to you, before I started to pass it on, those who
had cultivated the Tao for a thousand years to get it could not attain it. Upon
attaining it, a person can be said to have already completed half of his
cultivation, and his Gong will be automatically transformed by the Falun. As
long as you cultivate your heart, Gong will grow and be upgraded. It is a
higher life. That means, it is even higher than your life. I have given it to
you, because you want to practice cultivation, which manifests the Buddha
nature in you. With such a wish expressed, we would save you and have done it
this way. What you have attained is very precious. Cultivation of Buddhahood is
an extraordinarily serious matter. We shall also not let you mess it up and
destroy it. If you are to have your cultivation mixed up with other things, we
shall have to take it back and not let you destroy this life -- a higher life.
Some people think, “When I studied other things, why didn’t the Falun intervene
since it has such mighty powers?” This is because there is another principle in
the universe, that is you make your own decisions as to whatever you want. It
is what you want yourself. You want something evil, then that evil thing is all
pervasive. Even if you do not want it, it still tries to worm its way around!
If you want it, it will come at once, and it will come in less than a second.
Why didn’t Falun intervene? It is because you wanted it. Thus, everyone must be
really careful. Human cultivation practice is a very, very serious matter.
While I was teaching the practice in
Question: You have many Fashen (a body made of Gong and
Fa) who can guide people's cultivation practice. However, we are in
Master: He has raised a
very important question here. It is known to all that it is a very serious
issue for one to practice cultivation. Because one has karma lifetime after
lifetime and did things that were not good in previous lifetimes, he will have
enemies and creditors in other dimensions. If they find out that you are
practicing cultivation, they will come to you for revenge. Then, a beginner in
cultivation practice will face life-threatening danger. That’s why I said that
if you did not have a master, it would be completely impossible for you to
succeed in cultivation, and it would be absolutely impossible to make it. Only
if there is a master to look after you and protect you, can you succeed in
cultivation. Only by not allowing you to run into any major problems can you
succeed in cultivation. In the past there were cultivation practitioners
everywhere in the world, and there were relatively more of them in
Why can I teach and save so many people? In
Question: Can Fashen guide our cultivation practice and
protect us?
Master: When a
practitioner is about to run into troubles, my Fashen will dissolve such things
for you and not let them occur. He may also drop you a hint. When you indeed
cannot enlighten to it and yet, you are doing quite well in cultivation
practice, he may appear before your eyes to tell you something or perhaps let
you hear his voice. Because your cultivation level is not high enough, he will
not let you see him, but he will let you know his voice. Most of the time he
lets you see him in your sleep. This way, it is as if you are in a dream, and
there is still enlightenment as to whether it is real or false. Therefore,
people can see him mostly in dreams. If your ability of concentration is very
good, you may also see him during the sitting meditation. However, if you
always want to see me, it is also a kind of pursuit or attachment. Thus, you
will not be allowed to see him either. When you do not think about it, as long
as you practice cultivation, you will surely be able to see him in future.
Question: The master protects me, but my karma is so
big. How can I be protected?
Master: This also brings
up a very important issue. Because in today’s human society, people have all
reached this stage with karma built upon karma and their karma is already quite
enormous. It is not only human beings who have such big karma, because a human
life can be reincarnated and become an animal, a physical substance, a plant, a
being of a high-level dimension, or a being of a low-level dimension. This is
samsara (six paths of reincarnation), so everything can be reincarnated. People
take both De and karma with them. People of modern times have a small portion
of De and a lot of karma. Then, it appears that not only does man have karma,
cement and soil have it as well. We all know that in
What should be done, then? The people in this universe are not
meant to be human beings, but to practice cultivation to go back and to return
to the place where you were created. One may say, “I am in ordinary human
society, and I cannot give up the ordinary people's sentimentality. If I
practice cultivation, what about my wife, sons, daughters, parents, and
brothers? Then, I will be living without meaning.” That is your understanding
from your human point of view and a thought on the present basis. When you move
up to a new basis and after raising your level, you will not think this way.
When you are in another realm, you will not think this way. However, I will
tell you a principle. Who are your real relatives? Here I am not interfering with
your family relations. In samsara you are human this lifetime and an animal or
a plant in the next lifetime. From one life to another, how many parents,
wives, sons, daughters, sisters and brothers have you had in each lifetime? In
your long journey of life, you are even unable to count them. Also, some are
human and some are not human. Which ones are real? It is just that human beings
are lost too deeply in the maze! Your real parents are in the place where the
universe created you. That is where your parents are. This is because life has
two kinds of origins: one is the life created from the motion of enormous
matter; the other is the life with a form that is created from the motion of
matter in the universe. In itself, it is like a person who is pregnant, giving
birth to a life. For such lives, they will have parents. Therefore, your real
parents are right now watching you over there, hoping that you will return; but
instead of returning, you get lost here and still feel that your relatives are
all here.
For human beings to be human is not the goal. The goal is to
return to your original true self. Once a person has this thought of
cultivating Buddhahood, though he does not have the opportunity of cultivation,
still, he has seeded the benevolent fruit of cultivating Buddhahood. Why is it
said this way? It is that for him to have this thought is just too precious!
For a person in an environment as bitter as this and in an environment as
confusing as this, he still has the heart to go back and the heart to cultivate
Buddhahood and to be kind. Then, if you want to practice cultivation, everyone
will help you and think of ways to give you the green light. When a person has
such a thought, it will shake the world in ten directions. It is as glittering
as gold and everyone will be able to see it. If this person wants to practice
cultivation, it will be this way. With so much karma, what could be done? Then,
measures have to be taken to eliminate the karma for you. Elimination of karma
cannot be done unconditionally, nor can it all be eliminated for you. To what
extent can others do it for you? I do
not look at it. However, it is said in Buddhism that you cannot succeed in your
cultivation in one lifetime, and that only after a few reincarnations can you
succeed in your cultivation. Namely, you are unable to eliminate that much
karma all at once. However, if you really want to practice cultivation, we will
find a way to allow you to succeed in your cultivation in this lifetime and to
complete it in this one lifetime. If you really are very old or your life is
very short and there is not enough time left, you will carry the Falun into the
end of your life span and be reincarnated. As soon as you are born, you will
carry it to connect to the next predestined relationship.
For a person who practices cultivation in the orthodox Fa, I
will eliminate his karma to the extent that he can practice cultivation and can
endure it. Eliminating all of it is not permitted, and not repaying at all is
not allowed either. Then, how to repay the portion that needs to be repaid? We
shall place it in your path of cultivation practice, and it is all your own
karma placed at the different levels where your improvement is needed in
cultivation practice. It will serve as trials or tribulations for improving
your Xinxing. When you need to raise your level, you will run into some trouble
or your body may feel pains somewhere. These are for your enlightenment. When
this happens, it is a test whether you can treat yourself as a practitioner, whether
you will treat these problems like an ordinary person, or whether you can
detach yourself from them and take them lightly. When you take each trial or
each tribulation as a good opportunity for improvement and let go of it, you
will be able to pass the test. Some people find their tribulations very big in
cultivation practice, but actually they are not. The bigger you find them, the
bigger they will become and the smaller you will become. If you do not care and
do not put them on your mind, with the master and the Fa here what is there to
fear? As long as the green mountains remain, there is no fear of having no
firewood to burn. Ignore them! Once you give them up, you will find that the
tribulations have become smaller and you have become bigger. You will overcome
them in one step, and the tribulations will become nothing. It is guaranteed to
be this way. If one cannot overcome them, it is actually that he cannot give up
the attachments or does not believe in the Fa. In most cases, it is because one
cannot give up one or another attachment. His failure is all due to his
inability to give up the attachments. Because he cannot back that one human
step, he is not able to overcome them.
Question: I have a question. I have practiced Falun
Dafa for a very long time already. I read Teacher's books and watch Teacher's
video tapes as if feeling a hunger or quenching a thirst. However, there is one
sentence that I do not understand. It is that Teacher made a statement, “Falun
cannot be developed by your own practice. A Falun has to be installed by
Teacher in person.” Thus, I am thinking of going to
Master: Many people
worry about one issue, that we want to study this Fa, but we have not attended
your lectures or seen you in person. Are we going to have Falun as well? Some
people also do not feel anything. Is the Teacher not taking care of us? This is
a question that many people will have. In fact, I have already written it in
the book that you will have Falun. Because I come precisely to offer salvation
to all sentient beings, if I am not responsible to you, reading such things
will all bring danger to you. Therefore, I must take care of you. If you
genuinely practice cultivation and I don’t look after you, it would be the same
as harming people and putting them to death. Then, I would be punished, so I
cannot do it this way. Now that I have done it, I will be responsible for you.
Many people with very good inborn qualities can see that every word in this
book is a Falun. Because dimensions are different, upon looking further into
deeper dimensions, every word is my Fashen, who are all the image of a Buddha.
Every component of each word is also an individual Buddha. Think about it,
everyone. One Buddha's power is already very great. Why will your illnesses be
healed when you pick up this book to read? Your eyesight is not good. While
reading this book, why do you see the words becoming bigger and bigger and your
eyes are no longer tired? Why is it that miraculous changes will occur when you
read this book? It is because those words are made of Fa. They can do
everything for you, and they can install Falun for you. I also have Fashen
taking care of you, and they will do all of these things. Thus, you will still
attain it without seeing me in person.
As for the feeling, some people may be sensitive and will feel
the lower abdomen rotating. Not only is it rotating in one place, it is
rotating everywhere, all over their bodies. Someone sitting here said something
wrong and should be careful in future. A
claim was made that our Falun Dafa practices nine Falun. Let me tell you that
only one Falun is genuinely installed for you by me. This one Falun already has
incomparable power and it can divide itself without a limit. In the initial
stage of your cultivation practice, in order to adjust your body it is unknown
how many hundreds of Falun I installed outside your body, and they were
rotating everywhere. Someone said that it rotated here or rotated there. Wow,
the entire body was rotating, and it was rotating everywhere. This is because
your body needed to be purified and assimilated. I was using the characteristic
of our Gong to adjust you, so you would feel that there were Falun rotating
everywhere, and they were so numerous that you could not even count them. You
might have felt that there were nine Falun, so you said that there were nine
Falun. I will use many external Falun to adjust your body. Some people are
sensitive while some are not. Those who are not sensitive will not feel them
while those who are sensitive will be able to feel them. However, no matter
whether you can feel it or not, this all occurs in the initial stage. When
those who can feel it become accustomed to it and when it becomes a part of
your body, you will no longer have the feeling. Your heart is beating, do you
know that it is beating usually? You will know it when you feel it with a hand.
Your stomach is undulating. Do you know that it is undulating? Your blood is
circulating. Do you know it? When it becomes a part of your body, you will not
have the feeling, and you will not feel it. There are also times when there is
no feeling at the beginning. In the early stages, there are quite a lot of
people who do not feel anything. However, in future cultivation practice, you
will have a great deal of feelings. As long as you practice cultivation, I will
definitely take care of you.
The most obvious thing is that your body will be purified very
quickly. Many people in Mainland
Question: Teacher, I am very sorry. I want to ask three
questions. The first question is that when I read Zhuan Falun, it says that the
Master: Because one is
practicing cultivation among ordinary people, he must develop through
cultivation everything that he needs to have as a Buddha in future. It is known
to all that a Buddha can have whatever he wants and has great divine powers.
His good fortune is unparalleled. Where does he get them? However much he
suffers, however much good fortune he will have. Thus, the Gong that he
cultivates has to reach quite a high level before he can succeed in cultivating
a Buddha. In the past, this was mentioned only among very high-level people in
our community of cultivators, and it was not mentioned among ordinary people in
the past. A practitioner indeed needs to reach a very high level of cultivation
practice before he can attain completion. Why is that? If you move up with Gong
alone, you will not have whatever you want and you do not have any of the good
fortune. That will not do. During the course of your cultivation practice, you
will have to develop all of it through cultivation. The suffering you have
endured throughout the entire course of cultivation practice is your mighty
virtue. Suffering increases Gong, and upon improving Xinxing one will increase
Gong. Therefore, after your cultivation practice has reached a very high level
in future, eight tenths of the Gong will be broken off to complete the good
fortune of your boundless Fruit Status and to enrich your own small paradise.
That comes from your cultivation by bearing hardships. Even the Xinxing standard
that you have cultivated will also be broken off to enrich the inside. That is your true fortune, and it all comes
from your suffering. As for the remaining two tenths, that is your Fruit
Status. Those who reach the standard of Bodhisattva will be Bodhisattvas. Those
who reach the standard of Buddha, will be Buddhas. Those who reach the standard
of Arhat will be Arhats. If you reach a higher realm, you will be a greater
Buddha. Yet, the
Question: My second question is that, as our Xinxing
level is not high enough, I get very angry in my heart when others swear at me
or bully me. According to what Teacher said, when others hit you, swear at you,
or bully you, they are all giving you De. But you should not be angry in your
heart. Is it that if one gets angry the Gong will not grow?
Master: Because as a
practitioner, when you get angry with an ordinary person you are already the
same as an ordinary person. When you get angry, you are pushing it away, except
that you have not pushed it back. You have not pushed it back, because you are
the one who lost in the first place. As long as you approach it in the same way
as he does, you will push it back. One may think that this guy has bullied me
too much and has defrauded me of a lot of money. Still, I have to be happy and
thank him. You beat me up, and I also have to bear the insult. Not only should
I endure it, but I should also thank him. Won't other people say that you are
being Ah Q (a self-deceiving character in a novel)? And being too weak? No.
Think about it, everyone. If you do not have a Xinxing level as high as that,
you would not be able to do it. That shows a practitioner's strong will. Can an
ordinary person do it? If one does not have a will as strong as that, he will
not be able to do it. That is not being timid and weak. Of course, you should
be happy. Think about it, everyone. If he did not bully you, you would not have
been able to gain an additional piece of De. If you get an extra piece of De,
you will cultivate and develop another piece of Gong. When he bullied you, your
own karma was also being eliminated! Can you become a Buddha while you are
still carrying karma? You have to eliminate it completely. When he bullied you,
he gave you De, and you also eliminated karma. You did not behave in the same
way as he did, keeping a calm mind. Your Xinxing standard became higher.
Xinxing has a yardstick above one's head. The yardstick above one's head is as
high as the Gong level. Your Xinxing level is higher. Your Gong level is higher
too. Your karma is transformed into De as well. He also gave you De. You have
gained four for one. Shouldn't you thank him? You should really thank him from
the bottom of your heart. Because as I just mentioned, the principles of good
or bad held by human society are reversed. Upon reaching a higher level, one
will find that the things people are attached to are all bad.
Question: The third question is the issue of killing as
mentioned in the book. Killing a life is a very big sin. If a person commits
suicide, does it count as a sin or not?
Master: It counts as a
sin. Now, this human society is no longer good, and all kinds of strange and
bizarre things have appeared. They talk about the so-called euthanasia and give
injections to let people die. Everyone knows it. Why do they give an injection
to let a person die? They think that he is suffering. However, we think that
his suffering is eliminating karma. When he is reincarnated in the next life,
he will have a light body without karma, and he will have a great fortune
awaiting him. While he is amidst the pain and is eliminating karma, he is
certainly not having an easy time. If you do not let him eliminate his karma
and kill him, isn't that murder? If he is gone, carrying the karma, in the next
life he will have to repay the karma. So, which would you say is right?
Committing suicide has another sin. This is because a person's life is
pre-arranged. You have disrupted the sequence of the god’s entire layout.
Through the obligations you carry out to society, between people there is this
kind of interrelationship. If the person dies, won't this entire sequence
disrupt the god’s arrangement then? If you disrupt it, he will not let you go.
Therefore, committing suicide is sinful.
Question: A Buddha does anything he wants. Doesn't a
Buddha have a clean mind and little desire? Does he still enjoy himself?
Master: Some people say
that a Buddha does not eat food, and that a Buddha does not have a human body.
This statement sounds as if people all think that a Buddha is this way. Let me
tell you that what a person says in the community of cultivators should not be
understood with an ordinary human mind. A Buddha does not have a human body,
which is to say that it does not have this dirty human body made up of matter
of the molecular particle level. The coarsest particles of his body on the
surface are atoms while his most microscopic particles are the more microscopic
matter in the universe. The more microscopic his matter is, the greater his
radioactive energy is. The Buddha's light shines everywhere. Some people say
that a Buddha does not eat food. A Buddha does not eat human food. He eats the
substances within his level. Also, he does not call it “food” as in human
terms. Therefore, you will not be able to understand the meaning of the
language in the Buddha's realm and cannot comprehend them. Human beings just
have the human way of thinking.
Some ordinary people say that if one becomes a Buddha, how
boring it would be. One will have nothing, sitting there like a piece of wood.
Let me tell you that a Buddha is the king of Fa in his heavenly world. We call
him a Tathagata as a way of referring to the embodiment of his Xinxing standard
level. He is actually the king of Fa in that world of his. In that world, there
are numerous beings under his management. Of course, it is not the management
of our ordinary people with laws for reinforcement. He manages it completely
with compassion and loving-kindness. Everyone meets the standard of that realm,
and it is wonderful beyond compare. They do not have the sentimentality of
ordinary people. But, they have compassion, a higher realm, and something purer.
They have none of the things that
ordinary people have. They have things that are correspondingly more wonderful
in a higher realm. That is a higher life; there are even higher, even higher,
and even higher lives. If it were all boring, one would be better off to die
and end it all. It is more wonderful. Only by going to that world, can one know
what happiness is. It is more wonderful, but if you do not give up these
ordinary people's attachments and cannot remove them, you will not be able to
attain it.
Question: Why doesn't the
Master: Who says that
the
Question: Two questions. The first question is that
when I began the sitting meditation the first day, I saw Master's Fashen
sitting by my side, on the left. But, his clothes were black, and he had a
smiling face. Later, I read what was said in a document. Because it was my
first time to see him, today I would like to ask again why he was not the same
color as on the TV tape.
Master: This is also
because there is a contrast between different dimensions. For example, what color
does a Taoist like? It is purple. Therefore, he talks about the purple Qi
coming from the East and regards purple as the highest. The
Question: I have already been studying this Fa for two
months. In these two months I felt that my illnesses of several decades have
all disappeared because my purpose of studying Dafa is to eliminate my karma. I
really lived extremely well in these two months without taking a bit of
medicine. This is one point. The other one is that I would like to ask Master
if what I saw during the sitting meditation was a Falun? I saw something
spinning and spinning in a spiral form. However, its color also looked like the
color of soil, the same as the color of clay. Its spinning on the whole was
simply very wondrous. But, I was unable to see its internal structure.
Master: Because except
for that symbol of Falun, its base color changes. Its color can change into
different colors: red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, blue, purple,
colorful or colorless. Therefore, Falun may not always be in this color. In
addition, when Falun is adjusting your body, it rotates extraordinarily fast.
It looks like an electric fan turbine or like a tornado spinning. Sometimes, it
rotates very slowly, and one can see clearly its structure inside. When it is
rotating very quickly, it is not easy to see. While adjusting one's body at the
beginning, it knows itself when it should be fast or slow as well as how it
should rotate. This does not matter and is all normal.
Question: Can we do the Big Lotus Flower hand sign?
Master: The Big Lotus
Flower hand sign is a Ding Yin, which is a fixed sign. This is the Big Lotus
Flower hand sign (making the hand sign). We do not need to do it during our
practice. One does it when he requests Master to do the Kaiguang (the ritual of
inviting a Buddha’s Fashen to a Buddha’s portrait or a statue for worship in
human society) at home for a Buddha statue, a statue of Lao Zi in the Taoist
School, that of the Primitive God of Heaven, or for other Buddha statues. The
best thing to do is that you hold that book of mine. Doesn't it have my photo?
As though you were talking to me, you say, “Teacher, please do Kaiguang for
me.” Use your hand to do the Big Lotus Flower hand sign while cradling this
book, and it will be done in three seconds. My Fashen will invite a Fashen of
the god on that Buddha statue. If you do the Kaiguang for Buddha Amitabha, my
Fashen will invite a Fashen of Buddha Amitabha onto this Buddha Statue, and
this is called the genuine Kaiguang. Nowadays, monks who do not actually
practice cultivation in their religion and, those many sham Qigong masters
simply cannot do Kaiguang. They do not have the mighty virtue to invite a
Buddha. It is a Buddha, not someone that would come no matter who sends for
him. Of course, there are some people who would hold a mirror to the Buddha
statue, and call it Kaiguang. There are also people who color the eyes of a
Buddha statue with a bit of cinnabar ink and make the eyes very red, and they
also call it Kaiguang. They are all messing things up.
Question: You just mentioned that man himself has
fallen down here from different paradises or different levels. Then, naturally
in principle, he should return to that paradise that he originally fell from.
However, it seems that, at this human level, he does not know which paradise is
the one he fell from. Then, while practicing cultivation, he may have chosen a
different way just as he may have the affinity to study Falun Dafa.
Master: You still want
to return to that paradise that you originally came from, the place where your
life was created. The wish is good. Now, the first thing that you must resolve
is how to return there, and how to return there through cultivation practice.
This is most critical. There isn’t any room for other choices, no room at all.
It is not as though everything is laid out there with Buddhas sitting there so
that whichever one you want will be given to you. As for your moving up in
cultivation, if you can really reach a very high level through cultivation and
can return to your original position, while being in that paradise, you can
always visit your relatives in that paradise and stroll around and take a look.
It does not matter as to which paradise you are in. It does not matter whether
you live in
Question: In the Southeast Asian region, there is
something called the Heavenly Tao that is widely spread. What is it about?
Master: Let me tell
everyone that now is the period of the Last Havoc. Buddha Sakyamuni mentioned
that, in the Dharma-ending period, thousands of demons would come to the world.
At the time when Buddha Sakyamuni was in this world, the demon said, “I am not
able to undermine your Dharma now. When your Dharma enters the Dharma-ending period,
I will send my disciples and followers to become professional practitioners in
your temples. I will see what you can do about it!” At the time, Buddha
Sakyamuni wept. Buddha Sakyamuni, of course, could not do anything about it. It
has come to the end of the Dharma, so it becomes chaotic. In the Dharma-ending
period as he mentioned, not just among people or just in temples, everywhere in
the human society there are things that undermine human affairs, and there
exist such people. Evil religions are everywhere! On the surface they also tell
people to be good, but in their bones, they are not for this. They are either
for fame or for money; otherwise, they are for a dark influence. They are all
such things. Therefore, what things do you find them seeking? The Buddha Fa is
made public to save people. If one uses it to make money, he will be guilty of
the most heinous sin! Of course, a demon does not care about such things. He
carries the banner of religion or carries the banner of telling people to be good
in order to ruin mankind, ruin the human mind, and ruin the human Fa of the
mind. This is most vicious! Therefore, I think, of course, there are some words
I do not wish to say, as for the orthodox and the evil, you should be able to
distinguish them, and you make the distinction yourself. I do not want to say
who is evil or who is not evil.
However, I can only tell you that if one wants to come to the
ordinary human society to save people, this is too big an undertaking. The gods
in the entire universe must all nod in agreement. This is because it involves
various aspects and involves all races in human society that correspond to
those above. There are many issues involved. It is not something that anyone
can do when driven on the spur of the moment. I know why Jesus was crucified on
the cross. Why did Buddha Sakyamuni take the path of Nirvana? It is not easy to
pass on the orthodox Fa. Then, nobody will bother it if an evil Fa is taught.
It is not that nobody cares about it. It is just that when an orthodox Fa is
being taught, there is usually a lot of evil Fa as well, it all depends on
which door you enter. If it were all from one school or everything being taught
was orthodox Fa and there was no evil Fa in the world as it had all been
eliminated, it would be too easy for people to practice cultivation. How could
this Fa be attained? Everyone would be practicing yours since there is only
this one school of yours. How could disciples be tested as to if they have firm
faith in your Fa? Therefore, usually when an orthodox Fa is being taught, evil
Fa will also be taught, it all depends on which door people will enter. To
assess your enlightenment quality, in the course of your cultivation practice
there will always be people coming to you, “Come on, come with me to practice
this one; Let us practice that one; Hey, I have been learning some good
practice now, etc.” They will drag you and test you, and these things are sure
to happen. During the course of your cultivation practice, from the beginning
to the end you will experience such kind of phenomenon to pull you out. Why
don't we take care of these things? Fashen can take care of anything. Why don’t
they take care of it? This is because they are using the demons to test a
person's heart to see if you are fundamentally faithful to this Fa. Cultivation
of Buddhahood is such a serious matter that these kinds of things are
inevitable.
Anyway, I have spoken about the good and the bad. It is even
very difficult for the orthodox religions now to save people, not to mention
the evil religions! There is someone who dresses up like a model to be promoted
by others and is advertised everywhere to collect money. Yet, people all
believe in her. People are very foolish! When people have not attained the Fa,
they are easily fooled.
Question: What is thought karma about?
Master: Some people
unknowingly form thoughts that are not good in their brains. We are practicing
cultivation of the orthodox Fa. I am doing such a thing based upon the
principle of being responsible to society, being responsible to mankind, and
being responsible to individuals. Such a person also knows that it is good, but
his mind will swear at me. Also, it tells him not to believe it and that this
is all untrue. Why is it this way? Because apart from the karma existing in his
own body, he also has thought karma. All matter is alive, and thought karma is
also alive. If you want to practice cultivation, you will need to have your
thought purified and to eliminate all these bad swearing thoughts, acquired
notions, and various kinds of karma produced from one lifetime to another. Only
then, can your original nature come out. Once you practice cultivation to
eliminate them and want to eliminate these swearing thoughts and concepts, they
will not want to let it happen. How can they let themselves die? They will
reflect on your mind: that this is all untrue; swear at him and swear at
people. The more you practice cultivation, the more they swear at people. Your
mind will produce swear words and filthy language. In fact, let me tell you
that they are not you. They are karma; they are thought karma. You must reject
it. This cultivation way of ours is given to you to cultivate yourself. If your
own mind consciousness is unclear and your mind is not firm, when the swear
words come out, your own main consciousness will follow it. You will not
practice anymore and will no longer be firm. Then, we will not be able to take
care of you either. Because what we are saving is you, we will not save you
anymore if you give up.
There have been many such
instances in the past. In
Question: I raise a question, which is related to the
issue of practice as well as the relationship between the exercise and Xinxing.
Is it that increasing the exercise can improve Xinxing?
Master: There is no
direct relationship, but the exercise is also a key aspect of completing
cultivation and is also very important. In this practice of ours, the Fa
cultivates people. Though you are not doing the exercise, the Fa is cultivating
you at all times whether you are sleeping, working, or having a meal. It
constantly cultivates you twenty-four hours a day, thus, shortening the
practicing time in your remaining years to allow you to complete cultivation as
soon as possible. As I mention earlier, that to enable you to complete
cultivation in this lifetime, it must be done this way. However, the movements
of our practice are in essence rather different from other practices, in which
they say if I practice I will increase Gong and if I don't practice, it will
stop. Our practice is to reinforce all of the mechanisms I installed for you,
both the internal and external mechanisms. You are actually strengthening these
mechanisms when practising the movements. Why did I say that this hand is not
in the form of Guanding (filling the top of the head with energy), and it is
not giving off or letting out something, but it is moving with the palms facing
the body? This is because when your hands move along the energy mechanisms,
those that I installed outside your body, they carry a lot of energy during the
practice and are strengthening the energy mechanisms. That is to say that you
are in fact reinforcing the energy mechanisms. Folding two hands over the lower
abdomen strengthens the energy mechanism in Dantian. When you stretch, you are
reinforcing the mechanism of motion. Therefore, our practice is to strengthen
the mechanisms, which will enable you to continue the long-term practice 24 hours
a day non-stop. By this you are reinforcing them. Practicing Gong is a means of
completing cultivation. However, it is not absolute, it is a supplementary
means of completing cultivation. But, practicing Gong is also very crucial. The
fact that things that are cultivated out of this school do not go wrong also
bears a direct relationship with this system of yours and your movements.
Because we also have things such as capabilities, things that transform and
prolong lives and things that reinforce supernormal capabilities, etc., the
exercise movements can play a certain role in this. Cultivation comes ahead of
practice. Cultivation is in the first place while practice is in the secondary
place. But, if you want to complete cultivation in this school, cultivation
and practice are both indispensable.
Question: When I do the exercise, I cannot see any
phenomenon except for the white light. If I want to see Teacher's portrait, I
will see it. Is it an illusion?
Master: I will divide it
into two questions to talk about it. Those whose Tianmu cannot see may have
such an element of making breakthroughs towards a higher level. For one who has
very good enlightenment quality and can cultivate towards a very high level,
the more he is not allowed to see, the faster his cultivation will be. Because
he is suffering and he is attaining enlightenment in a maze. Therefore, even
though he suffers the same hardship, his progress is doubled. This is a
different situation, and he is probably practicing cultivation towards higher
levels.
The other one is that you said that you did not see anything.
In fact, you have already seen it. While being inattentive, you saw the white
light shining over the body. In addition, sometimes when you want to see
something, you see it. You have in fact really seen it, but you take it as an
illusion. Many people consider it an imagination when they are able to see
something. Let me tell you that when the human eyes look at something, you have
become accustomed to it and think that it is seen with your eyes. However, have
you thought that what you see is the reflected image delivered to your brain
through the optic nerves? It is a kind of observed object reflected from the
brain while your eyes only act as the lens of a camera. They cannot analyze and
reflect things themselves. The brain is reflecting the images. Since it is the
brain that reflects the images, what we see through Tianmu and the human
imagination of thought are all reflected on the brain. What you think is
thought by your brain. What you see is also pictured in your brain. Then, one
will consider it an imagination when he is able to see something. However, it
is not the same because what you imagine will not be as vivid as that and it
cannot move, it is a fixed picture. Instead, what you really see is in motion.
When you become accustomed to these, just keep seeing slowly in this way. When
you become slowly accustomed to it for a long time, you will gradually find
that you really see it. In addition, you may be able to use it better.
In the past, when some people in the
Question: I had a dream one night and saw something
very frightening. I did not think of you, and what I thought of was Tantrism.
But, I am very faithfully practicing Falun Dafa. Isn't it that if anything
happens to me one day I will be dead and my Yuanshen will also be discarded?
Master: It is because
you did not read the book enough. Though you are cultivating Dafa now, the
Tantrist stuff still remains in your mind. Therefore, you thought of Tantrism
instead of Dafa in the dream. Some people asked me, “What should I do when my
life is endangered?” I said that you would not run into things that had nothing
to do with your cultivation practice, and that you were guaranteed not to run
into them. For things that are related to your cultivation practice, you will
run into them. If you should indeed lose your life today, it would indicate
that there is no school of cultivation that takes care of you, and you have not
practiced cultivation at all. As for religions, they believe in a life for a
life and say that if one does not make his cultivation in one lifetime, he
would continue his cultivation in the next lifetime after paying with his life.
This is what they say. But, we do not talk about it here. What we say here is
that you will not be allowed to have these problems. Those genuine practitioners
of mine will be absolutely guaranteed not to run into any life-threatening
danger.
Question: I was not aware at that time that it was a
dream.
Master: You were
practicing Tantrism at that time and were not really practicing cultivation. It
just did not work. Thus, nobody took care of you. Someone said that he saw
money on the ground in a dream and kept it for himself. In fact, these dreams
were all tests for people to see whether their Xinxing was solid. A
practitioner said that he could do very well during daytime, but not in dreams.
This shows that deep in his mind it is still not solid, and he was tested in
the dream to see whether he was solid or not. This is the reason why such
things occur. One does not need to feel sad if he did not do well when it
occurred. But once you become aware of its importance and resolve to do better,
you will be fine in future.
Question: In
Master: Let me start
with the first question. Because I have mentioned that each word in this book
has my Fashen, every word is the image of my Fashen and every word is the image
of a Buddha. I have numerous Fashen, which cannot be calculated by numbers. It
is known to all that Buddha Sakyamuni said that Buddha Amitabha had two million
Fashen. There are so many of my Fashen that they cannot be calculated by
numbers, and they are numerous. No matter how many people there are, I can take
care of all of them, and I can take care of the entire mankind. Of course, it
only works for genuine practitioners. We do not take care of non-practitioners
nor the societal affairs. Therefore, if you practice cultivation, the moment
you have that thought, my Fashen will know it. There is another issue. You find
this body of mine an ordinary human flesh body and just as big as this.
However, in the next dimension, you will find my body much taller than I am. In
each adjacent dimension, my body becomes taller and bigger one after another.
The largest body of mine is so big that it cannot be described. There are many
practitioners who happened to see my very big body in a glance. One said,
“Teacher, I stand below your toes and cannot see the top of your toes.”
Therefore, I have such an enormous body, think about it, the entire earth is
all here. I can take care of you no matter where you are. As for that Falun, do
I have to install it in front of your eyes? I can install it all the same
without being here with you. While I am
not here with you, I am also here with you.
Your second question is about mental disorder. Whether it is
minor or severe, we have all made it clear that: he is advised not to engage in
our practice. This practice of ours is unlike other practices, and we aim to
save the person himself. If we cannot save the person himself, we shall not give
it to anyone else. Our Gong is only given to the person himself and only saves
his Zhu Yuanshen (main consciousness) as well as his own self. There has never
been such a thing in history. Historically, whether you practice Tantrism or
other religions, they all save your Fu Yuanshen (paraconsciousness). This is a
myth of thousands of ancient years, which I have disclosed. When this myth was
unveiled at that time, the resistance was indeed quite enormous. But, when the
world becomes better in the future, there will be many Buddhas coming to the
world again to save people. It is not only I, they will also save one's Zhu
Yuanshen then. I have changed this aspect and turned it around because saving
one's Zhu Yuanshen has the direct benefit to the stability of social moral
values of mankind. In saving Fu Yuanshen, the person himself cannot practice
cultivation and is unable to practice cultivation. Even if one joins a
religion, the society will remain the same and it does not have much effect
upon society. Therefore, in saving one's Zhu Yuanshen, whether he practices
cultivation or not, he will be a good person in society. This is in itself
beneficial to society. A mentally retarded person does not have a clear
consciousness himself, and we cannot save him. We save those with clear
consciousness. If we give things to those who do not have clear consciousness,
they will be taken away by others in the next day. He may or may not practice
it. What's more, he would be unable to observe our rule of sticking to one school
only and not to practise this or that. Because cultivation of Buddhahood is a
very serious issue, there is no way to save him if he cannot even follow that.
Some people would make him learn it. However, if a problem occurs, you should
take the personal responsibility yourself. If a problem occurs to him during
the practice, he may then say that it is because of the practice of Falun Dafa.
We do not teach those with mental illness at all, and this is for sure. Because
he is an ordinary person, he will become ill and run into problems. The problem
may take place while he is trying to do the practice at a practice site. His
problem is not from the practice. It is that he should become ill when the time
is due.
Question: People are all the same throughout mankind.
Buddhism is widely spread in the East while Christianity in the West with
differences as great as that. Buddhism is very weak in the West. Are they two
systems?
Master: Why is
Christianity in the West while Buddhism in the East? Why are the oriental
religions or the Western religions not the same and have such great
differences? In fact, Christianity is also within the
Why is there no Buddhism in the world of the white people, and
no Christianity in the world of the oriental people? Strictly speaking, there
is not. I remember that Jehovah and Jesus all said in the Bible or books as
such, “You should not go to the East.” There are other things said, but I only
remembered this sentence, “You should not go to the East,” telling his
disciples not to pass on the teaching in the East. His disciples did not listen
to his words and followed the expeditionary forces to the East. A problem then
occurred. The races in the world are not
allowed to be mixed up. Now, the races are mixed up and it has brought about an
extraordinarily serious problem. Once races are mixed up, one does not have a
corresponding relationship with the higher levels, and he has lost the root.
Mixed races have lost their roots, as if nobody in the paradise will take care
of them. They belong to nowhere, and no places would accept them. Therefore,
you find the place where the continents of Europe and
The issue I just mentioned is that human races have a
corresponding relationship to the higher levels. The white people at higher
levels constitute a small portion, a very small portion of the universe in this
world and in this universe. That is their paradise of heaven. However, there is
an extraordinarily large number of yellow people and Buddhas' paradises as well
as Taoist paradises. They have almost filled up the entire universe. There are
as many Tathagata Buddhas as the sand in the
Question: Teacher, would you tell us what the
interracial children are all about?
Master: The issue of the
interracial children I have just mentioned has told mankind a heavenly secret,
but it is not that we would do anything. I said that I have done something even
greater in the sense that I can also save a person of mixed blood, but I can
only save him in this period of time. Though oriental people and Westerners all
live on earth, man does not know that there is something separating the East
and the West. It is well known that oriental people believe in the so-called
“nine”. They like the sound of it, which implies everlasting. “Eight” is
pronounced as “fa”, implying making a fortune. These kinds of things can indeed
have a little bit of effect in the East, such as geomantic omen telling or
landscape analysis, etc. But when applied in the West, they appear to be
ineffective and do not work. They do not work with the white people. Then
again, the so-called astrology or some phenomena believed by the white people
do not work with the oriental people either. Some people think that they work.
That is because you think they work. In fact, they don’t. Why is it then? It is
because the white people's biosphere has its special physical matter formed in
its own dimension while the oriental people's biosphere has the special matter
made up with their life. Such things run through the makeup of one's life.
Thus, the two sides are not the same. After races are mixed up, you will find
one’s child born to be an infant of mixed blood. However, there is a partition
in the middle of this child's life. If it is separated, he will be physically
and intellectually incomplete or a person with an incomplete body. Modern
science also knows that it is getting worse one generation after another. It
would be like this. Of course, if such a
person wants to practice cultivation, I can help, and I can take care of it. It
cannot be done to a non-practitioner.
Question: When I was bringing my hand up in the
exercise, I found my hands becoming warm. I have not felt it this way in any
practice. When I was doing the exercise, I felt as if I were a Bodhisattva,
feeling that I was the only respected one. Is it right?
Master: When you do the
exercise, you should not add any thought to it. In Tantric practice, one
regards himself as a Buddha. He is not in essence. Has his flesh body changed?
It has not changed. Who is it that will change in future upon succeeding in
cultivation? It’s his paraconsciousness. As I told you when I was teaching this
Fa I save one's main consciousness. If your paraconsciousness succeeds in
cultivation, you will still follow the six paths of reincarnation. When the two
lives are separated, you will not know anything. It is normal that your hands
feel warm.
Question: Shouldn't a little mindwill be added to the
cultivation practice in Falun Dafa?
Master: There should not
be any mind activities. Any mindwill is an attachment.
Question: Two questions. One is the issue on the
oriental people and Westerners as Teacher just mentioned. Suppose that many
people were originally Orientals in the past, what could be done if they were
born as Westerners?
Master: That does not
matter. There are two situations. If such a person did not come with a purpose,
he will change with this body, and we shall change this person. If he came with
a purpose, it would be a different story and a different case.
Besides, let me tell everyone that you should also be careful
with your approach in promoting this Fa. If one is interested in it and comes
to study it, then you are also building up beneficence. It is also a matter of
boundless beneficence. However, there is one point. If one does not want to
learn it and you try to make him do it, dragging him here to learn it, I will
say that it is not good. Because if he does not want to cultivate Buddhahood, a
Buddha cannot do anything for him either. What one wants to attain or pursue is
up to the person himself. You may tell him and offer a word of kind advice, but
you cannot impose on him. I am telling everyone that we do not make anyone to come
to learn it. In addition, our instructors or supervisors should not apply the
administrative means in doing their work in future. Everyone is a practitioner.
Therefore, one should convince people with the Fa. Everyone is studying the Fa.
If an instructor does not do well or acts incorrectly, when a practitioner sees
it, he will say that you have a Xinxing problem here or there. Thus, no one
will follow his mistake. Why is it? Because everyone is studying the Fa, they
all follow the requirements of the Fa instead of your own concepts. Of course,
we also treat you in the same way. If you want to learn it, you learn it. If
you do not want to learn it, you may leave. We will not harm anyone. If you
say, “I do not want to learn it anymore,” it is all right if you don't. If you
want to learn it and to practice cultivation, we will be responsible to you and
guarantee to do so. Although it is unstructured in form, yet the cultivation of
Buddhahood is a very serious matter. We cannot therefore allow any deviations to
occur to such an enormous and serious Fa. Historically, nothing as enormous as
this has ever been taught to man. Now,
you sit here and think that I have come naturally as if you have come because
you heard someone mentioning it. Let me tell you that it is very likely that
you have the predestined relationship. Probably such a predestined relationship
was formed some time earlier. It is very rare that one has come without any
cause or reason. I think that if you continue to ask questions, there may not be
much left to ask. You can find all the answers to your questions in the Fa.
Question: It is just a question on sticking to one
cultivation practice. I think that if some people study Falun Dafa, they may
mix it up with other things they learn. There are also some other traditional
techniques...
Master: Cultivation of
Buddhahood is a serious issue. It is not to say that you cannot study Zhouyi (a
prehistoric scripture for cultivation) or Bagua (a prehistoric scripture for
cultivation). I think that the time for cultivation practice is limited. If you
can use the time to gain a good understanding of this Falun, it will be really
remarkable, as nothing else is as great as the Falun. Even the principles of
Bagua and many technical things known by ordinary human society now have not
reached beyond the Galaxy. This universe is so big that you do not know how big
it is. Three thousand universes like this one of ours constitute a bigger
universe, and three thousand such bigger universes make up an even bigger universe.
The gods and Buddhas within are simply too numerous to count. What about the
Galaxy then? It is very small. For those who study Dafa, you think about it.
Such an enormous Fa has been taught to you. I think that a practitioner does
not need to waste his energy (on such things). But, if you are a student of
such a subject, I hold nothing against it. Because it is the knowledge of
ordinary people, you may go ahead and study it. If you say that it is your
spare-time hobby, I think that you had better give up this attachment! I will
be responsible for you, and the cultivation of Buddhahood is very serious.
Then, you had better use your energy to study this Fa, from which you will
benefit infinitely. It cannot be matched by any academic subject.
As for dealing with low beings and ghosts among ordinary
people, I will say that you should really give it up, because those low beings
are all ghosts. If you pursue such things, how far away it is from this Buddha
Fa of ours! In addition, those are all evil things. They are ghosts. As for the
issue of fortune telling, I have already talked about this matter in the book
in detail. If one wants to practice cultivation, it will become a serious
issue. When a person has energy, what he says can fixate a matter. Since
ordinary people’s affairs are changeable, it may not be the way as he sees it,
and yet he perceives it like this. Once he tells (the way he sees it), it will
happen the way he said. Then, he will have done a bad deed. As a practitioner,
one should follow the requirement of a higher standard. If you conduct a bad
deed, it will not be an ordinary matter. The reason I’m cleaning up your body
is because I see that you want to practice cultivation. If you want to practice
cultivation, you should give up such things and practice cultivation very
cleanly and purely.
Question: I have a mental burden. Today, I have such a
good predestined opportunity to study Falun Dafa. I read in Book II that if one
does not complete his cultivation in this life, he can vow to continue his
cultivation in the next lifetime. Yet, my genuine goal is to complete
cultivation. However, what could be done since I am of old age now?
Master: A person of old
age has such a problem. Although this practice of ours enables one to practice
cultivation rapidly, will his limited lifetime be enough for his cultivation
practice? Strictly speaking, it is sufficient for anyone and this applies to
people of all ages. However, there is one point. Average people cannot conduct
themselves well. Though you may say that you can handle yourself well, you
still cannot do it in reality. Because your cultivation has not reached such a
high realm and your mind has not reached a standard as high as that, you cannot
handle yourself well. This practice of ours cultivates both mind and body.
While practicing cultivation, your body will be changed to prolong your life.
Cultivation of mind and body is that while practicing, one's life is prolonged.
Strictly speaking, with your life being extended simultaneously in cultivation
practice, it (time) is sufficient for people of all ages theoretically.
However, there is one issue. All the prolonged lives must be used one hundred
percent to practice cultivation, not for living among ordinary people. So if
one is not aware that his life is borrowed time, he will not be able to handle
himself well either, and cannot follow the requirement for a practitioner one
hundred percent. Then, he will face the danger of passing away at any moment.
This is the issue that faces people of old age.
However, if he has indeed failed to complete his cultivation
and has not made enough effort, he can only have the following three options.
One is to continue cultivation in the next life. My Fashen will look after him
and even takes care of his reincarnation. The arrangement will be made so he
will be born into a family where he can attain the Fa. Another one is that you
do not want to practice cultivation anymore. As there is too much suffering in
mankind, you will go to whatever level your cultivation reaches. If you have
transcended the Three Realms, you will become a common member at that level of
heaven beyond the Three Realms. If you have not transcended the Three Realms,
you will be within the Three Realms and become a deity at that level of heaven.
However, being within the Three Realms, one will still come down for the six
paths of reincarnation in five hundred or three hundred years, except that he
will enjoy happiness out there for several hundred years. That’s another
option. The next option is that someone has indeed practiced cultivation very
well, but he has not reached the standard, but because of his understanding of
the Fa, or because he has made some special contributions, he may go to the
Falun paradise to become a common member in the Falun paradise, which is also
beyond the Three Realms, free from reincarnation. That is certainly very good.
But such people are relatively few and the requirements are rather strict.
However, he is neither a Buddha nor an Arhat, nor a Bodhisattva. He is just a
common member in the Falun paradise. This is the way things are. In fact, you
have attained the Fa, and your opportunity to cultivate Buddhahood is already
seeded.
Question: I have a question. How is one's level told?
Master: I have made such
a statement. I have said that when a wise man hears the Tao, he will follow it
diligently. I was borrowing Lao Zi's words. When an average person hears the
Tao, he will do it on and off. When a low person hears the Tao, he will laugh
at it. What does it mean? “When a wise man hears the Tao” means that upon
hearing something about cultivation practice, this person will practice it
instantly, and he will have faith in it as well. Such a person is very rare. He
will jump at the opportunity and keep up his cultivation until the end. This is
a wise man. When a wise man hears the Tao, he will follow it diligently. When
an average person hears the Tao, he does it on and off. What does it mean? It
is when one sees that everyone comes to practice it, he will also follow it and
find it quite good as well. He may forget it when he is busy or when he is
bothered with troubles of ordinary people. Others are not studying it anyway. I
may also stop. It doesn’t matter if I study it or not. This is called “when an average
person hears the Tao, he will practice it on and off.” He may or may not
succeed in cultivation. It all depends on the individual himself whether he can
succeed in cultivation or not. When a low person hears the Tao, he will laugh
at it. Upon hearing the Tao, such a low person will laugh loudly at it. What
cultivation practice? It is all superstition, and he will not believe it. Of
course, he will be unlikely to practice it. This is the way it is. As for how
high one's cultivation can be, I think that it all depends on how much one's
own heart can endure. When you step outside this door, you run into some
trouble, you may not be able to tolerate it. While I am talking here, everyone
finds it good. The energy carried from practicing the orthodox Fa is all
benevolence and loving kindness. Therefore, everyone sitting here feels very
pleasant and is willing to listen to me. In future you will also practice
cultivation in this way. Practicing cultivation in the orthodox Fa is also this
way. However, once you step outside this door, you may not be yourself anymore.
Some attachments of ordinary people will also surface in your mind and will be
very strong. You may forget about the cultivation practice. This won’t do.
Question: Can you say a little
more about the interracial children?
Master: I have already
talked about such interracial children. I have only mentioned the phenomena in
this Dharma-ending period. If you are an interracial child, it is, of course,
neither your fault nor your parents' fault. Anyway, it is just such a chaotic
situation brought about by mankind, in which such a phenomenon has appeared.
The yellow people, the white people, and the black people have the
corresponding races in heaven. Then, if one is not from his race or does not belong
to his people, he will not take care of him. This is the truth, and it is not
that I’m making up something here. What I am telling everyone are heavenly
secrets. All interracial children were born in the Dharma-ending period. People
are not to be blamed for it, because everyone is drifting in the tide, and
nobody knows the truth. This is the way they have come through. If you want to
practice cultivation, I can help. As for which paradise you will go to, we will
need to look at your situation. I will assimilate more of whichever portion
that is better preserved. Anyway, you should concentrate on your cultivation
and should not concern yourself with these things. There is nothing to be
afraid of now that you have attained the Fa. I did not mention such things when
I was teaching the Fa in the past. However, such a matter will be told to man
sooner or later.
Question: Wouldn't it be good if mankind all becomes
vegetarian?
Master: No. That is what
you think. Heaven has set the standard for the human life. Only by living in
such a way, can they be human beings. Surely, meat can provide the human body
with more calories than vegetables. However,
cultivation practice is different.
Question: Would you please tell us whether there is a
specific standard for tranquillity when we practice the sitting meditation?
Will it affect acquiring Ding if one's main consciousness keeps thinking of
oneself in Dafa cultivation?
Master: The main
consciousness and your acquiring Ding (a state of empty and yet conscious mind,
concentration) are two different issues. It is impossible for one to acquire
tranquillity at the beginning. Why can't one acquire tranquillity? It is
because one has too many attachments. There is no worldly thing that you cannot
think of such as your business, your studies, your job, the conflict between
one and another, your child’s illness, your unattended parents, etc. Each item
weighs very heavily in your mind. Please think about it. How can you acquire
tranquillity in your mind with all these? Once you sit there, they will surface
themselves though you claim that you do not think about them. So no method will
assure tranquillity. It is just like what is said in my book that although you
may claim that you can acquire tranquillity by chanting the Buddha's name, or
by looking at your heart, or by counting numbers, your mind still cannot
acquire tranquillity. They are only means, but cannot play a decisive role. The
only way is to gradually become indifferent to the attachments, the attachments
of the ordinary people. When you treat them with indifference you will
naturally be able to acquire tranquillity. When you are indeed able to acquire
tranquillity, you are already in a very high realm. However, there is one
point. Would one be like a monk who does not want anything nor has any material
possessions once he practices cultivation in Falun Dafa? Not at all. We would
conform maximally to the life of ordinary people in our cultivation practice.
Because you are in the ordinary human society, you should not be special and
should not be different from a normal person on the surface. Therefore, one
should conform as much as possible to the life of ordinary people in
cultivation practice. Those young people who should get married ought to be
married. The practice does not affect what business you should do or what
position you should hold. We are talking about one principle, which is that one
will have his problems at every level of the ordinary human society. Let’s
leave out the religious formalities. The
We have found that no matter which level you are from or what
kind of things or work you do, you can all practice cultivation. Why is that?
An ordinary worker for example, in order to provide himself with food and
clothes, will have conflicts with people around him and with his work. Then,
from such conflicts, he can learn how to be a good person. As for an average
white-collar worker, namely an office worker, he can learn how to be a good
person at his level. There are also scrambles over personal interests between
one and another. In all aspects, one can learn how to be a good person in such
conflicts. As for a boss, he can learn how to do business at his level and how
to be a good person amongst the conflicts between boss and boss or between
other people. He also has his conflicts. It is the same for a president. Being
a president, he worries about and works for his country. Some things go
smoothly while others don’t. There are
things accomplished with success and there are things that are not accomplished.
There are also conflicts between one nation and another. Therefore, he has his
things to worry about. This is the way man lives. Therefore, in every realm,
you cannot break away from the secular world, or people, or society. You will all have conflicts. In these
conflicts, you learn how to be a good person. If you can become a good person,
you will surpass ordinary people.
What we talk about is such a principle. It is not to remove
something from you materially, but to remove that human attachment. However big
your business may be, it will not affect your cultivation practice. If your
business is big, more money will certainly be made. However, you would not view
money as precious as your life in your mind or become very attached to petty
profits. You are not like this. Your house may be built with gold, but you do
not hold it to your heart and take it very lightly. This is the standard that
is required for our practitioners. No matter how high your position ranks, you
can still do good deeds for the people. This is the standard that we require a
practitioner to follow. Isn't it so? We have reached beyond religions to talk
about such an issue, and we talk about its essence. One can practice
cultivation in any environment. However, there is one point. Practicing
cultivation among ordinary people aims at tempering one's heart directly.
Therefore, the reason that I said I would genuinely save you is because you
genuinely improve yourself and truly endure this societal pressure. You are
genuinely improving yourself. For this reason, such Gong should be given to
you, and we would save you.
Paraconsciousness can attain Gong as well, but it is only your
guard of Fa at all times. It can also succeed in cultivation and follow you.
Although I have disclosed such a thing today, you still cannot understand its
profoundness. Let me tell everyone that some people still talk about other
cultivation ways such as how this practice is or how that practice is. You
still cannot understand the meaning of what I just said! Historically, all
cultivation ways have been saving your paraconsciousness instead of you, and
they do not save you! I have unveiled a myth of a thousand ancient ages. I
encountered a lot of difficulties in disclosing this matter. In the past, no
matter how hard you practiced cultivation, you were still not saved. Who did
you cultivate? You practiced cultivation for a lifetime and still had to follow
the six paths of reincarnation. You would not know what you would be born into
in the next life. Wouldn't you say that you were pitiful?! Why was it? In the
past, neither religions nor other cultivation practices saved such main
consciousness because they considered it too difficult to save the main
consciousness, which was in such a big maze. I am saying it in this way, and
everyone may think that they understand it. Once you step outside the door, you
will continue to behave as usual. Facing the practical interest of ordinary
people, one will again throw himself into it, scrambling over it with others. I
guarantee that he would behave like this. Therefore, gods found it too
difficult to save people. However, what I save is you. Your paraconsciousness
also has the same name as you do. All come from the mother's womb
simultaneously and all control this body except that you do not know his
existence. What they saved was him. Though you found them talking to you, they
were actually talking to him. Occasionally, you said something subconsciously.
However, it was not your brain that was talking. There are many people who do
the sitting meditation. Once they sit there, they will not know anything and
will sit there for several hours. “Oh,” the person may still be very happy when
he is out of Ding, “See how well I practiced and I sat there for several hours
in trance.” It is too sad! Did you practice the Gong? Do you know it? The
practice was all for others.
In the past, some Taoist practices told you to drink alcohol in
order to anaesthetize your main consciousness so that the paraconsciousness
could practice cultivation. Many Taoists drink alcohol, and they drink to
anaesthetize themselves. They will lose consciousness and sleep deeply. The paraconsciousness would then be taken
away for practice. Although I mentioned it like this, what I said is a myth of
a thousand ancient ages. They had this way or that way because they found that
man could not succeed in cultivation. Since someone completed his cultivation
from your body, you were also regarded as having built up De and having
suffered. After all, your youth was given to the religion. What should be done?
Perhaps, they were also good-hearted and let you be born into a
paraconsciousness in the next life. It might well be this way. I find such a
chance very slim. Then, they would ask you to practice cultivation, which also
was very rare. However, some people would be rewarded with fortune. How was one
rewarded with fortune? One would become a high-ranking official, make a big
fortune, and do big business. His next life would be like this because his
lifetime had after all built up De and fortune. I don’t think anybody sitting
here wants to be this way. Each time after I’ve talked about this issue, if
somebody still tells me about how this or that practice is and what this or
that religion is like, I would feel that his enlightenment quality is too low.
Everyone can read the characteristic of our Falun Dafa, which is all written up
there. People do not pay attention to it and dismiss it as a very ordinary
statement. It is the regulation of the universe. It was like that in the past.
Perhaps when you walk out of this place, you may feel very
comfortable physically. However, there is one point. Along with your
cultivation practice, your body will feel uncomfortable again. Why is it? It is
because you have karma from one lifetime after another, and it cannot be pushed
out all at once. One would be dead right away if all the karma were pushed out
all at once. Therefore, we shall gradually clean out such karma from the
internal body. So, you will feel physically very uncomfortable after a period
of time and you may wonder, “Is it an illness?” I am telling everyone that it
is not an illness. But, it will appear to be extraordinarily painful. Some are
very serious and appear to be very serious. However, some people know it and
they become happy each time they feel unwell. They say that Teacher is taking
care of me by removing my illnesses and eliminating my karma. Some people will
become quite anxious if they do not feel physically uncomfortable or anything.
“Teacher is not taking care of me, and why am I not eliminating karma?” But,
some new practitioners will normally consider it an illness and take medicine
whenever they feel unwell. They think that it is better if they practice
cultivation and take medicine at the same time. Yet we have seen a principle
that since hospitals cannot eliminate karma and doctors are not practitioners,
they do not therefore have such mighty virtues. They are technicians among
ordinary people, who can only remove pains on the surface and leave such
illnesses for you in a deeper dimension. Taking medicine is to suppress them
inside the body and is as good as accumulating them. One may not feel the pain
on the surface, but it is deposited in the deeper level of the body. Performing
a surgery is also the same. For instance, suppose that one has a tumour and has
it removed. He has only cut off the matter on the surface while the genuine
cause of illness is in another dimension, which has not been touched. Thus,
such very serious illnesses of karma will recur. Some appear to be healed and
will not have a relapse in this life. Then, they will come back again in the
next life. Because they are suppressed in a deeper level, they will return
sooner or later. One's karma will still have to be repaid, and it is just such
a principle. What we have done here is to push out all your dirty things from
the original source of your life. However, nobody does such a thing. Only if
you practice cultivation, will we do such a thing for you. But, everyone must
conduct your Xinxing well and shouldn’t think, “Oh, I am sick again,” when you
feel unwell. If you think this way, then take medicine when your illness comes.
We would not intervene, because cultivation practice depends on enlightenment
quality, not on forceful regulations. We have not said that you should not take
medicine when you are not feeling well. We have not.
Some people cannot treat themselves as practitioners. They only
practice the exercise without studying the Fa and will do anything. Although
you find them practicing the exercise, my Fashen will not take care of them. If
they are not looked after, they are just ordinary people and will become ill.
If we make a rule to forbid you to take medicine and you cannot conduct
yourself according to the standard of a practitioner and remain an ordinary
person, you will claim that Li Hongzhi does not allow you to take medicine when
you become ill. Therefore, I do not say whether one should take medicine or
not, and you should decide it yourself. It is in fact a test for you. If you
cannot treat yourself as a practitioner, you will still have illnesses. It is
just such a principle, and we have only mentioned its principle. Therefore, I
have told everyone that if you want to practice cultivation in the future, the
physical discomfort you experience is very likely your karma being pushed out
from your previous lives. I have found that some people had been born tens, or
a hundred of times over.There were many illnesses in each lifetime, which will
all need to be pushed out. Anyway, they will all have to be removed. More of
them will be taken away from another dimension, and a portion must be removed
for you. But, they cannot all be removed from another dimension because you
have to be made to suffer a little. If one does not suffer, it means that a
person does not pay for the bad things he has done. One day when you succeed in
your cultivation and are put in the Buddha's position, you would feel rather
uneasy to be there. Others would also wonder, “How does he move up here?” Is it
right? Thus, you must endure a portion of the pain. Then, while enduring it,
you will improve your enlightenment quality. Will you treat it as an illness?
Or will you consider it eliminating karma for a practitioner?
(1996)
Readers of this book are advised to read
Master Li's book Zhuan Falun to
obtain a more systematic and comprehensive understanding of the terms below.
|
Arhat |
A Fruit Status
in the |
|
Asura |
Malevolent
spirits |
|
Benti |
One’s physical
body as well as the bodies in other dimensions |
|
Bodhisattva |
A Fruit Status
in the |
|
Chu-Shi-Jian-Fa |
Beyond-Triple-World-Fa; beyond-the-three-realm-Fa |
|
Cibei |
Benevolent
compassion; grand mercy; universal love |
|
Dafa |
Great law; Great
way; |
|
Dan |
Energy cluster;
elixir |
|
Dantian |
The field of Dan
located in the lower abdomen area |
|
De |
Virtue; white
substance accumulated through suffering or by doing good deeds |
|
Dharma |
Buddha
Sakyamuni’s teachings in Buddhism |
|
Ding |
A state of empty
and yet conscious mind; meditation in trance |
|
Fa |
Law; Principle;
Way |
|
Fa Hui |
Dafa Conference;
Experience Sharing Conference; Law Assembly |
|
Fashen |
A body made of
Gong and Fa |
|
Fowei |
The status of a
Buddha |
|
Fu Yishi |
Para-spirit;
assistant spirit; para-consciousness |
|
Fu Yuanshen |
Para-spirit;
assistant spirit |
|
Futi |
Possession of
human body by animal or lower spirit |
|
Gen Ji |
Inborn Quality |
|
Gong |
1. Cultivation
energy; 2. Practice
method |
|
Gongli |
Energy
potency |
|
Gongneng |
Supernormal
capability; unique abilities |
|
Gongshen |
The body made of
Gong |
|
Gongzhu |
Energy pole that
grows above a practitioner’s head |
|
Guo wei |
Fruit status;
attainment status; a cultivator’s level of attainment |
|
Jing Jin |
Diligent
advance; earnest efforts |
|
Jing Wen |
Scripture; short
articles by the master |
|
Kai Gong |
Opening of
cultivation energy; full enlightenment |
|
Kai Guang |
The ritual of
inviting a Fashen of a Buddha (or a Tao, or a God) to the statue or portrait
of the Buddha for worship |
|
Karma |
The black
substance produced by doing bad deeds |
|
Lunyu |
On the Buddha
Fa; A Statement of Comments |
|
Nirvana |
The way to
complete cultivation in Buddhism by leaving the physical body behind; death |
|
|
A term in the
Tao school referring to the Pineal Body |
|
Precept |
Rules to observe
in cultivation practice in Buddhism; morality |
|
Pu Du Zhong
Sheng |
Offer salvation
to all sentient beings |
|
Qi ji |
Energy mechanism |
|
Qigong |
A modern term
for traditional cultivation practice |
|
Qing |
Human feelings;
affections and sentimentalities |
|
Ren |
Endurance;
tolerance; forbearance |
|
Samadhi |
Meditation in
trance |
|
Samasara |
The six paths of
reincarnation; the six-fold
transmigration; |
|
Sarira |
Relics of a monk
after cremation |
|
Shan |
Compassion;
kindness; benevolence; mercy |
|
Shen |
God(s); Immortal(s); Deity(ies); |
|
Shen tong |
Divine powers |
|
Shi-Jian-Fa |
In-Triple-World-Fa;
within the three realms |
|
Taichi |
1. A cultivation
practice in the Tao school; 2. The symbol of
Yin and Yang |
|
Tantrism |
A secret
cultivation way/school in Buddhism |
|
Tao |
1. The Way; the
way of the universe; 2. A person who
attains the Tao |
|
Tathagata |
A Fruit Status
in the |
|
Tian Fa |
Heavenly Fa/
Law; universal Fa/Law |
|
Tianmu |
The third eye;
celestial eye |
|
Wei de |
Mighty virtue |
|
Wu |
Enlighten to;
awaken to; conscious of; realize; understand; comprehend |
|
Wu Xing |
Enlightenment
quality; awakening quality; ability of comprehension or understanding |
|
Xinxing |
Heart quality;
mind-nature; moral value standard |
|
Xiu Kou |
The cultivation
of speech |
|
Xiu lian |
Cultivation
practice. Xiu –
cultivation, self-improvement; Lian – practice, refinement through practice |
|
Yi Nian |
Mind-intent;
mind-will; intention |
|
Yinghai |
The cultivated
infant |
|
Yuan Fen |
Predestined
relationship; predestined affinity; Karmic connection; causal relationship |
|
Yuan Man |
Completion of
cultivation; perfection |
|
Yuan Rong |
Perfect and
harmony; perfect and harmonize; well
balanced |
|
Zhen |
Truth;
Truthfulness |
|
Zheng guo |
Righteous fruit
status |
|
Zhong Sheng |
All living
beings, all sentient beings |
|
Zhu Yishi |
Main spirit;
chief spirit; main consciousness |
|
Zhu Yuanshen |
Main spirit ;
chief spirit |
List of Falun Dafa
Books
Zhuan Falun
Falun Gong
Explaining the Content of Falun
Dafa
Falun Dafa Exposition
The
Falun Dafa (Essentials for Further
Advancement)
Falun Dafa Lecture in
Falun Dafa Lectures in the
Falun Dafa Lecture in the First
North American Falun Dafa Conference
Falun Dafa Lecture in the European
Falun Dafa Conference
Falun Dafa Lecture in the
Assistants Meeting in
Falun Dafa Lecture in the
Falun Dafa Lecture in the Swiss
Falun Dafa Conference
Hong Yin
Free Instructions
and Workshops Worldwide
Falun Dafa practitioners provide free
instructions and workshops worldwide. For further information, please visit the
following websites:
Copyright © Falun
Fo Fa Publishing Co.
(Translated from
the original Chinese version. June 1999,