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Qigong Is Cultivation
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        Now that qigong has such a remote history, then what on earth is it used for? Let me tell you. Ours is a great cultivation Law of the Buddha School, naturally cultivating the Buddha, while Tao School naturally cultivates the Tao (the Way) and finds the Tao. I'd like to tell you, this "Fo (Buddha)" is not superstition. This "Fo" () is Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language. There were actually two words which were introduced to China at that time, called "Fo Tuo". And there was also a translation as "Fu Tu". Having translated this way or that, we Chinese left out one word and called it "Fo". What does it mean when it is translated into Chinese then? It means the enlightened (), the enlightened person through cultivation. Where on earth is there any superstitious colouring here?

        Now, come to think about it. Cultivation may be able to bring out supernatural powers. At present, there are six supernormal capabilities which have generally been recognized in the world, but there are more than these, and I should say there are no less than ten thousand real supernormal capabilities. A person sitting there, without moving his hands or feet, may be able to do what others cannot do even by hands and feet; he is able to perceive the true reasoning of all different spaces, see the naked truth of the universe, and see what is invisible to ordinary people. Isn't he a cultivator who has found the Tao? Isn't he a great enlightened one? Can he be regarded as the same as an ordinary person? Isn't he a person who has become enlightened through cultivation? Isn't it right to call him the enlightened one? It is translated into the ancient Indian language as "Fo". This is a matter of fact and this is what qigong is used for.

        When it comes to qigong, some people would say, "Who will practise qigong if he is not ill?", which implies that qigong is used to heal diseases. This is a very superficial understanding of it, extremely superficial. For this, these people can not be blamed, for many qigong masters all do the same thing of curing diseases and building up health, all teaching curing diseases for better health. None of them has ever told about high level cultivation. I do not mean that their cultivation systems are not good, but that their mission is to teach what is at the level of curing diseases for better health and to popularize qigong. Quite a lot of people want to go up to a higher level cultivation. They have such a thought and such a wish but they do not know how to cultivate themselves. As a result, they have caused many difficulties for themselves, and many problems have arisen as well. Of course, genuinely teaching qigong in a high dimension deals with what is quite high. So, out of my responsibility to society and people, we have received good results during the whole course of teaching the Gong. It is true that some of what I said is very high. It sounded superstitious. However, we tried our best to explain it with the help of modern science.

        There are certain things which someone will say are superstitious whenever we talk about them. Why? His criterion means what science has not yet acknowledged, or what he himself has not experienced, and what he considers to be impossible to exist, he believes, are all superstitious, all idealistic. This is his conception. Is this conception right? Can we say what science has not yet acknowledged and what science is not advanced enough to explain are superstitious and are idealistic? Isn't he himself trying to practise superstition? And practise idealism? If based on this conception, can science develop and advance? Human society will not be able to be pushed forward, either. All inventions in the field of science and technology are all what did not exist previously. If we looked on all of them as being superstitious, there would be no need to develop them, of course. Qigong is not something idealistic. As many people do not understand what it is, they always think of it as idealistic. Having tested qigong masters with some instruments, we found in their bodies infrasonic sound waves, supersonic waves, electromagnetic waves, infrared rays, ultraviolet rays, rays, neutrons, atoms, trace elements of metal, etc.. Aren't they all what is material existence? They are also matter. Aren't all things composed of matter? Aren't other timespaces composed of matter? How can we say they are superstitious? Since qigong is used to cultivate the Buddha, it will naturally involve many high and profound issues, all of which we are going to talk about.

        Since qigong is used for this purpose, why do we call it qigong? In fact, it was not called qigong, but what was it called then? It was called cultivation, and it is cultivation indeed. Of course, it had other specific names, but it was called cultivation as a whole. Why is it called qigong? As we all know, qigong has been popular in society for more than 20 years in history, beginning in the middle of "the Great Cultural Revolution" and reaching its climax in the later years of it. Let's come to think about it. At that time, the ultra-left trend of thought went rampant. We did not teach it with its names from prehistoric culture, because, in the progress of this cycle of human civilization, and after going through feudal society, qigong often took names with strong feudal colouring. Those related to the religions often have names with strong religious colouring, e.g. something like "the Great Cultivation Way of Tao", "the Dhyana of Vajra", "the Way of Arhat", "the Great Cultivation Way of Buddha Dharma" and "Ninefold Internal Alchemy". They all say the same thing. If you had used these names during "the Cultural Revolution", you would have been criticized and denounced. Their wish of popularizing qigong was good to help the broad masses to remove diseases and help them to keep fit, and raise the quality of their health. How good this was, but they could not use or dared not use these names. So, in order to popularize qigong, many qigong masters quoted two characters, called qigong, out of the context of the texts of Internal Alchemy and Tao Tsang. Some people even make a study of the word qigong, which surely has nothing to study, for it was called cultivation in the past. Qigong is no more than a new term given to conform to the ideology of modern people.


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