December 17, 1994

I’ll stand while I speak so that everyone can see me well.

I haven’t seen you for a long time. Since a lot of things that are related to teaching the practice need to be handled, and all these things can’t really be known or understood by everyday people, I’ve stopped giving seminars. I’ve been taking care of these matters during this period of time, and now they’re basically all set. I’d originally planned to come out again once these things were wrapped up and completed, to arrange things related to teaching the practice in the future. But since the seminar in Guangzhou this time was decided in a hurry, announcements were already made in newspapers, advertisements were already done, and a lot of tuition fees had already been received, I had to come out midway, meaning, I had to come to Beijing first to do some preparation work before holding the seminar in Guangzhou. That’s why I’m taking this opportunity to see you all. I’m really happy to see you all.

I’ve told you something before: people’s moral standard today is very low now, and it’s hard to find a pure place in any of the various trades and professions. But as soon as I got here, I saw this extremely peaceful and harmonious field of ours. I dare say that our Falun Dafa is a pure place. (Applause) At the same time, I also see that what we’ve accomplished in cultivation is really heartening. Everyone has the desire to improve and become good—it’s really heartening to see. So this atmosphere is exactly the same as this state of mind of ours. In other words, we haven’t studied Dafa in vain, and we’ve all accomplished certain things. I haven’t imparted this Dafa in vain, either. These things give me a sense of satisfaction. When I first came to Beijing to impart the Fa and teach the practice, the first seminar had only this many people. But after a while… it’s only been two years—actually, it’s only been one year since I formally started to impart this Fa, because in the beginning I taught the Fa in the form of qigong, which is low. Today in Beijing alone we have so many assistants. This shows that our Dafa has now been recognized by more kindhearted people, people who are able to improve and cultivate themselves in this Fa. This is really heartening. It’s hard now to tabulate just how many people are cultivating our Falun Dafa. It has spread from person to person, and the number is just countless. In some places before there were only one or two persons studying it in a county or city, and then the number increased to around a thousand. That’s the case for many places—it’s growing extremely fast.

Why is this? It’s because, as I’ve said, in our Falun Dafa we cultivate xinxing and require people to raise their moral standard. Also, we’ve truly pointed out the fundamental reasons why a person’s gong doesn’t grow in cultivation—we’ve identified this. So we’ve discussed the fundamental issue. As I’ve mentioned before, some people have told me in their cultivation experience articles, "After Teacher brought this Fa to the public, it’s been highly beneficial to shaping our society’s moral civility." Of course, I’ve said that this isn’t the main purpose. I just want to pass this Fa on to people, and to bring it to the public to have more people benefit from it and be able to truly improve themselves—as we put it in our Buddha School, "to enable people to truly rise to higher levels and achieve Consummation." But it’s sure to also have the effect of raising people’s moral standard. This is because our cultivation system’s requirement has, in my view, identified the real issue—it requires people to emphasize xinxing cultivation. Why is it that a lot of people—including a lot of monks, and this also holds for full-time Daoist cultivators, too—no longer know how to improve themselves? They only pay attention to formalities, but not to the real things.

If a person’s xinxing doesn’t rise, I’d say it’s impossible for him to improve. This is because the nature of the cosmos doesn’t allow someone with a low xinxing to ascend. If a person can reach a certain point, meaning, if he’s improved to a certain point, then I’d say even if this person doesn’t reach Consummation, he will benefit society. He won’t do bad things consciously anymore—he’ll know the terrible consequences that doing bad things would bring upon himself. In this way, [our Fa] helps to build the society’s moral civility and correspondingly improve humankind’s moral standard—this is for sure. We’ve been responsible to individuals and to society in teaching this practice. We’ve managed to do this. The impact on people and on cultivators has been fairly good. In our actions we’ve strictly followed the requirements of this Fa, and our practice hasn’t gone awry. We have always maintained a pure and clean cultivation state.

Judging from the current situation, I think that in the future this cultivation system might spread even more widely. Sometime soon, probably next year, I might do more of my teaching abroad. So this hasn’t only had an impact on our country—it’s also had a big impact abroad. Someone who returned from abroad told me that when he and some others were eating in a restaurant in the United States, they saw an introduction to Falun Gong hanging there, and he was curious and asked about it. We didn’t know about this situation, we weren’t aware of it. It might be developing with a lot of momentum. The essential reason is simply that we emphasize the improvement of one’s xinxing; so whether it be the society, people of different social strata, or people with different viewpoints—all can accept Falun Dafa. That’s what I was just talking about. I only discussed briefly the situation of our Falun Dafa’s development at present.

Since this is a meeting of assistants, I’ll just talk about things related to this. The situation of Falun Dafa’s development in various regions reveals that those places have different strengths; they’ve accumulated a lot of experiences, and they have learned a lot from their experiences in studying Dafa and in cultivation. Since I was home recently—I was in Changchun—I know more about the situation in Changchun. I’ll share one thing. Now there’s a "Fa-study upsurge" in Changchun. How is it a Fa-study upsurge? Nowadays other regions consider practicing the exercises really important. Of course, that is really important, it’s indispensable in a practice that cultivates both one’s nature and life. But in Changchun they make Fa-study even more important. So, every day after they do the exercises they make a point of sitting down to read the book, to study the Fa. And after studying they discuss, they discuss paragraph by paragraph. With time they’ve started to memorize the book. They thought "this is something so good" (of course, those are the students’ words, not mine), and they thought about how people used to memorize many scriptures even though their meaning wasn’t very clear and all of them were pretty vague. Of course, our students had other reasons, too. I’m just giving you the idea. They said: "Why don’t we memorize something that’s this good? It requires us to be good people at every moment among everyday people and it enables us to improve, wouldn’t it be better if we could memorize it? Then we’ll have something we can measure ourselves against at every moment." That’s how they started a "book-memorizing upsurge."

In Changchun there are now more than ten thousand people memorizing the book. What’s the situation of their Fa-study now? They sit down and start to study, and they don’t need the book—one person recites the book by memory from the beginning, then he stops and another person continues to recite, without making a mistake, and not one single word is recited wrong as they continue to recite. Then it continues, you recite a paragraph, he recites a paragraph, and people go on reciting like this. Later on they started to copy the book by hand. When they make a mistake they start all over again—they hand-copy the book from the very beginning again. What’s the purpose? It’s to deepen their understanding of the Fa, which really helps the students improve. With such a deep impression [of the Fa] in their minds, whenever they do something they’ll be able to hold themselves to a practitioner’s standard. It really makes a difference.

I didn’t set these things as requirements for our students. As I just said, many regions have gained a lot of insight from their experiences, which were all helpful. I’ve also said to the Changchun Assistance Center, "Your experience should be expanded to the whole country." Those students improved really quickly after studying the Fa this way, and their levels have been rising really quickly as well—that’s bound to be the case. Perhaps a lot of us, since we’re cultivating… I can discuss deeper things since those of you present here are assistants and it won’t be a problem. Every word in my book is a Falun when it’s seen from a low level, and every word is a Law Body of mine when it’s seen at a high level—even the component parts are individual ones. It’s also different from other books when you’re reading out loud with your mouth. Many people have already developed pretty good gong through cultivation, and even the words that they read out loud have images, what comes out of their mouths are all Falun. In other words, our book is not an ordinary book. Of course, people whose levels aren’t yet adequate still can’t do this. Enabling you to read the book and study the Fa is itself improving you, because we emphasize xinxing cultivation, and having a rational understanding improves a person in and of itself.

Ours is a practice that cultivates both nature and life, and the purpose of the movements is mainly to change the benti, meaning, to change our flesh body and the variations of material bodies that exist in various dimensions—this is the main purpose. It also involves [developing] certain supernatural techniques. If you really want to improve yourself, I’d say you have to improve from the Fa. If our xinxing can’t elevate then we can’t improve from the Fa, and everything else is useless. Why do I say this? It’s because if you haven’t reached a certain level and your xinxing hasn’t elevated, you won’t have the gong that determines your level. Without xinxing cultivation a person doesn’t have gong. If you want to transform your benti, how do you do this without the reinforcement of this energy? You’ll be missing the most crucial thing. You can’t transform anything without the reinforcement of this energy. That’s why Fa-study is extremely important. I think cultivators should read the book more, and it’s guaranteed to help you improve quickly. (Someone interrupts: "They’re worried that you might get tired. Teacher, please have a seat so you can tell us more.") They’d like me to talk more. (Enthusiastic applause)

Just now I was mainly talking about how our Falun Dafa is unfolding. "Falun Gong" is the term we used at the beginning when we taught the practice in Beijing. As I’ve said, qigong is a term that was coined by modern people. But qigong is actually a type of cultivation practice. What’s popularized among everyday people are just things of qigong’s lowest form, which can only barely change the human body and prepare it for doing cultivation practice. They’re only things of the beginning phase—and those are what’s been taught. Qigong is actually cultivation practice. Our practice is taught directly at high levels. It’s not necessary to talk about those qigong things anymore, because all these years of people popularizing qigong has laid a foundation for people to have an initial understanding of qigong. Right from the start we talk about cultivation at high levels. We should no longer call it "qigong."

Our "Falun Gong"… Of course, you can refer to it this way before people understand what it is. But I think it’s really Falun Cultivation Way, Falun Cultivation, or Falun Cultivation Great Way (Falun Xiulian Dafa). That’s one thing—what to call it. I just thought of another thing, namely, a lot of our students have been quietly doing good deeds. They’ve done a lot of good deeds in society, in other environments, and at their workplaces, and they’ve done that without letting people know their names or seeking any reward for it. There are many examples of this. I know—I’m clearly aware of it without you telling me. Not leaving our names is a good thing. But think about it everyone, in the time since our practice was brought to the public, a phenomenon has sprung up in which peoples’ hearts are turning towards what’s good and their moral standards are elevating. I think the influence of our Falun Dafa has been a part of this coming about. So I think that when some of you have done something good and others ask you, "Could you please tell me your name?" you don’t say anything and don’t leave your name or seek any rewards since what we want is merit and virtue; I think you shouldn’t say nothing. You can say, "I practice Falun Gong," or "I’m a Falun Dafa cultivator." This will help us to have a better influence in society and to spread our Dafa. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone came to seek out the righteous Fa? I think that’d be even better. This is because the impact we’ve had—there are already quite a few people around the country learning the practice—is already huge. People these days even think it’s strange when a person does some good deeds in society. Of course, there are still some people who think: "There are still ‘Lei Fengs’ in this day and age? This person is awesome!" We might as well tell them clearly.

There are some other issues during this period of time. For example, some students have many, many questions in the course of cultivating and they’re always unable to solve them. "Why is this?" "What does that mean?" These kinds of questions... Believe it or not, if I had you ask questions here, the assistants who are present here would also ask a ton of questions that students have asked at the seminars. Why is this? As I just said, your understanding of the Fa is still not deep. Because I’m incorporating things of different levels when I talk, after some people read the book once, they find it pretty good, and when they read it again they have a new understanding, and when they read more they have yet more new understandings, as if the meaning of the words had changed. Many of us have felt this way. It’s exactly because I incorporated different-level things in the book, and as your level rises you have different understandings—this is the Fa. I think that if you can truly study the Fa solidly and measure yourself against the Fa, all of your questions and problems will be solved with ease. This is sure to happen. As long as it’s a question or problem in cultivation, it can be solved.

I remember that I taught the most thoroughly in the Jinan seminar. Many things were spelled out. There was a very small number of things that I didn’t go into too much detail about, but I mentioned the ideas. Believe it or not, if we can truly absorb what we study, any question can be answered. Actually, a lot of the questions we have… some people wonder, "Why do I have this discomfort, that discomfort…?" Many of them don’t realize that it would be bad if they didn’t feel discomfort—it would mean that I haven’t been taking care of you. Since you want to do cultivation, I’ll repeat what I said before: it’s not that easy. We can say that everyone has karma, so how could you not pay for it? Could everything be eliminated for you all at once and you be allowed to become a Buddha because you’re special or something?! I’m just illustrating this point. Who could improve himself without going through cultivation? The process of cultivation involves working off karma and enduring hardships. If you don’t endure hardships the karma can’t be worked off. So bodily suffering isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The problems you come across in life aren’t necessarily bad things, either. You have endured them but you aren’t aware of it.

I’ll give an example. It was said in Buddhism that "a person has to endure a lot of hardships in cultivation." You still have no idea—what does that little bit of hardship you’re enduring count for? Since you have a master who’s taking care of you, a lot of it has been eliminated for you. Who hasn’t done bad things in his many, many lifetimes? I’d say that with people today, having come to this stage, it’s hard to find someone who hasn’t taken a life or who hasn’t owed a lot of karma. If we go back in history, how much tribulation did others have to endure back when you did worse things to them? Yet today you can’t endure these little things that you have to endure?! Of course, I’ve told you the general idea. Many people can’t see this. Since we’re talking about cultivation here, it involves a person’s ability to enlighten. You can’t see—true, you can’t see. If you could see everything you wouldn’t do bad things, and there wouldn’t be a question of cultivation anymore. So when people have fallen to this stage, [it’s arranged to] have them drop into delusion and cultivate without being able to see anything.

While we’re on this topic, I’ll talk about another thing. Namely, many of you have your Third Eye open—your Third Eyes have opened at different levels. But nobody’s has reached that high a level; what you see isn’t the nature of things, and you can’t see the karmic causes of things. So this brings about a problem, namely, these people might casually talk about what they see. When they casually say things it has a serious consequence. The listener might say: "How did my cultivation get into this mess?! How did this happen?!" Actually, what these people see is not accurate. For example, many people whose Third Eyes are open have said, "You’re possessed… he’s possessed… you’re all possessed." A long time ago I said: the students of Falun Dafa, our true cultivators, are not possessed—I’ve cleaned that up. So why have some people seen animals’ images, some images of this kind or some images of that kind…? Actually, I can tell you that many of us can’t distinguish the forms of existence of the Main Primordial Spirit, the Assistant Primordial Spirit, and possessing spirits. What they actually saw was only your Assistant Primordial Spirit’s previous life, or your Main Primordial Spirit’s previous life—that’s all it was. When you go and say those irresponsible things, aren’t you making others panic? You said so and so was possessed, but he wasn’t possessed at all.

In the past, Buddhism talked about the Sixfold Path of Transmigration. Buddhism also had this saying, "Seldom does a human reincarnate as a human; more often an animal reincarnates as a human." Of course, we won’t comment on whether or not this is fact, that’s what’s been said in Buddhism. I’m just giving you an example and talking about the idea. Of course, don’t be pessimistic—who knows what he has been in all of his previous lives? This is an assistants’ meeting here today, so if you’re someone who hasn’t attended the seminars before and don’t believe what you’re hearing, just listen to these things as if they’re stories. It was said in the past that when people come from that side they all want to be animals, who don’t have complicated social relations and live carefree. If someone wants to become an animal it’s not that easy. By comparison it’s easier to become a human, as humans have to endure hardships. That’s the idea. But it’s exactly because humans have hardships that humans can do cultivation practice. Other beings can’t do cultivation practice, and even if they go up through cultivation they’re practicing an evil way and aren’t allowed to reach a high level. So from now on if your Third Eye opens, you have to pay attention to this issue and not speak irresponsibly; this is because you can’t see accurately. What’s more, you might sense some things, but where does the message you sense come from? Maybe it’s a demon that sends it to you. So be sure you don’t get attached to these things.

Our students shouldn’t think that people with opened Third Eyes are up there—that they’re high-level. This is because these things aren’t determined by the level of a person’s Third Eye—it’s not based on the level of a person’s cultivation. Perhaps your Third Eye isn’t open but your level is much higher than [someone whose Third Eye is open]. It’s really common, and there aren’t just a few isolated cases. When we determine whether a person is cultivating well, we just look at the height of his xinxing and the depth of his understanding of the Fa. Some people wonder what happens when Teacher isn’t around or has finished teaching the practice and they can’t see. Some people have said, "Then we won’t be able to cultivate." That’s just not true. Think about it, what do I teach this Fa for? Back when Sakyamuni walked the earth, he didn’t leave behind any words in writing. What was left behind were only passages of things that Sakyamuni discussed and that were disjointedly remembered by people, and they weren’t systematic. That’s how the scriptures you read are. At that time people were only allowed to know that much, so it was intentionally done that way. Things that Sakyamuni never said have also been mixed in. Today our Fa is taught pretty explicitly. Back then Sakyamuni only left behind some precepts. When Sakyamuni was alive he didn’t leave behind any written words. During his later years Sakyamuni made many precepts so as to enable people to do cultivation practice and raise their levels in the process of cultivation. But we don’t have things like that today. Actually, the most critical thing Sakyamuni left behind were precepts.

We don’t need to forbid you to do anything. Nor do we need to set any regulations for you to follow. Why? Because today we have passed on the Fa and this Fa already tells you what you should do. That’s why I say that if I’m not around or if you can’t see me, you should "take the Fa as teacher" and just study this Fa. Whether you succeed and whether you can do this is all determined by this Fa. If today Li Hongzhi saw that a certain student was pretty good and opened the "back door" for you, gave you some gong, and let you go up—think about it, wouldn’t doing that kind of thing be the same as my damaging the Fa? So, every one of you must be sure to do cultivation—all of you have to cultivate, and to cultivate one step at a time, at that. Of course, some of us have made extremely special contributions to Falun Dafa. In that case you’re also cultivating, it’s just that the form of cultivation is different—it’s another way of cultivating. Actually, all of what I said was to ask you to study the Fa earnestly and to cultivate earnestly.

It’s possible that in the future I won’t teach the practice a lot in China. So it’s crucial that you study and understand this Fa well. The Fa has been passed on to you—actually, my goal is to pass this Fa on to you. If I watch someone in his cultivation forever and I’m in front of you but you don’t follow what I say when you do things, what’s the use? It’s useless. I’ve said that my Law Bodies can protect you. Actually, I haven’t talked about situations at higher levels and I haven’t talked about things that are bigger. Humans have bodies in other dimensions, and so when that body of a person has a certain amount of energy, it enlarges. The cultivated bodies of mine over there are quite large now. How large? Some people have asked me: "Teacher, when you go to the U.S., how will I practice? Will you be able to protect me?" I’ve replied, "There will be Law Bodies to protect you." Actually, there’s another meaning to it. Not only are my Law Bodies protecting you, a fairly large range of dimensions—a certain range of dimensions in the universe—haven’t even reached beyond my belly! Wherever you go, won’t you still be here with me? What I’m saying is that you should just focus on cultivating.

Of course, there will still be some demons that exist. Why do some demons exist? I’ve said that I have been taking care of some issues. These things are part of the issues. Think about it: in various places around the country, or at a certain exercise site of ours, these things often happen—that is, people damage our Fa. Some people verbally attack me; others say Falun Dafa is not good in this way, that way… This has seriously interfered with our cultivation. But think about it, isn’t this a good thing? Throughout the entire course of your cultivation there will be the question of how you fundamentally understand the Fa and whether you can be steadfast—you’ll be tested on whether you are steadfast in the Fa all the way until the last step of your cultivation. If this fundamental issue isn’t settled, all other things are out of the question—nothing else would matter. Isn’t this the crux of it? If you aren’t steadfast in the Fa itself, how could you conduct yourself according to the Fa? Won’t you waver over everything else, too? Such a person will think that none of this is real, and he has this problem from the beginning to the end. So, there’s this form of demon that interferes with us. Then what would it be like without this type of demon? Others have also said: "If your Falun Dafa didn’t have these disruptions, if these things didn’t interfere, it would be too easy for your students to cultivate. How could we tell that they’d improved? There’s only a little bit of discomfort, physical discomfort, and only those troubles they come across in daily life. Wouldn’t they be missing something? How about the question of whether they’re steadfast in the Fa?" A person’s cultivation should include improvements in every regard. Wavering is also a type of attachment, an attachment of being unstable—it’s also an attachment.

I’ll mention something else in passing—I’ll talk about another issue since we’re on this topic, and I can see that you all want me to say a little more. In my seminars there’s something I’ve mentioned—karma. By doing bad things a person gets karma; by doing good things a person can accumulate virtue, or, gain virtue. In the several seminars that I’ve given recently, I’ve also talked about how humans can generate a type of karma, thought-karma, which I hadn’t discussed in detail before. I only spoke in general about the existence of karma, so I didn’t discuss thought-karma in detail. So, what negative effect does this kind of karma have? You’re all assistants, so if you come across this situation in the future you’ll be able to explain it to others. Some new students swear at Teacher as soon as they start practicing, and some new students swear at Falun Dafa and aren’t steadfast in their minds when they take up the practice.

So why does this happen? And they say a lot of filthy words, they even say filthy words that they normally wouldn’t think of, and even if they don’t say those things, these things occur to them in their minds. A lot of people have gone through this phase, and this problem occurs especially at the beginning of a person’s practice. A lot of people run into this problem when they truly do actual cultivation. So some people wonder, "How come I’m swearing at Teacher?" Other thoughts like "This Fa is fake! Don’t follow it" emerge—you might have this thought. Some people’s minds aren’t steadfast, so they follow that, stop practicing, and stop believing in it. We’ve said that this cultivation system is for cultivating a person’s Main Consciousness. If you can’t take control of yourself nobody can save you. Why do we stress that people with psychosis aren’t allowed into our seminars? Precisely because they can’t take control of themselves and aren’t able to be in command of themselves—who would we be saving? Don’t we want to save you yourself? That’s why we talk about this issue.

But some people are able to recognize it. Some people think: "Why do I swear at Teacher? Why do I swear at the Fa? I’ll control it." It causes this person mental tension for a long time, and he can’t control it himself. But my Law Bodies know everything, and when they see that your mind is so steadfast, they’ll help you eliminate that thought-karma. The truth is, it’s that thought-karma that’s making trouble for you. You swore at others before, and the bad thoughts you used to have can all well up. Why does this situation occur? Think about it, we eliminate karma in our cultivation. Everything in other dimensions is alive. I said this long ago, I said it in my seminars. That karma is alive, too. If you want to eliminate your karma, when you eliminate it, it will die and be gone. So will it let you do that? Will it let you kill it? It’s alive right now, so it won’t let you practice. It doesn’t let you practice because it wants to live and it wants you not to eliminate it. So it reflects filthy words into your mind, it doesn’t let you believe in Falun Dafa, and it even makes you swear at me and think of all sorts of things. Some people find themselves at a loss to explain it, or wonder if someone is giving them a hint or if they’re actually onto something—they can’t recognize it and they go down with it. These people are then finished, no one can save them anymore. It’s actually that thought-karma playing an impeding role.

This happens for a period of time, a very short period. As long as your mind can become steadfast you will be able to eliminate it, you’ll be able to eliminate this karma. I didn’t emphasize this in my seminars before, but recently a large number of people have reported this phenomenon to me. Don’t worry—whether you’ve sworn at me or sworn at Falun Dafa, that wasn’t really you yourself swearing. Make sure you tell them apart. If a person’s Main Consciousness isn’t clear he’s finished, and nobody can save him. This has occurred in a lot of regions. Some people even think: "Why am I not living up to Teacher’s kindness? Why am I swearing at Teacher?" A student in Changchun asked, "Why do I swear at Teacher and swear at Falun Dafa?" Then he went before my picture and said: "Teacher, I can’t practice anymore. Whenever I practice I swear at you. I can’t cultivate anymore. I’m not living up to you, Teacher." Whenever he encountered Falun Dafa he’d start swearing; as soon as he picked up the book he’d start swearing in his mind. Finally he said: "This teacher is so good, and this Fa is so good. I’m terribly sorry." Of course, this student of ours wasn’t at all confused in his mind. He was really clear, saying "what I’m doing is not living up to Teacher’s kindness." Later on, when he was doing the exercises he told the assistant at our practice site about this, and the assistant immediately reported it to the General Center. Based on this situation, people told him that it was demons at work—this type of karma is actually a form of demon, too. During the period of time when his practice brought demons upon him, everyone practiced around him and read the book at him while sitting around him. Then his head became clear. It was actually helping him get rid of the karma.

Of course, my book is able to have this kind of effect. If you don’t believe it, when some people get sick, of course, I don’t want to say "get sick," illnesses, microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses, are in fact all manifestations of karma in our body in this dimension, so reading my book can eliminate it. When you read the book what’s sent out is gong, what’s sent out is Fa, so it can have the effect of eliminating karma. That person found that his mind became pretty clear and that it was pretty good. But when he went home the problem came back. Why did it come back? Actually, his thought-karma was bigger than usual, so he had to endure a little more than other people during that period of time. But he came to understand the problem and he endured it. Then, before long, my Law Body helped him get rid of the karma and it eliminated the rest of it. He came through. Now he’s well and he no longer has any problem. When this problem occurs, don’t think that it’s the result of a mental problem or of being possessed—that’s not the case.

In closing, I’d like to tell you a little bit about something I’m hoping for. I don’t want to take more of your time, since this is an assistants’ meeting and your center still has other things to do at this meeting. I hope that from now on you’ll start an upsurge of Fa-study. Don’t regard your daily exercises as more important than Fa-study. We should persist in doing the exercises daily, but we should persist in studying the Fa every day just the same. Only by truly grasping this Fa can it guide you in your cultivation. Some people just wait for Teacher—when they have a problem they just wait for Teacher to explain it to them. The truth is, the Fa has everything in it, and as long as you go study it everything can be answered. Of course, if you don’t believe in the Fa or if you’re wavering, I’d say that’s a problem with your enlightenment quality. Also, those of you in the audience here are all assistants and you’re doing the assistants’ work. Of course, you’re all doing it voluntarily and we haven’t forcefully required you to do X, Y, or Z or to do things in a specific way. And naturally, we require assistants to be serious, to be responsible, and to practice only this one cultivation way—these things are essential. We don’t need any administrative methods to control anyone, nor do we have the right to. Cultivation depends on oneself. We’ve merely assumed responsibility for organizing them and helping them solve their problems.

So I think the assistant’s understanding of the Fa should be higher than the average student’s. That’s why you have to study the Fa a lot. I think it’s a problem if you can’t answer questions that some of the students raise. It doesn’t matter if your level of education is low. When you organize people to study the Fa, when people read the book, and when people talk about their understanding, it helps you improve. When I was in Changchun they held an assistants meeting, and I said this: in the cultivation form we have today, these people who cultivate in the ordinary human society are like everyday people, but we’re actually cultivators and not the same as everyday people. So think about it everyone, what’s your duty when you, an assistant, organize a group of people to practice? In monastic cultivation you would be an abbot in a monastery. Think about it, shouldn’t we do this job well? As a cultivator, you have to cultivate, and you also need to help others cultivate. It’s not that our requirement for you is high—that’s just how it is. You really need to be sure to do well in taking a leading role and organizing students so that we can carry forward this Falun Dafa and have it benefit humankind. This is what we say at the lowest level. And in actuality, this is the case, too.

There’s one more thing that I just thought of. What I just addressed were several requirements for you that have been put forward. There are some people who often don’t focus much at work. It appears that they don’t care about anything in society, and they’re just waiting for "the catastrophe." Some people have even asked me, "When will the catastrophe begin?" I’ve talked about this issue in my seminars. I’ve told them, "What catastrophe?" Think about it, who are catastrophes directed at? Good people aren’t subject to catastrophes. If there really is a catastrophe it’s sure that good people will remain afterwards. Catastrophes weed out bad people. So, since you are a cultivator and you’re improving yourself, why worry about that? Whatever catastrophe there is, so what—it has nothing to do with you. That’s if there really is a catastrophe. But today I can tell you this clearly: the catastrophe no longer exists. People have talked about things like Earth exploding, satellites colliding, a big flood… You know, catastrophes were arranged in the past to unfold one after another. The catastrophes arranged at different levels have all passed. The comet hit Jupiter instead of Earth. The flood has passed—last year flooding was very severe and it was worldwide. Now it’s very weak, weak to the point that it’s passed. Many things have passed, meaning, that kind of catastrophe no longer exists. The only thing that exists is—we don’t have anything to hide—the only thing that exists is that in the future a large number of people may be weeded out. People who are very bad might be weeded out by a powerful disease—this is possible. That’s why we say that even though some people always talk about these things, you shouldn’t worry about them. That kind of catastrophe no longer exists. What’s key is how you cultivate yourselves and how you improve yourselves.

That’s all I’ll say. Let’s resume the meeting. (Warm applause)

Audio recording by the Beijing Falun Dafa General Assistance Center