Hongzhi Li
Guangzhou, China

Let me begin by talking about whether copies can be made of Falun Dafa audiotapes. We didn’t allow recordings when we held classes, and it was only when I truly started disseminating the Fa that recordings were allowed. The contents of my classes in Jinan, Dalian, Changchun, and Hefei have been consolidated, and the third book, Zhuan Falun, is being printed. This will be the ultimate book that guides our cultivation. With the exception of the audiotapes that I have approved for distribution, other recordings are, in my view, most likely not as good in quality. In addition, in editing the published books I have eliminated many of the colloquial expressions contained in my talks. Some of my words are laced with my northeastern dialect, which could lead to misunderstandings. So don’t take excerpts of my talks from recordings anymore. Once published, this book of mine will be established as the basis for our cultivation practice. It will be out soon, and you may contact the Main [Falun Dafa] Society and place your orders.

Student: Can those who have converted to the Buddha school read the Scripture of Guanyin and the Great Compassion Incantation every day?

Master: Your statement, “converted to the Buddha school,” is too general. Our [practice] belongs to the Buddha school as well. You should have said that you have converted to Buddhism. You are asking if you can read the Scripture of Guanyin and the Great Compassion Incantation every day. When you read the Scripture of Guanyin or the Great Compassion Incantation, you are in fact cultivating according to a religious cultivation way. This is, again, an issue of “no second discipline” and an issue of whether you can practice only one cultivation way. Of course, I am not opposed to your converting to and cultivating in that cultivation way—go ahead if you wish—but here we are asking you to cultivate in only one discipline. Some people just can’t let go of that attachment, though. If you can’t, you might as well not make yourself suffer over this while grumbling about it all the time. Cultivate in whichever discipline you think is good. But I want to be responsible to you, and that is why I need to explain it to you thoroughly. I’ll tell you: religions are no pure land nowadays, and even monks can hardly save themselves. True cultivators are few and far between. Of course there are still some that are genuine. Otherwise it would have been all over. You decide for yourself what to cultivate; but you absolutely cannot cultivate in more than one discipline at the same time.

Student: Can we keep other qigong books or books by other qigong masters?

Master: We have already discussed this. It’s your decision what to cultivate and what course to follow. Even some of the genuinely good qigong masters who have come out to popularize qigong can’t deal with bad things, even if their own bodies are free of them. So their fields are quite a mess. They are willing to deem anyone their “master,” so the energies in their books and their things are chaotic. Ordinary textbooks and technical books are generally fine to keep. But don’t buy obscene or bad books, let alone hold onto them; you have even less business reading them. They gravely affect the morality of mankind. You definitely can’t keep qigong books that are not from our practice.

Student: Does the Tao school cultivate the subordinate consciousness or the master consciousness?

Master: They are the same. But those who cultivate the master consciousness come from extremely high levels, or, a person can do so only when his master consciousness is extremely special. In the case of cultivation ways that have been widely taught, it is the subordinate consciousness that cultivates.

Student: Can the master consciousness in this life become a subordinate consciousness in the next life?

Master: It varies, and there is no set rule for this.

Student: Should there be a gap between the hands in the Jieyin position and the abdominal area? Can they touch the abdominal area?

Master: This has been discussed in my lectures. You didn’t listen carefully yesterday. When doing Jieyin, your hands should touch your body, touch it slightly. When doing Jieyin in the fifth exercise, “Strengthening Divine Powers,” your hands may rest on your legs. Otherwise, when you meditate your arms will be quite heavy, weighing a few dozen pounds, which might make your spine bend, and you won’t be able to sit up straight. When doing Jieyin, place your hands on your legs to reduce their weight.

Student: In the Buddha Stretching a Thousand Arms exercise, does the “Maitreya Stretching His Back” part only include stretching, and then it’s followed by “Tathagata Pouring Energy into the Top of the Head?”

Master: Yes, those two moves are connected. After doing “Maitreya Stretching His Back,” swiftly rotate your palms and relax, and the relaxed downward movement is called “Tathagata Pouring Energy into the Top of the Head.” But there’s no need to think about pouring energy into the top of your head, or think, “I’m pouring qi into it.” There’s no such thing. The automatic mechanisms are at work.

Student: Did the Honorable Divine of the Origin and Buddha Shakyamuni cultivate their master consciousness or subordinate consciousness?

Master: I can’t talk about any specific persons or mention any specific names in discussing this. I will tell you, though, that in the great majority of cases that were passed down in the past, in over 95% of the cultivation methods, it was the subordinate consciousness cultivating, and that is what those practices prescribed. This is a secret of heaven, which was absolutely not to be revealed in the past.

Student: What is xuanji (“rotating mechanism”)?

Master: The xuanji that I talk about is different from the xuanji (mysterious mechanism)—xuan as in xuanmiao (mysterious and wonderful)—discussed in books from ancient China about Taoist cultivation. The xuan in our xuanji is as in xuanzhuan (rotating), and ji is as in jineng (functions), jizhi (mechanism), or jiqi (machine). Xuanji means the rotating mechanism, that’s what it means. From cosmic bodies to planets and from planets to microcosmic substances, everything is in motion, and we call this mechanism xuanji.

Student: A qigong magazine has Teacher’s picture on the cover. Are there Law Bodies on it, too?

Master: They are on all of my photos. They are on anything that has my picture on it, or my articles, or my printed books, and the same goes for other printed materials. There is nothing farfetched about it.

Student: [It feels like] something is often turning above my head?

Master: I suggest that you not pass up slips like this to me any more. All kinds of reactions that your body has are good things if you are a practitioner. You know yourself that it is turning—the Falun is turning—and yet you insist on having me spell it out for you. Stop asking questions about the sensations you have, there are thousands upon thousands of them—so many kinds. If you ask me about all of them, you won’t be thinking for yourself about what you should make of them. And these are actually good things. Otherwise, [if you don’t learn to discern for yourself,] who are you going to ask in the future?

Student: While studying Falun Gong (Revised Edition) I used a lot of paper to hand copy some parts of the book and kept them at home. I’m concerned that others might take them imprudently?

Master: That’s not a problem. I think you can seal them up and put them away, or collect and submit them to the assistance centers for safekeeping. [And then they could] send them to farmers in poor areas in the future.

Student: Please explain the differences between Buddhism, Buddha Law, and Buddhist studies?

Master: The law in Buddhism is only a tiny part of Buddha Law, and cannot represent the entire Buddha Law. Shakyamuni said that there are eighty-four thousand cultivation ways, but Buddhism has only a dozen or so disciplines: Tian Tai, Hua Yan, Pure Land, Zen, Tantrism, and so forth, only a dozen or so. I would say there are more than eighty-four thousand ways—this Buddha Law is so enormous. How could today’s religions cover the entire Buddha Law? They are only a part of Buddha Law, only a small part of Buddha Law. They were formed into religions and are thus called Buddhism. As for Buddhist studies, this is an ordinary people’s term and understanding.

Student: Why can’t someone become tranquil while meditating?

Master: When people are unable to become tranquil while meditating, it is because many things that they are attached to and holding onto tightly in ordinary society are interfering. As you understand the Great Law better, your attachments will become lighter and lighter, and gradually you will manage to become tranquil when you meditate. If you were able to let go of everything at this time, your level would already have gone up and you would be quite advanced in your cultivation. It’s all right to have some straying or impure thoughts now. As you gradually improve your xinxing in complicated human society and give up things that ordinary people are attached to, your mind will gradually become pure and tranquil. Your xinxing is gradually improving as well, as you give up your attachments, and your level is being raised. These things go hand in hand. Once these things have happened, you will become completely tranquil.

Student: What is divine power?

Master: Divine power: the Buddha school calls the human body’s supernormal capabilities divine powers. At the lowest level, ordinary people call them exceptional abilities.

Student: What does jiachi (strengthening) mean?

Master: Jiachi does not mean increasing your gong, adding on a chunk of gong for you to make your gong higher and then adding on another chunk for you to make it even higher—there’s no such thing. [Increasing] gong relies completely upon you cultivating your heart and mind, and no matter who adds on some for you, it won’t work. If you don’t believe it, I can connect a gong column to you right now and instantly make you reach the level of Beyond-Triple-World Law. But it will fall the minute you step out of here, because that gong is not yours and your xinxing level is not there. That’s why it won’t stay. In a very special dimension, there exists a measuring stick for your xinxing level, with scale markings on it. When your xinxing can’t reach that high, your gong column won’t reach that high, either. You know how in the past some people said that it’s a pity someone’s energy is lost when he sends out gong. But you can’t understand it that way, because when you send out gong, your xinxing level is still up there, so even though your gong column is shorter after you send out a certain amount of energy, it will come back while you cultivate without even having to endure additional hardships. That’s because your xinxing, your level, and your Attainment Status are there. Of course, if you want to grow further upward, you need to continue to improve your xinxing so that your gong will grow, and without this nothing else will work. Strengthening highly purifies your body and helps transform other things in your gong, that’s all.

Student: I am predestined to have money in my life. How does that relate to my gong increasing?

Master: There are several scenarios. Some people get it by exchanging their virtue (de)—they get their good fortune through pursuing it. In the case of some others, it’s accumulated from the past. There are also cases in which people have brought it with them from high levels. There are different situations, so it’s quite complicated and you can’t look at these things in one, formulaic way. Some people simply have virtue, a great deal of virtue, and they can have whatever they want because that is essential. That’s really how it is. Virtue can be transformed into gong and is one of the things that determine a person’s cultivation level and Attainment Status. If someone only seeks good fortune in human society, then he can exchange this thing with others for money and material possessions. Some people make a lot of money with just a little bit of effort, and that’s because they have a lot of virtue. Some people make no money no matter what they do, and this is probably because they have little virtue. These things are not absolute, and of course, some people’s situations are very complicated. I am just talking about the general rule. People with little virtue may not even be able to get anything when they go begging for food. That is because when others give you food, you still have to exchange virtue for it. So when you don’t have any virtue to give them, you won’t get any food. There has to be an exchange because the “no loss, no gain” property which balances the universe is at work.

Student: What should we do when a Buddha statue becomes worn?

Master: I think there is a rule in Buddhism. If you don’t want to keep them, send them to temples.

Student: Why does my mind wander when I listen to the lectures?

Master: Concentrate on listening and you will be okay. Your master consciousness has to be strong. In fact, it’s your thought karma interfering.

Student: [As practitioners] are we still allowed to give treatments?

Master: If you are a doctor in a hospital or a massage therapist, I would say it’s not much of a problem. But if this is what you want to do, do it as a profession, or open a clinic, those are all things you do among ordinary people. If you treat patients with your gong, that’s absolutely not allowed! What I am teaching here is not something for healing or fitness, but true cultivation. And true cultivation is a very serious matter. If you want to cultivate to become an enlightened being, how could you not be strict with yourself and slack off? It’s a very serious matter: a person truly has to endure a lot of hardships. You have to steel your will and cultivate according to the Great Law. If you truly want to take up cultivation, I would say you shouldn’t think about these things.

Student: Is the master consciousness a person’s soul (linghun)?

Master: The soul is a very general thing. The human body is very complex, so what it refers to is not very clear. And that’s why here we completely get rid of those terms used in the past, and discuss things entirely in connection with today’s scientific studies of the human body. We have explained things very clearly.

Student: Why does my mind drift off sometimes?

Master: It’s normal that you aren’t able to achieve complete tranquility right now. That reflects the elevation of a person’s level. If you can truly become tranquil right now, your level is no longer low.

Student: I learned other practices before, and occasionally some of their things, such as incantations, flash across my mind.

Master: You have to get rid of all of them. They are different from ordinary thought karma. You must get rid of them.

Student: Why is it so hard to get rid of bad thoughts? Sometimes it even feels like they are actually getting stronger.

Master: When you want to get rid of them, they will try to keep you from cultivating, and that is why there are reactions. Some people have strong reactions. But your main thought must be clear and must eliminate them. When you are able to discern them and you are determined, my Law Bodies will get rid of them for you.

Student: I practice Falun Dafa but my sister worships immortals.

Master: Students of Falun Dafa don’t need to be afraid of anything. Ordinary people often come across bad things, but they aren’t able to do [practitioners] harm, nor can they do anything to them, so long as the person’s mind remains steady and resists those things. If you firmly cultivate in Dafa, my Law Bodies will dispose of them.

Student: My Third Eye opened before, but then I couldn’t see through it again.

Master: There are many things that could have caused it to close after opening. In some cases it might have been closed up. And in some cases it might have been injured, but when you cultivate it is being repaired. It will open when it needs to open. Don’t worry about it, and just let things happen naturally.

Student: What should we do if we can’t persist very long when we do the Strengthening Divine Powers meditation?

Master: The requirement is, the longer, the better. The fifth exercise is what I did while I was doing solitary cultivation. I gave it to you without any changes. My main purpose was to allow you to have a Fa to follow and exercises to do when you cultivate at high levels. It is difficult for you to do it right now, and you can’t sit for too long. Balance the time between how long you do the strengthening of divine powers and how long you meditate in ding. Do it according to your own situation. You will gradually improve, and over time, you will be able to sit for a very long time.

Student: Unfortunately, I will be going abroad and won’t be able to attend the last day’s lecture.

Master: Read the books more in the future, then, and it won’t be a problem. Even those who study on their own are able to achieve Consummation. It all depends on whether you really cultivate yourself.

Student: Who can give birth to a person’s master soul?

Master: Why are you worrying about those things? Are you focusing on seeking knowledge or cultivating? Actually, I have discussed this before. The various substances in this enormous universe can produce lives as they work in their ways. Trying to distinguish between the master soul and the subordinate soul on the human body, well, aren’t they all lives?

Student: While you were teaching, all of a sudden, I saw you manifest as a silver-haired Taoist Master with a hair bun on the top of your head and a long body.

Master: I have come down to prepare for this thing for a very long time now, and I have been Buddhas, Taos, and Gods before. If you saw it, just leave it at that.

Student: When we do the exercises at home, will it scare our ancestors?

Master: You have so many attachments. You can’t even influence the lives of your parents and children who are now alive, and yet you worry about even those who have passed away. Cultivation in an upright Law benefits everyone. My discipline is the most convenient one—you cultivate among ordinary people. I have repeatedly said that cultivation is a very serious matter. And yet you worry about this and worry about that, and you won’t break off this emotional tie and that emotional tie. What did “leaving home and becoming a monk” mean in the past? It’s hard to say with today’s monks now. In the past, when someone became a monk, he would not even acknowledge his parents, he would completely sever all of his secular relationships, and he would even be given a new name. Why would he be given a Buddhist name? It was to get rid of all of his worldly desires and free him of any concerns over and involvement with those things, so that he could calm his mind and cultivate. Cultivation is a serious matter. Don’t worry about those things, and just focus on cultivating yourself. But you should not worship your ancestors at home, for your own sake and for the sake of the dead. Human beings and ghosts cannot live under the same roof, as their karmic relationships in this world have ended.

Student: Will practicing Falun Dafa have an effect in speculating in stocks?

Master: Our students are laughing at you. You’re attached to gambling. Let me tell you that some people jump off buildings when they lose in gambling! Think about the mentality of a person when he is speculating in stocks. I would say it’s hard for some people to tell good from bad now. Some people asked me if they could play mahjong—aren’t you trying to get other people’s money through gambling? Isn’t that gambling? Anyway, I’m telling you this: Our lectures here are not for ordinary people to listen to and take lightly. We are responsible to true cultivators, so the lectures are given to practitioners. If you want to do whatever out there, then go ahead and do whatever you want, but don’t bother taking up cultivation.

Student: I have a seven-year-old son. Recently he has been saying that he does the exercises with you in his dreams, and that he sees you doing the exercises during the daytime. But he is unwilling to learn Falun Dafa.

Master: Then you need to see what he is learning and whether what he has seen is real or false. When an upright discipline is spread on a large scale, demons try to undermine it in every way possible. It’s a problem if the person himself doesn’t practice.

Student: In a fast space-time a person’s life has already ended. Then why can we still change our destiny through cultivation now?

Master: It’s because [the life of] your main being is not yet finished, and we are able to turn back time in those dimensions. These are things I will discuss in my lectures. While we are on the subject, I can tell you that a person cannot change his life whatsoever on his own. No ordinary person can possibly change it for you, nor can enlightened beings change it for you unconditionally. So a human being is unable to control his own life, and even less so others’ lives. Some people want to wait until they become wealthy, make a lot of money, take care of their families and have them live a comfortable life, and then they will start their cultivation. What a joke! Each person has his own destiny, and even when someone is your loved one, how could you be allowed to change another person’s life? Besides, if you have no tribulations left, how are you going to cultivate? Do you know how much karma they have, and how they are supposed to go through their lives? Is that something you can control for others? You can’t. Some people might think, “I don’t believe it. If I make a lot of money and get rich, my descendants will inherit it.” I’m not so sure about that. A natural disaster, a calamity, or a fire can take it away, or they might lose it gambling or in some other way. It’s hard to say what might happen. It depends on whether they have the good fortune. If not, they can’t inherit anything. I am just giving you the idea. Each person has his own destiny. It’s not like anyone can change another person’s life. That won’t work.

But can a cultivator’s life be changed? Yes. There are two ways to change it. If a person takes up the path of cultivation, his life can be changed. When someone wants to take up cultivation, his Buddha nature has come forth, so help can be extended to him unconditionally. With other people, it can’t be done so casually. Since cultivation was not part of your life before, changes must be made for you. Everything has to be reshuffled; that is, rearranged. That can be done. There is another situation. That is, we have some people who are deeply attached to ordinary human things, and they hurt others through immoral means or some other approach. Or, you think that you didn’t hurt others, and that you seem to have gained something through your efforts, etc. In fact, what you can change is very little. Perhaps what you did with your efforts was something you were supposed to expend effort for, and only by doing that could you get it—that, too, was arranged. But though you can indeed change some small parts, you can’t change the overall direction of things. Even making a small change might generate karma. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be [the difference between] good and bad people. When you are bent on getting something that was not arranged for you to have in your life, and get it via immoral means, what you obtain is something that belongs to others. And so you have hurt others, owed others, and generated karma. That is the idea. And if you don’t pay it back during this lifetime, you will have to do so in the next one.

Student: Because of my poor xinxing, I mixed this with another practice, causing damage to my Falun a few days later. What should I do?

Master: Cultivation is a serious matter, but some people just won’t listen to dissuasion and insist on mixing the practices, with disastrous results. It took long, drawn-out years, a lengthy period of time in history, and many generations to form the Falun and our entire set of mechanisms! They’re not things formed by ordinary people. They are quite precious and have produced countless great enlightened beings. And yet you ruined it just like that—by doing another practice at the same time, you ruined it. I’ll tell you—let me tell you something a bit high-level—in a sense, the Falun is a universe, and it is countless times more precious than your own life and your master soul. And yet you ruined it so casually. Think about this, everyone. Of course, since I’m saving you, I have offered it. If you can take up this practice, do it. But if you don’t [take up the practice], nothing can be done. Going forward, I won’t give those whose Falun has been deformed another one just like that. If they really want to learn and want to learn it wholeheartedly, I still have to see whether they truly want to learn and are able to stick with it. If someone is truly able to learn it, if he can learn it, he can be given a set of mechanisms, and gradually, through his own practice a Falun will form.

Student: Teacher Li, if you are a Buddha then you can’t say that all Fa teachings are evil.

Master: Did any of our students ever hear me say that all Fa teachings are evil? (Audience responds, “No!”) This person is possessed and his mind is so controlled that he doesn’t know what he is saying. People with an unclear master consciousness cannot be saved. Now, in the Dharma Ending Period, things are chaotic. Besides, can those fouled up, evil practices and crooked ways be called laws? What laws do they have? There is only one Law—Zhen-Shan-Ren! Other upright Laws and religions are all truths validated and enlightened to at different levels in the universe.

Student: What if someone can’t maintain his xinxing in his dreams?

Master: That means your xinxing is not solid and you didn’t hold yourself to a high standard. The reason is that you haven’t yet laid a solid foundation in your everyday Fa study. That is why you need to truly cultivate yourself in real life—so that you will take these things seriously in your mind.

Student: Will Faluns be formed for those who have not attended your classes but have practiced by following your books?

Master: You know, what we are teaching is cultivation, and things for cultivating at high levels, instead of something for healing and fitness. So the requirements for people are high. It’s not that if you do the exercises, you can get a Falun. No matter how well or how long you do the exercises, if you don’t conduct yourself according to the xinxing standard that we require, if you are not strict with yourself, don’t uphold virtue and don’t study the Fa, you will have nothing and nothing will form. But if you follow the requirements of our Fa, you will get everything. You won’t miss out on anything you are supposed to get, and that includes when you study on your own. All of the words in my books are my Law Bodies, so you will naturally get everything, and you don’t need to form a Falun yourself. Also, my Law Bodies will naturally protect you.

Student: There are people in society who attack Falun Dafa in front of Falun Dafa students. How should we safeguard Falun Dafa?

Master: Just ignore them. There is no need to argue or fight with them. Whatever they want to say, let them be. Just ignore them, that’s all. Don’t give them an audience and don’t listen to them, that’s all.

Student: Can Falun Dafa disciples go into a newborn delivery room?

Master: Why would that matter? Some of your questions are a bit naïve. When you cultivate in Dafa you have nothing to fear. One righteous mind subdues a hundred evil things. Besides, the delivery room is not wicked. That is actually good for babies.

Student: Do qigong books by writers who are not qigong masters carry possessed or evil demons’ things?

Master: I’ll tell you, whether the person is a writer or whatever, if he is not a qigong master, those possessing spirits and other messed up things will control him as he writes the qigong books. Where do his ideas come from? He thinks that they are from himself. There are also some writers who want to write things about qigong, so they interview fake qigong masters since they don’t know how those [fake] qigong masters got their gong. They can invite those things, too, and what they write are those things. Now it’s a mess out there and there are all kinds of fake qigongs. Even if there were no wicked things in them, how could something written by a non-qigong master guide your cultivation?

Student: In my spare time after practicing I find some books to read. It’s mainly because I don’t understand certain expressions and terms [in Dafa]. I want to read more to understand them better, rather than to learn other practices.

Master: Don’t try to justify it. We are being responsible to you here. What’s discussed in those cultivation ways belongs to those cultivation ways and contains the factors of those cultivation ways. Would you be able to put those things to use in our practice? We have our own terms and ways of teaching, and terminology from elsewhere won’t have the same meaning in our practice. [Bad] things permeate their exercises and every word contained in their books, which are possessed by demons. They will get into your body if you read them. With regard to the knowledge about cultivation and Buddhist studies, I will select some historical cultivation figures for publication. They are good and upright, and can serve as readings for your general knowledge and help you to understand.

Student: What do we do with our notes of Teacher’s answers to the questions during the class?

Master: Save them. Also, I would like to say that some of you in the audience here have a habit of taking notes, but more often than not, those who aren’t able to listen to the lecture well are these note takers. That’s because they put their attention on note taking, and yet often they can neither write everything down nor hear everything. You have to listen with a serene mind. When your notes are incomplete and you follow those notes—when they are incomplete and are probably out of context since you can’t jot down everything—if you follow them, the results might not be good. I’m saying this to share with you what people have learned from numerous occurrences of these things since I started holding classes. Many people have done that. What I am teaching are not theories among ordinary people, so the results [of note-taking] are usually not good, as you can neither hear everything nor jot everything down. Later on we will have books for you to read.

Student: Do the results of our practice have anything to do with our moods?

Master: When you are in a bad mood you shouldn’t do the exercises. And especially when you are angry, even less should you do them. Cultivating in an upright Law, you need to practice Ren. Practicing Ren is not done after your mood has turned bad, or you have gotten angry. When you are in a bad mood, how are you going to do the exercises? When you are upset and resentful in your heart, how could you calm down with all those thoughts that come from anger? How could you achieve good results in practicing? When you don’t do things according to the Fa, when you are not cultivating in an upright way, you are cultivating in an evil way. Having done the exercises does not mean you are practicing in this Fa. There are many masters who have taught people things, but people have not adhered to the xinxing and moral standards required by their masters. So what they ended up attaining were wicked and chaotic things. Although they might be teaching a good practice, different things can result from the same practice. You have to truly follow the master’s xinxing standard. Cultivation practice is a very serious matter.

Student: Does reading ancient and modern books on medicine affect [our practice of] Falun Dafa?

Master: It doesn’t affect it. Reading books on medicine doesn’t affect it. But don’t read those books on qigong medicine that are written these days.

Student: A yoga book discusses scriptures of a god, and it says that this god created all universes.

Master: Don’t listen to those things. What yoga? During the Dharma Ending Period, there is no pure land anywhere.

Student: When we gain things as a result of our efforts, do we have to pay for it with virtue?

Master: What you gain has to do with how much you put in, since normally effort itself means that you are putting in something. If you gain more than you put in, however, then it will cost you virtue.

Student: What if we only cultivate our xinxing but don’t do the exercises?

Master: Then you are only a good person, and not a cultivator. In the future you can only be a good person and be rewarded with good fortune in your next life.

Student: Why is it that we push to rotate the Falun only four times instead of nine times?

Master: Pushing four times is enough to do the job. If you push too many times your belly will ache and get bloated. Of course, it doesn’t matter when you are learning it. After you have learned it, though, you shouldn’t push it too many times while doing the exercise. If you do, your belly will become bloated.

Student: Is it all right to do the exercises within one month of giving birth?

Master: Of course it is. That’s not a problem. There are no vigorous movements.

Student: There’s a person who has not attended Teacher’s seminars, and after doing the fifth exercise she came up with some other movements.

Master: Then something else is controlling her. I have talked about this before: what we have taught are only these five exercises. She likes [those movements], and when she becomes overjoyed she follows along and starts doing them. If you don’t want them, stop them and they will disappear. But when you move along with them and like them more and more—“Oh, it’s pretty good”—then they will direct you to do things. But those things—simple as their movements may be—are all damaging to your body. Although you are able to do those movements, they all harm what is in your body, and within a short while they could ruin you.

Student: Can a Catholic believer practice Falun Dafa?

Master: Discussing this subject might involve things at very high levels. To Asians I can only tell you to forge ahead with your cultivation to your utmost. It’s hard to come across a Great Law, an upright Law. That’s all I can tell you. If today’s religions could save people, I wouldn’t have come to teach Dafa. Anyway, enlighten to it yourselves. You are human beings now, and you won’t be able to accept it if I discuss things at too high a level.

Student: Are the young people who practice Falun Dafa allowed to fall in love with someone of the opposite sex?

Master: As I have said to you before, at this level it’s not possible to have you abandon everything, and you wouldn’t be able to. Of course, some people might take these things lightly. Nevertheless, I’ll tell you that for those who cultivate in society, we don’t encourage you to be like that. But in Falun Dafa we do have a number of monastic cultivators. When we have monasteries in the future, those might provide a place for their cultivation. After many a monk takes up cultivation in Falun Dafa, their monasteries might give them a lot of trouble, so in the future we need to provide them with a place for cultivation. But for those who cultivate among ordinary people, we don’t encourage you to go that route. If everyone cultivated in Falun Dafa and no one got married, then they wouldn’t propagate future generations and human beings would become extinct. That wouldn’t do. So, at present, you can get married, have a family, and establish your career. Those who cultivate among ordinary people should be in keeping with how ordinary people are as much as possible. I’ll give you an example: if you don’t get married, your parents will be worried about you and not understand you, and others won’t understand you. Conforming to the state of ordinary people is good for our cultivation, because the most complicated environments bring forth superior individuals.

Student: Great Master, can you talk about your courtship?

Master: You aren’t here to learn the Fa. What are you here for? What else do you want to know? Cultivation is a very serious matter, and yet you are still driven by qing and attached to those things. What a huge gap that is!

Student: After successfully completing cultivation in Falun Dafa, can we go to other worlds?

Master: You can go wherever you like, because you will have successfully completed your cultivation. You are asking this question now, but in the future when you really have successfully completed your cultivation, one day you will feel awfully ashamed of [what you’re saying]! You don’t know what you are saying. What you have now is human thinking, and not thoughts in the realm of a God.

Student: When meditating, we are required to keep our minds clear, clean, and free of intentions or any thoughts. So are we supposed to cultivate and reach that state of mind in terms of our xinxing?

Master: Yes! But you can only achieve it gradually. Always pay attention: no matter to what extent you have entered the state of tranquility, you need to be aware that you are meditating here and doing the exercise. You have to keep this one thought in mind; otherwise, you will lose consciousness and become unaware of anything. Then you won’t be cultivating you.

Student: When school students study hard to get admitted into college and do right by their parents, is that against Zhen-Shan-Ren?

Master: That does not go against Zhen-Shan-Ren. It’s easy to mix up which things are attachments and which are not. I can tell you this: what you do to achieve some personal goals of yours and satisfy your own interests and desires are attachments, whereas the things you do for the public, for the common good, for others, or in trying to do a good job at work and school, are what you should do. Think about it: for a [Falun Gong] student who is a school student, your natural duty is to study well, since you are a student. Some people think, “My goal is just to get into college.” Of course, the goal of studying is to continually go up ever higher—from elementary school to high school, and on to college and so on. You can’t stay in elementary school forever! That’s for sure. So it’s not wrong if we want to go to college. However, if you don’t study well and are always thinking about getting into college, getting into college, getting into college, then I would say it’s an attachment. So think about it, let’s look at it from another perspective: if you are a student, your natural duty is to study well and be worthy of what your parents, your schools, and your teachers have done for you. Your teachers have sacrificed for you by giving you lessons. Your parents have paid for your schooling and have raised you. So you need to be worthy of your parents’ and schoolteachers’ efforts, and to work hard to study well. Then wouldn’t you naturally get into college? If you always think about getting into college, getting into college, and yet you don’t study well, how can you get into college? You don’t need to think about getting into college all the time. Wouldn’t it be a waste of energy if you couldn’t get into one? Don’t think about getting into college, just work hard to study well, and that’s enough. When you have done well with your studies, college or graduate school will come along, right? That’s how it works. Some things are very simple, but you can easily be confused about them. Then there are some people among us who conduct scientific research or studies—are those considered attachments? The results of your work and those things you do are for the benefit of the public, and serve the broader society and others. It is your duty to do those things well. And if you are a worker, you too should do a good job and really earn your wages and your compensation, right? That’s because a practitioner should demonstrate that he is a good person wherever he is.

Student: When I do the exercises, I enter into a state in which I completely forget about myself and can’t even hear any sound around me, and I feel as if my body has disappeared.

Master: That’s a good state. We require you to enter a state of tranquility while doing the exercises, and two situations may occur. Our practice is unlike the other ones, where the person is unaware of anything while sitting there, and a few hours later he gets out of ding and thinks “Hey, it feels as if I’ve only sat here for a short while, only ten or twenty minutes or so.” But he looks at the clock and finds that a long time has passed. And he is ecstatic, thinking that his ability to achieve ding is great and that he has practiced really well. In other cultivation practices, everyone would say that he has done well, but I would say his situation is sad, very sad! You know, in our cultivation you are to truly cultivate yourself and have yourself truly acquire gong. So even when you are in a state of deep ding, you need to be aware that you are doing the exercises here. You might experience the state mentioned in this question—you don’t know where your legs, your body, your arms, or your hands are, even your head feels gone, and it feels as if only one thing exists, which is your awareness that you are doing the exercise here. That’s a very good state. Besides that, we may also experience another state where it feels like we are sitting inside an eggshell and can’t move—it’s really nice—and yet you know that you are doing the exercise here. This state might also occur.

Student: [One time] I woke up in the middle of the night and found myself doing some Falun Dafa movements. I could feel the Falun rotating and a strong energy current.

Master: If they were really Falun Dafa movements, that’s good. It’s possible that your master soul was practicing, helping you practice. If they were other movements, that is a problem.

Student: When I do the first four exercises, there is a force in my body that makes me sway.

Master: We have many people who are quite sensitive. When the Falun is turning inside their bodies, they sway along. Don’t move along with it. Some people aren’t sensitive and can’t feel a thing even when the turning force is strong. Each person’s state is different.

Student: We have practiced Tantrism for many years, and we have supernormal abilities now and are able to connect with Master’s Law Bodies. If this is real, does it help guide our practice in Falun Dafa?

Master: It doesn’t help—it doesn’t help at all. Tantrism consists of a Tathagata’s law principles at this lowest level of the universe, so how could it help guide the Fa of the universe? I have told you that it is hard to say whether what you see is real or false. Even if what you see is real, it would be very difficult to reach the level of connecting with my Law Bodies. They wouldn’t communicate with you this way. It’s the things you learned before that conjured it up to deceive you. So be careful with these things. Supernormal abilities don’t convey the level of a person; it is his xinxing that sets apart the level of his Attainment Status.

Student: May I write diaries to examine my shortcomings against Teacher’s Dafa?

Master: I would say it’s not necessary to write those down. Go ahead if you want to write them down, though. It will be good enough if you know in your heart what you have done wrong, and going forward, pay attention to studying the Fa and improving yourself.

Student: When I read Master’s works, often a few lines of the text appear dazzling. And when I check I find that they are exactly about the problem I am experiencing at the time. Is that Teacher’s Law Body giving me hints?

Master: Those are all the Fa-power carried by Dafa. [Contained in] each word are the Law Bodies of Buddhas, Taos, and Gods.

Student: Why is it that during a certain period of time your Law Body would punish me every time I did something wrong or said something wrong, but during another period of time your Law Body didn’t do anything when I did or said wrong things?

Master: You were taken care of all the time, and yet you still made mistakes and wouldn’t repent and change. You can’t be given hints like that all the time. By the way, I will bring something else up. Many students always want to communicate with my Law Bodies, and their reason is to ask about certain things, about things in their cultivation, and so on. Let me say this: just go ahead and cultivate, and you will surely know what you are supposed to know. There are things that you are not supposed to know, and that means it’s not yet time for you to know them. Read the books a lot regularly, read them thoroughly, and all of your problems can be solved—everything is in there. After you sincerely study this Fa you will find that your questions have been answered, however difficult they seemed, or even if you didn’t detect them; each and every question that you had will have been readily solved.

Student: Is it true that as long as a person achieves Unlocking-Gong and Enlightenment, he will have obtained his True Attainment Status and he will be able to go to the Falun Paradise?

Master: There are two types of enlightenment—“gradual enlightenment” and “sudden enlightenment.” And the Enlightenment at the end where everything is truly opened up is called Consummation. But some people are only able to cultivate and achieve Unlocking-Gong and Enlightenment within the Three Realms. That’s not Consummation and they won’t achieve the True Attainment Status. What I’m saying is that some people can’t make that much effort and don’t have that strong a resolve for cultivation, so they won’t reach the True Attainment Status and thus won’t be able to go to the Falun Paradise. There will be those who become Enlightened within the Three Realms, for they are only capable of cultivating to that level. Those who cultivate Dafa won’t necessarily all go to the Falun Paradise. There are higher Paradises for those who achieve Consummation at higher Attainment Statuses.

Student: Is it because of qing that human beings fell to this physical dimension?

Master: That’s not the case for everyone. There is no qing up there—it only exists within the Three Realms. You fell because you no longer met the standard up there; that is why you fell. In the human dimension qing is strongest. Qing is the fundamental source for the breeding of attachments.

Student: How can we distinguish possessing spirits from the soul?

Master: You can’t tell them apart at present. Don’t always be so interested in those things. Those possessing spirits can manifest in sizes as large as your body, and your body in the past can also manifest in this lifetime, so it’s extremely hard for you to tell whether it is a body from your previous life or a possessing spirit. Some possessing spirits are inside the person’s body and some are outside. Those that squat on top of the person’s head or shoulders, or that straddle his neck, can be discerned relatively easily. As for those that crouch inside the person’s body, you won’t be able to tell them apart. Those who cultivate Dafa don’t have problems like being possessed—that’s absolutely not allowed.

Student: Could you tell us what those who are above Buddhas are called?

Master: What do you mean “those who are above Buddhas”? Ordinary people will never be allowed to know things at that high a level. I have talked in general about the two major schools—the Buddha school and the Tao school. Those who are above them are Buddhas and Taos. If you take this as knowledge [instead of part of cultivation], gradually, just a few days after you step out of this door and leave this class, you will remember nothing. You will only have a general impression of what I talked about, and you will be muddleheaded and unable to recount anything. It will be erased from the memories of those who can’t practice cultivation, as ordinary people are not allowed to know these things.

Student: What is the real meaning of qing in Buddha Fa?

Master: It is a factor at the lowest level of the cosmic Great Law and the cosmic attributes. In the past we never talked about this fundamental thing. In Buddhism they talk about attachments—about this attachment, that attachment… We have also talked about various attachments. But Buddhism didn’t talk about what is at the root of attachments. Here we have spelled it out for you: they result from the existence of qing. So, of course, if a person wants to achieve True Attainment Status in his cultivation, he basically needs to get rid of this qing.

Student: When we do the exercises our tongue is supposed to bridge [to the upper palate]. But what happens if we are wearing dentures and are unable to do that?

Master: Wearing dentures doesn’t affect anything. Even if you held a lead plate in your mouth it wouldn’t matter. Gong can penetrate all that. It doesn’t matter. We aren’t harnessing qi, but are cultivating gong.

Student: Who were you in your previous life?

Master: I’m just Li Hongzhi. By no means am I Buddha Shakyamuni.

Student: Is the Falun Holy King you mentioned in your past lectures the same Falun Holy King that was mentioned by Shakyamuni in The Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra?

Master: In history, Buddha Shakyamuni did mention the Falun Holy King. Buddha Shakyamuni mentioned things about the Law Wheel and the Falun Holy King many times before. When people later on tried to recall those things Buddha Shakyamuni said, they could no longer fully express them. So people later on couldn’t understand the original meaning of what Buddha Shakyamuni said, which caused misinterpretations. Then, things like “silver wheel,” “iron wheel,” “bronze wheel,” etc. came about, which were all made up by people afterwards. And they talked about Buddha Shakyamuni turning the Law Wheel and so on. With regard to that, Buddha Shakyamuni was not at all talking about turning the Law Wheel himself. Buddha Shakyamuni was able to predict the future, and he saw and knew that such a thing would happen in the future.

Student: When I do the Strengthening Supernatural Powers meditation at night, I begin to doze soon after I start.

Master: That’s absolutely no good. You have to overcome this problem. Otherwise the one being cultivated might not be you. We need to practice cultivation knowingly. When you fall asleep as soon as you meditate, you’re really not practicing and are just sleeping in a seated position. That too is interference.

Student: The sentient beings in the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss have no worries or tribulations. How do they cultivate?

Master: As I have told you, a person can’t cultivate if he has no vexation and worries. That is why it’s very hard to cultivate in the Land of Ultimate Bliss.

Student: What is the Law name of Teacher’s Law Bodies?

Master: My Law Body is me—they are one. This isn’t easy to understand. It doesn’t have a “Law name.” It’s just Li Hongzhi.

Student: When we have questions in cultivation, can we discuss them with veteran students who we think have done relatively well in cultivation?

Master: It’s not a problem for students to inquire and discuss among themselves. It’s good.

Student: One time when I was working, I inadvertently sensed that the center spot on my forehead between my eyebrows sent forth pink light, blue light, and silver light. [What’s that about?]

Master: That is a phenomenon when your Third Eye opens. There are a myriad of different phenomena. Some people have asked, “Our energy is light, so how does it exist in our body?” I read a question slip yesterday but didn’t have a chance to answer it. Let me tell you this: it looks like light to you because that is only its manifestation to those whose Third Eye level is low, whereas it exists as a real and concrete thing. When the level of your Third Eye is not high, the beings in other dimensions look like light to you, because their energy is strong. If the level of your Third Eye is very high, you will find that the things there are more real and concrete than the things you see here with your eyes. That is why cultivators of the past said that human society is illusory.

Student: You said that we should get rid of all attachments, but isn’t your desire to save all sentient beings an attachment itself?

Master: This person is really muddleheaded! If you see a person drowning, is it an attachment to pull him out and save him? I have come to save you. I have not come to cultivate. You need to be clear about this. Also, I am doing even bigger things. It’s just that in the human world I am teaching the Fa.

Student: When compassion (cibei) emerges out of our desire to save all sentient beings and extricate them from suffering, does that count as qing?

Master: The compassion you talk about in your current [cultivation] status in fact results from qing. Compassion is not qing! Ordinary people have qing. Only when you have ascended and no longer have qing can you truly understand what compassion is.

Student: Someone whose Third Eye is at a relatively high level often tells students what stage they have reached in their cultivation.

Master: He is harming Falun Dafa. I’ll tell you: we should never listen to or believe those things. With regard to the level a person has reached in his cultivation, absolutely no one is allowed to talk about it just like that. Some people, driven by a desire to show off, like to talk about those things. Even with your Third Eye opened, you are not necessarily able to see the level he has reached in his cultivation. In an extremely special case where someone is indeed very good and can truly see that, he won’t tell. When we share with each other and try to improve together, and talk about things like “a certain aspect of your gong is” such and such, or “you have developed something good in your cultivation,” that’s okay. But if you talk about how high a level you have reached in cultivation, how high I’m at, how high you’re at, or how high he is at, then that is undermining the Fa. A person like that is absolutely not allowed to see those situations. Isn’t he encouraging human attachments? Competition and all sorts of other things may occur among you. I will say this again: at any given time, you should take the level of a person’s xinxing cultivation as the criteria. Only persons whose xinxing are not high would do those things. Then if someone’s xinxing is not high, can his gong possibly be high? And if his gong isn’t high, could he possibly see things accurately?

Student: During the classes, new students have obtained Faluns, qi mechanisms, and Law Bodies from Master, all of which are extremely precious. Based on the cosmic principle of “no loss, no gain,” what should we give for that?

Master: My Law Body protects you—it’s not given to you. Really, I just want you to be able to obtain the Fa, to cultivate, to return to your original, true self—I only ask that you desire to improve yourself.

Student: Is there a difference between the Falun in Tantrism and the Falun you talk about?

Master: They are not the same thing. Their Falun is in one’s thought and is controlled by the person’s deliberate intentions, whereas mine is real, tangible, and concrete.

Student: In Hong Kong, I paid a visit to the big Buddha statue in the Temple of Heaven. Teacher, please tell us why in today’s society people would build such a huge Buddha statue?

Master: That’s something ordinary people wanted to do. Today in Buddhism many people are thinking about building bigger temples. Those are all ordinary people’s things.

Student: If someone succeeds in cultivation and achieves Consummation, will he be able to see Master up there?

Master: As long as you truly cultivate, you can see me even before you reach Consummation. So after you achieve Consummation you can of course see me.

Student: What are monastic disciples? And what are truly-cultivating disciples?

Master: Monastic disciples are those who follow the cultivation form of monasteries. They are monastic disciples. Truly-cultivating disciples are those who truly cultivate themselves.

Student: I’m a student. May I read and do my homework with my legs crossed?

Master: When you cross your legs while reading and doing your homework, you are only practicing leg-crossing, and it doesn’t count as meditating. In any case, that too is good for you. It can help to allow your legs to stay crossed for a long time. But it’s only exercising your legs.

Student: When a person reaches the state of Three Flowers Gathering on Top, is his Cultivated Infant as big as his human body?

Master: That’s impossible. The Cultivated Infants of those reaching Three Flowers Gathering on Top are only the size of a one or two-year-old child—and that only applies to those who have cultivated well. For some they are the size of infants that are several months old.

Student: When beings are created they are assimilated to the qualities of the universe and should only have Zhen-Shan-Ren. Then why would they have innate personalities?

Master: Personalities are a matter of people’s personalities. One person might tend to be impatient—his personality is relatively impatient and he does everything swiftly. Another person has a slow temperament and does everything unhurriedly. A person’s personality is his personality. They are two different things. Why can original matter form different things—wood, iron, etc.? That’s one thing. But they all have the Zhen-Shan-Ren qualities.

Student: Do the large mudras you do have the same meaning as the Fa that you have taught?

Master: What they convey is relatively high-level. Whatever the case, it’s not easy for a person to learn the Fa, and this predestined connection didn’t come easily to you. I would urge you not to miss this opportunity.

Student: Can a person cultivate to a level that exceeds that of his parents who gave birth to his [master] soul?

Master: Don’t let your imagination run wild now. I’ll tell you: you don’t know how low of a level you’re at now, and yet you dare to think about things that high. How high a person can reach through cultivation depends on his ability to endure and the proportion of the virtue and karma material he has. In other words, your inborn foundation and your ability to endure—these factors determine how high you can reach in cultivation. So if you say, “I simply want to reach that high,” and yet you don’t have that kind of ability to endure, you will go crazy. Nothing is absolute, though. It’s just that right now your thinking is that of a human.

Student: Red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, blue, violet, colored, and colorless—these represent different levels. In what ways can we tell? If someone’s Third Eye has not opened, can others tell from the skin color on his face?

Master: You can’t tell. Those are not things that ordinary people can see. That is why human eyes can’t tell the difference.

Student: I learned a certain qigong practice before and went astray. Something was always moving about in my body. I went down a wrong path. Now I’m determined to cultivate in Falun Dafa, but I dreamed that something came to interfere with me.

Master: What you want to cultivate or practice depends on your heart. It’s all up to you. When your desire to cultivate Dafa is firm, no one can disrupt you. Nor is anyone allowed to interfere with you anymore. I won’t allow it, either.

Student: If someone’s master soul is young, can he cultivate to a high level?

Master: It has nothing to do with whether his master soul is young or old. It has nothing to do with that.

Student: After listening to Dafa I realize that cultivation is a pressing matter. How can I develop a greater capacity to endure (Ren) that will help me be diligent and vigorously progress forward?

Master: Whether you can endure and to what extent you can endure are up to you. There is no specific training for increasing the capacity to endure. It all depends on your own ability to endure hardships. If you have the Fa in your heart and show compassion towards everything around you, you may be better able to handle the things you encounter.

Student: What’s the difference between Gong Body and Law Body?

Master: You won’t have Gong Bodies, not even in the future. After reaching Consummation you will only have Law Bodies. None of the beings in the universe have Gong Bodies.

Student: A person goes through a round of tests that aim at removing all of his attachments within the In-Triple-World Law, and then after he reaches Beyond-Triple-World Law, does he go through another round upon arriving at each Attainment Status, or go through a round at each of the upper, intermediate, and lower levels of each Attainment Status?

Master: The entire path that’s generally arranged for you over the course of your cultivation, that is, all the way to your Enlightenment, is one cultivation process. And during this cultivation process you are to remove all of your attachments. It’s not like [it is segmented into] an In-Triple-World Law level, a Beyond-Triple-World Law level, etc. It is arranged for you this way all the way until you reach Consummation.

Student: With regard to the formation, stasis, degeneration in the universe, is it that all bad things will be blown up and formed anew?

Master: It was like that in the past. Bad things would be destroyed and re-created. Mankind has been destroyed many times, and some people can’t understand that. You can’t think about these things from an ordinary person’s perspective. The other day, I talked about a principle. I said that in the eyes of Buddhas, Taos, and Gods at very, very high levels, human beings are just so trivial; but then in the eyes of great enlightened beings at very high levels, Tathagatas are like ordinary people; and then in the eyes of great enlightened beings at even higher levels, human beings are even less significant than germs and micro-organisms. So if mankind’s morality has degenerated, the earth is just like an apple, and if it’s rotten, shouldn’t it be discarded? For someone who is not in that realm, it’s very difficult to perceive and understand these things.

Student: Please purify the master soul of us truly-cultivating disciples.

Master: I have done all that is supposed to be done. Don’t let your imagination run wild. There are things you don’t understand. In the future you will end up with the best.

Student: In the past, some people used Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara incense to predict things. Now, after using Master’s photo to perform consecration for Avalokitesvara’s statue, can we still use the incense books?

Master: What use do you want those incense books to serve? Isn’t that a method that ordinary people use? As a cultivator, what are you trying to predict? What do you want to know? Whether you will have tribulations, so you can avoid them? If you manage to avoid them, you won’t be able to improve yourself. How could you cultivate, then? Or are you trying to find out if you will get rich? If you do things well, do your job well, or run a big business, you will naturally have it. Those are methods adopted by ordinary people, and not things that Dafa cultivators should do. Followers of minor practices can of course use them.

Student: You said that monastic disciples’ cultivation is like that of monks in monasteries. So being away from human society, how can they temper their xinxing?

Master: With regard to how full-time disciples cultivate, we didn’t discuss that in our class here. That’s a future matter. Monastic disciples also need to come out to be among ordinary people. In the past, monks would roam about, they needed to endure hardships among ordinary people and beg for food, and they were not to accumulate wealth or property. Roaming about amidst ordinary people presents good opportunities to be tempered among ordinary people.

Student: When I practice sitting in the full-lotus position, may I fasten my legs with a rope after crossing them to secure the position?

Master: We don’t have any special requirements on this. Handle it based on your own situation.

Student: The country…?

Master: I won’t answer any questions about the country or on specific matters among ordinary people. Don’t ask me questions that involve politics, as we have never had a hand in politics or the laws and regulations of the state. As far as how we should conduct ourselves as cultivators, what non-action is, and what we should do, we have already talked about these things.

Student: If everyone is principled deep inside, is it possible for mankind to become a pure land of the Buddha school?

Master: It is possible for mankind’s morality to re-ascend. Not only is it possible, it is bound to happen—that’s how it looks now. It isn’t possible for everyone to become a Buddha, though, as people’s xinxing levels are not the same and their abilities to endure are different. Human society will always exist, because it is a manifestation of the Fa at the lowest level as Dafa runs through from the top to the bottom. But it will never become like a heavenly kingdom.

Student: What if a practitioner suffers a bone fracture?

Master: Some people practice, but they only do it sporadically—on one day and off the next. They don’t do it seriously, and they don’t hold themselves to our xinxing requirements. These people are not disciples who cultivate in Falun Dafa, and all kinds of things can happen to them. When it happens, you say that a Falun Dafa disciple’s bone is fractured. I can tell you that those who truly cultivate themselves usually won’t suffer bone fractures. In isolated cases where someone owed that kind of karma in a previous life, then it’s hard to say. So be careful. Assistants should not coerce new students to practice. Doing so could cause problems. That’s not how I do things. Dafa teaches people to change from the heart. Isn’t coercing people the same as forcing them? Make sure you are extra careful about this.

Student: I’ve noticed that after I introduced Falun Dafa to some new friends, my xinxing and physical condition worsened. Is it because I told others of it?

Master: That’s probably just your own perception, right? Some people want to learn it, and as soon as you tell them about it they want to learn. You shouldn’t have the sense that your condition has worsened. That is a state that shows your body is being purified or your karma is being eliminated.

Student: I’m a high school teacher, and I want very much to teach my students to practice Falun Dafa. I wonder if that’s the right thing to do.

Master: Of course it is. Even if their understanding can’t reach that high, it can help exercise their bodies. If they can really understand this Fa, try to be good persons, and want to do good, won’t that be a great thing? And if they want to cultivate toward high levels, I would say you will have accumulated great virtue.

Student: When we were moving I accidentally damaged Teacher’s photo.

Master: It was unintentional. No one will blame you.

Student: If those who live around us ask me about the practice, may I tell them and teach them?

Master: If people desire to learn it, then go ahead and teach them. How could you not teach them if they ask you, since [you are supposed to] spread the Fa?

Student: How come after I talked about Falun Dafa, I changed from having great faith to having some doubts about Falun Dafa’s principles?

Master: There are many reasons involved—your ability to understand, your thought karma, etc., and when your own understanding is inadequate, others won’t believe you when you talk to them. Since you yourself just started learning, interference to you may have something to do with it. Usually there is little external interference; instead, it is all caused by your own thought karma and inadequate understanding of Dafa. On top of that, others’ disbelief might cause you to think that way.

Student: In the winter after doing the Strengthening Divine Powers meditation and uncrossing my legs, I feel very cold. Is that normal?

Master: In the beginning of your practice you won’t reach a very high realm right away. In the beginning you won’t sit there feeling very comfortable and warm. When you first start to practice, your body has karma, which is black and cold in nature. When you practice you are eliminating your karma, and, feeling a little chilled or cold does occur. Besides, it’s winter, and your body won’t change very quickly, or instantly. That’s not possible. You will be fine later on.

Student: I didn’t keep up my xinxing well before. If I start to cultivate now do I still have enough time?

Master: Aren’t many new students just starting to cultivate? But you should indeed hurry up, especially those who are older.

Student: When someone helps others who are in need, is he transforming his karma into virtue or taking others’ virtue?

Master: When you see others having difficulties and help them, you are being kind and doing good. When you are helping others and doing a good thing, if it’s a difficult thing to do, you will endure hardships and your karma will be transformed. Usually, when you voluntarily help others, it is out of your own will and there is no transformation of virtue. But if it involves something valuable, then it is a different matter. Also, if someone frequently has tribulations, he may be paying for his karma, or there may be some sort of causal relationships involved. If a cultivator focuses on these things, he may do bad things, because he can’t see the causal relationships behind it. That’s why we advise practitioners to preserve their virtue and practice non-action. What we teach also includes this meaning: ordinary people talk about accumulating virtue, but that’s ordinary people doing ordinary people’s things, as they are bound by the Fa at the level of ordinary people. You, on the other hand, are bound by the Fa at the cultivation level, so it’s not right for you to be attached to those things.

Student: If a person truly cultivates Falun Dafa, will Teacher arrange his tribulations in such a way that it enables him to achieve a True Attainment Status and succeed in cultivation?

Master: Yes. A person will always have tribulations during the course of his cultivation. Besides, tribulations are [the result of the] karma of your own making, and you are to improve your xinxing amidst the tribulations. You will encounter all kinds of troubles. How will you handle them? How will you demonstrate that you are a practitioner? You can’t handle them the same way others do. So you will come across these problems throughout the entire course of your cultivation, all the way until you reach Consummation. And until you reach Consummation, one question remains—can you be steadfast toward the Fa? There will be tests on that. If, fundamentally, you don’t even believe the Fa, then it’s pointless to talk about anything else.

Student: For people with a medium- or low-level inborn foundation, what’s easier for them to cultivate to: the Paradise of Ultimate Bliss or the Falun Paradise? And which path enables them to cultivate faster: the central great way of the universe or one that’s off to the side?

Master: Dafa cultivation can’t be compared with others. During the course of your cultivation, no matter how you cultivate, the requirements remain the same and the required standards are the same. However high you reach in your cultivation, that is how high of a level you will attain. In religion it’s called Attainment Status, so that is how high of an Attainment Status you will attain.

Student: Many people in Guangzhou worship Guangong.¹ Is it all right to perform consecration for a Guangong [figurine or picture] using your photo?

Master: In history, Buddhism called Guangong Bodhisattva Sangharama, but that resulted from people’s worship. Why does the Tao school worship Guangong as well? It’s because his subordinate soul succeeded in cultivation. There are also some businessmen who worship Guangong and see him as the god of wealth. What is on there all comes from people’s worshipping or animal possession. So why would you use my Law Body to perform consecration for it? Buddha is not concerned with whether you get rich. When you have difficulties, a Buddha or Bodhisattva might help you, but even in that case you would have to be someone with good inborn foundation or a cultivator. Truly saving you out of this sea of suffering of ordinary people is not achieved by having you get rich. If a person has no illness or hardship, and lives in great comfort—living even more comfortably than immortals—then he won’t want to cultivate even if he is asked to, for it calls for enduring hardships. “What’s the point of going to the Paradise of Ultimate Bliss?” [he would think]. “It’s blissful enough here as is.” Could something like that possibly happen? Could it be possible that human beings don’t need to pay for the karma they generated in all of their past lives? And when they have to pay for their karma, how could they live well? In fact, those things that come into being through your worshiping and those possessing spirits—those messy things—they won’t help you unconditionally. They want certain things and will take certain things from your body. So while it may look like you got rich, it’s really not a good thing. Of course, there are complicated reasons behind whether a person has wealth or not, but it doesn’t result from pursuit. Rather, you brought it from your previous lives.

Student: How do we tell what is the right amount of affection for one’s family members, romantic love and friendship, relative to that of the love that comes from compassion (cibei)?

Master: Right now you are not yet able to experience what it feels like for a person to have no qing, and thus you don’t know what compassion is. The compassion you can imagine now still comes from qing, and that is why you can’t experience it. Human beings’ jealousy, elation, competitiveness, unwillingness to be outdone, fear, anyway—you have to get rid of desires and attachments of every kind. Your liking or disliking something, what you do, what becomes your hobby and what doesn’t, your wanting or unwillingness to eat certain things, your enjoying something or disliking something… everything comes from qing. Human beings live just for this qing. So what are those high-level beings who live without qing like? Are they all cold and stern toward one another? No, they’re not. After a human being gets rid of qing, his compassion will come forth. Why can great enlightened beings save people? It’s because they have compassion and they have pity for all beings.

Student: In order to practice crossing my legs, I cross my legs while I lie on my back and go to sleep.

Master: We don’t object to that. You are just trying to press your legs or use some other method to condition your legs. But we don’t encourage everyone to do that. Besides, there are people who owe karma that is related to this, and there are those who cultivate very slowly and never improve. Their enlightenment ability doesn’t improve, and they only do the physical exercises. These are the people who—if they really use something to press down [their legs] or adopt some forceful means—may just break their bones. And that would do great harm to us, as others may say that it resulted from practicing Falun Dafa. That is why we can’t indiscriminately ask everyone to do that; each person’s situation is very complicated.

Student: Sometimes my dreams became reality. Is this…?

Master: Sometimes you have a dream, and on the second day or a few days later, what was in the dream really happens. Or, when we are doing something, it feels as if we’ve done it before; we don’t recall doing it before, but it feels like we have done it before at some point. Many people may have experienced this. You might have done it before this lifetime or a very long time ago, or, you could have become part of what was going to happen in advance and so you saw it—that’s why.

Student: Sometimes being truthful (Zhen) conflicts with self-restraint (Ren). For instance, when we know full well somebody is lying, should we point it out to be truthful (Zhen) or hold back (Ren)?

Master: I’ll tell you this again: as a practitioner, one should preserve his virtue instead of losing it. At present, some ordinary people have gotten to a point where lies roll off their tongues as soon as they open their mouths. But those are things related to ordinary people and are beyond your control anyway. If you point out to someone that he’s lying and strike a nerve with him, he will really, deeply hate you for it. So cultivating ourselves well is first and foremost. If you really encounter some very bad people or horrendous things, when major matters of principle are involved such as murder or arson, and you ignore them, then I would say your xinxing is poor. It’s to see how you handle things.

Student: Can Falun Dafa students learn guasha?²

Master: You’re cultivating in Falun Dafa, so what are you doing that for? Are you scraping yourself or others? Let me tell you: that is a form of witchcraft. In our northeastern region, this was done only during a shaman’s dance in the past. Those dancing shamans are delirious and are possessed by spirits. Only they do that kind of thing.

Student: Will someone who practices martial arts be adversely affected if he cultivates in Falun Dafa at the same time?

Master: No, he won’t. Those who practice the pure martial arts won’t. But some Tao school martial arts include things of internal cultivation, so they may interfere. For example, you can’t practice Tai-chi, Xingyi, Bagua and the like. If you do they will get mixed in. Those are forms of qigong, and the set of things I have placed in you would be messed up. Of course, I’m not forcing you to practice Falun Dafa. If you like Tai-chi, Xingyi, or Bagua, go ahead and practice those. I’m informing you of a principle, though: cultivation is a serious matter that requires exclusive focus.

Student: Sometimes when I’m doing the exercises I will unwittingly see a shadow that resembles me doing the exercises next to me.

Master: Ordinarily, a subordinate soul isn’t allowed to leave the person’s body to cultivate. It is with you, and it cultivates and exercises along with you. Of course, this is not absolute. There might be isolated cases where they come out while your body is being adjusted.

Student: On the second and third days of the class, I vomited clusters of things that looked like wood fibers or torn cloth, and in the following days I vomited and coughed up blood.

Master: That’s great, though, isn’t it? As I have said, some people will vomit and have diarrhea. In any case, your internal organs need to be purified before you can truly engage in cultivation. If they aren’t purified, this filthy body of yours could never develop gong. So that’s a good thing. Some people have discharged clots of blood along with pus. I’ll tell you, we humans eat all kinds of things and do all kinds of bad things, so our bodies are quite a mess now. So in any case, all of those things have to be purged out and your bodies have to be cleansed. Go and do well in cultivation from now on. Many people will suffer from pernicious diseases if they don’t take up cultivation. After they start cultivating those are all expelled when their bodies are adjusted.

Student: When someone reaches Three Flowers Gathering on Top, can he break away from life and death?

Master: In our Falun Dafa cultivation, when someone reaches the level of Three Flowers Gathering on Top, he has reached the highest level within the In-Triple-World Law cultivation practice, but he hasn’t gone beyond the Three Realms. So when he cultivates further, he will enter the state of Pure White Body and his body will be completely transformed into high-energy matter. Only at that point has he reached the transitional period between In-Triple-World Law and Beyond-Triple-World Law. A lot of things will be done for you during this transitional period. Of course, only when your cultivation has gone beyond In-Triple-World Law will you have truly escaped the cycle of transmigrations from lifetime to lifetime and gone beyond the Three Realms.

Student: While meditating, when I get to a point where it’s awfully hard to endure any further, would it be an attachment to try to endure further and continue to meditate?

Master: No, that wouldn’t be an attachment. When you are enduring, you are enduring pain, you are suffering, and you are making sacrifices. That’s not an attachment—it is eliminating karma. In the past some people didn’t realize this. They would meditate with their legs crossed, and as soon as their legs felt sore they would take them down, move around a little bit, and then go back to meditating. When discomfort set in they would take down their legs again, move around a little bit, and then go back to it. They thought that was a good way to practice, when in fact it achieved nothing. When someone truly meditates, folds up his legs, and feels a lot of pain—feels excruciating pain—[one will] find that a great deal of karma is being eliminated. After it is worked off, this kind of substance does not cease to exist, but will be transformed into a white substance. Since you have sacrificed and suffered, it will transform into virtue (de). Usually the pain you experience while meditating is periodic: it will be unbearably painful for a while, then a while later it will ease off, and after a while the pain will start again. It is related to your xinxing cultivation, and that is why it will torment your mind. [In cultivation] your body is to toil and your mind is to be tempered. So when you meditate, it torments your mind so much that you can hardly endure it any longer and you keep thinking about unfolding your legs. That’s not endurance (Ren).

Student: If we follow your requirements and earnestly cultivate our xinxing, then can we definitely reach Beyond-Triple-World Law in this life?

Master: Who can tell you that for sure? Do you have that kind of determination? Your ability to endure and to what extent you are able to withstand [adversity] are up to you. Master takes you through the doorway, but cultivation depends on yourself.

Student: I was able to maintain my xinxing in certain respects during the day, but couldn’t in my dreams.

Master: During the daytime you can maintain your xinxing while being fully aware—that of course is quite easy. In order to test whether you have cultivated and maintained your xinxing solidly, testing you while you are asleep or meditating in deep ding is the most accurate way to see if you are solid. Everyone will experience this. And if you can’t maintain your xinxing, that means you are not yet solid enough.

Student: When people who are possessed come to learn Falun Dafa, will the possessing spirit be killed?

Master: Animals are not allowed to listen to this Fa of ours. They don’t dare to enter the lecture hall. And if they do, we will get rid of them. We have always cleaned up the students’ bodies thoroughly by the third day.

Student: After becoming tranquil while doing the exercises, I saw some animals approaching me or watching nearby.

Master: Just ignore them. If they come close to you, call out Teacher’s name. They are curious and want to take a look. You can ignore them. They are not allowed to come near.

Student: While doing the meditation and strengthening of the column-shaped [divine power], there is a strong qi current between my palms.

Master: What you are strengthening is a kind of energy cluster, that is, various supernormal abilities. Most of them are spherical, ball-like supernormal abilities. Those types of supernormal abilities are the most numerous, and there are over ten thousand of those supernormal abilities. When you hold your palms facing each other, you are strengthening the column-shaped supernormal abilities, which, when sent out, are like lasers, such as “palm thunder.” There is a strong qi current moving between your hands. Some people are sensitive, and some aren’t.

Student: Is the subordinate consciousness that you talk about what people usually call the “soul” [linghun]?

Master: Don’t try to apply the terms used in the past here. I’m discussing the subject in connection with today’s biology and today’s science, and it couldn’t have been explained more clearly. The “three souls and seven spirits” (sanhun qipo) and similar things are all very vague. All your internal organs assume your image, each cell of your body is in your image, and each tiny particle of your gong is in your image. What do the “three souls and seven spirits” that people have talked about refer to? It’s very vague. In addition, you have your master soul and subordinate soul. What I just talked about isn’t something superstitious. Our present-day science has now recognized that. They did a smear test on a little white mouse, and transmitted its cells—a clump of cells cleaved from it—by a certain means. After that was received remotely over a thousand miles away, the image shown from that cell—from just one cell—is that of the little white mouse. It’s not that I am making some sensational remarks here. Today’s science and technology have developed to a point where many things you believed to be superstitious have been proven to be scientific. And it’s not necessarily true that things [that haven’t been recognized] by science, owing to its limited development, or that have been recognized by us but have yet to become popular knowledge, do not exist.

Student: While you are lecturing, I see an array of yellow chrysanthemums in the front. What do they represent?

Master: What you see are bundles of yellow light, not chrysanthemums. There are wonders in that yellow light. The inborn foundation of this student is quite good.

Student: I’m a scientist and I have the predestined connection to come from thousands of miles away to hear you teach Falun Dafa. Several times during the classes I saw your Law Bodies and I was delighted. But they disappeared after a short while. Was that because I became overly elated?

Master: No, it wasn’t. Many people have vaguely and unwittingly viewed some scenes. But why can’t they see them after a while? It’s because when you perceive them, your mind realizes that you have, and when you want to take a close look at them, they disappear. When you want to take a close look, you start to use your eyes, as you have gotten used to seeing things with your eyes. When you unwittingly see things with your Third Eye, it makes no difference whether your eyes are open or closed. Some people are used to seeing with their eyes closed, and some with their eyes open. So when you want to see it more closely, you are using your eyes. And once you start using your eyes, you are drawing on your optic nerves instead of that channel [of the Third Eye], and that’s why you can no longer see it. That is to say, at this point you still don’t know how to use it.

Student: Is it true that different people can only cultivate to different levels?

Master: That’s of course not absolute. As I have told all of you before, it involves Ren and is not absolute.

Student: Is it all right to publish things about and promote Teacher and Falun Dafa in overseas magazines?

Master: When it comes to spreading Falun Dafa, over the past several years I haven’t initiated those kinds of things, but the students have done it of their own initiative. Apparently we don’t even have many people writing [those kinds of] articles, and newspapers seldom carry them. Our classes have gotten so big now, and it’s all because people have personally benefited from Falun Dafa and think that it is good. That’s why they have come. You’d have one person attend one day, a whole family come the next time, and their relatives and friends come along the following time. That’s how the number has grown. People themselves feel that it’s good, and I would say that is the most convincing and is better than promotion. Of course, promotion is also indispensable, but few people helped us do it before. Of course, our students have taken the initiative to do it themselves, and you may do so.

Student: If I have a dog at home, can I do the exercises at home?

Master: Those creatures are likely to make connections spiritually, and once they are spiritually connected they will harm people. There was a saying in Buddhism: “Don’t kill and don’t raise pets or grow plants.” But don’t take this to the extreme, either. It’s just a matter of how we appropriately handle it.

Student: In the past few days, I have been hearing Falun Dafa music wherever I go.

Master: That’s very good. It is called “Having the Celestial Ear Opened.” In Heaven they, too, are listening to this exercise music.

Student: Is it true that we can’t make marks and notes in the materials?

Master: Don’t make marks on what I wrote or said. And that’s especially so for Zhuan Falun. Many of you whose Third Eye are open have looked at it and said that it beams with golden light, and that every character is a Law Body of mine. Human beings have karma, and the bodies of the disciples who haven’t reached beyond the In-Triple-World-Law in their cultivation aren’t pure. Any marks you make would be dark, since your body has not yet been cleansed to a high degree. Each line you draw would assume your image and carry karma.

Student: I’m in the military, and sometimes when I travel for my job I can’t do the exercises for one to two weeks. Will the Falun be taken back from me?

Master: No, it won’t, because that is your job. In cultivation practice, cultivation is first and foremost. If you cultivate in Falun Dafa, then hold yourself to strict xinxing requirements, and handle yourself very well in your daily life. Then when you need to travel for work for a while, your Falun and your gong will actually be increasing instead of decreasing. Why is that? It’s because, as I have said, the gong that truly determines your level comes from your cultivation, and not from doing the exercises. When we perform those movements during the exercises, it is only strengthening, reinforcing what is already there. We’ve had quite a number of people who went on business trips and were away for half a month. When they returned, [they found that] their gong had actually increased. If you’re a good person wherever you go and hold yourself to the requirements of the Fa, then you will just need to do the exercises more to make up for it after you return.

Student: Can those who have fought in wars practice cultivation?

Master: Let me address this issue here: religions have said that it’s very difficult for someone who has killed, and especially who has taken human lives, to practice cultivation. There are some people who have lived through times of war and those who have fought at the frontlines. So how should we deal with this issue? I’ll tell you, the attachments that we ask you to get rid of all come from your own intentions and are selfish, and [we advise you to avoid] killing that is caused by attachments in human society. Situations like wars are brought about by changes in the cosmic climate or by societal changes. You are only an element in the motions of the changes in the cosmic climate or of societal changes. If those elements didn’t play their roles, the changes in the cosmic climate wouldn’t have taken place. So you should view these matters separately, as they are different issues.

Student: I heard that the classic fable Journey to the West is a book on cultivation.

Master: It’s not a book on cultivation, but it gives a very vivid description of a cultivation process. The story tells about [the main character’s] eighty-one hardships. He met with a lot of tribulations, which took different forms. He had to undergo those forms of tribulations in his cultivation, and at the end, he couldn’t miss a single tribulation and had to make up for it. That’s the idea [of the book].

Student: When a man is learning to do full lotus, should he pull up his left leg first and then his right leg?

Master: In the half lotus, for men, the left leg is above the right leg; for women, the right leg is above the left leg. To do full lotus, you just pull the leg at the bottom up from the outside—that’s full lotus. Why should a man’s left leg and a woman’s right leg be on top? It’s the same with Jieyin. It is because a man’s body is of pure yang nature, and a woman’s is of pure yin nature. Doing the practice requires a balance of yin and yang—restraining your pure yin or pure yang and strengthening your yin or yang so that the balance of yin and yang is achieved. Let’s say you are a woman: it helps you invigorate your yang and restrain your yin. That is its effect.

Student: One morning, while lying in bed with my eyes closed and listening to an audiotape of you teaching the Fa, I heard people talking by my bedside. Suddenly I felt my whole body become very heavy and I couldn’t move, and then someone pressed my jaws together with force. After I got up, I found that my mouth, which couldn’t close tightly before, closed naturally. Later on when others saw me, they also said that my jaw was lower.

Master: Several Law Bodies were adjusting your body.

Student: Whenever I do the exercises in front of a mirror, I often see, unwittingly and with my eyes closed, that my reflection in the mirror looks the same as the negative of a black and white photo.

Master: When a person’s Third Eye first opens, the things it sees are in black and white—white is seen as black and black is seen to be white.

Student: When it’s hard to endure the lotus position while meditating and I don’t want to put my legs down, I recall Teacher’s words. Is that considered to be using a mental technique?

Master: It’s not considered to be using a mental technique. When you call to mind my words to strengthen your endurance and stick it out, that’s not making use of mental techniques. It is a form of being diligent.

Student: At the practice site, a veteran student said that something is on my body.

Master: Don’t listen to those who make irresponsible remarks. Many students see illusions when their third eyes open, and they are not able to discern possessing spirits from the images brought along from one’s previous lives. And those images are not necessarily those of your master soul. They could be images of your subordinate souls. So these students are in no way able to distinguish these things. Don’t listen to any irresponsible remarks they may make. If they aren’t able to tell those things apart and speak irresponsibly, it amounts to undermining the Fa.

Student: Sometimes when I run into difficult problems that I can’t solve, I look at Teacher’s photo. And then Teacher’s photo glows and becomes animated, and the surroundings of the Falun glitter and become animated. Whenever this happens, I shed tears and am in a better mood.

Master: That is one phenomenon. Truly cultivating disciples come across all kinds of scenarios. It was encouraging you to cultivate diligently.

Student: Can we use Zhen-Shan-Ren as the standard to examine whether a practice is upright or wicked?

Master: Of course. The nature of the universe is Zhen-Shan-Ren. It’s not something that applies exclusively to our practice. It is the nature of the universe, and we cultivate according to Zhen-Shan-Ren. Anything that is not in line with the nature of Zhen-Shan-Ren, that is not in line with the nature of the universe, is wicked.

Student: I only have the qi mechanism, but if I cultivate hard, how long will it take for a Falun to form?

Master: That depends on whether you are able to endure hardship and whether you are resolved in cultivation. If you truly make up your mind, steel your will to cultivate, and can really do it, really realize your past mistakes and do better, I think probably you will be given a Falun. It’s all possible. So these things aren’t absolute.

Student: Can people who have encountered many tribulations on their cultivation paths still cultivate Falun Dafa if they work hard at it?

Master: Anyone, so long as he wants to cultivate and has the predestined connection, may cultivate in Falun Dafa. We emphasize here that you should not drag in people who don’t want to cultivate. If someone is not interested and doesn’t believe in it, and yet you insist that he comes with you and insist on dragging him in to learn it, I would say you shouldn’t do that.

Student: A possessing spirit has been with me for twenty-eight years, and so far it hasn’t left me after I started practicing Falun Dafa. What should I do? Can I achieve a True Attainment Status through cultivation?

Master: It has been with you for so long and you haven’t been able to drive it away. Is the goal of your learning Falun Dafa to drive it away? That is, did you come to learn Falun Dafa in order to drive it away? That would be learning with pursuit. This Fa was imparted so that people may truly cultivate. Even with adjusting your body and clearing out illness, the purpose is to enable you to cultivate. If you say, “I’ve come here to get healed,” then we can’t do those things for you. What I am teaching here is not some ordinary qigong, but things at higher levels. Think about what you should do with it. With certain things, the problems come from you. What’s twenty-eight years? Even twenty-eight hundred years is but a brief moment.

Student: Why is it that I am able to tolerate xinxing related issues in my daily life, but not in my dreams?

Master: That means it’s still not solid. True cultivation is a very serious matter. If among everyday people you don’t pay serious attention to things and handle things casually, you won’t pass the test in your dreams.

Student: If we offer to help colleagues and friends around us, does that conflict with the principle of non-action taught by Teacher?

Master: I’ll tell you the same thing again: you can’t be expected to put aside all intentional things right now. At present just try your best to enlighten to things yourself and do things yourself toward that, and gradually you will be able to let go of many things. Do it little by little. Helping people around you obtain the Fa is a different matter, though.

Student: What does turning the big Falun mean?

Master: It means turning the Falun that is big. How big? Well, it’s quite big, in short. However big the cosmic body in which I do Fa-rectification is, that’s how big the Falun is that’s being turned.

Student: What people say about seeing ghosts and spirits with yin-yang eyes—is the person’s Third Eye opened?

Master: Whatever it may be, I’ll tell you this: when you see something that everyday people can’t see, you have seen it with your Third Eye. Of course, the main channel of the Third Eye is here. Also, usually many people see from their Shangen³ point. Of course, a small number of people can see with their eyes too.

Student: When I meditate, sometimes my upper body leans backwards, my legs pop up, and I can hardly remain seated.

Master: This is like the opening of the energy channels I have described. Your leaning backwards means that the front of your body has opened, and if the back of your body has not opened yet it will feel heavy. If both sides have opened, your body will be lifted and you will feel like you are about to levitate.

Student: I’m not clear on one question with regard to being exclusive in cultivation: can Falun Dafa practitioners still keep some of the hobbies they used to have?

Master: Right now you may do that. If today you were asked to let go of all of your emotions and desires all at once, could you do it? Absolutely not. That’s because certain things have become natural in your way of thinking, and so you can’t even sense or perceive those bad states of mind of yours. That is to say, during the course of your cultivation, you should hold yourself to strict requirements and gradually remove your various attachments, and you will gradually improve. At that time, you will even blush when you think of the question you asked.

Student: Did Falun Dafa ever save mankind before catastrophes befell the human race during different periods?

Master: I’ll tell you this principle: whether it be mankind arriving at a dangerous time or having catastrophes, although we haven’t talked about that, we have seen that mankind’s morality cannot continue to degenerate like this—further degeneration is of course dangerous. So what we are doing today, think about it, teaching people a practice that goes toward high levels is an endeavor to save people. What’s meant by “saving mankind and doing something good”? I am giving my all to this undertaking I have begun. What you asked about is something of too high a level to explicitly disclose.

Student: What’s the difference between Ren and being wishy-washy?

Master: What do you mean by being wishy-washy? What’s your criteria for that? If you’re talking about someone who lives in a complicated environment and realizes that he would be attacked if he tried to intervene in others’ business, and he finds that to always be the case, that he can’t do anything about it, and that he might as well compromise to maintain harmony, then I don’t think he, being an ordinary person who doesn’t want to ask for trouble, is necessarily the kind of wishy-washy person you mentioned. If a person has the ability but doesn’t intervene, then I would say he’s wishy-washy. The Ren that we are talking about is about restraining your various desires and attachments so that you will have less unnecessary vexation. That’s not being wishy-washy.

Student: What if we run into life-threatening situations?

Master: If you are a true cultivator, when your future cultivation path is arranged, those things won’t be arranged to happen to you. Everything has its karmic, causal relationships and doesn’t exist by accident. When something is not arranged for you, you won’t come across it. What do those things have to do with your cultivation? Nothing, so we try not to arrange them for you. If you were really killed, would you still be able to cultivate? But there’s one thing: Those ordinary people who are unable to cultivate, who don’t make an effort, who practice on and off without perseverance, or who don’t strictly hold themselves to the Fa’s requirements—they are not cultivators. And ordinary people will run into whatever they are supposed to run into, for they are ordinary people.

Student: Can someone do the exercises when he is agitated?

Master: You can’t do the exercises when you are in a bad mood. You won’t be able to become tranquil and you will be there steaming—would you be practicing the Ren of Zhen-Shan-Ren? You wouldn’t be, right? Then what would be the point of doing the exercises? Isn’t that right? Practicing Ren doesn’t mean you practice Ren after you have become upset; rather, you should not become upset in the first place.

Student: Another person’s thoughts came into my mind and made me unable to become tranquil or even sleep well. I wonder if that’s a good thing.

Master: There is a supernormal ability called telepathy that allows you to know others’ thoughts. If you can read other people’s minds, this is a good thing, but you need to handle yourself well. Nowadays, people have all kinds of bad thoughts in their minds. Even when they don’t know you, when they first meet you they won’t have good thoughts about you. So try your best not to worry about those things. Just like today, while I’m sitting here talking to you with such sincerity and patience, there are still people in the audience who have all kinds of thoughts, but I don’t try to sense your thoughts at all.

Student: When I do the meditation, Strengthening Divine Powers, sometimes something sweet will fall into my mouth, and I wonder what it is.

Master: That’s something that flows over from your energy channels when your cosmic orbit is operating, something you feel. This doesn’t happen all the time. Everyone is in a different state.

Student: As soon as I close my eyes and become tranquil, it’s as if I were in a dream, and a relatively fixed scene or person will appear in my mind, which may be from ancient or modern times. Is this an illusion?

Master: No, it’s not an illusion. It is caused by your Third Eye.

Student: Has our thinking with human attachments become habitual?

Master: It has become natural for ordinary people in general. Whenever they open their mouths it’s always about self-interest, and whenever they use their brains to think it’s always about self-interest. It has become natural for them. But people are not born this way; it is formed after birth. When these bad things become abundant, the person’s mind gradually becomes complicated.

Student: I practiced another qigong before. One day when I was reading the magazine Science and Qigong, I saw Teacher’s photo and had a pleasant feeling. All of a sudden, something entered my head from my Baihui point, and then I began to learn Falun Dafa.

Master: That means your inborn foundation is very good and you were predestined to obtain Dafa. Once you had a positive feeling and wanted to learn it, you were given assistance—my Faluns are everywhere.

Student: Why is blue the basic color of Falun Dafa books and cassette tapes?

Master: There are no special reasons for that. When you look at the universe with your human eyes, you find that the sky is deep blue; it’s blue, so we use this idea. In Falun Dafa one practices according to the nature of the universe and according to the laws by which the universe evolves—it is something that huge—and that is why we are conveying the idea of the color of the universe. But it’s not absolute, because this color is like this when viewed with human eyes; it is like this in this dimension, but it’s not like this in other dimensions, and there are other changes to its color.

Student: While doing the meditation, Strengthening Divine Powers, sometimes after conjoining the hands I do the mudras we do at the beginning of the meditation or perform some other movements.

Master: That’s not right. When you repeat the mudras, it’s to show those to yourself and that’s not too bad. But then [if you do other movements] right afterwards, it turns wicked. Be sure to remember that you yourself have to cultivate knowingly and clearheadedly. I’m quite emphatic about this, and I am sending [the idea] into your mind with very strong gong, and yet some people still can’t follow my teachings and just can’t relinquish that sense of elation of theirs. As soon as some kind of mechanism appears and leads him to do the exercises, he will be wowed, he will get immediately elated, and he will be delighted and follow along. Would you be practicing knowingly and clearheadedly then? Would it be you who wants to cultivate? Who would you be cultivating for? Whoever cultivates gets the gong—what a serious issue this is!

Student: Teacher, you have stressed the importance of doing the exercises in groups. Is that to avoid interference from evil demons?

Master: No, it’s not. You have my Law Bodies and the Falun taking care of you—just to illustrate the point. We do the exercises together so that when you come across questions you can discuss them and learn from one another, and you will improve better. That is the purpose.

Student: Ordinarily, when I do the exercises at home my mind is quite calm, but there have been a few bad energies that have disturbed my mind. I have longed to see you over the past year… Teacher, I wonder if I have been possessed by low-level spirits.

Master: How could someone who practices Falun Dafa possibly be possessed by low-level spirits? [What you described] is caused by karmic relationships from a previous life. Instead of studying Dafa, you only want to see me. That too is an attachment, and that’s why more than a year has gone by and you still haven’t enlightened to it.

Student: Sometimes when I lie in bed, all of a sudden my whole body feels paralyzed, as if someone is pressing my arms and legs down, making me unable to move.

Master: We have many people who, after taking up the practice, come across situations where it feels as if they can’t move their hands or their bodies. That is a complicated, good phenomenon. When people take up the practice, this situation may appear. There is a supernormal ability called “the ability of staying still,” which the person can feel. That’s why some of us suddenly feel as if they can’t move their hands. That is one phenomenon. Another is that your master soul leaves your body. Also, when your Master is adjusting your body, sometimes you will be made still.

Student: [Is it all right to] chant Teacher’s name in order to become tranquil?

Master: I’ve talked about the reason why a person is unable to become tranquil. Chanting [my] name can help a little, but all that does is have one thought take the place of all other thoughts. Ultimate tranquility can only be achieved through the removal of human attachments.

Student: The principles of Zhen-Shan-Ren that Teacher has taught and the principles taught by our Catholic Bible take different approaches, but achieve the same thing. That’s how I feel, and therefore I have faith in Jesus Christ while practicing Falun Dafa.

Master: [We] understand that you need to go through a process to understand Dafa. Let’s hold off on this until later on when you have come to understand it.

Student: While doing the exercises, if I see something harming me, may I call Teacher’s name?

Master: Yes, that’s what you should do. While doing the exercises, if you come across something frightful, you may call my name, but even if you don’t it cannot harm you. Whether you call out my name is a matter of whether you believe in Dafa and Master. In fact, my Law Bodies are always watching.

Student: After having learned Falun Dafa in Guangzhou this time, after I go back, may I organize people in my hometown to learn it together?

Master: Of course you may. You can organize the people in your hometown to learn it. And if the number of people who learn it becomes profuse and they have learned it well, you can organize them and establish a practice site. Spreading the Fa is saving people.

Concluding Remarks

As of today we have finished teaching this Fa. Is there more to be taught? There is, if we branch out and get into the details. I could sit here and talk for a year, but that wouldn’t be helpful to your cultivation later on. Many questions are up to you to enlighten to, and I can’t tell you about specific things. If I were to tell you about specific issues, what would be left for you to enlighten to? And what would you do? You wouldn’t have the opportunities, environments, and conditions for your cultivation. So when you come across specific issues, you should handle them according to this Fa, and handle them well. I’ve basically told you what I should. You can also refer to the audiotapes of my other lectures. I taught you a lot during these ten classes. As for whether I have been responsible to you during this class, you be the judge. I won’t talk about that here. I think that overall our class was really good. We started it and ended it well, and we completed it successfully.

There are more than three thousand people who came from great distances, the farthest being from Heilongjiang and Xinjiang, which are four to five thousand kilometers, or more than eight thousand li away. It’s a long way to get here, and you endured a lot of hardships. Some people don’t even have enough money, and every day they eat instant noodles or even crackers. Why did you do that? You have come here to learn this Fa and obtain this Fa, right? So you do know how precious this Fa is. Of course, during these ten classes, I tried to satisfy your needs, tried to make it convenient for you, and I tried to tell you more and explain things thoroughly so that you can understand it and so that in your future cultivation the Fa will be there for you to follow. In other words, during the ten classes, you looked to me, and the purpose of my taking you toward higher levels and purifying your bodies is to enable you to cultivate from now on. That is to say, after the ten classes, it’s up to you. Whether you are able to cultivate and whether you can make it are completely up to you. But we would say that your sitting here means you have predestination. So I would suggest that you might as well make an effort when you go back and see what happens. If you’re able to stick with it, stick with it and keep on cultivating. However much you give will be however much you gain—that’s for sure.

We have accumulated a lot of experiences, and many students have learned a lot from their own cultivation. I think that alone sufficiently provides us with a lot of experiences and all kinds of lessons. In a nutshell, now that we are sitting here today we can’t waste these eight or ten days, or an even longer time. It’s very hard for people to truly acquire something real. Once you get it, if you don’t cherish it, it will be too late to regret it later on. There is a Chinese saying, “Once you pass this village, this inn will no longer be available,” right? That is, after listening to our class, you might have all realized that no monks or any other cultivators teach the way I do. In our country, I would say that when it comes to truly guiding people toward higher levels and teaching Fa at higher levels, I am the only person doing it. Or be it the whole world, I am the only person doing it. No matter what, though, the purpose is to enable you—in a historic period like this and in an environment like this where human minds are so complicated—to obtain a righteous Fa, be able to truly improve yourself, and truly cultivate yourself. Even if you don’t take up cultivation, after you finish this class you will try to be a good person. I believe that’s the case.

Many students have said to me, “Teacher, after listening to your lectures, even my world view has changed.” That is what happens. In the midst of this powerful tide, this enormous current these days, people take what’s wrong as right, what’s bad as good, and what’s evil as virtuous. And this has formed notions in their minds. When everyone is so attached and is going after these things in that kind of a current, and then all of a sudden I teach something that is totally different from the ideas in your mindset, many new students might not be able to understand it or unravel it right away, even though they do find it good. From this point on, you need to continually put effort into studying it, doing the exercises, and listening to [the tapes]. Only then can you gradually understand it and deepen your comprehension. So I hope that after this seminar you won’t just forget everything. When you go back you should read the books a lot and listen to the tapes a lot, and that way you will be able to continually improve.

I don’t want to say more. I will leave you with a few words. During the course of your future cultivation, when you find it hard to endure, when you feel that you can no longer bear it, think of these words of mine. What are they? They are: “It’s hard to do, but you can do it; it’s hard to endure, but you can endure it.” I hope that all of you will be able to achieve Consummation and great success in your Dafa cultivation!

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