Loss and Gain
In the community of cultivators, the relationship between
loss and gain is frequently brought up. Among everyday people, it is also
discussed. How should our practitioners treat losses and gains? It is different
from ordinary people. What everyday people want is personal gain and how to live
well and comfortably. Our practitioners are not this way, but exactly the
opposite. We do not seek what everyday people want. Instead, what we get is
something everyday people cannot obtain—even though they want to—except
through cultivation practice.
The loss we normally refer to is not loss in a narrow scope.
When one speaks of loss, one will think of donating some money, giving a hand to
those in need, or feeding a beggar on the street. Those are also a form of
giving and a form of loss. Yet this only refers to being less concerned about
the sole issue of money or possessions. Giving up wealth is, of course, an
aspect of loss, and a relatively major aspect as well. But the loss we refer to
is not limited to this narrow scope. As practitioners, in the course of
cultivation there are so many attachments to be relinquished, such as the
mentality of showing off, jealousy, the competitive mentality, and zealotry.
Many different attachments must be discarded, for the loss we discuss is one in
a broad sense. During the entire course of cultivation, we should lose all
everyday people’s attachments and various desires.
One may wonder: "We’re practicing cultivation among
everyday people. If we lose everything, aren’t we the same as monks or nuns?
It seems impossible to lose everything." In our school of practice, those
who practice cultivation among everyday people are required to practice
cultivation precisely in ordinary human society, and to fit in among everyday
people as much as possible. You are not really asked to lose anything
materially. It does not matter how high your position ranks or how much wealth
you own. The key is whether you can abandon that attachment.
Our school of practice directly targets one’s mind. The key
issue is whether you can take lightly and care less about the issues of
individual gain and interpersonal conflicts. Cultivation practices in temples or
in remote mountains and woods completely sever your access to ordinary human
society, forcing you to lose everyday people’s attachments and denying you any
material benefits so that you can lose them. A practitioner among everyday
people does not follow this path. This person is required to take them lightly
in this everyday human environment. Of course, this is very difficult. It is
also the most crucial aspect of our school of practice. Therefore, the loss we
refer to is loss in a broad sense instead of a narrow one. Let us talk about
doing good deeds and donating some money or goods. Nowadays, some of the beggars
that you see on the street are professional and they may even have more money
than you. We should focus on a broader range of things instead of minor trivia.
Cultivation practice should focus with openness and dignity on a broad
perspective. In the course of our losses, what we actually lose are the bad
things.
Human beings often believe that everything they pursue is
good. In fact, from a high-level perspective, these are to satisfy those bits of
vested interests among everyday people. It is said in religion that regardless
of how much money you have or how high your position ranks, it is good for only
a few decades. One cannot bring it along at birth or carry it after death. Why
is gong so precious? It is precisely because it grows right on the body of your
Primordial Spirit and can be carried at birth and taken forth after death. In
addition, it directly determines your Fruit Status in cultivation, and it is
therefore difficult to cultivate. In other words, what you lose is something
bad. Thus, you can return to your original, true self. So what do you gain? The
improvement of your level; eventually you achieve Right Fruit and complete
cultivation, solving the fundamental issue. Certainly, it will not be easy for
you to immediately lose all sorts of everyday people’s desires and reach the
standard of a true practitioner, as it takes time to make it. When you hear me
say that it takes time, you might say that Teacher has told us to take time, and
so you will take time in doing so. That will not be permitted! You should be
strict with yourself, though we allow you to improve gradually. If you could do
it all at once today, you would be a Buddha today. Thus, it is not realistic.
You will be able to achieve this gradually.
What we lose is actually something bad. What is it? It is
karma, and it goes hand in hand with different human attachments. For example,
everyday people have all kinds of bad thoughts. For self-interest, they commit
various wrong deeds and will acquire this black substance, karma. This directly
involves our own minds. In order to eliminate this negative thing, you must
first change your mind.
Transformation of Karma
There exists a transformation process between the white
substance and the black substance. After a conflict takes place between one
another, there occurs this process of transformation. When one does a good deed,
one acquires the white substance, de. When one does a bad deed, one obtains the
black substance, karma. There is also an inheriting process. One may ask,
"Is this because one did bad things early in one’s life?" It might
not be completely so because this karma is not accumulated in only one lifetime.
The community of cultivators believes that a Primordial Spirit does not become
extinct. If a Primordial Spirit does not become extinct, one probably had social
interactions before this life. So one might have owed something to someone,
bullied someone, or done other bad things, such as killing, which would induce
this karma. These things add up in another dimension, and one always carries
them; the same is also true with the white substance. This is not the only
source, as there is also another situation. Throughout the generations in the
family, ancestors may also accumulate karma for later generations. In the past,
the elderly had this saying: "One should accumulate de, and one’s
ancestors have accumulated de. This person is giving away de and abusing
de." That was said very correctly. Nowadays, average people no longer
listen to this saying. If you tell those young people about losing de or lacking
de, they will not take it to heart at all. In fact, its meaning is indeed very
profound. It is not merely the ideological and spiritual standard of modern
people, but also an actual material existence. Our human bodies have both kinds
of substances.
Someone asked, "Is it that if one has too much black
substance one is unable to practice to high levels?" One could say so, as
with a lot of black substance, one’s enlightenment quality will be affected.
Because it forms a field around one’s body and wraps a person up right in the
middle, one is cut off from Zhen-Shan-Ren, the characteristic of the universe.
Thus, this person’s enlightenment quality may be poor. When people talk about
cultivation practice and qigong, this person will consider all of them
superstitious, and he will not believe them at all. He will find them
ridiculous. It is usually this way, but not absolutely so. Is it that it’s too
difficult for this person to practice cultivation, and that he is unable to
achieve high-level gong? It is not so. We have said that Dafa is boundless, and
it is completely up to your heart to practice cultivation. The master takes you
through the entrance, and it is up to you, yourself to practice cultivation. It
all depends upon how you, yourself practice cultivation. Whether you can
practice cultivation all depends upon whether you can endure, sacrifice, and
suffer. If you can commit your mind, no difficulties can stop you. I would say
that there is not a problem.
A person with a lot of the black substance will usually have
to sacrifice more than a person with a lot of the white substance. Because the
white substance is directly assimilated to the characteristic of the universe,
Zhen-Shan-Ren, as long as a person upgrades his xinxing in conflicts, his gong
will increase. It is that simple. One with much de has good enlightenment
quality. He can suffer and endure physical as well as mental hardships. Even if
this person suffers more physically and less mentally, his gong still increases.
This is not the case for a person with a lot of the black substance, as he must
first go through this process: He must transform the black substance into the
white substance. This process is also quite painful. Therefore, a person with
poor enlightenment quality usually must suffer more tribulations. With a lot of
karma and poor enlightenment quality, it is more difficult for this person to
practice cultivation.
Take a specific case, for example. Let us see how this person
practices cultivation. The sitting meditation requires putting up both legs on
top of each other for a long period of time. The legs will be painful and numb
after assuming the posture. As time passes by, one will begin to feel quite
uneasy and then become rather restless. Suffering physically and mentally can
make both the body and the mind quite uncomfortable. Some people cannot bear the
pain in sitting with the legs like that, and they want to give up by putting the
legs down. Some people cannot bear it anymore after sitting a little longer.
Once the legs are put down, one’s practice is in vain. Once the legs are in
pain, one will do some warm-ups before resuming the sitting position. We find
that this serves no use whatsoever. This is because we have seen that when the
legs are painful, the black substance moves to the legs. The black substance is
karma that can be eliminated through suffering; it can then be transformed into
de. Once the pain is felt, karma begins to be eliminated. The more karma that
comes, the more pain the legs feel. Therefore, the pain in the legs does not
arise without reason. Usually, one’s legs in the sitting meditation will feel
the pain intermittently. After a moment of very uncomfortable pain, it is over
and there is some relief. Soon the pain starts all over again. It usually
happens this way.
As karma is eliminated piece by piece, the legs will feel a
little better after a piece is eliminated. Soon another piece comes up, and the
legs will feel the pain again. After the black substance is eliminated, it does
not dissipate, as this substance does not become extinct. Upon being eliminated,
it is directly transformed into the white substance, which is de. Why can it be
transformed this way? This is because this person has suffered, sacrificed, and
endured tribulations. We have said that de is obtained through enduring and
suffering hardships, or by doing good deeds. Therefore, this situation will
occur in the sitting meditation. Some people quickly take the legs down once
they begin to ache, and they will do some warm-ups before resuming the sitting
position. That will achieve nothing whatsoever. While doing the standing
exercise, one’s arms may get tired from doing the wheel-holding posture. When
one cannot bear it anymore and puts down the arms, one accomplishes nothing
whatsoever. What does that bit of pain account for? I would say that it is
simply too easy if one can succeed in cultivation by just holding the arms up
like that. This is what will happen when people practice the sitting meditation.
Our school of practice does not proceed primarily this way,
though a part of it also plays a role in this regard. In most cases, one
transforms karma through xinxing conflicts among one another, and this is where
it manifests itself. While one is in a conflict, the clashes between each other
even surpass the physical pains. I would say that the physical pains are the
easiest thing to endure, as they can be overcome by biting the teeth tightly.
When a conflict takes place between one another, the mind is the hardest thing
to control.
For instance, upon arriving at the workplace, a person will
become furious when he overhears two people denigrating him very badly. We have
said, however, that as a practitioner one should not fight back when being
punched or insulted, but should conduct oneself with a high standard. Thus, he
thinks that Teacher has said that as practitioners we should not be the same as
others and must conduct ourselves better. He will not quarrel with those two
persons. But normally when a problem arises, if it does not irritate a person
psychologically, it does not count or is useless and cannot make him or her
improve. Accordingly, his mind cannot get over it and is still bothered by it.
It could be that his mind is hooked on it. He always wants to turn around to
look at the faces of those two people. Upon looking back, he sees the two
wicked-looking faces in a heated conversation. He can no longer take it and
becomes very upset. He may even pick a fight with them right away. When a
conflict occurs among one another, it is very difficult to control one’s mind.
I say that it would be easy if everything could be taken care of in the sitting
meditation; however, it will not always be this way.
Accordingly, in your future cultivation practice you will run
into all kinds of tribulations. How can you practice cultivation without these
hardships? If everyone is good to one another without conflicts of interests or
interference from the human mind, how can your xinxing make progress by your
only sitting there? That is impossible. One must truly temper and upgrade
oneself through actual practice. Someone asks, "Why do we always have
tribulations in cultivation practice? Those problems aren’t much different
from those of everyday people." It is because you are practicing
cultivation among everyday people. You will not be suddenly turned upside down
with your head facing the ground, flying up there and suffering in the air—it
won’t be like that. Everything will assume the form of everyday situations,
such as someone may have irritated you today, someone has upset you, someone has
mistreated you, or someone suddenly speaks to you with no respect. It is to see
how you will react to these issues.
Why do you encounter these problems? They are all caused by
your own karma. We have already eliminated for you many, numerous pieces of it,
leaving only that tiny bit which is divided into tribulations at different
levels for upgrading your xinxing, tempering your mind, and removing your
different attachments. These are all your own tribulations that we use to
improve your xinxing, and you will be able to overcome them. As long as you
upgrade your xinxing, you can overcome them. Unless you, yourself do not want to
do so, you can make it, provided you want to overcome them. Therefore, from now
on when you come across a conflict you should not consider it a coincidence.
This is because when a conflict occurs, it will take place unexpectedly. But
that is not a coincidence—it is for improving your xinxing. As long as you
treat yourself as a practitioner, you can handle it properly.
Of course, you will not be informed of a tribulation or
conflict ahead of time. How can you practice cultivation if you are told
everything? It will not serve any use. They usually occur unexpectedly so that
they can test one’s xinxing and make one’s xinxing truly improve. Only then
can it be seen whether one can maintain one’s xinxing. Therefore, when a
conflict arises, it does not occur accidentally. This issue will be present
during the entire course of cultivation practice and in the transformation of
karma. Unlike what everyday persons imagine, it is much more difficult than
suffering physically. How can you increase gong simply by practicing the
exercises a bit longer when the arms are sore from being raised and the legs are
tired from standing? How can you increase gong with only a few more hours of
exercise? That only serves to transform one’s benti, but it still needs
to be reinforced with energy. It does not help upgrade one’s level. Mentally
overcoming tribulations is the key to truly improving one’s level. If one can
make progress just by suffering physically, I would say that Chinese farmers
suffer the most. Shouldn’t they all become qigong masters, then? No matter how
much you suffer physically, you do not suffer as much as they do, who work both
hard and painstakingly in the field everyday under the baking sun. It is not
that simple a matter. Therefore, we have said that to truly improve oneself, one
should genuinely upgrade one’s mind. Only then can one truly upgrade oneself.
During the process of transforming karma, to keep yourself
under control—unlike an everyday person who would mess things up—you should
always maintain a heart of benevolence and a mind of kindness. If you suddenly
bump into a problem, you will be able to take care of it properly. When you
always maintain a heart of benevolence and compassion, you will have time or
room to buffer the confrontation and think, should a problem arise suddenly. If
you always think about competing with others and fighting back and forth, I
would say that you will start a fight with others whenever there is a problem—this
is guaranteed. Thus, when you encounter a conflict, I would say that it is to
transform your black substance into the white substance, de.
When our humankind evolves to this extent today, almost
everyone is born with karma built upon karma, and everyone’s body has quite a
lot of karma. In transforming karma, therefore, this situation will usually
occur: While your gong increases and your xinxing improves, your karma is
eliminated and transformed. When one runs into a conflict, it may manifest in a
xinxing tribulation between one another. If you can endure it, your karma will
be eliminated, your xinxing will improve, and your gong will increase as well.
All of these will come together. People in the past had a lot of de and good
xinxing to begin with. As long as they suffered a little bit of hardship, they
could increase their gong. People are not like that today. As soon as they
suffer, they do not want to practice cultivation. Furthermore, they have become
less enlightened, making it harder for them to practice cultivation.
In cultivation practice, there may be two scenarios when
dealing with specific conflicts or when others treat you badly. One is that you
might have treated this person badly in your previous life. You feel in your
heart that it is unfair, "How can this person treat me like this?"
Then why did you treat this person that way in the past? You might claim that
you actually did not know it at that time, and this life has nothing to do with
the other life. That does not work. There is another issue. In conflicts, the
issue of transforming karma is involved. Therefore, in dealing with specific
conflicts we should be forgiving instead of acting like ordinary people. This
should apply to the workplace or other work environments. The same is true as
well with self-employed people, for they also have social interactions. It is
impossible not to interact with society, as at least there is contact among
neighbors.
In social interactions one will come across all kinds of
conflicts. For those who practice cultivation among everyday persons, what type
of business you are in does not matter. Regardless of how much money you have,
how high your position ranks, or what kind of private enterprise or company you
run, it makes no difference, as you should trade fairly and maintain a righteous
mind. All professions in human society should exist. It is the human heart that
is indecent, rather than one’s occupation. There was a saying in the old days:
"Nine out of ten merchants are fraudulent." That is a saying made by
everyday people. I would say that it is a matter of the human heart. As long as
your heart is righteous and you trade fairly, you deserve to earn more money if
you make more effort. That is because you are rewarded for the effort you have
put in among everyday people. No loss, no gain. You have worked for it. With any
social status, one can still be a good person. There are different conflicts for
people of different social classes. The upper-class society has conflicts of the
upper-class society, all of which can be properly dealt with. In any social
class, one can be a good person and care less for different desires or
attachments. One can be a good person at different strata, and one can practice
cultivation at one’s own social level.
Nowadays, whether in a state-run company or in other
enterprises in this country, interpersonal conflicts have become very unique. In
other countries and throughout history, this phenomenon has never occurred.
Consequently, conflicts over self-interest are shown to be particularly intense.
People play mind games and compete for a tiny bit of personal gain; the thoughts
they have and the tricks they use are very vicious. Even being a good person is
difficult. For instance, you arrive at your workplace and find the atmosphere
there not right. Later, a person tells you that so-and-so has publicized you
badly and reported on you to the boss, putting you in an awful situation. Others
all stare at you with an unusual look. How can an ordinary person tolerate that?
How can one put up with that? "If someone makes trouble for me, I’ll
return the same. If he has supporters, I do, too. Let’s fight." If you do
this among everyday people, they will say that you are a strong person. As a
practitioner, however, that is completely awful. If you compete and fight like
an ordinary person, you are an ordinary person. If you outdo him, you are even
worse than that ordinary person.
How should we deal with this issue? Upon running into this
conflict, we should, first of all, keep a cool head, and we should not behave
the same as that person. Of course, we can explain the matter kindly, and it is
not a problem if we clarify the issue. But you should not become too attached to
it. If we encounter these problems, we should not compete and fight like others.
If you do what that person did, aren’t you an ordinary person? Not only should
you not compete and fight like him, but also you should not resent that person
in your heart. Really, you should not hate that person. If you hate that person,
aren’t you upset? You have not followed forbearance. We practice Zhen-Shan-Ren,
and you would have even less compassion so to speak of. So you should not
be like him or become really upset with him, despite his putting you in this
awful situation where you cannot even raise your head. Instead of being angry
with him, you should thank him in your heart and thank him sincerely. An
ordinary person may think this way: "Isn’t that being like Ah
Q?"1 I am telling you that it is not so.
Think about it, everyone: You are practitioners. Shouldn’t
you be required to meet a high standard? The principles of everyday people
should not apply to you, right? As a practitioner, isn’t what you get
something of high levels? Accordingly, you must follow the high-level
principles. If you do what that person did, aren’t you the same as he? Why
should you thank him, then? Think about it: What will you obtain? In this
universe, there is a principle which says: "no loss, no gain." To
gain, one must lose. That person puts you in an awful situation among everyday
people, and he is the party that has gained at your expense. The worse the
situation he puts you in and the greater its impact, the more you will endure
and the more de he will lose. Such de will all be given to you. While you are
enduring all that, you might care less for it and not take it seriously in your
mind.
In this universe, there is another principle: If you have
suffered a lot, the karma in your body will be transformed. Because you have
suffered, however much you have endured will all be transformed into an equal
amount of de. Isn’t this de what a practitioner wants? You will gain in two
ways, as your karma is also eliminated. If the person did not create this
situation for you, how could you upgrade your xinxing? If both you and I are
nice to each other and sit there in harmony, how can it be possible to increase
gong? It is precisely because that person has created this conflict for you that
there is this opportunity to improve xinxing, and you can make use of it to
upgrade your own xinxing. Isn’t your xinxing raised this way? You have gained
in three ways. You are a practitioner. With xinxing upgraded, won’t your gong
also increase? You have gained four ways in one shot. Why shouldn’t you thank
that person? You should sincerely thank him from the bottom of your heart—it
is actually so.
Of course, that person’s thought was not decent, or else he
would not have given you de. But he has indeed created an opportunity to upgrade
your xinxing. In other words, we must pay attention to cultivating xinxing. At
the same time xinxing is cultivated, karma is eliminated and transformed into de
so that you can ascend to a higher level; these go hand in hand. From the
high-level perspective, these principles are all changed. An ordinary person
will not understand it. When you look at these principles from high levels,
everything will be different. Among everyday people you may find these
principles correct, but they are not actually right. Only what is seen from high
levels is truly right. It is usually like this.
I have thoroughly explained the principles to everyone, and I
hope that in future cultivation practice everyone will treat himself as a
practitioner and truly practice cultivation, since the principles are already
presented here. Perhaps some people, because they live among everyday people,
still think that in the face of actual material interests, being everyday people
is practical. Amid the current of everyday persons they still cannot conduct
themselves with the high standard. Actually, for being a good person among
everyday people there are heroes who serve as models, but those are models among
everyday people. If you want to be a practitioner, it all depends on cultivating
your heart and on you, yourself being enlightened since there are no role
models. Fortunately, today we have made public this Dafa. In the past, if you
wished to practice cultivation, nobody would teach you. This way, you can follow
Dafa and perhaps you will do better. Whether you can practice cultivation or
make it and what level you can reach all depend on you, yourself.
Of course, the way karma transforms does not take place
completely as I have just described; it can manifest in other areas. It can
happen either in society or at home. While walking on a street or in another
social environment, one may come across some trouble. You will be made to
abandon all those attachments that cannot be given up among everyday people. As
long as you have them, all of those attachments must be removed in different
environments. You will be made to stumble, whereby you will become enlightened
to the Tao. This is how one goes through cultivation practice.
Typically there is another situation. In the course of
cultivation practice many of you will find that when practicing qigong, your
spouses will often become very unhappy. As soon as you begin the exercises, your
spouse will throw a fit at you. If you do something else, your spouse will not
mind. No matter how much time you waste playing Mah Jong,2 your
spouse
might be unhappy, but not as much as if you practice qigong. Your qigong
practice does not interfere with your spouse, and what a good thing it is since
you exercise the body to keep fit, and you are not disturbing your spouse. Yet
once you start practicing qigong, your spouse will throw things around and start
a fight. Some couples almost get divorced because of disputes over qigong
practice. Many people have not thought about why this situation takes place. If
you ask your spouse later: "Why do you get so upset if I practice
qigong?" he or she cannot explain it and will really be out of reasons.
"Really, why did I become so angry and worked up at that time?"
Actually, what’s the matter? While one is practicing qigong, one’s karma
must be transformed. You will not gain without loss, and what you lose are bad
things. You must sacrifice.
Perhaps as soon as you step in the door, your spouse will
throw a fit right in your face. If you endure it, your effort of practicing
qigong today is not in vain. Some people also know that in qigong practice one
should value de. Therefore, this person usually gets along very well with his
spouse. He thinks, "Usually, if I say ‘one,’ she doesn’t say ‘two.’
Today she’s overruling me." He cannot control his temper and will start a
fight. With this, today’s practice ends up in vain. Because karma was there,
she was helping him remove it. But he would not accept it and started a fight
with her. The karma thus could not be eliminated. There are a lot of these
instances and many of our practitioners have experienced them, but they have not
thought about why they were this way. Your spouse would not care if you were to
do something else. Qigong practice should actually be a good thing, but she
always finds fault with you. In fact, your wife is helping you eliminate karma,
though she does not know it herself. She is not fighting with you only
superficially and still good to you in her heart—it is not so. It is real
anger from the bottom of her heart, because whoever has acquired the karma feels
uncomfortable. It is guaranteed to be this way.
Upgrading Xinxing
Because many people could not maintain good xinxing in the
past, many problems occurred. After their practice reached a certain level, they
could not make further progress. Some people have a high xinxing level to begin
with. Their Celestial Eye are opened at once with the practice and can reach a
certain realm. Because this person has relatively good inborn quality and a high
xinxing level, his gong increases rapidly. By the time the gong reaches his
xinxing level, the gong has also increased up to that level. If he wants to
continue increasing his gong, the conflict will also become very serious, as it
requires him to keep upgrading xinxing. This is particularly true for a person
with good inborn quality. He may think that his gong has been increasing well
and the practice also goes very well. Why are there suddenly so many problems?
Everything goes wrong. People mistreat him, and his boss also does not favor
him. Even the situation at home becomes very tense. Why are there so many
problems all of a sudden? This person himself might not get it. Because of his
good inborn quality, he has reached a certain level that brings about this
situation. Yet how can that be a practitioner’s final criterion for completing
cultivation? It is far from the end of cultivation practice! You must continue
to upgrade yourself. Because of that little amount of your inborn quality you
have reached this state. In order to ascend further, the standard must be raised
as well.
Someone may say, "I’ll earn some more money to settle
my family down well so I won’t have to worry about anything. Afterwards, I’ll
practice cultivation." I would say that this is your wishful thinking. You
are unable to interfere with the lives of others, and neither can you control
others’ fates, including those of your wife, sons, daughters, parents, or
brothers. Can you decide those things? Furthermore, how will you practice
cultivation if you do not have any worries or troubles? How can you do the
exercises comfortably and restfully? How can there be such a thing? That is what
you think, from the perspective of everyday people.
Cultivation practice must take place through tribulations so
as to test whether you can part with and care less about different kinds of
human sentimentality and desires. If you are attached to these things, you will
not succeed in cultivation. Everything has its karmic relationship. Why can
human beings be human? It is because human beings have sentimentality. They live
just for this sentimentality. Affection among family members, love between a man
and a woman, love for parents, feelings, friendship, doing things for
friendship, and everything else all relate to this sentimentality. Whether a
person likes to do something or not, is happy or unhappy, loves or hates
something, and everything in the entire human society comes from this
sentimentality. If this sentimentality is not relinquished, you will be unable
to practice cultivation. If you are free from this sentimentality, nobody can
affect you. An everyday person’s mind will be unable to sway you. What takes
over in its place is benevolence, which is something more noble. Of course, it
is not easy to abandon this sentimentality right away. Cultivation practice is a
long process and a process of gradually giving up one’s attachments.
Nonetheless, you must be strict with yourself.
As practitioners, you will suddenly come across conflicts.
What should you do? You should always maintain a heart of compassion and
kindness. Then, when you run into a problem, you will be able to do well because
it gives you room to buffer the confrontation. You should always be benevolent
and kind to others, and consider others when doing anything. Whenever you
encounter a problem, you should first consider whether others can put up with
this matter or if it will hurt anyone. In doing so, there will not be any
problems. Therefore, in cultivation practice you should follow a higher and
higher standard for yourself.
Some people often do not understand these issues. When a
person’s Celestial Eye is open and sees a Buddha, he will go home and worship
the Buddha, praying in his mind, "Why don’t you help me out? Please solve
this problem for me." That Buddha, of course, will not do anything for this
person because that problem is arranged by the Buddha, intending to improve his
xinxing and upgrade him by way of the tribulation. How can the Buddha take care
of the problem for you? He will not solve the problem for you at all. How can
you increase your gong and upgrade your xinxing and level if he solves your
problem? The key is to increase your gong. To the great enlightened people,
living as a human being is not the purpose, and one’s life is not meant for
being human—it is meant for you to return to your origin. Human beings suffer
a lot. The enlightened people think that the more one suffers, the better, as
one should speed up repaying one’s debts. This is what they think. Some people
do not understand it and begin to complain to the Buddha if their praying does
not work, "Why don’t you help me? I burn incense and kowtow to you
everyday." Because of this, one may throw the Buddha statue to the ground
and start to condemn Buddha thereafter. As a result of this condemnation, one’s
xinxing drops, and one’s gong disappears. The person knows that everything is
gone, so he resents Buddha even further, believing that the Buddha is ruining
him. The person measures Buddha’s xinxing with an ordinary person’s
criteria. How can that comparison be made? How can it work if a person views
high-level things with the standard of everyday people? Therefore, a lot of
these cases often take place when people regard their suffering in life as being
unfair. Many people drop down this way.
In the past few years, many grand qigong masters, including
the well-known ones, have fallen to become nobody. Of course, those genuine
qigong masters have already left upon accomplishing their missions in history.
Only some are left behind and become lost among everyday people, being still
active with a lowered xinxing level. These people have already lost their gong.
A few qigong masters who were well-known in the past are still active in
society. When their masters found that they were lost among everyday people and
could not free themselves from obsessing over fame and personal gain, after they
had become hopeless, their masters took away their Assistant Spirit. All of the
gong was developed in the body of the Assistant Spirit. There are quite a lot of
these typical examples.
In our school of practice, these cases are quite few. Even if
there are some, they are not as notable. There are many outstanding examples in
terms of xinxing improvement. One practitioner works in a textile factory in X
city of Shandong Province. After studying Falun Dafa, he taught other
coworkers to practice. As a result, the factory has taken on a new look. He used
to take home pieces of towels from the textile factory, and so did the rest of
the employees. After practicing Dafa, instead of taking things home he brought
back to the factory what he took home before. When others saw his actions,
nobody would take things home anymore. Some employees also returned to the
factory what they previously took home. This situation occurred throughout the
entire factory.
One volunteer director at a city’s Dafa instruction center
went to a factory to see how Falun Dafa practitioners were doing with their
practice. The factory manager came out to meet him in person: "Since
studying Falun Dafa, these workers have been coming to work early and
going home late. They work very diligently and will do any assignment the boss
gives. They also no longer compete for personal gain. By doing so, they’ve
made the whole factory take on a new look, and the factory’s economic returns
have also improved. Your practice is so powerful. When is your teacher coming? I’d
also like to attend his lectures." The main purpose of our cultivating
Falun Dafa is to bring people to high levels. While it does not intend to
do such a thing, it can nonetheless assume a great constructive role by
promoting spiritual civilization in society. If everyone searches internally and
considers how to conduct himself or herself well, I would say that society will
stabilize and the human moral standard will improve again.
When I was teaching the Fa and the practice in
Taiyuan,3 there was a practitioner over fifty years old. She and
her
spouse had come to attend my lectures. When they walked into the middle of the
street, a car drove by very fast, and its rearview mirror caught the elderly
lady’s clothes. With her clothes caught by the car, the lady was dragged for a
distance of over ten meters and brought down to the ground. The car stopped
after moving beyond twenty meters. The driver was very upset after getting out
of the car: "Hey, you weren’t watching where you were walking."
Nowadays, people behave this way and will first of all avoid responsibility upon
coming across a problem, regardless of whether they are at fault. The passengers
inside the car said: "Find out how badly the lady was hit. Let’s take her
to a hospital." The driver came to his senses and rushed to say: "How
is everything, ma’am? Are you hurt? Let’s go to a hospital and take a
look." This practitioner slowly got up from the ground and said:
"There’s nothing wrong. You can leave." She brushed off the dirt on
her clothes and left with her husband.
She came to the class and told me this story, and I was very
pleased. Our practitioners’ xinxing have indeed improved. She said to me:
"Teacher, I studied Falun Dafa today. If I hadn’t studied Falun
Dafa, I wouldn’t have treated the accident this way today." Think
about it, everyone: For a retired person, the prices of merchandise are so high
these days and there is no welfare benefit. A person over fifty years old was
dragged that far by a car and knocked down to the ground. Where could her body
be injured? Everywhere. She could have stayed on the ground without having to
get up. Go to the hospital? Sure. She could have stayed at the hospital and
would not move out. An everyday person might be that way, but she is a
practitioner and did not do that. We have said that good or evil comes from a
person’s spontaneous thought, and the thought at that moment can bring about
different consequences. With her old age, if she were an everyday person, how
could she not be injured? Yet her skin was not even scratched. Good or evil
comes from that instant thought. If she were lying down there claiming,
"Ugh, I feel terrible. Something is wrong here and there." Then, her
bones might really have been fractured, and she would be paralyzed. No matter
how much money she was paid, how could she be comfortable being hospitalized for
the rest of her life? Those bystanders even found it strange that the elderly
woman did not exploit him and ask him for money. Nowadays, human moral values
have been distorted. The driver indeed drove the car too fast, but how could he
possibly hit someone on purpose? Didn’t he do it unintentionally? But people
are like this today. If he were not exploited, even the bystanders would find it
unfair. I have said that now people cannot distinguish good from bad. If one
tells another person that he is doing something wrong, he will not believe it.
Because human moral values have changed, some people seek nothing but
self-interest and will do anything for money. "If a person is not after
self-interest, heaven and earth will kill him"—this has already become a
motto!
One practitioner in Beijing took his child to Qianmen4
for a walk after dinner and saw a commercial vehicle promoting lottery tickets.
The child became interested and asked to play the lottery. He gave the child one
yuan to play, and the child ended up with the second prize, a luxury junior
bike. The child was very delighted. At once an idea flashed into the father’s
mind: "I’m a practitioner. How can I go for such a thing? How much de
must I give away if I get something that isn’t paid for?" He said to the
child: "Let’s not take it. We can buy one ourselves if you want it."
The child became upset: "I’ve begged you to buy one, and you didn’t do
it. Now, you won’t let me keep it when I get one on my own." The child
cried and screamed terribly. This man could not do anything about it but take
the bike home. At home, the more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt.
He thought about sending the money to those people. Then he figured: "The
lottery tickets are gone, and won’t they divide the money among themselves if
I send it to them? I should donate the money to my workplace."
Fortunately, there were quite a few Falun Dafa
practitioners in his workplace, and his boss could understand him. If it
occurred in a typical environment or a typical workplace, where you said that
you were a practitioner who did not want a lottery bike and wanted to donate the
money to the workplace, even the boss would think that you had some mental
problems. Others would also make some comments: "Has this person gone
astray in qigong practice or developed cultivation insanity?" I have said
that the moral values have been distorted. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, this
would be no big deal and quite common—nobody would find it odd or strange.
We have said that no matter how much human moral values have
changed, this characteristic of the universe, Zhen-Shan-Ren, will forever remain
unchanged. If someone says that you are good, you may not really be good. If
someone says that you are bad, you may not really be bad. This is because the
criteria that evaluate good and bad are distorted. Only one who complies with
this characteristic of the universe is a good person. It is the sole criterion
which determines a good or bad person, and it is recognized by the universe.
Although great changes have taken place in human society, human moral values
have declined tremendously. Human morality is deteriorating daily, and profits
have become the sole motivation. Yet changes in the universe do not occur
according to changes in humankind. As a practitioner, one cannot conduct oneself
based on the standard of everyday people. It is not permitted if you go do
things simply because everyday people consider them right. When everyday people
say that it is good, it may not be good. When everyday people say that it is
bad, it may not be bad, either. In this time when the moral values are
distorted, if you tell someone that he is doing something bad, he will not
believe it! As a practitioner, one must assess things with the characteristic of
the universe. Only then can one distinguish what is genuinely good and what is
truly bad.
Guanding
In the community of cultivators, there is this circumstance
called guanding. Guanding is a religious ritual from the cultivation way of
Tantrism in the Buddha School. Its purpose is that, through the procedure of
guanding, a person will no longer follow other schools of cultivation and will
be accepted in this particular school as a true disciple. Now, what’s so
strange about this? This religious formality is also being applied to qigong
practices. Not only is it practiced in Tantrism, but also in the Tao School. I
have said that all those who teach in society the practice of Tantrism under the
banner of Tantrism are shams. Why is it put this way? It is because Tang
Tantrism has already disappeared from our country for over one thousand years,
and it no longer exists. Because of the language barrier, Tibetan Tantrism has
never been able to be entirely introduced to the Han5
regions.
Particularly, because it is an esoteric religion, it must be secretly practiced
in monasteries. It must also be secretly taught by the master, and the master
has to take the person to practice secretly. If this cannot be done, it
absolutely cannot be taught.
Many people who go to Tibet to study qigong have this agenda:
They want to find a master and study Tibetan Tantrism in order to become qigong
masters in the future and to become rich and famous. Think about it, everyone: A
true, living Buddhist lama6 who has received genuine teaching has
very
powerful supernormal abilities and can read such a person’s mind. Why does the
person come here? He will know it right away by reading the person’s mind:
"You come here wanting to study the practice and to become a qigong master
for money and fame, undermining this school of Buddha cultivation." For
such a serious practice in Buddhahood cultivation, how can it be casually ruined
by your pursuit of becoming a qigong master for fame and money? What’s your
motivation? Therefore, he will not teach this person anything at all, and
neither will this person get any real teachings. Of course, with so many
monasteries around, one may learn some superficial things. If one’s mind is
not right, one will incur spirit or animal possession while trying to become a
qigong master and committing wrongdoing. Possessing animals also have energy,
but it is not from Tibetan Tantrism. Those who go to Tibet sincerely in search
of the Dharma may settle down there once they arrive—those are true
practitioners.
It is strange that now many Taoist practices also perform
guanding. The Tao School uses energy channels. Why should it practice the
so-called guanding? I have been to the South to give lectures. According to what
I know, there are over ten heterodox practices that do guanding, particularly in
the region of Guangdong. What are they trying to do? If the master does guanding
to you, you will become his disciple and be unable to learn any other practice.
If you do, he will punish you, as that is what he does. Isn’t that doing an
evil practice? What he teaches is something for healing and fitness. People are
learning it simply because they want to have healthy bodies. Why should he do
these things? Someone claims that if people practice his qigong, they cannot
practice any other qigong. Can he save people and enable them to complete their
cultivation? That is misleading disciples. Many people do things this way.
The Tao School never teaches guanding, but now it also has
the so-called guanding. I have found that the qigong master who makes the
loudest noise about the practice of guanding has a gong column only as high as a
two or three-story building. I think that for a well-known qigong master, his
gong has decreased quite pitifully. Hundreds of people are lining up for him to
do guanding. His gong is limited to that height and will soon fall to nothing.
What can he use to do guanding then? Isn’t he deceiving people? When seen from
another dimension, genuine guanding makes one’s bones look like white jade
from the head to the feet. It is through gong or the high-energy matter that one’s
body is purified from the head to the feet. Can this qigong master do that? He
cannot. What does he do? Of course, he probably will not try to start a
religion. His goal is that once you study his practice, you belong to him. You
must attend his classes to study his things. The goal is to earn your money. He
will not make any money if no one studies his practice.
Like disciples in other cultivation practices of the Buddha
School, disciples of Falun Dafa will experience guanding many times by
high-level masters in other dimensions; but you will not be told about it. Those
with supernormal abilities or those who are sensitive may feel it during sleep
or at another time, as a warm current will suddenly come down from the top of
their heads to all over their bodies. The purpose of guanding is not to
add higher gong to yours, as it must be developed through your own cultivation
practice. Guanding is a reinforcing method for purifying and further cleaning up
your body. One will go through guanding many times—your body must be
cleaned up at every level. Because cultivation depends on one’s own efforts
while the transformation of gong is done by the master, we do not practice the
ritual of guanding.
There are some people who also practice so-called
"worshipping the master." Speaking of this, I would like to mention
something. Many people want to worship me as the master. This period of ours in
history is different from that of Chinese feudal society. Do kneeling down and
kowtowing stand for taking someone as the master? We do not practice this
ritual. Many people think: "If I kowtow, burn incense, and worship Buddha
with a sincere heart, my gong will increase." I find this quite ridiculous.
Genuine cultivation practice depends entirely upon a person him or herself, so
it is useless to pray for something. You do not have to worship a Buddha or burn
incense. As long as you really practice cultivation according to the standard of
a practitioner, Buddha will be very pleased to see you. If you always do bad
deeds in other places, he will be disgusted to see you although you burn incense
and kowtow to him. Isn’t this the truth? Genuine cultivation practice depends
upon the person him or herself. What’s the use of your kowtowing and
worshipping the master if you do whatever you want today upon stepping outside
this door? We do not care for this formality at all. You could even damage my
reputation!
We have given everyone so many things. For all of you, as
long as you truly practice cultivation and conduct yourselves strictly according
to Dafa, I will treat you as my disciples. As long as you practice Falun Dafa,
we will treat you as disciples. If you do not want to practice it, we cannot do
anything for you. If you do not practice cultivation, what’s the use of
carrying that designation? It does not matter whether you are from the first
session of classes or the second session. How can you be our practitioners by
doing the exercises alone? To attain a healthy body and truly make progress to
high levels, you must practice cultivation by truly following our xinxing
standard. Therefore, we do not care for those formalities. As long as you
practice cultivation, you are a practitioner in our school of practice. My
fashen know everything—they know everything on your mind, and they can do
anything. They will not take care of you if you do not practice cultivation. If
you practice cultivation, they will help you all the way to the end.
In some qigong practices, practitioners who have never
seen their masters claim that if they pay a few hundred yuan and kowtow to a
certain direction, that will be good enough. Isn’t that self-deception and
deceiving others? Additionally, these people are very devoted thereafter and
begin to defend or protect their practices and masters. They also tell others
not to study other practices. I find it quite ridiculous. Also, someone does
something called mo ding.7 Nobody knows what effect there is
after
his touch.
Not only those who teach their practices under the banner of
Tantrism are phony; all those who teach qigong in the name of Buddhism are the
same as well. Think about it, everyone: For several thousand years, cultivation
methods in Buddhism have been in those forms. How can it still be Buddhism if
someone alters it? Cultivation methods are for serious Buddha cultivation, and
they are extremely complex. A tiny change will cause a mess. Because the
transformation of gong is very complex, what one feels accounts for nothing. One
cannot practice cultivation based on how one feels. The religious form for monks
is a cultivation method; once it is changed, it will not be something from that
school. There is a great enlightened person in charge of each school, and each
school has produced many great enlightened persons. Nobody dares to casually
change the cultivation method in that school. For a petty qigong master, what
mighty virtue does he have to dare offend the master and change a practice of
Buddhahood cultivation? Will it still be that school if it’s really changed?
Phony qigong can be distinguished.
The Placement of the Mysterious Pass
"The Placement of the Mysterious Pass" (xuanguan
shewei) is also called "One Mysterious Aperture" (xuanguan
yiqiao). These terminologies may be found in the books of Dan Jing, Tao
Zang, and Xingming Guizhi.8 So what’s it all about? Many
qigong masters cannot explain it clearly. This is because at the level of an
average qigong master, one is neither able to see it, nor allowed to see it. If
a practitioner wants to see it, this person must reach the upper level of Wisdom
Eyesight or higher. An ordinary qigong master cannot reach this level; thus, he
cannot see it. Throughout history, the community of cultivators has been
discussing what is the Mysterious Pass, where is One Aperture, and how to put
the Mysterious Pass into position. In the books of Dan Jing, Tao Zang,
and Xingming Guizhi, you can find them all discussing the theories
without telling you the substance. From one discussion to another, they confuse
you. They do not explain things clearly because the substance cannot be known by
everyday people.
Furthermore, I am telling you that because you are Falun Dafa
disciples, I will tell you these words: "Never read those crooked qigong
books." I am not referring to the foregoing classic texts, but to those
sham qigong books written by people today. You should not even open them. If the
idea flashes in your mind that "well, this sentence seems reasonable,"
with this, the possessing spirits or animals in the book will attach to your
body. Many books were written under the control of possessing spirits or animals
which manipulate human attachments for fame and fortune. There are a lot—quite
a lot—of phony qigong books. Many people are being irresponsible and writing
books with possessing spirits or animals and chaotic things in them. Usually, it
is better not to even read the classic books mentioned above or other related
classic scriptures, as it involves the issue of being single-minded in one
practice.
One official from the China Qigong Science Research Society
told me a story which really made me laugh. He said that there was a person in
Beijing who often went to qigong seminars. After listening to many speeches, he
felt that qigong was nothing more than what was said there. Because everyone was
at the same level, they all talked about the same things. Not unlike other sham
qigong masters, he thought that the content of qigong was not more than that!
Then he also wanted to write a book on qigong. Think about it, everyone: A
non-practitioner would write a qigong book. Nowadays, qigong books are copied
from one another. As his writing progressed, he stopped on the issue of the
Mysterious Pass. Who understands what the Mysterious Pass is? Even among genuine
qigong masters, few understand it. He went to ask a phony qigong master. He did
not know that the person was phony, as he did not understand qigong anyway. But
if this phony qigong master could not respond to the question, wouldn’t others
realize that he was a fake? Therefore, he dared to make it up and said that One
Mysterious Pass is at the tip of one’s penis. It sounds quite funny. Do not
laugh, for this book is already published in society. This is to say that qigong
books today have reached such a ridiculous extent. What is the use of your
reading those books? It serves no use and can only be harmful.
What is "the Placement of the Mysterious Pass"? In
one’s In-Triple-World-Fa practice, when a person’s cultivation is beyond the
middle-level or at the high-level In-Triple-World-Fa, this person starts
to grow the Immortal Infant. The Immortal Infant and the
Cultivated Infant (yinghai) that we refer to are two
different things. Cultivated Infants are tiny and playful, and run around
joyfully. The Immortal Infant does not move. If one’s Primordial Spirit does
not take control of it, the Immortal Infant will sit still on a lotus flower
with two legs folded on top of each other and with both hands conjoined. The
Immortal Infant grows up from dantian and can be seen at the microscopic level,
even when it is smaller than the point of a needle.
Additionally, another issue should be clarified. There is
only one genuine dantian, and it is the tian9 in the
lower
abdominal area. It is above the huiyin10 point and
below the
belly inside one’s body. Many forms of gong, many supernormal abilities, many
abilities, fashen, the Immortal Infant, Cultivated Infants, and a lot of beings
all grow up from this tian.
In the past, a few practitioners talked about the upper
dantian, the middle dantian and the lower dantian. I would say that they were
wrong. Some people also claim that their masters have taught them this way for
generations, and that the books have said so as well. Let me tell everyone that
there was dross even in ancient times. Though some things may have been
inherited for years, they might be incorrect. Some minor cultivation ways in the
world have always been passed down among everyday people, but they are not for
cultivation and are good for nothing. When they call it the upper dantian, the
middle dantian, and the lower dantian, they are saying that dantian is
wherever dan can grow. Isn’t this a joke? When a person’s mind focuses on
somewhere in the body for a long time, an energy cluster will develop and form
dan. If you do not believe it, keep your mind focused on your arm and keep it
that way for a long time and dan will form there. Therefore, some people have
seen this situation and declare that dantian is everywhere. This sounds even
more ridiculous. They think that dantian is wherever dan forms. Actually, it is
a dan, but not a tian. You may say that dan is everywhere, or that there is the
upper dan, the middle dan, and the lower dan. However, there is only one actual
tian that can develop numerous Fa, and it is the one in the lower abdominal
area. Therefore, the talk of upper dantian, middle dantian, and lower dantian
are wrong. Wherever one’s mind concentrates for a long period of time, dan
will form.
The Immortal Infant grows up slowly from dantian in the lower
abdominal area to become larger and larger. When it grows to be the size of a
ping-pong ball, the shape of its whole body will be very visible with the nose
and eyes formed. At the same time when the Immortal Infant is as big as a
ping-pong ball, a small round bubble will be born beside it. After birth, the
bubble will grow along with the Immortal Infant. When the Immortal Infant
reaches four inches tall, a lotus flower petal will appear. When the Immortal
Infant grows to be five or six inches, the petals of the lotus flower
will basically be formed, and a layer of lotus flower will appear. A shining,
golden Immortal Infant will sit on a golden lotus flower plate, looking
very beautiful. This is the never-degenerated Vajra body, which is called
"the Buddha-body" in the Buddha School, or "the Immortal
Infant" in the Tao School.
Our school of practice cultivates and requires both forms of
the bodies; benti must be transformed as well. It is known to everyone that a
Buddha body is not allowed to manifest among everyday people. With much effort,
it can show its shape and its light can be seen with an everyday person’s
eyes. Upon transformation, however, the physical body appears to be the same as
an average person’s body among everyday people. An everyday person cannot tell
the difference, though this body can travel between dimensions. When the
Immortal Infant reaches four to five inches, the air bubble will also
grow to that height, and it is transparent like an air balloon. The Immortal
Infant sits still there, in the meditation position. By this time the air bubble
will leave dantian. As it is grown and mature, it will therefore move up. The
process of its moving up is very slow, but its motion can be observed daily. It
gradually moves up higher and higher. With meticulous attentiveness, we are able
to feel its existence.
When the air bubble reaches one’s tanzhong
point,11 it will stay there for a while. Because there is a lot of
the
human body’s essence there (the heart is also there), a system of things will
be formed in the air bubble. This essence will be supplied into the air bubble.
After a while, it will again move up. When it passes through the throat, one
will feel suffocated as though the blood vessels are all blocked, and one will
feel quite uncomfortably swollen. This will last only a couple of days. Then the
air bubble will move up to the top of one’s head, and we call it
"reaching niwan." It is said that it has reached niwan while, in fact,
it is as big as your whole head. Your head will feel swollen. Because niwan is a
very important place for a human being, its essence must also be formed in the
air bubble. Then the air bubble will try to squeeze out from the Celestial Eye
tunnel, and this will feel quite uncomfortable. One’s Celestial Eye will
be squeezed to the point of soreness, and one’s temples will feel swollen
while the eyes feel like they are digging inward. This feeling will last until
the air bubble makes its way out of the Celestial Eye tunnel and hangs in front
of one’s forehead. That is called the Placement of the Mysterious Pass, and it
hangs there.
By this time, those with open Celestial Eye are unable to see
anything. This is because in cultivation practice in the Buddha School or the
Tao School, its door is shut to speed up the formation of things inside the
Mysterious Pass. There are two front doors and two rear doors, and they are all
closed. Like the gateways of Tiananmen in Beijing, there are two big doors on
each side. In order to make the Mysterious Pass quickly formed and
substantiated, the doors are not opened except under very special circumstances.
One who can see things with the Celestial Eye cannot see things at this point,
as that is not allowed. What’s the purpose of it hanging there? Because
hundreds of energy channels in our body meet there, at this point they must all
circle through the Mysterious Pass and then move out of it. They must go through
the Mysterious Pass, and the goal is to lay some additional foundations and to
form a system of things inside the Mysterious Pass. Because the human body is a
small universe, it will form a small world with all of the essential things of
the human body formed in it. Yet it is still only a facility that cannot be
fully operational.
In the Qimen School’s cultivation practice, the Mysterious
Pass is open. When the Mysterious Pass is ejected to the outside, it is like a
cylinder, but it will gradually become round. Its doors on both sides are thus
open. Because the Qimen School does not cultivate Buddhahood or the Tao, one
must protect oneself. There are many masters in the Buddha School and the Tao
School, all of whom can safeguard you. You do not need to see things, and
neither will you have any problems. But it is not so in the Qimen School, as one
must protect oneself. Therefore, one must maintain the ability to see things. At
that time, one’s Celestial Eye sees things like a telescope. After this system
is formed, in a month or so, it begins to return to the inside. Upon returning
inside the head, this is called the shift of the Mysterious Pass positions.
When the Mysterious Pass returns to the inside, one’s head
will feel swollen and uncomfortable. Then it will squeeze out from one’s
yuzhen
point.12 This squeezing out also makes one feel uncomfortable, as
though
one’s head were split open. The Mysterious Pass will come out all at once, and
then one will right away feel relieved. Upon coming out, the Mysterious Pass
will hang in a very deep dimension and exist in the body form of a very deep
dimension. Therefore, one will not rub against it during sleep. But there is one
thing: When the Placement of the Mysterious Pass occurs for the first time, one
feels something in front of the eyes. Though it is in another dimension, one
always feels that the eyes are blurred as if something is covering them, making
one feel very uncomfortable. Because the yuzhen point is a very important pass,
the Mysterious Pass must also form a system of things there. Then it returns
inside one’s body again. One Mysterious Aperture does not in fact refer to one
Mysterious Pass position, for it must change positions multiple times. When it
returns to niwan, it begins to descend in the body until reaching the mingmen
point.13 At the mingmen point, it will come out again.
The mingmen point in the human body is an extremely
important and major point. It is called "aperture" in the Tao School
and "Pass" (guan) by us. It is a major pass which
truly resembles an iron gate, and it has numerous layers of iron gates. It is
known that a human body has many layers. Our physical cells are one layer, and
the molecules inside are another. There is a gate placed at each layer of atoms,
protons, electrons, the very microscopic particles, the infinitesimal
microscopic particles, and from the infinitely microscopic particles down to the
extremely infinite microscopic particles. Therefore, there are numerous
supernormal abilities and many special capabilities locked up inside the gates
of different layers. Other practices cultivate dan. When dan is about to
explode, the mingmen point must first be blasted open. If it is not
blasted open, the supernormal abilities cannot be released. After the Mysterious
Pass forms a system at mingmen point, it will again return inside the
body. Then it returns to the lower abdominal area. This is called "the
Mysterious Pass returning to the position."
Upon its return, the Mysterious Pass does not return to its
original place. By now, the Immortal Infant has grown to be quite big. The air
bubble will cover the Immortal Infant and envelop it. As the Immortal Infant
grows, so grows the Mysterious Pass. In the Tao School, usually when the
Immortal Infant grows to be about a six or seven-year-old child, it will
be allowed to leave one’s body; this is called "the Immortal Infant
coming to birth." Under the control of one’s Primordial Spirit, it can
move around outside one’s body. One’s physical body does not move, and one’s
Primordial Spirit will come out. Normally in the Buddha School, the Immortal
Infant will be out of any danger when it is cultivated to be as big as the
person. At this time, it is usually allowed to leave the body and come out of
the body. By now the Immortal Infant has grown to be as big as the person him or
herself, and its cover is also big. The cover has already expanded outside one’s
body—that is the Mysterious Pass. Because the Immortal Infant has grown
to be so big, the Mysterious Pass will certainly expand outside the body.
Perhaps you have seen the Buddha statues in temples and find
that Buddhas are always inside a circle. In particular, a Buddha’s portrait
always has a circle in which the Buddha sits. A lot of Buddha portraits are like
that, and especially those in old temples are all like that. Why does a Buddha
sit inside a circle? Nobody can explain it clearly. Let me tell you that it is
this Mysterious Pass, but at this time it is no longer called the Mysterious
Pass. It is called a "paradise," though it is actually not yet a
paradise, as it only has this facility. It is like a factory with the facility,
but without the capability for production. There must be energy resources and
raw materials before it can produce. A few years ago, many practitioners said:
"The level of my gong is higher than that of a Bodhisattva," or
"The level of my gong is higher than that of a Buddha." Upon
hearing this, others would find it quite inconceivable. In fact, what they said
was not at all inconceivable, for one’s gong must indeed be cultivated to a
very high level in the human world.
How can it be like this: They have achieved a level higher
than that of a Buddha? It cannot be understood so superficially. Such a person’s
gong is indeed at a very high level. That is because when his cultivation
reaches a very high level and the moment of complete enlightenment, his gong
level will indeed be very high. Just moments prior to complete enlightenment,
eight-tenths of his gong will be taken down together with his xinxing standard,
and this energy will be used to substantiate his paradise—a paradise of his
own. Everyone knows that in addition to this xinxing standard, a practitioner’s
gong is cultivated through suffering numerous lifelong tribulations and
experiencing difficult environments. It is therefore extremely precious.
Eight-tenths of this precious matter is used to substantiate his paradise.
Therefore, when he succeeds in cultivation in the future, he will get whatever
he wants just by holding out his hands, and he will have anything he desires. He
can do anything he wants, and there is everything in his paradise. That is his
mighty virtue that is cultivated through his own suffering.
This person’s energy can be transformed into anything at
will. Therefore, if a Buddha wants to have something, eat something, or to play
with something, he can do it. They come from his own cultivation achievement,
which is one’s Buddha Status (fowei). Without it, a person cannot
succeed in cultivation. By this time it can be called one’s own paradise. This
person will only have two-tenths of his remaining gong to complete cultivation
and attain the Tao. Though only two-tenths of his gong is left, his body is not
locked. He can either give up this body or keep it, but this body will have
already been transformed by the high-energy matter. At this time, he can
exercise his great divine powers, which have unmatchable might. But when a
person practices cultivation among everyday people, he is usually locked up
without any major capabilities. No matter how high his gong level, he is still
restricted. Now it is different.
1 Ah Q (ah cue)—a foolish character in a Chinese novel.
2 Mah Jong—traditional Chinese game played by four people.
3 Taiyuan (tie-yu-en)—capital city of Shanxi Province.
4 Qianmen (chyen-mun)—one of the major shopping districts in Beijing.
5 Han (hahn)—the majority ethnicity of Chinese people.
6 lama—a title for a master in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
7 mo ding—as claimed by some qigong masters, touching the top
of one’s head to give energy.
8 Xingming Guizhi—classic Chinese text for cultivation
practice.
9 tian (tyen)—"field."
10 huiyin (hway-yeen)—An acupuncture point in the center of the
perineum (the area between one’s anus and genitals).
11 tanzhong (tahn-jong) point—acupuncture point located at
approximately the center of the chest.
12 yuzhen (yu-jhun) point—acupuncture point located at the
lower rear side of one’s head.
13 mingmen (ming-muhn) point—"Gate of life"; an
acupuncture point located at the middle of the lower back.
