Hongzhi Li
December 27, 1994 ~ Guangzhou
Gradually our assistance centers have been voluntarily set up by people in different regions. Many people came from other regions and attended the seminars, they thought that this practice was great and wanted to pass it on to people in their regions, and then they took the initiative to teach the practice at parks or in other ways; they’ve made Falun Dafa’s impact larger and larger. You have all done a lot of things and contributed a lot. Put shortly, in a sentence, you want to enable more people to obtain the Fa, to enable more people to improve, and to enable more people to benefit from it. You’re all doing good things. Gradually, many assistance centers have been set up, and there will be more in the future. So we’re now faced with the question of how to run them—this will also be a major issue in the future. So we’d like to sit down and talk about this in a timely fashion.
The way our assistance centers are supposed to be managed was always stipulated in explicit terms before. You know, when people come to learn Falun Dafa, we don’t have any administrative methods, and we don’t force people to learn it, offer some titles or make promises, or tell them they can make money from it. Everyone comes completely of their own accord, and everyone wants to study this Fa and to enable more people to benefit from it. That’s why you do this work out of your own enthusiasm. In other words, you’re doing this unconditionally. Also, it’s a lot of work to do this job. You only do good things for others, you make sacrifices for others, and you don’t get any compensation. Of course, when we say there isn’t any compensation, we’re speaking from the perspective of everyday people. I’ve said that spreading Dafa brings a person boundless merit and virtue. We’ve laid down many times, and in the book we’ve also set forth, the conditions for establishing an assistance center. The assistance centers we set up are unlike any work unit, and they aren’t like a company or an administrative unit—we don’t do those things, and this is our most prominent feature. Why don’t we do those things? It’s because that’s likely to kindle people’s desire to develop some kind of enterprise—people are apt to develop this kind of attachment. It also involves some other issues. If our assistance centers were really run like a work unit, a lot of problems would be involved. For example, housing needs money, installing telephones needs money, and water and electric bills all need money. Then where would these funds come from? Everyone is teaching the practice voluntarily. We don’t charge any membership fee, nor do we collect people’s money. Everyone does it voluntarily. So we don’t do those things—true cultivation can’t do those things. Back when Shakyamuni taught his Fa, in order not to cause people to develop this attachment, he led his disciples to leave the secular world and go to monasteries to do cultivation practice. That’s how he did it, whereas some other religions, such as some of the Western religions, didn’t do it that way. Although they didn’t do it that way, actually, they too discussed things like taking reputation and self-interest lightly. In other words, if we want to truly do cultivation practice, if we want to improve ourselves, and if we want to do this good thing, we can’t make this a business entity, nor can we make it like a work unit. Make sure you pay attention to this.
There’s something else to this. If you make money, if you make money off it, then that is completely damaging to this Fa, because the Fa is for saving people and you can’t use it to do business. What’s more, a lot of qigong masters did things like treating people’s illnesses, offering consultations, and so on, and they made some money. There were also people in other practices who did that. Some blatantly said that money was necessary to care for the Dao, which is really just bunk—as if the cultivators in ancient China had a lot of money, when in fact they were penniless. Of course, if you have money, we don’t have a problem with that—I’ve already talked about this. You can do your job well and make more money, which is an everyday people’s matter. In the course of our cultivation, we need to safeguard this Fa and ensure that the Fa doesn’t lose its shape or go awry. There’s more to it than your studying in this way today—it will be left for history for a long time to come. You’re all studying this Fa and following this Fa. If we don’t do this well from the outset, if we go awry right at the start, then in the future it will be distorted beyond recognition. You know, I myself will try my best to do well and to not cause any bad things or bad phenomena to happen. The same goes with the assistance centers in various regions from here on out, as what you do also represents Falun Gong, and in a sense it’s also a reflection of Falun Gong. Make sure you pay attention to your image, pay attention to how you do your work, and don’t tarnish Falun Gong. If you set up an institution or make money off it, I’d say that this wouldn’t be any Fa. Once money, material things, or self-interest get involved, things like “You’ve made more money than me,” “I’ve done a lot so I should be compensated,” how to reimburse expenses, and being asked by the society to pay an allotted amount, things like this and more will all occur. I think that if we really got into all that we wouldn’t be doing cultivation—that would be just like a company, so it’s absolutely unacceptable.
Now we have brought this Fa to the public. The reason we’re able to bring it to the public is that we’re able to handle things well and ensure that it doesn’t lose its shape or go awry. If we do poorly right at the outset, who knows how far future generations will go. They’ll say, “However things were done when Li Hongzhi was around, that’s how they should be done today.” When I’m around I can rectify some things for you; when I’m not around, it’s hard to say what will become of things. That is why we’re strict about requiring you to do things this way from the start—we don’t set up some entity. The way our practice administers things is that our assistance centers don’t keep any money and they only assist people voluntarily. Also, we don’t set up any organizations or factions. We just voluntarily do some good things for the people, do some good things for more people.
If someone wants to cultivate we’ll assist him, and we too are cultivators ourselves—that’s our principle. So when you set up an assistance center, you shouldn’t think about having a facility, a telephone, and this or that—don’t do that. Some of our assistance centers make use of their existing conditions, and either they use their homes or their offices, and they’re able to do things quite well. It doesn’t matter what conditions you have or how well we do things: what’s critical is your understanding of the Fa, your grasp of the Fa, and whether you are able to persevere in cultivation—that’s the key. How you improve yourself is primary, everything else is secondary. Of course, in order for us to carry out our work, some people provide some convenient conditions for us. I’d say that doesn’t matter. For example, among our students, someone may be a leader at an institution or at an enterprise, or he or she is a manager at an enterprise; this person has convenient conditions and provides us a place for people to sit down together and have a meeting. I’d say that’s not a problem. It doesn’t involve money. We have students in all trades and professions, so they can resolve those problems. Also, they take the initiative and are willing to do this, and they’re happy to do their part for Falun Gong and to contribute something. These types of things have happened in different regions where people provide places or convenient conditions—people are eager to do these things.
Another thing is that to assist students in their practice, the assistance centers in various regions have at different times printed some pamphlet-like materials, such as “Falun Dafa in Changchun,” “Falun Dafa in Beijing,” “Falun Dafa in Wuhan,” and so on. I think this form is also good. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a newspaper or a flyer, for they’re all just experiences and understandings from among our students, or they’re for informing you in a timely fashion about some things that you’re needed for. But usually what they do is very simple—the flyers are one or two pages, or, they’re printed with better quality, but none of this matters. Then how do we take care of the costs? This involves money. As far as I know, all of the regions that have printed these things have done so as follows: some students are business owners—nowadays many people have their own companies, or, some people’s jobs are doing these things, or, some people are administrators; they have convenient conditions or have a printing facility at the workplace, so they use their convenient conditions to do this; or, some entrepreneurs provide convenient conditions to help you do this. Our assistance centers don’t touch money—those people help us do this. We only provide the text, and afterwards we distribute the printed material. That’s how it’s been done, and I think it’s quite good. Some people think this is something that has to be done and that it’s something that has to be done regularly, and if it doesn’t work out they try other ways. We can do this from time to time. If you have the conditions you can do it regularly; if you don’t have the conditions, don’t force it. That’s the principle.
As far as the administration of assistance centers, we’ve already documented our regulations explicitly, and you have followed them. There are requirements for setting up an assistance center. And we’ve told you to have new assistance centers report to the one in Beijing or to one of the several main assistance centers. The assistance centers of the provinces and major cities, in particular, should [take responsibility for the assistance centers] within their administrative areas. For example, the Guiyang assistance center should take responsibility for Guizhou province, and the assistance centers of all the counties should contact them in a timely manner. It might not be convenient for each assistance center to contact Beijing. The counties around a big city should also be overseen [by the assistance center of that city]. This helps them to carry out and expand their work. Everyone should be responsible to Falun Gong. If you don’t get involved and they do things however they want to and they don’t understand what we intend to do, they will actually go awry and it will be a loss for Falun Gong. Also, the Wuhan assistance center, an assistance center that large, has overseen several nearby provinces. I think that’s quite good as well. They have more experience and have done these things for a while now, so I can rest assured. They have a relatively good understanding of the Fa and they’ve done a relatively good job in their work. This is basically the situation. Our assistance centers must be sure not to veer off the path.
Someone passed over a question slip to me and asked, “How should the staff of the assistance centers be chosen?” All staff are voluntary. But there’s one rule: the head of the assistance center has to have attended my seminars. The more someone has heard, the deeper he can understand; it’s often the case that someone who listens less has a shallow understanding, and some people haven’t even realized what [Falun Dafa] is all about; these people tend to lead others awry. Of course, if someone listens to the Fa a lot, reads the Fa a lot, and studies the Fa a lot, he can also enrich and deepen his understanding on his own. When you choose people, choose those who have the enthusiasm, are upright, and don’t do crooked or wicked things.
In addition, Falun Gong cultivation is no ordinary qigong cultivation; it’s cultivation at high levels. It’s really hard to do what I’m doing, and it’s extremely hard to purify a person’s body or to truly improve a person’s xinxing level. I have to send out a lot of gong to purify their bodies and clean their bodies, I have to plant a lot of things in them, and I also have to teach the Fa to them thoroughly—this task is really hard to do. I can do these things in a short amount of time. If these people were to do cultivation practice on their own, they might need dozens of years to reach that point. It’s very hard even for average masters to enable them to reach that point in one or two years. It’s not easy to truly guide a person, yet it takes only one moment to destroy a person—it’s really easy. That’s why we’ve always had these requirements.
We have this rule: we don’t let people who hold positions in the qigong associations in various regions work for our assistance centers. But there’s one exception. Let’s say there’s a person in charge of an assistance center who’s a very good person and who wants to resign from the qigong association in order to do work for the assistance center. Since that qigong association is almost defunct, and he’s really good and able to manage himself well, this is the only exception, and it’s an extremely special case. People in qigong associations in other regions don’t have a good understanding of our Fa. Their minds dwell on things like how to make money, managing various qigong groups... the old ideas are deeply embedded in their minds. So if they regard us as an ordinary qigong and manage it that way they might ruin our students. That’s why we’ve always stipulated that members of the Qigong Science and Research Society1 can’t work for our assistance centers. The heads of our assistance centers are all approved by our Research Society,2 and most of them are appointed or designated by me personally. This directly helps ensure that our Dafa doesn’t go awry. If it were otherwise, if they managed this like they do those ordinary qigong, think about it, they have a lot of messed up materials, so they might bring some over and sell them here—they would be delighted since it would be a good chance to make money, they would be able to make a lot of money, and they would do all sorts of things… they’re out to make money. It’s not that they mean to damage our practice, but what they would do would have the effect of damaging us. Any of those messed up things could interfere with our students. It’s easy for some people who don’t have a deep understanding of the Fa to go awry. They might even bring over some messed up qigong books and sell them here—that’s what other qigong practices have done.
Now when qigong masters come to hold classes people think it over more rationally and aren’t as blind as before, when they would attend every time a qigong master came to give a class. People are now more collected, and they look to see whether it’s real or fake; they aren’t like before. So it’s hard for qigong masters to hold classes, and when they can’t get enough students they’ll push our students to attend their classes. This way they’re able to run those classes and make money, but they’ll ruin our students. We’re doing such a major thing and we’ve made such a great effort, yet they ruin our students in a split second. Of course, with some students your requirements shouldn’t be too high. After all, they’ve just learned the Fa and their understanding of the Fa might not be very deep. They might ruin themselves unwittingly. We had this rule before: any head of an assistance center in any province or city who does this has to be replaced—he absolutely cannot remain.
If there’s anyone at the assistance centers in various regions or if there’s any Assistant at a practice site who pushes our students to listen to other qigong masters’ lectures, sells other qigong practices’ materials among our students, or leads our students to do crooked or wicked things, we have to replace him and everyone like him that we identify and absolutely not let any of them stay. If we were to let them stay there would be endless trouble in the future. That alone would be seriously damaging the Fa—damaging the Fa from the inside. That’s absolutely prohibited. We must not spare anyone’s feelings when it comes to these things—replace every single one of them.
In principle we manage loosely, but when it comes to cultivation we’re really strict, nobody is allowed to do damage. Our organizational form is really loose: if you want to participate in the practice, you can participate; if you don’t want to participate in the practice, you can go; if you come, we’ll be responsible to you and tell you how to practice. If you don’t want to learn it, who could keep your heart here? If we kept you here but you didn’t do it seriously, you said all kinds of things, and you did things recklessly, then you would be undermining and damaging our Fa from within, and we don’t permit such things. Whoever wants to learn it can learn it by his own choice; when he realizes what the Fa is he can cultivate. A person’s desire to be good has to be self-motivated, nobody can force you. If you say, “You have to be good, you must do this,” but that person doesn’t want to, what can you do about him? It’s said that if someone doesn’t want to cultivate, even a Buddha can’t do anything about it—he has to want it himself; you can’t force him.
Another thing is that we have many students, quite a large number of them, who are quietly reading the book—reading every day—and they even read the book whenever they come across a question or problem. In this regard, they’re doing even better than our Assistants. So each assistance center should organize people to study the Fa a lot, and the Assistants at each practice site, in particular, should play a leading role. We have requirements for Assistants (for students, you can learn Falun Gong if you want to), who must cultivate only Falun Gong or else the Assistant will lead the students at his site down the wrong path. Since you’re an Assistant you should do it well. We need to have Assistants understand the Fa deeper and have them consistently read the book more. Of course, a lot of Assistants take this work very seriously and are willing to do this work, but oftentimes their education level is limited and it’s hard for some of them to even read the book, plus they’re getting on in years. That doesn’t matter—they can still organize people to study the Fa. When they organize people to study the Fa, won’t they hear it, too? When others talk about their experiences and understandings, they can improve along with others as well. As long as you study it, all of you can improve. You should integrate your Fa-study with your exercises—they should go hand in hand.
A lot of regions are now doing well organizing group practice, but often they neglect Fa-study. When students ask questions the Assistants can’t answer them or explain things clearly, and they just wait to ask Teacher and try to find out where Teacher is. Actually, some questions have been addressed in the book, and if you really can’t answer the questions you can organize people to listen to the tapes, and listen some more. These questions are all answered in the book. They’re all generally covered in Falun Gong (Revised Edition). As long as you study in earnest, everything can be solved. In Changchun, ever since the Fa-study upsurge began students have had few questions to ask when they see me—they no longer ask me questions when they see me. If it were otherwise, since everyone knows me, as soon as I stepped out of my home—it’s my hometown, after all—as soon as I walked into the street a ton of people would ask me about this and that, since so many people are learning the Fa and many of them know who I am. When they run into me nowadays they just say, “Hello, Teacher” and don’t have much to say because there isn’t that much to ask. Since they began to memorize the book, instead of measuring themselves [against the Fa] after doing something, the students know beforehand whether they should do something. This is excellent. They study the Fa and consider it indispensable to their practice, and they consider it the priority. I think other regions should study the Fa like Changchun does, and start an upsurge of Fa-study; a lot of questions will be easily answered then—you’ll answer those questions yourselves. Another thing is that when you select an Assistant you should make sure you don’t think about his or her good relationship with you or your friendship, and make sure you don’t base your decision on emotions or think that it’s hard to replace an Assistant once one is selected. You can’t do that. You need to be responsible to the Fa. Make sure you pay attention to these things. If someone meets the standard and is capable, he or she can do it; if a person isn’t qualified, we’d rather find someone to do the job temporarily than make do with him or her. I’ve talked about this before. The monks cultivating in monasteries, and the temple head who’s called an abbot, do nothing but cultivation. We cultivate in everyday people’s society and our Fa is good. It can enable people to cultivate toward high levels. Is there any difference between the Assistants at our practice sites and the abbots in monasteries? It’s not that our requirements for you are high—this is truly something of immeasurable merit and virtue. No matter how many people at a practice site succeed in cultivation, even if just one person succeeds, that Assistant will have immeasurable merit and virtue. This is a very serious matter and you should do it well. We’ve adopted the most convenient conditions for cultivation so as to allow everyone to improve themselves, but these convenient conditions don’t mean that we can be so casual that we’re irresponsible to the Fa. In the future there may well be some people who do monastic cultivation—that’s possible, and some conditions should be provided.
Different regions may have a number of questions or problems that came up during this recent period of practicing. You can ask about them. You can ask about those things that you don’t know how to handle in your practice or in your work. I’ll answer them for you.
Student: [Please comment on] a Falun Gong student’s taking part in a supernormal ability demonstration.
Master: I haven’t seen such a thing. It’s absolutely forbidden to do that—it is absolutely unacceptable. Does he cultivate only Falun Gong? What about before? (Someone else says: “This person learned other qigong but his gong couldn’t rise. His gong rose only after he practiced Falun Gong, and he said that he had reached ‘Three Flowers Gathered Atop the Head.’”) We should help these people come to understand certain things. If someone wants to practice Falun Gong he must follow Falun Gong’s requirements. This person doesn’t follow Falun Gong’s requirements at all and doesn’t meet the standard for a Falun Gong practitioner at all. Besides, it’s very possible this person is possessed. When he thinks that it’s good to do this and when he pursues something, my Law Body won’t take care of him at all. This might be the case. Cases like this one damage our Fa from a different angle, and it’s totally unacceptable. This person should follow our standard if he’s to truly persevere in cultivation. But if that’s not done, we shouldn’t provide him with anything since he doesn’t count as a Falun Gong cultivator. If people who do other qigong practices want to come learn the Fa, they can come learn it—it all depends on whether they have a predestined relationship. I don’t think it’s good to make people come learn it, to drag some people to come learn it, or to have a situation where someone who doesn’t want to learn it comes to learn it just because others come to learn it. Some people’s fates are open-ended—they can be saved or not be saved. We go by predestined relationship. Don’t look at how many people someone brings; the question is whether these people can practice Falun Gong and whether they can practice only Falun Gong. When you return home you should trigger a Fa-study upsurge—you should be able to do this and have people recognize [the need for] this widely, or else this problem will get more and more severe.
Student: Can we increase the number of people in charge of the practice site?
Master: Yes. To add more people you can select people yourself, and it’s fine to add one or two persons. Be sure to select people who understand the Fa relatively well and who are enthusiastic about doing this work.
Student: One student said: “I have already reached Three Flowers Gathered Atop the Head. On August 15th Teacher Li Hongzhi led away my ‘Law Body.’”
Master: Watch out! All the people like this are experiencing illusions caused by all kinds of attachments. People like this have appeared at different times in several different regions. Like the situation you just mentioned, this person is in a dangerous situation. He said, “I’ve reached Three Flowers Gathered Atop the Head,” “I’m so able now,” and eventually he will say: “I’m a Buddha. Don’t learn from Li Hongzhi. Learn from me!” If he goes on like this, this problem might occur in the end. With this type of person, you should immediately point out the problem to him and tell him to make sure he gets rid of those attachments. Problems can easily happen. These people respect me a lot at first. Some people even wrote blood letters to me—they cut their fingers to write a blood pledge3 telling how they would cultivate Falun Gong to the very end. In the end they say they’re Buddhas, and say, “Don’t learn from Li Hongzhi—learn from me.” That’s because they slid down. They go after fame and gain and grow complacent, and with interference from demons added on, they can’t free themselves from it. On the surface they say that Falun Gong is good, but the truth is their actions are damaging Falun Gong. It’s just like what I told you before, someone said: “Falun Gong is good. You’ll have no problems after you learn Falun Gong. Watch, I can walk in the middle of the street holding the book and no car dares to hit me.” Isn’t he damaging Falun Gong? On the surface it seems that they’re supporting Falun Gong, but they’re actually damaging Falun Gong.
Student: [What do you think about] the qigong shows held not too long ago by the Guangzhou area’s Qigong Science and Research Society?
Master: Some regions’ Qigong Science and Research Societies are under the administration of the Sports Commission, which regards qigong as a type of sports activity, a sports activity of the masses, and sometimes they organize events with all kinds of qigong practices together; what they do is just like calisthenics. When they organize qigong events on certain occasions, since, after all, they regard it as a type of sport and not as something bad, even though we don’t want to do those things, if people really want to, as a show of courtesy we can organize people to go—we can perform the movements as if they were just calisthenics. But be careful: the condition is that we don’t do this as some kind of venture, but only passively when the Qigong Science and Research Society asks us to. We can make it clear to everyone that our doing one or two exercises together is meant to support their sports activities. We can do this under special circumstances. But there’s one thing: if there are other qigong masters organizing this type of activity as a show, we don’t participate. It’s alright if it’s purely a sports-like event. You need to handle this correctly.
There’s another issue. A situation exists in various regions’ assistance centers: they’re all promoting and spreading Falun Gong, and some regions have adopted the form of holding seminars. It’s best that we don’t call it “holding seminars.” We can use another term. The reason is, when you do that no one can teach the Fa—of course you can’t do that. If someone stands there and teaches Falun Gong, if he or she tells people what they should do or goes and teaches this Fa, this person is teaching an evil practice and damaging Dafa. There is only one Falun Dafa. It’s alright if they take the book and read it out loud; it’s alright if the head of the center appoints someone to read the book out loud.
Also, you may organize people to watch the videotapes. I’m referring to the videotapes of the full lecture series. They can watch lecture one and then stop to learn the exercises; the next day they can watch lecture two and then stop to learn another exercise.
Listening to the audiotapes is another way. Again, they should listen to one lecture after another, and then we have someone teach the exercises. This isn’t a problem. Everyone can learn the exercises together. We can all use this form in the future, and this is the best form. We can organize people to learn the practice together, they can learn it this way.
Also, people who come in small numbers can directly follow others to do the exercises at the practice sites and then read the book and listen to the tapes—just do it this way. But one thing has to be assured: we must not run the overall activity of teaching the practice in the same way that a business is managed. We should do things with whatever we have, and we can’t charge money. It doesn’t matter if we borrow a classroom, borrow a meeting room, or, when there are a lot of people, borrow an auditorium. You can do that, but you can’t charge any fee. We’ve already made this absolute: we cannot engage in running businesses. Make sure you pay attention to this. If there’s a really special situation where we have many students and there are a lot of people learning the Fa such that we need a large place but aren’t able to borrow one, and we have to use someone else’s auditorium yet that auditorium has to charge a fee, then you should directly contact Beijing about this extremely special situation. If this really is the situation, then you can collect the cost for renting the auditorium, but not even one penny should be left over. In short, we can’t keep any money in our hands, the assistance centers can’t keep money, and we don’t engage in business activities. I’ve made this very clear to you all because it’s so serious. Our practice is able to follow a righteous path, and on this issue alone it’s fundamentally different from other practices.
Student: Shanghai reported that a Falun Gong practitioner, who has not attended any seminars, said before he organized others to do the exercises: “Worship our venerable Teacher Li Hongzhi, study Dafa Falun Gong, and cultivate our xinxing and Zhen-Shan-Ren,” and then the exercises were performed. After finishing the exercises, he said: “We’re finished. Thank you, Teacher.” He said that was meant to pay homage to Teacher.
Master: He hasn’t attended a seminar? (Reply: “No.”) What you mentioned is very important. That’s because as soon as the students in many regions read the book or, in the case of a few students, hear the audiotapes, they think that this is great but they don’t know what to do. This problem might occur. And in the future it might happen in other regions. Make sure you pay attention to this. Whenever you hear someone report this, regardless of your assistance center’s region, you are responsible for telling this person that he shouldn’t do that. Things like this can often lead people who haven’t learned Falun Gong to do those things without realizing it. The fact is, this person hasn’t attended the seminars and doesn’t fully understand things, so it’s possible that he wanted to show off by doing that. But don’t draw a conclusion about him; in the future after he participates in study he’ll know how he should handle this matter. This is indeed a problem. Don’t overlook it. Regardless of where this happens, when an assistance center hears about it, those who live nearby can stop him by making phone calls to him or by using other methods. You need to correct things like this.
As for Shanghai, I will go there when the opportunity arises in the future, because I’ve always thought about it.
Student: [Please comment on] the Harbin General Center organizing a group of Assistants to go to Changchun to study.
Master: The situation in Harbin city is quite good. After they organized a group of Assistants to go to Changchun to attend an experience-sharing conference organized by the General Center, their understanding became quite high and they’ve organized various activities—they’re doing very well in this regard. The Changchun General Center has informed me about the situation in Harbin. I’m aware. I think Harbin’s summertime is very nice, especially when people sit along the bank of the river to read the book together—that’s great.
Student: [Please comment on] Daqing City inviting Teacher to hold a seminar.
Master: Let’s not bring up holding seminars any more. I will make larger arrangements. There are a lot of invitations now. I’ve seen two invitations from Daqing. Last year in Qiqihar City there were people from Daqing who went there to study.
Student: [Please comment on] spreading the Fa in regions where Teacher hasn’t held seminars.
Master: You can do this: after hearing the Fa in Guangzhou this time, you should all go back home and gather the students who haven’t attended the seminars and talk to them. If you’ve recorded the lectures you can organize people to listen to them. Audio recordings of the Jinan lectures are also available and they’re excellent. You can organize people to listen to the tapes together. Don’t listen to the whole thing in one shot. After listening to one section, pause and talk about it and share with others according to what you can understand, and then everyone can talk about their thoughts. Make it livelier.
Student: [Please comment on] the issue of financial support.
Master: No matter how wealthy other people are or how much financial support they want to give to Falun Gong, we don’t accept it. Why is that? It’s because if you keep money, then won’t other assistance centers be able to keep money, too? If all the assistance centers keep money, in the future when money is involved, people’s hearts will change. So we don’t do that. If a person really wants to contribute to Falun Gong, when there are things like buying some materials or when we conduct Fa-study activities, you can let them do things that help the activities and they can take care of the things that need to be done right then—that’s all right.
Student: How should Assistants who have their Third Eyes open conduct themselves?
Master: How should Assistants who have their Third Eyes open conduct themselves? When people are doing well in their practice, don’t say anything to them. Go over and tell the few students who still fall short in certain things where they need to improve or where they have problems. You can tell them this way. If you openly say “Your Falun is this big” or “His Falun looks like this,” if you say things like that others will gather around you every day and things like this will abound. There will also be some people who ask how high they’ve cultivated to. Make sure you don’t say such things casually. Once you say those things the person will develop an attachment. You have to handle this well.
Student: Some people have said that their practice has gained enthusiastic support from their workplaces.
Master: In many regions, in the cold areas, practicing in the winter is tough! But some workplaces are very supportive and provide facilities for us. There are many examples of this. It’s because our influence is positive—after doing the exercises, the students clean up the place, and when it’s after a snowfall they even remove the snow in the courtyards. Since we conduct ourselves so well everywhere we are, naturally people will provide us with things that make it convenient.
Student: [Please comment on] Falun Gong students gathering to talk about their experiences and understandings.
Master: Changchun has made a videotape in which the students had lively speeches and the students in the audience were also excited—some even shed tears. They were really happy because the meeting was made lively and the atmosphere was great. It’s just like what one of you said just now—that in that field, nothing was missing except that I wasn’t there. It’s just like when I hold seminars, the field is very strong. You could say that it’s a Falun Gong gathering, and it’s similar to a Fa conference, so the effect is excellent. When we have a lot of students in the future, the students can do it this way and talk about their experiences and understandings. Studying the Fa like this is very educational. Students talk about what they’ve gained after learning the practice. In some ways this is even livelier than our speeches.
Student: [Please comment on] everyone sharing their experiences and understandings.
Master: When someone reaches a high level he or she sees that these things are gained by predestination. As a person’s level rises, these things aren’t able to be shared. We can only share our experiences and understandings that relate to how to improve ourselves in cultivating xinxing. We cultivate in a righteous Fa, and we aren’t afraid of complicated circumstances having an influence.
Student: How can we handle the relationship between the Falun Gong assistance center and the local qigong association well?
Master: This is very important. I just said that in principle people in the local Qigong Science and Research Society, Human-Body Science Research Society, or the Qigong Society can’t do our leadership work and can’t be heads or Assistants of our Falun Gong assistance centers. But we should handle our relationship with them well, because the China Qigong Science and Research Society clearly stipulates that all directly regulated qigong practices are managed by the practice’s teacher when it comes to cultivation; whereas they’re in charge of local administrative management. But we don’t have any administrative management. The management of our practice is entirely loose. We can tell them who the heads of our assistance centers are, and when there are formal meetings they can ask the heads of our centers to attend. That’s no problem. But if they drag our students to do other things that go against our regulations, we won’t do that. You can explain these things to them clearly. If they organize some activities that are good, that don’t involve other issues and that are like doing calisthenics with hundreds of people—they are activities of the masses—where they organize various qigong practices and have them do several sets of exercises, have a competition to see who’s better, and then give some awards, I think that’s no more than advancing the development of the sports cause. It’s alright to take part in sports activities, that’s no problem. But if they use our practice to do other things, that’s just unacceptable. You can make this clear to them.
Locally we can register with them—you may register with them. Actually, when you’re registered with them you won’t have many activities—you won’t have much to do. They don’t do anything other than call you over and tell you that such-and-such qigong master has come to hold classes and that “you should go!” Whether to believe that master is something the student can judge for himself. They will ask you to go, but the students won’t go—that’s how it is. The Human-Body Science Research Society usually doesn’t care much about this. The Guangzhou Falun Gong General Center has registered with the Guangzhou Human-Body Science Research Society, and they didn’t just register with them recently, but a long time ago. When they have activities the heads of our assistance centers can participate, that’s no problem. This is the relationship. The Qigong Science and Research Society has an excellent relationship with us in many regions, such as Dalian City, and many of them are practicing Falun Gong. This can make it convenient for our Falun Gong to hold activities and for people to practice, thus removing our obstacles. This is excellent. In other words, while we coordinate with them and maintain a good relationship with them, we should act well according to our principles; that is, we do need to uphold the principles stipulated by Falun Gong. As for other things—the trivial matters that aren’t worth talking about—they’re no problem.
Student: How should we approach monks and lay Buddhists?
Master: As time goes by, they might become the last ones to understand [Dafa]. It now looks like that’s pretty much the situation, because those who are to obtain the Fa early on have already obtained it. Let’s see what the future holds! Back when I first came to the public, I was told explicitly that when these people really come to know that those things don’t exist, they’ll feel that they have nowhere to return to. Some of them will return to the secular world, others will cultivate Falun Gong. This could happen. Those are things in the future. It’s easy with the lay Buddhists. They often like to learn whatever qigong is out there, this kind, that kind, they look all over, and if they find Falun Gong they too want to learn it. Anyway, if they can truly absorb it—I’m referring to understanding the Fa and being truly able to recognize it—then since they’ve already come into contact with it, if they’re able to learn it they will be able to understand it. What’s critical is Fa-study—organize them to study the Fa.
Student: What are we to do with people who have mental disorders?
Master: Handle it as follows. If a person talks and acts abnormally, then he or she certainly doesn’t meet the requirements for practicing Falun Gong. Whenever this problem occurs it’s bound to be someone like this: one case is that the person’s inborn quality might not be good; another case is that the person’s inborn quality is good but he has brought bad things upon himself because he couldn’t let go of his attachment. These are the only two possible reasons. We should talk to him, and if he can let go of it and become aware, he’ll become aware; if he can’t become aware, then there’s nothing we can do. Of course, there is a forceful method that works the best: if this person is pretty good and can influence a lot of people, we can read the book at him as a group according to his state, and ask him if he wants to study it. If he does, we read the book with him together—we surround him and read the book towards him. When you read the book in this situation you can read selectively. Isn’t his cloudy mind a reflection of his incurring demons or developing demons? Read towards him for him to listen. He too should read and comprehend. If his Primordial Spirit wells up, becomes aware and realizes what’s going on, then he will probably become aware. If he can’t become aware and if he affects our strength, I think we shouldn’t let this person affect our students. Anyone whose head isn’t clear, who abnormally speaks disjointed things, who says how high his level is, or who says some really far out, muddleheaded, confused words is mentally abnormal, and this person definitely has a problem. So with this type of person, if he’s an Assistant remove him immediately; if he’s a student and if he can’t correct himself after we talk to him, we should advise him not to practice. If he insists on practicing, nobody should listen to him, and nobody should surround him. No one should give him a place to do those things; if he can’t find an audience that demon will lose interest. If no one listens to what he says, he won’t be able to damage us and he will lose interest in doing that.
Student: [Please comment on] the Window on Literature and Art matter.
Master: I’ve talked to them about that matter of Window on Literature and Art. From the editor of the journal to the author of the article, their intention wasn’t to damage Falun Gong. They wanted to promote Falun Gong, but they are often writing in the context of creating literary pieces. With literary pieces, people edit, exaggerate, and use their imagination however they want—they have free rein. I told them that they should try their best to only write after gaining an understanding of our Fa. The author of the article attended several lectures, but after he attended the first lecture he already felt that this is really good. He was excited and so he began to write. But his understanding wasn’t deep. What’s more, when he attended the next several lectures, he listened with what he was writing in mind and he was busy taking notes, so he didn’t listen well and his understanding wasn’t that deep. The draft he gave us at the beginning didn’t have as big a problem. The editor, too, only attended several lectures and then edited the article and casually made changes. After those changes the article was completely different, and the things in the article went to press like that. But we’d say that their intention wasn’t to damage Falun Gong—that’s for sure. But it has indeed had a certain bad effect for us. This is what I think: their intention was good and they didn’t want to cause damage; it’s just that some of the things related to their level of writing and use of imagination probably don’t conform to Falun Gong’s requirements. Of course, I haven’t read that series of articles—not even one. We should explain to the students that this can’t be what we base our cultivation on. What we base our cultivation on is the Falun Gong books that are now published, and the formally issued books or tape recordings of my speeches. As far as the things related to my own cultivation, I’ll write that down when the time is right. I don’t want to write it in this way right now. The reason is, this is the period of teaching the Fa; once I write it down, regardless of whether people believe it or not, when students haven’t reached a high understanding they might develop things like a pursuit of incredible things or supernormal abilities. Besides, those who couldn’t understand would think that you are ...
Student: How are we to organize the students to talk about their experiences and understandings?
Master: We can make selections and listen ahead of time to what they’re going to talk about. In particular, when we hold large-scale conferences we must review the speeches. There’s something to pay attention to: if one student says something wrong it could cause problems for what we’re doing.
Student: [What about] financial donations?
Master: Just like what I said earlier, if a person’s business is doing really well, his or her enterprise is large, and he or she wants to sponsor us, if this person comes from abroad and is really strong financially and wants to sponsor us, then our local assistance centers should not accept it. So what are we to do in this situation where such a person wants to contribute? You may tell him or her to contact the [Falun Gong] Research Society, and we’ll make a larger arrangement and centrally govern the building of large spiritual centers. In the future our students won’t need to run around anymore. We will build several large spiritual centers in some regions in the north and the south. We haven’t accepted any donations so far.
Student: [I have a question] about the exercise movements in our practice.
Master: As a person breaks through towards higher levels, there isn’t any movement; all he does is sit in meditation. It doesn’t matter whether one’s cultivating in the Buddha School or the Dao School, they all just meditate. This is because gong is formed completely automatically, it just automatically goes up—as long as you improve your xinxing it goes up. Make sure you’re careful about one thing: as soon as other exercise movements show up, you must repel it. Explain this clearly to the students: if anyone sees or has seen Teacher teaching him those things, it’s false—I’d never teach you that way.
Student: [I want to] learn how to do the hand gestures.
Master: Don’t try to learn those hand gestures. Why? Because those hand gestures are words I say to our students. They’re just like the words I’ve said today—you can’t say my words from my angle. It’s the same idea.
Student: Reportedly in Guangdong someone has claimed, “I’m the such-and-such generation successor of Falun Gong,” and “I’m in the same school as Li Hongzhi.”
Master: This person might well be possessed by some chaotic spirit or something. He might want to make money or want to damage Falun Gong—it’s usually people of this sort. I’ll make this point clear to everyone: I’m the only person in this world imparting Falun Gong; no one else from the Falun Paradise would dare to come down to impart it. I have made this clear to everyone. In other words, there isn’t another person doing this. And it’s impossible that someone is my fellow disciple of the same master. All of you are heads of the assistance centers, so I can tell you something a little higher. Our Falun Gong isn’t like other qigong, it’s not at all like I learned from so-and-so in this world during this lifetime. You might have read in our book that I had masters—Quanjue Law Master and other Law Masters. I’ll tell you how that is: Quanjue Law Master, True Being Baji, and so on, these people, … You know, when the cosmic climate comes to this stage, or when this grand thing is to be done in a certain period in history, all the phenomena that occur when history comes to this stage, or during history’s process of development, might be for this Fa. Then in this process all demons might also be for damaging this Fa. In other words, as we’ve come to this stage, when I was born it was impossible to have me reach Enlightenment right then, nor could it possibly have been arranged that I would have already been Enlightened when I was born. It couldn’t save people that way, and I wouldn’t have been able to do it that way, either. During that period there had to be someone who would remind me of the things I used to have and who would have me attain Enlightenment his way—that was Quanjue Law Master who I talked about. After attaining Enlightenment I knew my things, and then I learned other things in a half-locked state while my own things remained unchanged. Many people knew that I had arrived, so this person wanted to give me some good things, that person also wanted to give me some good things, and so on. Their intention was no more than to have me recognize the things in their schools so that they could be protected and remain in the future. I’m just talking about these things. Here we can talk about higher things. Of course, naturally there’s a way to evaluate what’s good and bad. If something is good, it will certainly be protected; if something is bad, it’s possible that it will be eradicated. But I am the one who’s truly teaching Falun Gong and doing this undertaking, meaning, I’m the one who represents the true things of this Falun Gong school, so there’s no other person.
Student: Guangxi Province wants to set up an assistance center.
Master: You can. How many people do you have learning now? More than a hundred. Let Guangzhou help you and talk with you to help you set up a general center. You’ve practiced for a short time, so you can ask Guangzhou to take care of things for you for the time being. Later on when you’re independent and are able to hold activities you’ll be able to separate from them.
Audio recording by the Beijing Falun Dafa General Assistance Center.
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