The Issue of Killing
The issue of killing is very sensitive. For practitioners, we have set the strict requirement that they cannot kill lives. Be it the Buddha School, the Tao School, or the Qimen School, regardless of which school or practice it is, as long as it is an upright cultivation practice, it will consider this issue very absolute and prohibit killing— this is for sure. Because the consequences of taking a life are so serious, we must address it in detail. In the original Buddhism, killing mainly referred to taking a human life, which was the most serious act. Later, it was also taken very seriously when one killed large-sized lives, large domestic animals, or relatively large lives. Why has the issue of killing been taken so seriously in the community of cultivators? In the past, Buddhism held that lives that were not supposed to die would, if killed, become lonesome spirits and homeless ghosts. Before, rituals were performed to free these people’s souls from misery. Without such services, these souls would have nothing to eat or drink and would live in a situation full of suffering. This is what Buddhism said in the past.
We say that when one does something wrong to another person, one must give quite a lot of de to the other party as compensation. Here, we usually refer to taking away things that belong to other people and so on. Yet if a life is put to an end all of a sudden, be it an animal or another organism, this will generate quite a lot of karma. In the past, killing mainly referred to taking a human life, which would cause a great amount of karma. Yet killing other ordinary lives is no lesser sin and it also directly causes a lot of karma. Particularly for a practitioner, in the course of cultivation you are given some tribulations at each different level. They all come from your own karma and are your own tribulations, which are placed at different levels for you to improve yourself. As long as you improve your xinxing, you will be able to overcome them. But if you suddenly obtain so much karma, how can you overcome it? With your xinxing level, you will not be able to make it through at all. It may make you completely unable to cultivate.
We have found that when a person is born, there are many of him born simultaneously within a certain scope of this cosmic space. They all look alike with the same name, and they do similar things. Therefore, they can also be called part of his whole entity. This involves such an issue, for if one of them (as in the case of other large animals’ lives) suddenly dies while the rest of him in other different dimensions have yet to complete their predestined life journeys and still have many years to live, this dead person will be in a homeless situation and drift about in the space of the universe. It was said in the past that lonesome spirits and homeless ghosts suffer from hunger, thirst, and other hardships. It might be this way. But we have indeed seen that this person ends up in a terrible situation, constantly waiting until every one of him in each dimension completes his life journey; only then can they move toward their final destiny together. The longer the wait, the more he suffers. The more he suffers, the more the karma created by his suffering will be added to the killer’s body. Think about it: How much more karma might you accumulate? This is what we have observed through supernormal abilities.
We have also observed this situation: When a person is born, a profile of his whole life will exist in a specific dimension. In other words, where he is in his life and what he should do are all included in it. Who has arranged his life? It is obviously a higher life that has arranged it. For instance, in our ordinary human society, after birth one belongs to a certain family, a certain school, and upon growing up a certain workplace; various contacts in society are made through a person’s job. That is, the layout of the entire society has been planned this way. Yet if this life suddenly dies not according to the original, specific arrangement, or if things have been changed, the higher life will not forgive the meddler. Think about it, everyone: As cultivators, we want to cultivate toward high levels. That high-level life will not even forgive the killer. Do you think that this person can still cultivate? The levels of some masters are not even as high as that of this higher life who has made this arrangement. Therefore, the person’s master will also be punished and sent down to a low level. Just think about it—is this an ordinary issue? So once a person does such a thing, it is very difficult for him or her to cultivate.
Among Falun Dafa cultivators, there may be some who have fought in times of war. Those wars were situations brought about by greater overall cosmic changes, and you were only an element in those situations. If humans didn’t take action when cosmic changes occurred, such situations would therefore not come about in ordinary human society, and neither could they be called cosmic changes. Those events unfolded according to greater changes and were not entirely your fault. What we are discussing here is the karma resulting from one’s insisting on doing bad things in seeking personal gain, trying to satisfy one’s desire for self-interest, or when one is somehow affected. As long as it involves changes in the entire larger dimension and major changes in society, it is not your fault.
Killing can bring about enormous karma. One may wonder, “We can’t kill a life, but I’m the cook at home. What will my family eat if I can’t take a life?” This specific issue does not concern me, as I am teaching the Fa to practitioners instead of casually telling everyday people how to live their lives. In terms of dealing with specific issues, you should judge things based on Dafa. You can do things however you think they should be done. Everyday people will do whatever they want to, and that is their business; it is not possible for everyone to truly cultivate. As a practitioner, however, one should follow a higher standard, so I am putting forward the requirements for practitioners here.
In addition to human beings and animals, plants are also lives. In other dimensions any substance can manifest life. When your celestial eye reaches the level of Fa Eyesight, you will find that rocks, walls, or anything else can talk to you and greet you. Perhaps one may wonder, “The grains and vegetables that we eat are also lives. There are also flies and mosquitoes at home. What should we do?” It would be quite uncomfortable to be stung by a mosquito in the summer, and you would have to watch it sting without reacting to it. If you saw a fly on your food, making it dirty, you couldn’t kill it. Let me tell you that we should not casually take life without reason. But neither should we become overly cautious gentlemen, always focusing on trifles, even hopping around when walking, worrying about stepping on ants. I say that you would be living a tiring life. Isn’t that also an attachment? Though your hopping around might not have killed any ants, you might have killed many microorganisms. At a microscopic level there are many even smaller lives, including germs and bacteria; perhaps you have also stepped on and killed many of them. Then we might as well stop living. We do not want to become such people, as it makes cultivation impossible. One should focus on a broader perspective and cultivate in an upright and dignified manner.
As human beings, we have the right to maintain the human way of life. Therefore, our living environment should meet human living needs. We cannot intentionally harm or take lives, but we should not be overly concerned with these trifles. For instance, the vegetables and grains that we grow are all lives. We cannot stop eating or drinking something because it has life, for how can we then cultivate? One should look beyond that. For example, while you are walking, some ants or insects may run under your feet and get killed. Perhaps they were supposed to die since you did not kill them intentionally. In the world of organisms and microorganisms, there is also the issue of ecological balance—too many of any species will be problematic. We should thus cultivate in a dignified and upright manner. When flies and mosquitoes are in the house, we can drive them out or install a window screen to keep them out. Sometimes, you cannot drive them out, and then if you kill them, so be it. If they are going to sting and harm people in the space where human beings live, one should certainly drive them out. If they cannot be driven out, one cannot just watch them sting people. As a practitioner, you do not mind them and you are immune to them, but your family members do not cultivate and are everyday people concerned with the problem of contagious diseases. We cannot watch and do nothing when a mosquito stings a child on the face.
Let me give you an example. There was a story about Shakyamuni in his early years. One day Shakyamuni was going to take a bath in the forest, and he asked his disciple to clean the bathtub. His disciple went to the bathtub and found it full of insects crawling everywhere. The insects would be killed if he cleaned the bathtub. The disciple came back to Shakyamuni and said, “The bathtub is full of insects.” Shakyamuni did not look at him and replied, “You should go and clean the bathtub.” The disciple went back to the bathtub and did not know how to clean it, as doing so would kill the insects. He again came back to Shakyamuni and said, “Master, the bathtub is full of insects. If I clean it, the insects will be killed.” Shakyamuni looked at him and said, “What I asked you to do was to clean the bathtub.” The disciple suddenly understood, and he went and cleaned the bathtub right away. This story clears up an issue: We should not have to stop taking baths because there are insects, and neither should we have to find another place to live because there are mosquitoes. We also should not have to tie up our necks and stop eating or drinking because both grains and vegetables have life. It should not be this way. We should handle this relationship properly and cultivate in a dignified way. It will be fine as long as we do not intentionally harm any life. Meanwhile, people also must have a human living space and the conditions to live, and these should also be safeguarded. Human beings still need to maintain their lives and live normally.
In the past, some phony qigong masters said, “One may kill on the first or the fifteenth of each lunar month.” Some of them even claimed that it was fine to kill two-legged animals as though they were not lives. Is killing on the first or the fifteenth not considered taking a life? So that’s just digging up the soil, is it? Some sham qigong masters can be identified from their words and deeds, or by what they say and what they pursue. Any qigong master making such statements will usually have spirit or animal possession. Just look at the way a qigong master possessed by a fox eats a chicken. When this person gobbles it up, he is not even willing to spit out the bones.
Killing does not only bring about a lot of karma, it also involves the issue of compassion. Shouldn’t we have compassion as cultivators? When our compassion emerges, we will probably see that all living beings are suffering—everyone is suffering. This will happen.
The Issue of Eating Meat
Eating meat is also a very sensitive issue, but eating meat is not killing. This whole time you have been studying the Fa, we have not required everyone to stop eating meat. Many qigong masters tell you to stop eating meat as soon as you walk into their classes. You may think, “I’m not yet mentally prepared to stop eating meat all of a sudden.” The meal served at home today may be roasted chicken or fried fish. Though they smell quite good, you are not allowed to eat them. The same is true with religious cultivation practices that force one not to eat meat. Conventional practices in the Buddha School and some practices in the Tao School also say so and prohibit one from eating meat. Here we don’t ask you to do this, but we are also concerned with this issue. Then, what do we require? Because our practice is one in which the Fa refines practitioners, this means that some situations will arise from gong and the Fa. In the course of practice, different levels produce different situations. So someday or after my lecture today, some people may enter into this state: They cannot eat meat, and meat will smell sickening. If they eat it, they will want to throw up. You are not forced by anyone, and neither do you force yourself not to eat it. Instead, this phenomenon comes as a result of your own mind. Once you reach this level, the gong will reflect the state wherein you will not be able to eat meat. If you really swallow the meat, you will indeed throw up.
Our veteran practitioners all know that this situation will occur in Falun Dafa cultivation, as different situations will occur at different levels. Also, some practitioners have a relatively strong desire for and a strong attachment to eating meat—they usually can eat a lot of meat. Even when others find meat very sickening, they do not feel so and can still eat it. In order to remove this attachment, what should be done? Upon eating meat, the person’s stomach will hurt. If he doesn’t eat it, he will not have pain. This situation will happen, and it means that one should not eat it. Does it mean that hereafter our school of cultivation will have nothing to do with meat? It is not so. How should we deal with this issue? Being unable to eat meat comes from one’s own mind. What is the purpose? Cultivation practices in temples force one to not eat meat. This, along with being unable to eat meat as reflected in our practice, is meant to remove this human desire for and attachment to eating meat.
If there is no meat in their bowls, some people simply will not have their meals. That is an everyday person’s desire. One morning I was passing the rear entrance of Triumph Park in Changchun. Three people came out of the rear entrance, shouting loudly. One of them said, “What sort of qigong is it that doesn’t allow you to eat meat? I’d rather give up ten years of my life to eat meat!” What a strong desire that is. Think about it, everyone: Shouldn’t this desire be removed? It definitely should. In the course of cultivation, one is to give up different desires and attachments. To put it plainly, if the desire to eat meat is not removed, isn’t it that the attachment hasn’t been abandoned? How could one complete cultivation? Therefore, as long as it is an attachment, it has to be removed. But this does not mean that one will never again eat meat. Giving up eating meat itself is not the purpose. The purpose is to prevent you from having this attachment. If during this time when you cannot eat meat you give up this attachment, you might be able to eat it again later. Meat will not smell sickening or taste awful then. At that time, if you eat meat, it will not matter.
When you can eat meat again, your attachment will already be gone, and your desire for meat will already be gone. A big change will occur, however, as meat will no longer be tasty to you. If it is cooked at home, you will eat it with your family. If it is not cooked at home, you will not miss it. If you eat it, it will not taste delicious. This situation will occur. But cultivating among everyday people is quite complicated. If your family always cooks meat, over a period of time you will find it very tasty again. Such relapses will occur in the future, and they will repeat many times over the entire course of cultivation. You may again be suddenly unable to eat meat. You should not eat it when you cannot eat it. You will really be unable to eat it, and upon eating it you will throw up. Wait until you can eat meat again and follow the course of nature. Eating meat or not isn’t itself the purpose—the key is to give up that attachment.
Our Falun Dafa School enables one to make quick progress. As long as you improve your xinxing, you will make quick breakthroughs at each level. Some people are not attached to meat in the first place and do not care whether or not there is meat in their meal. It will take them a couple of weeks to wear out this attachment. Some people may take one, two, or three months, or perhaps half a year to do it. Except for in very unusual cases, it will not take more than a year for one to be able to eat meat again. This is because meat has already become a staple food for people. Nonetheless, professional cultivators in temples should not eat meat.
Let us talk about how Buddhism regards eating meat. The earliest original Buddhism did not prohibit eating meat. When Shakyamuni took his disciples to the forest to cultivate through hardships, there was no such rule prohibiting the meat diet. Why wasn’t there one? It was because when Shakyamuni taught his Dharma twenty-five hundred years ago, human society was very underdeveloped. Some regions had agriculture while others still did not. Cultivated farmlands were very few, and forests were everywhere. Grains were in short supply and extremely rare. Human beings had just emerged from a primitive society and were living mainly on hunting; many regions fed mainly on meat. In order to abandon human attachments as much as possible, Shakyamuni forbade his disciples from having access to any wealth, material things, and so on. He took disciples with him to beg for food. They would eat whatever was given to them, for as cultivators they could not choose their given food, which might include meat.
There was a prohibition of hun in original Buddhism. This prohibition of hun is from the original Buddhism, but now eating meat is said to be hun. Actually, at that time hun did not refer to meat, but to things such as onions, ginger, and garlic. Why were they considered hun? These days, many monks also cannot explain it clearly. Because many of them do not truly cultivate, they are not clear about a lot of things. What Shakyamuni taught was called “precept, samadhi, wisdom.” Precept refers to abandoning all attachments of everyday people. Samadhi means that a cultivator cultivates by being completely in trance while sitting in meditation—one must be totally in trance. Anything that affected one’s trance and cultivation would be regarded as serious interference. Whoever ate onions, ginger, or garlic would have a strong odor. At that time, monks usually stayed in a forest or in a cave. Seven or eight people sat in a circle, and they formed many circles to meditate. If someone ate these things, this would produce a very irritating odor that would affect others sitting in trance, seriously interfering with their practice. Thus this rule was made; such food was considered hun, and it was forbidden. Many of the beings cultivated from one’s body are quite repulsed by such rich odors. Onions, ginger, and garlic can also stimulate one’s desires. If one eats them too much, one can also become addicted to them, and so they were considered hun.
In the past, after reaching very high levels in cultivation and entering the state of Unlocking Gong or Semi-Unlocking Gong, many monks also realized that those rules did not really matter in the course of cultivation. If that attachment is relinquished, that material itself does not have any effect. What really interferes with a person is the attachment. Therefore, throughout history the accomplished monks have also found that the matter of whether one eats meat is not a critical issue. The key question is whether the attachment can be abandoned. If one does not have any attachment, it is fine to eat just about anything to fill one’s stomach. Since cultivation practices in temples have been a certain way, many people are already accustomed to it. Additionally, it is no longer the simple issue of being a prohibitionary rule—it has already become a chartered regulation in temples that meat can’t be eaten at all, and they have become accustomed to cultivating this way. Let us talk about Monk Jigong, who was made very famous by literary works. Monks should not eat meat, but he ate meat and was thus made quite well-known. In fact, after he was expelled from Lingyin Temple, food supplies naturally became a major problem for him as his survival was at stake. In order to fill his stomach, he ate whatever was available to him; he was not particular about what he ate as he just wanted to fill up his stomach and was without attachment to any particular food. At that level of cultivation, he understood this principle. Actually, Jigong only had meat on one or two occasions. Upon hearing of a monk eating meat, writers become excited. The more shocking the subject, the more interested readers will be. Literary works are based on life and then go beyond it; he was thus publicized. In fact, if the attachment is indeed given up, it does not matter what one eats to fill one’s stomach.
In Southeast Asia or in the southern regions of China such as Guangdong and Guangxi, some lay Buddhists will not call themselves cultivators of Buddhism in a conversation, as if it sounds too old-fashioned. They say that they eat Buddhist food or that they are vegetarians, which suggests that they follow Buddhism since they are vegetarians. They take cultivation of Buddhahood as something so simple. How can being a vegetarian enable one to cultivate Buddhahood? Everyone knows that eating meat is only one attachment and one desire—this is only one attachment. Becoming a vegetarian only removes this one attachment. One still needs to relinquish jealousy, the competitive mentality, the attachment of zealotry, the mentality of showing off, and various other attachments; there are numerous human attachments. Only by removing all attachments and desires can one complete one’s cultivation. How can one cultivate Buddhahood by giving up only this attachment of eating meat? That idea is incorrect.
The issue of food does not just involve meat, as one should not be attached to any kind of food. The same is true with other things. Some people say that they just like to eat a particular food—that is also a desire. After reaching a certain level of cultivation, a cultivator will not have this attachment. Of course, our Fa is taught at a very high level and is taught by incorporating different levels. It is impossible for one to reach this step right away. You claim that you just want to eat that particular food, but when your cultivation has really reached the time to give up that attachment, you will be unable to eat it. If you eat it, it will not taste right, and it could taste like anything. Back when I was at work, the cafeteria in the workplace always suffered financial loss and was later shut down. After it closed down, everyone brought lunch to work. It was troublesome and a lot of hustle to make meals in the morning. Sometimes, I would buy two steamed buns and a piece of tofu in soy sauce. In theory, such a light meal should have been fine, but eating that all the time was still not good, as the attachment had to be removed. Once you saw tofu again, you would feel sick and you wouldn’t be able to eat it even if you tried, lest you develop the attachment. Of course, this will only happen when someone has reached a certain level in cultivation. It will not be this way at the beginning.
The Buddha School does not permit drinking alcohol. Have you ever seen a Buddha carrying a jug of wine? No. I have said that one might not be able to eat meat, but after one gives up the attachment during cultivation among everyday people, it is fine for one to eat it again later. After you quit drinking alcohol, however, you should not drink it again. Don’t practitioners have gong in their bodies? Different forms of gong and some supernormal abilities manifest on the surface of your body, and they are all pure. As soon as you drink alcohol, they will all immediately leave your body. In a split second, your body will have nothing left, as they all fear that odor. It is quite loathsome if you acquire this habit, for drinking alcohol can make one irrational. Why do some Great Taoist cultivation practices require drinking alcohol? It is because they do not cultivate one’s Main Soul, and drinking can make one’s Main Soul lose consciousness.
Some people love alcohol as much as their own lives. Some people crave drinking alcohol. Some people already have alcohol poisoning, yet they cannot even pick up their rice bowls without drinking—they cannot do without a drink. As practitioners, we should not be this way. Drinking alcohol is definitely addictive. It is a desire and stimulates one’s addictive nerves. The more one drinks, the more one becomes addicted to it. Let us think about it: As practitioners, shouldn’t we give up this attachment? This attachment must also be removed. One may think, “That won’t work because I’m responsible for entertaining customers,” or “I’m responsible for making business contacts. It’s not easy to make a deal without drinking alcohol.” I would say that it is not necessarily so. Usually, in making a business deal, especially in doing business with or in dealing with foreigners, you may ask for a soda, he or she may ask for mineral water, and another person may ask for a beer. Nobody will force you to drink alcohol. You make your own choice and drink as much as you want. Particularly among intellectuals, this type of situation seldom takes place. It is usually like that.
Smoking is also an attachment. Some people say that smoking can refresh them, but I call it self-deception and deceiving others. When feeling tired from work or from writing something, some people like to take a break by smoking a cigarette. They think that they feel refreshed after smoking a cigarette. Actually, it’s not like that. It is because they took a break. Human thinking can create a type of false impression, and can bring about this kind of illusion. Later, then, it can indeed become a kind of notion, forming a misconception, and you feel that smoking seems to lift the spirits. It cannot do that at all, and neither can it have this effect. Smoking does not do the human body any good. If a person smokes for a long period of time, when a doctor does an autopsy on the body they will find that the trachea and lungs are all black.
Don’t we practitioners want to purify our bodies? We should constantly purify our bodies and constantly progress toward high levels. Yet you still put that in your body, so aren’t you going in the opposite direction from us? Furthermore, it is also a strong desire. Some people also know that it is not good, but they just cannot quit. In fact, let me tell you that they do not have correct thoughts to guide themselves, and it will not be easy for them to quit that way. As a cultivator, why don’t you take it as an attachment to be abandoned, and see if you can quit? I advise everyone that if you truly want to cultivate you should quit smoking from now on, and it is guaranteed that you can quit. In the field of this class, no one thinks of smoking a cigarette. If you want to quit, it is guaranteed that you can do it. When you smoke a cigarette again, it will not taste right. If you read this lecture in the book, it will also have this effect. Of course, if you do not want to cultivate, we will not take care of it. I think that as a cultivator, you should quit it. I once used this example: Have you ever seen a Buddha or a Tao sitting there with a cigarette in his mouth? How can that be possible? As a cultivator, what’s your goal? Shouldn’t you quit it? Therefore, I have said that if you want to cultivate, you should quit smoking. It harms your body and is a desire as well. That is completely contrary to the requirements for our cultivators.
Jealousy
When I teach the Fa, I often bring up the issue of jealousy. Why is this? It is because jealousy manifests very strongly in China. It is so strong that it has become natural and people do not even notice it. Why do Chinese people have this strong jealousy? It has its roots. Chinese people in the past were heavily influenced by Confucianism, and they have developed an introverted personality. When they are angry or happy, they do not express it. They believe in self-restraint and tolerance. Because they are accustomed to this way, our nationality as a whole has developed a very introverted character. Certainly, it has its advantages, such as not showing off one’s inner strengths. But it also has its disadvantages, and it can bring about negative side effects. Particularly in this Dharma-Ending Age, its negative aspects have become more notable and can encourage the deepening of one’s jealousy. If someone’s good news is made public, others will right away become very jealous. Some people are afraid of mentioning awards they win or benefits they receive from their workplaces or elsewhere, lest others feel uneasy upon learning the news. Westerners call it “Oriental jealousy” or “Asian jealousy.” The entire Asian region is more or less this way, owing to the influence of Chinese Confucianism. Particularly in China, it is displayed very strongly.
This jealousy is somehow related to the absolute egalitarianism that was once practiced: After all, if the sky falls, everyone should die together; everyone should have an equal share if there is something good; when it is time for a pay raise, whatever the percentage, everyone should get an equal share. This mentality appears to be fair, with everyone being treated equally. In fact, how can people be the same? The jobs they do are different, and so is the extent to which they fulfill their responsibilities. There is a principle in this universe called, “no loss, no gain.” To gain, one must lose. It is held among everyday people that one does not gain if one does not work for it. More work means more gained, less work means less gained. The more efforts one makes, the more returns one deserves. The absolute egalitarianism practiced in the past claimed that everyone is born equal, and that it is a person’s post-natal life that changes him or her. I find this statement too absolute. When anything is made absolute, it becomes incorrect. Why are some people born male and others female? Why don’t they look alike? People are not born the same, as some are born ill or disfigured. From high levels, we can see that one’s entire life lies there in another dimension. How can they be the same? People all wish to be equal, but if something is not a part of someone’s life, how can they be equal? People are not the same.
The personalities of people in Western countries are comparatively outgoing. One can tell when they are happy or angry. This has its advantages, but it also has its disadvantages and can result in a lack of restraint. Because of these two different temperaments and mindsets, it brings about different consequences when doing things. If a Chinese person is praised by his supervisor or given some benefits, others will feel uncomfortable. If he gets a larger bonus, he may as well put it in his pocket quietly to avoid letting others know. Nowadays, it is difficult to be a model worker. “You’re a model worker. You can do it. You should come to work early in the morning and go home late at night. You can do all this work since you’re good at it. We aren’t good enough.” People will be sarcastic and cynical, and so it is not easy even to be a good person.
If this happens in other countries, it will be totally different. If a boss finds out that this worker does a good job today, the boss may give him a bigger bonus. He will cheerfully count the bills before others, “Wow, the boss gave me so much money today.” He can joyfully tell others about it without consequence. If it happens in China that someone earns an extra bonus, the boss will even tell that person to hide it and not let others see it. In other countries, if a child scores a hundred on a test, he will run home cheerfully and shout, “I scored a hundred today! I’ve scored a hundred!” The child will run home all the way from school. A neighbor will open her door and say, “Hey, Tom, good kid.” Another neighbor may open his window, “Hey, Jack, well done. Good boy.” If this happens in China, it will be a disaster. “I’ve scored a hundred, I’ve scored a hundred.” The child runs home from school. Even before opening his door, a neighbor already begins to curse from inside his house, “What’s so great about getting a hundred? Show off! Who hasn’t scored a hundred?” The two mentalities will produce different results. It can evoke one’s jealousy, for if someone is doing well, instead of feeling happy for him or her, people will feel uncomfortable. It can lead to this problem.
A few years ago, absolute egalitarianism was practiced, and it has distorted people’s thinking and values. Let me give you a specific example. In the workplace, a person may feel that others are not as capable as he is. Whatever he does, he does it well. He finds himself indeed remarkable. He thinks to himself, “I’m qualified to be a factory director or manager, or in an even higher position. I think that I could even be Prime Minister.” The boss may also say that this person is really capable and can accomplish anything. Coworkers may also express that he is really capable and talented. Nevertheless, there may be another person in the same work group or who shares the same office with him who is quite incapable of doing anything or is good for nothing. Yet one day this incompetent person gets a promotion instead of him and even becomes his supervisor. He will feel that it is unfair and complain to his boss and coworkers, feeling very upset and quite jealous.
I am telling you this principle that everyday people are unable to realize. You may think that you are good at everything, but your life does not have it. That person is good at nothing, but his life has it, and he will become a boss. No matter what everyday people think, that is only the viewpoint of everyday people. From the perspective of a higher life, the development of human society progresses according to specific laws of development. Therefore, what one does in life is not arranged based on one’s abilities. Buddhism believes in the principle of karmic retribution. One’s life is arranged according to one’s karma. No matter how capable you are, if you do not have de, perhaps you will have nothing in this life. You think that another person is good at nothing, but he has a lot of de. He could become a high-ranking official or make a big fortune. An everyday person cannot see this point and always believes that he should do exactly what he is able to. Therefore, he competes and fights all his life with a badly wounded heart. He might feel very bitter and tired, always finding things unfair. Being unable to eat or sleep well, he feels sad and disappointed. When he gets older, he will end up in poor health and all kinds of illnesses will surface.
Thus, even less should our cultivators be like this, as a cultivator should follow the course of nature. If something is yours, you will not lose it. If something is not yours, you will not have it even if you fight for it. Of course, that is not absolute. If it were as absolute as that, there would not be the issue of committing wrongdoing. In other words, there are some unstable factors. But as a practitioner, you are in principle protected by Teacher’s fashen. Others cannot take away what is yours, even if they want to. We therefore believe in following the course of nature. Sometimes, you think that something should be yours, and others also tell you that it is yours. Actually, it is not. You may believe that it is yours, but in the end it is not yours. Through this process, it can be seen whether you can give it up or not. If you cannot let it go, it is an attachment. This method must be used to get rid of your attachment to self-interest. This is the issue. Because everyday people cannot enlighten to this principle, they will all compete and fight before profits.
Among everyday people, jealousy displays itself very badly. It has also been quite prominent in the community of cultivators. There is no respect among different qigong practices, such as “your practice is good” or “his practice is good”—both positive and negative comments are made. In my view, they all belong to the level of healing and fitness. Among those mutually disputing practices, most of them belong to chaotic practices brought about by possessing spirits or animals, and they disregard xinxing. One person may have practiced qigong for over twenty years without developing any supernormal abilities, while another person has obtained them soon after beginning the practice. This person will then find it unfair, “I’ve practiced for over twenty years without developing any supernormal abilities, and he has developed them. What sort of supernormal abilities has he got?” This person will be infuriated, “He’s got spirit or animal possession and is experiencing cultivation insanity!” When a qigong master teaches a class, someone may sit there with disrespect, “Oh, what sort of qigong master is he? I’m not even interested in listening to what he says.” The qigong master may indeed be unable to talk as well as this person does. Nevertheless, what the qigong master talks about is something only from his own school of cultivation. This person studies everything; he has attended every qigong master’s class and has a pile of graduation certificates. Indeed, this person knows a lot more than that qigong master. But what’s the use? It is all about healing and fitness. The more the person fills himself with these things, the more chaotic and complicated the messages will become, and the harder it will be to cultivate—it is all messed up. Genuine cultivation teaches that one should follow one path and not go astray. This also occurs among true cultivators, for mutual disrespect and not eliminating the attachment to competitiveness can both easily lead to jealousy.
Let me tell a story. In the book Investiture of the Gods, Shen Gongbao found Jiang Ziya to be both old and incompetent. But the Primitive God of Heaven asked Jiang Ziya to confer titles on immortals. Shen Gongbao felt that it was unfair, “Why is he asked to confer titles on immortals? You see how capable I am. After my head is cut off, I can put it back on my shoulders. Why wasn’t I asked to confer titles on immortals?” He was so jealous that he always caused troubles for Jiang Ziya.
The original Buddhism in Shakyamuni’s time talked about supernormal abilities. Nowadays in Buddhism, nobody dares to mention supernormal abilities anymore. If you mention supernatural capabilities, they will say that you have cultivation insanity. “What supernormal abilities?” They will not recognize them at all. Why is this? At present, even monks do not know what they are all about. Shakyamuni had ten major disciples, of whom Mujianlian was said by him to be number one in supernatural capabilities. Shakyamuni also had female disciples, among whom Lianhuase was number one in supernatural capabilities. The same was also true when Buddhism was introduced to China. Throughout history, there have been many accomplished monks. When Bodhidharma came to China, he crossed a river on a stalk of reed. As history has developed, however, supernatural capabilities have increasingly been rejected. The main reason is that people such as senior monks, supervisors, or abbots in temples are not necessarily of great inborn quality. Though they are abbots or senior monks, these are only positions of everyday people. They are also cultivators, except that they are professional ones. You cultivate at home as amateurs. Whether one succeeds in cultivation or not all depends on cultivating the heart. The same is true for everyone, and one will not make it if one falls short even a bit. But a junior monk who cooks meals might not be of poor inborn quality. The more the junior monk suffers, the easier it is for him to achieve the Unlocking of Gong. The more comfortable the senior monks’ lives are, the harder it is for them to reach the state of Unlocking Gong since there is the issue of transforming karma. The junior monk is always suffering and tired. He will repay his karma and become enlightened more quickly. Perhaps one day he achieves the Unlocking of Gong all of a sudden. With this Unlocking of Gong, enlightenment, or semi-enlightenment, his supernatural capabilities will all emerge. The monks in the temple will all come to ask him questions, and everyone will respect him. But the abbot will be unable to bear it, “How am I supposed to still be the abbot? What enlightenment? He is experiencing cultivation insanity. Get him out of here.” The temple thus expels the junior monk. As time passes, nobody in Chinese Buddhism dares to mention supernormal abilities. You know how capable Jigong was. He could move logs from Mt. Emei and throw them out of a well one after another. Yet in the end he was still driven out of Lingyin Temple.
The issue of jealousy is very serious as it directly involves the matter of whether or not you can complete cultivation. If jealousy is not abolished, everything that you have cultivated will become fragile. There is this rule: If in the course of cultivation jealousy is not given up, one will not attain Righteous Fruition—absolutely not. Perhaps you have heard before that Buddha Amitabha spoke of going to a paradise with karma. But that is not going to happen without giving up jealousy. It may be possible that one falls short in some other minor regards and goes to the paradise with karma for further cultivation. But it is absolutely impossible if jealousy is not abandoned. Today I am explaining this to practitioners, so you should not keep yourselves in the dark and fail to enlighten to this. The goal that you intend to achieve is to cultivate toward high levels. The attachment of jealousy must be relinquished, so I have singled out the issue in this lecture.
The Issue of Treating Illness
In regards to treating illness, I do not teach you to treat illnesses. No genuine Falun Dafa disciples should treat illnesses for others. Once you treat an illness, everything in your body that came from Falun Dafa will be taken back by my fashen. Why is this issue taken so seriously? It is because it is a phenomenon that undermines Dafa. You will harm more than your own health. As soon as some people heal an illness, they will itch to do it again. They will drag over whomever they see to treat their illnesses and to show off. Isn’t this an attachment? It will seriously hinder one’s cultivation.
Many phony qigong masters have taken advantage of the everyday person’s mentality of wanting to treat patients after learning qigong. They will teach you these things and claim that by sending out qi one can cure illnesses. Isn’t this a joke? You have qi, and the other person has qi as well. How can you treat him with your qi? Perhaps his qi will overpower yours! There is no constraint between this qi and that qi. When one develops gong in high-level cultivation, what one generates is high-energy matter, which can indeed heal, repress, and control an illness, but it cannot remove the root cause. Therefore, to really heal an illness and completely cure it requires supernormal abilities. There is a specific supernormal ability for curing each particular illness. With regard to the supernormal abilities for curing illnesses, I would say that there are over one thousand kinds, and that there are as many supernormal abilities as illnesses. Without these supernormal abilities it is useless, no matter how crafty your treatment may be.
In recent years, some people have made the community of cultivators quite chaotic. Among those genuine qigong masters who came to the public to help people cure their illnesses and stay fit, or those who paved the road at the very beginning, who has taught people to treat others’ illnesses? They always treated your illness or showed you how to cultivate and how to keep fit. They taught you a set of exercises, and then you could cure your illness through your own practice. Later, phony qigong masters came to the public and made quite a mess. Whoever wants to treat patients with qigong will attract spirit or animal possession—it is definitely this way. Under the circumstances at that time, some qigong masters did treat patients. That was to conform to the cosmic climate at that time. Yet qigong is not a skill of everyday people, and that phenomenon could not last forever. It resulted from changes of the cosmic climate at that time; it was only a product of that period of time. Later, some people specialized in teaching others to treat illness, thereby creating a mess. How can an everyday person learn to treat an illness in three or five days? Someone claims, “I can cure this illness or that illness.” Let me tell you that these people all carry possessing spirits or animals. Do they know what’s attached to their backs? They have spirit or animal possession, but they neither feel it nor know it. Still, they may feel very good about themselves and think that they are capable.
Genuine qigong masters must go through many years of hard work in their cultivation in order to achieve this goal. When you treat a patient, have you ever thought about whether you have these powerful supernormal abilities to eliminate this person’s karma? Have you ever received any genuine teachings? How can you learn to treat illnesses in three or five days? How can you cure an illness with an everyday person’s hands? Nevertheless, these phony qigong masters take advantage of your weaknesses and people’s attachments. Don’t you seek to cure illnesses? Well, this person will organize a treatment class that specifically teaches you some healing methods, such as the qi needle, the light illuminating method, qi discharging, qi compensation, something called acupressure, and something called the hand-grabbing method. There are a variety of methods aimed at taking your money.
Let us talk about the hand-grabbing method. What we have seen is the following situation. Why do people get sick? The fundamental cause of one’s being ill and all of one’s misfortune is karma, the karmic field of the black substance. It is something negative and bad. Those evil beings are also something negative, and they are all black. Thus, they can come because this environment suits them. This is the fundamental cause of one’s being ill; it is the most principal source of illnesses. Of course, there are two other forms. One is a very microscopic being in high density that is like a cluster of karma. Another is as if delivered through a pipeline, but this is rarely seen; it is all accumulated from one’s ancestors. There are also these cases.
Let us talk about the most common illnesses. Somewhere in the body one may have a tumor, an infection, bone spurs, etc. It is because in another dimension there lies a being in that place. That being is in a very deep dimension. An ordinary qigong master or an ordinary supernatural capability is unable to detect it; they can only see the black qi in one’s body. It is correct to say that wherever there is black qi, there is an illness. Yet the black qi is not the fundamental cause of an illness. It is because there is a being in a deeper dimension that generates this field. So some people talk about discharging and removing the black qi—go ahead and discharge it as you wish! Shortly afterward, it will be generated again, as some beings are very powerful and can retrieve the qi as soon as it is removed; they can retrieve it on their own. Treatments just will not work no matter how you apply them.
According to one who sees with supernatural capabilities, wherever there is black qi, that place is considered to have pathogenic qi. A doctor of Chinese medicine will find the energy channels blocked in that place, as the qi and blood are not circulating and the energy channels are congested. To a doctor of Western medicine, that place may present the symptoms of an ulcer, tumor, bone spurs, inflammation, and so on. When it manifests in this dimension, it is in this form. After you remove that being, you will find that there is no longer anything wrong with the body in this dimension. Whether it is protrusion of the lumbar intervertebral discs or bone spurs, after you remove that thing and clear out that field, you will find it instantly healed. You can take another X-ray and find that the bone spurs have disappeared. The fundamental reason is that this being was producing an effect.
Some people claim that by teaching you the hand-grabbing method, in three or five days you can cure illnesses. Why don’t you try it and show me! Human beings are the weakest while that being is quite formidable. It can control your mind and easily manipulate you at will. It can even end your life easily. You claim that you can grab it. How can you grab it? You cannot reach it with your everyday person’s hands. You may grab aimlessly there, and it will ignore you and laugh at you behind your back—your grabbing aimlessly is so ridiculous. If you can really touch it, it will harm your hands at once. That will be a real wound! I saw some people before whose two hands looked normal by any examination. Neither their bodies nor their hands had any illness, but they could not raise their hands, which kept hanging down like this. I have come across such a patient: His body in another dimension was injured—in that case he was really paralyzed. If that body of yours is injured, aren’t you paralyzed? Some people ask me, “Teacher, will I be able to practice qigong? I had a sterilization operation,” or “I’ve had something removed from my body.” I said to them, “It doesn’t matter since your body in another dimension didn’t have an operation, and in qigong practice it’s that body that is acted upon.” Therefore, I just said that when you try to grab it, it will ignore you if you cannot reach it. If you touch it, it might injure your hand.
To support a major state-run qigong event, I took some disciples to participate in the Oriental Health Expos in Beijing. At both of the two Expos, we were the most outstanding practice. At the first Expo, our Falun Dafa was honored as the “Star Qigong School.” At the second Expo, our place was so crowded that we simply could not handle it. There were not many people at other exhibition booths, but our booth was crowded with people. There were three waiting lines: The first line was for those who had registered early in the morning for the morning treatment, the second line was waiting to register for the afternoon treatment, and the third line was waiting for my autograph. We do not treat illnesses. Why did we do it? Because this was to support a major, state-run qigong event, and to contribute to this cause, we participated in it.
I distributed my gong to the disciples who were there with me. Each one got one share that was an energy cluster composed of over a hundred supernormal abilities. I sealed their hands with gong, but even so, some people’s hands were bitten to the point of blistering or bleeding; this even happened quite often. The beings were quite vicious. Do you think you dare to touch them with an everyday person’s hands? Besides, you cannot reach it. It will not work without that kind of supernormal ability. This is because in another dimension it will know whatever you want to do—as soon as you think about it. When you try to grab it, it will have already run away. Right when the patient goes out the door, it will go back there immediately, and the illness will recur. Dealing with it requires such a supernormal ability in which one extends one’s hand and “Bam!” nails it there. Upon nailing it there, we have another supernormal ability that was once called the “Great Soul-Catching Method,” and that supernormal ability is even more powerful. It can pull out one’s Original Soul, and instantly the person will be unable to move. This supernormal ability has its specific purpose, and we just focus on grabbing that thing. Everyone knows that though you find Sun Wukong very big, the Tathagata can use the bowl in his hand to turn Sun Wukong into a very tiny thing by covering him up with it. This supernormal ability can have this effect. No matter how large or tiny this being is, it will be grabbed in the hand instantly and become very tiny.
Additionally, it is not allowed to dig into the physical body of a patient with one’s hand and take something out. That would bring disorder to people’s thinking in ordinary human society, and that is absolutely prohibited. Even if you could do it, you cannot do it this way. The hand one digs with is the hand in another dimension. Suppose that someone has heart disease. When this hand moves toward the heart to grab that being, the hand in another dimension moves inside the body, and it will be caught instantly. As your outside hand grabs it, both hands close in and will grab it. It is very vicious, sometimes moving in your hands and attempting to drill into them, and sometimes biting and screaming. Though it appears to be very small in your hands, it will become very large if you release it from your hands. This is not something that just anyone can touch. Without that supernormal ability, one cannot touch it at all. It is not at all as simple as people imagine it to be.
Of course, this form of qigong treatment might be allowed to exist in the future, as in the past it always existed. But there must be a condition: This person must be a cultivator. In the course of cultivation, this person is allowed to do this thing for a few good people out of compassion. But he cannot completely eliminate their karma because he does not have enough mighty virtue. Therefore, tribulations will still exist, but the specific diseases will be healed. An ordinary qigong master is not a person who has attained the Tao in cultivation. He can only put off illnesses or perhaps transform them. He might transform them into other misfortune, yet he, himself may not even know of this deferral process. If his practice cultivates the Assistant Consciousness, it is done by his Assistant Consciousness. A number of people who practice in certain qigong schools appear to be very famous. Many well-known qigong masters do not have gong because their gong grows on the bodies of their Assistant Consciousnesses. That is, some people are permitted to do such things in the course of cultivation because they continue to stay at this level. They have been practicing for over a decade or for several decades and still cannot go beyond this level, so throughout their lives they always see patients. Because they stay at this level, they are allowed to do that. Falun Dafa disciples are absolutely forbidden to treat patients. You can read this book to a patient. If the patient can accept it, it can heal his illness, yet the results will differ according to each person’s amount of karma.
Hospital Treatment and Qigong Treatment
Let us talk about the relationship between hospital treatment and qigong healing. Some doctors in Western medicine do not recognize qigong, and you can say that the majority of them are this way. Their opinion is that if qigong can heal illness, what do we need hospitals for? “You should replace our hospitals! Since your qigong can heal illness with a hand and without resorting to injections, medication, or hospitalization, wouldn’t it be nice if you could replace our hospitals?” This statement is neither rational nor reasonable. Some people do not understand qigong. In fact, qigong healing cannot resemble the treatments of everyday people, for it is not a skill of everyday people—it is something supernatural. So how can something as supernatural as that be allowed to interfere with ordinary human society on a large scale? A Buddha is mighty capable, and he could wipe out all of humankind’s illnesses with a wave of his hand. Why doesn’t he do it? Besides, there are so many Buddhas. Why don’t they show their mercy by curing your illness? It is because ordinary human society is supposed to be this way. Birth, old age, illness, and death are just such conditions. They all have karmic reasons and come from karmic retribution. If you have a debt you must repay it.
If you cure one’s illness, it will be the same as violating that principle, as one would be able to do wrong deeds without paying for them. How could that be allowed? As a person in cultivation, when you do not have this great ability to thoroughly solve this problem, you are allowed to treat a patient out of compassion. Because your compassion has emerged, you are allowed to do so. But if you can truly solve this type of problem, you will not be allowed to do it on a large scale. If that were the case, you would be seriously undermining the state of ordinary human society—that is not allowed. Therefore, replacing everyday people’s hospitals with qigong will not work at all, as qigong is a supernatural Fa.
If qigong hospitals are allowed to be set up in China and many great qigong masters come out to give treatments, what do you think this will be like? That will not be permitted, because everyone is safeguarding the state of ordinary human society. If qigong hospitals, qigong clinics, qigong health centers, and treatment resorts are established, the effectiveness of qigong masters’ treatments will drop significantly, and the results of the treatments will at once not be good. Why is that? Since they do this thing among everyday people, their Fa must be as high as that of everyday people. They have to stay at the same level as the state of everyday people. Their healing effectiveness must be the same as that of a hospital. So their treatments do not work well, and they also need several so-called “therapy sessions” to heal an illness. It is usually this way.
With or without qigong hospitals, nobody can deny that qigong can heal illnesses. Qigong has been popular in public for so long. Many people have indeed achieved the goal of curing their illnesses and keeping fit through the practice. Whether the illness was put off into the future by a qigong master or however it was treated, the illness has now disappeared after all. In other words, nobody can deny that qigong can heal illnesses. Most people who have seen qigong masters are those with difficult and complicated illnesses that cannot be treated at a hospital. They go to qigong masters to try their luck, and the illnesses are eventually healed. Those who can have their illnesses healed at hospitals will not see qigong masters. Particularly at the beginning, people all thought this way. Qigong can therefore heal illnesses, except that it cannot be applied like other things that are done in ordinary human society. While large-scale interference is absolutely not allowed, doing it on a small scale or its being an uninfluential and quiet practice is permissible. But it will not completely heal the illness—this is also certain. The best way to heal one’s illness is to practice qigong oneself.
There are also some qigong masters who claim that hospitals cannot cure illnesses, and say this and that about the effectiveness of hospital treatments. What do we say about this? Of course, it involves reasons from many areas. In my view, the principal one is that human moral values have hit a low point, leading to a variety of odd diseases that hospitals cannot cure. Taking medicine is not effective, either. There are a lot of phony drugs as well. It is all because of the extent to which human society has become corrupt. Nobody should blame others for this, as everyone has added fuel to the flame. Consequently, everyone will come across tribulations in cultivation.
Some illnesses cannot be detected at a hospital, even though people are actually ill. Some people are diagnosed with illnesses that do not have names, since they have never been seen before. Hospitals call all of them “modern diseases.” Can hospitals heal illnesses? Of course they can. If hospitals could not heal illnesses, why would people believe in them and go there for treatments? Hospitals are still able to heal illnesses, but their means of treatment belong to the level of everyday people while illnesses are supernatural. Some illnesses are quite serious, and so hospitals require early treatment if one has such an illness. If it becomes too serious, hospitals will be helpless, as overdoses of medicine can poison a person. Present medical treatments are at the same level as our science and technology—they are all at the level of everyday people and can thus only have that kind of healing effectiveness. One issue that should be clarified is that average qigong treatments and hospital treatments only defer tribulations that are the fundamental cause of illnesses to the remaining half of one’s life or later. The karma is not removed at all.
Let us talk about Chinese medicine. Chinese medicine is very close to qigong healing. In ancient China, supernatural capabilities were common to virtually all Chinese medical doctors, such as those great medical scientists: Sun Simiao, Hua Tuo, Li Shizhen, and Bian Que. They all had supernatural capabilities that were all documented in medical texts. Yet now these excellent things are often criticized. What Chinese medicine has inherited are only those prescriptions or experiences from research. Ancient Chinese medicine was very advanced, and the extent of its progress was beyond present medical science. Some people may think that modern medicine is so advanced with its CT scans to examine the inside of the human body and its ultrasound, photography, and X-rays. Though modern equipment may be quite advanced, in my view it is still inferior to ancient Chinese medicine.
Hua Tuo saw a tumor in Cao Cao’s brain and wanted to operate on it. Cao Cao thought that Hua Tuo meant to murder him, and so he imprisoned Hua Tuo. As a result, Hua Tuo died in prison. When Cao Cao’s illness recurred, he remembered Hua Tuo and looked for him, but Hua Tuo was already dead. Later, Cao Cao indeed died of this illness. How did Hua Tuo know it? He had seen it. This is our human supernatural capability that all great doctors in the past had. After the celestial eye is open, one can see from one side, simultaneously, four sides of a human body. One can see the rear, the left, and the right from the front. One can see one layer after another or see beyond this dimension the fundamental cause of an illness. Are modern medical means able to do that? Far from it. It will take another thousand years! CT scans, ultrasound, and X-rays can also examine the inner human body, but the equipment is too bulky, and such large things are not portable; neither will they work without electricity. This celestial eye, however, can go wherever one goes, and it does not need a power supply. How can they be compared?
Some people talk about how marvelous modern medicine is. I would say that it might not be the case, as ancient Chinese herbs could, upon application, indeed heal illnesses. There are a lot of things that have not been passed down, but many other things have not been lost and are still in use among people. When I taught a class in Qiqihar, I saw a person who had a vendor stand on the street and was pulling teeth for people. One could easily tell that this person came from the South, as he was not dressed like a Northeasterner. He would not refuse anyone who came to him. He would pull a tooth for anybody who came, and he had there a pile of pulled teeth. His purpose was not to pull teeth, but to sell his liquid drug. The liquid drug emitted very thick yellow fumes. While pulling a tooth, he would open the drug bottle and put it on the patient’s cheek toward the area of the bad tooth. The patient would be asked to inhale the fumes of the yellow liquid drug, which was barely consumed. The drug bottle would be sealed and put aside. The man would then take out a matchstick from his pocket. While talking about his drug, he would push the bad tooth with the matchstick and it would come out. It was not painful. The tooth would have just a few bloodstains, but there would be no bleeding. Think about it, everyone: A matchstick can be broken if it is used with much force, but he used it to pull a tooth with only a little contact.
I have said that in China there are still some things being passed down among people that Western medicine’s precision instruments cannot match. Let us see whose treatment is better. His matchstick can pull a tooth. If a doctor in Western medicine wants to pull a tooth, the doctor will first inject the patient with anesthetics here and there. Injections are quite painful, and one must wait until the anesthetic works. Then the doctor will pull the tooth with a pair of pliers. After a lot of time and effort, if the doctor is not careful, the root may break inside the tooth bed. Then the doctor will use a hammer and a drill to dig for it, which can make the patient palpitate with fear and anxiety. Later, a precision instrument will be used for the drilling. Some people are in so much pain from the drilling that they almost jump. Quite a bit of blood comes out and the patient will spit out the blood for a while. Whose treatment would you say is better? Whose is more advanced? We should look not only at the tools’ appearance, but also at their effectiveness. Ancient Chinese medicine was very advanced, and present-day Western medicine will not be able to catch up with it for many years to come.
Ancient Chinese science is different from our present science that we have learned from the West, as it took another path that could bring about a different state. Therefore, we cannot understand ancient Chinese science and technology through our current way of understanding things. Because ancient Chinese science focused directly on the human body, life, and the universe, and it studied these subjects directly, it took a different approach. At that time, when students went to school, they practiced sitting in meditation and emphasized good posture. When they picked up their brush-pens, they would regulate their breathing and qi. All professions believed in emptying the mind and regulating the breathing, as this was the state throughout society.
Someone has said, “Would we have cars and trains if we followed ancient Chinese science? Would we have today’s modernization?” I would say that you cannot understand another situation from the perspective of this environment. You need to have a revolution in your thinking. Without television sets, people would have them in their foreheads, and they could watch anything they wanted to see. They would also have supernormal abilities. Without trains and planes, people would be able to levitate into the air from where they sit, without using an elevator. It would bring about a different state of societal development, and it would not necessarily be confined to this framework. The flying saucers of extraterrestrials can travel back and forth at an inconceivable speed and become large or small. They have taken another alternative method of development, which is another scientific approach.
