Cultivation Insanity

In the community of cultivators, there is this term called cultivation insanity. It has had a very big impact on the public. In particular, some people have publicized it so much that some people become afraid of practicing qigong. When people hear that practicing qigong can lead to cultivation insanity, they will be too scared to try it. In fact, let me tell you that cultivation insanity does not exist whatsoever.

Quite a few people have incurred possession by spirits or animals because their minds are not righteous. Their Main Consciousness are unable to control themselves and regard them as gong. Their bodies are dictated by the possessing spirits or animals, making them mentally disoriented or making them yell and scream. When people see that qigong practice is like that, they become too scared to practice. Many of you think that this is qigong, but how can this be qigong practice? This is only the lowest state of healing and fitness, yet it is very dangerous. If you are accustomed to this way, your Main Consciousness will always be unable to control yourself. Then your body might be dominated by the Assistant Consciousness, foreign messages, possessing spirits or animals, etc. You might engage in some dangerous acts and cause great damage to the community of cultivators. This is caused by one’s immoral mind and the attachment to showing oneself off—this is not cultivation insanity. No one knows how some people have become so-called qigong masters, as they also believe in cultivation insanity. Actually, qigong practice cannot lead one to cultivation insanity. Most people learn this terminology from literary works, martial arts novels, and so on. If you do not believe it, you can look into ancient books or cultivation books, where there are no such things. How can there be cultivation insanity? It is impossible for such a thing to occur.

It is usually believed that cultivation insanity has several forms. What I just mentioned is also one of its forms. Because one’s mind is not righteous, one incurs spirit or animal possession and has various mentalities such as pursuing some qigong state to show off. Some people go right after supernormal abilities or have practiced sham qigong. When they practice qigong, they are used to abandoning their Main Consciousness. They lose their awareness of everything and give away their bodies to others. They become mentally disoriented and let their bodies be dictated by their Assistant Consciousness or foreign messages. They exhibit some strange behavior. Such a person will jump out of a building or dive into water if he is told to do so. He himself will not even want to live and will give away his body to others. This is not cultivation insanity, but it is going astray in qigong practice, and it is caused by one’s acting that way intentionally at the beginning. Many people think that swinging their bodies around unconsciously is qigong practice. Actually, if one really practices qigong in this state, it can lead to serious consequences. That is not qigong practice, but a result of everyday people’s attachments and pursuits.

Another case is that in qigong practice, one will be scared when qi is congested somewhere in the body or when qi cannot come down from the top of the head. A human body is a small universe. Particularly in a Taoist practice, when qi is going through a pass, one will run into these problems. If qi cannot go through the pass, it will stay there. It can occur not only in the head, but also in other parts of the body; however, a person’s most sensitive place is the head. Qi will ascend to the top of the head and then come down. If qi cannot go through a pass, one will experience such a sensation that the head feels heavy and swollen as if wearing a thick hat of qi, etc. But qi cannot control anything, and neither can it cause any trouble or bring about any illness whatsoever. Some people do not know the truth about qigong and make some mysterious comments, and this has led to a chaotic situation. Accordingly, people think that if qi ascends to the top of the head and cannot come down, one will have cultivation insanity, go astray, and so forth. As a result, many people themselves are scared.

If qi ascends to the top of the head and cannot come down, it is only a temporary state. For some people, it may last a very long time or half a year, and it still will not come down. If that is the case, one can find a real qigong master to guide the qi down, and it can come down. In qigong practice, those of you whose qi cannot go through a pass or come down should look for reasons within your xinxing to determine if you are stuck at that level for too long and whether you should upgrade your xinxing! Once you truly upgrade your xinxing, you will find that qi coming down. You cannot only pursue transformation of gong in the physical body without emphasizing improvement of your xinxing. It is waiting for you to upgrade your xinxing—only then will you make a holistic change. If qi is indeed blocked, it still will not cause any trouble. It is usually our own psychological factors at play. Besides, one will be scared upon learning from a phony qigong master that when qi moves to the top of the head, one will go awry. With this fear, it may indeed bring this person some trouble. Once you are scared, it is an attachment of fear. Isn’t that an attachment? Once your attachment surfaces, shouldn’t it be removed? The more you fear it, the sicker you will look. This attachment of yours must be removed. You will be made to learn from this lesson so that your fear can be removed, and you can advance.

Practitioners will not feel physically comfortable in their future cultivation, as their bodies will develop many kinds of gong, all of which are very powerful things moving around inside their bodies; they will make you feel uncomfortable one way or another. The reason for your discomfort is principally that you always fear catching some illness. In fact, the things that are developed in your body are quite powerful, and they are all gong, supernormal abilities, and many living beings. If they move around, you will feel physically itchy, painful, uncomfortable, etc. The extremes of the nervous system are particularly sensitive, and there will be all kinds of symptoms. As long as your body is not completely transformed by high-energy matters, you will feel this way. It should be seen as a good thing anyway. As a practitioner, if you always treat yourself like an everyday person and always think that you have illnesses, how can you practice cultivation? When a tribulation comes in cultivation practice, if you still treat yourself as an everyday person, I would say that your xinxing at that moment has dropped to the level of everyday people. At least on this particular issue, you have dropped to the level of everyday people.

As true practitioners, we should look at issues from a very high level instead of from the perspective of everyday people. Should you believe that you are ill, this may really cause you to become ill. This is because once you assume that you are ill, your xinxing level will be as high as that of everyday people. Qigong practice and true cultivation practice will not lead to illness, particularly under this condition. It is known that what actually causes people to become ill is seventy percent psychological and thirty percent physiological. Typically, one experiences a mental breakdown, the mind cannot handle it, and one suffers a heavy mental burden before the illness’ condition drastically worsens. It is usually like this. For instance, there once was a person who was tied to a bed. They took one of his arms and claimed that they would slit it to make it bleed. Then they blindfolded his eyes and scratched his wrist once. (He was not at all cut and bleeding.) A water faucet was turned on so that he could hear water dripping, and he thus thought that it was his blood that was dripping. The man died shortly afterwards. In fact, he was not cut and bleeding—it was running water that was dripping. His psychological factors caused his death. If you always believe that you are ill, you will probably make yourself sick as a result. Because your xinxing has dropped to the level of everyday people, an average person will, of course, have illnesses.

As a practitioner, if you always think that it is an illness, you are actually asking for it. If you ask for an illness, it will come inside your body. As a practitioner, your xinxing level should be high. You should not always worry that it is an illness, for this fear of illness is an attachment and it can bring you trouble just the same. In cultivation practice one needs to eliminate karma, and that is painful. How can one increase gong comfortably? How can one otherwise remove one’s attachments? Let me tell you a story from Buddhism. There once was a person who became an Arhat after much effort in cultivation. As he was just about to attain Right Fruit in cultivation and become an Arhat, how could he not be happy? He was going to transcend the Three Realms! Yet this excitement is an attachment, an attachment of elation. An Arhat should be free of attachments, with a heart that cannot be affected. But he failed, and his cultivation ended up in vain. Since he failed, he had to start all over again. He resumed his cultivation, and after much painstaking effort he again succeeded in his cultivation. This time he became scared and reminded himself in his mind: "I shouldn’t get excited. Otherwise, I’ll fail again." With this fear, he failed again. Fear is also a kind of attachment.

There is another situation: When a person becomes psychotic, this person will be labeled as having cultivation insanity. There are some people who even wait for me to treat their psychosis! I’d say that psychosis is not an illness, and I do not have time to take care of such things, either. Why? This is because a patient with psychosis does not have any virus, and his body has neither pathological changes nor infections; it is not an illness in my view. Psychosis occurs when a person’s Main Consciousness becomes too weak. How weak can it become? It is like a person who can never take charge of himself. A mental patient’s Main Spirit is just like that. It no longer wants to be in charge of the body. It is always in a daze and cannot become conscious. At this point, the person’s Assistant Consciousness or foreign messages will interfere with him. There are so many levels in each dimension. All sorts of messages will disturb him. Besides, one’s Main Spirit might have committed some wrongdoing in previous lives, and the creditors may want to harm him. All kinds of things can transpire. We would say that this is what psychosis is all about. How could I cure it for you? I would say that this is how one actually acquires psychosis. What can be done about it? Educate the person and help him become conscious—but it is very difficult to do that. You will find that when a doctor at a psychiatric hospital picks up an electric-shock club in his or her hand, immediately the patients will be too scared to utter anything absurd. Why is it? At that moment, this person’s Main Spirit becomes alert, and it fears the electrical shock.

Usually, once a person enters the door of cultivation practice, he will want to continue. Everyone has Buddha-nature and the heart for cultivation. Therefore, upon learning it, many practitioners will practice cultivation for the rest of their lives. It does not matter whether he can succeed in cultivation or obtain the Fa. This person nonetheless has the heart for following the Tao and always wants to practice it. Everyone knows that this person does qigong practice. People in his workplace know it, and it is known throughout the neighborhood as well as by those who live next door. But think about it, everyone: In terms of true cultivation practice, who did such a thing a few years ago? Nobody did. Only if one truly practices cultivation can one’s journey of life be changed. But as a regular person, this person is practicing qigong only for healing and fitness. Who will change his path of life? As an ordinary person, he will catch an illness one day or come across some trouble on another day. He might become psychotic someday or drop dead. An ordinary person’s whole life is just like that. Though you find a person practicing qigong in a park, in actuality, he is not truly practicing cultivation. Though he wishes to practice cultivation toward a high level, he cannot make it without receiving the righteous way. He has only a desire to practice cultivation toward a high level. This person is still a qigong practitioner at the low level of healing and fitness. No one will change his path of life, so he will have illnesses. If one does not value virtue, one’s illness will not even be healed. It is not true that once a person practices qigong, he will not catch any illness.

One must truly practice cultivation and pay attention to one’s xinxing. Only by truly practicing cultivation can one’s illness be eliminated. Because qigong practice is not a physical exercise but something beyond everyday people, there must be a higher principle and standard for practitioners. One must follow that in order to achieve the goal. Yet many people have not done so and remain everyday people. Therefore, they will still be ill when the time is due. This person may one day suddenly suffer a cerebral thrombosis, suddenly catch this or that disease, or become psychotic. Everyone knows that he practices qigong. Once he becomes psychotic, people will say, "he has cultivation insanity," and that label will be affixed. Think about it, everyone: Is it reasonable to do this? A layperson does not know the truth. It is difficult even for the professionals or many practitioners to know the truth of it. If this person becomes psychotic at home, it may be less problematic, though others will still say that he got it from qigong practice. If the person becomes psychotic at an exercise site, it will be terrible. A big label will be slapped on and impossible to remove, despite one’s efforts. Newspapers will report that qigong practice has led to cultivation insanity. Some people oppose qigong without even looking at it: "Look, he was fine doing qigong exercise there a while ago, and now he has turned out like this." As an everyday person, whatever should happen to him will occur. He might have other illnesses or encounter other troubles. Is it reasonable to blame qigong practice for everything? It is like a doctor in a hospital: Because one is a doctor, one should never be ill in this life—how can it be understood like that?

It can, therefore, be said that many people make mindless comments without knowing the actual truth about qigong or the principles behind it. Once there is a problem, all kinds of labels are imposed on qigong. Qigong has been popular in society for a very short period of time. Many people hold stubborn views and always deny it, slander it, and reject it. No one knows what kind of mindsets these people have. They are so sick of qigong, as though it has anything to do with them. Once the word qigong is brought up, they will call it idealistic. Qigong is a science, and it is a higher science. This happens because those people’s mentalities are too stubborn and their knowledge is too narrow.

There is another situation called the "qigong state" in the community of cultivators. Such a person has mental illusions, but not cultivation insanity. A person in this state is unusually rational. Let me first explain what the qigong state is all about. It is known that qigong practice involves the issue of one’s inborn quality. There are people from every country in the world who believe in religion. For several thousand years there have been people in China believing in Buddhism or Taoism. They believe that doing good deeds is met with good rewards, and being evil is met with evil returns. But some people do not believe this. Particularly during the time of the Great Cultural Revolution, this was criticized and labeled as superstition. Some people regard as superstition all of what they cannot understand, what is not learned from textbooks, what modern science has not yet developed, and what has not yet been understood. There were a lot of these people a few years ago, but now there are fewer of them. Though you may not acknowledge some phenomena, they have actually manifested in our dimension already. You do not dare to recognize them, but now people have the courage to speak out about them. They have also learned some facts regarding qigong practice through hearing about them or witnessing them.

Some people are so stubborn that once you mention qigong, they will laugh at you from deep down inside. They think that you are being superstitious and too ridiculous. As soon as you bring up the phenomena in qigong practice, they will regard you as being all-too-ignorant. Though such a person is prejudiced, his inborn quality might not be bad. If he has good inborn quality and wants to practice qigong, his Celestial Eye may be opened at a very high level, and he may also have supernormal abilities. He does not believe in qigong, but he cannot guarantee that he will not become ill. When he becomes ill, he will go to the hospital. When a doctor of Western medicine cannot cure him, he will go to see a doctor of Chinese medicine. When the doctor of Chinese medicine also cannot cure the illness and when no special prescription works, he will then think of qigong and ponder: "I’ll try my luck to see whether qigong can actually heal my illness." He will come with much hesitation. Because of his good inborn quality, as soon as he practices qigong, he will be very good at it. Perhaps a master will be interested in him or maybe a higher life in another dimension will give him a hand. All of a sudden, his Celestial Eye opens, or he is in a state of semi-enlightenment. With his Celestial Eye open at a very high level, he can all of a sudden see some truth of the universe. Furthermore, he will have supernormal abilities. Would you say that when such a person sees this type of situation his brain can take it? What kind of mental state do you think he’ll be in? What was once regarded as superstitious, absolutely impossible, and ridiculous when others talked about it is actually lying right before his eyes, and he is indeed in contact with it. This person’s mind will then be unable to take it, as the mental pressure is simply too great. What he says will not be understood by others, though his mind is rational. But he just cannot balance the relationship between both sides. He has discovered that what humankind does is wrong, while what is done on the other side is usually right. If he does things according to the way it is done over there, people will say that he is wrong. They cannot understand him, so they will say that he has cultivation insanity.

In fact, this person does not have cultivation insanity. Most of you who practice qigong will not become this way at all. Only those very prejudiced people will experience the qigong state. Many people in the audience here have their Celestial Eye opened—quite a number of people. They have indeed observed things in other dimensions. They are not surprised, feel quite well, their brains are not shocked, and neither are they in this qigong state. After a person is in the qigong state, he is very rational and speaks very reasonably with very sensible logic. It is only that everyday people will not believe what he says. He may sometimes tell you that he saw someone who has passed away, and that this person told him to do something. How can everyday people believe this? Later, this person understands that he should keep those things to himself instead of talking about them. After he can properly deal with the relationship between both sides, everything will be all right. Typically, these people also carry supernormal abilities, but this is not cultivation insanity, either.

There is another situation called "true insanity," and it is rarely seen. The "true insanity" to which we refer does not involve a person who is actually insane. Instead of having that meaning, it denotes "the cultivation of truth." What’s true insanity? I would say that among practitioners, such a person is rarely seen, perhaps being but one out of a hundred thousand people. As a result, it is not common and does not have any impact on society, either.

Usually, there is a prerequisite for "true insanity." It is that this person must have superb inborn quality and must be quite elderly. Being of old age, it would be too late for the person to practice cultivation. Those with superb inborn quality are usually here on a mission and come from high levels; everyone is scared of visiting this ordinary human society, as one will be unable to recognize anyone after one’s memory is cleared. After a person comes to this social environment of everyday people, human interference will make him pursue fame or fortune and he will eventually drop to the level of everyday people. There will never be a day for him to escape from here. Therefore, nobody dares to come here, as everyone will be afraid. Yet there are such people who have come here. Upon arrival, they indeed cannot conduct themselves well among everyday people. They will indeed stumble to low levels and commit many wrongdoings in their lifetimes. When one lives to compete for personal gain, one commits a lot of bad deeds and owes others a great deal. His master sees that he is about to fall down. Yet he is someone with Fruit Status, so the master will not let him drop down so easily! What can be done? His master will be very worried and will have no other ways to let him practice cultivation. Where at this time could one find a master? He will have to return to the origin by practicing cultivation from scratch. But how can this be done easily? Being old, it would be too late for him to practice cultivation. Where could he find a cultivation practice of mind and body?

Only if he has superb inborn quality, and under this very unusual circumstance, could the method of true insanity be applied to him. In other words, when there is absolutely no hope for this person to return to the origin on his own, this method may be used to make him insane. Some functions in his brain will be switched off. For instance, as human beings we fear cold and filth, and so these portions of the brain that fear cold and filth will be switched off. After some functions are disabled, he will appear to have mental problems and act like one who is really mentally insane. But he usually does not commit any wrongdoing, and neither does he insult or punch people. Instead, he often does good deeds, but he is very cruel to himself. Because he is unaware of being cold, in winter he will run around in the snow with bare feet and wear thin clothes. His feet will be frozen to the point of heavy bleeding. Because he is unaware of filth, he dares to eat human excrement and drink human urine. I once knew such a person who would eat horse excrement as if it was tasty, though it was frozen very hard. He could suffer hardships that an everyday person would not suffer with a conscious mind. Just imagine how much this insanity made him suffer. Of course, such people usually have supernormal abilities; most of them are elderly women. There was an elderly woman in the past who had her feet bound to make them smaller, but she could still jump effortlessly over a wall of two or more meters. When her family saw that she was insane and always ran out of the house, they would lock her up in the house. Once her family members left the house, she would unlock the door just by pointing her fingers at the lock. Then she would run off. Later, they would restrain her with iron chains. When everyone left home, she would shake off the chains with ease. It was impossible to restrain her. With this, she would suffer quite a lot of hardships. Because she suffered much and quite harshly, she would soon repay the debts from her wrongdoing. It would take three years at most, and usually only one or two years, as that suffering was quite tremendous. Afterwards, she would understand at once what had transpired. Because she completed her cultivation, she would have her gong unlocked right away with a variety of divine powers emerging. These cases are very rarely seen, but there have been some throughout history. People with average inborn quality will not be allowed to do it this way. It is known that in history there have indeed been documented insane monks or insane Taoists, such as the insane monk who drove Qin Hui¹  out of a temple with a broom, and other stories about insane Taoists. There are many such classic stories.

With regard to cultivation insanity, we can say that it definitely does not exist. If someone can produce fire,² and if it is really like that, I would say that this person is quite awesome. If a person can light a fire by opening the mouth or by extending a hand, or can light a cigarette with a finger, I would call it a supernormal ability!

Demonic Interference in Cultivation

What is demonic interference in cultivation? It is the interference that we often run into in qigong practice. How does qigong practice invite demonic interference? There is actually much difficulty when one wants to practice cultivation. One simply cannot succeed in genuine cultivation without the protection of my fashen. As soon as you step out the door, your life may be in danger. One’s Primordial Spirit does not become extinct. Then, in your social activities in past lives, you might once have owed others, bullied others, or committed other wrongdoing. Those creditors will look for you. It is said in Buddhism that one lives because of karmic retribution. If you owe someone something, he will find you for the repayment. If he gets too much repayment, he will have to return the surplus to you the next time around. If a son disrespects his parents, they will trade places in the next life. This is how it cycles on and on. But we have indeed observed demonic interference, which prevents you from practicing qigong. All these have karmic relationships and are not without reason. It will not be allowed to be so without a reason.

The most common form of demonic interference occurs as follows. Before you practice qigong, your environment is relatively peaceful; because you have learned qigong, you always like to practice it. As soon as you begin the sitting meditation, however, it suddenly becomes noisy outside the room. There are sounds of car horns, walking in the hallway, chatting, doors slamming, and a radio from outside. It is suddenly no longer quiet. If you do not practice qigong, the environment is quite peaceful, but once you begin the qigong practice, it is like this. Many of you have never thought about it further. What’s really going on? You only find it odd and feel quite disappointed about being unable to practice qigong. This "oddness" will stop your practice. It is a demon interfering with you, as it manipulates people to disturb you. This is the simplest form of interference, and it can achieve the goal of stopping your qigong practice. If you practice qigong and achieve the Tao, what about those unpaid debts you owe others? They will not allow it, so they will not let you practice qigong. Yet it is also an indication of a certain level. After a period of time, this phenomenon will no longer be allowed to exist. In other words, after these debts are worn out, they will not be allowed to come and interfere again. This is because those who practice cultivation in our Falun Dafa make rapid progress, and they also make quick breakthroughs in their levels.

There is another form of demonic interference. You know that through qigong practice our Celestial Eye can open. With the Celestial Eye open, some people may see some frightening scenes or scary faces while practicing qigong at home. Some have messy, long hair, and some want to fight you or even make various moves that are quite frightening. Sometimes one will see them all crawling outside the window, looking very scary. How can this situation occur? This is a form of demonic interference. In our Falun Dafa school, however, this case is very rarely seen. Perhaps it happens to one out of a hundred people. Most people will not encounter this situation. Because it does not have any benefit for your practice, it is not allowed to interfere with you like this. In other conventional practices, this kind of interference is the most common phenomenon, and it will last quite a long period of time. Some people cannot practice qigong and become frightened simply for this reason. One usually chooses to practice qigong in a quiet environment at night. If one sees a person standing before one’s eyes who looks half-ghost and half-human, one will be too scared to practice qigong. Usually, there is no such phenomenon in our Falun Dafa. But there are a few extremely rare exceptions, as some people have very special situations.

Another kind of practice is one of both internal and external cultivation. It requires the practice of martial arts and internal cultivation. This kind of practice is commonly seen in the Tao School. Once a person studies this practice, he will often run into this demonic interference that is not encountered in ordinary practices, except for the practices of both internal and external cultivation, or those of martial arts. That is, there will be people who seek him out for a fight. There are many Taoist practitioners in the world; many of them are students of martial arts or of internal and external cultivation. A student of martial arts can also develop gong. Why is it? If a person removes other attachments such as to reputation and personal gain, he can also increase gong. Yet his attachment to competitiveness will take time to abandon, and it will be abandoned quite slowly. Therefore, he will easily do such a thing, and it can even happen at certain levels. While sitting in trance, he will know who is practicing martial arts. His Primordial Spirit will leave his body to challenge another person for a fight to determine whose martial arts are better, and this fight will then break out. These things also occur in another dimension where someone may also come to him for a fight. If he refuses, the other person will really kill him. A fight will thus break out between the two. Once this person falls asleep, someone will seek him out for a fight, and this makes his night restless. Actually, this is the time to remove his attachment to competitiveness. If this competitive mentality is not relinquished, he will always be this way. As time passes, he still cannot move beyond this level after several years. He will be rendered unable to continue qigong practice. With too much energy consumed, his physical body also can no longer bear it and may easily be disabled. Thus, in practices of both internal and external cultivation, one may encounter this situation, and it is also quite common. In our practice of internal cultivation, there is no such situation, and neither is it allowed to occur. These several forms that I just addressed exist quite commonly.

There is yet another form of demonic interference that everyone, including each person in our school of practice, will encounter: It is the demon of lust. This is something very serious. In ordinary human society, because of this marital life, humankind can produce its descendants. The human race just evolves this way, and there is sentimentality in human society. Thus, such a thing is perfectly justified for everyday people. Since human beings have sentimentality, being upset is sentimentality, so are happiness, love, hatred, enjoying doing one thing, resenting doing another thing, preferring one person to another, hobbies, and dislikes. Everything belongs to sentimentality, and everyday people just live for it. Then, as a practitioner and one who rises above and beyond, one should not use this approach to judge things, and one should break away from them. Therefore, as to the many attachments that come from sentimentality, we should take them lightly and eventually abandon them. Desires, lust, and things of these sorts are all human attachments, and all of them should be given up.

For those practitioners who practice cultivation among everyday people, our school of practice does not ask you to become a monk or nun. Young practitioners should still have families. So how should this issue be treated? I have said that our school of practice directly targets one’s mind. It does not make you actually lose anything in terms of material benefits. Instead, you are to temper your xinxing amidst the material benefits of everyday people. What is truly upgraded is your xinxing. If you can give up the attachment, you are able to abandon everything; when you are asked to give up material benefits, you will certainly be able to do it. If you cannot let the attachment go, you will not be able to discard anything. Therefore, the real purpose of cultivation is to cultivate your heart. The cultivation practices in temples force you to lose these things so as to get rid of this attachment of yours. By not letting you think about it, they force you to completely reject them; and they have adopted such a method. But we do not require you to do so. We ask you to care less about the material interests that lie right before you. Thus, those who go through their cultivation in our school of practice are most solid. We do not ask you to become monks and nuns. As our practice is spread more widely in the future, those practitioners of ours who practice cultivation among everyday people should not all be turned into quasi-monks. It is not allowed for every Falun Dafa practitioner to become this way. In the course of practice, we require the following of everyone: Even though you practice and your spouse might not, it is not permitted for you to get a divorce because of the practice. In other words, we should take this matter lightly, and you should not attach as much importance to it as do everyday people. In particular, the so-called sexual freedom and pornography of today’s society are interfering with people. Some people are very interested in such things. As practitioners, we should attach little importance to them.

From a high-level perspective, everyday people are playing with mud while in society without realizing that it is dirty. They are playing with mud on earth. We have said that you should not cause disharmony in your family because of this issue. Therefore, at the present stage, you should care less about it. It is good to keep a normal and harmonious marriage life. In the future, when you reach a certain level, there will be another situation at that level. At present, it should be this way, and it will be fine if you meet this requirement. Of course, you should not follow what is going on in society. How can that be allowed?

There is another factor involved in this issue. You know that our practitioners’ bodies carry energy. Now, eighty to ninety percent of the people from this class will not only have their illnesses healed, but will also have their gong developed. Thus, your body carries very powerful energy. Your gong and your present xinxing level are not proportionate. Your gong is temporarily greater, having been suddenly upgraded, and now your xinxing is being upgraded. Gradually, your xinxing will catch up. It is guaranteed that within this period of time it will catch up. So we have done this ahead of time. In other words, you have some amount of energy. Because the energy cultivated from a righteous way is purely righteous and benevolent, everyone sitting here feels an atmosphere of serenity and compassion. I have cultivated myself this way and carry these things with me. Everyone sitting here is harmonious without ill thoughts in mind, and no one even thinks about smoking a cigarette. In the future, you should also follow the requirements of our Dafa, and the gong that you develop through cultivation practice will also be this way. With your ever-increasing gong potency, the energy scattered from the gong in your body will also be quite powerful. Even if it is not that powerful, an everyday person within your field will still be restrained. Or if you are at home, you will also restrain others, and your family members may be restrained by you. Why is this so? You do not even have to use your mind to do this. This field is one of pure harmony, compassion, and right faith. Therefore, people are unlikely to think of bad things or commit bad deeds. It can have this effect.

The other day I said that the Buddha-light illuminates everywhere and rectifies all abnormalities. In other words, the energy scattered from our bodies can rectify all abnormal conditions. Therefore, under the effects of this field, if you do not think about these things, you will unintentionally restrain your spouse as well. If you do not and will not think of them, your spouse will not think of them, either. But it is not absolute, for in the present environment there are all kinds of things on television that, if it is turned on, can easily stimulate one’s desires. But under normal conditions, you have this restraining effect. In the future when you reach high-level cultivation practice, without my telling you, you will know what to do. By then there will be another state to ensure a harmonious life. You, therefore, should not concern yourself with this too much, as being overly concerned is also an attachment. There is not an issue of eroticism between husband and wife, but there is lust. As long as you can take it lightly and feel right in your mind, it will be fine.

So what kinds of demons of lust will one encounter? If your ability of ding³ is not adequate, it will appear in your dreams during sleep. While you are sleeping or sitting in meditation, it will suddenly show up. If you are male, a beauty will appear. If you are female, the man of your dreams will show up. Yet they will be naked. Once your mind thinks about it, you will ejaculate and make it a reality. Think about it, everyone: In our cultivation practice, the essence of the body is used to cultivate one’s life; you cannot always ejaculate like this. Meanwhile, you have not passed the lust test. How can it be permitted? Therefore, I am telling you that everybody will come across this issue, and it is guaranteed. While teaching the Fa, I am imprinting very powerful energy in your mind. You may not recall specifically what I have said after stepping outside the door, but when you actually encounter this issue, you will remember what I said. As long as you regard yourself as a practitioner, you will remember it right away and be able to restrain yourself, and you will then be able to pass this test. If you fail the test the first time, it will be difficult to pass it the second time. Yet there is also the case where when one fails the first test, one will regret it very much upon waking from sleep. Perhaps this mentality and state of mind will reinforce your thoughts about it. When the issue again arises, you will be able to control yourself and pass the test. If one who fails the test does not care about it, it will be harder to pass later. It is definitely this way.

This form of interference can come from either demons or from the master, who transforms one object into another to test you. Both forms exist because everyone must pass this test. We begin cultivation practice as everyday people. The first step is this test, and everyone will run into it. Let me give you an example. When I was teaching a class in Wuhan,⁴  there was a thirty-year-old young man there. Right after I gave this lecture, he went home and sat in meditation. He achieved the state of ding right away. After that, he suddenly saw Buddha Amitabha appearing on one side and Lao Zi on the other. This is what he said in his experience report. After showing up, both looked at him without saying a word and then disappeared. Later, Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara  showed up, carrying a vase in her hand from which a white smoke emerged. As he sat there and saw everything very vividly, he became quite pleased. Suddenly, the smoke transformed into a few beauties; beauties are those flying heavenly girls who are very attractive. They danced for him with very graceful movements. He thought to himself: "Because I’m practicing here, Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara is rewarding me by transforming a few beauties for me to watch and is sending the flying heavenly girls to dance for me." As he was becoming delighted by this thought, these beauties suddenly became naked and made different moves towards him, coming to hug his neck and caress his waist. This practitioner’s xinxing had improved very quickly. At that point, he became alarmed right away. The first thought that came to his mind was: "I’m not an ordinary person. I’m a practitioner. You shouldn’t treat me this way, for I’m a Falun Dafa practitioner." Once this thought emerged, everything suddenly disappeared since they were all transformed anyway. Then Buddha Amitabha and Lao Zi showed up again. Lao Zi pointed to this practitioner and said to Buddha Amitabha with a smile: "This kid is teachable." It means that this fellow is good and can be taught.

Throughout history, or from the perspective of higher dimensions, the issues of one’s desire and lust have been very critical in determining whether one can practice cultivation. So we must really regard these things with indifference. However, we practice cultivation among everyday people, and so we do not ask you to give it up completely. At least at the present stage, you should take it lightly and not resemble how you were in the past. As a practitioner, one should be this way. Whenever there is interference of one kind or another in qigong practice, you should look for reasons within yourself and determine what you still have not let go.

Demonic Interference From One’s Own Mind

What is "demonic interference from one’s own mind?" A human body has a physical field in every level’s dimension. Within a special field, everything in the universe can be reflected into your dimensional field, like a shadow. Although they are shadows, they are of material existence. Everything within the field of your dimension is dictated by the thoughts in your brain. That is, if you calmly see things with the Celestial Eye and without using your mind, what you observe is true. If you start to think a little, what you see will be false. This is called demonic interference from one’s own mind, or "transformation follows mind-intent." This occurs because some practitioners cannot treat themselves as practitioners and are unable to handle themselves properly. They pursue supernormal abilities and are attached to petty skills or even to listening to certain things from other dimensions. They are after these things. It is easiest for these people to develop demonic interference from their own minds and to drop to low levels. No matter how high one’s cultivation level is, once this problem occurs one will fall all the way to the bottom and, in the end, be ruined—this is an extremely serious issue. It is unlike other areas where if one fails a xinxing test this time, one may rise from the fall and continue to practice cultivation. But it is not the case if demonic interference from one’s own mind occurs, as this life of the person will be ruined. Particularly for those practitioners with the Celestial Eye open at certain levels, this problem can happen easily. Also, some people are always interfered with by foreign messages in their consciousness, and they believe whatever they are told by foreign messages; this problem can also take place. Therefore, some of you with the Celestial Eye open will be interfered with by different sorts of messages.

Let me give you an example. It is very difficult for one to keep one’s mind undisturbed at a low level of cultivation. You may not be able to see clearly what your teacher looks like. One day you may suddenly see a large, tall immortal. He gives you a few complimentary words and teaches you something. If you accept it, your gong will be messed up. Once you become delighted and accept him as your master, you will go with him. But he has not attained Right Fruit, either. In that dimension, his body can transform to be large or small. With this before your eyes and seeing this large immortal, you will be really excited. With this excitement, aren’t you going to learn from him? It is very difficult to save a practitioner if he cannot conduct himself properly. He can easily ruin himself. The heavenly beings are all immortals, yet they, too, have not attained Right Fruit and will continue to go through samsara just the same. If you casually take such a being as your master and follow him, where can he take you? He cannot even attain Right Fruit. Won’t your cultivation be in vain? Eventually, your own gong will be messed up. It is very difficult for one’s mind to stay undisturbed. I am telling everyone that this is a very serious issue, and many of you will have this problem later. I have taught you the Fa; it is up to you whether you can conduct yourself properly. What I have addressed is one of the situations. Don’t let your mind be disturbed when you see an enlightened person from another school of practice. Stay with only one school of practice. Whether it is a Buddha, a Tao, an immortal, or a demon, they should not move your heart. In conducting oneself this way, success is bound to be in sight.

The demonic interference from one’s mind also manifests in other forms. You may have seen interference from a relative who has passed away, and this person cries and begs you to do this or that. All kinds of things can happen. Will your mind stay unaffected? Suppose that you are very fond of this child of yours or love your parents, and your parents have passed away. They told you to do some things... all of which are things that you should not do. If you do them, it will be bad. It is just so tough to be a practitioner. It is said that Buddhism is in chaos. It has even absorbed from Confucianism things such as respecting parents and love for children. Buddhism did not have such content. What does it mean? Since one’s real life is one’s Primordial Spirit, the one who gives birth to your Primordial Spirit is your real mother. In the course of samsara, you have had mothers who were human and non-human, and there are too many of them to be numbered. It is also countless how many sons and daughters you have had throughout your different lifetimes. Who is your mother? Who is your son or daughter? No one knows it after one passes away. You must still pay for what you owe others. Human beings live in delusion and just cannot give up these things. Some people cannot let go of their sons and daughters and claim how good they are, and then they pass away. One may speak of how good one’s mother is, but then she also dies. This person grieves so much that he almost wants to follow her for the rest of his life. Why don’t you think about it? Aren’t they here to torment you? They use this form to make you unable to lead a good life.

Perhaps everyday people do not understand it. If you are attached to this, you cannot practice cultivation whatsoever. Buddhism therefore does not have such content. If you want to practice cultivation, human sentimentality must be relinquished. Of course, in practicing cultivation in ordinary human society, we should respect parents and educate our children. Under all circumstances, we must be good and kind to others, not to mention to our family members. We should treat everyone in the same way. We must be good to our parents and children and be considerate of others in all respects. Such a heart is thus unselfish, and it is a heart of kindness and benevolence. Sentimentality is something of everyday people, and everyday people just live for it.

Many people cannot conduct themselves well, and this causes difficulties in cultivation practice. A person may claim that a Buddha has told him something. Unless danger threatens your life and you are told how to eliminate it, all those who tell you that you will have a tribulation today and how to avoid something about to occur, those who tell you the first-prize lottery ticket number and tell you to try it, and those who want to have you obtain good things in ordinary human society, are demons. If you always get your way among everyday people and cannot pass this test, you will not make progress. If you live very well among everyday people, how can you practice cultivation? How can your karma be transformed? How will you have an environment to upgrade your xinxing and transform your karma? Everyone should be sure to keep this in mind. A demon can also praise you and tell you how high your level is, what a great Buddha or a great Tao you are, and that it thinks that you are terrific—those are all phony. As one who truly practices cultivation toward high levels, you should give up various attachments. When encountering these issues, you should all be on your guard!

During cultivation practice, your Celestial Eye will be opened. With the Celestial Eye open, a person has his difficulties in cultivation. With the Celestial Eye closed, a person also has his difficulties in cultivation. In either case, it is not easy to practice cultivation. After your Celestial Eye is open, with a variety of messages interfering with you, it will indeed be very difficult for you to conduct yourself well. In other dimensions, everything is dazzling to the eye, very beautiful and nice, all of which may lure your heart. Once you are moved by it, you might be interfered with and your gong will be messed up—it is usually this way. Thus, when a person with demonic interference from his own mind cannot conduct himself well, this situation may occur. For example, once a person develops a bad thought, it is very dangerous. One day his Celestial Eye is opened, and he can see things quite clearly. He thinks: "At this exercise site, only my Celestial Eye is opened very well. Am I perhaps an unusual person? I was able to learn Teacher Li’s Falun Dafa and have studied it so well, better than all the others. Perhaps I’m also not an ordinary person." This thought is already not right. He will wonder: "Maybe I’m a Buddha as well. Well, let me take a look at myself." When he looks at himself, he will find himself indeed a Buddha. Why is it? This is because everything within the dimensional field around his body will transform according to his thoughts, which is called "transformation follows mind-intent."

Everything reflected from the universe will transform with one’s thoughts, because everything within a person’s dimensional field is at his or her command. So are the reflected images, which are also material existence. This person thinks: "Maybe I’m a Buddha, and perhaps what I wear is also a Buddha’s robe." Then he will find that what he wears is indeed a Buddha’s robe. "Wow, I’m indeed a Buddha." He will be very excited. "Perhaps I’m not even a small Buddha." With another look, he will find himself a big Buddha. "Perhaps I’m even greater than Li Hongzhi!" He will take a look again: "Wow, I’m indeed greater than Li Hongzhi." Some people also hear this with their ears. A demon will interfere with him and say: "You’re greater than Li Hongzhi. You’re so much greater than Li Hongzhi." He will also believe it. Have you thought about how you are going to practice cultivation in the future? Have you ever practiced cultivation? Who has taught you cultivation? Even when a real Buddha comes here on a mission, he must also practice cultivation from scratch. His original gong will not be given to him, and it is only that he will progress quicker in practicing cultivation. Therefore, once this problem occurs to him, it will be difficult for him to help himself out; he will develop this attachment right away. After this attachment is developed, he will dare to say anything: "I’m a Buddha. You don’t need to learn from others. I’m the Buddha, so I’ll tell you what to do." He will begin to do these things.

Don’t we have someone like that in Changchun? At the beginning he was quite good. Later, he started to do these things. He thought that he was a Buddha. In the end, he considered himself greater than everybody else. This was incurred when he could not conduct himself well and by the attachment that he developed. Why is there this phenomenon? Buddhism teaches that no matter what you see, you should ignore it, for it is all demonic illusion, and that one should just continue cultivation advancement through meditation. Why doesn’t it allow you to see them and be attached to them? It cautions against the occurrence of this problem. In Buddhist cultivation practice, there is no reinforced cultivation method, and neither is there any guidance in its scriptures to avoid these things. Sakyamuni did not teach such Dharma at that time. In order to avoid the problem of demonic interference from one’s own mind or transformation following mind-intent, he called all of the scenes observed in cultivation practice demonic illusions. So, once an attachment is developed, it will lead to this demonic illusion. It is very difficult for one to stay away from it. If it is not dealt with properly, one will be ruined and follow a demonic path. Because he has called himself a Buddha, he has already demonized himself. In the end, he may get possessed by spirits, or experience other things and be totally ruined. His heart will also become immoral, and he will fall down completely. There are a lot of such people. Even in this class, there are people who think quite highly of themselves right now and speak with a different attitude. It is taboo even in Buddhism for one to find out what one is all about. What I just said is another form of demonic interference, which is called "demonic interference from one’s own mind" or "transformation follows mind-intent." Beijing has some practitioners like that, and there are also some in other regions. Furthermore, they have caused very serious interference for practitioners.

Someone has asked me: "Teacher, why don’t you eliminate this problem?" Think about it, everyone: If we clear all obstacles in your path of cultivation practice, how will you practice cultivation? It is under the circumstance of demonic interference that you can demonstrate whether you can continue your cultivation, be really enlightened to the Tao, be unaffected by interference, and be sure-footed in this school of practice. The great waves shift the sand, and that is what cultivation practice is all about. What is left in the end will be genuine gold. Without this form of interference, I would say that it is too easy for one to practice cultivation. In my view, your cultivation is already too easy. Those high-level great enlightened beings may find it more unfair: "What are you doing? Are you saving people like this? There are no obstacles in the path of cultivation, and one can make one’s cultivation directly to the end. Is this cultivation? As one proceeds in cultivation, one becomes increasingly more comfortable without any interference. How can this be allowed?" This is the issue, and I have been thinking about it as well. At the outset, I took care of many such demons. If I am to do that all the time, I also find it not right. I was also told: "You’ve made their cultivation too easy. People only have that little bit of hardship of their own. There is only that little bit of trouble among them. They have a lot of attachments that they still can’t give up! It remains a question of whether they can understand your Dafa itself while they are in the midst of confusion and tribulations." It involves such an issue, so there will be interference and tests. I just said that this is a form of demonic interference. It is very difficult to truly save a person, yet so very easy to ruin a person. Once your mind is not right, you will be ruined at once.

Your Main Consciousness Should Predominate

Because of people having committed some wrongdoing in different lifetimes, it has brought about disasters to people and has created karmic obstacles for practitioners. Therefore, there will be birth, old age, illness, and death. These are ordinary karma. There is another powerful karma that greatly affects practitioners—it is called thought karma. People have to think in leading their lives. Because one is lost among everyday people, one will often develop in one’s mind thoughts for fame, benefits, lust, anger, etc. Gradually, these thoughts become the powerful thought karma. Since everything in other dimensions has life, karma is also the same. When one begins to practice cultivation in a righteous way, one must eliminate one’s karma. Eliminating karma means having karma wiped out and transformed. Of course, karma will resist, and so one will have tribulations and obstacles. But thought karma can directly interfere with one’s mind. Therefore, one’s mind has swear words that condemn Teacher and Dafa, and one may think of some evil thoughts or swear words. As a result, some practitioners do not know what is going on and think that these thoughts come from themselves. Some people also believe that they are from possessing spirits or animals, but they are not from possession by spirits or animals. Rather, they result from the reflection of thought karma on one’s mind. Some people do not have a very strong Main Consciousness and will comply with the thought karma to commit wrongdoing. Such people will be ruined and drop in levels. Most people, however, can remove and resist it with very strong thoughts from themselves (a strong Main Consciousness). With this, it indicates that this person can be saved and can distinguish good from bad. In other words, the person has good enlightenment quality. My fashen will help eliminate the most of such thought karma. This situation is seen frequently. Once it transpires, one will be tested to see if one can overcome such bad thoughts on one’s own. If one is determined, the karma can be eliminated.

Your Mind Must be Right

What’s not a right mind? It refers to a person’s inability to always treat himself as a practitioner. A practitioner will come across tribulations in cultivation practice. When a tribulation comes, it may manifest as an interpersonal conflict. There will be mind games and the like involved, which directly affect your xinxing. There will be many cases in this regard. What else will you encounter? Our bodies may suddenly feel uncomfortable. This is because repaying the karma will be manifested in different ways. At a certain point in time, you will be made unable to discern clearly whether something is true, whether your gong exists, whether you can practice cultivation and make it, or whether there are Buddhas and if they are real. In the future, these situations will surface again to give you this false impression and make you feel as though they do not exist and are all false—it is to see whether you are determined. You say that you must be firm and sure-footed. With this determination, if you can indeed be firmly resolute at that point, you will naturally do well because your xinxing will have already improved. But you are not yet that stable at the moment. If you are given this tribulation right away, you will not be enlightened to it at all, and neither will you be able to practice cultivation whatsoever. Tribulations may take place in different respects.

In the course of cultivation practice, one must practice cultivation this way to ascend to higher levels. Thus, once some of you feel physical discomfort somewhere, you will think that you are ill. You always fail to treat yourselves as practitioners, for if this happens to you, you will consider it an illness. Why are there so many troubles? Let me tell you that a lot of it has already been removed for you, and your tribulations are already quite trivial. If it were not removed for you, you might already have dropped dead had you encountered this trouble. Perhaps you would never be able to get out of your bed. When you meet with a little trouble, you will feel uncomfortable. But how can it be that comfortable? For instance, when I taught a class in Changchun,  there was a person with very good inborn quality, who was indeed a good prospect. I found him to be very good and increased his tribulations a little bit so that he could quickly repay karma and become enlightened—I was preparing it this way. Yet one day he suddenly seemed to suffer cerebral thrombosis and fell to the ground. He felt that he could not move and as though his four limbs were out of commission. He was sent to a hospital for emergency rescue. He was then able to walk again. Think about it, everyone: With cerebral thrombosis, how could one walk around and move both arms and legs again so quickly? Instead, he blamed Falun Dafa for making him go wrong. He did not think about it: How could he recover so quickly from cerebral thrombosis? If he had not practiced Falun Dafa at that time, he might have really died there when he fell. Perhaps he would have become paralyzed for the rest of his life and would have indeed had cerebral thrombosis.

This is to say just how difficult it is to save a person. So much had been done for him, yet he still did not realize it; instead he said something like that. Some veteran practitioners say: "Teacher, why do I feel uncomfortable all over my body? I always go to the hospital to get injections, but it doesn’t help. Taking medicine also doesn’t help." They were not even embarrassed to say that to me! Of course, they would not help. Those are not illnesses. How could they help? You may go ahead and have a physical exam. There is not anything wrong, but you just feel uncomfortable. We have a practitioner who broke a few needles at a hospital. In the end, the liquid medicine squirted out, and the needle still would not penetrate. He came to understand: "Oh, I’m a practitioner, and I shouldn’t have injections." He just realized that he should not have an injection. Therefore, whenever you come across tribulations, be sure to pay attention to this issue. Some people think that I just do not allow them to go to the hospital, so they think: "If you don’t let me go to the hospital, I’ll go see a qigong master." They still consider it an illness and want to see a qigong master. Where can they find a true qigong master? If you find a phony one, you will be ruined at once.

We have said: "How can you distinguish between a phony qigong master and a real one?" Many qigong masters are self-proclaimed. I have been verified and have in hand the documents of experiments from the scientific institutions involved. Many qigong masters are shams and are self-proclaimed. There are many of them who bluff and deceive people. Such a phony qigong master can also heal illnesses. Why can he do it? The person is possessed by a spirit or animal without which he would not be able to deceive people! That possessing spirit or animal can also give off energy and treat illnesses. Being a form of energy’s existence, it can restrain everyday people quite easily. But I have said, "What will that possessing spirit or animal give you when it treats your illness?" At the very microscopic level, it is all the image of that possessing spirit or animal. If it is given to you, what will you do? "It is easier to invite an immortal than to see one off."⁵  We do not need to be concerned with everyday people, as they just want to be everyday people and find temporary relief. You, however, are a practitioner. Don’t you want to continually purify your body? If it is attached to your body, when will you be able to get rid of it? In addition, it also has a certain amount of energy. Some people will wonder: "Why does Falun allow it to come? Don’t we have Teacher’s fashen to safeguard us?" There is a principle in our universe: Nobody will intervene if you want something yourself. As long as it is what you want, nobody will intervene. My fashen will stop you and give you hints. If it finds out that you are always like that, it will no longer take care of you. How can one be forced to practice cultivation? You cannot be made or forced to practice cultivation. It is up to you to truly make progress. No one can do anything about it if you do not wish to upgrade yourself. You have been taught the principles and the Fa. Who can you blame if you still don’t want to upgrade yourself? With regard to what you want, both Falun and my fashen will not intervene—this is for sure. Some people even went to other qigong masters’ classes and after going home felt very uncomfortable. That is for sure. Why didn’t my fashen protect you? What did you go there for? By going there to listen, didn’t you want to seek something? If you did not listen with your ears, how could it get into your body? Some people have deformed their Falun. Let me tell you that this Falun is worth more than your life. It is a higher life that cannot be ruined at will. Now there are many phony qigong masters, and some of them are quite well-known. I have told the administrators at China Qigong Science Research Society that in ancient times, the royal court was once plagued by Da Ji.⁶  That fox did a lot of vicious things, but it was still not as bad as the phony qigong masters today who have simply brought damage to the entire country. How many people have been victimized?! You see that on the surface it appears to be quite good, but how many people are carrying those kinds of things on their bodies? If they give it to you, you will have it—they are simply too rampant. It is therefore difficult for an ordinary person to discern from appearances.

Some people may think: "After attending this qigong seminar and listening to what Li Hongzhi said today, I’ve realized how great and profound qigong is! If there are other qigong seminars again, I should attend them, too." I would say that you definitely should not go there. If you listen to them, bad things will enter your ears. It is very difficult both to save a person and to change his or her thinking. To purify a person’s body is also very difficult. There are way too many phony qigong masters. As to even a genuine qigong master from an upright practice, is he really clean? Some animals are very vicious. Although those things cannot attach to his body, neither can he drive them away. This person, and particularly his students, do not have the ability to challenge these things on a large scale. When he gives off gong, there are all kinds of messy things interfused with it. Though he may be quite decent himself, his students are not righteous and have possession by different spirits or animals—all kinds of them.

If you really want to practice cultivation in Falun Dafa, you should not go and listen to them. Of course, if you do not want to practice cultivation in Falun Dafa and want to practice everything, you may go ahead; I will not stop you, as you are not a Falun Dafa disciple, either. If something goes wrong, do not claim that it results from the Falun Dafa practice. Only when you follow the xinxing standard and practice cultivation according to Dafa are you a genuine Falun Dafa practitioner. Someone has asked: "Can I associate with practitioners of other qigong practices?" Let me tell you that they are only practicing qigong while you are practicing cultivation in Dafa. After attending this class, you will leave them far behind in terms of levels. This Falun is formed through many generations’ cultivation practice and has mighty powers. Certainly, when you make contact with them, if you can manage not to receive or take anything from them and just be a normal friend, it will not matter much. If those people really carry something, however, it will be very bad, and it is better not to make any contact with them. In terms of a couple, I think that it will also not matter much if your spouse does another qigong practice. But there is one thing: Since you practice a righteous way, your practice will benefit others. If your spouse does an evil practice, he or she may carry bad things on the body. In order to ensure your safety, he or she must also be cleaned up. Everything will be cleaned up for you in other dimensions. Your home environment will also be cleared. If your environment is not cleaned up and you have all sorts of things interfering with you, how can you practice cultivation?

Yet there is one situation in which my fashen will not help clean things up. We have a practitioner who one day saw my fashen come to his home. He was very excited: "Teacher’s fashen is here. Teacher, please come in." My fashen said: "Your room is too messy, and there are too many things." Then, it left. Usually, when there are many evil spirits in other dimensions, my fashen will clean them out for you. His room, however, was full of different bad qigong books. He came to understand it and cleaned it up by burning the books or selling them. My fashen then returned. This is what this practitioner told me.

There are also people who see fortune tellers. Someone asks me: "Teacher, I’m practicing Falun Dafa now. I’m also very interested in Zhouyi  or things like fortune-telling. Can I still use them?" Let me put it this way: If you carry a considerable amount of energy, whatever you say will have an impact. If something is not that way, but you have told someone that it is that way, you may have committed a bad deed. An everyday person is very weak. His messages are unstable and may change. If you open your mouth and say something to him, that tribulation may become true. If this person has a lot of karma that he must repay, and you keep telling him that he will have good fortune, will it be allowed when he is unable to repay his karma? Aren’t you doing harm to him? Some people just cannot let go of these things and are attached to them as though they have some talents. Isn’t this an attachment? Besides, even if you really know the truth, as a practitioner you should maintain your xinxing and not casually unveil a heavenly secret to an everyday person. That is the principle. No matter how one uses Zhouyi to predict, some of it is already no longer true anyway. Predicting one way or another with some of it being true and some of it being false, this fortune-telling is allowed to exist in ordinary human society. Since you are someone with genuine gong, I would say that a true practitioner should follow a higher standard. Yet some practitioners will find other people to tell their fortunes and ask: "Will you do some fortune-telling for me to see how I’m doing? How is my cultivation practice? Or do I have any tribulations?" They find others to predict these things. If that tribulation of yours is predicted, how can you upgrade yourself? The entire life of a practitioner has been rearranged. One’s palm reading, face reading, birth data, and all messages in one’s body are already different and have been changed. If you go to a fortune-teller, you will believe him. Why else would you do it? What he can tell are some superficial things about your past. Yet their substance has already changed. Then think about it, everyone: If you go to a fortune-teller, aren’t you listening to and believing him? Then, doesn’t it create a psychological burden for you? Isn’t it an attachment if you burden yourself with thinking about it? So how can this attachment be removed? Haven’t you self-imposed an additional tribulation on yourself? Won’t you have to suffer more to give up this attachment? Every test or every tribulation is related to the matter of either progression or regression in cultivation. It is already difficult, yet still you add this self-imposed tribulation. How can you overcome it? You might come across hardships or troubles as a result of it. Your altered path of life is not allowed to be seen by others. If it is seen by others or if you are told when you will have a tribulation, how can you practice cultivation? Therefore, it is not permitted to be seen at all. Nobody from other schools of practice is allowed to see it, either. Even fellow disciples from the same school of practice are not allowed to see it. No one will be able to tell it correctly, because a life like that has been changed and is one for cultivation practice.

Someone asked me if he could read other religious books and other qigong books. We have said that religious books, particularly the Buddhist ones, all teach people how to cultivate their xinxing. We are also of the Buddha School, so there should not be any problem. But there is one point to be made: Many things in the scriptures were mistranslated in the translation process. In addition, many interpretations of the scriptures were also made from perspectives at different levels, and the definitions were casually made. That is plundering the Dharma. Those people who casually interpreted the scriptures were too far away from the realm of Buddhas; they did not understand the scriptures’ actual content. Therefore, they would also have different understandings of the issues. It will not be very easy for you to understand them thoroughly, and you will be unable to comprehend them on your own. But if you say: "I’m just interested in studying the scriptures," and you always study the scriptures, you will be practicing in that school of practice, since the scriptures have also integrated the gong and the Fa from that school of practice. Once you study it, you will be practicing in that school of practice. It involves this issue. If you study it in depth and follow that school of practice, you may have assumed that school of practice instead of ours. Throughout history, in cultivation practice one has been required not to undertake two schools of practice at the same time. If you really want to practice this school of practice, you should only read the texts in this school of practice.

As far as qigong books are concerned, you should not read them if you want to practice cultivation. Particularly with regard to qigong books published nowadays, you should not read them. The same is true for books such as The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Alchemy, Xingming Guizhi, or Tao Zang. Though they do not carry those bad messages, they also contain messages from different levels. They themselves are also ways of cultivation practice. Once you read them, they will give you something and interfere with you. If you find one of their sentences good, well, something will come to you and be added to your gong. Though it is not something bad, how will you practice cultivation when something else is suddenly given to you? Won’t it cause problems as well? If you add an extra part to the electronic unit inside a television set, what do you think will happen to this television set? It will be out of order instantly. This is the principle. Additionally, many qigong books nowadays are false and carry a variety of messages. As one of our practitioners was turning the pages of a qigong book, a big snake jumped out of it. Of course, I will not discuss this in detail. What I just addressed are some problems resulting from practitioners’ inability to conduct themselves properly; that is, those problems are caused by an incorrect mind. It is beneficial that we point them out and let everyone know what to do and how to distinguish them so that problems will not occur in the future. Though I did not overemphasize what I just said, everyone should be sure to pay attention to it because problems usually arise over this issue, and they normally surface here. Cultivation practice is extremely arduous and very serious. If you are being careless for a moment, you may stumble and become ruined at once. Therefore, one’s mind must be right.

Martial Arts Qigong

In addition to internal cultivation practices, there is martial arts qigong. While speaking of martial arts qigong, I must stress an issue that now there are claims of many qigong forms in the community of cultivators.

There are now the so-called painting qigong, music qigong, calligraphy qigong, and dancing qigong—there are all sorts of them. Are they all qigong? I find it very odd. I would say that this is plundering qigong. It is not only plundering qigong, but also simply ruining qigong. What is their theoretical basis? It is said that while one is painting, singing, dancing, or writing, one should be in a state of trance or the so-called qigong state. Does that make it qigong? It should not be understood this way. Isn’t that ruining qigong? Qigong is a broad and profound study of cultivation of the human body. Oh, how can being in the state of trance be called qigong? Then, what will it be called if we go to the restroom in a state of trance? Isn’t that ruining qigong? I would call it undermining qigong. Two years ago at the Oriental Health Expo, so-called calligraphy qigong was there. What is calligraphy qigong? I went over there to take a look and saw a person there writing. Upon writing, he gave off his qi to each word with his hands, and the qi emitted was all black. His mind was preoccupied with money and fame. How could he have gong? His qi could not be good, either. His writings were hung up with expensive price tags. But they were all sold to foreigners. I would say that whoever bought them would be miserable. How could the black qi be good? That person’s whole face looked dark. He was obsessed with money and only thought about money—how could he have any gong? Nonetheless, this person’s business card carried a pile of titles, such as the so-called International Calligraphy Qigong. I ask how such a thing could be called qigong?

Think about it, everyone: Eighty to ninety percent of the people from this class will not only have their illnesses healed, but will also develop gong—the genuine gong. What your body carries is already quite supernormal. If you practice cultivation on your own, even with a whole lifetime you will not develop it via cultivation. Even if a young person were to begin the practice right now, in this lifetime he would be unable to develop what I have given, and he would still need the guidance of a true, good master. It has taken us many generations to form this Falun and these mechanisms. These things are installed in your body all at once. Therefore, I am telling you not to lose it easily just because you have obtained it easily. They are extremely valuable and priceless. After this class, what you carry with you is the real gong, a high-energy matter. When you go home and write a few words—no matter how your handwriting is—it carries gong! Thus, should everyone from this class be entitled to the name of "master," and all become calligraphy qigong masters? I would say that it should not be understood this way. As a person with genuine gong and energy, you do not need to give it off intentionally; you will leave energy on whatever you touch, and it will all be shining brightly.

I also found in a magazine a piece of news which reported that a calligraphy qigong class was to be held. I read it briefly to see how it would be taught. It was written that one should first regulate one’s breathing or inhale and exhale. Next, one should sit for fifteen to thirty minutes, focusing the mind on the qi in dantian and imagining lifting the dantian qi to the forearm. Then, one should pick up the brush-pen and dip it into black ink. After that, one should move the qi to the brush-pen point. When one’s mind-intent reaches there, one may start to write. Isn’t that deceiving people? Oh, if one can move the qi somewhere, that would be considered qigong? In that case, before we eat a meal we should sit in meditation for a while. We would then pick up chopsticks and move the qi to the tips of our chopsticks to have the meal. That would be called the dining qigong, wouldn’t it? What we eat would all be energy as well. We are just commenting on this issue. I call that undermining qigong, as they take qigong as something so shallow. People therefore should not understand it in this way.

Martial arts qigong, however, can already be considered an independent qigong practice. Why is it? Because it has a heritage of several thousand years, a complete system of cultivation theories, and a complete system of cultivation methods, it can be regarded as a complete system. Despite that, martial arts qigong remains something at the lowest level of internal cultivation practices. The hard qigong is a form of clustered energy-matter that is solely for striking and hitting. Let me give you an example. After attending our Falun Dafa class, a practitioner in Beijing could not press anything with his hands. When he was shopping for a baby carriage, he was surprised that the baby carriage would collapse with a crash when he checked its sturdiness with his hands. When he went home and sat in a chair, he could not press it with his hands. If he did, the chair would break. He asked me what was going on. I did not tell him because I did not want him to develop an attachment. I just said that it was all natural, let it be, and ignore it since it was all good. If that supernormal ability is used well, a piece of rock could be smashed into powder with a pinch of his hand. Isn’t this the hard qigong? Nevertheless, he had never practiced the hard qigong. In internal cultivation practices, these supernormal abilities can usually be developed. But because it is difficult to handle one’s xinxing well, one usually is not allowed to use them even if they have been developed. In particular, at the low level of cultivation practice, one’s xinxing has not been upgraded. Thus, the supernormal abilities that are developed at the low level will not be granted at all. As time goes by and your level is upgraded, these things will no longer be of any use and will not need to be provided.

How is martial arts qigong practiced specifically? In practicing martial arts qigong, one must regulate the qi, but it is not easy to regulate qi at the beginning. Though one may want to regulate qi, one might not be able to do so. What should one do, then? One must exercise his hands, both sides of his chest, his feet, legs, arms, and head. How does one exercise them? Some people punch a tree with their hands or palms, and some people slap a rock with their hands. How painful it must be for the bones to make such contact, as they will bleed when only a small amount of force is exerted! The qi still cannot be regulated. What should be done? One will start to swing one’s arms and make the blood move backward to the arms, and one’s arms and hands will thus swell. They will actually be swollen. After that, when one slaps a rock, the bones will be padded and will not make direct contact with the rock. Thus they will not feel the pain as much. As one continues to practice, the master will teach this person. As time passes, he will learn to regulate qi. Nevertheless, the ability to regulate qi alone is not good enough, for in an actual combat the opponent will not wait for you. Of course, when one can regulate qi, one is able to resist attacks and may not feel the pain after being hit with a very thick club. After directing qi to the arms, the arms will swell. But at the beginning, qi is the most primitive thing and can be transformed into a high-energy matter as one continues to practice. When it is transformed into a high-energy matter, it will gradually form an energy cluster of great density, and this energy cluster has intelligence. Therefore, it is also a supernormal ability cluster, or namely, a type of supernormal ability. Nevertheless, this supernormal ability is solely for striking and warding off blows. It will not work if used to treat illnesses. Because this high-energy matter exists in another dimension and does not travel in our dimension, its time travels faster than ours. When you punch someone, you do not need to direct qi or think about it as the gong will be there already. When you try to ward off someone’s attack, the gong will also be there already. No matter how quickly you throw a punch, it will travel faster than you do as the time concepts are different on the two sides. Through practicing martial arts qigong, one can develop the so-called Iron Sand Palm, Cinnabar Palm, Vajra Leg, and Arhat Foot.⁷  These are the skills of everyday people. Through practice, an ordinary person can achieve this level.

The biggest difference between martial arts qigong and the internal cultivation practices is that martial arts qigong requires practicing in motion; qi thus travels under the skin. Because it requires practicing in motion, one cannot achieve a state of tranquility, and neither will one’s qi enter dantian. One’s qi will travel under the skin and through the muscles. Therefore, one can cultivate neither the body nor high-level abilities. Our internal cultivation practice requires practicing in a state of tranquility. Conventional practices require that qi enters dantian in the lower abdominal area. They require practice in a state of tranquility and the transformation of benti. They can cultivate the body and lead to practicing cultivation at higher levels.

You may have learned from novels martial arts techniques such as the so-called Golden Bell Shield, Iron Cloth Shirt, and striking through a poplar tree from one hundred paces away. With the light martial arts, one can travel back and forth in high locations. Some can even enter another dimension. Do such martial arts exist? Yes, that is for sure. Yet they do not exist among everyday people. Those who have indeed cultivated such superb martial arts cannot show them off in public. Because such a person does not simply practice martial arts and is completely beyond the level of everyday people, he must practice cultivation by following an internal cultivation practice. The person must value and improve his xinxing. He must care little about things such as material interests. Though he can cultivate such martial arts, he can no longer casually use them among everyday people thereafter. It is permitted if he uses them with nobody around to see it. In reading those novels, you will find that a character will fight and kill for a secret sword art manual, treasure, or women. Everyone is portrayed as having great abilities, traveling back and forth mysteriously. Think about it, everyone: Don’t those people who truly have these martial arts skills have to cultivate them through internal cultivation practice? They acquire them only through cultivating their xinxing, and they must have already long been disinterested in fame, profit, and various desires. How can they kill others? How can they care that much for money and wealth? It is absolutely impossible. Those are only artistic exaggerations. People just go after the mental stimulation and will do anything for that craving. The authors have capitalized on this point and try their best to write whatever you look for or find pleasing. The more inconceivable the writings, the more you want to read them. Those are only artistic exaggerations. Those who indeed have these martial arts abilities will not act like that. In particular, they will not demonstrate them in public.

The Mentality of Showing Off

Because of practicing cultivation among everyday people, a lot of our practitioners cannot release many of their attachments. Many attachments have already become second nature, and these people themselves cannot detect them. This mentality of showing off can manifest in any situation; it can also surface when doing a good deed. In order to gain fame, personal profit, and a little benefit, some people often brag about themselves and show off: "I’m very capable and a winner." We also have such cases where those who practice a little better than others, have better Celestial Eye visions, or whose exercise movements look better also like to show off.

One may claim: "I’ve heard something from Teacher Li." People will surround this person and listen to what he says. He will pass on the hearsay embellished with his own understanding. What is the purpose? It is to show himself off. There are some people who also spread the hearsay among one another with a great deal of interest, as though they are well informed, and as though so many of our practitioners do not understand or know as much as they do. It has become natural for them, and perhaps they do not realize it themselves. Subconsciously, they just have this mentality of showing off. Otherwise, what would be the purpose of circulating the hearsay? Some people gossip about when Teacher will return to the mountains. I am not from the mountains. Why should I return to the mountains? Still others gossip that I have told someone something on a particular day, and that I treat that person very specially. What good will it do to spread these things? It will not serve any good at all. We have seen, however, that this is their attachment—the mentality of showing off.

Some people have come to me for my autograph. What is the purpose? It is an everyday people’s custom to have someone’s autograph as a souvenir. If you do not practice cultivation, my autograph will not serve any use for you. Every word in my book bears my image and Falun, and every sentence was spoken by me. What do you still need my autograph for? Some people presume: "With the autograph, Teacher’s message will protect me." They still believe in things such as messages. We do not care about messages. This book is already invaluable. What else are you still looking for? All these are reflections of those attachments. Also, after seeing the demeanor of the disciples who travel with me, some people will imitate them without realizing whether they are good or bad. In fact, it does not matter who the person is—there is only one Fa. Only by observing this Dafa can one meet the genuine standard. The people who work by my side have not received any special treatment and are the same as everyone else; they are just staff members of the Research Society. Do not develop those attachments. Oftentimes, upon forming these attachments, you may play the role of unintentionally undermining Dafa. The sensational hearsay that you have invented may even lead to conflicts or stir up a practitioner’s attachment to getting closer to Teacher in order to hear more things and so on. Aren’t these all the same issue?

What else can this mentality of showing off easily lead to? I have been teaching the practice for two years. Some among our veteran Falun Dafa practitioners may soon reach the state of Unlocking Gong. Some will enter a phase of gradual enlightenment and suddenly reach it. Why didn’t they have these supernormal abilities earlier? This is because though I pushed you to such a high level all at once, doing that would not be allowed, for your attachments of everyday people had not been completely removed. Certainly, your xinxing had already improved remarkably, yet many attachments had not been released. Therefore, those supernormal abilities were not given to you. After this phase is over and you become steady, you will at once be put in a state of gradual enlightenment. In this state of gradual enlightenment, your Celestial Eye will be opened at a very high level and you will develop many supernormal abilities. In fact, let me tell you that when you truly practice cultivation, you have already at the beginning developed many supernormal abilities. You have already reached this high level, so you have many supernormal abilities. This situation may have happened to many of you recently. There are also some people who cannot reach a high level in cultivation. What they have physically, along with their endurance, is predestined. Consequently, some people will experience the Unlocking of Gong or become enlightened—completely enlightened—at a very low level. There will be such people.

I am pointing out this issue to let everyone know that once there is such a person, you must be sure not to regard him as a remarkable, enlightened person. This is a very serious issue in cultivation practice. Only through following this Dafa can you do things correctly. You should not follow or listen to him because he has supernormal abilities, supernatural powers, or because he can see some things. You will do him harm, as he will develop the attachment of zealotry and end up losing everything and having them switched off. In the end, he will stumble. One who has reached the state of Unlocking Gong may also stumble. If one cannot conduct oneself well, one will also stumble even if one is enlightened. When things are not handled properly, even a Buddha can stumble, not to mention a practitioner like you among everyday people! Therefore, no matter how many supernormal abilities you have developed, how great they are, or how powerful your divine power is, you must conduct yourself well. Recently, we had someone sitting here who could disappear at one moment and reappear the next. It is just like that. Even greater supernatural powers will be developed. What will you do? As our practitioners or disciples, whether these things happen to you or others in the future, you should not idolize them or pursue these things. Once your mind goes wrong, it will be all over, and you will stumble. Perhaps you are at an even higher level than they are, but it is just that your supernatural powers have not yet emerged. At the very least, you have stumbled on this particular issue. Accordingly, everyone must be sure to pay particular attention to this matter. We have deemed this a highly important issue because such a matter will soon take place. Once it occurs, it is unacceptable if you cannot conduct yourself well.

A practitioner who has developed gong and reached the state of Unlocking Gong or truly enlightened should not take himself to be someone special. What he has seen are things limited to his own level. His cultivation has reached this level, because his enlightenment ability, xinxing standard, and wisdom have reached this level. With regard to things at higher levels, therefore, he might be in disbelief. Precisely because he does not believe them, he thinks that what he sees is absolute and that there are only these things. That is way off, because this person’s level is just here.

Some people will have their gong unlocked at this level since they cannot go any further in cultivation practice. As a result, they can experience the Unlocking of Gong and become enlightened only at this level. Among those of you who will complete cultivation in the future, some will be enlightened on the small worldly paths, some will be enlightened at different levels, and some will be enlightened with Right Fruit. Only the enlightened people with Right Fruit will achieve their highest levels, being able to see things and manifesting themselves at different levels. Even those who are enlightened on the worldly paths at the lowest level will be able to see some dimensions and some enlightened people, and they will be able to communicate with them as well. At that time, you should not become complacent because enlightenment on the small worldly paths at the lower levels cannot attain Right Fruit—this is for sure. What can be done about it, then? One can only stay at this level. To practice cultivation toward a higher level will be a future matter. Since one’s cultivation can only go this far, what’s the point of keeping one’s gong locked? Though you will keep cultivating yourself like this, your cultivation can no longer make progress, so you will have your gong unlocked since you have reached the end of your cultivation; there will be many such people. No matter what happens, one must maintain good xinxing. Only through adhering to Dafa can one be truly right. Whether it is your supernormal abilities or your Unlocking of Gong, you achieve them through practicing cultivation in Dafa. If you put Dafa in a secondary place and put your supernatural powers in the primary place, or as an enlightened person you believe that what you understand one way or another is correct, or if you even regard yourself as being great and beyond Dafa, I would say that you have already started to stumble. It would be dangerous and you would become ever worse. At that time, you would really be in trouble, and your cultivation would end up in vain. If things are not done right, you will stumble and fail in your cultivation.

Let me also tell you that the content of this book has combined the Fa that I have taught in several classes. Everything was taught by me, and every sentence was spoken by me. Every word was pulled from the tape recordings and transcribed word for word. My disciples and practitioners helped me transcribe everything from the tape recordings. I then revised it over and over again. It is all my Fa, and what I have taught is only this Fa.

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1 Qin Hui (chin hway)—a wicked official of the royal court in the Southern Song Dynasty (1127 A.D.-1279 A.D.).
2 "to produce fire"—a Chinese term also meaning "cultivation insanity"; this can be understood both figuratively and literally here.
3 ding (ding)—a state of empty, yet conscious mind.
4 Wuhan (woo-hahn)—capital of Hubei Province.
5 "It is easier to invite an immortal than to see one off."—a Chinese expression commonly used to describe a situation that is easy to fall into, but difficult to get out of.
6 Da Ji (dah jee)— a wicked concubine of the last emperor in the Shang Dynasty (1765 B.C.-1122 B.C.). She is believed to have been possessed by a fox spirit and to have caused the fall of the Shang Dynasty.
7 Iron Sand Palm, Cinnabar Palm, Vajra Leg, Arhat Foot—types of Chinese martial arts techniques.

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