Falun Buddha Law
Teaching the Fa at the
(February 21 and 22, 1999, Los
Angeles)
Li Hongzhi
Hello! (Applause)
Originally this conference was intended to be a
local experience-sharing conference for the Western regions. Its purpose is to
help students in the Western regions of the
Since you have come, let’s all listen and see,
with calm minds, what improvements and experiences students on the West Coast
have had in their cultivation during this recent period of time. From their
speeches and sharing of experiences we will be able to find where we have fallen
behind, which will allow us to better improve ourselves in cultivation.
Everyone should also make a self-assessment, search for his shortcomings, and
help each other make forward progress. This is the fundamental objective of our
Fa conferences. If our Fa conference can’t serve this purpose, then it
shouldn’t be held; it would amount to nothing, and it would lose its meaning.
All cultivation forms of Dafa, as well as everything I do, are all for the
purpose of enabling everyone to improve as quickly as possible. If this was not
the case and this goal couldn’t be accomplished, I wouldn’t do these things. Of
course, among the cultivation forms you have at present, in addition to the
practice there is also a form for spreading the Fa. This is something left from
the time when I began teaching the Fa and it has been kept up through to this
day; it too is very important and can indeed bring very good results.
Accordingly, your Fa conferences in different regions should still continue to
be held. But I think it would be better to hold regional and small-scale
conferences in individual regions. For large-scale Fa conferences, I think it’s
sufficient to hold them once or twice a year. Don’t hold them too frequently
and don’t let them fall into a mere formality. It is good only when it serves
the purpose of truly and solidly helping everyone improve.
As you know, I have already taught this Fa to a
very high level. It is relatively easier for you all to understand the Fa
through the book, Zhuan Falun. Regarding the Fa I taught later, if you
haven’t read Zhuan Falun and directly read the lectures given in various
regions, though you might understand them, they will not be able to guide your
cultivation in a coherent manner. Because the Fa is all encompassing and is
entirely connected, no matter how you read the Fa, it can provide answers. Seen
from the front, the back, or the middle—regardless of the methods you use and
how you read this Dafa—it is all connected and coherent, different parts can
all clarify each other, and they can achieve an interconnecting effect. This is
exactly the factor behind Dafa’s being all encompassing and indestructible. As
to the Fa I taught in other regions, it was actually taught specifically to different regions and with different situations
being considered. I have talked more about the structure of the universe
particularly in the
Since everyone has things that he is attached to,
and everyone thinks that there is a truth in ordinary people’s society that he
has come to know for himself, he then holds on to it to go on living his life.
In fact, I would like to tell you that no matter what principles you have
enlightened to among ordinary people, all of them are wrong in the eyes of
beings at any level higher than mankind, since the entire human society is the
opposite [of higher realms]. So, in order to break this obstacle of
yours—namely, the notions you have formed that are severely interfering with
your obtaining the Fa—I have used different approaches in lecturing on the Fa
in different regions for different people so as to break the obstacles in your
minds, which are barriers to obtaining the Fa. Many people who came to the
Another point is that human thinking follows a certain
program. But since this program no longer works, you can’t speak clearly about
the universe. On many occasions, including while reading the Fa, students can
understand the Fa in their minds but can’t put it into words. All students have
had this feeling of being able to comprehend the Fa but not being able to
express it clearly. That is, it isn’t something that can be explained clearly
with ordinary people’s thinking or language. Nevertheless, I am trying my best
to teach the Fa by using human language, and to allow everyone to understand
it. Last time when I was teaching you the Fa in
I recently published six books. They are last
year’s Fa lectures in
Last time I was in China, a while before coming to
the United States, I told people to bring together those practitioners who are
college professors and scientists in the scientific community in Beijing, along
with some Dafa assistants, so that I could talk to them in detail about the
subject of science. In the end, what I intended to do wasn’t satisfactorily
accomplished, because many other students showed up and raised questions that
didn’t focus on the subject I wanted to discuss. So it became hard to talk
about. I’m not against people wanting to listen to the Fa or see me, but
different regions have different situations. I don’t want to talk much today
since this is a Fa conference after all, and you will be giving papers.
Tomorrow I will answer your questions.
Since you are sitting here, I might as well take
this opportunity to talk to you about a few issues.
Let me first talk about the subject of spreading
the Fa. You have indeed put in a lot of effort, but there’s an issue: You have
found that in the recent period of time there are very few new students. Why is
that the case? Because this entire event was very systematically arranged at
the beginning. However, this arrangement was not acknowledged by me, as it was
arranged by the old forces in the universe under the circumstance that I wasn’t
aware of it and did not agree to it. This can only be discussed briefly in a
summary like this. Since it’s Fa-rectification, what is being rectified? What
are being rectified are all the old things that have deviated from the Fa. The
deviated things from the past have become a force and formed a system, and
these things have been playing a negative role from top to bottom. I want to allow
more people to obtain the Fa as I go about imparting it. Since the old forces
have already divided this event into different stages and they think that the
number of people for this affair has already been reached, they are now
restraining it. Originally I planned to have 200 million people listen to the
Fa, but in the end, the old evil forces have limited the number to 100 million.
That is why you have had some difficulty making progress when spreading the Fa.
But this isn’t to say that people in the future will not obtain the Fa; they
are gradually coming to know and obtain the Fa. You should continue to do
whatever you should do. That said, you still don’t need to drag a person to
obtain the Fa. Cultivation is practiced on a voluntary basis. If a person
doesn’t cultivate, so be it. We shouldn’t change anything simply because of the
old forces’ interference. If you can allow those who aren’t aware of the Fa to
become aware, and those who don’t know about the Fa to know, you have done the
best you can, and that’s enough. What I just said was to tell you that there
exists a factor, and it has caused this situation. But you shouldn’t get the
wrong idea from what I said, as if you have come to understand something new,
and then talk about it out of context while holding on to your own notions and
attachments—that’s no good. Try to be sensible. I was only telling you that it
is this kind of situation.
On the other hand, in the course of carrying out
this undertaking today, I have linked you and the Fa together. Why does your
cultivation progress so rapidly? There are many, many factors behind it; this
is a major reason. While I am teaching this Fa and the entire Fa-rectification
process is taking place, there are living beings at different levels listening
to the Fa; the cultivators in the human world who listen to the Fa at the
lowest level are you, so you are linked to this Dafa. Although you are the ones
who listen to the Fa at the lowest level, you won’t stay at the lowest level
forever. You will achieve Consummation and reach different realms and different
levels—it is fully connected from top to bottom. When this undertaking is over
in the future, the people who come to cultivate at that time will have nothing
to do with today’s Fa-rectification event. They will take up cultivation in the
normal way.
This Dafa of the universe that I teach today is
also the greatest opportunity mankind has been given, since cultivation with
such an immense Fa was certainly unimaginable in the past. You can now obtain
the Fa, you can listen to me teaching you the Fa in person, and moreover, you
are linked to this matter of Fa-rectification—you haven’t yet realized the
significance of this! Sometimes some students fail to be diligent, in which
case they are being irresponsible to themselves! They are human beings after
all, have human thoughts, and can’t realize this, so they can only be as they
are. In fact, all of this is beyond words, and in the future you will know how
fortunate you are! (Applause)
Also, during the course of cultivation you have
all come to know that this environment of ours is very good. At the practice
sites everyone can open his heart and say freely what he wants to. This isn’t
possible anywhere else in human society. That’s why every student can feel that
upon arriving at the practice site he has entered into a pure land and has
stepped into a place that is most sacred. People all care about each other in a
way that “you care for me and I care for you.” This can’t be found in any other
human setting. Why can it be this way? It’s simply that every Dafa disciple is
cultivating himself. Once a problem or a conflict emerges, everyone searches
for his own shortcomings, looking to see whether it was caused by his own
wrongdoing. Everyone knows to do this, but some individuals who aren’t
persistent in studying the Fa still cannot do it. Since I have mentioned this
individual problem, I need to say that—and of course, I have mentioned it to
you on numerous occasions—when running into a conflict, everyone should search
inside themselves. Yet some people still can’t seem to search within when they
encounter a conflict. Some people can become aware of it, while some aren’t
even willing to consider it or even completely forget that they are
cultivators. I would say that’s not doing well enough. Whether it’s between you
and another student, whether it’s at the workplace, or whatever the
circumstance in human society, in those conflicts among students or between a
student and an assistant these persons have not thought about searching for the
reasons within themselves.
I often tell you about situations like this: When
two people have a conflict both should look for the causes within themselves,
asking, “What problem do I have here?” Each should search for his own problem.
If a third person witnesses the conflict between the two, I would say that it’s
not accidental for that third person to see it, and he too should think it
over: “Why did I see their conflict? Is it because I still have some
shortcomings?” Only in this way can it be good. Yet whenever you run into a
conflict, you always push it off to the others and find weaknesses and
shortcomings in others. Your doing that is not right. You could cause the work
for Dafa to suffer a loss and cause Dafa to suffer a loss. You haven’t realized
that you are all using Dafa and Dafa work to excuse your own shortcomings or
hide your own attachments. When you think that another person hasn’t done well,
when you can’t get over it in your mind, you should think about it: “Why is my
mind troubled by this? Does he really have a problem? Or is it that there’s
something wrong deep inside me?” You should think about it carefully. If you
indeed don’t have any problem and what he did is really problematic, you should
tell him with kindness, and that won’t lead to conflicts. It’s guaranteed. If
the other person isn’t able to understand it, that is his own problem. What you
have said is said.
Without conflicts there won’t be improvement. Some
people feel that the setting they’re in is very peaceful, and everyone thinks
his cultivation is going pretty well. In fact, let me tell you that this isn’t
good. What I want to do is precisely to create some conflicts for you, for
having none of these does you no good. That’s because only in the midst of conflicts
can your attachments be exposed and made visible to you and others, and then
they will be eliminated. If there weren’t such conflicts your ordinary person’s
attachments would not be eliminated. So, do pay some attention to this: Under
any circumstance, particularly when you cultivate among ordinary people, it is
inevitable that only through conflicts and through xinxing interference
can you improve your xinxing. Every time I lecture I talk about this
issue. At the time you were sitting there and listening to the Fa, you were all
quite clear about it. But once you stepped out the door, you weren’t as good
and you forgot.
Within the recent period of time, particularly
over the past two years, students’ progress has been tremendous, and their
understanding of the Fa is increasingly more mature. This is excellent. Ever
since Dafa was made public I have been taking you on the most righteous path of
cultivation. Whether it’s in terms of the way of teaching the Fa, the way of
spreading the Fa in society, or what I have taught everyone to do, it has been
going down the most righteous path. And because we are righteous, all those who
aren’t will have an opinion about us, for all those who are not righteous are
exposed in front of Dafa. So they are sure to bring some adverse effects to
Dafa, and make negative comments about Dafa. That’s certain.
But on the other hand, if there weren’t negative
factors and this Dafa was passed along smoothly and peacefully, I’ll tell you:
It would have to be something with the same moral standard as modern man, and
that would be why today’s people wouldn’t have anything bad to say about it. It
is precisely because we are on a very righteous path that all those who aren’t
righteous can be exposed, that the unrighteous things in you can be removed,
and that everything that’s not upright in ordinary people’s society can be
rectified. Those matters in society are not things that you are to go out and
intentionally do, for when bad things are exposed ordinary people will notice
them on their own. Human beings still have goodness in their hearts and still
have their benevolent nature; when people see their shortcomings and mistakes,
they will know what to do on their own, and this will inevitably play the role
of rectifying people’s hearts. In your cultivation you should primarily focus
on how to be diligent, and spend more effort on this, instead of being
concerned with what ordinary people’s society is like or what you should do for
society; you don’t have this duty, nor have I asked you to do that. You are
cultivators, and only the question of how to improve your own xinxing is
fundamental to cultivation.
You know that there are now 100 million people
studying and cultivating in Dafa. The number of people has in itself already
played the role of initiating changes to rectify people’s hearts in
society—that’s inevitable. Yet this isn’t what I intended to do. In particular,
during the process of its spreading, Dafa has its tribulations and there are
the criticisms of ordinary people against Dafa. How should you cope with these
problems? Our students haven’t copied the violent actions that ordinary people
use, nor adopted the method of “if you treat me like this, I’ll do the same to
you” that people use or the ones that are even worse. You haven’t done it that
way; you handle all of it with benevolence. This is also a factor that allows
Dafa to develop in a healthy way. Of course, every ordeal that you encounter
also establishes mighty virtue for you and for Dafa.
As you have seen, so many people will attain
Consummation in the future—they will cultivate to Consummation. Gods in the
heavens will ask: “How did you reach Consummation? How did you cultivate up to
here? With which Fa did you cultivate up to here?” Of course, you know that
small cultivation ways can’t save people, and common methods can’t save a god
beyond the Three Realms. However mighty and high a Fa is, that’s how great of a
god it is who can be established through salvation and how high of a level the
saved person can reach. In the future, when others want to see how you rose up
there, they will find that you are truly worthy of being one who has ascended
through cultivation in Dafa. The mighty virtue established by this Dafa is
itself also extremely important. If one of you is doing well, it is a matter of
your individual cultivation; if people in one region are doing well, it means
that students in that region are doing well; if we are doing very well the
whole world over or in every region where there are Dafa disciples, it’s no longer
a matter of one region or one individual, but of the entire Dafa doing well and
its being on an upright course.
Next I will address another issue. There’s
certainly this type of student in the
As you know, what I’m teaching is the Fa of the
universe, and every cultivation way and every school of teaching is contained
in this universe and is encompassed by this Fa. Living beings at each level are
all created by the Dafa of the universe. Every paradise, every God’s paradise
or Buddha’s paradise, the universe at each level, and the cosmic bodies at each
level are all created by this Dafa. Doesn’t it encompass everything? Many
people in this Dafa are beings who belonged to the worlds of Buddhas; the lives
of many were as Daos; and many were gods of Western people or were living
beings who belonged to their paradises. And there are still more living beings
from many, many different gods’ paradises that neither you nor mankind know
about and who have come here to obtain Dafa. Why can Dafa enable them to
return? The reason I can truly enable them to go back is that what I have
taught is the fundamental Great Fa of the universe, whereas the Fa of any
individual paradise is but the affirmed principles that one has understood and enlightened
to from various levels of the universe. None of them can be compared with Dafa.
Why do I disapprove of you [simultaneously]
cultivating other things and tell you to cultivate in Dafa singly? Because Dafa
has integrated and addresses situations at different levels as well as those of
different beings, and only this way can you go back. Not only does it not
change anything innate that you previously had, but it can also at the same
time guide you back. You know that many of our students have seen that they are
Daos, there are some who have seen that they have the appearance of a Western
god, and there are some who have an image belonging to the Buddha school. They
are all cultivating in Dafa, yet I won’t cause any of their things to be lost
or botched up. Regardless of which cultivation way they cultivated in before, I
am able to guide them all back, and this is the only way. Only with the Fa of
the universe can it be done. This is the biggest difference between Dafa and
any other cultivation way or religion from before.
In fact, no one knows that even though many people
talk about believing in Buddhas or believing in gods, the truth is, if you
aren’t someone from that particular god’s world he won’t save you whatsoever. I
once made a statement that whether it’s Christianity or Catholicism, in their
paradises there are no Eastern people. This is an absolute truth which man
doesn’t understand. Yet Western religions went to the East with the Crusades,
and the way they spread wasn’t good to begin with, since both Jesus and Yahweh
prohibited their disciples from spreading the teachings eastward. It was to
prevent the mixing of human races, but they didn’t understand this. I once said
that Jesus has many venerable images but that you don’t use them. Yet you do
use the image of him being crucified on the cross as the symbol. Doesn’t that
make it seem as if people want to have Jesus crucified on the cross forever??
Humans still think that they’re doing something good. Actually, what people
want to do and what they have done aren’t necessarily good things. Why do gods
still look after people? Because people still believe in gods. People are lost
in delusion, so what do they know?
Dafa is able to have all lives return to the
places where they were created. That is something I can definitely do. In the
actual practice of Fa-rectification, this has been done for high-level
beings, regardless of how high their levels. Out of my many, many disciples,
quite a few have succeeded in cultivation over the past few years; those who
have achieved Consummation or who are approaching Consummation are quite many.
Because the entire matter hasn’t yet come to an end they are being restrained.
They can know everything and see everything, but their supernatural abilities
and divine powers aren’t allowed to be used, for this Earth wouldn’t be able to
bear it. Of course, students have also come to understand these things
gradually through discussion and sharing experiences with each other; many
things are becoming more and more clear. That’s why I am telling you about
these things. What it means is, if you don’t belong to that race or you aren’t
from that god’s paradise, he won’t take you.
Buddha Shakyamuni said that the number of
Tathagatas is as many as the grains of sand in the
Next, I’ll address one other subject for you,
something students can’t explain clearly in cultivation, namely, the “heavens”
(tian). According to contemporary science, spaceships have traveled to
outer space and flown to many other planets, but they haven’t seen any human
beings or paradises of gods, nor were there the scenes of different heavens
within the Three Realms that people have talked about. So modern people use
this logic to reject religion, deny legends from the past, and negate the most
essential nature of human beings. Actually, the “heavens” that gods refer to
isn’t at all the same concept as the heavens human beings see. I often say that
molecules compose everything in this material dimension of human beings, while
microcosmic matter is the reason for the composition of molecules, and layers
of even more-microcosmic matter are the fundamental reasons for the composition
of layers of particles at different levels. Gods are in extremely microcosmic
worlds, which are nonetheless extremely vast worlds, broad spaces. The
microcosmic worlds and the dimensions formed in the microcosm that I have told
you about in each lecture are where gods reside. Think about it: Gods… I
mentioned the other day that things in the human dimension, such as air,
matter, soil, rocks, iron and steel—everything in this dimension, including
your body—are composed of molecules. Yet molecules are the coarsest, most
superficial, and filthiest matter in the universe. These molecules—actually, in
the eyes of gods, all molecules—are seen as dirt and considered mud in the
universe, and this is the understanding merely at the level of Tathagata.
That’s why what was said in the past about Yahweh and
Energy exists in all matter, including molecules.
It is only because the human body and everything around you is composed of
molecules—even the machines you use to measure that energy are also composed of
molecules—that you can’t detect the energy of molecules. The more microcosmic the
matter is, the more energy it has and the stronger its radioactive power is—the
more microcosmic, the more powerful. That is why gods’ energy and forms of
existence are like that. So let me word it a bit more clearly for you: People
on Earth see that the Moon, the Sun, Venus, Mars, as well as the Milky Way,
outer space, the remote cosmic bodies, and so on, are all in the heavens. But
if you look at Earth from Mars, wouldn’t you say that it too is in the heavens?
It’s in the heavens as well. This is an understanding that breaks through
ordinary people’s ways of thinking.
But, understood at a deeper level—think about
it—what are the heavens? Once you enter a microcosmic dimension, that is
the heavens. Let me give the simplest example and tell you a story. In the
past, there was a cultivator of the Dao walking on the street while drinking.
He suddenly saw someone. This person was just who he had been looking
for—someone who could cultivate the Dao. So he wanted to save this person and
take him as his disciple. He asked this person, “Do you want to follow me to
cultivate the Dao?” This person’s enlightenment quality and inborn quality were
very good, and he said, “I do.” “Do you dare to follow me?” the cultivator
asked. The person replied, “Yes, I do!” “Do you dare to follow me wherever I
go?” he then asked. “Yes,” was the reply. The cultivator then said, “Okay. Now
follow me!” Saying that, he put his palm-sized wine gourd on the ground, opened
the lid, and jumped into the gourd. The person saw that his master had jumped
in, so he imitated his master and likewise jumped into the gourd. The
bystanders all leaned over and looked inside the gourd. “Wow!” they exclaimed.
There was a vast world inside the gourd, really vast. Viewed with human
thinking, how could it be possible for a person so big to jump into such a
small wine gourd? That’s because when you want to enter that dimension,
everything of your body has to conform to the state of that dimension before
you can enter. When you travel through the gaps between different dimensions,
your body inevitably enters those states of being. This is because the more
microcosmic particles of matter are, the more vast and broad the planes are at
their levels. At the levels of microcosmic particles, the way the gourd manifests
is different from the form that human beings see; all particles are connected.
What appears to be large or small to human beings is only a form of
manifestation in the space-time formed by the same particles. That is to say,
the surface of the gourd is formed by molecules, and that’s the shape you see,
but the gourd in the microcosm isn’t like this. It is connected to the universe
at that realm. Do you understand what I said? (Applause) I’m just
discussing that kind of idea. This is something that man cannot understand and
that can’t be understood by human conceptions.
So, having mentioned a person going up to the
heavens, I can say that if you suddenly enter a stone, isn’t that going up to
the heavens? It won’t do if you enter the surface formed by the stone
substance. You enter the realms of the microcosmic particles that form its
molecular particles—aren’t you going to the heavens? Aren’t you in the heavens
if you shrink into the microcosmic levels of your body? When you enter the
microcosmic particles of the surface particles of dimensions at any level—in
other words, enter the layer of particles smaller than that one—you are already
in the heavens. It’s just that the levels of heavens are different, and the
microcosmic degree is different. After you enter the microcosm, although you
see that you enter the stone, enter your body, or enter a certain thing, you
have actually entered the broad universe connected to that dimension. In other
words, this isn’t the human way of thinking. I often say that what people refer
to as east, west, south, or north, up, down, in, or out, doesn’t exist in the
universe, and it’s different from human thinking and concepts. After I explain
it like this you will understand, “Oh, it’s not at all like it is when you use
human thinking to contemplate it.” The present-day science is very shallow. It
can’t detect or know the real heavens because it crawls within only the current
material dimension, and this has limited it. And the science imposed upon man
by aliens is thus confined to this. Aliens are living beings in this dimension
as well, and they are similarly incapable of knowing the truth of the universe.
Man does not believe in gods, and this is no
simple problem. It is man destroying human morality. When man believes in karmic
retribution, believes that doing good deeds is rewarded and doing bad deeds
meets with retribution, and that whatever man does is watched by gods, man then
won’t dare to do evil things. Man knows that doing good deeds will accumulate
virtue (de) and be rewarded with happiness, which is absolutely true.
But man no longer believes these things; science nowadays doesn’t believe in
them, and it considers them superstition. This is exactly swinging the club of
science to strike at people’s righteous thinking. Isn’t this striking at the
most essential nature of human beings? When people’s morality, upright beliefs,
and righteous thinking are destroyed to the point of nonexistence, people will
recklessly do whatever they want to and will resort to any means to achieve
their goals. This is one of the fundamental reasons for the deterioration of
human society. People in Western society appear to believe in God, but they
don’t really believe in God: What they truly believe in is science. Gods are
not like what they have imagined, that is, beings with human emotions. Just now
I corrected a key concept for you, namely, how “heavens” are to be understood.
What gods and human beings mean when they each speak of “heavens” are two
different things.
During the course of cultivation, many people
sometimes see that they seem to have entered their own bodies. Their bodies are
like a vast sky, they move in the sky and walk among the cosmic bodies,
and doors are opened one after another as they dash forward. When they take a
closer look or expand their minds one step further to take a look, they
realize, “Oh, it’s the energy channels in my body being opened.” Let’s think
about it. When you are cultivating, your bodies are being changed from the
utmost microcosm on up. So what is the utmost microcosm? Aren’t your other
bodies precisely in the heavens and in those realms? It is only that you the
person have fallen into the midst of ordinary people, and along with that, you
have fallen to where ordinary people are; even the part that’s the most
microcosmic has dropped to the level of ordinary people. However, if you can
return through cultivation, everything will be rectified for you, so you will
go through that experience. Many cultivators in history have seen those
phenomena [that I just described], but they weren’t able to describe it.
Sometimes those in the Buddhist religion say that Buddha is in one’s mind,
while people in the Dao school say that the human body is a small universe, and
so on, and this has to do with their having seen such things.
When I was talking about science I said that science
is not playing a good role. Not only does it pollute mankind’s environment and destroy the tissues of the
human body, but also aliens will eventually replace human beings. Its things
have penetrated every field in human society, mankind can’t break away from
science, and everything is now created by science. Since this is the case, as
Dafa disciples, no matter what your professions are, you should just go ahead
and do your work, and do your work well—that will be good enough. As for
everything that is happening, don’t concern yourself with it. I’m not telling
you to oppose this science, nor am I teaching you to break free from it. That’s
not what I mean. I am telling you what science is. Science’s understanding of
many things is terribly shallow; even its understanding of matter in this
existing dimension is inadequate. Its inability to recognize the existence of
divine beings has limited its development. For instance, scientists nowadays are
saying that mankind’s industrial pollution is quite severe, and one of the
examples is that freon and other substances used in coolants are said to cause
damage to the ozone layer. They say that damage to the ozone layer has occurred
at the South Pole, where a hole has appeared. The fact is, science is incapable
of realizing the role played by gods, so people say that the hole was caused by
damage to the ozone layer. It is true that the pollution brought on by modern
industry has polluted mankind’s air to an extremely terrible extent.
Yet the countless lives in the microcosms of the
immense universe are, whether they have form or not, all gods, and they exist
in microcosms that human beings can’t see. Air is composed of molecular
particles, while molecular particles are composed of more-microcosmic
particles. In the air itself there are countless layers—layer after layer,
progressing toward the microcosm—and all [that exist there] are gods. When they
saw that man’s environment had become like this, they opened up a window,
opened a door, to expel the waste gases from Earth. This was done by gods. They
opened it on purpose and then closed it. If gods didn’t protect human beings,
humans would not survive. Man not only doesn’t believe in gods, but also even dares
to disrespect gods. Let’s use the simplest example. You know that the places
where industrial pollution is most severe are the most populated places—big
cities. Why didn’t a hole develop in the ozone layer above those places? That’s
because gods think that opening a hole in the South Pole area is safe for man.
It should be that wherever there are more waste gases there is a hole in the
ozone layer, right, so why isn’t it that way? It is nothing like what people
have imagined. There is also a large hole above the Qinzhang Plateau in
Mankind’s pollution has caused even more serious
problems. You know that almost no fresh water in the world is pure. Whether it
be underground water or above-ground water, no matter how people filter or
purify water, water’s real purity cannot be reached. Moreover, people reuse
water repeatedly and water becomes more and more polluted because human water
circulates—fresh water is a circulating substance. Fresh water doesn’t mix with
seawater since they aren’t the same substance. Life exists in any matter and in
any object. You see that on the surface it is water, but over on the other side
it is imbued with life. When soil, water, air and the like are polluted more
and more, the harm to mankind also becomes greater and greater. The development
of today’s human society is a repeat of the development of the last human
society; the last cycle was a trial run for this cycle. If development
continues along this path, human beings will become deformed. Industrial waste
gases and wastewater will cause human beings to become deformed and look
hideous, looking half demon, half human. That’s how it will be if it develops
further. What’s more, there is also people’s wicked behavior that results from
the factors of moral deterioration.
At this point I would like to take the opportunity
to talk about another issue. As you know, modern science was brought to mankind
by aliens. They came when the Industrial Revolution began in the West. They
started with mathematics and chemistry—started from the shallow, simple
knowledge of the earliest days—and penetrated on through to modern machinery,
and eventually they developed up to today’s computers. As development continues
further their ultimate goal will be to replace human beings. How is the
replacement to take place? As I mentioned, in the body of today’s human beings
almost everyone has a layer of the body that was created by aliens. Why do I
say that? It’s because all of the science that they instilled in you has
created a warped human mindset in your mind. There have never been humans like
this in any of mankind’s previous civilizations. When the mind is like that, so
is the body. As you know, every cell in your body is you, and your brain is
connected to the brain in every cell. In that case, the thought processes
inside the countless cells in your body are all the thoughts of warped human
beings, and the entire body has become like that. This ties into why gods no
longer regard man as human. When mankind is no longer human, what is the point
of gods’ saving it?
You know that when a person dies, he doesn’t
really die. The shell of the layer of the largest molecular particles sloughs
off, whereas the part of the body composed of microcosmic particles below
molecules hasn’t died. It is separated, as if a person takes off a piece of
clothing. It isn’t really dead. Yet the person in this dimension has vanished,
since the body needs to be cremated or buried and it will eventually decompose
and dissolve. It has departed from this dimension; that is, this layer of
particles has disappeared. Then, as to the alien culture that I was just
talking about, it is precisely using man’s own thinking to create the bodily
layer that it needs, and it is doing so without man being aware of it. How will
they ultimately replace human beings, then? You know that they still have to
find a way to replace the shell of the outermost surface of human beings. This
is the method of “cloning” that man now wants to use. Gods look after people,
and when they don’t look after someone, they won’t instill the elements of life
into that person.
This is to say, the reason you are alive in this
world is not that you have this flesh body, nor is it because your mother gave
you this body that you are alive. It is because you have your main spirit (yuanshen)
and the existence of all of your other spirits (shen) that you can live.
Why doesn’t a person keep living after he dies and the body is laid down there,
since it’s the same body after all? It’s because all of his main spirits have
left. That is, if a person isn’t given a spirit and isn’t allowed to
reincarnate at the time of birth, he will still be dead after he is born. So
what will happen? Aliens will enter. This is the ultimate means that aliens
will use to replace man—that is, cloning humans. Man is being used by aliens to
destroy himself, yet he is not aware of it and is still protecting this
science, destroying the human race. If humans are cloned en masse in the
future, those beings will all be aliens that have reincarnated in human bodies,
and there will be no more human race. Of course, the fact that I can address
this today means that all of these problems are being dealt with. Many have
even been resolved already. I disclosed this today to tell you of some
realities related to mankind’s recent development.
The formation of Earth is also unlike what we
human beings have imagined, with the theory of a “Big Bang” forming the planet.
It’s nothing like that. How was it formed? The present-day science’s
understanding of the foundation of matter, the foundation of life, and the
universe are completely wrong. Gods created this Earth. How was it created? As
you know, Earth has been remade many times. The subject of catastrophes has
been discussed in every religion. If this Earth itself is to have a
catastrophe—when mankind has deteriorated it will be destroyed, and it will be
destroyed on this Earth—it is a major calamity. There are even greater
calamities that happen, where the entire Earth is discarded. Since in the
process of transmigration a person carries karma with him, the more wrongdoing
a person does, the more karma he has. When he reincarnates into a plant the
plant will be covered with karma. Human eyes can’t see this, since karma exists
in a dimension lower than the layer of the largest molecules. Man reincarnates
into plants, objects, animals, or he may even reincarnate into soil or stones
when transmigrating, so karma is everywhere. What is Earth, then? It looks like
a planet of karma. That’s the meaning behind the idea of the “rotten apple”
that I have mentioned. It has become something so rotten—“What’s the point of
keeping it in the sacred and pure universe? Get rid of it!” Then it might well
be discarded.
When it’s said that Buddhas are compassionate
toward human beings, the reference is to the Buddhas who are close to Earth, as
they believe in compassion. Gods at extremely high levels say, “What’s
compassion?” They find that even compassion is an attachment. Are they
compassionate? They too are compassionate. But the realms and concepts of their
compassion are different. It’s just like what I said: The thinking is
different. They are compassionate toward the sentient beings who are closest to
them, and they consider gods at very low levels to be the same as ordinary
people. As for human beings, what do they account for? They are even lower than
microorganisms and bacteria. When a person kills bacteria while walking, who
would consider that killing, right? Those who turn bad—like excrement or a
piece of manure—should be disposed of. So where is there a concept of being
compassionate or not being compassionate in this? There is none. Man thinks
that he’s remarkable, while in the eyes of higher gods he is nothing. In this
vast universe there are tremendous differences amongst living beings in
different realms with respect to their forms of existence and understandings.
When I tell you about realms that are so immense and so high—and if you recall,
such a major level of the universe is only a speck of dust in the immense
cosmic body—what could Earth amount to? What could human beings amount to,
right? It is only human beings themselves who think that they are remarkable
and great. This Earth has been replaced many times, that’s the situation.
In the history of the immense universe this Earth
has been replaced many times. But how was it replaced? Since the outermost
surface layer of Earth is made up of substances of this level—it is composed of
matter made up of molecules of this dimension—Earth has to be created with
substances from this dimension. Different cosmic bodies of this dimension in
the universe all experience renewal and the state of regenerating the new to
replace the old. The immense gods in the universe collected and categorized the
dust or debris from the disintegration of certain cosmic bodies and then made a
new Earth. That is why when today’s scientists study history and geology and
make claims about how long it has been since a certain material was created on
Earth or how long a history Earth has, their approach will never arrive at the
truth. The reason being, some substances were huge rocks or huge cosmic objects
even before Earth was formed. They were brought over here, and they existed
before Earth was created. It is thus impossible for you to figure out through
studies how long the history of Earth is. A lot of things may sound like myths
when they are mentioned. I am lecturing on the Fa to my cultivators, and you
can accept it, as the Fa is not taught to ordinary people or ordinary society.
When I talked about water I mentioned oceans.
Actually, what are oceans? Seawater and water are absolutely not the same
thing. Only fresh water is actually water, whereas seawater is called “water”
by human beings when it’s in fact another kind of substance. Water is the
element that creates life. As you know, in the universe Earth is like a speck
of dust when viewed from a very minor level. A god is so immense, and the
volume of his body is quite large. If he were to shed a tear the Earth would be
submerged. As a matter of fact, seawater is the drop of a god’s tear. What I
said might sound like a fairy tale. You can go ahead and test it to see if the
composition of seawater is the same as human tears. They are exactly the same.
If your tears could be magnified to the same volume as that of seawater and you
were to take a look, what living creatures would you see in it? Maybe there
would be a whale in there, too. It sounds like I’m joking when in fact it’s
true. I can explain the origin of all substances on the earth as well as the
origin of mankind. Because they are not related to your cultivation I don’t
want to talk about them. In fact, everything on Earth has its origin.
Do you know what the yellow soil covering the
surface of Earth is? It is actually the feces of beings at the level higher
than the human dimension. That is why gods said in the past that humans are in
a filthy world—that’s the meaning. Because the substances from high-level
beings are clean and pure, their feces seem clean to human beings. Only things
lower than mankind feel filthy to human beings, so when it’s something higher
than mankind, people find it clean. But there aren’t any nutrients in things
higher than the human dimension, since if it’s not filthy there aren’t going to
be any nutrients. So it’s very hard to grow anything in yellow soil. Black soil
came about from having decomposed plants mixed in, which then allowed things to
grow. Rotten plants turned the color of yellow soil into black, which then
contains nutrients and things of an organic nature, and mankind uses it to grow
crops. Things higher than human beings don’t provide nutrients for plants.
Actually, many types of rocks are the same as
soil. Generally speaking, it’s stone if it was pressed very tightly during the
formation of Earth, and it’s soil if it was loose. But it isn’t entirely like
this. Red soil and red rock are actually the blood of enormous beings. Many
people present here are in the fields of physics and chemistry. If you don’t
believe me you can test it and study it. The elements it contains are
guaranteed to be the same as those in blood, except that it’s blood that has
been solidified for a long time. Red soil contains a large amount of iron, and
human blood is the same. So I would like to tell you that in the universe, red
blood is usually the blood of upright living beings. Demons’ blood is white, so
limestone is actually the blood of demons. Of course, it’s a dead and inert
substance; it doesn’t have any effect in this dimension. After being exploded
or destroyed, it is turned into rocks, sand, soil, and the like, so they don’t
retain demon nature. That’s why it doesn’t matter if people use it to paint
walls or make dyes.
Scientists now know that coal is generated from
huge amounts of plants. That’s what today’s science is capable of knowing. But
how could there be so many plants that turned into so much coal? This is
something they don’t know. Scientists now know that petroleum is formed from
the remains of living creatures’ bodies—this they know. But how could there be
so many remains that turned into so much oil? This they don’t know, and they
can’t figure it out no matter how hard they try. So there are some people who
want to disprove this theory by questioning how there could be so many remains
of animals and how there could be so many organisms. There’s simply so much
petroleum, after all. In fact, in the enormous universe and throughout its long
history, life goes on cycle after cycle. And when this Earth was constructed,
these types of things from the universe were built into the new Earth on
purpose—to be used as energy later on. That is why there can be so much of it.
It doesn’t belong to the living beings of just one cycle. Even lives on Earth
go on cycle after cycle and aren’t from the same period. Contemporary
scientific research can’t go beyond the history known at present, and many of
the understandings that science holds about modern history are wrong. It
believes that there couldn’t have been that much petroleum even if man from the
Stone Age on up to the present had killed every animal! What’s more, there is
so much coal and there are so many plants. They aren’t from one cycle though,
they aren’t from the lives of one period. Of course, there are many other
things, too many to address them all.
There are also things such as diamond, gold,
silver, and the like. Some metallic elements are the factors required for the
formation of the universe at various levels. They are different from the
compositional elements of Earth that I mentioned. But gold and silver aren’t
metallic elements from this universe. As for gold, you know that a Buddha’s
body is made of gold; the bodies of all gods who have reached the realm of
Tathagata are gold. In other words, gold is the remains of the bodies of
enormous upright beings. When a vast universe is disintegrated, everything is
smashed in an instant. I have also talked about how there is gold of different
levels and gold of different-sized particles—I talked about this subject
before. As for silver, it is the bodily remains of lives that are lower than
the level of Buddha, lives at the level of Bodhisattva.
Many people know that diamond has a certain power,
and that evil things are afraid of diamond. That is, negative things with small
amounts of energy are afraid of diamond because diamond can absorb their
energy. That’s why some people say that diamonds can dispel evil spirits. It’s
not necessarily that diamonds can dispel evil spirits, but diamond is from
shattered and exploded energy, something similar to gong. Of course, it
is dead and inert and doesn’t have any effect. But it’s something of that
nature after all, and so it has power.
Now don’t develop any attachments over what I just
talked about and go buy diamonds after returning home. What I talk about is the
Fa. Nothing from this dimension can be taken along, and also, those are of no
use to cultivators. Why were they destroyed by explosions? As I said before,
although it was gold, it wasn’t pure gold anymore, so it was destroyed in an explosion.
Why was gong exploded? It was no longer pure. On the surface it looked
very pure. But if it were observed from the microcosm or the extreme microcosm,
it would no longer be pure. I won’t talk more today. Let’s listen to our
students’ speeches.
Tomorrow you can pass up question slips and I will
answer your questions. But new students, it’s better that you don’t submit them
because time is precious and I won’t be able to respond if every one of you
submits a question. Many in the audience are people who have already entered
certain levels in cultivation, so the questions they raise are crucial to their
improvement in cultivation, and that’s the purpose of our Fa conference. With
the kinds of questions that new students raise, you don’t have to ask me about
those—you can get the answers from veteran students or from the person next to
you. So let’s not take up time. That’s one thing. Another is, try not to raise
questions that aren’t related to cultivation or questions that seek knowledge
and the like. Don’t misunderstand what I explained to you: It wasn’t [said
because it was] meant to enrich your knowledge, but because it relates to your
cultivation. Okay, that’s all I want to say. (Applause) Let’s sit
quietly and listen to our students’ speeches. I won’t leave and will listen
too. But don’t try to find me—you won’t be able to. (Applause)
Hello everyone! At the beginning of the conference
yesterday, I met with you all and talked about a few issues. I said that this
conference is mainly an experience-sharing conference for the Western United
States region and wasn’t intended to be a large-scale conference for the entire
Question: Master said that if deep inside a cultivator
still stubbornly holds on to his most fundamental interests, his cultivation is
not genuine.
Teacher: Let me tell you that cultivation is precisely about
cultivating one’s mind—that’s true cultivation. For instance, nowadays there
are laws, and there are some requirements and restrictions imposed on people,
but none of them can change people. Let’s say they can change and restrain you
on the surface, and on the surface you don’t make mistakes and do things a little
better. But the fact is, when you aren’t being watched or when your interests
are threatened, you do bad things just the same, because you haven’t changed
inside. So in other words, cultivation must genuinely change a person inside.
If you want to reach high realms, if you want to reach the realm of a god, you
must reach a god’s realm of mind. If only your surface is changed while your
nature remains the same, it’s not genuine. At a certain time or at a critical
moment, [the attachment] will still show up. So if a person’s mind isn’t
changed, that is just covering things up with a false appearance. Changes must
occur starting with your nature. Only that counts as genuinely changing
yourself. In other words, you have to be responsible to yourself in cultivation,
and you have to genuinely change yourself and let go of the bad things that you
are attached to deep inside—only that is true letting go. If you seem to do
everything right on the surface but deep inside you still guard and hold on to
the things that you don’t want to let go of, that’s absolutely unacceptable. As
you know, a Buddha or a God can give up his life for living beings and for the
interest of the universe; they can give up anything, and even remain unmoved by
it. So if you were taken up to their position, could you be like that? You
couldn’t. Of course, I would say that Buddhas and Daos won’t really encounter
things like that, but that is their realm of mind. A person must truly change
himself before that realm can be reached.
In the past, many people involved in religion said
that as long as you have religious faith you can go to heaven, go to a heavenly
kingdom, and that as long as you have faith you can become a Buddha. I would
say that’s deceiving people. What does it mean to become a Buddha? What does it
mean to go to a heavenly kingdom? There are different requirements for beings
at each level. It’s just like your going to school: When you’re in the first
grade, you have to reach the level of the first grade; when you’re in the
second grade, you have to reach the level of the second grade; when you get to
high school, you have to reach the high school level. If you keep using
elementary school textbooks and go to college while remaining at the level of
the first grade, you are still an elementary school pupil, and so you can’t to
go to college. That’s the idea. This is to discuss it at a superficial level.
What we teach is that you have to truly reach the standard deep inside before
you can go to a heavenly kingdom and reach Consummation. Some people believe in
what is taught in religions and are very pious when they pray, saying “I did
something wrong…” Nevertheless, they make the same mistakes once they step out
the door, in which case their prayers are useless, for their hearts haven’t truly
changed. They think, “As long as I believe and pray, I can go to heaven.” If
you always pray and always remain at the same level, you will never go to
heaven. What Jesus said, “If you believe in me, you can go to heaven,” didn’t
mean that if you go pray to him and believe in him—merely following a
formality—you will be able to ascend to heaven. That’s not how it works. Only
when you stop making the same mistakes after each time you pray, do better and
better, and get closer and closer to the requirements of Jesus’ kingdom, will
you be able to reach the standard of that heavenly kingdom. That is true
belief. Was this not the case, why would Jesus bother to say so much? Wasn’t
his purpose to ask you to do as he said and conduct yourselves better? That is
what I mean. In today’s religions, including Buddhism, people don’t cultivate
their minds and have fallen into formalities, it’s feigned. That’s all I will
say about this.
Question:
After one’s main spirit leaves the body and doesn’t return, how long is it
before this causes the flesh body to die?
Teacher: How long after one’s main spirit leaves the body and
doesn’t return—there’s no set timeframe. Let’s put it this way. You might think
in your mind, “I really don’t want to go back,” and then as soon as that
thought comes up, your flesh body might be dead, since you don’t want to
return. But there aren’t things like this in Dafa, unless it’s those who
cultivate in Dafa while practicing other things and who fail to be
single-minded and can’t genuinely practice “no second cultivation way.” That’s
when people run into this kind of danger. With people who don’t genuinely
cultivate themselves and who straddle two boats at once, in this case it’s hard
to say what kind of problems they will encounter.
Question:
The first time I read about Buddha Shakyamuni in the “Lecture in
Teacher: This is due to a predestined relationship. I would
like to talk about an issue. Through studying Dafa, many people have understood
at a profound level that none of the world’s religions can save people now. One
reason is that the standards are no longer good, and the other is that gods no
longer look after man. There are various reasons why gods don’t look after man.
One is that the thinking of today’s human beings is that of warped humans,
brought about by aliens, and never in history has there existed this kind of
human—one like today’s. History repeats itself, and there have existed human
beings of different time periods multiple times. But the human beings in each
period have never been like today’s. Jesus, Buddha, and Gods did say that when
mankind meets with disaster they would come and receive man, and that they
would return to save people. But when people are no longer human, as they see
it, they will no longer come to receive them. Those who they receive are the
ones who still qualify as human. Of course, this is discussing it in general
terms; there are still many, many facets as to why warped human beings have
come about. That is why gods don’t consider people human. This is most
dangerous.
Let’s not comment on those religious figures who
are politicians or angling for money. I’m talking about those in religions who
still have the heart for cultivation; there are some people who care much about
the affairs of cultivation. They know about our Dafa, or under certain
conditions they have other gods giving them hints and telling them that only
Falun Dafa can save them and allow them to return. Many people have received
this kind of message and understood the situation, and so they too have come to
study Dafa. Yet they obstinately cling to the innate things they originally
had. Their purpose is to preserve what they originally had and use my Dafa to
return. I would say that’s absolutely impossible, and that they are only
fooling themselves. If you don’t let go of what you originally had you won’t be
saved whatsoever, and you can cheat only yourself.
You know that time in the human dimension is very
slow when seen from other dimensions—seen from within a particular time, that
is. The process of thinking about anything in your mind is a very slow one when
seen from other dimensions. Whatever you are going to think about is known
before you even start to think; whatever you are going to do can be seen very
clearly. People believe that others don’t know what they are thinking in their
minds. That might fool ordinary people, but not gods. What this means, then, is
that if you don’t have pure thoughts that are responsible to yourself when you
are faced with a matter as serious as this [of cultivation and salvation], you
won’t be saved and won’t be able to return. In my Dafa there are many people
who were disciples of Shakyamuni, and there are those who were disciples of
other Buddhas and other religions. Another thing is, those of you sitting in
the audience, even though you appear to be Caucasian, Asian, or another
ethnicity, you aren’t necessarily of that ethnicity. In other words, it is hard
to say which heavenly paradise you came from. When you reincarnate as a
particular race, that race might not be in your original image; it can’t be
judged from appearance. What’s more, a person might have reincarnated in all of
the races over the course of his transmigrations. Nevertheless, I can allow you
to successfully return to the original place where you really belong.
I’m not saving all of you to the Falun Paradise.
The reason is, I teach the Fa of the universe on the basis of Buddha Fa and
have discussed such an immense Fa. The cultivation form of any cultivation way
or practice in the universe that is left on Earth was passed down by gods in
heavens at different levels (I’m referring to the true cultivation methods left
to human beings by gods). Those gods who offer salvation at different levels
are also living beings of different levels in the universe and, as I see it,
are sentient beings of the universe at different levels. This Dafa of the
universe has created for sentient beings at different levels living
environments as well as standards of existence for their realms. It is such an
immense Fa—all lives are encompassed. That is why I can solve your problems and
save you such that you return by using this Dafa. It can be done no matter
which discipline you [originally] belonged to. No religion, cultivation way, or
cultivation form in history could do this. That’s because they cultivated only
what they had in their disciplines, and couldn’t involve things from other
disciplines, since that was the layer of things they had affirmed and
enlightened to from the Great Fa of the universe. But what I am imparting today
is the Great Fa of the universe, which is different from the cultivation
methods known to human beings before. However, if you are disrespectful to Dafa
and you still firmly hold on to something, then it is a serious issue.
Question:
Are levels of the universe and levels of cultivation the same?
Teacher: I just explained that Dafa has created different
living environments for beings at different levels in the universe. In other
words, Dafa has different requirements and standards for them in different
living environments. In cultivation, therefore, if you want to reach different
levels, you must meet Dafa’s requirements at different levels. In that case,
the advancement in cultivation, the ascending in realms, and the continual
transcendence are matters of breaking through levels, which is also breaking
through levels of the universe. You reach the standard of the first layer of
the heavens today in your cultivation, and a few days later you reach the
standard of the second layer of the heavens—that’s what it means to break
through levels in the universe, to break through levels in cultivation. When
you continue your cultivation further, breaking through the Three Realms and
going beyond the Three Realms, you will no longer be subject to transmigration.
When you go further in cultivation, you will cross into the boundaries of even
larger cosmic bodies. The higher you move up, the higher the standards for
cultivation levels are, and perhaps the more the states that will manifest.
Question:
Everything from the past no longer exists. Will this still exist in sentient
beings’ memories, or has it already left a deeply profound lesson?
Teacher: The question you have raised is quite far-reaching.
Some things will be known, some won’t be. Why do I impart the Dafa of the
universe? It is because living beings at all levels of the universe have
deviated from the Dafa that Fa-rectification has to be done. So the universe
will return to its best state. You all know that many prophets predicted that
there would be major catastrophes in a certain year. People only knew there
would be catastrophes. Why would they happen? Because mankind has deteriorated
to this extent. As you know, in society there are crime rings, homosexuality,
drug abuse, sexual freedom, and promiscuous sex. Everything is in disarray.
Those involved in these things are not behaving like a human should, while
those who aren’t involved have still been polluted such that they are
indifferent and apathetic, so that they are not behaving like humans either.
Everyone is submerged in this big dye vat, and unconsciously your notions are
going along with and conforming to all of this, drifting further and further
away from what is human. The occurrence of human deterioration is thus not
accidental. Why didn’t gods do something about this? Why did they allow things
to deteriorate to such a point? It has to do with living beings at different
levels all having deviated from the fundamental Fa of the universe. If one
level deviates, other levels can see its deviation; if one being becomes bad,
he can be cast down or drop down. But if the entire universe has deviated over
a long period of time, then the living beings within it won’t notice its
deterioration. It’s just the same as mankind’s not knowing that today’s human
beings have deteriorated to this degree. Only people who cultivate in Dafa will
know, upon looking back from certain levels, that it is really dreadful.
Mankind has reached this point today.
Everything is to be returned to its original and
best state so as to prevent disaster from befalling the universe; in other
words, it’s to prevent disasters from hitting mankind. Changes are already
taking place now. Many people in the human world have become good. There are
100 million people cultivating in Dafa, and each is conducting himself in such
a way that he requires himself to be a good person, a better person. Then, as
more and more people in this world are conducting themselves this way—as people
are aspiring to goodness and morality is rising—then will those catastrophes
take place? Absolutely not! No phenomena are just “natural,” as everything has
its arrangement. What is called “by chance” doesn’t exist. It is merely that
human beings don’t believe in gods. They term what they don’t know “natural
phenomena” and explain away whatever they can’t explain as being “natural.”
There are no natural occurrences at all, though—gods are in charge of each and
every level. But when the standard for living beings at each level has
deviated, it is just like a person shooting a gun: If his aim is a bit off, it
will be hard to know where the bullet is headed. That is to say, when the top deviates
a little, the Fa will deviate so terribly when it gets to lower levels. When
manifest at the human level, it is the degree of deterioration found in today’s
mankind. So it needs to be restored to its original state.
While this undertaking is being carried out, some
people might come from different levels. When they return, they will discover
that the environment of their original living space is not what it was before.
You will know that it’s roughly the same as the original form and that it’s still
the original world, but it will have become so wonderful that it is even more
wonderful than when you were born. Many beings were born after sentient beings
had deviated from the Fa during the long passage of time, so they don’t know
what the beginning of the universe was like.
As for leaving “profound lessons,” there are no
lessons for enlightened beings who have reached Consummation. Once you have
cultivated up to high realms everything will be wonderful. And you will know
what once happened in the universe, that’s all. What will happen to human
beings in the future? Many people are cultivating, and the objective of
cultivation is to reach Consummation. Suppose many of our disciples complete
their cultivation. Those who would remain would be bad people and those who
hadn’t obtained the Fa. What should be done, then, when those people keep
deteriorating? They definitely wouldn’t be allowed to deteriorate further like
that! It’s absolutely prohibited that there be a piece of excrement placed in
the universe that sentient beings and high-level lives have to smell, so it has
to be dealt with. Of course, I’m not talking about catastrophes. The
catastrophes that people have spoken of no longer exist. I can tell you this:
The type of catastrophe in such-and-such year that people talked about no
longer exists. Many prophets knew that if a certain thing took place in a
certain year, their prophecies would no longer be valid. The reason for this is
that Dafa is being spread today and so many people’s hearts aspire to goodness.
If the problem were to occur, what would become of these good people? That’s
the issue. But those who will remain and enter the next epoch will remember the
deeply profound lesson learned at the very last moment.
Question:
Many of us are in scientific fields. How should we view this situation?
Teacher: Many people who are learning Dafa are established
intellectuals; in other words, many people were brought up on science.
Nowadays, actually, as long as you have attended school—which is everyone—you
are someone who was brought up on science. This science has penetrated all
facets of human society, so everything you use, everything you come into
contact with, and everything you see was born of this science. Therefore, you
can’t break away from it, and so the issue you just raised doesn’t exist. Since
human society has become like this, it’s enough if you just go ahead and do
your work well. As for cultivation, that’s a different matter from work. But
the realm you achieve in cultivation and the state of your cultivation will be
reflected in your work; you will do very well and will always be a good person
wherever you are. There are many people who do work in scientific fields. After
learning Dafa, they find that only this is the real truth, and what’s more,
that mankind’s present science can in no way be compared to Dafa. Dafa
disciples in the audience, the situation and the truth of the universe that you
know have far exceeded mankind’s science today; even its most advanced parts
have fallen behind you. Ordinary people are forever prohibited from knowing
things higher than human beings; they could never discover the state of the
universe that I have disclosed to you. No matter what professions you are
engaged in, you can all cultivate in Dafa. As your understanding of the Fa
gradually becomes deeper and deeper your thinking will naturally change, for a
person will believe the truth when it is before him. But there’s one thing that
has to be explained clearly: No one is allowed to achieve Consummation while
holding on to ordinary people’s attachments, and this includes the attachment
to science. You are allowed to begin cultivation with various human
attachments, but they have to be eliminated during cultivation.
Question: Is the personality of an ordinary person a
manifestation of only this life? How much of it is related to the realm where
his life was created by the Fa?
Teacher: If a person’s life came from a high level, then he
will carry with him his strong characteristics from that high level. This is
difficult for ordinary people to detect. Most of what you do, how you behave,
and how you act are all of ordinary people and are manifestations of this
life—your behavior patterns, attitudes, and ways of thinking resulting from
your perception of life, matter, and the objective world in this life. What is
from your original nature can faintly emerge, but only when you are in a very
kind (shan) state of mind. When you are strongly attached to ordinary
people’s things, when you get angry and think the wrong things, then it can’t
emerge one bit.
As to the part that has met the standard in
cultivation, it’s very difficult for more of it to emerge among ordinary people
before you reach Consummation.
Question:
Buddhas not only have immense compassion but also the ability to save people.
Will this ability manifest during the course of cultivation?
Teacher: When you study the Fa, you should really let go of
these attachments. A god—as long as he is a life beyond the human world, even
if he’s a low-level being within the Three Realms—is capable of controlling
human beings. All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas beyond the Three Realms are capable
of saving people. Because they are gods, they possess such abilities, just as
human beings are born with certain behaviors. They are gods so they have this
ability. It’s not quite what you have imagined—where there will be certain
manifestations in the course of cultivation. You can’t be thinking of these
things in your mind, such as, “I want to save someone after I complete my cultivation;
I want to save my family members, my relatives and friends, and save sentient
beings.” I would say that’s far-fetched fantasizing. That is an attachment and
a strong obstacle, and it will make you fail in cultivation. Only when you let
go of all notions and attachments will you be able to advance unimpeded on your
path of cultivation.
Some religious people have made vows, saying,
“I’ll return to save people after I succeed in cultivation.” This is actually
their attachment to showing off and human behavior that results from
complicated psychologies found among ordinary people. They don’t know a
Buddha’s state of being at all. You won’t even succeed in cultivation if you
have this attachment, as you would be attached to saving people. Whether a Buddha
saves people or not is something that happens naturally. Do you know how many
Buddhas have come to save people over the past centuries and millennia? There
was Jesus in the West and there was Shakyamuni in the East. How come in such a
long time only the two of them have come down here? The reason is that no
matter which god wants to descend to the human world to save people, he must
first get approval from all gods in the heavens before he can come. That’s
because the problems that he will face and run into have a certain degree of
universality, and they will involve the things of other Buddhas, Gods, and even
Daos. It’s very complicated and not how people imagine it. Once you become
overzealous and your attachments flare up, you will say, “I want to save people
too.” That is your human attachment, an attachment to showing off, and
attachments that you haven’t let go of affecting you.
Question:
I feel that the principles of the Fa that I have enlightened to from Zhuan
Falun aren’t as many as those I have enlightened to from Teacher’s lectures.
Teacher: Zhuan Falun is a systematic work of Dafa,
secrets of Heaven that can enable a person to Consummate. Meanwhile, except for
the Lectures in Jinan, Lectures in Dalian, and Lectures in
Guangzhou videotapes, which are similar to Zhuan Falun and have been
published, lectures in all other regions are only lectures given in keeping
with individual, different realms, or given targeting the situations of
students in different regions. They aren’t universal. Holding on to their
attachments, many people want to obtain this and want to pursue that, as if
that’s the only way they can feel satisfied about how they cultivate. Those are
attachments. If you don’t cultivate yourselves in a steady and solid manner,
you are actually wasting your time. If it weren’t for this spreading of Dafa
that was arranged in history, think about it, everyone: Would there be any
other arrangement for the development of mankind? You shouldn’t be so
irresponsible to yourself, as if it were child’s play. When the opportunity is
missed… If my Dafa today can’t save you, no one will ever save you again, nor
will anyone be able to.
You haven’t yet realized what I was most concerned
about when I began imparting the Dafa in the early days. Mankind has so many
theories and doctrines that people don’t even believe what is said in
religions. How many people genuinely believe in Jesus or Buddha? What many
religious people uphold is the religion, and they are not serious about real
cultivation. Do they still have that sacred heart toward Jesus (or Buddha)? How
many people can cultivate themselves? You should read the book! I had already
taken this issue into consideration back in the early days. What I would face
are a great many people, and in the future it would be impossible for me to
teach every one of you face to face, telling you how to cultivate and covering
each and every aspect.
So, to allow you to cultivate, to reach
Consummation, and in order to be responsible to you, I have left to everyone Zhuan
Falun. Through Zhuan Falun you can achieve Consummation. I have
pressed into this Fa everything you are supposed to obtain. That’s why when
reading the Fa you will feel changes in your body, experience and enlighten to
the Fa’s principles at different levels, and improve in Dafa. This Fa is just
so precious. No matter whether it’s the lectures I gave in person or the
explanations that you consider very detailed, the things I expound on are all
in Zhuan Falun. Meanwhile, everything discussed in Zhuan Falun is
encompassed in “Lunyu.”[1]
Question:
Is it all right to have the Association organize some disciples to translate
the books of Teacher’s overseas lectures?
Teacher: That’s excellent. You may do that. As for organizing
some students, it can only be said that you have to have the enthusiasm for it.
Any of you who have the ability can do it. But you should explain it clearly to
your local contact persons and communicate with them well. This will make it
convenient for the Association to contact you and look at and verify your work.
Question: Teacher’s words are quoted in introductory
materials on Dafa, but these materials might be thrown away. Is it appropriate
to do this?
Teacher: If something like this is done outside of
Question: Some students want to use their marriages as a
way to have people learn the Fa. How will Teacher’s Law Bodies arrange this?
Teacher: About this matter, I want to tell everyone this:
Don’t mix together your personal life with cultivation, and don’t mix your work
with cultivation. Cultivation is very serious. Dafa is solemn. It’s not like we
have to beg people to obtain the Fa. If they don’t want to, so be it. Certainly
the student’s intention is good, thinking, “I’ll sacrifice my marriage so that
you can obtain the Fa.” I can see that the intention is excellent. But I think
you don’t necessarily have to handle it like that. The Fa is solemn, and your
sacrifice for him would then mean that he obtained the Fa out of pursuing something;
he would be learning the Fa only to gain something, and that wouldn’t work for
him, since he didn’t qualify from the outset. It’s not that Dafa has to be
obtained by him. Some people say: “Teacher, you should teach your Fa
such-and-such way. Why don’t Buddhas save people such-and-such way?” Do you
think Buddhas have nothing better to do and are obligated to save you? Buddhas
are compassionate toward human beings, but they are great gods! Their
compassion is absolutely not the kind of humanized compassion that people
imagine; the compassion man speaks of and imagines is merely kindness. Buddhas
are kind, for sure. But that compassion is a manifestation of the great power
of Buddha Fa. No matter how bad a person may be or how wicked something may be,
things as strong as iron and steel will melt before the mighty power and
compassion of Buddha Fa. That’s why demons are scared when they see it—they are
really afraid. They will melt away and vanish. This is absolutely different
from what man imagines.
Question: It’s easier to experience the magnificence of
Zhen’s and Shan’s realms first. Is there only suffering in Ren?
Teacher: This is the understanding of your ordinary person’s
thinking. It’s just like the principle I explained: If when you are attached to
something and can’t accomplish a goal, you get so angry that you can’t put up
with it but don’t dare to lose your temper out of fear of losing face and
concern for your reputation, then I would say that’s the Ren of an
ordinary person and absolutely not the Ren of a cultivator. You have completely
misunderstood it. Our Ren has utterly no attachment and generates no anger at
all. This is the kind of Ren you should want, and only this is the Ren that
meets the standard. Your heart isn’t moved at all in front of those things. In
the eyes of others you are good at forbearing, when in fact it’s that your
heart hasn’t budged. And that is the Ren of cultivation.
When some people first obtained the Fa and began
reading Zhuan Falun, they said, “Oh, I can manage Zhen and Shan.”
In fact, you weren’t able to do even Zhen or Shan. You merely used the
deteriorated, human standard to measure yourself. When you really enter into
cultivation you will discover that you are far from meeting the standard.
What’s more, when you constantly raise your level during cultivation, you will
discover that your previous understanding of Zhen, Shan, Ren at different
levels was not so high. As your cultivation level goes higher and higher, Zhen,
Shan, Ren will at different levels have different manifestations, different
requirements, and different states. And that is exactly what’s meant by realm
of mind and Attainment Status. Ren can bring about beautiful realms, and
that is the only way to look at it. When you can’t accomplish the goal of what
you are doing, you burrow into the horn’s tip[2] and can’t eat or sleep well, you are basically
having your emotions controlled by others and your life led by others. You lead
a tiring life without waking up to it, living for others. If you can really
take one step back and let go, then it’s like “With green mountains, there is
no fear of lacking firewood,” and although that’s an ordinary saying, if you
can take a step back, you will find your horizon broadened endlessly and your
perspective totally changed. Steel your will to let it go, and your realm will
change immediately. In that state you will find yourself light and spry. This
is Ren. But I ask that you study the Fa more and reach realms higher than this.
Question:
Sometimes I can’t tell the dividing line between the realm of a cultivator and
the realm of an ordinary person.
Teacher: I don’t need to say much about this to you. As long
as you continually grow more diligent in cultivation, you will understand
everything. You are cultivating so it’s impossible for you to shed all of your
attachments at once. It’s just as I said before: The realm you reach in
cultivation will manifest itself in every setting. People will say you are a
good person—at work, in everyday life, at home, or out in society. Why? The
state of your cultivation will manifest itself in every aspect of your life.
It’s not about doing something intentionally, as if you are doing something
with intention; then you are forcing things. Yet as cultivators, we should have
restraint and a calm mind. Do everything with a kind heart, for that is what we
should do, and it can’t be called an attachment. This is the method we use to
suppress demon-nature, to reach the standard of Shan, and to meet the
requirements and standards of realms that are progressively higher. It’s not an
attachment.
Question: Understanding the Fa rationally can directly
eliminate the notions of ordinary people and thus expedite the progress of
cultivation.
Teacher: Even when you were coming to understand the Fa, you
all had a period of initial understanding in the beginning. After reading Zhuan
Falun, many people say it’s good, really good. How so? If you really ask
them they can’t explain it clearly. In that case it is a perceptual
understanding, a feeling that it’s good. If someone asks, “Just what exactly is
so good about it?” only after you enter into true cultivation can you find out
what is really good about the book, for you will have raised your understanding
to a rational level. If in your everyday life all your behavior meets the
standard of a cultivator and you don’t use human thinking or notions to
understand the Fa, then you are understanding the Fa with rationality and in a
sober-minded way, being responsible to yourself.
Question: Can we use things from cultivation to pay off
things among ordinary people?
Teacher: No, you cannot, and I haven’t told you to do that.
That is because things from cultivation are priceless. Master takes care of
them for the sake of your cultivation, yet you place so little value on them.
They are not just what you have cultivated: A part of it is what Master has
endured for you and done for you. You shouldn’t even have a thought like that.
There is no reason for it.
Question:
Can disciples who are semi-enlightened see the Fa’s principles in other
dimensions?
Teacher: You should stop probing into this. There is a large
number of students who have entered that state, in particular those who
obtained the Fa quickly or at an earlier stage. They know everything, see
everything, and they can understand everything. But with the levels they are
at, they can’t express it in words, so they don’t talk or say anything though
they know everything. The only thing is that their divine powers and abilities
can’t be used. That’s because so many of you are cultivating, and if their
divine powers were used Earth wouldn’t be able to take it. There are many
people like that.
Question: Some people have incredibly great confidence in
Buddha Fa cultivation, even to the extent that they’re not willing to use
ordinary people’s methods to solve some problems of everyday life.
Teacher: I can tell you that there is this type of state in our
cultivation: Some people say, “After obtaining the Fa, I don’t want to do this,
I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to do my work, and I don’t want to
conduct business anymore.” I would like to tell you that it appears as if you
have placed the Fa in the most important position and made cultivation your
only priority. But seen from another angle, you haven’t really understood the
Fa. I would like to tell everyone that you must be in keeping with ordinary
people to the greatest extent while cultivating. People usually don’t pay
enough attention to what I just said. Think about it, everyone: We have 100
million people cultivating, and what if there are more in the future? If nobody
were to do anything, what would happen to society? How would society view Dafa,
then? Wouldn’t that be tarnishing Dafa? Of course, I don’t need to say anything
about the states that appear after high realms are reached—what I am talking
about is what’s commonplace at present. For those of you who haven’t reached
that kind of state, it is wrong if you want to force something. As to the
questions you encounter in everyday life and how you are to deal with them,
those are things in your cultivation, and I won’t answer specific questions for
you. How you deal with them and how you improve yourself is up to you.
Question:
Teacher said, “After obtaining a Falun, it is as good as having completed half
of one’s cultivation.” Some students understand “having completed half of one’s
cultivation” as meaning, “having succeeded in half of one’s cultivation.”
Teacher: When it comes to things concerning cultivation, why
do today’s Chinese people have this kind of thinking? It is because ever since
ancient times your mode of thinking has been shaped in a way that allows you to
use this kind of mindset and thinking to understand the Fa. For your
cultivation I have given you Zhuan Falun, have installed a Falun for
you, Master has purified everything of yours by using the Great Falun, and half
of the problems in your cultivation are indeed solved—this is absolutely true.
But it’s not limited to just this. Because the power of this Dafa is so
immense, people are made able to cultivate even faster. As for the thought,
“Master has installed Falun in me, so I have succeeded in half of my
cultivation, and even if I stop cultivating today I will have succeeded half
way,” that’s not the idea.
Question: You said that on one occasion you connected with
four or five high-level great enlightened beings and great Daos. I don’t have a
good understanding of why you talked about this.
Teacher: It’s because there are obstructions in your human
thinking. The Fa can’t be taught according to your liking! Your not
understanding it well indicates that the obstruction you are attached to is
substantial. Don’t dig into the words with some intent. If you dig into the meaning
of every sentence and every line with intention, then you are completely wrong.
I have always told you that you should read through to the end when you read Zhuan
Falun, but you must know what you are reading. When you are supposed to
enlighten to an understanding at a certain level, Buddhas, Gods, and Daos will
hint at it to you and you will immediately understand the meaning of the
sentence. You won’t be given hints about what you’re not supposed to enlighten
to; you won’t get it no matter how you dig. If you say, “I just have to
understand the principles of such high levels based on just those words,” then
you are forcing it. Cultivation is up to the individual, while gong is
up to the master. No matter what methods you come up with on your own, those won’t
get you to heaven—that’s what it means. There are a few sections in Zhuan
Falun that some people don’t feel like reading. They only want to read the
parts about xinxing. Let me tell you that although it seems that some of
the parts I discuss are about supernormal abilities or other things, they all
have different principles within them, and there are the states of the
different requirements that one has to reach in cultivation woven throughout.
You have to read all of it consecutively. Each time you read, you shouldn’t
leave out one section or one word. You must read it this way. The sequence of
the book plays an extremely precise role in a person’s cultivation.
When I taught that section of the Fa, I wasn’t
just casually talking or just telling you some story. On the surface, I was
telling you what the state is like after one reaches tranquility at that realm,
and how I felt after connecting with them. I still have things to complete
among ordinary people, still have an ordinary person’s body, and still want to
save you. Were it otherwise, their tranquility might not count as tranquility
in my realm. If you, as an ordinary person, were to connect with them, your
mind would be completely wiped out in an instant. All human thoughts would be
completely eliminated. That’s how powerful their thoughts are. You would
probably meet the requirements of very high realms instantly, but it would not
be what you had cultivated. There is very deep inner meaning in it. Don’t use
human thinking to judge the Fa.
Question: What’s the difference between the two very
microcosmic substances in the universe and the nature Zhen, Shan, Ren? Why is
it that the lower the level, the more these two substances oppose each other?
Teacher: Actually, when you ask these questions using your
human thinking, you are really being disrespectful. If you could be like a god,
you absolutely wouldn’t dare to ask questions that way. This is what the Great
Fa of the universe has created for living beings; the two substances were
created by the Great Fa. That’s about the only way I can explain it to you. As
a being lives in an environment, its life should be varied and colorful. Take
human beings for example: If human beings didn’t have any joy, they would lead
a boring, tedious life—that’s just about what they would feel. Living beings
need to be allowed to live an enjoyable life. The Great Fa can create
flourishing societies for lives at different levels. This isn’t something human
beings can come up with. I only spoke briefly about the existence of the two
substances that cause mutual-generation and mutual-inhibition, as well as yin
and yang, and only in discussing the origin of yin and yang
and mutual-generation and mutual-inhibition have I mentioned these two
substances. Yet the complicated factors in the universe are way beyond that in
number. I don’t talk about anything that isn’t directly related to your ongoing
cultivation. I have chosen to discuss things that can allow you to enlighten to
principles of the Fa and allow you to improve, and I have done so in general
terms. If you knew too much, your mind would always circle around a certain
thought and your cultivation would be affected.
Question: Many students go to the same park to practice
together on weekends. Would it be more beneficial for spreading the Fa if
people went to different parks?
Teacher: This has to do with the specifics of what you do.
Your feeling is that when you practice together, with more people, the field is
stronger and the effect might be considerable. When other people see it, they
will say: “Wow, there are so many people practicing Falun Gong! The energy is
so strong! Let’s go practice it too.” There may also be people who think:
“People from this place already know it, but people elsewhere don’t. Let’s
split up and go to other places to encourage people at those places and help
them to obtain the Fa.” These are your own specific matters. Go ahead and do
whatever you feel you ought to. With these things, you can’t have me stipulate
something for you. There are different regions, different situations, and then
there are the states of your understanding of the Fa at different levels. All
this is part of your own cultivation. Discuss how to do things, and do whatever
you feel is best.
Question: Some people think that spreading the Fa means
doing the exercises and making Dafa books available, and that there’s no need
for large-scale group practices or showing videos of Fa lectures.
Teacher: It is up to you how you handle the specifics of these
things, the same as carrying out your cultivation. I can tell you that watching
the videos, group study, group practice, and conferences like the one we’re
holding today are the only forms of Dafa cultivation that I have left you.
Everything else is loosely organized, including whether you come here or not.
Nobody does roll call and asks you to come. Everyone comes voluntarily.
Cultivation depends on your own heart. If you don’t want to come and you don’t
want to cultivate, you may do as you like.
Question: Caucasian students are enthusiastic about
community service and consider it an expression of compassion and of being a
good person.
Teacher: That is merely the kind of loving heart that ordinary
people have, but I don’t oppose it, since I ask people to be good persons in
every setting. But if these things are given priority over studying the Fa and
cultivation, I would say that’s wrong. Being attached to anything might be an
attachment. On the other hand, though, if you can’t conduct yourself well in
every setting, then you have not met the standard for a cultivator. In other
words, as you constantly grow more diligent in the Fa, these issues will be
resolved and you will know what to do.
Question: If one perseveres in doing the exercises outdoors
during winter, could this way of karma elimination replace the karma
elimination in sitting with the legs crossed?
Teacher: There isn’t anything like that. You want to find
yourself a way out of hardship, to take a cultivation path that’s free of
suffering or that offers easier ways to bear suffering. That’s unacceptable.
But as I see it, cultivation is for improving, and you won’t always remain in
the same state. Isn’t the fear of sitting with legs crossed also an attachment?
Question: Even if one’s assistant consciousness (fu yishi)
has cultivated into an enlightened being, one’s main consciousness (zhu yishi) might still enter the cycle of transmigration.
It seems that they are different entities.
Teacher: I have explained this issue very clearly. In this
world, to you, both your main consciousness and assistant consciousness are
you. You have to acknowledge each. They share your name, do the same things as
you, and control your brain—they’re both you. However, as to who really governs
a person—when you are truly being most clearheaded, that is—it is your main
spirit who controls all of your consciousnesses. Why is that? It’s because when
your assistant spirit (fu yuanshen) achieves Consummation through
cultivation, you don’t know about it. He is the same as you, has the same
appearance, and leaves after concluding cultivation, but you still have to
enter the cycle of transmigration. When your main consciousness succeeds in
cultivation, you yourself know it—“Wow, I have succeeded in cultivation and am
going to Consummate.” Yet your assistant consciousness is also a part of you,
so he cultivates with you while you are cultivating. When you reach
Consummation he will reach Consummation with you. That’s their relationship.
Question:
I used to be a pharmacist and know some therapeutic massage techniques. Can I
still do massage for others on a voluntary basis?
Teacher: Here you have emphasized doing massage voluntarily
and not making money, so is it considered doing a good deed? I would like to
tell you this: Cultivation is a very serious matter, I have been purifying your
body constantly, and you shouldn’t pollute it again—that’s what it means. The
reason is, bodily contact with another person’s skin can connect the two
persons’ fields. Why is the energy of the practice site very strong when you do
the exercises in a group? It is because each of your fields, such good fields,
are connected, so progress is rapid and everyone feels great. As for ordinary
people, they don’t cultivate and the fields that their bodies carry are full of
karma. As soon as I say this a lot of people will think, “Oh, does that mean I
shouldn’t be with my family?!” You are cultivators and I have already solved
this problem for you, so you don’t need to think about it and you shouldn’t
consciously be afraid of something. That is to say, if you want to do something
with intent, it is as good as your accepting that thing with intent. When you
are massaging someone, you might have the thought, “I have to make him
recover.” Since you’re not using modern medical means or medicine to treat
him—instead, you are using your body to treat him—it’s very likely you will be
polluted. That’s what it means. As for those students of ours who work as
massage therapists to make a living, in the event that they really can’t find
another profession I will seal their bodies in order to solve the problem of
making a living. But if you’re not in that profession you had better not do it.
That’s what I am saying. As for doing acupuncture or being a doctor who
prescribes medicines and injections for others, that doesn’t matter. Those are
techniques.
Question: Can a person cultivate if someone in his family
has had mental illness but the person himself hasn’t had it?
Teacher: I have said that you won’t necessarily become mentally
ill if someone in your family is. Isn’t that how it should be looked at? It
should be viewed from both sides. In other words, it’s fine for a very rational
person—someone with a strong main consciousness—to do cultivation. If you have
a family history of mental illness then you need to be cautious, though. If you
are mentally ill you cannot practice. That’s because a mentally ill person’s
main consciousness is usually in a daze, so it’s not that I don’t want to save
you. My Fa is to be given to the main consciousness and is meant to save the
person, but if the person is muddleheaded, who are we giving the Fa to? When
the mental problem attacks you, that is your karma, bad thoughts, and foreign
beings at work. Can we give the Fa to them? No, and this is the reason. So
those with a family history of mental illness must be cautious while
cultivating! If you feel that you can’t control yourself, don’t participate.
Those who currently have mental illness: You are not welcome at the practice
sites, and you shouldn’t attend Fa conferences to listen to the Fa.
Question: My child is twelve years old. He practices once a
week and listens to the Fa before going to sleep at night. Is his practice and
studying the Fa considered normal?
Teacher: Children have their own states. If they have been
exposed to the Fa and are studying and practicing, they are actually
cultivating too, for sure. We have strict distinctions between children and
adults. Because children don’t have the stuff formed by those notions and
complicated thoughts that adults have, they are very simple, and so they obtain
the Fa quickly.
Question: When I think bad thoughts in my mind, there will
be bad substances generated in other dimensions. What do I do?
Teacher: Try your best not to think bad things, and you will
be gradually progressing in your cultivation. Even if you think them, don’t pay
attention to them and don’t be afraid. Once you become afraid—“What do I do
now?”—that is an attachment. That’s why we should study the Fa and read the
book as much as possible, and it’s better to maintain a pure and calm mind. But
it’s impossible for you to not think of bad things at all. You won’t be able to
do that if you haven’t achieved Consummation. As far as what kind of stuff is
generated, you are a cultivator now, so I can tell you that you, a cultivator,
are not viewed in the heavens as being human. They regard you as a god. You
will be the future gods at different levels after you reach Consummation.
That’s why once you transcend ordinary people and carry in your body things
that transcend ordinary people—and especially when you are cultivating during
Fa-rectification—not only am I looking after you, but there are also a Buddha’s
Eight Types of Heavenly Law-Guardians around your body guarding the Fa. It’s
just that you don’t know it. Many people become brave after they start
practicing. Why is that? It’s not merely due to factors on your part. It is
because you have a side that knows things. That’s why your courage is boosted.
Question: I have been very shy since childhood. Is that a
strong attachment?
Teacher: As a human being, if a person doesn’t have a sense of
shame I would say that he is a very bad person. If as a cultivator you are
attached to these types of things, then you are just a human. Yet there have
been many people in the past who, after starting to cultivate, became slovenly,
unkempt, and dirty. If a Dafa disciple is like that, then I would say you are
tarnishing Dafa’s image. As you know, when I lecture to you on the Fa on
whatever occasion, I think I’m dressed rather neatly, relatively speaking. The
fact is, I do that to show you an example. There are even people who mimic how
I talk and how I live, so I pay special attention to these things. I can’t
leave you with a bad example. Since you live among ordinary people you should
pay some attention to this.
I have noticed something: Chinese don’t pay
attention to superficial things and are rather casual. It’s like the joke I
told last time: Chinese people pay a lot of attention to substance, have an
abundance of things in their heads, are loaded with great skills, and the
dishes they cook are delicious, but their presentation is sloppy and dirty. But
Caucasians—just take this as a joke—their food doesn’t taste as delicious as
what Chinese cook, but their knives and forks are nicely placed and there’s
different silverware for different foods and different glasses for different
drinks. They place a high importance on appearance and are very polite. That’s
the difference between Caucasians and Chinese. But I think if these traits can
be combined, with Chinese people being more attentive to etiquette and
Caucasians having a little more substance, that would be better. (Applause)
Caucasians pay a lot of attention to their
civilized manners. That’s their culture. Why are Caucasians sometimes angry
with you? Some people even feel they are angry with you for no reason. If you
harm their culture, even if it is a minor thing, they will be really angry.
Many Chinese people aren’t attentive to little things. For example, when you
enter a store and someone is behind you, you don’t bother with anything else
after opening the door, and the door bangs shut behind you. If the onlooker is
a Caucasian he will be really angry, for you are harming his culture and he
doesn’t consider it a small thing. He will get really angry at your rude
manners and speech. You are living in their society, so you should pay
attention to this.
Question:
I am a student from
Teacher: You see, while I am in the
Question: There is a “me” existing in various individual
dimensions. Are the various individual dimensions in the Three Realms?
Teacher: It’s true, they are within the Three Realms.
Dimensions in the Three Realms are the most complex. If there is an opportunity
I will explain the composition of matter for you further in the future; the
extent of the complexity is astonishing. Yet there is no language to describe
it, nor can drawings illustrate it. That is why sometimes when I teach you the
Fa it is so challenging that even when all human expressions have been
exhausted it’s still hard to capture the magnificence of the universe.
Question:
I heard that scientific research departments in
Teacher: You mean cloning, right? Let’s not dwell on those
things. Mankind is destroying itself. The other day I said that mankind is
cloning this and cloning that, and that as soon as mankind starts cloning human
beings it is the beginning of accepting aliens’ replacing humans. Precisely
because people can’t see the side of existence that is divine, people still
feel that their relentless pursuits, their so-called explorations, are
nice-sounding things. In fact, they are destroying mankind. Human beings are
destroying themselves.
Question: Some individuals in Buddhist circles attack Dafa
for not being a righteous Way.
Teacher: Then just ignore it. They have reached the final
stage of the Period of Dharma’s End. If with these problems we were to adopt
their ways of handling things—where they attack Dafa and so you send out
materials to fight back—wouldn’t Dafa be the same as them? Our Dafa is the
Great Fa of the universe, and even though they appear to be doing damage, they
are actually nothing. Going way back to when Shakyamuni came along, the Brahman
religion did the same thing.
Question: Is the process of transformation from the
microcosmic portion to the macrocosmic portion the process of benti[3] transformation?
Teacher: You may understand it that way. The quicker a person
cultivates himself, the faster the transformation.
Question:
Why is it that in the many, many other dimensions within a certain area of the
universe, there is a “him” simultaneously?
Teacher: That’s how complicated the universe’s composition is.
At the time when you are born, there is a “you” born in many, many dimensions.
You look just about the same, do almost the same things, have the same name,
are born at the same time, and die at the same time, but the quality of life is
different. How are they related to you? I just said, they are born at the same
time and die at the same time, and other than this there isn’t any other major connection.
I said that you are born at the same time, and that means that if they were not
born, you couldn’t be born, even if you wanted to be. And if they didn’t die,
then it would be very hard to die even if you wanted to. So the reason those
“lonesome spirits and homeless ghosts” that people used to talk about can’t
reincarnate is that not all of the “hims” have died. Only one of the “hims”
committed suicide and insisted on dying, so he doesn’t have any place to go
after dying. He has to wait until all the living ones have completed their life
journeys before they can look for their destiny together. As for the main
spirit, as I just said, your spirit is you—your main spirit is
you, yourself—and the source of your thoughts is you. And as for the Immortal Infant
(yuanying), that is the Buddha-body developed in your cultivation from
your wisdom and Fa. Our Fa can enable the human body to undergo fundamental
changes, and this body itself can transform into a Buddha’s body.
Question:
Master mentioned, “Perhaps when you attain the Dao, many people will benefit in
the future.”
Teacher: That is true. Think about it: If a person manages to
cultivate into a Buddha, his parents and siblings—or let’s just say his
parents, who gave birth to such a wonderful son or daughter—won’t they have
their share of the blessings? They sure will. As to how great this blessing is
and where they will be placed, that is definitely done according to how big
their share of the predestined blessing is. But the person achieving Consummation
and becoming a Buddha, with his parents also becoming Buddhas despite not
having done cultivation—that’s utterly impossible, for they have not
cultivated. It is decided according to their share of predestined blessing and
their xinxing. The amount of one’s karma is also crucial. Such being the
case, this isn’t limited to just parents and siblings. It also includes the
many, many people and lives that the person has dealt with in the human world,
and the karmic relationships born of spite. You have killed, but then you
become a Buddha, so what about those lives you killed? You have to save them.
Of course, Master will take care of these things for you when you succeed in
cultivation and achieve Consummation, and these too count as what you have
saved. They have to be saved to your paradise, so the problems are solved for
you in this manner. There are also many, many people who once did things that
benefited you, and those can’t be ignored. There are all sorts of factors. Even
cultivation is not a simple matter, and you can’t resolve on your own the many
kinds of predestined cause-effect relationships that are present in many
things. That too is done by Master.
Question: When Master met with some students from different
regions, nobody wanted to be left behind. Is it also an attachment?
Teacher: That might be the situation today. When I was
teaching the Fa in China, students all knew—and maybe you have heard—that
everyone looked for front-row seats on the first day of the class, hoping to
get closer to Teacher and receive greater energy. By the end of the third day
of class, nobody moved to the front anymore. Everyone saved the good seats for
the elderly or for others, nobody fought for seats, and the whole hall assumed
a peaceful state. People all have a process of changing. Of course, many of you
here today hurried here from out of town or haven’t seen me for a long time.
You want to get closer to see Teacher better, and I can understand the feeling.
Fighting for seats, though—Caucasians wouldn’t do anything like that. For the
most part these are surface-level things.
Question:
Veteran students’ xinxing is high and their gong potency is growing
greater and greater. Their words and deeds have great influence on new
students. How should veteran and new students each handle themselves?
Teacher: The majority of veteran students have cultivated very
well, but it can’t be said that every veteran student is that good. At the same
time, I can’t say that you don’t meet the standard and so I won’t let you come
practice—how could I be like that? I can’t. So, many of your words and deeds
can affect others. Yet there is the Fa, so don’t be afraid. Even a new student
will use the Fa to evaluate everything after he has studied the Fa a few times.
Even though you are a veteran student, he will still know where you have done
something wrong. People have their own minds, and there is the Fa, so these
problems aren’t problems. You have all come through like that. As assistants,
as veteran students, you might be concerned with this problem. The point of
concern and the considerations are all good. If you see it, find a way to solve
it and try to ask people to pay attention to this as best you can. Then as
veteran students, you should really watch yourselves in front of new students.
Even if you aren’t concerned with your own reputations, you should still
consider Dafa’s reputation. It is a pure land here, so I don’t want you to not
look inside yourself when you run into problems. It’s unacceptable if it
develops into something similar to [Chinese] society’s work units.
Question:
Prior to my cultivation, I felt very cold and couldn’t move one night.
Teacher: I would say it’s better not to ask any questions
concerning personal conditions. With tens of millions, tens of billions of states—you
alone have so many of them—how am I to answer this for you? I can tell you that
the states are all good. I mentioned something yesterday: Whether you feel good
or bad, in reality you can’t tell the difference. I’ll just tell you one thing:
It’s enough if you treat all of it as something good. (Applause) Let me
give you an example. Think about it, everyone: The dirt in human society is
high-level beings’ feces. Living in an environment as filthy as this, as if man
had jumped into a manure pit—you’re all in a manure pit now, yet you still fret
over the implications of something feeling good or not so good. What point is
there in caring about those things? You should hurry to cultivate and think
that it’s good no matter what you run into. And it really is good. If you
didn’t cultivate you would never have those sensations, and that includes
unpleasant ones. No matter how good a change is, it won’t feel pleasant when it
manifests in your body. That’s because the presence of any type of gong
or energy carries electricity, and it will cause reactions to manifest in your
body. The gong is so strong and you still have a human body. If it moves
just a little inside the body, your human body will of course feel discomfort.
When you have completed cultivation you won’t have those sensations. When some
people levitate in the air they have certain states in the air. Ignore them
all, they are all good things. The more afraid you are, the more likely you
will have those things happen a few times, because it’s wrong for you to have
an attachment of fear.
Question: To exist for ourselves yet at the same time be
selfless and altruistic—how should we understand this?
Teacher: Think about it: A person is a life that exists at an
individual level, and if you are taking selflessness and altruism to the point
where you don’t even want to cultivate yourself and you are no longer returning
to your original, true self, well, that’s just too “selfless.” How could you
understand it like that? Isn’t your cultivation for yourself? However, during
the course of cultivation you cultivate yourself to become more and more kind,
to the point where you think of others whenever you think about anything, thus
succeeding in becoming a selfless being. Cultivation is about you cultivating
yourself: You reach Consummation and at the same time succeed in becoming a
great living being who thinks of others and can make sacrifices for others.
Individual lives should always exist. If you were all to cultivate yourselves
to the point where you no longer have your individual entities, could that be
permitted? So I would like to tell you this: You want to return—you want to
achieve Consummation—and accordingly, your sacrifices will bring you immense
happiness. That’s what you gain through the sacrifices. Returning to a realm
that is higher and more splendid—that is aspiring to kindness and being
inspired to transcend. Some people understand wuwei[4] to
mean having no self, having no existence of self. The fact is, it’s not like
that at all. The universe does have levels and, strictly speaking, living
beings do have hierarchies; those are made up of the Attainment Status and
mighty virtue you affirm and attain through cultivation.
Question: Is stiffness in the legs caused by large amounts
of karma?
Teacher: I have already discussed this. Some people’s leg pain
is caused by karma, while for some, they feel stiff because their legs have
never been bent like that before. These are the body’s physiological conditions
at the surface. But whether it’s due to large amounts of karma or physiological
factors, everyone can sit with the legs crossed. As for not feeling any pain,
there are very few cases of that.
Question:
There are already over 100 million people around the world who have obtained
the Fa. Is spreading the Fa still as important as it was in the past?
Teacher: Are you really that unwilling to do things to spread
the Fa? As you know, you cultivate Shan in cultivation, and when you see people
in the midst of suffering, you want to help them obtain the Fa. That’s
something you should gradually come to possess in cultivation. No matter what
you give to others, it’s not as good as giving them the Fa. No matter how good
what you give someone is, or no matter how much money you give him, he is happy
for only one lifetime or one moment. But if you give him the Fa, his life will
be happy forever. What could be better than the Fa? (Applause) So I
think that introducing the Fa to others is itself spreading the Fa and a good
deed. But you shouldn’t force it. If a person doesn’t want to learn and you
force him to learn, then that’s not good. You have done what you wanted to and
let him know about the Fa, and that’s enough. Whether he takes up cultivation
or not is his own issue. Many people have done a lot to spread the Fa and have
spent a great amount of time, and that could never be called meaningless. The
time you lost will be fully made up for you during cultivation since, after
all, you are doing things for Dafa and doing a good deed. Of course, there is
something you should pay heed to from now on: Don’t try to push people. It’s
enough if you let them know about the Fa in some natural way. If they know
about it but don’t want to learn, then let them be.
Question: The essay “Be Clearheaded” says that a person
must distinguish thought karma from normal incorrect thoughts.
Teacher: That is right. It’s not easy for ordinary people to
distinguish interference coming from thought karma. If a cultivator is not
diligent and doesn’t look for the fundamental motives behind his thoughts, it
is going to be hard for him to tell which is which. Why do some people go a
long time without being able to eliminate thought karma? It’s because they
don’t try to distinguish which thoughts are their own. Why do we ask you to
cultivate yourself? You should first of all eliminate bad thoughts through
cultivation. The reason you can get rid of those bad things is that you don’t
acknowledge them as you. That is extremely crucial. It is because you don’t
acknowledge them as you that you can then eliminate them. The fact is, they
really aren’t you. They are the various notions, or even karma, developed from
the things you have done after birth—those things. But people usually see them
as part of themselves: “I have a clever mind, and nobody can get the best of
me. I’m better than others in every respect.” They see those postnatally formed
things as part of themselves or even believe them to be the best. Whatever a
person wants is up to him, and only when you don’t want that stuff can it be
eliminated for you.
Why is it hard to save someone who is mentally
ill? It’s precisely because he can’t discern things at all. It’s very hard for
a new student to identify thought karma and distinguish which thoughts are not
himself. If he can manage to do that, he is truly outstanding. You can use Dafa
to judge. Actually, none of the bad thoughts are you. If you can do it, you
will distinguish them and see: “Oh, this thought isn’t good and should be
eliminated. I should get rid of it. I shouldn’t think like that.” That in
itself is your eliminating it. Do you think that those who do bad things, like
committing heinous crimes, or even those who engage in homosexual acts, want to
do things that way and are born to do that? It owes to their wrong, postnatal
notions having grown stronger and stronger, and their notions have turned
around and taken control of them. That’s how they become like that.
Question: The enlightened beings who save people are usually
Tathagatas, but how do they transform gong for cultivators starting from root
sources of matter?
Teacher: I have never told you anything like that. I didn’t
say that Shakyamuni did it that way, did I? A Tathagata’s Fa can’t be compared
with the Great Fa (Dafa) of the cosmos. An ordinary god won’t be able to
do this in the future, nor was one single god able to do it in the past. The Fa
that was used to save people in the past was small. Saving people was done with
the help of other Tathagatas or even higher gods. They too needed to worship
the heavens and honor higher gods. It’s not like what people imagine, that a
Tathagata Buddha is number one in Heaven—it’s not like that. If a Fa is small,
one lifetime isn’t enough to save a person, and the person has to be saved for
a few lifetimes before he can truly be saved. But Dafa is capable of doing it
[in one lifetime]. (Applause) That’s because it is the Great Fa of the
cosmos, which transcends all other Fa. All other Fa are what enlightened beings
affirm and enlighten to, in cultivation, from the Great Fa of the cosmos. I
don’t know if you have understood this relationship clearly. Whether it be any
enlightened being who saves people or any Tathagata, Buddha, or God in the
heavens, the characteristics of their own paradises or the Attainment Statuses
they have achieved are all what they have affirmed and enlightened to from the
Great Fa of the cosmos. (Applause) Those aren’t things they copied
directly from the Great Fa of the cosmos, since they were not permitted one bit
to know about the Great Fa of the cosmos before. They only knew the standard at
different realms that living beings in different levels should adhere to, and
knew only that. That’s why they could affirm and enlighten to their own
understandings as well as how to reach that standard. Those are the things they
have affirmed and enlightened to. What Shakyamuni affirmed and enlightened to
is called “Precept, Samadhi, and Wisdom.” Have I explained it clearly? (Applause)
They rely on the Fa of the universe and rely on higher gods to help them. They
themselves can’t do it.
What’s more, some Tathagatas are different. For
example, Shakyamuni Buddha is not like what you’ve imagined—an ordinary
Tathagata. In this realm he is a Tathagata, when in fact, he also has states
that are more microcosmic and that other Buddhas don’t know about. The level he
came from is very high. He affirmed and enlightened to the Four Greats: “Earth,
Water, Fire, and Wind.” Some of you might have seen this term in the
scriptures. That level is very high, far beyond the cosmic bodies where average
lives exist. It means that he has affirmed and enlightened to very high levels,
showing that where he came from is very high. But he only brought with him the
Fa-power of the Tathagata realm in coming here to save people.
Question: Is one of the reasons human society has warped
that the molecular cells of most ordinary people have been changed by aliens?
Teacher: The life and the substances of the human body that
people refer to—namely, the composition of this body—together with the warping
of the mind can change a person’s behavior and way of life, while ways of life
can also change the composition of the particles in the human body. If this
type of warping is passive, one that is controlled by some kind of creature,
then it is utterly dreadful for human beings. It’s similar to the question of
why humans can develop notions postnatally and why those notions can turn
around and control man. If you don’t eliminate them, they will become part of
you in this life, and may even become a part that dominates you. In other
words, this cultural framework that aliens have imposed upon people on Earth
has completely formed a set of methods for living and perceiving the material
world; it has already become that way. So, once they have something like this
in place, the kind of body I mentioned can be developed. How do you drive a
car? You have to use their methods. How do you build a machine? How do you
operate the stuff they created? This series of things has penetrated all of
man’s ways of living. It has developed this kind of body, formed this kind of
thinking, and developed these sorts of things. I said last time that everybody
who operates a computer has been cataloged by aliens with a number. That’s
absolutely true. But our disciples don’t have this problem. I have cleaned it
out for them, and moreover, aliens are in the final stage of being cleaned out.
Yet there are still some that are hiding, but they are rarely seen now. They
used to hide in those super-material dimensions in order to control human
beings. I have talked about super-matter, and that is where they hid, so it was
very difficult to detect them. Human beings believe that only the existing
molecules are the most material, when in fact there are things more material
than molecules. They hid in those places in order to control human beings. We
have already completed those dimensions—things in those dimensions have been
cleaned up.
Question: When one goes beyond In-Triple-World-Law, hasn’t
one already reached the Attainment Status of Arhat? Why would one still be a
sentient being?
Teacher: You have not read the Fa carefully or tried to
understand it thoroughly. Some people do cultivation but haven’t succeeded at
it, and so they can only live at whatever level in the Three Realms they
reached. People in the heavens, heavenly people, are also gods in the eyes of
human beings. If a person goes beyond the Three Realms, the first Attainment
Status he reaches is Arhat. There is another special situation, in which a
person has not taken up cultivation but has reached a very good standard. But
he doesn’t have Attainment Status. It’s likely he has a predestined
relationship with a Buddha or has a predestined relationship with one of you in
the audience who will succeed at becoming a Buddha in the future. He is likely
to become a sentient being in your paradise, that is, a citizen in your
paradise. In a Buddha’s paradise there are not only Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.
Rather, it’s a flourishing paradise. Buddhas are the lords of the Fa and are
kind. That’s the situation. If you want to use human thinking to try to
understand things in Heaven you will never figure it out. With a head full of
those things you won’t be able to cultivate. A cosmic body as large as I have
told you about is but a speck of dust. The complexity of the universe cannot be
described, it’s beyond words. On Earth you see people of white skin color,
yellow, and black, and there are certain differences among the races. The various
races in the cosmic bodies are countless—there are all kinds of them—and there
are even multicolored ones. It means that this universe is immensely complex.
Question:
Mankind’s karma has accumulated more and more, but why is the average life expectancy
increasing?
Teacher: You might have noticed that the average life
expectancy for people today is longer than for people in the old days. While
Dafa is spreading widely, it is a person’s great fortune to get the life he has
during this time when Dafa is spreading widely. (Applause) Those who I
want to save, I will certainly give every one a chance. It’s not easy to
reincarnate into a lifetime when Dafa is spreading widely, or to encounter this
Dafa. People are given a chance. But whether or not a person takes up
cultivation is his own business. There are many regions that Dafa hasn’t spread
to, so people have to hold out and keep living in order to listen to the Fa at
some point, at which time their minds will be examined to see how they respond.
That’s why letting people know about the Fa is of primary concern and is
crucial. What I mean is that when you spread the Fa, you should let people know
about the Fa, but whether or not someone wants to cultivate is his own affair.
Let’s say you reincarnated as this life here, ran into the Buddha Fa and heard
it, but didn’t care, didn’t cultivate in it, and didn’t study it. Then that
would be your regret! The question you asked just now was about why karma is so
large yet life hasn’t been shortened but instead extended. That’s the reason.
Question: Is it all right for veteran students to still
keep in their homes statues of Guanyin and others if they have been consecrated
with Master’s picture?
Teacher: Keeping them isn’t an issue, since those are all
great gods. If they have been through consecration it’s all right to have them,
and if you have put them there, it’s okay. But you should know in your heart
which cultivation way you cultivate in. You should know in your heart who you
should pay respect to.
Question: Is it accurate to think that we are all living in
Teacher’s body?
Teacher: You can understand it that way. (Applause)
Actually, I can tell you that during a person’s cultivation, his body is
constantly increasing in volume. After a person drops to this dimension, in
order to go back, to cultivate back, his body needs to change. In order to
begin the changes from the most microcosmic level, he must meet the standard at
the microcosmic level of the universe and return to the utmost microcosm. In
that case, the volume of his body has to conform to the original state in that
dimension. So it will enlarge. The more microcosmic, the bigger the volume.
Every cultivator will undergo this type of change. Ordinary people won’t be
able to see you, though. They aren’t allowed to see it. Many students have seen
that the bodies behind Teacher’s body are countless, layer upon layer, and that
each layer is bigger than the last. Some are so big that the end can’t be seen
and everything is encompassed. If Earth is encompassed… aren’t you at this
place where Earth is? That’s the idea. (Applause)
Question: Since we cultivate our main spirit, why does
everything around us occasionally seem odd and unfamiliar?
Teacher: As for this feeling, yes, there are situations like
that. If a certain part of your mind has gone through cleansing or your ways of
thinking have changed, it can bring about something like what you described. No
matter what, though, if you know that you are still here and this person is
you, then it’s not a problem.
Question: I feel that Zhuan Falun has already explained
things clearly. There’s no need to discuss with others and exchange
experiences.
Teacher: That’s your own state in cultivation, then.
Something like that can’t be forcefully imposed on others. I can’t say you are
wrong, though, since each person has different states. Also, there’s the fact
that new students are entering all the time, so you should have a piece of pure
land.
Question:
Can it be said that the deeper one drops to among ordinary people, if he can
return, the greater his mighty virtue after he succeeds in cultivation?
Teacher: No, it’s not like that. The deeper one drops, the
less hope there is for him. If it weren’t for the wide spreading of Dafa it
would all be over.
Question: Why is the subject of a master’s eliminating
karma for his disciples always not very explicit in religious cultivation?
Teacher: There isn’t any “why.” Why are the things Jesus
taught different from what Shakyamuni taught? Why should everyone be the same?
Shakyamuni did talk about the subject of eliminating karma; it’s not that he
didn’t talk about it. Eliminating karma is also discussed in contemporary
Buddhism. Shakyamuni talked about many things during his forty-nine years of
teaching his Fa. Those things that people didn’t understand were not passed
down. Later generations picked out the parts that suited their frames of mind.
It’s just like students who selectively read the Fa—“I feel that this chapter
is good, so I just read this chapter.” They only understood that part, so they
inherited it and passed it down. What they couldn’t understand or what didn’t
agree with their notions was not passed down. When Shakyamuni was imparting his
Fa back then, there wasn’t anything written down. It was only five hundred
years later that Shakyamuni’s words began to be sorted out. How many errors
occurred during those five hundred years of being passed down orally?! Buddhism
did talk about eliminating karma, only you don’t know about it. Jesus was
nailed to the cross. Don’t Christians say that Jesus redeemed people’s sins?
Question: The term “fellow cultivator” is often used by
some students when they address other students. Since Teacher has never
mentioned this term, I feel that this isn’t appropriate. There are conventions
like this in Buddhism.
Teacher: This is a term invented by people in this world and
isn’t something unique to Buddhism; it isn’t a special term. Actually, the
special term definitely is not “fellow cultivator.” It is yet another term that
people later on, such as in the past few years, have created. As to what term
we should use, it doesn’t matter much. Dafa isn’t particular about this as far
as its superficial form goes. You should be in keeping with ordinary people to
the greatest extent while you cultivate. There were people who used to ask me
about how to address each other. I would tell them it’s okay if you call each
other John Doe or Jane Doe. If we were to stipulate some unique terms, others
would really think that we are an institutional religion. It’s better if we can
be a little more flexible in this regard when dealing with ordinary people.
Question: How should we look at the problem of “man sealing
himself off?”
Teacher: This is a broad issue, one that applies to mankind
in every way. Let me give you the simplest example. For instance, let’s talk
about today’s laws. You know that in ancient times there were no laws. Since
people’s hearts were all relatively kind, there wasn’t any need to regulate
people with so many laws. They knew how to conduct themselves on their own and
behaved well. Nowadays people’s hearts aren’t good and have become depraved,
and that’s why so many laws have been made to manage people. Human beings are
being managed the same way animals are managed. It is an intangible cage. Yet
people are still getting ever more depraved, and laws are still being
constantly created. How far will this law-making eventually go? Laws will
become so numerous that people won’t even know when they have committed a crime
since there will be too many to remember. Eventually it will even become such
that you will violate a law whenever you move a muscle or as soon as you step
outside your house. Isn’t it likely to develop to that extent? Mankind is
simply sealing itself off without end. They are sealing themselves off not only
in terms of laws but also in every aspect of every thing. Eventually, human
beings will be so sealed in that they don’t have any way out, and the laws
people have made will turn around and start punishing people. People who make
laws all have the intention of punishing others because, with an ordinary
person’s heart, they don’t like how others are and want to punish them out of
jealousy. They didn’t think about the fact they are part of the people, too,
and that the laws will apply to them, as well. Eventually people will be so
sealed in that they don’t have any room to breathe, at which time they will no
longer have any alternatives. When it reaches that point, how are people to
still live? Therefore, what solves human beings’ fundamental problems are not
laws but people’s hearts. (Applause)
Every country is frustrated by the turmoil and
instability their societies face, such as public security problems and the
like, and there are no good solutions. They want to keep them under control by
making laws that target the bad phenomena. More and more such laws are coming
about. But those who do bad things still do them when they are not being
watched by the law. In fact, nobody has found the fundamental cause, which is
that people’s hearts need to be tamed and people’s hearts need to aspire to
kindness. Were people’s hearts to become good, there wouldn’t be a need for so
many laws any more. Though there wouldn’t be police, people wouldn’t do
anything against the law. If every person restrains himself from doing wrong,
there is no need for police. Imagine what kind of society that would be. Isn’t
that right? Meanwhile, if there were so many policemen that in the future every
person was watched by one, people would still do bad things if their hearts
were not good. Police are human too, and there are policemen who do bad things.
Then what do you do? Judges are ordinary people too, so who is there to
intervene if there are judges too who do bad things?
What I mean is that the solution to people’s
fundamental problems does not lie in making a certain number of laws and
regulations, nor is it about how to restrict people, restrain people, or
control people. It is about how to awaken people’s kindheartedness and have
human society become truly noble. No external restraints that are imposed on
people can restrain their hearts. In other words, those measures don’t resolve
the root cause.
I know everything about mankind. Of course, even
though I have unveiled these things, I don’t want to do anything about mankind
right now and will leave it alone. I don’t interfere in political affairs,
either. As for what people refer to as “politics,” I utterly dislike it, and I
don’t want to hear or ask about it. Yet I can explain clearly everything about
mankind, and at present I am responsible only for my cultivating students.
However, after more people do well in cultivation, this strong righteous power
will make society change in some ways. People will for sure aspire to kindness
and society will stabilize. But that’s not something I meant to do. It is the
outcome of spreading Dafa.
Question: Teacher, you said that you are the only person
imparting Falun Gong in this world and that no other person dares to come down
here to teach.
Teacher: That’s correct. I am simply Falun Paradise’s… Falun
Paradise was created by me. (Applause) I am the only person imparting
Dafa, and in fact there is nobody else [that can do it]. The concept that you
have imagined doesn’t exist.
Question:
We often feel that we can notice a thought being wrong as soon as it arises.
Teacher: That is good. Although your main consciousness isn’t
as strong as that of an enlightened being, whenever an incorrect thought comes
up you can catch it and you know it is wrong. That’s because the part of your
mind that has completed cultivation is already very strong, so it is playing
its role. As soon as bad thoughts arise, you are aware, and so they are caught.
Question:
What does the Lotus symbolize? Does it symbolize cultivators’ emerging from the
filth without being stained?
Teacher: The Lotus Flower[5] is not created in the human dimension. People
think a lotus flower looks like the Lotus Flower, but it’s not the Lotus. The
Lotus Flower is created in Buddhas’ worlds. In Buddhas’ worlds the Lotus Flower
isn’t considered a flower, but rather, it is Attainment Status and the mighty
virtue of a Buddha. The Lotus Flower is not the flower understood by human
concepts, though it can be likened to a flower. Nowadays the lotus flower is
used in Buddhism to symbolize sacredness and purity—emerging from filth without
being stained. It grows from mud and yet it isn’t stained, and remains so
clean, sacred, and pure. It’s used as a metaphor, but it is absolutely not the
Lotus Flower of Buddhas.
Question:
During the course of cultivation, how do we experience the advancement and
breakthrough of levels? I often experience relapses in my body.
Teacher: This is all natural. So you think that you should be
able to sense whichever level you’ve reached in cultivation? That’s not
possible. How should I put it… There are so many people. And moreover, telling
every single person his situation in detail is, for one thing, impossible, and
secondly, you would get attached to those tangible things because of this, and
you can’t focus your attention on that. As Dafa disciples you cultivate
yourselves according to Dafa, and only this way is it the fastest.
Question: Is a person’s personality related to his inborn
quality?
Teacher: If it’s your idiosyncrasies formed postnatally, that
is not your personality but your attachments, and they are formed postnatally.
If, let’s say, some people indeed have their own traits—this person acts
quickly while another is just very slow—or if there are differences among them
in terms of their innate traits, then that is something that belongs to their
origin. What is formed postnatally are things like, for example, the thought
that goes “I just like it this way,” “That’s just how I am,” “I just like to do
it this way,” or the “That’s just how I do it” that come out when doing certain
things. It is wrong to treat these attachments, these idiosyncrasies, as your
own traits or personality. These things all have to be removed.
Question:
How should we understand the concepts of “universe,” “cosmic body,” and
“space-time”?
Teacher: A discussion of the concepts of universe, cosmic
body, and space-time needs to start from these three words. The reason is,
human language is extremely limited. People usually believe that the universe
is what the eyes can see and what people can imagine. I have told you about so
many levels of the universe and about the concept of so many levels of the
universe, and going even further up, there are still levels beyond the concept
of the universe. I call them cosmic bodies. This is the term and perceptual
concept that I have explained to you, and what human beings mean by “cosmic
body” is different from that which I discuss. So there exist different
dimensions in the different universes within a cosmic body, and different
dimensions certainly have their own times. Those are their space-times. The
dimensions that exist in different times are called different space-times.
That’s how the concept is understood on the surface.
Question:
Dafa’s wide spread in society is the laws of the universe remanifesting in the
human world. Is it correct to understand it this way?
Teacher: Yes, but it’s not entirely accurate. That is because
such an immense Fa is not remanifesting in the human world: Never, for
as long as heaven and earth have existed, has this taken place—it’s the first
time in all of creation. (Applause)
Question:
When they have just begun to learn the practice, Americans wish that the instructions
on the music tape had simultaneous English translation.
Teacher: The translation work is underway. However, I think
that adding translated instructions to the exercise tape is not so good. It’s
just like the word “Buddha”: Westerners didn’t have any idea about what the
word means, but now everyone knows. That is to say, certain things just can’t
be translated, although the explanations on the exercises tape can be. Terms
like jieyin and heshi won’t be quite the same once you translate
them. They will lose their original meanings. So those terms can’t be
translated.
Question:
How can we help those who have demonic interference from their own minds
continue on the path of cultivation?
Teacher: First of all, I can’t say that they are good
students, for a student who has done well in cultivation would never have this
problem. His mind, so steadfast in Dafa, solid as rock, would strike fear in
demons at the mere sight of it, much less could they interfere with him. (Applause)
Trying to touch him would be like throwing eggs at a rock, and they wouldn’t
dare touch him in the least. So it’s still because these people have problems
in their minds, and that is especially so when there are foreign beings taking
advantage of the attachments in their minds so as to interfere with them
through deception. It is one hundred percent due to the fact that they still
have things from the past that haven’t been given up—[that’s what you would
find if you were to] look at the reasons behind it. If they didn’t pursue that thing,
it absolutely wouldn’t dare to come. No matter whether it’s the living beings
in the universe from the past or all the living beings who have now been
rectified, they are all watching. It’s only because your mind isn’t righteous
that you attract those evil things. If your mind is righteous, nobody will dare
to come. And even if they really could come, gods wouldn’t allow it. As to how
to correct that person, help him to understand it; the only way is for him to
let go of his attachments and study the Fa more. Once demonic interference from
one’s own mind develops, it is very difficult for the person to enlighten to
things on his own. The more others talk to him about it, the more obsessed he
gets; he just doesn’t want to understand. There is no way out when that is the
case, so just let him be. Nobody should bother with him anymore, then. Don’t
give him an audience—just act as if he didn’t exist. Perhaps he will calm down
when he starts to find it meaningless. But those who have done great damage to the
Fa will never have another chance to obtain the Fa, and what’s more, in the
future they will have to atone for their sins. It’s of their own doing—it’s not
because we lack compassion toward them. I have repeatedly discussed this facet
of the Fa.
Question: I’m very aware that I am constantly overcoming
ordeals, but I have never felt any special changes in the body.
Teacher: Many of our students have endured a lot of
hardships; their sacrifices and the hardships they have endured are indeed
greater than those of others. There are two reasons behind this. One is that
the karma they generated in the past is really enormous, or the bad things they
did were even worse than normal. You might say that now, in this life, you
don’t know about that and that you won’t pay it off, but how could that be
allowed? You have cultivated in Dafa, so I will look after you. I also have to
have you improve in cultivation and have you achieve Consummation. But at the
same time, I can’t tell you that you once did those kinds of things. Yet you
still ask me about why this and that. (Of course, I’m not referring to the
student who asked the question. I’m just giving you an example to explain these
things.) So what do you think can be done? When I see that you are enduring
hardships and suffering, I really worry about you. But relatively speaking,
what has been eliminated is already quite substantial. What Master has
eliminated for you and borne for you is already tremendous; removing any more
of it would not work or be allowed. So what’s to be done? You have to endure a
bit more hardship for what’s left.
Another scenario is that some people are just
attached to their own things and don’t let go. You just don’t let it go, and it
is so deeply concealed that even when you have realized it you still don’t want
to let it go. As soon as it’s hit upon, you immediately evade it and don’t want
to give it further thought. Because you don’t want to let it go—you don’t want
to let it go yet you still want to cultivate, and I see that you have the makings
and are capable of cultivating—I then have to make you understand. When you are
always stuck in that state of being, the ordeals you go through will become
extensive. What [else] could be done, then? There is no other way. This is one
scenario, then, where ordeals are imposed by the person himself.
Also, while cultivating not everyone experiences
changes in the body as noticeably as others do. There are some people who just
don’t feel anything noticeable. No matter what, they just don’t feel anything.
There have been cases like that. Let’s put it this way: No matter how great a
change you have had in the microcosm—even one that turns heaven and earth
upside down—your body at the surface has been desensitized by your postnatal
life, has become numb, and doesn’t feel anything. There are cases like that,
too. But regardless of how your body at the surface has become degenerate and
doesn’t feel anything, your cultivation will not be affected, and your progress
will not be any slower than that of others. When you finally achieve
Consummation, the obstructions at the surface will be nothing. As soon as your gong
comes over everything will be done in an instant. But those [postnatal changes
in your body] might indeed make you insensitive.
Question: Master talked about warped society and warped
human beings. Could you please elaborate on this further for disciples?
Teacher: You know, whether it’s people from the East or from
the West, in ancient times people’s thinking, behavior, and the forms their
societies took were completely different from those of today. Gods all regarded
that as the human way of life. But it too had a process of development. You
know that
Why have gods allowed human society to become
warped, then? As soon as this question is discussed a whole range of issues are
involved, so I would rather not discuss it. But I can give you a brief overview
in a few sentences. Namely, there are old forces in this universe. These old
forces are not demons: They are the lives that came about after things deviated
from the Fa over a long period of time. They have no idea that the universe has
degenerated. It’s precisely this type of being who, in order to safeguard
everything of his own kind, obstructs living beings’ obtaining of the Fa,
impedes Fa-rectification, and has formed an extremely evil force. But they are
not demons, though they are doing things that demons could never even remotely aspire
to doing. They hypocritically pretend that they look out for people’s
well-being, but their damage is real. The appearance they have is that of gods,
when in fact they are not benevolent beings. These forces have had a seriously
obstructive effect during my imparting of this Dafa today. As soon as my gong
reaches them, they actually become nothing. Once they come to understand this
they will discover that they themselves are in the midst of being completely
annihilated, and none of them will escape the fate of being eradicated by the
Fa-rectification. That’s the process during this undertaking. Anyway, once this
subject is discussed it involves something enormous, the issues are just huge.
So put differently, these old forces have existed for quite a long time, and
they thus don’t believe that living beings have deviated from the Fa, and nor
do they believe there has been any change in the universe.
So, as to this undertaking of mine, living beings
from top to bottom all know about it. The gods who are the highest want to
cooperate with it, so they have made a series of arrangements. They believe
that doing it that way is best for me. There has been an arrangement like this
at different levels, linked from top to bottom. Yet they haven’t realized that
their standards and their arrangements have become, to the contrary, obstacles
to my undertaking. They have even been arranging human society from ancient
times to the present so as to determine how today’s mankind would obtain the
Fa. They want to use human bodies and minds to preserve the wisdom of aliens.
This is also a trouble, a difficulty, created for me at the lowest level of my
Fa-rectification and saving people. So while everything they have done is meant
to help this undertaking, all of it in fact acts as an impediment. But the
greatest harm it brings to mankind is the obstruction to people’s obtaining the
Fa. This is especially evident in the disbelief in divine beings that is seen
in modern science, as well as its negation of the traditional ways of thought
and conduct of real human beings. These things are all obstacles to people
obtaining the Fa. Aliens are not gods, and they don’t know that those gods have
arranged things this way. It’s merely that gods have controlled them and opened
the door to let them in. With this, the aliens gained an opportunity, for the
human body is something they have long desired. Nobody can restrict them
anymore then, no matter what they do, so they are doing everything they can to
obtain the human body and occupy places that belong to man. So this is
something really complicated if we’re to talk about it. Saying what I just told
you already involves huge issues. This is why the warped society and the state
of today’s mankind have come about.
Some students have said, “Regardless of how many
disciples there are now, Teacher can only take a few disciples to Consummate in
the future.” I have heard people saying this in different regions. That is
seriously damaging Dafa. If what you said were the case, what would be the point
of my lecturing on the Fa here today? It would be enough for me to gather those
few and teach just them. Why would I offer salvation to all sentient beings?
Still, some of our practitioners actually believe those words. How have you
studied the Fa, I ask? This is one problem. There are also people who say,
“Teacher will attach to a certain student’s body to speak, to give hints to
others, or tell certain things to others.” That is something that absolutely
will not happen. I may often use other people’s mouths, your family members’
mouths, or anyone’s mouth—I might use their mouths to tell you a few words and
give you hints—that’s possible. But attaching to some person’s body… who’s so
special? There is nothing like that whatsoever. Whoever is saying that has a
problem. It’s guaranteed that he is the one with a problem, and it’s the result
of what possessing spirits (futi) have done.
Question:
When I promote the Fa to ordinary people, I ask them to read Zhuan Falun three
times first. If they then want to learn, I will teach them the movements.
Teacher: Don’t make it so absolute. Beginners always have
considerations of one kind or another, so you can teach them the movements as
well, and their gradually coming to understand things is okay too. Or, you may give
them the book, and it’s fine if they want to learn after reading it. There
isn’t anything absolute. Don’t standardize it. Some people find it good after
reading the book once and are anxious to learn the movements. But you tell
them, “No, you have to keep reading it first.” Doing it that way isn’t good.
Question: Some students say:
“Newcomers shouldn’t read the book first. They should contemplate, enlighten to
things, and reflect on things.”
Teacher: Whether it be enlightening, contemplating, or reflecting,
under the circumstance that they haven’t obtained the Fa, no matter what it is
you ask them to think about or enlighten to, they won’t become enlightened,
right? Everyone should read the book and read it more, and then you will be
able to correctly deal with some of the circumstances that manifest during the
course of your cultivation. That is right enlightening. What’s meant by
“enlightening”? It is what a person enlightens to. That’s right enlightening.
So if you were to go off contemplating and reflecting, what would you be
thinking about? You should really filter all the thoughts that come up, and see
which ones are you and which ones are bad thoughts. If it’s a bad thought, you
can’t let it continue to be thought. As for contemplation, you don’t have to
try to contemplate something. When you came to understand the Fa, you all had a
process like this: You found it good right after you picked up the book and
read it. Why did you find it good? You are rational, you have your thinking,
and you have real life experiences in ordinary society, so you know the Fa is
good. You knew it the moment you read the book, but that was merely on a
perceptual level, though. By constantly reading the book you come to understand
its value more and more, and this elevates your understanding to a rational
one. So what else is there to contemplate? If you think, “Is the section of the
Fa I studied today correct? Does this chapter make sense?” then your
understanding is going astray. Doing it like that is definitely wrong.
Question:
Due to shortcomings in spreading the Fa, up to this day there are still not a
lot of senior personnel in the scientific and technological community who are
true cultivators. What should we do?
Teacher: About this, it
doesn’t matter what department it is or what social class it is, the spreading
of Dafa aims at people’s hearts, it aims at individuals, and not at any social
groups. For example, let’s say a person has some authority and he commands
people: “Everyone has to come learn. Not learning isn’t an option.” Then who
would sincerely come? They would come because you forced them, you ordered
them, or out of consideration for friendship; they wouldn’t come for obtaining
Dafa. It only works when a person truly wants to learn of his own will. So no
matter how high people’s positions are or how much power they have, we only
look at their hearts. Nobody can represent someone else. Some of us say that
after people in certain organizations obtain the Fa, they may benefit us more
in terms of spreading Dafa and affirming that Dafa is scientific. I’m not
against your having thoughts like that. It’s excellent that you want to
safeguard Dafa and do work for Dafa. However, things usually aren’t how you
have imagined them. It depends on whether the person wants to obtain it or not.
It works only if he wants to obtain it. If he doesn’t want to, it won’t work.
Dafa won’t suffer on account of somebody missing out. Some students get all
worried and say: “We’re afraid to tell students how to do things at the practice
site. Once we tell them how to do things, students will stop practicing and
leave.” I’d say that might be acceptable when a student lacks an in-depth
understanding of Dafa. But if a student is still like that after a period of
study, then let him go if he wants to. What we want are cultivators, not people
who mix in with the crowd to try to gain something, or people who are here to
fill some quota. If ninety-nine out of a hundred were not sincere and left,
with only one sincere person remaining, that would still be your achievement.
Even if there were just one person saved, it would be outstanding. But it won’t
be like that. After all, there are already so many people cultivating in Dafa
now.
Question:
When overcoming an ordeal, sometimes I feel that I enlighten to it and feel
instantly relieved. But later I find that the same test returns.
Teacher: Just now a student
asked me why the state of connecting the Heavenly Circuit (zhoutian),
which was experienced before, is now repeated. I can tell you that in order to
maximally adjust to the condition of ordinary people’s society in your
cultivation, the part you have cultivated is separated for you in the
microcosm. The part that is yet to complete cultivation may have the same
problem and have to continue cultivating; it will be separated when it finishes
cultivation. Let me explain this with an example. There are mechanisms at every
level of your body. There may be bad thoughts in the many levels of your body.
In other words, a bad thought is likely to be composed of the very shallow
things at the outermost surface; it also might be composed of matter that is
somewhat more microcosmic. So some bad thoughts might be present from the
microcosm up to the surface. Therefore, even though this side of you has met
the standard and a layer is cleansed and separated, there is still some in the
next layer. Elimination of the things you need to let go of in your cultivation
has to be repeated.
Some people say: “I feel that I have cultivated
pretty well and have been doing well for some time. But why are bad thoughts
coming up again now?” It’s that the part you have cultivated pretty well has
been separated, while the part that is not yet cultivated has to continue
cultivating; it is, however, becoming weaker and weaker. I know—sometimes the
thoughts that spring up are just awful. You don’t have to worry; the more
microcosmic matter is, the greater its energy, which is to say that the more
power it has, the greater its bad influence, and it can control people. At the outermost
surface, the closer matter gets to the surface, the lesser its energy, and the
lesser the energy, the lesser its ability; but the lesser it is and the closer
it gets to the surface, the worse it becomes. So the worse and lower it is, the
less energy it has. That’s the relationship. That is why even though you have
eliminated and reduced a lot of bad stuff and it has become weak, it is likely
to appear even worse. You don’t need to worry about these things, for you have
already cultivated to this stage, and this means that you will become aware of
a bad thought as soon as it arises. This is something that’s hard to do at the
beginning stage. Bad thoughts are being gradually removed layer after layer.
But you should understand clearly what I said. You might think: “Oh, that’s
what it is. I won’t care when bad thoughts come up again.” If you don’t
restrain yourself and resist them, you are not cultivating. That’s exactly the
relationship. You distinguish them, you restrain them, and you know to cultivate
yourself and restrain bad thoughts. When you do that, you are cultivating and
continuously eliminating them, again and again, and the parts that meet the
standard are becoming more and more. When they all meet the standard, it is
Consummation. That’s the process.
Question: Disciples in
Teacher: The
old forces in the universe have a set of arrangements, and their arrangements
have seriously impeded the things I want to do today.
None of them know where I come from. I have
explained a principle to you before. Let’s take gods for example. Regardless of
which level a god is at, he doesn’t know if there are still any gods higher
than him. And moreover, the existence of gods is different from the existence
of human beings. When I tell you today that there are heavens beyond the
heavens, you all believe it in principle, but your thinking is different from
that of gods. You all understand it from the Fa, while a god thinks that he
sees all and knows all. If you say there is more beyond him, he doesn’t believe
you—he really doesn’t believe you. This is determined by his Attainment Status
and level, and it’s also what his wisdom has affirmed and enlightened to. Below
his level or at levels the same as his, he sees everything with one glance and
can do whatever he wants to. To all the living beings below his level, he is
absolutely venerable. As for me, they can all see my manifested images and ways
of manifestation at their levels, but none of them can see my forms of
existence that are higher than them. That is why they dare to do as they have.
They think that I too belong where they are—“This
is how I have arranged it, and it’s beneficial to you.” In fact, they don’t
know that I have higher things to do. They do it this way, level after level,
with this level thinking this way, and that level thinking this way—they all
think this way—so they have arranged an obstacle at every level, one after
another. As for spreading the Fa, I originally wanted to have 200 million
people obtain the Fa during the Fa-rectification process. Since there are over
7 billion people in the world, 200 million is still a small number, isn’t it? However,
they have limited it to 100 million, stubbornly holding on to their warped
things and not letting go. Whenever I break through one level, they still have
arrangements at the next higher level. I have to break through all of them,
level after level… only then will I not be restricted by this set of
arrangements of theirs. So their arrangements have formed an enormous obstacle
to my Fa-rectification.
Question: Many people are looking
for motivation for cultivating, such as establishing the concept of “going
home.” I wonder if cultivating without any intention is better.
Teacher: Establishing a kind of confidence, motivation, or
aspiration for going somewhere as the motivation for cultivation isn’t wrong in
principle. But I think there is still an omission, because you are still
cultivating for something. Of course, if you want to cultivate in order to
return, or reach a certain state, I think that as long as you establish a goal
or affirm a righteous thought, you shouldn’t think about it further. After
forming that wish you should just concentrate on cultivating yourself, as you
don’t need to worry about anything else. If you are always thinking like that,
using it as a kind of driving force to motivate yourself, then after you reach
a certain level the requirement on you will be higher, and at that time I think
it might not necessarily be a driving force but instead what looks like an
attachment. But there isn’t any problem at the beginning stage. I said that a
Tathagata preaches compassion. But when a god at a very high level takes a
look, he thinks, “What compassion? What do you mean compassion?” He
doesn’t understand it. It’s not that he doesn’t understand—he understands
everything—but that he thinks your compassion is an attachment. The principles
go ever higher, and the Fa also goes higher and higher. At different levels,
there are always requirements upon living beings specific to their realms at
those levels.
Question:
Every time I attend a Fa conference, I feel greatly uplifted and encouraged afterwards.
But after I have returned home for a period of time, I find myself not being
diligent again.
Teacher: I was talking about this question with our students
yesterday. You’ve all had this experience. You all know you should be diligent
after listening to Teacher speak in the Dafa environment. But you are, after
all, cultivating in ordinary people’s society, and so everything you come into
contact with is about ordinary self-interest, and everything affects your
self-interest. So even the atmosphere exuded by the society as a whole is about
living for this. In this environment, without being conscious of it, you might
feel that everything is just supposed to be like this, and this will make you
not diligent. This is a key reason for failing to stay diligent. But on the
other hand, it is exactly because this environment can make a person slack off,
can make a person turn bad, and is complicated and difficult to cultivate in,
that if you can emerge from it you are great, you can go very high, you can return,
and you will have others say that you are extraordinary. Isn’t that how it is?
So, in any environment, and in this environment today, in order for us to
become consistently diligent, I think we should read the book a lot, and read
the book more.
Question:
The more microcosmic, the higher the level. Teacher mentioned yesterday that
the different levels of the heavens progress downward toward the microcosm.
Teacher: There isn’t any “up” or “down” as you have imagined.
Earth is round—“down” is also “up.” Earth is round in the first place, and
human beings are upside down one moment and right side up again another. There
isn’t the human concept of “up” and “down.” The surrounding four sides and
eight faces are all “ups.” When I say “moving upward,” it can actually be
understood as going toward the microcosm. To be exact, moving up to the heavens
is going toward the microcosm.
Question:
Teacher used “light-year” to describe time in Zhuan Falun, but doesn’t
“light-year” in physics refer to distance?
Teacher: When I talked about the cosmic body, I used the
distance of a space-time concept to discuss the time that’s required. Within
the same level, distance can be discussed. From the macrocosm to the microcosm,
the concept of distance undergoes changes along with the differences in space
and time. Mankind doesn’t have a concept or term for distances of a permanent
space-time or unified time. I am breaking away from all times in carrying out
this undertaking—that’s my approach. But any living beings, as long as they are
within a particular environment, are going to be restricted by the time in that
environment. That is why when discussing the structure of cosmic bodies, the
concept of distance can’t be separated from time and speed. Within a given
realm, there exist different worlds or different particles of the same level.
They can be measured by distance because they belong to the same level and
share a unified time and distance. In the process of moving from the microcosm
to the macrocosm, however, there aren’t unified times or unified distances.
Everything in the universe is created by Dafa for sentient beings, including
the cultures of sentient beings at different levels. Fa-rectification not only
rectifies anything that is not upright, it is also creating a new human
culture. Past ones are inadequate. I think I have explained this clearly. (Applause)
Question:
Whenever I experience challenges with emotion (qing), I always have the feeling
of not being able to let go no matter what. Am I one of those people who are
unwilling to change their innermost nature?
Teacher: It’s wrong if you treat emotion as your own
rationality or something that is part of your body. But if you intentionally
push yourself to give up something that you haven’t reached the standard for,
then you are forcing it. Through the process of continual cultivation, reading
the books, and practicing the exercises, a person can gradually understand the
Fa from within the Fa. You have a higher requirement for yourself and try your
best to restrain those bad thoughts and things that you are attached to; you do
your best to take them lightly and resist them. The portion of you that manages
to meet the standard, even if it’s just for a split second, is then fixed
there. It continually and constantly breaks through toward the surface in this
way. When finally it has broken through completely, when the very last layer is
broken through, you will discover that your thinking and thoughts are
completely different from before. Even your way of thinking will be different
from before. That is your true self, your true nature, whereas everything and
anything that you think about and can’t let go of are postnatally acquired
notions which are entangling you.
Along with those notions, man also has a special
environment in this dimension, that is, emotion. In the Three Realms everything
is soaked in emotion. You can’t even be separated from this emotion—you are
within it. Actually, what you need to do is find a way to break away from
emotion. Although what I said is very explicit, those who have cultivated for a
short period of time can’t do it. It’s also hard for veteran students to
completely do this before Consummation. Be strict with yourself in cultivation
and eliminate those bad things. In Dafa cultivation everything can be changed.
If you constantly read the book and try your best to conduct yourself as a
cultivator in everyday life, that will enable you to undergo a complete change,
since Dafa is tempering you.
Question:
There is a region that plans to hold large-scale experience-sharing conferences
once every month. So far they have already held three conferences. I think it’s
too much.
Teacher: It is too much. Don’t hold them so frequently. It’s
enough, I think, if large-scale conferences like this one are held once or
twice a year. If they are held too often it’s likely to affect your
cultivation. I say this because cultivation is the number one priority; your
spreading the Fa is also for the purpose of helping people obtain the Fa. It’s
for you to truly improve and to increase your confidence in cultivation that we
do things to spread the Fa, but we shouldn’t fall into mere formalities.
Question:
Yesterday Master said, “My original plan was 200 million people.” Does this
mean the prospect for our spreading the Fa is 200 million people?
Teacher: Everything that impedes Fa-rectification is in the
final stage of being eliminated. Yet way too much of the time prepared for
people to cultivate has been lost and is irretrievable. If another 100 million
people come, it’s guaranteed that they won’t be the same as you, and they won’t
keep pace or catch up with you. But does this mean that we then stop doing
things to spread the Fa? No, we should still do them. That’s because there are
still things for the next phase of mankind that need to be done, and there are
still many people who have not cultivated or studied. You should let people who
don’t know about the Fa know about it.
Question:
When we go to remote areas to spread the Fa, I worry that the cultivation
program that Master arranged for the disciples will be disrupted by doing that.
Teacher: It won’t be. If in a remote area no one knows about
the Fa, it is not wrong for you to go there to spread it, and your cultivation
won’t be delayed because of this. Continue reading the book and practicing the
exercises while doing things to spread the Fa, and that in itself is
cultivation.
Question:
How high a level can “selfishness” penetrate to? How can we break through that
level?
Teacher: The reason that lives can deviate from the Fa and
lives can drop down from high levels is that they develop selfishness. The
reason mankind develops selfishness is that many postnatally formed bad notions
develop in people’s minds. Actually, it’s pollution of the mind. Gods at higher
levels are purer and more sacred. If they develop things that they should not
develop, then they are impure. The concept or manifestation of level that you
have perceived doesn’t exist.
Question:
Teacher said that we might not return to merely the places where our lives were
created, but go even higher.
Teacher: There may be such cases, but it’s extremely
difficult to do. There is one point to make, though: As long as you keep
cultivating, and this includes those who have obtained the Fa, I don’t want to
leave a single person behind. (Applause) I will definitely find ways to
have you return to where you were created. (Applause) As for going to
higher places, that has to depend on you yourself. There are special cases,
extremely special ones. Actually, you are using human thinking to contemplate
this. What is most important in your life is to return to your original
place—that is your greatest wish and the most joyful wish. The meaning of life
doesn’t lie in how high of a level a being is at. Rather, it’s about his being
able to obtain what he is supposed to obtain, and then he will be satisfied.
That is what happiness is. But it sounds rather crude when described in human
words. Human beings all have an incessant desire driving them to explore
everything, and that mentality isn’t good. Gods don’t have that mentality. To
sentient beings the universe is boundless and its end can’t be seen. So every
desire to know about higher things is a kind of insatiable, dreadful thing, and
it just won’t work.
Among those who cultivated in the past, there were
indeed people who cultivated very high, but the hardships they endured were
really enormous! Let me give you an example. When I am carrying out this
undertaking, I go all out to continually break through toward the microcosm and
do Fa-rectification; the way I do it is from the bottom up. Where do you think
I have reached while doing this? I have reached a place that is far beyond
having human bodies. In that place there is nothing but matter, and lives in
the form of matter pervade it.
During a special historic period of major changes
in the universe, there were a few gods who were swept to a particular level and
couldn’t get down, so they just stayed there. They felt that it was terribly
dull, and they wholeheartedly wanted to come down and return to their original
places. It’s different from what you have imagined; it’s not true that the
higher the better. Later, when I reached that level during my undertaking, I
sent them back and they were all delighted. (Applause) Some of what I’m
saying might sound pretty hard to believe. While sitting here, I’m just Li
Hongzhi, with the complete appearance of a human being. What I have told you
are principles of the Fa; what I have told you are all real events. Yet none of
the abilities manifest in the dimension of ordinary people. That’s because I
don’t need to use that kind of ability to make you assimilate and transcend. By
using principles of Dafa you can consummate everything.
Question:
I heard that every time we finish reading Zhuan Falun, we can get rid of a
layer of shell? (Laughter among students.)
Teacher: Don’t laugh. I think it does indeed have that power.
What you learn reading Zhuan Falun the first time won’t be
repeated when you read the book the second time. That’s why I tell you to read
more and read a lot. The reason you can awaken to higher principles is that you
have advanced to another realm. If you haven’t reached that realm, you won’t be
allowed to know principles at that level.
Question:
Is there any connection between reading the Fa a certain number of times and
the level achieved upon Consummation?
Teacher: The number of times the Fa is read can accelerate
the progress toward Consummation. But whether or not you can achieve
Consummation also depends on your own cultivation and some other things.
Actually, if you are able to read the book [well] like this, I know you will do
everything well.
Question:
If the social statuses of two individuals who have the same inborn quality are
different, will they reach the same level upon Consummation?
Teacher: Cultivation doesn’t take into consideration social
status in human society. There is no distinction between rich and poor, or
upper and lower class, the way people classify things—all are treated equally.
If two persons are from the same level, then there is no difference at all, and
their levels are sure to be the same. And if they’re from different cultivation
ways, that shouldn’t pose a problem either. If some people have made special
contributions, this will help them make a huge step forward in terms of the
progress of their cultivation. (Applause) However, I think you shouldn’t
focus on that front, and then look for a shortcut and try to do more good deeds
when you go back home. It’s likely things would turn out just the opposite.
It’s not that you can accomplish whatever you want to do.
Question: Some individual assistants don’t meet the
requirements of Dafa, and some students have asked to replace them. How should
we deal with this?
Teacher: If this person damages the Fa he must be replaced.
Even if he isn’t replaced, I think that none of the students will stay with him
anymore, so he will naturally no longer be an assistant. If it’s not because he
damages Dafa but just that he has problems with his methods of doing work, then
you can kindheartedly tell him where he did wrong. He might realize it, or he
might not. But he is a cultivator too and will eventually have to realize it;
perhaps there needs to be a process. In that case, have we become really
attached to his mistakes during this process and can’t let it go? If so, then
you have become attached to it, and it turns out you are looking outward. Why
can’t you think about why you saw his mistake? It’s his mistake, but why are
you so unhappy about it? Is it because there is something that you didn’t
do right? Why do you consider it such a big deal? No matter what the situation,
when you encounter a problem you should always cultivate yourself and examine
yourself.
If this assistant has really cultivated pretty well,
when he has a problem and you point it out to him he is sure to examine
himself. If others point out problems to an assistant and he doesn’t look at
himself, then I would say the assistant has studied the Fa poorly and needs to
make big improvements. (Applause) This isn’t about being lenient with
anyone. It’s because you are all in the process of cultivating yourselves and
all have attachments and things that you can’t let go. Maybe you’re right,
maybe not. And your being wrong might cause you to see another person’s being
right as being wrong, or your being right might cause you to see another
person’s being wrong as being right.
You are all cultivating. You all applauded a
moment ago when you heard me say these words—I said that I would try my best not
to leave behind a single disciple who has obtained the Fa. If I can do even
that, can’t you at least treat everyone with kindness? (Applause) If you
can all search deep within yourselves whenever you encounter conflicts—asking
“Is it because I have a problem?”—I would say that everything will be easy to
deal with, and the speed of your cultivation will be very, very fast. But I can
only talk about this topic with you like this. As you go through your
cultivation, you might know very well that you are wrong but still have a hard
time handling it, so I can only tell you to try your best to do well and stay
diligent. Conflicts are inevitable. Without conflicts there wouldn’t be any
improvement. If assistants did well, students did well, and nobody had any conflicts
in this setting, who would be happy? Demons would be happy, and I wouldn’t be.
The reason is, you would lose your cultivation environment, you wouldn’t be
able to improve, and you wouldn’t be able to achieve the goal of returning. So
you shouldn’t view conflicts as bad.
I often say that there is no harm in enduring a
little hardship. Haven’t you realized that conflicts are also a form of
hardship? (Applause) That’s why in recent times things of this sort were
relatively more frequent among our Dafa disciples in the
Some people have said: “Teacher, I really worry
that my legs don’t feel any pain when I sit with them crossed. Is it true that
without hardships my cultivation isn’t moving very fast?” If other people can
understand that much, why can’t you feel happy when conflicts arise? [Why not
think,] “Ah, here comes an opportunity for me to improve.” When people run into
a conflict, they all push it away, trying to put it on someone else. That’s why
you become carefree and think it’s pretty good when you don’t have any
conflicts, and then when conflicts do show up you don’t like it. Conflict in
itself is part of cultivating amidst hardship. Some people say that they don’t
interact much with society since they are getting on in their years. Though
your age may be advanced, you will be made to, so that you may improve and
achieve Consummation, think about distressing things from your past like those
“eight years of millet and ten years of chaff,” even when you do nothing more
than just sit on your bed. You will be made to feel angry when you sit there,
so angry that you can’t stand it, after which you will realize: “Hey, I’m a
cultivator. I shouldn’t be angry like this.” It is to eliminate your
attachment. In any case, if you just want things to be pleasant you won’t have
any way to improve, so I can’t let that happen. (Applause)
Only in the midst of conflicts can human
attachments be eliminated, and only in the midst of conflicts can a person know
where he went wrong. Whenever you get into a conflict with others, I guarantee
that it is because your attachment has surfaced and is quite obvious. If you
don’t seize that moment and you stay bull-headed and argue your points, the
process of your stubbornly arguing is none other than that attachment showing
itself. If you can dig further to see what is behind it, the root of the
attachment will be found. (Applause) So, in cultivation you should
conscientiously cultivate yourselves, and you can’t always be thinking about
asking my Law Bodies to give you hints. Law Bodies will never directly
tell you what to do.
As you know, I just told you that during the
Fa-rectification I continuously break through toward the microcosm. What makes
that possible? It’s because I have grabbed the main portion of all the
different individual levels and brought them here with me (applause) so
that they can’t escape. Of course, there is one problem: During the course of
annihilation, when they are being annihilated into something like dust and are
falling down—they’re annihilated because they are degenerate, even worse than
demons, and when they are being annihilated, because they are evil beings, they
still want to do bad things just before they die—they purposely fall on
Beijing.
As you know, people are so worried about the
weather in
It is actually the very degenerate substances from
the annihilated microcosmic dimensions continuously falling down. When you fly
in an airplane, after the airplane takes off five hundred meters from the
airport you will see a nice looking blue sky, but when you look down, “Oh,
my”—it looks as if a lid has covered everything. Where did it come from and why
doesn’t it ever disperse? It came from the microcosm. That is why its origin
can’t be detected. It comes from the particles smaller than the surface
molecules, so people can’t figure out where it is from. It was eventually
determined to be nitride. About nitride (those of you who study chemistry might
know this), it is the dust of organic substances, and it’s the same as the
smoke from an incinerator. In fact, it is generated from the annihilation of
those degenerate microcosmic lives.
Question:
Teacher’s essays “Remaking Mankind,” “Degeneration,” and “Dialogue with Time”
were written in 1996 and 1997. Why did you wait until 1998 to let us see them?
Teacher: There were reasons for the timing of when I brought
them out and let you see them. They were published later because I wrote them
upon seeing certain things surface. Once they became widespread I published
them. (Applause)
Question:
As the structure of the universe that Teacher discusses gets bigger and bigger,
my views and breadth of mind seem to be expanding. The objective of Teacher’s
discussing this is…?
Teacher: Didn’t you just spell it out? As a matter of fact, I
am expanding your capacity, and everything belonging to you needs to expand and
grow along with it. I said that a cosmic body is still but a speck of dust in
the universe. Whatever I told you that you could understand and what is larger
than that by billions or trillions of times is still but a speck of dust in the
universe. Nobody else knows what the universe ultimately is. (Applause)
Moreover, the universe and what it contains is enormous and complicated, and
the human mind can’t contain it all. There is no such language, so it is
impossible for me to describe it for you. In fact, no matter how I have
described it, be it like this or that, it hasn’t gone beyond one system. It’s
similar to the fact that Earth is a particle, but I tell you that particles
similar to Earth pervade the universe’s cosmic bodies; it’s just like the
particles of a certain size in the air that compose air molecules, which
permeate everything and are everywhere. So then how enormous do you think their
cosmic bodies are?! What I have told you is an explanation from within one
system, and the degree of complexity is simply beyond words. And it can’t be illustrated
by drawings either, because the complexity of the structure is beyond what
trillions of intersecting three-dimensional planes could illustrate, so it is
very hard to explain it to you clearly. (Applause) Nonetheless, through Zhuan
Falun, or when you reach a certain level in cultivation, you will come to
comprehend it in your mind and you will feel its enormity, though you won’t be
able to express it in words. (Applause)
Question:
Why is emotion so difficult to part with?
Teacher: Let me tell you: A human being, this shell of yours,
is born within this emotion and has been immersed in emotion since birth. The
bodily cells that compose this shell are born in emotion’s environment. If you
part from it you are no longer a human but a god. When people get attached to
emotion they are actually being passive, even though they think they are being
active.
Question:
Homosexuality is sinful, but I have sunk into agony and despair. I believe in
Zhen-Shan-Ren, but am I worthy of cultivation?
Teacher: Being incorrectly guided by the prevailing thinking,
being corroded by the incorrect, predominant publicity as well as this
environment, people might make a lot of mistakes, but that doesn’t mean they
are hopeless. You can study Dafa and correct those wrong thoughts and behaviors
of yours. It’s just like what I said—why would a person be homosexual?
Actually, human beings are passively attached to emotion. And when you are
attached to it, it will create all kinds of attachments in your mind. From
those attachments, all kinds of notions or even degenerate notions will be
generated. You might suddenly like a particular mannerism of that person or
maybe his appearance, and then for quite some time you are infatuated with
those things. Or perhaps you just like a person’s attitude and manner, and then
a notion forms over time so that you just like his particular manner. Then, as
that thing gradually becomes stronger and stronger, it will come to control
your mind. After your like for something forms a notion, it will grow stronger
and stronger. And if that mental state is one that’s warped, slowly that
degenerate thought will develop and expand, becoming even more warped. So
homosexuality is something warped that exists within emotion. It’s in fact also
a notion that has formed, albeit a degenerate one.
But at this time people all treat these things as
part of themselves. They are actually things formed by your incorrect postnatal
perceptions having gained control of you, yet you think they’re your own
thoughts. People never believe that their notions aren’t part of themselves, so
it’s certain you don’t know about the thought karma you yourself have formed.
You have never thought about whether or not any of the thoughts manifested by
thought karma are really you. In fact, the thoughts manifesting in your mind
might not always be you. But it’s not impossible for those incorrect thoughts
to be corrected, since studying Dafa is to have people take an upright path and
do better. I think everything can be corrected in Dafa. There isn’t any
problem, and you can study the Fa. But you should be really responsible to
yourself and should especially reject those thoughts. They are harming you,
they are asking you to do things that aren’t human, and they are dragging you
toward hell. Yet people with warped mindsets still believe that it’s part of
themselves. As soon as that thought comes up, telling you to like someone of
the same sex, you must remember that it is not you and is here to harm you
again. But because you have passively gone along with it for a long time, you
think it’s pretty good after having gone along with it, and so you have become
a homosexual. That mindset must be corrected.
Question: I’m fifty years old, but some students find that
I am sixteen or seventeen years old when they look. Is that the “me” in the
other dimension or the “me” who is cultivating?
Teacher: I have discussed this question before. While you are
sitting here, no matter how old you are, that isn’t the age of your innate
nature, and nor is it your real age. This is what manifests within the time and
environment of human beings. Perhaps you are in your sixties or seventies, but
your main spirit is just seven or eight years old; perhaps you are in your
forties or fifties, and your main spirit is only seventeen or eighteen years
old. Through your cultivation, however, you—and this includes your surface
layer at the human level—are transforming into the best and the youngest state.
This is certain.
Question: I am a Westerner and a professional magician. I think
that David’s magic can be performed without using supernormal abilities. I
believe what you said is true, but deep down inside I’m still unsure.
Teacher: Magic is a technique, and it relies on sleight of
hand or the veil of props. It should never be confused with supernormal
abilities. However, when a person hones a few specific skills, a state similar
to supernormal abilities can develop. For example, some people take off their
hats and toss them back and forth—this hand throws and the other hand catches.
They throw them very fast, and even though their hands don’t seem to move very
fast, they can still catch them. This means that after a long period of time,
they can develop a kind of equalized time difference that is similar to a
supernormal ability, and so that kind of effect can be achieved.
As you know, Tai-chi Chuan is slow and leisurely.
So how is it that it can be used in real combat? Although it appears to be slow
and leisurely, its supernormal ability can equalize time. It doesn’t use the time
in this dimension. Your human eyes see that it’s slow, but it is actually
moving very fast. No matter how fast you throw a punch, you are not as fast as
he is; he moves slowly and leisurely but he has hit you before you know it. Due
to the fact that none of the mind-guiding principles of Tai-chi Chuan were
passed down, people today don’t know the real factors behind Tai-chi Chuan. You
know that this difference is one that has to do with time and space, and the
disparity is quite large. We Easterners have heard about legendary “magic
feet,” where you see an old man walking who walks very slowly and leisurely,
but you can’t catch up with him, even on horseback. This means that he doesn’t
move in the same dimension. I have found that when magic reaches a very skilled
level, magicians sometimes carry a very weak form of this thing, but they
themselves don’t notice it. They don’t know it themselves and they think it’s a
skill. “Practice makes perfect”—perhaps that’s what it means. But they can’t
perform supernormal-ability magic.
Question:
When we translate or proofread Dafa books, how can we avoid mixing in our own
human notions or human things?
Teacher: In mainland
Oftentimes you all think, “You’re wrong,” or “I’m
right,” and start arguing. Actually, after you say what you want to say, you
find that even what you have said is wrong. It means that you can only
understand it cognitively and cannot express it verbally. Principles understood
at high levels can’t be written down in human language. So if you want to put
it into writing, it’s enough if you accurately translate the surface meaning of
the words. Try your best to find accurate words to translate the Fa, and this
way it will be hard for you to add in your own notions.
Question: I saw a bright, white Falun many times. In the
middle there was a red 
. Did I go astray?
Teacher: No, you didn’t. The colors you saw were caused by
reasons related to your Third Eye, and you didn’t go astray. The Falun is a
miniature of the universe, and in the universe it has several colors that are
ever changing—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, purple, white, and
colorless—there are quite a few colors, not just one. We feel that this color
is bright, relatively speaking, so we use it as the symbol of our Dafa. Aside
from the gold color of the and the colors of the Tai-ji that don’t change, other colors may
change. What’s more, the composition of color for things in other dimensions is
different from that of the colors in this dimension of human beings, which are
composed of molecules. Colors in those dimensions are composed of material
particles that are more refined. That’s why they look so brilliant and refined,
and are incredibly beautiful.
Through the Fa conference over the past two
days, and especially through students’ speeches that were given yesterday
afternoon, many students have been deeply touched. Fa conferences are an
opportunity for you to find where you have fallen behind and to build
confidence in cultivation. So you should incorporate what you have gained and
understood from this conference into your ensuing cultivation, truly improve as
quickly as possible, and waste no time in becoming diligent. This is the most
crucial thing.
Holding Fa conferences in and of itself isn’t the
goal. The goal is to help you better improve yourselves. I also know that your
understanding of the Fa is becoming higher and higher. There are many things I
don’t need to say anything about, including the questions I answered today—you
understand many things.
Originally this Fa conference was intended to be a
regional experience-sharing conference for the
Question: Disciples from different regions and different
countries would like to, on behalf of disciples in their own regions or
countries, send their regards to Master.
Teacher: I thank you all. (Applause)
I don’t want to say anything more. I hope that you
will be ever more diligent, have higher understandings, break through levels
more rapidly, reach Consummation, and achieve the Unlocking of Gong and full
Enlightenment as soon as possible.
[1] Lunyu (loon-yew)¾the
statement at the beginning of the book Zhuan Falun and other Dafa books,
sometimes translated as “On Buddha Fa.”
[2] An
idiomatic expression referring to something that’s bound to be fruitless, like
going down a dead end.
[3] benti (bun-tee)—“own-body,”
“original-body,” or “true being.”
[4] wuwei (woo-way)¾
“no intention,” “non-intent,” or “no-action.”
[5]
There are two different characters used for the term “lotus flower” in Chinese;
here, we translate one with caps and the other without in order to
differentiate.