Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference

Li Hongzhi
February 15, 2003

 

(Long applause) Let's be seated.

It's been a long time again since we last met up. Seems like a lot of people knew I would come to this Fa conference. You're all pretty in the know! You're getting more and more amazing as you cultivate. (Applause) Today I'll first tell you about the state of Fa-rectification, as well as my situation, and then I'll talk a little about some issues that have come up among our students as the Fa-rectification progresses and in your cultivation.

On different occasions, and from different angles, I've talked about the immense force of the Fa-rectification of the entire cosmos. Today I'll explain the form of Fa-rectification to you from yet another angle. As you know, this cosmos is extremely huge, so huge it can't be measured--and I don't mean the ways human beings measure things, but even the ways Gods do. I've said before that there are countless sentient beings. None of them can figure out exactly how many molecules make up the earth, and, every particle is a being. And then there are so many planets in the cosmos, too many to count. And how big is a cosmic body? Even if you let your imagination go, it's still only within the scope of a particle of a small cosmic body. In the enormous cosmos, it's not just beings that are countless, but levels too. Even to Gods they're countless, and that's even how Kings and Lords at extremely high levels see it. That's why in the latter stages of teaching the Fa I stopped talking about how big the cosmos is--it was totally impossible to describe it with human language anymore. But the higher the level, the more huge those beings and dimensions get, and they get so huge that they're beyond description. The volume of one being up there surpasses all of the cosmoses below him. That's how big. With the Fa-rectification, twenty percent of the beings of the old cosmos got involved and arranged all the things they wanted in the Fa-rectification; at all the different levels a group of beings got directly involved in this Fa-rectification. They never could have imagined that their involvement would be precisely the real demonic obstacle to this Fa-rectification. But their involvement has created a gigantic obstacle to the entire Fa-rectification, and has resulted in countless sentient beings getting destroyed. "Isn't Master merciful? Just forgive them and it'll be okay." The old forces have exactly been taking advantage of my great mercy and playing games. The Fa is merciful to all beings, but at the same time it's solemn and dignified. And the Fa has standards, before sentient beings it's unchanging and unbreakable, and it's not something that can be influenced casually. I can be merciful to sentient beings, but, when a being has really violated something to that extent, the Fa is there to judge him, and any further mercy would be excessive, it would be the same as destroying itself, so beings like that are marked for elimination.

During the Fa-rectification, the number of sentient beings in the cosmos that have been weeded out due to the old forces' involvement is countless. So, the specifics of their involvement, the way they've done it--which is the way they think can best enable them to reach their aims, and their most typical way--is to have all the huge, gigantic cosmic bodies extend a foot into the cosmos's lowest level, the Three Realms. This is just a figurative description. In other words, they all have a part of them pressed into the Three Realms. Think about it, when such enormous cosmic bodies and gigantic beings enter the Three Realms, what state does that bring about in the Three Realms? Today's humankind has degenerated to such a degree that it can't be likened to any of those in the past. Even the earthly gods have felt the gigantic pressure. I asked them about this change, and they said, "We thought it was caused by our cultivation state." So even the powers of the earth's deities don't work anymore, since those gigantic beings have a restraining effect on everything at this lowest level of the cosmos. And after coming down here, they have been causing unimaginable harm in terms of the warped changes of beings and matter in the Three Realms. If it weren't for the Fa's rectification of the human world, which will ultimately readjust things completely, this place would have been beyond redemption, nobody could have done anything about it, and it would've crossed the point of no return.

The method they usually use is to have enormous cosmic bodies and countless firmaments compress together and squeeze into the Three Realms. The higher the level of those huge beings, the larger their volumes, but the particles, the elements that they're made up of, become more fine and more dense, that is, more microcosmic. So when beings that enormous are all squeezed and compressed together, think about it, what's that like at this lowest level of the cosmos? It formed a big and strong screen. Actually, the cosmos's Fa-rectification is done in the wave of a hand. It's just that in the process of the wave the differences in what's felt by the beings in the cosmos's many space-times are huge. The boundless, measureless dimensions all have their own times, and the differences among the times, and the number of times, are also boundless and measureless, and that's what has caused the huge differences among the times in different dimensions. While the wave of the hand takes place, in some places it's almost in sync, while in some places decades, centuries, millennia, or tens of thousands of years have passed, and in other places some hundreds of millions of years, or even millions of millions of years, or some boundless and measureless amount of time has passed. Here where human beings are it's not that bad, it's only been over a decade. What this means is that it is time that caused the differences.

Let's think about it, there's this difference among different dimensions and times, so even though those enormous cosmic bodies that have pressed into the Three Realms have entered this human place, they're compressed. If you understand it with the concepts of human thought, [you'll figure that] the overall volume of their bodies has shrunk, but that doesn't mean that the structures within them have changed. And if their internal structures haven't changed, then think about it, if you entered inside them you would discover that they are still dimensions just as huge as before. When I started to do Fa-rectification, I did things outside the Three Realms--I went around the Three Realms. And why did I go around it? If I had done it inside the Three Realms, then the Three Realms would have, to put it in human terms, become the focal point of the cosmos's Fa-rectification--this would be the place where nuclear fusion and the fission of more microcosmic particles happen, it'd be the main battlefield of Fa-rectification, and all of the massive changes in the gigantic beings and cosmic bodies would have taken place right here. Think about it, then, the Three Realms would have been destroyed to the point where nothing remained, where nothing was left. That's why I went around the Three Realms.

I started to do Fa-rectification from outside the Three Realms, going up all the way, not just along one course, but in all directions, expanding and spreading out toward the microcosm and macrocosm simultaneously, going both upward and downward, because what's more microcosmic and what's more macrocosmic are the same concept. Wherever I've gone, I've done it in a manner that transcends all times. Looking at it from above, the enormous speed of expansion and the gigantic impact, even to Gods who see it, it's astounding like nothing ever before. Wherever I've reached, all the cosmic bodies are bursting and re-forming, most of them are meeting with a benevolent solution, and some are eliminated. Recently you've seen the discoveries in astronomy in the United States that have to do with the phenomena of different galaxies and planets re-forming. Those are scenes of re-formation that are in the scope human beings can observe. At present humankind still doesn't know that although the differences in the times among dimensions that are at different distances are very big, they're still in fact within the same, one big time, and it's just that the divisions of dimensions have formed different spheres of time. In reality, though, things are happening at the same time. Everything is happening in this astounding way. The explosion of that enormous amount of energy, the re-formation... the process of that kind of re-formation is extremely macrocosmic and extremely microcosmic, and the wonder of its fine detail, the intricacy of its microcosmic extent, the hugeness of its complexity, and the enormity of the firmament, even the gigantic Gods marvel at all of it. Despite all of that, the current of Fa-rectification takes place and finishes very quickly, it's done in an instant, and everything is done--done as perfectly as could be. But the part that has pressed into the Three Realms is associated with what's above as one entity, they're connected together, and the space inside their gigantic bodies is extremely vast. I've said before, that to go from what constitutes an enormous being's surface to its most microcosmic part, or, the distance within its own body, that's something a gigantic God couldn't traverse even in its whole lifetime. And think about how long a God's life is!--that's how gigantic those beings are. But in the Fa-rectification it's done in an instant. It's extremely fast. In the Three Realms, though, understanding it from a human perspective, they've been compressed and now are so narrow and small that it's indescribable, but their times, dimensions, and structures are the same as those up above. When a gigantic layer up above has been passed through, what's down below corresponds, and in the same amount of time a very thin layer has been passed through. So many firmaments and cosmic bodies have been pressed into the Three Realms, and the number of beings that have entered the Three Realms along with them is countless. So, the Fa-rectification is seen progressing furiously along up above in the cosmos and at its microcosm. Using an analogy from the understandings at that level, the speed is even faster than that of the laser explosion at that level. I'm just describing it using the words people can understand as the fastest. So when an incomparably huge cosmic body has been rectified by the Fa up above, in the human world it's as if a very thin layer of skin has been scratched off. Do you understand what I mean?

So why is it that during the Fa-rectification the breakthrough toward the surface is so slow in the Three Realms? That's the reason. When the Fa-rectification returns to the human world, all the cosmic elements and beings in the cosmoses up above will have all been fully taken care of. They happen in parallel, and they're finished at the same time. When the Fa-rectification is completed up there, our Three Realms are broken through here. I'm now talking about it from yet another angle, which is, I'm explaining to you why I didn't do it inside the Three Realms when Fa-rectification began. Some students are thinking, "Master doesn't acknowledge the old forces' arrangements. So why doesn't Master instantly destroy the old forces?" Master is able to do that, and no matter how large they are, Master could still do it. But have you thought about this: if I were to redirect the enormous, gigantic energy in the Fa-rectification back here into the Three Realms to do things, it would be like hitting a mosquito with an atomic bomb, it'd be a clumsy use of force. If I were to redirect my huge energy back here, it'd be like creating a battlefield right here in the Three Realms. Even though they've entered the Three Realms, their gigantic bodies are still up there. What was pressed in here is only a portion. So when I would disintegrate and re-form them [here], the associated, larger masses up there would continually replenish them here, as I'd continually disintegrate them they would continually press into here, and the other cosmic bodies would do the same--the cosmic bodies that had pressed in would keep coming here like a relay. Then think about it, if gigantic, countless cosmic bodies and beings continually came here, this place would become like a site for the fission of all particles, and it would become the focal point of the cosmos. My force is also a gigantic mass, so if that much force were used on this one spot, it'd be an ineffective use of it, and besides, it would drag on for a long time. Even if in the end I could really break through all of them and complete everything, think about it, here where humans are, here in the Three Realms, there would be nothing left. After that gigantic impact nothing would exist. That's one of the reasons why I didn't directly do it here. And why don't I directly and immediately deal with, in an exceptional way, the situations that come up in the Three Realms? Because when I got rid of them they would keep coming to block me nonstop, and the scenario I mentioned above would occur. So unless major problems come up inside the Three Realms I can't do things in this place. The Fa-rectification as a whole is being done comprehensively, and you can't emphasize only this human place. If because of that the salvation of all the final elements of the colossal firmament bodies were delayed, that would be even more awful.

But, you've heard this before, and Master has told you this: for the overall Fa-rectification, I've also left a large mass of gong here among everyday people. It has no problem guarding the students' cultivation and validating the Fa, it can definitely handle that. But there's another thing: why are the old forces able to affect things? The reason is, all the beings that have pressed into the Three Realms are old forces, and they've formed a screen, and anytime I want to do things in a special way they gather together to obstruct it. And if I insist on doing it, then they concentrate all of their power to block it.

Before, when I was at the Asian Health Expo in China, to allow more people to learn about Dafa, I used to personally do healings for people. Some people really had a lot of karma, and when I was treating them, the old forces wouldn't let me heal them. The method the old forces used to obstruct me was to arrange countless, innumerable Gods to instantly block where the root of the person's ailment was. They became very small. Sometimes a Dafa disciple often sees a bright, golden speck flash before his eyes, and that's them. They became tiny, but their density was quite high, they'd pack together densely, and block where the root of the ailment was. But in fact, they couldn't block me. I could grab them and throw them away, and I could strike them down. In the Fa-rectification, there's a principle: however I handle something, it's righteous. Remember these words from Master: however I handle something is righteous, and those who are dealt with are always wrong. (Applause) The reason is, that's the choice of the cosmos, the choice of the future. However, in order to heal an everyday person, I had to strike down those Gods, and after they were struck down by me they would immediately be stripped of their Attainment Statuses, and they'd be cast down. But, in order to safeguard the old laws of the cosmos--they couldn't see the laws of the new cosmos--they stubbornly blocked there, and after I removed a batch of them, another batch would come, continually replenishing. Master didn't have the heart to do it, I couldn't destroy so many Gods just to be compassionate to an everyday person, even though they didn't understand the Fa-rectification.

I talked about this to tell you that the reason many things in Fa-rectification haven't turned out as well as we'd like is that both the low levels and high levels of the old forces have been doing that together, and they've been using their massive density to obstruct things. As I just said, I have the ability to break through it, but if I wanted to break through it, I'd have to redirect my enormous energy back here to thoroughly eliminate them, but, then they would gather the gigantic matter, all the matter, in the cosmos right here, and that would cause problems that would be difficult to solve immediately. Of course, in this Fa-rectification when our students act righteously, then those problems won't exist. When the gong and energy that I left at this place in the cosmos, in the Three Realms, do things, if our students don't act righteously, then the old forces resist, and a state of obstruction appears. That's why I've told our students to walk a righteous path and not to let them find an excuse. Once they find a big one they'll ruin you. And that's especially so when it's at the end and they're making a last-ditch effort. When they can't find an excuse they don't dare to persecute you, because then they too would be violating the laws, and they understand that, so there'd be no need for me to eliminate them--the old cosmos's laws would eliminate them. That's because they are old beings who take strictly safeguarding the old laws to be what's most essential.

So having said that much, I'll talk about another thing: Master's situation. Earlier I told you that as I was going around the Three Realms, those final elements of the cosmos's cosmic bodies took advantage of it and entered. So those gigantic and numerous beings who haven't been rectified by the Fa created a partition, even between my surface flesh body here and my divine body and enormous gong on the other side. This partition is different from the idea of putting an object in between things to separate them, it's not like that. Rather, it comes from the microcosm of everything, and even though it looks like it's assimilated into all the spaces between, they have their own levels and realms and are distinct from particles lower than their levels. But, the distances among particles depend on the existence of dimensions and time, and when those highest-level, numerous, gigantic cosmic bodies entered the spaces among all the particles in the Three Realms they also changed the original expanse in dimensions and lengths of time and the times and dimensions were increased by countless multiples, so they formed a screen of huge distances made up of faraway dimensions and protracted time, and this allowed the old forces to do the things they wanted to do under the protection of this screen of distances.

I can tell you, they interfere with people and interfere with people's thinking, not only from the outside, they can also pass through the human body. When high-level factors restrain the surface of a human body, those Gods of the old forces can pass through the bodies of everyday people under protection. From another perspective, when you look at the surface of our human bodies with human eyes, the human form and the skin and flesh tissues are very fine and tight, but when you look at the human body with a large, high-magnification microscope, you find that a person's particles and his body that is made up of those particles are as coarse as sand, and there are lots of gaps. And if people had the technology to magnify things more, the gaps would be shockingly large. In the concept from a more microcosmic level, the gaps among particles are so large that they're just like the spatial distance between molecules and planets. With such a large distance, isn't it easy for beings and matter that are made up of even more microcosmic particles to pass through freely? So sometimes they burrow into a person's surface, and on the surface it looks like that person, and in the microcosm it's still that person, but another being has stuck itself in the middle.

Having said all this, I want to tell you that you don't have that problem, and I've completely sealed up for you the part of you that's been fully cultivated. If a Dafa disciple acts righteously, then nothing dares to enter the surface part that hasn't been fully cultivated yet. For one thing, old beings don't dare to disrupt the old cosmos's Fa, and another thing is that you have Master and you have Law-guardian Gods. If the attachments at your human-surface side aren't removed, then Master and the Law-guardian Gods are put in a tough position. But if your righteous thoughts are strong, then Master and the Law-guardian Gods can do anything for you.

My situation isn't something that ordinary beings can imagine. During the Fa-rectification Master has taken into his body the lives of all beings in the cosmos and the lives of all the various elements. First off, it's for safety reasons in the Fa-rectification--the lives of all beings are here with me, so no one can do things that would jeopardize the cosmos. Secondly, it's to have no being or any of the various elements in the cosmos evade Fa-rectification. And thirdly, it's to protect their lives during the Fa-rectification. That's why all over Master's body are images of the different-size and different-type beings at various levels of the cosmos, as well as the images of Daos, Gods, and Buddhas, and those of humans are included, too; some of them are large, some are small. But they can't interfere with Master, and they can't exert any influence, as what's happened is that I have taken in all beings' lives. Some of them can be seen by human eyes, and students' Third Eyes can all see them. I haven't talked about that before. When some students who had xinxing problems saw them their imaginations ran wild.

I've said that your different cultivation states create different levels and different states of cultivation situations. People with closed Third Eyes are to enlighten from the Fa's truths, while those with open Third Eyes encounter interference from false visions. In order to test the students who can see, those highest-level, final old forces who haven't been rectified by the Fa would in the past direct low-level old forces to do bad things in the increased distances in space and time. Their doing this during the Fa-rectification is sinful--it has severely shaken Dafa disciples' righteous faith and righteous thoughts.

But you should always remember one thing: no matter who is interfering, it's all temporary, all illusions, not the main body, and it's all just like air flowing through. There are all kinds of material elements and beings everywhere in the dimensions, there are so many of them they're immeasurable. They are there with or without an image, and they are beings in microcosmic dimensions and in different dimensions. Before the Fa-rectification is done, the microcosmic Gods in the cosmos are all in their own dimensions, which exist at the same time and same place. Whether they stay here or don't stay here is just a concept. Those elements, form or no form, exist there naturally, and they have no influence on you at all. Nobody can manipulate Dafa disciples who have righteous thoughts and righteous actions.

I'll also tell you that although the old forces' enormous high-level beings and elements seem to be separating my surface, they can never separate [me from] my more microcosmic part, because no being can surpass me. (Applause) That's something they can never see, and that's something the sentient beings in the cosmos can never see--only I myself can control it. In other words, the phenomenon I discussed above has created a false impression for people and caused some wrong understandings. Now I've told you what that's all about.

I can tell you: the me that you are seeing with your human, flesh eyes now--the most surface me--is the real me, Li Hongzhi. What you see over on the other side is my Buddha-body. The me at the outermost surface right now which you see is the Main Body of me, Li Hongzhi. (Applause) Why? Because in order to do this, in order to save all beings, I've come down to the lowest level. (Applause) So don't worry about anything you've seen. Even if you saw my Law Body, saw my Gong Body, or saw some part of my body at higher levels, don't develop any attachment. All of those exist with this surface me being the Main Body. My human skin at the outermost surface is the Main Body. (Applause) But since Master is among ordinary people, in order to live here I have to conform to the rules for human beings in this world. If I didn't people would think I was kind of strange. The old forces want to do some sly things to me, and they've kept on doing some bad things. In order not to affect Dafa disciples' righteous thoughts, I don't use any foreign elements other than those lives of all beings in the cosmos that I've taken in here with me. All the fake me's in the cosmos were purposefully created by the old forces. Doing that is sinful, regardless of whether it was meant to have a positive effect or negative effect. I think I've thoroughly explained this issue to you now.

Even though I've come here, no one can see how microcosmic I ultimately am. They can only see the part of my human body's most surface particles. Every single object and every single thing in the cosmos is composed of layers upon layers of different microcosmic particles, going all the way to the surface. Gods can see all those, trace them to their root, and trace down to their origins. Just like a path, they extend down little by little, to where they come from. I came from the inside, and came from the outside; I came from nothing, formed into something, appeared at the pinnacle of the colossal firmament, and then from there I descended step by step to the most surface, the Three Realms. No being knows who I am.

There used to be another situation. With my Fa-rectification, the old forces have played a lot of tricks and done a lot of things. Not only did they arrange those things, but they also wanted to show to those enormous beings in the cosmos who aren't involved what they do, and so they tried their best to do things in a more slick way. They used some of my substances, or some of my gong, added in their influence, and created images of Master, Buddha images. I didn't tell you this before so as not to confuse you. There was another reason, which is, their intention wasn't to cause damage, in their own words, they wanted to help me by playing a positive role. These are the two parts arranged by the old forces: one part is to play a negative role, and the other is to play a positive role. Some of them entered students' bodies to do certain things--there have been a few isolated cases like that. So some people who could see it would say, "Wow, you are Master!" And then they'd take him to be Master. But that wasn't arranged by me, and strictly speaking, that's not me, and I don't acknowledge them, since they were arranged by the old forces. This in and of itself shows the cosmos's degeneration. Once people saw that, it caused false impressions for the students' righteous thoughts, and severely damaged the students' righteous faith and righteous thoughts, so those had to be destroyed. Now they have all been cast into hell. In bringing up this issue today I'm also telling you all: those very few students of ours, be absolutely sure you don't fall because of this. It's no joking matter. Some people are already half way out into thin air, and they're already a bit irrational. There have been a few cases like this. You've got to watch this.

Just now I talked a little bit about my situation. There's another issue, which is, a few students recently have had some incorrect states. This problem is very serious, too. It's the result of many different things. One primary reason is, since your levels have risen and Master has told you the Attainment Status you'll achieve, you are more confident and bold now, and you feel pretty self-assured--I can only describe it with these lower words of human beings, since there aren't any fitting words for it. So some people have said, "We don't need to respect Master anymore. We just need to follow the Fa, and take the Fa as teacher."

Of course, I told you to take the Fa as teacher--that's not wrong. But that wasn't why I told you to take the Fa as teacher. Why was it, then? As you know, I have 100 million Dafa disciples. If my Main Body were to tell every disciple in person how to cultivate, and look after you in person, if when you each had questions you all came to ask me directly, and if the transformation of each person's gong, the Consummation of your paradises, the elimination of your karma, and each and every thing were done by this Main Body of mine, then think about it, that'd be impossible to handle. It couldn't be done before the Fa rectifies the human world and clears away the final obstacles. So when that many students can't see me, how are they to cultivate? The Fa is there for them, and that's why I told you to take the Fa as teacher. That was the essential purpose. I've also told you that this Fa is so powerful, and that I have melded my immense abilities into this Fa, so this Fa can do anything for you. (Pause. Applause) There are also students who... with my situation that I talked about earlier, a very small number of students aren't able to recognize that situation, and as a result they've become disrespectful of Master, and they've begun to dare comment on how high the level of this Fa is and on different things about me, their Master. This Fa forges the countless Kings and Lords of all the massive colossal firmaments, and it's what ensures the existence of all beings and different elements in the cosmos, which includes the tiny you. Of course, it's not that I don't let you, the students, talk about those things. But from your words I see your attachments and the terrifying direction you're heading in. Besides, what you've seen is just so low, some of the things aren't at all what you think they are, and a lot of them are false appearances that result from your thoughts being unrighteous.

One thing I said earlier is that the cosmos has countless and boundless levels. But under the influence of the highest level, all the countless and boundless levels below it, all the way down to this human place, have manifestations at different levels. Think about how complex and how vast the manifestations can be. The manifestations at any level are the truths of that level, and are expressions of truth at that level. But none of the scenes you see at any one level are ultimate.

I let a lot of students see some phenomena in Fa-rectification at different levels manifest so as to increase your confidence in Fa-rectification, to help you study the Fa well, to increase your confidence in cultivating diligently, and to increase your confidence in clarifying the facts and your confidence in sending righteous thoughts. Be absolutely sure you don't take the phenomena you see at very low levels, at the lowest several levels of countless and boundless levels, as the ultimate situation of the cosmos's Fa-rectification, because everything of Fa-rectification has its different, concrete manifestations at every level.

You know what? Just on the one issue of cultivation alone it's so complex at the cosmos's lower levels. But it becomes simple at higher levels, where there's no longer any concept of cultivation but only the concept of karma elimination. At levels higher up, all troubles are to pave the way for ascending to Heaven. And at even higher levels, concepts like eliminating karma, enduring hardships, and cultivation no longer exist, and it's just a choice! This is the principle at high levels of the cosmos: you think someone is good enough, so you choose him--that's the principle. "Cultivation? We didn't arrange cultivation for him. What's cultivation? We just want to cleanse it, cleanse it step by step, all the way up. Cleanse it--it's as simple as that!" Yet when manifest at different levels, it becomes paving the way, having troubles, enduring hardships, eliminating karma, cultivating, and so on, cultivating one way, practicing another way...

As I was talking about this I revealed a major truth. In this cosmos it's actually not important whether the sentient beings know who I am. But one thing has to be clear, which is, I am doing Fa-rectification--no matter who I am, I am doing Fa-rectification. I told the old forces before, "It's fine that you don't know who I am, and it's fine that you don't believe who I am, you're not sinning by virtue of that. But, where I'm going--in your concept I'm also cultivating--or what I'll achieve, that you do know. So turn around and look at what you've been doing--haven't you been sinning?" Also, at even higher levels the concept of wanting to achieve something doesn't exist, either. It's just a matter of the cosmos's choice. Everything I've been doing during the Fa-rectification and everything I want, to spell it out, are the choice of the future cosmos and the needs of the future cosmos. (Applause) So for the beings of the old cosmos, and this includes all the elements of beings, when it comes to the Fa-rectification and what I choose, all beings' harmonizing and completing things according to my choices and contributing their best ideas and approaches--not to change what I want, but to harmonize and complete things according to what I've said--is the best thought a being in the cosmos could have. (Applause) But the old forces haven't been doing it that way. They've considered their choices the most essential, and have thought that everything I do should harmonize everything they want--they've completely reversed it. I don't want to state their crimes too harshly, right now I don't want to name their crimes. But it's absolutely wrong, they absolutely can't do it that way.

All the Fa I just talked about was to tell you one thing: whether you respect me or not, as your Master, I really, truly don't mind. Back then, as I was saving you, a lot of you were cursing at me. There were people who were cursing at me even while at my classes. I don't mind. I just want to save you. (Applause) What I'm trying to say is, personally I don't mind at all how you treat Master. I'm not affected by any factors at any level of the cosmos. But there's one problem, which is, if you don't respect Master, it's wrong according to the principles of the cosmos, and the old forces will take advantage of the gap and destroy you because of this. They'll have seized the biggest excuse to destroy you, since they've seen the entire process of my saving you.

In fact, today's human race would have been destroyed a long time ago if it weren't for the Fa-rectification. The standard of the human race's thinking is already at a level lower than hell. It's because of the Fa-rectification that I atoned for the sins of all sentient beings in the Three Realms. (Applause) So think about it, as far as our students are concerned, it was as if I scooped you out of hell back then. (Applause) I have truly borne for you the sins you committed over hundreds and thousands of years. And it doesn't stop at just that. Because of this, I will also save you and turn you into Gods. I have spared no effort for you in this process. Along with this, since you'll become Gods at levels that high, I have to give you the honors of Gods at levels that high and all the blessings that you need to have at levels that high. (Applause) Never, from the beginning of time, has any God dared to do this. Something like this has never happened before.

Even though the old forces are influencing this affair and want to do things their way, do you know something? All of the old-force beings respect me absolutely! (Applause) Even though they created some obstacles to my Fa-rectification, they've never done anything bad that directly targets me, because they respect me. (Applause. Repeated applause) So, for those students of ours who are momentarily in a fog and whose states of mind aren't right, think about it, once you become disrespectful of me, the old forces will do ruthless things to you, and they'll think that this person is just awful. Of course, they absolutely won't annihilate you right away. They'll guide you, have you see more and more false visions, make your mind less and less righteous, make your heart toward Master change in a demonic way, lead you down an evil path, and by doing so make you commit huge sins.

Do you know what principle I go by in Fa-rectification? I disregard all the sins beings have committed in the past! (Applause) During this Fa-rectification I only look at beings' attitudes toward the Fa-rectification! (Applause) I've left all the gates wide open. As I've told you, if I didn't even look at the attitude toward Fa-rectification, then the new Fa and the new cosmos wouldn't exist. That's why the attitude toward the Fa-rectification is critical. When you've really made a mistake with this, I can't even say anything when the old forces destroy you.

When you're disrespectful of your Master, do you know what I think? I don't mind in the least. Right now, do you know who I am? You only know the human image I manifest. What manifests before you over on the other side are also images within the cosmos. In the future you won't know who I ultimately am. No being in the cosmos will know who I ultimately am. Whether you treat me well or not, I don't mind in the least, but the old forces will destroy you in the tribulation. Watch out!

Now that I've said this much, I'll talk a little about what I ask you to do in the Fa-rectification. As you've seen, you are clarifying the facts, sending righteous thoughts, and cultivating yourselves. Right now these three things are the three most important things for Dafa disciples to do. Clarifying the facts, when you view it from the surface in light of the truths at this human level, is exposing the evil persecution. And sending righteous thoughts, that's eliminating those hopeless, filthiest beings' persecution of Dafa disciples. Viewed in light of the truths of slightly higher levels, then, the true point of clarifying the facts is to save sentient beings and to prevent the human race from being eliminated. The old forces have used evil beings to do evil things to Dafa disciples in order to, for one thing, create tests, and secondly, to have me clean out that garbage from the cosmos. Dafa disciples' sending righteous thoughts is fundamentally rejecting the old forces' arrangements and eliminating the evil's persecution. I can tell you, all those things that you do are actually done for yourselves--not a single thing is done for me. At the same time, I can tell you that since the day you started cultivation, and all the way up to today, none of what I've told you or what I've asked you to do was for others. Your cultivation can benefit humankind and society, in cultivation Dafa disciples can become more mature toward one another, and while being persecuted Dafa disciples can reduce the pressure and the losses from the evil persecution. But all of these are by-products. The real purpose of all those things you do is for you to succeed. In the future, you can take a look back at this. Right now none of you need to say how magnificent I am, or this and that about me, your master. In the future, take a look back and you'll see that everything I did was to establish things for you. (Applause)

Do well what you should do. This predestined opportunity is hard to come by. Cherish all of this, there won't be a next time. Developing any attachment will ruin you halfway along! Don't entertain or get attached to any human thoughts, and just do what a Dafa disciple should do. Everything that's wonderful, that's the most magnificent, and that's the most glorious awaits you! (Applause)

That's all I'm going to say this morning. If I don't leave, I think I'll answer some questions for you in the afternoon. (Long applause)

That's all I'll say. Thank you. (Applause)

Now that I think about it, it seems like I haven't sat down at a Fa Conference to answer questions for you after July 20 of 1999, right? (Warm applause) (Reply: "Right.") Then today I'll use this time specifically to answer questions for you. (Applause) Things that you haven't been able to resolve for long periods of time in your personal cultivation, in the process of validating Dafa, or in the things that you've encountered--you can bring up all of them. The time is still limited, so not everybody's can be answered, but Master will answer them as much as possible. (Applause)

Question: Hello Master. On behalf of the entire group of Shenyang Dafa disciples we pass on greetings to Master.

Teacher: Thank you. (Applause) I know all about the situation of practitioners in China.

Question: Dafa disciples from Chengdu pass on their greetings to Master.

Teacher: Thank you. (Applause)

Question: Beijing Dafa disciples send their greetings to Master. (Applause) Please allow me to represent Shanghai Dafa disciples to pass on their greetings to Master.

Teacher: Thank you. (Applause) Let's just forgo the greetings, since I've read all of those greetings to Master on the Minghui website. (Applause)

Question: In our work we often have the opportunity to interact with some high-level officials in the Chinese government. How can we clarify the truth to them better?

Teacher: Actually, as for the specifics of how to do things, you've done them already, and in your actions you've all done very well. Whether things are done well or not is up to the Dafa disciples, and as for what a worldly person chooses, that's up to him. But in saving sentient beings, no matter what you do, still there will be a group of beings that can't be saved. In clarifying the truth, making calls to China, and on the Internet, you will run into people that can't be saved at all. But don't be affected at all by it, and save as many as possible of those who can be saved.

In clarifying the truth, don't pay any attention to the other person's social status, and don't have some sort of concept--first and foremost they're people, and they all have a chance to choose their own futures. No matter what his occupation, first and foremost he needs to have a future, and that's the most important thing for any person. In clarifying the truth, when you hit upon a person's fundamental issues, and at the same time he feels that Dafa disciples are truly saving him, then I think the side of him that's clear about things will show itself.

Chinese people who are living abroad have countless ties with Mainland China, as their relatives and friends are all in China, and there are a lot of people who travel back and forth often. When they see the situation with Dafa around the world they'll talk about it when they're in China, talk about it with their family and friends--they're a form of one-on-one media. Regardless of how much they understand about Dafa, whether they're able to comprehend it or not, they'll go back and tell people about the situation. And with those government officials in particular, don't look at the person's official position. Back when Master was disseminating this Dafa, I too only looked at the person and didn't look at the person's social status, didn't look at the way any group is organized, and didn't look at whether they had good jobs--I didn't look at anything but the person's mind. You shouldn't regard him as some "high-level official," as you're saving his life. That's only a job at this place of ordinary people. Today they're being allowed to do this, so they're officials, and tomorrow if they're not allowed to do it then they'll be nothing at all. So in offering people salvation and saving people, those things aren't looked at.

Question: Why did the old forces in the cosmos arrange two entirely different social systems in this world?

Teacher: This is a really big thing to discuss. I will just briefly talk about it from one angle. You know that the Roman Empire of 2,000 years ago was very powerful. Actually, when any people are dominating in the world, that's an honor Gods give them. However, if they then turn around and persecute Gods, then Gods will take back that honor and severely punish them. The old forces in history wanted to leave behind a testimony for the righteous Fa of the future, they also wanted the Christians at that time to eliminate their karma amidst the tribulations, to establish the mighty virtue of Gods, and to leave behind that legacy, so they chose a person named Nero to be the king of Rome. He undermined people's morality, did many stupid and bad things, and committed a most evil deed in persecuting Christians. And so the powerful, flourishing Roman Empire declined from that point on.

The old forces believe that that Nero wasn't enough for Dafa disciples in today's Fa-rectification, so they had to find an even more wicked, stupid, and shameless villain, and at the same time create something before Dafa's wide spreading in the world, something for Dafa in the future, and that thing, it would have to be capable of being used to that degree, so that thing was the _**** Party. They created it, and had to, through a process in history, allow it to accumulate experience in ruling with an iron fist, and allow it to develop all kinds of strong-arm tactics in an effort to sustain itself amidst constant crises. It was made to abolish belief in Gods on the basis of atheism, because the people of the world who believed in Gods could never have reached the desired state, where people fear no Gods or the authority of heaven, where man fights against heaven, the earth, and his fellow human beings. That process went on for almost 100 years, and they had already considered how to put an end to it when they were working on it, so how it began definitely wasn't glorious either. Actually we all know that the Paris Commune of 1871 was a gang of scoundrels in society rebelling.

It's not that I'm badmouthing the _**** Party, and that's because they too talked about themselves as the "scoundrel proletariat." I remember that during the Cultural Revolution when they had political studies, there was this issue discussed, where people talked about whether the conflict with those "scoundrels" of society was one with enemies or one within the people. When discussing this, some people would say that the issue with those scoundrels could be elevated to the level of a conflict with an enemy, and others disagreed. The reason for the disagreement was that they said the Paris Commune of 1871 was an uprising of scoundrels, and that it was the ancestor of our _**** Party. This isn't a joke, as they really acknowledged the "scoundrel proletariat," but now they think it doesn't sound so good, so they took out the word "scoundrel" and just say "proletariat."

It's against the cosmos, or to put it another way, the two types of elements in the cosmos, positive and negative, are all against it. In fact, this cosmos is composed of the two types of elements of life, the positive and the negative, so that's to say that even the cosmos is against it. So, the Buddhas, Daos, Gods, and Demons of the cosmos all want to get rid of it, so it constantly faces the possibility of being surrounded layer after layer and eliminated. But, its very emergence was not a simple matter, and to allow it to sustain itself for nearly 100 years was not a simple matter either. That's because the cosmos's old forces would have it ready for today's Dafa after tempering it into maturity, and also because no political power in the human world could do such things. But, why was such a long time needed? I've said that it needed to be tempered to that degree, so it needed to undergo a process, and that process was dangerous for it because the entire cosmos is against it. The beings on the earth correspond to the beings in the heavens, after all, so from the earth to the heavens, the beings of the entire cosmos pose a threat to it. So the old forces then had to think of ways to sustain it. The phenomena at the ordinary human level can reflect the phenomena in the heavens. The old forces in the heavens were directly controlling things, and the people on the earth were also quite important and couldn't be annihilated on the surface, so it was allowed to achieve a military balance, and at the same time form a large bloc.

In normal societies, people and governments are living a normal way of life that's been given to humans by Gods of the cosmos. So in order to eliminate this element, the Party, the cosmos's many Gods caused the normal nations on earth to become strong militarily. But that strengthening posed a threat to it, so the old forces made it strong, too. So that's why the arms race appeared in the last century's decade of the 60's--human beings were in the Cold War crisis, competing with each other militarily, developing the military industry on a large scale, and researching and producing cutting-edge weapons. The old forces' goal was to stop it from being demolished or to lose its capacity before being used, so it had to be sustained no matter what and had to go through that process in history, and at the same time within the crises it was made to be more authoritarian. It's really been hard for it to survive for as long as it has. But it wasn't allowed for it to be too powerful when the time came to put it to use; way back when, its coalition was very large.

Now I'm not deliberately criticizing that Party--I'm talking about just how exactly this cosmos was set up. We don't get involved in politics, but I know about everything, and of course, I only talk about the reasons behind it when you have persecuted the Dafa disciples. Let me say more about the question that was just raised. So when it was time to put it to use, it couldn't be that large. All the people in the world were to be saved, so if there were so many countries that had that system, how could the people in those places be saved? The old forces then caused normal societies' economies to decline steeply, at the same time dismantling that enormous system that had been laboriously sustained for a century. That form of dismantling wouldn't cause retaliation or conflict--it was a steady, smooth dismantling. It only left behind that place, China, because Dafa was to be spread there--that party had been tempered to a satisfactory state and was meant to be used there, so that was the only place where it was left, whereas it had collapsed everywhere else. That's why in our time, 100 years after its appearance, all of a sudden it collapsed--something the world's people couldn't have imagined. Gods control absolutely everything of the human race, and humans have never been in control of their fate--it's all been controlled from above. Then China looks very isolated, so a few little ones are left, like North Korea and the like, who can't do anything on a large scale in terms of economic or military capacity, but do serve as companions, giving it a little bit of hope of survival.

So you've seen this, in the last few decades the United States has been very powerful militarily, and economically too, and the U.S. always gets involved in handling a lot of matters, such as the violation of human rights, the violation of religious freedom, and so on, and maintaining a certain amount of justice in the international community. These aren't things that people can explain clearly. The gang of scoundrels that persecute Dafa disciples says that the U.S. is the international police. Actually, the U.S. really is the international police, as arranged by the old forces. China is the stage for carrying out this historic play, and the countries all over the world are the audience as well as the actors. But, order in this society does need to be enforced by somebody--it can't be allowed to go unchecked. In the past the principles of this place had it that the victor governs the country, the world is conquered with military force, and the strong are heroes. That's the opposite of the principles of the cosmos. But the reason you can do that is because Gods allow you to do it--if you can do it well, Gods will give you glory and allow you to be strong and prosperous. That was man's law in the past. If the entire human race becomes peaceful, the U.S. will resign from that historic role of its own accord. What I've talked about is the old forces' arrangement for this affair, that's where it came from.

Question: Recently there's been some difficulty and confusion in my relationship (audience laughs), and I've experienced a lot of hardship in this regard.

Teacher: I can answer you this way. As long as you exist in this social environment of ordinary people, whether you're a human, a rock, a plant, or an animal, you're all immersed in emotion, and even the gaps between particles are immersed in emotion. So it's not possible for an ordinary person to escape from emotion. It can only be done through cultivation. But as for the form our cultivation today takes, I've already told you what kind of cultivation form it is: By having that little bit of ordinary people's stuff left there, you can validate the Fa right now. Without that little bit of ordinary people's stuff, I'm telling you, you wouldn't be able to validate the Fa here, not to mention the issue of saving sentient beings. It's impossible to have Gods here rectifying the Fa, to have Gods come to save sentient beings--the gap is too great. There's no way Gods could take humans to be that important. Only by being among humans can you take the beings here as something important, and it's only because you still have human things left at the surface that you can do that.

You know that human beings are one level of the cosmos, and a level that can't be omitted, so it must be saved and the Fa must be right. So when you have that bit of human stuff you're able to do Dafa work and cultivate. But, if you don't pay enough attention it will interfere with you--that's where that comes from. Recently I read a few articles written by practitioners, and one was by somebody who's homeless and wandering about. He was talking about how his wife is a Dafa disciple and how wonderful she is, but in those words I saw his emotions. And there was another person who talked about how wonderful her husband was, and I saw emotion there, too. I'm not saying that you did something wrong. Some ordinary people read those articles, too, and during Fa-rectification they're effective when ordinary people read them, so I can't say that that's not good. In fact, that's just caused by that little bit of human stuff you still have.

But I think that as cultivators you shouldn't be affected like that by emotion. Yet you might think, "If I really cultivate well in this regard, if I'm really not affected by emotion, I'll be just like a big rock." No, it's not like that at all--cultivators are compassionate, and if you look at sentient beings when your righteous thoughts are really strong, then think about it, will that kind of thing still happen? Of course, sometimes you say that you've tried hard but still can't do it. Then with that effort you put in, were you trying to solve only that specific problem? Did the state of your cultivation really get to that point? Of course, I'm not just talking about the practitioner who submitted the question. No matter what, as cultivators you need to deal with it in the right way or else the old forces will make trouble for you. Except for newer students, from July 20 of 1999 on, Master hasn't created any personal cultivation tests for you, and that's because overall your personal cultivation has changed in every respect so that it's in the direction of saving sentient beings and validating Dafa. (Applause)

Question: Are all of the people that we meet in clarifying the truth people who have predestined relationships with us? Are they sentient beings in our worlds?

Teacher: My Law Bodies will arrange it like that, and the old forces will arrange it like that. Of course, maybe you're very resourceful in clarifying the truth, and you're able to touch more people's hearts with the way that you clarify the truth, so perhaps you'll be asked to save sentient beings that don't have a direct relationship with you. With compassion, you'll have ways to change them. That kind of situation is possible. That also means that when it comes to saving sentient beings, there's no separation of responsibilities into those that are mine versus those that aren't. You can't distinguish them. That'd be having thoughts of differentiating, and that's not the compassion of a Great Enlightened Being. It's not like how it is with ordinary people, where I'll be especially good to the people in my family and it's different for outsiders. How could that work? Compassion... Compassion... It's not a human emotion.

Question: Sichuan Province Dafa disciples and their families send their greetings to Master.

Teacher: Thank you. (Applause)

Question: Dafa disciples being persecuted in jails, forced labor camps, detention centers, and mental hospitals in various places in Sichuan send their greetings to Master.

Teacher: Thank you. (Applause) I'm fully aware of the situation in Sichuan, too. Master is very much aware.

Question: In the face of the old forces' persecution, cohesion among Dafa disciples is very important. How can we quickly improve as a whole?

Teacher: You know, I never talk about the word "solidarity," and that's because that's about ordinary people forcing something, it's a form. What cultivators talk about is improvement in xinxing, fundamental improvement. A cultivator should know all that needs to be done, and if he doesn't do well, I'd say that's because he hasn't studied the Fa well, right? What to do and what not to do, aren't we all clear on our own? In fact we should be clear. But, every location has contact persons, and there are Dafa Associations and Assistance Centers, so in other words overall there's a need for coordination. So the kind of state where whenever someone thinks about what we should do now or what needs to be done tomorrow and everyone just immediately knows, right now we still can't get to that point, so we had to have people step forward to do the coordination and communication, to do those types of things. Right now, whether Dafa disciples are validating the Fa as a group or clarifying the truth as individuals, all of those are what Dafa requires. As long as Fa-rectification requires it, you should do it well, and there's no room for negotiation. And don't get conceited because of your roles, and don't think you're different from others. You're each a particle. And in my eyes nobody is better than anyone else, since I scooped all of you up at the same time. (Applause) Some are more capable when it comes to one thing, others with another--you definitely shouldn't let your thoughts run wild based on that. You say that you have such great abilities and so on and so forth, but that was all bestowed upon you by the Fa! Actually, it wouldn't work if you failed to attain that level of abilities. Fa-rectification required your wisdom to reach that point, so you definitely shouldn't think that you're so capable. Some practitioners want me to check out their abilities and skills. But actually, what I think is, all of that was given by me, so there's no need to look. (Audience laughs, applauds)

Question: Sometimes I really feel so perplexed. Emotion (qing) is truly so hard to let go of during cultivation, and it's as if ever since the beginning of my cultivation, every test is a test of emotion, as if the most difficult test in life is the test of emotion.

Teacher: I guess you all heard it clearly, right? You've treated emotion as a test, and that's because you haven't let it go, so you constantly have to pass it. (Audience laughs) But I'm not forcing you all to let it go today, I'm just pointing this out to you clearly. I'm not saying you can do it right away. When I tell you what's going on, you should just study the Fa more. When the righteous thoughts get stronger and stronger, when you truly have compassion toward sentient beings, then there won't be any more emotion to trouble you, and none of your family members that you have an issue of emotion with will again say that you're heartless towards them, and there won't be any more conflicts because of the issue of emotion. You can talk all you want about it, but it still comes down to you needing to improve.

I can sense the state of your thinking--"It's hard, really hard." But didn't you wait those thousands of years just for today?! Could your future Consummation compare with this little bit that you're enduring today?! (Applause) Well, sometimes I think, if today I wasn't here to save you and was one of you, I have to say, it'd be so easy for me to let go of those little things! (Applause) It's probably just because Master sees through all of it that I say this, hah hah. (Teacher laughs)

Question: Because of attachments, I've been in a poor state for a long time. I want to do Dafa work well, yet I'm afraid that my poor state will affect other practitioners. Should I set the work aside and really put a lot into cultivating myself for a period of time?

Teacher: It won't affect anything if you study the Fa while you do Dafa work. Master doesn't have any objection to that. Also, those of you here, whether you're a student or you have a job, none of you can neglect the role that you play in the ordinary people's society. You all have to do well in everything that you should do, and at the same time it makes things easier in your work of validating Dafa and clarifying the truth. Otherwise, if you can't even be financially stable, if on a daily basis you have to worry about shelter and food, if the most basic needs of life can't be assured, how can you have extra energy to validate the Fa? Isn't that interference? Don't make unnecessary troubles for yourself, and don't just follow along without much thought. If you have a better source of income and want to change your way of living, I'm not against it. What I'm saying is, if all of you go and stop working that's just totally unacceptable.

Do you know how important this form of cultivation of today's Dafa disciples is? In the time to come, here at this place of humans, a human becoming a God will no longer be a myth. Previously in this place of humans, when people talked about cultivation of this or cultivation of that, it was all just cultivating the assistant spirit--humans weren't cultivating at all. In the future, the future that you're forging, you'll have left behind in this place the path for humans to become Gods! Everything you're doing today is the actual practice that will be used as examples in the future, [including the aspect] of being able to cultivate while doing ordinary people's work. If you go to extremes you'll wreck this path, so you cannot go to extremes. You should just openly and nobly do well in what you should do in society, and then cultivate. Then you'll definitely be able to meet the standard that cultivators should meet, the standard for Consummation, because this is the path that the people of the future will take.

The human society of the future is one without religion, and everyone will be a part of society, people will be participating in everything of that society, and perhaps the Fa-truths at this level of human beings and their inner meanings at higher levels will be integrated throughout the textbooks that students study. So in this Fa-rectification it's being made possible for man to become Gods. It's not a change at this level of human beings--it involves a systematic harmonizing and perfecting of the entire cosmic system, it's the harmonizing and perfecting of the Fa. This type of event where people persecute Gods who are here to save people won't exist again. Situations like Jesus being crucified will absolutely never be allowed to happen again. So how we walk the path of cultivation well in this place of ordinary people has become of utmost importance.

Question: How can Dafa disciples do our part as a whole during Fa-rectification?

Teacher: Cooperate and coordinate with each other. When doing things as a group, by yourself, or as a few people together, you need to cooperate and coordinate well. With the Fa here you won't really make mistakes, because you've been tempered to maturity and should know what to do. In the most recent period, I haven't intervened in anything you've done, but I have been observing all of the various problems you have brought to my attention. That's because I can't let you rely on me forever, and I can't deprive you of all your chances to establish your own mighty virtue. You have to walk your own path, and it's okay to trip and fall, you know how to pick yourselves up, and you know how to treasure everything that you do, and do everything afterwards even better. So I won't lead you by the hand anymore. As much as possible I try to have you reflect on things more, and that means giving you opportunities, giving you opportunities to walk the path yourselves. I'll speak up when problems arise at the level of the whole body, but as for a lot of specific things, I'm not going to speak up anymore under normal circumstances.

Question: When sending righteous thoughts, does the hand's posture affect the outcome?

Teacher: Well in principle, as long as you're rational and clearheaded, making hand gestures or not won't affect anything. But, it's apparent from your hand gestures whether you've entered into tranquility or not, or if you've fallen into a foggy state. (Teacher laughs) So when you send righteous thoughts you have to be alert. And what's that state like? It's very pleasant, as if everything is still and quiet and the whole body is enveloped by energy.

Question: During this special period of Fa-rectification, some disciples in the United States have lost their jobs due to the economy...

Teacher: That's the old forces' doing. You should always remember this: I don't acknowledge any of the interference that's occurring among Dafa disciples today; all of the things that shouldn't happen are the old forces' arrangements. They see your personal cultivation as the first priority. Of course, personal Consummation is the first priority, since there's nothing more to talk about if you can't reach Consummation. But today's Dafa disciples are doing something different from the cultivation ways in every other period in history, and that's because you are shouldering a greater responsibility that surpasses your personal Consummation. Saving sentient beings and validating the Fa, these far surpass your personal cultivation, they're even greater things. And that's something that the old forces can't handle correctly, and they're interfering with you. Negate them, and face all of it with the right thoughts!

Question: For a period of time while validating the Fa, I was able to remain steadfast and continue down my path when encountering a lot of tribulations and tests. After leaving China, especially over the past few months, the thought karma has been very severe. Within it there's even elements of being disrespectful to Master, having me give up cultivation, and so on.

Teacher: I think that as long as you study the Fa more, your righteous thoughts will be strong. For some practitioners, sometimes you've really gotten caught up in doing things to clarify the truth and have overlooked Fa-study. The things of Dafa disciples surpass personal cultivation, such as our currently validating the Fa, clarifying the truth, and saving sentient beings, but all of these are actually based on a foundation of personal Consummation, so if you can't reach personal Consummation then everything else is out of the question. Validating the Fa isn't something ordinary people do; only Dafa disciples are worthy of doing it. So now study and study the Fa more, study the Fa more. Also, whatever we do, we have to do it in an upright way, to really do it like a cultivator. Don't let the old forces take advantage of any gaps. When they take advantage of your gaps they'll do those kinds of things [you mentioned].

Did you know this? When the high-level old forces arranged this tribulation, the ultimate reason was to clean out in one shot those not-so-good beings of the cosmos while doing so-called "tempering" of Dafa disciples during this period, while at the same time cleaning out the universe. That's what the old forces arranged to be done. They've made what they want their first priority, instead of making my objective of the Fa-rectification the number one need. So when you encounter those difficulties, do more checking on your own part, do things in a more upright way, and don't let the old forces take advantage of any gaps. Those wicked beings that are being controlled by the old forces have already seen their impending doom, so it's like they're in chaos, and they act desperately like cornered rats--they'll do anything, no matter how bad. Pay attention to these things and don't let them take advantage of any gaps.

Question: Disciples from Weifang City of Shandong Province pass on their greetings to Master!

Teacher: Thank you. (Applause)

Question: A Falun Gong practitioner who was forcibly brainwashed still wants to cultivate, but he says that Master no longer looks after him now. Master, will you still look after him?

Teacher: He's thinking that way because he feels that he's let Master down and has let Dafa down and those thoughts have formed new attachments. And having done what he did, he's still thinking about things with a human mind and is still not clearheaded--that's why he said that. This affair hasn't ended, so aren't what you do well and don't do well before it ends part of the cultivation process? Yes! You know, in the past it was hard to cultivate the Dao. When facing a test, as soon as someone had one sub-par thought, he would lose the chance forever to cultivate the Dao, and that was for sure. The old forces think that's how I look at it too. "Okay, now that we've forced him to write some kind of document, you, Li Hongzhi, you can't keep him now since he betrayed you. You've done so much to save him, yet he betrayed you. You definitely can't keep him. And what's to be done if he can't be kept? Eliminate him."

That's how the old forces think, and that's how they've arranged things. But I haven't done things that way--I will save him. He didn't do well today, but aren't you old forces still persecuting people? I'll have him do things over tomorrow, and definitely have him do them well! (Applause) Hasn't what's happened proven that Dafa disciples have become more and more rational, become more and more clearheaded, and done better and better? Aren't they more and more determined?! (Applause) When you ultimately really do become determined, then all of what you did in the past can only be the cultivation process playing out. That's really how it is. Master is handling this matter with the greatest compassion. (Applause)

But there are some people who really have let me down, and in reality it was all caused by that thinking. You've seen this in the news on Clearwisdom that's sent to us from China: Some people did things in an open and upright way, without fear, and so they weren't persecuted; and when they were sent to forced labor camps, the evil in other dimensions couldn't take it and had to let them out. Some people have all kinds of fears and their human thoughts are many, so they're persecuted severely. Even when they've been persecuted to the brink of death, they still can't break out of human attachments, and the Fa-guardian Gods are anxious about it but can't do anything. Those who've departed while holding onto their attachments of fear, will I have you Consummate, or not? The truth is, those are all displays of human attachments. Of course, it's easy to talk about that here and now, but it's not easy in that type of evil situation. That's the path of a human walking towards Godhood--that's why it's hard!

Question: I'm a practitioner from Korea, and I often run into quarrels and conflicts during Fa-rectification activities and in cooperating with fellow practitioners. For sure it's because I have attachments. What should I do?

Teacher: It's not like that just in Korea, because conflicts unfold in other areas too, and those problems used to happen among Mainland Chinese practitioners as well. If each person thinks that he has some skills, they all think that they're capable, each of them thinks that he's right, and they refuse to give ground, then actually, at that point there are problems with those people who won't give ground. What they're thinking is, "This idea of mine can serve the Fa better," and they never think, "I'm showing off." But the old forces will latch on to his not giving ground and constantly strengthen it--"You're right, you're right, what you're doing is exactly right!" So at that time he's not clearheaded. Truly think about yourself rationally and then think about other people's ideas, and I think things will be done well then. Why is it that at those times nobody looks at themselves? Don't worry about losing the chance to implement your own ideas, and even less should you be unwilling to admit that others' are better.

Now a God, he doesn't look at whether your idea was adopted. At those times he looks at whether your attachment was let go of. If you let it go, and your idea wasn't implemented--with regard to that matter you were able to let it go, and were even able to help do it better--then you improved, and you were able to raise your level. What's cultivation? That is cultivation. If you insist on holding your ground and emphasizing your own ideas, then while it may look like it's for the Fa, in fact it's being irrational, and you have not truly thought about it deeply or considered things from all angles more. But of course it won't do if [you don't speak up even when you see others] really not considering problems fully and bringing losses to Dafa, and it really won't do if you spot attachments and impure thoughts. So you need to become more mature in the Fa.

I talked about this while teaching the Fa in Philadelphia, so whenever you run into it, students can read that again. Since this issue is so prominent, be on your guard whenever it comes up. Of course, when you're arguing there's always ample reason, the environment and setting are different each time, and the specific circumstances are different. As for how to deal with it specifically, it still goes back to your doing well in cultivation.

Question: Is it true that the old forces are controlling Europe especially severely?

Teacher: The way I see it, they're only controlling China severely. (Audience laughs) It's just like back around July 20 of 1999, when the heavens were crumbling, and level after level was brimming with evil--it's just that people couldn't see it, and every dimensional layer was saturated with all of the evil that the old forces had prepared for Dafa. I've told you before that I'd do this in two steps –the Fa-rectification and the Fa's rectifying of the human world--and if I combined them and did it in one step, then the entire world would launch an attack against Dafa disciples. Of course, doing it in one shot would mean more Dafa disciples, and there would be three and a half billion Dafa disciples. I split it into two steps: The first group consists of Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples, and the second group consists of those during the Fa's rectification of the human world. In the beginning when the evil came, at once it blotted out the sky and covered up the earth, but it couldn't exert itself outside of China. So they would rally those wicked things against all of the existing Dafa disciples, and it was really terrifying for you back then. So to lessen the pressure and the persecution of Dafa disciples, I separated Dafa disciples and those things. I had those evil things come at me, and eliminated them quickly and on a large scale at the same time, so back then there was a lot of harm done to my surface material body. Later on I'd almost cleaned out all of those things, it took a year to do it, and otherwise my Dafa disciples really couldn't have borne it. I blocked all of it. In fact, what the Dafa disciples endured couldn't compare to the enormous number of those things and how wicked they were. (Applause) Didn't Nostradamus say several hundred years ago that a great King of Terror would come from the sky in July of 1999? If all of it had been done in one shot, it would've been a huge tribulation on a global scale, and everyone would have known that it arrived. So the old forces were actually happy that I did it in two steps, since that way the people outside of China couldn't detect it. So during the persecution the evil spread huge, outrageous lies, but the world's people were just numb to it.

Question: What special significance is there for the process of spreading the Fa and Fa-rectification here in the United States?

Teacher: I've never said that there was some special significance. I can choose to go anywhere, and it's right that I chose to stay in the United States. In the beginning the old forces arranged for me to go to France, and it was even mentioned in prophecies. For various reasons, though, I came to the U.S. But it's not that I have some special preference for the U.S. Let me tell you, every person in the entire world was at one point part of my family (applause), including the worst people, or else they'd have no chance to be a human being during this time. What happened in history is what they have gone through and what they chose for themselves. The most despicable are the old forces. They dare to massacre my people at will since they don't belong to them. What's held in Master's heart are all the people there are. (Applause)

Question: Master said at one point that there are still some people with strong predestined relationships who haven't obtained the Fa. May I ask revered Master what the situation is now?

Teacher: It's hard to tell based on the current situation. Why do I tell you to save them? You don't know how many relatives from the past you have in this world. Do your best to save them!

Question: How many more people with predestined relationships are there?

Teacher: I can tell you, without a predestined relationship, you can't be a human being in this world today--not a single person without a predestined relationship could be in this world. (Applause) It's just that in the course of history they arranged different roles for themselves. Your being able to become Dafa disciples, that's what you arranged for yourselves in history. And those who were weeded out for persecuting Dafa, that too is what they arranged for themselves in history. When a being has deviated, keeps on doing bad things, becomes that bad, and gradually progresses to that point, that's actually a choice.

Question: What's the relationship among: Negating the old forces' arrangements and removing attachments, continually improving through cultivation, and not giving the old forces gaps to take advantage of?

Teacher: When you're able to walk a righteous path, that means your righteous thoughts are strong, you're doing things according to Dafa's requirements, and you're doing things according to Master's requirements, then you are negating the old forces, and you are walking your path in a righteous way. Those rotten ghosts that are intent on disrupting the Fa really like it when you're in disarray, as the old forces' whole goal is to have all this end up according to their arrangements. I'll tell you, when all that you're doing today is in line with what I have taught you to do, then that's not letting them take advantage of your gaps and not letting them find excuses to persecute you. I don't acknowledge the persecution that's going on in China today, and the old forces are becoming more and more fearful because of that. It's because they know I absolutely can't acknowledge it. They're now facing this with great fear and trepidation. The high-level beings of the old forces have already been destroyed in the Fa-rectification, yet those who were separated inside the Three Realms in the early days still can't for the time being see the true situation--that their highest levels have been destroyed--and that's the state of affairs.

Question: Ever since the Fa-rectification period began, my state has been up and down, and I haven't been able to let go of my pursuit of comfort all this time, so I'm quite distressed.

Teacher: Master can help you, but only as long as you know to strive to improve. (Applause)

Question: When the Fa rectifies the human world, the vast majority of Dafa disciples will return to their rightful places and Consummate. So who will help Master in Fa-rectification during the latter ten years?

Teacher: As for this, (Teacher laughs) you're still thinking with a human mentality. While you've been spreading the Fa, a lot of people have obtained the Fa, but they can't understand the Fa deeply since once they understood the Fa they'd become Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples. There's a line drawn there, so those old forces don't dare let them obtain the Fa. I didn't push this any further, since I needed to focus on the matter of the overall Fa-rectification and on resolving things in the Fa-rectification, plus, they'll still have chances in the future. But these things that you're doing won't be in vain, they're all magnificent and terrific, and that's because you've established a foundation for the cultivators of the future, you've chosen the cultivators of the future. So that's been done very well.

When clarifying the truth, have you discovered the following problem? They can accept everything when you talk about people being persecuted. Talk about freedom of belief getting trampled, the violation of human rights, and so on, and they can accept it all, but as soon as you talk about the Fa principles they're blocked off. You're probably all aware of that. The reason that happens is, when somebody can follow you in understanding things based on the Fa principles, he's already obtained the Fa and he's about to cultivate, so when it comes to his obtaining the Fa the old forces will definitely block it. It's a test for him. If he really wants to obtain it, and no matter what he still wants to obtain it, then he can obtain it. So in other words, right now there really is a very big obstacle for people who want to come and be one of the Dafa disciples. There are special ones that can enter, though. If they can give up everything then they can enter, but otherwise they can't enter right now. But for him to learn the exercises during the period when Dafa is being persecuted, even though he hasn't joined the ranks of Fa-rectification Dafa disciples, he's already laid the foundation for his future cultivation. That's how it is. (Applause)

Question: When Gods and Buddhas are all majestically displayed, and people are all cultivating after seeing the truth, will it still count as cultivation?

Teacher: Your clarifying the truth is selecting the cultivators of the future, so whether someone is able to learn it now is extremely important. For the rest of the people, it's not that they'll be cleaned out if they can't cultivate, for humankind will become an important level of the cosmos and be part of what Dafa will encompass. So there will still be people on this earth in the future. Of course, only those who are bad and completely unacceptable will be weeded out.

Question: Shijiazhuang and Beijing disciples pass on their greetings to Master!

Teacher: Thank you!

Question: What does "Looking with a smile, at the Gods being foolish" mean?

Teacher: You know what those old forces did? At the beginning they were making fun of me, especially the ones at low levels. Now they don't dare to laugh, because they've seen all of the truth, and they're clear on everything. So I'm smiling at their foolishness. (Audience laughs)

Question: How should we understand the fact that Zhuan Falun is to be left for the future, and other lectures are all explaining Zhuan Falun, and that we should cultivate strictly according to Zhuan Falun?

Teacher: You should indeed cultivate strictly according to Zhuan Falun, and other books can be read as reference, they're all Fa. The people of the future won't have as much mighty virtue as today's Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples, because they won't go through a tribulation like the one today's Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples are facing, and there are historic reasons too of course. So the Fa's manifestation won't be as grand as today's. There are endless Buddhas, Daos and Gods behind every word of Zhuan Falun. Maybe in the future it won't manifest like that. That doesn't mean the Fa won't be good anymore, just that not as much will be shown. Dafa disciples, I won't set a ceiling for you, as you're now in the midst of establishing mighty virtue. (Teacher laughs) (Applause)

Question: Not acknowledging the old forces is very important, so could we ask revered Master to talk about how to do well in this? Thank you.

Teacher: Well, what I just talked about was all about these things. Don't acknowledge the old forces' arrangements, and negate this entire persecution they arranged. They want to have the Dafa disciples become mature through this persecution--that's the aspect of it that has unfolded before people's eyes. The aspect of it that hasn't shown itself is that if everything they want to do succeeded, then that'd be something the future couldn't acknowledge. What's manifest here on this human side is very simple. The side of you that has completed cultivation knows what's going on, and I don't acknowledge any of the old forces' arrangements or this current persecution.

Let's take an extremely microcosmic, enormous being in the cosmos, one that no Gods can know, it saw that the cosmic celestial bodies would head towards disintegration during a certain period, and because of a being's one instinctive thought of not wanting to head towards destruction, it set in motion the layers and layers of firmaments as well as the layers and layers of cosmic bodies inside those layers and layers of firmaments, all the way down to the layers and layers of universes inside the multitude of cosmic bodies and layers and layers of beings inside the multitude of universes, and it caused the gigantic Gods in the various firmaments to arrange ways to save themselves. From top to bottom there were more Gods participating at level after level, making even more detailed arrangements, all the way down to the Three Realms. Because that one thought came from an extremely high level, the cosmos's sentient beings all thought it was the Will of Heaven, and that there was no question they'd meet with complete success, rescuing this grand firmament and cosmic body from destruction. Because of the meticulousness of the arrangements made by the Gods at many levels of cosmic bodies, the arrangements looked so perfect that they excited the multitude of Gods, gave their confidence a big boost and made them believe that they finally had a chance to be saved. At the time, twenty percent of the Gods out of the levels upon levels of beings participated in the affair, and that's how the old forces came about.

The sentient beings don't want to be destroyed, and that's only natural. But the layers upon layers of beings are all contained within the grand firmament, and over the long course of history everything had been progressing toward the end according to the Fa's law of the process of formation-stasis-degeneration-destruction, and no being or element could escape it. For sentient beings, when everything disintegrates and there are no conditions for life to exist, then not a single thing can exist. That's much more terrifying than the re-formation of the cosmos's cosmic bodies. The Fa's law of formation-stasis-degeneration-destruction created all of the elements, matter, and life in the old cosmos, and at the same time established the Fa's law that everything would degenerate. That's the deterioration from within of all of the elements that make up the cosmos, manifesting itself among the beings as the degeneration of the standard of thoughts and conduct, and once they decline to a certain point they're unsalvageable, and from there they head towards the final stage of destruction. The old forces pushed to the very limit the Gods' power and wisdom in arranging what they thought to be the most perfect future, and got so excited that they completely forgot about a key point: That is, when the cosmos progresses to the stage of degeneration, all of the sentient beings and elements in the cosmos are, without exception, in the process of degeneration--the beings, the ways of thinking, the elements, and standards are all impure--and the point at which the standards and everything of beings became no good was arrived at gradually over the gigantic course of history. The Fa's laws and standards have, over the long course of history, all lost their original magnificence and righteous purity, and so the sentient beings are even more powerless to detect this type of change. That's because those Gods who are at very high levels never cared about the conduct of the beings below them, much less did they heed my warnings during Fa-rectification. In other words, when the cosmos has reached that point, no matter how good those ideas are that the beings in the cosmos come up with to save themselves, that's still the conduct of beings in the stage of degeneration and destruction, and falls short of the standard during "formation-stasis" at the cosmos's beginning and middle stages; and that falls even shorter of the standard of the new cosmos, which is countless times higher than that of the old cosmos. So none of the things the multitude of Gods have done are acknowledged by any of what's outside of the cosmos. During Fa-rectification I traversed all of the firmaments and saw that those ultimate arrangements of theirs all have omissions and can't be made complete or harmonized. During Fa-rectification I also traversed every final part of what's related to the old forces, yet I discovered that the enormous being who had the one thought that led to gigantic disruptions of the true Fa-rectification is not the final being, and there are lots and lots of elements that are higher than it. There, all of the old forces' arrangements were suddenly gone--all of their arrangements were without foundation, they couldn't resolve anything, and they disappeared without a conclusion. Yet all of those arrangements by the old forces formed true disruptions and demonic obstacles to the Fa-rectification, and they've become enormous tribulations in Fa-rectification. In Fa-rectification it misled all of the Lords, Kings, and sentient beings, and the pressure during Fa-rectification also came from the direct manipulation by all of those sentient beings and old forces. When all of this came to pass, when the sentient beings saw all of this, suddenly it was like they couldn't think. They saw that what I had said originally and my warnings during Fa-rectification were all true, and they were shocked and speechless--they immediately realized that the sentient beings had all committed crimes against Fa-rectification. They had always thought of me as doing cultivation, or even that they were bringing me along as a cultivator. I think that at this point they'll never dare to think like that again.

This tribulation that the old forces arranged in the human world, on the surface it's being responsible to cultivators, to Fa-rectification, and to me, but in reality the goal of what they arranged was being responsible to what they wanted to do, and all of this that they arranged is not at all what the new cosmos of the future would want, and at the same time it has done a huge amount of damage to the true Fa-rectification. A great deal of what I'd wanted was forcibly destroyed by them. History has passed, and what was lost is hard to recover. How could they possibly bear the responsibility for all of that?!

Now as practitioners, if in this tribulation you can manage not to acknowledge the old forces' arrangements, then you can make it through. And those who haven't done well, the bottom line is, aren't you acknowledging the old forces' arrangements? Once you acknowledge them isn't it like you're one of them? Because you haven't done well amidst the persecution it's caused instability among the practitioners and aggravated the persecution, so aren't you, too, adding fuel to the fire and helping the evil? Negate them, completely negate everything of the old forces!

Question: Why do the old forces dare to kill Dafa disciples in the persecution?

Teacher: There are two situations here. One is that in the past the old forces felt that a type of mentality arose among Dafa disciples, which is, once you cultivate in Dafa you think it's like having insurance, and there's nothing to be afraid of, there's no sickness or death, this or that won't happen, and everybody just has good fortune. But, once that mentality arises there's going to be trouble. The old forces will do what they want to do, and once you unknowingly acknowledge their arrangements they'll have excuses to control you and create various types of danger for you. Of course, Dafa disciples won't die like ordinary people, and even for those who've departed ahead of their time what awaits them is the very best--that's for sure. (Applause) So during this period, what they do is take a few away first. Of course, among those who've died, there's also what they'd arranged in previous lives. What's their goal? To have you see that studying Dafa isn't like having some kind of insurance and that you still need to do well, and that not doing well is a problem. So they're doing that kind of thing, and it's because they see personal cultivation as more important than validating the Fa. Also, they're doing these things in this time during Fa-rectification when Dafa disciples are urgently needed in saving sentient beings--aren't they causing serious trouble? How many beings can a Dafa disciple save while he's in this world, right? Isn't that doing something bad?

The old forces will interfere with practitioners from time to time, but think about how important saving sentient beings is! Why do they have to cause all that interference. Don't acknowledge it! Since none of them are worthy of participating, what I wanted was for none of the sentient beings to interfere, for them all to wait there, and I would have gone forward rectifying things, and the worst beings, however bad they might be, and no matter what kind of mistakes they'd made in history, all of them could have reached Consummation while just staying put. Wouldn't that have been great?! (Applause) Of course, that wouldn't have been done without principle, as I would have been transforming everything that a Dafa disciple owed into benevolent returns for sentient beings, and everyone would have been given the best compensation. If he couldn't do it, then Master would help him do it. When the cosmos isn't up to standard it's because all of the sentient beings aren't up to standard, and I would have helped all sentient beings do it, I would have helped you do it and I would have helped him do it. Then wouldn't everything have been benevolently resolved? (Applause) With all of the beings being no good and no longer clean, I would have helped all of you do it. So wouldn't that have been fair? You see the logic of it, right? But they insisted on doing things their way. Of course, even in that kind of situation there would still inevitably have been reactions from beings that were affected in Fa-rectification, and trouble and interference would have emerged out of it. That's natural, and from it some suffering and trouble would have been created for me in Fa-rectification, and that's natural, too. That, I could accept and acknowledge. But doing these things systematically has severely interfered with Fa-rectification, and it's something that I can't acknowledge. That's how everything relates.

Speaking from another angle, my disciples, when the old forces are able to do what they want to do, isn't that because you've silently consented to what they want to do? When they tell you to go you go, when they tell you to write something you write it, when they tell you to do something you just do it, and when they arrest and sentence you, you just helplessly, silently consent to it. Of course, that's caused by your having attachments inside and not being able to let go of them, but the more you can't let go, the more severely you're persecuted, since the wicked beings that are controlling and ruining Dafa disciples can see your attachments and what you're attached to. In contrast, those disciples who've let go of life and death aren't afraid of anything, and the evil beings are in fear of them. But the reason they can let go is that they've cultivated well.

Question: I really want my family and friends to cultivate in Dafa, but the Fa-rectification is in the final stages, so will you arrange for them to return to the heavens with us? Or is it that they'll cultivate in Dafa when the Fa rectifies the human world?

Teacher: I really can't tell you anything about that. For one thing, that's something that can't be told, and secondly, you have attachments. Some people say, "Once I've Consummated, what if I have this or that to take care of?" Do you know how Gods look at that student when those words are said? (Audience laughs) And you still want to Consummate? But you know what? Those who have thoughts of Consummation in their minds can't reach Consummation, not to mention those who want to reach Consummation but can't let go of attachments to things like emotion and wealth. Pursue nothing and gain naturally! All the things that Dafa disciples are doing today are in fact the responsibilities that have been bestowed upon you by history. Just do what you should do openly and with dignity, and everything will be covered. (Applause) As long as you're thinking about wanting to Consummate you won't be able to Consummate... And then you're saying, "How can I leave when I have this thing that I haven't taken care of, that thing that still has to be taken care of..." which means you don't want to leave yet. Just look at how many human thoughts and attachments are bound up in those words.

Question: Poetry is a form of human culture. Why has Master chosen to use this special form, poetry, to teach us and to use as a part of the Fa?

Teacher: These things from Chinese culture, as with the things of the world's other cultures, were retained for people to obtain the Fa. As for my using a particular part of the culture, that's a personal choice of mine--there wasn't any special thinking, I just used it as I wished. I sometimes use classical Chinese to write some things, and sometimes I'll use poetry, rhymes, or literary couplets, and there are also times when I use vernacular prose, which is currently the prevalent form of writing. The fact is, I prefer to write with classical forms, as they can express things really clearly and thoroughly. But of course, what students study nowadays is the vernacular, and they couldn't understand things if I wrote that way, so I just use it less or don't use it at all. The old forces have pushed today's human race to this point. They've actually created huge difficulties for the cosmos's Fa-rectification and the future. The Fa that I'm teaching to you integrates things from science, and that's not the culture of human beings, so what will become of it if it's left for the future? You know, why do I always want to use those old classical Chinese sayings to teach? Because they don't have that stuff in them. But things are just this way now, and people can only understand these principles within this kind of culture, so I can only teach in this way. As for things later on, we'll just have to wait until the future to consider them.

Question: You've said that everything of today's human society was brought about by Dafa disciples' thoughts. I often find that my own attachments have caused things to turn out even worse. May I ask Master how to break free from this?

Teacher: It's not a big deal if you haven't done well. Just do things well next time and try to find out where the problem was. There's a prominent phenomenon in you folks' cultivation, which is, after you haven't done something well, you're only overwhelmed with regret, and you don't do it over. If you regret it too much then that's another attachment. Once you've done something wrong, seen where it was wrong, and recognized it, then do it well next time, do it over. If you trip and fall, and just keep lying there instead of getting up, (audience laughs) then that's no good.

Question: After hearing Master's teaching of the Fa in the morning, I felt very sad inside. I want to ask Master, did you teach us those Fa-truths ahead of their occurrence?

Teacher: No, that's not how it is. Right now there are a lot of things that I don't intervene in, because you have to walk your own paths well yourselves. That's the case for everybody. It's what you will leave behind after you reach Consummation in the future, and also a chance for you to establish mighty virtue. What you do well is everything that you've validated and enlightened to. Put that part in order and remove the unwanted dregs, and the essence that remains is the path to your success. As for the truths of Fa that I taught this morning, actually, I only teach them when as a group there are about to be deviations. If they were just isolated phenomena that didn't have much bearing, I wouldn't mention them, and practitioners would quickly handle it well. Even with that matter I talked about in the morning, I know that in the end you'll understand it well, but the losses would have been terrible and I would lose a few Dafa disciples. So I wanted to talk about it. (Applause)

Question: Revered Master, practitioners use the Internet to exchange understandings and experiences. Is that format good or bad?

Teacher: I think that's not a problem outside of Mainland China, but don't talk about the specifics of what you're doing to validate the Fa. If it's in Mainland China, it's best that you give priority to your safety and don't allow the old forces to take advantage of gaps. This isn't a matter of being afraid or not, it's about not letting the evil take advantage of any gaps.

Question: If our thoughts are very pure and righteous, then the old forces have no way to interfere. So if there's interference, does it reflect our cultivation state?

Teacher: When interference comes up it's usually caused by those old forces. Then when we do everything righteously, should we expect there to be no interference? That can only reduce a lot of the losses, because your gaps would be taken advantage of due to the fact that you yourselves still do have undetectable elements, and the old forces insist on forcing in what they want to do. At the same time, there are some students, especially the third group of students, who still have a certain amount of karma, and so they'll use these things to exploit the gaps. But all the same, Master doesn't acknowledge them. And you shouldn't acknowledge them either. Do things well in an upright and dignified way, negate them, and strengthen your righteous thoughts some. "I'm Li Hongzhi's disciple, I don't want other arrangements or acknowledge them"--then they won't dare to do that. So it can all be resolved. When you can really do that, not just saying it but putting it into action, Master will definitely stand up for you. What's more, there are lots of Fa guardians around Master, there are lots of Buddhas, Daos, and Gods, and there are even greater beings, and they will all participate, because forced persecution that's not acknowledged is a crime, and the cosmos's old laws don't allow it either--irrational persecution absolutely is not allowed, and the old forces don't dare to do it if that is the situation. So you should do things as righteously as you can.

Someone might think, "Now that I've done things righteously and done them well, there can't be any more tribulations at all from now on." Maybe that thought of yours will lead them to create tribulations for you, since the old forces believe that's another form of acknowledging them. "Ah, he wants it not to exist, and he wants to be carefree. That doesn't work. That thought of his needs to be removed." Then isn't that having your gaps exploited? Actually, as long as you can maintain a very upright state of mind in your daily life, you should be fine for the most part.

Question: After Fa-rectification will we still know Master?

Teacher: Master has an independent system. You are all beings within the cosmos, and no matter how big the enormous cosmos is, Master isn't within it. I'm not a part of all of this, yet I have an independent system of my own, I don't need anything in this cosmos and I don't need to put anything in it, I have an independent, self-sustaining system of my own. Then in other words, no being in the cosmos can see me, and no being can know me. In reality I'm formless, and to any internal or external element I don't exist, it'd be the same as nonexistence, yet I'm able to display my image at any cosmic level, which is the elevation at different levels of this image that you can see today. It's like that here among humans, of course, and in the future it may be very young--my innate body is very young. Speaking in human terms, at every level there's an image that has elevated based on this foundation, it all looks like me, it's just that it seems like the more microcosmic the elements that form it, the bigger its volume. Of course, I can also compress each level into one body and become bigger or smaller simultaneously, and I can also split the body infinitely. That's the general idea. (Applause)

Question: After Fa-rectification and when the disciples have Consummated, will there still be opportunities to improve?

Teacher: You've brought up the time after Fa-rectification when all of the disciples have Consummated--will there still be opportunities to improve? Actually, I've talked about all of this. Your Attainment Status is validated and enlightened to during cultivation, or in other words, whatever Attainment Status you can achieve is obtained through the process of cultivating. You want to ask, "When I'm in the heavens, can I keep on cultivating and improving?" There are elements and mechanisms for that purpose, but to improve just a little bit is a considerably long and gigantic project. It's not as easy as it is on Earth. But nobody dares to come to Earth, as after coming here you might not run into a God or Buddha coming to this world to save people. After coming down, that mind of yours will be wiped clean, and you'll know nothing--there's a chance you'll even be against cultivation. So nobody dares to come.

Question: For Dafa disciples as a whole, what are some of the most fundamental areas and shortcomings that need improvement?

Teacher: For Dafa disciples as a whole, in the process of validating the Fa, when you work together in concert, the Fa power is great. Whether you're doing things as a group or doing things individually, what you're doing is the same kind of thing, and that's what we mean by one entity. You're all clarifying the truth, sending righteous thoughts, and studying the Fa, so the specifics of the things you're doing are different but the division of roles is orderly, together there's a form, and separated there are particles. When you as an entity have some problems come up Master will definitely talk about them, and when there's not an obvious problem Master won't say anything. So when it doesn't affect the situation of the whole entity I don't say anything.

Question: Respected and beloved Master, please save me. I have great sins, so I have a mentally retarded son.

Teacher: Master will definitely save all the sentient beings in this world. (Applause) I will use different forms of salvation during different time periods and in different ways.

Question: My thoughts weren't very righteous in my dreams, and I'm afraid that I may have harmed a being.

Teacher: Don't worry, a dream is just a dream, a dream isn't cultivation, and it won't necessarily be like what you imagined. As long as you can complete cultivation, Master will think of ways to perfectly resolve all of the mistakes you've made. (Applause) Don't think about those things. If you think about them too much it'll become an attachment, and you won't be able to cultivate.

Question: May I ask revered Master, during Fa-rectification, is there an issue of balancing the importance and the urgency of things when we do them, and how should we handle this the right way?

Teacher: Well, that's about specific matters. And specific things, they're all part of your establishing your mighty virtue, and they're part of the paths you have to walk, and what you do on your own. Of course, you need to weigh the importance and the urgency, and prioritize things on your own. If you don't prioritize well, then it could affect what you need to do since, let me tell you, all of what you do is for yourself. Being able to prioritize things well is remarkable in its own right, and it will result in your walking the path the right way, and that's mighty virtue. It's hard for me to talk to you about the specifics. Master can't deprive you of the opportunity to consummate your own paths.

Question: I often blame myself for not being able to cultivate a heart of compassion, and I feel discouraged and apathetic, especially about those friends and acquaintances around me that refuse Dafa materials.

Teacher: I can tell you, we're cultivators, so you need to treat all of the sentient beings around you as compassionately as you can. Perhaps some people's predestined opportunities haven't matured yet. Perhaps some people have been poisoned really deeply but can still be saved. Of course, there are also some who can't be saved, but the vast majority can be. Right now you can't tell them apart. I think that you absolutely shouldn't be discouraged or apathetic. Do this compassionately no matter who it is, and with a compassion that can melt steel you'll be able to do it well. (Applause)

Question: A lot of countries are being fooled right now by the facade of China's economy, and this has become a major obstacle to our clarifying the truth to the governments of various countries and to the business community. We hope revered Master can give us some direction in this area.

Teacher: Yes, the Chinese government has expended one quarter of the country's and people's financial resources to persecute Falun Gong. If it weren't capable economically, would it be able to persecute Falun Gong? Would the people in that society listen to its commands? Would a person do something against his conscience just because someone told him to? It is all because it's being propped up by money. And why is it that in the international community so many media outlets and governments are all so quiet on this, and why are they able to look the other way in the face of this catastrophe? They have a lot of vested interest and a lot to gain wrapped up in this.

During this evil persecution, everything in China, whether it is advancement in the government or the financial returns of enterprises, it's all tied to Falun Gong. And this includes students' entrance exams and academic records at graduation, everything has to be tied to Falun Gong. In order to persecute Falun Gong, a great deal of funding is being allocated to public security, political law, the judiciary, foreign affairs, the wicked 610 Office, and security special agents. And in order to deceive people, a great deal has been invested in various propaganda machines, in radio, television, newspapers, art and literature, cultural events, and even in blockading television, radio, and computer networks. And great numbers of agents were sent out into the international community to persecute Falun Gong. But those people would take the money with them abroad and then, as soon as the money was deposited into their personal accounts, they'd right away start immigration procedures--"In normal times, if I wanted to leave they wouldn't let me, but now I'm given money to do that... It's really great. But how could I go and commit crimes in such a society? I better leave myself a back door." The tricks used in the persecution are the stupidest, but they're not shy about spending the people's money that was earned with sweat and blood to turn around and persecute the people, and the amount they've spent is pretty huge.

It looks like as long as the Falun Gong issue isn't resolved, that society really won't have any hope for change and nothing can be stabilized, since it's entirely focused on Falun Gong and doesn't have time to worry about anything else. It's all existing for the sake of Falun Gong. That set of worthless machinery is running entirely because of Falun Gong--what else can it do?

This is all made possible by foreign investment, and the old forces did it. They're just using money to prop up the evil. During this period when the evil is persecuting Dafa you're investing money there. It's about those people with a lot of money who are choosing their futures, knowingly throwing away their money. In this persecution, investing your money there is the same as supporting the evil's persecution, and you've committed a sin. If there weren't any persecution of Dafa over in China it wouldn't matter how much money you invested. On the surface people don't know, but people all have a side that's aware. You really can't say that you didn't know.

Question: If those in charge of the Assistance Centers or Falun Dafa Associations can't keep up with the progress of Fa-rectification and aren't able to hear out criticism...

Teacher: Is that the situation with our Assistance Centers and Falun Dafa Associations? You need to look, hands-on-heart, deeply within yourselves, and listen to practitioners' suggestions with the right attitude. But if we look at the other side of it, isn't it true that practitioners are lacking something in the way they've been looking at things? If you were in that role, how would you end up doing? This isn't criticism, let's just set things aside and take a look--do they really have problems, or is it that our own way of considering problems isn't comprehensive. Or if they really do have big problems, then since they're the persons responsible for Assistance Centers, there's an issue to consider here. Their responsibilities are even greater, since if a Dafa disciple is weeded out because of their mistakes I think that sin is just so enormous. Of course, it won't be that severe, as there's still Master watching over things. But you're all cultivating, and no matter what, you can't take your own shortcomings, attachments, and things that you can't let go of to Consummation. So no matter what you're doing, you have to think of Dafa first and foremost, and not place too much importance on your own things.

So I'll also note in passing that in reality, those people who are in charge at various locations are cultivators too, and you shouldn't regard them as Master or hold them to such high standards. It's easy to make mistakes with certain things, so just share your thoughts with each other when that happens and discuss a little. When you truly look at things from the perspective of being responsible to the Fa and truly have a heart that can melt steel, I just don't believe that things can't be handled well. And don't insist that another practitioner is no good based on some rigid concept you have--I, your Master, believe that he's fine. And don't think that it's hard to communicate. Neither side has lived up to "great compassion" when doing things. If you can truly embody great compassion, I think those things that aren't right will definitely be rectified.

Question: Are our efforts to clarify the truth to overseas Chinese very much lacking? Especially in the western U.S. there are a lot of Chinese organizations, and lots of Chinese people from Mainland China. Is their being able to be overseas part of their predestined relationship?

Teacher: You could say that about the predestined relationship, but as for those who have a positive effect and those who have a negative effect, there are both, and that's just how the old forces arranged it. I don't acknowledge that at all. A minute ago I said that everyone in the world was part of my family. Don't acknowledge the old forces' arrangements, and do as much as possible to clarify the truth. Whether it be the western U.S. or the eastern U.S., we should do it as best we can. But Master isn't suggesting that you put everything else aside, it wouldn't work if you disregarded everything else. Instead, just manage your time well, and do the best you can to save people. Another thing is, that Chinese person you saved, he'll go and tell others too, so it's giving him a chance to gain some merit. In this persecution people have committed sins, and they've had a hand in helping along this persecution and fuelled the evil's fury, so they will be given chances to redeem their sins. After they discover the truth they'll talk about it everywhere, and that would be redeeming their sins, so you should do your best.

Question: When elections were held in our district, there were people who went to help a few congressional candidates that supported Dafa. But some people thought we shouldn't get ourselves involved in politics, and that we shouldn't rely on ordinary people to do things for Dafa. Is that understanding correct?

Teacher: It's correct in principle, but for this specific matter you should look at it this way. If you say Dafa disciples can't get involved in ordinary society's politics, I wouldn't say that's 100% correct. What I told you was that Dafa doesn't get involved in politics. And a lot of our Dafa disciples work in politics, that's their job. So if there's a government election, should you take part in it? If you take part in it and cast your vote, well then you've gotten involved in politics. A Dafa disciple cultivating in the ordinary society means that you try your best to cultivate while conforming to the ordinary society, and then there won't be a problem. You, too, are a member of the ordinary society. And the existence of the ordinary society is necessary for Dafa, for the cosmos, and for sentient beings. We can only help maintain it and can't disrupt it. When you're supposed to vote, just go vote, that's not a problem. If you say that a certain Congressman is your personal friend, and you'd like to help him do something, then of course there might be things that involve elections and you'd be doing volunteer work--that doesn't matter. But our Dafa as a whole doesn't get involved in politics, and we can't do anything political in the name of Dafa. For Dafa disciples, validating the Fa should be the priority, though.

The last time there was an election in Taiwan, I had a veteran practitioner call the person in charge of the Taiwan Dafa Association and make it clear to the public that Dafa Associations take no stance on elections. If an individual practitioner wants to support someone, that's his personal business and it doesn't represent Dafa. There were Dafa disciples supporting both of the parties. The Falun Dafa Association has no political opinion regarding any party's election, and it doesn't get involved. As individual practitioners you can support whoever you'd like. That's how it works.

Question: Recently there's been a lot of pressure while doing Fa-rectification work. It feels like an invisible pressure. I don't know if this feeling is related to the overall Fa-rectification situation.

Teacher: I think that the old forces that haven't been rectified by the Fa have indeed felt the pressure becoming greater and greater, and the closer it gets to the end, the more pressure there is on the side that it works on. So sometimes this creates a complicated situation for us, and that's all it is. Just send more righteous thoughts to drive away the interference, and don't see it as something significant. In fact right now I see something very clearly, and you see it clearly too, and that is, nobody can damage Dafa. All hopes of damaging it are in vain, and nobody could touch it even if I, Li Hongzhi, weren't around. Each of you is like an Assistant, each of you is a particle of Dafa, each of you is immersed in and being tempered in the Fa, and each of you knows what to do. The Dafa disciples in Mainland China have already verified, in their actions and without the benefit of Master's presence, that Dafa is indestructible. As long as you do what Dafa disciples should do, everything can be resolved.

Question: Master has told us that we should have immense tolerance, but occasionally I'll still get hung up on little things.

Teacher: Then just make a change. You should exhibit compassion and tolerance, and consider others more, and here among human beings it will become a habit for you. I don't like it when you blame yourselves, it's completely pointless. I'll just repeat what I said: If you've fallen don't just lie there, get up right away!

Question: If somebody identifies with Zhen, Shan, Ren, but not Falun Gong, what will be the final outcome for him?

Teacher: Actually, let me tell you, you shouldn't give too much weight to what ordinary people say, because lots of ordinary people aren't rational. Human beings, you know, are affected by many concepts in the ordinary society, and they're constantly forming different concepts, which severely affect their original nature and true thoughts. So the things some people say seem right but are actually wrong, are insincere, or are poorly thought-out. Don't think that ordinary people are as rational as you are. Lots and lots of people are pretty irrational right now, and actually, you were like that too at the beginning. (Audience laughs) You only became more rational after you matured and bad things were removed. When an ordinary person comes to understand things, or decides whether something is good or bad, it's done at a very shallow level. Even what he says to his family and to people who've done a lot for him seems right but is actually wrong, it's insincere, he doesn't make good on promises, and he avoids responsibility for any consequences. So don't think it's significant. If you want to save him then you need to help him become rational.

Question: In order to conform to the way of ordinary people while clarifying the truth to China, we put the truth-clarification material together with content that conforms to ordinary people's attachments. How should we handle this properly? Even though some unhealthy content conforms to ordinary people's attachments, it still shouldn't be used.

Teacher: Some students have actually mentioned this to me: When some of our students who didn't step forward before or who haven't done well step forward, they immediately want to do more good things, to make up for their mistakes with merit. But they'd dropped in levels previously, so now there's a gap between them and those practitioners who've been part of Fa-rectification all along; but this gap isn't something the person can see, though other disciples can see it, and it especially shows itself in specific Fa-rectification work or understandings. So when he does certain Fa-rectification work or says certain things, other Dafa disciples can pick up on that. Now, I'm not saying that these practitioners aren't any good, I've said that if you fall, pick yourself up and keep going forward--Master won't abandon you, and you mustn't lose confidence. There are still opportunities, and I'll save you no matter what. Now do you still lack confidence? (Applause) So now as practitioners who've always done well, you should help them with kindness, and don't be so severe in your words like you are with other practitioners. Even if your words are without intention he might hear them differently, so you need to talk with kindness and tell him how to do things. Of course, you shouldn't allow him to detect this, because once he detects it he'll feel like you're treating him differently, and then obstacles will form in his mind and cause problems in his thinking. Some of our practitioners who've stepped forward recently should pay some attention to this problem too--it's beneficial to listen to others' advice, it's cultivation after all. Honest advice is hard to take, but it's good for you.

Question: In addition to producing a large amount of truth-clarifying films, can we make a small number of wholesome films to meet ordinary people's different needs?

Teacher: I have to tell you, we really don't have time for that right now, because Dafa disciples are giving their all in validating the Fa. If those are made, they'll benefit ordinary people, no doubt about it--normal people's culture is sliding downwards. But that's not for you to do today. That's to be done in the next stage in the future. So right now Dafa disciples should put more into and do more in the area of clarifying the truth.

Question: Should we put large quantities of truth-clarifying programs on the Internet so that Dafa disciples in China can use them to produce Video CD's?

Teacher: Of course that'd be good. And not only should you do it, you should do it in large quantities if you can. The Chinese people's minds have been poisoned so deeply, and you do need to help them learn the truth. Let them know that we're not after some political goal, and that we're innocent yet being persecuted. Looking at it from an ordinary person's perspective, we indeed want to tell the world's people what we're all about. And from a Fa perspective, we're indeed saving them, rescuing them from the fate of being eliminated because of that.

Question: When Fa-rectification disciples validate the Fa, aside from their own Consummation, is it also validating the Fa for the sake of other beings?

Teacher: Other beings... you don't need to worry about them for now. (Teacher laughs) But, I can tell you that back around the time of July 20, 1999, when those swarming hordes of evil were pressing down, they were actually controlling all of the evil people in the world. All of the ordinary people were being controlled as well, and not just human beings, even animals and plants were being controlled. You could see that even each blade of grass and each tree seemed to bear a lot of malice toward us. In the second year things were better, because all of the evil that had been pressed down was cleared away, and at the time only the part in China remained, and it was being quickly cleared out bit by bit. Right now the people of the world are the most important, because nobody is in the world today without a major reason.

Question: I have two questions. I often feel like every day I'm busy, every day I'm caught up in doing things, and yet the results aren't good. And sometimes I feel indifferent towards certain Dafa work and rescuing fellow students. How should I change this state?

Teacher: I can only tell you to schedule your time reasonably. Everyone's time is limited, and Master knows that. So [you should try to figure out] how to budget your time reasonably. You have to rescue your fellow cultivators and Dafa disciples--we can't let the evil persecute them wildly and without restraint. Actually, I'm going to tell you, all of the ways they use to persecute Dafa are as stupid as it gets, and when you look back at it you can see that that's true, since that's how the old forces arranged it. How could they arrest other countries' citizens? You know what? When you're clarifying the truth and once Americans find out, the American public is furious. Ever since the reforms and opening up to the West, the Chinese government has been racking its brain to show the world how great it is so that people will go along with the existence of the _**** Party's government. Isn't that right? Yet for Western society, especially among the American public, they already had a feeling of disgust towards the _**** Party. When they do those things it only makes Americans have even more negative feelings inside, and it makes the other nations all over the world feel extremely negative towards them. They're losing the hearts of the people even in other countries now, constantly doing these stupid things.

Question: We still haven't done well in exercising the entire body's power, and sometimes I feel like the main coordinators or the people with responsibilities at the Falun Dafa Association aren't doing things according to the Fa. They don't want to let go of the reins and allow others to do things, and we have problems finding common ground during discussions. Then we hear that they were personally chosen by revered Master, so sometimes even though we know they're wrong, we still have to support them. (Audience laughs)

Teacher: By very early last year I had already told practitioners in each Falun Dafa Association to let go of the reins when it comes to individuals validating the Fa, and that each person needs to walk his path of validating the Fa. Our practitioners might not be right 100 percent of the time, but our coordinators, did you hear this? Practitioners are thinking this way--did you all hear it? You are cultivators yourselves, of course, and Master can't expect you to do things perfectly without any faults, but, now that practitioners are having these thoughts don't turn around and blame them--they're doing it for the sake of the Fa, and I can see their messages in every word and every line. It's not for their own sake, it's for the Fa. (Applause)

Question: Making investments can make money. But some disciples think that the money we'll make in two or three years will come too late to be used, and that if we have some money we might as well just use it now to save people.

Teacher: That looks somewhat reasonable on the surface, but in reality it's still going to extremes. I think that you can't neglect your lives and ignore everything. I'm telling you that what you're leaving behind now is the cultivation path for people in the future. If all the people in the future go to extremes like this, not caring about their jobs or businesses, or even going and begging for food while they validate Dafa, that absolutely won't work.

You should make sure that your life's in order, and do your job well. Let me tell you, you're a member of society, and you should try your best to do well everything you're supposed to do at whatever job you have in society, you should be a good person wherever you are, and thus lead people in society to all say you're a good person. (Applause) Don't go to extremes when you do things. Every aspect of the path we take has to be upright.

Some people say, "I'm making plans to make a large amount of money so that later on it can be used for the Fa." That far-off water might not quench the immediate thirst, but it's not wrong for you to plan some everyday-people things. You don't need to talk about making some amount of money to use for Dafa--you don't need to think about giving it to Dafa. If you want to talk about doing some big-time business, and make lots of money with that big business, you can leave it at that, (audience laughs) and you don't need to mention Dafa. That last part always sounds like a stretch to me. (Audience laughs) The reason is, I've told you that it's fine for Dafa disciples to make a lot of money, and you can do whatever type of work--that's not an issue. It's only that in everything you do, you need to follow your conscience and be a good person. (Applause)

Question: When bad energy comes over, I can feel it, and I try to send righteous thoughts to block the evil force, but I become drowsy and sleepy, and manifest sickness karma. How can I stop the bad energy?

Teacher: You're too afraid of that bad energy. If it comes, you're able to dissolve it, to dissolve it into primordial qi for your use. I'll tell you something: Before I spread the Fa, and before those high-level elements came here, there weren't any old forces, and back then I had other ways to handle coldness. This is what I'd think: "You're cold, and you try to make me cold--are you trying to make me freeze? I'll be even colder than you, I'll make you cold." (Audience laughs. Applause) Or, "You're trying to make me hot. I'll turn it around and make you hot--so hot that you can't stand it." I'm just telling you the idea. You might not be able to do that. But you should handle it with righteous thoughts, and you shouldn't be afraid of it. I was just explaining something, but don't go and act irrationally! As for some newer students, don't be afraid if someone actually sends some bad things over. You're a Dafa disciple--you have Master and the Fa! Perhaps you owed it something in the past, in which case just repay it. But you're a cultivator, so you should let go of your worries, and Master will definitely take care of you. Even if it is able to get certain things into you, Master will soon turn that into something good for you. (Applause) Master will take care of you since you're a cultivator. But if you become attached to it, if your attachment develops--"I'm not afraid now. I have Master taking care of it. Bring it on!" (audience laughs)--then your mentality of total reliance is again an attachment. And when Master sees this attachment he won't take care of you, and he'll wait until you let go of the attachment first. I'm just telling you the idea. Cultivation... cultivation is about the mind, right? You can't let up and not handle yourself well. Approach everything with righteous thoughts, and don't be afraid of anything--"I cultivate in the righteous Fa, so what do I have to be afraid of?!"

The reason a lot of the students in labor camps have been severely persecuted is their fear. It's easy to just talk about it, but things are different in that kind of evil situation and when you're under that kind of pressure. But no matter what, you're somebody who's progressing toward Godhood, so what should you do?! Of course, of those who've died there are also cases that were arranged in history by the old forces. For instance, back during those students' last lifetime, the old forces might have said, "If you want to obtain Dafa when Dafa is taught, you'll have to die like that. Otherwise we won't let you in." Without a doubt, at that time the students would agree to it, they would agree to being beaten to death when the time came. Of course, I'm just giving an example. In history they have indeed taken advantage of many, many loopholes like this and made many arrangements.

There's another reason that happens: History is so long. You've seen that some of the evil policemen in labor camps have killed so many of our Dafa disciples in this persecution. If this hadn't been happening in the Fa-rectification period and the persecuted person were an everyday person, and if when the evil policeman reincarnated after he'd died he came upon this period, obtained the Fa, and became a Dafa disciple, then wouldn't the person who'd been beaten to death want him to repay his life? If that being says, "I don't want any other compensation. I just want him to repay my life"--then it's really a tough situation. I can tell you that Master is able to give anything a benevolent resolution. Whatever the student owes him, I can help the student compensate him with the best. And if the student doesn't have it, I, his master, can give it to him--"I'll give you good fortune. Because of your death, you can now get the reward of ascending to Heaven, so won't that be an even better outcome then?" But that being has too much hatred, and he just won't let it go--"You'd let me ascend to Heaven? Even if you let me become a God I wouldn't do it. I just want revenge." Then that's where it gets tough. It's not as simple as you think! Tell me, what can we do then? The number of students who have owed lives in the past is not a small one, but Master has given all of them a benevolent resolution for you.

But no matter what, even if you really pass away in advance, what awaits you is Consummation! (Applause) That's how I'd put it from that perspective. Although I've said this, as long as you walk a righteous path I can actually give everything a benevolent resolution. I can make that extreme thinking become good for sure, and then I can make him not want his life back, since I can untie the knot in his mind with the Fa--I can do anything. But when you have attachments and can't let go, then it can't be untied and Master is put in a tough position.

Question: There's this phenomenon: At some places when they study the Fa as a group, they tend to read the new articles Master has published a lot, and don't repeatedly read Zhuan Falun as much. And when they study the Fa in a large group, a few persons in charge often talk about the Fa Master has taught to small groups.

Teacher: There are two issues here. The first one is that what I've said recently in different periods is supplementary to Zhuan Falun. Just remember their relationship, and that what you should study frequently is Zhuan Falun. The second issue is, after some of our students heard what I said on unique occasions, they went and spread it through the grapevine. I've already talked about this many times. What I say on unique occasions doesn't have universal application, and perhaps it was aimed specifically at those people who were present. If you go back and tell others, when you say it to them it won't have the inner meaning that was included in my words, and, those others aren't the intended audience. So it will lose its effect, and when others hear it they'll feel uncomfortable. At the same time, when you say it you're also putting your attachments into it. Most of the time there's some kind of showing off at work, it's subtle, subconscious. I think in the time ahead you should stop spreading those things. After you hear things I say, just let it be. You know, those thousand-year cultivators, after they learned a little bit of truth they'd hold it in inside. They'd hold it in for hundreds of years, or even a thousand years, and not tell it to others (audience laughs)--"If someone wants to know about this little bit of stuff I have, they'll have to trade something for it!" But you folks, "Yap yap yap..." You go and tell it all! (Teacher laughs) You don't hold things inside. (Audience laughs)

Question: In what form will Dafa disciples in Mainland China Consummate?

Teacher: It'll be the same, the overall form is the same. But there's one thing: If the person isn't received by me and sent off by me, it doesn't work. So for those who passed away early, even though I determined that they'd Consummate, they're actually waiting at a certain place. It has to be that I receive them. Those who aren't received by me are not acknowledged. So they're all waiting for the final conclusion. Of course, they don't have any hardship now while they wait. Their consciousnesses are perfectly clear and in a God's state, and it's just a matter of returning to their positions.

Question: At this critical time in Fa-rectification, some fellow veteran cultivators have, at different times, had tribulations to varying degrees. How should we treat and help these fellow cultivators who are experiencing tribulations?

Teacher: In cultivation it doesn't matter whether a person started earlier or later. And whether somebody cultivates well isn't determined by whether he started earlier or later, either. If a person is able to have righteous thoughts and righteous actions, and to let go of his attachments, then he's different. The evil gang of scoundrels in Mainland China that has been persecuting Dafa disciples has thought about it like this, "Ah, he's a veteran student. If we get him to write something the others will follow." But how could that be possible?! When everyday people persecute cultivators they can't ever understand them. Everyone is cultivating himself and walking his own path, and nobody looks at anyone else, at whether someone else is old or young, or at whether someone took up the practice early or late. As the master, I guide all disciples the same way. So as for how you can help the person, what you can do is, first off, to help him understand things from the Fa and improve. And another thing is to have all of you send righteous thoughts together, and do more of what a Dafa disciple should do to save sentient beings. All these things can help the person.

Question: Whenever we make significant progress in Fa-rectification, some ordinary events always come up suddenly to interfere. For example, the "9-11" incident, the shuttle accident, the Iraq issue, the [North] Korea issue, and so on. How should we view this interference?

Teacher: That's right. Why do those countries that uphold justice turn a blind eye to the Chinese government's persecution of such a large number of grassroots people who are part of the mainstream society? Why do they keep silent? There are reasons on their part, but there's also interference arranged by the old forces, who keep them busy with those terrorists. That's why terrorists surface every now and then, distract them from time to time, and prevent them from focusing on the true purpose of their existence.

Question: Greetings to Master from disciples in England.

Teacher: Thank you!

Question: In order to rescue our family members who have been incarcerated in China, we've created some skits and perform them on the street. One of us has to play the role of an evil person. Master, is it appropriate to have a Dafa disciple play that role?

Teacher: It doesn't matter. It's okay for him to play it. But, when I see our Dafa disciples play the roles of bad people, I feel uncomfortable. If it's needed, then just do it, it doesn't matter, and it doesn't actually affect anything. What else can you do, after all--it has to be Dafa disciples who validate the Fa. I used to help them come up with some ideas, and I suggested that when we produce television shows maybe we could ask our friends to play the negative roles. (Audience laughs) You'd just be asking them to be actors. There is no money now, but in the future when you are profitable, you can pay them when you do have money. (Audience laughs) Just joking! Really, though, it doesn't matter.

Question: Will the human race and other beings exist simultaneously in the future? How should disciples think about this?

Teacher: Will the human race and other beings exist simultaneously in the future? Once the Fa's rectification of the human world happens there won't be that many changes just yet. As for what will exist on Earth later on, that will depend on the needs of the human race. Everything in Heaven is just wondrous, so wonderful that it's indescribable. Even Gods, or that is, the Gods who enter the new cosmos after being benevolently resolved, they're stunned. (Applause) Human beings think that Gods are wonderful, and that Gods' worlds are wonderful, but if they went there and took a look, they'd find that the old places aren't that wonderful anymore--that's how big the difference is. As for demons, they're also members of the cosmos. In the cosmos, the correspondence between the positive and the negative beings can't be missing.

What time is it? (Applause) Should we conclude here? That's all I had to say. (Long applause asking Teacher to stay) Then I'll answer some more questions. (Applause)

Question: Could you tell us what you think about suing that wretch, that head demon in China? (Audience laughs)

Teacher: In China it's not possible for everybody to know the facts and thus learn about Falun Gong with a positive view, but everybody is cursing at that wretch--that's how bad it is. (Applause) Shouldn't it be sent to court then? (Applause) (Teacher laughs) (Applause)

Question: Revered Master, please make this clear to me: When we demonstrate in front of the Chinese consulate, the evil manipulates policemen to bring us trouble. I think that according to what you, our revered Master, have said, we should do three things well, the first being clarifying the facts. And you said that when we run into problems we shouldn't take a detour but should face them...

Teacher: That's true. When we encounter that kind of situation we should resolve it. Remember: Wherever a problem occurs, that's where you need to clarify the facts. (Applause) As for whether the result is good, don't look at the other party, it comes from your minds. If you want it to be good then it will be good. And if you don't intend to make it good, or if your mind is unsteady, then it won't be easy to rectify things. In other words, you need to have strong righteous thoughts. If you're thinking, "I'm truly saving you. I'm truly telling you the facts," then the result will be good. Try your best to approach the people outside Mainland China with kindness too. Of course, outside of China, too, there are people who are hopeless. Maybe you'll run into them, maybe you won't. But no matter what, we have to conduct ourselves in an upright way. At the very least we must not let them down, let the sentient beings down. The outcomes of a lot of things depend on how people handle them. Try your best, and don't aggravate things.

Question: My wife has lost her freedom because of validating the Fa. Since I have a child who's only a few years old, I won't validate the Fa like my wife has, rather, I've been doing things that are safer for myself. Is that correct? I'd also like to pass on Zhengzhou Dafa disciples' greetings to Master.

Teacher: Thank you. As a Dafa disciple, if you think what you're doing is right, then do it. In the cultivation process people have different understandings and are in different states. Those aren't problems. The level you're able to understand things at in your cultivation, and the extent to which you can do things, are both manifestations of the realm of your cultivation. In other words, if you can do exceptionally well that's better of course, but it can't be forced. I have no other requirements for you. I've never said that you have to do well to such and such extent. It's always been you yourselves handling things. However high your understanding based on the Fa-truths reaches, that's the extent to which you can do things. Everything you've been doing is done for yourselves, and it's absolutely not for me. (Teacher laughs) Let me put it this way: It's only Master helping you, never you helping Master. (Applause) In the future, when you see the true situation, you'll say, "Wow, so that's how it was!"

Question: Today is the Lantern Festival. We thank our revered Master for teaching the Fa and saving us, and for spending the Lantern Festival with us. These students don't want Master to leave. (Applause)

Teacher: Oh, I actually didn't think of that. When it comes to festivals and holidays, if you don't tell me about them I'll forget, that's how I am. Today's the Lantern Festival, then aren't we having a big reunion here? (Long applause)

Question: When we send truth-clarifying materials to Mainland China, can we also send them your poems and articles, and Dafa books?

Teacher: That's not a problem, not a problem at all. You can send those to everyday people. It's not a problem, as long as the person wants to read them. The persecution has gone on for so long now, and a lot of people really want to learn the truth about Falun Gong but they can't find the books. Do you know what excuse the old forces used when they had the evil burn the books way back when? Why did they burn the books? At that time there were so many copies of Zhuan Falun in Mainland China that they were just everywhere. But a lot of students didn't realize that they should respect the book, and everyday people treated it with even less respect. The Gods couldn't stand it, because that's the Law of Heaven, the one that created the cosmos! So the old forces wanted to create a severe shortage of books, and they made people look for the Fa, respect it, and realize how precious this Fa is from then on. That was the excuse they used to do that back then.

Question: It seems that some fellow practitioners in our area still don't understand the Fa-rectification. Their understanding in other regards isn't that good, either. How can I help them improve?

Teacher: Nothing can be forced. Whether a person wants to cultivate is all up to him. We can only advise him to do what's good, and can only try our best to remind them, tell them about certain things, and explain the principles to them clearly. Coercion doesn't work. When you've made your points, maybe it will be resolved, or maybe the person has attachments.

Question: In our Dafa work, some people in positions of responsibility don't tell the truth and do things in human ways in order for things to go well. Is it because they haven't studied the Fa well, they have selfish interests, or do they have ulterior motives?

Teacher: Motives? You can't put it that way. Of those sitting here, there's one or two who are a bit unusual, but I'm going to tell you, Master still doesn't want to give up on you, and I'll have to see whether you can make it. (Applause) If you can, I'll take care of you. It depends on you. As for the others, if you're saying that among the people sitting here someone wants to damage the Fa, or someone wants to do some other things, that's impossible. The people in positions of responsibility are cultivators too, and they'll also exhibit their human thoughts, for sure. I'd say you shouldn't have too high of expectations for them. But they are people with responsibilities, and what they do has a certain impact. So when you see problems you should point them out. If they won't listen, then you can report it to the Dafa Association.

Question: I am your disciple, but I'm troubled by debt. Can I even things out through the form of Fa-rectification?

Teacher: Using Dafa for your personal affairs... I don't think that kind of thinking is right. As a Dafa disciple, when you can truly do well, I think your troubles won't be as absolute as they look to you. It's because when you can't look at things from the Fa, everyday people's troubles are just everyday people's troubles. In the eyes of human beings things don't change, but in the eyes of Gods all of this changes. You're troubled, and Master is troubled for you too--I'm troubled that you haven't let go of your attachments and that you haven't reached a high level of understanding of the Fa, and that when you resolve one problem you create new problems. (Sigh) This isn't criticism! Everything Master says is Fa.

Question: I've always been perplexed, maybe we shouldn't use a large amount of human and material resources on studying a tool for breaking the Internet blockade? Maybe we should do things that take a short time and are highly efficient?

Teacher: There are different understandings on this. I can only say that there are different understandings. Things that are highly efficient should of course be done, there's no question about that. But as for breaking the Internet blockade, think about it, the evil is persecuting us and spreading huge lies--how could we not expose them? We have to let the world's people see their evil nature, see the wicked acts, and see the truth! So we have to break it. There's a large number of world-class scientists among the Dafa disciples. We have the ability to break it. They've never been able to block the Minghui website! (Warm applause) But it's also correct that we shouldn't use too much of our human resources. We don't have overly many people involved, though, right?

Question: When the Fa rectifies the human world, there won't be any blockade. Is it that all of this has to be realized through disciples' ways in the human world?

Teacher: When we break this blockade we are negating the old forces' arrangements. We just won't accept this persecution or the blockade. When the Fa rectifies the human world, and Gods and Buddhas are majestically displayed, people will have no choice but to listen! It'll be a different situation.

Question: Will disciples know ahead of time the moment when the Fa rectifies the human world? (Audience laughs)

Teacher: The extents to which you've cultivated are different, and your cultivation states are different. Some students will be able to know ahead of time, and some students won't. It doesn't matter whether you do or don't, and it doesn't affect the progress of your Consummation or your level. Not at all. Why think so much about it? The Fa's rectification of the human world really does not, to put it plainly, have much to do with you. You are Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples! (Applause)

Question: At present some disciples have symptoms of being ill, very serious ones. They can hardly read the book, do the exercises, or send righteous thoughts.

Teacher: I'd say these are real problems. Some students show their attachments, but some students don't, they keep them inside and they're incredibly attached, and in the end they can't let them go on their own. The evil will make you more and more abnormal, and make you fall hard--so hard you'll never forget it for the rest of your life. That's how they do it, so don't get attached so much. Then when problems come up you ask Master what to do, but it's in fact caused by your attachments. Master will do something about it.

There are also some people who have false hearing. The only thing I can call it is false hearing. In fact, you really did hear something, but what you heard wasn't Master--they fake Master's voice! And they even fake my image, and take advantage of your attachments to deceive you. As Dafa disciples, you should understand things from the Fa. You are Dafa disciples who are upright and dignified. You should rationally think about whether something is in line with the Fa. And then there are students who are always interested in supernormal abilities. I let some students see some of the Fa-rectification's situations in different dimensions, with my intention being to increase the students' confidence in validating the Fa, yet some students still can't handle it right, they don't cultivate based on the Fa, and when something happens they even go ask a student who has supernormal abilities to look at things for them, and then they take what's seen as guidance on how to do things related to Dafa and how to cultivate. That's already very dangerous. Who could possibly see the essence of Fa-rectification? And who could possibly explain the states of those who cultivate in Dafa? The manifestations at the extremely low levels aren't the ultimate, true situation. If you don't cultivate based on the Fa, if you don't act according to the Fa, then are you still a Dafa disciple? Whenever something happens you go ask that other person to see what it's about, but what's he seeing? Who could possibly see your ultimate situation? Even your own child can't see it. I've already said that even internally, among Dafa disciples, you aren't allowed to see it. If the true state of your cultivation could be seen, then what would there be for you to cultivate? If you were told, then everything would be solved. It can't be seen! The reason is, at different levels there are different manifestations, and to the beings at a given level the manifestation at that level is the truth, so at each level, at levels upon levels, there are truths. But those are the different manifestations of one thing at different levels, whereas the manifestation of the most fundamental thing is at the top, and when it gets to the end, only then is the most final fundamental thing found. So from which level could you possibly see the ultimate, true situation of a Dafa disciple, the true situation of Fa-rectification, or the true situation of Master? If today you could see the ultimate true situation of Dafa disciples and Master, and the truth of Dafa, then today you're the Lord of this boundless cosmos! Do you see all that? Is everything before your eyes? How could you be so foolish?! I've already talked about this many times in the Fa. Why is it that you just have to be interfered with? (Teacher laughs)

Question: If disciples use their jobs to tell people about the Zhen-Shan-Ren Fa-truths of the cosmos, and pass them on in subtle ways to more people in the world...

Teacher: I don't think there's a problem with that. You can do that.

Question: Someone can no longer directly give to Dafa like he did a while ago. Would you please tell me if he still meets the definition of a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple?

Teacher: Have you done well what a Dafa disciple should do in every regard? If so, then what you've done is right. (Teacher laughs) Don't worry, and this includes some of those who've stumbled. Just hurry up and get up.

Question: As a PhD student, doing my scientific research well requires that I'm completely committed to it, but I also need to study the Fa, clarify the facts, and do the exercises. I always feel like I don't have enough time.

Teacher: There are still people who ask this question. Master has answered it for you many times. I think that as cultivators, you should put Dafa first, but you should also do your job well. You should try your best to do things well. As far as how to balance this, when it comes to the specifics you still need to prioritize things yourself. If you say, "I'm too busy, so I won't read," then that's equivalent to not cultivating. Say, "I'll just completely devote myself to my job," and then you'll just be an ordinary person. Could it just be that you're not balancing these things well? Then just prioritize and plan things well. It's really simple. Actually, I've already discussed this very clearly in Zhuan Falun. Studying the Fa well definitely won't affect anything of yours in your cultivation, and on the contrary, it will help you get twice the results at your job or with your schoolwork with half the effort.

As for science, it's already come to this stage. Humankind can't do without it, and society is still trying its best to push it forward. But it won't exist in the future society people have. In the future there won't be any science. But all the same, science is a product of the cosmos, and that's why I've never rejected it. I've only said that it's not in line with humankind and can't be given to humankind, especially in the future, when people will take the path of becoming Gods, which makes it even more the case that this science thing can't be given to humankind. Science, in fact, blasphemes Gods, and it's playing the role of making matter warp and it's destroying the environment. It not only causes matter to warp, but also causes human beings' concepts to warp, and causes many elements of matter on Earth to warp, and it harms the cosmos to a certain extent. So in the future it won't exist here at this place of human beings. It is how it is right now, and that's because before the Fa's rectification of the human world arrives here, however chaotic humankind gets, we'll just let it be. If you don't do scientific work it won't make science good just because you don't do it. If you do it, that's fine, and your doing it isn't considered bad, since that's how things are overall. So that's the relationship.

Question: I'm your disciple, and am busy with a lot of Dafa work. I hardly do the exercises, and I can't always make sure I study the Fa, either. I feel pained inside.

Teacher: I think you should still find time to study the Fa, unless you are translating Dafa, (audience laughs) in which case I think you must be studying, too. Otherwise you still need to study the Fa.

Question: I think that the Fa's rectification of the human world is already proceeding quietly, and that the advanced science has led to the economic recession in modern times. Is this the prologue to a new economic situation? If Dafa disciples start new companies, will they have good prospects? (Audience laughs)

Teacher: It's not like what you imagine! The Fa's rectification of the human world has nothing to do with science. There won't be any conflict between them in their manifestation, either, but it won't drive science's development, either. As far as starting new companies, those are your own affairs and if you have what it takes then just do it.

Question: What I've enlightened to is that I don't have a problem of being interfered with, but only the problem of not doing well myself. Is this understanding correct?

Teacher: There's no problem with thinking that way. It's very good that you don't have any interference. Being able to realize where you haven't done well and your shortcomings is cultivation.

Question: Master, the content of the Fa you taught this morning was very grave. As a disciple, I wonder if it's something that has already happened or something that might happen in the future?

Teacher: I'd seen some indications that are really bad, and some disciples will be ruined. It's that serious, so I talked about it. You can say that it will happen in the future, but the beginnings of it have already sprouted up. That's what it was about.

Question: I'm your disciple, and I have enlightened to the following: Master is the manifestation of the Fa in the human world, so Master is the Fa, and this is a part of the implication of taking the Fa as teacher.

Teacher: Let me just reveal it in plain language: The Fa was created by me. (Enthusiastic applause) In the colossal firmament, as long as you're something in the cosmos--so this includes everything--no matter whether you have a form or not, be it emptiness, nonexistence, or whatever, as long as you are something, you were created by the Fa, and you're in this living environment created by the Fa. The Fa has standards for beings. The Fa created all beings, and in its renewal the Fa also makes all beings assimilate and saves all beings. Since Dafa disciples are studying the Fa, they're actively assimilating to the Fa. Nothing in the cosmic body is good enough anymore. The reason why it's still kept at the present time is to assimilate all the beings in the cosmos and to allow all beings to be saved. Otherwise it would have been long gone. The colossal firmament would have been rebuilt, and the Fa would have re-created all the levels and all the beings. I didn't do it that way, though. I had all beings in the cosmic body learn about the Fa and assimilate to the Fa with righteous thoughts. This is the best benevolent solution, and the approach taken exhibits compassion toward all beings. All the beings before history were created by the Fa, and no one is an exception, everyone's included. If somebody talks about how Zhuan Falun is at such-and-such level, then he's speaking demons' words. In the measureless and countless colossal firmaments, in the measureless and countless dimensions in the cosmic body, there are measureless and countless beings in each dimension! All of them were created by the Fa. No being can comment on the Fa (applause), and yet everything of the Fa is manifested in that book of Zhuan Falun! That's how immense this Fa is.

Question: Master mentioned in the morning that at present the old forces are attempting to shake Dafa disciples' righteous faith and righteous thoughts in the Fa by using certain matter to form false images of Master. Would you please tell us how we can tell them apart?

Teacher: You don't need to try to tell them apart. What the students can see or know at present is limited by their levels. The old forces are Gods, and right now to you it's as if they can change into a myriad of forms. If the students don't take the Fa as teacher, and focus their attention on those things, then the old forces can conjure up for you any false vision they want. Today I'll make this completely clear to you: What you see--what you see with your human eyes--is Master's principal body. Right here. It's me. (Applause) The other me's, no matter how high their levels are, they're just my bodies at different levels. Even though I'm at the lowest place, that's because I came to the lowest place; and even though those bodies of mine at different levels are at high places, that's because I made them be at those high places. I could take back all the me's at all the levels and combine them into one body so that they're all here with me at the same time. And I could manifest myself in a way so that at each and every level of the entire cosmos it's all me. (Applause) But sometimes the old forces interfere, and when they really see that a student has gone awry they'll show him false visions, block his vision, not let him see the Master over on the other side, and from a mental standpoint not let him have righteous faith in the Master here. They'd get a fake one, and make it travel back and forth in that dimension, or stay here, and that would lead you astray. So you shouldn't look at those things. Just ignore them. With the Fa here and with Master here, isn't that enough? (Applause)

Isn't it from the me right here that the Fa is taught? It's this mouth (pointing at the mouth), see it? (Audience laughs, applauds) It's all taught by me. No one can control me. Don't worry. The old forces can't see the source where the Fa I teach flows from at all. No being can see the origin of the Fa I teach. Even if a being were to go through layer after layer of matter and life, he still wouldn't be able to trace it to the origin. One of the reasons why I ask you to take the Fa as teacher is that I don't want you to be interfered with this way. I ask you to take the Fa as teacher, and this Fa is right there, so just act in accordance with the Fa and cultivate openly and with dignity. If you didn't have the Fa, then think about it, could you possibly cultivate just by going on the little bit that you can see? You couldn't, right?! So why don't you go by the Fa's requirements? The fact is, all of those fake ones are now being destroyed.

Question: A few overseas students went to Mainland China and were arrested. Is it true that they didn't act according to Master's requirements?

Teacher: You can't say that. Dafa disciples are all trying to come up with ways to do things for Dafa to the best of their abilities. You can't say that the students' doing things a certain way is wrong and a certain way is right. Everyone is walking his own path, and we can't impose our own concepts on others. When there's a problem, don't talk about who's right and who's wrong. When a problem surfaces, you should all help each other and try to think of a way to resolve it.

Question: I think that kindness isn't just shown in having a friendly and pleasant appearance on the surface. I feel that stopping the evil is also a display of kindness. For instance, our disobeying the Hong Kong policemen's and German policemen's unreasonable demands was a type of kindness, and was a display of Dafa's mighty virtue.

Teacher: When it comes to human beings you should be kind, and when it comes to the evil beings you should purge them. As far as those policemen, they weren't aware, and they were being controlled. If you don't handle it well, then when they treat you evilly they aren't rational, and you'll suffer losses while the conflicts intensify, so you should try to avoid the losses. Be as kind as possible to people, but you have to seriously deal with [the beings over on] the other side. When something has negatively impacted or harmed Dafa, you should also seriously resolve it using everyday people's laws. The evil did infuse the German policemen with a lot of bad things, and they treated us quite unreasonably at that time. What should a nation's attitude be toward Dafa, and what should it be when the evil and the righteous are before them? What should I do with their future?! After those things happened you should have handled it promptly and gone to the legal system. Theirs is a democratic country, and even if their president commits crimes he is taken to court, since he was elected. Of course, the matter has passed, so it's hard to do much about it now.

Question: Sometimes I feel that I'm not worthy of being saved by you. How can I contain my selfishness and meet the standard?

Teacher: Don't be so pessimistic. Each individual's habits are different, and every nation's customs are different. In different settings people have different cultural backgrounds, and those give rise to different customs. And the negative aspects of different cultures affect our students who are of different ethnic backgrounds. But it's not a problem. Master doesn't look at those things. As long as you cultivate, you'll be able to reach the understanding, and gradually you'll be able to do everything well. It's not realistic to think you could do everything well right away. As you constantly deepen your Fa-study and as your understanding gets better and better, you'll be able to do well.

Question: How can we clarify the facts better to the U.S. government?

Teacher: You've been doing these things all along, and you've done pretty well so far. Going forward, it's a matter of doing it on a deeper level, and on a broader scale.

Question: I wrote an email to many fellow practitioners. What I wanted to say was good, but the approach was somewhat negative. My fellow practitioners stopped sharing things with me afterwards. Was what I did wrong?

Teacher: You've already realized that your approach was somewhat negative, and that's why they didn't accept it. They didn't accept it because they too have human thoughts. Maybe, since you're Dafa disciples, both parties should look at things the right way. Dafa disciples should handle everything positively. Don't look at the negative side of other people. You should always look at their positive side. Actually, did you know that back when I was teaching you Dafa, during the classes a lot of human thoughts were sent out from the audience down there? The thoughts sent out by some people were really bad, but I didn't look at any of that. I just look at your positive side, and thus I can save you. If I were to always look at your negative side, how could I save you? The more I looked at it the angrier I'd get, and then how could I save you? (Applause) So in any situation, don't be affected by human-type behavior, don't be affected by human thoughts, and don't be affected by the feelings and emotions in this world, either. Look more at the positives in others and less at the negatives.

Question: When we study the Fa as a group and share understandings, I don't have anything to say, and don't have any opinions. Is that okay?

Teacher: Maybe it's caused by your cultivation state. If you don't want to speak, then don't speak. If when other people talk you're embarrassed that you don't have anything to say, then don't speak if you can't, that's okay. If you want to speak, it'll come naturally, and you'll speak. But don't let your habit of not speaking impede you.

Question: Master has said that the people of the future will play a major role at this level of the cosmos. What exactly is the important role? Could you explain?

Teacher: In the future this human place will be an extremely special place. And why do I say that? No matter how long humankind's history is, humankind was created to save all beings and for the Fa-rectification, and that's why this level of human beings was created. In the past there wasn't any human race. In this spot here where Earth is there were other planets before, and those planets had different structures from that of today's Earth. It was for the existence of human beings that so many things, like water, plants, animals, and so on, were created on this Earth. The beings and the environments that were on the planets here before were worse. The highest-level beings there were like aliens. In other words, there weren't any human beings at this place. And no matter how many times the planets at this place were destroyed and created, there weren't any human beings. In all of history only two planets have had human beings: The last Earth and this Earth. The last Earth was a trial run that was arranged by the old forces for the teaching of the Fa this time. This time it's the real thing, the Fa-rectification has started. It's the old forces who arranged that process.

Before I came here I knew that the old forces would arrange all of this, and within the arrangement I chose what I wanted. But when it comes to a lot of fundamental things, the old forces aren't able to change them. Even though things were set in that way, after the Fa-rectification began, the old forces still changed more than eighty percent of what was determined before history. I can't acknowledge that kind of behavior, with their using me to satisfy their selfishness and disregarding the safety of all beings and the colossal firmament. That's one of the reasons why I purge them. Another reason is, I set out to do Fa-rectification because I knew that all of this was no longer good enough, that no matter how much wisdom the beings inside it have they still couldn't change the fate of disintegration, and that only when things were fundamentally changed could they be saved. But everything old wouldn't understand my doing things that way. Yet I could accomplish it, and whether they could understand it or not, saving beings is what's critical. So I've been breaking through all the obstacles and going all-out to resolve all of the numerous problems. In the process, the beings at different levels have seen that everything I do is the hope for truly saving everything. Having done it to this point, all the beings have also seen that everything the old forces wanted to do can't resolve things, since those things have no roots.

As the Fa-rectification progresses along further up, the old forces are no more, and there are no longer any of the factors related to the old forces' arrangements--they end without a resolution. The old forces are, with regard to going toward the renewal and rescuing all beings, like an obstacle that's the biggest, the most difficult to push away, the most likely to cause one to lose direction, to make one unable to easily distinguish the true from the false, and the most difficult to overcome; they are a critical, life-or-death lock at the brink of the new colossal firmament's birth, and a gigantic obstacle to renewal. But I chose this place back then because I wanted to give the beings in the cosmos who've dropped down a chance to go back, and to make this a part of the cosmos' ability to allow beings to enter the harmonizing, all-encompassing, and no-destruction mechanism. So the path for the people of the future to become Gods has truly been blazed. People used to say, "Oh, after I die I'll go see God." You say that you're going to see God, but will God see you? In fact, it's said very clearly in the Bible that only when the final time comes, which is Judgment Day, only then will the Lord receive and deliver those people who have truly met the standard for going to Heaven. Today, the sentient beings have all been waiting over the course of their continued reincarnations, one lifetime after another. In this process the sinners have been going down to hell. Going to hell doesn't mean they're destroyed, though. They need to pay for their sins there and suffer, and after they pay for their sins they return and begin to reincarnate again. But after those who have especially huge sins go to hell they are directly destroyed and sent to the Endless Hell, and once someone enters the gate of no-life he can never live again. That's how it was in the past.

After the human race was created, Gods also appeared on the stage of humankind, and cultivation and righteous faith thus emerged. But it's never been the person himself who cultivated, it was the assistant spirit cultivating. The reason the assistant spirit could cultivate was that he'd entered the supposed range of the Three Realms without actually entering it. Why was that? For example, like I said earlier, when some beings have entered the human body, they haven't in fact really gotten into the human being, since that's only a dimension. I have sealed off all the dimensions of the side of Dafa disciples that have been fully cultivated. No one can get in. Anyone can pass through the side that hasn't been fully cultivated, but Fa-guardians and Master are watching, and they don't let them pass through. Of course, no elements can pass through me over on the other side. Master's situation here is that the outermost surface of my body has held the lives of all Gods, all beings, and all elements in all the immense, colossal bodies of the cosmos. That's the situation before the Fa's rectification of the human world arrives. But those elements in the spatial gaps that maintain beings' survival are also Gods, and during this time they can pass through everyday people's bodies. Also, it's as if beings are immersed in them--it's just like when you breathe, when you breathe you've inhaled them. In the gaps among particles, the beings in the microcosm pass through the body of an everyday person at will. And those aren't possessing spirits. That's just how the cosmos is. Many people say that they saw this or saw that, when in fact most of what they saw were false visions formed by different dimensions coinciding. They haven't really gotten inside, and they haven't really melded into the person's particles. So those assistant spirits that were cultivating in the past were in their original, microcosmic realms, and in the supposed range. They didn't meld into the true particles of your body. If they did, they would have dropped down and never been able to go back. Before, not a single being who dropped down from Heaven was able to go back. And among humans, Socrates, the ancient Greek sage, also said that nobody who's fallen down from Heaven could return. He was really a prophet, but people have regarded him as a philosopher.

Question: A practitioner in our region has had symptoms of a serious illness. Some practitioners have suggested that we send righteous thoughts toward him as a group, while others raised the point that Master has never asked us to do such a thing. Would it be harmful to Dafa?

Teacher: You'd be helping each other, and that's not damaging Dafa. If you have everyone reading the book to him, or reading the Fa to him, sending righteous thoughts toward him, and surrounding him as a group, then these things will be effective since being in close proximity is a factor. And why is it a factor? Because this dimension has been divided into various segments by the final elements from high levels, and there are still differences existing in this dimension. But if a person's righteous thoughts are strong those differences can be eliminated. If your actions are very righteous it won't be able to stop you, since if it tries to stop you it will be violating the Fa. That's how it is.

Question: Master once taught the Fa that the sentient beings from the colossal firmament of the cosmos had entered into the Three Realms step by step. Master has also said that Shakyamuni directly reincarnated into the Three Realms from the sixth level of the universe. How are these two things related?

Teacher: Master has also said that the power of the Fa is boundless. Reincarnating directly from the sixth level of the universe to the Three Realms did involve a process. The process was that he had to penetrate six levels of the universe and reach the Three Realms, and he had to be covered by a layer from each of the universes in the middle as well as each of the various dimensions in it, or in other words, whenever he came down a level another layer of surface particles would be added on. When someone is cast down from Heaven, isn't this how he drops down too? This and coming down step by step just describe stopping versus passing through instantly. Of course, when a God comes down and reincarnates one level at a time, the significance and goal is completely different. As a being reincarnates he forms karmic relationships. He doesn't just have parents and siblings at that level, but also numerous family and friends who all have karmic relationships with him.

Question: When things don't go smoothly while doing Fa-rectification things, it is hard to tell whether it's due to interference from the old forces or a hint that Master doesn't want it to be done. How can we distinguish the two better?

Teacher: You should use the Fa to make the evaluation. That's why I tell all of you to study the Fa, and you should use the Fa as the standard for evaluating everything. You don't need to take the book with you all the time to compare what you're about to do next with what's in the book. After you've studied the Fa you should use your rational thinking to determine as a Dafa disciple if it's something you should do. If you feel that you should do it, then there's no problem [with doing it]. And even if it does turn out to be wrong, that's only because your understanding isn't that deep yet; and it can't be counted as a big mistake on your part, since you truly thought you were doing things according to the Fa. Isn't that how it works? But don't then use this as an excuse. Being responsible to the Fa is being responsible to yourself.

Question: Many among the disciples currently have this thinking: When a practitioner experiences tribulations because of interference from the old forces, other practitioners think that even if he does have attachments, the persecution shouldn't be allowed to take place and everyone should send righteous thoughts. My question is, if the practitioner himself doesn't improve, will this work?

Teacher: That would be a serious impediment. If he himself isn't rational, whatever we do amounts to nothing. Sending righteous thoughts can eliminate what's outside him but not what's inside his mind. Whatever a person wants to do comes from a single thought of his--it's he who decides if he wants something or not. When this situation occurs, I think there has to be a knot in his mind that stems from attachments. If he's really not able to do it, you can go and help him. There's no problem with doing that. Try to help him understand things on the basis of the Fa-truths and by studying the Fa more.

Question: There is this viewpoint, which thinks that we should oppose the old forces' arrangements, create a peaceful period of time before the Fa's rectification of the human world, and help the Chinese people learn the truth.

Teacher: Wanting to stop the persecution, now that viewpoint isn't wrong. Helping the Chinese people learn the truth and saving sentient beings are things that Dafa disciples should do. But there's no such a thing as "a peaceful period of time." The evil will just become less and less, and have a smaller and smaller audience, and a large amount of karmic retribution will happen.

Question: If a practitioner in prison would rather give up his own life than give up Dafa, is committing suicide in violation of Dafa?

Teacher: Committing suicide is wrong. If you're truly solid and so steadfast that you aren't even afraid of death, why would you commit suicide? Indeed your being steadfast should be taken into consideration, but how should your committing suicide be looked at? Of course, for a Dafa disciple I'll make a full assessment, I won't just look at one thing, and I'll look at it in terms of the person's entire history. But even if that act doesn't have a specific consequence, isn't it still a stain? The reason is, Master has taught in the Fa that committing suicide is a sin. Why didn't you conduct yourself according to the requirements of the Fa?! This isn't just an ordinary problem of understanding, is it? I've said that the pressure felt under that kind of evil environment is tremendous, but, then again, why did you come to the world? Did you come here just to endure ordinary tribulations? Then what awaits you?

Question: You've said that you don't have any assistant spirits. Did you have any assistant spirits before? If you did, what's their situation right now?

Teacher: (Teacher laughs) I don't have any assistant spirits right now. When I was born I was the same as you, and had to have everything an ordinary person has. Later on during my cultivation they were gradually removed, and I made arrangements for them to all achieve Consummation. If you Consummate and reach very high levels your assistant spirits will all be Gods, and some of them will even be very high-level Gods, so they all need to Consummate.

Question: Revered Master said, "The old forces want to achieve the goal of what they want to reach." What does that mean?

Teacher: The goal they want to reach is that they want to restore the cosmos in Fa-rectification back to the way it was before Fa-rectification, back to that system of theirs--still their mountains, still their water, still their Gods, and still the states they were in before. They did things in that way, so they don't want to make changes. The change they want is to have the surface appearance be better, just like washing a soiled piece of clothing clean. It's still the same piece of old clothing. Well, that's the meaning, but the analogy isn't totally accurate. That's the only way to describe it. They just want to, on the basis of not losing anything they originally had, through their careful arrangements, be able to cleverly dodge this catastrophe. But that will never happen. That's what they wanted. I have denied them from the very beginning; otherwise, even though they didn't mean to destroy all of this they would have.

Question: It's obvious to me that time has accelerated yet again. On the matter of clarifying the facts to the people of the world...

Teacher: Yes, it's true. It seems like I've just answered a few questions and it's already getting dark. (Audience laughs)

Question: On the matter of studying the Fa and doing Fa-rectification things, time seems to be especially pressing. Could you please go into a little more detail?

Teacher: Right now time is constantly accelerating. I can tell you that the faster I do things, the faster time gets since elements at the highest place in the cosmos have connected my Fa-rectification with time. The reason being, time is also a God from the old cosmos. They've connected everything in Fa-rectification together. When I'm fast they are fast, and when I'm slow they are slow, so the faster I do things the faster time becomes. But I, your teacher, have no choice but to do things fast. If I don't catch up with it in time, it would be too late to save everything in the end. You know that the universe is expanding rapidly, and humankind has also seen that the universe within this range is now expanding. Today's scientists already know that, right? The speed of expansion is getting faster and faster. What happens at the end of expansion? You've seen how it is with a balloon, right? You blow, blow, and blow, and when you blow it to its maximum point, "Bang!"--it explodes. Scientists have already grasped that, and they know this expansion is frightening. If I can't chase it down, all of this, or at a minimum the places where Fa-rectification hasn't yet finished, will be destroyed.

I have to act fast. Originally the distance was very far, unimaginably far. Right now as soon as something emerges I'm able to get hold of part of it right away. Say, for example, this thing has one hundred parts, so the moment it emerges I'm able to immediately get a hold of it and then resolve it in an instant. Things are at the final stage of the final stage of completely reaching that point. Things are the same whether I've completed Fa-rectification or not, because everything has already surpassed them, and during Fa-rectification the original time and space no longer have any real meaning that could hinder me.

Question: You've spoken for three hours straight... (Teacher laughs) (Disciples applaud)

Teacher: I'm picking out slips with fewer words written on them and answering those questions.

Question: Li Bai was a great poet, and a cultivator of the Dao. What kind of karmic relationship does he have with Dafa?

Teacher: As for historical figures, you shouldn't think about them too much. Many of them were you, and many of them were me. (Applause) But don't get euphoric over this! Your abilities and talents didn't originate there. Your abilities and talents were given to you by the Fa this time, (applause) and they aren't related to that.

Question: People from the ordinary human society, especially those who have relatively elite positions in society, initially not only didn't have negative feelings toward Dafa and Zhen-Shan-Ren, but actually had positive feelings. But they dislike the way that many Dafa disciples do things, and think that it's too extreme and seems to lack kindness.

Teacher: Dafa disciples should pay attention to that. On the other hand, is it possible that it's caused by the concept of being so-called refined, having an even keel, and not being rushed that ordinary people have developed? Is it because they don't think well of doing things too quickly? The evil is persecuting us, and people are dying. We aren't in the mood to do things in such a leisurely manner. But at the same time, you should try your best to observe social etiquette. Our Dafa disciples are hustling to and fro saving sentient beings, yet those people are still being picky. In any case, Dafa disciples, you should do your best to conform even more! People are sliding downward while we're rising upward, so we have to do things that way if we're going to save them.

Question: Greetings, revered Master! When you taught the Fa this morning, you mentioned that the old forces are taking advantage of a small number of practitioners who display certain states. Is it the same as the qigong psychosis mentioned in lecture six of Zhuan Falun?

Teacher: Actually, they're causing interference in a variety of areas. What I said in the morning was encompassed by and supplementing Zhuan Falun. Zhuan Falun talks about things in a general sense but it contains very deep inner meanings. If you don't study the Fa often, then the Fa I'm teaching right now will seem hard to understand. The profoundness of the Fa-truths of the Dafa of the cosmos isn't something that can be fully grasped at low levels. The Fa can manifest itself at different levels, and it can manifest itself in broad ways and specific ways at the same level--it's all-encompassing.

Question: Liberty, democracy and human rights seem to be upright principles in the human world. Were they too arranged by the old forces for today's Fa-rectification?

Teacher: The second half of the statement is correct, but the first half isn't. Those aren't human principles, rather, they were arranged by the old forces. Human principles are very simple, and democracy isn't actually a human principle. Over the millions of past years of human history people were always ruled by kings. At its peak there were more than ten thousand countries on Earth, and there were more than ten thousand kings, princes, princesses, and queens. That was the civilization of the past, and that is why it's called "the king governing the country; conquering the world with military force; the strong are heroes." But in the eyes of Gods the strong one was a bandit. And it doesn't matter if humans thought he was upright, Gods saw him as a bandit. So then why did Gods have him fight battles and have him become a hero? Because Gods wanted to accomplish something on Earth and wanted a certain situation to appear among humans, and they had to choose somebody to do things. The one who was chosen then went on to do things according to the Gods' requirements. Even though he did it by force, since it was the will of Gods, Gods would give him honors after he accomplished it. And what kind of honors? Make him a great hero that everybody admires, and somebody who has the honor of ruling the land--that's all! (Teacher laughs) Man's principles aren't considered upright outside of the Three Realms, but they do become upright principles here among humans. The human principles of the past were like this.

During this recent period of time, with Fa-rectification to take place, a lot of kings have reincarnated in China, and nobody could declare himself a king any longer. And there's another thing. Different-level beings from many high levels have come down and reincarnated as humans, and this has changed the make-up of different ethnic groups. Who should be made king, then? This is an even harder thing to handle, and so the old forces simply let human beings choose for themselves, and that's democracy. Democracy, when you look at its essence from the heavens, came about because of these two things.

As for human rights, it doesn't stop at human rights--there's also protection of animals. Human skins ran out, so then many incarnated as animals and many as plants. All of these things happened recently, and they're related to Fa-rectification. As Fa-rectification was to take place, everything came for the sake of Dafa, was born for Dafa, and was created for Dafa. But not everything is meant to play a positive role. That's the situation.

Question: Master has said that the part of us that's been completely cultivated is separated from the rest during our cultivation. Now that we're at the final stage of Fa-rectification, how can we break through this separation?

Teacher: Since the final elements are also the largest elements, the gaps among them are big, and they can only be completely eliminated when the powerful force of Master's Fa-rectification arrives as the Fa rectifies the human world. These things can only be resolved when that immense force arrives. As soon as it arrives and the breakthrough is achieved, that's the start of the Fa's rectification of the human world. Or looking at it from another angle, the things that you do today can result in fewer losses among your fellow practitioners and Dafa disciples, but they can't fundamentally solve the problem. Still though, in the process of validating the Fa you can bring about a situation wherein a portion of the world's people become good, which can save more people, and which stops the evil from acting so vicious, but that isn't the end of it.

Question: Master, when are you going to tell us things about the primeval Gods? During Fa-rectification they...

Teacher: The old forces that I've talked about are primeval Gods. The Gods that I've talked about are all primeval Gods. Those old forces, I can tell you, were the most outstanding beings at each level, and they have been destroyed. Those who were the most capable were destroyed as a result of the arrangement of that final old force. Its intention was to achieve what it wanted at the cost of destroying this portion. The cosmos is so immense that it is boundless and endless. So, assuming it's boundless and endless, then when it faces disintegration it wants to save itself since it's a God. And in fact, the arrangements of the old forces are the method they came up with to save themselves. They made very careful and thorough arrangements. But they didn't realize that this type of self-preservation of theirs would result precisely in their annihilation. If they hadn't done things that way they would have truly been saved this time. But they did do things that way and they've destroyed many that I wanted, and their sins have become enormous since all of those sentient beings were destroyed by them.

Question: You've said that the U.S. is the former Ming Dynasty. During the Ming Dynasty many people were Daoist cultivators. Could Master please advise us on the situation of today's Dafa disciples in the U.S. clarifying the facts to the U.S. government? Disciples in the U.S. are so busy that it seems they've become a little apathetic. What should be done to inspire the type of compassion that shakes heaven and earth...

Teacher: We shouldn't say things that way. I'm going to tell you all, you have to do things rationally. When you're clarifying the facts, if you go above the human principles by just one little bit, people won't be able to accept it. So when you're clarifying the facts, you must not talk about high-level things. What you know are things that Gods should know. Those things are what I taught to you, not to worldly people. So you shouldn't tell those things to ordinary people. You can only talk about our being persecuted, about our real situation, about our being good people and being wrongly persecuted, about our freedom of belief being violated, about our human rights being violated. They can accept all those things, and they will immediately support you and express to you their sympathy. Isn't that enough? Why do you insist on having them know the principles at such high levels? Knowing those facts, the people of the world will say that Falun Gong is being persecuted and that the persecutors are so evil. They'll say those things, and isn't that enough? Of course, your intention is for him to become a Dafa disciple. But at present that's hard to do since the old forces are causing obstruction. Master will look after all of the special ones. But that person you talk to doesn't have the desire it takes, and on top of that the old forces are causing obstruction. Our number one task at this time is to help them learn the truth of the situation. You might meet someone who's especially good and who can accept it no matter what kind of high-level things you tell him, then you can go ahead and tell him about those things. It'll be fine and there won't be a problem there. But with what I was saying, it's especially true for some government officials, since they're politicians after all, and they have nothing but politics in their heads, so when you tell them these things, they won't believe it at all. Then isn't it the same as not only failing to save him, but also shoving him down, instead? Isn't that true?

Question: Right now there are some people who do a lot of work to clarify the facts but seldom study the Fa or do the exercises.

Teacher: That's a very serious problem. Our Dafa disciples shouldn't neglect to make individual improvements. Saving sentient beings is the magnificent task of Dafa disciples. But because you don't study the Fa the quality of your truth-clarifying work suffers, and you yourself are limited by it. That's no good.

Question: Is it true that only those who obtained the Fa before the end of 2002 are considered "Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples"?

Teacher: I have never said that. Those good ones... haven't some entered in each of the different periods of time? Actually, there are still those who want to enter but haven't yet, and of course there are also those who've fallen.

Question: We should clarify the facts to the Chinese people. But my parents in China won't let me clarify the facts about Dafa over the phone. It always feels like there's something not quite right but I haven't been able to break through it.

Teacher: Do it with wisdom. It's possible that it still won't work even after you really have made an effort. And it's also possible that Dafa disciples inside of China will do it. If you can't accomplish it, they will do it. Dafa disciples inside of China have done that work like flowers blossoming everywhere. The main body of Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples is in China. I can tell you all that the 100 million people I've talked about is not the same as the 100 million people both inside and outside China that you talk about today. There were indeed 100 million people in Mainland China who were reading Zhuan Falun before. They had obtained the Fa back then, and I was taking care of them. You can't say that they weren't Dafa disciples. There were 70 million who were doing true cultivation, and back then there were in fact 100 million Dafa disciples total.

Question: When I give her new articles from Master, she takes them. But she refuses to participate in any activities to spread the Fa. Is there any hope left for such a student?

Teacher: She's probably still stuck at some spot. Since she still takes them, it means that she still has upright thoughts. So in that case, take a look and see where she's stuck and what's lacking. You're a Dafa disciple, so go and try to figure her out a little and help her out.

Question: Does the personal opinion of a member of the Falun Dafa Association, such as his opinion or conclusion about a fellow practitioner, represent the opinion of the Dafa Association, or even that of Master? Esteemed Master, please make this clear to me.

Teacher: Nobody can represent me--that goes without saying. And among you all, nobody can represent another person. As for the Dafa Associations, I've said that coordination is very important. There are a lot of things that can't be said from a different standpoint, and they need to say them. But for sure there are things they haven't done well, and Master's well aware of them. But on the other hand, with a lot of things you should consider your own part in it, and figure out just how exactly the mess was made. A God isn't affected by anything. If something should be done, just do it in an upright and dignified way.

Question: Members of a Dafa disciple's family have slandered Dafa. Will they be targeted for elimination when the Fa rectifies the human world? Or will it be related to that disciple's conduct?

Teacher: It will depend on the choices they themselves make. When somebody has damaged the Fa and become quite wicked, would you say he should be Consummated and taken to a Buddha's world? That just wouldn't do. Those who've really committed grave sins won't be allowed to remain. Since you are cultivating Dafa they'll definitely have blessings. They will be given chances, more chances, and even more chances. But at the same time, you should do your best to clarify the facts and save them, and that will create blessings for them.

Question: Teacher, on behalf of all true Dafa disciples in Heze City, Shandong Province, I'd like to pass on greetings to you.

Teacher: Thank you! (Applause)

Question: Many Dafa disciples in Heze have been arrested and beaten. Those who have been arrested in Heze all refuse to be transformed and are sent to labor camps in the city of Jinan. Is that the arrangement of the old forces?

Teacher: I don't acknowledge things like "being transformed" or "not being transformed." It's what's in people's minds that should be looked at. I still think that... Do you know that in order to transform them, the old forces have put them through severe mental persecution? They know that I don't acknowledge it, so what kind of method do they use? They separate the side of them that has righteous thoughts, or in other words, the side that's been fully cultivated, and they prevent it from having any contact with their minds. Then they ask questions of their human surface. But their human surface contains too many human things and postnatal concepts, and the side that's been fully cultivated isn't allowed to take effect at all. Since you've persecuted them under that set of circumstances, I won't acknowledge it no matter what you made them write. The old forces know that I don't acknowledge it, so why do they still do that? Because there's one thing that they can still accomplish, and that's their wanting to break the students' will. The students who made the mistake would think, "Oh no, I wrote that thing. It's all over for me. Master can no longer take care of me. I've let Dafa down." From then on they're depressed and their hearts feel heavy. That's the technique they've used and I don't acknowledge it. It doesn't matter that you fell down, it doesn't matter! Quickly get up! (Applause)

Question: Dafa disciples in the city of Harbin send greetings to Master!

Teacher: Thank you! (Applause)

Question: Dafa disciples who are being illegally detained at the _**** Labor Camp send greetings to Master!

Teacher: That dark den is very evil, I know! Indeed, it's true that the students have become better and better, and they're more and more rational. Let's not talk about what's happening in China for now. (Applause) Once we start talking about that it'll be a long story. No matter what, what awaits those evil ones are sins that they will never be able to repay, and what awaits Dafa disciples is magnificent, majestic Consummation! (Applause)

Question: I've recently come to understand the following: Whenever a conflict arises among Dafa disciples over Dafa work, we should first send righteous thoughts to eliminate those evil forces that are using students' attachments and bad concepts to persecute Dafa disciples as a whole, and then talk about the specific problems related to our work. Is it correct to do things this way?

Teacher: I think that when Dafa disciples encounter conflicts, it's not necessarily the result of something that can be controlled by the demons. They will interfere, and it's okay to send righteous thoughts, but you should study the Fa a lot. If you send righteous thoughts before you do things, well, it's true that it can eliminate some interference.

Question: I'm a disciple who obtained the Fa after July 20, 1999. In the course of cultivating I've been subjected to a lot of interference from other dimensions, even completely groundless persecution from the evil forces. Why is it that while using righteous thoughts to eliminate the persecution I'm never able to be completely resolute and always seem to have things that I need to improve on?

Teacher: How should I put this... That happens because for those Dafa disciples who obtained the Fa after July 20, 1999, your process of cultivation and your validating the Fa have been merged together. While for those who obtained the Fa earlier, the period of time for their personal cultivation has already passed, and right now their main task is to save sentient beings, the focus has shifted to validating the Fa. The people who entered later and happened to run into the situation of validating the Fa have to do that, too, and at the same time some personal cultivation issues are included in the mix. So you'll feel that certain things appear rather complex, but that's okay, because in Master's eyes things are well-ordered, and if your righteous thoughts are strong there won't be a problem.

Question: At this stage, can sending righteous thoughts replace doing the exercises?

Teacher: Those are two different things. (Teacher laughs) Doing the exercises is doing the exercises. Doing the exercises is to strengthen the mechanisms and to transform the innate body into a divine body. Sending righteous thoughts is to utilize divine powers, or to put it plainly, to use your abilities. The purpose is to eliminate evil rotten ghosts.

Question: Esteemed Master, greetings! There are many students who use righteous thoughts to eliminate evil for the smallest things. Even when they suffer from minor ailments or little health problems they send righteous thoughts.

Teacher: Perhaps you yourselves haven't studied the Fa enough? If you really have done something wrong and then a problem comes up as a result, and you go and send righteous thoughts, then it doesn't seem right, and the old forces will make trouble. They'll think that not only have you done poorly, but on top of that you want to eliminate them. It'd seem that way, wouldn't it? So you should still try your best to see if you've done things well or not. If you haven't done things well, go do them well. But in your question you mentioned, "even when they suffer from minor ailments or little health problems they send righteous thoughts." What do you mean "minor ailments" or "little health problems"? They're signs of karma being eliminated, right?

Question: During the initial month when I first began to send righteous thoughts, once while sending righteous thoughts I saw clearly through my Third Eye that within the span of just five minutes a strong purple-reddish light annihilated in an instant everything of that big head demon in China which appeared to be human but also not human. The power was great beyond description. Is what was annihilated only a representative in our dimension? Is there a representative of it in each and every dimension?

Teacher: It's very complicated. Sometimes you disciples are truly able to directly eliminate the rotten ghosts inside the body of that big head demon. At those times it looks like it's about to die, but then they begin to resuscitate it, and then another batch of rotten ghosts replenish it, so it comes around, just as if nothing had happened. Also, in order for it to be able to control all the rotten ghosts, way back when, the old forces propped up all of its cells' particles that make up its human body beneath its surface to the point where those particles were as large as the Three Realms. All human things inside of the cells were dug out by the old forces and cast down to hell, and the cells were refilled with those rotten ghosts. Since particles of a human being are in the image of that person, all the dimensions in the Three Realms had the head demon's cells in them, and all the cells had large numbers of rotten ghosts inside them. So when you disciples sent righteous thoughts at those times, you were able to eliminate a large number of the big head demon's particles and the rotten ghosts in the Three Realms. At the instant when you were annihilating it and blowing it up, you would see that it was destroyed, and that was real. What state have you put it in now? Everything but the particles that form its human surface has been eliminated and it is now empty. There's nothing left. What's left is just the human skin made up of a layer of surface cells, which includes the internal organs. And that's because all the cell particles in the Three Realms of the head demon that were propped up by the old forces have been annihilated, and there's nothing of it above or below, and all of them have been cleaned out. At present this human skin is being propped up by those last, worst demons of the old forces. So it no longer has any of the normal rationality a human being has. Everything results from those rotten ghosts controlling its human skin, which is truly like a layer of skin that's been painted on. All of the bad-person concepts and karma that the surface of its human skin has generated over the course of its life now seem very afraid. What it displays is simply fear. It's afraid of the consequences of losing power, it's afraid that Falun Gong's name will be cleared, it's afraid that it will be killed, it's afraid that the vast amount of money and property its family has embezzled will be confiscated--it's afraid of everything. Yet the evil on its other side feels nothing but hatred. It can see that the situation is hopeless, and it feels hatred, yet it's not able to muster up a lot of energy. It knows that it's all over for it. It feels hatred but it's also afraid, and it has to force itself to act energetic for people to see, and it tries to hang on to keep the show going. That's the state that it's in right now. Back when its cells' particles were propped up so much, and its inside was filled with rotten ghosts, the evil energy was truly running high, and its body was propped up so much that it felt like it was expanding and expanding; it felt that it had a healthy body and strong energy. It also became bold and had such a ferocious look to it that the people around it really got scared of it. Now it's like an eggplant after a frost, it's all shriveled up, and everything inside it has been purged. The more righteous thoughts Dafa disciples send, the fewer the number of rotten ghosts there will be inside its body, the more shriveled up it will get, and the smaller its body will get, because other than the human skin there's nothing of its microcosmic particles left.

Question: Disciples from the Second Military Command University, Toronto, Pingxiang of Jiangxi Province, the city of Chongqing, Peru, China, Macao, the U.S., the city of Harbin, Shandong Province, the city of Jinan, the city of Kunming, Australia, the city of Dalian, disciples released from prison in the city of Jiamusi, disciples from Germany, _**** Detention Center in the city of Shijiazhuang, Shandong Province, the city of Hezhe, Tianjin, Xinjiang Province, the city of Hengyang, and the city of Changchun--the above disciples send greetings to Master.

Teacher: Thank you! (Applause)

Question: Recently when I've been studying Zhuan Falun I no longer feel like I'm developing new understandings and making progress each time I finish reading the book.

Teacher: However high a person's xinxing is, that's how high his gong is. There have to be reasons. Is it because your mind isn't calm? I think there have to be reasons. At higher levels the requirements are higher, too.

Question: Could you tell us what the basic process is when the transition is made from the Fa-rectification period to the period when the Fa rectifies the human world?

Teacher: I can tell you, there isn't a process like you've imagined, not at all. I can tell you that the immense force of the Fa's rectification of the human world is something that the old forces couldn't see in the past. Now that they've seen it they're scared out of their wits. So a lot of those Gods who the old forces arranged to do certain things don't dare to do them now. What's manifesting in the current state of things is the rotten ghosts continuing to do bad things. Once the Fa's rectification of the human world arrives, all of these things will be over with. There's no process. At the time of the Fa's rectification, at the time when the gong arrives, there will be a certain phenomenon. What phenomenon? I've told you before that everything that human beings see with their eyes is composed of molecules. So on this molecular layer, if a hole were punched through or a rip were torn open--no matter where it was--what would you see? You would see the heavens, it would be exactly like the curtain on a stage suddenly being ripped open or a hole being punched through it, but this dimension can't be ruined since the Fa's rectification of the human world still needs to be done. Or, it could seep in from all the microcosmic levels.

Question: Besides being attached to their arrangements, do the old forces have other areas where they fall short?

Teacher: Other than being attached to everything that they want to have happen, there's nothing else for them. They just want to preserve what they had originally, and they only have that one aim.

Question: Will any Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples be left behind?

Teacher: No. (Loud applause) If I left you behind you'd be ruined, truly ruined. That's because if a person isn't going forward, he's going backward. Once you suddenly reached that state in this environment, then in this environment as long as you were here among humans and were mixed in with humans when you did things, your level would drop and you'd gradually be polluted by humans. Haven't I said that the Buddhas in the heavens and the Buddhas, Taos, and Gods in certain dimensions need to be replaced at set intervals? That's because it's easy for them to get polluted by the Three Realms, so they need to be replaced.

Question: Revered Master, please tell us what should be the direction of the Minghui Kindergartens.

Teacher: You've been doing a great job! You know, that big head demon is injecting kids in Chinese kindergartens with poison, it's so wicked! It truly wants to destroy the human race! When it sees us doing things this way it gets enraged. Actually, in the previous Chinese government, among the central leadership, out of the seven members of the Standing Committee, six of them were against persecuting Falun Gong. I also know that even the head of the 610 Office, who's been persecuting Falun Gong, was against the persecution initially. Almost all the central governmental agencies and various ministries of the government were against persecuting Falun Gong.

Question: While taking part in this Fa-rectification, the old forces made arrangements for time on two Earths. Why did the experiments have to be performed on the second Earth with the giants, dwarves, and medium-sized people? May I ask, what kind of people did they arrange on the first Earth?

Teacher: When the experiment was being done here where we are, arrangements were made for three types of people. On the first Earth five types of people were arranged. When that Earth finally ended there were three types of people left. This time around, right from the beginning there were just three types. They were continually exploring what they wanted to have happen, and only made the final decision before Fa-rectification was to take place.

Question: My question is this: When we send righteous thoughts, are the low-level evil beings that we eliminate also constantly replenished as they are eliminated?

Teacher: Dimensions have been made very complex by cosmic bodies that came from the outside. They've even divided particles into different segments. You really do eliminate them. But what's eliminated is a segmented portion. During Fa-rectification when I clear away a layer of gigantic beings, another batch of the rotten ghosts is then exposed, and that's why it seems like they can't ever be totally cleared away. But in fact, our cleansing is done on a large scale and at a fast speed. And what's more, the total number of things that have been cleared out is huge. We can see this from the overall situation of Fa-rectification: In the past, every blade of grass and every tree was under the evil beings' control, almost to the point where even the particles of air were under their control. It even felt hard for you to take a breath. Now things are different. People are waking up, and there aren't that many rotten ghosts left to control people. What a huge change!

Question: On January 22^nd a U.S. disciple was arrested at the Guangzhou Airport...

Teacher: Since you're Dafa disciples, when there's a problem, everyone should work together as one. Since they aren't afraid of having their dirty deeds brought out into the open, we should expose them all to the whole world, and let all Americans know that a U.S. citizen has been arrested. Since they're not afraid of having their dirty deeds brought out into the open, we should go ahead and do those things. Every day that they don't release him is another day for us to expose them. (Loud applause)

Question: I'm sometimes clear about what the old forces are and sometimes not.

Teacher: They're just that twenty percent of beings in the cosmos, and they were arranged to take part in my affairs. In history they made many systematic arrangements, and I participated in many of their arrangements in history. If I hadn't participated at those times they would have chosen someone else, and there would have been even more problems at the time of Fa-rectification. They would have chosen another person to rectify the Fa. Then when it was time to rectify the Fa and I began to do things, they would have used up all the beings in the entire cosmos to go after me. If I eliminated them, then how could I save them? What Fa-rectification truly looks like is something that not a single being may know. Whoever knew it would escape it, and that's something that the cosmos couldn't allow. Even less could it allow beings in the cosmos to choose how Fa-rectification plays out.

Question: Recently a married couple who are both Dafa disciples gave birth to a baby who appears to have a lot of hardship and is born deformed. How should we look at this situation?

Teacher: Things are very complicated at this time. Since he's your child, you should provide loving care and do your best to take care of him. But put your mind at ease. As long as you can cultivate to Consummation, everything will end up to be the best (applause)--this is created for cultivators and Dafa disciples. If you can't Consummate, though, then everything was for nothing.

Question: Master has told us that the main body of Dafa is in China. There are Dafa disciples in many places in China. How can we do better at improving together?

Teacher: No need to worry about that. They're all able to know about the Minghui website. Dafa disciples in remote regions all keep in touch with one another and information is being passed among them.

Question: Revered Master said earlier that those who wrote pledges while being persecuted to the point where they were no longer clearheaded still have a chance. But no matter what, I can't forgive those people in Mainland China who have betrayed Master. It's not like they did things that they shouldn't have done because they couldn't endure the persecution. They actually stood on the side of the evil and aggravated the persecution.

Teacher: Yes, it's hard to say what will happen when they have gone that far. I've said that I want to save everyone. But if you have sinned so greatly, then the Fa will be used to judge you, and there's nothing more that can be done for you. Compassion and solemn dignity coexist for the sake of protecting the Fa. But the old forces deliberately arranged for some people to come in and do things that way, so it's very complicated. Before July 20, 1999, certain people appeared quite active, but when the persecution began, they participated in the persecution even more eagerly than anybody else. That happened in order to make the overall situation complicated for students.

Question: Master, please tell us if there are situations where your Buddha-picture is also passed through.

Teacher: I can tell you that they aren't trying to do anything to me. They're targeting students' attachments. If you act in a really upright way they absolutely won't dare to just casually do those things, as it has my Law Body on it. As for the old forces in particular, did you know this: Their Fa-rectification depends completely on me, they respect me, and the tribulations are created for you, not me. But if you can handle those things with righteous thoughts then you won't be interfered with. As a matter of fact, in many instances the reason behind it is that your attachments are at work.

Just a moment ago I talked about how it's not that the old forces want to destroy the cosmos. They just want to preserve everything in its original form. So, from the perspective of my Law Bodies, it doesn't matter whether it's old forces or righteous Gods, my Law Bodies are watching over everything. Only when you, the Dafa disciples, don't conduct yourselves well do they dare to do things. That's when they have an excuse to target you. Under normal circumstances they don't dare to do such things. Even though the situation that I described earlier does exist, it is an isolated, very isolated, phenomenon. If that phenomenon happens even once or twice the consequences are pretty big. That's why I said that as soon as they were seen they'd be destroyed. No matter whether they did it intentionally or unintentionally, as soon as they were seen they were destroyed, since they committed the sin of persecuting Dafa disciples' righteous thoughts and righteous faith. So, even if they can justify it, they're still very timid when they do those things. As a matter of fact, I'm already eliminating that type of thing and putting a stop to it.

Some students have seen the old forces do some bad deeds and bring bad things onto my body. Some students are able to see that. What worries me more is that you might be affected by it! That's because you would see that it looked like something bad was on Master's body. Do you realize that those things are yours?! I am suffering on your behalf. (Loud applause) Otherwise who would dare to bring things upon me? It happens because I'm protecting you, and somebody has to eliminate it.

Question: How can we more effectively clarify the truth on a large scale and save sentient beings? How can we make our newspapers and television have a bigger impact?

Teacher: All of those are specific matters. The fact is, you're doing quite well. You should keep on doing those things and come up with ways to keep on improving them. That too is walking the path of Dafa disciples and establishing your mighty virtue by saving the people of the world.

Question: When we send righteous thoughts to eliminate problems inside of ourselves, are we also eliminating the old forces that are passing through our bodies?

Teacher: When you send righteous thoughts, it doesn't just stop at what's inside your body, everything that's inside of your domain is scared away. So is it okay to just constantly send righteous thoughts to keep them from coming and do nothing else? What I'm saying is, they just don't dare to come anymore under normal circumstances, but if you think about it too much it becomes an attachment. Other dimensions exist simultaneously. You don't feel anything when beings in other dimensions walk toward you and pass through you. That's how dimensions exist. The cosmos is just structured that way, and it won't affect you. Since the topic of the structure has come up, I'll tell you something that you'll enjoy hearing. (Loud applause)

You know there are many many plants, animals, and different kinds of things on earth. Specifically speaking, you know there are apples, bananas, oranges, and grapes, you know there are tigers, lions, rabbits, and goats, and you know there are many many different kinds of trees, plants, and flowers. Other dimensions have those things too. Faraway cosmic bodies that are at the same level as Earth and similar to Earth have those things too. Lower-level particles compose particles that are one level higher. Those bigger particles also have these animals, plants, and different kinds of things on them. An apple in the heavens is so big that it might be even bigger than a planet. Is an apple from those low-level planets a particle inside of the big apple of high-level particles? The answer is yes. There are lions on Earth, there are lions in the heavens, and there are lions at even higher levels. There are people on Earth, there are people in the heavens, and there are even bigger people--so big they're incomparably gigantic. And beings have kings, or in other words, every being has a king. The king of a being is the largest layer of that particle, and everything beneath it is spread out on particles of different sizes, some big and some small. The living being on the sphere of the largest particle layer is the king of all the beings, and its particles are displayed in all the levels underneath it.

So what kind of entity is this cosmos? Myriads of things that are interwoven and blending together. There are so many beings on Earth, but those living things don't at all belong to the same king, and they don't belong to the same system of beings. Yet they all live here and have blended together. But living things are connected to their own kings, and they aren't connected to other beings. That is, even though they intersect throughout the space of the cosmos, they have their own independent systems and are governed by their own kings. So lions have their king, apples have their king, bananas have their king, trees have their king, plants, grass, flowers--all things--they each have their respective kings. That's how all beings that exist in dimensions that are at the same level intersect and blend together. Human beings pass through gigantic beings. At each and every moment, extremely microcosmic living elements float through the bodies of ordinary people. Your surface is watched over by my Law Bodies and Law Guardians. And the side of you that's been fully cultivated is sealed up. As one layer is done it's sealed up. As another layer is done it's sealed up. And nothing can pass through it. So this cosmos is really complicated. I've described for you yet another form of the structure of the cosmos. (Loud applause)

¡¡

Question: I feel that Master is higher than everything and has already arranged our path. So from that perspective, it seems that the arrangements of the old forces are used by Master with our improvement as the goal. So it seems that the arrangements of the old forces aren't actually very real. Is this understanding correct?

Teacher: Half of it is correct, because I don't acknowledge them. But I knew that they'd do things this way, so I was left with no choice but to go along with their ploys and turn their ploys against them. That's the situation.

Question: Dafa disciples from Liaoning Province, the Taiwan Minghui School, Sweden Central Park, and the city of Chengdu in Sichuan Province send greetings to Master.

Teacher: Thank you! (Loud applause)

Question: When we send righteous thoughts to eliminate problems in ourselves, are we also eliminating the old forces that are passing through disciples' flesh bodies, and is it okay for us to copy Master's compassion and clarify the truth to them in our minds?

Teacher: That has left too strong an impression on you. I can tell you that that happens just because of the spatial structure and you shouldn't be concerned about it. If you don't want them to pass through you, just close your mouth and don't breathe today. (Audience laughs) The reason is that the air, too, is alive, and it too is beings that haven't been rectified by the Fa yet. So don't be concerned about these things. Human beings have lived this way for thousands and tens of thousands of years. Why is it so hard for a human being to cultivate, and why is it hard for a human being to become a God? It's because the old cosmos doesn't have the wisdom and isn't able to solve these problems. In order for these problems to be solved, the cosmos had to be fundamentally perfected from top to bottom. The path for future human beings to become Gods has been blazed, and that has happened because this undertaking is to be done from here all the way up to the very top. (Loud applause) So for a human being, the formation of postnatal concepts, along with interference from this type of element, make things very complicated. It's really hard to save people! Divine beings of the past saw saving people as something very hard to do, since they saw this phenomenon. Should Dafa disciples be afraid of this? Approach everything with righteous thoughts! I was only telling you that there is that phenomenon, that there is something like that happening. That's a part of the cosmos' structure, it's how things are.

Question: Lately when I send righteous thoughts my body feels incredibly warm.

Teacher: That's a good thing. The feeling of warmth comes from having a large amount of energy. Some people can feel it and some can't.

Question: I feel waves upon waves of pressure in my head. Is this normal or is this demonic interference?

Teacher: Generally speaking it's normal. The changes in your body, the reflections of your gong, and the raising of your level can all result in that kind of reaction.

Question: There is this lady in New Jersey who came from Mainland China. All four of her limbs were amputated three years ago due to a bacterial infection. But her mind is still sharp. A Dafa disciple lives downhill from her house. How should this Dafa disciple help her?

Teacher: Dafa disciples, the most important thing that you need to do today is to clarify the facts and save sentient beings. You should find out if she's been poisoned or not, and if she has you should go and talk to her. If she hasn't been poisoned, then you should go do whatever you're supposed to do. The government does provide care for handicapped people, after all, so you shouldn't think about it too much. If you're too attached to these things, then I can tell you, you can forget about cultivation. The misfortune and injustices in the human world are just so cruel, and there are so many unfair things in the human world. Can you be attached to them all? The only way to save a person is to save her on a fundamental level. (Applause)

Question: Some people say that there's no need for Dafa disciples to save money.

Teacher: That's going to extremes again. (Audience laughs) Do what you think you should do. If you say that you want to save money and purchase property, then in that case you should go do that, because that is how people will cultivate in the future. Or maybe you'll say that you don't want to do anything and you just want to wait here, (audience laughs) well in that case you won't Consummate. What a strong attachment that would be! But when the time of Consummation actually came, you wouldn't be able to let go of those things, would you? If you can let them go then they're not important. One's thinking at that moment is the thinking of a God. So why would you think about those things? Don't concern yourself with anything. As a matter of fact, I can tell you that at the final moment of the Fa's rectification of the human world, in a flash everything will be disintegrated. What money? There won't even be a piece of paper left. (Loud applause) But that doesn't have anything to do with you.

Question: Saving money and planning financially for the future education of children isn't something that we should concern ourselves with since we're going to Consummate in the future and don't need to worry about that. (Audience laughs) There are also Dafa disciples who say that we don't even need to care for our parents, as they might be our enemies from the past. (Audience laughs)

Teacher: That doesn't sound like something a Dafa disciple would say. The attachment has grown that strong! Do you know what a magnificent thing it is for Dafa disciples to Consummate? Master has to take care of everything all around you. Is there any need for you to worry about anything? Do you have the ability to take care of those things? Will things go according to your wishes? Haven't I already explained this principle to you all? If their fortune isn't that good, it's totally useless no matter what kind of plans you make. But Master is able to arrange things for you. I can make arrangements, regardless of whether they have good fortune or not. What are you worried about? You should just cultivate and I'll take care of everything for you. Hasn't that been said already? But if you don't cultivate well, then there's nothing I can do. Your words don't sound like something a Dafa disciple would say, that's what I think!

Question: In the morning you mentioned that you went from nothing to something, and that in the future nobody will know you. I want to know, after we Consummate in the future will we still have these types of opportunities to listen to you teach the Fa? If I still have questions, will there be opportunities to have you answer them for us? (Audience laughs)

Teacher: You can't cultivate forever. (Audience laughs) You're still using human thinking to consider things. Gods don't think about things that way. When you have countless sentient beings to take care of you'll have a lot on your mind. Then you probably won't be able to think of Master this frequently! (Teacher laughs) Just joking. Of course, maybe I'll teach Fa on a larger scale in the future, and maybe I won't. Those are all future matters. The truth is, when you think about whether you'll be able to see Master in the future you're still using the human thoughts that are present to think about things. When that day arrives you'll be in a different state. But when you truly need me, you'll see the aspect that is the wide and far-reaching Buddha's grace. (Loud applause) That's because you are special. You are Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples! (Loud applause) You once existed alongside the Fa-rectification! (Loud applause)

You should cherish this predestined chance. There really won't be a next time. In the future you'll see the terrifying image of the Fa-rectification that lies in history's past. Some Dafa disciples really have performed poorly--one moment they were doing quite well and the next they weren't. Actually, even when gigantic cosmic beings witnessed the power of Fa-rectification they were truly shocked.

Today is the first time since July 20, 1999, that I've answered questions for Dafa disciples at a Fa conference on such a large scale and for such a long time. (Long applause)

From the question slips that you submitted this time I can see that they're very different from before. The words might be similar, but I can see that what's inside them is different. On top of that, the biggest difference is that the mindset of curiosity and fascination has been replaced by righteous thoughts. You've become rational and you're no longer hovering around the surface searching for knowledge. Of course, when I talked about the structure of the cosmos you were all interested. But it wasn't just you--even Gods were listening carefully since they didn't even know about it. (Applause) So during this persecution, even though we've suffered huge losses and Dafa disciples have been groundlessly persecuted, I can really tell that you've matured during this persecution, and you are now composed and rational. The old attitude of saying one thing and thinking another and not being attentive to the Fa is gone. During this persecution, everyone has seriously reflected on which path he should take and what he should do. Actually, the old forces arranged for many people to come and play negative roles. Some of those people had abandoned that before the persecution started, and some did during the persecution. That's because the side of those beings that's aware knows. So, many people who were to play negative roles quit and are now cultivating in an upright and dignified way. It's because I absolutely don't acknowledge the ones who play negative roles. The old forces didn't expect that their arrangements--such intricate arrangements that appeared to be done for me but were in reality done for themselves--as well as everything they've done, would become the true impediment to Fa-rectification, and that they themselves would become the true demonic obstacles in the Fa-rectification.

And speaking of demons, I wasn't referring to normal demons in the cosmos. In fact, the cosmos' Demon King is the manifestation of another aspect of lives. It's also a guardian of the cosmos, only it uses evil means. So I wasn't referring to them. I was referring to the beings that are damaging Fa-rectification--they are the demons that truly damage Dafa. We've experienced so many things. A lot of times words were at the tip of my tongue but I had to swallow them, because once I brought it out into the open there'd really be just so many things that I had to say. We've experienced so many things, and you've all become mature. You should face the journey ahead of you with even more rationality, and you should handle everything that you're doing today with even more rationality. Don't be stuck in emotion anymore, and don't be mired in your very strong sense of self anymore. You all have abilities and talents, Master has affirmed you, and you don't need to display those things of yours to Master anymore. (Applause)

How are we to... it's just like what the student who submitted the question slip brought up, how are we to do a good job cooperating and coordinating with each other--that's what Fa-rectification needs the most from Dafa disciples. We don't dwell on surface forms. As long as you've studied the Fa well you will be able to do that. You know, in the old days before a group practice everybody would be talking and doing all kinds of things, and it would look really disorderly. But as soon as the music started--"Whoosh!" everybody stood together and gathered into a formation more orderly than a group of soldiers. There wasn't anybody drilling you and there wasn't anybody telling you what to do. Instead, it came from inside yourselves. That's cooperation and coordination, and that's the harmony of Dafa disciples. You shouldn't just display it in these certain things, you should display that kind of cooperation in all areas of Fa-rectification.

Of course, there are also some problems which I'm not going to bring up here. And I don't want to emphasize them, as the words that come from my mouth carry a great deal of weight. This is because a lot of problems are what you need to face, and they're also things that, as you trip and fall, require you to become mature, make you take heed and recognize them so that you can walk the road ahead of you well.

Also, don't think, "Fa-rectification has come this far, so it looks like it'll be over soon and we should start making plans for the future." I can tell you that any attachment will bring on tremendous tribulations. You absolutely must not form any attachments! You should cultivate in an upright and dignified way, and handle well everything in front of you that you should do. If you're to Consummate tomorrow, you still have to do well what you're supposed to do today and in an orderly way. That's because everything Dafa disciples are doing today is to be left for the people of the future, and this is the path of cultivation for the people of the future. This is extremely important. Do not walk a crooked path. Dafa is the best at every level, and at this human level Dafa disciples should only make it even more complete and perfect, and not bring any losses to it.

That's all I'd like to say. I hope you will do well what you're supposed to do. Of the three things to validate the Fa, one is to study the Fa well, one is to clarify the facts, and another is to take sending righteous thoughts seriously. Put together, these things all validate the Fa and all save sentient beings, and they are all what Dafa disciples should do. In other words, your Consummation, your future, and all of your mighty virtue are established in these. Make your own contributions based on your individual abilities and specific talents in different areas. For example, in clarifying the facts, some of you produce TV programs, and some publish newspapers, a lot of different methods are used, and some distribute truth-clarifying material directly on the streets, some go to the Chinese consulates, and some work with the government. Not a single one of all these different approaches should be neglected. I can tell you, the fact that right now Dafa has been able to break through the evil persecution and have more of the world's people know about Dafa is inseparable from the things you're doing today. The overall situation right now is what you've established. (Loud applause) If you haven't done things well you should seize the day. You don't need anyone to affirm you, and you don't need to do things to show anyone. When you are able to live up to your conscience, Master sees it. (Applause)

I think I've already said a lot today. I won't say more. I'm a bit reluctant to leave--I really enjoy being with you. (Long period of applause)

 

---

Editor's note: The translation is subject to further improvement so as to be closer to the original text. Last updated: July 5, 2003.