Archives Spirit-WWW: NewsGateway Article ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From Richard Menninger : Newsgroups: talk.religion.buddhism, Subject: Re: a critique of "Buddhism w/o Beliefs" All Follow-Up: Re: a critique of "Buddhism w/o Beliefs" Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 16:56:52 -0500 References: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Richard P. Hayes wrote: > Punnadhammo wrote: > > Nothing in Buddhism is supernatural because everything (except Nirvana) is > > subject to causation and causal laws. Buddhism does however recognize > > aspects of reality that narrow materialist thinking is unable to conceive. > > This would include supernormal (not supernatural) powers such as > > telepathy, rebirth and the existence of beings in other realms. > > None of this is easily "proveable" in the sense of externally verifiable > > by experimental method (although some of it may be) However a great deal, > > if not all, is subjectively verifiable by the accounts of many advanced > > yogis in all schools who have direct knowledge of these things. > > And of course there is not the slightest possibility that yogins could > be mistaken about what they perceive. And, of course, you could be mistaken about your pissing into a urinal and shitting into that sitdown thingie. That is the level of your comentary. But there are no seatbelts on the path and one can screw up at any level. So what. > So when we hear a yogin claim that > he has seen God face to face or experienced the Eternal Brahman, we have > to believe him. That is purely up to you. Believe what you want. Are you really a closet hindu? Is it that you are attached to the hindu stuff? Is that fueling your junk? If people want to see something, then they are likely to see it. If they want to NOT see something, then they are likely to not see it. You are a prime example here. You exude NOT wanting to see certain things and wanting to keep others from it, as well. May it be an accidental pattern rather than a conscious pattern. Otherwise, see you after you leave the hell realm you seem to be moving towards. I'll be back or I'll send others to help then. > And when we hear a yogini say that she has walked on the > dark side of the moon or that she has simultaneously occupied ten > different bodies, there is not the slightest reason to suspect that she > has suffered a delusion or an hallucianation. It depends on what else is happening. Taking it with a grain of salt is quite fine. After all, you did just postulate a case of public babbling with no evidence. You have not postulated any level of prior credibility being established or level of teaching situation that has evolved. So reports by random strangers are of rather limited credibility. You are what you dis-believe as well as what you believe. It is up to you. The grain of salt approach is best in the case you postulate. But, it is not the only case. If stuff happens for you, you still take it with a grain of salt as part of cutting through any projections and fixations associated. But after you piss in a particular toilet for the n-th time, you do acknowledge it as having some basis. You get to the point of needing rather active ignoring of the obvious for you to still not see it. > Because yoga is > infallible. Right? If based on no evidence, assuming they are right is no better than assuming they are wrong. If you have an ongoing connection with a given set of teachings and lineage of handing them down that has proven its worth to you repeatedly over time, then you may strongly suspect it is true, even if you have no other evidence. You are likely to have a good bit of personal evidence that the strictly materialist views (brain produces mind and other such crap) are very inadequate, already. More stuff of the same vein is not so impalusible anymore. But, until that is true for you, taking all with a grain of salt is very sensible. It was even recommended by our historical buddha. The middle way is the grain of salt approach. > > No one but themselves is "closing off" anyone from Buddhism. It does no > > service to anyone to water down the Dharma to fit popular modern trends. > Not everything accepted by modern science is merely a popular trend. It > is quite likely that science can offer significant correctives to > beliefs that were once commonly held. It depends on the level of belief and experience involved. There is a blatant assumption that only "modern science" could perceive some things and see how they work. There is also a blatant assumption on the roles of various collections of stuff have been used for in the evolution of practitioners' realizations. The West has a fixation on a more sophisticated, but heavily materialistic set of stuff than does other cultures. That may change the sequence through such views that are used and forms part of the cultural adaption of the teachings. People who had no need for the materially sophisticated views to relate to their life and world would have a simpler set to use. That does not make them terrible or wrong. They had simpler needs to meet, to explain. Further, they may have been relating to stuff that the strictly materialist views miss about life as those were part of their active life and world. But stuff that agrees with modern science has been there in the sequence of views of the more advanced paths. The data for those was acquired via more direct perception of things than by methods western "modern" science uses. But the goal was not to create theories to make better mousetraps (or other more massive weapons of destruction) or more intricate material baubles. The goal was to use successively better descriptions as a tool to undo the rather abject fixation on conceptual crap instead of directly relating to what is happening. All of those views are tools to undo the intellectual mess we have made. Why do you think modern science will do THAT better? The West will have a Huge bump in its intellecualized road whenever it happens to be the case that bodhisattva action demands blatant, unmissable, public "miracles" to handle an otherwise impossible situation or is a major teaching situation. It is only a matter of time. And you won't find a seatbelt to help you over that bump. Until then, why don't you climb on as high an intellectual perch as you can find. It will make the bump MUCH more thrilling to experience! :-) > Traditional Buddhist teachings > about geography, cosmogony, cosmology, physiology and lingguistics have > all been supplanted by the discoveries coming from more systematic > research and more sophisticated research tools. Only in your mind for your purposes. You project your purpose on them and then say they are not as good. See the earlier discussion in this post for more detail. > There is no reason to > think that science might one day show that the doctrine of rebirth, as > traditionally understood, is quite unlikely to be true. Maybe for YOU there is no such reason as you have hid from any such personal evidence. I see no conflicts between them. You seem to be hoping they rebirth and karma are not true. What are you involved in that makes you need them to be false? > But even if that > were to happen, the basic Dharma would not be seriously affected, Then you misunderstand it badly. > for it > has nothing whatsoever to do with such theories and hypotheses as the > doctrine of rebirth. You are wrong. Once you get the most basic of skills of recognizing that there is a current moment and being able to just be in it some of the time (akin to a baby learning to hear words with start associating meanings), the basic dharma is about learning personal responsibility and accountability and karma/rebirth is just the mechanisms of how that is unavoidable. It is the crass blindness of the strictly materialistic views that miss the most important parts of living. > People who open themsleves up to truth might very well close themsleves > off from Buddhism. What have YOU been practicing for all those years? And, more importantly, with what attitude have YOU been practicing it? You are NO dharma teacher. You seem to teach some totally materialistic spiritualism (which is different from spiritual materialism as usually used). You do it at a cleverer inuendo level rather than by outright statement, but you do it. You use "may" and "might" a lot, but always to try to cut the connection of other people. That makes me rather sad, but that is my problem. > But they can never close themselves off from > Sad-dharma. > > A materialist can practise some aspects of the Buddhist teaching, and can > > even get some (limited) results. > Such as the result of liberation from greed, hatred and delusion. That's > good enough for me. The trip you seem to be on does not seem to be liberated from those. > > But, materialism is opposed in spirit to a real understanding of Dharma. > This is a bald assertion. Do you have any evidence to back that > statement up, or are you merely spouting a blind prejudice? Anything that upsets your hardened view is blind prejudice? His statement is quite accurate. I am quite convinced you are on some odd trip. Motivation and attitude are the heart of the path and you exude the wrong ones, though you try hard to cover that over with a clever intellectual style (that also pretends to be not so intellectual at times). > > I have to wonder at "Buddhists" like > > Batchelor, who perceiving this inherent incompatibility, want to change > > the Dharma instead of the materialist philosophy. > I don't think you have read him very carefully, Venerable sir. He does > not want to change Dharma. What he wants to change is the way that it is > taught. What he wants to do is to penetrate to the essence of dharma > rather than continuing to peddle a bunch of medieval guesswork and > dogmatics. How would you know? You show nothing of the kind. You are bullshitting yourself and others. You are playing to a bunch of western neuroses to dismiss anything that is not material science based. You assume it is guesswork as that fits your game. You have no experience of the essence of the dharma. The dharma is taught well and will be taught better once the gloves come off more in the West. The dharma is much older than medieval, actually. It transcends the notion of time, it is so old. You are a fool. You are a fool on some form of local power trip and are trying to expand the base of operations. Yours is a very destructive game, actually. But the most damage will be to your stream. > > Why be so attached to a metaphysical stand? > Are you suggesting that the doctrine of rebirth is NOT a metaphysical > stand? What is your definition of what makes a view metaphysical? All dharma has a metaphysical aspect, but not so much as abstract theory, but as how to get on with it. Once one gets on with it, theory is just explaining the obvious. > > And to what have they gone to refuge? The buddha as example of full development of "mind", the teachings which bring us there, our friends and helpers along the way, and especially in the lama, our teacher. Once you get past the basics, the fourth one is there, followed by other aspects of refuge at the tantric level. But it is refuge of standing on your own two feet instead of leaning on the rest. Refuge is not theory oriented. It is direct and visceral and very in the moment. > Perhaps they have gone to refuge to exactly what you have gone to refuge > to. But unlike you, they have shown a willingness to distinguish Dharma > from dogma. You want to make everyone elses relation to the dharma into dogma for some odd game of your own. That crap may work in your classes at the university, and it may work with a few here who are quite confused to start with, but it won't work with most who have a genuine connection. I now include your students in my blessing and protection practice. I hope they survive until the time of fixing the mess is here. > Yours in going for refuge to the three jewels, > Richard Hayes I now question that. There are marks of doing that with right attitude and motivation and you do not exhibit them. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Conversations with Aung San Suu Kyi by Alan Clements Over the course of nine months—from October, 1995 to June, 1996—I had an exceptional series of conversations with a unique woman and, currently, the world's most famous political dissident. Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi is, in the words of Vaclav Havel, one of the outstanding examples of the power of the powerless. Aung San Suu Kyi told me her own story in many conversations at her home in Rangoon. The full record of our dialogue is presented in The Voice of Hope, appearing in October from Seven Stories Press. It was a journey into the soul of the struggle for freedom in this southeast Asian nation of 45 million people, many of whom, at this very moment, may be risking their lives to win the right to choose their destiny. After having spent some eight years as a monk in a Rangoon monastery, I returned to Burma in October 1995 never having met or spoken to Aung San Suu Kyi. Yet she was not unknown to me. I had written and spoken extensively on political developments in Burma, and from everything I had learned, I was fascinated by Aung San Suu Kyi, as were so many others. She offered me, as she does to all, a great vision that places self-respect, human dignity, compassion and love above material considerations. Placed under house arrest, separated from her family for years at a time, she kept silent, and so grew into a living legend. Finally, once again speaking defiantly and acting boldly to unlock the prison doors of the SLORC military dictatorship, she will not be stopped. This is the Aung San Suu Kyi that I came to know—a dynamic woman with an unshakable conviction, inseparable from her principles and sustained by a sense of justice and duty. She abhors hypocrisy, while admitting her own shortcomings. Her compassion is tangible. The one quality that I feel best defines her is sincerity, at the core of which is her conviction in self- improvement. Aung San Suu Kyi is a seeker, one who makes her life a vehicle for an awakening to deeper and deeper truths. She wears her spirituality quietly, unpretentiously, and with subtlety. But this casualness makes it all the more delightful. She laughs freely and easily. Her voice is harmonious and sweet; her words are so simple at times as to take you by surprise, yet spoken without equivocation. She is straight and direct. Does she have faults? She would be the first to admit having some. Was I satisfied with my conversations with her? Ultimately I wanted more than she was willing to give. Aung San Suu Kyi is a fiercely private woman, secret about her personal life and any aspect of her inner world that she deems private. I found her to be like a sealed vault in some areas and an open universe in others. Aung San Suu Kyi is her own person in every sense and it was this aspect of our time together that I most appreciated: a woman enjoying her sovereignty and happiness while fighting for the independence of others. –Alan Clements Throughout my years of lecturing on both Buddhism and Burma's struggle for democracy, I've encountered many people who wish to label you in heroic terms. Even the Vanity Fair interview with you was entitled on the cover as "Burma's Saint Joan"... assk: Good heavens, I hope not. Which raises my question. In strictly Buddhist terms, I have heard you referred to as a female bodhisattva, a being striving for the attainment of Buddhahood—the perfection of wisdom, compassion and love—with the intention of assisting others to attain freedom. assk: Oh, for goodness' sake, I'm nowhere near such a state. And I'm amazed that people think I could be anything like that. I would love to become a bodhisattva one day, if I thought I was capable of such heights. I have to say that I am one of those people who strives for self- improvement, but I'm not one who has made, or thought of myself as fit to make a bodhisattva vow. I do try to be good (laughs). This is the way my mother brought me up. She emphasized the goodness of good, so to speak. I'm not saying that I succeed all the time, but I do try. I have a terrible temper. I will say that I don't get as angry now as I used to. Meditation helped a lot. But when I think somebody has been hypocritical or unjust, I have to confess that I still get very angry. I don't mind ignorance; I don't mind sincere mistakes; but what makes me really angry is hypocrisy. So, I have to develop awareness. When I get really angry, I have to be aware that I'm angry—I watch myself being angry. And I say to myself, well, I'm angry, I'm angry, I've got to control this anger. And that brings it under control to a certain extent. Many years ago I interviewed Burma's former Prime Minister U Nu, who stated as a matter of fact that he was a committed bodhisattva. I asked him what it was like being the Prime Minister with full control of the army and to have made the vow to become a Buddha. He said rather explicitly, if I remember correctly, that it was a major burden, a nearly constant moral dilemma. What he was saying was that being a devout Buddhist was incompatible with being a political leader who had a responsibility to use the armed forces. Don't you feel any such dilemma? assk: No, I do not see a dilemma. I would not think that I'm in any position to even contemplate taking the bodhisattva vow. My first concern is to abide by Buddhist principles in my worldly dealings. Of course, I do meditate. That's because I believe that all of us, as human beings, have a spiritual dimension which cannot be neglected. Overall, I think of myself as a very ordinary Burmese Buddhist who will devote more time to religion in my older years. When you reflect back over the years of your life, what have been the most important experiences and personal lessons that have had a significant effect on your growth as an individual? assk: It's very simple. What I have learned in life is that it's always your own wrongdoing that causes you the greatest suffering. It is never what other people do to you. Perhaps this is due to the way in which I was brought up. My mother instilled in me the principle that wrongdoing never pays, and my own experience has proved that to be true. Also, if you have positive feelings towards other people they can't do anything to you—they can't frighten you. I think that if you stop loving other people then you really suffer. How would you characterize yourself as a person? assk: Well, I see myself sometimes quite differently from how other people see me. For example, all this business about my being so brave...I had never thought of myself as a particularly brave person at all. And when people say "How marvelous it is that you stuck out those six years of detention," my reaction is, "Well, what's so difficult about it? What's all the fuss about?" Anybody can stick out six years of house arrest. It's those people who have had to stick out years and years in prison, in terrible conditions, that make you wonder how they did it. So I don't see myself as all that extraordinary. I do see myself as a trier; I don't give up. When I say, "I don't give up," I'm not talking about not giving up working for democracy. That too, but basically I don't give up trying to be a better person. So it's this inner drive, this determination towards perfection or wholeness that most characterizes you? assk: Yes. People talk quite a lot about my determination but I don't think of myself as a very determined person. I just think of myself as a trier. What does Buddhist meditation mean to you? assk: It's a form of spiritual cultivation—a spiritual education and a purifying process. Basically, it's learning awareness. By being aware of whatever you're doing, you learn to avoid impurities. What motivates you to meditate as a daily practice? assk: The main reason why I meditate is the satisfaction that I derive from the knowledge that I am doing what I think I should do, that is, to try to develop awareness as a step towards understanding anicca (impermanence) as an experience. I have very ordinary attitudes towards life. If I think there is something I should do in the name of justice or in the name of love, then I'll do it. The motivation is its own reward. How instrumental has meditation been in discovering new aspects of your interior life? Has it been a process of self-discovery? assk: I don't know if it has been a process of self-discovery as much as one of spiritual strengthening. I was always taught to be honest with myself. Since I was quite young I had been in the habit of analyzing my own actions and feelings. So I haven't really discovered anything new about myself. But meditation has helped to strengthen me spiritually in order to follow the right path. Also, for me, meditation is part of a way of life because what you do when you meditate is to learn to control your mind through developing awareness. This awareness carries on into everyday life. For me, that's one of the most practical benefits of meditation—my sense of awareness has become heightened. I'm now much less inclined to do things carelessly and unconsciously. How did you learn meditation? assk: I did go to the Mahasi Thathana Yeiktha meditation center but that was long ago, when I was in Burma on one of my visits. I was in my twenties. But I never really meditated very much. My real meditation took off only during my years of house arrest. And for that I had to depend a lot on books. Sayadaw U Pandita's book, In This Very Life, was a great help. I know that you occasionally pay your respects to the Venerable Sayadaw U Pandita at his monastery here in Rangoon. May I ask you to share some aspect of his teachings that you have found helpful? assk: I remember everything he has taught me. The most important of which was that you can never be too mindful. He said you can have too much panna (wisdom) or too much viriya (effort); but you cannot overdo mindfulness. I have been very mindful of that (laughing) throughout these last seven years. Also, he advised me to concentrate on saying things that will bring about reconciliation. And that what I should say should be truthful, beneficial, and sweet to the ears of the listener. He said that according to the Buddha's teachings, there were two kinds of speech: one which was truthful, beneficial and acceptable, and the other which was truthful, beneficial but unacceptable, that is to say that does not please the listener. As a Theravada Buddhist, are you still open in your spiritual attitudes to learn from other traditions, or are they fairly set? assk: I am a Theravada Buddhist but I respect mahayana Buddhism as well as vajrayana Buddhism. Also, I have a great respect for other religions. I do not think anyone has the right to look down on anybody's religion. I'm very interested in hearing about other people's spiritual experiences and views. I've got a lot more to learn, from as many people as are prepared to teach me. What are the elements of mahayana Buddhism that you respect? assk: In mahayana Buddhism there's much more emphasis on compassion than in Theravada Buddhism. I'm very sensitive to this, because we need a lot of compassion in this world. Of course, compassion is also a part of Theravada Buddhism. But I would like to see more of our people putting compassion into action. Is it fair to say that the regime—SLORC—are Buddhists? assk: I would not like to comment on other people's religious inclinations. It's not for me to say who is Buddhist or who is not. But I must say that some of their actions are not consonant with Buddhist teachings. For example? assk: There's so little loving-kindness and compassion in what they say, in what they write and what they do. That's totally removed from the Buddhist way. Removed from people? assk: Yes. This is the problem with a lot of authoritarian regimes, they get further and further away from the people. They create their own isolation because they frighten everybody, including their own subordinates, who feel unable to say anything that would be unacceptable. It's a matter of debate, but politics and religion are usually segregated issues. In Burma today, the large portion of monks and nuns see spiritual freedom and socio-political freedom as separate areas. But in truth, dharma and politics are rooted in the same issue—freedom. assk: Indeed, but this is not unique to Burma. Everywhere you'll find this drive to separate the secular from the spiritual. In other Buddhist countries you'll find the same thing—in Thailand, Sri Lanka, in mahayana Buddhist countries, in Christian countries, almost everywhere in the world. I think some people find it embarrassing and impractical to think of the spiritual and political life as one. I do not see them as separate. In democracies there is always a drive to separate the spiritual from the secular, but it is not actually required to separate them. Whereas in many dictatorships, you'll find that there is an official policy to keep politics and religion apart, in case, I suppose, it is used to upset the status quo. The Burmese monk U Wisara, who died years ago while in prison after 143 days of a hunger strike, was an outstanding example of politically motivated non-violent protest. Indeed, Burma has a long history of monks and nuns being actively engaged in political areas when it concerns the welfare of the people. However, I wonder about today. With the crisis at such a critical moment, do you think that the sangha—the order of monks and nuns—can play a greater role in supporting the democracy movement? After all, it's their freedom too. assk: There are a lot of monks and nuns who have played a very courageous role in our movement for democracy. Of course, I would like to see everybody taking a much more significant role in the movement, not just monks and nuns. After all, there is nothing in democracy that any Buddhist could object to. I think that monks and nuns, like everybody else, have a duty to promote what is good and desirable. And I do think they could be more effective. In fact, they should help as far as they can. I do believe in engaged Buddhism, to use a modern term. How might they be more effective? assk: Simply by preaching democratic principles, by encouraging everybody to work for democracy and human rights, and by trying to persuade the authorities to begin dialogue. It would be a great help if every monk and nun in the country were to say, "What we want to see is dialogue." After all, that is the way of the Buddha. He encouraged the sangha to talk to each other. He said, "You can't live like dumb animals. And if you have offended each other, you expiate your sins and offenses by confessing them and apologizing." You often refer to your democracy movement here in Burma as a "revolution of the spirit" that is rooted in Buddhist principles. How much, if at all, do you draw upon the wisdom of other religions in your approach to politics? assk: I have read books on other religions but I haven't gone into any of them particularly deeply. But I find that the idea of metta is in every religion. The Christians say God is love. And when they say, "Perfect love casts out fear," I think by perfect love they mean exactly what we mean by metta. I think at the core of all religions there is this idea of love for one's fellow human beings. I would like to ask you more about engaged Buddhism. I spent a few months in Vietnam this year and outside the city of Hue I visited the monastery of the first Vietnamese Buddhist monk who immolated himself back in 1963. A young monk gave me a photograph of his burning and explained that the "immolation was not an act of destruction or suicide but an act of compassion; his way of drawing world attention to the staggering suffering the Vietnamese people were forced to bear during the war." There is no doubt that such an act of engaged Buddhism is extreme. But that image prompts me to ask you how engaged Buddhism, in whatever expression it may take, could be more activated today, especially among the 1,000,000 monks and 500,000 nuns in your own country? assk: Engaged Buddhism is active compassion or active metta. It's not just sitting there passively saying, "I feel sorry for them." It means doing something about the situation by bringing whatever relief you can to those who need it the most, by caring for them, by doing what you can to help others. Of course, the "sending of loving-kindness" is very much a part of our Burmese Buddhist training. But in addition to that we have got to do more to express our metta and to show our compassion. And there are so many ways of doing it. For example, when the Buddha tried to stop two sides from fighting each other, he went out and stood between them. They would have had to injure him first before they could hurt each other. So he was defending both sides. As well as protecting others at the sacrifice of his own safety. In Burma today, many people are afraid to visit families of political prisoners in case they too are called in by the authorities and harassed. Now, you could show active compassion by coming to the families of political prisoners and offering them practical help and by surrounding them with love, compassion and moral support. This is what we are encouraging. But fear so often overwhelms the heart before compassion has a chance to become active. As you have said, "Fear is a habit." Just the other day I was at a shop in the city xeroxing a letter to a friend and accidentally dropped the paper on the floor. The shopkeeper picked it up and while he was handing it back to me he noticed in capitals the letters "NLD." He panicked and began ripping the paper into small pieces. I asked him, "Why?" and he replied with a rather frightened face, "NLD means prison." assk: You should have told him not to be ridiculous. I don't think he's the only one who is afraid. But how can this "active compassion" express itself out on the street, to the common folk, among those where "fear is a habit"? assk: These things are happening because there is not enough active compassion. There is a very direct link between love and fear. It reminds me of the biblical quotation, that "perfect love casts out fear." I've often thought that this is a very Buddhist attitude. "Perfect love" should be metta, which is not selfish or attached love. In the Metta Sutra we have the phrase "like a mother caring for her only child." That's true metta. A mother's courage to sacrifice herself comes out of her love for her child. And I think we need a lot more of this kind of love around the place. I don't mean to challenge you, but I was mugged earlier this year while waiting in a Paris subway station. And if my aggressor hadn't sprayed me in the eyes with mace I certainly would have put up a fight. Afterwards, it made me think of the magnitude of violence in the world. We do need a lot more love around the place, but love is often an ideal. You use the metaphor of a mother's courage to sacrifice for her child and a love that embraces even his faults, but this "child" is slitting the throats of his neighbors... assk: think you have not quite understood what I've been saying. You see, we've got to make metta grow. We've got to make people see that love is a strong, positive force for the happiness of oneself, not just for others. A journalist said to me, "When you speak to the people you talk a lot about religion, why is that?" I said, "Because politics is about people, and you can't separate people from their spiritual values." And he said that he had asked a young student who had come to the weekend talks about this "Why are they talking about religion?" The student replied, "Well, that's politics." Our people understand what we are talking about. Some people might think it is either idealistic or naive to talk about metta in terms of politics, but to me it makes a lot of practical good sense. I've always said to the NLD that we've got to help each other. If people see how much we support each other and how much happiness we manage to generate among ourselves, in spite of being surrounded by weapons, threats and repression, they will want to be like us. They might say, well, there's something in their attitude—we want to be happy too. What is the core quality at the center of your movement? assk: Inner strength. It's the spiritual steadiness that comes from the belief that what you are doing is right, even if it doesn't bring you immediate concrete benefits. It's the fact that you are doing something that helps to shore up your spiritual powers. It's very powerful. Martin Luther King used the phrase "divine dissatisfaction." He encouraged his people to grow weary and tired of injustice, to become "maladjusted," as he said it, to the racist system by which they were being oppressed. Now, on one level, you speak of genuine reconciliation, but at the same time, are you also speaking to the need of the population to grow uncomfortable and to steadily increase their dissatisfaction towards SLORC? assk: It's not really the need to grow "uncomfortable." Nor are we trying to make the people become more dissatisfied. Our principal task is to encourage the need in people to question the situation and not just accept everything. Now, acceptance is not the same as serenity. Some people seem to think they go together. Not at all. Sometimes, the very fact that you accept what you do not want to accept and know that you should not accept, destroys the sense of serenity and inner peace, because you're in conflict with yourself. So the overcoming of complacency is the principal focus? assk: Yes, complacency is very dangerous. What we want to do is to free people from feeling complacent. Actually, with a lot of people it's not a sense of complacency either. I think that many people just accept things out of either fear or inertia. This readiness to accept without question has to be removed. And it's very un-Buddhist. After all, the Buddha did not accept the status quo without questioning it. Yes, he radically questioned. It's the basis of his teachings. assk: Yes, absolutely. In Buddhism, you know the four ingredients of success or victory: chanda—desire or will; citta—the right attitude; viriya—perseverance, and panna—wisdom. We feel that you have got to cultivate these four qualities in order to succeed. And the step prior even to these four steps is questioning. From that you discover your real desires. Then you have got to develop chanda. Chanda is not really desire. How would you describe it ? Chanda is normally translated as the "wish to do" or intention. Every action begins with it. Where there is a will there is a way. assk: Yes. You must develop the intention to do something about the situation. From there you've got to develop the right attitude and then persevere with wisdom. Only then will there be success in your endeavor. Of course, the five basic moral precepts are essential, to keep you from straying, as it were. With these we will get where we want to. We don't need anything else. So what you're doing is fostering a sense of individual courage to question, to analyze... assk: And to act. I remind the people that karma is actually doing. It's not just sitting back. Some people think of karma as destiny or fate and that there's nothing they can do about it. It's simply what is going to happen because of their past deeds. This is the way in which karma is often interpreted in Burma. But karma is not that at all. It's doing, it's action. So you are creating your own karma all the time. Buddhism is a very dynamic philosophy and it's a great pity that some people forget that aspect of our religion. I've often noticed in Burmese Buddhist culture how people speak of the suffering they face in their present circumstances as simply the bitter fruit of past unwholesome karma or actions. Such people will say "I brought this suffering on myself through my own past ignorance and therefore I must bear it in the present." assk: I think it's an excuse for doing nothing and it's completely contrary to our Buddhist views. If what is happening now is a result of what happened before, all the more reason why you should work harder now to change the situation... Yesterday, before your public talk began, a Rangoon University student asked me bluntly, "Should Burma's democracy movement engage in an armed struggle rather than continuing in a non-violent way?" I told him I would ask you the question. assk: I do not believe in an armed struggle because it will perpetrate the tradition that he who is best at wielding arms, wields power. Even if the democracy movement were to succeed through force of arms, it would leave in the minds of the people the idea that whoever has greater armed might wins in the end. That will not help democracy. Daw Suu, how effective is non-violence in the modern world, and more specifically, with regimes that seem devoid of sensitivity or any sense of moral shame and conscience? assk: Non-violence means positive action. You have to work for whatever you want. You don't just sit there doing nothing and hope to get what you want. It just means that the methods you use are not violent ones. Some people think that non-violence is passiveness. It's not so. In your country there were numerous brave young men and women who literally faced the bullets and bayonets, in their willingness to be non-violently active, yourself included. And the results left at least 3,000 dead. Do you ever have doubts about the effectiveness of non-violent political activism in the face of armed aggression? assk: No, I don't have any doubts about it. I know that it is often the slower way and I understand why our young people feel that non-violence will not work. Especially when the authorities in Burma are prepared to talk to insurgent groups, but not to an organization like the NLD which carries no arms. That makes a lot of people feel that the only way you can get anywhere is by bearing arms. But I cannot encourage that kind of attitude. Because if we do, we will be perpetuating a cycle of violence that will never come to an end. Then let me ask the question in another way. Daw Suu, I would like to understand you. Is non- violence an immutable ethical and spiritual principle that will never alter in your approach to the struggle? assk: We have always said that we will never disown those students and others who have taken up violence. We know that their aim is the same as ours. They want democracy and they think the best way to go about it is through armed struggle. And we do not say that we have the monopoly on the right methods of achieving what we want. Also, we cannot guarantee their security. We can't say, "Follow us in the way of non-violence and you'll be protected," or that we'll get there without any casualties. That's a promise we can't make. We have chosen the way of non-violence simply because we think it's politically better for the country in the long run to establish that you can bring about change without the use of arms. This has been a clear NLD policy from the beginning. Here, we're not thinking about spiritual matters at all. Perhaps in that sense, we're not the same as Mahatma Gandhi, who would have probably condemned all movements that were not non-violent. I'm not sure. But he did say at one time that if he had to choose between violence and cowardice, he would choose violence. So even Gandhi, who was supposed to be the great exponent of non-violence, was not somebody who did not make any exceptions... But what about choosing violence out of compassion, if it's the right word, rather than using it as an option instead of cowardice? Nelson Mandela writes "Leadership commits a crime against its own people if it hesitates to sharpen its political weapons where they have become less effective." Isn't he saying that one's attachment to non-violence becomes in fact an act of violence towards one's own people, when the non-violent approach is no longer effective? assk: It depends on the situation and I think that in the context of Burma today, non-violent means are the best way to achieve our goal. But I certainly do not condemn those who fight the "just fight," as it were. My father did, and I admire him greatly for it. I know it's a nice belief to hold, that "in the end, right will prevail." What evidence do you have to say, "The light will have to come"? It seems like just the opposite is closer to reality, for so many millions of people around the world. assk: Whatever you may say, the world is better. Because in this day and age you can't just drag someone to a public place, chop off his head, and not have anyone say a word about it. Which government today would hang, draw and quarter somebody, in full view of the public, and think that he'd get away with it? We are less barbaric; people as a whole are more civilized. This is not to say that horrible tortures do not go on. They go on behind the scenes but at least people are beginning to learn that this is not acceptable. Take a place like England, which is supposed to be the mother of democracy. I'm sure there are lots of criticisms that you can make about England but if they had caught the Soviet spy, Kim Philby, and they had hung, drawn and quartered him in public, do you think the English people would have stood for it? Even though he was a traitor, those days are long gone. So people have progressed and not just in democratic countries but even in the old Soviet Union. Of course, they executed traitors but they certainly would not have taken them out into Red Square and chopped their heads off in full view of the public. So that's progress. It shows that people are beginning to understand that barbarism is not acceptable, that it's something to be ashamed of, something we must try to eliminate. You can't deny that there has been an increasing movement to control the savage instincts of man. I would like to immediately jump in there on the issue... assk: Oh, go on. There have been more wars and murders in the twentieth century than all previous centuries combined. And Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Nigerian writer and environmental activist, was hung in full public view of the entire world. Furthermore, CNN and the BBC covered the Bosnian nightmare, twenty-four hours a day, for forty-three months of "ethnic cleansing," in full view of the public. I need more evidence of how you determine your views. assk: Let's put it this way. The values of civilization have become more dominant. When European civilization spread, in most places it did so based on a policy of extermination of the indigenous populations. Perhaps from that perspective, there might be more dominant values of civilization today than before. But, I'm not sure at all that I'm convinced. assk: Take Burma under the Burmese kings: those who were out of favor with the king were executed in very cruel ways. Now, Burma has been accused of many, many human rights violations. But do the authorities ever admit them? They do not. They will say, "No, we have not perpetrated these deeds." Whereas in the days of the old Burmese kings, there was no question of denying it. They would just do it. It was their prerogative and nobody would dare to question them. And they would not think there was any need for them to even pretend that they had not done these things. So that's progress. I think it was His Holiness the Dalai Lama who said that we should "foster an appreciation, a real love, for our shared human status." There is something beautiful and appealing about the notion. And yet it seems foreign... When I conjure up ghastly images of Auschwitz and death camps, the sea of cracked skulls from Pol Pot's killing fields, hacked-up bodies of Rwandan Hutus, or women screaming in Serbian rape camps, my heart closes. I wonder if the perpetrators of such atrocities can even be considered as human beings. Quite frankly, they seem sub-human. And, Daw Suu, you seem to live and breathe your country's suffering. How do you manage to keep your heart open to the pain? assk: It depends on the circles in which you move. I think I'm very fortunate that the people around me have such open hearts. Because we can afford to be loving with each other, the habit of opening our hearts is always there. Also, if you know that there are people in the world who are worthy of love, and whom you could open up to without danger, I think you are more ready to accept that there are others too who could be lovable. I'll be specific. How do you look into the eyes of SLORC without feeling a sense of outrage, really? assk: People often come to me and ask the same question, "Why don't you feel any sense of vindictiveness?" I think some of the people who ask this question don't believe that we are actually free from such feelings. It's very difficult to explain. The other day Uncle U Kyi Maung, Uncle U Tin U and I were talking with a group of our NLD delegates and we were laughing over this. Apparently, you had asked Uncle U Kyi Maung how he felt the day he heard I was going to be placed under arrest. And he replied that he didn't feel anything at all. And you were surprised by that... Not only surprised, but I was shocked. Because what he said was that despite the fact that armed soldiers had surrounded your house, and it was likely that you would be taken to Insein Prison, you all just laughed about the crisis and started cracking jokes. assk: Yes, and we didn't feel anything at all. So many journalists have asked me: "How did you feel when you were released?" I have said, "I felt nothing at all." (laughing) I had a vague idea that I should feel something, but my real concern was, what should I do now? Then a journalist asked if I were elated or felt happy. I said, "No...none of these things. I always knew that I was going to be free one day. The point was, well, what do I do now?" But a lot of people don't believe me. They assume that it's some form of denial or repression in you? assk: Exactly. (laughing) It's very strange. When you speak of "feeling nothing at all" after your release from detention, are you saying that the past is simply irrelevant? assk: I don't think you can just forget the past but one should use experiences of the past to build up a better present and future. What about the victims who don't have the resiliency or the depth of spirit that you and your colleagues have, and do feel violated and made resentful by the atrocities committed towards them? assk: Of course. Of course. This is why we are talking about the connection of truth and reconciliation. I think that first of all, their sufferings have to be acknowledged. You can't just wipe away the past. If you try, there will always be this ocean of festering resentment within those who have truly suffered. They will feel that their sufferings have been pushed aside, as though they've suffered for nothing; as though they've undergone torture for nothing; as though their sons and fathers had died for nothing. Those people must have the satisfaction of knowing that their sufferings have not been in vain, and this very fact, that there's an admission of the injustice done, will take away a lot of the resentment. Mind you, people are different. Some will always want vengeance and will keep on thirsting for it even if everyone says: "Yes, we know how you've suffered, or your son or daughter." There will always be people who can never forgive. But we must always try to. In Chile they had a council for truth and reconciliation and there's one now in South Africa, under Archbishop Desmond Tutu. I very much believe in it. The admission of injustice, to a certain extent, will prevent it from happening again. People will realize that if you do such things, they get known. You can't hide them. Do you think it's essentially a human right that some form of justice is still required, beyond just an acknowledgment of the anguish and suffering a family or an individual has been forced to bear? assk: Let's consider it as satisfaction rather than as a need for justice. If you talk about justice as a "human right" it could be misinterpreted as something done under the law. In many countries where dictatorships have fallen and democracies have arisen, you will find that it's not always possible to take full legal action against those who have perpetrated injustices. For various reasons there have had to be compromises. So if one talks about "justice," it might give the wrong impression that everything that has happened must be tried in a court, and that justice must be done in the legal sense. I would rather say that something must be done to satisfy the victims and the families of those victims. Are you disappointed by the international response to Burma? assk: No. Of course, we always hope that it will get better and there will be more sympathy and support for the principles and values that we're struggling for. However, we should consider the fact that very few people in the world even knew where Burma was before 1988. Do you feel that it is ever appropriate or justified for one country to intervene in the internal affairs of another country whose powers are creating hell for the population? Is it the duty of a powerful country to help the weaker one in such instances? assk: I think it is better that the international community carries out this responsibility as a whole. There are far too many complications that arise when one country is given either the responsibility or the right to interfere in the affairs of another country. But I do think that the international community as a whole should recognize that it has got responsibilities. It can't ignore grave injustices that are going on within the borders of any particular country. On the issue of foreign investment in Burma, hundreds of millions of dollars are pouring into your country, with more waiting in bank accounts. I assume that many of these business people want the truth. What would be the most appropriate way for these potential investors to cut through SLORC propaganda, and get to the facts about what's really going on in your country? assk: They could always start by talking to us. We could give them a good idea of what is going on... if they're interested in finding out the truth. But I think a lot of people just don't want to know. What, in essence, does truth mean to you? assk: In the end, truth cannot really be separated from sincerity and goodwill. I cannot claim that in every situation I am able to see the truth. But one does one's best to be sincere in evaluating a situation, making an honest distinction between what is right and what is not. If you do so you are on the side of truth. But truth is a large concept. Pure truth, absolute truth, is beyond ordinary beings like us because we cannot see things absolutely and as a whole. But we try our best. I think of all of us who are on the side of truth as struggling towards it, rather than in full possession of it. Truth is something towards which we struggle all the time. To what extent is truth subjective, vis-a-vis ultimate truth? assk: The search for truth is in a sense the struggle to overcome subjectivity. By that I mean that you've got to remove as far as possible your own prejudices and distance yourself from them in assessing any given situation. Learning the art of objectively relating to our subjectivity? assk: The search for truth has to be accompanied by awareness. And awareness and objectivity are very closely linked. If you are aware of what you're doing, you have an objective view of yourself. And if you are aware of what other people are doing you become more objective about them too. For example, awareness means that when you are aware of the fact that somebody is shouting, you don't think to yourself, "What a horrible man. " That's purely subjective. But if you are aware you know that he's shouting because he's angry or frightened, that's objectivity. Otherwise, without awareness, all kinds of prejudices start multiplying. © Alan Clements is founder of the Burma Project USA and an expert on the democracy movement in Burma. He lived in Burma for eight years, for much of that time as a Buddhist monk. He is the author of Burma: The Next Killing Fields? (1991), and co-author of the photographic book Burma's Revolution of the Spirit (1991). He was an advisor on the film Beyond Rangoon and speaks frequently on Burma's struggle for democracy. The Voice of Hope will be published in October by Seven Stories Press. @1997 Alan Clements. Reprinted by arrangement. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ E-Mail address:magazine@shambhalasun.com Site maintained by : Sealevel Revised November 7, 1997 Jhana Sutta (Anguttara Nikaya IX.36) Mental Absorption Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu For free distribution only, as a gift of Dhamma "I tell you, the ending of the effluents depends on the first jhana ... the second jhana ... the third ... the fourth ... the sphere of the infinitude of space ... the sphere of the infinitude of consciousness ... the sphere of nothingness. I tell you, the ending of the effluents depends on the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception. "`I tell you, the ending of the effluents depends on the first jhana.' Thus it has been said. In reference to what was it said? There is the case where a monk, withdrawn from sensuality, withdrawn from unskillful qualities, enters & remains in the first jhana: rapture & pleasure born from withdrawal, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation. He regards whatever phenomena there that are connected with form, feeling, perceptions, fabrications, & consciousness, as inconstant, stressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a disintegration, a void, not-self. He turns his mind away from those phenomena, and having done so, inclines his mind to the property of deathlessness: `This is peace, this is exquisite -- the resolution of all fabrications; the relinquishment of all the acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding.' "Suppose that an archer or archer's apprentice were to practice on a straw man or mound of clay, so that after a while he would become able to shoot long distances, to fire accurate shots in rapid succession, and to pierce great masses. In the same way, there is the case where a monk...enters & remains in the first jhana: rapture & pleasure born of withdrawal, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation. He regards whatever phenomena there that are connected with form, feeling, perceptions, fabrications, & consciousness, as inconstant, stressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a disintegration, a void, not-self. He turns his mind away from those phenomena, and having done so, inclines his mind to the property of deathlessness: `This is peace, this is exquisite -- the resolution of all fabrications; the relinquishment of all the acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding.' "Staying right there, he reaches the ending of the mental effluents. Or, if not, then -- through passion & delight for this very property [the discernment inclining to deathlessness] and from the total wasting away of the first of the five Fetters [self-identity views, grasping at precepts & practices, uncertainty, sensual passion, and irritation] -- he is due to be reborn [in the Pure Abodes], there to be totally unbound, never again to return from that world. "`I tell you, the ending of the effluents depends on the first jhana.' Thus it was said, and in reference to this was it said. [Similarly with the other levels of jhana up through the sphere of nothingness.] "Thus, as far as the perception-attainments go, that is as far as gnosis-penetration goes. As for these two spheres -- the attainment of the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception & the attainment of the cessation of feeling & perception -- I tell you that they are to be rightly explained by those monks who are meditators, skilled in attaining, skilled in attaining & emerging, who have attained & emerged in dependence on them." Here is a complete List of the patriarchs after Shakyamuni Buddha: 1.Mahakasyapa 2.Ananda 3.Shonawashu 4.Obakikuta 5.Daitaka 6.Mishaka 7.Basumitta 8.Budanandai 9.Fudamitta 10.Harishiba 11.Funayasha 12.Anabotei 13.Kapimara 14.Nagarajuna 15.Kanadaiba 16.Ragorata 17.Sogyanandai 18.Kayashata 19.Kumarata 20.Shayata 21.Vasubhandu 22.Manura 23.Kakurokuna 24.Shishibodai 25.Bashashita 26.Funyomitta 27.Hannyatara 28.BODHIDARMA This is the list of the Indian patriarchs after buddha.I'm not sure if the names are right written because I find them on a japanese List. The URL is : www.cwi.Nl/~gruau/en/transmission.html metta HARALD You can read the story of Boddhidharma as the 28th patriarch of Buddhism on Lanka in such Books like "Living by Zen"(Daisetz Suzuki) or the varius Books about Zen written by Taisen Deshimaru-Roshi... I. Letter to Mr. N. Q. Dias ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [L. 2] 27 March 1962 Dear Mr. Dias, The Pali for 'awareness' (as you are no doubt aware) is sampajañña. In the Suttas it is frequently linked with 'mindfulness' or sati, in the compound sati-sampajañña, 'mindfulness-and-awareness'. In the Satipatthána Sutta awareness (of bodily actions) is included in the section on mindfulness of the body, so we can perhaps conclude that, while it is not different from mindfulness, awareness is rather more specialized in meaning. Mindfulness is general recollectedness, not being scatter-brained; whereas awareness is more precisely keeping oneself under constant observation, not letting one's actions (or thoughts, or feelings, etc.) pass unnoticed. Here, to begin with, are three Sutta passages to indicate the scope of the practice of awareness in the Buddha's Teaching. (a) And how, monks, is a monk aware? Here, monks, in walking to and fro a monk practises awareness; in looking ahead and looking aside he practises awareness; in bending and stretching...; in using robes and bowl...; in eating, drinking, chewing, and tasting...; in excreting and urinating...; in walking, standing, sitting, sleeping, waking, speaking, and being silent, he practises awareness. (b) And which, monks, is the development of concentration that, when developed and made much of, leads to mindfulness-and-awareness? Here, monks, feelings are known as they arise, feelings are known as they endure, feelings are known as they vanish; perceptions are known as they arise, perceptions are known as they endure, perceptions are known as they vanish; thoughts are known as they arise, thoughts are known as they endure, thoughts are known as they vanish. (c) Here, Ánanda, a monk is mindful as he walks to, he is mindful as he walks fro, he is mindful as he stands, he is mindful as he sits, he is mindful as he lies down, he is mindful as he sets to work. This, Ánanda, is a mode of recollection that, when developed and made much of in this way, leads to mindfulness-and-awareness. The next thing is to sort out a verbal confusion. When our actions become habitual we tend to do them without thinking about them -- they become 'automatic' or 'instinctive' (scratching one's head, for example, or blinking one's eyes). We commonly call these 'unconscious actions', and this usage is followed by psychology and science generally. But this is a misunderstanding. There is, strictly speaking, no such thing as an 'unconscious action'. The Buddha defines 'action' (kamma) as 'intention' (cetaná), and there is no intention without consciousness (viññána). An unconscious action is no action at all, it is purely and simply movement as when, for example, a tree sways in the wind, or a rock is dislodged by the rain and rolls down a mountainside and derails a train (in this latter case it is quaintly called, in legal circles,[1] 'an Act of God' but if there is no God there is no Act, only the movement of the rock). In the Buddha's Teaching, all consciousness is action (by mind, voice or body) and every action is conscious. But this does not mean that every action is done in awareness -- indeed, what is commonly called an 'unconscious action' is merely a (conscious) action that is done not deliberately, that is done unawares. What we commonly call a 'conscious action' is, strictly speaking, a deliberate action, an action that requires some thought to perform (as, for example, when we try to do something that we have not done before, or only infrequently). When we do such actions, we have to consider what we are doing (or else we shall make a mistake); and it is this considering what we are doing that constitutes 'awareness'. An action that we do without considering what we are doing is an action that is done without 'awareness'. So long as we are awake, obviously enough, there is always some degree of awareness present, since new problems, large or small, are always presenting themselves, and we are obliged to consider them (even if only for a moment or two) in order to deal with them. (When we dream, on the other hand, awareness is in abeyance; and it is this very fact that we are unable to look at our dream problems objectively that distinguishes dreams from waking experience. When we are awake we are always aware 'I am awake', but when we dream we are not aware 'I am dreaming'; and, in fact, when we have a nightmare and struggle to wake up, all we are doing is trying to remember [or become aware] that we are dreaming, and if we succeed we wake up.) But though, unlike in sleep, there is always some degree of awareness present in our waking life, it is normally only enough to enable us to deal with unexpected circumstances as they occur; for the rest we are absorbed in what we are doing -- whether it is the daily task of earning a livelihood, or our personal affairs with our emotional attitudes towards other people (affection, dislike, fury, lust, boredom, and so on), it makes no difference. To maintain a detached attitude is difficult when there is much routine work to be done in a hurry, and it robs our personal relationships with others of all emotional satisfaction. We prefer to get through our work as quickly and with as little effort as possible, and then to wallow in our emotions like a buffalo in a mud-hole. Awareness of what we are doing, which is always an effort, we like to keep to the absolute minimum. But we cannot avoid awareness altogether, since, as I remarked earlier, it is necessary in order to deal with unexpected problems, however insignificant, as they arise. But this awareness is practised merely for the purpose of overcoming the obstacles that lie in the path of our daily life -- it is practised simply in order to get through the business of living as expeditiously and as efficiently as possible. Awareness in the Buddha's Teaching, however, has a different purpose: it is practised for the purpose of attaining release from living. These two different purposes, while not directly opposed, do not in fact co-operate -- they are, as it were, at right angles to each other; and since the amount of awareness that can be practised at any one time is limited, there is competition between these purposes for whatever awareness is available. Thus it happens that in activities requiring much awareness simply for their successful performance (such as writing this letter) there is not much scope for the practice of awareness leading to release (though no doubt if I got into the unlikely habit of writing this same letter twice a day over a number of years I should be able to devote more of the latter to it). The Buddha tells us (in the Itivuttaka III,30: 71-2) that three things harm the progress of the sekha bhikkhu (one who has reached the Path but who has not arrived at arahatship): fondness for work (i.e. building, sewing robes, doing odd jobs, and so on), fondness for talk, and fondness for sleep. In the first two, as we can see, much awareness must be devoted to successful performance of the task in hand (making things, expounding the Dhamma), and in the third no awareness is possible. From the passages I quoted earlier it is clear that awareness for the purpose of release is best practised on those actions that are habitual and do not require much thought to perform -- walking, standing, sitting, lying down, attending to bodily needs of various kinds, and so on. (The reference to 'sleeping' in passage (a) means that one should go to sleep with awareness, bearing in mind the time to awaken again; it does not mean that we should practise awareness while we are actually asleep.) Naturally a bhikkhu cannot altogether avoid doing jobs of work or occasionally talking, but these, too, should be done mindfully and with awareness as far as possible: 'he is mindful as he sets to work', 'in speaking and being silent he practises awareness'. The normal person, as I remarked above, does not practise awareness where he does not find it necessary, that is to say, in his habitual actions; but the bhikkhu is instructed not only to do these habitual actions with awareness but also, as far as possible, to confine himself to these actions. Drive and initiative in new ventures, so highly prized in the world of business and practical affairs, are impediments for one who is seeking release. And how does one practise this awareness for the purpose of release? It is really very simple. Since (as I have said) all action is conscious, we do not have to undertake any elaborate investigation (such as asking other people) to find out what it is that we are doing so that we can become aware of it. All that is necessary is a slight change of attitude, a slight effort of attention. Instead of being fully absorbed by, or identified with, our action, we must continue, without ceasing to act, to observe ourselves in action. This is done quite simply by asking ourselves the question 'What am I doing?' It will be found that, since the action was always conscious anyway, we already, in a certain sense, know the answer without having to think about it; and simply by asking ourselves the question we become aware of the answer, i.e. of what we are doing. Thus, if I now ask myself 'What am I doing?' I can immediately answer that I am 'writing to Mr. Dias', that I am 'sitting in my bed', that I am 'scratching my leg', that I am 'wondering whether I shall have a motion', that I am 'living in Bundala', and so on almost endlessly. If I wish to practise awareness I must go on asking myself this question and answering it, until such time as I find that I am automatically (or habitually) answering the question without having to ask it. When this happens, the practice of awareness is being successful, and it only remains to develop this state and not to fall away from it through neglect. (Similar considerations will of course apply to awareness of feelings, perceptions, and thoughts -- see passage (b). Here I have to ask myself 'What am I feeling, or perceiving, or thinking?', and the answer, once again, will immediately present itself.) The objection is sometimes raised that it is not possible to do two things at once, and that it is therefore not possible both to act and to be aware of the action at one and the same time. But this opinion is a pure prejudice, based upon a certain false notion of the nature of consciousness (or of experience). It is perfectly possible to be doing a number of things at the same time (for example, I am breathing as I write this letter, and I do not interrupt the one in order to do the other); it is not possible to devote equal attention to all of them at the same time, but this is another matter. And this is true also of acting and being aware of the action. This can be verified very simply; all that is necessary is to start walking and, while still walking, to ask oneself the question 'What am I doing?'; it will be found that one can give oneself the answer 'I am walking' without ceasing to walk (i.e. it is not necessary to come to a halt, or break into a run, or fall down, in order to answer the question). Why should one practise awareness? I can think of three good reasons immediately, and there are doubtless others besides. In the first place, a person who is constantly aware of what he is doing will find it easier to keep his síla. A man who, when chasing his neighbour's wife, knows 'I am chasing my neighbour's wife', will not be able to conceal from himself the fact that he is on the point of breaking the third precept,[2] and will correct himself sooner than the man who chases his neighbour's wife without considering what he is doing. In brief, awareness leads to self-criticism and thence to self- correction. In the second place, awareness is cooling and is directly opposed to the passions (either lust or hate), which are heating (this has no connexion with the mysterious qualities that are inherent in Oriental food, but missing from food in the West). This means that the man who constantly practises awareness has a powerful control over his passions; indeed, the constant practice of awareness actually inhibits the passions, and they arise less and less frequently. In the third place, the practice of awareness is an absolute pre-requisite for the understanding of the essence of the Buddha's Teaching. The reason for this is that the Dhamma is concerned not with any one single experience (consciousness, feeling, etc.) as such, but with experience (consciousness, feeling, etc.) in general. We do not need the Buddha to tell us how to escape from any particular experience (whether it is a simple headache or an incurable cancer), but we do need the Buddha to tell us how to escape from all experience whatsoever. Now, in the normal state of being absorbed by what we are doing (that is, of non-awareness) we are concerned only with this or that particular experience or state of affair ('she loves me; she loves me not...'), and we are in no way concerned with experience in general ('what is the nature of the emotion of love?'). But when we become aware of what we are doing (or feeling, etc.), the case is different. Though we are still doing (or feeling), we are also observing that doing or feeling with a certain degree of detachment, and at that time the general nature of 'doing' and 'feeling' comes into view (the particular doing and feeling that happen to be present now merely appear as examples of 'doing' and 'feeling' in general); and it is when this general nature of things comes into view that we are able, with the Buddha's guidance, to grasp the universal characteristics of anicca, dukkha, and anattá. But here we are getting into deep waters, and I do not wish to add difficulties to a subject that is already not very easy. P.S. Note that the three advantages of practising awareness mentioned in the last paragraph correspond to síla, samádhi, and paññá, respectively. --------------------------- [NOTE: The strange characters are Chinese in GB code] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next:Lecture One Up:Contents Previous:Contents ------------------------------------------------------------------------ On Buddha Law Buddha Law is most profound. It is the most mystical and supernormal science of all theories in the world. To open up this field, it is necessary to make a fundamental change of the mentality of ordinary people; otherwise the truth of the cosmos will forever remain a myth to mankind, and ordinary people will always crawl along within the boundary delimited by their own ignorance. What is Buddha Law after all? Is it a religion? A philosophy? That is only the understanding of "the modernistic scholars of Buddhism". They merely study the theory. They regard Buddha Law as something like a category of philosophy and make a study of and do the so-called research on it with a critical eye. Nevertheless, Buddha Law is more than that little bit recorded in the Sutras, which only deals with Buddha Law at the elementary level. Buddha Law is an insight into all mysteries of the cosmos, and encompasses everything while leaving out nothing from the particle, the molecule to the universe, from even the smaller to the greater. Buddha Law is an exposition of the cosmic qualities "Zhen Shan Ren" (Õæ ÉÆ ÈÌ) presented at different levels in different ways. It is what the Taoist School means by "Tao" and Buddhas' School by Law. Well advanced as the contemporary human science is, it is only part of the mysteries of the cosmos. Whenever we mention some specific phenomena concerning Buddha Law, somebody will saying, "We are now in the electronic age! Why bother with these out-of-date superstitions when science is so progressive that spaceships have even reached other planets?" As a matter of fact, no matter how advanced a computer is, it is no match for the human brain, which remains an unfathomable enigma today. No matter how far our spaceships can fly, they are unable to get out of the physical world in which we human beings dwell. The knowledge of the contemporary human beings or what they know is just skin-deep, and too far from the real understanding of the truth of the cosmos. Some people even dare not face up to, dare not approach or dare not admit the facts of the existing objective phenomena because these people are too conservative and unwilling to change their traditional mentality. Nothing but Buddha Law can thoroughly reveal the secrets of the cosmos, time and space and the human body. It can genuinely distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong, and establish the right view by eradicating all fallacies. The guiding ideology of the present day human science can only be confined to the physical world for its development and research. It follows such a way that a subject will not be studied until it is recognized. As for the existing objective phenomena, which are invisible and intangible but reflected in our physical space in concrete forms, people dare not approach them and regard them as unidentified phenomena. Those opinionated people argue stubbornly and groundlessly that they are natural phenomena. Those with ulterior motives simply put labels of superstition on all of them against their conscience. Those who make little effort to seek truth evade them in excuse of the under-development of the science. If human beings can change their rigid mentality and have a new understanding of themselves and the cosmos, they will make a leap forward. Buddha Law can provide mankind with an insight into the immeasurable and boundless worlds for them. Throughout the ages, nothing but Buddha Law can give a perfect and clear exposition of human beings, all different spaces of material existence, life and the whole cosmos. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next:Lecture One Up:Contents Previous:Contents ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [NOTE: The strange characters are Chinese in GB code] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next:Lecture Two Up:Contents Previous:On Buddha Law ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lecture One Genuinely Guiding People Up to the High Dimension The Law Varies from Dimension to Dimension Zhen Shan Ren Is the Sole Criterion Used to Judge a Good Person from a Bad One Qigong is a Prehistoric Culture Qigong is Cultivation Why doesn't Your Cultivation Energy Increase When You Do Cultivation? Characteristics of Falun Dafa ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Genuinely Guiding People Up to a High Dimension (ÕæÕýÍù¸ß²ã´ÎÉÏ´øÈË) During the whole course of my Law lecturing and practice exercise teaching sessions, I have been responsible to the society and my students, and therefore we have achieved good results and have had a good effect on society. Some years ago, there came many qigong masters to teach qigong, but what they were talking about all belonged to the level of healing diseases and keeping fit. Of course I do not mean that their qigong practice was not good, but just that they did not bring into open anything of a high order. I have the situation of qigong of the whole country well in mind. At present, I am the only person genuinely teaching the gong in a high dimension both at home and abroad. Why isn't there anybody else who can do it? Because doing this means dealing with many big and controversial issues, which involve the remote historical origin of qigong, and which are of a wide range. What's more, teaching the gong at a high level can not be done by an ordinary person, for it involves in doing away with things belonging to many systems of qigong. In particular, we have a lot of practitioners who have made a mess of their bodies by practising this gong today and that gong tomorrow, and therefore they are bound to be unable to ascend in cultivation. Unlike those who go up in cultivation by following one main cultivation way, he takes all the branch roads. While he is practising this one, that one comes to interfere; while practising that one, this one comes. As they all come to interfere, he has been left unable to go on with his cultivation. I am going to sort out all those things, retaining the good and eliminating the bad, so that you will be guaranteed to be able to practise hereafter. However, I will do this only for those who have come to learn the Great Law truly and wholeheartedly; I will not do this for those who are attached to various desires, who have come to seek after supernormal capabilities, to cure diseases, to learn some theories, or for certain ill purposes. As I have told you, I am the only person doing this. There will not be so many opportunities because I cannot always give lectures like this. I think those who are able to attend my lectures in person are really.... You will understand what I mean when you feel your appreciation of this period of time in the future. Of course we believe in predestined relationship, and it is this relationship that has brought us here together. Let's just think, why do I teach the gong at a high level? What is this? Aren't we saving people? Saving people means cultivating yourself in a true sense rather than just healing diseases and keeping fit. Thus true cultivation requires high Xinxing (ÐÄÐÔ) of my students, since all of you sitting here have come to learn the Great Law, you should regard yourself as a true practitioner sitting here and let go of your attachments. You will gain nothing if you come here to learn the gong and the Great Law for the purpose of pursuing various personal interests. To tell you a truth: the whole course of one's cultivation is to let go of his attachments unceasingly. In the human society, one vies with the other, tries to cheat or outwit the other, and hurts the other for a bit of personal interests. All these attachments must be done away with. Especially those who are learning the gong here today should do it better. I am not going to talk about treating diseases here, nor shall I treat diseases. However, as a true cultivator, you cannot cultivate yourself without a healthy body. So I'll purify your body, but only for those who really have come to learn the gong and the Law. Here I would like to point out emphatically that I have no way to help you if you cannot rid yourself of your attachments, and I can do nothing for you if you cannot let go of your diseases. Why? As there is such a Law in the universe: according to Buddhism, the causational relationship governs everything in the human society. Birth, old age, diseases and death stay with an ordinary person the way they are because the wrongdoings he committed in his previous lives incur karmic debts, which make him suffer from illnesses or tribulations. To suffer is to pay your karmic debts; therefore no one is allowed to change it as he pleases. Changing it means that the debt one owes does not have to be paid off; and no one is allowed to do it of his own free will, or he is as good as committing evil deeds. Some people believe they are doing good when treating diseases and keeping fit for others. In my opinion, they have not really cured the diseases, but only put them off or transformed them, instead of rooting them out truly. Only by dissolving one's karma can you really remove his tribulation. If someone has reached such a level that he is indeed able to cure the disease and dissolve the karma completely, he must be in quite a high dimension. He has already seen the truth, that is, the Law of the human world cannot be violated as one wishes. During the course of their cultivation, practitioners are allowed to do some good out of compassion, such as to help people treat diseases and keep fit, but they can not cure the patients completely. If you were able to cure an ordinary person of his diseases thoroughly, as a non- practitioner, he left here without any diseases at all, he would still behave like an ordinary person after he left here, scrambling for his own personal interest with others. Why should his karma be cleared off for him? This is definitely not allowed. Then why can we do it for cultivators? This is because a cultivator is most precious. He wants to cultivate himself, and it is this very thought that is most valuable. In Buddhism, there is Buddha nature to it. Once this nature reveals itself, the enlightened beings (¾õÕß) will come to his help. What does this mean? In my view, this is because I am teaching the gong in the high dimension, dealing with the Law in the high dimension, and the issues involved are quite big. In this universe, the real life of a human being is not born in this human world, but in the cosmic space. In the universe, there are quite a lot and a great variety of life - creating substances, the interplay of which can create lives. That is to say, the earliest life of a human being came from the universe. The cosmic space itself was originally nice and compassionate, actually possessing such qualities as Zhen Shan Ren£¨ÕæÉÆÈÌ£©, with which human beings were born. However, as more and more lives came into being, there occurred a kind of social relationship among groups of people. Some of them might have developed selfish motives, and thus gradually lowered their dimension; they could not stay where they were and had to drop to a lower dimension. However, in this new dimension, they became bad again and still could not stay there, so they continued to drop until to the dimension of human beings. The whole human society stays in the same dimension. Having dropped to this stage, these living beings should have been destroyed from the point of view of supernormal capabilities, or according to the great enlightened. However, the great enlightened gave them another chance out of mercy, and thus created such a special environment and space, while the living beings in this space are quite different from those in all the other spaces in the universe. They cannot see the living beings of the other spaces, nor can they see the truth of the other spaces, nor can they see the truth of the universe; therefore they are as good as lost. In order to cure their diseases, stop their sufferings and rid of their karma, these people have to cultivate to return to the origin and go back to the truth. This is a view held by all schools of cultivation. The real purpose of being a human being is to return to the origin and go back to the truth. So once a person wants to cultivate himself, he is said to have revealed his Buddha nature. This thought is most valuable because he wants to return to the origin and go back to the truth, jumping out of the level of ordinary people. You may have heard of a saying from Buddhism: Once Buddha nature presents itself, it shakes the Ten Directions of the universe. Whoever sees it will come to his help unconditionally. Buddhas save people without making a condition, without asking for anything in return. They can help people unconditionally. So we can do many things for our students. As for an ordinary person, we will not help him because he just wants to remain an ordinary person and be cured of his diseases. Here is someone who thinks: I'll start cultivation as long as I have recovered from illness. He cannot make a condition for cultivation. If he wants to cultivate, he may start to do it. However, there are some people who have come with unhealthy bodies; some carry disorderly messages in their bodies; others have never practised qigong at all; still others have practised for decades of years only to find themselves still wandering in the state of qi, and therefore have not gone up in cultivation. What shall we do then? We'll purify his body to enable him to go up to high level cultivation. During the lowest level cultivation, there is quite a process of purifying the body thoroughly and completely; emptying the mind of bad thoughts, cleaning up the karmic field around the body and driving away the factors causing diseases all at once. Otherwise, with such a turbid body, a blackened body and a filthy mind, how can you reach the high dimensional cultivation? Here we do not exercise qi, therefore you do not have to practise low level things, for we'll push you over to make your body free of diseases. Meanwhile, we'll plant a series of what is ready-made for you to lay the foundations at the lower levels. In this way, you can start practising at a very high level. According to the way of saying cultivation, cultivation consists of three phases of practising qi, but genuine cultivation has only two great phases (excluding the practice of qi): one is the cultivation of Shi Jian Fa (ÊÀ¼ä·¨ the In-Triple-World-Law); the other is the cultivation of Chu Shi Jian Fa ( ³öÊÀ¼ä·¨ the Beyond-Triple-World-Law). These two are entirely different from the terms World-In and World-Out used by monks and nuns in the temple, which fall into the category of theory. The two great levels of ours have brought about a transformation in the true cultivation of the human body. In the course of the cultivation of the In-Triple-World-Law, the human body keeps being purified, and is purified incessantly; and when he arrives at the highest form of the In-Triple- World-Law, his body will completely be replaced by substances of high energy. And the cultivation of the Beyond-Triple-World-Law is virtually the cultivation of the Buddha body, a body made up of substances of high energy, with all the supernatural powers emerging once again. What we refer to are these two great levels. We believe in predestined relationship. Since we are all sitting here, I can do this for all of you. Now we have only over two thousand people, but I can do it for several thousand, even more than this, or ten thousand. That is to say, you do not have to do low level practice any more. I'll push you over this level after purifying your body, and then equip you with a set of integrated cultivation system for you to begin your high dimensional cultivation directly. However, I'll do this only for those who really have come here for cultivation without saying that you are a cultivator as long as you are sitting here. Only by making a fundamental change of your mentality can we give you all these, but what I give you is not limited to them. You will understand what I have given you later on. Here we have no consideration for treating diseases, but we go in for purifying my students' bodies as a whole to enable you to practise. With such an unhealthy body, you will not be able to come up with cultivation energy. Therefore, do not ask me to treat your diseases, and I am not going to do this for you. The chief purpose of my coming to public is guiding people up to a high dimension, genuinely guiding people to a high dimension. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Law Varies from Dimension to Dimension (²»Í²ã´ÎÓв»Í²ã´ÎµÄ·¨) In the past many qigong masters stated that qigong was divided into what was elementary, intermediate and advanced. They all belong to qi, something staying in the phase of exercising qi, which was also divided into the elementary, intermediate and advanced. As for what is really advanced, the broad masses of qigong practitioners are quite ignorant of it, and do not know it at all. What I am going to lecture about from now on is all about the law in the high dimension. Besides, I would like to rehabilitate the reputation of cultivation. In my lectures, I am going to speak of the unhealthy phenomena in the world of cultivation, and how to look on and deal with them. I also intend to make clear such things as those quite big and even very serious issues involved in lecturing on the Law and teaching the practice exercise of the high order. I also want to disclose the interference in our ordinary human society from other spaces, especially the interference in the world of cultivation. At the same time we'll solve their problems for the students. Otherwise, you will not be able to practise. In order to resolve the problems once and for all, we must regard you as genuine cultivators, and we can do all this for you. Of course, it will not be easy to change your mind all at once, but in the following lectures, you will change gradually, and I hope you will listen attentively. I am different from others in teaching gong. When doing so, some people simply said something about their principles of gong, then asked the students to receive messages, and ended up by teaching them a set of hand movements. People are already used to this way of teaching gong. To teach gong indeed, one must preach the Law and expound the Tao. In my ten lectures, I'll expound the Law at the advanced level so that you can cultivate yourself; otherwise, you simply cannot do it. What the others teach all belongs to the stage of healing diseases and keeping fit, and you will not be able to reach high dimensional cultivation without the guidance of the Law of the high dimension even if you want to. This is also true of your going to school. You are still a schoolboy if you attend the college learning the textbooks of a schoolboy's. Some people think they have learned many kinds of qigong, from which they have received a pile of certificates, but their cultivation energy has not gone up yet. They mistake these for the true essence and all of qigong. They are wrong because these are only superficial knowledge of qigong at the lowest level. Qigong covers far more than these. It is cultivation. It has extensive knowledge and profound scholarship; and the Law varies from dimension to dimension, so qigong does not seem to be what we now know about the exercise of qi, for it is all the same for you to learn even more. Let me illustrate it with an example. You have learned the textbooks for British primary schools; you have learned the textbooks for American primary schools; you have learned the textbooks for Japanese primary schools; you also have learned the textbooks for Chinese primary schools, you are still a schoolboy. The more lessons about what is elementary of qigong you have learned, and the more full of it you are, the more harm it will do you because you have made a muddle of your body. I'd like to stress another point. In cultivation, we must expound the Law and teach the practice exercise. From this point of view, monks from some temples, especially those from the school of Zen Buddhism, may have some different ideas. They do not feel like hearing people say anything about preaching the Law. Why? Zen Buddhism believes that the Dharma cannot be preached. Once it is done, it will no longer be the Dharma. It can only be understood tacitly because there is no Dharma to preach. Therefore, all through the evolution of Zen Buddhism up till today, they have been unable to preach any Dharma at all. Patriarch Dharmer(ìø×Ú´ïĦ)taught Zen Buddhism according to a statement made by Sakyamuni, who once said, "There is no Dharma without change". Based on this statement, Dharmer founded the school of Zen Buddhism. So far as we understand, this school is getting into a bull's horn (a dead end). Then, what do we mean by getting into a bull's horn? When Dharmer began to dig into it, he felt it spacious; the Second Patriarch felt it not so comfortable; the Third felt it not too bad; and when it came to the Fourth, it became quite narrow; the Fifth found there was not much space left; and when it came to the Sixth Patriarch Huineng£¨Áù×æ»ÛÄÜ£©, there was no room left, and he could no longer get into it. If you go to a Zen master to learn the Dharma today, do not ask questions. If you did, you would get a stick-hit on the head, which is called "stick-warning". It means that you cannot ask questions, but that you should make yourself understood by yourself. You may say, "I have come here to learn just because I do not know. What on earth can I understand by a stick-hit on the head?" That is to say, they have reached the tip of the bull's horn, and there is nothing for them to say anymore. Even Dharmer himself said that he could only pass down his teaching to the Sixth Patriarch, and that thereafter there would be no more teaching of Zen Buddhism. Now several hundred years have passed. However, there are still some people who cling to the principles of Zen Buddhism. Then, what exactly did Sakyamuni mean by saying that "There is no Dharma without change"? Sakyamuni was in the status of Tathagata. People, including many monks after him, did not awake to the phase in which Sakyamuni was, nor the mental state of his realm of awareness, the true sense of the Dharma he had preached, and the real meaning of his words. So, people thereafter explained his words this way or that way, causing much confusion. They believe that "There is no Dharma without change" means that you cannot preach the Dharma, or it would no longer be the Dharma . It is not so. Sakyamuni did not reach so high a status as Tathagata immediately after he became enlightened and opened his cultivation energy under the Bodhi Tree. In all his 49 years of teaching the Dharma , he also kept on improving himself. Whenever he reached a higher dimension, looking back, he would find that all the Dharma he had just taught was not right. Then, after reaching an even higher dimension, again he found the Dharma he had preached was wrong. After that, the same thing happened again. For the whole 49 years, he kept going up in such a way that every time he reached a higher dimension, he would realize that the Dharma he had preached before had a poor understanding, and he also found that the Dharma in each dimension was the embodiment of the Dharma in that dimension with no exception. Every dimension had its own Dharma , but no one was the absolute truth of the universe. The Dharma in a higher dimension came closer to the cosmic qualities than that in a lower dimension. This is the reason why he said, "There is no Dharma without change." At last, Sakyamuni also said, "I have preached no Dharma at all in my whole life." This is again interpreted by Zen Buddhism as there is no Dharma to be preached. In his later years, Sakyamuni had reached the status of Tathagata. Then why did he say that he had preached no Dharma at all? What exactly did he mean by this? What he meant was, "Even if I've reached the status of Tathagata, I still fail to see what the ultimate truth and the Dharma of the universe are." In this way he told people after him not to accept his words as the absolute truth, the unchanging truth; otherwise they might be confined to or go below the status of Tathagata without being able to make a high dimension breakthrough. The people after him could not grasp the true sense of these words, and misinterpreted them as "If spoken out, the Dharma will not be the Dharma." Actually, what he meant is: The Dharma varies from dimension to dimension, but the Dharma in each dimension is not at all the absolute truth of the universe. However, the Dharma in a dimension does serve as a guiding principle for the dimension. This is exactly the truth he referred to. Many people in the past, especially those of Zen Buddhism, kept such a prejudice and an entirely wrong view all the time. Without being taught and instructed how to cultivate, how can you practise and cultivate yourself? Maybe some of you have read some Buddhist stories in Buddhism, which said: Someone went up to the heaven, and after he had got there, he found that the Diamond Sutra above was different from the one below both in the writing of each word and in its meaning. Why was this Diamond Sutra so different from the one found in the ordinary people? Another one also said: The scriptures in the Paradise of Ultimate Bliss were completely disfigured and no longer recognizable as compared with the ones below. Such was the change that they differed not only in writing but in connotation and denotation of the words as well. This is because the same Law varies and differs in manifestations from dimension to dimension, and it can serve as a different guiding principle for cultivators in a different dimension. We all know about a booklet in Buddhism entitled "Travel Notes to Western Paradise". It says that a monk was sitting in meditation practice when his Yuanshen (ÔªÉñ True Spirit) arrived in the Western Paradise of Ultimate Bliss and saw some scenes. After a day's visit, he returned to the earth where six years had passed. Did he see anything? Yes, he did. But what he saw was not the truth. Why? Because he had reached a dimension not high enough, and he could only be shown, in his own dimension, the manifestations of the Buddha Law that he should see. He could not see the truth because such a world is exactly the embodiment of a component part of the Law. This is what I mean by "There is no Dharma without change." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Zhen Shan Ren Is the Sole Criterion Used to Judge a Good Person from a Bad One £¨ÕæÉÆÈÌÊǺâÁ¿ºÃ»µÈ˵ÄΨһ±ê×¼£© People in Buddhism have been investigating and studying what Dharma is. There are also some people who believe that the Dharma preached in Buddhism is truly all of the Buddha Law, but, in fact, it is not. The Dharma preached by Sakyamuni 2500 years ago was aimed at those simple- minded ordinary people at an extremely low level, just newly born out of the primitive society. The Period of Decline he referred to meant today. People nowadays would not be able to use that Dharma to cultivate themselves any more. In the Period of Decline , even monks in the temple can hardly save themselves, let alone save others. Sakyamuni preached the Dharma in view of the situation at that time, but he did not bring to light all the Buddha Dharma in mind at his own level. So it is impossible for the Dharma he had to remain all the same without change for good. With the development of society, the human mind is becoming more and more complicated, which makes it rather difficult for people to continue with their cultivation this way. The Dharma in Buddhism cannot cover the whole Buddha Law, or rather it is only a tiny part of it. There are many Great Laws of the Buddhas' School which have circulated among the people, and have been handed down to only one person for each generation through the ages. The Law differs from dimension to dimension, and from space to space. These are all the different manifestations of the Buddha Law in different spaces, and in different dimensions. Sakyamuni said in the same way that there are altogether 84000 schools to the Dharma to cultivate Buddhas. However, in Buddhism there are only over a dozen of them, such as the Zen Buddhism, the Pure Land School, T'ine-tai School, Hua-yan School, Tantrums, etc., which certainly cannot contain all of the Buddha Law. Even Sakyamuni himself did not preach all of his Dharma , but only part of it on the basis of the understanding ability of the people at that time. But what is Buddha Law after all? In this universe, the most fundamental qualities Zhen Shan Ren (ÕæÉÆÈÌ) are exactly the most essential Buddha Law, the highest manifestation of Buddha Law. Buddha Law differs in the way of manifestation, differs in the role it plays as a guiding principle, from dimension to dimension. The lower the dimension is, the more jumbled and numerous its manifestations are. These fundamental qualities, Zhen Shan Ren are found in all substances -- particles of the air, stone, wood, earth, iron and steel, the human body; ancient people stressed that the ten thousand things of creation in the universe composed of Five Elements also have these qualities, Zhen Shan Ren. The cultivator who has reached a certain dimension can only perceive the specific manifestation of Buddha Law in that dimension. This is his attainment status, the level of attainment. Broadly speaking, the Law is quite enormous. At the highest point, it is very simple, for it is quite similar to the shape of a pyramid. In an extremely high dimension, three words can be used to generalize it. They are Zhen, Shan and Ren (ÕæÉÆÈÌ). Revealing itself in each dimension, the Law is extremely complex. Take a human being for instance, Taoists regard the human body as a small universe. A human being has a physical body, but only a body itself cannot complete an integrated human being. It needs to have temperament, character, personality, and the existence of Yuanshen (the True Spirit) to become an integrated, independent and specific individual. This is also true of our cosmos. There are Milky Way galaxy, other galaxies, and life and water, the ten thousand things of creation in this universe. This is one side of the physical existence, but there also exist these fundamental qualities, Zhen Shan Ren simultaneously. They can be found in the particle of any substance. Tiny particles all contain these qualities. The fundamental qualities, Zhen Shan Ren are the criterion of judging between the good and the bad in the universe. What is good and what is bad? It is only by this criterion that we can judge. The same is true of the virtues we referred to in the past. Of course, the moral standard of today's human society has already changed, and it has been distorted into the bargain. If a person were learning from Lei Feng now, he might be considered to be mentally ill, but who would have thought so if this had happened in the 50's and 60's? The moral standard of mankind is going downward; public morals are declining day by day; people are bent on nothing but profit; they try to hurt others for the personal interests of their own; they try to overtake each other for personal gain by fair means or foul. Just imagine! Can this be allowed to continue? Someone is doing wrong. If you told him he is wrong, he would not believe you. He really does not believe he is doing wrong. Some people even judge themselves by the deteriorating moral standard and consider themselves better than the others because the criteria of judgment have already changed. No matter how the moral standard of mankind has changed, the fundamental qualities of the cosmos will always remain the same. These qualities are the sole criterion of judging whether a person is good or bad. Therefore, as a cultivator, you must act up to the fundamental qualities of the cosmos rather than the standard of ordinary people. You have to act on this criterion if you want to return to the origin and go back to the truth, if you want to ascend in cultivation. As a human being, only by being able to go with the fundamental qualities of the cosmos, Zhen Shan Ren (ÕæÉÆÈÌ), can you become a good person; going against these qualities, you will become a truly bad one. At your work unit or in the society, some people may say you are bad, but you are not necessarily really bad; some may say you are good, but you are not necessarily really good. As a cultivator, assimilating yourself to these qualities, you will definitely achieve the way. It is just so simple a logic. The Taoist cultivation of Zhen Shan Ren (ÕæÉÆÈÌ) lays stress on the cultivation of Zhen. So they go in for cultivating the truth and nourishing their nature, telling the truth, acting on the truth, becoming true, returning to the origin and going back to the truth, and eventually become immortals in cultivation. However, there is also Ren, and there is Shan, but with the emphasis on Zhen in cultivation. While the Buddhas' School puts emphasis on Shan of Zhen Shan Ren in cultivation, for the cultivation of Shan can give rise to the growth of the great loving kindness and compassion. Once their compassion is up, they see all sentient beings suffering. As a result, they make a vow to save them out of their suffering. However, there is also Zhen, and there is Ren, but with the emphasis on Shan in cultivation. Our school, Falun Dafa is based on the supreme criterion of the cosmos -- an integrated cultivation of Zhen Shan Ren, and therefore the energy we cultivate is enormous. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Qigong Is a Prehistoric Culture (Æø¹¦ÊÇÊ·Ç°ÎÄ»¯) What is qigong, anyway? Many qigong masters are trying to explain what it is, but what I say is rather different from what they say. Many qigong masters explain this at a certain level of theirs, while I state my point of view about qigong at a much higher level. It is entirely different from theirs. Some qigong masters say that qigong has a history of 2000 years in our country; and still some say 3000 years; others say 5000 years, as old as the history of the Chinese civilization; and still others say that it should be 7000 years old, as is shown by archaeological findings, far beyond the history of the Chinese civilization. Whatever the viewpoints may be, the history of qigong is almost the same as that of the human civilization. According to Darwin's theory of evolution, human beings evolved first from water plants to aquatic animals; then climbed up to land; and further up to the trees; again came back down to land and became apes on land; and finally developed into modern human beings with mind, and culture. According to this calculation, the real emergence of the human civilization does not go beyond 10000 years yet. For further backward calculation, there even was not such a thing as tying knots to remember things. It is true that they wore leaves as clothes and ate raw meat. Further backward, they were totally savages, the sort of primitives, who perhaps even did not know how to use fire yet. However, we have discovered something, i.e., there remain across the world so many sites of ancient civilizations, far beyond the history of our human civilizations. Technologically speaking, these places of historic interest all have a very high order of technology and craftsmanship. Artistically speaking, they are at such an extremely high level that modern people are simply imitating the arts of ancient people, which have very high value of appreciation. Yet, they were the remains of tens of thousands of, hundreds of thousands of, several millions of or even a hundred million years ago. Just think it over. Are they making fun of the history of today? But there is nothing to joke about, for mankind also have been unceasingly perfecting themselves and making a new understanding of themselves. Such is exactly the way of the development of society as the initial recognition of them is not necessarily absolutely correct. Maybe many people have heard of "prehistoric culture", also called "prehistoric civilization". Now I am going to deal with this. The earth has Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Oceania, Africa and Antarctic on it. They are referred to as the "continental plates" by geologists. Tens of millions of years have already passed so far in history since they began to take shape. That is to say, there is a lot of land which rose from the bottom of the ocean, and also a lot of land which went down to the bottom. As a result, the land became as stable as it is today after a passage of tens of millions of years in history. However, we have discovered, on many ocean bottoms, huge buildings of ancient times, whose carving and sculpturing are too exquisite to be the cultural remains of today's human beings. Thus they must have been built before the land was deposited onto the ocean bottom. Then who was it that had created these civilizations tens of millions of years ago? Human beings were not even monkeys at that time, how could they possibly have created things of such high intelligence? Archaeologists have found in the world a kind of organism called "three-leave insect", which came into being between 600 million and 260 million years ago, and went extinct thereafter. An American scientist found a fossil of "three-leave insect", on which there was also a human footprint, left by a shoe he was wearing, and clearly printed on the fossil. Aren't they joking with the historians? How could there possibly have been human beings 260 million years ago according to Darwin's theory of evolution? In the museum of National University of Peru, there is a rock on which is engraved a human figure, which was done 30000 years ago after close-examinations. However, this human figure is wearing clothes, a hat and a pair of shoes, observing celestial bodies through a telescope in his hands. How could people of 30000 years ago possibly have woven cloth and worn clothes? The most inconceivable is that he is holding an astronomical telescope to observe celestial bodies, and that he has certain knowledge of astronomy as well. We have been of the opinion that Galileo, an European, invented the telescope, which has a history of only over 300 years up to now. But who was it that had invented the telescope 30000 years ago? In addition, there are so many other such mysteries. For instance, the slabstone frescoes discovered in many stone caves in France, South Africa and on the Alps were wonderfully done, vivid and true to life. The human figures engraved on are very exquisite, coated with a mineral paint as well. However, they are all dressed up in modern style, somewhat similar to Western suits, wearing close-fitting trousers. Some of them have something like pipes in their hands; others are holding walking sticks, wearing hats. How could monkeys of several hundred thousand years ago possibly have had such a high order of arts? To say something farther, there is the Gabon Republic in Africa, which is rich in uranium ore. As the country was relatively backward, and it could not extract uranium from ore on its own, it exported it to the advanced countries. In 1972, a French plant imported this uranium ore. To their great surprise, chemical examinations showed that this ore had already been extracted and utilized, therefore they sent people of science to the country to make investigations, and scientists from many other countries went there, too. They confirmed, at last, that this uranium ore was in fact a large-scale nuclear reactor, which was so well laid out that it would be impossible even for modern people to produce it. Then when was it completed? It was two billion years ago that it was completed, and it had been in operation for about 500000 years. This is a sheer astronomical figure beyond the explanation of Darwin's theory of evolution. There are so many things like this. What has been discovered now in the world of science and technology is convincing enough to rewrite our textbooks of today. Once a series of working and thinking style has fallen into habit based on their inherent conventional modes of thought, men are difficult to accept new ideas. When the truth presents itself, they dare not accept it, but will give way to a rejection of it by instinct. Owing to the influence of conventional modes of thought, there is no systematizing of these things now, therefore men's mentality cannot keep track of the development all the time. Whenever we talk about these things, which have already been discovered, though not popularized yet, some people will say this is superstitious and cannot be accepted. A lot of dauntless scientists abroad have openly accepted these phenomena as prehistoric cultures, which are the civilizations previous to this cycle of our present human civilization. That is, there were still the periods of the civilizations prior to this cycle of our civilization, and there was more than one. The archaeological finds reveal that they did not belong to the period of only one civilization. Thus it is believed that only a few people had managed to survive the crushing destruction a number of times, and thereafter began to live a primitive life and multiply new human beings, and entered a new civilization. Then they went into new destruction again, and multiplied new human beings once more. This is how mankind went through such different periodic changes, one after another. The motion of matter, as physicists put it, follows a certain pattern, so do the changes of the whole universe. The movement of our earth cannot possibly be all plain sailing in this vast expanse of the universe or within the motion of the Galaxy. It is most likely to run into another planet, or rather some other troubles, which gives rise to a catastrophe. In the light of our supernormal capabilities, it had been arranged this way. After a meticulous checking I did once, I found out that mankind had been left in complete destruction 81 times. Only a few people survived each time, leaving behind a little bit prehistoric civilization, and went into the next period, living a primitive life. Human beings multiplied until there were so many when another civilization emerged. Going through 81 such periodic transformations, I still did not count down to the origin. Chinese people believe in favorable weather, terrain, and the group morale. Variations in celestial phenomena and variations in weather would bring different social conditions to the ordinary human society. In the terms of physics, there is regularity in the motion of matter, the same is true of the movement of the universe. The prehistoric culture I referred to above mainly tells you: Qigong is not an invention of this cycle of human beings, but a prehistoric culture, left behind after going through a remote past. We can find an exposition of some viewpoints in Buddhist scriptures. Sakyamuni said in his life time that he had completed his cultivation and found the Way some billions of kalpas before. How many years is one kalpa? One kalpa means some billions of years. Such a huge figure is simply unimaginable. If this is true, doesn't it tally with the human history and the evolution of the earth? Sakyamuni also said that there had been seven Buddhas of the primeval age previous to him, and he had had his own masters, all of whom had found the Way in cultivation some billions of kalpas before. If all these are true, are there such cultivation ways as those genuine Orthodox and true qigong we teach in society nowadays? If I answer this question, of course I'll say yes, but not many. At present, sham qigong and fake qigong masters and those spirit possessed have casually invented some things to deceive the public. These qigong outnumber genuine qigong so many times that it is hard to tell the genuine from the fake. It is not so easy to identify genuine qigong and it is not easy to find one as well. As a matter of fact, not only qigong was left behind from the remote past, but Taiji, Hetu, Luoshu, Zhouyi (Book of Changes) and the Eight Diagrams, etc. are all prehistoric as well. So, if today we make a study of and come to understand them from the viewpoint of ordinary people, we will get nowhere in doing so. At the level of ordinary people, from the angle of ordinary people and in the realm of awareness of ordinary people, we will not be able to become acquainted with what is true. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Qigong Is Cultivation (Æø¹¦¾ÍÊÇÐÞÁ) 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 Buddhas' School, naturally cultivating the Buddha, while Taoist School naturally cultivates the Tao (the Way) and finds the Tao. I'd like to tell you, this "Fo (Buddha)" is not superstitious. This "Fo" (·ð) 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 (¾õÕß), 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 for 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 gong in a high dimension deals with what is quite high. So, out of my responsibility for the 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 those 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 ultra-short sound waves, infrasonic waves, electromagnetic waves, infrared rays, infraviolet 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 substances? Aren't other time spaces composed of substances as well? 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 the 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 "Nine Fold 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Why Doesn't Your Cultivation Energy Increase When You Do Cultivation ? (Á¹¦ÎªÊ²Ã´²»³¤¹¦) Why doesn't your cultivation energy increase when you do cultivation? Quite a lot of people think this way: I have not received any genuine teachings for my cultivation. If a certain teacher teaches me some unique skills, and some super hand skills, my cultivation energy will go up. Now 95% of the people share the same opinion. I find this rather funny. Why? Because qigong is not mastery of a skill used in ordinary people, but it is something entirely supernormal, therefore it must be measured by the Law at the high level. I'd like to tell you all the basic reason why your cultivation energy can not go up. Of the two words "cultivation, practice", people only pay attention to "practice" rather than "cultivation". If you go searching outside yourself, you will never achieve anything. How can you imagine transforming high energy substances into cultivation energy with an ordinary human body, ordinary human hands and an ordinary mind? How can your cultivation energy go up this way? This is by no means easy. It seems a joke to me. This is as good as going searching outside yourself, seeking after something outside yourself. You will never find anything. This is unlike what is mastery of a certain skill by our ordinary people, which you can learn and manage to learn well by paying some money. This is not true, but is beyond what is at the level of ordinary people. So you should be required to act on the supernormal Law. How? You should only go cultivating inside yourself, but can not go searching outside yourself. How many people all go searching outside themselves, looking for this today, and that tomorrow. And they are also obsessed with seeking after supernormal capabilities. They have various purposes. Some people even want to become qigong masters, treating diseases to make a fortune. However, true cultivation entails the cultivation of your heart, which is called the cultivation of Xinxing (ÐÄÐÔ). For instance, in a person-to-person contradiction between people, you should care less about the seven emotions and the six sensory pleasures, and various desires. It is by no means easy for you to want to increase cultivation energy when you are competing and contending with others for your own personal interests. Aren't you doing the same as ordinary people? How can you increase cultivation energy? So, you should pay attention to the cultivation of Xinxing. In this way, your cultivation energy can go up and cultivation attainment can rise to a higher dimension. What is Xinxing (ÐÄÐÔ)? It covers many aspects of things, including De (µÂ virtues, a kind of substance), Ren, awakening quality, loss, giving up all kinds of desires and all kinds of attachments which are common to ordinary people, and the ability to bear hardships. Only when every aspect of your Xinxing has been improved, can you really go up. This is one of the key causes of strengthening your energy potency. Some people are thinking: the issue of Xinxing you have talked about belongs to what concerns the field of ideology, concerns the realm of awareness, but it is not the same thing as the Gong we practise. Why not the same thing? In the ideological field through the ages, there have always been discussions and arguments over the question, which comes first, matter or spirit. I can tell you that, in truth, they are the same. When doing research on the science of human bodies, scientists now believe that thinking the brain gives out is exactly matter. While it is something material, isn't it something spiritual then? Are matter and spirit identical? The same is true of the cosmos I have talked about, which exists in the form of matter, and exists with its fundamental qualities at the same time. Of the fundamental qualities, Zhen Shan Ren of the cosmos, ordinary people cannot feel the existence because they stay on the plane of this one dimension as a whole. If you go beyond the dimension of ordinary people, you will be able to feel them. How? All substances in the universe, including all substances filling the whole universe, are intelligent entities. They all can think, and they are all existing forms of the cosmic Law in various dimensions. It does not allow you to rise to a higher dimension, and even if you want to go up, you just cannot because it does not allow you to. Why not? Because your Xinxing is not good enough for that. As each dimension has a different standard, if you want to raise your dimension, you will have to give up your bad thinking and empty your mind of all things dirty and filthy, and assimilate yourself to the standard required of that dimension. Only in this way, can you ascend. With the improvement of your Xinxing, there will definitely come a fundamental change in your body. With the betterment of your Xinxing, there will surely occur a change of the substances that make up your body. What change? You will let go of those bad things which you are after and obsessed with. For example, a bottle is filled with dirty things and is fastened up tightly with its lid. When thrown into the water, it will sink to the bottom at once. Now you empty it of the dirty things. The more you empty them, the higher the bottle will rise. When you have emptied all of them, it will rise to the surface of the water completely. In the course of cultivation, you are required to empty your body of all kinds of bad things in order to enable yourself to ascend to a higher dimension. The fundamental qualities of this cosmos just play such a role. If you do not cultivate your Xinxing, do not raise your moral standard, do not let go of your bad thoughts, bad substances, they will not allow you to ascend to a higher dimension. Then, how can we say that matter and spirit are not identical? Let's illustrate it with a joke. If a man is allowed to ascend to the status of a Buddha with seven human emotions and six desires found in an ordinary person, just imagine, is this possible? Maybe an evil thought would be born into his mind when he had seen a senior Bodhisattva so beautiful, or he would fall into a contradiction with Buddhas because of the jealousy he has not given up. How can such a thing be allowed to exist? What should you do then? You should get rid of all kinds of bad thoughts you have as an ordinary person completely. Only in this way, will you be able to ascend to a higher dimension. That is to say, you should pay attention to the cultivation of Xinxing and cultivate yourself according to the cosmic qualities, Zhen Shan Ren, doing away with your desires, the mind with ill intentions and the thoughts to do bad as an ordinary person. With a little bit improvement of your ideological level, some of the bad substances in your body are already gone. Meanwhile, you will have to endure some hardships and suffer a little to remove some of your karma, and thus you will be able to ascend a little. That is to say, the cosmic qualities will remove some restrictions from you. Cultivation is your own business, while the evolution of cultivation energy is done by your master. Your master has provided you with a kind of energy which can increase cultivation energy. This energy will function when it can transform the substance, De (µÂvirtues), into cultivation energy outside your body. As you increasingly improve yourself and go up in cultivation, your energy pillar grows higher at the same time. As a cultivator, you should cultivate yourself and steel yourself in the environment of ordinary people, and get rid of your attachments and various desires gradually. What we human beings often consider to be good is usually regarded as bad when seen from the high dimension. So we say, the more personal interests one has gained in ordinary people, the better he lives, the worse he has become in the eyes of the great enlightened, but ordinary people count these good. How bad is he then? The more he gains, the more he hurts others because he has obtained what he should not. And he will give much attention to wealth and fame, and therefore will lose De. If you want to increase cultivation energy, but pay no attention to the cultivation of Xinxing, you will never increase your cultivation energy at all. The world of cultivation believe that one's Yuanshen (True Spirit) is immortal. In the past, if you had talked about one's true spirit, people would have probably said you were superstitious. As we all know, physics deals with our human body, which includes molecules, protons, and electronics, further down to quark and medium micro-electronics, etc. through studies. They are beyond the visibility of a microscope at this step. However, this is still too far away from the origin of life, the origin of matter. We all know that in the atomic nuclear fission, there has to be a great amount of energy collision and considerably huge heat needed to enable the atoms to split and cause nuclear fission. When one is dying, how can the atomic nuclei in his body die off easily? So we have found that a person died when the biggest nuclear composition of the layer, just staying in our space had fallen off while his bodies in other spaces are not destroyed. Let's imagine what a human body looks like through a microscope. The whole human body is moving. Even when you are sitting there still, your whole body is moving. Molecular cells are moving and the whole body is loosely arranged as if composed of sand. Such is what a human body looks like through a microscope, completely different from the human body we see with our eyes. This is because this pair of human eyes can create false impressions on you, prevent you from seeing such things. The Celestial Eye, if opened, can see things by enlarging them, as was originally an innate capability of a human being, but it is now called the supernatural power. If you want to bring out the supernatural powers, you should return to the origin and go back to the truth, cultivate yourself backward. Now let me say something about these De (virtues). What exactly is the interlocking relationship between them? I would like to analyze this. A human being has his one body in each of all the so many spaces. The biggest of what a human body is composed of we can see now are cells, which are our human physical body. If you get into the area between the cells and molecules, between the molecules, you will find yourself having already entered into another space. What does the existing form of that body look like? You certainly cannot understand this with the interpretation of the concept used in this space we have now, for your body has to assimilate to the requirements of the existing form of that kind of space. Of course the body in another space can become bigger or smaller, and then you will find that is another incomparably vast space, too. This is what we mean by a kind of simple form of the existence of another space, which exists at the same place and at the same time. A person has a specific body in each of many other spaces, and in a specific space, there exists a kind of field around the human body. What field? This field is exactly what we mean by De. De is a white substance, but unlike what we thought of in the past as something spiritual of a person, something ideological, it is fully a kind of material existence. So, the elderly used to talk about accumulating De, or losing De, and what they said was absolutely right. These De form a field around the human body. In the past, what the Taoist School did was that a master was looking for his disciples, but not the disciple looking for his master. What does it mean? The master just wanted to see whether this disciple was carrying a large proportion of De around his body. If so, it would be easy for him to do cultivation, otherwise it would be difficult for him to do so and attain high achievements. With this there also coexists a black substance, which we call karma here, and which is called bad karma in Buddhism. White substance and black substance, both substances coexist. What is the relationship between these two substances? The substance De is achieved after we have endured hardships, suffered setbacks or done good deeds, while the black substance is received after we have done bad, done wrong or bullied others. Nowadays some people not only are bent solely on profit, but also stop at nothing in doing evil. They commit all manner of crimes for money, killing and framing innocent people, redeeming lives with money, practising homosexuality, taking drugs among many other things. When one does bad, he will lose De. How does he lose it? When this person is swearing at the other one, he feels he has taken the advantage of the other one because he has given vent to this anger. However, there is a law in this universe called: No Loss, No Gain. If you gain, you will lose. If you do not want to lose, you will be forced to. Who is in charge of this? It is the cosmic qualities who are in charge, and therefore you are not allowed just to think of gain. How do they do this? When the person is swearing at or bullying the other, he is throwing his De over to the other, while the other is wronged, suffers loss and endures pain, so he will be compensated for all this. Now the person is swearing at the other. As he is doing so, a piece of De is flying off his own field of space and falling onto the body of the other person. The more he swears, the more De he will give the other. The same is also true of beating or humiliating others. Now one punches the other or kicks the other. How much De has fallen onto the other person depends on how heavily he has beaten the other as he is doing so. Not being able to see this law, an ordinary person thinks he is bullied, but cannot tolerate. Now that you have punched me, I'll punch you in return. "Pa" he strikes the person back with a fist, pushing this De back to the person. Neither of them has lost or gained. The other one may think, "you have dealt me one blow, I'll deal you two; otherwise I cannot give vent to my anger." So he has dealt the person one more blow, and another piece of De has flied off his own body and has been given to the person. Why do we attach so much importance to this De (virtues)? What kind of relationship is for De to be transformed? The religion teaches, if one has these virtues, he will gain next life, if not in this life. What does he gain? If he has lots of virtues, he would probably become a high official, make great fortunes, would be able to get what he wants, all of which are exchanged with virtues. The religion also teaches, if a person has run out of virtues, he will fall into perdition of both body and soul. His Yuanshen (True Spirit) will be destroyed, and all of him will die with nothing left after he dies. But we, the world of cultivation mean that De (virtues) can be evolved into cultivation energy directly. Now I am going to say how De is evolved into cultivation energy. In the world of cultivation, there is such a saying called "Cultivation is one's own business, while the evolution of cultivation energy is done by one's master." However, some people teach placing a crucible onto a furnace to make elixir of immortality with the gathered medical substances, and intention, because they think these are very important. But I'd like to tell you that they are not at all important. If you think much about them, you would have an attachment. If you attach much weight to them, aren't you seeking after them? Cultivation is your own business, while the evolution of cultivation energy is done by your master. It is enough for you to have this wish. It is your master who really does this for you, and it is entirely impossible for you to do this. Will you be able to evolve that kind of intelligent being composed of these high energy substances with an ordinary human body? It is out of the question. It is all a joke talking about this. The evolution process of the human body in another space is quite miraculous and abstruse, and very complex, and is utterly beyond your capability. What will your master give you? He will give you the energy which can be used to increase cultivation energy. As De stay outside the human body, it is the De that give birth to one's real cultivation energy. It is all the De that give rise to the height of one's level of attainment, the strength of his energy potency. Your master evolves your De into cultivation energy, which grows upward spirally. The cultivation energy which truly decides one's level of attainment grows outside his body and forms an energy pillar after growing spirally to the top of his head in the end. Seeing how high his energy pillar is, we can tell how high his attainment of cultivation energy is. This is truly his level of attainment, the status Buddhism refers to. While some people are sitting in practice, their Yuanshen (True Spirit) can leave their bodies, rising high into the sky all at once, further upward, and then cannot and dare not ascend any further. They are ascending by sitting on their own energy pillar, and therefore they can only ascend that high. Because their energy pillar is that high and they cannot ascend any further. This is what Buddhism teaches about the status. There is another yardstick used to measure how high one's Xinxing is. The yardstick and the energy pillar do not stay in the same space, but they exist at the same time. If you have improved your Xinxing in cultivation, for example, among ordinary people you do not utter a word but feel completely at ease when somebody shouts an abuse at you; you do not say a word but laugh it off when somebody deals you one blow with a fist. You have already shown very high Xinxing. Now that you are a cultivator, what should you gain then? Don't you gain cultivation energy? As your Xinxing goes up, your cultivation energy is growing. How high your attainment of cultivation energy is depends on how high your Xinxing is. This is an absolute truth. Some people in the past practised qigong hard and quite well either in the park or at home, and they were pretty sincere. However, once they went out, they were no longer cultivators, doing whatever they liked, competing with others and striving for fame and wealth with ordinary people. How can their cultivation energy grow? Not at all. This is also the reason why they cannot get well from their diseases. Why haven't some people recovered from their diseases after a long time of practice of qigong? Qigong is cultivation, something supernormal, not physical exercise done by ordinary people. So, only by paying great attention to Xinxing can they recover from their diseases or increase their cultivation energy. Some people believe that this elixir of immortality in placing a crucible onto a furnace to make the elixir of immortality with the gathered medicinal substances is exactly the cultivation energy, but it is not. This elixir of immortality contains only part of the energy, but not all of it. What is the elixir of immortality then? As we all know, we still have another part which is used to cultivate life, our bodies will also turn out supernormal capabilities and the numerous magic arts, the most part of which are locked up and not allowed to be used. There are many supernormal capabilities, ten thousand kinds of them. As soon as one has taken form, it is locked up. Why do they not come out? The purpose is that you will not be allowed to use them to do what you want to in the ordinary human society, that you will not be able to interfere in it as you like, and that you will not be able to show off your abilities in it at will, because they will interfere with the state of the ordinary human society. There are a lot of people who are cultivating themselves while becoming enlightened. If they made all their abilities appear, seeing that they are all true, then all people would come for cultivation, even those who are unpardonably wicked would also come along. This will not be allowed to happen. Therefore you are not allowed to show off this way. Besides, you are liable to do bad, for you cannot see the causational relationship of the matter and the root cause of it. You think you do something good, but maybe you do something bad, and therefore you are not allowed to use these supernormal capabilities. Once you do bad, you will drop down off your dimension, and all your cultivation will be in vain. So many supernormal capabilities are locked up. What will you do then? By the time you have opened your cultivation energy and become enlightened, this elixir of immortality will serve as a bomb, blowing up all the supernormal capabilities, all the locks and the acupuncture points in your body. With a shocking "Pa", all are blown up. This is what the elixir of immortality is used for. When a monk is cremated after death, there are usually Relics left, which some people say are bones and teeth. But why has an ordinary person not got them? This is exactly the elixir of immortality, which has exploded, and its energy has released. It itself contains plenty of substances from other spaces. It is also something of material existence after all, but it is useless. People nowadays regard them as something very valuable because they are glossy, energy possessing and very hard. This is the very elixir. There is another reason for failing to increase cultivation energy. Because you do not know the Law existing in the high dimension, you cannot go up in cultivation. What does this mean? As I have just said some people have practised many qigong exercise. I'd like to tell you that it is no use their learning many more than this, and that they are only primary school pupils, pupils in cultivation, because what they have learned all belongs to the principles guiding elementary levels. The principles applied to such low levels cannot guide them up to the high dimensional cultivation. If you are learning primary school textbooks at college, you are still a primary school pupil. It is no use learning more, and the result will be still worse. The Law varies from dimension to dimension. It differs in the role it plays guiding a different dimension, and therefore the principles applied to the low levels cannot guide you up to the high dimensional cultivation. What we are going to expound to you from now on is all about the principles which are required to cultivate in the high dimension. I am combining my talk with what exists in different dimensions, which, as a result, will always serve as guidance for your cultivation from now on. I have got several books, magnetic tapes and video tapes. You will find in them that after you have read or listened to them once, when you read or watch or listen to them again after a while, they are sure to still serve as your guide. As you are increasingly improving yourself, they will continuously give you guidance. This is the Law. The above are the two reasons why one does not increase cultivation energy when he does cultivation. He does not know how to cultivate himself because he does not know the Law guiding the high dimensional cultivation. He does not increase cultivation energy because he fails to cultivate inside himself and fails to cultivate his Xinxing. These are the two reasons. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Characteristics of Falun Dafa (·¨Âִ󷨵ÄÌصã) Our Falun Dafa (·¨ÂÖ´ó·¨) is one of the 84000 Law Cultivation Schools. It has never been made public and taught in the history of this cycle of human civilization of ours. But it was popularized to offer salvation to people during a prehistoric period of time. Now I have brought it into open once again during the last days of Last Havoc. Therefore it is extremely precious. I have explained such a process in which De (virtues) are directly transformed into cultivation energy. It is actually acquired through cultivation rather than through practice. Many people pursue cultivation energy by only paying attention to practice instead of cultivation. In fact, cultivation energy is achieved only by cultivating Xinxing. But why do we here also teach people how to practise the exercise then? First I'd like to say why monks do not practise the exercise. They can increase cultivation energy, the cultivation energy which determines their level of attainment, mainly by sitting in meditation, chanting scriptures and cultivating their Xinxing. Because Sakyamuni taught giving up everything in the world including Benti (±¾Ìåthe True Being), physical movements were unnecessary. As Taoist School does not teach offering salvation to all sentient beings, they do not have to face people of all kinds, such as people are from different levels, with various mentalities, some of whom may be very selfish, and others may be not. They select their disciples, and find three, only one of whom is to receive true teachings, and he is destined to have very high virtues, to be good and to come with no problems. So the master emphatically teaches him things of hand movements in order to cultivate his life, for some hand movements are needed to cultivate supernatural powers and other magic skills. Falun Dafa is also a cultivation way with an integrated cultivation of both human nature and life, and therefore it has some movements to practise. On the one hand, movements are used to strengthen supernormal capabilities. What is strengthening? Use your strong energy potency to make your supernormal capabilities strong, causing them to get stronger and stronger. On the other hand, there will also be evolved many living entities in your body. Arriving at the high level cultivation, the Taoist School tells about that Yuanying (the Immortal Infant) comes into the world while the Buddhas' School refers to a Vajra's indestructible body, and numerous magic skills will be evolved as well. All these things will be practised and evolved by hand movements, in other words, movements are used to cultivate all this. An integrated set of cultivation way cultivating both human nature and life requires both cultivation and practice. Now I believe all of you have come to understand how cultivation energy has come into being. The cultivation energy which really determines your level of attainment is not at all achieved by practice, but by cultivation. It is in the course of your cultivation and among ordinary people that you have improved your Xinxing, and assimilated yourself to the cosmic qualities, which no longer restrict you, and thus you will be able to ascend to the high dimension. The De will begin to be evolved into cultivation energy, and with the betterment of your Xinxing, your cultivation energy will naturally grow. Such is the relationship between them. Our cultivation system belongs to the cultivation ways which genuinely cultivate both the human nature and life concurrently. The cultivation energy that we cultivate, the cultivation energy composed of such high energy substances, is stored in every cell of the body, all the way into the particle composition of the origin of substances existing in the extremely microcosmic state. With the growth of your energy potency, its density increases, and its might intensifies. Such high energy substances are intelligent. They are stored in every cell of the human body and all the way into the origin of life. As time passes, they will fall into the one formation with the cells in your body; the same as the order of molecular arrangement, and the same as the formation of all atomic nuclei. But a fundamental change has taken place, or rather your body is no longer the kind of body composed of the original physical cells. Are you not confined to Wuxing (the Five Elements)? Of course your cultivation is not over yet, and you will continue with your cultivation among ordinary people. So you would look like an ordinary person from your appearance. The only difference is that you look much younger than the people of your age. Naturally, first of all, we should remove the bad things from your body, including diseases. However, we do not treat diseases here, instead, we will clean up your body. We do not use the term treating diseases, but call this cleaning up the body. We clean up the body for those who really cultivate themselves. Some people have come here to cure diseases. As for those who are seriously ill, we do not allow them to come to the lectures because they cannot let go of their obsession with treating their diseases, they cannot stop thinking that they are ill. If they are seriously ill and suffering great pain, can they stop thinking that they are ill? They cannot go into cultivation this way. We have stressed again and again that we cannot permit those who are seriously ill to come in, as we are here for cultivation, which is a far cry from what they have in mind. They might as well find some other qigong masters to do this for them. Nevertheless, we have many students who are ill, and we are going to deal with this for them because they are genuine cultivators. Students of our Falun Dafa will take on a complete new look in their appearance after a period of time in cultivation. The skin is becoming delicate and smooth, and white glowing with health. The wrinkles on the faces of the aged are getting fewer, and even very few. This is a common phenomenon. I am not here telling you something quite impossible. Many of the old students here understand what I said. What's more, the old women will even regain their menstrual period because the cultivation ways which cultivate both human nature and life concurrently need the menses to cultivate the life. At the present stage, there will be a little bit menstrual flow, but not much, just enough to cultivate the life. This phenomenon is also quite popular, otherwise, how can you cultivate your life without it? The same is true of men. The old and the young all will feel light all over. Those who really cultivate themselves will feel this change. Our cultivation system cultivates in quite a big way unlike many other systems which imitate the movements of animals. This cultivation system cultivates simply in so enormous a manner. The principles Sakyamuni and Laozi taught in their life time were confined to the principles guiding our Galaxy. What does our Falun Dafa cultivate? We do our cultivation according to the evolution theory of the universe. We take the criterion of the supreme cosmic qualities Zhen Shan Ren as our guidance in cultivation. We cultivate such a big thing, as good as the cultivation of the universe. Our Falun Dafa has another extremely distinctive and unique characteristic completely different from all the other qigong. All the qigong which are popular in society nowadays all belong to the cultivation of the Internal Alchemy, the refinement of the elixir of immortality. It is very hard for such qigong to serve the purpose of opening cultivation energy and becoming enlightened among ordinary people. Our Falun Dafa cultivates a Falun at the place of one's lower abdomen rather than go into the Internal Alchemy. In class, I'll plant it into my students' bodies by myself. While lecturing on Falun Dafa, I'll plant Falun into your bodies in succession. Some can feel it, others cannot, but most of you can have the sensation due to different human physical qualities. We cultivate Falun rather than refine the elixir of immortality. Falun is the miniature of the cosmos, having all the supernormal capabilities of the cosmos. It has the ability to turn round and rotate automatically. Once it is planted into your body, it will always rotate at your lower abdomen, and will rotate like this all the year round, and will never stop. When turning clockwise, it will automatically absorb energy from the cosmos, and it will also evolve energy by itself to supply the energy needed to evolve all the different parts of your body. Meanwhile, when turning counter clockwise, it will release energy to deliver waste matter out of your body afterwards, and disperse around your body. When it is releasing energy, Falun will deliver the energy very far, and then will bring in new energy. The energy it releases will benefit all the people around your body. The Buddhas' School teaches self-salvation and salvation to others, salvation to all sentient beings. They not only cultivate themselves, but also offer salvation to all sentient beings. In this way others will benefit from them, for they can accidentally regulate the bodies of other people and treat diseases, etc.. Of course, the energy will not get lost. When Falun is turning clockwise, it will collect the energy back to itself, because it rotates constantly and incessantly. Some people may wonder: Why will this Falun rotate constantly and incessantly? Still some people asked me, "Why will it turn? What is the working principle? It is easy to understand that more energy collected can form the elixir of immortality, but it is hard to imagine the revolution of Falun." I am going to take an example. The cosmos is moving. All the Milky Way system, and all the other galaxies are moving in the cosmos, the nine great planets are revolving around the sun, and the earth is still rotating itself. Let's think about it. Who is pushing them? Who is putting more force to them? You cannot try to interpret it with the concept which applies to among ordinary people, for it truly has its own mechanism of revolution, and the same is also true of our Falun, which turns round as it does. It solves the problem of practice done by ordinary people under the circumstances of normal life, and increases the time for practice. How does it do so? Because it never stops revolving and absorbing energy from the universe and then revolving it incessantly. When you are at work, it practises you. Of course, not only Falun, but also the numerous functions and mechanisms we are going to plant into your body, which will turn round and evolve automatically all along with Falun. That is to say, this cultivation system all evolves the practitioner totally and automatically, and in this way there occurs a kind of "Gong cultivating the practitioner", also called "the Law cultivating the practitioner". While you are not practising , Gong is practising you. While you are practising, Gong is also practising you. When you are eating, sleeping or at work, you are being evolved by Gong. What do you practise for then? You practise in order to strengthen Falun as well as all the functions and mechanisms I have planted into your body. In the high dimension cultivation, we do active no action, do movements along with mechanism as well without any intention to guide you, and we do not do breathing, etc.. We do not consider the time and place necessary for practice. Some people asked, "When is the best time for practice, midnight, dawn or noon?" We do not pay attention to the time necessary for practice. If you did not practise at midnight from 11:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m., Gong was cultivating you then. If you did not practise at dawn, Gong was cultivating you at that time. While you are sleeping, Gong is also cultivating you. While you are walking, Gong is cultivating you as well. When you are at work, Gong is still cultivating you. Does not this shorten your time for practice considerably? Many of you cherish a sincerity of truly finding Tao, which is, of course, the purpose for cultivation because the ultimate goal for cultivation is exactly to find the Way and reach the consummation. For some people, the time left for them in their life is quite limited, and may be not enough for cultivation, but our Falun Dafa can solve such a problem by shortening the course of cultivation. Moreover, it is a system cultivating both nature and life. As you continue with your cultivation, your life will be prolonged. You continue with cultivation and your life is prolonged so that the time for cultivation will also be enough for you, who have good inborn qualities but are getting on in years. However, there is a principle that the life beyond your destiny, beyond your allotted original span of life, i.e. the life prolonged hereafter is all rearranged for you to cultivate. So the least deviation of your thinking will surely incur danger to your life, for your natural span of life has already been over long before unless you have gone beyond the cultivation of Shi Jian Fa (ÊÀ¼ä ¨ the In-Triple-World-Law). By then you will get into another state of affairs, and will be out of this control. Our system has no consideration of direction in which you should practise or the way you end up your practice because Falun revolves constantly and never stops. When there is a telephone call or somebody knocks at the door, you may simply go and do these things without the necessity of winding up your practice. When you go and begin work, Falun will immediately turn clockwise and take back the energy emitted out of your body. No matter how much effort you make when artificially holding qi in both hands and filling it through the top of your head, qi will lose. As Falun is an intelligent entity, it knows itself it should do all this. We do not consider direction either, for the whole cosmos is revolving, so is the Milky Way system. The nine planets are turning round the sun and the earth itself is rotating. We cultivate ourselves according to the Law which is as enormous as the universe. Which direction is the North, South, East or West? No direction. No matter which direction we are facing when practising, we are facing all the directions. No matter which direction we are facing, we are as good as facing the North, South, East and West simultaneously. Our Falun Dafa will protect our students from going wrong. How can it do so? Our Falun will protect you if you regard yourself as a genuine cultivator. Since I am rooted into the cosmos, whoever can challenge you can challenge me, and to be frank, can challenge the cosmos. This sounds inconceivable, but you will understand what I mean if you continue with your cultivation. There are things too profound among some others, which I cannot tell you. We will systematically expound the Law governing the high dimension from the simple to the profound. However, if you harbour evil intentions, seeking after something, you will inevitably get into trouble, and therefore you are not allowed to do so. I find that the Falun of many of our old students are, somehow, out of shape. Why? This is because they cultivate by mingling what belongs to the other schools with ours, and because they have accepted what belongs to others. Then why does Falun not protect them? Because it has been given to them, it belongs to them and is under the control of their own thinking. Nobody will take care of what you want. This is the Law of this universe. If you do not feel like going on with your cultivation, nobody can force you to, otherwise he as good as does evils. Who can make you change your mind? You should make demands of yourself. If you practise this gong today and that one tomorrow, learning the strong points from all schools and accepting things of all others for the purpose of removing diseases, can you manage to do so? No, you cannot. Your diseases have been put off until later. For the high dimension cultivation, we teach the importance of being constant in one cultivation system. Whatever school you have decided to cultivate, you should concentrate on and put your heart into it until you have opened your cultivation energy and become enlightened in this school. Then you can change over to another cultivation system, which is a different set of things to cultivate. Because an integrated system of things which has truly passed on, was left behind after going through a considerably long period of time of the remote past, and has undergone quite a complex process of evolution. Some people practise by virtue of their sensation. What is their sensation? It is nothing at all. The process of real evolution goes on in another space, which is devastatingly complex and marvelous, without a tolerance of a single error, just like a precision instrument, which will immediately go wrong if you put into it a part from another instrument. Your bodies in all the different spaces are taking changes, devastatingly abstruse and marvelous, and no tolerance of an error is allowed. As I have told you, cultivation is your own business while the evolution of cultivation energy is done by your master. If you accept things from other people casually and add them to what you cultivate, the messages from the others will interfere in what you have in this school, and you will go deviant. Moreover, this will be felt in the ordinary human society, and will bring trouble to yourself as an ordinary person. However, others cannot help because this is what you want yourself. So this is a question of your ability of comprehension. Besides, what you have added to your cultivation has already made a mess of your cultivation energy, and therefore there will arise such a problem that you cannot continue with your cultivation any more. But I do not want you to learn only Falun Dafa by all means, either. If you do not learn Falun Dafa because you have received true teachings from some other cultivation systems, I also approve of this. But I'd like to tell you that you must be consistent in your cultivation system if you really want to reach the high dimensional cultivation. In addition, I have one more point to make to you. At present, there is not another person who really teaches gong in the high dimension like me. Later you will realize what I have done for you, and therefore I hope you should not have such a poor awakening quality. Many of you want to reach the high dimensional cultivation but you may not realize what it is when it is presented to you already. Even if you go and take many people as your masters, and spend so much money, you will not be able to find it. Today when it is offered to you, you may not yet realize what it is . This is a question of whether or not you want to be awakened, and this is a question of whether or not you can be saved. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next:Lecture Two Up:Contents Previous:On Buddha Law ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [NOTE: The strange characters are Chinese in GB code] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next:Lecture Three Up:Contents Previous:Lecture One ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lecture Two Issue of the Celestial Eye Supernormal Capability of Remote Sight Supernormal Capability of Total Recall Transcending the Five Elements and the Three Realms Issue of Pursuit ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Issue of the Celestial Eye (¹ØÓÚÌìÄ¿µÄÎÊÌâ) Many qigong masters have mentioned something about the Celestial Eye. However, the Law differs in manifestations from dimension to dimension. A cultivator of a particular attainment level can only see the scenes on that level. He cannot see or believe the truth beyond that level. Therefore, he only believes what he has seen on his own level. When he has not gone up to such a high level of cultivation, he would think those things do not exist and are incredible. This is determined by his attainment level, and therefore his mentality will not be able to ascend. That is to say, about the issue of the Celestial Eye, some people talk this way, others that way. As a result, they have talked it into a mess, and nobody has given it a clear explanation. As a matter of fact, this Celestial Eye cannot be explained clearly on the low level. As a top secret in the past, the structure of the Celestial Eye has never been revealed to ordinary people, and nobody has ever mentioned it. Here, we are not going to dwell on that theory of the past but explain it with modern science in most simple and plain modern language, presenting its fundamental issues. What we call the Celestial Eye actually lies in the area from the place a little above the point between the eyebrows to the pineal body, which is the main channel of it. There are numerous eyes in the human body. The Taoist School says that each qiao ( aperture), which is called acupoint in the traditional Chinese medicine, is an eye. The Buddhas' School claims that every pore is an eye. Therefore, some can read with the ear. Others can see with the hand or the back of the head. Still others can see with the foot or the belly. To talk about the Celestial Eye, at first, we are going to say a few words about our physical eyes. Now some people believe that the physical eyes can see any substance or any object in this world of ours. Therefore, they fall into a rigid notion, believing that what is seen through the eyes is true and real, and they do not believe what they cannot see. People of this sort have been thought to have a poor awakening quality. Some people do not understand why they have such a poor awakening quality. It sounds quite reasonable that not seeing is not believing. But to look at it on a bit higher level, you will find it unreasonable. Every timespace is composed of substances. Of course, the material composition differs and the various manifestations of living beings differ from timespace to timespace. I would like to take an example for you, Buddhism presents that all phenomena of human society are all illusions (maya). How can they be illusory? Those objects are so real and tangible. How can you say that they are false? In fact, the existing form of an object is different from its manifestations, but our eyes have a capacity to stabilize the object in our physical space into the state we have now seen. Actually, it is not in such a state, not even in this space of ours. For example, what does the human body look like under a microscope? You will find the whole body is made up of loose and moving molecules which are like grains of sand, small and roundish, with electrons moving around the atomic nuclei. The whole body is wriggling and moving. And the surface of the body is not smooth or regular. Any object in the universe, steel, iron or stone, is all the same, as the molecular composition in it is in motion and the whole formation is invisible to you. It is actually unstable. This table is also wriggling, but our eyes cannot see the truth. They can only give us a delusion. It is not that we are unable to see something microscopic. It is not that man does not have this ability. In fact, man is endowed by nature with such an ability and is able to see things microscopic. It is just because of the eyes we have in this physical space that we have a false impression, and therefore we cannot see them. So, it is believed in the world of cultivation that people who do not believe what they cannot see have a poor quality of comprehension because they are misled by ordinary people's wrong views and are lost among ordinary people. This is a view which has been taught in the religions, and we actually find there is some truth in it. The eyes have no other great abilities except that they can stabilize the things we have in the physical space into such a state. When one sees something, the image of the object does not form in the eyes directly. The eyes, which are like the camera lens, only serve as a tool. When taking a picture at a distance, the camera lens becomes longer. Our eyes also have such a function. When one looks in the dark, his pupils become larger. When taking a picture in the dark, the aperture of the camera has to become larger as well; otherwise, with insufficient exposure, the photo will turn out to be black. When one comes to a very bright place, his pupils become smaller rapidly, otherwise, dazzled by the strong light, he cannot see clearly. With the same principle, the aperture of the camera is also to become smaller. Therefore, as a tool, it can only take in the image of an object. When we actually look at something, a person or the existing form of an object, it is in the brain that the image of it is formed. In other words, we see through the eye and the image it receives is conveyed through the optic nerve to the pineal body which is located in the back half of the brain and appears in that region. That is to say, it is the pineal body of the brain that actually reflects the image and sees an object. Modern medical science also has come to realize this. The opening of the Celestial Eye we refer to means opening a passage between the eyebrows so that the pineal body can directly look out by avoiding the use of the optic nerves. This is what we call opening the Celestial Eye. Some may have such a thought: but this is unrealistic. After all, our eyes can serve as a tool and take in the image of an object. How can we do without them? The modern medical dissection has already discovered that the front half of the pineal body has the whole structure of an eye. As it lies in the skull, it is postulated to be a vestigial eye. We cultivation community have some reservations about whether it is a vestigial eye or not. But at least the modern medicine has realized that there is an eye in the centre of the human brain. We open the passage straight to that point. So it just tallies with what the modern medicine has discovered. This eye, unlike the naked eyes, will not create illusions. It can see the reality of things and the essence of matter. Therefore, a person with his Celestial Eye in the very high dimension can see through our space into another timespace and perceive the scenes an ordinary person cannot see. A person with his Celestial Eye on the low plane may have a penetrative sight, which can penetrate a wall or see through a human body. So the Celestial Eye has such a function. The Buddhas' School presents Five Types of Eye Sight: the Flesh Eye Sight, the Celestial Eye Sight, the Wisdom Eye Sight, the Law Eye Sight, and the Buddha Eye Sight. These are the five major planes of the Celestial Eye. Each plane is subdivided into three levels : upper, middle, and lower. Taoists say there are 9 times 9, eighty-one levels of the Law Eye. Now we are opening your Celestial Eyes, but not below the plane of the Celestial Eye Sight. Why? Though you are sitting here ready for cultivation, you just start practising as ordinary people and still have a lot of ordinary people's attachments. If I open your Celestial Eyes to below the plane of the Celestial Eye Sight , you will possess the supernatural powers as called by ordinary people and can see through a wall or into a human body. If we spread this supernormal capability on such a large scale and open your Celestial Eyes to such a plane, it would seriously affect the society of ordinary people and disrupt its normal state: the state secrets would have no way to be kept; it would be all the same to you whether other people wear clothes or not; you could see a person in the room when you are out of it ; walking along a street, you would stop before a lottery and pick the ticket of the first prize. Such things will not be allowed to happen! Just imagine, is it a human society if its members all possess the Celestial Eye Sight? Anything that seriously disturbs the human society is absolutely not allowed to exist. If I really opened your Celestial Eye to such a plane, you might become a qigong master instantly. Some of you wished to be a qigong master in the past. Now with the sudden opening of their Celestial Eyes, they would be eager to treat diseases on others. By so doing, aren't I leading you astray? Then, what plane am I to open your Celestial Eyes to ? I am going to open them straight to the plane of the Wisdom Eye Sight. If I open them to a higher plane, your Xinxing (ÐÄÐÔ) is not high enough; should I open it to a lower plane, it would seriously disturb the normal state of society. So I open them to the plane of the Wisdom Eye Sight, and you are able to see the scenes existing in other spaces though you cannot see through a wall or into a human body. What advantage does it have? It can build up your confidence in cultivation. When you have clearly seen what ordinary people cannot see, you will believe that it really exists. Now I am going to open your Celestial Eyes to this plane no matter whether you can see clearly or not, as it will do good to your cultivation. A true cultivator of the Great Law who is strict with himself in the improvement of his Xinxing will achieve the same effect by just reading this book. What is the thing that determines the plane of one's Celestial Eye ? It is not that you can see everything after your Celestial Eye is opened. No, it is not so. It involves the division of its planes. What does the plane of one's Celestial Eye depend on? It depends on three factors. The first factor is that one's Celestial Eye must have a field from inside to outside. We call this field the vital essence (¾«»ªÖ®Æø). What is its function? Just like the screen of a television, if there is no fluorescent material on it, it is no more than a light bulb which only gives light, but shows no picture when you turn on the television. It is the fluorescent material that makes it possible for the images to appear on the screen. Of course, this is not an apt example, because we see the images directly, while the television shows them through the fluorescent screen. It roughly illustrates what I mean. This bit of vital energy is extremely valuable. It is composed of the more essential things refined from the substance of De (µÂ virtues). The existing vital essence varies from person to person. Only two in ten thousand people may be found to be on the same plane. The plane of one's Celestial Eye is the direct manifestation of the Law of our universe. As something supernormal, it is closely connected with one's Xinxing. A person of low Xinxing stays on a low level. As his Xinxing is poor, he has lost much of his vital essence. If one possesses very high Xinxing and cares little about fame, wealth, conflicts among the people, personal interests, and seven emotions and six carnal desires, his vital essence may be well preserved, and he can see quite clearly when his Celestial Eye is opened. A child under six will have a very clear vision when his Celestial Eye is opened, and it is very easy to open it. A word is enough to have it opened. In the powerful current and gigantic dye vat of the ordinary human society, what people believe to be right is actually often wrong. Who does not want to live a good life? To live a good life, you may infringe upon the interests of other people, which may whet your selfish desires, you may profit at other people's expense and bully and harm others. To gain the personal interests, you may compete among ordinary people. Doesn't it go against the cosmic qualities? Therefore, what people believe right is not necessarily right. When educating a small child, the adult is likely to tell him that "you should try to become wily" so that the child can get a foothold in the society of ordinary people in the future. In the view of our universe, however, it is wrong to be wily, as we should follow the natural course and care little about the personal interests. Why should he become so wily? Because he wants to gain personal interests. "If someone bullies you, just let his teacher or his parents know", "When you see money on the ground , you should pick it up and put it into your pocket". The child is educated in such a way. When he grows up, he will receive more and more such teachings and he gradually will become more and more selfish in the society of ordinary people. He will gain advantage by unfair means and thus lose his De (virtues). This substance De, when lost, will be transferred to another person instead of disappearing. However, the vital essence will disappear. If one has been wily and crafty from childhood up till now, has a strong desire for personal interests, and puts profit-making before anything else, he will not normally see clearly when his Celestial Eye is opened. This, however, does not mean that he will never have a clear vision. Why ? Because we cultivate so that we can return to the origin and go back to the truth. With continuous cultivation, there will be continuous compensation for the lost vital essence. Therefore, we lay stress on Xinxing , on the improvement as a whole, and on the ascension as a whole. When one has improved his Xinxing, he will also find himself improved in other respects. If one cannot improve his Xinxing, his vital essence around his Celestial Eye will not be compensated. This is how the principle works. Now let's come to the second factor. If a practitioner has good inborn qualities, he can get his Celestial Eye opened through his own cultivation. But he may get frightened the moment his Celestial Eye opens. Why? Because one usually cultivates in the hour of Zi at night when all is quiet. He is practising when he suddenly sees a large eye just before him, which gives him a start. He is so frightened that he does not dare to practise any more. How frightening it is ! Such a large eye is looking at him, now closing, now opening. It is so real and vivid. So some people call it a demon's eye and others call it a Buddha's eye, etc.. In fact, it is one's own eye. However, cultivation is one's own business, while evolution of the cultivation energy is done by one's master. The whole process of the evolution of the cultivation energy for a cultivator is very complex in other spaces. All the cultivator's bodies, not only the one in another space but also those in all the spaces are changing. Can you do it yourself? No, you can't. All these are arranged by the master. It is the master who is doing this. Therefore, we have the saying that cultivation is one's own business, while the evolution of the cultivation energy is done by one's master. You only have such a wish or thought, and it is your master who has actually done the job. Some people have got their Celestial Eyes opened through their own cultivation. We say it is your own eye, but you yourself are not able to evolve it. Some people have masters. When your master finds that your Celestial Eye is open, he will evolve an eye for you. This eye is called True Eye. Of course, there are some people who have no master, but they have a passing-by master. The Buddhas' School says: Buddha is present everywhere. There are so many Buddhas that you can find them everywhere. Others say: there are deities three feet above one's head. It means there are such a great number of them. The passing-by master will evolve an eye for you when he finds that you are well cultivated with your Celestial Eye open but are short of an eye. This eye can be counted as a result of your own cultivation, because to offer salvation to people a passing- by master will have no prerequisites and care nothing for the cost, reward and fame. He is far nobler than an exemplary person of ordinary people. He does so entirely out of compassion. When your Celestial Eye is open, you will find yourself in such a state: the light dazzles you. You feel it dazzling your eyes. In fact, it does not dazzle your eyes, but dazzles your pineal body. You feel as if the light were dazzling your eyes. That is because you have not got the Eye. When you are provided with the Eye, you will no longer feel the light dazzling you. Some of you can feel or see this Eye. As it has the same nature as that of the universe, it is quite innocent and curious. It looks inward to see if your Celestial Eye is open, or if it is able to see. It is looking inward at you when your Celestial Eye is opened. It will give you a start when you suddenly see it looking at you. In fact, it is your own Eye. In future you will see things with this Eye. Without this Eye, you can see nothing at all even when your Celestial Eye is open. The third factor involves one's breakthrough of his attainment level which reveals the difference from space to space. This is exactly what determines one's attainment level in cultivation. One sees not only through the main channel of the Celestial Eye but also through plenty of subchannels. The Buddhas' School says that every pore in the human body is an eye; The Taoist School says that every aperture of the human body is an eye, that is to say, every acupoint is an eye. Of course, what they say still refers to the one way the Law evolves in the human body, because of which any part of it has the ability to see. The attainment level we refer to is different from this. There are several main subchannels in the eyebrows, upper eyelids, lower left eyelid and the area between the eyebrows besides the main channel. They determine the breakthrough of one's attainment level. Of course, if an ordinary practitioner can see through them, the level this person has broken through is already quite high. Some people can also see with their physical eyes, because they have perfected their eyes in cultivation, thus their eyes also possess the forms various supernormal capabilities take. However, if one does not use the eye properly, when he can see this object, but can not see that one, this will not do . Therefore, some people usually use one of the eyes to see things in another space, and the other one to see things in this world. There is no subchannel below this eye (the right eye), as it has something immediate to do with the Law. People tend to use the right eye when they do bad things. Therefore, there is no subchannel below the right eye. Those are some of the main subchannels which develop in the Cultivation of Shi Jian Fa (ÊÀ¼ä·¨ the In- Triple - World-Law). When one has reached an extremely high level beyond the Cultivation of the In-Triple-World-Law, he will develop an eye like a compound eye which is so large that it covers the upper part of his face with countless small eyes in it. Some great enlightened beings in a very high dimension have developed so many eyes that they cover the whole face. All the eyes can see through the large eye, and it can see whatever he wants to see and is able to see all the dimensions at a single glance. Now zoologists and entomologists have done some research on flies. A fly has a large eye. Through a microscope, you can see that it is composed of countless small eyes, so it is called a compound eye. One will not acquire such an eye until he has reached an extremely high dimension , a dimension much higher than that of a Tathagata. But ordinary people cannot see its existence, nor can a practitioner who is on an ordinary level. They can only see what is the same as ordinary people, as this eye exists in another space. Here I have talked about the breakthrough of one's attainment level, the question is to be able to break through all the spaces. I have basically revealed the structure of the Celestial Eye. It would be a quicker and easier way to open your Celestial Eyes by external force. When I am talking about the Celestial Eye, each of you will feel that the muscle of the forehead becomes tight as if the muscles had gathered there, drilling inwards. Is that so? Yes. As long as you have come here really to get down to learn Falun Dafa, you will have such a sensation. You will feel a strong power pushing the muscle inward. I have released a special power to open your Celestial Eyes. Meanwhile, I have also released Falun to mend them. When I am talking about the Celestial Eye I am opening it only for those who cultivate Falun Dafa. But this does not mean that each of you will get a clear vision or even be able to see. This has something to do with you yourself. Never mind. It does not matter if you are unable to see. Take your time to cultivate yourself. As you raise your level continuously, you will be able to see gradually, and a dim vision will by and by become a clear one. As long as you cultivate yourself and you are determined to do so, you will regain what you have lost. It is quite difficult for one to open his Celestial Eye himself. Now I am going to say something about a few ways for one to open the Celestial Eye by himself. For example, when sitting in cultivation, a practitioner may observe his forehead and the Celestial Eye. He may find nothing but darkness in his forehead. After a long while, he will feel his forehead gradually turning white. After another period of cultivation, he will find his forehead gradually becoming bright. Then it will turn red. By then, it will begin to bloom, just like a bud opening its petals instantly as is shown in a film or on television with such a scene. That red colour is flat at the beginning when suddenly becomes protuberant in the centre and keep on blooming. It is impossible for you to make the blossom thoroughly open even in ten years or so, because your Celestial Eye is entirely blocked. Some people's Celestial Eye is not blocked. It has a channel. However, as they do not cultivate, there is no energy. When they cultivate, there will suddenly appear a black disc before their eyes. With a long time of practice, the disc will gradually turn white, then become brighter and brighter until it is getting more and more dazzling. One may say: I have seen the sun, I have seen the moon. In reality, he has seen neither the sun nor the moon. What has he seen, then? He has seen the channel of this Celestial Eye. Some people have made rapid progress and can see immediately after they have been provided with the Eye. But others would find it very difficult. They would run outward along the channel which is like a tunnel or a well during practice, or even in sleep they would feel themselves running outward. Some feel they are urging a horse on; some feel they are flying; some feel they are running; some feel as if they were rushing out in a car. But they feel that they can never rush out of it, as it is very difficult for them to open their Celestial Eyes on their own. The Taoist School regards the human body as a microcosm. If it is a small universe, just imagine, then it would be more than one hundred and eight thousand miles from the forehead to the pineal body. Therefore, they feel as if they were always rushing outwards but would never rush out of it. It is quite reasonable for the Taoist School to regard the human body as a microcosm. It does not mean that the composition and structure of the human body is very similar to that of the universe. It does not refer to the existing form of the human body in this physical space of ours. What state is the physical body in below the plane of the cell according to modern science? There is various molecular composition. Smaller than molecules are atoms, protons, nuclei, electrons and quarks. The smallest particles which have been studied are neutrinos. Then, what is the smallest particle in its true sense? It is too difficult to find it. Sakyamuni once said in his later years, "It is so vast that it is boundless; it is so tiny that it is indivisible". What did he mean? The universe is so vast that one with the status of Tathagata is unable to see its boundary; the substance is so tiny that one in the status of Tathagata cannot see its smallest particle. This is what he meant by saying "It is so vast that it is boundless; it is so tiny that it is indivisible". Sakyamuni also put forward the three-thousand-chiliocosmos theory. He said that in the Milky Way galaxy of our universe there were three thousand planets on which living beings with mortal bodies like human beings exist. He also said there were such three thousand chiliocosmos in a grain of sand. A grain of sand is like a universe and there are such intelligent beings as us living in it. There are also such planets, mountains and rivers in it. It sounds rather fantastic! If this is true, just think about it, isn't there sand in the sand mentioned? Aren't there three thousand chiliocosmos in each grain of the sand there? Then, isn't there sand in each of those three thousand chiliocosmos? And aren't there three thousand chiliocosmos in each grain of the sand there again? Therefore, in the status of Tathagata one cannot see its end. The same is true of human molecular cells. People ask how large the universe is. I tell you that this universe has its boundary. However, in the eyes of one in the status of Tathagata it is boundless and unlimitedly large. But the inside of the human body from molecules to micro- particles is as large as this universe. It sounds like a tall story. When a person or a life is made his particular composition of life and his essence have been formed in the extremely microcosmic state. Therefore, it is far beyond our contemporary scientific research. Compared with those living beings on the high intelligent planets in the whole universe, the standard of human science and technology is quite low. We are even unable to break through the other spaces which occupy the same space at the same time. However, the flying saucers from other planets come and go directly in another space in which there is a different concept of spacetime. Therefore, they come and go so quickly and mysteriously that the human mind finds it difficult to accept it as a fact. I mentioned this when I talked about the Celestial Eye. While you are running outward in the channel, you would feel that it is endless. Someone may see another scene. He would feel that he is running not along a tunnel but along an endless broad road on either side of which there are mountains, rivers, and cities. He just keeps running outward. It may sound fantastic. I still remember a qigong master's words. He said that in a pore in the human body there was a city in which the trains and cars were running. Other people were much surprised at his words and felt they were incredulous. As you know, a substance is composed of molecules, atoms, and protons in its microcosmic state. In the end, you may keep investigating downward like this. If you can see a plane, not a dot, in each dimension, that is, if you can see the plane of molecules, or that of atoms, or that of protons, or that of nuclei, you will see the existing forms of different spaces. Any object, including the human body, coexists and is open into the spatial planes of the cosmic space. When contemporary physics studies the particles of matter, it only studies a single particle by analyzing and fissioning it. It studies its component parts by means of nuclear fission. If we had such an instrument through which we could see the whole manifestation of all atoms or molecules existing in this plane, if we could see this picture, we would break through this space and see the true existence of other spaces. The human body corresponds to the space outside it. It has such a form of existence. Other different states would appear when one tries to open his Celestial Eye himself. We have dwelled on some relatively general phenomena. Some can see their Celestial Eyes turning. A practitioner of Taoist qigong often sees something turning in his Celestial Eye. When the Taiji disc breaks with a snap, he will see the images. But that does not mean that he has Taiji in his brain. In fact, at the very beginning his master planted for him a set of things, one of which was Taiji. The master has sealed his Celestial Eye. When it was time for his Celestial Eye to open, the Taiji disc split open. So it is something specially arranged by the master, not something innate in his brain. Some people are after the opening of the Celestial Eye. But, the more they practise, the more difficult they will find it to open. What is the reason? They have no idea themselves. The main reason is that the Celestial Eye is not to be pursued. The more you pursue it, the more you cannot get it. Your Celestial Eye will not open when you desire to have it. Instead, something neither black nor white will flow out of it and cover your Celestial Eye. After a long time, it will form a great field. The more it flows out, the more it accumulates. The more difficult you find it to open your Celestial Eye, the more you will pursue it and the more it will flow out. As a result, it will surround your whole body. To make things worse, it can be very thick and form a great field. Even if your Celestial Eye is really open, you cannot see anything, because you have been sealed by such an attachment. Only when you think no more of it and give up this attachment completely, can it disappear gradually. But it would take you a very long period of painstaking cultivation to get rid of it, which, however, is not necessary at all. Some people do not know this. When their master warns them against pursuing the Celestial Eye, against seeking after it, they just would not believe, would not stop thinking about it. As a result, it runs counter to their desires. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Supernormal Capability of Remote Sight (Ò£ÊÓ¹¦ÄÜ) A supernormal capability directly connected with the Celestial Eye is called the Remote Sight. Someone says that he can see scenes in Beijing, in America or scenes on the other side of the earth while sitting here. Some people are not able to understand it. It cannot be explained scientifically. How can it be possible? Some people have tried to explain it this way or that way, but their explanations are not convincing. They wonder how man can have such a great ability. In fact, it is not how it is. A practitioner who cultivates in the phase of Shi Jian Fa (the In-Triple- World-Law) does not have such an ability. What he sees, including Remote Sight and many other supernatural powers, all work in a specific space. They cannot go beyond the physical space of our human existence at the most. They usually do not go beyond the spatial field of one's own. The human body has a field in a specific space. This field is not the same one as the field of De (virtues). They are not in the same space but are of the same size. This field corresponds to the universe. Whatever exists in the universe can find its counterpart in it. But this counterpart is only a kind of shadow, not a real object. For example, there exist the United States and Washington on earth. In this field there is also the reflection of the United States and Washington. But it is a shadow. However, a shadow is also a physical existence. Since the field corresponds to the universe, it changes with the things in the universe. Therefore, with the supernormal capability of the so-called Remote Sight one actually sees the things in his own spatial field. When one has gone beyond the cultivation of the In-Triple- World-Law, he no longer sees in this way. He will see things directly. Such an ability is called the divine power of Buddha Law, a power whose might knows no bounds. How does the supernormal capability of Remote Sight work in the In-Triple-World-Law? Here I am going to expound this to you. In the space of this field, there is a mirror in the position of one's forehead. A non-practitioner's mirror faces himself. A practitioner's mirror will turn over. When one is about to develop the power of Remote Sight, the mirror will keep turning over and over. As you know, a film produces continuous movements at the speed of twenty-four pictures per second. When it goes slower than that, the pictures will keep bouncing. The mirror turns faster than that. It keeps the images reflected in it, and then turns over to show you. The images will be erased when it turns over again. Then it will do the same again and again by keeping turning over and over. Therefore, what you see is in motion. This is exactly how it shows you the things within your spatial field it reflects, which are the counterparts of the things in the universe outside. Well, how can one see things behind him? How can everything around him be reflected in such a small mirror? You know, when one's Celestial Eye is above the plane of the Celestial Eye Sight and is about to reach the plane of the Wisdom Eye Sight, it is going to break through this space of ours. Just on the point to have an entire breakthrough, the Celestial Eye will have a change: when it looks at an object, a man or a wall, they all have disappeared, matter does not exist. That is to say, in this specific space, when it looks in depth, it will find no man there. There is only a mirror standing in the scope of this spatial field of yours, and this mirror is in your spatial field and it is as large as your entire spatial field. So when it turns over and over in the field, there is no place that cannot be reflected in the mirror. The mirror can reflect everything in your spatial field, as long as they are the counterparts of the things in the universe. This is what we call the supernormal capability of Remote Sight. In testing this ability, the scientists who study the human body are likely to deny it. Here is the reason for their denial. For example, one was asked to tell what someone's relative in Beijing was doing in his house. When he was told the relative's name and some general facts, he could see the person. He gave a description of the building, how to enter the room through the door, and how the room was furnished. What he said was all correct. "what is the man doing?" "He is writing," he replied. In order to verify his statement, the tester asks his relative through the telephone: "what are you doing now?" "I am eating". Didn't it tally with what he had seen? This is the reason why such a supernormal capability was negated in the past. But what he saw about the place was exactly correct. As there is time difference between the space and time of ours, which we call timespace, and that of the space where supernormal capabilities exist, there is a difference in the concept of time between the two spaces. The man was writing just now. Now he is eating. There is such a time difference. Therefore, if these scientists usually make their deductions and researches upon the conventional theories and contemporary sciences in this way, they will get nowhere even after ten thousand years' studies. As these things are supernormal in the first place, men need to change their mentality. They should not understand these things in such a way again. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Supernormal Capability of Total Recall (ËÞÃüͨ¹¦ÄÜ) There is another supernormal capability which has a direct relation with the Celestial Eye. It is called Total Recall. Now there are six supernormal capabilities which are generally recognized in the world. They include the Celestial Eye, Remote Sight, and Total Recall. What is Total Recall? It is a supernormal capability with which one can know a person's future and past; if the ability is great, one can know the rise and decline of a society; if the ability is even greater, one can see the Law of the change of the whole celestial body. As matter moves following a certain pattern, any object in a special space has its existing forms in many, many other spaces. For instance, when the human body makes a movement, the cells in the body will also move with it. So will all molecules, protons, electrons, and the other smallest particles in the microcosmic state. However, it has its own form of independent existence, and the existing forms of the human body in other spaces will also have a change. Don't we often refer to conservation of matter? Whatever you do will leave an image and some message in a specific space. When people have done something, as they do with a wave of hand, it is all material existence. In another space, it is conserved and will exist there forever. A person who possesses supernormal capabilities will know what happened in the past by just taking a look at the images in the past which are still there. When you have developed the ability of Total Recall in the future, you will find the form of the lecture I am giving here today still existing there. It exists there at the same time. When a person is born, his whole life has already existed there in a special space where there is no concept of time. For some people, more than one life is there. Some people may have such a thought: isn't it unnecessary for us to have a personal struggle or to remold ourselves? They cannot accept it. As a matter of fact, only small things in the life can be changed through the personal struggle. Some small things may have a change after your personal struggle. But you may get karma because of your effort to change them, otherwise, there is no such a thing as making karma or doing good or evil. If you obstinately do so, you will take advantage of other people, thus you have done evil deeds. Therefore, it is for this reason that it is repeatedly emphasized that a cultivator should follow the natural course, because you will harm other people when you make your efforts. Originally, there is no such a thing in your life, but you have got what belongs to other people in society. Thus, you owe them a debt. As for the big things, an ordinary person can never change them. However, there is a way to change them. That is, one can change his life by doing nothing but evil deeds and committing all manner of crimes. But a complete destruction of his life lies ahead of him. We can see in the high dimension that one's Yuanshen (ÔªÉñ True Spirit) does not die at his death. How is it that the True Spirit can be free from death? In fact, we find that a dead body in the mortuary is nothing but a mass of human cells in this space of ours. All the cell tissues in the internal organs and in the whole body in this space have fallen off, while in another space a body composed of particles which are smaller than molecules, atoms or protons is not dead at all. It lives in another space and still exists in that microcosmic space. However, a person who stops at no evil would have a complete disintegration of all his cells. In Buddhism it is called perdition of body and soul (ÐÎÉñÈ«Ãð). There is another way to make one change his life, which is actually the only way. That is, he begins to take a way of cultivation. Why can his life be changed when he takes the way of cultivation? Who has such a great power to change it? When one wants to take the way of cultivation, such an intention would glitter like gold and shake the Ten Directions. The Buddhas' view of the universe is expressed in the theory of the Ten Directions. In the eyes of an intelligent being, a human life is not to be lived as a human being. He holds that human lives originate in the cosmic space and have the same nature as the universe. They are kind and are composed of the matter of Zhen Shan Ren. But they also have their community. When they associate with others in the community, some of them will become bad and drop down to a lower dimension. When they become still worse and cannot stay in that dimension any more, they will drop down to a still lower dimension. They drop down and down and down in this way until they have finally come to this dimension of ordinary people'. Man in this dimension should have been destroyed or wiped out. However, out of great compassion, the great enlightened beings have specially made such a space as this space of our human society. In this space, man is provided with a mortal body and two eyes which can only see the objects in this physical world. That is to say, man has fallen into the maze in which he is unable to see the truth of the universe though he can see it in other spaces. In this maze and under such circumstances, he is given such a chance. As he is in the maze, he is amidst the greatest suffering. His body is to bring him sufferings. The Taoist School teaches returning to the origin and going back to the truth through cultivation. If a man in this space can return to the origin and has the mind to cultivate himself, that is, if he has developed his Buddha-nature, people will help him, because such a heart is regarded as the most precious thing. He does not get lost under such difficult circumstances and still wants to return to the origin, so people will help him. They will help him in every way and without condition. This is the reason why we can do such a thing for cultivators, but not for ordinary people. We can do nothing for you if you are an ordinary person who just wants to get rid of diseases. An ordinary person is just an ordinary person. Ordinary people can only live in the state of society of ordinary people. Many people say that Buddhas offer salvation to all sentient beings and Buddhas teach the universal salvation of all life. I tell you, you can consult all Buddhist scriptures and will find no words there indicating that the removal of the diseases for ordinary people means the salvation of the sentient beings. It is those pseudo qigong masters who have messed up the matter these years. The real qigong masters and qigong trail-blazers never suggested treating diseases on others. They only taught you how to get rid of diseases and keep fit through your own practice. As an ordinary person, how can you cure diseases when you have just learned qigong for a couple of days? Aren't you fooling other people? Doesn't that encourage your attachment? You are just seeking after fame, wealth and supernormal things and showing them off among ordinary people! It absolutely won't do. Therefore, the more you seek after it, the more you cannot get it. You are not allowed to do so, and you are not allowed to disrupt the social state of ordinary people at will. There is such a principle in this universe: when you want to return to the origin and go back to the truth, someone will help you. He holds that man should go back to the origin instead of living in the society of ordinary people. Suppose human beings suffer no diseases and live a comfortable life, they would even be reluctant to become immortals. How wonderful it is if people suffer from no diseases, bear no sufferings, and have whatever they desire. This is really a world of immortals. But you have dropped down to where you are because of your degeneration, so you will not feel comfortable. Man is likely to do bad when he is lost in the world of ordinary people. In Buddhism it is called the karmic principle of reward and retribution. Therefore, when some people usually have a tribulation or some trouble, he is in fact paying his karma according to the karmic principle of reward and retribution. It is also said in Buddhism that Buddha is omnipresent. It is definitely possible that one wave of a Buddha's hand will wipe out all the diseases of mankind. There are so many Buddhas. Why don't they do such a thing? One has to endure the suffering because of the evil deeds he did in the past. If you have cured his disease, you have as good as broken the principle of the universe. It means he is allowed to do bad and does not have to pay what he owes to others. This is not allowed to happen. So everybody is safeguarding the normal state of human society. None of them would try to disrupt it. Nothing but cultivation can make you really free from diseases and bring you the real liberation. To make people cultivate the Orthodox Law is the real salvation of sentient beings. How can many qigong masters cure diseases? Why do they go in for the treatment of diseases? Some people may think about the matter. Most of such qigong masters do not go the right way. In the course of cultivation a true qigong master will find that all beings are suffering. He is allowed to help the sufferer out of compassion and sympathy. But he cannot cure the disease. He can only repress it temporarily, or postpone it so that you will suffer from it in the future, or transfer it to other members of your family. He is unable to completely eradicate the karma for you. This is the reason why it is allowed to eliminate the karma only for cultivators, not for ordinary people. The salvation of all sentient beings put forward by the Buddhas' School means that you are to be taken from the most painful state of ordinary people to the high dimension where you will never suffer and can enjoy real freedom. This is what it implies. Didn't Sakyamuni mention the other bank of Nirvana? This is the true sense of his salvation of all sentient beings. Suppose you live in ease and comfort among ordinary people, having so much money that you can use the bank notes as the mattress and bear no suffering at all, you will even be reluctant to become an immortal. If you are a cultivator, your course of life can be changed, and only through cultivation can your life course be changed. The supernormal capability of Total Recall works through a small fluorescent screen like TV in the position of the forehead. Some find it at the location of the forehead; some find it nearby the forehead; some find it inside the forehead; some can see it with eyes closed; some can see it with eyes open if it is very strong. But it is invisible to other people, because it is something within his own spatial field. That is to say, when this capability is developed, there has to be another one to serve as a carrier to reflect the images of other spaces so that one can see them with the Celestial Eye. With the ability one can see the future or the past of a person very precisely. Though one can also reveal something quite clearly through divination, he is unable to know the small things or details of an event. However, with the ability of Total Recall one can see them very clearly. He can even see the dates and changing details of the event, because what he sees is the true reflection of a person or an object in a different space. I am going to open the Celestial Eye for every cultivator of Falun Dafa. As for the supernormal capabilities which will be mentioned later, I will not open them. With the unceasing rise of your level, the supernormal capability of Total Recall will turn up in due course. You will meet with this case in your future cultivation. When you have developed this supernormal capability, you will know how it is. So we should tell you all these doctrines and principles. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Transcending the Five Elements and the Three Realms (²»ÔÚÎåÐÐÖУ×ß³öÈý½çÍâ) What does "transcending the Five Elements and the Three Realms" mean? This is a sharp question to answer. In the past, many qigong masters were choked off by those who did not believe in qigong when they were talking about the matter: "Which one of you practitioners has transcended the Five Elements and is not in the Three Realms?" Some of them were not qigong masters. They just claimed that they themselves were qigong masters. They should not have talked about the matter since they were unable to make it clear, but they were bold enough to talk about it. As a result, they were gagged by the listeners. It has caused a great loss and confusion to the world of cultivation. Some people have used this as a pretext to attack qigong. To transcend the Five Elements and the Three Realms is a saying prevalent in the world of cultivation. It comes from the religion. It is a product of the religion. Therefore, we cannot talk about the matter by ignoring this historical background and the environment of that time. What does "transcending the Five Elements" mean? Both the ancient physics and the contemporary physics of China hold that the Chinese Theory of Five Elements is right. It is true that the Five Elements of metal, wood, water, fire and earth constitute myriads of things in the universe. Therefore, we often look at this Five Elements. To put it in modern language, transcending the Five Elements means going beyond this physical world, which sounds like a fantastic story. Just think about such a matter, a qigong master is possessed of energy. I have been tested for my energy. So have many other qigong masters. The material composition of this energy can be measured by means of many apparatus available, that is, if there is such an apparatus, the composition of energy a qigong master releases can be determined. The apparatus available can determine infrared rays, ultraviolet rays, ultrasonic waves, infrasonic sounds, electricity, magnetic force, ( rays, atoms and neutrons. A qigong master possesses all these substances. Some substances released by some qigong masters cannot be determined because there is no such an apparatus to measure them. As long as there are such apparatuses, all of them can be determined and you will find that the substances released by qigong masters are extremely rich in variety. With the effect of a special magnetic field, a qigong master can release a powerful and very beautiful aura. The greater is one's energy potency, the larger is the energy field he has released. An ordinary person also has an aura, but it is very, very small. In the study of high-energy physics people believe that energy is nothing but the substances like neutrons or atoms. Many qigong masters have been tested. All the famous qigong masters have taken such a test. I was also tested. The measuring apparatus showed that the amount of ( rays and thermal neutrons I had released was 80--170 times greater than that of radiation of normal substances. However, this was the result when the pointer on the apparatus had reached its limit. As the pointer had moved to its maximum, we did not know how great it would really be. It is really inconceivable that one can produce such powerful neutrons. How can man release such powerful neutrons? It has proved that we qigong masters are possessed of Gong or energy, which has been verified in the world of science and technology. To transcend the Five Elements, one has to practise the cultivation system for the integrated cultivation of both nature and life. By practising the cultivation system which is not for cultivation of both nature and life, one can only develop the cultivation energy which marks his level of attainment. The practitioner of the cultivation system which cannot be used to cultivate life does not care about this, because he does not take the way of transcending the Five Elements. As for the practitioner of the cultivation system for cultivation of both nature and life, his energy is stored up in all cells of his body. The energy released by an ordinary practitioner or a person who has just begun to increase his Gong is composed of thick grains which are not very close to one another, so it has little power. When one is at a much higher level, it is possible that the density of his energy would be a hundred, a thousand, or a hundred million times greater than that of ordinary water molecules, because the higher is one's dimension, the greater is the density of his energy, which is composed of smaller grains, and the more powerful is his might. In such a case, the energy is stored up in each cell of one's body, not only in the body in this physical space of ours, but also in all his bodies in other spaces. Thus, one's cells, from the plane of molecules, atoms, protons, electrons to that of the smallest particles are all filled with this energy. With the lapse of time, one's body will be completely filled with this high-energy matter. This high-energy matter possesses intelligence and has some abilities. When it has increased in amount, become dense and filled all cells of the human body, it can check the physical cells which are most incompetent. Once checked, the cells will undergo no metabolism and finally they will be completely replaced by the high-energy matter. Of course, it is easy for me to say it, but it will be a long process for you to cultivate it. When you reach this dimension in cultivation, all cells of your body will be replaced by this high-energy matter. Think about it, is your body still composed of the Five Elements, the substances of this physical space of ours? It is composed of the high-energy matter collected from other spaces. The substance of De (virtues) is also the matter existing in another space and is free from the control of the time field of our physical space. The contemporary science holds that time possesses a field and anything beyond the time field is not restricted by time. The concept of spacetime in another space is different from that in ours. How can it affect the matter from another space? Not at all. Think about it, haven't you freed yourself from the bonds of the Five Elements at this time? Is your body still like that of an ordinary person? No, absolutely not. However, an ordinary person cannot tell the difference. Even if one has had such a great change in his body, you cannot say that he has come to the end of his cultivation. He has to go on cultivating himself to reach a still higher dimension. Therefore, he must cultivate among ordinary people, as it won't do him any good if people can not see him. What will happen to him later? In the process of his cultivation, all his molecular cells have been replaced by high-energy matter, but atoms have their order of arrangement, and the order of molecular or nuclear arrangement has not changed. The molecular arrangement order of a cell is in such a state that it feels soft. The molecular arrangement order of a bone is in such a great density that it feels hard. The molecular density of blood is so small that it is a liquid. Ordinary people cannot see the change from his outward appearance, because his molecular cells still keep their original structure and arrangement order. Though the molecular structure of a cell remains unchanged, the energy in it has changed. So the man will not grow naturally old or weakened from then on. Since his cells do not die out, he will remain young forever. In the process of cultivation, one will look young, and in the end he will have a fixed appearance. Of course, when knocked down by a car, such a body may also fracture, and it may also bleed when cut with a knife, because its molecular arrangement order has not changed though it will not die out or become old naturally and no metabolism will take place in it. This is what we call "freeing oneself from the bonds of the Five Elements". There is nothing superstitious in it. It can be explained scientifically. Some people are unable to explain it clearly. When they give careless remarks, people would say that they are propagating superstitions, as the saying comes from the religion, not from the contemporary qigong. What does "transcending the Three Realms" mean? I said the other day that the key to the increase of cultivation energy lies in the cultivation of one's Xinxing. When you are assimilated to the cosmic qualities, they will no longer restrict you. With the improvement of your Xinxing, the substance of De (virtues) will be evolved into cultivation energy. It will grow up and rise incessantly. When it has risen to a high dimension, it will form an energy column (¹¦Öù). The higher is the energy column, the greater is your energy potency. There is such a saying: the great Law is boundless. It all depends on your heart to cultivate it. Which dimension you can reach all depends on your forbearance and the ability to bear hardships. When you have used up the white substance of your own, you can transform your black substance into the white substance by going through hardships. If you still find your black substance not enough, you can bear the sins for your relatives and good friends who do not cultivate. By doing so, you can also increase your cultivation energy. This, however, can only be done by a cultivator who is already in an extremely high dimension. An ordinary cultivator should not have the idea of bearing sins for his relatives. With such great karma a common cultivator will find it impossible to attain perfection. What I talk about here are the different principles for different dimensions. The Three Realms mentioned in the religion refer to nine heavens or thirty-three heavens. In other words, Heaven, Earth and the Under-world form the Three Realms. It presents that all living things within the thirty-three heavens must go through the Sixfold Path of Transmigration, which means that a human being in this incarnation may become an animal in a next incarnation. So Buddhism says that one should waste no time in this life. When will you cultivate if you do not cultivate yourself now? For animals are not allowed to cultivate or listen to the Law. Even if they have cultivated, they will not complete the right achievement. If they possess high energy, they will be killed by heaven. You are not able to get a human body in hundreds of years. When you have obtained one in more than a thousand years, you do not value it. Should you be reincarnated as a stone, you would not get out of it even in ten thousand years. You will never get out of it unless the stone is smashed to pieces or is weathered away. How hard it is to get a human body! A person who can really obtain the great Law is very fortunate indeed. Here we have talked about the truth that a human body is hard to get. For practitioners, there is the issue of cultivation levels. Which level you will reach all depends on your cultivation. If you want to transcend the Three Realms, keep on cultivating yourself. When your energy column becomes very, very high, haven't you gone beyond them? In cross-legged sitting some people may go up very high in no time when their True Spirits leave their bodies. One of my students told me in his experience report how many heavens he had visited and what scenes he had perceived. I told him to go higher. He said that he could not and did not dare to. He was not able to ascend any more. Why? Because his energy column was just that high. He had ascended by sitting on his energy column. This is the fruit status as called in Buddhism. He had reached that fruit status. However, for a cultivator, it is not the top status. He is still going up, sublimating and improving himself continuously. Haven't you transcended the Three Realms when your energy column has broken through the bounds of the Three Realms. We have found through a measurement that the Three Realms mentioned in the religion only lie within the limits of the nine major planets. Some say that there are ten major planets. I would like to say it is not true at all. I found that the energy columns of some qigong masters in previous years had broken through the bounds of the Milky Way galaxy. They were in such a high dimension that they had gone beyond the Three Realms long before. The transcendence of the Three Realms I just talked about is in fact a matter of attainment levels. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Issue of Pursuit (ÓÐËùÇóµÄÎÊÌâ) Many people have entered into our cultivation field with pursuit. Some crave after supernormal capabilities; some want to hear the theory; some hope to be cured of their diseases; some intend to get a Falun. They have come here with various desires. Some even said to me, "One of my family members didn't come to attend the lecturing session. I'll pay the tuition. Would you please give him a Falun?" How can you expect to get a Falun, a product of so many generations' efforts which was formed in an extremely long period with a horrifying number of years, by spending dozens of yuan? Why can we give it to each of you without condition? It is simply because you want to be a cultivator. This heart can never be bought with money. It means that you have developed your Buddha-nature. Therefore, we can do such a thing for you. You cling to your attachment of pursuit. Have you come here just for getting a Falun? My Law body in another space knows everything you are thinking about. As there is a different concept of spacetime in the two spaces. Seen from another space, the formation of your thinking is an extremely slow process. My Law body even knows your thought before you have it. So you have to give up all of your incorrect thoughts. The Buddhas' School believes in the affinity. It is your predestined luck that has brought you here. Maybe it is predestined for you to get it. Therefore, when you have got it , you should treasure it. Do not hold on to any pursuit. In the religious cultivation of the past, the Buddhas' School taught the Emptiness. They thought about nothing and entered the Door of Emptiness. The Taoist School taught the Nothingness. They had nothing, wanted nothing and sought after nothing. A practitioner stresses unintentional acquisition of the energy through intentional cultivation. If you cultivate in a state of active no action and care about nothing but cultivating your Xinxing, you are going through one phase after another and will certainly acquire what you ought to possess. If you cling to your pursuit, doesn't it mean that you have an attachment? We have taught such a high Law to you all at once, the demands on your Xinxing should also be high. So you should not come to learn the Law with your pursuit. We are leading you to the right way. To hold myself responsible to you all, I have to give a thorough exposition of the Law. When one seeks after the Celestial Eye, his Celestial Eye will be blocked by itself and he himself will be sealed by something. What's more, I tell you that in the cultivation of Shi Jian Fa (the In-Triple-World-Law) all the supernormal capabilities one has developed are the primordial instincts one carries in his physical body, which are now called supernatural powers. They can only work and control an ordinary person in this space, that is, in our physical world. What do you seek after these minor powers and petty magic arts for? Even if you have acquired them after a desperate pursuit, they have no use in another space after you have entered into the cultivation of Chu Shi Jian Fa (³öÊÀ¼ä·¨ the Beyond-Triple-World-Law). When you have gone beyond the cultivation of the Beyond-Triple-World- Law, all these capabilities have to be thrown away and pressed into a profound space to be stored up there, which can only be used as a record of your cultivation process for you to look up in the future. One has to re-cultivate himself when he has gone beyond the cultivation of the In-Triple-World- Law. His body is the one which has transcended the Five Elements as I mentioned above, that is, a Buddha body. Isn't it right to call such a body a Buddha body? A Buddha body has to go through a fresh cultivation and develop new powers, which are no longer called supernormal capabilities, but the divine powers of Buddha Law. With an invincible force, the divine power is something that can really work effectively in different spaces. So what is the use of your pursuing supernormal capabilities? If you pursue them, you must want to use them or display them among ordinary people. Otherwise, what do you want them for? They are invisible and intangible. To choose an article merely for show you have to pick up something pretty. I am sure that you have a desire to use them for some purpose in your subconsciousness. They cannot be acquired as skills of ordinary people. They are entirely supernormal things which are not allowed to display among ordinary people. The display itself means very strong attachment, a very bad heart, a heart that a cultivator should get rid of. It won't do all the more if you want to use them to earn money, to make a fortune, or to reach a goal among ordinary people through personal struggle, because you are trying to use something of a high order to disturb and disrupt the society of ordinary people. This is an even worse idea. So you are not allowed to use your abilities freely. Generally speaking, children and old people are likely to develop their powers, especially old women, as more often than not they can have a good control of their Xinxing and have no attachment of ordinary people. When they have developed their supernormal capabilities, they can easily control them because they have no desire to show off. Why is it difficult for young people to develop their powers? Because young people, especially young men, still want to struggle in the society of ordinary people to attain their goals. Once they have developed their supernormal capabilities, they will use them to reach their goals, taking them as abilities to achieve their goals. This can never be allowed to happen. Therefore, they will not develop their capabilities. Cultivation is not a trifling matter, nor a skill of ordinary people. But it is a very serious matter. It all depends on how to improve your Xinxing whether you want or are able to cultivate yourself. It would be a bad thing if one has really got supernormal capabilities by means of pursuit. He will never think about the matter of cultivation from then on. As his Xinxing is no higher than that of ordinary people and his powers are acquired through pursuit, he may do all kinds of evil deeds. There is much money in the bank. He would use the magic of removal and take some money from it. There are plenty of lotteries run in the street. He would go and pick the ticket of the first prize. Why have such things never happened? Some qigong masters say that one is prone to do evil deeds when he has developed his powers if he pays no attention to the improvement of his virtues. I say this is a wrong statement. It is not the case at all. If you pay no attention to the improvement of your virtues and do not cultivate your Xinxing, you will never develop your supernormal capabilities. Of course, there is also such a case: a person of good Xinxing who has developed his powers on his own level will do what he should not do later when he cannot restrain himself. But once he does evil, his powers will be weakened or lost. If he has lost them, he will never regain them. What's more, the worst thing is that it can arouse one's attachment. Some qigong masters say as if advertising that one will be able to cure diseases three or five days after he has learned their qigong. Such qigong masters should be called qigong dealers. Just imagine, as an ordinary person, how can you cure others' diseases by just releasing some of your qi? Ordinary people also possess qi in their bodies just as you do. You have just begun to practise and only have opened your acupoints of Laogong, through which you can take in or release the qi. When you tried to treat diseases on others, the qi in their bodies may have cured your disease. How could one's qi dictate the qi of another? Qi does not cure at all. Moreover, when you are treating a patient, you and the patient form a field, and all of his pathogenic qi will come to your body. As a result, you will have as much pathogenic qi as the patient. Though the root of the illness grows in the patient's body, you will also fall ill if you have taken in much of his pathogenic qi. Once you believe that you are able to cure diseases, you will begin the practice to treat patients and refuse nobody's request. Thus, your attachment will be aroused. How happy you are when you have cured someone of his disease! Why can you cure diseases? Why not think about it? As all pseudo qigong masters are possessed by evil spirits. In order to make you believe them, they will give you some message. When you have treated three, five, eight or ten patients, the message will disappear. As it is a kind of consumption of energy, you will no longer have such energy from then on. You yourself possess no energy. Where can you get it ? We qigong masters have gone through dozens of years' cultivation. It was very difficult to cultivate the Tao in the past. It is quite hard for one to cultivate in a side gate or in an unorthodox school instead of taking hold of an Orthodox School. You see that some great qigong masters have earned wide fame. But only through dozens of years' cultivation have they developed such a little energy. You have not cultivated yourself. How is it possible that you could have acquired energy by just attending a training class? Then, your attachment will be aroused from then on. With the attachment, you will get worried if you cannot cure the disease. In order to maintain his fame, someone even has such a thought when treating a patient: "Let me suffer from this disease so that the patient will be free from his illness." It is not out of compassion that he has such a thought. He has not got rid of the desire for fame and gain at all. How can he have developed the heart of compassion? He is afraid of losing his fame. So he wishes he could suffer from the disease lest he should lose his fame. What an intense desire for fame! Well, when he has such a wish, the disease can really be transferred from the patient to him at once. He goes home to suffer from the disease. The patient is well, but he feels ill at home after treating the disease. When you believe that you have cured someone of his disease and hear him calling you qigong master, you will get complacent and be extremely pleased with yourself. Isn't it an attachment? When you fail to cure it, you will be crestfallen. Isn't it caused by your desire for fame and gain? Moreover, the pathogenic qi of your patient will all come to your body. The pseudo qigong master teaches you how to dispel it from your body. I tell you that you are unable to dispel it at all, even a bit of it, because you yourself have no ability to distinguish the bad qi from the good qi. In the long run, your body will be all black inside. That is the karma. When you really want to cultivate yourself, it will be quite an ordeal for you. What shall you do? How much suffering will you have to undergo to transform it into a white substance? It is a hard job. A person of good inborn qualities is usually more likely to have this problem. Some people keep seeking the powers to cure diseases. Seeing such a desire in your mind, the animal will come to possess your body, which is called spirit possession. Don't you want to cure diseases? It will give you a hand. But it will not help you for nothing. No loss, no gain. It is really a danger to you. How can you cultivate yourself when you have invited it to your body? You have been completely ruined. Some people who have good inborn qualities are in fact exchanging their inborn qualities for other people's karma. A sick man usually has a heavy karma. If you treat a serious case, you will feel very ill when you go home after the treatment. Many people who treated diseases in the past had such an experience that their patients became well but they themselves suffered from serious diseases at home. With the passage of time, much karma will be transferred to you. You give your De (virtues) to other people to take their karma, as you will gain nothing if you have lost nothing. Though what you want is disease, you also have to exchange your De (virtues) for the karma. There is a principle in this universe: nobody will stop you from taking something, nor will they say that you are good. There is also a specific tenet in the universe: he who has much karma is a bad person. You have exchanged your inborn qualities for the karma. With much karma, how could you cultivate yourself? Your entire inborn qualities are ruined. How dreadful it is! The patient is well and feels comfortable, but you go home to suffer. If you cured two cancer patients, you would take their place to die. Isn't it a dangerous thing? It certainly is. But many people do not know the truth of the matter. Some pseudo qigong masters enjoy a high reputation. But reputation itself does not necessarily mean being wise. What on earth do ordinary people know? They just echo the views of others and believe in something blindly. What the pseudo qigong masters are doing now does harm not only to others but also to themselves. A couple of years later you will see what will become of them. Cultivation is not to be disrupted in this way. One can cure diseases through cultivation, but to cure diseases is not the aim of cultivation. Cultivation is something supernormal, not a skill of ordinary people. You are absolutely not allowed to disrupt it at will like that. Now some pseudo qigong masters have created a foul atmosphere, using qigong as a means to seek fame and make a fortune. They are trying to form an evil clique to expand their forces. Now the pseudo qigong masters outnumber the true ones by many times. Ordinary people all say so and do such things. Is it the reason for you to believe them? You think that qigong is just something like that. No, it is not. What I say is the true principle. To gain the personal interests, an ordinary person will do evil in his contact with other people in various social relationships, and he has to pay what he owes to others by enduring some sufferings. How can you treat a disease freely even if you can really cure it ? There are so many Buddhas that they are present everywhere. Why don't they do such a thing? How wonderful if they could make all the human beings live comfortably! Why haven't they done so? One's karmic debt has to be repaid by oneself. Nobody dares to break this principle. In the course of cultivation, out of compassion one may occasionally give aid to others, but he can do nothing but to postpone their illness. So they may feel well at the moment but will still have to suffer afterwards. He may also transform your illness so that you would lose money or suffer some misfortune instead of suffering from an illness. To really cure one of his disease means to eliminate that karma all at once. However, we can only do such a thing for a cultivator, not for an ordinary person. Here I am not talking about the principle of our school. I am talking about the truth of the whole universe. I am talking about the actual situation of the world of cultivation. We do not teach you how to cure diseases here. We are leading you to the great way and the right way, taking you upward. So I say in every lecturing session that a cultivator of Falun Dafa shall not treat diseases. If you treat diseases, you are not a follower of Falun Dafa. As we are leading you to the right way, we are purifying your body again and again until it is completely transformed by the high-energy substance when you are in the course of the cultivation of Shi Jian Fa (the In-Triple-World-Law). But you yourself are trying to take those black things into your body. How could you cultivate? That is karma! You can never cultivate. With much karma, you are not able to bear it. If you suffer too much, you will find it impossible to cultivate. This is where the reason lies. I have spread the Great Law to the public. Maybe you still do not know what I have taught to you. Since I am able to teach the Great Law to the public, I have ways to protect it. If you treat diseases, my Law body will take back everything for cultivation planted in your body. We cannot allow you to so casually ruin such valuable things to gain fame and wealth. If you do not act on the requirements of the Law, you are not a follower of Falun Dafa. Your body will be reduced to the level of an ordinary person and the bad things will be returned to you, because you want to be an ordinary person. After listening to my lecture yesterday, many of you began to feel the whole body light. However, a very small number of you who are seriously ill have gone ahead of the rest and they began to feel unwell from yesterday on. Yesterday after I removed the bad things from your bodies, most of you felt the whole body light and very comfortable. However, there is a principle in this universe: no loss, no gain. We cannot remove all of your bad things. It absolutely won't do for you to bear nothing. That is to say, we have removed the root cause of your illness and of your poor health. But you still have a disease field. When your Celestial Eye is opened on a very low plane, you can see in your body balls of black qi, the turbid pathogenic qi which are concentrated masses of black qi with great density. When these balls become scattered, the black qi will fill your whole body. From today on, some of you will feel cold all over the body as if having got a heavy cold, perhaps feeling pain even in the bones. Most of you will feel unwell in parts of the body, such as feeling pain in the leg or feeling dizzy. You may have felt your affected part healed through practice of qigong or cured by a qigong master, but now you will suffer from it again. That is because he only postponed your illness instead of curing it, as a result, with the disease still in the original place, you would have a relapse later. We have to turn it all out and drive it away so that it will be all removed by the root. In this way, you may feel that you have a relapse. In fact, it is a fundamental dissolution of your karma. Therefore, you will have some reaction. Some people will have reaction in parts of the body. They will feel unwell this way or that way and bear all kinds of sufferings. All this is normal. I tell you that no matter how ill you feel, you must come to attend my lecture. As long as you come to the session, all your symptoms will disappear and you will be in no danger at all. I should make it clear to you that no matter how difficult it is for you to endure the "illness", you are expected to come to the session, because it is hard to obtain the Law. When you feel very ill, it means that the thing has reached the extreme and will turn into its opposite, that is , your whole body will be purified and has to be completely purified. The root of your illness has been removed. Only this black qi is left rising outward for itself so that you will undergo a bit of tribulation and bear some suffering. It would never do for you to endure nothing. In the society of ordinary people, owing to the desire for fame and gain and the competition with others, you do not have a good sleep or enjoy a good meal. You are quite ruined in health. Seen from another space, the bones of your body are all black. To purify such a body in such a short while, it is impossible for you to have no reaction. So you will have some reaction. Some of you may vomit and have loose bowels. In the past many students from different areas told me about this in their experience reports that after class they had been looking for toilets all the way until they got home, because their internal organs had to be purified. A few of you may sleep in class and will wake up when I finish my lecture. Why? Because they have brain trouble which needs to be put right. But they could never stand such an adjustment of their brains. So they must be put into a state of anesthesia so that they would feel nothing. However, some of them have no problem in the sense of hearing. Though they are sleeping soundly, they do not miss a single word. Afterwards, they will find themselves full of vigour and will not feel sleepy even if they have not got any sleep for two days. All these are different states which need to be adjusted, as your whole body has to be completely purified. If you are a true cultivator of Falun Dafa and can let go of your attachments, from now on you will have some reaction. Some people are unable to let go of their attachments. Though they say they have let go of them, in fact they can never. Therefore, it would be very hard to purify their bodies. Some people let go of their attachments when they begin to understand what I talk about at the end of the session, and their bodies are purified. The others have found their bodies light from head to foot, but they have just begun to get rid of their diseases and are beginning to feel unwell. In each session there are such people who do not have good awakening quality and lag behind the others. So whatever has happened to you is normal. Such a case also occurred in the sessions I held in other areas. There was someone who felt so ill that he lay prone on the chair waiting for me to walk down from the platform to give him some treatment. I won't do such a thing. In the course of your cultivation, you will meet with a lot of great ordeals. If you are even unable to pass this ordeal, how can you cultivate later on ? Can't you tide over such a small tribulation? You certainly can. So do not ask me for treatment again. I do not treat diseases. When you mention the word "illness" to me, I'm not willing to listen. Man is very hard to save. There are always about five or ten percent of the students in each session who cannot keep up with the others. It is impossible for everyone to attain the Tao. Even if you can persevere in cultivation, it is still hard to say whether you can make it in cultivation or have inflexible determination to cultivate. It is impossible for everyone to attain Buddhahood. A true cultivator of the Great Law, however, will experience the same states and get all he should have by just reading this book. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next:Lecture Three Up:Contents Previous:Lecture One ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [NOTE: The strange characters are Chinese in GB code] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next:Lecture Four Up:Contents Previous:Lecture Two ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lecture Three I Take All the Student As My Disciples Qigong of the Buddhas' School and Buddhism Be Constant in a Single Cultivation System Supernormal Capabilities and Energy Potency Reverse Cultivation and Energy Borrowing Spirit Possession Cosmic Language What the Teacher Has Given to His Students Energy Field How the Students of Falun Dafa Should Spread the Cultivation System ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I Regard All the Students As My Disciples (ÎÒ°ÑѧԱ¼µ±×÷µÜ×Ó) Do you know what I have been doing? I regard all the students, including those who can really cultivate through self-study, as my disciples, and thus give them guidance. To lead you to the high dimension by teaching you the cultivation system, I have no alternative but to guide you this way. Otherwise, I am in reality acting in a wholly irresponsible way, making confusion. We have given you so many things and allowed you to know so many Laws that ordinary people are not allowed to know. I will teach the Great Law to you, and I will also give you a lot of things. I have to purify your bodies and deal with some other problems. Therefore, it would never do if I do not take you as my disciples. It is not allowed to reveal so many secrets of heaven freely to an ordinary person. But the point is that times have changed. Now we do not need to perform the ceremony of kowtowing or making a bow with hands folded in front. That kind of ceremony is of no use. The performance of such a ceremony may look like practising a religion. We do not do that. What is the good of your kowtowing to become my formal disciple if you stick to your old way of doing things when you go out, and still behave as before among ordinary people, competing and scrambling for fame and gain? You may ruin the reputation of the Great Law under my banner! Real cultivation all depends on your heart. As long as you can cultivate and are able to keep cultivating firmly and steadily, I will take you as my disciple. It won't do if I do not treat you this way. However, there are some people who will not necessarily be able to take themselves really as cultivators and continue with their cultivation. It is impossible for some people to do so. But many people will. As long as you persevere in your cultivation, I will regard you as my disciple, and thus give you guidance. Can one be counted as a student of Falun Dafa if he only practises these sets of exercise every day? Not necessarily so. Because true cultivation requires you to act upon that Xinxing (ÐÄÐÔ) criterion we have referred to and heighten your Xinxing in earnest. This is exactly true cultivation. If you only practise those movements without improving your Xinxing, there will be no powerful energy to reinforce everything you have cultivated. It cannot be called cultivation, and we cannot regard you as a student of Falun Dafa, either. If you go on like this, you practise the exercise, but you do not act upon the requirements of Falun Dafa or improve your Xinxing, and stick to the old way of doing things as before among ordinary people, then you could possibly run into some other troubles. Unfortunately, you would even say that the practice of our Falun Dafa has led you astray. All this is likely to happen. Therefore, you must act upon the requirements by our Xinxing criterion, and in this way you will become a genuine cultivator. I have made this clear to you. So do not ask me any more to perform those ceremonies to become my formal disciple. As long as you cultivate yourself in real earnest, I'll treat you like this. I have so many Law bodies that they are countless. No matter how many students there will be, I am able to take care of them, not to mention these students of mine. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Qigong of the Buddhas' School and Buddhism (·ð¼Ò¹¦Óë·ð½Ì) Qigong of the Buddhas' School is not Buddhism. I would like to make this clear to you. In fact, qigong of the Taoist School is not Taoism, either. Some of us are always confused about these things. Some monks from the temple and some lay Buddhists think that they know quite a lot about Buddhism, so they indulge in unbridled propaganda for Buddhism among practitioners of our cultivation system. I tell you that you should not do such a thing, because they are not of the same school. A religion has the form of religion, but here I am teaching a part of our cultivation school to you, and the practitioners of Falun Dafa shall not take the form of religion except professional cultivators. Therefore, our cultivation system is not Buddhism in the Period of Decline. The Dharma of Buddhism is only a small part of the Buddha Law. There are many other profound Great Laws and there are different Laws guiding different dimensions. Sakyamuni said that there were 84000 Law-gates (school) to cultivation. There are only several Law-gates in Buddhism, such as Tiantai Sect, Huayan Sect, Zen Buddhism, Pure Land School and Esoteric Sect, which even are not enough of the little bit. Therefore, it cannot represent the entire Buddha Law. It is only a tiny part of the Buddha Law. Our Falun Dafa is also one of the 84000 Law-gates. It has nothing to do with primitive Buddhism or the Buddhism in the Period of Decline or other religions of the present day. Buddhism was founded by Sakyamuni in ancient India 2500 years ago. When Sakyamuni opened his cultivation energy and attained enlightenment, he recalled what he himself had cultivated in his previous incarnations and then made it public to save human beings. Though thousands upon thousands of scrolls of scriptures have been produced in his Law-gate, its characteristics can be summarised in three words: morality, meditation and wisdom. Morality is meant to abstain from all desires of an ordinary person. It compels one to give up his desires for the interests and cut off from all the worldly things and so on. Thus, his mind will become empty without thinking about anything, and in this way will be able to enter into concentration. So the two complement each other. When he has entered into concentration, he has to sit in meditation for genuine cultivation so that he can rely on his power of concentration to ascend in cultivation, which is exactly the part of real cultivation in that school. It does not teach how to do the exercise or does not change Benti (the True Being). It only cultivates the energy which determines the level of attainment. So one cultivates nothing but his Xinxing. As he does not cultivate his life, he pays no attention to the evolution of cultivation energy. Meanwhile, he strengthens his power of concentration in concentration and lessens his karma by enduring the suffering in sitting cross-legged in meditation. Wisdom means that one has become enlightened, attained great wisdom, seen the truth of the universe and the true picture of different spaces of the universe and is able to present his vast psychic powers. The opening of wisdom or enlightenment is also called opening of cultivation energy. When Sakyamuni founded his school in his life there were eight religions in circulation in India, among which was a deep-rooted religion called Brahmanism. During the rest of his life Sakyamuni never stopped struggling against the other religions in the realm of ideology. As what Sakyamuni preached was Orthodox Law, the Buddha Dharma he taught became more and more overwhelming during the whole course of his teaching, while the other religions went more and more declining and even the deep-rooted Brahmanism was on the verge of extinction. However, after Sakyamuni entered Nirvana, the other religions, especially Brahmanism, became popular again. What happened in Buddhism then? Some monks opened their cultivation energy and attained enlightenment in different phases. But they did so at relatively low levels. Sakyamuni reached the status of Tathagata, but a lot of monks didn't. Buddha Law varies from dimension to dimension in its manifestations. However, the higher the dimension is, the closer its Law is to the truth. The lower it is, the farther it is from the truth. When those monks opened their cultivation energy and attained enlightenment on the low level, they tried to expound what Sakyamuni had said based on the manifestations of the universe they themselves had perceived, what they had learned of and the truth they had awakened to at their own respective levels. That is to say, some monks explained the Dharma Sakyamuni had preached in this way or that way. Still some other monks preached what they had realised themselves as the words Sakyamuni had said and did not follow Sakyamuni's original words. As a result, the Buddha Dharma was distorted beyond recognition. It became entirely different from the Dharma Sakyamuni had preached. In the end, the Buddha Dharma of Buddhism disappeared in India. This is a grave historical lesson. Later, there was no Buddhism in India. Before its disappearance Buddhism went through reformation many times. At length, it combined itself with something from Brahmanism and formed the present-day religion called Hinduism in India, in which no Buddha but something else is worshipped and they do not believe in Sakyamuni. This is what the situation is like. In the course of its development, Buddhism underwent several relatively great reforms. One of them took place not long after the demise of Sakyamuni. Someone founded Mahayana or the Great Vehicle according to the truth of the high dimensions Sakyamuni had preached. They believed that the Dharma Sakyamuni had publicly preached was intended for ordinary listeners and would lead to self-liberation and the attainment of the Arhatship. It does not offer salvation to all sentient beings, and is called Hinayana or the Small Vehicle. The monks in Southeast Asia still observe the primitive cultivation way practised in Sakyamuni's days. In Han region we call it the Small Vehicle. Of course, they themselves do not think so. They believe that they have carried on things of Sakyamuni's origin. It is true that they have basically carried on the cultivation way practised in Sakyamuni's days. After the reformed Mahayana was introduced into China, it took root in the country and formed the present-day Buddhism in our country. In fact, it is completely different from the Buddhism in Sakyamuni's days. Everything has changed from the attire to the whole awakening state and cultivation process. In primitive Buddhism only Sakyamuni was enshrined and worshipped as its honourable founder. However, in present-day Buddhism a multitude of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have appeared and a multi-Buddha belief is practised. Buddhism has become a multi-Buddha religion, and there has appeared the faith in a great many Tathagata Buddhas, such as the Buddha Amitabha , the Buddha of Master Physician and the Great Sun Tathagata etc.... Many great Bodhisattvas also have been worshipped. In this way, the whole Buddhism is entirely different from the Buddhism when Sakyamuni had founded at the beginning. During this period there occurred another reformation. The Bodhisattva Nagarjuna made public an Esoteric cultivation way, which was later introduced from India into our Xinjiang and then the Han region of China via Afghanistan. As it happened to be in the Tang Dynasty, it was called Tang Tantrism. Being greatly influenced by Confucianism, we Chinese are different from other nations in moral concepts. In this Esoteric cultivation way there was the double cultivation of a man and a woman, which could not be accepted by the then society. Therefore, the Tang Tantrism was eradicated in the suppression of Buddhism in Hui-chang time in the Tang Dynasty, and thus disappeared from the Han region of China. Now in Japan there is a school called East Tantrism, which, in fact, derives its origin from China at that time. However, the introducer was not granted Guanding (filling energy into the top of the head). According to Esoteric Sect, he who has learned something from the Esoteric Sect without going through Guanding is a Law robber and will not be regarded as a disciple taught by the master himself. Another branch was introduced from India into Tibet via Nepal and formed Tibetan Tantrism, which has been handed down up to the present day. This is the basic situation of Buddhism. I have just given a very brief description of its development and evolution. In the whole course of the development of Buddhism, some other schools, such as Zen Buddhism founded by Bodhidharmer, Pure Land School, Huayan Sect, etc. also appeared. All these schools resulted from the awakening to what Sakyamuni had preached and formed parts of the reformed Buddhism. There are such more than ten schools in Buddhism. And they all take the form of religion, so they belong to Buddhism. False are most of the religions which came into being in this century, in fact, not only in this century, but also in some previous centuries as there was the emergence of many new religions in all parts of the world. All the greatly enlightened beings have their own paradises for the people they want to save. The Tathagata Buddhas, such as Sakyamuni, Amitabha, the Great Sun Tathagata, etc., all have their own paradises over which they preside for the human beings to be saved. In our Milky Way galaxy, there are more than a hundred such paradises. Our Falun Dafa also has the Falun Paradise. Where can those false schools take their followers for the sake of salvation? They are unable to save other people. What they preach is not the Law. Of course, some people founded a religion and did not intend to act as a demon to undermine the orthodox religions at the beginning. When they opened their cultivation energy and attained enlightenment in different dimensions, they saw a bit of truth, but they were rather low, very far from an enlightened being who is able to save other people. They discovered some truth and found that some of what happens among ordinary people is wrong. They also told others to do good deeds, and did not oppose other religions at the beginning. At length, people began to believe in them, thinking what they said was reasonable. Then, people trusted them more and more and consequently began to worship them instead of religions. When their desire for fame and gain was up, they would have the public grant to them some titles. From then on they became founders of a new religion. I tell you that such religions are all evil. Even if they do no harm to people, they are still evil religions, because they stop people from believing in orthodox religions. The orthodox religions can save people, but they cannot. With development as time passes by, they will do evil on the sly. Recently, many such things have spread to China. The so-called Guanyin School is one of them. So, do be on your guard against them. It is said that there are more than two thousand such things in a certain country in East Asia. In Southeast Asia and some Western countries, there is nothing that people do not believe in. There are simply witch religions in a certain country. All these things are the demons that have come out in the Period of Decline. The Period of Decline not only refers to that of Buddhism, but that of a great many spaces down from a very high dimension, which have gone corrupt. The Period of Decline not only means the Period of Decline in Buddhism, but means there is no Law in the hearts of people to maintain morality in human society. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Be Constant in a Single Cultivation System (ÐÞÁҪרһ) We teach how to be constant in a single cultivation system. No matter how you cultivate yourself, you should not cultivate blindly by mixing other things into what you practise. Some lay Buddhists cultivate what is taught in Buddhism, and they also cultivate what belongs to our Falun Dafa. I tell you that if you cultivate this way you will get nothing in the end, for nobody will give you anything. Though both of us belong to the Buddhas' School, there is the matter of Xinxing, and single- minded cultivation. You have only one body. Which school's cultivation energy will you develop in your body? How should it be evolved for you? Where do you want to go? The school you have cultivated will take you to the place belonging to it. If you cultivate in accordance with Pure Land School, you will go to the Paradise of Ultimate Bliss presided over by the Buddha Amitabha. If you cultivate in accordance with the Buddha of Master Physician, you will go to the Glazed Paradise. This is the view held in the religion and is called the one and only way. The practice of the exercise we teach here, which, in fact, refers to the whole process of the evolution of cultivation energy, goes the way one's cultivation school has arranged for his cultivation all the time. Where would you say you should go? If you straddle two boats, you will get nothing. Just as the practice of qigong and the cultivation of Buddhahood in the temple cannot be mixed up, neither can different cultivation ways, neither can different qigong, and neither can different religions. Even the different schools in the same religion cannot be mixed up in cultivation, but only one of them can be chosen for cultivation. When you cultivate Pure Land School, you practise nothing else but Pure Land School. When you cultivate the Esoteric School, you practise nothing else but the Esoteric Sect. When you cultivate the Zen Buddhism, you practise nothing else but the Zen Buddhism. If you straddle two boats and cultivate this one, and that one, you will get nothing. That is to say, even in Buddhism the one and only way is taught, and you are not allowed to cultivate different schools at the same time. A Buddhist also practises, and also cultivates himself. The development process of his cultivation energy follows the cultivating and evolving course arranged in the school he himself cultivates. In another space, there is also an evolution process of cultivation energy, which is also extremely complex and mystical. Therefore, it can not be practised either together with other things at will. Some lay Buddhists try to take our practitioners to the temple for conversion to Buddhism when they hear that we practise qigong belonging to the Buddhas' School. I tell you, all of our students here, do not do such a thing any way. By doing so, you are disrupting both our Great Law and the commandments of Buddhism. Meanwhile, you are hindering our students, and as a result they will achieve nothing. It would never do. Cultivation is a serious matter, which must be done single- mindedly. Though what we teach to ordinary people is not a religion, the goal of cultivation is the same, that is, to reach the opening of cultivation energy and attain enlightenment, and reach the consummation in cultivation. Sakyamuni said that in the Period of Decline even the monks in the temple would find it difficult to save themselves, not to mention lay Buddhists, whom nobody is taking care of actually. Though you have formally become a disciple to a master, the so-called master is also a cultivator. If he does not get down to genuine cultivation, he will also achieve nothing. Nobody can ascend if he does not cultivate his heart. Conversion is a ceremony for an ordinary person. Will your conversion to Buddhism make you a person belonging to the Buddhas' School? And then, the Buddha will take care of you? There is no such a thing. Even if you kowtow every day with your forehead grazed and burn incense bundle after bundle, it is still of no use. You have to cultivate your heart in a real and earnest way. Up till to the Period of Decline, a great change has already taken place in the universe. Even the places where people practise their religious beliefs have gone bad. Those who possess supernormal capabilities (including monks) have also found such a situation. At present only I myself in the whole world is teaching the Orthodox Law in public. I have done a thing never done by anyone before, and opened such a large door in the Period of Decline. This, in fact, is a chance that does not occur once in a thousand years or even in ten thousand years. However, it still depends on you yourself whether you can be saved or, to put it in another way, whether you are able to cultivate. What I say is a great cosmic Law. I am not saying that you must learn nothing else but my Falun Dafa. What I teach is a truth. If you want to cultivate, you must stick to only one cultivation way. Otherwise, you will never succeed in cultivation. Of course, if you do not want to continue with your cultivation any longer, we will leave you alone, as the Law is taught to true cultivators. So, you must cultivate single-mindedly and never take in any thinking about other cultivation systems. I am not talking about mental activities here. No mental activities are required in our Falun Dafa. Therefore, do not add any thinking to your cultivation. You must keep this in mind: there are basically no mental activities in our system, as the Buddhas' School teaches the Emptiness and the Taoist School the Nothingness. Once I had my mind connected with those of four or five great enlightened beings and great Taoists of the extremely high dimensions. In the eyes of an ordinary person they were devastatingly high. They wanted to know what I was thinking about. I have cultivated for so many years and it is absolutely impossible for others to read my mind because supernormal capabilities cannot enter me at all. Nobody is able to understand me or know what I am thinking about. In order to know what I was thinking about, they connected their minds with mine for a certain period of time with my consent. With the connection, I felt this a bit unbearable to me. No matter how high or how low my attainment was, I was still among ordinary people doing something artificial, that is, saving people, my mind is saving people. But how tranquil were their minds? Their tranquillity reached a dreadful extent. If there had been only you who had reached such a tranquil state, that would be all right. But there were four or five people sitting there with their tranquillity all reaching such an extent -- just like stagnant water, you would find nothing moving there. I tried in vain to feel their thoughts. Those several few days I really felt bad, and just had that kind of feeling. Their minds were in such a state of complete inaction and emptiness that it is beyond the imagination and sensation of ordinary people. There are no mental activities at all for the very high dimensional cultivation because your foundation has been built up when you are on the foundation building stage of an ordinary person. Reaching the very high dimensional cultivation, especially our cultivation system, is entirely automatic. As long as you heighten your Xinxing, your cultivation energy keeps on growing. You even do not have to do any hand movements any more. The exercise in our cultivation system are meant to strengthen the automatic mechanism. Why does one always keep still when sitting in meditation? He is entirely in the state of inaction. You may find that the Taoist School teaches this technique or that one, something like mental activities and intention conducting. I tell you that the Taoist School will have nothing left and pay no attention at all to this intention or that one when they have come slightly out of the stage of qi. However, some practitioners who have practised some other qigong can never give up such things as respiration intention, etc.. I teach them something from the college, but they always ask me things about primary school pupils, such as how to conduct or how to use mental activities, because they have already fallen into such a way. They think this is the way qigong is, but it is not. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Supernormal Capabilities and Energy Potency (¹¦ÄÜÓ빦Á¦) Many people are not clear about the terms of qigong, and some people are always confusing them. They take supernormal capabilities for energy potency, and energy potency for supernormal capabilities. The cultivation energy which is developed through the cultivation of one's Xinxing is evolved from one's virtues when he has assimilated himself to the fundamental qualities of the universe. This cultivation energy is crucial because it determines the height of one's level of attainment, the strength of one's energy potency and the height of one's achievement status. What will one develop in the course of his cultivation? He will develop supernatural powers which are called supernormal capabilities for short. The above-mentioned cultivation energy which determines one's attainment level is called energy potency. The higher one's attainment level is, the more powerful his energy potency will be and the stronger his supernormal capabilities will be. Supernormal capabilities are nothing but by-products of one's cultivation. It does not stand for the level, the height of one's attainment level or the strength of one's energy potency. Some may develop more while others may develop less. Besides, supernormal capabilities are not to be acquired as a major goal of cultivation. Only when a practitioner is determined to get down to true cultivation, can he develop them. However, he cannot cultivate them as his major goal. What do you cultivate these things for? Do you want to use them among ordinary people? You are absolutely not allowed to use them among ordinary people at will. Therefore, the more you desire to have them, the less you will get. You are desiring, and desiring itself is an attachment. What you have to get rid of through cultivation is just attachment. Many people do not have supernormal capabilities though they have entered into a high and profound realm of awareness in cultivation. Their masters have locked up their powers for fear that they can not restrain themselves and do something bad. Therefore, they have not been allowed all the time to show their supernatural powers. There are quite a lot of such people. Supernormal capabilities are controlled by one's consciousness. A practitioner may fail to control himself in his sleep, and a dream he had could possibly make the heaven and the earth overturned the next morning. This will never be allowed to happen. When cultivating among ordinary people, those with great supernatural powers are usually not allowed to use them. Most of them have had their powers locked up. But exceptions also occur. Quite a lot of people who have cultivated well and can restrain themselves are free to use some of their powers. If you ask such people to make a casual display of their powers, they will never do so, because they can restrain themselves. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Reverse Cultivation and Energy Borrowing (·µÐÞÓë½è¹¦) There are some people who have never practised qigong or have learned just a few movements in a qigong training class. However, what they have learned is not cultivation, but belongs to something used to eliminate diseases and keep fit. That is to say, these people have never received true teachings. But they suddenly find themselves possessed of energy overnight. Now I am going to tell you how they have got gong (energy), and there are several ways of doing so. One of them refers to reverse cultivation. What is reverse cultivation? There are some people who are quite old but still want to cultivate. It is too late for them to cultivate from the very beginning. In the high tide of qigong, they also wanted to cultivate. They knew that by practising qigong they could do good to others, and at the same time they could improve themselves. They had such a wish to improve and cultivate themselves. But in the high tide of qigong in the previous years, what those qigong masters did was to popularize qigong, and there was nobody who really taught things of a high order. Even up till today nobody but I really teach the Gong of a high order in public. All the reverse cultivators are above fifty. They are quite old but have very good inborn qualities, and what they carry in their bodies is very good. Such people are almost good enough to be selected as disciples or successors. However, since they are getting old, it is by no means easy for them to cultivate. Where can they find a master? But when they just think of cultivating themselves, such a heart would glitter like gold and shake the Ten Directions. People often mention the word Buddha-nature. And this is what they mean by Buddha-nature, which has come out. Seen from the high dimension, the human life is not meant for being a human being. As the human life is born in the cosmic space, it is in conformity with Zhen Shan Ren (ÕæÉÆÈÌ), the fundamental qualities of the universe, and originally has a kind and good nature. However, when there are more living beings, they fall into a social relationship, in which some of them have become selfish or bad and can no longer stay in the very high dimension, so they drop into a lower one. When they become bad again in this dimension, they have to drop down and down until they have dropped into this realm of ordinary people. They are to be annihilated when they have dropped into this realm. However, out of compassion those great enlightened beings have decided to give the human beings another chance by putting them in the hardest circumstances, so they have created such a space. People in the other spaces do not possess such bodies. They can float in the air. They can become bigger or smaller. However, in this space human beings are provided with such bodies, our physical bodies. With such a body, you will find cold, heat, fatigue or hunger all unbearable. Anyway, they are all sufferings for you. When you are ill, you feel pain. You have to go through birth, old age, diseases and death. You are left in the sufferings to pay your karmic debts. You are given another chance to see whether you can return or not. Therefore, you have dropped into a maze in which you are provided with two eyes so that you are not able to see the other spaces, or the truth of matter. If you can return, the greatest suffering will be the most valuable. In such a maze, you have to suffer a lot when you cultivate yourself to return in dependence on your awakening ability, and thus, you will go back quickly. If you still let yourself go bad, your life will be annihilated. Therefore, in the eyes of the enlightened beings, the human life is not to be lived as a human being. He is expected to return to the origin and go back to the truth. An ordinary person cannot awake to this. An ordinary person in the ordinary human society is no more than an ordinary person. What he thinks about is how to develop himself and how to live a good life. The better he lives, the more selfish and greedy he will become and the more he will run counter to the fundamental qualities of the universe. Thus, he will head for his doom. Seen from the high dimension, you are actually going backward when you think you are moving forward. Human beings think that they are developing science and are progressing, but they are simply following the Law of the universe. Zhang Guolao, one of the Eight Immortals, rode a donkey with his back facing ahead. Few people know why he rode a donkey that way. He found that one was actually moving backward when he was going forward, so he rode a donkey with his back facing ahead. Therefore, when some people want to cultivate, the enlightened beings regard such hearts as extremely valuable and help him without condition. Just as our students sitting here today, if you want to cultivate, I can help you without condition. But as an ordinary person, if you want to have your disease cured, want to have this or have that, I will not help you. Why? Because you want to be an ordinary person, and an ordinary person must go through birth, old age, diseases and death. He has to live that way. Everything has its causational relationship which cannot be disrupted. There was originally no cultivation arranged for you in your life. Now that you want to cultivate, your future life will be rearranged and your physical body can be put right. Now a person wants to cultivate. When this intention was born, the enlightened beings saw it and highly appreciated it. But how to help him? Where can he find a master in this world? Besides, he is already over fifty. The great enlightened beings themselves cannot teach him. If they revealed themselves to teach him, preaching the Law and imparting the practice exercise to him, they would reveal the secrets of heaven, and thus would fall down. Human beings have dropped into the maze as a result of their evil doings and they have to cultivate in the maze in dependence on their own awakening. Therefore, the enlightened beings cannot teach them. Seeing a real Buddha preaching the Law and teaching the practice exercise, even a person who is guilty of unpardonable evil will come to learn, and everyone will believe. Then, what is there for him to awake to? There would not exist the problem of awakening. It is human beings themselves who have dropped into the maze. So they should have been annihilated. Now in this maze you are given a chance to return. You return if you can. If you fail to return, you will continue to live in the rebirth cycle and finally meet the annihilation. One walks with his own legs. What would he do if he wanted to cultivate? They found a way. At that time, there occurred a high qigong tide, which resulted from a change of the celestial phenomena. In order to work with the change of the celestial phenomena, the enlightened beings supplied him with energy on the merits of his Xinxing (ÐÄÐÔ) through a soft pipeline connected with his body, which worked like a water tap. The moment he turned it on, the energy came out. When he wanted to release the energy, the energy came to him. When he did not release it, he possessed no energy. He was in such a state. This is called reverse cultivation in which he cultivates to reach the consummation by cultivating from the high to the low. We generally cultivate from the low to the high until we have opened our cultivation energy and reached the consummation. A reverse cultivation, however, is meant for one who is quite old and cannot afford to cultivate from the low to the high, for it would be quicker for him to cultivate from the high to the low, which was also a phenomenon of the time. Such a person must have very high Xinxing. He is provided with corresponding energy on the merits of his Xinxing. What for? One of the purposes is to work with the then celestial phenomena. He may bear hardships when doing good, as all kinds of worldly desires will disturb him when he is confronted with ordinary people. Some people will show no understanding for you though you have cured them of their diseases. While giving them treatment you have removed a lot of bad things from their bodies and given them such a cure that may not necessarily cause a marked change in them then. So they will feel unhappy and show you no gratitude. Maybe they will even call you a trickster. With these problems your heart will be tempered in such circumstances. One is expected to cultivate and improve himself when he is supplied with energy. He can develop his powers and increase his cultivation energy while he is doing good. But there are some people who do not realize this. Didn't I tell you that the Law cannot be preached to him? It is a matter of awakening. If he cannot awake to it for himself, there is no way out. When some people received the energy, they would suddenly feel themselves burning one night in their sleep and could hardly bear the cover of their quilts. They got up the next morning and would get an electric shock whatever they touched. They knew that they had got the energy. Seeing someone suffering a pain in the body, their hands would move over the affected part casually, and found this quite good. From then on they knew that they were possessed of energy. So they acted like a qigong master and hung up their signboards. They proclaimed themselves qigong masters and established a practice. At the beginning, as good people, they would turn down the money or the gifts offered to them when they cured other people of their diseases. But in the big dye vat of ordinary people, they could not escape being contaminated, because such reverse cultivators had never gone through the real cultivation of their Xinxing and it was very hard for them to keep to a good Xinxing. Gradually they would begin to accept small keepsakes. Then they would accept big things. In the end they would feel offended when not enough was given to them. Then they would say: "Why give me so many things? Give me money!" And they would become very unhappy when they were not given enough money. What's more, they refused to admit their inferiority to qigong masters of Orthodox schools. Their ears were filled with others' compliments about their abilities. They would be unhappy when someone said something bad about them. Their desire for fame and gain was up. They thought they were smarter than others and were really extraordinary. They thought that they were given the energy so that they could act as qigong masters and make a great fortune without realizing the fact that the energy was meant for their cultivation. When their desire for fame and gain was up, their Xinxing had actually fallen down. I have said, the height of one's Xinxing determines that of one's cultivation energy. When one's Xinxing has lowered, he can no longer be supplied with so much energy. The energy is to be given with the change of one's Xinxing, as the height of one's Xinxing determines that of one's cultivation energy. The stronger one's desire for fame and gain, the more heavily he will fall among ordinary people, and his cultivation energy will also become diminished. In the end when he has fallen down to the bottom, the energy will not be given to him and he will possess no energy at all. Quite a lot of such people were found years ago, and most of them were women aged over fifty. You see the old woman practitioner had never received true teachings except that she may have learned some movements in a qigong training class to get rid of her diseases and keep fit. One day, all of a sudden she gained the energy. However, when her Xinxing turned bad and her desire for fame and gain was up, she fell down. Now she is nobody and she has no energy found in her. A great number of reverse cultivators have fallen down and very few remain now. Why? Because she did not know that this was for her to cultivate herself. She thought this was for her to make a fortune, to win a fame and to act as a qigong master among ordinary people. But in fact this was for her to cultivate herself. What is energy borrowing? This has no age limit. But there is one requirement that this should happen to a person who has extremely good Xinxing. He knows that one can cultivate himself through practice of qigong and he also wants to cultivate. He has the intention of cultivating himself, but where can he find a master? It is true that some years ago there were indeed some true qigong masters who were teaching some cultivation systems. However, what they taught was only something to eliminate one's diseases and keep fit. But nobody taught qigong of a high order. Nobody would teach that. Speaking of energy borrowing, I have one more thing to talk about. Besides Zhu Yuanshen£¨Ö÷ÔªÉñthe chief spirit£©, a person also has Fu Yuanshen (¸±ÔªÉñ assistant spirit). Some people have one, two, three, four, or five Assistant Spirits. The Assistant Spirit and the person are not necessarily of the same sex. It may be a male or a female, different from individual to individual. As a matter of fact, the Chief Spirit and its physical body are also not necessarily of the same sex, as we have found that now there are a great number of men who have female Spirits and a great number of women who have male Spirits, which is just in conformity with the cosmic climate of Yin and Yang being reversed with Yin in prosperity and Yang in decline as held by the Taoist School. One's Assistant Spirit often ranks higher than the Chief Spirit. Especially some people's Assistant Spirits come from a very high dimension. An Assistant Spirit is not at all spirit possession. Born together with you from your mother's womb, it shares the name and the body with you. Usually it is the Chief Spirit that has the final say in deciding what one should think about or what one will do. The main task of an Assistant Spirit is to prevent one's Chief Spirit from doing evil. But when the Chief Spirit is headstrong, the Assistant Spirit can do nothing to help. The Assistant Spirit will not be misled by the society of ordinary people, but the Chief Spirit is likely to. Some Assistant Spirits come from very high dimensions. Maybe they are on the verge of completing the right achievement. The Assistant Spirit wants to cultivate, but it cannot help it when the Chief Spirit does not want to. One day, in the high tide of qigong, the Chief Spirit also wanted to learn an exercise system to reach a higher level of cultivation. Of course, this idea was quite simple, without any desires for such things as fame and gain. The Assistant Spirit was delighted by this: "I want to cultivate, but I don't have the say. You want to cultivate, it is just what I want." But where could it find a master? The Assistant Spirit was quite capable, and it left the body to see the great enlightened being it had come to know in its previous life. Some Assistant Spirits rank very high and they are able to leave the body. When it came to the enlightened being and expressed its wish to cultivate and borrow some energy, the latter was glad to help it with its cultivation when seeing the man was quite good. Thus, the Assistant Spirit got the energy, which was usually composed of some scattering energy and was transported through a pipeline. Some may get something in a finished form, which is usually possessed of supernormal capabilities. In this way the finished form is possessed of supernormal capabilities as well. Just as I mentioned above, this person felt himself burning in his sleep at night. When he woke up the next morning, he found himself possessed of energy. He would get an electric shock whatever he touched and was able to cure diseases. He knew that he was possessed of energy. Where was it coming from? He was not clear. He had only a general idea that it was coming from a cosmic space, but he was not able to know exactly how it had come. He did not know about all this, but the Assistant Spirit told him nothing, as it was the Assistant Spirit itself who cultivated. Therefore, he knew nothing but the coming of the energy. There is no age limit for the people to borrow energy. However, most of them are young people. Therefore, in previous years there were such people at the ages of over twenty or over thirty or over forty coming out to the public. There were also old ones. A young man will find it more difficult to control himself. You may find that he is quite good in normal times. In the society of ordinary people he shows little interest in fame and gain when he is not capable. However, once he has risen above others, he is likely to be obsessed with fame and gain. He thinks that there is still a long way for him to go in his life and he still wants to make a rush and have a struggle so as to reach some goal of ordinary people. Therefore, once he possesses the supernormal capabilities and becomes capable, he is prone to use them as the means to win his personal objectives in the society of ordinary people. It won't do. One is not allowed to use his capabilities in this way. The more he uses them, the less energy he will possess. In the end he will possess nothing. Many more people fell down. I think there is not even one of them left now. The two cases I talked about just now are about the energy gained by those with good Xinxing. The energy of this kind is not developed through one's own cultivation, but is borrowed from an enlightened being. So, the energy itself is good. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Spirit Possession (¸½Ìå) Perhaps many of you have heard something about the possession by animals, such as foxes, yellow weasels, ghosts and snakes, etc. in the world of cultivation . What is it all about? Some people say that one can develop supernormal capabilities through practice of qigong. As a matter of fact one is not to develop supernormal capabilities, but they are none other than man's instinct. However, with the development of the human society, men are more and more attached to tangible things in our physical space and are more and more dependent on modernized means. Therefore our human instinct is deteriorating, and in the end it is made to disappear completely. To possess supernormal capabilities, one has to cultivate them through cultivation when he is on the way to return to the origin and go back to the truth. The animal does not have such a complex mind, so it can communicate with the fundamental qualities of the universe and is possessed of the primordial instinct. Some say that the animal knows how to cultivate. It is said that foxes are able to refine the elixir and snakes or some other animals are able to cultivate themselves. Actually, they are not able to cultivate. At the beginning they know nothing about the refinement except that they possess those primordial instincts. However, under particular conditions and circumstances and after a long time it may take some effect, so they can acquire the energy and even develop some supernormal capabilities. Thus, these animals have some abilities. In the past people would say that the animal got the supernatural energy and possessed some abilities. In the eyes of ordinary people, the animal is so formidable that it can easily control human beings. In fact, I say it is not formidable. It is nothing to a true cultivator. Even if it has cultivated for nearly a thousand years, a small finger would be more than enough to crush it. We say that the animal possesses such a primordial instinct, so it can have such abilities. However, there is a principle in this universe: the animal is not allowed to complete its achievement through cultivation. So you may find it written in an ancient book that it shall be killed every hundreds of years in a big or small calamity. The animal will have its energy increase when a certain time is reached. Then, the animal will be wiped out by a thunderbolt, etc., as it is not allowed to cultivate. Since the animal does not possess the human nature, it cannot cultivate itself like a human being. As it has no human qualities, it is bound to be a demon when it has achieved success through cultivation, so it is not allowed to do so or it will be killed by heaven. The animal itself also knows this, but as I said, the human society now suffers a sharp moral decline, and some people will stop at no evil. Isn't the human society in danger when it is in such a state? However, things turn into their opposites when they reach the extreme! We find that in prehistoric period every time when human society met destruction in different cycles, human beings were morally corrupted to the extreme. Now the space where we human beings exist and many other spaces are in impending danger. So are the other spaces in this dimension. Therefore, the animal is eager to escape. It also wants to ascend to a higher dimension, thinking that it can escape from the danger by raising its dimension. But it is easier said than done. To cultivate, it has to get a human body. Why can a practitioner be possessed by a spirit? This is one of the reasons. Someone may wonder why none of so many great enlightened beings and highly achieved masters is concerned about it. Here is another principle of our universe: if you desire something or want something, nobody would like to interfere. We teach you how to take the right way here, and at the same time make a thorough exposition of the Law. But you still have to awake to it for yourself. It's your own business whether you want to learn it or not. It is the job of the master to introduce you to the way of cultivation, but how to cultivate yourself is entirely a business of your own. Nobody will compel or force you to cultivate. It is your own business whether you want to cultivate or not. That is to say, nobody will prevent you from taking whichever way you have chosen or whatever you want or whatever you want to gain. You can only be encouraged to do good. Though some people practise some qigong, what they have achieved has actually been obtained by the possessing spirits. How is it that they have incurred spirits possessing? How many qigong practitioners throughout the country have got possessing spirits behind their bodies? If I told you the number, which is quite considerable, many people would not dare to practise qigong. Why has such a state appeared? Those things are disastrously disrupting the society of ordinary people. How could possibly such a formidable phenomenon appear? It is human beings themselves who have given rise to it, for mankind has been degenerating, and demons are present everywhere. Especially those sham qigong masters are all possessed by evil spirits, and they impart nothing but such things when they teach qigong. In the history of mankind the animal was not allowed to possess a human body. It would be killed if it tried to. Nobody would allow it to do so. But in the present-day society, there are some people who supplicate animals for help, want them and enshrine them. Some may argue in the mind: but I don't have a clear intention of supplicating them. Though you do not supplicate them, you seek after supernormal capabilities. How can the enlightened beings of the Orthodox Law cultivation provide you with them? Seeking after them is an attachment of ordinary people, which you should let go of. Then, who will give you these capabilities? Only demons in other spaces and various animals will. Doesn't that mean that you are seeking after them? So they have come to you. How many people practise qigong with right thoughts? A practitioner should pay great attention to virtues, do good deeds and be kind towards others. Wherever he is or whatever he does, he should set such demands on himself. How many practitioners, whether they practise in the parks or at home, think this way? I did not know what qigong some people were practising, but I heard them saying when they were doing some movements and swaying their bodies: ah, my daughter- in-law has never paid her filial devotion to me; my mother-in-law, how can she be so bad? Some were chattering about from their work units to state affairs, and there was nothing that they would not talk about. When talking about the things that didn't suit their modes of thinking, they were filled with rage. Can you call it cultivation? There was someone who was practising keeping a pile-stance. He became so exhausted that his legs began to tremble. But his mind was busy : now things are all very expensive and prices have gone up. Our organization even cannot pay out wages. Why am I not able to develop some supernormal capabilities? If I possess some of them, I'll be a qigong master and can make a fortune. I can make money by treating diseases on others. When he saw others having developed their supernormal capabilities, he felt more anxious. So he persisted in pursuing the supernormal capabilities, the opening of the Celestial Eye and the ability to cure diseases. Let's think about it, how far away it was from Zhen Shan Ren, the fundamental qualities of our universe! It is all counter to them. To put it strongly, he was practising the evil way! But he was practising it unconsciously. The more he thought this way, the worse intention he would give out. As the man had not found the right way, he did not know anything about the importance of virtues. He thought he could develop cultivation energy by just performing some movements and believed that he could gain what he wanted through his pursuit. It is just because of one's own wrong intention that he has brought on something evil. The animal can see it clearly: this chap wants to make a fortune by practising qigong; that chap wants to gain fame and supernormal capabilities. Good lord, his body is not bad and what he possesses is quite good. But his thought is really bad. He is seeking after supernormal capabilities! Maybe he has a master, but I don't fear even if he has one. It knows that a master of the Orthodox Law cultivation will never give him supernormal capabilities when he sees that the man has such a desire for them. The more he seeks after them, the more definitely his master will not give them to him, because this is just an attachment that he should get rid of. The more often he has such a thought, the more definitely he will not be given these capabilities and the more he is unable to awake to it. The more he desires, the worse intention he will possess. In the end, seeing the man is finished, the master heaves a sigh and leaves him alone. A practitioner may have no master, but a master who happens to pass by takes some care of him, since there are many enlightened beings in different spaces. Catching sight of the man, the enlightened being takes a look at him and follows him for a day. Finding him not worthy of help, the enlightened being goes away. Another enlightened being may come to him the next day and will also go away when finding him not worthy of help. The animal knows that, whether the man has a master or a passing-by master, he will not be given what he pursues. Being unable to see the spaces where the enlightened beings stay, the animal does not fear. It has availed itself of a loophole. There is a principle in our universe: what he himself seeks after, or what he wants, other people usually do not interfere in. It has exploited such an advantage: since he wants supernormal capabilities, I'll give him. Isn't it wrong for me to help him? So it gives him the capabilities. At the beginning, it dares not get on his body, so it first gives him some energy to have a try. One day the man suddenly finds himself possessed of the energy he seeks after and is able to cure diseases. Finding that it really works, the animal uses it as a prelude to a piece of music played: since he is willing to take, I'll get on his body. Then, I can give him more and directly. Don't you want to get the Celestial Eye? Now I'll give you everything. So it has come to possess him. His intention is seeking after these things when his Celestial Eye opens. He can also deliver some energy and use some minor capabilities. He is overjoyed with himself, thinking that he has at last gained what he pursued through practice. In fact, he has achieved nothing from his practice. He feels that he can see through into a human body and find out the disorder in one's body. As a matter of fact, his Celestial Eye is not open at all. It is the animal that controls his brain. The animal conveys what it sees with its own eyes to his brain, which makes him believe that his Celestial Eye is open. He can deliver the energy at will. The moment he stretches out his hand to deliver the energy, the animal also stretches out its paw from behind his body. When he releases the energy, the small snake head will put out its forked tongue and lick the affected part or the place where one has a swelling. Such a case happens to a lot of people. It is these energumens themselves who have invited the possessing spirits. With such a desire, the man wants to get rich and become famous. Well, now he possesses the supernormal capabilities and is able to cure diseases. He can also see with his Celestial Eye. He is quite happy about it. Seeing this, the animal would think to itself, "You want to get rich? Well, I'll let you get rich." It's really an easy task to control an ordinary person's mind. It can make a lot of people come to him for treatment, having them come in great numbers. Good lord, he is treating the disease here, while it incites the journalists to give publicity to him in the newspapers there. It controls ordinary people and makes them do these things. If a person who has come to the man for treatment does not pay enough money, it will make his head ache so that he will give more money. Thus, the man has gained both fame and gain. As he has made a fortune and attained fame, he acts as a qigong master now. Such a man usually pays no attention to Xinxing and dares say anything. Heaven is number one and he is number two. He has the audacity to say that he is the Lady Queen Mother or the Jade Emperor who has descended to the world. He is even bold enough to say that he is the Buddha himself. As he has not gone through real cultivation of Xinxing, he pursues the supernormal capabilities during practice. As a result, he has brought on the animal spirit possession. Some may have such a thought: What's the bad of it? Anyway, it's all right if I can earn money and make a fortune. Besides, I can also become famous. Quite a lot of people think this way. I tell you that the animal actually harbours an intention. It won't give you anything without cause or reason. There is a principle in this universe: he who loses nothing will gain nothing. What does it gain? Didn't I talk about the issue just now? It wants to get that little bit of essence of your body so that it can cultivate into a human figure. So it tries to take the human essence from the human body. But there's only this one fraction of essence in the human body and one has to rely on it to cultivate himself. If you let the animal get it, there's no hope for you to cultivate. How can you cultivate in this way? With nothing left, you can never cultivate yourself. Some may say: "I don't want to cultivate. I just want to make a fortune. It's all right if I can get money. Why bother with other things?" I'd like to tell you, you want to make a fortune, but I'm sure that you will not think so when I tell you the reason. Why? If it leaves your body early, you'll feel weak in your limbs. From then on, you'll always be in such a state during the rest of your life, because too much of your essence has been taken away by it. If it leaves your body late, you'll be a vegetable, lying in bed with only a breath left in you for the rest of your life. Though you are rich, are you able to spend your money? Though you are famous, can you enjoy your fame? Isn't it a terrible thing? Such a case especially happens to the practitioners of today and it occurs very frequently. The animal not only possesses the body of a person but also kills his Yuanshen (ÔªÉñ the True Spirit). It gets into the person's Niwan Palace and squats there. The person appears to be a human, but in fact he is not. There even occurs such a case now. Because of the change of the moral standards of mankind, one will not be convinced that he is doing evil when you tell him so. He thinks it is only right and he takes it for granted to earn money, to seek money, and to make a fortune. Therefore, he will hurt others and do harm to others. In order to earn money, he will stop at no evil and dares do anything. If the animal does not lose, it will not gain. How can it give you something for nothing? It wants to take something out of your body. Of course, as we said, it is because of their wrong mentality and wrong intention that people have brought on such trouble. Now let's come to Falun Dafa. If you cultivate our cultivation way, you won't go wrong on condition that you have a good control of your Xinxing, as one righteousness subdues all evils. If you cannot control your Xinxing, you are bound to incur trouble to yourself when you pursue this or that. Some people can never give up what they practised in the past. We teach being constant in a single cultivation system. True cultivation is to be constant in only one way. Some Qigong masters have written some books, but I tell you that there are such things as snakes, foxes, and yellow weasels in their books, which are the same as what they have practised. When you read those books, these things will jump out of the words. I have said that sham qigong masters outnumber true ones by many times. You are not able to distinguish them. Therefore, you must keep a good control of yourself. I don't mean here that you must cultivate Falun Dafa. You can cultivate whatever system you like. But there was a saying in the past: one should not practise heterodoxy even for a day even if he is unable to obtain the Orthodox Law in a thousand years. Therefore, you must keep a good control of yourself and really cultivate the Orthodox Law. Don't mix anything else into what you cultivate. You even cannot add your intention to it. Some practitioners' Falun have become deformed. Why have they become deformed? They will say that they haven't practised any other systems. But when they begin to practise, they will add what they practised in the past to their cultivation through the intention. Thus, they have brought other things into what they cultivate. So much for the problem of spirit possession. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cosmic Language £¨ÓîÖæÓ What is cosmic language? One may suddenly mumble an inexplicable language, but he himself doesn't understand what he is talking about. A person who possesses the capability of telepathy can catch a general idea, but is unable to understand the exact meaning. Some people can even speak several such languages. Some take it as an ability or supernormal capability, and swell with pride. Actually, it is not a power or an ability, nor can it represent one's attainment level. What is it, then? The fact is that your mind is dominated by a subtle being from another space. But you think it quite good. You are delighted to get it. You are pleased with yourself. The more you are pleased, the more firmly it will control you. As a true cultivator, how can you let it dominate you? Besides, it comes from a very low dimension. Therefore, as true cultivators, we should never try to incur such trouble. Man is the most precious and the supreme intelligence of all things. How can you permit those things to dominate you? You even do not want your body. How sad it is! Some of those things possess a human body. Some do not enter into a human body. They just keep a distance from a person , but they can control and dominate him. If you want to speak that language, they will make you mumble it. It can be transmitted to another person. If that person wants to learn it and is bold enough to open his mouth, he can also speak it. In fact, those things present themselves in packs. If you want to speak, one of them will come to you and make you speak it. Why can such a case occur? As I said, the subtle being wants to raise its level, but as there is no suffering for it to endure in its own place, it cannot cultivate or improve itself. So it tries to improve itself by doing good deeds for human beings. But it doesn't know how to do it. However, it knows that energy it has released will have a soothing effect on the sick and relieve him from suffering for the moment though it is unable to cure him, and it also knows that it can achieve such an effect by releasing the energy through a human mouth. This is how the case is. Some people also call it celestial language. Still some call it Buddha's language. This is a slander on Buddha. I say that's sheer nonsense! As is known, Buddha seldom opens his mouth. Should he open his mouth to speak in our world, he may bring an earthquake to mankind. How terrible such a booming would be! Some people say, "I see with my Celestial Eye that he is talking to me." He does not talk to them. Some see my Law body talking to them. In fact, he does not talk to them. He gives out his intention which has a stereophonic sound. When it reaches your ears, you will feel as if he were talking. He usually speaks in his own space. But when his words are transmitted to our world, you can not tell what he says, because there is a difference in the concept of spacetime between the two spaces. One Shichen, that is, a period of two hours, in our world is equal to a year in that large space. That is to say, the time of our world goes slower than that of his space. There was a saying in the past which goes, "One day in Heaven above is equal to a thousand years on Earth." It refers to an individual paradise in which there is no concept of space and time, that is, the paradise where the great enlightened beings stay. It refers to such places as the Paradise of Ultimate Bliss, the Glazed Paradise, the Falun Paradise and the Lotus Paradise, etc.. However, in that large space time goes faster than that in ours. Some people have got their ears opened and possess the capability of clairaudience. If you can receive or hear one speaking, you will find that you cannot tell what he says. Whatever you hear sounds the same, just like the twitter of a bird or the high speed turning of a record player. You simply cannot catch a single word. Of course, some can hear the music or the talking. But only through a supernormal capability which can be used as a carrier to eliminate the time difference can you clearly hear the words which have been transmitted to your ears. This is how the case is. Some say it is Buddhas' language. It is not at all. When the enlightened beings meet, a smile is enough for them to fully understand each other, because they use the soundless telepathy which has a stereophonic sound to the ears of the one who has received it. The moment they smile, they have exchanged their views. This is not the only way they use. Sometimes they also use another way. As you know, the lamas of Tibet in Esoteric Sect are good at making hand- seals. But when you ask a lama what the hand-seal is, he will tell you that it is the Supreme Yoga. What is it exactly? He does not know, either. In fact, it is just the language of the enlightened being. When there are a lot of people, he will make a large hand-seal which is very beautiful, and there are various large hand-seals. When there are a few people, he will make a small hand-seal, which is also very beautiful. The small hand-seal is composed of different hand gestures, which are very complex and rich in variety, since it is a language. In the past all this was regarded as a secret of heaven, but now we have revealed it. What is adopted in Tibet are only some movements which are used exclusively for the practice of the exercise. Though the movements have been classified and systematized, they are no more than a language exclusively for the practice of the exercise, but the several ways of the practice of the exercise. The real hand-seal is quite complex. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ What the Teacher Has Given to His Students (ÀÏʦ¸øÁËѧԱһЩʲô) Some people caught hold of my hand and would not let it go when they saw me. Seeing them shaking hands with me, some others also shook hands with me. I knew what was in their minds. Some felt very happy to shake hands with the teacher. Some wanted to get some message and would not let go their hold. We tell you that real cultivation is your own business. We are here not to eliminate your diseases or to build up your health or to give you some message to heal your diseases. We do not do these things. Your diseases will be eliminated directly by me. Those who practise in the practising spot will be cured by my Law bodies. Those who learn Falun Dafa through self-study by reading the book will also be cured by my Law bodies. Do you think that you can increase your cultivation energy just by touching my hands? Isn't that ridiculous? Cultivation energy depends on the cultivation of one's own Xinxing. If you do not get down to genuine cultivation, your cultivation energy will not grow, because there is a criterion of Xinxing to measure it. When your cultivation energy has grown, a person of a high attainment can see that the substance of your attachment has been eliminated and a yardstick has grown on the top of your head. Such a yardstick exists like the energy column. The higher the yardstick, the higher the energy column. It represents the energy that you have cultivated yourself. It also represents the height of your Xinxing. Other people can never add any energy to it. Even if they have put a wee bit on it, it will drop down. I can make you reach the state of "three flowers gathering on the top ("Èý»¨¾Û¥") instantly, but that energy will fall down the moment you go out. That energy is not yours. It does not come from your cultivation. So it cannot stay there. As your criterion of Xinxing is not there, nobody is able to put the energy there. This entirely depends on the cultivation of yourself, the cultivation of that heart of yours. Only when you improve yourself constantly and assimilate yourself to the cosmic qualities with a steady increase of your cultivation energy, can you ascend. When some people ask me to sign my autograph for them, I am reluctant to do so. They will tell others that the teacher has signed his autograph for them. They want to show off. They want to receive the protection of the teacher's message. Isn't this an attachment again? One's cultivation depends on oneself. Why talk about the message? Could you look for this in your high dimensional cultivation? What can that be? That is no more than what is taught to cure diseases and keep fit. In the microscopic state, every particle of the energy you have refined is exactly the image of you. When you go beyond Shi Jian Fa (ÊÀ¼ä·¨the In-Triple-World-Law), you will have entered into the cultivation of a Buddha body. Every particle of the cultivation energy is the image of a Buddha body, which is very beautiful and sits on the lotus flower. But the animal's energy is composed of small foxes or small snakes. Even the particles in the microscopic state are the images of those things. There is also something like message. You would like to drink the tea water after it is given a few stirs as it is supposed to be an energy. An ordinary person just wants to be relieved from pain for the time being or postpone and check his illness. Anyway, an ordinary person will be an ordinary person. No matter how he does damage to his body, we do not care. But you are practitioners, so I tell you these things. Do not do such things again from now on. Do not look for those things, such as the message and the like. Some qigong masters say, "I will give the message to you . You can receive it in all parts of the country." Receive what? I tell you that such things will not be able to have a great effect on you. Even if it may do you some good, it can do nothing but to help you get rid of your diseases or improve your health. But as a practitioner, we must depend on ourselves to cultivate the energy. The energy of message released from others cannot be used to raise one's attainment level. It can only be used to heal the illness of an ordinary person. You must put right your heart. Nobody can cultivate for you. Only when you really cultivate yourself can you raise your attainment level. Well, what have I given you? You know that many of us have never practised any qigong and suffer from diseases. There are also quite a lot of people who have practised qigong for many years but still linger in the state of qi and possess no cultivation energy. Of course, there are some people who treat others for their diseases. You do not know how they treat diseases. When I talked about the issue of spirit possession, I took down their possessing spirits, all such bad things, no matter what they are, from the inside to the outside of the body of a person who can really cultivate the Great Law. When a person who can really cultivate himself through self-study reads this Great Law, his body will also be cleaned up. So will the environment of his home. Throw away the spirit tablet of the fox or yellow weasel you enshrined in the past. It has been cleaned up and it is no longer there. Since you want to cultivate, we can open the most convenient door for you and do such things for you, but it is confined to true cultivators. Of course, there are some people who have no intention of cultivating themselves. Even until now they have not realized what I talk about. We have no way to take care of them. We only take care of true cultivators. There is also such a person who was told in the past that he was possessed by an evil spirit. He himself also felt so. But he still worries about it when the possessing spirit has been removed. He always feels the existence of that state, believing that he is still possessed by it. This is a kind of attachment, which is called suspicious mind. If he goes on like this, he may bring it to himself again in the long run. He himself has to let go of the obsession as there is no possessing spirit at all in his body now. Some people were cleared of those things in my previous sessions. I have done these things and taken all the possessing spirits away. In Taoist School the elementary stage cultivation needs to lay some foundation, to form the Heavenly Circuit, the field of Dan Tian Elixir Field , and things of some other aspects. Now here we are going to plant for you Falun, Qiji (Æø»ú energy mechanism) and a great many other mechanisms for cultivation. There are more than ten thousand of them, which will all be planted in your body like seeds. Only after I have removed your diseases, done all that should be done and provided you with all that I shall give you, can you really succeed in cultivation in our faith. Otherwise if I do not give you anything, you can no more than remove your diseases and build up health. To be frank, if some people do not value Xinxing, it would be better for them to do physical exercise. We are responsible to true cultivators. Those who cultivate through self-study can also get those things. But they must be true cultivators. We give all those things to true cultivators. I have told you that I need to take you as my disciples and guide you in earnest. Besides, you must have a thorough grasp of the Law of the high order and get to know how to cultivate yourself. The five sets of practice exercise will be given to you once and all will be taught to you at once. In the future you will reach a considerably high order, which is so high that it is beyond your expectation. There is no problem for you to complete the true achievement. I am preaching the Law combining with different dimensions. As long as you cultivate, you will find that it will always be able to give you guidance in your cultivation of different dimensions. As a cultivator, your life course will be changed from now on. My Law body will rearrange it for you. How will it be arranged ? How many years will there be before some people end their life course? They do not know themselves. Some may contract a serious illness in a year or half a year which may last for several years. Some may suffer from cerebral thrombosis or other diseases and can never move at all. How can you cultivate during the rest of your life? We are going to clear your body of those things to prevent such things from happening. However, we must make it clear beforehand that we can only do such a thing for true cultivators. I am as good as doing a bad deed if I do this freely for ordinary people. It will not be allowed to do such a thing for ordinary people at will, there is the causational relationship for such things as an ordinary person's birth, old age, disease and death, which should not be disrupted at will. We regard cultivators as the most precious. Therefore, we can only do this for a cultivator. How to do this? If the master possesses highly mighty virtues, that is, if he has very great energy potency, he can dissolve your karma. The master can remove a great amount of your karma if he has high cultivation energy. If he has low cultivation energy, he can only remove a bit of your karma. To illustrate this with an example, we shall collect all kinds of your karma existing in your future course of life and dissolve part of it, say, the half of it. The half left is still higher than a mountain and you are unable to get over it. What shall be done? When you attain the Tao in the future, a lot of people may benefit from your attainment. Thus, they will bear a share for you, which, of course, does not matter to them. You yourself have many living entities you have evolved and you have a lot of you besides your Zhu Yuanshen (Ö÷ÔªÉñ Chief Spirit) and Fu Yuanshen (¸±ÔªÉñ Assistant Spirit), all of whom will have to bear a share for you. So, there will be little left for you to go through an ordeal with. Though we say "little left", it is still considerably big. You are still unable to get through it. What shall be done, then? It will be divided into a great number of shares, which will be placed on different stages of your cultivation, and used to improve your Xinxing, to transform your karma and to increase your cultivation energy. Besides, it is not at all an easy job for one to cultivate himself. I have said that cultivation is a very serious matter, it is beyond ordinary people and is more difficult to do than anything of ordinary people. Isn't that supernormal? Therefore, it makes a higher demand on you than anything of ordinary people. We human beings have Yuanshen (the True Spirit), and the True Spirit is immortal. Since the True Spirit is immortal, let's think about it, isn't it likely that your True Spirit did some bad deeds in your social activities before your birth? Most likely. You may have done killing, owed something to someone, bullied someone, or done harm to someone. You may have done those things. If this is true, he can see you very clearly there when you cultivate here. If you try to get rid of your disease and improve your health, he does not care. He knows that you are postponing your paying back. If you do not pay back now, you will have to pay back in the future, and then you will have to pay more heavily. Therefore, he does not care if you do not pay back for the time being. When you decide to cultivate, he will not allow you to do so: "You want to cultivate. You want to go. When you have increased your cultivation energy, I will not be able to reach you. And I will not be able to touch you. " So he will not allow it to happen. He will try every possible means to stop you from cultivating. He will use various ways to disturb you, or even come to kill you. Of course, it is impossible that your head would be chopped off when you are practising cross- legged sitting here, because it should fit the state of the ordinary human society. You may be knocked down by a car when you go out, or fall down from upstairs, or meet with other dangers. There may occur these things which are quite dangerous. True cultivation is not as easy as you imagine. Do you think you can go up through cultivation once you are determined to cultivate? If you really want to cultivate, your life will be endangered soon. You will meet this problem immediately. There are a great number of qigong masters who dare not guide people up to the high dimensional cultivation by teaching them their cultivation systems. Why? Because they are unable to do such a thing. They are unable to protect you. In the past there were many Taoist teachers who could only teach one disciple. They had no more than enough ability to protect one disciple. But to protect so many disciples on such a large scale, ordinary qigong masters would find themselves incapable of doing it. Yet, we tell you here that I can do this, because I have countless Law bodies who possess very great divine powers and Law potency of mine and can display great supernatural powers and great Law potency. Besides, what we do today is not so simple as it seems to be and I did not come out to do it on impulse. I can tell you that many great enlightened beings are paying close attention to this event. This is the last time for us to teach the Orthodox Law in the Period of Decline. When doing such a thing, we are not allowed to go astray. If you can really cultivate in the right way, nobody dares to touch you rashly. What's more, you are under the protection of my Law body, so you will never be in any danger. A debt must be paid. So some perilous things may happen to you in the course of your cultivation. However, when such things happen, you will not be scared and you will not be exposed to real dangers. I can give you some examples. When I held a session in Beijing, one of my students crossed a road by bike. When reaching a sharp turn on the road, this student, a woman of over 50 years old, was knocked by a high-quality car. She was hit very hard by the car. With a bang she bumped her head against the awning of the car. At that moment she still straddled her bike. Though she was hit on the head, she felt no pain. She not only felt no pain, but did not bleed, even had no swelling. The driver was terribly frightened. He got out of the car and asked her hastily if she was injured and suggested they should go to hospital. She said that she was all right. Of course, this student had a very high Xinxing and she would not put the driver to any trouble. She said she was all right, but a big dent was made in the car. Such a thing is to take one's life. But he will not be endangered. When we held the session in Jilin University last time, one of our students was pushing his bike out of the front gate of the University. When he had just reached the middle of the street, he got sandwiched in between two cars all of a sudden. The cars nearly hit him, but he did not feel the slightest fear. We usually feel no fear when such a thing happens to us. The cars stopped at that moment and no danger occurred. The following event also took place in Beijing. The dark came quite early in winter and people went to bed also quite early. There was nobody in the street. It was very quiet. There was a student of ours who was hurrying home by bike. In front of him there was only a jeep running. All of a sudden, the jeep was stopped. Without noticing it, the student was still riding ahead with his head hanging down. But the jeep suddenly backed very quickly. It backed so fast that with the two forces joining together it also meant to take his life. At the moment when they were about to have a bump, there suddenly came a power which pulled his bike back more than half a metre, and the jeep came to a sudden halt with its bumper touching the wheel of the bike----the driver might have found him behind the jeep. At that moment, the student felt no fear. When encountering such a case, nobody will feel fear, but after this he may become scared. What first came to his mind was: My goodness! Who has pulled me back? I must thank him. He turned his head and was about to say thanks, but he found there was nobody to be seen on the road. All was quiet. It dawned on him instantly: it was the teacher who had protected me. Another event took place in Changchun. A building was being constructed near a student's house. Now people tend to construct tall buildings and the scaffold is built up from iron poles which are two inches in diameter and four meters long. When the student came out not far from his house, an iron pole happened to fall down vertically from that tall building and went straight to the top of his head. The people in the street were stupefied. He said, "Who patted me?" He thought someone had patted him on the head. The moment he turned his head, he saw a big Falun turning over his head, and the iron pole slided down from his head and was stuck into the ground without falling. If it had been stuck into the human body, let's think about it, such a heavy pole would have penetrated through the whole body as if putting a bamboo stick through the sugar-coated haws. This was really dangerous! There have been innumerable such happenings, but nobody has ever been endangered. Not all the practitioners will encounter such things. Only very few of us will. Whether you encounter them or not, I assure you that you will be in no danger. I can assure you of this. There are some students who do not act on Xinxing requirements. They only practise the movements without cultivating their Xinxing. They cannot be counted as practitioners. Speaking of what the teacher gives, I have given you these things. My Law body will protect you until you are able to protect yourself. At that time you will have gone beyond the cultivation of Shi Jian Fa (the In-Triple-World-Law) and already attained the Tao. But you must act as a true cultivator. Otherwise, you cannot achieve this. There was someone who shouted at the top of his voice as he was walking in the street with my book in his hand: "I have Master Li for my protection, and I am not afraid of being knocked by a car." He was damaging the Great Law. People of this sort will not be protected. A true cultivator will never do such a thing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Energy Field (ÄÜÁ¿³¡) When we are practising, there will be a field around us. What kind of field is this? Some say it is qi field, or magnetic field, or electric field. In fact, whatever field you call it is improper, because this kind of field contains extremely abundant substances. The substances which compose all the spaces of our universe can be found in this cultivation energy. Therefore, it is relatively proper to call it energy field. This is why we usually call it energy field. Well, what effect will this field produce? As you know, our cultivators of the Orthodox Law have such a feeling: a person who has gone through the cultivation of the Orthodox Law is compassionate with his presence and is assimilated to the cosmic qualities Zhen Shan Ren (ÕæÉÆÈÌ). Therefore, all of our students who are sitting in this field will feel it and have no bad thoughts in the mind. When sitting here many of our students even cannot think of smoking. They feel a serene atmosphere which is very comfortable. This is the effect produced by the energy carried by the cultivators of the Orthodox Law within this field. After the session, over majority of you will possess the energy. You will really have developed your energy, because what I teach to you is something for the cultivation of the Orthodox Law, and you yourself also try to act upon the Xinxing requirements in cultivation. With your incessant practice and cultivation according to our Xinxing requirements, your energy will gradually become more and more powerful. We teach the salvation for both self and others and for all sentient beings. So Falun can save oneself by turning inwards and save others by turning outwards. When turning outwards, it releases energy to benefit others. Thus, those who are within the cover of your energy field will benefit from it and may feel very comfortable. No matter whether you walk in the street or work in your work unit or stay at home, you may have such an effect on others. You may accidentally adjust the body of a person who is within the area of your field, as this kind of field can put right all abnormal states. A human body should be free from diseases. When it suffers from diseases, it is in an abnormal state, and your field can put right such an abnormal state. An evil-minded person who is thinking about something wrong may change his mind or will not think about the bad things when he is strongly affected by your field. Those who feel like swearing at others may suddenly change their minds and do not want to do so. Only the energy field of Orthodox Law cultivation can produce such an effect. Therefore, in the past there was such a saying in Buddhism, "The Buddhas' lights illuminate all things in perfect brightness." This saying exactly expresses this. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ How the Students of Falun Dafa Should Spread the Cultivation System (·¨ÂÖ´ó·¨Ñ§Ô±ÔõôÑù´«¹¦) After the session, many students feel the cultivation system is very good and want to teach it to their relatives and good friends. You can do that. You can spread it and teach it to anyone. However, there is one point I want to emphasize. We have given you so many things which cannot be measured by the value. Why do I give you these things? They are meant for your cultivation. Only when you cultivate, can you be given these things. That is to say, when you spread the cultivation system in the future, you should not make use of them to seek after fame and gain. Therefore, you are not allowed to hold the session and collect fees as I do. As we have to print books and materials and go around spreading the cultivation system, we need money. Our charge is the lowest in the whole country, but we have given the most things. You have realized that we are to guide people up to the high dimensions. As a student of Falun Dafa, you are required to keep two points in mind when you go out to spread the cultivation system in the future. First, you are required not to charge a fee. We have given you so many things not for you to make a fortune or seek fame but to save you and help you cultivate. If you charge a fee, my Law body will take back all that have been given to you. Then, you are no longer a cultivator of Falun Dafa and what you teach is not our Falun Dafa. When spreading the cultivation system, you do voluntary service for others without seeking fame or gain. Practitioners all over the country all spread it this way and the instructors from all parts of the country also set a good example with their own conduct. If you want to learn our cultivation system, just come to learn it. We shall be responsible to you, and take no charge. Second, you are required not to add any personal things to the Great Law. That is to say, no matter whether you have opened your Celestial Eye or what you have seen or what supernormal capabilities you have developed, you should not explain our Falun Dafa according to what you have seen when spreading the cultivation system. What you have seen on your level of attainment is nothing, too far away from the true meaning of the Law we have preached. Therefore, when you spread the cultivation system in the future, you must be very careful about this. Thus, the original things of our Falun Dafa can remain unchanged. You are also not allowed to spread the cultivation system in the way I do. You must not preach the Law in the form of large-scale lectures as I have adopted. You are unable to preach the Law. What I speak about is of a very profound significance, because there are things belonging to the high dimensions in my lectures. Now you cultivate at different levels of attainment. When you have improved yourselves in the future, and you go back and listen to the recording of my lectures, you will improve yourselves continuously. If you listen to them constantly, you will always have a new understanding and gain. You can achieve a much better result by reading this book. I am giving lectures which contain things very high and profound. So you are unable to preach the Law. You are not allowed to take my original words as your own. If you do, you are a Law robber. You can only say my original words and tell the listener that they are said by the teacher or are written in the book. You can only talk this way. Why? Because such talking will carry the power of the Great Law. You must not spread what you know as Falun Dafa. Otherwise, what you spread is not Falun Dafa. You are equally disrupting our Falun Dafa. If you talk according to your ideas or your thoughts, what you say is not the Law. It is unable to save or have any effect on others. Therefore, nobody else is able to preach this Law. To spread the cultivation system, you can play the recording or play the video tape in the place of practising the Gong or in the place of teaching the Gong. Then let the instructor teach them how to practise the exercise. You can adopt the form of a forum where you can learn from each other through discussions and interpretations and by exchanging experience and views. You are required to do in this way. Besides, you must not address the student (disciple) who spreads Falun Dafa as teacher or master. There is only one master of the Great Law. All are disciples no matter when they are initiated into the school. When spreading the cultivation system, some may have such a thought: the teacher can plant Falun and adjust one's body, but we are unable to do these things. It does not matter . I have already told you that every student is followed by more than one of my Law bodies. My Law bodies will do these things. When you teach someone, he may get Falun on the spot if he has the predestined luck. If he is not so lucky, he will gradually get it after cultivation and through adjustment of the body. My Law body will help him adjust his body. What's more, I tell you that if you can really regard yourself as a practitioner, you will just the same get all that you ought to have by reading my books, watching my video tape or listening to my recording to learn the Law and the practice exercise. We do not allow the students to treat diseases on others. Students of Falun Dafa are strictly forbidden to treat diseases on others. We teach you how to ascend through cultivation and do not let you develop any attachment or ruin your health. Our place of practising the Gong is better than that of any other cultivation systems. If you go to our place to practise, you will achieve a much better result than your treatment of diseases. My Law bodies sit in a circle. Above the place of practice is a cover on which there is a large Falun. A gigantic Law body guards the place on the cover. The place is not a common one. It is not a common place for practice of qigong. It is a place of cultivation. Many of us who possess the supernormal capability have found that the place of our Falun Dafa covered with a vast sheet of red light. My Law body can plant Falun directly, but we do not encourage one's attachment. When you teach someone to perform the movements, he says, "Oh, I have got Falun." You think it is you who have planted it, but you are wrong. I tell you this so that you will not develop this attachment. It is all done by my Law bodies. The students of our Falun Dafa should spread the cultivation system this way. He who alters the practice exercise of Falun Dafa is disrupting the Great Law and is doing harm to our school. Someone changed the instructions for the practice exercise into rhymes. We can never allow such a thing to happen. A true cultivation way has been handed down from the prehistoric period which dates back to the remote past, and has brought up countless enlightened beings. Nobody has ever dared to alter it. Such a thing can only happen in this Period of Decline. It has never occurred in history. You must be very careful about this. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next:Lecture Four Up:Contents Previous:Lecture Two ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [NOTE: The strange characters are Chinese in GB code] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next:Lecture Five Up:Contents Previous:Lecture Three ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lecture Four Loss and Gain Transformation of Karma Upgrading Xinxing Filling Energy into the Top of the Head Xuanguan-Shewei(Placement of the Mysterious Pass) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loss and Gain (ʧÓëµÃ) The relationship between loss and gain is often talked about in the world of cultivation as well as among ordinary people. What attitude should we cultivators adopt towards loss and gain? It is different from that of ordinary people. What ordinary people want is personal interests, how to lead a good and comfortable life. But we cultivators are different. On the contrary, we would not seek what ordinary people want. Moreover, what we achieve is something desired but unachievable by ordinary people, unless they should cultivate. As for the loss we generally refer to, it is not loss in a rather limited sense. When somebody speaks of loss, he considers it to be giving some money, helping others who are in trouble and offering a bit of food to beggars. It is also a kind of giving up and a kind of loss. But it is only, at this point, a little indifferent to money or material benefits. Being indifferent to money, of course, is an aspect, and a comparatively principal aspect. However, the loss we are talking about is not in such a limited sense. When we are in the course of cultivation, there are too many attachments one should give up as a cultivator, such as show- off , jealousy, competition and complacency. A great number of attachments have to be given up. The loss we are talking about is in a broad sense, that is, in the course of cultivation one should give up all his attachments and various desires belonging to ordinary people. Perhaps somebody is considering: now that we are practising among ordinary people, won't we be like Buddhist monks or nuns when we give up everything? It seems impossible to give up everything. Our cultivation way, as far as the portion cultivating among ordinary people is concerned, requires one to cultivate in the ordinary society and keep himself the same as ordinary people to the maximum. It by no means requires you to lose material interests indeed. No matter what a high ranking official you are and how much wealth you have, what counts is whether you would give up the attachment. Our school is directly aimed at the human nature. Whether personal interests and conflicts between people can be underestimated and treated with indifference or not is the crux of the matter. To cultivate in the temple and in the deep mountain forests is to completely cut you off from the ordinary human society and force you to give up the heart of ordinary people. It keeps you away from material interests, and therefore make you give them up. A cultivator among ordinary people does not go that way but he is required to be indifferent to them just in the life- style of ordinary people. It is certainly very difficult but it is the crux of our school. That is why the loss we are talking about is in a broad sense other than in a rather limited one. People talk about doing something good and giving alms. Then just look at those beggars in the street nowadays: some of them are professional, who may have more money than you do. We must focus on something big in mind instead of taking care of something smaller. Cultivation is aboveboard and should concentrate on something large in mind. In the course of loss, what we really have lost is something not good. One usually regards all that he pursues as good things. But in fact, looking from the high level, all of them are to satisfy his vested interests as being an ordinary person. As stated in Buddhism, it is merely a couple of decades whether you have more money or a higher official position. At birth we bring nothing, at death we take away nothing. Why is cultivation energy so precious? Only because it directly grows on your Yuanshen (True Spirit), so it can be brought at birth and taken away at death. Besides, it determines your Attainment Status, therefore it is hard to cultivate. That is to say, what you have given up are bad things so that you may return to the origin and go back to the truth. What would you achieve? That is the rise of your attainment level and at last you will complete the true achievement and reach the consummation. It solves the essential problem. Of course, we want to give up various desires belonging to ordinary people and reach the standard of being a real cultivator, which is not easy to achieve and should be carried out gradually. Now you hear I said doing it gradually and you say the teacher has told me to do it gradually and then I will do it gradually. That is not allowed! You should set strict demands on yourself though we allow you to improve yourself gradually. If you achieved all at once today, you would be a Buddha today. So it is unrealistic. You will be able to do this gradually. What we lose in essence is something bad. What is it? It is karma, which goes along with various attachments of humans. For instance, ordinary people have various bad thoughts and will incur this black substance karma by doing something bad for his personal interests. This is directly related to our minds. In order to remove this bad substance you should first turn your minds around. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Transformation of Karma (ÒµÁ¦µÄת»¯) There is a transforming process between the white and the black substances. After a conflict between people has taken place, it has a transforming process. One will get white substance, De (µÂ Virtues), when doing something good, and will incur black substance, karma, when doing something bad. Both substances can be carried forward. Somebody may be wondering whether it is because one has done something bad in the first half of his life. It is not all necessarily so because a human has accumulated the karma not during one lifetime of his. It is held in the world of cultivation that one's Yuanshen (ÔªÉñTrue Spirit) is immortal. If so, he might have social activities in his previous lives. One might have owed somebody, bullied somebody or done some other bad things such as killing lives, etc., which would incur such karma. Those substances can be accumulated in other spaces and are always attached, and so can the white substance. They come not only from this source. Another source is to be carried over from one's family and ancestors. The old people in the past often talked about accumulating virtues, and accumulating virtues from ancestors; this person is losing his virtues and decreasing virtues. Those words are quite right. Nowadays ordinary people would no longer listen to these words. The young will not keep them in their minds when you talk about losing virtues or being short of virtues. Actually, these words have profound implications. They are not only a modern spiritual and mental standard but also real material existence. Both substances can be found in the human body. Someone asks whether one could not cultivate towards the high level when he has too much black substance. That is somewhat a truth. Too much black substance would influence one's awakening quality, because it has become a field surrounding your body and has just enveloped yourself inside and cut you off from the cosmic qualities, Zhen Shan Ren (ÕæÉÆÈÌ). Such people may have poor capability of understanding. When people talk of cultivation or qigong, he regards all those as superstition, considers them ridiculous and does not believe in them at all. This happens frequently but not absolutely. Does that mean it is very difficult for such a person to cultivate and to increase high energy£¿ It is not. We say the Great Law is boundless and it all depends on your mind to cultivate. The master teaches the trade but the perfection of the apprentice's skill depends on his own efforts. It all relies on how you will cultivate. Whether you can cultivate or not all depends on whether you can endure, give and suffer. If you can make up your mind to overcome all kinds of difficulties, I say it would not be a problem. A person who has a lot of black substance often pays more than those who have a lot of white substance. Because the white substance directly assimilates itself to the cosmic qualities, Zhen Shan Ren (ÕæÉÆÈÌ). He may increase his cultivation energy simply and directly as soon as he improves his Xinxing (ÐÄÐÔ) and improves himself in contradictions. A person with a lot of De has a good capability of comprehension and can endure hardships as well. He could endure hardships, fatique his bones and muscles with toil, and temper his heart and mind. He can increase his cultivation energy even if he suffers more from the physical pains than the mental ones. However, it would not be possible for a person who has a lot of black substance, who has to pass through a process: first transform the black substance to the white substance. Even such a process is also extremely agonizing. Therefore, a person of a poor enlightenment quality normally needs to suffer more pains, and it is even harder for him to cultivate because of the huge karma and bad enlightenment quality. Take a specific case for example, let us see how such a person is cultivating. When keeping still and sitting in deep Ding , one has to cross his legs for a long time. After a long time the legs would be painful and numb, which makes one mentally quite uneasy. Suffering from physical and mental pains makes the physical body as well as the mind quite uncomfortable. Some people are afraid of pains while sitting with their legs crossed, and wish to give up by taking the legs off. Some people could not stand the pain any more even after sitting for a little bit longer. Once the legs are taken off, the practice is in vain. We consider it useless if one quits sitting with legs crossed once they begin to feel pain, and resume doing so after some warm-ups. Because while his legs are suffering the pains, we could see that the black substance is moving to his legs. The black substance is karma and could be eliminated and transformed into De through suffering the pains. Once the pain is felt, karma would begin to be eliminated. The more karma comes the more pain his legs would feel. Therefore, his pains in the legs do not come without reasons. Normally, a person sitting cross-legged often suffers labour pains with one moment of great pain and another of relatively ease, and then, a moment of pain again. Oftentimes, it is repeatedly this way. Because karma is removed piece by piece, the legs would feel better after a piece is eliminated, and would feel pain again when the next piece comes up. After the black substance is removed, it does not disappear as this substance does not become extinct. Upon being removed, it is transformed into the white substance which is De. How come it is transformed this way? This is because he has suffered, given, and endured pains. We have said that De is attained through enduring, suffering pains, and doing good deeds. Therefore, this situation would occur while one is sitting in the state of Ding. Some people put the legs down when their legs begin to feel pain, and do some warm-ups before resuming the practise of sitting. That would not work at all. What does this little pain account for? I would say that it would be simply too easy for one to succeed in the cultivation by just raising the arms up. This is the situation which occurs when people sit in the state of Ding. Our school does not mainly proceed in this way though there is a portion in this aspect which also plays a role. Most of us transform karma through the conflicts between one person and another. It is oftentimes shown this way. While we are in trouble, the conflict between one and another even surpasses the pains. I would say that the physical pains are the easiest things to endure and could be overcome by biting one's teeth tightly. The mind is most difficult to be under control when a struggling conflict occurs between one and another. For instance, a person would become extremely mad if he overheard two people speaking ill of him in terrible language when he came to work. However, we have mentioned that a practitioner should set high demands on himself, and should not return the same when being hit or abused. He remembered that: the teacher has said that as practitioners we do not behave like others and should conduct ourselves with a better manner. He did not quarrel with those two people. Yet, when the problems arise, they oftentimes would not matter, or become useful in improving oneself if they do not irritate one's mind. Thus, his mind would not give it up and was still bothered by it. He would always wish to turn around to look at the appearance of those two persons. Looking back over his shoulders, he would see the two evil-looking faces in a heated conversation. He would not be able to put up with it anymore and became very angry. He would probably start a fight with them. The mind is very difficult to be controlled during a conflict between one person and another. I would say that it would be easy if everything is experienced by sitting in the state of Ding. However, it would not be always so. As a result, you would run into all kinds of tribulations in your future cultivation. How could you cultivate yourself without these tribulations? How could you upgrade your Xinxing by just sitting there when everyone is good to each other without conflicts of interests and the interference of the human mind? That is impossible. One has to genuinely cultivate oneself through experiencing the reality to steel oneself. Some people have said: how come we always meet with problems while we cultivate, and there are almost as many problems as a non-practitioner would have? Because you cultivate among ordinary people, you would not be suddenly made upside down in the air and suffer in the sky. It would not happen like that. It would all come from ordinary people's situations such as whoever may irritate you today, or whoever may upset you and treat you badly with ill language, which are used to see how you react to these problems. Why do you run into these problems? They are all tribulations caused by your own karma. We have already removed many pieces, except for that tiny bit which is left and arranged as obstacles placed on different levels for you to upgrade your Xinxing (ÐÄÐÔ), test your mind and discard your various attachments with. All these are your own problems which you could overcome, and we make use of them to improve your Xinxing. As long as you upgrade your Xinxing, you will be able to overcome them unless you do not wish to do so. You will be able to make it if you want to do so. Therefore, from now on do not regard it as accidental when running into a conflict. Because when a conflict occurs, it will happen suddenly. Yet, it is not a coincidence. That aims to improve your Xinxing. As long as you conduct yourself as a practitioner, you will be able to deal with it properly. Of course, you will not be informed of the conflict or the tribulation ahead of time. How could you cultivate if you are told of everything in advance? They would not be of any use. A conflict would oftentimes occur suddenly so that it could test one's Xinxing and make one's Xinxing genuinely improve. It is the only way to judge whether one can maintain his Xinxing. Therefore, a conflict arises not by accident. During the whole process of the cultivation this issue of karma transformation will occur, and it would be much more difficult than suffering from physical pains. How could you increase your cultivation energy simply by practising a little bit more exercise with sore arms and tired legs as well as long hours of practice? Those only function to transform one's Benti (±¾Ìå True Being ). However, they still need energy to reinforce. They do not help one to raise his attainment level. Tempering one's heart and mind is the key to genuinely heightening one's levels. Speaking of fatiguing one's bones and muscles with toil to make progress, I would say that Chinese farmers suffer the most. Should they all be qigong masters? No matter how much physical pain you suffer from, you do not suffer as much as a farmer would, who works hard and wearily in the field under the burning sun. It is not such a simple matter. Therefore, we have mentioned that to genuinely improve oneself, one should genuinely upgrade his mind. That should be the genuine improvement. During the process of karma transformation, to keep yourself in control unlike an ordinary person who would make things worse, we should normally maintain a benevolent and serene state of mind. When suddenly running into any problems, you will be able to deal with them properly. When you often maintain a benevolent mind, you will have time and room to slow down and think when suddenly meeting with a problem. If you always think about competing for something with others, I would say that I am sure you would start a fight with others once there is a problem. Therefore, I have said that when you run into a conflict, what I mean is to transform your black substance into the white one and into De. When our mankind has developed to such a stage of today, almost everyone was born with rolling on karma. Everyone has a considerably huge amount of karma. Therefore, such a situation often occurs in the karma transformation that your karma is being removed and transformed in the meantime when your cultivation energy and Xinxing make progress. When running into a conflict, it might be displayed in Xinxing frictions between one person and another. If you can endure it, your karma will be removed and your Xinxing will also be improved, and your cultivation energy will increase, too. They are so integrated together. In the past, people could increase their cultivation energy because they had a lot of De and their Xinxing was already high. But people today are not so. They do not want to cultivate any more once they suffer a little. In addition, they are getting more and more unable to be enlightened, and it has become more difficult for them to cultivate. During the cultivation there may be two cases in terms of dealing with specific conflicts or when someone ill-treats you: one is that you might have ill-treated this person in previous life. You are not balanced and wondering how come he treated you this way? Then, why did you treat him that way before? You may argue that you did not know at that time and this life has nothing to do with the one in the past. This is not allowed. The other case is related to the karma transformation during a conflict. Therefore, in dealing with specific conflicts we should conduct ourselves more forgivingly instead of acting like an ordinary person. This is true in the office, other work environments, and in the private enterprises as well, where there are also human interactions. It is impossible for you not to interact with the society. At least there are relations between neighbours. All kinds of contradictions can be encountered in social intercourse. In our school, as far as the portion of cultivating among ordinary people is concerned, it does not matter how much money you have, how high ranking an official you are, whether you are self-employed or operating a company; it does not matter what business you are dealing with, but you should be honest and fair in buying and selling. Every trade in society ought to exist. What counts is one's heart rather than his career. There was a popular saying that nine out of ten merchants are dishonest. It is said by ordinary people. I would say it is the question of one's heart. Everybody ought to straighten out his intentions and do business fairly. It is natural and right that one earns more when giving more. No pains, no gains. People of different strata can be good people. There exist different contradictions for different strata. Contradiction in the high stratum has its own form and people of high stratum can also correctly handle it. People of all strata can care little about their desires, and their attachments, and therefore become good people. Good people can be found in different strata. So they may cultivate in the strata they belong to. The human conflicts have become very unique nowadays whether at the nationalized companies or other enterprises in the country. This phenomenon has not occurred in other countries nor historically happened here. As a result, the conflicts over interests are shown to be particularly tense. People use tricks, and compete for a tiny profit. The thoughts they have and the tricks they play are very vicious. It is difficult to be a good person. For instance, a person may feel the atmosphere at the office is abnormal upon reaching the office. Later someone tells the person that somebody so and so has advertised you badly and reported on you to the boss to put you in an awful situation. Others look at you with a strange look. How could an ordinary person tolerate that? How could he put up with such an injustice? If one makes trouble for me, I will return the same. If he knows someone, I do, too. Let us have a fight. If you do so among ordinary people, they will say that you are powerful. However, as a practitioner, that would be terrible. If you compete and contend like an ordinary person, you will be an ordinary person. If you have done more than an ordinary person would in that regard, you are worse than that ordinary person. How should we deal with this issue? We should first of all keep our heads cool upon running into such a conflict, and we should not behave the same as he does. Of course, it does not matter if we explain the matter kindly and state the issue clearly to him. Yet, you should not become too obsessed with it. If we run into such problems, do not compete and contend like others. Would you not be an ordinary person if you do the same as he does? Not only you should not compete and contend like him, you should not hate him in your mind, and genuinely not hate him. Would you not become angry if you hate him? In this way you have not exercised forbearance. We believe in Zhen Shan Ren. You are not in a position to practise compassion. Therefore, you should not be like him, and become really angry with him though he puts you in such an awful situation that you could not even look up to face people. Instead of being angry with him, you should thank him in your mind, and thank him genuinely. An ordinary person may think that: Is that not Ah Q? I am telling you that it is not so. Please think about it. Shouldn't we make the high demand on you? You should not conduct yourself with the standard of ordinary people. Is not what you achieve something belonging to the high dimension as a practitioner? Then, we must make the high demand on you by the principles guiding high dimensions. Wouldn't you be like him if you do the same as he does? Why, then, should you thank him? Think about it. What will you attain? In the universe, there is a principle which says that to gain one needs to lose, and one must lose to gain. He puts you in an awful situation among ordinary people. He is considered to have gained advantages. The worse situation he puts you in, the greater the impact it would have, and the more you would have endured. And the more he would lose his De. Such De would all be given to you. At the same time when you endure all that, you probably would care little about it, and not take it seriously on you mind. There is another principle in this universe: you have endured a lot of pains; thus, your own karma will be transformed. Because you have paid for it, how much you have endured would be all transformed into the same amount of De. Does a practitioner not want such De? You would gain in two ways when your karma is also removed. How could you upgrade your Xinxing if he does not create such an environment? How could it be possible if you and I are both nice to each other, and sit there practising in peace? It is just because he has created such a conflict and an opportunity to improve Xinxing that you could make use of it to upgrade your Xinxing. Would not your Xinxing be improved this way? You have gained in three ways. Would not your cultivation energy increase with the improvement of your Xinxing as a practitioner? You have gained in four ways at once. How could you not thank him? You should genuinely thank him from the bottom of your heart. It is indeed so. Of course, the thought he has is not decent. Otherwise he would not have given you De. Yet, he has indeed produced an opportunity to upgrade your Xinxing. It means that we must pay attention to the cultivation of Xinxing. At the same time of Xinxing cultivation, karma will be removed and transformed into De so that you could move up to the high dimension. They agree with one another. From the perspective of the high dimension, the reasoning has changed completely. Yet, an ordinary person can not understand it. If you see the principle from the high dimension, everything would be different. Among ordinary people, you may believe that a principle is correct. But it is not really correct. It is correct only if it is seen so in the higher dimensions. It often happens this way. I have expounded the principle thoroughly, and I hope that in the future cultivation everyone will treat himself as a practitioner, and genuinely cultivate himself as the principle has been clearly stated here. Perhaps, some people still feel that the concrete material interests are practical because they live among ordinary people. Such a person still can not conduct himself according to the high standard in the current of ordinary people. In fact, if you want to become a good ordinary person, there are heroes and model workers for you to follow because they are examples for ordinary people to follow. If you want to be a practitioner, it all depends upon your mind and your awakening quality because there are no model workers. Fortunately, we have made public Dafa today. If you had wished to cultivate in the past, nobody would have taught you. In this way you can act upon the Great Law, and could probably do well. It all depends upon yourself whether you can cultivate yourself, whether it is possible for you to make it and which level you will be able to break through. Of course, the transformation of karma does not always take place like what I have just described. It can be shown in other aspects. It could happen in a social environment or at home. One may run into some troubles while walking on a street or in some other social surroundings. You will be made to give up all those attachments that can not be discarded by ordinary people. All the attachments which as long as you have will have to be worn out in different environments. You will be made to fall down , and to understand why from it. This is the way we should make it in our cultivation. There is another relatively typical case in the course of cultivation for many cultivators. It often happens that when you practise qigong your spouse becomes extremely unhappy. As soon as you start the practice, she will start a row with you. She would not mind though if you do any other things. She might not be happy for the time you waste on playing Mah Jung game, but not as much as if you practise qigong. Your practice does not bother her. What a good thing it is since you practise to keep fit. Yet, once you start the practice she will throw things around and start quarreling. Some couples almost get divorced because one of them wants to practise qigong. Many people have not thought about the reason for the occurrence of such a situation. If you ask her later: why do you get so upset if I practise qigong? She can not explain it, and really can not: indeed, how come I became so angry, and so upset at that time? What is in fact the reason? At the time of the practice one's karma will be transformed. To gain one has to lose, and what you lose are still the bad things. You have to give. Probably your wife will throw a fit right in your face as soon as you walk in the door. If you endure it, your practice today is not in vain. Some people know that one should treasure De while practising qigong. Therefore, such a person normally gets along with his married partner pretty well. If he thinks: I normally issue orders and she would listen to me, and yet, today she is overriding me, he would not be able to control the temper and start the row. The practice for that day would end up in vain. Because the karma is there, and she is helping you to remove it, but you do not accept it and start the row with her. It is still there without being eliminated. There are a lot of such cases which many of our practitioners have experienced. They have not thought about why it is this way. She would not care if you do something else. She would always find faults with you though this practice is actually a good thing. In fact, she is helping you to remove karma, and yet you have not realized it yourself. She is not quarreling with you just superficially while she is kind to you from her heart. It is not so. It is a genuine anger from the bottom of her heart because whoever receives karma would feel uncomfortable. It is for sure. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Upgrading Xinxing £¨Ìá¸ßÐÄÐÔ£© Many people of the past ran into a lot of problems after they cultivated to a certain stage and could not go up any more because they could not observe their Xinxing. Some people naturally have relatively high Xinxing. Their Celestial Eyes are at once opened during the practice, and have reached a certain realm of awareness. Because such a person has relatively good inborn qualities and Xinxing, his cultivation energy grows rapidly. By the time his cultivation energy has reached the level of his Xinxing, he needs to continue to upgrade his Xinxing in order to increase his cultivation energy. Then, the problems will also become outstanding. Particularly for a person of good inborn qualities, he feels that his cultivation energy has grown well and he is getting on well with his practice as well. How come there are suddenly a lot of troubles? Everything now is abnormal. People are mistreating him, and the boss starts to dislike him. Even the situation at home is very tense. Why are there suddenly so many problems? He does not understand it. Such a state has occurred because of his good inborn qualities, and because he has reached a certain level. However, how could that be the standard of the final consummation for a practitioner? It is far from the end of the cultivation! He must continue to upgrade himself. He has reached that state because of the little inborn qualities of his. In order to upgrade himself, the standard has also to be raised. One may say : I shall earn some more money to take care of my family. I shall have no more worry about it, and then, I will cultivate the Tao. I would say that you are dreaming. You are not able to interfere in the lives of others, nor can you control the fate of others, including your wife, sons, daughters, parents, and brothers. Are those things to be determined by you? In addition, what will you cultivate if you do not have worries nor troubles? How can you practise the Gong in a comfortable and relaxed manner? Where is there such a thing? That is what you think from the perspective of an ordinary person. Cultivation should take place in tribulations to see whether you can give up and care little about the seven emotions and six desires. If you are attached to these things, your cultivation will not be successful. Everything has its causational relationship. Why could human beings be human? It is because of the existence of the affection in human beings. They just live for such affections, such as an affection for kinsfolk, love between a man and a woman, an affection for parents, feelings, friendship, doing things in consideration of mutual such affections, which embody in all respects. Whether a person wants to do one thing or not, is happy or unhappy, loves or hates something, everything of the whole human society comes from these affections. You cannot cultivate until you give up these affections. If you have jumped out of them, nobody can affect you any more. The mind of an ordinary person will not be able to sway you. What takes over in place will be benevolence which is something of a high order. Of course, it is not easy to abandon such things all at once. Cultivation is a long process, in which one's attachments are slowly given up. However, you should maintain a strict standard for yourselves. As practitioners, contradictions may arise all of a sudden. What shall we do? You should always maintain a mind of compassion and serenity. When running into a problem, you can do well because it gives you room to relax the tension. You should always carry compassion and kindness toward others, and think of others before doing anything. If you first consider, whenever a problem comes up, whether others could put up with it and whether it would hurt others, you will not do wrong. So you must make a high or even higher demand on yourself in your cultivation. It happens frequently that some people cannot realize that. Somebody's Celestial Eye has opened and he saw Buddha. He came back home and worshipped Buddha while talking repeatedly to Buddha in mind: why don't you help me? Please help me to solve the problem. Of course the Buddha will not help him. The tribulation was set by the Buddha to improve the person's Xinxing so that he may go up in contradictions. Can he help you solve the problem? He will not at all. He will never help you solve it. How can you increase your cultivation energy, improve your Xinxing and get promotion when all problems have been solved? The key is to let you increase your cultivation energy. From the viewpoint of the great enlightened beings, to be a human being is not the purpose. The purpose of having a human life is not to be a human, but to return to the origin. Buddha considers it better that one bears more hardships because he may speed up paying his debts. That is Buddha's opinion. Somebody did not realize that. When he got nothing by asking Buddha for help, he began to complain at Buddha: why don't you help me? I burned incense and made kowtow to you every day. Hence, he broke the image of Buddha and from then on started to abuse Buddha. Because of the abuse, his Xinxing came down and his cultivation energy disappeared. He knew he had lost everything and then he hated Buddha more and more. He thought Buddha was doing harm to him. How could he judge Buddha's Xinxing by using ordinary people's standard? How could it work when he treated things of the high order with ordinary people's criteria? So it happens frequently that people consider those hardships to be mistreatments, and therefore many people have dropped down. In the past few years, many well-known big qigong masters have also dropped down. Of course real qigong masters have returned after accomplishing their own missions. Only those, who have lost among ordinary people and whose Xinxing has come down, are still active. They have no cultivation energy any longer. Some qigong masters, who used to have a great reputation, are still active in society. Noticing that he had dropped into ordinary people and was unable to extricate himself out of fame and gain, his teacher took his Assistant Spirit (¸±ÔªÉñ) away. His cultivation energy grew on his Assistant Spirit. There are quite a lot of such typical examples. Such examples are rather few in our school and those in our school are not striking examples. However in the aspect of Xinxing improvement there are quite a few striking examples. There was a student from a textile factory of Shandong Province. Having learnt Falun Dafa, he taught others to practise it. As a result, the factory has taken on a new look. The employees of the factory used to take leftover of towel cloth home. After he had learnt Falun Dafa, instead of taking it home, he would bring back to the factory what he had taken home before. When they saw what he did, other staff would also not take any. Some of them even returned to the factory what they had taken home. Such a situation appeared in the whole factory. A Falun Dafa coaching center director in a certain city went to a factory to see how the practitioners there were doing with their practice. The factory director came out to meet him in person and said: since studying your Dafa these workers come to work early and go home late. They work very diligently and do whatever assignments given to them by the boss. Also, they do not compete for personal interests. Once they started to do so, the whole factory has taken on a new look, and the economic benefit of the factory has also been improved. Your Gong is so powerful that I would like to attend the lectures when your teacher comes. The principal purpose of our cultivating Falun Dafa is to bring people up towards the high dimensions, without consideration of doing such a thing. Yet, it could also play the role of promoting the spiritual civilization of the society. If everyone goes searching inside himself, and thinks about how to conduct himself well, I would say that the society would be stabilized, and the moral standard of the mankind would go up again. During my lecturing session in Taiyuan, there was a student who was over 50 years old. She and her husband were crossing the road on their way to the auditorium to attend my lecture when a car ran fast passing by them. The old woman was caught by the rearview mirror of the car. She was pushed along more than 10 meters before being thrown onto the ground. The car did not stop until it had gone more than 20 meters. The driver got out of the car and was cross with the lady: "Why weren't you walking carefully?" Nowadays many people tend to shirk responsibility when they meet with problems no matter whose fault it is. The people in the car asked the woman how she felt and if she needed to go to hospital. At this, the driver changed his manner. He asked the woman if she was all right, and offered to take her to hospital. The woman, who was a practitioner, rose from the ground and said, "There's nothing wrong with me, you may go". Then she whisked away the dust on her and left with her husband. When I learnt about what had happened, I felt happy because our students' Xinxing had indeed improved. The woman told me that she would have dealt with the occurrence differently if she had not learnt Falun Dafa. Let us think about the event. The woman was in her 50's. The car pushed her along so far and threw her heavily into the street. Besides, she had retired enjoying no benefits. If such a thing had happened to an ordinary person, she might have said that she was seriously injured, and she might not have got up. If she had been sent to hospital, she might have caught this opportunity and stayed there as long as she liked. But as a cultivator, the old lady didn't behave that way. We believe that one mindfulness of a person determines the consequence of an affair. Could it be possible that an ordinary person at the age of 50 did not get hurt at all in such a situation? But the old lady did not even scratch her skin! This is because she was right in mind at that moment. If she had said, "Oh, I feel terrible. Something is wrong with this part or that part of my body ...", then she might have really broken her bones or got paralysed. She might have to spend the rest of her life in hospital. In that case, could she feel better by being paid a lot of money? The people watching the accident wondered why the old woman did not take the advantage of the mishap to squeeze some money from the driver. We know that moral standard has been distorted today. The driver was wrong for speeding. But did he knock the woman down intentionally? Certainly not. However, even the bystanders think it unfair that she did not ask the driver for money as compensation. Many people do not know what is right and what is wrong. If you tell someone that he is doing had, he will not believe you. Because changes have taken place in moral standard of mankind. Some people put profit-making first. There is nothing that they dare not do for the sake of money. And it has even been taken as the motto by some people that "Heaven destroys those who do not look out for themselves." One practitioner in Beijing once took his child to a stroll at Qianmen after supper. They saw many people buying lottery tickets at a broadcasting van. The child wanted to join in the fun, so the father bought a one-yuan ticket for him. Luckily they won the second prize: a high-quality bicycle especially made for children. This made the kid overjoyed. But it suddenly occurred to the father that a practitioner should not pursue this kind of things. How much De would he cost to exchange for the prize which he was not entitled to? With this idea, he said to the child, "Don't take the bike, I will buy you one if you want". The child got unhappy, "you didn't agree to buy one for me before; now I've got one free and you even won't let me take it!" The child began to cry; the father had to take the bicycle home. At home, the more he thought about it, the more uncomfortable he felt about himself. He thought about sending money to the lottery people. Then he thought that the lottery tickets were gone, and would they divide the money among themselves if I send it to them? Finally, he decided to donate the money to his work unit. The father is lucky that many of his colleagues are practitioners of our Falun Dafa, too. They can understand him, so can his boss. If it occurs in a common situation of an ordinary work unit, where you say you do not want the lottery bike and donate the money to your work unit because you are a practitioner, your boss would think that there is something wrong with your mind. Others would talk behind your back: "Has this person gone wrong with his practice of qigong, and gone mad because he is too obsessed with it?" I have told you that the moral standard of the people has been distorted. In 1950's and 1960's, it meant nothing. It was quite common and nobody would feel strange. We believe that no matter what changes have occurred to the human moral standard, the cosmic qualities-Zhen Shan Ren will never change. If someone says that you are good, you are not necessarily really good. If someone says that you are had, you are not necessarily really bad because the measuring criterion for the good and the bad has been distorted. Only by conforming to the cosmic qualities can one be a good person. That is the sole measuring criterion for the good and the bad, which is recognized by the universe. Although a great change has taken place in the human society, the human moral standard has declined, the moral degeneration of the world is getting worse day by day, and profit making has become the only motivation, the universe does not change with the change of mankind. As a practitioner you cannot act upon the ordinary people's standard. It is not all right if you do something because an ordinary person says it is right to do so. What an ordinary person says is good may not be necessarily good. What an ordinary person says is bad may also not be necessarily bad. In an era when the moral standard is distorted, if you tell someone that he is doing something wrong, he would not even believe it! As a practitioner, you could tell what is genuinely good and what is genuinely bad through the measurement of the cosmic qualities. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Filling Energy into the Top of the Head (¹à¥) In the world of cultivation, there exists a formality, which is called "filling energy into the top of the head". It is a religious formality of the cultivation way of Tantrism which belongs to the Buddhas' School. Its purpose is to forbid the person who has performed the formation to enter other schools. In this way he is accepted formally as a disciple of this school. Today, the curious thing about it is that such a religious formation can be found in the practice of qigong, such as cultivation systems of Taoist school, which also practise filling energy into the top of the head. As I have told you, all cultivation ways under the cover of Tantrism which are taught in public are false. Why do I say so? Because Tang-Tantrism disappeared in China over one thousand years ago and it no longer exists at all, an integrated system of Tibetan Tantrism has never been spread into the Han region of China due to the language limit. What is more, practitioners of Tantrism are required to cultivate secretly in temples, and receive teachings from their masters in secret, and their masters guide them in cultivation, for it is an esoteric religion. It would never be passed on if the condition cannot be met. Many people went to Tibet to seek for a master to learn Tibetan Tantrism qigong for the purpose of becoming a qigong master someday so as to be famous and rich. Let us think about this matter. The living Buddha or lama who has received true teachings possesses powerful supernormal capabilities which enable him to read the student's mind. With a look at the student, he is able to tell what he has come for and what he is up to. He wants to become a qigong master and make money and seek fame, and to ruin our way of Buddha cultivation. How could this serious Buddha cultivation way be casually damaged by his desire to become a qigong master for fame and gain? What on earth is his motivation? In this case, he would never receive any teachings at all, not to mention any true teachings. However, it is possible that he has learned something superficial because there are many temples there. When one is not right in mind, and only wants to become a qigong master to do bad, he is likely to incur spirit possession. The possessing animal also has energy, but not Tibetan Tantrism. Those who went to Tibet really in search of the Law could possibly settle down there and would not make their appearance once they have got there. They are genuine cultivators. It is strange that "filling energy into the top of the head" is also practised by many Taoist cultivation systems. Taoist School features in the exercise of energy passages. Why is "filling energy into the top of the head" involved? When I taught the Gong in the south, as far as I see such things happen very often in Guangdong Province, there were more then 10 heterodox cultivation systems which teach "filling energy into the top the head". What does that mean? It means you have become their disciple after the master has filled energy into the top of your head; and you are not allowed to learn from any other qigong. Otherwise, you would be punished. That is what they do. Is this not an evil practice? What they teach is something to cure diseases and keep fit. What people want is only to have a healthy body upon learning their qigong. Why should they do such a thing? Someone says that whoever practises their qigong cannot practise other qigong. Could they save people towards consummation? They are leading people astray. But a good many people are doing so. "Filling energy into the top of the head" is not taught in the Taoist school, but it appears in it. I found the energy column of the qigong master who ran wild practising "filling energy into the top of the head" is only as tall as a two-or-three-floor building. He is quite a famous qigong master. I think it a pity that he lost so much cultivation energy. Hundreds of people queued up waiting to be filled with energy by the master. But the cultivation energy that he had was limited -- only that high -- it went down quickly and was consumed at last. Then what could he use to fill energy into other people? Wasn't he cheating them? Viewed from another space, filling energy into the top of one's head can make one's bones look like white jade from head to foot, which is the result of purifying the body all through with cultivation energy and the high energy substance. Could that master make it? No, he could not. Then why was he doing that? Practising religion was not necessarily his purpose. As far as he was concerned, people who have Learned his qigong should belong to him, and they should attend his classes to study his stuff. Making money is his real purpose. He can hardly make money if nobody learns his qigong. Like disciples of other cultivation ways of the Buddhas' School, disciples of Falun Dafa will go through "filling energy into the top of the head" many times by their superior space masters while they themselves are not aware of it. Those who possess supernormal capabilities or who are sensitive may know or feel it in sleep or some other time when they suddenly feel a hot current penetrating all through their bodies coming down from the head. The purpose of filling energy this way is not to add high cultivation energy to you, because cultivation energy can only be acquired through personal cultivation. Filling energy into the top of the head is a reinforcing method to purify and to further clean up your bodies. There are many times of filling energy into the top of the head, which will occur on every level to clean up your bodies. We do not practise the formality of filling energy into the top of the head because cultivation is one's own business, while the evolution of cultivation energy is done by one's master (ÐÞÔÚ×Ô¼º£¹¦ÔÚʦ¸¸). Some people still practise something like formally acknowledging somebody as their master. Speaking of it, I would like to mention, by the way, that many people want to take me as their master. This historical time of ours is different from the feudal society of China. Would kneeing down and kowtowing stand for worshipping your master? We do not practise such a formality. Many of our practitioners think: if I kowtow, burn incense, and worship the Buddha with a sincere heart, my cultivation energy will grow. I would say that is ridiculous. The genuine cultivation depends upon oneself. It does not help at all to seek anything else. You do not have to worship the Buddha, nor burn the incense. As long as you cultivate genuinely according to the standard of a practitioner, the Buddha would be very pleased when he sees you. If you always do wrong deeds away from home, he would feel disgusted to look at you although you worship and kowtow to him. Is this not the truth? The genuine cultivation depends upon the person himself. What is the use of your kowtowing to and worshipping the master today, if you do whatever you want to do upon stepping out of the door? We do not practise such a formality at all, or you could possibly damage my reputation. We have given everyone so many things. I shall treat as my disciples all those who cultivate themselves indeed and strictly follow the Great Law. As long as you practise Falun Dafa, we shall treat you and give you guidance as disciples. If you do not want to cultivate, we will not be able to do anything for you. What will you carry that name for if you do not want to cultivate? It does not matter whether you are from the first session or the second session. How could you become our practitioners by just practising the exercise? Only by genuinely following our Xinxing standard to cultivate can you keep a healthy body and genuinely make progress towards the high dimensions. Therefore, we do not practise these formalities. As long as you cultivate yourself, you will become practitioners of our school. My Law body knows everything. He knows everything on your mind, and could do anything. He will not take care of you if you do not cultivate yourself, and he will help you all the way through if you do. Practitioners of some cultivation systems who have never seen their master have said that if they pay a few hundred yuan and kowtow to a certain direction they will become his students. Isn't this self- cheating? In addition, such a student has become very devoted ever since, and begun to defend or protect the system and the master, also telling others not to learn other systems. In my opinion, it is quite ridiculous. Still, there is someone who practises Top-touching. We do not know what effect it takes after his touching. Not only those who wave the flag of Tantrism to teach qigong are sham, but also all those who carry the banner of Buddhism to teach qigong are sham. Please think about it. For several thousand years, the cultivation methods of Buddhism have remained unchanged. Would it be Buddhism if someone changed it? Cultivation methods aim to seriously cultivate Buddhas. In addition, they are extremely mystical, and a tiny change would lead to a muddle. Because the evolution process of cultivation energy is very complex and the human senses are nothing, one cannot cultivate himself depending on his senses. The religious formality for monks is a cultivation method, which will not belong to that school once changed. There is a great enlightened being in charge of each cultivation school, which has turned out in cultivation many great enlightened beings. Nobody dares to change the cultivation method of that school at will. And yet, what mighty virtues does a little qigong master have to cheat the master and change the school of cultivating Buddhas? Will it still belong to that school if it is really changed? The fake qigong could be distinguished. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Xuanguan-Shewei ( Placement of the Mysterious Pass) (Ðþ¹ØÉèλ) Placement of the Mysterious Pass is also called Xuanguan-Yiqiao (the One Aperture of the Mysterious Pass). Such terms can be found in the books of Danjing, Daozang, and Xingming Guizhi. Then, what is it all about? Many qigong masters cannot explain it. This is because on the level of an ordinary qigong master, he cannot see it at all and he is not allowed to see it. If a practitioner wants to see it, he has to reach beyond the plane of Wisdom Eye Sight to see it. An ordinary qigong master cannot reach this plane, and thus he cannot see it. Historically, the world of cultivation has been exploring what the Mysterious Pass (Ðþ¹Ø) is, where the One Aperture is and how to place it (Éèλ). From the books of Danjing, Daozang and Xingming Guizhi, you can find that they all talk about the theories this way and that way, but do not tell you the essence of it. They have talked you into confusion, and you are at a loss, for an ordinary person is not allowed to know the heart of the matter. In addition, let me tell everyone that because you are my disciples of Falun Dafa, I would say these words to you: do not read those heterodox qigong books. I do not refer to the above mentioned several ancient books, but to those fake qigong books written by the contemporary people. Do not even open them at all. If the idea flashes in your mind: well, this sentence seems to be reasonable, as soon as this has occurred to your mind, the evil spirit in the book will get onto you. Many books were written under the control of the evil spirit which manipulated the human desires for fame and gain. There are so many and considerably a lot of fake qigong books. Many people have no sense of responsibility, and some of the spirit possessed even write about things evil. Do not even read the several ancient books mentioned above as well as other related ancient books as it involves the issue of specializing only in one cultivation way. A head from the China Qigong Society once told me something that made me laugh a lot. He said that there was such a person in Beijing, who often went to qigong lectures. After listening to many talks, after quite a long time he felt that qigong was nothing more than what was said there. Because they were on the same level, they all talked about the same things. Like those sham qigong masters, he thought that the connotation of qigong was nothing more than that. Then, he wanted to write a qigong book. Please think about it. A non-qigong-practitioner would write a qigong book. Nowadays, the qigong books are copied from one to another. As his writing progressed, he got stuck at the issue of the Mysterious Pass. Who could understand what the Mysterious Pass is? Few genuine qigong masters understand it. He went to ask a sham qigong master. But actually he did not know this qigong master was sham because he himself knew nothing about qigong. This sham qigong master thought if he could not answer this question, people would know he was sham. Therefore, he dared to make up a story, saying that the One Aperture of the Mysterious Pass was at the tip of one's penis. It sounds very funny. Do not laugh. This book has already been published in the society. This is to say that qigong books today have reached such a ridiculous point. Just say what is the use of reading those books, no use, but they can only do harm to people. What is the Placement of the Mysterious Pass? While cultivating in Shi Jian Fa (ÊÀ¼ä·¨ the In- Triple- World-Law), when a person has reached beyond the middle stage, namely, on the high- level cultivation of the In-Triple-World-Law, he starts to grow Yuanying (the Primal Infant). It is different from what we have mentioned about Yinghai (Subtle Babies). Subtle Babies are tiny and playful, who run around. The Primal Infant cannot move. Yuanshen (the True Spirit) does not take control of it. It does not move, but sits cross-legged on the lotus with both hands conjoined. The Primal Infant is born in Dan Tian (the area of the lower abdomen), and can be seen when it is even smaller than the tip of a needle in the microcosmic state. In addition, another issue should be clarified. There is only one real Dan Tian at the lower abdomen area. It is located above the Huiyin acupuncture point below the belly inside a human body. A lot of cultivation energy, many supernormal capabilities, many magic techniques, the Law body (·¨Éí), the Primal Infant, Subtle Babies and a good many living entities are born here. Some individual practitioners in the past talked about the upper Dan Tian, the middle Dan Tian and the lower Dan Tian. I would say that they were wrong. Some people also said that their masters had taught this for generations, and it was in the books. Let me tell you that there was dross even in the ancient times. Although it has been inherited and passed on for years, it is not necessarily right. Some worldly small cultivation ways have always been passed around among ordinary people. Yet, they cannot cultivate, and they are nothing. Such a person calls it the upper Dan Tian, the middle Dan Tian, and the lower Dan Tian because he means to say that the place where Dan (the elixir) can be born is Dan Tian. Is this not a joke? When a human intention concentrates on one point, in the long run it will be able to develop an energy mass (ÄÜÁ¿ÍÅ) and the elixir will be born there. If you do not believe it, always concentrate your intention on your arm, and keep it that way, in the long run, the elixir will be born there. Therefore, some people saw this happening, and declared that Dan Tian exists everywhere. It fact, it is Dan (the elixir), but not Tian (the field). It is all right if you say Dan is everywhere, or there are the upper Dan, the middle Dan and the lower Dan. However, there is only one genuine Tian (the field) which can give birth to numerous Laws, and which is located in the field of the lower abdomen. Therefore, the way of saying the Upper Dan Tian, the middle Dan Tian and the lower Dan Tian is wrong. Dan will be born wherever you concentrate your intention for a long period of time. The Yuanying (Primal Infant) grows up slowly to become larger and larger from this Dan Tian of the lower abdomen area. When it grows to be as big as a pingpong ball, the whole shape of the body can be seen clearly with nose and eyes formed. At the same time when the Primal Infant is as big as a pingpong ball, a round bubble will be born next to it. Upon birth, the bubble will grow along with the Primal Infant. When the latter reaches 4 inches tall, a petal of lotus flower will appear. When it grows to be 5 or 6 inches, the petals of the lotus flower are basically formed. A layer of lotus flower has appeared. A shining golden Primal Infant sits in the golden plate of the lotus flower, looking very beautiful. This is the immortal body of a Vajra£ which is called the Buddha body in the Buddhas' School, or the Primal Infant in the Taoist School. Our cultivation school cultivates and requires both kinds of the bodies, and Benti (the True Being) also will be transformed. As you know, a Buddha body is not allowed to be seen among ordinary people. With some good effort, it could reveal its shape which an ordinary person's eyes can observe in the form of light. However, this body upon transformation appears to be the same as an ordinary person's body. An ordinary person can not find the changes but this body can pass through spaces. When Yuanying (the Primal Infant) has reached 4 to 5 inches, the air bubble has also grown to that height, which is transparent just like the skin of air balloon. The Primal Infant sits there without moving. When this big, the air bubble will leave Dan Tian, and it has grown to be mature. Therefore, it will ascend. The process of ascension is a very slow one. But its motion can be observed daily. It gradually moves up, rising higher and higher up. We can sense its existence with meticulous observation. When the air bubble rises to the acupuncture point of Shanzhong, it will stay there for a while because there is a lot of essence of a human body there (including the heart), a system of which will be formed in the air bubble. This essence will be supplied into the air bubble. After some time, it will again ascend. When it passes through the throat, one will feel suffocated as if the blood vessels were all blocked and swollen quite uncomfortably. This will last only for a couple of days. Then the air bubble will rise to the top of the head, which we call upper Niwan. It is said that it has reached Niwan. In fact, it is as large as your entire brain. Your head will feel swollen. Because Niwan is a very important place of a human life, the essence of it will also need to be formed in the air bubble. Then, the air bubble will try to squeeze its way out of the channel of the Celestial Eye, which makes you feel quite uncomfortable. The Celestial Eye will be squeezed to feel great pain, and the temples will also feel swollen with eyes feeling digging inward until it squeezes out and hangs in front of the forehead all at once. It hangs up there. This is what we mean by the Placement of the Mysterious Pass. By this time, the person whose Celestial Eye is open may not be able to see anything. The door is shut because cultivation in both the Buddhas' School and the Taoist School intends to speed up the formation of things inside the Mysterious Pass as soon as possible. There are two doors in the front as well as in the rear, both of which are closed. Like the gate way of Tian An Men, there are two big doors on both sides. In order to make it substantiated and form as soon as possible, the doors will not open unless under special circumstances. What one could see with his Celestial Eye will not be able to be seen or allowed to be seen at this point. What is the purpose of it hanging there? Because the hundreds of energy channels in our bodies meet here, they will go through the Mysterious Pass in a circle and go out. Their all going through the Mysterious Pass is aimed at laying some foundation and forming a system of certain things inside it. Because a human body is a small universe, it will produce a small world with all the human essence built in it. However, it only produces a set of equipment which cannot operate thoroughly yet. For the Cultivation Way of the Rare School, the Mysterious Pass is open. When it ejects out, it is a long tube which will become round gradually. So the doors in the front and in the rear are open. Because the cultivation system of the Rare School cultivates neither Buddhas nor the Tao, and they will have to protect themselves. In the Buddhas' School and the Taoist School, there are a great many masters, who can protect you, and you will not have to see to it, nor run into any problems. But the cultivation system of the Rare School cannot go this way. Their practitioners must protect themselves so they should be able to see with their Celestial Eyes all the time. But at that time, seeing with one's Celestial Eye is like seeing through a telescope. After a system of stuff has been formed in a month or so, it will begin to return to the inside. After it goes back to the inside, this will be called Xuanguan Huanwei (Ðþ¹Ø»»Î» Shift of the Mysterious Pass). When it returns to the inside, one will feel swollen and uncomfortable. Then, it will squeeze out of the acupuncture point of Yuzhen. This squeezing-out also makes one feel uncomfortable as if the head had been split open. When it comes out all at once, and then you will feel relaxed immediately. Upon coming out, it will hang in the very deep space, and exist in the body formation of the very deep space. Therefore, one would not feel it during sleep. However, one thing that one could feel is that there seems to be something in front of his eyes during the first Xuanguan Shewei (Ðþ¹ØÉèλ the Placement of the Mysterious Pass). Though it is in another space, one would usually feel his eyes are blurred as if something had covered them, and he does not feel comfortable. Because the acupuncture point Yuzhen is a key point, a system of stuff will also be formed in the rear, and then it will start to go back again. This Xuanguan Yiqiao (the one aperture of the Mysterious Pass) in fact is not only one aperture as it will change positions many times. When it returns to Niwan, it will begin to descend in the body until it arrives at the acupuncture point of Mingmen. It will then be projected out of the Mingmen. The Mingmen point of the human body is a major key qiao (aperture), which is called qiao in the Taoist School, and guan ( pass) by us. It is a major principal pass which is like an iron door of many layers. We all know that the human body is layer upon layer. The flesh cells of ours is one layer, the molecules inside is another. Every plane has a layer of gates, the atom, the proton, the electron, the infinitely small, till the extremely small particle. Therefore, there are numerous supernormal capabilities and many magic powers locked inside the gate of each layer. Other cultivation ways cultivate Dan (the elixir). When the elixir is going to explode, the Mingmen point must be blasted open. If it is not opened, the supernormal capabilities will not be able to be released. After the Mysterious Pass forms a system at the Mingmen point, it will return inside the body. Then, it will return to the lower abdomen area. This is called Xuanguan Guiwei (Ðþ¹Ø¹éλ Return of the Mysterious Pass). After its return, the Mysterious Pass does not go back to the original place. By then, the Primal Infant has grown to be quite large. The air bubble will cover and wrap it up. As the Primal Infant grows, it also grows. Often in the Taoist School, when the Primal Infant grows to be as big as a 6 to 7 year-old child, it will be allowed to leave the human body, which is called Yuanying Chushi (The Primal Infant is born into the world). It will be controlled by the human Yuanshen (the True Spirit). In this way it can move around outside the body. One's body does not move, and his True Spirit will come out. Generally, a Primal Infant of the Buddhas' School will be out of any danger when it has cultivated to be as big as the practitioner himself. At this time, it will usually be allowed to leave one's body and come out. By then, the Primal Infant has grown to be as large as the practitioner himself, and the cover is also large. The cover which is Xuanguan (the Mysterious Pass) has already expanded to the outside of one's body. Because the Primal Infant has grown to be so large, it will certainly expand to the outside of one's body. Perhaps, you have seen the Buddha image in the temple in which the former is always inside a circle. In particular, the portrait of a Buddha image always has a circle in which the Buddha sits. The same is true of a great many Buddha images; especially those portraits of the Buddha images in an ancient temple are always like that. Nobody could explain clearly why the Buddha sits inside the circle. Let me tell you that this is Xuanguan (the Mysterious Pass). However, it is not called Xuanguan by now. It is called a world, though not yet an actual world. It only has this set of equipment. Just like a factory, there is only a set of equipment but it has no capability of production. There must be some power and raw materials before it can start production. A few years ago many practitioners said that: my cultivation energy is higher than a Bodhisattva, or my cultivation energy is higher than a Buddha. Others would think it is too abstruse. In fact, what such a person said is not at all abstruse as cultivation energy indeed must be cultivated to be very high in this world. Why, then, is there such a situation that one has cultivated to be higher than a Buddha? It could not be understood superficially. His cultivation energy is indeed very high. Because when he has cultivated to reach a very high level, and reached the time to open his cultivation energy and become enlightened (¿ª¹¦¿ªÎò), his cultivation energy is indeed very high. Just at the moment prior to his enlightenment, 80% of his cultivation energy will be taken down together with his Xinxing standard as this energy is used to substantiate this world of his, his own world. We all know that a practitioner's cultivation energy especially plus his Xinxing standard has been cultivated out through a great deal of lifelong sufferings, hardships and tribulations under the harsh environments. Therefore, it is extremely valuable. 80% of such a valuable stuff is used to substantiate his world. As a result, when he succeeds in his cultivation in the future, he will get what he wants when he holds his hands out, and will have anything he wants. He will do anything he wants as there is everything in his world. These are his mighty virtues which are attained through his cultivation after suffering. This energy of his could be transformed into anything. Therefore, if a Buddha wants something, eats something, plays with something, he will have it. This is from his own cultivation, which is Fowei (·ðλ the Buddha status). Without this he will not succeed in cultivation. By this time it could be called his own world, and he will reach the consummation and attain the Tao only with the 20% of his left cultivation energy. Though only 20% of cultivation energy is left, his body is not locked. He either will have his body or not have it. But his body has already been transformed by the high energy substance. At this time he will have supernatural powers and become extremely powerful. While cultivating among ordinary people, such a person is often locked, and does not have such capabilities. No matter how high his cultivation energy is, it will be restricted. Now, it is different. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next:Lecture Five Up:Contents Previous:Lecture Three ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [NOTE: The strange characters are Chinese in GB code] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next:Lecture Six Up:Contents Previous:Lecture Four ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lecture Five Configuration of Falun Rare Cultivation Way Cultivation of the Evil Way Double Cultivation of a Man and a Woman Integrated Cultivation of Both Human Life and Nature Law Body Light-Opening Zhu You Ke (Subject of Supplication) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Configuration of Falun (·¨ÂÖͼÐÎ) The symbol of our Falun Dafa is Falun. Those with supernormal capabilities can see Falun revolving. The same is true of our Falun badge which is also rotating. We cultivate under the guidance of the cosmic qualities, Zhen Shan Ren (ÕæÉÆÈÌ), and according to the principles of the cosmic evolution. Therefore, we cultivate something really enormous. In a sense, the configuration of Falun is the miniature of the universe. The Buddhas' School conceptualizes the universe as the Ten Directions with four sides and eight directions. Perhaps, some people can see a vertical energy pillar above and below Falun, which just makes up the Ten Directions plus the above and the below, which constitute the universe and stand for the Buddhas' School's summarization of the universe. This universe, of course, consists of numerous galaxies including our Milky Way galaxy. The whole universe is in motion, and so are all the galaxies within it. Therefore, the Taiji and the small signs of swastika " " in the configuration as well as the whole Falun are also rotating, including the large swastika sign of " " in the center. In a way, it symbolizes our Milky Way galaxy. Because we belong to the Buddhas' School, the center retains the symbol of the Buddhas' School, when seen from the appearance. All substances have their own existing forms in other spaces in which they have an extremely plentiful and complex process of evolution and form of existence. This configuration of Falun is the miniature of the universe and has its own form of existence and process of evolution in each of other spaces. Therefore, I call it a world. When Falun rotates clockwise, it can automatically absorb energy from the universe. While rotating counter clockwise, it can give off energy. Internal clockwise rotation offers self-salvation while external rotation offers salvation to others. This is the feature of our cultivation way. Some people have said that why there should be Taiji since we belong to the Buddhas' School? Doesn't Taiji belong to the Taoist School? This is because we cultivate something very immense, and as good as cultivate the whole universe. Then, think about it. This universe consists of the two large schools, the Buddhas' School and the Taoist School. Excluding either of them would not make up a complete universe and such a universe could not be said to be complete. As a result, we have included what belongs to the Taoist School. Still some people say that in addition to just the Taoist School, there are other religions such as Christianity, Confucianism, etc.. Let me tell you that Confucianism belongs to the Taoist School after its cultivation reaching the extremely high dimension while many of Western religions fall into the Buddhas' School and belong to the same system of the Buddhas' School when reaching the very high dimension. There are just such two major schools. Then, why are there two Taiji patterns with their upper halves red and lower halves blue, and another two Taiji patterns with their upper halves red and lower halves black? What we generally understand is the knowledge that Taiji is composed of the two substances of black and white, the Yin and the Yang. That perception comes from a very low level as its manifestation varies from space to space. Such are its colours as displayed at the supreme level. The Tao we generally regard as has such colours as its upper part red and lower part black. For instance, some of our cultivators have opened their Celestial Eyes, and discovered that the red colour they see with their eyes is green seen in the space next to ours. The golden colour is seen to be purple in another space. There is such a contrast, i.e. its colours differ from space to space. The Taiji with its upper part red and lower part blue belongs to the School of the Primordial Great Tao, which includes the Rare Cultivation Way. The four small swastika signs " " on the four sides belong to the Buddhas' School, which are just the same as the one in the middle, all belonging to the Buddhas' School. The colour of this Falun is relatively bright and we use it as the emblem of Falun Dafa. The Falun we see through our Celestial Eyes is not necessarily the same in colours because the background colour will change while its pattern remains the same. When the Falun that I have planted in your lower abdomen area is spinning, your celestial eye may see it as red, or purple, or green, or perhaps colourless. Its background colour keeps changing with the colours of red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, blue, and purple. That's why what you see may be of different colours while the swastika signs " " inside, and the colours and the patterns of Taiji will remain the same. We feel that this background colour of the pattern looks nice, and therefore we have fixed it. Those with supernormal capabilities can transcend this space and see a lot of things. Some people have mentioned that this swastika sign " " looks like that of Hitler's. Now I'd like to tell you that this sign itself does not connote any class concepts. Some people say that if this corner tilted to this side, it would be Hitler's stuff. This does not matter as both sides rotate. It was 2500 years ago in Sakyamuni's time that our human society came to recognize this sign widely. It is but a few decades from Hitler's time during the World War II up till now. He usurped this sign. But his is black in colour, and different from ours. Moreover, his sign stands upright with the points facing up. That's all for this Falun. We have only mentioned the form of its appearance. What, then, does this swastika " " symbolize in our Buddhas' School? Some people say that it resembles good fortune, but this is an interpretation of ordinary people. Let me tell you that " " is a sign of a Buddha's status of achievement. Only when one reaches the Buddha's status can he have it. A Bodhisattva and an Arhat do not have it. Yet, senior Bodhisattvas and the four senior Bodhisattvas all have it. We can see that these senior Bodhisattvas are far above the status of ordinary Buddhas, even above Tathagatas. There are numerous Buddhas above the status of Tathagata who has only one swastika " ". Those who have reached beyond the status of Tathagata have more and more swastikas " ". A Buddha whose status is twice as high as a Tathagata will have two swastikas " ". Those who are even higher will have three, or four, or five......etc.. They have so many of it which can be found all over their bodies, on the head, shoulders, knees. There are so many of it that it will even appear on the palms, fingers, foot arches and toes, etc.. With the status rising higher and higher, the swastikas " " will increase continuously. Therefore, the sign " " represents the status of a Buddha. The higher the status of a Buddha, the more signs " " he would have. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rare Cultivation Way (ÆæÃŹ¦·¨) In addition to the Buddhas' School and the Taoist School, there is a Rare Cultivation Way which labels itself as the Rare Cultivation. There is such a conventional belief on the issue of cultivation methods: from the ancient China to this day, people have been regarding the Buddhas' School and the Taoist School as the orthodox cultivation ways, and also calling them the cultivation of the Orthodox School. This Rare Cultivation Way has never brought itself open to the public, and therefore very few people know its existence. People learn about it only from literary works. Is there the Rare Cultivation Way? Yes. In the course of my cultivation, especially in later years, I ran into three highly accomplished masters of the Rare School, who imparted to me the best of their school which is extraordinarily unique and remarkable. It is simply because what it cultivates is very unique, what it achieves in cultivation is very strange and cannot be understood by ordinary people. In addition, they claim that they belong to neither the Buddhas' School nor the Taoist School. They do not cultivate the Buddha or the Tao. When people hear they cultivate neither the Buddha nor the Tao, they label the school as Pangmen Zuodao (the Heterodox School). They call themselves the Cultivation Way of the Rare School. The term of Pangmen Zuodao has a pejorative connotation, but it does not carry a negative meaning as it does not mean that the Rare School cultivates the evil way. This is beyond doubt. It does not imply the evil Way in its literal meaning, either. Through the ages the Buddhas' School and the Taoist School have been named the orthodox cultivation ways. Before people come to understand this cultivation way, it is said to be Pangmen, or sidedoor, not the door to the Orthodox School. What about Zuodao then? Zuo means clumsy, the clumsy way. As the word Zuo in the ancient Chinese vocabulary was often used as "clumsy", Pangmen Zuodao carries such an inference. Why isn't it an evil way? Because it also has strict requirement of Xinxing (ÐÄÐÔ). Its cultivation is also based upon the cosmic qualities. It does not violate the cosmic qualities as well as the cosmic Laws, nor does it do anything wrong. Therefore, we cannot say it is an evil way. It is not because the fundamental qualities of our universe conform to the cultivation ways of the Buddhas' School and the Taoist School, but it is because both of their cultivation ways conform to the cosmic qualities that they have become orthodox schools. Since the cultivation of the Rare Cultivation Way is required to conform to the fundamental qualities of the universe, it is not an evil way, but an orthodox way all the same, because the criterion to measure what is good or what is bad, what is good or what is evil are the cosmic qualities. Since it cultivates according to the cosmic qualities, it also follows a correct course, however the features of its requirements differ from those of Buddhas' School and the Taoist School. Nor does it believe in teaching many students, but it is taught to a limited number of students . The Taoist Cultivation Way is handed down by teaching a large number of students but only one of them receives true teachings. The Buddhas' School teaches the salvation of all living beings. Whoever wants to cultivate himself can do so. While handing down its cultivation way, the Rare Cultivation Way never chooses two people, but only one person as its disciple in a considerably long period of time in history. For this reason, what is possessed is never shown to ordinary people in history. As a matter of fact, when qigong reached its height, I found that a few people from this cultivation way also came out to teach qigong. However, as they were doing the teaching, they found that they were actually doing the impossible because there were some things that their masters did not at all allow them to teach to the public. If they wanted to make it public, they could not select disciples because people who had come had different levels of Xinxing. They would not be able to choose disciples because they had various kinds of people who had come with different mentalities. Therefore, it is impossible for the Rare Cultivation Way to be popularized, and it is liable to invite danger, for what it cultivates is extremely unique. Some people think that the Buddhas' School cultivates Buddhas while the Taoist School cultivates immortals. Then what does the Rare Cultivation Way cultivate to become after all? They cultivate to become wandering immortals without a definite territory of a cosmic world. We all know that Tathagata, Sakyamuni has his Saha Paradise, Buddha Amitabha has his Paradise of Ultimate Bliss, and Bhaishajyaguru has his Glazed Paradise. Each Tathagata or great Buddha has his own paradise. Every great enlightened being has a paradise of his own construction with many disciples of his living in it, while the Rare Cultivation Way has no definite territory of a cosmos, and they are simply like traveling gods or wandering immortals. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cultivation of the Evil Way (Áа·¨) What is the cultivation of the evil way? There are several such forms: There is one kind of people who specialize in cultivating the evil way, for it has been taught through the ages. Why do they teach this? Because they are bent on fame and gain and making fortunes with ordinary people. They are interested in this. Of course such people will not gain cultivation energy because their Xinxing is not high. What will they gain then? Karma. When one's karma accumulates to a certain amount, it will also become a kind of energy. However, he is not in possession of attainment level. He is no comparison with a cultivator, but in comparison with an ordinary person he has the ability to regulate the latter. This is because such a thing is also the representation of energy which can play such a role of being able to strengthen the supernormal capabilities of the human body when its density becomes great. This is why there still have been some people who teach such a thing through the ages. Such a person says: I will increase my cultivation energy by doing wrong and swearing. He does not increase his cultivation energy; in fact, he increases the density of this black substance because doing wrong could gain the black substance --- karma. So he can also enable those bits of petty supernormal capabilities he carries along himself to be reinforced by such karma, and can also produce bits of petty supernormal capabilities, which cannot do anything significant. Such people hold that committing wrongdoings can also increase cultivation energy, and they have such a conviction. Some people talk about the so-called "The Tao grew one foot but the demon grew by ten." This is but a fallacy by ordinary people. The demon will never be above the Tao. There is such a fact that the universe our mankind knows is only a small one of the numerous universes, and we call it the universe in short. Each time after a long period of time of the remote past, this universe will always experience a cosmic catastrophe, which can destroy everything in it, including stars and all life in the universe, which may be destroyed. There is also a law governing the motion of the universe. For our present cycle of the universe, it is not only the mankind that has been going evil as many lives have already perceived an occurrence of the situation for the time being, that a big explosion has taken place in this cosmic space long before. The reason why astronomers today cannot see this is that what we see when we now use the most powerful telescope to observe it is the scene of 150000 light years ago. If you want to see what changes have taken place to the celestial bodies, you will have to wait until 150000 light years later. This is indeed a very remote future ahead. By now the whole universe has already undergone a great change. Each time such a change took place, all life in the whole universe would be annihilated and lie in ruins. Each time such an explosion came, such qualities existing previously in the universe as well as the substances inside would be totally blown up. Ordinary lives would be killed in the explosion. Somehow each time the explosion did not wipe out everything completely. When a new universe was reconstructed by the extremely high dimensional enlightened beings, there in the new universe would be some that had not been killed in the explosion. These great enlightened beings would reconstruct the universe according to their own characteristics and build the universe according to their own criteria. Therefore, their cosmic qualities were quite different from those of the last. Those who have survived the explosion will hold on to the previous characteristics and principles and act upon them in this universe. But the newly-constructed universe acts in accordance with the new cosmic qualities, the Law. Thus, those who survived the explosion have become demons that interfere with the Law of the universe. However, they are not that bad as they simply act upon the cosmic qualities of the previous cycle. They are what people refer to as the Heavenly Demons. Nevertheless, they do not pose a threat to ordinary people, nor do they harm people at all. They only stick to the Law of their own and act upon it. Ordinary people were not allowed to know this in the past. I say that there are so numerous Buddhas whose status are far above that of Tathagata. What does that demon count? In comparison it is a very, very tiny. Old age, diseases and death are also a kind of demons. Yet they were born to maintain the cosmic qualities. Buddhism teaches the logic of the Sixfold Path of Transmigration, which speaks of the issue of the Path of Asura (malevolent spirits). This actually refers to the living beings of a different space, which, however, do not bear human nature. In the eye of a great enlightened one, they are of extremely low levels and devastatingly impotent. However, they are terrifying in the eyes of ordinary people. They have certain amount of energy. They regard ordinary people as a kind of beasts, and therefore enjoy eating human beings. Over the past few years they also came out to teach qigong. But what sort of things do they belong to? How could they look like human beings? It is frightening to learn what belongs to them because you will have to go with them and become their species. When some people had wrong views in mind, which became identical with theirs while practising qigong, they would come to teach these people. One righteousness will overwhelm a hundred evils. If you do not seek after anything, no one will dare to bother you. If you harbour evil intentions, going after something wrong, they will come to help you, and such a problem will arise that you will cultivate yourself in the world of demons. Another situation is called the unconscious cultivation of the evil way. What is meant by the unconscious cultivation of the evil way? It refers to a person practising the evil way without realizing it. This is a common occurrence, which is simply beyond number. Just as I told you the other day, there are a good many people who practise qigong with wrong ideas in mind though you can see them standing in pile stance there with hands and legs shaking from fatigue. But such a person keeps a busy mind, thinking: the prices are going up and I need to go shopping upon completing my practice in case of a price rise. Another one may think: my work unit is now allotting dwelling houses. Is there a share of the houses for me? Well, the person in charge of housing allocation is all at odds with me. The more he thinks about it, the angrier he becomes. He will not give me any share for sure, and how should I argue with...... all thoughts have cropped up this way. Just as I said, they chat about things from their home issues all the way to the state affairs, getting angrier and angrier with those unpleasant subjects. Practising qigong requires to value De (µÂ virtues). While practising the exercise, if you are not thinking about anything good, you cannot think about anything bad either; and it is best for you not to think about anything at all. Low-level qigong practice requires laying a foundation, which will play a critical role as human intention has a certain part to play. Think about it. If you add something to our cultivation energy, can what you practise be good? Can it be other than something black? How many people are there who practise qigong without such ideas? Why do you always practise qigong without eradicating your diseases? Though some people may not think about those bad things in the practice ground, they always carry with them a variety of attachments and strong desires for supernormal capabilities, for this or for that, while doing the practice. Actually, they have already practised the evil way unconsciously. If you tell such a person that he is practising the evil way, he would feel very unhappy: I was taught by a certain qigong master. But that qigong master told you to value virtues. Did you listen to him? While practising qigong you always pitch in some bad intentions. How could you, you tell me, come out with anything good from your cultivation? This is the problem which belongs to practising the evil way unconsciously, and which is very common. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Double Cultivation of a Man and a Woman £¨ÄÐŮ˫ÐÞ£© In the world of cultivation there is such a cultivation way called double cultivation of a man and a woman. People may have seen in the cultivation way of the Tibetan Tantrism or in the Buddha sculptures or paintings a male body holding a female body engaged in cultivation. Sometimes the male body takes on the look of a Buddha holding a naked woman. Some may be transformations of Buddhas with the image of a Vajra of the ox-head and horse-face, also holding an undressed female body. Why are there these? We shall first explain this to you. On our earth our mankind as a whole, including the ancient times of a few centuries ago, have similar moral values, and it is not only China that has been influenced by Confucianism. So, such a cultivation way as a matter of fact did not come from this earth of ours. It came from another planet, but such a method can indeed make cultivation possible. When such a cultivation way was introduced into China then, it could not be accepted by the Chinese people just because it had double cultivation of a man and a woman as well as some parts of Tantrism. So it was abolished by the Chinese emperor during the Hui-Chang time of the Tang Dynasty. It was then called Tang Tantrism and was forbidden to be taught in the interior of China. However, it settled down in Tibet with its special environment and unique region. Why do they cultivate this way? The purpose of double cultivation of a man and a woman is to reach a balance between Yin and Yang through collecting Yin to compensate for Yang and vice versa, making a mutual compensation for mutual cultivation. Everybody knows that the theory of Yin and Yang by both schools, whether the Buddhas' School or the Taoist School, especially the latter says that the human body itself has Yin and Yang. Because the human body has Yin and Yang, it can evolve into a variety of supernormal capabilities, intelligent entities like Yuanying (Primal Infant), Yinghai (Subtle Babies) and Law bodies through cultivation. Because of the existence of Yin and Yang the human body can develop through cultivation a great many intelligent entities. It will be the same either for a male body or a female body that they can grow up in the field of Dan Tian. This statement is quite true. The Taoist School often regards the upper part of the body as Yang and the lower part of the body as Yin; some of them also regard the back of the body as Yang and the front part as Yin; some others regard the left side of the body as Yang and the right side as Yin. In China, we have this way of saying that the left side of the body is male and the right side of it is female, which also came from here, and which is quite true. Since the human body itself has Yin and Yang and through the interaction of Yin and Yang, the body itself can reach a balance between Yin and Yang, and thus can evolve into a great many intelligent entities. This can justify a matter of fact: Without adopting the method of double cultivation of a male and a female we can also cultivate into a very high dimension. If the way of double cultivation of a man and a woman is used in practice, if it is out of control, the practitioners will incur demonic interference, and it will thus become the evil way. If the very high level Tantrism wants to resort to the double cultivation of a man and a woman, then the monk or the lama is required to have cultivated into a very high dimension. By then his master will take care of him in such a way of cultivation. Because his Xinxing is very high, he can conduct himself well, and will not drift into the practice of the evil way. While the people of very low Xinxing (ÐÄÐÔ) should never resort to such a cultivation way, otherwise they are sure to enter into the evil way. Such a cultivation way is certain to go evil if used because one's Xinxing is limited, he does not let go of his attachments and desires up to the standard of the ordinary people's mentality, and he does not give up his lust, either. This is a yardstick to measure his Xinxing. So we say that teaching this cultivation way at the low level as you like means teaching the evil way. These years have seen quite a number of qigong masters teaching the double cultivation of a male and a female. What is so odd then? The way of double cultivation of a man and a woman has also made its appearance in the Taoist School. It is not at present that it has appeared, but it began in the Tang Dynasty. How could the Taoist School start to do the double cultivation of a man and a woman? According to the Taiji theory of the Taoist School, the human body is a small universe which itself has Yin and Yang. All genuine orthodox great Laws have been passed down since the remote past. Any casual alterations or any casual input will mess up what belongs to that particular school, and therefore will make it impossible to reach the goal of consummation in cultivation. So, if a cultivation way has no such thing as the double cultivation of a man and a woman, never do it in cultivation. Otherwise you will go deviant and get into trouble. Especially in our school, Falun Dafa, there is no double cultivation of a man and a woman, and we do not teach this either. This is how we look at this issue. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Integrated Cultivation of Both Human Life and Nature £¨ÐÔÃüË«ÐÞ£© The issue of the integrated cultivation of both human nature and life has already been expounded to you all. The integrated cultivation of both human nature and life means the cultivation of life apart from that of Xinxing, that is to say, the transformation of Benti (±¾Ìå the True Being). In the process of this transformation human cells will be gradually replaced by the high energy substance, and aging will be slowed down. The body will start returning towards the young, gradually returning and being transformed until it has been completely replaced by the high energy substance in the end. By then, this human body has already been transformed into the body of another substance. Such a body, just as I said, has gone out of the Five Elements. Since it is no longer confined to the Five Elements, his body will really become immortal. Cultivation in the temple only deals with the cultivation of nature, and therefore it does not teach the practice of exercise nor the cultivation of life. It teaches Nirvana. The method that Sakyamuni taught just requires Nirvana. But the fact is that Sakyamuni himself had his own profound and great Law, and his Benti (True Being) could absolutely have been transformed into the high energy substance and taken away with him. In order to leave such a cultivation method behind, he entered into Nirvana. Why did he do teaching this way? He just aimed to get people maximally to give up all attachments and everything, including the bodies in the end, and to let go of all their desires. To get people maximally to do this, he took the way of Nirvana. Therefore monks through the ages all have taken the way of Nirvana. Nirvana means the death of the monk, abandoning his physical body while his Yuanshen (ÔªÉñ True Spirit) ascends with his cultivation energy. The Taoist School emphasizes on the cultivation of life. Because it does not teach the salvation of all sentient beings, but it selects disciples, facing extremely good people. So it teaches things of magic skills, and teaches how to cultivate life. But as regards the particular cultivation system of the Buddhas' School, especially the cultivation system of Buddhism, this is out of the question. Not all these systems do not teach the cultivation of life, many of the high dimension and profound great Laws of the Buddhas' School also teach this, including our school. The school of our Falun Dafa wants to have Benti (the True Being), and Yuanying (the Primal Infant) as well. These two are different from each other. The Primal Infant is also a body composed of the high- energy substance. But it cannot reveal itself freely in this space of ours. However, if we want to maintain the same images as ordinary people's, we must have our Benti (True Being). Therefore, after the transformation of this Benti, the order of its molecular arrangement remains unchanged though its cells have been replaced by the high energy substance. So the body looks similar to that of an ordinary person. Yet there is still a difference, that is to say, this body can enter other spaces. One looks very young in appearance who practises the integrated cultivation of both human life and nature. Such a person looks a great deal younger than his actual age. One day somebody asked me: master, how old do you think I am? As a matter of fact, she is approaching 70 years old, but she looked only over 40 years old, her face smooth without wrinkles, a fair complexion glowing with health. She did not at all look like a person approaching 70 years old. This is likely to happen to our people who cultivate our Falun Dafa. To tell a joke, young girls are always keen on going to a beauty parlour, hoping to change their complexion for the better, the fairer. Let me tell you that if you genuinely do the cultivation way of the integrated cultivation of both human life and nature, you will naturally reach this goal. I assure you will not have to go to a beauty parlour. We are not going to give more examples in this aspect. Because there were relatively more senior comrades from all trades and professions, they regarded me as a young man. Now things are getting better, there are relatively more young people here from all walks of life. In fact, I am not young either. I am already 43 year old and getting on for 50. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Law Body (·¨Éí) Why is there a field over the image of Buddha? Many people cannot explain it. Also some people say that there is a field over the image of Buddha because the monks have chanted scriptures to it, that is to say, the monks cultivate themselves in front of it, and there has been the field as a result. Whether a monk or anybody else is cultivating himself, however, such an energy is scattering and not directional. In that case, there should be even and equal fields over the floor, the ceilings and the walls of the whole temple's hall. Why, then, should the field over the image of Buddha be so strong? There is often a field existing especially over a sculptured image of Buddha in deep mountains or in a certain mountain cave or on certain rocks. Why should there have come this field? Some people interpret it this way or that way, but they can never make themselves understood. The fact is that there is that field over the image of Buddha because there is the Law body of an enlightened being over it. Because that enlightened being's Law body is there, it has energy. Just think about it: Wasn't either Sakyamuni or Bodhisattva Guanyin a practitioner when he or she was cultivating if they really existed in history? When a person has reached in cultivation a certain dimension considerably higher than Chu Shi Jian Fa (³öÊÀ¼ä·¨ the Beyond-Triple-World- Law), the Law body will be born. The Law body is born in the part of Dan Tian of the human body, and it is made up of the Law and the cultivation energy, which presents itself in other spaces. The Law body has great power of its own, but its consciousness and its thinking are under the control of the person. However, the Law body itself is a complete, independent and realistic individual life. Therefore it can do anything independently on its own. What the Law body does is the same as what the person's Main Consciousness wants to do, exactly the same. The way the person himself does the thing is the same as the way the Law body does it. This is what we refer to as the Law body. What I want to do, for example, putting right the bodies of my disciples who genuinely cultivate themselves will all be done by my Law bodies. Because the Law body does not carry an ordinary person's body, it is performed in other spaces. This intelligent being does not remain unchanged all the time, but it can become large or small. Sometimes it grows so huge that it is impossible to see the whole head of the Law body. Sometimes it becomes very tiny, more tiny than a cell. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Light-Opening £¨¿ª¹â£© Images of Buddha made in factories are but art works. Light-opening means inviting a Buddha's Law body onto the image of Buddha, which, then, will be enshrined and worshipped as a visible Buddha body among ordinary people. As the practitioner has such a heart of reverence, the Law body of the image of Buddha will guard the Law for him, look after him and protect him during his practice. This is the real purpose of light-opening. Only the right thinking given out at a formal light-opening ceremony, or a great enlightened one in the very high dimension or a person who is cultivating himself in the very high dimension and has such a power can do such a thing. The temples teach that images of Buddha require light-opening and say that the images will not make their powers felt without light-opening. Nowadays, those genuine great masters among the monks in temples have all passed away. After the "Great Cultural Revolution", some former small monks who had not received any true teachings have now taken charge in temples, and a lot has not been handed down from past generations. If you ask him what the purpose of light-opening is, he will say that the image of Buddha will make its powers felt when it has light-opened. He cannot tell the reason why it will make its powers felt. In this way he merely holds a ceremony, at which he puts a small Buddhist sutra into the image of Buddha, seals it with paper, and then chants scriptures towards it. He calls this light-opening. But can this result in light-opening? That depends upon how he is chanting the scriptures. Sakyamuni taught the right mindfulness, chanting scriptures with full concentration in order to be really able to shake the paradise one's cultivation school belongs to and invite the enlightened one. Only when one of the enlightened one's Law bodies gets onto the image of Buddha can the purpose of light opening be reached. While chanting scriptures some monks are thinking about: how much money will they pay me after I have finished light-opening after a while? Or while chanting scriptures, he is turning over in the mind: so and so is so bad to me. There is also intriguing against each other even in a temple. Such a phenomenon has to be accepted as a fact as we are now in the Period of Decline. We are not here criticizing Buddhism. However, in the Period of Decline there are no peace and seclusion at all in some temples. How can the enlightened one come when such things turn up in the mind of the monk, and such evil ideas come into his mind? As a result, light-opening is out of the question. But this is not always the case. There are still exceptional good temples and Taoist temples. I saw in x city a monk whose hands were pitch-black. He put a sutra into the image of Buddha and managed to seal it. After murmuring a few words, the light-opening was over. Then he picked up another image of Buddha and murmured a few words again. He charged 40 yuan for the light- opening of one image of Buddha. Monks nowadays have commercialized the light-opening and they make a fortune out of it. When I looked at it, I found it had not been light-opened yet because he would not be able to do so at all. Monks now go so far as to do such a thing! And what else did I see? There was a person who seemed to be a lay Buddhist, in a temple, and it was said that he was going to do the light-opening for the image of Buddha. He held a mirror in the sun to reflect the sunlight up on the image of Buddha, and then he said that he had light-opened it. It became so ridiculous. Today Buddhism has gone to such a stage that this has become quite a common phenomenon. A huge bronze image of Buddha was made in Nanjing and it was put up on Lantau Island, Hong Kong. It is indeed a huge image of Buddha. A great many monks came from all parts of the world to do light- opening for it. One of the monks held a mirror in the sun to reflect the sunlight on the face of the image of Buddha, saying this was light-opening. They went so far as to do such a thing at such a grand gathering and on such a solemn occasion! I felt very sad about this. No wonder Sakyamuni said the monks have great difficulty saving themselves, let alone offering salvation to other sentient beings during the Period of Decline. Moreover, quite a good many monks interpret Buddha scriptures in their own perspective, and even the scripture of the Lady Queen Mother has found its way into the temples. What does not belong to Buddhist classics has all gone to the temples, causing chaos and confusion now. Of course there are still monks who are truly cultivating themselves and credit-worthy. Actually, light- opening means inviting an enlightened being's Law body to stay on the image of Buddha. This is what we mean by light- opening. For this reason, an image of Buddha can not be worshipped if it has not been light-opened. Worshipping such an image will bring about serious consequence. What consequence then? People who study the science of the human body now have discovered that our human intention and the thinking of a human brain can generate a substance. And as we look at it from a very high dimension, we can see it is indeed a substance. Yet it does not seem to be a form of brain wave we have discovered in our studies. Instead, it exists in the form of a complete human brain. Since the thing of a brain form produced when an ordinary person is thinking has no energy, it scatters shortly after it is given out. However, a practitioner's energy will remain much longer. It does not mean that this image of Buddha has got its mind the moment it is turned out from the factory. Not yet. Some of the images of Buddha have not been light-opened, nor have they attained the purpose of being light-opened when they are taken into the temple. If light-opening is done by a certain sham qigong master or a person of dishonest practices, there will be all the greater danger: foxes and weasels will get onto the image of Buddha. Therefore it would be extremely dangerous for you to worship an image of Buddha, which has not yet been light-opened. How dangerous could it be? As I have pointed out, so far as mankind has developed up till today, everything is deteriorating; the whole society, everything in the whole universe is deteriorating in succession. Everything that happens to ordinary people is caused by themselves. It is very difficult to pursue the Orthodox Law and to follow the right course because interference could come from many aspects. You wish to follow Buddha, but who is Buddha? It is very difficult even to wish to do so. If you don't believe, let me tell you: There would be serious consequence if the first person prostrates himself to worship the image of Buddha that has not been light-opened yet. How many of the people who are worshipping Buddhas are thinking about asking the Buddhas to help them complete the true achievement nowadays? There are very few such people. What are the purposes of worshipping Buddhas for most people? They seek to eliminate disasters, dispel misfortunes and make fortunes. These are what they pursue. But can all this be found in the classics of Buddhism? There are definitely no things of this level at all. If the Buddha-worshipper seeks after money and he prostrates himself to the image of Buddha or the image of Bodhisattva Guanyin (Avalokitesvara) or the image of Tathagata, saying: could you help me make some money, please? Well, a complete intention of the mind is then formed. Since such an intention of his is given out directly to the image of Buddha, it will immediately get onto it. The formation of the image in another space can become big or small. When the intention of the mind rests upon the formation, the image of Buddha will then have a brain, and thus can think, but it has no body. Others also come to worship it, and more and more such worshipping will provide it with a certain amount of energy. It is especially more dangerous for a practitioner to worship it, for the worshipping will gradually give it energy, which will form a tangible body. But such a tangible body is formed in another space. It stays in another space after it comes into being, and it is able to know a little truth of the universe, therefore it can do something for people, and in this way it can also increase a little energy. But it helps people with preconditions and requirements. In another space it moves all freely and it can control ordinary people easily and freely. This tangible body looks exactly the same as the image of the Buddha. It is people's worshipping that gives birth to the sham Bodhisattva Guangyin, the sham Tathagata, which looks just like the image of Buddha and has the appearance of the Buddha, but which results from people's worshipping. Yet the mind of the phony Buddha or the phony Budhisattva is extremely bad. It is after money. It was born in another space, and has a mind. As it knows a little about the truth it dares not commit major wrongdoings, but it dares to commit minor ones. Sometimes, it also helps people, otherwise it will become out-and-out evil, and will be killed. How does it help people? Someone says: I pray to the Buddha for help. Please help x in my family. He is ill. Well, it will help you. It causes you to throw money into the Donation Box as its mind is after money. The more money you throw into the Donation Box, the sooner the illness will be gone. It can manipulate an ordinary person in another space because it possesses a certain amount of energy. It is especially more dangerous for a practitioner to worship it. What is the practitioner seeking after? Money. Let's think about it: what does a practitioner seek money for ? It is an attachment to affection and intimacy for a practitioner even to seek to eliminate disasters or illnesses for his family or friends, for everybody has his own fate! How could he manipulate others' destiny? If you want to worship it, praying: please help me make some money. Well, it will help you. It wants you to seek for more money very much indeed. The more money you seek for, the more it can take from you. That is an equal exchange. Other worshippers have thrown a lot of money into the Box, but it causes you to get the money. How will this be done? You may pick up a wallet when you go out, or your work unit will give you some bonus. Anyhow, it will help you gain money in one way or another. But how could it help you without any conditions? No loss, no gain. You will have to give it some of your cultivation energy because it is in need of it, or it will take away the elixir that you have refined in your cultivation. This is what it wants. These sham Buddhas are extremely dangerous sometimes. Many of our practitioners who have opened their Celestial Eyes think that they have seen Buddhas. One may say that a group of Buddhas have come to the temple today, and what name this Buddha has, leading a group of other Buddhas to the temple. He may describe what the group who came yesterday looked like, and what the group who came today looked like. They left after a short while, and then came another group. What are they? They just belong to such a category. They are not genuine Buddhas. They are sham ones. And a considerable number of them belong to such a category. It will be more dangerous if such a thing occurs in a temple. If the monks worship it, it will take charge of them: Aren't you worshipping me? And you are fully aware of doing so. Well, don't you want to cultivate? I shall keep you under my control, and tell you how to cultivate. It will make arrangements for you. Where will you go then when you have completed your cultivation? Now that it has arranged for your cultivation, no school of cultivation of the high dimension will accept you. You will listen to it in the future since it has arranged for your cultivation. This being the case, don't you think your cultivation will end up in vain? As I have said, it is rather difficult today for people to complete the true achievement in cultivation. This phenomenon is quite common. Many of us have seen in famous mountains and at big rivers the Buddha light, most of which belongs to this type. It has energy and therefore can manifest itself. But a genuine great enlightened being will not readily reveal himself. What was called earth Buddha or earth Tao in the past were relatively few. But nowadays there are a great number of them. When one does evil, the high dimension will also want to kill it. When this happens, it will get onto the image of Buddha. The ordinary enlightened being will not interfere in the principles of the ordinary people for no good reasons. The higher dimension the enlightened being belongs to, the harder he will try to avoid interrupting the principles of ordinary people. Not in the least. He will be unlikely to do such a thing as a thunderbolt will smash the image of Buddha into pieces. So, it will be left alone when it gets onto the image of Buddha. It knows when it is in danger of being killed, and therefore it will try to run away. So, is the Budhisattva Guanyin you have seen Bodhisattva Guanyin? Is the Buddha you have seen the Buddha? It is very hard to say. Many of us associate ourselves with an issue: What shall we do about the image of Buddha at home? Maybe many people have thought of me. In order to help my students with their cultivation, I'd like to tell you to do the following: Hold my book (because there are my photos in the book) or my photo while holding with both hands the image of Buddha, making the Big Lotus Hand gesture. Then you ask the teacher to do the light-opening for the image of Buddha. And it will be done within half a minute. However, let me tell everybody that this can only be done for our cultivators. Such light-opening does not apply to your relatives or friends because we only take care of the cultivators. Some people say that they take the teacher's photo to the homes of his relatives or friends to drive out the evils. I am not meant to exorcize evils for ordinary people. This is the worst disrespect to the teacher. Speaking of earth Buddhas and earth Tao, there is one more situation to relate to. In ancient times of China there were a lot of people cultivating in remote mountains and deep forests. How come they all have disappeared now? Actually they have not disappeared but they do not want to be recognized by ordinary people. The number of these people have not at all decreased. They all possess supernormal capabilities. It is not true that these people have gone these years. They are all there. In the world today there are still several thousand. There are relatively more such people here in our country. They can be found especially in those famous mountains and at big rivers and also in some high mountains. Since they have used their cultivation energy to block their caves, you cannot see their existence. Their cultivation is relatively slow in progress, and the methods used are comparatively clumsy, because they cannot grasp the essence of cultivation. On the other hand, we aim directly at the human nature, cultivating in accordance with the supreme characteristics of our universe, with the way the universe is, and as a matter of course our cultivation energy grows very rapidly, for the cultivation way takes the shape of a pyramid with the middle as the thoroughfare. Those sideways cultivate without necessarily high Xinxing, they may possibly open their cultivation energy without attaining the high dimensional cultivation, and thus remain too far from the thoroughfare of genuine cultivation. The master of such a sideways cultivation also takes on disciples. As his cultivation way can only attain such a level with its corresponding level of Xinxing, the disciples he teaches all cultivate toward this level. The smaller the worldly sideways are, the more ways of saying, the more complex methods they use, because they are incapable of grasping the essence of cultivation. One's cultivation should mainly cultivate Xinxing but he does not understand this and believes that he can cultivate by suffering. So he increased a little cultivation energy after going through a long period of time, and cultivating for several hundred years, almost a thousand years. It is actually not by suffering that he has developed the cultivation energy, but by what? Just like a person, he had lots of attachments when he was young. As he is getting old, with the days and years passing, he has lost hope in the future. Gradually, he has let go of his attachments, which have been worn out. This method is also true of such small cultivation ways. While he is going up in cultivation by sitting in meditation, concentration and suffering, he finds his cultivation energy can also grow this way. But he is not yet aware that his mind of attachments like ordinary people's has been slowly worn out over a long period of time of painstaking work, and that his cultivation energy grows by giving up his attachments. Ours has a purpose of genuinely pointing at the heart, giving it up, and in this way we make rapid progress in cultivation. I have been to some places and often met these people, who have been cultivating for a good many years. They also say: nobody can know we are here and we don't want to interfere in your business; nor shall we make trouble to it. They belong to those comparatively good people. There are also some bad ones that we have to deal with. For an example, while I was holding a Law lecturing session when I first went to Guizhou to teach the Gong, a man came to see me, saying that his grandmaster would like to see me. His grandmaster was x x who had been cultivating himself for a good many years. I found that the man had a waxen yellowish face, full of yin qi all over. He was very bad indeed. I said I was not going to see him because I had no time, and refused. As a result, his old master became annoyed and began to make trouble against me. And he kept making trouble every day. So far as I am concerned, I do not like opposing others, or rather I do not want to bother to deal with him. Whenever he brought about anything evil against me, I would just wipe it out. Having done this, I would continue with my lecture. Long ago in the Ming Dynasty there was a man who cultivated the Tao. During his cultivation, he was possessed by a snake. Later, the practitioner died without success in his cultivation. The snake then took possession of the practitioner's body and has evolved into a human shape in cultivation. That man's grandmaster was none other than the snake in the human form that he had cultivated. As his nature had not changed, he turned into a big snake to make trouble against me. I thought that he had gone too far, I caught him in my hand and used a very powerful energy, called dissolving energy, and dissolved his lower body, reducing it to water. But his upper body ran back home. One day, the head of our coach center in Guizhou province was asked to see his grand-disciple, who said that his grandmaster wanted to see her. The head went there. Entering the cave, she found it too dark to be able to see anything at all, but a shadow sitting over there with eyes beaming in green light. When he opened his eyes, the cave would become light; when he closed his eyes, it would turn dark. He said in a local dialect: Li Hongzhi is coming again. This time, none of us will do that thing again. I was wrong. Li Hongzhi has come for the salvation of people. His granddisciple asked him: Grandmaster, please stand up. What's the matter with your legs? He said: I can't stand up any more now. I have injured my legs. When asked how he had injured his legs, he began to tell the story of his trouble-making. At the Beijing'93 the East Health Fair, he resumed his trouble making against me. Because he had never stopped doing bad and also because he interfered with my teaching of the Great Law, I reduced him to annihilation. After his annihilation, his senior fellow disciple sisters and brothers as well as his junior fellow disciple sisters and brothers all wanted to take action. I then said a few words which shocked them all. They became so scared that none of them dared to move. Meanwhile they also came to understand what had happened. Some of them were still out-and-out ordinary people, who had been cultivators for a long time. These are a few examples I have taken when presenting the topic of light-opening. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Zhu You Ke (Subject of Supplication) £¨ ×£ÓÉ¿Æ£© What is meant by the Subject of Supplication? In the world of cultivation, this is regarded as what belongs to the category of cultivation, which is taught by many people in the course of their impartment of qigong. In fact, however, it does not belong to the range of cultivation. It is taught as a kind of knack, incantation or technique. It takes such forms as drawing magic figures, burning incense, burning paper, chanting incantations, etc.. It can cure diseases, and the methods of treatment are rather unique. For example, when someone has grown a boil in the face, the practitioner of this subject will draw a circle on the ground with a writing brush dipped in cinnabar and then he draws a cross within the circle. Next he asks the person to stand in the centre of the circle while he begins chanting incantations. He then dips the brush in the cinnabar and draws circles on the person's face. While he is doing this, he is chanting incantations. He keeps doing this until he finally gives a dot on the boil with his brush. By then he has finished his chanting and he says the person has got well. When the person feels it, it has become smaller and it does not hurt any more. So it does work. However, he can cure such minor diseases but not those major ones. What will he do if you have a pain in the arm? After he begins to chant incantations, he asks you to stretch out your arm and gives a puff of air at the Hegu Point (an acupuncture point) of the hand so that the puff will get out of the Hegu Point of the other hand. You can feel a current of wind. When you feel the affected part of the arm again, it is not so painful as before. In addition, such methods as burning paper, drawing magic figures, sticking magic figures, etc. are also used. This is what it does. The worldly small ways of the Taoist School do not teach the cultivation of life. They are entirely engaged in fortune telling, practising geographical location, exorcizing evils and treating diseases. Most of these worldly small ways adopt the Subject of Supplication. It can treat diseases, but the methods it uses are by no means good. We do not say what it utilizes to heal diseases, but our people who cultivate the Great Law must not use it because it carries very low and very bad messages. In ancient China, the methods of treatment were classified into subjects, such as fracture-setting, acupuncture, massage, acupuncture point stimulation, qigong treatment, treatment with medicinal herbs, etc.. There were many different kinds of them. Each method of treatment was called a subject. This Subject of Supplication was classified as the thirteenth subject. Thus its full name was called Supplication the Thirteenth Subject. The Subject of Supplication does not belong to anything within the range of our cultivation as it is not the cultivation energy achieved in cultivation but something like a kind of magic techniques. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next:Lecture Six Up:Contents Previous:Lecture Four ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [NOTE: The strange characters are Chinese in GB code] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next:Lecture Seven Up:Contents Previous:Lecture Five ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lecture Six Cultivation Insanity Demonic Interference in Practice Demonic Interference From Oneself Main Consciousness Should Play a Governing Role Mind Must be Upright Wushu Qigong Desire to Show Off ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cultivation Insanity (×ß»ðÈëħ) In the world of cultivation, there is a notion called cultivation insanity. This view has a considerable influence on the public. In particular, some people have advertised it so much that a number of people have become afraid of practising qigong. When people are told that practising qigong could lead to cultivation insanity, they would become too frightened to try it. In fact, I tell you that cultivation insanity does not exist at all. Quite a few people have invited spirit possession because they are not right in mind. Their Zhu Yishi (Ö÷ÒâÊ Main Consciousness) cannot control themselves and they regard this as cultivation energy. Their bodies are controlled by evil spirits which make them mentally deranged, and they would exhibit shouting and screaming behaviours. Seeing such a form of qigong, people become too scared to practise it. Many of us consider that to be cultivation energy. How could this be practising qigong? This is merely the lowest state of healing disease and keeping fit. But it is very dangerous. If you yourself become accustomed to this way, your Main Consciousness can not always control yourself, your body will be likely to be dominated by Fu Yishi (¸±ÒâÊ Paraconsciousness) or external messages, evil spirits, etc.. Then you may present some dangerous behaviours, and this would have a great destructive impact on the world of cultivation. This is caused by the mind which is not upright and a strong desire to show off. This is not cultivation insanity. We do not know how some people have become the so called qigong masters. They also talk about cultivation insanity. In fact, practising qigong does not lead to cultivation insanity. Most people hear of the term, cultivation insanity, from literary works and Gongfu fiction, etc.. If you do not believe it, you may look into ancient classic books or cultivation documents in which there is not such a thing. How could there be cultivation insanity? Such a thing will never occur at all. It is generally believed that there are several forms of cultivation insanity. What I have just mentioned is also a form. Because of their immoral minds, some people have brought on themselves spirit possession. They have a variety of mentalities such as seeking after qigong conditions, and showing off themselves. Some people simply seek after supernormal capabilities directly or practise phony qigong. They would be accustomed to abandoning their Main Consciousness whenever they practise qigong. They would become unconscious and give up their bodies to others. They would be out of their minds, allow their bodies to be dominated by the Paraconsciousness or external messages, and would exhibit some strange behaviours. Such a person would jump out of a building or into the water if he is told to do so. He himself does not even want to live, and he gives up his body to others. That does not belong to cultivation insanity but to going astray while they are practising qigong. This is caused by an intentional pursuit of such a state at the beginning. Many people think that wobbling their bodies unconsciously is a practice of qigong. In fact, such a state would lead to serious consequences if really carried out. It is not a practice of qigong, but it is caused by the ordinary people's attachments and desires. Another case is that a practitioner gets frightened when qi is blocked somewhere in the body or when qi can not come down from the top of the head. A human body is a small cosmos. It would run into such problems especially in the Taoist cultivation system when qi cannot move through the pass. If qi can not go through the pass, it would stay there, not only at the top of the head but also in other parts of the body. However, the most sensitive place is the head. Qi would move up to the top of the head and come down. If qi can not go through the pass, one would experience the phenomena that his head is heavy, swollen as if wearing a thick qi cap, etc.. Yet, qi does not have any restrictive function. It can neither bring about any troubles nor diseases at all. Some people do not know what qigong is really about, and have made some incomprehensible statements which result in a chaos. People would then think that cultivation insanity or something wrong would occur if qi cannot come down from the top of the head. As a result, many people have become frightened themselves. It is only the state of a certain period of time if qi does not come down from the top of the head. This phenomenon may last a long time or half a year for some people. A genuine qigong master can direct qi down through the pass if that happens. Those whose qi can not rush through the pass nor can it come down in practising qigong should examine their Xinxing (ÐÄÐÔ), and find out if they have stuck in that phase for too long a time, and should upgrade their Xinxing. Once you have truly upgraded Xinxing, you would find that qi will be able to come down. You cannot just go after the change of cultivation energy in the physical body rather than the improvement of Xinxing. You will not make an overall improvement until your Xinxing makes progress. One will not run into any problems if qi is indeed blocked. One becomes frightened oftentimes due to his own psychological factors, or to the fake qigong master's notion that when qi moves to the top of the head, there will be something wrong. Such a fear may indeed bring him some troubles. Because once you are frightened, it will be fear. Isn't it an attachment? Shouldn't your attachment be discarded once it comes out? The more you fear it, the more ill you would look. This attachment of yours must be relinquished to teach you a lesson so that your fear would be removed, and you could upgrade yourself. Practitioners will not feel physically comfortable in the future cultivation as their bodies develop many types of cultivation energy, all of which are very powerful stuff moving around inside their bodies. You would feel uncomfortable here and there. The reason why you feel uncomfortable is principally that you are always afraid of catching a certain disease. In fact, your bodies have developed such powerful stuff which are all cultivation energy, supernormal capabilities, and many living entities. If they move, you would feel your body itchy, painful, and uncomfortable, etc.. The ends of the nerve system are particularly sensitive. There would be different kinds of presentations. As long as your body is not completely transformed by the high energy substance, you will feel this way, and it is actually a good thing. As a practitioner, how could you cultivate yourself if you always treat yourself as an ordinary person and think that you have illnesses? I would say that at that time your Xinxing has dropped to the level of an ordinary person when you treat yourself as an ordinary person in the face of tribulations in practising qigong. At least, on this particular issue, you have dropped down to the level of an ordinary person. As genuine practitioners, we should look at things from a very high level instead of the viewpoint of an ordinary person. If you believe that you are ill, your belief would probably lead to illness. Because once you think that you are ill, your Xinxing would be on the same level of an ordinary person. Qigong practice and true cultivation will not lead to disease especially under such conditions. We all know that true patients are 30% physically ill and 70% psychologically ill. Oftentimes, one is first of all psychologically down and burdened and has collapsed, which would rapidly worsen the state of an illness. It is usually this way. For instance, there once was a person who was tied up in a bed. One of his arms was lifted up, and he was told that it would be cut to bleed. Then, his eyes were covered, and the arm was scratched once. (His arm was not cut at all.) The running water faucet was turned on so that he could hear the dripping sound of water. Then, he thought that it was his blood dripping. The man died a short while later. In fact, he was not bleeding at all. What was dripping was running water. He died because of his psychological factor. If you always believe that you are ill, you would probably lead yourself to illness. Because your Xinxing has dropped to the basis of an ordinary person, an ordinary person would, of course, fall ill. As a practitioner, if you always believe that you have an illness, you are in fact asking for it. If you ask for it, the illness is able to squeeze in. As a practitioner, your Xinxing must be high . You should not always feel afraid that you are ill as such a fear is an attachment as well, which could bring you trouble, too. During cultivation one needs to eradicate karma, which is painful. How could it be possible to comfortably increase your cultivation energy? Otherwise, how could you let go of your attachments? Let me tell you a story from Buddhism. There once was a person who made great effort to become an Arhat. This person was going to complete the right achievement and become an Arhat, shouldn't he feel happy? He was going to go beyond the Three Realms! Such a joy is an attachment of complacency. An Arhat should be of active non-action and his mind should not be affected. But he dropped down and his cultivation was in vain. He had to start all over again from the beginning. After painstaking effort he cultivated to this status again. This time he became scared and spoke to himself: I should not get excited this time. Otherwise I shall drop again. As he grew worried, he dropped again. Fear is also an attachment. There is another case that a person may be labeled as cultivation insanity after becoming mentally disordered. Also there are some people who are even waiting for me to treat their mental disease. I hold that mental disorder is not an illness, and I do not have time to deal with such things, either. Why? Because a mentally disordered patient does not have any virus. His body has neither pathological changes, nor ulceration. In my opinion, it is not a disease. Mental disorder arises when a person's Main Consciousness (Ö÷ÒâÊ) becomes too weak. How weak will it be? It is like one who cannot be his own boss. The Zhu Yuanshen (Ö÷ÔªÉñChief Spirit) of the patient is in such a state that it does not want to be in charge of his body. He always remains in a trance, and cannot lift up his spirit. By then the Paraconsciousness (¸±ÒâÊ) and external messages would step in to interfere in him. Since there are so many dimensions of spaces, all sorts of messages would come to disturb him. In addition, one's Chief Spirit (Ö÷ÔªÉñ) probably committed some wrongdoing in the previous lives, and the creditors may want to harm him. There are all sorts of possibilities. This is how we describe the mental disorder. How could I treat you? I say this is how the real mental disorder is caused. What should be done about it? Educate him, and help him lift up his spirit, which, though, would be very difficult. You know that the doctor at the psychiatric hospital could scare the patient to become speechless by just waving the electric shock stick in his hand. Why? Because his Chief Spirit (Ö÷ÔªÉñ) would become alert then, and he is afraid of being electrically shocked. People usually enjoy continuing the practice when they enter the door of cultivation. Everyone has Buddha nature as well as the mind for cultivation. Therefore, many people will stay with it for the rest of their lives once they learn the Gong. No matter whether he could go up in cultivation or not, could attain the Law or not, he has the mind to seek the Tao any way, and he always wants to practise. His colleagues in the office, people living in the neighbourhood and his neighbours all know that he practises qigong. But, please think about it. Who did real cultivation in the past few years? Nobody. Only real cultivation could change his life course. But as an ordinary person, he only practises qigong to heal disease and keep fit. Who would change his path of life? As an ordinary person, it is natural that he may fall ill some day, or run into trouble, or become mentally disordered, or pass away. His whole life would go this way. You may see him practising qigong in a park; actually he is not genuinely cultivating. Though he wishes to cultivate towards a higher status, he cannot make it because he does not know the Orthodox Law. He only has the wish to cultivate towards a higher status. He still remains a practitioner who heals disease and keeps fit on a low level. No one would change his path of life. Then he would fall ill. His illness would not be healed if he does not pay attention to his virtues. Practising qigong does not mean that one would not fall ill at all. He must truly cultivate and pay more attention to his Xinxing. Only genuine cultivation could cure illnesses. Because qigong practice are not gymnastic exercises, but something beyond ordinary people, there must be a higher principle and standard which are required of the practitioner. He must act up to them and thus can fulfil his goal. However, many people have not done so, and they still remain as ordinary people. Therefore, they would still fall ill when time is due. One day he may suddenly come down with cerebral thrombosis, or catch one or another disease out of a sudden, or become mentally disordered some day. Everybody knows that he practises qigong. Once this person becomes mentally disordered, he would be said to have gone into cultivation insanity and be labeled this way. Just imagine, is this reasonable? The laymen do not know the truth. Our professionals including many practitioners could hardly know the truth of the matter, either. If the person becomes mentally ill at home, there might be less trouble from the public opinion, though others would say he gets it from practising qigong. If he becomes mentally disordered at the group exercises site, it would be a disaster as the label is imposed. It would be impossible to remove such a label. Even the newspapers would advertise that practising qigong has led to cultivation insanity. Some people oppose qigong with their eyes closed: you saw him moments ago practising qigong quite well there, and now he has turned into such a state. As an ordinary person, he would run into whatever he is destined to. He may catch some other diseases or run into other troubles. Would it be reasonable to conclude all these are due to practising qigong? Like doctors in a hospital, because he becomes a doctor, he should not fall ill all his life. How could it be understood this way? It can be said, therefore, that many people make irrational statements without understanding the truth of qigong, and its principles. Once there is a problem, all kinds of labels would be imposed on qigong. Because qigong has been popular in society for a very short time, many people hold the stubborn views. They do not recognize it, but accuse it and reject it all the time. We do not know what kind of mentality such people have; they are so sick of qigong as if it had something to do with them. They would say it is of idealism if the word of qigong is mentioned. Qigong is a science, a more advanced science. It is only because such people are too obstinate in their beliefs, and their knowledge is too limited. There is another situation called qigong status in the world of cultivation. Such a person has mental illusions but has not gone into cultivation insanity. He is quite rational. Let me first explain what qigong status is. We know that practising qigong involves the issue of one's inborn qualities. In every country of the world, there are people who believe in religions. There are people in China who have had faith in Buddhism and Taoism for several thousand years. They believe in the principle of "good will be rewarded with good and evil with evil". But some people do not think so. Such things were labeled as superstitions, and were criticized particularly during the period of the Cultural Revolution. Some people would consider to be superstitious all that they could not understand, that they have not learned from textbooks, that modern science is not advanced enough to recognize, or that they have not discovered. There were quite a lot of such people years ago, but now there are fewer such people. Though you may not recognize some phenomena, they have reflected into our space down to earth. You do not dare to face them, but now people have the courage to talk about them. People also have got some information of practising qigong by what is heard and seen. Some people are stubborn to the extent that they would laugh at you from their inner hearts if you mention the word qigong. They think you are going in for superstitions, and you are quite ridiculous. They would consider you to be too ignorant whenever you discuss the phenomena of qigong practice. Though such a person is obstinate, his inborn qualities are not necessarily bad. If his inborn qualities are good and he wants to practise qigong, his Celestial Eye might be opened to a very high plane and he would develop some supernormal capabilities. He does not believe in qigong, but he cannot guarantee that he will never fall ill. If he falls ill, he will go to hospital. If the doctor of the Western medicine could not cure him, he would go to see a doctor of Chinese medicine. If the doctor of Chinese medicine could not cure him either, nor could any special prescriptions work. At this, he would think of qigong, pondering that: I will go there and try my luck and see if qigong could heal my illness or not. He would come with much reluctance. Because of his good inborn qualities, he would practise very well as soon as he starts to do so. Perhaps, a master would become interested in him, and that intelligent being of another space would give him a hand. His Celestial Eye is opened at once, or he has entered the state of semi- enlightenment. His Celestial Eye is open on a very high plane and he could see some truth of the universe. In addition, he has developed some supernatural capabilities. How could possibly his mind, in your opinion, sustain all these phenomena when he witnesses them? What kind of mentality would he have? Through the ages, what has been considered superstitious and absolutely impossible, and laughable when other people mention it, now truly presents itself in front of his eyes and he is really in touch with it. Then, his mind would not be able to sustain it. His mental pressure is enormous. What he says would not be accepted by others though it is still logical. He just could not balance the relationship between both sides. He discovers that what mankind does wrongly here is oftentimes right over there. If he does something in the way that it is done over there, people would say he is wrong here. People cannot understand him, and thus would say that this person has gone into cultivation insanity. In fact, he has not gone into cultivation insanity. Most of us who practise qigong will not become this way at all. Only those very stubborn people would enter this kind of qigong status. Many people here have opened the Celestial Eye. Quite a lot. They have indeed witnessed objects in other spaces. They would not be surprised, but feel very good without any mental shocks nor the occurrence of this qigong status. After entering the qigong status, one is very sensible, and what he says is very philosophical and logical. It is just that ordinary people do not believe what he says. He may at one moment tell you that he has seen someone who has passed away and that person told him to do something. How could an ordinary person believe that? Later, he has come to understand that he should keep these in mind and cannot tell others. It would be all right after he deals with the relationship properly between the two sides. Usually, such people also have some supernormal capabilities with them. This is not cultivation insanity, either. There is another phenomenon called the "true insanity" which is rarely seen. What we say as "true insanity" does not mean going really insane. It does not mean this. Instead, it means the cultivation of truth. What is the true insanity? In my opinion, such a person is rarely seen, perhaps one out of a hundred thousand cultivators. As a result, it does not have the universality, nor has it made any impact on the society. There must be a prerequisite for the "true insanity", which is that this person must possess very good inborn qualities and must be quite old as well. Because of the old age, it would be late for cultivation. Those who have very good inborn qualities are usually here on a mission, and come from the high dimensions. Whoever will come to this society of ordinary people is afraid of it. After his memories are washed off, he would not be able to recognize anyone. When he comes to this social environment of ordinary people, the human interference will make him go after fame and gain. As a result, he will drop downward and there will never be a hope for him to get out of here. Therefore, everyone is dreadful of coming here and everyone would be scared . There are such people who have come. After their arrival, they indeed were not all right among ordinary people, and would really start to drop downward. They have committed a lot of wrongdoing in their lifetime. If one lives to compete for his personal interests he will commit a lot of wrong deeds and owe a great deal to others. His master realizes that such a person is about to drop downward, but this person has already achieved his cultivation status, and he would not be allowed to drop down casually. What should be done about it? The master would become worried and have no way to make him pursue cultivation. Where could he find a master at that time? He must return to the origin and cultivate so as to go back again. Is it easy to talk about? He is old and too late for cultivation. Where could he find qigong of integrated cultivation of both human life and nature? Only under such a very special circumstance if this person has very good inborn qualities, can the method of the insanity be applied to him. On the condition that this person has absolutely no hope and can not return to the origin on his own, such a method might be adopted in order to make him really go insane. A certain portion of his brain will be made disfunctional. For instance, our human beings are afraid of cold and filth. The portions of his brains that fear cold and filth will be made disfunctional. After some brain functions have been disabled, this person would become mentally disordered and would appear to be crazy and insane. Yet, such a person often does not commit any wrongdoing, neither does he swear at people nor beat people. He often does good deeds. However, he is very cruel to himself. Because he is unaware of being cold, he would run around with bare feet in the snow and wear thin clothes in the winter time. His feet may be frozen to bleed. Because he is unaware of filth, he would dare to eat human excrement and drink human urine. I once knew such a person who would eat horse excrement with taste though they were frozen hard. He could suffer the hardships that an ordinary person would not be able to suffer when he is conscious. Just imagine how much his insanity made himself suffer. Of course, such a person often has supernormal capabilities with him. Most of them are old ladies. Old ladies in the past had their feet bound up to make them smaller but such an old lady could still jump over a wall of two meters or higher easily. When her family members found out she was insane and always ran out of the house, they would lock her up in the house. After her family members left the house, she would unlock the lock by pointing at it with her fingers and get out of the house. Then, she would be tied up with iron chains. She could shake them off easily when everyone had left home. It was impossible to restrain her. She would suffer a lot in this way. Because she suffered too much hardship, which came rather violently, she would repay the debts of her wrongdoing very quickly. At most it would take three years, normally one or two years. The misery that she had suffered from was tremendous. After that, she would understand at once what had happened because she had completed her cultivation in this way. As a result, her cultivation energy would be instantly developed and a variety of magic powers would come out. Such cases are extremely rare, but they have existed in the history. People of ordinary inborn qualities would not be allowed to experience this. It is known that there were insane Buddhist monks and insane Taoists documented in the history, such as the stories of the insane Buddhist monks wiping out Qin and the stories of crazy Taoists. There are many such literary quotations . We can definitely say that cultivation insanity does not exist at all. I would say that anyone who could really deliver a fire would be great. I would call it a supernormal capability if he could spit out fire by opening his mouth or could make a fire by stretching his hand, or light a cigarette with a finger which could release fire. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Demonic Interference during Practice (Á¹¦ÕÐħ) What is demonic interference in practice? It refers to some interference that we often easily run into while practising qigong. How could possibly the qigong practice invite the demonic interference? Since it is indeed very difficult for a person to cultivate, he will not be able to succeed in true cultivation without the protection of my Law body. As soon as you step out of the door, you could possibly involve yourself in a matter of life and death. Human True Spirit (ÔªÉñ) is immortal. Then in your social activities of the previous lives, you may have owed to somebody, have done harm to somebody or committed some wrongdoing. The creditors would come to collect the debts. It is said in Buddhism: humans live just according to the causational principles of rewards and retributions. If you owe him something, he would come for the payment. If he gets more than he should, he would return that to you next time. If a son disrespects his parents, it will turn the other way round in the next life. This is the way it turns round. Yet, we have indeed observed the demonic interference which prevents you from practising qigong. All this has causational relationship, and it does not occur without a reason. It will not be allowed to exist without a reason. The most common form of demonic interference is that your surrounding environment is relatively peaceful when you are not practsing qigong. Because you have learned the Gong, you would always enjoy practising it. However, as soon as you sit in practice, you would suddenly find it noisy outside. There are sounds of car horn, walking in the hallway, talking, slamming of the door and a radio being turned on from the outside. It would be instantly not quiet anymore. The environment would be calm if you do not practise qigong. As soon as you begin to practise, it would become noisy. Many of us have never thought further about why this has happened, except for feeling odd about it and being dejected about being unable to practise qigong. You just feel it "strange". This is a demonic interference. It manipulates people to disturb you. This is the most simple form of interference which is aimed at stopping you from cultivation. If you practise qigong, and attain the Tao, won't you pay for so many things you have owed? He would not agree, and would not let you practise. However, this is also a phenomenon reflected in a certain phase of cultivation, which would no longer be allowed to exist after a period of time. Namely, after the debt has been removed, it would no longer be allowed to come to interfere in you again. This is because cultivating our Falun Dafa enables you to make rapid progress, and it is also comparatively faster to break through your status of cultivation. There is another form of demonic interference. It is known that we could have our Celestial Eyes opened by practising qigong. After the Celestial Eyes become open, some people would see some scary scenes or frightening faces when practising at home. Some of these people have messy long hair, some want to fight you or even make various movements, which are quite frightening. Sometimes when practising, one will see them all clinging to the windows from the outside, which is quite frightful. Why would there be such a situation? All of those are forms of the demonic interference. However, it is very rare in our school of Falun Dafa, about one per cent. The majority would not encounter such a situation. Because it does not benefit our cultivation, it is, therefore, not allowed to interfere with you in this way. This kind of interference is the most common phenomenon in other conventional cultivation ways, and it would also last quite a long time. Some people can not practise qigong, and become frightened simply because of this. One normally chooses to practise qigong in a quiet environment at night. Seeing a person standing in front of him who looks half demon and half human, one would be too scared to continue the practice. Generally, there is not such a phenomenon in our Falun Dafa. However, there are still a few exceptions. Some people have extremely special situations. There is another kind of people who practise a cultivation way which cultivates both the interior and the exterior. They practise both Wushu (Martial Arts) and cultivates the interior. Such cultivation ways are commonly seen in the Taoist School. Once a person learns such a cultivation way, he will often run into such a demon, which other cultivation ways would not normally encounter except for the cultivation ways that include interior and exterior cultivation, as well as Martial Arts. The practitioner would be challenged to a fight since there are many Taoist practitioners in the world, many of whom practise Martial Arts and the interior and exterior cultivation ways. A person practising Martial Arts could also increase cultivation energy. Why? After getting rid of the desires for fame and gain and other attachments, he will also increase his cultivation energy. However, his desire to contend and compete with others would take time to be abandoned, and would be discarded relatively late. Therefore, he is likely to do such a thing, which would appear in a certain phase. While sitting in a trance, he would know who is practising. Then his Yuanshen (True Spirit) would leave his physical body to challenge that person to a fight to determine whose Gongfu is better, and a fight would then break out. Such a case would also occur in other spaces where someone may look for him for a fight. If he refuses, that person would indeed kill him. Therefore, a fight would take place between the two. As soon as this practitioner falls asleep, someone will come to challenge him to a fight, and therefore he cannot go to sleep for the whole night. In fact, this is the time for him to let go of his desire to contend with others. If he cannot abandon this attachment of his, he will always be this way. If it lasts for long, he will still remain in the same phase of cultivation for several years. This person would be made unable to continue the practice. His physical body could not bear it as well and could be disabled with so much energy consumed. Thus, such a situation will be seen frequently in the cultivation ways that include both the interior and the exterior cultivation, and it is quite common. Our interior cultivation way does not have such an experience as it is not allowed to take place. These several forms I have just talked about commonly exist. There is another form of demonic interference which every practitioner, including each member of our cultivation way, will encounter. It is the demon of sex, which is very serious. Because of this sex between husband and wife in the society of ordinary people, the human society could multiply. That is how mankind develops. There is the affection in the human society. So it is in line with the principle of heaven and earth for ordinary people to do this. Since human beings have emotions, ordinary people live for them. Being angry is an emotion, and so are happiness, love or hatred, enjoying doing one thing or disliking doing another, judging who is good or bad, having hobbies or dislikes. They are all emotions. Then, as a practitioner and a supernormal person, you should not use such a principle to judge yourself, but should break through this. Therefore, there are many attachments which come from the human affections. We should care less about them and give them up in the end. Desires and sex are such things that belong to human attachments which should be all abandoned. In our cultivation way, the period of time when we cultivate among ordinary people should not be used to live as monks or nuns. The young practitioners should still establish families. How should we treat this issue, then? I have said that our cultivation way aims directly at one's heart and does not make you really lose any material interests. On the contrary, it tempers your Xinxing (ÐÄÐÔ) in the face of the material interests of ordinary people, and what would be really upgraded is your Xinxing. If you could give up your attachments, you would be able to abandon everything. When required to give up the material interests, you could certainly do so. If you cannot give up your attachments, you will not be able to let go of anything. Therefore, the real purpose of cultivation is to cultivate your mind. The cultivation in the temple forces you to lose these stuff. In order to enable you to get rid of these attachments, they force you to put an end to them and not to think about them by means of such a method. But we do not require you to go that way, instead, we require you to care less about the material interests right in front of them. Therefore, the cultivation of our school is the most solid one. We do not want you all to be monks or nuns. We cultivate in ordinary people, and our cultivation way is getting more and more popular in the future. Suppose everyone has become a monk who is not a monk, every practitioner of our Falun Dafa has acted this way, this will not be allowed to happen. We require you while you are practising qigong: you are not allowed to divorce because you practise qigong. You practise it, but your spouse may not. This means we should care less about sex, and should not treat it so important as ordinary people. Especially nowadays in the contemporary society, such things as the so-called sex liberation and these pornographic stuff are interfering in people. Some people regard them as being very important. As practitioners, we must care little about them. Judging from the high dimensions, it is said that ordinary people in the society are simply playing with mud on the ground without realizing that it is dirty. We have said that you should not cause any family problems because of this matter. Therefore, it would be all right that you care less about it and keep a normal harmonic married life at the present stage. When you reach a certain status in the future, there will be another situation in that status. At present you should do this way, and it is all right for you to do so at our request. Of course, you can not follow what is going on in the contemporary society. How could that be allowed! There is still another issue on this matter. As we know, we practitioners carry energy in our bodies. Now about 80% to 90% of the people here from this class would not only recover from their illnesses but also grow some cultivation energy. Thus, your body is carrying very powerful energy. The energy you carry in your body and your current Xinxing are not proportional. Your cultivation energy is temporarily high because it has been promoted instantly. Your Xinxing is being upgraded at the moment. Gradually, you will catch up with your cultivation energy. You are certain to catch up within this period of time. As a result, we have promoted your cultivation energy in advance. In other words, you have got a certain amount of energy now. Because energy cultivated from the Orthodox Law is upright and compassionate, everyone sitting here all feels an atmosphere of serenity and compassion. I have cultivated myself this way, and carry such a thing with me. Everyone sitting here can feel the harmony and has no evil thoughts on mind, and would even forget to smoke a cigarette. In the future, you also should follow the requirement of our Great Law, and the cultivation energy you have cultivated will also be this way. With the increase of your energy potency, the scattered energy of your cultivation energy which your body carries will be also quite powerful. Even though it is not that powerful, an ordinary person within your energy field, or staying at your home, could also be restrained by you. Your family members at home may be all restrained by you as well. Why? You do not have to think about it because this field is upright, serene and compassionate, a field of right mindfulness. So, people around do not want to have wrong thoughts or do bad things. It would play such a role. The other day I mentioned that the Buddhas' lights illuminate all things in perfect brightness (·ð¹âÆÕÕÕ£ÀñÒÇÔ²Ã÷). It means that the energy radiated from our bodies could rectify all the surrounding abnormal conditions. Under the impact of this field when you are not thinking about such things, your spouse would be restrained without realizing it. If you do not think about it, you would not think about such a thing, your spouse will not be able to think of it. But it is not absolute. In the present environment, if a TV is turned on, everything is there which could easily stimulate one's desires. However, under the normal circumstances, you could play such a restraining role. When you reach the cultivation of the high status in the future, you will know yourself what to do without my telling you how. There will be another state which ensures you to keep a harmonic life. So you do not have to pay too much attention to this issue, and it would also be an attachment to worry too much. Between a couple there is no such problem as sex, but there is the lust. It would be all right if you can care little about it and feel mentally balanced. What kind of sex demon, then, would one encounter? If you are not capable of attaining the state of tranquillity, it would occur in your dream while sleeping or sitting in practice. Suddenly such a scene would appear: if you are male, a beauty would appear; if you are female, a man of your mind's eye would show up. Yet, they would be naked. If the idea of sex flashes through your mind, you may ejaculate, and this has become a fact. Please think about it. In our cultivation, the essence of a flesh body is used to cultivate our lives. You should not ejaculate all the time. In the meantime, you have not passed the test of sexual desire. How could that be allowed? Therefore, I tell you all about this matter as everybody will certainly encounter such an experience. While expounding the Law, I am delivering the message to your minds with very powerful energy. You may not remember what I said specifically right after stepping out of the door, but you will remember what I said when you really come across a problem. As long as you regard yourself as a practitioner, you will instantly remember what I said and could refrain yourself, and thus you will be able to pass this ordeal. If you fail the first time, it will be very difficult for you to refrain yourself the next time. However, there was such a person who regretted deeply for his failure to pass the test the first time after he woke up. Such a mentality and state of mind would probably reinforce your mental impression. When running into the problem again, you will be able to control yourself, and therefore pass the test. If a person who has not passed the test does not care about it, it is certain for him to be more difficult to pass the test afterwards. I am sure. This form of interference comes from the demons or from the master who transforms an object into another to test you. Both forms exist because everyone should pass this ordeal. We begin cultivation as ordinary people, and such an ordeal is the first step. Every practitioner will experience it. Let me give you an instance. When I was giving a lecturing session in Wuhan, there was such a student who was a young man of 30 years old. Right after attending my lecture, he went home, sat down cross-legged and quickly entered the state of tranquillity in Ding. After a while, he suddenly saw Buddha Amitabha appear from one side and Lao Tzu from another side. This is what the practitioner said in his progress report. After showing up, neither said a word. Then they disappeared. Later, Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara showed up with a vase in hand, from which a white smoke came out. The practitioner sat there and felt very pleased as he could watch everything vividly. Suddenly it changed into a few beauties, who were flying Apsaras and astonishingly beautiful. They danced for him with graceful movements. He thought: Because I am practising here, the Bodhisattva is rewarding me by transforming a few beauties to dance for me. As he was delighted with this thought, these beauties suddenly became naked, making various gestures, and came to hug and caressed him. As his Xinxing improved very fast, at this time, this young man became alert. The first thought came to his mind was: I am not an ordinary person. I am a practitioner. You should not treat me this way. I am cultivating Falun Dafa. As soon as this thought flashed in his mind, they all suddenly disappeared as they were all transformed illusions anyway. Then, Buddha Amitabha and Lao Tzu appeared again. Pointing at the young man, Lao Tzu smiled at Buddha Amitabha and said: This kid is teachable. That means this young man is good for cultivation and can be taught. Judging from the high dimensional spaces or in the history the issue of the sex and desires is regarded as extremely important when a person is judged to see if he is able to cultivate or not. Therefore, we must really care little about these things. However, as we are cultivating ourselves in ordinary people, we do not require you to put an end to them completely, at least at the present stage, but you are required to care less about them, and should not treat them as before. As a practitioner, you should be this way. Whenever there is an interference of one kind or another, you must look for the cause yourself and find out what attachment has not been discarded. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Demonic Interference from One's Own Mind (×ÔÐÄÉúħ) What is demonic interference from one's own mind? There is a field of matter around the human body in every dimensional space. Within a special field, everything in the universe could be reflected, like shadows, into your field of space. Though they are shadows, they are of material existence. Everything within your field of space is dictated by the consciousness of your brain. Namely, if you look with your Celestial Eye peacefully without any mental activities, what you see would be true. If you start to think slightly, what you see would be all unreal. This is called the demonic interference from one's own mind or the mind transformation. It is because some practitioners do not treat themselves as practitioners and can not control themselves. Such a person seeks after supernormal capabilities and is obsessed by minor skills and abilities or even by hearing something from other spaces. He is obsessed with pursuing such stuff. This kind of people would easily develop the demonic interference from themselves, and drop down. No matter how high up such a person has cultivated, he would drop all the way down to the bottom, and fail completely once this problem arises. It is matter of extremely serious consequences. Unlike things in the other aspects, if one fail to pass an examination of Xinxing this time, he can still continue to cultivate himself after he stands up after a fall. But the demonic interference from his own mind will not allow him to go on to cultivate any more, and thus it would ruin his whole life. In particular, this problem could easily occur to those who have opened their Celestial Eyes on a certain plane. Still, there are some people whose consciousness is always disturbed by foreign messages. They would believe whatever foreign messages tell them. This problem would easily arise this way. Therefore, some of our practitioners whose Celestial Eyes are open would run into a variety of message interference from many sources. Let me give an example. It would be very difficult for one to keep one's mind undisturbed in the low level cultivation. You may not see clearly what your master looks like. One day you may suddenly see a giant immortal. He would give you a few words of compliments and teach you something that you would accept as well. Your cultivation energy would be messed up. Once you become delighted and accept him as your master, you will follow him. However, he has not completed the right achievement as well. In another space, his body could grow big or small. With this in front of you, you would become really excited at seeing such a giant immortal. Would you not follow him once your attachment of complacency arises? A cultivator would be difficult to be saved, and he would easily ruin himself if he cannot control himself. Heavenly people are all deities, but they have not completed the right achievement and therefore have to follow the Sixfold Path of Transmigration. Where will he take you if you casually adopt such a being as your master and follow him? He has not completed the right achievement yet. Wouldn't your cultivation be in vain? Your own cultivation energy would end up in a mess. It is extremely hard for humans to stay undisturbed in mind. I am telling everyone that this is a very serious issue. Many of us would encounter such a problem in the future. I have expounded the Law to you. It is up to you whether you can control yourself. What I have talked about is one of the situations. Do not allow yourself to be disturbed by the enlightened being from another school you have seen, and stay with only one cultivation way. Whatever Buddha, whatever Tao, whatever deity or whatever demon will not be able to bother my mind. In this way, you are bound to succeed in your cultivation. Demonic interference from one's own mind also has other forms: interference from dead relatives who would cry to beg you to do this or that. All kinds of things could happen. Will your mind stay unaffected? You are very fond of this child of yours, and love your parents. Your parents, who had passed away, told you to do something... All those are the things that you should not do, otherwise it would ruin your cultivation. It is just so hard to be a practitioner. It is said that Buddhism has been in a chaos. It has absorbed the Confucian doctrines, such as showing filial obedience to parents, love for children, etc., which are not Buddhist principles. What does it mean? Since Yuanshen (the True Spirit) is a human being's real life, the mother who gave birth to your True Spirit is your real mother. In the course of the Sixfold Path of Transmigration, the number of your mothers who are human or non-human beings is countless. The number of your sons and daughters is also numerous throughout your lifetimes. Who is your mother? Who are your children? You would not know one another after you pass away. You still have to pay the karmic debts you owe. Human beings live in the darkness and could not abandon such a thing. Some people cannot let go of his child's death, and would keep saying how good the child was; or how good his mother was who has also passed away. They are so sorrowful that they simply wish to follow the dead for the rest of their lives. Why don't you think that they have come to bother you? They use such a form to make you unable to lead a normal life. Ordinary people perhaps could not understand that you can not cultivate at all if you are attached to such a thing. Therefore, Buddhism does not include such an implication. If you want to cultivate, the human affections should be discarded. Of course, during the cultivation in the society of ordinary people, we should respect parents, guide our children, try to be good and kind towards others under all circumstances, let alone our relatives. We should treat everyone the same, be nice to both parents and children, and be considerate towards others in everything we do. Such a heart would be unselfish, kind and benevolent. Affections belong to ordinary people who live for them. Many people can not discipline themselves, which causes difficulties in cultivation. Some people say that a Buddha has told them something. Except those who tell you to avoid fatal dangers, all those who tell you to get benefits in the society of ordinary people are demons. You are told how to avoid a trouble that will occur today or you are told the lottery number and asked to try. If you get benefits in ordinary people and avoid the ordeal, you would not ascend in cultivation. How could you cultivate if you lead a comfortable life in ordinary people? How could your karma be transformed? Where can you find an environment for you to improve your Xinxing (ÐÄÐÔ) and transform your karma? Please be sure to remember this point. The demon may also praise you and say how great you are, what a senior Buddha or what a great Taoist you are, and may consider you great, which are all fake. As a genuine practitioner cultivating towards high dimensions, you must give up all attachments. Whenever you encounter such things, please be sure to be alert! Our Celestial Eyes would be open during practice. There is difficulty for one whose Celestial Eye is open. There is also difficulty for one whose Celestial Eye is not open. Neither case is easy for cultivation. With the Celestial Eye open, it would be difficult for you to discipline yourself when a variety of messages interferes in you. Everything in other spaces is a dazzling array of beautiful exhibits which are very impressive and very good. Anything may touch your heart. You may be interfered once you are affected in mind. And your cultivation energy will be messed up. This often occurs. Thus, a person with demonic interferences from his own mind could also run into such a situation when he is unable to control himself. For instance, it would be very dangerous for this person to have immoral thoughts. One day, his Celestial Eye is open and he could see quite clearly. He is thinking: my Celestial Eye is best opened at this practice site, perhaps I am not an ordinary person. And I am able to learn master Li's Falun Dafa and I can learn it so well, and so I am better than others, maybe I am not an ordinary person. Such a thought is already wrong. He is thinking: probably I am also a Buddha. Ah, let me look at myself. When he looks at himself, he would really indeed find that he is a Buddha. Why? Because all the substances within the range of the space field around his body would evolve with his intentions, which is also called the evolution with the mind. What is reflected from the universe would evolve with his intentions. Because everything within his space field is under his control including shadows, which are also a substance. He is thinking: maybe I am a Buddha and probably wearing a Buddha's clothes. Then he would see what he is wearing indeed are Buddha's clothes. Ah, I am indeed a Buddha. He would become very excited. I am probably not a small Buddha. He would look at himself again, and find himself indeed a giant Buddha. Perhaps I am greater than Li Hongzhi! Let me have a look. Wow, I am indeed higher in status than Li Hongzhi. Someone would hear this with his ears. The demon would interfere in him, saying: you are indeed higher in status than Li Hongzhi, and this or that much higher than Li Hongzhi. He would believe it as well. Why don't you think about how you would cultivate in the future? Have you ever cultivated? Who has taught you in cultivation? Even a genuine Buddha would have to cultivate from the beginning when he comes down on a mission. His original cultivation energy would not be given to him. He merely would cultivate faster this time. Therefore, once this problem arises in this person, it would be difficult for him to get out of this mentality, and he would instantly develop such an attachment. After this attachment arises, he would dare to say anything: I am really a Buddha and you don't need to learn from others; I am a Buddha, and I'll tell you what to do. He would become this way. Don't we have a person like that in Changchun? He was pretty good at the beginning and became that way later on. He thought that he was a Buddha, and that he had become higher than anybody else in the end. It is because he could not control himself and had an attachment. Why is there such a phenomenon? It is said in Buddhism: you should ignore whatever you see as they are all demonic illusions, and that you should just ascend in cultivation through meditation. Why doesn't it allow you to look, nor to be attached to it? It worries about the occurence of such problems. In the Buddhist cultivation there is neither intensive cultivation methods, nor is there any guidance for you to get free from such an attachment in the sutras. Sakyamuni did not preach the law at that time. In order to avoid this demonic interference from one's own mind and the evolution with the mind, he called all visible scenes during cultivation as demonic illusions. Therefore, once an attachment arises, it would give rise to such a demonic illusion, which would be difficult for one to get rid of. If not properly dealt with, this person may be ruined, and therefore would go with the demons. Because he calls himself a Buddha, he has already gone into the world of demons. In the end, he could also incur spirit possession or any other things, and would be ruined completely. He would also become immoral and drop all the way down to the bottom. There are many such people. Even in this class, there are people who think quite highly of themselves at the moment, and talk with a different attitude. Even in Buddhism it is avoided for a person to find out what he is all about. What I just said is another situation which is called interference from one's own mind or the evolution with the mind. There are such students from Beijing and some other regions, who have caused severe interference to the practitioners. Someone asked me: teacher, how come you do not eliminate this problem? Please think it over. How could you possibly cultivate if we clear away all the obstacles on your way of cultivation? It is just under the circumstance of the demonic interference that you could be tested to see if you can continue your cultivation or not, if you can truly awake to Tao or not, if you can be interfered or not, and if you can ground firmly in this cultivation way. Cultivation is like huge waves refining the sand. This is exactly the way cultivation is. What is left in the end would be the genuine gold. Without such a form of interference, I would say it is too easy for you to cultivate. Even I should think that your cultivation is easy. Those great enlightened beings of high dimensions would become more likely to consider it unfair: what are you doing this for? Is this what you mean by saving people? Is this cultivation if there are not any obstacles on the way and you could make your cultivation all the way to the end? How could it possibly be allowed to do the cultivation without any interference and become more and more comfortable in the cultivation? That is the issue. I am also thinking about it. At the beginning, I eliminated many such demons. I also felt it was not right to keep doing that all the time. They also told me: you are making their cultivation too easy. People just have that little hardship of their own, and that little trouble found between themselves. They still have many attachments which they can not give up. It still remains a question whether you could understand the Great Law itself in the confusion and delusion. It involves such an issue. Therefore, there would be interference and trials. What was just mentioned is a form of demonic interference. It is very difficult to save a person but extremely easy to ruin a person. Your cultivation will fail all at once when your mind is not upright. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Main Consciousness Should Play a Governing Role (Ö÷ÒâÊҪǿ) Because one has committed, throughout his previous lives, a lot of wrong doing, which has brought disasters to people and become obstacles of karma for the practitioner. Therefore, there are birth, old age, disease, and death. These are ordinary karma. Still, there is another powerful karma called karma of the thought (˼ÏëÒµ) which has a great impact on practitioners. People should do thinking while they live. While lost in ordinary people, one would often develop a kind of intention released for fame, gain, lust, anger, etc.. This intention would gradually become the powerful karma of the thought in the long run. Since everything in other spaces has its own life, the same is also true of karma. When one begins to pursue the cultivation of the Orthodox Law, he would need to eliminate his karma. Eliminating karma means to have karma eradicated and transformed. Of course, karma would resist, and one would have tribulations and obstacles. However, the karma of the thought would directly interfere in one's mind. Therefore, there are thoughts of condemning the teacher and the Great Law, or some indecent thoughts and swear words. When this occurs, some practitioners would be at a loss, and even believe that they themselves think this way. Some people also think that it is caused by the spirit possession. However, it is not caused by the spirit possession , but by the reflection of the karma of the thought on the brain. Some people's Main Consciousness cannot control themselves and follow the karma of the thought to commit wrongdoing. Such a person would end up in failure and drop down. However, most practitioners could resist and eliminate the karma of the thought with very strong subjective thinking (the powerful Main Consciousness). In this way, this shows that this person could be saved, and can distinguish good from bad. That means he has a good enlightenment quality. My Law body would help him eliminate most of such karma of the thought. This is a common occurrence. Once it appears, one would be tested to see if he could overcome such evil thoughts himself. If the practitioner is determined, such karma can be removed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mind Must Be Upright (ÐÄÒ»¨ÒªÕý) What is not the right mind? It refers to one who always cannot treat himself as a practitioner. A practitioner will run into tribulations during cultivation. When the tribulation comes, it may manifest in the conflict between one and another. There would be intriguing against each other, etc., which would directly affect your Xinxing. There has been more in this aspect. What else would you experience? Our physical bodies would suddenly feel uncomfortable. Because of paying the debts of karma, it will be in every aspect manifested. In a certain period of time, you would be made to feel that you could not tell whether it is true or false, whether or not your cultivation energy exists, whether or not you can cultivate and go up in cultivation, whether or not there are Buddhas, and that they are both true and false. Such situations will surface again in the future to give you a false impression, make you feel as if they did not exist and they were all false, and in this way you will be tested to see if you are determined. You say that you must be determined. With such a determination, you will be able to be firmly grounded by then, and automatically do well because your Xinxing has already been upgraded. However, you are not yet that steady at the moment, and you would not at all be able to awake and pursue the cultivation if you are provided with such tribulations right away. Tribulations may appear in a variety of forms. One must cultivate himself this way towards high dimensions in the course of cultivation. As a result, some of our practitioners would think that they are ill once they do not feel well physically. Such a person can not always regard himself as a practitioner, and would think that he is ill if he bumps into such a thing. Why would there be so many troubles? Let me tell you that a lot of your troubles have already been removed, and your troubles have already been made very trivial. If they had not been removed for you, you might have died already and perhaps you could never have got out of your bed when you encountered such a trouble. When you meet with such a little trouble, you would, thus, feel uncomfortable. How could it possibly be that comfortable? For instance, during my lecturing session in Changchun, there was a person with very good inborn qualities, and he was quite promising, too. I also became interested in him, and increased his tribulation so that he could speed up paying back the karma debts, and become enlightened. This was what I intended to do. However, one day he suddenly seemed to suffer from cerebral hemorrhage, and fell down to the ground. He felt that he could not move as if his four limbs were out of order. He was sent to a hospital for emergency recovery. Then, he could walk again. Please think about it. How could one walk around and move his arms and legs again so quickly with cerebral hemorrhage? Instead, he blamed Falun Dafa for making him go wrong. He did not think it over. How could he have recovered so quickly from cerebral hemorrhage? If he had not learned Falun Dafa today, he would have really died there when he fell down. Perhaps, he would have become handicapped for the rest of his life, and would have indeed got cerebral hemorrhage. It is just that difficult to save a person. So much has been done for him. He would still not awake to it, and would say something like this. Some veteran students said: Teacher, why do I feel uncomfortable all over? When I went to hospital, it always did not help to take injections and medicine. He even shamelessly said that to me! Of course, it would not help. How could they possibly help as it is not a disease? Go ahead to have a physical exam. There are not any problems, and you just feel uncomfortable. We had a student who had broken a few syringe needles at hospital. In the end, the liquid medicine was ejected out, and the syringe needle also could not inject. He came to understand : Oh, I am a practitioner, and I should not take an injection. He just realized that he should not have had injections. Therefore, whenever we run into tribulations, be sure to pay attention to this issue. Some people would think that I just do not allow them to go to hospital, and they would think : I would go to see a qigong master if you do not allow me to go to hospital. He would still consider it to be a disease, and would go to see a qigong master. Where could he find a genuine qigong master? If he sees a fake one, he would be ruined at once. We have said: how could you distinguish between genuine and fake qigong masters? Many qigong masters are self-labeled. I have been verified, and have the documentation of examinations in hand from the related scientific research organizations. Many qigong masters are sham as well as self-labeled, and there are many of them who cheat. Such a fake qigong master could also treat illnesses. How could he do it? He is possessed by an evil spirit, without which he would not be able to deceive people! That evil spirit could also give off energy to cure disease as it also exists as a form of energy that could very easily restrain ordinary people. Yet, I have said: what could the evil spirit give you when it treats your disease? Under the micro examination, they would all be the images of that evil spirit. What will you do if they are given to you? It is easier to invite a god than to send him away. We do not want to say anything about ordinary people because they just want to live like ordinary people and to find the temporary comfort. However, you are a practitioner. Don't you want to constantly purify your body? When will you be able to get rid of it if it has gone into your body? In addition, it also has a certain amount of energy. Some people would think: how come the Falun could allow it to come? Don't we have teacher's Law bodies to protect us? There is a principle in this universe of ours: nobody will intervene if you want to seek after something yourself. As long as it is what you want, nobody would intervene. My Law body would stop you, and give you some hint. But, if it realizes that you are like this all the time, it would not get involved any more. How could one possibly be forced to cultivate? You cannot be made and forced to pursue the cultivation. It is up to you to truly progress upward. No one can do anything about it if you do not want to progress upward yourself. You have now been informed of the truth and Law. Whom would you blame if you still do not want to make progress yourself? It is certain that Falun and my Law body would not intervene in whatever you want to pursue. Of course, some people would feel very uncomfortable at home after attending other qigong masters' lectures. Why did not my Law body protect you? What did you go there for? Wasn't it asking for something if you went to their classes? If you did not listen with your ears, how could it possibly come to your body? Some people have deformed the Falun. Let me tell you that this Falun is worthy much more than your life. It is an intelligent life that should not be casually ruined. There are many fake qigong masters nowadays, and some of them are quite well-known. In my meeting with the leaders of the China Research Society of Qigong Science, I said that the Chinese royal court was once upon a time brought into a disastrous disorder by Da Ji. That fox went rampant, but not as bad as the fake qigong masters today who have simply brought disasters to the whole country, and so many people have been made to suffer! You see that they appear to be quite nice. How many people are carrying that stuff in their bodies? They are so rampant that if they give it off to you, you will have it in your body. Therefore, it is difficult to tell from the appearance of an ordinary person. Some people may think: I have attended the qigong lecture today. After I heard what Mr Li Hongzhi said, I realized how great and profound qigong is ! Whenever there are other qigong lectures next time, I should still attend them. I advise that you should definitely not go there because if you listened, the bad things would enter your ears. It is very difficult to save a person, to change his mind, and to purify his body. There are just too many fake qigong masters. As for even a genuine orthodox qigong master, is he really clean? Some animals are very fierce and he could not drive them away though they may not be able to come onto his body. He has no ability to offend such things on a large scale. While the qigong master gives off cultivation energy, there is a lot of bad stuff mixed up there especially among his students. Though the qigong master may be quite decent himself, his students are not so, as they are possessed of all kinds of evil spirits, etc.. If you genuinely want to cultivate Falun Dafa, do not go to other qigong lectures. Of course, if you do not want to cultivate Falun Dafa but want to try everything, just go ahead. I would not stop you, and you would not be a Falun Dafa disciple. Do not blame the practice of Falun Dafa if something goes wrong with you. Only if you cultivate according to the Great Law and act up to the Xinxing standard can you become a genuine cultivator of Falun Dafa. Some people have asked: could we meet with other qigong practitioners? Let me tell you that they are only practising qigong while you are cultivating the Great Law. After attending this lecture, there will be a huge gap between you and these people. This Falun has been formed through the cultivation of so many generations, and it has mighty powers. Of course, if you want to be in touch, but you could protect yourself from accepting and taking what belongs to them and would only become ordinary friends, it would not matter much. However, if that person indeed possesses something evil, it would be very bad, and you had better not have any contacts with him. I do not think that it would matter much if a couple practise different qigong. But there is one point to be made. Because you practise the orthodox cultivation way, though you are the only person practising it, others would benefit from it. If he practises something evil, he may have evil stuff in his body. He would be purified in order to ensure your safety. Everything will be purified for you in the other spaces including your home environment. How could you possibly practise the Gong if your environment is not purified with all sorts of interference bothering you? However, there is one situation in which my Law body could not do the purification. I have one student who one day saw my Law body come for a visit. He was very happy and excited: The teacher's Law body is here. Teacher, please come in. My Law body said: This room is too messy, and there are too many things. Then, my Law body walked away. Generally speaking, there are too many intelligent entities in other spaces, and my Law body will clean them out. However, his room was full of various evil qigong books. He came to understand it, and cleaned up his room by either burning up the books or selling them. Then, my Law body returned. This is what a student told me. Some people are interested in seeing a fortune teller. Someone asked me: teacher, I am a practitioner of Falun Dafa now. I am also interested in Zhouyi (the Book of Changes)or such fortune-telling stuff. Could I still use them? Let me put it this way. If you carry considerable amount of energy, whatever you say will have an effect. If something is not that way, and you have made it by saying it is that way, you would probably have committed a wrong deed. An ordinary person is very weak. The messages he has is unstable, and he is likely to have some changes. If you opened your mouth and said something, there could exist that tribulation. If he has a lot of karmic debts that he has to pay, and you keep telling him that he has good fortunes, would it be all right if he is not able to pay back the debts? Aren't you doing harm to this person? Some people just could not give up this attachment as if they have some talents. Isn't this an attachment? Even if you really know the truth, as a practitioner you should not reveal a secret of Heaven to an ordinary person. This is a principle. No mater how you use Zhouyi to predict, some of it is no longer true. It has been used to predict back and forth with both truth and falsehood. Such a thing as fortune telling is allowed to exist in the society of ordinary people. As a true practitioner with genuine cultivation energy, I think you should act up to a high standard. However, some practitioners would try to find someone else to do fortune-telling for him, saying: would you do some fortune-telling to see how things are going with me, how is my qigong getting on? Is there a tribulation for me? Such a person would find people to predict such things for him. How could you possibly make progress if that tribulation of yours has been told to you? The whole life of a practitioner has been rearranged. His palm reading, face reading, birth data, as well as all the messages in his body have been changed. If you go to a fortune teller, you will believe him. Otherwise, why would you do it? What he could tell is some superficial stuff about your past. Yet, the substance has already changed. Please think about it. Aren't you listening to him and do you believe him if you go to a fortune teller? Wouldn't you, then, invite some mental burden? Isn't it an attachment with such a burden on your mind? How could such an attachment be abandoned? Haven't you added a man-made tribulation to yourself? Don't you have to suffer more to give up this arising attachment? Each pass and each tribulation are related to the issue of either ascending in cultivation or dropping down. The cultivation is already difficult. How could you overcome it when you have increased this tribulation by yourself? You probably would run into tribulations and troubles as a result. Your changed path of life is not allowed to be seen by others. How could you continue your cultivation after it has been seen by others who could tell at which stage you will go through a tribulation? Therefore, it is not allowed to be seen at all. Nobody in other cultivation ways will be allowed to see it, including the fellow practitioners from the same cultivation way. No one will be able to tell it correctly because your life has been rearranged to you for the cultivation. Some people asked me if they could read books of other religions and other qigong books. We have said that religious books, books on Buddhism in particular, all aim at teaching people how to cultivate their Xinxing. We also belong to the Buddhas' School, and there should not be any problems. However, there is one point to make. Some parts in many sutras have already gone wrong in the course of translation. To make things still worse, many sutras have been interpreted from different realms, and the definitions have been casually made. This in fact has disrupted the Law. Those people who have casually interpreted the sutras were too far away from the Buddha's realm of awareness, and did not understand the real meaning of the sutras. Therefore, they would also have different understanding of the issues. It is not easy for you to understand the sutras thoroughly, and you will not be able to awake to their meaning on your own. But you say: we are just interested in the sutras. If you always work on the sutras, that means you are cultivating yourself in that school since the sutras also have integrated the cultivation system and the Law of that school together. Once you study them, you would be learning things belonging to their school. There is such an issue. If you dig into them and act up to them, you may be following that cultivation school instead of ours. Through the ages, cultivation has presented the one and only way. If you really want to cultivate this cultivation school, just read the book of this school. As far as qigong books are concerned, you should not read them if you want to go into the cultivation. Particularly, do not read the recently published qigong books. As for books such as The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, A Genuine Guide to Cultivation of Nature and Life, or Tao Zang, they may not carry any bad messages; but they contain messages of different dimensions. They are just cultivation methods themselves. Reading them would add things and bring interference to your cultivation. If you find one sentence is good, well, it would be invited and added to your cultivation energy. Though it is not something bad, how could you possibly cultivate yourself when something else is suddenly added to your cultivation energy? Wouldn't problems arise as well? In terms of the electronic parts inside a TV set, what would happen to a TV set if it is installed with an additional part? It would be out of order instantly. That is the bottom line. In addition, some qigong books nowadays are fake, and carry a variety of messages. As one of our practitioners was turning the pages of a qigong book, a giant snake jumped out of it. Of course, I am not willing to go into details. What I just said was that the practitioners would bring on themselves some troubles because they could not properly conduct themselves, that is to say, the troubles are incurred by their evil intentions. We point these out to benefit everybody and make everybody know what to do and how to be able to distinguish them in order to avoid problems arising in the future. Though I did not overemphasize what I just said, everyone must pay great attention to it because problems oftentimes arise right here and around these issues. Cultivation is extremely hard and extraordinarily serious. If you become slightly careless, you could drop down and be ruined just at this. Therefore, your mind must be right. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Wushu Qigong ( Martial Arts ) (ÎäÊõÆø¹¦) In addition to the interior cultivation ways, there is Wushu qigong. While talking about Wushu qigong, I should also emphasize an issue that nowadays there are many ways of saying qigong in the world of cultivation. There have appeared so-called Fine Arts qigong, Music qigong, Calligraphy qigong, Dancing qigong. There are all sorts of them. Are they all qigong? I have found it very odd. I would say that this is disrupting qigong. It is not only disrupting qigong, but also simply ruining qigong. What are their theoretical bases? Would it be qigong to practise painting, singing, dancing and writing by entering the state of a trance, the so-called qigong status? It should not be understood this way. I would say, isn't it abusing qigong? Qigong has both extensive and profound knowledge of the cultivation of the human body. Oh, how could possibly a trance be qigong? What would it be then called for us to go to the bathroom in a trance? Isn't it abusing qigong? I would say that it is abusing qigong. At the Far East Health Expo two years ago, there was something like calligraphy qigong. What was the calligraphy qigong? I went over there to take a look and found a person was writing with a brush over there. After writing, he gave off his qi to each word with his hands, and the qi released was all black. His mind was fully occupied with money and fame. How could he have energy? His qi could not be good, either. His writings were hanging up there and sold with high prices. But they were all sold to foreigners. I would say that whoever bought them would be in trouble. How could the black qi be good? That person's face even looked black. He had become obsessed with money, only thinking about money. How could he have any energy? Still, this person's name card carried a pile of titles, such as the International Calligraphy Qigong, etc.. I would say how could that be qigong? Please think about it. 80% to 90% of the people from this class would not only be free from any disease, but also bring forth cultivation energy, the genuine cultivation energy. What your bodies are carrying would be quite supernormal. It would be impossible for you to develop this through your life long cultivation on your own. If young people begin their cultivation right now, they will not be able to develop all these things I have given them in their lifetimes, and at the same time they would still need the guidance of a genuine good master. It has taken us so many generations to develop this Falun and these mechanisms which we have planted into your bodies all at once. Therefore, I am telling you that you mustn't lose them easily because you have got them easily. They are extremely valuable and cannot be valued with price. After this class, what you will carry with you is the genuine cultivation energy, the high energy substance. When you go home and write a few words, they will carry energy whether the handwriting is good or not. As a result, should everyone from this class be entitled with the word of "master", and all become calligraphy qigong masters? I do not think that it should be understood this way. Because you do not have to deliver energy intentionally, whatever you have touched would retain your energy, which is shining bright, as you are really possessed of cultivation energy. I once found a magazine which carried such a piece of news saying that a calligraphy qigong class was going to be held. I read a few pages to see how it would be taught. It was written inside: one should first of all tune up his breath, as well as inhale and exhale. Then he would sit in meditation for 15 to 30 minutes while thinking of the Dantian qi. Imagine lifting the Dantian qi to his arm. Ink his brush-pen with the ink, and then direct the qi to the brush-pen point. when his intention is focused on the brush- pen, he would start to write. Wasn't that cheating? Oh, is it the qigong to lift the qi to a certain place? In that case, as we eat, we would do the sitting for a while, then pick up the chopsticks, move qi to the tips of the chopsticks and eat. It would be called the dining qigong, wouldn't it? What we eat would also be all energy. We just talk about such a matter. I would say this is really ruining qigong as he has taken qigong so superficially. So qigong can not be understood this way. However, Wushu qigong could be considered to be an independent qigong. Why? Because it has gone through a carrying on process of several thousand years with a complete system of cultivation theories as well as that of cultivation methods, it can be regarded as an integrated system. Nevertheless, Wushu qigong also remains to be something belonging to the lowest level of the interior cultivation ways. The Hard Qigong is a form of energy mass of matter which is aimed solely at striking. Let me give you an example. A practitioner in Beijing could not press anything with his hands after attending our Falun Dafa lectures. When he was shopping for a bassinet in the shop, he was surprised to find that the bassinet collapsed at the sound "pa" when he checked its sturdiness with hands. When he went home and sat in a chair, he could not press it with hands. If he did that, the chair would break into pieces. He asked me what was going on. I did not tell him why because I did not want him to develop an attachment. I just said that it is a natural phenomenon, let it go naturally, and don't bother with it as it is all good. If that supernormal capability is used well, a stone could be smashed to powder with hands. Isn't this the Hard Qigong? However, he has never practised the Hard Qigong. Usually, such supernormal capabilities could all be brought forth in the interior cultivation ways. Because the human Xinxing is difficult to be handled well, you will not be usually allowed to use the supernormal capabilities when they have been developed. Especially in the low phase of the cultivation when one's Xinxing has not yet been upgraded, the supernormal capabilities developed at the low stage will not at all be allowed to be seen. As time goes by, and your cultivation status is going up, such stuff would be no more use and would not be brought out. How is Wushu qigong practised specifically? Practising Wushu qigong needs to exercise qi. However, it is not easy to do that at the beginning. Though you want to exercise qi, you can not do it as you wish. What would you do then? You would have to exercise your hands, your two sides of the body, feet, legs, arms, and head. How should you exercise qi? Some people would strike a tree with hands or palms. Some people would strike on the rock with hands. How painful it is for the bones as it would bleed with just a little effort. Still, the qi could not be directed. What should be done then? One would start to swing his arms until his hands and arms become swollen by making the blood circulate in the opposite direction. In fact, they have become swollen. After that, his bones would be padded when he hits on a rock. Since his bones would not directly contact the rock, they would not feel pain. As he continues to practise, his master will teach him. With time passing by, he would learn how to direct qi. However, the ability to direct qi alone will not be good enough as the opponent will not wait for you in a real combat. Of course, when one is able to direct qi, he would be able to resist blows, and would probably not feel pain when hit with a thick stick. After he has directed qi to a certain part of the body, it could swell up. Yet, qi is the most primitive substance at the beginning, and could be transformed into the high energy substance as he continues his practice. When this transformation completes, it would gradually form a huge energy mass of high density, and such energy masses carry intelligence. Therefore, it is also a supernormal capability mass, which means a supernormal capability. Nevertheless, such a supernormal capability is specialized for striking and the striking protection. It would not work if used to treat disease. Because this high energy substance exists in another space and does not travel in our space, it moves faster there than here in our space. When you hit another person, you do not need to direct qi, nor to think of it because your energy has reached there already. When you try to ward off someone's blow, the energy also has reached there already. No matter how quickly you throw a blow, the energy will move faster than you as the concepts of time are different on both sides. Through practising Wushu qigong, one may develop something like Iron-sand Palm, Cinnabar Palm, Vajra Leg, Arhat Foot, which are the skills of ordinary people. An ordinary person will be able to attain such skills through exercises. The major difference between Wushu qigong and the interior cultivation way is that: Wushu qigong requires practice in motion. Therefore, qi travels under the skin. Because it requires practice in motion, one could not reach the state of tranquillity, nor could his qi enter Dantian (the elixir field). His qi would move under the skin and through the muscles. Therefore, he could not cultivate his life, nor could he cultivate the high attainment of Gongfu. Our interior cultivation way requires the practice to be in the state of tranquillity. Conventional cultivation ways require qi to enter Dantian and the abdomen area. They require practice in the state of tranquillity as well as the transformation of Benti ( ±¾Ìå the True Being), which enables one to cultivate life and to reach the high status cultivation. You have probably heard of such Gongfu in the novels which describe something like Gold Bell Shield, Iron Cloth Shirt, shooting through a willow ring from one hundred paces away. Light Gongfu enables one to travel high up from place to place. Some even could enter another space. Is there such Gongfu? Yes, that is for sure. However, it does not exist among ordinary people. Those who have indeed cultivated such high attainment Gongfu would not be able to show it off in public. Because such a person does not practise martial arts alone and he has completely gone beyond the ordinary people's attainment level, he must cultivate himself according to the interior cultivation way. He is required to preserve and upgrade his Xinxing, and care little about such things as material interests. Though he could cultivate such Gongfu, he will not be able to casually use it any more among ordinary people from now on. It would be all right for him to utilize it when no one is around to see it. When reading those novels, you would find in them that the characters fight and kill with superb Gongfu, appearing and disappearing like gods. The book says such a person does this for something like a sword map, or treasure, or a woman. Please think about it. Haven't those people who genuinely have such Gongfu attained it through the interior cultivation? They have cultivated it only through improving Xinxing, and have long before cared little about fame and gain as well as various desires. How could they go to kill others? How could they care that much about money and wealth? It is out of the question. They are only artistic exaggerations. People just seek after the psychological stimulation and would do anything for that thirst. The authors have cashed in on such a weakness, and would write whatever could satisfy your desire and make you pleased. The more absurd the books become, the more you like to read. But they are only artistic exaggerations. Those who indeed have such Gongfu would not do it this way. In particular, they would not show it off in public. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Desire to Show Off (ÏÔʾÐÄÀí) Because of cultivating themselves in ordinary people, many of our practitioners could not dispose of many attachments. Many of them have already become natural, and they could not realize their existence. Such a psychology to show off could be seen in every situation, even in doing a good deed. In order to gain fame and gain and a little benefit, some people often advertise and show off themselves: I have the capability and I am a winner. We also have such cases. Some practitioners who have practised a little better than others, have Celestial Eye visions or better exercise movements also like to show off. Some people would say: I have heard something from Master Li, and people would surround them to listen. Such a person would pass the hearsay with his own interpretations and falsifying it by colouring it up. What is the purpose? It is to show off himself. Still, some people pass the hearsay from one to another with a great deal of pleasure as if they knew more than others, and as if so many of our practitioners did not understand or know as much as he does. It has become natural for him to do so, and perhaps he is not aware of it. He has such a mentality to show off subconsciously. Otherwise, what is the purpose of passing the hearsay around? Some people gossip about when I shall return to the mountains. I am not from the mountains. Why should I return to the mountains? Others gossip that I have told someone something and treated him specially. What good does it do to pass such news around? It does not do any good. However, we have seen his attachment, a psychology to show off. There are also some people who would ask for my signature. What is the purpose? It is the ordinary people's custom to keep someone's signature as a souvenir. If you do not cultivate, my signature will not at all help you. Every word of my books is my image and Falun, and every sentence is said by me. What do you want the signature for? Some people presume : with the signature, the teacher's message would be able to protect me. They still believe in messages. We do not give messages, either. This book can not be measured by value. What else do you still seek after? All these are reflected from those attachments. Still, after seeing the manner and the conduct of the students who travel with me, some people would try to learn from them without knowing whether they are good or bad. In fact, it does not matter who the person is, there is only one Law. Only by acting up to this Great Law can you follow the genuine guideline. Like everyone else, the people who work with me have not received any special treatment. They are just staff members of the Research Society. Do not develop this attachment. Oftentimes, once you have such an attachment, you would play a role of disrupting the Great Law unintentionally. The sensational hearsay that you have invented would even give rise to conflicts, and arouse the students' attachment by trying to get closer to the teacher with the expectation to hear some more things, etc.. Do they all belong to this issue? What else could such a psychology to show off lead to? I have been teaching the Gong for two years. A number of the veteran students of Falun Dafa may soon open their cultivation energy. Some students will enter the status of gradual enlightenment. Why didn't they bring forth these supernormal abilities at that time? Because I pushed you so high all at once, it is not allowed for you to still stick to your attachments of ordinary people. Of course, your Xinxing has already been improved remarkably, but you still have many attachments which have not been abandoned. Therefore, you could not be allowed to bring forth these supernormal capabilities. After this phase is over and you have become steady, you will be at once delivered into the state of the gradual enlightenment, in which your Celestial Eye will be opened to a very high plane and you still have many supernormal capabilities. In fact, let me tell you that as soon as you really begin the cultivation, you will develop many supernormal capabilities because you have already reached such a high status. So, there are a lot of supernormal capabilities. Lately, many of our practitioners will find themselves in such a state. Still, some other people cannot reach a high status of cultivation. What this person physically carries himself combined with his endurance ability is fixed. As a result, some people would open their cultivation energy and become enlightened, thoroughly enlightened, at a very low level. There will be such people. I have pointed out this issue to tell you that once there appears such a person, do not regard him as a great enlightened being. This is a very serious matter for the cultivation. It can be the right way only by acting up to this Great Law. Do not follow and listen to him because he has supernormal capabilities, or supernatural powers, or he has seen something. You would do harm to him as he would develop the attachment of complacency, and end up with losing everything and having everything shut up. In the end, he would drop all the way to the bottom. With the supernormal capabilities opened, a person could also drop down. If he cannot conduct himself properly after he is enlightened, he could also drop down. Even a Buddha could drop down if he cannot conduct himself properly, not to mention a practitioner like you among ordinary people! Therefore, you must conduct yourself well no matter how many supernormal capabilities you have or how mighty your supernormal capabilities or supernatural powers are. Recently, there was someone sitting here, who disappeared for a moment and reappeared for the next. It is just like this. There will come into being even greater supernatural powers. How would you conduct yourself in the future? As students and practitioners of ours, you should not worship or seek after them whether such things happen to you or to others in the future. Once your mind has changed, you will be all over at once and will drop down. It is likely that you are even higher than him but you have not yet brought forth supernatural powers. At least, you have dropped down on this particular issue. Accordingly, be sure to pay particular attention to this matter. We have put this issue in a very important place because such a matter would soon arise. Once it arises, it will not do if you cannot conduct yourself well. A cultivator who has developed his cultivation energy, and opened it or become truly enlightened, should also not treat himself as someone special. What he has seen is limited to his own status. His cultivation has reached this status, which simply means that his enlightenment quality, his Xinxing criterion, and his wisdom could only reach this status. Therefore, he would not probably believe what is in the high dimensions. It is just because he could not believe it that he is made to think what he has seen is absolute and believes it is all of it. It actually still has a long way to go because his status stays just there. Some people are going to open their cultivation energy in this status since they can not go any further up in the cultivation. As a result, they could open their cultivation energy and become enlightened only in this status. Among those who will complete the cultivation in the future, some will become enlightened on the small worldly paths, some will become enlightened in different dimensions, some will become enlightened when they have completed the right achievement. Only those who have become enlightened when they have completed the right achievement would be the highest, and can see and make an appearance in different dimensions. Even those who have opened their cultivation energy and become enlightened on the lowest level of the small worldly paths could also see some spaces and enlightened beings, and communicate with them. By that time, you should not become complacent because you can not complete the right achievement by the opening of cultivation energy on the small worldly paths at the low levels. This is for sure. What could be done about it, then? They could only stay on this level. It would be a matter of sometime later if they wish to continue their cultivation towards higher dimensions. What would be done if they did not open their cultivation energy as they could only cultivate this far? If they keep cultivating themselves like this, they cannot make any further progress. So, they have opened their cultivation energy because they have cultivated to the end. There will be many such people. No matter what happens, you must maintain good Xinxing. Only acting up to the Great Law is truly the right way. It is through the cultivation in the Great Law that you have attained supernormal capabilities and opened your cultivation energy. If you put the Great Law in the secondary place and put your supernatural powers in the important place, or as you have become enlightened, you believe your own this understanding or that one is correct or you even regard yourself as being great and better than the Great Law, I would say that you have already started to drop downward and you are in danger, getting worse and worse. By then, you would really run into troubles, and your cultivation would end up in vain. You would drop down if you cannot do well, and your cultivation would be in vain. I also tell you: The content of this book comes from the combination of the Law I have expounded in several lecturing sessions. I did all this, including every sentence, which was taken out of the tape recordings and was copied down word by word. The book was all copied down from the tape recordings with the assistance of my disciples and students, and then, I have proof-read them again and again. They are all my Law. What I have expounded is simply this Law. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next:Lecture Seven Up:Contents Previous:Lecture Five ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [NOTE: The strange characters are Chinese in GB code] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next:Lecture Seven Up:Contents Previous:Lecture Five ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lecture Six Cultivation Insanity Demonic Interference in Practice Demonic Interference From Oneself Main Consciousness Should Play a Governing Role Mind Must be Upright Wushu Qigong Desire to Show Off ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cultivation Insanity (×ß»ðÈëħ) In the world of cultivation, there is a notion called cultivation insanity. This view has a considerable influence on the public. In particular, some people have advertised it so much that a number of people have become afraid of practising qigong. When people are told that practising qigong could lead to cultivation insanity, they would become too frightened to try it. In fact, I tell you that cultivation insanity does not exist at all. Quite a few people have invited spirit possession because they are not right in mind. Their Zhu Yishi (Ö÷ÒâÊ Main Consciousness) cannot control themselves and they regard this as cultivation energy. Their bodies are controlled by evil spirits which make them mentally deranged, and they would exhibit shouting and screaming behaviours. Seeing such a form of qigong, people become too scared to practise it. Many of us consider that to be cultivation energy. How could this be practising qigong? This is merely the lowest state of healing disease and keeping fit. But it is very dangerous. If you yourself become accustomed to this way, your Main Consciousness can not always control yourself, your body will be likely to be dominated by Fu Yishi (¸±ÒâÊ Paraconsciousness) or external messages, evil spirits, etc.. Then you may present some dangerous behaviours, and this would have a great destructive impact on the world of cultivation. This is caused by the mind which is not upright and a strong desire to show off. This is not cultivation insanity. We do not know how some people have become the so called qigong masters. They also talk about cultivation insanity. In fact, practising qigong does not lead to cultivation insanity. Most people hear of the term, cultivation insanity, from literary works and Gongfu fiction, etc.. If you do not believe it, you may look into ancient classic books or cultivation documents in which there is not such a thing. How could there be cultivation insanity? Such a thing will never occur at all. It is generally believed that there are several forms of cultivation insanity. What I have just mentioned is also a form. Because of their immoral minds, some people have brought on themselves spirit possession. They have a variety of mentalities such as seeking after qigong conditions, and showing off themselves. Some people simply seek after supernormal capabilities directly or practise phony qigong. They would be accustomed to abandoning their Main Consciousness whenever they practise qigong. They would become unconscious and give up their bodies to others. They would be out of their minds, allow their bodies to be dominated by the Paraconsciousness or external messages, and would exhibit some strange behaviours. Such a person would jump out of a building or into the water if he is told to do so. He himself does not even want to live, and he gives up his body to others. That does not belong to cultivation insanity but to going astray while they are practising qigong. This is caused by an intentional pursuit of such a state at the beginning. Many people think that wobbling their bodies unconsciously is a practice of qigong. In fact, such a state would lead to serious consequences if really carried out. It is not a practice of qigong, but it is caused by the ordinary people's attachments and desires. Another case is that a practitioner gets frightened when qi is blocked somewhere in the body or when qi can not come down from the top of the head. A human body is a small cosmos. It would run into such problems especially in the Taoist cultivation system when qi cannot move through the pass. If qi can not go through the pass, it would stay there, not only at the top of the head but also in other parts of the body. However, the most sensitive place is the head. Qi would move up to the top of the head and come down. If qi can not go through the pass, one would experience the phenomena that his head is heavy, swollen as if wearing a thick qi cap, etc.. Yet, qi does not have any restrictive function. It can neither bring about any troubles nor diseases at all. Some people do not know what qigong is really about, and have made some incomprehensible statements which result in a chaos. People would then think that cultivation insanity or something wrong would occur if qi cannot come down from the top of the head. As a result, many people have become frightened themselves. It is only the state of a certain period of time if qi does not come down from the top of the head. This phenomenon may last a long time or half a year for some people. A genuine qigong master can direct qi down through the pass if that happens. Those whose qi can not rush through the pass nor can it come down in practising qigong should examine their Xinxing (ÐÄÐÔ), and find out if they have stuck in that phase for too long a time, and should upgrade their Xinxing. Once you have truly upgraded Xinxing, you would find that qi will be able to come down. You cannot just go after the change of cultivation energy in the physical body rather than the improvement of Xinxing. You will not make an overall improvement until your Xinxing makes progress. One will not run into any problems if qi is indeed blocked. One becomes frightened oftentimes due to his own psychological factors, or to the fake qigong master's notion that when qi moves to the top of the head, there will be something wrong. Such a fear may indeed bring him some troubles. Because once you are frightened, it will be fear. Isn't it an attachment? Shouldn't your attachment be discarded once it comes out? The more you fear it, the more ill you would look. This attachment of yours must be relinquished to teach you a lesson so that your fear would be removed, and you could upgrade yourself. Practitioners will not feel physically comfortable in the future cultivation as their bodies develop many types of cultivation energy, all of which are very powerful stuff moving around inside their bodies. You would feel uncomfortable here and there. The reason why you feel uncomfortable is principally that you are always afraid of catching a certain disease. In fact, your bodies have developed such powerful stuff which are all cultivation energy, supernormal capabilities, and many living entities. If they move, you would feel your body itchy, painful, and uncomfortable, etc.. The ends of the nerve system are particularly sensitive. There would be different kinds of presentations. As long as your body is not completely transformed by the high energy substance, you will feel this way, and it is actually a good thing. As a practitioner, how could you cultivate yourself if you always treat yourself as an ordinary person and think that you have illnesses? I would say that at that time your Xinxing has dropped to the level of an ordinary person when you treat yourself as an ordinary person in the face of tribulations in practising qigong. At least, on this particular issue, you have dropped down to the level of an ordinary person. As genuine practitioners, we should look at things from a very high level instead of the viewpoint of an ordinary person. If you believe that you are ill, your belief would probably lead to illness. Because once you think that you are ill, your Xinxing would be on the same level of an ordinary person. Qigong practice and true cultivation will not lead to disease especially under such conditions. We all know that true patients are 30% physically ill and 70% psychologically ill. Oftentimes, one is first of all psychologically down and burdened and has collapsed, which would rapidly worsen the state of an illness. It is usually this way. For instance, there once was a person who was tied up in a bed. One of his arms was lifted up, and he was told that it would be cut to bleed. Then, his eyes were covered, and the arm was scratched once. (His arm was not cut at all.) The running water faucet was turned on so that he could hear the dripping sound of water. Then, he thought that it was his blood dripping. The man died a short while later. In fact, he was not bleeding at all. What was dripping was running water. He died because of his psychological factor. If you always believe that you are ill, you would probably lead yourself to illness. Because your Xinxing has dropped to the basis of an ordinary person, an ordinary person would, of course, fall ill. As a practitioner, if you always believe that you have an illness, you are in fact asking for it. If you ask for it, the illness is able to squeeze in. As a practitioner, your Xinxing must be high . You should not always feel afraid that you are ill as such a fear is an attachment as well, which could bring you trouble, too. During cultivation one needs to eradicate karma, which is painful. How could it be possible to comfortably increase your cultivation energy? Otherwise, how could you let go of your attachments? Let me tell you a story from Buddhism. There once was a person who made great effort to become an Arhat. This person was going to complete the right achievement and become an Arhat, shouldn't he feel happy? He was going to go beyond the Three Realms! Such a joy is an attachment of complacency. An Arhat should be of active non-action and his mind should not be affected. But he dropped down and his cultivation was in vain. He had to start all over again from the beginning. After painstaking effort he cultivated to this status again. This time he became scared and spoke to himself: I should not get excited this time. Otherwise I shall drop again. As he grew worried, he dropped again. Fear is also an attachment. There is another case that a person may be labeled as cultivation insanity after becoming mentally disordered. Also there are some people who are even waiting for me to treat their mental disease. I hold that mental disorder is not an illness, and I do not have time to deal with such things, either. Why? Because a mentally disordered patient does not have any virus. His body has neither pathological changes, nor ulceration. In my opinion, it is not a disease. Mental disorder arises when a person's Main Consciousness (Ö÷ÒâÊ) becomes too weak. How weak will it be? It is like one who cannot be his own boss. The Zhu Yuanshen (Ö÷ÔªÉñChief Spirit) of the patient is in such a state that it does not want to be in charge of his body. He always remains in a trance, and cannot lift up his spirit. By then the Paraconsciousness (¸±ÒâÊ) and external messages would step in to interfere in him. Since there are so many dimensions of spaces, all sorts of messages would come to disturb him. In addition, one's Chief Spirit (Ö÷ÔªÉñ) probably committed some wrongdoing in the previous lives, and the creditors may want to harm him. There are all sorts of possibilities. This is how we describe the mental disorder. How could I treat you? I say this is how the real mental disorder is caused. What should be done about it? Educate him, and help him lift up his spirit, which, though, would be very difficult. You know that the doctor at the psychiatric hospital could scare the patient to become speechless by just waving the electric shock stick in his hand. Why? Because his Chief Spirit (Ö÷ÔªÉñ) would become alert then, and he is afraid of being electrically shocked. People usually enjoy continuing the practice when they enter the door of cultivation. Everyone has Buddha nature as well as the mind for cultivation. Therefore, many people will stay with it for the rest of their lives once they learn the Gong. No matter whether he could go up in cultivation or not, could attain the Law or not, he has the mind to seek the Tao any way, and he always wants to practise. His colleagues in the office, people living in the neighbourhood and his neighbours all know that he practises qigong. But, please think about it. Who did real cultivation in the past few years? Nobody. Only real cultivation could change his life course. But as an ordinary person, he only practises qigong to heal disease and keep fit. Who would change his path of life? As an ordinary person, it is natural that he may fall ill some day, or run into trouble, or become mentally disordered, or pass away. His whole life would go this way. You may see him practising qigong in a park; actually he is not genuinely cultivating. Though he wishes to cultivate towards a higher status, he cannot make it because he does not know the Orthodox Law. He only has the wish to cultivate towards a higher status. He still remains a practitioner who heals disease and keeps fit on a low level. No one would change his path of life. Then he would fall ill. His illness would not be healed if he does not pay attention to his virtues. Practising qigong does not mean that one would not fall ill at all. He must truly cultivate and pay more attention to his Xinxing. Only genuine cultivation could cure illnesses. Because qigong practice are not gymnastic exercises, but something beyond ordinary people, there must be a higher principle and standard which are required of the practitioner. He must act up to them and thus can fulfil his goal. However, many people have not done so, and they still remain as ordinary people. Therefore, they would still fall ill when time is due. One day he may suddenly come down with cerebral thrombosis, or catch one or another disease out of a sudden, or become mentally disordered some day. Everybody knows that he practises qigong. Once this person becomes mentally disordered, he would be said to have gone into cultivation insanity and be labeled this way. Just imagine, is this reasonable? The laymen do not know the truth. Our professionals including many practitioners could hardly know the truth of the matter, either. If the person becomes mentally ill at home, there might be less trouble from the public opinion, though others would say he gets it from practising qigong. If he becomes mentally disordered at the group exercises site, it would be a disaster as the label is imposed. It would be impossible to remove such a label. Even the newspapers would advertise that practising qigong has led to cultivation insanity. Some people oppose qigong with their eyes closed: you saw him moments ago practising qigong quite well there, and now he has turned into such a state. As an ordinary person, he would run into whatever he is destined to. He may catch some other diseases or run into other troubles. Would it be reasonable to conclude all these are due to practising qigong? Like doctors in a hospital, because he becomes a doctor, he should not fall ill all his life. How could it be understood this way? It can be said, therefore, that many people make irrational statements without understanding the truth of qigong, and its principles. Once there is a problem, all kinds of labels would be imposed on qigong. Because qigong has been popular in society for a very short time, many people hold the stubborn views. They do not recognize it, but accuse it and reject it all the time. We do not know what kind of mentality such people have; they are so sick of qigong as if it had something to do with them. They would say it is of idealism if the word of qigong is mentioned. Qigong is a science, a more advanced science. It is only because such people are too obstinate in their beliefs, and their knowledge is too limited. There is another situation called qigong status in the world of cultivation. Such a person has mental illusions but has not gone into cultivation insanity. He is quite rational. Let me first explain what qigong status is. We know that practising qigong involves the issue of one's inborn qualities. In every country of the world, there are people who believe in religions. There are people in China who have had faith in Buddhism and Taoism for several thousand years. They believe in the principle of "good will be rewarded with good and evil with evil". But some people do not think so. Such things were labeled as superstitions, and were criticized particularly during the period of the Cultural Revolution. Some people would consider to be superstitious all that they could not understand, that they have not learned from textbooks, that modern science is not advanced enough to recognize, or that they have not discovered. There were quite a lot of such people years ago, but now there are fewer such people. Though you may not recognize some phenomena, they have reflected into our space down to earth. You do not dare to face them, but now people have the courage to talk about them. People also have got some information of practising qigong by what is heard and seen. Some people are stubborn to the extent that they would laugh at you from their inner hearts if you mention the word qigong. They think you are going in for superstitions, and you are quite ridiculous. They would consider you to be too ignorant whenever you discuss the phenomena of qigong practice. Though such a person is obstinate, his inborn qualities are not necessarily bad. If his inborn qualities are good and he wants to practise qigong, his Celestial Eye might be opened to a very high plane and he would develop some supernormal capabilities. He does not believe in qigong, but he cannot guarantee that he will never fall ill. If he falls ill, he will go to hospital. If the doctor of the Western medicine could not cure him, he would go to see a doctor of Chinese medicine. If the doctor of Chinese medicine could not cure him either, nor could any special prescriptions work. At this, he would think of qigong, pondering that: I will go there and try my luck and see if qigong could heal my illness or not. He would come with much reluctance. Because of his good inborn qualities, he would practise very well as soon as he starts to do so. Perhaps, a master would become interested in him, and that intelligent being of another space would give him a hand. His Celestial Eye is opened at once, or he has entered the state of semi- enlightenment. His Celestial Eye is open on a very high plane and he could see some truth of the universe. In addition, he has developed some supernatural capabilities. How could possibly his mind, in your opinion, sustain all these phenomena when he witnesses them? What kind of mentality would he have? Through the ages, what has been considered superstitious and absolutely impossible, and laughable when other people mention it, now truly presents itself in front of his eyes and he is really in touch with it. Then, his mind would not be able to sustain it. His mental pressure is enormous. What he says would not be accepted by others though it is still logical. He just could not balance the relationship between both sides. He discovers that what mankind does wrongly here is oftentimes right over there. If he does something in the way that it is done over there, people would say he is wrong here. People cannot understand him, and thus would say that this person has gone into cultivation insanity. In fact, he has not gone into cultivation insanity. Most of us who practise qigong will not become this way at all. Only those very stubborn people would enter this kind of qigong status. Many people here have opened the Celestial Eye. Quite a lot. They have indeed witnessed objects in other spaces. They would not be surprised, but feel very good without any mental shocks nor the occurrence of this qigong status. After entering the qigong status, one is very sensible, and what he says is very philosophical and logical. It is just that ordinary people do not believe what he says. He may at one moment tell you that he has seen someone who has passed away and that person told him to do something. How could an ordinary person believe that? Later, he has come to understand that he should keep these in mind and cannot tell others. It would be all right after he deals with the relationship properly between the two sides. Usually, such people also have some supernormal capabilities with them. This is not cultivation insanity, either. There is another phenomenon called the "true insanity" which is rarely seen. What we say as "true insanity" does not mean going really insane. It does not mean this. Instead, it means the cultivation of truth. What is the true insanity? In my opinion, such a person is rarely seen, perhaps one out of a hundred thousand cultivators. As a result, it does not have the universality, nor has it made any impact on the society. There must be a prerequisite for the "true insanity", which is that this person must possess very good inborn qualities and must be quite old as well. Because of the old age, it would be late for cultivation. Those who have very good inborn qualities are usually here on a mission, and come from the high dimensions. Whoever will come to this society of ordinary people is afraid of it. After his memories are washed off, he would not be able to recognize anyone. When he comes to this social environment of ordinary people, the human interference will make him go after fame and gain. As a result, he will drop downward and there will never be a hope for him to get out of here. Therefore, everyone is dreadful of coming here and everyone would be scared . There are such people who have come. After their arrival, they indeed were not all right among ordinary people, and would really start to drop downward. They have committed a lot of wrongdoing in their lifetime. If one lives to compete for his personal interests he will commit a lot of wrong deeds and owe a great deal to others. His master realizes that such a person is about to drop downward, but this person has already achieved his cultivation status, and he would not be allowed to drop down casually. What should be done about it? The master would become worried and have no way to make him pursue cultivation. Where could he find a master at that time? He must return to the origin and cultivate so as to go back again. Is it easy to talk about? He is old and too late for cultivation. Where could he find qigong of integrated cultivation of both human life and nature? Only under such a very special circumstance if this person has very good inborn qualities, can the method of the insanity be applied to him. On the condition that this person has absolutely no hope and can not return to the origin on his own, such a method might be adopted in order to make him really go insane. A certain portion of his brain will be made disfunctional. For instance, our human beings are afraid of cold and filth. The portions of his brains that fear cold and filth will be made disfunctional. After some brain functions have been disabled, this person would become mentally disordered and would appear to be crazy and insane. Yet, such a person often does not commit any wrongdoing, neither does he swear at people nor beat people. He often does good deeds. However, he is very cruel to himself. Because he is unaware of being cold, he would run around with bare feet in the snow and wear thin clothes in the winter time. His feet may be frozen to bleed. Because he is unaware of filth, he would dare to eat human excrement and drink human urine. I once knew such a person who would eat horse excrement with taste though they were frozen hard. He could suffer the hardships that an ordinary person would not be able to suffer when he is conscious. Just imagine how much his insanity made himself suffer. Of course, such a person often has supernormal capabilities with him. Most of them are old ladies. Old ladies in the past had their feet bound up to make them smaller but such an old lady could still jump over a wall of two meters or higher easily. When her family members found out she was insane and always ran out of the house, they would lock her up in the house. After her family members left the house, she would unlock the lock by pointing at it with her fingers and get out of the house. Then, she would be tied up with iron chains. She could shake them off easily when everyone had left home. It was impossible to restrain her. She would suffer a lot in this way. Because she suffered too much hardship, which came rather violently, she would repay the debts of her wrongdoing very quickly. At most it would take three years, normally one or two years. The misery that she had suffered from was tremendous. After that, she would understand at once what had happened because she had completed her cultivation in this way. As a result, her cultivation energy would be instantly developed and a variety of magic powers would come out. Such cases are extremely rare, but they have existed in the history. People of ordinary inborn qualities would not be allowed to experience this. It is known that there were insane Buddhist monks and insane Taoists documented in the history, such as the stories of the insane Buddhist monks wiping out Qin and the stories of crazy Taoists. There are many such literary quotations . We can definitely say that cultivation insanity does not exist at all. I would say that anyone who could really deliver a fire would be great. I would call it a supernormal capability if he could spit out fire by opening his mouth or could make a fire by stretching his hand, or light a cigarette with a finger which could release fire. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Demonic Interference during Practice (Á¹¦ÕÐħ) What is demonic interference in practice? It refers to some interference that we often easily run into while practising qigong. How could possibly the qigong practice invite the demonic interference? Since it is indeed very difficult for a person to cultivate, he will not be able to succeed in true cultivation without the protection of my Law body. As soon as you step out of the door, you could possibly involve yourself in a matter of life and death. Human True Spirit (ÔªÉñ) is immortal. Then in your social activities of the previous lives, you may have owed to somebody, have done harm to somebody or committed some wrongdoing. The creditors would come to collect the debts. It is said in Buddhism: humans live just according to the causational principles of rewards and retributions. If you owe him something, he would come for the payment. If he gets more than he should, he would return that to you next time. If a son disrespects his parents, it will turn the other way round in the next life. This is the way it turns round. Yet, we have indeed observed the demonic interference which prevents you from practising qigong. All this has causational relationship, and it does not occur without a reason. It will not be allowed to exist without a reason. The most common form of demonic interference is that your surrounding environment is relatively peaceful when you are not practsing qigong. Because you have learned the Gong, you would always enjoy practising it. However, as soon as you sit in practice, you would suddenly find it noisy outside. There are sounds of car horn, walking in the hallway, talking, slamming of the door and a radio being turned on from the outside. It would be instantly not quiet anymore. The environment would be calm if you do not practise qigong. As soon as you begin to practise, it would become noisy. Many of us have never thought further about why this has happened, except for feeling odd about it and being dejected about being unable to practise qigong. You just feel it "strange". This is a demonic interference. It manipulates people to disturb you. This is the most simple form of interference which is aimed at stopping you from cultivation. If you practise qigong, and attain the Tao, won't you pay for so many things you have owed? He would not agree, and would not let you practise. However, this is also a phenomenon reflected in a certain phase of cultivation, which would no longer be allowed to exist after a period of time. Namely, after the debt has been removed, it would no longer be allowed to come to interfere in you again. This is because cultivating our Falun Dafa enables you to make rapid progress, and it is also comparatively faster to break through your status of cultivation. There is another form of demonic interference. It is known that we could have our Celestial Eyes opened by practising qigong. After the Celestial Eyes become open, some people would see some scary scenes or frightening faces when practising at home. Some of these people have messy long hair, some want to fight you or even make various movements, which are quite frightening. Sometimes when practising, one will see them all clinging to the windows from the outside, which is quite frightful. Why would there be such a situation? All of those are forms of the demonic interference. However, it is very rare in our school of Falun Dafa, about one per cent. The majority would not encounter such a situation. Because it does not benefit our cultivation, it is, therefore, not allowed to interfere with you in this way. This kind of interference is the most common phenomenon in other conventional cultivation ways, and it would also last quite a long time. Some people can not practise qigong, and become frightened simply because of this. One normally chooses to practise qigong in a quiet environment at night. Seeing a person standing in front of him who looks half demon and half human, one would be too scared to continue the practice. Generally, there is not such a phenomenon in our Falun Dafa. However, there are still a few exceptions. Some people have extremely special situations. There is another kind of people who practise a cultivation way which cultivates both the interior and the exterior. They practise both Wushu (Martial Arts) and cultivates the interior. Such cultivation ways are commonly seen in the Taoist School. Once a person learns such a cultivation way, he will often run into such a demon, which other cultivation ways would not normally encounter except for the cultivation ways that include interior and exterior cultivation, as well as Martial Arts. The practitioner would be challenged to a fight since there are many Taoist practitioners in the world, many of whom practise Martial Arts and the interior and exterior cultivation ways. A person practising Martial Arts could also increase cultivation energy. Why? After getting rid of the desires for fame and gain and other attachments, he will also increase his cultivation energy. However, his desire to contend and compete with others would take time to be abandoned, and would be discarded relatively late. Therefore, he is likely to do such a thing, which would appear in a certain phase. While sitting in a trance, he would know who is practising. Then his Yuanshen (True Spirit) would leave his physical body to challenge that person to a fight to determine whose Gongfu is better, and a fight would then break out. Such a case would also occur in other spaces where someone may look for him for a fight. If he refuses, that person would indeed kill him. Therefore, a fight would take place between the two. As soon as this practitioner falls asleep, someone will come to challenge him to a fight, and therefore he cannot go to sleep for the whole night. In fact, this is the time for him to let go of his desire to contend with others. If he cannot abandon this attachment of his, he will always be this way. If it lasts for long, he will still remain in the same phase of cultivation for several years. This person would be made unable to continue the practice. His physical body could not bear it as well and could be disabled with so much energy consumed. Thus, such a situation will be seen frequently in the cultivation ways that include both the interior and the exterior cultivation, and it is quite common. Our interior cultivation way does not have such an experience as it is not allowed to take place. These several forms I have just talked about commonly exist. There is another form of demonic interference which every practitioner, including each member of our cultivation way, will encounter. It is the demon of sex, which is very serious. Because of this sex between husband and wife in the society of ordinary people, the human society could multiply. That is how mankind develops. There is the affection in the human society. So it is in line with the principle of heaven and earth for ordinary people to do this. Since human beings have emotions, ordinary people live for them. Being angry is an emotion, and so are happiness, love or hatred, enjoying doing one thing or disliking doing another, judging who is good or bad, having hobbies or dislikes. They are all emotions. Then, as a practitioner and a supernormal person, you should not use such a principle to judge yourself, but should break through this. Therefore, there are many attachments which come from the human affections. We should care less about them and give them up in the end. Desires and sex are such things that belong to human attachments which should be all abandoned. In our cultivation way, the period of time when we cultivate among ordinary people should not be used to live as monks or nuns. The young practitioners should still establish families. How should we treat this issue, then? I have said that our cultivation way aims directly at one's heart and does not make you really lose any material interests. On the contrary, it tempers your Xinxing (ÐÄÐÔ) in the face of the material interests of ordinary people, and what would be really upgraded is your Xinxing. If you could give up your attachments, you would be able to abandon everything. When required to give up the material interests, you could certainly do so. If you cannot give up your attachments, you will not be able to let go of anything. Therefore, the real purpose of cultivation is to cultivate your mind. The cultivation in the temple forces you to lose these stuff. In order to enable you to get rid of these attachments, they force you to put an end to them and not to think about them by means of such a method. But we do not require you to go that way, instead, we require you to care less about the material interests right in front of them. Therefore, the cultivation of our school is the most solid one. We do not want you all to be monks or nuns. We cultivate in ordinary people, and our cultivation way is getting more and more popular in the future. Suppose everyone has become a monk who is not a monk, every practitioner of our Falun Dafa has acted this way, this will not be allowed to happen. We require you while you are practising qigong: you are not allowed to divorce because you practise qigong. You practise it, but your spouse may not. This means we should care less about sex, and should not treat it so important as ordinary people. Especially nowadays in the contemporary society, such things as the so-called sex liberation and these pornographic stuff are interfering in people. Some people regard them as being very important. As practitioners, we must care little about them. Judging from the high dimensions, it is said that ordinary people in the society are simply playing with mud on the ground without realizing that it is dirty. We have said that you should not cause any family problems because of this matter. Therefore, it would be all right that you care less about it and keep a normal harmonic married life at the present stage. When you reach a certain status in the future, there will be another situation in that status. At present you should do this way, and it is all right for you to do so at our request. Of course, you can not follow what is going on in the contemporary society. How could that be allowed! There is still another issue on this matter. As we know, we practitioners carry energy in our bodies. Now about 80% to 90% of the people here from this class would not only recover from their illnesses but also grow some cultivation energy. Thus, your body is carrying very powerful energy. The energy you carry in your body and your current Xinxing are not proportional. Your cultivation energy is temporarily high because it has been promoted instantly. Your Xinxing is being upgraded at the moment. Gradually, you will catch up with your cultivation energy. You are certain to catch up within this period of time. As a result, we have promoted your cultivation energy in advance. In other words, you have got a certain amount of energy now. Because energy cultivated from the Orthodox Law is upright and compassionate, everyone sitting here all feels an atmosphere of serenity and compassion. I have cultivated myself this way, and carry such a thing with me. Everyone sitting here can feel the harmony and has no evil thoughts on mind, and would even forget to smoke a cigarette. In the future, you also should follow the requirement of our Great Law, and the cultivation energy you have cultivated will also be this way. With the increase of your energy potency, the scattered energy of your cultivation energy which your body carries will be also quite powerful. Even though it is not that powerful, an ordinary person within your energy field, or staying at your home, could also be restrained by you. Your family members at home may be all restrained by you as well. Why? You do not have to think about it because this field is upright, serene and compassionate, a field of right mindfulness. So, people around do not want to have wrong thoughts or do bad things. It would play such a role. The other day I mentioned that the Buddhas' lights illuminate all things in perfect brightness (·ð¹âÆÕÕÕ£ÀñÒÇÔ²Ã÷). It means that the energy radiated from our bodies could rectify all the surrounding abnormal conditions. Under the impact of this field when you are not thinking about such things, your spouse would be restrained without realizing it. If you do not think about it, you would not think about such a thing, your spouse will not be able to think of it. But it is not absolute. In the present environment, if a TV is turned on, everything is there which could easily stimulate one's desires. However, under the normal circumstances, you could play such a restraining role. When you reach the cultivation of the high status in the future, you will know yourself what to do without my telling you how. There will be another state which ensures you to keep a harmonic life. So you do not have to pay too much attention to this issue, and it would also be an attachment to worry too much. Between a couple there is no such problem as sex, but there is the lust. It would be all right if you can care little about it and feel mentally balanced. What kind of sex demon, then, would one encounter? If you are not capable of attaining the state of tranquillity, it would occur in your dream while sleeping or sitting in practice. Suddenly such a scene would appear: if you are male, a beauty would appear; if you are female, a man of your mind's eye would show up. Yet, they would be naked. If the idea of sex flashes through your mind, you may ejaculate, and this has become a fact. Please think about it. In our cultivation, the essence of a flesh body is used to cultivate our lives. You should not ejaculate all the time. In the meantime, you have not passed the test of sexual desire. How could that be allowed? Therefore, I tell you all about this matter as everybody will certainly encounter such an experience. While expounding the Law, I am delivering the message to your minds with very powerful energy. You may not remember what I said specifically right after stepping out of the door, but you will remember what I said when you really come across a problem. As long as you regard yourself as a practitioner, you will instantly remember what I said and could refrain yourself, and thus you will be able to pass this ordeal. If you fail the first time, it will be very difficult for you to refrain yourself the next time. However, there was such a person who regretted deeply for his failure to pass the test the first time after he woke up. Such a mentality and state of mind would probably reinforce your mental impression. When running into the problem again, you will be able to control yourself, and therefore pass the test. If a person who has not passed the test does not care about it, it is certain for him to be more difficult to pass the test afterwards. I am sure. This form of interference comes from the demons or from the master who transforms an object into another to test you. Both forms exist because everyone should pass this ordeal. We begin cultivation as ordinary people, and such an ordeal is the first step. Every practitioner will experience it. Let me give you an instance. When I was giving a lecturing session in Wuhan, there was such a student who was a young man of 30 years old. Right after attending my lecture, he went home, sat down cross-legged and quickly entered the state of tranquillity in Ding. After a while, he suddenly saw Buddha Amitabha appear from one side and Lao Tzu from another side. This is what the practitioner said in his progress report. After showing up, neither said a word. Then they disappeared. Later, Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara showed up with a vase in hand, from which a white smoke came out. The practitioner sat there and felt very pleased as he could watch everything vividly. Suddenly it changed into a few beauties, who were flying Apsaras and astonishingly beautiful. They danced for him with graceful movements. He thought: Because I am practising here, the Bodhisattva is rewarding me by transforming a few beauties to dance for me. As he was delighted with this thought, these beauties suddenly became naked, making various gestures, and came to hug and caressed him. As his Xinxing improved very fast, at this time, this young man became alert. The first thought came to his mind was: I am not an ordinary person. I am a practitioner. You should not treat me this way. I am cultivating Falun Dafa. As soon as this thought flashed in his mind, they all suddenly disappeared as they were all transformed illusions anyway. Then, Buddha Amitabha and Lao Tzu appeared again. Pointing at the young man, Lao Tzu smiled at Buddha Amitabha and said: This kid is teachable. That means this young man is good for cultivation and can be taught. Judging from the high dimensional spaces or in the history the issue of the sex and desires is regarded as extremely important when a person is judged to see if he is able to cultivate or not. Therefore, we must really care little about these things. However, as we are cultivating ourselves in ordinary people, we do not require you to put an end to them completely, at least at the present stage, but you are required to care less about them, and should not treat them as before. As a practitioner, you should be this way. Whenever there is an interference of one kind or another, you must look for the cause yourself and find out what attachment has not been discarded. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Demonic Interference from One's Own Mind (×ÔÐÄÉúħ) What is demonic interference from one's own mind? There is a field of matter around the human body in every dimensional space. Within a special field, everything in the universe could be reflected, like shadows, into your field of space. Though they are shadows, they are of material existence. Everything within your field of space is dictated by the consciousness of your brain. Namely, if you look with your Celestial Eye peacefully without any mental activities, what you see would be true. If you start to think slightly, what you see would be all unreal. This is called the demonic interference from one's own mind or the mind transformation. It is because some practitioners do not treat themselves as practitioners and can not control themselves. Such a person seeks after supernormal capabilities and is obsessed by minor skills and abilities or even by hearing something from other spaces. He is obsessed with pursuing such stuff. This kind of people would easily develop the demonic interference from themselves, and drop down. No matter how high up such a person has cultivated, he would drop all the way down to the bottom, and fail completely once this problem arises. It is matter of extremely serious consequences. Unlike things in the other aspects, if one fail to pass an examination of Xinxing this time, he can still continue to cultivate himself after he stands up after a fall. But the demonic interference from his own mind will not allow him to go on to cultivate any more, and thus it would ruin his whole life. In particular, this problem could easily occur to those who have opened their Celestial Eyes on a certain plane. Still, there are some people whose consciousness is always disturbed by foreign messages. They would believe whatever foreign messages tell them. This problem would easily arise this way. Therefore, some of our practitioners whose Celestial Eyes are open would run into a variety of message interference from many sources. Let me give an example. It would be very difficult for one to keep one's mind undisturbed in the low level cultivation. You may not see clearly what your master looks like. One day you may suddenly see a giant immortal. He would give you a few words of compliments and teach you something that you would accept as well. Your cultivation energy would be messed up. Once you become delighted and accept him as your master, you will follow him. However, he has not completed the right achievement as well. In another space, his body could grow big or small. With this in front of you, you would become really excited at seeing such a giant immortal. Would you not follow him once your attachment of complacency arises? A cultivator would be difficult to be saved, and he would easily ruin himself if he cannot control himself. Heavenly people are all deities, but they have not completed the right achievement and therefore have to follow the Sixfold Path of Transmigration. Where will he take you if you casually adopt such a being as your master and follow him? He has not completed the right achievement yet. Wouldn't your cultivation be in vain? Your own cultivation energy would end up in a mess. It is extremely hard for humans to stay undisturbed in mind. I am telling everyone that this is a very serious issue. Many of us would encounter such a problem in the future. I have expounded the Law to you. It is up to you whether you can control yourself. What I have talked about is one of the situations. Do not allow yourself to be disturbed by the enlightened being from another school you have seen, and stay with only one cultivation way. Whatever Buddha, whatever Tao, whatever deity or whatever demon will not be able to bother my mind. In this way, you are bound to succeed in your cultivation. Demonic interference from one's own mind also has other forms: interference from dead relatives who would cry to beg you to do this or that. All kinds of things could happen. Will your mind stay unaffected? You are very fond of this child of yours, and love your parents. Your parents, who had passed away, told you to do something... All those are the things that you should not do, otherwise it would ruin your cultivation. It is just so hard to be a practitioner. It is said that Buddhism has been in a chaos. It has absorbed the Confucian doctrines, such as showing filial obedience to parents, love for children, etc., which are not Buddhist principles. What does it mean? Since Yuanshen (the True Spirit) is a human being's real life, the mother who gave birth to your True Spirit is your real mother. In the course of the Sixfold Path of Transmigration, the number of your mothers who are human or non-human beings is countless. The number of your sons and daughters is also numerous throughout your lifetimes. Who is your mother? Who are your children? You would not know one another after you pass away. You still have to pay the karmic debts you owe. Human beings live in the darkness and could not abandon such a thing. Some people cannot let go of his child's death, and would keep saying how good the child was; or how good his mother was who has also passed away. They are so sorrowful that they simply wish to follow the dead for the rest of their lives. Why don't you think that they have come to bother you? They use such a form to make you unable to lead a normal life. Ordinary people perhaps could not understand that you can not cultivate at all if you are attached to such a thing. Therefore, Buddhism does not include such an implication. If you want to cultivate, the human affections should be discarded. Of course, during the cultivation in the society of ordinary people, we should respect parents, guide our children, try to be good and kind towards others under all circumstances, let alone our relatives. We should treat everyone the same, be nice to both parents and children, and be considerate towards others in everything we do. Such a heart would be unselfish, kind and benevolent. Affections belong to ordinary people who live for them. Many people can not discipline themselves, which causes difficulties in cultivation. Some people say that a Buddha has told them something. Except those who tell you to avoid fatal dangers, all those who tell you to get benefits in the society of ordinary people are demons. You are told how to avoid a trouble that will occur today or you are told the lottery number and asked to try. If you get benefits in ordinary people and avoid the ordeal, you would not ascend in cultivation. How could you cultivate if you lead a comfortable life in ordinary people? How could your karma be transformed? Where can you find an environment for you to improve your Xinxing (ÐÄÐÔ) and transform your karma? Please be sure to remember this point. The demon may also praise you and say how great you are, what a senior Buddha or what a great Taoist you are, and may consider you great, which are all fake. As a genuine practitioner cultivating towards high dimensions, you must give up all attachments. Whenever you encounter such things, please be sure to be alert! Our Celestial Eyes would be open during practice. There is difficulty for one whose Celestial Eye is open. There is also difficulty for one whose Celestial Eye is not open. Neither case is easy for cultivation. With the Celestial Eye open, it would be difficult for you to discipline yourself when a variety of messages interferes in you. Everything in other spaces is a dazzling array of beautiful exhibits which are very impressive and very good. Anything may touch your heart. You may be interfered once you are affected in mind. And your cultivation energy will be messed up. This often occurs. Thus, a person with demonic interferences from his own mind could also run into such a situation when he is unable to control himself. For instance, it would be very dangerous for this person to have immoral thoughts. One day, his Celestial Eye is open and he could see quite clearly. He is thinking: my Celestial Eye is best opened at this practice site, perhaps I am not an ordinary person. And I am able to learn master Li's Falun Dafa and I can learn it so well, and so I am better than others, maybe I am not an ordinary person. Such a thought is already wrong. He is thinking: probably I am also a Buddha. Ah, let me look at myself. When he looks at himself, he would really indeed find that he is a Buddha. Why? Because all the substances within the range of the space field around his body would evolve with his intentions, which is also called the evolution with the mind. What is reflected from the universe would evolve with his intentions. Because everything within his space field is under his control including shadows, which are also a substance. He is thinking: maybe I am a Buddha and probably wearing a Buddha's clothes. Then he would see what he is wearing indeed are Buddha's clothes. Ah, I am indeed a Buddha. He would become very excited. I am probably not a small Buddha. He would look at himself again, and find himself indeed a giant Buddha. Perhaps I am greater than Li Hongzhi! Let me have a look. Wow, I am indeed higher in status than Li Hongzhi. Someone would hear this with his ears. The demon would interfere in him, saying: you are indeed higher in status than Li Hongzhi, and this or that much higher than Li Hongzhi. He would believe it as well. Why don't you think about how you would cultivate in the future? Have you ever cultivated? Who has taught you in cultivation? Even a genuine Buddha would have to cultivate from the beginning when he comes down on a mission. His original cultivation energy would not be given to him. He merely would cultivate faster this time. Therefore, once this problem arises in this person, it would be difficult for him to get out of this mentality, and he would instantly develop such an attachment. After this attachment arises, he would dare to say anything: I am really a Buddha and you don't need to learn from others; I am a Buddha, and I'll tell you what to do. He would become this way. Don't we have a person like that in Changchun? He was pretty good at the beginning and became that way later on. He thought that he was a Buddha, and that he had become higher than anybody else in the end. It is because he could not control himself and had an attachment. Why is there such a phenomenon? It is said in Buddhism: you should ignore whatever you see as they are all demonic illusions, and that you should just ascend in cultivation through meditation. Why doesn't it allow you to look, nor to be attached to it? It worries about the occurence of such problems. In the Buddhist cultivation there is neither intensive cultivation methods, nor is there any guidance for you to get free from such an attachment in the sutras. Sakyamuni did not preach the law at that time. In order to avoid this demonic interference from one's own mind and the evolution with the mind, he called all visible scenes during cultivation as demonic illusions. Therefore, once an attachment arises, it would give rise to such a demonic illusion, which would be difficult for one to get rid of. If not properly dealt with, this person may be ruined, and therefore would go with the demons. Because he calls himself a Buddha, he has already gone into the world of demons. In the end, he could also incur spirit possession or any other things, and would be ruined completely. He would also become immoral and drop all the way down to the bottom. There are many such people. Even in this class, there are people who think quite highly of themselves at the moment, and talk with a different attitude. Even in Buddhism it is avoided for a person to find out what he is all about. What I just said is another situation which is called interference from one's own mind or the evolution with the mind. There are such students from Beijing and some other regions, who have caused severe interference to the practitioners. Someone asked me: teacher, how come you do not eliminate this problem? Please think it over. How could you possibly cultivate if we clear away all the obstacles on your way of cultivation? It is just under the circumstance of the demonic interference that you could be tested to see if you can continue your cultivation or not, if you can truly awake to Tao or not, if you can be interfered or not, and if you can ground firmly in this cultivation way. Cultivation is like huge waves refining the sand. This is exactly the way cultivation is. What is left in the end would be the genuine gold. Without such a form of interference, I would say it is too easy for you to cultivate. Even I should think that your cultivation is easy. Those great enlightened beings of high dimensions would become more likely to consider it unfair: what are you doing this for? Is this what you mean by saving people? Is this cultivation if there are not any obstacles on the way and you could make your cultivation all the way to the end? How could it possibly be allowed to do the cultivation without any interference and become more and more comfortable in the cultivation? That is the issue. I am also thinking about it. At the beginning, I eliminated many such demons. I also felt it was not right to keep doing that all the time. They also told me: you are making their cultivation too easy. People just have that little hardship of their own, and that little trouble found between themselves. They still have many attachments which they can not give up. It still remains a question whether you could understand the Great Law itself in the confusion and delusion. It involves such an issue. Therefore, there would be interference and trials. What was just mentioned is a form of demonic interference. It is very difficult to save a person but extremely easy to ruin a person. Your cultivation will fail all at once when your mind is not upright. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Main Consciousness Should Play a Governing Role (Ö÷ÒâÊҪǿ) Because one has committed, throughout his previous lives, a lot of wrong doing, which has brought disasters to people and become obstacles of karma for the practitioner. Therefore, there are birth, old age, disease, and death. These are ordinary karma. Still, there is another powerful karma called karma of the thought (˼ÏëÒµ) which has a great impact on practitioners. People should do thinking while they live. While lost in ordinary people, one would often develop a kind of intention released for fame, gain, lust, anger, etc.. This intention would gradually become the powerful karma of the thought in the long run. Since everything in other spaces has its own life, the same is also true of karma. When one begins to pursue the cultivation of the Orthodox Law, he would need to eliminate his karma. Eliminating karma means to have karma eradicated and transformed. Of course, karma would resist, and one would have tribulations and obstacles. However, the karma of the thought would directly interfere in one's mind. Therefore, there are thoughts of condemning the teacher and the Great Law, or some indecent thoughts and swear words. When this occurs, some practitioners would be at a loss, and even believe that they themselves think this way. Some people also think that it is caused by the spirit possession. However, it is not caused by the spirit possession , but by the reflection of the karma of the thought on the brain. Some people's Main Consciousness cannot control themselves and follow the karma of the thought to commit wrongdoing. Such a person would end up in failure and drop down. However, most practitioners could resist and eliminate the karma of the thought with very strong subjective thinking (the powerful Main Consciousness). In this way, this shows that this person could be saved, and can distinguish good from bad. That means he has a good enlightenment quality. My Law body would help him eliminate most of such karma of the thought. This is a common occurrence. Once it appears, one would be tested to see if he could overcome such evil thoughts himself. If the practitioner is determined, such karma can be removed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mind Must Be Upright (ÐÄÒ»¨ÒªÕý) What is not the right mind? It refers to one who always cannot treat himself as a practitioner. A practitioner will run into tribulations during cultivation. When the tribulation comes, it may manifest in the conflict between one and another. There would be intriguing against each other, etc., which would directly affect your Xinxing. There has been more in this aspect. What else would you experience? Our physical bodies would suddenly feel uncomfortable. Because of paying the debts of karma, it will be in every aspect manifested. In a certain period of time, you would be made to feel that you could not tell whether it is true or false, whether or not your cultivation energy exists, whether or not you can cultivate and go up in cultivation, whether or not there are Buddhas, and that they are both true and false. Such situations will surface again in the future to give you a false impression, make you feel as if they did not exist and they were all false, and in this way you will be tested to see if you are determined. You say that you must be determined. With such a determination, you will be able to be firmly grounded by then, and automatically do well because your Xinxing has already been upgraded. However, you are not yet that steady at the moment, and you would not at all be able to awake and pursue the cultivation if you are provided with such tribulations right away. Tribulations may appear in a variety of forms. One must cultivate himself this way towards high dimensions in the course of cultivation. As a result, some of our practitioners would think that they are ill once they do not feel well physically. Such a person can not always regard himself as a practitioner, and would think that he is ill if he bumps into such a thing. Why would there be so many troubles? Let me tell you that a lot of your troubles have already been removed, and your troubles have already been made very trivial. If they had not been removed for you, you might have died already and perhaps you could never have got out of your bed when you encountered such a trouble. When you meet with such a little trouble, you would, thus, feel uncomfortable. How could it possibly be that comfortable? For instance, during my lecturing session in Changchun, there was a person with very good inborn qualities, and he was quite promising, too. I also became interested in him, and increased his tribulation so that he could speed up paying back the karma debts, and become enlightened. This was what I intended to do. However, one day he suddenly seemed to suffer from cerebral hemorrhage, and fell down to the ground. He felt that he could not move as if his four limbs were out of order. He was sent to a hospital for emergency recovery. Then, he could walk again. Please think about it. How could one walk around and move his arms and legs again so quickly with cerebral hemorrhage? Instead, he blamed Falun Dafa for making him go wrong. He did not think it over. How could he have recovered so quickly from cerebral hemorrhage? If he had not learned Falun Dafa today, he would have really died there when he fell down. Perhaps, he would have become handicapped for the rest of his life, and would have indeed got cerebral hemorrhage. It is just that difficult to save a person. So much has been done for him. He would still not awake to it, and would say something like this. Some veteran students said: Teacher, why do I feel uncomfortable all over? When I went to hospital, it always did not help to take injections and medicine. He even shamelessly said that to me! Of course, it would not help. How could they possibly help as it is not a disease? Go ahead to have a physical exam. There are not any problems, and you just feel uncomfortable. We had a student who had broken a few syringe needles at hospital. In the end, the liquid medicine was ejected out, and the syringe needle also could not inject. He came to understand : Oh, I am a practitioner, and I should not take an injection. He just realized that he should not have had injections. Therefore, whenever we run into tribulations, be sure to pay attention to this issue. Some people would think that I just do not allow them to go to hospital, and they would think : I would go to see a qigong master if you do not allow me to go to hospital. He would still consider it to be a disease, and would go to see a qigong master. Where could he find a genuine qigong master? If he sees a fake one, he would be ruined at once. We have said: how could you distinguish between genuine and fake qigong masters? Many qigong masters are self-labeled. I have been verified, and have the documentation of examinations in hand from the related scientific research organizations. Many qigong masters are sham as well as self-labeled, and there are many of them who cheat. Such a fake qigong master could also treat illnesses. How could he do it? He is possessed by an evil spirit, without which he would not be able to deceive people! That evil spirit could also give off energy to cure disease as it also exists as a form of energy that could very easily restrain ordinary people. Yet, I have said: what could the evil spirit give you when it treats your disease? Under the micro examination, they would all be the images of that evil spirit. What will you do if they are given to you? It is easier to invite a god than to send him away. We do not want to say anything about ordinary people because they just want to live like ordinary people and to find the temporary comfort. However, you are a practitioner. Don't you want to constantly purify your body? When will you be able to get rid of it if it has gone into your body? In addition, it also has a certain amount of energy. Some people would think: how come the Falun could allow it to come? Don't we have teacher's Law bodies to protect us? There is a principle in this universe of ours: nobody will intervene if you want to seek after something yourself. As long as it is what you want, nobody would intervene. My Law body would stop you, and give you some hint. But, if it realizes that you are like this all the time, it would not get involved any more. How could one possibly be forced to cultivate? You cannot be made and forced to pursue the cultivation. It is up to you to truly progress upward. No one can do anything about it if you do not want to progress upward yourself. You have now been informed of the truth and Law. Whom would you blame if you still do not want to make progress yourself? It is certain that Falun and my Law body would not intervene in whatever you want to pursue. Of course, some people would feel very uncomfortable at home after attending other qigong masters' lectures. Why did not my Law body protect you? What did you go there for? Wasn't it asking for something if you went to their classes? If you did not listen with your ears, how could it possibly come to your body? Some people have deformed the Falun. Let me tell you that this Falun is worthy much more than your life. It is an intelligent life that should not be casually ruined. There are many fake qigong masters nowadays, and some of them are quite well-known. In my meeting with the leaders of the China Research Society of Qigong Science, I said that the Chinese royal court was once upon a time brought into a disastrous disorder by Da Ji. That fox went rampant, but not as bad as the fake qigong masters today who have simply brought disasters to the whole country, and so many people have been made to suffer! You see that they appear to be quite nice. How many people are carrying that stuff in their bodies? They are so rampant that if they give it off to you, you will have it in your body. Therefore, it is difficult to tell from the appearance of an ordinary person. Some people may think: I have attended the qigong lecture today. After I heard what Mr Li Hongzhi said, I realized how great and profound qigong is ! Whenever there are other qigong lectures next time, I should still attend them. I advise that you should definitely not go there because if you listened, the bad things would enter your ears. It is very difficult to save a person, to change his mind, and to purify his body. There are just too many fake qigong masters. As for even a genuine orthodox qigong master, is he really clean? Some animals are very fierce and he could not drive them away though they may not be able to come onto his body. He has no ability to offend such things on a large scale. While the qigong master gives off cultivation energy, there is a lot of bad stuff mixed up there especially among his students. Though the qigong master may be quite decent himself, his students are not so, as they are possessed of all kinds of evil spirits, etc.. If you genuinely want to cultivate Falun Dafa, do not go to other qigong lectures. Of course, if you do not want to cultivate Falun Dafa but want to try everything, just go ahead. I would not stop you, and you would not be a Falun Dafa disciple. Do not blame the practice of Falun Dafa if something goes wrong with you. Only if you cultivate according to the Great Law and act up to the Xinxing standard can you become a genuine cultivator of Falun Dafa. Some people have asked: could we meet with other qigong practitioners? Let me tell you that they are only practising qigong while you are cultivating the Great Law. After attending this lecture, there will be a huge gap between you and these people. This Falun has been formed through the cultivation of so many generations, and it has mighty powers. Of course, if you want to be in touch, but you could protect yourself from accepting and taking what belongs to them and would only become ordinary friends, it would not matter much. However, if that person indeed possesses something evil, it would be very bad, and you had better not have any contacts with him. I do not think that it would matter much if a couple practise different qigong. But there is one point to be made. Because you practise the orthodox cultivation way, though you are the only person practising it, others would benefit from it. If he practises something evil, he may have evil stuff in his body. He would be purified in order to ensure your safety. Everything will be purified for you in the other spaces including your home environment. How could you possibly practise the Gong if your environment is not purified with all sorts of interference bothering you? However, there is one situation in which my Law body could not do the purification. I have one student who one day saw my Law body come for a visit. He was very happy and excited: The teacher's Law body is here. Teacher, please come in. My Law body said: This room is too messy, and there are too many things. Then, my Law body walked away. Generally speaking, there are too many intelligent entities in other spaces, and my Law body will clean them out. However, his room was full of various evil qigong books. He came to understand it, and cleaned up his room by either burning up the books or selling them. Then, my Law body returned. This is what a student told me. Some people are interested in seeing a fortune teller. Someone asked me: teacher, I am a practitioner of Falun Dafa now. I am also interested in Zhouyi (the Book of Changes)or such fortune-telling stuff. Could I still use them? Let me put it this way. If you carry considerable amount of energy, whatever you say will have an effect. If something is not that way, and you have made it by saying it is that way, you would probably have committed a wrong deed. An ordinary person is very weak. The messages he has is unstable, and he is likely to have some changes. If you opened your mouth and said something, there could exist that tribulation. If he has a lot of karmic debts that he has to pay, and you keep telling him that he has good fortunes, would it be all right if he is not able to pay back the debts? Aren't you doing harm to this person? Some people just could not give up this attachment as if they have some talents. Isn't this an attachment? Even if you really know the truth, as a practitioner you should not reveal a secret of Heaven to an ordinary person. This is a principle. No mater how you use Zhouyi to predict, some of it is no longer true. It has been used to predict back and forth with both truth and falsehood. Such a thing as fortune telling is allowed to exist in the society of ordinary people. As a true practitioner with genuine cultivation energy, I think you should act up to a high standard. However, some practitioners would try to find someone else to do fortune-telling for him, saying: would you do some fortune-telling to see how things are going with me, how is my qigong getting on? Is there a tribulation for me? Such a person would find people to predict such things for him. How could you possibly make progress if that tribulation of yours has been told to you? The whole life of a practitioner has been rearranged. His palm reading, face reading, birth data, as well as all the messages in his body have been changed. If you go to a fortune teller, you will believe him. Otherwise, why would you do it? What he could tell is some superficial stuff about your past. Yet, the substance has already changed. Please think about it. Aren't you listening to him and do you believe him if you go to a fortune teller? Wouldn't you, then, invite some mental burden? Isn't it an attachment with such a burden on your mind? How could such an attachment be abandoned? Haven't you added a man-made tribulation to yourself? Don't you have to suffer more to give up this arising attachment? Each pass and each tribulation are related to the issue of either ascending in cultivation or dropping down. The cultivation is already difficult. How could you overcome it when you have increased this tribulation by yourself? You probably would run into tribulations and troubles as a result. Your changed path of life is not allowed to be seen by others. How could you continue your cultivation after it has been seen by others who could tell at which stage you will go through a tribulation? Therefore, it is not allowed to be seen at all. Nobody in other cultivation ways will be allowed to see it, including the fellow practitioners from the same cultivation way. No one will be able to tell it correctly because your life has been rearranged to you for the cultivation. Some people asked me if they could read books of other religions and other qigong books. We have said that religious books, books on Buddhism in particular, all aim at teaching people how to cultivate their Xinxing. We also belong to the Buddhas' School, and there should not be any problems. However, there is one point to make. Some parts in many sutras have already gone wrong in the course of translation. To make things still worse, many sutras have been interpreted from different realms, and the definitions have been casually made. This in fact has disrupted the Law. Those people who have casually interpreted the sutras were too far away from the Buddha's realm of awareness, and did not understand the real meaning of the sutras. Therefore, they would also have different understanding of the issues. It is not easy for you to understand the sutras thoroughly, and you will not be able to awake to their meaning on your own. But you say: we are just interested in the sutras. If you always work on the sutras, that means you are cultivating yourself in that school since the sutras also have integrated the cultivation system and the Law of that school together. Once you study them, you would be learning things belonging to their school. There is such an issue. If you dig into them and act up to them, you may be following that cultivation school instead of ours. Through the ages, cultivation has presented the one and only way. If you really want to cultivate this cultivation school, just read the book of this school. As far as qigong books are concerned, you should not read them if you want to go into the cultivation. Particularly, do not read the recently published qigong books. As for books such as The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, A Genuine Guide to Cultivation of Nature and Life, or Tao Zang, they may not carry any bad messages; but they contain messages of different dimensions. They are just cultivation methods themselves. Reading them would add things and bring interference to your cultivation. If you find one sentence is good, well, it would be invited and added to your cultivation energy. Though it is not something bad, how could you possibly cultivate yourself when something else is suddenly added to your cultivation energy? Wouldn't problems arise as well? In terms of the electronic parts inside a TV set, what would happen to a TV set if it is installed with an additional part? It would be out of order instantly. That is the bottom line. In addition, some qigong books nowadays are fake, and carry a variety of messages. As one of our practitioners was turning the pages of a qigong book, a giant snake jumped out of it. Of course, I am not willing to go into details. What I just said was that the practitioners would bring on themselves some troubles because they could not properly conduct themselves, that is to say, the troubles are incurred by their evil intentions. We point these out to benefit everybody and make everybody know what to do and how to be able to distinguish them in order to avoid problems arising in the future. Though I did not overemphasize what I just said, everyone must pay great attention to it because problems oftentimes arise right here and around these issues. Cultivation is extremely hard and extraordinarily serious. If you become slightly careless, you could drop down and be ruined just at this. Therefore, your mind must be right. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Wushu Qigong ( Martial Arts ) (ÎäÊõÆø¹¦) In addition to the interior cultivation ways, there is Wushu qigong. While talking about Wushu qigong, I should also emphasize an issue that nowadays there are many ways of saying qigong in the world of cultivation. There have appeared so-called Fine Arts qigong, Music qigong, Calligraphy qigong, Dancing qigong. There are all sorts of them. Are they all qigong? I have found it very odd. I would say that this is disrupting qigong. It is not only disrupting qigong, but also simply ruining qigong. What are their theoretical bases? Would it be qigong to practise painting, singing, dancing and writing by entering the state of a trance, the so-called qigong status? It should not be understood this way. I would say, isn't it abusing qigong? Qigong has both extensive and profound knowledge of the cultivation of the human body. Oh, how could possibly a trance be qigong? What would it be then called for us to go to the bathroom in a trance? Isn't it abusing qigong? I would say that it is abusing qigong. At the Far East Health Expo two years ago, there was something like calligraphy qigong. What was the calligraphy qigong? I went over there to take a look and found a person was writing with a brush over there. After writing, he gave off his qi to each word with his hands, and the qi released was all black. His mind was fully occupied with money and fame. How could he have energy? His qi could not be good, either. His writings were hanging up there and sold with high prices. But they were all sold to foreigners. I would say that whoever bought them would be in trouble. How could the black qi be good? That person's face even looked black. He had become obsessed with money, only thinking about money. How could he have any energy? Still, this person's name card carried a pile of titles, such as the International Calligraphy Qigong, etc.. I would say how could that be qigong? Please think about it. 80% to 90% of the people from this class would not only be free from any disease, but also bring forth cultivation energy, the genuine cultivation energy. What your bodies are carrying would be quite supernormal. It would be impossible for you to develop this through your life long cultivation on your own. If young people begin their cultivation right now, they will not be able to develop all these things I have given them in their lifetimes, and at the same time they would still need the guidance of a genuine good master. It has taken us so many generations to develop this Falun and these mechanisms which we have planted into your bodies all at once. Therefore, I am telling you that you mustn't lose them easily because you have got them easily. They are extremely valuable and cannot be valued with price. After this class, what you will carry with you is the genuine cultivation energy, the high energy substance. When you go home and write a few words, they will carry energy whether the handwriting is good or not. As a result, should everyone from this class be entitled with the word of "master", and all become calligraphy qigong masters? I do not think that it should be understood this way. Because you do not have to deliver energy intentionally, whatever you have touched would retain your energy, which is shining bright, as you are really possessed of cultivation energy. I once found a magazine which carried such a piece of news saying that a calligraphy qigong class was going to be held. I read a few pages to see how it would be taught. It was written inside: one should first of all tune up his breath, as well as inhale and exhale. Then he would sit in meditation for 15 to 30 minutes while thinking of the Dantian qi. Imagine lifting the Dantian qi to his arm. Ink his brush-pen with the ink, and then direct the qi to the brush-pen point. when his intention is focused on the brush- pen, he would start to write. Wasn't that cheating? Oh, is it the qigong to lift the qi to a certain place? In that case, as we eat, we would do the sitting for a while, then pick up the chopsticks, move qi to the tips of the chopsticks and eat. It would be called the dining qigong, wouldn't it? What we eat would also be all energy. We just talk about such a matter. I would say this is really ruining qigong as he has taken qigong so superficially. So qigong can not be understood this way. However, Wushu qigong could be considered to be an independent qigong. Why? Because it has gone through a carrying on process of several thousand years with a complete system of cultivation theories as well as that of cultivation methods, it can be regarded as an integrated system. Nevertheless, Wushu qigong also remains to be something belonging to the lowest level of the interior cultivation ways. The Hard Qigong is a form of energy mass of matter which is aimed solely at striking. Let me give you an example. A practitioner in Beijing could not press anything with his hands after attending our Falun Dafa lectures. When he was shopping for a bassinet in the shop, he was surprised to find that the bassinet collapsed at the sound "pa" when he checked its sturdiness with hands. When he went home and sat in a chair, he could not press it with hands. If he did that, the chair would break into pieces. He asked me what was going on. I did not tell him why because I did not want him to develop an attachment. I just said that it is a natural phenomenon, let it go naturally, and don't bother with it as it is all good. If that supernormal capability is used well, a stone could be smashed to powder with hands. Isn't this the Hard Qigong? However, he has never practised the Hard Qigong. Usually, such supernormal capabilities could all be brought forth in the interior cultivation ways. Because the human Xinxing is difficult to be handled well, you will not be usually allowed to use the supernormal capabilities when they have been developed. Especially in the low phase of the cultivation when one's Xinxing has not yet been upgraded, the supernormal capabilities developed at the low stage will not at all be allowed to be seen. As time goes by, and your cultivation status is going up, such stuff would be no more use and would not be brought out. How is Wushu qigong practised specifically? Practising Wushu qigong needs to exercise qi. However, it is not easy to do that at the beginning. Though you want to exercise qi, you can not do it as you wish. What would you do then? You would have to exercise your hands, your two sides of the body, feet, legs, arms, and head. How should you exercise qi? Some people would strike a tree with hands or palms. Some people would strike on the rock with hands. How painful it is for the bones as it would bleed with just a little effort. Still, the qi could not be directed. What should be done then? One would start to swing his arms until his hands and arms become swollen by making the blood circulate in the opposite direction. In fact, they have become swollen. After that, his bones would be padded when he hits on a rock. Since his bones would not directly contact the rock, they would not feel pain. As he continues to practise, his master will teach him. With time passing by, he would learn how to direct qi. However, the ability to direct qi alone will not be good enough as the opponent will not wait for you in a real combat. Of course, when one is able to direct qi, he would be able to resist blows, and would probably not feel pain when hit with a thick stick. After he has directed qi to a certain part of the body, it could swell up. Yet, qi is the most primitive substance at the beginning, and could be transformed into the high energy substance as he continues his practice. When this transformation completes, it would gradually form a huge energy mass of high density, and such energy masses carry intelligence. Therefore, it is also a supernormal capability mass, which means a supernormal capability. Nevertheless, such a supernormal capability is specialized for striking and the striking protection. It would not work if used to treat disease. Because this high energy substance exists in another space and does not travel in our space, it moves faster there than here in our space. When you hit another person, you do not need to direct qi, nor to think of it because your energy has reached there already. When you try to ward off someone's blow, the energy also has reached there already. No matter how quickly you throw a blow, the energy will move faster than you as the concepts of time are different on both sides. Through practising Wushu qigong, one may develop something like Iron-sand Palm, Cinnabar Palm, Vajra Leg, Arhat Foot, which are the skills of ordinary people. An ordinary person will be able to attain such skills through exercises. The major difference between Wushu qigong and the interior cultivation way is that: Wushu qigong requires practice in motion. Therefore, qi travels under the skin. Because it requires practice in motion, one could not reach the state of tranquillity, nor could his qi enter Dantian (the elixir field). His qi would move under the skin and through the muscles. Therefore, he could not cultivate his life, nor could he cultivate the high attainment of Gongfu. Our interior cultivation way requires the practice to be in the state of tranquillity. Conventional cultivation ways require qi to enter Dantian and the abdomen area. They require practice in the state of tranquillity as well as the transformation of Benti ( ±¾Ìå the True Being), which enables one to cultivate life and to reach the high status cultivation. You have probably heard of such Gongfu in the novels which describe something like Gold Bell Shield, Iron Cloth Shirt, shooting through a willow ring from one hundred paces away. Light Gongfu enables one to travel high up from place to place. Some even could enter another space. Is there such Gongfu? Yes, that is for sure. However, it does not exist among ordinary people. Those who have indeed cultivated such high attainment Gongfu would not be able to show it off in public. Because such a person does not practise martial arts alone and he has completely gone beyond the ordinary people's attainment level, he must cultivate himself according to the interior cultivation way. He is required to preserve and upgrade his Xinxing, and care little about such things as material interests. Though he could cultivate such Gongfu, he will not be able to casually use it any more among ordinary people from now on. It would be all right for him to utilize it when no one is around to see it. When reading those novels, you would find in them that the characters fight and kill with superb Gongfu, appearing and disappearing like gods. The book says such a person does this for something like a sword map, or treasure, or a woman. Please think about it. Haven't those people who genuinely have such Gongfu attained it through the interior cultivation? They have cultivated it only through improving Xinxing, and have long before cared little about fame and gain as well as various desires. How could they go to kill others? How could they care that much about money and wealth? It is out of the question. They are only artistic exaggerations. People just seek after the psychological stimulation and would do anything for that thirst. The authors have cashed in on such a weakness, and would write whatever could satisfy your desire and make you pleased. The more absurd the books become, the more you like to read. But they are only artistic exaggerations. Those who indeed have such Gongfu would not do it this way. In particular, they would not show it off in public. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Desire to Show Off (ÏÔʾÐÄÀí) Because of cultivating themselves in ordinary people, many of our practitioners could not dispose of many attachments. Many of them have already become natural, and they could not realize their existence. Such a psychology to show off could be seen in every situation, even in doing a good deed. In order to gain fame and gain and a little benefit, some people often advertise and show off themselves: I have the capability and I am a winner. We also have such cases. Some practitioners who have practised a little better than others, have Celestial Eye visions or better exercise movements also like to show off. Some people would say: I have heard something from Master Li, and people would surround them to listen. Such a person would pass the hearsay with his own interpretations and falsifying it by colouring it up. What is the purpose? It is to show off himself. Still, some people pass the hearsay from one to another with a great deal of pleasure as if they knew more than others, and as if so many of our practitioners did not understand or know as much as he does. It has become natural for him to do so, and perhaps he is not aware of it. He has such a mentality to show off subconsciously. Otherwise, what is the purpose of passing the hearsay around? Some people gossip about when I shall return to the mountains. I am not from the mountains. Why should I return to the mountains? Others gossip that I have told someone something and treated him specially. What good does it do to pass such news around? It does not do any good. However, we have seen his attachment, a psychology to show off. There are also some people who would ask for my signature. What is the purpose? It is the ordinary people's custom to keep someone's signature as a souvenir. If you do not cultivate, my signature will not at all help you. Every word of my books is my image and Falun, and every sentence is said by me. What do you want the signature for? Some people presume : with the signature, the teacher's message would be able to protect me. They still believe in messages. We do not give messages, either. This book can not be measured by value. What else do you still seek after? All these are reflected from those attachments. Still, after seeing the manner and the conduct of the students who travel with me, some people would try to learn from them without knowing whether they are good or bad. In fact, it does not matter who the person is, there is only one Law. Only by acting up to this Great Law can you follow the genuine guideline. Like everyone else, the people who work with me have not received any special treatment. They are just staff members of the Research Society. Do not develop this attachment. Oftentimes, once you have such an attachment, you would play a role of disrupting the Great Law unintentionally. The sensational hearsay that you have invented would even give rise to conflicts, and arouse the students' attachment by trying to get closer to the teacher with the expectation to hear some more things, etc.. Do they all belong to this issue? What else could such a psychology to show off lead to? I have been teaching the Gong for two years. A number of the veteran students of Falun Dafa may soon open their cultivation energy. Some students will enter the status of gradual enlightenment. Why didn't they bring forth these supernormal abilities at that time? Because I pushed you so high all at once, it is not allowed for you to still stick to your attachments of ordinary people. Of course, your Xinxing has already been improved remarkably, but you still have many attachments which have not been abandoned. Therefore, you could not be allowed to bring forth these supernormal capabilities. After this phase is over and you have become steady, you will be at once delivered into the state of the gradual enlightenment, in which your Celestial Eye will be opened to a very high plane and you still have many supernormal capabilities. In fact, let me tell you that as soon as you really begin the cultivation, you will develop many supernormal capabilities because you have already reached such a high status. So, there are a lot of supernormal capabilities. Lately, many of our practitioners will find themselves in such a state. Still, some other people cannot reach a high status of cultivation. What this person physically carries himself combined with his endurance ability is fixed. As a result, some people would open their cultivation energy and become enlightened, thoroughly enlightened, at a very low level. There will be such people. I have pointed out this issue to tell you that once there appears such a person, do not regard him as a great enlightened being. This is a very serious matter for the cultivation. It can be the right way only by acting up to this Great Law. Do not follow and listen to him because he has supernormal capabilities, or supernatural powers, or he has seen something. You would do harm to him as he would develop the attachment of complacency, and end up with losing everything and having everything shut up. In the end, he would drop all the way to the bottom. With the supernormal capabilities opened, a person could also drop down. If he cannot conduct himself properly after he is enlightened, he could also drop down. Even a Buddha could drop down if he cannot conduct himself properly, not to mention a practitioner like you among ordinary people! Therefore, you must conduct yourself well no matter how many supernormal capabilities you have or how mighty your supernormal capabilities or supernatural powers are. Recently, there was someone sitting here, who disappeared for a moment and reappeared for the next. It is just like this. There will come into being even greater supernatural powers. How would you conduct yourself in the future? As students and practitioners of ours, you should not worship or seek after them whether such things happen to you or to others in the future. Once your mind has changed, you will be all over at once and will drop down. It is likely that you are even higher than him but you have not yet brought forth supernatural powers. At least, you have dropped down on this particular issue. Accordingly, be sure to pay particular attention to this matter. We have put this issue in a very important place because such a matter would soon arise. Once it arises, it will not do if you cannot conduct yourself well. A cultivator who has developed his cultivation energy, and opened it or become truly enlightened, should also not treat himself as someone special. What he has seen is limited to his own status. His cultivation has reached this status, which simply means that his enlightenment quality, his Xinxing criterion, and his wisdom could only reach this status. Therefore, he would not probably believe what is in the high dimensions. It is just because he could not believe it that he is made to think what he has seen is absolute and believes it is all of it. It actually still has a long way to go because his status stays just there. Some people are going to open their cultivation energy in this status since they can not go any further up in the cultivation. As a result, they could open their cultivation energy and become enlightened only in this status. Among those who will complete the cultivation in the future, some will become enlightened on the small worldly paths, some will become enlightened in different dimensions, some will become enlightened when they have completed the right achievement. Only those who have become enlightened when they have completed the right achievement would be the highest, and can see and make an appearance in different dimensions. Even those who have opened their cultivation energy and become enlightened on the lowest level of the small worldly paths could also see some spaces and enlightened beings, and communicate with them. By that time, you should not become complacent because you can not complete the right achievement by the opening of cultivation energy on the small worldly paths at the low levels. This is for sure. What could be done about it, then? They could only stay on this level. It would be a matter of sometime later if they wish to continue their cultivation towards higher dimensions. What would be done if they did not open their cultivation energy as they could only cultivate this far? If they keep cultivating themselves like this, they cannot make any further progress. So, they have opened their cultivation energy because they have cultivated to the end. There will be many such people. No matter what happens, you must maintain good Xinxing. Only acting up to the Great Law is truly the right way. It is through the cultivation in the Great Law that you have attained supernormal capabilities and opened your cultivation energy. If you put the Great Law in the secondary place and put your supernatural powers in the important place, or as you have become enlightened, you believe your own this understanding or that one is correct or you even regard yourself as being great and better than the Great Law, I would say that you have already started to drop downward and you are in danger, getting worse and worse. By then, you would really run into troubles, and your cultivation would end up in vain. You would drop down if you cannot do well, and your cultivation would be in vain. I also tell you: The content of this book comes from the combination of the Law I have expounded in several lecturing sessions. I did all this, including every sentence, which was taken out of the tape recordings and was copied down word by word. The book was all copied down from the tape recordings with the assistance of my disciples and students, and then, I have proof-read them again and again. They are all my Law. What I have expounded is simply this Law. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next:Lecture Seven Up:Contents Previous:Lecture Five ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [NOTE: The strange characters are Chinese in GB code] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next:Lecture Eight Up:Contents Previous:Lecture Six ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lecture Seven On the Issue of Killing On the Issue of Eating Meats Jealousy Issue of Healing Diseases Hospital Treatment and Qigong Healing ------------------------------------------------------------------------ On the Issue of Killing (ɱÉúÎÊÌâ) The issue of killing lives is a very sensitive one. We have set strict requirements for practitioners that they should not kill lives. Killing is absolutely prohibited in all orthodox cultivation ways, whether they belong to the Buddhas' School, the Taoist School, the Rare School, or any other schools. This is for sure. Because killing gives rise to serious consequences, which we shall talk about in details. Killing, as defined in primitive Buddhism, primarily refers to killing human lives, which was considered most serious. Later, killing large-sized lives, big cattle or slightly big animals was regarded as something very grave as well. Why is the issue of killing considered so serious in the cultivation world? It was stated in Buddhism in the past that the killed lives which should not have died would become lost souls and homeless ghosts. The redeeming services in the past were performed for their sake. It was also mentioned in Buddhism in the past that without such services, these lost souls would suffer from hunger and thirst and live in terrible hardships. We believe that one would pay back with considerable amount of De£¨µÂ£©if he did something bad to the other one. Here, we usually refer to cases of taking away what belongs to others. However, once a person has killed a life, whether it is an animal or another living thing, he would incur considerable karma. Killing once mainly referred to killing a human life, which would cause relatively serious karmic debts. Yet, killing other lives is no minor sin, which also directly incurs huge karma. As a practitioner in particular, there are some tribulations arranged in each phase of your process of cultivation. They are all your own karma, your own tribulations placed in different phases for you to improve yourself with. They will not be overcome until you raise your Xinxing. But, if all of your karma comes on at the same time, how will you overcome it ? With your Xinxing, you can not go through the tribulation at all. This may prevent you from going on with your cultivation. We find that once a person was born, there are many of him born simultaneously in a certain scope of this cosmic space. They all look like him, have the same name as his and do similar things, and so they can be called parts of his whole. Such a matter involves here, if one of them (as in the case of the life of a large animal ) died suddenly while the rest of him in other different spaces have not finished their pre- arranged path of life and have many years to live on, this person who has died would fall into a homeless situation, wandering around in the space of the universe. That may be the case with the lost souls and homeless ghosts who suffer hunger, thirst and hardships as described in the old days. But we have indeed perceived the terrible conditions in which he suffers. He has to wait for a home to return to until everyone of him in each space has completed their journey of life. The longer he waits, the more he suffers. The more he suffers, the more karma which he has suffered from is added incessantly to the killer. Just imagine how much karma you would increase as a result? We have observed this through supernormal capabilities. We have also observed such a case: when a person was born, there is an existing form of his whole life in a specific space, that is to say, what he will do in different phases of his life all exists in there. Who pre-arranges his journey of life? Obviously, it is done by the intelligent being in the high dimension. For instance, upon birth one belongs to a certain family, a certain school, and a certain work place when he grows up in the ordinary human society. He makes his contacts in different respects with the society through his work. In other words, the layout of the whole society has been arranged in this way. However, because this life suddenly died, a change has taken place not according to the original arrangement. Then the intelligent being would not forgive whoever has disrupted this arrangement. Let us think about it. As practitioners we hope to cultivate towards higher levels. The intelligent being would not forgive such a violation. How could the killer cultivate? Some masters are below the level of the intelligent being. So his master would be punished with him, and sent down as a punishment. Just think about it. Is this an ordinary minor problem? So, it is very difficult for one to cultivate with a killing record. Some practitioners of Falun Dafa may have fought battles in the times of war. Those wars were conditions resulting from the large changes of the whole cosmos, and you were only an element of the conditions. Without the human activities under the cosmic changes, such conditions could not have been brought to the human society, nor would there have been the cosmic changes so called. Such events change with great changes, and therefore they are not totally of your responsibilities. The karma we talk about here refers to what one has accumulated because of wrong doing committed out of selfish motivations, personal interests, or what related to oneself. It is no fault of yours as long as it is related to large-scale changes of the social situation, big changes of the whole space. Killing lives brings about enormous karma. Some people may think like this: what will my family feed on if I cannot kill animals as the cook at home? This specific issue is not of my concern. I am teaching the Law to the practitioners, not casually telling ordinary people how to lead a life. You should act upon the requirements of the Great Law to deal with those specific issues. Do what you feel is appropriate. Ordinary people would do whatever they want to do, which is the business concerning ordinary people. It is not possible that everyone can genuinely cultivate himself. But as a practitioner, one should measure up to a high standard. Therefore, it is only for practitioners that I am putting forward the requirements. Not only human beings, but animals and plants are all lives. Any substance would manifest its form of life in other spaces. When your Celestial Eye reaches the plane of the Objective Eye Sight, you would find that everything including rocks, walls and whatever you see would greet and talk to you. Perhaps, some people may wonder that: what should we do because grains and vegetables are lives and there may be flies and mosquitoes at home? We suffer a lot when bitten by mosquitoes in summer. We could not kill the mosquitoes, but watching them biting us without making a move. We could not kill the flies, but watching them making the food dirty. Let me tell you that we should not kill lives casually without good reasons. However, we should not become overcautious gentlemen, who always focus on such trifle things, and watch each step and skip their way while walking for the fear of stepping over an ant. I would say that it is a burden to live. Isn't that another attachment? Though you may not kill the ant by jumping around cautiously, you may have killed a lot of microorganisms all the same. There are many smaller lives in the microcosmic state including germs and bacteria that you may have stepped over and killed. Then we would not be able to live any more. We do not want to become such people, and this would make the cultivation impossible. We should focus on something big, and cultivate in an open and above- board manner. As we human beings live, we should maintain the right of living. Therefore, the living environment should also meet the needs of a human life. We cannot hurt or kill lives intentionally but we must not confine ourselves to such trifles. For instance, vegetables and grains are lives. We cannot stop eating and drinking only for this reason, though. Otherwise, how can we practise? We should be above-board and broad-minded. For example, while you walk, some ants or insects may happen to run under your feet, and are killed. They may deserve the death since you did not do so intentionally. In the worlds of biology and microbiology there also exists the issue of the ecological balance. Too many would go rampant as well. Thus, we should practise in a broad minded way. When flies and mosquitoes are in the house, we may drive them out, and install a screen window to keep them out. But sometimes we cannot drive them out, it would be no problem to kill them. They bite and harm people where human beings live, so they should be driven out as they are not allowed to bite people. If you can not drive them out, you should not ignore them when they are biting people. Although as practitioners you are not affected and immune to them, other family members who are ordinary non-practitioners may catch contagious illnesses. We should not allow a mosquito to bite a child's face. Let me give you an example. There is a story about Sakyamuni in his early years. One day Sakyamuni was going to take a bath in a forest, and asked a disciple to clean the bathtub. His disciple went to the bathtub and found it full of worms crawling everywhere. To wipe it out would kill these worms. The disciple returned and told Sakyamuni that the bathtub was full of worms. Sakyamuni did not look at him and replied: "you go to clean the bathtub." The disciple went back to the bathtub and did not know how to clean it because he could not do it without killing the worms. He came back again to Sakyamuni and said that: "Master, the bathtub is full of worms. If I clean it, the worms will be killed." Sakyamuni looked at him, and said that: "what I asked you to do is to clean the bathtub." The disciple suddenly understood him and went back to clean up the bathtub. This story tells a principle. We should not skip taking a bath because there are worms; nor should we find another place to live because there are mosquitoes; or nor should we tie up our throats and stop eating and drinking because grains and vegetables are lives. We should not do so. We should balance the relationship between the two, and be open and above-board with cultivation as long as we do not intentionally harm lives. At the same time, human beings should have living space and existing conditions so as to maintain their lives and their normal way of life. Some sham qigong masters in the past said: it is allowed to kill on January 1 and 15 on the Chinese lunar calendar. Some of them even claimed that: it is allowed to kill two-legged animals, as if they were not lives. Isn't killing on January 1 and 15 regarded as a matter of killing, but earth digging? Some sham qigong masters can be identified by what they say and what they do, by what they are talking about and what they are after. Those qigong masters who speak these words are often possessed by evil spirits. Just look at the way the qigong master possessed by a fox spirit is eating the chicken, gobbling it up, as if he would be reluctant to even spit out the bones. Killing not only results in incurring huge karma, but involves in the issue of compassion as well. Should not we have compassion as practitioners? When we have compassion, we can see all living beings suffering and feel that everyone is suffering. Such feelings will come out. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ On the Issue of Eating Meat (³ÔÈâÎÊÌâ) Meat eating is also a sensitive issue; but it is not killing. We have not required our practitioners to stop eating meat though you have been learning the Law for such a long time. Many qigong masters tell you to stop eating meat from now on as soon as you walk into their classes. You may think: I am not yet mentally prepared to stop eating meat all of a sudden. Maybe the chicken is being cooked at home, the fish are being braised. They smell delicious, but I am not allowed to eat them. The same is true of the cultivation in religions, which forces the practitioners to stop eating meat. Qigong of the Buddhas' School in general and some Taoist qigong practise the prohibition against eating meat in the same way. Here, we do not require you to do so; but we also share the same position. What is our opinion, then? Since our cultivation way is that the Law refines the practitioner, which means some conditions will be manifested in cultivation energy and the Law. During the process of cultivation, different states will occur in different phases. One day or perhaps after my lecture today some people may enter such a state: they can no longer eat meat, which may also smell stinky to them, and make them vomit after eating it. You are not forced, nor do you have to control yourself to give up eating meat. Instead, you do not feel like eating meat yourself, what is reflected from cultivation energy is that you cannot eat meat, when you have arrived at this phase. You would really vomit should you eat meat. Practitioners from the previous sessions all know that such a state will occur in the cultivation of Falun Dafa, and different states will be manifested in different phases. Some practitioners have relatively a stronger desire for meat, obssessed with eating meat, and eat a lot of meat on a regular basis. When others feel allergic to meat, they still maintain a good appetite for it. What should be done in order to let go of this attachment? Such a person would feel stomach aching if he eats meat. Otherwise, he would not feel so. Such a state will occur, and it means that he should not eat meat any more. Does that mean that meat would be from today on kept out of our school? No, not so. How should we deal with this issue then? Being unable to eat meat comes from one's inner world. What is the purpose? The forceful prohibition against eating meat in the cultivation in the temple as well as such a state of being unable to eat meat manifested all aim at eliminating such a human desire and attachment. Some people will not eat their meals without meat in their bowls. That is an ordinary person's attachment. One morning when I was passing by the rear entrance of the Park of Triumph in Changchun, three people came out of the gate in the rear, talking loudly. One of them said: what qigong practised forbids its practitioners to eat meat? I would rather give up ten years of my life than stop eating meat! What a strong desire! Let us think about it. Should such an attachment be discarded or not? Definitely yes. It is true for a practitioner to abandon his various desires and attachments in the process of cultivation. In plain words, not giving up the desire to eat meat means not abandoning an attachment. How could one reach the consummation in cultivation then? Therefore, as long as it is an attachment, it has to be eliminated. Yet, it does not mean that one will forever stop eating meat form now on. Stop eating meat is not the purpose. The purpose is to discard this attachment of yours. You will find that you can eat meat again once you let go of such an attachment during this period of time when you do not eat meat. Perhaps, you will again be able to eat meat which does not smell sick or taste awful. By then it does not matter if you eat meat. When you can eat meat again, both your attachment to and the desire for meat have gone. A great change may occur that meat would no longer taste inviting to you. There will be such a state: you will eat meat with your family if it is prepared at home, and will not miss eating it if it is not in the meal as it does not taste delicious. However, cultivation among ordinary people is rather complicated. If your family always cooks meat, you may, over some time, find meat very tasteful again. Such a relapse will occur later on, and it may repeat many times during the process of one's cultivation. Suddenly, you may not be able to eat meat again, and do not eat it when you can not do so. You would vomit if you eat it. Wait until you can eat it and follow the natural course. Eating meat or not eating meat itself is not the purpose. The key point is letting go of that attachment. This school of our Falun Dafa goes very fast. As long as you upgrade your Xinxing, you will break through every phase very quickly. Some people by nature do not have a keen attachment to meat and do not care about eating meat or not. It will take these people a couple of weeks to get over this attachment. For some people, it will take one, two, three months, or perhaps six months, unless in special cases no more than a year, they will be able to eat meat again. Because meat has become a kind of staple food for mankind. However, those professional practitioners in the temple cannot eat meat. We are going to say something about the Buddhist view on eating meat. The earliest primitive Buddhism did not prohibit eating meat. When Sakyamuni led his disciples cultivating painstakingly in the forest, there was not such a rule of prohibition against eating meat. Why not? Because the human society was very backward when Sakyamuni was preaching the Dharma some 2500 years ago. Some regions had agriculture while others did not. The cultivated farmland was very limited with forests everywhere. Grain was in short supply and was extremely rare. Human beings who had just emerged from the primitive societies lived mainly on hunting, and in many regions they ate principally meat. In order to abandon their attachments to a maximum, Sakyamuni did not allow his disciples to have access to any wealth and material possessions, and took them with him begging for food, alms. They would eat whatever was given to them. As practitioners, they could not choose the food given to them which might include meat. There was a way of saying the prohibition against Hun (food that a practitioner should not eat) in the primitive Buddhism. This prohibition comes from the primitive Buddhism and now refers to the prohibition against eating meat. In fact, the prohibition at that time did not refer to meat, but vegetables such as onions, ginger, garlic, etc.. Why should these be prohibited? Many monks today could not even explain it clearly, for many of them do not go into true cultivation, and there are many things they do not understand. What Sakyamuni preached is called "Percept (morality), Samadhi (meditation) and Wisdom". Percept refers to abandoning all ordinary people's desires. Samadhi means that a practitioner cultivates himself entirely in the state of deep meditation, sitting cross-legged in contemplation. Anything that interferes with one's deep meditation and cultivation was regarded as serious obstruction. Whoever ate onions, ginger or garlic would cause a strong odour. The monks at that time usually sat cross-legged in a circle of seven or eight in the forest or a cave. If a person ate such things he would produce a very strong irritating odour, which affected others staying in meditation, and severely interfered in their cultivation. Hence a prohibition against eating such food, which was regarded as Hun. Many living entities the human body has developed in cultivation are all sick of such strong odours. Onions, ginger and garlic can also stimulate human desires, and eating too much would form a habit. Thus, they were considered Hun. Many monks in the past after reaching the high level cultivation, in full or half enlightenment state, also came to realize that those restrictions during the cultivation process did not actually matter. If the attachment can be abandoned, that substance itself will not be able to function anymore. What really bothers a practitioner is his heart. As a result, the accomplished monks in the past also understood that the issue of eating meat was not crucial to a practitioner. The key point is whether the attachment can be discarded. Without the attachment it would be all right to eat anything to fill the stomach. Since monks in the temple have cultivated themselves in this way, many of them have become accustomed to such a way. In addition, the prohibition against eating meat has become a standing rule and regulation of the temple instead of an issue of mere prohibition. Eating meat is not allowed definitely, and accordingly they are used to such a way of cultivation. Let us look at Monk Jigong who is made stand out in literary works. Monks are not supposed to eat meat. But he ate meat, and was thus made an outstanding figure. In fact, since he was expelled from Lingyin Temple, food supply became naturally his primary concern, and therefore his life was in crisis. In order to feed the stomach, he ate whatever he could grab. As long as it could satisfy his hunger, he did not have attachment for any particular food nor did he care about what he ate. On that level of cultivation, he came to understand such a truth. As a matter of fact, Ji Gong only had meat on one or two occasions. Writers tend to become excited when talking about a monk who ate meat. The more surprising the subject is, the more interested readers will become. Life is the source of literary works, which is higher than life, and in this way he has been made popular by the writers. In fact, if that attachment is removed, it does not matter what one eats. In the Southeast Asia and Southern China including Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, some lay Buddhists do not say that they cultivate the Buddha as if this term would sound old-fashioned. They would say that they eat Buddhist meals or they are vegetarians, which suggests that vegetarians are Buddhists. They take the cultivation of the Buddha as something so simple. Could being vegetarians cultivate the Buddha? It is known that eating meat is a human attachment, a desire, but only one attachment to let go of. Only by giving up all the attachments, all kinds of desires, such as jealousy, competition, complacency, show off, and so many other attachments, can one reach the consummation. Could only giving up the attachment to the meat diet cultivate the Buddha? Such a statement is not right. On the issue of food, in addition to eating meat, one should not have an attachment to any food. This is also true of other things. A person may say that he just likes to eat this. This is also an attachment. Having reached a certain level of cultivation, a practitioner will not have such an attachment. Obviously, the Law we are expounding is quite high, and we are doing this on the basis of the combination of different dimensions. It is impossible to reach this point all at once. You say you do feel like eating something, but you simply cannot eat it when it is high time that you removed your attachment in true cultivation. If you eat it, it would not be tasteful or may taste different. When I went to work for a work unit, the canteen always ran out of money and went bankrupt later on. Then everyone brought lunch to work. It was troublesome and a lot of hustle to cook food in the morning. Sometimes, I would buy two steamed buns and a piece of beancurd dipped in soy sauce as a meal. That was quite simple as a matter of fact. Yet, eating that all the time was not all right, and this attachment should also be eliminated. As soon as I saw beancurd again, I felt sick in my mouth. I could not eat it again. Such a thing happened in order to prevent me from developing the attachment. Of course, this situation occurs when one has reached a certain level in his cultivation. A beginner in cultivation does not feel this way. The Buddhas' School does not allow their cultivators to drink alcohol. Have you ever seen a Buddha carrying a wine container? No. When I say you cannot eat meat, what I mean is that it does not matter for you to eat meat again in the future after you have given up your attachment through cultivation in ordinary people. However, after you have stopped drinking alcohol, you cannot drink it again. Doesn't a practitioner have cultivation energy in his body? He has different forms of cultivation energy in him. Some supernormal capabilities appear on the surface of his body and they are all pure. As soon as he drinks alcohol, all of them will instantly leave his body because of fearing for that odour. It will be annoying if you have formed this habit as drinking does harm to your nature. Why do some Great Law cultivation ways encourage drinking? Because they do not cultivate their Chief Spirit (Ö÷ÔªÉñ) and drinking serves to make the Chief Spirit lose consciousness. Some people love drinking as much as their lives; some have a desire for drinking; and others have become so addicted to it that they have got poisoned by alcohol. They can not even hold up their rice bowls without drinking, and they have to drink. As practitioners we should not conduct ourselves this way. Drinking alcohol is definitely addictive. It is a desire and it stimulates the human addictive nerves. The more one drinks, the more addicted he will become. Let us think about it. Should we not give up such an attachment as practitioners? This attachment must be discarded. One may think like this: I can not work and do my business well without drinking as I am specially responsible for receiving clients and I am often on business trips. It will be difficult to make deals without drinking alcohol. I do not think so. In an ordinary business talk, especially doing business or having dealings with foreigners, you may choose a soft drink, he may ask for mineral water while the other would like a beer. Nobody would force you to drink alcohol. You may choose what you like and drink as much as you like. Especially among intellectuals, it is often true that there does not occur such a thing as to force one to drink. Smoking is also an attachment. Some people claim that smoking could freshen up themselves. I call that self-cheating. Some people may feel tired from work or writing an article, and they take a break to smoke a cigarette. They feel that they are refreshed after smoking. In fact it is because they have taken a break. Human mind may create an illusion as well as a delusion, which will really become a belief later, a delusion, that smoking does give oneself a life. It can not do so, and it will not play such a role, either. Smoking does not do any good to the human body. If one has smoked for a long period of time, the doctor will discover that his bronchi and lungs have become black upon dissection. Don't we practitioners want our bodies purified? We shall constantly purify our bodies so as to progress towards higher levels of cultivation. Why then do you do the opposite contaminating the body? In addition, smoking is also a strong desire. Some people can not give it up though they know it is harmful. As a matter of fact, let me tell you, it is not easy for one to give it up without the guidance of right thoughts. Being a practitioner, from this day on you take it as an attachment to quit, and see if you can make it. I advise everyone that whoever wants to cultivate genuinely should quit smoking from this day on, and therefore you are guaranteed to make it. No one thinks of smoking at this place during the lecturing sessions. If you want to quit smoking, you are guaranteed to make it, and you will feel sick if you try it again. It will be equally effective if you read this chapter of the book. Of course, we will not bother with it if you do not want to cultivate. I think that you should give it up as a practitioner. I once used such an example: Has anyone ever seen a Buddha or a Taoist sitting there with a cigarette in his mouth? How could that be possible? What is your objective as a practitioner? Should you not give up smoking? So I say that if you want to cultivate, you should give it up. Smoking harms your body and is a desire as well. It is just the opposite of what our practitioners want. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jealousy (ʼµÐÄ) I often talk about the issue of jealousy when I am expounding the Law. Why? There has been an extremely intense display of jealousy in China. It is so intense that it has become natural and people themselves are not aware of it. Why do the Chinese people have such strong feelings of jealousy? It has its own origin. The Chinese people have been heavily influenced by the Confucianism in the past, and so they are introverted. They neither express their anger nor happiness. Instead they believe in self restraint and forbearance. Being accustomed to such a way, our nation as a whole has developed a very introvert personality. Certainly such a personality has its own advantages which include not showing off one's intelligence. But it also has its disadvantages which may bring about negative side effects. Particularly during this Period of Decline, the negative aspects have become more conspicuous, thus making people develop jealousy. If someone has good news made public, others will become very jealous. Some people are afraid of mentioning their awards gained in their work unit or elsewhere for fear that others may feel psychologically unbalanced when they learn about the news. Westerners called it Oriental Jealousy or Asian Jealousy. The whole Asian region is more or less this way due to the influence of the Chinese Confucianism, but there is a more intense display of it in China. This jealousy is somewhat related to the absolute equalitarianism that we once went in for. Whatever happens, everyone would die together if the sky fell; everyone should have an equal share if there is a profit; and everyone should have a rise in salary together with others regardless of the rule that only several per cent of the employees can get the rise. Such a mentality seems to be fair with everyone being treated equally. How could it be the same in fact? The jobs are different, and so are the position each holds and the responsibility put into the work. There is a principle in this universe which is called "No loss, no gain". To gain, one is to lose. Ordinary people believe in the fact that one does not gain if he does not work; that the more one works the more he should gain or the less one works the less he should gain; and that one should gain more if he gives more. The absolute equalitarianism which once went rampant claims that everyone is born equal and that the post-natal life changes a person. I find that this is too absolute, and anything absolute is incorrect. Why were some people born males and others females? And why do they not look alike? People are not born the same as some people are born ill and handicapped. From the high dimension, we can see that one's whole life exists there in another space. How could it be the same? People all wish to be equal. But if certain things are not pre-arranged in one's life, how could they be equal? People could not be the same. Westerners' personality is comparatively extroverted. They show their happiness or anger from the appearance. This personality has its advantages and disadvantages which include intolerance. The Western and Asian dispositions based upon different outlooks bring about different consequences in practice. For the Chinese people, if one is praised or treated favourably by the supervisor, others would become psychologically unbalanced. If one earns a bonus, he might as well put it in the pocket and not mention a word to others. It is difficult to be a model worker nowadays. If you are a model worker, you would be expected to come to work early in the morning and go home late. Others may say sarcastically that: since you are good at the job while we are not, why don't you do all of it? It is difficult to be a good person. Such a case would be opposite in other countries. The boss may give the worker an extra bonus if he does a good job at work. The latter would cheerfully count the bills in front of others, and say that my boss gave me so much money. He could happily tell others about it while counting the money without receiving negative consequences. If it happened in China that someone earns additional bonus, the boss would tell the worker to hide the money and not to let others see it. In Western countries, if a child got 100 in the test, he would cheerfully run home all the way, shouting, "I have got 100 in the test!" One neighbour would open the door and say that "Good job! Tom. Nice kid." Another neighbour would open the window and say, "Hi, Jack, you made it!" It would be a disaster if this happened in China. When the child runs home, shouting, "I have got 100 in the test," the neighbours would begin to cuss out in their houses before the door opens, "What is so great about getting 100? Showing off. Who has not yet scored 100 in a test?" The two different approaches would produce different results. This child's instance is likely to arouse jealousy. If someone is doing well, some people will be uneasy instead of feeling happy for him. Problems like this may occur. Years ago China pushed the policy of the absolute equalitarianism which has messed up people's minds. For instance, one may feel that others are not as capable as he is in the office, and that he is indeed great because he can accomplish everything. He may say to himself: I am qualified for a factory director and manager, or for a high ranking official as well, and even a prime minister. His colleagues may also share his views and say that this person is talented and competent. However, there is another person in his work group or office, who is very incapable of doing anything. One day this incompetent person was promoted to the position of a cadre instead of the competent one, and even becomes his boss. He becomes so unbalanced psychologically that he would run around talking about it, feeling very upset and jealous. I am telling you such a principle that ordinary people are unaware of: you may think that you are capable of doing everything, but you cannot get what you want because it has not been arranged for you in your life. Another person may not be capable of doing anything, but he can get what he wants because it has been arranged for him in his life. In this way he gets promoted. No matter what ordinary people think about it, it is only the viewpoint of ordinary people. From the perspective of the intelligent beings, the development of human society is only going on according to the specified laws of development. Therefore, what one does in a lifetime was not pre-arranged according to his capabilities. Buddhism believes in the Karmic Principle of Rewards and Retributions. One's life is pre-arranged based on one's karma. No matter how capable you are, you may have nothing during your lifetime because you do not have De (virtues). You see some one is good for nothing, but he has a lot of De, so he becomes a high ranking official and very rich. An ordinary person can not see the point, and always believes that he should appropriately do what he should do. Therefore, he struggles and fights all his life, and has got his heart hurt. He feels very bitter, tired and unbalanced in his mind. He can not eat or sleep well. He gets disappointed. By the time he gets old, he is in poor health and comes down with all sorts of illnesses. Then we practitioners even should not behave that way. We practitioners follow the natural course. If something belongs to you, you will not lose it. If it is not yours, you can not get it through competition and contention. That is, of course, not absolute. If it is absolute, there would not be the problem that man commits wrong doings. That is to say, there may also be some unstable factors. However, as practitioners, we are cared by the Master's Law body accordingly, others will not be able to take away what belongs to you. So, we believe in following the natural course. Sometimes, you think something should be yours, and you are told so as well, but it is in fact not yours. You probably believe that it is yours. Eventually, it does not belong to you. In this case you will be tested to see whether you can let go of it. Being unable to give it up is an attachment. This would be the way to get rid of your desire for self interests. That is the bottom line. Because ordinary people can not realize this truth, they would compete and contend in front of interests.. Jealousy is extremely popular among ordinary people. It also has been predominant in the world of cultivation. Among different cultivation ways, they do not respect each other. Your cultivation way is good or his cultivation way is good. They indulge themselves in idle gossip. In my opinion, they all belong to the level of healing illnesses and keeping fit. Most of those fighting others belong to the dishonest qigong of spirit possession which does not value Xinxing. Someone may have practised qigong for over twenty years without developing any supernormal capabilities while others have produced them in a short time of practice. Then, this person would feel unbalanced mentally: I have practised for over twenty years without developing supernormal capabilities; but they have; what sort of supernormal capability have they got? He is infuriated: what they have got is spirit possession and they have stepped into the way of cultivation insanity. When a qigong master gives a lecture, someone may sit there with disrespect, thinking: Ah, what sort of qigong master is he? I am not interested in listening to what he teaches. The qigong master may really not be able to speak as well as him, but he talks about the things of his own faith. However, this person studies everything and attends every qigong master's lecture. He has got a pile of graduation certificates. Indeed, he knows a lot, more than that qigong master. But, what is the use? All is about removing diseases and keeping fit. The more he takes in, the more harmful and complicated the messages will become, and the harder for him to practise. It is all in a mess. Genuine cultivation should be specialized in only one cultivation way and there should be no deviation. Among real Taoist practitioners, there is also such occurrence as mutual disrespect, the desire to fight and contend with others, which tends to incur jealousy. Let us talk about a story. In the book of "Investiture of the Gods", the Honourable Divine of the Origin asked Jiang Ziya to grant titles to Gods. In Shen Gongbao's eyes, Jiang Ziya was old and incompetent. Therefore, he became jealous and thought, "why should he be asked to grant titles to Gods? I am so powerful that I can put my head back on the shoulders after cutting it off. Why was I not asked? He became so jealous that he always made trouble for Jiang Ziya. The primeval Buddhism in Sakyamuni's times valued supernormal capabilities. However, nobody dares to discuss them any more in the Buddhism now. If you talk about them, you would be labeled as cultivation insanity. What supernormal capabilities? They would not acknowledge them at all. Why? Monks today do not know at all what supernormal capabilities are all about. Sakyamuni had ten senior disciples, of which Mujianlian came first in supernatural powers. Sakyamuni also had female disciples, among whom Lianhuase was the number one in supernatural powers. There have been many accomplished monks through different dynasties in history since Buddhism entered China. When Dharmer came to China, he rode on a stalk of reed to cross a river. Yet, supernatural powers have become rejected and been put aside more and more during the historical developments. The main reason is that senior monks, mentors and abbots in the temple are not necessarily of great inborn qualities. Though they have become abbots and senior monks, these are the positions of ordinary people. They are also practitioners, and nothing more than professional practitioners. You cultivate at home as amateurs. Whether one succeeds in cultivation or not depends on the cultivation of the heart. All are the same without a slight difference. However, the junior monk who cooks and keeps the fireplace may not be of poor inborn qualities. The more hardship the junior monk endures, the easier it is for him to open his cultivation energy. The more comfortable the senior monks are, the harder it is for them to become enlightened due to the principle of the transformation of karma. The junior monk always suffers. It will be faster for him to pay back his karma and become enlightened. Perhaps, his supernormal capabilities would be opened one day all of a sudden. After the opening of his supernormal capabilities, the enlightenment or the half enlightenment, his supernatural powers all come out. The monks at the temple would all come to consult him and show their respect for him. But, the abbot cannot bear this: how could I be the abbot! What enlightenment? He is insane. Get him out of the temple. The junior monk would be expelled from the temple. As time passed by, nobody in Buddhism in our Han region dares to talk about supernormal capabilities. You know Ji Gong had great supernormal capabilities. He could move the tree trunk from the E'mei Mountains and throw the logs one after another from the well . He was finally driven out of Ling Yin Temple. The issue of jealousy is very serious as it directly concerns the matter of our attainment of consummation. If the attachment to jealousy is not eliminated, all the attachments people cultivate to eliminate would be greatly upset. There is such a rule: During cultivation, one will not at all complete the right achievement if the attachment to jealousy is not eliminated. Perhaps, you may have heard in the past what Amitabha said about going to a Paradise with karma, but it is not allowed to go there with the attachment to jealousy. It would be all right to be a little weak in some other aspects if you go to the Paradise with karma and continue with the cultivation there. However, it is absolutely impossible to do so with the attachment to jealousy. Today, I am telling the practitioners that, you should not adhere to your foolish way without awakening. The goal you want to reach is to cultivate up to the higher dimensions, and the attachment to jealousy must be abandoned. Therefore, I single the issue out to talk about. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Issue of Healing Illnesses (Öβ¡ÎÊÌâ) When talking about healing illnesses, I am not teaching you how to cure diseases. All the genuine disciples of Falun Dafa should not treat patients. As soon as you do it, all the stuff of Falun Dafa in your body will be taken back by my Law body. Why is this issue taken so seriously? Because it is a phenomenon that does harm to Dafa. Not only would it harm your health, but some people could not help treating patients once they begin to do so. They would grab any one they catch sight of and begin to cure diseases and show off. Isn't it an attachment? This seriously hinders their cultivation. Many phony qigong masters take advantage of ordinary people's desire to treat patients after they have learned qigong. They teach such stuff. They claim that giving off qi can heal illnesses. What a joke! You have qi, and he has qi as well. How could you treat a patient by giving off your qi? Perhaps, his qi cures your diseases! One's qi does not restrict another one's. When one reaches a high level cultivation and produces cultivation energy, what he releases is high energy substance which indeed can treat, control and repress illnesses, but can not eradicate it. Therefore, to be able to really heal illnesses thoroughly, one need to have supernormal capabilities. There is a corresponding supernormal capability aimed to treat each illness. I would say there are over a thousand kinds of supernormal capability to treat diseases. The number of diseases is equal to that of supernatural capabilities aimed to treat these diseases. Without such a supernormal capability it would not work no matter how skillful your treatment is. Some people have jumbled the world of cultivation a lot in the recent years. For those true qigong masters who came out to teach people to get rid of diseases and keep fit, and to open up the path in the beginning, did any of them teach people to treat disease? He always removed diseases for you or taught you how to cultivate yourself, how to keep fit with a system of exercise; then, you could remove your illness through your own practice. Later, phony qigong masters came out and turned the qigong world into a turmoil. Whoever wants to heal illness with qigong will incur spirit possession. It is definitely so. Some qigong masters also treated patients at that time in order to coordinate with the changes of Celestial Phenomena. But it is not a skill in ordinary people, and could not last forever. It was brought into practice by the changes of Celestial Phenomena, and just was a product of that time. Later, it became chaotic when it developed into specializing in teaching how to cure others of their diseases. How could an ordinary person be able to treat illness in three or five days? Somebody said that he could treat this or that illness. Let me tell you, every such person is possessed by evil spirits. Does he know what is lying on his back? He is possessed by the evil spirit, but he cannot feel it. He does not know it. He may feel himself fine and very competent. Genuine qigong masters can reach such a goal through many years of painstaking cultivation and practice. Did you ever think about whether you had such a powerful supernormal capability to remove his karma when you treated him? Have you ever received true teachings? How could you treat illness after two or three days? How could you heal illness with hands of an ordinary person? However, those phony qigong masters took advantages of your weaknesses and the attachments of human beings. Don't you seek for curing diseases? Well, they would organize a treatment class, specializing in teaching you some methods of treatment, such as qi needle, light illuminating, qi discharging, qi compensation, attacking a vital point, grabbing method, etc.. There is a variety of methods aiming to empty your purses. Let us talk about the grabbing method. What we have seen is such a situation. Why does the human being fall ill? The fundamental cause of his falling ill and all his misfortunes is karma, the karmic field of black substance. It belongs to something Yin (negative) and something bad. Those evil entities are also negative and black; thus, they could come up because this environment fits them. This is the fundamental cause of one's falling ill, and it is the most principal source of illness. Of course, there are the other two forms. One is the extremely tiny evil intelligent entity of high density like a mass of karma; the other is what is accumulated down from the ancestors feeding like a pipeline, which is rare, but it does exist as well. Let us talk about the most common illnesses, like tumor, infections or osteoproliferation etc., found in the human body. In another space, a very deep space, there lies an evil intelligent entity. An ordinary qigong master or a common supernatural capability is unable to see it except for the black qi in one's body. It is correct to say wherever there is black qi there is an illness. Yet, the black qi is not the fundamental cause of a disease but the field that is released by an evil intelligent entity from a deeper space. Some people talk about discharging and expelling the black qi. Discharge as much as you wish! It would be produced shortly. Some are very powerful. It will be pulled back right after being expelled. They can draw back qi themselves, which makes treatment impossible. From the perspective of the supernatural capability, the black qi in that area is considered to be qi of an illness. From the viewpoint of the traditional Chinese medicine, the sick area is where energy channel is blocked, qi and blood are not through and the pulse is choked there. In the eyes of Western medicine, that location presents the phenomena of ulcer, tumor, hyperplasia, inflammation, etc.. What is reflected into this space are these forms. After removing that evil entity, you would find there is nothing wrong in the body of this space. Whether it is protrusion of the lumbar intervertebral disci or osteoproliferation, you would find it get well immediately after that entity is removed and that field is cleared out. You may take another X-ray and find that the osteoproliferation has disappeared. The fundamental cause is that entity which worked. Some people said that they could teach you how to treat diseases and you could do it in three or five days. They would teach you the grabbing method. Show me that! Human beings are the weakest while that intelligent entity is very ferocious. It controls your brain and easily plays you. It could even easily end your life. If you say that you could grab it, how? With your ordinary person's hand you cannot reach it. You may grab here and there, which is ridiculous. It ignores you and would laugh at you. If you could really touch it, it would hurt your hand instantly. That would be a real wound! I saw in the past some people whose hands were all right. Any physical examination showed they were in good health with no diseases and the two hands were all right. But they could not raise their hands and kept them hanging down in the way they did them. I have ever come across one of such patients. His hand in another space was injured, which means it was really disabled. If that hand of yours is hurt, would not you be disabled? Some people asked me: master, could I practise qigong? I had a sterilization operation, or had some organs removed. I replied that it does not matter because your body in another space has not had an operation. And that body plays the role in the practice of the exercise. So I have just said when you try to grab that entity, if you could not reach it, it would ignore you. If you touch it, it would probably hurt your hand. To support the nation's large-scale qigong activities, I took some disciples to participate in the East Health Expo in Beijing. We were the most outstanding participants at these two Expoes. At the first Expo our Falun Dafa was honoured as the Star Qigong School. At the second Expo there came so many people that we even did not know what to do. There were not so many people at the other exhibition stands, while people were crowding around our stands. There were three waiting queues. The first one registered for the morning treatment; the second one waited for the afternoon treatment; the third one waited for my signatures. Why did we do so as we do not heal illnesses? Because we did so to support the nation's large- scale qigong events, to contribute to this cause. Therefore, we participated in it. I shared my cultivation energy with my disciples, one piece for each. It was an energy mass composed of a hundred supernormal capabilities. I sealed their hands. Even so, some hands were bitten, with blisters and blood, frequently. That entity was so ferocious. Do you think you dare to touch it with an ordinary person's hand? Besides, you could not reach it without that special supernormal capability. Because it would know what you think and what you want to do instantly in another space. It would run away before you grab it. As soon as the patient is out of the door, it would go back to him and the illness would return. One needs such a supernormal capability to deal with it, which can fix it there as soon as you stretch out your hand. After it has been fixed, we use another supernormal capability which is called the Great Law of Soul Catching. It is more powerful. It can take one's Yuanshen (ÔªÉñTrue Spirit) out of the body and make the person unable to move. Such a supernormal capability has its specific purpose, we aimed at this entity when we used it. It is known that the bowl in Tathagata's hand could turn Sun Wukong who has a huge body into a tiny dot. The supernormal capability could play such a role. No matter how big or small the entity is, it would be grabbed instantly in hand and turned into a tiny thing. In addition, it is impossible to stretch one's hand into the flesh of a patient and take something out. That would disturb the human minds of the ordinary society. It is not allowed at all to do so even if it is possible. What one has stretched in is the hand in another space. If one has heart trouble, when this hand stretches out towards the heart location to catch, the hand in another space has got in. All at once, after it is caught very quickly, the hand outside takes hold of it, and the two hands join as one and catch it in them. The entity is very ferocious. Sometimes it moves, makes its way into the hand, bites or screams. It appears to be small in hand, but it would become large if set free. Not everybody can make it. Without that supernormal capability, it is impossible to do this at all. It is actually not as simple as people would imagine. Of course, this form of qigong healing may be allowed to exist in the future. It has existed in the past. However, there must be a condition. The person must be a cultivator. Out of his compassion in the course of his cultivation, he will be allowed to treat a few good people. But he cannot completely eliminate the patient's karma because he has not enough mighty virtues. Therefore, the tribulation still exists but the specific illness has gone. An ordinary little qigong master is not a cultivator who has achieved the Tao. He could only put off the illness or may transform it into other forms of misfortune. However, he himself may not know the putting-off process. If his cultivation system cultivates the Paraconsciousness, the job was done by his Paraconsciousness. The practitioners of some cultivation ways appear to be very famous. Many well-known qigong masters do not have cultivation energy because it grows on their Paraconsciousness. That is to say, it is allowed to do this in the course of cultivation because some people stay in this one phase of cultivation for a dozen years, or dozens of years without being able to go beyond this level of cultivation. So, he would treat patients all the time in his life. Because he stays at the level, he is allowed to do so. The students of Falun Dafa are absolutely forbidden to cure illnesses. If a patient could accept, reading this book to him would heal his illness. But the results would differ according to the karmic debts of each individual. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hospital Treatment and Qigong Healing £¨Ò½ÔºÖβ¡ÓëÆø¹¦Öβ¡£© Let us talk about the relationship between the treatments of hospital and qigong. Most of doctors in Western medicine do not recognize qigong. Their view is that why we need hospitals if qigong can heal illnesses? You substitute our hospitals! Would it not be nice that your qigong could replace hospitals and treat patients single-handedly without resorting to injections, medicine, hospitalization? Such an opinion is neither reasonable nor rational. Some people do not know about qigong. In truth, qigong healing is not like the conventional treatments of ordinary people. It is not an ordinary person's skill, but something supernormal. How could it be allowed to disturb the ordinary human society on a great scale with something supernormal? How powerful a Buddha is , and he could wipe out all the human illnesses by waving his hand just once. Why does he not do it? In addition, there are so many Buddhas. Why would they not show mercy to cure your illnesses? It is because the ordinary human society has such a state of birth, old age, diseases and death . They all have the causational relationship and they are all karmic rewards and tribulations. You have to repay the debts you owed. If it is you who cure his illnesses, which is equal to violating the principle, that means everyone can do wrong without paying back the debts. Is that all right? Out of mercy and compassion, while you do not have such a great ability to solve this problem completely in cultivation, you are allowed to treat diseases. You are allowed to do so because of your compassion and mercy. However, if you are really capable of resolving such problems, you will not be allowed to do it on a large scale because this would seriously disrupt the state of the ordinary human society. Therefore qigong is not at all allowed to replace the hospitals of ordinary people because qigong is a supernormal Law . What would it be like if qigong hospitals are allowed to be set up in China with a lot of great qigong masters treating diseases? This will not be allowed because they all want to maintain the state of the ordinary human society. If qigong hospitals, qigong clinics, qigong health centers and treatment resorts are established, the treatment of qigong masters would go down immediately and its curative effect would drop sharply once they begin to practise. What is the reason? Because they are doing what belongs to ordinary people, they must have the Law as high as that of ordinary people and stay on the same level as the state of ordinary people. It's curative effect should be the same as that of the hospital. As a result, qigong treatment of diseases does not work well. They also require something like several courses of treatment of the patients usually. With or without qigong hospitals, it cannot be denied that qigong can cure diseases. Qigong has been popularized in public for such a long time, and many people have indeed attained the goal of removing their illnesses and improving their physical conditions through practising qigong. Whether the illness was postponed by the qigong master or however it was treated, that illness is not there now. In other words, nobody could deny that qigong can heal illnesses. Most of the people who have seen a qigong master are those with difficult and complicated cases incurable at hospital. They went to a qigong master to try their luck and had their diseases cured in the end. Those who can be cured at hospital would not visit a qigong master. Especially at the beginning, people would usually think that way. Thus, qigong can heal illnesses. The difference is that it cannot be applied like other things done in the ordinary society. A large-scale interference will never be allowed though a small-scale or not very influential, unnoticed practice can be allowed. But it is certain that the treatment would not thoroughly cure diseases. The best way to heal illnesses is to practise qigong exercise oneself. Some qigong masters said that hospitals could not treat illnesses or how bad their healing effects are. What do we say about it? Of course, there are many reasons. The principal one in my opinion is the current deteriorating human moral standard, which results in a variety of odd diseases. Those are incurable at hospital. Medicine cannot treat them, either. There are also a lot of fake drugs. All this results from the human corruption of the society, which has gone so far as now. Everyone should not blame others for it because everyone has added fuel to the flame. As a result, everyone would run into hardships in cultivation. Some illnesses cannot be diagnosed at hospital though they do exist. Some diseases are new and nameless after they are identified, and so they are labeled by the hospital as "modern diseases". Can hospitals treat illnesses? Of course they can. Otherwise, why do people trust them and go there if hospitals cannot treat illnesses? Hospitals can treat illnesses. But their treatment belongs to the level of ordinary people while the disease is supernormal. Some diseases are very serious; thus, hospitals believe in early treatments because hospitals would be helpless if they grow serious. Overdose of medicine could be poisonous. Today's level of medical treatments is the same as that of science and technology. They are all on the level of ordinary people. Hence such an effect of treatment. One issue that should be clarified is that ordinary qigong healing and hospital treatments put off the tribulation, which is the basic cause of an illness, perhaps to the later half of life or afterwards. They do not remove the karma at all. Let us say something about the Chinese medicine. The Chinese medicine is close to qigong healing. In the ancient China, the Chinese doctors generally had supernatural powers, such as Sun Simiao, Huatuo, Li Shizhen, Bian Que and the others. These well-known medical scientists all had supernatural powers, which was documented in the medical books. However, oftentimes such cream is criticized today. What the Chinese medicine has inherited are only those prescriptions or the experience from work. The ancient Chinese medicine was very advanced, more advanced than today's medical science. Some people may think that how advanced the modern medical science is: there is CT scanner to examine the interior human body; and there are bright supersonic scanner, photography and X-ray pictures. Though the modern equipment is advanced, it is not as good as the ancient Chinese medicine in my opinion. Huatuo detected a tumour in Caocao's brain, and wanted to operate on it. Caocao thought Huatuo wanted to murder him so that he imprisoned him. Huatuo died in prison in the end. When Caocao became ill, he remembered Huatuo and looked for him. But Huatuo had died. Later, Caocao died of the brain tumour. How did Huatuo get to know it? He had seen it. This is our human supernatural power, which all the great medical scientists in the past were possessed of. With the Celestial Eye open, one could see four sides of a human body on one plane at the same time. From the front he can see the rear, the left and the right. He may also be able to see through different layers, or look at the basic cause of the illness beyond this space. Can the modern medical means reach this standard? It is far from this standard, and that would take another thousand years. CT scanner, bright supersonic scanner and X-ray could also examine the interior human body. But the equipment is huge, not portable and cannot be operated without electricity. How could it be compared with the Celestial Eye which is carried around and which does not need power supply. Some people talk about how marvelous the modern medicine is. I say I do not think so. The ancient Chinese herbs could really heal illnesses as soon as they are applied. Many prescriptions have been lost, and many have not been lost and are still in use among the people. When I was in Qiqihar giving lectures, I saw a person on the street, pulling teeth for others. He appeared to be from the South, and was dressed unlike one from the Northeastern region. He would treat anyone who came to him, and had pulled a pile of teeth there. His purpose was not to pull teeth , but to sell his liquid drug. The liquid drug released a strong yellow gas. While pulling the teeth, he would open the drug bottle and direct it towards the location of the bad tooth outside the patient's cheek. The patient would be asked to smell the yellow liquid drug which was consumed very little. The drug bottle would be then sealed and put aside. The man took out a match stick from his pocket. While promoting his drug, he touched the bad tooth slightly and pulled it out with the match stick. The tooth had a few blood stains, but was neither bleeding nor painful for the patient. Let us think about it. A match stick could be broken if used with too much force. But the man used it to pull out a tooth by a slight touch. I have said that some treatments are circulated among the people in China, which the Western precision instrument cannot be compared with. Let us see whose treatment is more effective. A man's match stick could pull out a tooth. If a Western medicine doctor wants to pull off the tooth, he would first give injections of anesthetics, which is quite painful with the injections plunged in here and there, and wait until the anesthetics is working when he would pull the tooth with a pair of pliers. If the doctor is not careful, the root may be broken inside the tooth bed after a long time of effort. Then, the doctor would use a big hammer and a big drill to dig for it, which indeed makes the patient palpitate with anxiety and fear. Later, a precision instrument will be utilized to drill the tooth, which is painful and bloody. Then the patient would spit out the blood for a while. Some people would jump up with the drill. Which kind of treatment would you say is better? Which one is more advanced? We should not just look at the appearance of the tools, but the effect of the treatment. The ancient Chinese medicine was very advanced, and cannot be caught up with by the Western medicine in many years to come. The ancient Chinese science is different from our science today which is learned from the West. It took a different path which could bring about a different situation in science. Therefore, we could not understand the ancient Chinese technology with the current way of understanding because the ancient Chinese science aimed at the human body, life, and the universe. It focused itself directly on these subjects and took a different approach. The students of that time paid attention to sitting properly with legs crossed, and they also attached weight to the way they sat. They gave attention to breathing and the exercise of qi while writing with a pencil or brush. People from all walks of life believed in emptying the mind, breathing properly with the whole society in such a state. Some people have said: Would we have cars and trains if we had followed the ancient Chinese science? Would we have today's modernization? Let me tell you that you cannot understand another state from the perspective of this environment. There should be a revolution in your mind. Without a TV set, people would have had one in foreheads, and watched anything they wanted, and there also would have been supernormal capabilities. Without trains and cars , people would be able to lift up from where they sit without using an elevator. It would be a different state of social development, which is not necessarily confined to this frame work. The UFO of the other space lives travel at an unbelievable speed and can expand and contract. They have taken a completely different way of development, which is another scientific approach. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next:Lecture Eight Up:Contents Previous:Lecture Six ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [NOTE: The strange characters are Chinese in GB code] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next:Lecture Nine Up:Contents Previous:Lecture Seven ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lecture Eight Bigu (Abstention from Food) Stealing Qi Collecting Qi He Attains Cultivation Energy Who Does the Cultivation Heavenly Circuit Attachment of Complacency Self-Imposed Silence ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bigu (Abstention from Food) (±Ù¹È) Some people have raised the issue of Bigu (abstention from food). The phenomenon of abstention from food exists not only in the world of cultivation, but also among a good number of people throughout our human society. Some people do not eat or drink for several years or over ten years, but they live very well. Some people speak of abstention from food as a manifestation of a certain level while others take it as a sign of the body purification. It is also said by some to be a cultivation process in the high dimension. In fact, it is none of the above. What is it then? Abstention from food in fact refers to a special cultivation method in a specific environment. Under what specific circumstances will it be utilized? In the ancient China, particularly prior to the birth of religions, many practitioners employed the forms of secret and solitary cultivation in the deep mountains or into the mountain caves that were far away from the human settlements. Once they chose to do it this way, the source of food supplies would become an issue. A practitioner could not make their cultivation at all if he did not use the method of abstention from food as he would die of hunger and thirst in there. On my way to Wuhan from Chongqing to teach the Law, I took a ship that went down eastward on the Yantze River, and saw that there were some stone caves in the middle sections of the mountains on both sides of the Three Gorges. Many well-known mountains also have such caves. In the past, after climbing into a cave by means of a rope, the practitioner would cut off the rope to do the cultivation in the cave. If he did not succeed in cultivation, he would die inside it. Without water or food, it was under such an extremely special circumstance that he resorted to this particular cultivation method. Many cultivation ways include abstention from food as they have gone through such a carrying-on process. A lot of cultivation systems do not include abstention from food. Most of the cultivation systems that have been made public today do not contain it. We teach that practising qigong should be constant in only one cultivation system, and that you should not do whatever you want to do as you please. You may think abstention from food is good and you want to do it as well. What do you want to do it for? Some people think it is good, and become curious, or think that their Gongfu is high enough to show off. There are people with all sorts of mentalities. Even if this method is used to do the cultivation, one would consume his own energy to make up for the loss of his body. Therefore, it is not worth the effort. It is known that, particularly after the establishment of religions, you would be supplied with tea and food while sitting in meditation and self-confinement in the temple. Abstention from food was not an issue to be concerned. In particular, we do the cultivation in the ordinary human society and we shall not have to employ this method at all. In addition, since there is not such a thing in your school, you should not do it at will. However, if you really want to practise abstention from food, you may go ahead. As far as I know, normally when a master teaches a cultivation system to genuinely guide people up to the high dimension, and if there is abstention from food in his school, such a phenomenon may take place. However, he cannot promote it in public, and would oftentimes take his disciple away to do the practice in secret and in isolation. Nowadays there are also qigong masters teaching abstention from food. Did they do abstention from food? Not really in the end. Who has succeeded in it? I have seen many such people hospitalized, and quite a few people's lives were in danger. Then, why is there such a situation? Is there the phenomenon of abstention from food? Yes, there is. However, there is one point that the state of our ordinary human society is not allowed to be casually disrupted by anyone, and it will not be allowed to be interrupted. Not to mention how many people in the whole country would not need to eat and drink, I would say that it would make things quite easier if the people in the Changchun region do not eat and drink! We would not have to worry about making meals. Farmers grow crops so hard in the fields, and now nobody needs to eat. That would really make things much easier. They would only work without having to eat. How could that be allowed? Would that be a human society? It is definitely not allowed. Such a large-scale disruption of the ordinary society will not be permitted. Many people's lives were endangered when some qigong masters taught abstention from food. Some people have simply become attached to abstention from food. Yet, this attachment has not been removed together with many ordinary people's desires. Such a person's mouth would be watering upon seeing some delicious food. When his desire is up, he cannot control it, and he would become anxious to eat the food. When he desires to eat the food, he would have to eat, otherwise he would feel hungry. However, he would throw up and spit it out if he eats. Since he could not eat, he would become nervous and scared. Many people have been hospitalized, and many people's lives are indeed in danger. There were also people who found me, and asked me to deal with such messy cases. I am not willing to do it. Some qigong masters simply fool with what they do. Nobody is willing to look at these messy problems. Besides, if you have run into problems with abstention from food, isn't that what you are after? We say such a phenomenon does exist, but it is not something like the status arising from the high dimension, nor a special reflection, but it is no more than a practising method used in a special circumstance. However, it can not be popularized. A number of people seek after abstention from food, and classify it as so-called abstention from food and semi-abstention from food, and rank it into certain levels. Some people claim that they only need to drink water while others say that they only eat fruit. All these are phony abstention from food. It is certain that they all would fail as time passes by. A genuine cultivator would stay in a mountain cave without drinking and eating. That is called the real abstention from food. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stealing Qi (͵Æø) Speaking of stealing qi, some people's faces would turn pale as if mentioning a tiger, and they will be too frightened to practise qigong. Because of the gossips of cultivation insanity and stealing qi, etc., in the world of cultivation, many people have become too scared to practise or approach qigong. If there had not been such remarks, there would probably have been more people practising qigong. There are some qigong masters of bad Xinxing (ÐÄÐÔ), who specialize in teaching such stuff, which foul up the world of cultivation. In fact, it is not as dreadful as they have described. We say that qi is just qi, though you may call it chaotic energy, this qi or that qi. As long as a human body has qi, this person is at the level of healing disease and keeping fit, and he is not yet a practitioner. As long as a person still has qi, this means his body has not yet reached a high degree purification, and he still has pathogenic qi. This is for sure. The person who steals qi is also at the level of qi. Which practitioner of ours would want that turbid qi? The qi of a non- practitioner's body is rather turbid, and it could become clear through practising qigong. The affected area would be able to show a mass of black substance in high density. If he continues his practice, and when he has indeed succeeded in healing the disease and keeping fit, his qi would gradually turn slightly yellow. A further practice will really remove his disease, and then there will be no qi in his body. He will enter the state of Milky White Body. That is to say, one is still not free from disease if he has qi. We are practitioners. What does one want qi to do in practising qigong? Our bodies need to be purified. How can we take the turbid qi? Definitely not. A person who wants qi is also at the level of qi where he has no ability to tell good qi from the bad qi as he is not capable of doing so yet. As for that bit of true energy in the field of elixir in your body, he is unable to have access to it. Only a highly achieved person can remove it. As for the turbid qi in your body, let him steal it. There is nothing serious. If I want to fill up myself with qi during the practice, my belly would be full of it in a short while as long as I just think about it. The Taoist School teaches keeping Tianzi-stance while the Buddhas' School requires filling qi into the top of the head with the hands. There is a lot of qi in the universe for you to fill into your body daily. With the Laogong and Baihui points open, you can fill qi into them with the hands by concentrating your mind on the Elixir Field. You would be full of qi in a while. What is the use of filling yourself with qi? Some people who have practised a lot of qi may find their fingers and bodies feeling like swelling. When others walk up to such a person, they will feel a field surrounding him. ¡ Oh, you have really done well¡±. I would say that it is nothing. Where is your cultivation energy? It is still a practice of qi which could not replace cultivation energy no matter how much you possess it. The purpose of practising qi is to substitute the qi in one's body with the good qi from the outside, and to purify the body. What do you store up qi for? It is not yet cultivation energy because you are at this level when no essential changes have taken place. No matter how much qi you have stolen, you are nothing but a big bag of qi. What is the use of it? It has not yet been transformed into the high energy substance, either. Therefore, what are you afraid of? Let him steal the qi if he really wants to. Please think about it. As long as your body has qi, it is not free from disease. Then, didn't he also take your pathogenic qi with him when he stole qi from you ? He could not tell such a difference at all as a person who wants qi is also at the level of qi, and he has not any capabilities. A person who has cultivation energy does not want qi, and this is for sure. If you do not believe it , we could conduct an experiment. Allow such a person who really wants to steal your qi to stand over there to steal. While you are thinking about filling up your body with qi from the universe here he is stealing your qi behind you. You see what a good deal it is as it would speed up your body purification, and save you the trouble of moving your hands up and down like that. As he has a bad intention and has stolen something from others, although what he has stolen is something bad, he also has done something that would make him lose his De (virtues), and so he would give you De (µÂ virtues). In this way a convection is rising when he is taking your qi here and he is giving you De over there. The person who steals qi does not know this. He will not dare to do this at all if he does. All those people who steal qi have dark complexion in the faces. They are all this way. Many people who go to practise qigong in a park aim at removing disease, but such a person suffers from diseases of all sorts. When one is treating disease, he has to remove the pathogenic qi from his body. However, the person who steals qi would not do that. Instead, he would fill his whole body with all kinds of pathogenic qi which darkens the inside of his body. As he always loses his De, it is all dark around him. With a large field of karma and the loss of a lot of De, he would become black both inside and outside his body. If the person who steals qi knows that such a change has occurred to his body, and that he has been doing such a foolish thing as to give away his De to others, he would never do that again. Some people make qi sound mystical by saying: If you are in America, you could receive the qi I have released; you may wait on the other side of the wall, and you can receive the qi I have released. Some people are quite sensitive, and could receive it when it is released. However, qi does not travel in this space but in another space where there is not such a wall. Why could you not feel it when some qigong masters release qi on a level ground? Because there is a separation in another space there, qi does not have as much penetrative power as we have described. What could genuinely work is cultivation energy. When a practitioner is able to deliver his cultivation energy, he no longer has any qi. What he releases is the high energy substance which is seen in the form of light with the Celestial Eye. When it reaches others, it gives a sensation of burning heat, and could restrain an ordinary person. However, it also can not meet the purpose of thoroughly curing disease, and could only play the role of inhibition. In order to genuinely cure disease, there has to be supernormal capabilities as there are different supernormal capabilities aimed at different diseases. In the extreme microcosms, each tiny particle of the cultivation energy takes on your personal image. It can recognize people, and has intelligence as a high energy substance. How could it stay there when it is stolen by the others? It will not stay there, and cannot be placed there as it is not their own property. After developing their cultivation energy, all those genuine practitioners would be looked after by their masters. When his master sees to what he does, and when he is trying to take things from others, his master will not allow this to happen. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gathering Qi (²ÉÆø) Stealing qi and gathering qi are not the problems that we should solve in teaching the Gong of the high order. Because I still have such a goal: to rehabilitate the reputation of cultivation, and to do something good by speaking out these unhealthy phenomena which nobody has said before. I want everyone of us to know it so that some people would not always do bad things, and those who know little about the truth of qigong would not always turn pale at the mere mentioning of it. There is plenty of cosmic qi in the universe. Some people talk about the qi of Celestial Yang and the qi of Earthly Yin. You are also an element of the universe, and you may go ahead to gather as much qi as you like. However, some people do not collect the qi of the universe, but specialize in teaching people to collect qi from plants. They have even summed up their experience: the qi of a poplar tree is white and the qi of a pine tree is yellow, as well as how and when to collect it. Someone also said: "There is a tree in front of our house, and it has died because I have collected qi from it". What kind of capability is that? Isn't that a wrong deed? It is known that when we genuinely do the cultivation, we value positive messages and assimilation to the cosmic qualities. Don't you want to look at the issue of compassion? Assimilation to the cosmic qualities, Zhen Shan Ren, requires compassion. How could you increase your cultivation energy if you always commit bad deeds? How could you remove your diseases? Isn't it just opposite to what our practitioners would do? That is also killing lives and committing sins! Perhaps, someone would say: "You are getting more and more incredible by saying that killing animals is killing lives, and killing plants also is killing lives". In fact, it is this way. Buddhism teaches the Sixfold Paths of Transmigration, and you may be turned into a plant during the Sixfold Paths of Transmigration. This is what Buddhism says. We do not talk about it this way here. However, we shall tell you that the tree also is a life. Not only is it a life, but it has very advanced mental activities as well. For instance: there is an American who specializes in electronic studies, and teaches others to use lie- detectors. One day he decided on the spur of the moment to connect the two poles of the lie-detector to a Adhatoda Vasica, and watered the roots of the flower. Then, he found that the electronic pen of the lie- detector rapidly drew a curve line. Such a curve line was the same as that of the human brain produced in an extremely short period of time when it is happy and excited. He was surprised at that time to find how a plant could have feelings! He almost wanted to shout on the street: plants have feelings. Being enlightened from this incident, he carried out the research in this area, and has conducted a lot of experiments. Once he took two plants together, and asked his student to step over a plant to death in front of the other plant. Then, he took the other plant inside a room, and connected it to the lie-detector. He asked five of his students to come in turns from the outside. There were no reactions when the first four students walked into the room. As soon as the fifth student who had trampled the plant had come in, the electronic pen rapidly drew a curve line. Such a curve line could only be done when a person becomes frightened. He was really surprised! This event has thrown light on a very big issue: through the ages we have always considered human beings to be high level living beings with the sense organs that can make identifications, and with the brain that can make analysis. How could plants distinguish things? Don't they have sense organs as well? In the past, whoever said that plants had sense organs, thinking, feelings, and the ability to recognize people would be labeled as superstition. In addition to these, it seems that they have surpassed our contemporary humans in certain aspects. One day he connected the lie-detector to a plant, and then wondered: "What kind of experiment shall I do? I shall burn its leaves with fire and see how it would react." As soon as this came into his mind, and before he did so, the electronic pen rapidly drew a curve line which could be done only when a person is crying for help. This power of Telepathy which was called Mental Telepathy in the past is a human potential ability and instinct. However, today's mankind is degenerating. You will have to do the cultivation all over again, and return to the origin and go back to the truth and your primordial instinct before you can regain it. Yet, the plant has it, and it knows what you are thinking about. It sounds quite incredible, but it was indeed a scientific experiment. He has conducted a variety of experiments, including the supernormal capability of long-distance remote controls. After his paper was published, it caused a great sensation throughout the world. Botanists from different countries have already started studies in this area, including those in our country. It is no longer something superstitious. The other day I said such words that what our mankind has experienced, invented, and discovered today would be quite enough to change our textbooks of today. However, owing to the influence of the traditional mentality, people are reluctant to acknowledge them, and there is also no one to sort them out systematically. In a park in the Northeast China, I noticed that a group of pine trees had died. I did not know what sort of qigong some people were practising there. They rolled all over the ground, and then they would gather qi with feet in one way and hands in another. Soon afterwards the pine trees over there turned yellow, and then all died. Is what you have done a good deed or a wrong one? Judging from the angle of our practitioners, that is killing lives. As a practitioner, you must be a good person, and gradually assimilate yourself with the cosmic qualities, as well as give up the bad stuff of yours. Even from the angle of an ordinary person, it was also not a good deed but it was damaging the public property and the afforestation and the ecological balance. It was not a good deed looking at it from any angle. There is plenty of qi in the universe, and you may collect it as much as you can. Some people are carrying great energy. After reaching a certain level, they can indeed collect the qi of the plants in a large area by just a waving of his arm once. That is nothing but qi. What will be the use of qi even if you have collected more? Some people do not do anything else when they go to a park, saying: "I do not have to practise qigong. It will be good enough for me to collect qi while walking around, and my practice will be over. It will be good enough to just get qi". In their opinion, Qi is cultivation energy. When people walk up close to such a person, they would feel his body is quite chilly. Isn't the qi of plants of the Yin quality? A practitioner should try to maintain the balance of Yin and Yang. Though his body smells like a pine tree, he still feels good about his practice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ He Attains Cultivation Energy Who Does the Cultivation (Ë­Á¹¦Ë­µÃ¹¦) The question of "He attains cultivation energy who does the cultivation" is an extremely important one. When other people ask me what the advantages of Falun Dafa are, I say that the Great Law can attain the purpose of cultivation energy cultivating the practitioner and reducing the time for practice, which can solve the problem of having no time to practise while the practitioner is cultivated all the time. At the same time, ours is a genuine cultivation of both human life and nature, and our physical bodies will go through tremendous changes. Falun Dafa also has a most important advantage which I have not mentioned before, only today are we going to expound it. Because it involves a very important issue of historical origins, and has a great impact on the world of cultivation. No one ever dared to reveal this in history, nor has anyone been allowed to do so. However, I have no alternative but to tell you about it. Some students have said: every sentence that Master Li Hongzhi has said is a secret of Heaven and the disclosure of it. However, we are genuinely bringing people up towards high dimensions, which is to save people. We should be responsible to everyone, and we are able to take such a responsibility. Thus, it is not a betrayal of the secrets of Heaven while an irresponsible casual gossip is a betrayal of the secrets of Heaven. Today, we shall make public the issue: he attains cultivation energy who does the cultivation. In my opinion, all the cultivation systems, including the Buddhas' School, the Taoist School, and the Rare Cultivation Way, have all been cultivating one's Assistant Spirit (¸±ÒâÊ Paraconsciousness)in history, and it is the Assistant Spirit that attains cultivation energy. The Zhu Yuanshen(Ö÷ÔªÉñ the Chief Spirit) that we are talking about here refers to our own thinking. We should understand what we are thinking about and what we are doing. This is just the genuine you yourself. However, you do not know at all what your Assistant Spirit does. Though he was born with you simultaneously with the same name, he has the same appearance as you and controls the same body with you, he is still not you in a strict sense. There is a principle in the universe that he gains who loses, and he attains cultivation energy who does the cultivation. The cultivation systems through the ages have been teaching the practitioners to enter the state of a trance during the practice without thinking about anything and then enter the state of deep meditation until they are not aware of anything in the end. Some people have sat there in meditation for three hours as if just for a brief moment. Others may admire such a person's power of meditation. Did he, in fact, practise? He does not know it himself. In particular, the Taoist School teaches: Shishen (the Conscious Spirit) dies while Yuanshen (Primal Spirit) is born. The Shishen (Conscious Spirit) they refer to we call Zhu Yuanshen (the Chief Spirit); and the Yuanshen (Primal Spirit) they refer to we call Fu Yuanshen (Assistant Spirit). If your Shishen (Conscious Spirit) really dies, you will be indeed dead, and your Chief spirit will really die. Someone from another cultivation system told me: "Teacher, when I practise, I cannot recognize anyone in my home." Another person told me: "I do not have to practise like others who do it early in the morning and late at night. After I go home and lay down in a couch, myself goes out to practise. I watch him practise while lying there". I feel very sorry for it but not so sorry as well. Why would they save the Assistant Spirit? Lu Dongbin once made a statement: "I would rather save an animal than a human being". It is indeed very difficult for humans to be enlightened because ordinary people are deranged in the ordinary human society, and cannot give up their desires in front of the immediate interests. If you do not believe it, when some people walk out of this auditorium after the lectures, they will become ordinary people again. If anyone irritates them or bumps into them, they will not put up with it. After a period of time, they will not regard themselves as practitioners at all. Many accomplished cultivators in history have realized this point. It is very difficult to save a person because his Chief Spirit is very much deranged. Some people have good enlightenment quality, and will awake to the truth instantly with a hint. Some people will not believe you no matter what you say, and they would think that you are talking big. We have asked them to cultivate their Xinxing, but they would still stick to their old way of doing things soon after they go back to ordinary people. They would think that this little bit of interest that is realistic, tangible and attainable is indeed materially beneficial, and they would prefer to go after this. The Law that the teacher has expounded sounds also reasonable, but it cannot be followed. The human Chief Spirit is most difficult to be saved while the Assistant Spirit could see the scenes in another space. Therefore, they are considering: "Why should I save your Chief Spirit? Your Assistant Spirit is also you. Wouldn't it be the same if I save him? Both of them are you, and it does not matter who gains. It is you who gain in either way". I am going to tell you about their specific cultivation methods. If anyone has the capability of Remote Sight, he could see such a situation: when you sit in practice, as soon as you enter the state of meditation, you can see that you having the same appearance as yourself would get out of your body out of a sudden. But, where is your own self if you try to distinguish it? You are sitting right here. After you watch him leave your body, the master would take him to cultivate in a space transformed by the master, which could be in the form of the bygone society, or of the contemporary society, or of a society in another space. The master would teach him how to practise, and he would suffer a lot for one or two hours a day. When he returns from his practice, you would also get out of the state of your meditation. This is what can be observed. It would be more miserable if one could not see. He knows nothing about what has happened, and would get out of the state of meditation which lasts two hours when he does not know what is happening. Some people would sleep for two or three hours as a way of practice, and completely give themselves up to others. Such cultivation is completed intermittently with certain amount of time for the daily sitting practice. Another form of cultivation is completed at one time. Everyone probably has heard of Dharmer who sat in front of a wall for nine years. In the past there were many monks who would sit for decades. The longest period of time recorded in history lasted over ninety years. There were still people who spent even longer time doing this with thick dust deposited on their eyelids and grass growing up on their bodies, and they are still sitting there. Some cultivation systems of the Taoist School also teach this, especially some Rare Cultivation ways teach their practitioners to practise sleeping, and sleep for decades without coming out of the state of meditation or waking up. But, who has practised? His Assistant Spirit has gone out to practise. If he could see this, he would see the master teaching his Assistant Spirit to practise. The Assistant Spirit could also owe a lot of karma, and the master was unable to eradicate all of his karma. Therefore, the master would tell him that: "You should practise hard here. I will be away and be back after a while. You wait for me." The master knew exactly what would happen, but he would also have to do so. As a result, the demon would come to scare him, and turn into a beauty to seduce him. There would be various happenings. Once the demon realized that he was indeed not moved at all because the Assistant Spirit was relatively easier to do the cultivation, and could understand the truth. The demon became irritated, and made an attempt on his life for revenge, and he was indeed killed, and his debt had all been paid. After his death, the Assistant Spirit came out like a thread of smoke drifting about. He would go into another reincarnation, and was born into a very poor family. He would suffer from an early age. By the time when he became sensible, his master came. Obviously, he could not recognize him. The master would unlock the child's stored memory with the supernormal capability. The child would suddenly recall everything. "Isn't this my master?" The master would tell him: "Now, it is time to start the practice." Many years had passed, the master would pass to him the teachings. After completing his teachings, the master would again tell him: "You still have many attachments to be abandoned. You should go out to wander about". Wandering around would go through a lot of hardships, and go to the society. He would beg for food, and run into different kinds of people who would scorn him, insult him, and bully him. He would encounter all kinds of things. He would treat himself as a practitioner, and balance well his relations with others while maintaining and upgrading his Xinxing constantly. He would not be moved by the temptation of various interests in ordinary people. After many years he would return after his many years wandering around. The master would say: "You have already attained the Tao, and have reached the consummation. If you do not have anything to do, you may go back and pack up and get ready to leave. Many years had passed in this way, you go ahead and put an end to ordinary human affairs". Many years had passed before the Assistant Spirit returned. Upon his return, his Chief Spirit also came out of the state of meditation, and his Chief Spirit woke up from his sleep. However, he has indeed not done the cultivation yet, but his Assistant Spirit has practised, and thus it would attain cultivation energy. Nevertheless, the Chief Spirit has also suffered. After all, he has devoted all his youth to sitting there, and his lifetime as an ordinary person is over. What should be done then? Upon getting out of the state of meditation, this person would think that he has developed cultivation energy through practice, and has possessed supernormal capabilities. If he wants to treat disease, his Assistant Spirit would satisfy him and he is capable of doing what he wants to do, because he is the Chief Spirit after all. The Chief Spirit controls the body and makes decisions. In addition, he has spent so many years sitting here with his lifetime elapsed. By the time this person is dead, the Assistant Spirit will be gone, and each one will go his own way. According to Buddhism, this person would still enter the Sixfold Paths of Transmigration. Since a great enlightened being has been successfully cultivated in his body, this person has also accumulated a huge amount of De. What would happen then? He would probably become a high- ranking official or make a big fortune in his next lifetime. This could only be this way. Didn't his cultivation end up in vain? It has taken us a lot of trouble to have the permission to tell you about this issue. I have disclosed a mystery of thousands of years, which was the secret of the secrets that could not be revealed absolutely. I have unveiled the root of all kinds of cultivation methods through the ages. Haven't I mentioned that this is closely connected with historical origins? These are the reasons. Just think about it. Which cultivation way or school does not take this way in cultivation? You keep cultivating and practising hard, but you still would not attain cultivation energy. Aren't you sad? Who should be blamed for this, then? Mankind is so much deranged, and they would not take the hint no matter how you enlighten them. If you tell them something higher, they would consider it incredible. If you say something lower, they would not understand what you mean. Now I am talking this way, some people still want me to treat their diseases. I really do not know what to say to such a person. What we mean is cultivation, and we will only take care of those who do the cultivation towards the high dimensions. In our school, it is Zhu Yishi (Ö÷ÒâÊ Main Consciousness) that attains the cultivation energy. Then, would the Main Consciousness attain cultivation energy if you say so? Who would give the permission? It does not work this way as it must have a prerequisite. It is known that our cultivation way does not stay away from the cultivation in the ordinary human society, nor would it avoid or evade contradictions. In this complicated environment of ordinary people, you will be clear-minded, and lose knowingly on the issue of interests. When others take away your interests, you will not go to compete and fight like others, and you would suffer losses with all kinds of Xinxing interference. In such a difficult environment, you would sharpen your will and upgrade your Xinxing. Under the influence of various ill thoughts from ordinary people, you will be able to reach above and beyond. Please think about it. Is it you who suffers knowingly, and is it your Chief Spirit that gives so much? Haven't you knowingly lost what you have lost in ordinary people? Then, this cultivation energy should belong to you as he gains who loses. Therefore, this is why our cultivation way does not stay away from doing the cultivation under the complicated environment of ordinary people. Why do we do the cultivation in the conflicts of ordinary people? It is because we want to attain cultivation energy ourselves. The future professional practitioners who do the cultivation in the temple will have to wander around among ordinary people. Some people have said: "Don't other cultivation ways nowadays also practise in ordinary people?" However, they are all aimed at promoting the healing of diseases and physical fitness. Genuine cultivation towards the high dimensions has never been made public except for these schools which teach only one disciple for each generation. Those who genuinely teach their disciples have already taken them away to give them private teachings. Over the years, who has talked about such things in public? Nobody has done it. Our cultivation way has hereby stated this because ours is just such a cultivation way, and we will attain cultivation energy this way. In the meantime, over ten thousand things from our cultivation school will all be planted onto your Chief Spirit to enable you to indeed attain cultivation energy. I have mentioned that I have done something nobody has ever done before, and have opened the largest door. Some people have understood these words of mine, and what I have said is really not something incredible. I have a personal habit that I would say an inch of it if I have a yard, and you may still say that I am boasting. In fact, I have just told you only a tiny bit. Because of the huge differences in cultivation status, I can not at all tell you a bit more of the Great Law higher and more profound. Our cultivation school does the cultivation in such a way that you will be able to indeed attain cultivation energy yourselves, which is the first time since the creation of heaven and the earth, and you can look into the history. It is good because you will attain cultivation energy yourself, but it is also very challenging. It will be most challenging if you can ascend from the complicated environment of ordinary people as well as from the Xinxing friction between one and another. The difficulty is just that you know perfectly well that you will suffer losses in the interests of ordinary people, and whether you will be moved or not in front of your personal vested interests in the intrigue against each other and when you see your relatives and friends suffering. How will you weigh them up? As a practitioner, it is just so difficult. Someone told me: "Teacher, it would be good enough to be a good person in ordinary people. Who can ascend in the cultivation?" Listening to him, I felt really disappointed! I did not say a word to him. There are all kinds of Xinxing. He could understand as much as he could. He gains who awakes to the truth. Lao Tze said: "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao." Tao would not be so precious if we could pick it up everywhere on the ground and succeed in cultivating it. Our cultivation way requires you to attain cultivation energy through contradictions. Therefore, we should maximally conform to ordinary people, and you will not be required to really lose any material interests. However, you will have to upgrade your Xinxing in this material environment. It is convenient right here. Our cultivation way is the most convenient one, and we can cultivate ourselves in ordinary people instead of becoming monks or nuns. Then this is also the most difficult thing to do here as we would do the cultivation in this most complicated environment of ordinary people. Yet, it is the best because of this since it enables you yourself to attain cultivation energy. This is the most crucial part of our cultivation way, which I have disclosed to you today. Of course, the Chief Spirit attains cultivation energy, so does the Assistant Spirit. Why? When all the messages, intelligent entities, and cells in your body increase cultivation energy, of course he would certainly also increase cultivation energy. However, he will never grow higher than you at any time. You would be the master while he would be the guardian of the Law. Speaking of it here, I shall add another sentence. There are many such people in the world of cultivation, who have always been attempting to cultivate towards high dimensions. They have travelled everywhere and spent a lot of money. They have not found the well-known masters after visiting different places in the country. Being well-known does not necessarily mean that these masters really understand anything. In the end, they travelled back and forth, and spent a lot of money for nothing. Today, we have made public to you such a good cultivation way, and I have delivered it to you at your doorstep. It is up to you whether or not you can do the cultivation, and make it. If you can do it, you may keep up your cultivation. If you cannot do it or make the cultivation, do not think about doing the cultivation at all from now on. Except for the demons that would cheat you, nobody else would teach you, and you will not be able to do the cultivation in the future. If I cannot save you, nobody else can do it. As a matter of fact, it is harder than climbing to heaven to find a genuine master of an orthodox school to teach you. There is not anyone who will take care of this at all. In the Period of Decline, even the very high dimensions are also in the midst of the Last Havoc. Nobody will mind the business of ordinary people. This is the most convenient cultivation way, and it is cultivated directly according to the cosmic qualities. It is the quickest short cut which is aimed directly at the human heart. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Heavenly Circuit (ÖÜÌì) The Taoist School teaches the great and small Heavenly Circuits, and we are going to explain what a Heavenly Circuit is. The Heavenly Circuit that we generally refer to is connecting the two channels of Renmai and Dumai. Such a Heavenly Circuit is a superficial Heavenly Circuit which does not account for anything but healing disease and keeping fit. This is called the Small Heavenly Circuit. Another Heavenly Circuit which is not called the Small Heavenly Circuit or the Great Heavenly Circuit is a form of Heavenly Circuit while sitting in meditation. It travels down in a circle inside one's body from the Niwan Point to Dantian (the Elixir Field), and moves up in a circle there as an interior circuit, which is the genuine Heavenly Circuit in the cultivation while sitting in meditation. After the formation of such a Heavenly Circuit, it will become a very powerful energy current, bringing all the pulses to motion with one pulse and opening up all other pulses. The Taoist School teaches the Heavenly Circuit while Buddhism does not. What does Buddhism teach then? When Sakyamuni taught his system of Dharma, he did not teach the practice of the exercise, he did not do that. However, his cultivation system also has its own form of cultivation evolution. How does the pulse in Buddhism move? It starts to break through from the Baihui Point, and then it develops from the top of one's head down to the body in a spiral. In the end, it will bring all the pulses to motion in this way. The central pulse in the Tantrism is also aimed at this goal. Some people have said that there is not a central pulse. Why then could the Tantrism manage to cultivate the central pulse? In fact, when all the pulses of a human body are put together, they would amount to no less than ten thousand in number just like the blood vessels crisscrossing, but more than the blood vessels in number. The space between the interior organs does not have blood vessels, but there are pulses. They would be connected from the top of one's head to every part of the body crisscrossing. They may not be straight initially, and will be opened up upon connecting with each other. Then, they will gradually be expanded, and slowly form a straight pulse. This pulse will be used as an axis that does self rotations to bring to motion several wheels of one's intention in level rotations, which also is aimed at opening up all the pulses of the body. The cultivation of our Falun Dafa avoids using this method of one pulse bringing all the pulses to motion. We require that all the pulses should be opened up in motion simultaneously from the very beginning. All at once, we cultivate on the very high plane, avoiding the low-level stuff. If you wish to open up all the pulses with one pulse, your whole lifetime may not be enough to make it. Some people will have to cultivate for decades, and it is very difficult. A lot of cultivation systems believe that one lifetime will not be enough to make the cultivation. There are many people who cultivate the profound Great Laws and can extend their life span. Don't they believe in cultivating life as well? They can extend their life span to do the cultivation, and it will take quite a long period of time for them to do so. The Small Heavenly Circuit is basically aimed at healing disease and keeping fit while the Great Heavenly Circuit is the practice of the exercises, which means the real cultivation. The Great Heavenly Circuit the Taoist School refers to does not come as violently as ours which opens up all the pulses at once. The operation of the Great Heavenly Circuit in the Taoist School is that of several pulses which would travel from the three Yin and three Yang of one's hands down to the feet, and to both legs, and all the way to the hair. They would go all over the body once. This is considered to be the Great Heavenly Circuit in circulation. When the Great Heavenly Circuit is in motion, the genuine cultivation will be brought into play. Therefore, some qigong masters would not teach the Great Heavenly Circuit, and what they teach is healing disease and keeping fit. Some people have also talked about the Great Heavenly Circuit, but they have not planted anything into your bodies. You can not open them up on your own. Not having been equipped with the system, you will not be able to open them up with your intention. That is not as easy as talk! How could you open them up just like doing gymnastic exercises? Cultivation is one's own business, while the evolution of cultivation energy is done by one's master. The interior "mechanism" can play such a role when it is all planted in you. The Taoist School has regarded the human body as a small universe through the ages. It believes that the exterior of the universe is as big as the interior of it, and the appearance of its exterior is the same as that of its interior. This view does not seem to be credible or easy to be understood. This universe is so big. How could it be compared with a human body? We would expound such a principle. Our physics today studies the elements of substance from molecules, atoms, electrons, protons, quarks all the way to neutrinos. What size will they be further down? What will the extremely tiny particle be further down the road when the microscope cannot see it at that point? It is not known. In fact, this point our physics has now come to understand is too far away from the most tiny particle of the universe. When a person does not have his flesh body, his eyes will be able to see with magnified vision, and can see the microcosmic. The higher dimension one is in, the larger what he will be able to see in the microcosm is. In such a status of Sakyamuni, he taught the theory of Great Chiliocosm. Namely, there are also people in this Milky Way galaxy like our mankind with such sensory bodies. He also expounded the theory that a grain of sand contains three thousand worlds, which agrees with the understanding of our contemporary physics. What is the difference between the rotation form of electrons around the nuclei and that of the earth around the sun? Therefore, Sakyamuni said that in the microcosm, a grain of sand contains three thousand worlds which will be just like a universe with life and matter in it. If it is true, please think about it. Is there sand in the world of that grain of sand? And is there three thousand worlds in the sand of that grain of sand? And then, is there sand in the three thousand worlds in the sand of the sand? It would be endless if the search goes on and on. Therefore, in the status of Tathagata, Sakyamuni made such a statement: "It is immense without the exterior, and it is tiny without the interior". It is so immense that he could not see the perimeter of the universe, and it is so tiny that he could not see what is the most tiny particle of the original substance. Some qigong masters said: "There is a city in a sweat pore where the trains and cars are running." It sounds quite incredible, but we have found that this statement is not incredible when we really understand and study it from the angle of science. When I was talking about opening the Celestial Eye the other day, many people would see such a scene when their Celestial Eye was being opened: they would find they were running out along a tunnel in their foreheads as if they could never reach the end. Everyday during the practice they would feel like running out along this main road with mountains and rivers on both sides. While running, they would pass through cities, and see quite a lot of people. They would feel that this was an illusion. What is the matter? What he saw was quite clear, and not an illusion. I have said that if one's body is really that huge in the microcosm, it will not be an illusion. Because the Taoist School has regarded the human body as a universe through the ages, and if it is indeed a universe, the distance from the forehead to the pineal body would be more than one hundred and eighty thousand li. You may rush toward the outside, and it will be quite a remote distance. If the Great Heavenly Circuit is all opened up in the course of cultivation, it would bring the practitioner a supernormal capability. What supernormal capability is it? It is known that the Great Heavenly Circuit is also called the Meridian Heavenly Circuit, or the Cosmic Rotation, or the Heche Rotation. At a very low level, the rotation of the Great Heavenly Circuit will form an energy current which will gradually increase its density to transform towards higher levels, and which will become a large energy belt in high density. Such an energy belt is in rotation, in the process of which we can see it with the Celestial Eye on the very shallow plane and discover that it could make qi change positions inside one's body: the qi from the heart moves to the intestines; the qi from the liver moves to the stomach ...... In the microcosm, we can see that what it carries is something very large. If this energy belt is delivered to the outside of one's body, it will be the power of psychokinesis (mind over matter). A person who has very powerful cultivation energy can move a very big object, which is called the great psychokinesis: A person who has very weak cultivation energy can move a very small object, which is called small psychokinesis. These are the types of the power of psychokinesis as well as its formation. The cultivation begins immediately with the Great Heavenly Circuit. Thus, it will bring about different situations as well as forms of cultivation energy, and it will also bring us a very special state. What state is it? You may have read such a sentence which is called: "flying up into the sky in broad daylight" in the ancient books such as Biographies of the Immortals, Alchemical Text, Tao Tsang, or A Genuine Guide to Cultivation of Nature and Life. It means that a person could fly up in broad daylight. In fact, let me tell you that a person will be able to take off in the air once the Great Heavenly Circuit is opened up, and this is just so simple. Some people think that there are quite a few people whose Great Heavenly Circuits have been opened up after so many years of practice. I would say that it is not incredible for many thousands of people to be able to reach this level because the Great Heavenly Circuit is after all the beginning step of the cultivation. Then, why can't we see these people flying up in the sky? Why can't we see them take off? The state of the ordinary human society cannot be disturbed, nor can the social formation of the ordinary human society be casually disrupted or changed. How could people all be allowed to fly in the sky? Would that be an ordinary human society? This is one principal aspect. The other one is that people from ordinary people do not live in order to be just people, but to return to the origin and go back to the truth. Therefore, there is also an issue of awakening quality. If one sees that many people indeed can fly, he will also want to do the cultivation, and there will not be the issue of awakening quality. Therefore, if you are capable of doing it because of your cultivation, you should not casually show it to others or demonstrate to others as they also need to go into the cultivation. As a result, once your Great Heavenly Circuit is opened up, you will not be able to fly up if your finger tip, toe tip, or a certain part of your body is locked. When the Great Heavenly Circuit is about to be opened up, a phenomenon would occur that some people would lean forward during the sitting practice because the circuit in one's back is opened up well, his back will feel very light while his front body will feel heavy. Some people lean backward, and feel their backs are heavy while their front bodies are light. If your body is all opened up well, you will feel like being lifted up and down, and feel like rising up from the ground. Once you could really take off, you will not be allowed to leave the ground. But it is not absolute. Those who develop supernormal capabilities are usually at both ends. Children do not have attachments, nor do senior citizens especially senior women. They could easily develop and preserve supernormal capabilities. For males especially younger ones, once they have a capability, their show-off mentality cannot be avoided. At the same time, they would probably use it as the competition means in ordinary people. Thus, it can not be allowed to exist, and will be locked up as soon as it is developed through the cultivation. If one part of the body is locked, this person will not be able to fly up. It is not that you will be not at all allowed to have such a state. You may probably be allowed to have a try, and some people may be able to keep it up. Such situations also occur in different parts of the country where a lecturing session was going on. When I gave lectures in Shandong, there were practitioners from Beijing and Jinan. Some people said: "Teacher, what has happened to me as I feel like taking off from the ground while walking. I also feel like flying up while sleeping at home. Even the quilt is always flying up like a balloon." When I gave lectures in Guiyang, there was a senior practitioner from Guizhou who was an old lady. She had two beds in a room with one bed next to one side of the wall, and the other to the other side of the wall. When she was doing the sitting practice in bed, she felt herself flying up in the air, and found she had flown onto the other bed when she opened her eyes. She thought: I should return to my bed, and then she flew back again. There was a practitioner in Qingdao who did the sitting practice in his office bed when no one was around during the noon break. As soon as he sat there, he flew into the air, and was strongly lifted up and down as high as a meter. He would drop down upon rising up, and repeated the movement with noises. The quilt was even thrown onto the floor. He was a little bit excited and a little bit scared. He spent the whole noon repeating the up and down movements. Finally, the bell rang for work. He thought to himself: I should not let others see what I am doing. What on earth am I doing here? Stop it quickly. He stopped the practice. This is why the senior people can put a handle on themselves. If this had happened to a young person, he would think that the office bell has rung, and you all come to see me flying into the air. The show-off mentality which is difficult for one to control would present itself here: "See how well I have practised, and I can fly into the air." Once he shows it off, the capability will be gone as it is not allowed to exist this way. There are many such cases among practitioners in all parts of the country. We require all the pulses to be opened up from the very beginning. Up till today eighty to ninety per cent of us have reached the state that their bodies have become very light and free of diseases. At the same time, we have mentioned that you are not only pushed to such a state and that your bodies are fully purified, into your bodies many things will also be planted to allow you to develop cultivation energy here during my lectures. I am as good as lifting you up and pushing you further ahead. I have been talking about the Law to everyone during the lectures, and your Xinxing has also been changing. Many of us, after walking out of this auditorium, will feel as if they have become different people. It is certain your world outlook will have changed. You will know how to conduct yourselves in the future, and will no longer be deranged like that. I am sure you will be this way. As a result, our Xinxing has already caught up with this. Speaking of the Great Heavenly Circuit, though you are not allowed to take off, you will feel your body is light as if walking in the air. In the past, you would feel tired if you did a little walking. Now, you feel quite relaxed no matter how far you have walked. You feel as if being pushed when riding a bike, and do not feel tired when going upstairs no matter how high you have to climb. It is guaranteed to be this way. Those who read this book and do the cultivation on their own can also reach the state they should be in. I am a person who will not say what I do not want to say. But what I have said must be true. Especially under such circumstances, if I do not tell the truth during my lectures, and if I speak with exaggerations here and make casual statements without a definite objective in view, I would be preaching an evil way. It is also not easy for me to do this thing. The whole universe is watching, and it can not be allowed for you to go wrong. A person usually considers it all right for him to know there is such a Heavenly Circuit. In fact, this is not enough. For the body to be replaced and transformed completely by the high energy substance as soon as possible, there must be another circulation in the form of the Heavenly Circuit, bringing along the circulation of all the pulses in your body. That is called the Maoyou (Borderline) Heavenly Circuit which is probably known by only few people. The books sometimes mention such a term. But nobody has explained it and nobody will tell you about it. It is only discussed in theories as the most secret of the secrets. We are going to disclose all this to you here: the Maoyou (Borderline) Heavenly Circuit could begin from the Baihui point (or also from the Huiyin point). It comes out to move along the border between the sides of Yin and Yang, moves from the ears down to the shoulder, moves along each finger to the side of your body, goes from the bottom of your foot up to the inner side of your thigh, from there moves to the other thigh, then goes through the bottom of your other foot, comes up from the other side of your body, goes along each finger, and finally reaches the top of your head after a full circle. This is called the Borderline Heavenly Circuit. Others could write a book about it, and I disclosed it in just a few words. I do not think that this should be considered a secret of Heaven. However, others feel that such things are very precious and can not at all be told to others, and the Borderline Heavenly Circuit would be expounded only when they really teach this to their disciples. Although I have disclosed it, you can not use the intention to guide it or control yourself to practise it. If you do that, you are not practising our Falun Dafa. Genuine cultivation towards high dimensions is active non-doing without mental activities. All that is planted into your body is ready-made. They are formed automatically, and such internal mechanisms are evolving and cultivating you, and they can make self rotations when time is due. One day your head would swing from side to side during practice. If your head swings to this side, it is rotating this way. If your head swings to the other side, it is rotating that way. Rotations will be made both ways. When the Great and Small Heavenly Circuits have been opened up, you will nod your head during the sitting practice, which is the manifestation of energy passing through it. The same is also true of the Falun Heavenly Circuit that we practise. We practise it this way. In fact, it makes self rotations when you are not practising it. It will rotate forever. When you practise, you are reinforcing the mechanisms. Don't we believe in the Law cultivating the practitioner? Normally you can find that your Heavenly Circuit is always circulating. Though you are not practising it, this layer of energy mechanisms which is the external Great Pulse planted outside your body is bringing your body into practice. It is all automatic. It could also make reverse rotations. Its rotations are both ways, and they are constantly opening up your pulses. What is, then, the purpose of opening up the Heavenly Circuit? Opening up the Heavenly Circuit itself is not the purpose of the practice. Even if your Heavenly Circuit is opened up, I would say that it is still nothing. If you continue your cultivation, you aim to open up a hundred pulses, and all the pulses in your body with one pulse through such a form of the Heavenly Circuit. We have already started to do it. With further practice, one will find in the circulation of the Great Heavenly Circuit that the pulses will become very wide like a finger, and quite wide inside. Because the energy has also become very powerful, the energy current will get very broad and bright after its formation. This is still nothing. Then how far will the cultivation go? All the pulses will have to be gradually made broader, and the energy will have to be made stronger and brighter. In the end, ten thousand pulses will be connected all together in order to reach the state in which the body has no pulses or points. The whole body will be connected to become one piece, and this is the ultimate goal of opening up the pulses. It is aimed at transforming the human body completely by the high energy substance. At this stage of the practice, one's body has been basically transformed by the high energy substance. That is to say, his cultivation has reached the highest level of the In-Triple-World-Law cultivation. The human physical body has already been cultivated to the ultimate point. By then, he will be brought into another state. What state is it? The cultivation energy he has developed is very rich. All the human supernormal capabilities (potential capabilities), and everything will be brought forth in the cultivation of the body of an ordinary person, that is to say, in the course of the cultivation of the In-Triple-World-Law. However, most of them are locked up when we cultivate in ordinary people. In addition, one's energy pillar will have already grown to be quite tall. All forms of the cultivation energy will be reinforced to be quite powerful by the mighty cultivation energy. Yet, they can only function in this space of ours, and cannot restrain anything in other spaces because they are supernormal capabilities cultivated from our ordinary people's physical bodies. However, they are already very substantial. Considerable changes have taken place in each space and in various existing forms of the body in different spaces. What this body carries in each dimensional space is quite substantial, and looks very frightening. Some people have eyes all over their bodies, and their sweat pores have all become eyes. There would be eyes within the scope of his whole space field. Because it is the cultivation system of the Buddhas' School, some people carry images of Bodhisattvas and Buddhas all over their bodies. The formations of various cultivation energy have already reached the extremely substantial extent, and there will also be many living entities to present themselves. By this time, there will appear another state called "three flowers gathering on the top of the head". That is a very obvious state which is also eye-catching. One who has a low plane Celestial Eye will be able to see it. There will be three flowers on the top of one's head, and one is a lotus flower; but it is not the lotus from our physical space. The other two flowers are also from the other spaces, which are extraordinarily beautiful. These three flowers revolve in turns on the top of one's head. They will make clockwise and counter-clockwise revolutions, and each flower can also make self rotations. Each flower has a huge pillar as thick as the diameter of the flower. These three huge pillars reach all the way to the zenith. But they are not the energy pillars. They are just such forms and are quite mystical. You would be scared as well if you can see them. At this stage of the cultivation, one's body will be white and clean, and the skin will be delicate. At this point, one has reached the highest form of Shi Jian Fa (ÊÀ¼ä·¨ the In-Triple-World-Law) cultivation. Yet, this is not the end yet. One will need to continue the cultivation, and go further ahead. The next step forward will be entering the transitional phase between Shi Jian Fa (the In-Triple- World- Law) and Chu Shi Jian Fa(³öÊÀ¼ä·¨ the Beyond-Triple-World-Law), which is called the state of the Pure-White-Body, (or Crystal-White-Body). Because when the cultivation of the physical body has reached the highest form of the In-Triple-World-Law, it is only the human physical body that has been transformed into the highest form. When it genuinely goes into that form, the whole body will be completely made up of the high energy substance. Why is it called the Pure-White-Body? It is because his body has already reached the absolute purity of the highest degree. When it is seen with the Celestial Eye, the whole body is transparent just like the transparent glass, and there is nothing in it. It will appear in such a state. In plain words, his body has already become a Buddha body. This is because the body of the high energy substance is already different from our own bodies. At this stage, all the supernormal capabilities and the magic skills which have come into being in the body will be abandoned all at once. They will be delivered into a very deep space as they will be useless, and will be no longer of any use from now on. One day when you succeed in the cultivation in the future, you may look back on the journey you have made in cultivation by taking them out for a look. At this time, there are only two things in existence: The energy pillar still remains, and the Yuanying (Primal Infant) that you have cultivated has already grown to be quite large. However, both things exist in the same very deep space, which cannot be seen by a person with an ordinary plane of the Celestial Eye. All he can see is that this person's body is a transparent one. Because the state of the Pure-White-Body is only a transitional phase, with further cultivation, he will truly go into the cultivation of Chu Shi Jian Fa (the Beyond-Triple-World-Law), which is also called the cultivation of the Buddha body. The whole body will consist of cultivation energy. By now one's Xinxing has already been stable. He will begin the cultivation anew, and start again to develop supernormal capabilities which are not called supernormal capabilities any more, but called "the Divine Powers of Buddha Law", which can restrain all spaces with mighty powers. As you continue to do the cultivation in the future, you will know yourself how to cultivate what is in the high dimensions, and the existing forms of the cultivation as well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Attachment of Complacency (»Ï²ÐÄ) I am going to talk about such an issue which is also the attachment of complacency. Many people have practised qigong for quite a long time. There are also people who have never practised it, but have been pursuing and pondering about the truth and the true meaning of the human life. Once such a person studies our Falun Dafa, he will suddenly understand many questions which he wished to understand but could not find answers to. Probably with the distillation of his mind, he would become very excited. This is for sure. I know that a genuine cultivator knows its weight, and knows how to value it. However, such a problem would oftentimes arise that one would unnecessarily develop the attachment of complacency because of his joy. This may make him behave abnormally in formality, in social contacts between one and another in the ordinary human society, in the social environment of the ordinary human society. I would say that this should not be allowed. Most part of our cultivation way will be cultivated in the ordinary human society. You should not separate yourself from the ordinary human society, and should do the cultivation knowingly. There is still a normal relationship between one and another. Of course, your Xinxing will be very high with the right mentality. You will upgrade your own Xinxing and raise your own level, and do good deeds instead of wrong ones. This should be only such a way. Some people would conduct themselves as if they were mentally abnormal, as if they are disillusioned with the mortal world. They can not make themselves understood by others. Other people would say: How could a person who studies Falun Dafa has become this way? He seems to have gone wrong with his mind." In fact, he has not. He has become just too excited without sensibility and the common sense. Please think about it. Such conduct of his is also wrong, and he has gone to the other extreme, which is again another attachment. He should give it up, and do the cultivation and live a normal life like everyone else in ordinary people. While living in the ordinary people, if they think that you are infatuated, they will stay at a distance from you and do not want to argue with you. Nobody will provide you with an opportunity to improve your Xinxing, and treat you as a normal person. I would say that it is not right! Therefore, please be sure to pay special attention to this issue, and conduct yourselves properly. Our cultivation system is unlike those general systems which make one absent-minded, enter the state of a trance, or become infatuated. Our cultivation system requires you to cultivate yourselves consciously. Some people are always saying: "Teacher, I always wobble as soon as my eyes are closed". I would say that it should not be this way. You have already fallen into the habit of abandoning your own Zhu Yi Shi (Main Consciousness), and give up your own Main Consciousness and allow it to disappear when you close your eyes. You have already formed this habit. How can not you wobble while sitting here? If you keep the state in which your eyes are open, will you wobble with your eyes slightly closed? Not at all. You believe that qigong should be practised this way, and you have formed such a concept. As soon as you have closed your eyes, you will disappear, and you do not know where you are. We hold that your Main Consciousness must be clear because this cultivation system cultivates you yourself. You should make progress knowingly. We also have a tranquil practice. How should our tranquil practice be done? We require you all to be aware that you are practising here no matter how deep you are concentrated, and not at all to enter the state of a trance. Then, what specific state would there appear? You would have a very comfortable sensation when you sit there, feeling so wonderful as if you were sitting inside an egg shell, where you are aware that you are practising qigong yourself but you cannot move your body. This is all that should take place in practising our system. There is another state in which one is sitting there when he feels as if his legs had disappeared and he cannot tell where they are. He would feel as if his body had disappeared, and so had his arms, and his hands. And only his head is there. With further practice, he would find that even his head has disappeared, except for his thinking, a little intention that is aware that he is practising qigong here himself. It would be enough for us to reach such a state. Why? When you practise in such a state, your body has been brought into a fully evolutionary status, which is the best one. Thus, we require you to attain tranquillity in such a state. However, you should not fall asleep or become muddle-headed, in which case, the good things would probably be practised by someone else. All of our practitioners should always remember never to behave abnormally among ordinary people. If you did not play a good role in ordinary people, they would say that how come the people who study Falun Dafa all behave this way. That would be as good as damaging the reputation of Falun Dafa. Be sure to pay special attention to this issue. Besides, be sure not to give way to the attachment of complacency in other aspects as well as in the course of the cultivation. Such an attachment could be easily utilized by demons. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Self-Imposed Silence (ÐÞ¿Ú) Self-imposed silence was also taught in religions in the past. However, the self-imposed silence which religions refer to applies to those professional practitioners -- monks and Taoists who would not open their mouths to talk. Because they are professional practitioners, they would aim at maximally abandoning the human attachments. They believe that one's thinking is karma. Religions have classified karma as good karma and evil karma. Whether it is good karma or evil karma, the thing should not be done according to the emptiness of the Buddhas' School as well as to the nothingness of the Taoist School. Therefore, they would say that they will do nothing at all because they cannot see the causational relationship of a matter and whether this matter is good or bad, as there exist those causational relationships. An ordinary practitioner who has not yet reached the high status cannot see such things, and would, accordingly, worry that something may appear to be a good thing, but would probably be a bad thing once it is done. Therefore, he would try to practise the active non-doing, and would not do anything so that he could avoid accumulating karma Because once he commits karma, he will have to eliminate it and suffer for it. For instance, our practitioners have already been determined when and at what stage they will become enlightened. If you add something unnecessary half way, it will cause difficulties to your whole cultivation. Thus, he would practise the active non-action. The self-imposed silence the Buddhas' School practises means that the human speech is all dictated by one's mental consciousness. Then, this mental consciousness is intentional. If one's mental consciousness itself wants to make a thinking, says something, does something, directs the human sensory organs and four limbs, it may become an attachment among ordinary people. For example, there are such conflicts between one and another as you are good, he is not good, your cultivation is good, and his is not. These are contradictions themselves. Let us say something common that I want to do this and that, and this matter should now be done this way or that way, which could possibly hurt someone unintentionally. Because the conflicts between one and another are all very complicated, one could possibly accumulate some karma without realizing it. As a consequence, a practitioner would practise the self-imposed silence. In the past, religions have been very serious about this. This is what the religions teach. Most of our practitioners of Falun Dafa do the cultivation in ordinary people (except those professional practitioners). Then, they could not avoid leading a normal life in the ordinary human society and establishing social contacts. Everyone has a job, and should do it well. Some people do their work through speaking. Is this a problem then? It is not a problem. Why not? The self- imposed silence that we refer to is quite different from that of theirs. Owing to the differences in cultivation schools, the requirements, therefore, are also different. We open our mouths to speak all according to the Xinxing of the practitioners, and never to say anything improper, anything to sow discord. As practitioners, we should measure ourselves with the standard of the Law to determine whether or not we should say this. It would not be a problem to say something that accords with a practitioner's Xinxing standard measured by the Law. In addition, we should expound the Law, and promote it. Thus, it is impossible not to speak. The self-imposed silence that we practise refers to the fame and gain that cannot be discarded in ordinary people, to what has nothing to do with the actual work of practitioners in the society, to those meaningless gossips among the practitioners of the same cultivation school, to the showing oneself off because of the attachments, to the hearsay spread from gossips, or to the hot topics and comments on some other things in the society. I think that these are all the attachments of ordinary people. I feel that we should watch what we say in these aspects, and this is what we mean by the self-imposed silence. In the past, monks took these matters very seriously because they would accumulate karma once they started to think. Therefore, a monk would practise "Body, Speech, and Mind". The cultivation of the body that he practised means that he would not commit wrong deeds. The cultivation of the speech refers to that he would not speak. The cultivation of mind refers to that he would not even think at all. In the past, the professional cultivation in the temple had strict requirements about these things. It would be all right if we have a good command of what we should say and what we should not, and that we require ourselves to act up to the practitioner's Xinxing standard. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next:Lecture Nine Up:Contents Previous:Lecture Seven ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [NOTE: The strange characters are Chinese in GB code] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next:A Short Biography of Mr. Li Hongzhi Up:Contents Previous:Lecture Eight ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lecture Nine Qigong and Physical Culture Intention Tranquil Mind Inborn Qualities Enlightenment and Awakening Person Well Grounded in All Virtues ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Qigong and Physical Culture £¨Æø¹¦ÓëÌåÓý£© At an ordinary level, qigong is easily considered by the people to be directly related to physical exercise. Of course, from the elementary level, qigong and physical exercise share the common goal in the aspect of keeping fit. However, its specific practising methods and means adopted differ greatly from physical exercise. In order to enable one to keep fit through physical exercise, the amount of exercise would have to be increased, and physical training would have to be intensified. However, a qigong practice would be just the opposite as it does not require people to move. If there are movements, they would be unhurried, slow, and smooth, or would be even motionless and still. This would differ greatly from physical exercise. To speak from the high dimension, qigong is not only limited to healing disease and to keeping fit as it encompasses something of the high dimension and deeper meaning. Qigong is not the little bit at the ordinary people's level. It is supernormal, and has different manifestations in different dimensions. It is something far beyond what ordinary people have. In terms of the nature of the exercises, they also differ tremendously. An athlete is required to increase the amount of exercise especially for an athlete today in order to have his body prepared for the contemporary competition level, and to reach that standard. Therefore, he would have to keep his body in the best condition. To attain this goal, one would have to increase the amount of exercise to make the blood circulate fully in his body. Thus, his metabolism capability would be enhanced, and his body conditions would be kept in an improving state all the time. Why should the metabolism capability be enhanced? It is because an athlete's body would always have to maintain the best improving and competing condition. A human body is made of numerous cells which experience such a process: the life of a newly divided cell is very energetic and appears to continue its growth. When it grows to the extreme limit, it could not grow any more, and would only become aging until the extreme point. Then, a new cell would replace it. For instance, if we use twelve hours of the day to describe it, a cell divides at 6:00 a.m., keeping on its upward development, up to 8:00 a.m., 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. when it is still a very good period of time. By the time it reaches 12:00 noontime, it could no longer move upward, but only go down the hill. During this period of time, the cell has only half of its life left, and this half life does not suit the competing conditions of an athlete. What then should be done about it ? He would have to intensify his training and to increase his blood circulation. Then, the newly divided cells would replace the old ones. It takes such a way. Namely, before the whole journey of a cell is over, and while it is at the half of its life course, it is replaced. Therefore, his body always maintains strong and keeps growing. However, the human cells cannot divide in this way without a limit as the times of the cell division are limited. Let us suppose that the cells during one's lifetime could only divide a hundred times while, in fact, it could divide more than a million times. Suppose that an ordinary person has one hundred times of cell division and he can live one hundred years, now his cell only lives half of its life and then he can only live for fifty years. However, we have not seen any athlete have a major problem yet because the athletes today would be eliminated before reaching the age of thirty. In particular, the competition levels nowadays are very high, and the number of athletes replaced is also large. As a result, an athlete would soon resume his normal life, and does not look to be affected very much. Theoretically, the bottom line is this way. Doing exercise could enable him to maintain a healthy body; but it would shorten his life. From the appearance, an athlete in the teens would look like in the twenties, an athlete in the twenties would look like in the thirties. Athletes oftentimes give an impression of early maturity and early aging. If there is an advantage, there is a disadvantage from the dialectical perspective. In fact, they have taken such a path. Qigong practice is just the opposite to physical exercises, and it does not require violent movements. Its movements are unhurried, slow and smooth. They are very slow to the extent that they become motionless and come to a standstill. It is known that in such a cultivation way as meditation one stays in the state of tranquillity, and one's heart beating as well as blood circulation etc. all would be slowed down. In India there are many Yoga masters who could sit in water or could be buried in the ground for many days. They could make themselves completely tranquilized, and could even control their heart beating. Suppose that one's cells divide once a day. A practitioner would make the cells in the human body divide once every two days, once every week, once every half a month, or even once in a longer period of time. Thus, he has already extended his life. This would only refer to those cultivation systems which cultivate nature without cultivating life. They could also reach this step, and prolong their own lives. Some people may think: Aren't one's life and lifetime pre-determined? How could one live much longer without cultivating his life? Yes, because the life of the practitioner would be extended by reaching beyond the Three Realms though he would look quite old from the appearance. A genuine life cultivating system would always accumulate the collected high energy substance in the cells of a human body, and increase its density to gradually restrict as well as slowly replace the cells of an ordinary person. By that time there will be a qualitative change, and this person will stay in his youth forever. Of course, the cultivation process is a very slow and gradual one, and one has to give quite a lot. It is not easy for one to suffer physically as well as mentally. Would you not be bothered during a Xinxing (ÐÄÐÔ) conflict between one and another? Would you not be moved when personal vested interests are at stake? It is very difficult to do all these things. Thus, it is not that you could reach such a goal as long as you have a wish for it. Only when your Xinxing and De (µÂ) have ascended in cultivation can the goal be attained. Throughout the ages, many people have mixed up qigong with the ordinary physical exercise, but in fact the differences between them are so great that they are fundamentally not of the same thing. Only at the lowest level of practising qi is consideration given to disease-treatment and keeping fit in order for one to have good health. The goal of the lowest level of qigong has something in common with the physical exercise. But at the high level they are fundamentally not of the same thing. Purifying the body in qigong also has its purpose, and it uses the supernormal principle to direct the practitioner, instead of the principle of ordinary people. However, physical exercise is only the matter of the ordinary people . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Intention ( ÒâÄî ) Speaking of intention, it just means our human mental activities. In the world of cultivation, how do they look at the human intention in the mental activities of the brain? How do they consider the various forms of the human thought (intention)? And how are they expressed? It is very difficult to solve many problems about the human brain in modern medical research , for it is not as easy as what the surface of the human body is. In the depth, there are different forms in different spaces. But it is not like what some qigong masters have said. Some qigong masters themselves do not know what it is all about , and cannot explain it clearly. They think that they can do some things if they use their brains and their intention. They would say that it is their thoughts or their intention which did them. In fact, it is not at all their intention that did them. Let us first talk about the origin of the human thought. There was such a saying in ancient China: "heart thinking (ÐÄÏë)". Why is there heart-thinking? The science in ancient China was extraordinarily advanced, because its research was directly aimed at such things as the human body, life and the cosmos, etc.. Some people do feel that it is their hearts that are thinking while others feel that it is their brains. Why do such things happen? It is reasonable to talk about heart thinking, for we see that Yuanshen (ÔªÉñ the True Spirit ) of the ordinary people is very tiny, the actual message delivered by the human brain is not a function of the human brain itself nor what the brain itself releases, but comes from one's True Spirit, for one's True Spirit does not stay only in Niwan palace, which, by Taoist school, is the pineal body modern medicine has come to understand. If the True Spirit seats itself in Niwan palace, then we indeed would feel that the brain is thinking and delivering messages; if he seats himself in the heart, then we would truly feel the heart is thinking. Human body is a small universe, and many living entities of the practitioner may bring about a kind of position shifting role. If the True Spirit shifts its position and runs to one's abdomen, then one would feel his abdomen is thinking. If he runs to his calf of the leg or his heel, then he would feel that his calf of the leg or his heel is thinking. It is guaranteed to be this way but it sounds very incredible. When your attainment level in cultivation is not so high, you would feel the existence of such a phenomenon. The human body without the True Spirit would not have his temper, his natural disposition and his personality; without these things, the person is nothing but a piece of meat. And he could not be an integrated person of independent individuality. Then what kind of role does his brain play? I should say that in the form of our physical space, the human brain is only a processing plant. The real message is delivered by Yuanshen (ÔªÉñ the True Spirit); but what he sends out is not a language but a kind of cosmic message representing a certain meaning. When our brain receives such a command, the brain would process it into our present language in such a form of expression. We express it by hand gestures, eye contacts and all body movements. Thus the brain plays such a role. The actual command and thinking come from one's True Spirit. People thus very often think that it is the brain that directly plays an independent role, but in fact the True Spirit sometimes seats in the heart, and some people will truly feel the heart is thinking. Now those who devote to the studies of the human body believe that the human brain delivers something like an electric wave. We would like to put aside what is delivered in essential for the time being. But they admit that it is a kind of material existence and it is not something of superstition. What role does this delivered substance play? Some qigong masters say, ¡ I use my intention to move an object by just thinking about it, and use my intention to open your Celestial Eye, and use my intention to treat your disease, etc..¡± In fact, such a qigong master does not know at all what kind of supernormal capabilities he possesses and nor is he clear about it. He only knows he can do whatever he wants to do by just thinking about it. As a matter of fact, it is his intention that is at work. Supernormal capabilities controlled by the intention of the brain are doing specific things under the command of it, but his intention itself cannot do anything at all. When a practitioner intends to do something, it is his supernormal capabilities that are at work. Supernormal capabilities are the potential capabilities of the human body, and with the development of our human society, the human brain work is becoming more and more complicated, and focusing more and more on the immediate realities and depending more and more on the so-called modernized means. Thus the human natural capabilities are more and more degenerating. The Taoist School believes in returning to the origin, and going back to the truth, and in the course of cultivation you seek truth, and finally will return to the origin, and go back to the truth. Only by returning to your original nature can you then reveal these instinctive capabilities of yours. Now we call them supernatural capabilities, which are actually the instinctive capabilities of human beings. The human society seems to be progressing, but in fact it is retrogressing, getting farther and farther away from the cosmic qualities. The other day I said Zhang Guolao rode on a donkey facing backward, and one may find it difficult to understand what it means. Zhang Guolao discovered that moving forward is moving backward and mankind is getting farther and farther away from the cosmic qualities. In the course of the cosmic evolution, especially now after moving into the big tide of commodity economy, the morality of many people is getting from bad to worse and they are moving farther and farther away from the cosmic qualities of Zhen Shan Ren (ÕæÉÆÈÌ). Those who are drifting along with the current tide could not realize the extent of the human moral degeneration. And some people still consider it a good thing. Only when those whose Xinxing has ascended through cultivation look back can they come to realize that the human morality has degenerated to such a terrible step. Some qigong masters say: I will help you develop your supernormal capabilities. What supernormal capabilities could they develop? One's supernormal capabilities would not work without energy. Could you bring them into play when they have not come out yet? Could you develop them when they have not yet been strengthened into shape by his energy? It is totally impossible. What they mean by developing supernormal capabilities is no more than an association of his already formed supernormal capability with your brain, and under the command of the intention in your brain it would function. That is what they mean by developing supernormal capabilities. Actually they have not developed your supernormal capabilities, but they only did such a little bit . For a practitioner, his intention commands his supernormal capabilities to do things; for an ordinary person, his intention commands his arms and legs and organs of senses to work, just as the production office in a factory or the factory director's office issues instructions to all the specific departments of different functions, who would carry them out. It is just like the headquarter of an army, which gives orders to direct the whole army to fulfil a mission. I often discuss such an issue with the local leading members of the qigong research society when I was away from home to give lectures in a session there. They found themselves very surprised: we have been studying all the time how much potential energy and potential consciousness the human thinking has. In fact it is not so, and they have gone deviating from the very beginning. I say that a revolution should take place in the human thinking in order to study the science of the human body. The methods of reference and understanding used by ordinary people should not be applied to understanding something supernormal. Talking about intention, there are several forms of it. For example, some people speak of subconsciousness (DZÒâÊ), underconsciousness (ÏÂÒâÊ), inspiration (Áé¸Ð), and dreams etc.. Speaking of dreams, no qigong master would like to explain them. Because when you were born, you were born into many spaces of the cosmos simultaneously but all the you are integrated as one and have mutually interconnected, and have tied together in thinking. And you have your own Zhu Yuanshen (Ö÷ÔªÉñ Chief Spirit), Fu Yuanshen (¸±ÔªÉñ Assistant Spirit) and such images of other various living entities existing in your body. Every cell and the internal organs of the body reflect your image messages which are all the existing forms in other spaces, so they are very complex. While you are dreaming, sometimes this happens and sometimes that happens, and where indeed do they come from? It is said in medicine that our brain scalps have changed. This manifests the reflection in the form of matter, and it is actuated by the messages from other spaces. So you feel muddleheaded when you dream. This has nothing to do with you and you need not worry about it. There is a kind of dreams that is directly related to you, but we cannot say such dreams are dreams. Your Main Consciousness, that is your Chief Spirit, has seen your close relatives coming to you in the dream; or you really have experienced an event; or you have seen something or done it. So it is your Chief Spirit who really has done something or has seen something and done it as well in other spaces. Your consciousness is clear and real; such a thing indeed exists but only in another physical space, and you have done it in another timespace. Could you take it to be a dream? No. But your physical body here is really sleeping and you can only say it is a dream. It is only this kind of dreams that is directly related to you . Talking about human inspiration, underconsciousness and subconsciousness, etc., I should say that such terms are not used by scientists, but invented by men of letters who make them based upon a habitual condition of ordinary people. They are not scientific. What does it mean by subconsciousness (DZÒâÊ) after all? It is difficult to make it clear and it is too general. Because all sorts of information received by man are so complex that they are just like bits of vague memory. As to underconsciousness (ÏÂÒâÊ) he refers to, we find it easier to explain. According to the given definition of such a state, underconsciousness usually refers to a person who has done a thing muddleheadedly. Then it is often said that he has done it underconsciously, or he has not done it intentionally. Such underconsciousness is just like the Paraconsciousness (¸±ÒâÊ) we have talked about. While one's Main Consciousness (Ö÷ÒâÊ) is relaxed and does not control his brain, he seems to be sleeping muddleheadedly or dreaming, and he is easily dominated by the Paraconsciousness, which is the Assistant Spirit in the state of being unconscious. At that time, the Paraconsciousness could do some things, that is to say, you have done it muddleheadedly. However, such things are not done wrong easily, for the Paraconsciousness in other spaces can see the heart of the matter, and will not be misled by the society of ordinary people. So after he comes to himself, he will find out what he has done: Why has such a thing been done so badly, and if I had had clear understanding, I would not have done it this way. You say it is not good now, but after ten days or half a month when you look back: well, this thing has been done so smartly! How was I able to do it at that time? This usually occurs. Because the Paraconsciousness does not care about the role it may play at that time, but it will play a good role for the future. And also something may have no results later, but did play a role at that time. And that shows the Paraconsciousness did something at that time, and it possibly did it very well then. There is another form which usually refers to those of us who have very good inborn qualities. They are likely to do some things under the control of intelligent beings. Of course, that is a different issue which is not going to be discussed here. And I am in the main to explain a kind of consciousness originated from our human beings ourselves. Concerning inspiration, the term is also invented by men of letters. It is generally considered that inspiration is the accumulation of knowledge in one's life which may burst out like a sparker at the fleeting moment. I say according to the materialist point of view, the more knowledge one accumulates in his life, the more flexible one's brain is in its use. Once used, the knowledge should come out continuously, and there is nothing to say about the issue of inspiration. But all that can be called inspiration or the coming of inspiration is not in such a condition. It usually happens that when one uses his brain on and on till he feels the exhaustion of his knowledge at last and he seems to be at his wits end; he finds it difficult to go on writing , has no way of thinking in composing a song, and finds it hard to continue a scientific research project. It is usually at this moment that he feels himself extremely exhausted; with his brain bursting out, dozens of cigarette ends scattering the floor, and a painful headache. He still can not get any idea. Finally comes his inspiration. Under what kind of condition does he get his inspiration? It goes like this: feeling tired, he thinks, "well, have a rest." Because the Main Consciousness controls his brain very much, other living beings can not interrupt. With such a rest, his thought is relaxed and stops thinking about it, and he gets something unconsciously during the rest. It comes from his brain. So this is mostly how the inspiration comes. Why does the inspiration come out at this moment? Because the human brain is controlled by the Main Consciousness, and when one is thinking hard, the Main Consciousness controls the brain so tightly that the Paraconsciousness can not interrupt. When he thinks hard and his head aches terribly and feels so bitter that he cannot think of anything, his Paraconsciousness shares the headache, also feeling terribly bad and bitter, for being born together with him, it was also part of the body and it controls part of the body. But when his Main Consciousness is relaxed, his Paraconsciousness will reflect what he knows about the matter to the brain, because he could see the essence of the matter in other spaces, and thus he has made it, written it and composed it. Some people say: why don't we use the Paraconsciousness to do things? It is just like what someone has asked in his note: how can the Paraconsciousness be contacted? You cannot do it, for you have just started your cultivation and have no capability by yourself. You'd better not contact and if you do, you are bound to have an attachment. Some people may think: let us use the Paraconsciousness to do more valuable things and to advance the social development of the human society, shan't we? No, you shall not. Why? Because what your Paraconsciousness knows is also quite limited. The structure of this universe is so complex, the spaces are so complex and there are so many dimensions and planes that it can only know what exists in the space it stays in. It knows nothing beyond the space it exists in. Besides, there are also many vertical spaces of different dimensions and planes. The development of mankind can only be controlled by the intelligent beings in the very high dimensions and it is going on following the law of development. Our society of ordinary people develops in accordance with the law of history. You want it to develop in a certain way and to achieve a certain aim. However, the intelligent beings do not think in the same way. Didn't the people in ancient times think of aircraft, trains and bicycles? I shall say it is unlikely that they did not think of that. Because history had not developed to such a stage, they could not invent anything like that. Superficially speaking from the theories and the understanding to which our ordinary people are accustomed and from the angle of present human knowledge, mankind could not invent them because the history had not developed to such a level. In fact, the way human science develops follows the arrangements of history. You want to achieve an aim with human efforts but you cannot make it. Of course there are people whose Paraconsciousness could easily play a role. There is a writer who says: I could write more than ten thousand words a day for a book and I do not feel tired at all, and if I want to write, I can quickly do it and others may find it well-written after reading . Why is it this way? It is the result of the joined efforts made by both his Main Consciousness and Paraconsciousness, half and half. His Paraconsciousness can also play half of the role. But this is not always the case. Most Paraconsciousness does not get involved at all. You want him to do something, it would not be good and would run counter to your desire. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Clear and Clean Mind (Çå¾»ÐÄ) Many people are unable to enter into the state of tranquillity in practice and they go everywhere to look for qigong masters and ask: Oh master, why could I not enter into the state of tranquillity in practice? Once being settled down, I am thinking about everything and imagining things. That is like a roaring sea in which everything is turning up and you cannot be tranquil at all. Why cannot you be tranquil? Some people do not understand this and think there should be a secret of success to it. And so he is looking for the well-known master and say to him: please tell me something like a secret of success so that I can enter the state of tranquillity. In my opinion, you are looking for outside help. If you want to improve yourself, you should search inside yourself and concentrate your efforts on upgrading your mind. Only in this way can you truly improve yourself and attain the state of tranquillity during the sitting practice. Being able to enter the state of tranquillity means cultivation energy. The depth of the power of Ding (¨Á¦) is the manifestation of your attainment level. Can an ordinary person enter into the state of tranquillity at will? He can not do it at all unless he has very good inborn qualities. That is to say, the fundamental cause that you can not enter into the state of tranquillity is not an issue of what method you should use, and not an issue of having a secret of success, but it is that your mind and your heart are not clean. As you live in the society of ordinary people and face the person-to-person conflicts, you will compete with others for personal interests as well as out of seven motions and six desires and all kinds of attachments. You can not put down all these things, and you can not care less about them. If you want to attain the state of tranquillity, how could you do it easily? Someone says while practising there: I just do not believe it, and I've got to enter into the state of tranquillity and stop imagining things. Right after saying this, all turns out again. It is because your mind is not clean that you cannot have a mind of tranquillity. Some people may disagree with my point of view: don't some qigong masters teach others to adopt some methods? One may focus on only one thing, visualize it, think of Dantian only, look at Dantian inside the body, chant the name of Buddha, etc.. It is a method, but not only a method. It is a kind of manifestation of Gongfu (¹¦·ò), which thus has direct relationship with Xinxing of our cultivation and the ascension of our attainment level. And also this is not the only method one may use to be able to enter into the state of tranquillity. You may have a try if you do not believe it. As your desires and attachments of all kinds are too strong and you can not give them up, you may try and see whether you can enter into the state of tranquillity. Someone says it is useful to chant the name of Buddha. Can you attain the state of tranquillity by chanting the name of Buddha? Someone says it is easy to practise the school of Amitabha by just chanting the name of Buddha. Would you try it? I shall say that is Gongfu, and you say it is easy but I say it is not easy. None of the cultivation ways is easy. It is known that Sakayamuni taught "Ding"(¨). What did he say before teaching "Ding"? He taught "morality"(½ä): to get rid of all desires and hobbies and with nothing in mind you can come to Ding. Is that so? "Ding" is also a kind of Gongfu, and if you can not attain a total morality, and with your gradual ridding of all the bad things, your power of Ding will develop from the elementary to the profound. Chanting the name of Buddha should be done with concentration and single-mindedly so as to empty one's mind of all thoughts. And one chants so hard until the other parts of his brain become numb and know nothing, with one thought in mind replacing ten thousands of thoughts. And every word of Amitabha will be able to display before one's eyes. Isn't this Gongfu? Could one do this from the very beginning? No. If he is unable to do so, he cannot enter into the state of tranquillity. And if you do not believe it, you may try it. While chanting the name of Amitabha again and again, one keeps thinking about everything: how come our work unit chief looks down upon me in every way? They gave me so little bonus this month? The more he thinks, the angrier he becomes. So he feels really infuriated while his mouth is still chanting the name of Amitabha. Would you say he could practise qigong? Isn't it an issue of Gongfu? Isn't it the problem that your mind is not clear? Some people's Celestial Eyes are open and they can look at Dantian in their bodies. The Dan (elixir) accumulated in the position of one's lower abdomen is getting brighter with more pure energy substance. And it is getting darker and more black when it is less pure. Could you enter into the state of tranquillity by looking into your Dantian? Being unable to enter into tranquillity is not due to the method itself and the key point is that one's mind and intention are not in the state of tranquillity. When you look into Dantian and see the elixir is very good and very bright like a crystal, it changes in a short while and turns into a house. This room is for my son's marriage, that for my daughter, and we, the old couple, live in here and the room in the middle serves as a living room. That is wonderful. Could this house be allocated to me and I must try to figure out some way to get it. What shall I do?" When one is so attached to such things, could you say that one is able to enter into the state of tranquillity? Some people say: I have come down to the society of ordinary people just like living in a hotel for a few days, and I will go away in a hurry. Some people have simply become attached to this place here and have forgotten their own home. Genuine cultivation requires cultivating one's mind, cultivating inside oneself and searching inside oneself but not outside oneself. A certain school says, Buddha is right in one's mind and it has some truth in saying so. Someone misunderstood this. It seems to him that "Buddha in one's mind" means that he himself is simply the Buddha and a Buddha seems to be in his mind. Isn't he wrong to understand it in such a way? It can not be understood like that. The genuine cultivation means that you can attain perfection only by cultivating your mind. This is simply the truth. How could there be a Buddha in your body? Only through your cultivation can you make it. The reason why you are unable to enter into the state of tranquillity is that your mind is not empty, and that your attainment level is not so high. And tranquillity is achieved from the shallow to the deep in accordance with the ascension of your attainment level. If you rid yourself of the attachments, your level will be raised and your capability of Ding will be strengthened. You want to use a certain way or method to make yourself enter into the state of tranquillity, I would say you are seeking help from the outside. It is just what is meant by seeking help from the outside in cultivation, which causes you to go astray and leads you to an evil way. Especially in Buddhism they would say you are going into the world of demons if you try to seek help from the outside. And the genuine cultivation requires cultivating that mind of yours, and only when you improve your Xinxing can you attain tranquillity and active non-action in mind. Only when you improve your Xinxing can you assimilate yourself to the cosmic qualities and get rid of all human desires and attachments and bad things, and can you empty your mind of all bad stuff of yours and thus ascend. Without the constraint of the cosmic qualities, your De, the kind of substance, could transform into cultivation energy. Don't they complement each other? This is such a truth. This is the subjective cause of preventing oneself from meeting the requirements of a practitioner's standard, which makes one unable to enter into the state of tranquillity. Now there objectively exists a situation which severely interferes in your cultivation towards the high dimension, and severely affects the practitioner. It is known that with the policy of reform and opening up, the economic development gets more flexible and policies relax restrictions. Many new science and technology have been introduced and the living standards of the people have also improved. And those ordinary people regard these as good things. However, it should be viewed dialectically from both sides. Some unhealthy things of a wide variety have been brought in as well with the reform and opening up. Literary works have to be written with some pornography, otherwise the books seem to be difficult to sell, because it involves the issue of the sales volume. In films and TV programs, it seems that no one would like to watch them if there are no shots of on-bed love affairs for there is the viewer-rating issue. No one could tell whether it is the genuine art or it is something else of some other intentions in art works. There are no such things in our ancient traditional Chinese arts. And the tradition of our Chinese nation is not invented and created by anyone. In my lecture on the pre-historical culture, I mentioned that everything has its origin. The human moral standards have been distorted and have changed as well. The criteria by which good and bad are judged have changed. And that is a matter of ordinary people. The cosmic qualities of Zhen Shan Ren are the sole criterion by which a good person and a bad person are judged, and it would not change. As a practitioner, if you want to jump out of ordinary people, you must use this criterion to measure yourself and you can not use the criterion of ordinary people for measurement. So objectively there also exists such an interference. And now there is more than that. There crops up what is known as the homosexual, the sexual liberation, the drug-taking, etc., which are in a muddle. The human society has developed to the present stage as such. Just think what would it be like if it developed further in this way? Could it be allowed to go on like this forever? The Heaven will do something about it if mankind does not. When a catastrophe strikes mankind, such a situation prevails. I have given so many lessons but I have not touched upon the issue of the great human catastrophes. It is a hot topic much talked about by religions as well as by many people. I am raising such a question to everyone. Just think about it. In our society of ordinary people, the human moral standard has taken such a change! The tension of person-to-person relationship has gone to such an extent! Don't you think it has come to such an extremely dangerous situation? So now this existing objective environment is severely interfering with our practitioners' cultivation to the high dimension. The paintings of nude are placed high right in the middle of the road and you could see them as soon as you raise your head. Lao Zi (ÀÏ×Ó) once made such a statement: when a man with good understanding hears of Tao, he practises it diligently. The man with good understanding hears of Tao and would think that it is not easy to get the Orthodox Law. If one does not practise it today, when could he have another chance for Tao? A complicated environment would turn out to be a good thing, I think. The more complicated the environment is, the more accomplished cultivators there will be. Those who have cultivated here and showed themselves above the environment have indeed laid a solid foundation for cultivation. For a truly determined practitioner, I should say it would turn out to be a good thing. If there is no contradiction cropping up for you, there will be no chance for you to improve your Xinxing, and you can not go up. If you are good and I am also good, how could you cultivate? For an average practitioner, a person of average understanding, he may practise or he may not. Such a person could not make it in his cultivation. Some people are now attending my lectures here, feeling they are sound and reasonable but after they go back to the society of ordinary people, they would feel that the present interests are indeed more realistic. They are indeed realistic. To say nothing of you, but there are many millionaires and billionaires in the West, who find nothing left after their deaths, as material wealth, could not be brought with birth and could not be taken along with death. They feel lost. Why, however, is cultivation energy so precious? Because it is directly carried by your True Spirit (ÔªÉñ), who comes with your birth and goes with your death. We say that the True Spirit would never die, and this is not superstition. Although the cells of our physical bodies have been removed, much smaller molecular composition existing in another physical space has not been extinct. It has only taken off its shell. What I have just said all belongs to the issue of one's Xinxing. Sakyamuni once said so and so did Dharmer: China, the Oriental land, is a place where people of great virtues have emerged. So, many monks through the Chinese history as well as many Chinese people are feeling very proud. They understand that they could attain high cultivation energy. Thus many Chinese feel happy and oversatisfied: it is only our Chinese who are great and it is China that is the place where people well grounded in all virtues (´ó¸ùÆ÷µÄÈË) as well as people of great virtues (´óµÂ֮ʿ) emerge. In fact, many people do not understand what its true meaning is. Why could people of great virtues come out in China, and why could they attain high cultivation energy? Many people neither know the true meaning of what the people of the high hierarchy said, nor the realm of awareness and the mentality that the people of the high hierarchy and the high realm of awareness belong to. Of course, we have said that we do not have to make it clear. Everyone, just think. It means that it is only among the most complicated group of people and in the most complicated environment that the high cultivation energy could be cultivated. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Inborn Qualities (¸ù»ù) Inborn qualities are determined by the amount of De, the substance one's body in another space carries. The less De, the more black substance and the bigger the karma field is. And then this person is of poor inborn qualities. The more De, the more white substance and the smaller the karma field is. And then this person is of good inborn qualities. These two kinds of substances, white and black, could be converted to each other, and how could they be converted? Doing good things brings forth white substance, and the white substance means that one has taken hardships and suffered pains, and he has gained it by doing good things. The black substance means that one has done bad things and doing bad things brings forth the black substance, which is karma. There is such a converting process, and at the same time also a process of being taken along. As it directly comes along with the Chief Spirit (Ö÷ÔªÉñ), it is not the thing from one lifetime but of an accumulation of the remote past. So, there has been an accumulation of karma as well as a build up of De. Besides, they could be accumulated from the ancestors. I sometimes remember what the ancient Chinese or the old people have said: the ancestors have accumulated De, or accumulating De and lacking De, such an expression is really true, and quite right indeed. Inborn qualities, either good or bad, could determine the good or bad enlightenment quality of a person. The person of poor inborn qualities could have his enlightenment quality become bad. Why? Because a person of good inborn qualities has more white substance, and the white substance is in harmony with our cosmos, and could be integrated with the qualities of Zhen Shan Ren without gap in between. The cosmic qualities would be directly reflected in his body and would directly communicate with his body. But the black substance is just the opposite as it is brought by doing bad things and goes contrary to our cosmic qualities. So the black substance will bring forth a kind of separation from our cosmic qualities. If such a black substance is getting more, it will form a field around the human body to envelop him. The larger the field is, the higher density and thicker it would be, which would have his enlightenment quality becoming worse. This is because he could not receive the cosmic qualities of Zhen Shan Ren, and also because he has done bad things which have produced the black substance. Usually all the less such a person believes in cultivation, the worse his enlightenment quality would become, and the more he would be blocked by his karma. The more he suffers, the less he would believe in it, and the more difficult it is for him to cultivate. It is easier for a person who has a lot of white substance to cultivate, because such De of his will be directly transformed into cultivation energy as long as he becomes assimilated with the cosmic qualities and his Xinxing could be improved. However, a person who has a lot of black substance needs an extra procedure just like turning out products in a factory. What others have brought with them are ready-made materials, and what he brings with him are raw materials, which need to be processed first, to go through such a process. So he has to suffer at first to reduce his karma and then turn it into white substance. After transforming it into the substance De, he could increase high cultivation energy. However, such a person himself usually is of poor enlightenment quality. If you let him suffer more, all the less he will believe in it and all the more he will find it unbearable. So it is difficult for a person who has a lot of black substance to cultivate. In the past, the Taoist School or a certain Law Gate of teaching a cultivation way by a master to a single disciple requires that the master should search for the disciple instead of the other way round. This is also determined by how much such substance a disciple's body carries. Inborn qualities determine one's enlightenment quality, but it is not absolute. Some one's inborn qualities are not very good, but his family environment is very good and many people around him do cultivation and some of them are religious. They all believe in cultivation. In such an environment he could be convinced to believe in cultivation and have his awakening quality getting better. So it is not absolute. There is also someone who has very good inborn qualities, but he has become extremely narrow-minded because of such a little bit of knowledge received from education in our realistic society, especially the absolute way of ideological education. He does not believe anything at all beyond his knowledge. That can also severely interferes with his enlightenment quality. For example, when I expounded the issue of opening the Celestial Eye on the second day during my lecturing session, there was a person who had very good inborn qualities, whose Celestial Eye was opened to a very high plane. He saw many scenes which the others could not see. He told other people: Ah , I have seen Falun falling upon everyone in the whole Law-lecturing field just like flakes of snow. I have seen what Master Li's true body looks like. I have seen Master Li's halo. I have seen what Falun looks like and many Law bodies of Master Li's. I have seen Master Li lecturing in different dimensional spaces and how Falun is purifying the students' bodies. While Master Li was lecturing, his Gong Shen (¹¦Éí Energy Bodies) were lecturing from one plane to another and in different dimensions. I have also seen fairies from the Heaven scattering flowers around, etc.. He saw all those wonderful things, which show that his inborn qualities were quite good. He talked on and on, but finally he said: I do not believe such things. Some of these things have already been proved by the present science, and many could find their explanations in the present science, and still some other things we have expounded in my lectures. It is certain that what qigong has come to understand is far beyond the modern science. Viewing from what has been mentioned above, we shall say that inborn qualities do not completely determine one's enlightenment quality. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Enlightenment ( Îò ) What is "enlightenment"? The word "enlightenment" comes from the religions. In Buddhism, it refers to a cultivator's understanding of Buddha Dharma. The enlightenment of understanding and the final enlightenment refer to wisdom enlightenment. However, the word "enlightenment" nowadays has been applied to ordinary people and interpreted as such that this person is very smart and keen to understand what his boss is thinking about in his mind. He can read his mind so quickly that he knows how to please his boss. People say that the person has a good awakening quality, and they usually understand it in such a way. Once you get above the level of ordinary people, you will discover from a little higher level that the truth ordinary people have come to realize here is usually wrong. The enlightenment we refer to is fundamentally different from such an awakening quality. The enlightenment quality of a shrewd person would turn out to be no good, for such an oversmart guy is quite skilled at doing work for show, thus winning praises and favours from his superiors. Then, doesn't the hard work have to be done by others? Then he owes others some debts; because of his shrewdness, he knows how to please people so that he can gain more benefits than others. As a result, others would have to suffer more. As he is shrewd, he can not either suffer any losses. And it is not easy for him to suffer from any loss and that means others will have to suffer more losses. Since he pays more and more attention to his present time interests and advantages, he is getting more and more narrow-minded. The more he feels that it is hard to give up the material interests of ordinary people, the more he considers that it is right for him to pay attention to the present reality. So he would never suffer losses. There are people who even envy such a person. I would like to tell you: do not admire him. You do not know how tired he feels in his life, for he is unable to eat well, sleep well, and he is even afraid to lose his interests in his dreams. To his private interests, he splits hairs. Don't you think he is living so tiring a life, for he is devoting his whole life solely to this. We say that when you face a conflict, take a step back and you will find the sea and sky boundless, and surely there will be a different scene for you. But for such a person it is not easy for him to give in and give up anything. He is living a most tiring life. Do not learn from him. It is said in the cultivation world: this person is most deeply lost, and completely lost in ordinary people for the material interests. How difficult it is if you want him to preserve his virtues! When you tell him to cultivate, he will not believe it: what for? You practitioners will not fight back after you have been beaten, and will not talk back when sworn at. People have made you suffer and put you in a tight corner but you will not do anything about it in the same way. And instead you will thank them. You are all Ah Qs! You are all being insane, everyone of you! For such a person, he would find it very hard to understand cultivation. He, on the other hand, would say that it is you that they feel unbelievable about, and he would regard you as a fool . Do not you think he is difficult to save ? What we mean by "enlightenment" is not such. It is just what he would say as being somewhat foolish for personal interests. This is what we refer to by "enlightenment". Of course it does not really mean that we are truly foolish. We are only to care little about the vital personal interests while we are very keen and smart in other aspects. In doing scientific research project and fulfilling the tasks assigned by the leaders, we are quite clear about what to do and how to do it and have done it very well. But just when it comes to our little bit of personal interests and the person to person conflicts from contradictions among people, we take them lightly. Who could say you are foolish? No one would say you are foolish. I can assure you of that. Let's talk about the real fool. What is understood in the high dimension is totally the opposite. The fool could not do too bad a thing among ordinary people. And it is not likely that he will compete for his own personal interests and seek for fame. Therefore, he will not lose his virtues. Other people, however, will give him their virtues because they beat and swear at him. They always give him virtues, and this substance is extremely precious. There is such a Law in our universe: there is no gain without loss and to gain means to lose. When people see him, they would swear at him: you are a big fool. With the swear words coming from your opening mouth, a piece of De is being thrown upon him, for you have taken the advantage of him and you are the gaining side, and then you have to lose. You go over to kick him: you are a big fool. Well, another piece of De is being heavily thrown on him. Whoever bullies him and kicks him, he will always give a smile: come on, it is your De that you give me. I will not stop you from doing it at all! So, according to what is understood in the high dimension, just think ,who is smart? Isn't he smart? He is the most smart. He has not lost any De, and if you throw out De upon him, he will not push it back at all. He takes them all and with a smile takes them over. He is foolish this life but he will not be foolish next life, and his Yuanshen (True Spirit) is not foolish. From the religious point of view, it is said that a person who has a lot of De (virtues) would become a high ranking official and make a big fortune in his next life, because all these are exchanged with his virtues. We say that De may directly evolve into cultivation energy. Isn't it the evolution of your virtues that determines how high your attainment level is? De (virtues) can directly evolve into cultivation energy. Isn't it the evolution of such a substance that determines your attainment level and your energy potency? Wouldn't you say it is very precious? It, after all, comes with your birth and goes along with your death. It is said in Buddhism that how high you can cultivate is where your attainment status (¹ûλ) is. How much you have given determines how much you will gain. This is true. It is also said in the religion that with De you could become a high ranking official and make a big fortune in your next life. With little De you could get nothing from begging, for you have no De to exchange for food. And this is no gain, no loss! If one has no De at all, then there will be the perdition of both his body and soul and he is indeed dead. Once there was a qigong master. His attainment level was extremely high when he just came out to the society. But later he became obssessed with fame and gain. His master took away his Assistant Spirit, for he belonged to those who cultivate the Assistant Spirit. When his Assistant Spirit was with him, he was controlled by it. For example, one day his work-unit was alloting dwelling houses and the leader said: those who need the house come over, please tell us about your conditions and why you need the house. Everyone gave his own reasons while this person said nothing. And finally the leader came to realize that he badly needed the house and he should get the house. But the others said: no, the house should not be given to him and it should be given to me. I need the house badly now. Hearing this, he said: in that case, you may take it. From the ordinary person's point of view, such a person is a fool. However, some people knew that he was a practitioner and asked him: as a practitioner you do not want anything, but what do you want? He answered: well, I want what others do not want. In fact he is not foolish at all and in fact quite smart. It is just with the personal vested interests that he deals in such a way and he follows a natural course The others asked him again: nowadays, isn't there anything that one does not want? He answered: no one wants the stone on the ground which is kicked here and there, and I would like to pick it up. This is unthinkable for ordinary people and they find it hard to understand a practitioner, and indeed difficult to understand, for their realm of awareness is far too different and their level is far too apart. Of course, the person would not go and pick up the stone. However, he did tell the truth that ordinary people are unable to awake to: I do not seek after what ordinary people are after. Speaking of the stone, it is known that in Buddhas Scriptures, it is written that the trees in the Paradise of Ultimate Bliss are golden; the ground is golden; the birds are golden; the flowers are golden; the houses are golden and even Buddha bodies are golden and shinning. Not a single of stone could be found there, the money spent there is said to be the stone. It is unlikely that he would carry a stone to go there, but he did tell a truth, which is difficult for ordinary people to understand. The practitioner indeed would say: ordinary people have their own pursuits. We do not pursue anything like that. We are not interested in what ordinary people possess, and we possess what ordinary people want but can not get. In fact, the enlightenment we have just talked about belongs to such an enlightenment as that in cultivation, and it is contrary to the capability of comprehension of ordinary people. The enlightenment we actually refer to is the master's lectures on the Law in the course of our cultivation, and the Tao that the Taoist master preaches. In the course of cultivation, when you run into a tribulation, could you realize you are a cultivator? Could you understand, accept, and act up to the Law in the course of cultivation. Someone simply will not believe it no matter how hard you tell him about it and would still believe it is more practical and advantageous to be an ordinary person. He clings to his intrinsic mentality, which makes him unable to believe at all. Some people just want to get his disease cured, and when I give the lecture saying that qigong is not at all to be used for treating diseases, they would feel resentful in their minds. Thus, they would no longer believe other things I am lecturing about. The enlightenment quality of some people could not be brought out. Someone reads my book and underlines it here and there at will. Those with their Celestial Eyes open all could see that this book is shinning golden and bright with all colours, and every word of the book is the image of my Law body. I will be cheating you if I do not tell you the truth. The one mark you made in the book would cause it to have a mass of blackness. How dare you do so? What are we doing here? Are not we trying to guide you up to the high dimension in cultivation? There are certain things that you should think about. This book can guide you in cultivation; don't you think it is precious? Will your worshipping the Buddha really enable you to cultivate yourself? You are very sincere and dare not touch the image of Buddha at all, and you burn the incense sticks every day for him. But you dare to ruin the Great Law that can really guide you in cultivation. Speaking of the human awakening quality, it refers to how deeply you could understand the various phases which occur or a certain thing or a certain Law that the master has talked about. But this is not yet the fundamental enlightenment we refer to. The fundamental enlightenment that we refer to is such that during the remaining years of one's life, he constantly improves himself and makes progress towards the high dimension from the start of cultivation, continuously gives up his attachments and all the desires with his cultivation energy constantly growing until the final step of his cultivation. When this substance of De has totally evolved into cultivation energy and his cultivation road arranged by the master has come to the end, "Bang!" the locks would be exploded open all at once at this very moment. His Celestial Eye has reached the highest point of the status he has attained in cultivation, and he has seen the truth of each space in his dimension, the existing forms of various living beings in each timespace, the existing forms of matter in each timespace, and he has witnessed the truth of our universe. Displaying his supernatural powers, he can communicate with various living beings. When arriving at such a phase, hasn't he become a great enlightened being or a person who has become enlightened through cultivation? When translated into the ancient Indian language, it means Buddha. The enlightenment we have expounded, this fundamental enlightenment still belongs to the form of immediate enlightenment (ÙÎò). The immediate enlightenment means that he is locked up in cultivation during the remaining years of his life, and he does not know how high his cultivation energy is and he does not know what form the energy that he has cultivated takes. There is no reaction at all, and even the cells of his body are locked up, and the energy cultivated has been locked up until the final step when it is opened in the end. It would have to be a person well grounded in all virtues who could make it, and it is very hard to cultivate in this way. To begin as a good person, he keeps improving his Xinxing all the way through, keeps on enduring hardships all the way through, keeps on cultivating all the way up, keeps on requiring himself to improve his Xinxing all the way through, but he could not see his cultivation energy. It is most difficult for such a person to cultivate, and it must be a person well grounded in all virtues. Many years have passed in cultivation but he does not know what has happened in cultivation. There is another kind of enlightenment called gradual enlightenment (½¥Îò). Many people feel Falun rotating at the very beginning, and at the same time I have opened the Celestial Eye of everybody. Because of various causes, some can see nothing at first but will see something in the future, from seeing unclearly to seeing clearly and from being unable to use it to being able to use it, for the plane is continuously rising. With the improvement of your Xinxing and the abandonment of your attachments of all sorts, all kinds of supernormal capabilities are coming out. You could see and feel the changes that go with the evolution of the whole cultivation process and the process of the transformation of the body. In this way you will cultivate to the last step when you completely understand the truth of the universe, and come to the highest point of your attainment level that you should reach in cultivation. The transformation of Benti (±¾Ìå the True Being) and the reinforcement of your cultivation energy have all arrived to a certain extent, thus gradually reaching such a goal. This belongs to the gradual enlightenment. It is not easy to take the way of gradual enlightenment, either. When someone, with supernormal capabilities, could not give up his attachments, it is quite easy for him to show off and do bad things. Thus you would lose your cultivation energy. And you have cultivated in vain and have ruined yourself in the end. Some people could see with their Celestial Eyes the manifestations of various living beings in the different dimensions. They may take you to do this or that, and may take you to cultivate their stuff and accept you as their disciples. However, they will not have you completed the right achievement, because they themselves have not completed the right achievement. Besides, people in the high dimensions are all deities who could become very big by means of psychic powers. Will you follow him if your mind is not right? If you follow him you will cultivate in vain. Even if he is a genuine Buddha and a genuine Taoist, he also will have to cultivate from the very beginning. Aren't those all immortals in so many Heavens? Only when those have cultivated to the extremely high status and reached their goal could they jump out. But in the eyes of the ordinary person, the deity would indeed appear to be tall and huge with very great capabilities, and yet he may not necessarily have completed the right achievement. Could you keep peace of mind when interfered with by all kinds of messages and tempted by various scenes? So it is also difficult to cultivate with the Celestial Eye open, and even more difficult to control Xinxing. But some of you are fortunate to belong to those who have their supernormal capabilities unlocked half way through their cultivation and then come into the state of gradual enlightenment. Everyone's Celestial Eye would be opened and the supernormal capabilities of many people are not allowed to come out. Only when your Xinxing has gradually improved and got to a certain status and your mind has come to a stable state so that you can control yourself will they then be exploded all at once. When you have reached a certain status you will be put in the state of gradual enlightenment. Then it would be easier for you to control yourself. As various supernormal capabilities have emerged, you will keep on ascending yourself in cultivation until you have opened all your cultivation energy in the end. Many of us belong to such a kind who would be allowed to come up with these supernormal capabilities on the half way of their cultivation. So, do not be too anxious to see. You may have heard that Zen Buddhism (ìø×Ú) also talks about the division between the immediate enlightenment and the gradual enlightenment. The Sixth Patriarch, Hui-neng (»ÛÄÜ) of Zen Buddhism taught the immediate enlightenment, and Shen Xiu (ÉñÐã) of the northern sect of Zen Buddhism taught the gradual enlightenment. They both had started the debate on Buddha science for a very long period of time in history with each arguing one way or another. I should say it did not make any sense. Why? Because what they had debated is no more than the understanding of a truth in the course of cultivation. As for such a truth, some people could come to understand it all at once while others may come to understand and awake to it gradually. Isn't it all right for one to awake to it either way? It would be better if one could understand it all at once, and it would be all right as well if one would awake to it gradually. Isn't it also enlightenment? Both ways are enlightenment. So neither way is wrong. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A Person Well Grounded in All Virtues (´ó¸ùÆ÷Ö®ÈË) What is a person well grounded in all virtues? There is a distinction between a person well grounded in all virtues and a person with good or bad inborn qualities. A person well grounded in all virtues is very difficult to find, for it would take a considerable long period of history for only such one person to come into the world. Of course, first of all, a person well grounded in all virtues should have great De (virtues), and such a field of white substance is enormous. There is no doubt about it. At the same time, he could also suffer from the hardship of hardships, he must have the mind of great forbearance (´óÈÌÖ®ÐÄ), must be able to give and preserve his De, must possess a good enlightenment quality, etc.. What does it mean to endure the hardship of hardships? In Buddhism, to be a human being is to suffer. As long as you are a human, you will have to suffer. As the living beings of all other spaces do not have the bodies of our ordinary people, they would not fall ill, nor would they have the problems of birth, old age, disease and death. Hence, no sufferings. Beings of other spaces could fly up, for they have no weight. They are splendid. Because of this body, an ordinary person has run into a problem: he would find it unbearable to be cold, hot, thirsty, hungry or tired. And he is also obsessed with the problems of birth, old age, illness and death. Anyway he is not comfortable. I have read a report in the newspaper that during the Tangshan earthquake, many died in it, but some were rescued. A special social investigation was made of these people. They were asked how they felt in the state of being dead. Beyond expectation, they all mentioned an extraordinary state under which they experienced no sense of scare at the moment of death. On the contrary they suddenly felt a sense of relief and a sense of potential excitement; some felt free from the bondage of the body, flying up lightly and comfortably in the air, they even saw their own bodies; some saw living beings in other spaces and others had been to so and so places. They all talked of a sense of potential excitement of relief without a feeling of suffering at the moment of death. This shows that our having the physical body is suffering but since we all come out of the mother's womb this way, we do not realize it is suffering. I should say that the human being has to endure the hardship of hardships. I once mentioned the concept that this human timespace is also different from that of the other even larger timespace. One shichen (ʱ³½ two- hour period ) in our space is two hours, which equals one year in that space. A person is acclaimed as being great because he practises under such hard conditions. He would be said to have the mind to seek the Tao and intend to cultivate. He is really extraordinary, as he still keeps his true nature under such foul conditions, and wants to return to the truth. Why should the practitioner be helped to cultivate unconditionally? This is why. When a person has meditated throughout the night in the space of ordinary people, looking at him, they say this person is really great, for he has already been sitting here in meditation for six years, because one shichen in our space is one year in another space. We , human beings, live in an extremely special space. How should one suffer from the hardship of hardships? For example, somebody went to work one day. As his work unit was not doing well, and this situation could no longer continue, it was going to be reformed. It was going to undertake contracted work and superfluous staff had to be laid off. This person was one of them with the rice bowl lost all of a sudden. How did he feel as he would not be paid? How could he make a living? He had not been trained for other work. He went home in low spirits. When he arrived at his home, his parent fell ill, very seriously ill. In a big hurry he sent him to hospital and it was very difficult for the patient to be hospitalized with some borrowed money. Just on returning home to get some daily necessities for his parent, a school teacher called upon him saying: your son has beaten up some schoolmate so badly, and you should go and have a look at once. Right after he had settled this matter, as he sat down at home, the telephone ran informing him: your wife is having an affair with another man. Of course, you may not have such an experience. An ordinary person would not be able to suffer this way, thinking: what on earth am I living for? Why not find a rope to hang myself, and put an end to all. I can not live any longer. But I should say that a man should be able to suffer the hardship of hardships, of course, not necessarily in such forms mentioned above. But the intriguing against each other between people and the fractions of Xinxing or the scrambling for personal interests would be no better than this. There are so many people who live a life just out of spite, and would hang themselves when they no longer tolerate. So we must cultivate ourselves in such a complicated environment, and can suffer the hardship of hardships, and at the same time, we must observe great forbearance . What is great forbearance? As a practitioner you should first of all learn not to raise your hand when beaten and not to talk back when abused. You must be able to tolerate others. Otherwise what kind of practitioner are you? Some people say: it is very difficult for me to cultivate forbearance, for I am hot- tempered. If so, why not improve yourself? A practitioner must cultivate Ren (forbearance ). Some people often lose their temper even when educating children. They would raise hell when flaring up. You should not behave in this manner when disciplining children. You should not get really angry yourselves. You should educate children with reason so that the children would be really educated well. If you could not get over such a trifle and would lose temper easily, how could you increase your cultivation energy? Someone says: I can bear being kicked on the street because nobody recognizes me. I should say this is not enough, and you will be seen if you can restrain yourself and how you should deal with it when beaten up and disgraced in front of those people before whom you are afraid of losing face the most. If you just manage to control your temper, yet you are not at ease in mind, and that still is not enough. It is known that after attaining the status of Arhat, he would not put anything on mind and always be happy as he does not at all care about everything belonging to ordinary people. He would always be in a good mood. No matter how much he loses, he would still be in a good mood and does not bear it in mind. If you could really do this, you have already completed the elementary achievement of the status of Arhat. Someone says: if Ren has been observed to such an extent, ordinary people would say we are cowards and very easy to be taken advantage of. I should not call this cowardness. Just think about it. Even senior citizens of ordinary people as well as people with higher education still exercise self-control, and do not bother themselves about something common. The same is more true of us practitioners. How could that be taken as cowardness? I should say it is the manifestation of great forbearance, an expression of strong will, and only the practitioner could observe forbearance. There is such a saying: if humiliated, the man in the street would draw out his sword to fight. Eye for eye and tooth for tooth. This is the usual practice of ordinary people. But could you regard him as a practitioner if he behaves like that? As a cultivator, if you do not have a strong will and can not control yourself , you certainly can not do this. It is known that in the ancient times there was a man called Han Xin (º«ÐÅ), who is said to have been very capable and he was a great general under Liu Bang (Áõ°î) and a pillar of the state. Why was he able to make such great achievements? Han Xin is said to have been unusual in his childhood. There is such a story about Han Xin, who suffered the humiliation of crawling through under a bully's crutch. In his childhood Han Xin practised marshal arts, and those practising marshal arts usually wore swords. One day he was walking on the street, and a local bully blocked his way, saying: what are you doing by carrying a sword? Dare you kill people? If you do, cut off my head. While saying so, he stretched out his head. Han Xin thought: why should I cut off your head? At that time anyone who killed people should be reported to the authority and put to death. How could one kill people at will? Seeing Han Xin's hesitation, the bully said: if you dare not kill me, then crawl through under my crutch. Han Xin indeed crawled through under his crutch. This showed Han Xin was possessed of great forbearance, and he was different from the ordinary sort, and so he could do such a great thing. An ordinary person lives only for his dignity. But it is a view of ordinary people just living for dignity. Let's just think about it. Do you feel tired by doing so? Do you suffer? Is it worthwhile? Han Xin was an ordinary person after all, but we are practitioners. Should we be much better than him? Our goal is to attain a status beyond that of the ordinary. We strive for a higher dimension. We may not run into such a thing but nevertheless the humiliation or disgrace a practitioner suffers among ordinary people could be not necessarily better than this. The person to person conflicts of Xinxing, I should say, would be no better than this and would exceed this. This is quite difficult. Meanwhile the practitioner must be able to let go everything he holds on to, and to give up all the attachments and desires of ordinary people. If unable to achieve this immediately, we may do so gradually. If you could make it today, you would become a Buddha today. Cultivation may be carried on slowly but you should not slack off yourself. You say: master has said cultivation takes time, and we could do it slowly. That won't do! You must be strict with yourself, and in the cultivation of Buddhas Law you should make a resolute and valiant effort. You should also be able to preserve your De and maintain your Xinxing, and you should not take rash actions. You can not do whatever you like casually, and you should be able to maintain your Xinxing. We often hear ordinary people say this: accumulate De and do good. As practitioners we do not practise building up De but maintaining De. Why do we practise maintaining De? It is because we have seen such a situation: accumulating De only applies to ordinary people. If an ordinary person has accumulated De and has done good to others, he would be rewarded in his next life. And there exists no such a problem in our situation, and if you have made it and attained Tao, you would not have the problem of next life. When we talk about preserving De, we also have another shade of meaning, that is to say, the two kinds of substances we have brought with us are not accumulated during one lifetime, but they have been left over through a very long period of time of the remote past. Even if you should cycle along all over the town, you may not be sure to run into something good for you to do. Even if you keep on doing this everyday, you may not be lucky enough to meet one. There is another shade of meaning in wanting you to accumulate De, You consider something to be a good deed, however, when you do it, it may turn out to be a bad thing; when you regard something as a bad thing, and if you try to interfere, it may turn out to be a good thing. Why? Because you can not see the causational relationship (ÒòÔµ¹Øϵ) between them. The Law takes care of the ordinary person's business, and there is no doubt about it. But a practitioner is supernormal. And as a supernormal person, you should act up to the supernormal principles, and not use those of ordinary people to measure yourself. If you do not know the causational relationship of a matter, you are apt to make a mistake in dealing with it. Some people say: I just want to discipline the bad people. I should say you had better enlist in the police. But we do not want you to stay away when there is a murder or a fire going on. I am going to tell you when a conflict between one and the other arises, one kicks the other and the other hits back with a fist, it is likely that one owed something to the other before, and now they are setting their account. Now that you step in to stop it, they could not settle the account and have to wait till next time to resettle it. That is to say, you can not see the causational relationship , and you are apt to do the wrong thing and so lose your De. It does not matter for ordinary people to deal with ordinary people's issues. They apply the principles of ordinary people as standards. However, you must use the supernormal principles to measure. It would be a matter of Xinxing if you do not help stop a murder or a fire when you see it. How would you otherwise demonstrate that you are a good person then? What else would you do if you do not help stop a murder or a fire? However, there is one point to make that such things are not really related to our cultivators. They would not necessarily be arranged for you to run into. We practise preserving De to aim at preventing you from doing bad things. Perhaps if you try to do a little bit of that thing, you would be likely to do bad things. Then you would lose De. If you lose De, how could you raise up your status? How could you reach your final goal? There is such a question in it. Besides, you must have good enlightenment quality, and good inborn qualities could possibly make good enlightenment quality, and the environmental impact also plays a role. We have also taught, if everyone of us goes cultivating inside ourselves, everyone is examining his Xinxing to pinpoint where he fails and tries to perform better the next time; before you do something, you must consider others first, thus the human society would become better. Morality would be brought to a rise again, spiritual civilization would also change for the better, and public security would get better, too. As a result there would probably be no need for police at all. So no one needs to be governed, and everyone goes searching inside himself and governs himself. Would you say this is wonderful? It is known that now the laws are being improved and perfected, why are there still people doing bad? And why don't they comply with the law? It is because you can not control their minds. Without supervision they would do bad things. If everyone goes cultivating inside himself, the situation would be totally different. There is no need for you to defend somebody against an injustice. The Law could only be expounded so far and what is higher will have to depend on you yourself to gain through cultivation. Some of you are raising questions more and more specific. If you ask me to answer all your questions from daily life, what is left for you to cultivate there! You must cultivate yourself and try to become enlightened on your own. If I tell you everything, nothing will be left for you to cultivate. Fortunately, the Great Law has already been made public and you could act up to it. * * * * * * * I think my Law lecturing is basically drawing to an end. Therefore I intend to leave everyone the authentic things so that you will have the Law as your guide in your future cultivation. In the whole course of the Law lecturing, I have been responsible to everyone and to the society at the same time. In fact, we have been following such a principle to act. As n fact, we have been following such a principle to act. As for whether I have done it well or not, I am not going to say anything about this as we could leave it to the public opinion. My wish is to bring this Great Law to the public so as to enable more people to benefit from it and enable those who genuinely want to cultivate to make progress in their cultivation according to the Law. At the same time, in the course of teaching the Law, we also expounded the truth of being a good person, and we also hope, after you have left this lecturing session, you should at least try to become a good person if you could not cultivate yourself according to the Great Law. This would benefit our society. In fact, you will be able to become a good person after you leave here as you know how to become a good person. In the course of the lecturing session, there were also things which were not going on smoothly and the interferences from many quarters were very serious as well. Owing to the full support by the auspices organizations and leaders from various sections as well as the effort by the working staff, our lecturing sessions have been a success. In the course of the lecturing session, what I have expounded is all aimed at guiding you up to the high status of cultivation. In the past Law preaching, no one mentioned these things. What we have expounded is quite clear cut as we do it by integrating the modern science with the contemporary science of the human body, and it is of the very high status. It is mainly intended for everyone to be able to acquire the Law in earnest and ascend in cultivation. This is my starting point. In the course of my teaching the Law and the Gong (the exercises for practice), many people have realized the Law is really very good but they find it pretty difficult for them to act up to it. In fact, I think whether it is difficult or not depends on whom you mean. For an ordinary person, he does not want to cultivate, he would find it simply too difficult and inconceivable, and so he thinks he cannot make it. As an ordinary person, he does not want to cultivate, and therefore he would think of it as something very difficult. Lao Zi once said,¡ when a man of good enlightenment quality hears of Tao , he practises it diligently. When a man of average enlightenment quality hears of it, he practises it off and on. When a man of poor enlightenment hears of it, he laughs at it loudly. If he did not laugh , it would not be Tao.¡± For a genuine cultivator, I should say it is very easy and it is not at all something too high to reach. In fact, many old students whether present here or not have already reached a considerably high status in cultivation. I did not tell you this for fear you might get conceited and develop attachments, which might hinder the growth of your energy potency. As a genuine determined cultivator, he is able to endure, and give up the attachments to all kinds of interests; he would be able to care little about them. As long as he could make it, it would not be difficult. The person says it is difficult because he can not give up such things. Practising the exercise itself is not difficult, and raising up the status itself is not difficult either. What he can say is difficult are just the attachments one has developed cannot be given up because it is very difficult to let go of them in front of the practical interests. This interest is right here. How would you say he could let go of this attachment? He would think it is difficult, and in practice this is where the difficulty lies. If we fail to restrain ourselves when there arises a conflict between one and another, and we even cannot regard ourselves as practitioners, I should say that this will not be allowed. In my cultivation in the past, there were many super masters who told me such words, "One is able to endure what seems hard to endure, and one is able to do what seems impossible to do." As a matter of fact, it is true. You may have a try when returning home. In the course of facing a great catastrophe or passing through a tribulation, you may have a try. Try to endure what is difficult to endure; when it seems impossible to make it and it is said to be difficult to make it, then you may just as well try it to see if you can make it after all. If you can really make it, you would find yourself in dark willows and blooming flowers, indeed, another village ahead! As I have talked so much, you would find it difficult to remember so many things I have talked about. I would mainly make some requirements: I hope you will all treat yourselves as practitioners in your future cultivation, continue your cultivation in earnest. I hope all the students, new and old, will be able to cultivate yourselves in the Great Law, and attain perfection and reach the consummation! Hope you all will make the best use of your time to cultivate in earnest after returning home. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next:A Short Biography of Mr. Li Hongzhi Up:Contents Previous:Lecture Eight [NOTE: The strange characters are Chinese in GB code] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next:Glossary Up:Contents Previous:Lecture Nine ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A Short Biography of Mr. Li Hongzhi Founder of Falun Buddha Law, President of the Research Society of Falun Dafa The year of 1992 saw the spectacular appearance of a marvelous man with his miraculous cultivation way in the world of qigong in China. The man is Mr. Li Hongzhi (ÀîºéÖ¾) , founder of Falun Buddha Law, which has qualified itself as a school directly under the leadership of the Qigong Science Research Institute of China. Mr. Li came into public and began to teach his cultivation system in May that year. The entirely new features, which are totally different from those of the traditional cultivation principles and their exercise, and the originality of his cultivation system have been attracting more and more qigong lovers. All those who are fortunate enough to cultivate Falun Dafa are fully convinced of the profound principles and the Law he has preached, are all amazed by his superb energy potency and fascinated by the magic effectiveness of his cultivation way. Falun Buddha Law is like a bright shining pearl that dispels the dirt out of the practitioner's mind with its dazzling radiance and lights the beacon on the great way towards cultivation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (1) Mr. Li was born into an ordinary intellectual's family in the city of Gongzhuling (¹«Ö÷Áë), Jilin Province (¼ªÁÖÊ¡), China, on May 13 (the eighth day of the fourth month by China lunar calendar), 1951. Being gifted and compassionate, he was different from the other children of his age. Seeing his mother toiling day and night, he undertook the tasks of cooking, chopping wood, looking after the house, taking care of his younger brother and sisters of his own accord. Feeling a sense of security, his brother and sisters and little companions were fond of playing with him. At the age of four, Mr. Li received personal instructions from Law Master Quan Jue (È«¾õ), the 10th heir to the Great Law of the Buddhas' School which has been handed down to only one disciple each time, and began his cultivation of the supreme qualities "Zhen Shan Ren" (ÕæÉÆÈÌ). At the beginning, his master only played with him and did not teach him how to practise. Whenever he did a good thing, his master would smile gladly, but when he did a bad thing, his master would look unhappy. Sometimes, a child's nature would cause him to behave naughtily on purpose. For example, he would fight with other boys. But after the fighting, he would meet with a mishap. Sometimes he could not stand on his feet properly and would tumble repeatedly for no reason, one after another. Sometimes he would suddenly find his hand injured and bleeding. Whenever such a thing happened, his master would stand in the distance watching him, but saying nothing. If he refused to admit that he was wrong, there would suddenly come some big boys who would give him a good beating. And his master would still as before look at him seriously and say nothing. Only when he admitted his fault would his master give him a smile. At the age of eight, Mr. Li suddenly felt something more in the corner of his eyes, and came to realize they were three words: "Zhen Shan Ren" (ÕæÉÆÈÌ). It was his master who had planted the words there. Other people could not see the words, but he could see them at any time. In the years following, his master told him the meaning of the three words. "Zhen" (Õæ) requires that one should behave honestly, tell the truth, not cheat anyone, tell no lies, conceal no faults when he commits them and return to the origin and go back to the truth in the future. "Shan" (ÉÆ) requires that one should have compassion, not bully, show sympathy for the weak, give help to the poor, be ready to help others and do more good deeds. "Ren" (ÈÌ) means looking at the bright side of things in the face of difficulty and insults, enduring them without resentment or hatred, grudge or revenge, being able to bear the greatest hardship and tolerate what an ordinary person cannot tolerate. Simple as the three words may seem, they have extremely rich connotations. They are the top secret of the universe. Whenever Mr. Li recalled this, he would say with deep feeling, "My first master guided me for eight whole years just for the three words, which shows the great pains he took. It is easy to say 'Zhen Shan Ren' (ÕæÉÆÈÌ), but it is rather difficult to act up to them. My master not only made it possible for me to see them at all times, but also printed them deep into my mind. What's more, he would see that I put them into practice in whatever I did afterwards." Owing to such strict requirements, Mr. Li laid a solid foundation of Xinxing deep in his young heart. At the age of eight, Mr. Li attained the superb Great Law with great supernatural powers. If he just said to himself, "Nobody will see me." while playing hide-and-seek with his friends, he would not be found. Even his face was lit with a torch, others would say that they could not see him. There were long, rusty and curved nails in wood, and he was able to pull them out by a slight effort of his hand. In winter, the water in the pipe was frozen. When he went to hook it with his hand, the pipe became bent at once, but even he himself did not know why this had happened. When playing with his little friends on the snow- covered ground, running and jumping, he would rise high into the air. When he saw two boys ready to fight and he did not want one of them to charge at the other, the one would really be unable to move. When he was in the fourth grade, once, he left his schoolbag in the classroom after school. When he returned to fetch it, he found the door of the classroom locked and the windows shut. Then, an idea came to his mind: "If only I could enter the classroom!" With the thought flashing past, he suddenly found himself already in the classroom. With another thought, he was out again. Even he himself was amazed at what had happened. Once after this, an idea suddenly occurred to him, "How would I feel if I stopped myself in the middle of the glass?" With such a thought, he really found himself in the middle of the window glass, feeling his whole body and mind all filled with fragments of glass. He felt so uncomfortable that he wanted to go out immediately. With this thought he was out of the glass again. At that time, he did not know what supernatural powers were. He thought that everybody could do what he did, so he paid no attention to them. Mr. Li was most influenced by his first master, who planted the seeds of "Zhen Shan Ren" (ÕæÉÆÈÌ) in his mind, provided him with supernatural energy and helped him develop many fine qualities which have shaped his character. He was always ready to help others. Whatever he did, he first thought of others. Seeing a stone on the road, he would pick it up and throw it away for fear that others might stumble over it. When in primary school, he used to swim in the South Lake. One day, when he went by the lake after school, he suddenly heard someone shouting , "A man has fallen into the lake!", "The man is getting drowned!" He went over and really saw a man struggling hopelessly in the lake far from the bank. Without any hesitation, he took off his clothes and jumped into the lake. Soon he reached the man and told him calmly, "Take breath. Don't move! I can save you." The man obediently did what he was told to. Only when he dragged the man to the bank did he realize that the man was an adult, who was much bigger than himself. No sooner had the man had a respite on the bank than Mr. Li went home. Young Li Hongzhi (ÀîºéÖ¾) did many things like this but he never mentioned them to others. When he occasionally talked about them a dozen years later, he mentioned them casually, thinking that it was his duty to do such things and they were not worth mentioning. Young Li Hongzhi (ÀîºéÖ¾) had a compassionate heart. He would shed tears when he found a good person suffering in the film or in a novel. His first master left him when he was twelve. On the point of leaving, the master said to him, "A new master will come to teach you." The second master mainly taught him Taoist Gongfu. He began to practise boxing , sword-and-spear play and did the integrated cultivation of both external and internal exercise. The master would take him to an isolated place and keep him company when he was practising. When doing the riding stance, he would keep the posture for hours. He practised so hard that he often dripped with sweat. Consequently his body became as soft as cotton and as hard as iron. Time flied with spring gone and autumn in. Two years had passed before he knew it. How much he had sweated an ordinary person could hardly imagine, but as a reward, his Gongfu had reached the acme of perfection. Soon his second master, for whom he had a deep affection, was also to leave him. On the eve of departure, the master said to him, I'm called Eight-Pole-Immortal (°Ë¼«ÕæÈË). I'm wandering about without any destination. After I am gone, the only thing you should keep in mind is: Practise diligently. In the days afterwards, Mr. Li firmly bore in mind his master's instructions. He practised diligently at an isolated place in the dead of the night. With the passage of time, winter in and summer gone, the calluses that had appeared on his hands and the shirts that had been soaked with sweat were beyond count. Practice makes perfect. His Gongfu had already reached an advanced level in his cultivation of Shi Jian Fa (ÊÀ¼ä·¨ the In-Triple-World-Law) when he was only a teenager. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (2) Mr. Li got a job in 1972. That year, a third master - a master of the Great Way School with the Taoist alias of True Taoist (µÀºÅÕæµÀ×Ó) came from the Changbai Mountains (³¤°×ɽ). Unlike his two former masters, this master wore no Taoist's robe, but was dressed like an ordinary man. He never said where he lived. This master mainly taught inner cultivation. At that time, people did not dare to practise qigong openly, so he usually practised at night. Sometimes, his master would take his Zhu Yi Shi (Ö÷ÒâÊ the Main Consciousness) out for practice. In sleep, he could often feel his master putting something into his brain and Celestial Eye. The inner cultivation of the Great Way School had strict requirements for the practitioner's Xinxing. His master demanded that he should cultivate his Xinxing in daily life. Whenever he did something wrong, his master would appear before him, blaming and reprimanding him through the mouths of others. Owing to such strict requirements, Mr. Li Hongzhi 's Xinxing (ÐÄÐÔ) had reached an extremely high level. His colleagues all found that he was kind and honest, and were pleased to get along with him. He never argued with others. Not understanding him, some people said that he was stupid, for he did not take what he ought to, or did not ask for what he should. He had indeed arrived at such a realm of awareness that he had freed himself from all kinds of desires and personal interests of ordinary people. He acted all in accordance with nature, treating fame and gain with indifference and behaving with self- composure. In the face of being wronged or blamed for no reason, other people would defend him against the injustice done to him, but he himself just laughed it away. The master of the Great Way School was gone in 1974. Later, came a female master of the Buddhas' School, who chiefly taught Buddhas' School's cultivation principles and exercise to him. By that time, though Mr. Li was only twenty-three or so, his Energy potency had reached a very high level. In 1982, he was transferred to civilian work in the city of Changchun (³¤´º) and began to practise even more painstakingly than ever before. Over a period of about a dozen of years, he received instructions successively from more than twenty masters from both the Buddhas' School and the Taoist School, with a different master teaching him in each different status of cultivation. Whenever he reached a new phase in cultivation, he would undergo a tribulation. Many of the tribulations were so great that they were hard for an ordinary person to imagine. Now, Mr. Li's Energy potency has reached an extremely high level. Some of his supernatural powers are difficult for ordinary people to imagine or understand. One evening in July, 1990, he was practising with several disciples of his in the courtyard of an institution in Beijing. Soon, the sky was overcast with dark clouds. Then came the thunder and lightening, which exploded as if just above their heads. The disciples began to grow restless because the weather was not fit for practice according to the general rules of practice. Seeing their master still sitting cross-legged on a large rock as steady as a mountain with no intention to waver or shrink back, they went on with their practice. Strangely enough, it did not rain, though the black clouds were very thick and low, with thunders rolling in the sky. When the practice came to an end, Master Li said to his disciples calmly, "It won't rain within thirty minutes. Don't worry about it. Just go your way." One of the disciples lived in the west of the city. It took him about thirty minutes to get home by bus. No sooner had he entered his house than the rain pelted down as if the sky were leaking. There are many miraculous stories about Mr. Li. As ordinary people may find them incredible, we are not going to write more about them. After dozens of years' diligent cultivation, Mr. Li's energy potency reached an extremely high level. Above all, he has been able to see the truth of the universe, the many more beautiful things which have existed there for a long time, as well as the origin, development and future of mankind. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (3) When he was not practising, Mr. Li had one thing lingering in his mind : "Why did the masters teach me the Gongfu (¹¦·ò)? Why should I come to this world?" He had no time to ask himself the question during practice. Though he thought about it occasionally in his spare time, he could not get an answer to it. With the growth of his energy potency (¹¦Á¦), he came to understand mankind and human life better and better. Mankind should have been happier. But people have lost their true selves. Their spirits have been corrupted and their bodies have been suffering. Though their living standards are improving day by day, their spiritual qualities can not keep up with them. Mr. Li felt sad whenever he thought of it. People need strong physiques and noble spirits to build a perfect society and live a happy life. He realized his duty and made up his mind to devote himself to working for people's health and building a paradise of noble spirit. He decided to create a great Law suitable for ordinary people to cultivate based on the great Law which had been imparted only to himself and which he had been cultivating alone for so many years as the means of achieving this goal. He knew that the goal was a good one but difficult to achieve, and that the road he was to take would be full of complexities, hardships and dangers. But once he had made up his mind, he took action without hesitation. From 1984, Mr. Li started making a serious investigation into different qigong activities at home and abroad and attended a number of qigong impartment classes. He analysed the characteristics of modern people, as the Great Law, which would find its cultivators among the ordinary people, should adapt itself to their way of life. An ordinary person has a job and has limited time for practice each day. The traditional cultivation ways are too elaborate to practise and are too slow in developing their cultivation energy. He saw that Xinxing is the root cause of human health. Everybody looks forward to a happy life, but they meet with every kind of misfortune because they have lost their true selves. Therefore, Mr. Li was determined to create a great Law - Falun Buddha Law suitable for the cultivation of modern people (because the Great Law of Falun Cultivating the Buddhas Mr. Li had cultivated in the past was a grand- scale cultivation way and could not be popularized on a large scale). Beginning from 1984, Mr. Li devoted his whole body and mind to the adaptation work of Falun Buddha Law. The Law Wheels of the Buddhas' School (·ð¼ÒµÄ·¨ÂÖ), the Yin and Yang of the Taoist School (µÀ¼ÒµÄÒõÑô), and everything in the ten Directions (Ê®·½ÊÀ½çµÄÒ»ÇÐ), all find their reflections in Falun Buddha Law without exception. When Mr. Li set about creating Falun Buddha Law, all his masters came back. The superior space masters of the Buddhas' School, Taoist School, Great Way School and some other schools all participated in the work. Every posture and movement of Falun Dafa were finally fixed after repeated deliberation, evolution, practice and identification under the guidance of his masters. Therefore, what Falun Dafa contains is more than what belongs to Mr. Li or a few cultivation schools. It has assembled all the mystical powers, which are the essence of the whole cosmos. Now, it has found its expression in Mr. Li alone. The design of Falun Dafa was basically finalized in 1989 . But Mr. Li was not anxious to make it public at once. To be on the safe side, he first let some of his disciples practise the cultivation system. After more than two years' observation, they all had reached a very high status in their cultivation. To reach the state of "three flowers gathering on the top of the head" (Èý»¨¾Û¥), practitioners in other cultivation systems would have to spend a dozen or even dozens of years' painstaking practice, but some people managed to reach such a state in two years by practising Falun Dafa. This shows that cultivation energy goes up very fast in the cultivation of it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (4) In May, 1992, Master Li came into public with a special mission. On the basis of a careful investigation, the leaders of Qigong Science Research Institute of China fully confirmed the principles, exercise and effectiveness of Falun Dafa and accepted it as a school directly under its leadership, giving it much specific support and help for its popularization and preaching. So far , Mr. Li has been invited to scores of law preaching and exercise teaching sessions in different parts of China. The number of students has reached more than 100000. Wherever he goes , he is warmly welcomed and fully supported by the learners. Practice has proved that, with its mystical effectiveness, Falun Dafa has brought inestimable influence. It was acclaimed as a Great Law of the highest virtues by the intelligent beings, Buddhas, Tao, deities, etc.. To carry out his mission truly, Mr. Li toured almost the entire country tirelessly. All those who have learned Falun Dafa can understand and realize that it has proved itself to be called the great cultivation Law, putting practitioners on a high level at the very beginning of practice and selflessly giving the learners a lot by providing them with many genuine cultivation treasures, which are quite impossible to be found in any other schools. Falun Dafa is unselfish, which can first be seen from the fact that the charges for attending the lecturing session are very low. Wherever he holds the session, Mr. Li insists upon the lowest charge. Some qigong classes run by some cultivation schools were investigated and rectified by the authorities concerned because they overcharged their students. On the contrary, the lecturing session of Falun Dafa always charged such low fees that there had to be a repeated consultation with the authorities concerned. It won't do to charge no fee at all. Money is needed to rent the lecture hall and pay the service charge to the organizations. After meeting all kinds of expenditure, such as expenses for traffic, board and lodging, there is little money left. What is left of the money is all spent on the construction project of Falun Dafa. Mr. Li often says, "Since we are to offer salvation to all sentient beings, we should not add to the burden of the learners." Falun Dafa is not short of ways to make money. Some people came to see Mr. Li and promised to offer tremendous rewards in order to monopolize the impartation of Falun Dafa. Some people even invited him to go abroad to make big money. Mr. Li turned down all these offers. He reiterated his aim: to serve the people. He will never resort to underhanded methods. Falun Dafa is to give, not to take, and it has supernatural powers. In a law preaching session, Mr. Li first purifies the students' bodies to prepare them for the cultivation of the Great Law. As for those students who suffer from diseases, he helps them remove the cause of their disease and then unblock their channels and collaterals. These being done, he goes on to plant Falun in the lower abdomen of every student. This Falun is used to help the student with the practice. It keeps rotating for 24 hours, achieving the purpose of the "Law Refining the Practitioner" and enabling the modern people to extricate themselves from the trouble of being difficult to find much time to practise. Besides, Mr. Li will also plant Falun in other parts of the students' bodies to cure their diseases or help them practise. These Falun never stop rotating. They adjust the practitioners' bodies automatically. In order to help the students grasp the essentials of the exercise, he will also plant Qiji (Æø»ú the energy mechanism) around the students' bodies. Like Falun, it circulates incessantly, guiding the students to the correct movements and enabling the energy in their channels to circulate along the Heavenly Circuit. Falun Dafa is safe to practise, and the practitioner will never go deviant. Mr. Li has repeatedly emphasized that the cultivation of the Great Law should be absolutely safe. All the factors which may lead to deviation, such as the use of Yinian (ÒâÄî the intention) when practising and the spontaneous self- generating movements in exercise, are excluded from Falun Dafa. What's more, every student has Mr. Li's Law body to protect him . He has even cleared up the student's house and place of practice and then put "a covering of safety" over them so that the student will not be interfered with by bad messages. Being enlightened, Mr. Li has a deep insight into the mysteries of the cosmos, which enables him to dispel the miasma in which the present-day world of qigong are shrouded. He is magnanimous, amiable and easy of approach. Whoever is lucky enough to meet with him is deeply impressed by his simple life style, unadorned speech and unselfish service for the well-being of mankind. For the cause of Falun Dafa, he gave up his job and left his family behind. To preach the Law to people, he works excessively and knows no Sundays and holidays, often having no time to eat or rest. His only aspiration is to make more people healthy and happy. Falun Dafa founded by Mr. Li Hongzhi is like a red sun rising from the east, whose radiance with unlimited vitality will illuminate every corner of the earth, nourish all the living things, warm the whole world and play an unparalleled role in the realization of an ideal and perfect human society on this planet. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (5) In December, 1992, six months after Mr. Li came into public, in order to help and support the country's large-scale qigong activities, Mr. Li headed his disciples to participate in the '92 Far East Health Fair held in Beijing at the invitation of the Fair. At the Fair, the name of Mr. Li Hongzhi and Falun Dafa he had created caused a great sensation throughout the capital city all at once. Mr. Li Rusong, chief director of the Health Fair, and professor Jiang Xueguei, general adviser of the Fair, both spoke highly of Mr. Li's superb energy potency and Falun Dafa's magic effectiveness. Mr. Li Rusong said, "The first commendatory letter the Fair has received is in praise of Falun Dafa. The qigong school which has received the most commendatory letters at the Fair is also Falun Dafa." Prof. Jiang said, "I saw with my own eyes that Master Li Hongzhi has worked many miracles for this session of the Health Fair. Falun Dafa has proved itself to be the star cultivation system of the Fair. As the general adviser of the Fair, I am in duty bound to recommend Falun Dafa to you all". At the '93 Far East Health Fair, Mr. Li Hongzhi was appointed as a committee member of the Fair's Organizing Committee and Falun Dafa became a cultivation system on special invitation. The qigong lectures Mr. Li delivered at the Fair were filled with so many fresh and original ideas that they fascinated qigong lovers. The Health Fair had originally arranged for each influential qigong master to give one lecture. However, only one lecture by Mr. Li could not meet the demands of the audience and therefore the Organizing Committee of the Fair decided to ask Mr. Li to give an extra lecture, which still failed to satisfy the appeal of the audience. Consequently a third lecture was given again on the closing day of the Fair. All the three lectures were filled to such capacity that there were not enough chairs for the audience and some of them were sitting on the floor and still some standing until the two-hour-lecture was over. Mr. Li donated all the money from the second lecture to The Public Security Volunteers Foundation of China. In recognition of the outstanding contribution Mr. Li Hongzhi and his Falun Dafa had made at the Fair, the Organizing Committee and the Expert Committee of the Fair made a joint decision: to confer on Mr. Li Hongzhi the Award for Achievement in Borderline Science, the sole supreme award of the Fair. The fair also conferred on him the Special Gold Award and the title of "A Popular Qigong Master" as an encouragement. Mr. Li was the only one qigong master who received so many awards at this session of the Health Fair. At present, Mr. Li is heading his disciples to preach the Law and teach the cultivation exercise in big and medium-sized cities throughout the country. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Research Society of Falun Dafa ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next:Glossary Up:Contents Previous:Lecture Nine ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [NOTE: The strange characters are Chinese in GB code] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Up:Contents Previous:A Short Biography of Mr. Li Hongzhi ------------------------------------------------------------------------ GLOSSARY ability of fixity / concentration ( ¨Á¦ Dingli) A Genuine Guide to Cultivation ( ÐÔÃü¹çÖ¼ Xingming of Nature and Life Guizhi) abstention from food ( ±Ù¹È Bigu) Assistant Spirit ( ¸±ÔªÉñ Fu Yuanshen) attainment status ( ¹ûλ Guowei) awakening quality ( ÎòÐÔ Wuxing) Benti ( ±¾Ìå the true being, one's physical body and his bodies existing in the other spaces) Buddha Body ( ·ðÌå Foti) Buddhahood ( ·ðλ Fowei) Buddha Law ( ·ð·¨ Fofa) Buddha nature ( ·ðÐÔ Foxing) Chief Spirit (Falun Gong) ( ÔªÉñ/Ö÷ÔªÉñ Yuanshen / Zhu Yuanshen) clear and clean mind ( Çå¾²ÐÄ Qing Jing Xin) Conscious Spirit (Tao) ( ÊÉñ Shishen) cultivation ( ÐÞÁ Xiulian) cultivation energy ( ¹¦ Gong) cultivation of speech / self- ( ÐÞ¿Ú Xiu Kou) imposed silence cultivation insanity ( ×ß»ðÈëħ Zou Huo Ru Mo) De ( µÂ virtues) Dharma (Buddhism) ( ·¨ Fa; ·ð·¨ Fofa) Diagram of the Yellow River ( ºÓͼ Hetu) Ding ( ¨ in Falun Dafa. sitting with legs crossed and mind empty, staying with mind empty and conscious; the cultivation of Main Consciousness) Divine Power of Buddha Law ( ·ð·¨Éñͨ Fofa Shentong) elixir field ( µ¤Ìï Dantian) eight characters of one's ( Éú³½°Ë×Ö Shengchen birthday Bazi) emptiness (Buddhism) ( ¿Õ Kong) energy ( ¹¦ Gong) energy column /pillar ( ¹¦Öù Gongzhu) energy mechanism ( Æø»ú Qiji) energy potency ( ¹¦Á¦ Gongli) enlightening quality ( ÎòÐÔ Wuxing) Falun ( Falun Dafa) ( ·¨ÂÖ ) Falun Dafa ( ·¨ÂÖ´ó·¨ ) Falun Gong ( ·¨ÂÖ¹¦ ) Falun Paradise ( ·¨ÂÖÊÀ½ç Falun shijie) Falun Xiulian Dafa ( ·¨ÂÖÐÞÁ´ó·¨ ) Five Elements ( ÎåÐÐ Wuxing) Fruit status ( ¹ûλ Guowei) Glazed Paradise ( ÁðÁ§ÊÀ½ç Liuli shijie) Gong ( Falun Gong) ( ¹¦ gong) gong (qigong) ( ¹¦ gong) Great Chiliocosm (Buddhism) ( Èýǧ´óǧÊÀ½ç Sanqian Daqian Shijie) gradual enlightenment ( ½¥Îò Jianwu) great enlightened being ( ´ó¾õÕß Da Juezhe) Great Way ( ´óµÀ Da Dao) hour of chen ( ³½Ê± Chen Shi, the period of the day from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.) hour of wu ( Îçʱ Whu Shi, the period of the day from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.) hour of Zi ( ×Óʱ Zi Shi, the period of the day from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.) inborn qualities ( ¸ù»ù Genji) integrated cultivation of both ( ÐÔÃüË«ÐÞ Xingming nature and life shuangxiu) integrated of Zhen ( ÕæÉÆÈÌÍÐÞ Zhen Shan Shan Ren Ren Tongxiu) intelligent being / life ( ¸ß¼ÉúÃü Gaoji Shengming) intelligent entity ( ÁéÌå Lingti) karma ( Òµ Ye) karma of the thought ( ˼ÏëÒµ Sixiang Ye) keep / maintain / preserve one's ( Êص Shou De) virtues Law ( ·¨ Fa) Law Body ( ·¨Éí Fashen) layer; level ( ²ã´Î Cengci) light-opening ( ¿ª¹â Kaiguang) might virtue ( ÍþµÂ Wei De) Milk-White Body ( ÄÌ°×Ìå Nai Bai Ti) One Aperture of the Mysterious ( Ðþ¹ØÒ»ÇÏ Pass Xuanguan Yichao) Primal spirit (Tao) ( ÔªÉñ Yuanshen) Orthodox Law ( Õý·¨ Zhengfa) Paraconsciousness (Falun Dafa) ( ¸±ÒâÊ Fu Yi Shi) pass ( ¹Ø Guan) penetrative sight ( ͸ÊÓ Toushi) Period of Decline (Buddhism) ( Ä©·¨Ê±ÆÚ Muofa Shiqi) psychic power ( Éñͨ Shen Tong) Placement of the Mysterious ( Ðþ¹ØÉèλ Xuanguan Pass Shewei) plane ( ²ã´Î Cengci) power of meditation ( ¨Á¦ dingli) power of the Law ( ·¨Á¦ Fali) practice exercises /cultivation ( ¹¦·¨ Gongfa) system preservation of the virtues ( Êص Shou De) primal energy ( ÔªÆø Yuanqi) Primal Infant ( ÔªÓ¤ Yuanying) Primordial Great Tao ( ÏÈÌì´óµÀ Xiantian Dadao) Pure-White Body ( ¾»°×Ìå Jing Bai Ti) qi ( Æø Qi) qigong ( Æø¹¦ Qi Gong) qiji ( Æø»ú energy mechanism) qi of celestial Yang ( ÌìÑôÖ®Æø Tian Yang Zhi Qi) qi of earthly Yin ( µØÒõÖ®Æø Di Yin Zhi Qi) Kalpa ( ½Ù Jie) Remote Sight ( Ò£ÊÓ Yao Shi) right achievement; right fruit ( Õý¹û Zheng Guo) Saha Paradise; the Saha ( æÆÅÊÀ½ç Suopo Shijie) sarira ( ÉáÀû×Ó She Li Zi) Scripture of the Lady Queen ( ÍõĸÄïÄï¾­ Wangmu Mother Niangniang Jing) seven Buddhas of the primeval ( ԭʼÆß·ð Yuanshi Qi Fo) age Shift of the Mysterious Pass ( Ðþ¹Ø»»Î» Xuanguan Huanwei) Sixfold Path of Transmigration ( ÁùµÀÂÖ»Ø Liudao Lunhui) (Buddhism) space ( ¿Õ¼ä Kongjian) spirit possession ( ¸½Ìå Futi) stage ( С²ã´Î Xiao Cengci) status of Buddha ( ·ðλ Fowei) subconsciousness ( DZÒâÊ Qian Yishi) Subtle Babies ( Ó¤º¢ Yinghai) sudden enlightenment ( ÙÎò Dunwu) superior space master ( ÉÏʦ Shang Shi) supernatural power ( ÌØÒ칦ÄÜ Teyi Gongneng) supernormal capability ( ¹¦ÄÜ Gongneng) supreme Yoga ( ÎÞÉÏè¤çì Wushang Yujia) Tao ( µÀ ) Ten Directions ( Ê®·½ÊÀ½ç Shifang Shijie) the Beyond-Triple-World-Law ( ³öÊÀ¼ä·¨ Chu Shijian Fa) the Book of the Luo River ( ÂåÊé Luoshu) the Buddhas' School ( ·ð¼Ò Fo Jia) the Celestial Eye ( ÌìÄ¿ Tianmu) the Celestial Eye Sight ( ÌìÑÛͨ Tianyan Tong) the Confucian School ( Èå¼Ò Ru Jia) the Diagram of the Yellow River ( ºÓͼ Hetu) the In-Triple-World-Law ( ÊÀ¼ä·¨ Shijian Fa) the Law Refines the Practitioner ( ·¨ÁÈË Fa Lian Ren) the Main Consciousness ( Ö÷ÒâÊ Zhu Yishi) the Taoist School ( µÀ¼Ò Tao Jia) the Three Realms ( Èý½ç San Jie) the True Spirit ( Falun Dafa) ( ÔªÉñ Yuanshen) Three Thousand Worlds ( Èýǧ´óǧÊÀ½ç Sanqian Daqian Shijie) True Body ( ÕæÉí Zhen Shen; ÕæÌå Zhen Ti) True Eye ( ÕæÑÛ Zhen Yan) turning mechanism ( Ðý»ú Xuanji) underconsciousness ( ÏÂÒâÊ Xia Yishi) unorthodox school ( СµÀ Xiaodao) virtues ( µÂ De) Xinxing ( ÐÄÐÔ human-nature; mind-nature) Yellow Emperor's classic of ( ¡»ÆµÛÄÚ¾­¡· Huangdi Internal medicine Neijing) Zhen Shan Ren ( ÕæÉÆÈÌ ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Up:Contents Previous:A Short Biography of Mr. Li Hongzhi ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------- Hi, Francisco - Thanks for continuing with the DHP! A couple of my favorites are: 121. Think not lightly of evil, saying, "It will not come to me." Drop by drop is the water pot filled. Likewise, the fool, gathering it little by little, fills himself with evil. 122. Think not lightly of good, saying, "It will not come to me." Drop by drop is the water pot filled. Likewise, the wise man, gathering it little by little, fills himself with good. ----------------------- The journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step (whether the destination is hell or heaven). --------------------- -------------------- 124. If on the hand there is no wound, one may carry even poison in it. Poison does not affect one who is free from wounds. For him who does no evil, there is no ill. -------------------- Nicely poetic. The extreme instance: The arahant, free of "wounds" and hence invulnerable to poisons. ------------------- ------------------ 125. Like fine dust thrown against the wind, evil falls back upon that fool who offends an inoffensive, pure and guiltless man. ----------------- Quite a famous line yes? With metta, Howard ----------------------------------------> > in your posting earlier you spoke of the relation between the > Theravadan-described practices of samatha-vipassanaa (calming + insight) > as parallel to the Dzogchen practices of semde-londe. > > Could you say more, for example, about the actual practices there, given > the rendering of these terms in some places as Mind Series and Space > Series? > > I am also wondering about the relation of these two (semde-londe) to the > pair zhina-hagtho^n (or zhi-gNas = shi-gNas, lHag-thong), more usually > given as equivalent to "samatha and vipa"syanaa (or samatha and > vipassanaa). > > In this context, I am more interested in the practice aspects of these > differences, using the words to see the way they point out something > about these practices (not in conflict with the spirit of "misologia" > that was quoted, I think from Tom, who'd have guessed! ) :-) > with mettaa, > jinavamsa Well, I'll give it a try: for shi-na I was thaught concentration practices belonging to the semde serie, where sem is for chanchub sem, the primordial state of the mind of every individual,pure and selfperfected. the texts belonging to this serie are aimed to introduce into this state in accordance with Garab Dorje first dictate of direct introduction to the knowledge of one's own state to realize this the practice is subdivided in 4 stages or yogas : 1 nepa, or calm state, 2 miyowa or not disturbed state, 3 nyamnyi state of equality or not duality, 4 lhundrub the selfperfection. the practice starts with fixation or shi-ne where shi is pacific and ne is still or without movement. Usually the state of mind body and voice or energy is scattered and overcharged, or anyway this is my case . So a precise strategy has to be applied to relax the three at the same time. the body position is controlled kind of a strhight back semi/lotus position . starting maybe with some deep and relaxed breathing because the breath is linked to the vital energy so to relax the mind it is very helpful. Then fixation on usually a letter A, that can be visualized or just looked at on a preprepared piece of paper . the advantage of this object is that it can be chanted thereby unifying sound breathing and mind. But fixation can be performed on any object according to circumstances.Fixation does not means to think to the object or about it but is a way of keeping an attention of awareness.So when starting one fix in a sharp way.It is not that one thinks of not thinking , still an acting of the mind , but one find himself in a state that arising thought do not bring desturbance because they are not followed, like if they were waves in the sea that arise and vanish effortlessly. I must confess that at time this failed to me and to finally stop the mind I sound the letter, unifying the A of the sound with the A of the mind. It is necessary also to understand how slowly to relax the fixation when the attention is completaly relaxed and thought come and go like waves. This means the fixation with object is realized and it is not necessary to still use the A but it is important to pay attention to two phases : the moment in which a thought arises or gyuwa and the moment in which no thought is present or nepa. When the fixation with object is realized is the moment of start the fixation without object just by concentrating on a point in space like if a A were there but without visualize it, inizially in a kind of sharp way then relax not just the attention but also the body. On aquiring familiarity with this calm state in all the ways this will arise spontaneously.. One finds a state like a calm lake with the odd fish jumping and a little flying bird and maybe a ship in the background but still one is in this calm not disturbed state, known as shine. When it is not necessary to look for this state but it arises automatically as soon one is present it is the sign of stable shine that is like a starting base for contemplation but to really acheive contemplation it is necessary to note the two aspect of the mind, the calm one and the moving one trougth the bare awareness called rigpa. To reconize it it is necessary to work more on the movement of thought called myowua that I see as corrispondent to vipassana. at this point one enters into contemplation that brings to the integration of the practice with daily life that is called nyamnyi or equality of all the experiences in the state of rigpa like in choicheless contemplation. The second of Garab Dorje dictates is linked to the lon-de` and it is "Not to remain in doubt towards the state of pure presence (RIGPA) by the practice of contemplation. It is fundamental here the method of integration and this explains the name of serie of space : Klong is space, the space one find with integration. Ad example if one is fixating into the space this space in itself is the dimension to integrate with so that self-liberation of the passion and of the contact subject-object is reached by this integration there are several stages in one of wich the sensorial input is present as an ornament of rigpa This is getting to long and taking to gravious task my poor knowledge of English Forgive the spelling and the butchering of sintax rules , it is not my mother tongue. with metta Ciao Mario virtually anything Arthur Versalius has published is great, so too for Kurt Rudolph's Gnosis (Harper, perhaps HarperSanFrancisco, translated from the German, includes buddhism as gnosis), Keith Dowman's The Flight of Garuda, in a round about way Dame Francis Yate's book on Giordonno Bruno, James Hillman's ReVisioning Psychology, The Code of the Soul, Soul Making. What you have to be careful of is reiterations of Roman Catholic proganda dating from 3-5 century. In an exchange on Buddha-L last year with a reknown Buddhist scholar with Roman Catholic affinities, he made the claim that gnosticism was an early Christian heresey that was otherworldly, antimaterialistic, etc. Some where, whereas the dominant tradition was not. Those that were other worldly roughly correspond to the Sthaivaravada/Theravada complex of Indic Buddhism, while the integrative, life affirming approach is that of the bodhisattva/varjrasattva/pundarika complex of universalistic buddhism. (most theravadin masters are nested bodhisattva masters these days). I can send an article on reinterpreting buddhism that I presented at the IASBS conference in Honolulu two years ago by private email; I have no wish to burden the Insight list with a general mailing of my ramblings. gassho, *** The Slightly Demented Vision of Robert Thurman by Prof. R. Thurman oOo Fearless Mountain Newsletter (formerly The Sanghapala Newsletter), Autumn 1996 * 2539 -- Volume 1, Number 4 http://www.dharmanet.org/Abhayagiri/fmtn.html oOo This talk was given one evening at the first conference of Western Buddhist teachers with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in Dharamsala, India, March 1993. The reader should imagine a circle of 25 Buddhist Westerners from several different continents, all of whom have been teaching for some years. During the course of the talk, which is at the end of a long day of discussions, several power cuts occur (this is India. . .), plunging the room into ever deepening darkness. Eventually Robert Thurman, now Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist studies at Columbia University, is persuaded to rise and speak. He is a towering, shambling, golden whirlwind of a man -- the reader should therefore regard some of the sweeping statements and generalizations, as well as some of the liberally rendered scriptural quotes, as part of the ribald gusto and good-humored extemporization on important themes that is the beloved Professor's style ... oOo I was the first monk that His Holiness ordained. I was his first experiment and, of course, I was a failure because I resigned my vows about a year and a half after I was ordained, although I had lived several years before that as a celibate. I therefore have about three and a half years of monk-time logged, but only one and a half of formal ordination. Then, being an ex-monk, I became a kind of 'anti-monk' intellectually; I decided that the New Age had dawned -- it was the late 60's -- and there was no more need for monks and nuns or monasteries or any of that. Shambhala was just around the corner and all these monolithic institutions could be swept away. . . I then had a long time of studying different things, thinking about engaged Buddhism and teaching things over and over again, as a Buddhist academic does. I should say before that I had decided that I felt compelled to teach the Dharma since the only thing in life I loved was the Dharma; it had been a saving grace to me and I still think that it is the only thing the world needs. So I figured that the only place left to do it was in the universities, and at least there some people would have a chance to learn something about it and I would have an excuse to keep studying it, too. In the process of studying the history of Buddhism and teaching Buddhist texts again and again, and sending a lot of people from classes to meditation centers, I discovered, in the early 80's, that monastic institutions were to me the most revolutionary and the most important of institutions. When I reported this to His Holiness he just laughed and laughed. "What is this?" he said. "An ex-monk is now going on and on about monasteries? You can afford to do that now. You know, with your beloved wife and your four children, that now you're safe -- you'll never be back! You can go and promote them as much as you want, knowing you won't have to go there -- ha, ha, ha. . ." He thought that was very funny. We were also talking then about his frustration with the conservatism within the monastic communities -- not only the Tibetan ones but others, too -- and how they were acting as though they were still in their original cultural matrix in Asia and were unwilling to modify things, and so on. He wished to find some kind of basis on which they could improve things but he did not really have the time to do that. So slowly I began to organize, at Amherst, what I called "monasticism conferences." I brought a lot of Christian and Buddhist monastics of different traditions, a few Hindus and a few Sufis, together in conference after conference. We had over half a dozen conferences and they began to discover, beyond ideology, at a level of practice and daily living, that there was a real commonality. The monastic effort, irrespective of religious ideology, was a globe-spanning effort that had been trying to restrain what I consider has been the arch-enemy of monasticism for thousands of years -- the other global, universalizing institution that started when the Buddha started monasticism -- militarism. Modern militarism also began 2,500 years ago, with Ajatashatru, the King of Magadha, the empire building of the Kamineds, and the Axial Age, the Trojan War and all that. It's actually been neck and neck ever since then, if you look at the planet in a global way. Discovering that was a terrible shock, because if you follow the traditional Buddhist view that the existence of the Dharma on the planet depends upon its rootedness in a Sangha which includes the four-fold Sangha of Bhikshu, Bhikshuni, Upasaka and Upasika, you see that there is practically no Buddhism left. It was destroyed and wiped out in almost every country -- apart from two or three Theravadan countries and a couple of secularized countries. There are a few monasteries in Japan, for example, but the Vinaya was destroyed there a century ago by forcing all the monks to marry, which was a government policy to disempower the monasteries, though that might be shocking to hear for modern Zen Buddhists. It has become important in my mind that we rediscover this. * * * I feel one of the things we have a tremendous lack of in our Buddhism in the West is knowledge. It is very fortunate that Western populations became fascinated with Buddhism through contacting what I call 'the three educations': ethics, meditation and wisdom (I don't like the word training', which I consider an army word, or one for experimental rats or dogs). But the central education of samadhi is the one that has really caught the Western masses. That is very good and very necessary. It is, of course, the central one of the three. There is a great lack of knowledge on the wisdom side and on the ethical side and a base of knowledge needs to be built. I feel that, although I myself do not know that much about the Vinaya, if we learn more about it we will find that just as the Buddhist tradition produced that magnificent repertoire of meditational teachings that have been so illuminating and so liberating for so many of us, Buddhism taught many things about society and about organizations and communities that will also be liberating. It is our typical Western thing to think, "Oh well, yes, meditation, we've got that from Buddhism but we're Westerners and so we know about organizations, and of course about intellectual matters." We may find that Buddhist civilization has a lot to contribute to us on both of those other levels, just as it did on the meditational level. So I think we have to work on our own knowledge base. I would therefore like to invite everyone to Columbia University, or to whatever other venue, and to gather some academics, because they too have quite a lot of knowledge about different Vinaya practices in Buddhist countries. The Vinaya was transformed by very enlightened masters when they went to China and to different countries; they modified it to suit the country. Remember that in the first instance the Buddha refused to establish the Patimokkha in one sitting by just spouting it. He said, "No, Buddhas don't just give a dogmatic set of rules. They wait until problems arise in the community; they wait for the law-suits and then they give rulings which define the focus for the community." That gives the basis for creating a flexible Vinaya. On the other hand, we shouldn't be like modern people and think that we need to reinvent the wheel. We should discover how they were modified in relation to earlier circumstances and then we can extrapolate that into our present circumstance. I would like to offer that as a suggestion, although I think that it is a long process. * * * Shakyamuni Buddha was an engaged Buddhist -- there cannot be any question. He was unengaged for about a week or two under the trees in the Bodhi forest. In the Tibetan tradition they have him saying this thing about "How profound, deep, peaceful, untroubled... clear light... how neat, I love this... like an elixir of immortality... I'm totally stoned out here in the woods." And then he says, "Oh, I don't think I should tell this to anybody because whoever I tell it to certainly won't understand it." That was his unengaged Buddhism; he had about five minutes of it. Then Brahma and Indra showed up and said, "Hey, come on, get down there." So he walks to Saranath to found a monastery -- that is engaged Buddhism. We think of a monastery as a place for dead people. We have to realize that our culture is formed by Protestantism. Martin Luther slammed the monasteries, saying, "Shut down all the monasteries in northern Europe." So you shut down the counter-force against militarism on the planet in those countries of northern Europe and what happens? The planet gets conquered by a bunch of berserk militarists. That is what we have been doing, and America is the most rabidly berserk militarist country in history; even with our ideals of liberty, we have the biggest army and defense system and the most nuclear weapons. It's totally unbelievable. Look at the business in Iraq. I admit it's a weird analysis (and my sociological colleagues blink when I tell them about it) but if you remove monasticism from a social mix, what happens is that all the productive energy of people has nowhere to go but into over-production of everything. So they go out and conquer the whole world. No one wants to produce a spiritual state to invert and internalize the energy, to produce a different, higher world, so they just transform this world and they wreck the whole place -- it is within an inch of being wrecked, as we know. Therefore, the Buddha was like the founder of a peace corps. We have to stop seeing him as some pious person in the hills, just speaking in dulcet tones. The Buddha was founding a peace corps and was risking being burnt at the stake. He said, "Hey, go out and tell everyone the gates to Nirvana are OPEN. Tell people from any caste." Don't forget that Buddha was a West Point-er. He was 29; he was a military cadet in a palace. Princes in India studied in the army, in warfare; they were Kshatriya -- the warrior-nobles. So naturally when he wanted to conquer the world for the Dharma he wanted an army. * * * In the near future there will be more wars like this one in Iraq, I fear. So to meet (Bhikkhu) Amaro and to hear about his community was such a treat for me, because the idea of going back to the primary thing is important. Remember how one was originally ordained by the Buddha -- the Buddha just said, "Ehi bhikkhu" -- that's all. "Come here, beggar. Come here, mendicant." Now, enlightenment is the deconstruction of identity. If you attain enlightenment, in a way you don't even know who you are any more, much less "Where am I going to wash the dishes?" You might even wonder "What is my name?" If you have no idea of what your name is, you might as well have no hair and wear a weird robe because you don't even know who you are. If he is going to teach you something that will give you the realization of the total deconstruction of identity, he has to take care of you and reconstruct some sort of useful pattern within your own relativities -- because otherwise he is not fulfilling his responsibility. This is the purpose of the Vinaya. He can't just deconstruct your identity and leave you standing in the middle of the traffic. So he would say "Ehi bhikkhu" and your hair flew off and your robes would change. There you were, floating around happily, living your life as a monk, and people would give you a free lunch. So we have to go back to the primary thing and forget all that nonsense about hierarchy and who is the big boss -- that is all nonsense. The Buddha was deconstructing the serious Brahmanical family/father/patriarch/serious authority/guru business and was liberating people. He was not putting them under rules and authorities at all. In all of the cultures where it has become like that -- if you feel that the Buddhist monastic orders are solely trying to prop up the culture -- I am sure that we are just seeing corruption in the tradition. Essentially, they are all trying to unravel the culture they are in. My appeal to you is, in the process of your work, please try at least to entertain what is, I grant you, this slightly demented vision: that the most activist thing -- the peace movement, the engaged movement -- would be if one group of Westerners could crank up the generosity to provide a permanent free lunch to any group of people who want to take serious ordination -- even if they're not that brilliant, not that great a yogi, not a great intellectual scholar. Remember that the key to monasticism is that you can be useless. You can be honored and supported for simply restraining certain negativities. By doing that, you represent a channel to Nirvana for other people and the generosity they devote to you is an essential practice for them -- it is not just some side thing they do now, and then later they do real practice. Dana is the first paramita; it is practice. If you build a monastery at Spirit Rock, I hope it will be called "Free Lunch Monastery". There is almost no such thing in the West. Everyone in a monastery is justifying their existence -- "We are offering services; we are going to do 'Dying'; we will help you; we will have therapy. . ." It is always the production thing of our barbaric Protestant civilization. Everyone has to work and justify themselves because there is no ounce of Dharmakaya anywhere -- that's elsewhere, out there with Jehovah, some place outside. You have to do something all the time -- so if you are going to be a monk, you have got to do something and produce. But the beautiful thing about Buddhist monasticism is the acknowledgment by people that any human being is like a flower, and of total value in itself. Even if they do not do anything positive but just genuinely and sincerely restrain their negativities -- put the iron wall of the monk's robe of corpse cloth around themselves -- they will be developing, and they will represent a point of positive development for the whole community. * * * That is a deep, foundational vision, not a superficial, social vision, and I hope that you will all work with His Holiness over the next 40 years of conferences and we will develop one free-lunch monastery in the Protestant West. That would be the turning point for this battle between monasticism and militarism, which monasticism, at the moment, has lost the planet is totally devoted to militarism. When militarism shows its real face, when the Bosnias have spread, people will be ready to go into that mentality of "face your death, drop your identity, drop your hair, get out there on the English street-corners with your bowl and wait until someone drops something other than bird-shit into it or else be willing to starve". That's the key. Your life is on the line, you are not going to produce anything but a spiritual state and therefore people will feed you. That way they recognize the value of you as an individual achieving a spiritual state. That is the foundation of real individualism, real generosity and social Dharma practice, to which individual Dharma practice must lead in order for it to have any positive result. * * * Q: How do you see the role of modern lay people? A: The role of modern lay people is just as it is -- go straight ahead, gung ho. But they are also empowered by having monastics. They can move back and forth between them and they are empowered by that. Lay people are ready to meditate, to live differently, be eccentric and non-conformist in their Western countries. They are ready to challenge their own mind and go into their unconscious. Why can they not explore the paramita of Dana and try to break out of the mold of the Protestant culture where you never give anybody something for nothing? You give them something for nothing -- just let them wear a rag or two, that's something. Shave their hair and look grubby and then give them something. There are a lot of homeless people in Western countries and the monastics can be like honored homeless people. That kind of generosity will enrich the Western people immeasurably. "I" am not IT -- "I" am not the center of my community. Why are we supposed to be the center? In Buddhism we are learning not to be the center of everything. We are learning to de-centrify ourselves. Even to have a person who is an idiot and support them with a free lunch because they are doing some minimal, exemplary self-restraint activities and cutting down on the usual reactionaryism of people, is of tremendous benefit to us. To proclaim "I wish to be useless" in the world of samsara is the beginning of liberation. To allow people to do nothing, in a society that is collectivist and demands production and obedience from all of its members in some rigid type of control system, is a kind of total liberation. oOo Source: Fearless Mountain Newsletter (formerly The Sanghapala Newsletter), Autumn 1996 * 2539 -- Volume 1, Number 4 http://www.dharmanet.org/Abhayagiri/fmtn.html oOo -------------------==== Posted via Deja News ====----------------------- http://www.dejanews.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Reply to talk.religion.buddhism] -- [Reply to author only] -- Use [back-button] to return. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NewsGateway V0.20beta ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From shaksway@aol.com (Shaksway): Newsgroups: talk.religion.buddhism, Subject: Pure Land Buddhism All Follow-Up: Re: Pure Land Buddhism Date: 13 Oct 1997 03:57:05 GMT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Basic Teachings of Western Pure Land Buddhism Jim Davis 1 This is the Good News of the Buddha Shakyamuni, [1] a manifestation of the Unhindered Light, [2] which has come to us from across the centuries. To take on a new and more Western form for this New Dharma turning age.[3] This Good News I first heard from the Buddhist Community, those who are fellow travelers on our way and who graciously share their faith with others. The Community received the Good News from Shinran.[4] Shinran received and taught the teachings of the Seven Pure Land Ancestors.[5] All of whom, correctly heard and transmitted the true meaning of the Pure Land Sutras[6] as given to us by Shakyamuni 2500 years ago. Thus I establish these teachings. 2 The classical Pure Land tradition is based upon the Three Pure Land Sutras:[7] the Larger Pure Land Sutra,[8] the Smaller Pure Land Sutra[9] and the Meditation Sutra.[10] And of these three sutras, Shinran took the Larger Sutra as his main text, out of which he expounded the awakening of enlightenment through Other-power. And yet, Shinran did seek out inspiration in other sutras, and within the writings of the Seven Pure Land Ancestors. So we can also seek out truth in other sutras; the Dharma is not bound by three small books. All the sutras teach various truths and other great practices. All of which, if correctly practiced leads to awakening. 3 This universe of the body is samsara;[11] six worlds[12] spin about within it. It is a chaos of birth-and-death manifesting itself as beginningless suffering. Birth, illness, aging and death are sufferings. To be separated from those you love or to be attached to those you hate, are both sufferings. To have what you do not want or not to get what you do want, are also sufferings. The teachings do not deny that there is happiness. Yet one should not doubt that these pleasant states of being are fleeting; suffering always finds a way back into our lives. With the passage of time even our greatest pleasures become boring. Some feel that death is a way out of suffering. This is a delusion. Death does not bring an end to suffering as due to the weight of our deeds,[13] the results of our actions take rebirth. Thus giving rise to a new life of suffering. This cycle of life-and-death has no beginning, and if left to itself, no ending. 4 And yet, hope is never far away. Long ago, out of the depths of myth, as beginningless duration, birth-and-death became conscious of itself. This consciousness is the One Mind. It was moved out of great compassion for the infinite number of beings trapped within itself and vowed to save them all. That consciousness is the Eternal Buddha. The Eternal Buddha is Amida, the Buddha of Infinite Light and Life. One should always remember that Amida is not a god nor the creator of this universe; Amida is neither Yahweh[14] or Brahman.[15] This universe has neither first nor last cause. One does not stand in awe in Amida's Light; in the light of awaking there can be no fear. Amida is our eternal friend who is there always for us for Life immortal. 5 From time to time Amida's Light takes human form; into a world of vast darkness and endless death, the Eternal Buddha takes birth. Shakyamuni Buddha is the manifestation, the essence of Amida's Light and Life to this age. If one takes on the perspective of passionate beings trapped within the systems of greed, hatred and ignorance, then this is a dark age.[16] And yet, through the great compassion of the Buddha's teachings Amida's Light and Life, has reached out to embrace us. This embracing is the awaking of enlightenment.[17] It is to be grasped never to be abandoned. Thus Amida's Light dispels forever all dark ages. Mappo is no more! 6 Shakyamuni Buddha taught all who came to him. according to their level of understanding. Traditionally it is claimed that 84,000 different Buddhist teachings were all proclaimed by him. And from time to time, place to place, one or another of these many teachings would come to prominence. Sometimes even new teachings are remembered[18] and taught. As for myself I follow the Western Pure Land Buddhist path[19] and hope others will come to benefit from these teachings. 7 In one sense, Shakyamuni Buddha's advent into this world was to bring the teachings to you. Due to the past good of numerous others, you have now received this good fortune: this very teaching you are now hearing. Since this teaching is here faith can not be far away. Amida's Light has shone upon us patiently it is time for us to wake up. 8 Due to beginningless greed, hatred and ignorance we have all been chained to the cycle of birth-and-death. Since we have up till now failed in all attempts to free ourselves.[20] Why do we continue to delude ourselves with thoughts of self-power? Amida gives us faith in the other-power. And through great faith Amida awakens within us the Pure Land[21] itself. Freedom is impossible within birth-and-death; bondage is impossible within the Pure Land. Awakening faith transforms birth-and-death into the Pure Land. This gift of faith in awakening enlightenment has broken down the gates of hell and its captives have been freed, now and forever.[22] 9 Amida's compassion reaches across the darkness of space and time,[23] to save all beings. No harmful karma can stand in the way of this compassion; nothing we can possibly do can ever separate us from Amida's embrace. If through past evil deeds, we cannot help but to break the many precepts,[24] then we would be forever lost by our own power. However, Amida over looks our past faults, converts evil karma into good and turns this body into the Pure Land. 10 One should always keep in mind that other Buddhist groups may have many rules, precepts, practices, food taboo's, ect., all of which, makes it most difficult for the layperson's faith to awaken. And yet, these all are traditional spiritual paths, many taught by Shakyamuni himself and therefore we should not slander any of them. However, that does not mean we have to follow them. As no single Buddhist group ever tries to practice all of the teachings, they pick and choose according to their times and place. It is now a new time and the West is a new place. It is now the time and place for a new tradition to emerge. 11 We hear repeated about the need to abandon the ego, in order to realize liberation, from all Asian religions. And the Pure Land sects are no different. However, to abandon the ego is to rely only upon the other-power. How is this possible? All efforts based upon self-powered acts only serve to strengthen the ego. To accept that nirvana has already been given to us, is to abandon all attempts to force our way in. It is based upon faith, and yet, even this faith is given to us. We do nothing but accept Amida's gift. Just say "Namah Amida Buddha" and live the Pure Land now. 12 We do not have to go off on great pilgrimages to India, Thailand, Tibet or Japan, to hear and receive awakening faith. When the conditions are right, awakening takes place in the here and now. No need to abandon secular life to enter monasteries or even take weekend retreats. This awakening takes place as we live our daily lives. There is no longer a false split; no more sacred/profane dichotomy. The moment of the awakening of enlightenment seeks us out and finds us wherever we may be. 13 Amida is the result of the her Vow.[25] The Vow that if any living being calls out her name in faith, they will take birth in the Western Pure Land. In her land all who takes birth there will become great enlightening beings. Who then return again and again to the world of birth-and-death to save the many beings. The Vow arose out of universal compassion[26] which manifested itself as Amida. This compassion is true and real and so, are its incarnations.[27] 14 To say "Namah Amida Buddha" through faith even just once, is to break the chains of karma. It is to be embraced by universal compassion never to be abandoned. It is to take birth in her land now; once has become the equal of Maitreya, the future Buddha. This gift of faith has been ever present but only now have we accepted it. The past good of innumerable past lives have finally born fruit in the awakening to enlightenment in this life. 15 Say the nembutsu just once through faith and thereafter only out of gratitude. One's life itself becomes nembutsu. This is the life of faith: to awaken to enlightenment, to act justly, forgo all fear or superstition and to teach others to do the same. 16 The call of nembutsu and our response to it, are both manifestations of the awaking of enlightenment. To hear and to receive is open to all: female and male, young and old, gay and straight, non-Asian and Asian, those good and those evil, etc. When one's inherent enlightenment awakens all social distinctions are overthrown in this life and in the next. Remember if religion can not free us in the here and now, how can we trust it in the next life? 17 The awakening of enlightenment is a gift; it is a benefit freely given to us by Amida herself. No one can stand between us and Amida's gift. No one can deny or take back from us awakening faith through the other-power. Therefore, be free women and men! Do not grovel or bow at the guru's feet, nor do any slavish senseless things in order to receive initiation or transmission. All of can receive the Infinite Light and Life directly, freely and without preconditions from Amida herself. 18 Many who practice Asian religions do so to gain great powers or to have all their desires fulfilled. Saying nembutsu, I have no such powers. Though I lack them in all ways, I do not seek them either. Life is wondrous as it is. All ways of power I reject! Since none leads to awakening seeking such powers can only lead to more misery. 19 This world of birth-and-death is Amida's field of action; Amida has always poured out to this world, great faith, so that all can awaken to enlightenment. She has reached out to us arising out of the very beginninglessness of existence, so that today we have the great fortune to hear and say her name. And now having been set free birth-and-death itself becomes the Pure Land. 20 So to conclude, live your life, act compassionately,[28] struggle against oppression and injustice. And after the end of this life, return again and again to this world, until every last being including the grass, the animals, the trees and the land[29] all enter together into Nirvana. [1]This is the historical Buddha who lived in northern India over 2500 years ago. [2]Another name for Amida, the Buddha of Infinite Light and Life who lives mythically in the Western Pure Land. [3]Refers to the end of mappo the last 500 years of a 2500 year cycle of 500 year wheels. We are now at the beginning of a new 500 year cycle of Buddhist expansion. [4]Shinran was the founder of Jodo Shinshu the largest Japanese Pure Land Sect and who was a major reformer of Japanese Buddhism. His teachings and methods of teaching are the basis of the Buddhism I teach. [5]Usually called patriarchs by those who use poor English. They are: Nagarjuna, Vasubandu, T'an-luan, Tao-ch'o, Shan-tao, Genshin and Honen. [6]Which are the Larger Pure Land Sutra, the Smaller Pure Land Sutra and the Meditation Sutra. [7]These are the three canonical sutras of Jodo Shinshu and most Pure Land sects. [8]This sutra tells us of the origin of Amida Buddha, expounds the 48 vows and describes the Pure Land. [9]This sutra describes the Pure Land and the practice of chanting nembutsu. Due to its shortness it is often used for ritual chanting in it's entirely. [10]This sutra tells us the story of an Northern Indian queen whose husband had recently been overthrown by his son. In despair she turns to Shakyamuni Buddha who teaches her 16 meditations concerning Amida Buddha. This text has been a basic manual for Pure Land Buddhism until Honen/Shinran began to teach nembutsu-only. [11]Also, referred to as birth-and-death [12]The six worlds are the realm of the gods, the realm of the anti-gods (Titans), the realm of human-beings, the realm of animals, the realm of the hungry spirits, and the realm of the hell-beings. Traditionally, all six worlds are considered real places, but Japanese Buddhism during the Middle Ages viewed them as psychological states. [13]karma [14]The name of the original Hebrew God (God-the-Father/Allah). [15]The Hindu creator God who is generally ignored in Modern Hinduism, but was still a major deity when Buddhism began. [16]This refers to the doctrine of mappo or the age when Buddhism dies out. Originally the last 500 years of a 2500 year cycle, but overtime extended to 10,000 years. [17]Or Shinjin in Jodo Shinshu texts. [18]Sometimes those whose prior life had been in the company of the historical Buddha is able, due to good karma, to remember forgotten sutras. [19]This is basically Jodo Shinshu Westernized and without the Asian cultural baggage. It is still in the process of defining itself which is the reason I composed this teaching. [20]Some sutras recount individuals who have practiced for numerous kalpas (billions of years) but still failed to achieve enlightenment. [21]The Pure Land is the place where enlightenment occurs. Traditionally, the Western Pure Land was a place where nembutsu followers went after death to practice and achieve enlightenment. Shinran transformed this teaching to the here and now. This body becomes the Pure Land when we experience awakening. [22]Because all things are interbeing, when one awakens so do all other beings. [23]Buddhism is a universal-cosmic religion not restricted to this planet. This idea came from a conversation with Rev. Ken O'Neil of Tuscon, AZ. [24]Rules of conduct which if taken too literally makes life dull and boring. The problems with rules and legalism is a problem most religions have had. Mystics in most faiths pass through the level of legalism to a mysical libertarianism. [25]The story is given in the Larger Sutra. [26]Ultimate Reality (Dharmakaya) has two aspects: ultimate-reality-as-it-is and ultimate-reality-as-compassion. Amida is the personification of the ultimate-reality-as-compassion. In Tibetan Buddhism Amida (Amitabha) is a Mythical Reality Buddha as is not the same as ultimate-reality-as-it-is. [27]In a sense, all existence except ourselves are manifestations of universal compassion. When we stop seeing ourselves apart from universal compassion we realize the unity of Amida and ourselves. When this is personally experienced we call it the awakening of enlightenment. [28]During the Middle Ages in Japan, Korea and Northern China numerous peasant uprising occurred based upon Pure Land ideology (against the state and state Buddhism). [29]Buddhism considers the land itself to be a living thing. NewsGateway V0.20beta Elle D'Coda wrote >The system i found, that goes the deepest is a tibetan doctrine. They >call it Psychic heat, and is the equivalent of K awakening in some ways. I'd agree with you that the Tibetans have the largest body of knowledge on this topic of tummo (gTum mo) or psychic heat. It is deeply nested in the rest of their practice so it requires, in my exposure, a great deal of preliminaries to have access to it. >The emphasis is put on breath, you have to come each pore of your skin >breath, in and out. and your consciousness must become "big" enough to >visualize on each pore the faces of deities with different colors. They >you star lighting up the fire, that wont come out as surge, but will go >from the nadis to the accupunture-meridian system to the cells, and so >on, the execs will come out as heath by the skin pores. > >For Tibetans that technique is the only one that can help to judge the >level of enlightenment of someone. No one can no hoe enlighten someone >is. But if someone can pass through the initiation of Spcychic fire, >than he must of attained a certain level of enlightenment for that. As I have been taught it, mastery of tummo is considered a yogic attainment but as one Tibetan teacher conveyed to me ``tummo without bodhicitta (the aspiration to attain enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings) is useless''. In itself it has is viewed as having no particular value but when merged with renunciation, bodhicitta and correct view of reality (yand dag pa'i lta ba) then it is considered to be very very powerful. >The initiation is simple, and if passed, the tibetan can where the white >thin robe, than he wears even in winter. > >Here is the initiation: >On a cold night of winter, in the himalayas, they go to a frozen lake. >The one to be initiated sits naked on the snow (not on the lake :-)). >All nigh long, people dip towels in the lake, and let them freeze. They >but them on the initiated skin, and from his psychic heat, he must dry >them, in a certain laps of time. They continue like this until the >sunrise. At the sunrise the snow around the initiated must also have >melted around a 2 meter radius and to a certain dept. Only then can he >where this very symbolic white robe. For a view of this from the performer's side read Chagdud Tulku's biography. To put this a little bit in context. He tells the story of after a tummo retreat they all had to run around in the freezing cold with their white robes and he was afraid he might humiliate himself. I can only think of a few contemporary practitioners who have anything like the ability projected in some of these western writings. Dr. Herbert Benson studied tummo yogis and the best was able to raise his external body temperature about 10 degrees. I think that is about as good as it gets. >The only writings i found of this is in >Tibetan Yoga and Secrets Doctrines, Oxford University press. W. Y. >Evans-Wentz. Glenn Mullin has recently published a couple great books with Snow Lion. The first is _Tsong Khapa's Six Yogas of Naropa_ and the second is _Readings on the Six Yogas of Naropa_. They are really fantastic works and open up the whole area for English readers for the first time. >***watch out it's powerful stuff*** No trick to help you in there, only >to hurt you. AMEN! Mangalam Kurt and oh, those quotations were from _The Opening of The Wisdom Eye and the History of the Advancement of Buddhadharma in Tibet_, by His Holiness Tenzin Gyatsho, The XIVth Dalai Lama of Tibet, 1971, Adyar Madras, The Theosophical Publishing House. (Sometimes his family name is spelled Gyatso 1. A NOTE ON PATICCASAMUPPÁDA Api c'Udáyi titthatu pubbanto titthatu aparanto, dhammam te desessámi: Imasmim sati idam hoti, imass'uppádá idam uppajjati; imasmim asati idam na hoti, imassa nirodhá idam nirujjhatí ti. Majjhima viii,9 But, Udáyi, let be the past, let be the future, I shall set you forth the Teaching: When there is this this is, with arising of this this arises; when there is not this this is not, with cessation of this this ceases. Imasmim sati idam hoti, imass' uppádá idam uppajjati; yadidam avijjápaccayá sankhárá, sankharapaccayá viññánam, viññánapaccayá námarúpam, námarúpapaccayá saláyatanam, saláyatanapaccayá phasso, phassapaccayá vedaná, vedanápaccayá tanhá, tanhápaccayá upádánam, upádánapaccayá bhavo, bhavapaccayá játi, játipaccayá jarámaranam sokaparidevadukkhadomanass' upáyásá sambhavanti; evam etassa kevalassa dukkhakkhandhassa samudayo hoti. When there is this this is, with arising of this this arises; that is to say, with nescience as condition, determinations; with determinations as condition, consciousness; with consciousness as condition, name-&-matter; with name-&-matter as condition, six bases; with six bases as condition, contact; with contact as condition, feeling; with feeling as condition, craving; with craving as condition, holding; with holding as condition, being; with being as condition, birth; with birth as condition, ageing-&-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair, come into being; thus is the arising of this whole mass of unpleasure (suffering). Imasmim asati idam na hoti, imassa nirodhá idam nirujjhati; yadidam avijjánirodhá sankháranirodho, sankháranirodhá viññánanirodho, viññánanirodhá námarúpanirodho, námarúpanirodhá saláyatananirodho, saláyatananirodhá phassanirodho, phassanirodhá vedanánirodho, vedanánirodhá tanhánirodho, tanhánirodhá upádánanirodho, upádánanirodhá bhavanirodho, bhavanirodhá játinirodho, játinirodhá jarámaranam sokaparidevadukkhadomanass' upáyásá nirujjhanti; evam etassa kevalassa dukkhakkhandhassa nirodho hoti. Majjhima iv,8 When there is not this this is not, with cessation of this this ceases; that is to say, with cessation of nescience, ceasing of determinations; with cessation of determinations, ceasing of consciousness; with cessation of consciousness, ceasing of name-&- matter; with cessation of name-&-matter, ceasing of six bases; with cessation of six bases, ceasing of contact; with cessation of contact, ceasing of feeling; with cessation of feeling, ceasing of craving; with cessation of craving, ceasing of holding; with cessation of holding, ceasing of being; with cessation of being, ceasing of birth; with cessation of birth, ageing-&-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair, cease; thus is the ceasing of this whole mass of unpleasure (suffering). 1. The traditional interpretation of paticcasamuppáda (of its usual twelve-factored formulation, that is to say) apparently has its roots in the Patisambhidámagga , or perhaps in the Abhidhammapitaka. This interpretation is fully expounded in the Visuddhimagga . It can be briefly summarized thus: avijjá and sankhárá are kamma in the previous existence, and their vipáka is viññána, námarúpa, saláyatana, phassa, and vedaná, in the present existence; tanhá, upádána, and bhava, are kamma in the present existence, and their vipáka is játi and jarámarana in the subsequent existence. 2. This Note will take for granted first, that the reader is acquainted with this traditional interpretation, and secondly, that he is dissatisfied with it. It is not therefore proposed to enter into a detailed discussion of this interpretation, but rather to indicate briefly that dissatisfaction with it is not unjustified, and then to outline what may perhaps be found to be a more satisfactory approach. 3. As the traditional interpretation has it, vedaná is kammavipáka. Reference to Vedaná Samy. iii,2 will show that as far as concerns bodily feeling (with which the Sutta is evidently dealing) there are seven reasons for it that are specifically not kammavipáka. Only in the eighth place do we find kammavipákajá vedaná. This would at once limit the application of paticcasamuppáda to certain bodily feelings only and would exclude others, if the traditional interpretation is right. Some of these bodily feelings would be paticcasamuppanná, but not all; and this would hardly accord with, for example, the passage: Paticcasamuppannam kho ávuso sukhadukkham vuttam Bhagavatá (Nidána/Abhisamaya Samy. iii,5 ). The Auspicious One, friend, has said that pleasure and unpleasure are dependently arisen. 4. There is, however, a more serious difficulty regarding feeling. In Anguttara III,vii,1 it is clear that somanassa, domanassa, and upekkhá, are included in vedaná, in the specific context of the paticcasamuppáda formulation. But these three feelings are mental, and arise (as the Sutta tells us) when the mind dwells upon (upavicarati) some object; thus they involve cetaná, 'intention', in their very structure. And the Commentary to the Sutta would seem to allow this, but in doing so must either exclude these mental feelings from vedaná in the paticcasamuppáda formulation or else assert that they are vipáka. In either case the Commentary would go against the Sutta we are considering. This Sutta (which should be studied at first hand) not only treats these mental feelings as included in vedaná but also specifically states that to hold the view that whatever a man experiences, pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, is due to past acts, is to adopt a form of determinism making present action futile -- one is a killer on account of past acts, a thief on account of past acts, and so on. To take these mental feelings as vipáka would be to fall into precisely this wrong view; and, in fact, the traditional interpretation, rather than that, prefers to exclude them from paticcasamuppáda, at least as vedaná (see Visuddhimagga, loc. cit.). Unfortunately for the traditional interpretation there are Suttas (e.g. Majjhima i,9 [1]) that define the paticcasamuppáda item námarúpa -- also traditionally taken as vipáka -- in terms of (amongst other things) not only vedaná but also cetaná, and our Commentary is obliged to speak of a vipakácetaná. But the Buddha has said (Anguttara VI,vi,9 [2]) that kamma is cetaná (action is intention), and the notion of vipakácetaná, consequently, is a plain self- contradiction. (It needs, after all, only a moment's reflection to see that if, for example, the pleasant feeling that I experience when I indulge in lustful thoughts is the vipáka of some past kamma, then I have no present responsibility in the matter and can now do nothing about it. But I know from my own experience that this is not so; if I choose to enjoy pleasure by thinking lustful thoughts I can do so, and I can also choose [if I see good reason] to refrain from thinking such thoughts.)[a] 5. Let us now consider sankhárá, which we shall make no attempt to translate for the moment so as not to beg the question. We may turn to Nidána/Abhisamaya Samy. i,2 for a definition of sankhárá in the context of the paticcasamuppáda formulation. Katame ca bhikkhave sankhárá. Tayo'me bhikkhave sankhárá, káyasankháro vacísankháro cittasankháro. Ime vuccanti bhikkhave sankhárá. And which, monks, are determinations? There are, monks, these three determinations: body-determination, speech-determination, mind- determination. These, monks, are called determinations. But what are káyasankhára, vacísankhára, and cittasankhára? The Cúlavedallasutta (Majjhima v,4 & cf. Citta Samy. 6 ) will tell us. Kati pan'ayye sankhárá ti. Tayo'me ávuso Visákha sankhárá, káyasankháro vacísankháro cittasankháro ti. Katamo pan'ayye káyasankháro, katamo vacísankháro, katamo cittasankháro ti. Assásapassásá kho ávuso Visákha káyasankháro, vitakkavicárá vacísankháro, saññá ca vedaná ca cittasankháro ti. Kasmá pan'ayye assásapassásá káyasankháro, kasmá vitakkavicárá vacísankháro, kasmá saññá ca vedaná ca cittasankháro ti. Assásapassásá kho ávuso Visákha káyiká, ete dhammá káyapatibaddhá, tasmá assásapassásá káyasankháro. Pubbe kho ávuso Visákha vitakketvá vicáretvá pacchá vácam bhindati, tasmá vitakkavicárá vacísankháro. Saññá ca vedaná ca cetasiká, ete dhammá cittapatibaddhá, tasmá saññá ca vedaná ca cittasankháro ti. -- But, lady, how many determinations are there? -- There are, friend Visákha, these three determinations: body-determination, speech-determination, mind-determination. -- But which, lady, is body-determination, which is speech-determination, which is mind-determination? -- The in-&-out-breaths, friend Visákha, are body-determination, thinking-&-pondering are speech- determination, perception and feeling are mind-determination. -- But why, lady, are the in-&-out- breaths body-determination, why are thinking-&-pondering speech-determination, why are perception and feeling mind-determination? -- The in-&-out-breaths, friend Visákha, are bodily, these things are bound up with the body; that is why the in-&-out-breaths are body-determination. First, friend Visákha, having thought and pondered, afterwards one breaks into speech; that is why thinking-&-pondering are speech-determination. Perception and feeling are mental, these things are bound up with the mind; that is why perception and feeling are mind-determination. Now the traditional interpretation says that sankhárá in the paticcasamuppáda context are kamma, being cetaná. Are we therefore obliged to understand in-&-out-breaths, thinking-&- pondering, and perception and feeling, respectively, as bodily, verbal, and mental kamma (or cetaná)? Is my present existence the result of my breathing in the preceding existence? Is thinking-&-pondering verbal action? Must we regard perception and feeling as intention, when the Suttas distinguish between them (Phuttho bhikkhave vedeti, phuttho ceteti, phuttho sañjánáti... (Contacted, monks, one feels; contacted, one intends; contacted, one perceives;...) [Saláyatana Samy. ix,10 ])? Certainly, sankhárá may, upon occasion, be cetaná (e.g. Khandha Samy. vi,4 [3]); but this is by no means always so. The Cúlavedallasutta tells us clearly in what sense in-&-out- breaths, thinking-&-pondering, and perception and feeling, are sankhárá (i.e. in that body, speech, and mind [citta], are intimately connected with them, and do not occur without them); and it would do violence to the Sutta to interpret sankhárá here as cetaná. 6. Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to suppose from the foregoing that sankhárá in the paticcasamuppáda context cannot mean cetaná. One Sutta (Nidána/Abhisamaya Samy. vi,1 ) gives sankhárá in this context as puññábhisankhára, apuññábhisankhára, and áneñjábhisankhára, and it is clear enough that we must understand sankhará here as some kind of cetaná. Indeed, it is upon this very Sutta that the traditional interpretation relies to justify its conception of sankhárá in the context of the paticcasamuppáda formulation. It might be wondered how the traditional interpretation gets round the difficulty of explaining assásapassásá, vitakkavicárá, and saññá and vedaná, as cetaná, in defiance of the Cúlavedallasutta passage. The answer is simple: the traditional interpretation, choosing to identify cittasankhára with manosankhára, roundly asserts (in the Visuddhimagga) that káyasankhára, vacísankhára, and cittasankhára, are káyasañcetaná, vacísañcetaná, and manosañcetaná, -- see §16 --, and altogether ignores the Cúlavedallasutta. The difficulty is thus, discreetly, not permitted to arise. 7. No doubt more such specific inadequacies and inconsistencies in the traditional interpretation of paticcasamuppáda could be found, but since this is not a polemic we are not concerned to seek them out. There remains, however, a reason for dissatisfaction with the general manner of this interpretation. The Buddha has said (Majjhima iii,8 ) that he who sees the Dhamma sees paticcasamuppáda; and he has also said that the Dhamma is sanditthika and akálika, that it is immediately visible and without involving time (see in particular Majjhima iv,8 ). Now it is evident that the twelve items, avijjá to jarámarana, cannot, if the traditional interpretation is correct, all be seen at once; for they are spread over three successive existences. I may, for example, see present viññána to vedaná, but I cannot now see the kamma of the past existence - - avijjá and sankhárá -- that (according to the traditional interpretation) was the cause of these present things. Or I may see tanhá and so on, but I cannot now see the játi and jarámarana that will result from these things in the next existence. And the situation is no better if it is argued that since all twelve items are present in each existence it is possible to see them all at once. It is, no doubt, true that all these things can be seen at once, but the avijjá and sankhárá that I now see are the cause (says the traditional interpretation) of viññána to vedaná in the next existence, and have no causal connexion with the viññána to vedaná that I now see. In other words, the relation sankhárapaccayá viññánam cannot be seen in either case. The consequence of this is that the paticcasamuppáda formulation (if the traditional interpretation is correct) is something that, in part at least, must be taken on trust. And even if there is memory of the past existence the situation is still unsatisfactory, since memory is not on the same level of certainty as present reflexive experience. Instead of imass'uppádá idam uppajjati, imassa nirodhá idam nirujjhati, 'with arising of this this arises, with cessation of this this ceases', the traditional interpretation says, in effect, imassa nirodhá idam uppajjati, 'with cessation of this, this arises'. It is needless to press this point further: either the reader will already have recognized that this is, for him, a valid objection to the traditional interpretation, or he will not. And if he has not already seen this as an objection, no amount of argument will open his eyes. It is a matter of one's fundamental attitude to one's own existence -- is there, or is there not, a present problem or, rather, anxiety that can only be resolved in the present? 8. If paticcasamuppáda is sanditthika and akálika then it is clear that it can have nothing to do with kamma and kammavipáka -- at least in their usual sense of ethical action and its eventual retribution (see KAMMA) --; for the ripening of kamma as vipáka takes time -- vipáka always follows kamma after an interval and is never simultaneous with it. It will at once be evident that if an interpretation of the paticcasamuppáda formulation can be found that does not involve kamma and vipáka the difficulties raised in §§3&4 will vanish; for we shall no longer be called upon to decide whether vedaná is, or is not, kamma or vipáka, and there will be no need for such contradictions as vipákacetaná. Irrespective of whether or not it is either kamma or vipáka, vedaná will be paticcasamuppanna. We shall also find that the apparent conflict of §§5&6 disappears; for when sankhárá, as the second item of the paticcasamuppáda formulation, is no longer necessarily to be regarded as kamma, we shall be free to look for a meaning of the word sankhára that can comfortably accomodate the káya-, vací-, and citta-sankhárá of the Cúlavedallasutta, as well as the puñña-, apuñña-, and áneñja-abhisankhára of Nidána/Abhisamaya Samy. vi,1. (We may note in passing that though kamma is cetaná -- action is intention -- we are in no way obliged, when we deal with cetaná, to think in terms of kamma and its eventual vipáka. Present cetaná is structurally inseparable from present saññá and present vedaná; and thoughts about the future are quite irrelevant to the present problem of suffering -- Yam kiñci vedayitam tam dukkhasmin ti [Nidána/Abhisamaya Samy. iv,2 ].[b]) Whatever is felt counts as unpleasure (suffering). [See Vedaná Samy. ii,1, quoted in NIBBÁNA.] 9. It will be convenient to start at the end of the paticcasamuppáda formulation and to discuss játi and jarámarana first. To begin with, játi is 'birth' and not 're-birth'. 'Re-birth' is punabbhavábhinibbatti, as in Majjhima v,3 where it is said that future 'birth into renewed existence' comes of avijjá and tanhá; and it is clear that, here, two successive existences are involved. It is, no doubt, possible for a Buddha to see the re-birth that is at each moment awaiting a living individual who still has tanhá -- the re-birth, that is to say, that is now awaiting the individual who now has tanhá. If this is so, then for a Buddha the dependence of re- birth upon tanhá is a matter of direct seeing, not involving time. But this is by no means always possible (if, indeed, at all) for an ariyásavaka, who, though he sees paticcasamuppáda for himself, and with certainty (it is aparapaccayá ñánam), may still need to accept re-birth on the Buddha's authority.[c] In other words, an ariyasávaka sees birth with direct vision (since játi is part of the paticcasamuppáda formulation), but does not necessarily see re-birth with direct vision. It is obvious, however, that játi does not refer straightforwardly to the ariyasávaka's own physical birth into his present existence; for that at best could only be a memory, and it is probably not remembered at all. How, then, is játi to be understood? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next section Back to A Note on Paticcasamuppáda - Contents Back to Clearing the Path - Contents Back to Ñánavíra Thera Dhamma Page ------------------------------------------------------------------------ At 08:47 AM 10/10/97 +1000, Victor wrote: The earliest form of Buddhism was the Buddhism that was settled at the first three Councils. Most sects (certainly all major ones) in Mainland India recognize only the first two councils. What had been extablished by then was, I think, was the rearrangement of the agama (=teachings that were passed down through the lineage), which existed then in the form of the nine branches of the Buddha Vacana, into the four agamas/nikayas based on the Sammyuta agama/nikaya ("Suttra", "Illuminating the Truth") according to the length, method of compilation (book of "one". "two", ...) and their relative emphasis [with most of Digha agama/nikaya being "Auspicious and Pleasant (to the worldlings)"]. To the confident ancient Buddhists, the Buddha Dharma does not merely consist of the remembered words of the Buddha. Instead, the Dharma is reflected in the whole body of practice by the Buddhists, which is why the teachings given by the chief disciples and later masters were included in the tripitaka, without the obessive drive to determine which part of the tripitaka is the Buddha's words, ad verbatim. This task is in fact, impossible to accomplish and it is of limited use, as one still have to interpret the words in the context of the accepted practices in the Buddhist community at that time. This was exported out of India in the third century BCE, and thereafter ceased to have any contact with subsequent developments in India and elsewhere. The fact that important suttras originally referred to in the mnemonic stanzas("Geya") for the Samyutta agama were re-distributed differently in the tripitaka of the various schools and in expanded form with differing details means that the "development" of Buddhism did continue even after the commonly accepted Second Council, based on the lineage of teachers and their (slightly?) differing meditative practices and experiences. The core meditative experience of the early Mahayanists resonate the experience of enlightenment via the realization of Cessation (of the minority advanced meditators), rather than the commonly accepted path of the gradual realization of the four Noble Truths. Thus, as Ken has pointed out, it is more appropriate to see the Theravada as the only surviving one among the various earliest forms of Buddhism. The earliest form can only be inferred from examining the records and living practices of all early schools, the early Mahayanists included. Recently Chew Khe-Kiang reported that the earliest Mahayana text could be dated to 160 CE. This is well past the date that the Buddha set as marking the end of his Dispensation. Just to clarify that what I actually said was "the earliest translated texts (from Sankscript into Chinese) which are definitely Mayayana and whose translator can be traced were translated at around 160 AD." In fact, the same can be said for the earliest Chinese translation of sravaka texts whose translator can be traced. This took place only slightly earlier (around 150 AD), and thus the fact that the sravaka texts in written form appeared earlier in China is purely a historical coincidence. We can only conclude that such texts appeared *not later than* 160 AD. We cannot infer that the appearance of these texts in India only took place at a date near 160 AD, and even less can we say, a priori, that their content must be at variance with the Buddha's main message because they were compiled later. Don't foget that the translation of the tripitaka texts of the Vibhajavada lineage into Pali and their being first written down in Ceylon took place at around 50 BC, a time that is not that much earlier too! I agree with most of Ken's view in the following paragraph: ... I also believe that upon his passing a multiplicity of communities sprung up, out of some of which developed the mahasangha, out of others the more conservative movements. I don't believe any of them were exclusively right ... and Victor's response: ... the Buddha was a great tolerant teacher, but he did not endorse false view and went to great length to denouce wrong view. except that I would like to add that the Buddha did this with sensitivity, and definitely not at all times. The rigorous refutations are meant for the practioner to use in his own investigation and meditations, and not so much as to insist on what is right during one's discussions and debates with people with other views and from other faiths. The blind-men-and-the-elephant metaphor cannot be used to justify the claim that even the most contradictory propositions are part of the same "truth". Yes, indeed. That's why nothing in Buddhism is straightforward, and its careful study is a good practice of "discerning the dharma". [...] Some clearly thought-out and eloquoently expressed exchanges between Ken and Victor follows: [Ken:] The certainity we seek in Buddhism is not in historical arguments. Nearly all movements in Buddhism claim lineage histories, and all of those histories are, in point of fact, later mythological inventions. The give a sense of connection to the Buddha, and his teachings. But the only connection to the Buddha that is permanent and binding is inner comprehension through awakening. [Victor]: I would agree that the primary concern in Buddhism is with Sambodhi (Enlightenment). But in this post-Dispensation era Just curious: is this belief in post-dispensation commonly held by the (Ceylonese) Theravadins? If so, is it also shared by the Thais and Burmese? we have a number of paths all claiming to lead to sambodhi but not all getting there. In this era we have to conduct a Pratyeka-Buddha-like investigation into the legitimacy of these rival paths. The defining feature of a Pratyeka-Buddha is his tendency to remain solitary in a remote natural environment to investigate and reflect on the inter-dependent arising nature of the dharmas after his initial spontaneously realization of impermanance, usually triggered off by natural phenomena such as the shredding of leaves and the decay of organic materials. I do not think the effort of his independent investigations is directed to determine the legitimacy of rival paths. IMO, such effort in the study of the Buddha's Vacana is more of a case of applying the Vibhagha methodology as advocated by the Buddha, and so still falls under the domain of sravaka teachings. with metta Kia Khang Hi, Jina - In a message dated 97-10-12 01:59:57 EDT, you write: << hello Howard, you ask about the Indic term rupa (ruupa, in both Sanskrit and in Pali, for example). Ruupa is appearance, color, form (shape), likeness or image, sign, indication, sort or kind, and so on. This is just general shades of the term in Sanskrit. suruupa means lovely and duruupa, ugly. (presumably the su- of sukha and a shortened form of the du.h- of du.hkha/dukkha). In Buddhism it has a few meanings (or roles to play). It is the first of the five khandas (Skt. skandas). In Buddharuupa it means a statue in the form of the Buddha. Perhaps materiality (as in the jhaanas) is a good rendering in *that* context. So it might be seen to have a basic meaning of shape, and is then modified and adapted to more technical uses in various contexts. That means we have to notice which adaptation of the basic idea is being made in the given context we are considering! were there specific texts you were concerned with, or was this a general question? maybe Satyamitra/Saccamitta/Victor or Jakub or others will have something more, something more helpful, to say here. with mettaa, jinavamsa >> =========================== Thanks very much for your informative reply. What I specifically had in the back of my mind was the idea that the full range of meaning for rupa might be a useful input to the physicalist controversy mildly raging on our list (and on Buddhist, as well). For example, one reading of the information you provide is that rupa has an experientialist-physicalist sense, rather than the sense of matter as an objective thing, independent of experience. In particular, your paragraph beginning with "Ruupa is appearance, color, ... " lends itself to that reading, I believe. With metta, Howard Footnotes: [a] A present intention (or action) is certainly determined, but it is determined by a superior (or more reflexive) intention that also is present: it is, therefore, not pre-determined. (To be future is essentially to be under-determined. See FUNDAMENTAL STRUCTURE.) Every voluntary (or reflexive) intention (i.e. every volition or act of will) is perpetually revocable, and every involuntary (or immediate) intention (i.e. every inclination or tendency) is voluntarily modifiable. (There is a mistaken idea, common [and convenient] enough, that our inclinations are in the nature of impulsions to which we can only submit, rather as a stone passively suffers the pressure that moves it. But, far from being an imposition that must be passively suffered, an inclination is an active seeking of a still only possible state of affairs. Cf. 'D'ailleurs, si l'acte n'est pas pur mouvement, il doit se definir par une intention. De quelque manière que l'on considère cette intention, elle ne peut être qu'un dépassement du donné vers un résultat à obtenir. ...Lorsque les psychologues, par exemple, font de la tendance un état de fait, ils ne voient pas qu'ils lui ôtent tout caractère d'appétit [ad-petitio].' --- J.-P. Sartre, L'Être et le Néant, Gallimard, Paris 1943, p. 556. ['Besides, if the act is not pure movement, it must be defined by an intention. In whatever way we may consider this intention, it can only be a passing beyond the given towards a result to be obtained. ...When the psychologists, for example, turn tendency into a state of fact, they fail to see that they are taking away from it all character of appetite .']) Cf. CETANÁ [E]. [Back to text] [b] The anguish of the moment when a man apprehends that he is going to die is evidence of this perpetually present sankháradukkha (see Vedaná Samy. ii,1, quoted in NIBBÁNA), and has to do with the changing joys and miseries of this life only in so far as they are, in fact, changing.[cf.17] It is this anguish that makes deliberate suicide, even if it is to be painless, such a difficult enterprise. Only the arahat has no anguish in the face of death: Nábhinandámi maranam nábhinandámi jívitam, Kálañ ca patikankhámi nibbisam bhatako yathá; Nábhinandámi maranam nábhinandámi jívitam, Kálañ ca patikankhámi sampajáno patissato. Theragáthá vv. 606 & 607. I delight not in death, 606 I delight not in life, I await my time like a hireling his wage; I delight not in death, 607 I delight not in life, I await my time composed and aware. [Back to text] [c] This, naturally, is not to be taken as denying the possibility of evidence for re-birth quite independent of what is said in the Suttas. (A curious view, that the Buddha was an agnostic on the question of re-birth and refused to pronounce on it, seems to be gaining currency. Even a very slight acquaintance with the Suttas will correct this idea. See e.g. Majjhima ii,2 .) [Back to text]