True Character Revealed

Be resolute cultivating Dafa, the mind unstirred

Ascending in levels is what’s fundamental

Faced with tests, a person’s true character is revealed

May you achieve Consummation—Buddha, Dao, or God

Hongzhi Li
may 8, 1999

Some Thoughts of Mine

Recently it was reported in the news that mainland China seeks my extradition back to China in exchange for 500 million U.S. dollars in trade surplus. I have some comments on this. I simply teach people to be good. Along with this, I unconditionally help them to become free of disease and health problems, and I enable them to reach higher realms of mind. I charge nothing and ask for no material reward. All of this has had a positive impact on society and its people, and it has, on a large scale, turned people’s hearts towards goodness and made their moral standard high. I wonder if that is why they seek to extradite me. Do they want me to return to China so that more people can learn the teachings and cultivate their minds? If that’s the case, please don’t let the country lose 500 million U.S. dollars to strike a deal. I will return of my own free will.

I have heard, however, that normally those who are extradited are war criminals, public enemies, and criminal offenders. If so, I wonder into which of these categories I would fit.

The fact is, as I always teach people to conduct themselves with Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance as their guiding principles, I should, naturally, set an example in this regard. When Falun Gong’s disciples and I have been criticized for no reason and treated unfairly, we have always shown magnanimity, great benevolence, and great patience, and have quietly endured everything so as to allow the government sufficient time to get to know us. But this sort of tolerance is absolutely not because the students of Falun Gong and I fear something. You should know that once a person finds the truth and the real meaning of life, he will not regret forsaking his life for it. Don’t mistake our compassion or our great tolerance for fear and thus intensify your reckless actions. These are in fact people who are living an enlightened life; they are cultivators who have learned the true meaning of life. And don’t accuse Falun Gong cultivators of engaging in supposed “superstition.” There are so many things that human beings and science have yet to understand. Don’t religions exist because of a belief in higher beings? The true religions and ancient beliefs in divine beings, which have sustained morality in human society for thousands of years, are in fact what have made possible the very existence of today’s mankind—which includes each and every one of us. If it were otherwise, mankind would have committed sins long ago that led to catastrophe; people’s ancestral lines probably would have long since died out; and there would not be what there is today. The truth is, morality is extremely important for mankind. If people do not value virtue they are capable of every evil, which is terribly dangerous for mankind. This much I can tell people. My intention is not in fact to do something for society, and by no means do I wish to get involved in ordinary human affairs; much less do I desire someone’s political power. Not everyone considers power so important. Don’t people say, “To each his own”? I merely wish to help those who can do cultivation to gain access to the Fa, and to teach them how to truly elevate their plane of thinking—that is, to improve their moral standard. Besides, not everyone will come to learn Falun Gong, and furthermore, what I am doing is destined to have no connection with politics. Whatever the case, cultivators whose hearts have turned toward goodness and whose moral values have improved are good for any country or peoples. How could something that helps people get well and stay healthy, or that raises people’s moral standards, be labeled an “evil cult”? Every Falun Gong practitioner is a member of society, and each has his own job or career. It’s only that they go to the park to do Falun Gong exercises for half an hour, an hour, or so each morning before heading off to work. We don’t have various provisions that people have to follow, as organized religions do; nor do we have any temples, churches, or religious rites. People can come to learn or leave as they please, and we have no membership rosters. How is it a religion, then? As to it being “evil,” is teaching people to be good, not charging people money, and helping people to become or stay healthy “evil”? Or is it that something is “evil” simply because it’s outside the scope of Communist Party doctrine? Besides, I know when something is an evil cult, and whether something is an “evil cult” isn’t up to a government to decide. Can an evil cult be labeled a “true teaching” if it’s in keeping with the notions of certain people in government, and conversely, can a true teaching be labeled “evil” if it doesn’t conform to their notions?

Actually, I know perfectly well why some people are bent on opposing Falun Gong. Just as media have reported, there is an enormous number of people practicing Falun Gong. Indeed, 100 million people is no small figure. Yet why should having a large number of good people be feared? Wouldn’t you say that the more good people there are, the better, and that the fewer the bad people, the better? I, Li Hongzhi, unconditionally help cultivators to improve their morals and gain health. This fosters social stability and allows people to better serve society with their able bodies. Doesn’t this benefit those in power? This really has been achieved. Why is it that instead of thanking me, they want to turn as many as 100 million people against the government? What government could be so unfathomable? And who among these 100 million doesn’t have family, children, relatives, or friends? Is it a question of just 100 million people? So the number of persons they are going against might be even greater. What on earth has happened to the leaders of my beloved land? If with my, Li Hongzhi’s, life I could dispel their fear of these good people, I would promptly return and let them do what they will with me. Is it really necessary to risk universal condemnation, waste human and financial resources, and use politics and money to pursue a deal that violates human rights? The United States, by contrast, has been a leader in respecting human rights. Would the U.S. government betray human rights to make such a deal? Besides, I am a U.S. permanent resident who lives under the jurisdiction of U.S. law.

I don’t mean to point fingers. It’s just that what they are doing makes too little sense to me. Why forgo a good opportunity to win public support and instead set some 100 million people against the government?

It is said that many people went to the Zhongnanhai [leadership compound], and that a certain person(s) was shocked and furious about it. Actually, the number who went wasn’t large by any means. Think about it: there are 100 million people practicing Falun Gong, and only ten thousand plus went. Could you say that’s a lot? There was no need to mobilize people: with 100 million some people, if one person wanted to go and so did the next, in no time there would be over ten thousand. They had no slogans or banners, they didn’t act out of line, and much less were they opposing the government. They merely wanted to report our predicament to the government. What fault is there in that? Let me ask this: would any “protestors” behave as well as that? Aren’t you moved even one bit upon seeing something like that? Yet you insist on trying to find some fault with Falun Gong. The approach of trying to wipe out Falun Gong while disregarding all of its merits is downright backward. Falun Gong isn’t scary, as certain people have imagined. Rather, it brings numerous benefits and does no harm to any society. Losing the favor of the people, meanwhile, is something truly scary. Frankly speaking, the students of Falun Gong are human beings who are in the process of cultivating themselves, and they still have human minds. I’m not sure how much longer they can continue to endure being treated unjustly. This is my greatest concern.

Hongzhi Li
june 2, 1999

Position

The trials that a cultivator goes through are something an ordinary person could not endure. That is why throughout history so few people have succeeded at cultivation and achieved Consummation. Human beings are human beings. At critical moments it is hard for them to let go of their human notions. Instead, they always try to rationalize things. A magnificent cultivator, by contrast, is able to let go of Self and even all of his ordinary human thoughts amidst crucial trials. I congratulate the Dafa cultivators who can come through the Consummation-determining tests. The eternity of your never-ending lives and even your future levels are established by you, yourselves; mighty virtue comes from your own cultivation. Be diligent! This is most magnificent, and it is the greatest privilege.

Hongzhi Li
june 13, 1999

Calm

Recent events have been quite harmful to many students of Falun Dafa, and severely tarnished the nation’s image. With regard to the information our students have on how certain regions or certain departments have directly or covertly interfered with and disrupted Falun Gong students’ group exercises, and with regard to some persons having used their power to stir up a Falun Gong “incident,” so as to drive a broad segment of the people and government to oppose one another, and thereby gain politically, students can report these things through normal channels to different levels of the government or to the country’s leaders.

But we are cultivators. Don’t get involved in politics and don’t let the events that recently took place disrupt you. Calm your minds, resume your normal exercise routine and Fa-study, be diligent and cultivate solidly, and improve yourselves without letup.

Hongzhi Li
june 13, 1999

Inscription for the Russian Version of Falun Dafa

Cherish it!
Vows of gods are being fulfilled;
Cherish it!
This is what you have sought for;
Cherish it!
The Fa is right before you.

Hongzhi Li
july 10, 1999

Further Comments on “Superstition”

“Superstition” (mi-xin) was a rather ordinary word before certain people in China who play politics turned it into a loaded term. “Superstition” as propagated by those politicians is not actually about superstition, but rather, is a political label, a political slogan. It is a political term used expressly for attacking people. Once something is hit with this label and seen as antithetical to science, it becomes fair game for attack.

But the truth is, people who have gone through all kinds of political campaigns are keenly discerning. They once believed in something; they experienced disappointment; they blindly admired something or someone; and from their experiences they learned a lesson. The Cultural Revolution, in particular, left deep emotional scars. Could you possibly get such people to just rashly believe in something? People today are more capable than ever of discerning whether something is truth or “superstition,” as alleged by people with a political agenda.

Whether something is science or superstition isn’t to be decided by politicians. It should instead be appraised by scientists. Yet the so-called “scientists” being used for political purposes are in fact political figures. It’s impossible for such people to draw fair and scientific conclusions from a truly scientific and neutral standpoint. So ultimately they can’t be considered scientists. At most they are tools in the hands of politicians, used to attack people.

The insights into cosmic Truth that students of Dafa cultivation have are the result of rational thought and experience as they elevate. If human beings attempt to refute truths and laws of the cosmos, which surpass all human theories, it is going to prove futile, whatever approach is taken. And now, at a time when the morality of human society is on the verge of total collapse, it is the great cosmos that has once again shown mercy to human beings and given them this final chance. This is mankind’s hope, which it should treasure and cherish immensely. Out of selfish wants, however, people are undermining this last hope that the cosmos has given mankind, infuriating Heaven and Earth. Ignorant people even call the many disasters taking place “natural phenomena.” The cosmos does not exist for mankind. Human beings are merely a manifestation of life at the lowest level of existence. If mankind no longer meets the standard of existence at this level of the cosmos, then it can only be weeded out by the cosmos’s history.

People! Awaken! The age-old vows of divine ones are being fulfilled. The Great Law is judging all beings. The path a person takes in life is his own choosing. A person’s single thought will determine his future.

Treasure it: the truths and principles of the cosmos are right before you.

Hongzhi Li
july 13, 1999

Master Li quietly watching the world from amidst the mountains after leaving New York following July 20, 1999.

(Photo published on January 19, 2000)

Your Heart Should Know

The Fa saves all lives with Master as guide

He raised the sail and a hundred million followed

Vessels freed of attachments quickly skim forth

Vessels humanly burdened struggle along at sea

Then suddenly the sky threatens collapse

Evil surges all about in overwhelming waves

Solid cultivators of Dafa follow Master closely

While those too attached lose their direction

And flee for their lives as vessel’s torn asunder

After the silt is dredged, rays of gold shine forth

Lofty talk means nothing in life-or-death affairs

Actions reveal what you’re really made of

Just wait for the Day of Consummation

When the truth stuns all in a grand display

Hongzhi Li
october 12, 1999
(published may 22, 2000)

Towards Consummation

Studying the Fa with attachment is not true cultivation. Yet during the course of cultivation a person may gradually become aware of his fundamental attachments, rid himself of them, and thus meet the standard for a cultivator. What is a fundamental attachment, then? Human beings acquire many notions in this world and are, as a consequence, driven by them to pursue what they yearn for. But when a person comes to this world, it is karmic arrangements that determine his course of life and what will be gained and lost in it. How could a person’s notions determine each stage of his life? So those “beautiful dreams and wishes” become pursuits that can never be realized, despite being painful attachments.

Dafa has boundless inner meaning and created everything at each level of the cosmos, including, of course, everything of humankind. So with the exception of those wretched persons who have been used by sinister, old, evil forces—which are themselves being eradicated—to persecute the Fa, people are able to see in the Fa things they consider good. Some truly see the Fa-principles of Dafa. Many other students, meanwhile, view Dafa with human notions and see in it answers to their various yearnings and wishes. And it was those human attachments that compelled them to take up the practice of Dafa.

Some people thought that Dafa is in keeping with their own conception of science; some people thought that it agreed with their own code of conduct; some people thought that it spoke to their dissatisfaction with politics; some people thought that Dafa could salvage humankind’s degenerate morals; some people thought that Dafa could heal their sickness; some people thought that Dafa and Master have integrity, and so on and so forth. It isn’t wrong for human beings in this world to yearn with these attachments for the nice things they pursue and desire. But a cultivator definitely should not be that way. You may start on the path of Dafa with those thoughts, yet over the course of cultivation you need to regard yourself as a cultivator. During the course of cultivation, through reading the books, studying the Fa, and diligently making progress, you should manage to clearly recognize what your thoughts were when you first came to Dafa. After cultivating for a period of time, are your thoughts still the same? Are you continuing on the path because of those human attachments? If so, you cannot be counted as my disciple. It means that you have not discarded your fundamental attachments and have failed to understand the Fa from the Fa. Those who have been weeded out during the evil tests that Dafa has encountered in China are all persons who hadn’t abandoned those attachments. It should also be said that they have negatively affected Dafa.

Despite this, and despite the fact that there are a large number of disciples who are true cultivators going through tremendous hardship, the time of conclusion has been repeatedly postponed so as to wait for these people to recognize their fundamental attachments. This is done because many among them have a predestined connection and have the potential to achieve Consummation.

Do you know that one of the biggest excuses the evil old forces use at present to persecute Dafa is that your fundamental attachments remain concealed? So in order to identify such people, the ordeals have been made more severe. If you are attached to Dafa’s consistency with human science, they manipulate wicked human beings to spread lies that Dafa is “superstitious”; if you are attached to Dafa’s power to heal, they manipulate wicked human beings to spread lies that Dafa forbids people to take medicine and that this has led to fourteen hundred deaths; even if you say that Dafa isn’t involved in politics, they have wicked human beings spread lies that Dafa and Li Hongzhi have foreign political forces behind them, and so forth; if you say that Dafa collects no fees, they say that Master has sought to accumulate wealth through dishonest means. They have evil ones concoct lies about whatever it is you are attached to. Even if your fear is that Dafa is being harmed, they will fabricate articles allegedly written by Master. Think about it: the enormous test at present is exactly to see how Dafa fares and how its students conduct themselves in Master’s absence. How could Master speak up? How could I again tell you what to do? Additionally, they manipulate wicked human beings into examining Dafa and its disciples, putting them through a comprehensive and destructive test that targets all human thoughts and attachments. Had you truly been able to discard those fundamental human attachments as you cultivated, this final ordeal would not be so vicious.

Even now some people still can’t concentrate when it comes to reading the books. Even less should a person who does Dafa work use any pretexts to conceal his not reading the books or studying the Fa. Even if you do work for me, your master, you still need to study the Fa every day with a quiet mind and cultivate yourself solidly. When your mind wanders all over the place as you read, the countless Buddhas, Daos, and Gods in the book see your laughable and pitiable mind, and see the karma in your thoughts controlling you, which is detestable. And yet you cling to delusion and fail to wake up. Some volunteers go long periods of time without reading or studying the Fa. How could they do Dafa work well? You have unwittingly incurred many losses that are hard to recover. Past lessons should have made you more mature. The only way to prevent the evil old forces from taking advantage of the gaps in your mind is to make good use of your time to study the Fa.

What is unfolding at present was arranged ages ago. Those disciples who have stepped forward to validate the Fa in the face of pressure are magnificent. When I asked the last group of high-level beings who were about to be weeded out why they had been concocting lies about Dafa and me, they replied: “There was no other way. The path you have taken is so righteous. How else could Dafa and your disciples be tested?” Those who damage Dafa are only a handful of evil forces. All they are doing is using those evil beings who even they think should be eliminated. The immeasurable and countless Buddhas, Daos, and Gods in the cosmos and the beings in even larger cosmic bodies are all watching everything on this tiny speck of dust in the cosmos. Dafa has consummated everything in the cosmos. The mighty virtue is magnificent and everlasting. The disciples who have come through the comprehensive and most rigorous tests have laid a rock-solid foundation for Dafa in this world, have displayed in the human world the true manifestation of Dafa, and at the same time have consummated their own most magnificent positions. The evil will soon be completely eliminated, the vile ones in the human world will receive due retribution, and sins will no longer be allowed. Disciples are waiting to achieve Consummation, and I can wait no more. Each person’s conduct, good or bad, fully bespeaks of the outcome he will get. Sentient beings, your future positions are chosen by you, yourselves.

Hongzhi Li
june 16, 2000

To the Taiwan Fa Conference

First, I would like to extend my greetings to all Taiwan Dafa students. Greetings, all!

I would also like to wish your Fa conference complete success!

I hope that through this Fa conference you will be able to find where you fall short and become more diligent; that you will make this Fa conference a sacred one in which you see the differences in how you have studied and cultivated; and that you will show the righteous Fa to the people of the world.

Hongzhi Li
june 25, 2000

A Prophecy as Reference

Disciples, what is currently unfolding in China was planned long ago, and many people throughout history prophesied it. They chose not to explain things directly so as to conform to the world’s delusory state and yet warn its people. Ordinary people are thus able to realize the meaning of a prophecy only after history has come to pass.

For example, with regard to what is happening in China, Nostradamus, the Frenchman, stated the following a few centuries back in his book of prophecy, Centuries:

In the year 1999, seventh month,
From the sky will come a great King of Terror,
In order to bring back to life the great king of Angolmois,
Before and after Mars reigns in the name
of bringing people happiness.¹

What he said about “the year 1999, seventh month / From the sky will come a... Terror / In order to bring back to life the... king...” refers precisely to the few people with ulterior motives in the Central Committee of the CCP using their power to initiate a comprehensive, vicious suppression of Dafa and Dafa disciples. They have arrested people, beaten people, sent people to labor camps, sentenced people to jail, and destroyed the books; they have used the army, the police, secret agents, and diplomatic means; and they have used all radio stations, television stations, and the press to spread lies and carry out the persecution in a villainous fashion. Its overwhelming magnitude seems to threaten to bring down the sky, while their evilness has spread throughout the entire world. With degenerate notions, the old forces arranged this for the purpose of “examining” Dafa in a destructive manner. The process of Master’s Fa-rectification among humans is, as gods see it, just like a process of resurrection.

As to the sentence “before and after Mars reigns,” it means to say that [Karl] Marx is ruling the world before and after the year 1999. It’s not just societies ruled by the vile Communist Party that now practice Marxism, in fact. The social welfare system and its kin adopted by the developed countries of the world are wicked communist things within capitalism. Those appear to be free societies, yet it seems that the whole world is in fact practicing communism. People who come to the developed countries in the West from countries ruled by the wicked communists share one impression: “It feels like communism here, except they don’t advocate violent revolution.”

With regard to the last part, “in the name of bringing people happiness,” this refers to the vile Communist Party’s idea of liberating all of humankind as well as to Western society’s sustaining of social welfare through heavy taxation.

Since this matter is still being concluded, I am deciphering only these few sentences. Prophecies concerning this time period have actually circulated in many countries. The few remarks above are only for reference.

Hongzhi Li
june 28, 2000

Using at Will

I have never liked grammar and words standardized by the modern Chinese language, which have their meanings shallowed. That is why I often don’t use standardized grammar and words when I teach the Fa! Some people don’t understand this. The truth is, words whose meanings have been altered by modern people have modern people’s notions infused into them. Words that contain elements of atheism and politics, in particular, are impossible to use when teaching the Fa. So that our students may comprehend, I am doing what I can to use the grammar and words of the modern Chinese language.

How could the Fa of the cosmos be standardized by human culture? As long as I can explain the principles of the Fa clearly, I undo the binds of human culture, break those rules and constraints, and use the language at will. In order to express the Great Fa clearly, I employ language as I wish. For example, sometimes my sentences are very long, and I repeat words to emphasize and deepen the meaning of the sentences. Even so, using human language to express the high-level, profound principles of the Fa is very challenging. As far as words go, I basically use them at will. For example, I often write “degree” (程度) as “degree of achievement” (成度), as I feel that this word should be used to express the extent to which something is accomplished. I like to write “truth of the matter” (真相) as “true situation” (真象), as I feel that this word should be used to express the way things truly are; I like to write “absolute” (绝) as “resolute” (决), as I feel that this word has more weight; I use “immense” (洪) instead of “vast” (弘), as it is more appropriate for describing the Great Fa of the cosmos, and so on and so forth. Nor do I like to standardize sentences by using simple punctuation. When I write, I often use commas straight to the end. I care about only the inner meaning of the Fa, and have no sense of obligation toward man-made standardizations. Human culture is given to humans by gods, yet the modern Chinese language has been altered by the warped thinking of modern man, which denounces theism and has political concepts. What the Fa will bring to humankind will be fully new and righteous, and it will not be affected by anything that is old, crooked, or warped. I graduated from high school, and the purpose of my not going to college was to prevent all kinds of concepts, theorems, definitions, scientific laws, human theories, and various standardized things from forming in my mind. These human things absolutely cannot be mixed into the Great Fa of the cosmos when it is taught, lest the Fa be compromised by human notions.

Dafa is the Fa of the cosmos, and Dafa has created all beings in the cosmos. Dafa has established living environments and standards for the beings at different levels of the cosmos, and it has created for the beings at different levels different forms of wisdom, which includes the culture of humankind. The purpose of spreading Dafa far and wide is to rectify the Fa in the cosmos, and, at the same time, to have Dafa’s disciples in the human world achieve Consummation. Dafa is also creating a new humankind, and will bring to humankind a new culture.

Hongzhi Li
june 28, 2000

Drive Out Interference

Disciples, the Dafa I have taught you is the only thing that can guarantee that you elevate through cultivation and achieve Consummation. If someone can’t break with human attachments and brings upon herself evil beings that assume my image and instruct her according to her attachments, so as to harm the Fa, then this person is in extreme peril. If the person doesn’t wake up, she will become a fiend that damages the Fa.

My Law Bodies (fashen) are the embodiment of my mind’s wisdom and my energy, and their thinking is definitely no different from mine. I didn’t say a word when Dafa and its students encountered the persecutory, evil test. It resembles your taking a university entrance exam: at the time of the exam, could the teacher tell you again, right on the spot, how to answer the questions? Then if I didn’t speak in the midst of this test, why would I use the form of my Law Bodies to directly tell someone what to do?

Recently, a wretched person in Hong Kong who lost her senses has been severely interfering with Dafa by saying absurd things, having bred demons in her mind, about how a Law Body of mine told her what to do. She even caused damage by using a telephone call I made to her, and has constantly done bad things. No matter what absurd things she says in the name of the alleged Law Body, someone like that is no student of mine. If there are people who are willing to follow her and bring disorder to the Fa, they can go with her. What I want are disciples who cultivate in a confident and dignified manner, magnificent gods who are indomitable, unbreakable.

Disciples, you have to be clearheaded at this serious moment in time. It was I who taught the Fa to you. My Law Bodies are merely the form that my thoughts assume, while I am the principal being. Could someone who doesn’t even acknowledge me [as his master] still be a Dafa disciple? And then there are students who shouldn’t get happy with themselves just because they believe they did Fa-rectification things for Dafa. At present, all those who are irrational and talk senselessly are in peril. This could be fatal for them. More importantly, all of you should ignore what that saboteur in Hong Kong has instigated and not give her an audience. It’s not that Master is not merciful. In the several years of your cultivation, I have not only borne an incredibly great deal for you, but also constantly given you hints for your improvement, looked after your safety, and settled the debts that you owed at different levels so that you could achieve Consummation. These aren’t things that just anyone can do, nor can they be done for ordinary people. The problem is just that those people are being too irrational and don’t know to treasure Dafa and the opportunity to cultivate.

When I taught the Fa, I told you about all the problems that might occur during this malicious and destructive test. It is indeed hard for those who haven’t truly cultivated to come through this. Now you can see why I have often told you to read the book more, right? The Fa can break all attachments; the Fa can destroy all evil; the Fa can shatter all lies; and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts.

Those irrational wretches are now under the manipulation of secret agents. As for the ones whose attachments have led them to go along with those people, even if they are able to wake up, it will be hard for them to get another predestined opportunity to cultivate. Dafa is serious, and cultivation is serious. A person must pay for all wrongdoing that he or she does in this world, whoever they are. I do not want to see a single student fall, but I definitely don’t want unqualified disciples, either.

Hongzhi Li
july 5, 2000

Making Clear to All

All Dafa Associations:

It is definitely not wrong to explain the facts of our situation to the Chinese government in a peaceful manner. As cultivators, however, we should absolutely not adopt any overzealous approach or speech. Over the past year, with goodwill you have clarified the truth and explained our situation to the people of the world and governments, and you have done this in a righteous manner.

I am happy for the disciples (magnificent beings) who have been forged by Dafa cultivation. I also hope that in the future while clarifying the truth and petitioning the government they will not in any way neglect the importance of studying the Fa, for all need to progress towards Consummation. I am paying close attention to everything the students are doing and the state of their cultivation. I hope that all of you handle things even better.

Hongzhi Li
july 20, 2000

Rationality

Amidst tribulations, it is very difficult for a student to see the cause of a matter; but it’s not that it is impossible. When he calms his mind and evaluates things with Dafa, he will be able to see the essence of the matter. Some students suggest that the best practice of cultivation is to get placed into a detention center or a labor camp, or get sentenced to jail, in order to validate the Fa. Students, it is not so. Stepping forward to validate the Fa using many different approaches is a magnificent act, but this absolutely does not mean that you have to be arrested by the evil. If that were the case, why would those students who step forward to petition authorities demand the release of all the innocent students who have been arrested, detained, sent to labor camps, or sentenced to jail? Getting arrested is not the goal. Validating Dafa is what’s truly magnificent, and it is to validate Dafa that you step forward. Since you step forward, you should try to succeed at validating the Fa—that is the real goal of stepping forward. When the evil ones ask whether you practice Falun Gong, you may ignore them or use other ways to deflect their questions. Don’t voluntarily let the evil take you away.

At present, there are still some students who claim that my Law Bodies have told them what to do, and so they go to extremes. I have said on many occasions that only fake Law Bodies directly tell students what to do. Furthermore, fake Law Bodies appear only when a student is strongly attached to something. Because the goal of the old forces is to do harm, when a student has a strong attachment his conduct at that time is, strictly speaking, fundamentally an expression of demon nature. It is conduct born of emotions, and not rational, and that is why evil may appear. From now on, beware: those who claim that my Law Bodies have directly told them what to do are in fact all referring to fake Law Bodies.

Your current performance as Dafa disciples is magnificent. All of this is your goodness (shan) made manifest, and it is what evil beings fear most, as those who attack goodness are bound to be evil. The actions they are now adopting in the persecution of Dafa and its students are extremely evil and shameful, and they fear these will be exposed. You must let the world’s people know about their evilness—this is saving people. While eliminating the evil you consummate yourselves and strengthen the Fa’s manifestation in the world. Did you know that everything you are currently doing has already established the most magnificent and eternal mighty virtue for Dafa and Dafa cultivators? When this page of history is turned, the people who remain will see your magnificence, and the future gods will forever remember this magnificent time in history. Validate the Fa with rationality, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa and save people with compassion—this is establishing the mighty virtue of an Enlightened Being.

Hongzhi Li
august 9, 2000

Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s)

Dafa and Dafa students have experienced the most evil, most malicious, destructive trial—something with no historical precedent. Dafa and its students, who have been performing as truly the most magnificent cultivators of a righteous cultivation way, have come through the trial. In the human world, all individuals, organizations, and groups do things in human society in order to achieve something in this world. Dafa disciples, however, are shedding all ordinary human attachments—including the attachment to their human lives—in order to reach the realms of higher beings. This is why we have been able to come through the most evil, most malicious, and most indecent persecution in human history. This is what those evil wretches could not have expected.

Since you are qualified, true cultivators who have met the standard, you cannot be coerced by financial or material threats. Those are things a cultivator needs to let go of anyway. What’s more, these cultivators can even let go of life: how could they fear the threat of death? Although several wretched people are still doing evil, the most evil beings who were at high levels of the cosmic body have been completely eliminated in the process of the Fa’s rectification of the cosmos. The evil ones who are at the most superficial level, that of humankind, will soon have to pay for all of their sins as they are completely eliminated during the Fa’s rectification of the human world.

In mainland China these days, some secret agents who claim that they are Dafa students have been making their way into labor camps and other places where students are being held, with intent of doing harm. They deceive students by claiming that they [the secret agents] have reached Consummation and by other means. They tell the students that the students have reached Consummation and no longer need to practice; that the students should conform to ordinary people as much as possible; that the students should turn in their books, and so on. With this nonsense, they have deceived some students who, in the midst of demonic ordeals, don’t want to stay in the human world and want to achieve Consummation as soon as possible. In the Fa, I have told you to conform with ordinary people as much as possible while cultivating. But I have never said that you should just conform to everyday people [as an ends in itself]. If you are no different from an ordinary person, are you still a cultivator? Dafa disciples—future Buddhas, Daos, and Gods—how can you let those evil, ridiculous buffoons take advantage of any gaps?

It is in fact time to let go of your last attachments. As cultivators, you already know that you should, and in your actions you have, let go of all worldly attachments (including the attachment to the human body) and have made it through the process of letting go of life itself. Then is being attached to Consummation an attachment? Isn’t it another attachment born of human desire? Would a Buddha be attached to Consummation? The cultivators who are truly approaching Consummation don’t in fact have this attachment. In teaching the Fa, I have talked about the principle whereby a school student who does his schoolwork well will naturally be admitted to college, whereas a school student who is attached to being admitted to college but who doesn’t do his schoolwork well won’t be admitted. It isn’t wrong for a cultivator to wish to reach Consummation, but your mind should be on the Fa. While continually cultivating you will unwittingly meet the standard for Consummation. Those Dafa students who are unable to endure the suffering are especially likely to have thoughts of leaving the human world and reaching Consummation soon. This allows the evil to take advantage of their gaps. You have already made it through the most difficult time. So as for your last attachment, you must be sure to let go of it. I know all of the suffering of my disciples. The truth is, I treasure you more than you treasure yourselves! All evil in the cosmos is being eliminated at an unprecedented speed.

Over the past year, students’ own karma, inadequate understanding of the Fa, inability to let go of attachments amidst ordeals, inability to deal with things using righteous thoughts amidst painful trials, and so on, are the main reasons behind the evil’s escalation of the persecution, and are the true fundamental excuses that the evil has used to damage the Fa. Nonetheless, however much a cultivator puts forth in cultivation, that much he will gain upon Consummation. Do you still remember how one time when I was teaching the Fa, a student asked whether a cultivator could cultivate to a celestial rank higher than where his life had originally come into being? If a cultivator can let go of the thought of life and death under any circumstance, evil is sure to be afraid of him. If every student is able to do that, the evil will of itself no longer exist. All of you are aware of the principle of mutual-generation and mutual-inhibition. If you have no fear, the factor that would make you afraid will cease to exist. This is not to be self-imposed, but is achieved by truly and calmly letting go. Whenever I see you suffering, I feel even more troubled than you; whenever you do not take a step well, it really pains my heart. Everything that the evil has done has actually targeted the attachments and fears that you have not let go of. You are future Enlightened Beings who are becoming Buddhas, Daos, and Gods, and you are not concerned with the losses and gains of this world. So you should be able to let go of everything. If you weren’t attached right now to Consummation, the evil would not have been able to take advantage of this final gap.

When those wretches posing as Dafa students try to make you falter, they usually tell you that they are students themselves, that they have reached Consummation, and other nonsense. It’s remarkable that you are able to let go of life and death, but you shouldn’t develop an attachment to Consummation. That would be an omission! It is also exactly the gap that the evil takes advantage of. Since they are saying that they have reached Consummation, ask them to fly up into the sky to show everyone, or ask them to recite a paragraph of Zhuan Falun as a test. One who has reached Consummation is a Buddha, Dao, or God with boundless radiance, and he will have the magnificent image of a divine being, having all of the Buddha Fa’s divine powers; he will no longer have a human appearance. How could those petty buffoons who go to labor camps and act mysterious deceive Dafa disciples? Although they have found several dozen deceivers—dregs of humanity—to put on that disgraceful act, if your mind can be imperturbable there will be nothing you can’t handle.

At present, the evil in the cosmic body has been completely eradicated, and the Fa has finished rectifying the Three Realms. Only the outermost level of matter’s shell is still being broken through. This is happening at a rapid speed, and is approaching the wretches in the human world and the vicious murderers who have beaten to death or injured Dafa disciples (future Buddhas, Daos, and Gods).

Eliminate your last attachment(s). Everything you have accomplished through cultivation has established your infinitely wonderful, and sacred, future celestial ranks. Take every step well, and don’t tarnish what you have attained. Let the part of you that has been fully cultivated glow with an even purer brilliance.

Hongzhi Li
august 12, 2000

Commentary I

The understanding is very good. With regard to the manifestation of thought karma, the damage that the evil forces have brought upon us, and our clarifying the truth to people, we are actively eliminating the demons instead of condoning or passively enduring. But our thoughts and actions must be kind (shan).

Hongzhi Li
october 5, 2000

Suffocate the Evil

China’s labor re-education camps are dark dens of evil forces. Most of the disciplinary guards there are reincarnated minor demons from hell. As for the people who have been “reformed,” it was arranged in history that they would persecute the Fa this way. No matter how well they acted when arrested or beaten, all of that was just setting the stage for their springing forth today to persecute the Fa and confuse students. I hope that students don’t listen to or believe their wicked lies. This has come about because I am purposely allowing them to show themselves so that you may clearly recognize them and have these hidden malignant tumors be removed from among our disciples. All of the students who are clarifying the truth today in order to validate Dafa have done really well. I have thoroughly affirmed this. What they have done is absolutely correct—there is no doubt about this. I hope all of you remain clearheaded.

Hongzhi Li
october 22, 2000, in san francisco

Beyond What Can Be Forborne

Forbearance (ren) is not cowardice, much less is it resigning oneself to adversity. Dafa disciples’ Forbearance is noble; is the manifestation of beings’ magnificent, indestructible, and diamond-like solidity; is tolerance for the purpose of upholding the truth; and is mercy toward and salvation of beings who still have human nature and decent thoughts. Forbearance is absolutely not the limitless giving of free rein, which would allow the evil beings who no longer have any human nature or decent thoughts to do evil without end. With Forbearance, one can give up everything for Truth. But Forbearance does not mean tolerating evil beings that no longer have human nature or righteous thoughts, defying both human and divine laws as they corrupt sentient beings and Dafa’s existence at different levels; much less is it ignoring terrible crimes. Zhen, Shan, Ren is the Fa! And it is the manifestation of the Great Fa of the cosmos at different levels. It is absolutely not some human theory or guiding principle for ordinary human living, as people take it to be. If the evil has reached the point where it is unsavable and unkeepable, then various measures at different levels can be used to stop it and eradicate it.

The Fa’s principles allow for certain things being [branded] beyond forbearable. It is just that because in cultivation Dafa disciples have tests to pass, their xinxing need to be improved, and they need to let go of all ordinary human attachments, that Master has not talked about things being beyond what can be forborn. Disclosing it would create obstacles for disciples in the process of cultivating, and when the evil tests Dafa, they would be unable to handle themselves well. However, the way the evil beings are currently acting shows that they now have absolutely no human nature or decent thoughts. The evil’s persecution of the Fa can thus no longer be tolerated.

Completely eradicating the evil is for the sake of Fa-rectification, and is not a matter of personal cultivation. In personal cultivation there is usually no such thing as “beyond what can be forborn.”

Hongzhi Li
january 1, 2001

A Congratulatory Message

To the Organizers of the Falun Dafa Hong Kong Conference:

Master wishes the Fa conference complete success! At the same time, I would like to thank the government and people of Hong Kong who have given support and made it possible for us to successfully hold this Fa conference.

In return for the support of Hong Kong’s government officials and people, we will definitely pass on the wonderfulness of Falun Dafa to the Hong Kong people.

I hope that our Fa conferences will be conducted better and better. Amidst the persecution, we should help the people of the world to see the facts of the situation and help more people to obtain the Fa, saving the world’s people.

Hongzhi Li
january 14, 2001

To the Florida Fa Conference

To the Coordinators of the Florida Fa Conference:

Greetings! The Florida Fa Conference is the first sizable English-language Fa conference. This is excellent to see. I hope the Fa conference meets with success. I hope that sharing what you have learned will truly enable all of you to improve, and will at the same time show people what Dafa truly is like and allow more people to learn the facts about Dafa, thereby enabling predestined people to obtain the Fa.

Again, I would like to wish this Dafa conference complete success!

Hongzhi Li
january 27, 2001

Rectifying the Colossal Firmament

How much longer can the evil run rampant?

Every being’s volition is fully revealed.

Who is beyond this calamity’s reach?

I laugh at the sight of deities acting so foolishly

Hongzhi Li
february 10, 2001—eighteenth day of the first month, the lunar year of xin si

Coercion Cannot Change People’s Hearts

The steadfast, righteous thoughts of a cultivator transcend all human understandings, transcend all human thinking, and can never be understood by ordinary people. Moreover, they cannot be changed by ordinary people, because human beings are not able to change Enlightened Beings.

The evil has utilized the power in bad people’s hands to create turmoil for nearly two years, using the most base actions ever in human history—whether ancient or modern, Chinese or foreign—and employing all of the most malicious means to persecute Dafa and its cultivators. Its aim is to use coercive measures to change Dafa cultivators’ hearts and have them give up their cultivation. That is futile, however. Never in history have those who persecuted persons of true faith succeeded. All of this is merely a case of evil doings being used to solidify Dafa and remove cultivators’ fundamental attachments, freeing them from the shackles of humanness and karma. All who have been weeded out were not true cultivators. Although the evil beings may run rampant for a brief period while being used, their end is one of utter disgrace, for in the Fa-rectification process they are beings doomed to be weeded out. For over a year, the evil has made use of bad people who act as tools and employ all sorts of torture instruments and methods to beat cruelly and torture Dafa cultivators. Although many people have been beaten to death, beaten to disability, or forcibly consigned to mental asylums, this has still not changed true cultivators’ steadfast, righteous thoughts. [The bad people] produce fake scriptures, don’t allow students to sleep, fabricate charges, frame up students, spread lies, and more. Some students have thus, having been threatened severely, deceived, and pressured terribly by all those indecent means, written things such as so-called “guarantees to stop practicing” or “statements of repentance” when they were not in their right minds and forced. None of those were genuine expressions from the students’ hearts; they were done against their wills. Although they had attachments, were momentarily taken advantage of by the evil, and did what a cultivator should not do, a cultivator ought to be looked at in his entirety. I don’t recognize any of those things. When these students return to their senses, they will immediately start doing again what Dafa students should do during this time; declare as null and void everything they said and wrote when not in their right minds due to intense persecution; and declare that they are committed to cultivation. A large number of declarations from students throughout the country have appeared daily. The evil’s last hope of attempting to change Dafa disciples’ righteous thoughts through coercion and deception has been completely shattered. The evil now has no way to change the determination that Dafa disciples have developed from truly grasping the Fa through cultivation and that comes from their Buddha-nature after the elevation of their innate bodies (benti) in actual cultivation. With that being the case, the evil’s performance has completely turned into a case of malicious people using their power and employing the most base of means to vent their resentment.

The only evil that remains now in Fa-rectification has seen Dafa disciples’ unshakable, steadfast faith, and this has caused it to go mad and lose all reason. Though Dafa disciples don’t get involved in politics or value ordinary human power, the evil’s persecution in China—which ignores all of its consequences—will nevertheless lead people to completely distrust the ruling party and its regime, and to defy the government. The lie-spreading propaganda machine will no longer be able to employ demagoguery. This is because while the evil persecutes Dafa, it has also been arranged that during the campaign the Party’s current head is used to destroy the Party and its regime from within. This is what those being manipulated and the world’s people cannot see clearly. The consequences of their personal resentment are thus inevitable and cannot be avoided. And through this persecution, the world’s people will come to see more clearly everything the evil has done, while Dafa disciples will become more rational and more clearheaded and, with determination and maturation in cultivation, move towards magnificent Consummation.

Hongzhi Li
march 4, 2001

A Message

To the Organizers of the European Fa Conference and All Attendees:

Greetings!

No matter how wicked are the old forces that have utilized evil and arranged this malicious so-called test, they will ultimately be cleaned out in Fa-rectification. Everything that Dafa disciples do at present is resisting the persecution of Dafa and its disciples. Clarifying the truth, at the same time as exposing the evil, restrains the evil and lessens the persecution. And exposing the evil, in turn, purges from people’s minds the poison of the evil’s lies and deception. It is saving people. This is the grandest mercy, because in the future billions of people are to obtain the Fa, and if people’s minds contain thoughts that resist Dafa, once this evil drama is over a large number of people will begin to be weeded out, and people who were destined to obtain the Fa or an even larger number of innocent people might be weeded out. So everything we are currently doing is magnificent, is merciful, and is consummating the end of our path. Validating Dafa and exposing the evil in ordinary society seem much like ordinary tasks. But they are different. Everything that ordinary people do is done out of self-interest, whereas what we do is meant to uphold Dafa. That is what a Dafa disciple should do, and it is without any selfish elements. It is sacred, it is magnificent, and it establishes the magnificent mighty virtue of an Enlightened Being in the face of the real evil—the old forces.

As a Dafa disciple, in order to do Fa-rectification things well and to perfect everything of yours, you need to study the Fa a lot. No matter how busy you are, you cannot skip Fa-study. This is what can best ensure your achieving Consummation. Despite your time being tight and your experiencing many challenges, you are still doing what you should do. This is remarkable and is establishing your own mighty virtue, for you are emerging from the hardships, from the pressures, and from the difficulties.

Once again, I wish the Fa conference complete success!

Hongzhi Li
march 19, 2001

A Suggestion

Some persons who have obtained the Fa and, at this human surface, come to know the meaning of the Fa, have had their lives extended through the Fa. Some have received a great array of benefits such as good health, harmony in the family, indirect benefits to family and friends, a reduction of one’s karma, and even Master’s bearing of things on their behalf. And in other dimensions the person’s physical bodies are being transformed into divine bodies. Despite this, when Dafa is about to consummate you, you are unable to step out of humanness, and when the evil persecutes Dafa you are unable to stand up to affirm Dafa. People who only want to take from Dafa and not give for Dafa are, in the eyes of gods, the worst beings. Moreover, this Fa is the very foundation of the cosmos, so those who today still cannot manage to step forward will be weeded out after this ordeal concludes. Many are people with a strong predestined connection. That is why Master has waited and waited. Also included [in that elimination] will be those who have, during this period, voluntarily assisted the evil in persecuting the Fa after being “reformed,” as it’s put. These people have relatively large amounts of karma and have fundamental attachments to human things, so when surrounded by absurd lies during the so-called “reforming,” they have, in the interest of their attachments and to justify their behavior, gone along with the lies and willingly accepted evil understandings of cultivation while pretending they didn’t want to. If such persons then go and deceive other students, they will have committed the sin of harming the Fa. All who have been “reformed” are persons who couldn’t let go of their attachments to human things and who stepped forward hoping luck would be on their side.

Did you know that I don’t recognize whatsoever this evil test that the old forces arranged? The reason evil beings in low-level dimensions dare to be so fierce is that the beings at the final, highest level of the cosmos who are yet to be dealt with have created a partition. Until the partition is completely destroyed in Fa-rectification, the beings in low-level dimensions and the evil beings in the world cannot see the reality of things, and so they dare to ignorantly commit sinister acts. Those high-level beings are in the last stage of being cleaned out in Fa-rectification. Once [the partition] is broken through, all the evil beings in the world will be cast into hell as the Fa rectifies the human world, and for all eternity they will pay for the sins they committed while persecuting Dafa. There are also some people who claim to have reached Consummation, saying nonsense such as, “There’s no need to practice anymore,” or “There’s no need to study anymore.” If you have achieved Consummation, then fly up into the sky and show us a Buddha’s holy image. If you no longer need to practice, are you still my disciple? A cultivator cannot stop cultivating even at the very last moment before he achieves Consummation. Those people are not demons, but they are doing what demons do. It’s not that Master is not merciful; in the Fa-rectification all beings choose their own path. Those of you who claim to have achieved Consummation: do you have all the magnificent Fa-power of a God or Buddha?

There are also people who say evil things such as, “The real Master is in the heavens,” “We need to break from the Master in the human world,” and “Help Master undo” supposed “knots that are tied to his body.” There is only one Li Hongzhi. I don’t have any assistant souls, nor do I have any of the three souls or seven spirits that ordinary people do. I, myself, am the principal being. The bodies inside my innate body (benti), from the larger ones to the smaller ones, which are made up of particles of different levels and that are in different dimensions, are all directed by my principal being in the human world and follow the thoughts of that principal being in the human world. My Law Bodies are specific manifestations of my wisdom. My Gong Bodies are composites of my boundlessly immense gong. Not acknowledging the Master in the human world is not considering oneself a Dafa disciple. Then such a person is not even a cultivator, much less does he have any business talking about Consummation. The people of the future still need to obtain the Fa. There are billions of people in this world waiting to obtain the Fa after this evil drama is completely wiped out as the Fa rectifies the human world, and what they will study and use will be this Zhuan Falun. The sins committed by both the evil beings and the bad people who destroy the books are so huge that they can never be fully paid for. Those who at different levels manipulate the evil beings and the bad people into persecuting Dafa and its students all have in store for them the endless payment for all that they have done, suffering as they are annihilated layer by layer. Those who voluntarily sign the “reform statements” or who promise in writing not to practice under the pretense of supposedly “giving up the attachment to Consummation” or “giving up human notions” are covering up their true attachments. They even slander and attack Minghui.org, which reports on Dafa positively. The old forces think that a Dafa student who, out of attachment, during this period gives written promise not to cultivate Dafa has determined his own future. If it didn’t truly come from his heart and was the result of coercion, and if he rejoins the Fa-rectification, then there will be greater ordeals, as tests, for him to pass. Even though Master does not recognize the old forces’ arrangements, the consequences are terrifying once you have gone over to the opposite side, and your tens-of-thousands-of-years’ wait will be ruined in an instant. Those who are spreading crooked interpretations under the guise of being Dafa students are, regardless of whether they were students before, doing what demons who harm Dafa do.

In reality, nobody can harm Dafa. Those who have not come through the ordeals are humans. When human beings are no longer good enough they will be re-created, and that is their inexorable doom. I want to do everything I can to save all people of the world and all lives. [Yet these] human beings aren’t able to live up to it, and of their own choosing “enlighten” along an evil path in order to cover up their attachments. If you do not want a future, I will give up on you. I am not attached to anything.

As Dafa disciples, what you should do in the current situation is clarify the truth to the world’s people and expose the evil, thereby safeguarding Dafa. Your own improvement and Consummation are part of this process. Those who do the so-called “reform” work are themselves people who have been deceived. Why not turn the tables and expose the evil and clarify the truth to them? I suggest that all students who they try to forcibly reform (this excludes those who haven’t been taken away for reform) expose the evil and clarify the truth to those persons who do the reform work, and tell them about the causal workings of “good and evil always have consequences.” It is the evil that is afraid of people knowing the truth, not Dafa disciples.

Hongzhi Li
april 10, 2001

Dafa Disciples’ Righteous Thoughts Are Powerful

The evil beings are being destroyed in large numbers in the Three Realms and in the human world. They have seen that they will end in failure, so they make their last-ditch effort even more madly. The most severely persecuted are precisely those students who harbor attachments. The more the fear they harbor, the more the evil targets them. And the overall situation that has come about, in which Dafa is persecuted in the human world, is caused by the grave occurrence of these students being persecuted on a large scale on account of their attachments. Because they could not let go of their attachments they have been so-called “reformed,” and this has led them to do things that help the evil, making the situation severe.

Why should you, a Dafa disciple, fear the evil ones when enduring persecution? The crux of the matter is that you have attachments. If not, do not endure passively, and face the evil people with righteous thoughts at all times. No matter what the situation, do not cooperate with the evil’s demands, orders, or what it instigates. If everyone can do that, circumstances will change.

In fact, some disciples and beings in different realms who are able to use their supernormal abilities in different dimensions have been using their supernormal abilities and gong power (gongli) to take part in eliminating the evil beings that damage Dafa. When some Dafa disciples see evil beings, they send out Falun and divine powers of Dafa to eliminate the evil. There are also students who have set times when the world’s murderers and assailants who beat people will receive retribution. They have effectively eliminated evil factors and restrained the bad people. Actually, every Dafa disciple has abilities. It is just that the abilities don’t manifest in the surface dimension, which leads people to think that they lack them. But regardless of whether they can manifest in the surface dimension, when a person’s True Thoughts come forth they are very powerful. Since we cultivate in a righteous Fa, we should care for and save beings and the people of the world who are good. So we should act with goodness in everything we do. Yet removing the evil beings that manipulate people into damaging humankind is also an act of protecting humankind and sentient beings. Dafa is spreading widely, saving all sentient beings. Although those evil beings who are completely unsalvageable can’t be saved, they nevertheless cannot be allowed to do evil without end and thus persecute Dafa and its students or the people of the world. By eliminating evil one is thus doing Fa-rectification, and it is saving the world’s people and sentient beings.

Hongzhi Li
april 24, 2001

The Disciples’ Magnificence

Dafa disciples are magnificent, because what you are cultivating is the ultimate Great Law of the cosmos; because you have validated Dafa with righteous thoughts; and because you have not fallen during the massive tribulation. Dafa disciples’ doing Fa-rectification has no precedent in history. In the magnificent, grand feats of validating the Fa with rationality, clarifying the truth with wisdom, and spreading the Fa and saving people with mercy, each Dafa disciple’s path to Consummation is being perfected. At this great moment in history, every steady step is a glorious, historic testimony, and is incomparably magnificent mighty virtue. All this is being recorded in the history of the cosmos. The magnificent Fa and the magnificent epoch are forging the most magnificent Enlightened Beings.

Hongzhi Li
may 13, 2001

The Vows of Gods Are Being Fulfilled

Mankind, do not consider Falun Gong insignificant just because it has a qigong² name. In ancient times, all the various schools of thought and all trades and professions in the human world were called “dao.” However, Lao Zi told people that his Dao was different. He said that, “You can call the Dao [I teach] a Dao, but it is not an ordinary Dao; you can give the concept I teach an ordinary name, but it is not an ordinary concept.” When Buddha Shakyamuni taught his Dharma twenty-five hundred years ago, there were eight religions being spread at the same time. The Buddha Fa, the true Way, was thus in their midst.

Man always thinks that when a God or Buddha appears it will be earth-shaking; that as he saves people he will have the glorious appearance of a Buddha; and that with a wave of the hand he will destroy the evil ones who undermine people’s salvation. If that were the case, why wouldn’t the Buddha stay in the heavens and just directly take people away? You should know that those who are to be saved need to pay off, through grueling cultivation, all of the sins and karma that they generated in the past by doing bad things; they need to get rid of their human attachments and all bad things that they carry; and along with this they need to rectify their behavior and thinking. Only then can they be saved. If a Buddha were to appear in all his glory, even the evilest of people would do as he says. Would there still be opportunities to cultivate, then? Even if a person were to cultivate, it wouldn’t be good enough, for a cultivator also has to eliminate his sins and karma during arduous cultivation, and, after being purified, move towards Consummation.

In reality, when all ordinary people see a God or Buddha appearing in full glory, it means that something major is unfolding in the human world, and will very likely be the time when man is to pay for his sins. When a Buddha, Dao, or God saves the people of this world, he certainly must descend to the world and walk the earth with a human image and use human language to make his teachings known. Moreover, when an Enlightened Being descends to the world, it is usually at a time when people’s morals are declining by the day, when people’s sins and karma are enormous, or when people’s values have been corrupted. Once the saved ones have gained the Fa and left, the dregs of humanity and the degenerate world will be eliminated.

Hongzhi Li
may 13, 2001

No Politics

“Politics” is a term of the modern, warped society. True human societies in history did not have this term or what “politics” signifies. By the time politics appeared in human society, society had begun to warp, and moral values were then assailed by politics. Also, what motivated people to go into politics was a desire for status and personal gain. Back then human society’s moral values were still quite strong and everyone from that era was immersed in that environment, and only because of that, the people who were in politics then didn’t overtly behave as unscrupulously as those in politics today. So politics has been filthy since its inception. But there have indeed been some upstanding persons in the political world who are concerned about the country and the people, though they are only a drop in the ocean.

Then there are those upstanding resisters who go against evil regimes that would destroy the country and ruin the people. People also regard them as political, since they have explicit political stances. Although people think that those persons’ stances are just, political activity is, after all, the product of a warped society. Had today’s human society not warped as such, politics would not have appeared.

Dafa disciples’ cultivation surpasses what is human; they are cultivators who have grasped the truths of higher realms; and what they understand transcends the realm of ordinary people. Any understanding below the realm of the higher Fa-principles is no longer the Truth of the cosmos. Every Dafa disciple is clear about this in his cultivation, so even less should he mix ordinary human politics into Fa-rectification. The ordeals that Dafa disciples endure are part of Fa-rectification and cultivation. Exposing the evil and clarifying the truth to the people of the world is merely to show them the persecution that Dafa and the disciples have endured, and its ultimate purpose is to save the world’s people; to get rid of the poison in sentient beings’ minds that the evil has infused; and to rescue them from the danger of being weeded out in the future due to their hostility toward Dafa. Doing this—saving sentient beings even while enduring persecution—demonstrates the extraordinary compassion of Dafa disciples. Putting it another way, how could Gods and Buddhas get involved in human politics? Even less would Gods and Buddhas affirm the politics that come about in a warped human society.

Human society is a good place for cultivation, for everything here can lead to attachments. Precisely because of this, a person who is able to transcend this place and get rid of all his attachments to human society is magnificent and can achieve Consummation.

Hongzhi Li
june 4, 2001

Commentary II

This article is very well written. It addresses specific issues, particularly ones related to current circumstances. I hope everyone is able to handle correctly what it discusses.

Hongzhi Li
june 5, 2001

Note: The above is in regards to a practitioner’s article, entitled, “Do Not Forget Cultivation Amidst Fa-Rectification While Eradicating the Evil,” run by Minghui.org the same day.

The Two Hand Positions for Sending Righteous Thoughts

June 12, 2001

What Are Supernormal Abilities

Supernormal abilities are also called divine powers. Contemporary people call them extraordinary abilities. Supernormal abilities are in fact beings’ innate abilities. The higher a being’s level, the more fully his innate abilities can take effect; conversely, the lower a being’s level, the harder it is for his innate abilities to take effect, or to take full effect. The fundamental reason is that in this cosmos, from the highest level to the lowest level, the lower it gets, the greater its specific gravity relative to everything in that realm that has matter, the larger the grains of the particles are, and the more weight beings have to carry; the lower it gets, the more the beings’ innate abilities (supernormal abilities) are restrained by matter itself, and the more heavy this restraint, the less effective the abilities are. That is why the lower the level, the lesser the abilities. In the human dimension, all the innate abilities of beings have been buried; thus their innate abilities (supernormal abilities) cannot work. So if humans do something or want to get something, they have to rely solely on working their matter-comprised bodies. Man cannot see the true state of the cosmos because he is completely buried in matter. That is why it’s said that the human dimension is one of delusion.

As for a cultivator, the higher the level he cultivates to, the greater his abilities. That is because the more levels of cosmos he breaks through, the less and lighter matter’s weight on his being is, the stronger are his innate abilities (supernormal abilities), and the greater the number and the more comprehensive are his abilities that are freed. I have taught in the Fa that in Dafa cultivation one’s supernormal abilities are developed the most comprehensively because Dafa disciples will cultivate to higher levels. The higher the level one breaks through to, the more he is freed from matter, and that will be when his innate abilities (supernormal abilities) fully show themselves. Dafa disciples have been bringing their supernormal abilities into full play in Fa-rectification. For instance, while doing Fa-rectification, when [the disciples’] righteous thoughts are very pure, their supernormal abilities are comprehensively utilized. Moreover, many disciples are able to use their righteous thoughts at will—whatever they want to use, they almost always have it. For example, to immobilize those wicked evildoers that persecute Dafa disciples, they just need to say, “freeze” or “stay there and don’t move,” or point to the group of evildoers, and then they definitely won’t be able to move. Afterwards they just need to think “release,” and it will be lifted. You can actually use your will to command those evil ones who have no human nature—such as those evildoers, who are worse than beasts and who beat people to death or rape female Dafa disciples—as well as the chief evil ones. The wicked evildoers will do whatever you dictate.

A being’s level is determined by his xinxing. So it follows that when you use supernormal abilities, your righteous thoughts must be strong. An inadequate state of mind—such as fearing the evil, having unsteady thoughts when you use your supernormal abilities, or doubting whether they will work—can affect or compromise the effect of the supernormal abilities.

Consummation is the conclusion of a Dafa disciple’s cultivation, while Fa-rectification is a Dafa disciple’s mission. For a Dafa disciple, Consummation is only a matter of the time of return, whereas Fa-rectification is about the future. The future of the cosmos that beings at different levels have seen does not in fact exist and is an illusion. At present, humankind’s every day is arranged according to Dafa’s needs; Dafa disciples’ performance in the human world is to be passed down to history. At different times in the future, if in the cosmos harm to Dafa occurs or beings exhibit different behaviors, how Dafa will rectify the Fa and make everything perfect and indestructible will be extremely important. Everything Dafa disciples are doing at present is creating the future, and right now everything in the Three Realms exists for Dafa. When Dafa has consummated everything amidst the ordeal, all of the evil that persecutes Dafa will be finished.

Hongzhi Li
june 14, 2001

To All Students at the Nordic Fa Conference

All Students at the Nordic Fa Conference:

For Dafa disciples, Consummation is the conclusion of cultivation, and Fa-rectification is the great responsibility history has bestowed upon you during the Fa-rectification period. So during the current process of clarifying the truth and exposing the evil, everything we do is embodying Dafa. Whether we are clarifying the truth, exposing the evil, or participating in other Dafa activities, including our Fa conferences, we should demonstrate Dafa disciples’ mercy as well as the goodness that Fa-rectification cultivation brings out. I would like to wish the Fa conference complete success.

Meanwhile, I hope that the students in Europe can be more like the students in North America; every student should, in addition to participating in group activities, in his daily life fully take the initiative of a Dafa disciple, establish his own mighty virtue in the process of clarifying the truth, and do well on his own Dafa disciple’s path. So in clarifying the truth, don’t wait, don’t rely on others, and don’t just hope for changes in external factors. Every one of us is making history for the future, and that is why each person should, in addition to participating in group activities, proactively look for things he or she can work on. As long as something is good for Dafa, you should take the initiative to do it, take the initiative to work on it. Every person you come into contact with in society is someone to clarify the truth to, and what is demonstrated in clarifying the truth is Dafa disciples’ compassion and their salvation of the world’s people. I hope that every Dafa disciple fully takes initiative and fully plays his role as a Dafa disciple. Once again, I would like to wish the Fa conference complete success.

Take note: no matter how busy you are, you cannot neglect Fa-study. It is what fundamentally assures that you move toward Consummation and do Dafa work well.

Hongzhi Li
june 17, 2001

Dafa Is Indestructible

Why are Dafa disciples ruthlessly tortured by the evil? Because they persist in their righteous faith in Dafa, and because they are particles of Dafa. Why did Fa-rectification have to be done? Because the beings in the cosmos no longer met the standard. As a Dafa disciple, your steadfast, righteous thoughts should be absolutely unshakable, because your renewed being is formed precisely amidst the Fa-rectification. But in order to achieve everything they have wanted to, the old, evil forces in the cosmos have directly taken part in persecuting Dafa, Dafa disciples, and sentient beings by continuously using the evil arrangements that they contrived and that don’t conform to the true Fa-principles of the cosmos; and they have taken advantage of the unremoved notions that are at Dafa disciples’ human surface, and Dafa disciples’ karma, to make their righteous thoughts falter. As a result, some students haven’t been able to endure amidst the agony of the persecution, and have done what a Dafa disciple absolutely should not and cannot do. That is a disgrace to Dafa.

Master wants to save all sentient beings. But the evil forces are truly committing sins against Dafa by using all sentient beings, with the ultimate purpose of destroying them. Once a Dafa disciple has done what he shouldn’t do, if he fails to truly realize its severity and redeem the losses he has brought to Dafa, everything and that millions upon millions of years’ wait will be fulfilled according to the vows made before history. As a Dafa disciple, everything of yours is formed by Dafa and is the most righteous, and it can only be that [you] rectify everything that is not righteous. How could you bow to the evil? How could you promise something to the evil? Even if it doesn’t truly come from your heart, it is still giving in to the evil. This is poor conduct even for human beings, and divine beings absolutely would not do such a thing. Even if a Dafa cultivator truly casts off his human skin during the persecution, what awaits him is still Consummation. At the same time, no attachment or fear could possibly enable you to reach Consummation. And any attachment of fear is itself a barrier that prevents you from achieving Consummation, and is also a factor in your being “reformed” over to the evil side and in your betrayal.

I can tell you, all of the natural and man-made disasters that have been happening in mainland China are warnings for the sins the beings there have committed against Dafa. If they don’t come to realize it, then the real catastrophe(s) will begin. Among the evil ones who have sinned against Dafa, those who are no longer useful in the evil “test” of Dafa disciples have begun to meet with retribution for their evil. From now on this will happen on a large scale. The most evil ones, though, will be used until the very end, because there continue to be Dafa disciples stepping forward, and the evil old forces need to use those [evil ones] to continue to test Dafa disciples. That is why the most wicked evildoers are still rampantly doing evil.

A Dafa disciple should completely negate everything arranged by the evil old forces. Clarify the truth thoroughly, eliminate the evil with righteous thoughts, save all beings, and safeguard the Fa with determination, because you are a part of Dafa, solid and indestructible; rectify all that is not righteous. Those who are “reformed” and those being saved are beings who were deceived by the evil [and not Dafa disciples]; those who are being eliminated are the evil beings and the evil old forces; those who are reaching Consummation through all this are Dafa disciples, and through all of this Dafa’s mighty virtue is established.

Hongzhi Li
june 23, 2001

Deciphering the Last Three Stanzas of the Plum Blossom Poem³

the eighth

Worldly affairs are like a chess game,
whose final phase arrives early
They work together with a common goal,
yet disaster descends
The leopard has died, but its skin remains
The best autumn scenery is in Chang’an

the ninth

The fire dragon wakes from hibernation,
bringing Yan Gate sorrow
The original jade meets with calamity,
and Zhao withdraws
A courtyard of brilliant flowers,
in spring there’s a master
Let not a full-night’s windstorm
be cause for worry

the tenth

Dots of plum blossoms herald
the arrival of spring in Heaven and on Earth
To know the future,
inquire of causes with Bo and Fu
Peaceful days will naturally
come to this world
He makes home of wherever he is;
who is host and who guest?

---

“Worldly affairs are like a chess game,
whose final phase arrives early”

Explanation: Things in the world have always been like a chess game, with the wicked international alliance of communist countries on one side and free societies on the other. Ten years ago the game reached the point of defeat for the side of the wicked communist regimes.

“They work together with a common goal, yet disaster descends”

Explanation: The wicked international alliance of communist regimes has completely disintegrated. Ninety percent of its countries have abandoned wicked communism. And that has truly spelled imminent disaster for the evil Communist Party.

“The leopard has died, but its skin remains”

Explanation: The Soviet Union was like a leopard. The malevolent communist system has disintegrated, but its skin still exists, superficially, and the Chinese regime has inherited it. [You can say that] because today’s Chinese people no longer believe in communism either; it is merely that those in power in China want to use the form of the malevolent Communist Party to maintain their regime.

“The best autumn scenery is in Chang’an”

Explanation: China’s current leaders themselves don’t believe in the CCP. Their specific purpose is to use the superficial form of the malevolent CCP to keep hold of power. That is why they do everything possible to build the façade of a “great situation.” No matter how beautiful the “best autumn scenery” is (which is also the Party’s final hour), autumn scenery naturally doesn’t last long. Chang’an refers to China’s [ancient] capital, and here it refers to China in a general sense.

“The fire dragon wakes from hibernation, bringing Yan Gate sorrow”

Explanation: In the lowest dimension of the heavens, the malevolent CCP manifests as an evil red dragon. This line alludes to the events of June 4, [1989,] where students and many others were massacred in Tiananmen Square after petitioning the government.

“The original jade meets with calamity, and Zhao withdraws”

Explanation: “The original jade” is a general reference to China, which has a five-thousand-year history. It met with the calamity I just described. Zhao Ziyang⁴ was thus attacked and suppressed.

“A courtyard of brilliant flowers, in spring there’s a master”

Explanation: Before July 20, 1999, Falun Dafa disciples were everywhere in mainland China, spread throughout the country and wearing Falun Gong pins; posters of Dafa’s Falun could be seen everywhere. They looked like beautiful flowers. “The spring has her master” means that in the spring of a certain year, the persecuted Dafa disciples will meet their Master in an open and dignified manner.

“Let not a full-night’s windstorm
be cause for worry”

Explanation: In light of history, the persecution of Dafa disciples is, no matter how rampant the evil gets, nothing to worry about. It is just like a full night’s windstorm, where as soon as the windstorm is over, the sky will be bright and clear.

“Dots of plum blossoms herald the arrival
of spring in Heaven and on Earth”

Explanation: The Dafa disciples who have come through the test of the harsh winter are found all throughout the world and mainland China, like the plum blossoms that brave frost and snow, telling of spring’s arrival. That is the moment when the Fa will rectify the human world.

“To know the future, inquire of causes with Bo and Fu”

Explanation: “Bo” and “Fu” are two divinatory terms. When “Bo” reaches the extreme, “Fu” is bound to happen. It means that things reverse when they reach the extreme. History is like a revolving (zhuan) wheel (lun), and there are sure to be consequences for what transpired before. All of human history was arranged for the Fa-rectification.

“Peaceful days will naturally come to this world”

Explanation: Having gone through all manner of tests from the evil, Dafa disciples move toward a wonderful future as the evil dies out.

“He makes home of wherever he is;
who is host and who guest?”

Explanation: Ever since Master came to the public in 1992 to teach the Fa, he has spent much of his time traveling far and wide to teach the Fa, and he has made his home wherever he is. The second half of this line, “who is the host and who is the guest,” alludes to the question of who is [really] the host and who is [really] the guest—that is, on the stage of history, who is playing the supporting role and who is playing the lead role? Even this human civilization was made for Dafa, created for Dafa.

Hongzhi Li
july 3, 2001

Note: Orally relayed by Master impromptu and recorded by students.

Fa-Rectification and Cultivation

The article, “What Is True Kindness?” discusses with much clarity the question of how to balance Fa-rectification and cultivation. For Dafa disciples things are different in Fa-rectification than in personal cultivation, which was done in the past. Faced with unjustified harm, faced with persecution of Dafa, and faced with the injustices done to us, we cannot handle things or categorically accept things as before in personal cultivation, for Dafa disciples are now in the Fa-rectification period. If a problem was not caused by our own attachments or mistakes, then it must be that the evil is interfering or doing bad things.

Yet we are still cultivating and still have some last ordinary human attachments. When a problem arises, we have to examine ourselves first to see whether things are right or wrong on our part. If we determine that it is interference or harm, then as we deal with the specific problem we should try our best to be calm and show kindness to the surface-level person, for people usually are not aware of it when being used by the evil. (The people who are used, however, are usually either persons whose thoughts are bad or persons who have bad thoughts arising.) As for the interference by evil in other dimensions, we must seriously eradicate it with righteous thoughts.

Hongzhi Li
july 8, 2001

Note: The above is in regards to a practitioner’s article run by Minghui.org on the same day.

The Effect of Righteous Thoughts

The new cosmos is incomparably wonderful and infinitely massive amidst the Fa-rectification, as the entire colossal firmament is made up of tens of millions of incomparably massive cosmic systems, and the great majority of the enormous cosmic systems that have been rectified by the Fa have entered the new era. At present, the places where the evil is able to do bad things are, however, places that have not been reached by the Fa-rectification’s massive, transformative force. These are exactly the places where Dafa disciples’ righteous thoughts have an effect, even though the state of things in such places is extremely complicated and degenerate.

Before the Fa-rectification, the old forces crammed the lowest-level section of each of those tens of millions of remote cosmic systems into the Three Realms of the central cosmic system where we are. Seemingly, this was to prevent them from being left out of the Fa-rectification and to show that they took part in Fa-rectification. In reality, they were using Fa-rectification to reach their selfish goals. Because the places at higher levels of the cosmic colossal firmament are being cleaned up, destroyed, or assimilated extremely rapidly by the immense force of Fa-rectification, every minute there are countless immense universes that are being swept through by the force of Fa-rectification and at the same time being quickly rectified by the Fa. Yet, these countless universes make up cosmic bodies, and countless gigantic cosmic bodies make up cosmic systems. So, because the lowest levels that are connected to these cosmic systems are pressed into our Three Realms, even though their dimensions shrank after they were crammed in, the time and structure inside didn’t change. That is why when an entire enormous system, which is made up of countless universes and countless cosmic bodies, has been completely rectified up there by the Fa, only one of the partitions formed by the sections that have been pressed into our Three Realms can be eliminated. But the speed of Fa-rectification is extremely fast, rapidly breaking through layer upon layer. Since the cosmic colossal firmament is so gigantic, no matter how rapidly this is done or how much it transcends all times and dimensions, it still requires a process. It is already as fast as possible, save for exploding things and reconstructing them, in which case there would be no point in doing Fa-rectification. So those countless foreign systems formed tens of millions of dimensional partitions in the Three Realms, and the partitions became different domains of power, thereby harboring many evil beings. Some beings and objects have even been segmented into many layers, almost with particles of each layer segmented into a separate layer. The Three Realms had countless dimensions to begin with. Now tens of millions of countless dimensions like this have been added. This has made the Fa-rectification more difficult and the situation more complex. Sometimes the evil beings were clearly eliminated when Dafa disciples sent forth righteous thoughts, but then they were found to still exist in some of the segments and were continuing to do bad things. So, this is why some evil beings can be eliminated in one shot when Dafa disciples send forth righteous thoughts, while others cannot be eliminated so easily and it even takes many rounds. This is the case for those chief evil ones in mainland China. But no matter how hard it is, you must determinedly eliminate the evil with righteous thoughts, because while eliminating the evil, Dafa disciples are establishing their magnificent mighty virtue in the Fa-rectification. The effect you have had eliminating the evil with righteous thoughts is truly significant. A great number of evil beings have been eliminated, and some partially eliminated. It has sapped them of their vitality, has eradicated the evil in many dimensions not yet reached by the Fa-rectification, and has had the effect of removing and frightening evil persons. Regardless of how complex the dimensions are or how rampant the evil is, those are only outward manifestations before the arrival of the incomparably immense force of Fa-rectification. When the force of Fa-rectification arrives, everything will end in an instant.

I have asked disciples to send forth righteous thoughts, because, [even though] those so-called evil beings are really nothing at all, the old forces have taken advantage of Dafa disciples’ mercy, and the evil beings that are protected by the old forces have been deliberately persecuting us. Thus what Dafa disciples are enduring is no longer just their own karma, but also things that they should not endure under the evil beings’ persecution. Moreover, those evil beings are extremely base and filthy, and not worthy of playing any role in Fa-rectification. It was in order to lessen the persecution of Dafa and Dafa disciples that I asked my disciples to send forth righteous thoughts and end the harm that those beings deliberately do to the Fa-rectification, thereby lessening what Dafa disciples should not endure during the persecution and, at the same time, saving sentient beings and consummating Dafa disciples’ paradises.

Hongzhi Li
july 16, 2001

On “The Dignity of Dafa”

The ideas in this disciple’s article are excellent. This is how Fa-rectification is different from personal cultivation. It also demonstrates the solid foundation built in the disciple’s personal cultivation. If you are without the Goodness (Shan) that a Dafa disciple has, then you are not a cultivator. If a Dafa disciple cannot validate the Fa, then he is not a Dafa disciple. While exposing the evil you are also saving sentient beings and consummating your own paradises.

Hongzhi Li
july 17, 2001

Note: The above is in regards to an article run by Minghui.org on the same day.

Dafa Is All-Encompassing

Human society is one level created by the Great Fa, so at this level there are bound to be standards of existence that the Fa has set for this level of sentient beings as well as principles for human conduct at this level. The Three Realms are the inversion of everything in the cosmos, however, so the Fa’s laws have provided beings at this level with inverted principles suitable for the existence of ordinary people, such as conquering the world with military force, the victor governing the country, acquiring food by killing, the strong being heroes, and so on. Along with concepts of a good person, a bad person, war, etc., such things have given rise to ordinary human principles and people’s understandings. All of these are wrong when viewed in light of the righteous principles and truths at high levels of the cosmos. So a cultivator needs to cast aside all notions and principles of ordinary people, and only then can he cultivate to a high level and break out of the Three Realms—an inversion of the cosmos. Were ordinary people also to overturn all such concepts and use the righteous Fa-principles of high levels in the cosmos to set requirements for and evaluate humankind or everything in the Three Realms, then the Three Realms would be governed by righteous Fa-principles, human society would cease to exist, and the human condition would be no more. It would be a world of gods, and human illusion and the opportunity human beings have to cultivate would disappear. That isn’t allowed to happen, because high-level beings’ garbage has to drop down, and human society is the garbage dump of the cosmos. For the beings here to exist, there has to be a way of existence for this level; and that way is the requirements and conditions for existence that Dafa created for the sentient beings here.

In high-level cosmic bodies, Great Enlightened Beings’ paradises and lives are born of righteous Fa-principles or are consummated through cultivating with righteous Fa-principles. Everything of theirs conforms to the righteous Fa-principles. An Enlightened Being is the King of his paradise, but he doesn’t rule in the way humans think of ruling; he benevolently takes care of all sentient beings in his paradise with the Zhen-Shan-Ren righteous Fa-principles. Whereas humans’ conquering the world with military force and the strong being heroes are the principles that the cosmos’s Dafa has for this human level. Since the Three Realms is an inversion, so too are humans’ principles inverted understandings when compared to the righteous Fa-principles of the cosmos. So violent behavior such as this—“conquering the world with military force” and “the strong are heroes”—has become righteous human-principles. Because gods control everything of humankind, and wars, the strong, and victory and defeat are objectives that gods want to reach, the strong and heroes are anointed by gods as “heroes” and “the strong,” and they enjoy human honors, which are rewards for humans. Only cultivators who cultivate a righteous Fa should break out of these principles. So how should a Dafa cultivator who cultivates in ordinary human society handle all of the specific things he encounters? If Dafa is being cultivated in ordinary human society, and the number of cultivators is great, they have to maximally conform to the way of ordinary human society while cultivating. Not doing so would change ordinary human society. However, even though you have understood from the Fa-principles that I taught that you should cultivate while maximally conforming to ordinary human society, when you come across certain specific matters, you still don’t have a clear understanding of many things, such as the matter of being a soldier. Soldiers go into combat, and going into combat requires training. What they are trained in are ways to kill people, and in real battles they do kill people. You need to understand that this is wrong by the righteous Fa-principles, but it’s not wrong by ordinary people’s principles, or else human principles would be righteous Fa-principles. Without suffering, people wouldn’t be able to get rid of the karma they have generated among humans. If humans didn’t kill, humans would have no meat to eat; and humans need to eat meat. So humans create karma in the process of acquiring food, yet meat-eating is only one way by which they generate karma. Humans generate karma by merely living in this world—it’s only a question of how much. But in the human world there are also factors that allow karma to be repaid, such as disease, natural disasters, and war. A person’s painful death in war can eliminate karma for that being, it can eliminate sins, and in his next incarnation he won’t have karma and will enjoy a good life. An ordinary person’s kindness isn’t manifest in not generating karma when acquiring food for survival, but rather, it manifests in not keeping count of others’ wrongs, not holding grudges, not getting jealous, not deliberately seeking revenge, not killing people, not taking innocent life irrationally, and not harming life intentionally. If someone’s acquiring food is merely for survival, he generates karma but is not at fault. And wars are planned by gods. But if someone takes an innocent life for some other reason, then neither the cosmos’s righteous Fa-principles nor human principles will allow it. With violations of this sort, gods will use humans to punish those who irrationally take that life. If a large being is killed by someone, then that person’s sins and karma become enormous, especially when it’s a human being who is killed. So when someone has generated such karma he has to pay it off. As for cultivators, when they painfully temper themselves in arduous cultivation, they too are paying off the karma they generated in the past. The sins and karma from those beings’ mental suffering can be paid for through the challenges and pains of cultivation. But as for the very real, awful situation the beings are in, their painful enduring, and their material loss after they are killed, the cultivator will have to, in the process of consummating everything of his own, save those beings or repay them with blessings using the fruits of his cultivation. Then from that perspective, the compensation the killed beings receive far exceeds what they would have received among humans. And this has thus settled malevolent relations with benevolent solutions. On the other hand, if the cultivator cannot achieve his ultimate rank and doesn’t succeed at cultivation, in the future he will have to pay with his own life, via awful retribution, for all the beings he killed. So the first condition is that the cultivator has to be able to achieve Consummation. If those who cannot achieve Consummation take life while claiming, “I will release them from purgatory,” they will in fact be doubly guilty. At present there are Dafa practitioners who are soldiers. Being a soldier is a human profession, and the governments of certain countries require men of age to serve in the military. Because you are cultivating among ordinary people, you can, unless you have a special reason, in this situation go along to the maximum extent with what ordinary human society requires of you. There might not necessarily be any wars while you are a soldier. There is no kindness (shan) in the battle cries shouted by soldiers during their training, so a Dafa disciple can just think of them as aimed at the evil that persecutes Dafa disciples. If a war really breaks out, Dafa disciples might not necessarily have to go to the front lines since they have Master looking after them. If you really have to go to the front lines, then perhaps it is like the karmic relationship in which Milarepa’s⁵ master had him do bad deeds to obtain benevolent results. Of course, I’m discussing Fa-principles here; normally that won’t happen. But the Fa is all-powerful, and with everything it is perfectly all-encompassing. And after all, cultivators have Master looking after them. Everything you, a cultivator, encounter is related to your cultivation and Consummation or else those things absolutely would not exist. Doing your job well in ordinary human society is not merely for the sake of cultivation or to display Dafa disciples’ goodness among everyday people, but is also to safeguard the Fa-principles that Dafa has created for ordinary human society.

Having a stable job also prevents a cultivator from being held up, due to problems of food and shelter or survival, in his cultivation, in his spreading the Fa without worries, or in his clarifying the truth and saving the world’s people. In every one of society’s professions a person can cultivate, and in each there are people with predestined connections waiting to obtain the Fa.

Hongzhi Li
july 30, 2001

Fa-Rectification Period Dafa Disciples

A Dafa disciple who fails to achieve the effect of safeguarding and upholding Dafa has no way of achieving Consummation, for Dafa disciples’ cultivation is different from that of the past and the future. Therein lies the magnificence of a Dafa disciple. Since Master has borne for you almost everything in history, during the Fa-rectification period disciples must not depart until the Fa-rectification is over. The process by which you come to, as you cultivate, meet the standard for your own Consummation is thus an important one. If everything in history were not borne for you, it would be fundamentally impossible for you to do cultivation; if everything were not borne for the sentient beings in the cosmos, they would have disintegrated with the passage of history; if everything were not borne for the people of the world, they would not have the opportunity to remain in this world today. Over the course of prehistory, everything of yours was being created, all along, according to how magnificent the disciples would be in the Fa-rectification period. So, it was arranged that when you reached the standard for ordinary Consummation, you would still have, in the human world, karma as well as a variety of ordinary human thoughts. This was done so that while doing Fa-rectification things you could bring in, through clarifying the truth and for the consummation of your paradises, beings that could be saved. As you consummate your own paradises you are simultaneously eliminating the last of your karma, gradually removing your human thoughts, and truly transcending humanness. And most fundamentally, you all still need to establish your great mighty virtue in the process of shattering the old forces’ persecution and return to your highest positions. So this is not a matter of achieving Consummation in ordinary realms, nor is it achievable in ordinary Consummation. It might seem that you have done what you should do for Dafa, when actually, you are doing it for your comprehensive Consummation and return. If during this period you cannot do well with what you should do, this Consummation stage can only be a cultivation process, and it cannot fundamentally be a Fa-rectification disciple’s true and final Consummation. If during the evil’s persecution a Dafa disciple doesn’t do well or slacks off, it is very possible all of his previous efforts will have been for nothing.

Actually, there are a few students who have always been reluctant to do things that are for destroying the evil and clarifying the truth—as if that would be doing something for Master, or as if that would be putting in extra for Dafa. As soon as you heard me say that you had reached the standard for Consummation, you felt as though a big burden had been lifted, you let up, and didn’t want to do anything further, instead of taking what Master told you—something so sacred—to be motivation for becoming more diligent. If you are still unclear about what a Fa-rectification disciple is, you won’t be able to step forward in the current ordeal, and you will be led along by the human world’s pursuit of comfort and arrive at crooked understandings. Master’s heart has always been pained by those who have fallen, and the majority were ruined by that pursuit. Did you know that Fa-rectification disciples who fail to come through the Fa-rectification period will not have another chance to cultivate, because throughout history you have already been given all that is best? Today you have barely had any hardship in your personal cultivation, and you haven’t been asked to bear the enormous sins that you committed over your many lifetimes. Meanwhile, I have enabled you to raise your levels in the fastest ways; kept everything good from your past; replenished things for you with what is better at every level; always given you in cultivation all the most magnificent things of every realm; and have made it possible for you to return after Consummation to your highest realm’s position. These are the things that can be made known to you. There is more, which you cannot know about at this time. Dafa disciples are magnificent because they are here during the period of Master’s Fa-rectification and are able to safeguard and uphold Dafa. If what you do is no longer worthy of a Dafa disciple, think about it, if when shown the greatest mercy since the beginning of Heaven and Earth and blessed with Buddha’s infinite grace you still can’t do well, how could there be another chance? Cultivation and Fa-rectification are serious. Whether you are able to treasure this period of time is, in fact, a matter of whether you can be responsible to yourselves. This period of time won’t last long, but it can forge the mighty virtue of magnificent Enlightened Beings, Buddhas, Daos, and Gods of different levels, and even Lords of different levels. It can also destroy overnight a cultivator who has reached a really high level but who has become less strict with himself. Disciples, be diligent! Everything that is the most magnificent and wonderful is developed in the process of your validating Dafa. Your vows will become a testament in your future.

Hongzhi Li
august 15, 2001

Also in a Few Words

Though the article “Good People” may not use many words, it illustrates an underlying principle. Indestructible righteous faith in the cosmos’s Truth forms benevolent Dafa disciples’ rock-solid, Diamond-Like Bodies, it frightens all evil, and the light of Truth it emanates makes the unrighteous elements in all beings’ thoughts disintegrate. However strong the righteous thoughts are, that’s how great the power is. Dafa disciples are truly stepping forward out of ordinary humanness.

Hongzhi Li
september 8, 2001

Note: This is a commentary on the article “In a Few Words: Good People,” which was written by a Dafa disciple and published on Minghui.org on the same day.

Path

Studying the Fa and doing cultivation are a person’s own affair. Yet often there are quite a few students who consistently take other people as their role models; they look at how other people do things and then follow suit. This is a kind of poor behavior developed among ordinary people. A cultivator has no role models. The path each person is to take is different, because everyone’s foundation is different, the sizes of their various attachments are different, the characteristics of their beings are different, their jobs among ordinary people are different, their family environments are different, and so on. These factors determine that each person’s path of cultivation is different, that how they get rid of their attachments is different, and that the sizes of their tests are different. Therefore, amidst the manifestations of things it is very unlikely you will find a path that others have made, and even less is it possible for someone to get a ride down one. If there really were pre-made paths and effortless rides, that definitely would not be cultivation.

Ever since Dafa’s introduction, there have been people who have watched others—“whatever others do, that’s what I will do”—instead of using the Fa to measure whether something is right or wrong. When they see that some people’s health problems are cured through cultivating Dafa, they get enthused; when they see that some people no longer practice, they waver; when they see that there are 100 million people cultivating Dafa across the country, they think it must be something good and follow others to learn it; when they see that the evil has begun to attack, suppress, and persecute Dafa, and that television and radio have crafted lies to frame Dafa, they start to waver and get anxious. Cultivation is hard. It’s hard in that even when terrible calamity strikes, even when evil madly persecutes, and even when your life is at stake, you still have to steadfastly continue on your path of cultivation and not let anything in human society interfere with the steps you take on your path of cultivation.

Dafa disciples are now right in the midst of the Fa-rectification period, and the old forces’ performance has formed the most fundamental and most severe test of Dafa disciples. Whether one makes it or not is a matter of putting Dafa and each Dafa disciple’s sense of responsibility to himself into action. And a person’s ability to step forward to validate Dafa while breaking and eliminating the evil becomes a testament about [letting go of] life and death; becomes verification of whether a Fa-rectification disciple can achieve Consummation; and becomes what differentiates a god from a human being. Safeguarding and upholding the Fa is only natural for a Dafa disciple. So at this moment in history, when we truly have a situation in which evil persecutes Dafa, a Dafa disciple will definitely step forward to validate the Fa in response to the persecution. In this situation, when some students see others step forward to validate the Fa, they follow along; when they see that others are not stepping forward, they don’t step forward either; when they are beaten or are being “reformed,” and see others give in to the evil’s pressure and write some so-called “promise to stop practicing,” they too write one, which is the result of not being able to understand things according to the Fa. Can you imagine what it means for a cultivator if that stain isn’t washed clean? The current evil persecution has been imposed on Dafa and the disciples by the old forces. Isn’t everything that is done to resist the persecution the most magnificent display of Dafa disciples being responsible to Dafa and to themselves? This is not the first time in the course of the degenerating history that evil forces have persecuted cultivators. Isn’t this a recurrence of what Jesus experienced in his day? Didn’t Buddha Shakyamuni experience this, too? If there actually are paths that can serve as a reference, then haven’t what the previous Enlightened Beings went through and today’s evil occurred in the same way? Although they differ in their specific manifestations, they all aim to break the will of those who cultivate in a righteous Fa. In the ordinary cultivations in history, those negative beings indeed acted as a touchstone to determine whether individual cultivators could reach Consummation. If someone turned out to be sand instead of gold, he would definitely be sifted out. But today it is different in that Fa-rectification is taking place in the cosmic bodies, and the colossal firmament is being reconstructed. All of the so-called “tests” of Dafa are interfering with the Fa-rectification. Moreover, the aim of all those who participate in the persecution is to harm Dafa. Although everything the old forces did to people’s personal cultivation in the past achieved a certain effect, when that approach is used during the Fa-rectification, not only does it fail to meet Dafa’s standard, but it also seriously interferes with and disrupts the Fa-rectification. At present, the old forces are to be completely eradicated, regardless of whether the beings participating are positive or negative. All the evil beings who are participating in this are being eliminated during the Fa-rectification, no matter how high their levels are. Fa-rectification is completely different from ordinary cultivation. Today, when Dafa disciples clarify the truth in response to the evil’s persecution, there are some students who are watching what others do. But a person always has to enlighten on his own to what he should do in the face of tribulations. Every time a person improves, the celestial rank he has validated and enlightened to rises.

The path a Dafa disciple takes is a glorious history, and this history has to be created by his own enlightening.

Hongzhi Li
written on july 9, 2001
(published on september 23, 2001)

To Europe’s Clearharmony.net

Europe’s Clearharmony.net:

Greetings to all Dafa disciples involved in the website! I would like to say a few words to you on the subject of running Clearharmony.net well.

I think that you should, first of all, realize the importance of a Dafa website’s effect. The site is created to clarify the truth, to expose the evil’s persecution, and to save the world’s people. Also, you should realize the effect media has on the general public. It is extremely important in terms of people learning the truth about Dafa, saving the world’s people, and exposing the evil; and, its influence is enormous. Therefore, the specific contents of your reports need to have your site’s own features, you should report more on the situation in Europe, and along with this, you should carry a few reports and important news from Minghui.org every day, because that is first-hand information about Dafa disciples in China.

The main body of Dafa disciples is in China. Everything that Dafa disciples in other areas around the world do is, other than consummating everything of their own, exposing the persecution of Dafa and Dafa disciples in China. So from this perspective, Dafa’s situation in mainland China must not go unreported. In particular, you should make focal your reports of deaths that result from the persecution, along with reports about the evil means used in the persecution, and this won’t affect your unique feature of having primarily news about Dafa in Europe. Quantity-wise, most of your articles should be about Europe, and then you can round things out with important information from Minghui.org on Dafa disciples in mainland China. By doing this, Europe’s Clearharmony.net will not only have its own features, but also important news on the persecution of Dafa, and your local audience and readers will pay attention to it and be able to learn information about the persecution of Dafa disciples in mainland China on a daily basis.

The above are just a few ideas of mine. If you feel that you have ideas of your own or better plans, I won’t object; my only hope is that you run the website even better so that it may have the effect of clarifying the truth.

Hongzhi Li
september 25, 2001

To the Second Dafa Conference in Russia

To the Second Dafa Conference in Russia:

Our students have done very well during the Fa-rectification period. The Russian students have, notably, under the circumstance in which the people of Russia have been severely influenced by the propaganda from China’s evil political group, withstood all kinds of pressure and established a Dafa Association, and have had a major effect in terms of clarifying the truth. All of this is remarkable. I hope that this Fa conference will help you to better carry out the work of clarifying the truth, exposing the evil, and saving sentient beings. You should communicate with students in other countries often, encourage each other, and progress together with diligence. Master looks forward to even better news from you.

Hongzhi Li
september 29, 2001

The Chill of Autumn’s Winds

Think twice about your savagery, oh wicked ones

When Heaven and Earth are bright again,

down to the boiling cauldron shall you go

Little can punches and kicks change a person’s heart

Violent winds usher in an autumn with harsher chill

Hongzhi Li
october 25, 2001

Foretelling the Fa’s Rectification of the Human World

The Fa-rectification moves through the world, the grand manifestation of Gods and Buddhas unfolds, and all of the chaotic world’s unrighted wrongs and karmic relationships are settled with benevolent solutions. The ones who do evil against Dafa go down into the gate of no-life. As for all others, their hearts are restored to their proper state and they cherish virtue and do good, all of creation is renewed, and every single sentient being reveres Dafa for its saving grace. All of the heavens and the earth celebrate together, congratulate each other, and exalt together. Dafa’s most glorious period in the human world begins at this time.

Hongzhi Li
december 9, 2001

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