(Li Hongzhi, April 24, 2005, New York City)
(Enthusiastic applause)
Good afternoon, everyone! (Enthusiastic applause) (Audience:
Good afternoon, Master!)
You've been working hard! (Applause) As Dafa disciples
you have been through trials and tribulations, and you have been tempered and
become more and more mature. The same holds true whether you are Dafa disciples
in Mainland China or Dafa disciples outside the Mainland--you are becoming
increasingly rational, increasingly clearheaded, and increasingly aware of how
you should walk your paths. Now, when you are confronted with persecution, and
confronted with all sorts of negative opinions, you can handle it rationally.
And when you clarify the facts, you do that out of a desire to save sentient
beings, so you have a great impact.
The current situation shows that now, and especially since
the publication of the Nine Commentaries, many of the world's people have
woken up. The Chinese people, more than others, have been kept in the dark for
too long by the Party culture's false appearances that were created by the evil
Communist ideology. People are gradually becoming clearheaded and their own,
true natures are reviving. Since the publication of the Nine Commentaries,
you have experienced a great many things, things of all kinds--both positive and
negative. Most notably, on a daily basis thousands of people have been
withdrawing from the Party, and this has terrified the malevolent Party's evil
specter and the bad people. Now, before its imminent collapse, the evil is once
again saying--as it riles people up, confuses and poisons people, and makes up
lies--that we are doing political things. Even though you really aren't doing
political things it insists that you are. Whenever they have persecuted and
attacked people, they have always made up lies, riled people up, and attempted
to justify their persecution. And when they attack somebody they always call the
person whatever names they feel like calling him. Dafa disciples just do the
things that Dafa disciples are supposed to do. They are clearheaded and
rational, and they know what they are doing, and none of the evil lies or the
accusations that stem from the Party culture can interfere with or jar them.
When it comes to cultivators, no ordinary people's
approaches, ploys, persecution, incitement, or confusion and poisoning can
affect them, and even less do those things work on Dafa disciples. The
persecution has been going on for so long now, and yet what's laughable is that
those rogues, rogue spies, and ringleaders of the rogue gang who have had a hand
in persecuting Dafa disciples still haven't managed to see who Dafa disciples
are, they still don't know what these cultivators are really about, and they
still try to use those ordinary human approaches on them. Isn't that laughable?
Indeed, it's true that when ordinary people look at the surface things, when
they look at things with ordinary people's thinking, and especially when they
look at things with the Party culture's warped logic and notions, they can't
understand the realm or state of mind of a cultivator. When they look with
ordinary human thoughts, nothing matches up; none of the approaches that the bad
people have used in the persecution have worked. So never will any attempt by
those at this human level to affect levels and realms higher than the human
world meet with success.
Since the publication of the Nine Commentaries, many
ordinary people who have been influenced by the lies of the malevolent Party's
evil specter have been saying that we are getting political. But as you all
know, we haven't "gotten political." Even if people who are being
persecuted do get political, that's not something to be ashamed of; it's only
logical and natural. But none of what we have done has a political motive behind
it; we don't do things with political motives. How could true cultivators
possibly get involved with worldly politics? Fa-rectification is taking place in
the cosmos, and right now cultivators of Dafa are validating the Fa and their
goal is to save sentient beings. During the Fa-rectification period, for the
purpose of validating the Fa Dafa disciples can make use of any form in ordinary
society that is favorable for the Fa-rectification, but even then they only use
things selectively based on what is needed to save sentient beings. [That is all
right] because everything in the Three Realms was formed for the Fa-rectification.
When you see sentient beings who need to be saved, what's crucial is getting the
beings saved. When we use these things of the human world, it is done only after
carefully considering what sentient beings can understand and what can help them
be saved. The formation of the Three Realms was for today's Fa-rectification,
and all of the myriad things and sentient beings in the Three Realms came for
the Fa-rectification, were created for the Fa-rectification, and were formed for
the Fa-rectification. In other words, all of the sentient beings and the myriad
things came here for this. And every event here has been established, created,
and formed for the Fa-rectification. So during this Fa-rectification Dafa
disciples can use at will any method that makes it easier to save sentient
beings, so long as it's something the world's people can understand and can thus
be saved through. All the same, we have been using things selectively and in a
good and upright way.
Let's take the Nine Commentaries as an example. The
primary goal of publishing the Nine Commentaries was to expose the
CCP's nature so that people who had been deceived by
the CCP could see it for what it is and recognize the CCP's evilness, and thus
be saved. It was [done] because when Dafa disciples were clarifying the truth, a
lot of people refused to listen, for they were under the influence of the
malevolent Party's evil specter and the Party culture's propaganda that was
utilized by the CCP's bad people. A lot of people would abruptly say, "If
the Party says you are bad, you're bad." And a lot of people whose thinking
was warped by the Party's culture would say, "If I were in that position I
too would have suppressed it, like the CCP has." In addition, many people
are still deceived and they believe very much in what is said by the CCP-controlled
propaganda machine; they even still believe the CCP's rogue regime and still
take its wicked doctrines as truth. With that situation before us, what should
we do? Can we just cease to be compassionate? Can we not save those people,
then? We of course have to save them. As I have always said, none of today's
Chinese people are simple or ordinary. Don't be fooled by the fact that the
human skin looks the same--the person that's in charge of it is actually no
longer who it used to be, and in most cases beings that descended from high
levels are in charge. And a great many kings from different nations throughout
history reincarnated in China. So the group of people in China today is far from
ordinary. It's just that when a person reincarnates or a divine being comes down
to this world he enters the delusion, and people in delusion are susceptible to
being used. But they were all meant to obtain the Fa and be saved, and they have
great predestined connections.
With many beings, if they come to the Three Realms they have
no way to get back to where they came from. No being in history who came here to
assume human form has made it back. And in no past case where people
successfully cultivated into gods or Buddhas was it that person himself who
truly succeeded. It was always the person's assistant soul that used the
person's main body to cultivate, whereas the person's true, master soul--the
very person himself--never cultivated to success. In the cases of those who
cultivated well, after a lifetime of cultivating someone in their image did
indeed cultivate to success, but that was the assistant soul, whereas the master
soul--or, that person--had to reenter the cycle of rebirth. In other words,
think about why so many high-level beings dared to take such a perilous risk and
come to the Three Realms. They are gods, so how could we not save them? Didn't
they come to obtain the Fa? If you look at it from another perspective, wasn't
their bravery in coming here a way of validating the Fa-rectification and
placing their hope in the Fa-rectification? That's why I have said that we
cannot leave them behind, and that we must save them and think of ways to
save them! Even though they may be confused at the moment, or they may have lost
their capacity to recognize truth or reality, owing to their concepts being
warped by the Party culture over time, we still have to find ways to save them.
Right now the biggest obstacle is that the Party culture is
influencing sentient beings and rendering them unable to see or listen to the
truth. With that situation at hand, the Nine Commentaries were published
with the purpose of helping people to see the CCP's fundamental nature. After
seeing its evil nature clearly and learning that the malevolent Party has
corrupted our culture, a lot of people have stopped saying that they believe in
the Party, and a lot of people have stopped believing in that rogue government.
Our goal and starting point are not political in nature, and we don't want
ordinary people's political power. We are saving people! If the CCP,
while in its death throes, still tries to use different tactics to tamper with
the salvation of sentient beings, then we have other ways to deal with it--the
Buddha Fa is boundless! (Enthusiastic applause)
This Fa-rectification set out to save all beings. Whether a
being was good or bad, or however big the mistakes he had made in the course of
history, none of that would be held against him. When the entire cosmos has gone
bad, in some cases you know certain beings have done wrong, and in some cases
you don't, so what point is there in determining who is good and who isn't, or
who is up to par and who isn't? So those things weren't going to be looked at,
and everyone was to be saved. But there is one thing, which is the most crucial
of all: the Fa-rectification of the cosmos cannot be interfered with. Then
as for all of the beings in this entire cosmos, including the beings and people
in the Three Realms, their attitudes today toward Dafa are of utmost importance.
That was the only standard--we were going to look only at the beings' attitudes
toward Dafa today. So in other words, the intention before wasn't to eliminate
that malevolent CCP even though it had done every conceivable evil deed, created
that wicked Party culture, and murdered countless people and other lives. That
was because in Fa-rectification everything that is not upright could have been
rectified, and things wouldn't have even needed cultivators to deal directly
with them or fix them--those things would have been rectified at a fundamental
level during the Fa-rectification. In other words, those matters wouldn't have
been touched at the surface level at all. Even those evil specters of the
malevolent Party could have been rectified and turned into good beings. But
during this Fa-rectification, what was beneficial to society at the ordinary
people's level [became persecuted]. During the years when Falun Gong was
disseminated in Chinese society, it led to fundamental changes in many people's
outlooks there, their moral standard improved and they became physically
healthy. The CCP knows that its political power is illegitimate, so it has
repeatedly barked about "stability" and desired to protect its
political power. Of course, those are all ordinary people's affairs and we
ignore what they do. But when Dafa was disseminated in China, wasn't that good
for the people in that society? Didn't it effectively stabilize that society?
When people wanted to do good, when all of them were fulfilling their
responsibilities at work, and when all of them were acting as good people in
every situation, that mental strength was turning into material strength, so
think about how much economic benefit it would have brought to the country and
its people, and how much good it would have done. It helped bring the populace's
moral standards back up--think about how stable that society would have become.
And who was governing that society, so who would have benefited from that?
Wasn't that obvious? But that evil-specter-possessed malevolent Party and its
gang of bad people, who were accustomed to doing evil at will and without
restraint, nonetheless chose to persecute us. Then, well, since they chose
persecution, from the day that they chose persecution the gods decided to have
them weeded out. They will have to pay for everything they have done to the
Disciples of Dafa during the persecution and for poisoning the world's people.
But in fact their even greater sin is that they interfered with the Fa-rectification.
You know, in Fa-rectification a lot of the beings in other
dimensions are being eliminated instantaneously as the Fa-rectification's mighty
current passes through. It's done very quickly. No matter how fast the overall
Fa-rectification pushes forward, though, it still requires a process. That's
because the cosmos's dimensions consist of different times. Each planet has its
own time, each particle has its own time, each area formed by particles has its
own time, and each area formed by planets has its own time. The area of the nine
major planets, the Milky Way, other galaxies, the entirety of all galaxies, this
universe, the universes beyond this universe, the universes of greater
reaches... all of them have their own times. The times in each of these
universes and cosmic bodies are different, and the differences are huge. Looking
at it from the perspective of the entire cosmos, it seems that this Fa-rectification
of the cosmos is completed as fast as a wave of the hand. But as that hand is
waved, the time in certain dimensions is so fast that tens of thousands of years
have passed. In some dimensions time elapses almost at the same rate as the wave
of the hand. In some it takes hundreds of years or thousands of years. In this
place of human beings it's really not so bad--it has been just over a dozen
years since the Fa-rectification began. Of course, though, Master was working on
this even before imparting the Fa. The fact is, it has progressed very swiftly.
Those evil specters and bad people who have done evil to Dafa disciples are
doing it only during this difference in time before the arrival here of Fa-rectification.
The time it takes is in fact very brief. If mankind's time had been arranged to
progress at the same rate as Fa-rectification, then this would have been over in
the time it takes for a wave of the hand. It feels like time drags here at this
human place, but it actually is moving really fast. Since Fa-rectification's
speed has to be very fast, the speed at which it is pushing forward surpasses
all times in the cosmos. The old forces in the cosmos are also operating quickly
in order to interfere with Fa-rectification, and the time in the Three Realms
has sped up in conjunction with that.
I've told you before that time here among human beings has
become really fast. I have talked to you about that on several occasions, and
[the pace of it] changed a number of times. At one point I said that one day now
passes in what used to be the passage of a second, and later I told you that one
year now passes in what used to be the passage of a minute. But even though the
pace has been so fast, the beings in here can't detect it. And that is because
the objects inside this place and all of this place's factors are, accordingly,
going at a faster pace. Time and space have created different environments in
the cosmos and different forms of dimensions. The beings and all things that are
here are accelerating along with the time. That is why you can't feel it
accelerating. Not only is the Fa-rectification pushing forward at a rapid pace,
the old state of affairs is operating at an accelerating speed as well. With all
that, the time now is very brief. The matter that makes up human beings has its
limitations, so if time goes too fast, the sentient beings in the Three Realms
won't be able to bear it. It has almost reached the limit now of what human
beings can adapt to in terms of time. The only way human beings can detect
time's acceleration and how it compares to before, is by a sense they might have
based on their impressions. And older people know this even better: before, it
felt like a person could do a lot in a day, one day felt long, and it seemed as
though it would never get dark, whereas now dusk comes soon after dawn and it
gets dark before you have done much. Another thing is, the capacity of the human
body wouldn't keep up [if time were sped up too much]. The matter in each layer
is subject to that layer's limitations, so the material elements wouldn't be
able to keep up. The speed of Fa-rectification is, in fact, extremely rapid. No
matter how rampant or ferocious those evil beings may seem, their terrible end
is imminent! (Enthusiastic applause)
So since the publication of the Nine Commentaries,
through clarifying the facts and saving sentient beings Dafa disciples have
really helped many people come to understand the true situation. And notably,
many people have wanted to withdraw from the Party and separate themselves from
that evil thing. Let's consider it further. Some people might say, "I don't
need to renounce the Party. I know that it's no good, and I stopped paying dues
a long time ago." But this is not a case where you can just think about it
and that will count. Back when you enthusiastically raised your fist and made a
deadly pledge to that blood-red flag, you said that you would give your life to
it, that you would devote your entire life to it. So if today you don't publicly
declare your intentions and withdraw, how could it count? You think that just
having had that thought in your mind counts? People's thoughts are unstable. A
person's brain is just a processing center, and all kinds of messages and
information go through the human brain, play out and display themselves, and
affect that person. The origins of a person's thoughts are extremely complex. So
if you want to judge a person's attitude, what he does, and what kind of person
he is, you have to go by his actions. His thoughts don't count. Why should we
always go by a person's actions? If a person wants to do something bad, you
can't charge him with a crime before he does it; only after he does it can you
charge him. That's because the source of a person's thoughts and the thoughts
themselves are extremely unstable. A person has a master soul and an assistant
soul(s), he has all kinds of notions
that have been formed after birth, and both good and evil are part of his
nature. Also there are external factors that play a part. A person's actions are
the true reflection of that person. So the way gods see it, the evil specter and
the malevolent Party have already been incriminated because they have persecuted
Dafa disciples and interfered with the Fa-rectification. They now consider them
the most evil and have decided to eliminate them. How will they be eliminated,
then? And who will be included in the elimination? Will it be enough just to
eliminate the malevolent Party's evil specters? Members of the Party and the
Youth League who have helped the malevolent Party's evil specter do bad things
are doing its evil bidding in this world. Put another way, even if you haven't
done anything bad, when you are one of its members you are a component that
fortifies it, a particle of the evil, and thus a target for elimination. What's
more, [the evil specter(s)] is
having an effect on all of the dimensions in the Three Realms, especially the
human world. A lot of people became part of it without being forced to and are
willingly being used by it and helping it. That being the case, then isn't what
CCP members have in store for them terrifying?
For a long time that malevolent Party with its evil specter
has deliberately dragged into its ranks people who are accomplished, capable,
and outstanding figures so as to strengthen itself, show that it is great, and
make it look as if it really is made up of stellar individuals. The truth is,
even the evil knows that those people aren't necessarily sincere, and that is
why they are victimized whenever a [CCP] political movement comes along. When
it's time to settle accounts with the malevolent Party, though, and when the
Fa's rectification of the human world really takes place, none of that will be
taken into consideration; as long as you are a member of it, everything will be
instantly purged in the process. Because Dafa disciples are saving sentient
beings, they have been informing people of the truth--even as they are being
severely persecuted--by fully utilizing every opportunity and risking their own
safety. They have told the world's people about these things and are saving
them. Some people won't listen, though, and by refusing to listen, well, they
have given their stance. Some people have read [the Commentaries] but
still don't want to withdraw, in which case their not withdrawing has likewise
given their stance.
Dafa disciples have been doing what they're doing out of
compassion and a wish to save people, giving their best effort, and doing all
they can to save people. So from day one to the present we have always been
saving sentient beings and we have never done anything specifically to achieve
some worldly political thing. We don't care about political power. A
cultivator's goal is to go beyond the human world and achieve the Consummation
of his being. When he is attached to getting worldly things or to self-interest
he can't reach Consummation. When a cultivator cultivates in this world he is to
get rid of all sorts of human attachments, and only then can he become a divine
being. Otherwise, any attachment or any element in the human world that weighs
on your mind becomes a lock that fastens you down and prevents you from leaving.
That's why when you validate Dafa and save sentient beings you cultivate
yourself at the same time. You're all very clear on that. In other words, we
don't seek human things whatsoever.
Ordinary people--people who haven't obtained the Fa, people
who don't know what Dafa disciples are about, and outsiders to cultivation--are
incapable of understanding Dafa and Dafa disciples. In the minds of people today
self-interest is number one. There are a lot of democracy activists and people
from various non-governmental political groups who also oppose the malevolent
CCP. But I find that it's hard for them to accomplish things. And some of their
behavior is really poor, and troubling. If they were really entrusted with
political power there, would it work? They are so strongly attached to
self-interest. Now, even before they have done much, when their self-interest is
involved and at stake, they start fighting among themselves before moving on to
do anything else. How could gods entrust them with responsibility over a nation?
(Applause) So, human beings... they have reached this stage, and I'm not
talking just about certain individuals... the state of the entire society and
the morals in society are both going downhill fast. They are quickly going
downhill without people realizing it, and people have become small-minded
without realizing it. Their attachment to self-interest has surpassed their
political aspirations, their political pursuits, and their desire to fight for
their goals. What I'm saying is, moral values are important for ordinary people
too. If someone's values are lacking gods really look down on him. With any
person, any being, only when he has both aspirations and morals can he
accomplish things, to be sure. When the Fa rectifies the human world, or, prior
to that, when the malevolent CCP falls, who will govern [China]? We Dafa
disciples won't govern it, for we are cultivators, people whose bodies are in
the secular world but whose minds are beyond it. And we're not interested in
political power there anyway. (Applause) Who will be fit, then? Gods will
look for those who have great aspirations, who have the ability, and have high
moral values. That you can count on! As for those everyday people who are
able to validate Dafa today and who break away from the malevolent CCP--and I'm
not talking about Dafa disciples--you are extraordinary, and my hope is that, if
you truly want to accomplish some things in society, you will begin to place
importance on refining your behavior. Only then will you be able to live up to a
major responsibility like that.
What I was just talking about were peripheral things. With
cultivators there is actually no need to talk about those things, but I did so
because I know that in the audience today there are some new students as well as
people who are not yet Dafa disciples. Whatever the case, I want what is good
for people. Having reincarnated in China in this life, I, Li Hongzhi, have a
deep understanding of that nation and I want what's good for it, too. (Applause)
Since time is limited and you still have papers to present, I won't talk more. (Applause,
asking Master to stay longer) If I say too much it will interfere with the
current state of affairs wherein you validate the Fa, because students will ask
a lot of questions that aren't related to the current situation of validating
the Fa. If I said a lot today it would dilute the things that you need to do at
present. So we should attend to the current circumstances and not dilute the
things that now need to be done. That's basically how things are now. If there
are new things that need to be done, Dafa disciples will naturally know.
I'd like to take this opportunity to tell you this: while
saving sentient beings, don't forget to cultivate yourselves. (Applause)
You need to do all of the three things. You should always keep your thoughts
righteous, and when you are confronted with evil or with certain situations, you
should send forth righteous thoughts a lot; you need to clarify the truth and
save sentient beings, but even more so should you cultivate yourselves well. If
you don't cultivate yourselves well you won't have mighty virtue, what you say
will not be in line with the Fa, and then you can't possibly save sentient
beings. When what you say has no mighty virtue and no power, it will have no
effect, and the evil will capitalize on that. What's more, if you don't
cultivate yourselves well and your righteous thoughts are lacking, when you
handle certain things you will tend to slip into human ways of thinking, and
then you won't be able to have the effect of saving sentient beings. A lot of
ordinary people are helping Dafa disciples do things, as a matter of fact, but
they are ordinary people doing the things of Dafa disciples. You, on the other
hand, are Dafa disciples. What you are doing are things you are supposed
to do, and you are establishing your mighty virtue and moving towards
Consummation on a divine path. So it will not work if you don't cultivate
yourselves. I won't say more on this. I won't take up more of your time. Study
the Fa a lot, read the book a lot.
No matter how hard things may be for Dafa disciples and how
trying your journey may be, your future is bright. More and more, you are seeing
how bright your future is and are becoming clear about the kind of path you want
to take. Master has prepared the best of everything for you, but you need to
make it there! (Warm applause)
Having gotten to where they are today, Dafa disciples have
won the admiration of beings at all levels, high and low, and the evil beings
are scared, terrified. Right now the evil beings are basically following, in an
irrational way, the factors originally arranged by the old forces; they are
being used and are doing things that interfere with the Fa-rectification. Some
evil beings get up and flee the moment they are in proximity to Dafa disciples.
Some tremble with fear, hesitant, while they do bad things now. So Dafa
disciples should not be afraid, and they should handle everything in an upright
and dignified way. It is the evil beings that are scared. At the beginning of
the persecution Dafa disciples appeared to be isolated, and that was because
there were so many evil factors at that time. But in reality they weren't
isolated even then, as there were gods and Master's Law Bodies around, there was
gong, and the side of you that had been fully cultivated was there.
Things are even better today. Many of the evil factors are gone, the malevolent
Party's evil specters are fewer, and the field Dafa has formed in the world has
become enormous, with its density being very high now. The main thing the field
is doing is helping Dafa disciples in saving sentient beings and in restraining
the evil beings, particularly the major ones. So it basically leaves the mundane
affairs of ordinary people alone. If this field were to produce a widespread
effect, the effect would be quite significant and would far surpass the evil
field of the wicked CCP. Meanwhile, the field of the evil-specter-ridden
malevolent Party is dissolving and shrinking dramatically. So the evil beings
are terrified.
In fact, [Dafa's] field not only helps Dafa disciples with
what they are doing, it also encourages the world's people, builds up the
courage of the Chinese people both inside and outside Mainland China, helps them
to free themselves from the control of those evil factors, and has a positive
effect on all fronts. So I hope you will do even better in the journey ahead, be
upright and dignified, have stronger righteous thoughts, and do even better. No
matter what situation you may encounter or in what circumstances you may find
yourself, you have to be like a Dafa disciple and you can't act impulsively. You
need to have enough righteous thoughts. (Applause)
The form and state of the cultivation that Dafa disciples
practice today are different from the cultivation forms of the past. You are the
ones who are truly saving sentient beings on a broad scale, and you are the ones
who truly have such a great mission. That is why the state you manifest is
completely different from that in the cultivation of the past. And for precisely
these reasons, it is even more important that you not neglect your own
cultivation or use these things to make excuses for your shortcomings. So I hope
you will do well on the path ahead. Okay, I'll end here, that's all I will say
today. (Long and enthusiastic applause)
Last updated: October 22, 2005.
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