Teaching the Fa at the 2005 Manhattan International Fa Conference
(Li Hongzhi, April 24, 2005, New York City)
(Enthusiastic applause)
Good afternoon, everyone! (Enthusiastic applause) (Audience: Good afternoon, Master!)
You've been working hard! (Applause) As Dafa disciples you have been through trials and tribulations, and you have been tempered and become more and more mature. The same holds true whether you are Dafa disciples in Mainland China or Dafa disciples outside the Mainland--you are becoming increasingly rational, increasingly clearheaded, and increasingly aware of how you should walk your paths. Now, when you are confronted with persecution, and confronted with all sorts of negative opinions, you can handle it rationally. And when you clarify the facts, you do that out of a desire to save sentient beings, so you have a great impact.
The current situation shows that now, and especially since the publication of the Nine Commentaries, many of the world's people have woken up. The Chinese people, more than others, have been kept in the dark for too long by the Party culture's false appearances that were created by the evil Communist ideology. People are gradually becoming clearheaded and their own, true natures are reviving. Since the publication of the Nine Commentaries, you have experienced a great many things, things of all kinds--both positive and negative. Most notably, on a daily basis thousands of people have been withdrawing from the Party, and this has terrified the malevolent Party's evil specter and the bad people. Now, before its imminent collapse, the evil is once again saying--as it riles people up, confuses and poisons people, and makes up lies--that we are doing political things. Even though you really aren't doing political things it insists that you are. Whenever they have persecuted and attacked people, they have always made up lies, riled people up, and attempted to justify their persecution. And when they attack somebody they always call the person whatever names they feel like calling him. Dafa disciples just do the things that Dafa disciples are supposed to do. They are clearheaded and rational, and they know what they are doing, and none of the evil lies or the accusations that stem from the Party culture can interfere with or jar them.
When it comes to cultivators, no ordinary people's approaches, ploys, persecution, incitement, or confusion and poisoning can affect them, and even less do those things work on Dafa disciples. The persecution has been going on for so long now, and yet what's laughable is that those rogues, rogue spies, and ringleaders of the rogue gang who have had a hand in persecuting Dafa disciples still haven't managed to see who Dafa disciples are, they still don't know what these cultivators are really about, and they still try to use those ordinary human approaches on them. Isn't that laughable? Indeed, it's true that when ordinary people look at the surface things, when they look at things with ordinary people's thinking, and especially when they look at things with the Party culture's warped logic and notions, they can't understand the realm or state of mind of a cultivator. When they look with ordinary human thoughts, nothing matches up; none of the approaches that the bad people have used in the persecution have worked. So never will any attempt by those at this human level to affect levels and realms higher than the human world meet with success.
Since the publication of the Nine Commentaries, many ordinary people who have been influenced by the lies of the malevolent Party's evil specter have been saying that we are getting political. But as you all know, we haven't "gotten political." Even if people who are being persecuted do get political, that's not something to be ashamed of; it's only logical and natural. But none of what we have done has a political motive behind it; we don't do things with political motives. How could true cultivators possibly get involved with worldly politics? Fa-rectification is taking place in the cosmos, and right now cultivators of Dafa are validating the Fa and their goal is to save sentient beings. During the Fa-rectification period, for the purpose of validating the Fa Dafa disciples can make use of any form in ordinary society that is favorable for the Fa-rectification, but even then they only use things selectively based on what is needed to save sentient beings. [That is all right] because everything in the Three Realms was formed for the Fa-rectification. When you see sentient beings who need to be saved, what's crucial is getting the beings saved. When we use these things of the human world, it is done only after carefully considering what sentient beings can understand and what can help them be saved. The formation of the Three Realms was for today's Fa-rectification, and all of the myriad things and sentient beings in the Three Realms came for the Fa-rectification, were created for the Fa-rectification, and were formed for the Fa-rectification. In other words, all of the sentient beings and the myriad things came here for this. And every event here has been established, created, and formed for the Fa-rectification. So during this Fa-rectification Dafa disciples can use at will any method that makes it easier to save sentient beings, so long as it's something the world's people can understand and can thus be saved through. All the same, we have been using things selectively and in a good and upright way.
Let's take the Nine Commentaries as an example. The primary goal of publishing the Nine Commentaries was to expose the CCP's nature so that people who had been deceived by the CCP could see it for what it is and recognize the CCP's evilness, and thus be saved. It was [done] because when Dafa disciples were clarifying the truth, a lot of people refused to listen, for they were under the influence of the malevolent Party's evil specter and the Party culture's propaganda that was utilized by the CCP's bad people. A lot of people would abruptly say, "If the Party says you are bad, you're bad." And a lot of people whose thinking was warped by the Party's culture would say, "If I were in that position I too would have suppressed it, like the CCP has." In addition, many people are still deceived and they believe very much in what is said by the CCP-controlled propaganda machine; they even still believe the CCP's rogue regime and still take its wicked doctrines as truth. With that situation before us, what should we do? Can we just cease to be compassionate? Can we not save those people, then? We of course have to save them. As I have always said, none of today's Chinese people are simple or ordinary. Don't be fooled by the fact that the human skin looks the same--the person that's in charge of it is actually no longer who it used to be, and in most cases beings that descended from high levels are in charge. And a great many kings from different nations throughout history reincarnated in China. So the group of people in China today is far from ordinary. It's just that when a person reincarnates or a divine being comes down to this world he enters the delusion, and people in delusion are susceptible to being used. But they were all meant to obtain the Fa and be saved, and they have great predestined connections.
With many beings, if they come to the Three Realms they have no way to get back to where they came from. No being in history who came here to assume human form has made it back. And in no past case where people successfully cultivated into gods or Buddhas was it that person himself who truly succeeded. It was always the person's assistant soul that used the person's main body to cultivate, whereas the person's true, master soul--the very person himself--never cultivated to success. In the cases of those who cultivated well, after a lifetime of cultivating someone in their image did indeed cultivate to success, but that was the assistant soul, whereas the master soul--or, that person--had to reenter the cycle of rebirth. In other words, think about why so many high-level beings dared to take such a perilous risk and come to the Three Realms. They are gods, so how could we not save them? Didn't they come to obtain the Fa? If you look at it from another perspective, wasn't their bravery in coming here a way of validating the Fa-rectification and placing their hope in the Fa-rectification? That's why I have said that we cannot leave them behind, and that we must save them and think of ways to save them! Even though they may be confused at the moment, or they may have lost their capacity to recognize truth or reality, owing to their concepts being warped by the Party culture over time, we still have to find ways to save them.
Right now the biggest obstacle is that the Party culture is influencing sentient beings and rendering them unable to see or listen to the truth. With that situation at hand, the Nine Commentaries were published with the purpose of helping people to see the CCP's fundamental nature. After seeing its evil nature clearly and learning that the malevolent Party has corrupted our culture, a lot of people have stopped saying that they believe in the Party, and a lot of people have stopped believing in that rogue government. Our goal and starting point are not political in nature, and we don't want ordinary people's political power. We are saving people! If the CCP, while in its death throes, still tries to use different tactics to tamper with the salvation of sentient beings, then we have other ways to deal with it--the Buddha Fa is boundless! (Enthusiastic applause)
This Fa-rectification set out to save all beings. Whether a being was good or bad, or however big the mistakes he had made in the course of history, none of that would be held against him. When the entire cosmos has gone bad, in some cases you know certain beings have done wrong, and in some cases you don't, so what point is there in determining who is good and who isn't, or who is up to par and who isn't? So those things weren't going to be looked at, and everyone was to be saved. But there is one thing, which is the most crucial of all: the Fa-rectification of the cosmos cannot be interfered with. Then as for all of the beings in this entire cosmos, including the beings and people in the Three Realms, their attitudes today toward Dafa are of utmost importance. That was the only standard--we were going to look only at the beings' attitudes toward Dafa today. So in other words, the intention before wasn't to eliminate that malevolent CCP even though it had done every conceivable evil deed, created that wicked Party culture, and murdered countless people and other lives. That was because in Fa-rectification everything that is not upright could have been rectified, and things wouldn't have even needed cultivators to deal directly with them or fix them--those things would have been rectified at a fundamental level during the Fa-rectification. In other words, those matters wouldn't have been touched at the surface level at all. Even those evil specters of the malevolent Party could have been rectified and turned into good beings. But during this Fa-rectification, what was beneficial to society at the ordinary people's level [became persecuted]. During the years when Falun Gong was disseminated in Chinese society, it led to fundamental changes in many people's outlooks there, their moral standard improved and they became physically healthy. The CCP knows that its political power is illegitimate, so it has repeatedly barked about "stability" and desired to protect its political power. Of course, those are all ordinary people's affairs and we ignore what they do. But when Dafa was disseminated in China, wasn't that good for the people in that society? Didn't it effectively stabilize that society? When people wanted to do good, when all of them were fulfilling their responsibilities at work, and when all of them were acting as good people in every situation, that mental strength was turning into material strength, so think about how much economic benefit it would have brought to the country and its people, and how much good it would have done. It helped bring the populace's moral standards back up--think about how stable that society would have become. And who was governing that society, so who would have benefited from that? Wasn't that obvious? But that evil-specter-possessed malevolent Party and its gang of bad people, who were accustomed to doing evil at will and without restraint, nonetheless chose to persecute us. Then, well, since they chose persecution, from the day that they chose persecution the gods decided to have them weeded out. They will have to pay for everything they have done to the Disciples of Dafa during the persecution and for poisoning the world's people. But in fact their even greater sin is that they interfered with the Fa-rectification.
You know, in Fa-rectification a lot of the beings in other dimensions are being eliminated instantaneously as the Fa-rectification's mighty current passes through. It's done very quickly. No matter how fast the overall Fa-rectification pushes forward, though, it still requires a process. That's because the cosmos's dimensions consist of different times. Each planet has its own time, each particle has its own time, each area formed by particles has its own time, and each area formed by planets has its own time. The area of the nine major planets, the Milky Way, other galaxies, the entirety of all galaxies, this universe, the universes beyond this universe, the universes of greater reaches... all of them have their own times. The times in each of these universes and cosmic bodies are different, and the differences are huge. Looking at it from the perspective of the entire cosmos, it seems that this Fa-rectification of the cosmos is completed as fast as a wave of the hand. But as that hand is waved, the time in certain dimensions is so fast that tens of thousands of years have passed. In some dimensions time elapses almost at the same rate as the wave of the hand. In some it takes hundreds of years or thousands of years. In this place of human beings it's really not so bad--it has been just over a dozen years since the Fa-rectification began. Of course, though, Master was working on this even before imparting the Fa. The fact is, it has progressed very swiftly. Those evil specters and bad people who have done evil to Dafa disciples are doing it only during this difference in time before the arrival here of Fa-rectification. The time it takes is in fact very brief. If mankind's time had been arranged to progress at the same rate as Fa-rectification, then this would have been over in the time it takes for a wave of the hand. It feels like time drags here at this human place, but it actually is moving really fast. Since Fa-rectification's speed has to be very fast, the speed at which it is pushing forward surpasses all times in the cosmos. The old forces in the cosmos are also operating quickly in order to interfere with Fa-rectification, and the time in the Three Realms has sped up in conjunction with that.
I've told you before that time here among human beings has become really fast. I have talked to you about that on several occasions, and [the pace of it] changed a number of times. At one point I said that one day now passes in what used to be the passage of a second, and later I told you that one year now passes in what used to be the passage of a minute. But even though the pace has been so fast, the beings in here can't detect it. And that is because the objects inside this place and all of this place's factors are, accordingly, going at a faster pace. Time and space have created different environments in the cosmos and different forms of dimensions. The beings and all things that are here are accelerating along with the time. That is why you can't feel it accelerating. Not only is the Fa-rectification pushing forward at a rapid pace, the old state of affairs is operating at an accelerating speed as well. With all that, the time now is very brief. The matter that makes up human beings has its limitations, so if time goes too fast, the sentient beings in the Three Realms won't be able to bear it. It has almost reached the limit now of what human beings can adapt to in terms of time. The only way human beings can detect time's acceleration and how it compares to before, is by a sense they might have based on their impressions. And older people know this even better: before, it felt like a person could do a lot in a day, one day felt long, and it seemed as though it would never get dark, whereas now dusk comes soon after dawn and it gets dark before you have done much. Another thing is, the capacity of the human body wouldn't keep up [if time were sped up too much]. The matter in each layer is subject to that layer's limitations, so the material elements wouldn't be able to keep up. The speed of Fa-rectification is, in fact, extremely rapid. No matter how rampant or ferocious those evil beings may seem, their terrible end is imminent! (Enthusiastic applause)
So since the publication of the Nine Commentaries, through clarifying the facts and saving sentient beings Dafa disciples have really helped many people come to understand the true situation. And notably, many people have wanted to withdraw from the Party and separate themselves from that evil thing. Let's consider it further. Some people might say, "I don't need to renounce the Party. I know that it's no good, and I stopped paying dues a long time ago." But this is not a case where you can just think about it and that will count. Back when you enthusiastically raised your fist and made a deadly pledge to that blood-red flag, you said that you would give your life to it, that you would devote your entire life to it. So if today you don't publicly declare your intentions and withdraw, how could it count? You think that just having had that thought in your mind counts? People's thoughts are unstable. A person's brain is just a processing center, and all kinds of messages and information go through the human brain, play out and display themselves, and affect that person. The origins of a person's thoughts are extremely complex. So if you want to judge a person's attitude, what he does, and what kind of person he is, you have to go by his actions. His thoughts don't count. Why should we always go by a person's actions? If a person wants to do something bad, you can't charge him with a crime before he does it; only after he does it can you charge him. That's because the source of a person's thoughts and the thoughts themselves are extremely unstable. A person has a master soul and an assistant soul(s), he has all kinds of notions that have been formed after birth, and both good and evil are part of his nature. Also there are external factors that play a part. A person's actions are the true reflection of that person. So the way gods see it, the evil specter and the malevolent Party have already been incriminated because they have persecuted Dafa disciples and interfered with the Fa-rectification. They now consider them the most evil and have decided to eliminate them. How will they be eliminated, then? And who will be included in the elimination? Will it be enough just to eliminate the malevolent Party's evil specters? Members of the Party and the Youth League who have helped the malevolent Party's evil specter do bad things are doing its evil bidding in this world. Put another way, even if you haven't done anything bad, when you are one of its members you are a component that fortifies it, a particle of the evil, and thus a target for elimination. What's more, [the evil specter(s)] is having an effect on all of the dimensions in the Three Realms, especially the human world. A lot of people became part of it without being forced to and are willingly being used by it and helping it. That being the case, then isn't what CCP members have in store for them terrifying?
For a long time that malevolent Party with its evil specter has deliberately dragged into its ranks people who are accomplished, capable, and outstanding figures so as to strengthen itself, show that it is great, and make it look as if it really is made up of stellar individuals. The truth is, even the evil knows that those people aren't necessarily sincere, and that is why they are victimized whenever a [CCP] political movement comes along. When it's time to settle accounts with the malevolent Party, though, and when the Fa's rectification of the human world really takes place, none of that will be taken into consideration; as long as you are a member of it, everything will be instantly purged in the process. Because Dafa disciples are saving sentient beings, they have been informing people of the truth--even as they are being severely persecuted--by fully utilizing every opportunity and risking their own safety. They have told the world's people about these things and are saving them. Some people won't listen, though, and by refusing to listen, well, they have given their stance. Some people have read [the Commentaries] but still don't want to withdraw, in which case their not withdrawing has likewise given their stance.
Dafa disciples have been doing what they're doing out of compassion and a wish to save people, giving their best effort, and doing all they can to save people. So from day one to the present we have always been saving sentient beings and we have never done anything specifically to achieve some worldly political thing. We don't care about political power. A cultivator's goal is to go beyond the human world and achieve the Consummation of his being. When he is attached to getting worldly things or to self-interest he can't reach Consummation. When a cultivator cultivates in this world he is to get rid of all sorts of human attachments, and only then can he become a divine being. Otherwise, any attachment or any element in the human world that weighs on your mind becomes a lock that fastens you down and prevents you from leaving. That's why when you validate Dafa and save sentient beings you cultivate yourself at the same time. You're all very clear on that. In other words, we don't seek human things whatsoever.
Ordinary people--people who haven't obtained the Fa, people who don't know what Dafa disciples are about, and outsiders to cultivation--are incapable of understanding Dafa and Dafa disciples. In the minds of people today self-interest is number one. There are a lot of democracy activists and people from various non-governmental political groups who also oppose the malevolent CCP. But I find that it's hard for them to accomplish things. And some of their behavior is really poor, and troubling. If they were really entrusted with political power there, would it work? They are so strongly attached to self-interest. Now, even before they have done much, when their self-interest is involved and at stake, they start fighting among themselves before moving on to do anything else. How could gods entrust them with responsibility over a nation? (Applause) So, human beings... they have reached this stage, and I'm not talking just about certain individuals... the state of the entire society and the morals in society are both going downhill fast. They are quickly going downhill without people realizing it, and people have become small-minded without realizing it. Their attachment to self-interest has surpassed their political aspirations, their political pursuits, and their desire to fight for their goals. What I'm saying is, moral values are important for ordinary people too. If someone's values are lacking gods really look down on him. With any person, any being, only when he has both aspirations and morals can he accomplish things, to be sure. When the Fa rectifies the human world, or, prior to that, when the malevolent CCP falls, who will govern [China]? We Dafa disciples won't govern it, for we are cultivators, people whose bodies are in the secular world but whose minds are beyond it. And we're not interested in political power there anyway. (Applause) Who will be fit, then? Gods will look for those who have great aspirations, who have the ability, and have high moral values. That you can count on! As for those everyday people who are able to validate Dafa today and who break away from the malevolent CCP--and I'm not talking about Dafa disciples--you are extraordinary, and my hope is that, if you truly want to accomplish some things in society, you will begin to place importance on refining your behavior. Only then will you be able to live up to a major responsibility like that.
What I was just talking about were peripheral things. With cultivators there is actually no need to talk about those things, but I did so because I know that in the audience today there are some new students as well as people who are not yet Dafa disciples. Whatever the case, I want what is good for people. Having reincarnated in China in this life, I, Li Hongzhi, have a deep understanding of that nation and I want what's good for it, too. (Applause) Since time is limited and you still have papers to present, I won't talk more. (Applause, asking Master to stay longer) If I say too much it will interfere with the current state of affairs wherein you validate the Fa, because students will ask a lot of questions that aren't related to the current situation of validating the Fa. If I said a lot today it would dilute the things that you need to do at present. So we should attend to the current circumstances and not dilute the things that now need to be done. That's basically how things are now. If there are new things that need to be done, Dafa disciples will naturally know.
I'd like to take this opportunity to tell you this: while saving sentient beings, don't forget to cultivate yourselves. (Applause) You need to do all of the three things. You should always keep your thoughts righteous, and when you are confronted with evil or with certain situations, you should send forth righteous thoughts a lot; you need to clarify the truth and save sentient beings, but even more so should you cultivate yourselves well. If you don't cultivate yourselves well you won't have mighty virtue, what you say will not be in line with the Fa, and then you can't possibly save sentient beings. When what you say has no mighty virtue and no power, it will have no effect, and the evil will capitalize on that. What's more, if you don't cultivate yourselves well and your righteous thoughts are lacking, when you handle certain things you will tend to slip into human ways of thinking, and then you won't be able to have the effect of saving sentient beings. A lot of ordinary people are helping Dafa disciples do things, as a matter of fact, but they are ordinary people doing the things of Dafa disciples. You, on the other hand, are Dafa disciples. What you are doing are things you are supposed to do, and you are establishing your mighty virtue and moving towards Consummation on a divine path. So it will not work if you don't cultivate yourselves. I won't say more on this. I won't take up more of your time. Study the Fa a lot, read the book a lot.
No matter how hard things may be for Dafa disciples and how trying your journey may be, your future is bright. More and more, you are seeing how bright your future is and are becoming clear about the kind of path you want to take. Master has prepared the best of everything for you, but you need to make it there! (Warm applause)
Having gotten to where they are today, Dafa disciples have won the admiration of beings at all levels, high and low, and the evil beings are scared, terrified. Right now the evil beings are basically following, in an irrational way, the factors originally arranged by the old forces; they are being used and are doing things that interfere with the Fa-rectification. Some evil beings get up and flee the moment they are in proximity to Dafa disciples. Some tremble with fear, hesitant, while they do bad things now. So Dafa disciples should not be afraid, and they should handle everything in an upright and dignified way. It is the evil beings that are scared. At the beginning of the persecution Dafa disciples appeared to be isolated, and that was because there were so many evil factors at that time. But in reality they weren't isolated even then, as there were gods and Master's Law Bodies around, there was gong, and the side of you that had been fully cultivated was there. Things are even better today. Many of the evil factors are gone, the malevolent Party's evil specters are fewer, and the field Dafa has formed in the world has become enormous, with its density being very high now. The main thing the field is doing is helping Dafa disciples in saving sentient beings and in restraining the evil beings, particularly the major ones. So it basically leaves the mundane affairs of ordinary people alone. If this field were to produce a widespread effect, the effect would be quite significant and would far surpass the evil field of the wicked CCP. Meanwhile, the field of the evil-specter-ridden malevolent Party is dissolving and shrinking dramatically. So the evil beings are terrified.
In fact, [Dafa's] field not only helps Dafa disciples with what they are doing, it also encourages the world's people, builds up the courage of the Chinese people both inside and outside Mainland China, helps them to free themselves from the control of those evil factors, and has a positive effect on all fronts. So I hope you will do even better in the journey ahead, be upright and dignified, have stronger righteous thoughts, and do even better. No matter what situation you may encounter or in what circumstances you may find yourself, you have to be like a Dafa disciple and you can't act impulsively. You need to have enough righteous thoughts. (Applause)
The form and state of the cultivation that Dafa disciples practice today are different from the cultivation forms of the past. You are the ones who are truly saving sentient beings on a broad scale, and you are the ones who truly have such a great mission. That is why the state you manifest is completely different from that in the cultivation of the past. And for precisely these reasons, it is even more important that you not neglect your own cultivation or use these things to make excuses for your shortcomings. So I hope you will do well on the path ahead. Okay, I'll end here, that's all I will say today. (Long and enthusiastic applause)
Last updated: October 22, 2005.