Loss and Gain
In the cultivation community, the relationship between loss and gain is frequently brought up. Among everyday people, it is also discussed. How should our practitioners treat losses and gains? It is different from everyday people. What everyday people want is personal gain and how to live well and comfortably. Our practitioners are not this way, but exactly the opposite. We do not seek what everyday people want. Instead, what we get is something everyday people cannot obtain—even if they want to—except through cultivation.
The loss we normally refer to is not loss in a narrow scope. When one speaks of loss, one will think of donating some money, giving a hand to those in need, or providing something to a beggar on the street. Those are also a form of giving and a form of loss. Yet this only refers to being less concerned with the sole issue of money or material possessions. Giving up wealth is, of course, an aspect of loss, and a relatively major aspect as well. But the loss we refer to is not limited to this narrow scope. For cultivators, in the course of cultivation there are so many attachments to be relinquished, such as the mentality of showing off, jealousy, the competitive mentality, and zealotry. Many different attachments must be discarded, for the loss we discuss is one in a broad sense. During the entire course of cultivation, we should lose all everyday people’s attachments and various desires.
One may wonder, “We’re cultivating among everyday people. If we lose everything, won’t we be the same as monks or nuns? It seems impossible to let go of everything.” In our school of cultivation, those who cultivate among everyday people are required to cultivate precisely in ordinary human society and to fit in among everyday people as much as possible. You are not really asked to lose anything materially. It does not matter how high your position ranks or how much wealth you own. The key is whether you can let go of the attachment.
Our school of cultivation directly targets one’s mind. When your personal interests are on the line or you are in the midst of an interpersonal conflict, can you take these matters lightly and care less about them? This is the crucial question. Cultivation practices in temples or in remote mountains and woods completely sever your access to ordinary human society. They force you to lose everyday people’s attachments and deny you any material benefits so that you can lose the attachment to them. A cultivator among everyday people does not follow this path. This person is required to take attachments lightly in this everyday human environment. Of course, this is very difficult. It is also the most crucial aspect of our school of cultivation. Therefore, the loss we refer to is loss in a broad sense instead of a narrow one. Let us talk about doing good deeds and donating some money or goods. Nowadays, some of the beggars that you see on the street are professional, and they may even have more money than you. We should focus on a broader range of things instead of trivial matters. Cultivation should focus with openness and dignity on a broad perspective. In the course of our losses, what we actually lose are the bad things.
Human beings often believe that everything they pursue is good. In fact, from a high-level perspective, all of this serves to satisfy those bits of vested interests among everyday people. It is said in religion that regardless of how much money you have or how high your position ranks, it is good for only a few decades. You cannot bring these things along with you at birth, or carry them away with you after death. Why is gong so precious? It is precisely because it grows right on the body of your Original Soul and can be carried with you at birth and taken forth after death. In addition, gong directly determines your Fruition Status in cultivation, and it is therefore difficult to cultivate. In other words, what you lose is something bad. Thus, you can return to your original, true self. So what do you gain? The improvement of your level. Eventually you achieve Righteous Fruition and complete cultivation, solving the fundamental issue. Certainly, it will not be easy for you to immediately lose all sorts of everyday people’s desires and reach the standard of a true cultivator, as it takes time to achieve this. After hearing me say that this takes time, you might claim that Teacher has told us to take time, and so you will take time in cultivating yourself. That will not be permitted! You should be strict with yourself, though we allow you to improve gradually. If you could succeed all at once today, you would be a Buddha today. Thus, it is not realistic. You will be able to achieve this gradually.
What we lose is actually something bad. What is it? It is karma, which goes hand in hand with different human attachments. For example, everyday people have all kinds of bad thoughts. For self-interest, they commit various wrong deeds and will acquire this black substance, karma. This directly involves our own minds. In order to eliminate this negative thing, you must first change your mind.
Transformation of Karma
There exists a transformation process between the white substance and the black substance. After a conflict takes place between two people, there occurs this process of transformation. When one does a good deed, one acquires the white substance, de. When one does a bad deed, one obtains the black substance, karma. There is also an inheriting process. One may ask, “Is this because one did bad things earlier in one’s life?” It might not be completely so because this karma is not accumulated in only one lifetime. The community of cultivators believes that the Original Soul does not become extinct. If the Original Soul does not become extinct, one probably had social interactions before this life. So one might have owed something to someone, bullied someone, or done other bad things, such as killing, which would induce this karma. These things add up in another dimension, and this person always carries them; the same is also true with the white substance. This is not the only source, as there is also another situation. Throughout the generations in the family, ancestors may also accumulate karma for later generations. In the past, the elderly had this saying, “One should accumulate de, and one’s ancestors have accumulated de. This person is giving away de and abusing de.” That was said very correctly. Nowadays, everyday people no longer listen to this saying. If you tell those young people about losing de or lacking de, they will not take it to heart at all. Actually, its meaning is indeed very profound. It is not merely the ideological and spiritual standard of modern people but is also something of actual material existence. Our human bodies have both kinds of substances.
Some people ask, “Is it true that if one has too much black substance, one is unable to cultivate toward high levels?” You could say so, as with a lot of black substance, your enlightenment quality will be affected. Because it forms a field around your body and wraps you up right in the middle, you become separated from Zhen-Shan-Ren, the characteristic of the universe. Thus, this kind of person’s enlightenment quality may be poor. When people talk about cultivation and qigong, this person will see them as superstitious and will not believe in them at all. He will find them ridiculous. It is usually this way, but not absolutely so. Is it true that it’s too difficult for this person to cultivate and that he is unable to achieve high-level gong? It is not so. We have said that Dafa is boundless, and it is completely up to your heart to cultivate. The master takes you through the entrance, and cultivation is up to you, yourself. It all depends upon how you, yourself cultivate. Whether you can cultivate all depends upon whether you can endure, sacrifice, and suffer. If you can commit your mind, no difficulties can stop you. I would say that there’s no problem.
A person with a lot of the black substance will usually have to sacrifice more than a person with a lot of the white substance. Because the white substance assimilates directly to the characteristic of the universe, Zhen-Shan-Ren, as long as a person improves his xinxing and improves himself in conflicts, his gong will increase. It is that simple. A person with a lot of de has good enlightenment quality. He can also endure hardships—“working the body, tempering the will.” Even if he suffers more physically and less mentally, his gong still increases. This is not the case for someone with a lot of the black substance, as he must first go through this process: He must first transform the black substance into the white substance. This process is also extremely painful. Therefore, a person with poor enlightenment quality usually must suffer more tribulations. With a lot of karma and poor enlightenment quality, it becomes more difficult for this person to cultivate.
Take a specific case, for example. Let us see how this person cultivates. Sitting in meditation requires crossing the legs for a long period of time. The legs will be in pain and feel numb after they are crossed. As time passes by, one will begin to feel quite uncomfortable and then become rather restless. As “working the body, tempering the will” goes, one will feel both physically and mentally uncomfortable. Some people are afraid of the pain from sitting with the legs crossed, so they uncross their legs and don’t want to continue. Some people cannot bear it anymore after sitting a little longer. Once they take the legs down, their practice is in vain. For some people, once they feel the pain from crossing their legs, they will move their legs about—and after moving them about, they cross them again. We have found that this serves no use whatsoever. This is because we have seen that when their legs are in pain, the black substance is attacking their legs. The black substance is karma and can be eliminated through suffering; it can then be transformed into de. Once the pain is felt, karma begins to be eliminated. The more karma that comes, the more pain one’s legs will feel. Therefore, the pain in the legs does not arise without a reason. Usually, while sitting in meditation one’s legs feel the pain intermittently. After a moment of very uncomfortable pain, it passes, and one’s legs will gradually gain relief. Soon the pain starts all over again. It usually happens this way.
As karma is eliminated piece by piece, one’s legs will feel a little better after a piece is eliminated. Soon another piece comes up, and one’s legs will feel the pain again. After the black substance is eliminated, it does not dissipate, as this substance does not cease to exist. Upon being eliminated, it is directly transformed into the white substance, which is de. Why can it be transformed this way? This is because this person has suffered, sacrificed, and endured tribulations. We have said that de is obtained through enduring and suffering hardships, or by doing good deeds. Therefore, this situation will occur while sitting in meditation. Some people quickly uncross their legs once they begin to ache a little, and then they will move around to loosen them up a bit before crossing their legs again. That will achieve nothing whatsoever. For some people, while doing the standing stance, their arms may get tired from holding them over their heads. When they can’t endure it any longer, they put down their arms, so they accomplish nothing whatsoever. What does that bit of pain account for? I would say that it is simply too easy if one can succeed in cultivation just by holding one’s arms up like that. This is what will happen when people practice sitting in meditation.
For the most part, our school of cultivation does not take this approach, although a part of it does have an effect in this regard. Most of our transformation of karma is through xinxing conflicts with others. Usually this is where it manifests itself. While one is in a conflict, the clashes between each other even surpass physical pain. I would say that physical pain is the easiest thing to endure: Just grit your teeth and it’s over. When people are scheming against each other, that is when the mind becomes the hardest thing to control.
For instance, upon arriving at the workplace, a person overhears two people saying bad things about him, things bad enough to make him furious. We have said, however, that as a practitioner one should not fight back when being punched or insulted, but should hold oneself to a high standard. Thus, he thinks that Teacher has said that as practitioners we should not be the same as other people and must hold ourselves to a higher standard. He will not quarrel with those two people. But normally when a problem arises, if it does not irritate you psychologically, it does not count or is useless and cannot make you improve. So he can’t get over it and it bothers him. It could be that his mind obsesses over it and he keeps wanting to turn around and look at the faces of those two people. When he turns his head to look, he sees the two with wicked-looking expressions on their faces, and they’re getting all worked up. In that moment, he can’t take it anymore, his temper flares up, and he may start fighting with them right away. When a conflict occurs among one another, it is very difficult to control one’s mind. I say that it would be easy if everything could be resolved through sitting in meditation, but it will not always be this way.
Accordingly, in your future cultivation you will run into all kinds of tribulations. How could you cultivate without these hardships? If everyone is good to one another without conflicts of interest or interference from the human mind, and if all you do is just sit there, how can your xinxing improve? That wouldn’t do. One must truly temper and improve oneself through actual practice. Someone asks, “Why do we always have tribulations in cultivation? The problems aren’t much different from those of everyday people.” It is because you are cultivating among everyday people. You will not be suddenly turned upside down with your head facing the ground, floating and suffering up in the air—it won’t be like that. Everything will assume the form of everyday situations, such as someone may have irritated you today, someone has upset you, someone has mistreated you, or someone suddenly speaks to you disrespectfully. It is to see how you will react to these issues.
Why do you encounter these problems? They are all caused by your own karma. We have already eliminated for you many, countless portions of it, leaving only that tiny bit that is divided into tribulations at different levels for improving your xinxing, tempering your mind, and removing your various attachments. These are all your own tribulations that we use to improve your xinxing, and you will be able to overcome them. As long as you improve your xinxing, you can overcome them. Unless you, yourself do not want to do so, you can make it, provided you want to overcome them. Therefore, from now on when you come across a conflict you should not consider it a coincidence. This is because when a conflict occurs, it will take place unexpectedly. But that is not a coincidence—it is for improving your xinxing. As long as you treat yourself as a practitioner, you can handle it properly.
Of course, you will not be informed of a tribulation or conflict ahead of time. How could you cultivate if you were told everything? It wouldn’t have any effect, then. They usually occur unexpectedly so that they can test your xinxing and allow your xinxing to truly improve. Only then can it be seen whether you can guard your xinxing well. Therefore, when a conflict arises, it does not occur accidentally. This issue will be present during the entire course of cultivation and in the transformation of karma. Unlike what everyday people imagine, it is much more difficult than suffering physically. How can you increase gong simply by practicing the exercises a bit longer while your arms are sore from being raised and your legs are tired from standing? How can you increase gong with only a few more hours of exercise? That only serves to transform one’s benti, but it still needs to be reinforced with energy. The exercises do not help raise your level. Tempering the will is the key to truly raising your level. If one could improve just by working the body, I would say that Chinese peasants suffer the most. Shouldn’t they all become qigong masters, then? No matter how much you work the body, you do not suffer as much as they do, who work both hard and painstakingly in the field every day under the baking sun. It is not that simple a matter. Therefore, we have said that to truly improve yourself, you should genuinely elevate your mind. Only then can you truly improve.
During the process of transforming karma, to keep yourself under control—unlike an everyday person who would mess things up—you should always maintain a compassionate heart and a calm mind. If you suddenly bump into a problem, you will be able to take care of it properly. If you always maintain a heart of benevolence and compassion, when a problem arises suddenly, you will have a buffer and room to think. If you always think about competing with others and fighting over this or that, I would say that you will start a fight with others whenever there is a problem—this is guaranteed. Thus, when you encounter a conflict, I would say that it is to transform your black substance into the white substance, de.
With our humankind having developed to this extent today, almost everyone is born with karma built upon karma, and everyone’s body has quite a lot of karma. In transforming karma, therefore, this situation will usually occur: While your gong increases and your xinxing improves, your karma is eliminated and transformed. When one runs into a conflict, it may manifest as a xinxing tribulation between two persons. If you can endure it, your karma will be eliminated, your xinxing will improve, and your gong will increase as well. All of these will come together. People in the past had a lot of de and good xinxing to begin with. As long as they suffered a little bit of hardship, they could increase their gong. People are not like that today. As soon as they suffer, they do not want to cultivate. Furthermore, they are becoming less and less enlightened, making it even harder for them to cultivate.
In cultivation, there may be two scenarios when dealing with specific conflicts or when others treat you badly. One is that you might have treated this person badly in your previous life. You feel in your heart that it is unfair, “How can this person treat me like this?” Then why did you treat this person that way in the past? You might claim that you actually did not know it at that time, and this lifetime has nothing to do with another lifetime, but that won’t do. There is another issue. In conflicts, the issue of transforming karma is involved. Therefore, when actually dealing with conflicts we should take the high road instead of acting like everyday people. The same applies to the workplace or other work environments. The same is true as well for those who are self-employed since they also have social interactions. It is impossible to not have any contact with society; at the very least there is contact among neighbors.
In social interactions you will come across all kinds of conflicts. For those who cultivate among everyday people, what type of business you are in does not matter. Regardless of how much money you have, how high your position is, or what kind of private enterprise or company you run, it makes no difference; you should trade fairly and maintain a righteous mind. All professions in human society should exist. It is an issue of the human heart not being righteous, rather than one’s occupation. There was a saying in the old days, “Nine out of ten merchants are fraudulent.” That is a saying of everyday people. I would say that this is a matter of the human heart. As long as your heart is righteous and you trade fairly, you deserve to earn more money if you make more effort. That is because you are rewarded for the effort you have put in among everyday people. No loss, no gain. You have worked for it. With any social status, you can still be a good person. There are different conflicts for people of different social classes. The upper-class society has conflicts of the upper-class society, all of which can be properly dealt with. In any social class, you can be a good person and take the various different desires or attachments more lightly. You can be a good person at different social levels, and you can cultivate at your own social level.
Nowadays, whether in state-run companies or in other enterprises in this country, interpersonal conflicts have become quite distinctive. In other countries and throughout history, this phenomenon has never occurred before. Thus, clashes over self-interest appear to be particularly intense. People play mind games and compete for a tiny bit of personal gain; the thoughts they have and the tricks they use are vicious. Even being a good person is difficult. For instance, you arrive at your workplace and find the atmosphere there not right. Later, someone tells you that so-and-so has made a big fuss about you and reported you to the boss, damaging your reputation very badly. Others all stare at you strangely. How could an average person tolerate that? How could anyone put up with that? “If he has made trouble for me, I’ll return the same. He has supporters, but so do I. Let’s fight.” If you do this among everyday people, they will say that you are a strong person. As a practitioner, however, that is completely awful. If you compete and fight like an ordinary person, you are an ordinary person. If you outdo him, you are even worse than that ordinary person.
How should we deal with this issue? Upon running into this kind of conflict, we should, first of all, keep a cool head, and we should not behave the same way as that person. Of course, we can explain the matter kindly, and it is not a problem if we clarify the issue. But you should not become too attached to it. If we encounter these problems, we should not compete and fight like others. If you do what that person did, aren’t you an ordinary person? Not only should you not compete and fight like him, but also you should not resent that person in your heart. Really, you should not hate that person. If you hate that person, aren’t you upset? You have not followed forbearance. We practice Zhen-Shan-Ren, and you would have even less compassion to speak of. So you should not be like him or become really upset with him, despite his putting you in this awful situation where you cannot even raise your head. Instead of being angry with him, you should thank him in your heart and thank him sincerely. An everyday person may think this way, “Isn’t that being like Ah Q?” I am telling you that it is not so.
Think about it, everyone: You are practitioners. Shouldn’t you be required to meet a high standard? The principles of everyday people should not apply to you, right? As a cultivator, isn’t what you get something of high levels? Accordingly, you must follow the high-level principles. If you do what that person did, aren’t you the same as him? Why should you thank him, then? Think about it: What will you obtain? In this universe, there is a principle that says, “no loss, no gain.” To gain, one must lose. That person puts you in an awful situation among everyday people, and he is the party that has gained at your expense. The worse the situation he puts you in and the greater its impact, the more you will endure and the more de he will lose. This de will all be given to you. While you are enduring all that, you might not care too much about it, and you might not take it to heart.
In this universe, there is another principle: If you have suffered a lot, the karma in your body will be transformed. Because you have suffered, however much you have endured will all be transformed into an equal amount of de. Isn’t this de what a practitioner wants? You will gain in two ways, as your karma is also eliminated. If the person did not create this situation for you, how could you improve your xinxing? If both you and I are nice to each other and sit there in harmony, how can increasing gong be possible? Precisely because that person created this conflict for you, there is this opportunity to improve xinxing. If you can make use of it to improve your own xinxing, won’t this xinxing of yours be raised in this way? You have gained in three ways. You are a practitioner, so as your xinxing improves, won’t your gong also increase? You have gained four ways in one shot. Why shouldn’t you thank that person? You should sincerely thank him from the bottom of your heart—it is actually so.
Of course, that person’s thought was not good, or else he would not have given you de. But he has indeed created an opportunity to improve your xinxing. In other words, we must pay attention to cultivating xinxing. At the same time xinxing is cultivated, karma is eliminated and transformed into de so that you can ascend to a higher level; these go hand in hand. From a high-level perspective, the principles are all changed. An everyday person will not be able to understand the situation. When you look at these principles from a higher level, everything will be different. Among everyday people you may find these principles correct, but they are not actually right. Only what is seen from high levels is truly right. It is usually like this.
I have thoroughly explained the principles to everyone, and I hope that in future cultivation everyone will treat himself as a practitioner and truly cultivate, since the principles are already presented here. Perhaps some people, because they live among everyday people, still think that the everyday people’s tangible material interests right in front of them are more practical. Amid the current of everyday people they still cannot conduct themselves according to the high standard. Actually, for being a good person among everyday people there are heroes who can serve as role models, but those are role models among everyday people. If you want to be a cultivator, it is completely up to you yourself to cultivate your heart and become enlightened since there are no role models. Fortunately, today we have made public this Dafa. In the past, if you wished to cultivate, nobody would teach you. This way, you can follow Dafa and perhaps you will do better. Whether you can cultivate, whether you will succeed, and what level you can reach all depend on you, yourself.
Of course, the way karma transforms does not take place entirely as I have just described; it can manifest in other areas. It can happen either in society or at home. While walking on a street or in another social environment, one may come across some trouble. You will be made to abandon all those attachments that you cannot give up among everyday people. As long as you have them, all of those attachments must be removed in different environments. You will be made to stumble, whereby you will become enlightened to the Tao. This is how you go through cultivation.
There is another situation that is quite typical. In the course of cultivation many of you will find that when you practice qigong your spouse will often become very unhappy. As soon as you begin the exercises, your spouse will throw a fit at you. If you do something else, your spouse will not mind. No matter how much time you waste playing Mahjong, your spouse might be unhappy, but not as much as if you do qigong exercises. Your qigong practice does not interfere with your spouse, and what a good thing it is since you exercise to keep fit, and you are not disturbing your spouse. Yet once you start practicing qigong, your spouse will throw things around and start a fight. Some couples have fought almost to the point of getting a divorce because of disputes over qigong practice. Many people have not thought about why this situation takes place. If you ask your spouse later, “Why do you get so upset if I practice qigong?” he or she cannot explain it and will really be out of reasons. “Really, why did I become so angry and worked up at that time?” What, in fact, has happened? While you are practicing qigong, your karma will be transformed. If you don’t lose, you won’t gain, and what you lose are bad things. You have to give up something.
Perhaps as soon as you step in the door, your spouse will throw a fit right in your face. If you endure it, your effort of practicing qigong today will not be in vain. Some people also know that in qigong practice one should value de. Therefore, this person usually gets along very well with his spouse. He thinks, “Usually, if I say ‘one,’ she doesn’t say ‘two.’ Today she’s walking all over me.” He cannot control his temper and will start a fight. With this, today’s practice ends up in vain. Because karma was there, she was helping him remove it. But he did not accept it and started a fight with her. The karma thus could not be eliminated. There are a lot of these instances and many of our cultivators have experienced them, but they have not thought about why they were this way. Your spouse would not care much if you were to do something else. Qigong practice should actually be a good thing, but she always finds fault with you. In fact, your spouse is helping you eliminate karma, though she does not know it herself. She is not fighting with you only superficially and still being nice to you in her heart—it is not so. It is real anger from the bottom of her heart, because whoever has acquired the karma feels uncomfortable. It is guaranteed to be this way.
Improving Xinxing
Because many people could not maintain good xinxing in the past, many problems occurred. After their practice reached a certain level, they could not make further progress. Some people have a high xinxing level to begin with. During the practice, their celestial eyes are opened at once and can reach a certain realm. Because this person has relatively good inborn quality and a high xinxing level, his gong increases rapidly. By the time his gong reaches his xinxing level, the gong has also risen to that level; if he wants to continue increasing his gong, conflicts will also become very serious, as he needs to further improve his xinxing. This is particularly true for a person with good inborn quality. He may think that his gong has been increasing well and that the practice has also been going very well. Why are there suddenly so many problems? Everything goes wrong. People mistreat him, and his boss also doesn’t appreciate him anymore. Even the situation at home becomes very tense. Why are there so many problems all of a sudden? This person himself might not get it. Because of his good inborn quality, he has reached a certain level that brings about this situation. Yet how can that be a cultivator’s final criterion for completing cultivation? It is far from the end of cultivation! You must continue to improve yourself. Because of that little amount of your inborn quality you have reached this state. In order to ascend further, the standard must be raised as well.
Someone may say, “I’ll earn some more money to settle my family down well so I won’t have to worry about anything. Afterward, I’ll cultivate.” I would say that this is your wishful thinking. You are unable to interfere with the lives of others, and neither can you control others’ fates, including those of your wife, sons, daughters, parents, or brothers. Can you decide those things? Furthermore, how will you cultivate if you do not have any worries or troubles? How can you do the exercises comfortably and restfully? How can there be such a thing? That is what you think from the perspective of everyday people.
Cultivation must take place through tribulations so as to test whether you can part with and care less about different kinds of human qing and desires. If you are attached to these things, you will not succeed in cultivation. Everything has its karmic relationship. Why can human beings be human? It is because human beings have qing. They live just for this qing. Affection among family members, love between a man and a woman, love for parents, feelings, friendship, doing things for the sake of friendship, and everything else all relate to this qing. Whether a person likes to do something or not, is happy or unhappy, loves or hates something, and everything in the entire human society comes from this qing. If this qing is not relinquished, you will be unable to cultivate. If you break free from this qing, nobody can affect you. An everyday person’s mind will be unable to sway you. What comes and replaces it is benevolence, which is a nobler thing. Of course, it is not easy to cut off this qing right away. Cultivation is a long process and a process of gradually giving up your attachments. Nonetheless, you must be strict with yourself.
As practitioners, you will suddenly come across conflicts. What should you do? You should always maintain a compassionate and calm heart. Then, when you run into a problem, you will be able to do well because it gives you some room as a buffer. You should always be benevolent and kind to others and consider others when doing anything. Whenever you encounter a problem, you should first consider whether others can put up with this matter or if it will hurt anyone. In doing so, there will not be any problems. Therefore, in cultivation you should follow a higher and higher standard for yourself.
Oftentimes there are people who cannot enlighten to these issues. When a person’s celestial eye is open and he sees a Buddha, he will go home and worship the Buddha, praying in his mind, “Why aren’t you looking after me? Please help me solve this problem.” The Buddha, of course, will not do anything because that problem was arranged by him, intending to improve your xinxing and have you improve through tribulations. How can the Buddha take care of the problem for you? He will not solve the problem for you at all. How can you increase your gong and improve your xinxing and level if he solves your problem? The key is to increase your gong. To the great enlightened beings, living as a human being is not the purpose, and one’s life is not meant for being human—it is meant for you to return to your origin. Human beings suffer a lot. The enlightened beings think that the more one suffers, the better, as one should speed up repaying one’s debts. This is what they think. Some people do not understand and begin to complain to the Buddha if their praying does not work, “Why don’t you help me? I burn incense and kowtow to you every day.” Some people will throw the Buddha statue to the ground because of this and start to condemn Buddha thereafter. As a result of this condemnation, his xinxing drops, and his gong disappears. This person knows that everything is gone, so he resents Buddha even more, believing that the Buddha is ruining him. He evaluates Buddha’s xinxing with an ordinary person’s criteria. How can that comparison be made? How can it work if a person views high-level things with the standards of everyday people? Therefore, this kind of problem tends to arise when people regard their suffering in life as being unfair. Many people drop down this way.
In recent years, many grand qigong masters, including the renowned ones, have fallen. Of course, the genuine qigong masters had already left upon accomplishing their historic missions. Only some are left behind, having been lost among everyday people; with their fallen xinxing level, they are still active but they no longer have any gong. A few qigong masters who were well-known in the past are still active in society. When their masters found that they were lost among everyday people and could not free themselves from obsessing over fame and personal gain, after they had become hopeless, their masters took their Assistant Souls away with them. All of the gong was carried on the bodies of the Assistant Souls. There are quite a lot of these typical examples.
In our school of cultivation, these cases are relatively few. Even if there are some, they are not as notable. In terms of xinxing improvement, though, there are many outstanding examples. One practitioner works in a textile factory in a city in Shandong Province. After studying Falun Dafa, he taught other coworkers to practice. As a result, the factory has taken on a new look. He used to take home pieces of towels from the textile factory, and so did the rest of the employees. After he started practicing Dafa, instead of taking things home, he brought back to the factory what he had taken home before. When others saw his actions, nobody would take things home anymore. Some employees also returned to the factory what they had previously taken home. This situation occurred throughout the entire factory.
The director at a city’s Dafa instruction center went to a factory to see how Falun Dafa students were doing with their practice. The factory manager came out to greet him in person, “Since studying Falun Dafa, these workers have been coming to work early and going home late. They work very diligently and will do any assignment their supervisor gives. They also no longer compete for personal gain. By doing so, they’ve made the whole factory take on a new look, and the factory’s financial returns have also improved. Your practice is so powerful. When is your teacher coming? I’d also like to attend his lectures.” The main purpose of our Falun Dafa cultivation is to guide people to high levels. While it does not intend to do such a thing, it can nonetheless assume a great constructive role by promoting spiritual civilization in society. If everyone searches internally and considers how to conduct himself or herself well, I would say that society will stabilize and the human moral standard will move up to where it once was.
When I was teaching the Fa and the practice in Taiyuan, there was a student over fifty years old. She and her spouse had come to attend my lectures. As they were crossing the street, a car drove by very fast, and its side mirror caught the elderly lady’s clothes. With her clothes caught by the car, the lady was dragged for a distance of over ten meters and “Bam!” slammed to the ground. The car stopped after charging forward for another twenty meters. The driver was very upset when he got out of the car, “Hey, you weren’t watching where you were going.” Nowadays, people behave this way and will first of all avoid responsibility upon coming across a problem, regardless of whether they are at fault. The passengers inside the car said, “Find out how badly the lady was hit. Let’s take her to a hospital.” The driver came to his senses and rushed to say, “How is everything, ma’am? Are you hurt? Let’s go to a hospital and take a look.” This student slowly got up from the ground and said, “There’s nothing wrong. You can leave.” She brushed the dirt off her clothes and left with her husband.
She came to the class and told me this story, and I was very pleased. Our students’ xinxing has indeed improved. She said to me, “Teacher, I am studying Falun Dafa now. If I hadn’t studied Falun Dafa, I wouldn’t have treated the accident this way today.” Think about it, everyone: For a retired person, the cost of living is so high these days and there is no welfare benefit. A person over fifty years old was dragged that far by a car and knocked down to the ground. Where could her body have been injured? Everywhere. She could have stayed on the ground without having to get up. Go to the hospital? Sure. She could have stayed at the hospital and not move out. An everyday person might be that way, but she was a practitioner and did not do that. We have said that good or bad comes from a person’s initial thought, and the thought at that moment can bring about different consequences. With her old age, if she were an everyday person, how could she not be injured? Yet her skin was not even scratched. Good or evil comes from that instant thought. If she were lying down there claiming, “Ugh, I feel terrible. Something is wrong here and there,” then, her bones might really have been fractured, and she would be paralyzed. No matter how much money she was paid, how could she be comfortable being hospitalized for the rest of her life? Those bystanders even found it strange that the elderly woman did not exploit him and ask him for money. Nowadays, human moral values have been distorted. The driver indeed drove the car too fast, but how could he possibly hit someone on purpose? Didn’t he do it unintentionally? But people are like this today. If he were not exploited, even the bystanders would find it unfair. I have said that nowadays people cannot distinguish good from bad. If one tells another person that he is doing something wrong, he will not believe it. Because human moral values have changed, some people seek nothing but personal gain and will do anything for money. “If a person is not after self-interest, heaven and earth will kill him”—this has already become a motto!
One practitioner in Beijing took his child to Qianmen for a walk after dinner and saw a commercial vehicle promoting lottery tickets. The child became interested and asked to play the lottery. He gave the child one yuan to play, and the child ended up with the second prize, a luxury junior bike. The child was overjoyed. At once an idea flashed into the father’s mind, “I’m a practitioner. How can I go for such a thing? How much de must I give away if I get something that isn’t paid for?” He said to the child, “Let’s not take it. We can buy one ourselves if you want it.” The child became upset—“I’ve asked you to buy one, and you didn’t do it. Now, you won’t let me keep it when I get one on my own.” The child cried and screamed terribly. This man could not do anything about it but take the bike home. At home, the more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt. He thought about sending the money to those people. Then he figured, “The lottery tickets are gone, so won’t they divide the money among themselves if I send it to them? I should donate the money to my workplace.”
Fortunately, there were quite a few students of Falun Dafa in his workplace, and his supervisor could understand him. If it had occurred in a typical environment or a typical workplace, where you said that you were a practitioner who did not want a lottery bike and wanted to donate the money to the workplace, even the supervisor would think that you had some mental problems. Others would also make some comments, “Has this person gone astray in qigong practice or developed cultivation insanity?” I have said that moral values have been distorted. In the 1950s and 1960s, this would have been no big deal and quite common—nobody would have found it odd or shocking.
We have said that no matter how much human moral values have changed, this characteristic of the universe, Zhen-Shan-Ren, will forever remain unchanged. If someone says that you are good, you may not really be good. If someone says that you are bad, you may not really be bad. This is because the criteria that evaluate good and bad have been distorted. Only one who complies with this characteristic of the universe is a good person. It is the sole criterion that determines a good or bad person, and it is recognized by the universe. Although great changes have taken place in human society, human moral values have declined tremendously. Human morality is deteriorating daily, and personal interest has become the sole motivation. Yet changes in the universe do not occur according to changes in humankind. As a cultivator, you cannot conduct yourself based on the standards of everyday people. It is not permitted if you go do things simply because everyday people consider them right. When everyday people say that it is good, it may not necessarily be good. When everyday people say that it is bad, it may not necessarily be bad, either. In an era when moral standards have been distorted, if you tell someone that he is doing something bad, he won’t even believe it! As a cultivator, you must assess things in accordance with the characteristic of the universe. Only then can you distinguish what is genuinely good and what is truly bad.
Guanding
In the community of cultivators there is this phenomenon called guanding. Guanding is a religious ritual from the cultivation way of Tantrism in the Buddha School. Its purpose is that, after going through the process of guanding, a person will no longer follow other schools of cultivation and will be accepted in this particular school as a true disciple. Now, what’s so strange about this? It’s that this kind of religious formality has also appeared in qigong practices. Not only is it practiced in Tantrism, but also in the Tao School. I have said that all those who teach the practice of Tantrism in society under the banner of Tantrism are shams. Why do we say that? It is because Tang Tantrism disappeared from our country over one thousand years ago, and it no longer exists. Because of the language barrier, Tibetan Tantrism has never been able to be entirely introduced to the Han regions. In particular, because it is an esoteric religion, it must be secretly practiced in monasteries. It must also be taught secretly by the master, and the master has to take the person to practice in secret. If this cannot be done, it absolutely will not be taught.
Many people who go to Tibet to study qigong have this agenda: They want to find a master and study Tibetan Tantrism in order to become qigong masters in the future and to become rich and famous. Think about it, everyone: A true, living Buddhist lama who has received authentic teachings has very powerful supernormal abilities and can read such a person’s mind. Why has the person come here? The lama will know right away by reading the person’s mind, “You’ve come here wanting to study the practice and to become a qigong master for money and fame, undermining this school of Buddhahood cultivation.” Being such a serious practice in Buddhahood cultivation, how can it be casually ruined by your pursuit of becoming a qigong master for fame and money? What’s your motivation? Therefore, he will not teach this person anything at all, and neither will this person get any real teachings. Of course, with so many monasteries around, one may learn some superficial things. If one’s mind is not righteous, one will incur spirit or animal possession while trying to become a qigong master and committing wrongdoing. Possessing animals also have energy, but it is not from Tibetan Tantrism. Those who go to Tibet sincerely in search of the Dharma may settle down there once they arrive—those are true cultivators.
It is strange that now many Taoist practices also perform guanding. The Tao School uses energy channels, so why should it practice so-called guanding? I have given lectures in the south, and as far as I know, there are over a dozen messed-up practices that do guanding, particularly in the region of Guangdong. What are they trying to do? If the master does guanding to you, you will become his disciple and you won’t be allowed to learn any other practice anymore. If you do, he will punish you; he does that sort of thing. Isn’t that doing an evil practice? What he teaches is something for healing and fitness, and people are learning it simply because they want to have healthy bodies. So why do these things? Someone claims that if people practice his qigong, they can no longer practice any others. Can he save people by enabling them to complete their cultivation? He’s just misleading disciples! Many people do things this way.
The Tao School never taught guanding, but now it also has so-called guanding. I have found that the qigong master who makes the loudest noise about the practice of guanding has a gong column only as high as a two-or three-story building. He is a well-known qigong master, but I found that his gong has decreased quite pitifully. Hundreds of people are lining up for him to do guanding. His gong is limited to that height and will soon fall to nothing. What will he use to do guanding then? Isn’t he deceiving people? When seen from another dimension, genuine guanding makes one’s bones look like white jade from the head to the feet. It is through gong or high-energy matter that one’s entire body is purified from the head to the feet. Can this qigong master do that? He cannot. What does he do? Of course, he probably will not try to start a religion. His goal is that once you study his practice, you become one of his people. You must attend his classes to study his things. The goal is to make money off you. He will not make any money if no one studies his practice.
Like disciples in other cultivation practices of the Buddha School, disciples of Falun Dafa will experience guanding many times by high-level masters in other dimensions; but you will not be told about it. Those with supernormal abilities may be able to know it is happening and those who are sensitive may be able to feel it. During sleep or at any other time, a warm current may suddenly come down from the top of the head and go through the entire body. The purpose of guanding is not to add higher gong to yours, as gong is developed through your own cultivation practice. Guanding is a kind of reinforcing method for purifying and further cleaning up your body. One will go through guanding many times—your body must be cleansed at every level. Because cultivation depends on one’s own efforts while the transformation of gong is done by the master, we do not practice the formality of guanding.
There are some people who also do a ritual to become a student of their master. Speaking of this, I would like to mention something. Many people want to do this ritual and have me become their master. This period of ours in history is different from that of Chinese feudal society. Do kneeling down and kowtowing stand for taking someone as a master? We do not practice this formality. Many people think, “If I kowtow, burn incense, and worship Buddha with a sincere heart, my gong will increase.” I find this quite ridiculous. Genuine cultivation depends entirely upon a person himself or herself, so it is useless to pray for something. You do not have to worship a Buddha or burn incense. As long as you really cultivate according to the standards of a cultivator, Buddha will be very pleased to see you. If you do all sorts of bad deeds out there, he will be disgusted to see you although you burn incense and kowtow to him. Isn’t this the truth? Genuine cultivation depends upon the person himself or herself. What’s the use of your kowtowing and going through the ceremony of becoming a disciple of your master today if you do whatever you want upon stepping out the door? We do not care for this formality at all. You could even damage my reputation!
We have given everyone so many things. For all of you, as long as you truly cultivate and conduct yourselves strictly according to Dafa, I will treat you as my disciples. As long as you practice Falun Dafa, we will treat you as disciples. If you do not want to cultivate, we cannot do anything for you. If you do not cultivate, what’s the use of carrying that designation? It does not matter whether you attended my first lecture series or my second lecture series; are you a disciple of ours just because you do the exercises? To attain a healthy body and truly make progress toward high levels, you must cultivate by truly following our xinxing standard. Therefore, we do not care for those formalities. As long as you practice cultivation, you are part of our school of cultivation. My fashen know everything—they know everything on your mind, and they can do anything. If you do not cultivate, they will not take care of you. If you do cultivate, they will help you all the way to the end.
In some qigong practices, there are qigong practitioners who, without even having seen their masters, claim that if they pay a few hundred yuan and kowtow to a certain direction, that will be good enough. Isn’t that deceiving both yourself and others? Additionally, these people are very devoted thereafter and begin to defend or protect their practices and masters. They also tell others not to study other practices. I find it quite ridiculous. Also, someone does something called moding. Nobody knows what effect there is after his touch.
Not only those who teach their practices under the banner of Tantrism are all phony; all those who teach qigong in the name of Buddhism are also phony. Think about it, everyone: For several thousand years, cultivation methods in Buddhism have been in those forms. How can it still be Buddhism if someone alters it? Cultivation methods are for serious cultivation of Buddhahood and they are extremely complicated. A tiny change will cause a mess. Because the transformation of gong is very complicated, what one feels accounts for nothing. One cannot cultivate based on how one feels. The religious form for monks is a cultivation method; once it is changed, it will no longer be something from that school. There is a great enlightened being in charge of each school, and each school has produced many great enlightened beings. Nobody dares to casually change the cultivation method in that school. For a petty qigong master, what mighty virtue does he have to dare deceive the master and change a practice of Buddhahood cultivation? Will it still be that same school if it’s really changed? Phony qigong can be distinguished.
The Placement of the Mysterious Pass
“The Placement of the Mysterious Pass” (xuanguan shewei) is also called “One Mysterious Aperture” (xuanguan yiqiao). These terms may be found in the books of Danjing, Daozang, and Xingming Guizhi. So what’s it all about? Many qigong masters cannot explain it clearly. This is because at the level of an average qigong master, one is neither able to see it, nor allowed to see it. If a cultivator wants to see it, this person must reach the upper level of Wisdom Eyesight or higher. An ordinary qigong master cannot reach this level; thus, he cannot see it. Throughout history, the community of cultivators has been discussing what the Mysterious Pass is, where One Aperture is, and how to put the Mysterious Pass into position. In the books of Danjing, Daozang, and Xingming Guizhi, you can find them all discussing the theories without telling you the substance. From one discussion to another, they confuse you. They do not explain things clearly because the substance cannot be known by everyday people.
Furthermore, I am telling you that because you are Falun Dafa disciples, I will tell you these words: “Never read those crooked qigong books.” I am not referring to the foregoing classic texts, but to those sham qigong books written by people today. You should not even open them. If the idea flashes in your mind, “Well, this sentence makes sense,” with this, the possessing spirits or animals in the book will latch onto your body. Many books were written under the control of possessing spirits or animals that manipulate human attachments for fame and fortune. There are many phony qigong books, far too many. Many people are being irresponsible and writing books with possessing spirits and messy things in them. Usually, it is better not to read even the classic books mentioned above or other related classic scriptures, as it involves the issue of being single-minded in one practice.
One official from the China Qigong Science Research Society told me a story that really made me laugh. He said that there was a person in Beijing who often went to qigong seminars. After listening to many speeches, he felt that qigong was nothing more than what was said there. Because everyone was at the same level, they all talked about the same things. Not unlike other sham qigong masters, he thought that the content of qigong was not more than that! Then he also wanted to write a book on qigong. Think about it, everyone: A non-cultivator would write a qigong book. Nowadays, qigong books are copied from one another. As his writing progressed, he stopped on the issue of the Mysterious Pass. Who understands what the Mysterious Pass is? Even among genuine qigong masters, few understand it. He went to ask a phony qigong master. He did not know that the person was phony, as he did not understand qigong anyway. But if this phony qigong master could not respond to the question, wouldn’t others realize that he was a fake? Therefore, he dared to make it up and said that One Mysterious Pass is at the tip of a man’s private part. It sounds quite funny. Do not laugh, for this book has already been published in society. This is to say that qigong books today have reached such a ridiculous extent. What is the use of your reading those books? It serves no use and can only be harmful.
What is the Placement of the Mysterious Pass? When you cultivate within In-Triple-World-Fa and have reached beyond its middle level or are at its high level, you will start to develop the Immortal Infant. The Immortal Infant and the Cultivated Infant (yinghai) that we refer to are two different things. Cultivated Infants are tiny and playful, and run around joyfully. The Immortal Infant does not move. If one’s Original Soul does not take control of it, the Immortal Infant will sit still on a lotus flower with both legs crossed and with the hands conjoined. The Immortal Infant grows up from the dantian and can be seen at the microscopic level, even when it is smaller than the tip of a needle.
Additionally, another issue should be clarified. There is only one genuine dantian, and it is the tian in the lower abdominal area. It is above the huiyin point and below the belly inside one’s body. Many forms of gong, many supernormal abilities, many abilities, fashen, the Immortal Infant, Cultivated Infants, and a lot of beings all grow up from this tian.
In the past, a few cultivators of the Tao School talked about the upper dantian, the middle dantian, and the lower dantian. I would say that they were wrong. Some people also claim that their masters have taught them this way for generations and that the books have said so as well. Let me tell everyone that there was junk even in ancient times. Though some things may have been passed down for years, they are not necessarily correct. Some minor cultivation ways in the world have always been passed down among everyday people, but they can’t help your cultivation and are good for nothing. When they call it the upper dantian, the middle dantian, and the lower dantian, they are saying that the dantian is wherever dan can grow. Isn’t this a joke? When a person’s mind focuses on somewhere in the body for a long time, an energy cluster will develop and form dan. If you do not believe it, keep your mind focused on your arm and keep it that way for a long time and dan will form there. Therefore, some people see this situation and declare that the dantian is everywhere. This sounds even more ridiculous. They think that a dantian is wherever dan forms. Actually, it is a dan, but not a tian. You may say that dan is everywhere, or that there is the upper dan, the middle dan, and the lower dan. However, there is only one actual tian that can develop numerous Fa, and it is the one in the lower abdominal area. Therefore, the talk of upper dantian, middle dantian, and lower dantian is wrong. Wherever one’s mind concentrates for a long period of time, dan will form.
The Immortal Infant is born from this dantian in the lower abdominal area and it gradually grows bigger and bigger. When it has grown to be the size of a ping-pong ball, the contours of its whole body will be very visible and the nose and eyes will have been formed. When the Immortal Infant is the size of a ping-pong ball, a little round bubble will be formed beside it. After it is formed, as the Immortal Infant grows, so, too, will the bubble. When the Immortal Infant reaches four inches tall, a lotus flower petal will appear. When the Immortal Infant grows to be five or six inches, the petals of the lotus flower will basically be formed, and a layer of lotus flower will appear. The shining, golden Immortal Infant will be seated on a golden lotus flower plate, looking very beautiful. This is the never-degenerating Vajra body, which is called “the Buddha Body” in the Buddha School, or “the Immortal Infant” in the Tao School.
Our school of cultivation cultivates and requires both kinds of bodies—benti must be transformed as well. As you know, a Buddha body is not allowed to manifest among everyday people. With much effort, it can show its shape and its light can be seen with an everyday person’s eyes. After being transformed, however, this body appears to be the same as an everyday person’s body when among everyday people. An everyday person cannot tell the difference, though this body can travel between dimensions. When the Immortal Infant reaches four to five inches tall, the air bubble will also grow to that height, and it is transparent like the membrane of a balloon. The Immortal Infant sits still there, in the meditation position. By this time the air bubble will leave the dantian. As it is grown and mature, it will therefore move up. The process of its moving up is very slow, but its motion can be observed daily. It gradually moves up higher and higher. If we are attentive, we can sense its existence.
When the air bubble reaches one’s tanzhong point, it will stay there for a while. Because a lot of the human body’s essence is there (the heart is also there), a system of things will be formed in the air bubble. This essence will enter the air bubble and enrich it. After a while, it will again move up. When it passes through the throat, one will feel suffocated as though the blood vessels are all blocked, and one’s throat will feel quite uncomfortably swollen. This will last only a couple of days. Then the air bubble will move up to the top of one’s head, and we call it “ascending to niwan.” We say it has reached niwan but actually it is as big as your whole head. Your head will feel swollen. Because niwan is a very important place for a human being, its essence must also be formed in the air bubble. Then the air bubble will try to squeeze out from the celestial eye tunnel, and this will feel quite uncomfortable. One’s celestial eye will be squeezed to the point of soreness, and one’s temples will feel swollen while the eyes feel sunken. This feeling will last until the air bubble makes its way out of the celestial eye tunnel and hangs in front of one’s forehead. That is called the Placement of the Mysterious Pass as it is now suspended there.
By this time, one with an open celestial eye is unable to see anything. This is because during cultivation in the Buddha School or the Tao School, the door is kept shut to speed up the formation of things inside the Mysterious Pass. There are two front doors and two rear doors, and they are all closed. Like the gateways of Tiananmen in Beijing, there are two big doors on each side. In order to make the Mysterious Pass quickly formed and substantiated, the doors are not opened except under very special circumstances. One who can see things with the celestial eye cannot see anything at this point—they won’t be allowed to see. What’s the purpose of it being suspended there? Because hundreds of energy channels in our body meet there, at this point they must all circle through the Mysterious Pass and then move out of it. They must go through the Mysterious Pass, and the goal is to lay some additional foundations and to form a system of things inside the Mysterious Pass. Because the human body is a small universe, it will form a small world with all of the essential things of the human body formed in it. But it is still only a facility that is not yet fully operational.
In Qimen School cultivation, the Mysterious Pass is open. When the Mysterious Pass is ejected to the outside, it is like a cylinder, but it will gradually become round. Its doors on both sides are thus open. Because the Qimen School does not cultivate Buddhahood or the Tao, one must protect oneself. There are many masters in the Buddha School and the Tao School, all of whom can safeguard you. You do not need to see things, and neither will you have any problems. But it is not so in the Qimen School, as one must protect oneself. Therefore, one must maintain the ability to see things. At that time, one’s celestial eye sees things like a telescope. After this system is formed, in a month or so, it begins to return to the inside. Once it has gone back inside the head, this is called “the Mysterious Pass changes position.”
When the Mysterious Pass returns to the inside, one’s head will again feel swollen and uncomfortable. Then it will squeeze out from one’s yuzhen point. This squeeze also makes one feel very uncomfortable, as though one’s head is being split open. The Mysterious Pass will come out all at once, and then one will right away feel relieved. Upon coming out, the Mysterious Pass will be suspended in a very deep dimension and exist in the body form of a very deep dimension. Therefore, one will not rub against it during sleep. But there is one thing: When the Placement of the Mysterious Pass occurs for the first time, one will feel something in front of the eyes. Though it is in another dimension, one will still feel that something blurry is before the eyes, as if covering them, making one feel very uncomfortable. Because the yuzhen point is a very important pass, the Mysterious Pass must also form a system of things there. Then it goes back inside one’s body again. One Mysterious Aperture does not in fact refer to one Mysterious Pass position, for it must change positions multiple times. When it returns to niwan, it begins to descend in the body until reaching the mingmen point. At the mingmen point, it will come out again.
The mingmen point in the human body is an extremely important and major point. It is called an aperture in the Tao School and “Pass” (guan) by us. It is a major pass that truly resembles an iron gate, and it has numerous layers of iron gates. It is known that a human body has many layers. Our physical cells are one layer, and the molecules inside are another. There is a gate placed at each layer of atoms, protons, electrons, the very microscopic particles, the infinitesimal microscopic particles, and from the infinitely microscopic particles down to the extremely infinite microscopic particles. Therefore, there are numerous supernormal abilities and many special capabilities locked up inside the gates of different layers. Other practices cultivate dan. When dan is about to explode, the mingmen point must first be blasted open. If it is not blasted open, the supernormal abilities cannot be released. After the Mysterious Pass forms a system at the mingmen point, it will again return inside the body. Then it returns to the lower abdominal area. This is called “the Mysterious Pass returning to the position.”
Upon its return, the Mysterious Pass does not return to its original place. By now, the Immortal Infant has grown to be quite big. The air bubble will cover the Immortal Infant and envelop it. As the Immortal Infant grows, so grows the Mysterious Pass. In the Tao School, usually when the Immortal Infant grows to be the size of a six-or seven-year-old child, it will be allowed to leave one’s body; this is called “the Immortal Infant coming to birth.” Under the control of one’s Original Soul, it can move around outside one’s body. One’s physical body does not move, yet one’s Original Soul will come out. Normally in the Buddha School, the Immortal Infant will be out of any danger when it is cultivated to be as big as the person. At this time, it is usually allowed to leave the body and come out of the body. By now the Immortal Infant has grown to be as big as the person himself or herself, and its cover is also big. The cover has already expanded outside one’s body—that is the Mysterious Pass. Because the Immortal Infant has grown to be so big, the Mysterious Pass will certainly expand outside the body.
Perhaps you have seen the Buddha statues in temples and find that Buddhas are always inside a circle. In particular, a Buddha’s portrait always has a circle in which the Buddha sits. A lot of Buddha portraits are like that, and especially those in old temples are all like that. Why does a Buddha sit inside a circle? Nobody can explain it clearly. Let me tell you that it is this Mysterious Pass, but at this time it is no longer called the Mysterious Pass. It is called a “paradise,” though it is actually not yet a paradise, as it only has this facility. It is like a factory with a facility, but without the capability for production. There must be energy resources and raw materials before it can produce. A few years ago, many cultivators said, “The level of my gong is higher than that of a Bodhisattva,” or “The level of my gong is higher than that of a Buddha.” Upon hearing this, others would find it quite inconceivable. In fact, what they said was not at all inconceivable, for one’s gong must indeed be cultivated to a very high level in the human world.
How can it be like this: They have achieved a level higher than that of a Buddha? It cannot be understood so superficially. Such a person’s gong is indeed at a very high level. That is because after his cultivation has reached a very high level, when he has reached the time of complete enlightenment, his gong level will indeed be very high. Just moments prior to complete enlightenment, eight-tenths of his gong will be taken down together with his xinxing standard, and this energy will be used to enrich his paradise—a paradise of his own. Everyone knows that in addition to this xinxing standard, a cultivator’s gong is acquired through suffering numerous lifelong tribulations and experiencing difficult environments. It is therefore extremely precious. Eight-tenths of this precious matter is used to substantiate his paradise. Therefore, when he succeeds in cultivation in the future, he will get whatever he wants just by holding out his hands, and he will have anything he desires. He can do anything he wants, and there is everything in his paradise. That is his mighty virtue that is cultivated through his own suffering.
His energy can be transformed into anything at will. Therefore, if a Buddha wants to have something, eat something, or play with something, he can have everything. They come from his own cultivation achievement, which is one’s Buddha Status (fowei). Without it, a person cannot succeed in cultivation. By this time, it can be called one’s own paradise. This person will only have two-tenths of his gong remaining to complete cultivation and attain the Tao. Though only two-tenths of his gong is left, his body is not locked. He can either give up this body or keep it, but this body will have already been transformed by high-energy matter. At this time, he can exercise his great divine powers, which have unmatchable might. But when a person practices cultivation among everyday people, he is usually locked up without any major capabilities. No matter how high his gong level is, he is still restricted. Now it will be different.
