Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005 (Lecture portion)

(Li Hongzhi -- November 5, 2005)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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