Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005

(Li Hongzhi - November 5, 2005)

(Roaring applause. Students say, "Hello Master!")

Good morning! (Applause. Students: "Master, please sit.") If I stand you can see me better. You've been working hard. (Applause) I haven't been out West for quite some time, and all along I've wished to see you. Now is the time of Dafa disciples validating the Fa and saving sentient beings, and you have labored hard. But regardless of the situation, Dafa disciples are now maturing ever more fully. And as the overall Fa-rectification process has moved forward continuously, the overall situation has changed a great deal.

You have seen that, judging by the attitudes people have towards Dafa and Dafa disciples, and by people's capacity to see through the shameless actions of the CCP's slanderous media, everything has changed. That being the case, for Dafa disciples it amounts to being tested under new circumstances and conditions. And so it is that when circumstances ease up, one is prone to becoming lax; when the pressure lets up it leads a person to feel relaxed and not make every minute count as before. But that's not acceptable. The fact is, you are cultivators, and you can't afford to cease being diligent no matter what kind of circumstances you encounter. The more relaxed or comfortable things get, in fact, the more serious is the test you face. Regardless of how the situation may change, the terms of cultivation and the cultivation state required of you will never change, and for this reason you cannot let up. Moreover, as you have seen, though the situation is changing, the evil specter has yet to be fully cleaned out, and right now it is still having a very negative effect.

Take San Francisco, for example. I've found that the environment of the downtown area and that of the whole Bay Area still isn't up to par; the evil factors here are still abundant. The fact is, you should make these places the focus. You should go where there are a lot of Chinese people and clarify the truth, and save those badly-poisoned Chinese communities. You have all seen that the places where tourist groups from mainland China shuttle in and out are where they are concentrated. There are a lot of Chinese people in other parts of the Bay Area, too, but they are scattered. The goal of your clarifying the truth is to save as many sentient beings as possible, and those who have been poisoned the most severely are none other than the Chinese people. Superficially speaking, what Dafa disciples are doing is counteracting the persecution, but in reality your greatest duty is to save sentient beings, and that is the true embodiment of validating the Fa. The persecution that has been perpetrated upon Dafa disciples and upon the people of China was launched by the wicked Party in mainland China, and this means that you need to focus on mainland China, to focus on the people of mainland China. Chinatown is precisely the kind of place that mainland Chinese patronize the most, so you can't let up there and lose out on that place, a place where Dafa disciples stand to have a tremendous effect. For this reason you should all take pause and seriously ask yourselves: Had you been feeling that those places were a bit too evil and were you a little afraid? But think about it--who should actually be afraid of whom?

Under the cruelest of persecutions, the Dafa disciples of mainland China haven't been frightened and have come through it; they have even, in fact, cultivated to the point of maturity. If you take a look back at things, in fact, though the persecution seems to have no order to it, wouldn't you agree that the changes in the situation and the different circumstances that have come about all have a purpose? Whether [something is due to] Master's wishes or the old forces' control, isn't the goal behind it the successful cultivation of Dafa disciples and the disintegration of the evil? Could all of this have happened arbitrarily? It's merely that the bad people are not allowed to see the order behind it. Whenever the wicked CCP regime has decided to knock somebody down, who has been able to hold up for even just three days? You, meanwhile, have made it through six or seven years, and that is something that the sinister Party simply never considered possible. Is that something ordinary people could do? Could they withstand it? Then are these ordinary things that we're dealing with? Are they things ordinary people could bring about? Only people who cultivate, only those who are looked after by gods, could make it through. Isn't that true? So there is nothing for Dafa disciples to fear. And that is especially so outside of mainland China--isn't the setting more favorable, relatively speaking? Then what's there to fear? And what is more, you are truly saving people--openly and with dignity saving their very being--and they will be able to sense that. On top of that, as you go about clarifying the truth, the benevolence you exude and the righteous thoughts you project disintegrate the evil, awakening those lives you save and causing them to recover their very selves, and that can lead a person to truly come to rationally see these things for himself. And of course, as soon as people wake up, things are immediately different.

There are also some students who don't have a good understanding of the changes in the situation that have come about due to Fa-validation, and this phenomenon, applying to a handful of cases, can be seen in every region. Namely, every time Dafa's progress enters a new stage, there are some students who evaluate Dafa cultivation with human thinking. The path of Dafa disciples' cultivation is such that your cultivation doesn't involve breaking from the secular world, it's that kind of path. So, as you cultivate in the society of ordinary people, you are either being polluted by ordinary society or you are changing ordinary society. And that's for sure. Thus, throughout the course of Fa-rectification, Dafa is and has been transforming everything at lightning speed, while Dafa disciples have been validating the Fa, saving sentient beings, and purging the evil that persecutes Dafa disciples. The changes in the overall situation will ceaselessly continue to bring forth in the human world different states of affairs at different time periods. This is what students refer to when they speak of "the progress of Fa-rectification." But as soon as obvious changes in the state of things come about, a handful of students can't keep up. And whenever they can't keep up, they pull out the top excuse: "Aren't we getting political? How can we cultivate like this?" But the truth is, those who say this are, on a fundamental level, looking at cultivation and conducting themselves based on human thinking. The ultimate source of this is fear taking hold.

As I have said before, this is the form that Dafa disciples' cultivation takes today--the cultivation is done among ordinary people, and you cultivate without breaking from the secular world. I discussed this before in teaching the Fa: It's precisely because Dafa disciples cultivate this way that they can achieve something never seen before in history--a human becoming divine through cultivation. (Applause) Because it's done amidst the realities of human society, it is truly the cultivator himself who handles himself well amidst the lure of worldly gain, who under intense worldly temptation manages to discard human attachments, and discard all sorts of entanglements that arise from emotion. This form of cultivation directly targets the human mind, meaning, it targets the cultivator's most surface sensory perceptions and his thoughts in reaction to them, as well as his direct actions. Then for this person, if in cultivation he can cast off all of that, isn't he cultivating himself? Isn't he positioning himself while amidst real, immediate interests? Can ordinary people do that? They can't. And could the cultivators of the past? Neither could they. So the cultivation methods of the past, all the various cultivation ways left to human society in history, took the approach of leaving society to cultivate. They didn't dare to cultivate in the secular world, and believed that cultivating there wasn't feasible. That was because they didn't have the Great Law (Dafa)--they didn't have the Great Law to guide their cultivation. Today there is the Great Law to guide people. Now you can accomplish this, and indeed, this is something that you have put into practice and accomplished. In other words, not only has this path of cultivation been blazed, but also, your actual experiences have abundantly proven the correctness of this path and the maturity of Dafa disciples as a result of the cultivation process. You are now in the last stage of heading towards Consummation, and all along, right up to today, you have been doing so in an extremely steady and solid manner. Even if shortcomings have shown themselves in one way or another, the fact is, that's going to be the case for any cultivation form, because on every path there are those who fail midway--all of that is normal. Under the tests that the human mind is put to, a state will come about in a cultivator when understandings born of both divine and human thoughts are present and collide. When human thinking gains the upper hand, that person heads toward humanness; when divine thinking and a person's righteous thoughts gain the upper hand, he heads toward godhood.

Let's think about it, actually: What is "politics"? With some people, whenever they don't understand the actions we take against the persecution, they start saying we are "getting political." The way I see it, those certain people among our Dafa disciples [for whom this is the case] have fear inside. Fundamentally, it's fear that is causing mischief, leading to human anxiety. As for how ordinary people look at [what we're doing], Dafa disciples don't need to be concerned about that. So long as you, a Dafa disciple, do things righteously, you will transform the environment around you, and you will change people. You don't need to say that much. My Dafa is taught to today's Dafa disciples, not to ordinary people, and you shouldn't get overly concerned about what people think. As long as you walk straightly your own cultivation path here in the human world, everyone will see you in a positive light.

What is "politics"? There are different ideas about this even among ordinary people. I'll tell you that the concept of "politics" that Chinese people have involves taking whatever activities people do in response to the form of the political system or that have to do with the state's policies and calling it "getting political." In Western society it's different. As they think of it, the things that people do in the public sphere, when they don't involve money or religion, count as political. But regardless of how the term is defined or however it's understood, what I want to convey is that the form cultivation takes is not bound by strict limitations. The cultivation you know about from history includes Buddhism, original Buddhism, Daoism, and original Daoism and their cultivation forms, along with Catholicism, Christianity, etc., and their religious practices, and then there have been ancient religions and different forms of belief in the divine. Religious faith is itself a form of cultivation activity, and in the process of believing, a person can elevate his realm of thought--it's that kind of practice. Whether or not they have the concept of "cultivation" in Western culture, it still counts as cultivation all the same and similarly requires a person to improve himself. Isn't the process of a life moving towards divinity one of cultivation? Whatever the form a person adopts, though, whichever one it may be among those that were left to us from the past, I will tell you, they are not the only forms of cultivation, and much less do all lives in the cosmos--especially the human race--have to adhere to these few forms. So they are not the sole paths to godhood. They are just a few forms of cultivation culture given to man by the measureless, countless gods, and nothing more than that. Moreover, they can't truly enable the person himself, or, his master soul, to cultivate into a god. In the past it was always the subordinate soul that did the cultivating. The true person, regardless of the method he cultivated with, would have his subordinate soul depart and the person himself would remain in the cycle of rebirth. Buddha Shakyamuni stated that there were 84,000 cultivation disciplines, but that was an understanding communicated based on his realm and within a certain scope. The Daoists hold that there are 3,600 cultivation disciplines, and that is likewise an understanding based on their particular realm. The truth is, the Fa principles they taught were limited. Then how many paths are there in the cosmos that can enable a life to ascend, to return to a higher realm? There are countless ways. However many sentient beings there are, that's how many paths there are. There are that many. With so many cultivation forms, then, of course they can't all be brought here to human society. The cosmos has a measureless, incalculable number of Buddhas, countless Gods, and moreover, to each of the multitude of gods, the cosmos at their position seems to already be at its zenith, with no lives existing above them and nothing existing above where they are. But in fact, in larger realms there are still more incomparably massive and high realms and even more Buddhas and gods that are innumerable, and when they look upon the gods below them, they see them as ordinary people. Then just how many paths are there? They, too, are countless. You know that Buddha Shakyamuni validated and enlightened to his cultivation discipline, which is summarized by the words "precept, concentration, wisdom"; that's the path Shakyamuni validated and enlightened to. There are so many Buddhas in the cosmic body, they are simply immeasurable, incalculable, yet in the cosmos there is no second Buddha whose validation and enlightenment consisted of "precept, concentration, wisdom." In other words, every god has his own path, and each god's system has for its sentient beings its own realm's unique standards and its own criteria based on its Law for a life's rise or fall. Then wouldn't you say there are many approaches to cultivation? The number is enormous.

Having said all this, I should tell you: Since there are so many cultivation forms in this cosmos, someone viewing this from a human perspective [might wonder], in Fa-rectification is there any cultivation form that I couldn't have Dafa disciples adopt and use to cultivate? To be explicit about it, if I, your master, didn't have you take this path you are walking today and instead used a different form, then you could still cultivate to Consummation. You know that the cosmos is going through Fa-rectification and everything is being created anew, and this is equivalent to recreating the cosmic firmament, recreating the cosmos. As for what form the future cosmos or future lives are to take, and in what fashion they will exist, or what type of Fa and what means of saving people will be left to the future--this isn't something that the lives of the past can determine, and it's not something that just any life can determine regardless of how high in level that life may be, for this is about what the future needs. Since the future's needs are the determining factor, think about it, if Master were to have you cultivate within the framework of society's politics, would that work? (Applause) Yes! It would for sure, it definitely would. As long as it had the Fa's standards and requirements, as long as lives could elevate, and as long as lives were able to reach high realms, then it would definitely work, for that would be the future's choice, the choice of the future cosmos, the choice of what cultivation form Dafa disciples are to go by. (Applause) It is merely that Master didn't choose to have you take that path, to walk the path of cultivation in that way. I have imparted to you a broader, most ideal form of cultivation, for, "the Great Way has no form"! (Applause) Each of you is a part of society, belonging to different social strata, each having your own job or profession in society, and having your own skills that you have acquired. In each respective setting, under the guidance of Dafa and free of form, all are able to cultivate; there are no rules or regulations, no religious formalities, and no commandments. This is something that not a single divine being in the past dared to do, but today, the Dafa disciples and I have done it. (Applause) Why is that so? Because this Fa is immense, and the Great Law of the cosmos is directly saving the Disciples of Dafa. Only this way could it be achieved.

Let me in fact go a step further. What's meant by "getting involved with politics," and what's meant by "cultivation form"? This is where a lot of people err. Suppose that I, Li Hongzhi, had chosen in this life to be an emperor and to lead a group of subjects to cultivate. Would that work? (Applause) Yes! It definitely would! As long as the Fa was upright and could truly ensure that lives elevated, and as long as the path was walked righteously, then it definitely would work! If it really were as I described, then that, too, would count as the future's choice, and it too would be the requirement of the future cosmos. Master didn't have you take that path, that's all. Whatever is chosen and whichever path is taken, that has to do with what the future needs, and it is what Master gives to the Dafa disciples. I chose the best form of cultivation to give to you all. (Applause) What I just talked about, being principles of high levels, would be hard for an ordinary person to understand. He simply can't understand such things. I am teaching the Fa to Dafa disciples, and you are quite clear as to what Dafa disciples are doing. Back in the years when Master was spreading the Fa, I talked about something, and it's something many students have heard about before. Namely, how the Buddhist and Daoist systems fought over which outward appearance--Buddhist or Daoist--I would choose. They argued fiercely over which kind of god's outer form I would assume to spread the Fa, since whichever kind of god's appearance was chosen would bestow glory and honor on that group of gods and on those lives. Think about it everyone, at that time the Daoists wanted me to use a Daoist form to spread the Fa, and it was for this reason that in recent times the Daoist religion appeared in China. In the past there was no Daoist religion. It was passed down from a master to a single disciple and done so in private, so it couldn't save sentient beings on a large scale, save all sentient beings, bring up that many disciples, or have all that many people reach Consummation. It was because of this that they established the Daoist religion. This is all in the past, though, and these are things I have talked about before, so I won't repeat things further. All of this is to say, which theory for cultivation, which method for carrying it out, and which outward form was adopted for Dafa disciples' cultivation was very significant, and especially significant was which method Master would adopt. That's because in history they knew well beforehand that Dafa would be spread here in human society, and so the old forces long, long ago started making arrangements for things. And actually, it's not just the old forces that made arrangements of this sort. With a cosmos this immense, no matter how I explain things to you, I do it within a scope that you can comprehend. Regardless of how this material entity ascends and which realm it reaches, it is merely one gigantic system, and generally speaking it is in regards to this system that I explain things to you. In fact a cosmic system of this sort, a system so enormous, seems to the sentient beings within it to be boundless and limitless, and even to a gigantic god that is how it appears to be. But in the context of a yet more distant, still more immense cosmic body, it is actually but a speck of dust. And in even more remote places there are still other countless cosmic bodies like that; and in places too remote to reach--places that even gods can't reach--there are still even more immense cosmic bodies. What are the lives there like? How do they discern [lives'] levels and how do those lives improve themselves? The gods in other systems have no way of knowing this, and in fact wouldn't understand it. These things that I am discussing are unfathomable to the gods of other cosmoses.

What I'm telling all of you is that many things in human society are not simple, either. You know that in today's society there are truly a dazzling array of different professions. It seems that this modern society is quite prosperous and has anything and everything. Why is that so? Why wasn't it like this in ancient societies? It is because, as I said earlier, many lives from distant cosmic bodies brought their things here to the human world. Why did they do that? I just talked about how Master had to choose between Buddhist and Daoist [images], how even the external appearance was really significant. Well, how could it be limited to only those things? The paths of cultivation, the different kinds of cultivation ways that were created in history for mankind, and even the forms of existence of many ethnicities and the characteristics of different cultures were all a result of those gods from distant cosmic bodies putting in their piece and presenting for Dafa all that would be involved in their paths. The point was to get here everything that Li Hongzhi would have to choose from, so that it would be fair to everyone. Let me give a few simple examples. You all know that along with painting there is music and sculpture. Those things and also modern science and technology are all different skills for various facets of human life. It seems as though human beings created those things themselves and did so to enrich human society, but that's actually not the case at all. What's the real reason, then? Let me tell you that those are in fact [parts of] cultivation and unique characteristics of the realms of lives from distant systems. Elevation in that kind of realm involves combining the understanding of those skills with the Fa. It requires elevating one's understanding, a limitless upward climb. Particles that make up high-level dimensions are smaller, and the sound-field there is also composed of microcosmic material particles, so the music is more pleasing to hear and the colors are more beautiful. All such matter is composed of high-level, microcosmic particles, which can't be found by lives in low-level dimensions. The works and the skills there are more advanced and magical, and a life's elevation means the dual elevation of realm and skill, and improvement of that life's understanding in different realms. In other words, if I'm to use the concepts of people on earth to describe it, when you are able to create good things, it is because you are a good person or because you have done something good. Conversely, only when gods see that you are a good person will they grant you wisdom and allow you to create things. (Applause) Isn't human society controlled by gods? These things all in fact have elements of the Fa in them. If I had you adopt those methods, would you still be able to cultivate? Yes, you could cultivate just the same. It's just that I didn't have you take such paths. Those are methods adopted by different cosmic bodies and different lives.

While in the process of rectifying the Fa I discovered a certain situation. What situation, you ask? In an enormous cosmic body that is quite far away, the elevation of lives there is very different from what is understood by lives in the cosmic system that you are in. They are sustained by their skills and the continual improvement of those skills. The gods at a higher level, then, have tied whether the lives at the lower levels can invent things and whether they can produce things onto the elevation of their realms. If a person's realm is elevated, his wisdom will be opened up, and he will be allowed to produce things, create things, and elevate. After he elevates, he will realize again and again that he is able to accomplish those things only because of the rise in his morality, and realize that he is able to elevate only because his own realm has risen. That entire incomparably gigantic system is like this, elevating while in pursuit of some type of skill. That's completely different from what sentient beings in this cosmic system, especially in modern times, understand cultivation to be. So, the gigantic colossal firmament is actually extremely immense, complicated, and orderly. When it comes to what is shown to mankind, what mankind is allowed to know about, and even the skills and the different kinds of cultures and different ways of existence for mankind, human beings think that these things are meant for human society to prosper. Human beings see knowledge and various skills only as things that, through acquisition via real-life experience, have enriched their own lives and created their own cultures. None of that is true. Human beings haven't created anything and are incapable of creating anything. If something doesn't exist in the cosmos, then human beings have no chance whatsoever of creating it. Even the most worthless, degenerate things in society were brought in by various gods. That was done because human society goes according to the principle of mutual generation and mutual inhibition, so alongside the good it is given the bad. Yet having it be bad was not the purpose of bringing it in. The reason is that those things are so different from mankind's ideas and the differences in the lives' forms are so great, and some are the complete opposite of the upright forms. Of course, some things have become even more rotten since being brought over here among humans, for in human society there is the issue of emotion, and under the effect of emotion these things have become more base and even very filthy. They have become a lot worse than they were originally, and this was caused by mankind itself.

Just now we talked about the issue of politics and what getting involved with politics means, and it led Master to talk about those things. That was to help free up your thinking so that you can take a look at this cosmos and know how to look at various things of mankind. They are not as mankind imagines them to be, they're not that simple. There are many different methods of cultivation. This Dafa that I have imparted to you is so enormous, yet there are very few people who can truly understand just how huge, how extraordinary, and how magnificent it really is. Only cultivators at different realms can experience how sacred it is in those realms, and only just that little bit. As cultivators move towards Consummation, and especially after reaching Consummation, the things that cultivators will be shown are so glorious, magnificent, and wonderful that they are simply indescribable. Even gods who are able to make it through the Fa-rectification will marvel with unparalleled awe after seeing all of it. The new cosmos is incomparably glorious, magnificent, and sacred.

As cultivators, you can understand and comprehend what I've just said. There is no need to tell these things to ordinary people. When you clarify the truth don't talk about these things. If you talk about these things, you will scare people off and throw their thinking into disarray. It will be very hard for them to understand it. If when you clarify the truth you talk about things at a level that's just a little too high, let me tell you, you will no longer be saving sentient beings but instead pushing them down. You can't talk about things at too high of a level. Talking about things at a high or low level is not a simple question of whether you are exercising good judgment. It is a question of whether you are saving sentient beings or destroying them. So when you clarify the truth you absolutely must not speak at too high of a level. Right now when you clarify the truth you only need to talk about the persecution of Dafa disciples, how the evil party has been violating the human rights and the freedom of belief of the Chinese people, how historically the evil party has persecuted the Chinese people and the people of the countries belonging to the wicked Communist bloc, and how it is persecuting Dafa disciples today in the same way. And that's enough. As for high-level cultivation and gods, you shouldn't talk about those things. It's very hard for ordinary people to understand them. You can understand these things, but remember that you too started out as an ordinary person and have come to understand and accept high-level Fa principles after cultivating step by step up through to today. In teaching the Fa, Master likewise started from the simple and progressed to the profound. If I had told you these things right at the beginning, if I had taught you these things right away six or seven, or seven or eight, years ago, you wouldn't have been able to accept them. And even if you could accept them, you wouldn't have understood clearly what I was talking about. That being the case, you not only need to clarify the truth, you also need to be wise while doing so. You should do it with wisdom and not talk about things at too high of a level.

It's been a long time since I last came here, so you probably want me to talk a little bit more. (Applause) (Many practitioners say, "Master, please sit down.") Let's do it this way. Just as we've done before, you can write questions on slips of paper and pass them up, and I will then answer them. Write the words big. Try your best not to ask questions that have nothing to do with cultivation, and try your best not to ask questions about the many things that you can resolve on your own while cultivating, for you have to walk your own path. The same holds for every student. If [you were to succeed] because I brought you there, then you absolutely couldn't be considered someone who cultivated, and you wouldn't have cultivated. It is extraordinary only when all of the tests are overcome by you yourself. Didn't Buddha Shakyamuni validate and enlighten to his own "precept, concentration, wisdom"? He made it through on his own. It's the same with you: You all must walk your own paths. Okay, now you can pass up your question slips. (Applause)

It makes no difference whether you started early or late in cultivation. Everyone seated here today, regardless of whether you are a new or veteran student, when it comes to cultivation all of you are treated the same. Master won't treat you differently just because you are a newer student, nor will I treat others differently because they are veteran students. But being Dafa disciples, you are cultivators. [And since you are] cultivators, you have to cultivate as such. Of course, for newer students there is always a process of understanding things, and that's not a problem. As long as you can truly cultivate based on the Fa and study the Fa regularly, you will be able to quickly catch up.

You can now go ahead and pass up the question slips.

No matter how much power Master has in Fa-rectification, on the surface the old force is still causing a partition, and it has separated Master's enormous power from the surface. Under normal circumstances it wouldn't be able to create this partition, but they are using the method of lining up a great multitude in a constant stream, and using as a partition a gigantic mass and the long, drawn-out time-space contained within that mass. Looking at it from beyond the cosmic bodies, one can see that very soon it will be broken through, but it feels like a few years when measured with the time of the human dimension. But once it is broken through, then this entire cosmos's Fa-rectification will be complete. So as [I go through] the process of crashing against it, they do a few things against Master, and have some effect on Master's surface body. Since July 20, 1999, the evil has done a lot of bad things, but I won't talk about those things too much. There is such an enormous amount of evil for Master to clear away, and Master has to bear the karma of many students, so there is a certain amount of harm done to [Master's] surface body.

Disciple asks: Dafa disciples from Chengdu city send their greetings to respected Master!

Teacher: Thank you! Master knows about all the things that are happening in Chengdu.

Disciple asks: In explaining the three withdrawals^[1] to ordinary people, if we talk about prophecies and epidemics will that be putting it at too high a level?

Teacher: Talking about prophesies and epidemics can be used only as a supplement to clarifying the truth, and don't go beyond just mentioning them. Don't take them as an indispensable part or a major part of truth clarification. If you do, [your efforts] will depart from what you want to do and your goal, and [you will] be far too reliant on those prophecies. They can play only a supporting role for you. Don't say too much about them--you can touch upon them and then leave it at that. Only by clarifying the truth with wisdom can you save people.

You all know whom I'm referring to when I say the "archfiend." It has killed so many Dafa disciples through persecution, and it's not that Gods and Buddhas don't want to punish it. In fact Gods and Buddhas, without exception, utterly detest it. When I say "utterly detest it," I'm of course using human language to express it, meaning that it is detested by all. Then why hasn't it been disposed of? Although the old forces' system has been cleared away, the surface of this world has, as you know, not been broken through. In this world that has not been broken through, the old forces set up many things ages ago--tens of millions of years ago. One thing that they set up is turning like a dial. Once it reaches a different position, a celestial phenomenon emerges in the world, and it's connected to the human body. If the thing the old forces set up early on isn't destroyed, it will keep moving and functioning. That's the reason it has not yet breathed its last and gone down to hell.

But why is it like this? As you know, the old forces' goal is to test Dafa disciples by having these clowns stage this persecution, isn't it? They think, "The test of Dafa disciples isn't over yet. Those students who have not yet stepped forward should be doing so continuously, and you have let those who haven't done well, do well." If we're going to talk about hindering the Fa-rectification's progress in this world, well, these students really are slowing it down. If [I] don't look after these people they will be destroyed and utterly finished, but they made vows in the past, and a being can't be judged based on one lifetime only, and should instead be judged comprehensively based on what has happened over time. So how could they not be looked after?

 

Disciple asks: Dafa disciples from Qingdao city, mainland China send their greetings to Master!

Teacher: Thank you. The rampant evil there doesn't have much time left.

Disciple asks: Will music in the future be developed based on music from the Tang Dynasty?

Teacher: Human society has gotten to where it is today, and it won't work to try to completely adopt any form from history. Mankind has, after all, reached the point where it is now. If mankind were to return to a human way of life or the way of life in ancient times, well, that would now be a very difficult adjustment. Even during the period when the Fa rectifies the human world, it will be only the complete, true picture of society that is displayed. In the future, only when the next cycle of humankind begins, will it be possible to start anew and return to a human path.

Disciple asks: All Dafa disciples from Chengde city, Hebei province, send their greetings to Master! (Teacher: Thank you.) All of the Dafa disciples are missing respected Master, will steadfastly walk well the final path of validating Fa, and live up to Master's merciful salvation.

Teacher: I know that the Dafa disciples in mainland China will do well, and everyone has seen this put into practice--[they] have become increasingly mature and done better and better. Cultivation, as I have said before, is like great waves sifting sand--what's left will be gold, and gold is indeed gold.

Disciple asks: In terms of the elimination of karma that we do when we send forth righteous thoughts, is that primarily referring to thought karma or does it include all karma in the body?

Teacher: Sending forth righteous thoughts, during the part when you're focusing on yourself, is not aimed at eliminating karma; it's to eliminate the elements that interfere with the righteous thoughts in your mind. In fact, sending forth righteous thoughts, strictly speaking, does not put much emphasis on karma itself, and it's even unnecessary for cultivators to send forth righteous thoughts directly toward karma. Cultivators have very little karma, and some karma is placed at various critical junctures and used for you to break through tests and improve yourself. Sending forth righteous thoughts is mainly to eliminate the interference in your mind, to enable you to target the evil persecution with a clear mind and stronger righteous thoughts, and to eliminate those wicked specters in other dimensions. To give you a sense [of what you are dealing with], after the evil Party's wicked specters and evil dragons are destroyed and broken apart, they turn into fragmented, deformed evil beings. Then after large quantities of those beings are eliminated, the few that remain, combined with the rotten demons that have not been completely destroyed and that are pressed down [here] from different dimensions, meaning the bad things that those wicked factors brought over--what I call "rotten demons," and which are truly deformed, very low, and even very filthy beings--are participating in persecuting Dafa disciples and interfering with Fa-rectification. Then of course, when I refer to evil beings in general, that includes the Fa-defying gods that have snuck into the Three Realms, gods that are interfering with Fa-rectification and that have turned bad, the old forces, and some interfering factors that the old forces arranged. Within this material dimension, originally there were also some wicked specters that interfered with Fa-rectification and Dafa disciples, and though there are but a few of them left, those are all still causing interference. Regardless of how their actions manifest, whether beings interfere with Fa-rectification by upholding the principles of the old cosmos or simply are evil, as long as they play a negative role in Fa-rectification and toward Dafa disciples, they are all what I call "the evil." Since the cosmos is changing and innumerable sentient beings are to be saved in the process of such a huge cosmic body being changed, any beings that come to interfere are committing a heinous and unpardonable sin.

Disciple asks: Please talk about some disciples' laziness and their desire for the good life.

Teacher: Ordinary people want a life in this world that is filled with wealth and power and that brings honor to their ancestors, so that they can stand out and strut around in pride. This is what humans are after. When they die they will have to go down to hell to pay for the karma they incurred, and this is the cycle that humans go through of accumulating karma and paying for it. As cultivators, you are not after these things. Not going after these things, though, is not a simple matter of saying so and having that be the same as cultivating. You need to be able to put it into practice during cultivation. Though you won't be able to completely get to that point for now, you need to make a diligent effort towards it and try your best to improve. Some students forget that they are cultivators and become unhappy as soon as they run into anything troublesome. Some students become unhappy whenever they encounter conflicts or emotional turmoil. In that case, are you still cultivating? Cultivators look at things in just the opposite way. They see tribulations and suffering as good opportunities for improvement. [To cultivators] these are all good things, and the more there are and the faster they come, the faster the improvement. Some cultivators want to push them away and think, "Don't come." Whenever [conflicts and turmoil] come up they think that others have a problem with them and they can't stand it when others say anything negative about them. You just want to live a more pleasant life, but is that cultivation? Can you really cultivate that way? If to this day you still can't come around on this concept, then as your master, I don't know how you will ever move towards Consummation. Since you seek to live comfortably, well, you can go right ahead with that. Master won't say anything when an ordinary person pursues a life of comfort. That's because no one can say that it's wrong for an ordinary person to seek to live comfortably; a human goes about his life with such pursuits. That's what human society is presently like. Master doesn't want to say anything about things of ordinary people right now. But as cultivators, you can't see things that way.

Disciple asks: It has been a year since the publication of the Nine Commentaries, yet only 5.3 million have quit from the Communist Party. How can we help more of the world's people quit the Party?

Teacher: Think about it, everyone, what will happen if a huge number of people quit the Party? If all of a sudden tens of millions of people quit the Party, the wicked Party would cease to exist just that quickly. But the evil elements arranged by the old forces are interfering, and they want to sustain the so-called conditions for testing Falun Dafa disciples. They won't consent to that many people quitting the Party all at once. The evil doesn't dare to interfere in this very weighty matter where people are making a choice that determines their survival or destruction, but the evil elements are interfering with message transmission and reception capacity. That means each day, whether the medium is phone calls, e-mails, or information relayed by people who have traveled outside China, only so many requests for withdrawals can be received via the various information channels. And communication channels are not the only problem. There are many people in mainland China who want to quit the Party but can't find a means to do so, and can't find people to file their requests. This is why the number of people who ask to quit the three communist organizations each day is kept at this level. Otherwise, the number would be very large, and once there are a lot of people [quitting], it will pose a very serious threat to the evil.

As you know, the surge of people quitting the Party since the Nine Commentaries was published is a matter of people choosing their futures, so everyone has to take a stance. What will happen as more people quit, you wonder? Because the Nine Commentaries is being spread more and more widely in society, its influence is growing. As soon as the wicked Party started interfering with Fa-rectification and persecuting Dafa disciples, Heaven decided to weed out the wicked Party. There was unanimous agreement among both gods who play a positive role and old forces who play a negative role. It was only that some bad elements insisted that it be used to test Dafa disciples, and they didn't want it to be weeded out immediately; however, it will be weeded out for certain. At most it was meant to play its so-called role of testing Dafa disciples during the process of it being weeded out, the idea being that those students who hadn't done well would be given another chance to temper and improve themselves, and make it through in terms of understanding. If the evil specters all vanished instantly, the wicked Party would immediately fall apart, and then who would dare to persecute Falun Gong? Who else has such nerve? (Master smiles) So wouldn't the Dafa disciples who haven't done well be out of chances, then? It is true that Master does not acknowledge the persecution, but things have gotten to where they are today and the persecution has, after all, happened. Besides, there are so many Dafa disciples who have done very well and come through. But as for those who have gone over to the opposite side and written something for the evil, what can we do about the stain? What can we do about those who had earlier benefited from Dafa and then didn't validate the Fa during the persecution? They have to be given a chance, right?

The continuing growth in the number of people quitting the Party is the process of the wicked Party crumbling. Before long, a phenomenon will appear in Chinese society: when a group of people are sitting in their office, or they are in their factory or a store, or they are sitting around a dinner table, or even as they are entertaining friends at home, their conversation will go something like: "Have you quit?" (Audience laughs) "Yeah, I quit a long time ago." "Oh, why didn't you tell me when you quit the Party?" (Audience laughs and applauds) Think about it, everyone, when Chinese society gets to this stage, will the wicked Party still exist? The bad people think that they will be fine since they have the supposedly powerful tools that go with dictatorship. The evil will continue to disintegrate imperceptibly, and the wicked Party will be helpless in the face of the people's choice. In fact, prior to July 20, 1999, I said in my open letter to them that the persecution would cause them to lose the public's faith. In fact, when the number of people quitting the Party hit 5 million, the foundation of the wicked Party was uprooted. So when the number of people quitting the Party reached 5 million, the members of the CCP, from top to bottom, no longer had confidence in the wicked Party. (Audience applauds) That was because they know that nothing could revive this wicked Party when it is on its deathbed. No one has a way to do that. (Audience applauds)

Disciple asks: Ordinary people say that the Olympic games will give China a chance to shine on the world stage, and after that the wicked Party will collapse. What should we make of that?

Teacher: Ordinary people can say whatever they wish. Well, the Olympics are a few years away, so it's questionable whether the wicked Party will make it that long. And whether or not it will be given a chance to shine is not up to humans. Human society wasn't created for it. What's there to shine, anyway? You know, before there were people who fretted about what would happen to China if the wicked Party fell--a laughable thought instilled by the wicked Party's culture. When the wicked CCP disintegrates, won't China still be China? Of course, there are very few people who are still holding on to that concern now. People now are actively thinking about things and know that the wicked Party is doomed. The Chinese people are now talking about how to stabilize Chinese society when the wicked Party falls. This is what people are saying now. People's mindsets and way of thinking are changing. Think about it, everyone. China is China, and it has had five thousand years worth of civilization. When one dynasty is gone, is it necessary to worry that a new one won't take its place? When gods want something to fall into chaos, it will surely do so, whether [the people within] it want it to or not; when gods don't want it to fall into chaos, it surely won't be chaotic, even if [the people within] it want it to be so. (Applause)

The wicked Party is attaching itself to the ideological system of the Chinese nation, to human bodies, and to Chinese culture. At the same time, it is undermining Chinese culture and persecuting the Chinese people. If the wicked Party crumbles and its evil specters are all destroyed--as if it suddenly evaporated in the human world--won't China still be China? (Applause) Moreover, if the Chinese people and those in power can truly realize the evil of the wicked Party and consider what's in the nation's best interest, then that society will surely make a stable transition. But of course, these are just words, and as to how it's going to go, it won't be driven and directed by human will--gods have their arrangements. (Applause)

Disciple asks: Respected Master has talked about fine arts and music, so do the Truth-Compassion-Tolerance Art Exhibitions and New Year's Gala have far-reaching significance?

Teacher: No matter what talents Dafa disciples have and no matter what aspect of culture these involve in human society, these are talents that humans possess. This is how it should be understood at the moment, at least. Dafa disciples are using their unique strengths as they validate the Fa. These are things Dafa disciples should do, and it can be said that they are making the most of their talents to do what Dafa disciples should do, so that is a great thing. In fact, isn't this the case with everyone? Those of you who are good at computers are breaking through the Internet blockade and clarifying the truth online, and of course there are those with other talents. It's all the same. Those who really don't have special talents are handing out flyers on the streets, and the mighty virtue is the same. No one will fail to reach a high realm in cultivation because society doesn't consider what he or she does scientifically or technologically advanced. That's impossible. (Applause)

Disciple asks: Our media has highlighted ancient prophecies that said the CCP would die in the Year of the Rooster and similar things. But everything is changing during Fa-rectification. If what happens does not match up with the prophesies, will that damage the reputation of our media?

Teacher: As for the reputation of our media being damaged, well, there's not much to say about that. But [I do want to say that] media is just media, these things aren't some sort of Ultimate Truth, and Dafa disciples shouldn't get too attached to them. Some people are always attached to what prophecies have said and why it didn't happen that way. They've begun to take these as the Fa. Don't forget that since the start of Fa-rectification, everything has had to be determined by what the future needs, including what process the Fa-rectification itself goes through. Prophecies can be used only when they are conducive to saving sentient beings. There are also people who say, "Something Master said seems to mean such and such, but why didn't it happen when the time came?" [People who feel that way are] actually all just speculating. Isn't an attachment to time an attachment? Only when you cultivate without any omissions or gaps is it the best cultivation. Dafa disciples are to do what Dafa disciples are supposed to do, openly and with confidence. When you [are able to do that] and have no thoughts of being dependent on other people or things, the evil won't dare to exploit your gaps, and bad things will flee at the mere sight of you, because you have no omissions that it can exploit. When the evil can persecute students, isn't that because it manages to exploit the students' gaps arising from their attachments? Isn't that why it can persecute students in the first place? This includes some students feeling physical discomfort, even to the point of having seemingly serious conditions or in some cases even passing away prematurely. There are factors arranged by the old forces at work there, but there's also an element of the students themselves not acting so righteously. If [you] act in a truly righteous manner, nothing will dare to lift a finger against you. (Applause) It's easy to say, but for cultivators, it is very tough to do as you cultivate, and Master sees that. But there is a point I want to make: No matter what, have righteous thoughts and act righteously, and there will be no test that you cannot pass. Even if things do get very grave and you don't know where your own problem lies, you can't be without righteous thoughts. No matter what the circumstances, your fundamental faith in Dafa cannot waver, because when [your faith remains strong], even if you can't fully understand something or you haven't done something well and didn't pass a major test, or even if you lost your human body and left this world, you will nevertheless achieve Consummation. (Applause) That's because Master does not acknowledge this persecution, and that thing was done to you by the persecution. So you must make sure to heed this. At that moment, if you suddenly switch sides and turn bad in that instant, then everything of yours might be finished. Your righteous thoughts must be strong enough, and even when you haven't passed a test well, you cannot waver on the most fundamental issue. Dafa disciples, let me tell you about a principle. If an ordinary person can do Dafa disciples' things during this time when Dafa disciples are persecuted, this person will become a divine being for sure, even though he is an ordinary person who hasn't cultivated. (Applause) You have done so much, and if it is a matter of one or two tests or a big ordeal arranged by the old forces not being overcome--if that's all--it is only a matter of the level of your Consummation, not a matter of whether you reach Consummation at all. (Applause)

Disciple asks: Is Lei Feng^[2] a product of the evil Party's culture? Can he remain in Zhuan Falun?

Teacher: The evil Party has attached itself to the Chinese nation and Chinese people's bodies and culture. It is using Chinese people and Chinese culture to do harm to the Chinese people and their culture. Lei Feng actually has a subordinate soul that is a pratyekabuddha (self-enlightened one). Of course, this is the situation of divine beings in the old cosmos. As far as how he'll be positioned in the future, that is something that belongs to the future. How far back his relationship goes and what kind of direct connections he has with the evil Party will be seen in the future.

Disciple asks: Can we read Zhuan Falun out loud and broadcast it via the radio station? For fifteen minutes per week?

Teacher: It is not that you can't broadcast it via radio, but it seems that the timing isn't quite right yet. Programming needs to be based on what today's audience likes to watch or listen to, and [what you proposed] is doable only when people have widely understood Dafa. Currently, only when your programs suit the taste of the audience will you have more listeners. And only after that happens will you be able to achieve the effect of clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings. If content related to Dafa takes up too much time, ordinary people who don't practice cultivation will not find it interesting. The inner meaning of Dafa can't be put out there for ordinary people so casually like that, so broadcasting it that way will not be effective. Shouldn't saving people be done with wisdom? When people have a certain level of understanding about Dafa, it might be acceptable to do that. At this stage, the timing doesn't seem very appropriate.

Disciple asks: Did Fa-rectification begin a very long time ago?

Teacher: It started two years before I began teaching the Fa. But some students have seen that it began in the distant past, tens of thousands of years ago, tens of millions of years ago, or even beyond that. Can that be the case? Yes. That's because the time here is different than the time there. Here, if I started something a second ago, over there it has already been a very long time, perhaps ten thousand years. So far we have seen sixteen years pass. In some dimensions millions of years have passed. That's the idea. There is this difference in time.

Disciple asks: Right now, many students are acutely aware of colors. Master, please talk a little about the colors red and black.

Teacher: In the cosmos, darkness normally suggests negative beings and dimensions; particularly in lower-level dimensions a dark appearance generally signifies a negative being. Of course not every case is like that. For example, some Daos wear black clothing. As a matter of fact, though, negative beings indeed like darkness, and they also like irregularity. However, as for those negative beings, regardless of which dimension they are from or even if they are demons, or whatever kind of beings they may be, if they don't get involved in damaging Dafa and don't affect the matter of Fa-rectification, they are not beings to be weeded out during Fa-rectification.

It is necessary for negative beings to exist in the cosmos. If everything in the cosmos were positive and every realm was positive, then positivity would cease to exist. Of course, where Buddhas are, there are definitely no beings as filthy and bad as those on earth. At their realms, both positive and negative beings exhibit themselves, but the realms of those negative beings are also at those same levels. At lower levels, the not-so-good beings look even worse, while the good beings are not as good as those at higher levels. This is caused by the difference in realms. If there were no negative beings in the cosmos, think about it everyone, if the entire cosmos were positive, then what would being positive mean? No one would understand what it means to be positive, since there would be nothing to compare to. If everything were good, then where would you find the bad? Because they have bad things to compare with [good ones], people can understand what is good and what is bad. Because of the evilness of demons, people have come to know what the benevolence of Buddhas is. Just as I have said before, tribulations will bring about this state of mind in beings: only after putting forth great effort will people come to understand the pains required to achieve something, and consequently feel happy to have it. And during the process, the vitality and brilliance of sentient beings and the universe will be manifested. That's how things truly are.

Also, as you all know, the evil Party has manifested itself in this human world as idolizing the color red and has made it the symbol of the wicked Party. In the heavens, its original image is a red, evil dragon. That's why here on earth right from the start it began establishing red regimes, red revolutions, the Red Army, the red revolutionaries in the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards, red armbands, red collar badges, red flags, the five red stars, big red lanterns, huge red pillars, red walls--in any case, everything is red. The evil Party calls it a "new world filled with red." It's really scary to human beings, though--a world filled with red. And now today when the evil Party is about to utterly collapse, look at what the evil Party is putting on stages for performances: red curtains, red lighting, red costumes, red sets--my goodness, the whole stage is filled with red. If it's not huge red lanterns, then it's red flags filling up the stage. I generally refer to it as "evil Party red." Bright red, from an aesthetic point of view or from the perspective of what it usually signifies in society, should be used only to complement and enhance, not as a base color. You can't use big blocks of red as the backdrop, because if you do that, all the other colors can't stand out. That's why the color red should be used only to complement and enhance. Then why does the evil Party so idolize red? It is in fact a reflection of its worship of blood and of its need to satisfy a bloodlust. The evil Party culture openly admits that the red flag was dyed with blood. The evil Party wishes the streets were awash with people's blood. Many people are actually disgusted by the way red is being used. Some students sitting in the audience here are wearing red, but of course, there is no element of the evil Party there, as you are Dafa disciples. There's a purpose behind the "evil Party red" being used even more rampantly now. Right now, the way it is being used in movies and on stage has reached a mad, incoherent level. If you haven't noticed, you can take a closer look at its programs. They're doing that because few evil spirits and beings remain and the evil is about to fall, so it is trying to fill their ranks and bolster their nerve.

Disciple asks: I find some of my fundamental attachments to be very stubborn, and they have affected my improvement and saving sentient beings. I ask Master in my heart to remove those stubborn parts of my being and recreate them.

Teacher: Master is actually taking care of everything. If you don't resist it or don't handle things with righteous thoughts, but instead often let attachments guide your behavior, then that's not cultivation. How can it be right to ask Master to do everything! If I were to recreate you, you would really be recreated, and it would not be completely you. That's why you have to cultivate yourselves. The Fa-principles are all laid out there. Why is it that others can achieve that, but you can't? Study the Fa more, and take a look at some of the articles on Clearwisdom that students publish to share with each other. They are truly wonderful, and indeed very mature. Some of the articles were really well written. Compare yourselves with those and see where you fall short. You have to walk your own path. Otherwise, when you ascended to the heavens, others would question you, saying, "How did you get up here? Which part is a result of your own enlightening? You weren't able to overcome even such a major problem, and only after your master removed it did you make it through. You can't say that you were cultivating. You didn't cultivate your way up here. Isn't that so?" You wouldn't feel comfortable staying up there and would go down. (Master laughs) And do you think you could cultivate again once you went back down? Don't miss this predestined chance. What's so hard about it? Think about it, [and you will see that] this is about not cherishing enough your predestined opportunity to cultivate, about not cherishing the Fa enough, and not cherishing your own life enough. When you truly understand these things, you will do well.

Disciple asks: Disciples outside of China attained the Fa abroad because they have their own special mission. Now that all the Dafa disciples are involved in media work, is it true that more disciples should come out and join the media work? According to my understanding, overseas disciples should all be doing media work.

Teacher: Who told you that? (Audience laughs) What I was just talking about was how Dafa disciples are all validating the Fa according to their own strengths. When it comes to doing media work, if you can write, know how the media works, or can sell advertisements, or you can do other supplementary work for a media outlet, that means you have the right skill set to do media work and you can go right ahead. Isn't everyone putting his own abilities to use and finding the right spot to validate the Fa? You aren't all doing the same thing. I just talked about this, right? [Didn't I say] that the Great Way has no form, and everyone is proactively validating the Fa within his own social stratum and profession using his own unique strengths?

Disciple asks: When we study the Fa with little disciples, is it okay to skip the characters that they don't recognize?

Teacher: They can ask about the characters they don't know and inform each other. If none of the children recognizes the word, then it's not a problem to skip it--they can ask the adults about it later, and there is a process there. When they run into a word that they don't recognize, if they then stop the study for the day and wait [to study again] until they ask and find out what the word is, that won't do.

Disciple asks: Did the evil specter of the wicked Party exist on the previous earth?

Teacher: No, it's just a recent product of this earth. The old forces feel that it is quite an achievement to have sustained the evil Party for the hundred-plus years since its creation. That's because it is against the cosmos, and beings throughout the entire cosmos are enemies of it and want to eliminate it. Some people think that the United States and Western society want to defeat the evil Party. That's not human beings' wanting to defeat the evil Party: that is cosmic forces manifesting in this human dimension. Human beings themselves, though, are also against the things such as violent revolution and class struggle that the evil Party advocates.

Disciple asks: What do the other dimensions of non-cultivating ordinary people look like?

Teacher: Why do you care about a non-cultivating ordinary person's state? It's hard to say whether they even have other dimensions. Many people destroyed them when doing bad things. Some have them, some no longer do.

Disciple asks: I am a Taiwanese Dafa disciple living in North America. Taiwanese Dafa disciples send greetings to revered Master.

Teacher: Thank you all. (Applause)

Disciple asks: Can the students who petition in front of the Consulate in San Francisco distribute the Nine Commentaries to people, Chinese and non-Chinese, visiting the Consulate?

Teacher: They certainly can. As we are talking about the Nine Commentaries, I want to talk with you about this a little bit more. When the Nine Commentaries came out, some people said that you were getting political, and some students who had fear acting up in their minds shared the same view. But what's there to be afraid of? If the Nine Commentaries were not something Master asked to have done, could Dafa disciples have done it?

You know the purpose of distributing the Nine Commentaries, right? Since the day the persecution started, Dafa disciples all over the world, including those in mainland China, have kept writing to the evil Party's central government. Each of the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee, including that archfiend, have been burning a huge number of letters every day. The archfiend has burned a bin of letters each day. We clarified the truth to it and asked it to stop the persecution, yet it insisted on continuing the persecution. In the end, it still launched this persecution on July 20, 1999. Even with that, I still gave it chances. We clarified the truth to it again, and while we were being persecuted, we gave it another year. The letters addressed the impact that the persecution would have on [the archfiend] itself, on the nation, and even on the evil Party. Things were explained very clearly, but it still kept on with the persecution. In other words, the persecution did not stop even after one year of persuasion. It still kept up the persecution. Then Dafa disciples told the world that it was the archfiend who was single-mindedly, obstinately using the evil Party's power to persecute Falun Gong students. That clown really thought it was emperor. Its jealousy, twisted mindset, and irrational rage led to this persecution. We then exposed it before the people of the whole world and let the whole world know about that clown who had lost its mind. When the persecution still continued, we brought lawsuits against it around the world. Though it is so vicious, it's actually very cowardly. When it saw disasters looming right in front of it, it got scared to death. But the evil specter of the wicked Party and bad, chaotic ghosts and beings controlled this buffoon, who was in a situation where it was impossible to back down gracefully. To continue to persecute Falun Gong students they took advantage of its vile thoughts. And the persecution still didn't stop. Dafa disciples then further exposed it and sued it on a larger scale all over the world. After that it could no longer show its face. No other country's leader anywhere in the world has been so disgraced. In the history of China, there has never been an emperor whose evil deeds were exposed by the people so thoroughly during his reign. The actions arising from that twisted mind have really disgusted the world's people. Regardless of how bad the first Qin Emperor may have been, people talked about and judged him only after he passed away. No emperor has been completely exposed like this while still in power--exposed, that is, to the point of being putrid and untouchable. Leaders in many countries are talking about it, believing it to be mentally ill and irrational, a mentally deficient fool.

Cultivators are on a journey to divinity. They don't see any human beings as their enemies, and they try their best to save all sentient beings. Even if a person has become so bad that he can no longer be saved, we still won't allow him to continue carrying out persecution. As you all know, it was removed from power during the periodic change of government officials. The truth is that it had gotten too crazy and out of hand, and the old forces made it step down. The old forces know that it was afraid of being held accountable for the bad things it was doing, and it therefore placed its own people at high levels of the evil Party. The old forces thought that this way they could balance the power just right. In addition, such an arrangement would allow the evil Party's factors to come to the surface. These [two things] have, after all, been using each other all along. Given that, Dafa disciples are to expose the evil Party, helping everyone take a look at why the evil Party has wanted to persecute Falun Gong, what the evil Party is about, and what Falun Gong is about. All along Dafa disciples have been explaining what Falun Gong is, and now you will explain as well what the evil Party is about.

The reason for Dafa disciples to do this is not to overthrow the evil Party, and even less is it a plot to seize power. Dafa disciples expose it to help people see its true nature clearly and stop collaborating with it in the persecution of Falun Gong. (Applause) That is our goal. The Buddha Law is a serious thing, however; once a decision is made, once an undertaking is begun, it is to be finished. So, I knew that when the Nine Commentaries came out, once the true picture was shown to the world's people and the Chinese people, the evil CCP would for sure disintegrate. After all, the power of Buddha Law is at work. Of course, I have said before, and I wasn't joking: If the Nine Commentaries don't work, we have other means. (Applause) We will not resort to violence, and we will put to use every peaceful means there is to end the persecution. As the saying goes, "Buddha Law is boundless." If you don't believe it, just wait and see. (Applause)

Of course, the Nine Commentaries will be more than sufficient. (Teacher chuckles) Since the gods decided to destroy the evil Party the moment it began to persecute Falun Gong, each Chinese person's belief or lack thereof in the evil Party has become something that determines whether he will be weeded out in the future. This is the role that the Nine Commentaries plays in truth clarification. The gods have seen that, and that's why all of the higher beings, positive and negative gods alike, regardless of their origin and purpose, all are using ordinary people to promote the Nine Commentaries in China. Those transporting the Nine Commentaries into mainland China are not limited to Dafa disciples; ordinary people, too, have been bringing in the Nine Commentaries in large quantities, some even in cargo containers. Also, many ordinary people are putting together and printing the Nine Commentaries in print shops. All the gods are doing these things. This means Dafa disciples are not the only ones playing this role in saving beings. Even ordinary people are doing it, many ordinary people. The evil Party has been persecuting Chinese people for so many years. During the years that it has been in Chinese society, it has, in the time since its founding, harmed more than two thirds of the Chinese people in its many political movements, and many hate the evil Party. For some in China it is a really burning hatred. Those people are doing it. The gods are using every opportunity to promote the Nine Commentaries. You'll see, soon it will be over for the evil Party. (Applause) These things are happening because whether people stay or go is related to whether beings at higher realms can stay, and those are enormous groups of beings. Moreover, it has a connection with almost all celestial beings, directly or indirectly.

Some people have asked, "Do people from other countries need to announce their withdrawal from the Party?" It's not a big issue for people from other countries. The evil Party in Eastern Europe crumbled because the people were against it. The people there already did what they were supposed to do. The Chinese people have not. The Chinese people must make that statement. By whatever means, you have to publicly announce that you withdraw from the evil Party. That's because for Chinese people, starting as a Young Pioneer in primary school, all the way to becoming a member of the Youth League and then a member of the Party, you have made pledges before the flag of blood. The pledges you've made are no simple matter. Gods consider those to be blood oaths. That's why Chinese people must clearly state their withdrawals; otherwise it doesn't count. You may say that you already withdrew in your mind a long time ago and no longer pay Party dues. No, that doesn't count. When you made that blood oath to the heavens before the flag of blood, an act directly witnessed by countless gods in the heavens, you said that you would dedicate your entire life and your being to the wicked Party. Having uttered those words and having made such a serious blood oath, now you want to take care of it so casually and perfunctorily? That's not acceptable. So if they want to make it to the next phase, Chinese people must publicly announce their resignations from the Party. They must take action to make the announcement, and it's not acceptable simply to take a stand without any action.

Disciple asks: We Vietnamese students are in the process of translating Zhuan Falun. We always feel that our translation isn't accurate, and this has gone on for over two years. Master, please give us some guidance.

Teacher: As far as translating Zhuan Falun goes, talk to students who did this with other languages and you may come to understand that to translate it perfectly accurately is impossible. Of course, if you used original, classical Vietnamese, you almost wouldn't need to translate it because at one time Chinese characters were used in almost all parts of Asia. But later when the French created those characters for the Vietnamese, it cut contemporary Vietnamese thinking off from its ancient culture. The modern-day Vietnamese people have indeed been affected in terms of their way of thinking. There is almost no inner meaning in the contemporary Vietnamese language, and that's why it is so difficult to translate it accurately. So you should just take the translation approach used by English and other languages. Do your best to express the surface meaning clearly, and that will be good enough. There's no need to translate the Fa-principles at higher levels. The Fa will display the higher-level inner meanings, and that is the manifestation of the Fa's inner meanings at different realms.

Disciple asks: How should we handle the issue of investment versus speculation? I'm encountering this problem at work.

Teacher: If you are referring to doing this as a profession in human society, it's not something you can call a part of cultivation. Even though you are a Dafa disciple, your work in society isn't cultivation, but your cultivation will be reflected in your work in society. That's how they're related. Whatever your profession in ordinary society may be, you have to do it according to human society's rules and forms. That's how it works. As for the distinction between speculation and investment, it's a matter of the state of society. Our students should try their best to handle themselves well. If you feel there is a business prospect, an opportunity, then go ahead and do it. An investment opportunity is not necessarily the same as speculation; it doesn't necessarily fall into the category of speculation. That's because as the business world has developed in society, all the sectors seem to have been saturated, especially in recent times. So latecomers find it hard to establish a foothold, and when someone finds an opportunity, it's a business prospect. Things will thus work out fine if you have a clear understanding on issues like this. Work itself is not cultivation.

Disciple asks: I can't keep pace with Fa-rectification's progress and, of the three things, I haven't done well in clarifying the truth. I'm really anxious about this. I am working hard on studying the Fa and memorizing the Fa, though. Will I be able to have a rapid breakthrough? On behalf of Dafa disciples from Beijing's Fengtai District, I send our greetings to Master!

Teacher: Thank you all! If you haven't done well, try to improve gradually. It's good that you know you need to focus on it. There is no use in being anxious, and that's an attachment. Don't be anxious and just do what Dafa disciples should do. Look at how others are doing it and follow their lead. Gradually you will blaze your own path, and gradually you will be able to do it in your own way.

Disciple asks: Peruvian and Spanish-speaking students send their greetings to respected Master!

Teacher: Thank you! (Applause) Now the number of students in South America is gradually increasing and the more-veteran ones are beginning to mature. These are great developments. Dafa disciples have become almost the only hope for humanity in some regions. Even though on the surface society is still functioning and Dafa disciples seem to be going virtually unnoticed by the various industrial and professional sectors, that's not the reality. The divine beings and all sentient beings in the cosmos are watching. The positions Dafa disciples are in and the roles they are playing are both tied to the survival of humankind.

Disciple asks: In exposing the CCP's evilness, how can our media handle things well so that ordinary people can continue to accept and support us?

Teacher: You should remember that your righteous thoughts can change ordinary people and that you are not to be directed by them. If ordinary people say something or interfere with you, don't take it to heart, and just do what you need to do. The sources of human thoughts are very complicated, and in many cases it is people's notions talking, not their true thoughts or their true beings. So the things they say are often specious and not what they mean. They forget the things they just said right after saying them. They don't even take their own remarks seriously, so why would you? Don't worry about what they say, [but] every word that you say is like a thunderclap to them.

Disciple asks: A very small number of veteran students have for quite some time been doing Dafa work without studying the Fa or doing the exercises. If it keeps on like that long-term, are they cultivating?

Teacher: This problem indeed exists. Many Dafa disciples are shouldering several Dafa projects, and things that validate the Fa do need to be done, so they don't have time to study the Fa or they have less time to study the Fa and do the exercises. They indeed can't continue doing this long-term. That's because we all know that, especially when it comes to the students in mainland China, whether a student can walk the path righteously and well under those circumstances is entirely contingent on studying the Fa well. If you don't study the Fa your righteous thoughts won't be strong; if you don't study the Fa the changes on the surface will be slow for you and your role in containing the evil in society will be weak.

Disciple asks: What's the old forces' situation like currently? Is their existence only for the sake of disciples' cultivation and sentient beings positioning themselves properly?

Teacher: To put it simply, they exist for the sake of their own existence. Everything they do is for the sake of their own existence. If they were to succeed in manipulating Dafa disciples, this universe would end up as if nothing had changed and remain as before. That's the situation. But that is not to be. The future doesn't acknowledge anything of the old forces, and the change is inevitable. The old forces' overall system has already been destroyed, since the Fa-rectification has destroyed it at the highest place. It's just that the things the old forces left in this world in the past are still having a superficial effect; the things that have not been destroyed are still functioning. As for what will happen to sentient beings, human beings in particular, the old forces couldn't care less.

Disciple asks: The beings and humans that haven't yet awakened will be weeded out. Will they have opportunities in the future to be saved?

Teacher: The beings that have not yet awakened still have time to do so right now, don't they? As for the future, we haven't set anything in stone. Dafa disciples should just go ahead and do Dafa disciples' things. If the beings that truly can't be saved are weeded out, well, that's not something to form an attachment about and that's what the Fa-rectification requires. When the enormous force of Fa-rectification comes, there won't be much fuss over this or that. It will be like things being wiped out, and it will be finished in an instant.

Disciple asks: It has been almost a year since the Nine Commentaries have been disseminated, and the number of people quitting the Party has stabilized at around 20,000 every day. If the wicked Communist Party collapses, does that mean that the time of Fa rectifying the human world has come?

Teacher: What you are asking is actually two questions. [You're saying that] the daily number of people quitting the Party is always 20,000, [and you are wondering whether] it could reach as many as one hundred thousand or 10 million a day. I addressed this question earlier.

If the wicked Party collapses, is that the time when the Fa rectifies the human world, you ask? That's still an unknown right now. If the wicked Party falls before the Fa-rectification of the human world begins, it will really lead to a period of modern society where there is no wicked Party. And with regard to China specifically, this will bring about some issues specific to a society free of the wicked Party. When the Fa's rectification of the human world does arrive, we will see the way of life for the next stage of humanity. You shouldn't be thinking about any of this right now, nor is it something for people to be concerned about. It's going to be a completely different state of human society. I will address this from another angle: it is an act of compassion for Dafa disciples to save all beings, and you are trying to save as many sentient beings as possible. If you are able to save half of the human beings, then Master will truly be happy for you!

Disciple asks: I have a question, Master. There are a few ordinary people in the Bay Area who actively undermine Dafa and are hostile to Dafa, which has negatively affected other ordinary people quite a bit. This is attributable to our local Dafa disciples not having done well. How can we do better?

Teacher: When the Dafa disciples' righteous thoughts are a bit stronger, everything will be changed by the Dafa disciples and the evil will be eliminated. Then what will the bad people amount to? Aren't those few bad people doing these things under the evil's control? When the evil is eliminated and you stand in front of that person, will he dare to say a single negative word [about Dafa] to you? Facing a god, he won't dare. (Applause)

Disciple asks: Master, please explain the connection between levels and dimensions.

Teacher: The breakthroughs in levels I talk about are breakthroughs in dimensions. Each level is a dimension, that's the idea.

Disciple asks: Our group has always had endless arguments over which approaches to take. One fellow practitioner thinks that the current approach has no future and is full of inadequacies, whereas his approach is better, has long-term benefits, and will save human and material resources. Could we ask Master to enlighten us on this with Fa principles?

Teacher: If Master's instructions are required for such specific things that Dafa disciples are doing, isn't that the same as me doing them myself? You'd be no more than one of my hands then, wouldn't you? I want you to have your own mind and your own body, and be a complete divine being. You need to do what you need to do, and when it comes to those things, you need to handle them, make judgments on them, and coordinate them yourselves. I'm confident you will do them well.

Disciple asks: Dafa disciples from the following places send their greetings to Master: Beijing's Fengtai District; Jiangmen city in Guangdong province; Chongqing city; Dalian city; Shenyang city; Zhengzhou city in Henan province; Shanxi province; Yunnan province; Guizhou province; Beijing; Jiangxi province; Xi'an city; Nanning city in Guangxi province; Shenzhen city; Hunan province; Lanzhou University; Guangzhou city; Shanghai; Shiyan city in Hubei province; Tangshan city; Arizona; Vancouver; Vietnam; San Diego; Harbin city in Heilongjiang province; Qiqihar city; Daqing city; Mudanjiang city; Xinjiang province; Tianjin city; Shijiazhuang city; Qingdao city in Shandong province; and Anshan city in Liaoning province.

Teacher: Thank you. (Applause) Recently some Dafa disciples from mainland China have come overseas and Master knows about that. I hope that you will still do a good job with what Dafa disciples should do, given your new environment. No matter where you are, you are always a Dafa disciple. (Applause)

Disciple asks: I've recognized attachments such as arrogance and jealousy in myself, so why haven't I been able to get rid of them even after a long time?

Teacher: If you truly take these things that seriously, you will be able to restrain them. Then you will be able to weaken them and gradually get rid of them completely. If it's a case where you are aware of it and feel anxious about it, but in practice you don't truly restrain and suppress it, then in reality you are just stopping at this mental activity of seeing and feeling something, but you haven't taken any action to suppress that thing. In other words, you have only thought about it but not actually cultivated and put it into practice. Another situation is one where you might say, "I have cultivated wholeheartedly and carried it out through concrete actions, yet this [problem] is still happening." That [occurs] because things developed over a long period of time have been separated into layers by factors pressed down here by beings from the old cosmos. So each time a layer is broken through, that layer is wiped out; then another layer is broken through and wiped out; and another is broken through and wiped out. In this way, they will become weaker and weaker, and there will be fewer and fewer of them. They won't be gone all at once, and this is what leads you to experience that [feeling you have]. The same applies to many other human attachments, the same happens with them.

Disciple asks: Would Master please instruct me on the difference between the mind being unmoved and being in a state of indifference, both of which I have experienced from time to time?

Teacher: In cultivation, different states will manifest, and sometimes it really is quite hard for you to distinguish among them. But usually the state of a very calm mind is such that it's still serene when faced with a lot of interference, and it is unaffected by ordinary human emotions such as getting excited, feeling wronged, etc. It is very calm, and it won't negatively impact doing the things that Dafa disciples should do. There is definitely a difference between that and the human state of feeling helpless, not wanting to do anything, and becoming numb to something after seeing it too often.

Disciple asks: Some students in our area have been investing in real estate recently, and doing so with good intentions. But I've continually felt somewhat uneasy about this, concerned that buying real estate now and waiting for the price to go up before selling is similar to gambling.

Teacher: It's not that serious. Doing business is just doing business, and it's fine for Dafa disciples to go and do it well. While we're on the topic of gambling, I want to talk to you about the issue of speculating in stocks. There are different kinds of stocks. Let's say that I buy a certain number of shares or invest a certain amount in a company. Taking on these stakes in a company is just a normal form of investment. Each month I might get a certain amount of profit from it and I haven't been making speculative investments on it based on its price fluctuations. That's not the kind of stock speculation that I have talked about before. What I have talked about is "speculating" in stocks--you should all remember this--it's "speculating" in stocks, meaning that you watch the price fluctuations every day and your heart is practically dragged up and down along with the price. (Audience laughs) How could you cultivate then? You couldn't. How could you cultivate when your mind is completely focused on your stocks? Your attachment would be so strong that you'd become even more ordinary than ordinary people. How could you be called a cultivator then? You definitely couldn't cultivate then, and that's what I was referring to. If each of you had a stake in some company and you didn't have to do anything but get money from it each month, and then you spent plenty of time doing things that Dafa disciples do to validate the Fa, I would be overjoyed! (Applause) That isn't what I was referring to when I discussed stock speculation. What I just spoke about includes investing in real estate, too. If you have an opportunity, then go right ahead, and there's no problem there. Of course you should wait until the price goes up before selling. However, sometimes you may not be able to pinpoint it so accurately. What if you fail, then? These are all ordinary people's things. It's about how you can handle it appropriately. These are matters of work in human society and work is not cultivation, but your cultivation will be reflected in your work.

Disciple asks: Master, please talk about how the various natural disasters happening in the world today are related to the progress of Fa-rectification.

Teacher: Discussing such issues is a sensitive thing for human society, so it's best that I don't discuss them; there would be no benefit to doing so. Take a look, though, everyone. Today's society is so complicated, people's hearts and minds have turned so bad, and mankind's morality and behavior are so bad--how could there not be disasters? There definitely will be disasters. But they're not completely aimed at sins committed in persecuting Dafa disciples, since mankind's karma is itself simply growing larger and larger. Of course, there are also elements at work here related to people's attitudes towards Dafa. In addition, the areas where disasters have struck are places where there are no Dafa disciples, and in mainland China they have happened in areas where the persecution of Dafa disciples is severe.

Disciple asks: I'd like to ask how the media run by us students in the western United States should validate the Fa and play a larger role?

Teacher: This question is too general. Dafa disciples: do well with what you should do. Each student involved has the ability to proactively do well with what he or she should do; meanwhile, it is vital to have good coordination and cooperation so as to produce a larger effect and have greater results. The [media you run] will have succeeded when they are able to truly play a pivotal role in saving sentient beings.

Disciple asks: Disciples from Taiwan send their greetings to Master.

Teacher: Thank you all. (Applause)

Disciple asks: Disciples in southern Taiwan are preparing for the 2006 New Tang Dynasty New Year's Gala, which has aroused a great deal of interest in NTDTV on the part of the Taiwanese public. May I ask Master if the establishment of NTDTV in Taiwan is an arrangement by divine beings? Also, I'd like to ask Master to discuss the higher principles involved in the CCP's loss in the Eutelsat incident.

Teacher: These are all matters of New Tang Dynasty TV and do not have broader application. These things are excellent. As the Fa-rectification has reached this stage, let me tell you that at Master's side and at the sides of Dafa disciples are many upright gods, and a steady stream of gods is turning upright, which means that they have changed and will now have a positive attitude towards Fa-rectification and Dafa disciples. They want to turn around completely and help play a positive role, and this will constantly bring positive results.

The Eutelsat incident has been over for such a long time, so I won't talk about it. One thing is for sure when it comes to the wicked CCP: no matter what the wicked CCP does in persecuting Falun Gong, as soon as it does something, that thing will turn into a scandal and a failure. This has been set in stone by gods. (Applause) That's because history does not unfold for its sake, the old forces let it play a role only to test students, and today's history was specifically created for Fa-rectification and is unfolding for the sake of Dafa disciples.

Disciple asks: Is it all right to take selling ads for The Epoch Times as an occupation?

Teacher: If you can make a real living by selling ads, then go ahead and do it. That is an occupation, and there's no problem with doing that. [I say that] because the media outlet the students at the Epoch Times run is not itself cultivation; it is something that stands on its own in society and is a normal job. The same holds true with the companies that you run. Or let's say that you are running someone else's company, isn't going to work at someone else's company the same as going to work at your own company? That's the principle. However, your cultivation will be reflected in the work. On top of that, the media you're running was established by Dafa disciples for validating the Fa, so of course this is an especially good thing. If you are getting ads for it so that it will continue to go on, then aren't you doing your part for Dafa disciples' validating the Fa? Some people say, "I can save people directly by clarifying the truth to them. Today I convinced someone of the true situation through clarifying the facts. I feel so happy that this person has been saved." Well, as far as the media goes, there too you will have a part in the role it plays saving sentient beings. Let's say that one hundred people are involved in this media work, then if the media saved one hundred people a day, one of them was definitely saved by you. Newspapers are distributed every day, so there are definitely more than one hundred people [saved], right? Then haven't you saved someone each day? That's definitely the principle that is at work here, for you have worked together to keep the newspaper running, which means that you are clarifying the truth together.

Disciple asks: Some overseas democracy activists specifically asked me to relay their greetings to esteemed Master.

Teacher: Then I thank them. (Applause)

Disciple asks: They expressed their admiration for Dafa and Dafa disciples.

Teacher: Yes, sentient beings, no matter what you are doing today, didn't you all come for the Fa?

Disciple asks: I feel that the old forces arranged a lot of very bad elements at a certain university, and sometimes I feel as though things are really difficult. Is this because I haven't cultivated myself well, or is it perhaps just a feeling?

Teacher: That's not necessarily always the case. Let's put aside the old forces for the moment. The human society that you are dealing with has reached today's stage after going through a complicated process over the course of history. The ways of thinking are complicated, the state of society is complicated, and many things--including the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad--are all mixed together. Faced with this kind of society and people, Dafa disciples need to cultivate themselves and save all beings, for what you face and what is put before you are only the hard things. Those are what you see today.

Disciple asks: Are the industrial and business sectors in the U.S. still being restrained by the old forces?

Teacher: I know what you're referring to, you are talking about how they go to China and keep on investing in and bolstering up the wicked CCP. I'd like to tell you all that Master is not against the Chinese nation becoming rich and powerful. I hope that the people there will become prosperous and be more civilized [in how they handle things]. What I am against is the old forces sending large amounts of money there during the persecution of Falun Gong and the evil using that money to persecute Dafa disciples. What I am against is their creating the opportunity for that to happen. Back when I started spreading the Fa I decided that China should become prosperous. During the years when I was spreading the Fa, the old forces stood in the way and didn't allow that to happen. When the persecution of Dafa started, they began to send money there and in large quantities, at that. When I didn't acknowledge what they were doing, they said, "Didn't you want it to become prosperous?" They were exploiting the loopholes in Fa-rectification, and, in reality, doing what they wanted to do. Even so, Dafa disciples have made it through. The positive factors are playing a decisive role and the evil's bag of tricks is no longer working. Think about it, everyone. The wicked Party is about to fall, and if China's economy crashes along with it, won't [it be the old forces] doing something bad again? They'd again be exploiting loopholes, right? These are the things they are doing. Don't worry about this for now, though. When the wicked Party vanishes, the Chinese people will continue to survive.

Disciple asks: How can the Chinese and English media outlets cooperate well with one another?

Teacher: The Chinese media outlets have been operating for such a long time now, so the media outlets in English and other languages can draw upon their experiences. As a matter of fact, the English media are making their presence felt right now. So far the situation with the newspaper is pretty good. There are difficulties, to be sure, but gradually things will get better and better. It is very important to have good cooperation. The students who distribute newspapers can deliver both papers at the same time, [for example]. Another example is having all of the Dafa disciples' news resources be shared. These are both examples of very good forms of cooperation. You should continue to improve the cooperation and coordination in other ways, as well.

Disciple asks: There are those among ordinary people who have realized that spreading the Nine Commentaries widely can disintegrate the CCP, but right now the daily rate of withdrawals from the Party is still only about 20,000. What should Dafa disciples do to improve? How can we have a snowball effect in terms of the withdrawals from the Party?

Teacher: I don't think it will remain that way forever. Changes will come as our own problems are resolved and as the effect of the Nine Commentaries increases. In reality, the evil and the bad people have already lost their confidence. The CCP is like something rotten that's about to be booted out of China--it's already airborne from the kick, it has been uprooted and is on its way out. All of these things are changing along with the situation.

Disciple asks: How do we get all students to realize the importance of Sound of Hope's broadcasts into China?

Teacher: The wicked CCP considers Sound of Hope, New Tang Dynasty TV, and the Epoch Times its biggest concern. That's why they say that Falun Gong has three major media groups. They are referring to Sound of Hope, NTDTV, and the Epoch Times. You can tell that the evil is scared to death over Falun Gong. Indeed, it's not afraid of the United States, and even less Europe. It fears Falun Gong because Falun Gong knows what it's all about, more clearly recognizes its schemes, and knows how to make it crumble. (Applause) As long as it doesn't stop the persecution, we will keep at it until it crumbles. In fact, all Chinese people know how the wicked CCP is, and how those Party leaders that are manipulated by the evil think. But people who live in the Western world and have a normal mindset aren't aware of those things. They have no idea what the evil Party's culture is all about. That's why I'd say that if one day the evil Party suddenly disappears from China or falls, other governments will be clueless about how it happened. To find out what the evil CCP is about, you first have to learn how it looks at issues, how it thinks, and how it lies. If you don't have an understanding of even those most basic things, all the intelligence you gather will be wrong.

Disciple asks: Master, please kindly address those students who work at the English Epoch Times and tell us how to do better going forward.

Teacher: Whatever you do, initially you will always experience pressure and shortages in the three areas of human resources, material resources, and financial resources. In spite of that, you are Dafa disciples after all, and you have accomplished something ordinary people could not. Since you have started [this project], I believe that you will definitely do it well, for sure. As for how to do better, you need to put your heads together and blaze a trail of your own making. I look forward to seeing good news [of your progress]. (Applause)

Disciple asks: Since the Epoch Times became the platform and facilitator for the Nine Commentaries, I have felt even more deeply the great importance of running the media outlets well. Only with a stronger operational base will the Epoch Times have a stronger voice. Today, when I heard Master talking about how there are different forms of cultivation, I felt that the improvement of our professional skills is connected to improvement in cultivation. That applies to news writing, doing layout, handling accounting matters, etc. May I ask Master to give us more guidance on how to run the media and do better at it?

Teacher: Just as I said earlier, if you want to do better, you need to cooperate and coordinate well, carry out each task responsibly and attentively, and through your collective effort make that media outlet stand out. If all of you do well, the media outlet is bound to do well, and it will have a greater effect in saving sentient beings. However many people it saves, you have a share in that because it is your collective mouth, the mouthpiece of everyone involved in running the newspaper.

Disciple asks: Greetings to Master on behalf of Dafa disciples in Yunnan province of mainland China!

Teacher: Thank you. (Applause)

Disciple asks: I'm involved in a media project, and I often see that we lack resources, such as shortcomings in our standard operating procedures or being short of funding, and an inability to connect with more students so that more people can join in. We remain at the level of a workshop [rather than a major business]. How do we break through this?

Teacher: That is indeed the situation you are facing now. If you have strong righteous thoughts, cooperate and coordinate well, and walk your path righteously, everything will get better. Students in Mainland China actually have a much tougher time. Their materials production sites are basically at a household level, and they spring up everywhere. In other words, people walk their own paths. Each person, or some that are coordinating with each other on a small scale, is walking his own path. Didn't I say earlier that as far as our cultivation form is concerned, the Great Way has no form? This applies to the things that you do to clarify the facts. It's not like a situation where people go and do things under the direction and urging of some head assistant, not at all. Other than under special circumstances where you need to work with each other on something with the head assistant providing centralized coordination, each person should be taking initiative and walking his own path. If everything was centralized and done with everyone together, if everything was decided by the head assistant and everyone followed him and did the same thing, then whatever the head assistant cultivated into, you would become no more than sentient beings in his world. I don't want that for you. I want every Dafa disciple to become a king. Each person is to blaze his own trail, and each person is to validate and reach his own Attainment Status. (Applause)

Having said that, I want to remind all of you, this doesn't mean you shouldn't listen to anyone anymore now that Master has said you should all be walking your own path. When overall coordination is needed, you need to cooperate well. So, people in charge of different regions need to play their roles clear-headedly and rationally. Whenever necessary, you all need to work well with the coordinators.

Disciple asks: I work in a restaurant and generally spend little time clarifying the truth. I go to practice and help with the Epoch Times only on weekends. Am I considered a genuine, cultivating disciple?

Teacher: If on a day-to-day basis you can take advantage of the conditions provided by your job, or when you make contact with the world's people you still remember to clarify the truth and save sentient beings, and do what a Dafa disciple is supposed to do--if you study the Fa all the same and do all of the three things, you are a Dafa disciple. (Applause)

Disciple asks: Recently several older students in the Bay Area passed away one after another, and didn't manage to make it to the end. What will be the position they return to?

Teacher: I actually talked about this very early on, in Zhuan Falun. Some students aren't diligent, but the time they put in learning Dafa will not be in vain, and neither will the time they put in doing Dafa things. However much they did, that's how much they will receive. The exception is those who leave Dafa, particularly those who leave when Dafa is being persecuted; if they pass away, [what I described] does not apply to them. There is no hope there.

Disciple asks: I feel it's much harder to talk about the facts relating to the Nine Commentaries and the CCP withdrawals than earlier times when we clarified the truth about Dafa. I'm often afraid to talk about these two things at the same time. I don't know where I'm stuck.

Teacher: You are stuck because of your own understanding. You yourself haven't grasped why we are doing the Nine Commentaries, or at least you haven't understood it clearly. (Teacher chuckles) Why do Dafa disciples distribute the Nine Commentaries? You are thinking that talking about the Nine Commentaries feels like getting involved in politics, and that only talking about the other facts regarding Dafa being persecuted is actually addressing something related to Dafa. As a matter of fact, before, when you were [just] opposing the persecution and talking about the truth of Dafa, weren't there a lot of people saying that you were getting political? The purpose of your distributing the Nine Commentaries is to expose and end the wicked Party's persecution, rather than bringing down that wicked Party. As long as the persecution continues, Dafa disciples will keep distributing the Nine Commentaries, until finally the evil CCP disintegrates and the persecution stops. Doesn't that give you just cause and full confidence [to do this]?

Disciple asks: Shanghai Dafa disciples send their greetings to Master.

Teacher: Thank you all. (Applause) When Shanghai Dafa disciples send their regards to Master, that archfiend squatting in its den in Shanghai gets terrified.

Disciple asks: Dafa disciples have a very weak sense for how companies spend money on advertising. Does that give the evil a reason to block our income?

Teacher: No, it doesn't. Let me tell you, The Epoch Times is already an influential media outlet in the United States. Everyone, no matter who it is, and especially Chinese people, wants to learn about The Epoch Times and to learn about the news The Epoch Times carries. Of course, along the way there will be people who resist it, but as we clarify the truth more and do so more deeply, many people change. The media outlet that is The Epoch Times has become the only multinational newspaper that spans the entire globe. That is already the case.

Disciple asks: I'm feeling more and more that there isn't enough time. Respected Master, how should we deal with this using righteous thoughts? Can we send righteous thoughts to prolong time? (Audience laughs.)

Teacher: That's difficult to do, and you aren't capable of it yet. That is because as Fa-rectification proceeds faster, time also goes faster. In other words, as Fa-rectification pushes forward more rapidly, celestial bodies correspondingly move and turn faster, as does the entire cosmos. That's why this is happening on such a gigantic scale. But regardless of that, because Fa-rectification has already taken that into account, all that Dafa disciples can do is their best. It's true that you will feel time is very short. Sometimes, you get up in the morning, get busy running around doing a few things, and it's dark before you know it. [You wonder,] how come there's so little time? That is indeed true. Humans don't have the ability to keep up because Fa-rectification is happening at a very high speed. Many of us remember that in the past, we always felt the day was very long. When I was little, I often heard others saying, how come it's still not dark yet? People were tired after working all day, and felt the day was so long and they were working all the time. Now it's different. Nowadays, people are saying that it's dark before they have a chance to do anything. That is the biggest difference that human beings can sense.

Disciple asks: I obtained the Fa in 1998, and this is my first time asking Master a question at an experience sharing conference. Master, I've done quite a few things over the past few years, yet I feel as though I don't have much to say when everyone is sharing experiences. Is that because I haven't studied the Fa well or because my righteous thoughts aren't strong enough?

Teacher: Perhaps that's a personality issue. If you don't have anything to say, then just spend more time listening. See if there are any gaps between you and the others and do some comparing. Sharing with each other provides an environment where Dafa disciples move forward and improve together. That little bit of time is the only time [reserved for that purpose] while you are cultivating in the human world, and it is the environment where Dafa disciples come together, a cultivation environment. You spend more time in ordinary people's society and cultivate in the human world, and you don't separate yourselves from the secular world. That's why that little bit of time is very precious and very limited for Dafa disciples.

Disciple asks: Article submissions over the Internet are being blocked by the evil, and they are controlling [access to] the websites. Can we set up another website in the United States? Master, please give us some direction on doing this, and especially on the idea of using them for articles from the Nine Commentaries that have been translated into other languages.

Teacher: Yes, you certainly can. You should think of ways to solve this problem. There are many websites out there today, and Dafa disciples are running quite a few. They are all having an effect.

Disciple asks: After the Nine Commentaries was published I did my best to distribute it. Around that time my wife brought a lot of tribulations upon me. I dropped down [in level] and had some pretty severe sickness karma. Now I occasionally have serious relapses [of the sickness karma], and I find it really hard to endure the tribulations my wife brings upon me. I want to overcome this trial as quickly as possible.

Teacher: Deal with everything you are faced with as a cultivator, and you will be able to overcome anything. (Applause) You should ask yourself: if a divine being were faced with this problem, how would he handle it? When you can't make it through, that's what you should be thinking. Just try to make it through and handle it that way, and see what happens.

Disciple asks: Do Western students living in the United States need to quit the Party?

Teacher: That's not an important issue. Certainly, many students are withdrawing, such as those from former Eastern European countries. Since they are Dafa disciples now, whether they withdraw or not isn't an important event in and of itself, but the psychological impact of their withdrawals on the evil CCP is quite significant.

Disciple asks: You just mentioned not talking at too high a level during truth clarification. Does that mean that in our media reports we should avoid using phrases like "the evil specter of Communism" and "gods want to eliminate the CCP"?

Teacher: That's not a problem, those things aren't too high-level. The reference to "the evil specter of Communism" is not too high-level. I have been bringing that to light and gradually giving a thorough explanation of the matter. The Nine Commentaries also mentions it. The talk about "gods wanting to eliminate the CCP" is also true and factual. When you talk about it, people will be able to feel that, as they have a knowing side. When I mentioned people not being able to accept it if you talk at too high a level, I was referring to things in cultivation, because cultivation principles are the opposite of those of human beings. While people feel that living a life of comfort is a good thing, cultivators believe that, for the sake of improving themselves, the opposite is a good thing. Isn't that an example of a righteous principle existing alongside a reversed one?

Disciple asks: How do we know about our grand historic vows? When I read Zhuan Falun and study the Fa, I can remember [what I'm studying], but once I turn around and become an ordinary person, I forget.

Teacher: When you become an ordinary person, of course you aren't supposed to know the Fa. You should instead say that once you make contact with ordinary society you forget that you are a cultivator. This is probably due to lack of righteous thoughts. It's not necessary for you to know that clearly about whatever grand vows you may have made in the past, nor should you be concerned about that. Today you are someone who has obtained the Fa and, being a cultivator, you should just do what's required of cultivators. You said that you can't remember the Fa that you studied--that's all right. Let's say you don't remember after the first reading and you still don't remember after the second reading, then put your heart into studying and you will definitely make a breakthrough. If you truly give your best and still can't recall it, then it is a test that has been placed in front of you. If that is not the case and your not remembering is caused by not paying enough attention, then the issue at hand is for you to become more diligent.

Disciple asks: Dafa disciples of Shenyang city give their best regards to Master. (Teacher: Thank you all.) Master said in Zhuan Falun that he would protect every disciple until a disciple has the ability to protect himself. However, many disciples nevertheless didn't finish the journey Master arranged, and they were killed by the evil's persecution. Didn't those who are deceased cultivate in vain?

Teacher: If every Dafa disciple can think and act righteously as he goes about things and can look at things with righteous thoughts under any circumstance, none of you will become afraid when facing persecution. If that is how you are, who would dare to persecute you! If a person is completely in the Fa no one can touch him. Isn't that having the ability to protect yourself? As a matter of fact, with regard to the veteran students [that started] prior to the persecution, I raised all of you to your positions. As long as you can go about things with righteous thoughts and righteous actions you can protect yourselves perfectly well, and that applies as well for new students that joined later. It's just that some students simply don't have righteous thoughts. They have all the things in place, and yet when experiencing persecution they still look at things with a human mindset and still have a big pile of attachments. What is Master to do? Should I completely take over everything that you're supposed to do in validating the Fa? Then would it be you that's cultivating or would it be Master doing it? Let me reiterate: It is Dafa disciples, not ordinary people, that Master is protecting amidst the persecution.

I have explained these things very clearly in several Fa-lectures. If you are a student that just came from the mainland, seek out the Fa that I have taught in the past few years and read it, since it would take a long time to explain it all in detail. Many things are quite complicated. Elements of each individual's past, as well as elements arranged by the old forces, are of relevance here.

I've joked about this with you before, saying that all the famous and prominent people in the past were Dafa disciples. The Dafa disciples were so happy when they heard it, thinking, "We were all of those famous people in history!" Many of those historical figures took a lot of lives, though. Some Dafa disciples were bandits and robbers in history, and some even committed terrible crimes. Of course, Dafa disciples, since you are now cultivating, Master can harmonize and benevolently resolve those things, and take care of all of them. But cultivation is sacred, and it is serious. Master will benevolently resolve those things and has actually settled many of your debts for you; however, with such a major, major issue, in a life-and-death test, can the cultivators not be held to high standards? Those students who are not diligent will have a hard time making it through. Having such great debts, at life-and-death moments could you be allowed to make it through without righteous thoughts? When some of you mainland students were severely persecuted you reached a point where you no longer took yourselves as Dafa disciples. Your head was full of ordinary human thoughts. While being persecuted, you were attached to an ordinary person's life of comfort. Then how could you be treated as a divine being? How could those debts from the past be settled? Could you make it through the tests so easily? So there are many different reasons and various factors that you cannot look at in a human way, thinking things such as, "They cultivated for such a long time, and now haven't they all cultivated in vain? They were killed by the persecution, just like that? Isn't Master supposed to be protecting Dafa disciples? Where was the protection?" Yes, I do protect Dafa disciples. But, even when at the brink of death they didn't consider themselves Dafa disciples, nor did they remember that they still had me, their master. What was on their minds was: "If I die right here, what will my life have been good for? Who's going to take care of my children? Will my wife re-marry?" When they were being persecuted severely, they didn't call out to Master, instead they called out for their mother, or even yelled for Heaven and Earth. When I tried to stop the persecution, the old forces and the gods of the cosmos all said: "You have to be firm on matters of principle when rectifying the Fa. What Fa are you rectifying? Are you going to take unrighteous things and regard them as the righteous Fa? Is that your disciple over there? Look at him, does he consider you his master?" The more seriously the person was persecuted, the more his human attachments grew, instead of him becoming more steadfast as the persecution went on and having stronger and stronger righteous thoughts to resist the persecution. You tell me, what could be done? All the way until the time he was killed by the persecution, he never regarded himself as a Dafa disciple.

Fortunately, Master recognizes whatever Dafa disciples have done. After he is killed by the persecution, I recognize the fact that it was because he cultivated in Dafa that he was killed by the persecution. Despite the fact that he didn't do well in overcoming that particular tribulation, I won't let his cultivation be in vain. (Applause) That's why I have said that what awaits Dafa disciples, no matter what, is always the brightest and best future. (Applause) What you endured in the persecution does not compare in the least with what you will be given in the future. And it is true that the old forces exploited the gaps of some really good students and killed them through persecution. That happened in the Bay Area also, and it greatly pains Master's heart.

Of course, on this subject, there are many different factors. As long as someone can act like a divine being, nothing will dare to kill him through persecution.

Disciple asks: How should we look at giving gifts to the head prison guard in order to ease the suffering of relatives imprisoned for practicing Falun Gong?

Teacher: It can't be called some sort of major mistake. It's just that you should do your best to act a little more righteously and do a little better. If you could clarify the truth to that head prison guard with very strong righteous thoughts and get the message across to him, it would be much better than giving him gifts. But this is just talk, and when doing it like this in that kind of environment... the question is, are you going to have very strong righteous thoughts? Are you able to have really powerful righteous thoughts when placed under pressure by the evil? That's the big question. It is very hard, but when you turn it around and think about it, wasn't human history created for today? Isn't everything that Dafa disciples need to forge precisely about making it through all of this? So in order to go from being human to being divine, don't you need to make it through this way? (Applause)

Disciple asks: I'd like to send greetings to Master on behalf of all Dafa disciples from the 8^th Platoon of the Liaoning Province Women's Prison.

Teacher: Thank you! The wording makes it sound as if the Dafa disciples are the "8^th Platoon" of that prison, doesn't it? You should say, "Dafa disciples who are being persecuted by the prison's 8^th platoon." It is not our "8^th platoon." Dafa disciples don't acknowledge anything that was arranged by the old forces, and even less so do they acknowledge the wicked Party's persecution.

Disciple asks: On June 5^th of this year, I read a group declaration from dozens of disciples at that prison, stating that they will firmly cultivate in Dafa and follow Master to the end. Master, please set your mind at ease.

Teacher: If those words had been said three or four years ago, I really wouldn't have been able to set my mind at ease, but now I am able to. (Applause) Back then it was unclear whether Dafa disciples would be able to make it through during this persecution, and unclear how many would be able to make it through. Even though gods were protecting them and Master was watching over and protecting them, while being persecuted could the Dafa disciples truly have righteous thoughts and righteous actions like gods? Making it through depends on one's own steadfast righteous thoughts and firm belief in Dafa. Master can take on the suffering for you, and I can even bear the pain in your place, but can you position your mind in a righteous way when under such cruel and harsh pressure? Are you treating yourself as a god or as a human being? Do you have ample righteous thoughts? All of these things depend on you, on you yourselves.

Disciple asks: Master, there is a trend whereby the differences among students' levels are growing, and some students are repeatedly being interfered with by sickness karma and have not been able to break through it over a long period of time. How can we better improve as a whole?

Teacher: I have talked about this many times before, and many students have actually understood it already. When students exhibit severe sickness karma, it undoubtedly has two goals. One is to have that person display such a state and then see how people around him or her look at it. It's to see how and whether your minds are moved by it. Isn't that the case? If everyone is moved, thinking, "Whoa, he's cultivated so well, how could he be like this?" then attachments rear their heads and human thoughts surface. Some people think, "If even he has become this way, will I be able to make it?" All kinds of human attachments thus resurface. Then the old forces say, "I was right to have done this, wasn't I? The reason I had that person's sickness karma get so severe was to test whether they have righteous thoughts or human thinking. We did the right thing, didn't we? See, didn't those human thoughts of your disciples return? So many human thoughts have returned, so we need to target those human thoughts. We're therefore going to increase that student's sickness karma and see if all of you still cultivate."

No matter what happens, nobody should be affected inside. Each student should think only of giving help as a Dafa disciple as he's able, and there is nothing to get worked up about. Even if you can't help that person you should still face this issue with righteous thoughts. Continue to do whatever you are supposed to. Don't become attached to it by looking at it in a human way, don't make these problems worse in your minds, look very righteously at how it relates to everything else and don't think of it as being very important, and be very calm. The old forces will then lose interest, thinking, "These people aren't moved. If none of them are moved, what is the point?" They will then let the matter drop, and that person's sickness karma will disappear instantly. That's one scenario.

The other goal applies to that person himself: how well has the person who exhibits the sickness karma cultivated? Is he able to make it through with strong righteous thoughts while in such a state? Does he truly treat himself as a god and pay no attention to any of it whatsoever? Today I read a report on the Minghui website. A student was beaten so badly that her legs were smashed and broken into pieces, and they didn't set her bones before applying a cast. It never even occurred to the student that she would become handicapped because of this. She didn't pay any attention to it at all. She just studied the Fa every day, and her righteous thoughts were very strong. When she was able to sit up a little bit, she started to do the exercises. The doctors told her that her bones had been smashed and fractured in several places, and that the cast had been applied before the bones were set. It was all done by those people in the prison hospital. She didn't pay any attention to it and just told herself, "I want to cross my legs and do the exercises." She pushed herself and did it even though it was extremely painful to do. As time went by, she no longer felt any pain when she crossed her legs. The end result is that she has recovered. She can now jump up and down without any problem, and she's just like a completely normal person. (Applause) If any of you can conduct yourself like that, the old forces will absolutely not dare to touch you. Whoever can be like that will be able to make it through when encountering tests. What are "righteous thoughts" about? That is what righteous thoughts are about.

Disciple asks: Some fellow students say that the Nine Commentaries carry the power of the Fa. Is that true?

Teacher: It is true. As for the Nine Commentaries, well, everyone knows about clarifying the truth, saving sentient beings, and disintegrating the vicious Party's evil specter--aren't these things that Dafa disciples need to do while validating the Fa, and things that need to be done by Dafa during the Fa-rectification? Of course it carries the Fa's power. But you shouldn't study it as if it were Fa. (Audience laughs). It should be treated as material that helps one understand the evil Party. But those students who are confused on this front should read it more, as it will be beneficial. That's the situation with that.

Disciple asks: Some people who have come from Mainland China are very sympathetic towards and supportive of Falun Gong, but they aren't eager to withdraw from the Party. Other than giving them the Nine Commentaries, what can we do to help them more effectively?

Teacher: Some people are beyond help. I just said something: if you were able to save half of the people, it would be a great success. In other words, there are many people that you can't save, many that can no longer be saved. That is reality. But you shouldn't stop doing things to save people just because of those who can no longer be saved. You should continue to do those things. Also, this affair has yet to reach the very end, and no conclusion can be drawn. It is still unknown whether a given life will have further opportunities or not. As the overall situation changes, he might change along with it. Right now these things are merely manifestations of what is happening in this process.

Disciple asks: Because of my attachments, I was taken advantage of by the old forces and the evil Party's wicked specter, and I fell out of the ranks [of Dafa disciples] for as long as one to two years. The old forces have made my doing the exercises ineffective, and all this time I have stuck it out. I think that through studying Falun Gong, doing well the three things that Master has given us to do, and keeping up with Teacher's Fa-rectification, I will definitely be able to make it through.

Teacher: Yes, that is the right track. Righteous thoughts shouldn't be mere lip service. Instead, righteous thoughts, righteous actions, and being diligent are in order. Falling out of the ranks for one or two years is not a short time. No matter what, though, since the persecution hasn't ended, chances abound right now for those who have not stepped forward or not caught up with the progress of Fa-rectification. Do as well as you possibly can. That's what you should do. You need to seize the day.

Disciple asks: Is it important for little Dafa disciples to read the Nine Commentaries?

Teacher: For little Dafa disciples in the U.S., studying the Fa is still more important since they haven't been poisoned and damaged by the wicked Party. Those in China are different--those in mainland China are different. For those in the U.S. it's fine to just study the Fa more.

Disciple asks: Some Dafa disciples are very attached to ordinary skills. Master, please tell us how to let go of attachments to those skills.

Teacher: If it has to do with someone wanting to do his job well, then it shouldn't be considered a problem. But if it affects Dafa disciples validating of the Fa, then the losses outweigh the benefits. It's just a matter of keeping things in the proper perspective so that you do well at your job yet don't let it negatively impact the things Dafa disciples do.

Disciple asks: One of the exercise verses has the words "Golden Monkey Splitting Its Body." Does it have a deep inner meaning? Is it a hint that Dafa disciples should have the ability to identify hidden evil? Dafa disciples in Guangzhou city ask that I send greetings to Master!

Teacher: Thank you! (Applause) Nothing in Dafa is simple and straightforward. Everything has its inner meaning, and everything can be used as a hint and a way to help Dafa disciples understand the Fa more deeply.

Disciple asks: Many students have recently started up businesses. Master, could you tell us if there is really an urgent need to do so? How should we balance these types of things [against what we are to do as Dafa disciples]?

Teacher: If a person had problems meeting the needs of a normal life and went about solving the problem, then there shouldn't be anything wrong with that. But no matter what, a person cannot forget that he is a Dafa disciple or forget to do the things Dafa disciples should do. Actually this issue is very simple.

Disciple asks: I would like to record the new scripture that you are giving and listen to it myself, is that okay? Can I turn it into a CD and let other students listen to it?

Teacher: No, you can't. Even just recording it and listening to it by yourself is not allowed. I have talked about this issue many times. Nobody can make his own recording at will, much less distribute it. That is why each time I give a talk I will edit [the transcript that is made] afterwards and then turn it into a book, and it is for this reason. I do this since what I say on a given occasion is intended for the students at that setting, and it doesn't have any direct bearing on other regions. After it is edited and turned into a book, however, it's a different matter as it then has broad applications. I thus need to make edits to the manuscript. Once it is published as a book, any differences that exist between edited places and the original audio/video recording will undermine the Fa. And those who undermine the Fa: Gods are watching your every action. In a little bit, you must turn all of those things in to the conference staff, videotapes included. You shouldn't do such things, and should pay attention to it! Ordinary people can't undermine the Fa. I've said that only when Dafa disciples themselves don't do well can damage occur. Some people say, "I have the audio of Master's Fa lecture at a certain place that nobody else has--I alone have a copy." He is quite pleased with himself, and it's a very bad state of mind. It is using solely human thinking to look at matters of cultivation, and in reality it undermines the Fa. It is an early indicator that a person is about to undermine the Fa. Once that thing is brought out, it will undermine the Fa, even though it is a speech given by Master. You know how using today's technology anything can be faked, sections can be replaced, and things like voice recordings can be spliced and put back together. Hasn't the evil Party done such things in order to persecute Falun Gong? Do you think that what you have is safe? Only talks that have been officially published on the Clearwisdom website or formally printed as books can be verified; nobody can undermine those. The old forces haven't gone after you yet, but when you approach Consummation and reach the final stage, they will definitely stop you on account of this. At that time it will be too late for regrets.

Disciple asks: The evil CCP manifests as a red dragon in the bottom dimension. Is it in the image of an Asian dragon or a Western dragon?

Teacher: It is in the image of an Asian dragon, but sometimes the image of a dragon in the West is used and can be understood by Westerners. It is a cultural issue and doesn't affect anything fundamental.

Disciple asks: Some students devote themselves entirely to doing things for Dafa. Some have encountered life-threatening danger. It might be because they neglected their own cultivation and didn't pass certain tests well. But precisely because they were still cultivators, they couldn't possibly pass every single test well. Why couldn't Dafa protect them?

Teacher: It seems you are demanding to know why Dafa didn't protect them. Each person's situation is very complex, and it's not the case that a person can pass every test with just that same, small amount of righteous thoughts. Some require quite a large amount of righteous thoughts to get through; some can be passed only after the attachment to one's life is cast off. What is cultivation? It is marching toward godhood! [Would it work if] Master bore everything for you, Dafa protected you no matter what danger you encountered, and you had an umbrella of safety over your head? If there weren't any tribulations at all, how leisurely that style of cultivating would be--who wouldn't cultivate? Things are in fact very complicated. Some students had agreements with the old forces dating back to prehistoric times, and in that case what can be done if he has to depart at a certain time? Some students never eliminated their fundamental attachments, and that is an issue of whether or not they are truly Dafa disciples at a fundamental level. Ordinary people too can do things that Dafa disciples do, but they can't be looked after as Dafa disciples. Some students' gaps were exploited by the old forces and they were unwilling to let go of their attachments, yet the test they faced might very well have been the great test of life or death. And in that case what could be done? Some students had reached the end of their lifespans but were not diligent, and in a few extremely rare cases [the students] had to depart a little bit early, to name a few examples. You absolutely must not look at cultivation with a human mentality!

I just said that the principles of cultivators and those of ordinary people are opposite. Human beings believe that a life of comfort is a good thing, while Dafa disciples believe that having everything be easy is a bad thing when it comes to their improvement and that discomfort is conducive to improvement. (Applause) Have you managed to turn around your fundamental concepts? When you meet with a little bit of hardship or a little something here and there, you can't make it through. And when eventually it accumulates to a very large amount, it becomes a major test, and that test is one you can't pass without letting go of [the attachment to your] life. What could be done, then? The tribulation could even become so great that you couldn't even things out even if you did let go of [that attachment to your] life. The old forces wouldn't let you make it through, and your righteous thoughts wouldn't be strong enough. You tell me what could be done. What would you have Master do? Master has been protecting you unconditionally, yet you are not diligent, even to the point of becoming like an ordinary person! You say, "I am a Dafa disciple," yet your thoughts and conduct are those of an ordinary person. It is Dafa disciples that I am bringing salvation to today, and I can't go and groundlessly protect an ordinary person. The "birth, aging, illness, and death" an ordinary person faces is a law mandated by the heavens, and it can't be meddled with without a reason. Do you know what Master is doing today? I am rectifying the Fa of the cosmos. How am I rectifying it? What am I using to rectify it? Can I rectify the Fa of the cosmos in an incorrect way? Unconditionally protecting an unqualified cultivator--is that being responsible to you? Is that rectifying the Fa of the cosmos? Why do Dafa disciples need to cultivate, pass tests, have strong righteous thoughts, and go through suffering? Only those things can be considered cultivation. In fact, cultivation is about coming here to suffer, not coming here to be protected in the human world. When one studies Dafa he will be protected, but cultivating Dafa also requires one to endure suffering. Some students say, "When we encounter danger, Master will protect us." And yes, that's true! There will definitely be protection when a person has righteous thoughts and actions.

Disciple asks: A minute before seeing revered Master today, a thought suddenly popped into my head, "Master has come, and he is onstage." Then I saw you, and I was so excited. My elderly mother who is ninety-five years old and illiterate chants every day, "Falun Dafa is good," "'Zhen Shan Ren' is good," and "Master is good." She misses Master a lot.

Teacher: The attitudes that sentient beings have towards Dafa don't have to be as solemn as those of cultivators. What I just said, on the other hand, was very solemn. You are cultivators, so when you still don't see these most fundamental issues clearly, I have to put things to you in solemn terms. For ordinary people that's not necessary. They are only pitiful sentient beings and should be saved. You are to save others, and it wouldn't work if you failed to do well yourselves. Were that the case, you wouldn't be able to save others and would even fail to save yourselves.

Disciple asks: Dafa disciples from the Western region are deeply grateful to revered Master for appearing at the Fa Conference and giving a Fa lecture.

Teacher: Thank you all! (Applause)

Disciple asks: Those students who have been to New York feel that the pace of the activities that disciples in California hold to validate the Fa is not fast enough, yet disciples in California are very capable and are well off financially. How can Dafa disciples out West make the most of their strengths and be more effective in validating the Fa?

Teacher: Students just talked about people stealing our newspapers, about how the evil forces are really strong, and about how some people have been damaging the Fa. But I have noticed that the Chinatown area is a blank spot in your efforts to clarify the truth and validate the Fa. And yet that is the most, most important place in your region out West. For the most part you haven't paid much attention to it. I walked around the area and didn't find a single copy of The Epoch Times. With things like this you should all be clear on what Dafa disciples are supposed to be doing!

Disciple asks: Is it a good opportunity for us to clarify the truth each time a high-ranking Chinese official visits another country?

Teacher: Yes, Dafa disciples have done things as circumstances have allowed, and you should act in accordance with the situation at hand.

Disciple asks: When Chinese officials visit the U.S., how far should we go with suing them?

Teacher: In the cases of those people who have persecuted Falun Gong severely and who don't show any remorse, once you have evidence you can go ahead and sue. Actually, though, suing these people is not the point. Suing them is done to have them understand that the persecuting they have done is not a bad deed that is over with once it's done: there will be a reckoning, and the evil persecution must stop. It is to have them understand that they shouldn't join in the persecution. You must be clear on this.

Disciple asks: Master, please talk a little bit about the matter of rescuing orphans.

Teacher: Rescuing orphans isn't something that should be done by our students, for this matter needs the U.S. government's involvement. Nor should it use up additional energy or resources. Rescuing the orphans is but one of the many things Dafa disciples are doing to clarify the truth, stop the persecution, and save sentient beings, and it isn't the biggest thing. Right now there are students working on it with the U.S. government.

Disciple asks: Recently some people have been passing around articles by the Buddhist Association of China that criticize and slander Dafa. How might we handle this better?

Teacher: You should use a variety of approaches in dealing with these people. Begin by sending righteous thoughts to clear out the evil behind them, for those in the Buddhist religion who are against Dafa are, like others, being controlled by evil factors that cause them to do things. Among those in the Buddhist religion there are indeed demons that reincarnated here in order to play a part in the persecution, and they've had a very bad effect. They will be eliminated in the future. Use positive means to counteract [what they are doing]--first talk to them seriously, and then proceed to explain and prove things out.

Disciple asks: How should I, as a physician, deal with being asked to do induced abortions? Is this something that I can do for ordinary people?

Teacher: I've already made this point perfectly clear in Zhuan Falun: that is killing.

Disciple asks: How can we help fellow students to become more proactive and to take initiative? For some time now a good number of students have been relying primarily on the assistance centers and assistants to organize them and get them to participate in validating the Fa. Their tendency of over-reliance is rather strong.

Teacher: Indeed. Just by virtue of my reading out this question slip our students should realize: Dafa disciples all have to walk their own paths. Each person has to proactively play his own role, find things to do, and seek out and save the people he is to save; you can't rely on the assistants to tell you what to do. For the most part assistants currently don't organize things unless they are large-scale activities, so are you going to not validate the Fa except on those occasions? So the majority of the time it is Dafa disciples doing things on their own.

Disciple asks: I'd like to ask, after the wicked Party collapses, will the people of China still have a chance to declare that they quit the Party?

Teacher: How meaningful would it be to quit after it has already collapsed? Now is in fact the time when beings position themselves, so how could there still be opportunities to do that after the evil Party collapses?

Disciple asks: It seems that The Epoch Times newspaper has almost stopped carrying the Nine Commentaries. Should the Chinese- and English-language editions of The Epoch Times give weight to, and carry on with, running the Nine Commentaries? Dafa disciples of Los Angeles send their greetings to Master.

Teacher: The Epoch Times should take this question seriously. It's no different than with New Tang Dynasty Television, which has broadcast it without letting up and kept at it. The Nine Commentaries is saving people. Just concern yourself with doing this; people won't grow tired of it.

Disciple asks: Though the Nine Commentaries has been published for as long as it has, there are still a handful of veteran students who haven't managed to shed the shell of the evil specter, and they even believe that prior to seizing political power the wicked Party was good, that it turned bad later on.

Teacher: It was bad even at the point when it seized power. The Nine Commentaries has exposed its sinister history. In the past, when out of self-interest it acted a little better towards those who didn't understand the true picture, that was just putting up a front in order to have more people join its ranks. When it rose to power during the time of the Paris Commune, it was hooligans revolting. In those years, the Paris Commune revolt destroyed the glorious culture that gods had wished to leave to the people of this civilization. You've seen in Paris the sculptures that line the streets and the paintings that were preserved, right? I'll tell you that those are no more than ten percent of what Paris once had, for a great deal of cultural/historic sites and the finest works of art were destroyed by the Paris Commune. It was terribly destructive. At the time Paris was brimming with works of art, and gods sighed in admiration. Such a beautiful city was thus ruined.

Disciple asks: Our cultivation right now is cultivation for the sake of others, cultivation for the sake of saving sentient beings. Is this the right way to put it?

Teacher: No, it's not. It is for yourself that you cultivate. The sentient beings that you save are encompassed by the cultivation you do, with the goal [of cultivation] still being to consummate your own world. I've said before that many have already reached the realm of consummation. I'm not just saying that casually. Back when I said that, ninety percent of our students had been raised to their positions, and the positions of Dafa disciples are no ordinary thing, it isn't an ordinary attainment status. That attainment status is unattainable by means of solely personal cultivation, it couldn't be reached by ordinary cultivation means over eight, ten, or even a hundred lifetimes! (Applause) That's because 1) you are lives saved by the Great Law; 2) you are Dafa disciples during the period of the Fa-rectification of the cosmos; and 3) you have the gigantic mission of saving sentient beings. And the lives you save are not ordinary either: many sentient beings have, like you, come from high levels. Dafa disciples have such a great mission, and that is why you can cultivate to such heights, validate an attainment status so great, and have such glorious achievements. (Applause)

Disciple asks: My husband is a Westerner who doesn't cultivate Dafa. During these years of Fa-rectification he has endured a lot. He doesn't understand the things I do, and is now asking for a divorce. Your disciple has tried hard to persuade him, but to no effect. Was this brought about by your disciple having cultivated too poorly in certain regards?

Teacher: As far as things of this sort go, Master can speak only in terms of examples. But often when I bring up an example, you take it to be referring to you. That's not the case. Let's take the matter of the family, or the affection between husband and wife, or any of a number of other things. Have you looked at these things based on the Fa? Have you truly treated him as if you were being compassionate to a sentient being? If you really had, perhaps things wouldn't be as they are today. If on the home front your conduct looks completely like that of an ordinary person, then it's possible you will encounter this sort of thing. Nothing is simple. If you can truly let go of your attachments, and if attachments have no sway over you, then the conflicts will vanish like a wisp of smoke.

Disciple asks: There's this person who is very enthusiastic about Dafa activities, to the point where he goes around from place to place to tell people that Dafa is good. However, many ordinary people have a negative impression of Dafa because of interactions with him. For years students have tried their best to help him, but it has had no effect whatsoever. This person has attachments to showing off, fighting, greed, and showcasing supernatural powers, and when he does the exercises or sends righteous thoughts things look quite odd. It's gotten to a point where non-practitioners have asked us, "Why do you allow him to be one of you?"

Teacher: There are indeed ones like this among our students. They should be becoming more rational as time progresses closer and closer to the finish. Yet they still aren't up to standard, and they are absorbed in those petty abilities and skills they have, clinging to those little things of theirs and unable to improve. A few moments ago I talked about the height of our Dafa disciples' attainment statuses, and many of our students were able to grasp it, whereas these persons cling stubbornly to those little things they can see and fail to make progress, and they're even quite pleased with themselves. This kind of mindset is such a huge attachment--one of the greatest magnitude. They are being rendered irrational by all sorts of factors, and yet they think they're pretty rational.

Disciple asks: You have said before that when Dafa disciples work together and are going in the same direction, the Fa power that manifests is great. Yet when some students find that they are of a different opinion from each other, they loudly berate the other party in public, leading ordinary people to gather around and watch. Some students say the effect this has is bad.

Teacher: I'd like to look at this problem from two angles. Our students do fear having people gather around and watch. If there is an attachment of concern about saving face on your part, it's possible the other person's mouth will be used at that time to stir up an incident and attract onlookers so that you will see your attachment. It's cultivation after all, so every kind of means will be used to expose your attachments. Of course, when you can't see what is at work you will say, "the effect is bad." But maybe those ordinary people really didn't see or hear a thing, and maybe they will even be confused about what's going on. So that is one aspect of it. Another one is that some students don't pay heed at all to the effect it might have on Dafa. Whatever the occasion might be, they don't take into account Dafa's image, they stubbornly insist on their own things, and consider their own opinion to be first and foremost. Then isn't that a formidable attachment? Whoever insists on continuing down that dead end and fails to see his own attachments, that person's gaps are being exploited by demons and the evil; his attachments are being enlarged, amplified, and expanded; and the more he believes in his own mind that he's right on that matter, the more he feels justified in doing what he does. Any human attachment [he has] is enlarged by demons. He really can't manage to come to his senses at that time. But I want to tell you, and this is to keep this sort of thing from happening: By all means pay attention to the image of Dafa disciples. If you're like that [person that is described in the question], how could you save people? Your righteous thoughts need to be strong. Don't let the evil keep taking advantage of your gaps like that.

Disciple asks: Could Master please explain for his disciples what the lines "With shared purpose did you come to the earth / And in gaining the Fa you took the lead" mean?

Teacher: Sure. Some students have cultivated well and they really obtained the Fa first, and thus they have had righteous thoughts and actions, always abiding in the Fa. Some people took up Dafa earlier than others, while others didn't start learning Dafa until later--this is referring to being ahead in terms of taking up the form of it.

Disciple asks: Some students regularly go to church, treating it as a place to socialize. Is that right?

Teacher: They haven't learned the Fa deeply. Indeed we do have people who have one foot in our practice and one foot out. If you want to be an ordinary person, then go ahead--I haven't said that ordinary people can't visit certain places. If you want to cultivate in Dafa, then you are welcome to do so, and if you don't wish to cultivate, then don't. But as for those who truly cultivate, they need to adhere to "no second discipline." Some people go [to churches] on account of wanting to clarify the truth there, but when spreading the Fa, you shouldn't specifically make religious groups a target. I, your master, haven't even done that, because that is something of the next stage. Now is the time when we target all the people of the world--and especially the Chinese--as we clarify the truth.

Disciple asks: There is a veteran student whose son has done many things that brought harm to Dafa. I'd like to ask, can she make a clear demarcation between her and her son? How should we look at this matter?

Teacher: Everyone is accountable himself for whatever he does, and nobody can take the place of someone else. There's no need for you to draw a line between yourself and him, as either way those are things he has done, not you. If, when clarifying the truth, you and others haven't successfully stopped him, or haven't enabled him to become clear on what is at stake and the consequences, then it still signifies a problem on his part. If you really did say a lot to him and he still goes about doing those things, then it is his problem and you can let him go. Nobody can destroy Dafa. You don't need to worry, the sky won't fall or anything. What he is destroying is himself.

Disciple asks: There are students in our area who have studied the Fa and cultivated for many years and yet often behave in extreme ways. Moreover, their dispositions are poor. This has affected a lot of people. Some fellow cultivators think that people like this are not really our students, and should be sent away.

Teacher: The old forces did arrange for some people among our students to cause disturbances. Their purpose is to make sure the environment that Dafa disciples have isn't too peaceful, and thereby cause the students' human attachments to surface. So they seek to stir and muddle things up, and the old forces take advantage amidst the ensuing chaos. So as for these people, you have already come in [to Dafa], and as the master, I regard you as my disciples; whether you want to consider yourselves my disciples is something that you should really think through again carefully. After you have made up your mind, then do things in line with the requirements for Dafa disciples, in line with my, Li Hongzhi's, requirements, and don't become foggy-headed and do irrational things as the old forces planned for you and get yourself, in the end, cast down.

Disciple asks: There are many Chinese in San Francisco's Chinatown. A portion of the people there aren't willing to accept our truth-clarification materials and they don't listen when we talk to them. How should we handle these people?

Teacher: Things at present are different from in previous years, and this year is different from last. And the present is different from even the first half of this year. Give it a try and see, is it still like before? Even if it is, you have to carve out a space via the strength of your righteous thoughts, right? (Applause)

Disciple asks: In mainland China there are situations where at the mere mention of "Falun Gong" or "Nine Commentaries," people don't dare to listen.

Teacher: There are all types of people out there, and there are plenty of people who have been scared witless by the wicked Party. The wicked Party has done evil for so many years. The key thing is for Dafa disciples to use righteous thoughts to purge the evil specters that control people, and then clarify the truth to them again. Go forth with wisdom. You are saving people, after all.

Disciple asks: I often feel some formless thing pressing down on my head, especially when I quiet down. I don't know if this is something good or if it's an evil specter interfering with me.

Teacher: If Dafa disciples can do things righteously, and provided they don't have strong attachments or things they are attached to on a fundamental level, then there won't be any problems. Some say that while studying the Fa they encounter such-and-such things. This is something I often say: once you take up Dafa, whatever it is you encounter--good or bad--it is a good thing (applause), for it came about only because you cultivate in Dafa. Some students experience all sorts of hardships after taking up Dafa. If you didn't cultivate, those tribulations would lead to your destruction. But precisely because you do cultivate in Dafa, even though the pressure you face is great when the hardships come at you earlier than they would have, and the tests of your xinxing are tough to pass--and sometimes the tests may be huge--when all is said and done, those hardships are all things you need to overcome, they are accounts you need to settle, tabs that you need to pay. (Audience laughs) Aren't they great things, then? So whether it is good things or bad things you run into, so long as you cultivate in Dafa, they are all positive, to be sure. (Applause)

That's all I would like to say for today. (Applause) The Fa Conference should resume. Master has put some things in rather heavy terms, some were put a little indirectly, and others, while addressing some serious problems, were put rather gently. But whatever the case, as Dafa disciples you should do what Dafa disciples are to do, based on the Fa. Some people say to me, "Teacher, why do I improve so slowly nowadays?" To which I would respond: it's not enough if you only read the books, for Dafa disciples need to do the three things well, and you have done only one of them, so you don't sense any improvement. If you can do all of the three tasks and do them very well, you will feel yourself improving; it's completely different from before, in the stage of personal cultivation and Fa study. That is what's at work. The state of things since July 20, 1999, has been completely different from that of before July 20, 1999. That is why doing the three things well is cultivation, while doing only one of the three isn't--that's how it is, and you won't be able to improve that way. So Dafa disciples must do them well. Of course, some of you present here today are new students, and those requirements don't apply to you. Right now as long as you can study the Fa well and cultivate based on the Fa, that's fine at the present stage. But for our veteran students, you have had a long time, so you have no choice but to do things on the basis of the Fa. That's because there is a process of coming to understand things that new students go through, and though you might talk about the concept of "becoming a Buddha on the spot," that's just a description [not to be taken literally]. Could a person turn into a Buddha just like that, without eliminating his karma, improving in terms of understanding, or rising in terms of realms? What kind of Buddha would that be? That's just a description. Since you are Dafa disciples, through attending this Fa Conference or listening to Master talk you will get something out of it, and you should do even better.

Time is really very tight. You've all seen that the changes in this world, as well as those in the situation of Dafa disciples' validating the Fa, are happening fast. So as time continues to change, will you still have time to do what Dafa disciples should do? Why wouldn't you make the most of your time, then? Dafa disciples look at hardships as good things and as opportunities for improvement, and as the environment improves more and more, the hardship will become ever less. When you no longer need to clarify the truth and people are taking the initiative to come hear the truth from you or seek you out to learn the practice, won't you have lost the opportunity to establish your mighty virtue? Maybe you are thinking, "That's great, they can all come to learn, and it will save me some trouble." But you won't have the conditions for improving yourself then, right? So what I think is, no matter what, you need to treasure this period of time, for it will be gone in a flash.

　Humans, who are within this time, don't have much awareness of the time itself. Within but one second a person might go through an entire lifetime. In that one second, though, what the person may sense is the passage of a year, and it feels about the same to that person as taking a year to go through that year. Similarly, there is no sense of anything unusual, for a life, while under the influence of time, cannot sense the rate in which time goes by. The cosmos is composed of different times such as these, and it is humans who feel that there is still some time left. From the perspective of the highest point in the cosmos, it is but an instant, it's just that with respect to time, you have been restricted to the state of human beings. Regardless of how very long the cosmos's history has been, regardless of how very long the arrangement in history for Fa-rectification has been, and regardless of how long of a time the Three Realms has brought about, all of this will pass with the passage of time, and all that is new will swiftly appear. Many students are eagerly awaiting it, but when it really does appear, your cultivation will be at an end. Whatever your level is at that moment, that will be your level, and of course if you are a human, then a human it is. Everything will have been finalized then.

That's all for now. I hope that you will do even better, be even more diligent, and make it such that when I see you again, the change will be even greater. Thank you all. (Applause)

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^[1]Referring to withdrawing from the three Chinese Communist organizations: the Party, the Youth League and the Young Pioneers.

^[2]A soldier and moral exemplar widely promoted by the CCP in the 1960's.

 

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Last updated: January 26, 2006.

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