Hongzhi Li
February 21–22, 1999 ~ Los Angeles

Hello, everyone! (Applause)

Originally this conference was intended to be a local experience-sharing conference for the Western regions. Its purpose is to help students in the Western regions of the U.S. to cultivate better, and to have a better cultivation environment—the goal is simply this. Because it is a regional conference and mainly intended to resolve the local issues they have here, it wasn’t mentioned to a lot of people, nor did we spread the word to other parts of the world. A more important reason is that I want everyone to have a stable environment and to cultivate with a peaceful mind, free of any interference. There are now many associations and assistance centers in different regions, and so there are a lot of activities. If you all follow me wherever I go, you won’t have time for cultivation, nor will you have a stable cultivation environment. That wouldn’t benefit your cultivation. So I don’t wish to have more people running around. Of course, you all understand this intention, but you still wish to see Master. I understand the feeling. Actually, it is even easier to see me if you have cultivated yourself well.

Since you have come, let’s all listen and see, with calm minds, what improvements and experiences students on the West Coast have had in their cultivation during this recent period of time. From their speeches and sharing of experiences we will be able to find where we have fallen behind, which will allow us to better improve ourselves in cultivation. Everyone should also make a self-assessment, search for his shortcomings, and help each other make forward progress. This is the fundamental objective of our Fa conferences. If our Fa conference can’t serve this purpose, then it shouldn’t be held; it would amount to nothing, and it would lose its meaning. All cultivation forms of Dafa, as well as everything I do, are all for the purpose of enabling everyone to improve as quickly as possible. If this were not the case and this goal couldn’t be accomplished, I wouldn’t do these things. Of course, among the cultivation forms you have at present, in addition to the practice there is also a form for spreading the Fa. This is something that dates back to when I began teaching the Fa, and it has been preserved through to this day; it too is important and can indeed bring excellent results. Accordingly, you should continue to hold regional-scale Fa conferences. But I think it would be better to limit regional conferences to those specific regions that are involved and to a small scale. For large-scale Fa conferences, I think it’s sufficient to hold them once or twice a year. Don’t hold them too frequently and don’t let them fall into a mere formality. It is good only when it serves the purpose of truly and solidly helping everyone improve.

As you know, I have already taught this Fa to a very high level. It is relatively easier for you all to understand the Fa through the book, Zhuan Falun. Regarding the Fa I taught later, if you haven’t read Zhuan Falun and directly read the lectures given in various regions, though you might understand them, they will not be able to guide your cultivation in a coherent manner. Because the Fa is all encompassing and is entirely connected, no matter how you read the Fa, it can provide answers. Seen from the front, the back, or the middle—regardless of the methods you use and how you read this Dafa—it is all connected and coherent, different parts can all clarify each other, and they can achieve an interconnecting effect. This is exactly the factor behind Dafa’s being all encompassing and indestructible. As to the Fa I taught in other regions, it was actually taught specifically to different regions and with different situations being considered. I have talked more about the structure of the universe particularly in the U.S. and in some European countries; and that, of course, is inseparable from your cultivation. What is the purpose of your cultivating? After reaching Consummation, you certainly won’t be in this dimension; it inevitably involves other dimensions as well as the structure of the universe. That is why I have talked about these things. But, to students in different regions and depending on different situations, I always teach the Fa from different angles and in different ways. This is a characteristic of my teaching the Fa.

Since everyone has things that he is attached to, and everyone thinks that there is a truth in ordinary people’s society that he has come to know for himself, he then clings to that as he leads his life. In fact, I would like to tell you that no matter what principles you have enlightened to among ordinary people, all of them are wrong in the eyes of beings at any level higher than mankind, since the entire human society is the opposite [of higher realms]. So, in order to break this obstacle of yours—namely, the notions you have formed that are severely interfering with your obtaining the Fa—I have used different approaches in lecturing on the Fa in different regions for different people so as to break the obstacles in your minds, which are barriers to obtaining the Fa. Many people who came to the U.S. from China are very accomplished and have advanced schooling. Many have degrees, and they all feel that they have a relatively clear understanding of modern science. But as a matter of fact, what you believe to be a clear understanding is itself an obstacle. The reason is, as I have discussed on many occasions, this science is itself actually not scientific. It is merely something imposed on man by aliens, something that has penetrated the entire society and pervaded it in every respect. Since you are in the midst of it, you certainly can’t tell what it is all about. Then why have I incorporated modern science in teaching the Fa? Because science has altered human notions and behavior. The change in mankind’s living conditions has led to the change in human behavior, and all human cultures have changed. People no longer understand those cultures that don’t pertain to science, such as the indigenous cultures of various ethnic groups. Only by my using the methods of modern science to discuss this universe will contemporary people be able to understand and know the true root causes of matter in the universe, for life, and for the universe itself. In this way, the so-called truth that you think you have found among ordinary people will be broken and eliminated, and breaking this thing will help you obtain the Fa—the real truth. When you discover that that thing isn’t really the truth, it is easier for you to obtain the Fa. So this is one of the characteristics of my teaching this Fa according to different people, different situations, and different regions—that is, incorporating the deviated notions of modern people as I teach the Fa. Of course, many of you, particularly those with a relatively advanced education, have developed over a long period of time a habit and mindset that is inquisitive about science, about knowledge. Once these people encounter something like this, they like to explore it and know more about it. Because they have become accustomed to pursuing knowledge, and as a result of a mentality that never feels satisfied, they always want to explore more. In fact, by using human thinking, human notions, the present level of human achievement, or future levels of achievement, you will never be able to discover what the universe ultimately is—it will be utterly impossible to detect. That’s because human thinking and human language can only describe things within a certain boundary. Beyond that boundary, mankind does not have the type of language needed to describe it. Not only is there no language to describe it, but you will also lack that type of vocabulary, as the existing vocabulary has no way to match it. No matter how you describe it, it wouldn’t be described. This is why sometimes it’s not so easy for me to teach you the Fa as I lecture.

Another point is that human thinking follows a certain program. But since this program no longer works, you can’t speak clearly about the universe. On many occasions, including while reading the Fa, students can understand the Fa in their minds but can’t put it into words. All students have had this feeling of being able to comprehend the Fa but not being able to express it clearly. That is, it isn’t something that can be explained clearly with ordinary people’s thinking or language. Nevertheless, I am trying my best to teach the Fa by using human language, and to allow everyone to understand it. Last time when I was teaching you the Fa in Geneva, I already found it rather difficult; I felt that I didn’t explain things clearly on my part.

I recently published six books. They are last year’s Fa lectures in Singapore, Geneva, Frankfurt, the first Fa conference in North America, and the Fa conference for assistants in Changchun. Another one is a collection of those four-line inscriptions that I wrote for students, which can also be called poems—that’s the kind of book it is. There are altogether six books, and all have been published. What’s the purpose? The things I talked about in different regions were only suitable for those particular circumstances. When they are taken out of that context and heard in other settings, though they might still achieve some effect since they are Fa after all, they will have lost their targets and could easily mislead those who haven’t systematically listened to the Fa. Since that’s the situation, I compiled them so as to make up for this deficiency, and they are all now published. So once you get the books, you should destroy the videotapes you had passed around in different regions. You know, the videotapes share another major characteristic: When you listen to my answers to people’s questions, my replies often don’t answer what was asked. Why is that? It’s because our time is very limited, and as soon as I read the questions some people raise in their notes, you understand them, and so I use the opportunity to address other issues. If an audiotape that includes responses that don’t address the questions is passed around, other people won’t understand. We want to resolve all of these problems, and so we have published the books. What I just meant is that in different regions I talked about things in keeping with the circumstances in those specific regions.

Last time I was in China, a while before coming to the United States, I told people to bring together those practitioners who are college professors and scientists in the scientific community in Beijing, along with some Dafa assistants, so that I could talk to them in detail about the subject of science. In the end, what I intended to do wasn’t satisfactorily accomplished, because many other students showed up and raised questions that didn’t focus on the subject I wanted to discuss. So it became hard to talk about. I’m not against people wanting to listen to the Fa or see me, but different regions have different situations. I don’t want to talk much today since this is a Fa conference after all, and you will be giving papers. Tomorrow I will answer your questions.

Since you are sitting here, I might as well take this opportunity to talk to you about a few issues.

Let me first talk about the subject of spreading the Fa. You have indeed put in a lot of effort, but there’s an issue: You have found that in the recent period of time there are very few new students. Why is that the case? Because this entire event was very systematically arranged at the beginning. However, this arrangement was not acknowledged by me, as it was arranged by the old forces in the universe under the circumstance that I wasn’t aware of it and did not agree to it. This can only be discussed briefly in a summary like this. Since it’s Fa-rectification, what is being rectified? What are being rectified are all the old things that have deviated from the Fa. The deviated things from the past have become a force and formed a system, and these things have been playing a negative role from top to bottom. I want to allow more people to obtain the Fa as I go about imparting it. Since the old forces have already divided this event into different stages and they think that the number of people for this affair has already been reached, they are now restraining it. Originally I planned to have 200 million people listen to the Fa, but in the end, the old evil forces have limited the number to 100 million. That is why you have had some difficulty making progress when spreading the Fa. But this isn’t to say that people in the future will not obtain the Fa; they are gradually coming to know and obtain the Fa. You should continue to do whatever you should do. That said, you still don’t need to drag a person to obtain the Fa. Cultivation is practiced on a voluntary basis. If a person doesn’t cultivate, so be it. We shouldn’t change anything simply because of the old forces’ interference. If you can allow those who aren’t aware of the Fa to become aware, and those who don’t know about the Fa to know, you have done the best you can, and that’s enough. What I just said was to tell you that there exists a factor, and it has caused this situation. But you shouldn’t get the wrong idea from what I said, as if you have come to understand something new, and then talk about it out of context while holding on to your own notions and attachments—that’s no good. Try to be sensible. I was only telling you that it is this kind of situation.

On the other hand, in the course of carrying out this undertaking today, I have linked you and the Fa together. Why does your cultivation progress so rapidly? There are many, many factors behind it; this is a major reason. While I am teaching this Fa and the entire Fa-rectification process is taking place, there are living beings at different levels listening to the Fa; the cultivators in the human world who listen to the Fa at the lowest level are you, so you are linked to this Dafa. Although you are the ones who listen to the Fa at the lowest level, you won’t stay at the lowest level forever. You will achieve Consummation and reach different realms and different levels—it is fully connected from top to bottom. When this undertaking is over in the future, the people who come to cultivate at that time will have nothing to do with today’s Fa-rectification event. They will take up cultivation in the normal way.

This Dafa of the universe that I teach today is also the greatest opportunity mankind has been given, since cultivation with such an immense Fa was certainly unimaginable in the past. You can now obtain the Fa, you can listen to me teaching you the Fa in person, and moreover, you are linked to this matter of Fa-rectification—you haven’t yet realized the significance of this! Sometimes some students fail to be diligent, in which case they are being irresponsible to themselves! They are human beings after all, have human thoughts, and can’t realize this, so they can only be as they are. In fact, all of this is beyond words, and in the future you will know how fortunate you are! (Applause)

Also, during the course of cultivation you have all come to know that this environment of ours is very good. At the practice sites everyone can open his heart and say freely what he wants to. This isn’t possible anywhere else in human society. That’s why every student can feel that upon arriving at the practice site he has entered into a pure land and has stepped into a place that is most sacred. People all care about each other in a way that “you care for me and I care for you.” This can’t be found in any other human setting. Why can it be this way? It’s simply that every Dafa disciple is cultivating himself. Once a problem or a conflict emerges, everyone searches for his own shortcomings, looking to see whether it was caused by his own wrongdoing. Everyone knows to do this, but some individuals who aren’t persistent in studying the Fa still cannot do it. Since I have mentioned this individual problem, I need to say that—and of course, I have mentioned it to you on numerous occasions—when running into a conflict, everyone should search inside themselves. Yet some people still can’t seem to search within when they encounter a conflict. Some people can become aware of it, while some aren’t even willing to consider it or even completely forget that they are cultivators. I would say that’s not doing well enough. Whether it’s between you and another student, whether it’s at the workplace, or whatever the circumstance in human society, or in those conflicts among students or between a student and an assistant, these persons have not thought about searching for the reasons within themselves.

I often tell you about situations like this: When two people have a conflict both should look for the causes within themselves, asking, “What problem do I have here?” Each should search for his own problem. If a third person witnesses the conflict between the two, I would say that it’s not accidental for that third person to see it, and he too should think it over: “Why did I see their conflict? Is it because I still have some shortcomings?” Only in this way can it be good. Yet whenever you run into a conflict, you always push it off to others and find weaknesses and shortcomings in others. Your doing that is not right. You could cause Dafa work to suffer a setback, or cause Dafa itself a setback. You haven’t realized that you are using Dafa and Dafa work to excuse your own shortcomings or hide your own attachments. When you think that another person hasn’t done well, when you can’t get over it in your mind, you should think about it: “Why is my mind troubled by this? Does he really have a problem? Or is it that there’s something wrong inside me?” You should think about it carefully. If you indeed don’t have any problem and what he did is really problematic, you should tell him with kindness, and that won’t lead to conflicts. It’s guaranteed. If the other person can’t understand it, that is his problem. You said what you needed to say.

Without conflicts there won’t be improvement. Some people feel that the setting they’re in is very peaceful, and everyone thinks his cultivation is going pretty well. In fact, let me tell you that this isn’t good. What I want to do is precisely to create some conflicts for you, for having none of these does you no good. That’s because only in the midst of conflicts can your attachments be exposed and made visible to you and others, and then they will be eliminated. If there weren’t such conflicts your ordinary person’s attachments would not be eliminated. So, do pay some attention to this: Under any circumstance, particularly when you cultivate among ordinary people, it is inevitable that only through conflicts and through xinxing interference can you improve your xinxing. Every time I lecture I talk about this issue. At the time you were sitting there and listening to the Fa, you were all quite clear about it. But once you stepped out the door, you weren’t as good and you forgot.

Within the recent period of time, particularly over the past two years, students’ progress has been tremendous, and their understanding of the Fa is increasingly more mature. This is excellent. Ever since Dafa was made public I have been taking you on the most righteous path of cultivation. Whether it’s in terms of the way of teaching the Fa, the way of spreading the Fa in society, or what I have taught everyone to do, it has been going down the most righteous path. And because we are righteous, all those who are not will have an opinion about us, for all those who are not righteous are exposed in Dafa’s presence. So they are sure to cause Dafa some adversity and make negative comments. That’s certain.

But on the other hand, if there weren’t negative factors and this Dafa was passed along smoothly and peacefully, I’ll tell you: It would have to be something with the same moral standard as modern man, and that would be why today’s people wouldn’t have anything bad to say about it. It is precisely because we are on a very righteous path that all those who aren’t righteous can be exposed, that the unrighteous things in you can be removed, and that everything that’s not upright in ordinary people’s society can be rectified. Those matters in society are not for you to try to fix, for when bad things are exposed, ordinary people will naturally notice it. Human beings still have goodness in their hearts and still have their benevolent nature; when people see their shortcomings and mistakes, they will know what to do, and this will inevitably play the role of rectifying people’s hearts. In your cultivation you should primarily focus on how to be diligent, and spend more effort on this, instead of being concerned with what ordinary people’s society is like or what you should do for society. You don’t have that duty, nor have I asked you to do that. You are cultivators, and only the question of how to improve your own xinxing is fundamental to cultivation.

You know that there are now 100 million people studying and cultivating in Dafa. The number of people has in itself already played the role of initiating changes to rectify people’s hearts in society—that’s inevitable. Yet that isn’t what I intended to do. In particular, during the process of its spreading, Dafa has its tribulations and there are the criticisms of ordinary people against Dafa. How should you cope with these problems? Our students haven’t copied the violent actions that ordinary people use, nor adopted the method of “if you treat me like this, I’ll do the same to you” that people use or the ones that are even worse. You haven’t done it that way; you handle all of it with benevolence. This is also a factor that allows Dafa to develop in a healthy way. Of course, every ordeal that you encounter also establishes mighty virtue for you and for Dafa.

As you have seen, so many people will attain Consummation in the future—they will cultivate to Consummation. Gods in the heavens will ask: “How did you reach Consummation? How did you cultivate up to here? With which Fa did you cultivate up to here?” Of course, you know that minor cultivation ways can’t save people, and common methods can’t save a god to beyond the Three Realms. However mighty and high a Fa is, that’s how great of a god it is who can be established through salvation and how high of a level the saved person can reach. In the future, when others want to see how you rose up there, they will find that you are truly worthy of being one who has ascended through cultivation in Dafa. The mighty virtue established by this Dafa is itself also extremely important. If one of you is doing well, it is a matter of your individual cultivation; if people in one region are doing well, it means that students in that region are doing well; if we are doing very well the whole world over or in every region where there are Dafa disciples, it’s no longer a matter of one region or one individual, but of the entire Dafa doing well and its being on an upright course.

Next I will address another issue. There’s certainly this type of student in the U.S., but there are very few of them; there are relatively more in mainland China. That is, some were once lay Buddhists and are very interested in Buddhism or other religions. Through supernormal abilities or by listening to others, some people can see or, through word of mouth, know that Dafa can save people and that at present only this Dafa can save people. So they know and understand the situation that has come about in religions. And they have learned that religions can’t save people anymore whatsoever. Since gods no longer take care of people, scriptures have lost the inner meanings behind their words and have thus lost their real effectiveness in saving people. So after these people understood this, they came to learn Dafa. But on a fundamental level they have not given up the stuff from before or their attachment to religion. They are holding on to their old things and attempting to achieve their goals by taking advantage of Dafa and using Dafa. The intention is really bad. Of course, some intentionally do so, and know full well that they’re going about it like that; I have fenced them off and absolutely will not allow them to obtain anything. That’s because they are taking advantage of Dafa, and that in itself, for a human being, is awfully wrong and a terrible intention. If they are unaware—that is, the superficial layer of the person doesn’t quite understand and is muddle-headed—then I will try my best to correct them and have them come to understand the issue. I bring this up today to let them know: That is absolutely not permitted.

As you know, what I’m teaching is the Fa of the universe, and every cultivation way and every school of teaching is contained in this universe and is encompassed by this Fa. Living beings at each level are all created by the Dafa of the universe. Every paradise, every God’s paradise or Buddha’s paradise, the universe at each level, and the cosmic bodies at each level are all created by this Dafa. Doesn’t it encompass everything? Many people in this Dafa are beings who belonged to the worlds of Buddhas; the lives of many were as Daos; and many were gods of Western people or were living beings who belonged to their paradises. And there are still more living beings from many, many different gods’ paradises that neither you nor mankind know about and who have come here to obtain Dafa. Why can Dafa enable them to return? The reason I can truly enable them to go back is that what I have taught is the fundamental Great Fa of the universe, whereas the Fa of any individual paradise is but the affirmed principles that one has understood and enlightened to from various levels of the universe. None of them can be compared with Dafa.

Why do I disapprove of you [simultaneously] cultivating other things and tell you to cultivate in Dafa singly? Because Dafa has integrated and addresses situations at different levels as well as those of different beings, and only this way can you go back. Not only does it not change anything innate that you previously had, but it can also at the same time guide you back. You know that many of our students have seen that they are Daos, there are some who have seen that they have the appearance of a Western god, and there are some who have an image belonging to the Buddha school. They are all cultivating in Dafa, yet I won’t cause any of their things to be lost or botched up. Regardless of which cultivation way they cultivated in before, I am able to guide them all back, and this is the only way. Only with the Fa of the universe can it be done. This is the biggest difference between Dafa and any other cultivation way or religion from before.

In fact, no one knows that even though many people talk about believing in Buddhas or believing in gods, the truth is, if you aren’t someone from that particular god’s world he won’t save you whatsoever. I once made a statement that whether it’s Christianity or Catholicism, in their paradises there are no Eastern people. This is an absolute truth which man doesn’t understand. Yet Western religions went to the East with the Crusades, and the way they spread wasn’t good to begin with, since both Jesus and Yahweh prohibited their disciples from spreading the teachings eastward. It was to prevent the mixing of human races, but they didn’t understand this. I once said that Jesus has many venerable images but that you don’t use them. Yet you do use the image of him being crucified on the cross as the symbol. Doesn’t that make it seem as if people want to have Jesus crucified on the cross forever?? Humans still think that they’re doing something good. Actually, what people want to do and what they have done aren’t necessarily good things. Why do gods still look after people? Because people still believe in gods. People are lost in delusion, so what do they know?

Dafa is able to have all lives return to the places where they were created. That is something I can definitely do. In the actual practice of Fa-rectification, this has been done for high-level beings, regardless of how high their levels. Out of my many, many disciples, quite a few have succeeded in cultivation over the past few years; those who have achieved Consummation or who are approaching Consummation are quite many. Because the entire matter hasn’t yet come to an end they are being restrained. They can know everything and see everything, but their supernatural abilities and divine powers aren’t allowed to be used, for this Earth wouldn’t be able to bear it. Of course, students have also come to understand these things gradually through discussion and sharing experiences with each other; many things are becoming more and more clear. That’s why I am telling you about these things. What it means is, if you don’t belong to that race or you aren’t from that god’s paradise, he won’t take you.

Buddha Shakyamuni said that the number of Tathagatas is as many as the grains of sand in the Ganges River. When the lives in different paradises become bad they drop down. Where do they drop to? They all drop to the center of the universe—it’s the lowest place. The very center is this Earth, and it is a very special environment. They all drop here, so they have fallen down. Since Buddhas are compassionate and want to save the beings who have fallen down from their worlds, they won’t let them go. So those that gods want to save are, in essence, people from the gods’ own worlds; they absolutely cannot touch beings from other worlds. And why is that? Because all elements that compose a particular being are elements from that god’s own world. Once those elements are removed, that life will disintegrate. It’s not something a being can do arbitrarily. In the past, people all believed in Buddhas and worshipped Buddhas or Gods. Actually though, that was merely a kind of righteous thought of belief in the divine. That Buddha couldn’t take care of the person whatsoever, even if he wanted to. Of course, gods like Shakyamuni and Jesus who came down to save people are special cases. There are definitely many issues involved, and we won’t discuss them here. What I am saying is that Dafa is able to achieve this [i.e., take care of other gods’ beings]. For those who, deep inside, still haven’t let go of the things from their past, I bring this issue up today so as to give them a chance. If they still don’t let go, they will miss this chance. Dafa is solemn and cultivation is serious.

Next, I’ll address one other subject for you, something students can’t explain clearly in cultivation, namely, the “heavens” (tian). According to contemporary science, spaceships have traveled to outer space and flown to many other planets, but they haven’t seen any human beings or paradises of gods, nor were there the scenes of different heavens within the Three Realms that people have talked about. So modern people use this logic to reject religion, deny legends from the past, and negate the most essential nature of human beings. Actually, the “heavens” that gods refer to isn’t at all the same concept as the heavens human beings see. I often say that molecules compose everything in this material dimension of human beings, while microcosmic matter is the reason for the composition of molecules, and layers of even more-microcosmic matter are the fundamental reasons for the composition of layers of particles at different levels. Gods are in extremely microcosmic worlds, which are nonetheless extremely vast worlds, broad spaces. The microcosmic worlds and the dimensions formed in the microcosm that I have told you about in each lecture are where gods reside. Think about it: Gods… I mentioned the other day that things in the human dimension, such as air, matter, soil, rocks, iron and steel—everything in this dimension, including your body—are composed of molecules. Yet molecules are the coarsest, most superficial, and filthiest matter in the universe. These molecules—actually, in the eyes of gods, all molecules—are seen as dirt and considered mud in the context of the universe. And that’s merely the understanding at the level of Tathagata. That is why what was said in the past about Yahweh and Nü Wa using mud to create man was true. It is because even your flesh is made of molecules, and in the eyes of gods, it’s mud, it’s dirt, and something that is most coarse. Then think about it, everyone: No matter how far spaceships may travel, have they flown beyond the realm of molecules? Say an airplane flies in the sky and you travel from Asia to America. You feel like you have flown rather high and far. But the fact is, you are merely moving inside mounds of molecules and you are moving on the ground. It’s not the heavens in the least. In the eyes of gods, it is only a matter of different long or short distances within substances of the same level. The dimensions composed of microcosmic worlds are the real heavens that gods refer to. The more refined and microcosmic a substance is, the more quintessential and refined the surface it composes.

Energy exists in all matter, including molecules. It is only because the human body and everything around you is composed of molecules—even the machines you use to measure that energy are also composed of molecules—that you can’t detect the energy of molecules. The more microcosmic the matter is, the more energy it has and the stronger its radioactive power is—the more microcosmic, the more powerful. That is why gods’ energy and forms of existence are like that. So let me word it a bit more clearly for you: People on Earth see that the Moon, the Sun, Venus, Mars, as well as the Milky Way, outer space, the remote cosmic bodies, and so on, are all in the heavens. But if you look at Earth from Mars, wouldn’t you say that it too is in the heavens? It’s in the heavens as well. This is an understanding that breaks through ordinary people’s ways of thinking.

But, understood at a deeper level—think about it—what are the heavens? Once you enter a microcosmic dimension, that is the heavens. Let me give the simplest example and tell you a story. In the past, there was a cultivator of the Dao walking on the street while drinking. He suddenly saw someone. This person was just who he had been looking for—someone who could cultivate the Dao. So he wanted to save this person and take him as his disciple. He asked this person, “Do you want to follow me to cultivate the Dao?” This person’s enlightenment quality and inborn quality were very good, and he said, “I do.” “Do you dare to follow me?” the cultivator asked. The person replied, “Yes, I do!” “Do you dare to follow me wherever I go?” he then asked. “Yes,” was the reply. The cultivator then said, “Okay. Now follow me!” Saying that, he put his palm-sized wine gourd on the ground, opened the lid, and jumped into the gourd. The person saw that his master had jumped in, so he imitated his master and likewise jumped into the gourd. The bystanders all leaned over and looked inside the gourd. “Wow!” they exclaimed. There was a vast world inside the gourd, really vast. If viewed with human thinking, how could so large of a person possibly jump into so small of a wine gourd? If you want to enter that dimension, everything of your body has to conform to the state of that dimension before you can enter. When you travel through the gaps between different dimensions, your body inevitably enters those states of being. That is because the more microcosmic that particles of matter are, the more vast and broad the planes are at their levels. At the levels of microcosmic particles, the way the gourd manifests is different from the form that human beings see; all particles are connected. What appears to be large or small to human beings is only a form of manifestation in the space-time formed by the same particles. That is to say, the surface of the gourd is formed by molecules, and that’s the shape you see, but the gourd in the microcosm isn’t like this. It is connected to the universe at that realm. Do you understand what I said? (Applause) I’m just discussing that kind of idea. This is something that man cannot understand and that can’t be understood by human conceptions.

So, having mentioned a person going up to the heavens, I can say that if you suddenly enter a stone, isn’t that going up to the heavens? It won’t do if you enter the surface formed by the stone substance. You enter the realms of the microcosmic particles that form its molecular particles—aren’t you going to the heavens? Aren’t you in the heavens if you shrink into the microcosmic levels of your body? When you enter the microcosmic particles of the surface particles of dimensions at any level—in other words, enter the layer of particles smaller than that one—you are already in the heavens. It’s just that the levels of heavens are different, and the microcosmic degree is different. After you enter the microcosm, although you see that you enter the stone, enter your body, or enter a certain thing, you have actually entered the broad universe connected to that dimension. In other words, this isn’t the human way of thinking. I often say that what people refer to as east, west, south, or north, up, down, in, or out, doesn’t exist in the universe, and it’s different from human thinking and concepts. After I explain it like this you will understand, “Oh, it’s not at all like it is when you use human thinking to contemplate it.” The present-day science is very shallow. It can’t detect or know the real heavens because it crawls within only the current material dimension, and this has limited it. And the science imposed upon man by aliens is thus confined to this. Aliens are living beings in this dimension as well, and they are similarly incapable of knowing the truth of the universe.

Man does not believe in gods, and this is no simple problem. It is man destroying human morality. When man believes in karmic retribution, believes that doing good deeds is rewarded and doing bad deeds meets with retribution, and that whatever man does is watched by gods, man then won’t dare to do evil things. Man knows that doing good deeds will accumulate virtue (de) and be rewarded with happiness, which is absolutely true. But man no longer believes these things; science nowadays doesn’t believe in them, and it considers them superstition. This is exactly swinging the club of science to strike at people’s righteous thinking. Isn’t this striking at the most essential nature of human beings? When people’s morality, upright beliefs, and righteous thinking are destroyed to the point of nonexistence, people will recklessly do whatever they want to and will resort to any means to achieve their goals. This is one of the fundamental reasons for the deterioration of human society. People in Western society appear to believe in God, but they don’t really believe in God: What they truly believe in is science. Gods are not like what they have imagined, that is, beings with human emotions. Just now I corrected a key concept for you, namely, how “heavens” are to be understood. What gods and human beings mean when they each speak of “heavens” are two different things.

During the course of cultivation, many people sometimes see that they seem to have entered their own bodies. Their bodies are like a vast sky, they move in the sky and walk among the cosmic bodies, and doors are opened one after another as they dash forward. When they take a closer look or expand their minds one step further to take a look, they realize, “Oh, it’s the energy channels in my body being opened.” Let’s think about it. When you are cultivating, your bodies are being changed from the utmost microcosm on up. So what is the utmost microcosm? Aren’t your other bodies precisely in the heavens and in those realms? It is only that you the person have fallen into the midst of ordinary people, and along with that, you have fallen to where ordinary people are; even the part that’s the most microcosmic has dropped to the level of ordinary people. However, if you can return through cultivation, everything will be rectified for you, so you will go through that experience. Many cultivators in history have seen those phenomena [that I just described], but they weren’t able to describe it. Sometimes those in the Buddhist religion say that Buddha is in one’s mind, while people in the Dao school say that the human body is a small universe, and so on, and this has to do with their having seen such things.

When I was talking about science I said that science is not playing a good role. Not only does it pollute mankind’s environment and destroy the tissues of the human body, but also aliens are meant to eventually replace human beings. Its things have penetrated every field in human society, mankind can’t break away from science, and everything is now created by science. Since this is the case, as Dafa disciples, no matter what your professions are, you should just go ahead and do your work, and do your work well—that will be good enough. As for everything that is happening, don’t concern yourself with it. I’m not telling you to oppose this science, nor am I teaching you to break free from it. That’s not what I mean. I am telling you what science is. Science’s understanding of many things is terribly shallow; even its understanding of matter in this existing dimension is inadequate. Its inability to recognize the existence of divine beings has limited its development. For instance, scientists nowadays are saying that mankind’s industrial pollution is quite severe, and one of the examples is that freon and other substances used in coolants are said to cause damage to the ozone layer. They say that damage to the ozone layer has occurred at the South Pole, where a hole has appeared. The fact is, science is incapable of realizing the role played by gods, so people say that the hole was caused by damage to the ozone layer. It is true that the pollution brought on by modern industry has polluted mankind’s air to an extremely terrible extent.

Yet the countless lives in the microcosms of the immense universe are, whether they have form or not, all gods, and they exist in microcosms that human beings can’t see. Air is composed of molecular particles, while molecular particles are composed of more-microcosmic particles. In the air itself there are countless layers—layer after layer, progressing toward the microcosm—and all [that exist there] are gods. When they saw that man’s environment had become like this, they opened up a window, opened a door, to expel the waste gases from Earth. This was done by gods. They opened it on purpose and then closed it. If gods didn’t protect human beings, humans would not survive. Man not only doesn’t believe in gods, but also even dares to disrespect gods. Let’s use the simplest example. You know that the places where industrial pollution is most severe are the most populated places—big cities. Why didn’t a hole develop in the ozone layer above those places? That’s because gods think that opening a hole in the South Pole area is safe for man. It should be that wherever there are more waste gases there is a hole in the ozone layer, right, so why isn’t it that way? It is nothing like what people have imagined. There is also a large hole above the Tibetan Plateau in China—the big holes always appear in sparsely inhabited areas. It’s not just limited to the ozone layer that we can see, for the microcosmic materials contained in matter are quite numerous, and they all must make way so that those things can be evacuated. Of course this is what gods have done for man.

Mankind’s pollution has caused even more serious problems. You know that almost no fresh water in the world is pure. Whether it be underground water or above-ground water, no matter how people filter or purify water, water’s real purity cannot be reached. Moreover, people reuse water repeatedly and water becomes more and more polluted because human water circulates—fresh water is a circulating substance. Fresh water doesn’t mix with seawater since they aren’t the same substance. Life exists in any matter and in any object. You see that on the surface it is water, but over on the other side it is imbued with life. When soil, water, air and the like are polluted more and more, the harm to mankind also becomes greater and greater. The development of today’s human society is a repeat of the development of the last human society; the last cycle was a trial run for this cycle. If development continues along this path, human beings will become deformed. Industrial waste gases and wastewater will cause human beings to become deformed and look hideous, looking half demon, half human. That’s how it will be if it develops further. What’s more, there is also people’s wicked behavior that results from the factors of moral deterioration.

At this point I would like to take the opportunity to talk about another issue. As you know, modern science was brought to mankind by aliens. They came when the Industrial Revolution began in the West. They started with mathematics and chemistry—started from the shallow, simple knowledge of the earliest days—and penetrated on through to modern machinery, and eventually they developed up to today’s computers. As development continues further their ultimate goal will be to replace human beings. How is the replacement to take place? As I mentioned, in the body of today’s human beings almost everyone has a layer of the body that was created by aliens. Why do I say that? It’s because all of the science that they instilled in you has created a warped human mindset in your mind. There have never been humans like this in any of mankind’s previous civilizations. When the mind is like that, so is the body. As you know, every cell in your body is you, and your brain is connected to the brain in every cell. In that case, the thought processes inside the countless cells in your body are all the thoughts of warped human beings, and the entire body has become like that. This ties into why gods no longer regard man as human. When mankind is no longer human, what is the point of gods’ saving it?

You know that when a person dies, he doesn’t really die. The shell of the layer of the largest molecular particles sloughs off, whereas the part of the body composed of microcosmic particles below molecules hasn’t died. It is separated, as if a person takes off a piece of clothing. It isn’t really dead. Yet the person in this dimension has vanished, since the body needs to be cremated or buried and it will eventually decompose and dissolve. It has departed from this dimension; that is, this layer of particles has disappeared. Then, as to the alien culture that I was just talking about, it is precisely using man’s own thinking to create the bodily layer that it needs, and it is doing so without man being aware of it. How will they ultimately replace human beings, then? You know that they still have to find a way to replace the shell of the outermost surface of human beings. This is the method of “cloning” that man now wants to use. Gods look after people, and when they don’t look after someone, they won’t instill the elements of life into that person.

This is to say, the reason you are alive in this world is not that you have this flesh body, nor is it because your mother gave you this body that you are alive. It is because you have your main spirit (yuanshen) and the existence of all of your other spirits (shen) that you can live. Why doesn’t a person keep living after he dies and the body is laid down there, since it’s the same body after all? It’s because all of his main spirits have left. In other words, if a person isn’t given a spirit and isn’t allowed to reincarnate at the time of birth, he will still be dead after he is born. So how would they deal with that? The aliens would enter at that point. This is the ultimate means that aliens plan to use to replace man—that is, cloning humans. Man is being used by aliens to destroy himself, yet he is not aware of it and is still protecting this science, destroying the human race. If humans are cloned en masse in the future, those beings will all be aliens that have reincarnated in human bodies, and there will be no more human race. Of course, the fact that I can address this today means that all of these problems are being dealt with. Many have even been resolved already. I disclosed this today to tell you of some realities related to mankind’s recent development.

The formation of Earth is also unlike what we human beings have imagined, with the theory of a “Big Bang” forming the planet. It’s nothing like that. How was it formed? The present-day science’s understanding of the foundation of matter, the foundation of life, and the universe are completely wrong. Gods created this Earth. How was it created? As you know, Earth has been remade many times. The subject of catastrophes has been discussed in every religion. If this Earth itself is to have a catastrophe—when mankind has deteriorated it will be destroyed, and it will be destroyed on this Earth—it is a major calamity. There are even greater calamities that happen, where the entire Earth is discarded. Since in the process of transmigration a person carries karma with him, the more wrongdoing a person does, the more karma he has. When he reincarnates into a plant the plant will be covered with karma. Human eyes can’t see this, since karma exists in a dimension lower than the layer of the largest molecules. Man reincarnates into plants, objects, animals, or he may even reincarnate into soil or stones when transmigrating, so karma is everywhere. What is Earth, then? It looks like a planet of karma. That’s the meaning behind the idea of the “rotten apple” that I have mentioned. It has become something so rotten—“What’s the point of keeping it in the sacred and pure universe? Get rid of it!” Then it might well be discarded.

When it’s said that Buddhas are compassionate toward human beings, the reference is to the Buddhas who are close to Earth, as they believe in compassion. Gods at extremely high levels say, “What’s compassion?” They find that even compassion is an attachment. Are they compassionate? They too are compassionate. But the realms and concepts of their compassion are different. It’s just like what I said: The thinking is different. They are compassionate toward the sentient beings who are closest to them, and they consider gods at very low levels to be the same as ordinary people. So to them, what do human beings count for? They are even lower than microorganisms and bacteria. When a person kills bacteria while walking, who would consider that killing, right? Those who turn bad—like excrement or a piece of manure—should be disposed of. So where is there a concept of being compassionate or not being compassionate in this? There is none. Man thinks that he’s remarkable, while in the eyes of higher gods he is nothing. In this vast universe there are tremendous differences amongst living beings in different realms with respect to their forms of existence and understandings. When I tell you about realms that are so immense and so high—and if you recall, such a major level of the universe is only a speck of dust in the immense cosmic body—what could Earth amount to? What could human beings amount to, right? It is only human beings themselves who think that they are remarkable and great. This Earth has been replaced many times, that’s the situation.

In the history of the immense universe this Earth has been replaced many times. But how was it replaced? Since the outermost surface layer of Earth is made up of substances of this level—it is composed of matter made up of molecules of this dimension—Earth has to be created with substances from this dimension. Different cosmic bodies of this dimension in the universe all experience renewal and the state of regenerating the new to replace the old. The immense gods in the universe collected and categorized the dust or debris from the disintegration of certain cosmic bodies and then made a new Earth. That is why when today’s scientists study history and geology and make claims about how long it has been since a certain material was created on Earth or how long a history Earth has, their approach will never arrive at the truth. The reason being, some substances were huge rocks or huge cosmic objects even before Earth was formed. They were brought over here, and they existed before Earth was created. It is thus impossible for you to figure out through studies how long the history of Earth is. A lot of things may sound like myths when they are mentioned. I am lecturing on the Fa to my cultivators, and you can accept it. The Fa is not taught to ordinary people or ordinary society.

When I talked about water I mentioned oceans. Actually, what are oceans? Seawater and water are absolutely not the same thing. Only fresh water is actually water, whereas seawater is called “water” by human beings when it’s in fact another kind of substance. Water is the element that creates life. As you know, in the universe Earth is like a speck of dust when viewed from a very minor level. A god is so immense, and the volume of his body is quite large. If he were to shed a tear the Earth would be submerged. As a matter of fact, seawater is the drop of a god’s tear. What I said might sound like a fairy tale. You can go ahead and test it to see if the composition of seawater is the same as human tears. They are exactly the same. If your tears could be magnified to the same volume as that of seawater and you were to take a look, what living creatures would you see in it? Maybe there would be a whale in there, too. It sounds like I’m joking when in fact it’s true. I can explain the origin of all substances on the earth as well as the origin of mankind. Because they are not related to your cultivation I don’t want to talk about them. In fact, everything on Earth has its origin.

Do you know what the yellow soil, or loess, that covers part of the Earth’s surface is? It is actually the feces of beings at the level higher than the human dimension. That is why gods said in the past that humans are in a filthy world—that’s the meaning. Because the substances from high-level beings are clean and pure, their feces seem clean to human beings. Only things lower than mankind feel filthy to human beings; when it’s something higher than mankind, people find it clean. But there are no nutrients in things higher than the human dimension, for if they aren’t filthy there will not be nutrients. So it’s hard to grow anything in yellow soil. Soil that is darker in color came about from having decomposed plants mixed in, which then allowed things to grow. Rotten plants turned the color of yellow soil into black, which then contains nutrients and things of an organic nature, and mankind uses it to grow crops. Things higher than human beings don’t provide nutrients for plants.

Actually, many types of rocks are the same as soil. Generally speaking, it’s stone if it was pressed very tightly during the formation of Earth, and it’s soil if it was loose. But it isn’t entirely like this. Clay and red rock are actually the blood of enormous beings. Many people present here are in the fields of physics and chemistry. If you don’t believe me you can test it and study it. The elements they contain are guaranteed to be the same as those in blood, except that it’s blood that has been solidified for a long time. Clay contains a large amount of iron, and human blood is the same. So I would like to tell you that in the universe, red blood is usually the blood of upright living beings. Demons’ blood is white, so limestone is actually the blood of demons. Of course, it’s a dead and inert substance; it doesn’t have any effect in this dimension. After being exploded or destroyed, it is turned into rocks, sand, soil, and the like, so they don’t retain demon nature. That’s why it doesn’t matter if people use it to paint walls or make dyes.

Scientists now know that coal is generated from huge amounts of plants. That’s what today’s science is capable of knowing. But how could there be so many plants that turned into so much coal? This is something they don’t know. Scientists now know that petroleum is formed from the remains of living creatures’ bodies—this they know. But how could there be so many remains that turned into so much oil? This they don’t know, and they can’t figure it out no matter how hard they try. So there are some people who want to disprove this theory by questioning how there could be so many remains of animals and how there could be so many organisms. There’s simply so much petroleum, after all. In fact, in the enormous universe and throughout its long history, life goes on cycle after cycle. And when this Earth was constructed, these types of things from the universe were built into the new Earth on purpose—to be used as energy later on. That is why there can be so much of it. It doesn’t belong to the living beings of just one cycle. Even lives on Earth go on cycle after cycle and aren’t from the same period. Contemporary scientific research can’t go beyond the history known at present, and many of the understandings that science holds about modern history are wrong. It believes that there couldn’t have been that much petroleum even if man from the Stone Age on up to the present had killed every animal! What’s more, there is so much coal and there are so many plants. They aren’t from one cycle though, they aren’t from the lives of one period. Of course, there are many other things, too many to address them all.

There are also things such as diamond, gold, silver, and the like. Some metallic elements are the factors required for the formation of the universe at various levels. They are different from the compositional elements of Earth that I mentioned. But gold and silver aren’t metallic elements from this universe. As for gold, you know that a Buddha’s body is made of gold; the bodies of all gods who have reached the realm of Tathagata are gold. In other words, gold is the remains of the bodies of enormous upright beings. When a vast universe is disintegrated, everything is smashed in an instant. I have also talked about how there is gold of different levels and gold of different-sized particles—I talked about this subject before. As for silver, it is the bodily remains of lives that are lower than the level of Buddha, lives at the level of Bodhisattva.

Many people know that diamond has a certain power, and that evil things are afraid of diamond. That is, negative things with small amounts of energy are afraid of diamond because diamond can absorb their energy. That’s why some people say that diamonds can dispel evil spirits. It’s not necessarily that diamonds can dispel evil spirits, but diamond is from shattered and exploded energy, something similar to gong. Of course, it is dead and inert and doesn’t have any effect. But it’s something of that nature after all, and so it has power.

Now don’t develop any attachments over what I just talked about and go buy diamonds after returning home. What I talk about is the Fa. Nothing from this dimension can be taken along, and also, those are of no use to cultivators. Why were they destroyed by explosions? As I said before, although it was gold, it wasn’t pure gold anymore, so it was destroyed in an explosion. Why was gong exploded? It was no longer pure. On the surface it looked very pure. But if it were observed from the microcosm or the extreme microcosm, it would no longer be pure. I won’t talk more today. Let’s listen to our students’ speeches.

Tomorrow you can pass up question slips and I will answer your questions. But new students, it’s better that you don’t submit them because time is precious and I won’t be able to respond if every one of you submits a question. Many in the audience are people who have already entered certain levels in cultivation, so the questions they raise are crucial to their improvement in cultivation, and that’s the purpose of our Fa conference. With the kinds of questions that new students raise, you don’t have to ask me about those—you can get the answers from veteran students or from the person next to you. So let’s not take up time. That’s one thing. Another is, try not to raise questions that aren’t related to cultivation or questions that seek knowledge and the like. Don’t misunderstand what I explained to you: It wasn’t [said because it was] meant to enrich your knowledge, but because it relates to your cultivation. Okay, that’s all I want to say. (Applause) Let’s sit quietly and listen to our students’ speeches. I won’t leave and will listen too. But don’t try to find me—you won’t be able to. (Applause)

Hello! At the beginning of the conference yesterday, I met with you all and talked about a few issues. I said that this conference is mainly an experience-sharing conference for the Western United States region and wasn’t intended to be a large-scale conference for the entire United States or for more people, and that this was because they still have some problems of their own to solve—it is for this purpose that I have come here. I could see from how things went yesterday that there are students who have rushed here from other countries. Perhaps students from other regions as well as some new local students, or people who aren’t yet students but are interested, have also come today since they might want to learn about Dafa. Since you are here, I might as well answer some questions for you related to Dafa, which is also teaching the Fa at a Fa conference. Now I will answer your questions. (Applause)

Student: Master said that if deep inside a cultivator still stubbornly holds on to his most fundamental interests, his cultivation is not genuine.

Master: Let me tell you that cultivation is precisely about cultivating one’s mind—that’s true cultivation. For instance, nowadays there are laws, and there are some requirements and restrictions imposed on people, but none of them can change people. Let’s say they can change and restrain you on the surface, and on the surface you don’t make mistakes and do things a little better. But the fact is, when you aren’t being watched or when your interests are threatened, you do bad things just the same, because you haven’t changed inside. So in other words, cultivation must genuinely change a person inside. If you want to reach high realms, if you want to reach the realm of a god, you must reach a god’s realm of mind. If only your surface is changed while your nature remains the same, it’s not genuine. At a certain time or at a critical moment, [the attachment] will still show up. So if a person’s mind isn’t changed, that is just covering things up with a false appearance. Changes must occur starting with your nature. Only that counts as genuinely changing yourself. In other words, you have to be responsible to yourself in cultivation, and you have to genuinely change yourself and let go of the bad things that you are attached to deep inside—only that is true letting go. If you seem to do everything right on the surface but deep inside you still guard and hold on to the things that you don’t want to let go of, that’s absolutely unacceptable. As you know, a Buddha or a God can give up his life for living beings and for the interest of the universe; they can give up anything, and even remain unmoved by it. So if you were taken up to their position, could you be like that? You couldn’t. Of course, I would say that Buddhas and Daos won’t really encounter things like that, but that is their realm of mind. A person must truly change himself before that realm can be reached.

In the past, many people involved in religion said that as long as you have religious faith you can go to heaven, go to a heavenly kingdom, and that as long as you have faith you can become a Buddha. I would say that’s deceiving people. What does it mean to become a Buddha? What does it mean to go to a heavenly kingdom? There are different requirements for beings at each level. It’s just like your going to school: When you’re in the first grade, you have to reach the level of the first grade; when you’re in the second grade, you have to reach the level of the second grade; when you get to high school, you have to reach the high school level. If you keep using elementary school textbooks and go to college while remaining at the level of the first grade, you are still an elementary school pupil, and so you can’t go to college. That’s the idea. This is to discuss it at a superficial level. What we teach is that you have to truly reach the standard deep inside before you can go to a heavenly kingdom and reach Consummation. Some people believe in what is taught in religions and are very pious when they pray, saying “I did something wrong…” Nevertheless, they make the same mistakes once they step out the door, in which case their prayers are useless, for their hearts haven’t truly changed. They think, “As long as I believe and pray, I can go to heaven.” If you always pray and always remain at the same level, you will never go to heaven. What Jesus said, “If you believe in me, you can go to heaven,” didn’t mean that if you go pray to him and believe in him—merely following a formality—you will be able to ascend to heaven. That’s not how it works. Only when you stop making the same mistakes after each time you pray, do better and better, and get closer and closer to the requirements of Jesus’ kingdom, will you be able to reach the standard of that heavenly kingdom. That is true belief. Were this not the case, why would Jesus bother to say so much? Wasn’t his purpose to ask you to do as he said and conduct yourselves better? That is what I mean. In today’s religions, including Buddhism, people don’t cultivate their minds and have fallen into formalities, it’s feigned. That’s all I will say about this.

Student: After one’s main spirit leaves the body and doesn’t return, how long is it before this causes the flesh body to die?

Master: How long after one’s main spirit leaves the body and doesn’t return—there’s no set timeframe. Let’s put it this way. You might think in your mind, “I really don’t want to go back,” and then as soon as that thought comes up, your flesh body might be dead, since you don’t want to return. But there aren’t things like this in Dafa, unless it’s those who cultivate in Dafa while practicing other things and who fail to be single-minded and can’t genuinely practice “no second cultivation way.” That’s when people run into this kind of danger. With people who don’t genuinely cultivate themselves and who straddle two boats at once, in this case it’s hard to say what kind of problems they will encounter.

Student: The first time I read about Buddha Shakyamuni in the lecture in New York, I couldn’t help bursting into tears and silently calling out to Master. I don’t understand why it happened.

Master: This is due to a predestined relationship. I would like to talk about an issue. Through studying Dafa, many people have understood at a profound level that none of the world’s religions can save people now. One reason is that the standards are no longer good, and the other is that gods no longer look after man. There are various reasons why gods don’t look after man. One is that the thinking of today’s human beings is that of warped humans, brought about by aliens, and never in history has there existed this kind of human—one like today’s. History repeats itself, and there have existed human beings of different time periods multiple times. But the human beings in each period have never been like today’s. Jesus, Buddha, and Gods did say that when mankind meets with disaster they would come and receive man, and that they would return to save people. But when people are no longer human, as they see it, they will no longer come to receive them. Those who they receive are the ones who still qualify as human. Of course, this is discussing it in general terms; there are still many, many facets as to why warped human beings have come about. That is why gods don’t consider people human. This is most dangerous.

Let’s not comment on those religious figures who are politicians or angling for money. I’m talking about those in religions who still have the heart for cultivation; there are some people who care much about the affairs of cultivation. They know about our Dafa, or under certain conditions they have other gods giving them hints and telling them that only Falun Dafa can save them and allow them to return. Many people have received this kind of message and understood the situation, and so they too have come to study Dafa. Yet they obstinately cling to the innate things they originally had. Their purpose is to preserve what they originally had and use my Dafa to return. I would say that’s absolutely impossible, and that they are only fooling themselves. If you don’t let go of what you originally had you won’t be saved whatsoever, and you can cheat only yourself.

You know that time in the human dimension is very slow when seen from other dimensions—seen from within a particular time, that is. The process of thinking about anything in your mind is a very slow one when seen from other dimensions. Whatever you are going to think about is known before you even start to think; whatever you are going to do can be seen very clearly. People believe that others don’t know what they are thinking in their minds. That might fool ordinary people, but not gods. What this means, then, is that if you don’t have pure thoughts that are responsible to yourself when you are faced with a matter as serious as this [of cultivation and salvation], you won’t be saved and won’t be able to return. In my Dafa there are many people who were disciples of Shakyamuni, and there are those who were disciples of other Buddhas and other religions. Another thing is, those of you sitting in the audience, even though you appear to be Caucasian, Asian, or another ethnicity, you aren’t necessarily of that ethnicity. In other words, it is hard to say which heavenly paradise you came from. When you reincarnate as a particular race, that race might not be your original image; it can’t be judged from appearance. What’s more, a person might have reincarnated in all of the races over the course of his transmigrations. Nevertheless, I can allow you to successfully return to the original place where you really belong.

I’m not saving all of you to the Falun Paradise. The reason is, I teach the Fa of the universe on the basis of Buddha Fa and have discussed such an immense Fa. The cultivation form of any cultivation way or practice in the universe that is left on Earth was passed down by gods in heavens at different levels (I’m referring to the true cultivation methods left to human beings by gods). Those gods who offer salvation at different levels are also living beings of different levels in the universe and, as I see it, are sentient beings of the universe at different levels. This Dafa of the universe has created for sentient beings at different levels living environments as well as standards of existence for their realms. It is such an immense Fa—all lives are encompassed. That is why I can solve your problems and save you such that you return by using this Dafa. It can be done no matter which discipline you [originally] belonged to. No religion, cultivation way, or cultivation form in history could do this. That’s because they cultivated only what they had in their disciplines, and couldn’t involve things from other disciplines, since that was the level of things they had affirmed and enlightened to from the Great Fa of the universe. But what I am imparting today is the Great Fa of the universe, which is different from the cultivation methods known to human beings before. However, if you are disrespectful to Dafa and you still firmly hold on to something, then it is a serious issue.

Student: Are levels of the universe and levels of cultivation the same?

Master: I just explained that Dafa has created different living environments for beings at different levels in the universe. In other words, Dafa has different requirements and standards for them in different living environments. In cultivation, therefore, if you want to reach different levels, you must meet Dafa’s requirements at different levels. In that case, the advancement in cultivation, the ascending in realms, and the continual transcendence are matters of breaking through levels, which is also breaking through levels of the universe. You reach the standard of the first layer of the heavens today in your cultivation, and a few days later you reach the standard of the second layer of the heavens—that’s what it means to break through levels in the universe, to break through levels in cultivation. When you continue your cultivation further, breaking through the Three Realms and going beyond the Three Realms, you will no longer be subject to transmigration. When you go further in cultivation, you will cross into the boundaries of even larger cosmic bodies. The higher you move up, the higher the standards for cultivation levels are, and perhaps the more the states that will manifest.

Student: Everything from the past no longer exists. Will this still exist in sentient beings’ memories, or has it already left a deeply profound lesson?

Master: The question you have raised is quite far-reaching. Some things will be known, some won’t be. Why do I impart the Great Fa of the universe? It is because living beings at all levels of the universe have deviated from the Great Fa that Fa-rectification has to be done. So the universe will return to its best state. You all know that many prophets predicted that there would be major catastrophes in a certain year. People only knew there would be catastrophes. Why would they happen? Because mankind has deteriorated to this extent. As you know, in society there are crime rings, homosexuality, drug abuse, sexual freedom, and promiscuous sex. Everything is in disarray. Those involved in these things are not behaving like a human should, while those who aren’t involved have still been polluted such that they are indifferent and apathetic, so that they are not behaving like humans either. Everyone is submerged in this big dye vat, and unconsciously your notions are going along with and conforming to all of this, drifting further and further away from what is human. The occurrence of human deterioration is thus not accidental. Why didn’t gods do something about this? Why did they allow things to deteriorate to such a point? It has to do with living beings at different levels all having deviated from the fundamental Fa of the universe. If one level deviates, other levels can see its deviation; if one being becomes bad, he can be cast down or drop down. But if the entire universe has deviated over a long period of time, then the living beings within it won’t notice its deterioration. It’s just the same as mankind’s not knowing that today’s human beings have deteriorated to this degree. Only people who cultivate in Dafa will know, upon looking back from certain levels, that it is really dreadful. Mankind has reached this point today.

Everything is to be returned to its original and best state so as to prevent disaster from befalling the universe; in other words, it’s to prevent disasters from hitting mankind. Changes are already taking place now. Many people in the human world have become good. There are 100 million people cultivating in Dafa, and each is conducting himself in such a way that he requires himself to be a good person, a better person. Then, as more and more people in this world are conducting themselves this way—as people are aspiring to goodness and morality is rising—then will those catastrophes take place? Absolutely not! No phenomena are just “natural,” as everything has its arrangement. What is called “by chance” doesn’t exist. It is merely that human beings don’t believe in gods. They term what they don’t know “natural phenomena” and explain away whatever they can’t explain as being “natural.” There are no natural occurrences at all, though—gods are in charge of each and every level. But when the standard for living beings at each level has deviated, it is just like a person shooting a gun: If his aim is a bit off, it will be hard to know where the bullet is headed. That is to say, when the top deviates a little, the Fa will deviate so terribly when it gets to lower levels. When manifest at the human level, it is the degree of deterioration found in today’s mankind. So it needs to be restored to its original state.

While this undertaking is being carried out, some people might come from different levels. When they return, they will discover that the environment of their original living space is not what it was before. You will know that it’s roughly the same as the original form and that it’s still the original world, but it will have become so wonderful that it is even more wonderful than when you were born. Many beings were born after sentient beings had deviated from the Fa during the long passage of time, so they don’t know what the beginning of the universe was like.

As for leaving “profound lessons,” there are no lessons for enlightened beings who have reached Consummation. Once you have cultivated up to high realms everything will be wonderful. And you will know what once happened in the universe, that’s all. What will happen to human beings in the future? Many people are cultivating, and the objective of cultivation is to reach Consummation. Suppose many of our disciples complete their cultivation. Those who would remain would be bad people and those who hadn’t obtained the Fa. What should be done, then, when those people keep deteriorating? They definitely wouldn’t be allowed to deteriorate further like that! It’s absolutely prohibited that there be a piece of excrement placed in the universe that sentient beings and high-level lives have to smell, so it has to be dealt with. Of course, I’m not talking about catastrophes. The catastrophes that people have spoken of no longer exist. I can tell you this: The type of catastrophe in such-and-such year that people talked about no longer exists. Many prophets knew that if a certain thing took place in a certain year, their prophecies would no longer be valid. The reason for this is that Dafa is being spread today and so many people’s hearts aspire to goodness. If the problem were to occur, what would become of these good people? That’s the issue. But those who will remain and enter the next epoch will remember the deeply profound lesson learned at the very last moment.

Student: Many of us are in scientific fields. How should we view this situation?

Master: Many people who are learning Dafa are established intellectuals; in other words, many people were brought up on science. Nowadays, actually, as long as you have attended school—which is everyone—you are someone who was brought up on science. This science has penetrated all facets of human society, so everything you use, everything you come into contact with, and everything you see was born of this science. Therefore, you can’t break away from it, and so the issue you just raised doesn’t exist. Since human society has become like this, it’s enough if you just go ahead and do your work well. As for cultivation, that’s a different matter from work. But the realm you achieve in cultivation and the state of your cultivation will be reflected in your work; you will do very well and will always be a good person wherever you are. There are many people who do work in scientific fields. After learning Dafa, they find that only this is the real truth, and what’s more, that mankind’s present science can in no way be compared to Dafa. Dafa disciples in the audience, the situation and the truth of the universe that you know have far exceeded mankind’s science today; even its most advanced parts have fallen behind you. Ordinary people are forever prohibited from knowing things higher than human beings; they could never discover the state of the universe that I have disclosed to you. No matter what professions you are engaged in, you can all cultivate in Dafa. As your understanding of the Fa gradually becomes deeper and deeper your thinking will naturally change, for a person will believe the truth when it is before him. But there’s one thing that has to be explained clearly: No one is allowed to achieve Consummation while holding on to ordinary people’s attachments, and this includes the attachment to science. You are allowed to begin cultivation with various human attachments, but they have to be eliminated during cultivation.

Student: Is the personality of an ordinary person a manifestation of only this life? How much of it is related to the realm where his life was created by the Fa?

Master: If a person’s life came from a high level, then he will carry with him his strong characteristics from that high level. This is difficult for ordinary people to detect. Most of what you do, how you behave, and how you act are all of ordinary people and are manifestations of this life—your behavior patterns, attitudes, and ways of thinking resulting from your perception of life, matter, and the objective world in this life. What is from your original nature can faintly emerge, but only when you are in a very kind (shan) state of mind. When you are strongly attached to ordinary people’s things, when you get angry and think the wrong things, then it can’t emerge one bit.

As to the part that has met the standard in cultivation, it’s hard for more of it to manifest itself among ordinary people before you achieve Consummation.

Student: Buddhas not only have immense compassion but also the ability to save people. Will this ability manifest during the course of cultivation?

Master: When you study the Fa, you should really let go of these attachments. A god—as long as he is a life beyond the human world, even if he’s a low-level being within the Three Realms—is capable of controlling human beings. All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas beyond the Three Realms are capable of saving people. Because they are gods, they possess such abilities, just as human beings are born with certain behaviors. They are gods so they have this ability. It’s not quite what you have imagined—where there will be certain manifestations in the course of cultivation. You can’t be thinking of these things in your mind, such as, “I want to save someone after I complete my cultivation; I want to save my family members, my relatives and friends, and save sentient beings.” I would say that’s far-fetched fantasizing. That is an attachment and a strong obstacle, and it will make you fail in cultivation. Only when you let go of all notions and attachments will you be able to advance unimpeded on your path of cultivation.

Some religious people have made vows, saying, “I’ll return to save people after I succeed in cultivation.” This is actually their attachment to showing off and human behavior that results from complicated psychologies found among ordinary people. They don’t know a Buddha’s state of being at all. You won’t even succeed in cultivation if you have this attachment, as you would be attached to saving people. Whether a Buddha saves people or not is something that happens naturally. Do you know how many Buddhas have come to save people over the past centuries and millennia? There was Jesus in the West and there was Shakyamuni in the East. How come in such a long time only the two of them have come down here? The reason is that no matter which god wants to descend to the human world to save people, he must first get approval from all gods in the heavens before he can come. That’s because the problems that he will face and run into have a wide-ranging impact, for what he does will involve matters of other Buddhas, Gods, and even Daos. It’s very complex and not how people imagine it. Once you become overzealous and your attachments flare up, you will say, “I want to save people too.” That is your human attachment, an attachment to showing off, and attachments that you haven’t let go of affecting you.

Student: I feel that the principles of the Fa that I have enlightened to from Zhuan Falun aren’t as many as those I have enlightened to from Teacher’s lectures.

Master: Zhuan Falun is a systematic work of Dafa, secrets of Heaven that can enable a person to Consummate. Meanwhile, except for the Lectures in Jinan, Lectures in Dalian, and Lectures in Guangzhou videotapes, which are similar to Zhuan Falun and have been published, lectures in all other regions are only lectures given in keeping with individual, different realms, or given targeting the situations of students in different regions. They aren’t universal. Holding on to their attachments, many people want to obtain this and want to pursue that, as if that’s the only way they can feel satisfied about how they cultivate. Those are attachments. If you don’t cultivate yourselves in a steady and solid manner, you are actually wasting your time. If it weren’t for this spreading of Dafa that was arranged in history, think about it, everyone: Would there be any other arrangement for the development of mankind? You shouldn’t be so irresponsible to yourself, as if it were child’s play. When the opportunity is missed… If my Dafa today can’t save you, no one will ever save you again, nor will anyone be able to.

You haven’t yet realized what I was most concerned about when I began imparting the Dafa in the early days. Mankind has so many theories and doctrines that people don’t even believe what is said in religions. How many people genuinely believe in Jesus or Buddha? What many religious people uphold is the religion, and they are not serious about real cultivation. Do they still have that sacred heart toward Jesus (or Buddha)? How many people can cultivate themselves? You should read the book! I had already taken this issue into consideration back in the early days. What I would face are a great many people, and in the future it would be impossible for me to teach every one of you face to face, telling you how to cultivate and covering each and every aspect.

So, to allow you to cultivate, to reach Consummation, and in order to be responsible to you, I have left to everyone Zhuan Falun. Through Zhuan Falun you can achieve Consummation. I have pressed into this Fa everything you are supposed to obtain. That’s why when reading the Fa you will feel changes in your body, experience and enlighten to the Fa’s principles at different levels, and improve in Dafa. This Fa is just so precious. No matter whether it’s the lectures I gave in person or the explanations that you consider very detailed, the things I expound on are all in Zhuan Falun. Meanwhile, everything discussed in Zhuan Falun is encompassed by “Lunyu.”

Student: Is it all right to have the Association organize some disciples to translate the books of Teacher’s overseas lectures?

Master: That’s excellent. You may do that. As for organizing some students, it can only be said that you have to have the enthusiasm for it. Any of you who have the ability can do it. But you should explain it clearly to your local contact persons and communicate with them well. This will make it convenient for the Association to contact you and look at and verify your work.

Student: Teacher’s words are quoted in introductory materials on Dafa, but these materials might be thrown away. Is it appropriate to do this?

Master: If something like this is done outside of China, I can only say that at present you are allowed to do it and that you can do it this way. Doing it inside China is not allowed, since almost everyone there knows about Dafa and now there’s no need for you to do such things, and whether a person wants to cultivate or not is his own business. But in many regions outside of China, people still don’t quite know about or understand Dafa, so I have allowed you to do this. As to my words that are quoted, if there are no factors and inner meanings behind them, they are only black ink on white paper, and don’t achieve any effect. You can rest assured on this point. But you should know to cherish Dafa, to cherish every word of it. You should know to be serious when it comes to these things.

Student: Some students want to use their marriages as a way to have people learn the Fa. How will Teacher’s Law Bodies arrange this?

Master: About this matter, I want to tell everyone this: Don’t mix together your personal life with cultivation, and don’t mix your work with cultivation. Cultivation is very serious. Dafa is solemn. It’s not like we have to beg people to obtain the Fa. If they don’t want to, so be it. Certainly the student’s intention is good, thinking, “I’ll sacrifice my marriage so that you can obtain the Fa.” I can see that the intention is excellent. But I think you don’t necessarily have to handle it like that. The Fa is solemn, and your sacrifice for him would then mean that he obtained the Fa out of pursuing something; he would be learning the Fa only to gain something, and that wouldn’t work for him, since he didn’t qualify from the outset. It’s not that Dafa has to be obtained by him. Some people say: “Teacher, you should teach your Fa such-and-such way. Why don’t Buddhas save people such-and-such way?” Do you think Buddhas have nothing better to do and are obligated to save you? Buddhas are compassionate toward human beings, but they are great gods! Their compassion is absolutely not the kind of humanized compassion that people imagine; the compassion man speaks of and imagines is merely kindness. Buddhas are kind, for sure. But that compassion is a manifestation of the great power of Buddha Fa. No matter how bad a person may be or how wicked something may be, things as strong as iron and steel will melt before the mighty power and compassion of Buddha Fa. That’s why demons are scared when they see it—they are really afraid. They will melt away and vanish. This is absolutely different from what man imagines.

Student: It’s easier to experience the magnificence of Zhen’s and Shan’s realms first. Is there only suffering in Ren?

Master: This is the understanding of your ordinary person’s thinking. It’s just like the principle I explained: If when you are attached to something and can’t accomplish a goal, you get so angry that you can’t put up with it but don’t dare to lose your temper out of fear of losing face and concern for your reputation, then I would say that’s the Ren of an ordinary person and absolutely not the Ren of a cultivator. You have completely misunderstood it. Our Ren has utterly no attachment and generates no anger at all. This is the kind of Ren you should want, and only this is the Ren that meets the standard. Your heart isn’t moved at all in front of those things. In the eyes of others you are good at forbearing, when in fact it’s that your heart hasn’t budged. And that is the Ren of cultivation.

When some people first obtained the Fa and began reading Zhuan Falun, they said, “Oh, I can manage Zhen and Shan.” In fact, you weren’t able to do even Zhen or Shan. You merely used the deteriorated, human standard to measure yourself. When you really enter into cultivation you will discover that you are far from meeting the standard. What’s more, when you constantly raise your level during cultivation, you will discover that your previous understanding of Zhen, Shan, Ren at different levels was not so high. As your cultivation level goes higher and higher, Zhen, Shan, Ren will at different levels have different manifestations, different requirements, and different states. And that is exactly what’s meant by realm of mind and Attainment Status. Ren can bring about beautiful realms, and that is the only way to look at it. When you can’t accomplish what you set out to, you stubbornly insist on your own way, you lose your appetite and sleep over it, and you are basically having your emotions controlled by others and your life led by others. You lead a tiring life without waking up to it, living for others. If you can really take one step back and let go, then it’s like “With green mountains, there is no fear of lacking firewood,” and although that’s an ordinary saying, if you can take a step back, you will find your horizon broadened endlessly and your perspective changed completely. Steel your will to let it go, and your realm will change immediately. In that state you will find yourself light and spry. This is Ren. But I ask that you study the Fa more and reach realms higher than this.

Student: Sometimes I can’t tell the dividing line between the realm of a cultivator and the realm of an ordinary person.

Master: I don’t need to say much about this to you. As long as you continually grow more diligent in cultivation, you will understand everything. You are cultivating so it’s impossible for you to shed all of your attachments at once. It’s just as I said before: The realm you reach in cultivation will manifest itself in every setting. People will say you are a good person—at work, in everyday life, at home, or out in society. Why? The state of your cultivation will manifest itself in every aspect of your life. It’s not about doing something intentionally, as if you are doing something with intention; then you are forcing things. Yet as cultivators, we should have restraint and a calm mind. Do everything with a kind heart, for that is what we should do, and it can’t be called an attachment. This is the method we use to suppress demon-nature, to reach the standard of Shan, and to meet the requirements and standards of realms that are progressively higher. It’s not an attachment.

Student: Understanding the Fa rationally can directly eliminate human notions and thus expedite the progress of cultivation.

Master: Even when you were coming to understand the Fa, you all had a period of initial understanding in the beginning. After reading Zhuan Falun, many people say it’s good, really good. How so? If you really ask them they can’t explain it clearly. In that case it is a perceptual understanding, a feeling that it’s good. If someone asks, “Just what exactly is so good about it?” only after you enter into true cultivation can you find out what is really good about the book, for you will have raised your understanding to a rational level. If in your everyday life all your behavior meets the standard of a cultivator and you don’t use human thinking or notions to understand the Fa, then you are understanding the Fa with rationality and in a sober-minded way, being responsible to yourself.

Student: Can we use things from cultivation to pay off things among ordinary people?

Master: No, you cannot, and I haven’t told you to do that. That is because things from cultivation are priceless. Master takes care of them for the sake of your cultivation, yet you place so little value on them. They are not just what you have cultivated: A part of it is what Master has endured for you and done for you. You shouldn’t even have a thought like that. There is no reason for it.

Student: Can disciples who are semi-enlightened see the Fa’s principles in other dimensions?

Master: You should stop probing into this. There is a large number of students who have entered that state, in particular those who obtained the Fa quickly or at an earlier stage. They know everything, see everything, and they can understand everything. But with the levels they are at, they can’t express it in words, so they don’t talk or say anything though they know everything. The only thing is that their divine powers and abilities can’t be used. That’s because so many of you are cultivating, and if their divine powers were used Earth wouldn’t be able to take it. There are many people like that.

Student: Some people have incredibly great confidence in Buddha Fa cultivation, even to the extent that they’re not willing to use ordinary people’s methods to solve some problems of everyday life.

Master: I can tell you that there is this type of state in our cultivation: Some people say, “After obtaining the Fa, I don’t want to do this, I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to do my work, and I don’t want to conduct business anymore.” I would like to tell you that it appears as if you have placed the Fa in the most important position and made cultivation your only priority. But seen from another angle, you haven’t really understood the Fa. I would like to tell everyone that you must be in keeping with ordinary people to the greatest extent while cultivating. People usually don’t pay enough attention to what I just said. Think about it, everyone: We have 100 million people cultivating, and what if there are more in the future? If nobody were to do anything, what would happen to society? How would society view Dafa, then? Wouldn’t that be tarnishing Dafa? Of course, I don’t need to say anything about the states that appear after high realms are reached—what I am talking about is what’s commonplace at present. For those of you who haven’t reached that kind of state, it is wrong if you want to force something. As to the questions you encounter in everyday life and how you are to deal with them, those are things in your cultivation, and I won’t answer specific questions for you. How you deal with them and how you improve yourself is up to you.

Student: Teacher said, “After obtaining a Falun, it is as good as having completed half of one’s cultivation.” Some students understand “having completed half of one’s cultivation” as meaning, “having succeeded in half of one’s cultivation.”

Master: When it comes to things concerning cultivation, why do today’s Chinese people have this kind of thinking? It is because ever since ancient times your mode of thinking has been shaped in a way that allows you to use this kind of mindset and thinking to understand the Fa. For your cultivation I have given you Zhuan Falun, have installed a Falun for you, Master has purified everything of yours by using the Great Falun, and half of the problems in your cultivation are indeed solved—this is absolutely true. But it’s not limited to just this. Because the power of this Dafa is so immense, people are made able to cultivate even faster. As for the thought, “Master has installed Falun in me, so I have succeeded in half of my cultivation, and even if I stop cultivating today I will have succeeded half way,” that’s not the idea.

Student: You said that on one occasion you connected with four or five high-level great enlightened beings and great Daos. I don’t have a good understanding of why you talked about this.

Master: It’s because there are obstructions in your human thinking. The Fa can’t be taught according to your liking! Your not understanding it well indicates that the obstruction you are attached to is substantial. Don’t dig into the words with some intent. If you dig into the meaning of every sentence and every line with intention, then you are completely wrong. I have always told you that you should read through to the end when you read Zhuan Falun, but you must know what you are reading. When you are supposed to enlighten to an understanding at a certain level, Buddhas, Gods, and Daos will hint at it to you and you will immediately understand the meaning of the sentence. You won’t be given hints about what you’re not supposed to enlighten to; you won’t get it no matter how you dig. If you say, “I just have to understand the principles of such high levels based on just those words,” then you are forcing it. Cultivation is up to the individual, while gong is up to the master. No matter what methods you come up with on your own, those won’t get you to heaven—that’s what it means. There are a few sections in Zhuan Falun that some people don’t feel like reading. They only want to read the parts about xinxing. Let me tell you that although it seems that some of the parts I discuss are about supernormal abilities or other things, they all have different principles within them, and there are the states of the different requirements that one has to reach in cultivation woven throughout. You have to read all of it consecutively. Each time you read, you shouldn’t leave out one section or one word. You must read it this way. The sequence of the book plays an extremely precise role in a person’s cultivation.

When I taught that section of the Fa, I wasn’t just casually talking or just telling you some story. On the surface, I was telling you what the state is like after one reaches tranquility at that realm, and how I felt after connecting with them. I still have things to complete among ordinary people, still have an ordinary person’s body, and still want to save you. Were it otherwise, their tranquility might not count as tranquility in my realm. If you, as an ordinary person, were to connect with them, your mind would be completely wiped clear in an instant. All human thoughts would be completely eliminated. That’s how powerful their thoughts are. You would probably meet the requirements of very high realms instantly, but it would not be what you had cultivated. There is very deep inner meaning in it. Don’t use human thinking to judge the Fa.

Student: What’s the difference between the two very microcosmic substances in the universe and the nature Zhen, Shan, Ren? Why is it that the lower the level, the more these two substances oppose each other?

Master: Actually, when you ask these questions using your human thinking, you are really being disrespectful. If you could be like a god, you absolutely wouldn’t dare to ask questions that way. This is what the Great Fa of the universe has created for living beings; the two substances were created by the Great Fa. That’s about the only way I can explain it to you. As a being lives in an environment, its life should be varied and colorful. Take human beings for example: If human beings didn’t have any joy, they would lead a boring, tedious life—that’s just about what they would feel. Living beings need to be allowed to live an enjoyable life. The Great Fa can create flourishing societies for lives at different levels. This isn’t something human beings can come up with. I only spoke briefly about the existence of the two substances that cause mutual-generation and mutual-inhibition, as well as yin and yang, and only in discussing the origin of yin and yang and mutual-generation and mutual-inhibition have I mentioned these two substances. Yet the complicated factors in the universe are way beyond that in number. I don’t talk about anything that isn’t directly related to your ongoing cultivation. I have chosen to discuss things that can allow you to enlighten to principles of the Fa and allow you to improve, and I have done so in general terms. If you knew too much, your mind would always circle around a certain thought and your cultivation would be affected.

Student: Many students go to the same park to practice together on weekends. Would it be more beneficial for spreading the Fa if people went to different parks?

Master: This has to do with the specifics of what you do. Your feeling is that when you practice together, with more people, the field is stronger and the effect might be considerable. When other people see it, they will say: “Wow, there are so many people practicing Falun Gong! The energy is so strong! Let’s go practice it too.” There may also be people who think: “People from this place already know it, but people elsewhere don’t. Let’s split up and go to other places to encourage people at those places and help them to obtain the Fa.” These are your own specific matters. Go ahead and do whatever you feel you ought to. With these things, you can’t have me stipulate something for you. There are different regions, different situations, and then there are the states of your understanding of the Fa at different levels. All this is part of your own cultivation. Discuss how to do things, and do whatever you feel is best.

Student: Some people think that spreading the Fa means doing the exercises and making Dafa books available, and that there’s no need for large-scale group practices or showing videos of Fa lectures.

Master: It is up to you how you handle the specifics of these things, the same as carrying out your cultivation. I can tell you that watching the videos, group study, group practice, and conferences like the one we’re holding today are the only forms of Dafa cultivation that I have left you. Everything else is loosely organized, including whether you come here or not. Nobody does roll call and asks you to come. Everyone comes voluntarily. Cultivation depends on your own heart. If you don’t want to come and you don’t want to cultivate, you may do as you like.

Student: Caucasian students are enthusiastic about community service and consider it an expression of compassion and of being a good person.

Master: That is merely the kind of loving heart that ordinary people have, but I don’t oppose it, since I ask people to be good persons in every setting. But if these things are given priority over studying the Fa and cultivation, I would say that’s wrong. Being attached to anything might be an attachment. On the other hand, though, if you can’t conduct yourself well in every setting, then you have not met the standard for a cultivator. In other words, as you constantly grow more diligent in the Fa, these issues will be resolved and you will know what to do.

Student: If one perseveres in doing the exercises outdoors during winter, could this way of karma elimination replace the karma elimination in sitting with the legs crossed?

Master: There isn’t anything like that. You want to find yourself a way out of hardship, to take a cultivation path that’s free of suffering or that offers easier ways to bear suffering. That’s unacceptable. But as I see it, cultivation is for improving, and you won’t always remain in the same state. Isn’t the fear of sitting with legs crossed also an attachment?

Student: Even if one’s assistant consciousness (fu yishi) has cultivated into an enlightened being, one’s main consciousness (zhu yishi) might still enter the cycle of transmigration. It seems that they are different entities.

Master: I have explained this issue very clearly. In this world, to you, both your main consciousness and assistant consciousness are you. You have to acknowledge each. They share your name, do the same things as you, and control your brain—they’re both you. However, as to who really governs a person—when you are truly being most clearheaded, that is—it is your main spirit who controls all of your consciousnesses. Why is that? It’s because when your assistant spirit (fu yuanshen) achieves Consummation through cultivation, you don’t know about it. He is the same as you, has the same appearance, and leaves after concluding cultivation, but you still have to enter the cycle of transmigration. When your main consciousness succeeds in cultivation, you yourself know it—“Wow, I have succeeded in cultivation and am going to Consummate.” Yet your assistant consciousness is also a part of you, so he cultivates with you while you are cultivating. When you reach Consummation he will reach Consummation with you. That’s their relationship.

Student: I used to be a pharmacist and know some therapeutic massage techniques. Can I still do massage for others on a voluntary basis?

Master: Here you have emphasized doing massage voluntarily and not making money, so is it considered doing a good deed? I would like to tell you this: Cultivation is a very serious matter, I have been purifying your body constantly, and you shouldn’t pollute it again—that’s what it means. The reason is, bodily contact with another person’s skin can connect the two persons’ fields. Why is the energy of the practice site very strong when you do the exercises in a group? It is because each of your fields, such good fields, are connected, so progress is rapid and everyone feels great. As for ordinary people, they don’t cultivate and the fields that their bodies carry are full of karma. As soon as I say this a lot of people will think, “Oh, does that mean I shouldn’t be with my family?!” You are cultivators and I have already solved this problem for you, so you don’t need to think about it and you shouldn’t consciously be afraid of something. That is to say, if you want to do something with intent, it is as good as your accepting that thing with intent. When you are massaging someone, you might have the thought, “I have to make him recover.” Since you’re not using modern medical means or medicine to treat him—instead, you are using your body to treat him—it’s very likely you will be polluted. That’s what it means. As for those students of ours who work as massage therapists to make a living, in the event that they really can’t find another profession I will seal their bodies in order to solve the problem of making a living. But if you’re not in that profession you had better not do it. That’s what I am saying. As for doing acupuncture or being a doctor who prescribes medicines and injections for others, that doesn’t matter. Those are techniques.

Student: Can a person cultivate if someone in his family has had mental illness but the person himself hasn’t had it?

Master: I have said that you won’t necessarily become mentally ill if someone in your family is. Isn’t that how it should be looked at? It should be viewed from both sides. In other words, it’s fine for a very rational person—someone with a strong main consciousness—to do cultivation. If you have a family history of mental illness then you need to be cautious, though. If you are mentally ill you cannot practice. That’s because a mentally ill person’s main consciousness is usually in a daze, so it’s not that I don’t want to save you. My Fa is to be given to the main consciousness and is meant to save the person, but if the person is muddleheaded, who are we giving the Fa to? When the mental problem attacks you, that is your karma, bad thoughts, and foreign beings at work. Can we give the Fa to them? No, and this is the reason. So those with a family history of mental illness must be cautious while cultivating! If you feel that you can’t control yourself, don’t participate. Those who currently have mental illness: You are not welcome at the practice sites, and you shouldn’t attend Fa conferences to listen to the Fa.

Student: My child is twelve years old. He practices once a week and listens to the Fa before going to sleep at night. Is his practice and studying the Fa considered normal?

Master: Children have their own states. If they have been exposed to the Fa and are studying and practicing, they are actually cultivating too, for sure. We have strict distinctions between children and adults. Because children don’t have the stuff formed by those notions and complicated thoughts that adults have, they are very simple, and so they obtain the Fa quickly.

Student: When I think bad thoughts in my mind, there will be bad substances generated in other dimensions. What do I do?

Master: Try your best not to think bad things, and you will be gradually progressing in your cultivation. Even if you think them, don’t pay attention to them and don’t be afraid. Once you become afraid—“What do I do now?”—that is an attachment. That’s why we should study the Fa and read the book as much as possible, and it’s better to maintain a pure and calm mind. But it’s impossible for you to not think of bad things at all. You won’t be able to do that if you haven’t achieved Consummation. As far as what kind of stuff is generated, you are a cultivator now, so I can tell you that you, a cultivator, are not viewed in the heavens as being human. They regard you as a god. You will be the future gods at different levels after you reach Consummation. That’s why once you transcend ordinary people and carry in your body things that transcend ordinary people—and especially when you are cultivating during Fa-rectification—not only am I looking after you, but there are also a Buddha’s Eight Types of Heavenly Law-Guardians around your body guarding the Fa. It’s just that you don’t know it. Many people become brave after they start practicing. Why is that? It’s not merely due to factors on your part. It is because you have a side that knows things. That’s why your courage is boosted.

Student: I have been very shy since childhood. Is that a strong attachment?

Master: As a human being, if a person doesn’t have a sense of shame I would say that he is a very bad person. If as a cultivator you are attached to these types of things, then you are just a human. Yet there have been many people in the past who, after starting to cultivate, became slovenly, unkempt, and dirty. If a Dafa disciple is like that, then I would say you are tarnishing Dafa’s image. As you know, when I lecture to you on the Fa on whatever occasion, I think I’m dressed rather neatly, relatively speaking. The fact is, I do that to show you an example. There are even people who mimic how I talk and how I live, so I pay special attention to these things. I can’t leave you with a bad example. Since you live among ordinary people you should pay some attention to this.

I have noticed something: Chinese don’t pay attention to superficial things and are rather casual. It’s like the joke I told last time: Chinese people pay a lot of attention to substance, have an abundance of things in their heads, are loaded with great skills, and the dishes they cook are delicious, but their presentation is sloppy and dirty. But Caucasians—just take this as a joke—their food doesn’t taste as delicious as what Chinese cook, but their knives and forks are nicely placed and there’s different silverware for different foods and different glasses for different drinks. They place a high importance on appearance and are very polite. That’s the difference between Caucasians and Chinese. But I think if these traits can be combined, with Chinese people being more attentive to etiquette and Caucasians having a little more substance, that would be better. (Applause)

Caucasians pay a lot of attention to their civilized manners. That’s their culture. Why are Caucasians sometimes angry with you? Some people even feel they are angry with you for no reason. If you harm their culture, even if it is a minor thing, they will be really angry. Many Chinese people aren’t attentive to little things. For example, when you enter a store and someone is behind you, you don’t bother with anything else after opening the door, and the door bangs shut behind you. If the onlooker is a Caucasian he will be really angry, for you are harming his culture and he doesn’t consider it a small thing. He will get really angry at your rude manners and speech. You are living in their society, so you should pay attention to this.

Student: I am a student from China. This time when I saw Master I couldn’t help shedding tears and I can’t express myself in words.

Master: You see, while I am in the United States, it seems that I have been meeting you often over the past six months and that it’s quite easy. But in mainland China there are so many students who can’t see me. They miss their master very much, and I in turn am thinking of them. That’s the situation.

Student: There is a “me” existing in various individual dimensions. Are the various individual dimensions in the Three Realms?

Master: It’s true, they are within the Three Realms. Dimensions in the Three Realms are the most complex. If there is an opportunity I will explain the composition of matter for you further in the future; the extent of the complexity is astonishing. Yet there is no language to describe it, nor can drawings illustrate it. That is why sometimes when I teach you the Fa it is so challenging that even when all human expressions have been exhausted it’s still hard to capture the magnificence of the universe.

Student: I heard that scientific research departments in China are replicating pandas.

Master: You mean cloning, right? Let’s not dwell on those things. Mankind is destroying itself. The other day I said that mankind is cloning this and cloning that, and that as soon as mankind starts cloning human beings it is the beginning of accepting aliens’ replacing humans. Precisely because people can’t see the side of existence that is divine, people still feel that their relentless pursuits, their so-called explorations, are nice-sounding things. In fact, they are destroying mankind. Human beings are destroying themselves.

Student: Some individuals in Buddhist circles attack Dafa for not being a righteous Way.

Master: Then just ignore it. They have reached the final stage of the Period of Dharma’s End. If with these problems we were to adopt their ways of handling things—where they attack Dafa and so you send out materials to fight back—wouldn’t Dafa be the same as them? Our Dafa is the Great Fa of the universe, and even though they appear to be doing damage, they are actually nothing. Going way back to when Shakyamuni came along, the Brahman religion did the same thing.

Student: Is the process of transformation from the microcosmic portion to the macrocosmic portion the process of innate body (benti) transformation?

Master: You may understand it that way. The quicker a person cultivates himself, the faster the transformation.

Student: Why is it that in the many, many other dimensions within a certain area of the universe, there is a “him” simultaneously?

Master: That’s how complicated the universe’s composition is. At the time when you are born, there is a “you” born in many, many dimensions. You look just about the same, do almost the same things, have the same name, are born at the same time, and die at the same time, but the quality of life is different. How are they related to you? I just said, they are born at the same time and die at the same time, and other than this there isn’t any other major connection. I said that you are born at the same time, and that means that if they were not born, you couldn’t be born, even if you wanted to be. And if they didn’t die, then it would be very hard to die even if you wanted to. So the reason those “lonesome spirits and homeless ghosts” that people used to talk about can’t reincarnate is that not all of the “hims” have died. Only one of the “hims” committed suicide and insisted on dying, so he doesn’t have any place to go after dying. He has to wait until all the living ones have completed their life journeys before they can look for their destiny together. As for the main spirit, as I just said, your spirit is you—your main spirit is you, yourself—and the source of your thoughts is you. And as for the Immortal Infant (yuanying), that is the Buddha-body developed in your cultivation from your wisdom and Fa. Our Fa can enable the human body to undergo fundamental changes, and this body itself can transform into a Buddha’s body.

Student: Master mentioned, “Perhaps when you attain the Dao, many people will benefit in the future.”

Master: That is true. Think about it: If a person manages to cultivate into a Buddha, his parents and siblings—or let’s just say his parents, who gave birth to such a wonderful son or daughter—won’t they have their share of the blessings? They sure will. As to how great this blessing is and where they will be placed, that is definitely done according to how big their share of the predestined blessing is. But the person achieving Consummation and becoming a Buddha, with his parents also becoming Buddhas despite not having done cultivation—that’s utterly impossible, for they have not cultivated. It is decided according to their share of predestined blessing and their xinxing. The amount of one’s karma is also crucial. Such being the case, this isn’t limited to just parents and siblings. It also includes the many, many people and lives that the person has dealt with in the human world, and the karmic relationships born of spite. You have killed, but then you become a Buddha, so what about those lives you killed? You have to save them. Of course, Master will take care of these things for you when you succeed in cultivation and achieve Consummation, and these too count as what you have saved. They have to be saved to your paradise, so the problems are solved for you in this manner. There are also many, many people who once did things that benefited you, and those can’t be ignored. There are all sorts of factors. Even cultivation is not a simple matter, and you can’t resolve on your own the many kinds of predestined cause-effect relationships that are present in many things. That too is done by Master.

Student: When Master met with some students from different regions, nobody wanted to be left behind. Is it also an attachment?

Master: That might be the situation today. When I was teaching the Fa in China, students all knew—and maybe you have heard—that everyone looked for front-row seats on the first day of the class, hoping to get closer to Teacher and receive greater energy. By the end of the third day of class, nobody moved to the front anymore. Everyone saved the good seats for the elderly or for others, nobody fought for seats, and the whole hall assumed a peaceful state. People all have a process of changing. Of course, many of you here today hurried here from out of town or haven’t seen me for a long time. You want to get closer to see Teacher better, and I can understand the feeling. Fighting for seats, though—Caucasians wouldn’t do anything like that. For the most part these are surface-level things.

Student: Veteran students’ xinxing is high and their gong potency is growing greater and greater. Their words and deeds have great influence on new students. How should veteran and new students each handle themselves?

Master: The majority of veteran students have cultivated very well, but it can’t be said that every veteran student is that good. At the same time, I can’t say that you don’t meet the standard and so I won’t let you come practice—how could I be like that? I can’t. So, many of your words and deeds can affect others. Yet there is the Fa, so don’t be afraid. Even a new student will use the Fa to evaluate everything after he has studied the Fa a few times. Even though you are a veteran student, he will still know where you have done something wrong. People have their own minds, and there is the Fa, so these problems aren’t problems. You have all come through like that. As assistants, as veteran students, you might be concerned with this problem. The point of concern and the considerations are all good. If you see it, find a way to solve it and try your best to ask people to pay attention to this. Then as veteran students, you should really watch yourselves in front of new students. Even if you aren’t concerned with your own reputations, you should still consider Dafa’s reputation. It is a pure land here, so I don’t want you to not look inside yourself when you run into problems. It’s unacceptable if it develops into something similar to [Chinese] society’s work units.

Student: Prior to my cultivation, I felt very cold and couldn’t move one night.

Master: I would say it’s better not to ask any questions concerning personal conditions. With tens of millions, tens of billions of states—you alone have so many of them—how am I to answer this for you? I can tell you that the states are all good. I mentioned something yesterday: Whether you feel good or bad, in reality you can’t tell what is at work. I’ll just tell you one thing: It’s enough if you treat all of it as something good. (Applause) Let me give you an example. Think about it, everyone: The dirt in human society is high-level beings’ feces. Living in an environment as filthy as this, as if man had jumped into a manure pit—you’re all in a manure pit now, yet you still fret over the implications of something feeling good or not so good. What point is there in caring about those things? You should hurry to cultivate and think that it’s good no matter what you run into. And it really is good. If you didn’t cultivate you would never have those sensations, and that includes unpleasant ones. No matter how good a change is, it won’t feel pleasant when it manifests in your body. That’s because the presence of any type of gong or energy carries electricity, and it will cause reactions to manifest in your body. The gong is so strong and you still have a human body. If it moves just a little inside the body, your human body will of course feel discomfort. When you have completed cultivation you won’t have those sensations. When some people levitate in the air they have certain states in the air. Ignore them all, they are all good things. The more afraid you are, the more likely you will have those things happen a few times, because it’s wrong for you to have an attachment of fear.

Student: To exist for ourselves yet at the same time be selfless and altruistic—how should we understand this?

Master: Think about it: A person is a life that exists at an individual level, and if you are taking selflessness and altruism to the point where you don’t even want to cultivate yourself and you are no longer returning to your original, true self, well, that’s just too “selfless.” How could you understand it like that? Isn’t your cultivation for yourself? However, during the course of cultivation you cultivate yourself to become more and more kind, to the point where you think of others whenever you think about anything, thus succeeding in becoming a selfless being. Cultivation is about you cultivating yourself: You reach Consummation and at the same time succeed in becoming a great living being who thinks of others and can make sacrifices for others. Individual lives should always exist. If you were all to cultivate yourselves to the point where you no longer have your individual entities, could that be permitted? So I would like to tell you this: You want to return—you want to achieve Consummation—and accordingly, your sacrifices will bring you immense happiness. That’s what you gain through the sacrifices. Returning to a realm that is higher and more splendid—that is aspiring to kindness and being inspired to transcend. Some people understand wuwei¹ to mean having no self, having no existence of self. The fact is, it’s not like that at all. The universe does have levels and, strictly speaking, living beings do have hierarchies; those are made up of the Attainment Status and mighty virtue you affirm and attain through cultivation.

Student: Is stiffness in the legs caused by large amounts of karma?

Master: I have already discussed this. Some people’s leg pain is caused by karma, while for some, they feel stiff because their legs have never been bent like that before. These are the body’s physiological conditions at the surface. But whether it’s due to large amounts of karma or physiological factors, everyone can sit with the legs crossed. As for not feeling any pain, there are very few cases of that.

Student: There are already over 100 million people around the world who have obtained the Fa. Is spreading the Fa still as important as it was in the past?

Master: Are you really that unwilling to do things to spread the Fa? As you know, you cultivate Shan in cultivation, and when you see people in the midst of suffering, you want to help them obtain the Fa. That’s something you should gradually come to possess in cultivation. No matter what you give to others, it’s not as good as giving them the Fa. No matter how good what you give someone is, or no matter how much money you give him, he is happy for only one lifetime or one moment. But if you give him the Fa, his life will be happy forever. What could be better than the Fa? (Applause) So I think that introducing the Fa to others is itself spreading the Fa and a good deed. But you shouldn’t force it. If a person doesn’t want to learn and you force him to learn, then that’s not good. You have done what you wanted to and let him know about the Fa, and that’s enough. Whether he takes up cultivation or not is his own issue. Many people have done a lot to spread the Fa and have spent a great amount of time, and that could never be called meaningless. The time you lost will be fully made up for you during cultivation since, after all, you are doing things for Dafa and doing a good deed. Of course, there is something you should pay heed to from now on: Don’t try to push people. It’s enough if you let them know about the Fa in some natural way. If they know about it but don’t want to learn, then let them be.

Student: The essay “Be Clearheaded” says that a person must distinguish thought karma from normal incorrect thoughts.

Master: That is right. It’s not easy for ordinary people to distinguish interference coming from thought karma. If a cultivator is not diligent and doesn’t look for the fundamental motives behind his thoughts, it is going to be hard for him to tell which is which. Why do some people go a long time without being able to eliminate thought karma? It’s because they don’t try to distinguish which thoughts are their own. Why do we ask you to cultivate yourself? You should first of all eliminate bad thoughts through cultivation. The reason you can get rid of those bad things is that you don’t acknowledge them as you. That is extremely crucial. It is because you don’t acknowledge them as you that you can then eliminate them. The fact is, they really aren’t you. They are the various notions, or even karma, developed from the things you have done after birth—those things. But people usually see them as part of themselves: “I have a clever mind, and nobody can get the best of me. I’m better than others in every respect.” They see those postnatally formed things as part of themselves or even believe them to be the best. Whatever a person wants is up to him, and only when you don’t want that stuff can it be eliminated for you.

Why is it hard to save someone who is mentally ill? It’s precisely because he can’t discern things at all. It’s very hard for a new student to identify thought karma and distinguish which thoughts are not himself. If he can manage to do that, he is truly outstanding. You can use Dafa to judge. Actually, none of the bad thoughts are you. If you can do it, you will distinguish them and see: “Oh, this thought isn’t good and should be eliminated. I should get rid of it. I shouldn’t think like that.” That in itself is your eliminating it. Do you think that those who do bad things, like committing heinous crimes, or even those who engage in homosexual acts, want to do things that way and are born to do that? It owes to their wrong, postnatal notions having grown stronger and stronger, and their notions have turned around and taken control of them. That’s how they become like that.

Student: The enlightened beings who save people are usually Tathagatas, but how do they transform gong for cultivators starting from root sources of matter?

Master: I have never told you anything like that. I didn’t say that Shakyamuni did it that way, did I? A Tathagata’s Fa can’t be compared with the Great Fa (Dafa) of the cosmos. An ordinary god won’t be able to do this in the future, nor was one single god able to do it in the past. The Fa that was used to save people in the past was small. Saving people was done with the help of other Tathagatas or even higher gods. They too needed to worship the heavens and honor higher gods. It’s not like what people imagine, that a Tathagata Buddha is number one in Heaven—it’s not like that. If a Fa is small, one lifetime isn’t enough to save a person, and the person has to be saved for a few lifetimes before he can truly be saved. But Dafa is capable of doing it [in one lifetime]. (Applause) That’s because it is the Great Fa of the cosmos, which transcends all other Fa. All other Fa are what enlightened beings affirm and enlighten to, in cultivation, from the Great Fa of the cosmos. I don’t know if you have understood this relationship clearly. Whether it be any enlightened being who saves people or any Tathagata, Buddha, or God in the heavens, the characteristics of their own paradises or the Attainment Statuses they have achieved are all what they have affirmed and enlightened to from the Great Fa of the cosmos. (Applause) Those aren’t things they copied directly from the Great Fa of the cosmos, since they were not permitted one bit to know about the Great Fa of the cosmos before. They only knew the standard at different realms that living beings in different levels should adhere to, and knew only that. That’s why they could affirm and enlighten to their own understandings as well as how to reach that standard. Those are the things they have affirmed and enlightened to. What Shakyamuni affirmed and enlightened to is called “Precept, Samadhi, and Wisdom.” Have I explained it clearly? (Applause) They rely on the Fa of the universe and rely on higher gods to help them. They themselves can’t do it.

What’s more, some Tathagatas are different. For example, Shakyamuni Buddha is not like what you’ve imagined—an ordinary Tathagata. In this realm he is a Tathagata, when in fact, he also has states that are more microcosmic and that other Buddhas don’t know about. The level he came from is very high. He affirmed and enlightened to the Four Greats: “Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind.” Some of you might have seen this term in the scriptures. That level is very high, far beyond the cosmic bodies where average lives exist. It means that he has affirmed and enlightened to very high levels, showing that where he came from is very high. But he only brought with him the Fa-power of the Tathagata realm in coming here to save people.

Student: Is one of the reasons human society has warped that the molecular cells of most ordinary people have been changed by aliens?

Master: The life and the substances of the human body that people refer to—namely, the composition of this body—together with the warping of the mind can change a person’s behavior and way of life, while ways of life can also change the composition of the particles in the human body. If this type of warping is passive, one that is controlled by some kind of creature, then it is utterly dreadful for human beings. It’s similar to the question of why humans can develop notions postnatally and why those notions can turn around and control man. If you don’t eliminate them, they will become part of you in this life, and may even become a part that dominates you. In other words, this cultural framework that aliens have imposed upon people on Earth has completely formed a set of methods for living and perceiving the material world; it has already become that way. So, once they have something like this in place, the kind of body I mentioned can be developed. How do you drive a car? You have to use their methods. How do you build a machine? How do you operate the stuff they created? This series of things has penetrated all of man’s ways of living. It has developed this kind of body, formed this kind of thinking, and developed these sorts of things. I said last time that everybody who operates a computer has been cataloged by aliens with a number. That’s absolutely true. But our disciples don’t have this problem. I have cleaned it out for them, and moreover, aliens are in the final stage of being cleaned out. Yet there are still some that are hiding, but they are rarely seen now. They used to hide in those super-material dimensions in order to control human beings. I have talked about super-matter, and that is where they hid, so it was very difficult to detect them. Human beings believe that only the existing molecules are the most material, when in fact there are things more material than molecules. They hid in those places in order to control human beings. We have already completed those dimensions—things in those dimensions have been cleaned up.

Student: When one goes beyond In-Triple-World-Law, hasn’t one already reached the Attainment Status of Arhat? Why would one still be a sentient being?

Master: You have not read the Fa carefully or tried to understand it thoroughly. Some people do cultivation but haven’t succeeded at it, and so they can only live at whatever level in the Three Realms they reached. People in the heavens, heavenly people, are also gods in the eyes of human beings. If a person goes beyond the Three Realms, the first Attainment Status he reaches is Arhat. There is another special situation, in which a person has not taken up cultivation but has reached a very good standard. But he doesn’t have Attainment Status. It’s likely he has a predestined relationship with a Buddha or has a predestined relationship with one of you in the audience who will succeed at becoming a Buddha in the future. He is likely to become a sentient being in your paradise, that is, a citizen in your paradise. In a Buddha’s paradise there are not only Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Rather, it’s a flourishing paradise. Buddhas are the lords of the Fa and are kind. That’s the situation. If you want to use human thinking to try to understand things in Heaven you will never figure them out. With a head full of those things you won’t be able to cultivate. A cosmic body as large as I have told you about is but a speck of dust. The complexity of the universe cannot be described, it’s beyond words. On Earth you see people of white skin color, yellow, and black, and there are certain differences among the races. The various races in the cosmic bodies are countless—there are all kinds of them—and there are even multicolored ones. It means that this universe is immensely complex.

Student: Mankind’s karma has accumulated more and more, but why is the average life expectancy increasing?

Master: You might have noticed that the average life expectancy for people today is longer than for people in the old days. While Dafa is spreading widely, it is a person’s great fortune to get the life he has during this time when Dafa is spreading widely. (Applause) Those who I want to save, I will certainly give every one a chance. It’s not easy to reincarnate into a lifetime when Dafa is spreading widely, or to encounter this Dafa. People are given a chance. But whether or not a person takes up cultivation is his own business. There are many regions that Dafa hasn’t spread to, so people have to hold out and keep living in order to listen to the Fa at some point, at which time their minds will be examined to see how they respond. That’s why letting people know about the Fa is of primary concern and is crucial. What I mean is that when you spread the Fa, you should let people know about the Fa, but whether or not someone wants to cultivate is his own affair. Let’s say you reincarnated as this life here, ran into the Buddha Fa and heard it, but didn’t care, didn’t cultivate in it, and didn’t study it. Then that would be your regret! The question you asked just now was about why karma is so large yet life hasn’t been shortened but instead extended. That’s the reason.

Student: Is it all right for veteran students to still keep in their homes statues of Guanyin and others if they have been consecrated with Master’s picture?

Master: Keeping them isn’t an issue, since those are all great gods. If they have been through consecration it’s all right to have them, and if you have put them there, it’s okay. But you should know in your heart which cultivation way you cultivate in. You should know in your heart who you should pay respect to.

Student: Is it accurate to think that we are all living in Teacher’s body?

Master: You can understand it that way. (Applause) Actually, I can tell you that during a person’s cultivation, his body is constantly increasing in volume. After a person drops to this dimension, in order to go back, to cultivate back, his body needs to change. In order to begin the changes from the most microcosmic level, he must meet the standard at the microcosmic level of the universe and return to the utmost microcosm. In that case, the volume of his body has to conform to the original state in that dimension. So it will enlarge. The more microcosmic, the bigger the volume. Every cultivator will undergo this type of change. Ordinary people won’t be able to see you, though. They aren’t allowed to see it. Many students have seen that the bodies behind Teacher’s body are countless, layer upon layer, and that each layer is bigger than the last. Some are so big that the end can’t be seen and everything is encompassed. If Earth is encompassed… aren’t you at this place where Earth is? That’s the idea. (Applause)

Student: Since we cultivate our main spirit, why does everything around us occasionally seem odd and unfamiliar?

Master: As for this feeling, yes, there are situations like that. If a certain part of your mind has gone through cleansing or your ways of thinking have changed, it can bring about something like what you described. No matter what, though, if you know that you are still here and this person is you, then it’s not a problem.

Student: I feel that Zhuan Falun has already explained things clearly. There’s no need to discuss with others and exchange experiences.

Master: That’s your own state in cultivation, then. Something like that can’t be imposed on others. I can’t say you are wrong, though, since each person has different states. Also, there’s the fact that new students are entering all the time, so you should have a piece of pure land.

Student: Can it be said that the deeper one drops to among ordinary people, if he can return, the greater his mighty virtue after he succeeds in cultivation?

Master: No, it’s not like that. The deeper one drops, the less hope there is for him. If it weren’t for the wide spreading of Dafa it would all be over.

Student: Why is the subject of a master’s eliminating karma for his disciples always not very explicit in religious cultivation?

Master: There isn’t any “why.” Why are the things Jesus taught different from what Shakyamuni taught? Why should everyone be the same? Shakyamuni did talk about the subject of eliminating karma; it’s not that he didn’t talk about it. Eliminating karma is also discussed in contemporary Buddhism. Shakyamuni talked about many things during his forty-nine years of teaching his Fa. Those things that people didn’t understand were not passed down. Later generations picked out the parts that suited their frames of mind. It’s just like students who selectively read the Fa—“I feel that this chapter is good, so I just read this chapter.” They only understood that part, so they inherited it and passed it down. What they couldn’t understand or what didn’t agree with their notions was not passed down. When Shakyamuni was imparting his Fa back then, there wasn’t anything written down. It was only five hundred years later that Shakyamuni’s words began to be sorted out. How many errors occurred during those five hundred years of being passed down orally?! Buddhism did talk about eliminating karma, only you don’t know about it. Jesus was nailed to the cross. Don’t Christians say that Jesus redeemed people’s sins?

Student: The term “fellow cultivator” is often used by some students when they address other students. Since Teacher has never mentioned this term, I feel that this isn’t appropriate. There are conventions like this in Buddhism.

Master: This is a term invented by people in this world and isn’t something unique to Buddhism; it isn’t a special term. Actually, the special term definitely is not “fellow cultivator.” It is yet another term that people later on, such as in the past few years, have created. As to what term we should use, it doesn’t matter much. Dafa isn’t particular about this as far as its superficial form goes. You should be in keeping with ordinary people to the greatest extent while you cultivate. There were people who used to ask me about how to address each other. I would tell them it’s okay if you call each other John Doe or Jane Doe. If we were to stipulate some unique terms, others would really think that we are an organized religion. It’s better if we can be a little more flexible in this regard when dealing with ordinary people.

Student: How should we look at the problem of “man sealing himself off”?

Master: This is a broad issue, one that applies to mankind in every way. Let me give you the simplest example. For instance, let’s talk about today’s laws. You know that in ancient times there were no laws. Since people’s hearts were all relatively kind, there wasn’t any need to regulate people with so many laws. They knew how to conduct themselves on their own and behaved well. Nowadays people’s hearts aren’t good and have become depraved, and that’s why so many laws have been made to manage people. Human beings are being managed the same way animals are managed. It is an intangible cage. Yet people are still getting ever more depraved, and laws are still being constantly created. How far will this law-making eventually go? Laws will become so numerous that people won’t even know when they have committed a crime since there will be too many to remember. Eventually it will even become such that you will violate a law whenever you move a muscle or as soon as you step outside your house. Isn’t it likely to develop to that extent? Mankind is simply boxing itself in without end. People are boxing themselves in not only legally but also in every other regard. Eventually, people will be so boxed in that they have no way out, and the laws people made will turn around and start to punish them. Those who make laws have the intention of punishing others because, with an ordinary person’s heart, they don’t like how others are and want to punish them out of jealousy. They didn’t think about the fact that they are part of society, too, and that the laws will apply to them just the same. Eventually people will be so sealed in that they have no room to breathe, at which point they will have no alternative. When it reaches that point, how are people to still live? So, the solution to man’s fundamental problems lies not with the law but with the heart. (Applause)

Every country is frustrated by the turmoil and instability their societies face, such as public security problems and the like, and there are no good solutions. They want to keep them under control by making laws that target the bad phenomena. More and more such laws are coming about. But those who do bad things still do them when they are not being watched by the law. In fact, nobody has found the fundamental cause, which is that people’s hearts need to be tamed and people’s hearts need to aspire to kindness. Were people’s hearts to become good, there wouldn’t be a need for so many laws anymore. Though there wouldn’t be police, people wouldn’t do anything against the law. If every person restrains himself from doing wrong, there is no need for police. Imagine what kind of society that would be. Isn’t that right? Meanwhile, if there were so many policemen that in the future every person was watched by one, people would still do bad things if their hearts were not good. Police are human too, and there are policemen who do bad things. Then what do you do? Judges are ordinary people too, so who is there to intervene if there are judges too who do bad things?

What I mean is that the solution to people’s fundamental problems does not lie in making a certain number of laws and regulations, nor is it about how to restrict people, restrain people, or control people. It is about how to awaken people’s kindheartedness and have human society become truly noble. No external restraints that are imposed on people can restrain their hearts. In other words, those measures don’t resolve the root cause.

I know everything about mankind. Of course, even though I have unveiled these things, I don’t want to do anything about mankind right now and will leave it alone. I don’t interfere in political affairs, either. As for what people refer to as “politics,” I utterly dislike it, and I don’t want to hear or ask about it. Yet I can explain clearly everything about mankind, and at present I am responsible only for my cultivating students. However, after more people do well in cultivation, this strong righteous power will make society change in some ways. People will for sure aspire to kindness and society will stabilize. But that’s not something I meant to do. It is the outcome of spreading Dafa.

Student: Teacher, you said that you are the only person imparting Falun Gong in this world and that no other person dares to come down here to teach.

Master: That’s correct. I am simply Falun Paradise’s… Falun Paradise was created by me. (Applause) I am the only person imparting Dafa, and in fact there is nobody else [that can do it]. The concept that you have imagined doesn’t exist.

Student: We often feel that we can notice a thought being wrong as soon as it arises.

Master: That is good. Although your main consciousness isn’t as strong as that of an enlightened being, whenever an incorrect thought comes up you can catch it and you know it is wrong. That’s because the part of your mind that has completed cultivation is already very strong, so it is playing its role. As soon as bad thoughts arise, you are aware, and so they are caught.

Student: What does the Lotus symbolize? Does it symbolize cultivators’ emerging from the filth without being stained?

Master: The Lotus Flower² is not created in the human dimension. People think a lotus flower looks like the Lotus Flower, but it’s not the Lotus. The Lotus Flower is created in Buddhas’ worlds. In Buddhas’ worlds the Lotus Flower isn’t considered a flower, but rather, it is Attainment Status and the mighty virtue of a Buddha. The Lotus Flower is not the flower understood by human concepts, though it can be likened to a flower. Nowadays the lotus flower is used in Buddhism to symbolize sacredness and purity—emerging from filth without being stained. It grows from mud and yet it isn’t stained, and remains so clean, sacred, and pure. It’s used as a metaphor, but it is absolutely not the Lotus Flower of Buddhas.

Student: During the course of cultivation, how do we experience the advancement and breakthrough of levels? I often experience relapses in my body.

Master: This is all natural. So you think that you should be able to sense whichever level you’ve reached in cultivation? That’s not possible. How should I put it… There are so many people. And moreover, telling every single person his situation in detail is, for one thing, impossible, and secondly, you would get attached to those tangible things because of this, and you can’t focus your attention on that. As Dafa disciples you cultivate yourselves according to Dafa, and only this way is it the fastest.

Student: Is a person’s personality related to his inborn quality?

Master: If it’s your idiosyncrasies formed postnatally, that is not your personality but your attachments, and they are formed postnatally. If, let’s say, some people indeed have their own traits—this person acts quickly while another is just very slow—or if there are differences among them in terms of their innate traits, then that is something that belongs to their origin. What is formed postnatally are things like, for example, the thought that goes “I just like it this way,” “That’s just how I am,” “I just like to do it this way,” or the “That’s just how I do it” that come out when doing certain things. It is wrong to treat these attachments, these idiosyncrasies, as your own traits or personality. These things all have to be removed.

Student: How should we understand the concepts of “universe,” “cosmic body,” and “space-time”?

Master: A discussion of the concepts of universe, cosmic body, and space-time needs to start from these three words. The reason is, human language is extremely limited. People usually believe that the universe is what the eyes can see and what people can imagine. I have told you about so many levels of the universe and about the concept of so many levels of the universe, and going even further up, there are still levels beyond the concept of the universe. I call them cosmic bodies. This is the term and perceptual concept that I have explained to you, and what human beings mean by “cosmic body” is different from that which I discuss. So there exist different dimensions in the different universes within a cosmic body, and different dimensions certainly have their own times. Those are their space-times. The dimensions that exist in different times are called different space-times. That’s how the concept is understood on the surface.

Student: Dafa’s wide spread in society is the laws of the universe remanifesting in the human world. Is it correct to understand it this way?

Master: Yes, but it’s not entirely accurate. That is because such an immense Fa is not remanifesting in the human world: Never, for as long as heaven and earth have existed, has this taken place—it’s the first time in all of creation. (Applause)

Student: When they have just begun to learn the practice, Americans wish that the instructions on the music tape had simultaneous English translation.

Master: The translation work is underway. However, I think that adding translated instructions to the exercise tape is not so good. It’s just like the word “Buddha”: Westerners didn’t have any idea about what the word means, but now everyone knows. That is to say, certain things just can’t be translated, although the explanations on the exercises tape can be. Terms like jieyin and heshi won’t be quite the same once you translate them. They will lose their original meanings. So those terms can’t be translated.

Student: How can we help those who have demonic interference from their own minds continue on the path of cultivation?

Master: First of all, I can’t say that they are good students, for a student who has done well in cultivation would never have this problem. His mind, so steadfast in Dafa, solid as rock, would strike fear in demons at the mere sight of it, much less could they interfere with him. (Applause) Trying to touch him would be like throwing eggs at a rock, and they wouldn’t dare touch him in the least. So it’s still because these people have problems in their minds, and that is especially so when there are foreign beings taking advantage of the attachments in their minds so as to interfere with them through deception. It is one hundred percent due to the fact that they still have things from the past that haven’t been given up—[that’s what you would find if you were to] look at the reasons behind it. If they didn’t pursue that thing, it absolutely wouldn’t dare to come. No matter whether it’s the living beings in the universe from the past or all the living beings who have now been rectified, they are all watching. It’s only because your mind isn’t righteous that you attract those evil things. If your mind is righteous, nobody will dare to come. And even if they really could come, gods wouldn’t allow it. As to how to correct that person, help him to understand it; the only way is for him to let go of his attachments and study the Fa more. Once demonic interference from one’s own mind develops, it is very difficult for the person to enlighten to things on his own. The more others talk to him about it, the more obsessed he gets; he just doesn’t want to understand. There is no way out when that is the case, so just let him be. Nobody should bother with him anymore, then. Don’t give him an audience—just act as if he didn’t exist. Perhaps he will calm down when he starts to find it meaningless. But those who have done great damage to the Fa will never have another chance to obtain the Fa, and what’s more, in the future they will have to atone for their sins. It’s of their own doing—it’s not because we lack compassion toward them. I have repeatedly discussed this facet of the Fa.

Student: I’m very aware that I am constantly overcoming ordeals, but I have never felt any special changes in the body.

Master: Many of our students have endured a lot of hardships; their sacrifices and the hardships they have endured are indeed greater than those of others. There are two reasons behind this. One is that the karma they generated in the past is really enormous, or the bad things they did were even worse than normal. You might say that now, in this life, you don’t know about that and that you won’t pay it off, but how could that be allowed? You have cultivated in Dafa, so I will look after you. I also have to have you improve in cultivation and have you achieve Consummation. But at the same time, I can’t tell you that you once did those kinds of things. Yet you still ask me about why this and that. (Of course, I’m not referring to the student who asked the question. I’m just giving you an example to explain these things.) So what do you think can be done? When I see that you are enduring hardships and suffering, I really worry about you. But relatively speaking, what has been eliminated is already quite substantial. What Master has eliminated for you and borne for you is already tremendous; removing any more of it would not work or be allowed. So what’s to be done? You have to endure a bit more hardship for what’s left.

Another scenario is that some people are just attached to their own things and don’t let go. You just don’t let it go, and it is so deeply concealed that even when you have realized it you still don’t want to let it go. As soon as it’s hit upon, you immediately evade it and don’t want to give it further thought. Because you don’t want to let it go—you don’t want to let it go yet you still want to cultivate, and I see that you have the makings and are capable of cultivating—I then have to make you understand. When you are always stuck in that state of being, the ordeals you go through will become extensive. What [else] could be done, then? There is no other way. This is one scenario, then, where ordeals are imposed by the person himself.

Also, while cultivating not everyone experiences changes in the body as noticeably as others do. There are some people who just don’t feel anything noticeable. No matter what, they just don’t feel anything. There have been cases like that. Let’s put it this way: No matter how great a change you have had in the microcosm—even one that turns heaven and earth upside down—your body at the surface has been desensitized by your postnatal life, has become numb, and doesn’t feel anything. There are cases like that, too. But regardless of how your body at the surface has become degenerate and doesn’t feel anything, your cultivation will not be affected, and your progress will not be any slower than that of others. When you finally achieve Consummation, the obstructions at the surface will be nothing. As soon as your gong comes over everything will be done in an instant. But those [postnatal changes in your body] might indeed make you insensitive.

Student: Master talked about warped society and warped human beings. Could you please elaborate on this further for disciples?

Master: You know, whether it’s people from the East or from the West, in ancient times people’s thinking, behavior, and the forms their societies took were completely different from those of today. Gods all regarded that as the human way of life. But it too had a process of development. You know that China has gone through many dynasties. Even though clothing styles changed and were different in each dynasty, people’s notions, their thoughts about how to live like a human being, and everything they did in society was really the life of a human being. So what about things now? This society appears to be very advanced, but that was all brought along by today’s science.

Why have gods allowed human society to become warped, then? As soon as this question is discussed a whole range of issues are involved, so I would rather not discuss it. But I can give you a brief overview in a few sentences. Namely, there are old forces in this universe. These old forces are not demons: They are the lives that came about after things deviated from the Fa over a long period of time. They have no idea that the universe has degenerated. It is precisely this type of being who, in order to safeguard everything of his own kind, obstructs living beings’ obtaining of the Fa, impedes Fa-rectification, and has formed an extremely evil force. But they are not demons, though they are doing things that demons could never even remotely aspire to doing. They hypocritically pretend that they look out for people’s well-being, but their damage is real.

The appearance they have is that of gods, when in fact they are not benevolent beings. These forces have had a seriously obstructive effect during my imparting of this Dafa today. As soon as my gong reaches them, they actually become nothing. Once they come to understand this they will discover that they themselves are in the midst of being completely annihilated, and none of them will escape the fate of being eradicated by the Fa-rectification. That’s the process during this undertaking. Anyway, once this subject is discussed it involves something enormous, the issues are just huge. So put differently, these old forces have existed for quite a long time, and they thus don’t believe that living beings have deviated from the Fa, and nor do they believe there has been any change in the universe.

So, as to this undertaking of mine, living beings from top to bottom all know about it. The gods who are the highest want to cooperate with it, so they have made a series of arrangements. They believe that doing it that way is best for me. There has been an arrangement like this at different levels, linked from top to bottom. Yet they haven’t realized that their standards and their arrangements have become, to the contrary, obstacles to my undertaking. They have even been arranging human society from ancient times to the present so as to determine how today’s mankind would obtain the Fa. They want to use human bodies and minds to preserve the wisdom of aliens. This is also a trouble, a difficulty, created for me at the lowest level of my Fa-rectification and saving people. So while everything they have done is meant to help this undertaking, all of it in fact acts as an impediment. But the greatest harm it brings to mankind is the obstruction to people’s obtaining the Fa. This is especially evident in the disbelief in divine beings that is seen in modern science, as well as its negation of the traditional ways of thought and conduct of real human beings. These things are all obstacles to people obtaining the Fa. Aliens are not gods, and they don’t know that those gods have arranged things this way. It’s merely that gods have controlled them and opened the door to let them in. With this, the aliens gained an opportunity, for the human body is something they have long desired. Nobody can restrict them anymore then, no matter what they do, so they are doing everything they can to obtain the human body and occupy places that belong to man. So this is something really complicated if we’re to talk about it. Saying what I just told you already involves huge issues. This is why the warped society and the state of today’s mankind have come about.

Some students have said, “Regardless of how many disciples there are now, Teacher can only take a few disciples to Consummate in the future.” I have heard people saying this in different regions. That is seriously damaging Dafa. If what you said were the case, what would be the point of my lecturing on the Fa here today? It would be enough for me to gather those few and teach just them. Why would I offer salvation to all sentient beings? Still, some of our practitioners actually believe those words. How have you studied the Fa, I ask? This is one problem. There are also people who say, “Teacher will attach to a certain student’s body to speak, to give hints to others, or tell certain things to others.” That is something that absolutely will not happen. I may often use other people’s mouths, your family members’ mouths, or anyone’s mouth—I might use their mouths to tell you a few words and give you hints—that’s possible. But attaching to some person’s body… who’s so special? There is nothing like that whatsoever. Whoever is saying that has a problem. It’s guaranteed that he is the one with a problem, and it’s the result of what possessing spirits (futi) have done.

Student: When I promote the Fa to ordinary people, I ask them to read Zhuan Falun three times first. If they then want to learn, I will teach them the movements.

Master: Don’t make it so absolute. Beginners always have considerations of one kind or another, so you can teach them the movements as well, and their gradually coming to understand things is okay too. Or, you may give them the book, and it’s fine if they want to learn after reading it. There isn’t anything absolute. Don’t standardize it. Some people find it good after reading the book once and are anxious to learn the movements. But you tell them, “No, you have to keep reading it first.” Doing it that way isn’t good.

Student: Some students say: “Newcomers shouldn’t read the book first. They should contemplate, enlighten to things, and reflect on things.”

Master: Whether it be enlightening, contemplating, or reflecting, under the circumstance that they haven’t obtained the Fa, no matter what it is you ask them to think about or enlighten to, they won’t become enlightened, right? Everyone should read the book and read it more, and then you will be able to correctly deal with some of the circumstances that manifest during the course of your cultivation. That is right enlightening. What’s meant by “enlightening”? It is what a person enlightens to. That’s right enlightening. So if you were to go off contemplating and reflecting, what would you be thinking about? You should really filter all the thoughts that come up, and see which ones are you and which ones are bad thoughts. If it’s a bad thought, you can’t let it continue to be thought. As for contemplation, you don’t have to try to contemplate something. When you came to understand the Fa, you all had a process like this: You found it good right after you picked up the book and read it. Why did you find it good? You are rational, you have your thinking, and you have real life experiences in ordinary society, so you know the Fa is good. You knew it the moment you read the book, but that was merely on a perceptual level, though. By constantly reading the book you come to understand its value more and more, and this elevates your understanding to a rational one. So what else is there to contemplate? If you think, “Is the section of the Fa I studied today correct? Does this chapter make sense?” then your understanding is going astray. Doing it like that is definitely wrong.

Student: Due to shortcomings in spreading the Fa, up to this day there are still not a lot of senior personnel in the scientific and technological community who are true cultivators. What should we do?

Master: About this, it doesn’t matter what department it is or what social class it is, the spreading of Dafa aims at people’s hearts, it aims at individuals, and not at any social groups. For example, let’s say a person has some authority and he commands people: “Everyone has to come learn. Not learning isn’t an option.” Then who would sincerely come? They would come because you forced them, you ordered them, or out of consideration for friendship; they wouldn’t come for obtaining Dafa. It only works when a person truly wants to learn of his own will. So no matter how high people’s positions are or how much power they have, we only look at their hearts. Nobody can represent someone else. Some of us say that after people in certain organizations obtain the Fa, they may benefit us more in terms of spreading Dafa and affirming that Dafa is scientific. I’m not against your having thoughts like that. It’s excellent that you want to safeguard Dafa and do work for Dafa. However, things usually aren’t how you have imagined them. It depends on whether the person wants to obtain it or not. It works only if he wants to obtain it. If he doesn’t want to, it won’t work. Dafa won’t suffer on account of somebody missing out. Some students get all worried and say: “We’re afraid to tell students how to do things at the practice site. Once we tell them how to do things, students will stop practicing and leave.” I’d say that might be acceptable when a student lacks an in-depth understanding of Dafa. But if a student is still like that after a period of study, then let him go if he wants to. What we want are cultivators, not people who mix in with the crowd to try to gain something, or people who are here to fill some quota. If ninety-nine out of a hundred were not sincere and left, with only one sincere person remaining, that would still be your achievement. Even if there were just one person saved, it would be outstanding. But it won’t be like that. After all, there are already so many people cultivating in Dafa now.

Student: When overcoming an ordeal, sometimes I feel that I enlighten to it and feel instantly relieved. But later I find that the same test returns.

Master: Just now a student asked me why the state of connecting the Heavenly Circuit (zhoutian), which was experienced before, is now repeated. I can tell you that in order to maximally adjust to the way of ordinary people’s society in your cultivation, the part you have cultivated is separated microcosmically. The part that is yet to complete cultivation may have the same problem as before and have to continue cultivating; later, it will be separated when it finishes cultivation. Let me explain it with an example. There are mechanisms at every level of your body. There may be bad thoughts in the many levels of your body. In other words, a bad thought is likely to be composed of the very shallow things at the outermost surface; it also might be composed of matter that is somewhat more microcosmic. So some bad thoughts might be present from the microcosm up to the surface. Therefore, even though this side of you has met the standard and a layer is cleansed and separated, there is still some in the next layer. Elimination of the things you need to let go of in your cultivation has to be repeated.

Some people say: “I feel that I have cultivated pretty well and have been doing well for some time. But why are bad thoughts coming up again now?” It’s that the part you have cultivated pretty well has been separated, while the part that is not yet cultivated has to continue cultivating; it is, however, becoming weaker and weaker. I know—sometimes the thoughts that spring up are just awful. You don’t have to worry; the more microcosmic matter is, the greater its energy, which is to say that the more power it has, the greater its bad influence, and it can control people. At the outermost surface, the closer matter gets to the surface, the lesser its energy, and the lesser the energy, the lesser its ability; but the lesser it is and the closer it gets to the surface, the worse it becomes. So the worse and lower it is, the less energy it has. That’s the relationship. That is why even though you have eliminated and reduced a lot of bad stuff and it has become weak, it is likely to appear even worse. You don’t need to worry about these things, for you have already cultivated to this stage, and this means that you will become aware of a bad thought as soon as it arises. This is something that’s hard to do at the beginning stage. Bad thoughts are being gradually removed layer after layer. But you should understand clearly what I said. You might think: “Oh, that’s what it is. I won’t care when bad thoughts come up again.” If you don’t restrain yourself and resist them, you are not cultivating. That’s exactly the relationship. You distinguish them, you restrain them, and you know to cultivate yourself and restrain bad thoughts. When you do that, you are cultivating and continuously eliminating them, again and again, and the parts that meet the standard are becoming more and more. When they all meet the standard, it is Consummation. That’s the process.

Student: Disciples in North America have used many opportunities to spread the Fa to Americans, but there are still very few Americans who have really obtained the Fa.

Master: The old forces in the universe have a set of arrangements, and their arrangements have seriously impeded the things I want to do today.

None of them know where I come from. I have explained a principle to you before. Let’s take gods for example. Regardless of which level a god is at, he doesn’t know if there are still any gods higher than him. And moreover, the existence of gods is different from the existence of human beings. When I tell you today that there are heavens beyond the heavens, you all believe it in principle, but your thinking is different from that of gods. You all understand it from the Fa, while a god thinks that he sees all and knows all. If you say there is more beyond him, he doesn’t believe you—he really doesn’t believe you. This is determined by his Attainment Status and level, and it’s also what his wisdom has affirmed and enlightened to. Below his level or at levels the same as his, he sees everything with one glance and can do whatever he wants to. To all the living beings below his level, he is absolutely venerable. As for me, they can all see my manifested images and ways of manifestation at their levels, but none of them can see my forms of existence that are higher than them. That is why they dare to do as they have.

They think that I too belong where they are—“This is how I have arranged it, and it’s beneficial to you.” In fact, they don’t know that I have higher things to do. They do it this way, level after level, with this level thinking this way, and that level thinking this way—they all think this way—so they have arranged an obstacle at every level, one after another. As for spreading the Fa, I originally wanted to have 200 million people obtain the Fa during the Fa-rectification process. Since there are over 7 billion people in the world, 200 million is still a small number, isn’t it? However, they have limited it to 100 million, stubbornly holding on to their warped things and not letting go. Whenever I break through one level, they still have arrangements at the next higher level. I have to break through all of them, level after level… only then will I not be restricted by this set of arrangements of theirs. So their arrangements have formed an enormous obstacle to my Fa-rectification.

Student: Many people are looking for motivation for cultivating, such as establishing the concept of “going home.” I wonder if cultivating without any intention is better.

Master: Establishing a kind of confidence, motivation, or aspiration for going somewhere as the motivation for cultivation isn’t wrong in principle. But I think there is still an omission, because you are still cultivating for something. Of course, if you want to cultivate in order to return, or reach a certain state, I think that as long as you establish a goal or affirm a righteous thought, you shouldn’t think about it further. After forming that wish you should just concentrate on cultivating yourself, as you don’t need to worry about anything else. If you are always thinking like that, using it as a kind of driving force to motivate yourself, then after you reach a certain level the requirement on you will be higher, and at that time I think it might not necessarily be a driving force but instead what looks like an attachment. But there isn’t any problem at the beginning stage. I said that a Tathagata preaches compassion. But when a god at a very high level takes a look, he thinks, “What compassion? What do you mean compassion?” He doesn’t understand it. It’s not that he doesn’t understand—he understands everything—but that he thinks your compassion is an attachment. The principles go ever higher, and the Fa also goes higher and higher. At different levels, there are always requirements upon living beings specific to their realms at those levels.

Student: Every time I attend a Fa conference, I feel greatly uplifted and encouraged afterwards. But after I have returned home for a period of time, I find myself not being diligent again.

Master: I was talking about this question with our students yesterday. You’ve all had this experience. You all know you should be diligent after listening to Teacher speak in the Dafa environment. But you are, after all, cultivating in ordinary people’s society, and so everything you come into contact with is about ordinary self-interest, and everything affects your self-interest. So even the atmosphere exuded by the society as a whole is about living for this. In this environment, without being conscious of it, you might feel that everything is just supposed to be like this, and this will make you not diligent. This is a key reason for failing to stay diligent. But on the other hand, it is exactly because this environment can make a person slack off, can make a person turn bad, and is complicated and difficult to cultivate in, that if you can emerge from it you are great, you can go very high, you can return, and you will have others say that you are extraordinary. Isn’t that how it is? So, in any environment, and in this environment today, in order for us to become consistently diligent, I think we should read the book a lot, and read the book more.

Student: The more microcosmic, the higher the level. Teacher mentioned yesterday that the different levels of the heavens progress downward toward the microcosm.

Master: There isn’t any “up” or “down” as you have imagined. Earth is round—“down” is also “up.” Earth is round in the first place, and human beings are upside down one moment and right side up again another. There isn’t the human concept of “up” and “down.” The surrounding four sides and eight faces are all “ups.” When I say “moving upward,” it can actually be understood as going toward the microcosm. To be exact, moving up to the heavens is going toward the microcosm.

Student: Teacher used “light-year” to describe time in Zhuan Falun, but doesn’t “light-year” in physics refer to distance?

Master: When I talked about the cosmic body, I used the distance of a space-time concept to discuss the time that’s required. Within the same level, distance can be discussed. From the macrocosm to the microcosm, the concept of distance undergoes changes along with the differences in space and time. Mankind doesn’t have a concept or term for distances of a permanent space-time or unified time. I am breaking away from all times in carrying out this undertaking—that’s my approach. But any living beings, as long as they are within a particular environment, are going to be restricted by the time in that environment. That is why when discussing the structure of cosmic bodies, the concept of distance can’t be separated from time and speed. Within a given realm, there exist different worlds or different particles of the same level. They can be measured by distance because they belong to the same level and share a unified time and distance. In the process of moving from the microcosm to the macrocosm, however, there aren’t unified times or unified distances. Everything in the universe is created by Dafa for sentient beings, including the cultures of sentient beings at different levels. Fa-rectification not only rectifies anything that is not upright, it is also creating a new human culture. Past ones are inadequate. I think I have explained this clearly. (Applause)

Student: Whenever I experience challenges with emotion (qing), I always have the feeling of not being able to let go no matter what. Am I one of those people who are unwilling to change their innermost nature?

Master: It’s wrong if you treat emotion as your own rationality or something that is part of your body. But if you intentionally push yourself to give up something that you haven’t reached the standard for, then you are forcing it. Through the process of continual cultivation, reading the books, and practicing the exercises, a person can gradually understand the Fa from within the Fa. You have a higher requirement for yourself and try your best to restrain those bad thoughts and things that you are attached to; you do your best to take them lightly and resist them. The portion of you that manages to meet the standard, even if it’s just for a split second, is then fixed there. It continually and constantly breaks through toward the surface in this way. When finally it has broken through completely, when the very last layer is broken through, you will discover that your thinking and thoughts are completely different from before. Even your way of thinking will be different from before. That is your true self, your true nature, whereas everything and anything that you think about and can’t let go of are postnatally acquired notions which are entangling you.

Along with those notions, man also has a special environment in this dimension, that is, emotion. In the Three Realms everything is soaked in emotion. You can’t even be separated from this emotion—you are within it. Actually, what you need to do is find a way to break away from emotion. Although what I said is very explicit, those who have cultivated for a short period of time can’t do it. It’s also hard for veteran students to completely do this before Consummation. Be strict with yourself in cultivation and eliminate those bad things. In Dafa cultivation everything can be changed. If you constantly read the book and try your best to conduct yourself as a cultivator in everyday life, that will enable you to undergo a complete change, since Dafa is tempering you.

Student: There is a region that plans to hold large-scale experience-sharing conferences once every month. So far they have already held three conferences. I think it’s too much.

Master: It is too much. Don’t hold them so frequently. It’s enough, I think, if large-scale conferences like this one are held once or twice a year. If they are held too often it’s likely to affect your cultivation. I say this because cultivation is the number one priority; your spreading the Fa is also for the purpose of helping people obtain the Fa. It’s for you to truly improve and to increase your confidence in cultivation that we do things to spread the Fa, but we shouldn’t fall into mere formalities.

Student: Yesterday Master said, “My original plan was 200 million people.” Does this mean the prospect for our spreading the Fa is 200 million people?

Master: Everything that impedes Fa-rectification is in the final stage of being eliminated. Yet far too much of the time prepared for people to cultivate has been lost and is irretrievable. If another 100 million people come, it’s guaranteed that they won’t be the same as you, and they won’t keep pace or catch up with you. But does this mean that we then stop doing things to spread the Fa? No, we should still do them. That’s because there are still things for the next phase of mankind that need to be done, and there are still many people who have not cultivated or studied. You should let people who don’t know about the Fa know about it.

Student: When we go to remote areas to spread the Fa, I worry that the cultivation program that Master arranged for the disciples will be disrupted by doing that.

Master: It won’t be. If in a remote area no one knows about the Fa, it is not wrong for you to go there to spread it, and your cultivation won’t be delayed because of this. Continue reading the book and practicing the exercises while doing things to spread the Fa, and that in itself is cultivation.

Student: How high a level can “selfishness” penetrate to? How can we break through that level?

Master: The reason that lives can deviate from the Fa and lives can drop down from high levels is that they develop selfishness. The reason mankind develops selfishness is that many postnatally formed bad notions develop in people’s minds. Actually, it’s pollution of the mind. Gods at higher levels are purer and more sacred. If they develop things that they should not develop, then they are impure. The concept or manifestation of level that you have perceived doesn’t exist.

Student: Teacher said that we might not return to merely the places where our lives were created, but go even higher.

Master: There may be such cases, but it’s extremely difficult to do. There is one point to make, though: As long as you keep cultivating, and this includes those who have obtained the Fa, I don’t want to leave a single person behind. (Applause) I will definitely find ways to have you return to where you were created. (Applause) As for going to higher places, that has to depend on you yourself. There are special cases, extremely special ones. Actually, you are using human thinking to contemplate this. What is most important in your life is to return to your original place—that is your greatest wish and the most joyful wish. The meaning of life doesn’t lie in how high of a level a being is at. Rather, it’s about his being able to obtain what he is supposed to obtain, and then he will be satisfied. That is what happiness is. But it sounds rather crude when described in human words. Human beings all have an incessant desire driving them to explore everything, and that mentality isn’t good. Gods don’t have that mentality. To sentient beings the universe is boundless and its end can’t be seen. So every desire to know about higher things is a kind of insatiable, dreadful thing, and it just won’t work.

Among those who cultivated in the past, there were indeed people who cultivated very high, but the hardships they endured were really enormous! Let me give you an example. When I am carrying out this undertaking, I go all out to continually break through toward the microcosm and do Fa-rectification; the way I do it is from the bottom up. Where do you think I have reached while doing this? I have reached a place that is far beyond having human bodies. In that place there is nothing but matter, and lives in the form of matter pervade it.

During a special historic period of major changes in the universe, there were a few gods who were swept to a particular level and couldn’t get down, so they just stayed there. They felt that it was terribly dull, and they wholeheartedly wanted to come down and return to their original places. It’s different from what you have imagined; it’s not true that the higher the better. Later, when I reached that level during my undertaking, I sent them back and they were all delighted. (Applause) Some of what I’m saying might sound pretty hard to believe. While sitting here, I’m just Li Hongzhi, with the complete appearance of a human being. What I have told you are principles of the Fa; what I have told you are all real events. Yet none of the abilities manifest in the dimension of ordinary people. That’s because I don’t need to use that kind of ability to make you assimilate and transcend. By using principles of Dafa you can consummate everything.

Student: I heard that every time we finish reading Zhuan Falun, we can get rid of a layer of shell? (Laughter among students.)

Master: Don’t laugh. I think it does indeed have that power. What you learn reading Zhuan Falun the first time won’t be repeated when you read the book the second time. That’s why I tell you to read more and read a lot. The reason you can awaken to higher principles is that you have advanced to another realm. If you haven’t reached that realm, you won’t be allowed to know principles at that level.

Student: Is there any connection between reading the Fa a certain number of times and the level achieved upon Consummation?

Master: The number of times the Fa is read can accelerate the progress toward Consummation. But whether or not you can achieve Consummation also depends on your own cultivation and some other things. Actually, if you are able to read the book [well] like this, I know you will do everything well.

Student: If the social statuses of two individuals who have the same inborn quality are different, will they reach the same level upon Consummation?

Master: Cultivation doesn’t take into consideration social status in human society. There is no distinction between rich and poor, or upper and lower class, the way people classify things—all are treated equally. If two persons are from the same level, then there is no difference at all, and their levels are sure to be the same. And if they’re from different cultivation ways, that shouldn’t pose a problem either. If some people have made special contributions, this will help them make a huge step forward in terms of the progress of their cultivation. (Applause) However, I think you shouldn’t focus on that front, and then look for a shortcut and try to do more good deeds when you go back home. It’s likely things would turn out just the opposite. It’s not that you can accomplish whatever you want to do.

Student: Some individual assistants don’t meet the requirements of Dafa, and some students have asked to replace them. How should we deal with this?

Master: If this person damages the Fa he must be replaced. Even if he isn’t replaced, I think that none of the students will stay with him anymore, so he will naturally no longer be an assistant. If it’s not because he damages Dafa but just that he has problems with his methods of doing work, then you can kindheartedly tell him where he did wrong. He might realize it, or he might not. But he is a cultivator too and will eventually have to realize it; perhaps there needs to be a process. In that case, have we become really attached to his mistakes during this process and can’t let it go? If so, then you have become attached to it, and it turns out you are looking outward. Why can’t you think about why you saw his mistake? It’s his mistake, but why are you so unhappy about it? Is it because there is something that you didn’t do right? Why do you consider it such a big deal? No matter what the situation, when you encounter a problem you should always cultivate yourself and examine yourself.

If this assistant has really cultivated pretty well, when he has a problem and you point it out to him he is sure to examine himself. If others point out problems to an assistant and he doesn’t look at himself, then I would say the assistant has studied the Fa poorly and needs to make big improvements. (Applause) This isn’t about being lenient with anyone. It’s because you are all in the process of cultivating yourselves and all have attachments and things that you can’t let go. Maybe you’re right, maybe not. And your being wrong might cause you to see another person’s being right as being wrong, or your being right might cause you to see another person’s being wrong as being right.

You are all cultivating. You all applauded a moment ago when you heard me say these words—I said that I would try my best not to leave behind a single disciple who has obtained the Fa. If I can do even that, can’t you at least treat everyone with kindness? (Applause) If you can all search deep within yourselves whenever you encounter conflicts—asking “Is it because I have a problem?”—I would say that everything will be easy to deal with, and the speed of your cultivation will be very, very fast. But I can only talk about this topic with you like this. As you go through your cultivation, you might know very well that you are wrong but still have a hard time handling it, so I can only tell you to try your best to do well and stay diligent. Conflicts are inevitable. Without conflicts there wouldn’t be any improvement. If assistants did well, students did well, and nobody had any conflicts in this setting, who would be happy? Demons would be happy, and I wouldn’t be. The reason is, you would lose your cultivation environment, you wouldn’t be able to improve, and you wouldn’t be able to achieve the goal of returning. So you shouldn’t view conflicts as bad.

I often say that there is no harm in enduring a little hardship. Haven’t you realized that conflicts are also a form of hardship? (Applause) That’s why in recent times things of this sort were relatively more frequent among our Dafa disciples in the U.S. Of course, you didn’t obtain the Fa as early as the students in mainland China, after all. Your understanding progressed so rapidly, so that process is already over. I think that from now on… Especially in the recent period of time, things have been quite good, and veteran students’ understandings of the Fa are very high, and they won’t do extreme things as before. This is very good. I think that from now on things will become better and better, for you are maturing and your understanding of the Fa is climbing ever higher.

Some people have said: “Teacher, I really worry that my legs don’t feel any pain when I sit with them crossed. Is it true that without hardships my cultivation isn’t moving very fast?” If other people can understand that much, why can’t you feel happy when conflicts arise? [Why not think,] “Ah, here comes an opportunity for me to improve.” When people run into a conflict, they all push it away, trying to put it on someone else. That’s why you become carefree and think it’s pretty good when you don’t have any conflicts, and then when conflicts do show up you don’t like it. Conflict in itself is part of cultivating amidst hardship. Some people say that they don’t interact much with society since they are getting on in their years. Though your age may be advanced, you will be made to, so that you may improve and achieve Consummation, think about distressing things like the years of hardship that you may have suffered in the past. It could happen even when you do nothing more than just sit on your bed. You will be made to feel angry as you sit there, so angry that you can’t stand it, after which you will realize: “Hey, I’m a cultivator. I shouldn’t be angry like this.” It is to eliminate your attachment. In any case, if you just want things to be pleasant you won’t have any way to improve, so I can’t let that happen. (Applause)

Only in the midst of conflicts can human attachments be eliminated, and only in the midst of conflicts can a person know where he went wrong. Whenever you get into a conflict with others, I guarantee that it is because your attachment has surfaced and is quite obvious. If you don’t seize that moment and you stay bull-headed and argue your points, the process of your stubbornly arguing is none other than that attachment showing itself. If you can dig further to see what is behind it, the root of the attachment will be found. (Applause) So, in cultivation you should conscientiously cultivate yourselves, and you can’t always be thinking about asking my Law Bodies to give you hints. Law Bodies will never directly tell you what to do.

As you know, I just told you that during the Fa-rectification I continuously break through toward the microcosm. What makes that possible? It’s because I have grabbed the main portion of all the different individual levels and brought them here with me (applause) so that they can’t escape. Of course, there is one problem: During the course of annihilation, when they are being annihilated into something like dust and are falling down—they’re annihilated because they are degenerate, even worse than demons, and when they are being annihilated, because they are evil beings, they still want to do bad things just before they die—they purposely fall on Beijing.

As you know, people are so worried about the weather in Beijing. What’s wrong with Beijing? The weather in the past two years has been such that it looks cloudy but it isn’t clouds, and it looks foggy yet it isn’t fog. The particles of floating substances in the air are all quite large, and even the naked eye can see them. It’s said that it is exhaust fumes from cars, so people started to control automobile emissions. I think it has nothing to do with automobiles. What automobiles emit is mostly carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, while the floating substances in the air are mostly nitride. There are so many automobiles in the U.S. that cars on highways flow like water; it has been like that for decades, yet they don’t have this degree of pollution that Beijing does. So it’s not a problem caused by cars. It’s also said that it comes from industrial pollution. Even though pollution in developing countries is quite serious, it hasn’t reached this extent, though—not to mention that there aren’t that many heavy-pollution industries in Beijing. Some people say it’s from burning coal. But nowadays people use built-in heating systems, and chimneys are scarce. And even in the old days when coal furnaces were used, and every household had a coal-burning stove, it wasn’t polluted to the degree it is now. Today’s is a different type of pollution. Of course, people won’t believe it, and I don’t need to tell them. Whatever people want to say it is, that’s fine.

It is actually the very degenerate substances from the annihilated microcosmic dimensions continuously falling down. When you fly in an airplane, after the airplane takes off five hundred meters from the airport you will see a nice looking blue sky, but when you look down, “Oh, my”—it looks as if a lid has covered everything. Where did it come from and why doesn’t it ever disperse? It came from the microcosm. That is why its origin can’t be detected. It comes from the particles smaller than the surface molecules, so people can’t figure out where it is from. It was eventually determined to be nitride. About nitride (those of you who study chemistry might know this), it is the dust of organic substances, and it’s the same as the smoke from an incinerator. In fact, it is generated from the annihilation of those degenerate microcosmic lives.

Student: Teacher’s essays “Remaking Mankind,” “Degeneration,” and “Dialogue with Time” were written in 1996 and 1997. Why did you wait until 1998 to let us see them?

Master: There were reasons for the timing of when I brought them out and let you see them. They were published later because I wrote them upon seeing certain things surface. Once they became widespread I published them. (Applause)

Student: As the structure of the universe that Teacher discusses gets bigger and bigger, my views and breadth of mind seem to be expanding. The objective of Teacher’s discussing this is…?

Master: Didn’t you just spell it out? As a matter of fact, I am expanding your capacity, and everything belonging to you needs to expand and grow along with it. I said that a cosmic body is still but a speck of dust in the universe. Whatever I told you that you could understand and what is larger than that by billions or trillions of times is still but a speck of dust in the universe. Nobody else knows what the universe ultimately is. (Applause) Moreover, the universe and what it contains is enormous and complicated, and the human mind can’t contain it all. There is no such language, so it is impossible for me to describe it for you. In fact, no matter how I have described it, be it like this or that, it hasn’t gone beyond one system. It’s similar to the fact that Earth is a particle, but I tell you that particles similar to Earth pervade the universe’s cosmic bodies; it’s just like the particles of a certain size in the air that compose air molecules, which permeate everything and are everywhere. So then how enormous do you think their cosmic bodies are?! What I have told you is an explanation from within one system, and the degree of complexity is simply beyond words. And it can’t be illustrated by drawings either, because the complexity of the structure is beyond what trillions of intersecting three-dimensional planes could illustrate, so it is very hard to explain it to you clearly. (Applause) Nonetheless, through Zhuan Falun, or when you reach a certain level in cultivation, you will come to comprehend it in your mind and you will feel its enormity, though you won’t be able to express it in words. (Applause)

Student: Why is emotion so difficult to part with?

Master: Let me tell you: A human being, this shell of yours, is born within this emotion and has been immersed in emotion since birth. The bodily cells that compose this shell are born in emotion’s environment. If you part from it you are no longer a human but a god. When people get attached to emotion they are actually being passive, even though they think they are being active.

Student: Homosexuality is sinful, but I have sunk into agony and despair. I believe in Zhen, Shan, Ren, but am I worthy of cultivation?

Master: Being incorrectly guided by the prevailing thinking, being corroded by the incorrect, predominant publicity as well as this environment, people might make a lot of mistakes, but that doesn’t mean they are hopeless. You can study Dafa and correct those wrong thoughts and behaviors of yours. It’s just like what I said—why would a person be homosexual? Actually, human beings are passively attached to emotion. And when you are attached to it, it will create all kinds of attachments in your mind. From those attachments, all kinds of notions or even degenerate notions will be generated. You might suddenly like a particular mannerism of that person or maybe his appearance, and then for quite some time you are infatuated with those things. Or perhaps you just like a person’s attitude and manner, and then a notion forms over time so that you just like his particular manner. Then, as that thing gradually becomes stronger and stronger, it will come to control your mind. After your like for something forms a notion, it will grow stronger and stronger. And if that mental state is one that’s warped, slowly that degenerate thought will develop and expand, becoming even more warped. So homosexuality is something warped that exists within emotion. It’s in fact also a notion that has formed, albeit a degenerate one.

But at this time people all treat these things as part of themselves. They are actually things formed by your incorrect postnatal perceptions having gained control of you, yet you think they’re your own thoughts. People never believe that their notions aren’t part of themselves, so it’s certain you don’t know about the thought karma you yourself have formed. You have never thought about whether or not any of the thoughts manifested by thought karma are really you. In fact, the thoughts manifesting in your mind might not always be you. But it’s not impossible for those incorrect thoughts to be corrected, since studying Dafa is to have people take an upright path and do better. I think everything can be corrected in Dafa. There isn’t any problem, and you can study the Fa. But you should be really responsible to yourself and should especially reject those thoughts. They are harming you, they are asking you to do things that aren’t human, and they are dragging you toward hell. Yet people with warped mindsets still believe that it’s part of themselves. As soon as that thought comes up, telling you to like someone of the same sex, you must remember that it is not you and is here to harm you again. But because you have passively gone along with it for a long time, you think it’s pretty good after having gone along with it, and so you have become a homosexual. You must correct that mindset.

Student: I’m fifty years old, but some students find that I am sixteen or seventeen years old when they look. Is that the “me” in the other dimension or the “me” who is cultivating?

Master: I have discussed this question before. While you are sitting here, no matter how old you are, that isn’t the age of your innate nature, and nor is it your real age. This is what manifests within the time and environment of human beings. Perhaps you are in your sixties or seventies, but your main spirit is just seven or eight years old; perhaps you are in your forties or fifties, and your main spirit is only seventeen or eighteen years old. Through your cultivation, however, you—and this includes your surface layer at the human level—are transforming into the best and the youngest state. This is certain.

Student: I am a Westerner and a professional magician. I think that David’s magic can be performed without using supernormal abilities. I believe what you said is true, but deep down inside I’m still unsure.

Master: Magic is a technique, and it relies on sleight of hand or the veil of props. It should never be confused with supernormal abilities. However, when a person hones a few specific skills, a state similar to supernormal abilities can develop. For example, some people take off their hats and toss them back and forth—this hand throws and the other hand catches. They throw them very fast, and even though their hands don’t seem to move very fast, they can still catch them. This means that after a long period of time, they can develop a kind of equalized time difference that is similar to a supernormal ability, and so that kind of effect can be achieved.

As you know, Tai-chi Chuan is slow and leisurely. So how is it that it can be used in real combat? Although it appears to be slow and leisurely, its supernormal ability can equalize time. It doesn’t use the time in this dimension. Your human eyes see that it’s slow, but it is actually moving very fast. No matter how fast you throw a punch, you are not as fast as he is; he moves slowly and leisurely but he has hit you before you know it. Due to the fact that none of the mind-guiding principles of Tai-chi Chuan were passed down, people today don’t know the real factors behind Tai-chi Chuan. You know that this difference is one that has to do with time and space, and the disparity is quite large. We Easterners have heard about legendary “magic feet,” where you see an old man walking who walks very slowly and leisurely, but you can’t catch up with him, even on horseback. This means that he doesn’t move in the same dimension. I have found that when magic reaches a very skilled level, magicians sometimes carry a very weak form of this thing, but they themselves don’t notice it. They don’t know it themselves and they think it’s a skill. “Practice makes perfect”—perhaps that’s what it means. But they can’t perform supernormal-ability magic.

Student: When we translate or proofread Dafa books, how can we avoid mixing in our own human notions or human things?

Master: In mainland China, back when they had just started translating the English version, they used to argue a lot. Why did they argue? They always felt that others’ translations weren’t good, while others likewise felt that their translations weren’t good. It owes to the fact that any two people will not be in the same realm or at the same level. They can’t articulate with words what they have enlightened to, so they feel that the other person is wrong. As soon as a person expresses it verbally, even he himself doesn’t find it right, and others don’t find it right either. Why is that? Principles at high levels can only be understood cognitively, and cannot be expressed in words. I said something long ago, namely, that if you want to spell out the high-level principles in Zhuan Falun, that’s absolutely not allowed, and you couldn’t even if you wanted to. That’s because high-level principles can’t be shown to people and cannot manifest in the human world. You can only be allowed to see them during the course of your cultivation; cultivators can know them, but other people can’t. That’s how it works. So, if you want to translate the books, you can only translate the most superficial meaning of the words, and that’s enough. If the surface meanings of the words are translated accurately, when I add the inner meanings behind them it will naturally be the Fa and will work. That’s how translation matters are.

Oftentimes you all think, “You’re wrong,” or “I’m right,” and start arguing. Actually, after you say what you want to say, you find that even what you have said is wrong. It means that you can only understand it cognitively and cannot express it verbally. Principles understood at high levels can’t be written down in human language. So if you want to put it into writing, it’s enough if you accurately translate the surface meaning of the words. Try your best to find accurate words to translate the Fa, and this way it will be hard for you to add in your own notions.

Student: I saw a bright, white Falun many times. In the middle there was a red 卍. Did I go astray?

Master: No, you didn’t. The colors you saw were caused by reasons related to your Third Eye, and you didn’t go astray. The Falun is a miniature of the universe, and in the universe it has several colors that are ever changing—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, white, and colorless—there are quite a few colors, not just one. We feel that this color is bright, relatively speaking, so we use it as the symbol of our Dafa. Aside from the gold color of the 卍 and the colors of the Tai-ji that don’t change, other colors may change. What’s more, the composition of color for things in other dimensions is different from that of the colors in this dimension of human beings, which are composed of molecules. Colors in those dimensions are composed of material particles that are more refined. That’s why they look so brilliant and refined, and are incredibly beautiful.

Through the Fa conference over the past two days, and especially through students’ speeches that were given yesterday afternoon, many students have been deeply touched. Fa conferences are an opportunity for you to find where you have fallen behind and to build confidence in cultivation. So you should incorporate what you have gained and understood from this conference into your ensuing cultivation, truly improve as quickly as possible, and waste no time in becoming diligent. This is the most crucial thing.

Holding Fa conferences in and of itself isn’t the goal. The goal is to help you better improve yourselves. I also know that your understanding of the Fa is becoming higher and higher. There are many things I don’t need to say anything about, including the questions I answered today—you understand many things.

Originally this Fa conference was intended to be a regional experience-sharing conference for the Western U.S., but now it has become an expanded one. No matter where you came from, take back with you the insights you have learned from this conference. At the very least, you should have improved yourself some from this conference, and only then will the thousands of miles you traveled not be in vain. (Applause)

Student: Disciples from different regions and different countries would like to, on behalf of disciples in their own regions or countries, send their regards to Master.

Master: I thank you all. (Applause)

I don’t want to say anything more. I hope that you will be ever more diligent, have higher understandings, break through levels more rapidly, reach Consummation, and achieve the Unlocking of Gong and full Enlightenment as soon as possible.

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