Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference in Australia
Sydney, May 2–3, 1999
Li Hongzhi
Hello everyone! (Applause)
In a flash it has already been a year or two since I last came to Sydney. The last time I came was during a Fa conference. At that time there were not as many students and the study of Dafa was limited to Chinese people. Now there are more people, and after a period of cultivation, I feel that you are able to understand the Fa from within the Fa. As you go about your cultivation you are sure to have many questions to ask and would like to receive answers to them. I felt that by coming to the conference at this time, I could truly answer some questions and resolve some issues for you. The timing was very good, so I decided to come and meet with everyone.
During this period of cultivation the situation in Australia has been relatively good. Even though there are still some less than clear understandings regarding the Fa-principles in cultivation, the overall situation is good. Today I mostly want to see everyone and discuss a few problems along the way. So, after I finish speaking today, I will mainly listen to your speeches, and then tomorrow I will use the time in the afternoon to answer your questions. You can write down whatever questions you have on slips of paper and pass them to the Conference Affairs Team who will then give them to me, and I will answer them for you.
There is a condition for answering the questions. I am here to answer questions for students of Falun Dafa regarding their cultivation, not to answer questions about things that happen in ordinary human society or other questions about human society. These questions I cannot answer, because currently I am responsible only to my cultivators, and I don’t want to get involved in any country’s politics, policies, or laws and regulations. As I go about this undertaking I have to be responsible to people, and, at the same time, I have to take into consideration being responsible to society. The development of ordinary human society is predetermined and progressing according to its law, and I don’t want to get involved in those things.
Next let’s discuss a few issues. Everyone knows that wherever I meet with students, I always talk about one subject, namely, I tell everyone to read the book more and study the Fa more. Even though everyone knows I’ll talk about it, I will still discuss it, because if you want to improve in Dafa, reading the book and studying the Fa is of utmost importance. If you treat the Dafa that I’m spreading today as a common, ordinary qigong, then you are making a horrendous mistake. If you want to have a healthy body, then you can go to the hospital to have your health problems treated, or you can get treatment through other medical means. I think that if your health is your only concern, then you can just go to them for medical treatment. I don’t do healings. I am leading you down a righteous path of cultivation practice, and want you to walk down a bright path. Making money off of Dafa by doing healings is not allowed. I am leading you down the purest path. In order to truly ascend through cultivation, one must persist in studying the Fa.
I have said that matter and mind are one thing. The issue of whether matter comes first or mind comes first has been constantly discussed and argued for a long time in philosophical circles around the world. I have given you many examples. We now know that the thought generated when people think or contemplate an issue manifests as matter. Then isn’t that what mind is? That is to say, matter and mind are one thing. The entire cosmos, from the most microscopic to the most macroscopic, from the smallest to the biggest, and particles of all matter, all contain one special quality, namely Zhen, Shan, Ren. Then this Zhen, Shan, Ren—the characteristic of the cosmos—restricts every aspect of every thing at the different levels of the cosmos. Matter is in fact composed of this non-material special quality. Matter and mind are, therefore, one and the same.
Some people have a wrong understanding. They say, “When I practice qigong I just practice qigong, and there’s no need to elevate my xinxing or read books.” This is the most crucial problem that I will tell you about. With that thinking a person will never be able to elevate, and it’s not possible for someone to become illness-free by just practicing a few qigong movements. Even many ordinary people in mainland China understand this. If you don’t study the Fa or read the book, don’t understand the underlying principles, cannot make your moral standard re-ascend, cannot improve your xinxing and become a good and better person, then you will have illnesses.[1] Because humans are all this way, and humans will in fact have illnesses, only when you surpass everyday people will you be truly free of illnesses. So it’s not possible to surpass everyday people by just practicing a few movements or so. Only by truly understanding the Fa-principles, elevating your mind and realm, becoming a better person—a good person who has surpassed everyday people, that is to say, an extraordinary person—will you not be afflicted with the illnesses that everyday people should be afflicted with. That’s the principle. I just talked about how only through becoming a better person and surpassing the average, everyday person of today can you truly be free of illness. Then, if you want to cultivate to higher realms, shouldn’t there be a yet higher requirement? Being free of illness does not equate to being someone who is cultivating in high realms, but rather, it just means you’re someone who is at a higher moral level than everyday people. What I ask you to do is to surpass everyday people, to ascend even higher—that is to say, to be an even better person, a person with higher moral values. Only in this way can you ascend through cultivation practice.
Currently some practitioners who are not of Chinese descent don’t place much emphasis on studying the Fa and don’t understand it very well. What I have just said may have cleared things up for you. Because qigong movements are just a supplementary method of cultivation, they absolutely do not play a fundamental role. If your xinxing doesn’t ascend and your realm has not elevated to a higher realm, no matter how much you do the exercise movements you won’t ascend. Only when your xinxing has reached a standard of a certain height can you achieve improvement and be free of illness. Only when you hold yourself to higher, better requirements can you become someone who has surpassed everyday people and who is thus no longer an everyday person. That’s because with people in conventional society, their thoughts, actions, and deeds, as everyone can see, are for their own selfish benefit. They are extremely selfish, even to the point of using any means necessary for the sake of personal gain. Also, this is a period of very degenerate moral values. If you are the same as an everyday person, can you be healed of illness through just doing exercises? There’s no chance! If you are the same as ordinary people, can you become an extraordinary person through just practicing movements? It’s absolutely impossible. So, everyone must read the book! The reason is, when your spiritual realm and thinking haven’t reached that high of a standard, your illnesses won’t be cured, and nor will you reach a high realm. That’s why I tell everyone to read the book more, and talk about the essential need to read the book.
The Fa can guide you to improve at different levels. The book, Zhuan Falun, is a book that enables everyone to practice systematically, so it is of utmost importance. Regardless of whether you are a cultivator or not, reading Zhuan Falun will enable you to understand how to behave. That is because today’s humankind is not restrained by any moral standards, and has gone against tradition and ancient ways of thinking. The more importance people place on the reality in front of them, the more they are letting go of man’s original nature—things that are the most innate and best. People without moral restraint act however they want to act, and that can’t be allowed. The degeneration of humankind has already put man in dire danger. Later in the lecture I will explain and answer questions about this for you all.
Next I will talk about a few specific problems. When practicing among everyday people, oftentimes one has many attachments that can’t be let go of; this is talking about specific issues in cultivation. Many people just don’t let go of their attachments, and even when they have caused the persons to be infatuated and unclear of mind, they still don’t realize it. In thousands of years nobody has truly talked about how to really cultivate. Everyone knows that cultivation involves sitting with the legs crossed. As you know, there are many older women in rural China who sit on their beds year round, sewing clothes and mending cloth shoes. If it were as simple as [sitting all the time], then I’d say they should all become gods. That posture is merely a supplementary method. If you aren’t doing cultivation exercises and just sitting with legs crossed, then even more so it amounts to nothing, for there isn’t even an element of cultivation then. So, I tell you to understand the Fa-principles and read the book as you go about cultivating. The goal is for you to elevate to even higher realms. How do you elevate? It is through your letting go of the bad thoughts you have amidst everyday people, and letting go of the competitive mentality of everyday people, for example. For the sake of petty, insignificant gain, people harm others. Overjoyed with a little gain and pained with a little loss, unable to eat or sleep well because of this and afflicted with ailments from head to toe, what a tiring life you lead! Do humans exist in this world merely for this?
Now that everyone has seen this point clearly, then why can’t you truly let go of your attachments as a cultivator does? Be a cultivator openly and with dignity. I have often said that as a person cultivating in a righteous Fa, the first thing you must achieve is to not fight back when being punched or insulted. Then why is it that when you encounter conflicts in cultivation, you just can’t let go of that attachment? When others say things about you that aren’t pleasant to hear, why do you become unhappy? When you become unhappy, aren’t you in your heart refusing to accept the chance to cultivate and improve? Aren’t you simply seeking the same kind of happiness that everyday people do? Then aren’t you an everyday person?! At that moment you should think, “Why am I unhappy? When others criticize me, I become unhappy—aren’t I pursuing something?” But while wanting everyone to be nice to you and to live a pleasant life among ordinary people, how are you going to improve? Without letting go of any human things, how can you improve and elevate? For exactly that reason you cannot improve and elevate. You have to truly let go of these things—attachments that humans cannot let go of.
But regarding this Dafa that you are cultivating today, I took fully into account how people with normal jobs in society could cultivate while still in the world today. So while cultivating Dafa you can have your job, you can have your business, and you can have all of your family life and social activities. The spreading and cultivation form of Dafa within ordinary society won’t impede your cultivation; I fully considered this. The Dafa I am imparting directly targets the mind and your attachments are to be eliminated amidst material gain, but you won’t necessarily lose out materially. That’s because I see that matter itself doesn’t really mean anything. If you are extremely rich and your house is even built with bricks of gold, and yet you don’t hold it dear in your heart but instead take it lightly, then I would say that it’s a case of having no attachment to material wealth. That is to say, Dafa’s requirement is the changing of a person’s thinking, not having you let go of physical things. Of course, regarding tests of one’s thoughts, this type of serious test must occur in order to see how strong your pursuit of material gain is and to see what types of things you see as important. Everyone knows that among our Dafa disciples, there are business people and even ones who are involved in big business. They are cultivators, and they are good people in their working places. They don’t lie or deceive people, yet their businesses do very well. They also don’t devote themselves like everyday people—to the point of not being able to eat or sleep well—but they all do very well in business matters. This current period of economic recession especially highlights what distinguishes cultivators. Extraordinary things like this will come about when a person reaches the standard for cultivation.
What I just talked about was attachments that obstruct cultivation. When many of you, my students, have run into conflicts and become angry, did you think about the fact that your anger was directed at everyday people? Think about it: Buddhas and Gods—those magnificent enlightened beings—would they get angry with humans? Absolutely not. That’s because they are not at the level of humans and don’t have emotion (qing) as do everyday people. How could they position themselves among everyday people? When you deal with conflicts the same way as everyday people, you are then at the same level, or in the same realm, as everyday people. That is to say, you are one of the everyday people. Only when you are not like them are you not one of them. Of course then, what you will display will be tolerance and an immense capacity to forgive. Everyday people will see it this way, but in fact it is the manifestation of your xinxing level in cultivation. So, regardless of the setting or circumstances in which you run into problems, you must maintain a compassionate and merciful heart in handling everything. If you cannot love your enemy, then you cannot reach Consummation. (Applause) Then why is it that when an ordinary person angers you, you cannot forgive him?! And instead you argue and fight with him like an everyday person? Doesn’t this also hold true for the interactions among practitioners?
Once the principles are taught to all of you, you understand them. What I tell you are Fa-principles, and what I have made known to you is precisely the book of Fa. As for how well it is put into action, that’s completely up to how well you cultivate. Of course I can help you, but that mostly doesn’t manifest in the human world, and many people can’t see it. In cultivation it is of utmost importance to study the book of Fa well. It will help you to eliminate the attachments that you cannot let go of, including the worst parts.
You shouldn’t believe that your notions are you. There are many people who, when reading Dafa, read with a type of notion. Such a person believes, “Ah, this section is good… Hmm, that section I don’t understand very well... Oh, I don’t think this section is up to par.” Let me tell you, you think that you’re quite smart, you think that your judgment is correct, but in fact it is a horrendous mistake. Your mindset was formed in this everyday people’s society, and so your standard for evaluating good and bad is the standard of everyday people, and it can’t possibly be superior to that of ordinary humans, and so this prevents you from seeing the true essence of the Fa. It is your attachments that have obstructed your obtaining the Fa. You are picking out parts that you think are good to read, and you are not doing true cultivation. That’s because when you see parts that you think are not good or that you think you don’t want to read, it is precisely your postnatally acquired bad habits of mind and bad thoughts at work. But that is not the real you, though you treat it as if it were.
Why is this the case? Think about it everyone, when a child is born, he doesn’t have any of the notions everyday people do. I have said that the celestial eye of a child under the age of six can see things after I utter just one sentence. Why is that so? It’s because he has not formed anything conceptual from ordinary society, and because he is pure and in compliance with the cosmos’s primordial standard of Zhen, Shan, Ren. Once you have accumulated so-called worldly “experience,” acquired frameworks for thinking, extolled them as savvy and grown experienced among everyday people, you have in fact changed yourself to something quite bad. And it is precisely those notions that render you fully incompatible with the true state, essence, and absolute truth of the cosmos. Since you formed those things postnatally, how could they be you? What is the meaning of “returning to one’s original, true self”? You have to cleanse yourself, and that is so that you can return to your purest, most righteous, prenatal state—one that has no notions when thinking takes place. That state is the wisest, and it allows a person to see everything in the world clearly. The reason is, when you don’t have any notions, your vision will encompass everything, and you can know what everything in the world is about with one glance. That is wisdom. When you instead look at things holding on to your frameworks, you will be trapped within them. But your frameworks are not the absolute truth. You might feel that your knowledge is quite advanced and your standards of evaluation are correct, but in fact they are not correct. Even when I speak this way, you might not be able to immediately understand, recognize, or agree with my point. Only if you can really put your mind to studying the book Zhuan Falun will you be able to see what that book of mine truly is!
Why is it that there are so many people studying [Falun Gong] in China and all over the world? In China alone there are nearly 100 million people studying, and many of them are scientists, top notch intellectuals, social scientists, thinkers, those involved in philosophical inquiry, and even high-ranking cadres. Outside China there are so many who have a Ph.D. or Masters degree, graduate students, and professors studying [the practice]. Are all of them dumb? And notably, in Chinese society the people have experienced so much, believed in certain ways of thinking, gone through the Cultural Revolution, and previously idolized persons without thinking. The lessons learned were profound. They have experienced everything imaginable. Could people like that be asked to believe in something blindly?! Then how is it they are learning the Fa, and why are they so steadfast? Doesn’t this tell you something? It’s because I tell all of them to be good people, to be better, extraordinary people, healthy people, people of higher morality, all the way until they become people who can achieve Consummation. It’s not like a few words from me, Li Hongzhi, can cause people to follow me irrationally. Everyone knows that Dafa is loosely organized. If you want to learn it, you can learn it. If you don’t want to learn, you can freely return to wherever you came from. I will do nothing. There are no restrictions, nor any form of organization, and nor will you be asked for a single penny. Why do all of you gather together here, to the point where you wouldn’t leave for anything? These people have their own thinking and intellect, don’t they? Then why can’t certain people let go of their notions and truly take a look at this book? Take a look at what Li Hongzhi is doing? Why are there so many people in the world who are studying this book? After reading it perhaps you will understand what I am doing.
When I first began to impart this Fa I had a really major concern. As you all know, in today’s human society, no religion can enable people’s minds and humanity’s moral standards to re-ascend. Those involved with religion know this too, yet there is nothing at all they can do about it. And there’s more to it: in the world today there is not a single set of teachings or collection of principles that can enable humankind’s morality to re-ascend, enable man’s moral values to become noble again, much less enable humans to re-ascend to the point of Consummation. There is nothing else like this in the entire world. Then in that case, mankind is in an extremely dangerous situation. If the Dafa that I am imparting today couldn’t save people, then people would be forever beyond redemption, for there is no Fa higher than the one that created the cosmos. When humans don’t have righteous thoughts and are without the constraint of morality, they will dare to do any wicked deed. The gods won’t allow it. You’ve all heard something—be it from religions or prophecies or some form of precognition, by books or by word of mouth—talking about mankind facing some sort of catastrophe. Think about it everyone, if mankind were to continue to decline as it has, wouldn’t it be dangerous? Even if gods did not come to punish humankind, humankind would kill itself off. In fact humankind is already destroying itself, even destroying itself when there is no war—destroying itself unknowingly. The pollution resulting from the development of science and technology has harmed the natural environment, and in the future the water would all be contaminated; mankind’s science and technology has no way to return water to its original degree of purity. Even the food that you eat is grown at an accelerated pace by using chemical fertilizers. Think about it, if mankind were to continue on like this it would become warped in both form and appearance. If human beings replicate human beings, then people will have truly begun to destroy man himself. Aliens wearing the skins of humans would be replicated en masse, occupying the bodies of humans. The future human race, originating from this type of people, would continue to replicate man more and more, and in the end replace man entirely.
Of course, I can see clearly all problems in the world, and I can disclose all of humankind’s problems. I am not at present imparting this Fa for the sake of these problems that human society faces. I am talking about these things so that cultivators can obtain the Fa and ascend. That’s the reason for my doing this.
I’ve just discussed one problem, and next I will talk about another specific problem. We have some people who as they go about cultivating hold on to attachments and won’t let go. This causes the conflicts they face to grow worse and the hardships they need to overcome during their cultivation greater, rendering them unable to surmount them. There are such people sitting among us here. This in turn causes them to turn to the opposite side, bearing a grievance against Dafa—or even bearing a grievance against me. Why aren’t others like you? Are these 100 million or so people all idiots? Why don’t you think about what led you to that state? There are some who have studied Dafa and who I’ve told to be upright, righteous persons, to be good persons, and not to do bad things, and yet they still go and gamble. After they lose their money they turn around and blame Dafa. Did I tell you to gamble? Just the opposite: I told you that you shouldn’t go gamble and not to do those bad things.
There are also people that practice Dafa and who blame Dafa when they suddenly suffer some sort of unexpected harm. Have you thought about how I also gave such an illustration of that in Zhuan Falun: there was a person who suddenly fell ill one day after learning Dafa, as if he had symptoms of a cerebral thrombosis. Half of his body became unresponsive and half of his brain was paralyzed. However, he was able to walk by the next day, and he had basically recovered quite well after one week. Afterwards he told practitioners at the practice site: I practiced Dafa to the point of semi-paralysis; I won’t practice anymore. Think about it everyone, if he didn’t practice Dafa, would he have recovered from his partial paralysis so quickly? You know what his partial paralysis was all about, and yet he blamed Dafa. Some people need to think about this seriously. You met with that hardship, and you said that Teacher didn’t protect you. Do you realize that if I didn’t protect you, it wouldn’t have been an injury to your body but most likely the loss of your life! Do you realize that? I have reduced that much, yet you still turn around and blame Dafa. That is the state of ignorance man is in, and he is very hard to save. He doesn’t want to repay the debt that he himself incurred while in the cosmos. He wants to be free of any hardship, to have perfect comfort while I endure all of it for him. Is that cultivation? Could that elevate your mind? When you run into these problems, how are you going to cultivate if you can’t generate upright thoughts as you deal with them? How are you going to continue on your path? I have done so much for you, yet you blame Dafa, blame me, and even badmouth me. Of course, I would never complain about anyone. I am just discussing Fa-principles with you all, discussing a principle. Even if you badmouth me, I will not hold a grievance against you, because my mind is not on the plane of ordinary people. Whether you say that I am good or bad, whether you say that I am a god or a human, I won’t be swayed, for no human thoughts can stir me. If you can reach this state that I have, you are then not far from the Consummation of your cultivation.
That was just an example. While you cultivate, the mind must be righteous. Of course, while I tell you to be righteous, it’s possible you might still not be righteous. Can you be righteous just from my saying a few words? The only thing that can help you develop righteous thoughts, which can enable you to ascend through cultivation—the most fundamental thing—is the book of Fa. We have more than 100 million people who are cultivating, so it’s not possible for every person to sit here today like you are. It’s not possible for me to talk to each of you, one after another. But I have imparted the Fa, so I must be responsible to you. In order to truly enable you to ascend through cultivation, I have utilized a method, namely, taking what I can give to you and what I can help you with, and compressing all of it into the book of Fa. The only thing left is to see if you want to obtain it. For this reason I tell everyone that when you can’t see me, you must take the Fa as the Master. Take the Fa as the Master.
Next I will talk about a small problem. Some students go to extremes as they cultivate. They suddenly enlighten to something and think, “Oh, this can stir up my attachments. I don’t want it. I’ll do away with it. Oh, this job I have can stir up my attachments. I will quit it. Hmm, I think I’ll just avoid everything.” Think about it: is that doing cultivation? Isn’t that going to extremes? I often say something. I say that you are cultivating among everyday people, and you should cultivate while conforming to the way of everyday people to the greatest extent. This is not a simple sentence, and it’s not to say that you have met the standard set forth in the sentence just by doing your job as usual. Think about it carefully, everyone. [What I am talking about] is manifested in every facet of your cultivation practice. If you are unable to cultivate in everyday people’s society [following the forms of] everyday people, then you are damaging the way of everyday people’s society. Even though ordinary society is not good, it too was created by the cosmic Dafa for the beings at the level of mankind. It is precisely because of its bad traits that mankind is allowed to cultivate here. It is meant for you to melt and dissolve away human badness, and for you to rise above and beyond, just like the lotus flower, rising out of mud—holy and pure. You absolutely must not go to extremes, and you absolutely must not understand the Fa in an off-track way. When you go to extremes, when you wish to cast off all sorts of [normal] things, when you discard your jobs, for example, in reality you are already in the midst of another attachment. Your fear of attachments itself has formed an attachment; it is your attachment of fearing attachments.
I will only say this much, since in a few moments students will speak and share experiences. I know that some reporters are in the audience, and they might have come from afar. I can appreciate the difficulties you’ve gone through. I, Li Hongzhi, do not want to achieve some human type of fame. I just want to be responsible to my disciples and students who are cultivating Dafa. My reason for coming to Australia was to answer questions about cultivation for them, making it possible for them to improve and elevate. But you have come, and I don’t want you to leave empty-handed. As always, my requirement is that if a reporter hasn’t finished reading through Zhuan Falun once, I will not meet with him or her. Only after you have a certain degree of knowledge about us will I talk with you. Since what I am imparting is so large, it definitely can’t be explained clearly in a few words. What you want to know are all matters of everyday society. I don’t like to address them, since at present I don’t get involved whatsoever in ordinary human affairs; I don’t get involved in human affairs in the least. But you have come, and I hope you can sit here and calmly listen to our practitioners’ speeches today, and take in the entirety of our two-day Fa conference. Afterwards I will meet with you, and you can ask questions. During the time of the conference, though, I absolutely will not meet with anyone, for I have many things to take care of. Our Fa conference is for the purpose of helping students to truly improve, and it is absolutely not a formality, and it is definitely not just done for others to take in. (Applause)
Okay, our students will now continue to host the conference, so that’s all I will say. Tomorrow afternoon I will thoroughly answer questions for all of you. I’ll now join you in listening to the students’ speeches.
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You may pass up your slips of paper. This afternoon is mainly to explain the Fa to you, and to answer questions that you raise. After a period of cultivation, there are many problems that can be resolved by what is in the book. But, there are questions that you may still feel better asking Master about so that you can have peace of mind. All of you have thoughts like these, so I’ll fulfill your wish. I will answer your questions for as long as I can. Okay, we’ll get started then.
Student: Are all of a person’s tribulations since the beginning of cultivation arranged, or are they due to self-imposed factors?
Teacher: In cultivation the path has been arranged, but not passing tests well is due to self-imposed factors. Cultivation is a very complicated thing, so not every case is going to be the same, nor could the things that have happened to one person happen to another. The same thing can’t possibly be dealt with in the same way, because you are, after all, cultivating in delusion. If everything were the same, then the delusion would be broken. Everyone would know what to do: “Oh, someone else has handled it that way and did very well. That’s how I’ll do it.” Then it wouldn’t be called cultivation. Tribulations are in fact results of your own karma. The karma accumulated from many lives is obstructing your cultivation, obstructing your return to your original, true selves, and obstructing your improvement. It is this karma that’s exerting an effect. I have cleaned up a portion of it, while the remainder is saved for you to eliminate. That’s because there is a principle in this universe: what is owed must be repaid. Regardless of which past life it happened in, doing bad things accumulates karma and then, in the next life or sometime later in the current life, it must be repaid. So, it is precisely this exerting its effect. I call it tribulation. In fact even everyday people experience this. The illnesses and hardships in life that everyday people suffer under painful circumstances are all in fact their tribulations. For our students, it’s just that I have placed them at different levels in your cultivation, and I utilize them to have you pass tests, cultivate, and elevate your xinxing. I’m using them to achieve this effect. But everyday people repay karma merely for the purpose of repaying karma, so it doesn’t have the element of cultivation, and everyday people repay however much karma they have. In our case, karma needs to be eliminated for you since otherwise the tribulations would be so great that you couldn’t cultivate. Of course there are conditions, as everyone already knows. It’s explained very clearly in the Fa, so I won’t repeat it.
Student: The pace of my individual Fa study is different than the pace of group Fa study. Does that matter?
Teacher: Studying the Fa by yourself, if you can continue to steadfastly cultivate solidly, is also remarkable. But as you all know, it’s impossible for you to study the Fa very diligently alone at home, and it’s impossible not to come into contact with ordinary society. In today’s ordinary society, people just do as they please. It’s a society where people are capable of doing all kinds of bad things without any moral standard or moral constraint. Today’s humankind is just like this. Those people that you come into contact with in society are all from everyday people’s society. What they talk about, say, think, and do are all part of what today’s humankind does. Then, when you cultivate by yourself without a very good environment, the only environment you come into contact with is that type of environment. Then in reality you are being influenced by it, and so it’s very hard for you to improve. I’ve said that many students felt that they were pretty good before cultivation, that they were good people. After genuinely doing cultivation, they find out that that wasn’t the case in the least. The reason they believed they were good is that they were comparing themselves with the today’s mankind, which is no longer good, and not comparing themselves to the era of mankind’s highest morality or with the nature of the universe.
Also, as you practice in a group and while you are together, what you say, think, and do are all out of benevolent thoughts, and you’re able to consider others as much as you can in whatever you do. That is a very pure and clean environment, a piece of peaceful, harmonious, and pure land. Then as cultivators in those surroundings, you will be nurtured by this compassionate force within that environment. That’s for sure. So there’s a reason I tell you to practice together. The people you come into contact with in that environment are all good people. Their words, actions, and deeds just aren’t the same as those of people in ordinary society, so this environment can’t be lost. But there are a few areas where there are not so many people studying Dafa, just one or two people, and they don’t have such a good environment. In that case, then, one has to rely on oneself. There really are students like that—truly studying quietly, cultivating quietly, and progressing diligently. Truly remarkable! I’m saying here, though, that a group cultivation environment is essential and very good. You shouldn’t lose that environment. That environment tempers people.
Student: In exchanging experiences with students I feel as if male students tend to emphasize rationally understanding the Fa, while female students tend to emphasize perceptually understanding the Fa. If this is a common phenomenon, how can we learn from each other and improve faster?
Teacher: I don’t really agree with this. Those students who understand the Fa well can all rationally understand the Fa. Only those who read the book infrequently—that’s to say those, who are not diligent enough, or those who have just begun to study—tend to understand the Fa perceptually. In this regard there’s no difference between male and female. Today’s women are remarkable too, [it’s not just men]; they have their own minds and abilities. It can’t be understood like you described. And female Dafa disciples’ inborn quality and ability can’t be distinguished by outward appearances.
Student: How should we understand the idea of going through In-Triple-World-Fa cultivation twice?
Teacher: It’s one of the manifestations of students’ different situations, which determine how they cultivate. It could also happen eight or ten times. For instance, if you are only to reach Consummation at the realm of Arhat, it’s sufficient for you to cultivate in In-Triple-World-Fa once. If you are cultivating towards higher levels, then it’s necessary to cultivate repeatedly and continuously during cultivation. Some people are relatively sensitive; it’s possible that some are more aware and know a little bit more.
Student: In the process of studying the Fa, it’s necessary to understand the Fa-principles clearly, without falling into the attachment of pursuing knowledge. How should we handle this?
Teacher: When you are able to understand the meaning of cultivation based on the Fa, you will understand. The only way to understand the Fa from within the Fa is to read the book more. The book of our Dafa can solve all mysteries and can rectify all human thoughts; as long as you read the Dafa books they can all be resolved. Whenever you feel that you can’t obtain answers to many questions, it is in fact you yourself not wanting to obtain the answers. That’s because if you read the book and study the Fa, any question can be answered. As you know, the government authorities now openly acknowledge that we have more than 100 million people. If every person wanted to find me so that he could have me answer his questions… there’s no way that could happen. The Australian students sitting here right now can see me, while the mainland Chinese students can’t see me at all. I’m often in mainland China, actually. They can’t see me because I can’t go to meet with them. If one area knows where I am, then students will spread it with the effect that the entire country knows, and then everyone will come to find me. The society of China is different from other societies. If people can’t understand us it might cause damage to Dafa, and thus I can’t meet with you. Even under these circumstances, though, I will still be responsible for your cultivation. So how do I manage to be responsible? I just said this yesterday: I have compressed everything I can give you into the book of Fa, and as long as you read the book you will receive everything. Some students have already read Zhuan Falun more than two hundred times, and they are still reading it. Each reading is different, because it is a book of cultivation. Contained inside are inner meanings at different levels. Those questions that arise after completing your first reading will be answered during your second reading, and you will understand. But after you finish reading a second time, there will be new questions, and then when you read for the third time, those questions will be answered in the same fashion. By continually cultivating like this, and continually reading like this, you are making progress with diligence. Add in the Dafa exercises, this type of supplementary method, then you are elevating. Some people often ask me, “Teacher, will I be able to reach Consummation?” Then I would answer with a question to you, “Well, can you do things as I just taught?” In fact, you should ask yourself the question of whether you can reach Consummation.
Student: After cultivating to very high levels, the body’s cells are completely replaced by high-energy matter. At that time, there is no metabolism. Does it mean there is no need to eat or drink then?
Teacher: Yes, but it must be that the entire human body has been transformed into high-energy matter. Then it can be done. It’s not sufficient if the body’s surface hasn’t reached this state. As you know, when one practices qigong one stores up qi and can emit qi. When one truly cultivates to higher levels, though, it’s no longer qi. Qi becomes nothing at all, and instead there is a higher energy that I call gong. It’s actually a more microscopic essence of matter. And this type of essence of matter will be stored in your body. Every cell in your body will store this type of high-energy essence of matter. The matter that’s more microscopic certainly has a restraining nature. After a long time, this type of high-energy matter will gradually become more and more abundant, more and more substantial. Then the cells in your body, won’t they become assimilated by it? After all of your cells have been assimilated by this type of high-energy matter, will your body still be the same as an everyday person’s body? Such a body is then composed of high-energy matter collected from other dimensions. In that case, does ordinary human metabolism still exist? It no longer exists. At that point you can do without eating and drinking, but it doesn’t mean that you cannot eat or drink. What you will really need will not be things from this dimension of ours. If you were offered human stuff, you wouldn’t like eating it. You would feel nauseas at the sight of it. What you will need then is higher matter from other dimensions.
Student: All of the students from Guangzhou miss you! All of the students from Guangzhou send their greetings!
Teacher: Thank you all. (Applause)
Student: Generally speaking, are cultivators from Australia at relatively low levels?
Teacher: I haven’t said that. Cultivation depends on oneself. In reality, you can’t know even now the realm to which you have cultivated. Once you knew, you would have strong attachments. Then it would become a type of obstacle and stand in the path of your cultivation. So not knowing means that you won’t have this attachment.
Student: In Essentials for Further Advancement, Master mentioned that cultivation is a serious matter, and not everyday people’s self-examination or repentance. I feel that I’ve been stagnating in a state of self-examination and repentance and can’t break through. May I ask, what is the difference between searching inside oneself and self-examination?
Teacher: Improvement in cultivation can’t be equated with self-examination and repentance. But, the fact that you are able to examine yourself and feel repentant is in itself part of cultivation. That’s the relationship.
You know, I often say that even if Christianity and Catholicism don’t use the terms of cultivation [that we do], they too are cultivation. It’s just that due to cultural differences Jesus and Jehovah didn’t use the term, “cultivation” (xiulian). That’s because in their culture there is no such concept, and the way of thinking is different. Think about it: aren’t they cultivating? When people walk into church, with very pious hearts they repent to their Lord and Jesus. They talk about what they have done wrong and in what regards they have behaved poorly, and they declare that they will do better next time. Then afterwards they do better. After that when [more] mistakes are found, again there’s repentance, and then again they behave according to higher standards. Think about it everyone: cultivation is in fact to cultivate one’s heart. Isn’t what they do cultivation of the heart? Ultimately they become better and better, and do better and better. Haven’t they then achieved the standard required by that paradise of theirs? Isn’t that Consummation? It’s just due to the difference in cultures that there was no discussion of gong; it wasn’t discussed in terms as rich as those in Eastern cultures. So, many terms they use are relatively simple, and the requirements are relatively straightforward. They only talk about faith, about firm belief in God.
Student: There’s a cultivator who is experiencing the test of life and death, yet he is not clearheaded. How should cultivators around him conduct themselves?
Teacher: “There’s a cultivator who is experiencing the test of life and death”—putting it that way isn’t quite right. And as he is not clearheaded, it can’t be said that he is cultivating. Fundamentally he is not diligent, and is relying on perceptual understandings of the Fa and human enthusiasm. He hasn’t truly understood the Fa rationally, hasn’t truly, diligently, and solidly cultivated. It’s not true cultivation. As you know, cultivation is a serious matter; I can’t recognize a person like that as a cultivator. Nothing in the world is more solemn than cultivation. When a person who has karma all over his body, a person whose mind is filled with filthy thoughts, wants to become a great Enlightened Being and cultivate to Consummation, what a solemn thing that is, and how magnificent is the process through which that cultivator manages to let go of everything that is human! Will it do if you can’t treat it seriously?! Will it do if you can’t manage to pass each test on your own?! Not paying attention, seemingly believing yet not believing, seemingly cultivating but not cultivating, totally not being responsible to himself—can such a person reach Consummation? Right? It won’t do if you don’t act according to Dafa’s xinxing requirements. Everyday people get sick. Birth, aging, sickness, and death are a natural cycle for everyday people.
Student: As a university student who practices cultivation, how can I keep making progress with diligence? Some disciples have suggested that not going to college and joining the workforce may result in better circumstances for cultivation.
Teacher: I’d say that would be a horrendous mistake. I understand that some people will become overly excited when they see the truth, especially when I teach the Dafa today and have taught so many of heaven’s secrets. Upon obtaining the Fa a person will become excited, and it’s easy not to balance well being a cultivator and an everyday person. To cultivate while conforming to everyday people’s society to the maximum extent is not just a simple sentence: it is the Fa! It is interwoven from every angle and perspective. I know that there will be more people studying Dafa all over the world in the future, billions of people studying. When I first taught this Fa I knew already what the result would be. With that many people all coming to study, if no one worked or went to school, could that do?! So, I thought about that stage before I began teaching this Fa. The question of how to allow people to cultivate in everyday people’s society is of great relevance. So, neither your work, nor your business, your studies at school, or any other aspect of your life will interfere with your cultivation. You need to go about your work and studies as usual. Your work and your studies are definitely not cultivation, but, as someone who does cultivation, your improved xinxing will manifest itself in your work and studies. That’s the connection. So, wherever Dafa students are, people will all say that, as a person, you’re just wonderful. That is a state that reflects your cultivating while conforming to ordinary society to the maximum extent. If you can’t achieve this, it means that you are not acting according to my words, to Master’s requirements. If you don’t even listen to what I say, then why do you still call me Master? I wouldn’t teach you to walk down a path that’s not good. Since I have taught this Fa, I must be responsible to it. In fact, I treasure you more than you treasure yourselves, for you exist together with Master. You are the most magnificent gods of the future, the exemplary models of the new cosmos, and mankind’s hope for the future. By all means, do not stop doing everyday people’s things after you start learning the Fa. [On the other hand,] as for things that Dafa doesn’t allow, if you don’t do them, that shows that your degree of understanding is good. But if you stop doing a normal, ordinary human job, then there is a problem here that stems from the attachment of zealotry.
Student: Young disciples from Leshan city send their greetings to Master! Beijing Dafa disciples send their highest respects to Master! Dalian city disciples send their greetings to Master!
Teacher: Thank you everyone! (Applause)
Student: You said in Lecture Eight of Zhuan Falun, in the section, “Whoever Practices Cultivation Will Attain Gong,” that, “all messages, living beings, and cells in your body are attaining gong.” What do the messages and living beings refer to?
Teacher: Your every cell bears the image of yourself, all the way to the most microscopic of the microscopic. I’m not just discussing this issue in regard to the Fa. Mankind has likewise recognized this now. Scientists take cross-sections of small animals’ cells and later transfer them to computers, and when they are displayed on the monitor, they discover that the cell is in the image of that small animal, and they’re identical. But when just the surface is looked at, it’s just a cell. My point is, when you are doing the exercises and everything of your body is changing as you go, then is your cell a living being? It definitely is. Additionally, everything that comes about as a result of your cultivation has life in it, including your gong, including every particle of your gong, various Fa implements, supernormal abilities, and divine powers. And that’s not all—when a person reaches Consummation he must have a wealth of things, for only then can he become a Great Enlightened Being. So they are all alive, they all have lives and abilities. That’s what it means.
Student: Are twins two primordial spirits reincarnating simultaneously?
Teacher: That is certainly the case. It’s definitely not one primordial spirit split into halves.
Student: In certain areas of Africa polygamy is practiced. Is it okay to spread the Fa to them?
Teacher: Yes, anyone can learn. There are differences in societal norms, differences in people’s understandings of morality, rationality, and notions. So there are very big differences. But none of this affects their ability to cultivate. In any setting, at any level, anybody can do cultivation. It just remains to be seen whether they cultivate or not.
Student: Our human body in this dimension is nothing more than a particle in the enormous body of the cosmos. Yet the differences in the particles’ sizes make up the differences in dimensions, resulting in one having a body in various dimensions. But this dimension doesn’t just belong only to you, but is a part of the cosmos.
Teacher: Right, this understanding is right. Even though you yourself are one individual being, you are also one particle within the collective body of the cosmos, a member of the collective being. For example, like what I just talked about, you are one individual being. It can also be said that you are a whole being in this realm, with every cell in your body being an independent particle form that bears exactly the same image as yours, yet they are also part of the whole at the same time.
Student: Master has said that the state of ancient China’s societies and ancient peoples were better than those of modern times. How then should we understand the contention and fighting that went on in ancient Chinese history? Is it as Confucius said, that only the ancient society before the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period and the Period of Three Emperors and Five Kings[2] was good?
Teacher: All of the ancient societies were better than modern society, regardless of which period. This is comparing humans with humans, however, and in reality this dimension of humans is just very bad. Looking from any dimension in the universe that’s higher than the human level, this place of humans is all bad, the most filthy, and the least able to see the truth of the cosmos. It has been bad all along, and today’s people are even worse since now people’s notions are inverted. I’m not talking about people being opposite relative to other dimensions; that was predetermined by the heavens. I’m talking about comparing today’s people to people of the past—their notions are opposite, good and evil are reversed. So now when people do bad things, they no longer realize that they are doing something bad, and they think that they’re doing a good thing. If you say that they are bent solely on profit, they would say that it’s a sign of ability. When such a person sees that a thief robbed someone, he doesn’t say that the thief is bad. He says that you haven’t been careful enough. Isn’t this a case of concepts being completely turned upside down? Modern people say that ancient times weren’t good, but in fact that is a reflection of modern people using a degenerated notion to judge the ancients. In the movies produced in Hong Kong you see ancient people portrayed as killing and fighting constantly, but that’s just artistic technique, artistic embellishment. Over the long history of several thousand years, things like that are so insignificant that they’re not worth mentioning. As you know, art needs to be larger than life.
People of the past said, “When striking people, don’t strike the face.” This sentence sounds very simple. But even when fighting, a person was able to restrain himself and not allowed to do as he wished. Yet now when people fight they specifically strike the face. Cruel, vicious, and without any restraint, man is now different. Of course, why were there wars in the ancient times? Let me tell you, that was determined by the heavens. That’s because what the cosmos’s Fa-principles set forth for humans in this dimension are in fact: conquering the world with military force; the victor governing the country; and the strong being heroes. These things, from the perspective of high-level dimensions, are all bad, but in the midst of man’s opposite principles they fit in with man’s principles that are opposite of the cosmos’s, and have exerted their effect in human society for thousands of years. When man’s karma grows large it is necessary to eliminate karma. So natural catastrophes, human disasters, and man’s wars then ensue.
Student: Regarding the words or concepts that I don’t understand when reading Zhuan Falun or listening to your teaching of the Fa through your answering questions at other locations, is it absolutely necessary to understand words such as “naturally” and “inevitable”?[3]
Teacher: The words’ surface is generally the same as people’s understanding. It’s actually not necessary to dig into these words. When reading the book you all should avoid digging into the words. You should just read along sequentially, but you must be aware that you are reading the Fa. You must be aware of what you’re reading. Yet the Fa’s inner meaning is not at the surface. When you are clear on that sentence’s other and higher interpretations, that is the Fa-principles’ inner meaning being manifested and the Fa revealing itself.
Student: As an acupuncturist, when inserting the needles I come into contact with the patient’s skin and when using the technique of “cupping” as treatment, it draws out many filthy things from the patient’s skin. These two actions transmit karma. Can a cultivator continue to do this type of work?
Teacher: Don’t be so overly cautious, because you come into contact with everyday people in all of your activities in society. For example, the chair that you sit in: someone else just sat in it. Will you sit in it or not? Things that other people have touched: will you touch them or not? This type of indirect contact is still contact. This society is filthy, and that’s just how it is. Cultivators can’t have the mentality of fearing this or fearing that, forming another type of attachment—the attachment of fearing all kinds of things. Cultivate openly and with dignity. What your body emits is the righteous Fa’s light. There are many Dafa disciples involved in doing scientific research. During experiments involving bacteria, when their hands accidentally got close to where bacteria were, it was discovered that the bacteria all died. There have been many cases like that. That is to say, you as Dafa students innately have the ability to kill bacteria. You aren’t using a qigong method to give treatments [at your job], but using everyday people’s methods of medical treatment, so it isn’t a problem. Even if you could be contaminated with a bit of karma, it’s tinier than tiny and has no effect. If you did use qigong to heal people, though, that would be different. That would be very clearly trading with other people, with you acquiring the illness and giving away good things to others. So, I say that those phony qigong masters who have not gone through cultivation, who only want to use it to make money, are in reality hurting themselves—hurting themselves fatally. People dare to do anything for money and don’t even know when they are hurting themselves.
Student: I’ve been cultivating for more than two years now. I firmly believe in Dafa and have obtained a certain level of understanding. Yet during experience sharing conferences, I don’t know what to say. I understand things in my heart but can’t express them clearly. So I don’t want to say anything. Is this due to my inborn communication skills being poor or insufficient understanding of the Fa?
Teacher: This may not necessarily be due to a problem with your understanding of the Fa. Everyone has a different state in cultivation.
Student: What is the difference between those who started to cultivate early and those who started to cultivate later?
Teacher: There is no difference. I have never said that those who started to cultivate early would be such and such, and those who started to cultivate later would be such and such. Dafa is still being spread. As long as you have obtained it, you should just proceed with your cultivation. If there wasn’t a way to have you reach Consummation, you wouldn’t be allowed to cultivate. Differences in level are not due to how long it has been since a person obtained the Fa, but to the person’s own individual cultivation.
Student: While meditating, I found myself unable to stop my head from constantly swinging and turning. Because of it, I can’t reach a tranquil state during the meditation. Instead, it makes me feel panicky inside. What’s happening?
Teacher: There are two possible scenarios. The first one occurs when a new student has yet to become a genuine cultivator. In that case perhaps you learned some other things in the past, or displayed certain things in your home to worship in the past, or worshipped certain things in the past. Doing bad things among everyday people and thus bringing something upon oneself is another possible cause that can’t be ruled out. If in the process of your practice you manage to truly cultivate Dafa with a firm heart, then I will eliminate that thing. And there’s another situation. Namely, after a person starts to cultivate, his body is being adjusted during the initial stage. Some part of his body has suffered from health problems in the past. In this case, it may be a reflection of karma being eliminated in that area. Both situations are possible causes. But do your best not to swing along with it. If it’s truly too hard to control, you can practice with your eyes open. Why is it that you aren’t moving around right now? You should just maintain your current state while practicing and close your eyes only when you’re no longer moving. Swinging may also occur in cultivators whose Great Heavenly Circuits are opened up.
Student: All Dafa students from Pittsburgh in the United States send their greetings to Teacher!
Teacher: Thanks everyone! (Applause)
Student: While an adult is doing the meditation, is it all right for a child to sleep by his side? If this were to happen, how would it affect the child’s main primordial spirit and assistant spirit?
Teacher: You were actually asking whether the child would be able to acquire gong. Yet you don’t want to say it directly because you have an attachment there. Haven’t I said that with one person practicing, the whole family benefits? At a minimum, the energy field that you carry is beneficial to all of your family members since you are cultivating the righteous Fa, and the benevolent and tranquil power that you carry can rectify all incorrect states.
Student: There’s this person who said that once one has cultivated to a certain level, if he often talks about or recollects his earlier cultivation process and the way that he felt while his karma was being eliminated, he will drop back down to the level he was at at that point in the past.
Teacher: How could that be possible?! When a cultivator talks about his cultivation process it’s to help both himself and other Dafa disciples do better when going through that form of tribulation again. It doesn’t have any effect on one’s level at all. But, if he did it with the mentality of showing off it’s a completely different matter. In that case, when he talks about it some students won’t like listening to it.
Student: You said yesterday that mind and matter are one. Then what does that have to do with us studying the Fa?
Teacher: The person who submitted this note is not yet a student and doesn’t yet understand the Fa that I am teaching. But I will still answer your question, since I am teaching cultivation here. You have heard clearly just now that human bodies can undergo changes during cultivation. All of these changes are brought about by improvements in the cultivator’s xinxing and the elevation of his mind during the process of cultivation. People usually think that xinxing belongs to the immaterial, or mental, realm and that there’s no connection between mind and matter. Some people think, “What does the mind have to do with the exercises we practice? We’re just practicing exercises here. Why are those principles being discussed?” This is the fundamental reason why many people’s gong doesn’t increase with their practice. When you come to understand the principles, your thoughts will be elevated, your state of mind will be improved, and you will come to understand even higher principles. That reflects your improved state of mind and the position of your state of mind. Only when you reach this standard can your gong increase. That’s the principle. If you don’t understand this principle, your gong will not increase even if you do the exercises everyday from dawn to dusk without stopping to eat or drink. But if you say that you just want to read the book and not do the exercises, then you can’t be considered a cultivating disciple of Dafa either, for you would just be studying it as a theory. You can call it “cultivation” only when one wants to cultivate, has the desire to reach Consummation, and at the same time carries out the actions involved in cultivation. This is only a surface-level explanation, though. In reality the elevation of the mind is the elevation of gong, as mind and matter are one.
Student: While reading Zhuan Falun, the same phenomenon happened several times: while reading the book, my head suddenly felt heavy and I felt very sleepy. But I did not fall asleep. I felt my eyes were constantly drawn to a certain passage of the book. Suddenly another passage of words appeared in the book, but those words were not from Zhuan Falun.
Teacher: This is your thought karma severely interfering with you and not letting you read the book and study the Fa. It makes you feel sleepy and want to fall asleep. It makes you lose your righteous thoughts and righteous faith. When it gets anxious, it will even manifest itself to interfere with you, even causing words to appear in your head. Demons that damage Dafa also do this. When they get anxious, they will even argue with you in your head, talk to you, and not let you study. Isn’t it obvious? Thought karma or outside interference is at work and preventing you from elevating. That’s because your improvement eliminates it. I’ve said that I would eliminate your karma. When it is truly eliminated, it is truly disintegrated. Will it accept that? So it does everything it can to fight back. If you consider those things a part of you, then you won’t be able to obtain the Fa, for the Fa is given to you and it absolutely can’t be given to that karma. So, you need to overcome it. No matter how sleepy you get, you need to overcome, suppress, and eliminate it. The moment you break through this barrier is also the moment it is eliminated.
Student: Right now I feel that in regard to many things I am making a mistake as soon as I say or do anything, so I no longer dare to say or do anything. But quite a few people around me think that I’m overly cautious.
Teacher: I think so too. As a matter of fact, this is a state that emerges when one has come to see the truth and realizes that human principles are actually reversed. It’s a manifestation of the process of becoming a cultivator. But at the same time, one still has to behave as a cultivator and cultivate in an open and dignified manner. The only thing is that the realm of a cultivator will be displayed in the things that he does intentionally and unintentionally, and they will meet a very high standard. Don’t get trapped in another kind of attachment, becoming afraid of making mistakes when saying or doing things. That fear is also an attachment. Try your best to do things in an open and dignified manner. There’s no problem with that.
Student: Could you tell us the root cause of our vanity?
Teacher: Emotion. You like it when other people say that you’re good. You like it when other people praise and flatter you. You like it when other people respect you. And you are afraid of anything that damages your image. All of which is developing the mentality that is vanity. It’s an attachment. The human desire to save face is very strong. In fact, when you set your mind at ease and don’t carry so much baggage, you will cultivate faster.
Student: During the process of cultivation, many tribulations are easy to pass. I have been able to overcome them by bearing down. But emotion is a test that’s very difficult to pass. I’ve been unable to pass it in several tries, especially since I’m fairly meek and easily moved. I have cultivated for close to two years now. But during this time, because of problems with my feelings toward my boyfriend, I stopped practicing for several months. Now I want to start practicing again. Will Teacher still take care of me?
Teacher: The door to Dafa is still left wide open. There are still new students constantly coming in to study it. New students are still stepping in the door. As long as you cultivate, everything depends on you. But you can’t behave like that all the time. It’s enough to learn a lesson once. Emotion is something that’s very difficult to let go of. Let me tell you this: human beings all think that their thoughts and emotions are parts of their own bodies and are products of their thoughts. That’s not the case at all. Emotion is precisely the display of the most irrational things. Whenever you are stirred up by emotion, you aren’t able to act rationally at all. Think about it carefully, when you can’t get certain things off your mind, when you feel angry and feel that you have been treated unjustly, at those moments you are being led by emotion. Some people are totally unable to control themselves and become overly giddy. When one’s emotions become abnormal, it means that he is being led by emotion to the point of becoming irrational. There are people who have a hard time letting go of emotion, even to the point of feeling a heart-wrenching loss when trying to, and they are dragged along so passively by emotion. Emotion is at work in everything. In reality, this emotion is a god within our dimension of the Three Realms. He was created for human beings, and exists for the sake of human beings and all sentient beings within the Three Realms. Without emotion, human beings would become cold and indifferent. If human beings had no emotion, they would be even viler. Then for mankind life wouldn’t be meaningful. Precisely because there is emotion, people have learned to feel happy, angry, sad, and elated. Precisely because there’s emotion, there is a special bond between parents and children. Precisely because there’s emotion, people are able to form families. Precisely because there’s emotion, people can love and protect their children. Emotion is able to play these roles for human beings. But because of misguided thoughts, emotion can also bring about incorrect behavior in human beings or incorrect ways of thinking. From the moment a person is born he is immersed in emotion. It has saturated all of your cells. All of the molecules and cells within the Three Realms are saturated by it. So it’s very difficult to escape from it during cultivation. As a cultivator, if you can’t let go of emotion, all of your behavior is human behavior. Valuing emotion is in fact defending emotion. And in that case, you are just an ordinary human being. If you can let go of it, then you are no longer a part of it, and are a god. That’s the principle.
Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Arhats, and Gods are outside of this emotion. Gods outside of the Three Realms don’t have human emotion. But not having human emotion doesn’t equate to not caring for and protecting others. They possess something higher, called compassion (cibei), which is nobler, broader, and more wonderful. Emotion is an element within the Three Realms.
Student: Students from Fuzhou city phoned me and asked me to give their greetings to their revered Teacher!
Teacher: Thank you, everyone! (Applause)
Student: Singapore is a society that’s multi-racial and uses English as the common language. Its population is 3.2 million, 76% of which is Chinese. But currently, only a small number of people there are learning Dafa. Most of them are educated in English. They can understand spoken Chinese but have challenges reading Chinese. This is one of several things that serves as a barrier and poses difficulties with people obtaining the Fa. I was also educated in English and can understand their difficulties. Master, how can we spread Dafa to more people in Singapore in this situation?
Teacher: This type of situation also exists in other regions. There are some Chinese people in Australia, and there are also Chinese people living in other western countries, yet they were brought up completely in Western culture, so they don’t speak Chinese. But does that mean that they can’t study the Fa? They can read the English version of Zhuan Falun or read Zhuan Falun in other languages. They can obtain the Fa just the same. This isn’t a problem.
Student: Master said that all of the human beings on Earth right now are not supposed to be humans. Is this understanding of mine correct? At the beginning when these people came down, it was not caused by them falling down step by step because they became bad. Instead, they took a risk and came down here. But once they arrived in the human world, they all fell into delusion and have accumulated a lot of karma. Some people have accumulated too much karma and are completely lost. They are no longer able to cultivate at all. But in spite of this, Master only looks at the fact that they came down to obtain the Fa initially. So regardless of who it is, as long as he develops the thought of wanting to cultivate today and enters the practice, Master will offer him salvation.
Teacher: That’s basically correct. But not all the people came down here out of righteous thoughts; some did fall down to this level. But when offering people salvation, Dafa treats everyone the same. This door of mine is opened so wide that there’s no door left anymore. Only people’s hearts are being looked at. In addition, it’s true that I have said that human beings in today’s world didn’t come to be humans. But not all of them came to become Buddhas, Daos, or Gods either. That is to say that not all of them came to cultivate. But all of them came on account of Dafa, were formed by Dafa, and were created by Dafa. They play both positive and negative roles.
Student: Since beginning to study Falun Dafa, I have seen you in my dreams twice. Both times, you looked like your current image. I received my education in English and I am also a child of mixed race. Why is that I was unable to see your Law Bodies but could see a split body of yours?
Teacher: Every person’s cultivation progresses differently. I don’t want to tell you too specifically. Some students’ situations are different and they can’t see my Law Bodies either. Everyone knows that the Law Body has the image of a Buddha, with blue hair and wearing a yellow kasaya. Before you reach the realm of Buddha, you are not allowed to see the image of a Buddha. This is the issue. In order not to disrupt your improvement, I don’t talk much about your specific situations. Some people can see, and seeing can easily lead to the attachment of complacency. So I have always refrained from talking about specific situations, and people have asked about them all along. Some people carry their inborn elements with them, which allows them to see. There are many people like that, as I have told you that no human beings came to be humans, and it’s because of this. Then there are people who have cultivated very well and need to achieve breakthroughs faster. They’re not allowed to see, and this results in their not being able to see anything. No religion or cultivation method is able to save you to a place that is even higher than its own gods. Our Dafa can save all sentient beings. How high a person cultivates is up to the person himself. That’s because Dafa is the Fa of the cosmos and has created living environments for all beings in the cosmos. It can bring you back to the original position. But the requirements are correspondingly high as well. Some students need to cultivate to very high levels. If their [state of needing to] enlighten to things is ruptured, they will never be able to reach that realm.
The path of cultivation is determined based on the person. Everyone is different. Some people can see very clearly, seeing one thing after another as time goes on. Some people simply can’t see anything, meanwhile. Don’t think that those who can’t see anything are at a low level, and don’t think that those who can see have cultivated well. One’s level of cultivation is based on the level of his xinxing. This is for sure. Throughout history there has never been a cultivation system that used supernormal abilities as a standard for judging how good a person’s xinxing is or how high is his level. That has never happened.
Student: Everything is transformed from de. Then will receiving things from Master cause one to lose virtue?
Teacher: I’ve said this in the past, I said that all of you are cultivators and should hold yourselves to strict standards. No matter who you are, you have to act that way. That’s because you are in the process of cultivation and that is the requirement for your cultivation. But I am not a cultivator. Master is here to save you. You have to be clear on this. So you should never, ever compare yourselves with me.
Student: Master said that every single disciple’s cultivation path is arranged all the way to Consummation. But in Zhuan Falun it says, “What they have physically, along with their endurance, is predestined.”
Teacher: There’s no inconsistency there. I have arranged for everyone to reach Consummation. But everyone won’t necessarily reach Consummation at the same realm. Isn’t that the idea? So, the things that you yourself carry, your ability to forbear, ability to endure, and where your original positions are, are all different.
Student: “… some people will experience the Unlocking of Gong or become enlightened… at a very low level.” In the case of such a person, what point is there in arranging them to Consummate?
Teacher: You feel it’s not meaningful, but others find it meaningful! Non-cultivators all feel quite satisfied with achieving even a little bit of accomplishment among everyday people. They feel that it’s quite meaningful and that they are really enjoying their lives. Isn’t that how it works? As different cultivators Consummate at certain levels, it is meaningful to them!
Student: I’ve been studying the Fa and doing the exercises for more than one year. But every time I do the standing exercises, I can’t stop myself from constantly yawning and having tears stream down my face. Is it because I haven’t let go of some attachments?
Teacher: No. Yawning is a cultivation state. It appears frequently at the initial stage of cultivation. But it doesn’t always occur. This state is not fixed. During the initial stage, when the qi developed inside the body has been pushed to the head and needs to be expelled, yawning might occur. It’s not anything bad. During the initial stage as the body is being adjusted, the elimination of illnesses in the head will also cause this to occur. It’s a phenomenon in the cultivation process.
Student: When people insist on holding onto their own opinions on a certain matter, how can one distinguish attachments from holding onto one’s opinion? For example, when people have different opinions on a certain matter but only one approach can be adopted, and every single opinion is the manifestation of the Fa at different levels, should one deal with the matter according to one’s own understanding or the decision of the group? How can every disciple’s taking the Fa as the Teacher be put into practice?
Teacher: When dealing with an issue and presented with different opinions, after discussing the matter, you should put Dafa first and shouldn’t overly emphasize your own idea. After a final decision is made, you should work together to carry out the task well. When people insist on holding onto their own opinions and spend a long time arguing over the matter but are unable to reach a consensus, they are being used by demons or demon nature that is damaging the Fa. Insisting on holding onto your own opinion stubbornly and refusing to let go is an attachment to “self.”
Student: A person’s opinion on a matter will cause his own notions to develop. But the difference between a cultivator and an everyday person lies in the state of mind that he has when dealing with his own notions. An everyday person is attached to the correctness of his own notions and thus hopes other people will agree with him. In contrast, a cultivator has his own opinions but doesn’t impose them on other people. Is this understanding correct?
Teacher: It’s not absolutely correct. That is because a cultivator wouldn’t easily form notions among everyday people, and he puts the Fa above all else. He uses the Fa to break through the delusions and eliminate human notions, and uses the Fa to judge everything. Besides using determined righteous thoughts to uphold the Fa, he does things of everyday people naturally and without pursuit. He has no attachment to whether it can be accomplished or not, so even less so should he have rigid notions.
How should Dafa disciples deal with having arguments? Do you deal with it with upright thoughts? Especially when there are intense conflicts due to differences of opinion, you should look at yourself and see where you stand in your own heart. Is it 100% on the Fa? What is your insistence on holding onto your own opinion based on? You must look at the root of that thought.
Student: One of our students has a pessimistic attitude, saying that he might be a being within the Three Realms and it’s possible that he can’t get out of the Three Realms no matter how hard he tries. Is his thinking correct?
Teacher: Who told him that he is a being within the Three Realms? I’ve never told anyone that he can’t cultivate. I tell you that I don’t care about who you are, and I don’t care what you came here for; even if you were born to damage the Fa, I still offer you salvation. (Applause)
Did you know that the number of Dafa students today is really quite large? If we ourselves didn’t do well, with such a large group of people the consequences would be great. Then certain government agencies would start to pay attention. As a matter of fact, there have always been people who want to see what’s going on [in Falun Dafa]. Some people who work as spies are practicing alongside the students and observing, watching what they’re doing. Do you know how I view the situation? No matter what kind of job he does, he is a sentient being. He is first a being. In my attitude toward them, I simply regard them as people with different jobs. No matter what kinds of thoughts they had when they first entered this environment of ours, I treat all of them with benevolent thoughts. As long as he wants to cultivate, I will be responsible for him. So when many of these people from governmental agencies who came to get to know Dafa found out that we have nothing to hide and that there’s nothing bad about us, and moreover they started to think Dafa was so good, they started to study Dafa in earnest. Later on, they told our students, “Do you know who I am? I’m an infiltrator. I realized how good you are. Now I’m going to learn it!” (Applause)
I say that our Dafa isn’t afraid of being understood by others. Every single student and every single volunteer of ours behaves this way: “You’ve come here to get to know us. Whatever you want to know, I’ll tell you. Whatever you want to see, I’ll take it out and show it to you.” There’s nothing hidden. Everything is conducted in an upright and open manner. That’s because this is the only piece of pure land in the human world. Before they get to know Dafa, today’s people believe there aren’t any good people anymore. If they don’t know us and don’t step into this environment, they truly won’t believe that there are these good people in this world.
Student: When I’ve just woken up or I am walking around, a part of my brain will frequently recite certain paragraphs of Zhuan Falun, yet my main consciousness is thinking about everyday people’s things. Is the side of myself that has completed cultivation doing the reciting?
Teacher: Yes, this kind of state may occur. The side of you that has been fully cultivated is clear-minded and is anxious about this human side that hasn’t cultivated well and is not making diligent progress.
Student: My husband asked questions during the Eastern U.S. Conference that took place in New York in March. Teacher encouraged him and told him to cleanse his inner self, change himself completely, and start anew. He knows he should follow Teacher’s words and genuinely cultivate; but my husband has remained stuck in a state of deep regret and self-criticism, and can’t get out of it. There is also strong demonic interference. This has been going on for more than four months now.
Teacher: It is because your husband’s main consciousness is too weak and can’t maintain control of him with a clear head. I told him that he was wrong, and then he got stuck in a state of self-blame. He has gone to the other extreme and become attached to it. Demons then again took advantage of this incorrect thinking of his, and are interfering with him.
Student: Can he still cultivate?
Teacher: You have to ask him that question. Why have I said that mental patients can’t cultivate? Everyone knows that this Dafa of ours is for the cultivation of your main consciousness. It means that it is given to you yourself. You have to cultivate yourself with a clear consciousness. All previous cultivation methods, including all previous religions, were for the cultivation of the assistant consciousness. After a person died, his primordial spirit still underwent reincarnation like before. The part that met the standard was able to ascend to heaven, but that was not your real self but the assistant spirit. This was a mystery from the beginning of time, and couldn’t be revealed in the past. Today, in order to impart this Dafa and enable you to truly be saved, I have unveiled these mysteries from the beginning of time, the secret of secrets, and the heavenly secrets of the heavenly secrets to all sentient beings. If you can’t cultivate yourself, and you yourself are not clear-minded, who am I giving this Fa to? Who am I asking to obtain it? So your main consciousness has to be clear. If you’re not clear, then it won’t work. So, I have repeatedly told everyone that you have to cultivate in a rational, upright, and dignified manner.
Student: When doing the meditation, can I use a cushion to raise my bottom and support my lower back?
Teacher: You can do it for the time being. I have to allow you to go through a process as you do the exercises. In the future, though, you won’t be able to do that because you will have surely practiced it well.
Student: In my dream, Master told me that if I could turn what’s real into what’s false and eliminate all that’s false through my cultivation, then I would complete my cultivation.
Teacher: This needs to be looked at from two sides. First, in the eyes of gods, this reality of human society isn’t real. In addition, this is a hint about the real things that you are attached to, and is a hint for that side of you that has specific attachments. I can only tell you about it this way. You can’t have me explain to you the words that were meant as hints for you. Otherwise why would I have given you the hint in the first place?
Student: Is there any special meaning in the sequence that the words “Zhen, Shan, and Ren” appear in?
Teacher: It’s all encompassing. “Zhen” contains “Zhen, Shan, Ren.” “Shan” contains “Zhen, Shan, Ren,” too. And “Ren” also contains “Zhen, Shan, Ren.”
Student: When talking about the Buddha school and the Dao school in Zhuan Falun, Master usually places the Dao school ahead of the Buddha school. Does this have anything to do with the sequence that “Zhen, Shan, Ren” appears in?
Teacher: You shouldn’t focus your attention on matters like this. There is no special relationship here. I find it smooth to say “Buddhas, Daos, and Gods.” I could say “Daos, Buddhas, and Gods,” but it would sound awkward. Or I could say “Gods, Daos, and Buddhas,” but it just doesn’t feel as smooth. Saying “Zhen, Shan, Ren” feels so smooth! I could switch them just fine, but they would sound awkward. However I say it, that’s how all of you should say it.
Student: I’m a serious and careful person who is also impatient. I feel that this state of mind has become a barrier to my cultivation.
Teacher: It’s definitely a barrier. It’s very good that you can sense this.
Student: Is this caused by postnatally acquired notions and karma? Or is it caused by my original, unique characteristics?
Teacher: It’s caused by notions. This type of notion is developed over a long period of time. Whenever you encounter things, it causes you to fall into this type of notion. Its characteristics are so-called carefulness, seriousness, and impatience. It has developed into something of a habit. You have the ability to get rid of it completely.
Student: Master said that wanting to cultivate in such a difficult environment is truly remarkable. But in my case, I feel I must cultivate because I feel that living in the human world is too painful and boring. Is that because I’m unable to endure any suffering at all?
Teacher: This isn’t the case. What I described is the way that all the gods think of human beings. But your feelings are the normal feelings of the people of the world. Human society definitely has a lot of suffering. Beings in all other dimensions are able to fly and float everywhere. They are able to become big or small. It’s all very natural for them. Only the human and the skin-shell dimensions appear like this. From the moment you were first born you have been constrained by everything in this dimension. You get tired when you walk, if you don’t eat you feel hungry, if you don’t drink you get thirsty, if you don’t wear enough clothes you feel cold, and so on. This is the suffering that comes naturally with entering into this dimension. Of course, there are also xinxing conflicts among people, the manifestations of karma, and the continuous creation of karma due to ignorance. There is also suffering that has not yet been detected by people, suffering that can’t be clearly defined, so humankind is just full of suffering.
Student: A Dafa student had a question. He said that whenever he touches metal, electricity is emitted from his hands. This has been going on for more than a year. Master, does this mean that he has remained at the same level?
Teacher: No. For human beings, a great deal of all of the energy that emerges from a person during cultivation—which is to say, your gong and the transformations of your body—carries electricity. Human beings are most sensitive to the elements of electricity. In reality, electricity is the manifestation of a type of energy. Speaking from another angle, if someone hasn’t been diligent enough in certain areas of his cultivation or has fallen just a little bit short in certain areas, this could also be a hint to him. There’s another situation: when a person improves his level during his cultivation, he will make breakthroughs at the surface of his body, too; there might be a difference in how his corresponding ability to ward off electricity develops. In that case, too, this type of manifestation will occur. This is a minor thing and doesn’t have any importance, but it will be taken care of well for you.
Student: Some people in Sydney are attacking Dafa. A student thinks that we should file a lawsuit against them. I feel that it would be using everyday people’s ways to fight with everyday people. Is my thinking right or wrong?
Teacher: First, I want to affirm that student: having the desire to uphold Dafa isn’t wrong. We need to look at how those people are damaging the Fa. If they have caused a certain level of impact on Dafa, then, from the perspective of students upholding Dafa, using legal channels to get it resolved isn’t wrong. Of course, we should try our best not to get involved in these things. But if it must be resolved through legal channels, it’s not out of the realm of possibility. But because we are offering people salvation, we should always leave a way out for people and give people a chance. Even if they had inadvertently damaged the Fa, we should still allow them to have a process of coming to understand us. You can go and talk to them. If they go on behaving as they are, then for us to use legal channels isn’t out of the realm of possibility. That’s because the Australia Falun Dafa Association is a legal, registered group and legal in the eyes of the law, and shouldn’t be attacked by people at will. But, many things like that have to do with your individual cultivation. Don’t fail to look at yourself. You should see if it is caused by your own attachments, or maybe by certain factors caused by the attachments that you haven’t eliminated.
Student: My question is this. More than tens of thousands of states are displayed during the process of cultivation. How can we judge whether we have correctly dealt with the states that are displayed in the process of cultivation?
Teacher: All the feelings and states that are displayed in the process of individual cultivation should be treated as normal states during cultivation. Everyone wants to pass each test well in the process of cultivation, and also wants to know if he has really passed the tests well or not. In reality, if you are truly able to remain unmoved in the face of self-interest, you have passed the test; if you are truly able to search for causes within yourself in the face of conflicts and thus rectify yourself first, you have passed the test; if you are able to let go of your attachments amidst all kinds of tribulations, you have passed the test. Of course, there are different degrees of passing the test. Some students are able to handle everything well. Some students are able to handle them well on the surface but are not able to let go of them deep down within. Some appear to be quite good but still feel a bit uneasy inside. That means that they have kept a little bit of those [attachments]. It’s not difficult to determine.
But is this to say that everyone has to pass every test well and that you wouldn’t meet the standard of cultivation if you didn’t pass the test? Is this to say that you’re no good? That isn’t the case. Let me tell everyone that cultivation is to cultivate one’s mind. Let me explain it even more clearly. In the face of self-interest, in the face of anger and hatred, in the midst of conflicts among people, you will be provoked. If you can truly remain unmoved, then I would say you are really extraordinary! Whenever you haven’t passed a test well, you think, “Since I haven’t passed this test well, does this mean that I’m no good?” The answer is no. Some people’s understandings are a little higher, while some people’s understandings are a little lower. Some people have passed that test well, some people have done a little worse, while some people haven’t passed the test well at all. But you all know you should feel regret, and you are upset with yourselves for coming up short. Then you should make up your mind and try to pass the test well next time so as to compensate for coming up short this time. When the test comes up next time, you will be determined to pass it well. And in fact, that’s exactly what cultivation is. If you could pass every single test, I’d say that it would no longer be cultivation. In that case I, your Master, wouldn’t have lived up to my responsibility and would have arranged tests that were too small for you, which resulted in your not being able to improve your xinxing through them. Wouldn’t that be the case?
Student: Japanese disciples send their greetings to Master!
Teacher: Thank you, everyone! (Applause)
Student: I have been cultivating for more than three years now. My mother passed away last March. She had also cultivated for three years. I often bitterly regret many things that I didn’t do well, which resulted in bigger tribulations for her. I blame myself for not being able to be genuinely helpful to her from the perspective of the Fa when she was faced with the test of life and death, because I didn’t clearly see the solemn nature of Dafa at that time.
Teacher: There is nothing to blame yourself for. If you blame yourself too much, it becomes an attachment. Each of you is in the process of cultivation, and it’s very likely that you may do some things incorrectly. But you don’t play the defining role for other people, especially when the other persons are cultivators themselves. Cultivation is every individual’s own business. If she had been able to remain unaffected and handle herself well in the face of interference, then it would really be called cultivation. [You say that] other people didn’t do well and the help that they gave her was too small. Well, if a cultivator relies on other people’s help, it’s not called her own cultivation. There is really nothing for you to blame yourself over here. If you have come up short, you should learn those lessons and do even better. Look at it from many angles! Maybe it’s not as bad as you imagined it to be. Maybe whoever has learned Dafa has not studied it in vain. Maybe your Consummation in the future will result in her being saved.
Student: Could you talk to us about the structure of matter?
Teacher: What a broad question! The structure of matter at which level? The structure of what type of matter? It’s very complicated. Science has already come to understand the surface arrangements of molecules. The structure of matter can’t be explained in its entirety. I couldn’t explain it in its entirety even if I spent several days talking about it. When I have explained the concept of the cosmos to you, I’ve still been using human understandings, human thinking, and human vocabulary to the maximum extent possible. It’s very limited and general. Even then, I was only talking generally about one type of matter’s way of existence. Also, human language is extremely deficient and limited, as humankind doesn’t have the words and vocabulary to describe that.
Student: How does the time sequence of events that take place in this dimension of ours manifest in other dimensions that don’t have the concept of time? Are they displayed directly based on the time period?
Teacher: The other day, a young man asked me, “One plus one equals two, this is a truth.” I said, “It’s a truth among everyday people. I say that once it’s out of this dimension, it’s no longer the truth. It’s not the truth in different space-times.” That is to say, in different space-times you can’t measure it using human concepts, as the beings there likewise have their own ways of calculating time, ways of existence, and ways of understanding things. They are completely different. What is good or bad and what is positive or negative are all different from how humans understand them.
Student: Everyone has his own karma to repay. One has to shoulder his own karma, and other people shouldn’t casually interfere. If someone’s life is in danger, how should a person who is cultivating deal with it?
Teacher: I have talked about this matter many times. Even though cultivators don’t interfere with matters of everyday people, if you watch a person committing terrible crimes and you do nothing, that’s a xinxing problem. The “without intention” (wu-wei) that I’ve talked about refers to the fact that you shouldn’t be bent on finding certain things to do while holding onto certain attachments.
Student: Hong Kong students send their greetings to Master!
Teacher: Thank you all! (Applause)
Student: When reading the book Zhuan Falun, other distracting thoughts enter into my mind as I’m reading. How should I correctly regard and handle these problems?
Teacher: This is all quite natural, everyone will run into this problem. But you must overcome it. This is caused by the postnatally formed notions in your mind and karma created in your thoughts. They are interfering with your cultivation and obtaining the Fa. Resist them: “I must concentrate on reading the book and studying the Fa with determination.” Doing so is itself eliminating them. Because it’s the Fa, your studying the Fa is eliminating them. You must not let them affect you. If your eyes are reading the book but your mind isn’t there, and you don’t even know how each word should be pronounced, that isn’t acceptable. It’s the same as reading in vain.
Student: It seems that whenever I have been faced with a xinxing test, I’ve felt that I passed it at the time. But when I take a look at it in retrospect, I find that I didn’t pass the test well, or didn’t pass the test at all. Is this feeling due to an elevation in my level?
Teacher: Right, if you’ve elevated your level through cultivation, you will feel that way when you take a look back. In reality, it’s because the standard has become higher and thus the requirements are higher.
Let’s take a ten minute break, okay?
(Students present Master with fresh flower bouquets, expressing their highest respect to Master.) (Applause)
Teacher: Thank you, everyone! (Applause). These flowers look quite expensive. You don’t need to spend this kind of money. We don’t worry about these things. But still, I thank everyone. (Applause)
Student: Some students had learned other practices in the past and can perform the meditation for two to three hours. They always think that they are better than those students who can’t perform the meditation well, and they don’t pay attention to studying the Fa or cultivating their xinxing. Master, please clarify this matter for us.
Teacher: No matter what kind of condition a person’s body is in to start with, things will be different once he truly enters Dafa. Some students used to do sports. Some students used to dance. Their legs were very flexible, and they were able to sit in full-lotus position right away, very easily. But was that doing the exercise? No. If they truly wanted to cultivate, they would find that things are different; they might find that though they have the legs of a dancer, they can no longer do full-lotus. And it will feel quite painful. That’s because the leg crossing of a cultivator definitely can’t be just simply sitting with legs crossed without any mechanism. That’s because this is cultivation, and everything of yours is for the sake of and is ensuring your improvement, and that includes the meditation. Meditation is good only if it can truly eliminate your karma and improve your xinxing. Otherwise, no matter how long you can sit with your legs crossed, what good does it do? If it’s not able to eliminate your karma, if it’s not able to have any effect on your cultivation, and you simply cross your legs for the sake of crossing your legs, then no matter how long you can sit in full-lotus, what good does it do? Isn’t that true? I’m not criticizing anyone here. I am just expounding on the principles of the Fa. I have never said that those who can sit with their legs crossed for a long time are at high levels or talked about how well they have cultivated. If you learned other practices in the past or used to do dance, sports, or other things and it wasn’t painful to cross your legs before, and crossing your legs now feels the same as how you felt when you crossed your legs in the past and it hasn’t changed, then this is no small matter! You can’t let Dafa simply brush against you and pass you by. If you haven’t truly studied the Fa, you won’t appreciate the preciousness of this Fa. Meanwhile, those who can’t cross their legs shouldn’t get too worried. If it turns into an attachment, that too creates barriers. Take your time. You should first put your legs in half-lotus, and eventually you will be able to do the full-lotus position. People who are in their eighties and had never sat in full-lotus are now able to. Why can’t you do the same? Everyone is able to sit in full-lotus.
Student: I have studied the Fa for several years now. But I still feel that I’m very far from [the state of having] “insight into all mysteries.”
Teacher: As a matter of fact, let me tell you that it is your human part on the surface that hasn’t cultivated well and that wants to know about gods. Also, it’s the postnatally acquired notions and thought karma in your mind that are attached to such things. How could those things be allowed to know about divine things? In addition, you aren’t able make out clearly what are your own correct thoughts. In the process of your cultivation, as you read Zhuan Falun and suddenly enlighten to a Fa-principle, you are already at that level. Otherwise the Fa-principle at that level absolutely would not be revealed to you. Then why is it you’re not allowed to know everything at once? It is because the side of you that hasn’t completed cultivation is absolutely not allowed to know about Gods and Buddhas, while the side of you that has completed cultivation has been separated. You can only gradually understand principles at even higher levels through studying the Fa, which is already a way of revealing things to you. The side of a cultivator that has completed cultivation, however, is able to reach that standard instantly. The part that has completed cultivation is able to understand all the principles in the cosmos at his level instantly. Many students can’t think of any questions to raise as soon as they see me. It seems that they don’t have anything to say. In reality, it’s that you have already understood everything. The side of you that has completed cultivation immediately becomes alert once you see me, and thus the surface human skin that hasn’t completed cultivation becomes clear on things. But this human side, which hasn’t completed cultivation, always has questions to ask. So as soon as you leave me, the human surface suddenly thinks of questions to ask: “Oops, how come I didn’t ask Teacher about that question I have?” Many people are like that.
Student: I’ve always paid attention to and researched elements of the cultivation process and what interferes with diligent cultivation of Buddha-Fa, in order to enable me to cultivate better.
Teacher: There’s nothing to research there. There is only the problem of attachments. I can’t explain the Fa-principles to you any clearer than I have. In the past people had to enlighten to all of these things themselves. But I have explained all of them. Be sure not to study the Fa with the mentality of doing research on Dafa. When encountering problems, you should just look for problems with your thinking. They are definitely the cause of your problem. Once you eliminate your attachment, it is guaranteed you will pass that test. You will be able to handle the matter well and will be able to elevate yourself.
Student: I often share experiences and understandings with those whose understandings of the Fa are relatively close to mine and have the same enlightenment on certain issues. Is this an attachment?
Teacher: That depends on whether your desire of being close to those students with whom you can converse easily contains any other human desires. If it doesn’t, it’s not a big deal. If it contains any incorrect element, it is very likely to become a barrier that prevents you from cultivating diligently.
Student: When encountering different understandings of the Fa or different enlightenment to a certain matter, how can I dispel my own rigid notions and elevate myself better?
Teacher: As a cultivator, you can’t improve with others at the same level at the same time. So it’s likely that you and other students have different views and different understandings of Fa-principles. Your different understanding of the Fa at every single minute level leads to differences among you. Every single student is improving and advancing diligently. But it’s possible that your understandings of the Fa are all different. No matter what, in everything you do, including doing Dafa work, you should do your best to put Dafa as the top priority, put validating Dafa and saving the people of the world as the top priority and have validating Dafa as the primary basis of your thinking. When spreading the Fa to everyday people, you need to act in such a way that everyday people can understand, and demonstrate to everyday people things that are based on the most surface principles of the Fa. No matter how high the level of Fa-principles that you have come to understand and how high you have cultivated to, you actually can’t explain them with words and can only understand in your heart. You can’t use principles that are beyond the ordinary to work with everyday people, but you also can’t confuse yourself with everyday people.
Student: Master has said that none of the beings in any of the other dimensions have this body that we humans do.
Teacher: That’s correct. None has the body that’s made up of the molecules of this human level. But at not-so-high levels outside of the Three Realms, there are a very small number of special cases where this exists.
Student: “They therefore won’t become ill, neither will there be the problems of birth, aging, illness, and death. There wouldn’t exist such suffering. People in other dimensions can levitate, and they are weightless, it’s quite wonderful.” Then why is it that people can still suffer after they die, after they have escaped from this layer of shell that’s the human flesh body?
Teacher: That’s because people haven’t left the Three Realms after they die. People within the Three Realms are all called humans and therefore are all suffering. The only difference is that the higher their places within the Three Realms, the slightly better off they are when compared with those who are at lower levels than them. People in the human world are actually not those who suffer the most. As a matter of fact, there are beings that are at even lower levels than that of humans. In addition, there is hell and there are actually many levels that are lower than hell. When compared to Gods, humans suffer the most. The issues of birth, aging, illness, and death exist throughout the Three Realms, and are not limited to only humans. After leaving the human body, the primordial spirit of an ordinary person won’t be able to escape from the Three Realms. He is still within the Three Realms and will still have to go back up and go through reincarnation after death. At various levels within the Three Realms that are higher than the human level, there is much less suffering than what humans go through. If one is worse off than a human being and at a level lower than the human level, then his suffering will be more than that of humans. The people at various levels within the Three Realms are collectively called humans. But the people in the heavens call us people on earth “humans,” and call people in the heavens “celestial humans.”
Student: Nanjing city disciples send greetings to you!
Teacher: Thank you everyone! (Applause)
Student: All of the Shenzhen city disciples send greetings to Teacher!
Teacher: Thank you everyone! (Applause)
Student: I came into contact with Dafa a year ago. I feel very good about it. But I have religious beliefs and don’t want to give them up. According to the requirement of Dafa, one must practice only one cultivation way. It’s hard for me to choose between Dafa and religion. Please tell me what I should do.
Teacher: It’s better to ask yourself the question. You’re the one who decides what you want to choose. But I have explained things very clearly in terms of the Fa-principles. Even though you are the one walking your own path, I have told all of you the true situation in the cultivation world. Back when I was spreading the Fa in China, as soon as I began my class in whatever place, it was guaranteed that a sham qigong practice would start a class in a place nearby. People decide for themselves whether they want righteousness or evil. We are holding a Fa conference here today. Isn’t some religious organization holding some meeting around here? Anyhow, it is evil old forces using the principle of mutual-generation and mutual-inhibition to interfere with people’s obtaining salvation. It appears to be quite easy for people to obtain the Fa. But in reality, it’s not easy. At present, none of the upright religions have gods overseeing them anymore, and the people in those religions are fighting for money, profit, and status. Why people believe in religion is a big question. I have explained these principles very clearly. Whether to believe in one or not and what you choose are your own affair. You can cultivate whatever you want to cultivate, and you don’t have to cultivate if you don’t want to. I look only at people’s hearts here, and don’t have anything that’s mere formality.
Student: When reaching Consummation, Dafa disciples’ bodies will be in two kinds of states. One is that the body will have been replaced by high-energy matter, and the other is that the body will have been replaced by the Immortal Infant. Is this understanding correct?
Teacher: I’m giving you whatever is the best. But everyone’s situation is different. In certain situations the person won’t want to take the flesh body even if it’s given to him, because if he took the flesh body with him when he goes back to his world, the gods there would feel it was quite strange, and so he wouldn’t take it. There are students who will say that they want to have everything. But in fact, you are using human thinking to consider these things. When you understand and become enlightened, you will absolutely not look at things that way whatsoever. That’s because at that time, you won’t have any human thoughts and will consider matters completely on the basis of that realm. As a matter of fact, anything can be cultivated through Dafa cultivation practice. Students will have whatever they need, for this is the ultimate Fa of the cosmos.
Student: Are all of the disciples’ guardian gods of the Fa appointed by Master?
Teacher: Cultivation in a righteous Fa is looked after and safeguarded by the Master, gods, and celestial soldiers. But, don’t use terms and concepts from other religions, as those carry impure elements. Let’s set aside you, cultivators of Dafa, for a moment: even when it comes to many of those people dressed in dirty, ragged clothing, carrying a pile of shabby cotton quilts, and sleeping wherever they happen to be—those people appear to be beggars, but around them are Heavenly Law Guardians protecting them. Can people tell who a given person really is? No, people can’t, since people see things with human eyes. Why is it that some students become braver right after taking up cultivation, whereas in the past they didn’t dare to walk in the dark, and now they dare to after cultivating in Dafa? All of it has a reason.
Student: All the students from Jingde township in Jiangxi province send their greetings to Master!
Teacher: Thank you everyone! (Applause)
Student: If, in everyday people’s society, I accepted benefits provided to disabled people, after obtaining the Fa should I no longer accept those benefits? I’m afraid that by accepting those benefits I can’t pay back the karma.
Teacher: This issue needs to be looked at from two angles. If you are a disabled person, and supposing you can’t work, you have no resources to live on, and this country has this policy, then I think it’s fine. That is because what I have told you to do is to cultivate while conforming to everyday people to the maximum extent. Also, I don’t look at these kinds of forms, I look only at a person’s heart. If that’s just how today’s human society is, the laws have stipulated it, and society allows you to do this, then in this regard you can conform to it to the maximum extent. If, however, that ailment that caused the disability has already been healed through Dafa and yet you still accept those benefits without telling the government, then that’s a xinxing problem. It should be looked at that way. There are also other forms of welfare benefits, so as long as you meet the terms as set forth by everyday society, there is no problem with accepting them.
Student: When thought karma or other messages interfere while doing the exercises, they run their course before I can even dispel them.
Teacher: If it happened too quickly and you couldn’t react to it in time, it doesn’t mean that you haven’t cultivated well. On the other hand, if you let it run its course while knowing that it’s wrong, that means that you haven’t cultivated yourself. If you allow it to dictate your actions, that would be behaving like an everyday person. Actually, when you detect it, if you can realize that it’s not you, realize that thoughts like those are not correct, then you are in fact dispelling it. If the foundation you have established through studying the Fa from day to day was a little more solid, then it would be much better. Everyday people don’t do cultivation, and absolutely can’t recognize things of this sort, they believe that all thoughts are their own. In the end the notions formed among everyday people dictate everything that people do, yet people believe that they are doing it themselves. At that point the people themselves have been buried, covered up, are no longer exerting any function, and are no longer those people themselves whatsoever. Nowadays the people in society all live like that. Yet they actually think—and people actually praise them—that they’re so great, that they’re not likely to be taken advantage of, they’re not likely to be cheated, they’re capable, they’re super-experienced… I’d say a person like that is foolish to the extreme. He hasn’t led his own life, he has turned it over to something else to live for him, and his body has been controlled by something else.
Student: Even though I’ve taken measures to clearly distinguish what is myself, I still can’t completely stop it.
Teacher: If you were to say, “I don’t want you,” and it just died, that would be too straightforward. When you can clearly distinguish it, you yourself are getting stronger, you yourself are awakening and enlightening, you yourself are breaking through its encirclement, and getting progressively stronger, while it becomes progressively weaker and progressively disappears, until the point where it’s ultimately eliminated. There needs to be a process.
Student: Will that bring bad things to my gong?
Teacher: No. Because your righteous thoughts are exerting their effect. When you aren’t vigilant your gaps will be taken advantage of, but your gong will not be interfered with, because Master is looking after it. If you study the Fa a lot, maintain righteous thoughts, and can look inward and inspect yourself for shortcomings when encountering problems, it will be frightened to no end just from that. It would know that being exposed would lead to its elimination, and that it is being destroyed.
Student: If in one’s lifetime, one still can’t cultivate to Consummation, is it possible to go to a paradise with karma? And to continue practicing cultivation in the Falun Paradise, just like with the Paradise of Ultimate Bliss?
Teacher: The cosmos is undergoing Fa-rectification and celestial bodies are being re-constructed. After Fa-rectification everything will be in the best state, so those who don’t meet the standard can’t become beings at levels higher than their standard; wherever their standard is, that’s where they are. In fact, let me tell all of you, in the past the Paradise of Ultimate Bliss did have that phenomenon [you described], but it’s hard to say whether that will be the case after Fa-rectification. Going to a paradise with karma is not like what people imagine it to be. People have distorted it with human emotions and characteristics. What is “going to a paradise with karma”? Let me tell you, those who are truly able to go to a paradise with karma will have already in fact reached the standard in terms of determination and faith. The most difficult test for people, the test that must be passed during cultivation, is to let go of life and death. Of course, not everyone has to be confronted with the test of losing his life, but it’s not altogether impossible that this will happen. When each person faces his own most difficult test, when he is tested to see whether he can let go of his biggest attachment, he is in fact being tested on whether he can let it go. If he is able to let go of life and death, he is a god; if he isn’t able to let go of life and death, he is human. Of course, being able to let go of life and death doesn’t equate to actually dying: the purpose of cultivating is to remove human attachments. A person is dying and his mind has no sense of fear over death at all—can an everyday person achieve that? Consider what it feels like to be facing imminent death. Could someone without any cultivation foundation or mental foundation achieve that? A person who doesn’t fear death at all, even when he is about to die, will still be chanting “Buddha,” and not only does he have no fear, but while chanting “Buddha” a thought of joy will arise inside him, leaving him with a kind of joy over Buddha. Tell me then: could such a person go to hell? He let go of life and death because of determined, righteous thoughts. That to begin with is not the act of a human being—what human doesn’t fear death! As he is chanting “Buddha” [in those circumstances], how could a Buddha not accept him upon seeing a person like that? Of course, he still has karma since he hasn’t cultivated diligently, and he still has unremoved attachments, so what can be done about this? He is taken to a place very close to the Paradise of Ultimate Bliss, where he will continue to cultivate—to cultivate for tens of thousands of years, or hundreds of thousands of years, and when he reaches the standard he will go to the Paradise of Ultimate Bliss. Why does he need to cultivate for such a long time? Because after all, that place has no suffering, and without suffering cultivation is slow. So why is cultivation fast in this place of humans? And within one lifetime—just several decades—why is it possible to complete cultivation? And it’s even faster for my Dafa disciples, since this place of humans has suffering. Everyone was born from a mother’s womb and is in the same condition. Not knowing what it’s like to not suffer, people don’t feel as if they are suffering. In fact, in the eyes of Gods, humans suffer a lot. Cultivation in Dafa will absolutely not be in vain. Some people aren’t diligent in their personal cultivation, or perhaps they just aren’t diligent enough or have relatively poor capacity for awakening. Once their lives end they will receive something and be taken care of. For those who have the desire to go on cultivating in the next lifetime, everything that they have cultivated will be kept, and it won’t have been in vain. They will reincarnate and bring along what they obtained, and continue to cultivate after they reincarnate. There are some people, though, who truly cannot keep cultivating, in which case it will be arranged for them to receive rewards in their next life; they might become high-ranking officials or make a fortune. Of course, this isn’t what we cultivators are after. But that is what happens with those who can’t go on cultivating.
But there’s another point. Let’s say a practitioner’s son has reached Consummation, and even though this [father] practitioner cultivated, he himself doesn’t reach Consummation. Then I think it’s possible that his son will take him to the son’s paradise to be a sentient being there, though one without an Attainment Status. He would be a sentient being, or in other words, common folk. There are other sentient beings in a Buddha’s paradise as well. He won’t be the type of filthy being found on the earth, though, but instead, a celestial being who has reached the standard of that realm.
Student: Changchun disciples send their greetings to respected Master!
Teacher: Thank you everyone! (Applause)
Student: Is the attachment to “self” the most difficult attachment to get rid of?
Teacher: Of course. Everyone who lives in the world is living for himself, and many selfish attachments arise out of this. Once selfishness appears, it becomes easy for one to be affected by emotion, and during cultivation, things that are difficult to let go of and cut ties from manifest everywhere, and it becomes difficult to let go of these attachments during cultivation. Sometimes when you do things for Dafa, the attachment of defending and protecting your own role appears, as well; for example, you defend and protect your own reputation and wants. For everyday people it becomes even more complex: they have desires such as wanting to become an official, glorify their ancestors, get others to praise them, get rich, and be superior to others. Defending and protecting what one desires is a manifestation of emotion and selfishness, so it is the hardest thing to stop doing. You should treat everyone compassionately and look for causes in yourself when encountering any problem. Even if others badmouth us or hit us, we should all look within ourselves—“Was it caused by my being wrong in some regard?” This enables you to find the root cause of the conflict, and it is the best way to remove the attachment to selfishness. Have a bigger and bigger heart, to the point where in your personal cultivation you can forgive everyone, including forgiving your enemies. That’s because what you refer to as enemies is defined as such by humans for the sake of their own benefit and gain, and that is not what gods would do. So the requirement is high—how could gods treat humans as enemies? Then in the course of cultivation, we should always consider others first when encountering anything. When you gain something that belongs to someone else, you have to think about the other person—how might it negatively impact him? Won’t he feel sad? With everything you should think of others—first think about others, and then think about yourself. I want you to cultivate to reach the kind of Consummation that is of a righteous Fa, with righteous enlightenment, and is one in which others come before yourself. That is removing selfishness, being able to remove “self.” The part of you that has completed cultivation is guaranteed to resemble what I just described, it’s fully like that. So looking at things from where you are, if when you encounter problems you are able to look for the causes on your part, think more about the welfare of others, cultivate yourselves, look inside, look less at others’ shortcomings, and manage to do as I teach with everything you do, then in fact you are already progressing diligently.
Student: In recent years, I have been continually involved in the affairs at a Buddhist temple. From studying the Fa I have come to feel there is a conflict of interest, but I don’t know how to deal with it. I know that I should let go of my attachments, but I find it difficult to give up my responsibilities there. Please tell me how to handle it.
Teacher: Actually, it couldn’t be simpler. Why can’t you let go of that? You say that what you can’t let go of is a responsibility. That’s an everyday people’s standard, but does that have anything to do with cultivating Buddhahood? What you can’t let go of is ordinary human emotion. Is that responsibility something that Buddha sees as important? Then to whom are you being responsible? Is it being responsible to religion itself? Could your responsibility bring a person to Consummation?! Then can your responsibility lead you yourself to Consummation? If you can’t reach Consummation, what are you attached to that for? Don’t you have to be responsible to your own, true Consummation? Should you, for the sake of your so-called responsibility, stay attached all your life, letting Dafa pass you by after having brushed up against it? Or should you truly seize this opportunity and be responsible to your true cultivation and pursuit of true Consummation? This is a really simple matter, isn’t it? When someone does things with intention (you-wei), he will absolutely not reach Consummation. Even if you were cultivating in that temple, if an attachment like that to a supposed “responsibility” weren’t removed, even Buddha would be disgusted upon seeing it. Don’t think that because you have fulfilled responsibilities there, Buddha will take it to mean you have reached the standard. Buddha doesn’t recognize religion, but rather, only a person’s heart. Man established religion: Jesus didn’t establish a religion during his time, and Shakyamuni didn’t establish a religion during his time, either. Instead, they recognized only the heart that the cultivator had. Of course, it’s even better for cultivators to have a shared setting that fosters cultivation. That’s putting true cultivation until reaching Consummation and Attainment Status as the highest priority. Isn’t being attached to a setting or a religious society itself having intention? Some people believe, “I’ve constructed X-many temples, and I’ve built X-number of Buddha statues. So in the future I should be able to Consummate.” I’d say you won’t reach Consummation. Among everyday people there are many who are making Buddha statues as well, and it’s nothing more than just a job—that’s having intention. All Fa with intention are as illusory as bubbles—that’s what Buddha Shakyamuni said. [If] your mind isn’t truly elevating, and if an everyday person’s head is full of thought karma, constantly manifesting bad thoughts, then to place him where a Buddha is would be just like placing a pile of trash before a God or Buddha—would that be acceptable? It absolutely wouldn’t. So cultivation requires that everyone discard those filthy, bad things so as to achieve a pure, clear body, a clean way of thinking, and a higher realm of thinking. Only then can you go to that place. If you still can’t give up or let go of those things that are so full of intention, wouldn’t that be foolish?!
Student: How many more years will you continue to teach the Fa?
Teacher: All the way until the Fa finishes rectifying the human world.
Student: Are the inner meanings of “humans,” “mankind,” and “everyday people” in the book different?
Teacher: They are the same. They’re just used in different contexts, but the inner meaning is the same. Everyday people are just people, but in fact in higher realms, “people” include celestial humans—meaning celestial humans in the Three Realms. “Mankind” refers to people, and those who don’t practice cultivation are “everyday people.”
Student: When I enlighten to some beyond-ordinary principles during the process of cultivation and don’t know if they are correct, what should I do?
Teacher: Upon enlightening to beyond-ordinary principles you will definitely have a feeling that it’s sacred and a feeling that comes with the elevation of righteous thoughts that are in compliance with Dafa’s Fa-principles. The Fa-principles at higher levels can only be understood intuitively. The ancients talked about understanding intuitively—one understands in his own mind but finds it very difficult to express it through human language. When it’s spoken out loud, you discover that it becomes plain and ordinary, just like everyday people’s principles. As soon as it is expressed using human language, it loses its flavor. Why? It’s because principles at high levels can only be expressed via thinking and language at high levels, so students have even more reason not to display in front of everyday people actions that are based on enlightenment at a higher level than humans. Humans are just humans, and humans can’t understand principles and actions that are at a higher level.
Follow the course of cultivation while conforming to ordinary society to the maximum extent. The higher Fa-principles that you have enlightened to signify your improvement in cultivation, and it doesn’t mean you are supposed to display those states among everyday people. When you understand Fa-principles on this side, the changes in other dimensions are quite large, and the part of the body that is comprised of microscopic particles undergoes intense changes. Also, at that level of the Fa-principles everything is instantly understood.
Student: When I see objects or beings in other dimensions during cultivation, how should I judge whether they are good or bad?
Teacher: It’s very hard for people who have just begun cultivation to judge, it’s not easy to make a clear distinction. Also, there are many gods from high-level dimensions who have fled down here to avoid Fa-rectification, and there are many gods in various dimensions inside the Three Realms who don’t know about matters that are higher than their realms, and so they too are in delusion to some degree. But their behavior toward human beings is relatively benevolent. From a human perspective they are benevolent. But they no longer meet the standard at the level of their realm. It’s just that when humans see them, they appear to be more benevolent than human beings. So it’s easy for this to cause a small number of students to become confused and unclear when they have attachments. What should you do? I have taught you to practice only one cultivation way. Whoever it is, don’t communicate with him and don’t be moved no matter what you see. You can refrain from talking to him, you can just not communicate with him at all and not even look at him. That’s the only way to go. Avoid everything of his, and don’t listen to anything he tells you. Perhaps he will flatter you in order to have you listen to him. He may tell you what the winning lottery ticket number is for tomorrow—he may very well act like that. Of course, such things are not by chance, as they are tribulations in your cultivation, testing your human attachments. So everyone must pay close attention to these issues. There won’t be any problems as long as you are resolute about not interacting with them; at this point it’s very hard for you to tell them apart.
Student: Do cultivators’ very young children need to go see the doctor?
Teacher: People who don’t do cultivation should see the doctor whenever necessary, since ordinary people do need to see the doctor when they get sick. What I’m talking about here are people who are genuine cultivators. Your bodies will all be transformed into Buddha-bodies, and that’s something that cannot be achieved by doctors no matter what treatment they administer. But among those who cultivate Dafa, often there are many families who have children, and it’s very likely that they are no ordinary children. Before reincarnating, the child knows—“This family will study Dafa in the future. I want to reincarnate into this family”—in which case it’s very likely that he might have an extraordinary background. With this type of child, before the child is of the age that he can do the exercises himself, performance of the exercises by you, the adult, will serve as doing the exercises for the child. There are many cases like this, and this will be up to you adults to judge and handle. If you can’t make out whether this is the situation, then your taking him to the hospital isn’t considered wrong. But in such matters your own heart will be looked at, as it will reveal various thoughts and states of mind. Let’s put it this way: if you are a determined Dafa cultivator, you will understand that each person has his own destiny, and problems that are not supposed to happen won’t be allowed to just happen. Usually the type of child I just talked about—who came from high levels—came to obtain the Fa. They don’t have any karma, and they won’t have any health problems. Everything that they endure may very well be borne for you, the adult. There are many cases like that. But it’s not definite. You should appraise and handle specific instances yourselves.
Student: Students from Singapore send greetings to Teacher!
Teacher: Thank you everyone! (Applause)
Student: Jiangsu province disciples send greetings to Teacher!
Teacher: Thank you everyone! (Applause)
Student: There are close to ten thousand people who go and worship the Great Buddha statue at Ling Mountain in Wuxi city, Jiangsu province. But it’s said that a spirit possesses the Great Buddha, and the belly stores many urns containing ashes. Disciples have argued endlessly about going there to spread the Fa, and we ask Master to give us some direction.
Teacher: The Fa-spreading is intended for people, not for a statue. Think about it, people have even put urns with ashes into the belly of a Buddha: is that doing something good or bad? Why would monks do something like that? It’s because the family members of the deceased spent money. That monk, for the purpose of making money, would even sell out the Buddha! Things are such a mess at present. When people are worshipping Buddha, what are they actually worshipping? Worshipping those urns containing ashes?! It’s really gotten to the point of being laughable. The deceased will incur so much sin on account of what those people did, and their family members and ancestors will all be implicated.
Student: I saw Falun and some scenes, but after sharing the experience with our Falun Gong disciples, all of the scenes and Falun disappeared immediately. Did I do something wrong?
Teacher: This needs to be looked at from two angles. If you talk to others and you are overjoyed, then they might disappear, not allowing you to see them anymore. That would happen because the sacred scenes that you saw not only didn’t lead you to develop more steadfast thoughts of cultivating Dafa, or more pure and clean thoughts, but instead caused you to become overjoyed. In that case, of course you wouldn’t be allowed to continue to see, as the responsibility to your cultivation has to be fulfilled. If after you saw those things you didn’t have any overjoyed thoughts or thoughts of showing off, and you felt that it was something real, and talked about it with other students for the purpose of enabling them to firm up their righteous thoughts, then that would be no problem at all. It’s not that talking about these things isn’t allowed. The problem is talking with attachments.
Student: If we cultivate very well, perhaps we will still be young when we reach Consummation. At that point should we still continue to fulfill our responsibilities to family members?
Teacher: If you don’t remove this type of attachment there is absolutely no way to reach Consummation. You are considering these things with ordinary human thoughts. Let me tell all of you, I’m not just eliminating karma for you and watching over you. If you cultivate to an Attainment Status, your paradise will be rich and diverse, and I will do many, many things for you. I will need to resolve for you the lives you owe to people from the past, the lives you have killed, and all of the grievances and gratitude. There are many things that I will need to do for you. If you are attached to problems like the one you raised, they will become a big obstacle to the progress of your cultivation. Let go of those human thoughts and just worry about cultivating. Before Consummation you need to fulfill your responsibilities as a family member, to be sure.
Student: The Bible says that Jesus got angry in the temple with those who charged high interest rates, but Falun Dafa’s requirement is that we can’t get angry. If Jesus is a Buddha, how are we to understand this?
Teacher: Jesus himself didn’t write The Bible, and how humans have depicted Jesus’ actions is definitely inaccurate. It’s quite possible that he would have had a slightly colder, harsher tone toward those people who charged high interest rates. He is someone who despises wickedness and who is very stern with those who do bad things, but he wouldn’t truly get angry.
Student: Disciples in Shanghai send greetings to Teacher and hope Teacher will visit Shanghai!
Teacher: Thank you everyone! (Applause)
Student: How can we do a better job at understanding the manifestation at different levels of the “Great Way without form”? When doing my work as an assistant, there are cases where it’s difficult to reach a common understanding in Fa-spreading activities due to the difference in levels among those in charge of the association and assistants. So some students spend a great deal of time and energy in discussion. This appears somewhat related to the students’ understandings.
Teacher: This is very common. Many assistants in mainland China have become mature and are able to first think whether they have shortcomings or not when encountering problems, so they are basically cultivating in a healthy manner. But, there are assistants in certain regions who have only studied the Fa for a short period of time or who aren’t very diligent and are busying themselves doing the work. So they like to argue when problems come up and they don’t search inward. When you feel something is wrong, you need to think about whether there is something wrong with yourself. Whether one can do this or not is the standard for evaluating Dafa students. After discovering that there is nothing wrong with your starting point, you should then bring up the matter with the other party in a composed and friendly manner. If the two parties involved in the conflict are able to handle themselves this way, how could there be any conflict? What would there be to argue about? With that said, though, there will still be arguments—and even very intense ones sometimes—in order to eliminate attachments as you go about cultivating. That’s because you are cultivating and still have attachments that you have not eliminated. There are times when you don’t realize it and there are occasions when you have forgotten to search inward. Being attached to certain attitudes and being attached to one’s notions may both lead to arguments.
Student: How should we understand the manifestation of the “Great Way without form” at different levels?
Teacher: The form that Dafa has adopted in today’s society is the “Great Way without form.” No form in ordinary society is worthy of the spreading of Dafa. So I haven’t adopted any form. If you want to come and learn it today, you can learn it. If you don’t want to, then you’re free to leave. It’s up to you. Of course, if you truly want to learn, we have to be responsible to you. Yet this type of being responsible isn’t visible to everyday people; in this dimension of everyday people, it’s formless. There are no offices. No money or possessions are kept. Each of you is a member of ordinary society, and you are working or studying in ordinary society and living in all kinds of settings. The only difference between you and everyday people is that you are cultivating yourselves, and you yourselves know that you are cultivators. Everyday people don’t cultivate and sometimes can’t understand cultivators. It’s the same thing with students going to the Office of the State Council at Zhongnanhai:[4] “How was it all those people suddenly appeared out of nowhere and then vanished just as fast?” [They could do that] because they are all members of the society and there is no form. The only distinction was that they were cultivators. They came from the general public, and went back to the general public after expressing their opinions. There is no form of organization. Even though this is truly the case, those people who are used to forming organizations, and the general public, which is used to being organized, can’t understand it. They think that you must be tightly organized. It’s really hard for today’s Chinese people to understand the things that cultivators do. There are even some people who don’t believe at all that there are so many people today who are being good people.
Student: People of the white race are left over from the previous civilization. Then people of the yellow race and members of other races are…
Teacher: During the previous cycle of civilization the continental plates were different from those of today. But roughly speaking, people of the yellow race lived in the regions of South America and North America. The Native Americans who live there at present are classified as being of the yellow race. The people of the yellow race who lived in the place where China is now—the most central place [where they were] at that time was at Kazakhstan—after the Great Flood, they migrated to the region that is the great desert of Xinjiang. At that time it was a land of fertile soil. Later on they continually migrated eastward. Strictly speaking, Indians, Egyptians, Persians, the yellow race, the white race, and the black race are the six major races of the present Earth. All the other ones are mixed races.
Student: I feel that Master’s Fa-lectures are the answers to the mysteries in Zhuan Falun and solve the mysteries. If I go listen to Master’s Fa-lectures at various locations for an extended period of time like this, can this be considered as my own enlightenment to Zhuan Falun?
Teacher: I’d like to share a bit of truth with you. Human beings are not worthy of listening to my Fa-lectures. (Applause) If it were only for the sake of teaching the Fa to human beings, it would be enough for a Tathagata to come down to the human world. As I am lecturing on the Fa, some people who are sitting in the audience can see that there are living beings from layers upon layers of different celestial bodies listening; I am not teaching the Fa to human beings alone. That having been said, it is guaranteed that there are things left for you to cultivate during the process of cultivation. You are worried that I have expounded on the Fa so completely and explained it so clearly that there is nothing left for you to cultivate, and that therefore it doesn’t count—is that what you meant? That isn’t the case. There are things left for you to cultivate.
Student: Students in Urumqi, Xinjiang, send greetings to Teacher!
Teacher: Thank you everyone! (Applause)
Student: Isn’t it that whatever one’s original Attainment Status was, that is the place that one can cultivate to?
Teacher: That’s generally the case for those who came from high levels. But do you know who you are? Did you come from a high level? Even in the case of those who did come from high levels, did they fall down because they committed sins? You have no idea where you came from. Even with those who came down from above, after several thousand years of reincarnation and the long passage of time, their karma is so great that they have completely lost all of their original characteristics. It’s best you don’t ask questions out of such strong human attachments.
Student: Could I ask you to talk about yourself and your daily life?
Teacher: You are still an everyday person right now, and the question that you raised is an everyday person’s question. I don’t want to talk about myself. What I have given people are these Fa-principles. You should just treat me as an ordinary human being. I’m just a human being with a complete human image who is talking to you here, using the human language. As to how much power I have, I won’t demonstrate it and you won’t be able to see it. But as long as you cultivate, I will be responsible to you—I am able to take on that responsibility. Our students have also come to understand this through real-life experiences, and I don’t need to talk more about it. The people of the future won’t know about my existence. If all of the students today are able to Consummate, then I haven’t taught the Fa to human beings but instead to gods. The people who don’t cultivate won’t know anything after going through another life and another reincarnation. The people of the future won’t be allowed to know about me. What will be left are no more than legends. So, I don’t want to leave anything behind for humans. I don’t want to talk about the story of my life or how I’m such and such way, and I don’t want others to write about me. My disciples will know about me in the future. After Consummation they will know clearly what I’m all about. (Applause)
Student: All the New Zealand students send greetings to the revered Master!
Teacher: Thank you everyone! (Applause)
Student: There is a significant gap between my understanding of Fa-principles and the improvement of my xinxing. My understanding of the Fa-principles has always been ahead and at a relatively high realm. But while genuinely cultivating, my xinxing improvement has always lagged behind and sometimes it’s quite lacking. I’m afraid that the principles that I have enlightened to under such a state might be wrong.
Teacher: As a matter of fact, since you can recognize this, you have cultivated quite well. Everyday people aren’t able to see their mistakes, while you can see the differences in the various states of your cultivation. Actually it isn’t what you imagined it to be. On the understanding of the Fa-principles, it’s usually easy to be clear. But, if all the various attachments that a person has to self-interest and emotion as he faces the realities that exist in society, if they could be instantly eliminated once you comprehend the Fa-principles, there would be no need for cultivation and there would be no tests to pass. When you are attached to something and try to find an excuse in the Fa, it’s bound to be wrong. Study the Fa without any pursuit, and what you come to understand is bound to be the right enlightenment.
Student: Students in Beijing and the United States send greetings to Master!
Teacher: Thank you everyone! (Applause)
Student: During my cultivation, lust-karma sometimes comes about. How can I eliminate it?
Teacher: Things that you encounter in your dreams are various types of tests for you. They are to see whether your heart has been cultivated solidly during your everyday cultivation and whether you can pass this test well. It’s a test to see whether you can pass this test and whether you have cultivated solidly. That’s because only then will your true state be displayed, as all of your wishes to cover up and hide things are asleep at that time. If you haven’t done well, you should take the matter seriously since, after all, you haven’t done well. If you have cultivated well in your daily life, you will for sure do well in your dreams and be able to pass the test.
Student: When encountering problems or reflecting on problems, I find that my thoughts are always centered around myself being such and such. It seems that there is a root that just can’t be eliminated and I’m very upset by it. Why is it that I’m unable to maintain a state of righteous awareness?
Teacher: Excellent! I see your desire to eliminate it. That’s exactly what cultivation is. As to eliminating your own selfish heart—that root—it takes a process, for it developed over the course of a large portion of your lifetime. I believe that you will definitely manage to eliminate it during your cultivation, that fundamental thing behind selfishness. You are able to recognize all of these things and are able to concentrate on eliminating it during cultivation. This is very good, and it is exactly what cultivation is!
Student: I always feel that I’m not diligent, unable to endure suffering, and lacking in perseverance. Is there any way to strengthen my ability to endure suffering?
Teacher: Read the book more, and gradually you will strengthen your determination in cultivation; then you will be able to overcome all things. There is no shortcut, and cultivation has to be conducted this way. You are able to recognize all of these things, and that’s quite good. You are able to recognize all of these things, and that’s something that everyday people can’t do. As a matter of fact, your being unhappy with yourself shows that you are cultivating, and your ability will gradually increase.
Student: When I heard all the erroneous reports that the media outside of China have made about Master and Falun Dafa, even though I did certain things to safeguard Dafa, in my heart I have felt that their actions aren’t worth paying any heed. Is my thinking correct?
Teacher: When other people attack Dafa, if you feel that they’re not attacking you, then you are not a member of Dafa. Why is it that so many people went to Beijing to petition the State Council at Zhongnanhai? It felt to them as if the affair in Tianjin city[5] targeted them. They felt that when the police were arresting Dafa disciples, it was the same as they themselves being arrested. That’s because they are all cultivating members and everyone is cultivating the same Fa. Regarding the persecution of the Tianjin students, shouldn’t our other students have reported the situation to the relevant agencies, with good intentions? As to the incorrect media reports, tell them that those are inaccurate and tell them our true situation. You can’t just idly watch the malicious persecution of Dafa and do nothing. [Their] hurting people’s chances of obtaining the Fa is a big deal. Because media reports can be copied from one another, once one makes a report, other newspapers can copy it. Your own, real life experience is much more persuasive than that. If you say that I, Li Hongzhi, am good, I won’t pay it any heed. If you say that I’m bad, I won’t pay it any heed either. Everyday people can’t affect me. But for you, who are students, safeguarding Dafa is something that you should do. But you can’t use your bad side and fight with them. You should tell them the true situation with a compassionate heart, and that is precisely safeguarding the Fa.
Student: All disciples in Shenzhen city send greetings to Master!
Teacher: Thank you everyone! (Applause)
Student: (1) Could you please tell us whether the Law Bodies of the Seven Primordial Buddhas at Fengguo Temple represent their ultimate levels or their levels during cultivation?
Teacher: Well, they are Buddhas, they’re already Buddhas, so there is no issue of cultivation or levels. Why did you ask about this? This isn’t something of Dafa and it has nothing to do with improving through cultivation.
Student: (2) Are the Seven Primordial Buddhas the primordial lives that you spoke of?
Teacher: Their titles are just the kind of special titles that those Buddhas have. When they are called “primordial,” it refers to how long that title has existed, and as things change it may not refer to the first primordial beings anymore. At different levels and in different realms there are different understandings of “primordial.” It seems that to human beings anything that goes beyond this history of human civilization or has a history of several thousand years is considered primordial. But in the eyes of Buddhas, that’s only an instant. To high-level beings, they are not that primordial.
Student: (3) Why do the statues of Buddha Shakyamuni face west?
Teacher: You’re cultivating Buddhism, aren’t you? And so you want to ask me things about Buddha. I’m teaching Dafa, which has no relationship to Buddhism. Your sitting here today is your predestined relationship, however, and I can answer your question. Temples are built facing all directions. Some are built facing east, some are built facing west, and some are built facing south. Whatever direction its great hall faces is sure to be the direction that the Buddha statue faces. Things like this don’t indicate much and are all human doing. Buddha is real and a magnificent enlightened being, while what you were referring to is that large statue made of mud. If a person wants to cultivate Buddhahood, he should concentrate on truly improving himself, as anything filled with intent or attachment to Buddhism itself isn’t cultivation but instead an obstacle.
Student: Are Zhen, Shan, and Ren super-matter? Are they primordial beings? Or are they super- primordial beings?
Teacher: Buddhism again. Since you’ve come in here, it is your predestined relationship, and so I still want to answer your question. Zhen, Shan, Ren is the special quality of the entire cosmos, and the Fa of the cosmos comes from Zhen, Shan, Ren. The lower it goes, the more complicated the Fa becomes, and the more and the greater its requirements become, just like a pyramid. This Dafa has created environments of existence at different levels for all sentient beings in the cosmos, and created Buddhas, Daos, Gods, and humans at different levels as well as demons and other sentient beings, including those of heaven and earth, and all matter. This cosmos is so complicated that it can’t be described clearly with human language. Moreover, it has other different states of being, which provide all sentient beings with elements of existence at different levels, such as mutual-generation and mutual-inhibition, Yin and Yang, and so on—many, many things. They all come from this Dafa of the cosmos. (Applause)
Student: Before the conference, I called the contact people to get more information about the requirements for attending the conference. The person who answered the phone asked me if I’m a Falun Gong disciple, and I didn’t know how to reply at that time because I have been learning it on my own for a year now. Teacher Li, please tell me if I can be considered your disciple.
Teacher: If you are truly learning it, then you are one, regardless of whether you are learning by yourself. (Applause) Haven’t the changes that you’ve gone through and the hints that I have given you in your daily life already told you this? Since you don’t have the environment where you cultivate together with everyone, there are many things that you haven’t enlightened to. But that doesn’t mean that you have not cultivated. You should do the exercises with other students more, as that will help you to improve even faster.
Student: Master has said that since 1992, all of the gods from various religions stopped overseeing affairs of the human world. I have poor enlightenment quality and haven’t understood what you meant. Master, please explain a little bit.
Teacher: I’ve talked about this issue in various Fa-lectures. When I came to teach you the Fa this time, it wasn’t simply for the sake of saving human beings. This is the Fa-rectification of the cosmos, which is related to humankind. That is to say, even those gods who you used to worship are repositioning themselves during this Fa-rectification, and even more so is that the case for human beings. How could they still oversee the affairs of humankind?
Student: Dafa disciples from the cities of Hefei in Anhui province, Shenyang, and Yanbian send greetings to Teacher!
Teacher: Thank you everyone! (Applause)
Student: A person was saying bad things about Dafa and I started to argue with him. Is it true that I did not follow the Ren of Dafa’s Zhen, Shan, Ren? Does arguing with people count as an attachment?
Teacher: You should reason with him and talk to him with a benevolent heart and compassion. If he truly doesn’t want to listen, then just let it go. As a matter of fact, you haven’t realized that when you talk to him about the principles of Dafa, you are talking to him about the Fa and spreading the Fa to him, and you are helping him and offering him salvation! Whether he wants to listen to it or not is his choice. Why would you want to argue with him? It will be more effective if you handle all of these things with compassion.
Student: While studying the Fa, sometimes I enlighten to a principle of the Fa. But as soon as I want to verbalize it, I feel that this understanding is no longer correct. This feeling is becoming more and more obvious.
Teacher: Right! I just talked about that, didn’t I? You can only understand it intuitively and can’t describe it with words. As soon as you use human language to say it out loud, it drops down and becomes a principle that’s on the same plane as everyday people.
Student: Among cultivators, is there a larger percentage of females than males?
Teacher: It appears that today’s females can understand Dafa faster, and this is truly a good thing.
Student: I originally liked kids a lot and really wanted to have some. But after getting to know Dafa, I realized how low humankind’s level is and how degenerate human morality is. Then what point is there in having kids and letting such innocent hearts and souls become polluted?
Teacher: Let me tell you that it isn’t you who creates life, but rather, it is that a being enters the human womb and reincarnates. Whatever karma he may have is something he carries himself. If he weren’t born through you, then he would be born through someone else just the same. As you are a Dafa student, why would you still be afraid of your kids becoming polluted?
Student: I’m a kindergarten teacher who works with minorities. My job is to visit different kindergartens to teach Chinese culture and tradition. I really want to teach Teacher’s five exercises to the children. Am I allowed to do this?
Teacher: That’s very good. As a matter of fact, in certain regions everyone—from the head of the kindergartens to the teachers—is practicing and the children there are too. Children don’t have attachments. When they sit there, wow! It’s so good—truly pure and magnificent. Of course doing what you described is a good thing. Educating children with the principles of Dafa will bring them endless benefits throughout their lives.
Student: Some people are sincerely practicing Christianity, Buddhism, etc, and don’t have the chance to obtain Falun Dafa. Will they have a way out?
Teacher: Before I began to do this, their gods explicitly revealed to those of their people who could truly be saved that I would do this. Some people believed it and some people didn’t. I don’t look at what kind of religion it is or how high a person’s official rank is. I don’t pay attention to who someone is: I only look at the person’s heart. Standing before me, anyone is a human being first, and I only look at people’s hearts. If you don’t want to cultivate, I won’t do anything. If you do want to, I offer you salvation. That’s how it is! I don’t attach importance to any formality, and I don’t look at a person’s official rank or what [religion] he believes in. (Applause)
Student: I’ve been cultivating Dafa for several years. In the last few months, while sharing experiences with everyone, I have seen that certain disciples talk on endlessly, and it has made me have less and less of a desire to speak. Master, please tell me if my state is correct.
Teacher: If they kept on talking endlessly, and the more they talked, the less you wanted to listen and the more restless you felt, then it means you have an attachment! And the more he kept talking, the more it seemed that no end was in sight. That was actually aimed at you, even though he wasn’t talking to you directly. (Applause) It was to expose your attachments. In fact, your attachments have been exposed. It’s just that you were trying to cover it up by saying that the other person went on endlessly. Haven’t I told you that you should look at yourself no matter what you encounter? Wasn’t it a certain attachment of yours surfacing? Since you are cultivators and extraordinary people, why do you still see the bad things in ordinary people and compare yourselves with them? Even though he is a cultivator, he’s still cultivating among everyday people, and he still has attachments that he hasn’t eliminated and still displays behavior of everyday people. If he didn’t have those things, wouldn’t he be a Buddha? Wouldn’t he be a god? Isn’t that true? So once this or that problem occurs among our students, you just think about why the other person has cultivated so poorly, and you don’t want to look at yourself. I have told everyone in my Fa lectures that when a conflict arises between two people and it’s seen by a third person, even the third person should think to himself, “Oh, a confrontation is happening between them, so why is it that I was there to see it? Is it because I have certain attachments? Is it because I have that kind of problem as well?” Since you are cultivating, you need to be truly responsible to yourself and need to look at yourself. Another thing is, I want to mention that at group Fa study sessions some students go on and on about things that aren’t related to Dafa or cultivation, and this is interfering with our students and their cultivation. You need to pay special attention to this, and should point it out clearly to those who are doing that.
Student: When seeing the selfish side of cultivators, I feel so bad.
Teacher: Then you have another attachment. It should be that nobody can affect the heart of a cultivator. When you see his selfishness being displayed, it’s possible that it is displayed to have you talk to him and help him become aware of it and eliminate it. If you are affected by his selfishness and upset by it, how could it be that you don’t have any attachment? Isn’t that right?
Student: Why is it that once one breeds demons in one’s own mind, he will drop all the way to the bottom and won’t be able to cultivate again?
Teacher: I was giving a type of description. If the breeding of demons in one’s mind gets to the extent that it can’t be turned around, he will drop all the way to the bottom. If he is able to realize what happened, then there is still room to salvage the situation. I was telling everyone, based on the Fa-principles, about the danger of breeding demons in one’s own mind.
Student: Can cultivators improve the education system and make it easier for the people in society to accept Dafa?
Teacher: There are many students who feel that Dafa is very good, is able to change all hearts, and is able to make society truly achieve the best state, one with a high moral standard. Thus many students and everyday people who don’t cultivate think that if it could be broadly accepted by people throughout society and lead more people to behave this way, how wonderful society would become! In reality, your mind is still on ordinary human society. I can only put it like that to you, for your understanding of the Fa isn’t that deep yet, and you haven’t quite grasped that this Fa I am teaching is not for the sake of achieving something or other in ordinary human society; rather, it is for the sake of teaching the Fa to cultivators and allowing cultivators to be saved. Ordinary human society is just what it is. If there were truly some high-ranking officials among everyday people who used the benevolent Fa-principles of Dafa to change the moral standard in society, which is degenerating daily, then that would be a display of people’s good hearts, and I wouldn’t be against it. That’s because he would be spreading Dafa for the good of the people, so that’s how it is. Those are things of everyday people, and things that will happen in the next stage when the Fa rectifies the human world.
Student: All the students in Taiwan send their greetings to you!
Teacher: Thank you everyone! (Applause)
Student: I have several questions to ask you. Does the level of a person’s ability come with his primordial spirit at birth, or is it arranged based on his virtue and karma?
Teacher: There are two types of the ability that you spoke of. The first is the so-called cleverness of everyday people, and this is no good at all for the process of cultivation; instead it is a serious impediment. Another type is the display of abilities that are beyond those of ordinary people during cultivation. They are due to some prenatal as well as postnatal elements. But in cultivation these are not the standards that are used to judge one’s level. In order to judge a person’s ability to cultivate and understand the Fa, one has to look at one’s foundation. A person’s original nature is buried over the course of the long years involved in lifetimes of reincarnation. How much a person’s original nature can peek through is how good that person’s foundation and capacity to awaken are.
Student: The solemn images of Buddhas, Daos, and Gods portrayed in sculptures and paintings in various places all over the world were left behind from the past. How did they manage to remain in the human world?
Teacher: You’re asking how people knew about the image of the Buddha. There are very big differences between humans who live in periods of time when the morality of humankind is quite good and humans who live in periods of time when the human morality is bad. The higher the moral standard of the human society is, the more gods display the truth of the universe to people, and that is something brought about by the state of society as a whole. Then, today’s society isn’t good because what today’s society worships is science and not gods, and that’s why people can see less and less. In addition, this science was created for human beings by aliens, who are also beings in this dimension. It’s only that they are beings from other planets. Many of those large paintings in the Louvre in France depict divine things. The depictions are quite realistic. I have seen the paintings and that’s indeed what it’s like there. But they were left behind from a time when Christianity was at its peak. In other words, they were inherited from a time when man’s moral standard was at its best and people believed in gods the most. There were many artists who were also devoted Christians. So gods would display things to them, and they would be able to see them. You all know how artists are great at instantly committing images to memory. After they saw those scenes of gods they were able to paint them. I feel that they painted them very close to reality, in a very real way, and that they are truly what it’s like. After viewing large paintings like those, many people start to feel an air of holiness and reverence—the type of reverence for majestic gods. It was in the same fashion that images of Buddhas were left behind to humankind.
Student: Matter formed through cultivating to Consummation is precious to those at higher levels. Is that about returning to one’s original, true self plus the process of cultivation?
Teacher: It’s not like the connection you made at all, as your process of cultivation is in fact about returning to your original, true self. “Matter formed through cultivating to Consummation is precious to those at higher levels”—that doesn’t make sense. It might not be precious to those higher gods that are beyond the realm at which you Consummate. And even higher gods think of it as dirt. In fact, whatever in this universe isn’t good gets dumped here into this human society.
Student: Can Christians cultivate in Dafa?
Teacher: I just said these words: I said that gods don’t attach any importance to any religions in the least, for those are something brought about by man. When Jesus was in this world there was no church, and there was no religion of Christianity. And when Shakyamuni was in this world there was no temple, as those were brought about by man. When Shakyamuni was in this world there were no scriptures, and when Jesus was in this world there was likewise no Bible. People wrote those later on by recalling what had been said earlier.
Buddhas and Gods don’t place any importance on the forms that people come up with, so what’s the point of caring what form you adopt? Religion isn’t a bad thing for mankind, but if people become attached to the form itself, then they are not earnest disciples of Gods or Buddhas. As you know, during the Cultural Revolution those temples were all demolished. Why didn’t Buddhas intervene at the time? Well, why would they intervene? All kinds of people went to those temples, asking for all kinds of things. Those people who ask things from Buddha are not cultivating. The aim of their worshipping Buddha is to get Buddha’s blessing so as to have a son, get rich, or to be blessed in having disasters and calamities averted. Is Buddha there to do that for you? Buddha is there to fundamentally take care of all sentient beings’ salvation and to save you to the heavens; but instead, you seek comfort among everyday people. So for Buddhas, that kind of attachment of asking for things from Buddha is the worst attachment, an attachment that makes Buddha feel terrible. People don’t know what they’re doing. They treat Buddhas with human emotions, thinking: “I say that you Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are wonderful, full of mercy and compassion. So Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will have to fulfill my wishes. I say that you, this Buddha, are great, so the Buddha must be happy.” People think Buddhas feel happy with a few words like that. People think that humans’ hearts can affect a Buddha’s heart. They think a few compliments will make Buddhas happy—how laughable. When someone like that is there worshipping the Buddha statue, can that Buddha stay there? That Buddha grows irritated listening to it, and is long gone. And since no Buddha is there on the statue, wicked spirits who bring disorder to the world then come to demand incense. So what are the people worshipping then? Think about it everyone, what would be the point of keeping that temple? If people didn’t demolish it, the Buddhas themselves would strike it down with a thunderbolt. Isn’t that the idea? So gods only look at people’s hearts. If your heart doesn’t reach the standard for cultivation, what’s the point in your defending Buddhism or some other religion? It was human beings that created those things. So, what you defend is religion, and you are attached to religion itself. You say, “If I have safeguarded that religion, then I can become a Buddha, I can become a God, and I can go to heaven.” But isn’t that a joke?
Student: Is Christianity not much different from Falun Dafa, there just being a difference between East and West?
Teacher: The difference is huge, Falun Dafa is the Fa that created the cosmos, including all sentient beings, including humans and gods, heavens and earth, and all things and objects. All gods were created by the Dafa of the cosmos. You should take a look at the book Zhuan Falun. In that book I have explained these issues clearly. You can read the book, as there is an English edition of Zhuan Falun.
Student: I have a question that I hope you can please answer. I have been cultivating, and in a period of over three years I have easily passed the tribulations, but only last year did tests begin to appear. There has been blood in my stool for several months. Why is that the case? Now it has affected my health. Can I improve in cultivation like this?
Teacher: Perhaps you have all realized that there is a problem with the question being posed. You want it to be uneventful just like those three years, but is that how cultivation goes? Were you truly diligent those three years? Have you truly regarded yourself as a cultivator? Have you met the standard? Sometimes in your heart you consider family matters more important than the Fa, what’s on your mind is making money and being attached to affection for family, all of those are given more importance than the Fa, and you don’t want to eliminate your own karma or endure any hardship. Is that a genuinely cultivating disciple? Even after ten years of cultivating like that nothing would change. When I begin to truly take you higher, and begin to cleanse your body, blood clots, waste blood, and bad things from before are expelled. But right away you take it to mean your body has problems. You aren’t able to keep steadfast, righteous thoughts, not believing that it is Master cleansing you during cultivation. Cultivation is such a solemn matter, and yet you take it to be illness. How do I see this issue? Is that passing the test? Your heart is still not firm and steady. Originally it was a good thing—cleaning out your body for you. Who would do this type of thing for you? Wasn’t it given to you because you wanted to cultivate? When faced with this problem, you fail to understand it correctly, still cultivate slowly like that, and are unable to advance diligently. When you can’t understand these from the standpoint of the Fa, then this process in which your body gets cleansed is drawn out, and it doesn’t go away for a long time, lingering on for several months. Then your thoughts get even less steady, and the ordeal seems greater as more time goes by, and it’s even harder to pass. You think, “Why has it lasted such a long time, and still can’t be passed?” The thoughts begin to waver: “Is this cultivation way not effective? Is Teacher not taking care of me? What’s going on?” It has already affected your health. On this issue you haven’t viewed yourself as a cultivator.
With many specific problems I normally would rather not tell you about them. But think about it, after cultivating Dafa many people have recovered from whatever terminal illnesses they had, even patients in critical condition. They didn’t have attachments, and so they were diligently making progress and not thinking about their health problems at all. “The hospital has already handed down a death sentence, why would I fear death? Today I’ve obtained Dafa. I’ll cultivate! However far I can get is fine, I’ll cultivate with all my effort! Time to practice!” Imperceptibly their illnesses have all disappeared, for they did not have any attachment to it. Yet there are also some who contracted serious illnesses, including patients with terminal illnesses, and they did pass away. Why was that? Because they came entirely for healing, and when practicing they couldn’t let go of their own attachment. They thought: “By practicing Falun Gong so and so recovered from a terminal illness. I too can recover by practicing it! I’ve come to practice, so this teacher will take care of me as well!” They’re thinking: “As long as I read the book, as long as I do the exercises, Teacher will definitely heal me.” So you see, their minds are ever so slightly off. So they would still be thinking: “Teacher will definitely heal me.” On the surface they were cultivating and reading the book like everyone else, but weren’t they reading it for the sake of that ailment? I have to look at them in terms of their fundamental nature! Cultivation is solemn. Are you trying to deceive Buddha? Are you trying to deceive Master? You’re only deceiving yourself. Without changing on a fundamental level, can it count as genuinely cultivating? Why is it that students may be tested in their dreams? When all of your intentions that can conceal your [attachments] are asleep, we will then take a look at what your state is. You have to truly reach the standard of a cultivator—isn’t that the principle? You have learned Dafa now, yet you are not making diligent progress. By all means don’t miss the chance. There are so many people who can’t even obtain the Fa.
Student: Why is it that whenever I participate in group practice, my spouse feels very bad?
Teacher: It’s caused by your karma. Upon taking up cultivation, how could you just be cleared of the many debts you accumulated over your past lives and become a god with ease? What kind of god would that be? Creating karma yet not having to be accountable for it—how could that be allowed! When a god looks at a person’s existence, he doesn’t look at one lifetime of that person. Reincarnating one life after another is just like going through one day after another. You’re not allowed to just get up one morning after a night’s sleep and say that you don’t acknowledge what you did yesterday. Isn’t this so? Gods look at your existence as a whole, and whatever you did in any given time period will be looked at.
Student: How does a person increase his tolerance level?
Teacher: During your cultivation it will naturally expand, as this is not something that you can will. The more attachments that are let go, the bigger one’s heart becomes and the greater one’s tolerance.
Student: I dreamt that Master mailed me four drinking glasses, but only one arrived fully intact. The next day I dreamt that I had four daughters, but only one survived. Fellow practitioners came to the understanding that perhaps I only received one fourth of what Master has given. Is that right?
Teacher: It was given to you to enlighten to, so I can’t disclose it. If I disclosed it, then wouldn’t that be giving it to myself to figure out?
Student: After reaching the realm and level of a Buddha, are there still a primordial spirit and an assistant spirit?
Teacher: At that point there are none. Haven’t I indicated in Zhuan Falun that after reaching Consummation the assistant spirit can only exist as a guardian of the Fa or in some other form?
Student: China is a good environment for cultivation. Will the results of cultivation be affected after residing in Australia for a while?
Teacher: They won’t be. As long as you cultivate, it is the same everywhere.
Student: When I sit in meditation for one hour, usually I feel like it takes a long time, and I have to finish it in pain. But I have found that at the times when I am eliminating karma and I meditate, time passes extremely quickly. It’s over in an instant it seems, and the feeling is different. Is this situation correct?
Teacher: These are all states that manifest when doing the exercises, and their occurrence is quite natural.
Student: If I meditate at times when I am eliminating karma, will both sides eliminate karma?
Teacher: What two sides? The side that has cultivated well won’t feel pain, and as for the body’s legs, they will of course be in pain. After sitting for a long time, not only will your legs hurt: there is also pain and numbness in the back, feeling restless, and feeling nauseated. That’s how suffering physically and mentally is! The pain in the legs is merely something to endure on the physical level, and while you meditate, you will also have [to deal with] things that cause you to grow restless! At that point you want to take the legs down. Many of our practitioners feel these things. Suffering does indeed eliminate karma.
Student: I feel very fortunate to be able to see you in person, and now I have a question. You talked about practicing only one cultivation way. If in the course of everyday life I read Buddhist scriptures and books, I think that for some low-level students such as myself, it should be beneficial. We can slowly reach the standard, because Buddhism is also the Buddha Fa. Is that right?
Teacher: Your thinking is not correct, for Dafa and Buddhism are not the same thing. You should read Zhuan Falun more. I truly want to say a lot to you. And what you want to know is a lot, but I don’t have enough time today. Here I am discussing with my cultivating disciples problems that they have encountered while cultivating at their different levels. If you want to cultivate, then read the book some. Read Zhuan Falun, and then you can decide. You can decide for yourself whether to cultivate or to read your Buddhist scriptures. Dafa is different from all religions.
Student: Seeing you, I feel very emotional and become speechless. I want to say something but don’t know what to say. When that’s the case, is it that my main consciousness is unclear, or is it that the human emotion I have is too strong?
Teacher: Neither is the case. When many students—not just you— see me, they have nothing to say. It’s because at that time, the part of you that has cultivated well becomes alert. The side that has cultivated well knows everything about the Fa-principles at that realm, so upon seeing me there is nothing to ask. Master has done so much for everyone, and the side of you that is aware knows. On the surface I’m just expounding on the Fa-principles for you, but your true improvements in other areas, as well as eliminating karma for you and the many things that have been done for you—a part of you can see them. That’s why upon seeing me you just want to cry, yet the side of you that hasn’t cultivated well doesn’t know the reason for the crying. That’s the situation. This is because you know there is no way to describe these things that Master has done for you. In this unsalvageable, chaotic world, at a time when human morality is declining rapidly, I help you to eliminate karma and give you so many things. If I didn’t give you this opportunity, nobody would. So that side of you has seen this. That’s what this state is. (Applause)
Student: I’d like to ask, how do I know that I have obtained the Fa? In the past I had diabetes and high cholesterol, and after cultivating in Falun Gong all is well. Does this mean that I have already obtained the Fa?
Teacher: Doesn’t that mean you are being taken care of? Cultivation practice always entails first adjusting the body until it is well, and then entering the phase of formal cultivation. You are already experiencing changes. Had I not taken care of you, those changes would not have happened. Isn’t that an example of changes taking place under the Fa, then? You should just read the book a lot, study the Fa a lot, and progress diligently.
Student: In cultivation, are we allowed to recite the exercise formulas while doing the exercises?
Teacher: Recite the formulas before doing the exercises. During the exercises it isn’t necessary to recite them, and it’s best not to think of anything at all. That’s best.
Student: Can those students who have just now entered cultivation Consummate alongside the disciples who have cultivated for several years? There are some older people whose literacy level is limited, and there are some factors of their own, especially having a poor ability to understand the Fa. How should we view their cultivating to Consummation?
Teacher: Don’t underestimate the older generation, as it all depends on the person’s own degree of diligence, and you can’t look at one’s age like that. Once I have you obtain the Fa, I will always give you plenty of time. But if you can’t be diligent, if you aren’t able to regard yourself as a cultivator, then everything is in vain. I give you plenty of time. It’s plenty of time for you to be diligent, not time for you to half-heartedly cultivate.
Student: Three days after my child was born, I saw an older foreigner wearing black clothing and a top hat, covering the child with a blanket. Everyone in our family is a Dafa cultivator, so it should have been Teacher’s Law Body and not that older foreigner. I don’t understand, so may I ask Master to explain this a bit?
Teacher: I have different images at different levels, and I have different paradises at different levels. Also, as for where the child came from to obtain the Fa, or whether he has a divine being following and watching over him, I can’t tell you any of this. Just go ahead and cultivate. After seeing such things one should be even more diligent.
Student: We hope very much that those disciples of the white race who have benefited from Dafa can step forward proactively to introduce Dafa to fellow members of their ethnicity.
Teacher: Every Dafa disciple, whether he is white, Chinese, or someone of another ethnicity, knows what they should do during cultivation.
Student: After arriving in Australia it took me four months to find a practice site. All of the students look familiar, yet I have never met them before. At the experience sharing conference, all of the Dafa cultivators I’ve seen look as if I have met them before and they don’t seem unfamiliar at all. Why is that so?
Teacher: Of course that’s the case. Our Dafa disciples are all cultivating the same Fa, all cultivating in Dafa. The sides that have cultivated well all know each other very well, and among yourselves, perhaps you knew each other from some other lifetime.
Student: My brain is often blank, but often some people ask me, “You say Falun Gong is good, so why can’t you remember anything?”
Teacher: That’s because the side that has cultivated well, the side that has been cultivated to a state of clarity, has been blocked off, while the side that is unclear is always the side that hasn’t cultivated well. Don’t let the things that interfere with you exert an effect again.
Student: Ever since childhood I have felt self-pity. Is self-pity also an attachment that should be removed?
Teacher: Correct. Get rid of it, as today you are the luckiest being in the cosmos. You are a Dafa student, and even gods in the heavens envy you. So what’s there for you to feel self-pity about?
* * * * *
Our two-day conference is about to conclude. I think that through this two-day Fa conference everyone has made improvements. Also, this Fa conference was a complete success and very good, achieving the intended result. This Fa conference has enabled each student to find where they fall short, and in later cultivation, they will each continue advancing diligently, building up their confidence in cultivation, and making this Fa Conference truly live up to its purpose. That’s the goal of holding the conference. I also hope that the Fa conference will serve as an inspiration and that you will be responsible to yourselves in cultivation from now on. There are quite a number of new students sitting here, and there are some who don’t have much understanding of Dafa. Since you have come in and seen all of this, I hope that you will get a copy of the book and learn about it. [Think about it,] why are so many people studying it, and why are so many people cultivating? Perhaps you experienced a harmonious atmosphere here in this setting of ours. Right now a person can’t find anything like this, whatever the circumstance or place he may be in.
While doing this I have taken into consideration being responsible to people and to society, and all the less so have we caused trouble for society. No matter what region our students live in, they are good people. Whenever we meet with any trouble or any difficulty, we have to use a benevolent heart and compassion to talk to other people, and it is absolutely not allowed for your bad side to play any role.
This Fa conference is about to conclude, and I hope that all of you will be more diligent from now on. After this Fa conference there will be even more students studying the Fa, building on the past and gaining inspiration for the future, and I think all of you will be able to do well. Finally, I hope that all of you will constantly improve and soon reach Consummation! (Applause)
[1] Translator’s note: The Chinese term for “illness” here could encompass a wide range of health problems, including an aching back, arthritis, vision problems, etc.
[2] Translator’s note: It is generally believed that the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period lasted from 770 BC to 221 BC, and that the Period of Three Emperors and Five Kings lasted from 3000 BC to 2000 BC. Confucius is believed to have been born in 551 BC and died in 479 BC.
[3] Translator’s note: The Chinese words here are somewhat more general than the English ones.
[4] Translator’s note: This refers to the effort made on April 25, 1999, by Falun Gong practitioners to petition Chinese authorities.
[5] Translator’s note: This refers to the first case of Chinese police beating and arresting practitioners unlawfully not long before the gathering on April 25.