FALUN BUDDHA FA
Teaching the
Fa at the Conference in
(May
8, 1999)
Li Hongzhi
(Applause)
Hello everyone!
Among those of us who are sitting here, some just
saw me at the Sydney Fa Conference. While most of you are
A person is bound to have all kinds of questions
while cultivating. As a matter of fact, I can tell you that after studying the
Fa for a long time many of you might have had the experience of no longer
having that many questions. Why don’t you have as many questions? It seems as
though even when you see me you can’t think of any questions to ask. Actually,
the main reason is that through studying the Fa you have gradually improved
your understanding of the Fa, and you are truly able to improve on the basis of
the Fa. When you manage to understand the Fa on the basis of the Fa, everything
will become clear to you. But since Dafa is still being spread in ordinary
human society, there are still new people coming to learn, and so there is
bound to be a lot of people constantly raising questions. You might have
noticed that many of the questions raised at our Fa conferences are repetitive.
That is, many of the questions raised at each event have already been asked at
other Fa conferences. Why is that? It’s because there are always new students
coming to learn, and new students raise questions that tend to represent things
one encounters during the initial stages of studying the Fa. Of course, among
the questions are also some from veteran students or from those who would like
to know a bit more about certain subjects. Yet I think that as long as you read
the book and study the Fa, you will come to know everything. As long as you
read the book and study the Fa, you will come to know what you are supposed to
know at different levels.
Of course, when you realize the inner meaning of a
sentence during your cultivation, you are actually at that level already. It’s
just that you still have ordinary human thoughts on your human side. What does
“ordinary human thoughts” mean? It means that you still have the various
emotions and desires of an ordinary human, you still have ordinary human
attachments in various regards, and that you still have ordinary human emotions
when you think about things—all of which are ordinary human thoughts—and then
there are the concepts you have formed after birth, and karma is part of it,
thought karma. Since you are in the process of cultivating, these things
definitely exist; it’s just a matter of extent. But through cultivation these
can become fewer and fewer. For someone who hasn’t cultivated that long, or who
hasn’t been that diligent, the amount of ordinary human thoughts is going to be
greater. That is to say, everyone has so many ordinary human thoughts that if
you can’t evaluate things with higher standards of thinking, you are bound to
have a lot of questions to ask. In fact, this is usually caused by having too
many ordinary human concepts. You aren’t allowed to instantaneously comprehend
numerous principles of the Fa at a certain level just as clearly as if you had
achieved the Unlocking of Gong or Enlightenment. That’s because you have so
many ordinary human thoughts, and a human mind is not allowed to know the
things of Buddhas. The true principles of Fa and the actual situations in the
realms of gods can’t be revealed to humans. While cultivating in the Fa at the
surface level, when you understand a line or a paragraph of the Fa’s principles
in Zhuan Falun, you are actually at that level already. The reason you
aren’t allowed to know that much is that you have ordinary human thoughts. The
part of your mind that has ordinary human thoughts and that hasn’t been fully
cultivated is not allowed to learn the things of Buddhas. That’s the reason.
But when you realize the true inner meaning of that line or reach different
understandings of it at different levels, you are in fact at that level.
You still need to continue cultivating among
everyday people and continue eliminating ordinary human attachments. Your
ordinary human thoughts can’t be instantly removed while you are cultivating.
If they were removed entirely, you wouldn’t be able to cultivate. I often say
that if a person didn’t have any ordinary human thoughts, he would know everything
that other people are thinking. Upon even just seeing a person’s gestures or
eye movements he would know what the person is thinking, what a person wants,
or how far something will end up going. Why aren’t you able to know these
things yet? It’s because you still have ordinary human thoughts and you are
still confusing yourself with everyday people. When you go beyond the realm of
everyday people, you will find that things among everyday people can be seen
clearly with a glance. But all of you are cultivating among everyday people. If
you weren’t cultivating among everyday people, you couldn’t improve. If today
you were to eliminate all of your ordinary human thoughts and bad factors,
including your various ordinary human concepts, and become a completely pure
and cleansed being, you would find that you are no longer able to cultivate.
Why? As you know, a god can no longer cultivate after he Consummates, for
illusions will have been shattered for him. If you didn’t have those ordinary
human thoughts, you would no longer be in an ordinary human state and all
illusions would be shattered. You would know your past and future, as well as
those of others. That’s why it would be hard for you to still cultivate. But
this doesn’t mean that as soon as you know your past and future you can no
longer cultivate, for the things you know will have limitations. What I was
referring to was reaching the state of complete Enlightenment—knowing
everything, being omniscient. So there is a difference. In other words, when you
are practicing Dafa among everyday people, it won’t work if you have no
ordinary human thoughts left before you achieve Consummation. But having
ordinary human thoughts, you aren’t allowed to know the true picture of things
at different levels. That’s how it works.
Since you have ordinary human thoughts, you are
sure to look at Dafa with an ordinary human mindset and ideas whenever you are
not vigilant in cultivation. These kinds of things will definitely happen. This
is also to say that during your cultivation there will be conflicts and tests,
and things such as not being able to let go of ordinary human thinking will
appear. That’s cultivation. Human thoughts are eliminated layer by layer in
Dafa cultivation. You know, it’s just like the layers of an onion being peeled
off one by one until eventually the core is reached. In Dafa cultivation, a
person can’t remove everything all at once. Were it done that way, you could no
longer cultivate among everyday people, for your surface would not be that of an
ordinary human being.
There is something else that will take place in
your Dafa cultivation. Namely, sometimes in cultivation you will feel that you
have done pretty well. When you encounter certain problems, your attachment is
actually discarded at that moment or at that time, and you pass through without
incident. Yet after a while you find that the same attachment emerges again,
with the same situation and the same problem. You seem to discover then that it
wasn’t eliminated at its root—it has resurfaced, after all. But that’s actually
not true. Let me tell you that Dafa cultivation is divided into different
levels, just like a staircase. Like the example that I gave with the onion, the
layer that has been peeled off no longer exists, but there are still ones that
haven’t been peeled away. In other words, they are removed layer by layer, and
only when all of them are removed can it cease to exist.
Sometimes in cultivation you will find it really
difficult to pass a test due to the fact that you don’t understand the Fa well
enough. Although you know that you ought to act according to the principles of
the Fa, you still can’t do well sometimes. Some people might think, “Why do I
still have attachments after cultivating this hard? Does this mean I won’t be able
to achieve Consummation?” There are lots of people who think that way.
Actually, I would say that you shouldn’t be thinking that way. Whether you have
passed a test well or not, or whether you have let go of all of your
attachments or just a few, you are in fact cultivating as is. That’s
cultivation. Since you didn’t pass the test well you will have regrets. “How
come I didn’t pass it well? Next time I will try to do better.” That’s what
cultivation is about. If you could pass every test, every tribulation, and
every trial really well, I would say you don’t need to cultivate anymore and
should have Consummated, as nothing can interfere with you. Only an enlightened
person or someone who has attained Enlightenment can reach that state.
But you need to pay attention to something. Some
people seem to have understood what they just heard, yet the attachments they
harbor lead them to understand it in the opposite way: “It turns out that it’s
cultivation regardless of whether we pass tests well. So I guess we don’t have
to worry about it. Even if I don’t pass them well I won’t need to be concerned
in the future.” That’s unacceptable. If you don’t cultivate yourself and you
can’t manage to progress with diligence, then it’s no different from not
cultivating. Those are the two sides of this matter. Our Fa principles, from
the lower levels to the higher levels, provide a way to view things and
understand the principles of the Fa across the various levels. Your
understanding might be right at that level, but when you move to a different
level or change your vantage point, you will discover that your understanding
is not the same as before. That’s how you will progressively understand the Fa
as you continue to improve and continue to cultivate.
What I just said was to tell you that it’s
inevitable that you have a lot of questions as you cultivate. But I think that
if all of you can truly improve on the basis of the Fa, and understand the Fa
on the basis of the Fa, your improvement will probably be extremely fast.
Besides, it might just be that all the questions you can’t figure out and all
the questions you have raised can be resolved in the Fa. So the only way is to
read the book more—don’t just focus on doing the exercises. Relatively more
Caucasian students and students of other ethnic groups are of the opinion that qigong
practice is just a matter of doing exercises. “What else is there to it? What’s
the point of reading the book?” You folks tend to think like that. That is
actually the single biggest flaw in your understanding. Have you ever thought
about what the difference is between the movements in your qigong practice
and doing calisthenics? On the surface, the difference is minimal. Then why is qigong
practice able to elevate a person, to cure a person and make him healthy,
while calisthenics isn’t? The reason is precisely that it is cultivation. The
inner meaning of cultivation isn’t fully present in the exercises; also, the
exercises are only a supplemental means in cultivation. The fundamental reason
that you can truly improve and reach different realms is your understanding of
the Fa; that is, you need to have the Fa guiding you if you are to ascend to
that high of a place. That’s why I said that the height of one’s gong is the
height of one’s xinxing. This is an absolute truth.
People in the past used to think, “If I’m going to
cultivate the Dao or do qigong exercises, I just need to find some
special skills and techniques or adopt some special movements and I’ll be able
to advance in my cultivation, right?” People were allowed to know those sorts
of things, but they were forbidden from knowing the real reasons for advancing
in cultivation. If things were otherwise, everyone would have become deities.
So this is to say that there were methods and theories to guide people, and
there were ways that could enable a person to ascend through cultivation. Today
we are articulating them more clearly: the Fa and its principles are here to
guide you. Out of all the past methods for cultivating the Dao, most that were
made public were worldly side-path practices.
Those considered to be great ways by ordinary
people are the teachings of Lao Zi, Jesus, and Shakyamuni, with most everything
else being just worldly side-path practices; those other things are even less
profound, their movements are complicated, and they don’t know many of the Fa’s
principles, so it’s really hard to cultivate with them. Those practices just
focus on enduring hardships, and they cultivate through enduring prolonged
hardships. Although enduring hardships can improve a person and eliminate some
of his karma, he comes to understand the Fa’s principles very slowly, and that
is why he progresses so slowly in his cultivation. But what I teach today is
Dafa—the Law of the entire cosmos. With such an enormous Fa being taught so
that people can improve, of course improvement will come about more rapidly.
These principles of the Fa not only eliminate ignorance and misconceptions, and
rectify all human thoughts, but also correct all abnormal states. So, as long as
you study the Fa’s principles, as long as you keep reading, you are in the
process of improving. For that reason it is extremely important to read the
book, to study the Fa.
Some people say: “It doesn’t matter how well you
read the book; it’s just gaining an understanding in your mind. Isn’t it
separate from the gong we cultivate?” This brings up the subject of gong
cultivation. We know that cultivation can first develop qi and then
later gong, both of which are forms of matter. On the other hand,
understanding seems to be mental and unrelated to material things. Actually, I
can tell you that mind and matter are one and the same! Don’t you think that in
cultivation they are the same thing? When your mind understands the Fa’s
principles at a certain level, aren’t you already at that level? All of this
has been taught in Zhuan Falun. I won’t go into detail here. You can go
and read the book. So, reading the book is extremely important. This is always
the first topic I discuss in each of my Fa lectures. All of you are students,
and each of you wants to improve and to truly achieve Consummation—that’s why
you have come here to learn this Fa. The key to your improving and achieving
Consummation is the book, Zhuan Falun. Everyone, you must by all means
read it often.
Several days ago a student told me: “I’ve read it
over two hundred times, and I really can’t put it down. I’m still reading it.”
That’s because the more he reads, the more things he finds. When you are at
different levels reading the book, you will find that your understanding of a
given line can be totally different depending on the circumstances or the
number of times you’ve read it. Maybe before you interpreted it a certain way.
After you improve, you might find that its meaning has changed and that it
contains higher inner meanings. You will experience this throughout the course
of your cultivation.
You know, with the Fa I have made public I’m not
merely teaching you healing and fitness: I will purify your body until it’s in
an illness-free state, and then enable you to raise your level until you
achieve Consummation. If you didn’t have such a high-level Fa guiding you, you
wouldn’t know how to cultivate at higher levels whatsoever. If you didn’t know
the inner meaning of the Fa’s principles at those levels, you couldn’t go up
there. So you must read the book. At the same time, you need to improve your
realm while elevating your thoughts and your understanding. In ordinary
people’s words, we are trying to be better people. In reality, it goes beyond that:
you won’t just acquire a healthy body or some supernormal abilities in your
cultivation, but reach Consummation and ascend to higher realms.
If you want to reach those realms, but you don’t
know the principles of the Fa for those realms, how could you ascend there? As
you are working towards those higher realms, you need to give up all sorts of
human attachments as you genuinely go about cultivating. They are just like
layers of locks or layers of gates blocking your path. As you understand the
principles of the Fa, you have to do better on a daily basis in every setting
of ordinary human society. At the very least, you need to conduct yourself like
a cultivator, with a higher realm and a higher standard. In other words, no
matter where you are, others should think that you are a good person. As your
level and your realm of thought elevate, won’t your gong grow higher as
your cultivation progresses? That’s why some people have long failed to go
higher by practicing qigong. They have practiced many methods, yet they
still haven’t managed to cultivate higher. They still have health problems
even. Haven’t they cultivated in vain?
The real reason those people haven’t been able to
go higher through cultivation is that they haven’t had the principles of the Fa
guiding them. The Fa that I have taught you is comprehensive, systematic, and
can truly enable you to reach Consummation—it is the very best. That’s why so
many people cherish it. Newspapers have reported that we have over 100 million
students. Why are there so many students? You all know that in a society like
China, people, especially those who are a bit older, have experienced numerous
movements, the most notable being the Cultural Revolution. They have had
beliefs before and worshipped blindly, and they have made mistakes and been
through that experience. After having gone through various movements, how could
they possibly believe in anything blindly? It’s absolutely impossible!
Moreover, why have so many well-established intellectuals, so many people with
sound judgment, come to learn this Fa? It’s because this Fa can truly be
responsible to people. What it articulates are general principles, principles
of the Fa. It convinces people with reason.
Here in
What I just said was mainly in hopes that you will
take studying the Fa seriously. Make sure you take studying the Fa very
seriously. Some people used to go all over the place looking for the Dao in
order to cultivate, but they weren’t able to raise their levels. They couldn’t
obtain the Dao. It wasn’t exercises that they could not obtain, it was the
Fa—nobody taught the Fa’s principles for true cultivation. Think about it
everyone, the Fa of the cosmos has created various levels of environments and
ways of existence for lives at different levels. In other words, it is the
foundation of the cosmos’s creation, as it is the Fa that has created all life
and matter. Then, aren’t those minor Fa, minor paths, minor principles, and
minor cultivation methods that people knew in the past just bits and pieces
from this Fa of the cosmos? Those are just the little pieces at the Fa’s lowest
level that could be revealed to humans. But what you have obtained today is the
Dafa of the cosmos—truth that has never before been known. It’s truth that
nobody throughout history has ever taught!
I think all of you sitting here know that. Those
who have only recently taken up this path, or those who haven’t taken up the
path yet, or haven’t studied yet, may wonder if I am exaggerating. Actually,
after you have read the book systematically, I think you will understand what
I’m talking about. We have no form of management. You can learn it or drop it
at will. Nobody oversees you. But if you have decided to learn, I will have to
be responsible for you. The responsibility I will assume doesn’t show itself
among ordinary people. It’s that kind of situation.
I just talked about how you need to take studying
the Fa seriously. Next I will talk about some situations in society that have
developed recently, particularly in
Here I would also like to share with you my own
perspective. Our students’ going to Zhongnanhai to report things to the leaders
of the country was neither a protest nor a sit-in. They did not sit-in. Some of
the people there sat down because they were doing the meditation exercise. They
didn’t have slogans or banners, nor did they take any aggressive action or use
extreme language. All of them went with good intentions and wanted to tell the
leaders of the country about what we were truly thinking. The situation is
different from the rumors floating around that were made up by the Public
Security Bureau. There are some people who harp on how our going to Zhongnanhai
was this or that. Isn’t Zhongnanhai the seat of the people’s government? Can’t
people go there? What did our students go there for? Was it to oppose the
government? Didn’t they go there instead to report problems to the leaders of
the country and ask them to uphold justice for the people? Why should there be
gossip about it being organized? Shouldn’t the government be happy when people
organize to support the workings of government?
Of course, think about it, why did so many people
go there? In fact, I think the number of people who went there was too few! (Applause)
Now I’m not encouraging everyone to go. What did I mean? There are over 100
million people learning this Dafa. So if you think about it, relatively
speaking, wasn’t the number of people who went there small? And that’s because
the number of students is so large, right? Then why did that many people go
there? We knew that the police in
Some news reporters have been rather
irresponsible. Once they see something they can sensationalize, they are likely
to make up a story. Then we won’t let them take advantage of us, either. That’s
why my position has been clear that we weren’t against the government; there
was no protest or march, and we didn’t do anything radical. It was just to
report the situation. This person wanted to go, and the next person wanted to
go, and it all added up. Out of 100 million people, only slightly more than ten
thousand went there—not even a fraction. Isn’t that extremely few? Had the
situation been worse or more drastic, I think it wouldn’t have been just ten
thousand, but probably many more. You can’t say it was wrong just because there
were a large number of people who went to report the situation, can you?
Reporting problems to the leaders of the country is the responsibility, duty,
and right of every citizen. How could that be wrong? It isn’t. We aren’t
against the government, nor are we interfering with politics; meanwhile, we are
voluntarily upholding the laws of the country. Isn’t that so? We are good
people no matter where we are. That’s what I think about that situation.
We all know that we are cultivating. Since it’s
cultivation, nothing on our path of cultivation is coincidental. I often say
this: there simultaneously exist those who are against it and those who support
it; those who believe in it and those who don’t; those who are good people and
those who are bad; those who are righteous and those who are evil. Such is
humankind, and such is the principle of mutual-generation and
mutual-inhibition. If there are people who oppose something it doesn’t
necessarily mean that it’s not good. You know that if there weren’t demons, you
wouldn’t be able to cultivate. When they oppose you, doesn’t it give us a
chance to see your heart, to see whether you are determined and whether you are
able to cultivate? Since cultivation is serious, if an ordinary person is to
reach the realm of Consummation, think about it, without any real tests, how
could it count? So there will be tests like this and situations like this.
This isn’t to say that those who are doing evil
things are actually helping us. They are really doing bad things. But I am
making use of their wrongdoing to provide cultivators with opportunities for
cultivation. Do you still cultivate when there are people who oppose it? Do you
still consider it good when there are people who say it’s not? Isn’t this a
test of your mind? So you all need to be clear that cultivation is serious and
that absolutely nothing happens by chance.
Have you thought about this: through this incident
the whole world has learned about the emergence of Dafa! (Applause) This
is able to reach a much wider range of people and a much larger area than any
activity to spread Dafa you could possibly do. (Applause) At the same
time, it’s really a very serious test for students in mainland
That’s all I have to say about it. Since this is a
Fa conference, you have experiences to share, and through these you will
examine yourselves to find where you fall short and truly improve. Today we
will spend the full day sharing experiences. Tomorrow morning I will answer
questions for you. This conference will last a day and a half. I hope that all
of you will sit quietly when listening to other peoples’ presentations. To
cherish others is to cherish yourself. This is because the Fa conference is
holy and sacred, and you are cultivating the Dafa of the cosmos! All right,
that is all I’m going to say. (Applause)
Throughout yesterday’s Fa conference I was
watching and listening to your speeches in the room next door. I think this Fa
conference has gone very well, and has been able to fulfill the true mission of
a Fa conference. A conference enables you to benefit and truly improve
yourselves, so it’s a very good thing. This morning I will focus on answering
your questions. This has become part of our routine for our Fa conferences. You
may ask any questions you have. I will do my best to answer all of your
questions as long as time permits.
As for questions involving worldly things, I think
it’s best you not raise them. And as for those things in your tests that you
haven’t quite enlightened to, although you would like to ask me about them, those
tests are actually for you to pass. If they are answered for you, it’s as if
there is nothing left for you to enlighten to, right? Ask more questions that
are related to our cultivation. You should ask few of those that aren’t
related. It’s best not to ask any. Okay, let’s begin now.
Question: Since this is the first Fa
conference in
Teacher: By answering your questions, I am actually teaching
you the Fa, as most questions raised are related to our cultivation. I will
make it as clear as possible for you when it comes to these things.
Question: I live in a rented house. The
person in the other room has lots of qigong and religious books, and he might
be possessed by a spirit. Please tell me, could I be affected?
Teacher: Let’s put it this way, what you are cultivating is
Dafa, a true cultivation way. The only thing other qigong practices can
do is be suppressed by the energy of your righteous cultivation. You cannot be
interfered with by them. But there is one point I would like to make: if you
fail to handle yourself well, and you mix them, reading everything and
practicing everything, then you are likely to get into trouble. If you can guard
your xinxing, though, you will not be affected in any surroundings.
Actually, you can tell that many people practice bad things, but have you
realized that today no human setting is pure? So, wherever our cultivators are,
as long as you are vigilant with your mind and cultivate in an upright and
dignified manner, you don’t need to worry about those things. You won’t have
any problems. Since your worry itself is an attachment, as soon as you have
that attachment it has to be eliminated. So although it might seem to be
interference from others, it could actually be caused by your own mind.
Question: When you wrote “And assist
Master as he journeys this human world” and “Come now, and help me turn the
Falun” in your poetry, were you referring to the disciples or to Buddhas, Daos,
and Gods?
Teacher: Both. Think about this: back when I was teaching the
Fa I held classes. I was in fact nurturing the elite of Dafa. Today, it is you
who are validating Dafa among everyday people—you are the ones doing this. Even
our new students have become veteran students, and all are engaged in spreading
the Fa and helping more people obtain the Fa. Your cultivation, as well as your
determination in Dafa, are rock solid, and have strongly stabilized Dafa. At
the same time, being able to help more people obtain the Fa in ordinary human
society is itself assisting Master. Of course, all of that is done without
intention; it’s an inevitable part of your cultivation. That’s just the way it
is. Of course, those at higher levels have their situations, and that’s how it
is there.
Question: How should I understand these
two lines of your poetry: “Those who claim abundant wisdom, // Do wield their
skills so dexterously, // but all is done in emotion.”
Teacher: Throughout history there have been many famous people,
many are regarded as sages, and many are regarded as commendable figures by
everyday people, including many of today’s renowned people. All of them are
everyday people, though, and they haven’t risen above and beyond emotion. He feels
that he’s had some accomplishments, and others then acclaim him as remarkable,
smart, and possessing wisdom. In fact, from what I see, all of that’s done
within the realm of emotion. That’s what it means. None of them have risen
above and beyond emotion, and all are in the environment of everyday people. So
they are still everyday people.
Question: My child is two years old, and
he likes watching Teacher’s exercise-teaching video very much. But his father
is very much against this.
Teacher: Cultivating Dafa to return to one’s true, original
self is the real purpose of people coming to this world today. What I have told
you is definitely the truth. Of all the people in the world today, in fact,
none came here to be a human. Neither did all necessarily come to obtain the
Fa, though. Since existing in human society isn’t our goal, as I just
mentioned, not everyone necessarily came here to obtain the Fa, but all came
here because of the Fa. Since our existence in human society is not the only
goal of our lives, and the ultimate goal of one’s life and existence is to go
back, then isn’t what we are doing the best thing? Perhaps by not allowing him
to cultivate, the child’s father was helping both of you pass a test. There
could be other factors, too, such as really trying to stop both of you from
cultivating. So how should you look at these things? Whatever you feel is
right, just do it that way. It’s up to you to gauge it.
Question: People have different
personalities. Is it true that the higher the realm one cultivates to, the less
[personality] one has?
Teacher: People have different personalities, but they aren’t
the same as their original natures. People’s personalities, to a great extent,
are the manifestation of the attachments they are unwilling to give up. Our
original nature won’t become a barrier to our cultivation, since many people
have very deep-rooted, fundamental qualities. Those are the different qualities
of their beings. Some like to do things quickly and some like to do things
slowly. Of course, those don’t include the postnatal habits one develops.
Whether your being is fast-paced or slow-paced won’t hinder your cultivation.
Yet you must be diligent in studying the Fa, as
there truly is limited time in one’s life. Though people in ordinary human
society wish to obtain things that will last in their lives for eternity, in
this human world, they can’t obtain anything except through cultivation. No
matter how much money you have, how high your position is, or how comfortable
your life is, you can’t take anything with you. You come here with nothing
except for your body, and aren’t able to take anything away when you leave. The
only thing that can be taken with you is what’s acquired through cultivation,
as that is carried directly on a person’s True Body. So it’s most precious and
most difficult to acquire. That’s why it deserves to be cherished more than
anything. It determines what a person will gain eternally, and it determines
what mode of existence and setting will be established for him at different
levels. This human place is awful, yet a person can cultivate here; the heavens
are very good, yet it’s not easy to cultivate there. It’s exactly because of
the miseries in this human place that people can cultivate here.
Question: If a person is good-tempered to
begin with, is it easier for him to cultivate? Is it harder for someone who is
easily angered to cultivate?
Teacher: I just said that a person has the characteristics of
his being. But with regard to becoming angry, that isn’t part of a person’s
inborn nature. I can tell you that when a person becomes angry that is
definitely caused by his demon nature. Why? Someone might think: “I had good
intentions. I lost my temper in order to teach him to behave himself.” Or, “I
lost my temper in order to make him do his job well.” That’s caused by demon
nature, and it’s called “using the bad to fight the bad,” as you were using
demon nature to make others do good things. If you treat him with kindness and
tell him kindly that he should do a good job, I think he will be moved and will
actually do a good job out of his own will instead of being forced by you. Then
he will do even better. So in cultivation you need to gradually eliminate the
shortcoming of losing your temper. You have always felt that it’s rather
difficult to control your temper; actually it’s not difficult. In many cases
you could have handled things better had you used reason. So you can’t lose
your temper.
When you lost your temper with someone, you were
giving him virtue. Losing your temper can indeed reduce the other party’s
karma. That’s for sure. It’s because you acted as a demon to him, be it in
daily life or in terms of cultivation, and it allowed him to reduce his karma.
But what you received could be karma that was transferred over from him. So I
think that as a cultivator you shouldn’t do that kind of thing. Let him do his
own cultivation and transform his own karma.
Question: I have a lot of tribulations and
troubles in my cultivation, so I have been focusing on self-salvation and have
not been able to spread the Fa. Is it true that I can only cultivate to the
status of an Arhat?
Teacher: That’s not the case. That’s the theory in Buddhism.
Each Dafa student has a different cultivation state. It’s not like everyone has
to spread the Fa. There are no regulations saying you have to do this or that.
Actually, being able to think of spreading the Fa, and whether you carry it out
when meeting people in daily life or do it in an organized way, are both
manifestations of a student’s own cultivation, and it is a great thing. It’s
just like the Fa conference we are having today: some people are able to speak
about their experiences while others can’t, even though they too are
cultivating. It’s just that everyone has his different state in cultivation.
It’s related to that, and that’s not a problem.
Question: How do I understand hardships
that I have brought upon myself? If they have been overcome, do they count as
tests that are passed in cultivation?
Teacher: Let me tell you: you might be able to overcome
hardships that you brought on yourself, but those are just hardships in your
ordinary life. Why? Because they weren’t arranged for your cultivation path,
and because every step is arranged systematically—the attachments that need to
be eliminated, when you will improve after overcoming certain challenges, the
part of your body that should be enriched, which parts of a problem will be
solved, what kinds of things will emerge through cultivation, which realm you
will reach… all these have been arranged systematically. So if you introduce
something extra it is equivalent to disturbing this set of things that were
systematically arranged for you.
So you shouldn’t intentionally look for hardship,
nor should you deliberately plan on something. Cultivate naturally. As long as
you can pass well whatever you encounter, that will be very good. If when you
encounter any trouble you can manage to look inside yourself and find your own
attachments, then that is precisely cultivation. You know that there are people
cultivating in the mountains. Actually, they are in the high mountains in this
region, only people don’t know about them. There are cultivators in many of the
world’s high mountains. Some of them have cultivated for several thousand years
and are very slow at raising their levels. They are cultivating only through
enduring hardship. Although hardship can indeed enable people to cultivate and
eliminate some karma, if they don’t cultivate according to Fa principles their
cultivation is bound to be slow. And because they don’t know the principles of
the Fa at levels that high, they can’t advance to realms that high.
Why can you cultivate so quickly today? In your
current state you can’t imagine how fast you are progressing. It has only been
a brief few years since I taught the Fa, and already there are many people who
can meet the standard for Consummation. That’s just incredible. It’s because
they are learning Dafa, and it is very easy for the Dafa of the cosmos to
assimilate a person. I remember giving this example: if a piece of sawdust or a
wood chip is dropped into a furnace of molten steel, instantly you won’t see
even a trace of it. A person is like that wood chip, and this Dafa of the
cosmos is like that furnace of molten steel. To assimilate a person, to
assimilate one person, is just so easy. But I can’t do it that way, I have to
let you cultivate for yourself. If I did it that way it would be equivalent to
creating a new being; you might have your original appearance and
characteristics, but the end result might not be you anymore. That’s why I tell
you to truly cultivate, to truly raise yourself and attain liberation.
Question: Is it all right to recite the exercise
formulas every now and then while doing the exercises?
Teacher: Don’t do that. Doing the exercises is doing the
exercises. Since the exercises require a serene state, a person should try his
best not to think about anything. And studying the Fa is studying the Fa. So
they have to be separate. Even the four lines at the beginning of each exercise
should only be recited before doing the exercise, and not during it. This way
it’s easier to reach a serene state.
Question: New students need to understand the
principles of the practice, and even some veteran students do the movements
inaccurately.
Teacher: Correct them if they aren’t accurate. As for not
understanding the Fa, just have them study the Fa. It needs to be separate from
doing the exercises. You’ve got to ask those people who don’t study the Fa to
study the Fa; otherwise their exercises will be done in vain. Let me tell you,
do you know what is the biggest pity? Those who have entered the Fa but missed
it, or those who didn’t take it even when it was given to them—that’s what they
will deeply regret forever and ever. They can’t imagine the painful regret they
will feel forever! This is because many lives were destined to come here to
obtain the Fa. Through the long ages, there are also lives who have lost their
righteous thoughts, who have become less and less able to know what they are
here for, and so they easily go astray. Once lost, that’s truly… Of course,
it’s fortunate that the principles of the Fa can solve these problems. The only
cause for concern is that you don’t read it; the only cause for concern is that
you don’t learn it. I can awaken everything in you and can cleanse everything
that has covered up your original nature.
Question: Can I sing the exercise music in my mind
during the meditation?
Teacher: Don’t sing. Why does a person listen to the music when
practicing? It’s because I have taken into account that [the conditions under
which] today’s people cultivate are different from those of all other
cultivators of the past. You have jobs, and you are busily working and studying
in society, and this makes it hard for your minds to quiet down. The purpose of
having you listen to the music is precisely so that you may enter a state of
calm. It uses the one thought of listening to the music to prevent you from
thinking about other things. It uses one thought to replace thousands of other
thoughts. But listening to the music can itself easily become an attachment.
Fortunately our music has been strengthened by energy, and it has our Dafa’s
content. So it has been transformed into a way for you to benefit and improve
yourself in cultivation. That’s the role the Dafa music plays. Don’t focus on
the surface of the melody; in other words, don’t get attached.
Question: I saw the turning srivatsa 
. Was it the mark imprinted by Master?
Teacher: Generally speaking, the mark is inscribed on one’s
forehead. The ones you see that are in other states are just the srivatsa symbol,
which is the sign of the Buddhist school.
Question: Buddha Shakyamuni endured a lot
of hardship when he came down to save people. Is he still at the level of
Tathagata?
Teacher: Buddha Shakyamuni is a Tathagata, and that is
definitely true. But nobody talked about which level he was at. Buddhas and Fa
Kings at different levels are all called Tathagata. Nobody has talked about
that, and it isn’t supposed to be known.
Question: Why does the Daoist school also
chant “Buddha Amitabha” and “Bodhisattva Guanyin”?
Teacher: The truly systematic Daoism didn’t take shape until
the Ming Dynasty [1368–1644 C.E.]. Before that there was no religion in the Daoist
school. It would simply take the form of a master guiding a group of disciples
as they cultivate. Although there was a group of people, it hadn’t developed
into a full-fledged form of religion. After the Ming Dynasty, its form
basically became identical to the form of monasteries and religions. Since the
Dao needs to be cultivated with a pure mind, cultivated in solitude and in
tranquility, it doesn’t have the component of offering salvation to all
sentient beings. What are the purposes of a religion after it has formed? One
is to allow people to cultivate to Consummation; the other is that religions
can lead people in society as a whole to better their hearts and minds. So
Daoism started to do those things, too, conducting religious rituals for people
and offering people salvation. Since a large number of people became followers,
it had to offer salvation to them. Offering salvation to people means that it
can’t just save one or two people—that wouldn’t be called “offering people
salvation,” but rather “bringing up disciples.” So it too started to use titles
such as Buddha, Bodhisattva, or even Arhat. [The religion] that I have just
talked about is the common Dao—not the Great Dao. It came about in recent
history.
Question: A possessing spirit got into my
body because I practiced another qigong. It then entered my son’s body and
taught him that qigong. Will his spirit possession be eliminated by me?
Teacher: If a person has simply gotten close to Dafa but not
truly entered it—if he passed by it or has only been watching from the
outside—that is the saddest thing! Everything I teach here is to tell you how
to be a cultivator. If you can’t let go of your attachments, you will never
become a cultivator. You can only be trapped in misery while attached to those
miserable things of yours. I will settle those things for disciples who truly
cultivate, but you must be a cultivator. Going forward, you have to even erase
in your mind what I just said about settling your things. You absolutely
shouldn’t even think about what Master can do for you—[just think that] I won’t
do anything for you. You should just study the Fa and temper yourself in Dafa.
As for things about your child, you shouldn’t think about them at all. You
won’t be able to resolve them even if you are attached to them for your whole
life. When you are no longer attached to them, I will take care of those things
as fitting.
How could it be that when a person Consummates he
still has so many troubles around him? How could that be allowed? I will
resolve everything for you—not only the old scores that you have built up one
lifetime after another, but also the predestined connections you formed. For a
person to cultivate to Consummation is not an easy thing. The debts you owe
from lifetime after lifetime and the scores you want settled from lifetime
after lifetime—and there are so many of them—all of them need to be resolved
for you. You truly have to be a pure Enlightened Being, from inside out, before
you can Consummate. How could you Consummate if you don’t pay back the many
things that you’ve dragged along, as well as the many many debts and grievances
that you need to settle? Yet you aren’t aware of those things, nor can you
resolve them. You can only be painfully attached to them your whole life; you
can’t resolve them. Now that you have encountered Dafa, why still be troubled
by those things? Set your mind at ease. You still have at least one breath
left, and you still have at least one righteous thought, right? Then just
cultivate Dafa. Say that you really won’t be able to preserve the other parts
of you: can’t you at least preserve the part with the righteous thought?
Besides, when you do achieve Consummation in the future, how could those things
not be taken care of? But if you are so strongly attached to those things, how
should I handle things when it comes to you? Any thought is an attachment, and
attachments aren’t formed in just one or two days. With that much time having
passed, that many attachments, and that much fear, how could you be a
cultivator? It’s good for you to hear these strong words.
Question: Some of my thoughts are caused
by thought karma, and I know that it’s an opportunity for me to transform
karma. Teacher, please talk about how to deal with this.
Teacher: Set aside that attachment, cultivate in an upright and
dignified manner—that’s how! If any of you students here currently have certain
things on your mind that you can’t let go of, at this moment you are able to
let them go. I guarantee that when you walk out of the auditorium today, you
will have a different way of thinking about those matters. Cultivation is a
process of giving up human attachments to the greatest extent. Why do you care
so much about that thing? It’s because the thing that lingers in your mind,
that you are attached to and care so much about, is a wall—a wall that prevents
you from leaving humanness behind. I ask that you have each of your thoughts
gradually break away from humanness and enter a godly state. Yet every thought
of yours is linked and tied down to this place of humans. It’s just like a ship
that’s about to set sail, yet its ropes are tied to the dock. Many ropes are
tied up, and you can’t leave unless you untie them.
Question: Some students have been in the
state of eliminating sickness karma for a long period of time. Does it mean
that they have stayed at the same level and aren’t able to advance further?
Teacher: They have indeed stayed at that level for too long,
and in other words, the attachments have remained for too long. There are
generally two situations among students. Some say they are attached to their
health problems for too long. As you know, your cultivation isn’t just to reach
one single goal. It has to eliminate your karma while you improve yourself. If
you are attached to the karma, you won’t be able to improve yourself, and you
won’t be able to improve your xinxing, in which case you won’t be able
to pass the test. The ordeal will drag on for a long time. That is to say, you
weren’t able to make progress in your cultivation, and have remained in that
phase. If you were truly, diligently making progress and improving yourself,
you would have passed that test long ago. But you still haven’t enlightened to
it after such a long time. And on the contrary, you have developed an
attachment to that health problem itself, which has shaken your firm belief in
cultivating Dafa. As a result, before one ordeal is overcome, others pile on
one after another, making the test overwhelming. Of course, we can’t rule out
that some students just have a lot of karma. Cultivation is complicated. But I
think most cases have been caused by climbing in levels too slowly, which
prolongs that kind of state.
Question: Is it all right to show Fa lectures that you
gave on select occasions, such as your meetings with individual students or
when students were reporting situations and asking questions?
Teacher: That’s not good! Not good at all! In some private
settings when I didn’t allow anyone to do recording or videotaping, some people
have insisted on hiding a tape recorder in their pocket. The person tries to
fool me, but he is in fact only fooling himself. That’s because your entire
cultivation as well as your entire improvement is a process of cultivating
yourself. Anything hidden is just like kids’ stuff. The things that I address
in specific settings don’t apply to things in general. So won’t it interfere
with others when you show things that lack general application? Let me tell
you, the Fa’s principles are immense. I have been teaching the Fa from the
vantage point of the macroscopic and whole, and I haven’t told you the
specifics. If I had, it would be very hard for you to cultivate. You are one of
those who cultivates in Dafa, and being responsible to Dafa is being
responsible to yourself. If this Dafa were to take one step off track, you
wouldn’t be able to return. If the Fa were not righteous, you could not
cultivate to Consummation.
Question: I have learned to look inside
myself and have been consciously eliminating the bad thoughts that are in my
mind, but sometimes when I point out someone else’s bad thoughts, he gets upset
with me. Did I generate karma?
Teacher: That’s not generating karma. It’s good that we are
able to notice the attachments we have, but we shouldn’t be people that are
overly concerned over every little thing.
As for pointing them out for others, if you did it
with good intentions, that’s what you should have done. Shouldn’t you care
about the well-being of others when you cultivate? You should think of others
first. When you see someone else’s shortcomings, why not tell him, since he too
is cultivating? No matter how he takes it, if it’s necessary to tell him, you
should let him know. You had a kind intention and Master saw that, and it’s not
necessary for you to show it to others. In the event that he doesn’t accept
what you say, whether he accepts it or not, you have touched on the attachments
he needs to eliminate, and I think it will serve as a catalyst for his improvement.
He may not enlighten to it right then, but later on he might. If he then still
doesn’t enlighten to it, I will use other people’s mouths to alert him to it.
If he still doesn’t get it, he will hit his head and get a big bump on it. (Teacher
laughs) Just joking! Actually, cultivating is to remove attachments. If you
want to understand how to cultivate, you have to read the book Zhuan Falun,
and read it over and over. It would be your problem if you discovered
your own attachments but weren’t willing to eliminate them. If you aren’t able
to discover them yourself, but others have pointed them out for you and then
you are upset about it, then you can take a look at Zhuan Falun. You
don’t have to read it with any purpose in mind, just pick up Zhuan Falun,
and whether it’s in Chinese, English, or some other language, when you open it
at random, it’s guaranteed that the section you open to will directly point to
you. It’s guaranteed to be like that. But don’t do it as an experiment. The
intention to experiment is extremely bad; it’s not being solemn about the Fa.
So if you want to test it, it won’t work or help you.
Question: It’s been two years since I
began studying the Fa, and my xinxing has been improving. But I haven’t
experienced any big ordeals physically. Is Master still taking care of me?
Teacher: You have cultivated for two years. Think about it: if
I didn’t take care of you, you would have left this cultivation way long ago.
Actually, you shouldn’t compare yourself with others. You might think, “Others
have met with big ordeals, like getting hit by a car. And even though the car
was damaged, they didn’t get physically hurt. I should go through that kind of
ordeal, too.” Everyone has a different situation in cultivation. I might not
have arranged that for you, and I might have used other ways to help you
eliminate karma. In fact, if all ordeals were the same, there wouldn’t be
anything for you to cultivate—you would know it all as soon as you saw it
coming. If whatever you ran into were just the same as the next person’s and
you just followed suit, that wouldn’t be cultivation. So everyone’s situation
varies a lot.
Question: My child is getting used to listening to
tape recordings of Teacher’s Fa lectures. I also play them for him before
putting him to bed. Will doing this cause him to feel sleepy as soon as he
listens to the Fa when he grows up?
Teacher: It won’t. You have done well. The child enjoys
listening to it because the side of his primordial, original nature understands
it. Those primordial things are gradually reduced and buried after children
reach three years of age. Children are still quite innocent after three and
before six years old. They tend to form their concepts after six.
Question: How were the predestined
connections for cultivation planted?
Teacher: Some were formed at different levels, and some were
formed in this human place.
Question: In our region, Dafa materials still
haven’t been publicly distributed in mass quantities in society. Is it due to
some particular reason?
Teacher: You are all doing well in your cultivation. In terms
of form, you have basically been cultivating according to the form of Dafa, and
there is no problem there. As for the materials, some areas might have them and
some might not. In mainland
Question: How can we do better at understanding
the Fa on the basis of the Fa?
Teacher: The biggest reason for failing to understand the Fa on
the basis of the Fa is people’s looking at the Fa with ordinary human concepts,
and speaking about Dafa using ordinary human terms, like an outsider. If one
truly understands the Fa based on the Fa’s principles, what he says will be Fa,
and his behavior will also be that of a Dafa disciple. That’s what diligent
cultivation is. His speech is different. He talks about how to be even more
diligent while diligently making progress in cultivation. Yet those who can’t
talk about the Fa on the basis of the Fa are understanding it only
perceptually, or holding onto the ordinary human mindset of merely feeling Dafa
is good, and talk about the Fa in ordinary human terms. That’s how it usually
is. The differences are quite significant.
Question: Recently I’ve been low in
spirits, and can’t do things energetically. Is this laziness?
Teacher: Be diligent! Shape up! I can tell you that this is
another manifestation of demon-nature, and it is caused by thought karma. It
makes you get stuck in precisely that state and blocks your progress. If you
understand the Fa based on the Fa’s principles and truly progress with
diligence, you will break through it.
Question: My three-year-old grandson
likes to look at Master’s picture and the Falun emblem. He says things like,
“Falun revolves in heaven and earth, to reach Consummation is to return home.”
But the child’s father often interferes with his learning the Fa. There are
certain things that I can’t directly intervene in.
Teacher: First you need to examine yourself for the causes.
Since his father doesn’t understand it and won’t let him cultivate, don’t do it
in his presence. Think about it: cultivation is the most correct thing to do.
Since his father doesn’t understand it and you can’t explain clearly, you can
talk to the child about it sometime later on. You know he is no ordinary child.
He’s only three years old, but his words aren’t something ordinary people can
say.
Question: Is there any similarity between
ordinary people’s drive to succeed and the attachments you have talked about?
Teacher: The Dafa of the cosmos has created the environments
for lives at different levels to exist in and has created lives at different
levels. Humans are just in the lowest level of environments and are lives
created by the Dafa of the cosmos. At this level it has created for humans the
principles that they should know. As for similarities with Dafa, I can’t agree
with you. The drive to succeed may be a good thing for humans. But that’s for
everyday people. What I am talking about here are cultivators. Cultivators
manage to do well at the work and studies that they ought to do, but they
aren’t attached to it.
Question: Is it an attachment to study
hard in school in order to become number one in your class?
Teacher: I have explained this matter very clearly. Many
children have not only learned the Fa well, but are also ranked first or second
in their studies at school. A lot are like that, there are a lot of them. It’s
not that they are necessarily attached to academic achievements, but that
through Dafa cultivation they have come to understand what they should do. They
are able to balance school studies and the Fa well. Students should do well in
their schoolwork. That comes from understanding the Fa; they know they should
be good people wherever they are. They know that since they are students, they
should study hard. Then naturally they do well. As long as they study hard and
complete their tasks, they will be admitted to good schools or be accepted to
college. It’s not achieved through being attached to good schools, or to high
scores, or to college. I often say this: when people obsess about the thought of
doing something or want to obtain something, the result is often quite the
opposite; when you merely think about how to do well in something, it will
naturally come about.
Question: If one spends extensive time
and effort in his work and seeks perfection, is that an attachment?
Teacher: If you are fooling around at work and don’t do a good
job, I think you won’t feel at peace when you receive your paycheck. That’s
because a cultivator should be a good person wherever he is. It’s not about
being a good person for the sake of being a good person. You are a cultivator,
and you should be able to handle all of these things well. That’s how it should
be.
Question: I’m worried that I won’t be
able to succeed in cultivation. I have made up my mind that if I can’t succeed
in this lifetime, I will continue my cultivation in the next lifetime.
Teacher: You seem to be quite determined, but actually you
aren’t determined at all. What happens if your current state appears again in
your next lifetime? Would you again go on cultivating in the lifetime after the
next, then? You need to be determined not to miss this predestined opportunity,
and then you will definitely be able to succeed in this lifetime.
Question: Now I have come to understand that Falun
Dafa won’t be spread widely to the future mankind. Then it’s not necessary for
me to continue cultivation in my next lifetime. Is this thinking correct?
Teacher: You were saying that you couldn’t succeed in this
lifetime, and that you would keep on cultivating in your next lifetime, but
that there will be no Falun Dafa in the next lifetime, so there’s no use in
cultivating at that time. But since you’ve submitted the question, it means
that you still have the will to cultivate. Be diligent. Let go of your
attachments and truly cultivate. What is it that you can’t let go of? You know
that not a single event in this cosmos happens by accident. Such a huge event
has occurred in human society—could it be by chance? I can’t disclose things
about the mankind of the future, since then you would come to learn out of
attachment. That would be learning with an attachment. I think the reason you
can’t be diligent is that you don’t have a sufficient understanding of the Fa
yet. The way to solve this problem is to simply read the book more. It only
takes a little of your time, and it doesn’t even cause you physical or mental
hardship. Read the book more, try to solve your problems, and see whether you
can progress diligently and whether you can persist in your cultivation.
Question: Greetings to Master from
students in
We feel deep sorrow for the distorted reporting on
Master and Falun Dafa by the
Teacher: Thank you all! (Applause) It’s not possible for
Falun Dafa to provide every person in the world with a copy of the book, and
it’s not possible to provide a copy of the book to each of the billion-plus
people in
Question: I, your disciple, had tears
running down my cheeks after reading the book Hong Yin, and I have
greatly benefited from it. It’s another priceless book for our cultivation.
Teacher: In that book I mainly wrote about things in cultivation
and things related to the Fa. I thought that reading it might help you improve,
so we published it.
Question: With regards to the things that
took place in
Teacher: It’s of course right for people to manage to cultivate
themselves. But if others are accusing you of being an evil way and you remain
indifferent, I would say that’s not quite right. That is because each of our
students is cultivating in Dafa, and he knows the preciousness of Dafa. To
cherish Dafa is to cherish yourself. In the course of your learning Dafa, you
will often encounter some tests, including tests in your dreams, in your daily
work, or in your daily life. They are like quizzes conducted after a period of
learning that check to see if you are solid and have learned well. And I can
tell you that there will be tests at the time when you ultimately Consummate in
Dafa.
Question: If the genes that cause genetic
diseases were removed, would those who are affected by them—for example
laboratory technicians and children conceived afterwards, including those in
this dimension as well as other dimensions—have any gains or losses?
Teacher: How should I put it? You aren’t able to touch things
in other dimensions. People are constantly exploring the field of human life
sciences, but what they can know is merely the state of the most exterior
surface of the human body, which is formed by molecules. Yet humans will never
know what fundamentally makes up human life. Although people try to get to the
bottom of human life and investigate what life really is, these things will
forever remain a mystery to mankind. There is no way humans are allowed to know
that information. As for whether people will be free of illness when the genes
causing genetic diseases are removed, it doesn’t quite work that way. The human
body has its own factors that cause illness. Also, pathologists have found that
illnesses are not caused by those factors that were once alleged to cause
illness. So it’s not possible for humans to be free of illness.
From a cultivation perspective, if a person never
has health problems he is sure to go to hell after he dies. Why? If a person
were to only generate karma and not pay off his karma, the karma he would
accumulate would be too much. That’s why humans have health problems, miseries,
troubles in life, tribulations, and hard times. All of that eliminates people’s
karma, it reduces their karma. When a person has health problems, there is a
fairly large amount of karma being eliminated. Then is having health problems a
good thing? Of course not. If the person didn’t do those bad things, he would
rarely have any ailments. So does this mean people don’t need to remove the
causative genes? Actually, whatever people want to do, they can just go ahead
and do it—those are human matters. I’m just telling you the principle. Humans
always want to explore and always want to “advance.” Humans always have those
warped thoughts, so they can go ahead and do that. Modern science has
penetrated every domain of life and is in every little area. Everything seems
to live and exist for it. Feel free to do that kind of research, as people
today just live amidst this circumstance. That’s just your job. I think you
should try your best to do it well. There’s no problem there.
As for the gains or losses you mentioned, they
have nothing to do with cultivation. You are just doing your job. Your work and
cultivation are separate, they aren’t the same thing. Your work can’t replace
your cultivation. But your xinxing and your cultivation state will be
reflected in your work and in the attitude you have toward everything around
you.
Question: If the cosmos is an orderly
system, and energy is unlimited, then how does the modern chaos theory fit into
that design of the cosmos?
Teacher: Actually, no matter how chaotic it is here at the
human level, no matter how many schools of thought there are out there—there
were hundreds of schools of philosophy in ancient
Question: One time I actually sat in the
lotus position for eight hours and twenty minutes. From then on I always walked
with a limp. It’s much better now. Was I really wrong to do that?
Teacher: Eight hours or more isn’t something you just try. It’s
a good thing to practice more within your ability. If it exceeds your limit and
yet you insist on sitting in that position for that long, or insist on doing
something a certain way, of course, that heart for cultivation is very good,
but could that be another attachment? If you really have an attachment to
sitting in the lotus position, it might produce a factor that will make you
enlighten to that fact and realize it. So I think that in your cultivation you
shouldn’t have any attachments, insisting on becoming number one in something,
or trying to beat everyone in the length of meditation, or developing any other
attachment. It’s guaranteed to end up the opposite. You are definitely not
allowed to develop attachments in Dafa cultivation—you are only allowed to eliminate
attachments.
In the event that, through long-term cultivation,
you are able to naturally sit in the lotus position for that long, plus you
have the time as there’s nothing much going on at home, and you can sit for
that long, then I think that’s fine. But there’s one more thing. I have said
that our Dafa doesn’t advocate cultivation in the state of long-term deep
tranquility (ding). You need to read the book more, to study the Fa
more. You need to cultivate your mind knowingly and improve in the Fa. The
cultivation exercises are an auxiliary means for achieving Consummation. So if
you spent those eight hours learning the Fa, I think you would have improved
quite a lot. In fact, I’ve told you before that when we started teaching this
Fa we had taken into consideration the question of how to have people in
ordinary human society cultivate. Since their time is tight, many people who
are busy with work definitely don’t have time to meditate for that long.
Actually, I have addressed this before. Even if you
have only half an hour to do the meditation, I won’t let you fall behind. You
won’t be left behind in terms of whatever should be resolved through doing the
exercises—our form of cultivation is meant precisely to accommodate that
situation. If everyone did it for eight hours every day, we wouldn’t be able to
do our jobs in ordinary human society, and others wouldn’t understand us. That
wouldn’t be right. What I’m talking about is a principle. It doesn’t mean you
aren’t allowed to do this or that. If you have plenty of time and are naturally
able to do the meditation for a very long time, I’m not against it. What I mean
is that you shouldn’t do anything with attachments.
My way of thinking is mostly Eastern. Just now I
was speaking in a way that addresses both sides of every issue the whole time.
I’m not sure the Caucasian students could understand it. Did you understand? (Applause)
Good. My way of thinking is often an Asian way when I teach the Fa, so I wanted
to ask you.
Question: If a being was created in the
Three Realms, is it very hard for it to cultivate beyond the Three Realms?
Teacher: Not necessarily. It was very hard in the cultivation
ways of the past. You could say it was impossible. Although they said they were
broadly offering salvation to all sentient beings, the fact is, salvation was
offered to only those who came down from their own worlds. Just as with Buddha
Shakyamuni and Jesus, who came to save people, they offered salvation to anyone
within the boundaries of their own races. But there were still certain
limitations. At present, all sentient beings of the cosmos are repositioning
themselves. So there are likely to be opportunities along those lines [you
brought up]. It all depends on how a being handles all of these things.
Question: Our Dafa includes Buddhist, Daoist, and
Qimen principles. Can the Fa’s principles that are affirmed and enlightened to
by other Tathagatas provide guidance for us?
Teacher: No. Dafa encompasses everything, but you cannot add in
the principles of any side way, any side discipline, or of any Tathagata. Those
can only take your understanding off track, as they can’t be positioned or
mentioned in the same category with the Dafa of the cosmos. The Fa has created
different levels of understanding and Attainment Status. Everything you have
cultivated in Dafa also has elements in the Fa that you validate and enlighten
to yourself. That’s the Attainment Status you yourselves have achieved.
Let me mention this in passing: Some of you here
are newcomers who haven’t read my book yet, or you were brought here by our
students or your families. It is probably due to a predestined connection that
you are sitting here. Yet I need to tell you that I don’t have time to answer
your questions. Why is that? It’s not that easy for me to be here, this is the
first time [my students] have held a Fa conference after being here for several
years, and they have a lot of questions in their cultivation for me to answer.
So the time is extremely precious for cultivators. That’s why I can’t give time
to you. Please understand. Why then? The questions you ask tend to be ordinary
people’s questions, and I don’t handle things of human society. Someone just
asked, “Since your Master is so capable, why doesn’t he boost the country’s
economy?” Everyone knows that the development of human society occurs according
to a set of laws. What will happen in a particular stage is determined by gods.
Buddhas, Daos, and Gods are maintaining all these things. Fouling things up on
a whim is absolutely not allowed. If all those gods were to go and do whatever
they wanted, the world would have no semblance of order, much less a boosted
economy.
But judging by the question he raised, first, he’s
not one of our cultivators; second, it’s provocative; and third, he’s thinking
about things from a human standpoint. Do gods have to do whatever humans want
them to? Does heaven have to do whatever humans want? Are gods dictated by
humans? You think it’s important to boost a country’s economy, but you should
know that gods regard other things as more important! You know, humans lack
blessings because their morals have declined and the human mind has degenerated
so much. If people’s minds become good, they will have blessings and be
prosperous. Do you understand these principles?! Humans have degenerated to
this extent, yet you still want to get this or that. Who’s going to give it to
you?! Here I’m not referring to any specific race or any specific country. I’m
talking about a general principle of the Fa. That’s how it works. To get
blessings humans have to reduce their karma. Only with immense virtue can
people become prosperous and strong. First and foremost, people must have good
hearts and less karma. Otherwise it’s not just the economy that will decline;
there will be all kinds of natural disasters and human calamities constantly
occurring. But as a human, he hasn’t come to understand this, and he doesn’t
know that everything has its arrangement. He just thinks that whatever humans
want to do, they can just go and do.
Question: Since bad people who are
devoted to doing wrong are also predestined, can they be excused?
Teacher: No, they can’t. When we say that everything is
predestined, we are referring to the fact that people’s lives are arranged with
order. I’ve mentioned in the Fa that there are two situations in which a
person’s destiny can be changed, in which the person’s arrangement can be
changed. One is when a person has stepped onto the path of cultivation. You
didn’t have cultivation planned in your life, so your whole life is rearranged.
The other situation is that a person who does bad things can change his fate;
endlessly doing bad things can change even the fate of his whole life. If
someone doesn’t do bad things he won’t generate any karma. That’s why when a person
does bad things it can change his fate, and change the original arrangement for
him. But what awaits him is annihilation, layer after layer, to pay for
everything he has done. Cultivation can indeed change a person’s life. There is
no other way.
Question: When I read Zhuan Falun, I often forget
about many of its profound principles soon after I finish reading it. After I
have listened to the tape recordings of a Fa lecture, I don’t retain anything
afterwards.
Teacher: That’s normal. On the one hand, it’s because there are
too many bad things in your mind at the beginning. On the other hand, the side
of you that has acquired the Fa remembers it. That’s the part of you that has
been successfully cultivated. As you constantly progress in cultivation, the quicker
your improvement, the quicker that part of you that has completed cultivation
will be separated. It gets separated as soon as it meets the standard. Once it
is separated, it can’t communicate with the surface part of you, which hasn’t
completed cultivation yet. That’s why you feel that you have forgotten
everything. It means that part of you is gone. That’s because once it is
qualified, fits the standard, and has met the Fa’s requirements, it ascends.
The part that has ascended is a god, and it definitely can’t be mixed together
with humans. Of course, that’s not absolute. Those who cultivated in the remote
mountains and forests in the past weren’t like that, because they weren’t in
contact with ordinary human society. Yet Dafa disciples are cultivating right
in ordinary human society. If the god part were doing the same things as a
human, that would definitely be forbidden, so it has to be separated. Whether
you do well or poorly at this side, the side that has been successfully
cultivated remains inactive and doesn’t participate in human affairs. This
guarantees that the part of you that has been successfully cultivated won’t
drop down and can only improve constantly. That’s the best way.
That’s why sometimes you feel that you have
forgotten it again, or why some time after passing a test you feel that somehow
an attachment has returned. It’s just that the part of you that has been
successfully cultivated, the part that has met the standard, has been
separated. That is the reason. But it’s not completely like that. When you are
continually doing true cultivation, the changes to your most surface human part
become greater and greater, and you will be able to remember more and more of
the Fa. So that is what will occur during a certain period of time, and it’s
normal.
Question: I’m less and less inclined to
speak nowadays, and take whatever I do quite lightly. I also tend to forget
things. Is this type of state normal?
Teacher: There is another scenario that involves forgetting
things. In your life among everyday people, especially in
Question: Cultivation starts from the
origin of one’s being, and it continues up until Consummation; meanwhile, the
gong column grows from the top of the head until one reaches Consummation.
What’s the relationship between these two processes?
Teacher: Transformation of the body by high-energy matter is
the transformation of your innate body. Great enlightened beings possess huge
amounts of energy. That energy manifests as a gong column in
cultivation, and that is the part of a cultivator’s Fa that manifests visibly.
Their existence takes on two different forms. Everything needed in cultivation,
including the change of his body’s molecules, has to rely on that energy. It
can change everything. Dafa cultivation starts from the most microscopic level
of life. But since he is a cultivator, his outer body changes too; it’s just
that the proportion is very small. The ratio is roughly one per cent.
Question: Cultivation is accomplished by
the body on the human side. I find the principles of the Fa have become
clearer, and I am obtaining things naturally without pursuing them. Is this
understanding and feeling correct?
Teacher: Yes! That’s a very good state. When you reach that
state, you feel at ease and that your life is fulfilled. As you continue to
make progress, as you become clearer and clearer about the principles of the
Fa, you will find that cultivation becomes simpler and simpler. Many things
won’t seem as complicated as when they were viewed from a human’s perspective.
Everything will be clear at a glance. When everyday people get into a
disagreement, they argue and can’t convince each other. Yet when you are not
involved in their argument, when you look at them calmly as an outsider, you
can judge who is right. If you aren’t part of everyday people at all and you
then look at their argument, you won’t need to hear much and you will
understand it all. You would feel that there’s nothing worth arguing about.
Everything will be clear at a glance.
Question: Due to my old age, my joints are
stiff and it’s quite difficult for me to do the meditation. It’s even
impossible for me to do the half-lotus position. I can only practice with my
legs loosely crossed.
Teacher: Cultivation shouldn’t be a problem for people of any
age. Old age isn’t itself contributing to the cultivation challenges, as one’s
age is irrelevant to cultivation. Whether you are old or young, you can all
understand the Fa. As for sitting in the lotus position, of course I will treat
it differently for people of older ages. If you have never sat in the lotus
position in your life, and your joints and tendons have never been stretched
that far, what can you do? Work on it gradually, don’t worry, and I think in
the end you will be able to do it. Even people who are in their eighties or
approaching ninety and who have never sat in the lotus position can do it. Give
it a try and have full confidence in yourself. In the past, quite often
cultivators weren’t able to obtain the Dao until they were in their eighties or
nineties, or even until they were over one hundred years old.
Question: People in the future won’t know
about this Fa, yet it says in “Stability of the Fa,” “The future generations
for thousands of years to come must follow in their cultivation the way I have
personally left if they are to reach Consummation.”
Teacher: When I speak to you I can only use human language.
This Fa will never be changed at any realm or any level of the cosmos. It can
never be changed again. So this Dafa of the cosmos will forever remain invincible.
Moreover, it has the ability to self-repair, constantly harmonizing and
perfecting itself to make it forever incorruptible. You know that humans don’t
deserve to listen to such an immense Fa. It’s not that Buddha Shakyamuni didn’t
teach the true Fa, or that Jesus didn’t want to explain it thoroughly to
people. It’s that humans are allowed to hear only so much, or else they would
know the truths of Buddhas and Gods, and that’s not allowed. Today I have told
you so many of heaven’s secrets. If you reach Consummation, what I have
lectured on will all have been to Gods and not humans.
The memories of those who can’t achieve
Consummation will be erased in the future—they aren’t allowed to know any of
this. In this Dafa there are in fact people who will go to the Falun Paradise,
and it encompasses the inner meanings specific to this cultivation way. So
whether those things will be given to people or not will be determined in the
future. But humankind in the future will not know about the Dafa itself or me.
People will pass it down as a legend for many years to come, just like the
fairy tales that people tell for ages. They will also remember the serious
lessons that are left to humans when the beings at this level are finally
repositioned.
Question: Falun Gong teaches Zhen, Shan,
Ren. So should Ren have been practiced when the unjust incident happened to
Falun Gong disciples in
Teacher: This question has been addressed, so I won’t talk more
about it. Ren is manifested in all of a cultivator’s conduct, but it doesn’t
mean taking no action. Shouldn’t we go to express our opinions when people are
arbitrarily damaging such an immense Fa? Let me tell you again: the students
who went to
We have said that we don’t oppose the government
and we don’t go in for politics. They are all trying to be good people. Is
there anything wrong with that? Should [the authorities] still insist on
accusing them of being evil? If they all did the same things as everyday
people, one could say anything about them and they probably wouldn’t mind. But
they are truly trying to be good people, yet they are still accused of being
evil—how could they not feel distressed?
Question: Is how good-hearted a person is
determined by the level of his primordial being?
Teacher: Good-heartedness is actually one’s primordial nature.
In this secular world, it can only be called a reflection of a person’s innate
goodness. It’s completely different from that of human beings who were
completely incarnated from animals or other creatures. As human beings,
everybody has some good-heartedness since every living being met the criteria
of a certain level when it was formed in that realm. It’s just that people form
various concepts after birth in order to get a foothold in ordinary human
society. They constantly protect themselves, protect their petty interests, and
constantly hurt others. So their good-heartedness diminishes further and
further.
Question: Buddhas are at the highest
level and mankind is at the lowest level. How many levels are there between
Buddhas and humans?
Teacher: It seems that you haven’t studied the Fa. I have
already lectured many times to my students on the structure of the cosmos. You
can look it up in my books. Since this subject is very broad, it takes time to
address and it isn’t something that can be fully answered at this moment.
Unlike what you imagine, Buddhas aren’t the highest. In the past, the God at
the highest levels was formless, he didn’t have a body. From the perspective of
the entire cosmos, the Gods with bodies are all at the middle or lower levels.
From the higher levels on up, the gigantic Gods are all formless. They are like
formless floating matter, but they do have thoughts and lives. The higher their
levels, the more energy they have and the more powerful they are; the higher
their levels, the more immense their wisdom.
Question: I have only practiced for half a year,
and I haven’t had any reactions or cultivation states from our practice. Is it
because Master isn’t taking care of me? Sometimes I think that I might be a
person with great inborn quality. Is it all right to have these kinds of
thoughts?
Teacher: You might have this or that kind of thought, and
that’s quite alright. But don’t let those thoughts become your attachments. Let
them go. Everyone’s cultivation path has certain arrangements, so just go ahead
and cultivate. Dafa is available to all sentient beings. If as a disciple you
aren’t taken care of by me, that’s a problem with me. In fact, you are able to
see the principles of the Fa and to cultivate in it, though you can’t feel your
changes. That doesn’t mean that you aren’t cultivating. Some people truly are
very sensitive, while others are not. So people’s cultivation states are
different. It might be that the person is of great inborn quality, or it might
not be. So it could be any scenario.
Question: If someone has only cultivated to the
level of heavenly beings, does he have to wait until his physical body dies
before he gets to his rightful position?
Teacher: As for a heavenly being within the Three Realms, he
doesn’t have the body composed of the largest layer of molecular particles. His
body is composed of more microscopic particles than this level of human
particles. So, he can’t take a body of this layer. But I have said that there
is no such thing as a person reaching Consummation within the Three Realms.
Without transcending the Three Realms, nobody can be counted as having achieved
Consummation. Actually there are some people who have done relatively better
than others—that is, they are good persons among everyday people and they have
less karma, or, they have done a lot of good deeds throughout their lifetimes.
Even without cultivating they ascend to different levels within the Three
Realms to become heavenly beings. That doesn’t require cultivation. But they
still have to go down and reincarnate many years later. As for side-path
cultivation ways, there are other reasons why they can’t transcend the Three
Realms. That’s their business, and we don’t pay attention to their business.
Question: Since I lack my own point of
view in dealing with things, I am easily influenced by other people. Is this
state caused by my lack of diligence?
Teacher: It’s a problem of rationality. As a cultivator, your
viewpoint when you do things should be governed by righteous thoughts.
Question: Is doing a good job related to
cultivation?
Teacher: When you are doing things among everyday people, if
it’s merely a technical issue of how to do it well and it doesn’t involve your xinxing,
I think that has nothing to do with your cultivation. If the problem you are
facing does have to do with xinxing, that is, if the thing you are doing
could lead to something good or bad, I think you will have done the right thing
as long as you follow the standards of a cultivator as best you can.
Question: Is the part of the body that
has been transformed or partially transformed by high-energy matter still
restrained by the laws in the material dimension?
Teacher: After being completely transformed it won’t be. As
long as the part hasn’t been transformed, it might be affected by the human
dimension, it might be restrained by this dimension.
Question: Eating hot food will lead to
excessive internal heat, which leads to colds and coughs, and excessive eating
will lead to weight gain.
Teacher: This seems to be a question raised by an everyday
person—it has nothing to do with a cultivator. As a cultivator, the energy
released from your own body can change the state of your body whether you
intend it to or not. You are different from everyday people, after all. If a
cultivator is concerned about eating hot food, fearing that it leads to
excessive internal heat, that’s an attachment. Plus it’s not quite like that,
anyway. As a cultivator, you have to understand the Fa on the basis of the Fa
and think about yourself with higher principles. If you are still using
everyday people’s principles to think about yourself, I would say that’s not
quite right. Isn’t that true? That is a xinxing problem. It’s everyday
people who are afraid of catching cold or coughing. I know you haven’t started
cultivating yet. As cultivators, your bodies will eventually become Pure-White
Bodies, will transcend the Three Realms, and will become bodies made of
high-energy matter. Don’t we have to hold ourselves to higher standards during
our cultivation? If you argue, “Before I get there I can still use human
concepts to think about myself and set requirements for myself,” then you will
forever be human. And you won’t even know whether you have met the standard or
not. You should always hold yourself to high standards.
If you want to cultivate you can give it a try.
Some students dared not drink cold water in the past, and now they don’t have
any problems with doing that. They used to be afraid of this or that, and now
none of them have any problems. The things people believe are just human
concepts. Yesterday, I gave the example of a student who told me that he had
been hit by a car. His shoulders, the bones in his body, and his pelvis were
all broken. He was sent to the hospital while he was unconscious. The hospital
said that it would be difficult for him to recover, that he was in such bad
shape, and that it was time to start arranging his funeral. But on the second
day he got up from his bed by himself and walked away. The hospital staff
couldn’t make sense of it. The doctors asked, “How could that guy survive?” And
he went home. Later on, the hospital wanted to find out how the person was
doing and asked, “Is he still walking?” They meant, “Can he still walk?” The
doctor was told that he no longer walked. The doctor commented, “See, I told
you he wouldn’t be able to.” But then the doctor was immediately told, “Now he
can run.” (Applause) Of course, you can’t comprehend this with human
concepts. That is to say, as a cultivator, you need to know what it is you are
doing. You shouldn’t always confuse yourself with everyday people.
Question: In offering people salvation,
Master has opened such a wide door. Why has that affected so many gods in
various dimensions?
Teacher: Because I’m rectifying the Fa! They are all being
rectified. (Applause) All beings are repositioning their lives for the
future.
Question: Some articles have excerpts of
Master’s original words in them. How should we dispose of them?
Teacher: Just burning them is fine. Since you are a cultivating
disciple, you don’t intend to be disrespectful, and you might not have a place
to keep them. With hand-written copies of the book, specifically, some people
have asked what to do with those that have mistakes in them. They can all be
burned, that’s not a problem. The Fa is in the other dimensions of the letters,
and the fire in the human world can’t touch it. What is destroyed is just paper
and surface ink, which are formed by the largest layer of particles.
Question: During the meditation it’s better not to
move. If the body’s posture inadvertently changes and no longer fits the
requirements, is it okay for us to adjust it so that it’s in the right
position?
Teacher: That’s fine, and nothing will be affected. When
something that’s not right is detected it has to be corrected. Otherwise, if
you get used to it the mechanisms will get distorted, so it has to be
corrected. But that’s not to say that there can’t be any slight differences in
each person’s movements. It’s not possible that everybody’s movements be
exactly the same, as if they came out of the same mold. That’s definitely not
possible. As long as everyone’s movements can basically meet the requirements
it’s fine. Try your best to do the exercises together. When you do the
exercises the movements should be in unison.
Question: If I do two hours of
meditation, can I allocate the time as half an hour each for spherical
strengthening and cylindrical strengthening by alternating the two palms, and
then half an hour for tranquil meditation?
Teacher: If you don’t have any interference, or if you have a
lot of time and the ability to sit for that long, I’m not against it. But don’t
let it affect your normal life, and don’t let it affect your work or studies.
At the same time, you need to give top priority to Fa-study. You can work these
things out on your own. You can’t be said to be wrong. Everyone has different
schedules. But be sure to give top priority to Fa-study.
Question: I’m fifty-seven years old and
have been cultivating in Dafa for over two years. But I still haven’t got my
period back.
Teacher: Everybody’s situation is different, and it won’t
necessarily be like you expect. But in general people will have the situation I
talked about. I can’t talk about individual cases. If I talked about it today
it would turn into a generality again. Each person has a different situation,
and as a cultivator you shouldn’t consider it that important. If you keep
thinking about that it will become an attachment. Maybe you are supposed to
have it, but it’s possible that it won’t come. Even if you have it, you might
not be allowed to see it, as it could be transformed inside your body. So don’t
consider it a big deal. It’s fine either way. After all, each person’s
situation is different. It’s not that you can cultivate if you have it, and you
can’t if you don’t. That’s not the idea.
Question: Living in
Teacher: Wherever you cultivate is the same. I don’t care about
that. As for problems making a living, it’s best if you can resolve them
yourself. If you don’t have the ability to resolve them, then [accepting a
subsidy] doesn’t count as wrong on your part because this country has welfare
benefits, after all. But I think whether you can resolve them or not, or
wherever you are cultivating, if the situation is like yours, you shouldn’t
consider it a big deal. You can reach Consummation while cultivating anywhere.
I’ve said that you should cultivate while conforming to the way of everyday
people as much as possible, and the implication of this is pretty broad. If you
think that at present it’s better to cultivate here, then just do so. But I
think if you are healthy and strong you should do your best to resolve this
problem. If you are old you don’t need to consider it a big deal. There are
many things that aren’t what they seem on the surface, and special cases will
be treated specially. Since this situation isn’t a widespread phenomenon, I
don’t want to talk too much about it.
Question: In your article “Perfect Harmony,” what
specifically does “complete sacrifice” refer to?
Teacher: It’s to completely get rid of all your attachments. As
long as you have an attachment, it will be like a lock, like a gate blocking a
passage, or like a rope that keeps you from sailing off. You have to break
through all of them. Of course, I have addressed how to cultivate yourself and
how to leave behind attachments during cultivation. To give up attachments doesn’t
mean to give up all material things and become beggars. That’s not the meaning.
I won’t repeat this again. The new students among you who still aren’t clear
can read the book.
Question: During the Fa-rectification
period, originally some sentient beings at high levels intended to do some good
deeds by assisting Dafa, but they have instead become hindrances and now they
too are among those to be eliminated.
Teacher: Let me tell everyone, the Fa is being rectified
because all sentient beings have deviated from Dafa. Then think about it: even
though he was trying to help do a good thing, doesn’t he still have his old
concepts? Then aren’t his criteria still the old ones? So it’s better for him
not to do anything; otherwise it could add trouble. If he insists on doing so,
it will do harm. That’s the reason behind it, so nobody can help him. But if
they strictly follow what I ask them to do, that won’t be a problem—it will be
the most magnificent thing.
Question: In the book Hong Yin, Teacher
says, “Spanning the Ten Directions, tiny to vast // the Firmament meets the
eye.” Can I interpret that as Teacher observing cosmic bodies at the extreme
microscopic level?
Teacher: Yes, that’s the meaning. The “vast” in “tiny to vast”
refers to the largest particle, which far surpasses the particles that you
understand. In fact, put simply, isn’t even a universe of a large expanse a big
sphere? It is a particle. The way I look at the cosmos’s sentient beings and
states of being is different from the way humans look at objects—they
aren’t looked at in the same way. “Tiny,” on the other hand, refers to the
extremely microscopic; there is another layer of meaning in “tiny to vast,”
which refers to the most microscopic. “Vast” itself also represents hugeness.
“Stretching the Ten Directions, tiny to vast” means that one needs to see both
the largest and the smallest, and at the same time he has to see the broadest
expanse. The Buddhist school’s concept of a ten-directional world means up and
down, plus all eight horizontal directions—so that’s ten directions. That’s the
meaning. Everywhere can be seen with a single glance. “Spanning the Ten
Directions, tiny to vast // the Firmament meets the eye” means that if you want
to clearly see the cosmic body, that’s how you should look at it. Of course,
however much you can understand is however much you can understand. I won’t
explain further.
Question: When someone was spreading the
Fa to his colleagues at work, they said that they would learn Dafa if he could
prove that his illness had been cured. So the person went to the hospital for a
check-up, but the results weren’t so good. He’s quite puzzled.
Teacher: You need to examine your xinxing for the
reason. Judging from this question, I can tell that as of now you haven’t done
enough Fa-study. The question you have asked seems simple on the surface—he’s
practiced for so long, and he was originally trying to do a good thing, so why
wasn’t he able to validate the Fa for others? It’s not that simple. In
cultivation your improvement and the elimination of your attachments are of
primary importance. As for your having others obtain the Fa, that is other
people’s business and is secondary. Your improvement is primary. No matter what
you do, it can’t be separated from your own improvement. So when you encounter
these things you need to take a look at your xinxing. You don’t have the
symptoms of illness, you haven’t taken medicine for so many years, and you have
felt pretty healthy right along. So what would have been the situation if you
were ill? Illness would have affected your work, your life, and your studies,
and you wouldn’t feel good most of the time. Isn’t that having an illness? If
you have been unsure about your health, or if you hold a strong attachment in
doing something, you are likely to get a false diagnosis. That could well be
the case. Cultivation is truly very serious—it is the most serious thing. From
another perspective, those people would only come to learn if they saw that
your illness was cured. What kind of motive would they have for learning Dafa?
What we want are people who come to learn Dafa to cultivate.
Question: I’m thinking about teaching
Falun Dafa to the children who are learning Chinese from me, yet on the other
hand I’m concerned there might be some danger.
Teacher: There won’t be any danger at all, and it can only do
them good. Children won’t have karma problems or things like going through
tests as adults do. Children have their own situations, and there absolutely
won’t be any danger.
Question: Can a cultivator have his teeth
filled or crowns put on them?
Teacher: That’s just fine. Before these parts of your surface
body are changed, if you feel that bad teeth don’t look good you can just have
them filled. There’s no problem with that. It’s like choosing what clothes to
wear and trying to dress rather neatly—it’s the same idea.
Question: Honorable Teacher, how do we
draw the line between youwei (with intention) and wuwei (without intention)?
Teacher: I’ve talked about this before. In our Dafa cultivation
youwei and wuwei are different from cultivation ways in the past.
In the past all behavior was taken as youwei. People even took eating
and walking as youwei, so they would enter a state of trance, stop
moving for long periods of time, and just sit there and meditate. They thought
that was wuwei. The wuwei I teach is the way of today’s Dafa
cultivation. You all live in ordinary human society, and it’s not feasible to
do nothing at all. So we have said that the way to improve the most is by
improving our minds—that’s the most fundamental thing. Actually, no matter
whether it was wuwei or the cultivation through hardships that they
practiced, their ultimate goal was to improve the human mind. But today I’m
directly targeting the human mind, enabling you to improve your mind directly,
so cultivation in Dafa is the fastest way.
The wuwei in Dafa is about not
intentionally arranging hardships for yourself or arranging on your own how you
will cultivate, and about not insisting on doing certain things that you
consider good or looking for hardship for yourself, about not insisting on
doing this or that. All such things are youwei. With those things you
should try your best to maintain a state of wuwei and cultivate
naturally. When you should work, work; when you should read the book, read the
book; and when you should do the exercises, do the exercises. With any problems
that surface, you need to know that they manifest in your cultivation for the
sake of your improvement. Constantly improve yourself and constantly read the
book—that’s how to move forward diligently in cultivation. Everything else you
have sought that you think is good, beneficial, or whatnot could very well be a
hindrance. So on these matters I think that as a Dafa cultivator, practicing wuwei
is to not say or do things that you shouldn’t do.
Question: While studying the Fa,
sometimes I can enlighten to why Teacher teaches in the way that he does. Is
this reaction normal?
Teacher: Something like that is a normal state in cultivation,
and those things do happen for most. There’s something particular I do when I
teach the Fa. That is, when I answer questions that I feel are not directly
related to the majority of people and related to only a few individuals, or
that aren’t important, my answers usually don’t address the question. As I am
in fact teaching the Fa, I can’t speak about things that aren’t useful. What I
speak about will be left for people, and all sentient beings are to listen to
it. That’s why I can’t dwell on a question that people have already understood.
So I talk about other things while leading into them with the person’s
question, things that need to be known by more people and more beings. What’s
more, when I am teaching the Fa, once I find that you grasped it while I was
answering the previous questions, even though I haven’t finished reading the
questions in your notes, I won’t finish reading them since you have already
understood. I then use that question as a segue into other topics. That’s
usually how I do it. So the way I teach the Fa is different from how everyday
people do things when they answer questions.
Question: Sometimes I have experienced
and enlightened to the principles of existence and the laws of motion for
matter and lives in the cosmos. What are the fundamental differences between
these understandings and the Attainment Status that I am to achieve in the
future?
Teacher: That’s a phenomenon that manifests in one’s mind, and
it happens often. Many students have come to realize the different principles
of the Fa as manifested by the Fa at different levels while studying the Fa.
Yet such understandings are hard to articulate. Once they are described with
words they are no longer that magnificent—they seem to become just ordinary
human principles. That’s because the Fa at high levels can’t be expressed by
human language. I only teach you in a general sense, while the true display of
the Fa’s principles is different. So sometimes when you can truly enlighten to
that level of the Fa’s principles, and everything suddenly becomes so clear to
you, that is your real improvement, understanding, and ascension.
A lot of things that you have enlightened to in
the Fa’s principles are right. What you enlighten to without holding onto
attachments is right. There are also cases when you hold onto your attachments
and insist on finding the principles that fit your attachments. In those cases
it’s very likely that your attachments will lead your thought karma to conjure
up and manifest phony things. But those aren’t manifestations of the Fa’s principles,
so they are phony. Only when you don’t hold onto any attachments or concepts
are you able to see the true principles of the Fa. For example, when you are
trying to judge Dafa with attachments, thinking this is right, that’s wrong, or
when you agree with this part and have problems with that part, you won’t be
able to see anything. It’s because the Fa is solemn. Humans are not allowed to
judge the Fa’s principles or Buddhas’ principles. That’s why you aren’t able to
see anything. As for those specific things or things that you have enlightened
to, they could very well be related to the states you have experienced at
different levels, which are still short of your final Attainment Status. If
that weren’t the case you wouldn’t be asking questions today, as you would have
understood them all. So what you have come to know are just the specific
manifestations of the Fa’s principles in different realms and at different
levels.
Question: May I ask Teacher why the new
practice music was produced? Caucasian students find it a little hard to adjust
to.
Teacher: It’s because the original tape of the original music
production was worn out, and it had to be redone. The quality of the tapes
would have been affected since all of the original tapes wore out after many
dubbings. By the time it got to you the quality might have gotten worse and
worse. That’s the problem we faced, so we did a new production.
If some people aren’t quite used to the new tape,
I think you can still listen to the old tapes. There’s no problem with that.
It’s also fine if you want to use the new tapes. But students have felt that
the new tapes seem clearer, as it was newly recorded. Since the original tape
is clear this time, the sound quality is definitely going to be better. That’s
the situation. When you do the exercises there won’t be any actual difference
in cultivation, other than the difference you sense.
Question: Master, please expound on
“super matter.”
Teacher: That can’t be talked about. If I told you about it,
humankind might in the future be able to open up that dimension. Humans aren’t
allowed to open that dimension; humans are not allowed to know about it.
Question: Since I don’t know Chinese, I’m
not sure if the translations are accurate.
Teacher: If you don’t know Chinese, you can ask students who
know Chinese about the meaning. But that would be really difficult, since with
nine lectures it would be really hard to have other people translate all of
them for you. Fortunately, recordings of my lectures with simultaneous interpretation
have been made available in the
Question: I’m working in a hospital and
dealing with patients every day. Does their karma have any effect on me?
Teacher: When a patient’s karma manifests pretty strongly in a
certain area, the patient might display illness in that area of his body.
Actually, many people have a lot of karma, only it doesn’t manifest as illness.
It manifests as unhappiness and discomfort in their daily lives. That’s pretty
common. In other words, karma is in fact everywhere. That doesn’t affect your
cultivation, though, and your work setting in the hospital won’t affect you.
Since what you cultivate is gong, that type of karma can’t interfere
with you.
I remember there was a student in the
Question: Normally I can adhere to the
standards of a practitioner for the most part, but in dreams I often do things
with poor xinxing and quarrel with other people.
Teacher: On ordinary occasions when we are clearheaded we can
discipline ourselves and do well. Yet such discipline doesn’t mean that you
have completely passed your xinxing tests. You could have done it well
because you were trying to save face, or because your reasoning determined that
you should do it that way, but in reality your mind might not have reached that
point. The superficial reason enabled you to restrain yourself rationally. But
you haven’t truly become that solid in your behavior, and that’s why you will
have tests in your dreams at this point. Actually, it’s also a clear indication
to you that you need to work on it more. That’s all it means. Dreams aren’t
cultivation, but they are tests for you and a kind of examination of your
cultivation.
Question: People always say that believing in Buddhas,
Daos, Gods, and ghosts is “superstitious.” How should we explain these things
to them when spreading the Fa?
Teacher: There’s no need at all for you to tell them about
those things. And that’s because you are spreading the Fa in order to have
people obtain the Fa, and not to push them away. You know, when you speak at
such a high level it is the same as pushing people away. When you first started
to cultivate, you too began with an understanding of principles at the Fa’s
lowest levels. Since Dafa definitely starts from teaching people how to be good
persons, that’s where you should start talking from, too. This Fa is able to
heal people and keep them fit, and it can turn a person into someone with high
moral values. You can just start by talking about the principles, and that
person will naturally understand the rest as he improves. If you talk about
things that are too lofty right away, he will find it hard to accept and he
won’t learn the practice as a result.
Question: Is being unable to carry out
what one has enlightened to “knowingly doing wrong”?
Teacher: It happens because one hasn’t regarded oneself as a
cultivator. A lot of people fail to have a good understanding of what was
happening when they are going through a test, but after they calm down they
figure things out. That too counts as your coming to an understanding, only you
weren’t able to figure it out at that time. If after you have understood it you
still can’t act accordingly, that means your cultivation is not solid. If you
can act on it when the problem happens again, it will count as your passing it.
If you still can’t pass it even after you have realized everything, though,
then you need to truly make solid efforts to improve.
Question: I’ve cultivated for four to
five years. How do I find out which stage I’m at in cultivation?
Teacher: There are people who can’t feel anything at all. The
key is to treat yourself as a practitioner. Don’t think that you have many
years left in your life and that you can take your time and cultivate slowly.
Although you are cultivating and you can’t leave Dafa, you haven’t really
devoted yourself. In other words, you are not advancing with diligence. That’s
not going to work! Since Dafa is solemn, you can’t look at it with that kind of
mindset. A person shouldn’t treat even minor Fa and minor paths like that.
Since this is Dafa you should know to cherish it. What it gives you are things
that minor paths could never give you, so you should in turn treat it with due
care.
Question: My demon-nature is quite
strong, and the setting around me isn’t good. How should I deal with this?
Teacher: I think both of those things are related to your
cultivation. It’s either to help you eliminate karma or to help you improve
your xinxing. So you have to look at them in the right way. Some people
are in terribly difficult situations, but those are guaranteed to be good for
you, since you are cultivators. The reason you think they aren’t good for you
is that you haven’t shed your human side. You feel that you are being treated
unfairly, and you think that this person shouldn’t treat you like this, and
instead he should treat you better. Yet from a practitioner’s perspective, if
everyone treated you so well, how would you cultivate? How would your
attachments be exposed? How would you improve? How would you eliminate karma?
Isn’t that the question? So you shouldn’t have a resentful or resistant
attitude when you encounter challenges like these. You have to look at them in
the right way since you are a cultivator. I am different from you; if anyone
treats me like that, or anyone treats Dafa like that, that is evil doing harm
to the Fa-rectification.
Question: When my husband was going
through an ordeal eliminating karma in June of 1997, he had symptoms a little
like those of a stroke. He kept watching the videotapes of the Fa lectures.
After twenty-one days, he was able to get out of bed to listen to the Fa
lectures. In early 1998 he was able to overcome physical challenges and join
Fa-study and group practice at the practice site.
Teacher: Those things happened because he wasn’t diligent when
he was learning the Fa. But, since he did take up cultivation I had to treat
him as a cultivator. Even though he wasn’t diligent enough, as his Master, I
treated him as a cultivator. After all, he was learning and cultivating. The
condition that a stroke leaves you in is usually very serious, and a lot of
people end up half paralyzed. Yet his symptoms were pretty mild. If he had
managed to think about himself with righteous thoughts rather than thinking
about himself as someone who has a health problem, I think it wouldn’t have
gone that way. If he could have done that, his situation would have been even
better. On the other hand, it’s quite possible that he had a lot of karma in
that respect and that it was necessary to eliminate it that way. In addition,
these things happen in order to see if you are still resolute in that
situation. So that could have also been the problem. Different situations cause
different cultivation states, and everyone is different. But my biggest worry
is whether you can conduct yourself as a cultivator or not. Through this
situation we can see that he still seems to be learning and cultivating, and
that there are still attachments that he should eliminate.
Another thing is that if his family members are
also disciples, and they treat those things as a big deal, that is an
attachment, and that too will prolong them. Since cultivation takes into
consideration your Consummation and is responsible for your improvement, not
only is it responsible for him and eliminates his karma, but it
also has to remove your attachments. You have to be a true cultivator,
truly be diligent, and be able to let go of anything. Then see what happens. If
you hold on to certain things too much it will become a big attachment, and it
will in turn affect other people. You need to pay attention to these things. Of
course, all of these things that I’ve talked about might not apply to your
case; your situation could be different. That is, you shouldn’t get attached
[to what I said]. What I have talked about are principles of the Fa. That is,
you shouldn’t get attached, for what I have said are principles of the Fa.
Question: During cultivation, how can I
get myself to meet the different requirements Dafa has set for us at different
levels?
Teacher: A lot of students have the same thought. It’s hard for
you to completely meet the requirements for you in a particular state of being,
or to meet the standard of that realm. And that’s because your being human is something
I am leaving for you so that you can continue to cultivate among everyday
people. We start from the worst attachments and eliminate them one by one.
Certain things are eliminated gradually, layer by layer. After one layer is
eliminated there is another layer, on and on until it reaches the surface
layer. When everything is eliminated you will have reached Consummation. Before
everything is eliminated you will still have human behaviors and human states.
That’s the only and best approach that I can provide, where you are able to
live among everyday people and to cultivate among them. Does it mean that since
you still have ordinary human things you can be lax with yourselves from now
on? No, it doesn’t! What I’ve told you is the principle of it, but you should
constantly be diligent and set a strict standard for yourself—that’s what
cultivation is. If you slack off, it won’t count as your cultivating. Or at the
very least, you won’t be moving forward diligently. That’s how it works. In
order for each layer of ordinary human things to be eliminated, you have to
cultivate and make an effort yourself.
Question: When we are spreading the Fa,
what should we do so as not to add human things to Dafa?
Teacher: As long as you have human attachments, they might
manifest themselves. What’s key is how you eliminate an attachment or a human
concept upon realizing that you have one. That’s the most important thing. If
you find that there is a problem, and you manage to eliminate it, only that way
are the things you do the best and the most sacred.
Question: After lives are created in the
cosmos, which level of the cosmos do those who don’t fall down belong to? Which
heavenly kingdom do they belong to?
Teacher: The cosmos is so immense, and the Fa covers all of it,
the Fa created all worlds. There are many more of them than the specks of dust
or grains of sand that we can see, immeasurably and incalculably more than
that. There are countless numbers of them even in a grain of sand. Every cosmic
body can create lives—the creation of life is not subject to the level or the
heavenly kingdom. What I mentioned about lives dropping down is a rare
situation that happens to less than one out of 100 billion, and what’s more, it
is something that happens over an immensely long period of time. There are
countless lives in the heavens, yet how many lives are there on Earth? It’s not
something that can be conceived of with human thoughts.
Question: As long as there are Buddhas,
there are demons. One can cultivate Buddhahood only when there are demons. Will
a person who incarnates after being a demon be annihilated even if he doesn’t
do anything evil?
Teacher: In this cosmos, there are Kings of Demons as well as
Kings of Fa. A King of Fa is a Tathagata. So, in certain levels they coexist in
the manner of mutual-generation and mutual-inhibition. But there actually
aren’t that many demons. Righteous gods are everywhere. And that’s because the
negative can’t conquer the positive, though the negative does exist. So, demons
are products of the cosmos, and without demons you really wouldn’t be able to
cultivate. You know, in your cultivation among ordinary people, people can
bring you a lot of trouble with their demon natures, and you constantly improve
and forge ahead. When you reach higher levels human beings are no longer able
to make any trouble for you. That’s because as soon as humans see you, their
little, trivial human things won’t be effective anymore, since they are quite
weak and you will have been cultivating at a certain level. Those who will
interfere with you will seem to be humans, yet they are controlled by demons.
There will be demons at different levels who will control humans in order to
create obstacles in your cultivation and keep you from cultivating. But it is
the obstacles intended to keep you from cultivating that present the best
opportunity for you to eliminate karma and improve. That’s how we look at it.
As for their reincarnating in the universe and
still doing all sorts of evil things, you might know that in Lama Tantric
cultivation there are elements of cultivating demonhood. Why is cultivation
required for one to become a demon? To cultivate into a Demon King, they too
need to get rid of the different ordinary human emotions, various attachments,
and human attachments in cultivation; only then can they reach that realm. Why
do they become demons, then? They don’t cultivate Shan, so they are
Demon Kings. They have met that standard and reached that realm, but they are
Demon Kings. If someone does all sorts of evil things among everyday people, it
doesn’t matter if he was originally a god or a demon—he faces annihilation.
That’s the situation. If a demon reincarnates as a human but he doesn’t harm
humankind, he can’t be annihilated. If he is able to obtain the Fa, he can
cultivate just the same and even achieve Consummation.
Question: “One can no longer cultivate
once the state of Unlocking Gong is reached.” Does that mean that one no longer
needs to do the exercises or improve xinxing?
Teacher: That happens because you have validated and
enlightened to your Attainment Status. Once you achieve Enlightenment you won’t
have human thoughts anymore. Instead, you will have a totally different way of
thinking and a different state of being. You will be able to see everything
that’s below the realm you are in; you will be able to see each of those
levels. That’s completely different from what you can imagine now as a human
being. Once you have validated and enlightened to your Attainment Status the
cultivation process ends. A being doesn’t forever exist in a state of
cultivation. It’s a process of returning from this place of humans to one’s
original position, and not an eternal process that a being goes through.
Question: After reaching the Unlocking of
Gong at a low level, how can a person maintain that level, and can he still
cultivate to higher levels in that same lifetime?
Teacher: Why would you reach the Unlocking of Gong at a low
level? There’s utterly no Attainment Status within the Three Realms. But I want
all of you to truly Consummate, so even though a lot of you have reached a
state of Enlightenment, I haven’t unlocked any of you, and that is because I
have a comprehensive plan for this. The arrangements for your cultivation are
basically done systematically and according to what you can bear and what you
have brought with you. It’s quite precise, and it’s not something that can be
understood with human thoughts. If you are a piece of steel, I definitely won’t
have you be a piece of iron.
Question: Did the Sixth Patriarch of Zen
Buddhism reach Boddhisattvahood? Was his contention with Shenxiu his
attachment?
Teacher: He’s an Arhat of Initial Attainment. This has nothing
to do with our cultivation. What I teach you is the great Fa, the great Dao,
but you insist on asking things about minor paths. Since Boddhidarma himself
wasn’t a Buddha but an Arhat with Righteous Attainment, the highest his
disciples could reach was of course just Arhat. Since he wasn’t a Buddha, how
could the principles he taught be the principles of a Buddha? Of course they
couldn’t. Actually, be it Boddhidarma or the five Patriarchs after him, they
were all looked after by Buddhas. If that weren’t the case he wouldn’t even
have been able to reach Arhatship. What Boddhidarma taught was not Buddha Fa,
but only the principles of Arhat Attainment that he enlightened to in his
realm.
As for the contention with Shenxiu, that was a
manifestation of human attachments in their cultivation. I think that gradual
enlightenment or sudden enlightenment—either approach to cultivation is fine. I
think that was just due to the state of mind they had. To put it plainly, isn’t
it just a matter of whether you come to understand everything suddenly or
gradually? So as for immediate Consummation versus gradual Consummation, as
long as you can cultivate to Consummation, whichever way you do upright
cultivation is fine. Isn’t this the same idea? It was just a dispute over the
approach to cultivation. It’s just like people upholding religions: it’s
correct when looked at from a human perspective, but when looked at from the
perspective of a God or Buddha, it’s all attachment. Would upholding a religion
itself allow a person’s cultivation to achieve Consummation? Which of your
attachments can be eliminated by doing that? Not one. To the contrary, it adds
on another attachment—the attachment to upholding that thing itself. That’s why
Shakyamuni said that all ways with intention are as illusory as bubbles, since
they have intention. Your upholding a religion doesn’t mean that you have
upheld a Buddha. It’s definitely not that kind of idea. That’s something human
beings have come up with using human thinking.
Question: Have any of us reached the
state of Semi-Unlocking of Gong?
Teacher: Yes, there are those who are in a state of gradual
enlightenment, and that actually belongs to Semi-Unlocking of Gong. It’s just
that the degree varies. There are plenty of people in that state.
Question: I’m a person who knows very little about
Falun Dafa. If I’m doing cultivation with the wish to become a Buddha in the
future, is that an attachment?
Teacher: Of course it’s an attachment. A student’s duty is to
study. As long as you study well you will naturally have good grades and
naturally be able to go to college. If you do well in your work you will
naturally have accomplishments. Your wish to cultivate can’t be considered
wrong in and of itself. The wish to become a Buddha itself means wanting to
return to one’s original, true self, which is the final destiny of a life in
the cosmos. How could that be wrong? It’s just like people wanting to go
home—how could that be wrong? That’s not wrong. But if in your mind you are
always thinking: “I want to cultivate into a Buddha. When can I cultivate into
a Buddha? I just have to cultivate into a Buddha.” Having thoughts that strong
is an attachment.
In Buddhism people don’t know about a lot of
things now. The older Buddhist monks have passed away, and the newer monks, who
returned to secular lives for so long during the Cultural Revolution, went back
to become monks and abbots after the Cultural Revolution. There’s been a huge
gap, and they don’t know everything about the true cultivation that was done in
the past. And especially since Buddhism experienced several Fa ordeals, the
most original things are completely lost or aren’t understood. Actually, each
generation of Zen Buddhism is considered to be going down a dead end, and
Boddhidarma even acknowledged that there would be only six generations—that
there would be no Fa afterwards. His Fa couldn’t be passed down further, and it
wouldn’t be effective for people either. Yet people today still stubbornly hold
on to it. It has been almost one thousand years since the Sixth Patriarch
Huineng reached Quietude, and thereafter it hasn’t been acknowledged, even
though it has been passed on further. Now sixty generations have passed, and
people still stubbornly cling to it. What Boddhidarma taught was Arhat Fa.
Arhat Fa is the closest to the Three Realms, so it is the lowest. The lowest
principles of the Fa are closest to human theories of philosophy, so it’s easy
for human beings to accept. That’s why a lot of people think they have gained
the highest truths of philosophy, and they approach and understand it like they
would ordinary people’s principles. That’s the current situation.
Question: Why are sentient beings allowed
to know the fundamental Dafa of the cosmos?
Teacher: Because they will all become gods after Consummation.
Those who can’t Consummate will all have to be repositioned, renewed, or
eliminated by history prior to the new history. Let me tell you, although I
have told you so many of heaven’s secrets and have taught you such an immense
Fa, in fact, I was only speaking in a general sense using human language, and
the essence of the true principles of the Fa is still unknown to you. What you
are aware of and do know about—those are that part of you that has been
successfully cultivated. It’s also the portion of the Fa’s principles that you
should know at your level. It’s not that absolutely everything at that level is
shown to you. That’s because people in this world aren’t allowed to know the
truth. It’s been like this throughout the history of the cosmos. So they can
only know what they should know.
Question: When a life drops down, is it
because it hasn’t met the criteria of that level in its cultivation?
Teacher: No, that’s not the case. If you can’t cultivate to
that Attainment Status, you won’t be able to reach there at all. Lives created
directly in that realm naturally meet the criteria of that realm. If a life has
generated certain thoughts or has done certain things that he isn’t supposed to
at his level, that might be what causes him to drop. It’s not that simple,
though. Human thoughts are very active and may generate all kinds of ideas. And
that’s because the mess of concepts formed after your birth and all kinds of
karma are exerting influences. Without those things you would find the human
mind clear and pure. Upon reaching a Buddha’s realm, a person won’t have such
low things; they will all be noble instead. He will know everything, including
the thoughts of oxen or horses. But those things won’t affect him, and he won’t
want to even think about them. He will know everything without needing to even
generate a thought.
Question: How do I know if I’ve stopped
at a certain level, and if I have, how am I to break through that?
Teacher: Actually, the reason that your cultivation has slowed
down is mainly that you haven’t put very much effort into studying the Fa, and
you haven’t been very strict with yourself. That’s usually the reason. You
can’t lessen your diligence in cultivation. Remember that! Make sure to
cultivate to the end! With such an immense Fa to empower people to cultivate,
it absolutely won’t drag on too long. So you must progress with diligence.
Question: Since Falun Gong is higher than
Buddha Fa, why is it called Falun Buddha Fa?
Teacher: I know what your situation is. Actually, you don’t
understand. I have explained it very clearly. “Higher than Buddha Fa”—what is
Buddha Fa? The Fa taught by Shakyamuni is Buddha Fa. And Buddha Shakyamuni said
that there were six primeval Buddhas before him, so was the Fa taught by the
six primeval Buddhas Buddha Fa? Are the Fa taught by the Future Buddha, Buddha
Maitreya, Buddha Fa? Then is the Fa taught by Tathagatas, who are as many as
the grains of sand in the
Why is it called “Falun Buddha Fa,” which is also
known as “Falun Dafa”? Calling it Falun Buddha Fa makes it easier to
distinguish from today’s Buddhism. It’s just a name for distinction. Actually,
these names—including Falun Dafa—are all names among everyday people, they are
just names shown to humans in ordinary human society. Falun Buddha Fa is in
fact the foundation of the cosmos. It is the foundation that creates all
sentient beings as well as all things and matter in the cosmos.
Question: There are many disciplines in Buddha Fa
cultivation. Are there different disciplines for different people?
Teacher: There’s no such concept. You mean they have to create
different disciplines specifically for different individuals? Do you mean to
say that the Buddha Fa is that trivial? Buddha Fa wasn’t created for human
beings or to save people. Buddhas save people since they are merciful. Even
Buddha Shakyamuni said that Tathagatas are as many as the grains of sand in the
Question: Can a single Falun Gong book enable all
cultivators to reach Consummation?
Teacher: I know what you have come here for, but I will explain
it to you anyway. When Buddha Shakyamuni was teaching the Fa in this world
there weren’t any scriptures. Later, after Buddha Shakyamuni was no longer in
this world, people compiled scriptures from memory according to what Buddha
Shakyamuni taught. The disparity between them was huge—they no longer had the
particularity of the time, place, and circumstances of back then. Despite that,
there have been many people who have succeeded in cultivation by following such
scriptures. Who could deny that? All they had were those scriptures. How else
do you think human beings can cultivate?
Question: Falun Dafa is the Great Law of the
cosmos, so why is Dafa also one of the eighty-four thousand disciplines?
Teacher: That is as much as humans can understand. If you tell
them higher-level things they won’t understand it anyway. Actually, have you
thought about this: with all the Buddha Fa in the entire cosmos, it can’t be
just a total of eighty-four thousand cultivation ways. Tathagatas are as many
as the grains of sand in the
Question: After this Fa-rectification, will
deviation happen again in the cosmos?
Teacher: Those aren’t things that you should ask about or can
conceive of using human thinking. I can only tell you that this time Dafa is
equipped with the ability to perfect, harmonize, and repair everything. So this
is a non-degenerating Fa. (Applause)
Question: I often feel my mind is blank and don’t
know what others are talking about. What is this exactly?
Teacher: That’s actually a very good state. Sometimes when we
are among everyday people our minds become quite calculating. When others
offend you slightly or say things you don’t like even a little bit, you
immediately become alert and search for things in your mind to protect yourself
and to use as a counter-attack. That’s entirely not the state of a cultivator.
What can be done about it, then? Those thoughts of yours need to be corrected
during the course of your cultivation. During that correction period, you are
no longer allowed to use your usual thoughts to protect yourself and to hurt
others. So when that thought is used in that way again, you will find that it
no longer exists, and your mind is blank. That’s how it tends to go. So it’s
beneficial for the cultivator. It is to strengthen your upright thoughts so
that you can handle yourself well. It’s a good phenomenon in cultivation.
Question: Annihilation has taken place many times
in the cosmos. What are annihilated high-level beings and sentient beings like?
What is complete annihilation of body and soul like?
Teacher: What concept of the cosmos are you talking about? Your
mind can’t fathom just how big the cosmos really is, so you wouldn’t know how
immense the cosmos you are referring to is. That is to say, no matter how you
expand your mind, the immenseness that you can imagine will still be extremely
microscopic. But no matter how big it is, if annihilation takes place within a
certain scope of the cosmos, all lives at that level will be annihilated, and
nothing will be left. That situation is different from degenerate lives being
annihilated individually. The lives annihilated individually are annihilated
layer by layer to pay for their karma. So even when they die, they have to pay
for their karma, to pay what they owe. But the explosion in the cosmos is such
that in an instant, everything disintegrates, and nothing is left. That’s of
course terrifying. It’s extremely terrifying.
Question: How can I ensure that every thought I
have is rooted in the Fa, and, at the same time, takes a middle way without
going to extremes?
Teacher: Actually, I would like to tell you that you shouldn’t
understand it that way. As long as you are able to find your own shortcomings
as you cultivate or when you encounter problems or troubles in daily life, then
you are in fact cultivating. Being able to identify your own shortcomings and
then do better later on—that’s cultivation. As for how you can make sure what
you say conforms to the Fa, and how to ensure that every word and action of
yours meets the standards of the Fa, those things will naturally come about as
you improve yourself. The level of your xinxing will naturally be
reflected in your words and actions. If you don’t pay attention to Fa-study and
try to do it intentionally, you won’t be able to achieve that.
I’m just telling you that whenever you do
something, whatever you think or do, you should be able to cultivate yourself
and to do better when a conflict arises or when you have seen your own problem.
That is what I ask you to do, and it is the most fundamental cultivation method
for Dafa cultivators. Work is not cultivation, yet everything that is displayed
among ordinary people is a reflection of the cultivator’s mind—one’s
cultivation behavior will be reflected in one’s work. In other words, your life
isn’t cultivation, yet your cultivation state will be reflected in your words,
actions, and how you live. As for taking the middle way, when I have taught the
Fa principles that is what I have required of you under special circumstances.
For example, when we say it’s not good to do something since it damages Dafa,
some people will immediately go to the other extreme. You tell them that’s not
right either, and they then go to the other extreme. I was referring to that
situation.
Question: Sometimes I have made some suggestions
to assistants, but they refused to accept them, making all kinds of excuses.
Teacher: There could be two reasons. One is that he thinks he’s
right. The other is that he could be blocked by things that he is attached to.
But you can’t say he is no good just because of that. It’s likely that he has
eliminated many attachments, only he is still cultivating and still has
everyday people’s attachments left, so he will have attachments and ordinary
human concepts. That’s why when he does things, even when he does Dafa things,
he might display human attachments—that’s a given. That’s why I have said that
their work for Dafa is also cultivation, and they need to integrate their Dafa
work with their cultivation since they, too, are still cultivating. On the
other hand, you shouldn’t form any concepts either. Whatever anyone does, it
can be done well as long as it is in the interest of Dafa. Also, you need to
look first to see if you have any attachments. When your suggestion wasn’t
accepted, did you first think of the problems with others or did you first look
at yourself?
Question: What are the three religions mentioned
in Hong Yin?
Teacher: In
Question: If every disciple is to achieve
Consummation, bringing along a Falun, then how should we understand the
phenomenon of different Buddhas’ and Gods’ worlds all over the entire cosmos
having Falun?
Teacher: I discussed this question a long time ago. It’s just
that this student hasn’t read or heard about it. A lot of people aren’t meant
to go to the Falun World. The Falun I have given you is only to assimilate all
of your primordial things to what is best in the cosmos. After Fa-rectification
you will go back to wherever you came from, and you will return to whoever you
were—be it a Buddha, Dao, or God. The number who will go to the Falun World is
quite small. Everything I have done is to assimilate you to the Fa of the
cosmos.
Question: Religions think they are right, but
there is no evidence for it. Falun Gong doesn’t have evidence to prove you are
right either, yet you ask people to believe in your teaching and not that of
others.
Teacher: That’s not true. Although you are not my student,
I’m not against your asking a question like this. That’s because everyone has
different thoughts when they don’t understand the Fa. As a matter of fact, I’m
not saying that people have to believe in me. What I have taught people are
principles of the Fa and principles in general. You can do whatever you want
when you walk out the door today, and no one will stop you. It’s not that I’m
forcing anyone to learn it. I’m simply telling people the real picture of true
cultivation. As for who wants to cultivate in which discipline, that is a
person’s own business. I’m just afraid that you didn’t even take a look at the
principles of this Fa; an opportunity like this is hard to come by, even in
thousands or tens of thousands of years. In the past no one taught [what I have
told you]; heaven’s secrets weren’t allowed to be told to humans before. So I’m
just letting people know about it. Whatever you want to cultivate is your own
business. At the same time, I have told people that no religion has a god
looking after things. In the past when a person was in confession, he could
truly feel that God was listening to him, and some could even furnish the
person’s mind with an answer. Now there are none there. So I hope that whoever
asked the question will read the book and try to understand what it’s about. We
human beings all have thoughts, and you are all knowledgeable. After reading
the book you will know if it’s right or wrong.
Question: Should I assist in teaching the
exercises, or should I focus on my own Fa-study and practice? Or should I do
both?
Teacher: Your improvement and your cultivation are the most
important things. Of course, if you have time, you may help others obtain the
Fa—that’s a most wonderful thing. People don’t realize how terrible this
current stage that humankind had reached. I would say it’s not a bad thing to
let others know about this and help them become good people; even if they don’t
cultivate, they won’t reach the point of being eliminated. Of course, it’s even
better if they can cultivate, for that is the ultimate purpose of being a
human.
Question: Isn’t it true that the simpler and purer
one’s mind is, the easier it is for one to break this shell? And the further
one is from the nature of the cosmos, the harder it is to break the human shell?
Teacher: That’s right. I have found that a lot of Caucasians
are very pure, especially those in remote rural areas. They are really pure and
simple. They don’t have this or that concept. Or even if they do, they are very
few, and so their obstacles to obtaining the Fa are small. That’s why many
Caucasians’ Third Eyes open once they start to cultivate.
Question: Sometimes I really don’t know what’s the
point of staying in this human world.
Teacher: You need to cherish your cultivation in this human world
and make constant and diligent progress in understanding the Fa’s principles.
The fact that nothing in ordinary society is attractive to cultivators is
because a cultivator’s realm is higher than that of an ordinary person. You
might feel that you don’t want to stay here in this human place and think that
it’s meaningless—that might happen. If you realize that this time is such a
precious opportunity for cultivation and for going back up, and give more
weight to Dafa cultivation, then you won’t have that feeling.
That’s all the questions I will answer. Originally the
conference was supposed to last for a day and a half. They added some time in
the afternoon so that I could answer a few more questions for you. I feel the
conference was quite successful overall. Through this conference all of you
have definitely improved in different respects, and you will be able to use it
as momentum after the conference to be even more diligent and to do better.
That’s the purpose of this Fa conference—helping everyone to improve is the
true purpose of this conference of ours. Otherwise it’s just a formality. We
definitely won’t allow ourselves to fall into formalities. No formality can
enable a person to cultivate or improve his mind.
Through studying the Fa with one another, all of
you can find your own shortcomings and see how others are cultivating compared
to you. It’s my hope that you will be more diligent with this momentum and
achieve Consummation more quickly.
Since all the questions that I’ve answered here
are related to cultivation at various levels, they are pretty high for an
ordinary person to hear. Of course, your comprehension is limited as well.
There are certain things that you may not be able to completely accept. But no
matter what, the fact that you have come to this conference might very well be
because of a predestined connection. It won’t hurt for you to take a look at
the book. If you read it without holding on to any concepts, you may be able to
see and understand many many things. Why are there so many people cultivating?
Just based on that alone you ought to take a look at it and find out what the
real reason is. People have minds and the ability to reason. Today’s people are
even quite knowledgeable. You can take a look and analyze it, and find out for
yourself whether it’s good or bad, true or false. No one directed or forced any
of the cultivators sitting here to come learn. They all cultivate of their own
will and are able to truly cultivate in Dafa. That’s why our Fa conference was
able to take place today. I think this Fa conference was quite a success and I
hope you will be more diligent after you go back. Thank
you all! (Applause)
[1]
Zhongnanhai (jong-nahn-high)—the Chinese leadership compound, located in