Falun Buddha Fa
Teaching the Fa at the Conference in
(August 22 & 23, 1998)
Hello students! (Applause. “Hello Master!”)
I know that in the audience there are our Singaporean students, along with many
people who’ve traveled a long way from
Now that the Fa has been brought to the public and the books are widely circulated in society, our students have the
books. That is, all of you can
study the Fa and cultivate, and the effect is the same as the
seminars I gave in person and taught the Fa at in those years—nothing is left
out. So what’s most important
now is having a stable environment that will help you improve
yourselves in cultivation as
quickly as possible. Through studying the Fa and
cultivating, you’ve realized and come to know that your Master is truly taking care of you and being responsible for you. Your improvement, then, is systematically
arranged—everyone has a systematic path of cultivation. Your desire to see me
might cause your thoughts to begin drifting and render you unable to cultivate with a calm mind, or it might cause you to go all over the place looking for me. That would affect your
cultivation process. The Fa has been introduced to the public. But has it occurred to you
that your improvement and your cultivation are what’s most important? If you can’t improve
yourselves, or if you can’t cultivate, then my teaching the Fa amounts to
nothing.
Nothing should interfere with your cultivation,
for it is the top priority. I
simply want to tell you that during your cultivation you
must calm your heart and mind and not let yourself be affected by ordinary
human attachments.[1] If you’ve [come here] truly for cultivation,
raising your realm, and identifying your shortcomings, or if you’ve come here to see how Singaporean students are doing in their
cultivation and to listen to their experiences and insights so as to foster
your own improvement—if that’s what is on your mind—then I’m delighted. Of course, wanting to see Master isn’t wrong. It’s just
that you shouldn’t have strong human emotions. Anyhow, your ordinary human
attachments need to be discarded. If they aren’t, you’ll
regard me with ordinary human emotions and an ordinary human mind, and you’ll
regard the Fa with ordinary human thoughts. That would create a serious
obstacle to your improvement. We should be careful with this.
Coming here wasn’t easy for many of you. Some
people are probably quite busy at work but have managed to take time off and
rush to
I came to attend this conference to listen to you. Yet we do still have lots of students who are unclear on
quite a few things. Since Dafa* is spreading throughout the world, there are
bound to be new students and disciples constantly taking up the practice, and
they’ll certainly have all sorts of questions. Actually, you can find in the
book the answers to all of your questions. But some of our students
still can’t rest assured and always want to ask me questions. So I’m giving you
an opportunity for that. This is a two-day conference. I won’t speak too much
now and will mainly listen to you. Wait until tomorrow afternoon, and then I’ll
spend the whole afternoon answering your questions. You can ask more questions
at that time about your cultivation, and I’ll answer them for you. I think half
a day will be sufficient. There are only two days in total, and our students need to organize the speeches, and there are other
activities as well. We should try to make this Fa-conference a complete
success. This is the first time
Now I’ll talk to you about the overall
situation of our Dafa at present. When I taught the Fa in
I think the overall situation of Dafa is that
students’ comprehension of the Fa is ever deepening,
that
their understanding of the Fa has become more profound, and that they truly know what this Fa is about. It’s a huge change
from the early days when people regarded the Fa with human feelings and human
ways of thinking. This has really been a huge change. It’s totally different
from the early days. So in other words, you’re truly cultivating in the Fa, and
not regarding or assessing the Fa with emotions, deep gratitude, or various
human notions—those things are becoming less and less. It means that our Fa is
becoming increasingly purer in ordinary human society.
So what does it mean to “fulfill[2]
the Fa”? Many of our cultivators might not know. Since this Fa is so great—it can save us, it can allow us to reach
different levels and realms through cultivating, and can lead us to
Consummation—why does it need people to fulfill it? As a matter of fact, you
might have thought about something: Ordinary human society, too, is a manifestation
of the boundless Dafa of the cosmos at this lowest level, that of ordinary
humans. Every form manifest in ordinary human society, too, is given and
created by this Fa. So we are, as cultivators, using this environment to do
cultivation. Although ordinary human society is bad when viewed from different
levels, it too is a level and realm created by the Fa. Then, if in your
cultivation you’re clear on how to break out of this level and how to free
yourself from the various behaviors and notions of ordinary human society, you
can break through those barriers and rise to a higher level. That’s what you
have to achieve in cultivation.
If you can’t let go of ordinary human things,
though, your cultivation might be seriously hindered. The corruption of moral
standards and the decline of humankind’s moral values have altered everything
that the Fa created for living beings at this level. So it’s really hard for
people to know that Truth still exists as a standard in everyday people’s
society. Without that standard, people dare to do anything, they dare to do
whatever, and they fear nothing. That in turn brings about the degeneration of
society’s morals and values, which manifests as the many unhealthy phenomena and crimes in everyday
people’s society.
To fulfill the Fa, you must first of all be a
good person. When you’re being a good person, that is an act of
fulfilling the Fa. But since you’re cultivating among everyday people, after
all, you need to go still higher than all of these things. So when you can truly
understand the Fa, cultivate in the Fa, and be an upright and true cultivator, you are fulfilling the Fa. Which means, you are safeguarding the Fa as
well. That’s because the conduct of each student in everyday people’s society
represents Falun Dafa [in people’s minds]. Isn’t that right? If we don’t
conduct ourselves well, we’ll undoubtedly tarnish Dafa’s image, and it couldn’t
be said that we’re fulfilling the Fa. Some people have said that we need to
safeguard and protect the Fa, and that when other people say something bad
about us we should deal with it in such-and-such way. In particular, when some
people slander our Dafa or treat us unjustly, many of you often get angry and
want to take some measures to retaliate. [You think,] “They treat us badly, so
we’ll do the same to them.” In that case, we’re confusing ourselves with
everyday people and are no different from them.
Actually, let me tell you this: Safeguarding
the Fa doesn’t mean resorting to violence. Good and evil coexist within a
person. We dispel the evil side and use only the good side to safeguard the Fa.
When others say something bad about us, we can let them know how good we are,
and we can reason with them entirely using the good side. Oftentimes when an
everyday person encounters a problem, he tends to adopt a negative approach. So he’ll take some extreme actions or
resort to violence. None of that is appropriate for us to do. I often say that
if a person is free of any personal notions, isn’t motivated by self-interest,
and is truly looking to benefit others, then when he points out another
person’s shortcoming or tells the other person what’s right, that person will
be moved to tears.
Shan*
is really powerful. It’s only that when a person in everyday people’s society
tells someone about a good thing, he usually attaches his own notions, and even
worries it might harm him in some way, and he wants to protect himself. Many
things are mixed into what he says, so it doesn’t sound quite right and is
impure, and often even has emotion in it. If what you say truly comes from your
kindness and is without any personal agenda, your words will really touch
others.
What I’m talking about here is how we’re to
fulfill the Fa in this everyday people’s society and how we can prevent the Fa
from being undermined. Many of us have explained our motivation to various
types of departments of the government in our society. I think that’s good. If
they really listen, there’s a good chance they’ll join the ranks of the good
people. It’s only worrisome if they don’t listen. If they really want to
understand our Fa, as long as they read the book, learn the Fa, and really try
to understand it, they will know what we’re about. Usually the people who say
bad things about us are those who haven’t tried to understand us and don’t
understand us. Everything about us is open—we have
nothing to hide from people. The path we’ve taken is extremely
upright. I’ve often said that exactly because the path we’ve taken is extremely
upright, everything that isn’t upright, that’s not upright enough, or less than
perfect in everyday people’s society, will consider us an obstacle. Because
we’re so good, perhaps the inadequacies of some things will be exposed, and
then they will do some negative things to us. That’s inevitable. If nobody opposes
something upright when it’s imparted to the public, then I would say there’s a
good chance it’s wicked. (Applause)
Seen in another light, as our Fa is spread in
everyday people’s society, when we encounter irresponsible attacks from people
and certain [governmental] departments that don’t know what we’re about, or
when they label us arbitrarily or treat us in a really unreasonable way, I
think we should also examine ourselves on these issues by asking: “Why do these
things happen? Is it because we ourselves, our assistance centers, our practice
sites, or some of our students, aren’t conducting ourselves properly?” If you
can examine yourselves with every thing you come across, then I’d say you are
really remarkable, and nothing can block you on your path to Consummation. Yet
when we run into problems, we often look outwards—“Why are you treating me like
that?”—and feel that we’ve been treated unfairly, instead of examining
ourselves. That’s the greatest and most fatal obstacle for all living beings. In
the past, some people said that it was impossible to succeed in cultivation.
How could one succeed in cultivation? [They couldn’t succeed] because that was
the biggest obstacle, and nobody was willing to find faults in himself amidst
problems. When a person feels hurt, or when he encounters misfortune, it’s
really difficult for him to still examine himself and see if he’s done
something wrong. If a person can do that, then I’d say that on this path, on
this path of cultivation, and for the eternity of his existence, nothing can
stop him. It’s truly the case. Sometimes we still fail tests even though deep
down inside we’re aware. But after all, since we have the ability to think, and with the principles
before us, deep down we know what’s right and
what’s wrong. We may fail once or twice, but we’ll do well
afterwards. The key lies in how you understand yourself, and whether you can
correctly examine yourself and find within yourself the cause of the problem.
Before, when many of our students ran into
conflicts with people outside our circle, or when people or certain departments
of various functions in society treated us unfairly, we didn’t examine
ourselves to find the cause, and instead stressed what was wrong with others.
Certain things have indeed been really bad, and they were wantonly trying to
harm us. But has it occurred to you that although they were bad and demonic
acts, could those things have happened just by chance? Could it be that their
negative aspects were utilized to have us see our own negative aspects? I’ve
often said that when two people have friction between each other, each one
should examine him or herself. Not only should the two people with the friction
examine themselves, but also the bystanders who happen to observe the incident
should. That’s when you’ll really improve by leaps and bounds.
You know that our existences are made up of
submicroscopic[3]
matter from different levels. Some of the matter is considerably
submicroscopic. You are, in our cultivation practice, being transformed at an extremely submicroscopic state of
being, namely, from the origin of your existence. The transformation
continually expands outwards—continually expands towards your surface layer.
Once transformation has been completed all the way to the surface, you have
reached Consummation. That’s the approach we take. So before you arrive at the
stage where your surface layer can be assimilated by the Fa, you will, in
different ways, still have everyday people’s conduct, thoughts, and ways of
doing things, to be sure.
Some of our students have come and asked me:
“Teacher, I’ve been cultivating for so long now, and I feel that my
understanding of the Fa is sometimes no longer like that of the average new
student. So why is it that bad thoughts still appear in my mind?” It’s a
question everyone here in the audience has thought about. Let me tell you: In
the course of your cultivation, you are transformed from the very origin of
your existence. Ordinary people’s thoughts will always be there until the
transformation reaches your outermost layer. What are the pros and cons? The
pro is, you can keep this cultivation environment here among everyday people,
and this allows you to continuously and more quickly improve yourself. What’s
the con? It’s that you can never tell which realm you are at. During certain
periods of time when you’re doing well in cultivation, or understanding the Fa
well, and able to recite the book—that is, when you’ve reached the standard for
that particular realm—[that part of you] is immediately separated from the part
of you that hasn’t been fully cultivated. You’ll suddenly wonder: “Why is my
understanding of the Fa no longer as good? Why have my thoughts become bad
again?” You’ll have that feeling.
You cultivate among everyday people. The part
of you that’s fully cultivated is a noble, righteous, godly part. Accordingly,
in the society of everyday people, a god can’t have the same behavior as an
ordinary person, that’s absolutely prohibited. The moment he behaved that way
he would fall. To ensure that you can cultivate in ordinary human society and
not fall, as soon as a part of you meets the standard, it is separated. The
part that’s fully cultivated will always sit still over there, motionless and
free of any thoughts. It doesn’t get involved in any human activities, and this
ensures that you won’t fall. As you keep cultivating, you will only keep
improving. Here I’ve told you about another principle, namely, that you
constantly transform yourself in cultivation, starting from submicroscopic
levels, and gradually move towards your surface layer. When your surface layer
is completely assimilated you achieve Consummation.
Then, before we Consummate, we’ll always have
ordinary human thoughts and behavior during the course of our cultivation.
What’s more, you’ll find that sometimes your thoughts seem to become worse and
worse. Why is that? Many bad things have roots and exist not only in the layer
of the largest particles, but also in particles of various sizes. So think
about it, everyone: During the course of your cultivation, as [your
transformation] keeps breaking through towards the surface, bad things in your
submicroscopic particles keep getting eliminated. What’s left, then, will be
what’s at the outermost layer, and what’s at the outermost layer is the worst.
Yet the worst is also the weakest. In other words, as long as you can exercise
self-control as you cultivate, you can easily suppress those bad things and get
rid of them, including all the notions in your mind.
You probably understand the principle I just
discussed: “Oh, so that’s why people might have bad thoughts the whole time
they cultivate. From now on I won’t worry about them, I’m not afraid of them
anymore. I’ll just let them go however they want to.”
That’s unacceptable! Since you’re a cultivator, if you don’t exercise
self-control at the surface level, it’s the same as not cultivating. That’s how
these things are related. I just spoke about the state of our students’
cultivation as a whole, and I addressed some topics along the way.
There’s another thing. Our Dafa is spread in
the society of everyday people. Why do we do it the way we do? As you know, we
have a very loose form of administration. We don’t have any rosters that list a
John Smith or Jane Doe, or who you are, how old you are, or where you live. We
don’t do any of that. I’ll look after you provided you cultivate. Because
cultivation things don’t manifest in this dimension of ordinary human society,
the forms of things that appear on the surface are only forms, and useless. If
you don’t cultivate, taking down your name only amounts to a number game—it’s
not cultivation. We’ve thus completely abandoned all formalities of everyday
people.
We only look at people’s hearts and minds. As
long as you cultivate, I will look after you. As long as you cultivate, you’re
our student. While you practice our Assistants organize everybody to study the
Fa, that’s all. We don’t have an administrative organization like those in the
society of everyday people, and we don’t keep money or property. Everyone paid
their own way to the conference. I, Li Hongzhi, will not take one cent from
you. Any work we do, we do it voluntarily, and to benefit others. Everything of
ours is loosely administered.
Why do I do it this way? Actually, I can tell
you: The Fa I’m imparting today is immense—it can allow you all to reach
different realms and levels through cultivation. This is by no means a small
thing. A Fa this enormous has been introduced to the public, but if it couldn’t
change people or couldn’t make people’s morality elevate again, then it
wouldn’t matter whether it was taught or not. I know that since this Fa is the
Truth and the Law of the cosmos, it will definitely have a tremendous impact on
cultivators. So, every one of us knows what to do, and there’s no need for me
to tell you specifically how to conduct yourselves.
Back in the days when Buddha Sakyamuni was
teaching his Dharma* there were over a hundred precepts. It’s said that
Mahayana Buddhism now has over two hundred precepts. The purpose [of precepts]
is to restrict you, and make you meet the standard and act accordingly. We
don’t have any precepts today—we’re completely open. We don’t pay attention to
any form, and instead we only look at people’s hearts and minds. That’s because
our Fa has such mighty power. Also, from another perspective, no form manifest
in ordinary human society is worthy of this Dafa. That’s why we have truly
adopted a way suitable for spreading Dafa. What way is it? It is a “great way
without form.” (Applause) We really
have taken a “great way without form,” and only that truly fits our Dafa. So
that’s how we have gone about things since I taught the Fa in the early days.
The only thing somebody can see is that people
are reading the books and that they do exercises together. But even those are
completely voluntary and loose. If you want to come, you’re welcome. If you
don’t want to come, you can do as you please. I think this approach is quite
good, as nothing with a form or shape can change a person’s heart. If a person
doesn’t want to learn and yet you drag him along, not only won’t he be able to
learn or understand, but he’ll also make irresponsible remarks and play a
damaging role from within. We’re extremely upright, so all crooked things might
find us a thorn in their side, since all of their deficiencies and weaknesses
are exposed.
Before, there were all sorts of qigong* in the society of everyday people, especially in
Have you thought about this from another
perspective? Since a righteous Fa has been imparted to enable people to
cultivate to various levels, this involves a question: With which Fa will you
cultivate to get up there? This is critical. If this Fa weren’t upright,
naturally you couldn’t go up by cultivating; if this Fa didn’t have such mighty
virtue, that is, if it weren’t so immense, you couldn’t reach that high a level
cultivating; if this Fa weren’t so grand, or weren’t so good, letting you go to
a level that high would equate to messing up the entire cosmos. And even if you
were to get up there, you’d feel inadequate staying there, you’d see the Great
Enlightened Beings up there, with mighty virtue beyond description, and you’d
wonder how you’d gotten up there and would step down yourself, feeling unworthy
of staying there. So as our Dafa encounters ordeals in ordinary human society,
we’re using the ordeals to fulfill our Fa and establish our Fa’s mighty virtue.
Regardless of the forms that manifest to oppose Dafa in ordinary human society,
we haven’t responded to them in kind: We have always used our good (shan) side, and have handled everything
well in every respect. We have endured lots and lots of different tests for the
Fa. So hasn’t our Fa established its mighty virtue? The more upright the course
it has taken, the greater this Fa is, and since you’re cultivating in this Fa,
the more remarkable you are. Isn’t that how these things work? Yes, it is. So
whenever we encounter a problem, we must look at both its positive and negative
side, and look for the causes inside, within ourselves. With everything we come
across, we should look inside for the reasons and for our shortcomings.
I’ve often talked about a principle. When some
people run into trouble, being in the middle of trouble, they say: “Why do they
treat me like this? Why aren’t things going well anymore?” Let me tell you:
Actually, it’s not that others are treating you wrongly. The laws of the cosmos
are in good order. If something is wrong on your part, you’ll find that
everything around you goes against you. Once you find the cause inside yourself
and rectify it, you will find that everything goes smoothly again. That’s usually the case.
Another facet of things is that because we’ve
overcome many problems and shortcomings, and because our Fa has developed in an
ever more positive way, the situation can only get better. At present, there’s
now quite a large number of people studying the Fa. There are now about 100
million students in
Falun Gong used to be a branch of the China
Qigong Science Research Society. We discovered, however, that the Qigong
Science Research Society didn’t conduct any scientific research, nor did it
study qigong practices or try to understand
qigong itself. It was only making
money; it used qigong practices to
make money. So in March of 1996 we withdrew from it. (Applause) They attacked us after our withdrawal, but we paid no
attention to their attacks and ignored them. Let’s not get into that now. What
I’m saying is that we should take our own path, a path for true cultivators. We
have to be responsible both to society and our cultivating disciples.
Here’s what I think: We have such a huge number
of people—so many people—and they’re all good people who benefit society.
We—including me, Li Hongzhi—don’t have any desire to gain something for
ourselves. I chose to live overseas so as not to cause problems for the
government. (Applause) I think that
with so many people cultivating and trying to be good persons, nobody should
push these 100 million people to the opposite side of the government—that I can
tell you. But there’s one point: No matter what we do, we must walk righteously
on our own path. I didn’t intend to speak a lot. I only wanted to talk to you
about the situation of Dafa, about how we cultivate, and about our
understanding of the Fa in the course of cultivation, and along the way discuss
things related to cultivation.
I’d like to take this opportunity to address
another thing, then: Many people take photographs without considering the
occasion. Let me address the matter of photo taking. Rarely could you see me
before, so you’ve always wanted to take a photograph of me or with me, your
teacher. If your intention is truly based on cultivation, I don’t have any
objections. But if it’s born of an ordinary human intention, then I’m really
sad! Also, many of you disregard the situation and location when taking
photographs, and have taken many photographs with bad images. That’s not good
for any of us. As you are my disciples, how could you take those photos of your
master? After this conference you can go tell the students in other regions to
burn all those poorly-taken photographs, (Applause)
including their negatives. I’ll give you a chance to take photos, if you really
want to. (Applause) That’s all I’ll
say for now. I will answer your questions tomorrow afternoon.
Don’t write too much on the question slips you
pass up, as that makes it a bit of work to read them and it takes up a lot of
time. You don’t need to make opening remarks such as “Teacher, I missed you so
much” or “Teacher, what you said was so great… Here’s my question.” Don’t
preface your remarks. Just say, “Master, these are my questions” and describe
the situation. Then I’ll answer them for you. Make the questions simple and
easy for me to read so that we don’t waste time and so that I can go through
the questions efficiently. All right, now I’ll listen to our students’ speeches
with you. (Applause)
I’ll answer your questions this afternoon. Those who have questions may pass your slips up. All right, now I’ll start to answer your questions.
Question:
Can we pass around in
Teacher: In principle it’s not a problem. But you people always want to
pass things around, and it’s an
attachment you should break. You need to cultivate in an upright and noble manner. Why do you have so much zeal and so many
attachments? Can they help you achieve
Consummation? You may watch the tapes on your own, but don’t duplicate them.
Question:
In the scripture,[4] “Dig
Out the Roots,” you said, “when I ask you to break away from humanness, you
don’t follow me. Each opportunity will not occur again.” If someone loses the
opportunity, will it affect his level of attainment?
Teacher: Many aspects of
things are involved when
you face a serious test; it doesn’t just assume that one form. Such a thing is
the biggest, fundamental test for our students. Whether or not you can break away from humanness is a critical step in
determining whether or not you can reach Consummation—it’s a step you must
take. Our
students will come across all
kinds of tests. Will
you fail to Consummate because you missed the
opportunity? There might be another chance, but I think another opportunity is really hard to come by since
an opportunity of this sort is only possible when a combination of multiple
factors is in place. In other words, what I mean is that no matter how hard you
cultivate, the fact remains that at the crucial moment you aren’t up to it. It’s not like I’m just saying you’re not up to it—it’s that you
aren’t up to it. Some people think, “Teacher, I can make it through any ordeal. Just bring ’em on, so I can cultivate up sooner.” But when the critical
moment arrives, you still can’t
make it. Lip service won’t do; what we have to see is
how you conduct yourself during actual cultivation.
Question:
Master, could you tell us more about other laws and truths
derived from Zhen-Shan-Ren* at different
levels?
Teacher: I can’t. Why not? Because Heaven’s laws
absolutely can’t be told to humans. You are still humans doing cultivation. The
part of you that’s been fully cultivated is already aware, without having to be
told. So it’s the human part of you that is always curious about things. Even
when you enlighten to things at higher levels, you still can’t tell them to
other people. When you tell others through your mouth about the high-level
truths you’ve enlightened to, you’ll find that they don’t sound quite the same
and have become very ordinary, mundane truths. That is to say, higher-level
laws and truths can only be understood in cultivation, but not expressed in
words.
Question:
How do we distinguish demonic interference from
tribulations arranged by Teacher?
Teacher: Nothing happens in isolation. A cultivator’s path of life is altered
the day he starts to do cultivation, and nothing accidental will get mixed in.
But the tribulations that occur will always seem random, and only that way can
you be tested, can it allow you to improve, and can it allow you to recognize
your own inadequacies and see where you fall short. Are there real demons,
then? Yes, there are. But they don’t exist in isolation, either. They will leap
out since they’re bad. And it’s fine if they leap out—we’ll use their negative
aspects to test our students. You might know that a few of our students passed
away. Some of them reached Consummation, while some [died to] do harm to us. So
I didn’t make any comments on the matter or offer any explanation. Yet I think
those things were a test of life and death for our students. Although they
didn’t happen to you personally, it was almost as if they did. You’re sure to
have felt like that. It’s a critical test of life and death, then. If a person
can’t abandon his concern for life and death, he absolutely won’t be able to
Consummate.
However, it’s not that every one of us has to undergo
a test of life and death—that’s not the case. Since you’re building up a
foundation through a long period of cultivation, you’ll gradually reach that
point. As you have fewer and fewer attachments and are able to let go of more
and more things, you’ll find that nothing matters anymore. Then you’re in fact
ready for it. So some tests will emerge at critical moments, just like what
happened in
Question: How does a person
make use of the side of him that has attained the Fa to defeat the demonic side
[of himself]?
Teacher:
Even a little righteousness can subdue a hundred
evils. Demonic interference occurs because we have inadequacies. When you
conduct yourself well, you are winning the battle, and Master will take
care of you. You can’t fight against the demons directly. Not at present, at
least. There’s an article in Essentials
for Further Advancement that I wrote not too long ago which was written not
for this side of you, but for the side of you that’s been fully cultivated. At
critical moments, that side also needs to do something. Of course, he can’t be
like you and do things like you—that’s absolutely prohibited. A god absolutely
cannot do the same things a human does. He’s only permitted to do so under the
circumstance that demons are doing damage.
Question:
Teacher, you said, “I’m not within Zhen-Shan-Ren.” How can this be explained?
Teacher:
I don’t want to talk about things of too high a level,
and I don’t want to talk about myself. I disclosed that because some students
are always unsure, so I gave you assurance. How should a person understand it?
It’s simple, yet I still can’t spell it out for you explicitly. The cosmos was
created for living beings. Accordingly, it must have a nature, which is
Zhen-Shan-Ren. Yet at different levels Zhen-Shan-Ren generates Fa for different
levels, creating environments for living beings at different levels that have
different requirements. This means that the Fa becomes increasingly complex at
lower levels. That’s how these things work.
Question: Even the foundation
of science is wrong. We’re science teachers, so how do we take the right
approach?
Teacher: Today’s science has been imposed on humankind by alien beings. No
people in any historical period or in any civilization ever had science like
this—the entire society is involved with it, everyone is getting himself
wrapped up in it, and every parent wants to see their children go to college.
Never before in history has this happened. Gods arrange how human society
develops. For example, in ancient
I’ll give you an example. While cleaning up the
alien beings, I said to them: “You’ve deformed the human race. Your system of
things has seriously damaged human society and distorted people’s thinking.”
Since they couldn’t offer any justification, they came back with this argument,
“But you’re making use of us, too.” I do travel by car and use other modern
tools. “Yet,” I said to them, “even if I wanted to travel on horseback these
days, there are no settings that would allow me to do so, for you’ve destroyed
them all. Isn’t that true?!” So we can only live with it, right? For the time
being, go ahead and carry on with what you’ve been doing. The science of the
future might be different. I’ve noticed that scientific definitions made in the
past are now being gradually overturned, for they simply can’t explain lots of
things. As changes in the celestial body are continually being discovered and
as the mysteries of life are continually being revealed, I’d say that the old
science is faltering.
Question:
Human beings are complicated and their minds are scattered. One can only get
back to one’s own original state through cultivation that removes all divergent
elements.
Teacher:
At birth human beings are very pure and innocent and
lack any postnatally acquired notions, for they haven’t yet come into contact
with society. That’s why I really enjoy watching children—they’re so pure and
simple. Even if they’re a bit naughty it doesn’t matter: They have nothing, and
have no set ways of thinking. In order to make a living and protect his own
self-interest, a person gradually forms many notions and intentionally does a
lot of bad things in order to benefit himself. As a result, the various notions
a person forms later in life will be in opposition to his original nature. In
other words, human beings become complicated. That pure, innocent heart and
mind of yours become more and more contaminated by various impurities later in
life. To go back to your original state, you have to get rid of all the bad
things that have been formed after birth—and not only bad things of human
beings, but also other realms’ things that prevent you from returning to that
state. You must clear all of them out in order to become pure to that extent.
Your mind, xinxing,* the material
composition of your body, and your very being—all of these have to reach that
level of purity.
Question:
Tathagata Buddha Sakyamuni has the Saha Paradise, yet he’s also in the Dafan
Paradise. How does one make sense of that?
Teacher:
That’s true. It’s said in Buddhism that Sakyamuni is
in the Saha Paradise, and that is true. As Sakyamuni was coming to Earth from
the sixth layer of universes to offer people salvation, the last one of his own
paradises [where he sojourned] was the Dafan Paradise. After he came down from
the Dafan Paradise to save people, he never went back, and he’s been in the
Three Realms watching his disciples ever since. For over two thousand years he
has been watching his disciples all along. Through repeated reincarnations, his
disciples have been continually raising their levels and realms, accumulating
their mighty virtue, and waiting for the time when the Fa is eventually
rectified so that they can assimilate to the Fa and Consummate. The Saha
Paradise is [in] the Three Realms, so disciples in the Buddha system have
discovered that he’s been in the Saha Paradise, and they therefore say that
Buddha Sakyamuni is in the Saha Paradise. As for the Dafan Paradise, it was the
last Buddha-paradise on his way here. In fact, that’s not the only paradise he
has: He has other paradises at higher levels. Don’t think about heavenly
affairs and the things of Buddhas with your human mind, as you will never
understand them. You only have human thoughts right now, so I discourage you
from inquiring about those things for knowledge—you’ll never get anywhere. The
reason is, the human part of a person’s mind is really deficient.
Question:
What are the six paths in the “sixfold path of reincarnation”?
Teacher:
Buddhism has always talked about the paths of asura,* animals, humans, and heavens.
Let me tell you that no matter the path, they’re all reincarnations within the
Three Realms among humans, animals, substances, plants, and living beings in
other dimensions within the Three Realms. The reincarnations are
retributions—either rewards or tribulations—that came from the causal reasons
which resulted from how good or bad a person was in the world. That is, if you
do a lot of wicked things, you might reincarnate on the path of animals or even
go to hell. If you do a lot of good things, you’ll reincarnate on the path of
heavens or you might enjoy ease and comfort, a high-ranking position, or wealth
among human beings; the heavens referred to here are the different levels of
heavens in the Three Realms, as they’re within the boundary of the Three Realms
and [lives there are] still subject to reincarnation. These are obtained by
doing good deeds, and it’s called “the repayment of blessings” or “the rewards
for goodness.”
Question:
Some site coordinators have held those positions for a long time yet still hold
onto ordinary human notions and have unwittingly influenced the new students at the sites.
Teacher:
That’s a fact, for sure. A very small number of
Assistants at some practice sites haven’t conducted themselves well, and it’s
time we learned a lesson from this problem. Many of the articles
I wrote in Essentials for Further
Advancement were written for them, yet they don’t read them. On the other
hand, being an Assistant is a tough job, and they have to work on helping
others. Where do they usually fall short, though? It’s that they don’t
integrate their work with their cultivation. And as a result, when they come
across problems or obstacles, they can’t assess the situation with the Fa nor
find faults within themselves. [They neglect to ask:] “Have I done something
wrong that might have caused this lack of cooperation among our students or all these obstacles?” Most Assistants aren’t able to
examine themselves this way when it comes to this. It has done a lot of harm to
our Fa and has created obstacles to obtaining the Fa for many new students.
It’s time they were jolted out of their stupor.
Some of our Assistants are rude to our
students. That’s absolutely unacceptable in our Dafa. Think about it, everyone:
Anyone who studies this Fa is my disciple. You are my disciple, and so is the next
person. So why are you so rude to him? We practice kindheartedness—treating
others kindheartedly. I often say this: When a person talks to someone else, if
he points out that person’s shortcomings or tells him
something without attaching any of his own notions, the other person will be
moved to tears. If you don’t have any personal agenda, don’t seek to gain
anything, don’t even want to protect yourself, truly mean well, and are
thinking about the other person, then that person will really see your heart—no
matter what kind of person he is. Yet many of us often fail to do our work this
way and resort to mandates, which is unacceptable! That’s not part of our Fa.
Question:
I don’t understand why certain Dafa cultivators do not
assimilate to the Fa and lie.
Teacher: It isn’t right to tell lies. A cultivator has ordinary human
attachments; as long as he hasn’t reached Consummation, he has ordinary human
attachments. I want to tell you about one point, though: Whether he’s [just] a
student or is [also] working for Dafa, it’s precisely the attachments that
haven’t yet been discarded that play out most—the attachments he can’t abandon
among everyday people stand out. Why? Because what has been fully cultivated
and the attachments that have been abandoned are gone, so they no longer show.
Then the attachments that remain are particularly obvious and everyone can see
them. But let me tell you that you can’t say that this person isn’t good. He’s
already quite good in fact. It’s just that the attachments he hasn’t yet
discarded are playing a role and affecting both his work and other students,
and many people see his behavior. So don’t assess a situation or judge someone
in the same way everyday people do. On the other hand, we shouldn’t think that
we’ve cultivated pretty well and then slack off in eliminating those remaining
attachments. That wouldn’t do. Once we detect a problem, we must look for its
causes in ourselves.
I think that from now on all of you disciples
of mine should examine yourselves amidst problems, in relationships, or when
problems arise in studying the Fa or among our disciples. [Ask yourself:] “Is
there something I’ve done wrong?” Every one of you should conduct yourself this
way and cultivate your mind (xin). If
you spend your energy on external things and look for others’ shortcomings
instead of working hard on your own mind, how can you improve yourself? Others
will improve and advance in cultivation after you point out their shortcomings,
but you’ll still be here. That’s why I tell you that whenever any problems
occur or whenever you feel uneasy inside, you should look inside yourself for
causes. I can guarantee that the problem lies within you. It’s been said in
Buddhism that Buddha is in one’s mind (xin).
People have actually taken this literally, as though there’s a Buddha in their
minds. They don’t understand. The meaning is actually this: You must cultivate
your mind—work hard on your own mind—and find your own weaknesses and
shortcomings and then eradicate them. You will never be able to Consummate if
your xinxing doesn’t meet the
criteria. So why not work hard on cultivating your mind? Why not work hard on
yourself? Having you expose your weaknesses during frictions with each other is
how I enable you to improve most rapidly. And yet as soon as you encounter a
problem, you push it aside and point out others’ shortcomings instead of
examining yourselves. How can you cultivate, then? This is precisely the best
way for me to have you improve. So you must turn your mindset around. As to our
students telling lies, there are indeed some people who exhibit poor xinxing. If you can help people who are
like that, then point it out to them. But I think that it’s still up to them to
make real improvements. If they don’t study the Fa themselves, no problem will
be resolved. Put another way, improving themselves is their own business. If
they fall behind and don’t want to improve, it’s they who won’t make it
in cultivation.
Question:
I’d like to ask about the connection among the godly side, the human side, and
one’s master soul (zhu yuanshen) and subordinate soul(s) (fu yuanshen).
Teacher:
An ordinary person doesn’t have a godly side, only we true cultivators do, and it has to be people cultivating in this form,
that of our Dafa. That’s because we transform you from the very origin of your
existence and we cultivate in a reverse way. It’s relatively fast this way,
because you can cultivate in ordinary human society, conforming as much as
possible to the way of everyday people, and, at the same time, you can directly
improve your xinxing in this
complicated environment. It’s the quickest way. Accordingly, in our Dafa, the
part of your body made up of submicroscopic particles—or the
submicroscopic-particle matter that has attained the Fa and reached the standard—is
already a God side, a Buddha side, or a Dao* side. As for the human side, it’s
the you that you see now. When this surface body of yours is transformed at the
final stage of your cultivation, or at the time when you eventually Consummate,
your human side will no longer exist. When your human side no longer exists, it
is assimilated to your godly side and you Consummate. Along with the way your
body changes, you’ll experience a state of Complete Enlightenment and undergo a
fundamental change—it’s something you can’t imagine whatsoever. It’s a scene so
great, so magnificent, and so spectacular that it is absolutely beyond your
imagination. As for the connection between one’s soul (yuanshen) and subordinate soul, I’ve discussed this when talking about the structure of the human body. So I won’t
take time for that now. Read the book more.
Question:
Is it true that the moment an evil thought arises, bad karma is produced, and
that when a good thought arises, good karma is accumulated?
Teacher:
That’s not how it works. I was just discussing it a moment ago.
Karma only manifests in our ordinary human society, that is, in the human
world. The positive and the negative coexist in all matter. Where there are
Buddhas, there are also demons; where there are human beings, there are ghosts;
where there are good people, there are bad people; where there are believers,
there are doubters; where there is support, there is opposition. Even when it
comes to human beings, there are males and females. Everything exists in
opposition to something else, and everything has a yin-yang relationship—that is, a relationship of mutual-generation
and mutual-inhibition. So when people do wicked deeds they definitely produce
bad karma, and their thoughts are evil. In Buddhism they differentiate between
good karma and bad karma. I’ve found that even the good karma that people talk
about has two sides to it, one positive and one negative. So in my view, it is,
strictly speaking, not appropriate [to describe it that way].
We won’t talk about today’s Buddhism, for it is
Buddhism in the End of Dharma. Let’s talk about Buddhism during a relatively
good period in history. It was a cultivation group then, and everyone
safeguarded the cultivation group with kindness. But if someone tried to damage
or attack it, they would, like others, take corresponding measures to protect
themselves. So it also had a negative side, which was the evil side: If you
damage my monastery, I may risk my life fighting you; if you harm our monks or
disciples, I’ll retaliate fiercely. That is, even in good deeds, a negative
side, or the evil side, always existed. So, strictly speaking, their idea of
good karma and bad karma isn’t comprehensive. They only have the ability to
talk about it in a general sense.
In order to articulate how the positive
substances and the negative substances precisely play out and how they truly
manifest, we call the best part—what’s most meaningful to human beings and most
beneficial to cultivators, as it can be directly transformed into gong*—virtue (de). And in fact, it really is the virtue normally talked
about. As for karma, we use the term to refer to all bad karma, the evil side
of “good karma,” the evil side of things, and all things that belong to the
negative side. It’s more accurate to refer to them this way. As for a person’s
mind-intent, if a bad thought arises in an everyday person’s mind, if he
intends to do something bad but doesn’t take action, or if no bad outcome
occurs, then no karma is produced. If he doesn’t succeed in doing it, he
doesn’t produce karma; if he does succeed in doing it, he produces karma. And
that karma will manifest in his body and in the field around his body. However,
when a person has a bad thought, thought-karma is produced in his mind. That’s
why thoughts about bad-mouthing someone, about opposing or doubting, or about
wavering in your own cultivation, and so on, arise in the minds of our
cultivators and disrupt them.
When you sit in meditation and find that your mind is
running wild and bothered by all sorts of things, it’s precisely because those
things are having an effect. I’m spelling this principle out to you in a
precise manner. I’ve found that monks in ancient times basically stayed in
temples and didn’t have contact with complex society, so their minds were
relatively simple. Moreover, they often stayed in meditation without coming out
of trance, which made their minds very simple and allowed them to be free of
thoughts about protecting their self-interest. And that would, in turn, reduce
the occurrence of thought-karma and of disruption from it. So they often sat in
deep meditation and meditated in seclusion, the real purpose of which was to
cultivate in tranquility. Since cultivation depends on oneself and gong depends on one’s master, the
masters from their cultivation way or from the relevant paradise were looking
after them and removing their thought-karma in the course of their tranquil
cultivation. That’s something I also do for you. You can’t do it yourself.
Question:
I’ve been repelling my thought-karma, but sometimes it takes a long time. How
can we eliminate it more effectively?
Teacher:
“How can we eliminate it more effectively?” Your words
indicate that you want to find a shortcut, a simpler way. No situation is
isolated. You brought about the karma yourself, so in your cultivation you have
to suffer to eliminate it. In the midst of suffering, you improve yourself and
are tested as to whether you’re unwavering. If it were removed all at once, you
wouldn’t have much left to cultivate. It’s absolutely unacceptable if you don’t
concretely and genuinely change yourself. If you couldn’t reach that standard,
when you got to a heavenly paradise and saw those great and majestic
Enlightened Beings sitting there, your heart would tremble: “Uh-oh, I haven’t
done enough cultivating, I can’t stay here.” You would know on your own that
you couldn’t stay there. So we have to cultivate firmly and solidly every step
of the way. If you don’t reach the standard, it absolutely isn’t permitted and
you can’t make it.
What if you can’t get rid of thought-karma? Let
me tell you that a person’s notions are formed not only in one lifetime, but
accumulated life after life. They even exist in extremely deep parts of your
body, they’re not just on the surface. What can you do about them? As you
continually cultivate, you are weakening them and getting rid of them. You are
already doing that. Then until you Consummate, your thinking will still produce
karma and that thing will still exist. So you should find a way to restrain and
overcome it—that’s cultivation! You aren’t cultivating if you let yourself
slack off. Thought-karma’s interference with humans is extremely severe. When a
person’s thought-karma is strong, it can even disturb him to the extent that he
can’t practice anymore. Read the book more—the Fa is in the book, and
everything I can use to help you is in the Fa—so that your karma can be
eliminated.
Question:
If a person can’t maintain his xinxing when tribulations come, will the next
tribulation be bigger than the previous one?
Teacher:
That was explained in Zhuan Falun. That is, [some people] can’t regard themselves as
cultivators in their cultivation, they can’t clear the hurdles that are
arranged by the master to facilitate their progress, and they stay at the same
level for a long time. Yet cultivation doesn’t wait for you. If you can’t pass
a tribulation, the next one will come—we’ve got to have you improve somehow. So
if you don’t pass one tribulation and the next one comes, how will you overcome
them with the two of them combined? If you become more deluded, it’s more
likely that you won’t overcome it. Then yet another tribulation comes, and this
one becomes a deadly hurdle that’s impossible to overcome. Unless you make a
fundamental change, it will really be hard to overcome. Moreover, tribulations
can accumulate. If you accumulate more of them, how will you overcome them?
That’s why I tell you that you have to regard yourself as a practitioner.
Some people first came to learn our Dafa to cure their
illnesses. We don’t disapprove of that, as a transitional period is needed to
understand Dafa. Later on, they realized: “Dafa isn’t for getting healed, yet
with ailments in my body I, as a cultivator, can’t cultivate and develop gong.” What to do, then? They knew: “Oh,
I won’t think about it, then. I won’t ask Teacher to heal me and I won’t think
about having my health problem fixed. But I know that as long as I cultivate,
Teacher will definitely heal me.” Part of their minds still think [about their
ailment]. Have they changed fundamentally? No. What appears on the surface to
be good is phony. If a person can’t make a fundamental change in himself, he
can’t reach the standard. High-level lives, as Enlightened Beings, see things
very clearly, nothing can be hidden from them. This person hasn’t reached the
standard, hasn’t changed himself fundamentally, and still holds on to that
attachment, only it’s become more concealed. Yet the being looking after his
cultivation sees it clearly. Then who’s he deceiving? He’s deceiving himself.
So a person must let go of the attachment and truly meet the standard for a
cultivator. If a person can’t let go of it, the problem will drag on and on and
he’ll always be lingering in that tribulation. It’s a very serious thing. There
have always been students like that.
Question:
Cultivators aren’t attached to wealth. They only guard their virtue, instead of trying to accumulate
virtue. Is Teacher’s scripture, “Wealth and Virtue,” discussing the minimum
requirement for those disciples who aren’t diligent in their practice?
Teacher: A cultivator isn’t attached to it. Not being attached to anything
doesn’t mean that you don’t have anything. Eliminating your desire for wealth
and for making a fortune, and eliminating your attachment to money doesn’t mean
that you won’t have wealth. Cultivators guard their virtue but don’t accumulate
virtue because, as cultivators, the time we have in this life is quite limited
to begin with. If you were to go running around trying to do good deeds, how could
those intention-filled acts help you to improve your xinxing and truly cultivate? They couldn’t. So you can only
Consummate if you hurry up and cultivate and change yourself fundamentally.
Besides, many things in ordinary human society have karmic connections, and
resentment and gratitude have accumulated over time. Chances are you can only
see the surface of affairs and not their karmic connections, so your
intervening in things would probably be wrong. If intervening is wrong for an
everyday person, so be it, since everyday people only need to conform to the
principles at the level of ordinary human society. But you are a cultivator and
you are held to a higher standard. If you intervene the wrong way, it’s by no
means a minor thing. You’ll have to bear responsibility for it, and so your gong and your level will fall. And if
you keep on doing that, how will you Consummate? That’s why we say that you
shouldn’t always think about accumulating virtue. You only need to do
cultivation, and all of the substances that are needed in your cultivation will
be transformed through your enduring hardships, cultivating, and making
sacrifices. Any insufficient substances can be made up, so you don’t need to do
those things. Only your heart matters.
In true cultivation only the heart and mind
matters. Everything can be done for you so long as your heart is with Buddha
and your mind meets the standard for cultivation. As for a person who’s
enshrouded by karma, from what I see, even his bones are black. How could an
everyday person change himself fundamentally and reach the realm of a Buddha?
No matter how much virtue you accumulated or how many good deeds you did, could
you change all of those things that you’ve done lifetime after lifetime? You
can’t change them in the least. Accumulating virtue isn’t cultivation. That
won’t do it. So you can only make the best use of your time and speed up your
cultivation. We only look at your heart and mind. As long as you cultivate, we
can transform any problem into a good thing—bad things can be turned into good
things. You have to be responsible for all of the karmic debts you owe, but we
can take care of those things for you. Let’s suppose that in your past
lifetimes you killed and harmed many lives, and those have to be paid back by you.
Even if you were to pay with your life one lifetime after another, continually
reincarnating to pay with your life, you still couldn’t pay the debt. So how
could you possibly cultivate? If, after you reach Consummation and consummate
your paradise, all of the lives that you’ve harmed are saved to your paradise
to become common beings, won’t it be a good thing then? And your karmic debts
will be settled. But who’s going to do that for you? Only the person who saves
you—it has to be someone with that ability—can do that for you; you have to pay
back your debt, and that arrangement is considered repayment. If you can’t
cultivate into a Buddha, however, you’ll never manage to pay all those karmic
debts of yours. That’s how these things work. That is, just focus on your
cultivation and don’t be concerned about those things of yours—your master will
take care of everything for you.
Question:
Some students heard and believed some things that harm the Fa, but now they’ve
realized their error and regret it. Can they still Consummate?
Teacher: On the road of cultivation, no one can necessarily pass every test
really well—everyone makes mistakes. If you could pass every test well, I’d say
you don’t need to cultivate, as you can already Consummate. You pass some tests
well, and you fail to pass some well, but you regret it and you try to do well
next time. You pass a test well, and don’t pass a test well, tempering yourself
in the process. That is cultivation. (Applause) But I’ll tell you, don’t be happy just yet. You might
think: “Oh, so it doesn’t matter whether I pass the tests well or not. I’ll
just go ahead take my time, and that will be cultivation.” That’s unacceptable!
You must be diligent. If you slack off and aren’t diligent, I can see your
heart then too, and you aren’t being responsible for yourself. So you have to
regard yourself as a true cultivator and take this seriously. Only then can you
raise your level as quickly as possible.
Question:
Would it affect their cultivation if monastic disciples attended the morning
and evening sessions?[5]
Teacher: I’ll find the most effective ways to
prevent you from being affected. We have many monks and Daoist priests in
monasteries and temples, along with people from other religions, studying Dafa.
Let me tell you this principle: We aren’t particularly concerned about any
religions or any other forms that people in ordinary society establish. We only
regard them as everyday people’s work. Since Buddhas no longer look after
people or save them, aren’t those only forms used in ordinary human society? So
I just regard them as jobs. For that reason we don’t pay special attention to
them. I’ve never said that we have to go to temples to convert monks. We’re
only concerned with people’s hearts and minds. Regardless of which realm,
level, or social class you come from, we only look at your heart and mind. Some
people think, “If we convince high-ranking officials to learn [Dafa], they’ll
bring many people along.” That’s not what I want. The people who’d come to
learn under their command wouldn’t truly be coming to obtain the Fa. I don’t
want that. So I don’t care which social class you come from, I only look at
your heart and mind. I don’t care if you belong to a religion, I only look at
your heart and mind. You’re all sentient beings. I will be responsible to
whoever can cultivate. If someone doesn’t cultivate, that’s fine too.
It was the same with religions in the old days.
Buddhas didn’t recognize religions. Religions were names crafted by ordinary
people. Back in the early days, when Sakyamuni established his form of
cultivation with a monastic order, he didn’t call it a religion either. So
Buddhas only look at people’s minds, not at the formalities that people uphold.
Upholding them is itself an attachment, it’s something everyday people can’t
let go of, and it’s not true cultivation of Buddhahood. In cultivation of
Buddhahood, as long as a person cultivates, I’ll be responsible to him
regardless of who he is. I consider his heart to be the purest among living
beings, a heart truly for cultivation and kindness. I’ll be responsible for him
after seeing that heart. As for attending the morning and evening sessions and
reading or chanting old scriptures or the Bible, if you’re a lay Buddhist or an
ordinary person, I’d recommend you stop doing that and concentrate on
practicing Dafa, as this is a serious thing. But monks or clergymen can do
those things for the time being. I just regard those as your job. No God or
Buddha is looking after things anyway. When you reach a certain level, you’ll
know for yourself what to do. I’ve opened the most convenient door for you, and
I only look at people’s minds. (Applause)
Question:
After disciples have Consummated up there, can they still listen to Teacher’s
Fa-teaching?
Teacher:
You’re still using human thoughts to imagine the way
gods are. Let me tell you: By then you will have your own disciples listening
to you teaching Fa. The history of your cultivation establishes mighty virtue
for your future and will become a great and majestic Fa. Outwardly things seem
pretty plain, as you’re cultivating in ordinary human society. But things
you’re not aware of are recorded. Whether or not you can sense them, they’re
all kept on record. So they will all become the mighty virtue you establish.
Actually, Buddhas too teach Fa in their paradises. Along with teaching the
principles living beings in those realms should follow, they mainly tell the
cultivation stories of Buddhas in different heavenly paradises. The stories are
so inspiring that even the living beings in the heavenly paradises are moved to
tears upon hearing them. That’s why I’ve said that everyone has to reach the
standard in cultivation.
Question:
Someone in my family, a non-practitioner, bought a book that attacks Dafa. I
really want to destroy it, but it contains a lot of photographs of Master.
Teacher:
It’s fine to destroy the book. This book of ours, too,
takes the form of an ordinary book with black words printed on white paper.
Without the presence of my Law Bodies, a book is simply printed material and
has no inner meanings behind it. It’s fine to burn it. That’s all. Of course,
fire can’t burn the things over on the other side. How could ordinary people’s
fire reach the other side? So it isn’t a problem.
Question:
Teacher has told us so many principles
of the Fa, it makes a person feel that he doesn’t know where to begin in his
cultivation.
Teacher:
Maybe you’re a new student and a bit confused. It’s
actually quite simple. There aren’t any rules or taboos. As long as you read
the book, you’ll know what you should do, and you’ll gradually become more and
more aware. When your perceptual understanding gradually elevates to a truly
rational understanding of Dafa, you’ll know even better what to do. It’s not
that you have to start cultivation with something specific: “Should I cultivate
Ren first or Shan first?” That’s not how it works. Maybe you can’t do everything
well. But cultivation can’t be done overnight, just as a person can’t
immediately get pudgy by overeating. It’s impossible to turn yourself into a
Buddha in one day. You’ll know what to do as long as you read the book.
Question:
I’ve long been worried and upset about failing to move others to tears with my
tone, compassion, and reasoning. How should I improve?
Teacher:
Don’t force yourself to do something. You can’t insist
on reaching some state. Everything will actually come naturally. I’ve asked
that when you point out other people’s shortcomings, you try your best to do it
that way. What I told you was just that principle, and if you follow that, it
will bring good results. It’s hard for you to truly let go of everything,
become free of any intent, and attain Shan of that kind of purity.
That’s because your mind is being constantly purified, and those thoughts of
yours that have yet to be purified come out in your speech. All kinds of
messages[6]
come out, with nothing left out. So, different people will have different
reactions to what you say. It’s bound to be like that. Yet as we keep on
cultivating and demanding of ourselves that we act this way, I think we’ll
probably handle things better and better. With more kindness and compassion,
you’ll have surpassed everyday people. And when you’ve surpassed everyday
people, even if what you say isn’t that pure, it will still have an impact and
will touch people.
Question:
A devout Christian heard that Jesus’ paradise only has Caucasians in it. In
which level or paradise will her soul rest in peace when she passes away?
Teacher:
Her religious practice will be in vain. She’s just
like an everyday person. Her kindness will only be rewarded with blessings, and
she will still reincarnate in the realm of ordinary people. That’s how it is.
Question:
Is the realm of “Void” (Xu), as in “The Profound Fa Reaches the Void” (Xuan Fa Zhi Xu),[7] within Zhen-Shan-Ren?
Teacher:
Everything falls within the principles of the cosmos’
Fa. In the past, the Dao system talked more about the Void. First, it’s
actually a manifestation of the way one realm is. When Heaven and Earth were
created, it was referred to as the Great Void (Tai Xu). In the eyes of different gods, the creation of Heaven and
Earth doesn’t manifest at the same level. The process of renewing different
paradises and different universes in the cosmos is referred to as “the creation
of Heaven and Earth” as well. The Dao system regards it as the highest realm.
Secondly, in your cultivation state, this “void” means that you need to forsake
your human side. Human beings view humans as the most real. When the master
soul has let go of everything, the human side is void. For people who cultivate
their subordinate souls, it’s said that their knowing soul (shishen) dies and their soul (yuanshen)
is born. In the past they called the subordinate soul “the soul.”
Question:
The part of us that’s been fully cultivated will be separated. Then under what
circumstances will we lose that part?
Teacher: As soon as that part of you has reached the
standard in cultivation, it immediately moves over at a fast speed. The speed
at the part that constitutes your existence at the submicroscopic level is
faster than a rocket—it moves at a tremendous speed. But usually when it comes
to the human part—the body that’s formed by substances in the Three Realms—the
process slows down immediately, as if brakes were applied. It’s really hard to
take even just one step forward. That’s because it’s really just so hard for human
beings to let go of their attachments. We normally experience a feeling when a
separation takes place. What feeling do we have? Here are some examples. Some
people may have learned the Fa by heart before but then they suddenly forget
it. Some might feel that they were doing pretty well in cultivation, that they
were in a pretty good state, and that they were seeing things clearly. But all
of a sudden things change for the worse. Some people have asked, “Have I
fallen?” No, that’s not the case. It’s just that at that instant the part that
has reached the standard gets separated. So what remains is the part that
hasn’t been completely cultivated, and you’ll thus feel that you aren’t doing
well. That’s how it works in Dafa cultivation.
Question:
Why is it so difficult to obtain the video and audio tapes of Teacher’s
overseas Fa-lectures?
Teacher:
Why is it you’re so attached? You’re very much
attached. The book Zhuan Falun
contains everything. Actually, all of the things I’ve spoken about are
contained in Zhuan Falun. It’s only
that I’ve spoken more specifically to students in various regions with regard
to their situations. Don’t be attached to those things, calm down, and
cultivate steadily. Zhuan Falun is
the main book, while other things are supplementary reading. As for Essentials for Further Advancement,
that’s a book our Assistants and coordinators should keep in mind at all times
and read regularly.
Question:
Our gong
that’s developed through cultivation is stored in every cell of our bodies,
right down to the elements of the particles of the original matter at the
extreme submicroscopic level. So is this gong’s substance even finer than the particles of the original matter?
Teacher:
How submicroscopic your gong’s level is,
and how high your cultivation level is, these go hand in hand. The level you
attain through cultivation is your Attainment Status. What you obtain at your
Attainment Status is what you get. Those who’ve cultivated to a level higher
than you will certainly have a higher level of gong and Attainment Status. Their gong will be more submicroscopic and more powerful than yours, for
sure. Everything comes from your Attainment Status, everything comes from your
mighty virtue, and everything is evidence of your lifelong cultivation.
Teacher:
Buddha Fa is
the laws that Buddhas enlighten to from the Great Fa of the cosmos. Without the
cosmos, where would Buddha or Buddha Fa come
from? You will never know the ultimate structure of the cosmos. No matter how
high the level you reach through cultivation, you will never know it. So stop
pursuing knowledge.
Question:
When a person is about to Consummate, eighty percent of his gong and his xinxing yardstick will be taken down to enrich his
own small universe. At that time, how is his xinxing measured? Is it only twenty percent of the original level?
Teacher:
Everything that’s consummated testifies to one’s xinxing. The gong column before reaching Consummation isn’t considered a
person’s true Attainment Status; it mainly represents a person’s xinxing level. After someone reaches
Consummation, the level of his xinxing
will be the level of the Attainment Status he reaches. If the level is
Bodhisattva, he’ll be a Bodhisattva; if the level is Arhat, he’ll be an Arhat;
if the level is Buddha, he’ll be a Buddha. That’s his level. All of what will
have been consummated by him is the measure of his mighty virtue, and his
Attainment Status is a testimony of everything he has. Almost every cultivation
system works this way. As long as you are a living being in this cosmos, you
shouldn’t worry about this since a person must necessarily cultivate this way.
How could someone go up to the heavens and then have nothing up there?
Question:
Someone said that according to you, it’s too slow to finish Zhuan Falun in a day and a half?
Teacher:
I’ve never said that! I’d say that’s too fast. (Applause) I told you to make the best
use of your time to read the book, but that person immediately went to the
other extreme. He reads, reads, reads, reads, reading with all his might, not
even knowing what words he’s reading. Then what are you reading? Aren’t you
supposed to be studying the Fa? What happened to the “studying” part of
“studying the Fa”? If you don’t even know what you’re reading, how can you
cultivate? You have to know what’s before your eyes! You should know the
surface meaning of the words you’re reading. If you don’t, how could it count
as studying the Fa? What would be the use of reading the book then? You might
as well take the book, flip through it, and tell yourself you’re done. Right?
Do you see what I’m saying?
Question:
When we do the first four exercises, should we keep our hands conjoined at the
end of each exercise, or separate the hands and then conjoin them again?
Teacher:
The hands are conjoined once in between exercises.
Don’t release your hands—just continue on to the next exercise.
Question:
The scripture "Expounding on the Fa” is hard to understand.
Teacher:
That’s how it’s supposed to be, because I meant to
have you all understand it gradually. Besides, it wasn’t written directly for
the part of you that hasn’t been fully cultivated. But no matter the depth of
your understanding, you won’t be wrong. It’s just that your levels of
understanding are different. However much you can understand is fine. If I
could make it perfectly clear to you, I wouldn’t have written it that way. So
just take your time studying it and gradually you will understand it. You
aren’t the only ones who find it hard to understand—everyone else, the world
over, finds it hard to understand.
Question:
Is there any difference in a person’s understanding of the truths of the Fa before
and after his Enlightenment?
Teacher:
There’s no difference in terms of Zhen-Shan-Ren. But
that’s a general truth. After a person reaches Enlightenment, he suddenly
becomes aware of many details of the truths of the Fa, the truths at his level,
and the truths at every level below him. The Fa that I’ve shown you was written
in a general manner. You have to wait until you Consummate to see the actual
truths of the Fa.
Question:
Do the gods who were protected so that they could remain know that there’s a Fa
in the cosmos? Why didn’t they know it in the past?
Teacher: The lives in the cosmos aren’t allowed to know the true manifestation
of the cosmos’s Fa. At no level of the cosmos did lives know there was a Fa in
the cosmos. The Fa that I’ve revealed to you is expressed in human language,
but it’s still not the same as the specific expression of the Fa’s true
manifestation. Even after you’ve reached Consummation later on, you still won’t
be able to see the Fa’s form of existence; many of the cosmos’s profound
wonders can’t be known by lives in the cosmos. Yet all of the scenes in this
immense cosmos will be sufficient to make your life interesting. At that time,
you won’t stop marveling at the scenes of ordinary
human society when you open your eyes and see them, not to mention the grand
sight—at that high a level—of the sentient beings, of everything there is, and
of the structure of the cosmos. That sight is simply beyond description. Yet
certain things, like the fundamentals of the cosmos, still can’t be known by
sentient beings, for they don’t have enough mighty virtue—something delimited
by the level you reach cultivating.
Question:
One shouldn’t intentionally try to lose or gain, and one should follow the
course of nature—only this way can one meet the requirements of higher
principles of the Fa. Is this understanding correct?
Teacher:
It’s correct in principle. Yet when you can do that,
that’s because your xinxing has
reached that state. But what’s required of a cultivator is something beyond
ordinary human self-control. In cultivation, some people always want to adopt
certain approaches. I tell you to cultivate this way, but they insist on coming up with something different, such as not eating and drinking, practicing bigu fasting. Or they become
slovenly dressed all day long, with men not looking like men and women not looking like women, not caring about their
appearances and acting carelessly. Whenever they think about cultivation, they
think of the cultivation forms in the past; as soon as they think about
cultivation, they think of Zhang Sanfeng,* who went around in shabby clothes.
It shouldn’t be like this. What I’ve taught you is to cultivate while
conforming as much as possible to the way of everyday people’s society. If
every one of you dresses sloppily in everyday people’s society, it will disrupt
principles of the Fa at the level of everyday people’s society. I have never
behaved that way in front of you. You know, I always dress neatly whenever I
give a Fa-speech. I’m showing you by example. You should
pay attention to these things.
Question:
With Master’s infinite wisdom, can the cosmos’ law of “formation, stasis,
degeneration” be further perfected in the cosmos?
Teacher:
This question involves something at a very high level.
The characteristic of our Falun is that it can automatically repair everything
that falls short of the standard. In other words, it’s continually perfecting
everything. The purpose of Fa-rectification is to make things more wonderful.
Question:
Can we go to sleep right after doing the meditation?
Teacher:
Sure, that’s not a problem. You can go to sleep if you
want to. You can get up in the middle of the night to do
the meditation, and when you go to sleep right afterwards, you’ll sleep really
well.
Question:
If a person who appeared to be truly practicing Falun Dafa suddenly died from a
car accident, could he be viewed as a demon?
Teacher:
I’m not going to talk about that specific incident. I
won’t answer your question directly. Birth, aging, sickness, and death are just
the way of things in human society. During the present time period, you can’t
tell from the surface whether a person is a cultivator, or whether a person can
reach Consummation. I just said that people’s minds are constantly tested when
faced with critical matters. When someone dies while practicing, you are tested
to see what you’ll do. Perhaps that person Consummated, or maybe he was a
demon. Nothing happens in isolation. All of these things are used to test
students’ minds to see if they can still come through at crucial times. There
are people who’ve made sacrifices for this. They reached the realm of
Consummation and created an opportunity like that for other students. There are
such cases, but in principle I disapprove of those. Then again, there are ones
that have come to do damage. They interfere with you precisely that way,
striking you at a critical moment. Nonetheless, we make use of them to test
people’s minds. We make use of them to test people’s minds at crucial moments
and to see whether you can all still cultivate. Cultivation is extremely
serious.
Teacher: You know that in the Buddha’s Eight Forms of Heavenly Law-Guardians,
there are many gods. Those are gods known in Buddhism. Yet the gods in the
cosmos aren’t limited to just those. There are different heavenly gods in
different realms. They’re directly in charge of the living beings in the cosmos
and they exist at every different level. Buddhas are a special type of god.
They became gods by cultivating compassion and Shan, they’re Buddhas. As for Daos, they cultivate Zhen, taking the Zhen of
Zhen-Shan-Ren to be fundamental. So they don’t offer salvation to all sentient
beings after they succeed in cultivation. But they hold that Zhen is
everything, that’s their Dao, the great Dao of Zhen. And in fact, they’re gods
too. “Gods” also includes the types of gods I just mentioned who oversee all
the affairs of the living beings in the cosmos, as well as those such as Buddhas
and Daos. And what’s more, there are lots of different higher beings, all kinds
of them. I refer to them in a general way as Buddhas, Daos, and Gods.
Question:
When the time for cultivation comes to an end, if some people haven’t yet
reached Enlightenment and the Unlocking of Gong, will eighty percent of their
cultivated gong be taken down as well?
Teacher:
That doesn’t hold for those who don’t reach
Consummation through cultivation. If a person fails to cultivate to
Consummation, the matter of consummating his paradise doesn’t exist—it doesn’t
apply to him. There are just a few possibilities for those who don’t
Consummate. The first is, if they’ve truly abandoned their major attachments,
then they may go to a level just below their original place. Or, if they want to
continue their cultivation, it’s possible they will bring with them everything
they have that’s been sealed and kept for them, reincarnating into the world
again to continue their cultivation. In yet another situation, if the person
doesn’t want to cultivate anymore, what he’s attained in his cultivation will
be converted into blessings and virtue; it will likely become rewards like
wealth, fortune, fame, and rank, which he can enjoy in his next life.
Question:
Molecules are made of atoms. Atoms are within molecules. How is it that the
overall structure of atoms is bigger than that of molecules?
Teacher:
Molecules are not independent particles, they exist in
groups. In modern scientific terms, they exist in groups. That is, within their
own realm of existence, they are spread everywhere in that void. Actually, this
“everywhere” has a limit and a boundary. In other words, the volume of the
scope in which atoms exist far exceeds the volume of the scope in which
molecules exist and spread. “Atoms are within molecules” is what’s perceived
with the current scientific and technological means. But that’s actually not
the right idea.
Question:
The Zhen-Shan-Ren Buddha Fa is the Fa of this large universe. Is it also the Fa
of other large universes?
Teacher:
Yes, it is. Actually, you will never know how enormous
this universe is, how far your concept of it can reach, or how broad the
boundary of the universe you talked about is. Nor is the capacity of your mind
large enough. So you can merely talk about it. Everything is constructed by
Zhen-Shan-Ren.
Question:
How does Zhen-Shan-Ren generate the laws of other universes?
Teacher:
Other universes have the same laws. Within the same
realm, no
matter how far away a universe may be, like any other universe, it conforms to
the Zhen-Shan-Ren law of this cosmic body. They all conform to the same level
of laws. No matter how immense you imagine the universe to be, it is still but
a particle within its realm. So a particle must meet the standard of that realm
to exist in that realm. And that standard is a manifestation of the specific Fa
of that level.
Question:
Does boundless mighty virtue come from bearing hardships, or is it something a
person originally has?
Teacher:
Some originates in that person’s realm. Those beings
are just at a realm that high and they’re just beings at that high a level. The
same is true with human beings: If you’re born among human beings, your
children will be born and grow up as human beings, and they definitely won’t be
other animals. Many cultivated, Great Enlightened Beings in the cosmos are
extraordinary, and among them are ones who’ve elevated themselves through
cultivation.
Question:
I’ve given away books, audiotapes, and videotapes to many people. Yet some of
them no longer practice. Should I take back those books and tapes?
Teacher:
It’s all right to take them back if those people
really don’t practice anymore. If it isn’t convenient to take them back,
perhaps someone with a predestined relationship will come across them at the
person’s home and take them. You can take back those that are convenient to
take back. Handle the situation as you see fit.
Question:
How should “the more submicroscopic matter that undermines mankind” in the
article “A Dialogue with Time” be understood?
Teacher: However you understand it is fine, and you won’t understand it
incorrectly. Let me put it to you this way: At a certain point in this vast
cosmic body, there are no longer any living beings with form. Only formless
living beings exist there. They permeate the whole cosmic
body, so I just call them matter. Yet they are gods. They can form into any
shape, but they don’t like to assume a shape. They just exist in that manner.
So if the universe has degenerated, all matter—which has both a positive and a
negative side—has degenerated as well. The positive side has degenerated, not
to mention the negative side.
Question:
“It’s your responsibility to cultivate your mind, sever your desires, and be
clearheaded, wise, and not deluded.” Does “your responsibility” refer to a
person’s own responsibility?
Teacher:
That’s correct. Cultivation is up to you, isn’t it?
That’s what it means. You yourself have to cultivate. “Cultivate your mind,
sever your desires” means that you should cultivate your xinxing and sever your worldly pursuits—pursuits for obtaining
this, pursuits for obtaining that, and the desire to obtain everything. If you
don’t do the cultivation yourself, who’ll do it for you? If I did the
cultivation for you, it couldn’t be counted as your cultivation, right? “Be clearheaded, wise, and not deluded”
means that when you’ve gotten rid of all of those things through cultivation,
you will see higher principles in the Fa and attain a higher level, eventually
reaching the state of Consummation. You’ll no longer be affected by low-level
things or be driven by ordinary human attachments. Don’t all of
these things have to be done by you? That’s what it means.
Question:
Are gods that are in the Three Realms composed of atoms?
Teacher:
The living beings of any realm must meet that realm’s
standard. Yet some gods in the Three Realms surpass the levels of the realms
they’re in. When I said that their bodies were composed of atoms, I certainly
didn’t mean the atoms that we see, which are the exteriors of the atoms. This
cosmos is really wondrous.
Question:
When investigating a case and trying to get evidence, if we adopt a stern
manner towards a suspect who refuses to tell the truth, will this contradict
our practice of Zhen-Shan-Ren?
Teacher:
When that person doesn’t tell the truth, it’s your job
to make him tell the truth. You can speak in a stern manner, but you shouldn’t
become angry. You shouldn’t be abusive, and you should never use violence.
There’s a certain disparity between how we [Chinese people] handle cases and
how other countries do. In other countries evidence is important, whereas
Chinese people sometimes make people talk even when they have no evidence.
Anyway, handle it properly. That is, handle it well, with a practitioner’s
standard.
Question:
Why is it that people who are likely to obtain the Fa are those who aren’t so
successful in life?
Teacher:
What makes you think that’s the case? Many of our
disciples who’ve obtained the Fa are successful businesspeople, and many have a
high social status. Young and well-educated people account for the great
majority of our Dafa disciples. There are many high-ranking officials and
senior executives with high social status. Many in the audience now are
successful businesspeople, and they’ve cultivated very well. There are many
doctors, and there are also lawyers. No small number of people among us who’ve
obtained the Fa are from financial sectors, have senior government positions,
or are from the industrial and commercial sectors. I can tell you one thing, though:
When it comes to cultivation, we treat everyone the same. Our Dafa won’t wait
for someone because he enjoys fame and prestige. It will never happen that way.
Question:
What’s the meaning, intention, and history behind the monastic robe Master was wearing?
Teacher:
I can tell you that when Sakyamuni was in this world,
his disciples wore this type of clothing. It was the climate that led monks in
the Han region [of
Question:
My mother is eighty-four years old. She lives by herself and seldom goes out.
Every day, apart from taking her meals, she studies the Fa and does the
exercises whenever she has time. So she doesn’t have many opportunities to
improve her xinxing.
Teacher:
Older people do cultivation in their own circumstances.
She might not have any hardships now, but while she sits there she’ll be made
to recall things that made her angry some eight or ten years ago. It’s certain
she’ll be made to recall those things, which is intended to see whether her mind will remain unmoved or
whether she’ll still get angry over them. Some people sit there and get mad as
heck. That is, she won’t miss out on anything, I’ll somehow make it possible
for her to cultivate. Some of our students, young or old, have had experiences
like that, in which they’re made to recall irritating incidents, and it’s to
see if they still get angry over them. They’ll be made to recall all of their
bygones to see, in one way or another, how they handle them.
Question:
Six days ago, I dreamed of Master being with us as we studied the Fa and
answering our questions. Master, you were wearing the same clothes as you did
yesterday morning when you met with a small group of people.
Teacher: Then you saw things before they happened. Actually, I’m concealing all of these things for you to prevent you from focusing on them or paying too much attention to them, and to have you sense less, so that you cultivate more quickly. Otherwise, you’d ask questions of this sort every day. You would have so many questions: “Why is this? What’s that about?” There are an incredible number of wonders in this universe—there are so many of them.
Question:
Does a person’s strong willpower and ability to endure come with him at birth?
Teacher:
They don’t come with a person at birth. Let’s talk
about human beings and take our superficial, human body as an example. If a
person has tempered himself through many tribulations in the society of
everyday people, he might care less about things. Or, if he’s been through a
lot, his will becomes strong and he cares less about things. A person can also
become stronger through doing cultivation. When one’s realm is raised, one’s
ability to endure increases.
Question:
During the cultivation process, can we completely cultivate away each and every
kind of bad thing we have?
Teacher:
You have to. Some of our students think: “Teacher,
we’re so bad in ordinary human society. When we’ve cultivated up to the realm
of a Buddha, will we really forget everything about when we were living as humans?” [You
think that way] since you are thinking about what Buddhas are like while you
live among ordinary human beings. All of your human thoughts will change, and
that includes the structure of your thoughts and the way you think. When you’re free of the constraints of emotion at this
level, and the constraints of other kinds of matter in this ordinary human
realm, you will disassociate from this environment and cease to be the way you are. When
you’ve cultivated up there, this little superficial human form of yours will
only remain as a memory, whereas your thoughts will have elevated to the realm
of a Buddha, God, or Dao, and they will be the best part of you. You won’t want
to touch this most superficial human part [of you]—you won’t even want to
recall the memory of it.
Question:
When the new cosmos is constructed, will demons still exist at various levels?
Teacher:
There’s one thing I can tell you: If there were only
positive and no negative things, no living being would find life interesting.
If you could succeed easily in everything you did, get whatever you wanted, and
have no difficulty getting anything done, you wouldn’t appreciate or value
anything. You wouldn’t have that feeling of happiness one gets from overcoming
things, nor the joy of triumph. You wouldn’t value or cherish anything in that
case, and you’d find life meaningless. People vie and compete in ordinary human
society and find it interesting. They think that it will be interesting to look
back at it at the end of their lives. That’s how humans are. Yet there will be
negative elements at different levels, to be sure. They aren’t brought forth by
cultivation, but arranged by the Fa.
Question:
What should I do when, while in a tranquil state, I see things that I don’t
like to see?
Teacher:
If you see them, let it be. Though you don’t want to
see them, you have seen them. Don’t pay attention to them. They can’t harm you
or touch you. Just let them be and don’t worry about them. That’s especially so
when you start from the level of everyday people. When your Third Eye (tianmu) can see things, what you see
will surely be low-level things that are really bad, and you’ll be scared. But
as long as you read the book a lot, learn more of the Fa, and speed up your
cultivation, you will quickly break through that level. What you see then will
no longer be those things, but good things.
Question:
When someone in my family performs the exercises of another qigong, I feel particularly unwell
doing the [Falun Gong] exercises at the group practice site. Are the things I
see sometimes in some way prophetic?
Teacher:
When you see things, just let it be. Don’t regard them
as anything important. Even if you can see some things that are about to
happen, I think you should ignore them. Maintain your xinxing and cultivate. As to others interfering with your
cultivation or someone in your family practicing another qigong, normally those things don’t affect us. If you feel that
those things are disturbing you, it could be that they’re testing you to see
how your mind reacts. Since we’re practicing a righteous way, a great way,
nothing can interfere with you. If our own minds aren’t solid, it’s a problem
with our xinxing, and unusual situations will appear.
Question:
I’ve been practicing Falun Gong for a few months now and find it really good. But earlier
I converted to a certain religion and am now in a dilemma. Teacher, please
advise me.
Teacher:
Cultivation is a person’s own business. You choose
whichever cultivation way you prefer. If you want to cultivate in a religion,
then you can do so. If you want to cultivate in Dafa, then you can cultivate in
Dafa. You have to take this step yourself. Since I, too, see that you’re in a
dilemma, I need to see how you take this step. What you learn is up to you. Yet
I have explained many principles clearly. In the Three Realms, no righteous
gods are looking after human beings, and no righteous gods are saving people.
That’s what I can tell you all.
Question:
I feel that I don’t have enough time, so I often cut my sleep time short. Does this
count as an attachment?
Teacher:
No, it doesn’t. If you want to find some time in the
evening to do the exercises because your time is really tight and you’re busy
during the day, I’d say that’s excellent. The condition of your body won’t
deteriorate any because of your doing the exercises, nor will you suffer from
lack of sleep. Those things won’t happen. On the contrary, you will sleep more
soundly after doing the exercises, and you will feel more energetic. It’s bound
to be that way.
Question:
Christians and Catholics believe that there’s only one god up there: Jesus. How
can we help them to believe that there’s more than one god?
Teacher: That’s up to them. I’ve explained the
principles. Actually, it’s written in both the Old Testament and the New Testament
that Jesus isn’t the only god. At a minimum, there was Yahweh before Jesus.
Many other heavenly gods were mentioned in both the New and Old Testaments. In
ancient
Question: Since a person’s gong
assumes his image, why can a fake Buddha created by people’s worship take gong away from a person?
Teacher:
He can’t take away a person’s gong. He can only take qi
from an everyday person. That’s how it is. He can’t take away any energy. So
why would he take something from a person? It’s because he’s created by
everyday people’s worship, and his realm of thought is thus at the same level
as everyday people. Why do humans steal? Because they have that mentality.
Question:
Upon Consummation, can those disciples who go to other paradises bring with
them the Falun in their belly?
Teacher: You only need to concentrate on
cultivating. You don’t know what you’re about. Just practice diligently and
make constant progress. You should be concerned about how to reach
Consummation, as that is your top priority. To cultivate and return as quickly
as possible is the most important thing for you. Don’t think about other
things. I, your master, will definitely give you the best. (Applause) For whom is the new universe
and everything of the future created? Aren’t they created for all lives? Isn’t
that right? Parents always want to give their children the best. They
especially want to give them a better future. They all have that intention. (Applause)
Question:
Since Consummation takes place in an instant, how will one know Master’s
instructions?
Teacher:
You will be contacted when you’re about to Consummate.
Many things will be told to you directly. It’s not like what’s said by some
people who claim to have Consummated. All of those who claim to have
Consummated haven’t.
Question:
When spreading the Fa to Westerners, how should we handle questions related to
religion?
Teacher:
Show them the books, just have them read the books.
I’ve explained things related to religion very clearly in the books. When
asked, just answer according to what’s in the books—do it that way and there
won’t be a problem.
Question:
I suffer great pain when sitting in meditation. Is it a good thing, or is it
because I have so much karma that I should suffer retribution like this?
Teacher:
No, that’s not the case. Nobody is free from pain when
they meditate. Some of us used to do aerobics, were dancers, or could sit in
the lotus position to begin with. Those people could do the lotus position with
ease. But let me tell you, at that time you didn’t cultivate. You’ll feel pain
soon after you start to cultivate. You definitely won’t miss out on the
exercise-induced karma elimination just because you can sit in the lotus
position. If you cultivate, you need to have help improving yourself.
Question:
When I rest my hands over my tummy while lying in bed, I can feel myself
extending outwards like surging waves. I’m concerned whether this indicates
that I’m practicing the wrong way.
Teacher:
That’s because you can feel your body being
transformed from the submicroscopic level towards the surface. It’s like what I
said earlier: We’re transforming you from the submicroscopic level towards the
surface. So some sensitive people feel it. What you’ve felt is just a little
bit. There’s a lot more that you can’t sense. Some of the sensations
can be quite painful.
Question:
I had many ordeals when I was young. Now that I’ve obtained the Fa, do those
ordeals help with my cultivation?
Teacher:
Some of them might be helpful. Since it’s not easy for
anyone to obtain the Fa, if a person is predestined to obtain the Fa, maybe
he’s endured hardships for this in many, many past lives. So don’t think that
it was easy for you to obtain the Fa today. Yet some people have endured
hardships across many lifetimes just to obtain this Fa, and when the time comes
to really obtain the Fa, they don’t go for it. That’s such a pity! They came
just for this… don’t you think it’s a shame?
Question:
When I first started learning the Fa and encountered danger in my dreams, I
always remembered to call out Master’s name. Yet recently I often forget to do
that, and instead fight with them. Why is that?
Teacher:
This situation is rare, very rare. But, there are
truly exceptional cases. It will pass after a while. If you ignore it, it won’t
matter. Anyway, things will be fine after a while. If you call out for your
master every time you run into a problem, isn’t that another attachment?
Besides, you should look inside yourself for the cause of things that happen in
your dreams. They’re a reflection of your being in a certain state. This
situation often occurs in Dao system cultivation ways. It’s particularly common
in the types of systems where people practice both internal and external
cultivation; that is, they do internal cultivation and martial arts.
Question:
If a person who used to suffer from depression and had mental problems truly
practices cultivation, can he reach Consummation?
Teacher:
He can reach Consummation if he truly cultivates. But
a person in this situation shouldn’t do the exercises in public, both for his
own sake and for the sake of the Fa. If he can’t handle himself properly and causes damage to
the Fa, he has done wrong. So it’s best that he do the
exercises at home. As long as you cultivate, I’ll look after you wherever you
do the exercises. But this only applies to people who are able to cultivate.
That is, they must have a conscious mind and be able to overcome obstacles.
Question:
Looking back at the early half of my life, I have regret and I blame myself. As
a Falun disciple, how should I handle this problem?
Teacher:
Don’t worry about anything—let bygones be bygones. I
only look at your heart for cultivation. Your Master will take care of the
rest. If you keep thinking about things that happened before, it will become
yet another obstacle and attachment. So don’t be concerned about them anymore.
Just change yourself fundamentally from the inside out, and you’ll be a new
person. That’s what you should do. (Applause)
Question:
Sometimes when I read Zhuan Falun I feel that my face is only a shell and that
my inner face is doing the reading. Why is that?
Teacher:
It’s because your soul and the submicroscopic part of
your body are dominating more. It’s a good thing.
Question:
How should we understand “xinxing” and “realm”? What’s the relationship
between the two?
Teacher:
Whatever level you’ve reached in cultivation is the
height of your xinxing and also your
realm. Whatever thoughts and ideas are generated in that realm of mind will
correspond to xinxing at that level.
But that’s not entirely the case when we do cultivation among everyday people.
We’re being transformed progressively from the submicroscopic level outward
toward the surface. So while our human part still assumes a human appearance at
the surface, we’ll have an ordinary human’s mindset until we eventually
Consummate, at which time everything will change. Nevertheless, we have to be
strict with ourselves in our cultivation, and our xinxing must surpass that of an everyday person.
Question:
If I do the Holding the Wheel exercise for two and a half hours in the morning
and the meditation for two and a half hours at night, am I doing the exercises
too much?
Teacher:
I don’t oppose it if you have time to do the exercises
more. Performing the exercises is a good thing. But if you take time away from
reading, then I’d say it’s not right. That’s because reading and studying Fa is
priority number one, it ensures that you can be fundamentally and truly
transformed, and it is the fundamental reason why you can go higher. Performing
the exercises is a supplementary means to reaching Consummation. You shouldn’t
make doing the exercises your first priority and treat reading as secondary.
You can’t do that, absolutely not. And if you can’t reach that realm, how is
your practice going to get you anywhere? Although [the mechanisms] are
automatic, you won’t progress no matter how hard you try. When your xinxing reaches that level and you come
to understand the Fa’s principles by reading the book, your gong will shoot up instantly. That’s why
we haven’t placed too much emphasis on increasing the duration of the
exercises. But doing the exercises is still necessary.
Question:
Master, you said that the subordinate soul of a person practicing in a certain
system left the person’s body to practice and then the subordinate soul was
killed and reincarnated again. Was the master soul or the subordinate soul
cultivating with that body?
Teacher:
Let me tell you: I often say that you can easily see
through this dimension of humankind, but it would be difficult for you to find
out how many dimensions there are. [The subordinate soul] finished all of those
things in the time-field of another dimension. Within the time-field of another
dimension there are still other dimensions’ time-fields. It was there that he
completed everything. And of course it was the subordinate soul cultivating!
Question:
Our translation group has translated your scriptures into English for some
Western students to read.
Teacher:
If you’d like to make public any translated materials,
or publish and circulate them among other students, they must be reviewed by
the Main Association for a decision. That’s because a lot of issues can affect
our Dafa as a whole and it involves things of great importance. So those
materials must be reviewed by them. This is especially the case for the
recordings of my Fa-lectures, as many things don’t have general application
after I talk about them. If they’re to be published, I have to edit and
organize them into book-like form for everyone to read. That way they can help
students to cultivate and improve themselves. So nobody is allowed to
[distribute things on their own]. I’ve made that clear. Though we intend to do
good things for Dafa in everything we do, we still need to consider their
effect on Dafa as a whole. So we should treat this matter seriously.
Question:
In the article “Melt Into the Fa,” Master said that we shouldn’t spend a lot of
time on discussions. Some people have interpreted this as meaning one shouldn’t
participate in group reading.
Teacher: You should do group reading and Fa-study in
addition to your own reading and Fa-study. Both are necessary. Don’t go from
one extreme to another.
Question:
I feel that some scriptures are more difficult to memorize than others. Is this
just a false impression?
Teacher:
Some of the things I’ve written are indeed not so easy
to understand, for sure. They were written that way for a reason. To whatever degree you can understand them is fine. However you
understand them, you won’t go astray. The difference lies only in the depth of
understanding.
Question: In order to
memorize the scriptures, I’ve made a practice of writing them down from memory.
What should I do with these written texts?
Teacher:
When doing this sort of thing, one should maintain a
cultivator’s state of mind and be respectful of Teacher and the Fa. In this
scenario you can burn them. The fire of ordinary human beings could never reach
gods. So just burn them if they’re no longer useful. You can do it that way
since this is a special time in history. But Dafa books absolutely shouldn’t be
burned.
Question:
Is it an attachment for a veteran disciple to always want to see Master? Is it
yet another attachment if he can’t hold back his tears and becomes speechless
when he sees Master?
Teacher: Your desire to see me shouldn’t have any
attachments in it. But I think that the reason most of you want to see me is
that you’ve practiced Dafa cultivation, and the Fa taught by your master has
saved you. That’s why you want to see me. As to why you become speechless once
you see me, it’s due to the changes in you and the transformation of your body.
You can’t see the changes at the surface. But the part of you that’s been
cultivated well, your soul, and your non-deluded part can see them. They perk
up as soon as they see me. Even when they perk up just a little bit, your human
part becomes really weak. The surface you doesn’t know why that part of you
cries. That other part of you sees everything that I’ve done for you, which you
can’t repay with any words or means. (Applause)
Your crying is a reflection of your heartfelt gratitude that can’t be
expressed.
Question: I can endure the
great pain from sitting in the lotus position. But other parts of my body jerk
violently every now and then, which prevents me from entering into
concentration when meditating.
Teacher: There will always be a period of pain when
sitting in the lotus position. And that’s especially so when some of you had
never sat in that position before, and the material structure of your body at
the surface isn’t used to it, plus your karma is being dissolved, all of which
makes it extremely painful. Even when you are able to sit in the lotus position
for half an hour, you’ll still feel a great deal of pain beyond the half-hour
mark. Along with the pain comes uneasiness and anxiety. So although the monks
who cultivated in the past seemed to only sit in meditation, they were
improving their xinxing at the same
time. It’s just that their way of improving xinxing
wasn’t as direct as ours. So they progressed slowly, their cultivation was
slow. When you feel uneasy and anxious, your karma is trying to make you take down your legs. If
you’re resolute, have strong willpower, and don’t take your legs down, your
mind is improving in the process. That’s another way to improve yourself
through hardship. Sometimes a person might feel an excruciating pain, become
nauseous, or feel like vomiting. The reactions are strong at times.
Question: Some students think
that we’re already in the final, sprinting stage, and need to use all of our
available time to study the Fa.
Teacher: I’ve never said anything about a “final,
sprinting stage.” If someone wants to spend all of his time studying the Fa and
to resign from his job to stay at home, I’d say he is harming the Fa. Whoever
spreads those ideas, whoever does that, is being irresponsible to both the Fa
and himself. Who taught you to do things like resigning from work or even not
working anymore? Wouldn’t you be harming the Fa? I’ve said that humans, too,
are fulfilling the Fa. Of course, some people wonder, “How can humans fulfill
the Fa?” Think about it, everyone. The Fa can save you, and that’s certain. So
how can humans fulfill the Fa? At this level, the level of ordinary human
society, if all of you were to behave badly, like everyday people, people would
say, “Look at how those Falun Gong practitioners behave.” If all of us do well,
are able to hold ourselves to the standard for practitioners, and are upright
and noble disciples doing cultivation—think about it—people will think, “Oh,
they’re Falun Gong practitioners. They’re so good.” If you can be trusted
wherever you go and be a good person wherever you are, people will say that
Falun Gong is really good and that this Dafa is really good. Then aren’t you
fulfilling Dafa in this form among everyday people? Doesn’t that make sense? So
if our own behavior doesn’t conform to Dafa, not only can’t we fulfill the Fa,
but we are also tarnishing and harming the Fa. The Fa can save you, yet you
harm it—how are you positioning these things? How are you evaluated?
Cultivation is serious. How can a person who is enveloped by karma cultivate to
Consummation if he doesn’t take it seriously? Is there anything in this world
greater or more serious than this?
Question: Some learned people
aren’t comfortable with reading Zhuan Falun. They’re not used to
the book’s style, which is different from that of academic texts. Does this
have anything to do with an individual’s predestined relationship or karma?
Teacher: That’s an obstacle to obtaining the Fa for
learned people who are like that, so they have to overcome it. They’re
obstructed by their preconceived notions. Some people might disagree if I call
the concepts formed in modern literature a new style of bagu.* But they’ve really fixed the meanings of words and phrases
by giving them definitions, so the words and phrases lose their deeper inner
meanings. That’s the case for today’s vernacular, a plain and simple language.
With its fixed definitions, it can only express the most superficial meanings
and is far from adequate for expressing the Fa. Some people say that Teacher’s
books don’t conform to modern grammar. I fully agree. Indeed they aren’t in
keeping with modern grammar. But have you thought about this: The Fa has
created living conditions and environments for beings at different levels,
including the human languages and their writing systems. In other words, the
culture humankind has today was created by the Fa. That being the case, how
could the Dafa of the cosmos be restricted by the grammatical standards of a
human language? We’re merely utilizing human language and grammar to express
the Fa. As for how to utilize it, that’s up to us. I use it whatever way allows
me to express the deeper meanings of the Fa. So I’ve completely broken the
binds of modern grammar, and haven’t followed its rules or norms. The same is
true when I teach the Fa—I don’t follow standardized language. Only this way
can I express the Fa clearly. That’s how it is. The Fa—the cosmos’s Fa that is
so immense—can’t be confined to the grammar of human language. I’m merely
utilizing human language. As to how I use it, I mold it however I want. As long
as the Fa can be expressed, I mold it in whatever way allows for clear
expression. And the Fa is creating new language and culture for the future
humankind. Everything will be returned to its optimum state. So it’s only
natural that, at the moment, people aren’t used to [how I use language].
Question: My leg was injured
before, but I’ve managed to sit in the lotus position. Yet of late I can’t sit
like that no matter how hard I try. What’s the reason?
Teacher: Actually, you should ask yourself what the
reason is. Is it because you aren’t being diligent with Fa-study? Or have you
done something wrong but refuse to mend your ways, or haven’t recognized the
problem? If you handle things really well today and what you’ve done meets the
standard of the Fa, for sure you’ll be able to extend your lotus-position
sitting to twenty minutes if before you could only manage ten minutes. Many of
our students have experienced that. Things aren’t absolute. The scenario [you
described] could also occur if you need to eliminate a lot of karma during this
time.
Question: I’ve received some
messages. How can I discern whether they came from an Enlightened Being or from
my own thoughts?
Teacher: Don’t pay attention to any messages you
receive. If you do, you’ll form an attachment to them. Then they will try to
disturb you, send you messages one way after another, and interfere with you.
It’s good that you have that ability and that it hasn’t been locked. But you
need to handle yourself well. Don’t pay attention to whatever messages you
receive. If you hear them or you see them, just let them be and don’t pay
attention to them. Just hold tight to Dafa cultivation. The principles have
been written out in words—why would you still care about some messages? You
will fall if you’re deceived by a false message. It’s that easy. So be on guard
about this.
Question: If a being who was
created in a high-level dimension falls down but cultivates back up again, is
he different from how he originally was?
Teacher: The beings at high levels don’t fall as
easily as humans imagine. How could it be that simple? But that situation does
exist. As for cultivating back up, that’s even harder—it’s by no means as
simple as the few words you’ve written. Do you know how you managed to obtain
the Fa? You had to reincarnate on Earth, you had to be born in the right period
of time when the person who would save you was born, you needed an opportunity
to come across the Great Enlightened Being who’s saving people, and you had to
manage to hear this Fa. It didn’t come easily at all. And once you have truly
obtained the Fa, you still have to manage to persist in cultivation. In the old
days, some of Sakyamuni’s disciples had doubts about the Dharma he taught. Some
would listen to his teachings and then decide that day to take up the robe, but
then when they got bored at night they’d cast off their robes and run off. That happened every now and then. Many years
after the Buddha left the world, people increasingly realized that it was the
truth, and began to treasure it. There’s no difference if one can truly
cultivate back up again.
Question: Please explain the
specific inner meaning of “an exceptional person can reach Consummation by way
of enlightening” and “When the truth is revealed.”
Teacher: An exceptional person can reach
Consummation by way of enlightening. Let me tell you this: Pretty much all of
you sitting here depend on your enlightening. I don’t show you the truth because I’m
concerned that you might then form an attachment. So that’s how it’s done. If
you can persist, carry on with your cultivation, and keep cultivating
diligently and improving yourselves, then I’d say you’re truly amazing.
Everyone will admire you when you’ve finally cultivated up to there in the
future. It’s called “reaching Consummation by way of enlightening.” A person’s
cultivation will progress slowly if he sees everything displayed, including
supernatural powers. And, if everything were really displayed, your cultivation
wouldn’t count. If I were to disclose even a bit of the maze, those who’ve come
from very high levels couldn’t return. So no matter which level you came from,
we have to do it this way. It will be hard to cultivate after the truth is
revealed, as the requirements for people will be very high, the cultivation
form will be strict, and people won’t progress as fast.
Question: Is breaking an egg
considered killing?
Teacher: A person should cultivate nobly. I actually
explained this principle to you quite clearly earlier on. You’re living a human
life. Maybe you don’t eat meat, but maybe your family does. You are
cultivating, but your family members might not be. We can cultivate while
conforming to everyday people to the greatest extent. Focus on the main things
and cultivate nobly, and you will handle these things with ease. It’s just like
if a person could become a Buddha through vegetarianism—that’s a joke. [By not
eating meat] a person is only abandoning one attachment. That is, he isn’t
attached to meat or a meat diet, which is only one attachment. But there are so
many attachments that a person has to abandon. How could someone become a
Buddha by giving up just one attachment? That’s totally impossible. So we have,
to allow you to cultivate normally among everyday people, in this regard opened
the most convenient door. If you want to eat eggs you can do so while you’re
able to. But that doesn’t apply to cultivating monks, nuns, and hermits.
Question: How can we more
quickly get rid of the well-hidden attachments deep inside us?
Teacher: I’ll point them out to you. My only concern
is that you won’t abandon them at the time. I’ll definitely point them out to
you. All of your attachments will be exposed for you. Even if I don’t point
them out to you myself, I’ll have others do so. It could happen when you have a
problem, during which an attachment of yours is struck. I’m only concerned that
instead of thinking of those attachments, you’ll look outside yourself for the
cause. I will definitely point them out to you, you can count on it.
Question: As your disciple,
I’m ready to go with you at any time. Will I be aware when the magnificent
moment of Consummation arrives?
Teacher: Those who should Consummate won’t be left
out. Just concentrate on cultivating and don’t worry about anything else. I
told you the story about the Arhat, right? A person can’t Consummate if he’s
afraid or overjoyed. So if you want to Consummate at an even higher realm
through cultivation, the requirements are even higher. Discard all of your
attachments. If you have impure thoughts come forth at that moment, you will be
pulled back and you really won’t manage to Consummate.
Question: Teacher has
explained the Fa more and more explicitly. We don’t need to enlighten to things
anymore. Can this count as cultivation?
Teacher: Although you’re sitting here and listening
to what I’ve been saying, each of you definitely has a different understanding
relative to your different levels. (Applause)
It’s just as I said: Although what I’ve told you are truths of levels so high,
I’m still only telling you their surface meaning. You aren’t allowed to know the
real things. Even if you knew about them, it would still be hard for you
to cultivate. I’ve only talked about the principles, I haven’t displayed the
truth to you. So you’re still in the maze. There are both people who believe
and people who doubt.
Question: Is it good for us to have group
reading of Zhuan Falun three times a week without spending time
on
discussion?
Teacher: That’s fine. What do you need so much time
for to talk about? Read the book from cover to cover and use all of your time
to study the Fa. (Applause) Of
course, it’s also necessary to find some time to discuss your experiences and
understanding. You can share thoughts after doing your daily exercises.
Question: What difference
does one’s education level make in one’s comprehension ability?
Teacher: It makes somewhat of a difference. If
you’re illiterate then you can’t read the book. If you don’t know all the words
you will have a hard time reading the book. Modern people are shaped by modern
science, so I have no choice but to incorporate modern science and modern
culture when I explain things. If you don’t understand the meaning of the
terms, it will make a difference, and it will be harder for you to study [the
Fa]. But you won’t miss anything as long as your heart is in it.
Question: Romantic love has
been troubling me. Whenever I have an argument with my boyfriend, I immediately
feel like breaking up with him. Then I feel that I’m trying to avoid the
problem. If we get back together, will that be an attachment to romantic love?
Teacher: Those are two separate things. Let me tell
you this: Until you dissociate yourself from ordinary human society, until you
Consummate, you will always have emotion. It’s one way to ensure that you can
cultivate in ordinary human society. And since you have emotions, your heart is
going to be affected by them. What you can do is try your best to suppress
them, and try your best to maintain yourself like a practitioner should, and
not act like an everyday person who does whatever he feels like. At the very
least you should be a good person, and this differentiates you from an everyday
person. Then if you want to find a boyfriend or girlfriend and get married, of
course you won’t be affected. That’s how those things are related. We’ve said
that we should cultivate while conforming to the way of ordinary human society
as much as possible. If you just don’t want a boyfriend or girlfriend, and
don’t want to get married in this life, then that’s a personal choice. If you
don’t want to get married, then don’t. We won’t force you to. In other words,
that’s how these things work. But as disciples, you must exercise self-control
and act properly.
Question: When my friends ask
about personal things, can I lie?
Teacher: If you don’t want to tell them, then don’t.
Try not to say anything about them. All humans talk about is that stuff. Just
handle it in a way that allows you to cultivate while conforming to the way of
everyday people as much as possible and, at the same time, to meet the standard
for a practitioner.
Question: Can one lie to
avoid unnecessary trouble under the condition that nobody is harmed?
Teacher: Things are pretty complicated in the human
world. And the problems created under different, complicated circumstances are
extremely complex. But I can say to you, a cultivator does not lie. If you have
to tell a lie to prevent a thing like murder or arson, then, well, it can’t be
said you were wrong. So as for how to strike the right balance, I don’t think
that’s hard for a practitioner. Actually, there are lots of things we don’t
have to talk about if we don’t want to.
Question: I’ve now done
cultivation for a year, but still can’t sit in the lotus position. The longer I
can’t do it, the more anxious I get.
Teacher: Don’t worry. If you really can’t sit in the
lotus position, we won’t forbid you to Consummate just because of that. But,
being a cultivator, you should sit in the lotus position. Let me tell you—and
this isn’t a joke—if a cultivator has cultivated pretty well but can’t sit in
the lotus position, the Bodhisattvas above cover their mouths and laugh at him.
It’s true. But don’t be anxious. It will come gradually. I’ve never said that
time is running out.
Question: Why is it that when
I do the exercises or study the Fa my lower back gets hot?
Teacher: During the course of cultivation, a person
will experience all kinds of different states, tens of thousands of them, and
all kinds of situations will come up. Could you still cultivate if you were to
ask me about each and every one of them? Would you still be a cultivator? So
don’t be concerned about those things, just let things unfold naturally. A
cultivator is bothered by neither heat nor cold. And wind can’t make you sick.
Question: Is it predestined
whether a husband and wife will have a good relationship?
Teacher: It’s not something predestined, but it
could be the result of karmic retribution or one’s karma. In most cases
marriage is the result of a predestined connection formed in the previous life.
That holds for the majority of cases, but it’s not set in stone.
Question: Can a Dafa
practitioner worship Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara?
Teacher: Read the book. I won’t answer your
question. Many students have asked: “Teacher, why don’t you come to our
country? Why don’t you come to our region?” It’s not that I won’t go. I’m
waiting for your understanding of Fa to reach a certain level and for you to
become more mature. Then I’ll go. You will benefit more then. (Applause) If I went somewhere and you
asked me what Falun Gong is, my trip would have been in vain, right? It’s just
like this question. Our time is tight. If instead of reading the book you want
to ask me here about whether you can worship Avalokitesvara, then it’s
fruitless for me to teach you the Fa. Isn’t that the truth?
Question: Teacher once said,
“I am not within the Fa.” How should we understand that?
Teacher: Why is it hard to understand? Can’t I be
outside the cosmos? (Loud applause)
Question: I was watching the
stars one morning at about three o’clock. I saw them come towards me from far
off in the sky until they were a few dozen yards away. I got nervous and then
they disappeared.
Teacher: Viewed from another dimension, no object in
this universe is fixed, and all objects’ forms of existence are not how they
are here. Also, the structure of that dimension’s time field is totally
different from that of our dimension. So you can’t explain it with any of this
dimension’s concepts. It’s good that you saw what you did.
Question: Some students made
copies of Zhuan Falun
(Volume II), printed them on their own,
and circulated them at practice sites.
Teacher: We stopped printing Zhuan Falun (Volume II) because some of its contents touched a sore
spot in Buddhism. So we’ve tried our best not to get into that. Anyway, we
stopped printing it. It’s fine if you’ve managed to get a copy for your own
reading. But you can’t print copies and pass them around or distribute them to
others.
Question: I used to burn
incense while playing the Chinese zither. Can I still do that?
Teacher: You can, as that’s not part of cultivation.
Burning incense while playing the Chinese zither is, like music, chess,
calligraphy, or painting, a kind of cultured hobby from the ancient Chinese. I
don’t object to it. Yet as you raise your level in cultivation, you will gradually
find that your ordinary human interests become weaker and weaker. But don’t
force anything on yourself at the moment.
Question: Some people think
that less discussion and more Fa-study means reading Zhuan Falun and the other books aloud over and over again. I think that’s a limited
understanding.
Teacher: Actually, you should simply read the Fa
more. It’s fine to take a break when you’re fatigued from reading and then talk
about what you’ve learned. But I’ll tell you, you shouldn’t comment on whether
the Fa is good or not. And don’t waste so much time talking about yourselves.
You should read the Fa a lot, read the book more. Isn’t that right? A person is
like a container, and he is what he contains. If he contains Fa, he has
assimilated to the Fa; if he’s filled with dirt, he is dirt.
Question: The fifth exercise
takes a long time to complete. How should we keep track of the time?
Teacher: There’s no set requirement. Do it according
to your ability, there isn’t any specific requirement. If you do all five
exercises in a row it does take a long time. So if you can’t do that yet, you
can stop halfway through, rest a little, and then continue. But you need to
hold yourself to a high standard and try your best to persist.
Question: The time for
cultivation is tight. How should we properly allocate time for doing the
exercises and studying the Fa?
Teacher: There’s no specific ratio. [When I say
that] the time for studying the Fa is tight, it’s meant to encourage you to be
diligent and keep making progress. I’ve never said anything about what will
happen later. Just go study and cultivate. As to allocating time for exercises
and Fa-study, it’s sufficient if you study the Fa a lot and do the exercises in
the morning or the evening. Some people get up in the middle of the night to do
the tranquil exercise, and that’s fine, too.
Question: Since doing the
exercises at home or in groups achieves the same results, is it still necessary
for us to drive an hour and a half to take part in weekly group exercises?
Teacher: Doing the exercises at home or outside has
the same results. But unlike doing the exercises outside, when you do them at
home you lack an external factor that compels you to do the exercises. For
example, when everyone is sitting in the lotus position and you feel a lot of
pain, you might see that nobody is taking their legs down, and so you’d be
embarrassed to take yours down. That compels you then to extend the length of
the exercise. [At a practice site,] everyone speaks and conducts himself according
to Dafa, like a disciple. That environment of ours is most precious. No other
environment in the world is so pure like ours. You can’t get that at home. And
people tend to be more lax at home. Sometimes they might do the exercises more,
other times less; sometimes they might be diligent and make steady progress,
other times they aren’t diligent. They might be somewhat lax. If you can truly
discipline yourself about cultivating, then the results are the same. But,
since you do still have ordinary human thoughts and it’s impossible for you to
discipline yourself that well, I tell you to come out and do the exercises
together.
Also, we’ve always talked about introducing the Fa to
others so that more people can obtain the Fa. Has it occurred to you that the
sight of a lot of us doing the exercises together is the best way to introduce
the Fa to others? Why don’t you go support it and fulfill it? Of course, for
those of you who live far away and find it inconvenient to come, you can do the
exercises at home. When there are more people later on, you can set up a
practice site near your home. Then that would be more convenient.
I’ve answered all of the questions for you.
Some people asked me to do the large mudras. (Applause) Your loud applause seems to be saying you want me to do
them, right? All right. I’ll perform a set of large mudras for you.
Glossary (provided by the translators)
asura An ancient Indian
term for “malevolent spirits”
bagu a
specific style of writing that is particularly restricted
Dafa “The Great Law,” or “The Great Way”; short for
the practice’s full name, Falun Dafa, “The Great Way of the Law Wheel”
Dao 1. Also known as
“Tao,” a Daoist term for “the Way of nature and the universe”; 2. An
Enlightened being who has attained this Dao
Dharma Sanskrit word for “Fa,”
used in the context of Buddhism
Fa “Law” or “Way”
gong cultivation energy
qigong A general name for
certain Chinese practices that cultivate the human body. Qigong has been immensely popular in
Zhang Sanfeng Daoist
immortal, known as the creator of taiji
(or “Tai-Chi”)
xinxing “mind-nature” (lit.), “character,” or “thought”
Shan “good,” “kind,” “compassion,” “benevolence” (as in the Shan of Zhen,
Shan, Ren)
Zhen-Shan-Ren Zhen – true, real, truth; Shan – good, kind, compassion, benevolence; Ren – to endure, tolerate, forbear
[1] Translator’s note: The Chinese term here, xin, could also be translated as “thoughts,” “feelings,” “heart,” “mind,” or “intentions.”
[2] Translator’s note: The Chinese term here, yuanrong, has been translated as “harmonize” in some other lectures.
[3] Translator’s note: The Chinese term here, weiguan, has been translated as “microcosmic” in some other lectures.
[4] Translator’s note: “Scripture,” as used in this context, refers to any of the various writings of Master Li.
[5] Translator’s note: This is a reference to certain religious observances practiced in temples or monasteries.
[6] Translator’s note: The Chinese term used here, xinxi, can refer to certain types of intangible energy, influences, or information that are transmittable.
[7] Translator’s note: This is part of the four-line formula said in conjunction with the fourth exercise.