In China, the qigong
arts have a long history that dates back to ancient times. Chinese people
thus have a natural advantage in practicing qigong. The two upright
systems of qigong cultivation, the Buddhist system and the Daoist
system, have made public many great methods of cultivation that before
were taught in private. The Daoist ways of cultivation are unique, while
the Buddhist system has its cultivation methods. Falun Gong
is an advanced cultivation method of the Buddhist system. During this
series of teachings, I will first adjust your body to a state suitable for
advanced cultivation and then install a Law Wheel (fa-lun) and
energy mechanisms in your body, and I will teach you our exercises. What’s
more, I have Law Bodies (fa-shen) who will protect you. But your
having only these things isn’t enough, as they can’t achieve the goal of
developing gong—you
also need to understand the principles for cultivation at high levels.
That is what this book will address.
I am teaching the practice system at high
levels, so I won’t discuss cultivation of this or that meridian,
acupuncture point, or energy passage. I am teaching a great cultivation
way, the Great Way for true cultivation to high levels. At first it might
sound somewhat mysterious, but for dedicated qigong cultivators, if
you can try to be attentive and learn from what you experience, you will
discover all the wonders and intricacies it contains.
1. The Origins of Qigong
Qigong
as we know it today was not, in fact, originally called qigong. It
originated from the solitary cultivation ways of the ancient Chinese
people and from cultivation in religions. The two-character term, qi
gong, is nowhere to be found in texts such as The Book of Elixir,
the Daoist Canon, or the Tripitaka. During the course of our
present human civilization’s development, qigong went through the
period when religions were in their infancy; it existed before religions
came into being. After religions formed, qigong came to have
something of a religious flavor to it. Qigong’s original names were
Great Cultivation Way of Buddha, and Great Cultivation Way of Dao. It had
other names too, such as Nine-Fold Internal Alchemy, Way of Arhat, Vajra
Meditation, etc. People now call it qigong so that it better suits
our modern thinking and can be more easily popularized. It’s in fact a
means expressly for cultivating the human body that we have in China.
Qigong
isn’t something invented by this civilization. It has quite a long history
that dates back to ages ago. Then when did qigong come into being?
Some say that qigong has a history of three thousand years, and
became quite popular during the Tang Dynasty. Some say it has a history of
five thousand years and is as old as Chinese civilization. Some say that,
judging from archaeological findings, it has a history of seven thousand
years. I don’t regard qigong as something invented by modern
man—it’s from prehistoric culture. From what investigations by people with
supernatural abilities have found, the universe we live in is an entity
that was remade after being exploded nine times. The planet we dwell on
has been destroyed many times. Each time the planet was remade, the human
race again began to multiply. We have now discovered that there are many
things on the earth that surpass our present civilization. According to
Darwin’s theory of evolution, humans evolved from apes, and civilization
is no more than ten thousand years old. Yet archaeological findings have
revealed that in the caves of the European Alps there exist
250-thousand-year-old frescoes that exhibit a very high level of
artistry—one far beyond the skills of modern people. In the museum of the
National University of Peru, there is a large rock on which a human figure
is engraved who holds a telescope and is observing the stars. The
engraving is more than thirty thousand years old. As we know, Galileo
invented a 30X astronomical telescope in 1609, which was no more than
three-hundred-some years ago. But how could there have been a telescope
thirty thousand years ago? There is an iron pillar in India whose iron
content is over ninety-nine percent. Even modern smelting technology can’t
produce iron with such high purity; it had surpassed the level of modern
technology. Then who created those civilizations? How could human
beings—who would have been microorganisms in those times—have created
these things? These discoveries have caught the attention of scientists
worldwide. They are considered prehistoric since they prove inexplicable.
The level of scientific achievement was
different in each past time period. In some time periods it was quite
high, surpassing that of modern man. But those civilizations were
destroyed. So I would say that qigong wasn’t invented or created by
modern people, but discovered and perfected by modern people. It’s part of
prehistoric culture.
Qigong is
not exclusively a product of our country. It exists in foreign countries
as well, but they don’t call it qigong. Western countries, such as
the United States, Great Britain, and so on, call it magic. There is a
magician in the U.S. who is a master of supernatural abilities, and he
once performed the feat of walking through the Great Wall of China. When
he was about to pass through the Wall, he used a white cloth as a cover,
pressed himself against the Wall, and then proceeded to go through it. Why
did he do that? Doing it that way would lead a lot of people to think of
it as a magic show. It had to be done like that since he knew there are
many people in China with great supernatural abilities. He was afraid they
would interfere with him, so he covered himself before he went in. When
coming out, he raised the cloth with one hand and walked out. As the
saying goes, “Experts watch for tricks while laymen watch for excitement.”
Doing it as he did the audience thought it was a show of magic. These
abilities are called magic because they aren’t used for cultivating the
human body, but instead for stage performances which showcase unusual
things and entertain. From a low-level perspective, qigong can
change the condition of the body, achieving the goals of healing and
health. From a high-level perspective, qigong refers to the
cultivation of a person’s innate body (ben-ti).
2. Qi and Gong
The qi we talk about nowadays was called chee
by ancient people. They are essentially the same, as both refer to the
qi of the universe—a shapeless, invisible kind of matter that
permeates the universe. Qi does not refer to air. The energy of
this matter is activated in the human body through cultivation. Its
activation changes the body’s physical condition and can have the effect
of producing healing and health. Yet qi is merely qi—you
have qi, he has qi, and one person’s qi can’t do much
to dominate another’s qi. Some say that qi can fix health
problems, or that you can emit qi towards someone to heal him.
Putting it that way isn’t very scientific, as qi can’t heal people
in the least. When a practitioner’s body still contains qi, it
means that his or her body is not yet a Milk-White Body. That is, the
person is still sick or injured.
A person who has reached a higher level
through cultivation does not emit qi. Instead, he or she emits a
cluster of high energy. It’s a form of high-energy matter that manifests
in the form of light, and its particles are fine and its density high.
That is what gong is. Only it has the power to do things to an
everyday person, and only with it can a person heal others. There’s a
saying, “Broadly shines a Buddha’s light, setting everything right.” It
means that people who truly cultivate carry immense energy in their
bodies. Wherever those persons go, any abnormal condition within the area
covered by their energy can be corrected and restored to normal. For
instance, sickness in the body really is an abnormal bodily state, and the
sickness will disappear after that state is corrected. More simply put,
gong is energy. Gong has physical characteristics, and
practitioners can experience and perceive its objective existence through
cultivation.
3. Gong Potency and
Supernatural Abilities
(1) Gong Potency is Developed Through
Character Cultivation
The gong that truly determines the level of a
person’s gong potency (gong-li) isn’t developed through
performing qigong exercises. It is developed through the
transformation of the form of matter called virtue (de), and
through cultivation of character (xin-xing). The transformation
process isn’t accomplished by “setting up a crucible and furnace to make
an elixir (dan) from gathered chemicals,”
as ordinary people think. Gong as we mean it is generated outside
the body, and it begins in the lower half of the body. As your character
improves, it grows upward in a spiral shape, and all of this is
formed outside of your body. Upon reaching the crown of the head it then
develops into a gong pillar. The height of the gong pillar
determines the level of your gong. The gong pillar exists in
a deeply hidden dimension, making it hard for the average person to see
it.
Supernatural abilities are strengthened by
gong potency. The higher a person’s gong potency and level,
the greater his or her abilities are and the easier to use. People with
lower gong potency have weaker abilities; they find it harder to
use them, and some are completely unusable. Supernatural abilities in and
of themselves represent neither the level of your gong potency nor
the level of your cultivation. What determines your level is gong
potency, rather than abilities. Some people cultivate in a “locked” mode,
wherein their gong potency is rather high but they might have few
abilities. Gong potency is the determining factor [when it comes to
levels], it is developed through character cultivation, and it is what’s
most important.
(2) Supernatural Abilities are Not What
Cultivators Pursue
All practitioners are interested in abilities.
Supernatural abilities are attractive to the general public and lots of
people want to get some. Yet a person whose character is poor won’t manage
to.
Some abilities that everyday people might
have include an open Third Eye (tian-mu), clairaudience, telepathy,
precognition, etc. But not all of these abilities will appear during the
stages of Gradual Enlightenment, as they vary with each individual. It’s
not possible for everyday people to have certain abilities, such as the
ability to transmute objects in this physical dimension—that isn’t
something everyday people can have. Great abilities are developed only
through cultivating after birth. Falun Gong was developed based on the
laws of the universe, so all abilities that exist in the universe exist in
Falun Gong. [How many of them a practitioner gets] depends on how well he
does with his cultivation. The thought of gaining some abilities isn’t
wrong, but, overly-intense pursuit is more than a normal thought, and it
will have negative results. Someone at a low level would have little use
for abilities, save for trying to use them to show them off to everyday
people or hoping to become more powerful than others. If that is the case,
it indicates precisely that the person’s character is not high and that
it’s right not to give him or her abilities. Some abilities can be used to
commit wrongdoing if they are given to people with poor character. Since
the character of those people is not steady there’s no guarantee they
won’t do something bad.
On the other hand, any abilities that can be
demonstrated or performed can’t change human society or alter the ways of
everyday life. Real high-level abilities are not allowed to be brought out
for show, because the impact and danger would be too great; for example,
you could never perform the pulling down of a large building. Great
abilities aren’t allowed to be used except by people with special
missions, and those abilities can’t be revealed; this is within high-level
masters’ control.
All the same, some everyday people insist
on having qigong masters perform, forcing them to display their
abilities. People with abilities are reluctant to use them for show, since
revealing them is off limits; displaying them would impact the way of
society. People who really do have great virtue aren’t allowed to use
their abilities in public. Some qigong masters feel awful during
performances and want to cry afterward. Don’t force them to perform!
Revealing those things is upsetting to them. A student brought a magazine
to me. I felt disgusted the moment I read it. It said that an
international qigong conference was to be held, and that people
with supernatural abilities could participate in a contest; the conference
was open to whoever had great abilities. After I read it I was upset for
days. Abilities are not something that can be publicly displayed for
competition. It’s a shame when people demonstrate them in public. Everyday
people focus on practical things in the mundane world, but qigong
masters need to maintain their dignity.
What’s the motive behind wanting
abilities? Wanting them reflects a practitioner’s realm of mind and
pursuits. A person with impure pursuits and an unsteady mind is unlikely
to have great abilities. That’s because before you are fully enlightened,
what you perceive to be good or bad is only based on the standards of this
world. You can see neither the true nature of things nor the karmic
connections among them. Fighting, yelling, and mistreatment among people
are inherently caused by karmic connections. You can only cause more
trouble than help if you can’t perceive these things. The laws of this
world govern the gratitude and resentment, along with the right and wrong,
of everyday people; practitioners shouldn’t concern themselves with those
things. Before you achieve full Enlightenment, what you see with your eyes
might not necessarily be the truth. When one person punches another, it
might be that they are settling their karmic debts. Your involvement might
hamper the resolution of those debts. Karma is a type of black matter that
surrounds the human body. It has physical existence in another dimension
and can transform into sickness or misfortune.
Supernatural abilities exist in everyone, and the idea
is that they need to be developed and strengthened through continual
cultivation. You want to be a practitioner, but if you only pursue
abilities, you are shortsighted and your mind isn’t pure. No matter what
it is you want abilities for, your pursuit of them has selfish things
mixed in that will definitely hinder your cultivation. The consequence is
that you will never get abilities.
(3) Handling Gong Potency
Some practitioners haven’t practiced for very long, yet
they want to give people treatments to see how their skills are. When
those of you without high gong potency extend your hand and try,
you absorb into your own body a great deal of black, unhealthy, filthy
qi that exists in the patient’s body. Since you can’t repel unhealthy
qi and your body lacks a protective shield, you form a joint field
with the patient; you can’t defend against unhealthy qi without
high gong potency. The result is that you experience a great deal
of discomfort. If no one looks after you, over the course of time you will
accumulate sickness throughout your body. So someone who lacks high
gong potency shouldn’t try to heal others. Only a person who has
developed supernatural abilities and who has a certain level of gong
potency can use qigong to treat others. Even though some people
have developed abilities and are able to do healing, they are, when at a
rather low level, in fact using their accumulated gong
potency—their own energy—to do the healing. Since gong is both
energy and an intelligent entity that isn’t easily stored up, you are
actually depleting yourself of gong when you send it out. And with
your release of gong, the gong pillar above your head
shortens and depletes. It’s just not worth it. So I don’t endorse giving
others treatments when your gong potency is not high. No matter how
great the methods you use, you will still consume your own energy.
All kinds of abilities will emerge when a
person’s gong potency reaches a certain level. You need to be very
cautious when using these abilities. For instance, a person has to use his
Third Eye once it has opened, for it will close if he doesn’t ever use it.
Yet he shouldn’t look through it frequently. Too much energy will be
discharged if he looks through it too often. So does that mean you should
never use it? Of course not. If we were never to use it, then what would
be the use of our cultivating [it]? The question is when to use it. You
can use it only when you have cultivated to a certain stage and are able
to replenish yourself. When a cultivator of Falun Gong reaches a certain
stage, the Law Wheel can automatically transform and replenish however
much gong he or she releases. The Law Wheel automatically maintains
a practitioner’s gong potency level, and the gong won’t
decrease for even a moment. This is a characteristic of Falun Gong. Not
until that point is reached may abilities be used.
4. The Third Eye
(1)
Opening the Third Eye
The Third Eye’s main passage is located between the
middle of the forehead and the Shangen
acupuncture point. The way everyday people see things with the naked eye
works the same way as a camera does: The size of the lens, or pupil, is
adjusted according to the distance of an object and the intensity of the
light. Via the optic nerves, images then form on the pineal gland, which
is located at the back of the brain. The ability of Penetrative Vision is
simply the ability of the pineal gland to look directly out through the
Third Eye. An average person’s Third Eye is closed, as his or her main
passage is narrow and dark. There is no essential qi inside, no
illumination. Some people cannot see, for their passages are blocked.
To open the Third Eye, in our cultivation
we either depend on outside force or on ourselves to unblock the passage.
The shape of the passage varies with each individual, ranging from oval to
round, rhombic to triangular. The better you cultivate, the rounder the
passage will become. Second, your shifu
gives you an eye; if you cultivate on your own then you have to cultivate
it yourself. Third, you need to have essential qi at the location
of your Third Eye.
We usually see things with our pair of
eyes, and it is exactly this pair of eyes that blocks our channel to view
other dimensions. Since they function as a shield, we can only see objects
that exist in our physical dimension. Opening the Third Eye allows you to
see without using this pair of eyes. You can also cultivate to have a True
Eye after you reach a very high level. Then you can see with the True Eye
of the Third Eye, or with the True Eye at the Shangen acupoint. According
to the Buddhist system, every pore of the body is an eye—there are eyes
all over the body. According to the Daoist system, every acupuncture point
is an eye. The main passage is nonetheless located at the Third Eye, and
it has to be opened first. In my classes, I plant in everyone things that
can open the Third Eye. The results vary owing to differences in people’s
physical qualities. Some people see a dark hole similar to a deep well.
That means his or her Third Eye passage is dark. Others see a white
tunnel. If objects can be seen in front of you, your Third Eye is about to
open. Some see objects revolving, which are placed there by your shifu
to open the Third Eye. You will be able to see once they drill the
Third Eye open. Some people can see a large eye through their Third Eye,
and they think it is a Buddha’s eye, but it’s actually their own eye.
Those are usually people with a pretty good underlying base.
According to our statistics, the Third Eye
is opened for more than half of the attendees each time we give classes.
One problem that might come up after the Third Eye is opened is that a
person whose character isn’t high can easily use the Third Eye to do bad
things. To prevent this problem, I open your Third Eye directly to the
level of Wisdom Eyesight. Or in other words, to an advanced level that
allows you to directly see scenes from other dimensions and to see things
that appear during cultivation, allowing you to believe in them. That
strengthens your confidence in cultivation. The character of people who
have just started practicing hasn’t yet reached the level of extraordinary
people. They are inclined to do wrong once they have supernormal things.
Let’s give a playful example: If you were to walk along the street and
come upon a lottery stand, you might be able to walk away with first
prize. That won’t be allowed to happen—it’s just to illustrate the point.
Another reason is, we are opening the Third Eye for a large number of
people, so suppose every person’s Third Eye was opened at a lower level:
Just imagine if everyone could see through the human body or see objects
behind walls—could we still call this a human society? Human society would
be badly disrupted, so it’s not allowed and not achievable. Furthermore,
it wouldn’t do practitioners any good and would only foster attachments.
So we won’t open the Third Eye for you at a low level. We will instead
open it directly at a high level.
(2) The Third Eye’s Levels
The Third Eye has many different levels; at
different levels it sees different dimensions. According to Buddhism there
are five levels: Flesh Eyesight, Celestial Eyesight, Wisdom Eyesight, Law
Eyesight, and Buddha Eyesight. Each level is subdivided into upper,
middle, and lower levels. When someone is at or below the level of
Celestial Eyesight he can observe only our material world. Only when
someone is at or above the level of Wisdom Eyesight will other dimensions
be observable. Those who have the ability of Penetrative Vision can see
things accurately, with clarity better than that of a CAT scan. But what
they can see is just in this physical world and doesn’t go beyond the
dimension in which we exist; it doesn’t count as having reached an
advanced level of Third Eye.
The level of a person’s Third Eye is
determined by the amount of his or her essential qi, as well as the
width, brightness, and degree of blockage of the main passage. The
internal, essential qi is critical in determining how thoroughly
the Third Eye will open. It is particularly easy to open the Third Eye for
children under the age of six. I needn’t even bother using my hand, as it
opens once I start talking. That’s because children have not been
influenced much by our physical world and they haven’t done many bad
things in their lives. Their essential qi is well preserved. The
Third Eye of a child over the age of six becomes increasingly difficult to
open, owing to the increase of outside influences as they grow up.
Specifically, unsound education, being spoiled, and turning immoral can
make the essential qi dissipate. And all of it will disappear if a
person reaches a certain point. A person whose essential qi is
completely lost can recover it gradually through cultivation, but it takes
a long period of time and arduous effort. So essential qi is
extremely precious.
I don’t recommend that a person’s Third
Eye be opened at the level of Celestial Eyesight, because a practitioner
with low gong potency will lose more energy looking at objects than
he has accumulated through cultivation. The Third Eye might close again if
too much of the essential energy is lost. Once it closes it won’t be easy
to open again. So I usually open people’s Third Eye at the level of Wisdom
Eyesight. No matter how clear or unclear a cultivator’s vision is, he or
she will be able to see objects in other dimensions. Since people are
affected by their innate qualities, some see clearly, some see things
intermittently, and others see unclearly. But at a minimum, you will be
able to see light. That helps a cultivator progress toward high levels.
Those who can’t see clearly can remedy it through cultivation.
People who have less essential qi
see only images in black and white through the Third Eye. The Third Eye of
a person who has more essential qi can see scenes in color and in
clearer form. The more the essential qi, the better the clarity.
But every individual is different. Some people are born with the Third Eye
open, while for others it might be tightly clogged. When the Third Eye is
opening, the image is similar to the blooming of a flower, opening layer
after layer. During your meditation you will first discover that there is
illumination in the area of your Third Eye. At the beginning the
illumination isn’t so bright, while later it turns red. The Third Eye of
some people is tightly closed, so their initial physical sensations might
be quite strong. Those people will feel the muscles around the primary
passage and the Shangen acupoint tightening, as if they were being pressed
and squeezed inward. Their temples and foreheads will start to feel like
they are swelling and aching. Those are symptoms of the Third Eye opening.
A person whose Third Eye opens easily can occasionally see certain things.
During my classes some people unwittingly see my Law Bodies. The image
disappears though when they try to look, for those people are then in fact
using their physical eyes. When you see some things with your eyes closed,
try to remain in that state of seeing, and you will gradually see things
more clearly. If you want to look more closely, you will actually switch
to your own eyes and use the optic nerves. Then you won’t see anything.
The dimensions the Third Eye sees differ
depending on the level of a person’s Third Eye. Some scientific research
agencies fail to understand this principle, and it prevents some qigong
experiments from reaching their expected outcomes. And from time to time
experiments even yield the opposite results. For example, an institute
designed a method to test supernatural abilities. They asked qigong
masters to view the contents inside a sealed box. Because those masters’
Third Eye levels were different, their answers were different. The
research staff then considered the Third Eye to be false and a bogus
concept. Someone with a lower-level Third Eye usually achieves better
results in that kind of experiment, because his Third Eye is opened at the
level of Celestial Eyesight—a level suitable only for observing objects in
this physical dimension. So people who don’t understand the Third Eye
think that those people have the greatest abilities. All objects, organic
and inorganic, appear in different shapes and forms in different
dimensions. For example, as soon as a drinking glass is manufactured, in a
different dimension an intelligent entity comes into existence. Moreover,
prior to existing as that entity, it may well have been something else.
When the Third Eye is at its lowest level, the person will see the glass.
At a high level he or she will see the entity that exists in the other
dimension. At an even higher level the person will see the material form
that it had prior to the existence of that intelligent entity.
(3) Remote Viewing
After their Third Eye is opened, some people’s ability
of Remote Viewing emerges, and they can see objects thousands of miles
away. Each individual occupies dimensions of his own. In those dimensions
he is as big as a universe. Within a certain particular dimension, he has
a mirror in front of his forehead, though it’s invisible in our dimension.
Everyone has a mirror, but the mirror of a non-practitioner faces inward.
For practitioners the mirror flips slowly. Once it flips, the mirror can
capture what the practitioner wants to see. In his particular dimension he
is rather large. Since his body is fairly large, so too is his mirror.
Whatever the cultivator wants to see can be reflected onto the mirror.
Once the image has been captured, he still can’t see it, though, as the
image needs to stay on the mirror for a second, and then the mirror turns
over and allows him to see the objects it captured. Then it turns back,
flipping back over quickly, and it flips back and forth nonstop. Cinematic
film moves at twenty-four frames per second to produce fluid movement. The
speed at which the mirror flips is much faster than that, and so the
images appear continuous and clear. This is Remote Viewing, and the
principle of Remote Viewing is that simple. This used to be very secret,
but I’ve revealed it in just a few lines.
(4) Dimensions
From our perspective,
dimensions are quite complicated. Humankind knows only the dimension in
which human beings currently exist, while other dimensions haven’t yet
been found or explored. When it comes to other dimensions, we qigong
masters have seen dozens of levels of dimensions. They can be explained
theoretically, though they remain unproven by science. Even though some
people don’t admit the existence of certain things, they have actually
manifested in our dimension. For example, there is a place called the
Bermuda Triangle (or “Devil’s Triangle”). Some ships and planes have
disappeared in that area, only to reemerge years later. No one can explain
why, as no one has gone beyond the confines of human thinking and
theories. In fact, the Triangle is a gateway to another dimension. Unlike
our regular doors that have definite positions, its status is always
unpredictable. A ship can easily enter another dimension if it passes
through when the door there happens to be open. Human beings cannot sense
the differences between the dimensions, and they enter into the other
dimension instantly. The differences in time and space between that
dimension and our dimension can’t be expressed in miles—a distance of
thousands of miles there might be contained in one point here. That is,
they might exist in the same place and at the same time. The ship swings
in for a moment and comes back out again by accident. Yet decades have
passed in this world, since time is different in the two dimensions. There
are also unitary worlds existing in each dimension. It’s similar to our
models of atomic structures wherein one ball is connected to another by a
string, involving many balls and strings. It is very complex.
A British pilot was carrying out a mission
four years prior to World War II. In the middle of his flight he ran into
a heavy thunderstorm. By drawing on past experience, he was able to find
an abandoned airport. The moment the airport appeared before his eyes, a
completely different picture came into view: All of a sudden it was sunny
and cloudless, as if he had just emerged from another world. The airplanes
at the airport were painted yellow, and people were busy doing things on
the ground. He thought it was so odd! No one acknowledged him after he
touched down; even the control tower didn’t contact him. The pilot then
decided to leave since the sky had cleared up. He flew again, and when he
was at the same distance at which he had seen the airport moments ago, he
again found himself in a thunderstorm. He eventually managed to get back
to his base. He reported the affair and even wrote it down in the flight
record. But his superiors didn’t believe him. Four years later World War
II broke out, and he was transferred to that same abandoned airport. He
immediately recalled that it was exactly the same scene he had seen four
years earlier. We qigong masters know how to explain it. He did in
advance what he would do four years later. Before the event had begun, he
had gone there and played his role in advance. Things then returned to the
correct order.
5. Qigong Treatments and
Hospital Treatments
On a theoretical level, qigong treatments are
completely different from the treatments given at hospitals. Western
treatments utilize methods of ordinary people’s society. Despite having
means such as laboratory tests and X-ray examinations, they can only
observe the source of illness in this dimension, not the fundamental cause
that exists in other dimensions. So they fail to understand the cause of
illness. Medication can remove or drive away the origin of a patient’s
ailment (which is considered a pathogen by Western doctors, and karma in
qigong) if he or she isn’t seriously ill. Medicine will be
ineffective in the event that the illness is serious, for it’s possible
the patient could not bear increased dosages. Not all illnesses are
confined to the Triple World, for some are quite serious and go beyond the
domain of the Triple-World, and that’s why hospitals are not able to cure
them.
Chinese Medicine is the traditional
medical science in our country. It is inseparable from the supernatural
abilities developed through cultivation of the human body. Ancient people
paid special attention to cultivation of the human body. Confucians,
Daoists, Buddhists—and even the students of Confucianism—have all attached
importance to meditation. Meditation used to be considered a skill. Over
the course of time they developed their gong and their abilities
without even doing movements. Why was Chinese acupuncture able to detect
so accurately the human body’s meridians? Why aren’t the acupuncture
points connected horizontally? Why don’t they cross, and why are they
connected vertically? How could they be mapped out with such accuracy?
Modern people with supernatural abilities can see with their own eyes the
same things those Chinese doctors portrayed. That’s because the famous
doctors of ancient China generally had supernatural abilities. In Chinese
history, medical doctors Li Shizhen, Sun Simiao, Bian Que, and Hua Tuo
were all in fact great qigong masters with supernatural abilities.
In being passed down to today, Chinese Medicine has lost its supernatural
ability component and has only retained the treatment techniques. In the
past, Chinese doctors used their eyes (with supernatural abilities) to
diagnose illnesses. Later they also developed the special method of taking
pulses. If abilities were added back into the Chinese methods of
treatment, one could say that Western Medicine wouldn’t be able to catch
up with Chinese Medicine for many years to come.
Qigong
healing eliminates the root cause of illness. I regard illness as one type
of karma, and to treat an illness is to help diminish that karma. Some
qigong masters heal people by using the method of discharging and
replenishing qi to help patients eliminate black qi. The
masters who are at a rather low level discharge black qi, yet they
don’t know the root cause of the black qi. So the black qi
will return and the illness will relapse. The truth is that the black
qi is not the cause of the illness—the existence of black qi
only makes the patient feel discomfort. The root cause of the patient’s
illness is an intelligent entity that exists in another dimension. Many
qigong masters don’t know that. Since the intelligent entity is
powerful, average people are not able to touch it, nor would they dare to.
Falun Gong’s way of healing focuses on and starts with that intelligent
entity, removing the root cause of the illness. Moreover, a shield is
placed in that area so that the illness won’t be able to invade again.
Qigong
can heal, but it can’t disrupt the conditions of human society. It would
disrupt the conditions of everyday people’s society if it were applied on
a large scale, and that’s not allowed; its healing effects wouldn’t be
good. As you may know, some people have opened qigong diagnostic
clinics, qigong hospitals, and qigong rehabilitation
centers. Their treatments might have been quite effective before they
opened those businesses. Once they open a business to do healing, the
effectiveness drops sharply. This means that people are prohibited from
using supernatural methods to fulfill the functions of everyday people’s
society. Doing so will definitely reduce their effectiveness to a level as
low as the methods of everyday people’s society.
A person can use abilities to observe the
inside of a human body layer by layer, similar to how medical
cross-sectioning is done. Soft tissue and any other part of the body can
be seen. Though the current CAT scan is able to see clearly, the use of a
machine is required; it is time consuming, uses a great deal of film, and
is quite slow and costly. It’s not as convenient or as accurate as human
supernatural abilities. By closing their eyes to do a quick scan,
qigong masters can see any part of the patient directly and clearly.
Isn’t that “high tech”? It’s even more advanced than what is considered
high tech these days. Yet that kind of skill existed back in ancient
China—it was ancient-style “high tech.” The physician Hua Tuo discovered a
tumor in [the military ruler] Cao Cao’s brain and wanted to perform
surgery on him. Cao Cao had Hua Tuo arrested, because he couldn’t believe
it and mistook it as a plot to harm him. Cao Cao eventually died as a
result of the brain tumor. Many great Chinese doctors in history really
did have supernatural abilities. It’s just that people in this modern
society zealously pursue practical things and have forgotten ancient ways.
Our high-level qigong cultivation
should re-examine traditional things, carry them on and develop them
through our practice, and use them to benefit society.
6. Buddhist Qigong and the
Religion of Buddhism
There’s something many people think of as soon as we
mention Buddhist qigong: Since the goal of the Buddhist system is
to cultivate Buddhahood, they start to relate it to the things of Buddhism
the religion. I would like to formally clarify that Falun Gong is Buddhist
qigong. It is an upright, great cultivation way, and it has nothing
to do with the religion of Buddhism. Buddhist qigong is Buddhist
qigong, while Buddhism is Buddhism. They take different paths, even
though they have the same goal in cultivation. They are different
disciplines with different requirements. I mentioned the word “Buddha,”
and I will mention it again later when I teach the practice at higher
levels. There is nothing backward about the term. Some people can’t
tolerate hearing the word Buddha, and claim that we propagate blind
belief. But that’s not true. “Buddha” began as a Sanskrit term that
originated in India. It was translated into Chinese based on pronunciation
as Fo Tuo. People later omitted the word “Tuo” and kept the “Fo.”
Translated into Chinese it means “Enlightened One”—a person who is
enlightened. (To check [the Chinese term], look in the Ci Hai
Dictionary.)
(1) Buddhist Qigong
At present there are two types of Buddhist qigong
that have been taught. One of them branched off from Buddhism. Many highly
accomplished monks emerged during the thousands of years over which it
developed. In the process of their cultivation, when they reached an
advanced level, high-level masters taught the monks certain things, so
they received true instruction from even higher levels. Those things were
passed down in lineage fashion within Buddhism the religion. Only when a
highly accomplished monk was near the end of his life would he pass those
things down to a disciple, who would cultivate himself according to
Buddhism’s doctrines and improve himself holistically. That qigong
very much had the markings of Buddhism. Its monks were driven out of the
temples later on, such as during the Cultural Revolution. At that time
those exercises spread to the general public and started to proliferate
there.
There’s one other type of Buddhist
qigong. This type has never in all its years been part of Buddhism. It
has always been practiced quietly, either among the populace or deep in
the mountains. These kinds of practices are unique in their own way. They
need to choose a good disciple—someone with tremendous virtue who is truly
capable of cultivating to an advanced level. That kind of person appears
in this world only once in many, many years. These practices cannot be
made public, as they require rather high character and their gong
develops rapidly; there are quite a number of these sorts of practices.
The same holds true for the Daoist system. Daoist qigong, while all
belonging to the Daoist system, are further divided into Kunlun, Emei,
Wudang, etc. There are different subdivisions within each group, and the
subdivisions are quite different from one another. They cannot be mixed or
practiced together.
(2) Buddhism
Buddhism is a system of cultivation that Shakyamuni
awakened to more than two thousand years ago when he cultivated in India.
It can be summarized in three words: precept, meditation, wisdom. Precepts
are for the purpose of meditation. Buddhism does in fact have exercises,
though it doesn’t explicitly talk about them. Buddhists are actually
performing exercises when they sit in meditation and center their minds.
That’s because energy from the universe will start to gather around a
person’s body when he calms down and settles his mind, and that achieves
the same effect as performing qigong exercises. The precepts in
Buddhism are for abandoning all human desires and discarding everything to
which an everyday person is attached so that the monk can reach a state of
peacefulness and stillness, enabling him to enter into meditation. A
person constantly improves himself in meditation, until he eventually
becomes enlightened, with his wisdom emerging. He will then know the
universe and see its truth.
Shakyamuni did
only three things daily when he was teaching: He taught Law (fa)
(primarily Arhat Law) to his disciples, carried a bowl to collect alms
(beg for food), and cultivated through sitting in meditation. After
Shakyamuni left this world, Brahmanism and Buddhism battled. The two
religions later merged into one, called Hinduism. Buddhism no longer
exists in India today as a result of that. Mahayana Buddhism emerged
through later developments and changes, and spread to inner China, where
it has become today’s Buddhism. Mahayana Buddhism doesn’t worship
Shakyamuni as its sole founder—it is a multi-Buddha faith. It believes in
many Tathagatas, such as Buddha Amitabha, Medicine Buddha, etc., and there
are more precepts now, while the goal of cultivation has become higher.
Back in his time, Shakyamuni taught Bodhisattva Law to a few disciples.
Those teachings were later reorganized and developed into today’s Mahayana
Buddhism, which is for cultivating to the realm of Bodhisattva. The
tradition of Theravada Buddhism has been retained to this day in Southeast
Asia, and ceremonies are performed using supernatural abilities. In
Buddhism’s course of evolution, one cultivation way branched off to our
Tibet region and is called Tibetan Tantrism. Another cultivation way
spread to the Han area via Xinjiang and was called Tang Tantrism (it
disappeared after Buddhism was suppressed during the Huichang period).
Another branch in India evolved into yoga.
Buddhism doesn’t speak explicitly about
doing exercises, and they don’t practice qigong. That is to
preserve the traditional method of Buddhist cultivation. It’s also an
important reason Buddhism has lasted more than two thousand years without
waning. It has naturally maintained its own tradition precisely because it
hasn’t admitted into it anything foreign. In Buddhism there are different
ways to cultivate. Theravada Buddhism focuses on self-salvation and
self-cultivation; Mahayana Buddhism has evolved to offer salvation to both
self and others, salvation of all sentient beings.
7. Upright Cultivation Ways and Crooked Ways
(1) The Side-Door Awkward Ways
The Side-Door Awkward Ways are also called the
Unconventional Cultivation Ways. Various qigong cultivation ways
existed prior to the establishment of religions. There are many practices
outside of religions that have spread among the populace. Most of them
lack systematic doctrines, and so they haven’t developed into complete
cultivation systems. But the Unconventional Cultivation Ways, however, do
have their own systematic, complete, and unusually intense cultivation
methods, and they too have been spread among the populace. Those practice
systems are usually called the Side-Door Awkward Ways. Why are they called
that? Well, the first part [of the Chinese term] literally means “a door
on the side”; and the second part means “a clumsy way.” People consider
both the Buddhist and Daoist cultivation ways to be straight ways, with
all others being side-door awkward ways or crooked cultivation ways. But
that isn’t so. The Side-Door Awkward Ways have been practiced secretly
throughout history, being taught to one disciple at a time. They weren’t
allowed to be revealed to the public. Once made known, people would not
understand them very well. Even their practitioners hold that they are
neither Buddhist nor Daoist. The cultivation principles of the
Unconventional Ways have strict character criteria. They cultivate
according to the nature of the universe, advocating doing good and minding
one’s character. The highly accomplished masters in those practices have
unique skills, and some of their unique techniques are powerful. I came
across three highly accomplished masters from the Unconventional
Cultivation Ways who taught me some things that can’t be found in either
the Buddhist or Daoist system. Those things were each fairly hard to
practice in the process of cultivation, so the gong obtained was
unique. In contrast, strict character criteria are lacking among some
so-called Buddhist and Daoist cultivation methods, and as a result their
practitioners can’t cultivate to an advanced level. So we should look at
each cultivation method objectively.
(2) Martial Arts Qigong
Martial arts qigong comes out of a long history.
Having its own complete system of theories and cultivation methods, it has
formed an independent system. Yet strictly speaking, it only manifests
supernatural abilities that are generated by internal cultivation at the
lowest level. All of the abilities that appear in martial arts cultivation
also appear in internal cultivation. Martial arts cultivation likewise
begins with doing qi exercises. For instance, when striking a piece
of rock, in the beginning the martial arts practitioner needs to swing his
arms to move qi. Over time, his qi will change in nature and
become an energy mass that appears in the form of light. At that point his
gong will start to function. Gong has intelligence because
it is an evolved matter. It exists in another dimension and is controlled
by the thoughts coming from one’s brain. When attacked, the martial arts
practitioner doesn’t need to move qi; gong will come merely
with a thought. Over the course of cultivation his gong will
continually be strengthened, with its particles becoming finer and its
energy growing greater. The skills of Iron Palm and Cinnabar Palm will
appear. As we can see from movies, magazines, and television shows, the
skills of Golden Bell Cover and Iron Shirt have emerged in recent years.
They stem from the simultaneous practice of internal cultivation and
martial arts cultivation; they come from cultivating internally and
externally at the same time. To cultivate internally, a person needs to
value virtue and cultivate his or her character. Explained from a
theoretical angle, when a person reaches a certain level, gong will
emit from the body’s interior to its exterior. It will become a protective
shield because of its high density. In terms of principles, the biggest
difference between the martial arts and our internal cultivation lies in
the fact that the martial arts are performed with vigorous movements and
practitioners can’t still the mind. Not having a quiet, centered mind
makes qi flow underneath the skin and pass through the muscles
instead of flowing into a person’s elixir field (dan-tian).
So they don’t cultivate longevity—they haven’t the ability to do so.
(3) Reverse Cultivation and Gong Borrowing
Some people have never
practiced qigong. Then suddenly they acquire gong overnight
and have quite strong energy, and they can even heal other people. People
call them qigong masters and they go around teaching others. Some
of them, even though they have never learned qigong or have only
learned a few of its movements, are modifying things and teaching them to
people. This kind of person isn’t qualified to be a qigong master.
He or she doesn’t have anything to pass on to others. What he or she
teaches certainly can’t be used to cultivate to a high level; the most it
can do is help get rid of sickness and improve health. How does this kind
of gong come about? Let’s first talk about the commonly-known
“reverse cultivation.” Reverse cultivation happens to good people who have
extremely high character, and who are usually older, such as over fifty
years of age. There isn’t enough time for them to cultivate from the
beginning, as it’s not easy to meet excellent masters who teach qigong
exercises that cultivate both mind and body. The moment this type of
person wants to cultivate, high-level masters will place a great amount of
gong onto the person according to his or her character foundation.
That enables cultivation in reverse, from the top down, and that way it is
much faster. From another dimension, high-level masters perform the
transformation and continually add gong to the person from the
outside of his or her body; this is particularly the case when the person
is giving treatments and forming an energy field. The gong given by
the masters flows as if through a pipeline. Some people don’t know
themselves where the gong comes from. That is reverse cultivation.
Another type is called “gong
borrowing,” and it isn’t restricted in terms of age. A human being has an
assistant consciousness along with a main consciousness, and it is
generally at a higher level than the main consciousness. The assistant
consciousnesses of some people have reached such high levels that they can
communicate with enlightened beings. When these kinds of people want to
cultivate, their assistant consciousnesses have a similar thought of
wanting to climb in levels, and they will immediately get in touch with
the enlightened beings to borrow gong from them. After the gong
is loaned the person will get it overnight. After obtaining the gong,
he or she will be able to treat people to ease their pain. The person will
usually adopt the method of forming an energy field. He or she will be
able to give energy to people individually and to teach some techniques.
People like this usually start out being
pretty good. Because they have gong, they become well known and
gain both fame and wealth. Attachments to fame and wealth come to occupy
much of their thinking—more than cultivation does. From that point on
their gong starts to diminish, becoming smaller and smaller, until
finally it is all gone.
(4) Cosmic Language
Some people are suddenly able to speak a certain type
of language. It sounds fairly fluent when it’s uttered, yet it is not the
language of any human society. What’s it called? It is referred to as
cosmic language. This thing called “cosmic language” is in fact merely the
language of entities that are not so high. This phenomenon is happening
right now to quite a few qigong practitioners around China; some of
them can even speak several different languages. Of course, the languages
of our human race are sophisticated too and there are more than a thousand
varieties. Is cosmic language considered a supernatural ability? I would
say not. It isn’t an ability that comes from you, and neither is it the
kind of ability that’s given to you from the outside. Rather, it occurs
when someone is being controlled by foreign entities. The entities
originate at a somewhat higher level—or at least, higher than that of
humankind. It is one of them that is doing the talking, for the person who
is speaking the cosmic language only serves as a medium. Most people don’t
even know themselves what they are saying. Only those who have
mind-reading abilities can get a general sense of what the words mean.
It’s not an ability, but many people who have spoken these languages feel
superior and get elated since they think it is. In fact, someone with a
high-level Third Eye can definitely observe that a living entity is
speaking from diagonally above the person, through the person’s mouth.
That entity
teaches the person to speak a cosmic language while passing on to him or
her some of its energy. Yet thereafter, the person will be under its
control, so this is not an upright cultivation way. Even though that
entity is in a slightly higher dimension it is not cultivating an upright
way, so it doesn’t know how to teach cultivators a way to stay healthy or
to heal. For this reason it uses the method of sending out energy through
speech. Because it is dispersed, the energy has little power. It is
effective in treating minor sicknesses and ailments but it fails with
serious diseases. Buddhism speaks of how those above cannot cultivate
since they lack suffering and discord; moreover, they can’t temper
themselves and are unable to raise their levels. So they look for ways to
help people gain better health and in turn elevate themselves. And that is
what speaking cosmic language is about. It’s neither a supernatural
ability nor qigong.
(5) Spirit Possession
The most harmful type of spirit possession is that by a
low-level entity. Spirit possession is caused by cultivating in a crooked
way. It is really harmful to people, and the consequences of being
possessed are frightening. Not long after beginning to practice, some
people become obsessed with giving treatments and becoming rich; they
think about these things all the time. These people might have originally
been pretty decent or had a master already looking after them. But things
turn sour when they start to contemplate giving treatments and getting
rich. They then attract these types of entities. Even though they aren’t
in our physical dimension they really do exist.
This kind of practitioner suddenly feels
that the Third Eye has opened and that he or she now has gong, but
actually the possessing spirit has control of the person’s brain. It
projects into the person’s brain the images that it sees, making him or
her think that the Third Eye has opened. But the person’s Third Eye has
not in fact opened at all. Why does the possessing spirit or animal want
to give this person gong? Why does it want to help him or her? It’s
because in our universe animals are forbidden to cultivate. Animals are
not allowed to gain an upright cultivation way since they know nothing
about character and can’t improve themselves. As a result, they want to
attach themselves to human bodies and get the human essence. There’s
another rule in this universe, namely: no loss, no gain. So they want to
satisfy your desire for fame and wealth. They will make you rich and
famous, but they don’t help you for nothing. They want to gain something:
your essence. You will have nothing left by the time they leave you and
you will have turned weak or become a vegetable! This is caused by poor
character. “One right thought will subdue a hundred evils,” it’s said.
When you are upright you won’t attract evil. In other words, be a noble
practitioner, turn away from all nonsense, and practice only an upright
cultivation way.
(6) Even When a Cultivation Way is Upright,
a Person Could be Practicing in a Crooked Manner
Although the practice systems some people learn come from upright
cultivation ways, people can actually practice in a crooked manner
inadvertently due to their not being strict with themselves, to their
failing to cultivate their character, and to their entertaining negative
thoughts while performing their exercises. For example, when a person is
performing the exercises, be it the standing stance or the meditation, his
thoughts might actually be on money, becoming well known and well off, or
“He wronged me, and I’ll fix him after I get supernatural abilities.” Or
he’s thinking of this or that ability, thereby adding something bad to his
practice and actually practicing in a crooked manner. This is dangerous
since it might attract some negative things, like low-level entities. And
maybe the person doesn’t realize what he has brought on. His attachments
are so strong—it doesn’t work to seek the Way out of a desire to get
certain things—and his intentions aren’t right, so his shifu can’t
protect him. That’s why practitioners have to guard their character, keep
right-minded, and desire nothing, lest they bring about problems.
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