2018 New Tang Dynasty and Epoch Times Fa Conference

(October 27, 2018, Li Hongzhi)

Dafa disciples attending the New Tang Dynasty Television and Epoch Media Group Fa Conference: Greetings, everyone!

(Audience: Greetings, Master!)

Over these many years that the evil CCP has been persecuting Dafa disciples, these two media groups of ours have played a very good role, a vital role. [You've] effectively exposed the evil’s persecution while simultaneously explaining the truth about the situation of Falun Gong to the general public, and at the same time you have had an impact on saving sentient beings.

The CCP is simply an evil regime, a rogue regime. If the lies that it instills cause people to be unable to distinguish true from false, then these people will follow along with it toward annihilation. Thus, in this respect, The Epoch Times and New Tang Dynasty Television have played a very good role and have truly saved sentient beings effectively.

Of course, as media, in order to do well what you are supposed to do, you must cultivate yourselves well. Thus, regarding cultivation, for all of you, and for every Dafa disciple involved in the media, cultivation is first and foremost. Because whether you cultivate well or not determines your power of saving people, and whether you cultivate well or not determines your job performance—that's for certain. After going through so many experiences all these years, all of you have come to understand on a deeper level that for Dafa disciples in all professions and trades, including the Dafa disciples in the different media—it’s the same for everyone—those who pay close attention to their personal cultivation will achieve double the results with only half the effort in many things that they do. So we cannot overlook cultivation. That is something first and foremost.

As you know, doing media work is for the sake of saving people, it’s to clarify the truth, and it’s to put a stop to the persecution. But what is its ultimate purpose? Every one of you is walking your own path of cultivation in the media. This thing that you are doing is precisely your path of cultivation. That is for certain. No matter what kind of function you have in this media, or what work has been delegated to you, that is your cultivation path. So, in order to walk this path well, you have to put your heart into personal cultivation, and you cannot slack off at any time, for ultimately you need to achieve consummation.

At a glance, I see so many young people [here], most of whom are new faces. Of course, regarding young people, the first issue that comes to mind is that, over the years in mainland China, that set of things, that set of principles that stems from the evil CCP is all wicked, it’s against tradition, and it’s against humankind. So in order for people to accept its things, the first thing it had to do was subvert China's traditional culture and humankind's universal values. Thus, it has been having this kind of effect all along. Throughout China's previous movements, the people it has purged were all China's cultural elites. The Cultural Revolution destroyed the cultural relics, historic sites, ancient books—all the cultural relics—such that people would no longer be aware of the testaments to the values that history has passed down. At the same time, in the education offered in schools, the history of China was taught in only very general terms, then gradually no longer taught, then taught as a target for criticism, and finally, China's past history was denigrated as being worthless. They are propagandizing that the evil CCP is the best and the greatest. As a result of its indoctrination, many young people today don't know about their own traditional culture, nor do they know their own history. Many young people who come out of China, after seeing the Shen Yun show, [say,] “Wow, it turns out China has such a wonderful traditional culture,” as though they only found out just now. That’s how evil the CCP is. So, after all these years since it seized power in China, even people in my age bracket were severely brainwashed by it such that the way of thinking is very different from the way of thinking of people in normal society, not to mention the young people of today.

So, for us, in this regard, when running a media outlet, with respect to its direction, its cultural starting point, and the extent to which we abide by universal values, traditional culture must be the foundation. Traditional values must be taken as the foundation. Why does the evil CCP fear Shen Yun performances so much? After all, it's just a performing arts show. It’s because what Shen Yun displays is humankind's traditional culture, and that is exactly what the evil CCP is out to destroy, that’s exactly what it wants to eliminate, and it’s only in this way that its evil things can become so widespread and rampant. Thus, it feels that it has labored in China for several decades, for more than half a century, and it feels that Chinese people today have all become fledglings of the red dragon, and it feels they have all become its cells. It can thus ruthlessly trample Chinese people, it can ruthlessly kill, slaughter, and persecute you. Even if you verbally bash it, you are still bashing it within its own culture, and that is not true bashing—it has already taken things that far. Shen Yun has completely toppled the evil CCP's things. The evil specter felt that everything it has done over the past century or so has been in vain—it was really as though it had been struck by a thunderbolt and that all it had done was for naught. So regarding the issue of evil Party culture, you have to first be able to distinguish it and be able to discern it. There is no other way; only by using humankind’s authentic traditional culture can you see it clearly for what it is.

So, when you run a media entity, as journalists, and as educated individuals, all of you must take traditional culture as your starting point and as the foundation for universal values, and only then can you see it clearly for what it is and do away with it. Of course, there are lots of modernist things, and it’s not just the harm the wicked CCP has done to the Chinese nation—there are also a lot of modernist things in Western society. Let me tell you that this, too, is a manifestation of the evil Party ruining Western society; it’s all its handiwork. Humankind's culture has undergone changes over the past one to two hundred years. In the past, good and evil, positive and negative, coexisted in human society. There was a balance between yin and yang. But after the last couple hundred years, this evil communist specter has gradually taken the place of the devil; that is, within the yin and yang balance, it has completely replaced the negative, demonic side. Thus, in recent years, it has been ruthlessly doing these things that have been destroying humankind.

This is just to say that if you want to do these things well, you need to, on the one hand, cultivate yourselves well, and on the other hand you need to clearly understand all of this. Be it ideas, culture, or news, no matter what, for all of these things, we have to use universal values to gauge whether it's good or bad, right or wrong. Of course, you have made it through so many years of trials and tribulations, and your starting point for establishing these media was to save sentient beings and expose the evil. This was your original intention, and your goal was also this—this cannot change. Since this is the case, all of you must move in this direction. Of course I just said that it's not only the evil of the wicked CCP that is committing those deeds in China, that evil is also behind the modernist things. I said that in the past couple hundred years, the devil for humankind is already the evil communist specter; it is no longer that kind of thing in the past that used to balance the positive and negative and yin and yang. So, it is having an impact throughout the entire world—not just in China and not just in the societies of the entire evil communist bloc—it is impacting the entire world. It’s because it has already taken on that negative role of all of humankind, that is, the negative role of all humankind. Didn't Nostradamus say, "Marx will rule the world"? And indeed, the negative side is ruled by it. Of course, the positive side is governed by Gods since it’s balanced between yin and yang. But now, the moral foundation of humankind is slipping, and the evil deeds it has led humankind to commit have already tilted that balance; that is, yin and yang are no longer in balance. The evil outweighs the good: It has become this kind of situation.

Of course, in this situation, under normal circumstances, Gods would adjust it when they saw it because it cannot be allowed. However, since human beings as a whole are on the decline, it’s humankind itself that has asked for it. But then again, humans are not entirely clearheaded; it’s the things leading them on and indoctrinating them that have caused this. And so the modernist mentality and the things that take on modernist forms that have emerged in society today are, to put it plainly, all caused by the evil communist specter's doings in the free world, which are also ruining humankind.

None of this is accidental. It may appear that Western society has no relation to the evil communist specter, but actually, it is all done by it. In Chinese society, the evil communist specter manifests by killing educated people and wealthy people, ruining traditional culture. In Western society, the way it manifests is high taxation and using so-called modern notions and actions to undermine tradition. Cultivators all know that whether one is rich or not is caused by karmic retribution from previous lifetimes, so taking possession by force like this is against heavenly principles. But this is just what society has become today, a chaotic society, a chaotic world, with rapidly declining morals. Add to that the fact that when the universe's cycle of formation, stability, degeneration, and disintegration has reached this point, it has become what it is—it has degenerated, and it’s about to disintegrate. So its manifestation isn't that of human society; even societies in higher realms of the universe are behaving abnormally. That's just what the situation is. That's why I sometimes think that, as a media run by Dafa disciples, you are truly saving humankind—Dafa disciples are truly the one and only hope for humankind.

So on the surface, it appears we are fighting a battle all by ourselves, and we thus have to do a good job in our personal improvement. When it comes to our own cultivation, and when it comes to the norms that guide our conduct, we need to cultivate ourselves better, otherwise it's going to be very difficult to accomplish this thing. Of course, there is also the saying that when something reaches an extreme, it's bound to reverse course, right? You’ve all seen that now the positive elements are on the rise, and doing so quite vigorously. Traditions are being restored, and across the world, greater emphasis is being placed on traditional culture and humankind is becoming more and more clearheaded. So that's even more reason for us to do well and for us to make an impact. The cosmic climate is also cooperating—that’s bound to be the case because things must play out like this.

Of course, as for the persecution of Falun Gong, I’ve already said that the evil CCP persecutes Falun Gong because the evil CCP was something that had been prepared just for Falun Gong. Never mind how many years it has been around; it was prepared precisely for Falun Gong. If you think about it, you’ll all be clear on this point. Right now, the persecution of Falun Gong is being controlled by the evil Party, and the entire state apparatus is operating for it. So having reached this point today, the tests for Dafa disciples, as well as their cultivation, are basically almost finished, and, as for the people we are supposed to save, that's reached the final stage, too—everything is basically drawing to a close, and gradually it's all wrapping up. So there isn't much of a reason for the evil communist specter to exist anymore, and the time has come to get rid of it. You are young, and so you wouldn't know, but back in the era when I was young, in China, even when you were by yourself with no one around, you wouldn't dare utter a single sentence against the evil CCP. There were evil spirits everywhere, keeping an eye on you. Nowadays, these things have been eliminated, and whenever people meet over drinks and mention the evil CCP, they all dare to curse it, and whoever doesn’t curse it, everyone thinks there’s something wrong with him. So everybody is cursing the evil CCP. And why do they dare to be this way? It’s because the evil specter and the evil elements have been eliminated to the point that very little remains, and that's why people dare to act this way; they feel that things have eased up. But as long as the evil communist specter still exists, it remains evil. It’s like poison: As long as that thing is still there, it will definitely poison people. Even if you tried to change it, it wouldn’t be able to change. That is its original nature; that’s just how its life was created. It must be eliminated. So, having arrived at this point, the evil CCP itself will become more and more chaotic. Gods are also destroying it, and the powerful tide of Fa-rectification is constantly clearing it out. Things have come to this point, so whoever supports it, whoever follows it, will perish along with it.

In any case, looking at the prospects for the future, our media should be more and more optimistic because when I first took a look, our media was operating with great difficulty, lacking both funds and manpower. Now, at least, I see so many young people: Wow! I am also very glad that you are all involved in this undertaking. The other thing is that the degree of difficulty and the overall environment are all different now. Back then, the evil CCP-controlled media—the one-sided voice—was spreading lies to the entire world, and not even a single piece of positive coverage could be seen. The entire world was repeating what the evil CCP was reporting, and it was equivalent to persecuting Falun Gong throughout the entire world. Dafa disciples outside of China endured tremendous pressure as well, and people all looked at Dafa disciples with the kind of mindset indoctrinated by the CCP. It was under these circumstances that Dafa disciples established the media, and on top of that, it kept getting better and better. Along with the efforts of the Dafa disciples who explained the truth in various strata of society, people gradually came to learn the truth, and they become more and more clear about this persecution. Imperceptibly, in the course of this undertaking, we successfully clarified the truth and removed this pressure at the same time, so nowadays we all feel things have really eased up. Back in those days, it really was like that. Now, I see that the momentum of the positive force is very strong and powerful, and that more and more, the evil CCP is doomed. Whoever defends it will perish along with it. Those who can see clearly are wise people, and those who can’t see clearly are the greatest of fools.

What I wanted to say today is that, in order to run the media well, you have to do two things well: one is to cultivate yourselves well, and one is that our media should take traditional culture as its starting point and universal values as the foundation—only then can all of this be done well. You have done quite a good job, working so hard over the years. Along the way, you continue to bring in new strength, growing ever stronger. In addition, the Epoch Media Group, including New Tang Dynasty, is already the largest Chinese-language media outlet in the world. At the same time, you are being recognized more and more by Western society, and they are thinking more and more highly of you—this is something really heartening! Hold on to this great opportunity, make our media even better, and truly make it very powerful and timely such that whenever an article is published, it can have a big impact; we will definitely achieve that one day. That's all I will say. Thank you everyone! 

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(Translation by Team Blue, subject to further improvement. Date of this version: October 30, 2018.)