Hongzhi Li
March 22, 1997 ~ New York
Before tomorrow’s conference, I’d like to see if you have anything to ask—you can ask me today.
Student: Does spending my husband’s money count as losing virtue (de)?
Master: That’s how the relationship is between a husband and wife, so this problem doesn’t exist. Why do you raise this question now? Because people have corrupted these human ethics. Nowadays some people advocate women’s liberation, which is a sensitive issue. Some people say that “We women suffer too much; women should be liberated; men and women should be equal; we women should be stronger.” Why is this happening? It’s because some men treat women terribly, who then feel wronged. I can tell you that when this society becomes degenerate, it’s very hard for people to see the factors behind the degeneration or how the degeneration came about; everyone likes to discuss the issue from within the issue.
Actually, let me tell you that this type of advocacy for women’s liberation is also something that only occurs after the degeneration of humankind. It’s not that women are being mistreated by men; rather, men are also mistreating men, women are also mistreating women, and men are also mistreating women; it’s just that men’s mistreatment of women is more noticeable. Actually, there are also women who have power and mistreat men. This is caused by the moral degeneration of the entire society. The fact is, the relationship between a man and a woman is one between strength and gentleness, so women’s being oppressed by men is more obvious. But let me tell you why I say that this situation is wrong, and that the advocacy of “independence” and “self-reliance” for women is wrong. People today always judge ancient people with modern people’s degenerate notions, and think that women were oppressed in ancient times. It’s actually not at all how modern people imagine it. In ancient China—in the entire world, actually, as Western society was the same—men knew how to treat their wives, and were considerate and cared for their wives; and wives also knew to be considerate of their husbands—that was the way yin and yang1 coexisted. If two yangs meet they fight; it doesn’t work if two yins meet, either. Yin and yang just supplement and complement each other, and are interdependent in their coexistence like this.
But nowadays, think about it, everyone: Once women’s liberation is advocated, women feel they’re oppressed and that they should stand up. But then what happens? Divorce, fighting, abandoned children, and other social problems emerge. The fundamental cause isn’t whether women are liberated, but the degeneration of human society’s morality—isn’t this the cause? This is the fundamental cause. In solving a problem, if what’s fundamental isn’t dealt with and the phenomenon is resolved within the phenomenon, it can only result in resolving the old problem while a new problem comes along, and society develops in an ever distorted way. In today’s society many people evaluate a problem from within the specific problem and try to resolve a crisis with a combative approach, which can never resolve it. Humankind doesn’t know why it has become this way in recent times. When they always address something within that thing, they make all kinds of laws to impose restrictions. But when people’s hearts aren’t good, new, warped, and worse problems arise; then they make more laws. Humankind is sealing itself off like this, and in the end it seals itself off to the point that it has no way out at all. What’s more, these things bring with them many, many social problems.
According to the theory of yin and yang, females should be gentle and not strong. Males are yang and strong, while females are yin and gentle. When strength and gentleness are put together, it’s sure to be really harmonious. Nowadays, it’s not that men like to mistreat women, but that this society has degenerated. Both men and women are mistreating others. At the same time, there’s been a reversal of yin and yang in modern times, and it’s most noticeable in China. Look at the athletes—women always win more medals, while men seldom win medals. I’m just illustrating a point. Why is it that yin is very strong and yang is very weak in everything? This factor is caused by the reversal of yin and yang. And then there’s the side-effect of advocating so-called women’s liberation. It is the degeneration of society’s morality that causes the changes in people’s hearts in society. Actually, deep down inside, women don’t like their husbands to be like lambs or like women, right? They hate that their husbands aren’t manly enough and can’t be strong and tough. But when men do get strong and tough, women can’t deal with it. Isn’t that true?
People don’t know to look for the fundamental causes of the degeneration of all humankind’s phenomena and of everything else. They resolve specific problems within the specific problems: when problems arise here, they make laws; when problems arise there, they make laws; and in the end you’re sealed off as if you’re caged in and can’t move. Eventually the laws can offer no way out. Lawmakers all want to regulate others; they haven’t thought about how the laws in turn regulate them as well. Humans are suffering because of what they’ve created for themselves—isn’t that the way it is? That’s why you shouldn’t follow the current of the distortion of society’s values, drift with the tide, or push the waves—“Since everyday people want to do it this way, we’ll follow their lead.” [This is] why I say we can’t be like everyday people. Everyday people can’t see these things.
Humankind’s ultimate way out doesn’t lie in using a bunch of “laws” to keep people in line, but in cultivating virtue (de) across the land. If people’s morals improved, there wouldn’t be any such thing as people mistreating others, and people would respect each other—could there still be so many bad people? Even the police wouldn’t be needed. “If I behave better on my own than when you policemen are watching me, what are the police needed for?” If everyone cherished virtue, what would laws be needed for? As you all know, in ancient China—it was the same in other parts of the world—when the human moral standard was very high, there weren’t those laws. They didn’t have laws! There was only the very simple King’s Law. People used morals as the standard for judging good and bad. Whether what you did was right depended on your moral values. “This person has no virtue”—this sentence alone would judge him. The county judges also decided cases this way. A person without virtue would be flogged with bamboo, and if that wasn’t enough he’d be beheaded—“This person is no longer human, off with his head.” He corrupted human ethics, so he was done away with. Living in this world, humans have human moral standards and human codes of moral conduct. Without these things they’re just like animals, so why keep them? And shouldn’t they be eliminated? It’s now very difficult to turn around the thinking of today’s humankind. You’ve seen the situation with women that’s occurred today. But aren’t things the same in other arenas? There are too many social problems in human society. The only way out is to rectify people’s minds.
Student: Young people want to get married. Is this an attachment?
Master: Since there aren’t even many people in mainland China who go to temples—let alone Caucasians and other ethnicities—if I were to become a monk and teach this Fa in temples, it would be impossible to enable those among the public at large who can truly obtain the Fa to obtain the Fa. Since I have taught it in society, and have used this form to enable you to obtain the Fa, we should adopt a method that conforms to the ways of this society, conforms to people’s normal ways of life, and that also enables people to practice cultivation. So we’ve made careful arrangements as to the form of teaching the Fa and in the details of various things.
If I had gone to go to a temple or monastery I could have remained unmarried. But I also knew that there would be a lot of people learning this Fa in the future. Everyone in the future will know of it—whether you’re of the white race, of the yellow race, or whatever type of person, you will know of it for sure. Then a huge problem would arise: What would happen if no one got married anymore? …They want to be like me. Since while teaching the Fa I’m also setting an example with my actions, it seems that every move I make—even the way I dress—is copied by some people. So I’ve paid particular attention to these things, big or small. Not only is the Fa I am teaching upright, I myself have to be upright. The picture in which I wear a kasaya is to be left for the disciples of the future who will cultivate full-time. Yet my teaching the Buddha Fa in ordinary human society, wearing a Western suit, is a first since the beginning of heaven and earth and is without precedent. Since the Fa has been taught this way, our cultivation has to conform to the way of this society.
If I did something wrong, the humankind of the future would change greatly. You all know that Buddhas don’t eat meat. There are many cultivation ways. Although not all of them are as absolute as Buddhism about eating meat, cultivation does require being detached from meat. Since I’m teaching this Fa among everyday people and having cultivators practice cultivation among everyday people, with so many people learning it, if I don’t eat meat, people in the future won’t eat it, and humankind’s lifestyle and diet will change. But Gods know that meat can indeed strengthen the human body substantially, and this function can’t be replaced by vegetarian food—that’s for sure. Of course, it’s different for us cultivators. Without eating meat, a cultivator’s health is, to the contrary, quite good, which is because of cultivation. As for an everyday person, if he doesn’t practice cultivation and doesn’t eat meat, he’s bound to get nutritionally deficient—that’s for sure.
As far as not getting married goes, wouldn’t humankind be finished if there were no offspring? We’ve taken everything into consideration. It’s true that there’s a rule prohibiting marriage for cultivators who’ve become Buddhist monks. But it isn’t absolute in other cultivation ways. In the past, cultivation practice had different requirements for people because of different historical periods, humankind’s different historical periods, or humankind’s different periods of civilizations.
The purpose of not getting married is to remove two human things—desire and sexual attraction. But this can’t be done right at the outset when you practice cultivation among everyday people, because humankind still needs to multiply. And we have so many people cultivating in the society of everyday people. So if you want cultivators to practice cultivation in the society of everyday people yet also want them to break off from everyday people’s ways of life in society… it’s absolutely not allowed for human society to really disappear! You think that humankind isn’t good, yet it’s a part of this cosmos of ours, which extends all the way from the top to the bottom, and it’s also a part of this Fa’s manifestation at the lowest level. Humankind can’t cease to exist. But it doesn’t matter if you as an individual don’t want to get married. That’s a personal matter, and it isn’t wrong. But there is one point: One’s not getting married isn’t an attachment. We shouldn’t mistakenly get impeded by another obstacle—that one has to leave the secular world in order to reach Consummation.
For example, people who’ve followed the cultivation ways that have been passed down over several thousand years don’t get married—be they the ways of the Buddha School, the Dao School, the original Catholicism, Christianity, or those that cultivate in the mountains. So this has caused people to form a notion in their understanding: As long as a person practices cultivation, he can’t get married. This is major interference as our Dafa is spread in the world today. Make sure you don’t let this obstacle cause our disciples who practice cultivation in the secular world to not get married. The form our cultivation today takes is for improving you in the midst of the most complicated group of people, rather than for only improving your Assistant Spirit (fu yuanshen) or cultivating something else. So you have to temper your heart among these most complicated everyday people. Disciples practicing in the secular world must conform to the ways of the ordinary human society. This is a part of this tightly-woven Fa. Do you get what I’m saying? But sexual desire and attraction are attachments that definitely need to be eliminated. Don’t let those ancient cultivation ways or the cultivation methods in those ancient religions create a misconception that we too have to practice cultivation that way. That’s not the case. The form of our cultivation today is the cultivation method I’ve left you, including the various requirements for the way this Fa of ours is spread in society today—all of these are being left for future generations.
You all know about our explicit rules. For example: We don’t get involved in politics; we don’t set up tangible organizations to administer things; we don’t establish hierarchies; and we don’t touch money. This Fa definitely won’t give people official ranks. It doesn’t matter what you do or how high you rank in society—that won’t affect your cultivation. Those are matters of the ordinary human society; your cultivation is your cultivation. You should distinguish what you do among everyday people from your cultivation—they’re two different things. For example, if the work you do among everyday people is beneficial to ordinary human society and humankind, you’re accumulating virtue but not practicing cultivation—they’re two different things, so you should be sure you don’t lump them together. Some people say, “In my work I accumulate virtue and do good, so I’ll reach Consummation in the future.” If a person doesn’t actually practice cultivation, even if he becomes the head or leader of a religion, or even if he builds temples and erects Buddha statues, he will not reach Consummation. That is a self-satisfying idea. Work is work, and it can never replace cultivation; cultivation is cultivation; things of everyday people are things of everyday people. Doing things for religions is the same as doing things for everyday people; those who’ve taken up the religious life aren’t Buddhas. Buddhas acknowledge people’s hearts, but not religions. These are two different matters—don’t confuse them.
Student: Teacher, on behalf of the students in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, I’d like to convey their greetings to you. Before I came, they asked me to be sure to deliver this message.
Master: Tell them that Teacher keeps thinking in his heart about all his disciples.
Student: High school students facing college entrance exams get really busy with their schoolwork and do the exercises less. What should be done in this situation?
Master: That’s not a problem. The movements in our cultivation practice are a supplementary means to reaching Consummation. Although they’re important, what’s more important is that we cultivate our hearts and minds. If you always regard yourself as a practitioner deep down inside and if for a period—even if it’s a very long period—you’re really too busy to do the exercises, but deep down inside you always regard yourself as a practitioner and hold yourself to the requirements, your gong will still grow. But there’s one thing: It’s unacceptable if you think, “Then since Teacher has said this, we won’t do the exercises anymore.” That’s going to another extreme. Since there are special circumstances, special considerations will be given. This is because the Buddha Fa is boundless. What does “the Buddha Fa is boundless” mean? It has unlimited ways; it has plenty of ways to save people, according to each person’s situation.
Student: Teacher, will videotaping be allowed tomorrow?
Master: You might have heard that in mainland China, many people are learning this Fa that we’re teaching, and I’m not giving lectures anymore. Nor do I meet with the students in mainland China. Actually, I haven’t met with students in mainland China for three years. But more and more people are learning, and this has drawn attention from society. They see that many people are learning. What’s more, after people learn it they all feel that it’s good. As you practitioners put it, after people learn it they all get very determined in cultivation. Then once the number of people becomes significant, this might, in Chinese society, make some people think a bit. Many people might assess me and the Fa with ordinary human thinking. It’s very hard even to do good things for people, because people’s minds aren’t righteous. We try to avoid these unnecessary troubles. That’s why during the recent period when I met with students in some countries, I told them not to audiotape or videotape it. What was the reason? It was to minimize these things being spread to China. Although we don’t get involved in politics—so of course there’s no question of politics here—bad people might do harm by quoting us out of context, since they want to stir up trouble. The main reason is to avoid trouble and so that this Fa of ours can be left to humankind and to the future correctly and without any mistakes or deviation. If we experience any unnecessary loss, it will be something to regret in the future. We can’t only think about the present.
Whether it be audio or video recordings, they certainly won’t remain in the future—this is for sure. As you know, some of them are already being erased now; that is, some videotapes that were made before have already lost their images, and audiotapes have lost their sound. They’re gradually being erased. Some things can’t be kept that way. When others hear what I say that’s specific to your situation, they will have a different situation and understand it differently. Zhuan Falun is suitable for everyone to read. This is the situation. It’s up to you what to do. I haven’t given an absolute answer about this.
Student: Master, I’m from Shanghai. The disciples in Shanghai really miss you a lot. After I returned from the last International Experience Sharing Conference, I told them that I saw you, and they all shed tears. They asked me to convey their regards to you.
Master: Tell them that I regret not going to Shanghai back then when I was teaching the practice. Since at that time I wanted to leave behind a righteous path for this Fa, I wasn’t like the other qigong2 masters who act like wild-herb hawkers on the street or who run around trading on their own. I went only when invited by local qigong organizations, the Qigong Science and Research Society,3 or government agencies. Shanghai didn’t extend an invitation, so this matter was held up. By the time the invitation was sent out later on, I had already stopped teaching the practice. But I feel very sorry that I didn’t get to this big city in China to teach the Fa. Next to Beijing, Shanghai is the biggest city in China. Of course, I know that many people are studying the Fa in Shanghai now. What pleases me is that although I didn’t go there, I think Dafa’s overall course of spreading and development in Shanghai has been sound, and they’ve studied it solidly—this is good.
Student: Teacher Li, I’m a disciple from Beijing. All the disciples in Beijing send their regards to you.
Master: Those in Beijing, and actually not just in Beijing—the same goes for the students in many regions—I miss you too. But I’m hesitant to meet with you, because once I meet with you, if one person sees me, within a few hours dozens will come; several thousand people might come within a day; and on the following day, over ten thousand people might come. People from other regions might come, too—just like today, many people came from other regions. Then it would lead to some negative responses in society, so I can’t meet with you. But I also think that since we’ve been able to spread the Fa without problems under a rigid social system, we’ve passed a test in a very severe period in history. So in any future time in history we’ll be able to stay indomitable, right?
Student: We have students who’ve brought copies of Zhuan Falun from Hong Kong and China. Is it alright to sell these books in the conference hall?
Master: If you have copies of Zhuan Falun on hand, want to do some good things for people at the conference, and make things convenient for students without the book, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it—you can do that. Since you aren’t seeking renown or self-interest, it’s no problem. But before we do these things, let the people in charge in the U.S. know so as to avoid other types of side effects. I don’t think it’s a problem.
Those of you here who met with me last time have already gone through a period of cultivation. I think you’ve gained a certain level of understanding of the Fa and won’t act irresponsibly. Why am I so sure? Because you know what I’m teaching. We don’t want anything—only people’s hearts. If these people’s hearts can’t change, this Fa won’t be of any use. No coercive form can change people’s hearts, so we haven’t made this rule or that rule or required you to do this or that—we aren’t doing that. The fact that this Fa can enable itself to develop healthily, can have more and more people learn it, and can play such a good role in society is all because the Fa is already in people’s hearts, because they know how to conduct themselves, and because they no longer need anyone to tell them what to do and they don’t need me to tell them what to do. That’s why I’m not so worried about it. If one of us present here didn’t do things well, the rest of us would see it immediately. The Fa is here; you have the Fa to evaluate things with. This is definitely how it works.
Student: Teacher has said that this Fa should be spread to not only us Chinese, but also to other races. We hope that teacher can provide guidance on how to widely spread this Fa to other peoples.
Master: We don’t have any specific rule on this, either. The Fa has been made public for people. As of now, the book has been translated into German, Japanese, Korean, French, English, Russian, and others. Anyway, there are a lot. Also, the Italian translation is apparently underway, and translations into other languages are being intensely worked on.
The translation groups have been working on these kinds of things, because once the materials are available people can read them. As for how to spread [the Fa], we don’t have any rules dictating that it’s to be done this way or that way. I think we consider this Fa good when spreading this Fa, and so people treasure it. Precisely because it is good, you want to tell others about it. So the way this Fa has spread has been entirely heart-to-heart and person-to-person. This is basically how it is spread. In China, there are already over twenty million people truly cultivating. If people who are cultivating on-and-off are counted, there are one hundred million people now. But on the surface it appears to be quiet and not known about by people in society. That is, everyone is spreading it from heart to heart—by word of mouth and from their hearts. It’s already formed a pretty big trend. There are no special rules, and everyone does it of his own free will. Do you understand what I mean? We don’t stipulate any formality type things, since the Buddha School teaches salvation of all sentient beings—saving people. It’s not that you go save people, since you’re still practicing cultivation and you definitely can’t save people. But your introducing the Fa to others is the best way to help them obtain the Fa. People in the future will know how precious it is. No matter how much money you give someone or how many good things you give someone, it isn’t as good as giving him the Fa. The Fa can enable a region, a nation, a country, or even humankind to restore its morality and be happy, peaceful, and harmonious. Only with these things can humankind develop in a healthy way.
Student: After learning Falun Buddha Fa, the first thing I wanted to do was to work hard and do a good job. I read the book when I really don’t have anything to do.
Master: Isn’t that the best? Maybe some of the things you encounter in your life, at work, or in society can help you improve with respect to certain attachments of yours. When you encounter something, maybe it’s to eliminate your attachments or to help you with something. Once a person steps onto the path of cultivation, there will be nothing coincidental in his life from then on. Since your cultivation has been arranged systematically and time isn’t that plentiful, there can’t possibly be anything that’s coincidental. Everything has been tightly arranged. Don’t treat those seemingly accidental and trivial things that you encounter in your daily life as accidental, because there can’t be many strange things happening to you and you can’t go to another dimension to practice cultivation—you wouldn’t be able to improve your heart and mind that way. You are still in a state where you’re amidst the worldly things, your problems are still ordinary human problems, your way of life is still that of an everyday person, and the things that you encounter aren’t much different from before. But if you think about it carefully, they aren’t the same. They all come about to enable you to improve in cultivation.
Student: You teach Zhen-Shan-Ren. In a certain situation, someone might have betrayed others, and in that situation we promised to help others teach that rascal a lesson.
Master: Here’s how we think, and it’s also in the book: When you come across something ordinary that makes you really angry and you want to intervene, it’s not that you’re not allowed. It’s alright for you to say a few words when you encounter it. Perhaps your words won’t have an effect, or perhaps what you say won’t be to the point, because you can’t see what’s behind their conflict, that is, what their karmic4 relationship is. For example, there are two people, and one person is punched by the other. You think that from an everyday person’s perspective the person who threw the punch is wrong—why did he punch that person? But if you push time back you’ll find that in the first half of that person’s life, or in that person’s previous life, he punched this person once. When we cultivators look at a person, we can’t look at one lifetime of his; we should look at his entire being. That person owes this person.
It’s reasonable for the police to handle these things, and it conforms to the worldly principles for everyday people to handle everyday people—these don’t violate any principles. But I’d say that cultivators should intervene less or try not to intervene at all when they see these things. Why? Because once you intervene it’s likely that you’ll handle it incorrectly. When it’s not supposed to be that way but you, a cultivator, insist on doing it that way, you might generate karma by delaying this thing or spoiling it. That God had originally arranged for him to pay for his karma in this life, but now he can’t pay for it, and the two of them will have to find an opportunity to go through this again. This is what I mean. But if you really come across terrible things like murder or arson and you ignore them, that’s a xinxing problem. You’re a cultivator, but even a God would do something about those things, right? Yet on the other hand, normally our students rarely encounter things like that, or even never encounter them. That is, they aren’t arranged for you in your life, because things have to be conducive to improving your xinxing. If these things are useless, under normal circumstances our students will rarely or almost never come across them.
As for betraying someone or having promised an everyday person something, those are all everyday people’s matters. Once you practice cultivation, you need to measure things with the Fa and hold yourself to a cultivator’s standards. If you measure everything with everyday people’s standards—that “betraying” or that “having promised something to an everyday person”—aren’t you being just an everyday person?
Student: The students abroad in the U.S. are all studying the boring natural sciences with a kind of attachment.
Master: I might talk about this tomorrow. I’ll tell you this principle: Humankind’s history and humankind’s science are actually a mistake. The foundation of its development, as well as the foundation for its understanding of humankind, nature, and matter, are all wrong. And this has resulted in damage to morality in today’s human society. This is a major issue; I’ll talk about it tomorrow. But there’s one point: If humankind didn’t have any knowledge, people wouldn’t be able to read Zhuan Falun today, or at least they wouldn’t be able to see the higher and deeper inner meanings in it. So it’s probably not coincidental that you’ve learned the knowledge you have, either. The future humankind will develop on a new scientific foundation, so they will also need knowledge.
I think that as a Dafa disciple you’ll naturally know what to do when the time comes. Perhaps these things aren’t accidental, either. So now you should just learn what you should learn and not regard it as something you’re attached to. I heard that a student practitioner quit school because he’d done something wrong when he first came to the U.S. I’d say, he might have done something wrong at first, but now he’s adding to his previous mistake. Since what happened has happened, don’t intentionally create difficulties for your life in the future—some of the mistakes you’ve made can’t be corrected in the same way. You know in your heart that you’ve done wrong, you know you won’t do it that way in the future, and when it comes to these matters, as long as you do better in the future and successfully make up for it, it’s alright. Then I don’t think there’s a problem. With these matters, we don’t require that you go back to reverse the matter and pay for the past because you did it wrong—we won’t do it that way. In other words, don’t create difficulties in your cultivation, and don’t create difficulties in your life. For students, right now we can only tell you to study well—since you’re a student you should study well.
Even if you do some other type of work, since it’s a type of work in ordinary human society and from the perspective of ordinary human society’s principles it’s a service to the human society in this dimension, you should also do it well. That’s because humankind is also a manifestation of life at the lowest level of the cosmos’s Dafa.
Student: Teacher, on behalf of the disciples from Germany, I wish to give you our regards.
Master: I saw the invitation from Germany. Russia also sent an invitation last November when it was cold. When it gets warmer I’ll find time to go.
Student: Teacher, I’ve immigrated to Japan. We’ve always wanted you to come to Japan if you have the opportunity in the future.
Master: When I held classes in Guangzhou someone from Japan attended. Afterwards, he returned to Japan and got some people together, all of whom were Japanese. Apparently all those who learned were elderly folks. After a period of learning, he still couldn’t give up the qigong he practiced before, so we’ve never contacted him. Because all those people he taught aren’t pure either, we haven’t contacted him.
Student: My husband is Japanese, but he likes Dafa a lot. He thinks it is very good.
Master: Maybe there’s a cultural difference. But I think if the Japanese can really learn it, it will be easier for them than for Caucasians, because the Eastern people have the same way of thinking; Westerners have a different way of thinking. But after the Westerners have learned it, they’re also pretty good. I’ve been to Japan once, but only to see how the Japanese people were doing.
Student: If in the future this Dafa becomes the Fa in people’s hearts, what will things be like in the arena of the social sciences, such as in philosophy or literature?
Master: Everything will change. And it will be completely new. People’s understanding of this society, of humanity, and of everything will all be turned around. So now many of our students in Beijing know that they’re different from other people and are passing around a saying: “We are the new humankind.” Of course, I’m not endorsing their saying, I’m just conveying an idea. It will definitely be different from the way today’s people think and understand things—that’s for sure. As you continue to study this Fa in depth you will have a new understanding of everything. Those of you present here have relatively high professional titles, and many are students studying abroad. As you gradually experience it and think about it, you’ll find that your understanding of everything about humankind is undergoing a change. This is because, as I said, humankind’s development, humankind’s understanding of its beginning and origin—the theory of evolution doesn’t exist at all—and its understanding of matter, understanding of the universe, understanding of life, understanding of the world before us, and understanding of this cosmic space have all been developed on the wrong foundations.
Student: When does the Main Spirit (zhu yuanshen) enter…
Master: The Main Spirit usually enters not long before birth, but the specific time isn’t fixed. It might be the moment before birth, or long before birth—half a month, a month, or even earlier—all are possible.
Student: What’s Teacher’s view on humankind’s cloning humans?
Master: When humankind has no moral code it will do anything. After that type of human is born, it doesn’t have the concept of parents and doesn’t have the concept of human ethics and morality—it’s scary. It can even clone the same person to replace that person and kill that person. These things appear only after the degeneration of humankind’s morality. But I don’t think human cloning will happen, because Gods won’t allow it. Even if a clone were made, it wouldn’t be that person—only a demon could get into him, as Gods wouldn’t give him a Main Spirit.
Student: If people of mixed race practice cultivation, which paradise will they go to?
Master: As far as humans go, people of mixed race no longer have corresponding human races in heaven. If they’re cultivators, their outward appearances are no longer important and it all depends on the person’s Main Spirit (yuanshen). If his Main Spirit is of the white race, he’s white; if his Main Spirit is of the yellow race, he’s yellow; if his Main Spirit is of the black race, he’s black. It’s a different matter if he practices cultivation.
Student: Can a person of mixed race succeed in cultivation?
Master: Whether someone can cultivate and whether he can succeed in cultivation are all up to the person himself. If a person of mixed race can persist in cultivation, he can reach Consummation just the same. When he succeeds in cultivation his Main Spirit will return to wherever he came from.
Student: What did you say last time that a person of mixed race has lost?
Master: He has lost the body that comes from the top down through to here. Let me put it this way: People of the yellow race have people of the yellow race up there, and people of the white race have people of the white race up there. He’s lost this thread.
Student: You’ve said that a baby has a Main Spirit only after it’s born. So is it true that life doesn’t exist back during the pregnancy? Please explain.
Master: That’s not true. Anything… I’ve said that when anything is created a life enters it. A product made by a factory, anything, you see them like this, yet they’re all alive. When the embryo is very tiny in the mother’s body—the moment that little bit of flesh is created—he’s already alive. So how can he be alive without a Main Spirit? Without a Main Spirit he still has life himself. That’s because with humans, besides themselves… didn’t cultivation in the past talk about the three souls and seven spirits? Of course, what they said wasn’t specific. I’m just giving you the idea, that is, besides your Main Spirit, your body also has other elements that form a human life. The flesh body itself also has the life with your parents’ images—the images of the father and the mother are also alive. The human body is very complex to begin with.
Student: Then is abortion also considered killing?
Master: That’s right. An abortion during pregnancy is killing. It doesn’t matter how human morality has become, or whether humankind or its laws permit it—laws can’t represent Gods—if you’ve killed, you’ve killed. You might argue that according to the law you didn’t kill—that’s what humans say. We’ve found that in the space surrounding maternity hospitals there are many babies with nowhere to go—they’re missing body parts, or they do have complete bodies, but they’re all young, small lives of babies. Originally, these lives had reincarnated, and they might have had their own futures and might have lived for a number of years and then entered another cycle of reincarnation. But you go and kill one of these lives before he’s even born. Then he has to struggle painfully through these long years—that little being all by himself, it’s so sad! He has to wait until all of his years on earth allotted by heaven are over, and only then can he enter the next cycle of reincarnation. So you suddenly thrust him into such a painful situation—can you say that’s not killing? What’s more, the karma from doing this is quite large.
Student: With this karma, can a person still cultivate?
Master: Yes, of course he can cultivate. But as I’ve said, the cosmos’s Dafa is all-encompassing. When viewed from one particular level, then the Fa becomes absolute. Different levels have different Fa, and the higher the level, the clearer the understanding of the principles. That’s because if you can really cultivate to Consummation, they will surely become beings in your universe. Then some people think, “Then let’s not worry about killing.” Whoever thinks this way definitely cannot succeed in cultivation. And if you don’t succeed in cultivation, you can’t afford to repay those lives you killed. Do you understand what I’m saying? Cultivation can make up for these things, provided that it’s true cultivation. After Consummation the karmic outcome will be determined.
Student: If an abortion was done twenty years ago when I didn’t know better and it was allowed, what happens if I practice cultivation now with so much karma?
Master: Just focus on cultivating. Actually, with many of us, who knows what we’ve done in what lifetime during our many lifetimes; and who knows how much karma we’ve owed in any given lifetime. Today’s people have all come to this stage with karma rolling on top of karma; people free of karma don’t exist. Apparently there isn’t anyone who hasn’t taken a life; killing doesn’t necessarily refer to killing a human being. Since we can save you, and since you’re able to cultivate and have obtained the Fa, don’t think about these things. Just focus on cultivating and I’ll make arrangements. If you reach Consummation this matter will be well taken care of.
Student: Several Falun Dafa students in Germany are hunters. They say that foxes possess human bodies and aren’t good. I haven’t accepted this yet.
Master: We won’t talk about foxes in and of themselves. It’s possible they won’t exist in the future. But as cultivators, we should try not to do things of killing. Besides, we have mercy. As for possession by foxes, many foxes have gained some special powers; some foxes don’t have special powers and aren’t able to possess human bodies.
Student: Will the future humankind need to cultivate upward?
Master: By the time the future humankind comes about, almost all of you will have concluded your cultivation; but that [time] will also come soon. The audio and video recordings won’t be left for people in the future, and they won’t know my image. Some people say that I’ve leaked many of heaven’s secrets. Actually, the future people haven’t heard my teaching the Fa. People on the street now don’t know and haven’t heard the Fa. Of course, if you truly practice cultivation, reach Consummation, and leave, I’m teaching the Fa to Gods. So heaven’s secrets haven’t been leaked to humans. The future people will enter a wonderful period, and they will have quite a few blessings. It’ll be relatively more difficult for them to practice cultivation, since in a good environment there won’t be that much suffering. So it won’t be easy at all to practice cultivation. But on the other hand, it will also be normal—the human world won’t be that tough or that bad, and it will be a period for normal cultivation.
Cultivation is full of hardship. And it isn’t limited to the hardships you suffer. I’ve said this before: “It’s unbearably cold at the top.” What I’m saying is different from what everyday people say. That is, when your realm is raised, your gong is raised, everything else of yours improves accordingly, and your way of thinking also changes, you’ll find that extremely few people have anything in common to talk about with you. In this sense you’ll feel very lonely, and will feel a kind of hardship inside you. Then along with this comes a state: You’ll seem to have less to say and less contact with everyday people, even with your family members—it’s sure to be this way. But this is all normal. We just do our best to balance this relationship. That’s because you really can’t be considered an everyday person. Since you are gods and since you aren’t everyday people anymore… In the past, once a monk who practiced cultivation left the secular world, he was a half-god—of course, today’s monks aren’t, and they don’t have that quality either. Why was he said to be a half-god once he left the secular world? Before, once someone who cultivated left the secular world, he would have severed all worldly connections. Do you think he was still human? Of course he couldn’t have been the same as a human. Humans can’t live without these ordinary human emotions. After you’ve practiced cultivation and have truly improved, you’ll find that you aren’t attached to what humans are attached to, and that you consider what humans love to talk about really boring.
Then there’s bound to be a difference between you and humans, and this gap will get increasingly larger. But you also shouldn’t think too much about this aspect of things, because once you enter this state, you’ll slowly and gradually come into contact with the things you should come into contact with, and you’ll gradually reach the Unlocking of Gong (kaigong) and Enlightenment (kaiwu). You have your enjoyment, humans have humans’ enjoyment, and of course, Gods have Gods’ enjoyment.
Student: Children who’ve grown up in the U.S. aren’t so good with Chinese. Should they be sent back to China in the future?
Master: I can tell you that I’ve been to many places abroad and I’ve found this problem everywhere, so when I see my disciples I often tell them this: Make sure you have your kids learn Chinese; you can’t lose the characteristics of your yellow race. Since there’s no place for you in the Caucasian paradises, you still need to return to the paradises of the yellow race’s people. What matters the most is if you can’t understand the true meaning of the Fa when you study it. Today the translated books provide people with a process of understanding during the transitional period. Just like our book Falun Gong, it is something only for people’s understanding process, whereas in true cultivation one follows Zhuan Falun. The books translated into foreign languages are also for during your process of understanding. If you want to truly practice cultivation, you need to read the original text. Only from the original text can you know what’s what. The translations—no matter how well they’re done—are shallow and don’t have the inner meanings. That’s why many of us find that each time you read the book it is different; when you read the same sentence from different realms it’s completely different.
Student: Some veteran students aren’t willing to join new students in discussion. Is this phenomenon correct?
Master: We don’t rigidly require that everyone come to the practice sites to practice. I’m only telling you that doing the exercises as a group and discussing among yourselves at the practice sites enable you to improve quickly—they help students improve. If someone wants to practice at home, he can practice at home—that doesn’t matter. We have some people who’ve cultivated quite well, and it’s true that a good number of them are among those who practice at home. But there are also some who aren’t able to be diligent and make continual progress, and a good number of them don’t get out of their homes. So you can’t make generalizations, nor can you force these people. Cultivation practice is all about people’s hearts. If someone doesn’t want to cultivate in his heart, what’s the use of your forcing him to come, right? If he doesn’t want to become a Buddha, even Buddhas can’t do anything about it. Only what a person wants or what he wants to do counts. But you feel that coming out seems to help us spread the Fa; you think this is good and persuade him to help others. Actually, that’s not necessarily the case. Cultivating at home and cultivating outside are the same.
Now I’ve found another issue—of course, it’s not the issue you just raised. We’ve found in mainland China that many veteran students from the early period no longer come out to practice, and that almost all those who are practicing outside have never heard me teach the Fa—there are many of them. Since this is the form in which our Dafa spreads, this form has been left to you, and future generations will do it this way, too. That’s excellent. This isn’t to say that those who go back to practice at home aren’t good anymore; many of them have already cultivated quite well. They find that they have nothing in common to talk about with students who’ve just started to practice and who don’t have a deep understanding of the Fa—this situation occurs. They think that the things that other students love to talk about are attachments, and they feel uncomfortable; this might be why they don’t come—this situation does exist. Usually, when humans do something, they have an attachment or a purpose. If a person has cultivated very well, when he has no ordinary human attachments he can’t stand being with humans. He can’t stand a single sentence by humans—every sentence, every thought, and the ideas in people’s minds have a purpose. When your mind is clean and clear, when there’s nothing, you’ll know everything others are thinking. And then you won’t be able to stand any single thought, any move, or any sentence by others, and you’ll feel annoyed. You’ll just feel that you can’t explain it clearly to them, and so you won’t come out—there are cases like this, but not all are like this. But I think it’s best that our new students come out to practice. Why? Because it truly does help you improve. If you don’t come out to practice, and you practice at home instead and try to enlighten to things on your own, of course, you’ll be able to enlighten, but it will be slow—who doesn’t want to make continual progress? Who doesn’t want to improve quickly?
Student: When we’re doing something and we don’t know if we should do it or not, how do we use Zhen-Shan-Ren as our guide?
Master: Actually, it’s not about whether something should be done or not. You don’t realize that people often get bogged down in specific situations and then are unable to evaluate good and bad. Why am I able to see everything about the situation of the present humankind’s development? I can explain everything because I’m not within it. When you look at a matter, don’t look at it while you’re bogged down within it, don’t evaluate the matter in isolation and within the specific matter. Jump out of it and take a careful look at it, see if it’s in keeping with Zhen-Shan-Ren. How would someone who’s cultivated well, or a God, a Bodhisattva handle it? Think of it this way, and as soon as the righteous thoughts emerge you’ll know.
Student: Complicated environments produce high-level persons. The environment in mainland China is certainly much more complicated than that in the US, so cultivating in mainland China is faster.
Master: They’re all complicated; they’re complicated in different ways. The psychological conflicts among people in mainland China are really intense—their intriguing against each other is severe. But in the U.S., the damage done to the surface culture is very serious, and the demon-nature is enormous. So someone can practice cultivation in either place.
Student: The air is heavily polluted. Is it very bad for cultivation?
Master: No, it’s not a problem for us cultivators. Since your body is being gradually replaced by high-energy matter, these things can’t pollute you.
Student: Can cultivation influence the external environment, including the natural environment, social environment, or the cultivator’s own social circle and living environment to move towards goodness and in the direction of Zhen-Shan-Ren?
Master: It is producing this effect, only it’s very subtle and can’t be observed easily. Everything that has to do with you is undergoing subtle changes—changes of two kinds. One is that some get further and further away from you, the other is that some get closer and closer to you—that is, they’re becoming better and better. Some leave you altogether; the ones that aren’t good enough depart—this happens. The changes are very subtle.
Student: Teacher, what, ultimately, is the effect of the half-lotus position versus the full-lotus position when doing the meditation?
Master: There’s a basic element of cultivation, a mechanism inside. The mechanism of the full-lotus exercise of ours is just like a machine. The gears of the machine are supposed to be installed this way, but if you insist on installing it that way it won’t be able to produce anything. But it’s not necessarily that absolute, as some people need a process of gradual improvement. If you can’t cross your legs now, try to do it gradually. So we still have ways to handle it. You should do your best to catch up.
Student: When I do the lotus position sitting, if I can’t become tranquil, I can’t achieve concentration, either. This means my level is low and I can’t move up to high levels.
Master: If you can achieve ding5 as soon as you sit, your current level is already quite high. This has already been discussed in the book. If you really can’t enter into concentration (ding), just regard the thought that can’t be suppressed as someone else’s. Actually, let me tell you that it isn’t you in the first place—it’s composed of postnatally-acquired notions and thought karma. You originally wanted to sit in meditation and enter tranquility, but why isn’t it tranquil? It doesn’t listen to you—could it be you? It is karma churning up, so you should regard it as someone else. As you lighten your attachments you’ll gradually be more and more able to reach tranquility, and your level will be improving as well.
Student: I always feel sleepy when doing the exercises. Could you tell me if I should sleep, or if it’s a demon so I should fight it?
Master: Sleep itself isn’t a demon. It’s a factor such that humans must rest. This is also one of the things, the factors, that make up the universe. But as a cultivator, if you sleep during cultivation it can play the role of a demon, keeping you from cultivating. It isn’t a demon itself, but it can play that role. But on the other hand, it also has the effect of strengthening your will. Don’t you need to cultivate your will? You need to strengthen your will, and restraining it is strengthening your will—it’s also cultivation. Feeling sleepy while doing the exercises is itself also an effect of thought karma.
Student: I’d like to ask what exactly energy mechanisms are.
Master: Energy mechanisms are dynamic mechanisms composed of gong’s very microscopic substances—substances that humans can’t see. These mechanisms have a form, but humans can’t see it. When your cultivation reaches a certain point in the future and your Third Eye is opened fairly well, you’ll be able to see it. It’s like a belt, a white belt, that operates around your body. But it is connected to the Falun inside your elixir field (dantian).6 It’s continually strengthened when you do the exercises. The stronger these mechanisms are, the better they drive your automatic practice. That is, they’re revolving even when you aren’t doing the exercises—they’re helping you practice automatically. All five of the exercises we teach have these mechanisms at work. So although you see yourself standing here without movement, your body’s mechanisms are moving back and forth, driving the transformation of your entire body.
Student: Does the Falun Paradise have a Falun song?
Master: That’s doing advertising and doing humanized things. How could the Buddha Fa be so unserious?! People today have humanized Buddhas. But Buddhas are incomparably great Gods. In the past when people mentioned Buddhas, a sense of boundless reverence would arise. Nowadays they’re mentioned casually. The images of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Mary are carved and put in graveyards—that’s simply blaspheming Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Mary. They’re surrounded by tombstones of the dead. Humans don’t know what they’re doing. They think it’s pretty good, and they want Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Mary to look after the dead—it’s just as if they’re commanding Gods. Isn’t that how it is? Actually, these are all things born of humans’ sinful thoughts. Many qigong practices do those dance things and those songs. What do those things have to do with cultivation? Besides, they encourage people’s attachments of emotion (qing). This is viewing Buddhas, Daos, and Gods with human thoughts and human ways of thinking. In fact, human ways of thinking can’t be used to think about them at all. When you’ve cultivated very well, and only when you no longer have these human thoughts like them can you reach Consummation.
Student: We’re living in a state of “having intention.” We should remove those desires in our normal lives. Sometimes I get confused and it makes me very nervous.
Master: You’re saying that when you cultivate, you feel that you’ve developed a certain level of understanding of the Fa and that you should improve and get rid of certain thoughts; yet you find that certain thoughts are still there and they put you in a dilemma, “Why do I still have thoughts like this?” and you find yourself conflicted. Isn’t that right? Let me tell you—I already explained this last time—if we were to remove all the human thoughts that enable you to sustain an everyday person’s life, you wouldn’t be able to stay for even one day among everyday people. Everything humans do is motivated by attachments, so you wouldn’t be able to bear a single human thought. You have no idea what it feels like to be with humans when you don’t have those thoughts. So in order for you to practice cultivation among everyday people, only upon Consummation will your outermost surface be transformed and will all your attachments be removed.
Student: Which paradise will people of the white race go to upon reaching Consummation?
Master: This question has already been discussed. Some of us might have seen images of Buddhas in Zhuan Falun; some might have seen in the English version of Zhuan Falun Gods dressed like Saint Mary or Jesus—Gods with Caucasian images—in each and every word. Although you are practicing our Dafa… I’ve said that we’re of the Buddha School, but I’m teaching the nature of the entire cosmos, the principles of the cosmos—the Fa of the cosmos. So of course Gods are also included within. Then if a Caucasian reaches Consummation, the gong cultivated in his body will also take on a Caucasian image, and he’ll go to a Caucasian paradise after reaching Consummation; the Little Infants (yinghai) they cultivate all have wings. Of course, the same goes for the Dao School.
Student: How can one pay for the karma from killing?
Master: We have many disciples who’ve encountered some dangerous incidents during the course of their cultivation—car accidents, falling from high places, and many other incidents. Afterwards, our students felt happy—it sure is worth being happy about. Of course, as I’ve explained in the Fa, this is equal to paying for a huge amount of karma generated in the past, and can even equal having repaid a life. If that life has really been paid for, your name is crossed out from hell because you’ve already paid for that life.
Actually, don’t think that nothing happened to you after being hit—a you, made up of karma, really died. What’s more, that body had thoughts, a heart, and limbs that were made up of your bad karma; it died in the accident, and it was composed entirely of karma. We’ve done such a tremendous good thing for you, and have removed such a huge amount of karma and paid for lives with it—no one else does this. We do this only because you’re able to practice cultivation. When you realize this you will have no way to thank me.
Student: How do we achieve Consummation?
Master: We impart this Fa of ours in order to transform the human benti7 into a Buddha-body. This is the path we take; we don’t take the way of Nirvana,8 nor do we use Light-Transformation, or the method of “Corpse-Extrication” in the Dao School, by which a bamboo stick is turned into a human body and placed in a coffin. We openly and nobly let people see you reach Consummation, because your body will have already been transformed.
Student: Teacher has said that one should do his everyday people’s job well while practicing cultivation among everyday people… I want to find a job that I can do well without spending much time, so I can spend the time on cultivation.
Master: We all have this thought. You all want to find an easy job so that you can have a lot of time for cultivation and, at the same time, be able to do a good job. A thought is, after all, just a thought. Your motives are probably for the sake of practicing cultivation. But oftentimes things might not be realized as we wish, because everyone’s situation is different. As long as you don’t have a strong attachment—insisting on doing it a certain way—my Law Body (fashen) will arrange things for you very well. You can have a normal job and practice cultivation just the same.
Student: Some people find that reading Zhuan Falun in traditional characters is different from reading it in simplified characters, that it’s a different feeling.
Master: That doesn’t appear to be the case. It should be the same. There’s one thing: Since the “Cultural Revolution” in mainland China, people’s thinking has undergone tremendous changes. Taiwanese and Chinese people overseas in Southeast Asia or other regions have a slightly different way of thinking when it comes to this. Is it because you tend to read Zhuan Falun in traditional characters with that previous notion of yours—as soon as you read the simplified characters, you feel that you’re getting mixed up in things from China that you’re not comfortable with? That’s actually a mental barrier of yours.
Student: Sometimes when I’m reading Zhuan Falun I don’t want to put the book down, and I don’t want to do the exercise movements, either.
Master: If when you read Zhuan Falun you don’t want to put it down, then keep reading—that’s fine. It’s alright to do your exercises later. It’s good to read the book more—studying the Fa is of primary importance.
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