Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Houston

Li Hongzhi – October 12, 1996

I am very grateful to the government and people of Houston for the honors they have given me. I also hope that the numerous Falun Gong disciples can join me in thanking them for their support for and love of the Great Law. Let’s express our appreciation by giving them a round of applause, shall we? (Applause) I will bring the Houston government’s goodwill and the honors that the Houston government has given me to all of the Falun Gong disciples and Chinese people.

I have always been thinking of the Falun Gong disciples in America, including Caucasians, black people, people of the yellow race, as well as disciples of other races. Your being able to obtain the Law means that your predestined relationship has arrived, so all along I have wanted to come and see how everyone has been doing in their cultivation.

Many people have never met me, but many people have read the books and have come to know this Fa. They always feel that unless they see Master in person, they don’t seem to feel at ease, but they do seem to feel more at ease after seeing me. Actually, in those short articles—you call them scriptures—I have told you that even if you haven’t seen me you can cultivate just the same; and just the same you can obtain what you are meant to obtain. Nothing will be left out, because genuine cultivation depends on neither form nor whether you’ve seen Master or not. You know, Buddha Shakyamuni passed away over two thousand years ago, yet later generations have always been cultivating. They have no way to see Buddha Shakyamuni, but they can succeed in cultivation just the same; that is because he has scriptures in the human world and has Law-Bodies that save people.

Since I am imparting such a great Law, you may have come to understand from the books that no one yet in history has embarked upon such a great undertaking—that is, explaining to mankind a set of principles that is genuine, complete, systematic, and that can enable [cultivators] to ascend to heaven. In the past this was not allowed. In the human society of the past, one absolutely could not leave these things to mankind.

Of course, many people have read the scriptures of Buddha Shakyamuni, but actually, those were compiled by later generations. They were incomplete and discussed just a few principles. When compiling them, later generations relied on legends and memories, and so they are fragmented. Why did it happen that way, then? Because that was the only thing gods allowed to be left to mankind during that period of history. At that time, Buddha Shakyamuni indeed talked about a lot [of things], but since India did not have a written language at that time, what he talked about couldn’t be immediately recorded, and it wasn’t until five hundred years after Buddha Shakyamuni passed away that later generations put what Buddha Shakyamuni talked about into writing. Of course, the time, the place, the occasion, the setting people had at that time that he focused on—all of it had changed, and there was no way to retrieve it all. But in spite of that, the Buddhist scriptures could still have people who genuinely wanted to cultivate come to understand Buddha-truths from them. From the perspective of the immense Buddha-truths, though, they’re incomplete, and even less are they the systematic and fundamental Law of the universe. But Shakyamuni is a Buddha, and his words indeed carry Buddha-nature and the embodiment of that level of Buddha-truths. Jesus and Laozi were in the same situation as Shakyamuni: none of them left records of the Law they taught in their respective times. The same is true of the high-level monks that have cultivated over the course of history.

I often say something like this: I say that I’ve done something that no person has ever done before. A phrase like this has spread among disciples: they say that Teacher has left human beings a ladder with which to ascend to heaven. Gods are saying the same thing. The gods say, “You have left human beings a ladder with which to ascend to heaven.” The things that Shakyamuni, Jesus, and Laozi left behind are very few or are incomplete; that’s because in the past it was forbidden to do things this way.

This Law on which I lecture is extremely large. As long as you cultivate according to this Law, you can achieve Consummation. This is something unimaginable to the sentient beings of the past. The heavenly secrets touched upon inside [the Law] are extremely numerous and large. But if you don’t cultivate, when you open this book and take a look, you will find that it is a book that teaches one how to be a good person, and that what it discusses are principles; it’s such a book. If you want to cultivate, when you read it for the second time, don’t intentionally go and dig into the meaning of every character. As long as you earnestly read through it once, after you’ve read through it a second time, you will find that it isn’t an ordinary book, and both the feelings you had and the inner meanings inside [that you saw] the first time you read it will have changed. When you finish reading it a third time, you will find that the inner meanings have changed again, and that it is again different from the previous two times. You just keep reading it like this, and when you have completely read it three times, perhaps you will no longer be able to part with this book, nor will you be for the rest of your life. Why is it like this? Because from the surface perspective of humans, there are two reasons: one is that humans all have a thirst for knowledge and truths. The other is that humans all possess Buddha-nature. What the contents of the book discuss are Buddha-truths, which are connected to your Buddha-nature. As soon as you see it you will feel close to it, the genuine Law-truths will excite you, and you will feel that this is the thing that you want.

Also, cultivation must have a process. When you start studying the Fa you are only able to understand the principles of being a good person. In reality, the contents of this book contain the truths of different realms and different levels. As Buddhism teaches it, the Three Realms has thirty-three levels of heavens inside—there are different levels within the Three Realms. If you want to cultivate to a level of the heavens, only when you know the principles of that level of the heavens can you cultivate up. Only when you meet that standard can you ascend. If you want to cultivate out of the Three Realms, only when there are truths outside the Three Realms that are made known to you can you cultivate up. This Law has elements that can guide your cultivation to different high levels. Otherwise, it will be just as I described it: you go to college with elementary school textbooks, but you are still an elementary school student, because you haven’t grasped college-level knowledge, and [the elementary-level knowledge] can’t guide your studies in college; that is the principle. But with this book, though it reveals many of heaven’s secrets, people who don’t cultivate will not see anything by looking at it on the surface level. Only when you want to cultivate and want to earnestly read this book will you discover that the inner meanings inside are extremely large. How large? However high you can cultivate to, it can guide you to cultivate to there.

I’ll tell everybody that all of those who can obtain Falun Dafa have special backgrounds and predestined relationships, and some may be beings that have come from very high levels. Among the people in the world that you see, everyone seems the same, because from the surface you can’t tell who he or she is. But I often say this: in spreading such a great Law [we] don’t casually give it to humans to study, so if you have heard it maybe you have a predestined relationship and this was brought about by that predestined relationship. Not a single word of what I say is groundless; this will be proven in the future. Of course, since I have made public such a great Law, I have to be responsible for it. If a person cannot save people, he or she is carelessly revealing heaven’s secrets and damaging heavenly Laws. That is absolutely not allowed, and no one dares to do things that way.

As you know, in the past whoever casually revealed heaven’s secrets would meet with punishment from heaven. Why did cultivators have to shut their mouths and not speak? For one, humans are too attached to delusions; and two, those who do not cultivate are not allowed to know the truth of things. Cultivators are clear on heaven’s truths and what they say are all heaven’s secrets, so to casually say such things to an everyday person would be to reveal heaven’s secrets, and [the cultivator] himself would drop downward. Then why am I now able to accomplish this? And to have so many people cultivating upward and who will successfully cultivate to Consummation in the future? It’s because I can be responsible in all of this. Also, in performing this deed I first took into consideration being responsible to people, to human society, to the living beings of various realms, and to the universe; only by having this starting point could I do it well. The Law embodies the inner meanings of different levels, and those who cultivate have come from relatively high levels. So currently some disciples have cultivated to very high levels, and they used this Law to guide them.

Then how high is this Law? In the past, those who spread the Law amongst everyday people were not allowed to speak of Laws that transcended the level of Buddha. The purpose was to keep humans from knowing whether or not there were Buddhas and whether or not there were gods at higher levels. There’s a reason for that: people always use human understandings to imagine Gods and Buddhas, and that is being disrespectful to them. Then if higher Buddhas were to have people know of them, casually uttering a Buddha’s name like that would be slandering Buddhas; moreover, modern people are blaspheming Buddhas unintentionally. The ancient people of the past really did respect Gods and Buddhas, but as to today’s people, even if they believe, they aren’t pious. There are many people who feel that they are pretty respectful to Buddhas. The Buddha’s name is right on their lips, and they call it out directly; actually, that in itself is slandering Buddha. In the past when people said the word “Buddha,” people would feel a sense of esteem and reverence welling up inside them, and they would feel that it was very sacred. People today do not have [those feelings]. In cookbooks there is even a dish called “Buddha Jumping Over the Wall.”  It’s very casual.

Think about it, everyone: in contrast to humans, Buddhas are sacred beyond compare. The logic of everyday people’s thoughts, everyday people’s thought structures, and their forms of expression are nonexistent in the realms of Buddhas, so when you regard Buddhas with a human mindset, whatever you do will be disrespectful.  But because Buddhas are compassionate to people and know that humans are in the maze, which has inverted principles, they don’t take note of humans’ mistakes; in addition, in order to save people, they allow humans to know of the existence of Buddhas. So if Buddhas and Gods of even higher levels were to have people know of them, then humans would easily produce karma in relation to them and would easily become disrespectful to them; it’s exactly for this reason that they don’t let humans know of them or know of Buddhas from even higher levels. A Tathagata Buddha views humans as everyday people and pitifully small, just like minute particles. Then when a very, very high God looks at a Tathagata Buddha, that Buddha is also just like an everyday person, because he [the God] is so high up. Then what do humans look like to them? They are nothing. Think about it, everybody, humankind has always felt that humans live pretty well in everyday human society, and that humans are the most amazing beings in the universe. As a matter of fact, this environment of everyday human society is the lowest level in the universe. It can be said that among the beings of the universe, it’s the filthiest place. In the eyes of very high gods, this place of humankind is the trash dump of the universe; it’s the dump site for the excrement of high-level beings. So if a voice amidst the filthy excrement were to call out the name of a Buddha, that in itself would be disrespectful, so higher gods don’t allow humans to know of them.

Perhaps not everyone quite paid heed to the words I just said. I say that the Law that I am spreading is not something humans are able to just come and listen to, treating it as knowledge. If you can come, perhaps you have a predestined relationship. If you don’t believe it, then everybody should bear my words in mind. Of course, regardless of the extent of your predestined relationship, if you have obtained it, I think you should treasure it. Of course, everyone sitting here will treasure it. There are people from far away, even from abroad, who have come here; there are people from Hong Kong and even from Europe who have come. Their purpose is cultivation: for one, they wish to catch sight of Master, and secondly, they want to come and hear the Law. It’s just precisely because you want to move towards Goodness and want to cultivate. Many people take the things that Master says to be truths. Actually human truths cannot be used to judge the Great Law, as it is the foundation of the universe. So I think that for every person sitting here, you should all treasure this predestined relationship. If you have obtained this Law, then keep on cultivating.  Don’t miss this opportunity.

The way this Law is being spread is different from any [way of] saving people in history. Why? Everybody has seen the difference, because when any type of Buddha Law is spread forth they will tell people to enter a monastery to cultivate. But here I do not require that. Why is it not required? Because Buddhism teaches within the boundary of Buddhism; Daoism teaches the Law of the Way within the boundary of Daoism; and as to Western religions, they also can’t step out of their doctrines. This time I have completely stepped out of the parameters of religion and am explaining the fundamental Great Law of the universe.

In the past, there were people that said that if a person wanted to cultivate he would have to put aside all human material interests and either enter the deep mountains and virgin forests or enter a temple in order to completely sever his ties with the world and with the secular. Only then could he attain tranquil cultivation. The aim was to force people to extricate themselves from attachments to material interests. I don’t lead you down that kind of path. Why? I saw a situation: if one wants to have people attain Consummation as soon as possible and have numerous worldly people be able to cultivate, only cultivating in ordinary society is feasible. And actually, only in a complicated environment can a person truly cultivate himself, and the time for cultivation is much shorter than that of cultivations that avoid this complicated environment. Another crucial issue is that many cultivation methods do not cultivate the person him or herself; they cultivate the Assistant Primordial Soul. In the past this was a great secret; perhaps in reading the book everyone has seen this. Today I want precisely you yourself to cultivate yourself; I want to give this Law to precisely the true you. Therefore, I chose to have all of you cultivate amidst the complicated environment of everyday people. Cultivating in this manner has benefits for humankind. While practicing cultivation, a person avoids affecting the society of everyday people and also brings benefits to human society. A cultivator is a member of society, with a normal job and life, and can study the Law and cultivate all the way until Consummation.

I chose this path of cultivation for you all, so it’s completely different from the cultivations of other practices. Since you all have completely stepped out of the boundaries of religion, I often say that we are not a religion; I am simply spreading this Law to people and having people obtain the Law. Those that can cultivate to the end can Consummate. If some people are unable to cultivate in this life, then when they know the surface principles of this Law, they will be good people, which will benefit society and can make people’s hearts move towards Goodness.

Nowadays, social problems emerge one after another. You know, no matter how many laws are formulated, there will still be people who commit crimes. As soon as a problem emerges new laws are then formulated, and then more crimes occur and more laws are formulated. Humankind has [put] so many restrictions on itself. Moreover, humankind has no choice now but to endure all that humankind has brought on itself. The more tightly [humankind] seals itself off, the more it goes to extremes in this aspect of things, and at the same time the more it makes people unable to recognize the truths of the universe. Actually what makes society unsettled is not determined by how many legal clauses there are; all the unsettling factors, from a nation to an individual, can be summed up in one word: virtue. It’s that the nature of people’s minds is no good any more. People today have lost the norms of being human. That is why society is so chaotic. If all people are at a very high realm of thought and all have very high xinxing, think about it, what kind of society would this be? In what state would the entire human society be? If all people know that doing wrong deeds is bad, that it is bad for both the doer and for others, and don’t do wrong deeds, then I think that even police wouldn’t be needed, right? Everyone would be consciously safeguarding the moral norms of humankind.

Of course these things of humankind are actually not the primary things that I am doing. My spreading this Law is to have everybody be able to obtain the Law and to cultivate and Consummate. But practicing cultivation in everyday society will inevitably have such an effect; this is the side benefit that this Law brings to humankind when it is spread in society. [The Law] can enable the cultivator to genuinely obtain the Law. If, in a complicated environment and amidst practical benefits, you can rise above and beyond, then you are remarkable, and you should Consummate. Then, are there any conditions attached to this? Is it that after people begin to cultivate this Law that all [their] material things should be abandoned? It’s not like that, because while spreading this Law I took into consideration the fact that this Law would spread very broadly, as throughout history today’s method of spreading the Law was being established. The emergence of qigong was paving the way for me to spread the Law today. In mainland China some people call the qigong upsurge a “deity-creating movement.” If at the beginning no such environment existed, it wouldn’t be as easy today for me to spread the Law. In reality qigong was paving the way for me to spread the Law. Of course, at present there are some false qigong masters who come out to cause turmoil. If they had emerged naturally, then that would be normal, as humankind is like that. When the Righteous Law spreads it will surely hit on those unrighteous elements. Where there is the righteous, there is also the evil, and it’s to see which path people choose. With the interference of bad elements in cultivation, people can ascend in cultivation. If there were no bad things interfering with you, I think that you wouldn’t be able to cultivate. Personal cultivation will be like this and will hit upon many elements.

Some people just feel that they should live comfortably. If everyday people think this way, they’re not wrong. People just want to live better, more joyfully, and with less suffering. But for a cultivator, I’ll tell you that suffering some isn’t bad, since the principles of the universe are turned upside down at this place of humans; the principles of this dimension of humankind are inverted. Think about it, when people in human society all want a life of ease, they will fight with one another and thereby gain material benefits, and other beings will meet with misfortune. Therefore, in living, people are creating karma and will harm other people and other beings. Therefore, if you only create karma and don’t pay back karma, and you don’t suffer and eliminate karma, then think about it: this karma will accumulate more and more and grow larger and larger. By the end, what will happen? When this person is completely filled with black karma both inside and outside, this being will be annihilated—the true annihilation of the human being. That is, the person will cease to exist forever. Conversely, if people are made to suffer some and meet with some hardships so that they will eliminate some karma from the pain, they will live very happily. This is the correct principle of the universe and the law of the cycle of life. In the past, elderly people often said that during childhood people would have some illnesses, that during youth people would meet with some hardships, and that later on people would live somewhat better. Normally it is that way. This is the law of humans eliminating karma, because if you don’t eliminate karma you won’t have happiness. If you have so much karma, where would your happiness come from? And karma itself is the fundamental cause of what can make you unhappy, suffer more, or cause you to make sacrifices. This is referring to humans.

And as a cultivator, think about it everyone, if you don’t eliminate your karma, if you don’t suffer some, and if you only want to enjoy comfort, then how are you going to cultivate? You sit here thinking, “Today I want to go beyond the Three Realms. Tomorrow I want to cultivate into a Buddha.” Yet these things aren’t something humans can obtain just by wanting them. You must go through trials and tribulations in the midst of actual cultivation and in practical society, get rid of that attachment of yours among ordinary people, and let go of the attachments that humans can’t let go of. Of course, some better educated people or elderly people can do a little better; they are able to keep calm and, unlike others, refrain from arguing or fighting with people when conflicts come up or when they encounter difficulties. From experience they have come to see the value of that approach, but human fear and helplessness contribute in part [to their view]. Cultivators should immediately see this issue clearly.

When encountering conflicts, cultivators should bear them. Furthermore, you yourself should be able to endure, and only then can you truly ascend. When another person takes advantage of you he or she will give you virtue. At the same time that person is taking advantage of you, you indeed are enduring hardship, and your karma will be eliminated, which in turn produces virtue. You are a cultivator, and your virtue will transform into gong, so hasn’t your gong grown? At the same time that you endure, you can correctly understand things and are neither angry nor hateful. Aren’t you also improving your own xinxing, then? This principle should be looked at in an inverse way [from that of everyday people].

I often say that when another person takes advantage of you or causes trouble for you, or when you suffer, you shouldn’t bear a grudge towards that person, because you are practicing cultivation. If he didn’t cause trouble for you and if he didn’t create opportunities for you to improve, how would you cultivate upward? So not only can you not hate him or her, you must thank him or her in your heart. Some people then think: Isn’t that acting too cowardly? It’s not like that. If you didn’t have that circumstance you really couldn’t eliminate karma, because what you seek is not comfort, and your cultivation can’t be separated from the cultivation setting of ordinary society.

Just now I said that I knew from the beginning that when I spread this Law it would stir the public and how many people would come to study it. Currently in China, among those that cultivate with this Law, over 10 million are practicing it every day, and that figure soars to over 100 million if those that know about this Law and cultivate on and off are included. Moreover, I also know that in the near future it will create very large shockwaves worldwide. At present this Law still has not been understood by scientific and technological circles, [but] in the future the science of human society will undergo great changes because of this; I have indeed revealed many of heaven’s secrets to humankind. Humankind is completely sealed off and human wisdom is also restricted. No matter how much knowledge you have in everyday society or how high your position [in society] is, you are still an everyday person. Additionally, today’s empirical science has led people down the path of sealing off humanity, preventing it from truly recognizing the truth of the universe.

Just now I mainly said that when people are cultivating, bearing some hardships and suffering some pain are good things. Some people say, “I cultivate in Falun Dafa. I should cultivate comfortably, I should be able to increase my gong without going through trials and tribulations, and there shouldn’t be that much bothering me.” If cultivators don’t pay back karma and don’t raise their realms, their gong will never grow. Some people say, “my spouse won’t let me practice the exercises, not giving me the conditions or time [to practice], and he even threatens a divorce.” Actually it’s not necessarily for certain. Perhaps it’s testing to see how much importance you put on your cultivation. But the manifestations are indeed very intense. Cultivation is serious. Not one test or hardship will seem like a joke. When troubles emerge for cultivators, there are definitely reasons [behind them]. Actually, when anyone creates trouble for you, he or she is helping you to improve. As you improve your realm of thought, you are also eliminating karma as you endure pain. Then it is also testing whether or not you are steadfast towards this Law. If you aren’t steadfast towards the Law, then everything is simply out of the question.

In my lectures on the Law I only speak about issues I see practitioners confused about, so it may not be systematic. You shouldn’t take the things that I say today as systematic guidance for your future cultivation. The only thing that guides your systematic cultivation is Zhuan Falun. Anything hereafter that I say or talk about revolves around Zhuan Falun, and only the book Zhuan Falun guides your cultivation; it is the most systematic. Many people sitting here have relatively high levels of education. Regardless of whether you are from Taiwan, mainland China, or are a Chinese person from another country, with the exception of senior overseas Chinese, everyone is relatively well educated; it could be said that you are elites among the Chinese people. I often say that as this Law is imparted, the difference between it and other qigong practices is very large. The people who do other qigong practices are often elderly people that have retired and have nothing to do. The vast majority of them want to exercise their bodies and they all practice qi things. But those who practice Falun Dafa are not [like that]. Elderly people make up a portion, but the ratio of young and middle-aged people is quite high, and they have had a lot of schooling.

When I lecture on the Law and teach the practice, I do it differently than other qigong masters. The average qigong master lectures briefly on a set of principles, then teaches people how to practice the movements and how to emit some messages. I never do things that way. Since I want to truly impart the Law and bring you up higher, I must first lecture on the Law. In each session I lecture on the Law for an hour, then I teach you the method to [reach] Consummation—the exercise movements. So it’s different than other qigong practices. And the inner meanings of the Law-principles are vast. Those who are well read and with more knowledge will be able to understand it better and will feel even more so that it is good. Those with more knowledge who come to learn will have an easier time in rationally understanding the Law. Of course, those with somewhat lower education levels also come with predestined relationships and have a certain level of understanding of Gods and Buddhas. Especially when they can understand things very clearly from the Law-truths, their improvement will be extremely quick.

Since among those seated there are still a few people who don’t quite understand Falun Gong, I will speak briefly and generally about Falun Gong’s situation. Since I’ve come here, I want to tell you more. This Law that I impart is ancient, historically speaking; if I start talking about this topic, I’ll have to go far back in time. Today’s human society is one that has gone through multiple instances of humankinds left over from previous civilizations developing anew. What does this mean? Let’s use America’s continental plates, that is, the continent of America, as an example. It has sunk to the ocean floor and risen up many times. There have been multiple civilizations on this continent, and each civilization seemed to humans to last quite a long age. Of course, alternately speaking, there have also been some shorter ones; the reason [for their short duration] was that humankind’s morals corrupted too quickly. From a perspective that transcends everyday people, the concept of history cannot be viewed in the same way that everyday people view it. Everyday people only look at human history from within the existing human civilization. Cultivators and understandings that transcend everyday people far exceed the civilization of this period of humankind. Therefore I look very far into history.

The history of this Falun Dafa is quite far-reaching—quite far-reaching. If you want to date it all the way back it would be hard to explain it clearly using today’s time concepts. But let me tell you that Falun Dafa’s Law-truths are extremely vast and their levels are immeasurably high. After the cultivating disciples in this practice of mine Consummate, they can go to the Law-Wheel Paradise and to many other heavenly kingdoms and paradises. Speaking of heavenly kingdoms and paradises, let me tell you, there are countless paradises for gods in the universe. Within the scope corresponding to our Milky Way, there are numerous heavenly kingdoms. Humankind does have a certain level of understanding of Buddhas. For example, [they know that] Buddha Amitabha presides over the Paradise of Ultimate Bliss and that there is also the Lapis Lazuli, the Lotus Paradise—wonderful paradises, paradises of gods that gods preside over. As for Jesus from Western religion, as well as for Saint Mary and some other righteous religions, they also have their heavenly kingdoms. Of course, some heavenly kingdoms far transcend the cosmic scope that humankind knows of and the scope of this small universe. So when I begin to speak of cultivation things, the time or space involved is extremely vast.

Then in a prehistoric and considerably remote age, one before this batch of human civilizations, I once spread the Law widely among the people of the world and saved people. At that time I was saving people the way Buddhism does today. This time I am using the fundamental Law of the Great Law to do greater things, so the Law I’m teaching has vast inner meanings. Since the thing I want to do is very large, there are many Buddhas, Gods, and Daos that are assisting me to do this. That is because this Law doesn’t just explain the principles of one practice in Buddhism; it explains the principles of the universe.

The entire universe is composed of Zhen-Shan-Ren material elements. Amidst very high realms, it’s Zhen-Shan-Ren. Amidst Zhen-Shan-Ren [one] can give life to goodness, give life to beauty, give life to compassion, and can give life to both positive and negative elements. Then as for Ren, it can give life to the ability and inability to endure, so as the Law goes further downward the Law-truths become more immense and complicated. Yin and yang and mutual generation and mutual inhibition all come from Zhen-Shan-Ren. In each level and realm, as it goes down all the way to this state of humans, it becomes extraordinarily complicated. Humankind has good and evil, right and wrong, and emotions. Moreover, human principles are also inverted [from the universe’s principles].  Among human principles arise [the principles of] the king governing the country, of soldiers conquering the world, and of the strong becoming heroes. After humankind came to have a semi-divine culture, there arose even more complicated cultural manifestations, including things human society upholds, such as benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, trustworthiness, and other such things. Due to humankind lacking upright Law-truths, people do not know what the true Law of the universe is and can’t differentiate what is truly good from what is bad, or tell right from wrong. Humans are formed amidst both Buddha-nature and demon-nature. When people are in unstable moods, have evil thoughts, or get impetuous, they are being driven by demon-nature. When people are in a very rational state and are doing things in a very kind and genial state of mind, they are being driven by their Buddha-nature.

Falun Dafa contains truths and manifestations of material life at all levels. It contains everything and leaves out nothing; everything is inside this Law. The Great Law transcends the boundaries of the Buddhist school. It covers all truths of Buddhas, Daos, and Gods, and it also includes truths that transcend those truths. All are inside it. The universe exists because of it. It provides norms for everything in the universe, and it has created the myriad living beings at each level. As the Great Law spreads widely, many Gods, Buddhas, and Daos at different levels are assisting me as I do things. Currently, amongst the myriad living beings obtaining the Law, people within religions have the hardest time obtaining it, because they have in their hearts the gods they believe in, their Buddhas, and their Daos. They don’t believe that there are other gods, other Buddhas, and higher gods. Thus these people don’t listen to or look at the Great Law. This is the element blocking them from obtaining the Law. This isn’t to say that they are bad, but rather, it’s just that what they believe in are the true, righteous gods of the past, and this makes it hard for them to obtain the Law and it becomes an obstacle. They don’t know that as religions reach the point of not being able to save people, the gods themselves are obtaining this Law.

You know, Shakyamuni said, “In the Law-Ending period, my Law won’t be able to save people.” No one seems to have paid attention to these words, but actually now it is well into the Law-Ending period, and there simply is no Law. Modern people cannot truly understand the real meaning of the Law that Gods and Buddhas in religions taught in the past, nor can monks or nuns now understand the original meaning of the scriptures. Moreover, many books written by many monks over the course of history have been read as scriptures. [Those] Laws are in chaos now, and the people of the world no longer know how to cultivate. I’ve asked Christians why Jesus taught that when someone hits you on the left cheek you should offer your right cheek for him to hit. They couldn’t explain it clearly. That shows that nowadays it’s hard for people to understand the real inner meaning of gods’ words. People interpret gods and their words, and what Great Enlightened beings said in the past, using modern people’s notions and ways of thinking. They simply can’t understand the Law now. Actually, the inner meaning of what Jesus said is very simple: when another person hits you he gives you virtue; when you suffer, your own karma will be eliminated. When you can calmly offer your other cheek to the other person to hit, you will have reached a very high realm of mind. Religious belief is actually cultivation. Essentially, cultivation depends on oneself and gong depends on the Master. As long as you do well on the human side, Jesus, Gods, or Buddhas will help you evolve gong. That’s how they help the beings they are saving. Due to cultural, linguistic, script, and other limitations of the time, Jesus only taught the principles on the surface and not their essence.

In imparting the Law today I have comprehensively taught the principles of the Law of the universe. Yet all the same, it’s still difficult for people in the Law-Ending Period to obtain the Law. This time, in imparting this Law, I chose the moment in which it would be easiest for living beings to obtain the Law to begin imparting it. I chose a time in which all religions had reached their final stages and when humankind was at its worst to begin imparting it. The people of this time don’t have human norms in their hearts, and very few people sincerely believe in gods. I chose this time to impart the Law. Just now I said that in imparting the Law I am being responsible to people, I am being responsible to society, and actually I am being responsible to gods, too. I haven’t meddled with any religion because the religions of this time are no longer recognized by their gods. This is because as society has come to this point, human hearts have all turned bad. Yet I know that there are many people that still have Buddha-nature and roots of Goodness; it’s just that they have been sliding down along with the torrential current of human corruption. So the people of this time can still be rescued. Besides, the Law is immense, and its ability to save people is immense.

This Law is not imparted to human society for a couple days of excitement. As [we] save people [we] are establishing the future. This Law, because it is immense, contains immense inner meanings, and the things that are produced from practicing the exercises in the course of a person’s cultivation are extremely rich. You know, there are lots and lots of abilities; at each level there are over ten thousand of them. This is because the Great Law is not limited to the Buddhist School. It has gathered all capacities, and it is the Law of the universe. So with something this big, think about it, when one has cultivated to the end and to the point of Consummation, how many things will one have cultivated forth in the process? When a person can reach Consummation in his cultivation, his level will be high, his might will be great, and his Law-potency will also be quite great.

Just now I talked about a term: “mutual generation and mutual inhibition.” What is mutual generation and mutual inhibition? I will explain this principle to you. Why don’t gods cleanse the bad people in human society, the demons in the heavens, and the ghosts in the underworld? That doesn’t work. Why doesn’t it work? Regardless of what realm a life is from, if it doesn’t have beings playing negative roles [in its existence], if success comes to that life without its having put in effort, if it hasn’t gone through hardships, and if a low-level life hasn’t had to go through arduous and diligent efforts to gain what it wants, then such lives won’t know to treasure what they have obtained, and they won’t have the feeling that comes from hard-earned gains; even less will they know what success and failure are. They won’t have the joy of satisfaction, they won’t know what suffering is, and they won’t know what happiness is either. Precisely because the universe has positive and negative beings at high levels, and Goodness and evilness at lower levels, and demons and Buddhas, gods and goblins, and good people and evil people at even lower levels, the lives in the universe have vitality, and only through having challenges can beings lead interesting lives.

Just now I talked about dimensions, so I’ll talk some about the dimensions in the universe and about beings’ surface material forms. At a very, very high realm in the universe there are no longer any tangible beings, yet the matter that is formless and that fills up the universe at the extreme microcosm, that too is a living, intelligent life. There are also some that are even more microcosmic than it. The closer to the surface, the larger the granulation of the particles in the universe. Today’s human science now knows about some particles, such as molecules, atoms, neutrons, electrons, quarks, and neutrinos, but it’s terribly far from the end of material particles—the original matter. All matter in this dimensional level of humankind is composed of molecular particles. The air, this desk of mine here, the tablecloth, iron, soil, rocks, water—each type of thing is formed by molecules, this level of particles. I often talk about this principle: I say that people’s minds are controlled by gods, and scientists’ brains are restrained by gods. Humans can’t think of how to break through this dimensional level. Be it molecules or atoms, they only focus on studying the particles’ isolated forms, a single particle, or the form of existence of a few particles. They have no way to look at the entire plane of molecular and atomic particles. Of course, this kind of technological method doesn’t exist right now. When people can truly see this plane, people will have discovered other dimensions. It’s just that simple. Those dimensions are quite expansive and wonderful. One can’t use everyday people’s ideas and ways of thinking to understand their time-spaces and concepts of size; humans have to step out of this state of thinking to understand them. Many dimensions formed by microcosmic particles are even more expansive than this dimension of ours.

Particles have energy. Thus in this light, what it amounts to is that the old universe was composed of energy. Humankind has come to understand that atoms have radioactivity, that atomic nuclei have radioactivity, and that neutrons have radioactivity. But did you know, [going down to] quarks and neutrinos, the more microcosmic the matter, the greater its energy and the stronger its radioactivity? For humans, they haven’t yet realized that this surface matter composed of molecules also has radioactivity. It’s just that the body is also composed of molecules and that everything in the material world is composed of molecules, and people can’t sense and feel the energy and radioactivity of molecules. The human world’s research methods, laboratory testing tools, and testing instruments are themselves all surface objects formed by molecules. The apparatuses humankind uses to measure energy are composed of molecules. How can you detect through tests that molecules have energy? Therefore, humans cannot detect the energy of molecules through testing. In the universe, molecules are by no means the final level of particles, and they too have energy when the beings of particles one level bigger than molecules look at them in the same way that humans look at atoms. In cultivation, some cultivators not only increase gong upward but also downward. If one looks at humans from the perspective of that level, it feels uniquely exotic. That is to say, the [particles within the] level of molecules are not the outermost and largest particles.

We know that atoms contain atomic nuclei and electrons. Doesn’t the form of electrons revolving around atomic nuclei seem like the form of this Earth and the several planets orbiting the sun? Small as it may be, and even though the particle is microcosmic, the plane of its level may be even bigger [than this here]; that is to say, the total volume is very large. When you look at a person, for example, if someone looks only at one molecular particle of the person, he won’t be able to see the person; only by looking at the surface, which is formed by all the particles of this level that makes up the person, are we able to see the person. If you could use a high-magnitude, super-wide-angle microscope to magnify an atom to the size of Earth and then looked at how many organisms were in it—of course, humans can’t do that right now—when you saw it you would discover that it’s another scene, and to the lives there it’s a vast heaven and earth.

Just now I said that molecules are not the largest particles at the surface level. Then what is the largest layer of particles? Humans will never know the largest layer of particles. But with their eyes, people can see the particles one layer larger than molecules, though they don’t dare to think about them. These planets in space, these planets in the universe, aren’t they a layer of particles? Since your concepts are limited to the confines of today’s science, you can only see that planets are scattered throughout the celestial body, yet they have inner links between them. From the macrocosm, such as if the human body were to become much larger than a planet, and when your volume, your body, your thinking, and your capacity far exceeded it—like when a person looks at a molecule—when you looked, wouldn’t these planets be quite similar to the structure of microcosmic particles? People don’t have that much wisdom and imagination. I’d say that Buddhas are actually the greatest scientists. Humankind’s science has sealed off humankind. Humankind’s empirical science has created many long-standing mistaken concepts, and [people] are confined by this. If you go beyond it, then it says that you’re not scientific.  People use this kind of so-called science to seal themselves off tighter and tighter, and they are less and less able to understand the truth of the universe. Modern empirical science says that human development comes from evolution. Actually, what the theory of evolution propounds simply does not exist; humans are not in the least formed through evolution. Throughout history, humankind went through multiple civilizations, and every period of civilization has had different contents. Once I broached this subject I wanted you to know more, since your education levels are relatively high and your ability of comprehension is relatively strong (applause), so I’ll talk about this some more.

The universe was not in the least formed through the Big Bang, as said by today’s scientists. Humans are not at all evolved from the ape family. Back when Darwin made public the theory of evolution, his theory was full of loopholes. He himself was timid, nervous, and unsure when he put it forth. The biggest weakness in the theory is that during the period apes were evolving into humans, a considerably long historical process does not exist. Even today, no relics from this period have emerged; up to this day no one has found any. Yet people have accepted [the theory] and believe in it as if it were a truth. Today’s empirical science is an illusion. Humankind is going in the wrong direction, and people can’t see the truths of the universe, nor do they dare to acknowledge the existence of other dimensions. Yet various phenomena from other dimensions, that can’t be explained clearly, can manifest in this dimension of humankind. But people don’t dare to accept them or acknowledge them, thinking that it wouldn’t be scientific. If one uses modern scientific methods to come to understand that which one doesn’t understand, then won’t it be scientific? Since science has set a lot of definitions for science, people don’t dare to transcend them when trying to understand things.

When I was lecturing on the universe I brought up the concept of the small universe. Not only do humans not dare to imagine how big this small universe is—of course, human thought is always trying to probe how large the universe is—modern science still does not have this concept of the small universe that I speak of. Science holds that this universe is the universe that the eyes can see. But how large is this universe that I speak of? It can’t be described using human numbers or language, but one can describe its approximate structure—you know, how many Milky Way-like galaxies are there in a small universe? Among those sitting here, there may be some people with this kind of expertise that have learned this from books, but what I say is different. There are more than 2.7 billion Milky Way-like galaxies in this present small universe, less than 3 billion. That’s arrived at with the method of using human eyes to see objects, and it describes the kind of celestial body structure form that humans can understand. In the universe of the future this number will change. Shakyamuni once said something, namely, that Tathagata Buddhas are as many as the grains of sand in the Ganges River. Shakyamuni was a Tathagata Buddha; he said that Tathagata Buddhas were like grains of sand in the Ganges River in number. That was said using a Buddha’s eyes to see objects. Actually, if you look without impediments at the celestial bodies in the small universe, they will be as numerous as grains of sand, and as dense as molecules. The boundary of this small universe has an outer shell, so then is this small universe the largest boundary in this universe? Of course not. If you look at this small universe from the perspective of a larger, vast dimension, it’s nothing more than a particle of an enormous dimension.

Then what is there outside the universe? After going through a very long space-time journey and looking from a distant place, one will see a dot of light. As it becomes closer, one will find that this dot of light gets larger and larger and larger. At this point one will discover that it too is a universe, one roughly the size of this universe of ours. Then how many such universes are there? Still using the way humans look at objects, there are seen to be roughly three thousand such universes. These are all conceptual figures based on human understandings and their understandings toward one type of material element. The structure of the universe is extremely complex. Outside this is another layer of outer shell; this forms a second-level universe. Then in an even larger boundary that goes beyond this second-level universe, there are another three thousand universes of the same size that form a third-level universe. This isn’t just layers of dimensions. [With regard to] the nine levels of Heaven that religions in everyday society talk about, if I use the plane of this layer of particles to view them, these nine levels of Heaven are the boundary of the nine planets of the solar system corresponding to a dimension in the Three Realms composed of one layer of particles. Our solar system is at the southern tip of Mount Sumeru. I often say that life and the universe will forever be enigmas to humankind. Humans will never know the truth of the universe, nor will it be possible for them to clearly identify the location of the most original causes that constitute lives, because humans will never be able to develop their science and technology to that microcosmic of a state. Some people think: if it keeps going on like this won’t humankind’s science and technology become more and more advanced? Actually that’s not the case. Even though humankind’s science and technology was directly manipulated and controlled by extra-terrestrial organisms, humans’ science and technology and these extra-terrestrial organisms have at the same time themselves been arranged by gods. Science and technology are merely moving according to gods’ arrangements. Human society is merely operating in accordance with changes in the celestial phenomena. The history of the past is continually repeating itself, and today’s history is a repetition and a revision of an earlier history.

These things I said just now were to expand your thinking a bit; this will be beneficial to your cultivation. The universe isn’t like how humankind understands it. So then just how big is this universe, anyway? I’ve been telling you the concept of the universe. Even if hundreds of millions of more levels are added to it, it is still just a particle of dust in the enormous celestial body. With humans I can use principles and a load of numbers to explain it to you, but humans have had no way to experience it in the first place, nor will they ever be able to see it, because humans don’t have the kind of divine body structure that gods have, and their thought capacity and wisdom would not be able to bear it whatsoever. Humans don’t have that kind of thinking, and the human brain can’t bear concepts that enormous. That’s because only when cultivators get to that high of a level, when their brains, thought, and bodies all become bodies of high-energy matter, can they have that much energy, that much volume, and that much wisdom. Human brains thus lack the capacity for senses that far exceed man or high-level exhibitions of reality. The knowledge that humans are able to get is limited.

From another perspective, if humans want to know things that high, humans must have a moral realm that high. Gods will not allow humans carrying human feelings to attain the level of Buddhas. It’s absolutely impossible for humankind’s science and technology to develop to the point of being as high as Buddhas. Why? You know, humans have human emotions, as well as various attachments. Their various desires are so numerous, and they also have competitiveness, jealousy, and things of that sort. Think about it everyone, if that [person] were to truly go to the realm of Buddhas, wouldn’t he foul up the Buddha realm? Perhaps when you were there with the Buddha you would become jealous because of something and would be at odds with the Buddha. That is absolutely not allowed. If you hadn’t gotten rid of the attachment to lust, upon seeing how utterly beautiful a Great Bodhisattva is you would from then on have lust towards gods. That absolutely cannot exist in the heavens. Thus, human science and technology will never develop to the realms of Gods and Buddhas. That is to say, humankind’s scientific and technological methods will never be allowed to reach the realm of gods, to be sure.

Just now I talked about the principle of mutual generation and mutual inhibition. Now I’ll explain it further. Amidst a very high realm, lives exist in a very simple manner, and their thoughts are very simple, clean, and pure. Yet their wisdom is extremely great. Then further down, there arises the existence of a single life with two natures, and further down it turns into two different types of material elements. Since the celestial body of the universe is very large, as it goes further down tension gradually emerges between the two different types of matter. Further down, the different characteristics of the two different and conflicting types of matter are more and more evident, and the forms of existence of positive and negative lives appear. Further down, there are Buddhas (Law kings) and demons (demon kings). At the same time, there appear many different types of contrasting elements, such as yin and yang, taiji, and others. Further down, it gives rise to the principle of mutual generation and mutual inhibition, and the conflicting nature of the two types of matter grows greater and greater.

Especially when it reaches human society, this principle of mutual generation and mutual inhibition is quite evident. When a person wants to complete a good deed or a bad deed, you have to overcome corresponding conflicts; only then can you complete that deed. Regardless of whether it’s a person, an organization, a company in modern society, or a government, if you want to accomplish something, you have to overcome many challenges before you can complete that action. Only when one goes along with the will of Heaven will success come naturally. Otherwise, it won’t be that you do whatever it is effortlessly and as soon as you start doing it, you succeed. Speaking from the truths of this level of humans, humans have left huge amounts of karmic debts from doing bad things, so as soon as a person does something he will have to pay the debts. Since the principle of mutual generation and mutual inhibition is almost ubiquitous, it’s difficult for humans to do anything. Then what benefits does it have? The Law-truths are balanced. Speaking from another angle, only after overcoming corresponding conflicts will a being get what it wants to get, will it feel as if [that thing] was hard to come by, and only then will he treasure it, and only then will he know the satisfaction that comes after obtaining it and the joy and happiness that come after success. If there weren’t this opposing nature, then think about it: as soon as you wanted to do something, you’d do it; as soon as you did it, you would have finished it; as soon as you wanted to do something, you’d have done it. You wouldn’t have had to strive for anything, everything would be effortless, and nothing would prove difficult. You would feel that life was meaningless. It is precisely because you went to the trouble to gain something that you feel happy. That is the way of human existence. Thus humans live with vigor.

I hope that through these things that I just talked about, all of you can broaden your thinking. This will help you strive forward in cultivation. When I start talking about these things, I have so many things to say. Sometimes I want to talk about different things all at the same time. Since time is very short, I want to do it this way: you’ve come here with many questions, and after seeing me you have many questions you want to ask, so I’ll try my best to give the time to all of you and answer questions for you. You should listen attentively. This also counts as lecturing on the Law, and it will be focused on specific situations. So now I’ll answer questions for you. You may stand up to ask, but speak loudly so that everyone can hear you. You may also pass up paper slips to me.

You may raise your hand while seated and then ask your question. If you write too much it takes up time reading them, so when writing on the slips get to the point: what your first question is, then what your second question is. Be a little more succinct.

Question: What will happen to an older person if he doesn’t achieve Consummation?

Master: This student raised a representative question. Among the people sitting here, there are more who are older. The question he raised is: what would happen to those older people who do not achieve Consummation? Cultivation is a very serious matter. It’s not like things now in mainland China, where everybody goes through the back door[1] to get things done. That doesn’t work. Then what should they do? Only when you truly cultivate yourself in a solid manner does it work.

While answering this question, I would first like to talk a moment about the relationship between cultivation and work. Cultivation does not [negatively] affect your normal life. Whether you run a company in society, or are a high official in the government, you can cultivate in any job in the human world. In the past, Jesus said something: he said it was harder for wealthy people to reach the Heavenly Kingdom than it was for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. Why did he say that? It’s because many people cannot let go of the attachment to money. Actually, I’ll tell you that you shouldn’t be concerned about how much money you have. Even if your family’s house is built with stacks of money and your driveway is paved with gold, no matter how high an official you are, or even if you’re the president of a nation, you can still be a good person. You can cultivate yourself in the setting you find yourself in and through the conflicts of your social stratum. Think about it, among us sitting here, there are people from different social strata. Some people work just to eat. Some conflicts will arise between people of humble livelihoods. A person from this social stratum can persist in being a good person amongst conflicts and suffering and thus reach the standard for cultivation, Consummating at the end. Meanwhile, middle class persons have the conflicts of that social stratum. They try to be good people amidst their conflicts and improve to higher levels. That way they, too, can be successful in their practices. I have found that now people in any social stratum can improve to higher levels and cultivate. The president of a nation likewise has the worries of his own arena and conflicts specific to that social stratum. Conflicts exist between states and between ethnicities; all of humankind is the same. For humans, living in the world is painful, and thus they can cultivate. Here I am telling disciples to step out of the boundaries of religion when understanding cultivation and to bring about the true cultivation of a human being.

So for older people, practicing cultivation is the same. My practice is one that cultivates both a person’s nature and life; while a person practices cultivation, it will prolong his life. So isn’t there enough time? But the prerequisite is that older people have to be even more diligent and treat cultivation with seriousness. If older people for some reason truly couldn’t achieve Consummation, if at the end of their lives and before they approach death they swear that “next time I definitely have to cultivate,” then they will carry Law Wheels and cultivation things with them as they reincarnate, and they will continue their cultivation from the previous life. (Applause) Another [possibility] is, being human is simply too painful, and they might thus not want to come again. Then what should be done? However much they have cultivated is however much they will obtain. Then they will be assessed to determine their present cultivation level. If it is at a level of a heaven within the Three Realms, then they will go to that level of heaven to become a being of that level. If you can exit the Three Realms, but it’s just that you don’t have the Attainment Status of Consummation, then you might go to a heavenly kingdom or paradise to become a sentient being. Those paradises aren’t how humans imagine them—being all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, with nothing else. Within them are countless sentient beings, and they are extremely prosperous and wonderful paradises. Heavenly commoners reside in them (applause), but to humans they are also gods. They can’t be compared with the people of the world; it’s just that they don’t have any Attainment Status. Your question has basically been answered. (Applause)

Question: How should we understand the idea that disciples of true cultivation don’t have health problems?

Master: In mainland China, people of many areas have a saying, and when people had health problems that were hard to treat, there were other people who would tell them: “You should hurry up and go learn Falun Gong. You’ll get cured as soon as you start practicing it.” Why was it that way? It was because the adjustments Falun Gong cultivation makes on people’s bodies are very rapid. The purpose is to allow them to immediately enter cultivation after having been adjusted, so it’s not altogether like how everyday people understand it. When people come to learn the practice, they will get the best results if they hold no thought of healing their health problems. That’s because cultivation requires people to not have attachments, so they will be cured without any pursuits. As soon as a person has a pursuit, it is an attachment, and the results will instead be bad. If you say, I just came to have my health problems treated, then you have attachments, because spreading the Great Law to the world is not done with the goal of treating health problems, but for saving people; our curing of health problems is our adjusting the bodies of those to be saved. Your coming because of attachment is the same as holding on to that health problem and not letting it go, in which case we have no way to get rid of the health problem.

The ideas of humankind and the truths of the universe, in comparison, are the inverse of one another, as the more one pursues something the less one will have it. Only when you have given up such thinking will you have given up the health problem. In coming to cultivate one should not think of having health problems healed; one cannot have pursuits. So those who have health problems should not think about their health problems when they are doing the practice. When you don’t have pursuits, you don’t pay attention to it, and you are thinking just about the exercises, and the more you practice the better it will go. Perhaps you will return home from practicing and overnight all of your health problems will be gone. (Applause) People in many areas of mainland China are passing word of this sort of thing through the grapevine. They feel that it’s miraculous. Many people are learning this practice, and the number of people learning it keeps rising.

So that’s the principle I was talking about: that is, those that have no pursuits have the fastest results, while those with pursuits will probably have slower results. My view toward health problems is as such: when I do these things for disciples I don’t call it curing health problems. It’s called purifying the original bodies of cultivators. The purpose of the purification is to build a foundation for their cultivation. Those who carry health problems in their bodies cannot produce gong. What should be done, then? When you come and do the exercises, you just come and do them; you shouldn’t have any attachments or pursuits, and that will be the best. This way I can purify your body—purify it to a state almost free of health problems. But in isolated cases or under the circumstance that your cultivation won’t be affected, I may still leave you with some sensation of eliminating karma and health problems. Why is a little left over? It’s done this way because some cultivators’ comprehension needs to improve. Think about it, if a person’s surface body doesn’t have health problems he is supernormal, and if he doesn’t have the sensation of eliminating karma then it won’t be cultivation. He would of course believe [in cultivation]; under those conditions, who wouldn’t believe? He would believe all the way to the end. So some elements to be used in cultivation must be left for some individuals in accordance with their circumstances, and it’s done to see whether you believe. The purpose is to make cultivators walk forth via enlightening to things. Isn’t it this way? (Applause)

Yet there is another issue that I will clarify for all of you: when people cultivate they will still encounter some troublesome matters and there will still be difficulties. The difficulties will manifest in two ways: one is the unpleasant sensations that the body will experience; another is that others will provoke your anger. I’ll tell you that the causes of the bodily discomfort are not health problems, though the manifestations are the same. You should all know that karma is being eliminated. What is “eliminating karma”? Actually, I am having your entire body be purified. Human beings, while reincarnating among everyday people, reincarnate life after life. Some have reincarnated twenty-something times, and some have reincarnated thirty-something times or even more. In reincarnating so many times, and in reincarnating back and forth among humans, each time the person will create large quantities of karma. Of course, in each life, when people have health problems and suffer they will eliminate some [karma], but there will be a lot in each life, and when a lot of it has collected one will fall ill. When people have health problems they will seek out doctors to cure them. When doctors treat health problems, they only take care of things at the surface of the body. Humans will eliminate some karma because of the suffering of falling ill, but the majority of the karma and the root cause of what in essence causes the health problem are in other dimensions. Doctors can’t treat [those things] and the root cause of falling ill is still there, so in each of their many lives, people will have some karma left over.

Do you know what the bodies of today’s people are like? When giving a class I see that black stuff fills the bone marrow of some students. Of course, it can’t be seen in this dimension since karma exists in other dimensions. Then what should be done? The human body, from microcosmic particles to surface particles, and looked at layer after layer from small to large and three-dimensionally, is just like the many growth rings in a tree; no layer is clean. I want to purify your body from its innermost part. If you don’t cultivate, no one will do this sort of thing for you. In the past, Buddhism taught that humans couldn’t succeed at cultivation in one lifetime, that humans themselves can’t purify themselves, and that to improve is even more difficult. If a person wants to cultivate forth, the person must have a righteous Law; only then will it work. If you want to cultivate in the Great Law, I will take the karma stored up in those bodies of yours, the pollution that was created, and the causes behind all that is bad in your bodies, and push them out. You wouldn’t be able to endure it if it was pushed out from your surface material body all at once; you would die. Then what should be done? In the process of pushing it out, most of it will be taken away through other dimensions and moved away from your body. Only an extremely small portion will be pushed out through the surface of your body.

Why does it leave through the surface? Wouldn’t it be done with if all of it left through other dimensions? Doing it that way doesn’t accord with the laws of Heaven. With gain, there must be loss. When one owes something one has to repay it. These are the laws of Heaven. When people create karma they have to repay it, and this is especially so for cultivators. Actually, I just have you repay a little bit, which counts as you having repaid it, and I do that precisely because you have the wish to cultivate. Although I only have you bear a little bit at the surface, you will still suddenly feel as if your body is experiencing a major health problem, and it will be awfully painful. Some people really feel like they won’t live through it. Those with good comprehension will know [to think:] “Since I cultivate what’s there to fear? I have heard the Law, I have read the books, and I understand all of the principles. What should I still fear?” It’s such a simple and solid thought, but it’s actually brighter than gold. He didn’t take medicine nor did he see a doctor. All of a sudden he is fine and a major ordeal has been passed and a big piece of karma has been eliminated. The larger [portion] of karma is pushed out in other dimensions. The portion pushed out on the surface is actually just a tiny bit, but this karma is counted as having been eliminated, and it is counted as you having repaid it. So during the cultivation process some people will find themselves experiencing pain in the body, but that sensation of pain is different from any health problem. So there will arise these kinds of situations, and through them your fundamental degree of determination will be tested. Through ordeals you will be judged as to whether or not you can regard yourself as a practitioner, and as to whether at the time you believe in this Law. Cultivating Buddhahood is indeed a very serious matter.

In cultivation beyond Triple-World-Law, the body will be purified to a high degree; this is also called an Arhat body. The body at that time will have already improved to the point of being a body of high-energy matter, having not so much as a single ordinary, human cell. From the surface it will look the same as an everyday person’s body, but it will be different. At that time there will no longer be sickness karma, because worldly health problems can no longer affect this high-energy-matter-formed body of yours. Upon your leaving Triple-World-Law, all of your sickness karma will have already been pushed out. In Triple-World-Law cultivation there will be discomfort appearing on the body or the person will run into a startling, but unthreatening matter. When it happens you will be unafraid, but it will scare the daylights out of others. These things will happen. There are so many disciples genuinely cultivating the Great Law, but no problems have occurred. As long as you cultivate, I will protect you. Of course, if you don’t cultivate I will not look after you; I do these things for cultivators. So you shouldn’t drag people over to get them healed. At present, I don’t handle everyday people’s affairs, and none of you should do things that damage the Law.  If a person doesn’t cultivate, he has to bear the consequences of all that he has done. Regardless of what he runs into, it all has causal reasons. This question has been answered.

Question: Can [Master] purify everyone’s body today?—in particular, those things left over from studying other practices.

Master: Don’t worry about these things. I can tell you that when you walk out of here after sitting and listening to the lecture, it’s guaranteed that you will have changed. Speaking of this, I want to tell those students who aren’t diligent: you want to be a cultivator but haven’t set strict requirements for yourself, studying and cultivating on and off, and so problems will occur in your bodies. The reason is that when you don’t truly cultivate, the body will return to the state of an everyday person. At that point you will wonder, “Why is my body always not good?” Cultivation is serious. Why isn’t it good? This you should ask yourself. Do you believe in the Law? Do you believe that you are a cultivator? Is your mind that steady? If you can truly have a mindset that’s determined about cultivation and can let go of human feelings, then it won’t take even a second and your ailment will be gone. (Applause) Ambivalence doesn’t work in cultivation. Your mind is uncertain as you go about cultivating, thinking: “Is this Law really like [how Master has described it]?” That’s the same as your asking, “Am I cultivating? Am I now an everyday person or a cultivator?”

True Buddha Law cultivation is not as casual as the religions of the Law-Ending Period. Cultivation is a very serious matter. If you are not determined, all your efforts will be in vain. If you can let go of fame, interest, and emotion, and yet you don’t Consummate, in the end even I will feel that it’s unfair. For a human being, letting go of fame, interest, and emotion is the same as letting go of life itself. What do humans live for? Isn’t it just for money, fame, human emotions, and so on? If you can let go of them are you still human? (Applause) Humans live for those things; only gods are without them. (Applause) But I’ll tell you that gods aren’t immobile like statues, as humans imagine them to be. Humans don’t know it, but Heaven is in fact extremely wonderful. They know better than humans how to enjoy themselves, but things there are noble, benevolent, and extremely wonderful. Precisely because they have such a high realm, they can possess special abilities. Their bodies can float and fly around. Everywhere it is beautiful. Human language cannot describe it. The human beings here don’t have the colors that exist there. The appearances of gods are extremely beautiful. They’re so wonderful.

There are older people among us sitting here, and of course there are also young people. In cultivation, the human body should return to its inherent, original features. As people progress [in cultivation] they become younger. When you truly return to your inherent, original features, you will discover that you are extremely young. Although some people are very old, their master souls are young people or children. You know, when older people get senile, people tend to call them “big children.” They will vie with children for food, and they will play together with children. Why? Others say that this person has gotten old, old to the point that nothing functions. When you explain it with modern science it’s like that. But actually, I can tell you that when people grow old all of their attachments have been given up, and all of the human motives and pursuits they had are gone. They have let go of all of them, and their original nature has returned and surfaced. Probably their master souls are children to begin with, so they will start acting like big children. It’s really like that, I would say. In cultivation, the higher one goes, the more beautiful and the younger one will be. Some people say that when you look at the lives one level down [from here], you will see that when they try to comb their hair they can’t comb it straight, and their hair is disheveled. That is because the lower one goes, the uglier one gets. With cultivation the higher one improves to, the more wonderful things become. Not only will the body not have sickness karma, it will also become purer and purer.

As for “in particular, those things left over from studying other practices,” provided you truly cultivate, I will straighten those things out for you. These things needn’t weigh on you, you shouldn’t think about them. Let it go. If you come [to Dafa] specifically because of that issue, it won’t work. If you are too attached to it, you are holding on to it. Even if I got rid of it for you, your mind would feel unsteady. If you want to truly cultivate, I will take everything bad off of you.

Question: Now that we’ve come to listen to the Law, will you have Law Wheels to give to us?

Master: As you are cultivators, I will look after both those who come here to listen to the Law and those who weren’t able to come. It’s not just installing Law Wheels; after you have begun to cultivate the Great Law, I also have to comprehensively adjust students’ bodies. So it’s the same, whether you have seen me or not. As long as you genuinely cultivate, everything you should have will be given. In China, only a few tens of thousands of people listened to me lecture, but now there are people that cultivate all throughout China. So many people haven’t seen me, but they have everything they need to cultivate the Great Law. I am spreading such a great Law, so if my Main Body did everything, I couldn’t possibly do everything; it wouldn’t be possible to attend to every aspect of each person. I install Law Wheels for you. As long as you cultivate, read the book, think that the Law is good, and want to cultivate the Great Law—if you truly have these thoughts—then you will discover that your body has a distinctive feeling.

I won’t stop at giving you Law Wheels. Think about it, if a person doesn’t cultivate, what can that body that doesn’t have the necessary mechanisms for cultivation produce? The Law Wheel is the root of all that I give you. And I will eliminate karma for you, I will settle for you all of the gratitude and resentment from your past lives and at various dimensional levels as well as various types of deep-rooted ties, I will give you many mechanisms both inside and outside your body that will drive changes throughout your body, and I will install things in your dantian and other areas for you. Like seeds, over ten thousand things will be produced. In the future I will also have to strike your name off of the name list of hell. This is what you are allowed to know, but much, much more will be done for you, and only then can you really cultivate, and only then can you truly advance in cultivating the Great Law.

Sometimes I say that those fake qigong masters deceive people. They are truly deceiving people. What do they do for you? Nothing. If the things I described aren’t given to someone, how could he practice? Can [these things] be produced through practice? Also, if you aren’t protected while you cultivate there will be danger to your life, because humans have to repay karma. If you weren’t protected, what would you do about the lives you owed in the past? Who among today’s people hasn’t owed a life? After going through life upon life, people have so much karma today, and the human world is perilous. If one isn’t responsible for people then he is harming people, so I would say that [those masters] are deceiving people. You are cultivating the Great Law now, so all of this will be resolved for you. As long as you truly learn it, you will gain.

To those sitting here who have relatively more advanced schooling: don’t be restricted by modern theories. If a person with the Celestial Eye open were to look at the book Zhuan Falun, he would find that every character in it is a srivatsa (卍), and that each character is a Buddha. Think about it: how much power does this Law have and how many Buddhas does this book have? In addition, each character has layer upon layer of Buddhas, because this book contains principles from different levels of the universe. Each time you read the book after having improved in cultivation, you will find that the same passage is different in meaning from what you had read in the book before. You will have new understandings, and it will be talking about another layer of meaning; within each character there are Buddhas from layer upon layer, from countless levels. Of course, everyday people can’t see them. So I’m telling you that this book is extremely precious. In the past, some people would put it under their behinds and sit on it when listening to the lectures. At that time, you hadn’t yet understood what this Law is. When you came to understand it, you would discover that all of this is extremely serious. In cultivation it will know every thought of yours; even before you have a thought it will know what thought you are about to have. Humans think that the manifestation of a human thought is an extremely fast process, but looking at your thoughts from a slightly faster dimension, it’s an extremely slow process. Before you’ve even completed your thought, that side already knows; as soon as you have a thought, that side knows.

Some people say to me: “Teacher, I’ll give you the class fee. Someone in my family didn’t come, and I’d like you to give him a Law Wheel.” Of course, you can’t blame him, as he doesn’t know that those who don’t cultivate cannot be given it. I’ll tell you that you can’t buy one no matter how many hundreds of millions of dollars you spend. This isn’t something found among humans. It’s supernormal—something divine. Speaking from one perspective, its life is more precious than your present life. It is a higher life, so how could it be measured with money? But if a person wants to cultivate, I can give it to him free of charge. And it doesn’t stop at these things: ultimately I must protect you all the way to Consummation.

Question: How should we understand lives that die before their appointed time? What will happen to this kind of person?

Master: Hereafter, everyone, don’t raise questions that have nothing to do with your cultivation. Some people even ask me whether burning paper money [for the dead] works or not. These things have nothing to do with cultivating the Great Law, and I don’t have time to answer them. Those who die before their appointed times meet with lamentable ends. It owes to a truth I explained, namely, that when a person comes to the world, his or her life has been arranged by gods. If they haven’t reached the end of their lifespans and suddenly die, then they will have an extremely painful plight. What kind of painful plight? Since lives are arranged, what you eat and drink, your position in society, your footing in life—all of these have been arranged.  When people die they instantly lose all of these, and if they haven’t reached the end of their life spans they can’t reincarnate. The departed spirits will then enter an extremely bleak and desolate dimension. There’s nothing there, just as if a person were to go to Mars. Actually, Mars does have human life, only it’s in another dimension. What we see is precisely the bleak and desolate dimension here. Then, when they are instantly put into this situation, they don’t eat or drink, and they have nothing. They are in extreme pain, but they won’t die of hunger. Thus, they will keep waiting in that dimension until the true lifespan of the person in the human world has been reached; only then can they reincarnate. I’m referring to what’s meant by “lonesome spirits and roaming ghosts.” In Buddhism they used to make a practice of chaodu, or releasing souls from purgatory. Modern people don’t understand what chaodu is; only people who have died as I described need to be released. Normally, as soon as people die they have already reincarnated. What is there to release? What they used to mean by chaodu was the emancipation of these lives.

In passing I will talk about an issue, a social issue. At present there are people in many countries who bring up euthanasia. I’ll tell you that when some sick people cannot endure their suffering and want to die, that is their own business. Whoever does it for them is killing, and is creating the large karma that comes with killing; gods all see it this way. Moreover, they put the person in a most painful circumstance, with the person going to a dimension where the suffering is even worse. The person who requests euthanasia doesn’t understand it. When he has gone to that place he will regret it, as it would have been better to live and to suffer a little. Why do people suffer? While living in this world people create karma. Some people’s karma is great, some people’s is small. Some people will be in pain before they die. With suffering they can pay off much of the karma created in one lifetime, and in the next life they will lead a good life, for when some people pay off the karma that they owe at the moment of death they won’t have [that] karma anymore. Yet they don’t want to be in pain, they don’t want to pay it off. Thus when they are born into their next lives they may come with sick bodies, or even be handicapped or have a short life. People don’t understand this point and just believe in “practical” things. I’ve said that people have been sealed off extremely tightly by the false picture painted by today’s science. And that’s why people come up with things like “a peaceful and pleasant death,” or euthanasia. It’s not peaceful and pleasant at all.

Question: Should persons who cultivate still work hard and get ahead at their jobs and studies in ordinary society?

Master: They should. I just talked about this. Why is that? Because when I began to spread the Law I had already taken this question into consideration, knowing that there will be very many—quite a lot of people—who study [Falun Dafa]. In the future it will disseminate throughout the whole world, for it is great—it is the Law of the universe being given to people so that they may cultivate. With more people [studying it], it would bring about a major problem for society: if everyone were to [not have jobs or schooling and] become monks and nuns, then wouldn’t human society fall apart? So that [approach] wouldn’t work. Precisely because I have you cultivate in ordinary society, cultivators can conform to society to the maximum extent as they cultivate, and this can resolve the problem. At the same time, this approach allows the person him or herself to truly obtain the Law.

You can do any normal work in everyday society. In any living arrangement and at any job, a cultivator can be a good person. A cultivator must be a good person wherever he or she is. As a cultivator, when you do badly in everyday society the blame is definitely on you, as you didn’t go about things as a cultivator and hold yourself to high standards. If you didn’t do well for the boss who hired you, or, if you are a student, if you didn’t complete your homework or aren’t attentive in class, then can you say you are a good person? A good person, you know, he is good in whatever setting it may be. If you are a student you should study well. If you are an employee you should complete your work.  Correctly position yourself in the relationships you have with society and with others—all of you are capable of thinking through [what this means for you]. If you can consistently do things better, then conflicts will be fewer and smaller, though they will still come about.

You will be given some tests so as to have you improve. In cultivation, often when conflicts come they are sudden, but if you want to cultivate they won’t come about by chance. That’s because if you want to cultivate, I will re-arrange your path of cultivation and of life. They are so that the cultivator may improve, and so when you encounter problems they will often arise suddenly. They will seem random, and on the surface they will be no different from interpersonal conflicts. It definitely won’t be that some godlike figure comes to cause you trouble. Only when it appears as human beings causing trouble for you can it be helpful to your improvement. Then how should these problems be dealt with? You should always maintain a heart of compassion, and you should examine yourself when you encounter problems. The other day I said something to you all: I said that if you can’t love your enemy then you can’t become a Buddha. How could a god or a person who is cultivating see an everyday person as his or her enemy? How could they have enemies? Of course, at present you can’t achieve this. But you will achieve it gradually. In the end you will achieve it, because your enemies are human beings among the crowds of ordinary people. How could humans become the enemies of gods? How could they be worthy of being the enemies of gods?

Question: Teacher mentioned that human life, from birth until death, is arranged by gods. Then what effect will abortion have on the life of an embryo?

Master: As a person who has begun to cultivate, you should first let go of all that you did in the past. What was ignorantly done in the past was done. Don’t think about anything; just focus on cultivation. Improving constantly in cultivation is the first priority. When you are a true cultivator I can help you resolve anything, and I can resolve anything. But there is one point: if you know something is wrong and still do it, that amounts to not meeting the requirements for a cultivator, and that isn’t [the behavior] of a cultivator.

As for abortion, I can tell you that I have seen something: the spirits of many infants hover in the air in the rooms of and in front of the entrances of many hospitals, and some lack all four of their would-be limbs. These small spirits have nowhere to go. They are very pitiable. Some of them may have had a familial relationship with their would-be mother in a certain past life. Pay attention to this going forward. Because you cultivate, I can help you resolve anything.

Question: Teacher, why are the exercises taught by the assistants? Don’t you fear there will be deviations?

Master: It’s like this: I require that assistants go by how things are said in Falun Gong when they teach the exercises. When people do the exercises it’s not possible that everyone look like they came out of the same mold, doing them exactly the same. Small differences don’t matter. But do your best to do them in a standard way and according to the main points. That is because the exercises in Falun Gong are different from those of other practices; when you stop doing the exercises in other practices, it comes to a stop and you need to end the exercise in a set way. You aren’t that way. Falun Gong is a practice in which the Law refines practitioners. You are being refined by the gong twenty-four hours a day. Why can it reach that extent? It’s that the mechanisms I have installed for you are automatic. Then why do you do the exercises? You are strengthening the mechanisms that I have installed for you. Bear in mind: when you do the exercises you are strengthening the mechanisms I have installed for you, and what truly refines you are those mechanisms. The mechanisms are driving the gong to ceaselessly refine practitioners twenty-four hours a day. The Great Law exercise practice is one in which the mechanisms drive the refinement. So if the movements are a little bit off, it won’t have a negative effect. But be sure to do them as accurately as possible. The movements should still be done according to a standard.

Question: There are many underdeveloped areas where exercise videos are not available. The movements are spread from one person to the next, and from that second person to a third, so some of the movements at our practice site are different.

Master: More and more people will be doing the exercises, and students will visit one another, so these issues will quickly be resolved. That is because for many people, obtaining the Law is very difficult. I know about this. Also, everyone feels that the Law is great, and all want to spread the Law to others and have quietly done a lot of work. I know about all of it. The merit is immeasurable.

Question: I have a two-year-old daughter and a two-month-old son, and I almost brought them today. How early can I introduce them to the study of the Law and the exercises, and how should I do it?

Master: In mainland China, there are three- and four-year-old children practicing; there are relatively fewer three-year-olds practicing, but there are extraordinarily many four-year-olds practicing, and they are extremely common. And you shouldn’t think about him or her being a child, and think that he can’t understand things. I’ll tell you that his inborn nature is probably good, and he will understand things even better than adults. People all say that children are able to accept things fairly quickly. Why is that? Because their inborn wisdom hasn’t been fully buried, so sometimes children are very clear on things. If the child has a special background, his innate wisdom will be even better.

Question: How should we understand the Celestial Eye? Can the Celestial Eye open at different levels? And if one will gain a deeper understanding of the truth of the universe through the exercises, then how do Buddhas understand the truth of the universe?

Master: As for this, I’ll tell you that the reason human beings will never understand the truth of the universe is that humans are at this human level. Buddhas can understand the universe, and that owes to the Buddhas’ levels and realms. Low-level gods cannot understand affairs at higher levels of the universe. That is to say, what cultivators enlighten to at different levels, or, say, what an enlightened being sees at different levels, is all the truth of the universe at their particular levels. They still can’t see what’s above them.

Besides, it won’t be that every person will have his Celestial Eye opened as he goes about cultivating. If you could see everything clearly like a Buddha, then you wouldn’t be able to cultivate, for it would be extremely slow. If the Celestial Eye was really opened, then the other dimensions you saw would be even more real than this human dimension, and your three-dimensional sense and perceptions of objects would be even clearer and more real than when viewing humans. Under normal circumstances, I can only allow those practitioners who see things to see a portion of what is in other dimensions. What those who can see a large range of things see will normally be blurry, or they will only be able to see things at low levels, except in exceptional circumstances. Why is that? If people could all see things really clearly, everyone would immediately come to cultivate, and they would be very determined. In that case, the maze would have been broken through, enlightenment would not exist, and cultivating wouldn’t count. Only amidst the maze are humans able to cultivate and enlighten, and only this way does suffering count. If people could see everything clearly, they wouldn’t have complaints no matter how much they suffered. Why is it difficult for a Buddha to improve his level? Given that he can see all of the truth, how could he improve? His improvement will be very slow, since he doesn’t have suffering. Humans cannot see the truth, and only as such are they able to cultivate. Not being able to see is itself a type of suffering. Everything of humans is suffering.

There are people who ask me: Teacher, I have been doing the exercises, so why is my health problem still there? I would ask: are you coming for the sake of getting healed? Or are you coming to cultivate? If you are coming for cultivation, then give no thought to sickness. It will only improve when you completely stop thinking about such things and don’t have an attachment to them. Since you still hold onto what originally was your human feeling, you can’t be treated as a practitioner. What will it be like if the human attachment is fundamentally eliminated? Some people have insomnia. But if you can’t fall asleep, isn’t that an opportune moment to do the exercises? See if you can then fall asleep. I can tell you all that the difference lies in just that one thought; the difference between humans and gods is that one thought. If you can let it go, you are a cultivator; if you can’t, you are a human being.

Question: At present is there monastic cultivation? If so, can I be a disciple who cultivates as a monk or nun?

Master: As the Law spreads forth, the vast majority of people will cultivate this way, [staying in ordinary society]. Of course, there are some nuns and monks cultivating the Great Law. Cultivation of the Great Law does not place importance on forms. And in fact, that’s how all of the Buddhas, Daos, and Gods in the Heavens look at things. Buddhas don’t consider ordinary human forms important, but instead cultivating away human feelings. No matter how many temples people may build, or regardless of whether they kowtow every day to a Buddha statue, if they do whatever they please after going out the door, it is not cultivation. If you cultivate yourself with your whole heart, the Buddhas will be happy upon seeing this. It isn’t a matter of formalities. In true cultivation a master will look after you. Cultivation is to cultivate away the feelings (qing) that human beings have. (Applause) Actually, things will in fact go slower if you separate yourself from the complicated crowd of humans to do your cultivation of the Great Law. Of course, if you want to become a monk or nun and cultivate, at present we still don’t have the conditions for it.

Question: What effect do the foods that we eat have after the human body is transformed into high-energy matter?

Master: The foods eaten will be transformed by the mechanisms in cultivation. Cultivation will still be normal cultivation.

Question: Will the Chinese people born in America that can only speak English be able to cultivate to Consummation?

Master: Currently many disciples are Caucasian. No matter what language you speak, it won’t affect cultivation. I held a class for Caucasian disciples in Sweden. They had a very good understanding of things, and their improvement in cultivation was very fast. Chinese people have an ancient history, and an extremely deep culture. The characteristic of the Chinese people is that they are very introverted, and they have many things inside their heads. If you want to have Chinese people understand a principle, you have to explain the reasoning very thoroughly. But Caucasians aren’t like that. Their nature is extroverted and they speak frankly. You can tell when they are angry and you can tell when they are happy. They don’t have anything inside their heads, as everything is on the surface. Their intuition is stronger than that of Chinese people, and they don’t use logic that runs too deep. As soon as something is explained thoroughly they understand it. They don’t have too many psychological barriers, so actually they cultivate quite quickly.

Those who don’t understand Chinese can cultivate just the same. But there is one point: English can only translate the surface meaning of what I say. It can’t translate the surface meaning accurately, but that won’t affect the high-level inner meanings. When the people of the future study the Law, the surface—the things at this level of humans—will be major. So if the people of the future don’t understand Chinese, it will be very hard for them.

Question: Different races have different Heavenly Kingdoms. Why don’t black people from Africa have any?

Master: Black people, too, have the gods that created them. It’s just that they forgot them rather early.

Question: Do all religions have Heavenly Kingdoms?

Master: Only righteous religions have Heavenly Kingdoms. Those evil religions don’t have Heavenly Kingdoms. Also, in the Law-Ending Period, in fact, no religions have true gods looking after them. People no longer observe what gods once upon a time asked people to, and some people in religions take the lead in doing bad things. Some people are using religious identities to get their hands on money, some are becoming politicians, and some are taking the lead in corrupting society. They themselves don’t believe in gods and they themselves are unable to cultivate. Go and ask that monk or nun: can you have me Consummate? Can you Consummate? I once asked some persons who have been monks and nuns for sixty and seventy some years, and they didn’t dare to say that there was a Paradise of Ultimate Bliss. Then what were they cultivating? The gates to the Heavenly Kingdoms are already shut. The chaotic things [they spread] were not imparted by gods, and much less can they talk about Heavenly Kingdoms.

Question: In a dream I saw Teacher teaching us and conversing with us. How should this dream be understood?

Master: There are some people with relatively good bases that indeed can make contact. More of them are children. Under normal circumstances, when you see me while in concentration (ding) during meditation, the vast majority of the time I will not speak to you. When I do, it is to give you a hint. Some people say that Teacher taught them the exercises in a dream. You should be on guard regarding this, and you should discern what exercises are to be taught to you. If they go beyond the five exercises, it definitely is to interfere with you. If the things said go beyond the Law-principles that I spread, then that absolutely is not me, and is a fake. Whoever runs into fake [images] can drive them away. You can say, “I cultivate Falun Dafa and don’t want your things.” And if it doesn’t leave, you can call out my name.

Question: Suffering can eliminate karma. Can enduring health problems eliminate karma?

Master: As to enduring health problems, whenever a human being endures pain he is eliminating karma. Enduring health problems is eliminating karma. Just now I said that if a person doesn’t fall ill his whole life, he is doomed to go to hell after he dies, because throughout his life he was only creating karma and not paying it off. Happiness is what everyday people seek. If cultivators don’t suffer a little, they won’t be able to repay the karma that they created before. Moreover, they won’t be able to elevate their thinking, and so it won’t be cultivation.

Question: When will there be disciples who cultivate in a monastic fashion?

Master: I am not saying that I won’t let you cultivate as a monk or nun. Some monks who are based at a religious site are cultivating the Great Law. They had become monks and couldn’t return to secular life. So for a certain period of time, this type of arrangement will exist. But those who haven’t become monks or nuns should cultivate in lay society [as is]. What I have given to you is the path of cultivating in everyday society.

Question: I hope that Teacher can open the Celestial Eye for us all.

Master: This doesn’t need to be talked about. As you go about cultivating, and go about reading the book, it is being done for you. Everything that a cultivator needs will be done for you, including opening your Celestial Eyes. But it’s not that everyone will be allowed to see.

Question: My husband passed away, and I miss him so much. How can I let go of this feeling?

Master: For you to “miss him so much” is an everyday person’s feeling, and only when you let go of it can you cultivate. I’ll cite a simple principle for you. Humans are all attached to ordinary people’s affection for family. But do you know how many times you have reincarnated amongst everyday people? How many parents, brothers, wives, children, and husbands have you had? While reincarnating amongst everyday people, you have in every life missed your family members like this. Can you think of all of them all the time? Which one is your true family member? Your true family is only in the place where your life was created; they are waiting for you to return, but you instead are lost here and attached to these temporary things.

There’s something that holds for all of you, and that is, whether you come into a household, or come into the world, it’s just like staying in a hotel: you just stay briefly for a night, and then you head off the next day. Who recognizes whom in the next life? Among those around you are the husbands that you loved affectionately in your previous lives and other family members. Do you recognize them? Do they recognize you? What I am talking about are Law-principles. I don’t mean to have you be unfilial to your parents, but to have you let go of that human feeling. If any feeling ties you down, you can’t cultivate. It firmly binds you so as to keep you from cultivating, and it prevents you from becoming a Buddha. Speaking from this perspective, isn’t it acting like a demon towards you? Doesn’t it prevent you from becoming a Buddha? You still don’t understand what is at work. If a person who has passed away still has such a hold on you, then it’s all the more reason for you to let go of that [human feeling]. I am explaining principles to you; I am trying to help you understand things. If you are a non-cultivating everyday person, always feeling pained for people who have died, then your life will not be happy. Human life is very short. From the perspective of Buddhas’ paradises, everyday society is even shorter. When two Buddhas are talking they might see you being born, and when they turn around, after a few more words, they will see that you’ve already been buried. It’s that fast. It’s just that humans, in this space-time field of human beings, feel that it’s quite slow.

Questions: Sometimes I have some distracting thoughts. I know they are bad, but it’s very hard to purge them. Are they demons?

Master: You know that the distracting thought you have is bad, so try your best to repel it. I’ll tell you that when human beings live in this world it’s often not the person himself that is pondering—it’s not truly that person who is living. If you look at today’s people, regardless of which country the person is from, they are busying about all day. How does he live? I’ll tell you that with some persons half of the time it’s not really that person who is living, to the point that with some people it’s really not the person himself in the least.

With modern people in particular, do they really know how they are living? In his life, from youth to adulthood, a person accumulates many “experiences,” and these “experiences” form notions in the person’s mind. People think that when they run into a problem that “as long as I deal with it this way it will work out.” Then after a while, in this fashion fixed notions come to be formed. You think that you have dealt with many things well, but you yourself don’t exist anymore; you have entered a slumber. The “you” living in everyday society—your flesh body—has been dominated by those postnatally-formed notions. Doing this, doing that, all day you are in a daze, and you pass the days like this. But those notions were all produced so as to protect you from harm. But if you aren’t harmed, you cannot repay karma; you will gain in ways that you shouldn’t have; and you will harm others, thus constantly creating karma. And that karma is alive, for the postnatal notions and the karma form thought-karma in the brain. Then when you cultivate, you have to eliminate it. That’s because when you cultivate, you can’t cultivate [those things]. You wouldn’t want to cultivate [those things] instead of cultivating yourself, and of course I wouldn’t want that, either.

I have you become a Buddha, have you cultivate, and in cultivation you must get rid of your postnatal notions and clear out the thought-karma that replaces you. Then think about it, if you want to clear those things out, they are living, and they won’t put up with it. Precisely because they are in your brain, they will try to make your thinking waver, make your thinking unsteady, cause you not to study the Law, to not believe in the Law, and will urge you to do this or that, to the point that you will unknowingly do wrong. You formed that karma by cursing at people and thinking bad things back before you took up cultivation. Well, then the thought karma will project into your thoughts with curse words, causing you to not believe in the Law, or even to curse me. I don’t count it as your mistake since it is not you that is cursing me; otherwise your sin would be huge. Your thought karma is cursing me, but in cultivation you have to purge it or else it counts as you doing the cursing. Therefore, as long as you purge it and reject it, you will know that it is not you cursing and merely karma at work, demons at work. We join efforts to eliminate it and have you recover yourself. Currently the majority of the people who live in this world aren’t really themselves living. They are living for the sake of their way of thinking and their and postnatally-formed notions.

Question: What are celestial phenomena? At what level are cultivators not allowed to receive hints from the celestial phenomena?

Master: The celestial phenomena won’t have any hints for people. Currently only those animals who have gained intelligence will, during this period of time when this place of humankind has become bad, do things to control humans. The gods in the heavens have installed for mankind a very large disk that is rotating. On it is set what states will come about for human society and at what times. After it rotates to a certain time, a certain happening will unwittingly come about for humankind. And that is what’s referred to as a “change in celestial phenomena.”

Question: What is the standard for “transmigration?”

Master: Transmigration has a standard? With transmigration, a life may be a human in this lifetime and an animal in the next, or perhaps it will reincarnate into a plant. Anyway, one can reincarnate into anything. What one reincarnates into depends on the amount of one’s karma.

Question: Can one foresee the future with the power of knowing fates?

Master: Can one foresee the future with the power of knowing fates? With the power of knowing fates, one can know a person’s whole life or multiple lives, perhaps even more. Some people even know where they came from. They can also know what the person’s future is like. A person not only knows about herself, but can also know about others. This is the power of knowing fates.

Question: How far into the past can Buddhas and Bodhisattvas know things? How far into the future?

Master: Only when a person has no omissions can he cultivate into a Buddha or a Bodhisattva, and a person with no omissions knows everything. You can’t take these things to be knowledge and seek after them, and I can’t answer and explain these questions. Some people often ask me: how do Buddhas live? I’ll tell you that humans absolutely cannot know how Buddhas live. If you want to know how Buddhas live, then cultivate into a Buddha. Some people have seen the Paradise of Ultimate Bliss, the Falun Paradise, or other paradises. That is how it appears to you at your level. If you want to see in full the true state of things there, you must achieve the standard of a Buddha; only then can you see its true picture. It’s just like this Law: when you look at it from this level it is the Law-principles of this level, and when you look at it from another level it is the Law-principles of that level. It cannot reveal the true picture of things at high levels to those who are at low levels. This is a principle of the cosmos.

Question: What end will those fake Buddhas produced through worship come to eventually?

Master: It will be determined by to what extent they are good or evil. Those that bring turmoil to society and to the cosmos will be done away with. Of course, there are good ones that will be given a way out, and reincarnate. Everything has arrangements.

Question: Is there a systematic method of cultivating xinxing?

Master: The Law that I have given you is the most systematic. There is nothing more systematic. Go and read Zhuan Falun.

Question: “Put down the butcher’s knife, and become a Buddha on the spot.” This is what is said in Buddhism. What is said in the Falun School?

Master: Those words aren’t Shakyamuni’s. They were said by people at a later time. [Because of things like this] it’s hard to cultivate in Buddhism in the Law-Ending Period. Words not from the Buddha are taken to be His words. Modern people don’t know what’s going on, as those aren’t the truths of a Buddha. You just put down your knife and regardless of how many people you might have killed you turn into a Buddha—how could it be like that? Good people still have to cultivate. Doesn’t that hold true? Of course, the meaning embedded in the saying is probably that from here on don’t do bad deeds; perhaps it has this meaning, that is, to start cultivation. But it falls far short of Buddhas.

Question: Can you further explain “the body will magnify?”

Master: Cultivators’ thinking and their bodies’ capacity and volume will expand. So sometimes when you do the standing stance you will feel like you’ve become tall and big. Some other people will feel like they have become very small, because that body that has been fully cultivated can become large or small. Cultivators’ bodies will indeed enlarge. Otherwise, at high levels you wouldn’t be able to bear the understanding of the reality of the cosmos. In cultivation one’s body gets bigger and bigger in each dimension. My flesh body sitting here is only as big as you see it, but my bodies on the other side get bigger and bigger, one after another. They are so big that those sitting here and who have their Celestial Eye opened can at the best see only the bottoms of my toes, not their tops. And this isn’t even the largest. Of course, this isn’t to show off; there are no falsehoods between a master and his disciples. I can tell you that the volumes of cultivators’ bodies are indeed enlarging. I remember that an Indian Yogi had a painting, and in the painting “The World-Honored One” (Bhagavān) was speaking to his disciples, saying, “Take a look, all gods are amidst my body.” The myriad of gods in the painting was all inside his body. In cultivation, the purpose is to cultivate into a god. The size of a god is the size of that god’s level and the height of his Attainment Status. Thus the divine bodies conform to their Attainment Statuses and levels.

Question: I would like to ask: On this trip to America are you planning to hold a nine-day Law-lecture seminar?

Master: I’m not. The reason is that this Law has been completely explained. Since Zhuan Falun came out I haven’t spoken in a systematic fashion. That is because as I talk further I won’t follow Zhuan Falun to the word as I speak. When I give a class I don’t have a script. I speak according to students’ different circumstances, and I address the same question from different angles, so it is different every time. Thus if I again hold seminars and systematically lecture on the Law it will interfere with students cultivating according to Zhuan Falun. That’s because I have discovered that with even just one question, the more I speak on it, the higher I go, since I want more and more to have students understand (applause), so the things said will interfere with students’ cultivating. The Law has already been printed, and thus I can’t give systematic classes again. But as long as you cultivate according to Zhuan Falun it will be the same. Answering the specific questions you have as you cultivate like we’re doing today is fine.

Question: With so many people all over the world, how does Teacher know who is cultivating?

Master: The thoughts and understandings of cultivation at high realms are different from those at low realms. It’s different from what you have imagined with human thoughts. During the course of cultivation, when people have reached a certain realm, they can produce Law Bodies, and even produce countless Law Bodies. The Law Bodies will assist the Main Body (also called the Main Elder) to complete the tasks of guiding and protecting disciples; they do a lot of specific things. Law Bodies are the manifestation of my wisdom. This kind of wisdom has its divine form. To put it plainly, they are me myself. Therefore, my Law Bodies carry the overall image and thinking of me myself. They can do anything, but have no differentiation from the Main Body. But below this level no one can see these inner links; only after one surpasses this level can one see it. As to the specifics of things, they do them the same as I would personally do them, because they are a tangible embodiment of my thoughts.

Question: How does “Not having any pursuits and gaining naturally” go with “having no means of staying and from there comes one’s heart?”

Master: As to explaining Buddhist scriptures in Great Law cultivation, I don’t think it’s too appropriate. Speaking in a smaller context, what Shakyamuni says are the things from his school. What we have here are things from my school. There is a problem here of not practicing two cultivation ways. Speaking in a larger sense, all Laws come from the Great Law, and there are many complicated elements that you don’t know about. So I have never been willing to explain the terms and concepts in Buddhism. Sometimes I will say a little in passing, or will give an example, but that’s just me lecturing on my Law. I would advise all of you that if there are religious things in your heads you should, now that you are cultivating Falun Dafa, quickly set them aside and wash yourselves clean. Otherwise they will seriously interfere with you. Moreover, you will use things from Buddhism to judge what I say, and you won’t be able to cultivate. In Buddhism they too talk about not practicing two cultivation ways. Now is the Disorderly Law Period of the Law-Ending [Period]. You should all be careful.

Speaking of not practicing two cultivation ways, actually, how many people in religions can truly understand the meaning of this? There are people in religions who cultivate just about everything. Monks cultivate Zen Buddhism and Tantrism at the same time, and they read all kinds of scriptures. And in Pure Land Buddhism they talk about Zen Buddhism’s things. But when you cultivate in one school, you should read that school’s scriptures; and not all scriptures are what Shakyamuni said. If you read the Avatamsaka sutra, after completing cultivation you will go to the Avatamsaka Paradise. If you read the Amitabha sutra, you will go to the Paradise of Ultimate Bliss. Over time people have come to think that all scriptures are Shakyamuni’s.  But after you start mixing cultivation ways no Buddha will look after you anymore. Modern people’s belief in Buddha all shares one view: they think they are all Buddhas, so isn’t it fine to worship any of them? And since they’re all books from Buddhas, isn’t it fine to read any of them? Those are human views.

You know, why can a person go to the Falun Paradise or obtain a Law Wheel and other things he deserves from this school by reading Zhuan Falun? Religions’ scriptures are the same—you are cultivating in that school, so you are obtaining the things from that school. Then the gods from that cultivation way will place in your body the things from that school. Then if you also read the scriptures from this school, and this school also gives you the things from this school, and if things from all schools come, then your body will be a mess. How would you cultivate? For instance, if a part from a washing machine was put in a television, then as I see it, that television wouldn’t be able to display anything. It’s not as simple and as easy as people think.

Cultivation is an extremely serious and complicated evolution formula for the ascension of one’s gong and being. It’s more precise than any precision instrument of humankind. So, cultivation things cannot be mixed together, and will not be mixed together. As soon as someone does things that way, and as soon as Buddhas see that you are cultivating both this and that, they won’t give you the things from their schools. This is a xinxing problem on the cultivator’s part. A Tathagata Buddha’s things are cultivated through undergoing many lifetimes of arduous cultivation, and they constitute his Paradise. His Paradise is composed of those cultivation elements. You are only a human being, and you want to casually change them? Furthermore, cultivating two cultivation ways is equivalent to you damaging the Laws of two Buddhas, and cultivating three cultivation ways is equivalent to damaging the Laws of three Buddhas. Isn’t that a sin? Some people say that they didn’t know. Well, it’s precisely because you didn’t know that Buddhas wouldn’t give you anything; they don’t let you commit this sin. This is the fundamental reason for not practicing two cultivation ways. People don’t know, and think that the more they study in [this mixed fashion] the more they can broaden their knowledge. It is an attachment.

Cultivating a school is just cultivating that school: Zen Buddhism is Zen Buddhism, Pure Land is Pure Land, Huayan is Huayan, Tiantai is Tiantai, and Tantric is Tantric. And among Tantric practices, cultivation cannot be mixed there, either; its Red Sect is the Red Sect, and its White Sect is the White Sect. This is something that a person absolutely cannot foul up. Cultivation is the most serious, serious thing. There is nothing in the human world more serious. Because it is the most magnificent, it should definitely be treated the most seriously. Of course, I won’t make you study Falun Gong. If you feel that you can Consummate in some other school of Buddhism, then go study it. But if I don’t explain things clearly then I am being irresponsible to you. Because you have the predestined relationship to be sitting here, I’ll tell you: religions are in the Law-Ending Period and even for monks and nuns it’s hard to cultivate. You can ask those monks or nuns: can you Consummate? I know everything, and as for the monks and nuns in the world, or all over the world, those who can leave the Triple-World-Law, those who can attain the First Attainment of Arhathood, are just a tiny few. Moreover, they still have one foot in the door and one foot out—it’s still cultivation of the assistant soul. Actually, they are waiting for the Buddha to come. You want him to save you. But save you to where? If the person is an Arhat, he still has to cultivate to the Buddha’s Paradise, and whether the Buddha wants him or not is up to the Buddha. Where can he save you to?

Question: Teacher said that practicing the exercises at high levels is completely automatic. [Is that correct]?

Master: In China, when qigong first emerged there were people who said that qigong couldn’t enable one to Consummate, because the qigong spread at the time all belonged to the level of curing health problems and keeping fit. Just now I said something, namely, that qigong was in fact paving the way for my spreading of Falun Dafa. If qigong hadn’t begun to spread, it would be most difficult for me to spread the Great Law today. If I can spread it in a most strict society today, then when it spreads [further] in the future it shouldn’t run into problems.

Some people say that qigong is a way that has intention (you wei), and Shakyamuni said that ways that had intention were illusory and couldn’t enable one to Consummate. Actually, those who say that [about qigong] don’t know what “having intention” means. They say that exercise movements involve intention. Yet many Daoist practices have movements, and the Great Daoists that cultivate through them are quite high—the Great Dao of the Origin has cultivated many beings even higher than average Gods and Buddhas. It’s not that having exercises is having intention. Tantric practices, meanwhile, have people perform mudras. Monks in China perform various mudras, and they make a practice of double- and single-leg crossing. Aren’t those movements? Is something’s having or not having intention just a matter of how many exercises there are? That’s not what “having intention” means. “Having intention” refers to a person’s having attachments to things as he goes about cultivating and not letting go of them. People like this talk about human things, and then there are some who search for methods, skills, and magic arts, wrongly thinking that these can help a person elevate. They don’t take cultivating away attachments to be fundamental, and they pursue minor skills, and do things with intention. Some monks and nuns are trying to make money, build more temples, benefit society, and participate in politics, and that is what having intention is. Cultivating for those things is truly illusory, and whoever does so has lost sight of his own cultivation. Can those things enable one to Consummate? “I’ll build so many temples for the Buddha and take a back-door route—it’ll allow me to go up.” How could it be like that, though? If those everyday person’s feelings of yours hadn’t been eliminated, you wouldn’t dare to stay in a god’s realm even if you were put there. Compared with the incomparably holy, dignified, and pure Gods and Buddhas, you would be so ashamed that you wouldn’t dare to show your face anywhere. You yourself would realize that you shouldn’t be there, because your realm of thought would fall far too short, and you yourself would go down. Exercise movements do not equate to having intention; having human attachments is truly what is “having intention.”

I’ve said that in cultivation thought activities can easily cause problems, and so you should try your best not to have thoughts, not to have intentions. All objects and substances are alive and have life in other dimensions. As for the cultivation mechanisms that I have installed for you, as you perform the exercises you are strengthening those mechanisms. When that mechanism is strengthened to a certain extent, it will revolve automatically. When you do the exercises in the time ahead, every time you do them nine times [the mechanisms] will be strengthened and become stronger and stronger. Eventually you will find that you don’t need to count and you just do your exercises; when you get to the ninth time [the mechanisms] will themselves push the Law Wheel, and at the ninth time they will themselves go into Jie Yin. At that point you won’t even need to count anymore.

Question: Can everyone know when he or she has gone beyond Triple-World-Law?

Master: Some people have extremely high bases, and so in order to guarantee that they can return to their original locations, nothing can be told to them. If they are told even a little bit, it will damage their path and render them unable to return to their original positions. Thus, we have to determine things based on each individual’s different circumstances. There are times when it can be known, though, and certain individuals can know.

Question: In the future, monastic disciples who cultivate in a religious setting will have to go and beg for alms among everyday people. Does “future” refer to this period of humankind or to an earlier time?

Master: Monks and nuns are different from everyday people. I am telling them to cultivate, as is done by other Great Law disciples, and to validate an even greater Attainment Status; and this thereby provides them with an environment in which they can create even greater Mighty Virtue.

Question: How can people know whether or not they have Law Bodies protecting them or Law Wheels inside their bodies?

Master: As to the Law Wheel, some people are sensitive and can sense it, and some aren’t sensitive and so they can’t sense it. It’s not that everyone can sense it. For those who can sense the rotation of the Law Wheel, once the Law Wheel is stabilized in their bodies it will be hard to sense. It’s like your heartbeat: if you don’t touch there can you sense your heart beating? When it becomes a part of your body you won’t be able to sense it, but some people didn’t sense it at the beginning either. That’s because their bodies aren’t sensitive. It doesn’t matter. People’s bodies are extremely complicated, and every person is different.

Question: Suppose a young person was to cultivate to Consummation and immediately went to a Heavenly Kingdom. Then he couldn’t fulfill the final responsibilities he owed his parents or children. Then wouldn’t that be leaving hardships for others?

Master: It’s precisely because at present you haven’t Consummated and because you don’t possess that high of a level of thoughts that you use everyday thinking to consider this question. Once a person reaches that realm, his understandings of everything will be different. Because of the Mighty Virtue created during his cultivation, everything around him will have changed. Actually, everyone has his own fate, and no one can decide others’ fates. Some people say, “I just want to have my offspring live well.” If your offspring don’t have blessings, no matter how much good fortune you may leave them, they will squander it all, or it will go up in flames, be lost, or stolen. If they do have good fortune, on the other hand, then they can inherit it. Everyone has his own fate, and no one can handle that of another person. Even if they are your family, they are your family in this life, but in the next life perhaps they will be the family of some other person; and moreover, in the last life they might have been someone else’s family, too. So everyone has his own fate. Then if we want others to be a certain way, it definitely won’t work, because human lives are not arranged by humans, but by gods. There’s no such thing as whether you will leave them suffering, as these things have long been arranged. None of these things are as you think. If you aren’t in that realm, you will look at the issues as do everyday people. Actually, [imagine] how much Mighty Virtue is involved in cultivating into a God or Buddha. The aftermath will be arranged as you go about cultivating.

Question: When I perform the exercises, my head will nod around.

Master: Things like this are good phenomena. When a person’s energy channels are being opened up, his head will be swayed by energy. Actually, when a person performs the exercises, many phenomena will arise, over ten thousand of them. No matter what arises, you should treat it correctly. The path of cultivation is filled with tests of a cultivator’s comprehension. There are many elements that make up gong. A person’s surface is most sensitive to electricity. In the early stages, when gong is beginning to take effect, you will feel uncomfortable whenever it moves even a little. Sometimes when you cultivate good things you will suspect that you are sick, [and will wonder] why you feel unwell. If that’s how you handle it, how are you going to cultivate? You are a cultivator. You should consider them all good things, and they really are good. When the energy channels are being opened up, you will feel unwell, and will feel pain in different places. Changes in the body are not necessarily pleasant. Sometimes it will seem like many insects are crawling in your body, since there are ten thousand plus energy channels. And it’s not only these channels alone, for they crisscross, and at times the whole body will feel like an electric current is going through it, or like it is cold, hot, numb, heavy, rotating, and so on. There are so many states, and all will make your body feel quite unwell. But those are good things. They are the result of energy and changes taking place in the body. If we’re to talk about specific sensations [like that in your question], there are simply so many of them. All of you should take them to be good things, and they really are good things.

Questions: Enlightened beings are very much unhindered. Teacher is spreading the Great Law and can be responsible to multitudes of students. How should we interpret “very much unhindered”?

Master: If I’m to save you, being unhindered is out of the question. I am enduring sins for you, and sometimes I eliminate karma for you (applause). It was similar with Buddha Shakyamuni and Jesus, wasn’t it? Some people say: Teacher, with the great abilities you have, how can you still have troubles? Actually, the troubles are all yours. For example, after the karma of some students has been eliminated, a little bit of trouble is left over for them and they should overcome it, but they still can’t manage to. But you can’t destroy the person because he didn’t overcome that portion of trouble, and so I then bear it for him. It is in this way that troubles interfere with me.

Saving people is terribly difficult and arduous. I know why Jesus was nailed to a cross. I also know why Shakyamuni had no choice but to leave through nirvana, and I know why Laozi had to hurriedly write five thousand characters and leave. Spreading a righteous law is so difficult. If a person spreads unrighteous things no one will interfere. After he is done causing turmoil he will in fact go down to hell and be destroyed, for he has actually brought harm to himself.

Question: How do high-level celestial demons know of major and minor enlightened beings, and who restrains this group of demons?

Master: Gods have even higher gods looking over them, and those even higher have even higher [gods looking after them]. Demons are a manifestation of positive and negative beings in the universe. The understanding at high levels is not like that at low levels. When one attains the level of Arhat, all of one’s human thoughts will be gone. After a person passes away and when he comes out from the body (the flesh body), all the things done in the person’s life—including things when he was three years old—will be vividly right before his eyes, as if he just did them a minute ago. That’s because when you leave this dimension and time, it will be different than here in this dimension and time. Everything will seem like it was done just a moment ago. At that time, everything a person did in life, be it right or wrong, will all be known by the person. And at that time he will regret it. At that time the restrained part of the person’s thinking will be unlocked, but his thinking will be different from a Buddha’s wisdom since the Buddha’s results from even greater abilities.

Question: How are Master’s Law Bodies provided for?

Master: Law Bodies are me. Many people who believe in Buddhism burn incense, chant the Buddha’s name, kowtow, read scriptures, and worship the Buddha every day. The rituals are very solemn. But if, after they finish the ritual, they go back to their old ways, then it’s useless. People no longer understand how to worship and revere a Buddha. In cultivation a cultivator takes hardship as joy, purges all of his attachments, is compassionate and looks to make progress, and without letup diligently progresses in cultivation—and that, I’ll tell you, will make me happier than your doing any ritual. That’s because I have no other requirements for people as I spread this Law. I just want you to obtain the Law, what I want is precisely to remove the everyday human feelings you have, and in the end to save you.

Of course, Buddhas’ Law Bodies also need food. It’s not like what humans say: Buddhas don’t eat. Some people say that Buddhas don’t eat grains. Whether the person really knows it or just pretends to, all the same the words are correct. Buddhas don’t eat human grains. But, they do eat the foods in their realms. Gods won’t starve to death if they don’t eat, but they will become hungry and thin, so they too must eat. They don’t eat surface matter, though, but rather substances composed of more microscopic particles. Burning incense also has real significance. Nowadays if you ask a monk why he wants to burn incense, he will say that it’s to show respect to the Buddha. But why should showing respect to the Buddha dictate burning incense? Don’t doing other things work? Actually, the smoke produced from burning incense is matter too. And the matter that composes smoke is not only a surface substance: the smoke also has other material forms. Gods and Buddhas evolve things out of those things, which are then used to strengthen disciples.

Question: Law Bodies and incarnations…?

Master: I’ve never talked about incarnations. Many things that Buddha Shakyamuni talked about were very much correct, but not all of what’s said in Buddhism is Buddha Shakyamuni’s original words or ideas. The scriptures of Buddhism weren’t put together until five hundred years after Buddha Shakyamuni left the world. Five hundred years… think about it, America didn’t even exist five hundred years ago. If only now something that was said five hundred years ago was collated, how big would be discrepancies between this version and [the version of] that time? [There would be differences in] the settings, the times, the locations, and what circumstances the words were aimed at, so the discrepancies would be huge. The Law I spread is not Buddhism. I’ve never spoken about incarnations; I have only spoken about Law Bodies. I am integrating the thinking of today’s people and the culture of today’s humankind as I speak.

Question: Einstein said that the speed of light is fixed. Is this applicable to various dimensions?

Master: This principle that Einstein came to understand is a principle within the domain of humankind. Currently that’s as high as man’s understanding reaches. Yet when you transcend the realm of humankind, you will find that the things Einstein discovered are no longer absolute, as different levels have different principles and their respective forms of matter. The higher up you go the closer you are to the truth, and the higher up the more correct. When at high levels you take a look back, none of the understandings below [that level] are the fundamental principles of the universe; or at least, they aren’t very close to the fundamental principles. A person who dares to understand the truth dares to break through the fixed rules set by people before him. If you are within their rules, however you go about your research you will always be following them. If you break through those rules, you are one step closer to the truth.

When people transcend the current understanding people will discover that the understandings of the past were not absolute truths. Einstein said that the speed of light is the highest speed, but I’ll tell you that the power of people’s thoughts on this same plane is faster than light. Moreover, in even higher levels that surpass this level, due to time differences, [thoughts’] slowest speeds are faster than the fastest speeds at lower levels. Beings have levels, and different levels have different times and dimensional forms. All sentient beings and matter are subject to the restrictions of different times and dimensions. The higher the level the faster the speeds; that is to say, the slowest speeds at high levels are much faster than the speed of light at low levels as people understand it. A Buddha’s power is greater than a human’s, and even higher Buddhas are even larger, far exceeding the speed of light that humans understand.

My talking about these things is to tell all of you that humankind has the principles of the level of humankind and the physical world that humans should understand, but these are only humans’ understandings and are definitely not the truth of the universe. Don’t take them to be absolute, as they are only the understanding at this level. Why did Shakyamuni say that there is no Law that is fixed? And why at the end did he say, “In my whole life I haven’t taught any Law?” Because when he became enlightened he still hadn’t reached the Tathagata realm. He knew he was cultivating upwards, and only at the end, in his later years, did he reach the very high level of Tathagata. In his forty-nine years of spreading the Law he was ceaselessly teaching his understanding of the universe from the low to the high. He knew that the things he lectured on before were not the highest principles, and when he improved again, he was again at a higher level than what he previously taught. Then even after that, what he lectured on was not the final, ultimate principles, so he knew that what he had just taught was again incorrect, since he had improved again. Shakyamuni knew that the Law he taught throughout his whole life was not the highest Law of the universe, that it wasn’t the highest truth of the universe, so in his later years he said, “In my whole life I have not spoken any Law.” Yet he also knew that even though the Law-principles at different levels are not the highest principles, they are principles that beings at different levels must abide by—or in other words, [he knew that] at that level they are principles. The further up principles at different levels are, the closer they are to the ultimate principles. But the gods in the universe cannot see the final ultimate Law-principles, so they too say that there is no Law that is fixed.

The principles that Einstein understood are in fact the highest among everyday people. If Einstein had had the opportunity to continue researching, if he had had the opportunity to discover even higher principles, then he would have overturned his own understandings. And in fact, he discovered that yet still higher understandings exist in religions. Why did Einstein have religious beliefs and take up religion in his later years? It’s because he discovered that what religions taught are the true principles, and it was only then that he took it up. Why do many scientists come to believe in religion in the end? They’re people who are so accomplished in science… If you go by the notions of the absolutist empirical sciences, it doesn’t make sense. Actually, it’s only those people who are unaccomplished and those who revolve around definitions others have set forth who defend those definitions in name but not in substance. Truly accomplished people won’t have their thinking restricted by definitions or conclusions. Those are the truly intelligent ones.

Question: When we perform the exercises and our thoughts cannot calm down can we recite Zhuan Falun?

Master: You can. If you want to achieve absolute tranquility, it’s difficult to achieve at the beginning stages of doing the exercises. Even after practicing for a certain period of time, it’s still very difficult to achieve complete tranquility. Why? Think about it, you are living among everyday people, cultivating among everyday people, and it is you yourself who is cultivating. And it is precisely you yourself who is living among everyday people, and you have to eat, reside somewhere, have clothes, [or] the kids in your family are going to college, someone is sick today, an urgent matter comes up tomorrow—you get the idea, all of the things in the human world are interfering with you, and even if you don’t want to think about them you will. Only if in cultivation you take lightly the things everyday people are attached to will you be able to achieve [tranquility]. [Taking these things lightly] does not conflict with cultivating amidst everyday people, nor does it conflict with doing your work well or studying. That is to say, with whatever it is you are doing you aren’t attached to how you personally make out. You can achieve it gradually, since in the beginning stages you are unable to. As long as you can lighten your everyday people’s feelings, and do so to the point that you take them very lightly, and then to the point that you aren’t attached to them—at that point your mind will naturally be quiet.

Religions likewise have no methods to facilitate people’s becoming tranquil. Some people say that by chanting “Buddha Amitabha” people can become tranquil. That is a form of practice, but as he goes about chanting the person still won’t become tranquil. When chanting the words “Buddha Amitabha,” how does a person chant them? One has to single-mindedly chant [to the point that] each syllable of “Buddha Amitabha” appears before them. It’s truly that one has to chant until everything is empty and nothing is left; only when a person reaches this realm does he truly become tranquil. Along the way one may not yet be in that realm, and it’s impossible to reach single-mindedness overnight. It can’t be achieved right at the outset. For example, some people are chanting Buddha Amitabha with their mouths, but their minds are still thinking, “My son is sick…So and so really took advantage of me…. How is my boyfriend?” But their mouths are still chanting Buddha Amitabha. With a big load of attachments, can a person become tranquil? That is to say, as you cultivate and when you take the things that everyday people are attached to more and more lightly, you will naturally become tranquil. Failing to be tranquil for the time being is not an obstacle to cultivation and improvement—be sure to pay attention to this point, everyone. Yet in other cultivation ways they place a lot of importance on it, and that’s because they cultivate the assistant soul and don’t allow your main soul to play a role.

They emphasize having the Knowing Spirit “die” and the soul live, and they take the assistant soul to be the main soul. The Knowing Spirit is you yourself, so if your Knowing Spirit dies, then you will have really died, and it will take over the body. Our practice stipulates that when you manage to finally and completely become tranquil you need to be aware that you are doing the exercises and still have a little bit of consciousness. That isn’t an attachment. If you aren’t even aware of yourself then what could you cultivate? Would a Buddha be oblivious of himself? It’s not like that.

Question: How should we who practice Falun Gong relate to our Buddhist friends?

Master: I’ll tell you that you shouldn’t take today’s religious believers to be cultivators. I’ll tell you a truth: Gods and Buddhas simply do not recognize the religious forms below or the people who are fixated on religion itself. They only recognize true cultivation, for religions are the product of later generations. In his time Shakyamuni didn’t found a religion. Shakyamuni created a communal form of cultivation. In order to keep people from getting attached to things, he had everyone leave their families and go meditate in mountain forests or caves. It was later generations that produced religious forms, and it is people in society who call it religion. People nowadays don’t understand it, and have changed [Shakyamuni’s way] into something with religious form. As for religion, Gods and Buddhas don’t recognize it. It’s not that once you have been baptized or admitted into a monastic order Gods and Buddhas recognize you; it is humans who do. And it’s not that once you’ve been baptized or admitted into an order you are sure to ascend to a heavenly kingdom; it’s not that once you have converted to Buddhism you belong to the Buddhist school. Buddhas look at whether a person is sincere when he takes his vows, and at whether he truly cultivates. Buddhas don’t recognize forms; those are recognized by religions.

As to Buddhist friends, just treat them as a normal person; people can believe whatever they want to. Since you are cultivating amidst everyday people, you will definitely come into contact with other people. Even if they have certain beliefs, they have no way of achieving true cultivation, so just treat them as ordinary friends, that’s all.

Question: Since starting to practice Falun Gong, I have stopped wanting to read my school texts, and I just want to wholeheartedly cultivate.

Master: I’ll talk about this from two angles. One is that perhaps this person’s comprehension is very high and his base is very good. He obtained the Law on the spot and immediately realized what this is, and in cultivation he ascends extremely quickly. Since his base is good and his comprehension is high, he can let go of many attachments, and the essence of his life has not been compromised; it’s only that his surface has been contaminated by the secular world. Once the surface pollution is removed, he will realize the truths of Buddha Law, for he wasn’t attached to human things to begin with. Then this kind of person counts as the type who is relatively good that I just talked about.

Another situation is that a person’s base is very good and in cultivation he knows that the Great Law is good, but he still hasn’t completely and rationally understood the Great Law’s requirements for cultivation. This kind of situation can also appear among those who have been influenced by past cultivation methods or by monks or nuns.

No matter what the case, you can’t go to extremes. My telling you to cultivate among everyday people is dictated by the cultivation method of the Great Law. Moreover, the Great Law requires cultivators to be outstanding everywhere they cultivate. If you are a student, then you should do a good job in your studies; if you are a member of society, you should do your job well, and at the same time you are a cultivator.

Question: I have been studying the Law and practicing the exercises for a year, but I still have thought karma. I am anxious to know: what should be done?

Master: Our students are all pretty good. Actually, being able to realize your own shortcomings means you are cultivating. I understand what he is saying. Just now I told you about something, namely, that when you come to practice Falun Gong, I will purify your body, and basically purify fully the largest layer of molecules that make up a person’s surface, including the part that is your thoughts. But I still want to leave a part that will enable you to live among everyday people and maintain your state of cultivating among everyday people. What I mean is, when a person has no human feelings, he can’t live in the human world. Without anything of humans you wouldn’t want to stay among humans for even one minute. I am telling you not to generate more attachments and to do your best to let go of your existing human attachments.

Actually, speaking from another perspective, I can completely take away all of those thoughts you have, take away all of your bad thoughts, and directly take off your attachments. Yet that wouldn’t do; it wouldn’t be cultivation. But there is one thing that I can do: purify you starting from the surface and have your thoughts reach a certain level of purity, though a little bit must remain for cultivation purposes. If more were taken, you wouldn’t be able to practice. To enable you to cultivate among everyday people, I will purify your body from the inner microcosm. The outer surface won’t have too many divine powers manifesting, and this will allow you to maintain the state whereby you cultivate among everyday people. I will purify you from the most microcosmic part of your life, from the inside to the outside, until things are purified all the way to the most surface; when you eliminate the last bits that remain, you Consummate. The surface things not yet eliminated are for the final step of cultivation. They are purposefully left for you and allow you to maintain the state whereby you cultivate among everyday people. When that little bit is gotten rid of, you will truly be unable to stay among everyday people, and you will have no interest in human affairs. That state will emerge. So only at the final step will that last bit be completely eliminated.

This is the best method. It can allow you to both cultivate among everyday people and live normally among them. At the same time, though, you must set strict requirements for yourself, and you cannot have attachments as strong as everyday people do. Since you are walking this path and cultivating this way, I’ll tell you: if for the time being you have a few human-type attachments or thoughts, don’t turn it into a burden, as those are intentionally left for you. We have to caution against another tendency, too: some people haven’t been diligently cultivating to begin with, so as soon as they hear me put it as I have, [they’ll think,] “Oh, it is left for me. Then I won’t worry about it.” They indulge themselves, they don’t weaken their attachments, and they don’t set strict requirements for themselves. That won’t do, as that is not cultivation.

Question: Can we marry?

Master: I have left for you factors that will enable you to live among everyday people. I hope that some of you among our disciples who are young still establish families and start careers. If in the future the whole world were to come to study the Great Law and no one were to establish a family, then human society would end and would no longer exist. That wouldn’t work. Also, young people have to leave descendants, and you must leave a cultivation method for the new humankind of the future.

Question: How large is the Falun Paradise?

Master: The Falun Paradise is extremely large. (Laughs) It has countless sentient beings, and a myriad of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Arhats.

Question: After beginning the practice of Falun Gong can a person chant “Buddha Amitabha”?

Master: Chanting the Buddha’s name is cultivation, and chanting Buddha Amitabha is cultivating in the cultivation way of Pure Land Buddhism. If while practicing Falun Gong you too chant Buddha Amitabha then you are mixing that into your practice. I’m not telling you that you have to cultivate Falun Dafa; if you really can’t let go of it, then chant Buddha Amitabha, as the principle has already been spelled out to you. By the Law-Ending period it’s very hard to Consummate in religions. Some people talk about taking karma to Heaven, but it’s not as easy as everyday people think. People have to cultivate their thoughts to a good enough point, and their primary karma must be cultivated away, leaving only a tiny bit of attachments, which are to be gradually whittled away. At that time a special situation will emerge, and it is only then that a person can take karma to Heaven. If you take an extremely dirty body to an absolutely clean Heaven, or to a Buddha’s Paradise, where would you be placed? Right?

Question: When I perform the exercises in the deep of night I feel that there is a demon harassing me. Is it that we can’t do the exercises in the middle of the night?

Master: If you truly cultivate Falun Dafa and don’t mix any other things into your practice, it’s guaranteed that nothing will dare to harm you. Sometimes a new student will mix other things into his practice, in which case you can’t say that he is cultivating the way of the Great Law. If you don’t do things according to the requirements of the Law, if you only do the exercises, if you aren’t truly cultivating, then if problems arise it won’t be easy for me to take care of you—even if you call out my name. You say, “Master, why don’t you take care of me?” But do you cultivate the Great Law? Are you cultivating according to my requirements? Isn’t that what’s at work? Cultivating Buddhahood is serious.

Question: Is it okay to practice Tai Chi together with Falun Gong?

Master: It’s not okay. Tai Chi, Xing Yi, Ba Gua—these

forms have qigong built into them. But practicing other martial arts doesn’t matter, be it Long Fist, Flooding Fist, Southern Fist, Shaolin, etc.—none of them are a problem. But Tai Chi is definitely qigong.

People today don’t know how they should use Tai Chi. Some people take Tai Chi to be calisthenics for exercising their bodies. Actually, Tai Chi has many things of internal-external cultivation within it. People today don’t know how to cultivate. That’s because Zhang Sanfeng didn’t leave the heart-Law of Tai Chi to people, and only left the movements, and thus the people who came after him couldn’t cultivate with it. Don’t look at how leisurely Tai Chi movements seem, for their powers are not on the surface dimension. On this human side your hand is not, no matter how fast you are, as fast as [the Tai Chi adept’s] hand. You see him moving very slowly, but he moves about in another dimension. It’s like the ancient stories you hear, where an immortal might be walking along normally but those who ride after him can’t keep up. To ordinary people he seems to be walking quite slowly, but actually, he is moving about in other time-spaces.

People think that they can throw a punch fast, but they could never match the speeds of other time-spaces. That’s why even though you see that in Tai Chi they extend their fists and palms slowly, no matter how fast your movements are you aren’t as swift as they, for they have gotten there far before you. It’s just that modern people aren’t able to reach that level. Moreover, their palms carry supernatural abilities, and human beings can’t withstand those abilities. Martial arts look great in movies. So why is it in real life people appear to be moving their arms every which way, or randomly stomping their feet or kicking, but you still don’t see where the special powers of martial arts are supposed to come from? Why don’t their movements look like martial arts are supposed to? It’s because they don’t have any extraordinary abilities. If they had any extraordinary abilities, people would have had no way to avoid their blows. It doesn’t work if they try to perform those moves without the requisite [supernormal] skills. So the reason why today people can’t demonstrate the greatness of martial arts is that they don’t have both inner and outer supernormal abilities.

Tai Chi can enable a person to move about in other dimensions; it is inherently part of cultivation, so it fully counts as a qigong practice. Only when a person’s body changes as he practices and his realm of thought improves can his practice generate things. I’ll tell you that cultivating into a Dao or a God is incomparably sacred. It’s not how people imagine it. People now use the degenerate notions of this day and age to imagine how the ancients were. Ancient people weren’t like that.

Question: When the Law Wheel rotates clockwise and counterclockwise will it rotate in an inclined way or backwards?

Master: Yes, it will adjust your body according to how your body needs to be adjusted. It rotates this and that way in order to properly adjust your body. When the Law Wheel is at first adjusting a person’s body it will turn in whatever way is needed, and it won’t have a fixed speed. Once the body has been adjusted, the Law Wheel will stabilize in the lower abdomen area. There it will rotate clockwise nine times, counterclockwise nine times, which is its normal state.

Question: When I perform the exercises my son opposes it.

Master: Yes, some people will have situations like this where family members oppose [the practice]. It’s still up to you, though. After all, there are going to be tests when a person takes up cultivation. So perhaps a demon will make use of your son so as to interfere with you. If you truly enter into Great Law cultivation, and you manage to truly cultivate, then I will take care of it. I will look at what your thoughts are when you are amidst interference, and see whether you still want to practice, since cultivating Buddhahood is serious and it won’t do if your will is not firm.

Question: It’s best to sit in full-lotus when we meditate, right?

Master: The requirement is to achieve full-lotus ultimately. Practice it gradually, and everyone will be able to sit in full-lotus. In China elderly people over eighty years old have been able to gradually cross both legs, so there won’t be a problem. As long as you practice, you will gradually manage to cross them. It’s not that you can do it out of the blue, and forcing it won’t work. If you say that you can’t keep your legs crossed even in half-lotus position, then since you can’t keep your legs up sit loosely in Indian-style. If you say, “I can’t even sit Indian-style,” then stick [your legs] up just a little. When you are able to keep sitting, your legs will gradually lower—they will lower each time—and in the end when they do come down you will be doing half-lotus. When you do half-lotus your legs will be sticking up very high, but it doesn’t matter. Each time you do the exercises you will find that your legs lower some, and each time they will do that. After they lower all the way, and when in half-lotus both your legs fully meet the standard of being flat, then you are to use full-lotus. As long as your legs are flat and you can take your other leg and put it on top, it will be the full-lotus position.

Question: Why do you say that children of mixed blood are pitiable? A person might be a Chinese person in this life, and then a foreigner in the next, and there are all sorts of races and main souls on the earth.

Master: In the reincarnation process it is the main soul that reincarnates, whereas what has mixed blood is the flesh body. Different gods created their own different peoples, and in history those gods have all along been taking care of the people they themselves created. White people are white people, black people are black people, and people of the yellow race are people of the yellow race. Any ethnicity in the world is a race that corresponds with the heavens. After mixing blood people no longer have their correspondence to the gods in the heavens. And then it is possible that none of the gods that created humans will take care of them. Then with regard to these people, they are very pitiable. Some people might be wondering what to do, then. I’ll tell you, don’t be anxious. I am talking about the situation at the human being’s surface. Since humans’ main souls haven’t mixed, if people want to cultivate I can enable you to cultivate. If you can cultivate to the last step you can Consummate all the same, and there won’t be any distinction. Cultivation won’t be an issue.

If an everyday person is in the circumstance [we just discussed] then he will lead a very pitiable life. The gods above won’t recognize a region where there is a concentration of mixed races, so normally the people in such a region will be destitute and have a hard life.

Question: Chinese children studying in foreign countries receive a Western education. If in cultivation they use foreign languages to understand Zhuan Falun, can they go to the paradise that corresponds to people of the yellow race?

Master: The main spirit will go to wherever it was from, so the surface of the human body is not the determining factor. If they cultivate well they will Consummate all the same. It will be hard for them to understand the surface meanings in Chinese [if they try to study the Chinese version after living in the West], and this surface difference is irresolvable. But in cultivation, the inner meanings that transcend humankind will not be affected.

Question: The human brain is very developed. Why are animals able to control humans?

Master: The human brain is not developed at all. It is merely humans that see it as developed. Moreover, humans themselves know that over seventy percent of the human brain is untapped. Actually, [those parts] have been locked up by gods. As soon as an organism, whichever kind it may be, gains intelligence, it goes beyond the level at which it resides and can then have power over other lives. Although Heaven’s principles will not put up with [their wielding such powers], when humans do bad things and go along with those things, it’s the same as humans themselves inviting [those things] by seeking them. It takes advantage of this situation and can thus control humans.

Question: How should the connection between gong and the Law be understood? What connection does improvement in Falun Gong have with Law-principles?

Master: I have already spoken very clearly about these things in Zhuan Falun. If we’re to talk about it, it is immense, so I will just say a little. People involved in theoretical debates have always been disputing about which is first, matter or mind; they have always been having ideological arguments. I’ll tell you all that matter and mind are one and the same. Gong is the Law, and the Law is gong, for mind itself is matter. There is a standard for cultivators’ xinxing improvement; it takes on the appearance of a measuring stick. When xinxing goes up, gong goes up, too. Gong forms a gong pillar above your head, and there are graded markings on the margins of the gong pillar. That is the standard that indicates the height of a person’s xinxing. As xinxing improves, the measuring stick grows; and as it grows upward, gong grows upward. And the evolution of gong is extremely quick. It depends on whether your xinxing goes up or not. If xinxing goes up, then gong goes up. Therefore the principle that gong is as high as xinxing is an absolute truth. In every school it’s like this; it’s only that lesser practices don’t understand it, that’s all.

Western religions don’t talk about gong. When Buddha Shakyamuni spread the Law he didn’t talk about gong either; only Daoism talks about gong. The things I talk about encompass all the things of Buddhas, Daoists, and Gods, and all gods and Laws came forth through enlightenment to the fundamental Law of the universe. In lecturing on the Law I try my best to have you understand; I use whichever terms can enable you to understand. Some people say that Western religions are not cultivation and that Eastern religious meditation is. Aren’t Western [religions] cultivation? Western religions are cultivation too. Jesus said that if you have faith in him, then you can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. What did he mean? Jesus always spoke about things at the surface and told people how to conduct themselves. It’s just like Western culture; they don’t spell out the inner meanings, and as long as you act [right] it will do. People today don’t know what the “faith” Jesus talked about is [on a deeper level]. Jesus said that if you have faith in him then you can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Actually, as to faith, only acting according to what Jesus said is true faith. If you don’t act according to what Jesus said, is that true faith? If a person goes to church and says “Amen” before eating but as soon as he’s out in the world he always does bad things, could that be called having faith in Jesus? Was what Jesus talked about restricted to just one sentence—“Believe in me and you can enter the Kingdom of Heaven”? Why did Jesus discuss so many principles for conducting oneself? If you act according to what he said, then you can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Isn’t that what it means? Faith is a general term. If you don’t cultivate yourself or improve yourself then could you enter the Kingdom of Heaven? Sure, maybe you go to church when the time comes. But do you believe in gods just by dint of having said the Lord’s name a lot? Are you just waiting to enter the Kingdom of Heaven? That won’t do.

Then what is the purpose of confession? Confession is when a person knows that he made a mistake and wants to do better. It doesn’t qualify when a person confesses while still doing that same wrong. Say today you killed a person, [and you say] “Please forgive me,” and then you kill another one tomorrow and then confess again and ask for forgiveness. Who would forgive you? You see the idea, right? You should stop doing wrong and vow not to commit those acts again, and truly not to do them again. When you discover that you have a bad thought, in confession you will say to Jesus: “Jesus Christ, save me, as I have bad thoughts.” Then if in your daily life you conduct yourself better, aren’t you improving human xinxing? Isn’t that cultivating yourself? Jesus didn’t talk about gong because “cultivation depends on oneself while gong depends on the master.” I want to have your bodies succeed in cultivation and to change them over, so I stress gong. Jesus didn’t talk about gong because you don’t need to know about it. You just focus on cultivating your heart, and gong would be taken care of by Jesus, so Jesus didn’t talk about gong. Cultivation is cultivating away humans’ bad thoughts and behaviors. As your realm improves, the master will do his part and evolve gong for you. That’s the idea.

Question: Buddha Shakyamuni succeeded in cultivation hundreds of millions of years ago. Yet not all lives are assimilated to “Zhen Shan Ren” upon birth. Then how is it that one could succeed at cultivation?

Master: Not all sentient beings in the heavens have Attainment Status, and not all sentient beings in the heavens are Buddhas. All lives are created by the Great Law of the universe, and are produced in the universe created by the Great Law, but this is not the same thing as succeeding in cultivation.  Succeeding in cultivation refers to validating and enlightening to one’s own Attainment Status. Shakyamuni is a Buddha, and a very good one. I can tell you all that “Zhen Shan Ren” are the Law-truths of the entire universe, are the fundamental elements that created the entire universe, and are the fundamental elements that created all the most primeval gods and all of the gods in the entire course of the universe. Buddha Shakyamuni of course was among them. The universe also has a process of formation, stasis, degeneration, and destruction. Buddha Shakyamuni was not the most primeval god. All intelligent life in the universe moves towards degeneration and destruction. Sentient beings near the Three Realms can, in their next lives, cultivate again. That is a method of purifying used with beings within these boundaries. The truths that Shakyamuni talked about were the Tathagata Law that he, from “Zhen Shan Ren,” validated and enlightened to at that level. None of the Tathagatas explain the true and fundamental Law of the universe, for the fundamental Great Law of the universe transcends the universe and all lives within it. The gods can only validate and enlighten to their own understanding at their own level. Those are their cultivation ways, and different gods can save people only by turning them into sentient beings below them. Yet the Great Law is the fundamental Great Dao; in cultivation it’s the fastest and the simplest [method], and it doesn’t have that many things to be particular about. The Law is like a pyramid; on the fringes it’s just this low, whereas gods’ understandings go up this high. Then those who are saved can Consummate only at this level. A Tathagata Consummates at this level, so he has validated and enlightened to this much, and when bringing up disciples Tathagatas only focus on the things of their own disciplines. Every Buddha’s enlightenment is different, and every Buddha comes to understand the Zhen Shan Ren fundamental Great Law of the universe from the Law-truths of the Zhen Shan Ren Great Law. Being strengthened by Gods and Buddhas at a level even higher, and with righteous cultivation and righteous enlightenment, however much he understands and however much he knows forms his own cultivation things, and he is assimilated to that level of the Law.

Question: Why does my head turn towards Master’s Law-Image[2] when I meditate?

Master: It’s that your knowing side is looking at me. Sometimes my Law-Body will give you hints. When it gives hints it will use different methods. If you want to know whether something was done well or not, or done correctly, look at my picture in the book or my other pictures. No matter whether your Celestial Eye has opened or not, if you acted wrongly, I will look very stern; if you acted correctly, I will smile at you. (Applause)

Question: When Teacher is lecturing on the Law, I will feel that it’s very correct and good. Sometimes I will feel it’s simply being spoken directly into my heart. But when I later try to recall what Teacher talked about it is as if I don’t remember anything completely. What should I do?

Master: Actually, when listening to me lecturing on the Law people will all have states like these. I have taught many a Law, and it’s not possible for you to remember it all clearly. Don’t worry. Each time you encounter problems in your cultivation, if you can take yourself to be a cultivator and deal with things correctly, you will be able to remember the words I have spoken. It’s guaranteed to be like this. But if at that time you get angry to the point that you become dizzy and can’t stay calm, then you won’t be able to think of them, and it proves that your cultivation is not solid. But generally you can remember the Law that I have taught. If a person can’t cultivate then he will forever be unable to remember the Law that I taught. I have stressed again and again that this Law is not spoken for everyday people to listen to. All of you sitting here have a predestined relationship. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to come in.

Question: If I take in abandoned, small animals, will that create karma?

Master: This won’t in fact create karma. As an everyday person it is doing a good deed, but in the past Buddhism talked about not killing as well as not bringing up creatures. And there are reasons for not killing or bringing them up. As to “not killing,” cultivators are all clear on it. “Not bringing them up” has two points. One is that when [a person is] cultivating it’s easy for the animal to obtain numinous powers (ling). It’s possible they will do much wrong the instant they obtain numinous powers. In China there is an old saying: “becoming a spirit.” Animals are not allowed to cultivate. Another thing is that raising these things takes a lot of care. It will be distracting, and thinking about it is an attachment and will affect cultivation. Of course, for cultivators being fond of animals is also an attachment.

I’ll tell all of you a story. You know, Brahmanism was what Shakyamuni opposed the most. He believed that it was a religion that had turned evil, and it was set in opposition to the Buddhism of Shakyamuni. Actually, I can tell you that what Shakyamuni opposed was Brahmanism and not the gods of Brahmanism. During Brahmanism’s earliest period what people had faith in was Buddhas—Buddhas even earlier than Shakyamuni. But over a long period of time, people abandoned their proper faith in Buddhas and turned the religion evil, even to the point of using killing as ritual sacrifice to Buddhas. By the end, the god that they believed in hadn’t the appearance of a Buddha; they began to believe in evil spirits and demons with the image of monsters. Humans made the religion evil. You know, if Buddhism were to develop like this, the followers wouldn’t even recognize Shakyamuni.  So think about it, everyone: after many years pass, won’t cultivators at that point look back at that religion from the past and see it as one of evil? It’s the same. It is humans that make religions evil, since gods are by no means evil.

Very early on, in India there was a disciple of Brahmanism cultivating. He was quite diligent in cultivation and he cultivated in solitude in the mountains. One day a hunter tracked down a deer, wounding it with an [arrow] shot. This deer ran off [to where the cultivator was], and he hid the deer, protecting it. Alone in the mountains, he was very lonely, so he started to take care of the deer. Humans, if they don’t pay attention, can get attached, and indeed the human feeling of pity and attachment to emotion were both poured on this small deer. With time he became very attached to the deer, and eventually the deer became his closest companion. As a result, he put all his energy into the deer, and when he meditated his mind couldn’t become calm; he would be thinking about what to feed the deer. He slackened his resolve to stride forward.

A few years later, the deer suddenly died one day, and he was greatly pained. He always thought about the deer, and even less could he make diligent progress. By this time he was advanced in his years, and if you aren’t a cultivator, your life can’t be prolonged. He could no longer cultivate and his life ended. When his life came to a close he didn’t think of the Buddha Law; he was still thinking of the deer, and because of this, after he died, he reincarnated as a deer. When a person is on his deathbed, he may reincarnate into whatever he is attached to and thinking about, so in an instant he reincarnated into a deer. How lamentable. A cultivator—one who cultivated quite well—was in the end ruined in that instant. For cultivators it’s best not to be attached to animals.

Question: I am unable to be patient with others when I am pushed to the limit. What should be done?

Master: You’re still bringing up failing to be patient? Even if you can’t endure you must endure. As a cultivator you must be compassionate! Just now I said that if you can’t love your enemy you can’t succeed in cultivation, and you can’t become a Buddha. Think about it, when someone is bad to you isn’t it that you owe him from the past? If you don’t repay him will it do? What you inflicted on him then is perhaps even more evil than how he treats you now, and the pain you created for others is perhaps even more than this! When conflicts come in cultivation their manifestations seem extremely random, and someone may make you angry, but back then, you—also in an extremely random way—similarly made the other person angry. When is it the case that before something happens it’s foretold to you? [Nobody will tell you,] “Goodness, in the past life you made me angry, so in this life I will make you angry.” There aren’t such things. Many things appear to be random, but none of them are.

Maybe you have never had that kind of situation before, but now you are a cultivator, and so for the sake of your improvement circumstances like that have to be created for you. It won’t do if you don’t have these troubles, and I will utilize these troubles to improve your xinxing. As your xinxing is improving your gong increases, and your xinxing will be improving. Whoever causes trouble for you will be giving you virtue at the same time. While you are in pain your own karma will also be transforming into virtue. You will gain four things in one stroke, so you should actually be grateful to the other person. If you still hate the other person or can’t stay patient with him, that’s not correct. Some people also think, “Master told me to endure, so I’ll hold it in.” After a while you then say, “Master, I held it in to the point that it’s too painful.” I say that that’s not endurance. A true cultivator will not get angry at all. No matter how big the matter is, his heart will not be moved. Why bother holding things in until it’s painful? This is how a cultivator should be. Some people endure for the sake of their reputation, and that too is not true endurance. But since you have started cultivating, if you can’t achieve this right now, then you still really must hold it in.

Question: Many great qigong masters are young masters, and there are masters from many schools spreading their practices.

Master: The fact that there are many people spreading practices is caused by the cosmic climate, and it has a reason. But I will tell you that many “qigong masters” are self-proclaimed. They are not in fact qigong masters; they are fake. Many people are spurred on by animal possessions and other messed-up things. And many masters are spreading worldly and minor ways, and what they talk about are the truths at that level. In addition to these, there are people cultivating in the mountains. Among those I have come across, some have cultivated for over four thousand years. Why have they cultivated for such a long time? It’s not that their levels aren’t high enough and they thus can’t go up to Heaven, as some of them have far surpassed the Three Realms; rather, it’s that they cannot go up. It’s that they are not allowed to go up, as there is no paradise that will accept them. Why are they able to increase gong? This is also decided by the Law-truths of this level. Yet those worldly and minor ways are different; some of them were created by humans. At the beginning such a person just cultivated in one cultivation way, or cultivated in the Dao school or the Buddha school. After cultivating for a while he felt it was pretty good, but another person came to find him, [saying]: come and cultivate this. He then went to study that. So his gong was mixed. Originally he had a master above taking care of him, but as the master above saw that he had become like that, the master no longer wanted him. As those above no longer accepted him, he then could no longer leave the Three Realms. Those outside of the Three Realms aren’t allowed to enter them, nor may those inside the Three Realms leave them. No matter how high you cultivate, if no one above receives you, you can’t leave—that person mixed things in cultivation and his gong became a mess, so he remains within the Three Realms. This is one of the reasons why those cultivating the worldly and minor ways cannot attain Righteous Attainment. That is why I said that not practicing two cultivation ways is an extremely serious matter.

Some people have read the books and say: “Teacher, didn’t you have Dao school masters and Buddha school masters transmit things to you?” I’ll tell you all that what I am doing is different; I am teaching the Law of the universe. I am not just teaching Buddha school Law, nor am I just teaching Dao school Law, nor am I specifically teaching one specific cultivation way; I am spreading the fundamental Great Law of the universe, and so I say the Great Law, the Great Law, again and again. This is the fundamental Law of the universe. All of the cultivation ways inside the universe are included within. I will also tell you that among my several masters in this world, there are Buddhas, Daos, and Gods, and all of them had things transmitted to them by me several lifetimes ago. The purpose was to arrange for them to, during this time when I wanted to spread the Great Law, transmit those things back to me, to unlock my memory, and then I would spread [it] to you. (Applause) Not a single thing that happens in everyday society is by chance. Spreading the Great Law as I am is such an enormous thing, and in the future there will be even more people studying it, so none of the various kinds of unrighteous elements in the universe that are interfering nor the things in the Three Realms that interfere with the spreading of the Great Law, nor those chaotic, intelligent animals and low-level spirits that are causing turmoil, are by chance.

Question: At this level we have no way to distinguish true qigong masters from false ones. How should this be handled in the future?

Master: For what reason do you now want to distinguish true qigong masters from false ones? At this time do you still want to partake in other qigong seminars? Otherwise why would you need to differentiate them? (Applause) I think that some people haven’t attended qigong seminars, and when they hear the things that Teacher Li says, [they realize] that this cultivation is so broad and profound, so, they think, “Oh—then I’ll also go and listen to what other qigong masters have to say and increase my knowledge a bit.” Some people think that way, but it’s incorrect. What I am teaching is the Great Law; you can’t hear these things in other places. Not practicing two cultivation ways is an extremely serious thing.

Moreover, if you want to take these things as knowledge, or if you want to partake in other cultivation ways, perhaps you won’t be able to recall even one phrase of the Law that I teach, because cultivation is a serious matter.  You have no way to differentiate true qigong masters from false ones, and their display is cheating people out of their money. Others will sometimes talk superficially about kindness (shan) too, but in their bones they are acting for the sake of money. So it’s very hard to distinguish.

Question: If some people have an interest in the Great Law, but they can’t decide whether to cultivate or not, and they can’t see themselves as cultivators, should our assistants still help them?

Master: I think that some students still have a process of coming to understand things. If you want a beginner to have as high of a realm as a veteran student, he can’t achieve it. Allow him to have a process of coming to understand things; if he wants to practice, then he practices, and if he wants to practice, then you teach him. Gradually, he will feel that it’s good, and you can lend him a copy of Zhuan Falun to read or tell him to go buy a book to read. In this way he will feel that it’s good, his understanding will go up, and then you can give him Zhuan Falun to read; step by step and little by little, he will come to understand it. Suppose you want to put forward requirements for him, [such as]: when you perform our exercises you can’t take medicine; once you perform our exercises you can no longer believe in other things; or, when you perform our exercises you have to reach a certain level in one fell swoop. Then you will immediately scare him away. You can tell him to first practice and try it out, and if he feels that it’s good then he will know for himself what to do.

Saving people is very difficult. If for a long time he can’t manage to not practice two cultivation ways at once, or if he does only the exercises and doesn’t read the book, then you can advise him to do other exercises. Otherwise, he will run into problems and it will be bad for him. Here he will play a bad role. If he doesn’t commit himself to cultivating [one practice only], then my Law Body will not take care of him, in which case he is just an everyday person. When the time comes, an everyday person will fall ill, and perhaps a Law-damaging demon will utilize him to do certain things, and all of a sudden he will turn abnormal. Everyday people don’t know that one must commit to one practice in cultivation, and as soon as they run into problems they will cause us a lot of harm. If he isn’t able to cultivate with a single focus, and if he isn’t able to study the Law, then advise him to leave, or tell his family members to advise him not to practice anymore.

Question: In the past I taught martial arts at a school. I was a martial arts instructor. Now I study Falun Dafa and no longer practice Tai Chi, but can I still teach students?

Master: You can. But anything that has elements of cultivation, including Tai Chi, will involve cultivation. If you do this job for a living, then you can do it. If you say that you teach Tai Chi at a school, then you can teach it, as I have special ways to deal with special situations. If that’s not the case, then you should cultivate with a single commitment. But as I see it, isn’t it even better if you teach them Falun Dafa? (Applause) Some schoolteachers in China teach Falun Dafa for physical education. After practicing, they sit there and read the book to the students. The students themselves say, “We’re never this quiet during class.”

Question: In addition to seeing the Law Wheel, can we also hear it?

Master: All supernormal abilities will come about when practicing Falun Gong. Some people’s Celestial Ears, after being opened, can hear sounds from other dimensions.

Question: Can those who cultivate the Great Law get married?

Master: They can. In cultivation I have left you things so that the true you can cultivate and that ensure your cultivation among everyday people. You can cultivate while conforming to everyday people’s way of life. I also hope that those who haven’t married can find a good match that they are satisfied with and establish a family. In the future, perhaps both husband and wife will practice, in which case you will have saved your partner. But don’t use this as a standard; that is, if he doesn’t practice you won’t marry him. Here too you should conform to the state of everyday people while cultivating.

Question: Just now, Teacher talked about issues concerning working hard at one’s job. I work extremely hard at my job, but the boss uses me to pressure my colleagues, which puts me in a bind.

Master: How the boss acts has nothing to do with you. If the boss orders you to go and pressure others, then I think that this matter is easy to deal with. You can be a little more tactful, and express your opinions clearly. As a cultivator we don’t harm others, but [if] your responsibility is such, then just do it, and it won’t be a problem. But we can be kind in our approach to things. In my view, you should, as long as it’s proper, go and do it on grounds of not causing the company problems. Anyway, as for these specific issues, I’ll tell you that you can all do well with them. But there is one point: you absolutely cannot overstep the principles for a practitioner, and you cannot commit bad deeds.

Question: In America we can seek justice for certain things, but when we think of Zhen, Shan, Ren, we won’t file lawsuits. Is that a correct approach?

Master: Don’t call the police for just any little thing. Some conflicts may be directed toward your cultivation, repaying of karma, improvement, and other elements. So when troubles arise, as long as it’s not seriously imperiling you, it can’t harm you, and as I see it, none of these are coincidental. If major things [come, such as] if a person really comes to kill you, to burn down your house, or to harm you, then report it to the police, and you can file a lawsuit, too. If it’s not like that, then I would say don’t handle it that way.

As cultivators, you are going about personal cultivation, and so in the process of your improving your understandings, I won’t let you encounter things that have nothing to do with your cultivation. Since your personal path of cultivation and improvement before you have been painstakingly arranged by me, I won’t arrange unnecessary things for you. (Applause) No matter how effective and comprehensive laws are, they can’t administer the human heart, and when you can’t see people they will still commit bad deeds. The more laws that are drafted, the greater the harm it does to people; the laws get to be so many that people can’t remember them all, and perhaps when people do anything they will be committing a crime. Those who draft laws want to use these laws to govern other people, but actually as soon as they are drafted, the laws will also be governing those people themselves. People are already bearing everything that people have brought upon themselves. As laws become stricter and stricter, they will restrict people even more, and in the future they will govern people the same way they govern animals. People will not be happy this way. But this will be what people created for themselves, and so they must bear it. People today are bearing all of what they have brought upon themselves, and all of this is continually sealing off humankind.

Gods do not recognize human laws. Gods believe that [laws] are a means that human beings adopted when they had no choice after they degenerated. Gods only recognize the law of the heart and morality. With morality, people wouldn’t commit bad deeds even if there were no laws, right?

Question: What is God?

Master: Different ethnicities were created by different gods. The god that created a certain human being is his or her god. I’m referring to the [creation of the] human body. Actually, a person’s soul has other origins.

Question: What differences does the Falun Gong cultivated in America have from that cultivated in mainland China?

Master: There is no difference. In Western countries, as well as with the people of the yellow race from the East, people really have different systems in their respective dimensions, and these systems correspond to different cosmic systems in even larger dimensions of the universe. These different dimensional systems all have material elements specific to their own dimensions. Eastern people also have material elements specific to them. Many people, upon arriving in America, not only discover a time difference, but also have an acclimation process. They always feel that there are both internal and external things that they are not used to. This is because the material elements aren’t alike and the living environments are different. In the past, people said that the land and water of one particular place raises one particular type of people. It is like that. Since for everyday people those elements are major, the Eastern people’s cultural inner meanings are different from those of the West. For instance: Chinese people pay attention to numerology and pronunciation, such as how the word “ba” (八 – eight) symbolizes “fa” (發 – making a fortune), or that “si” (死 – death) is implied by the word “si” (四 – four)[3] Good pronunciation is desired over bad. Then, amidst this material environment of the East there really exists this kind of material element, and it can produce a minor effect on everyday people. Yet in the West it doesn’t exist. They, however, have the elements of this material environment of theirs. For example: people from the East talk about geography and directions in fengshui, but for Westerners it doesn’t work. It definitely doesn’t work. As to fengshui, if you do it for Caucasians or black people from America, or if you do it for people from other ethnicities, it won’t work whatsoever. The number thirteen that Westerners try to avoid or the constellations that they talk about do not work the same way for people from the East, and it will be hard for them to work. Therefore, the number thirteen has simply no substantive meaning for people of the East. Dimensional environments have the components that make up their materials. It’s not that simple a matter. Nothing will stand unless it has its material environment as its foundation.

Question: How can interference and tribulations arranged by the Master be distinguished?

Master: You cannot call my arrangements themselves tribulations. Actually, I haven’t created anything for you; I am making use of the things you already have to make arrangements, and I am eliminating one portion of your karma. What is left is that little bit that serves as the tests you must pass when you improve your xinxing, and during your cultivation process it will be placed at appropriate positions. When the time comes and when you must improve, it will be used as tests to pass. So when you encounter troubles you ought to understand them correctly. That is what I arranged for you. As long as you can truly be like a cultivator you can pass them all.

Question: How can we know what Teacher lets us do and not do?

Master: As long as you study the Law, you will be able to distinguish for yourself between what things you should do and what things you shouldn’t. In my view, there are some things that are dangerous or bad, and you shouldn’t do these things.  If you insist on doing them, however, perhaps you will never be able to complete them successfully. When you insist on doing them you will encounter troubles. You can distinguish these things and you yourself can come to enlighten to things. If everything is told to you, how will you cultivate?

I’ll tell a cultivation joke. In China there is a student who is an electrician. One time, he was repairing a transformer with the electricity still on. The transformer’s highest capacity was 30,000 Volts. Were a person to touch it, it would immediately surge through his body and scorch him. He wanted to go to the other side of the transformer to twist a screw. At that time he couldn’t see anything blocking him, but he just couldn’t step over to the other side. This was cautioning him to not go over, for there was danger. But he was stubborn and wanted to go over all the same. Since the electricity was still on, as soon as he touched that screw, “Bang!”—he received a shock. So, sometimes there are things that you shouldn’t do or that involve danger, trouble, etc., and you will be given hints. An average person in that scenario would have been singed to a pulp, but since that person cultivates the Great Law his life was not at risk. He felt as if he had exploded. His whole body went “Clang!” Then he immediately calmed down. The people on the scene were scared to death. They saw that he was a big fireball—and all of a sudden boom! The electric current had entered through his hand and had punched a hole through the bottom of his foot. At that time, he thought, “I’m a practitioner and I won’t have problems.” He had no fear and moved freely, as if nothing had even happened. Later, the head of the electric industry bureau came, and told him he must go to the hospital to be examined. He had no choice but to go to the hospital. The doctor was startled: “How strange! Such a high voltage would normally fry someone to a crisp. He would have died. [The current] went from his top to his bottom and punched a hole through his foot. How did he survive?” He wasn’t even bleeding, as everything inside was scorched. The doctor thought it was most strange.

The bodies of practitioners of the Great Law have been transformed by high-energy matter; by comparison, the electricity that an everyday person knows of is nothing. But this practitioner’s most surface skin had not been cultivated fully, and so that layer was punctured. Only one layer was punctured, and on the whole there was no damage. I share this story to tell you that those who practice the Great Law will face threatening but not dangerous situations. But if someone starts to form attachments because of this and intentionally does what he shouldn’t, then that will truly be dangerous.

Question: Why is it arranged that we may come to America to cultivate?

Master: Science and technology are very developed in America, so perhaps a good command of these things will be needed in the future. Those who come to America are all the elite of the East. (Applause)

Question: When we meditate in the lotus position do we need to enter into tranquility?

Master: If you just want to exercise your legs it’s fine. Some people say, “My legs aren’t good so I will exercise them some more.” Then in my view, if you weren’t doing meditation, wouldn’t it be even better if you could enter into tranquility at the same time that you are exercising your legs? Merely exercising the legs is fine, but when you do the exercises you must try to enter into tranquility.

Question: When I read Zhuan Falun, will sitting with the legs crossed help?

Master: It will help. Crossing your legs when you are reading the book will, for one, enable you to practice crossing the legs more; and secondly, it will amount to doing the [meditation] exercise. This is very good.

Question: A friend’s child has been deaf since birth. Will practicing Falun Gong be of help to him?

Master: Do you mean to ask whether it will heal him? I can’t speak about this in a simple manner, but I can say that you can’t do the exercises for the sake of getting healed. What I can tell you is that what is deaf is his flesh body, while his soul is not deaf. When people truly cultivate, all of their bodies will return to normalcy. Practitioners must hold themselves to the standard of a practitioner. If the child comes simply on account of that ailment and doesn’t let go of this worry, then it won’t get better. Cultivating Buddhahood is serious.

Question: My husband is going on a hunger strike to protest my doing the practice.

Master: As to this, I think that it actually depends on how you handle it. Normally, all of those who face interference from family members [face it in order to], for one, see whether they cultivate firmly or not; secondly, to see how the cultivator’s xinxing is; and thirdly, to have the family help [the cultivator] to eliminate karma. There are also extremely exceptional instances of people being completely unable to accept the Great Law.

Question: In His Law-lecture, Teacher spoke about the form of birth, old age, illness, and death for gods. Teacher, please talk about this.

Master: The universe of the past had formation, stasis, degeneration, and destruction, and the lives in the universe had birth, old age, illness, and death; it was just that the lengths of time differed in different dimensions. The differences were extremely great, and sometimes it was so long that it was as if [the being] never died, whereas others were as brief as an instant. In the form of formation, stasis, degeneration, and destruction, for example, there existed a stage of formation in the universe, with its stable period of time, and then it moved towards decline and ruin. This is the fundamental form of the universe of the past, and was the law of matter’s movement for all species and matter in the universe.

I haven’t finished answering all of the question slips, and there are still many, but my time for lecturing on the Law has come to an end and the conference hall will soon close. I think that many people still want to hear me explain and answer the questions, but it can only be this way. I think that when there is an opportunity we can meet in other cities, but this time I talked about so much. I am very grateful to the local practitioners in Houston, as it was due to their preparations that we had the opportunity to sit here and meet. Since we originally set it for just one afternoon, the staff here will get off work soon and we can only do things this way. It’s a pity, as none of you want to leave. I think that for those who wouldn’t have felt at ease had they not seen Master, you should feel somewhat at ease now that you have seen me. Actually, I’ll tell you all that as long as you cultivate, I will always be at your side. (Applause)

I hope that none of the people sitting here lets this chance go by. Those who can hear me lecture on the Law are not many. Opportunities like this—the opportunity to [hear] the Law taught—might be fewer in the future. So I hope that all of you treasure our meeting today. In cultivation you must be responsible to yourself. If you have obtained this Law, then keep up your cultivation. It won’t affect your job, and when you’re in the midst of a busy schedule, try to fit it in and see what happens. If it’s not like I said, then you don’t have to do it, since you won’t lose anything. If you know that it is good, then keep cultivating; the truth of the Buddha Law will gradually be displayed to you.

I hope that all of you can treasure this predestined opportunity. Later on in cultivation all of you will be able to continuously stride forward, to truly cultivate solidly, and to truly study this book, Zhuan Falun. You should study it a great deal, and along with performing the exercises, you will continually improve. Each time you read the book, you will have different feelings and questions. Each time you ascend, all of the questions you encounter will be resolved in your next reading of the book. You will have new questions, but when you read the book another time it’s guaranteed that the questions will all be resolved as well. Then you will have still other new questions, and in this way you will continually cultivate, and continually make gradual advances and ascend.

Meanwhile, when you encounter troubles and tribulations, pain and hardships—I have said the following words to students in China, too—if it looks like you can’t do it, then try and see whether you can do it. When you can’t seem to endure, try and see if you can endure. In the future, as you all continually cultivate and improve, perhaps the next time we meet it won’t be like this. I also hope that all of you can, in the process of cultivation, continually improve and stride forward, all the way to Consummation. In cultivation you want to see me, but actually I am right at your side. (Applause) We’ll stop here for today.

---

[1] That is, gets things done through connections or influence—trans.

[2] Referring to photo images of Master Li wearing formal monastic robe, usually seated in a meditation position and displaying some form of mudra.—trans.

[3] The pronunciations of certain numbers thus imply certain meanings, connotations, or consequences.—trans.