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LECTURE FOUR
 

Loss and Gain

In the community of cultivators, the relationship between loss and gain is frequently brought up. Among everyday people, it is also discussed. How should our practitioners treat losses and gains? It is different from ordinary people. What everyday people want is personal gain and how to live well and comfortably. Our practitioners are not this way, but exactly the opposite. We do not seek what everyday people want. Instead, what we get is something everyday people cannot obtain—even though they want to—except through cultivation practice.

The loss we normally refer to is not loss in a narrow scope. When one speaks of loss, one will think of donating some money, giving a hand to those in need, or feeding a beggar on the street. Those are also a form of giving and a form of loss. Yet this only refers to being less concerned about the sole issue of money or possessions. Giving up wealth is, of course, an aspect of loss, and a relatively major aspect as well. But the loss we refer to is not limited to this narrow scope. As practitioners, in the course of cultivation there are so many attachments to be relinquished, such as the mentality of showing off, jealousy, the competitive mentality, and zealotry. Many different attachments must be discarded, for the loss we discuss is one in a broad sense. During the entire course of cultivation, we should lose all everyday people’s attachments and various desires.

One may wonder: "We’re practicing cultivation among everyday people. If we lose everything, aren’t we the same as monks or nuns? It seems impossible to lose everything." In our school of practice, those who practice cultivation among everyday people are required to practice cultivation precisely in ordinary human society, and to fit in among everyday people as much as possible. You are not really asked to lose anything materially. It does not matter how high your position ranks or how much wealth you own. The key is whether you can abandon that attachment.

Our school of practice directly targets one’s mind. The key issue is whether you can take lightly and care less about the issues of individual gain and interpersonal conflicts. Cultivation practices in temples or in remote mountains and woods completely sever your access to ordinary human society, forcing you to lose everyday people’s attachments and denying you any material benefits so that you can lose them. A practitioner among everyday people does not follow this path. This person is required to take them lightly in this everyday human environment. Of course, this is very difficult. It is also the most crucial aspect of our school of practice. Therefore, the loss we refer to is loss in a broad sense instead of a narrow one. Let us talk about doing good deeds and donating some money or goods. Nowadays, some of the beggars that you see on the street are professional and they may even have more money than you. We should focus on a broader range of things instead of minor trivia. Cultivation practice should focus with openness and dignity on a broad perspective. In the course of our losses, what we actually lose are the bad things.

Human beings often believe that everything they pursue is good. In fact, from a high-level perspective, these are to satisfy those bits of vested interests among everyday people. It is said in religion that regardless of how much money you have or how high your position ranks, it is good for only a few decades. One cannot bring it along at birth or carry it after death. Why is gong so precious? It is precisely because it grows right on the body of your Primordial Spirit and can be carried at birth and taken forth after death. In addition, it directly determines your Fruit Status in cultivation, and it is therefore difficult to cultivate. In other words, what you lose is something bad. Thus, you can return to your original, true self. So what do you gain? The improvement of your level; eventually you achieve Right Fruit and complete cultivation, solving the fundamental issue. Certainly, it will not be easy for you to immediately lose all sorts of everyday people’s desires and reach the standard of a true practitioner, as it takes time to make it. When you hear me say that it takes time, you might say that Teacher has told us to take time, and so you will take time in doing so. That will not be permitted! You should be strict with yourself, though we allow you to improve gradually. If you could do it all at once today, you would be a Buddha today. Thus, it is not realistic. You will be able to achieve this gradually.

What we lose is actually something bad. What is it? It is karma, and it goes hand in hand with different human attachments. For example, everyday people have all kinds of bad thoughts. For self-interest, they commit various wrong deeds and will acquire this black substance, karma. This directly involves our own minds. In order to eliminate this negative thing, you must first change your mind.

Transformation of Karma

There exists a transformation process between the white substance and the black substance. After a conflict takes place between one another, there occurs this process of transformation. When one does a good deed, one acquires the white substance, de. When one does a bad deed, one obtains the black substance, karma. There is also an inheriting process. One may ask, "Is this because one did bad things early in one’s life?" It might not be completely so because this karma is not accumulated in only one lifetime. The community of cultivators believes that a Primordial Spirit does not become extinct. If a Primordial Spirit does not become extinct, one probably had social interactions before this life. So one might have owed something to someone, bullied someone, or done other bad things, such as killing, which would induce this karma. These things add up in another dimension, and one always carries them; the same is also true with the white substance. This is not the only source, as there is also another situation. Throughout the generations in the family, ancestors may also accumulate karma for later generations. In the past, the elderly had this saying: "One should accumulate de, and one’s ancestors have accumulated de. This person is giving away de and abusing de." That was said very correctly. Nowadays, average people no longer listen to this saying. If you tell those young people about losing de or lacking de, they will not take it to heart at all. In fact, its meaning is indeed very profound. It is not merely the ideological and spiritual standard of modern people, but also an actual material existence. Our human bodies have both kinds of substances.

Someone asked, "Is it that if one has too much black substance one is unable to practice to high levels?" One could say so, as with a lot of black substance, one’s enlightenment quality will be affected. Because it forms a field around one’s body and wraps a person up right in the middle, one is cut off from Zhen-Shan-Ren, the characteristic of the universe. Thus, this person’s enlightenment quality may be poor. When people talk about cultivation practice and qigong, this person will consider all of them superstitious, and he will not believe them at all. He will find them ridiculous. It is usually this way, but not absolutely so. Is it that it’s too difficult for this person to practice cultivation, and that he is unable to achieve high-level gong? It is not so. We have said that Dafa is boundless, and it is completely up to your heart to practice cultivation. The master takes you through the entrance, and it is up to you, yourself to practice cultivation. It all depends upon how you, yourself practice cultivation. Whether you can practice cultivation all depends upon whether you can endure, sacrifice, and suffer. If you can commit your mind, no difficulties can stop you. I would say that there is not a problem.

A person with a lot of the black substance will usually have to sacrifice more than a person with a lot of the white substance. Because the white substance is directly assimilated to the characteristic of the universe, Zhen-Shan-Ren, as long as a person upgrades his xinxing in conflicts, his gong will increase. It is that simple. One with much de has good enlightenment quality. He can suffer and endure physical as well as mental hardships. Even if this person suffers more physically and less mentally, his gong still increases. This is not the case for a person with a lot of the black substance, as he must first go through this process: He must transform the black substance into the white substance. This process is also quite painful. Therefore, a person with poor enlightenment quality usually must suffer more tribulations. With a lot of karma and poor enlightenment quality, it is more difficult for this person to practice cultivation.

Take a specific case, for example. Let us see how this person practices cultivation. The sitting meditation requires putting up both legs on top of each other for a long period of time. The legs will be painful and numb after assuming the posture. As time passes by, one will begin to feel quite uneasy and then become rather restless. Suffering physically and mentally can make both the body and the mind quite uncomfortable. Some people cannot bear the pain in sitting with the legs like that, and they want to give up by putting the legs down. Some people cannot bear it anymore after sitting a little longer. Once the legs are put down, one’s practice is in vain. Once the legs are in pain, one will do some warm-ups before resuming the sitting position. We find that this serves no use whatsoever. This is because we have seen that when the legs are painful, the black substance moves to the legs. The black substance is karma that can be eliminated through suffering; it can then be transformed into de. Once the pain is felt, karma begins to be eliminated. The more karma that comes, the more pain the legs feel. Therefore, the pain in the legs does not arise without reason. Usually, one’s legs in the sitting meditation will feel the pain intermittently. After a moment of very uncomfortable pain, it is over and there is some relief. Soon the pain starts all over again. It usually happens this way.

As karma is eliminated piece by piece, the legs will feel a little better after a piece is eliminated. Soon another piece comes up, and the legs will feel the pain again. After the black substance is eliminated, it does not dissipate, as this substance does not become extinct. Upon being eliminated, it is directly transformed into the white substance, which is de. Why can it be transformed this way? This is because this person has suffered, sacrificed, and endured tribulations. We have said that de is obtained through enduring and suffering hardships, or by doing good deeds. Therefore, this situation will occur in the sitting meditation. Some people quickly take the legs down once they begin to ache, and they will do some warm-ups before resuming the sitting position. That will achieve nothing whatsoever. While doing the standing exercise, one’s arms may get tired from doing the wheel-holding posture. When one cannot bear it anymore and puts down the arms, one accomplishes nothing whatsoever. What does that bit of pain account for? I would say that it is simply too easy if one can succeed in cultivation by just holding the arms up like that. This is what will happen when people practice the sitting meditation.

Our school of practice does not proceed primarily this way, though a part of it also plays a role in this regard. In most cases, one transforms karma through xinxing conflicts among one another, and this is where it manifests itself. While one is in a conflict, the clashes between each other even surpass the physical pains. I would say that the physical pains are the easiest thing to endure, as they can be overcome by biting the teeth tightly. When a conflict takes place between one another, the mind is the hardest thing to control.

For instance, upon arriving at the workplace, a person will become furious when he overhears two people denigrating him very badly. We have said, however, that as a practitioner one should not fight back when being punched or insulted, but should conduct oneself with a high standard. Thus, he thinks that Teacher has said that as practitioners we should not be the same as others and must conduct ourselves better. He will not quarrel with those two persons. But normally when a problem arises, if it does not irritate a person psychologically, it does not count or is useless and cannot make him or her improve. Accordingly, his mind cannot get over it and is still bothered by it. It could be that his mind is hooked on it. He always wants to turn around to look at the faces of those two people. Upon looking back, he sees the two wicked-looking faces in a heated conversation. He can no longer take it and becomes very upset. He may even pick a fight with them right away. When a conflict occurs among one another, it is very difficult to control one’s mind. I say that it would be easy if everything could be taken care of in the sitting meditation; however, it will not always be this way.

Accordingly, in your future cultivation practice you will run into all kinds of tribulations. How can you practice cultivation without these hardships? If everyone is good to one another without conflicts of interests or interference from the human mind, how can your xinxing make progress by your only sitting there? That is impossible. One must truly temper and upgrade oneself through actual practice. Someone asks, "Why do we always have tribulations in cultivation practice? Those problems aren’t much different from those of everyday people." It is because you are practicing cultivation among everyday people. You will not be suddenly turned upside down with your head facing the ground, flying up there and suffering in the air—it won’t be like that. Everything will assume the form of everyday situations, such as someone may have irritated you today, someone has upset you, someone has mistreated you, or someone suddenly speaks to you with no respect. It is to see how you will react to these issues.

Why do you encounter these problems? They are all caused by your own karma. We have already eliminated for you many, numerous pieces of it, leaving only that tiny bit which is divided into tribulations at different levels for upgrading your xinxing, tempering your mind, and removing your different attachments. These are all your own tribulations that we use to improve your xinxing, and you will be able to overcome them. As long as you upgrade your xinxing, you can overcome them. Unless you, yourself do not want to do so, you can make it, provided you want to overcome them. Therefore, from now on when you come across a conflict you should not consider it a coincidence. This is because when a conflict occurs, it will take place unexpectedly. But that is not a coincidence—it is for improving your xinxing. As long as you treat yourself as a practitioner, you can handle it properly.

Of course, you will not be informed of a tribulation or conflict ahead of time. How can you practice cultivation if you are told everything? It will not serve any use. They usually occur unexpectedly so that they can test one’s xinxing and make one’s xinxing truly improve. Only then can it be seen whether one can maintain one’s xinxing. Therefore, when a conflict arises, it does not occur accidentally. This issue will be present during the entire course of cultivation practice and in the transformation of karma. Unlike what everyday persons imagine, it is much more difficult than suffering physically. How can you increase gong simply by practicing the exercises a bit longer when the arms are sore from being raised and the legs are tired from standing? How can you increase gong with only a few more hours of exercise? That only serves to transform one’s benti, but it still needs to be reinforced with energy. It does not help upgrade one’s level. Mentally overcoming tribulations is the key to truly improving one’s level. If one can make progress just by suffering physically, I would say that Chinese farmers suffer the most. Shouldn’t they all become qigong masters, then? No matter how much you suffer physically, you do not suffer as much as they do, who work both hard and painstakingly in the field everyday under the baking sun. It is not that simple a matter. Therefore, we have said that to truly improve oneself, one should genuinely upgrade one’s mind. Only then can one truly upgrade oneself.

During the process of transforming karma, to keep yourself under control—unlike an everyday person who would mess things up—you should always maintain a heart of benevolence and a mind of kindness. If you suddenly bump into a problem, you will be able to take care of it properly. When you always maintain a heart of benevolence and compassion, you will have time or room to buffer the confrontation and think, should a problem arise suddenly. If you always think about competing with others and fighting back and forth, I would say that you will start a fight with others whenever there is a problem—this is guaranteed. Thus, when you encounter a conflict, I would say that it is to transform your black substance into the white substance, de.

When our humankind evolves to this extent today, almost everyone is born with karma built upon karma, and everyone’s body has quite a lot of karma. In transforming karma, therefore, this situation will usually occur: While your gong increases and your xinxing improves, your karma is eliminated and transformed. When one runs into a conflict, it may manifest in a xinxing tribulation between one another. If you can endure it, your karma will be eliminated, your xinxing will improve, and your gong will increase as well. All of these will come together. People in the past had a lot of de and good xinxing to begin with. As long as they suffered a little bit of hardship, they could increase their gong. People are not like that today. As soon as they suffer, they do not want to practice cultivation. Furthermore, they have become less enlightened, making it harder for them to practice cultivation.

In cultivation practice, there may be two scenarios when dealing with specific conflicts or when others treat you badly. One is that you might have treated this person badly in your previous life. You feel in your heart that it is unfair, "How can this person treat me like this?" Then why did you treat this person that way in the past? You might claim that you actually did not know it at that time, and this life has nothing to do with the other life. That does not work. There is another issue. In conflicts, the issue of transforming karma is involved. Therefore, in dealing with specific conflicts we should be forgiving instead of acting like ordinary people. This should apply to the workplace or other work environments. The same is true as well with self-employed people, for they also have social interactions. It is impossible not to interact with society, as at least there is contact among neighbors.

In social interactions one will come across all kinds of conflicts. For those who practice cultivation among everyday persons, what type of business you are in does not matter. Regardless of how much money you have, how high your position ranks, or what kind of private enterprise or company you run, it makes no difference, as you should trade fairly and maintain a righteous mind. All professions in human society should exist. It is the human heart that is indecent, rather than one’s occupation. There was a saying in the old days: "Nine out of ten merchants are fraudulent." That is a saying made by everyday people. I would say that it is a matter of the human heart. As long as your heart is righteous and you trade fairly, you deserve to earn more money if you make more effort. That is because you are rewarded for the effort you have put in among everyday people. No loss, no gain. You have worked for it. With any social status, one can still be a good person. There are different conflicts for people of different social classes. The upper-class society has conflicts of the upper-class society, all of which can be properly dealt with. In any social class, one can be a good person and care less for different desires or attachments. One can be a good person at different strata, and one can practice cultivation at one’s own social level.

Nowadays, whether in a state-run company or in other enterprises in this country, interpersonal conflicts have become very unique. In other countries and throughout history, this phenomenon has never occurred. Consequently, conflicts over self-interest are shown to be particularly intense. People play mind games and compete for a tiny bit of personal gain; the thoughts they have and the tricks they use are very vicious. Even being a good person is difficult. For instance, you arrive at your workplace and find the atmosphere there not right. Later, a person tells you that so-and-so has publicized you badly and reported on you to the boss, putting you in an awful situation. Others all stare at you with an unusual look. How can an ordinary person tolerate that? How can one put up with that? "If someone makes trouble for me, I’ll return the same. If he has supporters, I do, too. Let’s fight." If you do this among everyday people, they will say that you are a strong person. As a practitioner, however, that is completely awful. If you compete and fight like an ordinary person, you are an ordinary person. If you outdo him, you are even worse than that ordinary person.

How should we deal with this issue? Upon running into this conflict, we should, first of all, keep a cool head, and we should not behave the same as that person. Of course, we can explain the matter kindly, and it is not a problem if we clarify the issue. But you should not become too attached to it. If we encounter these problems, we should not compete and fight like others. If you do what that person did, aren’t you an ordinary person? Not only should you not compete and fight like him, but also you should not resent that person in your heart. Really, you should not hate that person. If you hate that person, aren’t you upset? You have not followed forbearance. We practice Zhen-Shan-Ren, and you would have even less compassion so to speak of. So you should not be like him or become really upset with him, despite his putting you in this awful situation where you cannot even raise your head. Instead of being angry with him, you should thank him in your heart and thank him sincerely. An ordinary person may think this way: "Isn’t that being like Ah Q?"1  I am telling you that it is not so.

Think about it, everyone: You are practitioners. Shouldn’t you be required to meet a high standard? The principles of everyday people should not apply to you, right? As a practitioner, isn’t what you get something of high levels? Accordingly, you must follow the high-level principles. If you do what that person did, aren’t you the same as he? Why should you thank him, then? Think about it: What will you obtain? In this universe, there is a principle which says: "no loss, no gain." To gain, one must lose. That person puts you in an awful situation among everyday people, and he is the party that has gained at your expense. The worse the situation he puts you in and the greater its impact, the more you will endure and the more de he will lose. Such de will all be given to you. While you are enduring all that, you might care less for it and not take it seriously in your mind.

In this universe, there is another principle: If you have suffered a lot, the karma in your body will be transformed. Because you have suffered, however much you have endured will all be transformed into an equal amount of de. Isn’t this de what a practitioner wants? You will gain in two ways, as your karma is also eliminated. If the person did not create this situation for you, how could you upgrade your xinxing? If both you and I are nice to each other and sit there in harmony, how can it be possible to increase gong? It is precisely because that person has created this conflict for you that there is this opportunity to improve xinxing, and you can make use of it to upgrade your own xinxing. Isn’t your xinxing raised this way? You have gained in three ways. You are a practitioner. With xinxing upgraded, won’t your gong also increase? You have gained four ways in one shot. Why shouldn’t you thank that person? You should sincerely thank him from the bottom of your heart—it is actually so.

Of course, that person’s thought was not decent, or else he would not have given you de. But he has indeed created an opportunity to upgrade your xinxing. In other words, we must pay attention to cultivating xinxing. At the same time xinxing is cultivated, karma is eliminated and transformed into de so that you can ascend to a higher level; these go hand in hand. From the high-level perspective, these principles are all changed. An ordinary person will not understand it. When you look at these principles from high levels, everything will be different. Among everyday people you may find these principles correct, but they are not actually right. Only what is seen from high levels is truly right. It is usually like this.

I have thoroughly explained the principles to everyone, and I hope that in future cultivation practice everyone will treat himself as a practitioner and truly practice cultivation, since the principles are already presented here. Perhaps some people, because they live among everyday people, still think that in the face of actual material interests, being everyday people is practical. Amid the current of everyday persons they still cannot conduct themselves with the high standard. Actually, for being a good person among everyday people there are heroes who serve as models, but those are models among everyday people. If you want to be a practitioner, it all depends on cultivating your heart and on you, yourself being enlightened since there are no role models. Fortunately, today we have made public this Dafa. In the past, if you wished to practice cultivation, nobody would teach you. This way, you can follow Dafa and perhaps you will do better. Whether you can practice cultivation or make it and what level you can reach all depend on you, yourself.

Of course, the way karma transforms does not take place completely as I have just described; it can manifest in other areas. It can happen either in society or at home. While walking on a street or in another social environment, one may come across some trouble. You will be made to abandon all those attachments that cannot be given up among everyday people. As long as you have them, all of those attachments must be removed in different environments. You will be made to stumble, whereby you will become enlightened to the Tao. This is how one goes through cultivation practice.

Typically there is another situation. In the course of cultivation practice many of you will find that when practicing qigong, your spouses will often become very unhappy. As soon as you begin the exercises, your spouse will throw a fit at you. If you do something else, your spouse will not mind. No matter how much time you waste playing Mah Jong,2  your spouse might be unhappy, but not as much as if you practice qigong. Your qigong practice does not interfere with your spouse, and what a good thing it is since you exercise the body to keep fit, and you are not disturbing your spouse. Yet once you start practicing qigong, your spouse will throw things around and start a fight. Some couples almost get divorced because of disputes over qigong practice. Many people have not thought about why this situation takes place. If you ask your spouse later: "Why do you get so upset if I practice qigong?" he or she cannot explain it and will really be out of reasons. "Really, why did I become so angry and worked up at that time?" Actually, what’s the matter? While one is practicing qigong, one’s karma must be transformed. You will not gain without loss, and what you lose are bad things. You must sacrifice.

Perhaps as soon as you step in the door, your spouse will throw a fit right in your face. If you endure it, your effort of practicing qigong today is not in vain. Some people also know that in qigong practice one should value de. Therefore, this person usually gets along very well with his spouse. He thinks, "Usually, if I say ‘one,’ she doesn’t say ‘two.’ Today she’s overruling me." He cannot control his temper and will start a fight. With this, today’s practice ends up in vain. Because karma was there, she was helping him remove it. But he would not accept it and started a fight with her. The karma thus could not be eliminated. There are a lot of these instances and many of our practitioners have experienced them, but they have not thought about why they were this way. Your spouse would not care if you were to do something else. Qigong practice should actually be a good thing, but she always finds fault with you. In fact, your wife is helping you eliminate karma, though she does not know it herself. She is not fighting with you only superficially and still good to you in her heart—it is not so. It is real anger from the bottom of her heart, because whoever has acquired the karma feels uncomfortable. It is guaranteed to be this way.

Upgrading Xinxing

Because many people could not maintain good xinxing in the past, many problems occurred. After their practice reached a certain level, they could not make further progress. Some people have a high xinxing level to begin with. Their Celestial Eye are opened at once with the practice and can reach a certain realm. Because this person has relatively good inborn quality and a high xinxing level, his gong increases rapidly. By the time the gong reaches his xinxing level, the gong has also increased up to that level. If he wants to continue increasing his gong, the conflict will also become very serious, as it requires him to keep upgrading xinxing. This is particularly true for a person with good inborn quality. He may think that his gong has been increasing well and the practice also goes very well. Why are there suddenly so many problems? Everything goes wrong. People mistreat him, and his boss also does not favor him. Even the situation at home becomes very tense. Why are there so many problems all of a sudden? This person himself might not get it. Because of his good inborn quality, he has reached a certain level that brings about this situation. Yet how can that be a practitioner’s final criterion for completing cultivation? It is far from the end of cultivation practice! You must continue to upgrade yourself. Because of that little amount of your inborn quality you have reached this state. In order to ascend further, the standard must be raised as well.

Someone may say, "I’ll earn some more money to settle my family down well so I won’t have to worry about anything. Afterwards, I’ll practice cultivation." I would say that this is your wishful thinking. You are unable to interfere with the lives of others, and neither can you control others’ fates, including those of your wife, sons, daughters, parents, or brothers. Can you decide those things? Furthermore, how will you practice cultivation if you do not have any worries or troubles? How can you do the exercises comfortably and restfully? How can there be such a thing? That is what you think, from the perspective of everyday people.

Cultivation practice must take place through tribulations so as to test whether you can part with and care less about different kinds of human sentimentality and desires. If you are attached to these things, you will not succeed in cultivation. Everything has its karmic relationship. Why can human beings be human? It is because human beings have sentimentality. They live just for this sentimentality. Affection among family members, love between a man and a woman, love for parents, feelings, friendship, doing things for friendship, and everything else all relate to this sentimentality. Whether a person likes to do something or not, is happy or unhappy, loves or hates something, and everything in the entire human society comes from this sentimentality. If this sentimentality is not relinquished, you will be unable to practice cultivation. If you are free from this sentimentality, nobody can affect you. An everyday person’s mind will be unable to sway you. What takes over in its place is benevolence, which is something more noble. Of course, it is not easy to abandon this sentimentality right away. Cultivation practice is a long process and a process of gradually giving up one’s attachments. Nonetheless, you must be strict with yourself.

As practitioners, you will suddenly come across conflicts. What should you do? You should always maintain a heart of compassion and kindness. Then, when you run into a problem, you will be able to do well because it gives you room to buffer the confrontation. You should always be benevolent and kind to others, and consider others when doing anything. Whenever you encounter a problem, you should first consider whether others can put up with this matter or if it will hurt anyone. In doing so, there will not be any problems. Therefore, in cultivation practice you should follow a higher and higher standard for yourself.

Some people often do not understand these issues. When a person’s Celestial Eye is open and sees a Buddha, he will go home and worship the Buddha, praying in his mind, "Why don’t you help me out? Please solve this problem for me." That Buddha, of course, will not do anything for this person because that problem is arranged by the Buddha, intending to improve his xinxing and upgrade him by way of the tribulation. How can the Buddha take care of the problem for you? He will not solve the problem for you at all. How can you increase your gong and upgrade your xinxing and level if he solves your problem? The key is to increase your gong. To the great enlightened people, living as a human being is not the purpose, and one’s life is not meant for being human—it is meant for you to return to your origin. Human beings suffer a lot. The enlightened people think that the more one suffers, the better, as one should speed up repaying one’s debts. This is what they think. Some people do not understand it and begin to complain to the Buddha if their praying does not work, "Why don’t you help me? I burn incense and kowtow to you everyday." Because of this, one may throw the Buddha statue to the ground and start to condemn Buddha thereafter. As a result of this condemnation, one’s xinxing drops, and one’s gong disappears. The person knows that everything is gone, so he resents Buddha even further, believing that the Buddha is ruining him. The person measures Buddha’s xinxing with an ordinary person’s criteria. How can that comparison be made? How can it work if a person views high-level things with the standard of everyday people? Therefore, a lot of these cases often take place when people regard their suffering in life as being unfair. Many people drop down this way.

In the past few years, many grand qigong masters, including the well-known ones, have fallen to become nobody. Of course, those genuine qigong masters have already left upon accomplishing their missions in history. Only some are left behind and become lost among everyday people, being still active with a lowered xinxing level. These people have already lost their gong. A few qigong masters who were well-known in the past are still active in society. When their masters found that they were lost among everyday people and could not free themselves from obsessing over fame and personal gain, after they had become hopeless, their masters took away their Assistant Spirit. All of the gong was developed in the body of the Assistant Spirit. There are quite a lot of these typical examples.

In our school of practice, these cases are quite few. Even if there are some, they are not as notable. There are many outstanding examples in terms of xinxing improvement. One practitioner works in a textile factory in X city of Shandong Province. After studying Falun Dafa, he taught other coworkers to practice. As a result, the factory has taken on a new look. He used to take home pieces of towels from the textile factory, and so did the rest of the employees. After practicing Dafa, instead of taking things home he brought back to the factory what he took home before. When others saw his actions, nobody would take things home anymore. Some employees also returned to the factory what they previously took home. This situation occurred throughout the entire factory.

One volunteer director at a city’s Dafa instruction center went to a factory to see how Falun Dafa practitioners were doing with their practice. The factory manager came out to meet him in person: "Since studying Falun Dafa, these workers have been coming to work early and going home late. They work very diligently and will do any assignment the boss gives. They also no longer compete for personal gain. By doing so, they’ve made the whole factory take on a new look, and the factory’s economic returns have also improved. Your practice is so powerful. When is your teacher coming? I’d also like to attend his lectures." The main purpose of our cultivating Falun Dafa is to bring people to high levels. While it does not intend to do such a thing, it can nonetheless assume a great constructive role by promoting spiritual civilization in society. If everyone searches internally and considers how to conduct himself or herself well, I would say that society will stabilize and the human moral standard will improve again.

When I was teaching the Fa and the practice in Taiyuan,3  there was a practitioner over fifty years old. She and her spouse had come to attend my lectures. When they walked into the middle of the street, a car drove by very fast, and its rearview mirror caught the elderly lady’s clothes. With her clothes caught by the car, the lady was dragged for a distance of over ten meters and brought down to the ground. The car stopped after moving beyond twenty meters. The driver was very upset after getting out of the car: "Hey, you weren’t watching where you were walking." Nowadays, people behave this way and will first of all avoid responsibility upon coming across a problem, regardless of whether they are at fault. The passengers inside the car said: "Find out how badly the lady was hit. Let’s take her to a hospital." The driver came to his senses and rushed to say: "How is everything, ma’am? Are you hurt? Let’s go to a hospital and take a look." This practitioner slowly got up from the ground and said: "There’s nothing wrong. You can leave." She brushed off the dirt on her clothes and left with her husband.

She came to the class and told me this story, and I was very pleased. Our practitioners’ xinxing have indeed improved. She said to me: "Teacher, I studied Falun Dafa today. If I hadn’t studied Falun Dafa, I wouldn’t have treated the accident this way today." Think about it, everyone: For a retired person, the prices of merchandise are so high these days and there is no welfare benefit. A person over fifty years old was dragged that far by a car and knocked down to the ground. Where could her body be injured? Everywhere. She could have stayed on the ground without having to get up. Go to the hospital? Sure. She could have stayed at the hospital and would not move out. An everyday person might be that way, but she is a practitioner and did not do that. We have said that good or evil comes from a person’s spontaneous thought, and the thought at that moment can bring about different consequences. With her old age, if she were an everyday person, how could she not be injured? Yet her skin was not even scratched. Good or evil comes from that instant thought. If she were lying down there claiming, "Ugh, I feel terrible. Something is wrong here and there." Then, her bones might really have been fractured, and she would be paralyzed. No matter how much money she was paid, how could she be comfortable being hospitalized for the rest of her life? Those bystanders even found it strange that the elderly woman did not exploit him and ask him for money. Nowadays, human moral values have been distorted. The driver indeed drove the car too fast, but how could he possibly hit someone on purpose? Didn’t he do it unintentionally? But people are like this today. If he were not exploited, even the bystanders would find it unfair. I have said that now people cannot distinguish good from bad. If one tells another person that he is doing something wrong, he will not believe it. Because human moral values have changed, some people seek nothing but self-interest and will do anything for money. "If a person is not after self-interest, heaven and earth will kill him"—this has already become a motto!

One practitioner in Beijing took his child to Qianmen4  for a walk after dinner and saw a commercial vehicle promoting lottery tickets. The child became interested and asked to play the lottery. He gave the child one yuan to play, and the child ended up with the second prize, a luxury junior bike. The child was very delighted. At once an idea flashed into the father’s mind: "I’m a practitioner. How can I go for such a thing? How much de must I give away if I get something that isn’t paid for?" He said to the child: "Let’s not take it. We can buy one ourselves if you want it." The child became upset: "I’ve begged you to buy one, and you didn’t do it. Now, you won’t let me keep it when I get one on my own." The child cried and screamed terribly. This man could not do anything about it but take the bike home. At home, the more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt. He thought about sending the money to those people. Then he figured: "The lottery tickets are gone, and won’t they divide the money among themselves if I send it to them? I should donate the money to my workplace."

Fortunately, there were quite a few Falun Dafa practitioners in his workplace, and his boss could understand him. If it occurred in a typical environment or a typical workplace, where you said that you were a practitioner who did not want a lottery bike and wanted to donate the money to the workplace, even the boss would think that you had some mental problems. Others would also make some comments: "Has this person gone astray in qigong practice or developed cultivation insanity?" I have said that the moral values have been distorted. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, this would be no big deal and quite common—nobody would find it odd or strange.

We have said that no matter how much human moral values have changed, this characteristic of the universe, Zhen-Shan-Ren, will forever remain unchanged. If someone says that you are good, you may not really be good. If someone says that you are bad, you may not really be bad. This is because the criteria that evaluate good and bad are distorted. Only one who complies with this characteristic of the universe is a good person. It is the sole criterion which determines a good or bad person, and it is recognized by the universe. Although great changes have taken place in human society, human moral values have declined tremendously. Human morality is deteriorating daily, and profits have become the sole motivation. Yet changes in the universe do not occur according to changes in humankind. As a practitioner, one cannot conduct oneself based on the standard of everyday people. It is not permitted if you go do things simply because everyday people consider them right. When everyday people say that it is good, it may not be good. When everyday people say that it is bad, it may not be bad, either. In this time when the moral values are distorted, if you tell someone that he is doing something bad, he will not believe it! As a practitioner, one must assess things with the characteristic of the universe. Only then can one distinguish what is genuinely good and what is truly bad.

Guanding

In the community of cultivators, there is this circumstance called guanding. Guanding is a religious ritual from the cultivation way of Tantrism in the Buddha School. Its purpose is that, through the procedure of guanding, a person will no longer follow other schools of cultivation and will be accepted in this particular school as a true disciple. Now, what’s so strange about this? This religious formality is also being applied to qigong practices. Not only is it practiced in Tantrism, but also in the Tao School. I have said that all those who teach in society the practice of Tantrism under the banner of Tantrism are shams. Why is it put this way? It is because Tang Tantrism has already disappeared from our country for over one thousand years, and it no longer exists. Because of the language barrier, Tibetan Tantrism has never been able to be entirely introduced to the Han5  regions. Particularly, because it is an esoteric religion, it must be secretly practiced in monasteries. It must also be secretly taught by the master, and the master has to take the person to practice secretly. If this cannot be done, it absolutely cannot be taught.

Many people who go to Tibet to study qigong have this agenda: They want to find a master and study Tibetan Tantrism in order to become qigong masters in the future and to become rich and famous. Think about it, everyone: A true, living Buddhist lama6  who has received genuine teaching has very powerful supernormal abilities and can read such a person’s mind. Why does the person come here? He will know it right away by reading the person’s mind: "You come here wanting to study the practice and to become a qigong master for money and fame, undermining this school of Buddha cultivation." For such a serious practice in Buddhahood cultivation, how can it be casually ruined by your pursuit of becoming a qigong master for fame and money? What’s your motivation? Therefore, he will not teach this person anything at all, and neither will this person get any real teachings. Of course, with so many monasteries around, one may learn some superficial things. If one’s mind is not right, one will incur spirit or animal possession while trying to become a qigong master and committing wrongdoing. Possessing animals also have energy, but it is not from Tibetan Tantrism. Those who go to Tibet sincerely in search of the Dharma may settle down there once they arrive—those are true practitioners.

It is strange that now many Taoist practices also perform guanding. The Tao School uses energy channels. Why should it practice the so-called guanding? I have been to the South to give lectures. According to what I know, there are over ten heterodox practices that do guanding, particularly in the region of Guangdong. What are they trying to do? If the master does guanding to you, you will become his disciple and be unable to learn any other practice. If you do, he will punish you, as that is what he does. Isn’t that doing an evil practice? What he teaches is something for healing and fitness. People are learning it simply because they want to have healthy bodies. Why should he do these things? Someone claims that if people practice his qigong, they cannot practice any other qigong. Can he save people and enable them to complete their cultivation? That is misleading disciples. Many people do things this way.

The Tao School never teaches guanding, but now it also has the so-called guanding. I have found that the qigong master who makes the loudest noise about the practice of guanding has a gong column only as high as a two or three-story building. I think that for a well-known qigong master, his gong has decreased quite pitifully. Hundreds of people are lining up for him to do guanding. His gong is limited to that height and will soon fall to nothing. What can he use to do guanding then? Isn’t he deceiving people? When seen from another dimension, genuine guanding makes one’s bones look like white jade from the head to the feet. It is through gong or the high-energy matter that one’s body is purified from the head to the feet. Can this qigong master do that? He cannot. What does he do? Of course, he probably will not try to start a religion. His goal is that once you study his practice, you belong to him. You must attend his classes to study his things. The goal is to earn your money. He will not make any money if no one studies his practice.

Like disciples in other cultivation practices of the Buddha School, disciples of Falun Dafa will experience guanding many times by high-level masters in other dimensions; but you will not be told about it. Those with supernormal abilities or those who are sensitive may feel it during sleep or at another time, as a warm current will suddenly come down from the top of their heads to all over their bodies. The purpose of guanding is not to add higher gong to yours, as it must be developed through your own cultivation practice. Guanding is a reinforcing method for purifying and further cleaning up your body. One will go through guanding many times—your body must be cleaned up at every level. Because cultivation depends on one’s own efforts while the transformation of gong is done by the master, we do not practice the ritual of guanding.

There are some people who also practice so-called "worshipping the master." Speaking of this, I would like to mention something. Many people want to worship me as the master. This period of ours in history is different from that of Chinese feudal society. Do kneeling down and kowtowing stand for taking someone as the master? We do not practice this ritual. Many people think: "If I kowtow, burn incense, and worship Buddha with a sincere heart, my gong will increase." I find this quite ridiculous. Genuine cultivation practice depends entirely upon a person him or herself, so it is useless to pray for something. You do not have to worship a Buddha or burn incense. As long as you really practice cultivation according to the standard of a practitioner, Buddha will be very pleased to see you. If you always do bad deeds in other places, he will be disgusted to see you although you burn incense and kowtow to him. Isn’t this the truth? Genuine cultivation practice depends upon the person him or herself. What’s the use of your kowtowing and worshipping the master if you do whatever you want today upon stepping outside this door? We do not care for this formality at all. You could even damage my reputation!

We have given everyone so many things. For all of you, as long as you truly practice cultivation and conduct yourselves strictly according to Dafa, I will treat you as my disciples. As long as you practice Falun Dafa, we will treat you as disciples. If you do not want to practice it, we cannot do anything for you. If you do not practice cultivation, what’s the use of carrying that designation? It does not matter whether you are from the first session of classes or the second session. How can you be our practitioners by doing the exercises alone? To attain a healthy body and truly make progress to high levels, you must practice cultivation by truly following our xinxing standard. Therefore, we do not care for those formalities. As long as you practice cultivation, you are a practitioner in our school of practice. My fashen know everything—they know everything on your mind, and they can do anything. They will not take care of you if you do not practice cultivation. If you practice cultivation, they will help you all the way to the end.

In some qigong practices, practitioners who have never seen their masters claim that if they pay a few hundred yuan and kowtow to a certain direction, that will be good enough. Isn’t that self-deception and deceiving others? Additionally, these people are very devoted thereafter and begin to defend or protect their practices and masters. They also tell others not to study other practices. I find it quite ridiculous. Also, someone does something called mo ding.7  Nobody knows what effect there is after his touch.

Not only those who teach their practices under the banner of Tantrism are phony; all those who teach qigong in the name of Buddhism are the same as well. Think about it, everyone: For several thousand years, cultivation methods in Buddhism have been in those forms. How can it still be Buddhism if someone alters it? Cultivation methods are for serious Buddha cultivation, and they are extremely complex. A tiny change will cause a mess. Because the transformation of gong is very complex, what one feels accounts for nothing. One cannot practice cultivation based on how one feels. The religious form for monks is a cultivation method; once it is changed, it will not be something from that school. There is a great enlightened person in charge of each school, and each school has produced many great enlightened persons. Nobody dares to casually change the cultivation method in that school. For a petty qigong master, what mighty virtue does he have to dare offend the master and change a practice of Buddhahood cultivation? Will it still be that school if it’s really changed? Phony qigong can be distinguished.

The Placement of the Mysterious Pass 

"The Placement of the Mysterious Pass" (xuanguan shewei) is also called "One Mysterious Aperture" (xuanguan yiqiao). These terminologies may be found in the books of Dan Jing, Tao Zang, and Xingming Guizhi.8  So what’s it all about? Many qigong masters cannot explain it clearly. This is because at the level of an average qigong master, one is neither able to see it, nor allowed to see it. If a practitioner wants to see it, this person must reach the upper level of Wisdom Eyesight or higher. An ordinary qigong master cannot reach this level; thus, he cannot see it. Throughout history, the community of cultivators has been discussing what is the Mysterious Pass, where is One Aperture, and how to put the Mysterious Pass into position. In the books of Dan Jing, Tao Zang, and Xingming Guizhi, you can find them all discussing the theories without telling you the substance. From one discussion to another, they confuse you. They do not explain things clearly because the substance cannot be known by everyday people.

Furthermore, I am telling you that because you are Falun Dafa disciples, I will tell you these words: "Never read those crooked qigong books." I am not referring to the foregoing classic texts, but to those sham qigong books written by people today. You should not even open them. If the idea flashes in your mind that "well, this sentence seems reasonable," with this, the possessing spirits or animals in the book will attach to your body. Many books were written under the control of possessing spirits or animals which manipulate human attachments for fame and fortune. There are a lot—quite a lot—of phony qigong books. Many people are being irresponsible and writing books with possessing spirits or animals and chaotic things in them. Usually, it is better not to even read the classic books mentioned above or other related classic scriptures, as it involves the issue of being single-minded in one practice.

One official from the China Qigong Science Research Society told me a story which really made me laugh. He said that there was a person in Beijing who often went to qigong seminars. After listening to many speeches, he felt that qigong was nothing more than what was said there. Because everyone was at the same level, they all talked about the same things. Not unlike other sham qigong masters, he thought that the content of qigong was not more than that! Then he also wanted to write a book on qigong. Think about it, everyone: A non-practitioner would write a qigong book. Nowadays, qigong books are copied from one another. As his writing progressed, he stopped on the issue of the Mysterious Pass. Who understands what the Mysterious Pass is? Even among genuine qigong masters, few understand it. He went to ask a phony qigong master. He did not know that the person was phony, as he did not understand qigong anyway. But if this phony qigong master could not respond to the question, wouldn’t others realize that he was a fake? Therefore, he dared to make it up and said that One Mysterious Pass is at the tip of one’s penis. It sounds quite funny. Do not laugh, for this book is already published in society. This is to say that qigong books today have reached such a ridiculous extent. What is the use of your reading those books? It serves no use and can only be harmful.

What is "the Placement of the Mysterious Pass"? In one’s In-Triple-World-Fa practice, when a person’s cultivation is beyond the middle-level or at the high-level In-Triple-World-Fa, this person starts to grow the Immortal Infant. The Immortal Infant and the Cultivated Infant (yinghai)  that we refer to are two different things. Cultivated Infants are tiny and playful, and run around joyfully. The Immortal Infant does not move. If one’s Primordial Spirit does not take control of it, the Immortal Infant will sit still on a lotus flower with two legs folded on top of each other and with both hands conjoined. The Immortal Infant grows up from dantian and can be seen at the microscopic level, even when it is smaller than the point of a needle.

Additionally, another issue should be clarified. There is only one genuine dantian, and it is the tian9  in the lower abdominal area. It is above the huiyin10  point and below the belly inside one’s body. Many forms of gong, many supernormal abilities, many abilities, fashen, the Immortal Infant, Cultivated Infants, and a lot of beings all grow up from this tian.

In the past, a few practitioners talked about the upper dantian, the middle dantian and the lower dantian. I would say that they were wrong. Some people also claim that their masters have taught them this way for generations, and that the books have said so as well. Let me tell everyone that there was dross even in ancient times. Though some things may have been inherited for years, they might be incorrect. Some minor cultivation ways in the world have always been passed down among everyday people, but they are not for cultivation and are good for nothing. When they call it the upper dantian, the middle dantian, and the lower dantian, they are saying that dantian is wherever dan can grow. Isn’t this a joke? When a person’s mind focuses on somewhere in the body for a long time, an energy cluster will develop and form dan. If you do not believe it, keep your mind focused on your arm and keep it that way for a long time and dan will form there. Therefore, some people have seen this situation and declare that dantian is everywhere. This sounds even more ridiculous. They think that dantian is wherever dan forms. Actually, it is a dan, but not a tian. You may say that dan is everywhere, or that there is the upper dan, the middle dan, and the lower dan. However, there is only one actual tian that can develop numerous Fa, and it is the one in the lower abdominal area. Therefore, the talk of upper dantian, middle dantian, and lower dantian are wrong. Wherever one’s mind concentrates for a long period of time, dan will form.

The Immortal Infant grows up slowly from dantian in the lower abdominal area to become larger and larger. When it grows to be the size of a ping-pong ball, the shape of its whole body will be very visible with the nose and eyes formed. At the same time when the Immortal Infant is as big as a ping-pong ball, a small round bubble will be born beside it. After birth, the bubble will grow along with the Immortal Infant. When the Immortal Infant reaches four inches tall, a lotus flower petal will appear. When the Immortal Infant grows to be five or six inches, the petals of the lotus flower will basically be formed, and a layer of lotus flower will appear. A shining, golden Immortal Infant will sit on a golden lotus flower plate, looking very beautiful. This is the never-degenerated Vajra body, which is called "the Buddha-body" in the Buddha School, or "the Immortal Infant" in the Tao School.

Our school of practice cultivates and requires both forms of the bodies; benti must be transformed as well. It is known to everyone that a Buddha body is not allowed to manifest among everyday people. With much effort, it can show its shape and its light can be seen with an everyday person’s eyes. Upon transformation, however, the physical body appears to be the same as an average person’s body among everyday people. An everyday person cannot tell the difference, though this body can travel between dimensions. When the Immortal Infant reaches four to five inches, the air bubble will also grow to that height, and it is transparent like an air balloon. The Immortal Infant sits still there, in the meditation position. By this time the air bubble will leave dantian. As it is grown and mature, it will therefore move up. The process of its moving up is very slow, but its motion can be observed daily. It gradually moves up higher and higher. With meticulous attentiveness, we are able to feel its existence.

When the air bubble reaches one’s tanzhong point,11  it will stay there for a while. Because there is a lot of the human body’s essence there (the heart is also there), a system of things will be formed in the air bubble. This essence will be supplied into the air bubble. After a while, it will again move up. When it passes through the throat, one will feel suffocated as though the blood vessels are all blocked, and one will feel quite uncomfortably swollen. This will last only a couple of days. Then the air bubble will move up to the top of one’s head, and we call it "reaching niwan." It is said that it has reached niwan while, in fact, it is as big as your whole head. Your head will feel swollen. Because niwan is a very important place for a human being, its essence must also be formed in the air bubble. Then the air bubble will try to squeeze out from the Celestial Eye tunnel, and this will feel quite uncomfortable. One’s Celestial Eye will be squeezed to the point of soreness, and one’s temples will feel swollen while the eyes feel like they are digging inward. This feeling will last until the air bubble makes its way out of the Celestial Eye tunnel and hangs in front of one’s forehead. That is called the Placement of the Mysterious Pass, and it hangs there.

By this time, those with open Celestial Eye are unable to see anything. This is because in cultivation practice in the Buddha School or the Tao School, its door is shut to speed up the formation of things inside the Mysterious Pass. There are two front doors and two rear doors, and they are all closed. Like the gateways of Tiananmen in Beijing, there are two big doors on each side. In order to make the Mysterious Pass quickly formed and substantiated, the doors are not opened except under very special circumstances. One who can see things with the Celestial Eye cannot see things at this point, as that is not allowed. What’s the purpose of it hanging there? Because hundreds of energy channels in our body meet there, at this point they must all circle through the Mysterious Pass and then move out of it. They must go through the Mysterious Pass, and the goal is to lay some additional foundations and to form a system of things inside the Mysterious Pass. Because the human body is a small universe, it will form a small world with all of the essential things of the human body formed in it. Yet it is still only a facility that cannot be fully operational.

In the Qimen School’s cultivation practice, the Mysterious Pass is open. When the Mysterious Pass is ejected to the outside, it is like a cylinder, but it will gradually become round. Its doors on both sides are thus open. Because the Qimen School does not cultivate Buddhahood or the Tao, one must protect oneself. There are many masters in the Buddha School and the Tao School, all of whom can safeguard you. You do not need to see things, and neither will you have any problems. But it is not so in the Qimen School, as one must protect oneself. Therefore, one must maintain the ability to see things. At that time, one’s Celestial Eye sees things like a telescope. After this system is formed, in a month or so, it begins to return to the inside. Upon returning inside the head, this is called the shift of the Mysterious Pass positions.

When the Mysterious Pass returns to the inside, one’s head will feel swollen and uncomfortable. Then it will squeeze out from one’s yuzhen point.12  This squeezing out also makes one feel uncomfortable, as though one’s head were split open. The Mysterious Pass will come out all at once, and then one will right away feel relieved. Upon coming out, the Mysterious Pass will hang in a very deep dimension and exist in the body form of a very deep dimension. Therefore, one will not rub against it during sleep. But there is one thing: When the Placement of the Mysterious Pass occurs for the first time, one feels something in front of the eyes. Though it is in another dimension, one always feels that the eyes are blurred as if something is covering them, making one feel very uncomfortable. Because the yuzhen point is a very important pass, the Mysterious Pass must also form a system of things there. Then it returns inside one’s body again. One Mysterious Aperture does not in fact refer to one Mysterious Pass position, for it must change positions multiple times. When it returns to niwan, it begins to descend in the body until reaching the mingmen point.13  At the mingmen point, it will come out again.

The mingmen point in the human body is an extremely important and major point. It is called "aperture" in the Tao School and "Pass" (guan)  by us. It is a major pass which truly resembles an iron gate, and it has numerous layers of iron gates. It is known that a human body has many layers. Our physical cells are one layer, and the molecules inside are another. There is a gate placed at each layer of atoms, protons, electrons, the very microscopic particles, the infinitesimal microscopic particles, and from the infinitely microscopic particles down to the extremely infinite microscopic particles. Therefore, there are numerous supernormal abilities and many special capabilities locked up inside the gates of different layers. Other practices cultivate dan. When dan is about to explode, the mingmen point must first be blasted open. If it is not blasted open, the supernormal abilities cannot be released. After the Mysterious Pass forms a system at mingmen point, it will again return inside the body. Then it returns to the lower abdominal area. This is called "the Mysterious Pass returning to the position."

Upon its return, the Mysterious Pass does not return to its original place. By now, the Immortal Infant has grown to be quite big. The air bubble will cover the Immortal Infant and envelop it. As the Immortal Infant grows, so grows the Mysterious Pass. In the Tao School, usually when the Immortal Infant grows to be about a six or seven-year-old child, it will be allowed to leave one’s body; this is called "the Immortal Infant coming to birth." Under the control of one’s Primordial Spirit, it can move around outside one’s body. One’s physical body does not move, and one’s Primordial Spirit will come out. Normally in the Buddha School, the Immortal Infant will be out of any danger when it is cultivated to be as big as the person. At this time, it is usually allowed to leave the body and come out of the body. By now the Immortal Infant has grown to be as big as the person him or herself, and its cover is also big. The cover has already expanded outside one’s body—that is the Mysterious Pass. Because the Immortal Infant has grown to be so big, the Mysterious Pass will certainly expand outside the body.

Perhaps you have seen the Buddha statues in temples and find that Buddhas are always inside a circle. In particular, a Buddha’s portrait always has a circle in which the Buddha sits. A lot of Buddha portraits are like that, and especially those in old temples are all like that. Why does a Buddha sit inside a circle? Nobody can explain it clearly. Let me tell you that it is this Mysterious Pass, but at this time it is no longer called the Mysterious Pass. It is called a "paradise," though it is actually not yet a paradise, as it only has this facility. It is like a factory with the facility, but without the capability for production. There must be energy resources and raw materials before it can produce. A few years ago, many practitioners said: "The level of my gong is higher than that of a Bodhisattva," or "The level of my gong is higher than that of a Buddha." Upon hearing this, others would find it quite inconceivable. In fact, what they said was not at all inconceivable, for one’s gong must indeed be cultivated to a very high level in the human world.

How can it be like this: They have achieved a level higher than that of a Buddha? It cannot be understood so superficially. Such a person’s gong is indeed at a very high level. That is because when his cultivation reaches a very high level and the moment of complete enlightenment, his gong level will indeed be very high. Just moments prior to complete enlightenment, eight-tenths of his gong will be taken down together with his xinxing standard, and this energy will be used to substantiate his paradise—a paradise of his own. Everyone knows that in addition to this xinxing standard, a practitioner’s gong is cultivated through suffering numerous lifelong tribulations and experiencing difficult environments. It is therefore extremely precious. Eight-tenths of this precious matter is used to substantiate his paradise. Therefore, when he succeeds in cultivation in the future, he will get whatever he wants just by holding out his hands, and he will have anything he desires. He can do anything he wants, and there is everything in his paradise. That is his mighty virtue that is cultivated through his own suffering.

This person’s energy can be transformed into anything at will. Therefore, if a Buddha wants to have something, eat something, or to play with something, he can do it. They come from his own cultivation achievement, which is one’s Buddha Status (fowei).  Without it, a person cannot succeed in cultivation. By this time it can be called one’s own paradise. This person will only have two-tenths of his remaining gong to complete cultivation and attain the Tao. Though only two-tenths of his gong is left, his body is not locked. He can either give up this body or keep it, but this body will have already been transformed by the high-energy matter. At this time, he can exercise his great divine powers, which have unmatchable might. But when a person practices cultivation among everyday people, he is usually locked up without any major capabilities. No matter how high his gong level, he is still restricted. Now it is different.


1 Ah Q (ah cue)—a foolish character in a Chinese novel.
2 Mah Jong—traditional Chinese game played by four people.
3 Taiyuan (tie-yu-en)—capital city of Shanxi Province.
4 Qianmen (chyen-mun)—one of the major shopping districts in Beijing.
5 Han (hahn)—the majority ethnicity of Chinese people.
6 lama—a title for a master in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
7 mo ding—as claimed by some qigong masters, touching the top of one’s head to give energy.
8 Xingming Guizhi—classic Chinese text for cultivation practice.
9 tian (tyen)—"field."
10 huiyin (hway-yeen)—An acupuncture point in the center of the perineum (the area between one’s anus and genitals).
11 tanzhong (tahn-jong) point—acupuncture point located at approximately the center of the chest.
12 yuzhen (yu-jhun) point—acupuncture point located at the lower rear side of one’s head.
13 mingmen (ming-muhn) point—"Gate of life"; an acupuncture point located at the middle of the lower back.