Fa Teaching at the 2007 New York Fa Conference
April 7, 2007 in Manhattan
Li Hongzhi
Good afternoon!
(Applause) You've been working hard! (Applause)
The Fa conference is a grand gathering of Dafa disciples, and some of you present here have traveled thousands of miles in order to identify your gaps and shortcomings by attending the Fa conference, and to thus catch up in those regards. Dafa disciples' personal cultivation and improvement are no longer an issue, nor is Dafa disciples' achieving Consummation. Right now, one important thing that needs to be attended to is the matter of how to save more sentient beings, and it is something Dafa disciples are to accomplish during their current process of achieving Consummation. This is Dafa disciples' mission, a duty that cannot be shirked, something that they must do and must complete.
Many prophecies in the past said that a great many people would be weeded out during a certain era and that only a very few, good people would survive. Long ago, I myself once said, "I want only my people." In the West, many legends and the Bible have given accounts telling that on Judgment Day only a small percentage of people would survive. The situation early on was that the world's people, including all sentient beings in the Three Realms, were made up of material elements from within the Three Realms. The material elements in the Three Realms are completely different from those in the heavens, so such beings couldn't ascend to the heavens and could only stay in this realm. But later this situation underwent, in keeping with the ever-unfolding changes in history, and all the way up through modern times, great changes.
I have gone into the details of this before--many high-level beings came to the human world and reincarnated as human beings. In other words, in terms of outer appearance they looked human and had a human structure. But on a fundamental level, inside the microcosmic substances in the most surface matter of the human world, or behind the human surface matter, they were nevertheless from beyond the Three Realms. Many human bodies have been put on--as one would an item of clothing--by gods who descended to the world from higher levels; they thus look human, but fundamentally they are beings from higher levels. Of course, regardless of who comes, and no matter how high of a level these beings or gods come from, once they come to the human world, they enter a society of delusion and are devoid of any knowledge. In other words, they are no longer gods then, and instead, human beings. Under such circumstances, no matter how high of a level they come from, their divine sides are unable to emerge and their wisdom is sealed off, rendering them just like human beings. When society is doing well, they as a whole can keep a certain standard of morality that is consistent with the overall state of society, and that's not that frightening of a prospect for humans or other beings. But if society's morality declines rapidly or if old forces deliberately lead human society to slide downwards, then that is something extremely terrifying for all lives, including for the gods from high levels who came down to become human beings.
Actually, in today's Chinese society, people's moral values have far transgressed the state gods set forth as required for man back when gods first created human beings. In other words, it is no longer a human state that people are in. To put it unpleasantly, they are no longer worthy of being human. In the past they would have, in the absence of this Fa-rectification undertaking, been obliterated. In the course of history, mankind has gone through one catastrophe after another, and been destroyed time and again. Things work the same way for the greater universe, it having something just like the human body's metabolic process: When cells grow old and are no longer sound, they are discarded, and good ones are created anew. In various regions of the greater universe, this type of event happens not just frequently, but in fact constantly--and that is quite normal. Then as for a human being, his life is at the lowest level; and as a creature at the lowest level, no matter how great a person he thinks he is, he amounts to nothing in the eyes of gods, and he will be eliminated when he is no good. It is because the Fa-rectification and salvation of all sentient beings in the universe are happening today that degenerate human beings have not been weeded out. It is due to the state of mankind having undergone certain changes as well as Dafa disciples needing to establish their own mighty virtue through this event that humanity has been allowed to survive and continue on. As Dafa disciples, if right now you cannot accomplish that and lead beings to salvation, then you will have failed to fulfill the vows you once made, and will have brought calamity to the entire Fa-rectification, the universe, and sentient beings. That's why I said just now that this is something Dafa disciples must do well.
Let me tell you more about the Three Realms while we are on the topic. Despite the current state of human society; of how the beings in the Three Realms consider themselves to be so important; of how advanced, accomplished, powerful, and wealthy people think they are in society; or of how each nation, each government, and each so-called accomplished person thinks itself or himself to be really remarkable--I can tell you, everything of mankind today, including everything that has happened in history and the emergence of the Three Realms, exists for the Fa-rectification. In other words, everything was created for this Fa-rectification, everything came here for this Fa-rectification, and everything within this process was established for this Fa-rectification. Everything of mankind--including life, matter, everything a person can come to know, comprehend, and arrive at an understanding of--exists for this Fa-rectification affair, and absolutely would not have come into existence otherwise.
To put it another way, the Three Realms was created so that ultimately all beings in the universe could be saved in the course of Fa-rectification, and Dafa disciples could thus succeed. Otherwise the Three Realms would not exist. Human society is but a particle within the Three Realms--a society that exists on a tiny particle, something too insignificant even to mention--and no matter how grand the human beings inside it consider their things to be, no matter how important humans think mankind's things are, no matter how great humans consider mankind's accomplishments to be, and no matter how mankind has developed, these are all opinions that human beings arrived at by looking at things from a human standpoint. When people, while in a state of delusion, think that human society is remarkable, that is a result of their not knowing the true situation. Human beings may say whatever they will [about themselves], but that is not how gods look at them. Once all beings learn the true purpose behind human life and of the surroundings in which human beings live, they will come to an epiphany that the "development" of mankind is no more than a process of its being reared and the state of human society being sustained while the arrival of the final major event is awaited. All things have been no more than specific manifestations in the process of sustaining mankind's state of being, and the true purpose has been to await this last step--the arrival of gods and the start of Fa-rectification.
I began teaching the Fa as early as 1992. Back then Dafa disciples were continually promoting the Fa, and now, while undergoing persecution, Dafa disciples are saving all beings on a global scale. And the world's people that Dafa disciples are saving have undergone changes in recent times. What mankind has been awaiting and what the prophets predicted are coming to be. Lost and confused, and driven by material gain, false appearances, and lies, people don't dare to believe that everything in the last phase has really begun and is in progress. Human society seems to still be functioning as usual, and everything is operating smoothly, steadily, and normally. But in reality, everything is operating for the sake of Fa-rectification. When gods arrive here, they don't make a big show of it or make a big cosmic display--"I have arrived, listen to everything I say, and I will take you all to heaven unconditionally." That would never happen. Human beings have to pay for the sins that they committed over the course of history. Whether they are worthy of seeing gods is not as simple as humans imagine it to be. Whether human beings are worthy of obtaining the Fa and ascending to the heavens is something they need to be tested on while in delusion, and so gods are not going to reveal themselves in that manner. When gods manifest themselves in human society they will seem very similar to human beings, yet what they say is Truth. It's a matter of whether the baseline of human morality and moral values allows people still to recognize [that god], and whether they can still identify with the most basic moral standards that the universe set forth for mankind--meaning, people's ultimate moral standard determines whether they can recognize the Fa that has come to save all beings. If you are able to recognize it, then you will be saved and rescued. If you aren't able to recognize it, then you are beyond salvation and cannot be kept. And that is a result of the collapse of the moral baseline; without morality, one no longer meets the standard for being human. From ancient times to the present, whether in the East or the West, people have always put emphasis on human morality. In modern times, though, how many people in society really value it? At the end, during the time when gods are supposed to be saving people, although a person's degree of morality isn't directly taken into account, the deterioration of your own morality has led to the baseline's collapse, and this is what caused you to fail to identify with the Fa and recognize it. Isn't that the reason why you cannot be saved and rescued?
In the past, human society always maintained a state wherein moral values were taken quite seriously. In recent times, people were meant to obtain the Fa and be saved and rescued. But the old forces wouldn't allow that many people to be saved, and wished to weed out a portion of the human race. So they created the wicked Communist Party for human society, and especially significant, the wicked CCP has done much to undermine human morality and created a culture of the Party, as well as altered people's ways of thinking, with the goal of all this being to stop people from obtaining the Fa when the time came. The altered notions then look at things with the mentality instilled by the wicked Party's culture. Completely casting aside human thinking and human culture, [as the Party has had people do,] amounts to becoming a deviant being and a part of those who are to be weeded out. Five thousand years of Chinese culture laid the foundation for all of mankind's culture, ways of thinking, and ways of behaving, and it was gods that systematically created all of it. Yet it has been ruined, wrecked, by a wicked Party that has been propped up by the old forces. Over this short period of a few decades, it has been continually negating China's ancient culture and trampling underfoot China's ancient civilization. Gods imparted to human beings ideas, morality, and civilization so that in the last phase human beings could use these to tell right from wrong, understand the Fa, and be saved. The wicked CCP is not only systematically and deliberately sabotaging all of this, but also systematically and deliberately instilling people with the wicked culture of the Party. It calls it "educating people" and "reforming people"--they put it in unambiguous terms--and it makes you change even your worldview, a change that leads you to follow the conduct, ways of thinking, and mindset created by the wicked CCP. When Chinese people look at things with the worldview instilled by the wicked Party, it is truly hard for them, having been "reformed" in this manner, to tell right from wrong or good from evil in the human world, or for them to recognize the Fa or the Truth. Older folks and people of older generations were once educated and shaped by ancient human culture, [theirs being an era] prior to the appearance of the wicked CCP's culture. Although the wicked CCP's things came into existence in more recent times, those persons' moral baseline has remained intact to this day, and they can tell good from bad on a basic level. The most lamentable are modern youth, whose heads are completely infused with the modern ideas of the wicked CCP, and yet these persons think they are great and that they see through everything. They mistakenly think that the chaotic state of people's relationships, value systems, and ethical relations--itself the result of the CCP's having deliberately ruined those things--is how mankind has always been throughout history, and they think it's human instinct to act that way. In addition, there is the heretical theory of evolution, whereby they truly regard themselves as animals, ignorant of the fact that this has happened as a result of the CCP's deliberate actions. People have forgotten what mankind has been awaiting and the real purpose of being human, but the evil specter of the wicked Party does know these, and so it has been deliberately corrupting human beings. That worthless, modern type of ignorance is completely blocking them from recognizing the truth of the universe, and that is a terrifying prospect for this generation.
Of course, this is about Fa-rectification and saving all beings, and aren't gods omnipotent? And isn't the Buddha Fa boundless? Indeed, Dafa's boundless Fa power is being fully demonstrated in the process of saving beings. When Dafa was first being disseminated I said something on the surface: I said that the door for all to salvation is wide open--so open that there is no longer a door. No mistake made by sentient beings in the course of history was to be held against them, for the beings of all types and kinds at different levels are no longer any good, and not a single level still meets the standard for that level. That's not to say that those at a high level no longer meet the standard for a low level. Rather, a divine being must meet the standard for the level that a divine being is at--it won't do if you meet the standard for just a human being. If you meet the standard for just a human being, then you are a human being. In other words, the beings at each level no longer meet the standards for their levels, and this includes human beings' not meeting the standard for humans. So at this point, what can be done to save sentient beings?
You all know that both good and bad beings exist in the universe. Where there are Buddhas, there are demons. Where there are positive gods, there are negative gods. They are opposites of one another because they are inevitable outcomes of the universe. Then if one wants to save all beings, there is only one way, namely, to overlook all of the mistakes that all beings have made while leading their lives. They can be saved only after the mistakes that all beings made in history are set aside. In other words, the entire universe is no longer any good, so what's the point of nitpicking about who's a little better than who? Even if one were slightly better than others, he still couldn't meet the standard held by the universe, so such things are not considered at all in the process of saving them. Then what is looked at? The focus is on whether, when a person is offered salvation, he is able to recognize this Fa that's here to save him! Because everything of the future is created by this Fa, beings in the future will exist in the living environment that this Fa provides for them. Whoever is able to make it into the future will have done so only after having been washed clean by the Fa and having assimilated to the Fa. If you can't recognize even this Fa, then of course you cannot stay. Where would you go if you were to stay? The universe of the future is created by this Fa, so there would be no place for you, and you would no longer exist.
To put it more clearly, right now during the Fa-rectification, no matter how great are the sins sentient beings have committed or how grave are the mistakes they made in the past, the only thing that is looked at is the attitude that they have toward Dafa and Dafa disciples during the Fa-rectification period. There is just this one line of demarcation. Actually, this line is not a line at all; it's just about whether you want to enter the future. Amidst lies that have deceived the world, and amidst the wicked culture created by the evil CCP, how many people can still recognize that point? How many people can tell right from wrong? How many people can see clearly the wickedness of the evil CCP? It is very hard to do, and that's why Dafa disciples clarify the facts, expose the evil, and help people to see the wicked CCP for what it is. Only by doing these things can the world's people be saved. This is precisely what Dafa disciples are to do.
Some people say, "When you people are promoting the Nine Commentaries or exposing the evil CCP, aren't you getting political?" Well, what is "political"? In the minds of Westerners, all things that take place out in the public sphere, with the exception of religious activities, are considered political. That's how the word "political" is defined around the world. Religious activities are a part of one's activities in society. Of the activities in the public sphere, aside from that type, that is, religious activities, everything belongs to the category of political activity. What's not considered political activity, then? When you're at home cooking and going about domestic affairs it's not considered political. But as soon as your activities mingle with society, they are considered political. That's speaking from the viewpoint of a free society. But it's still nothing major, even when viewed from the distorted perspective on "politics" wrought by the wicked CCP. That warped version of "politics" is a rod used to attack people. If people can be saved through politics, though, then we can make use of that form--what would be wrong with that? I said a moment ago that everything in the Three Realms was created for Dafa, developed for Dafa, and came for Dafa. Without this Fa-rectification, nothing of mankind would exist. Then switching to another way of thinking, consider this: Isn't all of this provided for Dafa? Isn't all of this to be used for saving people? Aren't they to be used for the cultivation of Dafa disciples? They are, for sure! It is just a question of what I, Li Hongzhi, choose for Dafa disciples.
Speaking from another angle, how Dafa disciples cultivate is different from any of the cultivation ways in history. As a result, many people's thinking has been unable to keep up [with developments] and they feel confused, for they are using the way of thinking that the wicked CCP bred in them to look at how past and present relate to each other, and to interpret the cultivation that Dafa disciples do in light of past religious cultivation. Such people think that the cultivation of the past is how human beings are supposed to cultivate, and that past forms of faith could truly enable people to return to heaven. But people weren't able to return to heaven in the least. Now more and more people, including persons in Western society, have come to realize, and realize ever more deeply, that human beings reincarnate. As long as someone came to this human place, he had no means of re-ascending to the heavens. And this was absolute--nobody could ascend to the heavens. The subordinate souls (fu yuanshen) were not inside the Three Realms, though they were in the vicinity of the Three Realms. It's akin to my standing in the vicinity of that table, but not having gone into the table. That is why the subordinate soul could succeed at cultivation and return to the heavens. But even in those cases, because he had come into the vicinity of the Three Realms, once he returns to the heavens the gods of higher levels place a cover around him, eternally separating him from the beings in the heavens. He can't see the cover, though. The purpose is to prevent him from polluting the heavens and the sentient beings there. If I hadn't talked about this, even the gods would not know about it.
In other words, whoever entered the Three Realms and came to this human place had fallen, and could never ascend again, because in the past mankind never had the true Fa that could enable human beings to return to the heavens. It is said that Shakyamuni taught the Fa, and Jesus taught the Way. But in fact, what they taught was meant for only one of the souls, a subordinate soul, of each person, whereas the human side over here couldn't understand it, and this made it impossible for the person at the surface and his master soul (zhu yuanshen) to change themselves through cultivation. People talk about how Buddha Shakyamuni spread the Fa in such-and-such manner. He and those like him were merely establishing mankind's culture, however. I talked about these things when I first began [teaching the Fa]. When human beings were first created by gods, their minds were a blank slate. They had no ability to understand this world. They had no real life experiences, they had never endured any setbacks or hardships, and they couldn't even tell apart the four seasons as they went about their lives. Man had to be given a process to learn about and understand the world--a process meant to continually establish various forms of culture--and thus a systematic, correct way of thinking and moral beliefs had to be created for mankind. Something like that could only be formed via an extremely long process in history, and thus mankind had to go through so many years of history. The Three Realms and mankind couldn't be created on the go as Fa-rectification was unfolding. That wouldn't do, so there had to be a historical process that would enable human beings to grasp things on a rational level as they went through real-life experiences during that process in history. Only then could the state of being, mindset, external appearance, moral beliefs, and conduct that man has today be established.
Then during this process of going through real-life experiences in this world and learning about the world, humans of course had to be told, while mankind's culture was being established, about the most important things, such as: What are Gods? What are Buddhas? What are Daos? And what are the different gods? So, how was mankind's culture established? These gods were sent to the human world so that they could have humans learn about these things through being saved. Actually, as to saving people, I just said that those that were saved were the subordinate souls. Not a single person has been able to return to the heavens--everyone is still reincarnating in the human world. Because the subordinate soul is affected by the person's external form, he has the same appearance as the person. Those with a good innate potential for enlightenment may see that he has returned to the heavens, but this divine being was merely a human being's subordinate soul that happened to have the same image as the person. He was not really the main body of that person, though, and the person still has to undergo reincarnation. History was established in just such a manner, step by step, right on up to the present, and man was in this manner reared to become a person with modern thinking and behavior, and this was so that when human history reached this last phase, human beings would be able to recognize the Fa. In other words, the emergence of Shakyamuni and the emergence of some gods in history amounted to the emergence of divinely-imparted cultures. And in fact, that was itself to establish for human beings a way of thinking that would enable them to understand divine beings and to establish a culture that would make the idea of divine beings comprehensible. Were history otherwise, when I came to impart the Fa today it would have been very hard for me to teach this Fa, as you would not know what a god was, what a Buddha was, or what a Dao was. How would I teach it, then? I would have to explain everything to you, including what Buddhas, Daos, and Gods are like, what their characteristics are, what they do, how they save people, what saving people is, what happens to people who are saved, and so on. And even if I were to explain all of that to you, you wouldn't have the real-life experiences and knowledge needed, nor any picture in your mind, nor would you have gone through a process of comprehending things. How would I impart the Fa in that case? How could you understand it? That is why all of this had to be completed in the course of history, and thus people today can understand what a god is, what the Fa is, what cultivation is, what Consummation is, and so on.
So then, what is cultivation? Only the cultivation being done by Dafa disciples today is true cultivation, for human beings are herein truly able to cultivate--something that has never been the case in history. What does "saving all beings" mean? Though gods left behind this culture to mankind, they didn't truly go about such a thing [as saving all beings]. I am doing so, however, and now it is you, too--the Dafa disciples--who are saving all beings. And you are doing it for all of mankind (applause), saving people on a comprehensive scale. In other words, in doing everything that Dafa disciples are doing today--whether you are part of some project, or you are taking to the streets and clarifying the facts, passing out materials, or sitting in front of the consulates and embassies to expose the evil--you are cultivating yourselves, validating the Fa, and in the process saving the world's people. That is what Dafa disciples are doing. Though seemingly ordinary, these acts are all magnificent, remarkable, because all professions in the human world and all settings are your cultivation site. With the cultivation done in the past, starting cultivation meant going off to a monastery or the mountains. Many people don't understand this cultivation method that I set forth for Dafa disciples. They wonder, "How come they cultivate while working? How come they didn't become monks?" That's understandable. Actually, once upon a time Shakyamuni talked about this subject. He said that when the Holy King Who Turns the Wheel descended to the world, people would be able to cultivate into Tathagatas without having to leave the secular world. So how does one go about [cultivating] while not leaving the secular world? And in a society such as that of today, how is one to cultivate?
I just said, and I have discussed before, that there are Dafa disciples in all professions and in all social strata, and that they are saving sentient beings, validating the Fa, and playing the role of Dafa disciples in all the various professions. And actually, when you manage to, while in the various professions, do well all the things that you ought to do, you are then in fact cultivating. The various professions in the human world are all cultivation sites that are provided to you. This goes back to the topic that I brought up earlier--that everything of mankind in the Three Realms has been created for Dafa, built up for Dafa, and has come for Dafa. One can cultivate while doing anything or while working in any profession. In other words, human society is one big practice site for the cultivation of my Dafa disciples, and you can cultivate no matter where you are. It just depends on whether you are diligent or not in your cultivation, and that holds as well for those who are doing things as special agents. (Audience laughs) You all can cultivate and save beings. It is just a question of how you align your thinking and what kind of attitude you have toward the Fa.
The things I just spoke about are things I have actually addressed before in my Fa teachings; this time I am merely speaking with you about them from another angle. I would like to use the next bit of time to answer some of your questions. (Applause) I haven't seen you for a long time, and many people have a lot of questions to ask. But there are always those who were not diligent in the past and have now become diligent. They have to travel anew the path that others have already taken, and they will ask questions that others have raised before. (Audience laughs) There is also a portion of people who don't read the books much. The books contain all the answers, but such persons don't read the books, and thus when they see me they still want to ask those questions [that the books answer]. (Audience laughs) But regardless, since they managed to become Dafa disciples and cultivate in Dafa, they should be considered outstanding. If you have questions, go ahead and ask them. I'm your master, after all. When disciples have questions, and especially ones related to cultivation, it is such a serious matter that I must address those questions and talk to you about them. Next, as you raise questions you should do so by submitting slips of paper as usual. And there is one more thing. There are more than three thousand of you seated here, and that's not counting the auxiliary halls. If there is a question slip from each person, we won't be able to get through them all. (Master laughs) So those who are part of the conference's organizing committee are going to sort through them and then pass up those that are selected.
(Master sits down, disciples applaud)
Disciple: Dafa disciples from the cities of Wuhan and Shenzhen send their greetings to Master! (Applause) And we are determined to do the three things well and walk well the last part of our journey.
Master: I believe in you. You surely will! Thank you! (Applause)
Disciple: I've discovered that what has been impeding my improvement is actually that my righteous belief isn't solid enough and that there are elements at the microcosmic level that don't believe, so this makes me feel really sad. I, your disciple, truly yearn to return to our home with Master.
Master: I can see from this question slip, of course, that there are elements of falling short, but that at the same time you really wish to cultivate well. I think that as long as you read the Fa more, you will be able to resolve what is bothering you and definitely cultivate well. There is no special means. There is no way Master could personally teach each and every person to cultivate, given how many people there are in the world. That is why I have always taught you to take the Fa as the master. I have said that Master has compressed everything into the Fa, but as of today not that many of you have yet grasped the weight of those words. I'll talk to you about it again in the future. If you truly adhere to the Fa and cultivate, you will definitely succeed at cultivation! Thus you are to read the book more and study the Fa more. (Applause)
Disciple: I am conveying greetings to Master on behalf of the disciples from the city of Shenyang! (Master: Thank you!) (Applause) When we cleanse our own dimensional fields, should we use the conjoined hands position (jieyin) or the erect palm position (lizhang)?
Master: When the hands are conjoined, your body and mind are being cleansed, and when your palm is erect, there is a sending forth. The form at the surface is merely to strengthen your thought as you send righteous thoughts and to help you focus better on doing that one task. Actually, when your righteous thoughts are strong, your thoughts alone will suffice.
Disciple: All the Dafa disciples from the cities of Bengbu, Hefei, and Huainan in Anhui province send their greetings to their great Master! We miss you very much. When may we see compassionate Master in person? In China right now, all the six-year-old kids are made to join the Young Pioneers en masse two months after beginning their schooling. Will kids in this scenario face mortal danger when the wicked Party is disintegrated?
Master: It doesn't count for kids. It doesn't count for kids when they are forced to join the Young Pioneers. (Applause) It definitely doesn't count for kids who are six, or younger. (Applause) The wicked CCP is just spinning its wheels. (Audience laughs) No matter how it tries one thing after another, it makes no difference. (Audience laughs)
Disciple: All of the Dafa disciples from Turkey send their greetings to Master! We thank our compassionate and great Master for his saving grace!
Master: Thank you! (Applause)
Disciple: The spread of the Nine Commentaries and Dafa disciples' efforts to clarify the facts have led to a tremendous change in the situation in mainland China. May we ask Master if we can use reasons such as business trips to go back to China?
Master: You'd best wait a little longer. (Master laughs) The entire Fa-rectification is charging forward toward the surface at a furious rate, and it is now very fast, so the quantity of evil elements being destroyed is quite large, and they are being eliminated and decimated on a large scale in Fa-rectification. In the surface dimension where the Fa-rectification has not yet arrived, when Dafa disciples' righteous thoughts are especially strong, they too destroy large quantities of evil elements. Dafa disciples all over the world, including those in mainland China, are swiftly destroying the entities of the wicked Party as well as meddlesome demons. And of note is that lately the multitude of gods are tracking down and killing the old forces on all fronts. The moment they are found, they are cast into hell. And even when none are found, the gods search all about for them with the intent of completely clearing them out (applause), and along the way some of the factors that the old forces arranged are being destroyed, as well. Another thing right now is that those meddling deities that are affiliated with religions, which I discussed recently, are also being cleared out. So, the overall situation is changing rapidly. But as long as the evil beings aren't completely cleared out, they will do bad things, and they will focus their efforts on terrible people and things. So for now, don't be overly anxious [to go back].
Disciple: What role are the students at Fei Tian Academy of the Arts who are on tour supposed to play in the Fa-rectification process? Do they still need to complete high school and college?
Master: Fei Tian Academy of the Arts is a professional institution designed to train first-class talent, and of course it includes an academic curriculum. When it comes to the regular subjects, students participate in the standardized tests in America for high school students, ensuring that they don't fall behind in those subjects. Dafa disciples are still working on the school, and things are continually being perfected.
The roles that students at Fei Tian Academy of the Arts are playing in validating the Fa are by no means small. When clarifying the facts it's not possible to reach that many people all at once, and although Dafa disciples have saved many people with their truth-clarification efforts, that effect is hard to extend to the billions of people in the world. You have all seen that. When you explain the facts to someone, it's usually done on a one-on-one basis, or with just a few people at a time. But one single performance draws an audience of thousands, or at least a thousand at a time. Of note are the results of the performances dating back to last Christmas, which have been excellent. For the most part everyone in the audience underwent a complete change. At first a few special agents were sent to cause problems, and they caused trouble at the provocation of the meddling deities connected to religions. Precautionary measures were then taken, and afterwards there were no further problems of that sort. Upon leaving the theater, audience members' initial attitude toward Dafa disciples had basically undergone a complete change--their attitudes toward Falun Gong all changed. With that shift in the person's thought, his fate--that is, whether he remains--is decided.
Students from the advanced class are on tour at the moment, and when the tour is over, more than two hundred thousand people will have seen it. Think about it: How well has this endeavor gone? (Applause) I think it has been well worth the effort. (Audience laughs) So when we realized that one dance troupe wasn't enough, we established a second, and then a third. We are saving beings, after all. These young Dafa disciples are not only doing things to save beings, but also elevating through cultivation. And they are establishing themselves, for what they are doing is itself cultivation, and what they are walking down is a path to godhood.
Disciple: Because of their selfishness and attachments, many coordinators in Taiwan have strayed while leading practitioners in doing things to validate the Fa, and those things were not in line with the Fa's requirements. Exchanging views proved fruitless, even after multiple rounds. Your disciple has seen this and is quite worried. Master, I'd like to ask how a regular practitioner is to play his or her role in this scenario while not starting up some faction and by cooperating well.
Master: I think [what you described] is the product of too much human thinking, and that's how things are going to go when people do the tasks of Dafa disciples with a human mindset. If each person walks his own path well and cultivates himself well as he goes about cultivation, he will do things well. The assistants in different areas are really just persons who coordinate things, with the exception being that when the Falun Dafa Associations or Master have something for them to handle, they are contacted, and asked to communicate to practitioners information and what's needed. Each of them has to cultivate him or herself well, just like everyone else. All Dafa disciples, including assistants, have to look inside themselves when problems arise. When everyone does so, things are sure to go well. It's a problem if all eyes are fixed on the assistants, and everyone is helping them cultivate while forgetting that they themselves are cultivators too. More and more problems will arise when that's the case, since you are looking outward, looking externally.
If, however, the assistants really aren't doing a good job, or if their abilities fall short, then indeed a change needs to be considered. That's because their failure to do well, albeit related to larger issues involving improvement as a whole in that region, will nonetheless interfere with Dafa disciples' efforts to validate the Fa. But if each and every Dafa disciple can manage to be responsible to his or her own cultivation and to Dafa, I think that will result in the state of things being excellent for the entire region.
An assistant is bound to make mistakes. You heard what I just said, right? He is bound to make mistakes. That's because if he didn't, he would be a god, and he wouldn't need to cultivate anymore. Then should an assistant who made a mistake be treated more sternly than others who make mistakes? Cultivation is equal and treats everyone the same. In terms of impact, of course his responsibility is greater, and his conduct will likely affect other practitioners. So naturally Master has higher requirements for him. But in reality, as an individual cultivator, he is treated just the same. Under normal circumstances, an assistant cannot be relieved of his duties just because he makes a mistake. Well, why is that the case? As Dafa disciples go about their cultivation, the assistants are themselves being established and tempered, for the way the assistants of Dafa disciples do their work is like nothing found in ordinary society. It's unprecedented. If he is removed upon making a mistake, and then the next person [who is installed is soon] removed since he's going to make mistakes as well, then that's not what I want. I want to temper him and have him mature. Put another way, would it work if when you, a Dafa disciple, made a mistake I didn't allow you to be a Dafa disciple anymore and replaced you with someone else? (Disciples laugh) But when that person made a mistake he wouldn't be allowed to be a Dafa disciple, and we'd swap in another person--would that work? Problems are bound to come up as you go about cultivating, and when they do, the important thing is how everyone helps him, with goodwill, to change for the better, as opposed to holding him accountable somehow or criticizing him. The attitude each cultivator has toward others is a reflection of his own cultivation, and you should all be clear on these things.
When there is something wrong with an assistant, the responsibility he must bear for it is for sure greater, and you all know that. Master has countless Law Bodies who look after these things, and they will definitely not let his problems or opportunities for improvement go unattended to. But if you are overly attached to his problems, your problems will themselves be exposed through the affair, and you will be made to see your own problems through the affair; and this might lead to his problem not being resolved for the time being as a result of your attachment not having been removed. And if yet more people are mobilized and get involved in it, then all right--all of your problems will be exposed through it for you all to see. Such things will happen. It's not that problems should go unresolved, and it's not that Master's Law Bodies aren't going to address them.
Disciple: The Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP often receives telephone calls from people from different circles in mainland China, asking us to convey their greetings to Master!
Master: Then I thank the people in mainland China and sentient beings! (Applause) Once the world's people are freed from the control of evil factors, they will wake up, and will use their own minds to think about things. When people declared their stances or made statements against Dafa earlier on under the evil's assault and suppression that eclipsed the sky and covered the earth, no matter how many of these cases there were, that was not the person him or herself who truly said those things. Rather, it was evil factors making use of those people's mouths. I make a sharp distinction on this! So I say to the evil: Those things that you did and your desire to persecute people will be, in the course of the Fa-rectification, dealt with without the slightest error.
Disciple: Hello, Master! I, your disciple, serve as a journalist with the media. I often feel that my abilities are limited and that I have made breakthroughs only very slowly. It takes me much longer to write news articles than the profession demands. So I'm really anxious about this, and sense that this has to do with the slow improvement of my xinxing.
Master: Breakthroughs will occur if you keep up your Fa-study. Only by studying the Fa well can you validate the Fa, and only by studying the Fa well can you do better. Many practitioners have found themselves able to think about things that they didn't know how to do before in a more creative, comprehensive way thanks to Fa-study, and they are able to do anything with great proficiency. That is what comes about when you study the Fa well. Now I'm not saying that you have not cultivated well. I am talking about a Fa principle. Read the book more, study the Fa more, and you are sure to gain wisdom.
Disciple: In the course of clarifying the facts I often encounter this kind of person: He identifies with Falun Gong, but not with the Dajiyuan (Epoch Times) newspaper. My question is, is the manner in which Dajiyuan is run causing people to misunderstand Falun Gong, or is it that there are problems with these media entities in themselves?
Master: In my view, it's neither. There are all sorts of people in this world: One might like spicy food and another sour--there's a variety of tastes out there. People have different misunderstandings, all of which owe to having been poisoned by groundless lies spread by the wicked CCP. Wherever a person's misunderstanding lies, that is where problems will arise in terms of how he looks at things, and this manifests itself in the form of different viewpoints. Of course, that's not to say that this media entity has been run ideally. But, at the very least, the media outlets that Dafa disciples run are cleaner than those of ordinary people. They are saving people and benefiting them, after all, and on that score ordinary media outlets are no match. Then why is it that there are still people who think that way and say such things? It bespeaks of the fact that different people are in different realms and have different takes on things. Wherever a person is poisoned the most by the wicked Party, that is where things are going to surface. So, I think it's best that you clarify the facts to him thoroughly on whichever issue and help him to understand things. It's not that Dajiyuan really has that serious of a problem.
Disciple: Regarding the wicked Party's TV station entering Canada and the establishing of New Tang Dynasty TV, how can we make a breakthrough?
Master: It's up to Dafa disciples how to do it. You should remember one thing: Today, mankind's stage is for Dafa disciples to perform on, and absolutely not for those evil ones! (Applause) As long as you do well and everyone can come to good understandings, cooperate and coordinate with each other, and have strong righteous thoughts, then there is nothing that cannot be accomplished, for your starting point is matched by no one--it is to save all beings! The Three Realms were created for the purpose of the affairs at hand, not to give ordinary people recreation, and definitely not for ordinary people's entertainment. Human beings indeed have their amusements, but that's just a part of human life, and it is a state that human beings maintain while awaiting the Fa.
Disciple: Why is it that no matter how hard I, your disciple, try, I always feel that I can't keep up with the progress of Fa-rectification?
Master: I think that your insight is quite good. If you always feel as if you have shortcomings, then try to constantly address this head on and catch up by studying the Fa more and doing more of what Dafa disciples are supposed to do. That's all you need to do.
Disciple: We are a team compiling Chinese language textbooks. We would like to ask Master: With the Fa-rectification process where it's at today, how much energy should we expend on creating textbooks? Should we spend more time creating textbooks or on other projects?
Master: I think that whether you are creating Chinese textbooks or doing something else, you should think about doing them in a coordinated manner, and see if the schools run by Dafa disciples will be using your textbooks. If not, when you finished preparing them and no one used them, wouldn't you have wasted your time? So this should be done in a coordinated manner. If the schools run by Dafa disciples truly need them, then do it, and do it well. Once something like this is begun it's no small undertaking, and not minor. [Your work] will be left behind for mankind. If it is merely that you yourselves want to create them, what if, upon completing them, they are found to have defects or be inadequate, and they can't be used--then won't you have delayed other things? So you need to coordinate well.
Disciple: First, I'd like to convey greetings to Master on behalf of all the disciples from the United Kingdom! We didn't do well preparing for the global tour of NTDTV's Chinese New Year Spectacular. The Spectacular did not take place in the U.K., owing to the many challenges encountered when looking for a venue. Is that because there are some problems with the disciples in the U.K. as a whole?
Master: I think that if even a venue couldn't be found, that really is a problem. (Disciples laugh) How could that happen? Was it because you didn't treat it as sufficiently important, and didn't cooperate well? Every year Dafa disciples have put together a Chinese New Year show, and with time it spread to other regions, with other countries even holding their own shows. Why are we doing that? To entertain ordinary people? Absolutely not. Everyone is clear on this. What we wish to do is to, through this medium, display Dafa disciples' demeanor, do away with the lies and slander that the wicked Party has instilled in people, and at the same time save all beings and clarify the facts. Today, if there are people, anywhere in the world, in the middle and upper classes who say they don't know about Falun Gong, I would say they are feigning ignorance. And especially if it's somebody from a governmental agency who claims not to know what Falun Gong is, then he is deliberately playing dumb--he really is. So in other words, basically everyone knows what Falun Gong is about, and they all know that the CCP is persecuting Falun Gong, and that Falun Gong is a good, kind group of people that cultivate according to Zhen, Shan, Ren. They are very clear on this.
So I think that since a problem did arise, there is a need to go explain the facts. I think it should be resolved by clarifying the facts, and at the same time, we should figure out what is blocking us. The biggest problem is actually that practitioners have not cooperated well with each other. Of course, there are regions where practitioners were locked in endless arguments--one wanted to rent this theater and another wanted some different one--and they forgot that they were to validate the Fa, not themselves.
In previous years it was all done by you, the Dafa disciples. Each year after I watched it, however, I felt at once both happy and unsatisfied. Dafa disciples expended a lot of financial, material, and human resources on each year's Chinese New Year show, and the persons involved were usually core members of various projects. So if we didn't achieve our desired results, it would really be a net loss, and not worth it. Even during the show I heard sarcastic comments, and theater-goers said all sorts of things as they were exiting the show--meaning that the desired result was not achieved. Of course, Dafa disciples are validating the Fa, and as they go about clarifying the facts they might not always succeed in making their point. Later on I thought it over for a while, pondering: "Should we continue to hold the show? If the results stay the same, it can't go on. Dafa disciples haven't been doing all of this to give ordinary people entertainment. If it can't save people after our having expended so many human, material, and financial resources on it--and it is being done in multiple areas--then it can't continue." Later, when I weighed it carefully, I saw that there were indeed some persons with talent in this area among our Dafa disciples, and who had always wanted to validate the Fa in this capacity. They all had a similar desire. Of course, I'm talking about it at the surface level. So I thought: "Since that's the situation, I'll just go ahead and take the lead on this." (Applause) Or at the very least, I would lead them until they became mature; I would lead them for a couple of years, at which point they would know how to do things.
Of course, things are always easier said than done, and once I got involved the very nature of it changed. You all know that Dafa disciples are to validate the Fa, so then what is Master doing? Master came to do Fa-rectification. That is why once I decided to do this, everything changed--the audience members before us, the people I wanted to save, and the affair itself that was to be carried out. If this was to be done well, then it must achieve the best results and truly save and rescue people. Only then would I do it, and this had to be achieved. So I couldn't do things as before. Before, Dafa disciples were doing the show part time, and now, if it was to be done, it had to be high caliber. Of course, some people said, "Whatever Master does is sure to be done the very best." True! If it were not the best, I wouldn't do it. (Applause) So, I asked people to start recruiting for and setting up a school of dance, selected talented people, and formed an orchestra. This entire sequence of events required training and development starting from the fundamentals, and it all had to lead to truly top-notch performances. Master has been involved in many of these things, including creative components of it and rehearsals. You have all heard about this.
In any case, the kids did great in their performances. They really did a super job. It is rare to see audience members shedding tears at a performing arts event. At every show put on by Divine Performing Arts, there were many audience members who shed tears throughout, with many more having to constantly wipe tears from their eyes. Every show was like that. People were deeply stirred and moved. In this dimension it was young people who were performing, while in other dimensions, many of my Law Bodies and many divine beings were doing so. (Applause) The strength of the impact on people, as with the changes it caused in them, were very similar to what happened back when I personally taught the Fa early on. (Applause) So it has effected tremendous changes in people.
It's performing arts after all, so the higher the caliber, the more people are going to be receptive to it and the greater the changes that are going to occur in people. They thus have to be perfect performances. They have to be perfect in every respect--the moment the curtain rises, a most beautiful scene should meet the eye. The requirements are that the choreography, costumes, and theatrical effect all have to be beautiful. People in today's society don't understand this anymore. People's aesthetic sense changes along with the trends of society. One day such and such is fashionable, so it is said to be good; then the next day it's something else that is fashionable, and so something different is said to be good. Only Dafa's principles are unchanging and immutable, and we are the only ones who know what true beauty is. Since Dafa disciples cultivate Zhen, Shan, Ren, we are able to know what is truly good--something that never changes--and thus have resonance with people's good and wonderful side. This is something that ordinary people can't do now. Also, the energy sent forth with the songs of our singers, with the music from the orchestra, and with the movements from the dancers in the show is pure and benevolent, compassionate, and extremely powerful. In fact, many members of the audience had their health problems resolved in that field. Those who watched the shows don't know that yet, but they will gradually come to. By the time they finished watching the show, their minds were purified and their health recovered. (Applause) So I think that what we did had excellent results. And of course, most of the performers are young Dafa disciples, so this way, it doesn't take up [much of] Dafa disciples' resources.
Disciple: What is the purpose of the first NTDTV International Chinese Classical Dance Competition?
Master: I don't want to explain it in full this early on, as this way we will leave ourselves something good to talk about later. (Disciples laugh) But I can talk with you about it in superficial terms. The wicked CCP is afraid of whatever Dafa disciples do. The performances given by Dafa disciples are of pure, upright Chinese culture, ancient culture, and true culture bestowed by gods. And this of course destroys the culture of the wicked CCP, so naturally, it is afraid. No matter how the wicked Party goes through all its machinations, it is an ignoble government that has occupied only the piece of land that is China, and so whatever it does is limited to within China's borders. By contrast, when New Tang Dynasty TV does something such as this [competition], it is global in scale--it's an international competition and an international event regardless of whatever else. (Master laughs) (Audience laughs, applauds) The winners will be winning an international competition.
Disciple: Would you please talk about whether it is okay for a Minghui School to use simplified Chinese characters?
Master: Do what is most expedient. You can do things only based on mankind's current circumstances. The Minghui Schools in Taiwan use traditional characters, and the ones that cater to mainland Chinese use simplified characters. I am not against any of that. The issue is not one of how characters should be written per se. The key is how to purge the Party's culture and save sentient beings. That is what matters most. Don't dwell on these trivial things.
Disciple: Some disciples who live in remote areas didn't participate in the recent Fa-rectification project wherein Master led North American disciples in holding the New Year Spectacular. They feel that they may be falling behind.
Master: No, it's not like that. I didn't ask all of you to come and take part. Even [when I commented on] selling tickets for the Spectacular, that was because students were anxious and had asked me to say a few words; I didn't ask you to all come and participate. I just said that those of you with the right circumstances could come help. If your circumstances weren't favorable, you were not to come. If you were to say, "I'm really busy here and can't leave the projects that validate the Fa," then don't come.
Disciple: (Master: I'll skip the names). Greetings to Master from Dafa disciples in Zhejiang province! (Master: Thank you!) (Applause) Are the requirements for domestic and overseas disciples different? Or is it that the amounts of karma are different? Or is it due to having different kinds of knowledge and certain predestined connections?
Master: It's not about having different karma or different requirements, and it is definitely not about different predestined connections. It has to do with the different vows you made at the beginning. Dafa disciples are one body, and it is the same wherever you are--the progress of Fa-rectification is synchronized. (Applause) Had there been no efforts to resist the persecution by Dafa disciples outside of China, who have powerfully exposed the evil on an international scale, the evil would have persecuted the Dafa disciples in China even more severely and with even less restraint. All of this has brought about great changes, and these things are inseparable from what Dafa disciples outside of China have done. So on this question [you raise], the only difference is in terms of what you do. The problems that you face are the same. There is no difference at all in terms of cultivation realms or levels.
Disciple: All students from Russia send their regards to Master. A few Russian students were arrested or detained for clarifying the facts. May we ask how Russian students should change this type of situation and environment?
Master: Usually wherever there is a problem, that is where Dafa disciples should go to clarify the facts, and do so tenaciously. Our Chinese students share an impression, namely, that in Western society everything happens in an orderly and organized fashion. For certain things appointments have to be booked in advance, and one has to wait a long time for things to get done. But what is happening with the persecution is so urgent, and as we resist the persecution there is no time to do things in such a slow, unhurried manner. Students have realized that this won't work. Thus a lot of our Chinese students have taken their own approach, going for in-person meetings, doing things tenaciously, determined to clarify the facts to the fullest extent and get things done. Of course, some Western students find it hard to bear, being used to doing things that [other] way. But that won't work--it really won't. You cannot wait. Sentient beings are being persecuted, and morality is on a rapid decline. The number of people you are to save is becoming smaller and smaller, and it is becoming ever more difficult. That is why we cannot wait.
Disciple: Why are simplified characters used in the Chinese teaching materials that are to be given to the future? Aren't simplified characters a product of the CCP?
Master: Indeed, simplified characters were created amidst the wicked CCP's society. That's for sure. But, today more than a billion people use simplified characters in China. If we clarify the facts using traditional characters and they can't read them, that won't do. It's not something that can be changed overnight. Do what is most expedient when you clarify the facts. It doesn't matter what script people use now. It's not a problem as long as we can save people with it. Saving people is the top priority! (Applause)
Disciple: Master has said that Dafa disciples have gained new life, emerging from the old cosmos and the old Fa principles. Can we take this to mean that Dafa has given all beings a chance to renew themselves, a chance that is unique and unparalleled?
Master: The cosmos is no good anymore, and the same is true for sentient beings. If they were not renewed, the cosmos would cease to exist. That's the situation. And it is not limited to human beings: What I said applies to divine beings as well, and the heavens, to all beings--it holds for all life. It is in the cosmos that the Fa is being rectified, not just the human world. But actually, true Fa-rectification of the human world has not yet begun.
Disciple: Please tell us: What is the connection between establishing a college and Fa-rectification?
Master: If Dafa disciples want to establish a college, there is nothing wrong with doing that, provided you can use it to validate the Fa, clarify the facts, and save sentient beings. The point is to look and see whether the undertaking has any connection to the salvation of sentient beings. And if it has none, then there is not much point in doing so.
Disciple: I see many elements of the Party's culture in the ways fellow practitioners do things, but I don't know how to communicate this to them.
Master: The ways of thinking and the sentence patterns of persons coming from mainland China are composed, to varying degrees, of the bad societal practices created by the wicked CCP for mainland Chinese. As you cultivate you will gradually come to recognize these things. When mainland Chinese live in a normal society, the bad practices and habits they have change over time. Those things don't affect cultivation, though, and they cannot impede it, so this isn't a problem. When I imparted the Fa in China back in the early days, many people had that same state of mind, and yet they could still understand the Fa and cultivate. That can't be stopped. Our bringing to light the wicked culture of the Party is to expose its wicked nature and have people see it for what it is, see how it is poisoning Chinese people, how it is destroying mankind's sense of conscience, and how it is ruining ancient Chinese culture. The evil's ultimate purpose is to destroy mankind.
Disciple: Are Dafa books in traditional and simplified characters the same in other dimensions?
Master: In other dimensions they are not in traditional or simplified characters. (Audience laughs) They are in the scripts of other dimensions. (Audience laughs) In the heavens they have the scripts of the heavens.
Disciple: When I see a bright golden dot moving before my eyes, can I recite "mie"1
?
Master: I'll put it this way: If you think it's not a good thing, you may handle it with righteous thoughts. But if it is a good thing, your righteous thoughts will not affect it. That is because your [thought] is righteous, and if that thing is also righteous, it won't be affected.
Disciple: There will only be Dafa and the Chinese language in the future, so is it all right for children born outside of China not to go to school and to study only Dafa and the Chinese language?
Master: I have not asked you to do that. When, in the future, the Fa rectifies the human world, however things are at that time is a state toward which the remaining human beings will need to move. If you say, "I want to do things now that are meant for the future," then you can't do them. You had best focus on doing well the things associated with the task at hand, which is saving beings. Future things are not for Dafa disciples to take care of, for at that time it will be Master alone who handles things.
Disciple: We haven't kept up our activities at tourist attractions in many large cities, since most practitioners are involved in the Chinese New Year Spectacular, the Divine Land Marching Band, and other projects. So there are fewer and fewer practitioners involved in clarifying the facts directly.
Master: Actually, the Divine Land Marching Band is hardly practicing any new pieces of late. Most often the band members find time to practice on their own as individuals; there is little time for group rehearsal. This is the case in all regions, so it hasn't affected other projects for the most part. In the beginning, when the band was first established, time did indeed have to be set aside for rehearsal together during that period. But currently it hardly affects [other projects].
Disciple: The CCP's persecution of Falun Gong has reached beyond China, and there have been cases of practitioners being repatriated. How should our media handle this?
Master: When the evil persecutes us, we report it--that's not a problem. There is nothing for us to be embarrassed about, as what we show the public is the CCP's wickedness. Dafa disciples won't be frightened by the evil. Dafa disciples have weathered terrible storms, so who's afraid? If even mainland Dafa disciples are not afraid of it, who would be afraid of it outside of China? Expose the evil wherever it should be exposed, and report whatever needs to be reported.
Disciple: I, your disciple, want to memorize the Fa very much, but because of various projects at hand, time is really tight.
Master: It's up to you. That dilemma has always been present, for Dafa disciples have to validate the Fa while studying the Fa well, and so their time is definitely tight. That is the challenge you are facing. Cultivate yourself well and save sentient beings. Both are important, for sure.
Disciple: Since Master told us in the 2005 lecture in San Francisco that Chinatown was a blank spot in our clarifying the facts, we have been trying to make efforts to address this. However, the evil there is still rampant today, and the disciples in the Bay Area are quite anxious. Master, please give us some guidance on this.
Master: How many people have really gone to San Francisco's Chinatown to clarify the facts? If you haven't persisted at it and there have only been a few people involved, of course things won't change! Given that there are so many disciples in the Bay Area, why don't you make that area a priority and put in some effort there?
Disciple: Dafa disciples from various areas send their greetings to you! These greetings come from Fushun city of Liaoning province, Shashi city of Hubei province, Yantai city, Puyang city of Henan province, Hefei city, Pingjiang city of Hunan province, Jinan city, Kunming city, Dandong city of Liaoning province, Hangzhou city, Fujian province, Nanping city, Minbei city, Guizhou province, Zunyi city, Panjin city, Huai'an city of Jiangsu province, Changchun city, Beijing, Tianjin, Nanjing, Changzhou city, Guiyang city, Xishuangbanna city of Yunnan province, Shenyang city, Ningde city, Zhengzhou city of Henan province, Jilin city, Hongdu of Nanchang city, Zhuhai city, Laiyang city, Chenzhou city, Hengyang city, Hengnan city, Luzhou city of Sichuan province, Tianjin university, and Yiyang city of Hunan province.
Master: Thank you all! (Applause)
Disciple: Dafa disciples came to the human world with the vows they made to Master. If in this life that is lived in human delusion a disciple didn't walk down the path that he vowed to, does he still have a cultivation path that leads to Consummation? And in particular, how will this affect children?
Master: If a being breaks his vow, the heavens regard it as a serious matter. Of course, if while Dafa disciples are being persecuted he has not followed the evil, has not been aggravating a situation that was bad to begin with, has not been involved in the persecution of Dafa disciples, and has meanwhile been able to identify with Dafa, then at the very least he will be allowed to remain for the next phase. In the next phase there are still going to be people cultivating. Of course, they won't have the honor and glory of Fa-Rectification Period Dafa Disciples, since this mighty virtue is immeasurable. When the Fa rectifies the human world in the future, there will be a group of Dafa disciples, but their cultivation will be very hard, so much so that even the slightest deviation in one's thoughts will lead to the Fa not being shown to that person. After obtaining the book, they might read it every day and still not necessarily be cultivators. So they will be held to higher standards, since the true picture of everything will be displayed in the future. In other words, although it will be hard in the future, the opportunity to cultivate will still exist.
Disciple: Regarding your talks in certain regions that were not officially passed along by the Falun Dafa Association, is it okay for people in other regions to listen to individual practitioners relay them?
Master: Some practitioners like to try to stand out, and from time to time they show off by doing something new or unique. As I have said on many occasions: What I say regarding specific circumstances or say to a small number of people is not to be recorded, nor to just be relayed to other practitioners. Some people just don't listen, though, and insist on doing that. They are showing off, undermining Dafa, and disrupting Dafa disciples' cultivation. You know, in cultivation the most prominent sign that a person still harbors human attachments is his doing things that are not to validate Dafa but instead to validate himself! That is playing a destructive role. There are those who often do things in Master's name, saying, "Master asked me to do such and such," "Master said this and that," or "Master asked you to do this or that." I have never asked anyone to do this or that. Whoever says that is furthering his own ends in Master's name. Even if I instruct someone to take specific action so as to resolve something and that person says things to other practitioners, he is still playing a destructive role. Remember my words: Whoever says things in my name is doing a bad thing. At the very least, at that moment he is absolutely not saying things that a cultivator should say; he is stifling others and building himself up in Master's name. Of course, I may ask the primary coordinators of Dafa disciples to relay my words, and in those cases I ask them to do so.
Disciple: Chinese culture's five thousand years of history laid the foundation for mankind to understand the Fa. Now that the Fa-rectification process is nearing its end, we need to spend a lot of time compiling textbooks that teach true, standard Chinese culture and that are suitable for elementary and middle school students, as well as non-Chinese students.
Master: I think that this should be jointly undertaken with the establishment of schools and be done in a coordinated fashion. If among you one person wants to do it and the next person also wants to do the same, expending human resources, material resources, and energy, well, in the end it may not be usable, and wouldn't you have done it in vain? Clarifying the facts and saving people is truly an urgent matter right now. The people of the future will have to set right the things they once ruined. It doesn't matter that it was the evil leading them to do such things, as those bad deeds were nevertheless done by human beings. People will have to undo the wrong they once did. Thus, however Dafa disciples do things now is simply giving mankind a correct path to follow.
Disciple: Please help us understand the importance of Chinese classical dance.
Master: There isn't much to talk about in terms of importance. Dafa disciples are using Chinese classical dance in their performances. Should I talk about Chinese dance here? (Audience laughs) Since you are using it in your performances, I'll say a few words about it. "Chinese dance" is actually a short way of saying Chinese classical dance. And of course, Chinese dance includes folk dance, ethnic dance, and so on. Why is Chinese classical dance considered classical dance? Because it was passed down from ancient China. As for things being passed down, there are in fact two methods: One is when ancient cultures of different periods are infused into people's genes, forming a kind of bearing that is associated with every move of a human being, called "yun2 bearing"; another means is via a cultural heritage, and the passing down of culture can be divided into oral and written transmissions, on the one hand, and the transmission of dance positions or movements on the other. Different regions have different styles of dance, and the things that are infused into the human body in turn lead to people's positions and movements coming to define their ethnic uniqueness; this refers to the ethnic bearing that exists in what makes up a human being. That's why there is a big difference in every move made by a Chinese versus a Western person--the raising of an arm or the lifting of a leg, for example--as well as in their facial expressions. In fact, this is ethnic "yun bearing," something very difficult to learn. Whatever dance position or move you may do, every extension of your arm and every planting of your foot expresses this bearing, and it is a common thread that runs through history.
There are three major components to Chinese dance: physical yun, physical forms, and technique. The "physical yun" that Chinese dance emphasizes is actually about expressing ethnic bearing through physical performance. There was no systematic passing down of the physical-form aspect of Chinese dance over history, but the techniques, however, were passed down, and exceptionally well. As you know, the character "wu" in the word "wushu" (martial arts) and the character wu in the word "wudao" (dance) are homophones, which was deliberately planned by gods. And as a matter of fact, if the character wu [as in wushu] were used in a soft context, it would refer to dance; if the character wu [as in wudao] were used in an aggressive context, it would refer to the martial arts. In the different dynasties in history and in a variety of settings, ranging from imperial courts to [settings of] common citizens, on many occasions, such as celebrations and banquets, the dances that were performed were done by warriors, who would perform leaps, turns, and tumbling moves that involve martial arts techniques, and they would brandish swords, spears, staves, and the like. By contrast, physical forms were mostly transmitted among the people, and they include many elements of different styles. Different dynasties also had their court dances, and this practice never ceased. It was only in recent times, however, that people began to systematically standardize Chinese dance and establish the formal study and teaching of Chinese dance--that is, teaching Chinese dance in systematic fashion. However, this [form of dance] was definitely not created in recent times.
Chinese dance has its own complete system of training to hone the fundamentals. It has exercises similar to those of ballet, such as those involving bars or ones done on the floor. Meanwhile, it also has physical yun, physical forms, and techniques. The physical yun of classical dance that mainland China uses today is limited by the system of the Party's culture, and the understanding there is actually quite shallow. Yun is not just about the dance movements seen on the surface; it is mainly about the inner qualities of that ethnicity. For instance, when a Westerner and a Chinese person, both of whom have never learned dance before, start to study Chinese dance together, they will definitely exhibit different bearings. The things passed down through one's ethnicity are in the bones and in one's being. The advanced techniques in Chinese dance include tumbling, jumps, and turns that are harder to do than ballet, and it demands a greater mastery of technique than ballet. Chinese dance is broader than ballet in terms of scope, and it has far more movements.
Ballet has only a few movements, and if you try to add another to it, it won't be a ballet movement. So it can't be altered. By contrast, Chinese dance has so many movements that it's relatively easy for Chinese dance to portray any given character. It can all be done, no matter which character, setting, or surroundings are meant to be depicted in the dance. That is one of its strengths, and its creation is relatively easy. With ballet, on the other hand, it's awfully hard to come up with a new composition, owing to how few movements it has--that's all there is to it--and once you go beyond that, it's no longer ballet. Since Chinese dance is vast and contains so much, it is relatively easy to create something. So that's an advantage for Dafa disciples when they use Chinese dance in the Chinese New Year shows. What's more, China has had five thousand years of civilization, so any story or any thing can be taken and portrayed on stage. It provides an endless, inexhaustible wellspring of material. What is that wicked CCP's terribly dull, boring culture worth? Last year, the wicked CCP wasted so much money and manpower sending more than sixty performing arts troupes around the world in an attempt to interfere with Dafa disciples' performances, putting on a kaleidoscope of buffoonery, and their crude and degrading shows interested no one. They had to pay people to go watch their shows, and yet people still jeered them to no end. They squandered billions and returned home a complete failure. And many of their performers seized the opportunity to defect. There was vicious infighting in the various performing arts troupes on account of the compensation being unevenly distributed; it cost them a fortune since nobody wanted to see their shows; and audiences could hardly find enough insults to hurl at them. All of their performers were heavily tainted with bad habits from the Party's culture, so the wicked Party is doing nothing but spinning its wheels. (Applause)
Disciple: The Chinese New Year Spectacular has played an important role in saving sentient beings. Some practitioners said that in order to save sentient beings and enable more people to come and see our show, we could cut ticket prices and disregard the financial losses it would cause the show. Was such thinking right?
Master: No, it was not. You had to cut prices or give away some tickets because you didn't do well, didn't accomplish what you needed to, had no other choice, and faced an imminent problem. That's why it was done. It was the result of your not doing well.
Disciple: When I clarify the facts, I have found that it is harder for some overseas Chinese to accept the truth than those living in China.
Master: It was like that before, but that is no longer the case. The older generation of overseas Chinese who left mainland China earlier on arrived in their respective countries right when the wicked Party's bloc and the free world were in confrontation around the world. The countries in the wicked Party's bloc, and even their people, were really looked down upon by others. That wasn't because those people were from a different country, but because China was a society ruled by the wicked Party; it resulted in Chinese people being looked down upon. Whenever the topic of China came up, no one approved, because China was synonymous with the evil Communist Party. So, some older overseas Chinese felt a sense of shame and humiliation. They are happy when China is strong and prosperous, and this is the result of their failing to make a clear distinction between the CCP and China--it's a complicated state of mind--even though they don't necessarily approve of the wicked CCP. If China were not under the wicked CCP's reign today and had a normal government, and if at the same time it was strong and prosperous, they would of course be happy. We need to identify where the key issue for them lies. When we explain the truth, we need to determine where the obstacle is in the person's mind.
Disciple: Some of the performances that directly depict Dafa things underwent changes during the Chinese New Year Spectacular shows in New York. Was this because the disciples did not have strong righteous thoughts, or because the audience could not accept those things?
Master: The changes in the program were minor things. If something is not all that suitable, then it should be changed. There was interference, all of which came from special agents of the wicked Party. They tried to interfere with me, but it didn't work in the least. If I want to do something, no one can affect it no matter how he may try. (Applause) So I often told Dafa disciples: "You have to be clear about what you are doing. You can listen to and heed others' suggestions, but if you are walking the right path you should not constantly waver to and fro."
Incidentally, I'd like to tell you something. You all know that during these years when the wicked CCP has been persecuting Dafa disciples, whether it was some CCP agents exhibiting wicked behavior on the Internet or the wicked CCP making up lies in the media, they surely maligned me continually and made up lies of every sort. Of course, those were all the worst types of sins, ones that they cannot possibly atone for; they will come to realize this in the future. But I never listened to or looked at any of it. Did you realize that? I never looked at those websites whatsoever--would you believe that? (Applause) I knew that they would malign me, but I had no interest in learning what names they were calling me. And of course, practitioners couldn't bring themselves to tell me, so no one repeated those things to me. (Audience laughs) Why would I want to look at that stuff? Those things couldn't sway me. I knew what I was doing, and I knew the beginning and the end of this affair, and that was plenty! (Applause) So as for this process in the middle, I completely disregard all of the myriad changes that occur, whatever they may be. As long as my Dafa disciples are walking their paths well and I ensure there are no problems, that is all I worry about. (Applause)
Disciple: Master's new scripture said to disintegrate completely the meddling deities in the Three Realms that have a hand in interfering with Fa-rectification. What does "meddling deities" refer to?
Master: Meddling deities... the old forces and all that negatively impacts Dafa are considered meddling deities. (Applause)
Disciple: The orthodox religions from history can no longer provide guidance for cultivation, and now they are interfering with the Fa-rectification. How should we regard them, then?
Master: I have talked about how they should be handled. You are not to take any action directed at religions, as we only focus on what's in people's minds. If a person wants to cultivate, then talk to him [about Dafa]; and if he wants to listen to the facts, then explain them to him, and it will be fine. There is nothing special that needs to be done, and you don't have to go seek out this group. Just wait for them to come to you. I have said that all beings would come and listen to the truth, because it is their attitude toward Dafa that will determine whether they are kept or not. Why are those meddling deities that exercise control over religions to be cleared out? It's because people in those [religions] have to take a stance, and those meddling deities are not letting them and are depriving them of opportunities to be saved, so they must be cleared out. And it is because they are destroying sentient beings. Despite the fact that they manifest as deities, many beings [with religious affiliations] reincarnated from even higher levels [than those deities] and became human beings. They are so much higher than them that they [the meddling deities] are not worthy of ruining those people. So the meddling deities must be cleaned out and all beings be given a chance to take a stance.
Disciple: Greetings, Master! I am a Dafa disciple from Beijing. Before we left China, quite a few Beijing Dafa disciples reminded us repeatedly that if we had a chance to see Master to make sure to relay their greetings! We miss Master very much. Today we finally have the opportunity to fulfill what they entrusted us to do, so on their behalf, I do Heshi to Master and extend greetings! Greetings, Master! Greetings, Master!
Master: Thank you! (Applause) I thank the Dafa disciples in Beijing! It's not that Beijing Dafa disciples are not doing a good job. As you know, the largest amount of evil forces are concentrated in Beijing, so in terms of the effectiveness of clarifying the facts and the state of the practitioners, things there definitely lag behind other places. It's not because the practitioners are lacking, but rather, that the evil forces are greater there and are more concentrated there. With the comprehensive destruction of more and more of the evil, the Dafa disciples in Beijing will not fall behind or be lacking compared to disciples in other places. That's for sure. (Applause)
Disciple: Dafa disciples from Osaka, Japan, send their greetings to our great Master! Master, you have been working hard! I have been in anguish over my inability to let go of my sense of self, which has caused a delay in saving sentient beings. Besides studying the Fa more, what else can I do to better meet the requirements for a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple?
Master: Since you know that you haven't done well enough, just make it up and live up to the requirements. The Dafa disciples' three things are to be done well. At present, the most important thing is to save sentient beings, save more people! That is the most important thing.
Disciple: Disciples from California do Heshi to Master! Master, please tell us if we should still establish Renaissance University? Is the medical science of the future a part of cultivation?
Master: Whether to establish the university depends on whether conditions are ripe. [You're asking about] the medical science of the future? Even the present medical sciences are not cultivation, it seems. (Disciples laugh) Dafa disciples can cultivate while working in any occupation, but those occupations are not in and of themselves cultivation.
Disciple: Greetings, Master! Disciples from Harbin city send their greetings to Master!
Master: I thank the Dafa disciples from Harbin.
Disciple: In light of how the English Epoch Times has been operating recently, could Master provide some guidance?
Master: These matters have to do with how you are handling things. Why have there been problems, you ask? That ought to be something I ask you. (Master laughs) (Disciples laugh) You are short on human, material, and financial resources, so the challenges are definitely daunting. However, the Chinese Epoch Times encountered these in the early days as well, and made it through--it battled its way through. You might consider doing more to learn from and draw on those experiences. The specifics of how to run the paper are still up to you, though. It's the same as figuring out how to cultivate well.
Disciple: A while back, the Minghui website added a note to an article, saying that currently disciples should try their best not to marry non-practitioners or new practitioners. A Dafa disciple from Taiwan would like to ask about this for a Dafa disciple from mainland China.
Master: That article was written by a Dafa disciple, and what Dafa disciples have written is open to discussion and the exchange of ideas. It's not that the Fa has asked you to do something, nor that it has to be handled a certain way. Master didn't say that, and the Fa does not require it. However, when Dafa disciples do things, it's prudent for them to put extra thought into it. You are a Dafa disciple, after all, so you have to be responsible to your cultivation, and you have to be responsible to the environment Dafa disciples have. So, I think that if you can manage to consider things on that basis, you will know whether certain things should be done, and, if so, how they should be done. If you put yourself first, it's likely many things will not go well, and problems will arise. If you truly want to be responsible to Dafa and to your own cultivation, you will do things well.
Disciple: I have to work during the time for sending righteous thoughts. Will it be effective if I send righteous thoughts while working?
Master: Under extremely special circumstances, that is, where you really can't set aside whatever work is at hand, you may finish your work and then send righteous thoughts. You might say, "I'll work while sending righteous thoughts," but that's very hard to do, really hard to do. When you are working at an ordinary workplace, you don't necessarily have to use the hand positions, since others might not understand it. It's fine if you just sit there quietly, because using the mind is enough for purposes of sending righteous thoughts. If you are doing work at the same time, you definitely won't manage to send righteous thoughts well. If you say that you really can't [stop working], then it's okay for you to continue with your work and make it up later. But that said, when Dafa disciples around the world send righteous thoughts together at the same time, the power is boundless. So, if each person had been able to handle this matter with very strong righteous thoughts and been doing it very well from the beginning, then perhaps there would be no evil remaining now. It's precisely because many practitioners have been interfered with by one thing or another that it hasn't been done well.
Disciple: It's 3:30 P.M. now, and Master has been teaching the Fa for nearly two hours. Disciples invite Master to take a moment to have a sip of water.
Master: In a little while. (Applause)
Disciple: What can Dafa disciples do to help another disciple who is on his death bed?
Master: The best thing is to read the Fa to him. Regardless of whether he was supposed to depart at this time, it is all up to him. Also, regardless of whether my Dafa disciples were killed as a result of persecution or departed this world as a result of being persecuted by the old forces during this period of time, they have all reached Consummation. (Applause) Why does it work out this way? You know that the entire universe is watching this Fa-rectification intently, and the Three Realms were created for the sake of Fa-rectification. All beings have been waiting throughout the long course of history, all for today's Fa-rectification. Every single thing that happens in the human world today is really significant! And especially significant are any events that have direct ties to Dafa, Fa-rectification, or Dafa disciples. If someone dares to say "Falun Dafa is good" during this period of time when the persecution is happening--just based on that one heartfelt statement, and without doing anything else--this person will definitely return to his original place! (Applause) Why is that? During this period of time and amidst an evil environment, he still dares to validate the Fa, so he will definitely become a divine being. Whoever does even just a small kind deed or minor good thing for Dafa disciples during this time of persecution will definitely become a divine being! (Applause) That is because this is the most crucial moment in history, and gods are watching intently every single thought in the minds of every single being. Innumerable, countless beings in the universe are watching the world's people. There are eyes in every particle of the air--the air is filled to the brim with those who are watching everything, seeing every little shift [in the thoughts and behavior] of the beings in this place. That's because this place here is the focal point of Fa-rectification, and [things that happen here] impact the future of all beings in the entire universe. Human eyes can't see these things, so it appears to them that nothing significant is going on. But countless gods, unprecedented numbers of them, are watching the Three Realms intently. If a human being could really see this, he would find it downright terrifying. Not a single thought that a person has and not a single idea that crosses his mind goes unseen by the multitude of gods. Thus, whatever a person does during this period of time is determining his own future. Then as for a Dafa disciple, someone who has done so many things that Dafa disciples should do, think about it: Where should he end up, then? Wasn't [the type of person mentioned above] persecuted to the point of death simply on account of being a Dafa disciple? Isn't he a Dafa disciple? Not only will he achieve Consummation, he will receive all the honor and glory that a Dafa disciple should have. (Applause)
Now that I am on this subject, something comes to mind. We have certain practitioners who can't quite be called secret agents, but the things that you have done are truly terrible. You still want to cultivate, but the bad things that you have done before are being seized upon by the CCP, which in turn uses that knowledge to threaten you. You are afraid that once the CCP exposes you, Dafa disciples will treat you differently. You are afraid that Master will treat you differently. Actually, I have long known about you! Because of that [fear], you are doing things against your own will that the evil wants you to do. On the one hand you want to be a Dafa disciple, but on the other you have kept on doing bad things. So you tell me, how should I deal with you? Right now you have only two choices: You can truly cultivate with determination, in which case you are then a Dafa disciple and everything that you have accomplished will become your mighty virtue; or, you can stand on the side of the evil, in which case everything that you have done will be for naught and become things that you did to cover your tracks. I have already made this matter very clear. Moreover, let me tell you all that in the not-so-distant future every single person this describes will not be given any more time. The time is coming very soon! It will take place very soon. In human words it is "retribution," and it is imminent. But no matter what I said before, with certain people it just went in one ear and out the other. Whether or not you choose to believe it, at this crucial, historic moment [your decision] is no small matter. You have read the Fa. Which course shall you take? You should give this some thought and decide for yourself!
Disciple: How should we lead and guide our children in their cultivation?
Master: Should you, as Dafa disciples, really need to be told what to do? If your child can't do the exercises yet, you should read the Fa to him and teach him to sing Dafa disciples' songs. The children of many Dafa disciples can recite Hong Yin. Some of them can recite many poems from it at a very young age. They are truly good kids.
Disciple: After being brainwashed by the evil, certain Dafa practitioners in mainland China helped the evil to persecute Dafa disciples who were detained, rendering those disciples disabled. The family members of the victims want to file personal injury lawsuits against them. Master, please tell us how we should handle this.
Master: Ordinary people of course have their own ways of dealing with this. If someone has physically disabled someone through persecution, of course the aggrieved party will go after him. In cultivation, it is human beings doing cultivation, not gods. If someone has committed crimes among human beings, he of course has to pay for it. But on the other hand, if [that brainwashed person] can truly cultivate again and cultivate steadfastly, it is possible many things will be changed. I have said that everything is here for the sake of the Fa, and that this is first and foremost. But if you can't do things well and if you can't meet the standard, then you are an ordinary person. And as an ordinary person, you have to face the realities that ordinary people deal with.
Disciple: Disciples in San Diego send greetings to Master! Master, what should Dafa disciples do in light of the surge of interest in learning Chinese right now? Will working on Chinese language education affect other projects that validate the Fa?
Master: Indeed, Dafa disciples know that Americans don't have a good grasp of the wicked CCP's stuff. Americans still don't understand the culture of the Party, despite its having contested with the wicked Communist Party for so many years. The current textbooks made by the wicked CCP are [full of] the Party's culture. If people learn Chinese using textbooks from mainland China, won't they be shaped into people of the wicked Party's culture? Dafa disciples can see this very clearly, so they have thought, "Can we put together some textbooks and make them available to American educational institutions?" In that case, the textbooks have to be approved by the U.S. Department of Education. Failing that, they won't be of use even if you do create them. If you feel that you can achieve that, then you can go ahead with it, and if not, then it's of little consequence if it can't be done.
Disciple: When promoting tickets for the NTDTV shows, disciples have adopted an abbreviated expression, "tui," for "promoting" tickets. But in Chinese the word sounds similar to the term that means "returning for a refund" (tui). People have wondered if this will have a negative effect.
Master: There is no negative effect. But since "promoting" tickets and "returning" tickets for a refund have the same sound, let's just change the expression. Let's stop calling it "promoting tickets" and call it "selling tickets" (mai) instead--won't that solve the problem? (Audience laughs) It's true--[you'd be saying,] "promoting tickets, promoting tickets," and at first I couldn't tell whether you were "promoting tickets" or "returning tickets for a refund." Calling it "selling tickets" is pretty good, right? (Audience laughs)
Disciple: Media organizations such as New Tang Dynasty Television and the Epoch Times have played immeasurable roles in the Fa-rectification. What can be done so that our media organizations can stand on their own financially, and have no monetary concerns?
Master: It depends on you. I've talked about these things many times, but there will always be a need for people to do things like visiting potential clients and doing sales and marketing. As you are Dafa disciples, whatever it is you are asked to do--be it writing articles, distributing materials, or going out to the streets--you can do it well. But it seems that if you are asked to visit potential clients and do sales and marketing, you don't want to.
Disciple: In past lectures, Master always said that Chinese culture is a semi-divine culture. Today you said that it is a divinely-bestowed culture.
Master: That's right. It was divine beings who gave the Chinese people their culture, and what manifests here is a culture that is half-human and half-divine. The two aren't inconsistent. The culture of China is a semi-divine culture, but it was bestowed to human beings by gods.
Disciple: What kind of attitude should we who are overseas Dafa practitioners have toward practitioners in China who wish to come overseas? Should we encourage them to stay in China?
Master: I don't want to state anything in absolute terms when it comes to these things. Otherwise, upon my saying something today, many people would go to an extreme. Dafa disciples are to fulfill the things that they are supposed to do! This holds true no matter where they are. The vows that you once made must be fulfilled, and the beings that you need to save must be saved!
Disciple: Because of the increasing number of projects that validate the Fa, the number of people who clarify the facts to the U.S. government has decreased, and many things are progressing slowly.
Master: There is a set amount of financial resources, material resources, and manpower, and there are so many things that we still need to do. That being the case, you need to take a look at which things are unimportant, which are important, and determine how to balance it all well.
Some governments have indeed not done well, and that is because the restraints that the old forces have placed on the governments of different countries are enormous. Why is that the case? It is because they know that Dafa disciples have to do so many things in Fa-rectification and have such great challenges, and the goal is to establish the Dafa disciples' mighty virtue. If a powerful government were to say something, or all governments were to fire away at the wicked party's regime, the wicked CCP would collapse overnight and the persecution would not be able to continue. In that case, wouldn't this environment that tests Dafa disciples no longer exist? And could they still cultivate, then? So the restraints that the old forces have placed on each of the different governments are of the strongest kind. Looking at the situation today, it is clear that very soon the rotten demons of the wicked Party won't be able to control each of the different governments anymore. With the massive annihilation of evil now taking place, the evil's ability to control human beings is rapidly diminishing.
Disciple: I see that there are many religious people who truly want to do cultivation, but their religious beliefs are blocking them from learning the truth.
Master: It is not due to their religions that they are kept from learning the truth, but rather, it's that factors from the meddling deities of those religions are having a negative effect. Right now the factors in that category are becoming fewer and fewer; increasingly more of them are being destroyed. Great changes will gradually come about. Just wait and see. (Applause)
Disciple: Dafa disciples from Belgium, Long Island of New York, the San Francisco Bay Area, France's Besançon, Toronto and Edmonton of Canada, South America, Ireland, Sri Lanka, and South Korea send greetings to Master!
Master: Thank you all. (Applause)
Disciple: (This question is from a Western practitioner.) Master said that right now it is not individual cultivation [that we're doing], but rather saving sentient beings. Could I ask Master to please explain this point in greater depth?
Master: One's individual improvement is still first and foremost. What I was saying is that while validating the Fa, out of the things that Dafa disciples need to do, the most important thing is saving sentient beings, and this is quite pressing right now. Dafa disciples as a whole have, in the course of cultivating, passed through several different phases. Before July 20 of 1999, the most important thing for Dafa disciples was to improve in individual cultivation. Everything else was unimportant. Back then, many practitioners felt that as soon as they studied the Fa and did the exercises, they were shooting upward like a rocket, flying upward. The breakthroughs they were making in level were extremely fast. Whether you were standing or sitting, you were making breakthroughs--you were making breakthroughs even while walking around or eating a meal! It really was the case that at that time, as long as you were studying the Fa you were pushed upward; it was imperative that Dafa disciples be pushed to their proper places within a set amount of time. That way they would be able to save sentient beings when the time came. And that way they would be able to withstand it when the old forces did indeed begin to carry out their evil and when the persecution really did begin.
Then after July 20, 1999--that is, during the persecution--[the question became one of] whether you could become a true Dafa disciple, and during the persecution it would be seen whether you were true gold. [It was a question of] whether you could step forward and whether you could continue to cultivate under the evil's pressure. Didn't many religions in history encounter this? Wasn't it perfectly obvious? But due to the attachment of fear and a host of other attachments, some people could not hold up. Suddenly the person would find this or that [part of Dafa] not to his liking. But it wasn't that Dafa itself or things that Master did failed to suit his tastes; rather, it was that he had become afraid and was making excuses! He wouldn't dare to step forward, dare to read the books, dare to cultivate in the Fa, or dare to do the exercises.
Right now, the Fa-rectification and Dafa disciples have withstood the persecution, and done so while validating the Fa; and with each step, they have drawn ever closer to the end. The evil elements have been eliminated to the point that hardly any remain, and the pressure is no longer so great. Looking at the overall situation, there is no longer a question of whether Dafa disciples can achieve Consummation during the maturation process. The biggest thing that needs to be done at present is to figure out how to save even more of the world's people! Save all beings! This has become a monumental effort for Dafa disciples.
During this persecution, the evil has persecuted not only Dafa disciples, but also the people of the world! If a person has wrong ideas and thoughts about Dafa, he will be eliminated as soon as the mighty current of Fa-rectification arrives, for what he opposes is the Fa that created the entire universe of the future. In that case, where could he go? If he doesn't want to enter the future, he can only be disintegrated and cease to exist. That's why it is critical that Dafa disciples save all beings.
Disciple: After many Chinese practitioners heard [what you said about individual cultivation], they no longer paid much attention to their own cultivation. Should it be like this? (Master: That is going to extremes, which is of course wrong.) Shouldn't we go about saving sentient beings with our own continuous improvement in individual cultivation as the foundation?
Master: That is of course the case. It must be done that way. You can't let up with your individual cultivation. No matter what you are doing, be it clarifying the facts or doing projects that validate Dafa, you must first put cultivating yourself well as top priority; only then can the things that you do be more sacred, for then you are a Dafa disciple, and are doing things as a Dafa disciple to validate the Fa. Ordinary people can also do the things that Dafa disciples do, but they cannot have the mighty virtue of Dafa disciples. They can only receive blessings and virtue, and accumulate future blessings.
Disciple: Dafa disciples in Ireland send greetings to our compassionate, great Master! During the past several years, the work of validating the Fa in Ireland has encountered enormous ordeals. After more than a year of hard work by Dafa disciples, we have basically caught up with the progress of Fa-rectification. Master, please tell us whether the ordeals that we experienced were because of the disciples' lack of diligence, or were they due to the arrangements of the old forces and the evil's persecution?
Master: Both were contributing factors. During the past few years, the evil elements were more numerous, and during this present period of time, the evil elements are few and Dafa disciples have become ever more mature. There were a multitude of reasons. Of course, the thing that is of greater importance is to cultivate yourselves well.
Questions: Dafa disciples in Xinbin city of Liaoning province, Huairou area of Beijing, Fengtai district of Beijing, Zhejiang province, Liaoping county of Chongqing city, Lanzhou city of Gansu province, Jinchang city, Gulang county, Harbin city, Changzhou city, the Tongzhou area of Beijing, Jiamusi city, Shanghai Military District, Wuhan Military Zone, Chengdu Military Zone, Guangzhou Military Zone, the China Airlines system, Jiangxi province, Yuncheng city of Shanxi province, Zhangjiako city, Lechang city of Guangdong province, Baoding city of Hebei province, Wuhan city, and Shanxi province send greetings to Master! (Master: Thank you all!) Dafa disciples in Fuyang city in Anhui province, Wuhan city in Hubei province, Jinzhou city, Chaoyang city, Shantou city and Jieyang city in Guangdong province, Chaoyang district and Haidian district of Beijing, Tieling city of Liaoning province, Changding county of Fujian province, Chengdu city of Sichuan province, the Wenjiang area of Chengdu city, Henan province, Huanggang city, Heze city of Shandong province, the Yanliang district in Shanxi province, Zhanjiang city, the arts and entertainment community in Beijing, Benxi city of Liaoning province, Daqing city, Kunshan city, Shengli Oil Field, Dongying city, Guangzhou city, Baoding city of Hebei province, Lanzhou city of Gansu province, Xinjiang province, Ankai city, Deyang city, Mianyang city, Santai city, Changsha city, Chengde city of Hebei province, the Xianghe area of Chifang city, Yunnan province, Tsinghua University, Macheng city of Hubei province, Beijing Institute of Technology, Taian city, the Shunxi area of Beijing, Chongqing city, the Yangpu district of Shanghai, Shijiazhuang city of Hebei province, and Qingdao city send greetings to Master. (Master: Thank you all!)
[Disciples from] Norway, Germany, Austria, Australia's Queensland, Seattle of the U.S., Canada, the city of Melbourne, Venezuela, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Denmark, the Netherlands, Indonesia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Japan, Montreal, Sweden, Finland, San Diego, Ottawa, Cuba, Boston, Hong Kong, Macau, Australia, Houston, New York, Laos, New Mexico, Malaysia, New Zealand, Israel, Los Angeles, France, Sicily of Italy, Vietnam, New York's Albany, India, and all the teachers and students at the Fei Tian Dance School send greetings to Master.
Master: Thank you all! (Applause)
Disciple: My child is a high school student. He is studying the Fa, but he is not as diligent as when he was younger. Whenever he gets near the bad things in ordinary society, I get really worried.
Master: Yes, when the children were of an age such that the Dafa disciples could personally take care of them, things were great. You taught the children to memorize the Fa and do the exercises every day. As soon as the children started school, though, things changed. The impact that society has on children is truly large. It has to do with the morality of all of society sliding downwards. Children have no way to resist it. As soon as they enter society, they enter a big dye vat. If you are able to urge your children to study the Fa and do the exercises as you did before, it will be harder for them to slide downwards along with society. Many young Dafa disciples have gone in the other direction and become quite bad as they grew up, and that is the reason.
Disciple: Master, please talk about how to balance the demands of doing one project better alongside launching into more projects.
Master: That will depend on how you coordinate things among yourselves. How you balance it is up to you. The amount of energy that a person needs to put into a project to do it well must be sizeable. If new projects are started up on top of [what you already have], time is certainly going to be tight. That's often the case. How should these things be handled? Many of our Dafa disciples have responsibilities in multiple projects, and things are indeed quite difficult. Master knows about your challenges. In the future, I will tell the Dafa disciples in mainland China about these challenges you have dealt with, and let them know about how you, under such trying circumstances, have validated the Fa and restrained the evil's persecution of them.
Disciple: Dafa disciples have managed to do many things while short of hands, but the results of some projects have been less than ideal. I feel that certain projects require us to become more professional, and only then will they be able to move forward better.
Master: That is indeed the case. [What you referred to is] just like with the New Year's show. For a few years, our Dafa disciples put a great deal of effort into it, but the effect was limited because the degree of professionalism was not quite up to par. Once it became of professional caliber, it was a different story altogether.
Disciple: The series "Dissolving the Culture of the CCP," published by Dajiyuan, provides a thorough analysis of the Party's culture, but it doesn't provide any clear answers [to the problem]. Is the answer to be provided by Dafa disciples as they validate the Fa?
Master: The answer lies in the five thousand years of Chinese civilization. The five thousand years of Chinese culture is true, legitimate human culture. That is the answer.
Disciple: Master, could you please talk about the significance in Fa-rectification of the Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance Art Exhibition?
Master: You all know that several main things are playing a vanguard role in driving the downward slide of human society. One is the works created [of late] in performing arts, and another is those works created [of late] in the fine arts. These are what impact people the most directly, and what has the biggest influence on people's minds and consciousness, as well as sensory organs. They directly influence and drive changes in people's moral standards, and they corrupt human beings the fastest and in the most direct way. Therefore, the forms taken by modernist art, modernist culture, and modernist performing arts are playing a vanguard role. Mankind has discarded the true, legitimate forms of artistic creation that gods bestowed to man, and created some things that are modernist and heavily imbued with demon-nature, negating the things that gods passed on to man and rendering worthless the true forms of divinely-bestowed artistic creation.
Dafa disciples know that human culture was divinely bestowed to man and that not believing in gods is the fundamental reason for human morality's downward slide. Dafa disciples thus cannot view things with the sunken moral standard of human beings. What Dafa disciples create must be things that harken back to what gods bestowed to man. In that case, what you are doing in and of itself stops and smothers corrupt elements, and plays the leading role in restoring things to their original state. That is for sure, so the art exhibit itself exposes the persecution while at the same time bringing people back [to the right state] by way of the methods used to create the works; it enables them to return to the way of human beings, and helps people to turn around and go back.
When human beings discard the methods of creating art that gods once taught to man, the biggest problem is that people have put first their own mindset and ideas about creating art, and abandoned the guideline that gods taught to man: depict things accurately. When art is created, accurately depicting objects is first and foremost, and that can't be changed. The reason is, this was divinely bestowed, and it is the standard by which an artist's level of technical mastery is verified. Once it is changed, things become chaotic and lack principle, and that is the reason behind the appearance of modernist things. When man, in his artistic creations, fails to place the highest value on authenticity by accurately depicting things, what he creates is just doodles, not fine art. Since human beings are no longer up to standard and their moral standard has been corrupted, when they are devoid of upright thoughts, gods give up on them. The path [taken by human beings] then becomes ever more aimless, and ever more dangerous.
Disciple: During interviews, some renowned lawyers, human rights activists, and ordinary people in mainland China have repeatedly asked us to send their greetings to Master. They think that Dafa disciples are the only hope for China's future.
Master: It's not wrong to say that, but Dafa disciples are not interested in the political power of ordinary people, nor will they get involved in ordinary affairs. We are just opposing the persecution and saving people. It's not wrong for human beings to give much importance to human political power, and, what type of political entity will govern in the future is important for society. Dafa disciples are cultivators. Disintegrating the evil CCP is the single most fundamental way to bring the persecution to an end, and exposing the wicked CCP's crimes is done in order to rescue all the lives that have been poisoned by it. Everything of the Three Realms was prepared for Dafa disciples' cultivation and the saving of beings today, and the affairs of Dafa disciples are the most important. When in the future the Fa rectifies the human world, a new state of affairs will emerge for mankind. In other words, what happens in the future belongs to the future. Thus Dafa disciples should just concentrate on doing what they are to do. In the near future, gods will display themselves to mankind, and all that human beings don't believe in will be displayed before the people who remain, and mankind will revert back to the path that it is truly meant to follow.
Disciple: Dafa disciples in Macheng of Hubei province miss Master very much. They asked me to send their greetings to you. (Master: I thank the Dafa disciples in Macheng.) Yesterday I read on the Minghui website that disciples in mainland China are following Minghui Radio's broadcasts and doing the exercises in synch throughout China, and the results have been quite good. What should Dafa disciples outside of China do?
Master: That ought to be a good thing. I am still observing it and looking to see how it ultimately turns out.
Disciple: Recently I've hosted several people from mainland China who call themselves Dafa disciples, and have watched the old forces take advantage of these practitioners' omissions. They are even from the same region and claim that they have come to the U.S. to assist Master in Fa-rectification. But in my interactions with them, I see that they don't really do the things that Dafa disciples should do. In addition to being preoccupied with things related to their immigration status or jobs and such, their cultivation states are not good.
Master: Right. I don't want to say anything right now, and I wish not to draw any conclusions yet, because whatever I say will create difficulties for their cultivation. Whether a person can make it is not only determined by whether he cultivates, but also by whether that life is capable of being saved. Whatever the case, regardless of whether they have left China or are still there, they must handle themselves as true Dafa disciples. Otherwise it makes no difference where they are.
Disciple: Though all of my family members are Dafa disciples, for a long time we still haven't been able to resolve certain conflicts. I feel both perplexed and pained by it.
Master: As Dafa disciples go about cultivating, conflicts are sure to surface. If you can't all search inward, then regardless of whether you belong to the same family or are normal fellow practitioners, the conflicts will keep growing larger and larger, and you still won't be able to pass the tests even as time drags on. How can you resolve this, then? All of you must search inward. If one person is able to take the lead in doing so, he will cause things to ease up. If all of you are able to do so, things will be resolved.
What kind of attitude do many Dafa disciples consistently have toward their family members? "They are my family members, so when it comes to things that would be good for them, what I say goes. I will take care of some things for them since, after all, I'm looking out for their best interests." That's not how it works. Once you start to cultivate, you are fellow practitioners, and each of you is to return to your own heavenly kingdom. Whoever has cultivated well will be able to return, and no one can [do cultivation] on behalf of someone else. Among ordinary people, it might be that once someone becomes a powerful official, he can have his family benefit along with him. That can happen, for those are ordinary human affairs. But that doesn't work with matters that transcend ordinary human affairs. Whoever cultivates benefits, and if a person doesn't cultivate he won't benefit--nobody can cultivate on someone else's behalf. That being the case, you must take seriously the problems and conflicts that emerge among you. You can't behave like ordinary people, who do whatever they want to. If you can truly regard your family members as Dafa disciples and as fellow practitioners when it comes to handling matters of cultivation, I think you will definitely be able to resolve the conflicts.
Disciple: Dafa disciples in mainland China have made many talismans with images of Buddha Shakyamuni, Bodhisattva Guanyin, and the like on them. After Master published the article "Disintegrate Completely All the Meddling Deities in the Three Realms That Have a Hand in Interfering with Fa-Rectification," some disciples concluded that it is inappropriate to use the images of those deities on talismans. Master, please give us some guidance on this.
Master: Of course that's inappropriate. The reason those worked for human beings previously was that Master was making them work, based on the fact that you were saving people. But that was not an appropriate thing for you to do. Dafa disciples are to validate Dafa, so how can you go and validate other gods? When it comes down to it, who are those people saved by, then? Isn't that a major problem? Isn't that leading people to believe in deities who themselves still need to take their stance on Dafa during the Fa-rectification? Whether [those deities] can remain or not still depends on their actions. Those talismans by themselves have no effect--it is Master making them work. Validating the Fa is Dafa disciples' task, and absolutely not the task of those deities. You must be clear on this.
Disciple: I have seen many fellow practitioners recently go through trials that have to do with emotion (qing).
Master: Yes, that is true. The wicked CCP wants to push human society towards destruction, and that is the method it uses. Embezzlement, corruption, and such don't count for much. Let's look at it from another angle. Let's say that a person is involved in embezzlement and graft, and the money that he embezzles belongs to the CCP. If the CCP is weakened because of his corruption, then he has actually done something good. (Audience laughs, applauds) So that's not a problem. The biggest problem is that the wicked CCP is destroying human morality. The CCP knows that Falun Gong teaches Zhen, Shan, Ren and teaches people to be good, so it in turn teaches people to be bad, especially in terms of relationships with members of the opposite sex. Do you know the depths that Chinese society has sunk to? It is terribly depraved--a society that has become utterly depraved. A pure young girl, an innocent girl, is really hard to find nowadays. Why has it gotten so bad? Doesn't [the CCP] just want to destroy people? Don't Dafa disciples want to cultivate back to their original selves? Why do you not watch yourselves when it comes to this? Do you want to become depraved along with society, along with the evil CCP? Isn't this a grave matter? Looking at things from this point of view, are the people in mainland China still in a human state? Isn't it serious?! Dafa disciples are to intercept and put a stop to the world's descent! It's about not letting mankind slide downward, so why is it that you yourself for such a long time now haven't managed to step out of that? You absolutely must pay attention to this!
Dafa disciples should not, under any circumstance, have any further problems in this regard. I don't want to see you make these kinds of mistakes. The boy and girl students in the performing arts troupe normally aren't allowed to just casually intermingle. Also, because they are so young, they are strictly forbidden from dating. Other Dafa disciples need to pay attention to these same issues. If this kind of problem happens at our academy, whoever is involved will be sent home without exception, to be sure. When Dafa disciples themselves can't do well, they cannot save sentient beings. If you cannot manage to do well yourself, how could you save sentient beings? When the thoughts that you project are unrighteous, how could you do that task well? It's the same as assisting the evil, then.
Disciple: It has been less than a year since I obtained the Fa. I have consistently tried hard to do the three things well and keep up with the enormous current of Fa-rectification. What kinds of suggestions do you have for disciples who have obtained the Fa only recently?
Master: This is a great question. To those Dafa disciples who have just obtained the Fa, I say that you are so fortunate. Do you know what kind of group you have joined? These cultivators have made it to today after going through the harshest of tests. Of course, this persecution hasn't ended yet, but the evil is no longer so abundant or rampant, and the pressure is no longer so great. However, it won't be that just because you have entered [Dafa] only recently the standard of cultivation will be lowered for you. So in cultivation you must try hard to do the three things that Dafa disciples should do well, and at the same time save sentient beings and fulfill the roles that Dafa disciples should. In order to do these things well, you must study the Fa well. Make great efforts at studying the Fa, and you will be able to keep up with the progress of Fa-rectification, and you will in an impressive manner become a Dafa disciple who befits that name and is of the Fa-rectification period.
That's all for today. (Applause)
Master is truly happy to see you all (warm applause), especially today. (Applause) Dafa disciples who have made it through during this persecution: You are really outstanding. (Applause) You will receive all the honor and glory that Dafa disciples are to have in the future. (Applause) You have made it through the most grueling, difficult period of time. I think that Dafa disciples should, in the limited amount of time that remains at the end, fulfill their historic missions even better and more splendidly! (Long applause)
1. Translator's note: meaning, "eliminate it" or "it is eliminated."
2. Translator's note: in the context of this discussion, this refers to a subtle feeling conveyed through outward form.
Last updated: May 5, 2007.