Fa Teaching Given at the New York Fa Conference Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Dafa’s Spreading

May 14, 2017 in New York
Li Hongzhi

(Master takes the stage to the enthusiastic applause of some ten thousand disciples.)

Good morning! You’ve been working hard! (Disciples reply, “Good morning, Master!”)

Every year more people are attending the Fa conference. Today, my goodness, the hall is packed. Doing the three things well is what’s most important for a Dafa disciple. Only by first cultivating yourself well can you fulfill your historic mission. That’s why you cannot neglect your own cultivation throughout the process of saving beings and validating Dafa. So you must take cultivation seriously; it is the most basic thing for cultivators to do to ensure success. Consider this: if you aren’t cultivating yourself, what you do is the same as an ordinary person doing good deeds. But as Dafa disciples you were establishing karmic ties and paving the way throughout history to become a Dafa disciple today. You thus endured a great deal in the past to become a Dafa disciple today, and your ultimate origins are special. So none of this is simple.

The human world is one of illusion. Nobody can see the reality of things while here in this illusory, secular setting. Human beings see the world two dimensionally, while divine beings view it multi-dimensionally and can see each of the world’s planes as a whole. A human being’s eyes can see only the surface of this world, and people can’t even see all of themselves—and I don’t mean their internal organs, but the appearances and shapes, in other dimensions, of the layers upon layers of particles that make up their being. They can’t see any of it. They can only see the surface of themselves. That means there are great constraints in place. The world is the most illusory and deceptive place since they can’t see things for what they are. But only then, with delusion like this, is cultivation possible. In other dimensions or worlds nothing is said of cultivation and it doesn’t exist. As you know, gods cannot cultivate. And why not? Because it doesn’t count as cultivation if you can see everything as it truly is. Only when you can’t see reality does it count as cultivation. So it’s really not easy to live by the standards for a cultivator and strive for divinity while living in an illusory world that brims with temptation.

And this plays out in China today, with the enormous pressure that Dafa disciples are under, where all they have to do is give up cultivation and the evil will let them enjoy a normal life. Whereas not giving it up spells persecution—perhaps even more severe than before. It’s just outstanding that you made it through all of that and have come to this day. I say that because back when gods settled on how this affair would be, simply your deciding to come to this world was no simple matter. Those who had the courage to come are extraordinary, and even gods consider them so. They are the brave ones. They have the courage to affirm the Fa, to prove themselves, and to blaze new paths to save lives when all of the cosmos’s old forces are honing in on this spot. This is unprecedented. That’s the nature of this affair—something never seen before since the dawn of time. Under the cosmos’s old law of formation-stasis-degeneration-destruction, anything that had reached the point where it was to be dissolved, would be dissolved, and then it would be created anew. You know, it’s very easy to re-create something—easier than you could even imagine. When a god wishes for something to be, it happens at just the thought of it and becomes full reality. Gods can bring about whatever they want. Then wouldn’t that be even more so for greater gods? And for the ultimate Creator of the cosmos? He has all of the powers there are at every plane of existence, and a single thought of His can impact all planes and bring into existence a universe that is complete with all planes, things of every sort, and even countless gods. Just with a single thought. Shakyamuni also mentioned something like this, as you might be aware, about worlds being created by a god’s single thought.

But the law of the old cosmos is formation-stasis-degeneration-destruction, and the prospect of the largest cosmos disintegrating through that cycle was truly horrendous. Over the long course of time, the multitude of gods, and even the highest God, didn’t want to give up the beings in the cosmos, and each wanted to save both themselves as well as beings more broadly. Over the ages the beings of the cosmos had, over the courses of their lives, accomplished many, many things that are precious to those higher gods, and so they wished to preserve those things. Many gods thus had a wish to save sentient beings. But as I’ve said before, there are innumerable beings as well as divinities at every plane, as well as many lords, and for every universe there is a ruler. But none of the rulers knows whether there lie still other universes above them, and so they think that they rule supreme. So many lords and kings had wished to come to this world to save sentient beings. But they couldn’t, as they were only the kings and lords of a limited expanse; if they were to do something on such a limited scale, it wouldn’t be recognized [by those above]. So the scope of this affair is just enormous, extremely enormous.

I am just speaking in terms of Fa principles. The Fa rectification of the cosmos has progressed to where it is today. It has truly proceeded to the final stage, and is now transitioning toward the Fa’s rectification of the human world. Looking back, I would say that all of this really wasn’t easily achieved. While what you see is the persecution before your eyes—a preposterous suppression of Dafa disciples—there were also intense and harrowing upheavals in history that were similarly horrible. And it was only by laying that groundwork, throughout history during their laborious incarnations, that Dafa disciples could handle what they have today. Each of you present here, whoever you may be, went through lifetime after lifetime over the very long course of history before arriving at the present. And whether you are a Dafa disciple or not, during each lifetime you had to reduce your sins and karma through suffering and enduring turmoil all those years in order to gain a chance to be saved one day and make it to the present. Every human being has gone through that, whether they realize it or not. It’s the nature of this human setting that people think all is well in peaceful times, but then must experience all sorts of hardships in turbulent times or when they have to go through harrowing things. The entire process of descending from a high plane of the cosmos to a low one is extremely painful, even though things in higher realms aren’t as trying as in the human world and the beings aren’t as lost.

As I mentioned earlier, gods view the world multi-dimensionally. With but one glance they see the entirety of your body that’s made up of layers upon layers of particles. Your surface body is made up of molecules, but even molecules aren’t perceptible to your eyes—you can only see cells, which are made up of molecules. And your eyes themselves are made up of cells, so you see only the plane of cells. Yet just to see individual cells a microscope is needed, as the human eye sees only this surface plane, which is composed of cells. So humanity is subject to a great degree of illusion. The layers and layers of particles that make up the human body span across planes of dimensions. They form the entirety of you and are extremely numerous. The human body has as many layers of particles as does the Three Realms. They’re that numerous. While you aren’t able to see the many planes that your body has, gods can, and with just a glance. They look at the entirety of a person.

Some people have wondered about what’s involved when a person thinks something over with a lot of thought and deliberation. But in many cases when people do things the idea behind it comes to them quickly, and then they act on it; the thinking occurs very quickly, and the idea doesn’t result from any prolonged thought process or careful deliberation. They don’t think it over carefully, and yet they manage to do whatever it is very well. Why is that? People have pondered this quite a bit, and scientists have tried to figure it out as well. They wonder how it is that fully-formed, mature ideas could occur to people without there first being careful thought, reflection, or deliberation; instead, they arrive in a flash and people carry them out immediately. People can’t really explain it. In reality the human body is more than this tiny, superficial part. There are layers and layers to your body, your thoughts, and your cells, and they are all part of you as an integral whole. When a person’s surface layer does something, all of his cells are in motion and are thinking, though not just in one dimension. The more microcosmic the plane, the faster time is there and the greater the powers of the beings there. So while it might seem to you that you only gave something a moment’s thought, in another dimension perhaps the thought process lasted for years, since the thoughts were occurring in different dimensions.

Gods look at things holistically and multi-dimensionally, while human beings only look at the surface of things. Sometimes I really don’t look at the specifics of the thoughts or behaviors at the surface of those Dafa disciples who are around me or how they outwardly act; instead, I look at your true motive, at what your true thoughts or actions are. You still have to be accountable for whatever you do at the surface, however, even though that process is behind it. But what I look at is the heart of your being.

The same holds true for Dafa disciples during the persecution. Cultivation is something done by human beings, so it follows that many, many human attachments play out. And when they do, it most likely means that you aren’t meeting the Fa’s standard, right? So people tend to think in a human way and make mistakes when they’re being subjected to persecution. Well, since you are cultivating, you’re of course allowed to make mistakes in the process, because you couldn’t possibly handle everything well. But ultimately you do have to do well. And if mistakes are possible, there could be major ones. This was anticipated long ago, the issues were thought of well in advance. It’s possible that you have made huge mistakes. So my point is, it’s okay if you make mistakes since you are a cultivator and are striving for divinity, but you need to be aware when you have done wrong and do well at what you are supposed to do, all the way until your cultivation is finished. And that is cultivation. Similarly, some practitioners have done poorly and even helped the evil persecute other Dafa disciples. But I know that each person will have a different cultivation state under the evil’s brutal persecution, and there’s a limit to how much the human body can endure. As I said, it’s human beings who are cultivating, not gods. And for that reason you will have human thoughts, and those may lead you to do the wrong thing. And the mistakes that ensue might be minor or serious. So this is why I’ve said that before this affair ends, those who’ve made serious mistakes should still be given chances, and if they want to cultivate you should still regard them as cultivators. Cultivation is involved, after all, and I’ve long known that it wouldn’t be possible for every person to always do well and conduct him or herself virtuously on his or her journey.

I said something back then when I first started to impart the Fa. I said that I was teaching such an immense Fa that it was something never seen before since the dawn of creation, but that if I could save even just one person, if even just one person were to succeed at the practice, what I was doing wouldn’t be in vain. That’s how much I lowered the bar. But looking at how we’re doing today… as I remarked when I got here, each year more people are attending our conferences, and today the place is packed. At the very least you have made it through the brutal persecution to this day, and now are seated here. And of course there are many more Dafa disciples who couldn’t make it here because their circumstances didn’t allow so. I know that there are many more Dafa disciples, a great number. Cultivation is not a human affair, after all; it is something established at the core of your existence. Persecution can only be done at the surface. Could it really affect you fundamentally? Not a chance. And so even though the evil always wants to make you give up cultivation, its persecution of the Dafa disciples who truly have missions will never succeed. It could never make them give up cultivation, for that is something established at your very core, and unreachable by persecution, which can only reach and affect a person at the surface. Of course, a person’s surface is important as well, as a being’s human conduct determines where he is heading. But as you go about things, gods look at your fundamental motive in everything you do. That’s how it is.

And it’s actually fair for human beings as well. How so? Formation-stasis-degeneration-destruction is the law of the cosmos. Each time when one round of lives no longer meets the standard, [that civilization] is dissolved. And more than just one or two rounds of civilization, spanning different eras, have come to pass, right? There have been many rounds, with many of the civilizations predating history having surpassed today’s. History is like a play script. After each round of human civilization ends, the script is revised and then used for the next play, until eventually it’s finalized. In some eras the technology was very advanced, as in the case of aliens. But when that history ended it was decided that it wasn’t suitable, as the way people were wouldn’t have been good enough for learning the Fa when the day came. So it was concluded that man’s technology shouldn’t be that advanced. In other eras mankind’s technology was far from advanced, but that wasn’t found to be suitable either. In addition to technology, man’s conduct, thinking, culture, and even appearance would also need to meet the requirements.

With history having arrived at this point… I was just mentioning man’s appearance. The appearances that people had in the early stages of human history in various eras would actually seem bizarre to people today, as they differed greatly from today’s. Many times human races were ruled out because they were found to be unsuitable. Five major races remained for this final era today: the yellow race, the white race, the black race, the red race, and the brown race. The red race hasn’t been seen in recent times, probably due to the mixing of races. Certain races disappeared due to the erasure of regional boundaries, owing to technological developments. You don’t see people of the true, pure white race anymore, either. Of the yellow race, the Chinese people have experienced the most mixing. I know very well the true history of man, but I won’t say more since it involves racial matters that could be controversial. In any case, mankind’s history is in my grasp, and I know all of it from beginning to end. With history having arrived at this point, the gods found man to be ready and fit for use in the final, Fa rectification, period.

During the 1950s and 60s people were rather simple and kind. But the old forces thought it would be too easy for people like that to gain the Fa, as people’s thinking was too wholesome and virtuous. And so they brought about many modern ideas, modern art, and modern theories. Every field and domain is filled with modern, negative and bad things, and with time the negative elements came to dominate the world. That’s the setting we find ourselves in today. Most people are hesitant to openly speak about wholesome, healthy, and positive things, lest they be criticized, mocked, or looked down on. The negative and bad elements are dominant overall now, and it’s even okay now to trumpet them in formal settings and when in the public eye. You’re all familiar with Shen Yun Performing Arts. Shen Yun presents what is purely good and beautiful, and all that it performs is permeated with genuine goodness and beauty, and the most positive of elements. In a world that’s filled with negative and unhealthy things, people are really amazed to suddenly see a performing arts company that’s so pure and wholesome. Moreover, its performances bring goodness to everyone, both positive and negative people. It brings goodness to all, and that’s why everyone raves about it. Its mission is to save people.

I’m well aware just how hard it is to become holy or be a virtuous person in a world where negative elements are so dominant. As you know, the students at Fei Tian Academy, which develops artists who may go on to Shen Yun, have done quite well. But I still worry, because today’s arts have had too strong of an influence on them, and the world is just brimming with things that entice them. And it is in this manner that people’s values have been eroded, imperceptibly. Those behind this wouldn’t openly declare, “I’m a demon who’s bent on bringing humanity down.” They wouldn’t say anything like that. Rather, they lure you with all kinds of immoral things, without your realizing it, and you can’t see them for what they are. These [negative and unhealthy elements] are present in the arts, in people’s behaviors, in many different products, and in every sort of thing, that may appeal to you. They try to bring you down—to bring you down by making you obsess over them. It’s hard to save people once negative factors come to dominate their minds and society’s thought. That’s because their rational minds have been overtaken by negative factors, and they can’t tell that the things they are doing are not the product of their own thoughts.

As I said earlier, the human eye can see only the surface of the body formed by the cells at man’s superficial layer. People can’t observe and don’t know about their thoughts, their bodies, and all other things at all of the different layers where they take place. The notions that people now have, at the surface layer, contain very modern, and abnormal, ideas, owing to the things society has taught them, which are dominated by negative and unhealthy things now. The negative factors that influence the notions they form in this lifetime are by no means simple—evil specters are behind them. Whether it be Satan or the evil specter of the evil Communist Party, they are ruling the world and controlling people through their evil minions. Today’s people can’t tell whether their actions stem from their own thoughts or the control of negative factors. On the surface your actions might seem natural, and you may even think that there’s nothing unusual about the source of your thoughts. But you don’t even know, and you couldn’t tell, which thoughts are from your own mind and which are the doing of outside factors. They steer your desires and feed your obsessions, whatever they may be. It’s really just terribly hard to cultivate in these circumstances! Truly hard! Many religious groups, from Christians to Buddhists, have felt that increasingly society has become corrupt and its pressures are resulting in their seeing less and less positive and healthy things among their believers. They are aware of it, but powerless to do anything about it; the tide of the negative and unhealthy has overwhelmed the world.

For anyone hoping to turn things around, or go back to better ways, well, Shen Yun is doing just that. But a person has to be a practitioner to be part of it. So these practitioners in Shen Yun must have a basis in cultivation. And so it’s really a great deal of work to help them develop, a tremendous amount of hard work. The same holds true in other settings. Dafa disciples everywhere all must stay on a virtuous course and at the same time help save lives. But many of you are indulging your own children or [young] relatives, and can’t discipline them. And in some cases you are completely powerless before them. That’s how powerful the lure of this world is. The negative factors are so strong.

You are aware, as practitioners, that there are not many people left in this world who are leading virtuous lives. Who still has the courage to do that? It’s really hard to do. As I said earlier, only the brave dared to come here, as gods see it. You must be someone who’s brave to have chosen to come to a setting this complicated. Gods consider you extraordinary just for having come during the Fa rectification, having joined the ranks of those who are saving people, and having even become a cultivator—truly extraordinary! And if, atop that, you are able to do relatively well in your cultivation, then think about it, since people are a product of their environment, then this bad environment and what’s around you serves to make you look good. Even just when a non-practitioner picks up and reads a Dafa book, just by that act alone he or she stands out and is recognized as someone special—so how much more so for Dafa disciples. If this setting were instead really good and people’s minds were full of virtuous thoughts, and if it were a world filled with positive elements, then what you are doing wouldn’t count for much, as it would be something everyone could do; you would have to behave exceptionally well for it to count, right? The evilness of this setting makes you stand out, and has for sure, in this regard, made your practice somewhat less difficult. But the expectation for you, as a Dafa disciple, is that you still try your utmost to do well and fulfill your historic mission; and saving lives is something you have to do. Let me make it clear: saving lives is extremely important, and you must work on it.

What is a Dafa disciple? There have been many religions throughout history. As you know, spiritual practice normally doesn’t involve a special mission, and only takes as its goal self-perfection—to go to heaven or become a bodhisattva or arhat as a result of successful practicing. It’s been easy for people to talk about “saving lives,” but who would dare to actually do so? It’s hard enough to cultivate yourself, let alone take someone else with you. If you take one person with you, it means you are responsible for everything about him, and you must see to it that he practices well just as you must yourself. If you can’t even cultivate yourself well, or struggle at it, how could you possibly get him to do well at it? Moreover, “saving lives” means saving more than just one person—you would be saving many people, and how would you shoulder the responsibility for all of them? That’s why it strikes me as rather absurd when some people say that they want to “save lives.” But who dares to actually save lives? Good luck! To think that you could “save lives” is a real stretch when just taking on the sickness karma from one part of a single person’s body alone would destroy you, before you could save him.

What makes it possible for you to save lives is the power of the Fa; the foundation that you, who are Dafa disciples, laid in history; and the immense importance of your responsibilities. It is not something just anyone could do, and it is something that has never occurred in the history of all of creation. The Great Law of the cosmos is establishing Disciples of Dafa. Which beings deserve to cultivate by the Great Law of the cosmos? None had ever done that before. Even Shakyamuni didn’t achieve enlightenment by cultivating the Great Law of the cosmos, did he? He achieved what he did, as you know, by enlightening to the level of the law in the cosmos that he met the standard for. Have you thought about what you should do and what your responsibilities are as a being at this time when the Great Law of the cosmos is directly saving people? Of course, divine beings cherish greatly the Dafa disciples who have journeyed through the years of trials and tribulations, and I keep saying that those who have made it through from July 20, 1999, are extraordinary. So as a disciple yourself, you should cherish yourself and your journey, and rid yourself of anything that is filthy or bad. And by doing so you will achieve the Way through your righteous enlightenment that you established, and it will be what earns you your majestic virtue. And it will decide, for each of you, your heavenly rank.

As I indicated, the Fa rectification of the cosmos is now in the latter stage, and is concluding soon, and it is transitioning toward the Fa’s rectification of the human world. So during this period you have all the more reason to do well, to not squander your achievements, to cease doing wrong, and to stop doing foolish things in an attempt to show off or be novel and different, or due to other attachments. It’s not enough to be passionate about Dafa—you need to be rational, to be mindful of safety when in an evil setting, and to go about your practice in a virtuous and honorable manner. The old forces have changed many things, but I am beating them at their own game. But on your part as Dafa disciples, you have to stay on a proper course. You have managed to come through to this day as Dafa disciples, and Master cherishes you greatly, so you must do well. What I once said would come to pass is now happening. I didn’t prophesize it, but I spelled out the progression of the Fa’s rectification of the cosmos, step by step, all the way through to the end. Just watch, my words are coming true.

I will just say this much for now. There are people here who have come from thousands of miles away, including from mainland China. If there are questions you really need to ask, you can submit them to the conference staff, and I will answer them for you. (Disciples applaud enthusiastically.)

(Master takes a seat at the table on stage, and disciples applaud warmly.)

Disciple: Dafa disciples around the world wish Master a happy birthday!

Master: I will skip these, all right?(Disciples applaud warmly, in the affirmative.)

Disciple: My understanding is that the Fa rectification has arrived at its final stage, and the Fa’s rectification of the human world is about to begin. As the progress of Fa rectification pushes forward, is there any change in what we should emphasize as we clarify the facts? Should we be more direct and straightforward?

Master: There has been no change. Keep doing what you’ve been doing. There hasn’t been any change. I would tell you via Minghui.org if a change was in order. You mustn’t speak at too high of a level when you clarify the facts and try to save people, or it will have a negative impact. We have had many lessons in this regard.

Disciple: Live organ harvesting, a crime committed by the evil in its persecution of China’s Dafa disciples, is getting more and more attention from ordinary people. Many practitioners have focused on exposing it, and when they clarify the facts to people they go right into the topic. Should we still give the broader picture when we clarify the facts, and first help people to get a good idea of what Falun Dafa is and provide them with some basic information about what has happened with the persecution, such as the self-immolation hoax, the 1400 alleged deaths, etc., and then go from there depending on how receptive the person is?

Master: Yes, I think that’s a rational approach. People will be people, after all. Often we’re overly optimistic about how much they can comprehend. When you find someone harder to save than expected, it’s that the person’s level of understanding is lower than you expected, not higher. So the harder it is to get through to someone, the more basic you should keep your explanations if you want him to be receptive and get it. He wouldn’t react negatively if he had the intellectual capacity to process what you’re saying. So you should still talk about the basics first. Especially in China, you should tell people about how the CCP has made up lies and clear those things up in their minds, tell them what’s really going on, and then talk about how evil the CCP’s persecution has been, and only then will that person sympathize with you. If you only talk about how the evil party has persecuted us, his misguided mind might think: but you are not good either. So you have to clear up the lies if you’re to effectively get him to see the truth.

Disciple: Under the evil’s directives, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has undermined our application for a venue for Shen Yun to perform at, and has allowed evil groups to attack Dafa downtown and at tourist sites—in violation of Hong Kong law. Could we have the local Dafa association coordinate a legal effort by practitioners who have the conditions to sue them, so that we can ensure a legal guarantee for our activities?

Master: None of the bad people will be able to escape in the near future. All of them will be dealt with. As to the situation in Hong Kong, the practitioners and the Dafa Association there can decide what to do in light of the circumstances. It’s not something Master can spell out here in just a few words. And I can’t tell you what to do, getting into all the details, as then I would be taking away from you your opportunity to take charge of your cultivation. That’s because it’s up to you to figure out how to do things and do them well. If I were to explain everything to you, and tell you everything, including even each step to take, then would it be you or me who was cultivating? Or, I would be holding your hand as you proceed to cultivate, right? It wouldn’t count then. That makes sense, right? So you need to figure certain things out for yourselves and do them well on your own. If you can do a good job of raising awareness you will have a favorable environment [for practicing].

Disciple: We have a situation: sometimes Dafa books have been sent to our Fa-study site anonymously, and the [Chinese] characters in the books haven’t been corrected [per the announcements in Minghui.org]. There have also been some new books sent, but the pages in most of them were smeared, or the pages had become very stiff or worn. We don’t know what to do with them.

Master: The persecution has really been severe, so people may have hidden the books, and they probably weren’t stored very well. Those books are still very precious to those who don’t have Dafa books. You can fix the characters if they haven’t been corrected. It’s okay if the books are somewhat dirty, as people can still use them and study the Fa with them. You can burn the ones that are in really bad shape and not usable, since you are Dafa disciples and divine beings realize what you are doing.

Disciple: After the new government took office in Taiwan last May, the visitors from China at tourist sites in Taiwan have noticeably decreased. Is this a reflection of the cultivation state of Taiwan’s Dafa disciples? Tourists from Korea, Japan, and other Southeast Asian countries have meanwhile noticeably increased. Should we expand our outreach efforts at Taiwan’s tourist sites to include these and other groups as well?

Master: There is no special reason behind what you observed. The economy in China is different now from a few years ago, so it’s normal to have less tourists from there. You should raise awareness to everyone, whoever they may be, with an emphasis on the tourists from China. In Taiwan you can reach out to other people as well, especially those from South Asia, who have also been badly harmed during the persecution of Falun Gong. You can clarify the facts to all of them.

Disciple: A Hong Kong practitioner said that he doesn’t understand why the practitioners at the Epoch Times have all gone off to do sales. And a new practitioner was blocked when he went to study the Fa at the Dafa association site there. And they don’t have a strong culture of Fa-study there, so even if new people join they can’t really understand Dafa.

Master: Is that really true? In Hong Kong? In any case, the coordinators are more or less responsible for the cultivation state of their group. But if the person who wrote the question doesn’t know enough about the situation, then we can’t go by these assertions.

Disciple: Greetings to Master from disciples in China! For more than a year many Dafa disciples in different parts of our province have been arrested. My question is: for such interference to happen today when the Fa rectification is near its end, is it due to omissions in our overall cultivation, or is it caused by…

Master: There’s no particular reason. [The evil] will make you address whatever aspect of your cultivation has been lacking, and it is bent on doing so. In the words of the old forces, China is like Lord Lao’s crucible, and the fire there has to be kept especially intense in order for true gold to be made. As I’ve said before, it’s not as if all of the evil will turn good when the overall situation does. The evil won’t turn good, and can only be eliminated. Before it is eliminated it will act out, and it will struggle especially hard before its death. You can count on it. It’s like with poison: is it possible for it to become non-poisonous? It’s poisonous by its very nature.

Disciple: A lot of details get botched when our news media cover Shen Yun. For example, in the [Chinese] reports the interviewees are often referred to as mister or miss something, or their titles are repeatedly mentioned, which doesn’t follow the conventions of news reporting or production. Master, does the fact that our media don’t mind the details, the way Shen Yun does, affect their power to save people?

Master: That’s a minor thing. So our media should pay more attention to cultural conventions in their reporting, that’s all. Falun Gong practitioners should do things in a traditional fashion, so you should do even better in this regard.

Disciple: Two practitioners got divorced because they didn’t truly cultivate themselves in real life situations, and weren’t able to think about their own part in the situations they experienced. But their hearts for cultivation in Dafa haven’t changed. What impact will the divorce have on their cultivation? Will they still have a chance to achieve Consummation?

Master: In principle, whether they cultivate well or not during their cultivation reflects their cultivation state. For human beings divorce is a serious thing. But for this couple, cultivation is in fact first and foremost. If they cultivate well, then it won’t affect them. Their choice of what form they cultivate in, or how they cultivate, is their own responsibility. If the divorce was caused by attachments or human thinking, then of course what they did wasn’t right.

Disciple: Nowadays children are all playing video games. Are the games created by aliens? What should we do about it?

Master: Yes, today’s video games are all made by people who are acting at the prompting of aliens. People think that those games were their own creations. But as I said earlier, people don’t know the source of the ideas they have that make them want to create those things. People have no awareness of what’s involved in their thought process at various levels, or how it is that foreign ideas get put into their minds. People are only aware of what happens at the surface level. Those games are harmful and poisonous to humankind, and are leading people to lose their humanity.

Why have aliens done this? Because they have wanted to take over the human body. They have longed for man’s brain structure. Aliens are beings born out of foul garbage heaps at the lowest plane of the universe, and look just hideous to the beings in the universe. The human mind, on the other hand, is amazing. Every four to five thousand years mankind has been destroyed, lest the human brain gain the capacity to develop anything imaginable, as its thought structure is the same as that of divine beings; it is far more advanced than that of aliens. Didn’t I indicate that the moon was created by the people of an early era? So for the above reasons aliens want to have human bodies for themselves, and have continued to make such things [as video games]. Of course, there are other factors involved, and I have discussed those in previous teachings.

Disciple: The practitioners working at our media rarely send righteous thoughts. Some practitioners, especially young ones, hardly study the Fa or do the exercises, and their thinking is quite worldly. How can we change this situation?

Master: I’ve known about this for quite some time, and have been observing. Some Dafa disciples, especially those in China, had their kids cultivate together with them when they were young. But they can no longer keep the kids in line once they get older and are drawn in by worldly things. After they graduate from school and have gained some skills, they become part of ordinary society; some have left China, and some have joined the Epoch Times or NTD. They go long stretches without studying the Fa, and since their thinking and conduct have long been marred with Party-culture, they don’t realize how obnoxious their behavior is to people outside of China. I’m just pointing out these things that you don’t realize. Now that you are in a new setting [outside of China], you need to change your thinking and conduct. You are all Dafa disciples and certainly can’t go without Fa-study. Are you still a Dafa disciple if you don’t study the Fa?

Disciple: Many lives have yet to be saved. Master, you said that you are beating the evil at its own game. Will it be possible for today’s Dafa disciples to stay here during the Fa’s rectification of the human world to fulfill their missions?

Master: I cannot tell you about future affairs yet. Whatever I would say would cause attachments. For those who haven’t cultivated well, there is only one approach to take: to cultivate well. There is no other way. If you decide to lead a leisurely life, thinking that there is time to spare or time to first have a little fun, and get down to cultivating later on, well, gods can see all of your thoughts.

Disciple: There have long been serious rifts between certain practitioners due to differences of opinion. When I’ve tried to work with both parties on something, I got excluded and they would end up venting to me.

Master: There are problems on both sides, then, and both have strong human attachments. When Dafa disciples join forces the power is really enormous. When everyone manages to focus their minds while sending righteous thoughts, the power is especially strong, and it’s just phenomenal. So the rotten demons are bent on interfering with you, affecting you, making you lapse into human thinking, and making you get all resentful or find certain individuals irritating. They make your human thoughts so strong that you simply can’t deploy your righteous thoughts!

In the early years of the persecution of Falun Gong you needed to do many things to counteract it. But you clashed time and again with each other in meetings, and it seriously affected your ability to do what you should do. I just regarded it as part of your tempering process—as part of your cultivation process—and I trusted that you would later on do well. But some people still haven’t changed their ways of thinking even today, they have continued to be used by the evil demons, and have caused trouble among Dafa disciples. You are all fellow practitioners. Do you think you’re enemies? You are here on this earth working toward the same goal of saving people, so you should be the closest of kin and be helping one another. Do you find someone annoying? That person’s outward appearance and behavior are only what’s present here in this human world. Weren’t all of you originally divine? I don’t think your divine side would possibly find someone annoying. You need to view things as a cultivator.

Disciple: In the myths, legends, and ancient songs passed down among some of southwest China’s minority ethnic groups there are many references to the universe, life, water, and the like. And a lot of ancient symbols like the swastika and tai-chi are found in their traditional attire. I’d like to ask: are the minority ethnic cultures in China part of traditional Chinese culture? And are their ancient cultures relevant to human culture in the future?

Master: What they will mean to the future culture isn’t really relevant. I can tell you why there are so many minority ethnic groups in southwest China, and why they seem distinct and separate from the Chinese culture of the past five thousand years. They are in fact races that remain from a time before the five thousand years of this civilization. One time when I was driving to Yunnan province, divine beings along the way remarked to me that these minority ethnic groups are living fossils, and ancient.

Disciple: Not long ago there were disputes among the larger body of practitioners in Beijing. What exactly are the purest and most upstanding ways to do things, and ways better for the group as a whole? Is jealousy what has long been compromising our ability to cooperate with others and keep the entire group in mind?

Master: Jealousy is definitely something you must get rid of. It is something formidable and can make you slack off in all aspects of your cultivation and ruin you. You mustn’t harbor jealousy!

Disciple: Our practitioners in China are doing more and more signature drives. How should we regard this versus saving people more directly by advising them to withdraw from the Party’s three organizations? And what should we be mindful of?

Master: I remember that someone once asked me how many people it would take quitting the CCP to make the Party fall. I showed five fingers; I didn’t give him a number (laughter). But in any case, the process of advising people to quit the Party is one of saving people. The reason is, those people have been held hostage by the evil CCP, and have been marked with the sign of the evil red dragon; each of them swore before that bloody flag, pledging to devote their lives to the Party. Could you possibly save them, then, if you don’t have them quit the Party? Since the evil CCP has become a demon in regard to the Fa-rectification, shouldn’t it be annihilated? And isn’t it now being destroyed? Of course, if it were destroyed all at once that would pose a problem for the Dafa disciples who haven’t cultivated well, wouldn’t it? So as it’s being destroyed, I have to think about how to give those practitioners who haven’t cultivated well chances to cultivate, and let the evil beings that haven’t been eliminated act out. And you still need to look at these matters rationally. I have explained many things clearly before, in fact.

Disciple: Why is it that only American Dafa disciples should petition the White House to stop the CCP’s live organ harvesting from Dafa disciples? News of the petition has been reported on TV as well as in print media. I heard that if the number of petitions doesn’t reach 100,000 it will have a negative effect. Personally I feel that Dafa disciples are one body and should work together on things. The Dafa disciples who have heard about the petition should cooperate and support the initiative as individuals.

Master: That might not be the case. I don’t think I have said that number. Live organ harvesting has been commonplace in many hospitals across China. It was a directive straight from the evil. But currently we aren’t able to get ahold of exact figures. And if you can’t put together that much evidence of it, your words will lack credibility. People might demand to see medical records if you claim that there have been such-and-such number of victims. And would you be able to provide specific names, occupations, when the surgeries took place, when the individuals practiced Falun Gong, and so on? In Western society people expect claims to have solid evidence and proof. People need to see your evidence or else they’ll think your claim is subjective, or the product of your imagination, and not credible. They might even think that you are exaggerating or lying. That’s how they think. So you can’t let your emotions override how things work in the real world.

I have always said that live organ harvesting is an extremely grave matter, and yet it is something widespread in China. The evil that Dafa disciples have been subjected to during the persecution is so severe as to have no precedent in all of history. But until you have amassed a lot of actual cases, don’t give figures. I have emphasized repeatedly that you shouldn’t give figures. But some people just won’t listen. Just inform people that it’s happening, and that it is terribly evil and widespread, and people will understand. And when you can provide the cases that you have collected, people will realize how severe this evil persecution has been. The numbers you are stating might actually be smaller than reality, even if you think they’re large. But if you aren’t able to provide factual evidence it discredits the whole thing.

Disciple: Dafa disciples are not supposed to engage in multi-level marketing, but it’s hard to tell if the marketing of certain products is considered multi-level marketing. There is a product being promoted via WeChat that…

Master: Let me put it this way: today’s world is complicated, but Dafa disciples are to stay on a virtuous course. You can gauge the business with a cultivator’s standard and determine whether it’s ethical or if there’s deception involved. I think that if you really evaluate it with a Dafa disciple’s standard you will know the answer. Some people do know, but pretend to be confused and try to cover it up, as they want to make money. But isn’t it plenty clear what these things involve? You can see with a glance whether there’s any deception involved.

Disciple: My fiancé and I moved to Morocco for our jobs. We are the only two Dafa disciples there. How should we raise awareness in this country?

Master: It is every Dafa disciple’s duty to raise awareness and spread Dafa. As far as how to go about it, well, you can do it in keeping with the circumstances locally as best you’re aware, and figure things out for yourself along the way.

Let’s put it this way: you shouldn’t ask me about certain specific, detail-type things. If I were to give you the answer I would have removed from your cultivation path the steps that you were supposed to take. Whether I know about the matter or not, once I speak about it, what I say will become true. Yet what follows wouldn’t have resulted from your doing, but mine. And what would be the point of having me do it? I have come to save you. Why would you ask me to walk the path I want you to walk? (People laugh)

Disciple: I’m a Dafa disciple in Changchun. Over the last eighteen years that have been full of trials and hardships, there have been joys as well as regrets. Going forward, no matter how much longer it will be, we will shoulder the responsibilities of Dafa disciples, go forward vigorously and diligently, and walk well and stay virtuous on the final leg of our journey. Master, please rest assured.

Master: I do feel assured, and I know you will. (Enthusiastic applause)The Dafa disciples in my hometown have been persecuted most severely, and yet they have handled things most outstandingly. (Enthusiastic applause)

Disciple: Even with around 10,000 disciples having come to New York to attend the Fa conference and take part in the activities here to save people, it rained. Was that the old forces making trouble for us, or did we have an omission of some sort?

Master: (Master laughs)If it wants to rain then let it rain. (People laugh)Nothing is by chance, and there are always two sides to things. An occurrence is meant to either test you or help you. In any case, two sides are involved. Think it over and you will realize that nothing happens by chance. (People applaud)

Disciple: The evil specter of communism is attempting to control the West. How should we deal with this situation?

Master: Actually, it has been controlling it for some time now. I said earlier that negative factors have taken control of the world (Master laughs), but you haven’t been able to understand what I said very deeply. Judging by appearances, as people see it, the conflict between communism and the West is one of values and political structures. But the truth is, it’s the Red Scourge that has been behind all of the negative and unhealthy factors [in the world]. I will tell you more in the future, since it involves future matters at the human surface during the Fa’s rectification of the human world.

Disciple: Atheism has influenced some of my colleagues and is entrenched in their thinking, so they think that quitting the Party isn’t necessary and entails certain risks and might bring them trouble. People’s moral values today are such that they don’t want to do anything about something if it doesn’t have direct bearing on them. But these colleagues of mine are sympathetic toward Dafa and don’t do anything to persecute Dafa. If we can’t remedy these people’s atheist thinking, we won't be able to persuade them to quit the Party. Master, what should we do with people with that kind of mindset?

Master: That’s actually not the case. Whether they are atheists has nothing to do with whether they withdraw from the Party. It’s not like everyone who believes in God is willing to withdraw from the Party. What we are doing is helping people to see how evil the CCP is. You could see this right from the start of the evil Communist Party—with the formation of the Paris Commune—when a bunch of gangsters vandalized the architectural wonders throughout Paris that were truly heavenly, and created chaos in society. It was like that from the outset. And they have been killing people, non-stop, ever since they came to power. If you look into the evil CCP’s history, you will see that it’s a tale of murder. Tell people about this and what the evil CCP has done specifically in China and to the Chinese people. And then ask them, do you really still want to be part of it? Approach it from that angle and they should understand. Whether they are believers or atheists isn’t actually the biggest obstacle. If they can read [our] books, the obstacle will naturally crumble.

Disciple: One line in Master’s new poem, “Creating Anew,” says “Return to tradition to connect with the divine.”

Master: That’s right. You know, all of human culture was arranged by gods, so the path to Heaven is closely connected with the divine. What other avenue is there to Heaven, after all? Could people with modern thinking, weird looks and hair, over-sized earrings and even nose rings, and who take drugs, possibly go to where gods are? You know full well they can’t. So traditional ways are what’s closest to the divine, because they were designed by gods.

Disciple: How is reviving Chinese traditions related to assisting Master in Fa rectification?

Master: As I’ve mentioned, Dafa disciples don’t need to work on reviving traditions right now. That is what Shen Yun Performing Arts is doing, since their work is in the arts—they are doing this via traditional arts. Dafa disciples just need to do the three things well.

Disciple: How can we know which parts of China’s five thousand years of history are true? How can we tell which parts were tampered with by the old forces, as opposed to what was meant to be left to mankind?

Master: There’s no need to worry about that. China’s five thousand years of culture were created by divine beings. Only after the arrival of the evil CCP was it damaged.

Disciple: When a practitioner in China wanted to reassemble a computer, he needed to delete some files on it, which included Master’s Fa teachings. Another practitioner said that it’s disrespectful to delete such files, as it’s similar to tearing up a Dafa book.

Master: Well, you can’t really look at it that way. It’s okay to delete those files. It’s not consequential, because the computer can’t erase the essence of something. In the same vein, whatever you put on a computer can never be truly deleted, as its end point is controlled by aliens, and everything will have already gone there.

Disciple: Nowadays people are influenced by the Internet and mobile phones, and have lost mankind’s authentic and traditional way of life. Online media are serving to make things worse, as they now do all kinds of things to draw people in, increase online traffic, and boost online revenue.

Master: You can’t really look it that way. The world is what it is now. And when that’s how things are, if you don’t do things that way you might not survive or know what's happening in the world. So what can you do? You have to use those things too. So we use them reluctantly, but they can also be made use of to clarify the facts and save people, or to run a good company that utilizes the Internet to save people. As I have always said, isn’t the online division of the The Epoch Times or NTD like an Internet company? It is, but consider its purpose: to raise awareness and save people. That’s why we say that whatever Dafa disciples do should be for a virtuous purpose.

Disciple: A coordinator at The Epoch Times claims that he is helping the paper, but what he says, does, and thinks are not consistent. The truth is that he is caught up in his own personal business, and using Dafa’s resources for it. It pains us to see a Dafa project compromised like this.

Master: The Epoch Times is developing healthily overall, but there are some human things mixed in that cultivators shouldn’t have. I know it’s inevitable that you have human thinking while you are cultivating. I knew this and saw it long ago. But that said, if you genuinely have sufficient knowledge [about the problem you described], then you can inform the Dafa Association. If it’s just gossip or you jumped to a conclusion after hearing something, without verifying it, then that’s a problem on your part. Don’t try to use Master’s mouth to say something when you can’t get over something; you will have to shoulder the responsibility for it if you do so. But if the problem those people have is truly significant, then even if I don’t do anything about it, there are divine beings there to handle things. I give people a lot of room, actually, because I know that they are cultivators and that there are divine beings who will handle things.

Disciple: Some UK practitioners don’t listen to the Dafa Association or the coordinators, and claim that they are “taking the Fa as teacher,” and they spread rumors.

Master: Right, the Dafa Association is a Dafa association, and it’s meant to organize and lead people in cultivation and Fa-study. It’s not supposed to take on the responsibility of all aspects of your cultivation. It just serves to coordinate group activities that are meant to clarify the facts and save people. But it’s a problem if someone is entirely resistant to the Dafa Association. The situation in the UK should get better, I think, because I met with them (applause) and helped them to understand certain things. Don’t hold onto the past. I’m watching and looking forward to good news from England. (Enthusiastic applause)

Disciple: Some Chinese people around me didn’t become understanding and supportive of Dafa after watching Shen Yun. Master, is it possible that even after watching Shen Yun some people might not be saved? Recently the evil seems to have suddenly gone wild. Quite a few newspapers have openly attacked Dafa, and even in social media, including Facebook and WeChat, there are potential security issues. Is this the evil’s last surge before its demise?

Master: It’s not that serious. The evil has in fact never lessened its efforts. It’s just that sometimes you are too optimistic and think that the evil seems to be changing. I’ve always said that the evil will not change. And it won’t. Of course, sometimes they will arrest more people, and sometimes less, as suits their needs. Don’t think that it’s changing just because of fluctuations in how many people you see them arresting. The evil itself won’t change. But who you are trying to save are individuals. People do bad things when they have yet to be saved and are being used by the evil. Of course, on the whole, the number of evil beings that have been destroyed is always growing, and bad things are decreasing, to be sure. Things are changing overall, to be certain.

Disciple: Recently I have had strong thought karma. When I read Dafa books it feels like there is a sheet of something separating me [from the Fa], so I can’t really absorb each sentence. Another practitioner is experiencing something similar. He says that the interference is so great that it seems stronger than even his main consciousness, and when he sends righteous thoughts it’s not as powerful as before.

Master: Everyone’s cultivation state is different. I have told you about the way Dafa cultivation is done. It’s by no means a simple matter to ensure your success at cultivation in this complicated setting. You know, were you not mindful and slipped up, the part of you that had been fully cultivated could even be undone anytime. So to ensure that you succeed in cultivation, the part of you that has been fully cultivated is separated as soon as it meets the standard, without a moment’s delay; as soon as a part has been fully cultivated it is separated, and then the same for the next part. So the part of you that has been fully cultivated continues to expand, but the part of you that hasn’t been never senses it, and that is why you are always in that state you described as you cultivate. But there is a subtle change that happens. Namely, when at some time you are approaching the point where a part of you is about to be fully cultivated, your abilities will be especially strong and the righteous thoughts that you send will seem very strong. But when that part of you has been fully cultivated, it is suddenly separated from you, and then it will suddenly seem as if you have little power and you just started cultivating. So this subtle change will happen as you keep practicing; it happens throughout your cultivation, not just right now like you’re experiencing.

Disciple: Quite a few practitioners around me don’t realize that [when they send righteous thoughts] their hand droops. And a series of practitioners have experienced sickness karma.

Master: There is a saying in cultivation, “Cultivate with the heart you once had, and success is certain,” right? (Disciples applaud enthusiastically) Remember how you felt when you first gained the Fa and started to practice? When you realized what this Fa is about, wow, you were incredibly excited, and you set your mind to doing well! If you can keep alive that heart that you once had for your whole journey of cultivation, straight to the end, then you are guaranteed success—and even Heaven will vouch for you. (Master laughs)(People applaud)

However, you of course do your practice in this secular world, after all, and with all sorts of things, all kinds of work that occupy you, all kinds of interference that you’re subject to—including the complicated elements out in society—and atop all of which there are the pressures of the persecution, it really is hard to stay firm in your resolve and really diligent all the way through. That’s why I have said that it’s likely you will make mistakes as you practice, since people tend to make mistakes when they still have human attachments. But if you understand this, and continue to practice with vigor, then what you are going through is a normal part of cultivation. You shouldn’t be written off or counted out once and for all just because you have done wrong. That’s not how to look at things. The mistakes you’ve made merely reflect where you were at in your practice. To use an analogy, you can’t say that a student is no longer a student if he gets a one hundred on one exam and then fails the next. He is still a student, and just needs to keep trying to study well. So even I will have respect towards you if you can always have strong righteous thoughts, from start to finish, throughout your practice. (People applaud)

Disciple: The higher one gets, the less one speaks. But the disciples who are cultivating in a setting where they need to coordinate things often have to speak, and sometimes do more than that, in order to accomplish certain things, such as facilitating or encouraging people to share their thoughts. Master, how should we handle this?

Master: Each person’s cultivation state is different. Yes, as some progress in their practice they find that their state changes, and that’s normal. What you described isn’t a problem. If someone doesn’t like to speak much then he can save his words for occasions when he should speak. (Master chuckles) Being quiet doesn’t affect anything.

Disciple: Every single thought of a Dafa disciple is clearly visible to gods, but over the last several years my thoughts have often entered the fields of other practitioners or ordinary people, and it baffles me. Master, what should I make of this?

Master: Practitioners aren’t the only ones who came from the heavens to gain the Fa: most everyone in this world did. To help you picture things, some people have been buried deeply by the notions they’ve formed in this lifetime, while some have fewer notions and haven’t been buried so deeply. And some of the supernormal powers that the latter group has might show themselves. How is it that some ordinary people have supernormal abilities? And why do they have them when they don’t do cultivation? Well, people today are different from in the past. Most of them were once divine, and so they have certain abilities. It’s just a matter of whether they have been tightly covered or locked. If not, they might be revealed. If you can sense other people’s thoughts or enter into their minds and know what they are thinking, then you can just regard it as normal and not let it affect your own practice; don’t regard it as a burden or something bad. Traditionally the appearance of supernormal powers was something that cultivators would be happy about, as they viewed them as a sign of spiritual progress. I’d suggest that you can view them in the same way.

Disciple: You have advised us that our media should operate like regular companies and learn from Shen Yun. But our coordinator said that we should still try to minimize the resources involved in our operations. While I know we should value our resources, our media won’t be successful if they don’t develop a good operating model and find practitioners with the needed talents.

Master: Right. With Shen Yun, how should I put it… I just created an all-new operational model. The way our company does things is different from the model other performing arts companies follow. Ours has a positive cycle and won’t be hurt by things like a weak economy, as it can sustain itself. Many performing arts companies these days have folded when the economy was bad, since they didn’t run in a normal and healthy mode. They survived by essentially asking for handouts. Well, that’s not a pleasant way to put it, so let’s just say they relied on charitable contributions and donations. So with that approach, it was no longer critical for them to earn income on the merit of their performances and skills. So it’s not a positive or healthy cycle. And without that, they are of course prone to bankruptcy. Gods are presiding over the human world and would not let companies like those last. That’s how it is and how I view the matter. Some people who have joined our organization aren’t used to how we do things, since it’s so different from how ordinary organizations go about things. And indeed it is, as this is an all-new model and I’m doing it as an example to ordinary people. Many performing arts organizations are trying to figure out how Shen Yun operates and are trying to learn how to be more self-reliant and successful.

It’s okay for our media to opt to do things in their own way, though. Shen Yun has set an example, and you can choose to learn from it. I have talked with the coordinator of our media about how to train and develop the staff and run things effectively.

Disciple: Some practitioners helped ordinary people to withdraw from the CCP’s three organizations and came up with aliases for them but weren’t able to get the aliases posted on The Epoch Times’s website for the three withdrawals in a timely manner. Over the past year or so a backlog of several thousand aliases has built up.

Master: Let me remind you that you can’t neglect to help people withdraw from the Party. This is something critical! It determines whether people and the countless lives behind them will be saved. You need to treat this with all due sincerity. I should add that divine beings are keeping count of how many people have withdrawn from the Party, so don’t underestimate its significance.

Disciple: …and they can’t remember the dates of the withdrawals. Do those people, whose declarations haven’t been posted, count as having withdrawn from the three organizations and having been saved?

Master: Gods might count them, but you haven’t done well. It’s a matter of whether you are going about cultivation well, so you need to handle it earnestly.

Disciple: Some disciples worked on bringing Shen Yun to perform in a South American city, and the outcome was quite good. But since the workload was more than they could handle, next time can they hire an ordinary company to help with promotions, ticket sales, and logistical things if it’s overseen by our own practitioners?

Master: No, you can’t hire an ordinary company—be sure you don’t do that. It’s not because we have secrets to keep. Rather, it’s a unique situation we are in, as we are still being persecuted by the CCP. Ordinary companies might be bribed and could falter due to emotional whims, and the evil’s lies might confuse them. We have experienced such things quite a few times. Trouble often ensues as soon as ordinary people get involved in your initiatives, and they don’t come through. There have been many lessons in regards to this, so you need to bear this in mind.

Disciple: I am a software engineer and would like to spend some time learning artificial intelligence-related skills, but there are many questions in my mind. Could Master please talk about what the relationship between man and computers should be?

Master: Society has arrived at where it is today. It appears that companies in the computer industry are trying to get a hold of data on everyone. Everyone is involved in online things and doing this. I would like to see Dafa disciples who are talented in this field to establish a kind of computer company that isn’t morally corrupting. And to learn about things in this field, people have to master the relevant knowledge, of course. That is to say, today’s society is how it is, so in principle it should be fine for you to go ahead and do whatever you should do as Dafa disciples, regarding yourselves as practitioners.

Disciple: A good film or television program can raise awareness, eliminate evil, and purify people’s minds. In recent years people have come to have higher and higher expectations for the quality of films or television programs. But some films produced by practitioners intended for raising awareness have been poorly done, which has led to ordinary people making fun of us and negative comments and even negatively impacted Dafa’s image. Yet it took a lot of Dafa disciples’ resources to make them.

Master: Right, if the quality is too poor, let’s really not have them air on television. It shouldn’t be a big deal if they’re aired elsewhere. To be aired on television they have to be good enough.

Disciple: Could a version of Zhuan Falun that has both zhuyin and pinyin romanization be published? It would be very helpful to the practitioners outside of China who are learning Chinese.

Master: There have always been rules in place for these things. I’m not opposed to either zhuyin or pinyin. You can check with the Dafa Association about these things.

Disciple: Practitioners who work in Internet technology need to gather information, and so they have to read large amounts of ordinary things. Does this add to their karma or contaminate them?

Master: No, it doesn’t. I say that because you are doing that work to save people, and divine beings are looking after you and helping you. That’s why it wouldn’t. But it’s a problem for other cultivators to keep reading those ordinary things. It’s not a problem for those who work in the media and have to do this as part of their job.

Disciple: A coordinator in my area insists on telling people about almost nothing but live organ harvesting from Dafa disciples and hardly ever mentions the virtues of Dafa. And he insists that ordinary people are saved just by signing a petition opposing the persecution. But from what I know, some who sign don’t necessarily understand the facts about what’s really going on. Also, some Falun Gong practitioners in Europe are of the opinion that raising awareness about Falun Gong equals raising awareness about live organ harvesting from Falun Gong.

Master: Is that so? It’s fear at work when someone is reluctant to validate the Fa in a confident and dignified manner and would do something so deficient. In most cases, fear is what causes people to go awry in their understanding of the Fa.

Disciple: Master has arranged for different lives to watch Shen Yun each year, and so the seats in the theater are ordained that way. Is it inappropriate for us to encourage people who have already watched Shen Yun and been saved to buy tickets again?

Master: Over eighty percent who attend a Shen Yun Performing Arts performance are first-time patrons. Even if Shen Yun has performed a lot previously in a certain locale, first-time attendees are always the majority. Roughly some ten to twenty percent are typically repeat attendees; in some places it reaches twenty percent. Normally some people might watch it one year and others the following, as we are saving people on an ongoing basis. So what accounts for the repeat attendees, then? The old forces think that that’s only normal. It would be too odd to always have only first-time attendees, wouldn’t it? So there have to be some repeat patrons. Then does someone who comes every year and benefits from it each year get pushed higher and higher? No. Once it’s decided that someone will attend multiple performances, then just a portion [of his karma] is removed for him at each of them (applause).

Disciple: Someone in our region whose mind has become prey to evil influences claims that he can eliminate karma for other practitioners, and quite a few go to his place to study the Fa, saying that his energy field is good. He also makes and sells Dafa books, which are priced higher than what they would normally cost. He asks practitioners to give him their old Dafa books and photos of Master so that he can privately destroy them for them, saying that those are “the old universe’s Fa” and that practitioners should get “the new universe’s Fa” from him. Quite a few practitioners are following him. I have written pieces for Minghui.org about this many times and hoped to alert our local practitioners, but they have never been published and I don’t know why. Can practitioners buy Dafa books made by people like that?

Master: You have to deal with complicated people as part of your practice—people of different calibers, with different realms of thought, and with different ways of thinking and acting. That is why it’s hard to save people. Whenever bizarre things like you were describing happen among Dafa disciples, it means that there are people in that locale who have related attachments. If no one there were attached to such things, they wouldn’t happen. So what’s the reason then, if you look back, for all of the bizarre things that have happened throughout China over the years? They were meant to reveal the human thoughts and attachments that you haven’t removed while practicing, to lead you to get deceived, to make you suffer setbacks, to lose money, and so on. Only after getting badly bruised did people finally wake up. So the purpose is to remove your attachments. That’s the whole point, and what caused those things to occur. So I think that the old forces have made trouble for you because there are problems with your cultivation there. At the very least, you’ve given those wicked and depraved demons that want to make chaos for the Fa an audience.

Disciple: We are supposed to be more diligent toward the end, but some practitioners are still experiencing a lot of interference, including sickness karma of varying degrees, which has made it harder for them to do the three things. How can we help these practitioners?

Master: Indeed, the old forces will not let the cultivation environment that Dafa disciples have be calm and uneventful, from start to finish. When they see that the Dafa disciples in some areas have a certain attachment, they will make something happen for everyone to see, and it’s meant to make you cultivate. So take a look at your reaction: are your thoughts righteous or human? All along the old forces have been doing such things. Some practitioners have had attachments for a long time and not realized it. They haven’t even done sincere self-reflection or scrutinized themselves, perhaps because they’re busy raising awareness or with other Dafa things. And then problems come about when the issue becomes serious and the old forces won’t let it go. So you really have to pay attention. However wild the evil may be, it won’t dare to touch you if you have no faults.

Disciple: At the end of the print version of Zhuan Falun there is a passage of Fa that says: “On the surface, Zhuan Falun is not elegant in terms of language. It might even not comply with modern grammar.” Some practitioners feel that since it’s not part of the book’s main text, we shouldn’t read it during group Fa study, while others think it’s still Fa and in the Dafa book so we should read it.

Master: You don’t need to read that passage during group reading. It was written by me, but you don’t have to read it; you don’t have to read it during Fa study. So there you have it, I said it’s not an issue (applause).

Disciple: What’s meant by “Descend to the world with Master and be king for a thousand years”?

Master: Those one thousand years have passed. You don’t know it, but in the past you once were a king. And over the course of history some people continued on as kings; after reincarnating they became kings again. I can tell you, the Dafa disciples present here, that in the past there were once ten thousand kingdoms in the world. There is a Chinese saying about the world: “Those long divided are bound to become united; those long united are bound to become divided.” So with the passage of time, a united kingdom would break up into smaller ones, and the number of kingdoms once peaked at ten thousand. Anyway, there have been numerous kings, in one reign after another, and you can be sure that they were all previous incarnations of Dafa disciples.

Disciple: How should Dafa disciples who are young adults balance the demands of doing Dafa work, family, and parents? I feel a lot of pressure from society’s influence and expectations from my family. If I don’t get a degree and a job like people usually do, my parents won’t go for it.

Master: You are not supposed to go to extremes while cultivating in ordinary society. Normal social routines should be easy to handle. It’s fine for you to get an academic degree. Everything that exists in society is [part of] your cultivation environment. That’s how accommodating our practice is. Our Fa is so immense that everything in society becomes part of your cultivation environment. You might be thinking that that’s really broad. But it’s not. The universe is even bigger. Even mankind isn’t that big. This world is actually really small in light of how many Dafa disciples, who used to be kings in the heavens, have come here to cultivate.

Disciple: Many Dafa disciples in China are using their mobile phones to make calls [during which pre-recorded messages are played] to save people. But some practitioners have relied on mobile phones and don’t dare to clarify the facts in person, some don’t pay much attention to the pre-recorded messages they are using, and some call the same numbers multiple times, which causes negative feelings from the recipients. This has given the old forces gaps to exploit and has led to a shortage of mobile phone cards and a price increase in them. Some practitioners couldn’t buy phone cards, so they had to stop using the mobile phone they were calling with, which wastes our resources.

Master: You are saving people no matter what approach you use to clarify the facts, but don’t rely on just one method. And if you really don’t dare to clarify the facts in person, that is fear at work, and problems like these are going to come about. What should you do? I don’t think I need to say much. After I read the question you already knew what to do. Try to do better.

Disciple: Shen Yun’s promotions target the upper classes. These are people who tend to be cultured and fairly well versed in the arts. They are the mainstay of traditional values and the main force in society that promotes proper and virtuous conduct. (Master: Yes, that’s right) But during this year’s Shen Yun promotions, the way certain things were done in some areas veered far from the values and thinking of the upper classes, and we have heard negative comments from Westerners. In some areas practitioners changed the designs and ad copy of Shen Yun’s promotional materials according to their own thinking and taste, which affects Shen Yun’s elite brand image; some of the materials are full of English errors and “Chinglish”; and some people, in order to drive sales, constantly emphasize discounts and even offer discounts in various guises; in some cases the distribution of materials is aggressive and pays no attention to location, with some places being dirty and seedy. These approaches have led some Westerners to mistakenly think that Shen Yun is from China or Chinatown. Also, there have even been cases where those who are changing the materials told others to “not let the Shen Yun Office find out.” Should the designs and promotional methods be centrally managed to ensure quality control?

Master: Maybe you don’t realize what the Shen Yun Office is. It represents Shen Yun. As I mentioned at the Shen Yun meeting, it is unacceptable for people to change the materials at will. Let me tell you that the materials… the designs on the billboards were selected by me. They were designed by Shen Yun’s designer, by the designer at the Shen Yun Office. Then I review it, and if I disapprove, it’s revised. It’s only distributed after it is finalized. If you go and change Shen Yun’s things, in ordinary society it’s considered a violation of the law. At the very least you shouldn’t, as a cultivator, be changing at will something Master decided, right? (Applause) And I should add that the designs of the ads are done with traditional values; from the colors to the compositions, they’re traditional. They’re not something modern people could make. The things you made lacked artistic sense as well as a grasp of traditional and artistic use of color. Many of them look uncultured to me, so they stand to hurt Shen Yun’s reputation. And even the English in them is “Chinglish,” which people can’t understand, and you often use words wrongly. At times the text was made larger than even Shen Yun’s name. Anyway, they look rather strange. Another thing is that you don’t know much about advertising and are just acting on your own assumptions. That’s a problem. I talked about this yesterday at the Shen Yun meeting; I specifically discussed this matter. Be mindful of it.

Also, this is a production created by me that targets the upper classes. But what you do is often at odds with what Master is doing. To give an analogy, I’m heading East, but you always want to go West. Case in point: I have wanted Shen Yun to start by reaching the driving force of society and to make inroads with the upper reaches of society. We need to do that to forward the cause of saving people, as doing so will impact all of society. But too often what you are doing is not following Master’s thinking, and you always do things according to your own assumptions. When I travel I always check-out the well-to-do communities, and often I don’t see any Shen Yun advertisements there. But then when I go to Chinatown they’re everywhere. Sometimes you put up ads in poor communities, and that’s like throwing money out the window.

I recall what happened when Shen Yun performed at Radio City Music Hall for a few years. Sometimes we performed there for as long as half a month straight, and at each performance there were almost six thousand people in attendance. But the tickets were sold at prices as low as five, ten, or fifteen dollars… the highest was twenty-five. So we were there a few years, and yet it had no impact even just in New York City. The people who attended would whistle and cheer enthusiastically and have a big smile afterward, but then that was it. Some people even wondered: how come there isn’t any lion dance when this is a Chinese show? That was the level of their artistic appreciation. So there was no impact after the show ended. That’s why we must make inroads with the upper classes if we’re to achieve our purpose. If what you do always fails to keep up with what Master wants to do, then, of course, your ticket sales won’t go well.

In a similar vein, the reporters from our media who are interviewing audience members… I have talked about this many times: I want to focus on the upper classes, so start interviewing them! The interviewees in your TV broadcasts are not part of the upper classes; they are often from the lower strata of society and not fitting what we are doing. It’s not that I’m discriminating against anyone. What I want to do is pave the way for saving more people by making inroads with the upper classes. I want to save all people! Only by making inroads with the upper classes can the entire society come around. As I was just saying, little was achieved when tickets were sold for five dollars a piece at Radio City, even though [Shen Yun] performed for a few years there in a theatre that seats six thousand people and performed for up to half a month straight—and yet even in just New York alone inroads were not made. When Shen Yun started performing at Lincoln Center the ticket prices were much higher, but our audience actually increased. After just two performances, Shen Yun was known throughout all of New York, and people were talking about it on the bus and subway. Things changed right away.

Disciple: Is it appropriate to organize practitioners in China to travel abroad or to Taiwan to watch Shen Yun or to attend Fa conferences? Would it interfere with the cultivation path Master has arranged for them at that time? Greetings, Master, from Dafa disciples in Beijing!

Master: I heard that some people refused to listen when others tried to stop them; they openly lead other practitioners to do certain things and paid no regard to safety. When practitioners outside of China hear about such things, they think that whoever acts like that must be a CCP agent who’s trying to expose practitioners. Of course, some people have organized students to attend Fa conferences in order to get in here. There are people like that as well. So practitioners outside of China might view your actions in a suspicious light, even if I don’t, due to our plight at this time. Is the reason you pay so little attention to safety due to a problem in your cultivation where your understanding of the Fa is off? Did your intention to show off cause you to be so careless about other practitioners’ safety? The students outside of China think that your understanding of the Fa must have gone awry. Am I right in thinking that’s not what has happened?

Disciple: Greetings to our magnificent Master from over ten thousand Dafa disciples from fifty-eight countries and regions! Thank you, Master, for your compassionate salvation! Heshi. (Enthusiastic applause)

Master: Let me stop here with the questions. I don’t want to take up too much of your time, since the experiences and thoughts shared at the Fa conference, and what you learn from one another here, help you improve. You all wanted to see Master, so I felt I should come and answer some questions for you while I’m here. I can’t say too much. If I put things too clearly, too thoroughly, or too specifically, the old forces won’t put up with it. I don’t want to make your cultivation journey even harder. The persecution is very severe, after all. So the more clearly I put things, the harder it is for you. I cannot walk your path for you. You need to walk your path yourself. The Dafa disciples who have made it through from July 20, 1999, should cherish themselves. You are truly outstanding, and even gods cherish you. I hope you will do well on the road ahead. Those who haven’t done well need to be especially careful and treasure the time they still have. Thank you all! (All disciples applaud enthusiastically.)

(Note: Translation by Team Yellow, subject to further improvement. Last revised June 13, 2017)